More BBC Radiophonic Workshop gear here. This time it's a video documentary produced by the BBC called The Alchemists Of Sound from 2003. This is an hour long doco and features Oliver Postgate, John Baker, Delia Derbyshire, David Cain, Wendy Carlos, Sonic Boom & a dude from Portishead.
Been diggin this Darkside mix from Blog To The OldskoolI Can't Believe How Dark It is. Heaps of great gear here for old and new converts. This genre is fast becoming one of my top 5 eras of music ever. On the evidence here, I also still have much to learn and that excites me. I missed a lot of this stuff first time around, only being aware of the major playerz. More treasure from Blog To The Oldsckool. Onya!
Hang on...... more dark science dropped here for Halloween last year at Blog To The Oldskool. Two & a half hours, 70 + trax of prime Darkside gold for your pleasure. With a classic section half way through featuring the panic attack trax Ricky, Scottie & Johnny. Can you handle it?
I've got to say I'm Impressed by Woebot's 80s list. There are 10 artists I've never even heard of. Of the 33 records he specially recommends I only own 9. There is one worry in the Goth category, that's Sisters Of Mercy's Floodland. Is that a joke? Then there is Thin White Rope's Moonhead which is in the highly recommended category. This is an LP I expected to love when I heard it, maybe 3 years after it was released and was shocked that I couldn't stand it. I must admit I've recently thought I should give it another go. Hey Woebot how secret can a Police LP be? Is this in the hiding in plain sight category. Hey Man Without ShameRapeman's Two Nuns And A Pack Mule gets a recommend. Is it becoming a cult internet record all of a sudden? It's had 2 mentions in 1 week!
Here's the unknown 10 (well as it turns out only 5 are unknown artists).
??? Just saw this was produced by Philip Glass!
Turns out this is Charles Hayward's post This Heat
project. Who knew? Gotta check this out.
Turns out this is Gil Trythall who I do know and actually
own a few of his records including the title track of this
LP which I think was recorded in 1973.
Bill Laswell & Rammellzee. Bootsy on da bass on
one track.
This is a Bill Laswell project with Manu Djbango
amongst others.
Electronic Canadians apparently.
French bloke.
Arthur Russell plays cello on this and Pete was the
trombone man on many of Russell's trax.
Funnily enough I was looking through some old emails and came across this last nite.
Which I barely recall coming out but it was an answer to my question on my blog from sometime last year. What happened to the Woebot archives? Where can I access them? So he'd taken down his blog only to later on sell it in electronic form. Sure it's only $10 so who cares? Anywho last night I was downloading a kindle app so I could read that and this
Then this email turns up today from woebot with another list. This time it's the 100 Secret Albums from the 80s which can be found here
I'm leavin m b v in its box for now. I had an idea to perhaps exhibit or collect everyones unwanted copies to make some kind of statement concept art stylee. Perhaps it would be about a redundant cultural artifact now becoming of use as it's included in some kind of intellectual discourse on redundant cultural artifacts.
Then there would be the whole Schrodinger's Cat thing. You wouldn't be allowed to peak inside so how would you know if it was in there or not? At one stage I must admit that I thought the whole website and ordering of mp3, cd and vinyl may have been a scam. I half expected this package to not arrive. Funny that in the end I didn't care if it arrived or not.
If this conceptual art jam were to take place though, would it not make these mass produced artifacts more valuable than the rubbish they were destined to be? Then you would have the situation where perhaps you would have to start verifying whether or not the said lp was inside the box. Wouldn't peeking inside the box kill the concept? Maybe instead of a physical exhibit you could have a virtual one where everyone posted a photo of their box onto the blog/website.
*er...re:Shrodinger's Cat. Would there be a dead cultural artifact and an alive one at the same time? I would presume yes. The dead would be the recorded music which could be seen as a dead/failed piece of pop culture and the alive would be its rejuvenated self that is now part of a living/relevant artistic concern ie. the exhibition.
Got this the other day. I bought it because I thought I was gonna hate it. Having a quick glance though, it looks really funny. I dunno why I thought I'd hate it considering I didn't hate the Make Up and I really enjoyed some of those Weird War records. This guy's got the gift of the gab. I don't necessarily agree with everything Joe Carducci has to say but fuck I love the way he writes. So Mr Svenonius is probably a similar case. We'll see.....
*Worst non ending to a film I've seen recently would have to be the Australian film Wish You Were Here. How about an ending guys. Grrr...Thanks a fuckin lot.... another couple of hours I can't get back.
**Were The Replacements an indie band? Talk about a band in the wrong situation. There was nothing cool or fashionable about The Replacements They were as anachronistic as Tom Petty Or The Georgia Satellites and yet they were seen by rock crits as an integral part of the 80s musical landscape. They would have been better off being sold in a more rock Sunset Strip kinda way doncha think? They probably should have been a mainstream band (like the bands they influenced Green Day, Nirvana, ugh! Goo Goo Dolls). They were just as rockin and catchy as Bon Jovi or The Boss! They weren't willing to play the game though. I guess that made them outsiders. One of them I noticed ended up in a later version of Guns & Roses. That makes total sense to me. If Robert Christgau starts liking your band is it time to start dismantling your group.
What's lost is now found. This is the 4th Album (well I've got 4) for one of my favourite groups of the last few years Umberto. I was gonna try and write about them without mentioning Dario Argento, John Carpenter or Goblin but hey that's absurd. On this record though I could probably chuck in Giorgio Morroder. The cover says it all really: Nite driving with an alien invasion. Italo-Disco meets Italo-exploitation with added hand claps. This could be my favourite of their releases so far. I could listen to this all day and all nite, er.... that's what I've been doing. Something tells me these aliens aren't gonna be that nice and might be wearing hockey masks but you kinda want them to land anyway.
