Totally diggin this Playground Mix 66 by Demdike Stare. It comes from a Spanish website (I think) Playground Magazine. I once had a Demdike Stare record but didn't like it/give it much of a chance. Enjoying this mix so much and their musical tastes are up my alley making me reassess them, perhaps I should give them a second chance. Old faves Chrome, Branca and Cosmic Jokers mixed with unknowns (to me anyway) Jan Schaffer, Third Ear Band, Black Cat Bones and even one of their own tracks.
Then there are two (I don't think I've mentioned before) from Lunar Atrium aka Panabrite's blog. One is called Mix 3 Aquatic Sounds and is 25 minutes of the best underwater/aquatic library/oceanic documentary sounds you are likely to hear in such condensed form. At last check I had downloaded at least 12 aquatic themed records mainly from the Lunar Atrium site. Ever since I heard Sven Libeak's Inner Space LP many years ago I've been hooked on this kind of thing. I wish there was more of it out there. The mix includes Roger Davy, Eugen Thomas and Joel Vandroogenbroek amongst other luminaries of the library music scene. Choice.
Mix 3 Aquatic Sounds
Lunar Atrium
The other mixtape from Lunar Atrium is a fantastic cosmic synth mix with many arcane delights included. I think Phil Davies and Harry Ford are the only ones I know but that doesn't make it any less great. He's called it The Galaxyactivatorconnexionmix and it's every bit as quality as this years previously mentioned Lunar Atrium Mix.
Otherwise known as The Cosmic Synth Mix
From Lunar Atrium
Playground mix 73
by Mark Van Hoen.
This Playground mix 73 from Mark Van Hoen is much weirder than the last one on Pontone but no less interesting. Scott Walker on 16 rpm with Durrutti Column, Polysick, Cybertron and even Demdike Stare. What can I say this is one strange voyage. The wrong pills have been mixed with some bad punch and nobody knows what's lurking around the corner. Everything should turn out fine I think even if you're left a little disorientated.
Reading Fiona Scott Norman's article in the doctor's waiting room about bucket lists last Friday made me laugh. She said her bucket list was going to be to write bucket list. I thought I'll go her one better by not even writing anything for my bucket list. Don't write in I realise the paradox of this statement. But she got me thinkin I hate that shit. "You really have to go to the French Riviera." Like it's gonna change my life. Uluru - that looks like a nice rock but fuck It'll be hot and it is just a rock
Great big very far away hot rock
Fiji's heat is just bearable because I'm only ever 1 minute away from a swimming pool or the sea. Don't get me started on extreme sports. But they're gnarly dude! What about a quick game of Tiddlywinks instead.
Hey kids you too could get this guy
down to his undies in a game of strip
Tiddlywinks! (me suspects he plays
to lose)
A game of homemade indoor golf where you have to get the ball into a cup after a spontaneously arranged obstacle course. There's no limit to the amount of holes, it could be just a two hole game or 73 holes. Afterwards you don't have to drink in a bar with a bunch of people who probably think they're better than you. You can can have a slab and or bottle scotch with your fellow players to the tunes of your choice. Jumping out of a plane - big whoop! How many people go to places that might be tourist attractions that are really interested in them or are just going because it has become an attraction for tourists.
Don't get me started on tattoos what is goin on there? I never really had an issue with tatts until I watched a series of LA Ink. It's not about being cool or tough apparently. It's about having a really tedious story in the most earnest sense about something deep and oh so meaningful that's happened in your life and you are going mark this event with a tattoo. Then later when someone asks about your tatt you'll once again get to regale your fucking story as earnestly as possible. My God these people were taking themselves so seriously it was fucking demented. It made me never want get a tattoo but it also made me love those people who just got a tattoo for no reason, because they were bored or they were so drunk in Thailand they can't even remember why. I'm torn about not getting a tattoo or getting the most frivolous/meaningless tatt I can imagine (but will that then make a tedious storyteller about why I got such an absurd tattoo, uugghh! the conundrum!).
Rare live colour photo of The Primitive Calculators in their attempt to hit the brown note.
I left out two quotes one from Stuart Grant:
"The utter negativity and the Nhilism of it was just absolutely intoxicating"
Listening to the band you really get that gleefull sense of the void.
Tracey could you just take off the
hat! It's not a goodlook. I'm not
even gonna mention the
mesh t-shirt.
Then there was this great quote from Rowland S Howard (The Birthday Party, These Immortal Souls, Solo performer etc.) which made me realise he wasn't an egotistical bitch:
"Even The Primitive Calculators who I loathed were unique. I can't think of anybody else around the world who was doing that kind of thing."
There will be a companion piece to The Primitive Calculators Glaring Omissions article on the Little Bands scene that they instigated. Denise (keyboards) might even get a word in in that article. The Beat Goes On!!!On & On!!!
Primitive Calculators in the late 70s wastelands of Melbourne.
*Thanks again ABC's Hindsight and Richard Lowenstein.
