It Goes That Way

Actually, no, the Tube train you're on actually is going this way, despite what we told you, so could you please get off here and wait with the other 200 people on the crowded platform, while we get our act together. Sorry about that.

Idiots. My three-year-old could do better.

I finished the WtSiT that was broadcast last week, so can now concentrate on last night's broadcast, which I had to miss due to lack of sleep (but downloaded). Another superb show; the 10-minute rap piece was superb. Very interesting, musically, even if I couldn't really make out a lot of the gist of the story. I really hope 'Where's The Skill In That?' is reaching a wide audience, because it's very difficult to find music of this quality and eclecticism served up to you on a plate.

On the back of some 'Mixing It' memories, a re-visit to Laurie Anderson for the rest of the journey:

Excellent Birds, from Mister Heartbreak, with Peter Gabriel. A different version of which can be found on 'So',
Sharkey's Day - MH,
Walking & Falling, from Big Science,
Slip Away, from Life On a String. About the death of her father; just beautiful,
From The Air - BS. Very funny,
Here With You - LoaS,
Statue of Liberty - LoaS,
Dark Angel, LoaS,
Gravity's Angel - MH,
It Tango - BS

This final track reminded me of 'Epsilon Indi', an Italian band from the 90's/early 00's headed by Sergio De Vito, based in Rome. To my knowledge they no longer record under that name, although I think many of them still make music. I have four records: 'A Distant Return', 'The Stolen Silence', the very Limited Edition 'Tra Terra e Mare' and 'Crystal Soup'. I think there's at least one other, but I haven't found it yet. Excellent - Jazz/New Age/Prog/Fusion music, although 'Crystal Soup' is a bit too New Age for me...

Anyway, 'Urquhart/An Apparent Stillness-The Uman Disaster' from 'Stolen Silence' samples 'It Tango' to great effect, breaking down and re-building the 'She said it takes one to know one' line, and it always makes me smile.

She said
She said it takes
She said it takes one two
She said it takes one to know one
She said it
She said it to no-one

T - 2; M - 4; D - 3

Rejoice, Forward Out That Feeling

Radio, radio; live transmission:

Despite BBC decimating my evening listening pleasure (see here, and many other posts over the last 3 months or so), there were two great sessions on last night: Suzanne Vega on Radcliffe/Maconie and by Fyfe Dangerfield on Charles Hazlewood's show. I've never heard this latter show before, but surely will in future. I've never heard Mr Dangerfield or the Guillemots, either, but will certainly check them out on the basis of this.

Plus.

Plus, plus, plus, the daily return of Danny Baker and his 'All Day Breakfast Show'. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to listen to this, but I hope it's very often. I had a few problems Subscribing on iTunes, but sorted it out by directly downloading each of the (currently 2) episodes. Splendid.

Jeff Buckley - In Memoriam

I learned last night from the Radcliffe/Maconie show that it's 10 years since Jeff Buckley died. I first heard 'Grace' at a friend's house at a party at about 3 in the morning back in '96 or so, and was instantly a fan. Since then, I've got just about everything that's been recorded, and also lots of stuff by Tim Buckley, his father.

As a tribute, lots of JB today:

Mojo Pin - from Grace (Legacy Edition),
Last Goodbye - G(LE),
Witches' Rave - from Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk,
Je N'en Connais Pas La Fin - from Live at Sin-E,
Corpus Chrisit Carol (For Roy) - from Grace,
Kanga-Roo - G(LE), with that tremendous, incessant gtr riff,
I Want Somebody Badly (With Shudder to Think) - G(LE),
New Year's Prayer - from Sketches...,
Dream Brother (Alternate Take) - G(LE),
Grace - from Grace,
Yard of Blonde Girls - Sketches,
Parchman Farm Blues - G(LE), where he really does sound like his father,
Dream Brother - G(LE),
Dream Brotehr (Nag Champa Mix) - G(LE). I don't think it's possible to hear this too many times,
Eternal Life - G(LE),
Everybody Here Wants You - Sketches... Just beautiful,
The Sky Is A Landfill - Sketches.

T - 3; M - 5; D - 3

...How to Fight the Crippling Blues

After an incredibly bleak BH weekend, some sunshine.

Recent purchases:

Blue Lagoon - Laurie Anderson,
Innocent Party - Fish,
Anxiety/Taurian Remix - Scott Solter,
Farewell Transmission Remix - Soctt Solter,
crc7173, Affectionately Remix - Scott Solter,
Daddy's Speeding - Suede,
The Rookie - Fish,
Them Belly Full (live) - Bob Marley,
Take Pills - Panda Bear,
Exodus Damage Remix - Scott Solter,
Lonely Sky - Chris de Burgh,
One Beautiful Evening - Laurie Anderson,
Washington Street - LA,
Here With You - LA
Slip Away - LA

I still remember a 'Mixing It' Laurie Anderson interview ages ago (1998), which I loved. Also, the Scott Solter and Panda Bear tracks are as a result of the 'Mixing It' descendant 'Where's the Skill in That?' on Resonance FM...

