RIP Mark E Smith

Go to my twitter for more tributes to the great man. I'm trying not to double up on the stuff I've already posted there. I also don't wanna use all those same words that have been used to describe Mark E Smith and The Fall over and over again throughout their existence. So here are just a handful of tunes and videos from the first ten years of The Fall's recorded output.

M.E.S.

1957 - 2018

Recorded in 1977 and released in 1978.

1979's Rowche Rumble is the 3rd Fall single and what a cracker.

B-side to Fiery Jack. The Fall's B-sides were often as good as the A-sides and usually didn't feature on the LPs.

Single number 6 which was also not included on their album of the time. This is why Fall compilations are such an integral part of their discography. Is Totally Wired The fall's finest moment? It's fucking exhilarating. Has a song title ever fitted a song's sound so literally? 

My Favourite Fall LP (well for today anyway, interchangeable with about seven others), released in 1980 on Rough Trade.

Another great stand alone single from November 1981. This is peak period Fall right here folks.

This was the B-side to Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul from 1981. You got bang for your buck with Fall 7"s back then. I guess these were more like double A-sides, doncha reckon?

The B-side to another non-LP single Look Know from 1982. Just to clear up any confusion it was later included as a bonus track on the expanded cd version of Hex Enduction Hour.

C.R.E.E.P from 1984. Another mighty era for The Fall. This is when Brix Smith became an indispensable member of the mid 80s Fall line-up. The shiny new Fall now had boy/girl vocals, hooks galore and rhythms for the dance-floor.

Cruisers Creek a 1985 single. V dodgy vhs transfer of the film clip. Remember when youtube was just a bunch of old shonky vhs tapes?

LA is quite possibly the coolest tune in rock history. It's all happening here: the band, the production, the inspiration, the synergy.....spellbinding! They were not only top of their game, they were top of THE game. Taken from 1985's musical triumph This Nation's Saving Grace. LA is also AA-side to Cruiser's Creek.

1987 single which was a cover of an old 70s tune, maybe a Northern Soul or Motown number. I remember hearing the original on a soul radio show 10 years ago and freaked out because I always thought it was a Mark E Smith tune.

There were a bunch of versions of this ecstatic dance-floor anthem. Which one is this? I dunno. Hit The North should have been a global No. 1 with a bullet. 

*There is so much more to The Fall than just this motley selection of tracks. I could go on for days. I haven't even posted any live numbers or Peel Sessions. If you really get into The Fall it can be a captivating passion. 

2017's Best Tunes

I forgot to post a favourite tunes of 2017 list. This list has been sitting in my drafts since mid December but it was only a top 5 or 6 anyway. I've added a handful of other tracks since the Christmas/New Year period. I didn't listen to the radio or watch any music video channels in 2017 but I did check out probably a couple of hundred singles/tracks on youtube. Not hearing them in a radio context doesn't allow for a tune to insidiously worm its way into your brain though. I thought pop's reign had halted and r&b, rap etc. were in poor shape. I still do.

I just couldn't hear any innovations in rap at all, at least not vocally. It all just seemed to be rehashing what Gucci Mane, Future and Young Thug had pioneered years earlier. In times like these sometimes that can be ok because often newer artists consolidate on what the pioneers have already blueprinted. However it just seems like every newcomer is rather pale by comparison to their forefathers. God, Young Thug & Future even did an album together which left not a trace in my memory, that was not a good sign. Jay-Z sounded tired. Geez Tyler, The Creator was even sounding fresh with his old school Neptunes/NERD shtick, it stood out because everyone else sounded the same. Too Much (Vocal) from v1984 was classic b-boys on E stuff plus I quite liked tracks from these new feisty rappers with potential Rico Nasty and Sheff G.

The beauty of hip hop a few years ago was the fact that somehow even in this post-geographical internet age a regional flavour still came through in a lot of leading artists material. So distinctive styles were developing throughout the different neighbourhoods of America. Now you get New Yorkers sounding like wannabe southern trappers, people from LA moving to Atlanta, Rappers from Brooklyn wishing they were from Chicago etc. Where are Rae Sremmunrd from? Cardi B? Vince Staples? Is Travis Scott from Atlanta?  Who knows anymore? It's probably a cyclical thing. I mean you did have g-funk coming out of all sorts of places in the 90s, not just LA.

I didn't think I'd heard any good pop/rock songs last year, not that I tried very hard or at all. However, I actually heard the infectious Imagine Dragons tune, Whatever It Takes, in Emma's car on Boxing Day which I thought was a state of the art soft-rock anthem for the FM airwaves of 2017. No apologies hipsters.

Indie rock is just plain embarrassing now. It's the trad jazz of the 2010s.