You hear about early MBV being influenced by The Scientists, Birthday Party and The Cramps. I did hear some of these early MBV recordings once and they were not the best. Listening the other day to an old Scientists record though made me go oh here's a connection to the My Bloody Valentine we all know and love. So they didn't necessarily jettison their old influences in favour of new ones. Much respect. It might be a tenuous connection, I can hear it anyway. And when that Swervedriver song came out we all thought "How Blatant is that?" Anyway see what you think.
Glaring Omissions started as a series of records that deserved to be in The Top 100 Australian albums book and the Age's Top 50 Australian Albums list. This is the 3rd installment with perhaps another 4 or 5 to come. This record came into my life as a teenager living in er....Cardross. For those who don't know that's like 15 KMs out of Mildura and over 600 ks from Melbourne. My bro was living in Melbourne and would often bring back strange and interesting things for me. This was pre JJJ National Radio/ pre internet etc. This record probably reached me pre Rage era perhaps. BeatBox and Rock Arena were probably the only 2 shows on tv at the time where you could hear the weirrd, wonderful and independent. So sometime in the mid to late 80s I first heard The Primitive Calculators. The LP also came with a postcard and a 7" single and was recorded in 1979 in a Melbourne pub. Many years after leaving home I asked my Dad where were the records I left behind? he said I gave them to the op shop. Anyway I still had a Sony C90 tape of it in some kind of working order until that reissue on Chapter came along in the 00s.
Me and my little sister used to put it on and go what the fuck is this? It was so anti social and noisy we thought it was hilarious and a bit frightening. Were they for real we wondered. Or were they just havin' a laugh. The music was a harsh onslaught of electroncly fucked with guitar, 2 keyboards and drum machines with what seemed like no regard for recording technique or er.. melody. Were there really people like this living in Melbourne? It was great music for a teenager because it was so obnoxious and fuckin funny. Mum didn't like hearing that one comin out of the bedroom. Anyway over time it seemed to never leave me and never get old. It sounds just as great now as it did over 25 years ago. This was no fuckin' Clash record. This was beyond punk, what punk should have been, sonic violence for the demented. So over time I have noticed the chaos is more controlled than I used to think and just maybe there were some great pop songs hidden in there somewhere. It is not a record I expected to still be diggin at my age. I think I love it more than ever actually!
So maybe they are pop songs. Stuart says he saw the band as an Australian Boogie band in the vein of The Purple Hearts, The Throb, Chain and Billy Thorpe. It starts to make a lot of sense they were an electronic version of a one chord Aussie boogie band with a bit of Stockhausen chucked in. My favorite track from the album bake in the sun was so funny and had great lyrics. These are some I randomly recall probably not in the right order. This could be our national anthem.
I'm bake in the sun
I wanna spend my life down by the sea
I wanna shrivel up
I wanna smell some seaweed
I wanna peice of cake
I wanna go home
I wanna revolution
I don't wanna do another days work in my life
I want some food from the kiosk
"If their intention was to be hated then they certainly acheived that.....on a personal level as well"
Rowland S Howard (Guitar/Saxaphone/Vocals in The Birthday Party)
Back cover to Primitve Calculators LP
"Nothing else in Melbourne influenced us. We were such obnoxious little shits, we didn't give anybody a chance to like us" Stuart from Primitve Calculators.
Stuart Grant (guitar and vocals) in the We're Livin On Dog Food doco and RadioNational's Hindsight: Do That Dance radio show has been incredibly insightful and articulate about what circumstances, theories and attitudes shaped the band and that entire Melbourne Post-Punk scene. He really enjoyed the idea of punk and the fact it was saying something truly antisocial. He thought the anger and disillusionment of it just seemed right. He thought with the Ramones arriving there was a strong sense that his culture had arrived. Stuart aknowledges the legacy of the Whitlam Government and their making the dole liveable with my favorite quote of his."The State Paid us to Reject it!"
Stuart is eminently quotable. I could quote him all day but here is one last one that sums up the bands ethos. "What we realised when we started using the drum machine and we got electronic (was that) we sounded much nastier. We started to actually try and make music that would hurt people. Making the sounds as brutal and horrible as possible. Making the drumbeats as repetitive and fast as possible and tried to get it ugly"
I Can't Stop It-The Primitive Calculators
Their one and only film clip I think.
"The Primitive Calculators were a completely unreal band and there's no 2 ways about it! Live and on record."
Quote from Natioal Treasure Philip Brophy.
*One cool thing I've just noticed that I'd forgotten is that this record was recorded at Hearts in North Carlton where my brother's band did some gigs and even my old band played there once,
**Here is where to download that podacast Do That Dance about the Melbourne Post-Punk scene.
***Many quotes taken from Richard Lowenstein's doco We're Livin' On Dogfood. Thanks Dick I'm sure you won't mind anarchy and all that.
I was thinking about that former post where I asked about The Flying Lotus album and whether I'd missed anything. I don't really have any anxiety there. There are hundreds of top records out there. I can't listen to all of them. So it doesn't really bother me when I get rid of something or don't give something much of a chance. Maybe if someone exposes me to that Dick Diver record more, I might come around but I can't see any reason to seek out another listen of my own free will.
