The filth, the fury, the fuzz - 2

Las bocinas de mi computadora son muy pequeñas para despertar a los vecinos a esta hora con mi nostalgia por tiempos en los que nunca me toco vivir y de cualquier forma ya tengo reservada mi buena dosis de Merzbow, flying saucer attack y demas similes para cuando quiera cometer homicidio sonoro en venganza por aquellas tardes en las que he tenido que echarme la puta cancion esa del gorila-u-u-a y la discografia entera de David Bisbal y Chayanne en las clases de baile de sus hijas.

Aqui va la segunda parte con las canciones que no pude subir el sabado por falta de tiempo. Esta lista incluye dos covers ("ain't no sunshine" y "she's a woman" de Bill Withers y de los Beatles respectivamente) Fleetwood Mac en su mejor epoca y algo del Led Zepellin tardio asi que creo esta mas acercada a terrenos conocidos y digeribles que la pasada. Espero les sean del mismo goce del que son para mi.

Fleetwood Mac - Oh well (part 1)
The Association - six man band
Mama Lion - Ain't no sunshine
Led Zepellin - houses of the holy
Churchills - she's a woman


Link: The filth, the fury, the fuzz (1)

La imagen me parece es un still de un video de los eels pero no recuerdo de donde ha venido ni si en realidad viene de un video de los eels.

Five Easy Lists for Lovers. e.Songs

... I think it has to do with the nature of visual memory. Not only do I remember photographs better than I remember moving images. But what I remember of a movie amounts to an anthology of single shots. I can recall the story, lines of dialogue, the rhythm. But what I remember visually are selected moments that I have, in effect, reduced to stills. It's the same for one's own life. Each memory from one's childhood, or from any period that's not in the immediate past, is like a still photograph rather than a strip of film. And photography has objectified this way of seeing and remembering.

-Susan Sontag, Interview


"Five Easy Lists for Lovers. e. Songs"

01. Peter Gabriel - Love To Be Loved
02. Ray LaMontagne - Three More Days
03. Band of Horses - For Wicked Gil
04. Lady & Bird - Walk Real Slow
05. Henryk Gorecki - Pieces in the Old Style 1 (william Orbit remix)
06. Labradford - by Chris Johnston, Craig Markva, Jamie Evans
07. Pere Ubu - Humor Me
08. Shellac - Steady as She Goes
09. Pixies - Is she weird
10. High Dials - Strandhill

note: A belated list from last June, with slight tweek. It's a MdM type of mood list. Mellow, atmospheric and softly ambient. This one with William Orbit, Labradford, and mix of psych rock and no wave classic. I don't think I will ever complete this list. So this will be a 3 out of 5 series, unless somebody has better idea what to fill the b and c part. Enjoy. I like the songs in this list.

see also: a.Bossa Nova , d.New Wave
image credit: unknown

On a certain level I think they're great, but on another I can't relate... to anything they do.

A. R. Rahman - Mumbai's Theme
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Thorn Tree Wind
k. d. lang - Or Was I
Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle
Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind
k.d. lang - Sweet Little Cherokee

L'AMOUR

Nunca he sido muy seguidor de mi pais vecino ni musicalmente y menos cinematográficamente. Pero ultimamente un aire francés me perturba. Cualquier dia me veo viendo una de Godard y peor aun, igual me acaba gustando.
Asi que hoy toca Francia, mejor dicho, gente que canta o parece que canta en francés.
Me temo que dada la afición de Kahlo por el tema, puede que repita alguna que ella ya haya puesto (en ese caso espero que se lo tome como humilde homenaje).


Popurri
rouge rouge - l'amour

the pinker tones - travel club

April March - La Piscine Couverte

Têtes Raides Fabulous Trobadors - méfie toi

Etyl - Enlhomme

Pink Martini - Dansez-Vous

Ariane Moffatt - Montréal


La que no podia faltar (que alguien me ayude a rellenar el espacio de las X)
carla bruni - Le Plus Beau Du Quartier

carla bruni - Le Toi Du Moi


Yo diria que dice algo en frances
northern exposure - jolie louise

Los mas grandes
Mano Negra - Pas assez de toi

jazz & swing
Sanseverino - La cigarette

Madeleine Peyroux - J'Ai Deux Amours

The cover (una vez hice cosas con esta canción)
Presidents of the United States of America - Ça Plane Pour Moi

La pseudofrikada fank
Matthieu Chedid (mas conocido como -M-) - Jam Man

The filth, the fury, the fuzz

Cinco del garage para un sabado en la carretera y para sacudir aquellas vibras y neuronas apendejadas por la entresemana.

