a November to remember…

here we go with November’s goodies….

MAPSTATION – The Africa Chamber – way back in the late 70s/early 80s I distinctly recall reading somewhere that Kraftwerk had almost completed work on an African-influenced album – although there’s nothing I can find on the web now to back up this odd memory.  The prospect of electronic-African hybrid music excited me, but I had to wait a few more years before Hector Zazou and Bony Bikaye’s groundbreaking Noir Et Blanc album on Crammed Discs went some small way towards satisfying my curiosity. Unless I’ve been missing something, this genre mix has remained seriously underexploited over the years, so I’m happy that someone with the pedigree of Mapstation seems to be heading in this direction. It’s not (to these ears) an unbridled success on this occasion, but my appetite has been whetted. More please.

KREIDLER – Mosaik 2014 – well, you wait for ages then two come along at once – well, not quite, but there are pieces of African-influenced electronica on this.

And speaking of Kraftwerk (as I was briefly, if you recall)…

KRAFTWERK – The Remasters box -  The presentation of the booklets and resleeved cds is stunning – a wonderful triumph of visual design/art, a monumental artefact.  Haven’t delved into the actual discs yet, unsure where to begin and mindful of the time it’ll take me to go through it all.

MACHINEFABRIEK – Music For Intermittent Movements & Bijeen & Blank Grey Canvas Sky - another three discs,  a recent release (BGCS) and two ‘older’ works, one apparently a compilation, though not of stuff I already have.

THE RESIDENTS – The Ughs! - I’ve been a fan since the mid 70s and continue to support them by buying their stuff and seeing them live on each tour that lands somewhere affordable in Europe – but I have to admit that in recent years I’ve not been too engaged by their efforts – the sonic palette a tad jaded, the choice of subject matter more miss than hit.  But every now and again, they pull something special out of the bag that reminds me why I’ve loved them for so long – and hooray, The Ughs is one such record.  I recall loving the instrumental backing for their Voice Of Midnight album – and this is the work that lead towards those VoM backings, shorn of that record’s annoyingly histrionic vocals/lyrics. Great to hear the Rez stretching out again – more please!!

THE RESIDENTS – Ten Little Piggies – a compilation taster of projects they plan to release in the next year (a couple of them out already). Seems that the Voice Of Midnight instrumental album I’ve been hoping for is due for a download release!

THE RESIDENTS – Is Anybody Out There? DVD – Haven’t sat down with this yet, but it’s their Bunny Boy series of YouTube videos collected – and messed with to (presumably) more couch-friendly effect.

XXX RESIDENTS – Attack of the Killer Black Eye Ball – cd & dvd, Japanese import. Billed as a ‘multi-media cosplay unit influenced by the original “The Residents”‘. With a track including Merzbow. WTF?  Try this wee video for a taster http://www.dax.tv/?item=3795 It’s a bit of a 4/4 fest, though heavy on Residents samples – and the final two tracks are noise and lounge approximations. Completists only (this would seem to include me).

DAO & CoH – Dzerzhinsk-9 - 12″ vinyl LP – WTF, you might ask, am I doing buying vinyl? Fair point, since I haven’t had a deck for years. But this is an extremely limited (60 copies + art print) edition of some of the earliest work from one of my favourite artists, CoH (Ivan Pavlov), and an email to the record label confirmed that they have no plans to release on CD. Dammit. So, very nice to look at and great to have, but……. all I can hear for the moment is an intriguing snippet on the label website. Will have to ask around and see if anyone I know’s still able to transfer from vinyl.  Also interesting to read that there’s a new joint work by Andrej and Ivan currently in the works.

THE FLAMING LIPS – Embryonic – nice faux-fur double edition with a lithograph. Only bought this when I heard that TFL had moved away from their poppier iteration towards something altogether rougher and looser.

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO – playing the piano/out of noise – more on this release after I’ve seen him perform along the road at the Queens Hall on 2nd December – I won’t be listening to this until afterwards to that the concert might offer some surprises.

THE BIRTHDAY – meets Love Grocer at On-U Sound, mixed by Adrian Sherwood – Japanese import cdep. Pleasant enough 5-tracker of pop reggae sung in Japanese, but little that obviously marks it as a Sherwood production. Love Grocer. Eh?

The Curse of Nine Rain…

…strikes again.

Recently spent a long weekend in Amsterdam, focal point of which was taking in a screening at the Paradiso of Eisenstein’s Que Viva Mexico with live score performed by Nine Rain, made all the more special by it taking place in conjunction with celebrations for the Mexican Day Of The Dead.

