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ACE L I V E R P O O L
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2013 // ISSUE NO.7
+ BASTILLE dan smith talks films, festivals & the future... Page 7 - 10
+ ZEITGEIST Melody Loses Her Mojo Marc Chagall What s On Breaking Bad
ALEX & CO ARE BACK. BACK WITH A VENGEANCE. THEIR NEW ALBUM AM IS IMMINENT. HEAR ALL THEY HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE YEAR’S MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE... AND MORE. Pg. 15
C o n t e n t s
Arctic Monkeys
Editorial
team
We like change. So much so, we decided to do a whole lot of it: New logo, new size, new paper, new team, new website, new outlook. What we’re trying to do is r reativity of the city and provoke thought as Merseyside’s premier Arts & Culture publication. ACE is always searching for new voices to mould what we do, and even directly contribute to the project as a whole. If you’re a writer, photographer or designer and want to make a contribution, email editor@aceliverpool.com. Don’t forget to #GetInvolved on Twitter @ACELiverpool #ACE2.0
Editor: Dani Telford | @iarewriter_ Artwork: Alex Williams | @Alexander_JW Dani Telford Marketing: Liz Wilkinson | @Lilly_Betty14 Words: Dani Telford, Liz Wilkinson, Adam Scovell, Ellie McGinley, Jack Graysmark, Ashley Manning, Ben Thompson, Jenny Entwistle, Christopher Worral, Christopher Burns Images: Domino Records, Adam Scovell, Bluecoat Gallery, Deviant Artists
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Sept/oct highlights
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING 13/10/2013
Manchester’s newest favourite sons roll up to the o2 Academy Liverpool this October to delight fans with their eclectic stylings. Fusions of Psychedelic Electronica and Jonathan Higgs’ delightful falsetto will be in abundance. One certainly not to miss. O2AcademyLiverpool.co.uk
explor , Rage, Forgiveness, the occult, Salsa and Sequins ar ro-productions. Check out the Unity theatre website for dates and special offers. UnityTheatreLiverpool.co.uk
Melody Loses Her Mojo 20/09/2013 - 28/09/2013
Moyra Davey: Hangmen of England Until: 06/10/2013 Tate Liverpool hosts a new exhibition featuring the fascinating photography of New York based r, writer and photographer Moyra Davey. Using photographs taken on her recent visits to Liverpool and Manchester considers the everyday and will encourage you to r Tate.org
British Dance: Black Routes 13/09/2013 - 23/03/2014 The Inter exhibition centring ar roy Josephz as part of a broader enquiry into the experiences of Black British dancers between 1946 - 2005. The exhibition explores Racial issues along with the positive ef Black identity. The r y, Jazz, Ballet and Hip-Hop are traced through the ancestry of living citizens in an intriguing investigation.
Award winning writer/director Keith Saha of the 20 Stories High theatre company presents his new production at the Liverpool Playhouse this r. Melody Loses Her Mojo is a fusion of Hip-Hop theatre, dance, puppetry and street art, roller-coaster ride you will never forget. EverymanPlayhouse.com
April Ashely: Portrait of a Lady 27/09/2013 - 21/09/2014 Homotopia festival, Portrait of a Lady offers an enlightening exploration of the changing social and legal landscapes as seen by British transsexuals. The exhibition celebrates Liverpool-born V y, one of r fr the br
y. The exhibition is housed at res collections rchive alongside stories fro y.
LiverpoolMuseums.org.uk
Stephen King 16/09/2013 - 21/10/2013 Picturehouse @ FACT is screening classic Stephen r and October. A rar uncut version of The Shining is the cherry on top of includes classics such as Misery and Salem's Lot. re available on FACT's website. FACT.co.uk
Write Now Festival 18/09/2013 - 21/09/2013 The Write Now Festival of one-act plays returns for theatre. The celebration of new and original works
Homotopia.net
West Side Story 24/09/2013 - 28/09/2013 Returning to the UK after international success, Joey McKneely's vibrant stage production (featuring the original choreography of Jer Robbinson) is set to explode on to the Liverpool theatr r. A rd Bernstein and West Side Story relocates Shakespear West Side New York in an enthralling production Maria and I Feel Pretty
reography
such as Guardian Angel, Happiness and Sting like
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MUSIC 27/09/13 - 28/09/13 // CAMP & FURNACE
LIVERPOOL FESTIVAL OF PSYCHEDELIA Liverpool Psych Fest celebrates artists operating at the cutting edge of today's global psychedelic renaissance, expanding visual delights. MORE MUSIC
FEATURE
DAN SMITH TALKS TO ACE ABOUT FESTIVALS, SMASH HIT DEBUTS AND THE FUTURE...
Let’s start o with talking about the incredible success of your debut album, ‘Bad Blood’. It’s currently one of the biggest d Gold and went in straight at #1 on release. Plus, 3 months since it’s 4th March release, it was still top 15 on the o cial album chart. How do you begin to react this success? Since we released the album we've been lucky to have been pretty constantly busy and distracted. We've been touring pretty much non stop this year and so we haven't really had much time to stop and take stock of it which I think is probably a good thing. We've obviously massively happy about it. It was such a weird surprise, and it continues to be one, but having stopped and acknowledged that it was an awesome thing to have happened to us, it's probably best to move
on and get on with it. Most of the stuff we're doing now we had planned long before the album came out anyway, we're just lucky to be doing it now with an album that a bunch of people have listened to. Did you do anything in particular to celebrate? The day that we found out we were number 1 we were playing a gig in Leeds, which is where Kyle and I both went to Uni, so it felt like a bit of a homecoming gig which was fun. The tour that we were on at the time, and the European tour all sold out before ‘Pompeii’ did what it did anyway, so we’ve been quite nicely sheltered over the past couple of months playing to preexisting fans. I guess we’ve only just started playing festivals, playing to people who only know a couple of songs. To celebrate – we went to that gig which Continued... >
I love a good chorus; when I feel like I’ve written a good chorus I can’t rest of the song! was really fun and then literally had to get offstage, get on the tour bus and drive overnight back to London to jump on a plane and go to SXSW in America. It was very humbling going from our gig in Leeds and our tour with our crew and the comfort of that straight to America, where we'd never played before and where no one has any idea who we are. Our gigs at SXSW were pretty ad hoc - we borrowed gear and didn't get sound checks and had to run onstage to play little gigs in pubs - which is exactly the way we started out a couple of years ago. It was quite nice for us – it kind of feels like at no point have we allowed ourselves to step back and pat ourselves on the back… as a band we’re not particularly smug or big headed which is exactly how we would want it. I don’t know whether you’ve seen but Spotify now shows how many times a particular track has been listened to. Pompeii alone has been streamed over 19 million times when you penned this track, did you have any sort of inkling that you were onto something golden? No! Not at all, I had absolutely no idea! It’s so strange. I wrote the whole album in my bedroom and was just writing songs that I wanted to work on and enjoy making, and was just, sort of, messing around. It was all very much for fun, and when I was writing Pompeii… I’m really drawn to songs that… I love a good chorus. When I feel like I’ve written a good one I get really excited and Ir ff a song and recording the rest of it. As a lot of it is done in my room there’s a lot of layering of vocals and just trying out different sounds on the computer. It’s so strange that it seems to have struck a chord with people and taken on a life of it’s own, it’s not something we ever really predicted or thought would have happened. It’s really bizarre, and we're constantly amazed at the fact people in other countries seems to be into the song as well. It's taken on a bit of a life of its own. I watched your performance of that track at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend and I don’t think there was a single person within the tent that wasn’t singing along. It’s so nuts! The thing is, we've always been lucky to have a good live following. Our live and online following have always grown together and I think we’ve been lucky as our tours have always – particularly recently – have sold out and the crowds have always been really attentive and seem to known every word which is massively gratifying. It's interesting playing at festivals where it’s a bit of a different ball game. At your own gig you can accept that everyone there probably likes your music and are there because they want to hear you but playing at a festival… I’ve been to so
