Concerto For Constantine (live in Whelan's, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Concerto For Constantine rocked out a packed Whelan's. Their live show was brilliant, both musically and visually.

The Cluas Verdict? 8.5 out of 10

Full Review:
Concerto For Constantine consists of JJ72’s Mark Greaney, Idlewild’s Gavin Fox and Binzer of The Frames and Bell X1 fame. JJ72 remain one of my favourite Irish bands of all time and regard ‘I To Sky’ as one of the finest Irish records this decade. Their protracted demise frustrated and disappointed me, but I was full of excitement when I heard about Greaney’s latest project. They have been gigging since November but tonight, Binzer’s birthday, was my first experience of them.

The stage is set. Dressed in a uniform of black overcoats, jeans and boots, Gavin Fox and Mark Greaney take to the stage illuminated by flashing strobe lights. They burst straight into an electrifying set. They play straight-up self-indulgent rock, and it’s brilliant. At times it's almost a return to 90s grunge. On stage, Mark and Gavin have such a connection that one cannot help but think that these two men were born to play together. One song in and I’m thinking, “thank Christ JJ72 broke up”.

Concerto For Constantine played for just over and hour, not once lapsing into songs from their previous acts. Their visceral performance was filled with passion as Mark screamed down the microphone to a backdrop of throbbing basslines and thumping drums. The influence of The Smashing Pumpkins has always been evident throughout Mark Greaney’s career, but no more so than with Concerto For Constantine..

They ended on an instrumental number with Gavin Fox picking up an acoustic guitar. As they played, thousands of scraps of black crepe paper rained down from the ceiling. It was a bizarre and stunning visual experience. Then, they burst into one final rip roaring track. Based on tonight, this band may be one of Dublin’s brightest talents.

 Garret Cleland

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Summer's almost here, when the theoretical possibility of fine weather has bands on the back of lorries in every field, square and football pitch. In the rain. It's the festival season!

Your Paris-based blogger isn't sure if the brand-new Irish recession is going to limit your festival and travel spending power. It might even force you all in Eire to make heart-breaking sacrifices: only five drinking binges per week, no new Celtic jersey, clearing the second mortgage with the fourth credit card. Be strong.

Anyway, if you're thinking of travelling to a festival in Europe as part of your summer holidays, your blogger (like last year) will give you some ideas for outdoor music events in France. They tend to be cheap and sunny, so let's hope that continues for 2008. As soon as substantive line-ups are announced, we'll post about them.

First big event to play its hand is the Main Square Festival. It takes place in Arras, a town in the north of France near Calais, on the weekend of 4-6 July.

The location may not be as sun-kissed and exotic as regions further south, but the festival has attracted some big names. Okay, so the Radiohead show may not really be happening thanks to 'brown energy', but they'll definitely be there, headlining the Sunday night line-up that also features Sigur Ros, The Wombats and French band The Do. And more! If you didn't bother buying tickets for their Malahide show, now you can also not bother buying tickets for their French festival show. Who says globalisation is bad?

The Saturday bill is topped by Mika, born for summer festivals (and Christmas parties), with The Kooks, The Hoosiers, Digitalism and local Libertines-worshippers BB Brunes. And more!

The really impressive night of the show is the dance-flavoured Friday night. In reverse order, it stars the Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Justice, 2 Many DJs and Boys Noize. (Wait for it.) And more!

Tickets are still on sale via this page on the site of French ticket-agent FNAC, who are currently offering a three-day pass for just €95 instead of €135. The Radiohead-night costs €55 and the other two cost just €45. Camping costs an extra €7.50 and can also be booked in advance through FNAC.

So how do we get to Arras? Well, Calais is a well-known port, and the nearest big town is Lille, which is on the Eurostar line as well as the regular networks. You could fly to Paris or Brussels/Charleroi. The French rail system, SNCF, is planning to run a special train service from Lille to Arras for the festival. (As French regional trains are mostly controlled by French regional government, it's quite common to have special subsidised festival train services as support for the arts and culture).

Full details and updates are available in French on the festival's MySpace page - but you can get all your "useful informations" [sic] on the festival's English site.

That Friday night looks like great value. Here's 'DVNO' by Justice:

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Lupe Fiasco (live in Tripod, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: On the tails of his hotly received second album 'The Cool', Chicago's Lupe Fiasco hits Dublin to energetically deliver a repertoire of songs that have seen Jay Z describe him as a "breath of fresh air".