A wet Sunday evening and the Paradiso, a converted church in the city centre

was decked out for the evening with large skull mobiles hanging from the ceiling and an impressively adorned altar to Eisenstein front and centre below the stage.

A crowd of maybe around 300 gathered for the show, which began with two dancers ritually invoking the spirits.

And then the film – I’d not seen it before, and it’s a film with a ‘difficult’ past, probably best served over more than one viewing. Initially, the old city symphonies (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City – Man With A Movie Camera etc…) sprang to mind, and I wonder whether Eisenstein was perhaps intent on crafting a kind of  ‘country symphony’.

Nine Rain’s musical accompaniment provided a thought-provoking additional ‘layer’ of meaning, with some sections evoking the onscreen action and others acting as counterpoint. There were even a couple of passages of intentional silence to ponder. That the ’soundtrack’ didn’t end with the film points towards something else going on, a combined work in which vision and sound intentionally meet tangentially, creating an event that’s part film screening, part concert.  All extremely enjoyable, despite the occasions where the live sound mix briefly seemed to briefly ‘lose’ voice or instruments.

Was good to hang out with Isabelle, Steven, Alejandro, Jocelyne, Willem, Marianne and Greta in the bar of the Backstage Hotel (where the band were staying) afterwards, although the 4am finish effectively meant that I spent most of the following day in a bit of a stupor, rising late to bike around town with Jocelyn and picking up a DVD copy of Que Viva Mexico at a small film buff store we chanced upon.

We ended up, perhaps appropriately, having a leisurely dinner in Rose’s Cantina.

Sad to have missed a hastily organised ‘jam’ session at the Illuseum on Tuesday evening – I did try to rearrange my return flight, but discovered that my ticket type wouldn’t allow it, and a new single flight would set me back over £300. Ouch.  So I’ll have to make do with the two tantalising snippets that have appeared on YouTube, dammit.

And the curse?

According to Steven, every time Nine Rain play, it rains.  It certainly did when I caught the band at the Illuseum last year, and there was to be no exception this year. I got soaked through twice in the space of three days, though my decision to cycle everywhere probably didn’t help.

October audio

Here we go with this month’s goodies….

NINE RAIN – Que Viva Mexico – their soundtrack to the Eisenstein film Que Viva Mexico. Will be off to see them play  it in front of the film in Amsterdam at the beginning of November – can’t wait.

YELLO – Touch – continues their climb out of a fairly uninspired patch – loving the funky and ‘jazzier’ excursions in particular.

MOEBIUS – Kram – altogether fiestier stuff than I was expecting.

GONG – 2032 – well produced, and musically more muscular and engaging than I’d anticipated, although occasionally lyrically cringeworthy – or is my cynicism coming into play here?

Neat Japanese animated video to accompany one of the tracks…

THE RESIDENTS – Hades – download from their Robot Selling Device, apparently a reworking of music that was intended to provide an ‘ambient’ backdrop for the launch of Steve Cerio’s Residents toy figures. Compared to other recent outings, this is abrasive, ‘difficult’ stuff, I can’t imagine how it would have been received.

THE RESIDENTS – el Ano del Muerto – download from their Robot Selling Device, bits and bobs on a vaguely Halloween/Day Of The Dead tip.  A couple of things I don’t recognise, but given that I’ve only given cursory listens to some of their song-based albums in recent years, wouldn’t be at all surprised if I discovered that I have the tracks already. Nice and cheap though.

MACHINEFABRIEK - Rusland (3″) & Fabriek Bakker Fabriek (3″) & Piiptsjilling & Drawn & Pulses And Places – another 5 cds adding fuel to the fire…. has this man never produced a duff release?

and finally, speaking of duff releases…..

DAVID SYLVIAN – Manafon – Nope, sorry, I didn’t get this at all, despite repeated listens.  Loved his last three or four outings, but here the improv instrumentation and his voice seem to inhabit separate universes, with no meeting point. Sold on already.

September stuff

‘Normal’ service resumed after a relatively slow month, so here we go with a real mixed bag….

THE RESIDENTS – Anganok/Anganok Instrumental and Bridegroom Of Blood – mp3 downloads – from the Residents Robot Selling Device, some gems from the vaults. Interesting to hear a ‘non-Residential’ voice in play on the operatic Anganok. BoB compiles gamelan-based exercises from across the Rez discography.  I can hear the sound of scraped barrels approaching in the distance…..

