DISCSTYLE

Speaking of books, how did people manage to drool over cool pictures of sexy records and CDs before websites like Hard Format? Well presumably they spent twenty quid on a big coffee-table tome like this...

"Discstyle" by Martin Pesch & Markus Weisbeck (Collins & Brown, 1999)

I assume it's long out of print, but I came across a copy in a charity shop this week for two quid. It's a luxurious thing, with a forward by Ian Anderson (Designers Republic), charting the design trends of electronic music graphics in the latter half of the nineties. Not enough time has elapsed for it to really exude a strong, pungent flava of the era, in fact much of the imagery on offer wouldn't look too out of place today. But it's a nice thing to have and will perhaps grow in collectibity in the coming years.

GEOLOGY OF A LIFE: BOOK SPINES AS SEAMS

STILL FASCINATED, 25 YEARS ON

As previously discussed (in the days before youtube)...

...but it was those Cabs promos that really got under my skin, particularly Just Fascination which I taped and watched over and over again. I felt the change a-comin'. The realisation that maybe there was more to music beyond Queen, Billy Joel and Nik Kershaw. Something about Mal's freaky staring eyes, or maybe Richard's spectral presence...perhaps Peter Care's superb video direction and visual techniques..Definitely something about those hard rhythms. Quite accessible yet very un-pop with none of the usual hooklines. That ominous synthetic groove was the hook. The lyrics... more like a mantra, "This private... Fascination, just fascination, just fascination", looping, hypnotic, mesmerising. It's also quite possible that Peter Care's voyeuristic close-ups of the mysterious female in the black stilleto's and fishnets had some kind of profound effect on my still-developing psyche, introducing me to a particular adult pasttime known as sexual fetishism. (Even now, I'm still turned-on by a nice pair of ankles in high heels - thanks for that, Pete). Overall I was getting the impression that here was something with bit more depth than the usual chart-fodder. Something that took a little time and effort to assimilate and form opinions about. Something that perhaps had a message within the message. Something that had something important to say, but wasn't gonna say it directly. It wanted the listener/viewer to draw their own conclusions; there was a veil of mystery, an aura of subversivness, that just clicked with me...

SOUNDS FROM BETWEEN THE WARS

Excellent to see some much needed publicity for James Kirby aka The Caretaker aka The Stranger aka The Artist Formally Known As V/Vm aka The Artist Soon To Be Known As Leyland Kirby. First there was Kek's crucial interview piece in Fact, along with accompanying podcast, quickly followed by a splendid feature by Mark 'K-Punk' Fisher in this month's Wire magazine. From arch prankster to serious, 'thoughtful' artiste, Kirby appears to have pulled-off one of the great self-reinventions of our time. I was first seduced by the V/Vm brand when I came across those spectacularly vulgar 'Help Aphex Twin' 3" CDs many moons ago, though I can't bare to listen to them now. Rather, it is Kirby's ongoing 'ambient' explorations of time, space and place that captivate me now. Previews of forthcoming Leyland Kirby material inspired me to fork-out some hard cash and pre-order the double-vinyl (and you can too, via Kirby's new website). More thoughts on that as-and-when it arrives, but for now...

I sometimes wondered why I found the overt references to 1930's ballroom music in The Caretaker's work so personally powerful and evocative. Initially a spin-off idea from Kubrick's movie The Shining, by the time of last year's stunning "Persistent Repetition Of Phrases" the concept had taken on a whole other life of it's own. It was only when I read the references to Al Bowlly and Dennis Potter's TV drama Pennies From Heaven in the recent interviews, that the penny dropped.

The reason why the music of Bowlly and his ilk resonates dimly in my skull is all because of my Grandmother. She was a strong presence throughout my childhood (I often stayed at her house and she lived with us in the family home for some time) and I must've been exposed to this music early on by her. A quick search through Gran's record collection yesterday confirmed my suspicions - there they were: the Bowlly records and the soundtrack to the TV series. She had a big pile of old 78s too, but I didn't get around to checking them, nor her massive collection of sheet music. But I spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon in Grans' company, playing the records and discussing them with her. This was the 'dance music' of her youth and she could still recognise each song just from the opening notes, still knew all the words, and had memories associated with them all. Even without The Caretaker's audio treatments, this music still has a naturally transportative quality - the particular grain of the recordings seem to impregnate the present with a misty aura of the past - in Gran's case, the pre-war glow of her teens, for me a nebulous yet comforting sensation associated with time spent in her company as a child back in the 1970s.

