I've been listening to a lot of Ben Howard lately while I've been working. It's uplifting music-calming, but still with a motivating energy to it. Especially when I'm working alone, it's good to have a little sing-along to.
I was lucky enough to see him live a year or so ago when I saw him at a gig with my friend from York, Nathan Luke. I remember thinking he was like a more lively, acoustic David Gray. It's good to hear him being played on the radio lots at the moment!
Last night was amazing! The show opened with The Computers, who I think I enjoyed just as much if not even more than P.A.B.H! Managed to get a few pictures of them, then once P.A.B.H started playing, my bag broke. The strap got ripped off so I had to go and leave all my things in the cloakroom, then back to the giant mosh-pit that filled the main area of the room. The last time I went to a gig this rowdy I had a handy perch on some stairs just at the edge, but this time I got hauled around, kicked in the head, hair pulled….etc. Safe to say I’ve never been that exhausted by a gig before, or looked as horrendous afterwards. So much fun though!
On Wednesday 19th October Bryony and I went to a gig at Alter Ego, the main motivation being to see one of the support bands, Mojo Fury. Unfortunately their set was shorter than planned because of technical difficulties after the first song, but as usual they performed well and treated us to a couple of new songs! Here is one I attempted to video called 'To Comprehend' (apologies for the confusing zooming in and out):
...but since the gig I have been listening to a lot more Maybeshewill as well. They play powerful, atmospheric sounding post-rock instrumental music (I hope that's an accurate enough description)...here is a better one from Last.fm:
Maybeshewill are aninstrumentalband from Leicester, UK. Maybeshewill’s music is characterised by the use of electronic elements alongside more traditional ‘rock’ instrumentation. The band’s music is also littered with references to film and popular culture.
At the moment I am particularly impressed with their song 'Critical Distance' and its accompanying video, which combines live action and animation. The stop-motion technique is so fascinating! The jerky movement it creates goes perfectly with the music. It's definitely an art form I'd love to be able to explore in my illustration this year, not that I can hope to create anything quite this good...
