June bugs

NURSE WITH WOUND – The Memory Surface - 3-disc edition of The Surveillance Lounge. Dare I say that I’ve come to prefer the NWW who toy more obviously with song and rhythm (Huffin’ Rag Blues being the recent example to cite). Probably heretical to some, but there you go. Great audio journey, but don’t know how often I’ll be returning to it, or the bonus discs.

ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO – utp_ (cd, dvd & booklets) – just bought tickets to a ‘Ryuichi Sakamoto at the piano’ solo event at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh in December. I’m sure it’ll be good – but on the strength of this, I’m already sad that Alva Noto won’t be along for the ride. Gorgeous, and cleverly packaged as ever from Raster Noton.

TOM TOM CLUB – Tom Tom Club/Close To The Bone (2cd reissue) - beautifully packaged (good job, Joe) and pleasing to hear again.

MACHINEFABRIEK – Mort Aux Vaches & Slaapzucht & Ranonkel & Gris Gris & Shuffle - a set from 2006, one from 2007, two from 2008, and one from this year continuing my catching up with the activities of Machinefabriek. Ranonkel wins from this batch. Only Shuffle disappoints.

VIEUX FARKA TOURE – fondo – The first of two attempts this month to conjure forth a summery vibe chez nous in face of the persistent cloud, damp and drizzle that marks the Scottish version of the season.

BAABA MAAL – television – My second attempt to… blah blah.

TARWATER – Donne-Moi La Main OST – their first outing for a while, and more song-based than might be typical from film score/soundtracking work

LAURIE ANDERSON – Nothing In My Pockets (book & two cds) – nicely if cheaply packaged diary of audio vignettes. Interesting project, but I began to find Laurie’s telling us what we’re about to hear before we hear it a tad wearing, and the audio snippets themselves are too brief to become immersive ‘events’ in themselves.

THE RESIDENTS – Adobe Disfigured Night - an mp3 download from their new Robot Selling Device site, an early live iteration of their Disfigured Night performance/disc. Crazy. I’m hopeful that more rarities will emerge for download here in due course, my fingers are crossed for an extended Voice Of Midnight instrumental set.

Throbbing Gristle @ Glasgow Tramway

A quick trip along a crowded M8 late yesterday afternoon nearly turned in to a disaster when for reasons unknown (to me anyway) a driver three ahead of me decided to screech to a halt in the fast lane. Ferociously jumping on my brakes and swerving, I avoided whacking the car in front by a whisker – but following drivers weren’t so lucky, and I heard the dull crunch of metal on metal behind me. Perhaps ironically prescient, this crunching echoed a similar sonic palette to early TG.

So, an unnerving start to the evening, attending what might at one time have been a vaguely unnerving concert experience me. Have to confess that waaay back before I’d first heard Throbbing Gristle, their reputation preceded them and I was unsure what to expect and how I’d react.

Same with this evening – but being older and (arguably, I know) wiser, I was uncertain for a different reason. TG as a chicken-in-a-basket retro outfit, albeit at the ‘arty’ end of the spectrum?

The venue was almost full (900 out of 1,000 ticket sold, I heard), with an adjacent MFA degree show viewing in another hall also crowding the foyer. Hard to tell one group from the other, which was encouraging – regulation paramilitary greys/blacks obviously a thing of the past for TG’s current audience.

TG emerged at half past eight for their first set of the evening, an improvised (”this is the first time we’ve done this”) score for a 40 minute short film by Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans. Band and artist had previously collaborated on a sound scuplture for the Yokohama Triennale, something I managed to take in on a trip to Japan late last year and found to be the highlight of that overall disappointing show (see earlier blog entry).

Notwithstanding an obvious confluence of intellectual interest in ritual behaviours, there didn’t seem to be much to link the slowly dissolving images of Thai and Japanese festivals with the lugubrious TG jamming accompanying it – material that didn’t seem a million miles away in scope from the Third Mind Movement album the group have released as a recent tour artefact. Not that any of this wasn’t engaging – it certainly was.

a tour artefact, yeserday

A half hour break followed before the band re-emerged for their ‘greatest hits’ set. House lights remained up as Persuasion oozed into being, a welcome opener, and pleasingly clear sound.

