Wednesday 31 August 2011

Saturday 27 August 2011

Big Band Bossa Nova - Beneath The Paving Stones, The Beach



Bossa Nova is perfect for the beach. But if, like me, you don’t live near one, it lies ‘beneath the paving stones’, according to the French revolutionaries of ’68. It’s one of my favourite slogans from that era, urging us, as it does, to seek our ideals wherever we may be located. So some of us must imagine, or will that beach to appear, and with the help of Stan Getz it should be easier. I’ve heard the term Bossa Nova translated in various ways, either ‘New Wave’ or ‘New Trend’; I prefer the former which, in my dream of an idyllic setting, matches those waves rolling in from the ocean. The music bathes us in light and warmth...Getz’s tenor sound channelling the mood and feeling perfectly. It was around this date (Aug 27) in 1962, as far as I can tell, that the session was recorded, produced by Creed Taylor, arranged by Gary McFarland. From California to Camden (?), as part of the new trend that was Bossa Nova, I imagine this being played around the world by those seeking the ‘exotic’, the romantic, sophisticated, and seductive fantasy of what lies beneath the paving stones.

Listen Hear

Thursday 25 August 2011

William Burroughs - Atomic Bark Radio Show On Resonance

Here's the radio show about Bill which I took part in. It's just been made available.



When I talked about the perfect filming of a Burroughs novel being in the form of a cut-up I meant something like this excellent project by Andre Perkowski:




Wednesday 24 August 2011

Space Age Frigidaire




Kiss Me Deadly - A New Mix


In case you hadn't noticed, I've created a new mix on Soundcloud, see the bar on the right. Inspired by Film Noir, as you may guess by the flyer and title. I've tried to create a suitably dark mood by combining ambient sounds with Jazz and sampled dialogue.


Tuesday 23 August 2011

Vangelis, Vandals & Vital Prose From Fernando Pessoa



Vangelis was a guest on Shooting Stars last night and he looked great for his age. He even previewed a new track ‘live’, or rather, a snippet from it. It was hard to tell how good that will be, but it sounded more like a return to his experimental material. I say ‘return’, but from what I’ve heard there isn’t a great deal of that. ‘Beaubourg’ is very good, and ‘Blade Runner’, of course, although even on that we can hear his leanings towards the commercial and melodic, which in that context is no bad thing. I’ve bought some rotten Vangelis albums over the years in search of greater depth and compositional radicalism, but only recently found ‘Invisible Connections’ from 1985. It sounds like he thought he’d try his hand at something other than cheesy soundtracks in the grand orchestral mode – ‘Chariots Of Fire’? What the hell, it must have paid the mortgage. This is worth hearing though.

Listen Hear

It was Vic Reeves or Bob Mortimer (hosts of Shooting Stars), can’t recall which, who asked ‘Are all ravens Goths?’ the other week – well, it made me laugh, as their show regularly does. The format might be a little worn, but on every show they manage to produce moments of lunacy that you just don’t get anywhere else on the box. I joked with a friend today about him being a Goth, then sent Mika Vainio’s ‘Goths’ to him. I happened to have been listening to it earlier in the day. It’s from the ‘Vandal EP’, which is brain-crushingly good. With all the recent talk of culture in relation to The Riots I wonder if the guilty vandals could do with hearing this EP. They’d probably hate it, but it at least it’s not advocating shooting cops, fornicating with loose women (ha!), or the acquisition of bling (as I believe garish jewellery is called) – which is exactly why they’d hate it. They left Waterstone’s bookshop untouched, we’re told – the fools. It’s the first place I would have torched. Novels are all written by liars, aren’t they? And besides, I’d love to have seen all the ‘Chick Lit’ go up in flames.


Talking of books, one I’ve dipped into and always found treasure is Fernando Pessoa’s ‘The Book Of Disquiet’. It was a lifetime’s work (he died in 1935, aged 37), first published in Portuguese in 1982, and English in 1991. There have been a few translations, some not rated too highly, but I’ve got the first Penguin hardback (2001) and the shorter Serpent’s Tail version. I don’t think there’s a ‘definitive’ one. The muddle of publications befits this collection of Pessoa’s fragmentary prose pieces, dreamlike contemplations of Life and Everything. The 517-page Penguin is one of the few huge books that I haven’t used to prop up something (bed, computer, speakers, even the flat itself, all stand with the aid of Robert Burton, John Dos Passos and others, you know). So, should you be out rioting one night, before passing Waterstone’s, smash your way in and grab this book, if they’ve got it.