It was a interesting experience and it makes me wonder why I've never spent time listening to music with my Grandmother in adulthood. Always too busy, I suppose. But it felt good to experience this cross-generational exchange and it also got us talking about my Gran's own musical 'career'. Yes, she had a good pair of lungs on her, by all accounts, and built quite a strong reputation on the live circuit. She can still hold a note even now, well into her eighties, but unfortunately no known recordings exist of her in her prime. Apparently many people tried to push her to further her career by appearing on talent shows like 'Opportunity Knocks' in the '60s, but she has an aversion to fame and it's trappings which comes as a breath of fresh air in this age where the pursuit of fame is an end to itself. This Briton Had Talent, she just chose to keep it low-profile. Good for you, Gran...

DJ DELIA IN THA MIX

Just noticed someone had uploaded that clip of Delia Derbyshire splicing together 'sampled' tape loops, then 'beat-matching' them to form a rhythmic composition (from the BBC4 Alchemists Of Sound documentary).



Get humble, muthafuckaz...

SAPPHIRE & STEEL

One of those old TV series I've been meaning to re-experience ever since K-Punk's blog posts back in 2004. Finally, I came across a bunch of VHS tapes in a charity shop recently and I've been gradually working my way through them, late at night, when the rest of the family have gone to bed.

Yes, VHS tapes, faithfully replicating that low-budget, badly-lit world of yore - to hell with your digitally remastered DVD special editions! It's still as weird as my childhood memories suggested, and the plot-lines are only slightly more comprehensible to me now, as an adult. Here was a series so creepy, even the Look-In picture strip adaptation had an unnerving quality about it. How anything as impenetrably arcane as this could ever have been considered mainstream family viewing remains one of the great cherished mysteries of what we might call the 'Ghost Box era'. Though of course that's not actually correct - the series falls just outside the 1958-78 timeframe for true hauntology buffs...but that's the beauty of it: it's the last word, the final rallying cry for the uncanny in popular culture, ultimately crushed by the onslaught of Thatchersim, the 'Me' decade etc; the last of the dreamers, and the nightmares.

It's the pace of the thing that I find so fascinating. Due to budget restrictions, every storyline unfolds very slowly, typically stretched over six 25-minute episodes. Events occur at a magnetically slow pace, in a scenario where, funnily enough, Time itself is supposedly the 'villian'. Special effects, supporting characters and scene-changes are kept to a bare minimum - everything is held together by the rivetting on-screen presence of lead actors Joanna Lumley and David McCullum. The complete absence of spectacle imbues everything with an eerie stillness, which makes the occasional action sequences even more startling. Special mention must also go to Cyril Ornadel's incidental music. Arranged for a small ensemble of musicians (predominatly woodwind) with liberal use of electronic treatments (ring modulation, echo/delay) to intensify the drama and suggestion of horror, Ornadel's cues are far more powerfully chilling and evocative than anything you're likely hear in the mainstream media today.

SPOTIFY: PROS & CONS

I've been playing around with Spotify this week. Download the program and you can stream a staggering amount of music for free. And it's completely legal. Some thoughts for the curious... 

ADVERTS: So you have to pay £9.99 a month to go Ad-free, which seems a bit steep to me. I'm happy with the free version for now. The ads aren't any more or less intrusive/irritating than what you'd hear on most independent/pirate radio stations. Typically, listening to a full album will only be interupted once by a couple of ads somewhere in the middle. The 99p 'day pass' option could be useful if, say, you were throwing a party and wanted to prepare some suitable playlists. Hook the laptop up to an amplifier/speaker set-up for instant, ad-free soundtrack to your swanky dinner party. Guests can have fun picking tracks without getting their grubby little mitts on your beloved vinyl/CD collection.