The Human Beinz - nobody but me
Zior - I really do
Electric Toilet - revelations
Arthur Lee - everybody's gotta live
The seeds - nobody spoils my fun

La imagen viene de Collectable records site donde tiene varios posters de los 60 y 70 y ademas, si tienen la paciencia tambien cuentan con imagenes de varios acetatos originales, muchos con diseños pachecones muy divertidos (al menos para quien le guste este tipo de arte lisergico).

Cras credemus, hodie nihil.

While I won’t bother going into what the specific tracks sound like, its mostly an ambient sounding half hour mix that moves back and forth between sparse and overwhelming songs. The list was assembled around 3 o clock in the morning after one of those insomniac nights I'm constantly having lately, so today I just might switch to sleeping pills instead of listening to drifting music... I hope I wake up tomorrow.

The Wind- up bird - monster
A. Vordeyev - clearance
Marsen Jules - anemone
Do - Barrenean
The Glove - a blues in drag (alternate Robert Smith vocal demo)
Stars like fleas - I write this from the dancefloor
Ben Kamen - eighty four
Set Fire to Flames - fading lights are fading

Image:Lisandro Demarchi.

Pictures of Joburg and songs from South Africa, all postcard like.

Solomon Linda's Original Evening Birds - Mbube

Kippie Moeketsi and The Marabi Kings - Goli Kwela

Boyoyo Boys - Tsotsi

Sipho Mabuse - Burn Out

M'Du - Ipompe

Malaika - Destiny

Fuck art, let's fart.

A true punk vet would be easily ashamed to look at the punk records in my collection, and would probably only grin with mild satisfaction when discovering "Raw Power" by The Stooges - I'd then hold the album religiously, and tell this is one of the few records I'd be willing to fuck to in its entirety, a 34 minute feast orchestrated by Piggy Pop and his Stooges truly at their rawest that practically guarantees a fantastic, night-long seeing to. Carefree, sexy and never taking itself too seriously is the key here, it says: I like to be the boss, but I am not afraid to let others drive my gorgeous, sleek machine at angst fuelled speeds. Punk fuck right = pure catharsis and that's exactly what effective cultural heritances are made of.

Sweet - ballroom blitz

Stooges - no fun

The Organ - brother
The Sex Pistols - submission
Raw power - we shall overcome
The Cramps - human fly
Cockney Rejects - east end
Peaches - Keine Melodien (Jeans team)
Riton - Killing an arab (the cure)

Linkup: If you're looking for some raw, noisy and primitive sounds head yourself to 7inchpunk or postpunkjunk, the later has some brilliant mixtapes in form of podcasts and the former shares some very hard to find 7" punk, grind and nardcore releases that are for the most part hit or miss but nevertheless you may always bump into some punk gems such as brygada kryzyz or the shit lickers that are worth the constant visit.
Now, fuck off.

Image: Cal Schenkel, Zappa's art bitch.

Batman Ate My Sax.

What's in this list:

- Is all saxophone solo in Rock 'n Roll bad? If not, prove it. (Actually this is a multi blog conversation. Here is one. Mainly discussing 80's rock and sax.)

- I like John Zorn's Naked city (1989). I've been wanting to post his songs for a while. One of my fav album, but very harsh and I can only listen to it end to end on special occassion. Below are softer and more melodious one. The loud one rips your ear in 15 seconds.

- My little own personal take why sax solo in rock doesn't sound satisfying: I want it sounds like a mean jazz solo (preferably Ornette Colemann humping John Coltrane), complete with extra long breathing and dynamic the goes off the chart. But that sort of thing is very hard to fit in regular rock song, since the sax will completely outshine everything else. Hence why it can only go with super loud ska and John Zorn. Okay maybe Morphine is an exception. ( Name other rock band with sax that sounds good at Morphine volume level/ovrall texture. Nada... They all sound like Kenny G. )

- Other fun song in the list: The Code International and Yoko Utsumi. Overall it's a change of pace from the usual downtempo, dark and mellow texture. I'll get back to usual MdM programming soon. :D once I am in that mood again.