T - 4; M - 4; D - 3

End of the World

I just thought this needed archiving for posterity. The best laugh I've heard for ages...

An uninterrupted 10-minute Mark Kermode review rant on the new 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' film from last Friday's Simon Mayo Show:

SM: Mark, what did you think of the new Pirates movie?

MK: Well, I think it's important to say that one has to go into these things with an open mind.

SM: Yeah, right.

MK: No I know, but look, okay, historically the first Pirates movie was absolute bilge.

SM: Wrong.

MK: No it was, it was rubbish, and it ended up taking $1bn worldwide which was really, really terrifying. The second one was kind of worse because it was longer and it was a holding pattern because it went on for, like, 150 minutes and nothing happened. I mean a bunch of stuff happened, but nothing actually happened, just a bunch of stuff happened.

And then when it came out on DVD I said to everybody: you know you should boycott this movie; if this stuff does well it's your own fault. Then it came out on DVD and I was told this terrifying fact that it was the fastest-selling DVD of all time. Somebody, maybe you [SM], said, that on the day that it was released, 1 in 5 DVDs that were sold was Pirates of the Caribbean 2. So now we have the opening weekend, this weekend, of Pirates 3, because obviously it's starting to preview on Wednesday, and we've already been told by the industry [that] the prediction is that this is going to be the biggest box office weekend of all time...

[…]

So you sit down. Okay. We're here for 168 minutes.

The film starts off with a hanging sequence, a sequence in which a whole bunch of people are hanging, including an underage person, but probably the most misjudged opening of any allegedly family-friendly movie I have seen in a long time. You're sitting there thinking: they've totally lost the plot; they've decided to go dark for the third Pirates movie - what on earth are they playing at? This is not something that needs to go dark, this is something that needs to lighten up; this is something that actually needs to be entertainment. No, we have this really long, really sort of drawn out, really completely out of place, hanging sequence at the beginning. BBFC guidelines, I looked it up, says 'contains moderate horror and action adventure violence'. It contains completely inappropriate darkness at the beginning that is absolutely out of kilter with the rest of the film and has no right being there. Fine, so, we get through that…

Then, after the opening sequence, the plot, or, more precisely, the plots start. And, if you remember any of the plot threads that were at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, it's like well, somebody's got to go off and find a heart, somebody's got to find an island, somebody's got to get a treasure map, somebody's got to get a compass, somebody's got to sing a song, somebody's got to stand on their head and turn around 38 times. That Orbloondo Land's got to go and find his dad for some reason that is not clear to anybody other than the fact that that Stellan Skarsgard is clearly picking up the cheque and he's a great actor so I'm happy that he's employed.

So, it starts. And it goes on a little bit, and I'm thinking you know I'm really dreading the moment that Johnny Depp is going to come along and do that Keith Richards impression that we all know wasn't funny the first time, and really wasn't funny the second time. And here we go: he's going to do it a third time.

And then the movie plods along, you know Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bland and all the rest of it all happening, and no Johnny Depp. It's 35 minutes before Johnny Depp actually arrives on screen. And I'm starting to think that this is really clever, 'cos what they've done is they've realised that Johnny Depp is so terrible in the film that they're withholding him, they're withholding him because actually everything else in the film's going to be better without him, but no, 35 minutes in Johnny Depp turns up, but not just one Johnny Depp - 10 Johnny Depps turn up at the beginning. There's a brilliant line in Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is referring to Arthur Dent meeting up with [Ford Prefect]: he says he's one of those people that you couldn't see him for months at a time, but then as soon as you saw him he was immediately annoying.

And Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is exactly that; he's immediately annoying squared, he's immediately annoying to the power 10, because there are ten of him, and there's a little bit of business about, oh, Johnny Depp's dead, but he's in the underworld. All this stuff seems to exist purely to show off that fact that they have got a special effect that can turn a stone into a crab. Great, brilliant, marvellous, not enough to hang a feature film on but, hey, well done to the special effects guys.

Then they escape from the underworld that he got in to at the end of the last movie 'cos I think Kiera killed him, but I can't quite remember, there was something to do with a Kraken. But then they all get together and they say ok: off we go on the various plot strands again. And it's business as usual.

There's actually one line in this when somebody says "one person has the ninth piece of eight", which is just about as coherent as any form of plot synopsis gets. On the INDB trivia page, it says the most amazing thing about Pirates 3 is that they started filming without a completed script. No, they finished filming without a completed script, so they just ended up with like a montage of bits; a whole bunch of special effects; a little bit of him doing that, a little bit of everyone else, and they just stuck them together in any order. They didn't cut any of it out, just said there's 168 minutes, shove it out into the cinema and everyone will buy it because everyone has clearly had some kind of terrible joint lobotomy, so nobody any longer has the guts to stand up and say "this is absolutely terrible and what are we doing here? Actually, we should walk out of the cinema and go next door where they're showing 'Zodiac'".

