Knife Party

So I've been listening to Knife Party's Rage Valley EP. All these words have have been going through my head: EDM, Brostep, The Zone Formerly Known As Dubstep, Mentasm, Rave, 90s, Belgian Hardcore, DJ Excel, Acen, Big Beat, Omni Trio, Electro, Just When You Thought It was Safe, Trip II The Moon, Nowtro etc........

Both of these from Rage Valley EP 2012

This is from '92

This is from 1994.

Can you believe this is from1991?!

That's 21 years ago!

This is from 1991 as well!

*Just how now is Nowtro?

Me suspects not very.

**This doesn't necessarily make Knife Party a bad combo. I really enjoy them a lot. It makes them for example akin to something like The Stems in the 80s. They were a fantastic 60s influenced Australian rock band who were very enjoyable in much the same way Knife Party are. We knew the Stems were like 60s bands and even knew they loved The Yardbirds, The Electric Prunes, Creedence, The Easybeats, The Standells, stuff off The Ugly Things comps (Australia's Nuggets if you like), Nuggets etc. This did not take anything away from them, in fact I still think they are brilliant to this day. They were beyond pastiche and mere referencing. Whether Knife Party stand up 20 years down the track is a moot point really. Maybe this is what they mean by Nowtro. I'm enjoying them for now. If they still stand up in 20 years that's a bonus but who really cares. Now is what it's all about.

***I guess this is supposed to be a presentation on where Knife Party are coming from. I know I've used a couple of these clips before but I felt it necessary for the context of this piece.

RE: Disco Inferno

DI go pop but not as we know it.

So someone said Disco Inferno experienced critical indifference in their lifetime as a band but I recall a dude from Lime Lizard waxing lyrical about them thus alerting me to their existence in 1991. In Melody Maker '91 they were described as "exploring glacial zones" on their Closed Windows and Science records. In '92 their sound was also described as "Bitter and brooding beauty.' While in 1994 Disco Inferno's DI GO POP LP was placed at no. 3 in the out rock end of year list in The Wire. I would almost say they were critical faves but I don't really know what the more mainstream press were saying at the time. The possibilities seemed endless for this kind of experimental rock (if you could call it that). When was the last time you could say that about a band performing loosely within the rock idiom? Seeing The Boredoms a couple of years ago in full giant guitar neck/percussion overload mode would have been the last time I could have said that. Swans circa Soundtracks For The Blind.  A band I saw perform once in the early 90s at The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda called Peril also had that future's up for grabs anything could happen vibe going on too. They consisted of Australian and Japanese experimental musicians including Michael Sheridan and Otomo Yoshihide if memory serves. Anyway I dunno what happened to Disco Inferno after that GO POP classic.

One of the noisier tracks off the excellent
DI GO POP LP.

RE: Caitlin Moran

You know I was looking at the cover of moranthology the other day and was thinking you know Caitlin Moran with her docs, coloured hair, shorts and bright clothing would actually not look out of place as a member of Ned's Atomic Dustbin circa 1991. This tickles me.

Writing some new lyrics for the comeback
Ned's Atomic Dustbin LP.

Auditioning as the new bass player for
Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

Uncle Junior Was My Surgeon

Now I know I've been watching a lot of The Sopranos (up to the final couple of episodes) but seriously the surgeon who operated on me on Saturday was this man. I swear! So I was quite happy to have him operate on me because I felt like I knew him and well I thought it was really  funny.

My doctor, the resemblance is uncanny, isn't it?

and this was my nurse.

RE: The Wu

Genius is GZA right?

I always thought the GZA was the RZA or The Genius was the RZA. Didn't some of The Wu-Tang Clan have more than one pseudonym? Anyway Genius/GZA's LP Liquid Swords possibly the best Hip Hop record of the 90s and probably the best in The Wu winning streak from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) through to Ghostface Killah's Iron Man. And that is a tough call as there were 7 gems from 93-96. Anyway Liquid Swords did not even make it into The Wire's end of year lists at the end of 95. The Chef made it into the top 10 but Genius/GZA was conspicuous by his absence. In NME and Melody Maker it faired better but c'mon it should have been somewhere in the top 3!

I'll leave it at just 3 but I coulda' put the lot up here!

17 years later still sounds ahead of the game!

This is the shit!

Fo shizzle!

Do they still say that?

Hospital

Well I'm out of the hospital and recovering. This is the only overtly hospitally song I could come up with, bear in mind painkillers are in full effect. I know The Go-Betweens and Nick Cave have made references to hospitals before. There must be though a whole like mini sub-genre of hospital songs I just can't seem to think of any others at the moment. Oh hang on here's another one!