01. John Zorn - The James Bond Theme
02. The Code International - Yekermo Sew (Mulatu Astatque)
03. Yoko Utsumi - Neji
04. John Zorn - Batman
05. James Chance - Contort Yourself (download here)
06. Essential Logic - Aerosol Burns
07. Meatjack - Shevil
08. John Zorn - The Sicilian clan

note: too lazy to upload james chance, d/l from download.com. It won't kill ya, it's a good song. The Sicillian Clan rip is a bit imperfect. I tried every which way to fix my CD-reader to no avail. But that song is so amazing, I simply has to include it.

image credit: Andy Warhol

Antònia Font

Antònia Font, pop-surrealistas y mallorquines. Su frescura y naturalidad, combinado con un extraño nivel experimental, hace que sus canciones lleguen a ti a través de unas ondas magnéticas amarillas que te hacen sonréir sino te pones el traje adecuado.

Antònia Font - Extraterrestres
Antònia Font - Alegria.mp3
Antònia Font - Wa Yeah

disco not disco

Nik Cohn did eventually admit that he fabricated Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night , his article for New York Magazine in 1975. The article went on to become the basis of the film Saturday Night Fever and in the process created the persisting perception that still rankles the true disco fans. Of course, he wasn't the first to ruin a musical movement by "reinterpreting" it for mass consumption, but it's still important to highlight the point, 'cos misconceptions linger. Walter Gibbons was probably the most respected DJ amongst DJ's in the seventies. He was famous for his flawless beat mixing of two copies of the same record, creating extended versions of tracks, live. Gibbons made history when he remixed Double Exposure's Ten Percent due to his radical approach. He was, according to Tom Moulton, the first person to extend the intro, so as to increase the impact of the vocals when they finally hit. He took remixing to a new level, where the experience of being on the dancefloor became the inspiration, as opposed to instant "radio-friendly" gratification. Walter did not believe in quickies, he extended tracks to lengths previously unheard of. These two mixes are amongst of his first, displaying just how much of a natural Walter was right from the beginning. The next track on the list was mixed by Shep Pettibone, a man that was too much for even Tom Moulton, who found Shep's style to be unmusical. These dudes were pioneers of a new way, which developed into the Garage sound of New York and the House sound of Chicago. Which influenced some cats in France, who ended up becoming world famous as Daft Punk. This version of One More Time is the eight minute, far superior, club mix (with obligatory extended intro) . When this track was released some of the dance music journalists didn't really get it. Perhaps they'll listen now. Last of all is the lesser known remix of Tina Moore's classic from '97. This track was huge on the UK speed "garridge" scene, but it's the faster Kelly G Bump N Go Mix that was more popular at the time. I was just thinking the other day that this version seems more "now". Ironically at the time it probably would have been old fashioned. So that:


Double Exposure - Ten Percent (Walter Gibbons Mix)
The Salsoul Orchestra - Nice & Nasty (Walter Gibbons Mix)
Loleatta Holloway - Love Sensation (Shep Pettibone Mix)
Daft Punk - One More Time (Club Mix)
Tina Moore - Never Gonna Let You Go (Warehouse Junkie Mix)

(btw: Love Sensation was the song that famously got ripped of by Italians Black Box on the '89 track Ride On Time)

The picture is of Walter Gibbons.

Este viernes tenemos sopa de sémola.

¡Ah. Cambio, cambio. Sempre cambio!

Lullaby Baxter - rattled little clam
Neil Haverty - Visa versa
Giraffe - smoke and mirrors
Mazarin - another one goes by
Raised by swans - violet light
Logh - the smoke will lead you home
Neil Haverty - army of me

Image: Kenneth Lavalle.

Things will change but it will always require some violence.

10 songs without any relation between each other and barely connected through melancholy, deceit and violence.

