Monday, September 20, 2010

SauerKrautRock

... or on being very disappointed. A few days ago I wrote about being excited that Probe Records was moving from its boring industrial unit to a unit within The Bluecoat. It should have stayed where it was. It's a box - a bloody box. The place has no soul - well there is some soul but only on record. All the records are there and the CDs and the vinyl on the walls but it has no shape - no atmosphere - it is a machine for selling music and nothing else. I don't want to be around when Julian Cope or Pete Burns find out. I can't bring myself to post the phot I took - I hope they do some decoration.

Well I still bought something rather than just waltzing in to swipe a free copy of The Stool Pigeon, which incidentally has shrunk from NME size to fanzine size and is all the better for it except that I can't quite read it now all the text has shrunk - maybe I'm in the wrong demographic. (Get on with it - what did you buy? Ed.). Thanks to a recommendation from Scaryduck I bought Neu! 75 - note careful positioning of The Pling there - and beautiful it is. From Motorik drone to distant and plaintive distorted guitars. Unless you count Kraftwerk as Krautrock, this is my first in the genre and how could I miss it? It's been round a few times now and it is wonderful.

However I have more music to report on from Radio Two's Swing Time slot this morning which was Light Flight by Pentangle - the theme to Take Three Girls - which I am sure I remember watching despite only being five when it came out.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Eighth Blackbird Wonder

I have of course been waiting sometime for this recording of something which won the Pulitzer Prize for Steve Reich and Eighth Blackbird so long ago and more annoyingly was performed in a local venue without me hearing a peep of publicity. While Double Sextet itself does not disappoint one bit, the accompanying 2x5 performed by Bang on a Can is slightly weedy in comparison - some feedback and room simulation might have been useful just to give it a bit more drive. However, the third movement contains some trademark Reichian interlocks which make up for this a bit. But the obvious star of the release is the three-movement Double Sextet which I suppose is the definitive Reich piece. It moves at just the correct speed in all places and the interlocks here are myriad - jittery mixtures of time signatures just to keep anyone thinking of using the piece as dance music well and truly on their toes. It is amazing that there are only two of every instrument - the conceit being Reich's favourite device of having an artist or artists play against a tape of themselves (though the premier had two live sextets) - the texture is rich and deep. A slight technical niggle which may be my player, is that the Piano recording level seems to be too high meaning that it distorts a little; it was not audible when I played it through speakers last night but it is occasionally jarring in earphones.

Despite the slight negativity about Bang on a Can above, I am interested to see that they are performing a new opera by Evan Ziporyn with Gamelan Salukat called A House in Bali which is based on the book by Colin McPhee. I read the book years ago and it is a gentle story of nothing much other than composing and playing music in Bali. So there is that to look forward to as well.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Möbius Strippers Union

I have reason to be visiting someone in hospital at the moment - nothing desperately worrying - and I was struck by how typical this hospital actually was. The view from the windows was of nice, clean buildings, the atmosphere and ambience suggested calm efficiency and the technology was visible, reassuring and unobtrusive. I half expected Jim Dale to come round the corner as I negotiated the air-conditioned bridge from the car park to the main hospital. It was comforting when all we usually hear is that the NHS fails at this and that. I know that there are arguments about cost, red-tape, mistakes, cleanliness but this hospital suggests that things are going in the right direction. The NHS should be outside party politics.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Don't You Touch My Lorna Doones

For years I have been confused by the lyrics of You're Moving Out Today a strange record that my sister played over and over until both the needle and the record were worn out. I always wondered what sort of weird guy this bloke was and why an obviously intelligent woman had taken up with him in the first place. However yesterday, I was reading the Daily WTF, a place populated by many stories of geeks, nerds and other (probably self-declared) associated sociopaths when it clarified that Lorna Doones are actually biscuits which made the line in the song about leaving the narrator's Lorna Doones a lot more understandable. Unless of course she was a collector of rare editions of said book. All this is of course just wibbling and I have to say that the discussion currently in progress on this office is about the teaching of evolution - we are all for it I have to add.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sporadic Dorado Implosions

