Emerald Daze

2004-02-20T08:19:00.001-08:00

cast's Bold

2004-02-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

cast's Bold

2004-02-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

It's The End Of The Line

please go here from now on

2004-02-07T05:23:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, went to Forward aswell and that place has definitely reached its' Z.F.I. (thats zone of fruitless intesnification for any newcomers, see blissblog archive). The sound has not really moved on that much since I've been going down there, however the m.c's are starting to make concestion's toward those who like "grimey" or "durty", their words, now they always used to mention "durty" beats but the G word is a new development, like the Forward sound is trying to retain its edge in the face of compettion from G brigade, now I'm not making any bones at all about being "inside" this , just tellin you what I'm seein bruv. You can still smoke bare weed down there though, bet you can't do that at Eski. Plasticman was hanging about holdin some promo's, thats what it's for really down there, it's industry.

any of you in Hackney doing nothing come out tonight its WANG, Rephlex d.j's, Squarepusher, Mark Broom and me and my mate on quite early so I wont stress.

2004-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

just trying to keep up, The Green is not yeilding sufficent inspiration, t.v. mind rot and hypnotic fashionistas spiral about

Massive amount of information here and here, but finding it hard to steer a course to the point. Half way through I've forgotten the question. Thing is I read poetry all the time but not too many critical books. I studied Eliot a long time ago and probably The Wasteland is a piece of work I'm most familiar with. I like e.e. cummings too, the economy of his language creates poems that are like droplets of water falling through space.
As I said once before up here I like Pound too but never really got to grips with the Canto's. I'll go back to it now after reading about it again, I've see a copy in the library.
I found studying all that ryhming structure quite difficult and frustrating, trochaic feet, iambic pentameters all that. So it's not suprising that most people gravitate towards the free verse, more accesible sometimes. It is good though when you can see how imagination is tempered around these structures and how great minds can play with the structure.
It seems like the education system definetly legtimises some poets and fails to mention many others, when i was at school you got Hughes, Heaney, Dunn, Paulin or Wilfred Owen, Sassoon etc and not much else.
For some reason I was really drawn to William Carlos Williams, the scansion was odd and the poems were huge sprawling things about rural America. Perhaps I was drawn to him because he wasn't on the syllabus so seemed exotic compared to the Irish contingent.
The parallells that exist between developments in the visual arts are fascinating but where can poetry go now, how can it become more conceptual, take itself of the page ? As write this the answer is obvious of course, heronbone & craner are good examples of just this. This is where it can go and become vital and new, it's also free and well beyond any kind of censor.

love this bit in 'London Orbital' by iain sinclair,

"A good day on the hoof should include: (1) a section of river or canal, (2) a Formica-table breakfast, (3) a motorway bridge, (4) a discontinued madhouse, (5) a pub, (6) a mound, (7) a wrap of London weather (monochrome to sunburst), (8) one major suprise ."

-----------------------------------------//----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

Saw new pop fops Franz Ferdinand play a gig at the Great Eastern Hotel in Liverpool Street, I crept in to the venue on the coat tails of some fashionistas and drank free vodka like an over excited teenager. The band were great I thought, the've got that rigid muscular swagger and come on like bone hungry greyhounds. They entertained the crowd and had a likeable energy about them. Stock comparisons with scottish indie bands of the past abound elsewhere so whats the point in me re-iterating them, it's like I'm not trying to show off with all that . I dont want to be a proper writer, writing this shit all the time is too much fun to mess it like that, besides I've got a job. However if you haven't heard it all ready check out the blueprint for FF by listening to "The Best Fun In Town" by Josef K, there I've done it.

2004-02-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

2004-02-05T06:07:00.000-08:00

WINTER

stayed up late reading Simon Fords 'Hip Priest' book on M.E.S and The Fall. It is so readable I could not put it down, Ford also wrote the fantastic 'Wreckers Of Civilisation' book about Throbbing Gristle which is an essential read regardless of whether or not you like the music.
The archival content and research is immense and puts an historical context on the scene that enables you to understand objectively what happend, not reliant on rock folk-lore like so many music books.
So I dug out a cassette 'Seminal Live' and put it on, the track 'Mollusc In Tyrol' comes on and I am transported back to my youth. This mid price cassette came out in 89 and is a great document of The falls live sound from around this time including some unreleased gems like 'Pinball Machine' and 'Squid Law'. Everyone has a view on The fall, most of my mates think they're shit but a few recognize the genius at work here. When I first got in to them in the mid eighties people said they were past it but they rumbled on. I am not up to date with their current output but did see them play twice last year, at Dingwalls and All Tomorrows Parties. Smith is reasuringly untainted by middle age his outwardly misanthropic and curmugeonly demoenour still sharp as a knife.

"My frendz you can count on one hand''

Actually in the book he sites B Manning as one of his favourite comedians, last nights documentary on the contraversial northern comic revealed more than a few parralels between the two. Both are fiercely proud of their home town of manchester and schooled in the quick witted response needed to survive the northern working mans club scene.
My first live experince of the Fall was in 89 and it was fuckin brilliant. They were touring the Extricate album and first edition fall guitarist Martin Bramah was back on board. The Coldcut produced single 'Telephone Thing' was doing the rounds and my expectations were high. M.E.S did not disapoint, taking the stage like a maleovolent shadow, Smith spat his raps across the room from behind a preachers lecturn like some rabid character from an H.P. Lovecraft novel. I was up front and got to shake the great mans hand, he was I seem to remember uncharacteristicly jocund that night at Essex University. We even waited for them to come out the back and board the tourbuss, those were the days.
I got a t-shirt from that gig and wore it like a second skin proud of my deeply unfashionable allegance to a band that a few morons had vaguely heard of because of their chart success with'Victora'.

" 'Winter' is a tale concerning an insane child who is taken over by the spirit from the mind of a cooped up alchoholic. and his ravaged viewpoints and theories. An earlier version went into the 'Clang' process of speech, whereby the sufferer during speech makes sentances containing similar sounding words."

2004-02-04T05:53:00.000-08:00

Saw a nearly fight on the street this morning between a big old geezer and the postman, I thought the guy was going to get physical but it just ended in him calling him a shit arse. The postman does come late and is absolutely useless which is frustrating as I'm waiting on some c.d.s one of which is very exclusive to Emerald daze as it is the new Basil Kirchin c.d. on trunk that me and Miv won in a competition on the O.S.T show last week.

Went down to some weird little alpine lodge/grimy subteranean boozer on Wardour Street called St Moritz, not having been there before I thought the prospect of a free band and my mate spinning a few tunes would be a laugh, wrong. The band were this po-faced Can-lite japanese dudes called Miso Soup that everyone (majority japanese) thought were great but I was not feeling it at all.

2004-02-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

Sonambulence In The Heart Of Hackney/
The Sons Of Silence

Cosmic drones and tones at the Womb With A View night in Hackney on Saturday. Down a little cobbled street next to the railway line we ventured past the derilict cars and vans in the yard and followed the drone up the staircase. Like some latter day Death Factory the venue was strewn with old tape players, speakers of all descriptions and a healthy atmosphere of grimy abandon.
The makeshift stage was made of crates and a load of pool tables pushed together, the walls behind and to the side a mass of alternating projections with the coagulating slop of matmos atmos looped over the top of it all.
The Sons of Silence came walking in procession slowly through the crowd, one of the trio was dressed in a monks cowl, which is always a good look if you ask me. I was lucky enough to get a free c.d which they where handing out entitled Pocket Astral Navigator/Panthers and The Museum Of Fire. It’s really excellent and is numbered 3 of 20 so I felt doubly blessed you can imagine.
Anyway, distant clarinet flourishes and swathes of tones ensued with the guy who looked like Stephen Stapleton gently ruffling a number of instruments one of which was definitely a guitar. The other could have quite possibly been a ‘sheep ventilator guitar’ as popularised by aforementioned avantist on the ‘Foxtrot’ e.p from a few years back. The eerily reverberating echoes sounded like a hurdy gurdy man lost in the mist and never became too cosmic but remained resolutely urban , mingling with the external noises of the night to great effect.

2004-01-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

Unprecedented Scenes Outside Television Centre Today

"it is a blow for independant and investigative journalism and democracry itself" said a senior source

2004-01-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

Blowin my own freekin cornet

It's only the end of Jan and already I've scored a flat, a new job and I'm fuckin d.j in next week. That my friends is the power of no weed. hah !

SAT 7th Feb WANG

SQUAREPUSHER (jazz spangler)

MARK BROOM (the mad mike of bethnal green)

KRUTON (known to clear floors city wide)

SUNNY JIM (needs to buy some new tunes)

@ THE PREMISES, HACKNEY ROAD (NR BINGO HALL) 10:30 TILL 6:00 £7 ALL NITE (SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR BLOGNERDS)

2004-01-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Wasted Youth

Black Hole is Charles Burns' decade long journey through the mutated teenage underbrush of rural America.
Now on issue number 11 it features outsiders living in woodland outside Any Town, hustling chicken wings and smoking doobies to a soundtrack of David Bowie and Iggy Pop. There is a spaceyness to the panels that flows like an endless David Lynch movie. The rain pours and moments of happiness are distant memories or a fleeting present to be held on tight to. You can feel the black and white drawings and taste the adolescent detritus. Just bones, old porno mags, bits of twine and skeletal wood sculptures with dolls heads, vacant eyes stare out.
It's nearly over now.

"Our brains are too large..we think too much and it drives us all crazy. we've inherited this amazing gift of intelligence and self-awareness and we've squandered it...pissed it away. We'd be happy if we could live simple lives, enjoy each other and...I mean maybe live on a farm or something and grow things..You know, get back to the earth..But hey don't listen to me what do I know?"
Charles Burns

2004-01-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

Nice peice on John Fahey's collected writings 'Vampire Vultures' in the latest Wire by Geeta , sad to think of him ending his days in "a cluttered motel room off an anonymous strip of highway in rural Oregon." I've been listening to 'The Legend Of Blind Joe Death' this last week, 'The Transcendental Waterfall' from this album is one of my new favourite tracks, it's amazing , the middle sequence sounds timeless. It's great healing music, that's for sure.

2004-01-26T03:39:00.000-08:00

Essential Harvey re-edit on sale now on e-bay, I've got five of these and they are the greatest re-edit business around. The Dick Hyman 'Give It Up Turn It Loose' is a tower of freaked out disco oddness. Seek em out, there about but early ones like this puppy are rare as hens teeth.

Big up to all my dogz as usual matts spot on this hound be in the pan.

Lea Valley was resplendant yesterday in the crisp winter sun. My lady and I hit the track up to Stamford Hill across the marshland and via the reed beds. Saw one jay and a couple of chaffinches but alas no kingfishers.

2004-01-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

"What did I do? Why I sat down and reflected. I had a good classical education, and a positive distaste for business of any kind : that was the capital with which I faced the world. "

A big freeze is on its way they say.
It is actually impossible to have a single origional thought with a hangover, still we had a laugh though .
Gerhard Richter did the picture of a candle on the cover of Daydream Nation, I found this out because I was loitering in the foyer of Whitechappel Art Gallery, not being able to sacrifice the eight pounds to see the exhibition I settled for a few postacards of which this was one. I think I'll go in the week on wednesday when it's free, the postcards look great,

2004-01-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

The auspicous Nick Da Record has some new stock over on his dj friendly website and some new genre sections, check out the reggae not reggae section.

Where the heck is scott at, scott where are you ?

A friend of mine did some of those mexican shrooms from the market at the weekend, he reckons the guy said neck them both at once for the desired effect (2 for a tenner), they blew his friggin socks off, he had to run out of 'On The Rocks' as it had become a "grotesque caberet, soundtracked by the shittest eighties music ever', mate you dont have to take psycho active drugs to realise that about shoxton !

The lovely Matthew Glamour just played a great 'alco pop' tune by Lucky Pierre on Resonance, quite Italo dont you know.

2004-01-20T13:52:00.000-08:00

The Black Devil soon come.......................

great sound samples from new Luke Vibert record Kerrier District on Rephlex

2004-01-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

Ron Geesin in the seventies, seems to have been a popular pose back then see Matts post on Karel Appell from December. Note the slightly guilty looking smirk, like he's been up to some supremely avant garde naughtiness.
'Patruns' sounds o.k. but not remarkable but i've got to give it a proper listen yet, it was only a fiver, the bins underneath the main record racks in Honest johns jazz basement have got some great stuff in them and the Holger Czukey album I bought there was considerably under the going rate.Its also a whole load of fun with some remarkable production, kinda euro kosmiche funk, 'Cool In The Pool' is a delightfull track.