MACHINEFABRIEK – Loops for Voerman 3″cd and Fabriek & Fabriek and Zeeg – another three releases in the bag as my obsessive love affair with the work of the ‘prolific Dutchman’ continues… more on the way…

PERE UBU – Long Live Pere Ubu – challenging, intelligent, burpy. Meisterwerk or curate’s egg? I’m undecided.

GONG – Angels Egg – remastered edition with added tracks, bought in anticipation of their upcoming show in Edinburgh.  Unfortunately, the bass has been brought too much to the fore. Did I ever tell you about the time Steve Hillage taught me how to communicate with a cabbage?

cabbages in animated conversation

onwards….

BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE – Love Will Tear Us Apart – from the soundtrack to The Time Traveler’s Wife, a waltz-time reworking of the Joy Division song, surely now the most covered track of modern times. This one’s on a par with the excellent Gira/Swans version, great stuff.

THE ORB – Baghdad Batteries (Orbsessions Vol. 3) – it’s The Orb – what do you expect? Some updating of their sonic palette though.

HARMONIA & ENO – tracks and traces reissue – classic ’shelved’ session between Harmonia and Eno gets its second issue. The three additional tracks are certainly worth the price of admission, but I’m wondering what else has been done to spruce up this reissue – the whole set feels terribly ‘loud’, with even a modest increase in volume straining my ageing speakers.

VARIOUS ARTISTS/THIS IMMORTAL COIL – The Dark Age Of Love – other artists interpretations of Coil pieces.  Took me a while to get around to delving into this, such is my love for Coil – and my suspicion that these versions might somehow fall prey to the contemporary penchant for folky meandering.  For the most part they feel akin in tone to the originals, although there’s something indefinably not quite ‘right’, perhaps in the airbrushing away of Coil’s perfect imperfections, a dinner-table-ising of the music.

JOHANN JOHANNSSON – And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees – limited edition of his score for short film Varmints. CD was only available at dates on a US tour, but I managed to pick up a copy from Insound. Might be given a full release later this year/early next year.

KRAFTWERK AND THE ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION DVD – a history lesson in prospect for me – I followed Kraftwerk from Autobahn onwards, but haven’t seen any video/film footage from their earlier years. At 3 hours long though, it’ll be a while before I find the time to watch it all.

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry screenprints – a cautionary tale….

In recent years I’ve successfully curbed my predeliction for purchasing original artworks, limited screenprints and the like… there’s no space left on the walls or shelves, a ******* (what’s the collective noun for packing tubes?) of unhung work fills a corner of one room. Enough, I’d said. Until I get a bigger house.

But……

Oh dear.  I’ve been following the audio activities of Mr. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for the best part of 30 years now (I’ve around 100+ albums he appears on in one capacity or another), and have always loved his self-drawn/painted album sleeves and marvelled at his decoration of the Black Ark etc….

So when I discovered not long ago that he’d worked on a series of collaborative art pieces that are now up for sale on-line, I hied myself over to the artist’s website here to check the work out.

Did I like what I saw? Oh yes I did.

Did I like the prices?  Ouch.

The originals aren’t cheap – well, certainly beyond my price range for the foreseeable future -

but a couple of them have been produced as limited edition runs of 50 screenprints, each individually added to by Perry.

And so, dear reader, I hope to be the recipient of a screenprint of this wee beauty in the next few days…….

with apologies to the gallery/artists for my ‘lifting’ this image from the website, I do hope they won’t mind….

And this WILL be finding a framer and precious wall-space.

ADDED 6TH NOVEMBER 2009 – A WARNING!!!

I feel that I reluctantly have to report that I’m having problems with the guy selling the screenprints – and for the moment would recommend that anyone considering purchasing approaches with extreme caution following my experience…

I contacted him by email, chose a print and paid as he suggested using on-line bank transfer direct to his account.  The print took around a month to arrive (not too fussed by that, people are busy) – but when it did, it turned out to be the wrong one – and of a much lower reproduction quality than I’d expected.

So far I’ve emailed the guy twice to try to sort something out (a return/refund) and have received no response at all.  My bank tells me that because I paid by direct bank transfer I’m not protected, so I face a trip to the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau to pursue my rights in this situation.  For the moment, I’m stuck with the wrong print, and am out of pocket.

So, please BEWARE the seller – and if you really must order, insist on using a credit card or Paypal so that if something similar happens to you, you’re covered.

