Wild Fire ‎– The Dealer

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE DISCO IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

Prime pimpin' 1977 synth-disco-funk from from The West Indies. They had the mighty cricket team and music scene! A heyday, a golden era, the good times...

Wave Of Rave (Countdown In Cold Bass City) - Wonderboy aka Marc Acardipane

When the future was the future. Another 90s compilation of gems has recently been released by the hardcore techno gabber gloomcore maestro. It's the most modern thing you'll hear this year! What happened to the future, forward momentum and innovation? I've gotta stop asking myself that boring question and just come to terms with the fact that the thrilling accelerated mid-late 20th century music innovation era is over! 

Another classic from The Most Famous Unknown - Expansion Pack 1. Acardipane was on such an unstoppable roll in the 90s. Nobody put out as much quality music as he did. What a fucking legend.

Hermeto Pascoal - Super Water Jam

WOW! MIND BLOWN! BEST YOUTUBE MUSIC DISCOVERY IN 2020.

Lo Five - The Art Of Living & Her Majesty's Coroner for Wirral - Esoteric Healing: friend or foe?

Another terrific album from Lo Five. It's influenced by family tragedy, the ever present threat of COVID in 2020, lockdown blues & Stoic philosophy. Their LP from last year Geography Of The Abyss was so fucking good it placed high in the end of year Space Debris charts.

Then there's this which I think is a Lo Five side project. You definitely gotta check this out. It's one of the best eerie experimental electronic things that the people have heard in ages. If The Caretaker has actually really retired I'd be happy if Her Majesty's Coroner for Wirral took up the slack of his workload & did like 80 LPs of this gear. Esoteric Healing: friend or foe? is just way too short! I want way way more! 

MORE MOVIES 36

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981)
For starters electronic music pioneer Bernard Parmegiani does the soundtrack here. Don't worry he really gets there in the final fifteen minutes. Walerian Borowczyk was a polish porn, animation and surreal film director. This is a fairly mental plot that I cannot even begin to describe. It surprisingly had element s of gialli (black gloves), slasher (body count) and a whodunnit? (everyone in a mansion trying to figure out who the killer is). Bestest thing though is a bow and arrow murder. Even though it is in Victorian times but they had guns then so it's still an archaic murder weapon. Delirious demented transgressive fun. A must watch for Polish Art film enthusiasts

Nurse Sherri (1978)

Well when you have zero expectations the only was is up. I fucking loved this. It's an Al Adamson movie and after watching the great documentary Blood & Flesh: The Real Life & Ghostly Death Of Al Adamson, I was sure that I'd always avoid his product. Out of the blue though I bought this at the Vinegar Syndrome sale. I didn't want anything challenging or intellectual or political so I thought well tonight's the perfect night for Nurse Sherri. For a start this is an amazing document of the the times, the cars and streets. Imagine if Langdon Clay took film footage of the cars he photographed in the 70s. This would be it! This really is an eyeball treat for mid/late 20th Century cars and streets. I wouldn't have cared if there was a plot or not, they could have just driven through these streets in this array of vehicles and I'd have been happy. Don't forget the hair, fashions, architecture and interior design: A feast. I was looking at one building in total admiration building thinking it must have been some kind of funky club or bar but no it was a bank! The story here is wild. A cult leader dies but he supernaturally lingers on throughout the movie. There's some T but not really any A. We get dudes in business suits in the middle of the desert, a car chase, a car doing a spectacular tumble down a cliff with mucho pyromania, possession, chanting, saucy nurses, digging up graves, dudes with no eyeballs, sleazy doctors, psychiatrists quoting Yeats what more could you ask for? I really enjoyed this. If you like outsider art this is the real deal but done with aplomb. Late night movie of the week.

