Monday 30 November 2009

Martini On Ze Go

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In one of my earlier posts i disagreed with Lydon and Pop endorsing butter and car insurance but this is something else. Serge stepping in for martini and other publicty bits is fucking fantastic, i've not seen any footage that accompanies these recordings but can only imagine. Silky smooth. Here are the download links. Enjoy..

http://www.divshare.com/download/9543246-d90

http://www.divshare.com/download/9543247-60a

http://www.divshare.com/download/9543248-ab6

http://www.divshare.com/download/9543249-9d5

http://www.divshare.com/download/9543250-3d3

Sunday 29 November 2009

Polish Flea market

When s.c.u.m did a tour of poland last winter we were told about a flea market round the corner from our hotel in Krakow. The skies over poland were bleak and the morning was absolutely frozen. The first sign we saw of street sellers i went storming in losing everyone. It was snowing hard and the product splaid out on the wide alley was getting soaked, they didnt care much. Reminded me of east street on a saturday, loads of rubbish and a lot of shouting. I got to the end of the alley and there was the most amazing little grotto, occupied by an eighty something year old woman, fag hanging out of her mouth reading a book. This grotto was wall to wall of books, the ceiling was leaking a bit and there were book sleeves in tatters all over the place. I started rummaging around and started to find this great set of books.

I bought a few others that weren't from this series so i think i probably bought about 25 books in all for 10 zlotych which i think works out at around 3 quid. Fucking bargain. I was reading passages from the books looking at the covers for hours on our way back to warsaw (and seeing who could stick there head out of the window the longest) ....

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I've been trying to find information about these books on the internet, or even pictures, not much luck. If you know anything get in touch the publishers are called 'zapamietaj ten znak'.. later on, relieved, i found Tom in the actual market with ten bags full of stuff. Antlers, trousers, strange instruments and an old doctors bag for not much more than i paid! Both our hands were blue, so we went into the supermarket for a bit.

Friday 27 November 2009

Track of the Week #1

Petalouda - What Can You Do In Your Life?

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From the Psych Funk 101 compilation, acid drenched fuzzed out funky greek psychedelia with the deepest darkest groove. What a vocal! this song makes me go weak at the knees.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZXCCMA9J

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Christine 23 Onna

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Christine 23 Onna, what can i say? You need to hear this. The genius of noisician Yamazaki Maso widely known as masonna, one of the coolest cats on the japanese scene for well over twenty odd years and Toda Fusao of Angel'in Heavy Syrup...

I recently picked up two cdr's from a shop in notting hill by the band, entitled 'Shiny Crystal Planet and Acid Eater'. On first listen i couldn't make sense of the fact that these albums actually came out in early two thousands. The tracks are groovy as hell with the most demonic fuzz, throbbing synthesized landscapes and In true japanese style some intense spacey echo effects. Both albums are completely instrumental, the synthesizer playing is fucking next to none and they look so cool. They sound pretty dissimilar to a lot of bands that have come out of japan in the past 50 years and a lot more like an italian or french soundtrack from the late sixties, early seventies. The tracks all collide into one another so well, making it so hard to play just one song to your friends. I can't stress how good some of the synthesizer bits are on these albums, air synthesizer will be massive in a year or two just you wait.

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I will be getting this all pressed up because i can't find a trace of the vinyl copies anywhere and this shit needs to be played everywhere.

Here is a link to the ACID EATER album, my preferred album via the celiosom blogspot

http://rapidshare.com/files/290784835/Christine_23_Onna_-__Acid_Eater.rar

And here is a link to the SHINY CRYSTAL PLANET album via the terror noise audio blogspot

http://www.mediafire.com/?bsrmcvr5u5b

Taj Mahal Travellers Film

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Here is a link to the Matsuo Ohno film footage of the Taj Mahal Travellers, most of it i think is shot on super 8 so it's bound to look incredible when a bunch of japanese psyched up long hairs invade scandinavia and europe. Nothing particular happens in this film, no outrageous parties or Jonestown like antics, just fucking strange performances and amazing footage of one of the most creative and intense bands to come out of the japanese rock n roll scene. It's fun to have on as something in the background at parties or just to relax and watch...

http://www.ubu.com/film/taj.html

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Thursday 19 November 2009

Clash Trainer

the company i work for, recently were asked to curate a fanzine for UK Punk high flyers The Clash. I was asked to write a passage and send it over to the board at converse, i sent my initial draft to my boss and he without checking it over sent it straight on to them. I went on tour and have arrived at work today, and realised we have been sacked from the project, here was my input into the fanzine.

