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Post by ALTERNAT1VE on Nov 6, 2008 19:03:51 GMT -5
I saw her live 2 hours ago. To be completely honest I'm neither disappointed, nor extremely excited over her performance (sorry Andy). The main let down for me was the fact that she was 3 hours and 15 minutes late and trust me, after a long working day (the concert was on thursday night) this is a major factor. The concert was announce for 7 pm and I literally ran through half of the city to be on time. I somehow managed to get to the venue 5 minutes before the announced start and then... I started waiting and waiting... Roisin appeared at 10:15 pm. There was a 'warming' DJ before her whose set was not that bad but after he finished around 9:30 they started playing rap music (WTF!) to fill the gap between him and Roisin's appearance. Even if I was 'warmed up' I went back to 'cold' after the third Dr.Dre song. Of course the crowd went hysterical when Mrs Murphy got on stage. I could not miss the fact that she didn't greet the crowd or try to give explanation for the delay. She started singing straight away and just said 'Thank you for allowing us" after the third song, whatever that was supposed to mean. Nevertheless the first two songs blew me away and especially "Overpowered' which did sound overpowering Roisin's voice sounded really clear and smooth throughout the whole concert. No need to comment on the stage costumes which were extremely cool as you can imagine and she kept changing them every 2-3 songs. Highlights of the night for me were Tell Everybody, Primitive, Overpowered. Unfortunately, I had to leave 3 songs before the actual end of the concert because I was there with a friend who could barely stay on her feet by that time and kept asking me to go home.
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Post by Tornado on Nov 7, 2008 3:35:58 GMT -5
ALTERNAT1VE: Sorry about that (the "supposed delay") but Roisin' show really started on time (on last.fm page of the event someone form organisators' staff said her show will begin at 10 PM). "The concert was announce for 7 pm and I literally ran through half of the city to be on time" At 7pm they opened the doors... ;D That's all!
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 7, 2008 8:43:28 GMT -5
I saw her live 2 hours ago. To be completely honest I'm neither disappointed, not extremely excited over her performance (sorry Andy). The main let down for me was the fact that she was 3 hours and 15 minutes late and trust me, after a long working day (the concert was on thursday night) this is a major factor. The concert was announce for 7 pm and I literally ran through half of the city to be on time. I somehow managed to get to the venue 5 minutes before the announced start and then... I started waiting and waiting... Roisin appeared at 10:15 pm. There was a 'warming' DJ before her whose set was not that bad but after he finished around 9:30 they started playing rap music (WTF!) to fill the gap between him and Roisin's appearance. Even if I was 'warmed up' I went back to 'cold' after the third Dr.Dre song. Of course the crowd went hysterical when Mrs Murphy got on stage. I could not miss the fact that she didn't greet the crowd or try to give explanation for the delay. She started singing straight away and just said 'Thank you for allowing us" after the third song, whatever that was supposed to mean. Nevertheless the first two songs blew me away and especially "Overpowered' which did sound overpowering Roisin's voice sounded really clear and smooth throughout the whole concert. No need to comment on the stage costumes which were extremely cool as you can imagine and she kept changing them every 2-3 songs. Highlights of the night for me were Tell Everybody, Primitive, Overpowered. Unfortunately, I had to leave 3 songs before the actual end of the concert because I was there with a friend who could barely stay on her feet by that time and kept asking me to go home. Aww, sorry to hear about that! I know exactally what you mean. Gigs during the week can always prove to be a pain especially when they don't run on time. She never really talks during her performances, but maybe in this case she should have. Shame you couldn't stay till the end and miss Ramalama but you got to see most of it.
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Post by ALTERNAT1VE on Nov 8, 2008 13:38:00 GMT -5
ALTERNAT1VE: Sorry about that (the "supposed delay") but Roisin' show really started on time (on last.fm page of the event someone form organisators' staff said her show will begin at 10 PM). "The concert was announce for 7 pm and I literally ran through half of the city to be on time" At 7pm they opened the doors... ;D That's all! I don't use LastFM. I was too busy at work and couldn't properly research before the concert so I just used the information from the ticket and it said 'start time: 7 pm'. Of course I was expecting some warm-up bands but 3 hours was a bit too much. Anyway... I enjoyed the concert and I'll probably buy her album tomorrow
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Post by Tornado on Nov 8, 2008 15:14:15 GMT -5
^ I know what you mean...
