Benedict Drew

There are so many reasons to love Benedict Drew's work - his current show at Zabludowicz' spot on new project space is just one. He did an amazing 'artists presentation' today at the gallery - where he essentially made a cut and paste Adam Curtis-like film about his influences and interests - ranging from entropy and decay to early electronic music techniques and film screams.

Check out past installation documentation of The Persuaders (I pasted the vimeo below too) and Notes on the Ecstatic. His website is rather amazing too. For the brave, look at this epilepsy-inducing 'Appendix' to his site.

THE PERSUADERS from benedict drew on Vimeo.

sludge manifesto from benedict drew on Vimeo.

Fatima A Qadiri

I've discovered Fatima A Qadiri today and her inventive internet plundering. I heard her alter ego track 'WARN-U' by Ayshay above out and about a couple of weeks ago and then today drifted to 'Hip Hop Spa' below - which crossed the neo-web, hip hop, weird line beautifully. Love the hardcore art text accompaniment when you see video on YouTube. Its all very DIS Magazine (where she has a column) but nowt wrong with that.

Fact mix available here and Muslim Trance on here (though the word trance always makes me want to tear my skin out)

Born to Curate

I'm taking part in a funny sounding performance game show on Thursday - Born to Curate - connected to the current show at Nettie Horn. Free but RSVP.

Picks from the past last week

Hex and Xeroxlore at SPACE Studios

Ilja Karilampi's Hoodumentary at Wilkinson Gallery

Philip Lai at Stuart Shave Modern Art

An invite of sheer genius

Bubblebyte + The Sunday Painter + LuckyPDF. One word. Excited.

LuckyPDF ñ BubbleByte from LuckyPDF TV on Vimeo.

Flashback

I have been doing way too much research on rave and acid house as background for an upcoming exhibition, resulting in a feeling that time is disintegrating and I dont know what decade it is. Here's a flashback from the post-modern blur of music in my psyche. Dirty party records! (with a beautiful bit of ghetto house from Cajmere above)

Maybe Its Because I'm a...

Whenever people come to London they ask me for recommendations and I realise the list I put up here years back needs some updating. So if you're in town for three days this is where I'd shove you:

Galleries
- Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street, London E2
- SPACE Studios, 129—131 Mare St, London E8

- Ibid Projects, 35 Hoxton Square, London N1
- Seventeen Gallery, 17 Kingsland Rd, London E2
- Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3

- Whitecube Bermondsey (for the insane building if nothing else), 144-152 Bermondsey St, London SE1

Coffee

- Flat White, 17 Berwick St, London W1

- Wiltons, 61 Wilton Way, London E8 (where I do my occasional London Fields Radio show)

- Daquise, 20 Thurloe Street London SW7 (in afternoons only for apple strudel and a taste of 60s poland)

- Sensory Lab, 75 Wigmore St, London W1

Food
- Dean Street Townhouse, 69 Dean St, London W1 (art, amaretto sours)
- Polpo, 41 Beak St, London W1 (or Polpetto above the French House)
- Bar Bruno, 101 Wardour St, London W1
- St John (the bar area), 26 St John St, London EC1 and the bar at St John Hotel
- The Wolseley, 160 Piccadilly, London W1
- Pizza East, 56 Shoreditch High St, London E1
- Rochelle Canteen (lunch only mon-fri), Arnold Circus, London E2 (recommend booking 02077295677)

Drink
- The French House, 49 Dean St, London W1
- The Royal Oak, 73 Columbia Rd, London E2
- The Holly Bush, 22 Holly Mount, London NW3
- Cecconi's, 5a Burlington Gardens, London W1 (prosecco on tap at the bar)

Shop
- Compton News, 48 Old Compton Street, London W1
- Fopp for 3 quid DVDs and CDs, 1 Earlham Street, London WC2
- Music and Video Exchange shops (esp the Book one 14 Pembridge Road, and Soul and Dance, 42 Notting Hill Gate).
- Fenwicks, 63 New Bond St, London W1
- The Top Shop concession in Selfridges; APC and Acne on Dover St; The B Store on Kingly St for shoes; Fred Perry on Newburgh St etc

Tourist Stuff

Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln Inn Fields, London WC1

Walk up Primrose Hill in general or swim in Hampstead Heath ponds in summer

London Books

JG Ballard 'High-Rise'

Graham Greene 'Ministry of Fear'

Anything by Iain Sinclair

Tonight

There are many things opening in London tonight but these are my highlights

1 Benedict Drew @ 176 (image above)

2 Forbidden Planet @ Jacob's Island

3 Matt Lipps @ Josh Lilley (who features in the latest issue of Twin)

4 A Plea for Tenderness curated by David Raymond Conroy @ Seventeen Gallery