LE GUESS WHO? zine.
Le Guess Who? A journey into sound performances that don’t intrude upon your ear or your mind whilst floating through the regular robotic world. The quality is high. The performers come from the warmest and the coldest climates, the highest and the lowest altitudes. The path they walk is unique. And they invite you to walk amongst their aural landscapes. Perhaps you will be deep in thought listening to the sounds created, perhaps your booty will be shaking or perhaps your eye balls will be rolling back in your head in ecstasy, pleasure or surprise.
I was motivated to create the zine because my experience at LGW was so immersive that by the conclusion of the weekend, I was exhausted and wrecked but I felt exhilarated to be alive. I am sharing with you my experiences at the festival. It’s not necessarily the right experiences or the wrong experiences and the reviews aren’t professional. They will be inadequate if you’re interested in a factual recount. I offer you my own experience. I am sharing with you what it felt like to be me and be there. This is a zine of fandom. there are other amazing artists at the festival that I would have really loved to see but couldn’t make it to the show because I was also volunteering there. I apologise because this may make it look like they didn’t play a great show but it’s not necessarily true.
The front cover is a painting by Andreas Zsiros (another LGW volunteer). He chooses not to elaborate too much but does explain that it is about music + culture, meeting people + becoming friends.
This zine has a soundtrack: You can listen to it here: h4p://bit.ly/lgw_zine 1. Farida -‐ Maqam Nahawand 2. Marisa Anderson -‐ Into the Light 3. Cate Le Bon -‐ Love Is Not Love 4. Sun Kil Moon -‐ Carissa 5. Jenny Hval -‐ Female Vampire 6. Black Lips -‐ Can't Hold On 7. Yves Tumor -‐ The Feeling When You Walk Away 8. Wolfgang Voigt -‐ KaZatrax 2.1 9. James Holden & The Animal Spirits -‐ The Animal Spirits 10. IBAAKU / -‐ Yang Fogoye 11. Ben Frost -‐ Ionia 12. tUnE-‐yArDs -‐ Bizness 13. Ex-‐Easter Island Head -‐ Six Sbcks 14. Kutmah -‐ Bury Me By The River (feat. Gonjasufi) 15. Sarah Davachi -‐ Flowers And Other Voiceless Things 16. Roy Montgomery with Kirk Lake – London Is Swinging By His Neck Hit me up. Just to say hi. Share your thoughts, feelings, experiences. Send me a zine. Make a zine with me. etc. etc.
tanya.lippmann@gmail.com
Contributors: Juliette Rebecca-Rex MannLipp (me), Esther Sanchez (photos), Karam Wzr (words), Izzy Cotton (photos), Lucas Yves M. Orth (words & photos), Andreas Zsiros (front cover).
My favourites: Ben Frost [Review included].
Brötzmann/Leigh Saxophone/pedal steel guitar duo, Brötzmann / Leigh. Brötzmann has been around the block of the improvised music scene for the past 50 years or so. He lacks convention. If you don’t like the music, is it because you aint used to his non-conventional ways? Do you ever want to like something that you don’t actually like? Are you that desperate to escape your reality? Or you do like it? Or are you just kidding yourself? Leigh brings you deep lyrical soul. Together they are a far away take on the blues.
The Bug vs Dylan Carlson [Review included].
Essaie Pas Female lead is the most bad ass person I’ve seen irl. A duo of electronic producers + rappers. Hardcore. Dark energy. First show they performed in a year. I felt the rumbling of the darkness within me and I fucking celebrated it by shuffling my feet at a rate 845930 x per minute.
Ex easter island head The quality was through the roof. solid body electric guitars are converted into percussive instruments. An absolute treat to witness.
Grouper & Paul Clipson [review inside]
Jerusalem in My Heart
Modern experimental Arabic music // electronic compositions // Saturated synths and the overdriven signals of Moumneh's acoustic playing on buzuk and zurna // projecting handmade visuals using analog 16mm film & 35mm slides
Julianna Barwick Ephemeral vocal loops. Please come back to the Netherlands.
Les Amazones d’Afrique [review inside].
James Holden & the Animal Spirits Peaceful trance. It feels like you are dancing alone at home in your room. When you hear these electronic tracks, you’ve gotta dance. The urge rooted within that primitive place that we all have. Your spirit animal finds you.
Pharoah Sanders Could barely walk but still blew me away. Cheers for the most epic sax.
Perfume Genius [Review included].
Tom Rogerson Electronic pianist.