On the way from the canal up to Stamford Hill I saw a rogue squirrel nearly topple an orthodox Jewish guy who was wearing those silk plus fours and one of those long silky jackets, the squirrel just launched itself out of hedge ran straight between this guys legs. The guy burts out laughing. Wildlife is going crazy round here.

2004-01-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

For The Foxes

Charles Bukowski

don't feel sorry for me.
I am a competent,
satisfied human being.

be sorry for the others
who
fidget
complain

who
constantly
rearrange their
lives
like
furniture.

juggling mates
and
attitudes

their
confusion is
constant

and it will
touch
whoever they
deal with.

beware of them:
one of their
key words is
"love."

and beware those who
only take
instructions from their
God

for they have
failed completely to live their own
lives.

don't feel sorry for me
because I am alone

for even
at the most terrible
moments
humor
is my
companion.

I am a dog walking
backwards

I am a broken
banjo

I am a telephone wire
strung up in
Toledo, Ohio

I am a man
eating a meal
this night
in the month of
September.

put your sympathy
aside.
they say
water held up
Christ:
to come
through
you better be
nearly as
lucky.

2004-01-19T03:10:00.000-08:00

Luke's fox sightings coincide with the discovery by my brother and his flat mates that a family of foxes have taken up residency in the disused garage that is attached to the end of their garden. The entrance from the garden is thick with scrub and trees so provide them perfect cover for their forays into Hackney. On sunday I was looking out onto the garden and one suddenly appeared and started rooting around seemingly un fazed by prescence at the window, then all of a sudden another one apppeared on the top of the wall . This one was not a great specimen though and if it is the same family that we have seen before then its condition has considerably worsened since the summer. The hair on its tail and hind quarters was almost completley diminshed making it look quite shockingly odd. My brother said he had to go into the garage the other day and he got the fright of his life when in the darkness the prescence of several fairly large creatures became obvious as they bolted for the door. There were a couple of reports of foxes bighting people over last summer, one was about a woman asleep in her bed waking up to find a fox at the end of it. if they do bite and I think it's very rare, then they may have rabies in which case your in trouble. But hey the cubs look cute, I wonder if there's any in the garage.
Oh yeah, we also think that they are claiming benefits and working at the same time.

this from Wild London website

What a racket

Between December and February you may hear the most unearthly screaming sounds late at night. This is sometimes called the “vixen's scream” and is thought to be the sound made by the female fox to show she is ready to mate. Once reassured about this sound, most people are happy to live with the noise while the foxes are mating. If it does become intolerable, you can move the foxes on by using a strong smelling repellent such as the types you can buy to deter cats.

2004-01-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

The Gray Scale/David Cunningham

Picked this up today in Rough Trade for a tenner, experimental album by Flying Lizards main man David Cunningham pictured above. Not listened to it yet but can't wait, it's the first release on Piano. The record is mint and unplayed and the sticker on the outer sleeve said that some had turned up in a warehouse! They may have some more down there at the Talbot Rd one so hurry down. Of course it's rare as, what a casual find, some guy on the web reckonned he looked for like ten years for it.
Also picked up/ 'Noir Desire' by Vive La Fete/ which is great fun and sleazy too.
'Movies' Holger Czukay (Harvest 1979)
'Patruns' Ron Geesin (Ron 31a 1075)
'Take Me Out' Franz Ferdinand brand new on Rough trade only one squid

2004-01-15T01:08:00.000-08:00

Popped in to Rough Trade Covent Garden the other day on return drift from town and they have got these fantastic coloured vinyl discs on the wall from the Table Of Elements label, six in total or maybe more, featuring a whole host of people including Jim O'Rourke, John Fahey and Loren Conners, they look fantastic and will be of course highly collectible. All I could do was drool but I'm back there soons as I get some money. This is a great Fahey discog with colour cover scans of the albums .

White sack swinging from high tree branches opposite my window
like a washed out ghost that didn't get back to the night in time

Reading about coyotes that snatch up dogs from back gardens in the hills outside Los Angles
David Mammet on the game of poker

Down cobbled streets in Clerkenwell, intriguing alley ways, rows of serious looking designer types transfixed by monitors
The Swednborg Centre and the great arch in St Johns Lane.

2004-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

"You see Jim it's a piece of fucking piss"

(Christchurch Jumble Sale Greenwich 1973)

2004-01-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

New Black Hole out now

2004-01-13T03:58:00.000-08:00

"Heart Breaks Promises, I've Had More Than My Share"

"Big up all the Mile End roofers" and in fact anyone with a job that involves proper work .,track called Bass Tone playing on Rinse FM, oh yeah i remember it now its old well old, a Freek FM classic, like when that Strictly Vibe kinda merged with Uk garage, you know its the one with the breaking bottle sound used like a high hat, oh, now he's playing Al y Us 'Follow Me', bring back the music Essex, London,......

I just dont think about it that much, intense theorizing on the situation of modern folk, linked to repetition/return to merits of or not, what ? Does anybody just like stuff any more , I'm worried if I read to much more of this I wont be able to buy a record without deconstructing it so much there is nothing left.
My chum milo just got back from a mini tour of new York with alt doom minimalists Sunn o))) and said that dudes in NYC dug their shit and it was really good out there. He popped into the DFA studio and picked up some new cuts of theirs, there is a new one by The Juan Maclean with a track by Rapture on the flip, cant remember the tracks name but it is wicked, monstrous slap bass sonic funker, well it sounded good yesterday, ......

oh yeah I've been informed that the foxes were actually fucking

2004-01-12T04:18:00.000-08:00

"The Rituals We Observe"

Might as well add my two penny worth to the text mountain on Lost In Translation.
Just read Baals appraisal and thats about it in a nutshell. What does he say to her in that final scene together, perhaps they will meet again ? This ambiguity does give some hope to the idea of the brief moments of joy in life being fleeting and that after their encounter the two will be sent spiralling of into the either never to meet again. Tokyo looks so amazing in this film it would be easy to say that wherever you point the camera it would look great. All that fantastic signage and idiosyncratic advertising. The underlying lostness you feel for the characters though gives the bright lights and flashing signs a rainsoaked saddened hue.
I really loved the shifting in and out of focus on the shots, so you are inside bill murrays head trying to stay awake, trying to focus and make sense of it all. Murrays hang dog reluctant acceptance of his fate and a wickedly sarcastic sense of humour is very similar to the character he plays in Rushmore , one my favourite films ever. The pool scene in L.I.T reminded me of when Murray jumps off the diving board in Rushmore and lets himself sink to the bottom of pool, escaping the disolusionment and emptiness for a few brief moments.
The soundtrack oozes out of the speakers into the film, 'Just Like Honey' had me tripping and the new Kevin Shields track that plays through the end credits after nearly everybody has left is a total blissout.
Coming out into rainy soho I felt that impact of a good film when you have to slow down a bit and the world looks more interesting than when you went in.

"Then they all rose up and danced, and secret things were brought out of some hiding place, and they played extraordinary games, and danced round and round and round in the moonlight, and sometimes people would suddenly disappear and never be heard of afterwards, and nobody new what happend to them. And they drank more of that curious wine, and they made images and worshipped them....." Arthur Machen 'The White People

Iain Sinclair talking about the film director Michael Reeves who made Witchfinder General and The Sorcerers. Saying how in those days it was possible to "talk up a film" and make it happen . Reeves story is strange and fascinating and ultimatley tragic. As if he had made some pact in return for his youthfull success but then had it snatched away, the films resonate with an occult energy.
Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins is a unique mixture of high camp and maleovalant evil as he gallops across the spectral flatlands of Suffolk.

On the morning of the day itself, the ‘Fool Plough’ was drawn through the streets and up to the doors of houses, where gifts of money, or of food and drink, were demanded from the householders. If these were given, as almost invariably they were, the young men shouted ‘largesse!’ and danced round the plough; if they were refused, the ground in front of the house was roughly ploughed up by way of punishment for the tenant’s want of generosity

2004-01-10T08:56:00.000-08:00

This is my current post

2004-01-09T05:25:00.000-08:00

Nice, hardcore diggin plus lists and prices, its been said before and i'll say it again Melbourne looks like a diggers goldmine . When are easyjet gonna start doin cheap flights down under?
My best turn up so far was 'We Still Kill The Old Way' Bacalov/Nicolai which is on Intoxica's site for £330, I traded in some old shit to my mate John at Reckless and bought it for 30 on credit. Its VG++/VG+ Thanks to my learned friend for bringing this to my attention.

2004-01-09T03:04:00.000-08:00

You type it sings

2004-01-09T01:46:00.000-08:00

Stood in the drizzle for twenty minutes waiting for an estate agent to show us around a one bedroom flat in hackney near London Fields , geezer turns up and the owner has changed the locks, knowing that we were coming round and not told him. Another evening wasted, flat hunting can be a zone of fruitless intensification.

2004-01-09T01:26:00.000-08:00

The Camden Ripper

Totally engrossed in a morbidly curious way to last nights doc on 'Camden Ripper' Tony Hardy.
Being very familiar with this part of town and knowing it's propensity as a haven for weirdos' and winos of all extraction made watching the footage even more terrifying. Hardy perhaps un-wittingly made the producers of this programmed job all the more easier by turning up on numerous c.t.v cameras throughout this tragic episode. In particular he was captured non-chalantly dumping a bin bag full of body parts into his local wheely bin before shuffling off down the street. The interior of his flat was an insane pornographic shrine with mad drawings on the walls and the stench of death. It seems that this guy was yet another dormant time bomb that slipped with ease through the authorities many nets set up to save us from these people. He was even up for a murder charge one year prior to the latest killings after police found a dead woman inside a locked room in his flat. The case was dropped after the coroner found her death to be of natural causes, although there where bite marks and a wound to her head. Perhaps Hardy induced a heart attck in this woman from sheer terror .
The most disturbing thing was the amount of evidence they seemed to be allowed to show last night, including the porn photos of the two dead women just before he chopped them up. He had obscured their faces and posed them ; one was wearing a novelty devil mask which looked utterly demonic. These photo's were taken to a local film lab and the guy who processed them was being interviewed, saying that the images where such that the bodies did not appear to be dead .
I used to cycle through Kings Cross and round the back across York Way after a night shifts in Camden and at this time in the morning there used to be a really sinister atmosphere around those back streets, like nowhere else in london, except perhaps Whitechappell. I remember nearly crashing in to a girl who was sitting on the the tow path of the Regents Canal with a needle in her leg at about 8:30 one morning. The whole place is being re-developed now and is a massive building site, they are trying to bury Kings Cross's un savory past.
They never found the heads and hands of the murdered women and hardy is saying nothing.

2004-01-09T00:27:00.000-08:00

The chilling rasp of a Fox on heat keeps me awake most of the early morning. I rememberd that is what they sound like after thinking what the fuck is making that noise for ages. it sort of sounds like a choking dog that has had its vocal chords severed combined with a freakish whelp.
Looking out of the window i could not see the fox but it was very close, if you've ever heard this noise you know what i mean, it's harrowing.
The moon was almost full and bright in the sky this morning as i walked into work.

2004-01-07T01:14:00.000-08:00

Disc Rot

Watch out when you buy those pirate dvds of bods in the street. Its a given that the picture quality will range from poor to quite shit (my grading) but the disc should actually spin in the machine. I bought that new Cohen brothers 'romantic comedy with bite' film last night on the way home and although is was quite blocky and the audio at points sounded like it was coming out of a mobile phone it was o.k. Then right at the denouement the thing just started to jam and jump after playing alright for the entire film. Looking at the disc it was totally scratched to fuck, amazing that it played at all. I'm sure you'll agree its a hard fuckin life. Next time I'll give the guy a fake fiver, thats fair enough isn't it.
The film really not that bad despite the posters that make it look like the usual hollywood schmaltz, I guess I'll have to wait to find out the ending.

Listened to two abums pulled at random from the stack last night, both from 1975 which must have been colossal for new music. Popul Vuh's 'In Der Garten Des Pharoahs' and Kraftwerks 'Radioactvity' sounded absolutley amazing. Kraftwerk the more striking for its ultra modern sound and sentiment to this day. This is not a modern music is rubbish rant either, that is one dull argument, you could only see how Kraftwerk would stand up in nearly thirty years time by actually hearing it now.
I am definetly going to try to get a ticket for one of the upcoming Kraftwerk gigs, that late one at brixton academy sounds good, but in the R.F.H they would sound fantastic.