many festivals before and as well as the bands that I love, I’ll also check out the bands I haven't made my mind up about yet. It’s very much about playing to not necessarily your own audience, which is why it’s always so great if people come! And when there are people in the crowd, and when people know one of the songs it’s great. Before Pompeii came out we kind of had it with Flaws – that was the one song that everyone seemed to really know and it was always a point in the set where we could grab people with that song, now we have that with Pompeii and it’s such a nice feeling obviously. Just for me, having made the song on my laptop to go from that to then having a couple of thousand people singing a long to it… it’s very surreal! Now it may be hard to believe but this time last year you were playing venues such as Southampton Joiners and Birmingham’s Rainbow. You recently put on a headline tour for Autumn which includes two nights at London’s Brixton Academy which sold out in a few hours. How does it feel that so many people want to come and see you live? (Jokingly) I don’t know what’s wrong with everyone. It’s very weird, very surreal. Like I said before, we’re very happily busy at the moment to the point where some of the slightly unbelievable things have happened can be appreciated but we don't really think about them too much. There doesn't seem to be a huge point in dwelling on stuff. We’re so excited about the tour, we’ve worked really really hard on the live side of things over the last couple of years – we’ve gigged and toured quite relentlessly and so it’s quite gratifying to feel it grow. In my mind I thought maybe playing somewhere like Shepherd’s Bush Empire
We’ve always had a great live and online following. The crowds have always been really attentive and seem to known every word which is massively gratifying when performing on stage!
would be the pinnacle of everything we did for this album, so to play two nights at Shepherds Bush Empire, and then to go on and play two Brixton’s is just way beyond anything that we ever expected. We played Brixton Academy with Two Door Cinema Club in February and at the time we were like ‘This is so huge!’ and if we ever get to play here it’ll be in 5 years time. It’s so exciting for us, and we’re just really keen to put on a good show. We're trying to think of ways to incorporate visuals and just keep the show exciting and evolving so that people who have seen us before get something different out of it if they come again to another tour. We’re in an incredibly lucky position getting to do what we love for our job and little challenges like trying to put on a better show aren't bad ones to have. The fact that the
Have you got any current plans for Other People’s Heartache pt. 3? We keep talking about it and I would LOVE to make one. My ambition was to release one every Christmas so that’s kind of what we’re working towards but to be honest… looking ahead at our year we don't seem to have any days off so it might be tricky getting it done in time. At the moment, it’ e off to record for the mixtape whilst also trying to write and record a new proper album at the same time. I very very much hope it’ll happen but it might be in a slightly different form than the last ones. Also, last year we were able to make them very much under the radar so we kind of got away with using whatever samples and songs we wanted, but because we're doing a little bit better this year we might struggle to nick stuff quite so liberally. We might have to go down the slightly more legalised route of actually clearing quotes and covers and things like that! The mix tapes were always just something we did for fun, and a nice excuse for us to geek out and mess around with production and sounds and massively nod towar would probably be doing about 4 a year! The latest single ‘Laura Palmer’ has been quite integral to the band - it was the title rom Twin Peaks. Can you tell us a bit about the track for those who may not know the history behind the character? rector called David Lynch, and he, back in the 90s, did this TV show
called Twin Peaks. Laura Palmer was the main character, but the series starts with her having been murdered. She's positioned as this idealised, perfect character but as the series, and investigation progresses, her secrets and the hidden parts of her life are unpicked. David Lynch is very good at presenting everyday situations and making them quite weird and surreal and Twin Peaks is a lot darker than people might think. It was way before my time but I found it on DVD and watched the whole show, it just really grabbed me. It's funny and very strange, and as an idea I think it was such interesting way to present a character, to have her kind of unraveled after she has died. It sounds really morbid, but it’s so iconic. Not really for our generation, but she’s just a very iconic popular cultur re. I wrote the song while I'd been watching loads of the show, and Laura Palmer seemed to embody the idea in my mind of running away from problems. The song is basically a massive nod to the character and to Lynch.
What are your plans for rest of the year and beyond? This year… we've had loads of festivals, quite a bit of traveling, the tour in UK and Europe, touring recording another album, another Other People’s Heartache. We’re really excited. The most to make new songs. Promoting and touring the same stuff over and over you could potentially loose sight of the normality of sitting around making songs, so hopefully we can try and retain a bit of that as well.
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win 2 tickets Tweet @ACELiverpool with the answer to: How did Bob Marley like his doughnuts? #Answer
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With a bag full of names entering the city for Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF)’s bonanza weekend, it was sure to be a hit. But what we really enjoyed, was the local talent celebrated in style. And, after an inspirational series of live performances, LIMF is looking to inspire the next generation. On Sunday 22 September the Virgin Trains LIMF Academy will roll into the city bringing with it music industry expertise in the form of BBC Radio1 DJ Dev (who wowed the crowds on Bank Holiday Monday in Sefton Park) and Grammy award winning music producer Steve Levine. Open to 9-25 year olds, the Academy seeks those who want to learn more about the industry, develop their skills and look at ways in which to kick-start their career. Workshops that include song-writing, DJ-ing, dance, rap and more, will be hosted by industry experts ready to put you on the right path for fame.
“Liverpool has historically punched above its weight around the world in terms of creative musical talent, both in front and behind the mixing desk. However for many years some of this area’s younger creative individuals have not always had the breaks they deserve.
Liverpool has historically punched above its weight in terms of musical creativity “With a corporate sponsorship underpinning this new initiative, hopefully we can change the future for these bright individuals and get them well-paid jobs in the best business in the world - the music business!” - Steve Levine.
