The Red Bulletin_1209_UK by Red Bull Media House

Orlando Duque / Flying Lotus / Grizzly Bear / Ger Hartmann / Torey Pudwill / Kristen Stewart / Vampire Weekend

a beyond the ordinary magazine

September 2012

Graeme OBREE

British cycling‘s maverick genius Storm surfers

Chasing the world‘s wildest waves

Future M u s ic

music grind e New YorkLockha it inJessethBoykins to mingakNickeHook, How (featur rt) and Tiombe E

xc v i d e lu s i v e o s on F r e e ou r Tabl e t Ap p

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

September HOMEMADE FOR SPEED ‘Flying Scotsman’ Graeme Obree is using both pedal and brain power to set new bike records

RED BULL STRATOS An update on the mission to dive from the edge of space, by man-in-the-suit, Felix Baumgartner

KRISTEN STEWART Inside the mind of the Twilight star, Hollywood’s best-paid actress

WELCOME COVER PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKO LIM. PHOTOGRAPHY: PAUL CALVER, GETTY IMAGES, GIAN PAUL LOZZA/RED BULL STRATOS, PALANI MOHAN

From the heights of kites in Bali to the depths of Galway Bay, via the world’s deadliest waves and the world’s most recorded musician, The Red Bulletin ranges far and wide this month. There’s music from Flying Lotus, Mathew Halsall, La Galaxie and John Cale – but so there should be. Those guys are pros. What about the rookies trying to break New York City’s music scene? Three fledgling stars reveal how far you can get on self-belief and tips. Also doing things his own way is Graeme Obree, builder of bicycles that could make him the fastest man on two (pedalled) wheels. Speaking of fast, how can you travel 28m in three seconds? By taking part in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. We’ve got the full story of the tour’s Ireland stop. Enjoy the issue.

“ We built a kite

that needed 75 people to fly it. It was too big ”

SPIRITS IN THE WIND The Bali Kite festival is among the world’s most spectacular displays of craft and tradition, and the scene of great battles between rival kite gangs

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

September 52

48 86

HEALING HANDS He’s the ‘go-to guy’ for athletes teetering on career breakdown: physio-guru-magician Gerard ‘Ger’ Hartmann

TOUGH BREAKS Californian street skater Torey Pudwill on how to recover after a double-hard inury

74 BERNARD PURDIE

This drummer sticks out: aged 73, he’s worked on about 4,000 albums over the course of a remarkable 50-year career

“ We know everyone thinks we’re mad ”

STORM SURFERS A team of weather scientists, moviemakers and surfers scour the world for the stormiest surfing conditions, to shoot big-wave films in near-lethal waters

08 Gallery: the images of the month 14 Bullevard: sport and culture on the quick 22 Hero: Matthew Halsall, man of jazz 20 Kit Evolution: mountain bikes 23 Lucky Numbers: Ryder Cup

PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKO LIM, PATRICK BOLGER, ATIBA JEFFERSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, PHILIPP HORAK, ROD OWEN

EMPIRE STATE OF MIND How to crack the New York music scene, from those who know how tough it can be, including Azealia Banks’s producer

THE WORLD OF RED BULL

“ I want

people to listen to my music in their cars ”

82 LOST IN MUSIC IN NEW ORLEANS

Local DJ Brice Nice gives the low-down on where to go in the Crescent City for hip-hop, cabaret, drag bingo and naked karaoke

Flying Lotus

MASTER OF INVENTION He has been likened to Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, but LA beatmaker Flying Lotus likens himself to Bugs Bunny. What’s up with that?

76 MAXIMUM AIRPLAY

Thomas Herzig is the Pneumatic Architect, building castles full of sky – his trademark inflatable ‘pneumocell’ creations fuse Gothic master building techinques with modern construction technology

PHOTOGRAPHY: THOMAS BUTLER, GETTY IMAGES, DANIEL GEBHART DE KOEKKOEK, GREG FUNNELL

Body & Mind 84

GET THE GEAR

Roland Trettl, executive chef at Salzburg’s Ikarus restaurant, talks us through his kitchen

CARVED OUT BY GOD

Nine storeys above a swirling Atlantic, on a remote island shrouded in myth, the men of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series prepare to take the plunge. All they need is courage, skill and five minutes without rain...

BAND WATCH

TOP SPOTS

SAVE THE DATE

KAINRATH

MIND’S EYE

Worldly goings-on Events for the diary Our cartoonist

Dublin’s Le Galaxie Columnist Stephen are bent on bringing Bayley says the old key-sounds pursuit of luxury back to the future leads to vulgarity

90 NIGHTLIFE

A glamorous club, an exotic cocktail, a midnight snack, the best in music and much, much more: everything you need to get you through the night

RED BULL STRATOS

“Now we need to keep cool”

Felix Baumgartner explains what happened on his final test jump – and what happens next for the real thing

could fail while we’re up there or, worse still, a short circuit could send the capsule up in flames. Of course a break of just two or three weeks between the penultimate and final jumps would have been ideal, because we were all at the top of our game. But now we have to stick with the same professional attitude which has already taken us to the edge of space twice. Once the capsule is repaired, we’ll check it over in the pressure chamber and if it’s all systems go, we’ll take it straight to Roswell and then the real jump will take place in the first two weeks of October. We’re professionals, and we do our job properly and calmly. I’ve succeeded in all my prior projects with this attitude. Yes, I feel like a caged tiger right now, but we won’t jeopardise all the hard work of the last five years at the last minute. If I don’t complete this mission, it might be another 60 years before someone else gambles on a project of this scale. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again in October. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

“You can’t buy the spare parts for my capsule in the supermarket”

Rough landing The capsule’s built-in crush pads absorbed the impact as designed on an early jump. But in the final test there was a hard landing, which has resulted in a delay. “When we took the capsule off the truck, everyone could see we had a problem,” says Baumgartner. “It looked like it had been in a traffic accident with an alien.”

PHOTOGRAPHY: JOERG MITTER/RED BULL STRATOS, BALAZS GARDI/RED BULL STRATOS

he second test jump went well, even if the days and nights leading up to it were exhausting. It seemed like an eternity before the capsule door opened at 29,610m and I could jump. I had no control over my position for the first 16 seconds I was in free fall, but everything was under control within six seconds of the first test jump. Yet now we can say we’ve shown twice that we can do this, which is also why I couldn’t believe it when I found out that something had happened to the capsule. A crew member who went to salvage the capsule once it landed told me what happened. At first I didn’t think the message was all that important. During the first manned flight, the capsule landed hard in the desert, but our technicians built crush pads onto the underside of the capsule for things like this, which should have softened any impact. Sadly, our project leader Art Thompson confirmed the bad news and when we took the capsule off the truck, everyone could see we had a problem. It looked like it had been in a traffic accident with an alien. The results of the investigation back at the factory: we have to change a lot of the lifesupport system, even though my survival cell remained intact. As with an F1 car that’s crashed into a barrier, you can’t go back to the grid without undergoing thorough checks first. And you can’t buy spare parts for my capsule at the supermarket. They have to be space-approved and come from specialist firms that also supply NASA, for example. You have to wait weeks for many of these parts. We can’t and won’t allow ourselves to lift off with equipment that might be faulty. To explain, let’s use our batteries as an example: if the inner structure is damaged, the electricity

Felix Baumgartner

Established in Ireland in 1904

DUNDALK Tel: 042 9320789

DUBLIN Tel: 01 6751800

GALWAY Tel: 091 532550

WESTPORT Tel: 098 51708

SURF SHOP Open in Lahinch

OPEN 7 Days a Week

TU R PAN , C H I NA

REMOTE CONTROL

After a three-hour hike through the Gobi Desert, American mountain biker Cameron Zink enjoys a welldeserved adrenalin payoff. He was filming for new bike doc Where The Trail Ends, released later this month, a project with one central aim: to push the boundaries of big-mountain freeriding in some of the most remote places on Earth. “This is what mountain biking is to us,” says Zink, “and the future of what it will be to the world.” Get up on the downhill: www.wherethetrailends.com Photography: John Wellburn/Red Bull Content Pool

L AN G J Ö KU LL , I C E L AN D

NOW YOU SEE IT

The ice caves in Langjökull, Iceland, are ephemeral beauties. Made of frozen snowmelt, they usually only last a year. “It’s extremely rare for caves of this size to form,” says photographer Tyler Stableford, who accompanied travel journalist Mark Jenkins to Langjökull (Icelandic for long glacier) to view these amazing feats of nature. Stableford’s portfolio is precious: all that’s left from this image is the man and his climbing gear. The rest is meltwater. Mark Jenkins’s travel diary: www.thehardway.com Photography: Tyler Stableford

WHITE NILE RIVER, UGANDA

A GOOD SOAK

“We feel more humble than proud,” said professional kayaker Steve Fisher after becoming one of the first people to cross the Inga Falls near the Congolese city of Matadi. Almost 71,000 cubic metres of water per second rush through the Congo River here, placing it among the world’s most fierce and rapid estuaries. To prepare for the expedition, the crew trained on the White Nile River in Uganda you can see in this picture. The greatest risk Fisher and his three colleagues faced was whirlpools appearing out of nowhere. A documentary showcasing the expedition’s highs and lows, The Grand Inga Project, has just been released. Movie trailer here: www.ingaproject.com Photography: Greg Von Doersten/Red Bull Content Pool

WETSUITS Category Font: Myriad Pro Regular

20% cyan 20% magenta 20% yellow 100% black

Process Color 12% magenta 100% yellow

Process Color

20% cyan 20% magenta 20% yellow 100% black

Fade

WETSUITS

12% magenta 100% yellow 23.59% magenta 96.31% yellow

1 color logo version

WETSUITS Pyro stretch insulation / EVOflex composite super stretch material / Vaporlock seams / Nano Tritec kneepads 100% Black 2011 Ad Campaign Logo Sheet

prime wetsuit available in 3/2mm blue / orange /black

www.bodyglove.eu email:uksales@bodyglove.com or call +44 (0)1642 486104 | @Typhoon_Int For stockist info go to:www.typhoon-int.co.uk

Body Glove and the Hand Design are registered trademarks of Body Glove International, LLC.

Fade

Multi color - fade in logo version

Bullevard Sport and culture on the quick

Ball Four For the firsit time in 23 years, Clint Eastwood is acting in a film he hasn’t directed: in Trouble With The Curve (out Nov), he plays a baseball scout whose career is fading. A great ball movie like these?

THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES 1942 Just 13 months after Lou Gehrig died, Gary Cooper starred as Lou; Babe Ruth played himself.

BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY 1973 Another disease-on-the-diamond flick (see above), it contains Robert De Niro’s break-out role.

IN YOUR FACE

The colourful and highly profitable world of Takashi Murakami

Andy Warhol might well have invented Pop Art, but Takashi Murakami has perfected it. His style – in his paintings, sculptures, films and animations – screams out and captures your attention whether you want it captured or not. Garish flowers with grinning faces, cartoonish characters (Western and Japanese definition) and cute little animals, all depicted in bright, glossy colours. The 50-year-old from Japan is as controversial as he is lauded, not least for his overt blurring of the boundary between art and commerce. He has designed bags for Louis Vuitton and album covers for Kanye West, and his merchandising brings him almost as much money as his auction sales. A new book, Ego,, documents his recent, and largest, solo exhibition, in Doha, Qatar, a highlight of which was a 91m-long painting of Buddhist monks in apocalyptic Manga style.

Murakami and two key motifs, cute animals and flowers

www.rizzoliusa.com

BULL DURHAM 1988 Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon: who knew baseball was funny and sexy?

PICTURES OF THE MONTH

SUGAR 2008 A teenage Dominicano heads to the US to play in the Majors. Little-seen, but big surprises.

Taken a picture with a Red Bull flavour? Email it to us: phototicker@redbulletin.com Every month we print a selection, and our favourite pic is awarded a limited-edition Sigg bottle. Tough, functional and well-suited to sport, it features The Red Bulletin logo.

EVERY SHOT ON TARGET San Francisco Before the Laguna Seca MotoGP, Germany’s Stefan Bradl practises in the city. Cameron Baird

Soled! First-rate sporting footwear

WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER. PHOTOGRAPHY: PICTUREDESK.COM (3), GETTY IMAGES (2), KOBAL COLLECTION (2), SHAWN BRACKBILL, NAIM CHIDIAC/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, NIKE, GEOX, ADIDAS

NIKE HYPERKO Boxing Manny Pacquiao’s boots have kept his orthodox stance steady: he’s the only man to win belts at eight weights. Lilou, one of three co-headliners of six-part B-Boy doc Break’n’ Reality

365 days and nights of breaking it down Omar O Delgado, Ali Ramdani and Fabiano Carvalho Lopes are better known, to an increasingly large audience, as Roxrite, Lilou and Neguin. Their status as three of the greatest talents on the breakdancing and B-Boy scene is unquestioned, but what goes on in their heads when they’re not spinning on them? The result of the trio being trailed for a year by a camera team is Break ’n’ Reality, a candid and fascinating six-part web documentary produced by Red Bull Media House and available now on iTunes, PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The series’ highpoint comes when the three men meet at the World Championships in Moscow for a grand showdown that tests both their abilities and friendship. www.redbull.com/breaknreality

GEOX F1 RED BULL Motor racing Fireproof, lightweight, and comfortable. Sebastian Vettel puts his foot down wearing these.

KEEP IT FRESH

At 70, John Cale has a new album and wish-list collaborator: Snoop He’s had a greater impact on rock history than almost any other musician, as the Velvet Underground’s songwriter alongside Lou Reed. He also discovered artists such as Patti Smith and Iggy Pop. As a solo artist, 70-year-old multi-instrumentalist John Cale switches from poetic pop to avant-garde and, as evidenced by his new album the elements of hip-hop. On the new album, you use Auto-Tune software, aka the Cher effect. It’s all the rage in hip-hop. You can only use the effect in small doses. It gets annoying pretty quickly. I do listen to rap, but I used AutoTune on the song Mothra to recreate a robotic voice.

Who do you like in hip-hop? I’d like to work with Snoop Dogg, or Kokane, a guy from his crew with three voices: a high Marvin Gaye voice, a sweet middle-of-the-road voice and then that growl. He sometimes uses all three in a single song. One of your lines goes, ‘Say hello to the future, and goodbye to the past.’ Is that a sort of motto? I don’t want to repeat myself. Or write something that’s already been written, because then I’d have to scrap a song that I really invested emotion in. I don’t listen to a lot of radio. I take care with my hearing habits. Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood is released on October 1: www.john-cale.com

John Cale: 50-year musical visionary keeps his radio turned off

ADIDAS ADIZERO Discus, hammer Flat design and an extra-polished front end add a few kphs to the rotational speed one needs when throwing stuff across the infield.

WE HAVE A WINNER!

Madrid At the Plaza de Toros, 25,000 fans get behind Red Bull X-Fighters. Jörg Mitter

Agra British freerunner Ryan Doyle unearths the impossible: a new way to see the Taj Mahal. Sebastian Marko

Dallas A full-on finals day for Red Bull Game Breakers, a 7-on-7 version of American football. Garth Milan 15

B U L L E VA R D

The last one to reach the church is eliminated

Running battle

DJ spins life story online A fly-on-the-decks look at the world of the superstar DJ begins online this month. I Am Benga follows the titular 25-year-old south Londoner as he prepares to release his first solo album, Chapter 2 (out in October). His journey takes him via helicopter to the Snowbombing festival in Austria, the Red Bull Studios to rehearse his debut live show, and back home to Croydon: it seems even world-class DJs find time for a cup of tea with Mum. The first of six weekly episodes goes live on September 25. www.redbullstudios. com/iambenga MeTube: behind the scenes with Benga, on the internet soon

Lyme Regis English wakeboarding: Dominik Hernler at Red Bull Harbour Reach. Ben Dean 16

From left: Sam Halliday, Alex Trimble, Ben Thompson and Kevin Baird are Two Door Cinema Club

BRING HOME THE BEACON

After attaining Olympic honours, County Down’s Two Door Cinema Club are now touring their second album, a disc filled with fidgety indie anthems   : Your bandmate Alex sang at the Olympic opening ceremony. How did that happen?  : People were suggesting these famous names to Danny Boyle, but he wanted Alex because he likes his voice. So he got in touch and of course Alex said yes. Another famous fan of yours is Prince Charles, right? Well, we met him. In 2010 he was at Glastonbury to meet Michael Eavis and we were one of the band’s playing the festival. He thought we were from Wales at first, and when he found out we’re from Ireland he seemed a little bit scared.

Denai Alam At Red Bull Under My Wing, fledgling Malaysian biking talent is nurtured. Victor Fraile

What was it like making your new album, Beacon, in Los Angeles? We wrote most of the songs in the cold and rainy winter months in Glasgow. Recording them in California changed how we were feeling about them. It made us much happier. Plus, I really enjoyed the food. You just feel bad if you’re not eating healthy in LA. What are the beacons in your lives? We’re constantly on tour and writing new songs. Everything is new and exciting. So we don’t really know what our beacon is but whatever it is, it’s definitely drawn us towards it. Tour dates: www.twodoorcinemaclub.com

Salzburg A flock of rare sculptures aluminium

austrianicus takes off at the airport’s Hangar-7. Helge Kirchberger

WORDS: RUTH MORGAN. PHOTOGRAPHY: RUTGER PAUW/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES (2)

In Red Bull Steeplechase, 250 runners will punish themselves over 21 miles of the Peak District, checking in at four churches, with steeples, on the way. But there’s a cruel twist: at each holy place, the rear of the racing pack will be eliminated, leaving just 40 hardy souls to complete the course. Spectators are encouraged to spot the differences in runners pre- and post-race at the start/finish line at Castleton, Derbyshire. The race begins at 9.30am on Sunday October 7. www.redbull.co.uk/steeplechase

B U L L E VA R D

WHERE’S YOUR HEAD AT?

KRISTEN STEWART Aged 22, she’s Hollywood’s highest-earning actress and, as Bella in Twilight, the star of teenage dreams for girls and boys the world over. How did it ever come to this?

COM PAN Y TOW N GIRL

Born in Los Angeles on April 9, 1990, to a script supervisor mom and a stage manager/producer daddy, Kristen Jaymes Stewart grew up inside the entertainment industries. She auditioned from a young age, but was no precious princess. “Look at a picture of me before I was 15,” she told Vanity Fair, of her nongirlie ways. “I am a boy.”

GR EY PR

ID E This year’s blockbuster boo k Fifty Shades Of Grey, has its roots in the Twilight universe. Author EL James originally wrote a story in which Bella and Edward did more that just look moodi ly into each other’s eyes. Posted online, the story’s character names were cha nged, it was extended to book length, then bought by millions. Guess which actors are being mooted for the movie. K-STEW AND R-PATZ

Stewart and Pattinson’s on-screen romance continued into real life, where the going rate for a paparazzi shot of them together off-set hit US $100k – close to Stewart’s daily income as Hollywood’s highest-earning actress ($34.5m, from May 2011-May 2012, says Forbes magazine). In July, Stewart was spotted canoodling with the director of her Snow White movie: for she apologised, Pattinson fumed. PR the next Twilight film or love in turmoil?

