Jack Kerouac On Jazz - Last Words & Other Writings (Zeta Press 1985)

Rummaging through my books I came across this Zeta Press booklet, which I bought from Compendium, the best bookshop in London then. It's going for silly money now, but I've no idea how many of these essays are available in other forms. 

Demdike Stare - Elemental (Modern Love) - Professional LP Review

Here is a template for writing a good review.

[Intro – 50-70 words | Include a bit of background information, possibly who produced it, where they were at before this release and if the band are unknown – where they’re from and a couple of influences. This part of the review should mostly include facts.]

Demdike Stare are Sean Whittaker and Miles Canty, although it may be the other way around. They've made several albums, perhaps five or six, consisting of electronic sample-based noise which, over the years, has become very much the kind of music you would not play to your granny, or even your mother, unless she was the 'hip' kind of parent who has never been to Glastonbury and used to be a fan of Throbbing Gristle. Their influences range from the popular 70s TV show, Catweazle to the French librarian Camille Sauvage and Italian horror soundtracks, oh, and Berlin Techno, and...Thomas Savery, 17th/18th century engineer, inventor of an early steam engine, the sound of which the pair frequently sample for special 'industrial' effects.

[Details – 70-120 words | The interesting bit – what’s on it? What does it sound like? How to is compare? Have they evolved or are they pretty much the same? Rate and slate as much as you like – remember: this is supposed to be entertaining. Use exaggerated comparisons, inventive analogies and metaphor to get your point across.]

This double CD consist of 18 tracks, most of which sound like the workings of Victorian machinery mixed with a hoover, someone angrily sorting through their garden shed, a jumbo jet, washing machine, dark Satanic Jeff Mills remixing Wagner, and New Age music for angry neo-hippies who want to feel worse, not better. It's not an evolution, but a continuation of their mission to make tuneless, virtually beatless, droning noise. I rate it highly, but what does that matter to you? I'm not a professional critic; you don't know me, and besides, music criticism is dead. All that remains are countless bloggers filling time instead of doing something useful, like gardening, housework, charity work, or painting walls, which definitely need doing here...you should see the state of them...

[Conclusion – 50-100 words | Just wrap it up really. Never finish a review abruptly because it’s unprofessional. Instead, just to fade it out with some light comments about whether it’s worth listening to or not.] 

So, here's another trip through the forest of evil sounds lead by Demdike Stare. It will evoke an atmosphere akin to being trapped in a 70s Italian horror movie about a steam punk future in which the Devil invents VHS tape which spools out of the player of its own accord, enters the nearest human orifice and turns people into goggle-eyed, blood-soaked worshippers hell-bent on garotting anyone who challenges His authority.

Ghosts - Monolake (Imbalance)

'YE-E-E-OW! I'm back! I'm back! Get up offa that thing, and dance 'til you feel better!' You may be surprised to learn that, despite a three-year absence, Robert Henke does not start his new album in this fashion.

He's back, and he still sounds like Robert Henke but a little way different - in an evolutionary fashion, he's branched off but still carries the same DNA, that stuff we love, like crystal clear, cavernous sound, and precision engineering with punch.

On the title track, he even taps into techstep of old, to make techstep anew, and it's a damned good thing. Hearing 'Lilith' for the first time, I swore I sensed the presence of other ghosts, such a Doc Scott, and Goldie when he was good. Perhaps Robert's been listening to classic Reinforced or Metalheadz tunes.

It's still a Monolake record, with trademark ping-pong percussion, and that's a good thing too. After all, being an 'old man' (43), I wouldn't want him trying to make footwork music, or imitating Flying Lotus - no - he sticks with what he's good at, being Robert Henke.

'Aligning The Daemon' has a different feel though, in part, that part being the use of a Gothic church organ sound. It also sounds like a creaking ship, so imagine the ghost of a possessed organist playing on the Marie Celeste, if you will, you don't have to.

Henke doesn't make duff tracks, but a choice one here is 'Unstable Matter' - haunted by an evil-sounding entity which swoops around between the speakers - it's so good, so dark that it's making a cat meow outside my window. I can think of no finer testament to a record which carries something of the night in every beat and (heavy) breathing space.

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying - Shepherd Mead (The World's Work Ltd 1953)

Essential reading in these times of economic woe, surely. You may have started out working for nothing at Tesco, but with Shepherd's help you will soon be a success. Good luck. 

Sex & Bestiality Tapes, Death Transmission, Whitney As A Doughnut,

>>>>> so he wasn't writing much, these days - so what - he blew smoke at the computer screen (sounds from Sex & Bestiality tapes coming out the speakers) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

'Snake Naked Ann' by Anthon Shield...sounds like a character from a Bill Burroughs novel, he thought, listening to a woman making erotic sounds whilst a male voice intones over electronic warble...

