photography – Page 12 – Babycakes Romero

06/06/201806/06/2018

#MYLDN (1104) – THE THE

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

I went to see The The last night at The Royal Albert Hall, a lifetime goal achieved and one which I thought would never happen as Matt Johnson has been dormant for over 20 years. There was a time when my whole world was The The (also the best name for a band ever). I listened to the ‘Infected’ album over and over again. Hard hitting political lyrics, the exploration of the darker recesses of the human mind and all delivered in killer fucking tunes…it spoke to me more than any other music at the time and it felt like his voice was my voice. One of the first things he said at the gig was that they described his output as music for “small bedrooms and spacious minds” and as I looked around the vast expanse of the RAH, full of thousands of people, I realised I wasn’t sure I had ever really listened to The The with anyone else before. It had always been a personal experience, an intimate relationship between myself and the music. A place where I could be guided through the conflict of my mind and my desires and sing my heart and soul out in the safety of my room. And now I was in a really big room with lots of other people who had had the same experience but never shared it. After the initial adjustment it turned out to be a blissful affair.

Matt Johnson is a lovely lovely man who has been both derailed and inspired by tragedy. It was the death of his brother Andy ‘Dog’ who did all the artwork for his early albums who died young and suddenly which caused him to give up on music completely and then last year it was the death of his other brother which made him realise he had to return to music and on the day of the first comeback tour in Sweden, only a few days before the gig last night, his father died and there he was up on stage delivering an incredible show in the throws of grief. He told us this at the beginning of the gig and it was heartbreaking to know that after all this time he had to make his return riddled with grief. And yet, somehow he was able to translate this heaviness into a truly uplifting experience. I have no idea how he did it. He came across as a very sweet and sensitive soul but that is why I think his music connected so well, especially with every bloke in there, was that he had always been there to express the emotions we couldn’t. And as Brother Romero said, who was there with us, he was surprisingly amiable, easy going and jovial considering his music feels like the expression of a truly tortured soul.

He played tracks from throughout his career but had reworked a lot of the tracks into completely new arrangements to fit his new band. And rather than just regurgitate the hits he gave them all a fresh spin and they all sounded incredible and the band sounded so fucking good it was ridiculous. He was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more singing along at first, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that the songs had been so altered it was difficult to know when to come in. The RAH is also quite intimidating in some ways, and its majesty is both a help and sometimes a hindrance to the atmosphere as audiences are often on their best behaviour as they feel the venue demands it. There were a lot of old geezers in the crowd and they were definitely trying to be in-keeping with the environment although it was great to see people spontaneously leap up and start dancing. I wanted to rock out too but I was mesmerised and even though I knew every lyric of so many of the songs I was much more interested in hearing him sing than me. His voice sounded superb. Mine doesn’t. And so we all watched quite reverently for the most part but by the end we were all chanting out the words, pointing into the air and cheering like a footie crowd. To hear “This is the day” belted out by the audience was such an outstanding moment, a feeling of uplifting unity I will not forget, as the largely middle aged crowd sung like the young souls they had been and ultimately still were, just now on the inside rather than the outside.

The gig filled me with joy and I couldn’t quite get over I was actually seeing The The live. Kind of blown away. They finished the gig with a barnstorming version of Uncertain Smile and featured quite easily the greatest piano break I have ever heard live. I’m not in the habit of DPDAs (digital public displays of affection) but Mrs Romero swung it somehow to get us on the list for this gig (which had sold out in 3 minutes) and just wanted to say you’re a total fucking beauty for sorting it out. Bucket list entry signed sealed and delivered! I left as giddy as the teenager I once was when they had first permeated my mind. I even bought a knockoff band T shirt outside just as I would have done back then. They are at Brixton tonight and the Troxy tomorrow and I’m sure they will deliver two more incredible gigs. If you are thinking about it, it will easily be worth the tout ticket rates…

If you are not that aware of The The, please check em out on Spotify. Start with Soul Mining and Infected and then you won’t want to stop…

05/06/201805/06/2018

#MYLDN SPECIAL – #FREETHEJPEG NEWS FLASH!

If you can’t see the video above please click here to view: LINK

04/06/201804/06/2018

#MYLDN (1103)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

01/06/201802/06/2018

Despacio Goes APE!

