Thursday, 24th of June, 2004

Last night I was chucked out of the internet cafe at midnight, just before I got to tell y’all about the end of the Sónar by Day event. The stage at Sónar Village, where the Domino showcase was happening, had been washed out by torrential rain, and To Roccoco Rot’s set had to stop before it started… Dale was convinced it’d just be DJing from thereon in, but I had faith. And yes, not long after the appointed hour, the Steve Reich-like music that was playing glitched out, and up started the very distinctive drum break for “As Serious As Your Life”. Kieran Hebden (Mr Four Tet) had his laptop(s) and effects setup in the DJ booth, and lo and behold, the sun had come out and all was perfect!
“As Serious As Your Life” was about as extended as I’ve heard it (up there with the 20-minute “live” version on the single), and certainly as way-out as it can be. It was followed, eventually, by a short delicious fragment of “My Angel Rocks Back And Forth” (and a tiny bit something else maybe? It was at this stage I grabbed my pen and started writing the setlist on my mini-program, so enthused was I…) but very quickly the bassline for “Glasshead” cut in. This was also an incredibly long and fucked-up version of this oldish track, intercut by lots of noise but then dropping back into the bassline.
Eventually the high-pitched frenetic guitar-picking of “Spirit Fingers” entered, and Kieran began washing it out rather gorgeously, but clearly he’d tapped into the energy of the crowd (huge and joyous after the crazy conditions) and decided we needed some more madness, so he proceeded to drop under the “Spirit Fingers” loops the most perfect amen break and deep bass hits - breakcore Four Tet, the crowd goes wild and I’m in heaven ;) Clearly Mr Hebden has lots of pre-prepared stuff up his sleeves (ie on his hard drive) and there was some wicked programming here, reversed bits for the intro-filler and nice distorted speed-breaks. Intense noise kept breaking in, and shortly we headed into “No More Mosquitoes”, done 2step-house stylee. Not too surprisingly, this then morphed into “Calamine”. Many of these numbers also feature on the excellent “Live in Copenhagen” CDR that I managed to snag from Domino’s website a while back, but I honestly think this set surpassed that one - and not just because of the jungle bit, I promise ;) Nor just because I was there! Calamine had all it usual features: the fake radio station changes, the 2steppy beat and all. It gradually got more crazy, and was a heady and fabulous end to the “by Day” part of the festival.

After the set people were climbing through the fence to chat to Keiran, so I eventually followed suit, to shake his hand and mention that I’d interviewed him over the phone from Sydney the other week. He said he really enjoyed the tour, hung out with my lovely mates Clue To Kalo and Qua, and said that the Sydney gig was one of the best ever, a really great crowd. No doubt many of those Utility Fog listeners who are big Four Tet fans were there… He was certainly a lovely bloke. I handed him a Raven Progress Report CDR and headed off.

We dropped home to prepare for a late night in the elements, expecting at “Sónar Park” out at the Sónar by Night area to be an outside affair. Dale was home and the three of us went into town to have dinner together. A few blocks south of the by-Day area we found a number of tapas bars, and after rejecting a couple we promised each other we’d either go into the next one or go back to this one. We ended up in a pokey little place where we were directed upstairs, and we each ordered an authentic-looking dish from the menu. And delicious it was! Dale pronounced his squid with potato salad the best meal he’d had on his trip, Ange’s fishy thing was good too, and my sausages with fried egg and potato chips were pretty yummy. Dale thought it was pretty funny that I was having bangers with egg and chips, but that’s not how it was described, and the sausages were distinctly Spanish, as was the presentation - so there! Accompanying the meal was bread with olive oil and salt, very good all round!
Next stop: Sónar by Night. Dale led us down La Rambla, as he recalled the shuttle bus going from there. We walked past the red-light district, where a number of the “girls” looked pretty male to my eyes, and ended up (after I checked) finding the bus. It cost �1.50, a bit steep when I expected it to be free, but what the heck. When we arrived I thanked Seb once again for recommending Sónar Pro, as we just marched straight in past the street markets (ridiculous fried sausages and chips, who’d eat that kind of thing? Um, off the street that is…) and laughed oh-so-heartily at the immense line of plebs queueing up next to us. Once in we discovered that all three venues were in fact undercover. The one where Massive Attack were playing (we pretty much missed them, but I’m sure it was the same show we saw @ the Ent Cent in Sydney last year) was gigantic, with of all things a dodgem car rink setup at the back. Ange & I briefly considered having a go, but in the end we went back across to the hip-hop room, which was far less crowded during Jaylib’s set. It was mostly way too minimal for me, loose loose rapping over very simple beats. Madlib got on the drum-kit at one stage, and was just as loose there as he is on the mic. In fact, he was later joined by Scott Herren aka Prefuse 73 on a second kit, for yet more imprecise drum-kit jamming. Not altogether inspiring.
Much more amazing was Jay Dilla’s pick-up-and-drop-the-needle one-turntable mixing. How the flaming FUCK does he do that? I can only presume the beats are at just the right bpm so that wherever he drops the needle it’s at the same point in the bar…