Most R&B and their inter-zones sounded staid but there were a couple of things that grabbed my attention. The obvious standout was Kelela's two singles and LP. Apparently there's a Steve Gurley dub of her Truth Or Dare floating around the internet too. Thundercat, SZA and NERD featuring Rihanna had their retro moments.

There were one or two disparate electronic things that caught my ear but they were mainly just little 90s nostalgia trips for me like Lanark Artefacts' Touch Absence, Bicep's Glue, Loft's Funemployed and a few others that have slipped my mind. Other track-y things like Your Kiss Is Sour by Parris and Ploy's Unruly had their charms while Objekt's Theme From Q was almost something new. Oh and I've only just realised Rudeboyz came back with an EP but I missed it.

So below is my belated best tunes of 2017 list.

BEST TUNES OF 2017
Frontline - Kelela
LMK - Kelela
Slippery - Migos feat. Gucci Mane
Blue Light - Kelela
Bodak Yellow - Cardi B (Zora Jones & Sinjin Hawke Bootleg)
Magnolia - Playboi Carti
Too Much (Vocal) - v1984
Goosebumps - Travis Scott feat. Kendrick Lamar
Dark Matter - Jlin & Zora Jones
Mask Off - Future
DNA - Kendrick Lamar
Lemon - NERD feat. Rihanna

'ardcore Smokey Joe

Gotta love hearing some early 90s rave-y hardcore that has never crossed my eardrums before. Thanks to Simon via Energy Flash for alerting me to this Red Bull article on ridiculously overpriced rave records. Some of these tunes I'd not heard until today.
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I love me a bit of kitchen sink hardcore: Breaks, scratching, Italo piano riffs, more breaks, synth riffology, chipmunks, hoovers, cheesy 80s synth samples, pitch-shifted divas, squelches, references to rushes etc. Kiss My Neck has got the lot.



Then there's this, a stone cold 'ardcore classic! Boomzabang, which is less cluttered than Kiss My Neck, has got fabulous beat science, riffs built on rhythms, time-stretching and melodic beats then the hardcore hoovers move in at 3.40 and by 4.20 it's mentastic. Next the track delves into dark lulls with a sampled diva, closing out on a classic break that could go on forever. How I've not come across this before is astounding because this is superior 92 into 93 hardcore slipping into darkside.

Smokey Joe is bringing the joy to my fuckered back and this sweltering heatwave.

Ryo Kawasaki - Mercy Of The Dragon

God only knows how I got here. This is from a 1982 LP by Ryo Kawasaki confusingly titled Featuring Concierto De Aranjuez. The centrepiece of side 2 is Hawaiian Caravan along with Mercy of The Dragon (see below). All of side 2 is good 80s Japanese cosmic stuff. Mucho custom guitar synthesizer action.

Mnemonics III - Pauline Oliveros

Damn fine electronics from the 60s. I have heard this one before...er... maybe it's on a different record to this one though or a different cover. Muchas Gracias to the late Pauline Oliveros for these alien frequencies sent from her swirly transmitter. Joy. Ha...I've just realised she was another faculty member of Mills College. Quite a coincidence or is it not one at all? Perhaps my brain was subconsciously playing Alvin Curran and Oliveros deliberately. That does not explain the Xenakis played in-between however. Anyway...

The silver lining to your back going out is the psychedelic unison of the drugs and the music.

A Perspex Town

New music from Jon Brooks aka The Advisory Circle. Lovely stuff. This video and LP cover art are courtesy of Ian Hodgson from Moon Wiring Club. A Perspex Town is taken from Applied Music: Vol. 2 - Plastics Today. This is some kind of faux library music album which is released on Friday.

Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran

Had not heard this until the today of now. Loving it. Rzewski's old pal/collaborator from MEV, Alvin Curran makes amazing masterpiece released in 1982. This is desert Island stuff. Curran was also a Mills College Professor, they had quite the faculty didn't they? If someone hasn't done this already someone should, that is write a book about the great musical minds that were staff and students of Mills College, Oakland, California. Legends such as Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, John Cage, Robert Ashley and Luciano Berio were amongst the prestigious staff. Some of their distinguished students were Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Dave Brubeck, Kevin Blechdom, Joanna Newsom and their most recent star Holly Herndon.

I've done me back and cannot move, the painkillerz have kicked in big time and Canti Illuminati has arrived from nowhere to entrance me. Thanks interweb gods and not forgetting Alvin too. Wow! Muchas Gracias!

