Thursday 16 December 2010

Ergo Phizmiz 2010 Retrospective

2010 has been a very busy year indeed in Phizmiz towers, so we thought it an opportune moment for a flashback...

"The Faust Cycle"


The year began with the release on Headphonica of "The Faust Cycle", Ergo's epic 15 hour adventure in sound, released under for free under a Creative Commons license. The album has now been downloaded by in excess of 5,000 listeners, and has been broadcast on stations across the globe. Although generally ignored by the conventional media, the enlightened blogosphere acclaimed the work wholeheartedly, with Continuo describing the piece as "the most ambitious music project conceived in the 21st century and certainly the only one able to change your listening habits." Download "The Faust Cycle" at Headphonica. This was shortly followed by a remix project "The Faust Re.Cycled", also available at Headphonica here.

"The Mourning Show"

The Mourning Show from Tête à Tête on Vimeo.

Ergo Phizmiz's opera about radio, magic, death and UK radio DJ Chris Evans was commissioned by and premiered at De Player in Rotterdam, with further performance in Nijmegen and Brussels. Vital Weekly described it as "an excellent opera which brought plunderphonics to a new level". The show received it's UK premiere in August, at Tete-a-Tete: The Opera Festival.

"Things To Do and Make"


Ergo's pop album was released on Care in the Community Recordings earlier in the year to widespread critical acclaim. Pennyblack Music said "The first major and mainstream Ergo Phizmiz album may be a small independent release, but this album goes to show how major record companies have lost touch completely. It's the kind of listening experience that will force you to shut down your mobile and close your Twitter and Facebook accounts." The album can be bought at the majority of music retailers online and in some shops, whatever they are....

"The Keystone Cut-Ups"


People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "Blue Moon" [2010] from Vicki WFMU on Vimeo.

The long running collaboration between Ergo Phizmiz & collagist People Like Us continued in the form of "The Keystone Cut-Ups", an A/V work playing with the relationships between early silent cinema and Surrealist cinema. The piece was commissioned by and premiered at Berwick Film & Media Festival, with further performances scheduled for 2011.

"Music For The Jilted Generation"

Continuing his long line of albums of cover versions of popular classics, the marvellous UpItUp Records released Ergo Phizmiz's retake for acoustic instruments of the entirety of The Prodigy's "Music For The Jilted Generation". This release also came with a handy zip file of all of Ergo's cover versions from 2003-2010, and you can grab it all, free, here.

"Collected Sound Installations"


Surrism-Phonoethics recently released Ergo Phizmiz's Collected Sound Installations from 2001-2010, 4.5 hours of Ergo's most experimental music including "Forest", "The Phantom Organ" and "Music For Squares and Spinning". You can grab that, for free, right here.

Chinstrap - The netlabel from Ergo Phizmiz


Since January Ergo has been running a free, Creative Commons netlabel. Now with 15 published releases, the label has put out work by artists including Oblivian Substanshall, Vulnavia Vanity, Angela Valid, The Travelling Mongoose, and The Superfools, including soundtracks, children's music, musique-concrete, sampling, improvisation, radio-art and songwriting. You can download all releases from the Chinstrap blog, which can also be accessed in one convenient list here.

And more ....

This year Ergo also ..... received a grant to produce a new work called "Fulcanelli's Shoes" which premieres in February 2011; played live shows across the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain; composed additional music for Frankie Boyle's "Tramadol Nights" on Channel 4; re-released remastered versions of archive pieces including "M: 1000 Year Mix" & "Cinemacollages"; a sound-installation for the Depozitory on the Isle of Wight; and received the Special Mention in composed radio for his work "Paul Klee, a Balloon, the Moon, Music and Me" at the Prix Italia. This year he has been written about in The Guardian, The Times, The Wire, and Mojo magazine, aswell as comprehensive interviews on Tokafi, Popshifter, and Intangible23.

The year ends with a Christmas Eve mix from Ergo Phizmiz on Tom Ravenscroft's BBC 6Music show, which you can find out all about here.

Wishing you all a marvellous end of the year, and a excellent next one....

Website redesign

The Ergo Phizmiz website at ergophizmiz.net has currently undergone a swanky new redesign... head over and have a peep..

Sunday 12 December 2010

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg





"Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg" by Ergo Phizmiz
Dedicated to marching students, UK Uncut, and glorious civil disobedience in the face of idiocy

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
I've got a few questions, not pullin' yer leg,
so please give a listen, I really must beg
for a moment of your precious time.

A big surprise what they're doing to our country....

You'd like all the people to sit down in silence
and certainly abstain from abhorrent violence
but how can we sit in contentment to christen
your system, when clearly you're not going to listen

The bankers, the bonuses, bona fide bastards
are supping the champagne, expensively plastered
you speak of recession and endless cutbacks
whilst most of your chummies are dodging their tax

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
I'm not being funny, but do you expect
all the people to sit down and quietly reflect
on the rug being pulled underfoot?

Mrs Clegg, you are sat in your warm, comfy office, ye
got there by mast'ring the fine art of sophistry,
Cameron, can't quite believe that you got your wish,
always presumed you were grown in a petri dish.

What will become of the hope and the glory
the future will tell an abominable story
Deeply I want to say "Better beware"
but the truth is that, surely, you really don't care

Keep the rich even richer
the poor even poorer
And slowly but surely
and surely and surer
the present kills future
the parents eat infants
and all of our culture
devolves into fragments
and eats itself
where is your sense of posterity
look past your pockets and into the futurey

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mrs Clegg
A terrible rhyme, I know, but I must beg
that you pull out your earplugs, use your fucking heads
or you'll sink us all into the water
sink us all into the sea - er
we might as well be North Korea

tell all the police stop the fear
our country's become rather queer
that's just about all now my dear
just about all now my dear...

In a green and pleasant land sitting
Watching clouds a running by
Take the heart from the unwitting
Pull the sunshine from the sky

Dear Mr Cameron, Dear Mr Clegg
Beyond the issue of expense,
have some bloody sense....

Thursday 9 December 2010

Ergo Phizmiz mix on Tom Ravenscroft, BBC6 Music, Christmas Eve

Ergo has produced a 20 minute mix of seasonal mash and pudding for Tom Ravenscroft's Christmas Eve show, which airs from 9pm UK time on, you guessed it, 24th December 2010.

The mix is preceded by a special Christmas greeting from Ergo, which features tits. The mix will also contain an exclusive new track from Mr Phizmiz, a cover version of one of everybody's favourite seasonal classics.

So tune into to Tom on 6, Christmas Eve, get the mulled wine on, and prepare for some seasonal dastardliness.......

And if you just can't wait that long, you could do worse than massage your cold ears with Ergo Phizmiz's previous Christmas offering "Turkey Party".


Wednesday 1 December 2010

Ergo Phizmiz "Pointballing" Live at Whitechapel Gallery, November 2010



Ergo Phizmiz performs "Pointballing : 1 - What The Pig Meant" at his marathon 2 hour one-man show, November 2010, at Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Ergo Phizmiz interviewed by Ayoze Garcia

On a recent trip to Barcelona Ergo Phizmiz was interviewed in-depth on the telephone by Ayoze Garcia on Intangible23, who earlier in the year wrote detailed analyses of every episode of "The Faust Cycle".

The interview, which spans Ergo's "Collected Sound Installations", the album "Things to Do and Make", the death opera "The Mourning Show", and netlabel Chinstrap, features Spanish language text, with English language audio of the interview. You can read / listen here.