In the nursery - hallucinations?
(Anatomy of a poet, 1994)
Larvae - thanks for playing (feat. Jessica bailiff)
(Dead Weight, 2006)
Pram - the pawnbroker
(Dark Island, 2003)
Sol Seppy - injoy
(the bells of 1 2, 2006)
Ani Difranco - nicotine
(reprieve, 2006)
Arab Strap - haunt me
(the red thread, 2003)
Caetano Veloso - angelitos negros
(Live in Rome bootleg, 2002)
White Birch - silent love
(Come Up For Air, 2006)
Chavela Vargas - maria tepozteca
(Volver, volver, 1996)
Surrey Quays - rocky raccoon (the beatles)
(unreleased)

Image: tetheredtothesun via japanese forms.

AMORE MIO

No se si es una buena noticia, pero...he vuelto! Tras unas vacaciones de descanso, playa, fotos y una sonrisa reciente, vuelvo para seguir el recorrido musical por el mundo. Y porfín le toca el turno a Itália. Que lo disfruten!!

Tal vez la mejor canción para ver llover
Gianmaria Testa – marinero (creo que no es el titulo original)

Los clásicos
Paolo Conte – Azzurro
Paolo Conte - via con me
Renato Carosone - io mammeta e tu
Renato Carosone - Pigliate 'na Pastiglia
(si alguien tiene la versión del anuncio de Siemens que se ponga en contacto conmigo inmediatamente)

ornella vanoni – lappuntamento
Pino Dangio - Que idea

La gran esperanza blanca, espero poder verle en directo antes de que lo ingresen en un psiquiatrico.
vinicio capossela - que cosa el amore

Cuerpo de angel, voz de camionero
Pietra Montecorvino – guaglione


Neri Per Caso - Amore Psicologico


La fricada (BSO de Les triplettes de belleville)
Les triplettes de belleville - cieco cieco barbier

Attack of the beards...

I've been hanging out in places on the net recently where the buzz is all about the Cosmic/ Balearic/ Beardo/ New Disco/ Edit revival. It's already been pointed out by at least one person that the 'scene' is pretty similar in nature to the electro revival that began back at the beginning of the noughties. That revival seemed to come to a crescendo last year with punk/disco going mainstream and LCD Soundsystem releasing what could probably be considered as Punk Funk's defining statement. The interesting thing is that Beardo (my favourite name for it so far) seems to have grown out of Punk Funk. There seemed to be a bit of a debate awhile ago about what would be the next big thing after Punk Funk. Some thought, and probably still think, that Noise will make a comeback. It definitely seemed as if the DFA people were totally behind that idea. From what I could gather Noise bands were invading Williamsburg in numbers. But then something strange began to happen. More and more people seemed to take to the notion that reviving smooth seventies rock and slow chilled out disco from the late seventies and early eighties seemed to be the way forward. And then, in the true spirit of zeitgeist, people started popping up everywhere. Like lost tribes the fans of the original Baia degli Angeli Sound (later to evolve into the Cosmic and Afro sounds), the people who had lived through the great Balearic era, and dudes out on the West Coast who had there own version of it all called Pacifica (I mean like, even Harvey lives there, y'know). So all these forces came together and realized that they hella complimented each other. It seems that we might be getting freal all over again.

The Sorcerer (his secret identity) is from Oakland and according to his myspace page he has some pretty eclectic influences. He seems to enjoy jamming with his friend Hatchback, who is actually from San Frandisco (sic) itself. He has pictures of really cools synths on his myspace page. I think he is implying that he owns those synths, and I'm trying not to be jealous. Together The Sorcerer and Hatchback did a song called White Soweto. It supposed to have been a "feel good" track about a white guy in Africa, I presume in Soweto, in the eighties. The Sorcerer notes on his webpage that the jam took an unexpected turn and ended up sounding like a soundtrack to an italian horror flick or "to what's really going down in the motherland". Well yeah, Soweto in the eighties certainly was pretty much like a horror film, just much scarier. The next track is called Pocket Check, which is also a jam with Hatchback. I like this one the most, it has Lindstrom-like qualities. Popsicle Orange rounds out the triple play. On the D J History forum Sorcerer did hint that he considered these to be possibly unpolished versions of his ultimate capabilities. I would like to encourage him in his endeavors.

