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Mega art! Cuddly geese! Bulging beavers! Sanitary wares! Girls and boys? Unemployed? Struggling with debts? Stressed by the rising cost of living? Take a break and come down to Rochdale’s Hive Gallery where ‘EVERYTHING’S GREAT!’
We are ecstatic to announce the release of our first every vinyl! The 12″ will be a self titled EP on SWAYS records. Released; 10 October 2011, available for pre-order [HERE] Each vinyl will come with handmade covers, some of which will be prints of Womb member’s body parts.
Dance For Me (Bitch) Gets Me Too Wet – video. Directed by Helen Shanahan & Louise Woodcock.
EP Launch Party!
Ian Simpson of Electronic Musik has recently wrote:
The most important band to come out of Manchester in a very long time. I’ve heard a sneak preview on Fiona Ledgard’s Anything Goes Breakfast show last week. The track ‘Temple of Bees’ is a huge slab of primal sounds and energy, so much has been brought to Womb’s palette (Krautrock, free jazz, noise, punk, contempory classical, spacerock, avant garde, freak out) which is joyfully and unashamedly splattered onto their sprawling sonic canvas.
Womb played at Ian Simpson’s night Electronic Organic, at The Britons Protection. Here’s a recording;
I am very happy with the set, I think it has quite a different feel to other Womb gigs and would like to revisit some of this in future rehearsals. Part of the difference for me is a certain reluctance for the sound to be led or to go forward, this doesn’t usually exist in other gigs. Womb is made up of 50% experienced musicians, and 50% visual artist/ feminist and/or music enthusiast (new to making music). I would say the more experienced players are inclined to lead the sound, the new musicians will lead but will also take more time about it. With this set being mostly absent of the experienced players this led to a certain reluctance of lead, allowing for new sounds and approaches to come forward. There is a new sort of tension in this piece, a feeling of waiting for something to kick in, a certain sort of trepidation in the delivery which I really enjoy.
The night got reviewed by Matt Dalby, he wrote some great stuff here.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Islington Mill, Salford
https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150204077601396&comments
I spent last week making a short film with visual artist Louise Woodcock. The week-long residence was part of the Say Something Series at Islington Mill, Salford.
The film was a first try for me and a very new venture for Louise. I enjoyed it. I want to make more films. I want to make more art. I need to get a video recorder.
I think for a weeks worth of filming the film’s pretty good. Excited at the idea of making films in collaboration with Louise again and also with a load of people.
The soundtrack was performed live by Womb .
Matt Dalby has written a review…
jennifer mcdonald, louise woodcock film – womb soundtrack
Following a week’s residency the film Jennifer McDonald and Louise Woodcock produced was screened on Sunday.
The film’s fairly brief at present – around 3 minutes – but was looped something like four times to a live soundtrack provided by a minimal line-up of Womb. Just Jennifer, Emily and Whitney. Louise was working so unable to attend.
Much of the material was shot around Pendle Hill – associated with the famous witch-trials – and involved ritual actions with bones and hair. There are obvious superficial similarities to Derek Jarman and Andrew Kötting’s Gallivant. But the film mostly looks and feels different from both those comparisons.
To me the film feels like it has a more contemporary sensibility. Jarman was rooted in a 60s/70s queer/avant-garde aesthetic. Gallivant from the mid-90s seems closer to the 80s films of Chris Petit and Patrick Keiller. For me Jennifer and Louise’s film is closer to some more recent video installations I’ve seen.
I’ll expand on that a little I think – there are a few ideas packed into that last sentence. I have noticed in a lot of recent video installations a convergence between the old idea of video installations – where a single or limited number of ideas are explored, more conventional narrative filmmaking, and documentary filmmaking. At the same time certain narrative filmmakers and documentarists – Gus Van Sant, Lynne Ramsay, Claire Denis, and Adam Curtis for example produce images and films that might be as much at home in the gallery. Others, prominently Apichatpong Weerasethakul, work happily between the two contexts.
And as digital cameras reduce in weight and cost while increasing in quality, at the same time as mainstream cinema and tv continue to raid the aesthetic of mobile phones/cheap digital cameras/CCTV for a bogus ‘authenticity’ it can be less easy to visually differentiate the expensive from the cheap.
Installations are becoming less static, more technically and editorially ambitious. Again aided by afforable technology. The film as it currently stands could sit happily as an installation or (part of) a more conventional narrative or documentary film.
I also feel – though I’ll immediately question this – that the film has a less masculine sensibility than my initial comparisons of Jarman and Kötting. To Jennifer and Louise I also mentioned that I felt I could see hints of Andrei Tarkovsky and Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan.
Taking that contentious ‘less masculine sensibility’ first, what I mean is that it seems to be less linear, less interested in explaining itself, less about showing off than the work of male directors. But at the same time I was irritated when VS Naipaul recently claimed he could tell male from female writers within a paragraph, and that male writers were better. I also think there’s a danger of gender essentialism in claiming to see differences. Besides which I know who the filmmakers were in all these cases – so any traits that might be detected are informed by already knowing the artist’s gender.
The hints of Tarkovsy are in the meditative nature of some of the shots – especially the convex mirror, and the cross installation. The hints of Häxan are in the subject matter, and in the critique of religion’s approach to women and witchcraft – explicit in Häxan, implicit in Jennifer and Louise’s film.
The soundtrack to the film by the reduced line-up of Womb was great. The more I’ve listened back to it the less it sounds improvised. It also feels a lot less than 13 minutes long.
