Russian Circles/Earthless - Camden Underworld 13/04/2010
Although also an instrumental American rock band, opening act Earthless are a very different kettle of fish to the headliners. Vivacious drummer Mario Rubalcaba and hippie-haired bassist Mike Eginton are a juggernaut rhythm section that pins you to the wall with relentless rhythms whilst trigger-happy guitarist Isaiah Mitchell blazes over them with his Hendrix-toned bluesy shred. However, there is little for the listener to grab on to. Earthless's music is... well...somewhat ungrounded. They are highly skilled musicians, but the sheer length of their audience-losing improvisatory passages smacked of self-indulgence and left a non-plussed crowd yearning for some song-craft.
Russian Circles gave the audience exactly what they were missing. The vital distinction between the two bands' music is that Russian Circles' tracks have a purposeful, progressive narrative with emotional coherence and meaning. Each section of each track has its function in relation to the whole. Each member plays precisely what is required to serve the big picture, nothing more and nothing less, and Earthless seemed utterly incoherent by comparison. Where their performance was politely appreciated, Russian Circles’ performance was relished. Their class shone from the first moment, and the previously subdued audience responded as if they had been let out of a cage, leaping and moshing with abandon.
Russian Circles’ light-and-shade music is peppered with brutal metalesque percussive passages and balanced with moments of delicate melodic sensibility (although even these sections are always pulsing and rhythmic). There are obvious echoes of Master Of Puppets era Metallica in many of the riffs and a constant underlying Tool-like sinister eeriness - yet they have forged a unique sonic identity that transcends such influences. Aided by a very musical use of loops and sampling, the three members manage to produce an enormous sound, and tonight focused upon tracks from their recently released third album, Geneva. Brian Cook (bass and samples) may be the new boy (having joined in 2007), yet he is the dominating presence onstage, furiously conducting the music with his entire body.
None of the band addressed the audience at any stage, the gaps between each track filled with throbbing distorted tones washing around the room as the band members remained motionless until the cue for the next number. A shy wave from each as they left the stage was the only interaction.
No vocals, no banter, no ego. For Russian Circles, it really does seem to be all about the music.
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Friday, 2 April 2010
The Steven Machat interview - From gamekeeper to poacher
Steven Machat was born into the music business. His father Marty was the right hand man of Allen Klein, the man who took over the management of both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones at the height of both bands' success in the late 1960's. After becoming a qualified lawyer and accountant, Steven joined his father to form Machat & Machat - which rapidly became one of the industry's most powerful business management firms. Machat & Machat's clients were a diverse roster of illustrious big names such as Phil Spector, Leonard Cohen, Phil Collins, Ozzy Ozbourne, Bobby Brown and ELO. Steven's memoirs - Gods, Gangsters and Honour is a no-holds-barred, insider account of Steven's three decades-plus in the music industry, containing a wealth of shocking and hilarious anecdotes from interactions and deal-making with clients. Steven provides the low-down on oversized egos, scandalous behaviour, multi-million dollar pay offs, and the realities behind the images the gods of popular music like to portray. Last year he gave a well-received speaking tour of colleges and Universities across the UK, including Cambridge University and King's College, London.
Only a few years ago, Steven was still to be found brokering and structuring enormous deals for fat cat artists or large multinationals. Over time he became increasingly disillusioned with the 'quantity over quality' bottom line that the 'big 4' major labels (Sony, Universal EMI and Warner) necessarily perpetuate, and his focus changed. In the book Steven also charts his personal transformation from a self-confessed 'gangster' businessman to a significantly more altruistic being interested in developing acts that he feels can genuinely contribute to culture rather than to the coffers of conglomerates. Today he wants to share the benefit of his experience with artists at the other end of the spectrum. He is very much a man looking to 'give back' and leave a legacy he can be proud of - a man on a mission.
" I was as guilty as anyone, in fact I was one of the worst of them all…” he says through his thick Brooklyn accent. “I used to make music to appeal to a mass audience - I perpetuated this mess also. I had all the gangsta rappers, that shit….. I put out records by Donny Osmond and New Edition (a 1980's US teen boy band). New Edition were a joke - it was one of the worst things I've ever done. I put out music for ages 8 to 80 so the generations would buy it for each other. Now I have the freedom to focus on the music that moves me."
After his father's death, Steven struck out on his own and currently runs The Machat Company. His personal taste remains as eclectic as his past suggests, and he is currently looking to represent any new acts that believes in. "I like music that picks me up, or allows me just be....... or to meditate...music that allows me to sit in the sun, music that makes me run... any amount of artists on any given day, from all over the planet. I love folk, The XX, Animal Collective, Indian music , Brazilian music...anything that moves me - I'm currently working with a band called T. Mandrakes... good time music...I really believe in them."
Steven believes that the vertical integration capabilities (top to bottom ownership of music production, distribution and the platforms it is presented on) enjoyed by majors has created an 'emperor's new clothes' effect, where popular music has floundered creatively yet has been able to tread water commercially via the vast cross-promotional capabilities of major labels' parents companies, where various media platforms are used in combination to co-ordinate hype. Here, representation trumps reality. “Acts are given credit in the music press.....that's not an independent press - that press works for a company that needs to perpetuate sales with the least economic resistance, and they write all horseshit. Always look at who controls that media."
Even so, he finds the ongoing popularity of manufactured big-ballad divas puzzling. " I just don't get it... Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey... that music is just not going to bring society anywhere else. It's very limiting. I used to punish my son by making him listen to Celine Dion. I'd say 'get in there, you need to hear this because that's where your brain's at'...they'd (majors) rather sell X Factor than facilitate artists. (Majors are full of) mental midgets with an MBA mentality. That works ok if you're selling tools, but it's counter- productive when you apply it to artists and art".