I’m not one for spewing set lists (or being able to remember them), but amongst the favourites offered up were Hamburger Lady, Almost A Kiss, What A Day, and a thumping climax with Discipline. No encore.

Not sure what happened to Genesis’ violin playing throughout – either I’ve lost a frequency in my hearing or it was well down in the mix, only occasionally audible.

So, the first TG appearance in “a wee country, but one with a lot of power” (according to Genesis) was a success – no longer (though of course they never were) the ‘wreckers of civilization”, the group maintained admirable levels of power and composure throughout, and confirmed (for me at any rate) that their reactivated sonic questing is well worthy of continued engagement.

Haste ye back.

May stuff

Here’s the merry month of May, in retrospect already……

THROBBING GRISTLE – The Third Mind Movements – released to accompany their US tour – plenty of glutinous jamming/improv. Looking forward to seeing them live for the first time at the Tramway in mid-June.

THE INNER SPACE/CAN – Agilok & Blubbo – ‘lost’ early work from the precursor group to Can. Curiousity value only, at least for me.

TUSSLE – Cream Cuts – modern krautrock from San Francisco (I think). Engaging on a first listen, and they could become something special over the space of a few more discs. A real grower.

MACHINEFABRIEK – Marijn & Weleer - I’m warming to prolific Dutchman Rutger Zudervelt and his bespoke ambient electronickery day by day. Seems I’ve got 40+ discs to catch up with. Ach weel, 3 down, 37 to go…..

BIOSPHERE – Wireless: Live at the Arnolfini, Bristol - Live ‘greatest hits’ set recorded by Chris Watson. Does what it says on the tin.

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Sleepwalk: a selection by Optimo (Espacio) – A groovy Christopherson Coil remix of a track from The Ape Of Naples attracted me to this comp from last year. The rest I either have already or doesn’t quite connect.

CURRENT 93 – Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain – Bought the costly subscribers’ edition, and sad to say, I wish I hadn’t bothered. Altogether too ‘rocky’ for me, but will probably come into its own with live iterations – not that I’m ever likely to find out.

Threshold Houseboy’s Choir @ Stereo, Glasgow 3rd May 2009

Well?

I was lucky enough to be at a rare Peter Christopherson/Threshold Houseboy’s Choir solo show at Stereo in Glasgow earlier tonight, following an entertaining catch-up dinner with Jo at the venue’s vegan restaurant.

Christopherson mostly ‘played’ stuff from the Amulet Edition, accompanied by projection of a disparate yet entirely appropriate selection of video.

Opening with a lengthy clip from The Thief of Baghdad, there was also variously; a video ‘prayer’ for some Thai boys enjoying themselves; footage of a ceremony in which young trancing Thais attempting to breach an army cordon in order to reach a tattoo artist/priest; some gay mobile phone porn ‘heterosexualised’ by way of solarisation; a Liberace performance; some (mercifully) distressed phone video footage of beheadings that were part of the Thai/Malaysian border conflict; film of ceremonial masked dancing at a Thai royal funeral; and ending with phone video footage of sex acts. A nice lengthy noise-bath improv on ‘Distonto’ – one of the Amulet tracks – accompanied the latter to finish proceedings.

All of this punctuated by Christopherson’s avuncular wit. Waki was very taken with what she described as his very fetching ‘cows-moo’ dressing gown.

From the Threshold House website “Sleazy reserves the right to add an extra disc or mini-dvd to a small number of Amulets he will be selling at solo THBC shows in Europe during May, though IF he does, the extra disc will be also available alone, to include in the Amulet you already bought.”

Was slightly disappointed to discover that the 3″ disc of additional Amulet Edition material didn’t materialise on the merchandise table – not enough time to prepare it, apparently. Ach weel…..

But I did snap up one of an edition of 100 Soisong ‘xAj3z’ promo booklets/folders complete with the new disc. Haven’t read it yet, but it seems to expand around the selection of photos gracing the album pages of the Soisong website.

A good night, and I also heard through the grapevine that there might be a Throbbing Gristle show at the Tramway in Glasgow sometime in June – have to keep my eyes peeled for that.

