Bob Dylan - Hurricane

Does anyone ever say Bob is ecstatic? Because that's what this tune is, totally. The chorus-y bits where the music drops out and it's just the congas with the raucous singing, from Bob & backing vocalists Ronee Blakley & Steephen Soles, is just the ticket, innit? The energetic delivery of this incredible narrative is so inspired. Not so much all about the meaning of the lyrics but also the sound of the words, the way they fit together, the rambunctious manner in which they're performed and spontaneously captured on tape.

Congas are played by the mysterious Luther Rix. It's weird that millions of us know those congas so well but very few of us know the name of the man responsible. Like we should all know the trumpet guy from All You Need Is Love or the the co-vocalist of Gimme Shelter. Actually I'm sure I used to know who that was and I'm pretty sure I saw a mini documentary on that trumpeter once. We could run into Luther Rix in the street and we wouldn't even know he was the legend who played those furious congas on Hurricane.  

LUTHER RIX with BOB

*This post was supposed to be about the criminalisation of words, social media censorship and freedom of speech but I just got tangled up in Bob.

Burial - Antidawn

After making such a grand statement about Burial in my Best Of 2022 list ie. that he's undeniably THE musical visionary of the 21st century, I''m starting to interrogate that line of thinking (surely I forgot The Caretaker). It was very easy to just automatically write such an assertion as though it were true and believe that most thinkers about such things around the world would also obviously agree. 

Surely Burial aka William Bevan's feeling the pressure of such thinking. It's probably why he hasn't called a release an album since 2007 despite several so called EPs being LP length. I mean last year he had to add EP at the end of the title for his Antidawn release, which is 5 minutes longer than Sgt Pepper's, so we all didn't call it his 3rd album. Is he too protective of his own critical reputation (like My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields was in the 90s)? Is he scared that calling his album an album will ensure it gets too closely scrutinised?

It's an interesting ploy that I think has perhaps backfired upon him. Now we all just think Burial's work is insignificant because it's just his miniature cast offs not to be taken all that seriously. If Antidawn had indeed been called an album I think it would have garnered a lot more interest and that definitely would have been deserved. It may well have been hailed as his 3rd masterpiece. Even if it was only hailed as that by half of the usual critics it still would have been a better result than the dwindling interest it actually got.

Also is it up to him to call an album an album? We should have all just called it an album because it is an album.

Speaking of critics. Some of the laziest and most absolutely wrong bullshit gets tossed around in the name of critique and analysis of Burial: Ambient, insubstantial, not engaging, formless, not an easy listen etc. ad nauseam for fuck's sake!  

It's not fucking ambient dickheads. None of this sound is to be ignored. It's bloody operatic, too emotional, full of sensations many of which are perhaps too liminal for articulation, feelings are switched on and off sometimes in a furious flurry and Antidawn is fucking anthemic! Anthemic: That sounds anti-ambient to me.

It's not fucking Insubstantial! Just because it doesn't have a riff, a break, a bass drop, a bloody verse/chorus/verse or a song structure that represents a god damn pre-existing genre on autopilot doth not maketh this record insubstantial. Antidawn is so substantial it fucks with me for 44 minutes, toys with my soul for 44 minutes, transfixes me for 44 minutes, loses me in its delectable sound-world for 44 minutes, nothing else matters for that 44 minutes.

It's not fucking formless. In fact it is intricately structured to a fastidious degree to give us a spectrum of dramatic effects. Wild swinging jaw dropping dramatic arcs that have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck... now that doesn't sound particularly formless does it? 

It's not fucking not engaging! Antidawn is so compelling it's like your favourite, best, most watched movie. Every little detail is important, to be savoured and pored over. The entire LP is best heard from go to whoa. It's so striking it has me hanging on every tiny spec of sound and all of the vibes for er... 44 minutes.

It's not fucking not an easy listen! Just pump this sucker up to 11 and bam where did those 44 minutes go? 