Best of 2017

LPS/TAPES
Tantalising Mews/Cateared Chocolatiers - Moon Wiring Club
Dust - Laurel Halo
Take Me Apart - Kelela
AZD - Actress
The Ghost Of Hope - The Residents
Cassettera - Ekoplekz
When It's Time To Let Go - Lo Five
The Saddle Of The Increate - Sun Araw
async - Ryuichi Sakamoto

HNDRXX - Future
Dulce Compañia - DJ Python

Maredidt - Myrkur
Lack - Pan Daijing
Reassemblage - Visible Cloaks
Colón Man - Equiknoxx
Rock Bottom - Rangers
Ambient Black Magic - Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement
Mnestic Pressure - Lee Gamble
Bioprodukt - Ekoplekz
Insert Genre Here/Epson's Bladder Salts - Ashtray Navigations
New Age Sewage - Robedoor

I've been trying to put this list together for over three weeks now. This morning I just thought 'Bugger it I won't do a list.' Then later this afternoon I thought I'll just write a small paragraph about a handful of records I didn't mind but didn't necessarily love to death and leave it at that. Listening to Moon Wiring Club's latest epic 2CD & LP combo I thought 'Well...they need a place to go don't they because they're fucking outstanding as usual.' So now I've put this together but I'm still not a hundred percent convinced about it.

Should it just be a top 3, a top 6 or maybe a top 8 list?....

Anyway many of my usual favourites did not make the list. I didn't hate the records by Ariel Pink, The Focus Group, Gas or Omar Souleyman but I didn't love them either like I usually do or wanted to. I mean that Ariel Pink LP is a bit lightweight innit? Yet It's also pretty good but it's just not in the same league as The Doldrums, Worn Copy or Pom Pom is it? It was still my most played LP of the year though. The best film score was from Oneotrix Point Never for the crime movie Good Time. Toi Toi Toi and Migos just missed out, Chino Amobi was (oh so) interesting (not), Tyler The Creator, SZA & Thundercat were alright, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith was way overrated and that Zomby record just did my head in. Then there was my usual hip-hop entrants (Future, Young Thug, RJ, Beatking) whose LPs just didn't leave lasting impressions on my mind. I'd have been happy to make a top fifty list if there were fifty excellent albums released this year. I listened to a lot of stuff including black metal, even shoegaze and drum'n'bass plus a whole lot more rap but it just wasn't innovative, exceptional or consummate enough for me to write about.

REISSUES/ARCHIVES/COMPILATIONS
Selected Classics - The Mover
Frontal Sickness - The Mover
Final Sickness  - The Mover
Afternooners - Patrick Cowley
U-Men - U-Men
Voyage Cerebral - Didier Boquet
Un Rêve Sans Conséquence Spéciale - Heldon
Interface - Heldon
Stand By - Heldon
Fetus - Franco Battiato
Pollution - Franco Battiato
Sulle Corde Di Aries - Franco Battiato
Miracle Steps: Music From The 4th World 1983-2017 - Various
Pop Makossa: The Invasive Dance Beat Of Cameroon 1976-1984 - Various

TELLY
The Deuce
Sure The Deuce isn't as good as The Wire but it's fine entertainment.
The Crown
Sure The Crown isn't anywhere near as cool as The Deuce but season two was ten dramatic mini-movie masterpieces in a row. I can't explain it, just watch it. Who would have thought twenty hours (two seasons) of television about the bloody Queen could have been this amazing?
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Sure they didn't really need to do another season but it still had me laughing out loud a lot.
Twin Peaks - Episode 8
Sure I kinda preferred it when BOB was just a mystery. When BOB just was. Anyway this is a pretty cool episode that was all about early, experimental, cult & avant-garde cinema and much more. Exquisite. The other 17 episodes weren't a patch on this.
Black Mirror: Hang The DJ Episode
That was romance.
Line Of Duty
Best cop show since                    or perhaps ever. Season 4 was probably the finest so far with incredible performances from Thandie Newton and my current favourite actor Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings. Gotta wait 'til 2019 for the next episode, sheesh!

see ya 2017

My dog loves this one. More Marc Acardipane for your soundtrack to 2017.

Best 80s Albums

tactics

Yesterday on twitter somebody asked what was the best LP released between 1980 & 1989. I thought I won't do my obvious pick. So I did a little year by year list that didn't include Talking Heads, The Fall, The Birthday Party, Prince, The Church, The Triffids, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine or The Pixies.

My pick in the end was My Houdini from Tactics but it could have been any of these or like a hundred others. Ever since I started this blog I've been meaning to write an article in praise of My Houdini. Maybe the time has come to finally put pen to paper about this undervalued post-punk/new wave classic.

1980- Out Of The Tunnel - MX-80 Sound

1981- My Houdini - Tactics

1982- Ice Cream For Crow - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

1983- Head Over Heels - Cocteau Twins

1984 - Let It Be - The Replacements

1985- At Home With You - X (The Australian band not the inferior one)

1986- Three Virgins - Axemen

1987- Children Of God - Swans

1988- Sixty Nine - AR Kane

1989- Max Q - Max Q