Despacio was at All Points East Festival in Victoria Park…this is how it went down…

Hottest Despacio ever. Darkest Despacio ever but possibly the deepest too. Outside of the tent it was a beautiful summer’s afternoon but as soon as you walked through the entrance you were inside a dark, sweaty, bass beefy, edgy East London warehouse rave. It was not for the faint hearted. 2manydjs and James Murphy said in a recent interview for the Guardian about Despacio (link) that it rewards the patient. It is not for those who want a quick fix.This is very true. you have to get stuck in. You have to be committed and you have to give yourself over to it but if you do, your efforts will be more than amply rewarded. In relation to this Despacio it rewarded not just the patient but the brave.

It was pretty sweltering inside and very dark so it took at least 20mins for your body and brain to adjust. The heat was pretty intense so you had to kind of push through it and let your body acclimatise. I personally like the temperature on the outside of my body to be the same as the inside, that way my molecules and those around me are in unified heat harmony. Not for everyone mind. A lot clearly couldn’t handle it or didn’t understand what they were in and you saw quite a lot of people sail in, look confused as if they didn’t quite know what to do and then make their way to the exit again. And that is the great thing about Despacio, is that it acts like its own filter system, it weedles out anyone who who doesn’t get it and so everyone who does stay become the core crowd of the party. I actually love the fact that they don’t pander to the crowd. They’re like, this is what we are doing, get on board and we will take you on a journey of a lifetime, or don’t. S’up to you.

As it was much darker than previous outings, it was less about connecting with the people around you and more about connecting solely with the music. Its like those sensory deprivation tanks – as you have no other distractions you hear the music even better and the longer you are there the more you become one with it. What blows me away everytime is dancing to tracks you know but hearing and being able to dance to individual components as the clarity of system is so pronounced. You can literally cherry pick what bits you want to bust moves to and as you hear it so cleanly you are always bang on the beat. I pull moves I would never be able to pull anywhere else just because you can hear it so well and without sensory overload I could seriously get down.

I was there for 3 straight days, and barely left. a) I was having the time of my life at my favourite thing on Earth and b) it was such a jolt to go outside and have to adjust each time to the fact it was daylight and not nighttime I just stayed on the floor and just danced and danced and danced. And it was bliss. You lose yourself completely. You stop thinking. You just move to the music and give yourself over to the experience. By the 3rd day I couldn’t even remember who I was or what I did, I was just in it. Total immersion. At times I wasn’t sure even what I was listening to, I was at one with the beat and the music. I was utterly free.

As there was such minimal lighting and also so steamy I couldn’t really take many photographs. My camera really struggled to focus in the conditions. The shots you see are snatched moments when there was maybe a flash of light or else I have taken a long exposure in the dark and hoped that something would come out. This is why a lot of these pictures are so mashed up but in some ways they are a good reflection of the event and my experience.In some ways it was very liberating as couldn’t even try to get shots so I just got more and more stuck in.

And there was still time for plenty of shared appreciation with my fellow Despacio Heads. Some I had met at previous events and is always a great reunion and also made new friends as I have done at every one. The cult of Despacio is definitely growing, gaining die hard devotees every time and am now starting to meet people who had been time after time and done anything they could to get there…met Momo who had come from Tokyo, Auston who had come from Austin (kid you not), Albert and Catarina from Germany..welcome to the United Nations of Despacio!

What astounds me every time about Despacio and I have mentioned this before is that it is never the same twice. Not the environment, not the people, not the way they react to it, not the music. This was a very purist minimalist version. No theme, no props. The glitter ball, a focal point of every previous one barely featured and as a result there were a lot less smartphones out snapping every light explosion which meant ultimately that people got more into it. Less photo opps. Less distraction. It showed that all you really need are the speaker stacks and the floor and that’s pretty much it. And with a sound system and djs this fucking great that is all you will ever need.

