Friday, July 29, 2005
The Movement In Your Brain...
Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun
I've noticed a bit of shuffling going on in the Free Folk camp over the past few months. You know a movement is peaking when people start denying they're part of it, or say it isn't a meaningful label. Quite right, too. No one should feel obliged to knock out half hour acoustic drones because that's what the "scene" requires. Do what you damn well want to - that's what creative freedom is all about, isn't it? And what's the point of a "scene" if it doesn't allow the Muse to walk freely amongst us?
Of course, you know She'll edge things back to songs sooner or later. And when She does, Mr Drake will be there. The whole tragic legend has damned him as an influence in some quarters, as if it has made him too obvious to be a valid inspiration. That's snobbery. He was great. I love all kinds of wilfully wooly and obscure things, but I don't care if there's a Nick Drake documentary on Radio 2 presented by Brad Pitt, or if some of his material is used as incidental music on Heartbeat or The Royal. Because he was great.
And when you come to "Pink Moon", he was really, really great. I read somewhere that he delivered the master tapes to Island in a plastic bag, dropping them at Reception and walking out. Pretty much a take or leave it gesture, which, if true, seems appropriate.
An aside: elsewhere, Syd was following a similar path, haunting Reception desks on occasion, not there but there - he soon gave that up. Returned the royalty cheques. I make no account of my actions. There I was. Not here now. Unrecognisable to old friends. Jugband Blues.
Back to "Pink Moon" - earlier albums had some sugary arrangements and prettiness: "Thoughts of Mary Jane", "At The Chime Of The City Clock". This is all replaced by austerity and a refusal to look anywhere other than square into your face. And it works, because the songs are undeniable.
The performances on this album are not given depth by his death. It's there, despite it. So try to forget the details of the life, the speculation of suicidal intent, his eventual fashionableness, forget all of it.
Listen to the song. Just you, listening. Isn't that what it's all about?
Buy - Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Visit - Bryter Music - The Nick Drake Estate
Visit - Nick Drake
Mike.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
I just got bummed in ASDA
Happy Mondays - Do It Better
I couldn't believe it?!?! I just popped into ASDA to get me shoppin' and I got bummed in the bargain bin. For just four pounds aswell.
Suppose you've all heard new Gorillaz song DARE with Shaun doing his very best lysergic loose limbed gargle over the top of a pretty snappy little bit of pop. The video is excellent with Ryder literally just a disembodied head in Noodle's cupboard kept alive through a series of tubes.
Anyway the best Happy Monday LP by miles is Bummed (although last month I said it was 'Squirrel & G-Man'), and at the moment you may well be able to pick up a copy for only £4 in your local ASDA. It was produced by scary, hairy, lairy Martin Hannett (Joy Division) and as a whole the songs drunkenly fall and clatter with wild abandon. What makes it really special though is Ryder's incoherent blather of surreal imagery and verbal menace and this track 'Do It Better' is a prime example with doubledoublegood blabbering.
Proper tog.
Visit - Shaun Ryder Wikipedia
Visit - Happy Mondays fan site
Buy - Bummed Amazon
Buy - Greatest Hits iTunes
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
God Save Our Gracious Psych....
The Pretty Things - Mr.Evasion
Of course, the band I'd really like to be in doesn't exist. It would be called something like The Gorse Trampoline or Lady Made of Jelly and would specialise in brutal covers of British Psych classics. "Corporal Clegg" and "Lucifer Sam" by Floyd, "Lovely To See You" by The Moody Blues (dead spit of The Stone Roses), Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men", "We Did It Again" by Soft Machine, "Lazy Old Sun" by The Kinks, and, of course, "Paper Sun" by Traffic.
But the first thing we'd have a crack at is this number by The Pretty Things. It’s an extra on the "S.F.Sorrow" reissue cd, and was originally the B Side of "Defecting Grey".
Jesus! What a single. If one side didn't fry your brain, the other one would. As it says in the sleeve notes, "It's 1966... by the end of the year the 7" single will be dead”. Well, not quite, but by the time this was released in 1967, it was certainly on the way to Bedlam after being signed off by two Doctors as being a danger to itself and to others.