Hollywood Horror House aka Savage Intruder (1970)

Psych-sploitation meets Baby Jane histrionics meets slasher with all round good performances and quality cinematography and editing. Exploitation films never cease to amaze me with their sometimes high quality craftsmanship. An ageing ye olde Hollywood actress is living the retired life in a mansion in the hills after a successful but tumultuous career. She has a large staff and the temptation of alcohol is never far away. Enter her new wheelchair assistant Vic who seems to have quite the bad attitude. If you love shenanigans of the wrongest kind like relationships between a young man and someone who's old enough to be his grandma, phoney drug scenes, psychedelic-slasher flashback sequences, demented mannequin scenes etc. this is for you. This absolute curio is surprisingly watchable. Late Night Movie Of The Week.

 

Seven Blood Stained Orchids (1972)

Umberto Lenzi had a great run of Gialli. He's my favourite Italian film-director of all time, you may think that's outrageous but he had a bloody good strike rate. This film starts out of the gate with a burst of murders. At the five minute mark you are thinking this is going to be the highest body count in a film ever but they slow down a bit as the plot focusses more on the search for the murderer. One of the best things is that the murderer is called The Half Moon Killer. As far as giallo go Seven Blood Stained Orchids is right up there as one of his most conventional before Lenzi really went totally balmy with batshit crazy classics Eyeball (1975) and Spasmo (1974). Here is where the tropes were coalescing and consolidating into hallmarks of the genre, a peak era before it all got a bit tired. Anyway we've got shiny knives, beautiful and incredibly fashionable prostitutes, a murderer wearing black gloves, sensational mens fashions, belligerent/bad cops, gorgeous women being killed in various states of undress, dial up telephones, priests, amateur sleuths, spectacular cars, POV Kill scenes, interior design to die for, phoney drug addicts, even phonier hippies, odd pop culture, tape recording machines, an absurdly convoluted plot, a score from legend Riz Ortilani, stunning cinematography and don't forget the hairdos! 

Solamente Nero aka The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)

Classic Giallo! You gotta love one of the best giallo tropes: The murders are all connected to a dodgy painting. It's also got the other good stuff: Priests, wheelchair bound old people, J&B, OTT gay characters, hidden away adult simpleton children, dodgy psychics, red herrings, doll violence, a body count, backyard abortionists, childhood trauma...all that's missing is a blind man! One of the aspects that sets this Giallo apart is the Venice setting. There's boats, including a spectacularly thrilling action sequence but no cars. The grandeur is dilapidated. 1978 is further from the 60s than most films in this genre so the fashion is more beige, less outrageous but some we do get some splendid knitwear and hair. The psychedelic pop art and kitschy interior design is pretty much non existent. We do get ye olde churches, homes that are more like museums with way too many spooky artefacts, knight armour, weapons, sculpture and paintings everywhere. A classic 70s love scene ensues between the two main protagonists where they make sweet love on a rug by an open fire. The soundtrack is fantastic! I mean how could you go wrong with Stelvio Cipriani composing with Goblin members performing. I nearly forgot there's a shonky peadophile too. It's got the lot! Solamente Nero is directed by Antonio Bido who made that other wonderful and atypical giallo Watch Me When I Kill (1977). He seems to be undervalued in the general scheme of things in Italian cinema which is a shame because he made at least two classic films. 

The Late Show (1977)  

Charming 70s neo-noir. A mis-matched pair of misfits end up embroiled in a series of crimes. The duo of Lily Tomlin as Margo and Art Carney as Ira do tip top awry chemistry. These two are glorious fun with Ira being the ex-detective old codger and Margo as the off kilter but witty cat lady. It all begins when Margo's cat is catnapped. Shenanigans and hi-jinx ensue in this low key yet bloody gritty crime caper. If you love your 70s neo-noir, Altman, Allen etc. but you've never seen this, then you are in for a real treat.  

