Crepuscule's Out

Sorry, I'm busting for the loo, got to go.

THE EVENINGS – LET’S GO REMIXED (FREEDOM ROAD)


Local remix projects: collaborative fruit of a fertile scene, or the tarnish on the gate of the clique enclosure? Discuss with reference to the new Evenings remix album.

OK, we’ll spare you the sophomore essay for now, but it is a vexed question, as remix LPs rarely have any internal logic and often come with the lumpy, lopsided feel of a bootleg rather than the balanced, polished heft of a proper album. Most don’t even have the curatorial input of a compilation, as tracks are accrued at various times from disparate sources, which is especially true in the case of this CD, which was a few years in the making. But, despite the imperfections of the form, this is still an intriguing record, and even if it can’t claim to be as successful as Smilex’ recent mixfest, there are still some gems to be discovered.

Not least the very first track, which could well be the best on the entire album. King Of The Rumbling Spires takes “PA” and lays it out on a warm afternoon to meditate as a cowpoke ambles by at a country lope. It brings to mind long forgotten ambient “supergroup” FFWD (which consisted of members The Orb with Robert Fripp and Thomas Fehlmann) and even blissed out Sunday tea new agers Channel Light Vessel. Other successes must be Boy With A Toy’s ruination of “Golf Audience Reaction To Missed Putt” to a hellish miasma of loops (and if you think that’s a criticism, you don’t know us very well!) and nervous_testpilot’s Hammer House Of Hardcore cheap gothic remake of “Pink Breakfast”. The most conceptually intriguing selection is Wendy And The Brain’s take on “SHRR001”, a jokey spoken word interlude on the original album - the string of chopped samples and FX may not be entirely successful, but it’s a darn sight more amusing than the original flat gag.

At the less enticing end of the spectrum, Oliver Shaw doesn’t do much more than play a bit of guitar over the top of “Harness The Yearn” and Smilex don’t make a vast impact on “Lee The Way”, whereas the second mix of “Let’s Go” is…well, put it like this, we listened to this CD without checking the tracklist, so as to be completely impartial in our response, but it didn’t take us long to work out that this was Twizz Twangle’s effort. Huge chunks of the original are brutally intercut with uncomfortable loops from some 80s soul tune and what sound s like it could be R.E.M. Full marks for audacity, but you’ve got to conclude that this is a failure. Perhaps it’s inevitable that a man who’s gloriously incapable of playing a song the same way twice can’t grasp the idea of the remix?

Between these poles there’s much tuneful techno of a diverting nature, which is well worth a listen, even if it’s fails to live up to The Evenings’ wired wonder. Perhaps it’s because there’s a certain undertow of cheap cabaret about the band. From Mark Wilden’s original dream of a supper band called Tony Fucker & The Evenings to their occasional nod towards phone hold muzak melodies, there’s always been a ghost of some Murph & The Magictones monstrosity behind The Evenings’ music. It could be that upsetting the balance of the original material gives this cheese factor a little too much prominence, and thus the lovely “Minerals” finds itself transformed into two forgettable pieces of synth twiddle. Or it could be that in general remixes are on a hiding to nothing, as they either sound too much like the original to be worth it, or too much like the remixer to make much sense. Maybe only someone who’d never heard of The Evenings could give an honest appraisal of this record. Or The Evenings themselves, of course…

Old Kak

Klub Kak is one of my favourite promoters to review, because even if the acts are average, the organisors and customers tend to be pretty fascinating patchwork of oddity, so there's always something to write about! This is an old article from OHM, a long defunct, but rather good, music magazine

THE EPSTEIN/ TSUNAMI/ TWIZZ TWANGLE, Klub Kakofanney, The Wheatsheaf, 3/9/04

Trying to write a critical evaluation of a Twizz Twangle gig is as awkward as jimmying a lock with a lime jelly, and about as useful: Dan Eisenhandler truly ploughs his own furrow, then rolls about in it, howling. Tonight he growls, yelps, parps on a trumpet, creates walls of feedback, crawls on the floor, and generally does whatever comes into his big bald head. His beleaguered backing band is left trying to hold things together, whilst Dan rips apart songs that were barely there in the first place.

Is it any good? No. Of course not. Are you insane? It's a load of old nonsense.

Did I enjoy it, and do I respect Twizz? Yes. Of course. Are you insane? How can one dislike such an unpredictable and joyfully chaotic show? Twizz Twangle is living proof that character and honesty are sometimes the most important things an artist can have. Though some tunes might be useful too, Dan...

After a twangling, Tsunami sound as tight as all hell! And that's fair enough, as they're a nice neat band, some slapdash guitar tuning notwithstanding. The vocalist is the lynchpin, with plenty of charisma and a high, vibrato-laden voice, but the whole bunch are decent performers. To be fair, the songs haven't exactly set up home in my head, though they're perfeclty good - think classic rock with a twist of 80s Bunnymen indie. Tsunami are a great support act; the test now is whether they can develop into something more memorable and move beyond that.

Can someone tell me why there's so much country music in Oxfordshire? Never could fathom that one. Anyway, The Epstein are comfortably top of the bunch (sorry, Goldrush), with a ton of lazy, shimmering songs, hung over rich syrupy vocals and generously coated with slide guitar: who needs authenticity when it sounds this good?

Anyway, by their standards tonight is a slightly messy affair, and the set doesn't quite hang together, but it's still a damned pleasant 45 minutes, with some beautiful melodies. Saddle up the hosses, boys, we're riding the whole herd to Didcot!