>>>>> a few days ago he'd likened Whitney Houston to a doughnut all because a fox had dragged a tray that once contained raw meat out of the rubbish bag - so he thought about how foxes will eat anything, then compared himself to a fox, consuming culture, but decided he wasn't fox-like because he was too fussy - but the comparison between the raw bloody remains of meat & certain music he liked to lap up was there - 'Do foxes eat doughnuts?' - Whitney was the musical equivalent of a doughnut, he concluded (her saccharine miasma-drenched theatrics...sweet, sickly, irresistible to the with a taste for that kind of thing - they hardly noticed the passing of Etta James, most of them) ...............................his funeral would not be broadcasted 'live' over the Net...............perhaps that'll be the new thing...folks having their funerals 'live' on the Net......So Who Owns Death TV?

Alistair  asked 'Who writes articles these days?' - good question - who can be bothered to read on the Net? He wondered....most popular apart from the professional blogs were those serving as dumps for images culled from other blogs, he thought - and that's OK. people just like to look at pretty/weird/interesting pictures - so the Net's one big picture book - so what?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>  he didn't want to see another damn 'LOLcat', ever <<<<<<<<<<

Eroina & Niente LPs - Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza - Orgasmo

Update: Eroina is now here.

Orgasmo...

...'scuse me whilst I get carried away - and isn't that what music supposed to make us do? - two absolute belters from G.I.N.C., both from 1971, both loaded with funky drummer free Jazz deviant grooves & atmospherics like no-one else could deliver. Surfacing from the deep Improv pond to smack us in the chops with this shit! Too much. 

You could say words fail me. You could say 'I've got them!', in which case, well done, top marks, have a gold star. I've raved about G.I.N.C. before here and here - well give me one good reason why I shouldn't again.

Ennio's squawking like a cockerel, if cockerels squawk, and I might get to rambling, 'cause that's what I've been told I do quite often - well then...so be it...but this music is so fantastic, it makes me lose my sense of anything - time, place, grammar (which, let's face it, I didn't have much of  anyway) - 

Some slow drag drugged-up jazzy blues haze of sound floats through the speaker...'Bali'...and the thing is...this is the thing: I don't know of another group that managed to absolutely perfect this kind of fusion, aside from Miles, you might say, but in a different manner, of course. 

Sure, there are many treasures yet to be discovered, children, and I say go forth and find them, for me, and if you do, write back from your travels through the forest of files - 'cause I can't believe there's anything to compare with this. Not that you will write, I understand, there's so little time, and none for 'comments' - and what feels like a lifetime ago I did say I'm glad not have loads of comments to deal with because they'd take up more of my precious time, time that could be spent listening to G.I.N.C, or watching telly, 

or rambling  > > > > >

> > > > in the countryside, which I love to do, because it relieves me of the weight of urban existence in the form of traffic, overcrowded transport, & overcrowding generally - people are OK but, you know, in small doses, which is one reason I hate big concerts, or 'gigs', as I believe they're known, because who wants to be amongst thousands of sheeple bleating their appreciation of a Rock/Jazz (exception, if Charlie Parker came back tomorrow & played there would be thousands in attendance, I suppose, and I'd be one of them, but can you imagine Bird playing an arena?! No, neither can I), Dance (urgh), Reggae band - no. 

Perhaps you and me appreciating this music doesn't amount to a hill of beans, but so what? It's our thing, and we wouldn't swap it for all the tea in China or anything by Lana Del Ray, certainly, would we? 

Listen Hear

This is the reissue vinyl version of Niente that The Roundtable label have just produced, and it's gone already since only 500 were pressed.

But you can Listen Hear

Miscellany: blogging tips > mad as hell > comments > photo

.............what made the blog? What was it made of? So he went on / scrutinizing / & thinking > ???!!!!!!%=+&XXX???+*£!!!!!! , (represents thinking)

.........................he was growing tired of the process and thought 'Fuck it!' - then thought: 'No, carry on' >>>

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR NETWORK

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG’S URL

DON’T IGNORE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

All of these tips assume that you’ve already got great awful content — which is easily the number one way to get >no< visitors to your blog. If you don’t have great content, you’re just wasting your time. The visitors will leave just as quickly as the came, and you’ve quite likely lost a chance to get them back. If you do have great content, though, you may not have to do anything >something< else. People will >not< talk and link and promote you themselves.

So focus first on posting stuff >that's< worth>less< reading before you start trying to get people to read it. You won’t be disappointed!

