01 Lower East Side Story

The culture clubbing of South East London.

Beyond genre, gender, generation and other generalisations lives the supernatural human animal that sings, dances and creates. It’s probably why there is so much magick in our story telling. Think symbiotic eco system more than robotic ego

The Catford Cat

Moderner life may be rubbisher but still there are pockets of timeless to be found. Especially around Planet Earth’s deliciously diverse “Normal Island”.

Sure there’s the whole Hostile Environment safari that the fash coup twats heat the haters with, but TheZineUK documentary is amidst a palpable and consistent Fertile Environment, courtesy of DIY’s bombastic poptastic art party - exploding BombPop positivity, for balance.

The biggest adventure in space is in the living globe’s deep oceans.

If visiting aliens had any chronological concept, they’d probably head here, to the planet’s time keeping location (The Zone of Time, Greenwich)

In dayes of olde, Earth beamed ancient homing signals from Stonehenge and The Giant’s Causeway then, in more recent centuries, nautically timed the world from the meridian line.

It doesn’t matter whether you come to or come from the locality, London’s lower east side is a look and a sound for the DIY-chic freak confusion of fusion of multi-tasking-multi-culture that gave birth to Uniqulture.

Just when you thought you knew what punk, opera, pop, “urban” (rural?) and classic music LOOKED like, along comes reality pointing out that your ears can’t see and your eyes can’t hear.

The Playing Class

Friends and strangers as friends - diverse as a Star Wars bar scene, you can hear their arena-sonic visions in quirky grassroots music venues amidst lively communities high in students.

Like a futuristic steampunk rebel base in a historic nautical setting. The city’s S.E. postcodes often feel and sound like an intergalactic movie score when Jazz cats don’t live far from The Deptford Mice. who are centre cross river from The Isle Of Dogs now known as Docklands after kicking the dockers out, instead of Doglands. The Catford Cat laffs at this.

Planet Water dimension #SELondon

The Mercury Prize nominated album ‘Dark Matter’, by Moses Boyd is some introduction!

The musician is from nearby Catford, home to The Giant Cat! Does that make him a mewsician? That means that our poptastic fave, Michelle O Faith, is, also!

Nowadays the recognisable antenna of The Peace Dome at the Zone Of Time ensure rapid assimilation for visiting humanoids, guided to the emergence pad that is better known globally as The 02.

The non-flying saucer

Built by aliens at North Greenwich, The 02 saves the fuss of abduction bureacracy: “Observe humans at leisure, entering of their own free will.”

Some great events have happened there, too. Win win. Fun additional public transport (cable car AND river)? Another bonus.

Then, there’s the fairy’s gateway in London’s oldest royal park - Greenwich SE10, the stargate (London Eye, Waterloo SE1) and then there’s Hilly Fields astronomically correct stone circle near Vulcan Road (SE4 where lots of people still wear their hats to cover their ears!).

Vulcans, Klingons and humans dance together at Brockley Max Festival.

So what if some people are from another world?

As long as they live and let live, then they’re our neighbours.

Even the Earthlings.

It’s not surprising that South East London is a regular sci fi location, a stronghold of protest or the birthplace of uniqulture (new year, 2009, literally the lifestyle of unique culture)

New Cross Road’s tragic fire and The Battle Of Lewisham (seeya, nazitwats, off ye feck) are as much a part of this parallel dimension as the alumni of Goldsmiths.

A local motto “You Can’t Kill The Spirit” stays in the NXD (New Cross Deptford) air like a defiant guardian angel. There’s an NXDFFF (New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival) too!

Moon Moon Moon.

Off the New Cross Road, Comet Street is where the Moon Faeries landed to be near Paradise/Pop Of The Tops club (for early Bloc Party, Art Brut etc gigs) in the naughties.

