Old stuff better than new stuff?



Maria Minerva has a new LP Will Happiness Find Me?



There are all sorts of new records I would usually be salivating to to listen to by Maria Minerva, Emeralds & Sun Araw plus a new side by Oneohtrix Point Never and a new tape by Mark McGuire. I mean they are there waiting to be listened to but since reading Energy Flash I'm in some kind of British 90-95 timezone wormhole that has attached to my brain and will not allow anything else to get past my ears. This is no bad thing as I'm re/discovering exciting music from exciting musical times. It does however make me wonder if what's happening now is really quite inconsequential. Has that whole underground of above mentioned artists, James Ferarro, No Not Fun records et al. run its course? If hipsterhouse is the only thing on the musical horizon god help us. It could just be that I have read two books recently by Owen Hatherley & Simon Reynolds on 90s music so I've just naturally gone back and checked out the music. When the future of music looks barren I do usually go into undiscovered (by me) retro-zones though. I have musical zones waiting for such times like Musique Concrete, 20th century composition, Jazz, Early R & B, Disco, 70s AOR, Dancehall, Aboriginal Country, Doo Wop, ECM Records, Gamelin, NWOBHM, Anything from Finland, Country Soul  and general things I've just missed etc. etc. Worringly on Maria Minerva's new LP she sings on Perpetual Motion Machine "this goes out to the lovers of deep house" Forgive me if I'm wrong but whenever the term deep house first appeared (I dunno 90-91?) didn't that mean shit house. How much deeper/shittier has it got in the following 20 years god only knows.

Emeralds-Just To Feel Anything
Been waitin' 2 years for this but it remains unplayed!

Anyway I'm on this trip- The lineage (that would be a very crooked one) of 'Ardcore to Darkside to Ambient Jungle. Wow the times were moving then! A sort of hyper progression of culture that blasted into the future with the speed of light which was also reflected back into the music. I've been making ultimate mixtapes of hardcore, darkside and yesterday started one on ambient jungle. Had to dig out old Omni Trio, Foul Play and 4Hero tunes. A long time since I've listened to these records and they're great. This mix is already at nearly 3 hours. Someone on the blogosphere mentioned recently the Macro Dub Infection compilation released by Virgin in '95. I was getting massively into dub man in the early 90s like King Tubby, Scientist, Prince Jammy, Scratch, Augustus Pablo, Keith Hudson, Blood & Fire Records et al. This modern dub influenced collection on Virgin was great but out of the 4 tracks I could think of off the top of my head the other day (before I found it in my closet) 3 were jungle tracks. Omni Trio's The Half Cut, 4Hero's The Paranormal In 4 Form and a track by Spring Heel Jack. That just goes to show how outstanding jungle music was/is! There were only 3 jungle tracks on the compilation! I do have to mention the other track is one of the most astounding modern dub reggae tunes heard to this day. It was by Irration Steppas called Irration Steppas V Dennis Rootical (never found any of their records though). Anyway I remember playing Omni Trio on student radio and fuck me they were made for FM radio. Other tracks I recall from this one off night included The Beach Boys, Booker T and the MGs, My Bloody Valentine, Laika, The Beastie Boys and er....The Tindersticks. I have often thought my blog was a little too eclectic but clearly this is nothing new for me so I couldn't do it any other way.



Omni Trio strike more gold!



One of the greatest ambient jungle
 tunes. Which one???

A Bit Late, Whatevs....

2011

11 Records of 2011

936-Peaking Lights
Most played album of 2011. Some vague-hypno-lovers-dub. As good as Melbourne's very own Fabulous Diamonds. Get off yer head and dig on the grooves man.

Night Dolls With Hairspray-James Ferraro
Sounds like The Residents grand kids demented account of American High School life.  Killer nerds, perverted teachers and TV watching roaches. Better than a John Waters film.

Pan Am Stories-Rangers
The most underrated group in the world. Did they end up in any end of year lists. Their 5th classic in a row. Epic.

Ancient Romans-Sun Araw
More trippy grooves for another wasted generation. Big hit round here.

Far Side Virtual-James Ferraro
Apart from sounding like an 80s Italian synth library LP this sounded like the music to the bits in an 80’s teen flick where they start to get their shit together and have a glimmer of hope, not all the future/technology bullshit theory every critic espoused. Up cheese.

Cabaret Cixous-Maria Minerva
Top woozy tunes from the Estonian songstress. If it was the 80’s it would have been on 4AD.

The English Riviera-Metronomy
How the fuck did they do this? Deceptive and unique pop. Familiar and alien at the same time. Name an influence, it won’t stick.

Glass Swords-Rustie
Originally this was to be in a category of its own, Best/Worst record I’ve ever heard.  Due to closer inspection I now believe it to contain much awesomeness. It makes me wanna wear something shite, score some Es, put on $1 sun glasses and get some glow sticks.

As The Crow Flies-The Advisory Circle
I thought Hauntology was over but hold your horses. This is a cracker of melancholy electronic music. The sound of brown.

Nordsee/Contemplating The Observatory-Panabrite
A little bit new age, a little bit kosmiche and a tiny bit John Carpenter. This is the biz at 3am when you can’t sleep or don’t want to.

Luminaries & Synastry-Motion Sickness of Time Travel
All the Vs: Vaporous, vague, vacuous and very ..... 

Other Bewdies

Tallinn At Dawn-Maria Minerva

A Young Person’s Guide To-Mark McGuire

KWJAZ cassette-KWJAZ

Urban Gothic-Xander Harris

Underneath The Pine-Toro Y Moi

Midnite Crimes-Sand Circles
Memowrekz-Ekoplekz
Tapeswap-Ekoclef

Clutch It Like A Gonk-Moon Wiring Club

Replica-Oneohtrix Point Never

Music for Thomas Carnacki-Jon Brooks (er...forgot about this one. Should have been in the top 5 really.  Spooky sounds for weird scientists and satanic magicians.)

Who cares?

John Maus (he is Chapterhouse to Ariel Pink’s MBV)

England blah blah-pj Harvey (not listened don’t care)

Tom Waits (see above)

Amerifuckn’cana! (when will it end?)

Australians doing Amerifuckn’cana! (worse than above)*

Good Tunes

This would be usually full of top 40 tunes but Video Hits went away. However I do spend time in my wife’s car.

The Look - Metronomy

Ruff Trade – Maria Minerva

Zeke’s Dream – Rangers

Fanta – Psychic Reality

Someone Like You – Adele (sorry/up yours hipsters)

Guilty – Kasey Chambers (just up yours hipsters)**

Reissues/Archives/Compilations

Those Shocking Shaking Days: Indonesian Hard, Psychedelic, Progressive Rock & Funk 1970-78 - Various.

Thai Dai: The Heavier Side Of Luk Thung Underground - Various.

Flipper Psych Out: Original Italian Library Music From The Vaults Of Flipper - Various.

Mellow Mellow: Original Smooth Grooves & Chilled Beats - Various.

Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga!: Seminal Aesthetic Expressions Of Psychedelic Funk Music In India 1970 - 1983 - Various.