The Cluas Verdict? 6.5 out of 10

Full Review:
“I'll tell you what you should do, Dumb it down” - that's a line belted out by Lupe Fiasco from his song 'Dumb it Down' during his visit to Dublin's Tripod on Saturday night. And he's a man of his word, with a no-fuss stage set up of him, a microphone and a DJ providing backing tracks. Given the extravagant stage shows endorsed by his contemporaries Kanye West and Pharrell Williams – with whom Fiasco founded supergroup Rebel Child Soldier – the stripped down stage presence was disappointing at first sight. Having previously witnessed Kanye West's mixture of groundbreaking content with an extravagant stage show, I had hoped Lupe would attempt something to make his music come across in a more 'live' way, rather than have a DJ rehash his backing tracks. But it worked. Fiasco's interaction with the DJ and acapello rapping gave the crowd the atmosphere of a club gig, whilst giving an insight into the raw environment in which all rappers must learn their trade.

Ronan Lawlor

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A review of the album 'A Cork Wake Tale' by Chris Bathgate

Review Snapshot: The latest offering from Michigan folk artist Chris Bathgate, ‘A Cork Wake Tale’ is a decent and rewarding listen. Similarities to Sufjan Stevens can be seen, but unfortunately his talent is not as great as his contemporary.

The Cluas Verdict? 7 out of 10

Full Review: Chris Bathgate’s talent is certainly not going unnoticed in his homestate of Michigan where he won ‘Best Solo Artist’ by the Detroit Free Press. This album is his first UK release, and he has become the latest folk artist to be put on heavy rotation by BBC Radio 2.

The album opens with ‘Serpentine’. This sublime track turns out to be the highlight of the record. It’s a beautifully simple piano led ballad. Its cyclical melody sucks you in and absorbs you. While ‘Serpentine’ may be the highlight of the album, the rest does not disappoint. It is an eclectic mix of songs for a folk album.

‘Restless’ and ‘Smile Like a Fist’ see our troubadour let out his rockier side, while he is at his downbeat and melancholic best on ‘Madison House’. The use of a reverb-laden outro on ‘Last Parade on Ann St.’ and his use of horns throughout show Bathgate’s diversity. Despite the mix of sounds, this album does not lose focus.

‘A Cork Wake Tale’ is a fine album, well worth a listen. The fact that it never lives up to the brilliance showed on its opening track might detract from the album, but do not let that deter you. It is an absorbing listen that intrigues the ear on first listen, and rewards thereafter.

Garret Cleland

 To buy a new or (very reasonably priced) 2nd hand copy of this album on Amazon just click here.

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Here's a press release from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The organisation's Asia chief Mayseey Leong put off an interview with Cluas scheduled for last week till this landmark court case was announced. The court action, she told me today, is "a last resort" attempt by the organisation to fight Internet portal Baidu, one of China's most successful corporations, which it claims has been getting fat off stolen music.

"A Chinese court has agreed to hear damages claims totalling US$9 million against the country’s dominant internet company Baidu from three record companies. The claim is the tip of the iceberg in a copyright infringement test-case that could expose the Chinese internet giant to a multi-billion dollar liability.

Baidu’s music delivery services, which are quite separate from its general search engine, “deep link” users directly to hundreds of thousands of copyright infringing music tracks. They generate substantial advertising revenue for Baidu while causing massive damage to the music industry. In April 2007 a precedent-setting ruling found Yahoo China guilty of facilitating mass copyright infringement for operating a music delivery service very similar to Baidu’s. That ruling was confirmed in December 2007 by the Beijing Higher People’s Court, the final appeals court.

The record companies’ infringement claims against Baidu are based on 127 of their own music tracks, which are just a small representative sample of the wider infringement. They seek the maximum statutory compensation under Chinese law of RMB 500,000 (US$71,000) per track. This creates total claims of RMB 63,500,000 (US$9m) but the ultimate exposure could be much greater. Baidu participates in the infringement of more than a quarter of a million tracks, which could leave the internet company faced with multi-billion dollar damages claims when further action is taken to secure maximum statutory damages on all these tracks.

China’s internet companies have so far spurned the chance to partner with the recording industry and instead are facilitating mass-scale piracy on their networks. China has great potential as a legitimate digital music market, with more broadband connections than the US and a huge music-buying demographic. However, over 99 per cent of all music online in China infringes copyright, frustrating efforts to develop a legitimate music market.

The bulk of this online music piracy is accounted for by services that are run by hugely profitable companies such as Baidu. In February, the internet search engine announced fourth quarter 2007 profits of RMB 219.8 million (US$30.6m), an increase of 79 per cent over the same quarter in 2006.

The three record companies, Universal Music Ltd, Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong Ltd and Warner Music Hong Kong Ltd, have filed their claims with the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court asking the court to order Baidu to remove all links to copyright infringing tracks to which they hold the rights.