2004-01-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

got this today as a message heading, "journalizing nitrous bigot", alas it was only spam.

so was "obeyed daemon obscured disappointment"

2004-01-06T00:58:00.000-08:00

"Oh Look Here Comes Fuckin Dracula"

The Cure are definitley becoming cool again and will probably be highly influential in the revival of the early eighties goth look that is imenent. (Not to be mixed up with Camden cyber or mid nineties nu goth vampire weirdos), I used to work in camden and look out over the Devonshire pub (?) where numerous varieties of goths would descend nightly like (you guessed it) bats, to gather and sup the purple liquid known as snakebite.The above quotation is from one of my more eloquent collegues who spotted this chap who seemed to dominate the scene one season, probably works in a bank now. It was rather like birdwatching to this extent as we were well hidden, also it was amazing to watch the many subgenres of the goth gene mutate and transform before ones very eyes. Anyway all gangsta rude boy goths checka dis riddim courtesy of the gabba pod , it will have you get your vinyl bondage trousers in a twist. Right I'm off to do a disco re-edit of 'A Forest', and oh yeah they were great at Wembley Arena 89, (sheds a tear).......

2004-01-05T01:49:00.000-08:00

in the absence of a soul, i quote, quote all day long.

The perfect tonic this monday and uplifting
sorry its from erasetheworld again

"If there are other dimensions, other planes, other spheres of existence, they burst into the downed walls of the sleeping mind in nightmares. Are they glimpses of these planes of reality? Too vast, unholy, and unearthly for our weak human minds. Are they messages from the void? Or echoes of the place we go when we die - not Elysian fields, or endless meadows, or white sands and green hills under a swift sunrise. Not glimmering halls and mansions where we will kiss and laugh and see our loved ones, sing and dance to the music of the spheres and marvel at the cosmic carnival of existence.
But bottomless vaults of rending horror, boundry-less arcs of pain and erupting corruption, where our feeble earthly souls will be taken and shredded, broken and burned into nothingness."

yes, yes, yessssssss

2004-01-05T01:45:00.000-08:00

Standing alone on a vast unkempt playingfield in wind and sleet. Ahead clouds of grey rain, behind, a lonely bus shelter on a deserted street, its interior strewn with fag buts and stinking of piss.

Good to read someone else is on a cosmic downer.

2004-01-05T00:53:00.000-08:00

Its (Not) All Doom And Gloom

Been listening to Keith Hudson's 'Playing It Cool' quite a lot in the last few days. Just to say i got it in the last week of 03 and its my favourite record of the year. No energy at all after new year, have'nt looked at the blogs for ages, just had a look today, you guys make me feel well anxious. Like walking through Bethnal Green after being up all night.
All is just a washed out pallet of greys and blacks. Its the first day back.
Watched the film L'Apartement yesterday, managed to follow its snake like plot and lay awake thinking about how the girl Alice who is a mythomaniac just kind of draws everyone into her sphere almost effortlessly with her lies. Also reading short story by Arthur Machen called 'The White People', I recommend some supernatural this time of year.

Blair was on the t.v saying how the war last year was a 'test case'.

Saw a Buzzard fly across a field where it lives, apparently its been seen a few times. Should have picked up that frozen mouse for it.

Arguments in the back of some sunday suppliment about the validity of 'The Return Of The King' as an anti war message. For fucks sake......

2003-12-26T05:15:00.000-08:00

Wandering around the bueatifull town of Royal Leamington Spa we heard what sounded like the distant call of the hunt but couldn't be sure, but on rounding the corner of the street sure enough there it was in all it's brazen gory. Lead by a guy in a red coat about thirty houses were trotting down the street. The riders all looked like self righteous toffs and many of them were quite young. I think it is traditional for the hunt to take place today as i remember there was a big one out in ssex when I used to live there. I really like foxes so i think the hunt sucks.
Saw a jay making a right old racket in a tree, i think it was actually harrassing some magpies.
The house's in Leamington are the kind of Victorian terracces you get in Brighton, very grand looking villas and imposing gothic piles. There is a moneyed hush about the place and huge people carriers militarily mark out territory. My girlfriend grew up here and went to school with Si Begg the techno guy who is signed to Mute now.
I bought a box set of Martin Parr postcards in a sale in waterstones in town.
Bellville Rendevous was the best thing i saw on tv last night, Only Fools and Horse was pathetic, patronising and unfunny in extremis I thought, and as for World idol, my god did you see the freaky euro's on the judging panel. They all looked like the psycho guy in 'The Vanishing'.
Right better get back to it.
Adieu blog nerds

2003-12-24T02:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas Time Misletoe and Grime (sorry)

Last post before I embark on Bill Bryson style tour of England ending up in the Lake District hopefully. If I see any ospreys I will let you know definetly. Actually the proto birdwatching/grime film classic was on tv last night. In kes the redemptive power of birdwatching is omnipresent.

Anyway have a wicked time everyone and I look forward to some post christmas posts (cant wait for crumblin loafs deconstruction of the christmas myth)

woebot

heronbone

somedisco

blissblog

tufluv

citta violenta

k-punk

kin

peking o

and everyone else

oh big up the chimps and stay tuned for my new machine.

2003-12-23T11:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas Vignettes

The immovable Bulk
Slowly shuffling down Bethnal Green Rd at less than one mile per hour. Long greasy grey hair and track suit bottoms and slippers. Stopping and staring, moving slowly, making choices about choclates. Step in my way, stop and stare. Think hard behind that inch of plastic in front of your eyes. Teeth and language are both somewhere else.

2003-12-22T04:22:00.000-08:00

Christmass Vignettes

The Shoplifter

The abject misery of his face frozen in agony and without malice, just despair, as five or so security grab him from all sides in a pincer movement. A moments contemplation of flight and the realisation of being nicked for a bottle of sherry while all around shopping trolleys are heaped with produce. Grey faced with deep lines carved into the skin, feral and spitting ,wild eyed wide open crazed with despair.

The Kurdish Hustler

On the pea and cup blag down Brick Lane. Fag permanently in the corner of his mouth. Thick set beyond proverbial brick out house. Hands like hammers, his mate the stooge gambles with a wad six inches thick. Offset by the pale and scarred hands counting the money, the blue ink of a hand made tattoo . Wrapped in regulation casual jacket flat cap and shell suit trousers you would not mess with this guy.

2003-12-18T06:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to anythingcanhappen

Wiley-"Who Ate All The Pies"

Jim-"Mate, it was me, I'm really sorry, they were too tempting"

Wiley-"Why you barrel chested mofo........!!"

2003-12-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

yum yum, good to see a time for food flexin his culinary muscle

2003-12-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

Oh, i've worked it out now, yeah great article on Screw. That scene reminds me of the ravers from Venice Beach I got mates with at that Burning man gig, they were into all kinds of shit, nuff pipes too.

2003-12-18T00:49:00.000-08:00

BARREL O BISCUITS

Ha ! yeah its good cos I look dead ard but I ....................
I didn't know there was a record shop on Roman Road (apart from the Buddhist centre charity shop), absolutely no excuse
What the fuck is crunk, ah man I've got when of those head colds that are kinda of alright 'cos you feel proper caned without getting caned, mind you there is some nice tings about also.

Digesting the Wire, lots of Arthur Russell stuff about, must get hold of the Rough Trade compilation that Tufluv mentions, also the soul jazz one but that's strictly for the novice, got most of that stuff on vinyl natch. The other one they big up in the Wire but I haven't seen it about is 'Calling out Of Context' on 'Audika' looks interesting. There is a track on that SJ Comp that I cannot wait to hear though, the infamous "In The Light Of A Miracle" that was only ever a promo on Talkin Loud, I only ever saw it on GEMM for about $150 or something like that .

Really into the 'Rephlexions' comp not to many people have it in there charts, i cant remember what came out early last year so I'm just gonna big up really recent stuff. Anyway it's wicked and I love Rephlex, they can do no wrong and what's more Braindance is excellent to listen to at both parties and at one's home. The good lady is even partial to a bit of DMX Crew although she would be the first to admit that Bochum Welt and The Railway Raver are her real faves.

Fave Re-Issue: 'On The Beach'-Neil Young Even though I was one years old when this record came out it still makes me feel nostalgic for a decade that only exists in my mind as shapes, shades, colors and feelings. Already by 74 Neil Young is burnt out and lurking beneath the palm fronds of Malibu . Predicting the future in his cracked rain philosophies this album sleets over you like a summer storm of exquisite beauty. Get in your dune buggy and ride man.

2003-12-16T01:28:00.000-08:00

Silhouetted in the beams of a lowered sports car with silvery blue metallic paint in the dusk
A woman stands observing the passing cars
The yellow and white lights outline her thin body
And I realise she is not with the guys in car
Which sits in the lot by the train line
They are checking its capabilities while she is looking for customers
Wearing a leather fur lined flight jacket she looks like an eighties pop star
On the stage of top of the pops
The fumes from the car become dry ice
Transporting her from the cold hopeless night

2003-12-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

COLD CASH MONEY

Number 8 bus into town, dramas on the pavement, myriad lives. couple in distress , I was thinking perhaps she has just been made redundant or maybe it's to do with their relationship, shaking with tearfull rage in the middle of the pavement, man looks pensive , staring blankly. This time of year puts so much pressure on people.

Moving around town with a cold head, quite spaced out, unfalteringly polite to shop staff, they have my sympathies. Overheard conversation in Rough Trade between counter staff and the guy that puts on the All Tomorrows Parties, he was saying that at the recent one in Los Angeles Iggy and the Stooges sounded better than anything he had ever heard, ever. This guy must have seen a fair few bands aswell. Mike Watt ex of Minutemen/fIREHOSE has some great writing on his hootpage about touring and playing bass with the Stooges, he talks about how Iggy is the consumate rock performer, seemingly random and spontanius in his moves but totally in tune with the spectacle and the show, emotions honed and harnessed.

In Uptown Records there was a palpable buzz in the air, down in the basement there are racks upon racks of promo's, I focused on the "sub-lo" section, followers of the blogosphere have come to know these beats as grime. Youths hundle around the headphone's jamming up the volume so they can all listen, "nah thats bate mate !", the guy offered me up a selection of twelves and i got stuck in. While i was spinning my way through an astonishing selection the phone rang constantly, this scene is living breathing and vital, a far cry from many of the bloodless hipster boutiques I normally blow my wedge in. some guy was saying, "Dont sell any more Eski tickets until we get a call from the office, they reckon it's gettin shut down", to a chorus of "Its goin off mate !", after seeing Matts pictures of the last one i reckon it will and this time its apparently on in Streatham.
So i picked up this amazing one sided promo by Jon E. Cash called "Battle", quite a long tune with some really nice stabs in it, quite pacy and more akin to the dub-step sound.

Got two by Wiley, 'Ground Zero' and one that simply has 'Pie' written on it. The former track I recognized from the blogs so its probably been chatted about enuff already, but that beatless side is so amazing it just blew me away, so abstract and weird, awesome.

"Pie" has a really sinister john carpenter-esque side that is brooding and menacing like a night time drive through the ends, street lights straffed and stretched, metro-time. The flip is oriental chops that kicks like some grimey fu-manchu getting down in the limehouse mist.

Picked up the Bobby Konders/Massive B Greensleeves Official dancehallmix, 68 tracks mixed up by house and now reggae legend Konders. It groups all the rythms together which is good if like me you struggle to keep on top of the exhausting volume of tunes that come out each month. I love the bad company one its well grimey.
Dellia Derbyshire laid down some sub-lo with 'Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO'.

2003-12-14T04:33:00.000-08:00

BREAKING NEWS ALERT
Saddam captured, new footage shows a bearded saddam being examined by military doctors.

2003-12-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

NOT A SCHOLAR

Just some quick thoughts before morons invade my space.

Thanks Matt(woebot.com) , when i read some of the others I feel like giving up. My memory definitley is shot and my spelling is appalling.
Got this great Italo re-issue yesterday its on panama records and its called 'Lazerdance' the name of the artist escapes me.
Picked up the Matmos new one for some credit in Reckless , some good moments but their beats are really dry, quite dull in places not a bit as inspired or inspiring as the plastic surgery one, however it is good to hear the sackbut being used.
Absolutely loving the BBC quadruple pack, 'The Delian Mode' is truly sensual.
Keep walking past Uptown, I must go in. I am ashamed to say i do not posses one grime tune apart from the Dizze album, but is this pop grime now. That Wiley says some interesting things in the hyperdub interview, I'm just waiting for some kind blognerd to do me a grime primer. I've got loads of the other 'camp' on c.d's (THE FORWARD SOUND-not hip).