Next up is some trippy Finnish classical music from Einojuhani Rautavaaru. He wrote Cantcus Articus for the degree ceremony for the University of Oulu. The recorded bird sounds come from birds in the Arctic. Rautavaaru is known for mixing up styles, using Romantic and Modern idioms like textures. This is the third and last part of Cantus Articus, and it's some pretty dramatic stuff.

Lastly we have a tune from Soweto. This group of guys were like a whirlwind back in the mid-nineties. They started a revolution called Kwaito. It was a revolution of being laidback. The title means something like "we are dancing to the music" (I just went and asked someone and they were unsure as to how it should be translated). The other thing that they keep shouting in the song is "Ubize moyeni" which means "we are shouting at the sky", and it's one of the few Zulu phrases that I actually know, which is pretty lame of me.

The picture is of Chi-Chi from DBZ, when she was little. By the looks of things, she's on her way to the Rollerink in 1983.


Sorcerer - White Soweto

Sorcerer - Pocket Check

Sorcerer - Popsicle Orange

Einojuhani Rautavaara - Joutsenet muuttavat (Swans Migrating)

Trompies - Sigiya Ngengoma

come pick me up

Como dice mi amigo Alvy Singer cuando se refiere a Ryan Adams: "Heartbreaker es su disco más bobdylaniano. EL MEJOR. Tal vez "Come pick me up" no sea su mejor canción pero es una maravilla..... Steal my records, screw all my friends."
Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up.mp3

Y qué puedo decir de "Desire" aparte de aplaudirla desde un silencioso estremecimiento y seguirla con algunas de mis canciones favoritas. ¡Aix! estoy viviendo un verano de western...
Ryan Adams - Desire.mp3
Neil Young - Heart of Gold.mp3
Neil Young - Only love can break your heart.mp3

Para terminar, una chispa que me recuerda que "I will never stop believing..."
Tom Waits - You can never hold back spring.mp3

La fotografía es un autorretrato

Obscured by covers

One month after his death, I'd like to give a well deserved tribute to the darkly handsome and charismatic early frontman of Pink Floyd. At the moment I thought it'd be better to remain silent and just light a pair of candles on top of my dusty bass amp while the other children farewelled barrett in their own uncertain ways. And so, I did.

Judging by some of the posts I read after Syd's death I realized sadly that half of the bloggers out there have hardly listened to any Pink Floyd's records, let alone the ones from the early Barrett years and that they were probably just seeking for some audience instead of posting out of love and respect for him. I, au contraire, have finished at last the tiny candle sanctuary in my room and I'm preparing a set of Syd's songs to play in front of it until high hours in the morning, hopefully I'll be joined by an idiot drug hive who calls himself Kurt in the electric guitar and a weird looking fellow who plays any kind of drums or percussions magnificently. If it rains, the night will be beautiful.

Even if you've never been interested in Pink Floyd at all, I strongly suggest you to listen to some of the renditions I'm offering you here, particulary "love song" by Livid and "golden hair" by Slowdive, the only two floyd covers I've heard that are so good that surpass the original ones. For your comfort, I'm dividing the covers in two parts, the first ones are Syd Barrett's compositions and the second ones come from the post Barret era.
The stars are screaming loud.

Part 1 - Barrett covers

Livid - Love song
Slowdive - golden hair
Paloma - see emily play
Jmj Band - interstellar overdrive
Etienne Daho - arnold layne

Part 2 - Post-Barrett covers

Helios Creed - Pigs on the wing pt. 1
Vegetable Fat - one of these days
Pickin' on Pink Floyd - comfortably numb
Ambulance Ltd - fearless
Helios Creed - Pigs on the wing pt. 2

The photograph was taken in Jan. 1968 and it's one of the few ones where all five Pink Floyd members are together. Gilmour had just joined the band and Barrett was kicked off 4 months later due to his deteriorating mental health. The somewhat prophetic picture depicts him dreamy and distant from the other members, staring into space.