Oh doesn't he look grainy over there? Anywhere somewhere in this audio you will find RD talking to David Attenborough about all sorts of things. What is it that makes Dawkins so divisive compared to David Attenborough - they both seem equally calm so I suppose it is just the militant atheism isn't it. The fact is he doesn't advocate anything violent - and while I am sure he has remained silent on the recent Koranic Libricide, I am sure he thinks that the whole episode was just a provocative stand by a well-known idiot. I suppose there haven't yet been worldwide demonstrations against Dawkins but there are probably a few nutters out there who would happily kill him for peanuts judging by the anger that he receives via email.

Oh dear - I shouldn't be bothered by such idiocy should I? It should be filed and forgotten under "people are stupid".

Sunday, September 12, 2010

On Getting More Than You Expected

Admittedly most of this excess of Smoke Fairies freebies consists of postcards but it is always nice to get stuff like this. I am a wibbling fool for limited edition CDs/7" Singles/Picture Disks/Sumptuous booklets but purchase of these has been reduced in proportion to my trips to Probe Records and other such byways of alternative music. Stop Press - I see from this link that Probe have just moved to The Bluecoat which is excellent news. My first trips to Probe were when it was at its second location right in the centre of Liverpool - it was the standard alternative record store - vinyl on the walls - sticky carpets - exotic aromas and everything else. It was sad when it moved from there to an anonymous looking boxy building well out of the centre. Marriage and Children mean I rarely go except to pick up my free copy of The Stool Pigeon. The last things I bought there were a second-hand copy of Surfer Rosa and by coincidence a double-A side 7 inch of Gastown and River Song  by The Smoke Fairies (produced by Jack White). I will be at The Bluecoat as soon as possible. Well back to the Freebies. This is The Smoke Fairies first album proper - Through Low Light and Trees, a beautiful collection of modern folk from two smooth-voiced women from Chichester (rather than some prairie train halt as suggested by some of the music and some of the titles). They harmonise at a weirdly low-level which is so beautiful that it is difficult to say how much so. This album deserves a proper review but the several times I have listened to it so far have been in the car ... with children ... and so have not been entirely uninterrupted. For anyone desperately interested there is what I thought was an album called Strange the Things which must be a collection of singles.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Not By a Long Chalk

It is an inexact world. Nothing conforms to the spec and that means we spend lots of time accommodating this fuzziness rather than getting on with the real business of life which as we all know is to enjoy ourselves. Bearing in mind the current debacle over PAYE (not that I've received a letter yet and I do not anticipate receiving one but there is still time) and the fact that there is at least a page of instruction for the amount of tax due on biscuits and cakes, it is time to raise my idea of simplifying the tax system. However when you realise that the distinction between cakes and biscuits when applied to just one particular item means the difference between The Government receiving £3.5 and not receiving it from just one retailer then the whole issue becomes a bit more difficult to call. Only it doesn't. The system just shows that the people who are responsible for working it out are not at all clever ... or bothered  ... or both. There is a requirement for tax and as long as some amount of money flows out of the Government end of the black box no one gets sacked. I think this should change. Only trouble is, the system cannot cope with even small change.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Axis of Even

The Interior of David Mitchell's Car Yesterday.
My wife tells me that I rant like David Mitchell does. She also tells me that there is a compilation clip of Would I Lie To You - the panel show where he is a team captain and that this show is composed mostly of these rants. So if you want an idea about what my day is like it might be useful to watch this. I do have something to rant about today - but I'm only giving you the title so you must make up your own mind about what my view is from this. People who won't use public transport because they hate other people. Rant Over!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

On Libricide


So we still burn books do we? Sad isn't it? Of course these are just nutters - minor sects who under the cover of making a point are actually trying to recruit. This inevitably triggers severe cognitive dissonance in a lot of people. Liberals will be saying that certain building work going on within sight of Ground Zero should be allowed to go ahead because it indicates that The US is a bastion of free speech. However, burning books raises both sides of the question doesn't it? We should allow people to do what they want, but burning books is a thuggish censorship of what the thugs themselves do not agree with. I of course subscribe to the meta view that any book burning is wrong full stop but I am sure that there are many books I would happily toss into a fire based on my dislike of their contents. Obviously the actual specifics of the reasons for burning religious books are simply boys games as far as I'm concerned but I'm happy for any books to exist - even those by Piers Morgan.

