Heroes of Composition: Terry Riley - In C (1968), A Rainbow Curved In Air (1969)

Heavily influenced by jazz, Western avant-garde and traditional Indian classical music, Terry Riley (b. 1935) is one of the most influential post-war composers and an early pioneer of the minimalist movement. A piano virtuoso, Riley abandoned his initial ambitions to become a concert pianist instead deciding to study composition at San Fransisco State College. 

Although Riley is credited as the father of minimalist music, it's generally agreed that experimental composer La Monte Young's drone compositions pre-date Rileys' by several years, Riley's work certainly had a bigger effect on the audiences' consciousness. Indeed Riley was heavily influenced by La Monte Young having studied with him for a masters at UC Berkeley in 1960. John Coltrane, Miles Davis and John Cage were all big influences on him, indeed Riley's work frequently demonstrates aspects of jazz and Western avant-garde.

Riley's minimalist music is far from being sparse arrangements written for a small number of musicians as the name may imply, rather each piece is often based around repetitive motifs in a particular key. Indeed Riley was experimenting with tape-loops in the 1950s while the technology still very much in its infancy.

In C (1968)

Written in 1964 one of Riley's earliest works 'In C', was a composition for any number of musicians (Riley himself suggests 35 although more or less will work). A direct response to the techniques of contemporary surrealist composers 'In C' is based around 53 separate phrases in the key of C. The musicians - who are allowed to use any tuned instrument do not work from a score, instead they follow a set of instructions. While the melodies are predetermined, performances are still improvised and can last from as little as 15 minutes to several hours. The piece is arguably the most significant composition within minimalist music. You can read the instructions to 'In C' here.

A Rainbow Curved In Air (1969)

Riley's third release saw him experimenting with overdubbing techniques and on A Rainbow Curved In Air he plays all the instruments. What begins as a simple minimalist drone soon bursts into a psychedelic freak out. The piece can be looked at as a modern sonata that can be broken down into three distinct movements. Riley's interest in classical Indian music is particularly evident as the main motif is reminiscent of a raga while the final minutes of the song are dominated by Hindustani rhythms. The following decade would see Riley become increasingly interested in Indian music with Riley teaching it at Mills College in San Fransisco from 1971.

Riley still continues to compose and perform having been recently part of the line-up for the 2011 All Tomorrow's Parties festival. 

Seinfeld - (1989-1998)

Despite its famous reputation as the “show about nothing”, Seinfeld was the sitcom about everything. Since its initial airing on July 5^th 1989 Seinfeld went on to become one of the most successful - and influential comedies of all time. Twenty-five years later, it still feels as fresh as it ever did. 

Created by comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, Seinfeld follows the lives of four thirty-something middle-class New Yorkers who have no clear roots or obvious ambition. While contemporary sitcoms were driven by plot lines embellished by gags, Seinfeld’s primary focus was the humour extracted from the minutiae of Manhattan life - finding the absurdity in the ordinary. Although the situations were conventional, the characters were far from it.

The show starred Seinfeld as a fastidious caricature of himself who hangs out with his quirky ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), wacky dependent neighbour Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander), a short, stocky, slow-witted bald man. 

The quartet spend most of their time mocking others (and each other) while trying to make sense of the unwritten etiquette and rules of polite society. In a departure from the sitcoms of the time, the characters were self-obsessed, neurotic misanthropes. Usually the show revolves around people with peculiar eccentricities who often end up traumatised from their interactions with the group. As David once revealed in an interview: "A lot of people don't understand that Seinfeld is a dark show. If you examine the premises, terrible things happen to people. They lose jobs; somebody breaks up with a stroke victim; somebody's told they need a nose job. That's my sensibility."

Although the show dealt with the everyday, this didn't restrict the writers from coming up with some rather controversial material. In one of the most iconic episodes ‘The Contest’, the group wager amongst themselves to see who can go the longest without masturbating. As the content was considered almost too risque for primetime TV, the writers were forbidden from using the m-word. What resulted was a succession of ubiquitous euphemisms, which became a hallmark of the show. 

One of Seinfeld and David’s greatest skills was their ability to construct authentic conversations between Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. Whether discussing relationships, work or people, the acute observations were often able to cut much deeper than Seinfeld’s own standup material. It also marked a break away the superficial "setup a punchline" dialogue so prevalent in contemporary comedy.