What Have They Done To Solange (1972)

This was the first Giallo I ever saw that was set outside of Italy. This one gets right to the gruesome point with the victims being stabbed in the vagina. The doctor shows us some graphically grim X-ray evidence post-mortem no less. What Have They Done... is set in a posh all girls Catholic senior college somewhere in picturesque England. Male teachers are sleeping with the students although it's pointed out at one stage "at least they're 18." Giallo staples like Glistening knives, black gloves, red herrings, sleaze, amateur sleuths plus an outfuckingstanding Ennio Morricone score are all present and accounted for. We also get naughty catholic school girls, row boats, bikes and a slice of quaint England. This flick is beautifully filmed, pretty cohesive plot-wise and put together elegantly. An almost classy Giallo! We get an early appearance from I Spit On Your Grave's legendary Camille Keaton along with Fabio Testi, Christina Galbó, Karin Baal etc. Late Night Movie Of The Week.

The Pyjama Girl Case (1977)

Strange, strange, strange! That's really saying something for a Giallo film. Well this flick is in that interzone of Giallo and Poliziotteschi. Once again we get the Giallo taken outside of Italy. This time it's Australia with the story being loosely based upon a famous unsolved Aussie murder. It's set in Sydney but it's almost like a post-apocalyptic film as the metropolis' streets are almost always deserted. They must have filmed it on Sundays. In the 70s everything shut down on Sunday in Australia. So city streets were empty. Sunday was for home, mass, junior football, roast or fish & chips if you were lucky.

The score here is Riz Ortilani at his most cheesy, disco and best. There are several hippy psych glam songs however performed by the mysterious & enigmatic Amanda Lear, who I thought was a man until I looked her up, that are fucking fabulous. So we get loads of empty, oh so empty, Sydney captured wonderfully by the cinematographer. Pyjama Girl Case is not full of your usual Giallo genre tropes. We do get the occasional red herring and a retired detective (Ray Milland) doing the real sleuth work for free as the actual cops have no idea what's going on. Much is made of the generational gap between the old timer and the trendy new detective's techniques. This is a pretty sophisticated film but while it does have a complex narrative structure it's actually fairly cohesive. This is more like a really bleak, brutal and nihilistic art film. You might need to give it a second watch too, just to get a handle on the nuances. Quite the surprise packet of a film. An absolute curio for adventurous film viewers.

Knives Out (2019)

Excellent, if a little slow, 10s update of the Whodunnit in a mansion genre. This is set in America and really could have been a four or five part prestige television series for FX or HBO. This star studded cast all put in sterling performances. Although I must admit to not being a Daniel Craig fan (can't fucking stand him) so it was a struggle to get used to him doing a southern American accent but hey I got there. Why didn't they just get a southern American though? Minor quibbles aside yes Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Collette, Christopher Plummer etc. are terrific. The real star here though is Ana Celia de Armas Caso who plays Marta the deceased multi millionaire's personal nurse. Was it suicide or was it foul play?  Don't expect a fusty old stuck in the house investigation. This is more like a modern tv crime drama dressed up as a whodunnit. Enjoy the ride that doesn't get too convoluted although perhaps the final explanation plot device could have been dropped to make this film more lean. 

Strip Nude For Your Killer (1975)

Edwige's Fenech's Hair!

That was going to be my review. All a Giallo enthusiast would need to know is all right there. Edwige is in it! She has amazing hair! This would also imply there is more amazing stuff like great fashion, glamorous 70s interior design and that Fenech probably gets naked at some point. The title then implies much more nudity & death Giallo style. See how 8 words is pretty much enough to tell you about this film. That would have been sufficient if I was in a certain mood but there is so much more to discuss here. This is a high point in nasty macho Giallo. Surely this was the lofty batshit crazy peak and the genre could only go down from here. 

It starts out with an abortion that goes awry: Let the nasty, sleazy and murderous shenanigans begin. Over-poured J&B, lots of nudity, lots of great 70s underwear, splendid swimwear for women, dodgy 70s swimwear for men, so much sleaze, fun phoney paint splattered gore, the fashion, OTT campy homosexuals, sleazy photographers, the bars, the pools, the saunas, the men who don't take no for an answer, the women who put up with it, violent lesbians, so much fluff muff, implied consensual incest, a killer in full black biker leathers complete with black gloves & helmet, darkrooms, photographic proof, a body count and more.

