Random Thoughts On Pop Culture

How fucked up is American pop culture? For an example of this look no further than the family entertainment of the Disney corporation. Talk about Babylon burning. What happens to all these child stars who were once mouseketeers. It seems like you'd be an outsider if you came out of Disney as a child star into adult life and weren't fucked up (more on this in future blog).

Why have Mumford & Son been allowed so deeply into toady's pop culture? What the fuck is wrong with the kids? The re-release of Devo's Hardcore Volumes 1 & 2 put this in perspective for me. I thought why the fuck would you want to listen to this Mumford shit when you could buy those two LPs? Would it be a bad starting point for an anti Mumford manifesto? C'mon kids. Mr Agreeable is on board as well here.

Why didn't more records sound like Iggy Pop's The Idiot? You can hear the air on that record. Has there been a more singular sounding record ever? Speaking of Mr Pop surely his next step in his retro career replay project is to get the gang from The Idiot/Lust For Life era together and do some concerts then maybe a record and perhaps start using heroin again. Is anyone looking forward to when he gets around to Blah Blah Blah and American Caesar again? What happens when he gets round to The Weirdness again does he start the replay again? He might as well just keep the loop going till he dies. Imagine if he never dies? That got me thinking is there anyone whose career was so awesome you wouldn't mind it being replayed over and over again? It's just not a very good idea at all is it? Leave a comment if you can think of someone.

Is pop culture as we know it dead or dying? Catching an episode of Letterman a few months ago I was struck by how uninterested Dave was in his alleged pop icon guests. He's sometimes been like that in the past but he was having fun with it. He seems to get that talking to actors or whoever is a waste of time and why would anyone care? He lights up more when he gets to talk politics. The talk show format does seem to be moribund. Watching the Australian talk show Adam Hills Tonight or something like that I just thought it was tired and a completely pointless.  Everyone- Hills, the guests and the audience know this but they don't want to admit to it because then what? There's no new paradigm. Why did people ever think talking to actors or musicians was interesting? Name me a recent episode of a tonight show where you thought 'Gee that guest was great!'

Morcheeba & Woob are the latest couple of groups who are returning from the 90s in 2013. Who's next? Well I saw Omni Trio's Rob Haigh has a record out as well. To be quite honest I can't recall a single Morcheeba track. They were like trip-hop johnny come latelys as I recall and the genre was probably past its use by date by the time they arrived. 1194 the debut LP by Woob however was a 90s ambient classic, which I loved. Still do in fact.

Chillin' out..

Stuff On The Interweb

There's been heaps of good stuff over at blog to the oldskool including this mini mix from junglistz Foul Play and this 20 minute documentary on Gabber. This is quite bizarre and a little bit scary. It's a portal into a very specific time and place. Check out some of the most mental dancing from the 90s! It's funny now how tame and normal a lot of gabba now sounds. I'm in the 90s now.

Here's an excellent interview with Julian House the dude from the GhostBox label and man behind The Focus Group over at The Quietus. Here's an old bit on Julian from 2006 at K-Punk. Over at bandcamp there is a 19 minute track from The Children Of Alice, a trio made up of House and 2 members of Broadcast, called The Harbinger Of Spring which is well worth your 3 quid!

I only just discovered this Moon Wiring Club Mix Midnight In Europe over at NightVision here which is a bit different than MWCs usual mixes. This mix is of 90s ambient post rave electronica and includes Woob, Baby Ford, LFO, Biosphere, Luke Slater and many more. I'm in the 90s now in a chill-out room. Do they still have those?

Faceless Techno Bollocks

I am a big electronic music fan but I remember a couple of years ago saying I could never listen to proper bangin' techno again in my life.  That was a glitch in my taste best forgotten about.  Kraftwerk, Cabs, New Order etc. were still OK.  Bomb The Bass, MARRS & S'Express OK too.  Aphex, Seefeel, Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars and other IDM artists were OK too.  It was the 'faceless Techno bollocks' I thought I could never listen to again like 'ardcore, gabba, jungle, bleep, trance, big beat or anything that was purely designed for you to go mental at a rave, warehouse party or er.. a club whilst under the influence of drugs.  Surely that was all nonsense and I was more mature now.  Last year however I watched the box set of the British sit com Spaced which was written by and starring Simon Pegg & Jessica Hynes.  There was a lot of techno music in the series as well as a character who was a raving bike courier.  In one episode they go to a club and dance to some moronic (in the best sense) tune.  The fun and excitement was captured so well it made me remember Raves fondly for the first time since well I was goin' to 'em.  FUN remember that!  It started slowly but I got out a Pole record and thought this is just repressed faceless techno bollocks- Paraplegic techno.  The real thing was comin' soon.  There was a bit of Basic Channel/Chain Reaction.  Then chillout ie. The Orb, Ultramarine, Global Communication, Woob etc.  LFO, Orbital, Biosphere, Polygon Window followed.  I couldn't believe I was listening to this stuff and loving it.  Then it was Joey Beltram, Marc Acardipane etc.  Next I trawled the net for Belgian hardcore comps  Then I was trackin' down Jungle mixes on podcasts from Woebot, Goldie....... there is a whole bunch of stuff I've never even heard which is waiting for my eardrums and feet in the future.  What a strange turn of events.