Perfume Genius Within the first few minutes of the concert, Mike fell. He fell and seamlessly transformed the fall into dance, a part of his performance, lying on the floor of the stage, kicking his legs in the air. I didn’t start to regularly listen to Perfume Genius unbl two years ago, when I was desperately struggling with the alienabon that my family felt towards me, an alienabon caused by my coming-‐out and maybe also by me finally just being who I am out in the open, instead of just behind closed doors. The line no family is safe, when I sashay of the song Queen of the Perfume Genius album Too Bright rang very true to me and many other LGBTQIA* individuals I know. It must have been in 2015 when I listened to a Perfume Genius Interview, shortly aper puqng Queen on my personal heavy rotabon, in which I heard Mike describe how he realised, that in his visibility as a gay man lies not just a threat to many, but also a potenbal source of power to him. In the bme that passed between 2015 and 2017 I got to know the threat and the power of my queerness and a lot of the posibve things that go along with it and (due to my privilege as a somewhat masculine, white person) only some of negabve things. As the anger of Too Bright (2014) gave way to the calm self-‐assuredness of No Shape (2017) my feelings and thoughts towards my queer idenbty somehow simultaneously developed in the same direcbon. Seeing Mike transibon from falling to reposiboning, balancing himself and ulbmately into dancing was a deeply personal, catharbc, upliping and electrifying experience to me and one of the most memorable moments of Le Guess Who? 2017. I no longer feel like falling, I feel like dancing.
Transforming Falling Into Dancing Words and images by Lucas Yves M. Orth
Grouper The doors of the Dom Kerk are shut. I push against them. Perhaps they will spring open like the glass doors on a TV cabinet. The response is an non existent; an expansive shield of dark defence. There is no possible way to enter those doors unless I can fashion a giant ba4ering ram. The alternabve is pabence. I feel ripples of frustrabon upwelling throughout the forest of my mind. Within the two minutes I’ve taken to write this, a queue of 60 people has formed behind Izzy and I. A Bribsh guy in a cap comments that it may have been a bad mistake to remain at Sun Kil Moon right to the very end. And man am I trying not to kick myself. This balding middle aged very conservabve looking middle aged man who sang beaubful anecdotes has lep me Grouper-‐less. Or is that my mind chooses to blame him. (Sun Kil Moon review conbnued on the next page). Fuck it! Izzy and I are standing at the front of the line. If anyone is let into the concert, it’s going to be us. How open are you at the front of the line in life? Aper ten minutes there is movement behind the doors. A couple of minutes later, the doors open. The crowd shuffles forward, huddling around the entrance. A man exits. The usher asks, “Who’s first in the line?” People point and shrug in my direcbon. She tells me the crowd “It is one in, one out. That’s the rule”. She ushers for me to walk inside. I hesitate. “Only one I ask?” “Yeah only one,” she says. I look back at Izzy. “Ohhhh,” I say. I’m not sure whether to go in or not. “Is it just the two of you?” The usher asks. “Yeah just her and I”, I say. “Ok the two of you can go in.” “Alright! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I whisper. I hurry inside. My body is charged and I’m not sure if my legs or galloping or is it only my heart? “ Ripples of dreamy ‘Disengaged’ spread through my body sun rays on an autumn day. My heart reclines, soaked in low waves of Liz’ guitar. The audience sit in their places of worship, rightly aligned in the pews. The church is in u4er order. A film reel is projecbng onto the altar behind Liz. A brown brick building of 1930’s architecture is stretched wide by one window aper another crossing the width of the altar of God, Our Father. Liz is hunched over her guitar which lies horizontally in front of her knees. Behind her, a wooden telegraph pole holds electrical lines. A green leaf and another green leaf. Nature and man. More built bricked structures. The juxtaposibon between humanity and nature. Arbfice verse nature. Can arbfice be nature? Can nature be arbfice? Is a rose a rose a rose? The most beaubful sounds. Here is my peace. My mind is nowhere else. Words by Julie4e Rebecca-‐Rex MannLipp Image by Izzy Co4on.