ALBUM REVIEWS
Moderat Moderat II
Newton Faulkner Studio Zoo
Ellie Goulding Halcyon Days
Moderat, the collaborative project of Apparat and Modeselektor, an alliance of Berlin electronicians, have literally been taking the world by storm. This highly anticipated sophomore release, though modestly titled, has all the substance and style one requires for a down right quality album. With a bundle of loose dub session tracks like “versions”
This fourth album made history as the multi-platinum selling acoustic guitar maestro, Newton Faulkner, live-streamed the entire recording process, 24/7 for
numbers such as “milk”, this truly is a crafted piece of genius.
home studio. His seemingly effortless ability to create insanely catchy and memorable hooks, along with his distinctive percussion-on-guitar playing style, will see this album reach similar heights in the charts, as his previous records, we don’t doubt.
Ellie Goulding’s steady ascent into the upper echelon of pop stardom hasn’t entirely been a quick one. We’ve watched her grow, even just from last year when she graced the cover of ACE. The latest album ‘Halcyon’, re-released as Halycon Days has a handful of new tracks with some great collaborations to add to her chart topping accolades. Songs like the sumptuous “Under Control” and “In My City” r af mation and transformation.
AlunaGeorge Body Music
Acid Washed House of Melancholy
Arctic Monkeys AM
So this debut album from rising RnB duo, AlunaGeorge had ACE clamping the headphones on just that little bit harder. Easy on the ears, its constellation of contemporary electro-pop elements makes for a masterpiece. Still, there is a slight feeling that perhaps too much is going on and the strongest tracks are those which have already been circulating online for more than a year. Worth a download.
ACE loves duos, clearly. This Parisian combination, blend house music, electronica and a bit of 70’s Italo Pop to produce a complex yet compelling sound for House of Melancholy, their second full length album. ‘Fire n Rain’ is a stand out track, with a darker pop and retro feel. The magic is in the balancing act however; their ability to juxtapose uplifting and light sound to combat the darker really makes Acid Washed shine. We swear you’ll be hooked.
The most exciting band of our generation has just got that bit more, well, exciting. Recording on a four track, yes, old school folks, the Arctics have upped their AM, pushing lyrical boundaries. It leaves nothing to debate - Arctic Monkeys have emerged as truly great artists. The hooks in ‘Arabella’ and ‘No 1 Party Anthem’ are insane. Ending the album is Turner’s take on John Cooper Clarke’s poem, ‘I Wanna Be Yours’. A treat.
THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS feat. THE HANDCART BAND
Saturday 26 October: District, Liverpool L1 0BW
Doors: 9pm till late
est. 1992
Tickets: £12.50 in advance or £15 on the door In person: Dr Hermans, Bold Street L1 t: 0844 477 100 w: ticketweb.co.uk visit: africaoye.com for more info
MAIN FEATURE
Words: Ben Thompson Images: Domino Records
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ARCTIC MONKEYS
The band’s initials, a new morning, an analogue radio frequency and an existential statement - the title of Ar h album AM suggests all of those things and more. And the record itself lives up to this pithily resonant billing by being, in drummer Matt Helders’ typically forthright estimation, “the album we’ve always been waiting to make”. It starts with a sumptuously squelchy syntheticsounding beat. This turns out to have been built out of all too human body parts, as all four Arctic Monkeys got together to contribute foot-
stamps and knee-slaps - “which might make people think of Lederhosen,” admits frontman Alex Turner, “but really it’s the antithesis of that... and there was no bunting either.” So AM’‘s opening moments eschew the queasy camaraderie of the ersatz hoedown in favour of a tautly compressed human pulse? “We wanted to come up with a different sort of clap”, Turner explains, “and the way Tchad Blake mixed it makes it sound like someone banging their head r
AM starts with a sumptuously squelchy synthetic sounding beat
“I like the way it feels dead wooden”, chimes in Matt Helders, in the unabashedly earth-bound spirit of drummers from time immemorial. And this exuberant collective attention to aural detail carries through each of AM’s 12 songs. Whether it’s the En Vogue-worthy backing vocals of “One For The Road”, the crunching Black Sabbath drum-lurch of “Arabella” or the maudlin pedal-steel of “No 1 Party Anthem”, ear-catching particulars never stand out for their own sake but constantly add to the greater glory of the whole. And since meticulous sonics are no use without tunes, AM has those in clubs. From the lilting space age come-on of “Do I Wanna Know?” to the heady swoon of “Mad Sounds” to “Snap
Ear-catching particulars never stand out for their own sake but constantly add to the greater glory of the whole. Out Of It”s blatantly irresistible chorus, this is an album to sing along with even as you’re wondering if the lyrics can really be as good as they sound, befor that they’r thought. Continued... >
ARCTIC MONKEYS
Alex Turner’s reputation as a phrase-maker has been assured since the headlong rush of Arctic Monkeys’ early singles drove them to the fastest selling debut album of any British band in history. Still very much present and corr albums in are the chewy verbal gobbets “summat in your teeth”, “simmer down and pucker up” - which continue to release their rough multiple mastications. Ditto Turner’s way with a killer two-liner ( “Been wondering if your heart’s still open/And if so I wanna know what time it shuts” and “That place on memory lane you liked looks the same/But something about it’s changed” being two But what marks AM out as a real step forward in Alex Turner’s songwriting is the languid elegance with which these lyrics unfurl - easing
seamlessly from verse into chorus and back again with the insidious logic of Jay-Z’ rnal rhymes and alliteration abound, their ef Turner’s insinuating crooner’s delivery. He lingers tenderly over lines like “RU Mine?”’s “She’s a silver lining lone ranger riding through an open space in my mind” as if making them scan was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. “There was a lot of sitting up on my own all night long battling with the puzzle this time - probably more than before”, Turner admits. “I had a dartboard in the back garden and I’d throw arrows as I’d sit there trying to write. There was rds were going and where the darts would land - a fair amount of missing the board altogether brought me the occasional treble twenty”.