Similarly, the show is replete with observational catchphrases and euphemisms that are still much quoted today. Such was the impact of the Seinfeld lexicon, many of these terms made the transition into everyday vernacular. Dubbed "Seinlanguage", some of the most notable idioms devised or popularised throughout the series include Man-hands, man-crush, re-gifter, close-talker, high-talker, bad breaker-upper, yada yada yada, double-dipping and shrinkage.

The show's origins can be traced back to Seinfeld’s successful appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1981, after which he began building a reputation as one of America’s hottest stand-ups. After being approached by NBC to make a show, Seinfeld teamed up with David as “He was the only person I knew who had ever written anything. He had written a movie script and I had never met a comedian that had written anything but an airline peanut bit.”

The initial idea discussed by the pair was to create a fictional 90-minute special following Seinfeld with a single camera across a few days. It would be from his (fictional) experiences from those days that would form a comic routine performed at the end. Essentially the concept was an exploration of how a comic would get his material. Seinfeld however, felt this would be difficult to sustain: “It was going to be a special all the way, but I didn’t think we could last 90 minutes, so instead we ended up making 90 hours.”

It was only they made the decision to write a 30-minute pilot that George - the fictional alter-ego of David, and Kramer, based on David’s eccentric neighbour Kenny Kramer, came into development. Elaine - absent from the pilot, was created after NBC requested a female lead.

Originally airing as The Seinfeld Chronicles, the response to the pilot was so underwhelming that NBC tried to flog the show to Fox. Surprisingly however, Seinfeld and David were offered a contract to make four more episodes. Following the broadcast of these shows, the series was picked up. It was in the second season that Seinfeld really began to hit its stride. Episodes such as ‘The Chinese Restaurant’ became Seinfeld classics despite being a 22 minute "story" of Jerry, George and Elaine waiting for a vacant restaurant table. In 'The Parking Garage' they spend the entire episode looking for Kramer's car.

David pin-points season two’s ‘The Busboy’ as the major turning point in the series. The episode culminates in a fight between Elaine’s boyfriend and a waiter George inadvertently gets fired. As a result, David became so enamoured with the idea of interlaced scenarios that he wanted to explore the concept further. 'The Busboy' is also noted for the fact that for much of it, Jerry is a virtual spectator. From now on Seinfeld would be as much about George, Elaine and Kramer as it was Jerry.

Unlike the sitcoms that it proceeded, Seinfeld was virtually void of any heart-warming or impassioned moments. Employing a rigorous “no hugging, no learning” rule on-set, there is little empathy from the characters and rarely do they ever learn any lessons - despite plot endings nearly always ending in someone receiving their comeuppance. Indeed anyone expecting a maudlin conclusion in the series’ finale would have been seriously deluded.  In the climax of the final season - watched by over 78 million viewers, the quartet find themselves on trial for not coming to the aid of a man being car-jacked. With Kramer videotaping the whole ordeal, the gang mock the victim’s weight with several cutting jibes. Seinfeld concludes with Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer being incarcerated for a year. While to some degree ‘The Finale’ disappoints, it at least provided a sense of poetic justice entirely in keeping with the show's typically unsentimental timbre.

Another of the show's trademarks was its employment of multiple storylines within each episode. Traditionally a sitcom would have one major story, occasionally embellished with a sub-plot. Seinfeld however, broke from these conventions with Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer each having their own story threads. These threads would be woven – sometimes quite complexly over the course of the episode, this concatenation of events lead to the show's comic climax. As the show evolved, Seinfeld became meticulously self-referential with numerous references to earlier plots and mini catchphrases. Indeed during the court case for 'The Finale', the episode is so esoteric with its relentless references and reappearances of bit-part character witnesses from earlier seasons that it would surely be indecipherable to someone unfamiliar with the show.

Later seasons became increasingly experimental and surreal, much to the annoyance of some hardcore viewers, displacing its former casual nature with often farcical action. However, with the writers constantly tweaking the show’s format - particularly its pace and tone, Seinfeld redefined what could be achieved within the parameters of a half-hour sitcom. The most evident example of lateral structure perhaps, is season nine’s ‘The Betrayal’, an episode run entirely in reverse. This peculiar, yet very-Seinfeld concept gave an opportunity to create humour which would otherwise not exist had it been edited chronologically. Despite such antics Seinfeld maintained his stance that it was a show about how a comedian gets his material. This is indeed true of earlier episodes which would be bookended by a brief comedy routine although these are often redundant in later seasons.

