Back to the '90s

Travelled up to Amsterdam for the latest instalment of London Calling. The Paradiso's showcase of new British indie talent has been held at least once every year since 1992, with alumni including Blur, Travis, Bob Sinclair, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs.
Me and Victor S were chiefly interested in seeing Jamie T, but, thanks to some last minute re-scheduling on the part of the organizers, instead of playing at 23.40 in the small hall, he was on in the main hall at 20.00. Upon discovering this fact when we strolled into the venue at 20.29, we raced into the main room just in time to see T's Goonies t-shirt and hear him saying thank you and goodnight (!)
Heading upstairs for the Pigeon Detectives, the small hall was so rammed we had to make do with standing by the door, unable to see the band properly. The songs were catchy enough, but the group were too much the Arctic Monkeys wannabees for my liking.
Back in the main hall, all the detail and subtlety of the Guillemots was lost thanks to an appallingly muddy sound. Pretty soon they were losing the audience too. A shame.
During the Maccabees' set, I leaned over and said to Victor S, "It's like London cold calling". He concurred, berating the group for being copyists of copyists (e.g. the singer's 'Ian Curtis dance', cribbed from The Rakes). The Maccabees had no stage presence and no songs to remember: the room was packed. Go figure.
Back in the main hall, Bromheads Jacket restored a little of our faith in proceedings. A charismatic frontman and good tunes, albeit coming from a seam that plenty of indie groups have already succesfully mined over the last couple of years.
I knew nothing about the band The 1990s (not even their name when they started playing). Nor did many other people, judging by the moderate crowd in the small hall. By the time they finished their set, I (and many others) wanted to know a whole lot more. This three-piece from Glasgow (guitar, bass, drums and harmonies) were simply excellent. It turns out that two of the band were in The Yummy Fur with Alex from Franz Ferdinand. There was a touch of FF's angular funk in the '90s sound, but names that sprang to mind more readily included The Modern Lovers, BMX Bandits, Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Forrest ("See you at the lights" is strangely reminiscent of the verses of "Rock the boat").
The Automatic come from Cowbridge, just five miles from my home town. To give you an idea of what kind of place it is, consider this fact: The Daily Mail voted Cowbridge the second most fashionable place in the UK for the over-50s to spend a Saturday afternoon (Bath was no. 1). The Automatic thankfully sound nothing like Daniel O'Donnell. In fact, they are an excellent, hard rocking live act (better than on record). A fierce mosh pit and loads of stage diving and crowd surfing were testament to the band's appeal. A wicked cover of Kanye West's "Gold Digger" (complete with funky flute) showed that there is plenty more to come from these four lads.
Back up in the small hall, Mumm-Ra took to the stage with cockiness aplenty. When your lead singer looks like Gareth Southgate's love child, you need a lot of front. This six-piece from Bexhill-on-Sea has plenty of great tunes too, many in the vein of Ash or Feeder. If "Out of the question" isn't a huge hit on its re-release (it got to number 45 last month), something is seriously wrong in the world.

Kaliningrad: skies and limits

Big sky, Kaliningrad
Originally uploaded by MonkeyGone2.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to visit the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad last week. The collapse of the USSR was particularly troublesome for the province, which, found itself cut off from 'big Russia' in 1992. Sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, Kaliningrad, which had been a heavily militarized region that was closed to foreigners during the Soviet era, suffered extreme economic hardship as many businesses went to the wall. Serious outbreaks of HIV/AIDS and TB and the sense that Kaliningrad had been forgotten added to the gloom.
Today, Russia's 'extreme west' remains something of an enigma, an anachronism and (for the EU) a problem, but it is also beginning to be a place of opportunity. Kaliningrad's status as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) with more favourable tax and investment rules than other parts of Russia, has led to many manufacturing businesses shifting production there. The BBC's Laura Sheeter provides some details here.
Kaliningrad airport may be more reminiscent of those serving small communities in Finland and Sweden than a major international hub (I arrived by Fokker twin-prop from Copenhagen), but a trip to Victory Square in the centre of the capital indicates the revival of the province's fortunes. As well as the cranes on the skyline (see photo), a new shopping centre has sprung up and a new cathedral - Christ the Saviour - was completed in September.
Aside from Victory Square, Kaliningrad's other major tourist attraction is the Koenigsberger Dom, a 14th century cathedral that houses the tomb of Immanuel Kant. The celebrated philosopher spent almost his entire life in the East Prussian city of Koenigsberg. When the Red Army rolled into the ruins of this easternmost German outpost in 1945, it set about expelling the population. Over the next 40-odd years, many physical reminders of Kaliningrad's German heritage were also removed. Thankfully many still remain (the architecture is a curious mix of modern international, Soviet and Prussian).
One of the oldest buildings in the city, a former German fort, is now a restaurant. Both food (fish, red caviar and eel) and vodka were very good. According to my host, Kaliningrad is one of three regions in Russia where the vodka is particularly notable (the others being Baikal/Irkutsk and Vladivostock). He was somewhat disparaging of the vodka in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Driving two hours east to the town of Neman I was surprised at how good the road was. Having found the roads of western Poland very hard going during a visit four years ago, I was expecting those in Kaliningrad to be as bad, if not worse. In fact, once you get past the checkpoint set up to prevent Chechen terror attacks on the city of Kaliningrad, the road surface of the main highway is fine (on a par with eastern Germany). The road even turns into a dual carriageway in places.
The roads in Neman were a little more rough and ready, but the town of 12,000 people, which had an unemployment rate of 97% in the late 1990s, is back on its feet now, with a recently built hotel and bank, and a multimillion dollar investment program at Neman Pulp and Paper Mill, the town's main employer. The mill was brought out of bankruptcy at the turn of the decade by a company from St. Petersburg.
Neman backs on to the River Neman, the border with Lithuania. While walking close to the river an alarm sounded. "That means that someone has crossed the border illegally", my guide and interpreter explained. Although smuggling still goes on, the smugglers face a much tougher task since the river became the frontier with the EU, as Laura Sheeter notes.
Crossing the border is also a problem for legitimate trade and travel, however. One local businessman explained to me that it once took him two hours to get into Lithuania via the road bridge at Sovetsk (10 km from Neman). Crossing the land border between Russia and Finland takes 15 minutes. Shipments of goods can be held up at customs for one to two days. A transit tax applicable to some shipments passing through Lithuania can also offset the benefits of producing in the SEZ. This additional tax burden is one reason why the dream of turning Kaliningrad into 'the Hong Kong of Europe' will not be easy to realize. But for the Kaliningraders with new jobs, cars, shops and restaurants to appreciate, life is already a whole lot better now than it was in the 90s.