One of the main themes of AM seems to be going back to things that have fallen into disuse and resh they can be Arctic Monkeys were fully aware of the dangers inherent in putting these ingredients together “It’s total chemical reaction time”, Turner admits. “You take too much from one world and you don’t get the right colour smoke”. But from the minute “R U Mine? e signpost for the new direction, they knew they were on the right track. “When we got to the breakdown and it dropped to them two [Helders and bassist Nick O’Malley] doing the backing vocals together, we all liked it so much, we just thought ‘Let’s make a record that surrounds that’”, Turner explains. “From then on I’d sing the part and they’d kind of wrap their voices around it”. Were they doing that thing with their hands when they went for the high notes? “It’s all in the hands, but it helps if you wiggle your head around a bit too”. Technology also played its part, but not the state-of-the-art kind. “Even before the band I used to mess around on an old four-track cassette recorder that belonged to my dad”, Turner remembers. “Then I got given one for my birthday last year, and we really liked the way it sounded. So we worked on it for three weeks straight till we wore out the mechanism. I equipment and you just have to let them out there’s a few riffs we owe that machine. There weren’t that much head room in it, and if we cranked up the gain and got Matt to play really soft, it sounded just like a sample. The snare we got that way became the DNA of the whole record”. One of the main themes of AM seems to be going back to things that have fallen into disuse resh they can be, whether that be an antique tape-recorder, or “I Wanna Be Yours”, the vintage John Cooper-Clarke poem they turn into a lights-down school disco slow jam on the album’s closing number. Those who’ve seen Arctic Monkeys play live over the past year - from the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics to the main stage at Glastonbury on a Friday - have already seen (and heard) the roach. “There was a time I couldn’t bring myself to play ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’”, Turner admits, “but we can strike up a pretty good cover of it now. There’s an excitement about this new album that makes it much easier for us to do the old ones justice. You get to a point where you’ve
been round the block enough times to know that it’s kind of alright, and it’s not all meant to be about you anyway”. Ar
rock ’s not all about them. Anyone who thinks that sounds a bit grown-up will probably be reassured by the last thing they really liked about the AM soundwave which adorns the cover of the album. Alex Turner laughs: “It kind of looks like a bra”. Recorded in a small East Hollywood studio with long term collaborator James Ford riding the faders, the third album Arctic Monkeys have made in their adopted home of LA takes the best elements of its two predecessors and gives them an entirely fresh twist. In terms of AM’s overall sound, it would be stretching a point a little to call it Arctic Monkeys’ G-Funk album, but there’ Warren G’s “Regulate” in the air. “If someone asks ‘Is this the West Coast record?’ the question would normally have a different connotation, but that’s what it means to us,” Turner agrees. But anyone hoping to see Matt Helders throwing gang signs from behind his kit is going to be disappointed. The malt liquor of Death Row records is chased down by at the very least a Bacardi Breezer of what the drummer calls “Girlfriend music - the music our girlfriends were listening to at school when we were into Dr Dre”.
Y re you’ve been around long ’s kind of alright, and it’s not all meant to be about
“With people like Aaliyah,” Turner explains, “what’s sometimes seen as being cheesy is actually a real coolness about the melodies, and we wanted to get a bit of the way that music moves into what we were doing. That also went hand in hand - in our minds at least - with Seventies rock ‘n’ roll: all those bands like Black Sabbath and the Groundhogs that we listen to very loud in the dressing room when we’re on tour... We call them ‘thin drum-stand bands’, because whatever the drums are standing on sounds like it’s a bit wobbly, but that’s part of what’s so great about them”.
AM by Arctic Monkeys is out on Domino Records no ...
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FILM 28/08/2013
THE WAY WAY BACK Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a r manager of the W MORE FILM
ELYSIUM Whatever Neill Blomkamp does from now on you can’t help but feel it will be (unfairly) judged against District 9. Provocative, humorous and tragic, that gem came from nowhere and took on ideas far above its reach (and budget) and manhandled them with grace. Blomkamp is back with Elysium and like its predecessor, it is a socially knowing tale addressing much of the same. Blomkamp pitches us in Los Angeles 2154. The earth is in a terrible state. Ravaged by over population, disease and pollution; L.A. resembles the very worst poverty-stricken shanty town you can imagine. In desperation, a gigantic space station known as Elysium has been utopia complete with lawns and mansions that would make Jay Gatsby blush, crystal clear oceans and machines that can cure any ailment in seconds. It’s a safe haven away from the hell of Earth; however, it’s only available for the aristocracy and the super wealthy.
The squalor on Earth, in classic Blomkamp fashion, looks beautiful. The sun shines off steel high rises that lay decimated while row after row of depleted huts line up on top of each other like scattered dominoes amid cr this is all spectacularly in the tormenting shadow of Elysium. It is in this dust and grime we meet Matt Damon’s reformed crook Max De Costa. De Costa dreams of Elysium but he is stuck in the dirt and makes a living assembling machine parts for the brutal robots that now police the state. But when an accident at his place of work exposes him to a days to live so in response he concocts a plan to get to Elysium in order to heal and, consequently, save himself. Make no mistake, Blomkamp goes for the jugular with the social satire once again here; the inevitable illegal immigration to the space station is dealt with
set pieces and the social concern and Damon is a reen presence as he blends into the down and out environment effortlessly, but his character say, District 9’s Wikus. The predictable arc of De Costa is weak compared to the volatile and misunderstood protagonist of Blomkamp’s previous effort and it feels like Elysium is always lagging behind because of this. Looking industrial and grim, the gadgetry is inventive, the landscapes are washed out but picturesque and Blomkamp does succeed in crafting something that shakes you out of apathy. In its best moments it almost works as a distant companion piece to something like Blade Runner, g out like a Paul Verhoeven homage, just without the humour, insight or patience and it’s here where Elysium, unfortunately, comes crashing down. Christopher Burns | @Christophj87
FILM REVIEWS
Making a comedy out a grisly true event is not inherently bad and neither is the idea of Michael Bay, best known for the recent Transformers franchise, making a self-labelled ‘art-house’ movie. In fact, when it was announced it was fascinating to think how far Bay would stray from his brand of loud, brash and effects-laden cinema that almost universally dismays critics while simultaneously earning hundreds of With Pain and Gain, he shows he can create something deeper than mindless and often soulless blockbusters. Quite what that is however, is ultimately a rather grim realisation. Pain and Gain is the depiction of Sun Gym Gang; a trio of bodybuilders who brutally extorted riches from wealthy victims and lived hedonistic dreams until their world crashed down following their arrests and convictions. The actors playing the trio (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie) play these roles rather well by blending their inherent vileness and brutal easiness with their crimes with a sense of deluded grandeur that their actions ar ream. Johnson is the best of three as he is able to make his character, a drugaddicted reformed Christian, have a degree of depth. V ’s best work; the cinematography and camerawork are used intelligently in parts and there are moments wher symbolism to interesting affect. However re or critique of both of the horr ’s attempt to make this comedic fails very badly quite simply because rather than disappr misogyny (women are almost entirely to be ogled at or laughed at) and the general brutality are lingered on in an almost fetish-like obsession or played for laughs akin to a buddy comedy. The end r its moral compass isn’t too dissimilar from the vile truth it consistently reminds us of. Quite literally remind the viewer through both voiceover and actually freezing the action that these events were true. If they were true, then why do you seem to take such unsettling glee in playing them for laughs? What may have been a satire ends up feeling as unpleasant and sombre as laughing at victims on a gallows…
Lovelace
The Way Way Back
A sequel that had a lot to live up to, Kick-Ass 2 ends up delivering almost exclusively disappointment. The good moments that are in the rey’s annoyingly brief performance as Colonel Stars and Stripes and an re vastly outnumbered by the bad ones. The ’s main issue is its change in tone from its predecessor. Where Kick-Ass was bright, intelligent and exciting, this is grimy, stupid and dull. The attempt to make the characters grittier and more emotionally and intellectually involving doesn’t work because it instead just makes them cruder, meaner and almost universally unpleasant. Leery, empty and with wit substituted with jokes about
The darkness and trappings of the porn industry in the 1970’s are captured in devastating detail in this biopic of infamous porn star Linda Lovelace. Amanda Seyfried is brilliantly charismatic and vulnerable as Linda who faces the misogynistic attitudes of the era, as well as the violent and controlling nature of her husband, Chuck Traynor, played menacingly by Peter Sarsgaard. Also starring James Franco and Shar documents Lovelace’s experiences while making the infamous porn r fallout that followed. On occasion T.V movie territory through some generic stylings and an intrusive score that sometimes undercuts the tension and severity of the subject matter. At times, a little lightweight and underwritten but still a compelling yet tragic portrait.