What further separated Seinfeld from its peers was the constant blurring of the lines between reality and fiction. As well as having its core and supporting characters based explicitly on real people, the plots are often based on the writer's personal experiences. These self-autobiographical narratives are taken to never before ventured territories when in season four Jerry is approached by NBC to make a pilot. With George, they pitch a show about nothing to NBC. What results is the Seinfeld equivalent of ‘The Mousetrap’. This show within a show concept probably influenced the plot of Ricky Gervais’s Extras, in which Gervais's character pitches a replica of his own sitcom The Office to the BBC (similarly the idea is sabotaged in production).

These ambiguous reality/fiction boundaries are further developed in David’s own sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, that stars David as a fictionalised version of himself. Curb also features a host of guest celebrities who too exaggerate their personalities. However, where Seinfeld was meticulously scripted Curb is produced cinéma vérité style.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is so intrinsically linked with Seinfeld, that a reunion of sorts was able to occur within it. Despite David's previous refusal to put on a reunion show, he felt that doing it within the Curb universe "was a perfect way to do something like that but not to do it. Under the guise of doing the Curb show, it was very relaxed and loose and easy."

Such is Seinfeld’s the influence over the modern television landscape that network execs realised that characters in comedies no longer had to be “likeable”. Curb Your Enthusiasm continued this theme while the concept has almost been abused by It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, perhaps Seinfeld’s most obvious successor, albeit a cruder ugly-cousin.

What makes its success so impressive is that Seinfeld should have alienated much of its audience - given that it was specifically about white, middle-class, Jewish New Yorkers. Its universal appeal stemmed from the fact Seinfeld was about people and their idiosyncrasies. While a few of the references may be dated, most of the material is timeless and still relatable. A quarter of a century since it debuted there has been nothing on television quite like it since. Despite being probably the most influential comedy of all time, Seinfeld's distinct ingenuity and dynamic has made it curiously inimitable. So much so that there may never be another sitcom that will achieve quite the same impact over contemporary pop culture... Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Marvel Comics Super Special: KISS (1977)

Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter were just four hot-blooded youths in The Big Apple, when they got ahold of The Box of Khyszc... trouble is, Doctor Doom saw it first, and what Doom wants, he takes! Can even the rockingest quartet in the universe stop mankind's greatest villain?

Given their flamboyant, cartoon-like appearance, KISS appearing in their own comic seemed almost an inevitability. Indeed the band’s eccentric outfits, camp make-up and self-created pseudonyms owe much of their influence from Stan Lee and co’s iconic characters.

The band are as much about their image than anything else - including the music, indeed KISS have had made more money from merchandise and have lent their likeness to more memorabilia than any other band (including The Beatles) becoming an almost billion dollar global brand. As well as the usual concert t-shirts and posters, the roughly 3,000 KISS products on sale have included action figures, board games, video games, pinball machines, credit cards, suits, condoms and - for die-hard fans: coffins. 

On June 30^th 1977 Marvel published the first of its Super Special comic books. Although the subsequent 40 issues tended to be an illustrated version of a recent movie, the debut comic was devoted KISS. The initial publication featured Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley and Peter Criss as superheroes rather than rock stars. Or to give them their comic book inspired personas: the Demon, the Spaceman, the Star Child and the Cat.

The bizarre story begins with Simmons and Stanley wandering the streets of The Big Apple, the former is complaining about how his father wants him to become an accountant: “He actually ordered me to ditch my comic collection!”

As they turn a corner they encounter a blind old barbarian dressed in a yellow vest and furry pants(!) fighting some muggers. As Simmons and Stanley dawdle over helping him, the old man throws them a mysterious object that the attackers are trying to steal from him. The item turns out to be the magical Box of Khyszc. Apparently. 

“Heads up flaming youth! Hither cometh thy destiny!!”

Simmons and Stanley then flee the scene to a pinball parlour where they encounter Criss and Frehley. The goons then burst into the arcade demanding the object. They then open the box out of sheer desperation and pull out four KISS dolls - which were also marketed at the time. There is an explosion from which the quartet emerge as their Marvel alter-egos.

KISS then embark on a cosmic journey through time and space where they must defeat Marvel villain Dr Doom and his undead groupies. In between they take the scenic route home through Hell where Simmons battles another Marvel regular Mephisto.