They play like they hate their instruments. That's a plus. The lyrics make no real sense. Bonus. But the best bit is near the end. There's a grinding halt and then it drops into a peculiar, naaarrrrggghh dive bomb bass with the drums building up behind it and the Farfisa or whatever set to stun.
Lovely. It makes me lean slightly to one side. And grin. Good night...
Buy - The Pretty Things - S.F. Sorrow
Visit - The Pretty Things
Mike.
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This here post has now been hijacked by Spoilt Victorian Dad...
Dammit...
Can't help myself Mike....
I've got to post It....
The Pretty Things - Defecting Grey (7" Version)
The Pretty Things - Defecting Grey (S.F. Sorrow Longer Mix)
The Pretty Things - Defecting Grey (BBC Sessions Version)
The 7" inch version has a much heavier mix than the unedited S.F. Sorrow version, but doesn't have as many mental parts... and the BBC Sessions version is the most concise, being 2 minutes shorter than the long version, but has a weaker mix....
Hence I couldn't decide which version to go for...
So you get all three. Lucky Lucky!
I swear you'll not manage to get through all 3 versions without a little headbang or without lurching round the room with a delirious grin on your face.
(I'm having flashbacks...)
I concur with Mike about this being one hell of a seven inch single...
I'd go as far as saying one of the greatest ever.
I'll be in your band Mike, as long as I can be called "Stigson Von Hammer"...!
Simon
x
Monday, July 25, 2005
Show me a word that rhymes with Pavement...
Pavement - Harness Your Hopes
I don't really like to write about bands everyone knows but sometimes there's a B side or little gem that I'd forgotten about that sorta precludes that thinking. I just remembered this song and it's a great summer song for these humid NYC days and nights. It's on the Spit on a Stranger EP of 1999 but was actually recorded during the Brighten The Corners sessions (1996). The lyrics are fun and rambling and evoke some great, impossible imagery. I guess I really like this song cause, in the end, it's a pretty straightforward song and sometimes that's all you need.
Buy - Pavement - Spit On A Stranger
Buy - Pavement - Brighten The Corners
Visit - Pavement
Starflyer 59 - Old
A friend put some Starflyer 59 stuff on a cd for me recently but I'd never heard of this band before. Weird cause they have like 8 albums and are around now, and sound like stuff I listen to.
Somehow they've never been on my radar. Initially, I likened their sound to Earlimart- hushed vocals and quiet dreamy songs that elevate to loud dreamy songs by the end. But from what I've read they seem to reinvent themselves each album so maybe they haven't been able to find their following.
Whatever's going on, I like it!
Buy - Starflyer 59 - Old
Visit - Starflyer 59
Friday, July 22, 2005
History Repeating...
Infomatik - Parasol
This bunch of guys are musically firmly rooted in the late 70's early 80's, and why the hell not... like they say, "Everything old is new again", and this wouldn't sound too out of place on Movement, New Orders debut from 1981 but maybe with a twist of OMD for taste.
Infomatik are a three piece from Seattle comprising of Ben Larson on bass, Colin English on drums and Geoff Gardner playing keys and other stuff.
Just about every review I've read of them mentions Joy Division and New Order, hell, even their pictures owe a large debt to the memory of Joy Division... so I guess I'm no different in mentioning them....
But this next track kind of reminds me of what it would sound like if you were walking down a corridor in a rehearsal studio and Gang of Four, Depeche Mode and Heaven 17 were all playing the same song in different rooms, bits of each bands version drifting in and out....
But see what you think... I could be a million miles off.
Infomatik - The Mechanical Bride
Both these tracks are from their debut release proper... Technologies.
Visit - Infomatik
Visit - Infomatik @ Myspace
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The other week I did a post on Baxter Dury, found here, where I stated how much I was looking forward to his new album Floor Show out next month...
Well I still haven't heard it, but this review at ROCKBEATSTONE just makes me want to get hold of it even more.