I've waited a hell lot of time (4 hours!) for a Paul van Dyk dj set; on this time the opening act served us with the most boring and repetitive techno music...
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 8, 2008 16:36:55 GMT -5
That happened to me with Bjork but she was on time.
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 21, 2008 10:37:19 GMT -5
Some word from the official website: Roisin's concert in Brussels this Sunday will be filmed. From early next week it will be available as a stream.
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Post by Tornado on Nov 21, 2008 14:43:06 GMT -5
^ Great! Also she should release a DVD with a live performance from Overpowered era... PS BTW her latest single Movie Star is awesome; the same as the B-side Slave to Love: www.youtube.com/watch?v=myFgCy96Ibk
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 21, 2008 16:13:18 GMT -5
Her company pretty much cannot afford to package a DVD. She just wants to make a new record at this stage.
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 21, 2008 18:27:45 GMT -5
Roisin is performing in Leeds this Wednesday. Reason for The Yorkshire Evening Post to have a little chat with her.
The alchemic soup that is Roisin Murphy's music has made her the darling of every cool young thing in Britain. Part house, part soul, part electronica, this satisfying dovetail is clearly a carefully judged balance between commercial and underground – and yet, prior to her recent success, her life was completely random.
Born in Ireland and raised partly in Manchester, it was only because she moved to Sheffield with her lover that they created Moloko, the equally fashionable but initially directionless band from whence she came.
Now her solo career has burgeoned to the extent that she's now as much a style muse as she is a singer/songwriter, with a shiny mane of Greta Garbo-esque strawberry blonde hair often juxtaposed with the kind of avant garde outfits which could leave Grace Jones balking.
And at 35, she now finds herself looking back on two years in which her second album, Overpowered, became a modern classic adored by everyone from geeky musos to clubbers and the fashionati.
Forget the randomness of the past, the all new Project Murphy was launched with a distinct and independent trajectory. Now she's landed.
"When Moloko broke up I thought it all might get taken away from me," she said. "I got seriously panicked because I'd been doing it for so many years. It was then that I got serious and started being a bit less haphazard about everything.
"With Overpowered I set out to record an album with lots of different writers and producers that reference lots of different things and I did that, so now it makes me quite proud that I sometimes tell people who like my music about Moloko and they don't know who they were. They just know me.
"Now I like to walk a line with everything I do. It's about feeling as alive as possible, feeling vibrant. I mean the whole dressing up thing, it's about me wanting to tell stories, to complement sound with vision. It's just about MORE, you know?"
There are still delightful hints of the random about Murphy, still an air of tongue-in-cheek eccentricity. One minute she speaks softly and sweetly, the next she's mischievously effing and blinding like a navvy.
The accent, meanwhile, is a curious mix of Irish and the northern brogue that she undoubtedly picked up during the formative years in Yorkshire and Lancashire, formative years which also forged the independent musician she is today.
"I don't believe I'd be an artist at all if it weren't for Sheffield," Murphy said. "People who are serious about music are aware of Sheffield, I mean, from no other city could come Cabaret Voltaire and, on the other hand, Human League.
"I remember in Manchester you had every option on the scene, every nightclub – and I went to them all.
I used to often go up to Leeds as well, Back to Basics was the night we loved, very glamorous.
"By the early 1990s I'd moved to Sheffield and I found it was one of the places that everything had already happened, it had already morphed into much more of a fusion with DJs playing more rare groove mixed with house and industrial punk.
"It just seemed much more sophisticated than Manchester, but then it was also just fortuitous that I met this guy and fell in love."
The guy in question was Mark Brydon. Legend has it their relationship started in 1995 when she approached him at a party with the chat up line: "Do you like my tight sweater? See how it fits my body?" (A line which would eventually be looped to create the vocals on one of their first tracks.)