CHOICE: Considering it's still at Beta stage, the choice of music is enormous. Obviously, if you're specifically looking for niche/marginal genres, you'll be very disappointed. Dubstep is only really represented by the Soul Jazz 'Box Of Dub' compilations and a few other bits here and there (my in-progress dubstep playlist here). Post-punk electronica is quite well represented due to involvement of Mute/Grey Area (a nice playlist I built here). Recent releases by Warp acts like Autechre, Squarepusher and Clark are available, but generally there's a lot of work to be done before electronica reaches an acceptable level of representation. Where Spotify excels is, naturally, the pop/rock area. Some big names like The Beatles and Pink Floyd aren't involved yet, whilst Elvis and the Stones are. Some 'classic' Left-field artists like Kraftwerk, Brian Eno and Soft Machine are comprehensively covered, and krautrockers like Can, Faust and Neu! are also well-represented. Yet I can't find anything by Scandinavian Dutch prog-rockers Focus yet. No doubt these anomalies will continue for some time. Afterall, there's an awful lot of music out there to collate, publishers to negotiate with, etc.

FUNCTIONALITY: Searching the site is pretty straightforward and especially helpful if you're not quite sure what you're trying to find. Type the word 'Donk' and you'll be quickly directed to Blackout Crew's "Put A Donk On It", type 'Sigor Ross' and you'll be asked if you mean 'Sigur Ros', etc. The ability to create playlists is useful and fun, though I think it would also be nice if there was a facility to build your own virtual 'collection' of favourite artists/albums, organised by genre/year or whatever. Perhaps that'll come later. Being able to share/modify your playlists with other users is useful too and could lead to fruitful collaborative efforts. Those who still prefer to buy their music elsewhere may still find Spotify a useful tool for previewing material and researching artist's catalogues. The speed of delivery is superb - the stream kicks-in almost instantaneously when you make a selection (it's as quick as playing mp3s on your media player) and I've had no system crashes yet. 

ETHICS: Look, it's legal, okay? So everyone gets paid, right? And I don't need you giving me a fucking guilt trip cos it's not a 'real' format. I still love and maintain a hard-format collection and I think I'll always enjoy the act of searching for and acquiring vinyl records, though I rarely buy CDs these days. A big part of my motivation is tracking down music that hasn't been absorbed by digital formats - those forgotten remnants and curios of the 20th century that only exist in the analogue world. Plus vinyl is a joy to handle and drool over, you can smell it, and of course it sounds great providing you look after it, but there's the problem: the burden of ownership means you have to protect your investments. I've got some lovely, collectible records that I never play cos I'm too scared of ruining their condition. Sometimes I pull them out of the stack and have a good oggle at them, but then put them back unplayed. Sometimes I feel weighed-down by the responsibility of maintaining this wall of 12" cardboard and plastic that I've put all my adult life into ("my possessions - will the howling never end?!"). Sometimes I almost wish I owned nothing. And with Spotify you really don't own anything. You don't even have to worry about how much space your MP3s are taking up on the hard drive - the burden of ownership, maintenance and storage has been passed on. Yes, Spotify reduces music to a souless stream of zeros and ones, and renders proper sleeve art useless, but it sure takes a lot of the worry out of my listening experience. Inevitably, this is the way most passive music consumers will access sound in future; there will no longer be individual character-defining collections, just one gigantic all-encompassing stream; especially when it becomes possible to access this kind of service from mobile phones, in-car systems, etc. Only producers and djs will need more 'malleable' media. For the rest of us, resistance will constitute little more than an alternative, 'eccentric' lifestyle choice.

KYMATIK TRIBUTE

Just spotted this on Facebook...

REWIND! The Tribute To Neil Kymatik
SAT 30 MAY
10-6am
@ LAKOTA

Room One : Dubstep

Mary Anne Hobbs
Headhunter
SLT Mob
Search and Destroy
Rossi B
El-B
Komonazmuk
Joker
Pinch
Gemmy
Forsaken
Hyetal
Blazey
Superisk
Coleco
Wascal

Room Two: Trisect : D&B

DJs TBC

Room Three : Bristol Crew! : Eclectic

DJs TBC

£5 adv + b/f - tickets will be available from Bristol Ticket Shop


For those who knew Neil Kymatik, he was a very special person. In honour of this legend, we are throwing a massive rave as a tribute to him.

We have booked Lakota for one huge party in his honour - and the date is:

SATURDAY 30TH MAY @ LAKOTA

We will be going all-out to make this the best party we can provide, as a testament to the man who's passion and enthusiasm touched so many lives. A legendary rave for a true legend.

All proceeds from the event will go to charity.

Needless to say, Neil loved his music - so we will be putting together an incredible line-up of quality sounds for this. The line-up will be announced soon and it is BIG!

However, we do need a lot more than just the music!

