Julian stood in for Iggy on the Friday night BBC Radio 6 spot, and what a great and eclectic mix of garage rawk it was. I recon the Arch-Drude should be given a regular weekly spot,
Like having Peel around again fer a short while.
Amon Duul - Shattering & Fading (Intro)
13th Floor Elevators - Never Another
The Black Diamonds - I Need, Love, Want You
The Helpful Soul - Peace For Love
Can - Uphill
The Wig - Crackin' Up
The Craig - I Must Be Mad
The Misunderstood - Children Of The Sun
Caretakers Of Deception - Cuttin Grass
The Litter - Blue Ice
The Rationals - Guitar Army
MC5 - Looking At You (The Square 45 Version)
Churchmice - Babe, We're Not Part Of Society
David Peel And The Lower East Side -Mother, Where Is My Father?
The So - A Certain Kind (feat, Machine)
The Savage Rose - A Trail In Our Native Town
Country Joe And The Fish - Flying High
The Zombies - Butcher's Tale
The Jacks - Marianne
Kim Fowley - Up
Amon Duul - Shattering & Fading
Kim Fowley - Caught In The Middle
Kim, Fowley - Down
The Music Machine - Dark White
The Electric Prunes - You Never Had It Bettter
The Red Crayola - Hurricane Fighter Plane
Cromagnon - Caledonia
Silver Apples - You & I
Blue Cheer - Second Time Around
Love - Love Is More Than Words (Or Better Late Than Never)
Wonderful little piece from yesterday's Guardian newspaper written by Robert Macfarlane about the artists, musicians, author's, film makers and poets who take iheir influence and evocations of 'Eerie Britania' from there interactions with the English countryside.
This wonderful evocative piece of writing will inspire my reading habits for some time, but also reminded me of a wonderfully spooky Samuel Becket radio play I once heard called 'Embers'.
A cast of ghosts converse on a nameless grey beach.....
Also, the spooky 1964 sound collage work 'Invention For Radio - Dreams' by Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange originally broadcast on the Third Programme. Cut ups which soundtrack various narrators recitations about recurring dreams.
Been a fantastic year from my point of view musically speaking. Probably bought more vinyl, CD's 7"s and downloads than any other year since I was a teenager, so........
Here's a quick post of some of my favourite music from the last year. You can DL a couple of compilation files should you wish to plop them on your media player.
It's not all been good in 2014 though.
Sadly, far too many musical mentors have passed into the deep beyond this year, many at far to young an age. My thoughts and comiserations are with family, friends and followers for their sad loss. R.I.P. - Christophe F. (Universa Panzies, Fried, Julian Cope Group, Black Sheep), Scott (Rock Action) Asheton (The Stooges), Jack Bruce (Cream), Gary Burger (The Monks), Nicholas John Talbert (Gravenhurst), Tommy Ramone, Bobby Keys (Rolling Stones), Dave Brockie (GWAR), Mark Bell (LFO), Robert (Throb) Young (Primal Scream), Paul Revere, Johnny Winter, James Lavesque (Agent Orange), Frankie Knuckles, Bob Casale (Devo).
Tracklist.
01. Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mist (Long Version)
02. Chain & The Gang - Stuck In A Box
03. Jane Weaver - Argent
04. King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizzard - Celephane
05. Fat White Family - Is It Raining In Your Mouth
06. The Wytches - Grave Dweller
07. Camera - Parhelion
08. The Liminanas - Je' M'en Vais
09. Richard H. Kirk - Never Loose Your Shadow
10. Kreidler - Modul
11. Who Put Bella In The Wychelm - Gravenhurst
12. Liars - Boyzone
13. Goat - Goatchild
14. The Black Dog - Too Many Isms
15. Das Boot - Spion Cop
16. Shellac - Mayor/Surveyor
Tracklist.