Burial - South London Boroughs

(2006)

Skeletal, spectral, skeletal spectral or spectral skeletal it's all what this tune is. South London Boroughs is a skelington of a tune. As pointed out by others in the past, you fill in this tune in your mind with whatever elements you think are missing. A bit like a mirage. That ghost of a Rufige Kru mentasm stab looms large and sends over ten years of 'ardcore musical memories flooding vaguely back. The rhythm is just buggered, quite knackered. I think it was either Mark Fisher or Kode 9 who said you fill in the rest the rest of the beat to compensate for this deficiency. It's like you're a beat doctor fixing up the gimpy rhythm with your mind. The tromp l'oeil effect makes this an illusory tune whichever way you look at it.

Also isn't this what Scorn sounded like circa 94/95?

Burial: Nite Train

(2006)

I love how no critic ever mentions broken beat when talking about Burial. Sorry but he's influenced by broken beat. Dubstep fans who want to claim him as their own call him dubstep. While dubstep haters who love Burial claim he has nothing to do with dubstep. Anyway this track is now 18 fucking years old and it's Basic Channel style dub-tech intersecting with ghostly UK garage innit? I like it whatever you wanna call it...

Juaneco Y Su Combo - Linda Nena

Once you've gotten into Peruvian psych cumbia via the instrumentals from the late 60s/early 70s the next step is to follow the genre as it progresses through the 70s and into the 80s as it becomes much more song orientated. Then mysteriously in the late 80s it abruptly falls off the face of the earth altogether.

Linda Nena from 1976 is one of the most infectious anthems of the genre. It's got Peruvian pop hit written all over it and I guess you gotta to have a crack at singing it even though you don't understand the language because of its irresistible hooks. Once again the rhythm is out-fucking-standing and is just as key to the tune as the vocals are. Peak Peruvian cumbia!

Russian Sonic Microwave Attack or Cricket Mating Sounds or ???

Six or seven years ago in a doctor's waiting room I remember seeing on a mainstream television channel reports of people in an embassy office block in Havana being deliberately targeted by sonic attacks from the Russian military. I thought "Really is this shit real?" It put me in mind of shonky old sci-fi movies, The Twilight Zone, That's Incredible, shonky old sci-fi movies, The KLF, ye olde kids's books about spies, Hawkwind etc. but I never heard about these stories again. The other day however, while not feeling well, I went through Glenn Greenwald's entire rumble channel and this incredible post popped up from about a year ago. I don't think the CIA could have envisaged where this convoluted narrative would end up. 

It's just a shame that this entertaining and bizarre tale had to come from the nefarious actions of the state and establishment corporate media collaborating in a fraud with intentions to deceive & manipulate us: the public, the people, the citizens. We're just trying to have a good day and yet...

Midnight Cleaners - Cleaners From Venus

Midnight Cleaners from 1982 is probably the most well known Cleaners From Venus album. This was originally a tape only release. Martin Newell’s diy post-punk lo-fi psychedelic pop is glorious. 

Midnight Cleaners starts out with doomy basslines, then drums, glockenspiel & synths follow through via his bedroom's echo chamber. 

Wow the splendid melodiousness of this never ceases to amaze. In a parallel universe... 

When they hit their stride with superior jangles, angular tangents and ecstatic bursts of majestic bittersweet melodic pop, it’s almost too much.

A month or six ago Martin Newell announced on instagram that this wonderfully blissful anthem had hit 6 million streams on Spotify. Not bad for an unknown 80s band who were always in between scenes. A true cult pop phenomena finally reaching critical mass forty years later.

This. Just when you're thinking this is some Saxamophone instrumental noodle with amazing bass a verse comes in, then bang just the ecstatic everything. Anthem!

Martin's got wistful deep within his bones down to his socks. This is psychedelic raindrops. Cleaners From Venus pack an emotional punch that few bands ever do, all the while being quintessentially English. 

This despondent paean to drudgery, gentrification and dystopia is quaint by today's standards. Nostalgia for nostalgia. If only dystopia was this cute.

"The sun unfolds but it never shines" The glorious gloom of it all. 

Not to forget the dubbed out saxanophone jamz. At this point they were only comparable to The Homosexuals at their most sublime.

