ciao -
Caught the VH1 Fashion Awards the other night.
Beautiful models.
Beautiful clothes.
Also just inexplicable models.
And undeserving clothes.
Anyway, that's all to be expected.
The musical entertainment was largely of the "torturous kitsch" genus, and
the names of the "artists" will not even be mentioned on this list, for
fear that their syllables will infect the idm archives with a
badmusicvirus, a cancer which will first ravage the "i", then the "d", and
finally, fatally, the "m".
However, some pleasant surprises:
The segue in and out of scenes was a (somewhat generic, but still) d&b
riddim. A bit of variety would have been good rather than constantly
playing the same 2 bars, but let it slide.
Background music was the vamp throughout.
Caught some Chem Bros, some unidentifiable triphoppy material, and so on.
Bowie hit the stage as the pleasant exception to the boredom rule in the
live music department. Despite the tired cliche of goatee, and a version
of "Fashion" which sorely longed for Robert Fripp's noizemuzik, the last
number included a meld of Bowierock with jungle rhythm progs. Believe it
or not - it worked. Was good to see Bowie trying on some new vibes again.
Zenon M. Feszczak
Phil ex nihilo