OC MARCH 2011

The March edition of The Outer Church promises to be an adventure in bass-heavy murk and eldritch folk. Signed to up-and-coming label Blackest Ever Black, London duo Raime have been hailed as the new dark princes of British electronic music, with the likes of The Wire, Resident Advisor and NME all clamouring for a piece of the black stuff. According to FACT, "the duo deploy a number of obscure samples from goth, industrial and post-punk records, but these are placed in unique, bass-heavy arrangements that gesture at dubstep and techno without really adhering to either genre’s conventions." New Mordant Music signing Ekoplekz produces what Boomkat have termed "gorgeously spooked analogue electronics" comparable to 80s industrialists Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Robert Rental after some low-end surgery and a crash course in Radiophonics. This set will feature a specially commissioned piece of video art by Jade Boyd. Alexander Tucker should require little introduction - rightly acclaimed for his expansive avant folk with electronic shadings, his forthcoming album Dorwytch (Thrill Jockey) is set to be one of 2011's must-haves. In addition, there will be haunted sounds courtesy of the OC DJs plus a selection of lurid visuals.

Thursday 10th March

7:30pm

Komedia Brighton

£5/4 on the door

ONE MORE VERY IMPORTANT THOUGHT...

Further musing regarding Boards Of Canada... not long ago, I was surprised to come across a comment in the music press to the effect that BOC offer little more than aspirational, middle class muzak. This comment appeared, curiously enough, in a review of a film about the Scandinavian Black Metal scene, the soundtrack of which apparently features a couple of BOC tracks. This 'analysis' disregards - or displays an ignorance of - the multiple layers of information comprising the average Eoin/Sandison piece and the fact that many of these gesture at various levels of esoteric interest. Satanism, paganism, Christian apocalypse cults and mathematics are hardly the kind of references you'd find on a Groove Armada album, after all.

While the duo have never concealed their desire to make melodious, accessible music, to dismiss their body of work as mere chillout fodder would be a gross oversimplification. Furthermore, it seems to me that BOC, especially early on, mirrored the radical retreatism and environmental concerns of second-wave Black Metal, not to mention its emphasis on atmosphere. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the makers of said film used these pieces precisely because they perceived these commonalities - neither would it shock if many of the musicians who appear in the film happened to be fans of the Scottish duo. Especially Darkthrone's Fenriz, who has demonstrated his - for want of a better term - catholic tastes on many occasions.

What do we conclude from this? Simply that, as BOC might say, 'The Devil Is In The Details'...

"...she's a devoted Branch Davidian."

Currently obsessed with this song. Is it leaking into my dreams... or out of them?

Some very important thoughts regarding '1969' here.