Kid Koala followed, and played pretty much the same set as at the Gaelic Club in Sydney. Altogether amazing, although his attempts at Spanish left a lot to be desired. Once we realised where it was heading, we just had to stay till the end to hear the stunning version of “Moon River” he does with two copies of the same record. He does a number of other things that way (such as the “Drunk Trumpet”) but generally has a backing loop on a third turntable. Not here! It’s beatless and gorgeous, complete with string solo and turntables slowing to a stop and then picking up again. I need a recording of this!
Our journey home was fraught with difficulties - try and catch a taxi from the site? Would’ve been good, but was confusing and stressful so we took the shuttle bus back to La Rambla again, only to discover that bugger all taxis were free… Consequently we arrived home sometime after 4am, and we’d organised our man to check us out of the apartment at 10:30 on Sunday morning - about when we had to run off to the airport anyway.

So Sunday morning was a rather lethargic experience for Peter & Ange, dragging suitcase and backpacks through Metro and train, up and down stairs, along walkway, until we reached Barcelona aiport. We checked in to London (once again on a 3×3-seat plane, so missing out on a window seat) and went looking for something to eat. Amazingly, Barcelona seems to have managed to keep both McDonalds and Burger King out of their airport. Eventually we found a nice crappy Spanish fast-food place, I got my final good orange juice (remember what “fresh fruit” is like in England?) and Ange tried to work out how to get the tax back on her Camper shoes. This proved dreadfully confusing and time-wasting. Eventually she found a helpful customs person who told her where to go, and as I walked towards the gate she went downstairs (back through customs, or the bag-check thingy anyway) to work it out. The plane was boarding and she came zipping along just in time to join me at the end of the line - unfortunately having been told that she couldn’t claim the tax back until she left Paris in a month’s time.
The as we sat on the aeroplane I heard her say “Fuck” - not a good omen. She had left her mobile phone at customs! (That would explain why she didn’t reply to my last message…) She managed to convince the staff on board to let her run all the way back to the x-ray machines again, where they’d held her phone and got her to enter the PIN to prove it was hers. So all’s well that ends well I guess. Too much running around and stress for one tired day though.
At least the Cointreau at the airport was cheap!

When we got to London, as I think I’ve mentioned, it was COLD AND RAINY. And lo and behold, apart from some shortish periods of sunniness, so it has continued. We took the Heathrow Express in to Paddington - despite the �13 fare, worth it for the speed - and once we worked out that it was worth getting weekly transport passes, thence to Bayswater. I’ve always thought it strange that the station called Bayswater is halfway down the Queensway from the intersection with Bayswater Rd, while Queensway is on the corner of Queensway and Bayswater Rd… But anyway it’s lovely to be back in Bayswater (of course the station is named after the suburb, not the road), and the Royal Bayswater Hotel where we’re staying is up a considerable number of levels in quality from the places we stayed last time ;) Clean, decent bed, non-smelly bathroom (yep!), all good. And we got a room on the back-side, so we avoid the traffic noise from Bayswater Rd (at the expense, perhaps, of a view of Hyde Park).

