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Nov 01 2016 by Jamie Brannon

Feeder – O2 Birmingham Institute

Posted in Music

With bands struggling to last much beyond a third album today, it’s refreshing to see a seasoned band such as Feeder still packing out venues and connecting with an audience that have generally aged with them.

Having taken a four-year hiatus following the fairly mediocre reaction to eighth studio album ‘Generation Freakshow’, Grant Nicholas and fellow long-standing member, Taka Hirose, strutted on stage to a rapturous welcome, allaying any fears that any ‘Feeder-fatigue had developed. Beginning with a new track – ‘Another Day on Earth’ – the song felt as unimaginative as its title. The majority of tunes played off their latest LP ‘All Bright Electric’ were a little vague lyrically and felt as if they were Feeder-by-numbers.

The show shifted up a gear when they played the gloriously poppy ‘Pushing the Senses’, inciting the sort of physical explosion in the crowd that Feeder gigs were often notorious for. The irritatingly catchy ‘Lost and Found’ was tossed out as a reminder of how Feeder have often marred albums with novelty rock songs.

Conversely, when they get it right, Feeder possess a collection of euphoric rock songs full of great depth and soaring melodies. 1997 single ‘High’ is a Feeder benchmark, and tonight was no different. The song resonating even more after Nicholas – somewhat uncharacteristically – introduced the song with an articulate polemic about the destruction of the music industry and how it was an easier and more successful time to be in a band back in the 1990s. A simple but effective point as the fragmentation of music in the last decade has seen music diminish as a highly-valued art form.

The middle of the set felt a tad plodding and featured the gentile ‘Tender’ and newbie ‘Paperweight’, a pair of songs that witnessed the audience’s focus drift. However, football-style chanting of “Feedeeer” sparked a smiles from the band and gave credence to the hardcore element of fans who have followed the band since the days of the tragically departed former drummer Jon Lee, who committed suicide over 14 years ago. The interaction between band and audience was excellent throughout.

‘Come Back Around’ increased the tempo and made a welcome return to the setlist, having been omitted from their last tour. It was start of a top-heavy hit-laden final chapter of the set – albeit blighted by excessive feedback that spoilt the turbo-charged ‘Insomnia’ and new song ‘Infrared-Ultraviolet’. Not that the crowd seemed to mind, as signature tune ‘Buck Rogers’ brought the house down before a double-whammy of ‘Seven Days in the Sun’ and ‘Just a Day’ saw Feeder climax on a high. At their best, Feeder can be joyous, but their flaws were a little too evident to suggest this was a classic.

Sep 29 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Anxieteam

Posted in Arts, Music

Take one part UK doodler and one part German art anarchist, give them a keyboard and a ukulele and sit back in wonderment at the music of Anxieteam.

This was the second time we were meeting up with Nottingham-based illustrator Jon Burgerman but the first time under the pretext of discussing his new venture, a band with pARTner in crime Jim Avignon, an artist and musician that believes in free art for everyone; we knew it would be entertaining.

We had an insight into Jon’s work last year when he designed our cover artwork with what is still the most popular cover to date and it was a pleasure to find out about his musical talents and to get to know Jim, a German-born New Yorker who has form in both the art world and the music industry.

Jim’s unorthodox approach to the art market has seen him giveaway 800 pieces of his art in a lottery at a museum that was covered in his paintings. He even gatecrashed Germany’s Documenta exhibition and spent three weeks outside the building painting three metre canvasses before jumping through them, getting motorcycles to drive through them and otherwise destroying the art. It was, as Jim puts it, ‘focussing on how the art market and the art world are connected, how the price of artwork creates the importance of the work.’ His aim was to create the art, let people take photos for posterity and then take away the value of the piece by its destruction.

It was art that brought Jim and Jon together in a Brooklyn exhibition that Jon was originally scheduled to do as a solo project. However, after emailing Jim they agreed to do the exhibition together despite having never actually met previously. “It could have gone terribly badly. We decided that it wouldn’t be a joint exhibition where one wall would be Jim’s work and the other wall would be my work, that we would paint on each others paintings; a proper collaboration. It was a really fun week, we worked really hard but it was a pleasure to do so, who wouldn’t love to do that for a week? Paint and draw and talk about things and listen to music, it was a real fun time.”

