Head Space Daily Words...

After filling our stomachs with a meat, clam and potato concoction at a Portuguese restaurant on Stockwell Road, me and my gig buddy, made our way to Brixton Academy, to watch Alt-J. You may already know this but by pressing the alt and J keys simultaneously on your computer keyboard, a perfectly formed triangle is created - hence the band's symbol. As the line in Tesselate goes, "Triangles are my favourite shape, three points where two lines meet." The Alt-J boys love a good triangle. Their music is a downbeat mix of abstract layered vocals, with intricate, often delicate, musical arrangements. When you listen to it, the music can envelope you, it feels quite personal. Brixton Academy is a big old venue, holding around five thousand people and it was just way too big to carry Alt-J's sound. They didn't do anything wrong, they played well and sung nicely but it felt like having five thousand people in my front room and switching on the CD. We were up in the balcony which can leave you feeling slightly detached and I did wonder if I was missing something, because people around me were caught in the moment, making triangle shapes with their thumbs and forefingers - something I struggle to accomplish, as I have bendy thumbs - and making that old heavy metal sign with index finger and little finger pointing forward, with the thumb to the side. Perhaps I'm getting too old for this sort of malarkey  but the reaction seemed way out of proportion to the music. There were singalong moments, to words that I can barely decipher, due to the singer's unique delivery - and that's the way I like it, I want to hear him sing, not the audience. We weren't at a Killers gig. As my mate said, he was "waiting for the lighters to come out and for it to go all Cliff Richard." I think that to pull it off at Brixton Academy, you need to perform, you need something extra. When I think of past gigs I've seen at Brixton, Friendly Fires on their Pala tour springs to mind. A strong light show, interesting back drops, a South American dancing troupe, and Ed Macfarlane, the lead singer, moving, jerking, running, dancing, captivating. These Alt-J boys last night were rooted to the spot, I guess it is not that sort of music but it did feel as if, having won the Mercury Music Prize last year for best album, that they are milking the money cow. It could all be too much too soon in my view. Heaven, a venue close to Charing Cross Station, would have been the perfect size to host the band, giving them chance to cut their teeth a bit more and get an act together. Back to the drawing board please lads and get some presence. Top album though; who's coming round for a listen...

Head Space Daily Image...

Here is one of Juan Munoz's sculptures from the Turner Contemporary Museum in Margate...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Smokey Robison & The Miracles - The Tears Of A Clown

I fancy a Motown Classic this evening and it doesn't get much better than this bitter sweet dancer from Smokey and his Miracles...

Head Space Daily Words...

The Route to West Drayton

Aeroplanes drift towards Heathrow, a long haul procession reflecting the sun, streaming over graffiti-abandoned carriages, as Nestle lies empty and Sunrise stands tall.

Honey Monster mocks with a super furry grin, the wasteland before him abandoned, rattling on in our speedy tin can, as we make our journey to work.

Head Space Daily Tune...

Alt-J - Breezeblocks

I'm off to see Alt-J at Brixton tomorrow evening. I've not been to a gig for a while, so I am very much looking forward to it. The vocals are layered up, clever and a bit weird and the bass on some of their tunes will make the Academy rattle...

Head Space Daily Image...

I took this picture yesterday, outside a department store next to Oxford Circus tube station. A homeless man sleeping with his dog, as the daily bustle of life goes on around him...

Head Space Daily Words...

This morning, I found myself sitting in the Genius Bar at the Apple Store on Regent Street - a doctor's waiting room for poorly computers. Yesterday, the call had arrived for me to work from Wednesday until the end of next week. Great news. I had also arranged a meeting with a potential client for today to discuss how we could work together. All good. Then, disaster struck. Last night, I dropped my laptop, resulting in a shattered screen and a barely breathing MacBook. I was distraught, as I rely on my computer to work from home. This morning, as soon as I had dropped my kids at school, I sped over to the Apple Store on a mercy dash and was directed to the Genius Bar, where I was given an appointment to discuss my computer's symptoms. The techno doctor is known as a Genius and he was an understanding listener who lent a sympathetic ear as I described how the screen had turned green, although I had managed to initiate a backup and how, when I checked on the patient this morning, there was only the occasionally flickering pulse of light registering. Could my computer be saved? A mobile monitor was rushed in, wires attached and some form of electro CPR administered. The drive was in tact. Hallelujah. The screen was buggered. I went to my meeting, whilst my MacBook went into surgery. Several hours later, I returned, met by a Latvian Genius nurse to collect the patient. The Genius doctors and nurses are incredibly chatty and charming, making the whole experience feel as if you have stepped into some otherworldly experience, where only calmness, knowledge and good manners prevail. Not a bad way to be...

Head Space Daily Image...

The Genius Bar, the computer hospital at the Apple Store on Regent Street...

Head Space Daily Tune...

Patti Austen - (I've Given) All My Love

An uplifting Northern Soul beauty to lift your spirits on this rainy day in May...