Author: christophernosnibor

Writer, ranter, purveyor of postmodern fiction; 50% of the Clinicality Press editorial team, editor at Aural Aggravation, contributing editor at Paraphilia Magazine, and music reviewer for Whisperin' and Hollerin' and Shout4Music. Sleep is for wimps.

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 4: Oceansize

christophernosniborLeave a comment
Oh dear. Oceansize have been running late, coming in from Germany this morning and then heading straight to Leeds to play Brainwash. This means that when they’re scheduled to begin playing, they’re actually soundchecking, in front of a packed auditorium, too. It’s uncomfortable for bands to do this, and uncomfortable – not to mention tedious – for the audience, too. The intro tape’s on a loop and people are getting restless. Still, what can you do?

Oceansize begin their set with a few bars of the long that’s been driving everyone crazy for the last however long – it feels like an eternity – before giving an expert demonstration in the magnificent and epic neo-prog that’s gained them such an ardent fanbase.

While they somehat disappointingly overlook the entirety their debut album, the masterpiece that is ‘Efflouresce,’ the set draws broadly from the rest of their career to date. A high point is, without doubt the truly raging rendition of ‘One Out of None,’ which is abrasive and jarring, and, frankly, brilliant. ‘Homage to a Shame,’ one of the most dynamic tracks from the slightly sub-par ‘Everyone into Position’ similarly serves as a sonic slap round the chops, in the best possible way.

There’s also new material, too: not only do they treat us to a track from the new EP, ‘Home & Minor,’ on which the band explore their softer side (in stark contrast to their other between-albums EP, ‘Music for Nurses,’ a tense and angular affair).

Time’s tight, but they also manage to squeeze in a new and as yet unreleased track from their forthcoming album, which they’re still in the process of recording. I didn’t catch the title, but it was a blistering high-speed assault, coming on like a juggernaut going full-throttle with no brakes. Not only does this auger well for the future, but it’s great to see a band who’ve been around for over ten years and built an established fanbase play like they’ve still got everything to prove. For me, Oceansize were worth the day’s ticket price alone.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 3: Vessels

christophernosniborLeave a comment
That there’s a superabundance of instrumental post-rock, and instrumental rock, is perhaps something of an understatement. The Leeds scene is a veritable hotbed of post-rock instrumentalism, and I’ve lost count of the number of bands I’ve seen doing this sort of thing on my manifold nights spent in the Brudenell and the Packhorse. However, Vessels are undoubtedly amongst the pick of the crop, creating immense, swirling soundscapes that emerge from quiet, semi-ambient noodlings.

The use of synthesisers to produce spacious and space-age sounds is one of the factors in Vessels’ multidimensionality, but the fact the band pack the stage with a forest of guitars is what really creates their dense, layered sound as they trade intricacies before launching into explosive, soaring – and searing – bursts of noise. Guitars and basses are swapped and exchanged, allowing for the different playing styles to subtly alter the moods throughout the set.

Ok, so on this outing, the sound wasn’t as good – or as loud, or as dense – as when I saw them headline at the Brudenell a while back, but then, accommodating so many bands during a single afternoon must be a technical nightmare, and soundchecks subject to rigid time constraints in order to keep things running to time. Besides, the sound in the Brudenell is both consistently well above average in terms of both quality and volume, so I guess I’ve been spoiled rather. That said, Vessels turn in a set that’s got energy, variety and dynamic range, and serves to illustrate perfectly just what a fine band they are.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 2: Maybeshewill

christophernosniborLeave a comment
Maybeshewill produce an unusual hybridised racket, too rock to be post-rock, but not as metal as, say, And So I Watch You From Afar. That isn’t to say that their songs lack the gentler or more intricate elements common to many post-rock acts, but that they’re not as given to the fragility common to the genre. And when Maybeshewill rock out – which is often – they really do rock it, with big, heavy, ballsy, grungy riffs.