6. 粉红 6

让我们看到了黑夜背面的这些事物 是哪一种梦想让我们经历了短暂的

Ame - rej
(Rej Ep, 2006)
Ratatat - Wildcat
(Classics, 2006)
Delorean - metropolitan death
(The metropolitan death, 2006)
Pet Shop Boys - minimal
(Fundamentals, 2006)
Nathan Fake - Charlie's house (apparat remix)
(Drowning in a sea of remixes, 2006)
Vitalic - you are my sun
(Bells ep, 2006)

Image: My little crockpot.

Reveries for the lost echoes

Today I offer you a half ambient-vocal mix, I'm calling it "half" because it's not strictly ambient nor it has vocals all the way. It's more ambient in tone and feeling. The list was initially intended to be 8 tracks long but our upload service is giving us some trouble so I'm cutting it down to 6 pieces of earcandy.

Specially check out Daryl Hall's (ex-hall & "fucking" oates) "the farther away I am" from the album "sacred songs" which counted with the collaboration of the amazing Robert Fripp as a session guitarist making use of his then new "Frippertronics" (which mainly consisted of several loop tapes making harmonizing sounds while Fripp did his usual guitar magic overneath it to make it sound like there was a full orchestra in the studio) and John Martyn's "Small hours", a sultry 9 minute piece which has led several critics to describe Martyn as the "Father of Trip-Hop", approaching this song in its own terms will eventually reveal its secret.

Hope you enjoy.

The free associaton - platform 23
(code 46 soundtrack, 2004)
Daryl Hall - the farther away I am
(sacred songs, 1980)
Loren Mazzacane Connors - Untitled (track 4)
(Airs, 1999)
John Martyn - small hours
(one world, 1977)
U2 - MLK
(the unforgettable fire, 1984)
Bed - an itch
(the newton plum, 2001)

Image: Moki, (pronounced mioke) a german artist with some very nice and varied artwork which at certain points reminds me of Gauckler's work although she mentions Hayao Miyazaki (princess mononoke, spirited away) as her main influence. Her site is quite difficult to navigate (don't you all hate flash sites?) but once you get to the illustrations is worth the search.

Speaking of which, one of my favorite illustrators, Maxi Luchini, has opened a new blog a month ago where he'll be constantly exposing some tidbits of his extensive and marvellous portofolio. Obligatory bookmark.

/·/ Farewell - - de adioses mutuos.

tonight/
last night
i saw
the dusk
falling
apart.

dawn
is coming
unto me.

here/now
starts
my everafter.

these are
the songs
of our
goodbye.


01: Guillemots, Little Bear.
02: Annie Lennox, Ev'rytime We Say Goodbye.
03: Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Then The Letting Go.
04: Susanna & The Magical Orchestra, Hallellujah.
05: Jason Molina, Nashville Moon (Live).
06: Shearwater, Nobody.
07: Takagi Masakatsu, Mio Pianto.
08: My Brightest Diamond, Gone Away.
09: Cat Power & The Memphis Rhythm Band, The Greatest (Live).
10: Chocolate Genius, My Mom.
11: Gotye, Heart's A Mess.
12: Julian Fane, Safety Man.
13: Dntel feat. Mia Doi Todd, Rock My Boat.
14: Paula Cole, Me.
15: Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins, Born Secular.
16: Stuart A. Staples, Old Friends.
17: iLiKETRAiNS, Terra Nova.
18: A Silver Mt. Zion, 13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed.

warmhugs & kisses everyone.

muchas gracias Moka.
has sido un honor.

The best roosters are the ones that do not sing in the morning.

Es cada vez mayor la distancia que recorro con la vista cuando miro desde esta ventana. Al principio sólo puedo ver las líneas del tren. Dos paralelas, ocultas por la herrumbre. Después de unos días las ruedas del ferrocarril. Cuando observo el vagón completo dejo nuevamente de percibir la realidad.

When it happens I then need to recall an old technique. Stand with my arms making a cross and make a brief genuflection. Then, I must breathe loudly three times in a row and immediatly hold my breath until I feel like I'm dying.

Después de aguantar el aire hasta que estoy azul, casi siempre logro ver nuevamente la luz. Percibo principalmente el cielo. Lástima que entonces las nubes sean lo único que llama mi atención.

