March 13, 2010

Tuesday evening in Salford

A full evening out in Salford on Tuesday:

at The Crescent, 20 The Crescent, Salford, Manchester, M5 4PF.
7pm.
BOOK LAUNCH
new books from: NEIL CAMPBELL, ALEX DAVIES, DERMOT GLENNON, JOHN G. HALL, and STEVEN WALING



*SCS 10 :: Ryu Hankil, T.H.F. Drenching, Ben Gwilliam.*
Tuesday 16th March 8.00pm
Islington Mill, James Street, Salford, M3 5HW
Entry: £5 on the door

A closer glance at the image on the flyer will reveal it to be the dirty & dark Church St Record Shack, a place ( along with the secondhand book stall on that stretch ) frequented and passed by on a daily basis for several decades and a photo taken with a strange subconscious foresight only weeks before the whole thing was torn down to make way for something nice, tidy and more in keeping with Manchester's new tunnel vision.
A fitting image for what will be the last event of this nature by SCS, similarly the loose change that is tossed from time to time into our polystyrene cup has fallen victim to a familiar but no less sad cliche of our age. An age in which, when the money gets tighter, all intuition says spread it evenly but a little thinner. Instead, to everyones bewilderment, what is implemented is more costly strata of brand new management, people with no historical or emotional ties to the culture who's role is purely to say NO on behalf of the other costly layers of management without going red in the face from shame.

Ryu Hankil: was born in 1975 in Seoul, South Korea. He worked for about two years as a professional graphic designer. Hankil was a
keyboard player in two famous Korean indie pop groups in the 90's. Hankil's music now focuses on abandoned 'non-instruments' such as old telephones & typewriters and his live sets are improvised using clockwork motors & objects. He organizes a monthly improvising event in Korea called RELAY which has been going since 2005 and releases music & magazines from his own publishing office MANUAL.

T.H.F. Drenching: mastermind of the insanely prolific and diverse d.i.y. label 'FENLAND HI-BROW', his unique performance technique utilizing Dictaphones was a core element in Derek Baileys band LIMESCALE.

Ben Gwilliam: another analog tape user perhaps a distant & more minimalist cousin of Jerome Noetinger of METAMKINE fame. He's far too young & talented to be labeled as a nostalgist for an age when 'Data Retrieval' meant winding the tape back onto the spool by hand, but that said, he is old enough to appreciate the zen mind block of HISSSSSSS.

Immanence and the Library of Babel

I have not read Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Library of Babel”. I am a very slow reader. I only read with a purpose. It is sufficient...