EUROPE TOUR APRIL 28 - MAY 12 : AUSTRIA, GERMANY, POLAND, U.K., SPAIN

SATURDAY APRIL 28  - KREMS an der DONAU, AUSTRIA

Donaufestival: endlose Gegenwart (endless now)
2pm - "Absent Futures, Present Past: Temporalities in Today’s Music" - panel discussion with Jens Balzer and Christian Höller 
Location: Kino im Kesselhaus 
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THURSDAY MAY 3 – , WEIL am RHEIN, GERMANY / BASEL, SWITZERLAND

Vitra Design Museum

6.30 pm - talk about techno, rave, and electronic dance music
Location: Depot Deli, next to the Schaudepot 
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SATURDAY MAY 5  / SUNDAY MAY 6 - OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY

Internationale Kurzfilmtage 

Saturday 5th – 10 pm - jury member for announcement of prize-winning music videos at Muvi Screening & Award Ceremony 

Location;  Lichtburg Cinema

Sunday 6th - 10 AM - "After YouTube: Music Video after the Internet" - panel discussion with Marisa Olsen and Christian Höller

Location: Festival Space, Langemarkstr. 22, 46045 Oberhausen

Admission: Free

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MONDAY MAY 7^TH – WARSZAWA, POLAND

publication of Retromania: ak popkultura żywi się własną przeszłością by Kosmos Kosmos

Launch event -  "a meeting with readers": discussion led by Jarek Szubrycht, with Filip Łobodziński (translator of Retromania), followed by Q+A

Time: 7pm

Location: Plac Zbawiciela (podium in front of Plan B Café) 

WEDNESDAY MAY 9 - WALTHAMSTOW, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Rock 'n' Roll Book Club "My Life in Pop": video-illustrated talk on TV epiphanies + Q+ A. 

Time: 6pm to 8 pm
Location: Walthamstow Library
Tickets:  Eventbrite. 




Spain mini-tour for Como Un Golpe de Rayo (published by Caja Negra)

THURSDAY MAY 10 – MADRID, SPAIN 

Primera Persona Festival 

21.00 horas - talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A
Location: La Casa Encendida 
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FRIDAY MAY 11 –  Málaga, Spain  

451: La Noche De Los Libros Festival 

21:00 horas | talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A

Sala 001

La Térmica

Avda. de los Guindos, 48

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SATURDAY MAY 12 – BARCELONA, SPAIN  

Primera Persona Festival

21:00 horas | talk about glam rock and its legacy with videos + Q+A
Location: El Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona 
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mnml sggs's PC on two good aspects of 2011, first of them being collaborations

this struck me as wonderfully nuanced assessment of where music is at: the bounty of harvesting a crop, or crops plural, that were sowed long ago

"Several of these collaborations produced exceptional, if unsurprising results. A lot of them were my favourite records to actually listen to. Again, this is unsurprising, given that we’re dealing with well-established projects and, well, middle-aged dudes and dudettes who’ve really nutted out their approaches to sound. This is why, fundamentally, I think of the best of these as culmination records, recordings that cash out a bunch of ideas that have been kicking around for the past decade or more. But/so: not that exciting, really. And also, you know, I really hope that each is kind of the ‘last one’ in its sequence or series. For the sake of transformation. Culmination, then conclusion, then... rip it up, and start again. To continue on these trajectories would be to court the trage-comedy of true repetition. Add in more time, and you’ll endup with farce, if Woody A is to be believed. But being careful, culminating collaborations between people who really, really know their shit, these records are also very satisfying, if you give them your full attention. Repeat: they are amazing to actually listen to."

the second good aspect of last year was mixtapes, and he provides some examples/links to favourites - a couple of which i'd heard and would also recommend highly -- Moon Wiring Club at FACT, Mark Van Hoen at Pontone. And I must have missed the Endless House Foundation one, i'll have to check that out and the others recommended.

Mixtapes = "a feast" as PC says, but then again since their provenance trawls so far and wide and so atemporally, you might say that they too are a banquet based in harvesting crops planted long ago

terrific controlled rant from mnml sggs's PC on "comfort house" (and by implication all music-as-comfort-food* scenarios), inspired by two mixes suffocated by politesse and the feeling of having "heard it all before’":

"it could have been mixed 12 years ago and not sounded any different. In fact, if it were mixed 12 years ago, it would be very likely to sound exactly like it does. I've been thinking about this for some time, and I've decided that it really matters. Making a mix from 2000 in 2012... it matters. Well, it may not matter to you. But it matters to me... For me there is something unbearably complacent at work in the decision to make this mix in 2012... This weird over-reverence that makes you want to desecrate things you love and care about... is this how punks felt?"

matthew ingram pointed me towards this lot

like it, lots

not really similar, but has a similar effect on me as Metronomy -- evocative but (mostly) unplaceable

the upside of atemporality

whole album stream: