'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

Problem Child - ACDC

Rick Rubin summed up AC/DC here. Amongst other things he wrote:

A great band like Metallica could play an AC/DC song note for note, and they still wouldn't capture the tension and release that drive the music. There's nothing like it.

The essence of Malcolm Young.

RIP Malcolm Young

Malcolm Young.

The Centre,

The Core,

The Engine,

The Backbone.

The Heart & Soul,

A riff machine.

The essence of AC/DC is the rhythmic guitars and the minimalist groove.

Malcolm was the fucking essence of AC/DC!

Marc Acardipane - See You In 2017

2017 Gloom/Doom-Core

The atmosphere on these tracks is just so....now. Is World War III really going to be about a couple of drama queenz having a bitch fight in the sand pit about who's old, short or fat? Ye olde cartoons were smarter than that. Kim & Don are are the dim wit kids in grade one you felt sorry for. This here is the soundtrack for the schoolboy/world leader dust up which was made in 91/92 with a vision to 2017. I'm worried Marc Acardipane is some sort of Nostradamus type figure. I mean like Nostradamus (as in a psychically freaky fortune teller for the ages) and not just into him as Simon Reynolds mentioned at the beginning of the year on my blog. These aren't even Marc's most pulverising beats, It's all about the blackest gloomiest synths and sound generators. Some of these beats are almost quite fun. Music for the surviving cockroaches, ants and mutant sea creatures to joyfully bug out to while the ghost of humanity looms in the post-apocalyptic air.

*All of these tracks have been remastered and reissued in digital form in 2017. Frontal Sickness, Final Sickness and a compilation called Selected Classics have been part of Acardipane's reissue campaign by Planet Phuture. So far it's been all about The Mover and Mescalinum United, I wonder if any of his other aliases will be getting the remastered treatment?

Obscure Darkside Mix - DevNull

You can always depend on Pete DevNull to come with something fucking cool around Halloween for lovers of the darkside of the hardcore continuum and this year is no exception. This fabulous mix, that was posted a few days ago, is some of the most shadowy old school jungle you'll ever hear. According to Blog To The Old School some of these tunes are mega rare white labels and unreleased trax from back in the day. I reckon I only recognise 3 or 4 of the platters in this set. You know the score!

If you love the darkside I suggest you go through the BTTO archive of mixes. One year (2012?) Pete did an epic 3 hour set for Halloween which is one of my favorite all time dj mixes. There's a bunch of fantastic darkside sets from DevNull that should keep you going out of your brain for some time.

Umberto Lenzi Movies For Halloween

Watch Eyeball in tribute to the late great Umberto Lenzi. Ocular violence is probably my biggest fear so this gets to me despite how funny the whole movie is. It's very disturbing to me.



Lenzi did like 7 or 8 Gialli and Spasmo is his most triumphantly mental. Just go with it and forget about a cohesive narrative for the duration. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. There's actually a better version on youtube Posted by Giallo Realm which won't embed here. So maybe search for that one. Happy Halloween.

Halloween

Friday The 13th goes to an early 80s disco, 1982 to be precise. Love that synth bass.

Remember when Howard Shore was awesome? Particularly when he was scoring for Cronenberg.

Ambient to noisy electronic delirium and back again.

Francois De Roubaix was a French film composer. I think his mind was quite free of constraints when it came to making music. You can hear it all here in just 3 minutes. He covers a lot of ground but it doesn't sound forced or shoehorned, it's just wonderful. As far as I can tell only two tunes from the soundtrack to the 1971 Belgian film Daughters of Darkness were ever issued. Les Dunes d'Ostende was on one side of a 7" released by French label Barclay.

Keeping with the horror theme, De Roubaix died in his mid 30s in an accident whilst diving off The Canary Islands in 1975. He is pictured on the cover of one of his compilations in scuba diving gear which I thought was rather macabre.

HORROR MOVIE PODCAST - FACULTY OF HORROR
If you can get past how impressed this duo are about their scholastic achievements and are a horror movie fan this could be a podcast for you. The hosts Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West take an analytical look at one or two films per episode which are thematically linked. They've covered ye olde classics like Night Of The Hunter, Witchfinder General, Black Christmas, The Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Shivers, Halloween etc. Plenty of 80s and 90s movies like The Shining, Sleepaway Camp, Friday The 13th, Fright Night, Gremlins, Lost Boys, The Crucible, The Crow & The Cube have been featured. Films of the new Millennium are not shied away from either, like they are in many other casts of pod. Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, Elle, The Descent, Trick'rTreat, Calvaire, Martyrs, The Babadook, Cabin In The Woods & Drag Me To Hell have all been picked apart by the faculty. Alexandra West wrote the book Films Of New French Extremity and has a new book due soon about 90s teen horror.

I've never seen this movie but it's apparently a cross between Carnival Of Souls and Messiah Of Evil. Which sounds like it would be right up my street. The full version on youtube is unwatchable but it was issued by Arrow on dvd & blu-ray last year though. Looking forward to tracking it down. 

Movies Part III

The first 4 were good but this...

MOVIES I COULDN'T SIT THROUGH (ie. Wasted time & money renting these. Why do I torture myself trying to watch all this shit. Well I kinda don't anymore, only sometimes. Thank God)

Drive (2011)
Tediously dim plus am I the only person who thinks Ryan Gosling is dull as fuck?

Scott Pilgrim V The World (2010) 
Who cares?

American Hustle (2013)
What a load of shite.

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008) 
OMG! Worst idea for a film ever.

Cabin In The Woods (2012) 
"It's so way out and meta, man."

Phone Booth (2002) 
Does anyone actually like the actor in this phone box?
  
