More Downer Euphoria/Party Hauntology/Nihilism

I'm not even sure I like this but it really captures that downer euphoria vibe so well (it hit me in the stomach) ala post Burial, Drake, DJ Mustard etc. This track/video is almost too much, too real, too sad/euphoric etc. The sadness in this video isn't hidden like it is other tracks, it's up in your grill. Mark Fisher would call it it (perhaps a crass version thereof) party hauntology. I really get the sense of the emptiness but also the necessity to keep going despite the pointlessness of it all. Isn't that nihilism?

Oh Happy Day!

This turned up in the post today just after I'd been to the dentist and had a filling. It feels like I've been waiting for over a year for this to come out. Was Fisher trying to recreate old skool anticipation of pop culture with its delayed release? Can't wait to read this. Mark Fisher as K-Punk was one of the original music bloggers alongside Woebot, Gutterbreakz and Blissblog. I think out of all the Zero Books I've read this one has the most pages at a whopping 232!

Then I discovered this! Only been waiting 20 years. Aphex Twin's alter ego Caustic Window finally has this LP available to the public. I'm sure this was reviewed in Melody Maker in 93 or 94, but it never got released. It has since gained mythical status. Anyway here it is and man it sounds bloody good so far. I'm in the 90s now.

90s Nostalgia

Am I gonna get swept up in nostalgia for the great 90s 60s nostalgists Mazzy Star and their new LP? Probably. Which is a bit weird considering I never bought their 3rd album. I mean I loved those first two records, She Hangs Brightly & So Tonight That I Might See, played them to death. By the time of the third record it seemed their time was up but 17 years later it seems perfectly acceptable to give Mazzy Star's Seasons Of Your Day a listen. That says more about our relationship to time in 2013 than it does about me. Mark Fisher has some interesting thoughts about time over here.

Now here's some more nostalgia but this time for the future, well when 'ardcore was like the future in the 90s. Manix have a new record out called Living In The Past as pointed out here at Blog To The OldSkool. Pete from said blog is swept up in the nostalgia and has ordered a copy. Now why does Manix's comeback seem more naff than Mazzy Star's? I guess because Mazzy Star were always living in the past and you never thought Manix would ever be. In their time Manix, 4Hero, Reinforced Records et al were the antitheses of nostalgic revivalist culture. Like the Sex Pistols reunion Manix's comeback seems contradictory to their original intent. Living In The Past though is guaranteed to be more modern than Seasons Of Your Day.  We've all gotta eat I suppose.

Return To The 4th World

Been diggin on that new mixtape 91 from Pontone by K-Punk aka Mark Fisher Return To The 4th World. It's a trip, it's a journey, a voyage into the Fourth World.  It had me wantin to dig out electric Miles albums to add to my I-Pod and listen to Liquid Liquid - geez they were good and 23 Skidoo and John Hasell. Then wonder who were these others. I probably would have you know included Paul Shcutze, MBV etc.


Fuckn great LP and cover combo

Then I was diggin a different journey. Fabulous Diamonds vision is becoming more singular as they go on. Their vision has narrowed from an almost 4th world esque, (a bit of artistic licence here, give me a break) well open ended experimentalism on the first record to a quest for an almost singular but perfect drone by their third record. It's a pretty, pretty good trance like vibe on this. That drum sound is something else isn't it?  Listening to Liquid Liquid today had me flashing on some of those percussive sounds. I wonder if they're fans? Anyway good stuff/lovin Commercial Music.