I'm turning into a machine soon, the code is being written as we speak. New for 2004, pictures, music interveiws perhaps, but only with un-known people.
Zabriskie Point=wicked photos
Sasha Frere Jones=nice phots, nice mix

2003-12-09T00:56:00.000-08:00

NEW COMMUNITY SURVEILANCE POST ON WEAVERS

Elaborate new plynth for two surveilance cameras has been erected on the park opposite my flat. The metalwork sculpture depicts a flurry of sporting activity atop a twisted column. One footaball player has his arm outstreched holding a base similar to the olympic flame on which is mounted a dirty great camera pointing east. The other runner is in a similar pose and has a camera mounted on its arm pointing the other way.
This civic cloaking device I know is supposed to make something that could appear obtrusive and oppressive look positive but it looks even more sinister I think. Its like have a nice day but we're watching you: where are they watching from I wonder, and is it a full time job?
I'm not bothered, all I do is walk passed it with my Tesco bags but all sorts does go on at night round there. I guess if it stops my girlfriend getting her phone nicked out her hand its good.

Random Picks from this year:

Aphex Twin at All Tomorrows Parties
Nights at Forward getting baked to the dubstep
Meeting you lot and geting baked
Not getting baked for a bit and sorting my head out
Walking across pryaneen mountain ranges,,
Wang parties down hackney road
My 30th birthday party with Broomy sweeping it up
Sunn 0))) and Chrome Hoof gigs
Weatherall playing amazing tunes
Fugazi at the Forum
Going to Dungeness
Mum & Dad properly retiring

and all the lovely blogs and bloggers

2003-12-08T00:34:00.000-08:00

I have secured a copy of the Rephlex Radiophonic Workshop record you'll be pleased to know.
Matt's definetly right about people at the BBC holding on to their halos and this atmosphere being a major contributing factor to the generally safe (see:bland) and un-glamourus nature of programming . This makes such things as the Workshop even more amazing in that they ever happened at all. Looking at the the origional record covers though they are presented more as like some kind of science project and their true aesthetic has been released over time and in retrospect of the whole electronica scene.
One of the reasons for the continued "mollusc-like" grip that the Beeb has over the nations psyche is that due to the relationship with government and the need to balance public service with programmes that can compete for ratings, the framework within witch programmes are made is very rigid. The in-house style is handed down and maintained with zero risk taking. The probably see the new T.O.T.P as a risk but it just badly apes the other channel.
Any way I'm just a low grade technical droid, but I have got a front row seat, can't say too much though (see the onion) but I'll keep you posted.
However regarding the emergence of old recordings it's a wonder that these ever saw the light of day as 'auntie' was busily chucking much of this stuff out until it realised there was a massive market for it not to mention its cultural relevance.

My ceramicist friend says that Grayson Perry winning the Turner prize is one in the eye for the ceramics establishment who hate him because he went to night school and not Royal College etc, so I guess that is cool. I'm not to sure me, and I'm definetly puzzled by the dress thing, I just dont get it. Enlighten me somebody !
There was a great open spat between the Chapmans and Ivan Massow in the Guardian on saturday both completely going at each other, must admit I found myself siding with the brothers Chapman, particularly for their use of the phrase "petit-cunt" in describing Massow.

Geeta mentions mentions about Borbetomagus !!!!!

2003-12-06T03:49:00.000-08:00

in the post today

"Many sounds have never been heard-by humans:some sound waves you dont hear-but they reach you.'storm stereo' techniques combine singers, instrumentalists and complex electronic sound. The emotional intensity is at a maximum."

AN ELECTRIC STORM THE WHITE NOISE

Seriously wicked piece this from 1968 created by Radiophonic Workshop alumni Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson and David Vorhaus. This must be screaming out for re-issue as the interest in this area of music grows and Rephlex have just put out that amazing looking 10" pack which I haven't got yet, only a 1000 world wide pop pickers.
Its eccentric, its intense, its electric and psychedelic. Very sixties idealistic, some of the song pieces like Syd Barret early Floyd. The only other thing I've heard that parallels this is the Basil Kirtchin stuff on Trunk. 'Firebird' is a total trip in the best possible sense, harmonies and switch back bubblegum flashback refrains with the underlying sound of bubbling matmos (David Hemmings R.I.P) . This record must have been a massive influence on contemporary beat group Broadcast who have embraced its ethos whole heartedly. I can't imagine what kind of a reception it got originally, possibly just a ripple amongst an elite of hipsters.

"Try holding mist there in your hand
And you'll begin to understand
How life can leave you like a rainbow

See a foot upon the stair
An eye, a hand, a smile beware
Your heart says yes, but something in your brain, no "

Picked up a copy of Duece magazine yesterday and what a quality mag it is. Good to see the Lea Valley Navigational Canal/UKG continuum re-enforced by the pictures of DJ Lombardo down by its banks lookin moody, shame there weren't no herons in the background, now they are the real bad boys on the scene.

2003-12-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

Bastards they've got me surrounded.
Saw the crap Sugarbabe in the corridor
Totally agree with crumbling loaf, has anyone met this genius yet.

Guardian rip off my review of "Smoke", lazy soft shoe wearing mainstream coffee table shit music sloth

Luka on fire, "keepin it gangster all the way, straight thuggin it day to day "

oh yeah, mate your wicked thanks for all the props I love your shit too, you be getting da christmass c.d, it soon come

Woebot show blindin amongst the others that Linda Lamb tune is phat, gotta get it got got to get it! Thanks for the shout out bredda.

2003-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

TOP TEN C.D. BURNS FROM HACKNEY CENTRAL LIBRARY THIS YEAR

FRIPP & ENO-EVENING STAR
STOCKHAUSEN-STIMMUNG
ORNETTE COLEMAN-FREE JAZZ
TERRY RILEY-YOUR'E NO GOOD
THIS HEAT-DECEIT
TONY OXLEY QUINTET-BAPTISED TRAVELLER
STEVE REICH-MUSIC FOR EIGHTEEN MUSICIANS
OVAL-SCENAROIDISK
ERIC SATIE-GYMNOPIDES
PIERRE HENRI-APOCALYPSE DE JEAN

Leaf blowers stake out and work methodically
Damp bones refuse to trudge
Lone magpie as usual
Footsteps on the stairs
Neighbours keep unusual hours
Ghosts twist out of the fog

"Trudging across the tundra mile after mile"

The young marble Giants
Are walking back from re-hearsals
Slowly along a windswept Victorian sea front out of season
Laurence from felt is sitting in his flat
Reading Baudelaire
And morrisey is down the library getting some books out
While Mark e Smith is driving a vovlo estate across the pennines
With a moody blues cassette on the dashboard

2003-12-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

"Since Tottenham Marsh there had been, he hated to admit it, a guiding spirit, a heron. a bird of dusk, loping ahead, gliding awkwardly, out of scale, a pterodactyl-kite with legs of string."

2003-11-30T04:08:00.000-08:00

MUSIC A FE RULE

Ultra fast turn around on the Eski report from our man in the field Ingram. Services above and beyond the call of duty I think. The rave wars are still being fought out there, sounds like a hard won battle last night. Lovely grainy almost security camera like picture of the cue in the tunnel. The unforgiving London nighlife, security guards more like camp guards.
Any way public apology to you Mat for lighting out my only excuse is that I had been tramping around hackney in the rain all day looking at overpriced one bedroom flats.
We got to have a little christmas party though right ?

I did catch Warlock in an old toilet opposite Hawksmoors church in Spitalfields on friday. It's still got the origional ceramic tiles on the floor. The Rephlex boys were down there, basically Warlock is a white guy with dreads, its grimey but of course the authenticity is lost. The beats were wicked though, ravey steppy tuff little numbers, me and my brother danced like goons, a few rave stabs in there for good measure. Dreads give the fear on white guys, i start thinking about going to Mega Dog at the George Robey (see former post on days of crust). Suprisingly there weren't loads of Hoxton wankers down there, apart from me of course.

2003-11-27T12:15:00.000-08:00

Nice one Benjamin Zephaniah !

CANT GET ENOUGH OF THAT FUNKY STUFF

Good yield of funk 7" singles today, so exciting to see quality records at respectable prices, uncommon in London these days.
Christmas comp soon come for bloggerati.

The O'Jays-Christmas Ain't Christmas New Years Ain't New Years Without The One You Love (aaahhh!) (73 PIR)
Memphis Sounds Orchestra-Sleigh Ride (RSO 76)-its chrimbo soon yay !
Herbie Mann-Memphis Underground (Atlantic) nice nugget
Crown Heights Affair-Dancin' (De-Lite 76) as sample by Crispin J Glover I think
Kool & The Gang-Caribbean Festival (De-Lite75)what a builder
War-Galaxy (MCA 77) lovely instrumental
Jean Jaque Perry-Porcupine Rock/The Minuet Of The Robots (Vanguard Demo 73) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bombers-Shake/Lets Dance (Flamingo 79) -This is amazing quite italo even

2003-11-26T04:03:00.000-08:00

I feel like I'm adrift in creaking old barge today, the curtains are drawn and the first thing I did when I got up was get on the computer. Working shifts I don't start till 4 and even when I'm there I just mostly search the net. I'm starting to feel nauseous about how much new music I have come across since blogging. Its easy to become gluttonous for it all, one has to steer a path through it all some how, retaining a genuine quest with realistic goals. What ?
Italo disco, italo disco ! I picked up this wicked Alexander Robotnik 12" a while back called "Cest La Vie" its one of those records with a massive label in the middle. My mate got to the l.p first. That's why I shop alone now, imagine you see some holy grail sitting there in the racks but your mates knowing hands reach out and grab it before you. Its too great a risk, the lone vinyl wolf however has time to sniff out and track down unfamiliar scents without distraction.

I've been rifling through mat's drawers (ooer!) checking out some early posts, (Feb 2003), bits that I missed being a relative newcomer and all that. Just had to quote this bit which made me laugh,

"What are you, are you a Beatnik or an AvantYob? Like me I imagine you're a Beatnik, with your face pressed tightly against the glass. Because if you were a true AvantYob you wouldn't be reading this bollocks."

Trying to think of anyone else who fits the YobNick description, hmmmmmm.

Last nights Eid celebrations went on till the early hours I'm sure there would have been much more noise if this freezing rain had relented. Yesterday on Bethnal Green road there were stretch limos, massive silver people carriers blasting some wicked sounding desi (or whatever it is) , girls dressed in multi coloured sari's and guys freshly shawn with crazy patterning and their best moschino jeans on.
I had too walk back from old street last night as my cab guy was backed up, a pile up on the marylbone road had caused no end of delays so he had to jet off, he was a pretty cool west african guy with a nice manner, he told me previously it had taken him two and a half hours to get from Stratford to White City and his customer was giving him a right load of grief. I could have played up and demanded he take me to my door but thats not what it's about.
A leggy blond prostitute stood yards by the Three Garcons Restaurant with its flamin gorbs either side of the door and crazed victoriana that can be glimpsed from outside. Diners still chatting and quaffing expensive wines at 11:30 on a wet tuesday night in E2.

2003-11-25T12:57:00.000-08:00

DOOMED DOWN

"It is only in the terrible phantasms of drugs or delerium that any other man can have such a descent as mine. The narrow passage led infinetly down like some hideous haunted well, and the torch I held above my head could not light the unknown depths toward which I was crawling."

H.P.Lovecraft, from The Nameless City

This slowly drawing in of oneself unto some kind of nameless terror that lurks is part of the appeal of doom. There is more to it than this though, a deeper, meditational aspect that transcends the cloaks and eldritch lyrics. This stuff takes you somewhere heavy.
My introduction to some of these bands namely Sunn 0)))) and affiliates Teeth of Lions Rules The Divine, Earth and Boris comes by way of Julian Copes splendid head heritage web-site and my mate Leo who is positioned nicely whithin the doom nexus as friend of Stephen O'Malley from Sunn 0))) and former bass player with top heretics Cathedral.
Cope has most recently collaborated with Sunn 0))) adding some of his Ur pagan narratives to the mix. The duo comprise of two central characters often with a vocalist. When I saw them this year they were dressed in trademark monks cowels and had a comoflaged multi mic'ed soothsayer growling insane heresies into the night sky.
At their recent Halloween gig of which I was lucky enough to get a cdr they explore their more minimal tendencies at the beginning of the set. Distant piano chords mingle with vocal samples before the tidal wave of sludge chords devour everything. The extended drone and invocation is dark and long and just as you fully succumb to its madness it trails off leaving fractals of luminescent vapour in its wake.
They site la Monte Young and Terry Riley as influences and seek to distance themselves from the 'stoner rock' fraternity. Their drones have more in common with Young and Tony Conrads Dream syndicate work than mere 'metal', a derogotry and throw away term taken to its logical conclusion by ironic yuppie panto band The Darkness.
O'Malley has this to say about their sound in other incarnation Teeth of lions Rule The Divine,

"The album is a very severe listen but also is a very soothing meditational
one.In the Indian musical traditions ragas are performed for such a time that members the audience, who traditionally listen very intently, are often lulled into a deep meditational state. While in the western musical atmospheres the idea of sleeping (as we would interpret this deep meditational state) is considered negative during a musical experience, in general. However I believe that with TEETH OF LIONS RULE THE DIVINE, and some other of our musical projects, a similar spiritual aspect is there to allow such contemplation and depth in the experience. This is vital ."

