Retromania Lesetour Mittel Europa updated information

Oktober 16 to 26, the Retromania tour takes in 11 cities across Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Here's the schedule with more information on times and venue addresses. Please note the Munich event has moved to a different venue.
The events involve a new talk + readings from the book + Q/A with the audience.

16. Oktober: Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzber, 20-30 Uhr

skalitzerstr. 130, 10999 berlin

tel  +49 30-61656003  www.festsaal-kreuzberg.de

                                                           

17. Oktober: Hamburg, Golem, 20.15 Uhr 
Große Elbstraße 14, S-Bahn Reeperbahn (Ausgang Nobistor)
www.golem.kr

18. Oktober: Köln, King Georg Klubbar, 21 Uhr
Sudermanstraße 2, 50670 Köln,
www.kinggeorg.de 

with Olaf Karnik
                                       

19. Oktober: St. Gallen, Palace St.Gallen,20.00 uhr doors/21.30 event 
Zwinglistr. 3, 9000 St.Gallen, 

tel: + 41 71 222 21 23  www.palace.sg) 
after the talk the Nightingales perform

20. Oktober: München, Milla, evening (info tk)
^^^^note: event at a different (and larger) venue than previously listed^^^ 
Milla, holzstr. 28 
info: shop.optimal-records.de

with support from  a band comprising ralf summer (zündfunk), didi neidhart (skug/vorwort der deutschen ausgaben) und christos (optimal-records)

21. Oktober: Wien, Phil, 20.00 Uhr 

Gumpendorfer Straße 10-12

www.phil.info

22. Oktober: Wels, Alter Schlachthof Wels, evening (info tk) 
Dragonerstraße 22, 4600 Wels

Tel: +43 (0) 7242 67284  www.youki.at

23. Oktober: Nürnberg, Musikverein,einlass: 20 uhr / beginn: 20:30 uhr

festsaal im künstlerhaus (k4), königstr. 93, 90402 
www.musikverein-concerts.de

24. Oktober: Marburg, Trauma, evening (info tk)
Affoellerwiesen 3a
www.cafetrauma.de

25. Oktober: Frankfurt, Orange Peel, 8.30 uhr

Orange Peel

Kaiserstraße 39  

www.orange-peel.de

talk + dialogue with Klaus Walter 

26. Oktober: Luxemburg, Exit07,  evening (info tk)
1, rue de l'Aciere
www.rotondes.lu)

Retromania translator Chris Wilpert will be present for all but the last date of the tour. 

Retromania is out now on Ventil Verlag 

 

"We called it 'Kaning' the music. So-called perfect music, whatever genre - aims to remove these flaws, to have a true and complete, finished thing. The flaws leave a space, where the listener can still add something of her own, where she can sit and be.. Kaning means going to the threshold of creation, of maximum potential where all things are possible yet uncreated, the realm of Lucifer and the Dark angels, the shoreline where angels build sandcastles in defiance of the creator..  This is the level of creativity we aspired to, without having a bloody clue. But this is what drove us to make music, as ill-equipped as we were" -- from a riveting dialogue between Rudy Tambala and Neil Kulkarni at the Quietus, on the occasion of  A.R. Kane's The Complete Singles Collection being released by One Little Indian.

I wrote the bio for this double CD anthology. That text has also been issued by One Little Indian as one of their Collectors Booklets, which come housed in seven-inch sleeves. In it there's also another interview with Rudy that takes you through their discography release by release. The booklet is free if you buy the Singles collection as part of One Little Indian's Totem Series.

                                      



It starts like this...


It is tempting to describe A.R.Kane as the great lost group of the 1980s.

"Great" is spot-on. And "1980s" is more or less accurate (they did release some stuff in the Nineties but the late Eighties was A.R.Kane's recording prime). 

No, it's the "lost" bit that is misleading. It gives the impression that this was a group that was neglected, overlooked... if not utterly unknown, then certainly marginal in the scheme of things. And that is inaccurate.  

Not only were A.R.Kane renowned and revered, but, in certain quarters, they were regarded and written up as one of the central groups of their era. The singles and albums received rave reviews (and when I say "rave" I mean frothing at the mouth, purple-prose-drooling paeans). Their faces appeared on the front covers of the British music weekly papers. But A.R. Kane weren't just critics' faves either. Sixty nine, their debut album, topped the independent charts in the summer of 1988....

Off their debut single, a track I always thought was titled "Haunted"

And, not their greatest tune by a long shot, but who knew there even was a promo video for "Green Hazed Daze"?

Retromania tour Germany / Austria / Switzerland / Luxembourg

The German translation of Retromania is out now on Ventil Verlag. And next week I start a book tour taking in 11 cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

Lesetour zu Retromania

16. Oktober: Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg (Skalitzer Str. 130, www.festsaal-kreuzberg.de).

                                                           

17. Oktober: Hamburg, Golem (Grosse Elbstr. 14, www.golem.kr) 

18. Oktober: Köln, King Georg (Sudermannstr. 2, www.kinggeorg.de)  

                                        

19. Oktober: St. Gallen, Palace (Zwinglistr. 3, www.palace.sg) 

20. Oktober: München, Optimal-Records (Kolosseumstr. 6)

21. Oktober: Wien, Phil (Gumpendorfer Str. 10-12, www.phil.info) 

22. Oktober: Wels, Schlachthof, (Dragonerstr. 22, www.youki.at) 

23. Oktober: Nürnberg, Musikverein, (Königstr. 93, www.musikverein-concerts.de) 

24. Oktober: Marburg, Trauma (Affoellerwiesen 3a, www.cafetrauma.de) 

25. Oktober: Frankfurt, Orange Peel (Kaiserstr. 39, www.orange-peel.de) 

26. Oktober: Luxemburg, Exit07 (1, rue de l'Aciere, www.rotondes.lu)

The events take place in the evening (more info to follow). Most events involve a new talk + readings from the book + Q/A with the audience, but the Frankfurt event is an onstage dialogue with autor und DJ Klaus Walter. Retromania translator Chris Wilpert will be present for all but the last date of the tour.

In Slate today, a piece by me on  "recreativity" -  a critique of the emerging orthodoxy of "everything is a remix" / "originality is a myth" / "no such thing as genius", in terms of its relationship to digital culture and to dance music ideas that are frankly a bit stale at this point. 

(Reading some of the arguments being made these past few years from critics, academics, artists, etc you can't help wondering if these dudes heard a Girl Talk CD and had their minds blown.)

Or, old fashioned modernism versus what is now equally old fashioned postmodernism.