Rustie - Green Language

Now, I paid money for both Skrillex's Bangarang and Rustie's Glass Swords back in 2011 because they were both awesome. I listened to Skrillex's new one, can't even remember the name of it now, a coupla times and thought it was shite. So there was no trip down to the record shop for that one. I was worried on the first 2 listens of Rustie's Green Language. I thought maybe it was a vibe migration thing, you know his time was up and we'd all moved on. And what are these bloody rappers doin on it? A few more listens in and I'm thinkin maybe I am gonna make it down to the shop for this one. I really wanna hear Raptor and He Hate Me in their full digital aural splendour. I'm lookin forward to that. I'm even starting to like the tunes with the raps. Can't imagine though giving that Skrillex album another go though. You win some, you lose some.

How good is that? Bringin back memories of listening to Glass Swords on train platforms and being unable to control myself in its blissfulness. It also made me think of other stuff from that time that I loved - Emeralds and their side projects etc. Might even pull out Bangarang.

Skrillex & Time

Had a very brief listen to the Skrillex album Recess and for all its atemporality it sounded very much 2011 to me, the best bits anyway. This had me thinking that perhaps time hasn't completely collapsed. Is there still hope that time will get back on track? Or is it just now we have different versions of the atemporal. Perhaps Skrillex just doesn't have the latest old influences. To be more now/not now (atemporal in 2014) i dunno maybe he needs a bit of disco, EBM, Gabba or_________(insert latest old trend) thrown in the mix. Then will that just date him to now though. Whichever way you look at it, it's still all dated. But it's more complicated than you think. Watch this space.....

2012 - A Look Back Part II

Reissued/Archival/Compiled etc..

• Time To Go-The Southern Psychedelic Moment: 1981-1986 - Various.  One of the coolest rock scenes ever.  Post-Punk psychedelic mayhem from the Antipodes. It doesn't get much better than underground music from NZ in the 80s.
• Down Under Nuggets: Original Artyfacts 1965-1967 - Various.  It doesn't get much better than this for a rock era. Troglodyte and wild. Get out your winkle pickers folks!
•  EPs 88-91 - My Bloody Valentine
• Complete Singles Collection - AR Kane
• 5 EPs - Disco Inferno
• Separations - Pulp
• Smell My Finger - The Hard Ons
• Livixiation - Suzanne Ciani
• Dancing Time - The Funkees
• Cold Nose - Franco Falsini
• Orion 2000 - Peter Thomas
• The World Won't Listen - The Smiths
• Short Stories For Pauline - Durutti Column
• Voix - Egisto Macchi
• The Aberrant Years - feedtime
• The Oram Tapes Vol. 1 - Daphne Oram
• Electronics Without Tears - FC Judd

The Short Ones ie. EPs

Skrillex - Bangarang EP
It's party time folks!
Knife Party - Rage Valley EP
The party continues!
LA Vampires - Freedom 2K EP
Amanda Brown gets all sexy. If only all house was this cool.
Kemper Norton - Collision/Detection v6 EP
Spooky farmer's sonic documents of wintry West England!

Bin Worthy/Indifferent/Perplexed
Laurel Halo - Quarantine
Didn't see the fuss.
Holy Balm - It's You
?
Maria Minerva - Will Happiness Find Me ?
Not with this self help drivel!
Black Dice - Mr Impossible
??
Bodyguard  - Silica Gel
er... a bit Shite, no?
Nite Jewel - One Second of Love
???

*With the reissues I just put in the ones I didn't already have. I never had a copy a copy of The World Won't listen, I had Louder Than Bombs which was a mess of a comp really. So there's no Cleaners From Venus, Pyrolator, John Carpenter, Eraserhead OST or Porter Ricks or whichever records/tapes/cds I already have. No Laurie Spiegel as I think that may be coming my way at Xmas time.

Skrillex-Bangarang

Just realised I never put this on me blog. Gee I wonder what I feel like doing tonight? Anyway just putting some thoughts together on 2012. I know I only exist as a ghost in this world but looking at some end of year lists I've become quite perplexed. Firstly who the fuck is Frank Ocean and secondly who the fuck is Kendrick Lamar? Am I missing out?

Anyway Simon Reynolds asks here Is anyone who listens to EDM, Brostep, Electrohouse writing about it and assessing it critically or is it a scene without an in depth discourse? Then I thought how many times can you say this sounds great, it's a totally banging tune, this'll go off on the dancefloor etc. I mean you could say how functional it is, point out influences, outline where the good bits are and talk about equipment. This is party music after all and one of its main functions is to not think. It is one part of a pleasuredome  to block out the dreariness along with the drugs, the dancing and the naff clothing. Is it necessary to get serious about fun? That doesn't sound like much fun. Getting in depth about this scene seems be the antithesis of this particular pop culture.

Notes for a future Manifesto/Theory/Philosophy

Some Quotes:

"Just because you are doing something in inverted commas doesn't mean you're not doing it"
Quote from Tim Space Debris at Cardrossmaniac2, 23/11/12.

"What is there in uselessness to cause you distress"
The title of an AMM song from AMMMusic 1966.

