The Sound Of The Crowd

London Fields # 96
First published Inpress (Issue # 1192), Melbourne on 21 September 2011, and in Drum Media (Issue # 1078), Sydney on 20 September 2011
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here

The tagline of the original Alien film was 'In space no one can hear you scream'. In London it often feels that there’s no place you can get far enough away from people to scream. While you may have difficulty finding a private space to vent your bottled-up frustrations without being overheard, the flip to this is the worry that if you did cry out for assistance, seemingly no-one would heed your call. The capital is so densely populated that it’s hard to find respite, and recent studies show that it will only get worse in the future. The Royal Institute of British Architects found that many newly built or converted properties are too small for comfortable living, with one bedroom properties being 4 square metres smaller than the recommended minimum, barely leaving room to navigate around a single bed.

The shared walls of terraced housing mean you hear the neighbour’s washing machine rumbling late into the night, and even the sounds of their toilet roll spinning in its holder. Yet the great advantage of terraces is the quiet solitude created by the square itself to be enjoyed in back rooms (except when your neighbour decides that 8am on a Saturday morning is the ideal time to mow that lawn). Outside the home it’s harder to find peace, especially now that public transport has decided to talk to us. Being informed that “This is a number 38 bus to Victorian” (sic) at every stop makes bus journeys seem longer than ever, something that can only be made worse by the near unavoidable low-fi sodcasting from mobile phones. The only solution is to plug in your own headphones to drown out the background, so your brain only has one distraction to ignore.

One of the pleasant side effects of the volcanic eruptions in Iceland was the silence that that fell over the country as a result of the closure of UK airspace. In south east London, residents who lived under the Heathrow flight path could hear themselves think for first time in many years, the absence of modern sounds proving to be a rare treat. Something that is more common on the medieval byways of car-free Italian cities such as Venice or more especially Siena, where it’s still possible to be lost in time, the quiet streets allowing the sounds of history to seep through. In the City of London you can sometimes experience similar feelings on weekends, walking the narrow lanes off Cheapside within the sound of Bow Bells, but these prove fleeting.

This past weekend has seen the 19^th annual Open House event, wherein various usually inaccessible buildings open to the general public for a few hours providing a rare opportunity to see both new architecture and glimpse into a hidden past. It’s often said that smell is the sense that is most deeply tied into memory, but there are many times that a song or a piece of music takes you back to a particular time or place, or maybe just the memory of a person, perhaps now lost. But a group of scientists are currently delving into the world of archaeoacoustics, so it may soon be possible to hear how things used to be, as well as see and smell them. This was the subject of a fascinating documentary broadcast on BBC Radio 4 last week. In Hearing the Past Professor Jim Al-Khalili looked at the pioneering work by a diverse group of scientists, engineers and artists, led by staff of the Department of Electronics at the University of York. Dr Damian Murphy sought to recreate what the sound of choral music would have been in Coventry Cathedral before it was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940. Using an anechoic chamber and some advanced computing, the results were astounding.

Now others have taken this technology and used it to replicate how ceremonies may have sounded at Stonehenge 4000 years ago, without the rumble of traffic from a nearby A road. The documentary reported that the site develops a resonant bass rumble that it compared to a Depeche Mode synth sound. Using studios to create certain acoustic environments is nothing new, nor is electronically altering sounds once they are recorded. When Peter Gabriel released Plays Live in 1983, the liner notes made clear that the original live recordings had been tinkered with before release, honestly admitting that “the generic term of this process is ‘cheating’." I wonder how long before this new technology is used by artists to create ‘live’ recordings in locations they’ve never even visited?

© James McGalliard 2011

Inpress: Published on page 52
Drum: Published on page 54

Stars In Their Eyes

London Fields # 91
First published Inpress (Issue # 1168), Melbourne on 6 April 2011, and in Drum Media (Issue # 1054), Sydney on 5 April 2011
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here

Is science the new rock ’n’ roll? Over the past few years there seems to have been an ongoing and deliberate move to ‘sex-up’ science on television. Numbers of those studying sciences at schools were dropping dramatically and it was clear something had to be done. While some may claim programme makers have ‘dumbed-down’, it’s clear that the real aim was to attract large audiences while making complex ideas more comprehensible. The most game changing was Wonders Of The Solar System which finally reached Australian screens recently via on SBS. It successfully used locations around the world to illustrate surfaces of other worlds, the glorious cinematography and clear explanations drew large audiences, making it the most significant series on astronomy since Carl Sagan’s landmark Cosmos.

Here in the UK, its four-part follow-up Wonders Of The Universe has just completed its terrestrial broadcast run. It proved to be a much more controversial programme than its predecessor, for a few reasons. It didn’t have as clear reasons for the Bond-like world travelogue, which cause a kerfuffle amongst some licence payers. The volume of incidental music on television programmes has long been an area of contention, and it appears as if Universe was the first casualty of a recent BBC Report into the issue. The sound mix was radically altered after the first episode, pleasing a vocal few but equally infuriating others, including presenter Professor Brian Cox who stated, "It should be a cinematic experience – it's a piece of film on television, not a lecture." When the carefully planned sound mix was replaced with a last minute one with the background score faded down, the show definitely lost some of its majesty and impact.

Last month, The Sky at Night celebrated its landmark 700th programme. Since it began in 1957, presenter Sir Patrick Moore has only missed one monthly broadcast (in 2004 due to illness) making it the longest running show in the history of television. Sadly these days Sir Patrick Moore seems to be suffering the same fate that befell John Peel in his later years. The BBC can’t axe the show, but they can show disrespect by screening so late at night that only insomniacs catch it (although an extended repeat is shown at a reasonable time on the digital only BBC Four). Moore recently celebrated his 88^th birthday, and (also like Peel) the show now comes from his home, rather than a BBC studio. These days he appears on screen less often; Dr Chris Lintott effectively anchors the show. The anniversary edition featured Dead Ringers Jon Culshaw as a younger Patrick Moore meeting his older self. And the near-ubiquitous Brian Cox. January saw Cox joined by Dara O Briain early on three consecutive weeknights for Stargazing Live, while on BBC Radio 4 The Infinite Monkey Cage saw (you guessed it) Cox teamed up with comedian Robin Ince and guests including Alexei Sayle and Tim Minchin. This is now on a national tour of music venues (as Uncaged Monkeys).

So is science the new rock ‘n’ roll? Well Kate Bush did sing Pi to 150 places on her last album Aerial, and Cox is actually a former rock star (if playing keyboards for D:Ream counts), and he’s also been building his indie kudos with a regular guest spot on BBC 6Music’s breakfast show. He is part of a new generation of younger walk-and-talk scientific experts, alongside Neil Oliver and Alice Roberts (who helped Coast to be a hit) and Scottish geologist Iain Stewart (whose Men Of Rock was actually about Scottish geologists), attempting to appeal to a wider (and younger) demographic. Back on BBC Four Professor Jim Al-Khalili is about the same age (but looking older) and his Everything and Nothing took a different take on some of the topics covered in Universe. After comedian Harry Hill pointed out the huge budgetary differences between his show and Universe, he was happy enough to don a wig and perform Helter Skelter live on TV Burp.

Yet all of this newfound interest in the skies seems of little use in London as high levels of light pollution mean it’s rare to see any more a handful of stars, and only things like the recent supermoon having much of a chance of being sighted at all . To fully appreciate these Wonders, I may need to journey to Sark in the Channel Islands which as just been officially recognised as a "dark sky island".


© James McGalliard 2011

Inpress: Published on page 56
Drum: Published on page 56