Four record companies have also announced they will be bringing legal action against Sogou, the Chinese music delivery service operated by Sohu Inc, which also participates in mass copyright infringement. Sohu is the official sponsor of internet content service for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The companies bringing the action are Sony BMG Music Entertainment Hong Kong Ltd, Warner Music Hong Kong Ltd, Gold Label Entertainment Ltd and Universal Music Ltd. They are claiming maximum statutory damages of RMB 500,000 for 105 tracks, bringing the total claim to US$7.5 million. These claims will also be heard by the Beijing court.

John Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive of IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide, says: “Baidu is China’s largest violator of music copyrights, generating huge revenue by deliberately providing access to illegal content. The scale of what it is doing can be summed up by the fact that if the courts were to rule that Baidu should pay maximum statutory damages for all the infringing tracks available through its service it would have to pay many billions of dollars in compensation. That would be an enormous but appropriate price to pay for a company that is failing to take what are quite simple steps to respect the rights of artists and record companies and protect the content of IFPI’s members.

“The record industry wants partnership with China’s internet companies, but one that is based on respect of copyright and the law. It is totally wrong that internet giants like Baidu should build a fortune by abusing the rights of artists, songwriters and record producers.”

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Famously gabby, British music executives were lost for words at last year's Beijing Pop Festival. The A&R folks were watching a gig by The Crimea, members of an Association of Independent Music (AIM) trade mission of British independent musicians and labels. "When they took the stage the local fans were singing the words to their songs," recalls AIM international affairs chief Judith Govey. "It was a testament to the hard work the band has done."

The Crimea's rousing reception on that hot September Saturday - they shared a bill with Brett Anderson and Nine Inch Nails - was thanks to the band putting free-to-download songs on its website, and earlier playing China's cramped rock bars on 2006 and 2007 tours here. The band hasn't made much money yet in China but the festival turnout bodes well for independent music in China, bets Govey. "We were taken aback by the size of the festival," she says. "The audience reaction was very refreshing."

Since 2003 AIM has brought 50 music industry specialists in trade missions of typically 10 companies to China where they meet Chinese label and live venue management in seminars. Conferences are funded by the UK Trade & Investment, while delegates pay their own travel and accommodation.  A September 2008 trade fair will include intellectual property rights (IPR) lawyers and event management companies as well as labels. One of the members of last year's delegation, British rock music maven Julia Jones will drive her iconic Brit Bus, a vehicle loaded with stereos and British musicians, accross China in 2008 or 2009.

Others to have gotten something off their attendace on the trade mission include London-based Taste Management, which signed Shanghai-based the Honeys for European shows. British artist management agency Big Help last year inked a deal with Beijing-based KKP for its classically trained singer/songwriter Marie Batchelder. Electronic-heavy British act Cava Cava got a top slot at last year’s Midi Festival and gigs at venues around China off its attendance on the 2006 mission.

The traffic is moving both ways. A caravan of 30 Chinese companies will travel to this year’s London Calling, an annual music industry trade expo. Collaboration is the way to get things done in China, says Govey, who points to her organisation's team-up with the state-sponsored China Audio Visual Association (CAVA) – leading the Chinese delegation to London Calling - as a door opener to the Chinese market. British production agencies Arc Angel and Big Help both working with Chinese and British artists in China. “A lot of Chinese companies seek trades: they’ll say if you license my artists I’ll license your’s.”

Foreign labels need a lot of help from the likes of CAVA to pierce a "very complex market," says Govey. "Our members say that if we had to things on our own it would take three years.” Faced with "extreme levels of piracy," distribution deals are best kept to digital format. The potential is greatest in selling downloads to mobile phones. "Physical product is not the way to go,” says Govey. Foreign CDs are "far too expensive" for China, she adds, pointing to a low-price Linkin Park CD produced for mainland China only. “It sold significantly better than other releases.”

China is part catching up effort for British labels whose music is often available free to download on Chinese websites. "China was years ahead of the UK on downloads," explains Govey. Though Govey declines details on specific deals, most partnerships forged off AIM trade missions will, she says, will be in digital and live performances. Either way China is an "extremely long term plan... There’s no fast money to be made." But China-bound Western music companies investing the time and money to build relationships will eventually reap the rewards, she predicts, "maybe five years down the road."

China differs from Western and Japanese markets for its "extreme levels" of piracy and a dominance of local artists compared to international names. Convinced of a Chinese cultural imperative of "face-to-face meetings," Martin Mills of the Beggars Banquet group says: "it’s very important to come out every year." He's been on every AIM mission to China since 2003.

