City of Doom

"London is a city perpetually doomed." Text and pictures by Vukša

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Syro in Stokey

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Gilbert and George

If you stick long enough in Hackney, at some point you're bound to bump into these two gentlemen. Them suits don't need cleaning. 

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As doom as it gets

The honorary members of the Stoke Newington Society of Ambianceurs and Elegant Persons in my office today. What a treat. 

After a few shots of the Captain, Mr Hints (the gentleman on the right) asked to have the picture delivered at his postal address. Wish granted.  

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This guy is the Toulouse Lautrec of Stoke Newington

Carrying the spirit of Clichy in the streets of Hackney

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Play this smell: Goldsmiths graduate creates fragrance out of music notes

Ever wondered what Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” or Mozart’s “Requiem” smell like? Chang Hee Lee’s synesthetic art may have an answer

One of the works that stood out out amid an array of uniformity at Goldsmiths MA exhibition in September was 'Essence in Space' by Chang Hee Lee. Blending sound and fragrance through a customised keyboard to create unique “symphonic perfumes”, Lee’s stylised alchemist approach is both intriguing and downright sexy. 

The artist explains:

"Each key is mechanically linked to a type of fragrance, located below the keyboard. As each key is pressed, another part is lifted up releasing the air into a tube. Once the air enters the tube, the lower section of the instrument releases a droplet of perfume. This droplet of perfume is then collected in a bottle. This process continues as each key is struck, thereby creating a mixture of different perfume droplets in the bottle. At the end of the ‘performance’, a unique blend of perfume droplets has been created. We can call this a ‘Symphonic Perfume’.”

Lee uses the Fragrance Classification Chart deployed in the perfume industry as his guiding principle with an idea to create a sort of ‘mother product’ that can be developed and tweaked in a range of industries such as perfume, advertising and music. Should his 'Essence in Space' inspire future off-shots, Lee argues, “the design will surely have achieved its purpose."

Indeed, with sound and vision long doomed, our olfactory perception just might be that very last sense left uncorrupted. 

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Thelem ft. T-Man: Bring Me Down (Innamind Recordings)

I get beaten up, drugged out and raped in this spooky dubstep video for Thelem

We filmed this in a deserted animal research center in Oxfordshire after an all night out. T-Man was on top of his game, as was everyone else, thanks to the talented young director Joao Retorta, cinematographer Kirill Proskura and producer Marko Stoimenov, with the generous help from Kerri Gitari, Laurence Ayeni and Master Pete. 

Full release date for Innamind Recordings is the 28th of October 2013 on both vinyl and digital formats.

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N16 Street Talk

"So, what years did you serve?" “Nineteen fifty-four to nineteen fifty-six. The bullet went straight through my neck.” Yoakley Rd, N16

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MC battle on Kingsland Rd

We all know white man can’t jump. They also can’t rap. Sometimes it's better to leave the art of rhyme spit to the pros

It’s a warm summer evening and the crew is on its way to another potentially futile adventure packed with casual encounters and cheap liquor. Halfway between Dalston and Shoreditch they bump into a group of Mediterranean rappers armed with a soundsystem and a microphone. The Spanish bro drags the verses and a couple of black dudes from the side are eager to show some skill.

"Get that mike off ‘im will ya."

It’s all about the flow, baby. The mic slips into safe hands and the crowd is in for the sway. Breakdancers step in, a middle aged Caribbean gentleman busts a move and for a moment, the little chunk of Kingsland Rd feels as if possessed by some primeval communal force: the street turns into a temple, a open-air playhouse for the depraved and all those who can’t afford a London all nighter can join in for the ceremony, the master is here to guide.

There’s something essentially human about hip hop, the way it creates communities and a sense of participation as well as exclusion and competition. It’s all a power game, innit?

Time for this community to disband. Forced out of the spotlights, the Spanish MC has little choice but to pull the plug and roll away, his chirpy Mediterranean legato echoing down the pavement. 

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London's got a new superhero

And he lives in Manor House

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Welcome to Cameron Porn

Peeping dwarfs, party mums and crazy devils in this haunting version of David Cameron's porn-free universe

After announcing his plans to make online Britain porn-free by installing ‘opt-in’ filters to "protect the children and their innocence", the Prime Minister got a number of responses from the public. This one takes the idea one step further:

Cameron Porn is a project by two London advertising creatives featuring “filtered” scenes from vintage porn movies so they focus on the acting and the plot instead of the juicy details. For a truly haunting vision of David Cameron's porn-free universe, make sure you check out the ‘Peeping Dwarfs’ sequence:

The new law which automatically blocks pornographic content for internet users in the UK unless they specifically decide to 'opt-in' is expected to come into effect next year. Potentially sad news for British MPs and their staff who according to official records made nearly 300,000 "attempts to access websites categorised as pornography" directly from parliament computers in the last year alone. 

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N16 Street Talk

It is highly unlikely you will ever achieve these guys’ level of not giving a fuck. Yoakley Rd, N16

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What's the deal with Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill?

What is the jurisdiction of the Hasidic Safety & Rescue Patrol? How much for the furry hat? And where do all those dudes keep rushing all the time?

If you ever happen to drift into a leafy little neighbourhood up from Stoke Newington on a Saturday morning, you’d probably spot something odd. Bearded men in frock-coats with sidelocks curling underneath their hats walking about in a strange rush. Some stop on the corners for a quick chat, others keep their pace gazing into the distance as if hypnotised. Not too many cars passing by and the only sound seems to be the click of the men's footsteps on the pavement.

There’s something wonderfully serene about the place, yet mysterious and impenetrable. Even though the Victorian conversions and the ex-council estates are the same, it doesn’t feel like London.