The above project take their name from the 27 minute epic track on the 'special low frequency' album EARTH 2 by Earth.
Earth are hailed as founder members of this scene and main man Dylan Carlson is most notoriously a former buddie of legendary rock star Kurt Cobain. He has recently re-formed the band after quite an abscence and recently played in London, very nearly missing the gig due to an extended ice skating session at Lea Valley Ice Rink.
Earth take the extended sabbath riff and spread it out over hours creating a tonal float that is either all absorbing or soul destroying depending on your sensibilities.

Boris come from Japan and in the spirit of the doom fraternity are named after a track on seminal doom mongers The Melvins album Bullhead.
These guys have drums and occasionally female vocals in the mix and often take the doom dynamic to almost ethereal proggy plateuxs. Their album 'Amplifier Worship' burns intensely and then leaves one adrift and pondering what exactly just happened. Like their fellow country men Boredoms and Acid Mothers Temple the mythos and graphics that come with the music is all part of it. The sound and the ideas are all consuming as you wade further out into tidal sludge.
There is at the heart of all this a good humour which means you have to take it the right way, you could say that like coil and current 93 this music is about as white as it gets but that would be ignoring the right laugh that everyone is really having. Just check out the theatrics in Cathedrals classic 'Matthew Hopkins Whitchfinder General' which actually comes as an extra whith the film of the same name on dvd.

Apropos of sleep,that sinister adventure of all our nights, we may say that men go to bed daily with an audacity that would be incomprehensible if we did not know that is the result of the ignorance of the danger.Baudelaire

2003-11-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Life's good in the shed. At last some praise for the lazy man. Penman returns and I'm thoroughly enjoying his latest posts. I agree about the middle brow commentators bit, also echoed by Luke, my favourite one to hate is Rod Liddle, you could put him in the same shed as Aronavitch and lock the door.

2003-11-23T07:43:00.000-08:00

Wicked, i've always wanted a shed like that, i could sit in there and do my blog without any distractions. Can just see reynolds cruising down the freeway in that winnebago writing his new opus.
Really great to see old friends again in this cold hearted freezing piss stain of a city. Hey you guys if you found that scrap of paper that i scrawled my address on write me back on jimclarke73@hotmail.com. any dispariging remarks below refer to what happened after we left the party.

Totally Fucking Lost

Made the mistake of going out in London last night, it's such a mind blowing feat of near military precision getting from a to b and meeting up at the right spot etc in the rain negotiating with mini cab drivers. Mind blowing, and then when you actually get to the venue which you have bought a ticket for you have to que up and get treated like a cunt. All this for some brief moments of musical joy (?) albeit blighted by the most smelliest ugly fuckin ravers ever.
Rythm and Sound aka Basic Channel aka Maurizio, whatever, played some good roots and dancehall stuff while Tikiman and his buddies took control of the mic . This was the blue room the more chilled and less deranged of the two rooms on offer at Lost last night at the Egg on the blighted no mans land artery of York way. The vibe in here was laid back but meatheads patrolling meant covert joints were required, we found a little back room to blaze.
Downstairs in the red room the atmosphere was tense and overcrowded, e-ed up mostly males jockeyed for position in front of Robert Hood Steve Bicknell and Jaun Atkins. Unfortunately we had to leave before Jaun came on which would have been right at the end, Robert hood was in the red shadows silouetted huge black frame whith baseball cap. The sound of detroit today is intensely banging textural loops that shift and slide, but ultimately BANG. There is definetly no love lost with this stuff and really its proper drug music. i'm not saying it's bad or good, just where's the fuckin love ?
I found an amazing soundtrack the other day if any one wants a copy and trust me its a blinder fling some c.d. my way and I'll do you one. let me just say its Italian and the cover was recently copied by Dutch electro label Clone. More come soon brain is fried.

2003-11-21T02:54:00.000-08:00

C.D's come abounding in

thanking you Mr Craner and Mr Reynolds for the superlative Joe Meek and History of Our World respectively. The gift economy of the blogosphere reeps rich dividend. Brightening the grey brown sludge core east end brittle morn.

2003-11-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

"savour the moment before its protagonists have to find proper jobs"- I've got a proper job its shit

"if your feeling lonely you might think the sight of courting butterflies the saddest thing in the world and you'd be right"

2003-11-20T03:03:00.000-08:00

Went to see Mugison at the Toynbee hall on monday night with chimpomatic. Several other bands/performers played of the humble indie persuasion but Mugison definetly stole the show. Icelandic one man band Mugison mixes up the glitch, clicks and cuts with swathes of rock giutar. Howling moon dog vocals that veer from tender to terrifying are sampled live and forced all over the mix to become their own instrument. Strung together with anecdotes and barmy banter I was grinning like an idiot throughout his set. Like a digital equivalent of the guy with a drum on his back and cymbols on his knees the crazy clatter of dissonant sounds was reigned in by Mugison everytime it looked like it was getting out of control.

Been going vinyl crazy this week I've been off and taking my mate who's over from Australia round the shops, its just too tempting. Picked up a bunch of sevens including a new one from Elephant man entitled "Head Gawn" on High Society, he's interviewed in a free magazine called Vice and when asked about his battle tactics replies thus,
"If the two of us are battling and i just did an ill verse about shooting you up and killing you, and you came come with a verse about girls thats a mistake. I just did an ill gun tune about shooting up your brain and shooting off your toes; how the fuck are you going to tell me about the girls that want you? You got to tell me that you got a bulldozer that can shoot off my head. Then I can tell you that i got something like the hiroshima bomb: when i drop it, grass no grow back. so that kills your bulldozer, kills you, kills the groung you stand on, kills everything."

Also got a track from south London label Rag & Bone by Warlock called 'The Greyhound Tracks' and each track is as lean and stealthy and running at you like a freakin greyhound. Warehouse gear with a bit of Todd Terry in there and also shadows of the 'Stalker'. Staking new ground in the urban wasteland betwixt grime and techno but definetly with no "intelligent" pretensions , strictly for shadow boxers this one.

Totally feeling a charity shop purchase of 'Box Of Love' by Bert Jansch. Only really found out about this guy recently but he really is amazing and this is a great little compilation, volume two on the Transatlantic Records label from 1972. exquisite guitar playing that sits in between Nick Drake, Fahey and Davy Graham. "Birthday Blues" is areally evokative instrumental piece melts the heart.

A light seen suddenly in the storm, snow
Coming from all sides, like flakes
Of sleep, and myself
On the road to the dark barn,
Halfway there, a black dog near me .

(excerpt, 'Melancholia'-Robert Bly)

2003-11-17T03:25:00.000-08:00

Doin The Rounds

Portobello on a Friday is always abuzz with fashionista's of all description desperately trying to defy categorisation. The air is filled with their impassioned conversation and snippetts can be heard such as "Must dash I've got a casting at twelve", which adds colour to the area and as long as these folk stay out of the record shops i aint got a problem with them.
My girlfriend is a knitwear designer and likes to take in the market on Fridays and as there are more than a few purveyors of vinly in the area I am more than happy to accompany her if i've got the day off. Portobello still seems to retain an air of authenticity in these homogonized times. I used to work in Camden and have witnessed its slow demise into a great big tourist theme park sponsered by Docter Martins and populated by cyber goths and clueless tourists.
The final blow was the closing of Compendium one of Londons finest alternative bookshops, it does still however have a Music & Video Exchange.
But any way , back to Portobello, the main bulk of the clothes are in a covered area below the Westway, the flyover which runs across toward White City. There is a good selection of retro fare here at not too bad prices, and some brick a brac, i got the little one eyed protagonist from 'Monsters Inc' for 25p, also a smattering of old vinyl in boxes which dont contain too many suprises. We saw a stall up at this end selling magic mushrooms of different description, now I may have missed something here but i was under the impression that this was illegal, or else why hav'nt i seen stalls saying "Wicked Acid for Sale", therefore this must be one of those legal high scams and not worth the effort. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Also to be found here is Honest Johns which can yealed some good stuff although i must say that the japanese chap that works upstairs is particularly moody and unhelpfull.
On to my favourite "Intoxica" which i believe was started by an emigre from the Music & Video Exchange and used to be the Vinyl Solution dance label shop back in the day. now they specialize in soundtracks , rare rock psyche soul and funk. they are great for re-issues and do a cool chart of top stuff to guide you. Dont ask for c.d.'s cos they dont do em. There is a great little posty punk section in here that you can pick up some good origionals in, James Chance etc. The best thing I saw was the Harry Partch three lp box set for 50 quid and lots of Indo-fusion stuff that may have been on Matts list. I got another l.p on the Ethiopiques label, 'Mahmoud Ahmed with the Ibex Band, "Ere mela mela" ', fantastic !
In Rough Trade I picked up this great little magazine called 'Smoke-A London Peculiar', its a small glossy with pictures and photo's of a london- centric nature as the title would suggest. There are some great narratives and travelogue pieces in a similar vein to the film 'London' by Patrick Keiller which I've mentioned before but still haven't found anything quite like .
One of my favorite pieces in this edition (number two) is a pastiche of Iain Sinclairs psychic mapping of the city and his infamous journeys that traverse various alchemical arteries, entitled "Ian Sinclairs Psychogeography Corner", it begins,

"Bill Drummond, photographer Marc Atkins and the sculptor Racheal Whitread were waiting for me outside Oval Station. The mildew scars of cryptic heiroglyphs on the flats opposite warned NO BALL GAMES, and I wondered what it meant. Anonymous urban haiku's brand london's raw brick skin, the city tattooed like a North circular biker........", the editors note makes it clear that this Ian has no connection with the author Iain Sinclar.

Other stuff includes a london shipping forecast which diveds the city up into 30 seperate sea areas which muses on " the gentrified terraces of 'Angel' wonder if the Grand Union Canal is wide enough to keep away the council estates and mini cab offices of Sea Area Shoreditch." seek out this little tome all lovers of the cities hidden orrifices and those who remember the London tales of a time for fear with fond nostalgia, already!

Living in Bethnal Green I fall between the Sea Area of London Fields and Stepney with Shoreditch to the east. Brick lane market creeps almost to my door on sundays and this must remain the most raw of all the london markets although I did over hear one trader talking about how its "full of fuckin trendies these days aint it". You can still however rub sholders with prostitutes and gangsters down the end of Cheshire street of a sunday and if you want buy anything from a rusty nail to used battery at the lower end of the spectrum. Piles of junk litter the streets tended by people in various conditons of intoxication and decrepitude, some are merley solitary distant looking folk, who lay out their wares often totalling no more than a couple of quid if they sold it all. Others are in full swing and the bartering can be intense, it often looks like some of the piss heads just commandere a pile of rubbish and call it their own, guarding it zealously against theft or purchase.
I hope this element resist gentrification 'cos they are stars and well funny, like the guy singing "Oh come all ye faithfull" out of tune at the top of his voice, tennants swinging from hand early in the morning exclaiming "cheer up ya cunt" to all and sundry. The city and corporate ghetto's encroach from the east and Spitalfield is succumbing to regeneration, already part of it being re-developed.
I'd rather buy a broken empty video case than a plywood bike any day of the week.

2003-11-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

exploring the sainsbury's red wine down my neck continuum, its facinating how many influences are involved in this transmigration of sensory effluviences.

feeling-Missy elliot "pass that dutch"

yusuf lateef-eastern sounds

Humbug-"groovin With Mr Blow"

2003-11-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

Optical ID Cards My Arse (Its The Blind Leading The Blind)

My man Richard over at chimpomatic sent me this link. Mum its all made up honest.

Many thanks to continued support from my overseas readers. Especially Riley over in North Carolina who sent me the best thing I've heard all month, nay all year. Pandit Pran Nath from 1971 recorded by Lamonte Young and Marion Zazeela, right now I need all the meditative shit I can get. Someone else promised me some Lamont Young,(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) but it aint showed up yet.
Finally starting to get a few cdr's dribbleing in after the postal strike. Eagerly awaiting my prize from Johnny Trunks Origional Soundtrack Show which me and my gal won at the weekend. Never won a competition before its a good buzz.