Strip Nude For Your Killer was really pushing the boundaries of good bad taste but it somehow got away with it with colourful charm, incredible cinematography, absolute audaciousness and flashy direction. God knows what a bunch of kids in their early 20s would make of this today. I certainly would like to be in that viewing room and for the discussion afterwards.

Over the past 8 or 9 years I've been trying to figure out what film the following scene was from as it is an unforgettable moment in the history of cinema.

There's this sad fat guy Maurizio (Franco Diogene) married to the lesbian Gisella (Lia Amanda). One day Maurizio basically kidnaps a female colleague Doris (Erna Schürer) and speeds through the streets of Milan in a spectacular and quite lengthy set-piece of crazy driving through busy city traffic. He finally gets the woman into to his flat to try and have sex with her but she says no. Then he forces himself some more upon her so Doris says ok. But by the the time the obese Maurizio gets down to his giant white underpants he's already done his business. He cries that he's never been able to actually get to do it with a woman like he's some kind of sad victim. Doris who is unharmed and unfazed just laughs it off and says it happens to all men as he cries in a pathetic tantrum. She leaves while Maurizio is still having an episode. Next he's crying into and talking to his deflated blow up sex doll saying she is the only one he can do it with. This historic scene is only comparable to Joe Spinell in Maniac (1980) for a portrait of the sheer delirious lunacy of pathetic sexually dysfunctional men.

While Maurizio is vile he has tough competition with perhaps the sleaziest protagonist in a film ever Carlo (Nino CastelNuovo) the photographer for The Albatross Modelling Agency. Carlo starts out the film sexually harassing a woman he doesn't know and his bad behaviour is relentless right up until the final scene. This dude has absolutely no redeeming features and yet he wins. He's an accessory after the fact, for a laugh he strangles his girlfriend fellow photographer Magda Edwige Fenech who just laughs it off and then they have some more sex.

This film comes highly recommended but be prepared this was Italy 1975 style.    

Laying The Ghosts To Rest - Nick Edwards

NICK EDWARDS IS RISEN

Laying Ghosts To Rest is the 3rd excellent album in as many months from Nick [Ekoplekz] Edwards. We all thought he was winding up his career them bam three irresistible albums in a row. This one is the best too. In fact this might just be the finest recording Nick has ever done.

A personal history of electronic gunk is displayed here & moulded into shapes for 2020. The trakz here are less attached to the tyranny of the beat than the previous two albums. The LP meanders off into all sorts of cosmic, psychedelic, delicious, ecstatic, melodic, idyllic, dark and even somewhat familiar zones. Energie-Piek the 7th tune is spiritually like old School ambient-house complete with its vestiges of 80s electro along with the vibe of weary elation that the sun’s about to come up. Trak 8 Saturnine is just lovely amorphous ambient squiggling featuring euphoric synths.

Laying Ghosts... just feels loose like never before. Right now Nick’s at a creative peak where it seems he could go anywhere sonically & it would not be a mistake. Perhaps the title is a hint at where his brain-space is right now. Maybe he's letting go of his own artistic & aesthetic prejudices. All of his previous constraints and shackles. Perhaps Edward’s can see a new previously unimagined vision unfolding for his creativity. Laying Ghosts To Rest does feel very intuitive & that more new horizons are just awaiting his arrival. This music is brimming with the positive confidence of whatever's coming next is going to be well worth waiting for. I can't get enough of it. I’m so enraptured by Laying Ghosts... that it’s on constant reeeewind! round this house. Here’s to the future! The one we want. We can’t go back, we’ve travelled so far.

Movies 35 - The Crappest So Far

The Invisible Man (2020)
Great action horror that had me flashing back to the glory days of late 80s/early 90s thrillers. High octane and horrifying action. Since his lukewarm debut Insidious Chapter 3, Leigh Whannell's directing chops have skyrocketed with his previous film Upgrade (2018) and now this undeniable 2020 gem. While we always knew he was a fabulous writer, producer and right hand man to writer/director James Wan he has now come out of that shadow to become the powerhouse force to be reckoned with in Hollywood right now. I'm eagerly anticipating his next project. How many directors can you say that about in 2020?