April showers

This month’s prime listenage…

SOISONG – xAj3z : 060409 - Peter Christopherson & Ivan Pavlov arguably still finding their feet as a duo with their debut album release. Beautifully – if annoyingly – packaged. Not convinced myself as yet that it hangs together as an album, although each track is a wonderful listen. As I type, only two days separate me from a Threshold Houseboy’s Choir show in Glasgow. Can’t wait.

INTRUSION – The Seduction Of Silence - comparisons with a roomier Pole or Rhythm & Sound wouldn’t go amiss here.

TOSCA – No Hassle – having bored with Kruder & Dorfmeister quite a while ago, I only bought this recent Dorfmeister/Huber double set as an audio souvenir of our visit to Wien, and having read reviews suggesting that this lifts itself beyond the trip-hoppy/ambient cliches that K&D became mired in. It does, to an extent.

JAH WOBBLE & THE CHINESE DUB ORCHESTRA – Chinese Dub - finally got around to this, having read so many ecstatic reviews over the past few months. Doesn’t (probably couldn’t really be expected to) live up to the hyperbole on offer in print, but decent.

MARTIENSGOHOME – Abscons Depuis 1996 - ten albums worth of relatively spartan Belgian electro-acoustic improv on a bamboo USB stick housed in a small wooden box – gorgeous design sense, something to treasure as an artefact. Am slowly beginning to work my way through its audio delights.

March mundanity

The quietest month for new music in ages, and probably a good thing too. Have some burns from friends that I’m still working my way through, but here’s what got bought…

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY & ADRIAN SHERWOOD – dubsetter - Japanese-only (for the moment) release of dubs from the recent The Mighty Upsetter album. Top stuff. When will OnU emerge from whatever legal mire it’s in and start putting this stuff out in the UK? With the exchange rate as it is, importing this cost me over £30!

KATE BUSH – aerial – picked up for a fiver in Fopp on one of my increasingly rare visits. Never really liked her, but have to say I really enjoyed this pastoral prog. Surprise of the month.

SKIP McDONALD & ADRIAN SHERWOOD & GHETTO PRIEST & IAN KING – I murder hate – a very limited edition four-track cdep reworking songs by Rabbie Burns, produced to accompany a one-off live appearance at the Tollbooth in Stirling mid-March. Burns goes blues/folk/dub. Better than it sounds, but the live iterations were better still. Still, a worthwhile aide memoire.

SKIP McDONALD & DABY TOURE – call my name – WOMAD-produced cdep, sunny stuff, but hasn’t merited repeat listenings.

THE INTERNATIONAL ,OST – saw the film, liked it, bought the soundtrack in memory. Worked well with the images, but doesn’t stand alone as well as I had suspected it might.

Livewise, saw a wonderful show by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba at the Queens Hall, followed a couple of days later by the most entertaining David Byrne show I’ve seen in a long time at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

STILL looking forward to Threshold Houseboy’s Choir at Stereo in May, but beginning to get pretty pissed at the impenetrable Soisong password shenanigans surrounding the release of their new album. Just put it out there, guys!!!

February’s audio frolics

THRESHOLD HOUSEBOY’S CHOIR – amulet edition – was lucky enough to get one of the 200 made of this gorgeously packaged ‘work-in-progress’ – although at £65 a pop, I’m not quite sure that ‘lucky’ is the right word. Still, a wee treasure, and I’m looking forward to the May show at Glasgow’s Stereo immensely.

BEIRUT – march of the zapotec/realpeople holland – two discs, and still only around a half hour of music. I’m leaning towards the soft electro-pop of the latter disc.

MAGAZINE – live and intermittent – poor audio quality live ‘bootleg’ cd available at their recent live shows. Listened once, filed and forgotten. Intermittently stunning show at the Academy in Glasgow, though given the typical west coast diet, the smoking ban in venues should definitely be scrapped. Appalling flatulence all around.

BAIKONOUR – your ear knows future - apparently a Fujiya & Miyagi offshoot, gentle motorik beats and ambience. A grower.

SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU – nuage – film soundtrack picked up in a sale on the strength of the lovely ‘Black Book Of Capitalism’.

BERNARD SZAJNER – some deaths take forever & superficial music – vague memories of him from the early 80’s rekindled by these two LTM reissues. Time has been relatively kind to the SDTF set of electronic prog. I hope LTM plan to rerelease his (best known) third album with contributions from Howard Devoto.