While Jon admits he hasn’t gone to ‘some of the extreme lengths that Jim has done’ when it comes to art anarchy, he does like to keep his work accessible – something our cover artwork is testament to. Jim is of a like mind and explained, “In my opinion art should be made for everybody; everybody should be able to afford it.” This was no more so in evidence than in 2009 where Jim drew portraits of people at a Hamburg exhibition from his home in Brooklyn via Skype. “I could see people sitting in a booth. I did a drawing, a three minute portrait, and scanned it and sent it and they printed it out and took it home for free.”

Art collaborations developed into music collaborations when Jim pitched the idea of forming a band to Jon who, after some deliberation, recorded the vocals in Nottingham, sent them to Jim in Brooklyn who put a song together and played it at a New York gallery’s closing event. Jon tells us, “people seemed to like it and it went down quite well, so the next time I went to New York, I met up with Jim again and we just started doing stuff.”

Although Jon insisted explaining their sound was a difficult question, he immediately gave us a pretty comprehensive description. “It’s sort of low-fi electronic noises with erm, a smattering of ukulele, but we’re very crafted, simple with catchy melodies underpinning it all. We try and keep things simple but very melodic and colourful in its music. I think we listen to lots of different genres of music and rather than taking something sonically from those as inspiration. I would say we get inspired by bands that leave you in a good feeling or that have a nice sort of quality to them rather than like ooh, try and make it sound like this or that. I mean, I’m not a super proficient, technical musician at all so I don’t analyse music in a way that I try and replicate a certain technical element of it. I’d rather have a song that is memorable and you hum it to yourself or you enjoy listening to it, and it gives you a pleasant kind of experience for the short while you’re listening.”

With songs about eating Soya and being a cat, combined with unusual musical arrangements, we asked if there were similarities between Jon’s art and the music. Was the music an ‘audio doodle’? “Yea, definitely, stylistically, it’s like a sonic representation of the way that I would work in a drawn manner, but it’s a little different whereas I might do a drawing and it might take a minute, songs just by their nature, composing something and having a structure, it’d be misleading to call it a doodle. It’s not like something’s just plonked out and there it is, it might have a light feel to it but it’s actually very meticulously planned and honed and polished and you know, made to work, which you don’t necessarily have to do with an illustration, you can do a drawing quite quickly and it might magically just work. We definitely want the music to have a nice effortless quality, we don’t want it to sound laboured, but actually behind the scenes they’re very much honed.”

We knew the time was coming when we’d have to ask the inevitable questions of choosing between music and art. “I get asked that a lot”, Jim explained. “The art is the one thing I’m kind of guaranteed to make a living from, but the music is the one that has my soul inside so er, sometimes people ask me if I’d prefer to be blind or deaf…” Jon interrupts by suggesting being poked in one eye and blocking up an ear as some kind of compromise which helped lighten the severity of Jim’s revelation.

“Personally I would lose more if I couldn’t do the music,” he went on to clarify. “Doing the art is more like doing some kind of work, doing the big works is more like, I have to work now. So it’s like, get up early, do the work. But with music it never feels like work, I always enjoy it. It’s like you’re looking for something, you don’t know what it is and it’s that moment you find it. It could be a tune, some weird arrangement idea, I really enjoy that process of finding it.”

Jon’s response was less surprising given what we know about him, “I love listening to music but playing it live and creating new songs with someone is fairly new to me.” Given just how unfamiliar it was to be a musician and lead singer in a signed band, we asked just how scary it is to play live to people. “It is scary, I’m not a performer, I’m not a singer or a dancer or anything so to do that is very scary, but that’s exciting. It’s nice actually to do both, to have a period of time doing music and enjoy that and get excited about that and then you forget about some of the work of painting, you forget about some of that hard drudgery, and so when you go back to it it’s fun again for a bit. So it’s been good this year doing a little bit of each.