The union would last ten years and see them release four albums, most notably Things To Make and Do, plus the two hit singles which nudged them further into the commercial spotlight, Sing it Back and The Time is Now.
Murphy said: "We started making music with no intention whatsoever of becoming a real band so we started with things like me just repeating Do You Like My Tight Sweater? over and over again against a backing track.
"Initially the face of Moloko was just going to be these three dolls who featured in our first video but then curiosity got the better of us and we made a whole album which was quite punky and dubby and it turned out to be successful, people really liked it.
"I started making music by the default of getting into a relationship and, to be honest, I didn't take it very seriously for a number of years. I mean, I loved being creative but as far as a career was concerned it didn't dawn on me until we actually split up and I decided to go solo."
The result was a new record contract with EMI and her debut release Ruby Blue in 2005. Despite some acclaim it took 2007's slickly produced Overpowered to regain the ground she lost with the Moloko split.
It was the title track which really captured the public's imagination, not just by mixing a deep acid/electro track with a soulful song about lingering love but also by briefly introducing 'oxytoxins' into the national vocabulary.
Mainstream
The album as a whole initially saw her join forces with a team of producers and writers varying from Groove Armada's Andy Cato and Richard X to Calvin Harris and even ubiquitous pop maestro Cathy Dennis.
But interestingly the Harris/Dennis collaborations never made it onto the final tracklist – so does she have an aversion to anything too mainstream? Too close to the classic pop formula?
"Do you know I don't know if I do like pop music or not," she mused. "It depends what you call pop music I suppose. I could say I like Talking Heads therefore I like pop music but I'm not sure they qualify.
"I certainly wouldn't be fascinated by the formula of pop, put it that way.
It’s upsetting when someone who could be a more serious artist might be buying a Girls Aloud album to dissect it and find out: 'How does this work?' I find that very cynical.
"Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind having a top five hit, but Let Me Know from Overpowered was the closest I've come I think but even that referenced house and disco not really pop music.
"Early in her career Madonna, for example, must have had a massive influence on me 'cos I was a young girl and she was this bolshy, inspirational figure and I used to go around singing Like a Virgin, back when I was virgin.
"And my stuff references the era when she first came out surrounded by all that electronic music and disco, but these days the likes of Madonna and Kylie and the rest of it they all seem to reference the same stuff."
Outfits
Demanding almost equal attention to her music is Murphy's sense of style, an off-piste mix of fashion and art which, at different times, draws inspiration from just about every movement and era imaginable.
It began with the shimmering number which blinded watchers of the video for Moloko's 90s smash, Bring it Back, and reached its zenith with the bright red knitted number which adorned the cover of Overpowered.
"My outfits are all about the narrative, about telling stories," she explained. "It's about adding something to the narrative of the songs and being more complex than your average pop star or rock 'n' roller.
"God, I remember we did a shoot for the first record and there I was in this mental head piece with red leather boots and a hoop skirt," she recalls. "And in the 90s that was edgy, I mean, everyone was going around in Helmut Lang blazers being really serious but I’ve never been like that.
"I also remember going on the Album Chart Show last year along with all these Indie bands and 12 year olds in the audience. I was wearing this bright blue Louix XIV dress cut into a mini skirt with me legs stickin' out.
"And the reaction was palpable. You could see the look on their faces, it was like 'What the hell has she got on?! she's doing my head in!' But it's not about getting attention or hiding or anything like that, it's just about being truthful to who I am I guess."
Another selection of eyebrow-raising outfits are likely to be showcased next week when Murphy takes to the stage of Leeds Academy as part of a lengthy UK tour.
"There's talk of a third album but, to be honest, I've been so preoccupied with this show," she said. "It's been going on so long that we decided that this time round we had to do something different again.
"So we've completely revamped and renewed things and it will BLOW YOUR MIND, I promise ya. I actually love touring, maybe it's the tinker in me, and I tend to get quite carried away when I'm performing.
"Last year I split me eyebrow open headthrashing on stage when I headbutted the back of a chair. It was a right mess. But I've learned my lesson – I still thrash about but now I always check the chair’s been removed first."