Musical supernature from these (2003-2004) tuesday nights was so cosmic that there were National Film Theatre screenings, Harry Potter stars endorsements, an NME album of the year and much more ensuing from from 2004’s “New Cross Scene”. A Music Tourist Board, for instance..

By 2005, Artful Festival celebrated any excuse to party, City Showcase Rocklands began in 2006 and the outdoor Rocklands Stage at People’s Day Festival began, too.

In May 2007 the punky “24 Hour Concrete Glastonbury” sprawled across anywhere that could open and revel in the SE8 and SE14 postcodes.

In 2008 RAR! club united 14+ music fans with a monthly punk and grime club that started with Pendulum (2008) and ended with Tinie Tempah (2010) while he was No.1 in the charts.

Here is Kae Tempest with a Jazzman John cameo from 2008’s Today Deptford community weekend of independence.

The Moonshot Centre at NXD’s Fordham Park, inspired Rocklands, “where Lover’s Rock meets Rocker’s Love” and is, of course on the Reggae Map Of New Cross which was a keen topic of conversation at Discussion Festival No.9 (April 2021).

How did I come to Platform 7’s digital lounge of Tuesday table hopping? Some years ago popping into a nearby cafe called Moonbow Jakes because it had the word moon in the title. Kismet and Karma reality nibbles.

Completely round the bend (of the River Thames - as seen on Eastenders BBC TVcredits) is a cross breeding wealth of artists, community, performance education, studios, venues and events.

Visually Cuba on Thames with art and working class budgets, the uniqulture quarter- a history of slavery and abolition/future of gentrification -v- communication - weaves gold and grrrr into the wider culture.

While mainstream media hunts for non-typical topical stories, they’re told every day, here. It’s best when London’s Lower East Side develops at it’s own pace in it’s own way. Then freshly inclusive ideas can explode freely without the cliche of clique.

Have you heard of the amazing and hard working DIY phenomenom, Nova Twins? The grime-punked and self stage-styled due are their own, beloved, one band scene.

Superb that their ground shifting 2020 debut album, ‘Who Are The Girls?’ has got an increasing number of people asking exactly that.

Desmond’s and Trotter’s Independent Traders blend it like Peckham and while the north bank of the River Thames has Westminster/Pestmonster, #SELondon has The Ministry Of Sound (home at one time or aother to Featured Artists Coalition, Music Venue Trust) and the Arts hearted South Bank.

We don’t know how this tapestry weaves but just focusing on the borough of Lewisham alone is a Haight Astbury’s worth of fertile Arts and Hearts environment.

A short walk from Deptford Fun City, TheZineUK formed at ArtBeat Amersham Arms monthly gig and music world socials.

The manager, Andy Palmer, is a cool musician in his own right, I saw him do a show at The Hospital Club and was pretty much blown away. Considering that his kind heart has helped so much, I’m truly glad that TheZineUK are back there often as this venue is on the interdependent events trail of the newer wave music industrial (r)Evolution.

It also inspired all the above. More to follow though.

LOW ISLAND 'If You Could Have It All Again'

Album review by Alan Neilson

What is interesting about my feelings towards Low Island, is that for each of their earlier single releases I was asked to review the songs, but never felt enough love for them until now, when I listened to the album in full.

And then it was ‘Hey Man’ the opening song on ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ that opened the door for me; it’s strange how indifference can turn to love by seeing something from a slightly different angle.

I think my initial reticence came from the band’s image and a feeling that this is just another group of young, white men from Oxford, who are not too dissimilar to that other band of white men from Oxford; with their falsettos, angular synths and raw, but tasteful guitars.

There is a whole, wider argument about representation in the music business, which I won’t go into here, but suffice to say my heart dies a little everyday when I keep getting asked to review another all male, all white band. Thankfully Low Island are doing something that is interesting enough that my prejudices have been put to one side.