They apologise on a number of occasions through the course of the set about the technical difficulties they’re having, but from the front it sound just fine, not to mention abundantly loud. Samples fire off to provide narrative and texture to This Time Last Year and there are no shortage of twists, turns, tempo and volume changes to hold the attention through a punchy and powerful little set.



Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

 

Brainwash Festival, Leeds, 1st November 2009 Pt 1: Her Name is Calla

christophernosniborLeave a comment
You could be forgiven for expecting that their recent European tour might have left Her Name is Calla a little weary of performing and of the material, particularly the songs that were being played live before the recording of ‘The Heritage.’ But then, Her Name is Calla aren’t a band who are happy to churn out the songs and declare them finished, which is why tonight’s opener, ‘Motherfucker! It’s Alive and Bleeding’ sounds rather different from both the record and previous live shows. The new arrangement sees the composition twist and turn and explore new directions en route to an exhilarating climax.

The rest of the five-track set also suggests the band is, if anything, tighter than ever and reinvigorated. There’s even a new song, ‘Pour More Oil.’ Although it appeared in demo form on the ultra-limited ‘A Blood Promise’ CD / DVD set, the bones of the track have been fleshed out in spectacular fashion. It’s when the band are producing these monumental walls of noise that it becomes evident just how each member contributes something essential to the overall sound, from the low-slung bass sound to the textured strings and brass.

They close with a devastating rendition of ‘New England,’ and while the battery of percussion that used to feature has been reduced to Thom battering tribal rhythms  on a floor tom, the sonic assault is as forceful as ever, with everything collapsing into a speaker-shredding squall of feedback.

Ultimately, a triumphant performance that reminded me exactly what it was that made me like Her Name is Calla in the first place.

Don’t forget, there’s always more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk.

British Surrealism in Context: A Collector’s Eye: Leeds Art Gallery

christophernosniborLeave a comment
Surrealist artwork seems to divide people in quite a pronounced fashion, often for quite obvious reasons. Personally, I often find the concepts are more interesting than the executions, although for those who are interested in painting but dismiss Dali I would always recommend viewing some of his paintings first hand. There can be little denying his technical abilities, if nothing else.

Anyway, I was curious to see what this collection of lesser-known works by lesser-known Surrealists had to offer in terms of providing a broader vista beyond the big guns who’ve been absorbed into popular culture (while also being interested to see the Magritte sketches being displayed). The exhibition is, in fact, a private collection being publicly displayed. Having attended an exhibition of Surrealist Art in 1986, Ruth and Jeffrey Sherwin became fascinated by what they saw, and they subsequently accumulated what is said to be the largest private collection of Surrealist art in the country.

So, like any personal collection, this exhibition reflected the owners’ tastes, and as such, it’s reasonable to anticipate a degree of homogeneity even if the individual has eclectic tastes. This is certainly true of the Sherwin’s collection. In itself, this is no bad thing, but many elements of the exhibition left me rather frustrated. For starters, it’s not brilliantly laid out – something which is true of much of Leeds Art gallery in general. It’s not even immediately obvious in which room – or rooms, for there are two, but the lack of signs doesn’t make this readily apparent either – the exhibition is in. The pictures are often cramped together, and the words that accompany them vary wildly in terms of the amount of information given. Worse still, many of the tags are poorly written, and are positioned in such a way as to be unclear as to which picture is which.

The area devoted to the ‘Bruno hat’ hoax was informative and well-executed, while the wall devoted to Conroy Maddox was perhaps the strongest and most interesting area of the exhibition in visual terms. However, the labelling system really didn’t correspond, with the number of pictures on the wall not even matching the number of labels. A small detail in many respects, but frustrating nevertheless.

