I Don't Want to Shoot No-one

My current book, 'Cloud Atlas' is very good - very engaging and an interesting idea. I wish I could find more time to read, though.

This morning's commute was dedicated to Steely Dan. I only discovered the 'Dan fairly recently (5-6 years?), courtesy of Danny Baker on his old GLR Saturday morning show. The track was 'Don't Take Me Alive', and it took me only a month or so to get all their CDs. Excellent stuff:

Slang of Ages - SD,
Brooklyn - SD,
The Night Belongs to Mona - Donald Fagen,
Rose Darling - SD,
H Gang - DF,
Haitian Divorce - SD,
Monkey In Your Soul - SD,
Green Flower Street - DF,
Show Biz Kids - SD,
Midnite Cruiser - SD,
Change of the Guard - SD,
Black Cow - SD,
Countermoon - DF,
The Royal Scam - SD, a particular favourite of mine...

I'm travelling to Yorkshire tonight for my grandma's funeral, so no commute 'til Tuesday.

T - 4; M - 4.5; D - 4

I Get Up, I Get Down

A grey day, fairly average.

Shuffling 'Not Classical or Spoken' produced a strange playlist that got a bit bogged down in the middle, but then soared majestically towards the end:

King Crimson - Elephant Talk; the ET website newsletter closed down the other day. I was an early contributor, but it's become too slow (not enough posting) over the last couple of years,
John Martyn - Cocaine,
Cocteau Twins - Because of Whirl-Jack,
The Cure - Charlotte Sometimes,
Coheed & Cambria - Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow). This band is definitely growing on me...
Anne Dudley - The Lunchbox Has Landed, from the 'Full Monty' soundtrack,
Peter Gabriel - Steam,
Kate Bush - Moving, from some very early demos and studio sessions,
Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies,
Mike Oldfield - Only Time Will Tell,
Led Zeppelin - I Can't Quit You Baby,
Gregory Isaacs - Public Eyes, from the splendid Trojan Dub Box Set,
Brian Eno - Another Green World,
Placebo - The Crawl, another recent find that is edfinitely growing on me. Some very interesting stuff,
Placebo - Black Market Blood,
Close to the Edge - Yes, live, from the KTA set.

The first Mixing It ResonanceFM programme (see right link) will be tomorrow at 11pm. I'll miss it, but will surely catch up on the web later. Great news.

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 4, apart from the woman who tried to leave the train by climbing over me...

Glittering Prizes and Endless Compromises

Don't care about the Oscars. Are you listening, BBC? I don't care. At all. Not about the 'build-up', not about the 'arrivals', not about the after-show parties. Do. Not. Care.

Mark Kermode again this morning. This might seem strange after the above paragraph, but, to me, the Oscars are just self-congratulatory nonsense, no different from 'Salesman of the Year'.

The recent Mark Radcliffe session by two Aussies - Angus and Julia Stone - to start, then last year's MR Scott Matthews' session. Then a switch to Rush's 'Signals' album to complete the journey.

My line manager's hassling me about the couple of days I want off for compassionate leave. No great surprise, though, given his management skills...

Mixing It on Resonance FM

A post (at the alternative Radio 3 boards) concerning Mixing It:

Hello,

I've just delivered our first MIXINGIT for Resonance FM. Robert & I were overwhelmed by listener support and decided to carry on. I'll let you know when our first show is to be broadcast. I'm posting to thank everyone for kind emails and messages of support. And also to ask for help. We have a vast backlog of Playlists dating back to 1995. We need a website. Is there anyone out there who could help us set up/design a simple website which would house these playlists, host potential podcasts and keep everyone up to date with news, music etc ?

Our email address : mixingit@mac.com

Many thanks,

Mark Russell

R.I.P. Doris Dodgson (nee Sykes)

My grandmother died today.

1.3.1920 - 23.2.2007

She was a kind and gentle woman who had a great deal of input into my upbringing. She taught me respect and tolerance, but at the same time not to suffer fools gladly.

I Regularise, You Regularise, He/She/It Regularises

The concept of 'regularisation of the service' cropped up on the Tube this morning. Although one might assume it might mean regulate or adjust, apparently it means to fuck things up massively and inconvenience the occupants of at least two trains by not having a clue what's going on.