The Bloodstained Butterfly (1971)
Stylish if a little off putting at the start as you slowly realise a third of the film is going to be spent in the courtroom. This is part police procedural too but there is just enough beautiful murdered women for it to qualify as a Giallo. The opening is pretty fantastic. After a somewhat lack lustre first half the intrigue then picks up to keep you from your ever present 2020 distractions for the second half. Is it just me or is the ongoing coffee gag so tedious and perhaps lost in translation? Many Giallo tropes with a nifty plot. For Gialli enthusiasts going deep into the genre.

If You Meet Sartana Pray For Your Death (1968)
If you can get past the smugness of Sartana (Gianni Garko) you are in for a Spaghetti Western treat. Garko's not half as smug as 60s icons i hate ie. Sean Connery (as Bond) and Clint Eastwood (as any fucking role he plays way beyond the 60s too). We get the stuff.... gold, stagecoach robbery, Gatling massacres, double crossing wives, coffins, coffin makers, saloons, card games, fast gunslinging, Mexican gangs, dynamite and more. There's also hints of mysticism amongst the nihilistic bloodshed which is odd. While this is the first film prepared as a vehicle for Garko as Sartana he appeared the previous year in Blood At Sundown as Sartana but was the antagonist. After this 1968 effort there were four official sequels and in true Italian style there were a bunch of rip offs or "unofficial sequels" which ripped off the name Sartana and his style.

Relic (2020)
SPOILER ALERT. Relic is the worst. This contains the most unconvincing dialogue and characters I've encountered since Lost Gully Road (2017?). Relic is so boring. Then when it attempts to come to life it's like two horror movies in one. Suspense just isn't built and you just wish all the characters would die via a scary monster but one of them is the monster (?). The filmmakers obviously like Jonathan Glazer's masterpiece Under The Skin (2013). Scarlett Johhaannssenn's alien character's human skin suit was a minuscule part of that great film but here Gran's is the whole movie (?). Oh who fucking cares don't waste your time on this bullshit! 

Phantasm (1979)
Great fun sci-fi/horror cult movie that is bananas entertainment. It was a first time watch for me and it was a strange experience. I've had the fabulous soundtrack since the 90s and always assumed the film was some kind of boring ghost story. Wrong. This is a very peculiar and unique horror flick inside a balmy sci-fi film. Or is it the other way around. Late night movie of the week.

The Candy Snatchers (1973)
A heist/horror flick of the darkest variety. This is an infamous near mythical cult flick that has been pretty hard to see until Vinegar Syndrome tracked down the actual owner of the film's rights and released it on blu-ray in the last 12 months. One thing I'm often amazed by is how great the cinematography is in many exploitation films. This 4K transfer is beautiful but that can't help the nasty subject matter. SPOILER ALERT! The best way to describe this is Family Plot (1976) meets Bay Of Blood (1971). I wonder if Hitchcock saw this movie? This is a whole lotta sinister wrong fun, a pure lost treasure. Not for those with weak stomachs but highly recommended.

_______________________________________

*Six films in over a month? What's going on in Space Debris land? Well I'm very distracted by all of the things. Mainly it's the politics but it's music too.

I've been listening to lots of music again. Going through my usual winter obsessions of Cabaret Voltaire, Suicide & Throbbing Gristle. Ghosteen Nick Cave's astounding masterpiece from last year is still enthralling me to no end. I'm also very impressed with two 2020 Nick (Ekoplekz) Edwards albums as well as all the ekoplekz archives and their final release Wrekage 2011-2019 which is a vital compilation of rare tracks. The new Moon Wiring Club remix album Tabitha Reverb is triffic plus recent things from Emily A Sprague, Katie Gately, Gabor Lazar, N Chambers, Sun Araw & C. Lavender.