'Priceless advice. I have already used one of your strategies. Everyone can benefit from making them a part of their blogging strategy.'

'Thanks very much! Very helpfull for those of us (me) who are just getting into the world of blogging!'

Please leave your comments here... 

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away...

All My Friends Are Dead / How To Overcome Discouragement

The Black Corridor - Michael Moorcock (Mayflower 1969)

Abtu Anet - Gultskra Artikler (Miasmah)

Music of Gultskra Artikler is a chaos, some village with dusty forgotten things. It’s like a mosaic, fanciful designs on an old trunk. You examine it, draw something and add new elements. They shimmer in the sunlight, you feel its rough edges and specks. - Alexey Devyanin 

Alexey describes his music so well that I don't need to say another word. But I will. I'll say a few more words, although the line 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture' never felt more appropriate. Only a musician with a grudge about music criticism would come up with that line anyway. And what do musicians know about writing anything other than music? John Cage knew about writing - he knew it could be abstract and make more sense than 'proper' writing. 

Collage...mosaic is as good a word for Devyanin's music. Acoustic guitar, piano, samples, unnameable sounds, folkloric melodies from 78s in an old trunk in the attic...the dusty cosmic drift of time...particles of sound arranged in such a way as to evoke Tarkovsky's Zone, perhaps...the artist as stalker, bringing back alien artefacts. In the locked groove crackle of this music, anything is possible...

He doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry...he's off the map in the modern sense...

This music is unstoppable, by which I mean I literally cannot bring myself to turn it off...because it is not instantly knowable...each track is a Russian doll containing seemingly infinite pieces...all of which can only be extracted by repeated plays. So I play it again. In this age of restless clicking, it's miraculous that this music  not only demands sustained attention but gets it from me. I am, as much as anyone else, a restless listener...playing parts of tracks, skipping some, almost listening to whole pieces before the thought of something else draws me away.

Time seems to change in Devyanin's world, just as it does in Tarkovsky's, and whilst he created visual poetry in 'Stalker', Devyanin achieves something like the sonic equivalent here.

You can listen here. 

My Own Particular Opinions & Fancies inc An Antidote To The Consumer Society Blues

New day.
New post.
New picture for you that I took whilst on holiday. Martin Parr, eat your heart out...

Here's an album...

You can get it if you really want it.


Quote of the week:

For what is all this but my own particular opinions and fancies?

Recent scene in a bar: 

LJ tells a woman that I write a blog. Woman opens her Nokia cell phone and searches for it. 

'What's Slant Azymuth?' She says. 

'Music', I reply. 

She laughs: 'I've never heard of them!'

Well, what a surprise...

Here's a man conducting tape recorders...

Righteous words from Kurt...

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe this to be true. I believe a lot of troubled folk would be more content if they wrote, painted, played music etc. Simply singing in the shower or dancing to the radio (it didn't help Ian Curtis) wouldn't do the trick, though. Tapping into the creative source within is more satisfying than just consuming, feeding the beast that is never satiated. Yes, we all crave material goodies, but since most of us don't achieve the 'dream' life in that sense, self-expression in any art form is a fine antidote to the consumer society blues.

Slant Azymuth - Slant Azymuth

The cult of Pre-Cert gathers pace - it's now liked by 152 people on Facebook which, let's be honest, is the one true measure of popularity in the modern world. Their albums sell out every time - how about that? OK, they only press a handful...400, perhaps, which is one sure way to create a smug sense of satisfaction when your industry is not cottage, but more Wendy House. That's a good thing, isn't it? Small is beautiful. And there's a small amount of music here, about 34mins-worth.
The starter, 'Gray Equidae', could be an outtake from Pierre Henry's Variations Pour Une Porte. Then comes the Grand Guignol horror theatrics of 'Intervision 1', a black metallic beast, all thundering drums and soaring (or sawing) noise. 'Helicial Scan' scrapes out your brain and serves it up for a voodoo ritual during which there's much wailing from a siren of sacrifice, after which you thank them very much and ask for more. 'Intervision 3' has a distinct character to it, being more of an electronic bleep construction featuring the extended growling of a carnivorous robot.

I do hope you get the idea. I'm doing my best under difficult circumstances, namely, being under the spell of a sonic concoction with few, if any, direct comparisons in the music world. They close with 'U-Matic Thrill', which without hearing you might fear is a Nine-Inch Nails tribute, although that's unlikely. A driller killer drone with jack-hammer beats, perhaps? Guess what, it's neither. After the dread of the first five minutes it develops a steady pulse which creates a calming undertow, almost soothing, until you realise that the beat is designed to hypnotise you into walking into that basement...or buying the next Pre-Cert release.