Folk music today, although the classification is almost entirely my own:

Beautiful - Paul O'Reilly, first heard on the Andy Kershaw show. A beautiful acoustic album,
(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May - Suzanne Vega,
Brother - Vashti Bunyan,
Stormbringer - John and Beverly Martyn,
Hummingbird Song - Tom McRae,
Blood Makes Noise 2 - Suzanne Vega,
Under Ben Bulben - Richard Harris, a poem from an 'Independent' freebie CD,
Glorious Fool - John Martyn, from a recent Andy Kershaw session,
Against The Sky - Vashti Bunyan,
Line Of Fire - Tom McRae, from his fantastic 'Just Like Blood' CD,
Listen, Listen - Sandy Denny,
I Can't See You - Tim Buckley,
Bird Flew By - Nick Drake, from a compilation of demo and home recordings,
Golden Girl - John Martyn,
How The West Was Won - Tom McRae,
Lifesaver - Emiliana Torrini,
Freeze Tag - Suzanne Vega,
The Optimist - Turin Brakes,
The Sisters - Renaissance,
O Death - John Renbourn,
Nottamun Town - Fairport Convention,
Archetypal Man - Judee Sill.

M - 4; T - 1; D - 3

"Half of the lies they're telling you aren't even true..."

RIP Ian Wallace

http://www.dgmlive.com/

I Really Like All Kinds Of Stuff; I Even Like You

3 < x < 8 again this morning, which tends to filter out book chapters and long prog-rock epic:

The Higher Sun - Moom, from a Delerium compilation originally bought for a remix of the Porcupine Tree track 'Voyage 34',
A Hardly Innocent Mind - Pavlov's Dog. What a great band - this album is a bit more commercial than the previous two, but it's very good,
Mountain Time - Gentle Giant. Not one of their best, but even that's pretty good,
Red Earth (As Summertime Ends) - Rain Tree Crow, the early 90s Japan project,
Map of the Problematique - Muse. The lead singer's voice gives me a headache, but, in moderation, I can stand the odd track here and there,
Acres Wild - Jethro Tull, from the beautiful 'Heavy Horses' LP,
Swing the Heartache - Bauhaus,
Stria - John Chowning, from the excellent OHM+: Early Gurus of Electronic Music CD set. This cost quite a bit when it first came out, but it's worth it. This sounds a bit like Ligeti,
Cornucopia - The Steppes. From the same compilation as the Moom track. I once suggested to the Delerium management that this would be an ideal Summer record, but they told me the band had split up a few months previously. Good West Coast rock with a psychedelic tinge,
Living With The Big Lie - Marillion. When I first came to London, I turned down the chance to go and see 'Brave' live, partly because it was being premiered (i.e. no-one had yet heard the album). Unusually conservative of me, and a decision I regret,
Sun Always Shines In Space - Karamazov, another 'Mixing It' find,
A Pillow Of Winds - Pink Floyd, from the 'Meddle' album.

I've managed to squeeze Wagner's Ring Cycle onto the iPod, but jettisoned a lot to make room - mostly 'World' music and a few soundtrack albums. My collection now stands at 65 Gb.

T - 3; M - 4; D - 4

You Can, Guru, You Can

Back to the misery, after yesterday's respite spent playing football, building jigsaws and watching CBeebies.

Shuffle all songs between 3 and 8 minutes long:

Trans Europa Express - Kraftwerk,
The Wind Cries Mary - JHE,
For Phoebe Still A Baby - Cocteau Twins,
The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles - Jethro Tull,
Bulletproof - Cyclefly,
Some Of Them Are Old - Brian Eno,
Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen,
Worship - Robert Wyatt,
Market Square Heroes (Re-Recorded Version) - Marillion,
Abzug - Kraftwerk,
Wild Honey - Van Morrison,
Let's Go Round Again - AWB.

As I'm now taking songs off my iPod, I'm left with stuff I like, so it's no surprise that such a great playlist came up.

I'm sitting at my desk recording MiniDiscs of 'Mixing It' to my laptop for the archive. Man, I miss it...

Working from Home...

... which according to Roger Melly's Profanisourus means something entirely different.