LADY LOOKS LIKE A DUDE

The boyish thing worked in Stewart’s favour: in 2001, her first speaking role in the movies was a rebellious little tomboy in The Safety Of Objects. The following year, she played Jodie Foster’s diabetic daughter in Panic Room. On both occasions, she sported the sort of floppy hairdo reminiscent of a young River Phoenix.

INTO TH E TW ILI GH

Before her split with Pattinson, Stewart is said to have declared a desire to start a family with him. Any offspring will almost certainly be a regular human child, unlike the half-vampire, half-human – or ‘dhampir’ – child their Twilight characters brought into the world. And for her first role post-Bella, Stewart has chosen Cali, a gritty action film involving fake snuff films and revenge. Revenge!

teen years, so did her As Stewart grew into her errated Undertow rep as an actress. In the und Jamie Bell: with nes sce (2004), she shared . Her 10th movie after iot) (Ell y Bill t Me la Bel When ed by the critics: Panic Room got her re-notic The Wild. Penn Into , ma dra 7 200 n’s Pen Sean Catherine r cto dire to t suggested Stewar n fantasy novel tee a ng ppi pre n the , cke Hardwi , is Twilight. say y the as t, adaptation. The res

BELLA RINGIN G; TILLS TOO

A teen movie based on a best-selling novel about a girl who falls in love with a vampire is being cast in early 2008. Kristen Stewart is playing Bella. At the director’s house, some English kid from the Harry Potter films turns up to test for the vampire part. Stewart and this Robert Pattinson fellow kiss. All three present feel the fizz. Twilight makes 10 times its budget at the box office. A film franchise is born.

THE ROAD TO SUCCE SS

VAMPIRES SUCK A sign of success in today’s Hollywood is a parody of your film made by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. The two have written and or directed several, including Scary Movie, Meet The Spartans and Twilight take-off Vampires Suck. Instead of Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, there’s Jenn Proske as Becca Crane. To do Bella, Proske says she lowers her voice and has to “smile a lot. Kristen Stewart doesn’t.”

Since embarking on The Twilight Saga Stewart has made six other films. The final Twilight film comes out in November, but before that she can be seen in an adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel On The Road. “I like pushing myself,” she said, of the film’s sex scenes. “We admire Kristen’s career choices,” millions of teenage boys online are paraphrased as saying. On The Road is released worldwide in September and October: www.ontheroad-themovie.com

WORDS: PAUL WILSON. ILLUSTRATION: LIE-INS AND TIGERS

LIFE AFTER TW ILIG HT

B U L L E VA R D

HARD & FAST

Top performers and winning ways from around the globe Play time: if strangers share songs, will they make beautiful music together?

TURN ON, TUNE IN… MAKE OUT?

WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER. PHOTOGRAPHY: LUCY NICHOLLS, NIELS TOFTEGAARD, SVEN MARTIN, C BAHN/USOS, HONDA, JOERG MITTER/RED BULL CONTENT POOL. ILLUSTRATION: DIETMAR KAINRATH

Mixtapes, 21st-century style: introducing Speed Listening, a new night out for music lovers and, if all goes well, lovers Forget Spotify playlists and online charts. There’s a much more appealing way to discover new music – and meet the people who are recommending it. Speed Listening brings together the tracks and their like-minded curators at a new club night in London, run by Alice Shyy and the rest of the Team Note Well collective.   : What is Speed Listening?  : It’s a fast-paced and fun way to trade music tracks with lots of folks in one whirlwind night. Team Note Well hosts with cakes and smiles. We make a welcoming atmosphere for anyone who cares about any kind of music. How does it work? Come armed with headphones and a music player loaded with about six varied tracks you would like to share with a complete stranger. When it’s go-time, find your place at a table with the number you get, and introduce yourself

to the person in the seat in front of you. Plug your headphones into their player and have them do the same with yours. Give each other feedback on your initial song selection, then pick new tracks accordingly. Rotate to the next person. Each round lasts about seven minutes. Is it only for single people? Initially, dating wasn’t on the radar. Then people started dating and we decided to indulge that side of things. We’ve teamed up with Tastebuds.fm, a music dating site the past couple of times, so it’s been good for singles. But Speed Listening is focused on music and friendship, so don’t put too much pressure on pulling or it’ll never happen. How many people show up? The most was between 60 and 70. We’re trying to keep the night more intimate, though, so that you can listen to half the room without getting fatigued. Next date: September 20 at The White Horse, 153 Hoxton Street, London: www.thenotewell.com

New Zealand rider Brook MacDonald (centre) claimed his first downhill MTB World Cup victory in Val d’Isere, France. Honda World Superbike rider Jonathan Rea made history when he became the first Briton to win the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours race in Japan.

Australian surfer Julian Wilson was dubbed ‘The Comeback kid’ after a late run of wins brought him a first-time victory at the US Open of Surfing.

At the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour stop in Madrid, Levi Sherwood (NZL, left in photo) beat local hero and 2011 overall champ Dany Torres (right).

B U L L E VA R D

KIT EVOLUTION

Wheel Progress Two decades of tweaks and weight loss separate a rare treasure of mountain-biking from a spearhead of cycling technology

LONG, SLIM, LOW

In the 1990s, a more elongated sitting position was considered sportier. Pressure on the front and aerodynamic, but poor control off-road

RIGID FORK

When the suspension fork was introduced in 1990, many cross-country riders rejected it, believing that it squandered power

GEARS

Shimano Deore XT: then state-of-the-art, seven gears at the back, three sprockets at the front. Made light work of any hill

1992

MARONÉ KAMPFMASCHINE

The Red Bull Maroné team, with racers Gerhard Zadrobilek, Ekkehard Dörschlag and Manfred Kornelson, cleaned up at the MTB World Cup, and other major races such as Red Bull Dolomitenmann, on bikes made in Peter Maroné’s prestigious Salzburg workshop. Raised chain stays, a sporty seat position and an aura of victory make this a silver dream machine for enthusiasts.

Ultra-taut square chain stays made from aluminium. Total bike weight: 13.44kg

Weight reduction over 20 years: 41 per cent

EASIER RIDE

The rider sits much more comfortably on the bike. Wider handlebars and shorter stem make for more responsive handling

GEARS

Ten sprockets in the back, two chain wheels in the front: the SRAM XX has one less gear than a 3x7 formation and weighs much less

SUSPENSION FORK

WORDS: WERNER JESSNER. PHOTOGRAPHY: KURT KEINRATH

The DT Swiss XRC 100 has 10cm displacement and is locked using the handlebars. At 1.27kg it weighs the same as the rigid fork

2012

SCOTT SCALE SL

Weight reduction plus more functionality equals more speed. The frame, suspension fork, handlebars, stem, seat, seat post, crank and rims are all made from carbon, each part optimised for functional perfection. (Disc brakes and suspension fork are standard cross-country MTB components.) With a more comfortable seat position, this bike is much faster than the Maroné, uphill and downhill. www.redbulldolomitenmann.com

At 899g, the Scale SL’s frame is mountain-biking’s lightest. Total bike weight: 7.91kg

B U L L E VA R D

SYNCHOPATOR INNOVATOR

MATTHEW HALSALL

At the tender age of 14 he toured the world. Now he’s taking jazz into the 21st century, with his trumpet, record bag and record label

Born September 11, 1983, Warrington, UK First contact Aged six, at a jazz big-band gig he attended with his parents, he pointed at the trumpet. They bought him a cornet instead – he was too small to play a trumpet. Second wind In his mid-20s he started to focus on his own production. “I felt I needed to play music for my generation”, he says, “to make my own version of jazz music.”

Musician, DJ and label owner in one, Halsall loves multi-tasking

It’s nothing new for Matthew Halsall to see an enraptured audience follow his every move when he’s playing trumpet. Halsall, 29, was just 14 years old when his audition for the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra left its leader lost for words. He was hired on the spot, becoming the youngest member (by five years) of one of the world’s best youth big bands. Having never left his hometown of Manchester, Halsall’s first tour with the band took him to Malaysia. “That was exciting,” he says. Halsall is a trumpeting genius, but that doesn’t stop him working hard to improve, constantly tweaking his technique and honing his playing style. “As a musician you’re always going somewhere,” he says, referring to both his own musical development and the itinerant life led by someone with muchdemanded talents. He has, after all, visited continents in the same way he has visited many musical styles. He has played in classical ensembles and funk, soul and reggae bands, before returning to the jazz fold a few years ago. Halsall has developed his own original jazz language: slowed-down, gentle, soulful, melodic, full-bodied, intense and completely modern. “Matthew really only plays what needs to be played,” says saxophonist

Always on top: Matthew Halsall in his trademark worker cap

Nat Birchall. “None of his notes are played just for the sake of playing them, everything has meaning.” Another fan is music guru Gilles Peterson, who chose Halsall’s 2011 release, On The Go, as his jazz album of the year. “If I could watch any jazz band in the UK, any, I would choose Matthew Halsall’s band,” said Peterson, at his annual Worlwide Awards. “It’s always high-level, spiritual jazz music.” This month, Halsall releases his fourth album, Fletcher Moss Park, on Gondwana Records, the label he founded in 2007 to launch his acclaimed debut, Sending My Love, and currently runs from an office at home in Manchester. Although Halsall’s heart is devoted to the trumpet, he flits from concert hall to club, swapping his instrument for DJ decks. “It keeps your ears fresh,” says Halsall, who also keeps his head warm with a trademark cloth worker cap. Halsall was a hit at festivals across Europe over the summer, both front of stage playing trumpet with his band and behind the decks with his bag of records. His “dream goal” is to produce “an album that has solo piano tunes, orchestra tunes and jazz tunes. I want to really take my time and put my heart and soul in to it.” Don’t bet against him realising his vision.

“My dream goal is to do an album that has solo piano tunes, orchestra tunes and jazz tunes. I want to take my time and put my heart and soul in to it”

Music, tour dates and more: www. matthewhalsall.com

WORDS: OLIVER PICKUP. PHOTOGRAPHY: SIMON HUNT, RICHARD KABY

Name Matthew Halsall

B U L L E VA R D

LUCKY NUMBERS

RYDER CUP

For American and European golfing stars, honour trumps prize money at the sport’s most prestigious team event, to be held this year at the Medinah Country Club, about 40km from downtown Chicago

1,000

The first biennial golfing match between the USA and Great Britain and Ireland was held in 1927; since 1979 the Americans have played against all Europe. Home advantage alternates each time, with the 2001 match postponed a year due to 9/11. The competition was founded by Samuel Ryder, an English seed merchant, who donated its 43cm, solid gold trophy. The cup is topped by a figure of Abe Mitchell, whom Ryder employed as coach on an annual salary of £1,000. Mitchell missed the first Ryder Cup due to appendicitis, but took part in 1929, 1931 and 1933.

Tony Jacklin

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK (2), CORBIS, GETTY IMAGES (5)

Billy Casper of the USA went unbeaten in his eight appearances at the Ryder Cup between 1961 and 1975 (7 victories, 1 draw) and also won as captain in 1979. His points total of 23½ remains the US record. (Despite such a superb record, and three Majors, the 100kg Buffalo Bill has always remained in the shadow of golf’s Big Three: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.) Englishman Nick Faldo is Mr Ryder Cup, with overall records for appearances (11), matches played (46) and points scored (25).

192

The Ryder Cup

With 26 titles – 25 wins and one draw which, according to the regulations, meant the title was successfully defended – the USA is the winningest team, their opponents managing only 12 titles, including one draw. From 1935 to 1985, the trophy stayed in the US with the exception of 1957. British captain Henry Cotton suffered the greatest humiliation in 1947 against a high-quality US team. Sam King beat Herman Keiser in the final round of single matches to prevent a clean sweep, but an 11-1 scoreline is the Cup’s greatest debacle.

Jack Nicklaus

At the 1969 Ryder Cup, golf witnessed an ultimate sporting moment. America’s icon Jack Nicklaus sank a birdie putt at the 18th during his singles match, the last round of a gamesmanshiptinged contest, against Tony Jacklin. The Englishman was left with a 60cm putt to halve the round and tie the match overall, but Nicklaus conceded the putt, as the rules allowed him to do, and the final match score was 16:16. “I don’t think you would have missed that putt, but in these circumstances, I would never give you the opportunity,” Nicklaus whispered to Jacklin, with whom a close friendship subsequently developed.

Bernhard Langer

Samuel Ryder

At Kiawah Island in 1991, Bernhard Langer, a known perfectionist, is said to have asked his four-ball partner Colin Montgomerie how far away a sprinkler, measuring 15cm, was from the flag on the green. The Scot attests that he replied, “192 yards”. Langer’s retort: “From the front or the back of the sprinkler head?” Despite his thoroughness, Langer came up short, missing a subsequent putt to draw the match, which would have meant the European team making a rare title defence on US soil.

Billy Casper

Walton family

The 1995 Ryder Cup at the Oak Hill Country Club marked the high point in the career of the relatively unknown Philip Walton; his most notable result before then (and since, it turned out) was a 13th-place finish at the 1989 Open Championship. At his one and only Ryder Cup, the Irishman and partner Ian Woosnam lost their morning foursome, but on the final green of the penultimate singles match, he scored Europe’s winning point. “Maybe the Americans know me now,” he said after the win. “Tell ’em I’m related to all those Waltons on that TV show.” 39th Ryder Cup, September 27-30, Medinah, Illinois, USA: www.rydercup.com/2012

ACTION

Spirits in the Wind

The Bali Kite festival is among the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most spectacular displays of craft and tradition. Far from nostaligic, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern, relevant and a source of kudos for rival kite gangs Words: Jeremy Torr Photography: Palani Mohan

ACTION

“These kites are a very important part of our culture”

Bali, when the trade winds kick in, the weather changes. Around May, the wet season slows to a stop as strong, dry, clean winds blow from the south. The skies clear, the rain disappears and the paddy fields turn parched and barren under your feet. Look up and it’s the opposite. Everything springs to life in the sky. White fluffy clouds pop up to make postcard views. Birds flit and swoop like dogfighting pilots, and tall clumps of bamboo whisper quietly. But despite this feeling of well-being, rice farmers know they will have to irrigate. If they don’t, they won’t get a good rice crop. The farmers don’t just irrigate. They invoke the spirits of the skies to help the rice grow.

Flying Spirits

“I started making and flying kites before I was 10,” says Si Nyoman Adnyana, a respected village elder and local historian. “I’m 77 now, so that’s a lot of kites,” he laughs. Si Nyoman is one of the founders of the Bali Kite Festival and competition, held each year at Pantai Padang Galak on the south side of Bali. It is, he admits, much more than a festival. It’s a homage to the wind, the seasons, the earth, and the balance of nature that gives a good harvest. “It’s not just about the flying, although that is good in itself, but it’s about what the kites mean to us,” he explains. 26

“The kites in Bali are a very important part of our culture.” Most Balinese kites are black, red and white – either in stripes, patterns or chequers. These colours represent Hindu deities, and legend says the Hindu god Shiva loved kite flying – so the colours honour his sport. Built to traditional designs, the kites are also rigged with bamboo bows, strung with rattan strips that make a hypnotic humming,

The benefits of blessing kites

Religious rituals are a vital part of the kite flying, with priests blessing each one and the team members. Each kite can take up to a few months to complete, and moving them causes traffic tailbacks for miles

Take-off routine

Getting the kites into the air demands a uniquely Balinese kind of chaotic teamwork

ACTION

“Last year we built a really big one. It needed 75 people to fly it. It was too big”

warbling noise as they fly. The Balinese people say the sounds bring a sense of harmony and fertility to the fields below. So flying the kites over rice fields is much more than just a sport, it’s a celebration of renewal. And it is very popular. The 50,000 people who flock to the Bali Kite Festival each year from all round the island underline just how popular it is. “The kite-flying festival is really a big thing for our village community,” says Kadek Suprapta, organiser for the black-clad Danginpeken Banjar team. “If somebody joins a banjar [Balinese community] and then finds out they don’t have a kite team, the chances are they will leave and join another. There’s that much prestige that goes with kite flying.” This might seem a bit of an over-reaction until you see your first kite. Then you realise why they are such a big deal. These are not kites like we usually see in the park. They’re monsters. “It takes us months to get one of the big janggan kites ready,” says Kadek. It can weigh up to 300kg, span about 3-4m and be about 10m long. Add the 200m-long, 2m-wide tail and the overall weight can top 400kg. It takes about 10 team members just to carry it to launch. These kites are so big that when the banjar transports one to the flying field, traffic stops. Admittedly that’s because there can be up to 70-80 more banjar members following the kite, banging on gongs, waving banners and flags, carrying smaller kites and offerings, and just being part of the procession. “Last year we built a really big one but it was too much,” admits Kadek. “It needed nearly 75 people to fly it. It was too big.” Now take the Danginpeken team, multiply it by hundreds of other teams, each with several kites, add a few tens of thousands of spectators and cram it all into a 1km square windswept patch of rice paddies by the beach and you start to get some idea of the scale of the Bali Kite Festival. It’s gob-smacking. “It’s a celebration as well as our offering to the gods and part of our Hindu beliefs,” says 29

People power

The sheer size of the kites means a team of 40 or more people are needed to carry, launch and fly each one. And there are 1,200 at the festival...

ACTION

have good experience to make the kite fly and make a good sound.” Danginpeken must be doing it right as their kite designer, Made Lumbun, is 61 and still using the same design as his grandfather. So far he has built kites for 25 festivals and his banjar has won its class 15 times since 1956. “It’s the mask. It brings us power,” says Kadek seriously. “The mask and the artistry of our kite is our tradition.” That, and of course the teamwork of the kite crew.

More than a crew

Si Nyoman. Each janggaan (dragon-style) kite is adorned with a unique mask, often complete with a solid gold crown, that is blessed by a priest and given ritual offerings before it can be allowed to take to the air. Every year the mask is fitted to a new kite, and helps bring the allimportant balance to each one. “Balance is very important,” explains Kadek. “The kite builders should be happily married, and

Every team is a super-cool looking group of very fit young guys between about 14 and 27 years old. They have to be fit to carry, launch and fly their huge kites. They’re all tagged out in signature T-shirts, matching udeng (headdresses), and aviator shades. Many wear cowboy-style facekerchiefs, even full black balaclavas. They might be mistaken for a street posse were it not for the reverence they show for the kite and the rest of the team. Sure, they’re not shy of parading their toughness, but it’s based on traditional pride, not on pushing back against society. “Some people might say they are aggressive, but they’re not,” says Kadek. “It’s pride in the banjar they are showing.” Being part of the community is being part of the culture, the tribal belonging that drives the teams to build ever bigger, more impressive, better looking and more harmonious kites. But kites that never forget they’re a homage

(WO)MEN ONLY

The tradition in all the banjars is that making and flying kites is a menonly business. But that doesn’t mean no women take part. The women are the only ones allowed to make the special satab, tiny plaited flowers made of bamboo slivers that are tied to all the kites to bring harmony. And only women may prepare the offerings used by the priest when he blesses the kite at the temple. The kite needs male and female aspects, each doing their bit to bring a positive result.