Unbelievably - or perhaps not, the comic was printed with the band’s own blood! It was donated by each member during a concert stop in February 1977. A registered nurse – with a notary to witness, drew the blood.  When the time came for the comic to go to print the blood was taken to the Borden Ink plant in New York where it was poured into vats of red ink for printing, which all sounds very hygienic.  

  

Although it's highly debatable that the blood ink marketing gimmick shifted any more units of the issue, it did go on to become Marvel’s best-selling ever, with a second outing for KISS - the fifth in the series of Super Special comics, was released the next year. However, rumour has it that the blood ink was involved in a mix up at the plant where it was mistakenly used for an issue of Sports Illustrated.

Hancock: The Blood Donor (1961)

Probably the best-known and arguably the best-loved of all his TV works, 'The Blood Donor' is the penultimate episode from Tony Hancock’s final BBC series Hancock.

The action takes place almost exclusively at the local hospital, in which Hancock manages to insult most of the fellow patients and staff, faints while giving blood and has his wine gums stolen by another donor.

The script was penned by Hancock’s writing team of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson who had worked with the comic since the ‘50s radio series. Initially the duo had Arthur Lowe in mind for the 'The Blood Donor' - but luckily for Hancock the script was given to him and has since become a British comedy classic. Indeed the script provides some of TV's most iconic gags - and rather interestingly, Hancock never learnt it.

“Rhesus! They’re monkeys aren’t they? How dare you I didn’t come here to be insulted by a legalised vampire.”

On his way home from recording the previous episode (the wonderful Archers parody 'The Bowmans') Hancock was involved in a car crash. While not life-threatening, the impact was enough to throw him through the window and leave him unconscious. Rather than cancel the studio that was booked for the recording 'The Blood Donor', the crew were instructed to install teleprompters around the set for Hancock to read his lines from. Throughout the episode the viewer can quite clearly see his eyes darting for the prompts when the other actors are speaking. 

“A pint of blood? That’s very nearly an armful!”

While it wasn’t quite true that he never memorised a script again after the episode, Hancock’s increased reliance on the autocue caused his performances to become increasingly stiff. Critics have noted that his facial expressions, so integral to his morose persona and just as integral to the laughs as his delivery, became rigid.

Following the series conclusion in 1961, the comic left the BBC to join ATC. Later on in the same year he split from Galton and Simpson following a falling out over the writing of a film. Hancock longed for transatlantic success in movies but this success ultimately eluded him. With his new writers his popularity began to dwindle while Galton and Simpson found success with a new show - Steptoe and Son.

Alan Simpson, Tony Hancock and Ray Galton

As his career faltered, Hancock’s increased alcohol dependency affected his performances – his alcoholism and his reliance teleprompters play a part in a disastrous performance at the Royal Festival Hall. Splitting from his writers and leaving the BBC to join ATV in 1961 were decisions that his career never recovered from.    

Despite his problems Hancock managed sporadic TV and film appearances. In 1968 he was contracted to make a 13-part series in Australia which was titled Hancock Down Under, however, only three episodes were completed. On June 24^th 1968 Hancock was found dead in his Sydney apartment with an empty bottle of vodka amongst some amylobarbitone tablets - he was 44.

Hancock’s suicide note read: “Things seem to go wrong too many times.”

Brian Eno and the Windows 95 Startup theme (1995)

There aren't many people in music who can boast a career of such impressive creative longevity and diversity as Brian Eno. Originally finding fame as the synthesizer player in Roxy Music, Eno left the successful Glam/art-rock band in 1973 to realise his own musical aspirations.

During the mid to late 70s 'Eno' the moniker he often used embarked on an impressive solo career as well as working with David Bowie on the ground-breaking "Berlin Trilogy" of Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and The Lodger (1979) while producing and performing on albums for the likes of the Talking Heads. Eno would also go on to release the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981), a collaboration with Talking Heads front man David Byrne that arguably kick-started the concept of extensive sampling within pop music.

As well as being a virtuoso behind the mixing desk, Eno has been a pioneer in the field of ambient music making several records with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp embracing the creation of a technique called "Frippotronics" (essentially a stereo tape delay effect inspired by minimalist composer Terry Riley). 

