Kate Moss : Live, Resonance FM, 18 October 2004
On Monday 18 October, Simon Fisher Turner
and fellow electronic journeyman Cassian Harrison visited
London's consistently-excellent Resonance 104.4 FM for the
You Are Hear (sic) show presented by Magz Hall and broadcast
between 8.30 and 10.00. The duo appeared under the alias Kate
Moss. 'We just wanted you to say that you'd had Kate Moss on
the show,' explained Harrison, explaining why they'd chosen the
name for the recording. 'We change our name for every concert,'
was Simon Fisher Turner's more sensible answer, adding 'We used
to be called the High Flats, but we broke up. Or did we fall down?'.
The two have worked on and off for several years, mostly on TV and
film work, and also for occasional concerts, but never on record.
Together, they performed three roughly ten-minute
tracks, drawing on Turner's more musical background and Harrison's
interest in sound design. 'We're good foils for one another,' was
Fisher Turner's explanation for their compatibility. The first track
deployed the cut-up piano loops and found sounds that characterise
the 'in progress' version of the new SFT album Lana,
which I've recently had the honour of hearing, and which should
be released by Mute next year. Against these, atmospheres and snatches
of grainy walkie-talkie conversations were fed into the mix by Harrison.
As a live improvisation using libraries of sound, the result is
controlled and disciplined, and extremely atmospheric.
The second track was sonically harsher, using recordings
of Fisher Turner's detailling his musical history - from his childhood
success with Jonathan King through to borrowing £1,000
to record a more grown up album with Colin Lloyd-Tucker -
while in the background tracks from his King days were looped and
manipulated to quite chilling concrete effect.
The final recording was different again, blending
developing minimalist glitch rhythms with Indian percussion and
a rich array of sounds and brief snatches of sampled noise. The
piece concludes with Fisher Turner whispering conspiratorially 'Bread.
I love brown bread. Small brown loaf.'
Simon later told me a bit more about the 'bread'
interlude. 'The small brown loaf was stroked by a sheath of wheat
I found in the street after buying the loaf, which was then used
for toast and vegemite the next morning. A pencil for instance wouldnt
have done the job - too solid and hard. The wheat turned out the
be the perfect "stoker" or baton.'. Against the comparative
earnestness of the music, the closing bread-fetishistic sample reminds
you that electronic music can afford to lighten up from time to
time.
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