However, Johnny Depp is the least of the problems. Let's start with Kiera Knightley. Clearly, Kiera Knightley's agent has been speaking to the scriptwriters and saying 'look it's fabulous, we're really pleased that Kiera's back in the movie again and obviously it's wonderful. The thing is, up until now she really has really been window-dressing and what we really think is that Kiera needs to sort of expand her role and why don't we make Kiera a pirate, because I think really she could pirates?

So, through the most ridiculous contrived plot device, Kiera Knightley actually ends up being king of all pirates in all the world, ever. So Kiera Knightley, King of the Pirates. This means that Kiera Knightley has to do two things: firstly, she has to do the pirate 'Yar-Harr-Harr', but of course when Kiera Knightley does it it's 'Yah, yahh, hello haar, haar har', then she has to do a rabble-rousing speech which is basically like that speech that Mel Gibson does in Braveheart about 'they can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom', only when Kiera Knightley does that speech, it basically sounds like the head girl addressing a convention of fifth-formers on prize-giving day at the end of term. So Kiera, disastrous: given more to do, messes it up dreadfully.

And then we have the magisterial talent of Orloondo Bland. Now, there has always been a problem with Orloondo, which is that very early on, the script had a relationship between the Kiera Knightley character and the Orloondo Bland character. Nobody at that point realised that the minute you got Orloondo Bland on screen, nobody would care what happened to him. He's so wet, he's so drippy, so completely ineffectual that nobody cares about him. So in the second one, there was this sort of attempt to make the Kiera Knightley character somehow interested in the Johnny Depp character, because everybody else in the audience, other than me, was interested in the Johnny Depp character and kind of didn't care what happened to Orloondo Bland. So this time, we have to take Orloondo Bland and take some kind of interest in him. Now he's acting this love interest against Kiera Knightley. Now Kiera Knightley's acting has always been wooden. This time it is like a petrified forest of woodenness, I mean you really feel like you could build a very nice piece of IKEA furniture out of her performance. It's that bad. And when she and Orloondo Bland are on screen together it's like watching two chairs mating, I mean there's a scene where they have to kiss, and it's like 'what is that? Is it a nest of tables?' No, it's Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knighley having some sort of red-hot passionate embrace that is positively teaky. You feel like you need to get out the varnish and varnish it. Now, I'm going to give away a plot point now. If you're going to sit through Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (and never was a film more accurately named), turn your ears away from the radio now:

'Cos there is a moment towards the end of this film in which it is contrived that Kiera Knightley can get married to Orlando Bloom, but she can only see him for one day in every ten years. I'm sorry, but if somebody made me that offer, I would take it right now. If somebody said to me if I marry Orlando Bloom you won't have to see him again for another 10 years: do you take this man? Yes absolutely; I would take him right now, if I only have to see him one day every 10 years, sign me up, because I don't think I can stand another moment of sitting there in the cinema watching this dribble-some bore waltz around like somebody out of a Milk Tray advert. What the…? How on earth has he become the prominent actor he has? I mean, he killed 'Kingdom of Heaven' stone dead and in this he's actually got worse than before.

And then… we have the mighty Johnny Depp performance. So Johnny Depp started off doing this performance as basically Keith Richards, although actually he wasn't really doing Keith Richards as far as I could tell, he seemed to be doing David Bowie around the period of the 'Laughing Gnome'. Everyone says 'oh, it's a great impression of Keith Richards', but it didn't, it sounded like David Bowie (as Bowie:)'Hello, I am the Pirate King Jack Sparrow''. That's not Keith Richards, that's David Bowie.

But the big gag with Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is – guess what – Keith Richards is actually going to turn up. So you sit there and you fall asleep, and you wake up, and you fall asleep, you stretch your back a little bit, you feel most of your lower body starting to go numb. Then about two hours of the way through, Keith Richards turns up. And here's how it goes: Keith Richards goes 'Hrrrr hrrrr', and Johnny Depp goes 'Hrrrr hrrrr' and then Keith Richards goes 'Hrrrr hrrrr'. If you thought Johnny Depp was bad at being Keith Richards, then you see Keith Richards trying to be Keith Richards. I mean there was a ripple of a sort of appreciation in the audience which, as far as I could tell, was entirely for the fact that Keith Richards was still alive. At all. But he's even worse at doing an on-screen Keith Richards than Johnny Depp is. And between them, there's this sort of this incredible in-joke: 'Oh, it's so funny - Up until now I've been doing Keith Richards, now here he actually is'. No, No. All of you. All of ... The Rolling Stones. Don't care. Go away. I never want to see the Rolling Stones. I don't ever want to see another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, despite the fact that at the end of this there is a door left open for there to be another one.