I had more but I've forgotten where I read them. Anyway some food for thought that may one day be put into some kind of coherent passage of words.

Other Stuff

*I saw a bunch of musicians in the states are doing a tribute to The Band's Last Waltz concert/movie. Fuck me wasn't the first one tedious enough. Imagine what it'll be like with 2nd and 3rd rate indie musicians doing it. I feel sick. Are they gonna get Marty to film it as well, now that would be weird. No hang on they should get some 2nd rate Scorsese wannabe to film it. Hang on that starts to make the concept almost interesting. When is this shit gonna end? Didn't Nels Cline used to be some kind of avant musician?

**Here's a collaboration I'd really like to see Skrillex V Umberto. Doncha reckon that'd be good? Or would it end up sounding like some kind of witch-house? Either way I'd like to see that happen.

***What ever happened to Salem?

Brostep/The Zone Formerly Known As Dubstep

Here's the missing Knife Party song that I was shown due to my interest in Skrillex. I can't really remember what the rest of the post was about! Maybe how slow I am to catch on to such homegrown greatness. Hey I like Severed Heads! Anyway this is brostep right?

I was off the continuum for a while by the time Dubstep came along and hey I didn't dislike it like I did with 2-Step & Grime. Some Dubstep I thought was grouse. Then I was slightly confused by Burial's LP. Was it even Dubstep? How can something be the pinnacle of said genre if its barely even a dubstep record? 'Was Burial's debut all that?' I thought it sounded like you know Pole/Basic Channel/Chain Reaction kind of gear with a bit of Maxinquaye chucked in. Don't get me wrong I love all that stuff, a lot in fact. But how could Burial's version be a whole new thing?  It's not a bad record per se but was it groundbreaking? Or did I miss something?

Down with the kids, me!

It turns out I'm actually down with the kids. That is my fave song of 2012 is by Skrillex who is my (nearly 2 year old)  niece's favourite artist. This one goes out to Harry!

RE: Straight Edge/Torque & any old crap

*Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat/Fugazi & Dego & Mac of 4Hero were both at the forefront of Hardcore lineages albeit very different ones but funny that they were both straight edge. I didn't even realise when I was writing that the other day. Also both had a Mac in the group. Can I somehow get a Fleetwood Mac connection here as well? I fuckin' doubt it as they were the antitheses of straight edge.....er....all 3 had great rhythm sections. If you can call what 4Hero had a rhythm section?

**After purchasing Torque, the compilation on No U Turn from 97, the other day I realised that in fact I knew most of those tracks either from the radio, clubs, a friend of mine-some kind of osmosis anyway and hey me likey very much.

***Discussions among a few different people recently has ended up in this question: What ever happened to R & B? That lineage seems to have come to a halt doncha think?

****What about Hip Hop? A lost cause or what?

*****Indie Rock? Any life left in that? I doubt it.

******What about Exotic-Retro Psych/Funk/Rock and its Hybrids? Those compilations seem to be arriving less & less. I think I've only bought 2 this year. One from Iran and one from West Africa.

*******Is there anything out there apart from Skrillex & K-Pop?

Hawkwind/Rave...it's all connected right?



What can I say?

Stumbled upon this last night on the Youtubes  Hawkwind doco ! Dodgy old VHS tape made it even better I reckon. Heaps of stuff I didn't know, pretty bloody good. What a trip they had- Drugs, guns, grenades, naked dancers, roller skates, mental illness, links with terrorism, a million ex members, regular sackings, sabotaging their own career and everything else in between. Didn't one of the Chrome guys join them once?, there was no mention of that. Just to mention everyone who went through the band would have taken up half the film. Who knew Samantha Fox guested with them once?! Ofcourse it made me dig out some Ye Olde Hawkwind to put on my ipod. How has Lemmy, who was in good spirits in the film, not got lung cancer? He's chain smoking in every interview I've ever seen him do. I guess he's up there with Keef in that regard. They're so hard. Apart from my Roxy Music fest I've also been diggin' this mixtape Slave To The Rave from Woebot. Which is an old school Rave mix and it's awesome. I missed this one a while back so it was a good find. Good gear up there with his others Brick Door Mix, Ambient Jungle Mix and Dr Wo Mix. Check Woebot at Soundcloud for these. I guess I got to that from listening to some New Skool Rave or is that nu skool rave or is it new old skool? I'm confused! ie. Skrillex's Bangarang EP, which has got some great stuff on there, almost as good as that Rustie LP from last year (midlife crisis or just awesome bangin' tunes?). I couldn't care less if this is cool or whatever. I like it! I guess I got to that by listening to this other Old Skool Mix 91 from Dara-blog to the old skool, this could be the best old school mix I've ever heard, (er..google that one) which is a fuckn' mental mix of Rave Trax from well 1991. I think the times we are in now culturally are perhaps akin the the Australian Aborigine concept of time, which if memory serves translates to something like 'everything is happening now.' IE. past, present and future are all happening at once! (feel free to let me know if I have that wrong)



This sounds awesome
on my ipod



Slave To The Rave
Woebot Mix