“I like the real time aspect of it, I’ve done a lot of live painting and I guess it’s a similar kind of thing where you’re creating something in front of people and that’s exciting because every time it’s a bit different and their reactions will influence how it goes, and that’s nice to have that feedback, to see people’s reaction to your work immediately, you don’t get that so much when you have a painting on the wall… unless you stay in the gallery all day watching people’s faces…”

“I think if you sing and stand on stage you learn something new about yourself,” added Jim. “I think that’s also a reason why a lot of artists started in music as well. It’s a different way of expressing what’s going on with you or what you want to say.”

Before we let the guys get ready for their gig we asked them to tell us the story behind the band’s name. “We did an exhibition together in Brooklyn, and for that Jon suggested the name Anxiety Room because Jon is a very anxious person. He sees dangers everywhere, and he thought from knowing my art I would be the same, but it turns out I am blind to any possible dangers (both laugh) so we did that exhibition about anxieties and it turned out to be not a very scary exhibition, it rather turned into a funny thing. When we came up with the idea to have a band we thought we’d stay with that theme and we played around with words and we liked the combination of anxiety and team like to present us as Jon’s the Mr Anxiety and I’m the Mr Team, or like staying together and fighting anxieties. I don’t know. It sounded good. We liked it. We took it.”

www.anxieteam.com www.hellothor.com www.jonburgerman.com www.jimavignon.com

This article was first published in our partner magazine in November 2010.

Aug 09 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Win Tickets to Festival No.6

Posted in Arts, Music, News

Festival No.6 – Portmeirion’s award winning music, arts and culture festival.

A festival unlike any other, in a place like no other, Festival No.6 is an intimate, bespoke banquet of music, arts and culture, taking place over the weekend of the 1-4 September in the magical village of Portmeirion, Wales, home of the cult TV series The Prisoner.

The carefully curated and eclectic line-up includes Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Hot Chip, Bastille, C Duncan, Django Django, Echo & The Bunnymen, Frances, JP Cooper, Lucy Rose, Oh Wonder, Super Furry Animals, Temples, Broken Social Scene and DJ sets from Andrew Weatherall, Ben UFO, The 2 Bears and Maribou State as well as an arts and culture programme that includes Irvine Welsh, Shaun Ryder, John Cooper Clarke and Catrin Finch plus many more.

Acts will perform across the entire site, by the whimsical Italianate architecture of the village, the historic town hall, piazza, Bristol Colonnade, the picturesque Estuary stage, the atmospheric woods and the promenade along the River Dwyryd.

Constructed between 1925 and 1975 by maverick architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, Portmeirion is a wonderfully bizarre and elaborate interpretation of a Mediterranean villa, nestled in the stunning mountains and forests of North Wales overlooking the expansive estuarial waters of the Irish Sea.

For more information and tickets, visit www.festivalnumber6.com

Win Tickets for you and a friend

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like or comment on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/artmuso before August 14th at midday.

COMPETITION T&C’S

T&C’s: Prize includes one pair (two tickets) of adult weekend tickets. Each ticket admits one person. One person in the group must be aged over 18 (NB children under the age of 10 years do not require a ticket). Travel is not included. The prize is non-refundable and no cash alternative will be offered. The prize is non transferable and ID will be required at time of collecting the ticket wristband upon arrival. The prize includes all events and activities at Festival No.6 (subject to availability) but not food and drink from any stalls or bar. Winner chosen at random.

Aug 02 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Craft Beer Revolution

Posted in Food

We caught up with a select group of brewers and pubs who rose to the challenge of answering some beer-related questions to give you an insight into the craft beer movement, tips for home-brewers, and what food you should be co-ordinating with your drinking session. The Kernel Brewery, Redemption and CRATE are all based in London, while Sixpoint and Pacific Standard call Brooklyn home.

What do you think is behind the recent rise of microbreweries and is it here to stay or just a trend?
KERNEL: It is here to stay. And will grow.