The whole thing goes on for ever. I added this up, right? First movie: 142 minutes, second movie: 150 minutes, this: 168 minutes. I make that the best part of 8 hours of my life. Stanley Kubrick went from the beginning of civilisation to the dawn of a new breed of human being in just over 2 hours. This has taken them 8 hours to get from Point A to Point A. It's enough. It has to stop now.

And, really, if you pay money to go and see Pirates of the Caribbean, it's your own fault, and you're bringing down the collapse of Western civilisation. And I had a feeling in my waters that actually Gore Verbinski was going to pull it out of the bag and do something that would make me have to say I am wrong, but, you know what? I am so right. I am so right. It is so bad.

==

Genius. Absolute genius.

I Love It (Yeah)

Friday again, and all I've got to do today is listen to the first day of the second Eng v WI Test. Cool.

This morning, I listened to a Vangelis opus, 'Fais Que Ton Reve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit', which is really a collage of ambient/environmental noises, but interesting nonetheless.

Following that, I opted for some 'Moments In Love' remixes by the Art of Noise and others. This is a really great piece of music. So simple.

Finally, Bob Marley 'Live at the Lyceum', just because it's great...

T - 4; M - 4; D -4. Bank Holiday weekend coming up, and I'll be seeing a few friends.

Thousand Yard Stare

Nothing much going on today, besides the good weather. I've been carrying round 'Catch 22' for days, but haven't even opened it. Too busy with my music and 'thousand yard stare'.

Last night's WtSiT was very good, the bit I heard. I couldn't listen to it last night, so down-loaded it and listened on my walk to the station and pre-tunnel Tube ride.

Thereafter:

Not Another - Jah Wobble,
Alone Again Or - Love,
Oxygene Part I - JMJ, still reminds me of a French field trip all those years ago,
Hamlet - William Shatner, from 'Spaced Out', a compilation with Leonard Nimoy. Utterly barmy,
Thorn In My Side - Eurythmics, one of my wife's, but I couldn't be bothered to skip ahead,
The Price of Admission - van der Graaf Generator, from Present,
Heartache Tonight - The Eagles,
A Song for the Lovers (live) - Richard Ashcroft, from a freebie 'Independent' CD,
Soldier's Poem - Muse,
Ogni Volta - Antonella Venditti,
19 - Paul Hardcastle (!),
City of Isabel - Vangelis.

Friday tomorrow. Friday tomorrow.

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 4

Was It Sun Through The Haze?

A beautiful sunny day and, what with several reasons to be cheerful (posted a good cv for a good job, something to do at work (for a change), good weather)

The Independent Code-breaker competition took an unexpected twist this morning, which completely threw my theory as to the final answer. Still, the article on Linnaeus was very interesting.

Memories of my youth this morning, as I listened to some recent downloads.

Chris de Burgh 'Spanish Train & Other Stories'. If anyone's been following this blog, then this may be a surprise, but, then again, given the eclectic nature of collection, maybe not. I first heard a track from this on the old Annie Nightingale Radio 1 show (I think), and went to my local record shop (mainly classical stuff with the grudging indulgence in 'pop' albums) to ask for 'Spanish Ghost Train'. One of my first records, bought when I was about 8 or 10 y-o.

Also, for the hell of it (and because my wife likes this kind of stuff): Nik Kershaw 'The Riddle'.

I reverted to type by finishing my commute with Fish's 'Field of Crows', which is, on balance, very good.

T -4; M - 4; D - 4

Glittering Prizes and Endless Compromises, Part II

They're at it again.

A big chunk of last night's Radcliffe/Maconie R2 show was spent discussing the weekend's Bafta results with some twittering non-entity. I really don't know why Radcliffe indulges this sort of toss, as he clearly isn't that bothered.

This programme has too much talk on it. Not just the Bafta crap, but in general. It's not often I get to listen to it these days, but when I do I'm less than impressed by the indie-kid playlist stuff and the 6th form-style 'I know x about y', 'ah, but did you know that y was z' stuff.

Having said that, last week's Oblique Strategies spot was very interesting...

Panda Pops

The neck pain's subsiding, although sitting on a Tube train for 1 hour doesn't help...

The new Panda Bear CD came yesterday. A very promising start, with Beach Boy-type harmonies, although these get a bit irritating after a while. Musically, it's very interesting, and I think Good Girl/Carrots is my favourite.

I just wish some of the vocals weren't quite so ethereal and impenetrable. I think I know what he's trying to do, that is add a 'wall of sound' dimension and use the chorus as another instrument, but a bit of variation (see GG/C) would be better, IMO.

Still, it's a very good CD. Very interesting use of tape loops and ambient/environmental noise. Some bits reminded me of GYBE!'s early stuff, or even >gasp< Jean-Michel Jarre's 'Zoolook'.

