The loveable eccentric: Cosmo Sheldrake

I haven’t really been keeping up with my music lately because of looming university finals, but I allowed myself a little breather today and fell in love with Cosmo Sheldrake. I’ve heard one or two of his songs before but they never really grabbed me. If I’m being honest I thought he was a little odd and not in the cool, trendy way but odd as in peculiar. But I was wrong. He is odd (the name sort of says it all) but that’s  part of the charm and actually he really couldn’t be any cooler. His music is all about experimentation with the environment (in one of my favourite videos he chases after a beetle with some sort of sound device), playing with objects and space to produce unusual and unique sounds. ‘Rich’ featuring Andrea Vargas starts off with what sounds like a cat purring… It keeps you on your toes and the music is just great. Think banjos, didgeridoos, whistles, bongos, keyboards, improv vocals., robots, beetles, washing machines. You know, that sort of vibe.

Anyway, check him out. He’s set to release a debut single in April, 2014 and he’s just all round a pretty inspirational guy.

Here’s a vid of the cat purring song, performed live in a pig sty:

And ‘Prefusify’ performed live in a laundrette:

 

 

Can we please stop painting pigs?

I know that art’s all about ‘freedom of expression’ and that it’s a constant battle to be more original and more outrageous. But throwing a cat up a flight of stairs is a little extreme (Jan Fabre)! I mean come on there are standards, that’s not even funny – while we’re on the topic of hilarious cat videos head over to YouTube and watch ‘ninja cat’, comedy gold- anyway, back to the point, live animals are not there for artists to paint on, that’s what canvases are for. I appreciate Belgian artist Wim Delvoye may have genuinely wanted to change the public’s perception of animal rights, but surely there are other and probably more effective ways of raising awareness than tattooing onto pigs to create an ‘Art Farm’ (you’re an artist not a farmer!!). My point is we shouldn’t be showcasing work that champions cruelty (Damien Hirst’s butterfly installation springs to mind…Tate Modern- I’m pointing my finger at you). Let’s leave animals out of this one. Okay?