Perhaps if I’d done more research in advance, I’d have been more aware of just how much Surrealist work has been produced in the last 30 years or so, but then, it’s nice to learn something new. Unfortunately, much of the later work is largely derivative, and is either too self-consciously ‘Surreal’ in its use of the juxtaposed and the incongruous, or veers into abstraction. Indeed, taken as a whole, the collection seems to illustrate precisely why the big names of Surrealism eclipse the rest so dramatically, and I’d include Desmond Morris in the list of those eclipsed. Henry Moore, meanwhile, was well-represented, but isn’t primarily associated with Surrealism, and, besides, his work isn’t exactly hard to come by in the North of England.

Still, another problem caused by the organisation was that some of the more significant pieces – such as Kurt Schwitters’ collage piece, which measures approximately 12” x 8” – were easily missed. Situated at the very end and by the door out, it’s both the archetype of Surrealism and remarkably contemporary-looking. However, beneath it is another small collage, very similar in execution, which happens to be an early work by Damien Hirst. It’s strange to think that one of these pieces is likely to have a value vastly greater than the other, particularly when considering that it’s the less original and significantly later piece that would command the higher price.

Pondering this on my departure, I was left feeling not so much disappointed, but mildly bemused by the exhibition as a whole. Which was perhaps only fitting.


The exhibition ends 1st November… but there’s always plenty going on at Christophernosnibor.co.uk!

We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful

christophernosniborLeave a comment
‘White Noise,’ the debut single by Viewer, has just been played on Radio 1 by Huw Stephens, who’s making very enthusiastic noises. The video is racking up the hits on YouTube by the second. Nothing so unusual about that in itself. New bands get airplay all the time, get masses of hits on YouTube. Some get tipped as the next big thing, others just get a song played and that’s it. The difference is, I don’t normally know the artists.

On the face of it, he’s an unlikely up-and-coming pop star. Yet at 33, Andy Johnson, the voice of Viewer and a man with a face that looks like it’s seen some living, is standing on the verge of something big. And it’s all a little strange. As he tells it, though, it’s life as usual for him (even if he doesn’t bust moves outside his local Indian takeaway as a rule – as he does in the video), and what’s strange is the way those around him are getting hyped – rather like his record.

So when we meet up for a drink, as we do every few weeks, and as we have been doing off and on for years, of course we talk about the latest events in his life, but mostly we ramble on about books and music and current affairs and the state of society and popular culture – same as ever. It’s definitely a good sign, and it’s clear that these early hints of success aren’t going to his head. But then, why would they? He’s hardly having to do heavy press or being called up by MTV or the NME, and he’s not exactly getting rich off it. At least not yet. It’s not all about the money, of course – although as he’ll be the first to admit, some money would be nice, and he’s chuffed that the early airplay will at least pay something in royalties.

Perhaps it’s his age, or perhaps it’s that he’s generally pretty well grounded and cynical. Andy’s been making music for years. Up to now, his projects have broadly reflected his listening tastes: guitar-based pop with a quirky edge, given to lyrical wordplay and clever rhymes (the press release for the single refers to ‘his witty kitchen-sink commentary) has, to now, been his forte, drawing influence from bands like Sparks, Pulp, The Divine Comedy. However, this latest venture couldn’t be more different. In many ways, the same is true of his collaborator, the quiet and rather enigmatic Tim Wright, who’s been in the industry producing electronic music since the 90s under various guises such as Tube Jerk (by which he’s produced not only a substantial back-catalogue, but also earned considerable respect in the techno world), Germ, and Pin. This is, however, perhaps his most overtly commercial project. After all, the guy does list Bauhaus, Swans and Throbbing Gristle amongst his influences, alongside Led Zeppelin, Butthole Surfers, The Fall and Killing Joke. Not yer average technohead’s fodder.

I’ve actually known Andy for a good number of years, and so in some respects it’s strange for me to witness this change in fortune. But no, I don’t begrudge him this taste of success, not least of all because I have immense respect for him as an artist, and as a person. It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say he’s worked hard for this, because his involvement in Viewer was quite a chance event in many ways, and he’s one of the least fame-hungry people you could ever meet. However, he has most definitely lived it, and he’s endured a succession of mind-numbing admin jobs and years of skintness while honing his craft as a lyricist. While some may consider his refusal to pursue a career, I personally applaud his policy of no sell-out. That’s what’s meant by keeping it real.