In 1994 Eno was approached by Microsoft to compose the Startup theme for their seminal home computing operating system Windows 95. The launch for Windows 95 was preceded by an intense marketing campaign which also used the Rolling Stones' 1981 hit 'Start Me Up' - a reference to the computer's new Start button. 

Eno told Chicago Chronicle's pop music critic Joe Selvin in 1996: "The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, Here's a specific problem - solve it.

"The thing from the agency said, We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, dah-dah-dah, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional, this whole list of adjectives and then at the bottom it said and it must be three-and-a-half seconds long.

"I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.

"In fact, I made eighty-four pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time."

In the end Eno's theme clocked in at around six seconds. Rather interestingly, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity, Eno confessed: "I wrote [the Startup theme] on a mac. I've never used a PC in my life, I don't like them."

Frank Sidebottom - Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite (NME comp. 1988)

In 1988 music magazine the NME produced the charity album Sgt Pepper Knew My Father for Childline. It was a rather intriguing complete cover of arguably The Beatles’ finest album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The compilation featured an eclectic mix of acts including The Fall, Sonic Youth, The Wedding Present, Billy Bragg and - perhaps most interestingly: Frank Sidebottom. The alter-ego of Chris Sievey, who died in 2010, the lovable Frank was instantly recognisable by his oversized papier mâché head and renowned for his eccentric - and often humorous musical output, embracing the cheap synthesized aesthetics of children's Casio keyboards. For the Sgt. Pepper project Frank covered the John Lennon penned 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite'. Listen out for various references to a some other of the Fab Four’s songs. 

   

    

Inside Llewyn Davis - Joel and Ethan Coen (2013)

Following on with their long tradition of idiosyncratic protagonists, Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest outing Inside Llewyn Davis centres around a struggling singer-songwriter trying to negotiate a route out of the New York underground folk scene.

Taking place across a single week in 1961 around Greenwich village’s burgeoning folk scene and harsh winter, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is at a crossroads.  Left to pursue his solo career after the suicide of his partner Mike, Davis’ album is not selling.  He’s broke and forced to sleep on the couches of friends.

Following a gig as a session musician in which he takes an immediate payment rather than royalties, the seemingly prodigious talent Davis takes a trip to Chicago to meet a music mogul for an audition that could possibly revive his fortunes.     

Although Davis is a fictional character, the Coen brothers based him on American folk singer David Van Ronk - as well as using his posthumous 2005 memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street as a source.  It should be noted that by all accounts Van Ronk was a very well liked figure completely at odds with Davis - who - to be frank, is a complete jackass.

Crucial to the film’s success is its supporting cast: Carey Mulligan plays Davis’s dowdy ex-girlfriend Jean while Justin Timberlake (yes J.T), puts in a mature performance as her slightly wet husband Jim. Both Jean and Jim sport some rather nerdy attire throughout. Troy Nelson (Stark Sands) is particularly believable as the fellow-musician and square soldier who stays with Jean and Jim.  John Goodman puts in a brief appearance as the decrepit ex Jazz musician and heroin addict Roland Turner whose quips provide some light relief in an otherwise emotionally draining film. 

Shifting from scene to scene - often without saying a great deal, the main story arc is provided by a ginger cat who has escaped Davis' elderly friends the Gorfeins.  Pages of pretentious guff could probably be written about the cat's role however, as Joel Coen said: "The film doesn't really have a plot. That concerned us at one point; that's why we threw the cat in."

Consequently Inside Llewyn Davis turns out to be one of the Coen brothers most cryptic films, seemingly an ouroboros, without beginning nor end and in a subtle - perhaps even unexpected way, one of their most complex.

Inside Llewyn Davis is released in UK cinemas on January 24, 2014

Vic and Bob's House of Fools (2014)

Right from The Good Life/Robin's Nest parodied title credits Vic and Bob instantly set the tone for their new comedy. House of Fools is a nod to the sitcoms of the 1970, yet unmistakably modern in its approach - unmistakably Reeves and Mortimer. 

With the mainstream sitcom landscape seemingly a little stagnant it's a relief to have the duo back on our screens since the BBC inexplicably cancelled Shooting Stars.  And just as Shooting stars twisted the format of the panel show, House of Fools does the same to sitcom.  

