I keep forgetting to give a big shout out to Bilek from http://turkishpsychedelicmusic.wordpress.com/ who has been back for a while now with his blog sequel to the Turkish Psychedelic Music Blog which I wrote an obituary for earlier this year and Bilek was kind enough to write some nice words to me. These can be found here on my blog. Anyway his sequel is a beautiful blog and a hell of an improvement on the old one. So good luck to his new venture and hopefully there will be some great new discoveries for me and the rest of the people in the blogosphere. The subtitle is Anadolo Folk, Pop, Rock, Jazz. Happy days.
*There was a fine line back then between annoying and sublime wasn't there? I suspect the annoying factor comes from somewhere deep within these youngsters to create a generation gap and to stamp a genre all their own.
"Just because you are doing something in inverted commas doesn't mean you're not doing it"
Quote from Tim Space Debris at Cardrossmaniac2, 23/11/12.
"What is there in uselessness to cause you distress"
The title of an AMM song from AMMMusic 1966.
I had more but I've forgotten where I read them. Anyway some food for thought that may one day be put into some kind of coherent passage of words.
Other Stuff
*I saw a bunch of musicians in the states are doing a tribute to The Band's Last Waltz concert/movie. Fuck me wasn't the first one tedious enough. Imagine what it'll be like with 2nd and 3rd rate indie musicians doing it. I feel sick. Are they gonna get Marty to film it as well, now that would be weird. No hang on they should get some 2nd rate Scorsese wannabe to film it. Hang on that starts to make the concept almost interesting. When is this shit gonna end? Didn't Nels Cline used to be some kind of avant musician?
**Here's a collaboration I'd really like to see Skrillex V Umberto. Doncha reckon that'd be good? Or would it end up sounding like some kind of witch-house? Either way I'd like to see that happen.
I can't seem to escape the 90s anymore. A couple of weeks ago I saw a terrific band Chinese Handcuffs who had me flashing back to slowcore into post-rock Godspeed stylee. Then there is this bar I sometimes frequent and I swear the last 4 or 5 times I've dropped in they have been playing Afghan Wigs. Then there is hip hop which I hadn't listened to willingly for something like 15 years but after going back to Hardcore/Jungle etc. it made perfect sense to check out some of those gems from the 90s and even further back. You know before it all went a bit shit. I'm even gonna put some old DJ Shadow onto my I-Pod in a minute. I never thought I'd listen to those records ever again but listening to Wagon Christ the other day put me mind of this stuff. I was really diggin Throbbing Pouch, Wagon Christ's 90s classic. Still can't bring myself to put on Tricky or even other 90s faves Mouse On Mars. I guess it's only a matter of time.
I was nearly thinking of abandoning an end of year best of 2012 article which will be due soon but I've come out of my fear of the present and have started listening to recent LPs again. Artists might not be breaking much new ground but there is still some great shit out there worth listening to.
A picture from the park a couple of
weeks ago just because. Nice.
I know I use the youtubes a little bit too much. Growing up as a kid in Australia though it has always been a dream (along with thousands of others I suspect) to one day programme Rage. Rage is an all night Music show on the ABC on Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday night they have a guest programmer for the first 3 or 4 hours. Name any Australian band/artist or any international touring artist and chances are they've probably been a guest. The most memorable for me being Steve Kilbey in like 1992, Johnathon Donahue in the the late 90s, Michael Hutchence had a go and more recently filmmaker Richard Lowenstein was a fabulous guest. I've missed hundreds and probably some of them were probably my favourite bands/artists. Anyway I'm just playing Rage fantasy guest host a lot of the time.
*NOTE: Probably best not to play The Birthday Party's Nick The Stripper or Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division as they get played every week. There's probably plenty of guest bits up on Youtube.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
I was in the newsagents today flicking through the current issue of the Wire and I came across a review of the Emeralds LP Just To Feel Anything. And thought this guy's ripping me off. My little one line review of Sand Circles great tape Motor City from earlier this year said "This is 2am driving music for the city's bewildered lost souls." This dude has just expanded on my one line and made a review from it. Imitation-the sincerest form of flattery? I dunno if I like it. By writing these concise slivers of gold am I giving other writers a blueprint for them to expand upon then claim them as their own?
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.
"....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.
I've been meaning to write about Emeralds new LP Just to Feel Anything since I mentioned it in a previous post. I've had notes scribbled down for over a month now. Anyway my computer is playing up or is it blogger? Doing a post at the moment is quite frustrating. Anyway Emeralds are a group I thought were really going to push through some kind of sound barrier into something new, not just update the Kosmiche stylee. I think maybe they previously came close or did bring something new to the Kosmiche table. Perhaps it's my recent Back To The Future phase ie. re/listening to UK hardcore/Darkside/Jungle etc. that has put some things into perspective. In the early 90s the future was really actually happening. This new Emeralds LP seems to be their most retro and least forward thrusting to date. I think they've added beats. Did any of the other LPs have beats? In my notes I have written (and this is from a while ago):
Nostalgia for Top Gun,
Nostalgia for Dire Straits,
Nostalgia for Harmonia,
Nostalgia for Arcade games,
Nostalgia for Pink Floyd,
Nostalgia for Cluster,
Nostalgia for Bruton Music's BRK series of library LPs.
Nostalgia for the future might be what I'm trying to project onto them. I mean this is nostalgia for the future but an older future. Not a future so much rooted in the UK early 90s so much as a 70s/80s vision of the future. If nobody is going into a new future can I value one vision of future over another? Who's being more cynical me or Emeralds?
Anyway having said all that it's another top record from Emeralds albeit one that's a little more guitar centric. Atmospheric, sad, uplifting and beautiful as usual. Nice. Is that enough?
Here's the missing Knife Party song that I was shown due to my interest in Skrillex. I can't really remember what the rest of the post was about! Maybe how slow I am to catch on to such homegrown greatness. Hey I like Severed Heads! Anyway this is brostep right?
I was off the continuum for a while by the time Dubstep came along and hey I didn't dislike it like I did with 2-Step & Grime. Some Dubstep I thought was grouse. Then I was slightly confused by Burial's LP. Was it even Dubstep? How can something be the pinnacle of said genre if its barely even a dubstep record? 'Was Burial's debut all that?' I thought it sounded like you know Pole/Basic Channel/Chain Reaction kind of gear with a bit of Maxinquaye chucked in. Don't get me wrong I love all that stuff, a lot in fact. But how could Burial's version be a whole new thing? It's not a bad record per se but was it groundbreaking? Or did I miss something?