SIXPOINT: People have simply realized that there’s more to beer than “fizzy yellow water”, and they’ve been active (and inspired) participants in the craft beer movement. The craft beer world will continue to evolve as it always has; tastes will continue to change, new formulations will be embraced, and the finest liquids will prevail.

REDEMPTION: I think a lot of it is about localism and consumers wanting independent products where they feel more of a connection with the producers. I think there has also been a willingness for beer drinkers to be more adventurous and the quality of beer being produced by microbreweries has improved immeasurably over the past decade. Breweries like Thornbridge, Darkstar and Brewdog have also been instrumental in leading the way and exposing people to great beer with good modern branding helping to attract people who otherwise may not have thought about drinking beers produced by microbreweries.

PACIFIC: Craft beer is definitely not a trend. It’s an example of a larger movement towards better and more socially responsible food and drink. Local, sustainable, and small-scale agriculture, including beer, is something that people are going to be continually interested in because it simply tastes better and has the added benefit of helping the environment as well as environmentally conscious producers.

CRATE: The catalyst for the rise of microbreweries can be attributed to people rediscovering that beer can be hearty and flavourful, and that it comes in so many differing varieties. The variety of beers offered by microbreweries offsets the stock standard bulk brewing of the larger breweries. Now that people have sampled craft beer, I believe a lot of them would struggle to return to the larger, blander, labels.

What’s the key to brewing a good beer and what tips can you give to keen home brewers?
SIXPOINT: The first step is to learn to understand what you like to drink, develop your palate and be adventurous. For home brewers, time on task (our founder had compiled 1000+ homebrew recipes before starting Sixpoint) and attention to every part of the process – and of course the outcome – is absolutely crucial. It is, after all, Mad Science.

REDEMPTION: Cleaning and attention to detail. If you get the basics right you can produce good beer. The science will get you a long way to a drinkable pint but the art of brewing will be developed through experience and have a good palate so you can refine your beers and really bring out the flavours and aromas you are after. Tips to home brewers – clean well have patience.

CRATE: For us, the key to brewing good beer is a combination of using nothing but the best ingredients, and putting a lot of love, care, and passion into it. For the home brewing crowd, I think the best tip is to do what they want to do, and experiment.

KERNEL: I can’t say that I’ve identified any constants across the good beers that I have drunk, apart from the obvious ones of attention to detail, and carrying the right attitude towards what you do.

How do you decide what to call your beers?
REDEMPTION: Depends on the style of beer and our mood whilst brewing them! KERNEL: They are named after their style. And the hops involved, if appropriate; nothing more.

SIXPOINT: We find ideas along many parts of the formulation process; everything from the flavor to the appearance to the moment the idea was conceived. We’ve named beers while on clandestine photo shoots, in deep caverns of ancient breweries, and even during video game battles. Inspiration strikes at unlikely times!

CRATE: The style across our business is to not over complicate things. This can be seen in our hand built bar, on our labels, and in the names of our beers. We like to keep things simple and obvious, while also creative.

What’s the best food to accompany a beer session?
PACIFIC: In my opinion, there’s nothing better than savory Indian food to offset the bitterness of a hoppy beer. But if you want something for a snack at our bar, I’d recommend either our handmade San Luis Obispo beef jerky, which puts East Coast “liquid smoke” jerkies to shame, or our San Francisco “It’s-It” ice cream sandwiches, which go very well with darker beers.

SIXPOINT: Unless you eat the same meal every day, your beer / food pairing should probably be a constant conversation. That said, a good curry with an IPA has always struck our fancy.

REDEMPTION: The obvious one is an IPA with a curry, but I’m a big fan of fish and chips and a good ‘sessionable’ pale ale.

CRATE: CRATE is not only a brewery, we’re also a pizzeria. Pizza is a perfect complement to beer. A sage and truffle pizza is the perfect companion to our IPA.

