The function of a music blogger is primarily to stand and point. Aside from a few words saying “we like this, you might too“, we don’t really create, we merely offer up an MP3 and our taste – good, bad or indifferent.
This blog has occasional pretentions to strive for more, and as such after much procrastination the first Music Like Dirt live session was born. You could say filming the bands you love is little more than pointing with added vision but a specially recorded performance at least creates something new, capturing a hopefully magical live moment for posterity.

JAMES MATHE IN SESSION

For the first MLD Session we headed to the Pure Evil Gallery in deepest Hoxton.  Down in its basement, surrounded by sculpture, spray paints and a buzzing tv set, we recorded three songs from one of our favourite artists, James Mathe.

Introduced via The Daily Growl blog back in late 2006 when recording under the guise of “Barbarossa” (“Red Beard” in Italian), James’s latest EP gave a taster of what to expect on his eagerly awaited LP “Care Cracks“. It also featured a Terence Trent D’Arby cover which is never a bad thing!

It was a real privelidge to have James and his band play the tracks we’ll be posting over the coming week.  In the past Ive compared his vocals to Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor (a comparison reinforced when they played after each other at one of the final Luminaire shows). Thankfully he also shares the Chips gift for melancholic lo-fi electronic beauty coupled with beguiling melodies.

First up the beautiful “Bloodlines”, thanks must go to Pure Evil for letting us film after hours.

James Mathe – Facebook / Myspace

For the second track James put the Omnichord to one side, grabbed a drumstick and joined the drummer for the urgent stripped down sound of “Turbine”. Lovely guitar work, especially as the guitarist had only learnt the songs the previous day!