Jim Rash and Nat Faxon are at it once again, dipping their toes into the murky waters of family dysfunction juxtaposed against a backdrop of idyllic panorama. A mere eighteen months after The Descendants, the oscar-winning pair make their debut as directors rather than just writers in this irr must applaud such a belting effort. Fourteen year old Duncan, played by Liam James is hurled into family life with his mother’s new beau (Steve Carell) and his daughter as they make a trip to his summer house. Unresponsive and resentful after his parent’s divorce, Duncan despises his new family life and is soon drawn to this kitschy water park, where we see him come into his own. With some absolute corker
disappoints on its own but does such a disservice to its wonderful predecessor – a crushing shame.
Dani Telford | @iAreWriter_
Kick Ass 2
Christopher Burns | @Christophj87
Christopher Worral | @ChrisDWorrall
Christopher Worral | @ChrisDWorrall
Pain and Gain
hash-tagging @TheWayWayBack the minute you leave the cinema.
BROKEN BEAUTY Words: Christopher Burns // @ChristophJ87
A middle aged chemistry teacher contracts terminal lung cancer. He hooks up with a former burn out student of his and begins cooking crystal meth to bring in the money that could support the family after his death. It’s Mr Chips meets Scarface. The original pitch was referred to by one television executive as ‘the worst I’ve ever heard’. But with twenty-four Emmy nominations under the belt, numerous Screen Actors Guild and critic’s choice awards; it's now possibly one of the most talked about and greatest shows, in the history of television itself. The man behind that pitch, Vince Gilligan, is celebrated in the same breadth as fellow TV maestros David Chase and David Simon. To quote Jesse Pinkman "Hell yeah Bitch". This month, Breaking Bad comes to an end after ’s a show that started life under the roadcast on British rew through wor W ’ rom Walter White, a mild mannered, unassuming, daren’ a tragic diagnoses of lung cancer hits him, he rom there on out, along with former student Jesse Pinkman, rdous, drug r
has crafted a story ‘ Gilligan about the repressed side of us and what happens when that repression erupts into something
over who we once were.
’
s
A concept that could have been treated carelessly and crassly, has been given weight by the sheer amount of meticulous effort afforded to it. Gilligan has frequently drafted in some of the most technically interesting directors around to lead the episodes (Brick and Looper’s Rian Johson being one) which has offered a genuine cinematic feel. The supporting character’s are far more than caricature’s caught up in the protagonist’s web’ Anna Gunn as Walter’s wife Skyler strengthens the show’s claim for not only structuring strong male characters and the heartbreaking vulnerability on display from the sensational Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman gives the audience quite an unlikely hero. Along with some distinctively beautiful pallets, the show’s stunning iconography has separated it from anything else on television since its inception; the beat-up recreational vehicle, the sparse and dry Albuquerque
landscape, the bright yellow hazmat suits, the gasmasks, the blue meth, the beard, the sunglasses, the pork pie hat... I could go on. Spawning its own catchphrases that have subtly sunk into the pop culture lexicon with ease; I am the one who knocks, Better call Saul and Jesse’s tireless signature, Bitch, are just a select few. Aside from the comedic touch that Gilligan and his writers have blessed the show with, let's talk about the DNA, what it’s really all about... has crafted a story about the repressed side of us and what happens when that repression takes over who we once were. Walter White’s alter ego, Heisenberg doesn’t tread lightly. He can lower his gaze and scare off the most hardened cartel members, drug enforcement agents and is capable of monstrous acts. He truly is a different kind of anti-hero. It’s the same with all individuals and their alter-egos. Where does one end and one begin? It’s an ideology applied to superheroes and here we have it applied to Gilligan’s own super-villain. The show is about becoming who you really want to be in many respects and that's what gives the show a devastating intensity. Breaking Bad deconstructs the world as the average person knows it. Walter, using his sickness to distance himself from everybody else. Walking as a dead man, he begins to see life as a game, after-all, a giant timer is hanging over his head, why wouldn’t he? Death is inevitable to him; it’s waiting, stalking and living in his lungs. He knows it but he chooses to live life on his own terms. In the same way The Sopranos was never really about gangsters or The Wire was never really about crime, Breaking Bad is not about drugs. It never was. Breaking Bad is something a touch beyond the meth, the violence and the death. It’s about metamorphosis from victim to antagonist. It’s about constantly reinventing yourself in the face of death. Gilligan doesn’t implore the audience to side with his protagonist, he lets Walter br own way and if that turns your stomach... then so what; you can’t possibly understand the decisions Walter makes and why until you are he looks upon the name of his alter ego, Heisenberg, spray painted across the living room wall of his now derelict and pillaged family home and in some way, it’s the crowning moment of Breaking Bad so far, like Percy Shelley once wrote In the 1818 poem Ozymandias ’ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" W e sort of fallen idol or legend, but Heisenberg is the name, not Walter White, and you just know, it’s a name everyone is going to remember. BREAKING BAD SERIES 5 IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX
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Current Special Exhibition until March 2014 Meet The Lady Behind The Lord Celebrating the life of Lady Lever and her special relationship with Port Sunlight
GATEWAY TO PORT SUNLIGHT GARDEN VILLAGE 0151 644 6466 www.portsunlightvillage.com 23 King George’s Drive, Port Sunlight, Wirral CH62 5DX
ART 14/09/13 - 28/09013
SPACE IS NOT A VOID By incorporating contemporary collage and sculptural assemblages, SPACE IS NOT A VOID explores the phenomenology of space. Drawing together practices which embody a strong sense of materiality, each work forces the viewer to consider and question their surrounding environment. MORE ART
CHAGALL TATE LIVERPOOL
There are few artists that sum up the monumental changes and events of the last century quite as succinctly as Marc Chagall. Ther ’s consistency and unprecedented long life (living to the astronomical age for an artist of the era of 98) seem to lend him a certain advantage, especially in showing the scars, beliefs and e ects of some of the century’s most trying and historic of moments. This evolution of the work in relation to history is brought to the fore in latest retrospective at Tate Liverpool simply because it is largely in chronological order, allowing for work to become “post” events or “pre” movements creating a charter of Chagall’s visionary moments and his reactionary moments. Opening with his early work, some themes become instantly apparent. Though seeming to be inward looking towards his own past and ideologies, Chagall is clearly an artist who cannot but help be gr round him too. There’s simply no way to shut off the incidents even from when he was younger and scarred by the century’ r. His reaction to the avant-garde, cubism in particular, shows the would later supplant into surrealism. Paris Through The Window (1913) instantly brings forth this curiosity course before Jazz and Henri himself. The work shows a number of Chagall’s recurring ideas, namely that of the window to new worlds and ideas, sometimes to colourful utopias, sometimes simply as a place to sit one’s problems within. Paris Through the Window also shows the artist’s desire to characterise creatures and show the multiple personalities of people in an abundantly physical way. These creatures and surreal forms of people make their way into a number of works including The Yellow Room (1911) and, most impressively, I and the Village (1911). I and the Village is the exhibition’s poster-boy in that it contains almost everything Chagall clearly cares for. Its people are sketched into a folkloric world that is equally traditional as it is utterly surreal. The landscape of this small place is full of typically Russian buildings but is also created on the faces of animals and people. In this sense, it seems thoroughly Freudian, building a landscape on the culture.
