Many thanks to everyone who came down to see our co-promoted show with This Is Tomorrow last Friday. The turnout was amazing for For a Minor Reflection, Epic45 and Is I Cinema; we were concerned at one point that there wouldn’t be any more room in there. It made for an intimate and at times incendiary experience, particularly when FaMR’s brand of explosive post-rock reached its breathtaking climaxes. There’s a youthful volatility to their music, capable of near-instant shifts from icy beauty to volcanic fury.
The evening built steadily to this, with openers Is I Cinema charming us with their fresh, inventive indie-pop. Apparently it was only their sixth gig but they sounded really tight as their songs packed in an array of ideas and influences. It will be interesting to see how their sound evolves and the direction they take.
As ever, our good friends Epic45 played a sublime set, drawn mostly from 2007’s May Your Heart Be The Map. Many of those songs have been fleshed out and expanded live: it ranked as one of the best performances by them I’ve seen. We’ll have more details on their new mini-album, released in Autumn, and supporting tour of the UK and Europe soon.
Thanks to Matt Beck from This Is Tomorrow for such a rewarding collaboration, Justin Reynolds for providing absolutely flawless sound all night, the staff of the Victoria and Alex Morrall for photography.
We’re taking a little break from organising live events so we can concentrate on our wedding and settling into married life. We’ll be back in Autumn with the aim of taking Colour further with exciting ideas we’ve been daydreaming about for some time now. In the meantime, we’ll continue to write about music and culture on here, and we’ll also be putting on Perfect Sound Forever at The Victoria on Sunday 12 July.
… so to celebrate us playing host to Reykjavik’s own For a Minor Reflection on Friday, we’re running a little competition via Twitter. Just send a tweet to @wearecolour with your favourite fact about our friends in the north, for a chance to win two tickets to see For a Minor Reflection with support from Epic45 and Is I Cinema at The Victoria on Friday night.
All entries by midnight tonight please. We’ll announce the winner via Twitter at midday tomorrow and post our favourite responses here. For more information on the gig, check our events page.
Update 18/06/09: Competition Closed…
Despite the recession, this Summer’s selection of boutique festivals across the UK is strong, with many pushing their biggest line ups so far. Festivals such as those we’ve selected below offer a fantastic alternative to the billboard loving, litter strewn, near-riots of the corporate sponsored mainstream festivals such as V and Reading. Thoughtfully curated line ups are often supplemented by nice food, comedy, film and activity tents, play areas for children and clean toilets, while the smaller numbers mean you stand a chance of actually seeing the bands.
We had a lot of fun putting on our new, laid-back Sunday soundtrack session. It was originally supposed to be a takeover of The Victoria’s Sunday Roast, but as we’re heading into Summer they’ve knocked that on the head. You can still and enjoy Colour every second Sunday of the month.
Oh, many apologies to the girl who wanted Paul to play something less depressing, “like The Smiths”.
Wolverhampton-based artist and sometime Colour DJ Richard Cartwright is currently exhibiting a rather striking piece at the University of Wolverhampton’s Art & Design Degree Show 2009. Titled Recession Sounds, it explores impermanence, decay and decline through sonic collages constructed from found sound and everyday objects.
The project was approached with a limited budget and this set limitations of what could be used to make the sounds [...] Seeking out natural rhythms and beats within found and budget objects recovered from the studio space or outside. With found materials or items purchased from the high street shop Poundland. All the objects are manipulated, destroyed and readjusted to create each individual sound.
Wayside & Woodland, the DIY label set up by Rob Glover and Ben Holton from Epic45, is branching out into live promotion. They’re bringing together some wonderfully unusual electronic and ambient artists from the US and Europe to The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath on 1st July.
Headlining the event will be Svarte Greiner, also known as Erik K. Skodvin, one half of Norwegian ambient duo Deaf Center. Support comes from Seattle’s The Sight Below, whose melodic ambient compositions show a real understanding of minimalist techno, with his album Glider popping up on Radiohead’s ‘top ten’ playlist. The line-up is rounded out by ex-Slowdive drummer Simon Scott, whose dimly-lit soundscapes feature rays of melodic harmony disturbed by apocalyptic rhythms.
The evening will also feature DJ sets by Epic45 and Xela. A set by Epic is always a showcase of the sublime and esoteric well worth catching: Rob will also guest DJ at the next Perfect Sound Forever on 14 June.
The ever-in-flux music industry, combined with the recession, has claimed its latest victim: the resolutely independent and outspoken music magazine Plan B. Taking a tone somewhere between classic music journalism, an indie blog and a fierce debate between hipsters, it has sent me running to my laptop in search of a new band’s output one minute, before causing bouts of swearing the next, when an article has seemed to focus more on the writer than the subject, or when my new favourite album has been brutally ripped to shreds. 
You don’t hear from us in weeks and then we hit you with two events? Crazy. Anyway, we’re getting together with our good friends and fellow Vic residents This Is Tomorrow to bring you a rather special evening of live music:
Remember in April when we took over the decks at The Victoria’s Sunday Roast? Well, we’re very excited to let you know that it’s gone from a one-off to a monthly deal. From 5pm on the second Sunday of every month, we’ll be playing everything from backwoods folk and off-the-highway Americana to psychedelic electronic soundscapes and woozy indie-pop, complimenting your post-roast lazy Sunday evening.
The Victoria serve seriously delicious roast dinners from 12-6pm, as well as the usual selection of fine cask ales and gorgeous cocktails.
We’re currently toying with the idea of making mixes exclusively available via Twitter for short periods of time. For now, add @wearecolour for updates on our events and what we’re listening to.
Facebook: Event Page