British labels typically see the USA and Japan as their top markets but ignore China and India at their peril. "We’re telling them to see it as a long term investment," says Govey. A lack of funding has cut short AIM trade missions to India, which shares a lot of China’s challenges: “piracy is not as high but still very high.” Unlike China, the film industry dominates India’s music industry, with artists signing up for albums on a per-film basis without royalties. AIM however is working with a new wave of entrepreneurs “who are breaking the stranglehold of film houses by setting up artist development companies.”

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Our favourite French radio presenter is Bernard Lenoir, who hosts an hour of cracking indie (with regular live sessions and world music specials) at 10pm Paris time on France Inter. You can listen to archived shows and check out his playlists on the C'est Lenoir website.

We have one sizeable quibble, though - he doesn't play enough French acts. Decent French pop bands, we mean. The only homegrown acts he features are godawfully-boring ageing wannabe poets like Alain Bashung or Murat who speak their lyrics over stale rock riffs. We're not even going to link to them.

But maybe that policy is changing. Last night Lenoir played 'Kim And Jessie' by M83, a lovely slice of '80s-sounding indie synthness from new album 'Saturdays = Youth'.

M83 is the project of Anthony Gonzalez (right) from Antibes on the swanky French Riviera.  Regular CLUAS readers may recall Daragh Murray's glowing review for his 2005 album 'Before The Dawn Heals Us'. (M83's album, not Daragh's.) The motorway-sounding name actually comes from an obscure constellation, and also a popular brand of machine-gun. (Again, M83 and not Daragh.)

'Saturdays = Youth' is the fifth M83 album. Action-packed with MBV-style chaussure-gazing and house-y beats and swishy Air/Jarre synths, it's all very nice stuff indeed.

You can see M83 in Dublin on 25 April, when he plays at (of all places) the Andrew's Lane Theatre. (Music at Andrew's Lane? Since when? Your ex-pat blogger now feels completely out of touch with his ex-home of Dubbalin and is pining for Tayto crisps.)

There are plenty of fine tracks on M83's MySpace page. From that new album, here's 'Graveyard Girl':

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Lucien Ginsburg (right) was born in Paris on 2 April 1928, eighty years ago today.

In 1944 he changed his name - to Lucien Guimbard. The rest of his family also adopted the temporary new surname: at the time they were hiding from occupying Nazi forces who wished to send them to a concentration camp with other Jewish families. Before fleeing Paris with his family, young Lucien wore the yellow star, which he would later cynically call his 'sheriff's star'.

It's not clear when exactly Lucien Ginsburg changed his name for the second time. We only know that by the end of the 1950s he was playing in Paris piano bars as Serge Gainsbourg. The first name is that of an everyday Frenchman; the Frenchified English surname evokes aristocratic British sang-froid. Throughout his career he would try to embody both aspects.

As Serge Gainsbourg (left) he made some of pop's greatest music. His golden age was the period bookended by 1967's 'Bonnie And Clyde' and 1971's 'Histoire De Melody Nelson', still two hugely influential albums. He enjoyed a creative (West) Indian summer in 1979 with a reggae album that included his version of 'La Marseillaise'.

Unfortunately, outside France he is only remembered for one throwaway duet he made with his partner - and it's her contribution that made the song (in)famous.

One last time he changed his name. In the 1980s, his years of terminal decline, he became Gainsbarre - a name to put to his increasingly boorish behaviour and ugly appearance. This was the period of his drunken TV appearances: chatting up Whitney Houston and insulting French singer Catherine Ringer.

Lucien Ginsburg, Lucien Guimbard, Serge Gainsbourg and Gainsbarre died on 2 March 1991. They are buried in the Cimitière Montparnasse, Paris, in a tomb (right) covered with used metro tickets in honour of his first big hit, 'Le Poinçonnneur des Lilas' - a song about being the ticket-puncher at Lilas metro station. (Just opposite is the grave of Samuel Beckett, where fans often leave bananas as a reference to 'Krapp's Last Tape'.)

His daughter Charlotte plans to make a Serge museum of his long-time Paris home on Rue de Verneuil, near the Boulevard Saint-Germain.

As 2 April 2008 happens to be the day that Bertie announced his departure, here's Serge Gainsbourg singing 'Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'En Vais' - in English, 'I've Come To Tell You I'm Going':

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CLUAS Verdict: 8 out of 10

Review Snapshot: As ever running that fine line between rock, pop, electronica, alternative, and general unclassifiable, Dublin’s Ciarán Smith has produced an album of tracks that are well-written, well produced, well orchestrated and well performed. What more could you want?

