Sinister: fighting fire with fire is probably the stupidest thing you can do

[Kieran Devaney]

Dear Sinister,

Duck. I quite like ‘Storytelling’ actually. Much seems to have been made 
about the albums brevity, and a perceived value for money which the album 
doesn’t have, but all of that seems at best peripheral to the appreciation 
of the music, which most people (not everyone), seem to agree is good or 
better. A lot of the people who have criticised the music itself seem to be 
criticising it because it’s film music, that the songs, especially the 
instrumentals are nice, but nothing more than nice. This is a fair enough 
criticism, but I think that as film music they work well (even if they 
weren’t included in the film). In fact I think if they’re so inclined Belle 
& Sebastian could have a decent career scoring films – I’ve read more than 
once about how the band want to make their next record sound more ‘free’ 
which is interesting as well, because if they succeed then we’ll have seen 
them operating at two extremes in as many records. The constraints put on 
them by electing to do the music for ‘Storytelling’ i.e. having to evoke a 
certain atmosphere with the music dictated by a certain scene or idea within 
the film etc, have benefited the band I think because they’ve had to change 
their methodology to fit those constraints. One of the main criticisms 
levelled at ‘Fold Your Hands Child…’ was that it sounded too much like Belle 
& Sebastian, that they were operating too much within their own hermetically 
sealed universe, a criticism I’d certainly agree with, and while the album 
showcased the best and worst of the band, I think they realised that it was 
time to move on, that they had to draw a line under their first four albums 
and handful of EPs and do something different. Doing the music for 
‘Storytelling’ forced them to break out of that self-contained way of 
working, and while the sounds on the album are still recognisably Belle & 
Sebastian, I think the paradigm shift in the way they worked on the album is 
evident. This makes it sound like just a transitional record, but I don’t 
think it is – the only major flaw would seem to be the meagre amount of the 
music actually used in the film, which is a pity, and I can’t help thinking 
that the album could’ve been even better if there would’ve been a better 
relationship between the director and the band – and perhaps future projects 
will prove more successful in that respect. All this in mind it will be 
interesting to see where to band go next, and while the notion of a ‘free’ 
Belle & Sebastian album at first faintly ridiculous, perhaps it will lead 
them closer to the spirit of those early recordings which most of us seem 
keen for them to recapture.

Duck. So, at this juncture, when the band have cast of the shackles of their 
past selves and are ready to embrace the future with relish (I bet you 10p 
that their next album sounds like a combination of Merzbow, Evan Parker, 
Lloyd Cole, Country Joe and The Fish, DJ Spooky, Captain Beefheart and Wham! 
and will feature guest appearances from the whole of Jurassic Five – Hi, I’m 
Sean Lennon and you’re listening to Jurassic Five and Belle & Sebastian), it 
seems odd that one of the members would decide to leave. Very few people 
seem saddened by the loss of Isobel Campbell in terms of the music, which 
most people (not everyone) seem to agree is average or worse, and with Sarah 
Martin sporting a likeable Moe Tucker-esque vocal (anyone else noticed 
that?) on whichever song it is on storytelling, it does seem female vocals 
do have a future in the band in spite of departing members. Being, as I am 
not dissimilar to said most people I am largely indifferent to the songs 
Isobel wrote for the band, but I do think it’s sad that she’s gone, because 
Ms Campbell did seem to encapsulate the very essence of the band – at once 
twee, affected, distant, but also at times engaging and capable of the 
momentary flights of artistic fancy that made Belle & Sebastian songs great, 
a backing vocal here, a cello lick there. Of course, I’m only really 
considering her public persona here, but it’s hard to argue that she wasn’t, 
isn’t an iconic figure in certain circles, very enigmatic. Perhaps that’s 
why she had to go. But it’s a pity anyway. I saw her new album in the jazz 
section in HMV on Monday, so she is at least moving up in the world in some 
respects. She is now officially jazz.