Queensway is a great street, with heaps of good ethnic eating - probably as good a street for food as you can find in London, English understanding of gastronomy being what it is. Not only are there plenty of good Chinese restaurants (at least three of which have ducks and roast pork and Char Siu hanging in the windows) but there are also plenty of Lebanese places, foremost of which is the Fakhreldine Express, from which, last time I stayed here, I would get za’atar pide and babaghanouj when we returned home late at night. We ate just that, along with a plate of marinated chillis and olives, for a late sort-of lunch on Sunday.
Later on, we took the tube to meet Ange’s friends Amy & Melissa, whom we hadn’t seen for ages (Amy’s been in London for about 18 months and Mel for maybe a year). We met at a Turkish restaurant across the road from the New Globe Theatre, where Amy had been seeing a play. Unfortunately Cannon Street is only open Monday-to-Friday, so we ended up a stop too far, but we crossed London Bridge and walked alongside the Thames, and only got there a little late. During the walk I tuned my mobile phone’s radio into 104.4MHz, which I recalled as the frequency for Resonance-FM, and listened to an American-accented guy, even more soft-spoken than myself, play great electronica, hip-hop and a bit of jungle, without once mentioning his name (despite playing quite a bit of his own music), nor giving out a call-sign until right at the end of his show [it was probably this]. Classic community radio, but great at that. Must listen again soon.
In the afternoon before we left I got a call from Mike Hurwood, one of my oldest bestest friends who’s been living in/around London for the last few years. He’s been back in Sydney a number of times but this will be the first time I get to see him in the UK (and the last, as I think he’s actually returning at the end of the year). So many meetings with (sortof) long-lost friends, and indeed a number of meetings with friends never-met in person coming up too.

Monday was our first full day in London. Ange is staying here for over a week after I leave still, but I only have 5 days, so I had to decide what I wanted to see first. In the end it seemed easiest to walk down Bayswater Rd to Notting Hill Gate, and there we visited the myriad weirdly-specialised Music & Video Exchanges. I found a couple of vinyl things I’d been looking for (the Sia promo with Four Tet and Ulrich Schnauss mixes), and a few worthwhile CD and comic purchases (more Langridge!) before we started the lovely walk up Portobello Rd, past numerous cute boutique shops that Ange browsed (scarves for between �50 & �110, anyone?) and ended up at the famous Rough Trade Shop on Talbot Rd. I knew I’d find some good stuff there, but it was a bit of a shock to the system as I just pulled off item after item that had been sitting on my list since before the US… Ange pulled out a Four Tet split 12″ I thought I’d never see, and my selection piled up scarily. Rough Trade have a slightly bizarre classification scheme, so I ended up browsing through pretty much everything. They also let you listen to vinyl and CDs (unlike most New York stores, at least as far as CDs go, and similarly with the main London ones) and the guy behind the counter pulled out a bunch of other stuff with a “so have you heard this, then?” My sort of place.
I did whittle things down a bit with a listen, but still ended up with a few things I hadn’t known about (Fennesz remixing the Junior Boys? Beautiful!) So I was practically music-purchased out within half a day in London…
Still having plenty of time left, we decided to head on into town for a bit. Easier said than done: Closest tube is Ladbroke Grove, on the “Hammersmith and Shitty Line”, as it’s still known as. This time we were informed that “due to a person under a train at Great Portland Street, Eastbound trains will be terminating at Edgware Road”. I can’t say how many times during the day we were informed about the “person under a train”… In any case, we got off at Edgware and it was of course raining. Eventually someone told us to catch a bus, and we hopped off at Regent St, walked to Piccadilly, and took the tube to Covent Garden, where we had a decent enough but expensive jacket potato and then visited the Neal’s Yard Rough Trade.

There I must leave you, as we’re about to head off to have an Indian dinner with John Chantler. More about the rest of our first huge day in London, and the rest, will come, er, soonish? Hope you’re all well! Gimme a comment if you’re reading and feel inclined. Going home in a couple of days now, so maybe one more entry before I return - we’ll see!

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