Welcome to Stamford Hill, home to some 20,000 Hasidic Jews, an isolated and closely-knit community of the most conservative branch of Judaism. With origins in 18th century eastern Europe, the Hasidim are the most pious of all of Judaism’s different strains, clinging on mysticism as the fundamental aspect of the faith. After the Holocaust devastated most of their population, the surviving ones emigrated to Israel, US and Great Britain. Major settlements today are in Brooklyn NYC, Fairfax in L.A and of course, Stamford Hill in North London, the largest Hasidic community in Europe.

Life in insular times Almost completely cut off from the outside world, the Hasidim live in a closely guarded system that doesn’t exactly conform to our present reality. They don’t listen to the radio, watch television or consume any western electronic media. Don’t expect them to bother much about Miley Cyrus or the latest Wikileaks release. Men study the Talmud and go about their daily business while the modestly-clad women raise the children and do the housework. (Men also tend to be frequently unemployed which leaves much precious time for contemplation and linking up with mates in the hood)

The sidelocks Apparently God once said you shouldn’t shave your sideburns. Whilst some quit shaving altogether, others took God’s word literally so nowadays they sport some of the funkiest facial hair styles in the world - the Payot.

Image via Zimbio.com 

Some wear them full-on curled down, some wrap them around the ears while the laziest ones from eastern Europe carry on as normal, leaving just a few strains of hair on the sides which means their pictures probably won’t be used for promo ads in specialised Hasidic barber shops.

So how much for the furry hat? We all know about Shabbat. The holy Saturday when every proper god-fearing Jew restrains himself from conducting any kind of business, driving a vehicle or pressing a light switch. It’s also the day when Hasidic men walk around in elaborate furry hats. Shtreimel is a festive piece of headgear custom-made of the tips of sable, mink, marten or fox tails and it flogs at around £2000 per piece. No wonder five years ago North London gangs repeatedly targeted Hasidic men for their expensive Shtreimels. The furry hat is the most precious item in the Hasidic fashion gear and its manufacturing class is as clandestine as the Hasidic community itself. 

In relation to both the British economic and weather climate, it is common for many Hasidim today to purchase a low-cost Shtreimel (£500-600) to replace the real thing during heavy weather and prolong its life.

What is the Stamford Hill Safety and Rescue Patrol? Yes, as in New York and L.A, the Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill have their own community police or neighbourhood watchgroup - Shomrim. Claiming to be "the eyes and ears of the police", Shomrim (Hebrew for "security") don’t have the power of arrest. Instead they stick to providing "support", usually through tailing a suspect before handing him over to the actual police. Although the Hackney council wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole affair, the establishment of Stamford Hill Safety & Rescue Patrol (i.e. Shomrim) in 2005 was justified by locals having better knowledge of their isolated community. The patrol now counts 50 volunteers, a 24-hour hotline and a Twitter account.

(In case you want to see Shomrim going wrong, then go to NYC. Watch this video of a cyclist in Brooklyn being bullied by a group of Hasidic men believed to be the Shomrim)

More fashion, please Apparently for Kabbalistic reasons, the Hasidic Jews button their clothes right over left.

Where can I get the main Hasidic buzz? Dunsmure Rd is the heart of the Hasidic community in Stamford Hill, filled with Jewish shops, bakeries and kosher butcheries. It is also cut through by a street called West Bank.

So where do all those dudes keep rushing all the time? Even if you asked them, they wouldn’t tell you. Technically speaking, only god knows where.

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Boris loves City of Doom

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The London-Romanian night affair

You must have heard about Romanian techno by now?

Techno is not big in London nowadays, certainly not as some bass-related derivatives but the genre still holds a devoted base of followers. Resonating in resident foreign cultures (Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Lithuanian, Belgian) the community experience here sometimes stretches beyond the usual drug-induced euphoria. Strangely enough, some of the best techno today comes from Romania. Along with street beggars and art house film, techno is Romania’s best-known cultural export. 

Over the last several years the Romanian scene emerged as sophisticated both in reception and production. The likes of Rhadoo, Raresh and Petre Inspirescu have become international household names while labels such as Dark Clover and Origami Sound are setting grounds for techno’s future incarnations.

One of the Romanian crews making their way through the London club vortex is the mysterious Cymatic collective. Couple of weekends ago they threw a pretty solid party down at Victoria Vaults on Great Eastern St in Shoreditch. Watch this girl getting carried away:

[thanks Marko for the video]

A curse in disguise — for some weird reason we were forced to puff our fags indoors, evoking the good old days when the cigarette smoke used to soak up body odours in every club on Earth. Watch out, the Romanians are coming.

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The Doom Squad is on its way

Hello immigration offenders.

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Is this the worst ad campaign ever?

Supposed to be funny but somehow all the laughter died away.

*Note the small print in the lower right corner. You don’t fuck with Tesco Mobile.

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London heatwave: keep calm and chill

Even on 30 degrees, this is the coolest city on Earth

High Rd, Haringey N15

After a rather depressing spring, London has experienced a heatwave that apparently last swept the island seven years ago. A few showers aside, when it gets hot here, things change.

Life slows down. The notorious London ‘power walk’ becomes a lazy crawl. Locals slither their way through the streets underneath the burning sun, the streets become parks and parks become gardens and gardens become feasts, spreading a sense of relief that almost makes you believe you are living in a promised land.

No doubt this city would be a totally different place if it could at least double its average sunshine rate.

Would London turn into Kingston, Jamaica? Or at least Barcelona on the Thames? And if so, would its voracious appetite for pleasure collide with its cold-hearted working ethics?

Sandringham Rd, Dalston E8

Tough question. Even on 30+ degrees, this is still the coolest city on Earth.