I felt light of spirits after my evening at the first Crystal Vision at the ICA last Saturday. This was an exciting evening, where musical commercialism was left at the door - just where it should be at an Arts Institution for all the things Contemporary. Saturday’s gig wasn’t guest listed with half a page of music industry folk that may or may not come depending on their mood, it was a good old fashioned ‘pay on the door and reap the rewards on the inside’ kind of a gig.. I found I knew no-one on the line up which was most intriguing. It gave me the same feeling as when I’m about to start a new book about which the only thing I’ve heard, is that it’s good; very cool. The DJ’s were young guys from South London who do this alongside their various day jobs and/or studies, as were the two live musical offerings, Of For and Invasion. This was a world of talent unscathed and untouched by agents, managers and labels. These were kids who have other things going on in their worlds and are not having to make all their money from making music. I immediately felt the effect of this on the style of music played, and both live acts were very raw and almost unnerving in their appeal. Similarly the DJ’s, Joy & Pain, Pete & Jiro, Teens of Thailand, Holy triangles, Big in Ghana,and Hands of Crystal Vision (I know! There were lots of them!) were playing whatever they felt like, literally, and as a result there were no recognizable chart toppers, just a mix of classic eclectic tracks; something for everyone.
‘Of For’
were a particularly unusual sound that took some mind shifting to tune into after having heard so much of the Indie Pop sound that is flooding the music waves at the moment. This was not pretty or easy on the ears, but instead took away any varnish and slickness so that raw notes and noises hit the ear unprotected. I was being struck by sounds immediately reflecting personal interests, ideas and musical influences without any compromise to make this something a mass market would identify with, or more to the point, be able to identify at all, making it non comparable and less marketable.
I certainly hadn’t heard something like this in a while and would describe it as a psychedelic twisting eclectic improvisation of sounds. Whether this is music you would want to chill out at home with, well I would debate this with the next person, but I can understand how this came out of the freedom of a bedroom, the comforting gypsy blanket placed on stage acting as a sort of link from the two realities. Julian and Nabihah http://www.myspace.com/nabz have been experimenting in that environment for a while now and have known each other since 16. Influenced by amongst other genres, Ska, which I will admit I wasn’t hearing too clearly in this performance, they have a sound not dissimilar to the track Julian is currently using as his track of choice on myspace, Sunburned by Konk on Max, see www.myspace.com/360097. Who Konk on Max is, and whether it has anything to do with another uber talented young video artist/illustrator Konx on Pax is another matter, http://www.myspace.com/konxompaxfilm. But whichever, these kids from South East London are surely on the pulse creatively. Invasion http://www.myspace.com/weareinvasion played a little later on when things had properly warmed up in the ICA house, and they definitely went for it. Chan (the lead singer) is still relatively new to the band joining the two original members, Marek
and Zel on their psychedelic rock mission. They are all individually influenced by very different people and things ‘Sleep, Slayer, Hawkwind, Lightning Bolt, Weed’ ?!
‘Motley Crue, Pantera, Metallica, The Sword, Enid Blyton’ ?! And Chan referenced
‘Stevie Wonder, Pattie La Belle, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin as her musical influences rather surprisingly as she was no melodic soul sister in this gig; more rock warrior princess.
However, influences are just influences and she certainly had the big voice and attitude. 
I really enjoyed the way these guys put everything into it, the drummer getting down to the bare essentials to rock out as best she could,
and Chan certainly seemed to know exactly what she was doing and what she was talking about. I find it difficult to accurately describe this trio but something tinged with, as someone mentioned on the night, something of Black Sabbath, or as there myspace amusingly writes, ‘like a Manga character fronting a stoned Metallica playing QOTSA songs too fast (and too short)’, or a ‘heavy metal Yeah Yeah Yeah's.' Interesting.. Anyway, even friends I had there that wouldn’t normally listen to this kind of thing, including me to be honest, got really into it and you couldn't deny they had rock magnetism.One of the major reasons why both Of For and Invasion worked well live, even as less mainstream sounding music, was because they enhanced and were enhanced by the overall artistry of the night. As you can see from the following picture, the audience happily purveyed the whole scene around them as well as what was going on on the stage area. Even if the music wasn’t your bag, you could treat it as a authentic original soundtrack to the rest of your experience. The Crystal crew were giving surround sound entertainment, and it worked – happy public looking just about everywhere!
Hmmm, the red arrows; I’m sure this was just momentary blinking..
So what was going on around everybody? There were beautiful and overtly sexual and surreal video animations from one designer called Kafka to look at,
If I’ve been clever, you might just be able to look at this on this link to YouTube where it is also being shown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE3iE7xo3ds&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprofile%2Emyspace%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ecfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser%2Eviewprofile%26friendid%3D3726484 Also, check out her myspace http://www.myspace.com/kitchenperson
for more information on her artistic endeavours which you can be sure will provide something enlightening and thought provoking. There were also other video installations to look at above the theatre doors;
, where various still images were being projected too. 
Various sculptures of different shapes and sizes were dotted around the space. 
In the dining area there was a beautifully hand crafted tee-pee,
which people used for overdue catch ups. 
This home-made windmill was rather beautiful too. There were hand printed sketches and prints of various other American-Indian inspired designs including eagles 
and symbols printed onto arm cropped denim jackets and shirts 
A giant bird flew up near the dj area, 
and whether this was James' creation I'm not sure but judging from his myspace images, see http://www.myspace.com/jimmytanner he was responsible for many of the beautiful eagle designs which you could buy, along with other drawings and booklets from the Crystal Vision table where serious bargains were to be had. Sold by designers and DJ's alike, 
Patrick
WillSo this was a wicked little shop! A friend purchased one of the poster prints there for a pound (!) and is happily framing it properly so that it’s artistry can carry on through the years, yeehaa to that. Yeehaa being the most apt word of happy exclamation for the night, seeing as imaginations were definitely taken off to cowboy country, where you find all the real free flying eagles, coloured feathers and fresh, but danger-fuelled air . I was being taken away to a place on earth where nature’s vastness takes over the soul and music is an extension of the rhythms in the earth, wind and fire. Phew, I did get involved obviously. Anyway, that was that one side of the artistic game that night.