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Post by Tornado on Nov 22, 2008 9:27:49 GMT -5
Her company pretty much cannot afford to package a DVD. At least maybe someone will record a HQ video bootleg... I read about a new album from an interview to beatfactor.ro She said the new album will continue the style of Overpowered
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 22, 2008 12:14:11 GMT -5
Yep, she's using the "backbone" of Overpowered and some of the same producers. She hasn't fully sunk her teeth into yet so this could all change. I have a feeling she's gonna explore the more melancholic side of electronic pop. If 'Slave To Love' is anything to go by, it should be fantastic.
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Post by Tornado on Nov 25, 2008 8:08:27 GMT -5
1. A very interesting mash up: NIN vs Roisin Murphy - You Know the Hand That Feeds download2. Also interesting: "Let Me Know" video got over 1 mil. views because a singer of an emo band likes the song (read the comments): www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_vCOOW_BsE
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Post by oscillations. on Nov 25, 2008 11:34:14 GMT -5
The almighty power of suggestion.
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 25, 2008 13:05:55 GMT -5
Doesn't suprise me. Like a moth to a flame.
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Post by Tornado on Nov 27, 2008 8:17:31 GMT -5
The Guardian InterviewWhat got you started? Performing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina as a gift for my mum when I was nine. My whole family's gobs dropped open - they couldn't believe I could sing. What was your big breakthrough? Going up to Mark [Brydon] at a party in Sheffield in 1994 and saying, "Do you like my tight sweater?" I guess he did, because he took me to his studio that night and recorded me saying it. That was the beginning of Moloko. Who or what have you sacrificed for your art? I have no idea - I can't imagine what my life would have held if I had not been a musician. Are you fashionable? Yes - this job is one outfit after another. What's your favourite museum? Sir John Soane's Museum in London, for its sense of going back in time. What one song would feature on the soundtrack to your life? Jacques Brel's If You Go Away, sung by Shirley Bassey. I'd have it at my funeral - it's the most dramatic, annoying, drama-laden song to leave people with. Do you suffer for your art? Yes, I'm very capable of being a miserabilist and a worrier. Especially when I made Overpowered - I was working with people all over the world. What advice would you give a young singer? If you really want to do it, you can - especially today. Records are cheaper to make; you can even put out your own. What work of art would you most like to own? When I was 16 and on a tour of Europe, I fell in love with Le Corbusier's Notre Dame du Haut chapel in Ronchamp, France. I'd quite like to live in it. Complete this sentence. At heart I'm just a frustrated ... Sexual maniac. I'm brave and fearless when I'm performing, but in real life I'm actually quite prudish. What cultural tip would you give to a tourist about Britain's arts scene? It's not as good as you think. In eastern Europe, you can feel the politics in the air. People ask me why London is so cool and I say it's not - look at Warsaw. What's the biggest myth about being a pop star? I wouldn't know, because I'm not one. What's the greatest threat to music today? There isn't one. Music will go on regardless. What people are actually concerned about is the threat to music revenues. But I'm sure they'll figure out how to make more money; they always have in the past. In short Born: Arcklow, Ireland, in 1973 Career: Formed electronica duo Moloko in 1994 with then-boyfriend Mark Brydon. Has released two solo albums, Ruby Blue (2005), and 2007's Overpowered. Performs at the Academy, Leeds (0113 389 1555), tomorrow, then touring. High point: "Touring the Moloko record Statues in 2003." Low point: "Breaking up with Mark in 2001, and continuing to work with him." >> from roisinmurphy.blogspot.com
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 27, 2008 10:14:58 GMT -5
Going to see her again on Monday! YES!
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Post by Tornado on Nov 27, 2008 14:51:16 GMT -5
^You're damn lucky! Talking about concerts: those from MTV Romania on their MTV News said about her gig on my country (I'm on their footage: stop at 0:32 - I'm on the left!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy8-WrmMAd0
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Post by Modern Method. on Nov 28, 2008 9:46:57 GMT -5
Great that you made it in there. I made it into a Foals video before.
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Post by Tornado on Nov 28, 2008 14:33:37 GMT -5
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