The single is a rant against nanny state politics, and in many ways isn’t all that different from a night in the pub with Andy, as he swipes against the smoking ban (it’s not just the ban he has issues with, but its application and the strange details – not to mention the contradiction of a government reliant on the taxes on tobacco for funds, and not just to the NHS) and the relentless erosion of personal freedoms in the interest of ‘protection.’

Another future classic that’s been tearing up the dancefloors is ‘Sunrise,’ which opens with the lyric ‘Hell is a nightclub.’ It’s not only an even better cut than ‘White Noise,’ but also perfectly encapsulates the contradictions that make Viewer such an interesting proposition. Yes, a dance track that features lyrics that berate the inherent shitness of club culture, going down a storm with the very people it’s pointing the finger at. That’s what I call subversion. Yet another track, ‘Dumb it Down,’ is a fairly savage attack on popular culture and lowest-common-denominator media.

Writing the lyrics, in particular to ‘Dumb it Down,’ is a challenge he relishes. Sue, he can spout, but keeping things succinct and fitting them to a dance beat is a whole other discipline, even from indie-pop lyric writing. He tells me how he had a whole set of lyrics penned for ‘Dumb it Down,’ then realised that for the song to work, he had to really strip it back: to dumb it down. Having had a preview of the track, I have to say he’s done a brilliant – and in places hilarious – job.

The world needs articulate lyricists right now more than ever. What’s more, in a time when music is becoming evermore specialist, and the polarity between mainstream chart music and everything else increasingly marked, bands with such immense crossover potential and broad appeal – while retaining credibility – are rare indeed. Viewer: ones to watch.

The Countdown Stalls… Today is the Day

christophernosniborLeave a comment
Yes, ‘Counting the Hours,’ the eagerly-anticipated follow-up to ‘Before the Flood’ is published today. The third in a series of four pamphlets to be published in 2009 and sold exclusively through Christophernosnibor.co.uk, it’s substantially longer than its predecessors (for those who are sold on ‘perceived value’), but continues pushing the same thematic elemets, albeit from another angle, and has a cover that clearly demonstrates the unity of the sequence.

To purchase your copy, go to Christophernosnibor.co.uk.

from ‘Counting the Hours’

christophernosniborLeave a comment
How did it happen? It’s hard to say. I suppose there was a certain trigger but it was nothing obvious. I didn’t suddenly wake up one day and find myself unable to function. There was no illness, no hospital white linen, no scars, just a loud noted absence. There was no accident or mishap, no signs of external injury, no black eyes. I sometimes – often – think that it would have been considerably easier if there had been something physical tangible or some event something I could mark in my diary or on the calendar, a date I could pinpoint and note as an anniversary. Yes truly I would really rather have suffered something, some trauma, some shock, something – anything – that I could spend my time trying to erase from my memory, than this… this nothing this lack the consequence of which I find myself devoting hours and hours – for wont of anything better to do – to the trawling of my recollections in a futile attempt to locate the source, the root, the single defining occurrence which marked the start of it all. The beginning of the end.

‘Counting the Hours’ is the third in a series of four pamphlets to be published through 2009 in limited edition runs of just 25 copies .

It will be available to order from Christophernosnibor.co.uk, priced at £3.50 inclusive of p&p within the UK. (for Europe it’s £4.50 and £5.25 to all other destinations), from Monday 28th September.

Solid as a Rock

christophernosniborLeave a comment
Certain phrases amuse me on account of their absurdity. Other terms – particularly in the corporate world – annoy me simply because they’re so meaningless. So, as I was engrossed in a hard morning’s chairpounding (well, the mortgage doesn’t pay itself), my attention was – as is often the case – cut through with random snippets of conversation from those around me, with occasional phrases standing out from the general babble.

