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Buildings that rock funk: Architectural dream no. 654

To make a building whose entrance is as flawless as the beginning of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition.

Walking in the door and down the hall during the first thirty seconds would put a spring in everyone’s step.

(see previous dream no. 1256)

For War of the Worlds fans: I noticed a billboard on the way to work this morning advertising a guest appearance by Jeff Wayne, composer of the 70s musical version, at St. Paul’s Gallery in Birmingham tomorrow night.

It’s currently being re-released as a collector’s edition. Remastered, remixed, DVD etc, etc. A whole bunch of new ways to hear David Essex singing about a brave new world.

Take a look around you at the world we’ve come to know,
Does it seem to be much more than a crazy circus show?
But maybe from the madness something beautiful will grow,
In a brave new world,
With just a handful of men.
We’ll start, we’ll start all over again
All over again,
All over again,
All over again,
All over again.

Which, strangely, doesn’t appear to need the fairer sex to begin repopulating the planet. Just a handful of men? I’d like to see them try.

Scratch that. I wouldn’t like to see that at all.

links: Jeff Wayne’s site and waroftheworldsonline.com

Another Peel related entry: I was lucky enough to see a Half Man Half Biscuit gig this week. It’s Peel related because it was he who revitalised my appreciation of them years ago when he played their Paintball’s Coming Home one evening. Years before that I’d only heard Trumpton Riots, but it was through Peel I came to appreciate the true quality of their razor sharp social critique. They’re funny, intelligent and they play guitar. That’s enough for me.

Two hour set, all the classics, including 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd, Running Order Squabblefest, C.A.M.R.A. Man and
The Light at the End of the Tunnel Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train.

She stayed with me until
She moved to Notting Hill
She said it was the place she needs to be

Where the cocaine is fair trade
And frequently displayed
Is the Buena Vista Social Club CD

There was an interesting mix of people in the crowd but one thing bound us all together; no matter what our background, every single one of us has at some point had our ego sliced in two by a painfully accurate song line that’s exposed us for what we really are. Great stuff.

Somewhat reluctantly, I’m going to post some video. I say reluctantly because if you’re not a fan already then the crappy phonecam quality won’t help matters; but it’s here so I might as well share it.

Links to past entries referring to the mighty HMHB: 1, 2 and (mp)3.

I effectively turned my back on Radio 1’s evening schedule after John Peel died. It turns out that was a big mistake. Stuck in traffic after a late night at the office last week, I caught some of Annie Mac’s show and the opening few tracks on the following show hosted by Rob da Bank. In the end I was wishing the traffic jam had kept me in the car longer.

Annie Mac has a tendency to play tracks from the Ninja Tunes label, which is reason enough to try it out; as usual you can listen again via the web. If it’s not your bag, stick around for the Rob da Bank slot on Thursday nights - the best way I can (not) describe it is to point out that even after being five or six tracks into the show, I still didn’t have a clue what was going on. It absolutely refuses to be pigeon-holed, so I shan’t attempt it, just go and try it.

Highlights from last weeks show were Art Brut, Rachel Lipson and Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo De Contonou Dahomey (streaming video).

bonus post: anyone who’d like to hear John Peel’s nonchalant voice again is welcome to revisit the mp3 I posted last summer of the wonderful Rodeohead by Hard’n'Phirm [mp3] [notes]

Buildings that rock: Architectural dream no. 1256

To make a building whose narrative develops when you walk through it with the exact same change in tempo as Lynard Skynard’s Freebird.

It would take nine minutes and seven seconds to complete the journey.

It’s been a bad week, architecturally speaking; making spaces and places hasn’t been as much fun as usual. Problems on site, a roof that wouldn’t fit, wasting time explaining why it wasn’t my fault and grappling with more design codes is a small sample of the last seven days. This week’s bid and this week’s design brief has some great examples of the dangers of the belief that codes are always necessary and that all aspects of a project can be deftly summarised using recognisably urban designer type words. For example,

…the site layout should be sensitive to the nearby linear canal and edges of the space should be softened with the use of bollards…

If anyone can point me to either a non-linear canal or a soft bollard, I shall be forever grateful. I’m paraphrasing the document in question, but you get the picture. The problem with employing an army of consultants to produce a document like this is that the need to keep saying something outweighs the ability to recognise, and therefore keep quiet about, the blindingly obvious.

Musically speaking, it’s been a great week. Hence the chosen category for today’s entry.

where
t = reverberation time in seconds (s)
V = volume of hall in cubic metres (m³)
A = area of absorption in square metres (m²)

Much like the academic culture that has really important things to say about linear canals, reverberation is, according to my Longman text book, the persistence of sound in an enclosure due to repeated reflections at the boundaries. t, in the equation above, is the time taken for a sound to decay by 60dB.

One night last week I became a small fraction of A whilst I was sat in the V of the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. When you’re sat in the cheap seats¹ at the back of hall, as I was during a recital of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, the value of t becomes very important to you. The wonderful thing about listening to the CBSO in their own hall, is that the designers who were charged with the responsibility of keeping a close eye on the way V and A monkeys around with t, did a great job. In truth, I don’t think there’s any such thing as the cheap seats, acoustically speaking, and personally I like the view from top².