KITE GUIDE

The Bali Kite Festival has classes for three traditional and one modern class of kite. The traditional are the bebean (fish-shaped), pecukan (leaf-shaped) and janggan (dragon-shaped). The new class is creasi, in which anything goes: from flying turtles to motorbikes to lions or waitresses – all monster size, of course. The bebean are the most traditional and the pecukan symbolise positive and negative, the grandest and most important are the jenggan.

ACTION

In Bali, street cool doesn’t come from having an iPhone

Eyes on the skies

When more than 20 of the monster janggan kites take to the air at once, it’s a truly gob-smacking sight

to the wind and the seasons and the importance of the harvest. “I’m 22, and I’ve been in the Segara Manik team for about four years,” says Ketut Tara, smoking clove cigarettes as we talk, the muscles in his sinewy arms flexing. He doesn’t look a traditional type. He has a plug in his ear lobe, tattoos, and a street-tough attitude. But, he emphasises, his loyalty to the banjar is what brings him to the kite team. “We’re not gangsters, but we have to be strong because we do this to win. Even if we don’t win it’s good, too. We’re just happy to be here,” he grins. In Bali, street cool doesn’t come from having an iPhone, designer gear, a racing moped or pulling tricks on a skatey. In Bali it comes from being part of a traditional festival. Sure, the cool is there, but so is tradition, says Kadek. “Technology should bring us progress, but should also help us develop our culture,” he explains. “In this case that means bigger, better, winning kites.” Old-time kiter Si Nyoman agrees. “One obvious thing about the Kite Festival is that it’s growing bigger every year,” he says. “And the best thing is it’s the young men who are making it happen.” And make it happen they do. The tension mounts as the line pullers stretch out their 400m of line across dry rice paddies, weaving between other teams, over canals, between food stalls, past hundreds of spectators – even across the sea wall. The launchers gather like coiled springs under the kite, waiting for the signal from the team leader. It’s not easy choosing the right time; there could be other kite lines in the way, a cross gust of wind or even someone standing on the tail. The team’s gamelan gong orchestra ups the beat to a frenzy, the commentator 33

ACTION

“When we gather to make the kite, we know we belong”

shouts encouragement and the kite is hurled into the air, often catching just a small breeze and falling sideways until the line stretches, snaps, and then hauls the huge structure into the air. A great cheer goes up, and the kite climbs majestically, the team whooping with joy.

Old and new

JUDGMENT WAY

Balinese kites are judged, among other things, on their appearance, build, ability to fly, stability, speed and sound. The winner in each class is chosen by a committee of judges after a couple of days’ deliberation. Several kites will often fly at once, with lines coated in glass, which cut through other kites, sending them crashing to the ground. Some of these ‘fighting kites’ also use tiny hooks sewn into the lines to cripple other lines or sails.

WHEN

The Bali Kite Festival is organised by the Bali Kite association and held at Pantai Padang Galak in Sanur every year at the start of the dry, windy season, usually at the end of July.

Unlike Western-style designs, these kites are alive. The bamboo struts flex with the wind, changing shape and profile. The joints between struts use natural cords, wrapped and knotted so the pressure of the wind can make them move. The hummers buzz loud and soft and the tails flap as the teams strain on the line to get more height than the next team. Occasionally a kite will snag another’s line and plunge to the ground, which can be dangerous. But it’s a festival that, in Kadek’s words, is part of the umbrella of his people’s culture: “When we gather to make the kite, we talk, we work together and we use our traditional skills – we know we belong.” Tradition and the beliefs that go with it run strong in Bali. But they don’t rule the team’s life. As one team member put it: “I go to the temple every day to pray. But I also go to the nightclubs every weekend to have a good time.” It seems in Bali they have mastered the art of balance, of harmony, of purusha and prakriti. Here’s to a good harvest. www.balikitefestival.com www.redbull.com/balikitefestival

Party time

A successful launch, flight and landing result in a huge cheers and manic celebrations

ACTION

MASTER

OF INVENTION

Flying Lotus has been likened to Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, but when he’s making records – some of the most innovative and fresh-sounding music you will hear – he thinks of himself as Bugs Bunny. What’s up with that? Words: Florian Obkircher Photography: Thomas Butler

“I WANT PEOPLE TO LISTEN TO MY MUSIC IN THEIR CARS, NOT JUST WHEN THEY’RE PARTYING”

  : How do you come up with such unique electronic beats?  : I have no idea, I swear. There is no button that I push, but I think it has to do with me messing around with stuff in my studio that aren’t really instruments. I’ll pick up my cup of pens and just record them falling on the table, and in the sound that it makes you find some weird and interesting rhythms. That brings to mind a quote from Miles Davis: “Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” That’s true. A big part of my process is just experimentation and then I find the right pieces within it, I see myself as some kind of assembly man. I have all these pieces and then I’m like, “Well, these pieces go together and these pieces go together” and then you’ve got a track. How do you keep working like that? My guiding principle is: there aren’t any rules. I remember that when a piece I’m working on is too conventional. Then I try to think of myself as a cartoon character, because everything’s possible in cartoons. That helps blow up the limitations of your imagination. I am Bugs Bunny and I can pull beats or whatever out my pockets. Listening to your new album, Until The Quiet Comes, doesn’t bring to mind cartoons. It sounds more like the

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: LANDERPHOTO/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

guy from Los Angeles packs his bags and flies to Melbourne to take part in the Red Bull Music Academy 2006. There he spends two weeks jamming with other rookies, all taking instruction from giants of the music industry, and makes the track Tea Leaf Dancers, the first to draw attention to its maker, Flying Lotus, and a precursor to the album Los Angeles, which would take the electronic music world by storm two years later. Critics compared Flying Lotus, aka Steven Ellison, to Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, because he does with his laptop what they did with their instruments: breaking down barriers and combining elements that weren’t thought to go together, gathering plaudits and inspiring other musicians in the process. On Los Angeles, Flying Lotus built a universe of sounds with samples of old jazz records, shimmering snatches of synth and hip-hop beats that could have come from Kraftwerk-style robots high on weed and experimentation. His second album, Cosmogramma (2010), was even more inventive and highly praised. Flying Lotus’s new album, Until The Quiet Comes, out next month, is a record from the future: electronic, psychedelic jazz and again those beats, which sound as if Ellison is sticking out a leg to trip up his drum machine.

“SLIPPING INTO THE ROLE OF A CARTOON CHARACTER BLOWS UP THE LIMITS OF MY IMAGINATION” soundtrack to a noir movie set in space. I like banging club music, but at home I listen to other stuff, like Portishead and Radiohead. Or fusion jazz by people such as Return To Forever and Weather Report. By the time I started working on this record, I was listening to my aunt Alice’s stuff a lot [Alice Coltrane, jazz pianist and wife of legendary sax John Coltrane]. At some point I started wondering, “Why are these the songs that I hold onto?” Why do you hold on to them? I want to be the person that makes the music you love forever. I want to be the person you listen to when you’re in the car on in your bedroom, not just on Saturday night. That was a pivotal decision for me at that time. Your album Los Angeles was extremely influential. Thousands copied your style. Were you flattered? I was in the beginning, but then it got annoying and suddenly the sound had a name – wonky – and I felt like I needed to separate myself from that scene. I had to move on, even if that’s risky from a career point of view. Is it a reflection of musical ambition today that nobody is willing to risk doing something really new? That’s not how I see things. MySpace turned the scene on its head in 2004. Suddenly, everyone could make his music available to the whole world. You could hear a tune in a club in LA which was produced by some guy in Argentina the night before. That sort of speed used to be unheard of in the music industry. The scene changed so fast because there were all these different players coming forward and everyone was inspired. Everyone was trying to take it to the next level. Yet music also lost value because of the immediacy of digital availability and the prevalence of illegal downloads. We have to come to terms with the new

ACTION

situation. I don’t make a shit-ton of money selling records, so giving away music isn’t weird to me. But I’d rather give things to people who support [music]. So for this record, and the previous one, people who pay for it get something for that – extras. I think if people buy my music today, they’re doing it to support me, not because they haven’t worked out how to download it illegally. I like to buy stuff too, especially from new artists. Every week I go on iTunes and buy a bunch of new tracks. Even if I just listen to them once, I pay for them because I feel like I’m helping a little bit. Does it make sense releasing a whole album under these circumstances? I think about that all the time. It’s changing so fast, and as much as I’m an album format type of person, in an oldschool sense, I have to accept that a lot of people who listen to my stuff don’t listen to it the way that I intended it to be listened. Some people might just buy a single track because Erykah Badu is on it, but that’s just what it is, man. That’s cool. The past year, I put a lot of things online just because I thought they would never have a home, so why not? But not my albums. I feel like it’s definitely a special thing for me, because I put a lot of thought into the flow of everything. Are you afraid that an album of yours will show up on a file-sharing site even before it’s been released? Ideally I’d have just liked to release Until The Quiet Comes without really announcing it – “Surprise! It’s the new Flying Lotus album!” – like Radiohead did with their last album. But then I changed my mind, because I spend so much energy doing this shit that I want as many people as possible to know about it. Plus, I’m not Radiohead. I’m not going to sell a million records just like that in a week. As was the case with a track on your second album, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke sings on the new record. How did that come about this time? By chance. I sent him a couple of tracks to ask him what he thought of them. He got back to me straightaway: “Amazing. I’ve already got ideas for vocals for one song.” Thom is fantastic. He knows what he wants, and what he doesn’t. That decisiveness makes him really nice to work with. Erykah Badu also guests on the album; last year you made a video for her. I actually started out studying film, but 38

to be honest I’m really bored of music videos at the moment. Music videos these days concentrate mostly on one thing: clicks. And cute kittens. “How many cute kittens can I squeeze into a three-minute video to crack the onemillion visitor mark?” As for cinematic and narrative ideas, there aren’t any. On the other hand, I understand that there’s no budget for music videos any more. Things were different in the 1990s. The videos made by Chris Cunningham [cult director of videos for Björk, Aphex Twin and others] cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they were masterpieces. I’d like to do something like that, not just music videos. Real movies!

“IF PEOPLE BUY YOUR MUSIC TODAY, THEY’RE DOING IT TO SUPPORT YOU, NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVEN’T WORKED OUT HOW TO DOWNLOAD IT ILLEGALLY”

Is that why you were at the Cannes Film Festival in the spring? I played a couple of DJ gigs, but I was pretty disappointed with the Cannes experience because it’s not about movies at all. It’s about who’s wearing what on the red carpet. The choice of movies wasn’t particularly exciting either. OK, so there was the premiere of the new Wes Anderson movie [Moonrise Kingdom], but I could have watched that back home in Los Angeles a couple of days later. And many of the screenings I’d have liked to attend were black tie. So now I have to wear a tuxedo to go to the movies? What’s that all about? Next year you’ll be lecturing at the Red Bull Music Academy in New York. Six years ago in Melbourne, you were a participant yourself. What did those two weeks back then give you and your music? It was just before my debut album, 1983, came out. It was perfect timing. I made a lot of contacts, met musicians like Mark Pritchard and Kode9, who were people I looked up to, and we’re still in touch. I also produced the track Tea Leaf Dancers with Andreya Triana [a singer-songwriter and Academy participant from London], which is still one of my biggest hits. When your music is talked about, you often hear the word ‘futuristic’. How do you see the music of the future? I feel like the future of music is that it becomes more and more personal. There is something really beautiful about comedians, because they are always so aware of the now. They are aware of what’s making society tick, and I think musicians are embracing that more and more. There was this idea that music had to have a universal appeal to the masses, and everyone should be able to relate to these stories. Today young artists like Drake and Frank Ocean are making these very personal songs. They are like, “You might not understand my story, but I’m going to tell you anyway and you might not like it.” People are embracing that and I really like it, too. [Drake and Frank Ocean] are really big because people are like, “Wow, no one’s even really said that type of shit on a record before, people are not really talking about that on records”. Flying Lotus’s album, Until the Quiet Comes (Warp), is out on October 1: www.flying-lotus.com

THDE N I T E L L R E BU ES G ! A M P I G AP EYE-CATCHING MOVIN E X T R AO

RIES O T S Y R R D I NA

OTOS H P E V I E XC LUS

E E R F DOWNLOAD

www.redbulletin.com Find a list of all compatible Android devices at www.redbulletin.com

ACTION

CHASING the

DREAM

A team of surfers, weather scientists and filmmakers scour the world for the toughest surfing conditions following storms, so they can shoot spectacular big-wave sequences in near-lethal waters. Up close and personal with the swell chasers Words: Josh Rakic Photography: Rod Owen

Like father: big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones tows his son, Kanan, into his first-ever big wave at a notorious reef break off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia

ACTION

OUT SEA

in the

Tasman

the wind’s measuring about 282kph, and waves 20m high are being recorded. “We have to surf this swell,” says bigwave meteorologist Ben Matson, giving the green light for the Storm Surfers documentary film crew to be deployed off the south coast of New South Wales, 925km north of those cyclonic winds and big waves. According to Matson’s readings, those conditions are generating the same amount of power that Hurricane Katrina carried when it first made landfall in Florida in 2005. The easier part of Matson’s job is finding extreme surfing conditions. The hard part comes in judging whether or not they’re lethal. “The biggest waves are hitting off Tasmania, but they’re too big to ride,” says Matson. “We’ve got two locations in Tasmania, where we’ve got Jet Skis and everything ready to go, but those winds make it just impossible to surf. But we can’t just sit on our hands and let it go un-ridden. So we’re going to go with our back-up option. “It’s like a mountaineering expedition. We’ve dropped provisions at locations with Jet Skis in Western Australia, as well as Tasmania and New South Wales, all with crew just waiting to be deployed. I’m pretty positive we’re going to come away with some swell from here.” If it doesn’t arrive, Matson will shoulder most of the blame. During the making of Storm Surfers 3D, the team’s latest documentary, a day lost to a misjudged weather reading can suck as much as €38,850 from the film’s budget. At the nearby boat ramp, 21 crew members are already assembled and preparing the truckloads of filming gear and surfing equipment. “This swell is part of a weather pattern that actually started to hit the coast about four days ago,” Matson says. “Snow was starting to fall on the Alps, and I broadly predicted this weather pattern about a week ago. So yeah, it’s pretty much all on me now. It’s a little nerve-racking.” 42

From left: Crew members Jason Poole and Mark Glinderman with co-director Justin McMillan

It’s 4.30am, pitch-black, freezing cold. The Storm Surfers crew is at the Murramarang Beachfront Nature Resort in South Durras, New South Wales. As Matson scans the latest swell readings on his iPhone at a table showing the evidence of breakfast, legendary big-wave surfer Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time ASP world surfing champion Tom Carroll are already arguing. At 46 and 50 respectively, these two are more scared of retirement than wiping out on a giant wave. To them, the fact they could be pinned beneath the ocean’s frantically churning surface for more than a minute and a few kilometres off the Australian coast is merely part of a normal day’s work. They carry on like an old married couple. Awaiting the Jet Skis at the boat ramp, the two are bickering over whose surfboards will fit in the car. Both divorced, the pair are as close as two friends can be. If someone ever

pitches Grumpy Old Men meets Big Wednesday to Hollywood, these friends of 25 years are perfect for the leads. “We know everyone thinks we’re mad, and we’re always giving each other grief,” says Clarke-Jones, flashing his trademark grin. “I love stirring Tom up about his driving and stuff like that. He nearly killed me with a Jet Ski in Western Australia one time. But that’s just Australian mateship: nothing too serious. We’ve had serious times together, though, yelling at each other and getting physical, and that’s real, mates go through that. But I love him. “We’ve been through a lot of stuff together: competitions and competing on the [pro surfing] tour, businesses, divorces and jobs, becoming fathers. We’ve been through it all, and it’s cool to be still surfing and still like two kids together. It’s pretty funny, and I think that’s what keeps us young.” Carroll and Clarke-Jones first hung out while making the 1987 comedy surf film Mad Wax. Back then, Carroll was a poster boy of world surfing, and Clarke-Jones admits his friend did him a favour by getting him involved in the movie. Carroll retired from surfing in 1993, and family commitments kept him away from the scene for the best part of a decade. Clarke-Jones, however, never left the big-wave world and was a pioneer during the tow-in revolution of the late 1990s, when surfers began using Jet Skis to tow one another out to big waves. Storm Surfers was Clarke-Jones’s chance to repay the favour and reunite with his best friend. In 2005, director Justin McMillan and writer Chris Nelius made The Sixth Element, a documentary about ClarkeJones. A year later, the trio worked with Carroll to make the big-wave film Red Bull Tai Fu. With the introduction of Matson, and his well-honed swellprediction skills, Storm Surfers was born: actively chasing giant, unsurfed swells around the globe, rather than waiting and hoping for them to arrive. In 2008 Storm Surfers: Dangerous Banks debuted on the Discovery Channel. It was followed by Storm Surfers: New Zealand in 2010. Storm Surfers 3D will arrive in cinemas this year, and ClarkeJones is planning for more and more. “What makes me want to do this at my age? What age? I still feel like I’m a grommet. I still get off on it,” he says. “The adventure side of stuff, I love it. The waves don’t scare me. What scares me is not being able to do it anymore. I actually get off on it. It’s such an exciting,

Billabong big-wave award winner Maya Gabeira adjusts her fins (above) as Kanan Clarke-Jones contemplates what lies ahead

Above: Local surfers Paul Morgan and Brett Burcher get ready to join the big-wave session Below: Gabeira is the centre of attention at 6am

Below: The crew setting up shots at the off-shore reef break in New South Wales, Australia

ACTION

complete feeling after riding one. I like things that excite me, and big waves certainly do that. It doesn’t scare me – I love it. I don’t mind being underwater for a while. I’m confident staying underwater for quite some time, and after 25 years at it, it’s sort of become a second home for me down there.”