Like most of the population I didn’t discover Cleaners From Venus during the 80s. I came across them in the 90s via the compilation cd that came with the book Unknown Legends Of Rock 'n' Roll. Then in the early 00s I found a shonky cdr copy of Midnight Cleaners in a 2nd hand record shop in Melbourne. Anyway it wasn’t until thirty years after the initial release that Midnight Cleaners got issued for the first time on vinyl and yeah I know you really only need this on tape or a shitty cd but I hope Martin got some money from my purchases of his reissues.

best of 2022

RECORDS/TAPES/CDs

Human Remains - Robert Haigh

If A City Is Set Upon A Hill - Current 93

Music For The Death Cult Church - Controlled Death

Death Synth Box - Controlled Death

Antidawn - Burial

Expressed, I noticed Silence - M Geddes Gengras

Is there any point in writing here anymore now that ChatGBT has arrived? The year end round up was always the biggest post of the year with thousands of people reading it. In the last two years though visits to CardrossManiac2 have waned to just a trickle of people. This has only happened since I've added the occasional post criticising current political absurdities. I do not toe the retarded party-line orthodoxies of Google plus I openly call them corrupt so like they used to always suspend me on twitter they've probably demoted my posts, pretty much shadow banned me and buried the blog. No anti-establishment sentiments allowed! Having said that does anyone read blogs anymore? I know I don't, so...

It was another year of being out of action most of the time. Only a handful of albums from 2022 really register in my brain right now so go elsewhere for a more thorough overview of current music. It's hard to imagine that it was only as recent as 2019 that 45 new records were mentioned in my year end list. The above list is in no particular order. I have vague recollections of enjoying a few other new albums in 2022 by the likes of Pan American, Sulk Rooms, Rangers, N Chambers, Huerco S, Deepchord and that's about it. It's always touch and go as to whether Moon Wiring Club make it into the list. The mail has been slow to Australia this Christmas so they miss out as I'm yet to hear Medieval Ice Cream. I didn't even realise Actress and Diamanda Galas had new albums out in 2022 so... oh wait I forgot, Kemper Norton released two excellent tapes of experimental rural psychedelia/drone-y dark ambient. The highlight being the traditional tune My Love Is Gone at the end of the Rife cassette. 

The music innovation era died with the great 20th century, maybe there was a slight afterglow into the 00s up until about Burial's record. Plus the odd flicker here and there in the 00s with Young Thug, Future and the like. I now realise I was so lucky to live through the 70s, 80s and 90s...

Current 93's David Tibet

The first four above albums were made by artists who are reaching late career peaks after getting started in the 80s. I think both Robert Haigh and Current 93 have retired so these might be their final offerings. Robert Haigh the mastermind behind the genius jungle act Omni Trio, continues to excel with another impeccable LP of exquisitely melodic piano vignettes. Current 93's If A city Is Set Upon A Hill has David Tibet at the top of his game as he recites his doomed mystic verse with startling restraint and age-d charm. Legendary Japanese rock star noise performance artist Maso Yamazaki aka Masonna is in the midst of an absolute purple patch with his dark ambient cosmic noise project Controlled Death. This blaze of creativity that started in 2018 has now amassed over 24 releases and has gone unnoticed by everybody in music media as far as I can tell. Get on board it's a gas! Antidawn is Burial at his blissful, beautiful and beat-less best. Burial aka William Bevan aka the most idiosyncratic and innovative musical visionary of the 21st century reminds us why he holds this undeniable title with an elegiac soundtrack for 2022. Funnily enough M Geddes Gengras's ace cosmic-ambient jam Expressed, I Noticed Silence is the most retro record on the list yet Gengras is the youngest of the lot. His career began in the mid-00s in the hypnagogic era.

I heard no pop radio or any music radio for that matter in 2022.

I did hear some newly made jungle...what's the point? It's the new garage rock revival except for me it's worse. I wasn't there in the 60s so the 80s revivals of garage and psych were fine with me. Eventually I would become fully acquainted with what they were referencing and my record collection today is more a reflection of that than the 80s 60s revivalists. Still can't go past The Stems though! So this new jungle shit just stinks to high heaven because I was right there when jungle originally emerged and then through subsequent beat permutations etc. Nu-jungle, or whatever the fuck it is, as a signpost for youngsters of where to go back to to find when the amazing burst of innovation and excitement happened is fine but come on people beyond 40 you know the score. My dad didn't hear the Black Crowes in the 90s and say "Gee Tim have you heard this terrific new group. They're like an exciting new take on The Rolling Stones. Don't miss out on these amazing new innovations" No, he knew better. 