Matt's post on the euro/detroit continuum interesting, Kraftwerk where on Top Of The Pops 2 yesterday, great footage, kinda rudimentary promo, lots of lovely shots of hands moving faders up and down and those amazing drums. Which reminds me, my mate just bought a simmonds drum kit which used to belong to the drummer in Yes and installed in the 'brain' are all the origional presets from one of their tours.
Anyway, I digress, I cant see what all the fuss is about, who created what etc, its a fusion of afro & european influences thats what makes it good, right?
Does anyone remember that "Piece" tune on Planet E by Craig that samples "The Reflex", a pounding floor shaking techno enigma that epitomises that mix. Also can't say enough about the brilliance of Visage's "Frequency 7" which is more futuristic than most electro coming out today and makes Dexter and the Clone stable look like merely an homage.
Those bass stabs are totally what set Juan Atkins mind alight and the're all over "Night Drive Thru Babylon".

Two big nights on the horizon, ther's a LOST on the 22nd featuring the Rythmn & Sound boys and Juan the Man and the Dutch connection Job De Wit brought to light the forthcoming Eskimo Dance on the 29th, an envoy of the blogeratti is gathering as we speak I feel.

2003-11-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Coming out from behind the trees
aquatic elders
chromium citadel
speech therapy
strange little girl where are you going

the diurnal tide sucking us in
masks are fun but are they any use
split down the back
marrow pouring through
elders rule the forest

rebuttal of psychic advances
pliant sepulchre
swarm spore
light up the forest
dance like willow the wisp

follow the lights into heart of the wood
you know youv'e been good

you might be alright
dazzled by diaphonous dragonflies
the size of bi-planes

rotten peaches seep sticky
Lycanthropes bask on your underbelly
and the unholy marriage commences
she-rotund and bucolic like the hunter
he-insip weasel faced and a liar

it lasts well into the week
lanterns swing
mead is drunk
and goblins lie on their backs
breathing intoxicating essence

the owls act as spies
and fill the heads of locals
with viscious rumour

witch trials are round the corner

"she gave me a tumour"
"my turnips are all bad because of that devil sow"

diseased sucubus
licking lips flecked with plague

...............................................................................................................
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>~~~~~~~~~~~^^,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Fuck, fuck and spend money"

2003-11-10T00:59:00.000-08:00

cathy on the case with bizarre links as usual, this is one of the best, probabaly because someone has actually thought about it and done it. We were looking for an entrance to hell yesterday in Epping Forest, the sight of five people dressed in Ra style glitter capes and devil masks turned a few dog walkers heads and no mistake. Little did they know it was really a photo shoot for proto-prog doom disco soothsayers Chrome Hoof. Epping is a cracking jaunt on a Sunday, you get a lot of bikers out there and if you look closely through the woods you can see loads of wicked big house's almost completly concealed by foliage. The last of the autumnal colour spectrum provided a great background to the panto horror show in the wood pics. Think Sunn 0))))) (mates of Hoof) and you get the picture.

2003-11-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

A really nice guy,i'd vote for him.
Feeling kind of nice today y'know, my lady just got back from the orient safe and sound , the O.S.T show has just started on Resonance 104.4 fm, I feel a fragile fracture peace descended over me.
Why be a fighter when you can be a lover.

Shout out to all weekend ravers, the Cumbria massive, Arsenal F.C., all nice bloggers and beautifull people all over this troubled world. (I cant stop doing Kilroy style eulogies, I dont know whats going on)

2003-11-06T05:43:00.000-08:00

Really getting in to the Basil Kirchin album on trunk after a few listens, side one totally sends me with those dreamy chords and the whispered vocal, "..........you think I'm a clown....", this is a hardcore return to Eden but not a completley innocent noise. The childrens chatter and blasted jazz angle give it an altogether more sinister edge than other contempory ambientists. Its not suprising that Kirchin made it onto the legendery Nurse List, there are drums on 'Quantum' that are straight off 'Chance Encounter....'
Eagerly awaiting incoming c.d. burns, hope the backlog doesn't take too long.
Last night the fireworks oppossite my flat where incredible, Weavers rocked to the sound of a vast ararray of air bombs, catherine wheels etc, i particularly liked the hand held tubes that fired spinning bombs into passing cars and innocent bystanders, nice one Weavers Massive, big yourself up.
Apparently the northern lights made an appearance in cumbria last week, gutted i didnt spot them, now thats a firework display.
Piece on Can in todays Guardian, cant believe I still haven't listened to Landed yet, i always though that this was when they started to go off the boil.
Watched a horrifiying/hilarious programme on cable at my mums, on Rapture TV its called Blocko's Brits, in which three 'clubbers' are followed around by a camera crew on a night out 'larging' it in places like Swindon and Kidderminster , as far as I could make out the winner is the one who gets the most votes for taking their dionysian excess to the max (i.e. puking into their shoes in some god awefull club in Milton Keyenes). The award for this is a night out with the legendary blocko in some swanky London nightspot.

2003-11-05T07:26:00.000-08:00

Back in london after sabbatical in the North lakes. The best thing we did was climb Helvelyn, my folks didnt make it to the top but me and my brother kept going. its 930 odd meters and it was snowing at the top. We thought we saw a buzzard come flying out of the snow mist that shrouded the upper part of the mountain. it could have been a crow though, there are a lot of them about up there and you tend to think they are buzzards in your enthusiasm. Did see three definite ones though. They are great looking creatures defintley in the top end of the majestic birds of prey canon. just below a Golden eagle i would say, very impressive wing span with wing tips tripping up at the tip and flecks of grey on the underside. They are huge and can take out lambs if they are hungry enough.
its really dark up north and the people are proper no bullshit hardy types. we had to go to penrith to get food from the supermarket, i saw two goths and a punk but mostly everyone was quite regular in a fleece of some description. no black or asian people at all which was quite weird.
Apparently penrith has abit of a drugs underbelly, I didnt see any evidence of this but i can imagine that it does get proper bleak in the winter and the old drugs could be quite an inticing option.

ive got to go to hackney central library now, it was closed yesterday due to an electrical fault.
Got right into that last episode of brookside last night couldnt believe it when they just hung that.
guy out of a window and the characters didnt show any feelings about it at all and the police just buggerd off. Almost like phil redmond was like "right lets hang a fucking drug dealer its o.k. we're not on any more so it doesn't matter if anyone complains", not that i'm defending drug dealers that sell dodgy pills to kids but it was a bit wierd. I remember watching brookside on rainy saturday afternoons in the middle of nowhwere in Essex .

WINTER INSOMNIA by RAYMOND CARVER

The mind can't sleep,can only lie awake and
gorge, listening to the snow gather as
for some final assault.

It wishes Chekov were here to minister
something-three drops of valerian, a glass
of rose water-anything, it wouldn't matter.

The mind would like to get out of here
onto the snow. It would like to run
with a pack of shaggy animals, all teeth,

under the moon, across the snow, leaving
no prints or spoor, nothing behind.
The mind is sick tonight.

-------------------------------------------------------

There is something amazing about ascending into thick mist
The relentless uphill pace renders thought beyond movement impossible
I could have stayed up there for ages even though it was cold and wet
Above the clouds
Not seeing down or up or forwards

Got a biology dictionary for 49 pence
here are four words at random from it.

Musci
Chemotrophic
Mycelium
Pectoral girdle

2003-10-30T07:39:00.000-08:00

Romantic Puppetry

Red squirrels, loads of crows, no birds of prey, its cold and the wind cuts like a knife. Done a couple of peaks and roamed around a bit. I'm in a library in Penrith, a couple of really annoying gromits have just pitched up next to me and are wondering if they can smoke in the library.
My dad is next to me on a p.c., the old silver surfer.
Went into a really bad record shop in the shopping precinct.
The view from Skidaw was amazing, pine and conifer forest surrounds the base of most of the hills and these are all a mutli coloured range of reds, oranges and browns like autumn fire. The clouds are low over the peaks and the mist descends very quickly so you have to be carefull. I could see the solway firth and the lakes of Derwent and Basenthwait. Apparently there are Ospreys here but they have flown south for the winter.
I got a heron badge.
London seems very far away and being hip just an irrelavance, how refreshing but I not sure i'll make it till Monday. Its kinda bleak.
My brother has just appeared with a carrier bag full of Old Peculiar.
They did have "Russian Ark" in the video section which I wanted to watch when it was on at the cinema recently.
That bit on 'Spectral Music' in this months Wire was quite interesting although I dont fully understand what constitutes a "spectral" record. I did happen to have 'Stimmung' on my discman on the way up here and its fantastic, really hipnotic and engaging. Also got hold of this amazing Pierre Henri c.d. from library, 'Apocalypse de Jean' I dont knoe what the narrative is about but it sounds incredible immersed in those layers of wonderfull analogue electonic showers. I need to hear more of this.

2003-10-27T06:32:00.000-08:00

like luke, i too was drawn to the sun at the tate modern. it was quite uplifting and enjoyable although I thought that the trippy mist would be thicker than it was, maybe they had toned it down following complaints in the week by staff who were getting monged out. the mirrored ceiling was cool, people were just sitting about like they were on a beach not in a converted power station. Little kids seemed to love and be passified a bit by the orange orb as if it reminded them of their not to distant days tucked up nice and warm in the womb.

there were quite a lot of porn/fashion mags in the gift shop, but i opted for this brilliant publication called Grand Street, it has loads of good short pieces of fiction and poems aswell as some brilliant prints. There is an excerpt from the new Alan Warner novel 'The man who walks' and my favourite picture so far is of Californian performance artist Chris Burden, the picture is entitled 'Doorway To Heaven' and is a black and white portrait of the artist whose upper torso and face are lit by the sparks from two electric wires he has pushed into his chest. The sparks arc out from his chest and descend downwards like an exploding rocket. The speed of the film turning them into strands of light.

"The wires crossed and exploded, burning me but saving me from electrocution."

2003-10-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

some people wanted ragga, the girls wanted house, I had a hip hop crew glowering at me, boy it was tuff ! but I came through and got everybody rockin with Billy Jean (instrumental extended natch) until my mate came on and cleared the floor faster than a scud missile, the irony of his 'scratching' was lost on this croud.

Ingrams piece on music and video spot on, we had a record cleaning machine in the soul basement when i was there. Save your money though a bit of bog roll and some lighter fluid is just as effective.

Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Volume Four
Revenant
2LP // £ 21.99

shout out to all london blog massive you know who you are, and all worldwide crew.

2003-10-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

If I ever get out of this dump I'm supposed to be playing records tonight at some ones party down hackney road 291 gallery or somefin, I just grabbed some stuff, definitley playing Junior Boys and picked up this bad Beenie Man riddim called "let him go" the version is heavy, what else have I got in my bag, let me see, Grace Jones, Class Action, E.S.G, Clipse, Sister Nancy, Unlimited Touch, The Slits, The Stones, Tom Tom Club, The League, 400 Blows, A.C.R, Masters At Work, Gina X, Zongamin, Quando Quango, The Congoes, Tenor Saw, Michael jackson,Roy Ayers, Fela Kuti, Eddie Grant, Cedric Im Brooks, Betty Davis,Harlequins Fours, Paul Hardcastle, Mutant Disco (box set natch).....................................Lee Perry & the Full Experience 'Disco Devil' .

trapped in a vortex of chino's and middle class arrogance, irrellivance and people who in the loafs words are "deformed by conformity"
Enjoyed very much erase the world on rugby, my sentimenst entirely, well done old chap.

2003-10-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

SPAG PROG

2003-10-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

MONK'S WORLD

Round Midnight

That street where midnight
is round, the moon flat
& blue, where fire engines solo
& cats stand around and look
is Monk's world

When I last saw him, turning around
high from 78 RPM, growling
a landscape of spaced funk

When I last spoke to him, coming out
the Vanguard, he hipped me to
my own secrets, like Nat
he dug the numbers & letters
blowing through the grass
initials & invocations of the past

All the questions I asked Monk He
answered first
in a beret. Why was
a high priest staring
Why were the black keys
signifying. And who was
wrapped in common magic
like a street empty of everything
except weird birds

The last time Monk smiled I read
the piano's diary. His fingers
where he collected yr feelings
The Bar he circled to underscore
the anonymous laughter of smoke
& posters

Monk carried equations he danced at you.
What's happening?" We said, as he dipped &
spun."What's happening?"