I can’t think of another album where the first track is so different from the songs that follow. Thankfully that track ‘Hey man’ is of such originality and quality, it drew me into the music of Low Island, and although the songs that come after may not have been enough on their own to make me love their debut album at first, I listened to it through the experience of that opening track. It really is mesmerising, containing as it does a repeating note like Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’ and frantic drums like late period Radiohead.

‘Hey man’ starts out sounding like Aqualung until the jagged drum rolls and single percussive hits crack open the sensitive shell of the song and reveal real gold. But just when you think it is going to start in an Elbow driving rhythmic style, the song ends and the temporary silence is followed by the pumping ‘What Do You Stand For’, which could not be more different, sounding as it does like a club track meeting Art Brut head on, with its markedly different vocal spoken/sung style against a pumping backbeat. Wickedly sharp lyrics and truly danceable beats show immediately the band are not a one trick pony.

‘Don’t Let the Light’ follows and again is like neither of the previous tracks, it has a foot in clubland, but a softer vocal and trance like vibe pulls it into a pop arena. The album‘s lack of a defining genre makes it almost lack a cohesiveness, but at the same time keeps the listener’s attention, even if it is just based on a feeling of what the hell are they gonna do next… and that next thing is a reprise of the previous track in ballad form; a prize for anyone who guessed that.

‘In Your Arms’ follows and features a stunning chord progression against another trance like groove, but this time with stunning ethereal backing vocals, complimenting the lead voice. The danceable rhythms and spiky synths continue through the next tracks, but there is a real humanity to the songs. The performances and production is practically perfect so you would be forgiven for believing this is all the work of robots, auto-tune and computer chips, but there is a beautiful soul to this music that reminds me of the stunning Broken Bells’ second album. Humans and machines can work together and Low Island balance the organic with the electronic exquisitely.

The album reminds me of when clubs had separate rooms for different music genres (do they still do that?). Each song has a different vibe to it and even on ‘Momentary’, which feels like the chill out room as the tempo drops and the voice softens, but then you hear drums coming through the wall, calling you back into the club. And then you are back in the dark sticky room, ‘Spaces Closing In’ eases you back in with its mid-paced tempo and rockier sound.

The final track ‘What the Hell (Are You Gonna Do Now?)’ again is in a different room, more withdrawn and indie and the spoken section at the end could almost be a conversation in the toilet before you walk home alone at the end of night, even down to the way the sentence is cut off before it finishes. The song does kind of close the album in an understated way rather than a blast of energy, but that is part of the album’s charm, providing unexpected turns and endings, jumping between genres, one moment gentle, the next forceful and brash.

Of course genre hopping is a double edged sword, particularly within the same album. I happen to love a contrast of styles by the same artist, but there are others who like a certain sound and want a band to be something tangible and remain constant, at least for eleven songs.

I understand Low Island are self-releasing ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ and that kind of tells a story of how a record label could not pigeonhole the band for the marketplace (or of course the band refused to be pigeonholed). But I do wonder if Low Island know who their target audience is: indie kids, club heads, or an older audience who recognise the artistry and references in the songs? This album could appeal to that whole cross section, but equally could end up alienating them all as well. I mean, what is Low Island?

The band asks the question in a roundabout way in their song, ‘What Do You Stand For’ and as John Mellencamp said, in the music industry as in life, “You’ve got to stand for something, or you’ll fall for anything.” In some ways Low Island are standing for something simply by being themselves, with all their contradictions, mistakes and conflicts, but still there is a slight loss in clarity in the signals they give out… in today’s music industry the package is more important than the contents, especially without a major label’s marketing budget. I only hope Low Island will reach glorious heights.

Released April 2021, the album is available now via the band’s own Emotional Interference imprint, through their official outlet:

1.Hey man
2. What Do You Stand For
3. Don't Let The Light In
4. Don't Let The Light In (Reprise)
5. In Your Arms
6. Who's Having The Greatest Time?
7. Feel Young Again
8. I Do It For You
9. Momentary
10. Spaces Closing In
11. What The Hell (are you gonna do now?)