Perhaps I’ve been lucky thus far, but this is the first time I’ve experienced a real problem when buying artworks online – real shame it’s something Perry-related.

If anyone else has a similar experience with this seller, do let me know…..

Will update this as the situation develops and (hopefully) resolves.

August stuff

Wow – unusual that a whole month goes by with minimal audio input, but there’s been the Edinburgh festivals in full swing – and I’ve been to a fair number of events, at the book festival in particular.

So, this is it….

DAVID THOMAS & THE PALE ORCHESTRA – Mirror Man Pt2. – download-only album from Hearpen. I attended a live presentation of Mirror Man as part of Stirling’s Le Weekend festival at some point in 2001/2002 – might well have been this set, but it’s too long ago to recall.

DAVID THOMAS & TWO PALE BOYS – Three Things b/w Life Of Riley – download-only ep from Hearpen consisting of two outtakes, one from the wonderful Meadville CD, the other from 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man’s Chest. You can never have too much 2PB.

July joys

TINARIWEN – Imidiwan: Companions – a less overtly produced, rawer sound than their last couple of albums, but all the crucial elements remain in place. Unusual ambient track at the end which I’ve read was formed when a miked-up guitar was left to the mercy of the desert winds. Seems too involved to be wind and sand alone making that music….

MORITZ VON OSWALD TRIO – Vertical Ascent – Sure I read somewhere a while back that the utterly gorgeous Rhythm & Sound project had reached its end, so I was keenly anticipating this release, particularly having heard that Moritz Von Oswald had suffered a stroke. Great that he’s apparently recovered – but sad to say that in all honesty I can’t say Vertical Ascent was worth the wait. Sure, as expected, it’s adroitly produced – but the overall impression I’m left with is of electro improv jazzy meanderings to little purpose or effect. Only the final of the four tracks (Pattern 4)  delves into the deep dub bliss that I’d hoped might dominate. Worth a few more listens, but it’s unlikely that this is one I’ll be returning to in future.

ON/SYLVAIN CHAUVEAU & HELGE STEN/DEATHPROD – Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night – trailed as the great ‘lost’ ambient dark metal album. For my money, not a patch on either The Black Book Of Capitalism or Morals And Dogma (both also recently reissued), but worth returning to as the nights begin to draw in….

DUBBLESTANDART/LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY & ARI UP – Return From Planet Dub – double cd, although the dubs on the first album are so strong that the CD of additional mixes seems almost superfluous. God knows how many Perry CDs I now have (upwards of 80 I think), and I never tire of his voice and ‘raps’, although the instrumental settings on some of the recent outings bearing his name have been relatively unspectacular. No worries here though, Dubblestandart are consistently far enough out there to engage, and this is the strongest set since… oh, that Adrian Sherwood Japanese-only set Upsetter Dub last year. Seems Perry’s having a late flowering….

Encouraged me to seek out…

DUBBLESTANDART – Heavy Heavy Monster Dub & Immigration Dub – two of their past albums. I’d lost track of what’s going on in the world of dub these days – Japan’s Audio Active and Dry & Heavy were the last outfits I paid any real attention to a few years back, both associated with Sherwood.  Thoroughly enjoyable, and make me want to seek out even more. They’re Austrian too – what with these and the recent dub-influenced Tosca album, is there something in the Viennese water supply?

Have just bought tickets to see Dub Syndicate at the Voodoo Rooms at the beginning of August. Just listened to a couple of their old discs and they’re not bearing up too well. Expectations slightly lowered for the show, although I’m sure Adrian Sherwood will be entertaining on the board.

MULATU ASTATKE/THE HELIOCENTRICS – Inspiration Information – Like quite a few others (I’d imagine) I only stumbled across Astatke/Astatqe through the ‘Broken Flowers’ soundtrack – proving, I guess, that a love of Bill Murray can lead you to some strange places. This is certainly at the jazzier end of my usual spectrum of listening, but that’s not a bad thing. What really got me on this release is not Astatke’s contributions (fine though they are), but the spectacular drumming, which brought to mind both Jaki Liebezeit and Tony Allen.

BJORK – Voltaic – archival/live/video spread over two cds and two dvds. Are there many other artists who so carefully milk their work across different iterations? Someone in the house will spend a great deal of time with this, but it’s unlikely to be me.

BRIAN WILSON – That Lucky Old Sun – three quid out of Fopp, can’t go wrong there.

NURSE WITH WOUND – Alice The Goon – cdep – dunno how this one managed to pass me by

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.