Energy Flash/Hauntology

Here is a quote from page 164 of Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave & Dance Culture written by Simon Reynolds and originally published in 1998 but this is a 2012 edition.

'Imagine the theme music for a 50s Government film about Britain's new garden cities: serene, symmetrical, euphonious, evoking the socially engineered for a post war New Order.'

Here Mr Reynolds was referring to some of the music that Aphex Twin was making early in his career. I wonder if Boards Of Canada were reading this but didn't they already exist? or if the GhostBox crew were taking notes because it sounds like Simon Reynolds invented Hauntology 6 or 7 years ahead of its time, well the theory and subtext to it anyway. When I first heard BOC I thought shite they remind me a little of Seefeel & Aphex Twin, which to me was in no way a bad thing! I wonder if Simon is aware of this portentous quoted passage or realises his complicity in the entire idea/genre? I know he is a big fan of the whole thing and has scribbled many words on the topic via his blog and in an article for The Wire magazine many moons ago.

Word Up!

    

Cameo-Word Up

Best song ever?

Rock Da House

Rock Da House

Beatmasters & Cookie Crew

1987

Goin' Back To Cali

LL Cool J

ICE-T

COLORS

Back in the day all these tracks were exciting, you didn't know what was going to happen next! It was fresh. How excitement! This wasn't indie rock or hair-metal. They all still sound great today. I can't believe that Beatmasters & Cookie Crew track still stands up. These tunes remind me of ABC TV's Saturday morning show The Factory.

Darkside

Been on a mission/obsession in the last few days to make the most awesome Darkside mixtape ever. I think I've made it. It's funny what's available via the Internet and i-tunes. Everything you can imagine is able to be listened to via the youtubes but not every track ever is available for download legally or illegally. Been enjoying these two comps on Reinforced: The Definition Of Hardcore & Callin For Reinforcements. Been diggin wicked tracks by Kaotic Chemistry, Hyper On Experience, Doc Scott, Rufige Cru, Satin Storm, Origin Unknown, Boogie Times Tribe, Nebula II, Acen, DJ Ecel, Neuromancer etc as well. These are all from 90 - 93 an era of depleted funds and a lack of knowledge about said tracks. You would hear them but you wouldn't know what it was or who it was by. There was a jungle specialist record shop in Prahran in Melbourne but who could afford expensive imported 12'ers back then? Now the minute a track is played on/at a show the Internet will tell you pretty much straight away what it was. Anyway it was all about living in the moment. Having said that it's great to finally track down some of this Gold I'd forgotten about/thought I didn't care for anymore.

Contains two 4Hero classics as well as Nasty Habits
Dark Angel and Nebula II's X-Plore H Core.

DJ Excel-Just when You Thought It Was Safe

This epic is as absurd as prog rock!

Acen-Trip II The Moon Part 2

I love it when that Bond sample kicks in at around 3.30!

This has the 4Hero classics Mr Kirk's Nightmare &
Cookin' Up Yer Brain.

Panic Attack

Remarc & Lewi Cifer

Ricky

Johnny Jungle

Johnny

These two are part of the sub-sub-genre of Darkside (which was a sub-genre of 'ardcore) called panic attack songs along with Subnation's Scottie. The best genre ever?

Freaky Shit!!!

After writing that last post where I mentioned Lime Lizard Magazine which I'd totally forgotten otherwise it would have been mentioned in the post about The Wire, NME & MM I wrote a while back I went into my bedroom. On the floor lay one solitary cassette and (pictured above) it just happened to be a compilation tape given away free with a 1993 copy of Lime Lizard. Freaky man!!! I mean obviously a box of tapes had been knocked over under the bed but still that's some freaky shit right there! Truman's Water, Polvo, Shudder To Think - I loved those groups. I wonder what I'd make of them now? Maybe I should give it a listen.

Paul goes mental on the bass

* Music highlight of the week was listening to Abbey Road remastered in the Mrs car. Mind blowing shit man. Paul's crazy bass, Ringo's large drumming and some synthesizers I'd never really noticed before. We had to take the long way home so we could listen to the whole thing. Also I was listening to Blue Oyster Cult on the plane back from Sydney and laughed to myself  'Wouldn't this be funny if it was the last thing I ever listened to?' That particular thought tickled me for some reason. It still makes me smile.

Funny LP to die to.