Monday 22 August 2011

220 Tones - Nicola Ratti



You’re not really interested in an album review,  least of all from me. This isn’t The Wire and I’m a nobody.
   Why would you care if I said this album is BRILLIANT or FANTASTIC and so on – we've all got our own opinions. You read a review to get an idea of what the music’s about, yes. What’s this about?
   It’s –
   Ambient
   Atmospheric
   Glitchy
   Warm with being too soft
   &
   Rough without being Noise
   All that, yes.
   It’s...you know...VERY GOOD. It contains pulses rather than beats, in places. It feels contemporary and timeless, unless your idea of contemporary is Tyler The Creator, although you could love both.
   Everything here is well organised, edited, constructed, sampled (?) – without sounding clinical, or cold.
   At times the machines do sing.
   Hold on, I’ve got to check the spuds and put the chicken in the oven. Now, you just wouldn’t read that in a Wire review, would you? It’s what makes blogging so different, so appealing.
   This album’s not so different from many others in the idea, but in its execution it stands apart, above, out etc. It’s varied in tone, mood and content, but isn’t scatterbrained eclecticism.
   Some names that might have influenced Ratti: Stockhausen, Ussachevsky, Jeck, Marclay, Schaeffer, and Riley.
   I’ve played it twice in a row, and I don’t do that very often.

From his website:
'Born in Milan in 1978. Began his musical career as guitar player. Lately his approach is more focused on beat-analog experimentation. Since 5 years ago he is a member of the desertic soundtrack-band Ronin. He is currently working with: Giuseppe Ielasi with whom he formed the project entitled "Bellows", Attila Faravelli as "Faravelliratti"and with Fatima Bianchi for audio/video works. He also collaborated in various live performances with Dean Roberts, Oren Ambarchi, Phill Niblock and Rhys Chatham. He has performed live in Europe and North America, and his albums had been released by Anticipate, Preservation, Megaplomb, Boring Machines, Coriolis Sounds, Zymogen. Nicola Ratti bases his music upon the search for a personal language that is capable of joining together basic song structure, electro-acoustic experimentation with a sensibility that ranges from improvisation to the almost artiginal construction of sound.'

Sunday 21 August 2011

Eduardo Paolozzi


Criminally, there are few books on Paolozzi. These images are from the 1971 book published by the Tate Gallery to tie in with their exhibition.









Saturday 20 August 2011

Song Of The Second Moon & Popular Electronics With Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan


Essential album for lovers of that crazy electronic sound and in particular the pioneers. This is from 1957...yes...1957. Complex sound pieces and Pop electronics make this one of the truly seminal albums as a bridge between pure sonic experimentation and the melodic wave that would emerge later to capitalise on the 'gimmick' (as some saw it) that was the new sound of electronic music.  


Listen Hear







This box set is amazing. More info and links here.


Thursday 18 August 2011

Hollywood Highs And Lows With George Shearing and Horace McCoy



‘It’s been a great financial pleasure being here’ quips George Shearing before playing the last number of the set – ah yes, Hollywood, home of stars that shone so brightly, and the broken dreams of millions. Shearing was riding high with his brand of cocktail schmaltz bolstered by forays into bop, and you can look at that two ways; he made palatable tunes such as Charlie Parker’s ‘Confirmation’ (as played in this set) by white-washing bop, or he introduced it to those who would otherwise remain ignorant. Either way, should I be strolling down Sunset Strip in 1959 and come across a sign advertising ‘The George Shearing Quartet’ do you think I’d carry on strolling?
   Today I strolled into a record shoppe (two days in a row!) and picked up this album for four quid. Look at the cover. I look at it now propped up on my desk and dream of being one of those two lucky fellahs, the one being kissed, perhaps...look at those dames, one of whom seems to be going somewhere... ‘Back in a moment, honey’, she’s saying – ‘You’d better be’, he replies, reluctant to release his hand from her waist, that beautiful waist above those beautiful hips in that stunning dress...what a girl! Isn’t this photo the personification of (M)ad men dreams? The suits, the white dresses and stilettos, neon, cars parked outside The Crescendo...
   ‘Swinging Shearing Sounds’ the sleeve declares, well, if not exactly swinging, Shearing encapsulates the smooth shining glitz of the place and time, the penthouse fantasies wrapped in an aura of cool Playboy sophistication. I bet those girls like to mambo; who doesn’t? Shearing delivers ‘Mambo Inn’ with Armando Perazza on congas lending that hip Latin feel to the occasion. I raise an imaginary cocktail to him, to the dream of being there whilst the rain tips down outside my window...


