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Off the record
Evening Standard 21.09.07
Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit were the first to perform in the Albert Hall's reopened elegant Elgar Room
Ali Love makes pop with an edge that is about to turn him into a star
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Admittedly, it's a bit early to be predicting the stars of 2008, but all the same I'll stick my neck out and cast an advance vote for east London's Ali Love. With his debut album not due for release until early next year, 25-year-old Love is already building buzz with aplomb.
He's currently halfway through a residency at the influential YoYo night at Notting Hill Arts Club - the last person to play there on a weekly basis was a pre-fame Lily Allen.
Earlier this month he appeared on a giant screen in Trafalgar Square singing the chorus of the recent Chemical Brothers hit, Do It Again - a spot on one of the dance duo's records is a virtual royal seal of hipness.
He's already caused controversy too, with his earlier single K-Hole, a racing rock 'n' roll number about a night lost to hard drugs that includes dominatrix sex, sleeping naked in a dustbin and puking on his own plimsolls. Is it true?
"No comment," says the man who has spent the past five years living directly above a Shoreditch nightclub, an obvious sign that the quiet life is not for him.
Yet next Saturday he'll be live on stage in Camden at Koko's relaunched Guilty Pleasures night, a bastion of the uncool that may indicate the true make-up of his future fanbase.
The slinky disco funk of his new single, Late Night Session, released 8 October, has already found a vocal fan in Nile Rodgers of Chic. "My manager sent it to him," Love tells me. "When he came to London last year, before he went to his hotel he got a cab straight to my studio to meet me."
Music website Popjustice has described the house beats and synth stabs of Love's song Secret Sunday Lover as "what a boy band in 2007 should sound like".
"I'd go with that, actually, yeah," admits the singer. "I do have a few cheesier tracks on my album, but really it's all over the shop. It's got rock 'n' roll, punk, G-funk, disco. It's like having an iPod on shuffle, except all the tunes are good."
The stepson of British country musician Hank Wangford, a DJ and a former session guitarist, Love hopes to court both pop fans and rock 'n' rollers with his music, but is aware of the possibility of falling between two stools.
"I look up to bands like Blondie, who were punks but made pop music. I just want to write songs that are quick, to the point and have hooks that stick in your head."
Hip and talented as he is, Love arrives on the scene at just the right time. The punters are still backing pop but nowadays they want it with an edge, whether it's slapping guitars round the necks of McFly or having chirpy songs sung by lairy, sweary girls like Lily Allen. Of course, genuine musical ability is a must.
"On the record, I've played nearly all the bass, guitars, keyboards and co-produced it, so it's not like I'm a pop muppet. I made this happen." And happen it will.
An early listen to...
Klaxons
A bugged out mix
(New State)
Those who remain unconvinced that the surprise Mercury Prize victors are a more interesting band than most would do well to investigate Klaxons' first mix album, released 1 October. The two-CD set reveals influences so disparate that it's less of a mix and more of a car crash.
That's not to knock the quality of the songs, which show the influence of futurism with the song In the Year 2525, hip hop with Wu-Tang Clan's Shame on a Nigga, psychedelic folk from the US, and even occultism with a spoken-word appearance from Aleister Crowley.
Everyone from Blur to Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers pops up in between. A more smoothly mixed second CD features hard-edged dance music from the likes of Justice and Luke Vibert, keeping their rave flags flying but making it no clearer where this remarkably inventive band will go next.
London Doesn't sweat it for lavish venues
At this week's gig in the Albert Hall's 200-capacity Elgar Room, the first time the space had been used for performance in more than 50 years, it was hard to tear your eyes away from the lavish light fittings, velvet curtains and huge gilt-edged mirrors to watch Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit. It prompted thoughts of how lucky we are in London to have so many genuinely special places in which to experience live music.
Sweaty black boxes such as the Astoria and Barfly are all very well for brutal rock, but for sounds with a bit more subtlety the real star must be the Bush Hall, a chandelier-filled venue formerly used for dancing, bingo and snooker in Shepherd's Bush.
Then there's the two-year-old Luminaire in Kilburn, a gorgeous club that has made itself a home for alt.country, not to mention the beautifully rebuilt former train shed that is the Roundhouse and the art deco fittings of the Bloomsbury Ballroom.
Then there are all the church venues, including the Union Chapel, LSO St Luke's and St James's Piccadilly, and even stranger spaces for one-off events - The White Stripes recently took over the retro Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, south-east London, The Good, the Bad and the Queen played the York Hall boxing venue in Bethnal Green and KT Tunstall launched her new album in ancient, endangered Wiltons Music Hall near Tower Bridge.
It doesn't really matter who's playing in any of these places. Watching the band is only part of the fun.
New on the Net
• After sitting alongside the Beatles and Led Zeppelin in the exclusive club of major bands who don't allow their songs to be downloaded, Radiohead have finally sided with the majority and digitised their back catalogue, but ever so quietly. You can only get their music at the smaller 7digital store, not iTunes, and you have to buy full albums at £6.99, not individual tracks.
• Those unable to wait until 1 October for the Sugababes to make their comeback with their fizzy new single, About You Now, can already get hold of three remixes of the new song in the iTunes store. They don't stand up too well next to the original though, so superfans only.
• Sheffield's other monkey band, Monkey swallows the Universe, release the extremely lovely acoustic pop of their song Bloodline on Monday, a charming taster of their new album, The Casket Letters. Pick it up from www.loose music.com.
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I love Monkey Swallows The Universe! Saw them at the Luminaire recently and they were stunning.
- Claire, London
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