It's what makes you go back to something that interests me. Like why do you do it. Records I don't understand when I first hear them is a pretty strong reason for a repeated listen like when I first heard Slint, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Mars, New Kingdom, Sly Stone's There's A Riot Going On, early Roxy Music, Chrome, The Fire Engines, This Heat's Deceit, The Axemen or Royal Trux's Twin Infinitives. Had to keep playing them, to in some way try and figure out what was going on or what was making it interesting even if it was just plain bafflement. But when I got it fuck I really dug it. Then there are some things that are more immediate that you're just gonna dig no matter what, like when I first heard Kraftwerk, The Fall, Prince, Neu, The Clean, The Pixies, MBV and Boards of Canada. I love these bands just as much today as the above bands.
This is a mental LP.
Wholesome family fun by a couple
of lovely boys.
I don't really care to analyse why I reject things. Usually they're just shit or I've heard it all before. Some things just seem gross or wrong. Sometimes it's just not my bag alhough I have e very open mind when it comes to music. Don't get me wrong I like cheap and nasty as much as drug fueled over budget/production.
God I don't really get this and I've been a fan of James Ferraro for many years now and pretty much enjoyed everything I've been able to hear of his, which is over 30 releases (I think there maybe twice as many I haven't tracked down) This new release however under the name of Bodyguard I can't seem to grapple with. I don't really get it but I'm not sure I want to listen to it for the 4th time. I must say he's had a bloody great run over the last 6 or 7 years so one disappointing record is hardly going to ruin his reputation with me. Will I give it another spin or is life too short?
I was listening to Nudge Squidfish on my Ipod last night and was thinking are they the one's who do a rude Gilligan's Isle song and then bang this came on. A little bit funny and a little bit wrong. How old am I?
I did such a bad attempt at a review of their latest self-titled double LP on Spectrum Spools I thought they deserved another try. For me it all started with the tape Seeping Through The Veil of Unconsciousness on Digitalis. This came out of the blue for me and was a cut above the rest of the field with their unique pretty haunting echoes and immersive electronic drift. In my top 5 for 2010. I thought they were going to struggle to top this but they have at least twice.
An auspicious introduction.
Then there was Awakening a 3 track tape which may have been recorded earlier than the previous tape I'm not sure. More vague allusive bubbling drones, haunting ebbs and flows with waves of of wordless vocals. Side B gains an atmospheric intensity.
Released on Dial Square Tapes
I think I have missed a few in between(try a gazillion, check bandcamp) but my next one was the 2011 classic Luminaries & Synastry. This release containing shorter tracks. Is this their attempt at a pop album? Dunno about that. Electronic pulses, synth ambience and even some textural guitar. There may have even been words hidden in the swarms of buried of vocals. I described it in my top 11 LPs of 2011 as all the Vs - vaporous, vague and vacuous. All meant as compliments. Lovely.
Did you read your Stars today?
Now for my 2nd attempt to make this album sound as appealing as it is. Motion Sickness of Time Travel's self titled 2012 epic double LP. They really stretch out here with side long tracks and it suits them. They voyage out into the the cosmos in a holy manner with heavenly pulsating tones Tripping through intergalactic aquatic landscapes and then into ominous black holes and back again. Nobody has come up with a true Kosmische masterpiece such as this since the 1970s.
I was just deleting some stuff from my computer today and deleted some music. Some of it listened to, some of it not and some of it half listened to. How many chances does an LP, MP3, CD or Tape get nowadays? Not many. Gone after a few listens Prince Rama, White Poppy, Nite Jewel's latest, Zomby, Dick Diver, Twerps, Real Estate, Cruise Family, Raw Thrills and John Maus. Others in the last few years I got rid of very quickly include Demdike Stare, TheNecks, Mordant Music's Symptoms, Gonjasufi, Flying Lotus, Hype Williams, Forest Swords, Micachu & The Shapes and Black Moth Super Rainbow's Dandelion Gum, maybe some of these deserved a 3rd or 10th chance. In this day and age of information overload, being ruthless seems the way to go. Time and space are of the essence in my home and on my computer. I also don't waste time listening to the radio for hours on end or really at all anymore. I am my own radio station now! With hundreds of records, cds, tapes, digital music, Youtube and Soundcloud I am in no need of anyone to make me listen to anything. Sure I read reviews in archaic paper media and on websites and blogs but with many pinches of salt because the sound of what's being reviewed is an instant click away. But maybe my hasty decisions have led me to miss some great stuff by not letting things grow on me. It took me many attempts over about 12 years to get into Exile on Main St by The Stones and probably at least 15 listens to start not hating Love's Forever Changes. These are now 2 of my fave records of all time. More recently Peaking Lights936 and Rangers Suburban Tours had to grow on me before I thought of them as modern day classics. Something drew me back to them though even though I didn't think much of either record on first listen as previosly mentioned elsewhere on this blog. Wasting Time(it may not be though) V Missing Out (you might not though).
A classic of the 2010s after many listens and letting
it grow on me.
*This piece was inspired by a bbq conversation in Sydney in January where Sydneysiders started saying 'Melbourne radio is so good. You must love it blah blah...'and I just said "I am my own radio now! I don't listen to real radio. Why would I?"