Regardless of your opinion of classical music, if you live in or near Birmingham you should go and listen to the CBSO at least once in your life. If you do, here’s a few things to look for whilst you’re waiting for the house band to finish tuning up and for the conductor to swagger on stage with all the usual pomp and circumstance.

Since different performances require different optimum values for t, being able to adjust A or V is necessary to get the most out of a space. At the Symphony Hall it’s possible to change both.

On either side of the organ are two large sets of doors. When these are open the hall increases in size by a third of its usual volume. Around the edges are retractable curtains that increase the area of absorption and above the stage is a lighting gantry whose height can be adjusted to reflect sound at the stalls more effectively. Some time ago I attended a lecture³ by the acoustic engineer who designed the hall, he was more than a little smug about what a good job he’d done (both here and in other halls across the world) but there’s no denying that fact that he got it right.

Here’s a quick summary of the music for those more interested in the art than the science, as opposed to the art of the science which I’ve been talking about so far. The wonderfully named Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain was a good, bouncy start to the proceedings to liven us all up; Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no.4 was complex, restless, unstructured and perplexing; Tchaikovsky was, as usual, flawless. Towards the end of the Rachmaninov piece I started to find a way in by imagining it as the proceeds of an argument between two lovers. Neither of whom were in the right. In the car on the way home the DJ on Classic FM spoke about how Mozart was responsible for introducing the argumentative interplay of opera arias into piano concertos. It seems I wasn’t far from the mark and the two lovers should blame Mozart rather than each other.

Other musical journeys over the last week:

At work, getting our daily fix of ‘Legends’⁴ on the local radio station I’ve mentioned previously, we found ourselves listening to ‘Crazy, Crazy Nights’ by Kiss. My knowledge of Kiss is minimal, so I decided to download some more of their work and chose their MTV unplugged album from allofmp3.com. Half way through the set they play a track called ‘2000 Man’. One of the partners points out that it’s a cover of a Rolling Stones track but he can’t remember which album. Google tells us that it’s from their 1967 album ‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’ (which, strangely, sounds like it should be a Kiss album). Ultimately we end up listening to and unanimously enjoying a track on that album called ‘She’s a Rainbow’. I’m willing to bet that most of you haven’t heard either that album or that track; it’s good, you should try it out. I’m sure if you look hard enough you’ll be able to get hold of a copy.

Over at kryogenix.org, some kind soul has posted a link in the comments to a download of the first Half Man Half Biscuit track I ever heard (thanks to John Peel) called ‘Paintball’s Coming Home’. Inspired by Stuart’s entry about a particularly dodgy quiz to determine how middle class you are, the track is the perfect accompaniment. There’s a second version of this track with different lyrics which you can also download from the site I added to the linklog a few weeks ago.

Last week’s Mixing It on Radio 3 had a collection of tracks from bands based in Montreal. It was a fantastic show and you’ve got until tomorrow night to exploit the ‘listen again’ option on the BBC web site. Tracks to listen out for are the curious Le tresor de la langue by Rene Lussier, which ‘…was written as a celebration of the Québécois French language, and features some of his improvising colleagues following the speech patterns.’; also the breathtaking Le Projet Ulysse by Christian Calon.

Christian has this to say about his work:

The architectural dimension of sound and a reflection on the narrative processes are the main focus of my present work centered around the ideas of Time, presence and transformation. Through various forms including spatial sound installations, acousmatic or radio pieces, my recent pieces explore the modality of the audible and of the listening experience. Space, at the heart of my reflection, has become today an essential way through to the central question of Time.

It seems the values V, A and t are important to him too. It also seems plausible that he had a hand in writing the design code I’m working with at the moment, perhaps whilst he was travelling along a non-linear canal. Pensively.

notes:

1. £7
2. I’ve captured this view before in the sketches category
3. My family often jokes that my grandfather’s grave stone should start with the words ‘When I was in the desert…’ due to the way his stories about the war would always start. I’m beginning to wonder if mine should say ‘I once attended a lecture on…’
4. I learnt this week that this is a word ill suited to describing a radio show, it comes from the latin legendum, which means ‘to read about’.

New Street, Birmingham City Centre. 1:45pm. Buskers. Looked like this:

Sounded like this (1.2 Mb mp3 link)

If anybody is in the market for a turntable, you could do a lot worse than the Bush MTT1, which is currently on sale at Richer Sounds for £39.95. It got a blazing review and 5 stars from What Hi-Fi magazine.

I bought one this afternoon. I just dropped Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats on to test it and it sounds sweet.

I’m a little pimp
With my hair gassed back
Pair a khaki pants
With my shoe shined black
I got a little lady
And she walks that street
Tellin’ all the boys
That she can’t be beat

Willie the Pimp - Frank Zappa, Hot Rats

I learnt something interesting this morning. Forgive me if you already know this, it’s possible I’m the only one who wasn’t aware of it.

The term ‘heavy metal’ was given to us by Steppenwolf; it’s from the lyric Heavy metal thunder, in their song ‘Born to be Wild’.

What’s doubly interesting (for me), is that I was pondering over the source of the phrase only last week.

Posted as an offering to those crazy mash-up kids over at GYBO, or anybody else who Googles for that mandatory, obscure spoken word sample that all good bootlegs seem to need.

I give you my strangest ever answer machine message: confused.wav