Three years back, Mike Lindsay had a studio in Soho in a basement below a clothes shop. Mike had been playing about with the studio equipment, making electronica and trying to make a living producing advert music, when he met Sam Genders, who was a bit of a singer-songwriter, used to doing gigs by himself. They had to go through the changing room to get down to the studio, then couldn’t get back out while the shop was open in case they startled naked ladies on their way out. Stuck down there, they found they had a great working relationship, and that their various influences fell together naturally into an amazingly coherent sound.
A year of ‘having a laugh in the studio’ together followed, beginning with People Folk – originally Mike’s song, which they then reworked and produced together. After that they wrote in all kinds of permutations, sometimes starting with a full song by one or other of them, sometimes just with a phrase or tiny idea and working it up together. Tunng’s first album Mother’s Daughter And Other Songs is very much the sound of this partnership as they bounced ideas off one another in their basement. An approach to Static Caravan met with a welcoming response, and Sam and Mike realised that Tunng was a project that could find a wider audience.
As work on what was to become that first album went on, their songs leaked out via friends. Inevitably ears pricked up as more people heard them, and quickly they started getting asked ‘would you like to do a gig?’ ‘Yeah… but we don’t know how!’ was the instant response … so they had to go hunting for like-minded spirits to take their unique sound to the stage. Sam made the choice not to play live, so Mike found Becky and Ashley to do his vocals at gigs, and Sam remains a mystery man in the shadows (or at least in Derbyshire, where he lives) … but still in every way an important part of Tunng, playing and singing on record and present in spirit at every gig.
Now, Ashley Bates, Phil Winter, Becky Jacobs, Martin Smith, Dave Lewis-Floyd all play with the band in one way or another… and have all contributed to the new album. Ashley has been involved with music ever since he drummed with shoegazers Chapterhouse as a teenager in the early 90s. Phil has been around DJing and making music on the electronica scene for an age. Becky sings live with her brother, the far-left-field electronic maverick Max Tundra, with whom she knocked Mike’s socks off at SONAR festival a while back. Martin is a multi-instrumentalist who ran his own label Loose Cannon, on which Mike released some of his earliest pre-Tunng groove experiments as Dirtbox. Dave is an eclectic cellist whose tones graced some of the first Tunng recordings and has been involved on and off ever since.
All this might sound tangled, but it’s an important illustration of the world which Tunng inhabit. They are every inch the collective, coming out of the fringes of scenes … fringes where people collaborate to survive. It’s partly the post-rave soundsystem ethos where everyone contributes according to their skills and wishes. Partly it’s the world of underground art music epitomised by SONAR festival where the idea of the band as singer-guitarist-bassist-drummer standing in a row simply seems an obsolete conceit. And partly it’s the folk model where people play together as and when they want to and songs are reinterpreted as they want.
So now Tunng exist as a tough little unit … Mike taking care of business, and his and Sam’s songwriting partnership at the heart of the sound, but with all the musicians adding their individual contributions to the new album ‘Comments Of The Inner Chorus’ on the Full Time Hobby label. Their remix-swap with Viva Voce … who have improbably turned the b-side of the ‘Woodcat’ single into horn-led funk … is just the start of the collaborations which are starting to spring from their meetings with like-minded freaks on the network of festivals and labels. Like Mr Benn in that strange old childrens’ cartoon, Mike and Sam ventured through that changing room door and have emerged transformed and ready for adventure.
www.tunng.co.uk
Brighten your beans
Jerusalem Post October 25, 2007 | FAYE LEVY FAYE LEVY Jerusalem Post 10-25-2007 Headline: Brighten your beans Byline: FAYE LEVY Edition; Weekend Section: Features Page: 08
Thursday, October 25, 2007 — On my first visit to a modest Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood, the waitress enthusiastically recommended the green beans. Interestingly, I got the same recommendation at the fanciest local Chinese restaurant.
It struck me that I have never got such a suggestion at a typical Israeli or American restaurant. The Chinese predilection for green beans reminded me of the chefs I studied with in Paris, who had a penchant for serving green beans with the most luxurious cuts of meat, like rack of lamb and filet mignon. I still remember my embarrassment when, as a student, I pinched off a bit too much of the ends when I was preparing a batch of haricots verts, the slim French green beans. I was immediately rebuked by the chef: “Do you realize what a precious ingredient you are wasting? My wife would never get away with that!”