No commute today as my 3-year old is ill. My turn to stay home and look after him.
This gives me a chance to play a few LPs, including Mahavishnu's Apocalypse, some Andreas Vollenweider, and old Vangelis, all of which went down well.

Normal service resumes tomorrow, although my workload, as the company continues on its downward spiral, is tending toward zero.

Assault and Battery, Part II

Monday morning is never a good time, but today was just bloody annoying. Late trains and appalling sensory overload from ridiculous perfumes and overwhelming body odour.

My weekend radio listening has been destroyed by the BBC; Friday night is now devoid of any interest (Mixing It replaced by Building a Jazz Library - hell, just get some Miles Davis and John Coltrane and work around them), Saturday night, previously spent listening to the bits of Bob Harris that don't involve Country & Western, is now taken over by Russell Brand (surely the most irritating prick ever) and Sunday night is now Andy Kershaw-free. Thanks, guys.

The Mark Kermode Radio 5 film review was spoilt by the presence of the star and director of 'Hot Fuzz', so that the review was much less focused.

As for music, well anything to take my mind off all the above:

Son of Man - 10cc,
The Boom Boom Bap - Scritti Politti, from the disappointingly bland CD of last year,
Germ Patrol - Egg,
All Tomorrow's Parties - Japan,
Come As You Are - Nirvana,
Tundra 4 - Squarepusher,
Asleep Under Eiderdown - Pure Reason Revolution,
Amor Real - Jon Anderson,
Astronomy - Blue Oyster Cult,
The Planetist-Maestro Mercy - Wigwam,

All selected as On-The-Go through fairly random selection in the iPod's 'Artists' menu,

T - 3, M - 3, D - 2

Trumpet Voluntary

My 'Trumpet' Mix this morning. A lot of these were chosen from memory without actually listening to them, so one or two actually contain less trumpet than I intended...

Mark Isham - Tibet II,
AWB - Into The Night,
Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow,
Marillion - House,
James Brown - Get Up Off That Thing,
Sly And The Family Stone - Sing A Simple Song,
Robert Wyatt - Lullaloop,
Simon & Garfunkel - Keep The Customer Satisfied,
King Crimson - Islands,
King Crimson - Fallen Angels,
Morrisey - I Just Want To See The Boy Happy,
Van Morrison - Summertime In England.

Apparently, the Controller of Radio 3, Roger Wright, will be on Radio 4's Feedback 'explaining' the Mixing It decision. Friday lunchtime, Sunday evening and 'Listen Again' for a week.
I suspect it will just be the usual pleasantries and 'I'm right, you're all clinging to the past, so just shut up and listen to this Classic FM 'best arias' CD we've bought'.

M - 3.4 (I think my playlist needs a little tweaking); T - 4; D - 4

This Is A Dangerous Place

Mildly euphoric after my mid-week holiday. Very odd.

Shuffle 'Not Classical or Spoken' produced these beauties:

Down Through The Night - Hawkwind,
Lakeside Park - Rush,
Fields of Joy - Lenny Kravitz,
Carry the Ashes - Jansen Barbieri Karn; three parts of Japan. A bit too long, and Mick Karn's playing clarinet/sax instead of bass, which is always disappointing,
Seven Months - Portishead,
The English Dance - John Renbourn. The Radio 2 Folk Awards performance by Pentangle was a bit shambolic, but I managed to record it anyway,
Spider And I - Brian Eno,
Thela Hun Gingeet - King Crimson,
Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac,
Clasp Hands - The Fall; great bass sound,
Maybe I'm A Leo - Deep Purple,
Chrono - Kraftwerk,
Slow This Bird Down - Boards of Canada,
Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream - King Crimson. The single version of this contains a great Frippertronic version of 'Silent Night',
Descent Part 2 - The Mighty Strinth, another 'Mixing It' find,
Gone! - The Cure.

The only one which didn't really fit my mood was 'Don't Stop', but I've heard this song so many times it's become wallpaper.


T - 4; M -4.5; D - 4, pretty good start to the day.

Souped-Up Cruising SuperHero

No commute today, as I booked a day off to take the family to see 'Brum' at a local theatre. Utter nonsense of course, but my son loved it.