The rest of the commute, which was basically the bits in the tunnel, was spent with a recent Fish album 'Field of Crows', which I found to be a lot better than most of his albums. I think 'Raingods With Zippos' and 'Vigil...' are his best stuff, although RwZ is still patchy. 'FoC' is very good.

Pain In The Neck

Ho ho. Yes, I woke up with a really stiff neck, worse than the pain I've had for the last week or so, so a trip to the GP and a day off.

My 'Panda Bear' CD came, and I also downloaded a few things, so there may be a couple of reviews in the coming week's commute.

For now, though, that's it. Back to the cricket :-)

Friday

Thank god for that.

Random stuff today:

Where I Like to Stand - Vashti Bunyan
Duke's Travels - Genesis
I Lost My Head (demo) - Gentle Giant
The Memory Remains - Metallica
Crime of the Century - Supertramp
Vaiten Valvoin - Varttina
Rose Darling - Steely Dan
Greetings from a Dead Man - Eurythmics
Dr Abernathy - Scritti Politti
Afterswish - Ozric Tentacles
Social Disease - Elton John
Travelling the Great Circle - Ozric Tentacles

This has been a very depressing week...

T - 4; M - 4; D - 3

Danny Baker Ver4.8

Another one of those 'hang on in there' Podcasts, which is becoming a little tiresome.

He seems confident that a daily podcast will become available 'soon'. I think it's likely to be a subscription thing, which might be okay if the quality is maintained. Many of his shows have relied on phone-ins and bouncing off guests and other contributors, so it might prove difficult.

Give it a chance.

A Rush of Blood

More rain, but only 2 more days to the weekend.

I had the words of 'Red Lenses' by Rush running through my head this morning, for no apparent reason, so opted for a Rush-tastic mix:

Red Lenses, from Grace Under Pressure
Second Nature - Hold Your Fire
Presto - Presto
Alien Shore - Counterparts
Madrigal - A Farewell to Kings
Someting for Nothing - 2112
Cinderella Man - A Farewell to Kings
Turn The Page - Hold Your Fire
Subdivisions - Signals
Hand Over Fist - Presto
Faithless - Snakes and Arrows
Entre Nous - Permanent Waves
Emotion Detector - Power Windows
Manhattan Project - Power Windows

Rush are a very interesting band, constantly re-inventing their sound: from blues to prog to new(ish)-wave to indie-lite to rock to metal and all points in-between. I can listen to almost all their music, unlike, say, Yes, where the 90s stuff was fairly awful.

WtSiT, Wotsit

Over last night's commute home and a bit of this morning, I caught up with the 2 May 07 broadcast of 'Where's the Skill In That?'. Another excellent show, with a great and varied choice of music.

1 Half Cousin: Charity/The Absentee (3.58 + 2.24),
2 Two Bands & A Legend : Who The Fuck (2.33),
3 Julie Feeney: Wind Out Of My Sails / Fictitious Richard (2.41 + 3.25),
4 James Gordon Anderson : Radio (7.11),
5 Erik Truffaz : Miss Kaba (5.45),
6 Jamie Woon: Wayfaring Stranger (3.42),
7 John Vanderslice remixed by Scott Salter: Dear Sara Shu - Immersion (4.30),
8 Goro Yamaguchi: A Bell Ringing In The Empty Sky (15.18).

Track 4 really was a case of'Where's the Skill in That?' as it featured radio interviews over very minimalist soundscapes. Track 7 was also very interesting.

Then, for a bit of light relief, my 'Blues, Folk & Jazz' filter:

The Nightfly - Donald Fagen,
Gaslighting Abbie - Steely Dan,
Twelve More Bars to Go - Wayne Shorter,
In Liverpool - Suzanne Vega,
Auctioneers - Boo Hewerdine,
Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho - Medeski, Martin & Wood,
Anniversary - Suzanne Vega,
Homesick - Kings of Convenience,
Good Morning Anya - Jaco Pastorius,
Shower The People - James Taylor,
Walk Between the Raindrops - Donald Fagen.

T - 3; M - 4; D - 4

Caught in the Devil's Bargain

Tuesday. Only 4 more days to the weekend...

Rock, Prog and Rock/Pop:

Yet Another Movie/Round and Round - Pink Floyd. I like this album. It's not DSotM, and may have been written by committee, but it still works for me,
Horsell Common and the Heat Ray - Jeff Wayne. Marvellous stuff,
Over My Head - Fleetwood Mac,
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave, from a freebie CD with the Independent ages ago,
Crystal - more Fleetwood Mac,
Cry Baby - Janis Joplin,
About a Girl - Nirvana,
Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel,
The Sighting - Pekka Pohjola,
Start - Peter Gabriel,
The Wrong Child - REM,
Rudy - Supertramp,
High Hopes - Pink FLoyd,
You Never Arrived - Midlake,
then, on the back of hearing 'Woodstock' (albeit the Matthew's Southern Comfort version) on the Radcliffe/Maconie R2 show last night:
Wooden Ships - CSN,
Woodstock - CSN,
Woodstock - Joni Mitchell.