Both French and Chinese cooks treat green beans with care. They feel the secret to delectable beans is paying attention and cooking them precisely so they acquire the perfect texture, then seasoning them well. Our chefs always cooked them briefly in an uncovered pot of boiling salted water over very high heat, then drained them and immediately “refreshed them” – rinsed them in cold water to stop the cooking process.
The goal is to have beans that retain their beautiful bright green hue and their appealing crunch. Just before serving them, the classic French way to treat them is to briefly reheat the beans in a little butter and a sprinkling of salt.
Chinese chefs often stir-fry the beans quickly in a small amount of hot vegetable oil, then finish cooking them in a little sauce, often of soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and water. This way they are partly sauteed, partly steamed. go to site green bean recipe
TV cooking star “iron chef” Masaharu Morimoto, author of Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking, adds separately cooked green beans to a homey Japanese stew to give it an elegant presentation. After cooking the beef and other vegetables with soy sauce, sugar and mirin (sweet sake), he crowns the entree with green beans that were blanched (cooked briefly in boiling water) only 30 seconds so their color intensifies to a vivid green. Morimoto enjoys introducing French techniques to Japanese dishes; for this dish he “outdoes” the French in the brevity of the beans’ cooking time.
All good cooks recognize that very fresh beans give the best results. Green beans are often called snap beans and should be fresh enough to snap when you break them. When they are old they can be rubbery and tough and are not suitable for brief cooking. They used to be called string beans but luckily those in today’s markets generally are not stringy. Keep green beans unwashed in an open plastic bag or a paper bag in the refrigerator, where they will stay fresh for up to three days. Rinse them just before using.
GREEN BEANS WITH BLACK
MUSHROOM SAUCE
This tasty dish is popular at Chinese restaurants and is simple to prepare at home. Its zesty flavor comes from ginger, garlic, hoisin sauce and aromatic dried mushrooms. If you don’t have hoisin sauce, you can substitute sweet and sour sauce. You can even omit the mushrooms, substitute vegetable broth for the mushroom liquid, and use this as a basic Chinese green bean recipe. Serve the beans as a vegetarian entree with rice, or as an accompaniment for grilled salmon or roast chicken. in our site green bean recipe
Makes 3 servings
4 large Chinese dried black
mushrooms or other dried mushrooms
350 to 450 gr. green beans,
rinsed, ends trimmed, cut in 5-cm.
lengths
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
1 to 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. minced ginger root
2 large garlic cloves, minced
salt and ground white pepper
(optional)
Soak mushrooms in 1 cup of hot water for 1/2 hour. Remove mushrooms, reserving liquid. Squeeze out excess liquid from mushrooms. Cut off stems. Cut mushroom caps in thin strips. Measure 6 tablespoons mushroom liquid; don’t use the bottom portion if it is sandy. Add soy sauce and hoisin sauce and mix well. Heat oil in large skillet, saute pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic and stir about 15 seconds. Add beans and saute lightly for a few seconds.
Reduce heat to medium low. Add mushrooms and soy sauce mixture. Stir well. Cover and cook, stirring often, 4 or 5 minutes or until beans are crisp-tender. Uncover and boil 1 minute to evaporate excess liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately; if allowed to stand, the beans lose their bright color.
GREEN BEANS WITH
SAUTEED WALNUTS
Makes 4 to 6 servings
Adding a garnish of sauteed nuts is a quick, easy and wonderful way to enliven vegetable dishes. In this French dish, you can substitute almonds for the walnuts.
700 gr. green beans, ends removed,
broken in half
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp. butter or vegetable oil
1/3 cup walnut pieces
In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, cook beans uncovered over high heat about 5 minutes or until just tender but still crisp.
Drain and rinse under cold water until cool; drain well.
In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium-low heat, add nuts and a pinch of salt, and saute about 2 or 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove with slotted spoon.
Raise heat to medium-high, add remaining butter to skillet and melt it. Add beans, salt and pepper, and saute until tender and hot; do not let them brown. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with the walnuts.
Tags: album, mike, people, sound, studio, together, tunng
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