Back

at the boat ramp,

everything’s been loaded on board, including two €154,000 3D cameras, and the crew sets off for their destination – a reef break that springs from nowhere a couple of kilometres off shore whose exact location is a tightly guarded secret. It’s renowned for producing “bombs”, giant waves that literally explode from the inside out on impact. “It sounds like a jet, a 747, when a big wave crashes,” says Clarke-Jones, on deck and excited. “I’ve never stood behind a jet, but you know that sound when you’re close to an airport? You just get spat out. All the air shuts down and you just get thrown out. And waves that big, when you’re inside, it’s like a big mirror. The whole wave just lights up and there are reflections everywhere.” After a tension-filled build-up, the excitement turns to disappointment when, at first sight of the break, the biggest waves are topping out at around 3m. The sound of the ocean is deafening, but the crew is silent. Massive amounts of water are peeling over in sizeable waves, but they’re not big enough for Carroll, Clarke-Jones, and female big-wave surfer Maya Gabeira, who flew in from Los Angeles for a shot at the swell. Clarke-Jones is at a loss. He knows the swell is hitting much, much bigger down the coast, but he can’t just up and leave. This isn’t a solo operation. “I can’t stand knowing there are bigger waves elsewhere, and I’m stuck out elsewhere,” he says, almost angry at the ocean. “I want to surf big waves, and I know they are close by, but I can’t do anything about it. It’s frustrating as hell, to tell you the truth. It feels like you’re a prisoner. This is the type of thing I live for, and it’s agitating. But you can’t just think about yourself in these situations. You’ve got 20-odd crew, and you all suffer through these things. It’s hard.” Clarke-Jones’s 14-year-old son, Kanan, on the other hand, is relieved. He gets to make his Storm Surfers debut in ‘safe’ conditions, though Dad has done his best to make Kanan scared regardless.

Safety first: former world surfing champion Tom Carroll’s prototype flotation device didn’t work well after inflating too quickly. He christened it the Pamela Anderson The reef in New South Wales can throw up walls of water up to 7m and more. Locals make the most of the free ride out to the reef break

Cameramen and producers frantically race to and from the danger zone, trying to make the most of it. “Ultimately, we’d love to be seeing the boys riding 7m bombs every day, but at the end of the day, the story and characters are key,” says co-director McMillan. “In Deadliest Catch, they don’t always pull up a full pot. In fact, more often than not they don’t. But that’s what’s interesting – it makes them human. The jury is still out on whether Tom and Ross are human, but nonetheless, it certainly adds colour to the story.” After inspecting the break for himself by Jet Ski, a soaked, cold, dejected Carroll returns to the boat. An uncomfortable

Why Waves Get Big In simple terms, big waves come courtesy of high winds. Storm patterns create friction between the wind and the water. “The biggest surfable waves in the world occur most frequently at west-facing coastlines,” says Storm Surfers meteorologist Ben Matson. “This is because weather systems in the world’s biggest ocean basins – the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic – generally travel from west to east, setting up broad areas of swell-generating winds, known as ‘fetches.’ ” Reefs and sand play a significant part in creating the biggest waves, with shallow water forcing a wave to crest, which in turn creates a trough by sucking up the water below it. But the three most significant factors in monster waves reaching the ideal locations are:

wind speed, the amount of time in which the wind travels across the ocean, and the distance travelled by the wind. “A significant percentage of extra-large swell events are unsurfable,” says Matson, “because they are often accompanied by strong onshore winds, which creates choppy surface conditions. “Big-wave surfers need to be very patient when waiting for the ideal conditions to develop at their favourite breaks. It’s common to wait months, and sometimes even years, before the perfect combination of swell, wind, tide, and weather all coincide at the same time.” It’s only when the long-travelled waves finally reach the shore or reef that they begin to slow down and scale back in height, making them surfable – if you’re game.

Tom Carroll charges a big one and seems pretty satisfied (and inflated) about how it all went down Below: Kanan Clarke-Jones shows fine form as he catches his first big wave

ACTION

The

World’s DEADLIEST BREAKS WAIMEA, HAWAII The godfather of all big-wave breaks only appears once every few years. But when it does, it produces waves of up to 18m, and only 90m from the shore. If the waves start reaching 8m, Waimea hosts a pro surfing contest. MAVERICKS, CALIFORNIA The West Coast’s most renowned break, noted as much for its size (between 7 and 15m) and power as the monster boulders and even bigger great white sharks that lurk beneath the surface – all elements equally deadly.

There are few things that get a 3D water cameraman as excited as capturing an epic wipeout. Congratulations, Dean Cropp!

TEAHUP’OO, TAHITI With 3m sets the norm, it might not seem as intimidating as other big breaks, but what it lacks in height it makes up in brute power and force. It breaks 1km out to sea and just 1m above a razor-sharp reef. BANZAI PIPELINE, HAWAII The heaviest and deadliest of all, claiming more lives than every other surf break in the world combined. About 25 surfers have died here, including five in the past seven years alone. Waves hit more than 7m when it gets big. DUNGEONS, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA The 8m monsters here are accessible only by boat. Surfers crushed by the freezing righthander can be kept underwater for more than a minute – in sharkinfested waters. Home of the Red Bull Big Wave event since 2000.

Clarke-Jones quips he’s lucky to be on a Jet Ski at all after almost killing the both of them the week before in Western Australia. The near-fatal error came at Cow Bombie, one of the most notorious big-wave breaks in Australia. In giant swell and howling winds, Carroll towed his best friend into a monster wave, which then exploded, sucking Carroll and his Jet Ski back into the wave. Both men and machine were sent toppling over the 5m falls, the Jet Ski almost crushing them. The crew feared the worst. The situation looked dire as the two men went under. Carroll’s still hearing about it. “Ross has rubbed the salt in, but I’m used to that,” Carroll says with a chuckle. “I think his first words afterwards were, ‘What the hell are you doing? What did you do!’ It could have been so horrible, and it sort of woke me up. It was written on my school reports: ‘Carroll daydreams in class,’ it would say. And that’s what I’ve been like, all my life.” “No, you’re a tripper. You trip out,” interjects Clarke-Jones. “I get a bit frustrated with him driving the Jet Ski. He nearly killed me. Seriously, he could have killed me. That thing was aimed for my head, but he did well to hang on to it. Most people would have jumped off the ski, but as a friend, he actually stayed on it and tried to steer it away from me. “But I happened to turn around straight back under him, the poor guy. And I’ve kicked him while he’s down and ribbed him a bit, and I won’t let him live that one down, but I love the bloke. “It’s a mistake you make early on in the piece, and he’s never done that. In his defence, you have so much going on when you’re on the ski – the air switch, trying to clean the camera lens, the helmet on with people trying to speak to you, and you’re trying to commentate. It’s a lot for anybody to deal with, let alone Tom.” Clarke-Jones is smiling at his best friend, who smiles back. Clarke-Jones, Carroll and crew all know that death-defying footage is what sells, which is why they’re including it in the film. “Really, like racing cars, getting hurt and wiping out is what people want to see,” says Clarke-Jones. “As a driver or a surfer, you don’t want to wipe out, but you can appreciate that’s what people want to see. It makes good viewing. So a 3D wipeout is going to look really good.” And with that, the large grin appears once again on Clarke-Jones’ face, and soon turns into laughter. Catch a big-wave preview: www.stormsurfers.au

ACTION

Healing Hands

He’s the ‘go-to guy’ for athletes who fear injury might end their careers: physio-guru-magician Gerard ‘Ger’ Hartmann Words: Declan Quigley Photography: Patrick Bolger

or a man whose worldwide reputation is the product of endless hours of arduous manual labour, Gerard Hartmann’s hands are surprisingly soft. The firm grip is expected from a man at the very top of his field, but the hand that makes it could easily belong to a teenager just striking out into the workplace rather than a 51-year-old about to reflect on a physically demanding career. Countless world-class athletes in myriad sports from more than 20 nations have been kneaded back into life by Hartmann, whose reputation as a miracle worker spans the globe. The secret to youthful hands, it transpires, is a healthy alcohol-free diet, a positive outlook and the endless gallons of tiger balm soaked into his tenacious digits over two decades of teasing finely tuned musculoskeletal systems back into balance. Boundless energy may also be a factor. Just a few minutes in the company of the Limerick native is exhausting, as he powers through topic after topic with 48

three different people, all the while pummelling away at the body of this morning’s star client. Incredibly, Hartmann claims that a recent stomach condition has reduced his famous powerstation energy levels – which begs the question, what was he like before? “My vitality is probably a level seven as opposed to level 10,” he booms in his broad Munster accent. “The Duracell is definitely down a few beats. I am very careful with the clients I take as I just don’t have the ability at the moment to go and give, give, give all day.” Rock stars and other non-sportspeople also have Hartmann as their ‘go-to back guy’, but any inclination to see the gregarious former champion triathlete as merely a guru to the celebrities would be a folly. The walls of his impeccably presented private clinic are covered with framed photos, jerseys, singlets and truly touching letters of gratitude from oncevulnerable athletes made strong again by the force of his will, often in the face of medical advice to the contrary. He has an extraordinary collection of medals and trophies from grateful athletes, many of which are stored in the Hartmann Collection, a museum at the University

of Limerick. Among his proudest possessions is one he keeps at home: the 1988 marathon silver medal given to him by Douglas Wakiihuri. Hartmann’s renown is, as a result, at least as strong in the remotest parts of the Kenyan Rift Valley as it is in his native Limerick, which helps explain the presence of Vivian Cheruiyot on a massage plinth in the treatment rooms alongside his spacious rural Limerick home. A niggling ankle injury needs remedial attention and the reigning world 5,000 and 10,000m champion has dashed straight from victory in a Diamond League meet in Rome to Limerick for a series of sessions with Hartmann. Nothing can be left to chance. Cheruiyot, 28, has worked with Hartmann for years and the many times track and crosscountry world champion wouldn’t settle for anything less than the best. That Hartmann is the best is undisputed among his clients, but just what it is that makes him so special seems difficult to articulate. Is it a particular technique in his treatment, perhaps? Or the psychological benefits of a seemingly unshakeable confidence in his own ability? Or is it simply just that he is the fashionable ‘go-to guy’ for famous people? It’s most probably a combination of all three, but the latter ingredient seems unlikely to have any value in isolation given his enduring success over 22 years. He’s no snake oil salesman.

Vital ingredients: Ger Hartmann possesses a combination of confidence and the ability to treat both mind and body

ACTION

The gold medal won by Cork’s Marcus O’Sullivan in the 1,500m in 1989 is in Hartmann’s collection

Fact File Name: Gerard Hartmann Age: 51 From: Limerick Sporting Career Irish National Triathlon Champion seven times between 1984 and 1991 Third place, Japan International Triathlon Sixth place, European Triathlon Championships 14th place, World Triathlon Championships 24th place, Hawaii Ironman Physical Therapy Gerard has treated 47 World Champions including World Record holders in 100m, 110m hurdles, 1,500m, 1 mile, 3,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000m, 10,000m, 10-mile road, half marathon and marathon Success He has treated and prepared athletes who have won the following marathons: World Championships IAAF World Cup Marathon New York City Marathon Boston Marathon Rotterdam Marathon Paris Marathon Dublin Marathon Chicago Marathon

xactly what constitutes the alchemy that has made him so successful is yet to be fully defined. For her part Cheruiyot contents herself with a smile and an oft-repeated phrase: “He has blessed hands,” as she works her way through the chicken salad prepared by Hartmann after their session. “Vivian Cheruiyot says I have ‘blessed hands’ and that’s her view. If they feel that, and she’s willing to come here. I just sometimes have to ask myself, ‘Jeez, what have I got?’ What is it? So it’s an enigma. And when someone is an enigma, you can’t really understand [what they’re about]. “Look, the perception is, the person on the table, if they believe in Ger Hartmann, they’re going to get better, ’cause they already have the belief.” If Cheruiyot seems a passive victim, Hartmann doesn’t hesitate when asked who his most demanding client has been to date. “If I have any grey hairs, it’s because of Paula Radcliffe. As a clinician, it was very hard work,” he says. “Paula can spend five hours on the table. And I can finish a treatment and feel I’ve done a 10 out of 10 job – and just as I’m wrapping up, she’ll ask me to work her neck, which I had intended to do tomorrow, but she’ll want it done today. And you’re just, ‘Oh my god, I’m drained.’ And, I mean, in a good way, she has sucked more out of herself than the ability. “Paula and I share one thing in common,” he continues. “We are both perfectionists, we need to tick off all the boxes to ensure no stone is left unturned in our quest for success.”

Hartmann admits that he’s a bit of a risk taker, which has also fed his reputation and helped make him a patron saint of hopeless cases. “I go where other people don’t go. I would say the manual therapy is far more aggressive and far more invasive. I get in deep.” But Hartmann’s gold-plated client list didn’t come about solely through his manual graft. The confidence to delve further, for longer, into the physical structure of his clients also manifests itself in the unrelenting positivity he brings to all aspects of his relationship with athletes. In endorsing his memoir Born to Perform, Sonia O’Sullivan described him as “the most positive, energising person I know”. It comes as a shock, then, to hear him admit that he has moments of uncertainty: “Of course small doubts always creep in,” he says. “Most of these are insecurities, sometimes to do with myself and not with the athletes. Will I serve her well? Have I enough tools in my box to ensure she goes to the start healthy in body, mind and spirit?” It’s a shuddering thought to imagine Hartmann with doubt because he’s the therapist who will take the jobs others will baulk at. One such was chronic injury victim Kelly Holmes, perceived as a lost cause by UK Athletics, which refused to

Grateful clients: Hartmann has treated many top athletes including Kelly Holmes (above)

ACTION

pay her medical expenses just a few months before she proved them wrong by winning bronze in the 800m in Sydney, thanks in part to her work with Hartmann. In the ensuing four years she spent almost more time in Limerick than Britain as she honed her body for double gold medal success in Athens. It’s not just track and field athletes who can thank Hartmann for their physical redemption. Munster and Ireland rugby outhalf Ronan O’Gara was about to undergo season-ending surgery on a medial and cruciate ligament injury when he changed his mind and headed to Hartmann for a last-ditch attempt to make the 2005 Lions Tour. He was man of the match in the Celtic League final for Munster before taking the plane to New Zealand. Cork’s famous dual GAA star Seán Óg Ó’Hailpín was almost forced to draw a line under his sporting career after a horrific car crash, but recovered enough strength and movement in his shattered right leg to taste All Ireland hurling success in 2004. Perhaps the best known of Hartmann’s ‘local’ clients is ‘King’ Henry Shefflin who seemed set to miss Kilkenny’s bid for a historic five-in-a-row hurling crowns in 2010 with his second cruciate injury. Defying the odds he took to the field only to damage cartilage in the affected knee after just 11 minutes. Was it a risk too far?

artmann’s life has been played out in two parts: the first as a talented athlete-turned-champion-triathlete; the second as a physical therapist who brought all the obsessive need for perfection that had fuelled his own sporting endeavours to bear on his physical therapy work. A somewhat restless tearaway who was expelled from his first school, Hartmann discovered running almost by accident and

“I go where other people don’t go.

I get in deep”

found it was the perfect tap for his sky-high energy levels. He followed the well-worn path to a US University Sports scholarship before inevitably his abused body cried ‘enough’, by which time he had already dabbled in the nascent world of triathlon. Here was a sport that required three times the effort, a concept that Hartmann grasped with unnatural enthusiasm. He would become a pioneering star of the sport in Ireland, winning national title after title in the ’80s. But after a total of seven Irish titles and an impressive 14th place finish in the 1986 world triathlon championships in Nice, his world turned upside down one day in 1991 when he hit an unyielding armadillo during a flat-out bike training interval on a North Florida road. It sounds like a joke, but the punch line was a heavy impact with the asphalt from which he was lucky to survive and even more fortunate to keep his right leg. His wasted limb was filled with metal and abruptly, at age 30, his professional sporting career was at an end. By then he had already started to develop an exit strategy, having somehow found time to train as a physical therapist. As a sports injury specialist he blossomed immediately. His own injury history, which was extensive, lent the weight of personal experience to his qualifications and, within a year, he was an integral part of the US Athletics set-up and could count stars like Calvin Smith, Carl Lewis, Mark McCoy and Scotland’s Liz McColgan among his early clients. A shy young student from Cork called Sonia O’Sullivan struck up a conversation with him one day in 1991 and thus began a 20-year association for Hartmann with Ireland’s greatest-ever athlete – a competitor with a complex blend of mental frailty and steely determination that made the

Former world marathon record holder Khalid Khannouchi has benefited from Hartmann’s touch

Limerick man such a vital camp member. He was part of the US backroom team at Barcelona in 1992, with the Irish team at Atlanta four years later and an integral part of the Great Britain physical therapy support in 2000, 2004 and 2008. This year he returns to the Irish fold in London, but one senses that, financially secure and with two toddler children to rear with wife Diane, he is ready to slow the relentless pace of his career. His partner in Hartmann International Sports Injury Clinic, Ger Keane, looks set to take on more of the day-to-day work as he focuses on fewer clients. “I look and I say, hold on, I’m looking at the next 10 years and getting much more specific and working with key individuals and giving them much more of myself. People ringing up looking for appointments… I’m not there for those anymore. I’m there to work with a select group of people and to have the energy and the vitality to enjoy it. “It’s like an ageing athlete: an athlete who is getting older can still win the city marathons, but they have to be careful that they don’t over-race.” www.hartmann-international.com

Nick Hook (left), his bandmate in Cubic Zirconia, Tiombe Lockhart, and electro-soul singer Jesse Boykins

ACTION

B IG

C I T Y OF DR EAM S birthed and dashed New York, that fickle mistress, has can make it thousands of music careers. But if you es from the concrete there... well, you know the rest. Tal Nick Hook, singer jungle with Azealia Banks producer ger Jesse Boykins Tiombe Lockhart and electro-soul sin aphy: Miko Lim Words: Cortney Harding Photogr

ACTION

olling up to a sandwich joint in the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Greenpoint, Nick Hook jumps off his bike and starts talking a mile a minute. Powered by coffee from Ninth Street Espresso in the East Village, and a session at Sixth Street Pilates, as well as his daily threemile run, the red-haired Hook bubbles over with energy and enthusiasm. He has every reason to be: Azealia Banks, with whom he worked when she was just a young unknown from Harlem, is one of the hottest indie rappers around, and Hook is in the process of extending his studio so he can create more hits. He’s also doing production work on a number of other people’s tracks and working on his solo album – later in the afternoon, he’ll take to Twitter to ask for title suggestions. After grabbing a salad and sparkling water, Hook heads to his studio, which he warns is “still a work in progress”. A large, light-filled room on the fifth floor of a converted industrial building, the studio is filled with synthesisers, mixing boards and computers – ground zero for what could be the next indie sensation. Hook settles in, first playing a handful of tracks he’s heard about from various sources, then getting down to work on the production for a track by Villa, an upbeat indie dance number that sounds like it could be a cut from the latest Passion Pit album. A few hours later, Hook takes a break and heads up to the studio’s roof, settling 54

in under the scorching-hot sun and gazing out of over a panoramic view of Manhattan. “I don’t think I could be anywhere else,” he says. “I was just in LA and I felt like I wasn’t getting anything done. Part of it was that I was with Azealia and she was hanging out and having fun, and part of it was that it takes so long to get anywhere. I can just jump on my bike or the train and be almost anywhere in New York in 20 minutes.” A city of superlatives in many respects, New York happens to be one of the best cities in the world for music at the moment, sending forth an army of DJs, rappers, singer-songwriters, and indie rockers to the wider world and the sales charts. There are hundreds of live-music venues, from the iconic Hammerstein Ballroom and Madison Square Garden to 285 Kent Ave, a ramshackle space that hosts indie rock and noise bands and makes up in charm what it lacks in air conditioning. If you need a drummer, or a singer, or a collaborator, New York is full of them, and if you want a record label, all four major labels and hundreds of indies are here waiting. An artist doing press can swing by Rolling Stone’s office in midtown, or Billboard’s in the East Village, and still have time to grab a drink with some bloggers in Bushwick before making it home for dinner. But there’s a lot of competition here. When you live in a city where investment bankers complain about feeling poor, it can be tough for a working musician to pay the bills. “I love the weight of New York,” says Tiombe Lockhart, Hook’s