Brewery Profiles

Crate

CRATE Brewery came into being when Tom and Jess, local restaurateurs with the Counter Café, combined forces with Neil, a specialist brewer, and was opened in July, 2012, just before the Olympics kicked off. In keeping with the artistic and creative ethos of Hackney Wick, the largest community of independent artists and art studios in Europe, CRATE Brewery’s converted industrial interior is one of a kind and has been crafted by local designers who reused reclaimed materials from around the Wick. To accompany its range of drinks, CRATE serves up seven different delicious types of stone baked pizzas, including Sage & Truffle Potato, Middle Eastern Lamb, Sweet Potato, Gorgonzola & Walnut and Lemon Chicken Tajine They are online at www.cratebrewery.com or Twitter @cratebrewery

Sixpoint

Sixpoint was established in 2004 when the Brew Crew resurrected the Sixpoint Brewers’ Star, as they set up a patchwork of brewing equipment in an 800 square foot garage in a then-dilapidated neighborhood of Brooklyn, NYC called Red Hook. It’s a grassroots upstart brewery founded by a dedicated home brewer. Sixpoint secured a distribution deal throughout Wetherspoons pubs in the UK this year and have three canned varieties available, The Crisp, Sweet Action, and Bengali Tigerand all three pack quite a punch. Find out more at www.sixpoint.com or on Twitter @sixpoint and they also have a beer finder app that you can download from www. sixpoint.com/app

The Kernel

Set up in 2009 The Kernel Brewery in London was established with, according to Evin O’Riordain; ‘hard work, lots of love, and belief that it was worth doing – with lots of help from friends.’ They say their beer ‘forces you to confront and consider what you are drinking’ and you can try it for yourself from the brewery in London every Saturday between 9am and 2pm or they’ll be at the Independent Manchester Beer Convention www. indymanbeercon.co.uk in October 2014. Look the brewery up at www.thekernelbrewery.com

Redemption

Redemption was started in September 2009 and the first brew was ready in January 2010. The brewery was started by Director Andy Moffat at a time when there were very few breweries still left in London. Andy wanted a brewery in North London as there had not been any brewing in North London since Pitfield had moved out many years previous. With a ‘green’ approach to business, their water comes from the local reservoirs in North London’s Lea Valley, an area of natural beauty and tranquillity, and the brewery’s spent grain and hops are donated to local allotments to be used as compost and horse feed You can find the award winning beers in dozens of pubs across London and the South East or buy online at www.redemptionbrewing.co.uk Twitter: @redemptionbrew

Pacific Standard

Opening for business on 5th September 2007, Pacific Standard was a ‘West Coast transplant’ to New York. The owners, Jon Stan and John Rauschenberg, wanted to replicate the feel of a Northern California bar in New York City, complete with West Coast microbrews, West Coast sports, a library, and other touches to make it feel like a laid-back graduate student bar. It was something that, at that time, they say was sorely lacking in the New York City bar scene. Located on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn the microbrew pub opens until 4am every night with a range of events and even a frequent drinker program! Have a look at www.pacificstandardbrooklyn.com or follow on Twitter @pacificstandard

This article was originally printed in August 2014 and all information was correct at the time of printing.

Jul 09 2016 by artmusoadmin

Brewhouse & Kitchen Wilmslow Review

Posted in Entertainment

The craft beer revolution is here to stay – thanks in part to Brewhouse & Kitchen’s 14-strong franchise of quirky microbrewery gastropubs.

They opened their latest (and northernmost) venue in Wilmslow, Cheshire – home of the Manchester footballer – in July 2016, offering residents of the affluent town something a bit different.

For fans of the Wetherspoons that had occupied the site for a number of years before its makeover, they’ll be disappointed in the loss of cheap beer and even cheaper food, but for everyone else – this is a massively welcome addition to the Wilmslow hospitality industry.

Offering brewing experience days and beer masterclasses, Brewhouse & Kitchen have done well to tap in (excuse the pun) to the trend for craft ales – the beer Zeitgeist if you will.

There are no fruit machines, no sticky carpets, and no £5.99 meal and pint deals – barely a memory of what went before.

Instead the quirky interior design (there are doors on the ceiling) is reminiscent of some independent Brooklyn pubs – you could almost be in Williamsburg (Wilmslowburg? Anyone?) It’s no real surprise when you discover that MDs Simon Bunn and Kris Gumbrell were inspired to set up Brewhouse & Kitchen 3 years ago on the back of visits to the USA.