‘So can I use this phone or not?’
‘Yes.’

‘But why can’t I log into it?’

‘It’s a soft phone.’

We’re all on soft phones now.

Now, I understand – but abhor – the ‘soft’ prefix, but generally understand the concept. Software isn’t hardware, it isn’t physical. Hence ‘soft skills’ aren’t physical, don’t have form, aren’t concrete.

The telephone on my desk, however, didn’t look very abstract to me. Extending my hand toward the object before me, I was able to affirm what I had known before: it had a physical form. I poked the large lump of moulded grey plastic, with buttons and an LCD screen, that sat before me on my desk. It too is supposed to be a soft phone. But it isn’t remotely soft. In fact, it’s as hard as any other hefty chunk of moulded plastic stuffed with wires and circuitry and a speaker.

I hoisted it from the desk top, and hefted it in my hand. It’s not only hard, but heavy. But I needed proof.

The dumb corporate-babbling bimbo was still prattling on about systems and extensions and logging in. I’d heard enough. I’d had enough, and launched the thing in my hand toward her head.

The object met with her cranium with a sickening thud. There was a high-pitched shriek of agony as she fell to the floor, followed second later by a loud clatter as the telephony device crashed to the ground, its LCD cracked but otherwise largely intact.

A trickle of blood ran from the dent in the bint’s head, an ultra-livid bruise forming around it before my eyes. The phone was, as I had believed all along, quite unsoft: in fact, it was particularly hard, and without doubt harder than her skull.

‘Fucking corporate bollocks,’ I grumbled as I swung my chair back around and resumed my work.

He’s a Cliche: Christopher Nosnibor Talks with Bill Thunder

christophernosnibor2 Comments
So we’re on the eve of the publication of Bill Thunder’s debut novel, the hard-hitting detective story ‘THE BASTARDIZER’ and it’s a book I for one am quite excited about, not least of all because it’s one of the craziest takes on genre fiction I’ve ever read. Bill’s a busy man, but he’d agreed to see me for half an hour, suggesting I swing by his office. An hour before I’m due to arrive, I receive d a call suggesting a change of location. Things have been kicking off – it’s an everyday occurrence in Bill’s life – and he needs to escape and perhaps lie low for a few hours. He suggests a bar that’s fairly quiet and off the beaten track.

When I arrive, Bill’s already there. He’s like one of his own characters. His face shows he’s lived – you’d probably describe him as ‘ruggedly handsome’ as long as you don’t mind three-day stubble and eyebags. He sends me to the bar to get the drinks before we start. He’s drinking Jack Daniel’s – doubles, straight, no ice – and is already on this second when I show up. Yes, he’s a hard bastard and he can handle his drink. He is, as he writes in his book, ‘a cliché.’ And all the cooler because of it.

I put the drinks down and begin my interrogation.

CN: So what inspired ‘THE BASTARDIZER’?

BT: Inspired? I wouldn’t say ‘inspired.’ It kinda implies it’s fictive.

CN: Prompted?

BT: Better. I had some downtime. I thought I’d try my hand at writing. Drawing from my experience in some ways made it something of a busman’s holiday in some respects, but crime fiction’s big right now and so much of what’s out there’s really insipid. I thought ‘I could do better than that.’ So I did.

CN: That’s a hell of a claim, but I can’t really argue. It’s a belter of a book. Which current crime writers do you particularly object to, do you consider to be the worst offenders in the production of insipid crime writing?

BT: Most of them, frankly. Despite my line of work, I enjoy a good detective novel. Trouble is, there aren’t many about. More accurately, there aren’t many recent examples of good crime fiction about. Tess Gerritsen’s fucking awful. Lee Child’s gash. They’re terribly written and really, really far too long.