Managed to pick up a CD of Devendra Banhart which, on first listen, is very impressive. Not sure it suits the Tube, though, as it's a bit quiet.

Normal service tomorrow.

Radio Ga Ga

No Mark Radcliffe last night; a review of the Bafta awards (which were held last Saturday), hosted by Matthew Wright (Channel 5 monkey) and a coterie of idiots.

What the hell is happening to radio? Commercial radio is, and always has been, terrible. BBC Radio is now following the same route. I used to listen to a bit of Resonance FM (very occasionally), but I'm the periphery of London and reception is often terrible.

Mixing It cancelled to be replaced by DWEM composers and 'building a jazz library',
BBC London breakfast - once hosted by Danny Baker - a shambles,
Danny Kelly removed entirely,
Andy Kershaw moved to the middle of the night,
Mark Radcliffe moved aside to make way for 'celebrity' gossip.


Anyway, more Radio 7 Doctor Who this morning, and more 'shuffle'-ing recently-acquired music:

Queen, The Orb, Judee Sill, 10cc, Herbie Hancock.

M - 3.5, T - 4; D - 4

Dreams

I had a strange semi-dream when I was woken by the dulcet tones of Danny Baker. He seemed to be talking about a new show, which may or may not have been on Radio 2. I fell asleep again but woke and got up half an hour later, having convinced myself that Mr Baker had been re-instated to the BBC London breakfast show, to replace the current shambles. However, it was business as usual... What's going on?

Mark Kermode this morning, then difficulty finding music to match my mood. After flitting through all sorts of stuff, I settled on the anarchy of King Crimson's 'Earthbound'. Wow, what a record. The contrast between this live recording and Gentle Giant's is massive, but the raw power comes through. I have a LP copy which, if it weren't scratched to buggery (surface noise mainly, although the source material is so poor it's hard to tell) would be worth quite a bit, apparently.

I'll record the last Mixing It and the Radio 2 Folk Awards (Pentangle) today, as well as the Radio 7 Doctor Who.

T - 4; M - 3; D - 3

Mixing It: All Things Must Pass, Apparently

Well, no commute yesterday, as I was at the job interview. Not 100% convinced I want the job, offered or not. Anyway it was good to get away from the Northern Line for a couple of days.

The last Mixing It passed last night, with some great memories evoked by the 'People Like Us' session. I really don't know what the hell the BBC thinks it's doing...

The inside story from one of the presenters.

Let It Snow

'Travel chaos' today according to the BBC. Well, the Northern Line is suspended due to snow, and my road is covered in abandoned cars, so I'm staying in and 'working from home'. And maybe build a snowman later...

Waiting... For The Day When I Will Crawl Away

Another frosty start. I have a job interview on Friday, which is at least a start. I have little info on the job description, but I'll give it a go. At least it'd see an end to this bloody commuting.

More Paul McGann Doctor Who (Radio 7), then another recent download: Porcupine Tree 'Insignificance'.

A lot of this comes from the Polish 'Stars Die' cassette I have at home. I've been meaning to get the CD/MP3s for a while, on and off, and found them yesterday. Great demos from Steve Wilson from around the time of 'Sky Moves Sideways' and 'Signify' (?), and dissimilar from the recent heavier stuff, which I have more difficulty with.

After that - Herbie Hancock, more 10cc and Judee Sill, and then Freebird (live). Mmmmm...

My CD set of Wagner's Ring Cycle has just arrived at work, so I'll transfer them (14!) to my iPod at some stage. I'll have to clear some space, though. My home external 80 Gb disk has 65 Gb of music, and I've had to remove 1000 tracks from my 60Gb iPod to make room already. Apple released an 80 Gb machine just before xmas, but I just know that I'd fill that pretty quickly, too...

T - 4; M- 4; D - 4

John Barleycorn Must Die

The cold I thought I was developing was banished by a healthy dose of Jack Daniel's last night...

A frosty start this morning, with my walk to the station accompanied with the latest of the Radio 7 Doctor Who dramatisations.