Visit - ROCKBEATSTONE
Visit - Baxter Dury
Pre-Order Floor Show - USA
Pre-Order Floor Show - UK
Simon
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Thursday, July 21, 2005
The Poor Law Act 1601
The Workhouse - Aberdeen
D.I.Y. It means so much doesn't it? Such a tiny little acronym and yet there is infinite power lurking underneath. Go on, Do It Yourself. 'These weblogs are good aren't they', 'Fancy starting a band', 'I know let's put a record out'. It's so simplistic and brave. You like something, so then you do something. Like putting up shelves.
I've just put two shelves up to hold my ever increasing hoard of 7" singles. Now these shelves are hidden from view inside a cupboard but still I wanted them to actually work as shelves unlike the ones I put up last year that weren't hidden from view and fell down. For those ones I sanded down the width of the wood until it was a perfect fit into the alcove and then hammered them in, jamming them tightly against either side of the wall. This was around Christmas time by the way, come the Summer the walls expanded and the shelves fell down. You don't say?!?
Well you'll be pleased to hear that the new shelves have worked a treat and during the construction I unearthed some old 7's that I haven't listened to for a while, bonus. One of them being family favorites 'The Workhouse'. The name of this band actually gives me the willies a bit as a fair few years back I would spend most days at The Workhouse, not an Eighteenth Century 'house of correction' for the poor but a ropey old media place. This Workhouse however are the saviours of nu-gazing and this here song was part of a split 7" they shared with Inch Blue who are really rather good also. It was put out on the ace Bearos label, home also to 'Dreams of Tall Buildings' who are the best.
This is all you need to know at the moment, download the song and run. We know where you live.........
Buy - The Workhouse - End Of The Pier
Visit - The Workhouse
Visit - Bearos
Visit - Inch Blue
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Rhododendron Is A Nice Flower....
Animal Collective - 3
Screeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! The writhing tendrils of white noise envelop and hurtle me back into my memory... I'm six years old, hiding under the vast rhododendron bushes of Claughton Hall Estate. It's high summer and the pagan vibe is everywhere (even at six and full of the Church I could feel it)... heavy flowers asking to be eaten, poisonous... leaves rocking in the sun like tiny piano filligrees...
Enough of the purple prose! If this band catches you at the right moment, you're lost. They did it to me last summer, when things were dissolving before our eyes and it seemed listening to "Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished" was the only solid thing left. We were close to living in a tent. We didn't own a tent. Still, as long as I had batteries for the Walkman, I knew I would survive. Totally insane.
The mangling use of treble on "Spirit" has been remarked upon in other quarters. I had already noted it's effect on dogs. Once I played the album to a friend who can take any amount of experimental nastiness, but he just couldn't listen to it. Why do that to a perfectly good pop song? Where's the balance? The boundary? There isn't one. Remember when you were a kid?
There isn't a representative track I can pull off this album to sell it to you. There are lovely ten minute numbers, flitty ones that dive about like swallows, howling instrumentals, great, evocative lyrics and the sense that, somehow, a wide eyed return to childhood is possible. Me, I don't want to go back. But to keep some of that feeling, that's important.
Now - find a space, and turn around with your arms outstretched. Make sure you're not bumping into any one else. When the music starts, imagine you are a tree, moving in the wind...
Buy - Animal Collective - Spirit They're Gone Spirit They've Vanished/Danse Manatee
Visit - Animal Collective @ Fat Cat
Mike.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Laurel Aitken 1927-2005... Rest In Peace.
The Godfather of Ska Mr. Laurel Aitken Passed away on Sunday morning at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester from a heart attack.
Laurel Aitken - Shake
It's a sad day when someone who you respect as an artist dies, but what is even sadder about Laurel's death is the fact that he died having never had the recognition that he deserved for being the pioneer of Ska.
Of course there are all the soul and ska clubs up and down the country where he performed and was loved and respected by all who came in contact with him, or were entertained by him, but your average bod on the street would no doubt never have heard of him, and yet most of his contemporaries are household names.... that's a real shame.