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"My argument on the clash is, that the clash is relevant to our generation in the way that we were brought up listening to this by our parents and often enough our balding secondary school teachers who were there and witnessed first hand the effect they had and can tell you in great great detail what a profound influence they had on them and how ‘music would be nothing without them’. But with that strong well supported preached opinion, comes the burden of something being over played, over appreciated and for me in particular over looked. Like the Beatles and the stones I was told I had to like them, I’ve seen the aftermath of stupid old bastards singing the same shit over and over being honored left right and centre, a snorted dad and a baker street shop, that I got into the pretty things and the Fall and went in search for something I hadn’t heard before. In a time when we are exposed to catalogues of music on the click of a button, we’re always trying to discover more, so when something is shoved down your throat you immediately feel repulsed by the subject and you go looking for what is not directly in front of your eyes and the clash were one of those things unfortunately. In my opinion you have to develop a unique connection with a band of undoubted influence and prestige so that appreciation of a band goes past who their fans are and goes past the 50,000 x 50,000 mile queue that follows close behind and really listen to the music in a way it was intended to be heard. Like Elvis and The Fall both said 50,000 Elvis/Fall fans can’t be wrong. So what’s the point of arguing with that? You either like it or you’ve just been preached to and not lovingly introduced to for so long you forgot they existed. Preached to about a god you may have liked given half the chance. I like the clash but big fucking deal. Love the unloved and find the unfound, the fact there is a trainer being made about them and not fucking Miles Davis or the fall says it all. The clash do not epitomize for me and a lot of my generation the feeling of youth and rebellion, they epitomize our mums and dads youth and a rebellion against an England which works and exists in a very different way now. Punk rock no longer is the sound of rebellion but an amazing look back into what music and England has gone through in the past 40 years. This is our white riot only more like a generational version, we want a riot of our own, but how can we do that when we’re wearing shoes plastered with the idea and a concept of a band we don’t understand. Put these trainers on your mantle piece or buy them for your kids, buy into something that has no fucking relevance to the band you love."

This is good though...

Desmond Leslie

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Recently i got in contact with the nephew of the Avant garde composer Desmond Leslie to ask him about his uncle's past in the royal air force, i had heard a story from my dad but wasnt sure. Here is the response he sent me when i asked him if it was actually true. .

"He trained secretly in Florida with the rest of the cadets when the US joined the war, so he effectively missed the battle of britain.

However, his stories were mainly funny in nature.

He faked footage of flying through a railway tunnel, by zooming in on a lightbulb through a drainpipe on a super 8 camera, and cut this in with his own footage - playing it back proudly to his peers who caught him when the noticed the splices on the film.

He also found a layer in the sky in which his Spitfire caused vapor trails - at which time he attempted to write FUCK in the sky hundreds of feet across, but only managed the first 3 letters before the smoke turned black and he had to land, his ranking officer remarked "Leslie your a Cunt".

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He borrowed a friends Hurricane and nose dived it from several thousand feet, to illustrate its inferiority to the spitfire, the Hurricane was torn apart by the inertial forces and he bailed out, crashing the plane. He thought he proved his point.

He drove a spitfire down a country lane in Yorkshire and was reduced to no flying duties for a month.

Desmond also came across a experimental classified Mosquito bomber (two engined planes were regarded as Buses next to the zippy one engine fighters) He put his two fingers up and screamed away - intending to leave them in his dust - but sure enough they were right at his side, he tapped his speed gauge - and at full throttle gave them a puzzled look before they put their two fingers up and took off at twice his speed leaving him confused in their wake...

He eventually resigned from the Airforce remarking after successfully destroying a great deal of fighter aircraft, much of it his own - that the war effort would be cheaper with out-him....

thats about all i can remember...

let me know if you want other information.