Hook (left) has been plugging away in NYC for years, working at a sake bar while producing beats and music, including Azealia Banks’s breakout track, 212. Lockhart (centre) says the struggle is part of the allure

“I LOVE the weight of New York. I like that everything is so dense. It propels me to work harder and dig deeper”

partner in the band Cubic Zirconia, who also performs as a solo artist. “I like the idea of hustling and the fact that everything is so dense. It propels me to work harder and dig deeper. And it’s not just New York; the internet also makes it possible for anyone to create and upload music or videos. But I don’t think I could make the type of music I make anywhere else. I get so much just living in the city. I live in a Dominican neighborhood and I hear things just walking around that I wouldn’t hear if I lived in another place.” Lockhart started singing after her mother noticed her talents, performing

in churches as a kid and eventually attending a performing arts high school after moving, from Atlanta, to Los Angeles as a teenager. She then studied jazz at the New School in NYC, and was signed to Elektra Records shortly after graduation – only to be dropped from the label a few months later. “I was ready to give up, but my mom kept pushing me,” she says. “I met a producer who asked me to do some vocals and sent me a track and a cheque – I didn’t want to be unethical so I did the work, and wound up working with a group 55

ACTION

called Platinum Pied Pipers. Then I went back to doing the solo thing, and was even on the cover of [music magazine] XLR8R, but nothing felt right.” One night, she went to a sake bar with a mutual friend of Hook’s. She met Hook, who was working as a waiter there and was eager to have her join his band. The two bonded over booze and DJ Quik, and Lockhart credits her work with Cubic Zirconia for revitalising her interest in music, though she came close to going down another path. “I worked for two years as a secretary at an investment firm,” she says. “At one point, someone told me I would make a great banker.”

ew York, like the stock market, is fantastic but fickle – bands fall from the scene just as quickly as they rise through it. Hook’s New York experience has had its fair share of ups and downs – starting with his journey to the city. As a high school student in St Louis, Missouri, he played guitar but found himself in “shitty” bands; a chance encounter with a friend of a friend led him to learn early digital music production programmes like Fruityloops. Yet he never thought of music as an actual career, and took a job at an ad agency after college, working with funeral homes, among other uplifting clients. Eventually he got a call from Todd Weinstock, leader of the post-punk band Glassjaw, and headed to New York to spend 10 days recording with him. Together they formed a band, Men,

“YOU CAN’T BE LAZY IN NEW YORK. You always have to be on your toes, always creating” Women & Children, and inked a deal with Warner Bros. They scored opening slots for groups like Panic At The Disco and Metric, but things never quite gelled; album sales were slow, and after a few years, he found himself in debt and without a label. He took the job at the sake bar to pay the bills. “I’ve been living a meager existence for sure,” he says. “For a long time my focus was just surviving.” Still, he kept at it, working with Lockhart and on his production career. His output was good enough to secure a spot in the Red Bull Music Academy last year. “I describe it to people and they think it sounds like Burning Man,” says Hook of the month-long schedule of workshops and nightly gigs. “It’s like summer camp with music and alcohol. But you meet all these amazing people from all over the world and work with legends. I got to write a song with Bootsy Collins.” Applicants to the Red Bull Music Academy span the globe, and upon completion of the programme,

Boykins first moved to the city to study jazz, but altered his sound to a more moody R&B vibe

ACTION

Nick Hook’s forthcoming solo project will be released in September. It sounds like “my ADD little brain”, he says

participants become mentors to the next. Hook has secured DJ gigs in Tokyo and New Zealand from the contacts he made at Red Bull Music Academy. One of his classmates, Andrea Balency, guests on his forthcoming album.

usic, art, and culture chops aside, New York can also lay claim to another title – the city with the most visually intriguing people. The version of New York from TV’s Law And Order, where the bartender recalls what time the guy in the red shirt left, and what he had to drink? Fantasy. Everyone stands out here. So it says something about Jesse Boykins that his look stands out, especially in the hipster-saturated neighbourhood of Williamsburg. His hair makes Angela Davis’s legendary Afro look like a military crew cut. He wears bright shirts and platform shoes, and long sleeves in sweltering weather. Boykins (who has released an album and two EPs and is planning on releasing another album in October) moved from his hometown of Miami, Florida, to New York to attend college at the New School and never looked back. “I was always working when I was there. I sang back-up in a couple of groups and taught music to elementary school students, and worked as the night clerk at a hostel on the Lower East Side.” Luckily for Boykins, he’s been able to support himself with music since finishing college, although he’s had to rely on the kindness of others to make it happen. “I slept on my friend’s couch for a year,” he says. “He’s my best friend and totally believed in me; he designed my logo before I even started performing solo.” The Boykins sound is best described as moody electro-soul, part of a new indie R&B movement spawning stars like Frank Ocean and bringing life to a genre that before seemed like it was in terminal decline. He’s a crooner and a charmer, with an almost academic approach to figuring out how to seduce ladies. As well as a new album, he’s also working on a documentary about women, asking questions like “Short-term lust or

“I SWEAR half of my job is being a shrink. You have to learn how to get good stuff out of people without being critical”

long-term love?” and “What is your favourite thing about being a woman?” Hook tells the story of the first time he and Boykins hung out, at the Red Bull Music Academy last year in Madrid. “Jesse and I were at a sushi bar, and he got up on the table and sang Happy Birthday,” he explains. “By the end of the song, all the women in the bar were making it rain for him.” When he’s not working out how to probe the female mind, Boykins spends his days working out of his home studio in Secaucus, New Jersey. Living in a gritty industrial town isn’t the New York rock ’n’ roll dream, but Boykins doesn’t seem to mind. After all, he’s only in town one week a month. (He toured Europe in July, and there are dates scheduled for Tokyo and South Africa.) “It’s impossible for me to budget here,” he says. “I like to experience things;

ACTION

not anything fancy, but I like to go to museums and shows, and it all adds up.” Still, he wouldn’t live anywhere else. “You can’t be lazy in New York,” he says. “You always have to be on your toes, always creating, always moving.”

ack in his studio, Hook is hard at work creating, or at least altering someone else’s creation. Although he has no formal training in production (he picked it up while playing in bands and helping out around studios), he’s become particularly accomplished, including in the more emotional areas of the job. “I swear, half my job is being a shrink,” he says. “You have to learn how to get good stuff out of people while not being critical. People get really attached to their tracks and freak out when you change things.” While production pays the bills, one of Hook’s biggest gigs thus far started out as a favour to a friend. “A buddy hooked me up with Azealia and I really liked her, so I helped her out,” he says. One of the tracks they worked on, Jumanji, became a viral sensation, and Banks ended up signing with Interscope. Hook says he spends most of his afternoons in his studio; at night, he’ll spin at clubs throughout the city, including Le Bain at the Standard Hotel. His own musical projects have been varied. Cubic Zirconia, which was signed to A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold label, was described by Lockhart as “ethnic disco”, an experiment they undertook because they both felt boxed in by the genres they usually record in. He also performs with the DJ collective Drop The Lime and this month releases a solo project that he describes as “sounding like my ADD little brain”, featuring guest appearances from El-P, Daryl Palumbo, and Zebrakatz. After leaving the studio, he heads home for a nap and a bite before hitting the club to play music into the wee hours. His night is eventful; one of the promoters has a seizure at the club before Hook goes on (luckily, he makes it through OK), and Hook doesn’t get to bed until the sun is coming up. The next day, he’s right back at work in the studio.

www.redbullmusicacademy.com

Red Bull Music Academy graduates Hook, Boykins and Lockhart say their time with the programme was invaluable

ACTION

home made for speed In his pursuit for the world speed record for human-powered vehicles, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Flying Scotsmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Graeme Obree may finally have found an endeavour that combines his athletic and engineering gifts Words: Declan Quigley Photography: Paul Calver 60

ACTION

altcoats has its best suit on the day The Red Bulletin visits Graeme Obree, but it’s a little threadbare and is clearly hanging on old bones. Glorious morning sunshine adorns the seaside town that was a popular tourist destination for Glaswegians in the 20th century before cheap air travel diverted the holidaymakers elsewhere. Nowadays, Saltcoats is better known as a recession-hit centre of unemployment and social unrest. It’s against this slightly grim backdrop that Obree, the twice world track pursuit champion and former holder of the blue riband hour record, a man once dubbed “Mad, Brilliant and Human” by l’Equipe newspaper, is planning another world record assault. Except this time, and for the first time in his sporting career, he doesn’t care if he gets the record. As far as Graeme Obree is concerned, success in his bid for the world land speed record aboard his self-designed and built HPV (human-powered vehicle) in Nevada this September is about enjoying the journey and making sure he retains his carefully nurtured health along the way. “You get to a certain point where you can’t put yourself right, clinically you’re actually depressed. And a lot of people are. But I’m not, at the moment, so I don’t want to lay the groundwork, the path that will allow me to get to

that. And one of the pathways to that would be‚ ‘I would rather die than not break that record’. If I said that, I should be instantly stopped from doing it.” A quick Google search reveals plenty who view Saltcoats as somewhere to escape from, but for Obree, who has lived in various parts of surrounding Ayrshire for most of his life, the town has been a refuge from the torment that has stalked him in the years since he stopped competing. “I haven’t exactly been mister reliable in the last 12 years,” he admits at one point, delivering the line with a sheepish grin as if apology was somehow necessary for the hermit-like existence that followed when his glittering track racing career came to an end. The crippling depression which has afflicted him throughout a life punctuated by at least three suicide attempts and countless stultifying lows had only been staved off intermittently by the highs of competition and those two world hour records and double world championship successes of the ’90s. “At that time, my actual survival as a human being, emotionally, depended on my next result. Seriously depended on it. I was as good as my next result.” Without the distraction of racing, which had brought with it added pressures to go with occasional, fleeting euphoria, the demons had to be finally faced head on, and a long personal voyage of therapy and examination has only recently resulted in a return to the public eye. Now, at 46, it looks as if Obree has finally found a way to express his twin talents for engineering innovation and world-class athleticism in a package that won’t put undue pressure on his health. Canadian Sam Whittingham has held the world land speed record for HPVs on and off since 1998 and, after a series of improvements in vehicles designed by Bulgarian-born Georgi Georgiev, left the current mark at 82.819mph over a measured 200yd at Battle Mountain, Nevada in 2009. Early this year Obree announced that he would pitch for the world record at the IHPVA World Championships in Battle Kitchen design: arm rests are made from an old saucepan (above left); the table acts as a work bench (left)

“In the 1990s, my survival depended on my next result”

ACTION

Mountain this September and, perhaps a little impulsively, declared that his design should theoretically be capable of 100mph. For Obree, a man whose developments in riding position and bicycle design pitched him into a series of unwanted battles with UCI officials in the more conventional and hidebound cycling arena back in the 1990s, it’s like coming home. “I was in this in the ’90s,” he announces in his thick, rapid-fire brogue. “I became a bit cynical about the sport with the drug taking and all that and the rule changes and the restrictions. You couldn’t innovate any more, and it’s all tied down. “I thought about getting into this HPV business, because there are no rules apart from the laws of physics. There’s no real man-made rules apart from, you’ve got to have a flat road and the conditions of it. So, I thought, that is my thing.”

Frontal assault: by lying on his front Obree has improved the bike’s aerodynamics

t the time he became involved in a project led by Formula One engineers to create a record-setting HPV, but made his excuses early when he became convinced the vehicle wasn’t up to it. That vehicle, like Whittingham’s Varna Diablo and most HPVs, was a reclining recumbent where the rider lies with his feet pedalling out front. Obree’s approach is typically subversive. “I thought, I would actually go and lie on my front and minimise the frontal area.” The idea was born from fleeting experience of a ‘prone’ commuter bike he rode in the 1990s which was more stable and offered the potential for a reduced frontal area, the holy grail of aerodynamics. Indeed Obree has calculated that his machine, affectionately dubbed ‘The Beastie’, has a frontal area only two-thirds of that of Whittingham’s. By his logic, with at least the same athletic ability propelling the machine, which he surely has, then the sky is the limit for his record bid. As well as a prone riding position, which has been tried by a handful of IHPVA record challengers in the past but has long since fallen out of favour, Obree has opted for a ‘push-pull’ drive system where long steel rods are driven back and forth by his legs to turn the cranks on a giant single freewheel gear of 320in. “I’m pushing back and forth like an old-fashioned steam train! See! The Flying Scotsman!” If he can get his legs to pump the pistons enough so that the cranks turn at 100rpm, then the vehicle will be going 100mph. It’s a big if, but one that intrigues and challenges him, without compromising his current inner peace. 64

Obree’s creations are almost always born of a Heath Robinson adaptation of available resources in the most unusual of applications. “I’m useless in almost everything, but what I’m really, really, really good at is the concept. Designing bikes, building bikes, riding bikes. So this encapsulates all three of those things.” His ‘Old Faithful’ bike that carried him to glory when he beat Francesco Moser’s Hour Record in Norway in 1993 featured revolutionary geometry to support his intuitions, since proven, about cycling ergonomics. It also featured bearings culled from an old washing machine, a fact without which it appears no article about Obree is complete and which he has regretted revealing ever since. This time around, his vehicle, built with only the laws of physics and the depth of his pockets to constrain him, is a radical approach utilising various cycling bric-abrac he had lying around and, for quick referencing by the popular media, arm rests fashioned from an old saucepan. It’s not surprising that so many household utensils are donors for his bikes given much of the construction is done in the kitchen, where a bench vice is bolted to

“The thing is, I don’t know how fast I’m going to go on this bike” a table on which place settings vie for space with a clutter of old bike parts. The blueprint for the design, which has rattled around in his fertile mind for at least 15 years, was sketched out 1:1 scale on sheets of wallpaper in his living room. Choosing steel as his frame material was a no-brainer and he’s confident he can effect repairs “on the hoof” in Nevada if necessary, something that would be much less practical with carbon fibre. It also helped that he had a small quantity of unused Reynolds 653 chrome molybdenum steel tubing lying around from his days as a frame builder and bike shop owner that could be fashioned into a functional chassis. Throughout the build he has had just one assistant, his 18-year-old son, Jamie,

ACTION

increasing obsession for a man whose autobiography Flying Scotsman received rave reviews and spawned a feature film, produced a training manual for cyclists that has been hailed as a commonsense approach to a sport increasingly swamped with advice and information on the science of physiology.

who will also be his back-up rider in Nevada. The carbon-fibre and Kevlar fairing or ‘skin’, as he likes to call it, is the one element of the project that has been outsourced, being produced to his requirements by students at Glasgow School of Art. In Battle Mountain he will face opposition not just from Whittingham, but also, among others, a team from Delft University of Technology and the VU University Amsterdam that has recruited a former speed-skating champion, Jan Bos, to conduct their more conventionally conceived but expensively engineered recumbent machine. It’s a delicious contest, an echo of the “A-Team-style innovation versus corporate resources” contest that developed between Obree and fellow Briton Chris Boardman for world hour records and world championship pursuit titles in 1990s. “This is a lot different from the hour record. Because this isn’t life or death, this is a challenge. This is the whole process of it. I mean, people can’t be driven by the fear of failure, because you’d never start. The thing about this, I don’t know how fast I’m going to go on this bike. I might go out and, with the

first go, and say, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got this so wrong, it’s useless.’ That could happen. I don’t think it’ll happen. Theoretically, and thinking about it, it should work great. But I could be wrong. There’s no surety. I’m OK about that. I’ll go, ‘Guys I’ve got it all wrong.’” The curse of Obree’s twin talents is that one tends to overshadow the other. In all the chat about how unique and interesting his new vehicle is, it’s easy to overlook the fact that he is one of Britain’s greatest-ever cyclists. At 46, the assumption might be that his prodigious engine is starting to lose power, but Obree is confident that he still retains enough strength to do justice to his machine. And when Obree is confident, only a fool would bet against him. For a man who spent his childhood almost consumed by fear and crippling shyness, who was bullied incessantly because of his father’s occupation as the local policeman, Obree is not easily swayed when he fixes on an idea, however unconventional. Or perhaps it was the loneliness of his childhood that has helped reinforce his own self belief. His most recent foray into writing, an

he paradox of Obree is that for a man so excited by technology and innovation, he regularly opts for instinct over scientific method and his training regimen is no exception. “I like to go out [cycling] every day. Not hammering it every day, because I generally go back and forth and visit my boys and stuff like that on my bike because I don’t own a car. “If my body thinks, well I feel quite fresh let’s give it a lash, then I go give it a lash on the hills. But if I go, oh God, I feel a bit jaded and stuff like that, then I go and just tap along. The whole thing is seat of the pants. It’s like my intuition says, this is how you need to do this. My intuition says, that push-pull arrangement is going to be so powerful.” Through all the turmoil he has emerged with a fragile balance in his existence and a renewed vigour to conduct life beyond the boundaries of Saltcoats. At the same time he’s quick to offer this latest in a long line of convention-challenging projects as an inspiration to the youth of Saltcoats. “There’s a lot of deprivation and alcohol and drug problems and stuff like that. I go to speak to kids at schools and tell them whatever you want to do in life, you can do it, because there’s no other positivity around about. So, part of this remit is a vehicle that’s going to deliver a message to young people, saying you know what, if you get an idea of what you want to do just go for it. Doesn’t matter if you get it or not, just go for it.” Graeme Obree has travelled too far in his life to get excited about how fast he can travel 200yd, but the trip to that dash to the line is proving to be increasingly enjoyable. “Let me put it this way, build a bogie in the kitchen, ramble up the road in America, and have a gas with your friends and family. If you break the record, you can go and have a party, if you don’t you go, ‘Oh well, I gave it my best shot and I still went bloody fast.’ I don’t know how fast I’m going to go, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to go bloody fast.” www.obree.com

ACTION

Rock and a hard place: the divers wait on the cliffs for their turn to take the plunge

Carved Out by God Nine storeys above a swirling Atlantic Ocean, on a remote island shrouded in ancient myth, the men of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series prepare to plunge. Was it destiny that brought them here? And can someone please do something about the weather? Words: Declan Quigley