This Is 40 (2012) 
The worst characters in a film ever played by the most unconvincing actors I've come across.

February (2015) 
No atmosphere or tension. 23 minutes in I couldn't have cared less what happened to these characters to continue watching.

King Kong (2005) 
Sleepy time.

Berberian Sound Studio (2012) 
Fuck off with your pretentious fake giallo homage!

The Wicker Man (2006) 
Nicholas Cage or Keanu Reeves: Who's worse?

Oh Brother Where Art Though (2000) 
"So quirky & unusual, man. Oh and I just love the soundtrack. Country music's so interesting."

I'm Not There (2007) 
I'm so not there. Never will be.

Horrible Bosses (2011)
Horrible movie.

Bad Teacher (2011) 
Bad Movie.

Friday The 13th Part 5 (1985) 
I got maybe a third of the way in when I realised this was so bad...it was just bad.

The Road (2009) 
I love sleep.

27 Dresses (2008) 
Got about 9 minutes into this.

Studio 54 (1998)
eww

The Thin Red Line (1998)
So much sleep to get here.

Waterworld (1995) 
The great snooze-fest continues. Maybe this isn't that bad but I just can't make it through without at least 3 naps.

Gods & Monsters (1998) 
Bad acting and a bad script = Oscars.

Noah (2014) 
WTF? Can you believe this guy had actually directed several good films before this one?

Hilary & Jackie (1998)
omfg..... 
Banger Sisters (2002) 
So Fake.

Jacob's Ladder (1990) 
I think I was supposed to be intrigued. I was intrigued by what another sleep would be like.

Mars Attacks (1996) 
Looking at the inside of my eyelids was infinitely more interesting than looking at this picture.

Demons (1985) 
Some film buffs recommend this. Why? I got maybe 12 minutes in and had to call it. "But Dario Argento co-wrote and produced it."  Big woop.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) 
Didn't care enough about the characters to see what happened to them in the end, well I hope they all died and there was no final girl.

In The Realm Of The Senses (1976) 
"Incredibly deep and meaningful Asian porn" with the worst soundtrack ever.

5 CLASSICS STARRING JULIE CHRISTIE
Don't Look Now
Demon Seed
McCabe & Mrs Miller
Petulia
Billy Liar

NEVER SEEN
American Graffiti
Empire Strikes Back
Anything directed by Rob Zombie

MOVIES I SURPRISINGLY DIDN'T HATE
Knock Knock (2015)
Director Eli Roth comes across a such a tool but this could have been a major cult classic if they had cast a good leading man but hey, they got Keanu Reeves and he cannot act. The two leading ladies are fantastic though. Really good story, I thought. Wasted opportunity.

The Revenant (2015)
A bear V past his prime Leo, who would have thought entertainment would ensue?

Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Sam Raimi had made maybe one good movie since Evil Dead so I definitely was not expecting this to be good or even ok or even a bit less than ok.

The Black Swan (2010)
Expected this to be a very boring chick flick. Are you allowed to say that now, boring?

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
McConaughey hadn't been cool for like 20 years then...

Bad Neighbours (2014) 
Gotta love Rose Byrne. She's the best comic actress of our time.

The Notebook (2004)
Thought this was gonna be the worst pile o shite ever but I didn't hate it. Hey it's got fucking Gena Rowlands, the greatest living actress.

Killer Joe (2011)
Elderly directors usually don't make films you wanna watch. All film directors should be shot by the time they reach 50. Most of today's young directors should be rounded up and massacred immediately!

The King's Speech (2010)
The fucking royal family can go fuck themselves. Why isn't Australia a republic? Anyway this was alright with all the actoring and stuff.

The Passion Of The Christ (2004)
It had been over 30 years since Mel was involved with a good movie. So for this to be a classic is rather astounding. Yeah I know he's an arsehole but he might be a genius. Does that make him a genius arsehole?

Death Proof (2007)
Tarantino is the most overrated, unimaginative and derivative film maker of our time yet he thinks he so fucking great. My god he finds himself oh so interesting and clever. He started out with three good films and it's been all downhill ever since. Nobody recommended this one but I like.

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
I think I saw this late one night on telly. Maybe I was wasted but I thought it was a good cheesy slasher.

Dressed To Kill (1980)
Never liked a De Palma movie in my life but this was a good laugh.

Young Thug

I totally slept on this one from Mr Thug in 2017. He still has greatness within him. I mean, I quite like the new album he's done with Future Super Slimey and now I'm going back to Beautiful Thugger Girls, which is sounding better by the minute. Not that I ever gave that album much of a chance. While he's not as astonishingly surprising, as he was say four or five years ago, he's still remarkably unique. Young Thug is probably for me the best thing vocally in the 2010s. Someone asked a question a while ago, at maybe Dissensus, on who is the most innovative musician of the the 2010s and I had a few ideas but this guy is surely the most idiosyncratic vocal talent of the last five or six years.

An amazing thing is that nobody's come up with a literary way to describe what it is (as far as I know), which is good. I'm actually trying not to come up with an easily describable term for what he does because then he will just become describable by that little phrase that someone comes up with. I do half wish I could put it all into words but it's a struggle. I find writing about music, sonics and their evocative nature comes a lot easier. There was someone who once wrote about Bob Dylan and all his vocal changes over the years, maybe they could do it. I kinda can't see an old Rolling Stone/Creem type of writer being seduced by Young Thug but you never know though. One thing is that Young Thug's vocal science is all organic as opposed to fucked with in the studio or by a computer/phone/autotune. Does this make him some sort of roots artist? Sure his voice has also been fucked with by technology too but he could survive without it. Thug has invented a whole new language/syntax in vocals and singing. At this moment he is just mercurial....