The interior follows the strict B&K code and designed by ABA Architecture brings a comforting familiarity – a blend of industrial and reclaimed.

The microbrewery housed within the pub building is capable of 1-2 brews per week with each brew producing around 360 pints at a time. Bunn and Gumbrell shipped in their master brewer for this venture after falling in love with the venue when it was put up for sale by Wetherspoons.

Located so close to the train station I have a sneaky feeling this is going to be a roaring success, attracting trade from Manchester as well as the nearby towns and villages.

For more information visit http://www.brewhouseandkitchen.com/wilmslow

Jun 30 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Earning an Honest Crust

Posted in Food

“Attention to detail, the quality of the flour, the length of time it takes that dough to ferment as well is really important.”

“Attention to detail, the quality of the flour, the length of time it takes that dough to ferment as well is really important.” According to Richard Caver chef and bread enthusiast, and co-founder of Honest Crust; home of what is quite simply the best pizza in Manchester.

“The angle we’ve come at it is that the dough, the crust has to be spot on before you add anything else. Once you’ve got the crust as you want it then you start adding top quality ingredients from wherever you can get your hands on them.” Honest Crust leave no stone unturned in their quest for the ultimate pizza ingredients.

“We’re looking for the best we can find.” Richard explains. “So the mozzarella comes from a dairy down in Somerset made fresh for us every week while the award-winning charcuterie comes from Trealy Farm in Monmouthshire.” Having sampled the crusty goodness of their pizzas on several occasions, they come with an artmuso recommendation.

Richard’s pizza obsession began around 2010 with a trip to San Francisco where he encountered the kind of quality pizza that just did not exist in Manchester at the time. The unique wood burning oven used to lovingly bake the food in little more than 2 or 3 minutes has been built to a bespoke specification by Stefano Ferrara and imported from Naples.

“They are the best of the best, generations of oven builders, all the bricks and cement comes from a particular region near Naples; volcanic ash and all that.”

Honest Crust are moving into a permanent new home in Altrincham Market after an invite from Nick Johnson who took over the running of the market in 2013 and has already established a very chilled vibe there with independent food producers, crafts and vintage goods backed by live music with an open mic stand.

Open every day except Monday and from 12 noon until 10pm, later on weekends, Honest Crust will serve pizza and panuzzo – wood fired Italian sandwiches, plus plates of antipasti with their characteristic quality ingredients. Apart from a permanent base in Altrincham, their mobile pizza oven means they are available for catering at parties, events and pretty much anywhere in the North West. Make mine a pepperoni!

www.honestcrustpizza.co.uk

This article was first published in artmuso August 2014 and all information was correct at the time of publishing. Honest Crust are now based permanently in the Altrincham Market (Market House) http://www.altrinchammarket.co.uk/ – check for the latest opening times.

May 26 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

A Closer Look in Your Closet

Posted in Social Conscience

If I asked you to describe your closet, what adjectives would you use? Messy? Colourful? Large? What about your fashion habits? Do you save up for expensive purchases like Italian leather bags and hand-stitched dresses, or do you visit fashion chains like Primark and H&M on a regular basis, always on the hunt for a bargain?

If you’re like most Western consumers, your wardrobe is extensive but does not contain many high-quality, expensive products. You have lots of pieces that you wear two or three times before getting rid of them either because they go out of style within just a few weeks or fall apart after you wash them twice. Sound familiar? If so, you’re part of the fast fashion culture that dominates the global apparel industry.

Fast fashion is exactly what it sounds like: a rapid model of garment production and distribution that results in new trends and products being introduced in retail stores as often as fortnightly. This is a significant departure from fifty years ago, when fashion changes coincided with the four seasons, and people saved their money to buy quality products that would last them for years. Most fashion is no longer made to last, and consumers are prepared to make purchases more regularly.

