Doubling- and Tripling-up on the Portraits

‘Nick and Gabrielle Drake, 1971’

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/30 x 42cm

Having laid firm foundations and taken root now, the Seventies project continues, on this occasion with an invented double portrait, of brother and sister Nick and Gabrielle Drake as they appeared, independently, in 1971 - Nick as photographed for and depicted on the sleeve of his ‘Bryter Layter’ LP and Gabrielle in costume for a promotional image for the ‘UFO’ television series in which she occasionally featured that and the preceding year (see also previous entry).

Following that, a triple portrait, of the actors Tony Anholt, Robert Vaughn and Nyree Dawn Porter as they appeared in character as Paul Buchet, Harry Rule and Contessa Caroline di Contini - ‘The Protectors’, an international crime-fighting agency/team, another television series I recall watching and obviously enjoying as a boy in the early Seventies, which, it transpires, was another Gerry Anderson (co-)production, following on from ‘UFO’. This programme also had a particularly memorable theme tune, ‘Avenues and Alleyways’  - performed by Tony Christie, who had numerous hit records around that time - which is probably something that should also be acknowledged within the scope of the project...

‘The Protectors’

graphite and putty eraser on ‘Seawhite’ cartridge paper/42 x 30cm

Reduced Circumstances...

graphite & putty eraser, with watercolour/30x20cm

Another drawing in the ongoing series of 'roadkill' diptychs, the found object/subject matter in this instance having been particularly tightly compressed during its process of complex reformation, slimmed down, battered & gnarled yet still offering sufficient synecdochal formal clues as to its original identity, not just any old fragment of scrap metal.

Soundtrack:


Moon Wiring Club 'A Field Full of Sunken Horses' EP
Rufus Wainwright 'Want One'
Nick Drake 'Five Leaves Left' & 'Bryter Layter'

Recourse to the original recordings became a necessity in the light of the TV broadcast of the Nick Drake 'Way to Blue' concert in tribute to the man & his music: whilst a noble endeavour, most of the interpretations managed to seem too reverential & yet somehow foreground the personality of the various performers to a mutually detrimental degree, Lisa Hannigan's radical take on 'Black-Eyed Dog' being perhaps the one notable exception, making one realise just how unique a talent was Nick, & that the real compelling magic of the songs was best communicated through his own performances of them, the recordings of which remain enduring & essential evidence.

Thinking Alike

Via a comment kindly supplied by Laryssa pertaining to the opinion I expressed regarding the tangibly autumnal nature of Nick Drake's gorgeous, wistful album 'Five Leaves Left' & how perfectly it captures the sound & mood of the season, here's an interesting, thought-provoking & in-depth article written by Peter Ricci, on the subject of a sense of autumn pervading Nick's oeuvre in its entirety, citing a number of specific examples to support the theory.

Painterly Process

graphite & putty eraser/20x30cm
original source: 'The Times' 20/10/08

This drawing being processed from a newspaper reproduction of an unfinished portrait of Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud, stylistically belonging to the painter's mid period, when his brushstrokes had loosened up & the paint displayed a seductive liquid quality, given a luminosity akin to that of typical Pre-Raphaelitism or Impressionism through the use of a white ground, before the typically mature style with its clogged, clotted, crusty, profoundly corporeal quality. The subtle colour harmonies of the original are wonderful to behold, even in cheap reproduction on newsprint, demanding of great care in the attempt at tonal transcription.

Life Imitating Art...

"Watch a single leaf fall drunkenly to the ground
And you still got some shopping left to do"
Lambchop 'Uti'

Experienced something of a Kurt Wagner moment in town today, on the way to the 'li-berry' before braving the shops - it occurred just so, a leaf spinning slowly to a stop at my feet!

Soundtrack:


Cabaret Voltaire 'The Living Legends'
Nick Drake 'Five Leaves Left' & 'Bryter Layter'

In something of a bizarre coincidence, I contrived to hear Cabaret Voltaire's still-fresh-fabulous-&-remarkable-after-all-these-years proto-techno-punk stomper 'Nag Nag Nag' not once but twice in the same evening, it featuring not only on the 'Living Legends' CD but also later on the soundtrack of the film 'Me Without You': the band's influence on subsequent generations of musicians & electronic experimentalists still endures, the echoes being heard as vividly as ever, in any number of instances, especially those employing samples of 'found' voices, & otherwise an affected, self-consciously 'retro' aesthetic.
'The Living Legends', being a selection of EP & single tracks, is an excellent & recommended primer.

It also occurred that 'Five Leaves Left' might well be, considering its sonic aesthetic, the most autumnal album it's possible to imagine, so perfectly realised & evocative is its ambience, the atmosphere of wistful nostalgia permeating every note & even the spaces between, even allowing for the associations inevitably conjured when listening to Nick Drake.
Like the sound of the clocks going back...forever.

Remembering John Peel


On the 4th anniversary of the passing of the great John Peel, to whose guiding light the Opposite of Tomato owes an incalculable musical & wider cultural debt (I mean, where else would it have been possible to be exposed to the sonically-experimental delights of Cabaret Voltaire, for instance, back in the late 70s?), it seemed appropriate to devote at least the time for a listen to 'Uh Huh Her', the last album of PJ Harvey's that The Man would have had the opportunity to hear before his untimely death (see the wonderful, poignant photos on front & back of PJH's 'Sessions' CD for an indication of the fond mutual regard they obviously held).
Thanks, John - the melodies linger.