On the subject of books, I'm tempted by this wheeze, though maybe more because it seems a less risky adventure for someone as nervous of authority as me than for any feelings of outrage about TB's stance on the Iraq war, though I do have that as well. Only days after 7/7 I watched as he denied that this atrocity was in anyway related to the Invasion of Iraq only to see that being the very reason put forward by the bombers themselves on their pre-martyrdom videos. The really annoying thing is that this hubris is seen as statesmanlike by many people - most abroad I would reckon, - I hope to see the history of Tony Blair record him in the list of failed politicians. But hey, history is not written by the bereaved of either Iraq or of British Soldiers or even by any relatives of the victims of 7/7. I am ashamed to share a country with him.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

I Canna Hold Her Cap'n!



It's back and Monday evenings are interesting again. Well I suppose Paxman has been back for weeks hectoring various juveniles on Junvenal and other such esoterica but only Only Connect can supply meta-questions - pure intelligence that tests the intellect as well as the memory and all without any dramatic unresolved chord to ramp up the tension.

But what happens at the start - that nice Victoria Coren suggests that they have been receiving letters on the subject of the symbols used by the contestants to select each bank of things to connect. They are seen as elitist and pretentious and so they are going to change them. Horror! I don't know about anyone else but the show being pretentious and elitist is among the finest reasons for watching it. We are disappointed - the Chavs have breached the walls of BBC4 and are battering at the citadel of our intelligence. We are doomed to be overrun by the hordes of know-nothings who can just about deal with the first six letters of our normal boring alphabet. And so with heavy heart and weary countenance we sink back down in our chairs, resigned to this outrage. Victoria looks at us dryly (as always) then glances to her side - "Contestants" she says "pick your ......" (we pause, our hearts still beating harder at the moral failure of the BBC.) ".... Egyptian Hieroglyph". For a moment the world stops turning as we take this in. ...... Then we punch the air - all is right with the world - the barbarians have been repelled. Pretension level of 100 has been restored - elitism readings normal. Move on please - nothing to see here.

Monday, September 06, 2010

If color != pink then me.status = statuses.happy

My New Old Mobile Phone - Pictured on a Wooden Table
I think the pink fascia of my inherited mobile phone was from the Sony-Ericcson "Geekette" line which didn't go well my devil-may-care, heuristic programming image so I sent off for a new one from the "Dark Destroyer Warcraft" range. Frankly I'm not sure that moves me from Geek to Hero at all but hey - it's not pink so I'm happy.

Current reading is Musicophilia by Doctor Oliver Sacks (the man who mistook his patients as a literary career) and very interesting it is too - once you get over the feeling of voyeurism. The chapters range from a general view of earworms (which Sacks prefers to call Brainworms), to complex and very real Musical Hallucinations which prompt sufferers to question who has a radio on in the vicinity. I am envious of people (Sacks included) who can replay entire orchestra performances in their heads) because my musical reduxes are simple loops of the catchier melodies I know.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Deep Friday


Go on - who does this remind you of? Oh darn that html!

(exclamation marks in tribute to TB's memoirs).

So does God exist? As I said yesterday, as usual this has polarised the nutters - er web commenters - out there, into those who cannot follow an argument and those who will not follow an argument. I think that the most measured response to this is that Physics simply cannot talk about God and Religion similarly cannot talk about Physics. Hawking made a mistake the first time by evoking God as an explanation for what we cannot know about and at the time it was generally thought that the other side of the Big Bang was unknowable - I think he just used the G-word to cover what he thought was unreachable. By now removing his idea of God from the process that defines the physical world he has just inflamed both sides. In reality I suspect that this whole thing has been brought up and magnified by the publishers of the new book just to raise its profile.