For a selection of photos from Kaliningrad Oblast, click here.

Reasons to be Grizzly

Caught most of a great set by Brooklyn's Grizzly Bear at the Ancienne Belgique's upstairs ABClub last weekend. The quartet of highly accomplished musicians (two guitars, bass, drums, electronics, flutes, effects pedals and other 'colouring', combined with delicious multi-part harmonies) produce a warm, meandering yet highly melodic combination of Americana and electronica, backed by a '60s psychedelic lightshow (rotating purple oblongs and so forth). A glib one-line description of the fabulous track 'Knife' would be something like "Radiohead playing the Everly Brothers", while 'Colorado' put me in mind of the little-known but sublime late '80s landscape rock of Hugo Largo. Signed to Sheffield's Warp records (a label still mainly known for its techno and electronic roster), Grizzly Bear can cut it on disk too, as the new album, Yellow House, testifies.
In an unfortunate postscript, the band had to cancel the rest of their European tour because much of their equipment was stolen from their van after the show. Some thieves have no taste. Let's hope the Grizzlies are back on the road again soon.

A former Soviet Akcent

A new art gallery recently opened across the road from my office here in Brussels. Called the Akcent Gallery, it specializes in "Modern and contemporary art from former Soviet countries". I popped in there for the first time today to see a very interesting small exhibition called 'Accents of Socialist Realism' (my favourite canvas: a 1975 work called 'Woman crane driver'). The gallery, on Chaussee de Vleurgat, is run by a friendly Ukrainian expat called Anzhela Prazdnichnykh. Anzhela explained to me that the next exhibition will be of paintings from Georgia. Here's looking forward to it.

Accents of Socialist Realism is at the Akcent Gallery, Brussels until November 23rd.

Because Coke Light's for girls

News from Canada: Three cigarette manufacturers are to stop describing their products as 'light' or 'mild' by July 31, 2007. Maybe they'll follow Coca-Cola's lead and Ottawan smokers will be asking for 20 Benson Zero come August. Or maybe not.

Here's Grace (and 1,223 other Joneses)!

Great to see Grace Jones back on stage (and, as a Welshman, even greater that it was in Cardiff). Maybe that long-awaited new album will finally come to fruition now? Here's hoping.

Three films: Red, White and Blue

With some time off work, I've had the chance to check out a few films this week.
'Kidulthood' by Menhaj Huda was shown as part of the Image a Nation film festival, organized by the British Council here in Brussels - what is it with us Brits and pisspoor puns?) After some Kafkaesque problems in obtaining tickets and the surprise revelation that the director would be introducing the movie (great work, publicity people!), we settled down to enjoy the film. Well, enjoy probably isn't the right word for this tale of teenagers in an inner London state school (seems to be set in the Ladbroke Grove/Notting Hill area). There's bullying, suicide, underage sex, drug use and abuse, casual violence, prostitution and a party, all in little more than 24 hours.
Essentially, it's a modern take on the rites of passage movie (a kind of Kids UK, to get all Larry Clark for a moment) with a cool Grime soundtrack (The Streets, Dizzee Rascal, etc - the bit where 'Jus' a rascal' kicks in is particularly cool).
The performances are strong (including Noel Clarke - as Sam - who also wrote the screenplay) and the situations ring true, even if the story follows quite a formulaic path. The Imdb ranking is only 4.6 out of 10, but I would give Kidulthood at least a 7.
What more needs to be said about 'An Inconvenient Truth'? If you are not changing your behaviour now, you are a fool. The material is explosive enough to make even the biggest cynic take note, but hats off to director Davis Guggenheim for keeping the scent of musty lecture halls far from mind.
Having missed 'The Constant Gardener' in the cinema and not having bought into the 'City of God'-is-the-greatest-film-ever hype, I was in an 'impress me' frame of mind when I slotted the DVD into the player. Two hours later I was throughly impressed. So much so that I watched the film again the following day. A gripping story, brilliantly filmed and acted.

Still strange after all these years

"Planes circling, ready to strike. A thousand yards and we'll be over the first — eight hundred yards... six hundred... four hundred... two hundred... There they go! The giant arm raised..."
After stepping into a Brussels taxi at around 1 a.m. the other night, it took me a couple of minutes to realise what I was hearing: Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air's 1938 radio version of H.G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds'.
This broadcast is legendary for the panic engendered by its realism. Even today, the piece, when it catches you unawares as it did me in that taxi, has a verissimilitude that entrances the ear. The response:'What on earth is going on?' A truly brilliant work of art.