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).

the sound(s) of November

Blimey, November almost over already…

Live shows this month…. The Notwist @ King Tuts in Glasgow was a show I wondered whether or not to bother going to – would their gorgeous subtleties survive a less forgiving live arena? I was pleasantly surprised – yes, they rocked out, but with a quality sound mix that left every little element audible. Truly lovely.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh, by contrast, was a total disappointment. Definitely pandering to the poppier end of his repertoire, and the sound and mix were truly appalling- not far short of aural torture, my ears were still ringing the following day. A couple of highlights in Tupelo and Stagger Lee, but I was hoping for a well-rehearsed, loose-limbed avant blues collective and got a slick over-loud rock band and muddy sound from hell. Will never go back to the Corn Exchange – no great loss, since they generally don’t host anything I’m interested in anyway.

Kinda sorry to miss a chicken-in-a-basket triple bill of Human League/ABC/Heaven 17 in Glasgow at the end of the month, but when the alternative is flying off to see the mighty Residents in Stockholm on the European leg of their Bunny Boy tour there was only ever going to be one winner. More on that when I get back.

Shiny shiny discies being pored over this month were….

SAMIA FARAH – The Many Moods Of… – sunny dub-pop mixed by Adrian Sherwood. Effectively chases those approaching-winter blues away.

THE RESIDENTS – Postcards From Patmos – a selection of creepily atmospheric background music from their Bunny Boy YouTube series. Brings winter that little bit closer.

BRAD LANER – Neighbor Singing – BION, probably my fist vinyl purchase in over ten years – and primarily made because the sleeve, inner sleeve and disc labels have all been beautifully designed by Josh Keyes. A key to digital download came with it though – just as well

JOHANN JOHANNSSON – Fordlandia – Well, it’s occasionally a tad syrupy for my taste, but overall some decent explorations.

DAVID THOMAS & TWO PALE BOYS – A Map Only Tells Me What I Already Know – download-only from Hearpen.com. Live ‘jams’ from a 2001 tour that were intended to form the basis of a new 2PB album, but were shelved when the band moved in a different direction. Keith Moline calls it ‘the great lost 2PB live album’. And he’s not wrong.

And that’s it… a bit of a slack month for new sounds

A day out….

Came across some amusing signage/odd juxtapositions on a day out sightseeing in…… erm… Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo.

A quaint mixture of ancient and modern to begin with...

Throw some political history into the mix...

'C' is for Customs House. The cuddly face of officialdom.

Now I feel like climbing something...

A bit small - and whatdayamean I can't play my trumpet at the top?

Ah well, looks like I couldn't have gone up there anyway.

Now I'm getting a bit peckish - but some shitehawk's had my sandwiches.

Erm... I'll just have the curry, thanks...

and some pea flavoured ice cream to follow.

After that little lot, the crapper should be particularly fragrant. Oh...

Nice, but no - you book off!

Just how much of a nuisance can one be on a wall?

Thought I'd stop somewhere for a cigarette after all that.

When can I go home?

Josh Keyes – Guardian 1 screenprint

Some good news (for me at any rate)…

I’ve been a fan of US artist Josh Keyes work for a while, and was lucky enough to get hold of the two small screenprints that were sold through Tiny Showcase (see earlier blog post).

But not so lucky in trying to secure larger, limited edition pieces through the Limited Addiction Gallery website – demand was simply waaaay too high, and days of fruitless ‘F5′ing in pursuit of his last two prints produced no joy whatsoever.

So I was well chuffed to discover that my participation in the Josh Keyes Forum has apparently been enough to land me ‘pre-approved’ status for purchase of his most recent screenprint, ‘Guardian 1″. How could I possibly refuse? And not an F5 key in sight. Bliss.

So, in the next couple of weeks I hope to take delivery of this beauty…. (I really hope LAG won’t mind my ‘lifting’ this low-res image from their website, I couldn’t find it on Google images or elsewhere….)

Guardian 1

From the forum…

The artist statement on the “Guardian” series:
“Some of the new paintings I am working on titled “Guardian”, are branching along the idea of stewardship and conscious action. They are both a self portrait and are also intended to be a portrait of human action. Each one of us can have a positive or negative indirect effect on preserving the worlds fragile ecology. We can do this by being mindful throughout our daily routine of shopping, eating, and choice of transportation. I wanted to express a sense of empowerment and also caution and fragility, The basic idea being that the preservation of a sustainable future is in our hands.”

October goodies

This month’s audio delights….

TUJIKO NORIKO/Lawrence English/John Chantler – U – Tujiko brings sung melody to electronic sound-beds by English and Chantler. Lovely.

BURNT FRIEDMAN/JAKI LIEBEZEIT – Secret Rhythms 3 – More of what you’d expect, and damn fine with it.

MERCURY REV – Snowflake Midnight/Strange Attractor – a pronounced electronica direction on this album and its freely downloadable counterpart. The best I’ve EVER heard them, an absolute gem – and yes, the free download did encourage me to later buy the main album. I wasn’t disappointed.

NURSE WITH WOUND – The Continuous Accident – A single hour-long ‘ambient’ track only available with a limited edition of 50 photographic portfolios in collaboration with Julia Kramer.

HAUSCHKA – Ferndorf - ‘new classical’ piano-based workouts.

STRANGE ATTRACTOR – Mettle – featuring Winston Tong and Graham Lewis amongst others, lovely dubby song-jazz that calls to mind the excellent Ginman/Jorgensen sets I’ve been raving about recently.

STRANGE ATTRACTOR – Everything Is Closer – 2006 album which sets the template for ‘Mettle’. More ambient and jazzy and perhaps less coherent than the follow-up.

23 SKIDOO – Seven Songs, Urban Gamelan and Just Like Everybody – a package of reissues on Les Temps Modernes that I have to admit I’m struggling to get to grips with. Too much all at once.

MACHINEFABRIEK – Dauw – Boomkat seem to love this guy’s stuff and have waxed lyrical over this particular release, so thought I’d check it out.

NINE RAIN – vi - Steven Brown’s Mexican combo’s new state-funded album, more abstract and experimental than previous work and all the better for it. I wonder if this is them ‘limbering up’ for their highly anticipated (by this viewer/listener anyway) new scoring of Eisenstein’s lost classic ‘Que Viva Mexico’.

SAROOS – Saroos – A couple of years old now, but heard snippets of this on the Alien Transistor website, and since I love The Notwist, Chronomad, 13&God etc… German left-field electronic pop – ye cannae beat it!

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY – Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered – His third (!) release this year, and more immediately accessible (read – poppy) than either ‘Mighty Upsetter’ or ‘Repentence’, but amusing and engaging nevertheless.

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY – The End Of An American Dream – Don’t know how this Grammy-nominated album from last year managed to pass me by. As ever, the rants are amusing, but I prefer any of the three releases this year.