Cell-Sharing With A Take That Fan etc

So you're stuck in a cell with a Snow Patrol fan - imagine it! Can you, though? Imagine, that is, what he or she would be like, as a person, you know, a real flesh'n'blood human bean as opposed to just one of a collective called 'Snow Patrol Fans'.

The sign on the left popped up on my Facebook page the other day and got me thinking about types, you know, 'types' we think of when it comes to genres. I don't even know if Snow Patrol are part of a genre. My only memory of them is thinking they were awful/dull/useless when I happened across a track. So, curious, I go to a Snow Patrol forum (yes, there is such a thing, which causes me to wonder why there's no Piero Umiliani forum, which is a rhetorical piece of wondering because I know why - it would only have fifteen members). Yes, so, the notice suggests that to be stuck in a cell with a lover of a genre you hate would be hell. In the name of research (which is usually a four-letter word to me) I looked at what Snow Patrol fans listen to apart from their fave band. Oasis...Ben Kweller (?)...Coldplay...Travis...right. As I always say when I'm feeling generous and kind-hearted, good luck to 'em.

Well perhaps you're in the Country & Western wing...and you don't know what you'll get there...stereotypical rednecks? Or Alternative Country types quivering in their imported workman's jeans whilst the redneck tugs at the beard which took them two years to grow, saying 'Looky here, boys, we got us a fine young thing' - and yes, the next line might be 'Squeal like a pig!'. But hey, I'm not stereotyping C&W fans. Besides, the music of choice for the assailant would be Cajun, surely.

You can only imagine via the misguided powers of prejudice and stereotyping what a fan of any genre will be like, can't you? How about the Jazz wing? Full of middle-aged and upwards intellectuals? I foresee a riot there, 'cause I know a bit about Jazz Fans, which as someone pointed out the other day is a meaningless category anyway. There's a riot going on in Cell Block 9 between gangs called the Live Evils and the Heebie Jeebies. Very messy. In fact, the Milestones are also trying to kick the hell out of the Live Evils. Meanwhile, you're having a good chat with Goth about Jacques Tourneur.  You see, you just never know, not by the music they love. Although, yes, if you're stuck with a Take That fan you're probably in trouble. But there I go, assuming that a fondness for said boy (now men) band equates with cultural inadequacy in all other departments, therefore no chance of talking about JG Ballard or Claude Chabrol. And I say 'inadequacy' like the snob that I am. Or can be.

So I found this survey from 2008. Ain't it funny? Well, do you fit the bill? Are you creative, outgoing, at ease and holding yourself in high esteem? Having met a lot of folk who like Jazz I don't recall one that was 'creative'. Although, they did regard themselves in high esteem having just bagged a rare Lee Morgan album back when there was such a thing - you know, before we could all download everything by everyone, which in turn will land us in jail with a Coldplay fan unless they really do sort us all out into genres. Indie fans 'not gentle'? This contradicts my experience. I've found them to be very gentle souls, much given to weeping at the dropping of a needle onto a Smiths record. But then, what is Indie today? I've no idea, not having willingly listened to anything remotely Indie since...I can't recall.

I presume 'Dance' covers all common forms of electronic music. I know that the few times I've checked 'Electronic' as a category on listening sites I've only been able to find Underworld, The Chemical Brothers etc.
They're 'not gentle' either, apparently. So much for all those Es. As with all such polls, it doesn't cater for the eclectic music-lover. How can it? 'Eclectic: gentle, creative, not gentle, introverted, outgoing etc'.

Anyways, I'll see you in prison. And because you're reading this, I just know we'll get along well. Won't we?

TTFN

Art Afterpieces - Ward Kimball (Magnum Books 1979)

Crude by Photoshop standards, perhaps, but before all the digital alterations we see today, Disney artist Ward Kimball was having fun with classic art. The originals in the book are only small black & white prints, so I've scanned them afresh.

Portrait Of My Mother - Whistler

The Gleaners - Millet

St Luke Drawing The Virgin Mary - Gossaert

Diana - Boucher

The Blue Boy - Gainsborough

Le Mezzetin - Watteau

The Visitation - Albertinelli

Slant Azymuth, Elis Regina, Bill Burroughs Smiles

Looking forward to this from Demdike Stare & Andy Votel...

Boomkat

It may be Winter outside, but here's something to warm your heart; a joyous performance, and an extremely cool group...

It's Bill's birthday. Here's a rather unsettling picture of him doing what didn't seem to come naturally...smiling. (Thanks to Matthew at WhollyBooks)