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CHAGALL The people of Chagall’s painting seem unaware of their surroundings and limitations. They often express emotional release and intensity through impossible physical actions such as bending back over, stretching ar With Head Thrown Back (1919) shows this perfectly with Chagall even signing his name upside down at the top of the frame in order to play into the illusion. This freedom within the artist’s world is present in a large portion of the paintings; often hinting at more of a symbolic nature than a playful one. One of the exhibitions most interesting segments is The Sense of Self and Jewish Themes collection which provides an interesting array of both Jewish ideas and Russian culture. The Praying Jew (1913-1914) indicates a change of style, at least in surreal exploration. It is instead a gentle nudging of form with a relatively formal portrait as if Chagall is more interested in capturing the subject for reasons more along the lines of posterity. Jew in Red (1915) also presents itself in such a way but instead injects a wave of red, even making the subject’s beard a particular shade of impressive maroon. He’s also in possession of a single green hand, while his other is white. Again symbolism is rife within Chagall’s work but for what exactly, is uncertain. This exhibition also displays some of Chagall’s larger work including the notoriously huge The Wedding Feast (1920) and his theatre work. rom 1920) somehow lose Chagall’s sense of charming detail and become something else entirely. By stretching the ideas over far bigger areas, they thing out and form something new, certainly nowhere near as vivid. It is in the later works of Chagall then that the exhibition ends and it seems an apt place for the artist.
Towards the Late Work houses a handful of paintings ranging from 1924 to 1967. The paintings see an injection of black, almost morbidly so. The free association and surreal charm is still there but alongside it is something obviously darker and more uncomfortable. For the description of Red Rooftops (1953), the information card quotes Chagall on love and suggests a tie-in to love through the colour of red. Yet it seems far too optimistic a description. The characters are all downcast, unsure and confused. The place itself is far from the magical, folkloric realms of earlier. It appears in this later work that history has caught up with Chagall completely and the inescapable shadow of the Second World War, which casts itself so violently ’s colourful, optimistic world.
FEATURE
Portfolio NW The word portfolio might imply that the latest exhibition at The Bluecoat is quite a simple collection of work. The dreaded P word, ever the bane of the developing artist, might hint that Portfolio NW is the lucky chance for a number of up and coming artists to y have their work shown in a more public-centred gallery. From reading Jack Welsh’s excellent accompanying notes and wandering around the, at the time violently leaking, space, the obviousness which accompanies the word may be far more inward looking Continued >>
Words: Adam Scovell @AdamScovell
TADHG DEVLIN
These are mini-portfolios of what is currently happening on the North-West but the methodology of putting together the work as such almost implies that there is no way of escaping these current trends and in fact it is entirely plausible that, like the best of portfolios, its attempt to showcase a scene or oeuvre of an artist will actually be more likely to create one within itself. Rebecca Chesney’s room goes against this but other artist’s work does indeed scream of a stylised, inescapable movement. Chesney’s work is interesting in that it balances haphazard, almost random objects with a deeply personal connecting stem. This stem is only apparent with the knowledge and thought behind the works but in some cases the work is interesting enough to stand on its own. Chesney travelled to Romania, mor rea of the Carpathian Mountains in a Herzegovina jour Vadu Zbor. With this knowledge, the seemingly nonsensical collection of a dead blackbird, photographs, video and pieces of ceramic become a more melancholic day-dream back to the past of this abandoned village, now only in existence through broken objects and obscure memories. However this story is worth taking with more and a fair pinch of salt. Hannah Wooll’s work in oil and ink is more in line with the term portfolio, being a literal collection of papers and boar represent where the artist is currently poised. The artist has forty works on display all of which
carry the distorted sense of character and proportion. They seem more of a satire upon the romanticised portraits of classical women, deliberately bringing out their fragility in the most ironic of ways. Most of the women painted look most surprised at their existence within each canvas, just on the cusp of a quiet dawn of realisation that their whole emotional make-up is at the hands of a painter, forever destined to be portrayed as docile.
KAI-OI JAY
of Dave Evans where the shambolic collides with the solid photographic work. Evans’ sculptures seem inexplicably linked with time, as if each accidental looking crease has cr y effect manifesting itself into a huge sculpture of paper and wood. The work of Kai-Oi Jay Yung in the backspace of Gallery Three felt a little more unintentionally ’s almost a given that the space and work will improve greatly when the artist’s planned activities are happening (various dance themed events) and, exempting some interesting photographic work, is a random collection of objects that create only the slightest of correlations.
TADHG DEVLIN
The photography work of Tadhg Devlin also captures the artist’s current interests perfectly; being stuck in a perpetual limbo dictated by location and its effect on identity. The photographs themselves have a character driven aesthetic typical of a more gritty photographic persona but it is again about the shadowing foreknowledge that brings a more emotional resonance to the work. These photographs play off well against the sculptures
There are plenty of other points of interest at Portfolio NW (alongside Claire Weetman’s Vide installation which is a separate but interesting entity) but here, there is enough discussed to understand the workings of Portfolio NW ’t simply a showcase but a curatorial experiment within the very idea of display and communication between artist, gallery and viewer artists is being increased (at least in a creative sense, probably mor sense) but more that these artists have a chance to develop their work within an environment that has in depth relationships already inbuilt in the viewers that enter the r advertisement, promotion, endorsement or any other buzzword often associated with portfolios.
