The Art School

Zoviet France emerged from Newcastle in 1980, intentionally standing apart from their supposed contemporaries Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire by choosing a more cloaked, reclusive existence. Omitting any names of personnel on the records in an attempt to avoid what they describe as the ‘fundamental means of control used in the music industry’: the cult of personality. Their most “noisy” of beginnings avoided the post-punk industrial fall-out by existing in this relative obscurity, allowing them to develop their music into something more intangible over the course of their 30+ year existence. Their unsettling sonic collages often abandon percussion altogether, favouring home-built instruments and electronic manipulation of acoustic sounds to create series of one-off performances and recordings that are either reprocessed or become momentary experiences.

The packaging of their releases is often carefully considered, casting aside mass produced materials like cardboard and plastic in favour of nontraditional and found material that has included nuclear fragments, bird feathers and roof felt.

JD Twitch from Optimo selects some personally significant objects and moments from the Zoviet France back catalogue.

Shamany Enfluence
Nothing sounds like Zoviet France. This one makes me think of the music stone age (wo)man might have made if (s)he had access to some effects pedals.

Something Spooked The Horses
Site specific recording made for the reopening of Glasgow Tramway in 2000. Heavenly steel guitar misuse.

Cyclonic Sub Alien
54+ minutes of mesmerising live performance by the Zoviets. The last few minutes feature the best ever use of the shipping forecast.

Cair Camouflet
The audio equivalent of the Rothko Chapel.

Ram
Jim Jones related creepiness, later sampled for crap rave hit “Injected With A Poison”.

Zoviet France - Ram (Jim Jones) by Porphyre

Nature But Not
1000% hypno. i generally loathe cds but when they are packaged like this they become a bit more loveable; CD in a plain white paper sleeve, packed in a screen printed hinged & clasped wooden box, with a 1mm wood veneer insert and a block of glued wood veneer cardboard layers.

Mohnomishe pt 4
One of thee greatest albums i have ever heard and my introduction to Zoviet France, circa 1984. Packaged in silkscreened on a thick, heavy craftboard bound with a red cord. i tried to reissue this but feuds amongst former members made that impossible.

:zoviet*france: are playing at The Art School on Saturday 15th February.

As the Reid building opened it’s doors, the echoing vertical funnels stretching from roof to basement reverberated with some notion of a return. Hunkered under the translucent green arm of the Reid’s apparent “creative abrasion”, the original facade of The Art School swelled with a fragmented archive of period haircuts and half-remembered nights out. These memories and archive meant little to the collective body of students who’d spent nearly three years in a repurposed office block, many of them with little memory of what stood atop Garnethill before. However, the impossibility of impartiality of what these changes in location have meant are ever present.

The possibilities of interpretations coming from these changes are somewhat explored by this weekend’s programme at The Art School. The WIP (Work In Progress) Show, organised by the VisCom department, is part of a series of interim exhibitions showcasing the recently re-located (read: located) Design School’s work. The opening is at the One Cube or Two gallery followed by an afterparty featuring (amongst others) Rinse FM affiliated Bake and Cleoslaptra. The School’s return to Garnethill is also being celebrated by the publication of Comeback, a collaborative zine which showcases the diverse selection of work being produced by the Design School.

On Saturday, representing this synthesis between the Reid and The Art School, between art and parties is textile student and DJ Francesca Stride. In 2013, Stride designed the winning jumper for Pringle in a competition set by The Campaign for Wool, a campaign set-up to encourage and promote the use of wool for its unique, natural and sustainable qualities. RIDE, the club she runs with Lauren Donachie, started back in 2008 (yes, two years before the Ludacris and Ciara track) at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh, “we named it RIDE because Lauren and I worked in a bar together and late night finishes meant we tended to cycle into town on one bike” they add. Francesca is playing The Vic bar at Freaky Freaky, which she describes as “the ideal club for us to come and play […] we’re strictly about R’n’B and Hip Hop bangers.” Freaky Freaky have also invited London’s premiere hip hop party crew Livin’ Proof to ensure a two-floor slammer.

Welcome back!

One of the new Thursday night Pleasure Garden residents Cleoslaptra introduces herself with this mini-mix of tracks that she says “people will either want to dance to or have
sex to…or both, you be the judge.” Her Jackie Your Body radio show has been running for four years, traversing footwork, juke, house and all kinds of experimental sleaze. She says the motivation behind the mix “comes from my appreciation of girls letting go on the dancefloor to tracks which people usually raise an eyebrow or screw their face up at - I say FU to all that posturing.”

You could say she’s part of a new generation, she was only just starting out when the doors closed on the decrepit old union building on Renfrew St., too young to be granted entry (regularly), her reputation as one of the most effective DJs at The Art School really flourished in 2013. Security were called to remove people from the stage when she played at our Halloween party and she went in just as hard for the Sauchiehall closing party.

This isn’t throwback music, this isn’t an all-vinyl-boys-club, this is redressing the balance, this is her own thing and it’s designed to make you move.

Sound and visual artist Tom Scholefield’s involvement with The Art School goes way back to his Eskrima nights, bringing artists like Autechre, Squarepusher and Luke Vibert to the venue. Aside from some stark surrealist releases on Planet Mu and his own label Display Copy, his post-futurist visual work has been picked up by artists like Hudson Mohawke, Wiley and Martyn. He’ll be returning to the decks at The Art School with his rave orientated 48K crew on Friday 24th January.

“Its probably been about 10 years now since I played my first record in the Vic Bar on a Tuesday night after the quiz (I think). Stuck together this vinyl only mix of some records I used to play on a Saturday night upstairs with a few other things I probably haven’t played out in the same amount of time.”

- Tom Scholefield (Konx-Om-Pax)