The Radcliffe/Maconie show is okay, but a) it's way to early, c) there's too much playlist music and c) there's too much talk. I rarely get to listen to it live, and when I do the 'Listen Again' thing I find myself skipping forward far too frequently.

Finally, to the prick who tried to get on the train before I got off and, after deciding that he would struggle to go through me, just stood there in the way: you're a cock.

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 2

Beaubourg

A great, if rather wet, weekend, to be followed by more nonsense at the workplace. My line manager asked me if I was 'happy' last week...

Mark Kermode's entertaining (if increasingly self-indulgent) film reviews this morning, followed by a re-appraisal of an album I haven't heard for years: Vangelis' 'Beaubourg'.

I bought this LP about 20 years from a second-hand record shop near my University, and it formed part of my 30-LP collection of Vangelis records, which now runs to about 50 LPs and CDs. I've only ever listened to it on my turntable, at home, alone, and found it hard work, to say the least. Electronic noise, no cohesion, about as far from the 'Chariots of Fire' stuff as you could get. It's been described as a 'contractual obligation' record by many reviewers, although Vangelis himself says it was a serious, composed piece of work intended as a sort of 'installation art' of the kind Brian Eno occasionally goes in for.

This morning, though, as I was listening to the MP3s on my iPod, it came across as a very intersting piece of ambient experimentation. The abrasiveness of some of the sounds seemed to have worn off and the effect was much more pleasant than I'd remembered. Perhaps it was the effect of the Tube's background noise, or maybe it was my anticipation at hearing it again, I don't know.

T - 4; M - 4; D - 3

1997-2007

Plenty of opinion on the out-going Prime Minister today, including my 'paper of choice, The Independent. I don't want this blog to be Political, as my first love is music. I'll leave that to others.

My view of the last 10 years is coloured by my up-bringing in Yorkshire, and seeing the brutal running-down of the mines, the hospitals, the transport system, all for the pursuit of a quick buck. Brutality was the word.

When I first moved Southwards, I made friends, many of whom struggled with mortgage rates of 15% while struggling with negative equity and all the associated stress.

3.5 million unemployed.
Sleaze beyond anything currently being alleged.
Schools and hospitals being run from crumbling buildings and Portakabins.
Two deep recessions, with just a brutal attitude to those affected.
Privatisations which benefitted friends and relations of those responsible and a destruction of any kind of communal, societal empathy.

No, sorry, this is much much better. As for Iraq, although I consider myself a pacifist, I also believe that there is a time for pragmatism. I was balanced towards intervention, and remain so, so don't whine to me about the UN, France and Hans Blix and all the pre-invasion pantomime.

He will be missed.

Spinning In A Dizzy Haze

After all the attempts at CD reviews (Marillion, Rush, Porcupine Tree), a return to a shuffle playlist. 'Shuffle All':

There Goes A Tenner - Kate Bush,
Voyage - Pino Scagliarini, from a 'New Age' compilation CD given to me. I usually avoid these like the plague, but this track's okay,
Day of Days - Jon Anderson, from the 3 Ships LP, recently given to me as a CD-R. Hippy-trippy Christian stuff, much as expected. A christmas album,
Moving Force - Robert Fripp String Quartet. Splendid as ever,
Behind the Wall - Tracy Chapman,
On Being Blue - The Art of Noise. The Claude Debussy album was good in parts, but a bit pretentious,
An Empty Box - Porcupine Tree. I keep seeing the Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape CD on offer for £50+, so can rest in my smug self-satisfaction that I got my copy for £3.50. Brand New.
Open Your Eyes - Yes. I can only listen to one track at a time from this album or I start crying,
Tempe - His Name is Alive,
Never Be Mine - Kate Bush,
Winter Is Gone - Nich Drake, from a compilation of demoes. Ignore the tape hiss and relish the genius,
Kiss Me - Average White Band,
He Pep! - The Fall, from the Peel Sessions Box Set,
Boom Bang a Bang - Lulu, from a compilation of music from 1969. I think this was a Eurovision song, which is quite appropriate. I remember going to a (Portuguese) friend's barbecue a few years back, wherein a load of people (80%+) suddenly vacated the garden. We found them in front of the telly watching Eurovision Song Contest, and they didn't move for three hours. Rather buggered up the party...
Blemish (Remix) - David Sylvian,
Channel One Dub - Linval Thompson,
High Hopes - Pink Floyd,
Shake-Off - The Fall, more Peel Sessions,
She's a Carnival - Siouxsie and the Banshees. I had this on cassette and played it over and over again until it unravelled itself. Great album,
Smile Dub - Niney & The Soul Syndicate,
Into the Rainbow Vein - Boards of Canada.