17. Laetitia Sadier - The Scene of The Lie
18. Gulp - Vast Space
19. LA Hell Gang - What You Want You Got
20. TV Ghost - Maze Of Death
21. Shiftwerk - [Less] Merchandise
22. Plaid - Thether
23. Tarwater - The Log Of The Sloop
24. Brian Jonestown Massacre - Fist Full Of Bees
25. The Soundcarriers - This Is Normal
26. Laetitia Sadier - Oscuridad
27. The Amazing Snakeheads - Memories
28. The Second Bardo - The Cult Of Dom Keller
29. Listening Centre - Observation One
30. Phillippe Petit & Edward Ka-Spel - Where Does The Sound Go
Video's Of Above (Where Available).
01. Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mist (Long Version)
02. Chain & The Gang - Stuck In A Box
03. Jane Weaver - Your Time In This Life Is Just Temporary
04. King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizzard - Celephane
05. Fat White Family - Is It Raining In Your Mouth
Been on a bit of an Alan Moore bender of late. Re-reading V for Vendetta, Watchmen and listening to several of his truly amazing spoken word performances. These take the shape of recordings made with musician(s) Tim Perkins, and sometime collaborator, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame (whom were themselves, rather aptly, named after a comic) . The CD's 'The Highbury Working', 'The Moon and Serpent Grande Egyptian Theatre of Marvels', 'Angel Passage', 'The Birth Caul' and the most recent 'Unearthing' are all a wonderful intermingling of fact, fiction and psychogeographic revelation. You could argue that the term Hauntology could have been invented for these recordings, as they invoke a wonderful reimagining of the past, present and future, a filtered through an occult gauze of wonderment.
In my fervour to hear more of Moore I stumbled across a veritable smorgasbord of clips and interviews on youtube, which I've spent the evening avidly devouring. A couple of the better clips/programmes are to be seen below.
Stunning performance from Sylvian and associated musicians. I've really enjoyed his more electronic outings of recent times (well 10 years or more) and parts of this gig highlight them fantastically. He gets some sweet sounds from that Nord Synthesizer. This concert reminds me of the more subdued outings by Coil, under their Timemachines guise.
Tracklisting Opening Blemish The Good Son The Only Daughter The Heart Knows Better She Is Not Late Night Shopping A Fire In The Forest When Poets Dreamed Of Angels / Cries And Whispers Blue Skinned Gods Praise Maria Wasn't I Joe? World Citizen Jean The Birdman Musicians And Technicians David Sylvian computer, keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals
Steve Jansen computer, keyboards, electronic percussion, vocals
Fascinating little 'documentary' by sometime outsider pop aficionado Momus. It's a overview of a website / book by designer Richard Littler about the fictitious town of Scarfolk, a town which hasn't progressed further than 1979. A world populated by the Ladybird Book world view and the ever present public information films and documents of a perceived benevolent and benign nanny state. A hauntological world of strange possibilities and juxtapositions. Momus is to publish two books in 2014, one an digitally published novel about a writers Faustian pact with the devil to publish 100 Books of his choice, with the dark lord footing the bill for the characters various writing locations and publishing costs. The other is a novel proper, called Unamerican, which plot I've yet to find out about. I guess he's been using and processing stuff from the Scarfolk site as inspiration for his up coming writings. Much like myself, he admits to being an unfulfilled graphic designer, something I think he's hoping to overcome in the forthcoming novel Unamerican.
"Ebury has acquiredDiscovering Scarfolkby Richard Littler, based on his cult blog, which gained over half a million hits in its first six months and has high-profile celebrity fans such as Caitlin Moran and Ian Rankin.
Editorial director Sarah Lavelle bought UK, Commonwealth and Europe English Language rights from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann.
The imaginary town of Scarfolk, created by screenwriter and graphic designer Littler, satirizes the public information campaigns of the 1970s. In the book, Littler's realistic images will be threaded together by the frenzied archive of Daniel Bush, whose sons "disappeared" in Scarfolk in 1970.
Lavelle said; "Richard's created an extraordinary world where every image prompts a double-take – it's clever, it's dark and it's very funny. I grew up in the same era and it's all terrifyingly real to me."
