People Like Us will be performing The Mirror as part of a Touch presents… event at London’sIklectikon Saturday 22 June 2019. It will be a double bill with our friend Daniel Menche.
The Mirror is a live a/v performance which splices together movie snippets with unique sample-based music exploring the masks that we wear represented through the lens, using parallel narratives across the screen to depict an ever-changing stream, rather than a singular, fixed being, narrative or moment in time.
“A feat of research and craft, this new work is a spellbinding inquiry into editing and juxtaposition; a collage one can unthread allowing the viewer to discover hidden stories through familiar images. The soundtrack is performed live, made up from hundreds of preexisting songs, as well as particular sounds from the original film clips.” — Flatpack Film Festival
Daniel Menche is an abstract sound artist from Portland, Oregon. He says of his music that its “…intent is to destroy all rationalized thought processes to make room for the emotional and sensual impulses to take over… The greater the intent, the greater the intensity, and intensity is based upon the blood rising in speed and heat through our bodies.”
People Like Us have revamped the DO or DIY radio stream, and as of Noon EDT on 3rd April 2013 it is now streaming Radio Boredcast!
Radio Boredcast is a 744-hour online radio project that celebrates all things SLOW. And fast too, actually. Crank it up to wind down and enjoy this selection of specially made radio shows by 100 different artists and some WFMU DJs too!
Click and listen to the 24/7 Radio Boredcast stream here.
(Download the little file linked to above – the stream works through iTunes so let your computer launch this application if prompted. If it doesn’t launch then find the small file that you downloaded and double-click on it)
Those of you who already have the DO or DIY stream bookmarked, it will automatically switch over to the new stream for you.
You can also listen to Radio Boredcast shows on demand here.
More on the history of Radio Boredcast here.
Here is some documentation of “The Doors Of Perspection” a solo exhibition held at Vitrine Gallery in Bermondsey Square, London, from July to September 2011.
Prints displayed in the gallery window are still available in a very limited edition (please contact us), and two smaller prints are still available from Modern Empire, details here.
List of Works in The Doors of Perspection Mountage [2011]
C-type print on dibond, 1242mm x 235mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch In Retrospect [2011]
C-type print on dibond, 1097mm x 638mm
Edition of 3, 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch Descending [2011]
C-type print on dibond, 1307mm x 645mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch Time and Time Again [2011]
C-type print on dibond, 932mm x 264mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch Streetwalking [2011]
C-type print on dibond, 1628mm x 567mm
Edition of 3, + 1 A/P
Commissioned by Touch The Doors of Perspection [2011]
Single-channel HD video, length: 9:32
Edition of 5, + 1 A/P Perpetuum Mobile [2011]
photo-collage, 1500mm x 355mm
Vitrine: Streetwalking, Time and Time Again and Descending
Time and Time Again
Descending and In Retrospect
Vitrine Window
Vitrine Gallery and Bermondsey Square
Vitrine Gallery
Bermondsey Square
Making Perpetuum Mobile – this is not a dibond print but made by hand with individual photographs photomounted together
Print edition, in addition to the above works
This exhibition not only features large prints for sale on site at Vitrine Gallery, but also a special print edition featured here Streetwalking [2011]
C-Type Print on Matt Fuji Archive Paper, 914mm x 321mm
Edition of 100 + 5 A/Ps In Retrospect [2011]
C-Type Print on Matt Fuji Archive Paper, 671mm x 392mm Year: 2011
Edition of 100 + 5 A/Ps
Co-published by Modern Empire and Vitrine Gallery
We are very pleased to announce that the recently deleted “Rhapsody in Glue” digital album by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz from 2008 is now available for the first time for free download!
Following the success of the critically acclaimed “Perpetuum Mobile” CD of 2007, renowned UK collagists / composers People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz reunite for “Rhapsody in Glue”, a cycle of bricolage-ballet-music, skewed-waltzes, and skewiff-pop.
There is a story behind every album, and with “Rhapsody in Glue” we find a unique approach to constructing a record. Both long-term contributors to New York radio station WFMU, People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz decided to publicly tear apart their respective practices and create an album “in the open”, presenting on a seafood-filled-platter the process of collaborative collage composition – informally discussing and jabbering nonsense to one another, resulting in the “Codpaste” free podcast series (which we have also recently made available as an mp3 download). “Rhapsody in Glue” is the culmination of the ideas explored in the podcast series.
“Rhapsody in Glue” continues in the bizarre ballroom vein of their previous efforts together, however, increasing the sonic palette into textural depths previously uncharted in their work. If “Carmic Waltz” is an expressionist painting by aged ballroom dance teacher who’s eaten the wrong kind of mushrooms in her soufflé, then “Gary’s Anatomy” is a slice of pure absurdist pop shot through with slabs of exotica and Ethel Merman. Recurring through the record is an apparent obsession with Prokofiev’s “Troika (Sleigh Ride)”, which merges and mashes with Burt Bacharach and Queen on “Snow Day”, and lapses into pure fantasy on the almost entirely acoustic “Withers in the Whist”, jarring with Ergo’s strange, Victoriana obsessed lyrics. Then on “Dancing in the Carmen” we discover what happens if Nana Mouskouri is thrown into a pot with Peggy Lee and let simmer for 10 minutes, whilst “In The Waking” shimmers along on multitracked guitars, meandering melodies, and music boxes.