"Everything. All the time.
Every googoplex
of a second."

Like a door, he opened, not disappearing
but remaining a distant profile
of intimate revalation.

Oh, man! Monk was digging Trane now
w/o a chaser he drank himself
in. & Trane reported from
the 6th or 7th planet deep in

the Theloniuscape.

Where fire engines screamed the blues
& night had a shiny mouth
& scatted flying things

by Amiri Baraka (Le Roi Jones)

enter the stratford/bow vortex

2003-10-22T01:59:00.000-07:00

Numerous Grey Wagtails down by the canal yesterday. About the same size as a pied wagtail but with a slightly longer tail, much longer than a yellow wagtails but still with a yellow belly.
Twenty plus swans and geese, (canada i think) tried to hussle me down by the rowing club, those swans are menacing, dont fuck about with swans they'll ave yer.
Crept right up to a large grey heron, was about four feet away from it until he flew off to about twenty feet away. Beady eyed fisherman skulking in the algea.

i'd like to reccomend Leo's cafe in Stoke Newington, which despite recent changes in the local demographic is still catering for the less fortunate members of our society, the elderly, the insane and infirm. they do a great cuppa and a full range of breakfast at a price that can't be sniffed at.

Acid Mothers Gong where a spectacle of that there is no doubt. Daevid Allen looked like something out of that bar they go to in the first star wars film. Resplendent in silver lame cape and pagan head gear he, amongst other things, evoked the spirit of Sun Ra, communing with him from his resendency somewhere in the Inter-Stellar Loways . These psychedelic ghosts combined forces withe the Acid Mothers from japan. My favourite is the chain smoking Cotten Casino who was rocking it on keyboard and thankfully the one person on stage who didnt look fucking ridiculous.
You know the rest right, shimmering whorls of sky kissed psychedelic rain, incantations and invocations and of course, the freak out(tm) !!!!! and some of it did make me grin but some made me want to ran, so I did to the bar and that balcony that looks out over the Thames. Is that a flying tea pot over the house of parliament?

2003-10-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

LODOVICO: Ha, ha, O Democritus, thy gods
That govern the whole world! Fortune's a right whore:
If she give aught, she deals it in small parcels,
That she make take away all at one swoop.
This 'tis to have great enemies, God 'quite them:
Your wolf no longer seems to be a wolf
Than when she's hungry.

GASPARO: You term those enemies,
Are men of princely rank.
LODOVICO: Oh, I pray for them:
The violent thunder is adored by those
Are pash'd in pieces by it.

(excerpt from The White Devil by John Webster)

2003-10-19T07:40:00.000-07:00

No one has mentioned National Health in the prog prognosis. I looked them up and they look really interesting.
K-punk hammers the essence of "Susperia" succinctly and after reading more about that Tazartes record I would love to hear it. It sounds like it could be similar to the Basil Kirchin record that just came out on Trunk, not the easiest listen, but rising out of the cacophany are plateuxs of primordial bliss. The record contains loops of childrens playfull cacophony mixed with the sounds of geese, creating a bizzare take on free jazz.

I just read about Vincent Gallo's film "Brown Bunny" , it doesn't appear to have been released at all. Gallos' attitude can be taken two ways. He's either someone you hate or like, I reckon he's alright, but probably only if you dont know him or have anything to do with him. The concept of Vincent Gallo is cool. I listen to that film music double album he put out quite a lot, its really quiet and soothing and makes me think about imaginery cult films shot in super 8.
Apparently "Brown Bunny" got so panned at Cannes that Gallo flipped and was almost in tears defending his film. I doubt that Jerry Bruckheimer has ever shed any tears over his art but if you have had to watch as much of Miramaxs' output as I have you would be crying. Highlights include "Bubble Boy" and "Deuce Bigalow Male Gigalo" (which is actually really funny in places, if you like belly laughs).

2003-10-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

ITS GRIME DOWN SOUTH

agreeing with general concensus of praise for Yoseph, picked up Amen Andrews vol 1 & 3 earlier in the week from Rough Trade and they got me dancing round my flat, fuckin hilarious track "Fast n Bulbous", Beefheart over Amen, awesome and funny too.

Got "Rainbow Dome Music" for six quid in music & Video, Ingrams right about the lost commodity of prog. There's a stack of it a about, its either really cheap or mega expensive, for expensive prog check either Music & Video upstairs or the Totem Record museum in stoke newington. For cheap prog just go in any second hand shop in London. That Yes album "Fragile Earth" is a good one its got that bit from the end of Buffalo 66 when he's in the strip club. But you knew that.

Its not prog but it was placed quite near the prog bin, "Acid Yantra" by Sundial. I've been curious about this lot for a while, i believe they supported current 93 once. Anyway i dredged up some info and i cant wait to get out of this fucking shit office and play it later. It was cheap enough to take a chance on and I just love the idea of neo psychedelia.
Also, also a promo with "I hear a new world" by Rod Freeman & The Blue Men quite the most astounding and quite frightning record I've heard for a bit.

That new Kylie track is great, yes I hope there is some kind of dub of it on a twelve or somethin, sounded like Metro Area, as for the dancers well what can i say.........

NEON MEAT DREAM OF AN OCTOFISH

Let me just add that "Cosmos" by Sun Ra is great mid seventies Roksichord Ra a la "Lanquidity" and you can get it in Honest Johns for under a tenner !

peking o continues to amuse and delight
and crumbling loaf you are a star

2003-10-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

New Duetsch !!!!
(International Deejay Gigolo 2003)
I'm frothing at the mouth after listening to this stunning compilation of utterly obscure german electro from the early eighties. The only thing i had heard prior to this that at least made me aware that this twilight world exsisted was some D.A.F and the fantastic "Fred From Jupitor" by Andreas Dorau courtesy of Tomas meine friend von Munchen.
After some cursory research on the web managed to find out this about Pyrolator who have two tracks on this album, the proto-Detroitian "Die Haut der Frau" and the shimmering bliss shuffle of "Ein Wiehnachstsmann indie Disko" which I dont know what it means but it sounds incredible. All low end bass rub and tape loop backwarsdspeek mixed with analogue disko pops and vocoder babbletronica. A kind of lite heaviness a bit like 'Liasons Dangerous'. Anyway here's this from the Ata tak web site

After the release of his debut album 'Inland' and the equally well-rated first LP with Der Plan, the Pyrolator started summer 1981 with his work on 'Ausland'.

"In the heat of summer 1981 the album was recorded, with the help of various international musicians, in the studios of the brilliant inventor and sound-genius Werner Lambertz on the first digital-sequenzer 'Brontologics', the first production outside the atatak-studios.

The reaction of the press and the public could not have been more euphoric when Ata Tak's tenth release 'Ausland' fi nally appeared at the end of 1981. Musikexpress conferred a top rating and Diedrich Diedrichsen applauded in Sounds "At last wea've made it: a German record which one can enjoy all the more because it's not the usual sound for Germany ..." A record with qualities not yet achieved during the years of stagnation in Germany's New Wave music". Even the international press is unanimous. New Musical Express's Chris Bohn elevated Pyrolator to "a great pioneer". Alfred Bos of the Dutch magazine Oor wrote "I do not wish to dramatize, but this record could prove to be an important infl uence in 10 years time, just like 'Monster Movies' from Can or 'The Faust Tapes' from Faust. "

The two tracks by Der Plan are incredible two, a bit like Gristles finest electro moments , 'Distant Dreams' & 'Walkabout', eslewhere 'No More' come on totally bleakly euphoric with a death in the disco chant "Suicide Commando" which I think was sampled up by one the Hague posse, I.F or one of them lot. Who actually owe a huge debt to these pioneers for laying down the blueprint for them.
My absolute draw dropping fave on this comp has to be by Grauzone , 'Film 2' which is euro epi-disco but loaded with proto-grime doom portent and sounds like it was recorded in a cathedral. kind of like Moroder meets Gristle meets New Order.

and also utterly mixable with this

Tomorrow People-'Is anybody Listening' (Mark Brooms Weavers Field Remix)
Mark tears the heart out of this tune and feeds it back to you east end style with the snakemiester broom giving us the tech grime that you only dreamt could ever exist until now. IN ALL GOOD RECORD SHOPS!!!!!! "No Batteries Required" mini l.p on Tomorrow Records.

>>>>CALLING ALL HIPSTERS<<<<<<<<<

sat 18th October 2003
@The Rythm Factory
6-18 Whitechapel Road
london E1
9pm-5am
LIVE
LIVE ON STAGE:
exclusive London show from
new San Franscisco outfit
TUSSLE (TROUBLE MAN RECORDS)
PLUS:
CHROME HOOF
BLACK WIRE
DJ ACTION FROM
ANDREW (THE GUVNOR) WEATHERALL)
and more

2003-10-14T00:47:00.000-07:00

I agree that "Lemon Jelly" are sentimental post ambient tosh, however one of their songs does redeam itself by mentioning Fingeringhoe an excellent birdwatching spot just outside Colchester in Essex. I think perhaps this is the first and last time this place will be mentioned in popular song.
The marsh continuum runs through the ambi-folk tech tinkerings of Ultramarine who hail from Goldhanger a very small village on the Blackwater Estuary. Formely post punk band 'A Primary Industry', Ultramarine managed to capture the essence of the marsh on record, in particular "Every Man & Woman Is A Star". I first heard the track 'Stella' on John Peel and just had to get it. This would have been about the same time as the first Orb ".........Pulsating Brain that Rules etc' track came out. The endless tracts of re-claimed reed beds, mud flats and marsh provided the perfect setting for nocturbulous behaviour soundtracked by these guys, and of course "Chill Out". On some occasions the the coal black mud of the blackwater gives off phosphorous which glows at night. Giving the marsh a ghostly pallour. In high summer the with the barn owls in full song it can be a very evocative place. The remaining sea defences that define the peninsular become modern day monoliths,
"The duo, Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper, came from rural Essex, a part of the English countryside very similar to where Eno grew up, with its desolate esturaies and marshes."
If you want to see the Essex marshes on film check out the recent Brithish comedy/drama "Lawless Heart" which was filmed in Maldon and the surrounding area.

2003-10-11T02:06:00.000-07:00

cross over weavers field
avoid broken glass, gob, used condoms and other night time driftwood
that washes up on the shore daily

fireworks exploding over the park already
now these I like

cut round the back of Percy Ingle
and on to bethnal green road.
bloke on the corner with hardware shop, well, bags and buckets really
thinks he's Harry Belafonte

large lorries unloading not that many crates of stuff for Woolworths
they MUST drop off stuff at other branches
Woolworths is so old school
I remember 10p 7"'s
now the bargain bin is full of Girls Aloud and Daniel Beddingfield c.d. singles

stirn faced geezer with his moody Hackett hoodies
the soused face of the vegman, morning pint nestles in between the marras
cafe Alba, soon they will understand
I want my mushrooms on the side not in the omlette
the halloween shop
novelty hats and kinky whips

under the bridge, globes of sceptic rain bomb the mourners
layers of posters abd dafaced adverts
flyers for raves that have 30 d.js's
in twelve arenas
grey haired whistfull bloke
carries out a white plastic table
to read his paper off
a few weeks ago you could have bought
a hydraulic lift here

now down and off
and not to mention the smell

2003-10-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

"Opportunities to experience Mover-style gloomcore through a big system in the midst of a headstrong throng of drug-fucked darkrave zombie-warriors stomping til the crack of dawn and beyond do not come along too often these days, I would go if I were you! "

Up for it boys ? (think of the content absorbing opportunities) I feel a rush just thinking about it ?

Suspiria is amazing, all sinister whimsy, toy keyboards, whispering voices and kettle drums, I'll send anyone a copy.

Now we're done with prog what about folk, or even prog folk? I have had Shirley Collins "Amaranth & The Anthems In Edens Suite" on heavy rotation lately which my friend describes as the "Good Vibrations" of the English folk scene. Also only just checked out Incredible Strings "Hangmans Daughter" record which I thought was quite innocently pastoral until I picked up on the heavy drug vibe which lies within the wood,

"I.S.B took psychedelia's cult of slumber further than most, in songs like 'Chinese White' (where Heron sings of laying down to sleep with his arms 'around a rainbow') and 'Nightfall' (in which Williamsson longs for the embrace of 'night's daughters')."
(The Sex Revolts/Simon Reynolds Joy Press)

Oh and as for "Rainbow Dome Music " by Hillage, I first heard that when it was used quite heavily as a restorative, post squat scene raving circa early 90's , endless prog drift with a nod to Terry Riley.
Big shout going out Richard for making my last post happen and to any Burning Man ravers out ther your all c***s ! (joke)

2003-10-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this will work guys, i'm hoping these will apear as links. if they do please enjoy a little film I made a few years ago at the Burning Man festival. Its a rave in the Nevada Desert where all the freaks come out to play. right I'm gonna close my eyes and post this.