Laurel Aitken - Never You Hurt
Laurel was born in 1927 in Cuba and moved to Jamaica as an 11 year old with his family. He began his career in music in the 40's but really came into his own in the late 50's releasing several well received singles and also had the honour of releasing the very first 7" on Island Records... the double A-Side single "Little Sheila" and "Boogie In My Bones" spent 11 weeks at the number 1 spot in Jamaica in 1958.
Laurel Aitken - Baba Kill Me Goat
Laurel Moved to England in 1960 and was an immediate smash in the clubs, he also continued releasing great music right through the seventies where the burgeoning British Ska/TwoTone scene took him to their hearts, he played with The Beat and Secret Affair and quite surprisingly he played with The Ruts as his backing band too...
Well actually maybe that's not that surprising....
Right through the 80's and 90's he was still very active in the clubs and releasing many records, he even squeezed in an appearance in the film "Absolute Beginners" with a certain Mr. Bowie...
Sadly though the last years of his life he was struggling with throat cancer and general bad health, and to top that he was pretty much penniless, so the clubs he had supported for so many years put on fund raising shows to try and get the much needed cash to get him the best treatment that was possible, and although he was I'll he always made an effort to get to the shows and raise a smile, and was showing his support for the whole Ska movement right up to the end.
Laurel Aitken, The Godfather of Ska 1927-2005
Rest In Peace.
Buy - Laurel Aitken - The Pioneer of Jamaican Music, Vol.1
Visit - Laurel Aitken Bio
Simon
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Monday, July 18, 2005
What You Sold Me....
If you like you're music of the strange glitchy twitcy electronic type then you should head over to The Pipe right now, where yer man Budgie has posted a corking EP by Jimmy The Flid who got some of his chums to remix and mess about with his own twisted creations....
The result is the "What You Sold Me" EP, featuring two JTF originals and three remixes, one each by Mothboy, Solipsism and me.
Jimmy's a bit of a strange'un, from what I can gather he wanders round Glasgow with a tape recorder then chops up all the found noises into what can only be described as scary slabs of sound, then he messes with it even more....
Go listen for yourself anyway.
Visit - The Pipe
Visit - Jimmy The Flid
Visit - Mothboy and Mothboy @ 8bitrecs.com
Visit - Solipsism
Visit - Stephen Cairns
Visit - Empire State Human / The Phantom Carriage
Simon
x
Hard Luck And Trouble...
Bill Brandon - Rainbow Road
I want to tell you about a great, great Southern Soul compilation I bought a few years back. It's called "Down and Out: The Sad Soul of the Black South" and its on the Trikont Label. Trikont have built their reputation on the strength of their themed compilations: Roady Music from Vietnam, Finnish Tango, tracks from Russendisko (a Berlin club night) - all manner of out of the way stuff that just reminds you how absolutely bloody brilliant people can be.
The Southern Soul compilation has a photo of Willie Mitchell on the inside of the front cover. Mr Mitchell is assured a place in Heaven on the grounds of one action: he's the man who advised Al Green to stop barking like Otis and to try singing high and sweet. A great moment in 20th Century culture as far as I'm concerned. Add to that all the fantastic records he's produced and you've got a major figure.
Dan Penn and Donnie Fritts wrote "Rainbow Road", two more greats. Although it was written for Arthur Alexander, Brandon, a lesser known figure, puts in a fantastic performance, keeping his powder dry until the last.
The scene is familiar: a promise of fortune cruelly dashed. But, you know, it's all about the telling of the tale, and by the time he takes the Judge's sentence and he has to look at where he's ended up, you know you're listening to a man who can really get a song across.
There are lots of technically great singers. Forget them. Most don't have a clue about really getting it over. We're back to the one about the saxophonists. Young buck plays all over the horn, amazingly quick. Old guy says, "That's great, kid, but what's your story?"
Bill's got a story he wants to share with you. Oh yes, listen out for the trombone. It's pretty special, too.
