an ill considered blog post...

...is better than none.

So what's new?

Well, everyday there is inevitably something new to discuss, even if it is only describing how a piece of dust moved from one side of your room to another part of it. But physics does not concern us here. Protagonists do. Regarding this we have a new show to share with you all (wait, who actually reads this thing? not even sure I do), on 16th April we play Reprobate Revue at Hoxton Underbelly, n1 6nu. Show starts at 7.30pm, for the price of 5 pounds (or 3 before 8pm) and of course your time. Apparently they have some damn fine seats, a floor on which to dance, and a super dancefloor. We're on early, so you know what to do. You also get fab music from Olympic Clampdown, Psycho Yogi, and Book of Buzz. Yum.

We shall also be debuting some new material about an upcoming sporting event in the London area. Can you guess what it is? Here are some clues: it's a summer event that costs roughly 11 billion pounds, is going to cause havoc on the transport system, and will have some pretty heavy security protecting it (553 million pounds of it, in all).  Did you guess correctly? Yes, that's right, it's Wimbledon.

We will also be unveiling a new band member at the gig, they don't want to be name at the moment, but those who come down may have the chance of accidentally looking at he/she.

All right, that's your lot. Come down and stay cynical. PDG X.

Kazuya Ohtani Update

Our dear friend, and ex-member, guitarist/keyboardist/composer Kazuya Ohtani now lives in his native home of Hiroshima, Japan. Since leaving the UK he enjoyed some time with family in a more rural place than London, and is eager to tell of what he's now working on: Project NOW! for the total abolition of nuclear weapons.

Project NOW! Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Project

http://www.p-now.com/?lang=en

http://soundcloud.com/kazuy-1 is still the place to hear his music. There is always something new and beautiful there.


Kazuya, playing guitar and mostly piano with PDG, spontaneously composed a lot of the ideas that the band rearranges now. This includes New Jersey Cutters (guitar), the bassline of Come On Baby, Show Me Something, Another Digital Hit, Mr. Nemo, Compass Lost, Nobodys Only, and even My Private Anarchy which has changed almost completely (all originally piano). The rough EVENING EDITION EP, released for the Japan Tsunami Appeal in April of 2011 at Protagonists of David Gadsdon's first live performance, consisted of piano compositions by Kaz. 


Kaz inspired the atmosphere for Fragile Alliance in early 2011, one that has only been performed without drums at MIRROR MIRROR, Ryans Bar, London on 26.1.12. 


Come and listen Febuary 19th at the Underbelly in Hoxton, London, opening for anarchistwood. £5, £3 before 8pm. With Patricide and Lunar Engine (Buck from Book of Buzz singing!)


http://www.facebook.com/events/168865883216197/

Protagonists Improvise with Graham Dunning's Open Sound Group

On August 25 of 2011, Protagonists were cordially invited by the drummer and all-rounder Graham Dunning, and underwent an experiment to improvise with Open Sound Group in his warehouse in Manor House, London, in an amalgamation of characters who had mostly never met. The instrumental and sound exploration was so exciting - the soundscape, wide and all-inclusive of harmony, sound, rhythm and textures, some melody... so multifariously caught between the electronic and acoustic, the musical and almost 'foley'. But it wouldn't have been if not for the attentiveness of all the players listening so well to the whole sound we were making. That was a relief for those of us who had played in free improv groups where a noise competition catches more popularity. The recording was made on a stereo portable recorder only, and remastered by Jonas Golland months later, now re-released at the link below.

It took many minutes of forgetting the time for David to begin speaking, to find the right moment to start his controlled speech improvisation. What resulted is track 3 ('3 Open Sound Group - OSG02 Three', download link below), a patched-together experience of illusory modernity (oh well that's what I made of it). I love the helplessness of the images in the world of the music. Words and images David collaged together from the free daily London strew he ripped as he read, while the wondrous background textures created only by everyone at once, and the sporadic events within it, conversed with him the way a whole city ambience would if it could focus its light and potent imaginings small around the little utterance. It's very meditative, and references things from the text that it denotes but doesn't connote. It's really worth a listen, I've not heard aught like it.




SUMMARY


"Participants at the event were: James Alaska, Tom Mudd, Andrea Night of Pan, Colin Webster, David Gadsdon, Jonas Golland, Sharen Sum, Justin Paton, Carlos Slazenger, Caveman Joe, Cathy Gerber and Graham Dunning.

Instruments used included prepared piano, gamelan, violin, saxophone, laptops, turntables, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, spoken word, drums, didley bow, synthesizers and voices."




FREE DOWNLOAD
http://www.archive.org/details/OpenSoundGroup-WarehouseOne

COMPETITION TO SUBMIT NEW MUSIC TO OSG


for details, visit http://opensoundgroup.wordpress.com/:

"To celebrate a year of nine releases and over 1800 downloads I'm putting together a compilation of tracks from some of my favourite artists, musicians, improvisers, noise makers and composers - that means YOU!"