I dug out those old Soul Jazz New York Noise compilations the other day along with No New York and Ze's Mutant Disco and fuck they're all good. They just make all that post-punk revival shit seem well just shit, which it is! I went through the entire hypnagogic 2010 cannon which was surprisingly still fucking awesome. I'm now going to go backwards through the other years. 2009 & 2008 if I recall properly are the other two peak years. After 2010 it all went glowstick & vaporwave & whatever else but the new crop just weren't as good. Also on the hi-fi have been other old or archival stuff from Prince, Steve Kilbey, Game Theory, The Chameleons, The Sound, A Certain Ratio, Circle X, feedtime, King Snake Roost, Lo Five, Assembled Minds, Global Communication, Fennesz, Pita, Burial, Basic Channel, Vladislav Delay, Danizindan Pojidon, Haruomi Hosono, Nocturnal Emissions, Clan Of Xymox, Ramleh, Merzbow, Manuel Goettsching, Ranil and more. Been listening to some 2020 archival comps like Join The Future: UK Bleep & Bass 1988-91 on Cease & Desist, Black Riot: Early Jungle, Rave & Hardcore from Soul Jazz, Cadence Revolution: Disques Debs International Volume 2 released by Strut Records and Pacific Breeze Volume 2 issued by Light In The Attic.

My main distraction, apart from the constant threat of COVID-19 in Victoria, is that 1984/Brave New World is happening right before my very eyes with the possibility of it clashing with _______ (insert favourite Fascist Police State movie or book) in the USA at least. Virtue signal alert! Just for the bloody record, I can't believe I have to do this, I'm anti far-right and anti far-left. I'm issue by issue based politically. I don't follow a doctrine but I dig liberty and being an individual. Freedom is really fucking cool when you think about it.

So I'm preoccupied by the riots and oncoming civil/race war in the USA which is quite possibly caused by the internet, twitter, facebook, algorithms, confirmation bias, lack of debate and the death of actual journalism ie. not activists writing for the nyt. Everything seems to be a false narrative. Everyone has become deranged so this could lead one to suspect several Marxist revolutionary points have been reached ie. de-stabilisation and chaos. I hope this is paranoia but the hard left are playing a weird and disconcerting game where nothing is debated or transparent and there is no actual leader with any coherent plan. Is it all clandestine? To be revealed in due course? Like if Joe Biden wins will there be a party coup where the far left overtake the party and America?

Anyway all the hard left seem to do is set up trip wires and Kafka traps ie. Robin Diangelo's White Fragility. You are racist! Denial of your racism means you're racist! It's very healthy and good for your mental state. I especially worry for those developing mentally right now and what harm this confusing insanity may cause. You must be subservient to blm otherwise you are not an ally and will be un-personed. Normal black, white and everyone else in-between are being tricked and radicalised without their knowledge. "I'm cool black lives matter they're oppressed!" We all know this and want change particularly with regard to police and penal schemes. There needs to be well considered legislative reform yesterday. I don't know anyone in real life, the media or the internet who doesn't want that. Dig a little deeper however and you find the blm organisation saying things like they are trained Marxists who have come to dismantle the nuclear family, some dodgy racial stuff like white people are genetic defects etc. etc. You are literally not allowed to call that shit out without repercussion. This is similar in the lgbtq milieu. You can't say "Wait a minute trans-kids doesn't sound like a very good idea." That makes you a transphobe, you tripped the wire. You literally are not allowed to say this if you do it means you condone youthful suicide apparently. My brain is sick of it!

"Science nah that's like logical and proves stuff so nah. Reason nah we can't win our shouty games with that. Regressive race theories! Yeah great lets look at everything through a racial lens I'm sure this wont be racist at all. History yeah nah I mean we'll have some of it to support our religion...I mean cause, but we probably don't need the bit where like communism causes a hundred million deaths cos that might be a bit of a downer for all the people we need to convert to Marxism."

People are bowing down to the destruction of civilisation because they think they're being right on, don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, risk being ostracised or fired from their job.