Most of the action occurs in Bob's home, which is constantly filled with unwanted guests.  Vic  is the most long-term, much to Bob's annoyance. There's also the flamboyant, sexually charged Beef played expertly by Matt Berry, eccentric next door neighbour Julie (Morgana Robinson), Vic's jailbird brother Bosh (Dan Skinner) and Bob's Norwegian son Erik (Daniel Simonsen).

The first episode sees Beef setting up Bob with a hot date.  Now all Bob needs to do is clear out his guests so he and his date can watch a film.  After all, Conan the Barbarian is on TV at 2.30, on a channel past the fishing shit, but not as far as the Welsh stuff.  But there's a snag - Vic has broken the TV, which inevitably leads to the entire cast acting out the film in Bob's living room - duh.  Fans of the duo will be delighted to see some classic Reeves and Mortimer - the nutty songs, slapstick fights and silly gags:

"Morning Bob,"
"Why, no one's died?" 

In the second episode things become even more surreal as the boys are entrusted with the safety of Julie's pork pie. She's planning to give it to Bruce Willis in the hope that he will take the lead in the film adaptation of her erotic book "Nobbin' Hood" - her whole career depends on it.  Though this is no ordinary pork pie, it is - of course, a talking pork pie.  The pastry torments the gang with taunts of "eat me," and it doesn't take long for them to give in to temptation.  

In the world of Vic and Bob anything goes, however, this can sometimes make it a rather hit and miss affair. Indeed while channel surfing can be the equivalent of fishing for coins in a raging sea of diarrhea, as far as a comfortable viewing goes there's absolutely nothing like it on our screens.  With House of Fools dancing a line between the puerile and the ridiculous and the genius it's at least a refreshingly original bit of mainstream telly. 

Vic: "How long shall I cook this egg?"

Bob: "About six feet seven."

House of Fools runs for six episodes every Tuesday from 14th January until 18th February 2014, 10pm, BBC2.

David Lynch, William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol: The Photographers' Gallery (17th January - 30th March 2014)

A trio of American cultural icons and oddballs make up The Photographers' Gallery first new exhibition of the year.  Photography doesn't immediately spring to mind when you think of David Lynch, William S. Burroughs or Andy Warhol, yet the work on display offers a real insight into their methods within their respective fields.  Shown across three floors, much of these photos have never been displayed in the Europe before and this is a rare opportunity to see this triptych under one roof.

David Lynch: The Factory Photographs.  John Lyon Gallery - 5th Floor 

David Lynch (b.1946) best known as the director of cult films as well as an occasional musician, actor and artist.  His photographic work is much less acknowledged (this is his first UK exhibition), but those familiar to Lynch's films should draw parallels between this work and his movies.  This series consists of black and white photos of the interiors and exteriors of abandoned factories and industrial wastelands composed in typically eerie fashion.

Shot in locations across England, Germany, Poland, New Jersey and New York.  Industry is a recurring motif throughout his cinematography - such as the industrial landscapes of Eraserhead (1977) and the factories in The Elephant Man (1980).  This fascination is particularly evident in the opening titles of his TV drama Twin Peaks (1990-1991) that features many close ups of machinery in a sawmill.  In fact many of these photos were taken when he was scouting for potential film locations. 

The eerie-ness and tension is furthered by Lynch's self-composed accompanying soundtrack that is projected into the gallery.  This synthesized white noise evokes a sense of the long lost industry that once thrived inside these now desolate buildings while sporadic percussive hits resonate like the ghosts of men working with machines in another world.  

"I got a taste for a certain kind of architecture and a feeling for machines and smoke and fear.  To me, the ideal factory location has no real nature, except winter-dead black trees and oil-soaked earth.  Time dissappears when I'm shooting in a factory, it's really beautiful." - David Lynch

David Lynch: The Factory Photographs is curated by Munich based author Petra Giloy-Hirtz. 

Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs. Barbara Lloyd Gallery - 4th Floor

One of 20th Century America's most influential and original writers, William S. Burroughs' (1914-1987) photography is pretty unknown and this exhibition is the first public display of his work in this area. 

Employing the same Dadaist cut-up techniques to his photographs that he applied to his writing Burroughs work is vaguely divided into street scenes, collages and portraits.  There are clippings of New York car accidents, before and after shots of a bed after a sexual encounter with lover John Brady - including a few rather grotty snaps of spunk stained sheets, even a photographic attack on a Cafe for serving him "outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake."