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 4

Inductive Resonance

Apparently, last night's 'Where's The Skill In That' on Resonance FM was a repeat of one from a month ago, rather than the intended one. I was so tired (again) last night that I chose to miss it and download the programme from here. Good move, as it turns out.

1 Socalled: Let’s Get Wet (3.15)
2 Bob Frank & John Murry : Little Wiley Harpe, 1803 (4.30)
3 Play Station 6: Misty (2.40)
4 Freeze Puppy : EP for ‘Where’s The Skill In That?’ (6.10)
5 Fennesz/Sakamoto : Mono (4.02)
6 Lucy Over Lancashire: Parts 1-4 (8mins ish)
7 A Hawk And A Hacksaw: Zozobra (3.59)
8 Safetyword: Walpurgisnacht / Milk Of Words (3.58 + 2.30)
9 Adjagas: Lihkolas (4.11)

The Lucy Over Lancashire track was particularly interesting, but it all worked well, and put me in a good mood to face another day of doing nothing much.

Somewhere Else Revisited

After the Rush CD, I re-visited the Marillion CD to complete my morning commute.

There is something seriously wrong with the production on this CD. Either that, or I made an error when I ripped it to AAC. It sounds muddy and to closed-in. The cymbals are really splashy, and I cannot listen to this on my iPod.

My initial thoughts seem to be about right. I don't think this is a good album. A couple of tracks are great, but many more are just whining and too laid-back.

5 or 6 out of 10. It pains me to say this, it really does.

Snakes and Arrows Full Review

OK, finally, my reasonably-well thought-out review of Rush's 'Snakes and Arrows'.

This album deals extensively with the perceived dangers of organised religion and its effects on free-thinking. It's occasionally a bit long-winded, but I think it gets away with it. I have a problem with the double-tracked vocals, which are used excessively.

It's got much better production than the previous studio album 'Vapor Trails', though, which I didn't like at all...

'Far Cry' - great opener, great single. Not sure which phase of Rush it reminds me of the most, but it's excellent. Strong bass and drums, with some very familiar guitar chords interspersed. Excellent.
'Armor and Sword', an interesting track about how things told to children to protect them (god, heaven, etc) can have serious repercussions in adult life if unchallenged. 'No one gets to heaven without a fight'. Great line...
'Working them Angels'. Good enough, but too same-y to the previous songs in feel. There's some good acoustic guitar, though.
'The Larger Bowl'. A jangly pop song, which provides a bit of respite, but it doesn't do much for me, I'm afraid. That 'such a lot of pain...' line is a bit trite.
'Spindrift' - I think I like this, although I'm still undecided. More layers of distorted guitar and multi-tracked vocals, but it has a good gtr solo bit at the end.
'The Main Monkey Business' is the first of the instrumentals, and it's excellent. The bass almost takes the main line and there's a tricksy 7/8 thing going on just to keep you on your toes. Very good.
'The Way the Wind Blows' starts off as a dirty blues song, but develops into a prog-ish epic. A nice take on the problems of organised religion, if a little depressing in its conclusions. Nice, crunchy gtr solo in a dirty blues section.
'Hope' is another instrumental, featuring Alex Lifeson. Nice.
'Faithless', another anti-religion thing. Starting to get a bit tiresome, now, however well-meaning it may be. Nice bass-line, though, and less of the vocal overlay thing.
'Bravest Face'. 'Though we might have precious little, it's still precious'; Genius wordplay or trite nonsense? It's starting to drift back to the 'Vapor Trail' sound again with lots of distorted guitars.
'Good News First'. It seems to remind me of Power Windows-era stuff, but I'm not really sure why - perhaps it's the 'but I do' middle eight. Take it or leave it, really; not particularly engaging, although the gtr solo is pleasant enough.
'Malignant Narcissism', a great instrumental. Powerful, interesting and not over-long
'We Hold On'. An odd choice of final track, I think. When I first read the lyrics, I thought this'd be more of a ballad, but, no, it's a straightforward 'Test for Echo'-era rock song, which just comes and goes.

All in all, some of the initial gloss on first listen has been removed, although I still rate it towards the 7.5 - 8 out of 10 range. Perhaps if a couple of tracks were removed (The Larger Bowl? Faithless?)

Every Home is Weird

A good Bank Holiday, spent with family. It's only one day, but it makes a huge difference.

The Danny Baker Podcast (#4.7) was a short 'hang on in there' message, which was a bit silly. Either do it or don't. My guess is that he hasn't got the time or energy to do this and his BBC London show. My iTunes will remain tied to the updates for now, but this is a bit poor. (OK, he owes me nothing, I know).

The Mark Kermode podcast to start things off this morning, then a re-appraisal of the Porcupine Tree CD 'Fear of a Blank Planet':

I still rate this very highly, although my mild dislike of the '30-odd year-old man singing from the perspective of a tenager' remains. Take the best bits from Deadwing's 'Arriving Somewhere...' and stretch them out over 50 minutes with a concept to pin them on, and you have a pretty good idea of what this album's about.