Buy - Down and Out - The Sad Soul of the Black South
Visit - Trikont
Visit - Bill Brandon @ The Soul Cellar
Mike.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Music To Stay Awake To Make Music To
Thee More Shallows - 2am
Here's yet another SF band I'm championing these days. I recently got back into Thee More Shallows after a friend mentioned them to me like 6 months ago. This song 2am has an urgency and it quietly builds and builds through repetition. There's some eerie feedback and xylophones and it all kinda swirls around you.
They are compared to a darker Grandaddy, Elliott Smith and Sparklehorse. I'm really only into Elliott Smith of these 3 so I can see those qualities in this group that makes me appreciate them.
Maybe listen to this before sleeping or something.
Thee More Shallows start their UK tour tomorrow (15th July)...
Go see them.
Buy - Thee More Shallows - More Deep Cuts
Visit - Thee More Shallows
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
1-2-3-4....
Tim and Isis the lovely Pit Bull Terrier.
The 1-2-3-4 - Surge
The 1-2-3-4 - Kinda Flipped Out For A Second
The 1-2-3-4 is the work of one man, Mr. Tim Durland from Brooklyn New York, I didn't have to go that far to discover his music though as he occasionally pops in to SVC and leaves a comment, so thanks for that Tim.
In Tim's own words he describes his influences for The 1-2-3-4 as Serge Gainsbourg, Nick Drake, Wire, Tones On Tail, Tarwater, Mark Stewart, Tommy James, Underworld, Steely Dan, The Fall, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Prince, Lou Reed/VU, Leonard Cohen, J.G.Ballard, Georges Bataille, Robert Aickman.
Some of those influences are evident in the above tracks too, especially in "Kinda Flipped Out For a Second" where Tim evokes a ghostly slightly out of focus memory of The Cure from their "Faith" period, which in my opinion is their finest moment.
While "Surge" wouldn't sound too out of place on a Mark Stewart/OMD collaboration circa 1980... in my tiny brain anyway, but it's nice in here, and I refuse to leave... not with this music playing in there anyway.
Tim's a busy bloke, not only is he writing and recording his own songs as The 1-2-3-4, but he has been producing/engineering/re-mixing tracks for his neighbour's band The Bluffs, who have a track on the "Music For Robots vol.1" compilation, and not content with that he is also playing drums in another neighbour's band Things Outside The Skin who are kind of like a cross between Consolidated, Skinny Puppy and Ministry.... basically a right royal industrial goth rave-up.
He also does a monthly guest DJ gig at a lovely party in Manhattan called Shit
Hammered, and says "it's honestly the best party in the city, even if it is on a
Tuesday"....
So there you have it....
Tim Durland....
A closet goth masquerading as a pop singer.
And there's nowt wrong with that.
Visit - The 1-2-3-4
Visit - The 1-2-3-4 @ Myspace
Visit - Things Outside The Skin
Visit - The Bluffs
Simon
x
Monday, July 11, 2005
Apollo C. Vermouth
Paul McCartney - Check My Machine
I've been getting a little obsessed with Macca at the moment and this LP in particular but the thing is I don't really know why or what started it? I'm not a Beatles fan and i've never really paid much attention to his solo work except for the splendour of the Frog Chorus. (I was 10 and it was ace so there). Yet this LP has just hit the spot right from his grainy startled face on the sleeve to the captivating collection of wonky old songs.
McCartney II was Paul's twelfth solo LP recorded around July 1979, 10 years after the first 'McCartney' album. It was made without the rigmarole of a conventional studio and all the microphones and instruments were plugged directly into the back of a Studer 16 track tape machine at home. 'Check My Machine' was actually the first song recorded but left off the album instead appearing as a B-side to the single 'Waterfalls' yes, it's a bit similar to the TLC song of the same name. It starts off with some odd vocal samples which sound like they were recorded off the telly. "Hi George", "Morning Terry", and then Barney Rubble says, "Sticks and Stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"... Perhaps this was Paul letting his naysayers know that whatever a mauling he may get, that he doesn't give a toss. Go on Paul.