Shuffle - 'Recently added':

Esperado - Judee Sill (although I think this should be 'Desperado', but it's listed as this for some reason)
Under Your Thumb - 10cc,
On Reflection (live) - Gentle Giant,
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen. On long journeys in the car, my wife gravitates towards either Queen or Elton John, so I downloaded more Queen,
Wedding Bells - 10cc,
Une Nuit A Paris - 10cc,
There's a Rugged Road - Judee Sill,
Dolphin Dance - Tangerine Dream,
Phoenix - Judee Sill,
Mun Ja Mun - Adjagas, from their bewitching new album - first heard on Mark Radcliffe's show,
The Great Nothing - Spock's Beard. Until I downloaded this, I only had one track on a compilation CD, but I've heard a lot about them. On this evidence, it's Pendragon-style prog, which is, on balance, a good thing.

I've made it my mission, after hearing Andy Kershaw's show on Sunday, to collect versions of 'John Barleycorn'. So far I've got:

Traffic,
Tim Van Eyken (studio and live),
John Redbourn,
Fire & Ice, and,
Jethro Tull (live).

Any more?

T - 4; M - 3.5 (a bit too much 10cc); D - 4.5

Stormy Monday Blues

A good, relaxing weekend, with some CV writing for job applications.

Lots of 'new' music today, from recent purchases and downloads:

Come Running to Me - Herbie Hancock; the Jamie Cullum series on Radio 2 is very interesting and has opened my eyes further to this pianist. His Miles Davis Quintet stuff is great, as is Headhunters, but I haven't got any later stuff,
Glorious Fool - John Martyn, from the recent Andy Kershaw show,
The Dean and I - 10cc. I'm fairly ambivalent about 10cc. The LPs I have seem to contain one or two good tracks, but then filled with, erm, filler (IMO, of course). A recent compilation was too good to mix,
Maiden Voyage - Herbie Hancock, just post-Miles Davis,
Butterfly - Herbie Hancock,
Donna - 10cc,
The Wall Street Shuffle - 10cc,
Star 6 & 7 8 9 - The Orb, from the recent re-issue on CD with the famous Peel session,
Little Fluffy Clouds - The Orb. Ditto,
Manhattan - Herbie Hancock,
In Vogue - Japan,
Never Let Me Go - John Martyn (AK session),
Experience - Gentle Giant. Probably one of the top five live rock albums ever,
Donor - Judee Sill. After hearing her tracks on 'Sounds of the Seventies' on Radio 2,
Ridge Rider - Judee Sill,
Circle - Herbie Hancock,
Fall In Love With Me - Japan,
Rubber Bullets - 10cc,
Late Night Shoppping - David Sylvian. I've read a lot of poor reviews of this, but took the plunge recently. Sounds good to me - what's the problem?
Cooltide - John Martyn (AK session),

Great selection.

T - 4, M - 4, D - 4

Paper Trail

I had some work-related reading to do, so not much music, and no Independent for the CD Reviews. I'll catch up with their Website later.

The only music was Pendragon's prog-tastic 'If I Were The Wind, And You Were The Rain' to accompany my walk from the tube station to work.

The Mixing It 'campaign' appears to having an effect of sorts. 'Feedback' (Radio 4) is apparently running a feature on it (today?), although the final decision has probably been made.

T - 4; M - none; D - 4, except for the little guy sitting next to me who insisted on spreading his elbows out.

Release, Release

After a bit more Radio 7 Doctor Who (Paul McGann) I settled down to listen to Yes' 'Tormato'. This is a weak album, and saw the beginning of an upheaval amongst the members, but it has a few good tunes, not least of which is 'On The Silent Wings Of Freedom'.

Throughout, Chris Squire's bass is treble-y and distorted, which isn't always pleasant, but he has some great bass-lines. I have a live show on cassette that I once lovingly coverted to MP3, but then subsequently deleted without committing to CD. Idiot.

The bonus tracks on this re-release of the album are mostly fairly awful, but the 'Does It Really Happen?' demo is very interesting, as it shows the genesis of the 'Drama' stuff. All the Drama album is credited to Squire, White, Howe, Downes and Horn, but here's a track with Wakeman and Anderson on...

In the mood for 'Drama' I switched to The Buggles' 'I Am A Camera' version and finished my walk to work with 'Vermillion Sands'.

T - 4; M - 4; D - 4. Quite a good journeyt all in all.