Littler added: "Discovering Scarfolk re-imagines the flipside of the 1970s, taking aspects of the decade to absurd, sometimes disturbing extremes...It aims to make the reader simultaneously shudder and giggle."
Ebury is set to publish the book in October 2014 and will be supporting it with a unique, creative and integrated publicity and marketing campaign throughout Autumn 2014."
Thought I'd put together a CD length compilation for these short cold days and star encrusted nights.
Not your usual Xmas inflected jiggery, a bit of a darker theme to mull over the year that's past, and the new one yet to come. Probably best tuned into later in the evening, when you've had a few nips of the good stuff, and are feeling a little contemplative.
1. Intro December - Drama Workshop Presents
2. A Year And A Day - Belbury Poly
3. Fairy Ring - Fursaxa
4 Iopetus - Circle
5. Boreas - Einsturzende Neubauten
6. Hollow Hills - Bauhaus
7. Solstice - Matt Berry
8. Dark Becomes Light - The Album Leaf
9. The Chain - Liars
10. Incantation - Aqua Nebula Oscillator
11. Blood Chant - Gorky's Zygotic Munci
12. Creeping Crazy Time - Big Blood
13. The Hooden Horse - Drohne
14. Misc - Broadcast
15. Threshold - Eric Zann
16. Ghost Seeds - Crow Tongue
17. The Salt Path - Wolfram Wire and Roj
18. Christmas Is Now Drawing Near - Coil
19. Outro Winter - Drama Workshop Presents
A few of the usual suspects, but hopefully a few curveballs to.
Here's hoping anyone that drops into Sound Mirrors from time to time has a very Merry Xmas.
Don't forget the mince pies and sherry for Santa, he might just drop something nice in your lap.
Whilst thumbing the vinyl racks at home I stumbled across this great double vinyl compilation of Kosmische, Folk Rock, Avante Garde and Experimental Music released on the OHR label as a sampler for it's artist catalogue in 1971
It's very much in the vein of the recent(ish) Deutsche Electronische Music Compilations put out on Soul Jazz Records. Also shares a list of similar artists, many the usual suspects (Amon Duul, Ash Ra Temple, Tangerine Dream, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh et al) but it has a nice flow to each of the four sides.
Was mooching around the music shelves and came across this superb cassette length track Mindflight by Matthewdavid which I was listening too constantly whilst away on holiday in Pembokeshire this last Summer. This lovely release was a constant companion on my walkman whilst perusing various prehistoric chambers, tombs and mounds, and added a delightful ambient summery vibe to the various places I visited. Think KLF - Chill Out, Think aborted Jimmy Cauty proto Orb offering Space, Think distant african tribal drums carried on the wind, Think half rememberd snatches of sound or dialogue and your in the right ball park. The B-side of the cassette is the A-side in reverse, a rip off you may think, but it really works as a sepearate recording in it's own right.
On a slghtly different tack, I used to own a tape copy of Capt. Beefheart'sAbba Zaba that did something similar to Mindflight. The B-side would bleed through onto the A-side during playback, and vice versa making an out there album even more of an 'out there' experience.
And of course, this is just an excuse to show a few 'megalithic' holiday pixs well.
Llech Y Drybedd - Nr Trefwrdn Uchaf
As Above
Carn Menyn - Original Quarry of Stonehenge Bluestone, Preselli Hills
Burial Mound atop Carn Sian, Preselli Hills
Bedd Arthur Circle (Elipse), Preselli Hills
The 'Airforce' Blue of Bluestone
Carreg Coetan Nr Newport Sands
A Rather Sterile Pentre Ifan
The Wicker Man (Castell Henllys)
Castell Henllys Iron Age Fort (reconstructed on actual footprint of fort/buildings)
Pentre Ifan - Mirroring The Skyline
Wogan Caves below Pembroke Castle (no Terry out today)
Bluestone Assemblage eroding out of sea cliff Nr Whitesands Bay - Tantilising proof of ancient journey?
