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Monday 17 February 2014

Mesmerising


There's something mesmerising about concrete brutalism. I've long been a fan of these post-war monuments to modernism and have occasionally trekked to stand beneath some, such as Trellick Tower in West London and Preston Bus Station (best viewed from a distance, up close it's a dirty and somewhat unloved car park/bus station). I watched Johnathan Meades on BBC 4 last night. He operates on a different level- at times it's best just to switch off and let his commentary wash over you while enjoying the visuals.

Richard Norris (in his Time And Space Machine guise) has remixed Temples. Temples are four young men from Kettering making psychedelic rock circa 1966-7 and have been tipped by Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie and Noel Gallagher (could be offputting to some I suppose). I saw them briefly supporting Primal Scream last December and the song and a half I saw were alright. Richard Norris loops them about the place, reverb heavy vocals, phased guitars and backwards guitars, psychedelia firmly intact. NME were offering a free download but I think the capacity got reached by a mad rush of 60s psychedelia fans.

Edit: free download is back.

2 comments:

Echorich said...

There is a certain beauty and strength in post war building around the world. The brief seemed to by how to best use vertical space and some architecture is quite impressive. Too soon though we were left with rectangular monoliths sitting in under utilized concrete and green spaces.
That Temples track reminds me of how excited I was about Primal Scream when they finally found their sound. Richard Norris has a lot to do with what I like about the track. Lovely!

george said...

This is a splendid splendid noise. Excellent track. Not too much brutalist architecture in these parts. A lot of crumbly, falling down houses, and a quite bizzarre looking block of flats in the town centre, though.