Then there must be hundreds of videos of people dressed up as nurses and doctors and I don't mean those kind of videos. But that must be one of porns greatest themes surely. Throbbing Gristle make me think of doctors and nurses.

Nurse Genesis

I was never sure if the guy on the right was like a psych nurse, a scientist or some kind of doctor. Is this the greatest LP cover ever? I could look at it forever. It brought me much amusement as a youngster and really made me think just do what you want! The music was good too. I must admit though this did just come into my life as a sleeve hanging on a wall in my first flat with the vinyl long gone. It was a few years later I heard the contents that were supposed to be contained within. I'm sure Throbbing Gristle would think that was great that I saw this cover as a piece of art for many years before hearing the tunes.

Zombie Nurse!

see you in a while

Here's some loveliness until next time!!

 

 

This is slightly different to the version

on Vol 2 I think?



Umberto - Night Has A Thousnad Screams

Just got this today and am V excited and cannot wait to listen to it despite having to go to hospital tomorrow and miss a once in a lifetime chance to see Goblin live in Melbourne. So this is the new Umberto LP Night Has A Thousand Screams. If it's anywhere near as good as the last one Prophecy Of The Black Widow and the one before that From The Grave we're in for a real treat. I was gonna do an extensive post about awesome spooky soundtracks and their fake soundtrack spawn. That'll have to wait though. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to write that when I'm convalescing and bored shitless. One flicker of happy in an otherwise dismal day. Hopefully it'll be Umberto's 3rd classic in a row.

AR Kane & Disco Inferno

Wow an interview with AR Kane as well as Disco Inferno over at FACT. The godfathers and their godchildren. I've still got AR Kane's Sixty Nine and "i" on tape. Released on Festival Australia licenced from Rough Trade. Still sounding fantastic by the way, recorded on BASF chrome tape. Most record companies would not have used such great quality tape. I love those tapes. They were so fucking original, like no one ever before! While the classic debut LP Sixty Nine gets all the kudos  "i" is their eclectic & surreal underrated other classic. Must admit I never heard that 3rd album, was that like a reformed/comeback kind of thing? On those 2 Rough Trade LPs they were magnificent!

I wanted to play Down and Love From Outer Space from "i" but they weren't on the youtubes! I must admit they are one of those bands I rediscover every 6 months and go 'How are they not legendary?' Well they are in my book. These albums are an essential peak of late 80s musical creativity, along with fill in________________.

Hang on I found it!

Then there were some acolytes I recall on AR Kane's own label hArk. I had an ep by Papa Sprain called May I think ..er...can't find that one in the closet. I had a cd Onomatopoeia by Butterfly Child as well. Those were both good records. Those acts came and went in a flash though.

Anyway Disco Inferno were influenced by AR Kane and were a great, unique, strange and groundbreaking band as well. All I can find is a lone cd single Summer's Last Sound/Love Stepping Out in my closet. They had some fine records DI GO POP & In Debt are 2 more gone missing from the crates! Whatever. Post Rock in its original meaning. Radiohead wish.

Nice & weird.

Onya FACT!



Being a cunt.

"....I appeared to be pretending to be a cunt. Why was I doing that? There are enough cunts in the world already. We don't need anymore. The only kind of pesron who would pretend to be a cunt probably is a cunt. This faux-cuntiness was a cunt's game"

Caitlin Moran, moranthology, page 12, 2012.

This is a quote in regards to a review in 1994 where she wished the singer of Ned's Atomic Dustbin dead in Melody Maker. Anyway It was probably worth it just to write that 18 years later.

In regards to the use of the word cunt it seems people from the UK and Australia have a very different use of the word compared to Americans. For us (Aussies & Poms) it's a wanker who is an arsehole and could be a man or woman. Whereas in the States it seems reserved for the most misogynist men to use towards a woman to denigrate her to being of use for only one thing- her cunt. I've been watching dvds of the Sopranos and boy when it gets used in that it seems filled with so much hate and resentment towards women. Someone said to me the other day 'the way you say cunt it almost sounds nice.' When Americans say it, it seems way more offensive. Am I right?

I agree with Caitlin that pretending to be a cunt is being a cunt. Make of that what you will.

 

 

Anyway I reckon this is a fantastic pop tune as good as anything the much overrated Nirvana ever did. This'll get yer party started every time. Style and taste are overrated. C'mon Caitlin you know you like this.