Many of these works don't seem to be complete, for instance there are a few hacked out clippings that have been mounted on the walls while there are a few sets of framed negatives.  The most enjoyable are the various portraits of friends, colleagues and lovers - including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Brady as well as Burroughs' self-portraits.  

"The point is to make the camera your eyes and take what your eyes are scanning out of the larger picture." - William S. Burroughs

Taking Shots is curated by Patricia Allmer, Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and author John Sears.

Andy Warhol: Photographs 1976-1987. Wolfson Gallery - 2nd Floor

What makes this exhibiton so intriguing is that it offers a chance to see a lesser known period in the career of Andy Warhol (1928-1987).  In fact Warhol only became - ahem, focused on photography when he became familiar with 1970's compact cameras.  

Warhol's photography -like his most celebrated art, consists of the everyday.  Looking at these photos you can almost imagine the artist mysteriously gliding through streets, buildings and celebrity parties with a camera hanging from his neck obsessively snapping away.  Paradoxically on the one hand these images are detached from his most well-known work but at the same time they're somehow undeniably Warhol.

Particularly Warholian images include a snap of a cupboard of filled with Hellman's mayo, Uncle Ben's rice and other branded foods (no Campbell's soup though) and celebrity images of Jerry Hall and Liza Minelli familiarly replicated and hand stitched together by the artist.  Images less in the typical Warhol mould are shots of gay pride marches, a man lying on a bench (is he passed out or asleep?) and a family flying kites.   

"I told them I didn't believe in art, that I believed in photography." - Andy Warhol

The Photographers' Gallery 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW
From 17th January - 30th March 2014
10am-6pm daily, except Thursdays (10am-8pm)
Tickets from £4

Strangeways, Here We Come - The Smiths (1987)

Although The Queen is Dead is usually referred to as the The Smiths' masterpiece, recently topping an NME poll for their greatest album of all time, the band’s final outing is arguably their finest hour.  Released following the breakup of the group, Strangeways, Here We Come is the forgotten jewel in The Smiths' canon.  

Following the dissolution of the Morrissey-Marr partnership - British music's the most prolific songwriting duo since Lennon-McCartney, reports of in-studio squabbling during the recording of Strangeways began to emerge in the music press.  However, according to Morrissey nothing could have been further from the truth as he claims in his autobiography: “Strangeways, Here We Come is the most joyful and relaxed Smiths studio session, with crates of beer wheeled in at the close of each day and no war in sight.” 

The Smiths: Mike Joyce (drums), Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass)

The opening track 'A Rush and a Push and the Land is Ours' develops a minor chord sequence played by Marr on keyboards.  The song is one of the most radical departures from The Smiths’ traditional sound, insomuch that it has no guitars.  The song was purposely written by Marr to prove that he could write songs on different instruments (despite previous piano driven B-sides 'Oscillate Wildly' and 'Asleep').  It was also a departure from the “jingle jangle” sound of previous albums. 'A Rush and a Push...' perfectly sets the tone for what would turn out to be the group’s farewell. 

Perhaps prophetically, mortality plays a part in much of Morrissey’s lyrics - 'Death at One’s Elbow', 'Unhappy Birthday', as well as 'Death of a Disco Dancer', one of the band’s most overlooked songs, with its descending chord sequence reminiscent of The Beatles' 'Dear Prudence'.  It is the most sonically engaging performance on the album.  In fact Marr said he was “trying to capture everything about the atmosphere of The White Album.”  During the song’s cathartic climax a jazzy piano motif akin to David Bowie’s 'Aladdin Sane' is played by Morrisey: “And I am loosely credited as a musician.”

Powerhouse Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before was initially slated as the lead single for the album but the pulled after a reference to mass murder (in August 1987, 27-year-old Michael Robert Ryan shot and killed 16 before killing himself).  With the BBC refusing airplay it was replaced by the cheery-yet slightly bland Girlfriend in a Coma.  Lyrically it’s perhaps the most morbid single Morrissey ever penned in which the girlfriend's fate is sealed in the closing couplet: “Girlfriend in a coma/ I know, I know it’s serious”.      

In Paint a Vulgar Picture Morrissey unleashes a tirade against the music industry (possibly former label Rough Trade and its founder Geoff Travis - though he denies this).  Indeed Morrissey’s predictions couldn’t be more accurate, and indeed today ring truer than ever:  

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!