Airplay on Hello Goodbye Show with Dexter Bentley, Resonance 104.4 FM

Hello
Protagonist will air on the Hello Goodbye Show with Dexter Bentley at 12pm today Saturday 14th of January, "re-airing a selection of our favourite pieces of music recorded live here on Hello GoodBye throughout 2011." PDG was one, but we've sent in other tracks for him to choose from if he's in the mood. We've given him a choice between a remaster of a FIRST EDITION track or a new live one from Monday Jan 9, 2012 at Spoonful of Poison, Kings Cross.
Tune in at www.ResonanceFM.com or at 104.4 FM and if you missed the show, a day or two later it should be at this site http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/
Goodbye

Where to continue.... Perverts Union

Aside from 2 gigs this month at Spoonful of Poison, Monday Jan 9th at Star of Kings, Kings Cross, and headlining at Ryans Bar on Jan 26th, and continued recording of our next release, we've become acquainted with Tony Elephant, our didactic talkshow host character. He has had a lot to say about an experience he had in a sleazy part of town. In Perverts Union, Tony confesses all... Our team presented the 8 minute audio piece to the London Animators Club on weds night (Their website: http://londonanimationclub.com/), because we feel the piece needs an animator or abstract video artist whom naturally gleans an imagery concept. We are looking for the right artist, and do have some budget. If you are a visual artist and like to work to narration, come and have a listen to the Perverts Union excerpt at www.reverbnation.com/protagonists

A Little About Wilton Herne

It comes over a bit cold when you have a manager who hides from the public. He won't come to industry functions at PRS, he doesn't advertise and so doesn't seem to take on any new clients which is at least good for us. But you wonder how he makes a living. People think we are involved with a deadbeat. A lot of them have asked since our Resonance FM live set, who is Wilton Herne, and why do you keep him as a manager if he doesn't plug you on XFM? Well, it's true he is not on the world wide web since an undisclosed personal issue made him closed about his mere presence. So he won't be reading this, thankfully. But it's not true that he's doesn't deliver. He knows how to lie very well. Whether he lives or works in Bath or not is not the question, but whether he actually has a collection of Walter Sickert's art. This claim made him a target of art dealers of course, but also of police who were interested in whether he knew anything new about Sickert's contemporaries. Was Sickert really creepy for good reason? Many mouth-water over this question. He focused on the macabre either way. What a rotter. No wonder Wilton is into him, for he is so shady. There is nothing more I can say about him. 

Come and hear our new Resonance FM recordings at www.reverbnation.com/protagonists

We're playing at the open mic at www.aspoonfulofpoison.com next Weds 26.10.11, 7:30pm at Stokey Records Bar, under Luigi Trattorias restaurant, 98 Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 0AP. We'd like you to bring a whole lot of beer-bottle caps for our DOOM RADIO recycling drive, and if you bring the most, we'll give you a prize, and the runners up and the winners get a copy of FIRST EDITION EP

Come to a very special gig with the Rude Mechanicals on Friday Dec 9, 7:30pm at Montague Arms, 289, Queens Rd, New Cross, London, SE15 2PA. http://www.facebook.com/TheMontagueArms 

We'd like you to bring a whole lot of beer-bottle caps for our DOOM RADIO recycling drive, and if you bring the most, we'll give you a prize, and the runners up and the winners get a copy of FIRST EDITION EP

Protagonists on Resonance 104.4 FM

The Hello Goodbye Show hosted by Dexter Bentley heard Protagonists playing a live four-song set, featuring the first ever performance of DOOM RADIO with Reginald Ffolkes. We also mentioned our next show at aSpoonfulofPoison.com, Stokey Records Bar, Stoke Newington Church Street, hosted by Spoon. Our new recycling drive invites you to bring as many beer bottle caps as you can, to our show. Whoever brings the most will get a special themed prize, and the runners up will get a copy of our FIRST EDITION EP.


DOOM RADIO at first sounds like a bleak number, foreshadowing the blitz, the obliteration of total annihilation, the fantasy of megalomaniacs, and seeming to piss all over the genuine suffering of the people who actually lived through that world-changing horror of WWII. Well that is an edge that David walks upon, and doesn't seem to mind being misunderstood by those who don't listen carefully. He said very clearly that it's more about the character of Reginald - smug, self-satisfied, and cosy in his radio booth status. He was not like today's radio DJs, but one of the few emergency broadcast system champions. And perhaps he laughed at the kids who had to snuggle up in lead-lined government bunkers, or their own private lead-lined bunkers. David takes the piss of Reginald. It was great to watch him sweat all over it. My, how radio has changed over the decades. But what is the significance of it now? How is the world facing total annihilation? Do we fear nukes anymore? We seem much more in the moment and ready for anything in our hellish happiness, in our 'reasonable insanity'.


A podcast of the live set will be available for streaming on www.resonancefm.com by about Weds 19.10.11. The band felt very welcome and honoured to meet Dexter the host, Michael the co-host, the lovely engineers, and witness the new sponge transforming the kitchen. Those kind of rations are really important in these destitute times. But we still live in excessive abundance, extreme decadence, says Garyloo SPeW our saxophonist. Destitute times sounds strange and I agree, but they still are.