The Afterword

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ATM – Google Play RIP. What next?

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Probably there aren’t many on here who have used the upload function of Google Play, but it has been a useful tool, letting me listen to my own music without ad breaks across different devices wherever there’s an internet connection, without lugging around a terabyte hard drive and plugging it in.

Now Google have decided to junk it. I’ve done what they suggested and transferred my files and playlists to YouTube Music. But the functionality is shite. Lists instead of icons, no way to download my music and no way to edit the files online. All of which Google Play allowed.

Apparently we’re all streaming now anyway. But that means a monthly sub or adverts every 30 minutes.

Are they any suggestions for alternatives?

Thank you!

Bovril songs

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Working our way through the rich, dark sauces and spreads, Bovril stands for dark, rich, meaty songs – pungent and penetrating barry-tones salivating deep into your sensory organs, bass notes that thud and reverberate through your skull and pulse into your core.

In this long hot, sweltering season*, what better to kick off this mucky, beefy, aromatic thread than Barry’s first song?

*I’m so hemispherist, sorry)

Colombian music

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I don’t think there’s been a thread on Colombian music until now. There have been references to Quantic, who spent 7 years in the country, and I’ve really enjoyed those tracks of his I’ve heard. But a few weeks ago, I started using one song on my cheap mobile as a way into random play – SIn Oficio by Systema Solar. At first, I just thought it was, you know, Latin. But the more I heard it, and absorbed the sounds, the more impressed I got. Snatches of street scenes, traditional folk and modern beats and record scratching – the sort of magpie musical pleasure I have got in the past from Manu Chao, Alabama 3, and other genre-crossing acts.

Then I watched the video, and then others by the same band – a Colombian collective that freely mixes hip-hop, rap, and techno with Cumbia, Afro-Caribbean, champeta, bullerengue (apparently). Knowing nothing of any of these latter genres, I wikied Colombian music – over 100 separate genres of music. Who knew?

More to the point, are there other Colombian musicians like Systema Solar? Well, yes and no – a few late nights researching and I came up with Chocquibtown (closest), » Continue Reading.

3 words – musical locating

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Here’s something trivial to distract from the woeful world of Whitehall and Westminster.

Podicle’s post about 3 words identifying every location in the world focused an idea that’s been circulating in my head about band/artist identity: Is it possible to identify/create a shorthand for any musician(s) using three words?

It’s inevitably going to be a low res assessment or thumbnail sketch of what could be decades of musical creativity, but as an exercise in making me think about the music I love, I find it intriguing, Can I find three pithy descriptors that at least identify key elements? Can it help me to understand what I like in the sounds I resonate to?

I invite you to take this as lightly or as deeply as you choose. A scurry across the keyboard or a heartfelt haiku. As a suggestion, maybe one word for each of music, lyrics and character. but as you can see from my first attempts, that doesn’t always apply.

    Beatles: Love.drugs.yeah Stones: Sex.drugs.lips Led Zep: Sex.elves.drums Joy Division: Despair.entrapment,bass Gorillaz: Cartoon.collaboration,rhythm

Black coffee music, please

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This is a request to help me find the magical elixir – music that swings hard, that is tight as a drum and hard as a brick, turns on a dime and lands a punch, slips away for an eternity then returns on beat to deliver a knockout blow. POW!!!

Anything drawn from your plentiful archives that is uneasy dance music.

Do ya like Dua Lipa? New Rules?

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When people send videos my way, I tend to watch them, even dutifully following Tig’s 6 listen rule. Recently, that’s had me drawing my sorry lugs through obscure tracks by the Stranglers, the Smithereens, Be Bop Deluxe, to which I couldn’t muster much more than a ho-hum response, marginally improved on repeat play.

Then I played ‘New Rules’, and I instantly got it. It was delightful, confident, playful, clever and immediately appealing. No wonder it seems to have gathered more than 2 billion plays on YouTube. That was earlier today. Since then I’ve played most of her discography – all catchy as hell and fun.

