Grasscut live in Paris @ Ninja Tune XX bday

Concert information

Andrew Philipps and Marcus O’Dair from Grasscut pay attention to detail. Everything in their live show hit our sweet spots: the perfect glitches in their electronica, the scratchy yet perfetly timed video synched to the tracks, the slicing and dicing instruments cutting through the "intelligent" beats that were making us bounce in our seats. We discovered another great Ninja Tune band, no surprise on that end... a definitely unique sound for 2010 mixing crackly oldschool influences in a modern high-tech package. very good stuff.

Artist

Grasscut

"These forms exist. They simply have fallen into disrepair." - W G Sebald

So begins the debut album from Grasscut, a transcendental journey from the Sussex South Downs of High Down to the Nintendo cathedral of Muppet. On its way it encounters both string quartets and casio keyboards, as well as a cast of voices including a 1920s tenor (The Tin Man), a Victorian singing poet (In Her Pride), gossiping mums and the Massed Voices of St Helier Choir (Muppet), a woman reminiscing about post-war rationing (1946), and two American property developers (Old Machines). The contemporary song cycle also features original vocals on several tracks.

Influences include Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Vaughan Williams, Brian Wilson, and Gavin Bryars.

Grasscut songwriter Andrew Phillips is an award-winning film and television composer with over 100 screen credits (to be viewed at unitedagents.co.uk/film/andrew-phillips/). His soundtrack album, Home, is out on Burning Shed and he has recently contributed tracks to Lo Recordings. He is also a former keyboard player, vocalist and arranger with One Giant Leap, working with Baaba Maal and Neneh Cherry.

He is joined on this journey by classically trained double bassist, keyboards player Marcus O'Dair. Live, they set up facing one another, at right angles to the audience, each armed with laptop and keyboard – Phillips on live programming, keyboards, vocals and guitar, O’Dair on double bass, stylophone, megaphone and toy piano. TThe pair made their live debut at the Loop Festival (Fourtet, Caribou, Holy Fuck) in August 2008, and have since performed at Tate Britain, the ICA, the Union Chapel and Koko, as well as opening the main stage at The Big Chill 2009. They have shared stages with Plaid, Clark, Luke Vibert, Tim Exile, Nathan Fake, Daedelus and Anti-Pop Consortium, and remixed the likes of Bonobo and Jaga Jazzist. They have been played on BBC Radio 1, 2 and 3 aswell as performing sessions on XFM and 6 Music. This is their first album together.

Also appearing on the record: Frank Byng (Snorkel – Slowfoot Records) and David Bramwell (Oddfellows Casino – Pickled Egg Records).

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Label

Ninja Tune

The label was founded in 1990. In 1994 Matt Black's close friend Mixmaster Morris introduced Matt to Openmind - a DJ & design collective in Camberwell - at the Telepathic Fish chill-out club they were running. Openmind included Kevin Foakes aka Strictly Kev of DJ Food. After submitting a re-styled company logo he was employed by Ninja Tune in the capacity of overall design consultant.[1]
Pre-dating Ninja Tune is the radio show Solid Steel, which Coldcut set up in 1988. What initially began as a radio show on then pirate Kiss FM went on to become a weekly podcast and also the name of live nightclub events showcasing the talents of a number of Ninja Tune artists. Solid Steel is also the name of a series of DJ mix CDs from the label.
In 2010, Ninja Tune are celebrating 20 years of releasing music. A book entitled Ninja Tune: 20 Years of Beats and Pieces was released on 12 August 2010, and an exhibition was held at Black Dog Publishing's Black Dog Space in London showcasing artwork, design and photography from the label's 20 year history. A compilation album is due for release on 20 September. It will be released in two formats - a regular version consisting of two 2-disc volumes, and a limited edition (of 3,500 copies), which will contain 6 CDs, 6 7" vinyl singles, a hardback copy of the book, a poster and additional gifts. Ninja Tune has recently been featured in Rip It Up Magazine where Matt Black discusses their phenomenal success over these past 20 years.

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Venue

Centre Pompidou

Centre Georges Pompidou (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ ʒɔʁʒ pɔ̃pidu]; also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture.

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by then-French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.

The Centre was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the British architect couple Richard Rogers and Su Rogers, Gianfranco Franchini, the British structural engineer Edmund Happold (who would later found Buro Happold), and Irish structural engineer Peter Rice.

Downstairs, find a simple, clean and efficient concert hall home to some extravagant and unique projects.

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Promoter

Ping Pong

Founded early 1998 by Frédéric Elalouf to highten the french public's awareness of quality music, Ping Pong has represented the biggest and baddest indie labels such as Ninja Tune, Big Dada, BBE, Counter Records, Ekler'o'Shock, Kartel, Lizart King...

A few of Ninja Tune's artists (and sub-labels):
Roots Manuva, Mr Scruff, Diplo, Daedelus, Bonobo, The Heavy, Amon Tobin, Dj Vadim, The Cinematic Orchestra, Pop Levi, Fink, Coldcut, The Herbaliser, Ghislain Poirier, K-The-I??? Spank rock...

But also Santogold, John & Jehn, The Pierces, Data, Danger, Leonard De Leonard, Munk, Son of Dave, Golden Bug...

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Styles