Photography: Greg Funnell

orge Ferzuli doesn’t really need to do this. Not in a financial sense, anyhow. He has a good job in a diving show on a cruise liner out of Miami that pays the bills, but it’s nothing like as challenging as this. Twice already the 31-year-old from Mexico City has tiptoed tentatively to the end of the Red Bull Cliff Diving platform lashed to the side of the limestone cliff facing into the Atlantic Ocean and twice the wind has whipped up, shattering his bone-china confidence. Below him, the salty swirl fills Poll na Peist or the ‘Serpent’s Lair’, the extraordinary rectangular pool carved out with geometric precision by God’s civil engineers on the remote Aran Island Inis Mór in Galway Bay, but from up here on the diving platform 28m above the water it might as well be a strip of Tarmac. The 14 competitors in stop four on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, which visits the world’s most epic open-water dive locations, have been presented with a mix of weather conditions to really focus the mind. Blazing sunshine alternates, on an all-too-frequent basis, with driving wind and rain across the two days of competition. Ferzuli is afraid, and he’s not afraid to admit it, but he somehow has to find a way to plunge safely into that sea pool at 90kph. A pancake from that height is the equivalent of landing on concrete from a height of 13m, so the angle of entry to the water has to be spot on, toes-first, arms tight down by the sides, to avoid significant suffering. Diving is a matter of personal pride and there’s no way to throttle back and do it slowly. Speed of entry is guaranteed from the moment the competitor steps

Myths and legends: Inis Mór (above) with the ruins of the fort of Dún Aonghus on the hill; Kent de Mond (USA), Orlando Duque (Colombia) and Jorge Ferluzi (Mexico) keep warm between dives (below); Britain’s Blake Aldridge dives into the ‘Serpent’s Lair’ (opposite)

off the platform. Below him, an exclusive audience of 700 – the remote location meant the organisers had to cap the number – waits expectantly between their own dives for cover from the frequent showers. The ghosts of the Fir Bolg, the ancient inhabitants of Inis Mór, looking down from the ruins of the fort of Dún Aonghus on the hill above the diving area, will surely have approved of the fortitude shown by Ferzuli and co. The mythological, pre-Christian race faced their own demons in their battles with their foes, the Tuatha Dé Dannan, before decamping to the Aran Islands to lick their wounds, where the screeching winds will have slowed somewhat the creation of the stone forts that dot the island. It’s an extraordinary location for a cliff diving event, but from the moment Colombian great

ACTION

Diving is a matter of personal pride and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way to throttle back and do it slowly

“These are not typical conditions – you have to start working in your head”

Orlando Duque was introduced to it in 2009 at a demonstration event, it was inevitable it would eventually appear as part of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. The evergreen Colombian described his dive back then as a highlight of his career. He shrugged off a serious ankle injury, sustained in a skydiving accident in Hawaii last year, to retake his place in the series this year. Coming to Inis Mór remains an inspiration for a man whose enthusiasm for competition in one of the world’s most perilous sports remains undimmed. “I like it here,” says the 37-year-old, after hobbling across the broken limestone slate with his bare feet, his damaged ankle heavily strapped, but seemingly unconcerned by the latest of the heavy showers that seem to roll in a couple of times an hour. “I was here

Prep school: the weather might be cold, but warming up is still important (above). Briton Gary Hunt and Artem Silchenko of Russia stretch their muscles (below)

the first time in 2009 and it’s one of my favourite places to dive. I know the weather can be a bit of a challenge, and I think that was everybody’s worry, but it turned out really good. All the people showed up. “We had a little bit of rain and it was a little bit windy, but overall it was great. Great atmosphere. I like it every time I come here. Everybody’s in a good mood, so, I think everybody had a good day.” If it was a tough event to organise, the challenge presented to the divers at least equals it, and Duque admits that there is nothing like it in world cliff diving. “It is just very challenging. The shape of the pool, the edge is about 5m above the water level, you know? We’re used to diving at level water. First you see that level, then you have to wait for the water 5m below. So that’s a new element that we’re not used to! “It actually makes it that much more exciting for us. These are not your typical conditions, that you walk into and you know already what to do without seeing the site. When everybody arrives, you have to start working in your head. That kind of a challenge is what keeps us motivated and pushing hard. I think that makes the sport that much more interesting.” Staging the event on a craggy little island 14km long, one with narrow roads that’s linked to the mainland only by small ferryboats and light aircraft, presented innumerable challenges. Three weeks of hawking supplies and equipment to the jump zone, through fields and across broken limestone, was exhausting enough for the crew, but the storms which lashed the cliff face on the day before competition threatened to cancel the event and left all concerned looking a little haggard. Thankfully, the wind and rain only make cameo appearances for the divers, so that they can present

unt aliqui doluptur aut estiur, velenec

Thankfully, the wind and the rain only made cameo appearances for the divers

their art to the judges in full. With a bewildering array of twists and turns, an average dive from this height is executed in about three seconds. In contrast to most of his adversaries, Jorge Ferluzi has little experience of competitive diving. He learned the ancient craft in the kitsch surroundings of an amusement park in Monterrey in northern Mexico, dividing his attention between that and mechanical engineering studies as he waited for life to present its agenda to him. Somehow the humdrum didn’t appeal, and by a circuitous route he finds himself balancing on a platform clinging grimly to a craggy limestone cliff ready to race with gravity. While nine-time world champion Duque and eventual Inis Mór winner Artem Silchenko of Russia battle for overall honours, Ferluzi’s fight is more

Youth and experience: Sean McCormack, 16 (above), from the Shamrock diving club, shows off his skills. Winner Artem Silchenko celebrates with the crowd (below)

fundamental. The serpent, it seems, is a seductive temptress whose invitation is finally accepted at the third time of asking. Balancing for a moment, he and the expectant crowd hold their breath in unison as Ferluzi leaps gracefully into his routine. The fairytale version of this story would relate that Ferluzi nailed it, and missile-launched back to the surface to rapturous applause, but the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series is a different kind of reality show. Whether it was the wind or simply the idea of it, Ferluzi’s timing is a little off, and although he manges to control his landing, he’s delivered back to the edge of the pool the rescue crew of scuba divers bobbing nearby, where he is greeted like a long-lost cousin by his competitors and friends. “Before the jump, it made me nervous, you know,” he admits, with a smile. “I tried to do my best. I rushed my dive, so I got a big crash. But I’m professional, I find a way. You must do, or you’re going to crash good, you know? I’m a little bit sore for sure, but I’m OK. We want to survive for sure, we want to walk away safely. I like the place for sure, it’s just the weather was hard, man...” He would ultimately finish last of the divers who completed the event, but that was of little importance to his friends, who are relieved he is safe, and to Ferluzi himself, whose soul has answered a searching question and whose outlook is as bright as the weather at the end of the contest. “It was super-nice with the people that came. The support everywhere is the best, it’s really good. Right now it’s super-sunny, you can enjoy more. But when it’s raining, you’re running away from it… and the rocks... But it’s a really cool place, I really love it.” Take the plunge: www.redbullcliffdiving.com

THE RED BULLETIN Beyond the ordinary – everywhere on our planet

WO R L D WIDE

Subscribe today to the monthly magazine from the world of Red Bull. Available in your country now. Simply go to www.getredbulletin.com TERMS AND CONDITIONS: The Red Bulletin is published 12 times a year. You can subscribe to the International Edition (English version) from any country in the world via www.getredbulletin.com. If your country is not highlighted on the map please choose the button ‘INTERNATIONAL’. The subscription price is £25.99 for 12 issues and you will be charged in Pounds Sterling. Please be aware that your bank may charge additional fees.

BEYOND THE ORDINARY THE RED BULLETIN

ACTION

BERNARD PURDIE

“Ladies love a drummer” Aged 73 and with sticks work on 4,000 albums, Bernard Purdie is the world’s most recorded drummer. Fifty years of laying down the beat for Aretha Franklin, James Brown and many other legends has taught him all there is to know about making music Words: Andreas Rottenschlager Photography: Philipp Horak

My mother’s pots and pans were my bass player or the saxophonist who mad at you, you’re out. The worst thing first drum kit. I was three years old, took the ladies home. All they had you can do is hang out with your boss. the 11th of 15 children, and I was always to do was put their instrument in a That’s the quickest way to get fired. drumming like crazy. When I was six bag. The singer had it even better: The discipline of James Brown I got my first toy drum kit. When I was all he had to do was walk off stage. is something to have experienced. seven, a music teacher let me sit in on Louis Armstrong was a gentleman. You were never allowed to call him his lessons. I wasn’t allowed to speak. I jammed with him at his birthday. James Brown. You had to say Mister I didn’t have any money. First Miles Davis was the opposite, you had to learn to listen. a real workaholic. He How did I get work as a sometimes came late to studio musician in the ’60s? rehearsals. We’d already The same way you do today: learned the songs, he just through ads. I made signs and played over the top, but that hung them on the drums: was cool, too. That’s music. “Call me, I’m the hitmaker.” At the Red Bull Music Good marketing is everything. Academy, I teach musicians I can read sheet music who are young enough to be forward and backwards. my grandchildren. I hate to I interpret the music while say it, but 90 per cent of young I’m playing it. I read notes, people hardly know anything rhythm and feel. I always about music theory or how put a bit of myself into it, you interpret a piece. The no matter what song I’m techno generation can operate playing or with whom. their computers: great! But That’s how I enrich the songs. no one talks about how you I make them a little bit Purdie. create feeling. You have to Record-breaking drummer Bernard Purdie is still keeping the beat For the Grateful Dead make the computer work at 73 years of age. “Pension? That word doesn’t exist for me!” I played on 30-40 tracks. for you, and in a way that And I can’t remember which makes it sound human. songs they were. I drove to I tell every pupil: learn your thing! Brown. Full stop. Whatever you did, San Francisco for the weekend, It doesn’t matter what direction you want you could never use his first name. recorded the songs and they to go. If you’re good, it will work for you. We all started in music because we paid me the amount I’d asked for. Pension? Hey, are we talking the same wanted to get the women. That was Everyone likes to party. But when language? That word doesn’t exist for our motivation. The only problem with you’re working for a superstar, you me. I’ll keep at it as long as people want that is that at the end of the show the can’t afford to slack off. I learned that me to. I’ve never thought about stopping. drummer has to pack up his kit. Ladies Human metronome: www.bernardpurdie.com early on in life. If Aretha Franklin’s love a drummer, but it was always the 74

The Rolling Stones Quincy Jones, James Brown, Steely Dan, Aretha Franklin (the list goes on) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Purdie has worked with them all

Austrian architect Thomas Herzig builds castles in the air, continuing a tradition that brings together Gothic master builders and high-tech wizards Words: Alexander Macheckâ&#x20AC;&#x192; Photography: Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

ACTION

Maximum

Airplay T Solid air: architect Thomas Herzig with one of his unique pneumatic structures, a pavilion made almost entirely of air

here might be a UFO sitting in a remote glade west of the Austrian capital: a seethrough bubble the size of a small cottage. A cuckoo shrieks and an electric pump whirrs into action, blowing air into this strange form. “It’s a pneumocell dome,” explains Thomas Herzig, owner of this hidden patch of land and inventor of the structure: an air-filled, honeycomb-shaped plastic cell that can be put together with others to make structures of any shape or size. Transparent or opaque, as required, but heat-insulated and stable, even though they’re made mostly from a whole lot of nothing – just air. A pupil of Austrian architect Gustav Peichl, Herzig’s work mainly focuses on making special exhibition pavilions for motor industry events. He has also been heavily involved with Vienna’s Life Ball, Europe’s biggest charity event raising money for people with HIV and AIDS. Herzig has designed a series of futuristic roof structures for Life Ball, with artists like Hans Kupelwieser, Wolfgang Semmelrock and Peter Sandbichler enlisting his skills for special inflatable commissions, making him an expert in a new domain: pneumatic design. Or, as he puts it, pneumatic formfinding: “I can cut a piece of wood 77

ACTION

Another bubble in the wall: Herzig calls his design process “pneumatic form-finding”. Cells can be put together with other materials to make anything from furniture to walls and windows

be-finished ‘Skybase’ project – a house that will be positioned high up among rocks and trees – Herzig will study the design and shape of birds’ nests. This observational approach makes him party to a glorious tradition. When Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was designing Barcelona’s Sagrada Família cathedral, for example, he hung weights with ropes on a board to imitate gravity and create tension, so arches, vaults and columns could form with no critical compressive force acting on them. This upside-down model helped him envisage how his intricate creation would turn out. “The amazing thing about design solutions based on the laws of nature is that nature uses minimum materials to maximum effect,” explains Herzig. “So in our case that means ideal structural engineering using minimum resources.”

“The amazing thing about design solutions based on the laws of nature is that they use minimum materials to maximum effect” 78

however I like and make crazy, completely useless things out of it. But air always seeks out its own form.” Herzig has to think about exactly how the air is going to interact with the membrane depending on how he shapes it. “You need a lot more background knowledge at the designing stage,” he explains. “And humility.” That means he doesn’t try to force the form he imagines on nature, but instead racks his brains to work out what the right form will be for the function that the object is supposed to fulfil. The first thing Herzig does is open his eyes and look around. He examines organic cells, bunches of grapes and drops of water. For things like the yet-to-

ut as Herzig is keen to point out, no part of this design process is down to chance. It is a principle and ideal which all solutions strive towards in their development. Even man hasn’t been able to elude it. On the contrary. “When we started building, we laid one stone on top of another,” says Herzig. “Gothic-era architects began to think about how they could cut down on materials. That’s how we ended up with fourcentred arches and cross-shaped vaults.” Back then it was to save money. Now, on top of that, we have environmental considerations such as reducing raw material use and decreasing transport weight and emissions. But in keeping with the tradition of the old master builders, what counts for any developer is the allure of the universal trend towards dematerialisation which is particularly radical in the high-tech world and, therefore, particularly visible. Herzig explains: “The first computers were the size of our living rooms, but now we can stick our iPhones in our pockets even though they have much greater capacity. We’re replacing material with information. The idea remains, but the material disappears.” Learn more at: www.pneumocell.com

THE NEBW IN RED ULLET ! E G A P N A F Send message:

ook: n goes Faceb njoy all the advantages ti e ll u B d e R e • f our page and ecome a fan o •

B d of Red Bull. from the worl el! sport and trav , n o ti c a to se clo “Like it”: To be

e: lletin fan pag even sooner. u B d e R , r te s s • Fast, fa lifestyle trend music, art and The newest

• Exclus

s and interview

: Videos, image ively for fans inary.

beyond the ord

T N A W O S L A DO YOU R Y? A N I D R O A R LLETIN U T B X D E E R / E M B O TO CEBOOK.C A .F W W W O JUST GO T ! N A F A E M O AND BEC

Contents 82 TRAVEL Lost in music in New Orleans 84 GET THE GEAR A top chef and his kitchen equipment 86 TRAINING Tips from US skater Torey Pudwill

90 NIGHTLIFE Everything you need to get you through ’til dawn 94 WORLD IN ACTION 96 SAVE THE DATE 97 KAINRATH 98 MIND’S EYE

CREDITS: PHOTOGRAPHY: KIRSTEN SCHOLTZ/GETTY IMAGES

88 BAND WATCH Dublin electronica quartet Le Galaxie

CREDITS:

US surfer Kelly Slater is aiming for a third victory in a row at the Hurley Pro off the coast of California. Success would cement his place as one of the sportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all-time greats. Find his date with destiny, and other events of the month, on page 94

GET INTO THE GROOVE THIS MONTH’S TRAVEL TIPS

All that jazz… And everything else New Orleans’ world-famous jazz scene is rightly celebrated, but the city’s vibrant musical offerings go far beyond what can be found in tourist guidebooks. Local DJ Brice Nice gives the low-down on where to go to for hip-hop, cabaret, drag bingo and naked karaoke VOODOO MUSIC FESTIVAL

Lurking on the outskirts of the French Quarter are enough music venues to serve the wide-ranging interests of Voodoo Music Festival attendees

“It goes without saying that New Orleans is a town where people like to party, usually hitting up several spots in a night,” says Brice Nice, a DJ at local radio station WWOZ (www.wwoz.org). “No closing time means that most folks don’t go out until 11pm, peak hour is somewhere around 2am and it’s not uncommon to walk out of a club into

daylight. Voodoo – headlined by Green Day, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Jack White and Skrillex – ups the ante with night shows and special events in unique spaces.” Here, then, is Nice work: his dozen of the Crescent City’s best bets for the most vibrant rock, dance, electronic and hip-hop events. Voodoo Music Festival October 26-28, www.thevoodooexperience.com

WORDS: DJ BRICE NICE. PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW GOETZ, GETTY IMAGES (4), CORBIS, SIBERIA, AMPERSAND

MORE BODY & MIND

St art

Loyola Ave

treet

Central Business District

Riverwalk Marketplace

St. C

laude

Marigny

7 6 9

berts

on St

Aven ue

Roya l Stre et

MISSIS

SIPPI

St Peter St

s St Religio u

hosted by Slangston Hughes, happens on the last Friday of the month and Truth Universal’s Grassroots on the first Saturday of each month keeps Dragon’s Den on the cutting edge. www.facebook.com/thedragonsden 10 Republic Known for weekly college dance parties on Friday and Saturday; monthly electronic events from Winter Circle Productions’ Bassik party with guests like Datsik and Doctor P; and its bounce monthly events featuring New Orleans’ own ass-shaking club music with regular guests Big Freedia, Sissy Nobby and Katey Red. www.republicnola.com Republic

8 Ampersand Ampersand is notable for the best sound system in the city and an unfailing dedication to electronic dance music. Open only on Fridays and Saturdays unless there is a special event – and more Euro-flavoured than you’ll usually find in the city – it has featured afterparty sets by Diplo, MSTRKRFT, Skrillex, and massive regular parties by the young lions of the New Orleans EDM scene, Electronic Takeover. www.clubampersand.com

Ampersand

Treme Brass Band play dba regularly

N Ro

11 tre

NEW ORLEANS 2

3 4 5

WOLDENBERG PARK

Convention Center Blvd.