Review: Out On A Limb is close to becoming my favourite record label, indie or otherwise, and OOAL0011 - in real words Crayonsmith’s White Wonder - is even more quickly becoming one of my favourite albums. Crayonsmith’s early and possibly more familiar lo-fi sound has expanded and developed into something totally original and new to the Irish market. Subtle snatches of melody, classic if sometimes unexpected harmonic twists, droning percussive synths and charming vocals so beautifully layered and produced that you can almost imagine them standing in rows in front of you: percussion, guitars and synths in rows up each side and Ciarán standing somewhere in the middle, his voice entering and falling out of the swells of sound. Each track is nothing if not considered, containing a wealth of musical ideas that combine to create a soundworld that almost feels like a glimpse into a new world.

It’s so easy to rave about a new artist, new album or new sound, and then after touting it as the best thing since X&Y, to all too quickly lose interest, but this album has so far stood up to a week of constant listening, and still they are new things to discover. This fascination is due in part to the band’s admittedly not-totally-original concept for the album. Having pulled George Brennan on board to help out, White Wonder is a combination of sampled and electronically produced beats and sounds and live instrumentation. And what’s best about it is that you can’t tell which is which, and what appears to be a new and different sound is in fact in part made up of old sounds. Crayonsmith are just too clever for their own good.

In terms of tracks, the album fits so well together, it can be difficult to pick out worst and best bits. In fact, it’s sometimes difficult to tell what belongs in one song and what to another. Consistency is the keyword with this release, but a number of songs such as The Boat, the gently melodies of which move slowly but inevitably towards a hurtling crash of sparring harmonies and guitars only to be suddenly reined back in, and the crunching Anything, which is as perfect an example as any other of the melding of sampled and real, stand out. Opener White Wonder Theme and Lost in the Forest and closer We Sleep bookend the album perfectly with their complementing expansive synth sections and driving verse patterns.

Anna Murray

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The Duke Spirit (live in The Village, Dublin)

Review Snapshot: Undaunted by less than perfect sound, the headliners delivered up to their reputation and a set that left the crowd panting, even if the supports failed to make an impression.

The Cluas Verdict?  7 out of 10

Full Review:
Each time I go to the Village, I find another reason to dislike it as a venue. Sometimes it’s the crowd; sometimes the painfully cool and smooth veneer, its attempts at looking like an underground venue while having fake-marbled, mirror-lined bathrooms. On Sunday it was the sound. While the Village has one of the better sound systems in the Dublin area venue circuit, the effect of this is too often ruined by having the volume turned up to 11: four or five instruments become smushed into one mashed-up whole with occasional words, high registers become toneless squeals and low registers become painful thumps. So while the crowd was big and enthusiastic enough to absorb the volume – and energy – generated by the Duke Spirit, the support acts suffered.

David Hope, acting as opener, is nothing more than a big sweet man playing big sweet songs, and as such was instantly likeable, but as quickly forgettable. Sweet Jane, suffering as their sound was from the aforementioned volume problems, were only just on the bearable side of ear-popping, although whether greater clarity of sound would have improved their performance or not is difficult to say. Not only did the Dublin band take their name from another band, but it appeared most of their music too. Obviously a little too overtaken by admiration for bands of the grungy and shoegazing past, a lacklustre set culminating with their almost superfluous female singer smashing her tambourine and writhing in what she seemed to think was a seductive manner. So rock’n’roll, man.

Despite the unsubtle excellence of their debut album Cuts Across the Land, the Duke Spirit have proven that they are undoubtedly a live band. Stripped down to bare basics, their songs are simple, but have a great depth of sound, reaching down to the bowels and up to the pinnacle of the sound spectrum. After suffering from the dreaded sophomore slump – latest album Neptune simply fails to live up to its predecessor’s edge – new songs such as Sovereign, Send A Little Love Token and My Sunken Treasure were given an energy and verve to match the darker counterparts from Cuts…, such as Red Weather Hill.

As a band, the Duke Spirit are tight, original, energetic and exciting, but collective talent aside, it is equally undeniably Liela Moss that is the heart and soul. One of the best frontpersons to be seen in a band in at least a decade, she long ago reached the poise, sexiness, confidence and sheer rock energy that the aforementioned posturing Sweet Jane frontlady, among others, strives for. Her stage presence, passion, moves and that voice all combine to make her a formidable entity, a ball of blazing energy that commands your attention, although never enough to overshadow her bandmates.

The Duke Spirit records may be good, but live they pound, they scream, they rock, and they make you move.

Anna Murray

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