RF - offering
Six Organs of Admittance - bless your blood
The memory band - this is how we walk the moon (moondog)
James Blackshaw - transient life in twilight
Cyann & Ben - I can't pretend anymore
Death Chants - the sonorous motions of the crystal holosphere
The Birdtree - black rainbows pt. 1 and 2

Image: Aaron Hawks, quien por cierto tiene unas muy saludables galerias de desnudos.

Unravel

...
What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in air were towers
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

-T. S. Eliot , The Waste Land, "V. What the Thunder Said"



"Sebika - And They Look Broken Hearted"

01. Garbarek/Brahem/Hussain - Sebika
02. Paavoharju - Tavataan 12-7-2004 (web)
03. Midlake - Van Occupanther
04. Four Tet - And They Look Broken Hearted
05. Uzeda - Steam, Rain & Other Stuff (web)
06. A Minority Of One - Felld (web)
07. Venetian Snares - Szamár Madár
08. Alex Cline - Wreath of Rain (web)
09. Mogwai - Friend Of The Night
10. Faux Pas - Barry (web)


note: Second part in a series. On top of the obvious subject matter, this list tries to pull together IDM works and explore electronica emotive range as music work. (Four Tet, Venetian Snares, Faux Pas, A minority of One) The rest are my old and new favorites: Garbarek/Brahm form Madar (ECM), Uzeda new album (math rock, highly recommended), Mogwai last release, Paavoharju. Although slightly abstract, this list should be emotive by design. The effect I am looking for is turning inside out, ripping apart everything that is comfortable. Extreme tempo changes, rythm texture, harmonies, melodic placement and combination of unusual styles. I hope you appreciate it. Cheers.

image credit: click image

My last vacation days will see my attempt to drink jagermesiter for the first time in an impressive tempo

My last week of vacations and I'm trying to stretch it as much as I can.

The first time I heard Sometree I had to double check if Thom Yorke wasn't contributing vocals to the song. I know it's not weird finding thom clones in brit music but the resemblance to the early 90's Thom's voice is amazing. In a similar fashion, Boy Omega kept reminding me of Robert Smith's voice which is really good on my book. Add some warm but unrisky electro-organic music to join it and we're halfway there.

I can't remember how the song "one in 10,000" from Brilliant Fanzine appeared in my files but yesterday the song kept ringing all day in my head with it's opening chorus line “And right from the first time I met you, I couldn't forget you. There's something about you." and it's piano line that somehow kept reminding me to Monaco's 90's hit "what do you want from me". Just to verify, I downloaded the Monaco song and after a close inspection, I couldn't find any similarities or whatsoever to the Brilliant Fanzine one but the whole process brought up some good memories of those months when the Monaco one was hitting on the radio.

Crazy Girl are unknown to me by any other means than their song "the rebel" remixed by electronic wizard Optimo. The result is a fuzzy number with some rebel selling his soul to the devil or something like that.

Surely he'll never surpass his father's work but Baxter Dury (that's Ian Dury's son if you couldn't guess it) was clever enough to keep his father's exquisite, snobish accent, and the never ungrateful Velvet underground influence. Now, how about two ex-spiritualized members joining him? Sounds promising, yeh. But to be honest, the final product doesn't enthusiasm me that much, aside from some narcotized highlights every now and then it seems Baxter has really not too much to say. "Waiting for surprises" from his late 2005 album "Floor show" is a nice tribal, atmospheric number that brings to mind the obvious Spiritualized influence while also chanelling a super furry animals vibe along that might be just perfect for the common summer afternoon activity of scoring dope.

Two weeks ago at the beach, one of my doomed friends played his werk 80 album by Atrocity while we were dining the half good spaghetti I did for them. Werk 80 is a covers only album translating 80's pop hits into the industrial metal territory and it counts with the beautiful and talented Liv Kristine Espenaes from Theatre of tragedy joining them in 5 songs. "Shout", originally from Tears for Fears, is a nice cover with huge drums and a nice string section in the middle, gets a bit repetitive with the shout-chorus but, well, so was the original one.

Sometree - Hands & arrows
Boy Omega - if only
Brilliant Fanzine - one in 10,000
Crazy girl - the rebel (gris gris optimo rmx)
Baxter Dury - waiting for surprises
Atrocity - shout (tears for fears)

Image: Josef Breitenbach.