With regard to the Portland riots. There are several narratives going at once so you just pick the one which suits your ideology. If you want to go any further than that to try and find the truth you risk being shouted down by the hard left and far right. The reality is somewhere beneath the the layers of lies that both conflicting ideologies are piling onto the actual facts.

I'm a great admirer of the writer Jon Ronson. On twitter I argued that the riots were much more complex than his fascist police state New York Times narrative led him to believe. His response was to take down his tweet and not engage with his couple of critics. So even great men are now bowing down to the hard left and not willing to investigate the truth. Me questioning that narrative has led to accusations of me being a fascist and a nazi. People don't even argue a few points anymore they just invoke Godwin's Law immediately. This pathetic level of discourse is unfortunately the norm now. Ronson of all people, I would have thought was a complex enough human to not just choose one of the narratives on offer. A day later he posted an article about the riots from the guardian written by Maeve Higgins saying she was a "brilliant pal". Which narrative do you think The Guardian went with? So he's removed his original tweet, not engaged with critique of the issue but doubled down on his position by posting his mates article. This is 2020! It's fucking schizoid and demented.

In a show of support against antisemitism with Planet Mu records online (which was brought on by a spate of racial bullshit directed at the Jewish from Wiley, Corbyn, Ice Cube, Nick Cannon etc.) I ironically have been called a fascist and a nazi pig. I Noted in a tweet that the blm organisation have not been immune to a bit of antisemitism but oh no that was wrong think I was just yelled at and called a racist with no debate. I was presenting the truth, it's all there online for you all to read...but no I went against the moment's narrative so I am the nazi (?) for sticking up for the people who have faced the most horrific extreme wrath of actual literal nazis.

Someone from heritage media tried to say that the history of antisemitic black Americans was bogus. I've been alive since the 70s so I just know this is bollocks! Yes there are groups of Jews & African Americans who formed great alliances and have been fighting against oppression for a long time, most importantly during the civil right movement. FACT. But that doesn't cancel out the FACT that Professor Griff, Jesse Jackson or Louis Farrikhan weren't vitriolic in their hatred of Jews. Just acknowledge the facts whether they are nice or horrible. Media get your shit together. Stop being activists. It's in nobody's best interests. Why did you ever think it was? It's like everyone has become scared of facts. This is all too bizarre.

If you don't belong to an ideology and just want the facts you are not welcome anywhere. That's fine because identity politics and people's need to belong are what has brought us to this moment in 2020. People need to get over this shit. You don't belong anywhere. You are born, then you live and then you die. Get on with your life, do your stuff, be good at something, be bad at something, stop politicising the minutiae of everything in the world because ultimately the only place you belong for most of the history of time is in the ground.

This cultural schizophrenia is disrupting my life, brain, health and sorry my blog. If you wanna see me fighting for moderate well considered political debate go on my twitter (So unhealthy, I know...I'm gonna quit soon!). On instagram I do all the stuff I love music, art, family, my dog, look at otters and general silly shit. It's a political free zone for my own sanity. This is hopefully the last political rant on my blog ever. I need to get back to the music and the movies and the fun. The stuff life is made of. Sorry people. I'll try and contain my derangement so that I may resume normal transmission shortly.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps featuring PRINCE

So I said to Emma "How about Prince doing Creep?" 
She said 'salright'

Then she said "Have you seen this?" I rolled my eyes at the thought of Tom Petty and Steve Winwood appearing on the same stage but hey Jeff's there with his warm and dulcet tones, George's cute lookalike-y son is on guitar and little ole legendary Prince is off in the fringes on the side somewhere. Halfway through I was thinking:

"Why on earth did they even invite Prince. They've let some other dude do the main guitar break what a waste! Tom Petty's singing is insufferable. This is some bullshit heritage rock boredom for lovers of The Last Waltz. For me there's TWO concert* Films: Stop Making Sense & Sign O The Times. The rest don't come anywhere near close! I can't even see Prince now, he's just lost amongst a bunch of rock bores. This is a bit shit"

At the 3 minute mark it looked like maybe Prince had left the stage but before I got way too grumpy the camera captures our invisible lil hurricane Mr Rogers Nelson majickly manifest into the limelight...and well here you go. This is your sonic treat of the week. OMG!!! The following 3 minutes are magnificent bliss. Dhani Harrison almost loses his mind at the guitar wizardry on display right before his eyes. When Prince cracks a smile it's pure gold because he knows he's feelin what we're feelin and that's that he is astonishing and the fucking best. PURE JOY. A GIFT.