The song has a sloppy (in a good way), second-hand Albarn meets the SFA feel to it and is thoroughly charming which pretty much sums up the whole LP. Anyway i've bought three copies of it from varying charity shops in as many months and I even went as far as getting the CD off Amazon as it had the some b-sides which I don't have. If you ever see a copy for under a fiver then I recommend it thoroughly. There's a lot of experimentation but that's also matched by some beautiful, melodic and touching little songs, oh and most importantly Paul single-handedly manages to invent both Drum n'Bass with 'Darkroom' and Acid with 'Temporary Secretary'.
Which brings me to a close and that is, Sir Paul has a new record out today called 'Twin Freaks' (named after his painting from 1990) which compiles remixes that DJ Roy Kerr, Freelance Hellraiser to his Mum, made for Paul's last tour. 'Darkroom' is on there and so is 'Live and Let Die' which sadly has been mucked about with too much in my opinion but if it gets the 'kids' hip to Macca then a good job has been well done. Personally I wouldn't have minded a compilation of the tracks without any of the modernising, if it ain't broke why try and fix it.
So remember, McCartney II it's gear.
Visit - Twin Freaks
Visit - Paul McCartney
Buy - McCartney II
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Right then, I have a spare 'mint' copy of this LP on gatefold vinyl which needs a good home. It will need plenty of lovin' and should be taken out if its sleeve at least once a week and given a good seeing to. I will donate this record and post it out free of charge (sorry UK only) to the SVC reader who comes up with the best answer:
Apollo C. Vermouth was Paul's pseudonym when he produced the Bonzo Dog hit record 'I'm the Urban Spaceman'. I would like a pseudonym, what could that be?
Post your answers in the comments or send SVC an email, winner will be announced this Friday.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Flying Bands Day....
Sparrow - The Early YearsSparrow is Jason Zumpano’s band, who just happened to be in the band Zumpano in the 90’s with Carl Newman from New Pornographers.
Jason was a drummer then but got way into piano and Sparrow has a lot of instrumental piano songs, a real turn from the strictly pop stuff he was doing before (they call their band "Salon Pop" which kinda makes sense).
Buy - Sparrow - The Early Years
Visit - Sparrow
Fruit Bats - When You Love Somebody
I hear this Fruit Bats track every so often and I really love it, mostly for the very beginning which is a real turn from the kinda country-pop feel of the rest of the song.
Main bat Eric Johnson has done time in many notable bands including Califone (for whom he played banjo and guitar).
The best part is how "Fruit Bat" sounds like a cute bird that looks like an apple or something, but I was impressed with how it's pretty much a bat and it’s not often I look up real pictures of bats.
Doesn't even look much like Christian Bale either.
Buy - Fruit Bats - Mouthfuls
Visit - Fruit Bats
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Perhaps My Brains Are Old And Scrambled...
Eno - In Dark Trees
Eno - I'll Come Running
A little while ago we played the Desert Island Disc game. Mikey's choice was and remains Coltrane's "Ascension". There are, of course, a ton of albums left behind which I would have to re-imagine, using coconuts and stuff.
The first one I would have a crack at using my limited resources would be Eno's "Another Green World". Might as well. I'd be muttering "I'll come running to tie your shoe" anyway. But that's one of the songs, and love them as I do, it was always the instrumental miniatures that I found so damn perfect. Repetitive, precise, calm, recorded beautifully but without warmth, and in the case of "In Dark Trees", damn creepy.
I spent months trying to paint this little piece of music when I was at school. Trying to get at the feeling. I failed miserably. I didn't end up sectioned, so that's something to be grateful for. It's nice to know I'm not a danger to myself or to others.
At some point it passed into my dreams. It actually appeared. What's that Robert Johnson line? "Woke up this morning/Blues was walking like a man." Terrifying, but true. A presence.
Eno didn't write this piece of music. He allowed it through. It won't go back. Do you know what I mean?
Time to shut up and make tea.
Buy - Eno - Another Green World
Visit - Eno Web
Monday, July 04, 2005
Oscar De La Soundtrack...
Baxter Dury - Oscar Brown
Baxter Dury is the son of the late great Ian Dury, and his very first public performance was at his fathers funeral in 2000, which is not exactly the happiest of circumstances to start his performing career.
Much respect to him for doing it though.