The first song is a good opener, if unrepresentative of the album as a whole. Crunchy guitars, and distorted vocals. It might be a bit long, but it does keep re-inventing itself with new riffs and changes of soundscape.

'My Ashes' is a co-composition between SW and Richard Barbieri, and it shows. It still reminds me of 'Wake As Gun'. A pleasant vibe, but the orchestra probably detracts from it, for me.

The magnum opus: Anesthetize - Good start with some great drumming, joined by a good bass part. A muted guitar solo, presumable Alex Lifeson, from the liner notes, although I'm not sure. At 5 minutes in, it reminds me very much of a bit in 'Welcome to the PleasureDome' or 'Two Tribes' by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and it's used for a very similar reason - a bridge before a change in mood. Very very similar. I am getting to like this track more and more as time passes, and the ending is definitely growing on me.

Sentimental: 'Never want to be old, and I don't want dependants...' Dependants???! Nice chorus, if one doesn't mind the preachy lyrics. Not preachy, more patronising. I don't know. Just a bit annoying. Good music, though, with a nice acoustic guitar bit with piano.

Way Out of Here: A group composition, and some really nice bass/drum parts. Hangs together really well, I think. A great guitar solo, too. This reminds me a lot of earlier PT work, particularly around 'Signify'.

'Sleep Together' rounds the album of in a great way, as is usually the case with PT albums. Beautiful, hypnotic, with a crunching vocal part on the chorus. Very effective. Sounds a bit like 'Kashmir' in parts, perhaps.

8.5/10 all in all. Buy it.

Headphone Dust

My headphones are making my ears sweat. Bizarre. They also cut me off too much from the world around me, so listening this morning was restricted to the new Porcupine Tree album.

Very good. However, two things irritate me:

1) The distorted vocals, particularly that 'as if heard through a radio' thing. Used too frequently on recent albums, and repeated here,

2) A thirty-something man (/men) singing as if from the perspective of tennagers. I think I can see their point, but it doesn't quite work for me. Kind of like putting words in my mouth.

Musically, though, it's very strong and very interesting.

Danny Baker's Podcast "Ver 4.7" is apparently out, but I can't download it. There's apparently some important announcement (charging for future episodes?), but I can't get it...

My Head in the Clouds and I’m Zoning Out

The new PT album is excellent, probably the best since 'Signify'.

The whole thing hangs together well. My favourite is probably the long 'Anesthetize' track; I'm still not sure about the transition between the second and third parts, but it's not a problem.

Colin Edwin has some really great bass parts - compare this with the latest Marillion, where the bass is just root notes and way down in the mix. The drumming is superb, most of all it's interesting. Richard Barbieri's keyboards contribute a beautiful back-drop. Steve Wilson's guitar moves between overdrive and delicate solos, while his multi-tracked vocals are extremely effective.

Of my recent purchases, this is probably my favourite.

Fears of a Blank Planet

A pleasant surprise when I got home last night - CD-WOW finally came through with the new Porcupine Tree CD 'Fear of a Blank Planet', so the intended 'final' verdict on 'Snakes and Arrows' (and maybe also Marillion's 'Somewhere Else') will have to wait a bit longer...

Fear of a Blank Planet - heavy, in the style of recent albums, but it also reminded me of 'Hallogallo' from a long time ago. Nice chorus, but I'm not sure about the layers of distorted guitars.
My Ashes - reminds me a lot of 'Wake As Gun'
Anesthetize - long, and generally excellent, but the ending seems out of place,
Sentimental - another brooding dark track
Way Out Of Here - Robert Fripp contributes a swirling soundscape backdrop,
Sleep Together - superb ending

Also, I've just recorded the Bruce Dickinson interview/session with SW/PT. Excellent stuff, and Steve Wilson obviously has a dry sense of humour.

In-depth review to follow, probably/possibly alongside Marillion and Rush, when I get more used to it. A work in progress over the Bank Holiday, perhaps.

On the downside, my earphones gave up the ghost, so I'll either go to my Sennheisers or buy replacement in-ear ones.

Snakes and Arrows Part Two

A commute devoted to the new Rush album.

I think the latter half is better, as it looks to have more variety, but this is a strong album.

The first track is an excellent opener, but then the next three tracks pass by in a maelstrom of guitar washes and too many lyrics. Spindrift marks the turning point for me. Here on in, there are instrumentals, acoustic guitar, soaring bass runs, guitar solos and an amalgamation of past Rush trademarks...

Still at 8/10, although it deserves one more listen before my final verdict.

The Marillion CD, 'Somewhere Else', has unfortunately dropped from 7/10 to about 6 - 6.5 in my estimation.

The new Samadhisound (David Sylvian etc.) Podcast has just been released and I'll give it a listen on the way home...