Av e

French Quarter

t re e St sin

Ba Ca

Poydra sS

7 dba A must-visit venue, dba is a purveyor of great live music and offers an unparalleled beer selection. With performances from Glen David Andrews every Monday, Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington every Wednesday and regular sets by Treme Brass Band, Little Freddie King, John Boutte, Monk Boudreaux and other titans of New Orleans music, dba guarantees reliable roots music is live every night. www.dbabars.com/dbano

lou

eA ve n

Frank lin

Ave

Ho wa rd

6 Maison Positioning itself as the go-to spot on Frenchmen Street, Maison moves through jazz, jam funk, hip-hop, brass bands, swing dance classes and club DJs every week over multiple stages. A monthly party by bounce pioneer DJ Jubilee, semi-regular events with super producer Mannie Fresh and touring acts like Dan Deacon and Hood Internet will take place in October. Entry is free most nights, and a full dinner menu is on offer before 10pm. www.maisonfrenchmen.com

Frenchmen St

ard

Three bars on the corner of Marigny Street and St Claude Avenue, each with a distinct flavour. The Stooges Brass Band recently took over the Hi-Ho and their Thursday night residency is one of the best brass band gigs in the city. Wandering Buddha serves vegan Korean food in the back. All-Ways Lounge is, true to its name, a cabaret amalgamation

LOUIS ARMSTRONG PARK

To u

3 4 5 Hi-Ho Lounge, All-Ways Lounge, Siberia

of burlesque, theatre, live music, dance nights and naked karaoke in a former gay cowboy bar. Siberia features metal and punk and has hosted OFF!, Eyehategod, and a Gibby Haynes DJ set this year. Kukhnya serves Slavic soul food in the back. www.hiholounge.net, www.theallways lounge.net, www.siberianola.com

lan

2 The Saint The Saint has gone from rocker dive bar to a sweaty, twisted mess of a dancefloor where regular folks, hipsters, metal heads and the occasional celebrity mix without drama or paparazzi. Saturday night’s Obsession dance party is the baby of DJ Musa Alves where you’ll hear the freshest new music mixed with a little Magnolia Shorty, Lil Boosie and the occasional ’90s house tune. DJs and live music fill the rest of the week, including country night with Pasta on Sundays, tiki-themed karaoke on Tuesdays and occasionally drag bingo – which is exactly what you hope it is. www.thesaintneworleans.com

Es p

Elysian Fields Ave

ern

Frenchmen Street is the hub of traditional New Orleans music, but other genres can be found further afield 1 Mimi’s in the Marigny Anchored musically by DJ Soul Sister’s Hustle party every Saturday night, where a diverse group keeps the dancefloor sweaty and jumping to strictly funky disco jams from the mid-’70s to the early-’80s. Dance party Alligator Chomp Chomp holds down every other Friday with south Louisiana sounds, and there’s a variety of live music during the week, usually jazz or roots acts. The kitchen serves Spanish-style tapas until 2am daily and 4am on Fridays and Saturdays. www.mimisinthemarigny.net

N Claiborne Ave

St B

Off the beaten track

Aven ue

MORE BODY & MIND

9 Dragon’s Den Jungle and drum ’n’ bass have their New Orleans home at the Den with Bassbin Safari on Thursdays and occasional parties by Below C Level crew. Other draws include dancehall classics with T-Roy on Wednesdays and Sunday’s weekly dubstep show Church with Unicorn Fukr. Monthly underground hip-hop event Uniquity,

11 Hookah The only real music venue in the city with a hookah selection, Hookah also features a beautiful dancefloor and is the only venue for underground dance music in the heart of the French Quarter. Popular hip-hop weeklies on Friday and Saturday have long lines and a dress code, so plan accordingly. EDM music by Head Set on Thursdays start the weekend off, and Tipping Point with DJ RQAway and the Room Service Band on Sundays are a soulful way to finish up. www.hookah-club.com 12 One-Eyed Jacks The go-to rock ’n’ roll venue in the French Quarter, OEJ’s features a hugely popular ’80s night on Thursdays packed to the gills with 20-somethings enjoying the velvetpainting ambience. The rest of the week you might find bands like Black Lips, Guided By Voices, Wild Flag, Quintron and Miss Pussycat. www.oneeyedjacks.net

4 2 1

If you can’t stand the heat… Ikarus’s head chef Roland Trettl with his trusty blowtorch

MORE BODY & MIND

GET THE GEAR ESSENTIAL PRO KIT

Stir-crazy cooking

Is it a laboratory? A doctor’s surgery? A spaceship? No, it’s a kitchen. Roland Trettl, executive chef at Salzburg’s high-end Ikarus restaurant, talks us through his workspace 1. Vitamix TNC 5200 The blender’s blade can be set to spin at anything from 1,000 to 24,000rpm, which means purées, mayonnaise and mousses all come out perfectly. At high speeds, it’s also perfect for chopping herbs without affecting colour or taste. 2. Bunsen burner This butane blowtorch can reach a top temperature of 1,750ºC, which I need to glaze things like crème brûlée. 3. Liquid nitrogen An important part of molecular cooking. In its liquid state, nitrogen has a boiling point of -196ºC and is used to freeze foods and liquids.

WORDS: ULRICH CORAZZA. PHOTOGRAPHY: PHILIPP FORSTNER

4. Syringes The contents of the syringes (which can be filled with any flavour of juice or jelly) drip into oil or nitrogen to make aromatic jelly-like frozen gems. You can squeeze several syringes at once by turning the handle. 5. Julabo heating thermostat With the thermostat you can set temperatures of up to 90ºC exactly and maintain them. I like using it most for lowtemperature cooking to get a nice texture in fish and meat. 6. Big Green Egg XL Air comes into this ceramic glazed charcoal grill from below. The heated gas then escapes out the top. The thermometer, which allows for precise temperatures up to 400ºC, gives you perfect results when you’re barbecuing, frying, smoking or heating.

7. Green Star juicer This will extract the juice from anything: fruit, vegetables and even herbs like basil or parsley. It works using two adjacent stainless steel press rolls, rotating at just 110rpm, so there’s no damage to the food from the speed. Even the delicate vitamins and enzymes in the pips – of strawberries or kiwis, for example – survive. 8. Plaster I use plaster of Paris – with a strength of at least 6N/mm2 – to shape active moulds. They set in 20 minutes. Here we have a truffle mould for a new take on the Délice de ris de veau Rumohr recipe. 9. Shera Duosil H silicone Negative forms from the plaster moulds can be made out of this soft elastic duplicating silicone. 10. Turning Slicer Practical help for slicing fruit and vegetables. Simply put in an apple, turn the handle and the whole thing comes out the other end finely sliced.

Chop chop: Japanese turning slicer www.hangar-7.com/ikarus

MORE BODY & MIND

WORK OUT TRAINING WITH THE PROS

Tough Breaks TOREY PUDWILL The Californian street skater is rehabbing two broken bones

Before Torey Pudwill broke his ankle at the end of 2011 – and his hand in early 2012 – he would train like any other skater: get up, head to the park and skate. But when the Torey Pudwill 22-year-old started rehab for his injury, he learned a jarring fact: to reach the top of his sport, skating alone wasn’t enough. “Taking supplements, eating right… this is all stuff I’ve learned since I’ve gotten hurt,” Pudwill says. “It’s like taking a class on how to be an athlete and even how to benefit myself to live longer.” Pudwill’s trainer, Dr David Sales of the South Coast Spine Center in Capistrano Beach, California, says that his dedication to being healthy is what sets him apart. “Torey’s got that desire and that drive – and you don’t see that in a lot of [skate] athletes,” Sales says. “Most of them wake up in the morning and have a cigarette and a coffee and that’s their idea of a warm-up.”

Keep on truckin' For Pudwill, just getting to Sales’ office requires a two-hour drive from his home in the San Fernando Valley down the coast to Orange County. And then the fun begins. Monday-Friday: He lies on an intersegmental traction table, which vibrates and has a roller that goes up and down the spine to increase range of motion. At the same time, Pudwill is hooked up to muscle stimulation on any part of his body that’s feeling any tightness. In addition, injured body parts receive cold laser treatment to increase metabolic activity, speed up healing and reduce inflammation – as well as cryotherapy: good old ice. Next, Pudwill gets ultrasound treatment to warm and loosen up the tissue before

Sales gives him a chiropractic adjustment. He does active release therapy to make sure that all his tendons, ligaments and muscles are in the right position. “It’s painful, but it’s really important,” Pudwill says. “But if all those are working together – the results are pretty much instant.” After some mild stretching, Pudwill will then go on the power plate to work on flexibility and strength conditioning. Once that’s over, then Pudwill uses a wobble board or BOSU ball and Sales throws weighted balls at him, which he has to catch with one hand. To end the session, Pudwill practises his balance by standing on the wobble board with his eyes closed. Saturday and Sunday: Skate. Skate. Skate some more.

Follow Pudwill on Twitter: @ToreyPudwill1 www.redbull.com/toreypudwill

WORDS: ANN DONAHUE. PHOTOGRAPHY: ATIBA JEFFERSON/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

Everything from chiropractic adjustments to cold lasers is used to get Pudwill back on the board

ACTS TO WATCH IN 2012 #5

Le Galaxie: four people with diverse tastes, but a combined love of the ’80s synth sound

Stars in their eyes

LE GALAXIE Dublin four-piece hell-bent on bringing analogue key-sounds back to the future

Le Galaxie’s Fade 2 Forever EP is out now

Le Galaxie’s 2011 debut album, Laserdisc Nights 2, was both a breath of fresh air and reassuringly nostalgic at the same time. It combined the wonderful warmth of 1980s synthesisers, thumping rhythms, techno beats and pop melodies to create a joyous record, jam-packed with danceable bangers. Drawing on a collective love of old-skool electronica and influences from their youth (including TV and cinema), Le Galaxie honed a sound like no other. Their growing reputation has been bolstered by a stream of exhilarating live shows, which merge acid house’s irrepressible spirit with the band’s tight and passionate groove. Mick Le Galaxie (Michael Pope) tells it like it is. “We met during our post-rock phase, but I don’t think all that

sombreness and seriousness really suited us. When a singer left an old band we were in, we continued to jam intermittently as an instrumental group. Gradually, we began to evolve into something approaching the band of today. I suppose it wasn’t until we stepped on stage, in front of a room of strangers, that we thought it really felt right. Connecting with people live gave us the confidence to push on.” Unsurprisingly, Le Galaxie’s members have more than a fleeting interest in electronic music’s finer moments. Their rich sound combines elements of multiple era-defining styles and also draws inspiration from small and silver screens of their youth. “Our approach is certainly not contrived,” says Pope. “This is four

people with diverse tastes in music, cinema and just about everything else. About two years ago we began to develop a sound that felt right for all of us and we kicked on from there. Electronic music is obviously important, especially the late ’70s stuff like Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk. Then there are influences like those ’80s movie soundtracks that we grew up with. However, the real constant throughout it all was those synths. They really resonated with us. I had a Blur phase, really got into Godspeed and all that post-rock for a time, but always came back.” After the relative success of their debut album and recently released EP, Le Galaxie have reached a pivotal point in their development. Do they continue

MORE BODY & MIND

WORDS: EAMONN SEOIGE. PHOTOGRAPHY: ALESSIO MICHELINI (1)

“We’ve come a long way from playing to seven people – and four of them were the support band” to mine those rich combinations of electro-pop, guitar licks, techno and soulful synths or embark on a fresh direction? “Where we go next is anyone’s guess. I don’t think we’re even sure. The releases have been well received, but we don’t want to repeat ourselves. But when you play ’80s analogue synths, you’ll always sound a certain way, irrespective of the style. It’s an oxymoron really, but we want to keep pushing forward, while maintaining our sound. We want to make creative, worthwhile dance music within a band dynamic. I don’t think a band needs to be defined by its surroundings. If that was the case we’d be writing songs about the dole and happy meals. When we plug in, we’re not looking to reflect social realities. Your environment doesn’t mean a thing when you play synths.” The recent EP Fade 2 Forever showcased another, more soulful side of Le Galaxie. The disco frenzy was toned down in favour of slower, emotionally charged tracks that perhaps gave a first impression of a new direction. “It’s certainly a more sparse work. In the album, every spare second is filled with stuff, the EP breathes a little more. It’s a little more atmospheric and emotional. Fade 2 Forever has an ambient quality, but we also wanted it to sound gorgeous. There’s still a big dance number Heat City, but overall we wanted it to have a big heart, something I think is often lacking, even in the sound of bands I really love. We brought in guest vocalists to shake it up a little. There were specific issues with those tracks and we decided to try something different. I remember the buzz we got when Elaine Mai and Laura Smyth

worked with us in the studio. We were saying, ‘Can these girls join our band?’ They really added something very special.” The release format of Fade 2 Forever also harked back to the glory days of electronic music. “Releasing it on white 10-inch vinyl was a real thrill,” Pope enthuses. “Vinyl is simply untouchable. I remember listening back to it and thinking how great it sounded. Aesthetically, there’s also the packaging of a record. It’s the way music was meant to be heard and we’re really proud of it. Up until now we’ve only released music digitally. It’s been great to get this far without a CD in sight.” The current Irish music scene is brimming with fascinating electro acts, but Le Galaxie is certainly a little different from the rest. “I’m a huge fan of Toby Kaar, but we’re separated from that whole scene, which is really a compliment to those acts. It’s a brilliant, creative movement that we’re not part of. We’re older, noisier and have a bass, guitar and drums banging away. We’re the weirdos in the corner. We have no place, but we’re not some ‘analogue only’ purists either.” Despite the country’s recent economic difficulties and the challenges of the music industry, Le Galaxie is a full-time outfit. With the writing process for a new album already under way, things are certainly looking up. They’re also one of the most jaw-dropping live propositions you’re ever likely to encounter. “It’s a great privilege to be able to live the life of a musician. It’s been a lot of hard work to get where we are and we’ve certainly come a long way from playing a gig in Limerick four years ago to seven people – and four of them were in the support band. We really enjoy gigging and festivals seem to suit us. We went down a storm at Electric Picnic last year and Forbidden Fruit a few months ago. The big one this summer will be playing the Little Big Tent at Electric Picnic. We’re playing after a Four Tet/Caribou gig and we’re already planning the show. It’ll be ‘Le Galaxie’s Crystal Maze’! We’ll have the jumpsuits, the lot!”

Full of energy: Le Galaxie play Electric Picnic this year

Need to know THE LINE-UP Michael Pope - vocals, synths, guitar, drums Alastair Higgins - drums Anthony Hylans - guitar, synths David McGloughlin - bass, synths DISCOGRAPHY Laserdisc Nights 2 (2011) Fade 2 Forever EP (2012)

The story so far Le Galaxie launched their unique fusion of electronica onto an unsuspecting Irish music fraternity in 2008 and they haven’t looked back since. Originally called 66e, the remaining members of that band decided to stick around when a singer departed due to musical differences. A change of direction meant a new band name as they began to draw inspiration from their collective love of dance and electronic music. This fresh and exciting ‘grids vs guitars’ sound made an immediate impact on a scene top heavy with overly pious singersongwriters. The time had come to have fun again! An obsession with ’80s sci-fi (Dark Star, V ) came

to the fore on the ‘We Bleed The Blood Of Androids’ tour, with the band appearing on-stage complete with pulsing lights attached to their instruments and backed by projected clips from classic movies. A quick fast-forward to 2011 and the arrival of wonderful debut album Laserdisc Nights 2 . Their love of retro chic was still very much in evidence on this long-player, especially on the hilarious Mark Duggan video for single Powers of Miami, complete with such ’80s flashbacks as badly tracked VHS recordings, aerobics and fetching perms! With Ireland in the bag, it’s high-time Le Galaxie conquered the world… www.legalaxie.net

MORE BODY & MIND

Nightlife Whatever gets you through the night

ACTION

Night safari SO YOU WANT TO VISIT THE ZOO AFTER DARK?

Opened in 1994, the award-winning Singapore Night Safari is the world’s first nocturnal zoo. HOW BIG IS IT? You can explore the 35-hectare area with its seven themed sections from 7.30pm to midnight on foot or by mini-train. WHAT ANIMALS CAN YOU MEET? You can get up close to 137 different species and more than 2,500 different nocturnal animals such as large cats, flying squirrels, birds and monkeys. WHERE ELSE? Chiang Mai Night Safari (Thailand), China Night Safari (Guangzhou, China), Greater Noida Night Safari (Uttar Pradesh, India) and Taiping Zoo (Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia).

OUT NOW

Get out of New York Grizzly Bear frontman Ed Droste on the benefits of recording rurally and gaining a couple of famous fans Grizzly Bear are an indie-rock quartet from New York. Three years ago there was a lot of hype around the band’s third album Veckatimest. It was a washed-out, brittle album full of scratchy raw pop diamonds – an experimental piece of work that usually wouldn’t have got beyond the critics. Yet Veckatimest shot into the top 10 of the US charts in its first week. RB: Three years have passed since your last album came out. What was it like when you got together to write again? Ed Droste: It was like being back at school when you see everyone for the first time after the holidays. You withdrew to a house north of New York to write the songs. Why was that? In New York you get distracted easily. There are birthdays, pets, concerts. I have to clear my head in order to get the right mindset of writing.

What’s it like working up there? There are no neighbours for miles around. Most of the sunlight hours we spent outside. In the mornings we would go out into the forest to get some firewood, and in the afternoon we’d start working. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are fans of yours. How did that come about? Beyoncé’s younger sister, Solange Knowles, played them our music and they’ve been supporting us ever since. It’s cool that mainstream artists today like Rihanna and Beyoncé are into smaller bands like The xx or even us.

Grizzly Bear’s new album, Shields, is out on September 18. grizzly-bear.net

WISE WORDS

“ Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut ” Ernest Hemingway, writer (1899-1961)



COCKTAIL

Del Rio

CLUB

Hoxton TORONTO

“The Del Rio is a classic his and hers cocktail,” says Josh Harris, an award-winning barman and head of San Francisco cocktail and spirit consulting company, The Bon Vivants. “If you want a drink that everyone in the place is going to like, mix up this cocktail.” Harris’s theory is that men like the tequila and women like the elderflower liqueur. “And then there’s sherry as the wild-card ingredient.” Meaning? “Sherry has depth of taste and gives the cocktail its subtle flavour.”

WORDS: FLORIAN OBKIRCHER. PHOTOGRAPHY: BARBARA ANASTACIO, DDP, THE HOXTON (4), FOTOSTUDIO EISENHUT & MAYER

INGREDIENTS 40ml Ocho Plata tequila 20ml St. Germain elderflower liqueur 20ml Fino sherry 4 dashes Angostura Orange Bitters Glass: Coupe Trimmings: grapefruit peel

METHOD Put ingredients in shaker. Add ice and stir until the drink has become much more diluted. Pour into a cooled Coupe glass and decorate with grapefruit peel.

THE HOXTON 69 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M5V 1M5, Canada www.thehoxton.ca

CLUB

“You gotta have swag” The trendsetters of Toronto can be found partying at The Hoxton, an arty old printers that plays cracking dance sounds from DJs like Skrillex and Diplo We opened the club because… There was a need for a better music venue in Toronto, which could cater to a crowd of around 700 that was diverse enough to provide a great space for DJ sets as well as live music and corporate events. Our basic idea was… To convert an old factory into a

multifunctional gallery space with a state-of-the-art sound system. We went for the King West district… Because it is the heart of what is now deemed the nightclub and entertainment area for Toronto. From outside the club looks like… An old warehouse. It was a printing factory that dates back to 1890. The interior is reminiscent of… Banksy's 2010 movie Exit Through The Gift Shop. It all gets going… At about midnight. Our regular customers are… Hipsters and trendsetters. To get past the bouncer you… Gotta have swag. Your craziest night was when… Skrillex and Diplo had a DJ battle. The place goes mad when… The DJ plays Levels by Avicii. The best late-night spot nearby to soak up all that alcohol is... The Counter at Thompson Hotel. Interview with club owners Jesse Girrard and Richard Lambert

MORE BODY & MIND

PERSONA I discovered this movie two years ago. It was randomly recommended on Netflix. But I found the premise very exciting. There are only four actors in the whole film. One of them is deaf and only says 14 words. It's just this incredible minimal film, but it’s just so captivating and otherworldly. And the idea of being able to make something like that with so little, I find it very inspiring.