Rewind a couple of decades and you might have walked into a cinema to watch an RKO B-Movie scripted by Horace McCoy. ‘These bastards never gave me a shot at the A pics’, he would later complain. Having done some small-time stage acting McCoy went for a screen test and was turned down, just like Ralph Carson in his 1938 novel, ‘I Should Have Stayed Home’. I think this book’s even better than Nathanael West’s ‘Day Of The Locust’ from the same time, although that gets far more credit as a depiction of crushed hopes in Hollywood. Ralph’s a Southern boy, naive and desperate for fame. His accent works against him when it comes to getting a break and he lives on borrowed money before meeting Mrs Smithers of Beverley Hills. She’s well connected in town, knows the stars and their directors. Surely this is his ticket to the big time. Well, things don’t work out that way. McCoy’s hardboiled stripped down prose perfectly suits the raw emotions on display, the doomed air of desperation darkening almost every page quite brilliantly.  The author’s bitterness about Hollywood is channelled through his protagonist, as is the conflict between being starry-eyed whilst despising a social scene populated by stars. The pain of self-inflicted failure is reflected in bouts of quite disturbing sadomasochism.  It’s by no means a perfect novel, but for my money it’s a great read.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

In My Ears Today - Henry Mancini, The Natural Yogurt Band & Alberich






Some twat’s singing ‘It’s Indie rock’n’roll for me, it’s Indie rock’n’roll for me’ whilst I’m in the charity shop scanning the books – ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP!’ I scream, silently, of course, but he keeps on and puts me off – in fact, as it turned out, put a curse on me because I came out empty-handed from all the charity shops today, and that’s unusual, so unusual that I’m convinced The Killers are to blame. Still, the final port of call was a record shoppe and there I found Henry Mancini’s soundtrack to ‘Charade’ on vinyl and in very good nick, for £4.99, so the day was saved. It’s a wonderful record.  It’s classy, know wha’ I mean?



On the bus I filled me lug’oles with The Natural Yoghurt Band’s debut album, ‘Away With Melancholy’, of which only 1,000 were originally released by Jazzman (or was it 100? Or 10? One sure way to achieve cult status and a complete sell-out, the limited edition...shame you can’t limit blogs, although I’m doing a good job, I reckon). It’s a great album by Wayne Fullwood and Miles Newbold, who play keyboards, vibes, flute, bass, percussion and...that’s about it, I think. They’re like a low-fi British version of Medeski, Martin & Wood, minus the guest stars, production and, if I dare say so, the chops, but what they lack in that department they make up for with good old eccentricity (trust the Brits), by which I mean they embrace, intermingle, exploit and pay homage to all kinds of music such as library funk, cosmic slop, Jazz casual and cod Cool – none of which makes sense. Just get the album if you can.

Variety being the spice of life, I’ve been listening to Alberich’s ‘NATO Uniformen’. It was first released as eight cassettes but has gone digital. When he shouts (he doesn’t sing) he sounds like a Dalek and the words aren’t discernable, so I prefer the instrumentals, with the emphasis on the ‘mental’ because this is about as hardcore as techno gets, and it’s not techno. It’s Industrial, you might say. It’s industrialised sonic warfare is what it is, so wear a helmet (you might want to sit on it as Frederic Forrest does in ‘Apocalypse Now’ before the helicopter attack, just to safeguard your balls or, ladies, your bits, although I can’t imagine ladies listening to this because as much as it’s an anti-war concept, at the same time it glories in the kind of blood, guts and thunderous din that makes some men revel in war). What a noise! There’s something about it, though, that becomes hypnotic after a while, especially on tracks like ‘Sacrafice Deployment’. Pure gun metal electro-grunge, and I like it.





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