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REISSUES/COMPILATIONS/ARCHIVES

Classic Productions by Surin Phaksiri 2: Molam Gems 1960s - 80s - Various

Wamano Groove Shakuhhachi & Koto Jazz Funk 76 - Kiyoshi Yamaya, Toshiko Yonekawa, Kifu Mitsuhashi

Peru Selvatico: Sonic Expedition Into The Peruvian Amazon 1972 - 86 - Various

Cumbias Psicodelicas: Ayahuasca Volume 2 - Various

Sonido Verde De Moyobamba - Sonido Verde De Moyobamba

The Afrosound Of Colombia Volume 3 - Various

Orkos - Maha

Mawood - Abdel Halim Hafiz

Mogadishu's Finest The Al Uruba Sessions - Iftin Band

Sense May Come - Controlled Bleeding

Neptune's Lair - Drexciya

Convextion - Convextion

A Spare Tabby At The Cat's Wedding (LP Edition) - Moon Wiring Club

Last year I had something like over 30 records in me reissues/compilations list. This year I've got not one disco compilation and only one reissue of Japanese music. Apart from my lack of paying attention, there did seem to be not as many enticing releases from the usual "reissue label" suspects. This game goes in cycles though doesn't it?

EM Records continue to excavate terrific tunes from 20th century Thai pop genres luk thung & molam. This year we got a double vinyl dose of exquisite molam productions by Surin Phaksiri. These splendid tracks were all originally specifically released on 7" vinyl during the cassette era of Thai music. All songs are getting the reissue treatment for the first time on this historic release that has been years in the making.

There was at least three choice Peruvian psych-cumbia archival releases in 2022. I don't understand why the complete 70s catalogues of legendary groups like Los Destellos, Juaneco y Su Combo, Los Orientales de Paramonga, Los Wembler's de Iquitos, Los Mirlos et al. don't get the comprehensive reissue treatment. I would have thought this would have happened after those Roots Of Chicha compilations came out in the 00s. We have to be content to get a track here and there on a compilation or if you're lucky a greatest hits collection. It is impossibly rare to see a reissue of an LP for a Peruvian cumbia group. Anyway we get two compilations of Amazonian cumbia from the great Analog Africa label and a second dose of Cumbia Psicodelicas from Peruvian label Repsychled (get it?).

Tresor reissued Drexciya's 90s electro masterpiece Neptune's Lair. I've always said it was the last great 90s album and it belongs in everyone's collection. Get the cd as the vinyl version doesn't have all the tracks.

Maybe It's just listlessness from a combination of the sweltering 40 degree heat and anaemia but I really cannot get enthused to write any further. Perhaps more on a better day...

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ON THE TELLY

THE SOPRANOS

The best show on telly twenty three years ago was 2021's best show and 2022's best show and so on for eternity. This year I've realised my memory's so far gone that I can probably watch Sopranos every year until I die which is handy because current television and movies are bullshit.   

SLOW HORSES

We tried to watch so many new tv shows but I think they all got switched off during the first episode because they were bollocks so it was lucky that we got two seasons in one year of the only watchable new show in 2022. Spies hey?

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WAR IN UKRAINE CAUSES DEAD HUMAN PEOPLE CRISIS 

*Some US officials have estimated that as many as 200 000 human people have already died in this proxy war. At least 7000 civilians are dead including 428 kids. That's 428 DEAD CHILDREN: These are WAR CRIMES! It all could have been easily avoided. Our governments have got blood on their hands and it's a revolting tragedy! Lets stop support of this festival of death, help save human people from being killed and demand a ceasefire now. 