Baxter's first release was the following year with the brilliant Oscar Brown EP, which obviously the track Oscar Brown is taken from (It also appears on the pretty damn good Laurel Canyon soundtrack).
The first thing that grabbed me about the track was his beautiful voice, oh, that and the Mellotron, and the fantastic use of the Velvet Underground's Oh Sweet Nuthin' for the chorus.... wonderful.
Oscar Brown also appeared on Baxter's debut album Len Parrot's Memorial Lift in 2002, for the recording of which he drafted in Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley from Portishead and Richard Hawley from Pulp, and a great album it is too, full of gentle countryfied slightlydelic pop songs.
The baxter trail went a little cold after the album until earlier this year when the mighty Rough Trade released the limited edition 12" Farncesca's Party which was followed last month by another very limited edition 12" Lisa Said.... "it sounds like a record cut in berlin in the early 70's with a bleak eno-esque production and a wash of noises and ambience a la my bloody valentine and more recently ulrich schnauss"... I'm sold on the description alone.
Baxter's second album Floorshow should be out in August, and I'm really looking forward to hearing it...
If you live in London you won't have to wait till then to hear his new material as he's playing at The Barfly in Camden (The Monarch) tomorrow night (Tuesday 5th July), sadly I won't be able to make it, but if anyone goes let us know how it went.
Buy - Baxter Dury Records from Rough Trade
Buy - Laurel Canyon Soundtrack
Visit - Baxter Dury
Visit - The Barfly
Simon
x
Friday, July 01, 2005
Popcorn Double Feature...
Gershon Kingsley - Popcorn
Caustic Window - Popcorn
With the imminent attack on the charts from that little green bugger Crazy Frog again, this time with a teenie bopper club mix by numbers version of Popcorn I thought I'd get a post I'd been thinking of doing for a while out of the way... before I'm completely sick to death of hearing the melody with some naked tiny willied frog riding round on an invisible bike.... but at least he kept Coldplay off number one for a while, so he can't be all that bad eh!... can he?
The first track is the original version from 1971 that was more famously covered the following year by the one hit wonder Stan Free who was more commonly known as Hot Butter.
Gershon Kingsley first started mucking about with electronic instruments and tape splicing in the mid 60's with his main collaborator being the strange genius that is Jean Jacques Perrey and together they released their first album The In Sound from Way Out in 1966.
For the recording of their second album they drafted in a certain Robert Moog who they got to build a couple of instruments for them... and hey presto, the first ever record to feature a Moog keyboard - Spotlight on the Moog.
Then there was a bit of argy bargy (not really) and they stopped working together going their separate ways... Perrey going further out and more experimental, and Kingsley ended up playing Carnegie Hall with a Moog Orchestra... which Popcorn was written for.
It's quite a bit different from the Hot Butter Version... and if someone can tell me what the hell the guitarist is playing in the left speaker I'd be eternally grateful...
Kind of.
Now, if I was still DJ'ing and someone came up and asked for "that mix of Popcorn thing" then the Caustic Window version is the one I would play....
Caustic Window is of course yet another in a very long line of aliases that Richard D. James (better known as Aphex Twin) has used over the years.
This version can be found on the Joyrex J4 EP released back in 1992, and good luck finding it as is with so many of his releases this was deleted after a short run and you'll have to sell your uncles plastic hip, pacemaker and vintage Mercedes to afford it nowadays.
This track is not quite as mad as you'd expect from our Richard, in fact I reckon it would have taken him about 5 minutes to do... the beats are pretty normal, just a little more shuffly than the Hot Butter version he uses, and the only other thing that stands out is all the EQing sweeps, but it's still a million times better than that bloody frog.
Buy - Perrey, Kingsley - The Out Sound from Way In! The Complete Vanguard Recordings
Buy - Gershon Kingsley - Music to Moog By
Buy - Hot Butter - Popcorn (best of)
Buy - Caustic Window - Compilation
Visit - Gershon Kingsley
Visit - Jean Jacques Perrey
Visit - Aphex Twin @ Wikipedia
Simon
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