We want this to be the most magical evening possible, and to do that we need all the bits and bobs that make a rave like this go that extra mile.

So, we're looking for VJs, Decor, Rigs, Lighting, Fire Spinners, Magicians, Face Painters and so on - anybody who feels they can add a special element to this party. As this is for charity, we would be asking you to donate your services for free.

We are also looking for as many people as possible to help with the promotion of this. We want as many people as possible in attendance to rave it up in honour of Neil - so it's vital we have a team dedicated to helping us get the word out!

If you think you can help us in any way with the party, then please get in touch - either by messaging me on here, or contacting me at: info@byte-club.co.uk

Above all though we want you all to come and party! Tell your friends, spread the word, and come down to call for the Rewind!

***PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO THE EVENT PAGE***

I notice there's also a thread on the Hijack forum that's become a place for people to pay tribute to Neil, and some of Neil's mixes have been gathered together here. 

DATA 70 ON RESONANCE 104.4FM

Make sure to lock-on to Resonance FM this Saturday (25th April) at 9:30pm when Data 70 (aka Bob Bhamra and John Chambers) will be guests on Johnny Mugwump's show, chatting and playing some exclusive music from their exquisite forthcoming release 'Space Loops Vol.3'.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

"Readers who find themselves daunted by the unfamiliar narrative structure - far simpler than it seems at first - might try a different approach. Rather than start at the beginning of each chapter, as in a conventional novel, simply turn the pages until a paragraph catches your eye. If the ideas or images seem interesting, scan the nearby paragraphs for anything that resonates in an intriguing way. Fairly soon, I hope, the fog will clear, and the underlying narrative will reveal itself. In effect, you will be reading the book in the way it was written."

J.G. Ballard, 2001

So I dug out my copy of The Atrocity Exhibition (revised Flamingo edition, 2001). As a personal tribute to the man, I'm gonna have another go at it. Hoping that my hypersensitized nervous system, fortified on a steady diet of Twitter-stimuli, will be able to cope with the intellectual demands of non-linear narrative this time. Afterall, the above note by Ballard describes almost exactly the way I read Twitter updates.

INNER LANDSCAPE....

...of my Farfisa Rhythm 10. This was the sort of technology required to spit out a basic tango riddim back in the '70s. You could actually make it play two different riddims at once, thus creating variables by combining say, 'Slow Rock' with 'Bossa Nova'. Then send the output through an echo and a VCF and things start to get interesting. That's how groups like Cabaret Voltaire started out, anyway. You ever heard that brutal hissy thud that propels the Cabs' cover of "Here She Comes Now"? That's a Rhythm 10 in action.

The problem with my machine isn't with the circuits, its with the power supply, which is knackered. I managed to briefly revive it a few years back by experimentally poking around with exposed 9v wires. Took me a while to make the right connection, but then there was a crackle, a spark and then a clunky cha-cha riddim kicked into life and thundered out of the amplifier. I managed to record a few things before it died again. Actually there's quite a few examples of this baby in action in my tape archive. If I thought for one minute that anyone out there gave half a shit I'd upload a couple of bits. But I don't, so I wont.

Still, I keep thinking it would probably be a fairly simple job to build a new power supply and get this beast back into active service. Not by me, though. I can't build or solder electronics for shit. But maybe if I can find somebody local with the necessary skillz...

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

In other news: RIP J.G.Ballard. I read a few of his books. I liked most of them. Especially High Rise. Though if I'm honest I found The Atrocity Exhibition a bit hard-going.

Of course, I first heard the sad news via BBC News' Twitter update. Then I started wondering what would be a respectful period of time to leave it before 'unfollowing' JG_Ballard on Twitter, because, somewhat naively, I assumed that it was actually the great man himself. I mean, why not? There's bloody loads of (semi)famous people twittering like maniacs now, and I could almost imagine Ballard getting a kick out of Twitter. But then JG_Ballard sent an RIP tweet to himself, which kinda gave the game away.

