Will the guitar bands of England please stand up. Goat Girl. Shrimp Eyes. Dream Wife. Vistas. The Lathums. The Reytons. Anorak Patch. Inhaler. Yard Act. THE GOA EXPRESS. Fabian Jack. Inhaler. Nova Twins. Populations of the world RECALIBRATE YOUR EARS!
RIFF RAFF VOL. 5: Recalibrate your ears
The British west country artist Luke Jerram has always been interested in sound and indeed, he makes art with sound and music. When he first graduated he visited something called an anechoic chamber (good band name there?) which is a room designed to completely absorb sound and all vibrations. When inside one, your eardrums tighten up creating internal pressure in your head, and your ears are recalibrated. You can hear your own body only: heartbeat, blood flowing in your head, your own breath. Nothing else.
When you come out of the anechoic chamber it takes a while to adjust to the world and all its noise (and new noises) you can hear with your ‘new ears’. As part of a shared art experiment to ease the UK’s lockdown anxieties (or at least to make life more interesting for a few short minutes), Luke recently encouraged us to try something:
“Go to the quietest place in your house (a cupboard or shed in the bottom of your garden, say), take a pen and paper and quietly listen - jotting down all the sounds you can hear. You might find over time that you can hear more and more, and that your hearing might recalibrate - and you will be able to hear more, new things - becoming more aware of your senses and the atmosphere around us”.
BUNK!
Luke, come off it mate! We have an experiment just for you and it’s this: grab your phone, fire up Spotify/Apple Music/Amazon Music etc. Make sure you are connected to decent speakers or get your headphones on. Adjust your setting to LOUD. Search “Riff Raff Vol. 5”. And press play. You will hear the opening thrasher bars to Anorak Patch’s ‘Irate’ (touch of Alice In Chains or is it just me?). That’s you. Consider your ears well and truly RECALIBRATED!
Will the guitar bands of England please stand up. Goat Girl. Shrimp Eyes. Dream Wife. Vistas. The Lathums. Anorak Patch. Inhaler. Yard Act. THE GOA EXPRESS. Fabian Jack. Inhaler. Nova Twins.
These are names now familiar to you I would think? If not, consider yourself in the know. If you’ve been paying attention to the Riff Raff series thus far you will start to know how some of these bands operate: scrappy guitars, tumbling rhythm sections, off-kilter vocal delivery of lyrical statements about modern life and...tunes!
It’s not just English of course. But the core of English groups defining the scene seem to be rekindling the spirit of guitar music around the world from Oz (Vintage Crop, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever) to Italy (Piqued Jacks). So, take a bow, young guitar bands of England (and other nations too). It’s music how it should be: uplifting, funny, rebellious and most of all tuneful.
This has been a public service announcement on behalf of the Young Guitar Bands of England.
P.S. Luke Jerram’s sound art is actually awesome. He recently attached loudspeakers to some hot air balloons (Air Orchestras) and floated them above cities to wake people up to ambient sounds from the sky. He even proposed to his wife with a playable ring. He engraved his proposal in the ring, and played it on a tiny record player that he made. His wife will receive the mechanical royalties in perpetuity. Luke’s work can be found here. In the above quote he was speaking on the BBC wonderful arts podcast Front Row.