Energy Flash

Origin Unknown

Valley Of The Shadows

I Started reading Simon Reynolds Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music & Dance Culture (2012 Edition) today and I'm up to about page 188 at this very moment where the above track is mentioned. If I'd read it back in 98 I wouldn't have been able to just go on youtube to check out the tracks I didn't know. I am in the future. Funny I've read all his books but I've somehow managed to avoid this one for 14 years, better late than never and quite timely too as I'm in some kind of electronic 90s timewarp. After chapter 6 I have a new lease of love for old faves like Autechre, Black Dog, Aphex Twin et al. But there are gaps baby (ie. pg.188) and youtube is a brilliant resource. Somewhere in the book he mentioned Lime Lizard magazine which I had totally forgotten about. It was a magazine as opposed to a paper and was a pretty good alternative to the NME around 91/92. I think it came out bi-monthly. Anyway it had some top writers and was the first place I read about Thomas Koner, Disco Inferno, Ice, Ultramarine and others.

Bay-B-Kane

Hello Darkness

I recall this though.

Scottie

How good is this?!!!!!

Subnation

Scottie

Boardwalk Empire/25 Years Of Telly

Nelson Van Alden - Good Christian fellow

Just finished watching the 2nd season of Boardwalk Empire and I'm loving it. There are some great characters in there, some really good creeps. It got me thinking how slow crime used to take 90 years ago. The show is hardly as action packed as something like Breaking Bad and nor should it be. Today with mobile phones, computers, cctv and tracking devices crime happens within an instant as does the news of it but in The Boardwalk Empire days they may have had to wait weeks if not longer to pull off a crime or receive news of a crime or a cross. Some people may perceive Boardwalk Empire as slow but its pacing suits the era in which it is set perfectly.

Gillian Darmody-a good mum





Richard Harrow



While in Sydney I read a pretty good article, for a mainstream newspaper, in the Sydney Morning Herald on the best telly shows of the last 25 years and it was fairly spot on. Not the order of course that was ludicrous. Why do they have to rank such lists? Mad Men seems to be mostly appreciated due to its set design and wardrobe. Can't I just look at a picture book for such things or watch an episode of Bewitched? All my drama faves (most of these are comedy dramas I guess) were there though Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Twin Peaks, Blue Murder and Breaking Bad. Some of my favourite American sitcoms were listed too including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and the cult comedy Arrested Development. I also must admit to enjoying reruns of Frasier in recent years, something I could never have imagined/been horrified by in my 20s. I am wondering where Northern Exposure is? What about 30 Rock?

Do you think I'm sexy?

Only one British comedy makes the list from the past 25 years - The Office, which of course is a fine choice. It had me thinking is this a Sydney thing being so focused on America? Would the list have been more anglophile if it were compiled by a Melbourne paper? Just a thought to entertain. Some of the greatest British tv comedies of all time are from the last 25 years namely Ab Fab, Knowing Me Knowing You, The Royale Family, The Fast Show, Reeves & Mortimer, The Mighty Boosh, I'm Alan Partridge, Little Britain, Father Ted (Irish I know), Ali G, Black Books, Spaced, Peep Show, Help and The Trip to mention just a few. The Australian (so called) comedy Frontline makes it in but you've got to wonder how well that would stand up to viewing today considering it's sibling The Hollowmen was unwatchable when it was aired recently.

The Royale Family
Is this the most loved British comedy from the last 25 years?

I've never seen The West Wing. Lost well that lost me somewhere between season 1 and 2, I just didn't care. The X files is for other people. I watched Buffy up until about the end of the 3rd season I think then she got that military sort of boyfriend then it was never the same. Anyone for Wilfred? What about Flight of The Conchords? Where's The Blue Planet??? No variety?? No Letterman?????...........

Sun Araw - The Inner Treaty



Bondi - Last Sunday. Spent most of this trip ill in the Hotel room
with a tummy bug! Great! Fantastic pic by The Mrs though!

When I got back and started to feel a little better this was waiting for me. This being the only glimmer of happy in my life in the last 4 days.

It's his slickest yet most stripped back recording so far. I have only listened to it twice but I have to say it has a Compass Point/Adrian Belew vibe, maybe an influence from his time spent in the Caribbean recently or just listening to Talking Heads/Lizzy Mercier Descloux records. A bit weird after 5 or 6 LPs where it's been hard to pinpoint the slippery Sun Araw that now I can say something like that. Is it the stripping of the hypnogogic fog that's revealing or is it just a new direction/coincidence?

*Blogger spellcheck offers an alternative spelling to hypnogogic - Spongecake!