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

I love Twitter, for nearly all the same reasons that Doppelganger doesn't. But then, if I love the 'dissected consciousness' of it so much, then why don't I like The Atrocity Exhibition? Hmm...maybe I need to re-read it. Maybe it'll make more sense now, along with Naked Lunch. I mean, I always liked the idea of the 'cut-up' technique, but it only really worked for me when applied to audio (as with Cabaret Voltaire's Burroughs-inspired sonic collages). When I'm reading a book, I generally get on better with a clear narrative, which is why I enjoyed reading something like Junkie more than Naked Lunch. But with Twitter it's like this live cut-up happening in real time - a non-hierarchical stream of info where 'important' events like Ballard's death rub shoulders with ludicrously mundane facts, like jrowett burning his lunch earlier today. I'm trying to get all my mates to get on board cos I think it's the best form of social networking I've seen so far. But a lot of people just don't seem to 'get it'. Or they're too busy piddling about with all their wanky Facebook apps. Or, maybe, they've got a 'real' life.

RIDDIM BOXES

Pre-programmed for your listening pleasure. Found these pics in a folder on my hard drive. Can't remember where I stole them from.

(I once owned one of these)

( I still do own one of these, unfortunately it's broken)

R.I.P. NEIL KYMATIK

Neil Kymatik at Noir 2006

photos by Jack Rampling

Just spotted the tragic news over at Headhunter's blog. I don't really know what else to add. I wouldn't say me and Neil were ever 'close', but if you type 'Kymatik' into this blog's search box you'll see that he was a regular face on the Bristol dubstep scene that I tried to document here, and someone I enjoyed many conversations with and dj sets by during that great clubbing adventure. My deepest sympathies go out to all Neil's family and friends. Rest in peace, mate.

GRAVEYARD SHIFT

OLD DUKE

Bristol jazz pub

RADIOPHONIC LUSHNESS

Found this pic on my phone - can't rmbr why i took it but looks kinda cute dunnit

TWITTERPATED

R u?

DOOMWATCH...

c/o the mighty Doppelganger

HOCUS POCUS!!

Well I really should be listening to all these new digital tracks on my hard drive, or at least formulating some kind of opinion/response to the whole funky/wonky scenario that others seem to think is actually intellectually engaging enough to bother discussing. Yeah, I enjoyed that Jamie Vex'd mix and Paul's new comp looks interesting, but still I'm disinclined to get involved right now. I suspect my lack of enthusiasm for current trends may be linked to a wider sense of doom and gloom about life at the present, and a lack of hope for the future, both on a personal and global scale. If one has no faith in the future, how can one engage with the music of the future?

"Can the world be as sad as it seems?", or am I just having some sort of midlife crisis triggered by impending 40th birthday? Also, I haven't had a cigarette for 26 days and am rapidly losing the will to live. But determined to keep at it, because I do actually want to live, and I'm hoping this is only the halfway stage of my life. I'm only 10 years away from the age my dad was when he died of lung cancer. I remember he had a failed attempt at giving up the fags when he was about my age now. Perhaps if he'd succeeded he'd still be here today. I intend to live long enough to see my grandchildren...that's what I keep telling myself everytime the cravings gnaw at my chest.

But then the little nicotine demon says " fuck it - if you have no faith in the future, why are you trying to extend your own future". He has a fair point.

I am looking forward to seeing the Watchmen movie, mainly cos I'm fascinated to see how they made a film out of Alan Moore's brilliant but 'unfilmable' comic book. And I intend to eat a shitload of popcorn.

Meanwhile, fear and uncertainty of the present-tense encourages one to seek refuge in the past. Perhaps this whole 'Hauntology' thing is the by-product of a generation's collective panic attack as it hurtles towards middle age in a world that it finds increasingly scary and uncertain. Of course, the world's always had a scary/uncertain element, but we were too young to understand or care back then. Applied to my buying/listening habits, the upshot is that I haven't bought new products online at Boomkat or Juno for months, but I'm crate digging in charity shops at any opportunity, in search of audio artifacts that somehow connect with my past life, or in the case of the above album by Dutch prog-band Focus that I found earlier today, a sense of completion of unfinished business. It's just a compilation of their first three albums, released in '75, but it has the hits "Sylvia" and "Hocus Pocus" which I always kinda liked when I heard them on the radio and always meant to buy a Focus record but never did. I could find a suitable Focus record in 30 seconds on the 'net, but I'm really enjoying getting back into physical searching again. It takes a lot more time and patience, but when you're not looking for anything too specific it can be a surprisingly rewarding pastime - sometimes it feels like the records find you. Plus you save a shitload on shipping fees.

(click 2 enlarge)

This looks bloody lovely, and yes of course I want to come along, Matt...but you know how it is with me and travelling anywhere that isn't five minutes away. Best of British to all concerned...