One of the main things I like about the soundtrack is that it combines two extremes of Womb’s sound. There’s the highly structured, musical side of things – and the looser, rhythmic, noise-making elements – with none of the shades that usually intervene between the two.
I also liked that the sounds don’t mimic images onscreen. They stand in independent relationship to the film. Although the pace and the changes in the sound perhaps reflect the edits and the tempo of the film.
It was interesting to hear what was effectively a more contemplative Womb in a different context from their usual performances in pubs and clubs. There was a greater freedom to allow nuance and space into the music, to let it drift and breathe more than it usually can.
I got a handful of honestly rather shite photos for Jennifer and recorded the soundtrack (see here). I understand the film – possibly with soundtrack will make it online at some point. For a week’s work, and a first attempt (I guess second for Louise) at making film it’s bloody impressive.
WOMB in collaboration with Neil Francis and Hop Man Jr played a live set to accompany oil wrestling at David Hoyle‘s Beachy Head.
Have a listen here;
photos by Lee Baxter
On 28th May Womb played a live sound track to accompany couples fighting in a paddling pool filled with mud. Beautiful evening.
The night was organised by artist Rosanne Robertson as part of the Manchester Art Crawl.
Video by Debbie Sharp
Last night Womb headlined at the experimental live music night THROBB at The Salutation pub in Manchester, with support from krautpunk band The Sandells.
Elv – vocals and ukulele, Sian – Bass, Lou – vocals and guitar, Whitney – bass, Helen – Keyboard, Emily – Sax, Jen – vocals and percussion, Steph – vocals and percussion, Rosanne – percussion and whistle, Fiona – drums.
Artist Matt Dalby wrote a blinding review…
Haha! So – Womb’s gig at Ducie Bridge was ok but a bit – you know – not quite there. Last night in the even more confined space of The Salutation they were fucking amazing.
After it finished I was enthusing I thought it was the best so far. Definitely as good as the acoustic set at Okasional Cafe and the set at Gullivers.
It’s still making me smile, wanna dance, make music, run up and down and scream.
Right right right – ok – first up The Sandells in support with their self-described krautpunk. A much more structured and conventional sound – but thrilling nontheless.
I mean they say krautpunk but there’s a fairly heavy dose of 60′s guitar pop and early 80′s indie sounds going into the mix too. And no bad thing. And they were excellent. Much bouncing – band and audience having a lot of fun and giving it loads.
Go see ‘em – they’ll make you happy.
And then it was Womb. Some last minute soundcheck bits and pieces before BAM – straight into looping rhythms, pounding bass, harsh textures, swirling keys, guitar and sax – bouncing even more. Woohoo!
*breath*
Started out a little mid-paced but picked up quickly. Hammering drums and all – the bass drum migrating across the tiny stage – pushed back once or twice. Hollered vocals – two, sometimes three voices most the time.
A big group this time – ten women on stage – or four on stage, the rest around it since they couldn’t fit on. Guitar, bass – two basses? (or was it two guitars?), banjo, drums, percussion, keyboards, saxophone, vocals, noise making objects – metal rings, contact mic-ed plaster ball and bit of metal – and plenty other bits and pieces.
The sound was really fucking well integrated – it was sometimes hard to pick out keyboards from saxophone from guitar from voice.
And lots and lots of percussion – beating singing bowl, bell, snare, what looked like a massive cowbell (what am I, a musician?), stamping – and of course the drums. Haha!
Mostly the band couldn’t move about – it’s a confined space – but there was some shifting from mic to mic for vocals and noise makers – the monitor got overturned. The amplified plaster ball was satisfyingly smashed early on and ground in the floor.
I’d say narcotic – but that suggests something a lot more dopey than the ecstatic, pounding, spinning racket that got right in your body, lifted you up, got you high, sweated out and dived back in again.
Listen – on this form if you don’t dance – or bounce depending on the space available – you’re dead. I mean you could try and resist – nail yourself to the floor maybe – but only if you want bloody holes in your feet.
It was fantastic – somewhere around 40-45 minutes but it felt a lot less – the venue had to call time on the band or they would have gone on a lot longer. And no bad thing.
Yeah yeah – my heart’s racing just writing about it, reading back – I want a time machine, do it over again.
Next chance to see them tomorrow at Kraak – 8pm doing the soundtrack for Lynchian Dirt Fight. If it’s anywhere close to as good as last night it’ll be fucking great.
Her are some post-action stills from my performance No Performance at the Lalithakala Art Gallery, India, 17th February 2011.
This was a private performance in which I destroyed the work I had made during an 8 week residency at the Gowry Art Institute.
Below are the images of my first solo show. A selection of sculptural works which were made during 8 weeks in residence at the Gowry Art Institute and were displayed at the Lalitakala Gallery, India.
I can’t say this is exactly the sort of work I want to be making. I don’t want to appear defensive but somewhere along the line I think the work has become more heavy handed than I would like.
In some of the pieces a certain heavy handedness was intended. There was an attempt of taking an idea and of condensing it’s complexities until it could no longer resemble the origin.
Would like to say thankyou to Matt Dalby for his writing on the exhibition. After making the work in an environment which I would describe as a vacuum, it is great to be able to share the work and to hear feedback.
I am planning to add some writing on here soon. Time seems to be melting in India and need to get off the computer.
wax, hair
wax, plastic container, string
wax, metal chain
ink on paper
wax, hair, fish bone, metal chain
wax, bone, hair, plastic pearls
wax, string, bindy dots
wax
wax
wax, hair