*On audio I'm only into Velvets/Lou live plus every live thing Throbbing Gristle ever did.

CREEP - PRINCE

What the actual FUCK? Everybody knows Radiohead are a bunch of whiney bores but they once had a top tune. That tune was Creep which was at the intersection of a Pixies song & a Smiths song. So how could you go wrong? They didn't and everyone loved it.

This devastating Prince version turned up on my youtube algorithm (Bow down to the mysterious YT algorithm once again) and it has blown my mind! Prince isn't even trying here. Imagine what he could have done in full form but still this will give you chills down yo spine or as the kids say it's got all the feels. Is that what they say?

White Horse - Laid Back/EROTIC CITY - PRINCE

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE 80s ELECTRO-FUNK DISCO & A PRINCE AFTER-SHOW SHOW

WHITE HORSE - LAID BACK (1983)

This classic early 80 electro jam only came to my attention in the late 90s during a couple of successive New Years Eve Parties at The Empress Of India Hotel in North Fitzroy where this got mixed in over some other tune that was a bit more hefty or sampled or something. I still love it though. A year or two later I found a cd single but I can't remember if it was a cover or maybe a 90s tech remix anyway...thanks to the terrific FX series POSE (2018) I rediscovered White Horse when it featured in a scene where Damon and Blanca meet for the first time on the streets of NYC. I had a rush and had to track it down.  

EROTIC CITY - PRINCE & THE REVOLUTION (1984)

The interwebs just told me that Prince loved that above tune so much that it inspired Erotic City but I recall a different story. He apparently told George Clinton that after going to a Parliament/Funkadelic gig he went home and wrote Erotic City. Anyway it's a much storied song for a B-side. In the 80s you bought the 7" & 12" even though you already had the LP because of the B-sides and extended mixes which were sometimes called a dub mixes. I had Lets Go Crazy (1984) on 7" single which had the shorter version of Erotic City, one of his best ever non LP cuts. This extended version is new to my ears and ooh I like. Sheila E does a guest verse. We also get crazy town Prince vocals pitched down, normal & up. Some chipmunk shit going on here! Party time!

Then I discovered this which was previously unreleased until last year. You may have heard it before because he gave the tune to Taja Sevelle in 1987. It was her debut single which came out on Prince's own imprint Paisley Park. Hearing this just made made my brain say "What are you doing? You could be spending you're remaining days on Earth tracking down every single scrap of audio detritus Prince ever recorded and you would be a much happier man for doing so!" Wouldn't U Luv 2 Luv Me is a fantastically narcissistic title. Also Prince doesn't get the kudos he deserves for inventing text spelling/language 20 years before we all had a mobile phone. This tune is bare bones demo-style Prince and sometimes that is best Prince. So last year some enterprising people put together a compilation of demos Prince recorded between 1981 & 85 called Originals. It features a bunch of tunes he gave to his protégées to record. How the fuck did I miss this release? It's got him doing Manic Monday, Sex Shooter, Make Up, The (Fucking) Glamorous Life, Love Thy Will Be Done & Nothing Compares 2 U amongst others. It's 2AM though....

Then there's this! Fuck me. Why didn't he release this as a single? I assume this is from 82/83 era. Was this ever released on anything official during the 80s? The frenetic pace is almost jungle-y. I can't tell if this has been fucked with 10 or 15 years later or if this is just as it was in the early 80s. His off-cuts are better than other artists prime-cuts. This is pure peak Prince and it's astonishing stuff. One of his best tunes ever.