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THEATRE 24/09/13 - 28/09/13
WEST SIDE STORY Choreography by the legendary Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim & Leonard Bernstein’s unforgettable score. West Side Story changed the face of musical theatre for ever. MORE THEATRE
MELODY LOSES HER
MOJO
This month sees the introduction of Hip-hop theatre at the Liverpool Playhouse. Running from Friday 20th September to Saturday 28th September, the dynamic and ground-breaking theatre company 20 Stories High debuts a unique blend of spoken word, music, dance, puppetry and street art opening in the city ahead of a nation wide tour. Using lyrical storytelling, captivating contemporary visuals and an inventive use of live music, Melody Loses Her Mojo manages to weave an emotional tale that is both gritty and funny. Writer and director Keith Saha’s story centers on Melody, a young girl in care who has been separated from her little sister Harmony. She has to keep hold of her toy monster Mojo to keep her on the straight and narrow. However when new girl Blessing arrives from Nigeria and tries to steal her best friend Rizla, Melody’s demons begin to take over her Mojo with devastating consequences. The tale follows three youths as they begin to fend for themselves in a world that sometimes feels unreal. The stellar cast manages to capture the imaginations of their audience as Melody attempts to keep ahold of her Mojo. With a remarkable artistic team including Puppet Director Sue Buckmaster, Choreographer Kwesi Johnson, Visual Artist Mark Wigan and international beatboxing champion Hobbit; Melody Loses Her Mojo is a truly modern theatre experience. The collaboration of the Liverpool based Theatre Company 20 Stories High with the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, shows a determination from the city to engage young people into the theatre going experience. General trends across the country show that theatre attendances are dominated by an ever increasing older audience, with young people from diverse backgrounds becoming ever more disenfranchised with the thespian world. There are many reasons as to why this is happening, with the most obvious being the steady rise in ticket prices. Last year silver screen legend and artistic director of London’s Old Vic theatre Kevin Spacy expressed his despair that theatres had become an “exclusive club” and that “If we don’t reach out to make theatre affordable to the young generation we will lose them all. It is so short-sighted not to think about your future audiences”. It is easy to see his point. re
Tickets can range from £20-£40, which compared to an £8 trip to the cinema is a steep price to pay for a student, young couple or family. Team that with the “Cinema Experience” of 3D, IMAX and DMAX. Summer blockbusters with multi million pound price tags and big Hollywood names the little boards of local theatres don’t really stand much of a chance. Then there are the productions themselves. Britain’s illustrious role call of playwrights includes Shakespeare, Pinter, Stoppard, Wilde and Shaffer. Yet to many who make up our diverse country the plays penned by these men have little relevance to their own lives. However with a new generation of
directors and writers emerging, the term “youth theatr h bums on seats” With plays like Melody Losers Her Mojo, ACE hopes that the tide can be turned towards greater youth engagement with the theatre. We have an exceptionally rich history for this art form in Britain, and it would be a crime if a whole generation were to miss the wonderful experience of sitting within a theatre waiting with anticipation for the safety curtain to rise. Tickets are available now to order from the Playhouse Or online at: www.everymanplayhouse.com Elizabeth Wilkinson @Lilly_Betty14
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ZEITGEIST
Want to contribute? Contact Editor@ACELiverpool.com
ACE Columnists talk contemporary culture, trends, technology, and the future...
ZEITGEIST
GUARDIANS OF THE REPUBLIC Words: Dani Telford @iarewriter_
13:07pm. Tuesday. April 23rd. AP News Agency in Washington sends out a tweet that would shake the stock markets within milliseconds.
#Over9000 #Mudkips and #I’veLostMyIpod, recognisable codes for unanimity now mean something greater, their scale of importance y, it happened by accident, but this group of, well, let’s call them geeks, now stand tall against oppression and make valuable [debatable] contributions to democracy acr technological age of moving toward persistent identity with your social footprints, emails, and even physical being, tracked daily Anonymous makes it possible to exist outside of
“Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured” Algorithms programmed to scan the internet for keywords and phrases that may affect the markets, seized the tweet and immediately sent r 140 points, with in excess of $200 billion of y, ‘are yo serio s?’ Only, the tweet was exposed as a ronic Army] a few, reprehensibly long and chaotic, r. President Assad’s own digital red lambastic forwar ’s most read online newspapers, The New York Times, res reaching almost 4 million
basement. Har
re than a y, criminal acts committed by re teenage boys, hiding reens in their mother’s
re on the receiving end. Perhaps it’s more compr Wall reet or Operation Payback to see potential rcible sense of moral high-gr reedom and expr pr powers that be. Only, as with most things, ideas and philosophies become skewed and somewhat biased when we’r loose global collective. r-gr following from their origins; heroes of the r rdians of the r What began as a marginal segment of society, re, V for Vendetta
world, the internet, while citizens lay dying in the str Y reinstallation of internet access so word could be spr rocities, emergency health Treat Tear Gas’ re made available to those in need and cyber attacks were directed at the dictator’ people.
rom the 2005
recognisable codes for reater, their y, it r let’s call them geeks, now stand tall against oppr r n a technological age of moving toward emails, and even physical being, tracked daily reedom that died for.
r ressed his nation, he oppressed their movements, their speech, he
y, in the r
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re, physical protests r
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disobedience, in the same name of political ression, speech and power in which to demonstrate? re does the line start... and where does it end.