Watch the movie using Windows
Media Player:

Modem Version

Broadband Version

or

Using Real Player:

Modem Version

Broadband Version

2003-10-07T02:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry but I've got to quote k-punk quoting crumbling loaf again cos its so spot on

"no, I have the pallor of the Lower Middle Class, the self defeating approach to life, the belief it stops here with job with lifelessness. I don't know why they have an illness called Depression. That's just being Lower Middle Class isn't it? The intelligence but not the confidence to express it, the rising anger that rarely erupts. "

ok no more, i mean he's right but lets not get too defeatist at least we are self aware, but then thats the problem isnt it, being unable to be ambitionless but rendered helpless in the face of ambition whithout end or reward. All of this though, is wrapped in the highest art/music/culture that humanity can offer and a city where the underserving seem to prosper and the vulnerable and poor suffer.

Me I'm looking for a way out.

Oh by the wat all week there is a free exhibiton at the Eclectic Gallery at 20 All Saints Road W11 that showcases loads of Warp and Designers Republic t-shirt designs plus musicand different guests.

anyway I dont want this to become some misarabilist tome, Crumbling loaf does that with too much humour to put in the depression blog list, like a sort of post modern reconstructed Victor Meldrew.

The sun is breaking through the clouds and casting a white glow over the drying rack
I got a free copy of "Sheath" which I would like to be critical of but can't, its rather good
Patchwork Techno
No work for me today heh, heh, heh........

2003-10-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

dont read this read this this blogs bang on the money. If bloggins reached the seventies then this guy is Tony Conrad with Faust. A slow relentless pulse that grates your soul and seems to last forever.

2003-10-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

As the nights draw dark and the cold wind rattles the window pain, remember Spring Heel Jack and tarry not on your way home,

The Alsop Incident

Two days later, on February 22, 1838, Jane Alsop (18) was in her home on Bearhind Lane in the district of Bow, when she heard a wrapping on the door. Answering the door, a black cloaked man exclaimed "I'm a policeman. For Gods sake, bring me a light, for we have caught Spring-heeled Jack in the lane" (a black cloak was traditional uniform attire for policemen of this era). Jane, who lived with her father and two sisters, went to fetch a light for the man. She returned with a candle and as she was handing the light to the man, it shone on his face and she noticed that it was Spring Heeled Jack. He immediately spat a blue and white 'gas' into her face. She attempted to run back into the house but he held on tightly to the back of her hair. One of her sisters managed to pull her out of his grasps and drug her back into the house. Spring Heeled Jack continued banging on the door some time before hastily leaving. Witnesses claim that Spring Heeled Jack left quickly, dropping his coat in a field by Jane's home. Another person was seen scooping up the coat and leaving the area leading police to believe that Spring Heeled Jack may have an accomplice. The Lambeth police took Jane's statement:

He wore a large helmet and a sort of tight-fitting costume that felt like oilskin. But the cape was just like the ones worn by the policemen. His hands were as cold as ice and like powerful claws. But the most frightening thing about him was his eyes. They shone like balls of fire.

2003-10-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

ok ok so I know who the Junior Boys are now and I really like that song "Birthday" but of course you've been hip to this for ages, right? so now back to business, the business of straight up no nonsense textual based lifestyle n' shit blogging.

Horrifcally wasted on booze last night, massacerd "West End Girls" in karaokee situation in non hipster pub in Hoxton for mates birthday. My brother reckons he was better than me with his rendition of "Rosanna" the Toto classic. Some guy was doing Louis Armstrong songs all night and trying to do the voice, he thought he was really good but he looked and sounded like a twat. You know the type who take their Karaokee really seriously and probably practice, they get all offended if you trivialize the great British tradition of kara o kee. We got chucked out of the karaokee bar underneath the kebab shop on Hackney Road once for my Genesis P. Orridge style rendition of that song "Creep" by Radiohead. Oh frivolous ironic hipsters we.

On another tip I noticed the irony in this piece of utter trivia, my brothers mate Dom (easy Dom) likes his cider and coerced us into drinking a bit of the old Merrydown . Attached to the bottle was a promotional "collar" publisizing a competition based around a film called "Wonderous Oblivion", not only is this the exact state that Merrydown puts one in but would make a great title for a blog if someone hasn't already done it !

no links no pics just blog

2003-09-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

Totally feeling the hauntological aspects of this peice about Limehouse. The East Ends former oriental underworld that is the no-mans land of Victorian fiction. Today Limehouse Cut is nearly all that remains of the last vestiges of this world. Overdeveloped and sanitised docklands apartments now take its place.
Conan Doyle and Sax Rhomer may have started the fictional mythology of this area but it continues to live on in modern fiction, most recently the "terror" of Limehouse was featured in Alan Mooores "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Kevin O'neils artwork depicts a scene of indeterminable chaos, where swathes of blue & purple mist all but drown out the red embers of fires and lights that peer through the smog. The "sly chinee" and whores swarm over the precarious balconies and walkways of high stacked buildings and Victorian gentlemen glide through the cracks in the mist delving into their pockets to pay for what ever busniess they may be on. The protagonist of this episode is the "devil doctor" or "Lord Of Limehouse" who is depicted "writing on a live mans skin with acid". This iconic notion of the Chinese gang lord residing within the lair of Limehouse is the direct descendent of the notorious Fu-Manchu who emerges out of the dank east end night in this quotation,

"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government--which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man."
-- Nayland Smith to Dr. Petrie,
The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu,

It seems that our folk devils have now moved into the middle east but when this was written they were firmly in the orient. The dashing "boys own" narrative coupled with the outrageously off hand rascism is quite breathtaking.

2003-09-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Now thats what I call a swinging party

Sunday July 13th - Liquid Liquid live

TWITCH PLAYLIST

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme (Warners)
Jon Hassell - Miracle Steps (ECM)
Sabu and his percussion ensemble - Sorcery (Columbia)
Tambores de Libertad - Cum-Bassee (Talent)
Yma Sumac - Xtabay (Columbia)
New Age Steppers - Fade Away (On U Sound)
Singers and Players - World of Dispensation (99)
The Congos - Congoman (VP)
Gray - Drum Mode (Gomma)
Foetus Under Glass - Spite Your Face (Self Immolation)
Mulatu Astaqé - Mètché Dershé (L'Arome)
Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina (Polydor)
23 Skidoo - Vegas El Bandito (Fetish)
23 Skidoo - Fuck You GI (Illuminated)
23 Skidoo - Coup (Illuminated)
Fela and Afrika 70 - Zombie (Celluloid)
Zafari - Addis Ababa (Lenar)
Dennis Coffey - Scorpio (Westbound)
Psychic TV - OV Power (CBS)
Mac - Abelton Live Shack Up / Beyonce / Chi-Lites / Rapture / Go go jam
Tilt - Arcade Funk (D.E.T.T.)
Bush Tetras - Can't Be Funky (Stiff)
ESG - Party Music (Popular)
Pigbag - Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag (Y)
Mo-Dettes - White Mice (Rough Trade)
Graffiti - What Is The Problem (679)
Mac - Abelton Jam
Twitch - Contort Yourself (Optimo mix) (Ze)
Basic Bob - Dem Bones (Bootleg)
The League Unlimited Orchestra - Don't You Want Me (Virgin)The Birthday Party - Sonny's Burning (4AD)
X Ray Spex - Oh Bondage, Up Yours! (Virgin)
Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire (CBS)
Echo Minnot - Original Fat Thing (Jammys)
Wayne Smith - Under Me Sleng Teng (Jammys)
Mac - Abelton reprise jam
Liquid Liquid - Optimo (99)

2003-09-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Broadcast are on tour in the uk soon, the london gig is in Islington. Be sure and get down there all lovers of psyche jumble & boot fair exsotica !

2003-09-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

Nice Boots

2003-09-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

has anyone seen any jandek stuff for sale in london, I'm intrigued just like everybody else, I'm imagining the musical equivalent of the house in texas chainsaw massacre. old grandad in his rocking chair in some backwater mid western town that time passed by in the late seventies and old jandek shuffling about in the garage knocking a new l.p out. Of course this is such a romantic notion i bet its way of the mark, I bet it's all way more calculating than that. Apparently when asked by a reprter what he hoped people would get from his records he replied "There's nothing to get?" but of course there is everything to know and get from this dude.

2003-09-24T04:46:00.000-07:00

Found a Derek Bailey c.d.in the library, totally on an econo tip this month, so just burnin . Its the one where he goes for it, atop some drum n bass. Not sure what to make of it, no ,I think its bad, I cant listen to it. I'd rather listen to the guitar on its own than some pedestrian drum n bass in the background. I mean its a nice idea and that. They had one more of his c.d.s so I'll check that.
Somedisco links to this site where there is some not bad stuff but its well nerdy and Record Collector Magaziney , and there is this guy who thinks he's well ard 'cos he's got all the Scott Walker albums for dead cheap off his "mates" in record shops who've all got names like Pete the Pric or Twat Geezer, goes on to describe Soft Machine as "trash" that you find in old mans record shops, I mean really.

Really want to pack my job in its actually making me ill just thinking about it. What could I do, Music & Video ? Teach English? Go mad ?
I'm gonna think it over, I know you care.

The onset of the Black Death, was described by Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375).

.....or sent upon us mortals by God in His just wrath by way of retribution for our iniquities, whence, after destroying an innumerable multitude of living beings, it had propagated itself without respite from place to place.....

Not such were they as in the East, where an issue of blood from the nose was a manifest sign of inevitable death; but in men a women alike it first betrayed itself by the emergence of certain tumors in the groin or the armpits, some of which grew as large as a common apple, others as an egg, some more, some less, which the common folk called gavoccioli. From the two said parts of the body this deadly gavocciolo soon began to propagate and spread itself in all directions indifferently; after which the form of the malady began to change, black spots or livid making their appearance in many cases on the arm or the thigh or elsewhere, now few and large, then minute and numerous.

2003-09-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

Got up way to early
"Discreet Music", by Eno sssssssseeeeending me into hypnotic afternoon dreamtime nap, aaaahhh the pleasures of days off in the week, just drifting about.

"I got this start lying in my bed in the log cabin, hearing the wind blow between the criss-crossed logs. The winds in the winter could be ferocious; there would be blizzards, and you couldn't see a hand in front of your face. I tried to come to terms with that at the age of two or three. It wasn't as if I could turn off the wind, like somebody would turn off the radio; when one of those storms came it went on as long as it was going to last. And I found it very profound and awesome."

La Monte Young

A big narly old crow and a mad as fuck raggo squirrel fighting in the park stopped and staired me out as I passed them as if to say "Yeah what?" and then carried on after I'd gone by.

Those Were The Days pt 2:

"........So I am woken up and after the usual round of Indian bullshit the ticket collector tells me I am to run, when the train stops (which it did for about 10 seconds) along the side of the track to sleeper car number one where I should be. So I run past S1, S2, S3, no fucking Sleeper 1 !!! I try in vain to get into a second class cabin at least but all the doors are locked. The train starts moving and we are in the middle of absolute nowhere its dark and scary and I have all my bags on me. So I jump into an already packed 3rd Class cabin and have to sit crouched in a ball surrounded by a stinking, farting, spitting insane mass from Miraj to Pune (hours). Thats just the first part. I reach bombay and get stiched up by a taxi, then book into the Salvation Army-Bombay-not nice, scummy, no water in taps bed bugs and nutters galore! Plus I get ill BAD. Shits, fever, cramps, nausea. All day and all night it lasts. I was feeling so bad I nearly freaked out completely............"

Because its great and vivid and i feel like I was there and bird watching is where its at................

2003-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

"He's gonna make an appearance.
Was shown in a freakshow early on.
And drunk from small brown bottles since I was so long.

Cause I'm a Hip Priest

People only need me when they're down and gone to seed.
Cause I'm a Hip Priest."

------------------------------------------------------

nil nil
nil by mouth
sick on the cathode
suck on the anode

white collar chinos and smarm
flameing torch
"jupiters corruscating atmosphere"

descending daily
i see the usual suspects
swept under the door

My kind of people
on the dole
up for it
down on their luck but dont know it

records records records

foxes start biting
leaves shrivel in front of your eyes
a distant Mondeo revs its engine

its raining

and you've got no fags