Just as consumption habits have changed significantly, the nature of production has shifted. Most products are no longer made and sold in the same location. Now, fashion brands participate in global production systems in which suppliers in developing countries produce goods that are sold in retail stores in developed countries. Garment workers are paid meagre wages and often can’t afford to buy the clothes they make. They experience other challenges too, such as unsafe working conditions, long hours, wage and gender discrimination, and lack of benefits or employment rights.

Fast fashion practices put extra demands on workers, as tight timelines and cost pressures result in production practices that are detrimental to workers. Thousands of garment workers have lost their lives in factory fires and collapses over the past decade, tragedies which often go unreported by the media. In the fast fashion industry where “you get what you pay for,” it’s the workers who end up paying the ultimate price.

Here’s where you come in. Start to educate yourself on where the clothes in your closet are coming from and who is making them. Sources like Free2Work www.free2work.org/trends/apparel, The Good Shopping Guide www.thegoodshoppingguide.com/ethical-clothing-directory, and Ethical Consumer www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/clothing/clothesshops.aspx provide information on how to determine which fashion companies are “ethical.” Consider making a switch if necessary. Tell your favourite brands that you care about the conditions under which the clothes you wear are made, and that you’re willing to pay a couple extra bucks if they can guarantee workers in their supply chains are being paid fair wages. And maybe reconsider your shopping habits. Sometimes less is more. You, as a consumer, have a voice, and perhaps the meaningful way it can be expressed is through your wallet.

This throwback thursday article written by Anna Rohwer was originally published in Artmuso in August 2014

Mar 14 2016 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Brand new festival at iconic Jodrell Bank

Posted in Arts, Music, News

Jean-Michel Jarre, Underworld, and Caribou are to headline ‘bluedot’ the new festival that promises to blend music, art, and science, with Prof. Brian Cox also appearing as part of Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage.

Jodrell Bank, the iconic observatory in Cheshire, sees the new 3-day event take place from 22-24 July with the backdrop of the giant Lovell radio telescope piercing the countryside.

Jean-Michel is known for incredible live performances as are Underworld, and electronica fans will also want a piece of the influential Caribou.

Other artists featuring on the first wave of the line-up are electro-rock darlings Everything Everything, art-rock archivists Public Service Broadcasting, neo-psychedelic titans Mercury Rev, folk experimentalist Steve Mason, post math-rock instrumentalists 65daysofstatic, genre-transcending indie rockers British Sea Power and Californian space-rock adventurers Moon Duo.

The late-night electronic line-up promises to be equally impressive with the initial bill including Erol Alkan and Richard Norris’ electro-house alter egos Beyond the Wizards Sleeve, Hessle Audio founder Ben UFO and turntable maestro DJ Yoda with many more still to be announced.

Recording an episode at the festival is Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage with Prof. Brian Cox and Robin Ince. Their irreverent and amusing insight into some of science’s biggest questions is guaranteed to entertain and elucidate and will undoubtedly be a highlight of the festival.

Festival goers will experience five distinct arenas featuring space orchestras, talks, screenings, lectures, comedy and debates and a vast spectrum of hands-on activities including the Luminarium, art installations, robot workshops, a planetarium, the Galaxy Garden, pulsar hunting, and graphene making classes.

A nod to Carl Sagan’s pale blue dot, the festival aims to “blow people’s minds with some amazing music and some incredible ideas – from the Big Bang to black holes, AI to climate change, and loads more.” According to Associate Director of Jodrell Bank, Professor Tim O’Brien.

Find out more about bluedot at discoverthebluedot.com

Nov 17 2015 0 Commentby artmusoadmin

Artist Preview for Wateraid’s Sh!t Show

Posted in Arts

If you haven’t already got the date in your diary then mark down 19th November for World Toilet Day: Create your own poop emoji, #BeAThinker on Twitter, and get down to 103 Norfolk Street, New York, between 20-22 November to see some iconic artists supporting Wateraid to raise awareness as part of World Toilet Day 2015.

The Sh!t Show – artist preview

Jon Burgerman

You will probably recognise the distinctive art and doodles of British born talent Jon Burgerman: if not then you are in for a treat. Currently living in NYC, Jon studied Fine Art in the UK before embarking on his career as an artist. With an impressive list of collaborations with brands such as Coca Cola, Sky and Puma (to name a few) his quirky artwork has achieved international success and can be seen in galleries and installations to computer games and interiors.