The 8th in the series of Touch Sevens, and the first to introduce melodic narrative. Both songs are results of the WFMU podcast series “Codpaste”, in which Vicki & Ergo publicly composed a series of collage compositions, deconstructing their respective practices, and a live soundtrack to Christian Marclay’s “ScreenPlay”. The series and soundtrack resulted in the online only album “Rhapsody in Glue”, from which these two songs are alternative versions.
“Withers in the Whist” takes one of Vicki & Ergo’s current staple obsessions: the melody line of Prokofiev’s ‘Troika’ from the Lieutenant Kije soundtrack (originally used in V & E’s work during a particularly snowy sequence of the Marclay film). This treatment dispenses with sampling entirely, instead using instruments to create variations on Prokofiev’s deceptively simple melody-line, tied together with impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. It is playing with Prokofiev like a bad child who loves it’s toys.
“In The Waking” began with Ergo replaying with multitracked guitars the main melodic motifs Vicki collaged in the composition “Carmic Waltz”, with Vicki then ornamenting the guitars with splashes of colour like a real painter of sound, all blended into a pot of carnival steam with Ergo’s wordplay. It is a fantasy for the dream the fairground has when the world is sleeping, but only takes place five minutes before the carousel wakes up
Side A: In the Waking 5:55 [Locked groove]
Side B: Withers in the Whist 4:27
UK – price including P&P: $8.50 EUROPE – price including P&P: $9.50 ELSEWHERE – price including P&P: $10.50
7inch. Released October 2008 on Touch (TS08)
The 8th in the series of Touch Sevens, and the first to introduce melodic narrative. Both songs are results of the WFMU podcast series "Codpaste", in which Vicki & Ergo publicly composed a series of collage compositions, deconstructing their respective practices, and a live soundtrack to Christian Marclay’s "ScreenPlay". The series and soundtrack resulted in the online only album " in Glue", from which these two songs are alternative versions.
"Withers in the Whist" takes one of Vicki & Ergo’s current staple obsessions: the melody line of Prokofiev’s ‘Troika’ from the Lieutenant Kije soundtrack (originally used in V & E’s work during a particularly snowy sequence of the Marclay film). This treatment dispenses with sampling entirely, instead using instruments to create variations on Prokofiev’s deceptively simple melody-line, tied together with impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. It is playing with Prokofiev like a bad child who loves it’s toys.
"In The Waking" began with Ergo replaying with multitracked guitars the main melodic motifs Vicki collaged in the composition "Carmic Waltz", with Vicki then ornamenting the guitars with splashes of colour like a real painter of sound, all blended into a pot of carnival steam with Ergo’s wordplay. It is a fantasy for the dream the fairground has when the world is sleeping, but only takes place five minutes before the carousel wakes up
Side A: In the Waking 5:55 [Locked groove]
Side B: Withers in the Whist 4:27
Scans of reviews HERE: Withers In The Waking review – Record Collector (January 2009) Withers In The Waking review – Norman Records (December 2008) Withers In The Waking review – Aquarius (December 2008) Withers In The Waking review – Boomkat (December 2008) Buy it here – prices include postage and packaging.
Indeed, PLU & Ergo will be releasing a single with Touch later this month – more details soon. In the meantime, here are photos of the cutting of the record earlier today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/11/radio.digitaltvradio Mention in the Guardian (UK) – Click That Dial! (August 11 2008)
TouchRadio
Touch, an independent arts organisation that turned 25 last year, is home to artists such as Christian Fennesz, Biosphere and Chris Watson. Touch Radio features challenging and entertaining material, including field recordings, interviews and live performances. There are audio diaries from Chris Watson, where he illuminates his work as a wildlife sound recordist in the Galapagos Islands, taking in the Alcedo volcano. If you are truly tired of words by this stage, you will find an antidote in Touch 10: The Bits In Between by Vicki Bennett, whose own show on WFMU, a glorious mashup (peoplelikeus.org), will leave you in a spin. touchradio.org.uk
Pascal Wyse
WFMU-FM 91.1 FM
Home to an acclaimed country and western show hosted by singer Laura Cantrell, WFMU describes its output thus: "Rock’n’roll, 78rpm records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B." And, if that’s not enough, there’s "Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English".
Alexis Petridis
From the digital gutter, here lie all the soundbytes edited out of mic breaks for People Like Us’s radio show DO or DIY on WFMU from June to September 2005. The show is all about cutting together avant with pop, and the only aspect of this one hour a week that has ever felt slightly out of place has been the necessary mic breaks. So now we do them justice by taking the entire unedited 3 hours, and in Language Removal Service style we take out all the meaning and are left with 34 minutes of delicious background noise, voice glitches and hesitations.