TAKE 3

“On a Bergman bender” Vampire Weekend They make a unique brand of unbridled indie rock with a hint of Africa, but the band’s bassist Chris Baio says the inspiration for his solo EP came from a few Swedish movies Vampire Weekend turned the music world on its head four years ago when they released their eponymous debut album. It didn’t sound like any other indie-rock music before. Ghanaian highlife with indie-rock guitar; east African rhythms infused with punk drums. A bit like Paul Simon’s Graceland but much fresher and wilder. The band took some time off in 2010 after years of extensive touring, and bass player Chris Baio used it to indulge his second passion: electronic music. His solo record, Sunburn Modern, was released this year, which sees the 27-year-old blending steel drums with slowed down house beats, sweet synths and exotic drums. The tracks bring sunshine to the dancefloor. “I’m constantly listening to music for inspiration and I can get jaded,” he says. “But I can’t get enough of Ingmar Bergman’s movies. They inspire me – even as a musician I can learn a lot from his work. To find out more about his life I’ve just gone on a complete Bergman bender.” www.vampireweekend.com; www.baiobaio.com

AUTUMN SONATA A late Bergman masterpiece. A famous concert pianist visits her daughter and realises that although she’d led a glamorous life, she wasn’t the best mother. The film’s subject matter really harshed me out because I’m on tour all the time and would like to have children myself one day. It’s also remarkable and clever the way he subtly uses the autumnal red as a motif throughout the story, as the movie’s title suggests.

NIGHT SNACK

Amsterdam Bitterballen

WINTER LIGHT A great movie. But what’s almost better is the making-of documentary that comes with the DVD. It’s fascinating how he’s thought of everything in advance. He was already thinking of the next movie during the one he was working on. You can’t do that when you’re in a band because you have to go on tour when an album comes out. It’s easier with electronic music, which is why I’m inspired by his multi-tasking.

These deep-fried meatballs rule the night in the Netherlands WHERE ARE THE BALLS? Bitterballen are sold at street stalls in Amsterdam and old wood-panelled pubs, known as 'brown cafés' (because of the décor) across the Netherlands.

Words: Florian Obkircher, klaus kamolz. Photography: Rex Features (2), Kobal Collection (2), fotostudio Eisenhut & Mayer (1)

Hardcore Bitterballen Beer and schnapps is one combination northern European revellers like to enjoy. In Amsterdam you’ll get a Jenever, the national juniperbased schnapps, either poured straight into your beer or served with your beer and balls. The all-too-appropriate name for this double whammy is a kopstoot: a head-butt.

WHAT’S IN THEM? The basic ingredients are cold cooked beef or veal and some mature Gouda. It all gets kneaded together with egg, flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper, shaped into balls, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. They’re usually served with a little mustard.

How many? About 3cm across, bitterballen are served in portions of six, but you can never eat too many. What's in the name? These snacks are not bitter. The name comes from bittertje, an alcoholic drink they used to be served with. A bittergarnituur is a selection of savoury bar snacks.

what drink? Eating bitterballen without an alcoholic beverage is a crime in these parts – they are so fatty that you'll want to wash them down with something. So that nobody forgets to order a beer to go with their balls, many places offer a special meal consisting of six bitterballen and a glass of pilsner. Perfect.

The golden ball Every year, a specialist Dutch drinks brochure awards the Golden Ball for services to preserving the traditional atmosphere in pubs and all that that entails. Café Hoppe (www.cafehoppe.com) are the reigning champs. They're open till 2am and serve eight bitterballen for €5.

MORE BODY & MIND

World in Action

6 2

September 2012

10 5

Sport

13-16.09.2012, CARDIFF, UK

WRC, Wales Rally GB The world’s best rally drivers – headed by Sébastien Loeb – are set to hurtle their way around the forests near Cardiff in celebration of the British Rally’s 80th birthday. The event is being held two months earlier than usual, but drivers should still expect the treacherous racing conditions of quick gravel tracks and narrow roads through the trees. The fog and rain should have a big influence here: the rain creates deep ruts in the muddy roads, making this the slippiest rally of the year.

8 9

16-22.09.2012, TRESTLES, CALIFORNIA, USA

ASP World Championship Tour As everyone knows, surfing’s soul can be found off the coast of San Clemente. The high breaks at Trestles offer one of the greatest rides in California, making this the ideal location for the Hurley Pro. And it holds a special place in Kelly Slater’s heart: in 2007, the US surfer secured the 34th victory of his career, taking him to the top of the all-time greats list and last year, the home win paved the way for his 11th World Championship title, which also made Slater the oldest ASP Champion at the age of 39.

3 Mark Cavendish aims for glory in The Netherlands

Can Vettel dominate in Singapore once again?

15-23.09.2012, LIMBURG, THE NETHERLANDS

23.09.2012, MARINA BAY STREET CIRCUIT

UCI Road World Championships

This year there will be some changes to the UCI Road Championships programme for the first time since 1994 – the team time trial is back and there’s also a new youth competition – but the elite men’s race is still the big highlight. Mark Cavendish faces a tough time defending his rainbow jersey here: the narrow, undulating 265km course through the province of Limburg includes the 1,200m Cauberg ascent, the opposite of what the British sprint specialist prefers. An exciting race awaits.

Singapore Formula One Grand Prix

The only nighttime race on the Formula One calendar has been held at the 5.073km Marina Bay Street Circuit since 2008. A grand total of 1,485 floodlights light up the course, 70 per cent of which is on public roads. The combination of high-speed straights and the highest number of turns in any Formula One course puts an enormous strain on the gearboxes. Last year Sebastian Vettel was able to celebrate his first victory in the south-east Asian city state, after leading from start to finish.

Kelly Slater is out for a third win at the Hurley Pro

MORE BODY & MIND

Sculptures will appear on Australia’s Gold Coast 22.09.2012, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

EarthDance 14-16.09.2012, CHICAGO, USA

Riot Fest

It’s a sad day for any music fan when his or her favourite band splits up. Riot Fest attempts to heal these wounds by convincing our heroes of old to reform for at least one last hurrah. The Chicago leg of the festival sees The Offspring and The Jesus and Mary Chain give us a trip down memory lane, while more modern bands like AW0LNATI0N and The Gaslight Anthem will be on hand to lap up some new fans.

7 27.09.2012, WADI SHAB, OMAN

28-29.09.2012 DUBAI, UAE

Red Bull Flying Bach This fast and furious dance show premiered two years ago in Berlin, and the performances have been sold out and greeted with standing ovations all over Europe ever since. Red Bull Flying Bach sees breakdancing World Champions Flying Steps bring the baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach into the 21st century. They do head-spins to preludes and fugues and show daredevil moves to piano and harpsichord accompaniments. This autumn, the show goes on a huge world tour, taking the team from Dubai to as far as Tokyo. You can find details of the tour at www.redbullflyingbach.com.

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series In 2010 it was Gary Hunt, then 2011 Gary Hunt again… Will the Briton make it three World Championship titles in a row this year? We’ll find out at the seventh and final stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series tour, when the Sultanate of Oman becomes the first Arabic country to host the cliff divers. Hunt and co will dive from a 27m-high platform into one of seven emerald-green pools at the Wadi Shab river valley near the village of Tiwi.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES (4), DANIEL MICHAUD, REZI KENIA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

More than 300 locations, 60 countries, and one message. EarthDance is a network of event organisers around the world putting on the largest global dance music festival in support of humanitarian causes. The high point comes with the ‘Prayer for Peace’ when people all over the world simultaneously devote a moment’s thought to peace. One of the biggest and best EarthDance parties is traditionally held in Cape Town where the city’s Red Bull Studio lavishes the stage with DJs and local talent.

Culture

The Gaslight Anthem are set to rock Chicago 14-23.09.2012, CURRUMBIN, AUSTRALIA

Bestival

Swell Sculpture Festival

When Rob Da Bank hosted the first edition of Bestival back in 2004 around 10,000 revellers turned up to catch acts like Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim. This time around he will be expecting more than six times as many people to descend on the Isle of Wight’s Robin Hill Country Park to party to the likes of Friendly Fires, The xx, Azealia Banks and Frank Ocean. On the Sunday there’ll be another massive fancy dress party, with Da Bank and co hoping this year’s theme of ‘wild beasts’ helps the festival set another world record.

You won’t find the best sculptures on Australia’s Gold Coast in a museum. Fittingly for the land of golden sands, they’re on the beach. Fifty international artists set about turning the Pacific Parade in the small town of Currumbin into a fantasy world. There are illuminated bronze sculptures, pipe-work tentacles, stranded glass sharks and huge conches that let you ‘hear the sea’. The beach show draws in around 180,000 art-lovers each year, making it a bit of a squeeze for those who just want to swim.

06-09.09.2012, ISLE OF WIGHT, UK

Breakdancers elegantly take on JS Bach in Dubai

MORE BODY & MIND

Save the Date September & October SEPTEMBER 17, 5PM

House band

FROM OCTOBER 12

Oval off

European rugby’s premier club competition, the Heineken Cup, returns next month, with 24 teams from the six leading rugby nations beginning the long road to possible glory. Leinster will be looking to secure an unprecedented hat-trick of wins, especially since the final will be held at their home ground, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, on May 18 next year. Toulouse, the champions of France, will be hoping for a fifth win since their first was in 1996. www.ercrugby.com UNTIL SEPTEMBER 30

Get on track Would-be motorsports stars have one final chance to take a step closer to that pro career with Red Bull Kart Fight. UK Karting centres are inviting racers to record their fastest lap times, with the two quickest from each centre qualifying for a 60-strong final on October 27 at Buckmore Park in Kent. Two runnersup from the final will win a drive in Red Bull Racing’s F1 simulator; the winner will represent the UK at the international final on December 9 (location TBC). www.redbullkartfight.co.uk

The race to kart glory is on

St Michael’s Mount: world’s loveliest new sporting venue SEPTEMBER 14-16

Beside the sea For one weekend this month, a tidal island off the south coast of Cornwall will host the inaugural Festival of Sport. Competitors gunning for the picturesque St Michael’s Mount will take part in core sports, including triathlon, cycling and open water swimming, and beach sports, including volleyball, kayaking, touch rugby and gig rowing (a gig is a six-oared boat particular to Cornwall). The blue ribbon event will be the Triple Challenge, set by the Wings for Life spinal cord injury research foundation, which asks only the strongest to complete three core sports over the two days. But it’s not all hard work. Refreshment comes courtesy of the St Austell Brewery and adopted Cornishman Jamie Oliver, with an athlete-friendly menu. There’ll also be live music on hand to soundtrack the eats and sporting feats. www.festivalofsport.net UNTIL SEPTEMBER 28

Welcome return Beth Jeans Houghton is a Geordie lass who has made her granny’s mantra, “You can’t please everybody, so please yourself,” work in her favour. The 22-year-old singer/songwriter’s freakfolk sound and memorable style – body paint, animal print, eye liner – have taken her from the North East to the West Coast and Los Angeles, where she now lives and has been seen on the arm of Red Hot Chilli Pepper Anthony Kiedis. Now armed with a debut album, Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose, she and her band, The Hooves Of Destiny, are returning to tour the UK and Ireland, bringing with them great songs that touch on everything from pregnancy to perspiration. www.myspace.com/bethjeanshoughton

Beth Jeans: certainly not blue

PHOTOGRAPHY: FESTIVAL OF SPORT, HIROYUKI ORIHARA/RED BULL CONTENT POOL, GETTY IMAGES

More than 800 unsigned bands entered Red Bull Bedroom Jam UK, uploading a video online to be judged by the masses, and now the competition has been whittled down to just three. Dead Harts from Mansfield, Golden Tanks from Reading and I Divide from Exeter will now do battle for public votes one last time during a final to be streamed live from Red Bull Studios in London. Among the prizes: a return to the studios to make a record. www.redbullstudio.co.uk

ILLUSTRATION: DIETMAR KAINRATH

K A I N R AT H

eople seem demented by excess. Never mind less is more, too much seems not quite enough for a lot of folk. I have just seen a blinding white Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with white leather upholstery, probably sourced from virgin unicorns. You could drop a kilo of cocaine on the wintry landscape of its rear chairs and not notice. I dare say it is fuelled by Napoleon XO brandy. I am certain I would not want one. “Luxury” has become a term of condemnation. In fact, it always was. Read Gibbon’s Decline And Fall (which comes highly recommended), and you’ll see that the Roman Empire imploded because too many of its fat and mad CEOs were besotted with gross material pleasures bringing about a fatal lethargy. In this reading, a love of luxury was a moral failing. In fact, it still is. There is nothing wrong with seeking out privileged experiences and superior merchandise, but a taste for ostentatious luxury nowadays betrays both too much money as well as severe psychological problems. This thought came to me as I sat in my Jacuzzi J-LXL with its lounge seating and platinum/rare Canadian chestnut cabin. I have sensitive skin so do not use mains water in my hot tub. Instead, I insist on filtered mineral liquids from a spring in Siberia which is tended by novitiates from an Orthodox monastery and ferried to my Mayfair apartment in lead crystal flagons. Here I like to sit and contemplate the tragic arc of great wealth, flopping like an exhausted meteor across the vault of heaven. Or hell. Oh, wait a moment. Someone has just brought me a snack of swan poached in Sauternes with a foam of Locmariaquer oysters served on a bed of Provencal hay dusted with lavenderinfused larks’ tongues. Afterwards I will need to work out with my Brazilian personal trainer who consumes only yoji berries and pure oxygen. Of course, that paragraph is just an obscene fantasy, but for many consumers it is going that way. And it is going wrong.

Mind’s Eye

The Thing About Bling The pursuit of luxury has triggered a descent into vulgarity, argues Stephen Bayley At the end of July, Louis Vuitton, which dominates the global ‘luxury’ market, opened a huge four-storey shop in Shanghai’s Plaza 66 mall, a spectacle of cringe-inducing horror to the fastidious aesthete. Because Europe and America are both sated with luxury goods and are financially bust, business growth in ‘luxury’ depends on consumers in China, avid for status. But there is evidence that the Chinese luxury market is slowing down. The New York Times said Louis Vuitton has been ruined by its success: it is now ‘common’, even in Shenzhen. In response, Louis Vuitton now offers made-to-order products as the ultimate in the longed-for exclusivity its massproduced label used to offer. New stores in obscure Chinese cities you have never heard of are also being built. New territories of the newly rich, wide-eyed with an appetite for masterpiece luggage now need to be discovered. This is a process whose end is all too obvious. A news item of 2015 will announce that

the world’s largest Louis Vuitton store has been built on an uninhabited artificial island 150km offshore in The Yellow Sea. Do not, dear reader, misunderstand. I have been a deliriously happy guest on the Louis Vuitton corporate jet, a fabulous Bombardier Global Express famed for its “excellent loiter time capabilities”. Alas, it does not for me loiter long enough as there is no end to my interest in fine champagne drunk at high altitude. No objections here, whatsoever. But something is amiss. The concept of luxury has become fatally separated from any test of true quality. If you ask me, the problem began about 2002 when the word ‘bling’ won its way into The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Lexicological approval of hiphop jive talk was synchronous with the rapid descent of luxury from the rarefied level of privilege to its crash-landing in crass materialism. Coco Chanel said that true luxury is not the opposite of poverty, but the opposite of vulgarity. No more. But I do have a solution. Any debate about luxury should be a debate about design. I asked Terence Conran, Britain’s elder statesman of aesthetics and my own mentor, for his views. Any wine that comes in a magnum, Sir Terence says, becomes a luxurious experience. That’s a definition that places true luxury in the realms of pleasure and generosity. Conran enjoys the sight of a single daffodil in an old-fashioned French milk bottle. He adds that the functional chicken egg is plain and beautiful, while a Fabergé egg, on the other hand, is suitable only for oligarchs. He added that bling announces “vulgarity, insensitivity and stupidity”. That seems fair enough. Design, after all, is intelligence made visible. Luxury is the shrieking visibility of things far less attractive. Just look at that annoying white Roller. Stephen Bayley is an award-winning writer and a former director of the Design Museum in London

THE RED BULLETIN United Kingdom: The Red Bulletin is published by Red Bull Media House GmbH Editor-in-Chief Robert Sperl Deputy Editor-in-Chief Alexander Macheck General Management Print Alexander Koppel Publisher Franz Renkin Executive Editor AnthonyRowlinson Associate Editor Paul Wilson Contributing Editors Andreas Tzortzis, Stefan Wagner Chief Sub-editor Nancy James Deputy Chief Sub-editor Joe Curran Production Editor Marion Wildmann Chief Photo Editor Fritz Schuster Deputy Photo Editors Ellen Haas, Catherine Shaw, Rudolf Übelhör Creative Director Erik Turek Art Director Kasimir Reimann Design Martina de Carvalho-Hutter, Silvia Druml, Miles English, Kevin Goll, Carita Najewitz Staff Writers Ulrich Corazza, Werner Jessner, Ruth Morgan, Florian Obkircher, Arkadiusz Piatek, Andreas Rottenschlager Corporate Publishing Boro Petric (head), Christoph Rietner, Nadja Zele (chief-editors); Dominik Uhl (art director); Markus Kucera (photo director); Lisa Blazek (editor); Christian Graf-Simpson, Daniel Kudernatsch (iPad) Head of Production Michael Bergmeister Production Wolfgang Stecher (mgr), Walter Sádaba Repro Managers Clemens Ragotzky (head), Karsten Lehmann, Josef Mühlbacher Finance Siegmar Hofstetter, Simone Mihalits Marketing & Country Management Barbara Kaiser (head), Stefan Ebner, Elisabeth Salcher, Lukas Scharmbacher, Peter Schiffer, Julia Schweikhardt, Sara Varming Advertising enquiries Deirdre Hughes +35 (0) 3 86 2488504. The Red Bulletin is published in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, A product of the Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Website www.redbulletin.com. Head office: Red Bull Media House GmbH, Oberst-Lepperdinger-Strasse 11-15, A-5071 Wals bei Salzburg, FN 297115i, Landesgericht Salzburg, ATU63611700. UK office: 155-171 Tooley Street, London SE1 2JP, +44 (0) 20 3117 2100. Austrian office: Heinrich-Collin-Strasse 1, A-1140 Vienna, +43 (1) 90221 28800.The Red Bulletin (Ireland): Susie Dardis, Richmond Marketing, 1st Floor Harmony Court, Harmony Row, Dublin 2, Ireland +35 386 8277993. Printed by Prinovis Liverpool Ltd, www.prinovis.com Write to us: email letters@redbulletin.com

THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE RED BULLETIN IS OUT ON OCTOBER 2, 7 & 19 98

ILLUSTRATION: VON

MORE BODY & MIND

THE MORNING CREW

WEEKDAYS 6-10AM Jump Start Your Day!