Pharoah Sanders
Stella Chiweshe
Residents
Keiji Haino & Han Bennink
Shabaka & The Ancestors
Type to enter text
Sun Kil Moon (conbnued). When only one being in a room of 2000 people laughed at his joke, he proceeds to point out that everyone laughs at that joke in America. This guy is laughing to hear is own laugh. I’m not really sure why he is cribcising the one human who was stroking his ego. Mark wants to sing a song about a friend of his who died last year. He asks the audience if they know what it’s like to be black and born in the fipies. I want to ask if he knows? I want to ask if he is capitalising on someone else’s hardship? Is Mark sharing his own experience or is he capitalising on the hardship of someone else? Is him telling the audience that he’s friends with black people, a way for him to look cooler? At home, Mark’s songs are gips of melodic poetry in my ears. Variety is the spice of life. We were on up stage, I heard a classic drum fill Blasting a hundred decibels over the hill It was getting pretty vile, I asked who it was A guy in a raincoat shouted back, "They're called 'War On Drugs!'" It sounded like basic John Fogerty rock I said, "This next song's called 'The War On Drugs Can Suck My Cock’" (The War On Drugs Can Suck My Cock’, Sun Kil Moon)
Ben Frost A beaubful blonde and bearded creature wearing an earthen dark dress. Pouring his heart and sole and enbre body into producing the galaxy waves that reach our ears. Ben Frost was a grounded and earthy contrast to the 5m-‐high roll of aluminium cooking foil that shielded us from the wall behind the stage. I looked into it and saw a galaxy reflect back at me. I walked forward and danced soply swaying my freshly arrived body in between a gap in a mass of dedicated listeners. At some acts, you find the audience coming and going, but this audience stayed present. Any newly arrived audience member was not leaving again. The music was danceable, I suppose. But only just. It was encapsulabng. Dark without crossing the border into depressing. The sun is seqng early this bme of year, giving only the daylight hours of winter but this doesn’t get you down because you’re sbll living off the back of summer. I can feel the sunshine inside of me and the warmth radiabng from the audience around me. Each face in the crowd is earnest, their ears pricked like kangaroo paws. Each arm of each body is crossed. Photosynthesising to the music. Following the same chemical reacbon without a will to break free. Or are they already free? Are these the free bodies? Words by Julie4e Rebecca-‐Rex MannLipp
Marisa Anderson
Roy Montgomery
The Bug vs Dylan Carlson 'Being a huge fan of everything Dylan Carlson and Kevin Martin, I have to say that I had the privilege to see The Bug vs Dylan Carlson two times within one year. Concrete Desert is already among my top releases of the year - which I find a very special record in terms of sonic innovation and originality. After biking early and camping at De Helling to get a good spot to listen and watch, I felt great to have been arrived in good time, and what other music to listen to while waiting for the two to go on stage than Dead Can Dance (big ups to the DJ). As I should’ve expected, the show was not only everything that I had expected and experienced before but more. I had been engulfed into the timeless digital ritual once again. Something very nasty was brewing beneath the hypnotic guitar drones and the creeping, deafening, industrialized broken dubs. Naturally, the setlist consisted of tracks from Concrete Desert, and they even played Boa from the 2014 Boa / Cold EP. I particularly enjoyed that there was some serious subtle improvisation and jamming going on from both of the guitar and beats departments. And oh, how Justin Broadrick’s desperate screams filled my head when they played Snakes vs Rats. I feel the need to emphasize the release’s beautifully cynical vibe. It’s a perfect and highly recommended go-to album to loop and drown in when you’re travelling through crowded public transport, bumping into all those people, yet everyone’s feeling disconnected from everyone and everything else. Needless to say, if you’ve missed this set, it’s never too late to check out and get into this masterpiece. Or trying to catch these two playing a collaborative set, or even sets from their other projects like The Bug, Earth or anything these aural wizards are involved in.’ Words by Karam Wzr Image by Esther Sanchez
LE MINI WHO?
Image of Izzzy Cotton
Les Amazones d'Afrique: FADE IN: Grote Zaal of the Tivoli On the Saturday evening of Le Guess Who, a collecbve of female West African singers come together to perform to a full house, their music that envisions a world of gender equality. Their music is African, clubby and pop. Each song unpredictably features an extensive and varied amount of vocals and percussion. DISSOLVE TO: Audience is dancing lively. On the stage in the Grote Zaal of the Tivoli are a male drummer, a male guitarist, a male keyboardist and the main show, Les Amazones d’Afrique: 4 bad ass African women between the ages of 30 and 60: Mariam Doumbia, Mamani Keïta, Rokia Koné, and Kandia Kouyaté. The audience is almost enbrely made up of white people. African women are singing and dancing ecstabcally. Super happy, peaceful and free. Act I On stage, fricbon between the Rokia Koné and what appears to be the lead singer of the evening, Kandia Kouyaté. Kouyaté dances sensually holding one end of her scarf in each hand. Koné walks off the stage. Mariam Doumbia “Don’t you want to make the people dance?!” Doumbia calls Koné back on stage through the microphone. Koné returns to the stage, removes her ten-‐inch sble4oes and begins twerking on the stage. Koné shakes her booty on the lead, Kouyaté. They shake their bootys together. Koné’s behaviour is errabc. Act 2 Kouyaté introduces members of band one by one, giving high praise to each. Each performs a solo piece using percussion and voice. One of singers plays bongos. She’s fantasbc. She removes her 9-‐inch heels. Act 3
Kouyaté “Here we have the sexy…” When it is turn to introduce Koné, Kouyaté offers her praise. She pauses, apologises and reconsiders her choice of words, and offers “Here we have the beaubful Rokia Koné” instead. The band goes crazy, the beat becomes faster and faster. Koné does not sing in the microphone. That mundane ability is behind her now. But she twerks. She twerks the fuck out of ____. Act 4 Mariam Doumbia on the right introduces Kouyaté. Kouyaté removes her 10 inch heels to allow herself to jump and spin. She also twerks. Bezurk. The finale of this majesbc piece is a twerk orgy. The bongo players comes to centre front, turns her ass so it faces the audience and she twerks. She twerks the fuck out of _____. The crowd goes crazy. A beaubful evening. Women doing whatever the fuck they want. Words by Julie4e Rebecca-‐Rex MannLipp
Perfume Genius