GANGSTA BOO 1979 - 2023

KOOPSTA KNICCA feat. GANGSTA BOO - NOW I'M HI PT. 2

I coincidentally listened to Koopsta Knicca's Da Devil's Playground tape in the wee small hours last night, finding out afterwards via instagram that Gangsta Boo had died. Weird. Is this a slightly remixed version of Now I'm So Hi Part 2...I dunno...but it's fucking wicked. That early smoked out lo-fi Triple 6 sound and then the verses so nonchalantly delivered by the supreme Boo. I've noted several times over the years that the ladies rapping on 90s Memphis devil shit is the perfect combination like peanut butter & chocolate. Gangsta Boo is the queen of Memphis: The Original.

Boo w Scarecrow & Crunchy

I'm outa love with modern pop music which includes hip-hop but it's not Gangsta Boo's fault she influenced a bunch of less than interesting rap sell outs. Apparently she was actually well aware of her artistic impact, stating recently that she was the blueprint for current rap cadences female & male. And she's totally fucking correct! Her output is awesome without post context though. You don't need to measure her talent by what she influenced. Her recordings speak for themselves. She was often astounding. So RIP Gangsta Boo aka Lola Mitchell: You are legendary!

I'm sure many of you out there might be off hip-hop of late but that does not take away from the achievements of the great rap of the 80s & 90s. It became highly elevated pop art. The 90s Memphis style was one of the best, most unique and innovative. It still remains a cult underground thing to this day despite Boo having had platinum selling hits with Three Six Mafia and guesting on Outcast and Lil' Jon records. She most recently appeared on a Run The Jewels LP but Lady Boo's not a household name like the people who cribbed her style, commercialised it and are now world famous.

The Backyard Posse/Triple 6 Mafia/Three 6 Mafia crew are legendary. They were particularly noteworthy during the 1990s Memphis Rap Underground era, including all the 90s dark lo-fi affiliate mixtapes, albums and productions. Gangsta Boo was just 15 when she joined Three Six Mafia and was there droppin' verses for their run of albums from the cult classic debut Mystic Stylez in 95 to the million selling When The Smoke Clears in 00 (All the tracks posted on this page are from the lo-fi horror era when she was 15 or 16). 

THREE SIX MAFIA - I THOUGHT YOU KNEW

This! 

Dj Paul & Juicy J lay on the horror soundtrack samples adding extra menace to the creepiness of this pitch black ode to crime where Lady Boo is joined by Crunchy Black. The devil's daughter Gangsta Boo was only 15!

DJ PAUL & LORD INFAMOUS - GRAB DA GAUGE

The lo-fi psychedelic creepin horror of the early triple six mafia is so so good. DJ Paul & Kingpin Skinny Pimp kill their verses then Gangsta Boo just comes in and effortlessly nails her verse with her cold blooded deadpan flow. 

THREE 6 MAFIA - IN DA GAME

I mean what the actual fuck! This is peak rap attack craft. One of the most astonishing flows in tha game and despite Juicy J, Dj Paul & Scarecrow's best efforts Gangsta Boo cannot be outdone...immortal.

KINGPIN SKINNY PIMP - I DON'T LUV'EM

This is one of DJ Paul & Juicy J's strangest productions. It's a cosmic psych jam of proto-hypnagogic proportions. This scenario is an horrific peak inside the minds of three drug fuelled homicidal maniacs. The psychosis goes deep. It's another incredibly jaw-dropping delivery of a verse from Gangsta Boo. Skinny Pimp is the kingpin but who is the real kingpin? Know what I mean? 

Juaneco y Su Combo 1976

MANGUITO DE SAL

You might initially think "oh this is just ho-hum Peruvian cumbia" but seconds later you will drawn in to the sublime poly-rhythmic vortex then the mesmerising mystical guitars. All of a sudden you are lost in sweet incandescent sound. These are deep Amazonian jamz and Juaneco y Su Combo were at a ceaseless peak.

EL HIPPIE MUCA

Another deep cumbia Amazonica jam with tantalising kaleidoscopic rhythms and those complimentary divine psychedelic guitar tones will have you enraptured. These two tunes are the final tracks of their 1976 LP Linda Nena on Infopesa. Juaneco y Su Combo were at the peak of their powers here and seemingly unstoppable but sadly it all came to a dark and abrupt end. In 1977 five members of the band, including guitarist/main songwriter Noé Fachin, died in a plane crash. Several remaining members would reform the group later and while still very good they never quite recaptured the magic of the Fachen-led era.