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ZEITGEIST
BATMAN, AFFLECK AND THE POWER OF THE TWEET Words: Ashley Manning @AshleyManning_
It was recently announced that Ben A eck will star as Batman in the up and coming thousands of fans took to Twitter to vent their outrage. The actor and award winning director had been in discussion with two of the big wigs of superhero cinema, Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder for some time. Although many have shown a positive response, the critical uproar on Twitter seems desperate to undo what some may call an "apparent casting catastrophe". With an estimated 500 million users since the social network site was launched in 2006, this system of micro-blogging now serves as quite a reliable barometer for public opinion. It is a forum in which anybody can air their view with the potential of it being seen internationally within minutes, even seconds. Never before has it been so accessible and so easy to reach an audience of this size and scale. Worldwide breaking news straight to our mobile phones, tablets and any other hand held device you can think of, and each of us has the opportunity to respond to it and be immediately ‘heard’ in the virtual realms of the internet. Long gone are the days of suffragette hunger strikes or the peasant revolutions for the views of society to be noticed. It is no wonder that when this issue stirred the hearts of the public they took to twitter to demand a reform within the future of Batman’s cinematic legacy. However, the tweets regar ’s current career move ranged from the moderately humorous to unnecessarily abhorrent creating a chaotic spiel in which a barrage of opinions and re-tweets wer round cyberspace for hours. The public poll, as a whole, appeared to be negative and people were demanding change. One tweeter claimed that ‘in the Ben ’s parents kill themselves,’ whilst many simply asked for ’t do justice to cult comics that have been read and enjoyed for decades. But the very fact that Nolan and Snyder refused to reverse their decision, poses the question; Is Twitter the effective persuasive communicative tool it's known to be? Perhaps Twitter users, as an entire community, have damaged their own credibility? Although it has ,in the past, been notably used for positive change, it has also become the site of civil disobedience and social disruption. Beneath the hyperbolic and often estranged statements of users, is a group of cowardly specimens the media has dubbed Trolls. These characters hide timidly behind the anonymity of their computer screens whilst typing the most ludicrous and often offensive opinions they can think of. Recently, it has been known to have led to cyber-bullying, prosecution and in the most severe cases, the suicide of those targeted. Patton Oswalt, a renowned offensive
What should be a safeguarded domain for people to enjoy freedom of speech has now become home to unfounded hatred and negativity. This behavior has thrown into question the validity of what gets posted on Twitter. There seems to be no legitimate reason as to why those in authority would pay attention to the views of the public when a percentage of that group, granted it’s perhaps a minority, are also clogging up newsfeeds with what can only be described as complete and utter trash. tweeter His repertoire includes comments such as ‘Women enjoy rape,’ and ‘Whites and “darks” should be kept separate…‘ What should be a safe-guarded domain for people to have freedom of speech has now become home to unfounded hatred and negativity. This behaviour has thrown into question the validity of what gets posted on Twitter. There seems to be no legitimate reason as to why those in authority would pay attention to the views of the public when a percentage of that group, granted it’s perhaps a minority, are also clogging up newsfeeds with what can only be described as complete and utter trash. It is people such as Oswalt that make what could be a prominent tool in social progression an unfortunately misused site that may force genuine and reasonable opinion to be ignored. But then again, even if the likes of Oswalt ceased to bombard our feeds with offensive dribble, how could anyone really trust and accept an argument that could be summarised into 140 characters or less? Can Twitter really become the foundation for social reform or is it just another novelty that will soon be discarded If only Batman’ re twitter trolls; then perhaps the power of the tweet would actually mean something.
43
ZEITGEIST
STEMMING THE TIDE OF THE TORRENTS Words: Jack Graysmark @ZepplinG1993
Last year, it was estimated that 150 million users access torrents each and every month. It’s hard to believe any of these users could be true fans of the creative media they claim to support. We now live in an age where music fans will struggle across the back end of the internet to avoid paying for a 99p track, and yet will happily fork out for an expensive cup of co ee. Five minutes of extortionate ca eine high exceeds a burst of creative energy that lasts a life time. But then some may argue, if it was as easy to download a caramel latte, you’d do it in to ticks. Herein lies the secret to a torrent’s recipe of success- the ease with which we can currently major distributors of torrents were blocked, and pursuing an illegal download suddenly became such a massive hassle, users might start to consider where they currently spend their money; on a quick cappuccino, or a handful of re seasoned torrent veteran, but it would certainly serve as a deterr websites? After all, they do not create the illegal material- they simply provide a service that However, there comes a time when such websites have to hold their hands up and admit that without them, torrents would not have a place where they could be re unable to go directly to the source, the alternative must be to confront the middle man, right? rents is to be conquered, surely warnings about the potential consequences of accessing torrents need to be printed in bold, and a collection of blocked websites provide the perfect platform for where to state these ’s often forgotten that the user’s ress is logged by copyright enforcement authorities for EVERY torrent that is downloaded, whether you’re a pr downloader or have merely sampled a single For music, legal alternatives really need to be stressed if we are to lure torrent users away Streaming services like Spotify and SoundCloud provide an avenue for artists to share music with their fans and for the public to freely listen to new releases or their favourite guilty pleasur whether or not you really want to have your own copy V YouTube str ’s a mor but teasers and demos can still provide an enticing preview More than anything, the war against torrents you are a regular user or not, illegal downloads
are still stealing, on par with regular piracy You recognition for the product they have striven to create; even worse, you threaten to put them out of business, hindering their efforts to bring you more material to enjoy download over an illegal torrent, you are left with the satisfaction that you have a copy of a masterpiece that is truly your own, not hastily stolen fr y, governments are now demanding internet search pr ) to block access to websites that host torrent ’ recently added several more pages to their list of forbidden websites, including Kick Ass Torrents, Extra Torrent and re replaced with a page concisely explaining why the site had been The crack down on the more notorious sites is having an effect on the torrent community rent site specialising in television shows, closed its virtual doors today, citing “an increasingly hostile climate towards torr rehending the major re sending out the message that they are dedicated to tackling torrents, and
You cheat the artist out r for the product they reate; thr orts re y. Many sites still remain however, with the major ress by using proxy sites and registering under different domains for instance, the notable KickAssTorr their main page, the server had set up shop under a new address; albeit one where the customer policy remains an all-you-candownload free-for ith new privacy features being introduced all the time, it's become a slippery slope for all as we sit back and watch our beloved arts, culture e must ask ourselves what the future holds if we continue to allow the free-for-all culture of
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ACE food & drink Let us paint you a picture of domestic bliss. It will have a house. In this house there will be a kitchen. This kitchen will be large, bright and brimming with a plethora of shiny gadgetry-wizardry. For in the year 2013 no kitchen is worth its salt without a schmorges board of electronics to help create picture perfect meals that can be captured and blogged about instantaneously. W re, but it would seem that the king of all kitchen gadgets is the imperious KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. From Nigella and Jamie, to the Great British Bake Off no self respecting cookery show would be complete without at least one of these machines perched seductively on the counter top. But priced at over £400 for a standard model, are they really necessary? Have we lost the proverbial plot? The kitchen revolution is here, and as we’ve found out, you don’t have to break the bank. Check out ACE’s Top 3 pretty ridiculous kitchen gadgets:
iTouchless Automatic Sensor Paper Towel Dispenser £49.97 fishpond.co.uk
bannana guard lunch box £4.99 bannanaguard.co.uk
strawberry huller
The Kitchen Revolution?
£6.99 lakeland.co.uk
Mark Boulos Exhibition 3 October - 21 November Featuring immersive installation, Echo, which combines neuroscientific research with innovative video techniques to produce a unique disorientating experience. fact.co.uk / @FACT_liverpool #MarkBoulos
Image Credit: Detail from Echo (2013), Mark Boulos Echo was commissioned by Forma in partnership with FACT