CN: There’s certainly a fashion for longer books these days, and I can’t see an obvious reason for it myself. I mean, in that people have less spare time and have short attention spans. They’re downsizing everything or even dropping physical formats in many other areas – music, for example. Minimalism’s hip again. I can’t believe that publishers are truly trying to push the idea that a huge books represents ‘value for money.’ What’s more, most of my favourite books are shorter, certainly under 300 pages. That short sharp shock…

BT: Yeah. They’re all putting out these doorstop books, 500 pages plus. Even kids books! I mean, J. K. Rowling…

CN: Don’t start me….

BT: Ok. But I think economics is definitely a factor. Not necessarily value for money per se, but publishers aren’t willing to spend the money employing editors who’ll be strict and insist authors cut their manuscripts down. And most writers tend to waffle. Writing something short and punchy takes discipline.

CN: I saw your manuscript in draft stages, and whatever work was required, length was never an issue. Would you say you have discipline?

BT: Hell yeah!

CN: How long did it take for you to write the book?

BT: Well, I had the idea a fair while ago, but was far too busy. When I set myself the task of actually getting it all down, it took six weeks from start to finish. There were a couple of weeks spent on each round of edits, but not much. Ten weeks in all.

CN: The great pulp authors used to churn them out at a phenomenal rate…

BT: True. In that sense, I guess you could call me a method writer. As I said, I can’t abide the current crop of crime authors and much prefer the older ones – Spillane, Chandler, McBain, they really could knock ‘em out. And the speed of writing in many ways dictated the style, they’re intrinsically linked.

CN: So it’s fair to say that on this basis you’re not wholly averse to genre fiction?

BT: It is. Learning the formula does require some degree of skill. It’s also necessary to learn the formula in order to fuck with it.

CN: And you fuck with it royally in ‘THE BASTARDIZER.’

BT: Kind of you to say so. I do, it’s true.

CN: Would you care to talk me through that?

BT: Not a lot to say. It’s clinical. It’s brutal. It’s life. It’s postmodern, post-CSI crime fiction. With an absurd plot-twist.

CN: About that…?

BT: Some readers will no doubt hate it. But it serves several purposes. One, I had to wrap the book up, and fast. Two, I’m merging fact and fiction throughout the book. Sometimes it’s blatant, sometimes it’s more subtle. But I wanted to really bring that to the fore in the finale. Third, a lot of the current crop present their crime fiction as being somehow ‘realist,’ then completely lose it in the final twist. I mean, Gerritsen’s ‘Body Double.’ Who the fuck’s gonna buy that ending? But the reviews all go on about how it’s a tense thriller, rather than a tense thriller (it isn’t, it’s flabbily written and would have worked better without the romance chick-lit shit in, thus cutting about a hundred and fifty pages) with a wanky and unbelievable ending. I wanted to take the piss out of that by coming up with an even more far-fetched ending. Finally, there’s a lot of great crime fiction with ridiculously far-fetched endings. Spillane’s ‘The Body Lovers’ is a favourite example of mine.

CN: The elements of fact and fiction, as you say, do blur, but there are points where there are a lot of ‘factual’ elements that might appear fictive.

BT: That was the plan. It’s true: truth is stranger than fiction. All the medical stuff, that’s based on fact. Again, people have got accustomed to technical elements following CSI and all that sort of thing. Obviously, I’m taking it to the next level.

CN: And the Michael Jackson stuff..?

BT: Fact. The Michael Jackson character wasn’t called Michael Jackson at first. I changed the name a few days before he croaked. I considered changing it again but decided against it. So I started researching the phenomenon, the near-exponential rise in Google hits immediately after his death. That’s all fact, and my own research. It was too good to waste.

CN: Are you worried that it may provoke controversy?

BT: No. Controversy’s good for sales, isn’t t?

‘THE BASTARDIZER’ by Bill Thunder is out on 17th August on Clinicality Press as a Clinicality Press Pocket Edition priced £4.99



And if you’re loving my work, there’s more of the same (only different) at Christophernosnibor.co.uk.