Alex's pick of the week returns...
Toby's asked to write about my forthcoming well deserved holiday. He's had me chained to my desk for ages and he only agreed to let me go after writing this for him. Please tell him you like it or he'll beat me like he does to Chris.
(The picture is of me and a snowman. Irrelevant, but I like it.)
------------------------------------
Everyone in the SkinsLife office has been working fucking hard over the last few months whilst taking the country’s best upcoming bands on tour and getting releases ready for Paper Heroes and Edinburgh's The Unicorn Kid.
We’ve been working so hard that Toby’s been unable to sit in his dressing gown and slippers next to a roaring fire in his Hampstead mansion to catch up on the gossip about his old chums in the Financial Times; Chris has only spent half of his salary on upcoming hair products and I’ve only been going to one or two gigs a week. (Alex's holiday has now been cancelled. Ed.)
However, as of today I’m getting back into going to gigs to prepare to pick some awesome music for Skins series 3. Tonight I’m seeing My Bloody Valentine’s first show in ages at the ICA. Hopefully they won’t be awful as this band have been pretty special to me since I was a 15 year old stuck in a Stoke on Trent suburb.
Tomorrow I’m going to the Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder showcase at Hearne Street Car Park. His debut album ‘Los Angeles’ is out now and is available in a lovely gatefold 2LP format. It’s my album of the year so far and FlyLo is always awesome live: I can't recommend it highly enough. Also playing on that night are Rustie, Hudson Mohawke, Kode9, Mala, Gaslamp Killer, Samiyam and quite a few other cool acts which makes it a night to look forward to.
Then on Sunday night Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Yellow Magic Orchestra are playing their first UK show since 1980 at Massive Attack’s Meltdown festival. Sakamoto is a bit of a hero of mine and I even managed to get his most famous track ‘Forbidden Colours’ in Chris’ episode in the last series (That was the funny one where the writer Ben merged the scripts from Rocky and Trainspotting and hoped no one would realise.) Supporting him will be Warp’s awesome new signing Pivot.
Then’s it’s off to Barcelona for Sonar festival where I’ll be seeing pretty much everyone who is important in music including Ricardo Villalobos, Pan Sonic, Buraka Som Sistema (of Skins episode 6 fame), Richie Hawtin, Pram, Shackleton, Jeff Mills (of Skins episode 7 fame) and tons more.
When I’m back from that and after tearful reunion with Toby I’ll be ready to keep looking out for the best upcoming music in the country, both for the SkinsLife label, the tour and a little TV series called Skins.
Keep posting your tracks and I’ll listen to them when I’m back.
Alex
To add your response, simply sign up or login.