Steven has no tears to shed over the difficulties many big 4 - owned labels have had in the wake of file-sharing, and welcomes the marketing - free platform that the internet can provide. He sees the shake up of the major labels' fossilized business model as a necessary and progressive step culturally. For someone who has been so successful capitalizing on capitalism, he is also something of a socialist. "(These) companies will be bankrupt and be gone. Independents will be there - there's competition now. The majors had so much control...total control. They've been stopping music from becoming a unified force. It's all perpetuated by the banking system. The system prioritises the protection of the big company models, which are anti-cultural. I think we should put them to sleep. We've had enough time. People in England should tell the government to fuck off - take down the banks. They're supposed to be providing a public service. "
Steven describes himself as “much more content” now that he has left the corporate world and the cut-throat feuds described in his book behind him. He feels he can now take care of his bands as well as take care of business. He enjoys a closer working relationship with his acts, having the time to regularly attend their gigs and to both nurture and encourage them. "I'm the adrenaline that gets into your system. I'll make you go....and I'll give you the courage to go back out there."
Yet he is grateful for the lessons learnt from the journey that has lead him to a role that he finds exciting and fulfilling. "There's not much I would change given the opportunity. Music has been my magic carpet ride. It's taken me - both physically and in a personal sense - everywhere I've wanted to go."
Gods, Gangsters and Honour is now available in paperback from Beautiful Books
Only a few years ago, Steven was still to be found brokering and structuring enormous deals for fat cat artists or large multinationals. Over time he became increasingly disillusioned with the 'quantity over quality' bottom line that the 'big 4' major labels (Sony, Universal EMI and Warner) necessarily perpetuate, and his focus changed. In the book Steven also charts his personal transformation from a self-confessed 'gangster' businessman to a significantly more altruistic being interested in developing acts that he feels can genuinely contribute to culture rather than to the coffers of conglomerates. Today he wants to share the benefit of his experience with artists at the other end of the spectrum. He is very much a man looking to 'give back' and leave a legacy he can be proud of - a man on a mission.
" I was as guilty as anyone, in fact I was one of the worst of them all…” he says through his thick Brooklyn accent. “I used to make music to appeal to a mass audience - I perpetuated this mess also. I had all the gangsta rappers, that shit….. I put out records by Donny Osmond and New Edition (a 1980's US teen boy band). New Edition were a joke - it was one of the worst things I've ever done. I put out music for ages 8 to 80 so the generations would buy it for each other. Now I have the freedom to focus on the music that moves me."
After his father's death, Steven struck out on his own and currently runs The Machat Company. His personal taste remains as eclectic as his past suggests, and he is currently looking to represent any new acts that believes in. "I like music that picks me up, or allows me just be....... or to meditate...music that allows me to sit in the sun, music that makes me run... any amount of artists on any given day, from all over the planet. I love folk, The XX, Animal Collective, Indian music , Brazilian music...anything that moves me - I'm currently working with a band called T. Mandrakes... good time music...I really believe in them."
Steven believes that the vertical integration capabilities (top to bottom ownership of music production, distribution and the platforms it is presented on) enjoyed by majors has created an 'emperor's new clothes' effect, where popular music has floundered creatively yet has been able to tread water commercially via the vast cross-promotional capabilities of major labels' parents companies, where various media platforms are used in combination to co-ordinate hype. Here, representation trumps reality. “Acts are given credit in the music press.....that's not an independent press - that press works for a company that needs to perpetuate sales with the least economic resistance, and they write all horseshit. Always look at who controls that media."
Even so, he finds the ongoing popularity of manufactured big-ballad divas puzzling. " I just don't get it... Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey... that music is just not going to bring society anywhere else. It's very limiting. I used to punish my son by making him listen to Celine Dion. I'd say 'get in there, you need to hear this because that's where your brain's at'...they'd (majors) rather sell X Factor than facilitate artists. (Majors are full of) mental midgets with an MBA mentality. That works ok if you're selling tools, but it's counter- productive when you apply it to artists and art".
Steven has no tears to shed over the difficulties many big 4 - owned labels have had in the wake of file-sharing, and welcomes the marketing - free platform that the internet can provide. He sees the shake up of the major labels' fossilized business model as a necessary and progressive step culturally. For someone who has been so successful capitalizing on capitalism, he is also something of a socialist. "(These) companies will be bankrupt and be gone. Independents will be there - there's competition now. The majors had so much control...total control. They've been stopping music from becoming a unified force. It's all perpetuated by the banking system. The system prioritises the protection of the big company models, which are anti-cultural. I think we should put them to sleep. We've had enough time. People in England should tell the government to fuck off - take down the banks. They're supposed to be providing a public service. "
Steven describes himself as “much more content” now that he has left the corporate world and the cut-throat feuds described in his book behind him. He feels he can now take care of his bands as well as take care of business. He enjoys a closer working relationship with his acts, having the time to regularly attend their gigs and to both nurture and encourage them. "I'm the adrenaline that gets into your system. I'll make you go....and I'll give you the courage to go back out there."
Yet he is grateful for the lessons learnt from the journey that has lead him to a role that he finds exciting and fulfilling. "There's not much I would change given the opportunity. Music has been my magic carpet ride. It's taken me - both physically and in a personal sense - everywhere I've wanted to go."
Gods, Gangsters and Honour is now available in paperback from Beautiful Books
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