Duck. What’s with all the England flags knocking around at the moment? I 
thought they went out of fashion some years ago, and yet as I type I can see 
three draped out of the upstairs windows, and a couple billowing from car 
radio aerials belonging some of my neighbours who have suddenly decided they 
like to wear their patriotism on the proverbial sleeve. I do find it 
slightly disconcerting to be honest, it probably has something to do with a 
combination of world cup and jubilee engendered feelings of nationalism, but 
aren’t both of those over as far as England are concerned? It seems like an 
odd way to celebrate your love for a country anyway, this rather outré show 
of… what? Solidarity? Unity? Surely the pluralism of British (and English, 
I’ve seen ten England flags for every union jack), culture (a good thing), 
has displaced the idea that we can all be brought together with one common 
interest (as symbolised by the flag)? Surely what we should be celebrating 
are our differences, because our similarities no longer seem all that 
important. And what exactly do these flags stand for anyway? If they, as I 
suspect, mean different things to different people (and I’ve seen them up 
all over the place – in predominantly Asian areas they are perhaps an 
outward show of ‘love’ for a country that still feels like an adopted home, 
rather than just a home. Which makes it sound like tokenism, but it’s more 
complicated than that I think, if having an Indian flag (or whatever), in 
your window is defiance, a refusal to disengage with the values of what you 
see to be your ‘real’ homeland, and a rejection of British (or wherever), 
culture then Asian families draping a union jack from their bedroom windows 
would be the opposite. Whereas I would say that something approximating a 
half way point between the two (i.e. no flag whatsoever), would be best – a 
sense of giving as well as taking culturally, which is how cultures are 
enriched in the first place), then surely this just reinforces the point 
about the pluralism of cultures making symbols which represent just one 
culture defunct. In this respect, and it’s probably my disenfranchisement 
with the world cup and the jubilee and the rest of it which increases my 
annoyance with seeing so many flags all over the place, I fail to see what 
the point in all these flags is. Perhaps it’s just a wilful clinging onto of 
an idea of England, one that never really existed, except in a few books and 
paintings and symbols of identity, which we know never existed, but still 
want back.

Goose. Another thing which has been puzzling me, and I’m going to try not to 
be disparaging about it now (though past attempts have failed), is the 
continuing popularity of that ‘Big Brother’ show. When the first series 
arrived on our shores I decided not to watch it on principle (the principle 
being that it sounded like crap TV), and I didn’t bother watching any of it, 
avoided discussions about it and genuinely knew absolutely nothing about it. 
Same for the second series last year. But then as the hype for the new 
series rolled around, my interest was piqued – why did so many people not 
just like, but adore this show? Why were so many people (for want of a 
better word) addicted to it? So one evening I decided to watch – I wanted to 
try and focus solely on the show and prepared for it so I wouldn’t be 
unnecessarily distracted whilst it was on, collecting a few bags of salt and 
vinegar square crisps, a big glass of water and various cushions and stuff 
for comfort and settled down to watch. What followed was honestly one of the 
most dull experiences of my existence, and I’m including a nine month stint 
in a pitch-black womb in this estimation. Honestly, what on earth do people 
get out of watching? It’s voyeurism (though the extent to which information 
is withheld from viewers – they cut bits of dialogue deemed too risqué to 
broadcast etc does dampen said sense of voyeurism), which tells you that 
everyone is as boring as you – it’s like hacking someone’s email account 
only to find the same bits of spam and unwanted chain letters that’ve been 
lounging in your own account for months. The lives of the participants, the 
most minor nuances of their characters, their mundane troubles and everyday 
concerns are laid out in front of us, packaged as if they were 
entertainment, but in what sense is this entertainment? What does this tell 
us about humanity? The main complaint of the contestants is, according to my 
brother who watches the show a fair bit, boredom. Why would I want to watch 
people being bored? I can eavesdrop on more interesting conversations on the 
bus, just wandering through town, and then at least I only get fragments and 
I can fabricate a much more interesting background for the snippets of 
information I hear, but with Big Brother I get the whole thing, the 
beginning middle and end of the whole boring story without any room for 
imagination. And the contestants themselves seem deliberately chosen for 
their non threatening characteristics, all picked from the same, ugh, 
demographic to be attractive but vain, outgoing but inarticulate, 
flirtatious but uncommitted etc etc. The only reason my brother could give 
for his continual enjoyment of the show (for he has watched all the series’ 
I believe), is that it is ‘engrossing’. Gladly though, I myself was not 
engrossed and I don’t intend to watch again – the square crisps were nice 
though. Anyone who does watch and could enlighten me on the shows merits, 
about how it’s a fascinating social experiment or a conceptual art 
‘happening or just why they find it entertaining would be more than welcome 
to email me with their views. Did I say I was going to try not to be 
disparaging?

I’m really in the mood for a good game of duck, duck goose at the moment. 
Anyone up for that?
Cheers.
- Kieran



_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
 +-+               Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+