Re-evaluate the songs

Double pack with a photograph

Extra Track (and a tacky badge)

Production-wise Strangeways is far and away the most crisp, colourful and ambitious record The Smiths ever laid onto tape, indeed as Slant Magazine said:  "Whether or not Strangeways, Here We Come ended the Smiths' brief career with their best album has been the subject of considerable debate for nearly a quarter century, but it definitively stands as the band's most lush, richest work." 

The Beatles - The Beatles (1968)

Forty-five years ago this month The Beatles released the double-album The Beatles - their ninth in six years. More commonly referred to as ‘The White Album’ (due to artist Richard Hamilton’s minimalist sleeve cover), it was the follow up to their ground-breaking magnum opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  

In February 1968 The Beatles, their wives and entourage flew out to India to stay at the Maharishi Yogi’s meditation camp in Rishikesh following a meeting in London. They then travelled to Wales for a 10 day conference on Transcendental Meditation. Other guests in India included members of the Beach Boys and Donovan. 

Perhaps most significantly, following The Beatles truly heroic intake of illegal narcotics over the last few years the band were now virtually drug-free.  This allowed them to take in the Himalayan air and relax, while armed only with their Martin D-28 acoustic guitars the group returned to England in April with around 40(!) new songs.     

Starr left after ten days complaining of home-sickness while McCartney left after four weeks due to other commitments. Lennon and Harrison both stayed for around six weeks when they left abruptly following accusations of inappropriate behaviour by the Maharishi to Mia Farrow. The song 'Sexy Sadie' was initially called 'Maharishi' and Lennon not wanting to become embroiled in a court case renamed the song on Harrison's insistence.  

The Beatles in India

In truth when the album was recorded the band was in turmoil - it being the first album released since the suicide of the group’s manager Brian Epstein.  Ringo Starr briefly quit the band leaving Paul McCartney to play the drums on a few songs, with Macca putting in a particularly ebullient - if initially stiff performance on 'Dear Prudence', building the track to a particularly cathartic climax.  As well as tensions between bandmates, the Abbey Road sessions were also coloured by the presence of John Lennon’s new muse: Yoko Ono.  

Of the 30 songs featured on the album only 13 featured all four members performing together, with the chief writer usually taking care of his own composition - indeed The Beatles were now beginning to work as solo artists, exploring their own talents.  Indeed, the working title of the album was (rather appropriately) ‘A Doll’s House’ (presumably after the Ibsen play), however, by coincidence the band Family released their album Music In A Doll’s House in the same year.    

Such was the prolific output of the group during this period several compositions didn’t make it onto The Beatles.  Here are three songs written in India that didn’t make the cut, yet found themselves on future solo albums following the breakup of the band.

Child of Nature (Lennon)

'Child of Nature' was recorded along with 22 other songs on a two-track recorder at George Harrison’s house in Esher before the band returned to Abbey Road to work on The Beatles.  The song, along with McCartney’s 'Mother Nature’s Son', was inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi about a ‘son of nature.’ Interestingly, despite the acrimonious end to The Beatles stay in India Lennon sings fondly of India:

Underneath the mountain ranges
Where the wind that never changes
Touch the windows of my soul
Touch the windows of my soul

I'm just a child of nature
I don't need much to set me free
I'm just a child of nature
I'm one of nature's children

Following a change of lyrics and a tighter chord sequence, the song eventually became on of Lennon’s most famous solo compositions 'Jealous Guy', appearing his 1971 album Imagine. 

Junk (McCartney)

Also recorded at Harrison’s house in Esher, this McCartney demo (initially titled ‘Jubilee’) is virtually identical both musically and lyrically to the version released on his debut solo album McCartney (1970).   

Not Guilty (Harrison)

While an acoustic demo features on the Esher demos, this full band version of Harrison’s Not Guilty was recorded at Abbey Road took around 100 takes over three days to get to this stage.  Such was the complexity of its arrangement the band struggled to cope with its aggressive chord changes, awkward time signatures and erratic rhythm.  'Not Guilty' is perhaps the most Lennon-like song Harrison wrote (see Lennon's 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' from The Beatles), but its problems were never fully overcome. A less appealing version of the song (with an extra verse) had to wait until 1979 for its official release on the author’s eponymous solo album. A heavily edited version of the track appeared on Anthology 3 the 1990's television documentary series and its accompanying three double albums of unreleased - yet widely bootlegged music.