Oh go on - what I really mean is that "knowing the mind of God" is over portentous tosh that deserves to be in Pseuds' Corner. On the other hand, there isn't anything in our experience of reality which is larger or more significant than The Big Bang - physics does its best to describe the event and I suppose that you could say it is accepted by a lot of clever people as the starting point (literally a point) of all this universe. So maybe such a significant event deserves correspondingly significant language to describe it - it's just that God is the wrong word to use - it brings in too much of the wrong part of humanity for describing physical things. I apologise if this is a truism but God is the leader of the Spiritual Side not the head of a team of research scientists. Using the proper terms in the field will result in a much better understanding of the situation even if it does remove some of the romance. Tough I say!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Braney Man


I suppose this photo is in the spirit of these images from David Sylvian but his just seem so much better - so much more mundane and yet so much more interesting. It might be of course that there are just so many of them and the continuous flow of similar subjects makes them better than a single image of something "boring".

Anyway, enough of my failings and desire to copy someone else's brilliance. Stephen Hawking has dismissed God from his view of the Universe. I do remember in A Brief History of Time that Hawking left room on the "other side" of The Big Bang for God to have started things off. Having seen mention of various theories regarding possible scenarios for the trigger for TBBT, I was already aware that this view had been challenged quite strongly already. In fact I would imagine that many if not most scientists in the field would already have taken the mention of God to have been a convenient placeholder until something more scientific came along - sort of God of the Prefix rather than the Gaps I suppose. If this depressed you, then for a laugh I suppose you could read the comments attached to The Daily Mail article about this. I'm certainly not linking to it.

Years ago I might have descended into a long pseudo-philosophical discussion and while I might still want to, I think that my gradual realisation that I know nothing compared to some people has made me think twice about posting such rants. The proliferation of comments against articles that always appear to polarise the opionions suggests that there are many people who would hold views somewhere in between and who do not post because they realise the futility of any argument. I don't consider myself a good critic of anything but I could quite happily put together a decent and cogent argument for many of these things. It would of course only reflect my opinion but at least it would be more intellectually rigorous than most posted comments. There has been a spoof message board section in Private Eye in recent issues, which satirises the worst of the rabid commenters. I'm not sure if the letter to this esteemed organ recently, enquiring whether this message board was real, was ... err ... real. I suspect not as there is too much consistency in the punchlines but the spirit and level of bile is perfectly believable apart from the fact that it never seems to adhere to Godwin's law.

Again I return to the view that most people have no idea how big the world actually is - or more accurately how many people there are in it- it is a collective lack of self-awareness you might say. However, thinking about this makes me wonder that if everyone had perfect self-awareness, the human world would stagnate because we could never get anything done for worrying about who it would upset. I therefore do NOT apologise if anything in this post upsets you.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Julie Doesn't Know What She's Been Missing


To The Philharmonic again this Sunday for In My Life - Mark McGann doing a brilliant job of being John Lennon in both words and music along with Pepperland - a Swedish Beatles Tribute Band. My wife saw MMG do this some time ago and has pictures to prove it so this was a bit of a nostalgic trip for her and while I like the Beatles, I'm not that much of a fan. However, I was rewarded with the support band, a couple of Brazilians, a guitar and a tea chest. Well they had effects pedals as well but the entire band that came out of the speakers came from just them. At one point, the guitarist kicked the jack plug out of his pedals and in putting it back in made a wince-making electronic crack which he immediately looped in the digital delay and turned into an awesome percussion loop for the backing of a trace-like jam. Occasionally he would throw in some out-of-context Beatles Lyrics just to keep up with the spirit of things. I'm not sure the now-little-old-ladies who once stood on the seats screaming at J,P,G and R were that impressed but I was.

And Mr McGann himself sold me - the encore of Help, Twist and Shout and Give Peace a Chance had a good proportion of the audience up on their feet and I imagine gave a good impression of what concerts were like in those heady days. And as a bonus, almost next to us in the audience was Jilted John himself - Graham Fellows - now sadly (or maybe not) needing far less make up to turn himself into John Shuttleworth. I was going to shout something but I bottled it as usual.