Up on the bar level, it was a different vibe but no less an impression to the imagination. There were papier mache abstract models and cartoon characters,
hooded mannequins,
and big plastic dolls with creepy heads attached. 
(A theme echoed in various pieces of artwork including the flyer for the night,
and in another projection, by Daniel, one of the main organizers of the evening.
All these objects made you feel as if you were in an Alice in Wonderland sketch of some kind, haggling with the shrink me, grow me potions. The decks and dj’s seemed almost miniature within a giant toy box,
with toys of a somewhat sinister nature. Mannequins and plastic dolls have always disturbed me out a little, so to see giant dolls with heads not dissimilar to giant surreal, boxing figures or worse, Jason masks (!)
was not all funny ha ha. I’m not saying it was all disturbing, Dan’s sister Alice (here photographed with her friend, Alice - yes two Alice's)
helped create the giant banana costume which lent itself to much play and joviality,
as did other soft playful triangles... 
and friendly lego like toys, 
But I couldn’t help noticing the slightly dark undertones involved in this giant playroom of cartoon characters.Much of the artistic vision behind this part of the evening came from Daniel David Freeman,
the self professed ‘accidental’ leader, and ‘correspondent’ for the night. He is certainly one talented fellow and he reminded me of Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting - a fresh faced young lad, able to create not mathematic equations but wonderful, slightly dark, obscure works of art hinting at something troubled beneath the façade! (Or maybe he just has just has a slightly overactive imagination like myself.) Anyway, if you go to his myspace page you can link onto a photoflicker of more of his work. His cartoons are very interesting; often raw, funny, menacing and direct. 
I was most impressed that a 21 year old artist (just out of Art School like many of the people involved in Crystal Vision) managed to organize and keep the whole night running smoothly, coordinating a group who in their creativity I’m guessing might not be the most disciplined of people?! He has only experienced promoting once before for a Crystal Vision night in New Cross. But that was also a major success attracting over 300 people with little hand made booklets that they gave out for free as invites. I asked if he planned to do more nights, to which he responded 'yes', although due to the sheer amount of organizing for both a music and art event, he may try separating the events in future with more weight put to either exhibiting OR to the music.. But I think NO! I liked both together, that was the crystal magic, keep up the good work.. I might suggest that in nights to come they put slightly more emphasis on a certain overall theme within which you can still be eclectic in choice of music and artistic style.. There were a lot of exciting and creative elements coming from individuals and between groups of creative friends, (I wouldn't expect less, this is the ICA after all) but I would next time like to see a broad but interlinking idea that groups the overall aesthetic in some subtle yet clever way… However, it was certainly fresh, new and I’m glad that Roy ,
front of house and assistant to the music department at the ICA approached Daniel and his friends to put the night on. Roy saw the opportunity arise during one of the music department booking meetings where they were choosing between a better known, safer choice and a more avant-garde, experimental and therefore riskier choice of bands for the date in question. Roy was quick to take up the flag for a new and different night because of an overall belief that the ICA, that he’s ‘always rated’, needs to ‘go back to people that aren’t established instead of going for the big names, and start from the ground up’. Roy recognized his friends to be ‘really talented South East London artists…amazing’ , and saw booking Crystal Vision as an opportunity to ‘start changing things.’ Roy understands that ‘change means risk’, but commented that ‘..even if it hadn’t been that busy tonight, I would have been pleased that I had attempted it and got new people in, opening the door for other new artists.’ Roy believes that the Shoreditch scene is dying , and the phrase ‘Ding Dong the ditch is Dead’ is amusingly written on the myspace page of his Dj’ing group Teens of Thailand. 'Yeah who cares if you were born in the Eighties?’ I joked, but this is a serious issue in that that scene, once notorious and essential for being ground breaking and independently creative is suddenly a sell out environment where the likes of small acts like Calvin Harris are being signed to Sony to become just one more of a list of artists playing a very over played electro – indie – pop sound. Roy explains that, with this being the case, there has to be a new underground, less pretentious creative thing going on and the kids from Crystal Vision provide that. ‘They are just a bunch of kids that smoke and do stuff, not part of some scene, and more interesting than anyone else I know in South London’ Roy believes the ICA has the potential to put new artists on the map, but it is a matter of finding these people, and it’s not always that easy. If Roy wasn’t friends with these guys, he wouldn’t have been going around to their houses and seeing them produce this music and their art. Smaller varieties of talent such as this, who do not have an interest in spending all their time making demos, doing press releases and giving interviews are harder to locate but often are the most inventive. But while it might not be the easiest thing to seek the new trends and new talents going on out there, it is the ICA’s duty to try. 'Seeking out the underground talent and bringing it forward, (is more important than) 'sustaining the likes of Tracy Emin.’ Of course, the ICA has to ‘balance art and commerce’, but it is ‘almost selling out’ and the only way it can repair itself is, ‘to get back to (it’s) own notoriety’ by getting new acts in. I agree that yes this is riskier, but undoubtedly true. So any budding young creatives out there with fabulous talents and vision, send in your ideas for musical artistic evenings to the music department and we will listen to your suggestions! http://www.myspace.com/icamusic
The prizes for best picture and best dressed on Saturday night went to myspace's Johnathan Rockwell,
and Joseph and Florenzia,
Farewell salutes with these looks to remember....
Arrivederci!