LENA & THE FLOATING ROOTS ORCHESTRA – lost-wax – loved the first two cds and tracked this down via a French website. Down and groovy.

January joys

BRIAN ENO/DAVID BYRNE – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today – already have audio files for this, but this limited edition circular tin complete with extra dvd disc, 4 extra tracks, dice, pill etc… is a little design joy.

SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU – The Black Book Of Capitalism – missed this first time round – eclectic, beautiful.

HENRI BOWANE – Double Take Tala Kaka – one-off genius of Congolese rumba. Mellifluous mmmmmm.

NURSE WITH WOUND – Man With The Woman Face – bought for its disc of remixes, including a stonking lengthy ‘groove’.

ELEGI – Varde – arctic soundscapes.

ERGO PHIZMIZ – Pie Hateaux – online free download.

VARIOUS ARTISTS/RUNE GRAMMAFON – Money Will Ruin Everything 2nd Edition – gorgeous book, not sure when I’ll get round to listening to the two audio discs.

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY – Live At The Jazz Cafe – completists only.

and last but by no means least, the wonderful

TUJIKO NORIKO – Penguin 2009…

available from her website as a free download – get it before it’s gone

http://blog.tujikonoriko.com/?eid=795053

Stockholm & The Residents

Took a long weekend break to Stockholm in early December, primarily to see The Residents, but also my first visit to Sweden.

Had heard how expensive it is there, but nothing had quite prepared me for £8 for a bar of chocolate. A pub dinner (admittedly 3-course, an up-market bar, and elk & reindeer steaks scoffed) cost us over £100, so bread and cheese came into play despite the cold, grey and damp weather.

Residents show? Smallest venue I’ve ever seen them in, a theatre annex with a capacity of around 200 (it was jammed). A small stage barely big enough to accommodate personnel, equipment and the two basic ‘tent’ sets, but clear sound.

The Bunny Boy’s a curious album (and YouTube series etc….) and I’d looked forward to seeing the nascent mythology expanded upon. Disappointing in that respect as there was nothing on offer that’s not already available on disc/YT. Simple but effective presentation as the Bunny Boy himself lead proceedings, stalking the tiny stage and ranting throughout. It’s the music that fails to engage – the word ‘lumpen’ springs to mind, unfortunately.

A problem I’ve had with the last few Residents releases, imho not striking a good balance between spoken word, lyrics and musical inventiveness. The SandMan had superb musical backing that wasn’t allowed time to breathe, suffocated by spoken word that was insufficiently involved to stand repeated listening. Bunny Boy is the reverse – conceptually a more involving project, but hampered by music that doesn’t stand up to repeated exposure. What next for them, I wonder.

December goodies

Been a very slack month for new audio – and probably just as well too, with BAFTA screeners piling up to be viewed for the upcoming film awards. So, not much listening going on here this month, but plenty of viewing.

Nevertheless, have picked up a few goodies….

FM3 – Buddha Machine V.2 – having missed out the first time round, I finally cracked and bought grey and burgundy machines to play around with. Cheap but not necessarily cheerful, they’re less flexible than I’d thought they might be, and the sound quality from the on-board speaker’s poor. Part of the charm, I guess, but thus far I haven’t found them the immersive experience others have.

On The Hour Volumes One & Two - have had the episodes as audio files for a few years – but in a spirit of supporting the artists, and keen to hear the various extras, I shelled out for both 4xcd sets. Something for the car over the next couple of months.

SEUN KUTI & FELA’S EGYPT 80 – Many Things – prime afrobeat, with all the energy and venom of his dad at his best. Cracking stuff.

A COMPLETE INTRODUCTION TO NORTHERN SOUL - big 4xcd&booklet set that’ll keep out the winter chill nicely. Thanks, Joe!

FENNESZ – Black Sea – Erm… not even listened to this yet.

WINSTON TONG/STEVEN BROWN/TUXEDOMOON – live ICA 30th October 1982 (excerpt) – finally got hold of something that’s been a holy grail for me for over two decades! Only a 5-minute extract from the 40-minute performance though, so the hunt is still on for the complete show (it must be out there somewhere, surely).