Jon will be working with WaterAid at the Sh!t Show to build a giant ‘Poop World’, transforming his doodles to create fun free standing sculptures to highlight the importance of good sanitation.

If you would like to know more about Jon please visit his website: www.jonburgerman.com

Geo Law

Sheffield’s own street artist and doodler Geo Law will be working on a 20’ wall completing a live mural throughout the course of the Show.

Born in Huddersfield in the UK, Geo specialises in graphic illustration and bespoke murals. Influenced by pop culture and his love of computer games his graphic style and playful characters pay homage to comic book heroes, Japanese anime and cartoons.

The mural will illustrate the dangers and difficulties of inadequate water and sanitation and highlight the positive change that occurs within those communities where Wateraid has worked.

If you would like to know more about Geo please visit his website.

www.getaloadageo.co.uk

Susanne Walström

With 25 years experience in editorial and advertising, Swedish born Susan Walström has become internationally renown for her beautiful photography. Her genuine interest in people and how they relate to their environment is apparent in her signature style, combining wit and humour with the subtleties and uniqueness of her subjects.

With a keen interest in environmental issues, Susanne will be exhibiting a collection of photographs taken in southern India, addressing the issues faced by women in particular due to a distinct lack of toilets and sanitation.

“More than 600 million people in India lack access to toilets. It is especially difficult for women. Instead of toilets they use the fields before sunrise or after sunset. The fields are riddled with snakes, sharp thorn bushes and wild dogs, and there is the very real risk of assault and rape by men preying on the women in their most vulnerable state. My pictures are taken in Tamil Nadu in southern India.” Susanne Walström

If you would like to know more about Susanne please visit her website: www.walstrom.eu

For a full list of artists and for more information on the show visit our article here.

Nov 14 2015 by Sam Borrett

World Toilet Day 2015

Posted in Social Conscience

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hommes et femmes, caballeros y senoras, damen und herren.

If you’re looking for toilets then we’re here to point you in the right direction.

While some toilet door signs may be confusing – who knows which is which in Ireland (Fir and Mná) or what the WC toilet sign means (it stands for Water Closet) – a shocking 2.4 billion people on the planet do not have access to a proper toilet.

That’s roughly one in every three people.

November 19 marks the third World Toilet Day, established by the UN to raise awareness of the scale of the global problem in sanitation.

Without proper toilets, children can be exposed to human waste causing a number of diseases that prevent them being able to absorb nutrients in their food. This can have deadly consequences for children.

1000 children died each day in 2013 from preventable diseases caused by poor sanitation.

In communities where people go to the toilet in the open, diseases like diarrhoea are easily spread and in turn cause undernutrition.

Making sure people have equitable access to basic toilets, and changing behaviour to ensure these toilets are used, is vital to improving the nutritional health and development of children, and giving every child a fair chance at life.

The new international development targets launched earlier this year (the Sustainable Development Goals), call for universal access to toilets and proper sanitation for all by 2030; a highly ambitious target but one that could have significant benefits.

For example, every $1 spent on water and sanitation returns a saving of $4.3 in reduced health care costs – a good investment for aid donors and recipients alike.

Get Involved in World Toilet Day

UN-Water and UNICEF are leading the campaigns around World Toilet Day 2015 and have a number of ways you can get involved.

If you’re in New York then head over to the UN Building to see the inflatable toilet, and to have your picture taken in a photo booth in the UN lobby as part of the ‘be a thinker’ social media campaign, or make your way to Washington Square Park to experience the See Through Loo – a transparent toilet!

You can take part in #BeAThinker campaign by considering how people feel when they don’t have access to a toilet and have to go in the open, and the implications of this for children and women especially.

Simply pose as a ‘thinker’, take a selfie, and post on social with your thought and the hashtag #BeAThinker

Be A Thinker

For more information on World Toilet Day visit http://www.worldtoiletday.info/

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