Sincerely

Luke Leslie "


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You can find all about the musical side of Leslie from a Trunk records reissue or here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1327100/Desmond-Leslie.html. My mum actually picked up an original copy of his Music Concrete LP Music Of The Future from my grandads house as a present for me. I never listened to music concrete once until my dad heard i had a copy and told me what an influence it was on him and his own music. You can here bits of it have been sampled on avant hard. The actual sleeve i have of Music Concrete is hand painted and the vinyl is thick as fuck. I'll upload a scan of it soon, some of the stories behind his songs are marvellous. Very similar in his workings to Joe Meek's early project with the blue men 'I hear a new world' E.P only without the pop rhythms. Brilliant Electronics.

Most people may know leslie as this fellow



If you like him that much you can go and stay in his castle, have a look

http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/haunted178.html

fucking brilliant. Any takers?

Monday 2 November 2009

Berlin Signal



We've just done our Paris Signal so this Berlin Signal is being put out... We had a lot of fun recording this series.

Korositai Kimochi

Here is a review that i wrote for my friend adham's fanzine called the URA ZINE,

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Welcome to the cross kings, the basement dwelling of the Psychedelic Far East for the night. No lights are on except limited colored lights on the floor stage and a light illuminating a corner of the room marked with satanic graffiti. Ghost’s ‘Hypnotic Underworld’ is being played back to back and back again, bringing with it an atmosphere felt by myself and the two bands playing before and a few curious on lookers. Four young men with hair down to their waists (almost) take to the stage and begin, you can barely see a thing but you can hear the bouncing echo of the guitars ringing back and forth. That feeling in the air before a big storm, an almost static electronic pulse, an invisible atmosphere that keeps you routed in suspense, it’s on it’s way, you can feel it.

“Hello we are Bo Ningen, we thank you very much for coming”

(Silence)

A whirlwind of sound… Taigen amidst the rubbles of the awe struck crowd and the sudden crashing and colliding maze of fuzzed out guitars, like a voodoo cursed conductor, he leads his fucked up symphony to what seems a beautiful maze of noise. His hands shake in a wild sequence of contorted movements as he silently introduces his members which include Guitar number one Yuki Tsuji, guitar number two Kohhei Matsuda and finally Mon-chan the brutal backbone of the band.

Bo Ningen play with such fierce determination and such gut busting precision that it feels as if they’ve always been around. Nothing about this band is forged from the past; they are a complete separate entity. They play rock n roll through and through with a sense of humor, picking upon the anthem like riffs of the late sixties early seventies psychedelic scene filtering them through the experimental dirge of the japanoise revolution leaving the P.A to fry for the next band to dare play after them. As good as they are live they haven’t projected in my opinion a parallel on record*****, but at the same time why should they? And also this is only the beginning of what is to come. Their live performance is encapsulating, a sonic destruction a lot of people won’t understand or won’t want to understand, a true embodiment of there talent and lust for making noises and sounds is often impossible to put onto record. So critics hold your words.

Something that makes this band stand out is whether you like the music or not you will be inspired to start a band, collect music that they admire or at least want to look like them. Bo Ningen have a thing a lot of bands do not, a hypnotic presence which goes past the way they look, it’s the sound they project. An intense noise force designed for them and only them at that present moment. You the audience come second. It just so happens they know you’re there, so sporadic creation and blinding performance is imminent. They’ve stormed into London with a swagger that can’t for now be matched.

This music is the awful premonition that the pastors of fifties America proclaimed would behold the world and be it’s very downfall, if we fell for the charms of rock and roll. Well this is what they dreamt and we fell for it. Insane sound levels, chord structures unheard of for a long time, the snarling attitude that Japanese rock music adopted when the flower travellin’ boys sped butt naked poised for stardom on the road going ‘Anywhere’. It just so happens that these boys are driving harder and faster and intent on sticking around until we get the picture. All Hail The Stick men that are Bo Ningen.

**** Bo Ningen have a single release on the 7th Of December which is fucking brilliant, this review was written a while ago. Well done boys. S.C.U.M will be playing there single launch so come down!

Tour Van

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As S.c.u.m are starting tour with the horrors tomorrow (!) , i've not packed my bag but i have decided what i'm going to read when the vans asleep and i cant, what i can listen to when in the middle of Denmark and we've overplayed the BJM and Our Phil Good is out of Phil Good Tapes.. So I thought i'd share with you what i'm going to be reading and listening to in the next 2 weeks...