Heard so many great tracks it was ridiculous…there was like a 10 minute drum track which I went APEshit to and one of my favourites was (I think) a Jarvis Cocker remix of a Pilooski track “Fuck Yeah” (if its even called that). I know that’s all pretty light on info but you can’t shazam this shit cos its either edits or slowed down to such a pitch it will never pick it up. But I am happy only hearing these tracks at Despacio because they will never sound as good as you hear them there. Not even close. So why bother? (if you do want to know some of other tracks they played dj mag just put out this Top 10 from the weekend: Link)

And it sounded so soo fucking good. So much oomphf. So much bang for your buck. I was talking to John Klett the designer who said they had replaced the drives in the bass units to give it a bit extra welly (as if it needed it) and it definitely felt like it had a bit more of a kick, a beefier bassier affair that gave the sound an extra dimension again and coupled with the relentless power and clarity of the McIntosh amps the sonic experience is pure bliss inducing heaven. During our conversation he also admitted that if you had in on full blast it would basically kill you. Apparently your cells would seperate and your organs would liquify. Shit you not. And now I know exactly how I want to check out. Death by Desacio! What a way to go! I might just need to check exactly what the timeframe we’re talking about here…as in from dialling up to 11 to actually croaking as not totally sure an extended period of agonising torture would be so ideal so would be good to know quite how long it would take but otherwise I’m in!

Its next outing is at Sonar in Barcelona (June 15/16/17) and I cannot wait. It is the last one scheduled for now and who knows when it will next appear…if you can get there, get there! See you on the dancefloor!

To see the full gallery please click here

01/06/201831/05/2018

#MYLDN (1102)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

It’s been one of those weeks..

31/05/201831/05/2018

#MYLDN (1101)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

30/05/201830/05/2018

#MYLDN (1100)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

29/05/201829/05/2018

#MYLDN (1099)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

25/05/201824/05/2018

#MYLDN (1098)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

all the photographs this week were taken within a single hour…

24/05/201820/05/2018

#MYLDN (1097)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

23/05/201823/05/2018

#MYLDN (1096)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

22/05/201820/05/2018

#MYLDN (1095)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

21/05/201820/05/2018

#MYLDN (1094)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

18/05/201818/05/2018

#MYLDN (1093)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

What do all the people in my photographs have in common this week? Absolutely nothing.

We seem to be obsessed at the moment with trying to bulk people together and make assumptions based on the groupings we put them in…women do this, men do that, muslims do this, jews do that, blacks do this, whites do that..etc yawn etc. Why are we convinced that people’s characters and motives can be explained by bunching together with a gi-normous amount of people who maybe share the same skin colour or gender or whatever? We would never diminish ourselves by this process or to those closest to us so why do we think its going to be an accurate analysis of anyone else when all we consider is their cultural or sexual identity?

I’m not saying there isn’t evil shit being done by certain groups of people but what those groups have in common is not their race or their religion but the fact that their members all have a bloodlust and think their ‘justified’ violence is a solution to unjustified violence done to them. And they think that is the correct solution without being able to see any sense of irony to that. It pains me to read that Britain is now a more racist place than it was before Brexit. Hate crime is up. And based on what? Faulty categorisation that’s what. To judge someone solely by race alone is just a pathetic use of available data. We obviously share some traits with certain demographics we belong to but they are a tiny part of the whole story.

Every single one of us has a universe inside of us and we are all a mass of contradictions. We are riddled with ideas that conflict with one another. We are the product of a multitude of different influences. There isn’t a person on the planet who’s defining characterstic is their nationality. It is only ever a part of who we are and it is also a part that we were born into. It was thrust upon us. We did not choose it.

I was born into a race, a religion and a nationality but they do not define me. Far from it. If anything I reject the notion of cultural identity. It is an illusion. And a prison. If you are human beings who happen to live near one another or have similar ancestors you might share a tinsy bit more dna than people on the other side of the planet but that is it and as the entire human race is 99.9% identical, flagging up the 0.01% as being a driving force in our behaviour is a pretty ridiculous thing to cling on to when you think about it.

People from different creeds and colours might actually stop fighting each other if they just chose to classify themselves in bigger groups. If you are a member of the human race (which I am assuming you are) you’re ‘out’ group would be aliens. Which have yet to be discovered so currently there is no-one to fight. See? Suddenly no enemies. No-one to hate, And all you had to do was identify as a member of a wider classification. World peace. Job done. Wasn’t that hard. Now where’s my mofo nobel prize?