What i'll be listening to...Recently we took a trip to Milan to do a gig for a festival called Bats Over Milan. I only realised when we got there that we'd be supporting Section 25 and The Fall. An adequate laxative. We barely had a soundcheck and we popped out and went and ate some ugly pizza and walked around the San Siro. When we got back the venue was empty so we subsequently ended up playing to 15 people. Backstage we sat in for the most part of the evening talking about all kindsa shit until we heard a familiar voice on stage. The fall had started. We watched the whole gig from behind the drummer, played nothing we recognised but everything was recieved with goosebumps in part when he'd come up and remove the kick drum mic or turn the bass amp off.

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Overjoyed after the gig tom and i went into their dressing room and introduced ourselves to his wife and said we admired her synthesizer and mark e had us kicked out by his skinhead bass player with a good riddance kids on the way out. Completely overwhelmed and really excited, the fall impressions came out and sent the rest of the band to bed for the rest of the night. When back in England i realised how little of the fall i actually knew, other than the collective 50, 000 fall fans can't be wrong. I went and bought bend sinister from soho and this 10 inch 'Slates'. What a record! i sat in my room mouth wide open for the whole duration of the first and second side.

My first love of music was through British Punk, i went into the dying Minus Zeros record shop recently and spoke with the Left Bill about the first few times i came in and rinsed repeatedly the punk box behind the counter, endless days off school trawling through strange band shot sleeves and slimey, snotty, two fingers up nazi saluting, snivelling shit hundred pound out of reach singles spending lunch money i'd managed to save (what a horrible shame the best record shop in london will become a fucking l'occitane or a pound tat shop). Honestly go there before they shut in april you won't regret it don't leave it too late

MINUS ZERO 2 Blenheim Crescent London W11 1NN UK Tel/Fax: (020) 7229 5424 Fri,Sat only 10.00-6.00pm

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But back to the fall, i've never felt this strongly about a punk record, every song to the uninspiring drab music fan may sound like monotonous fall back catalogue, but to me, it has been everything i've been looking for in a Punk record. My favourite fall is the peel sessions and the really rough recording they present in the early stuff although the introduction of the 'blinky blonky space invaders' through out their career is as good and filled with the same creativity, dry humour, bitterness and spontanaiety as the first few fall albums like this... (Jules holland is a wanker)





fucking brilliant, fuck jools holland. A friend of mine told me that the fall actually had it written into there contract that the fall would appear if Jools Holland didn't play Boogy Woogy Piano with them. excellent

But what is so fascinating about Slates is it's energy and often quite disconcerting strange sounds that suits the voice of Smith so well. I mean in 1981 music had changed a lot to the original sound of 'Punk rock music' and it had taken brilliant new influences and gone places of profound influence so perhaps the fall were living on with the same sound they had had since '76... Bollocks, that's the beauty of it, it's an uncompromising aural biography of Mark E Smith and the many members who have stood behind him from '76 to today. Most people either love it or hate it, but it's your fault if you take notice of it and don't like it and have to tell everyone your ignorant opinion on them, so shaddap... i fucking bet you dj totally wired don't you.


Mark E in the red corner



and whatshisface in the blue corner



P.s how many of you actually forgot you were watching the football scores and thought you were listening to the fall, i certainly did

Here is a link for downloading slates via http://rarepunk.blogspot.com/2007/11/fall-slates.html Buy the 10 inch on ebay it's only 20 quid and it's on rough trade!
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Love this record, This'll be a 3 in the morning job riding across Scandanavian Countryside!


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For what i will be reading

The other day i picked up a great paperback book in the post, it was a brilliant copy of one of my favourite films Saturday Night Sunday Morning. Recently I've been keeping log of all films i've been watching and writing small bits on what i liked about them, and i've found i can't write about film at all, i just find it visually exciting and can't articulate what i feel very well at all. So this will remain a music blog... Usually i can't read anything, i start a book a day and most often than not i dont pass the travelling chapter which is the bus to rehearsals. I got collecting paperback books from my old man, our house when i was younger was either filled with old sixties and seventies paperbacks or furniture he'd picked up from around Camberwell, so i naturally became really interested in a lot of it. He'd also written the beginning of what i thought was a really fascinating book on the subject that i found under my bed when i was clearing out my room, i'll publish it one day, some how but That's what got me into collecting them and this is what will probably end up under the seat or in a hostel in Aarhus. (i tried to find a picture of the book but the one i have isnt on google images and i dont have a scanner)...

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