I’m so far behind the curve I’m practically stationery. But even paper goods can have an impression made on them. I checked the site archives and there are a grand total of 3 mentions of her – so maybe she isn’t natural AW territory. But does anyone else like what they hear?

And, are there any other songs/artists that had instant appeal for you?

Warm up to Chill Out

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Those like me who have a soft spot for the Chill Out album might enjoy this Pitchfork revisiting. What I like about reviews of things I know and like is not the repeating of history I’m already familiar with, but additions to the culture around it – making me rethink, in some aspect, what I thought before.

In this case, it’s the tribute remix that is referenced in the article. I’ve listened to about half of it so far, and there’s a bit towards the middle where it emerges from its paint-by-numbers echoing of the original into something weird and original.

What do you think?

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-klf-chill-out/

it’s music, not an exam test

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Thanks to @blueboy for this quote from his comment on the Astral Weeks thread*

But if it were an exam test, what would be the questions you would set? Please think broadly – whether it’s to mark out civilian/combatant (?) status, discover remarkable facts about AWers, work out what genres are popular, find out ‘Who The Hell Does XX Think He/She is’, or learn answers to the following: “Does your mother play golf?”, “When you go to bed at night, do you tuck your beard inside or outside the covers?”, “Can you bite your own toenails?” Please write your name in permanent ink at the top of the first sheet, add your official AW membership number, then stuff into a bole in a plane tree in Kensington Gardens. _______ * great taste in Van albums, by the way. Common One’s my favourite.

Ishkur’s Guide to Electronic Music: donkey balls and trend whoring

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Do you know your handbag house from your Eurotrash from your Detroit techno from your twinkle prog?

Ishkur seems to, and having read this intro on openculture.com, I dipped into his scalable, chronological map of electronic music genres and was entertained and educated by his sweary, jokey, informative guides to different micro genres.

Maybe you might be too? Go on, have a go – even the FUQ* is fun.

______

*Frequently Unasked Questions

http://music.ishkur.com

Ace of Dubs – what a pair

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I’ve just read that there is to be a release of Mad Professor’s dub remix of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine. Protection/No Protection is one of my favourite things to listen to, so I’m slightly salivating at the prospect of more musical pairings to enjoy/sink into.

It reminds me how much I like such remix albums and their sources, whether it’s Echo Dek & Vanishing Point, Laika Come Home & Gorillaz first album or Too Young To Die & Casino Classics (Primal Scream, Gorillaz, St Etienne respectively).

I’m always keen to hear more of such joyful and creative album/remix album pairings. Any suggestions?

https://thequietus.com/articles/26959-massive-attack-mad-professor-mezzanine-dubs

On the körner

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I’m sitting at the supper table, eating a meal of my own devising, as the family are away for a week. It means I can experiment without getting rude comments about stinky cheese or strange smells. So tonight on the menu is tomato and beetroot soup with gorgonzola on körnerbrot, sausages, mashed potato with extra gorgonzola, auburgine, mushroom and garlic stir fry and a small gin with lemon and elderflower to wash it all down.

A riotous cacophony of flavours, individual, contrasting, strong and clashing, though sometimes complementing in unpredicted and delightful ways.

And to soundtrack this, I am lucky enough to be listening to ‘On the Corner’ for the first time ever.

As I prepared the meal, I was listening to the final moments of the smoothly-stewarded and enthusiastically-informing Afterword two-parter on Miles Davis – well done to all who took part – a most enjoyable journey through his life and musical career. I suppose I downloaded it because of the great affirmation that ‘Kind Of Blue’ got in the 60 years thread. I listened to some of that record earlier in the week, but I’m afraid I got a bit bored (sacrilege, I know).

Anyway, the guys » Continue Reading.

Alternative takes – take a plot and twist it for a new story

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KFD’s fruitful Poirot thread raised the possibility of an alternative take on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – the evidence presented could lead to a different murderer than Christie named.

I got to thinking about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – what if Mr Rooney was a time-traveling Ferris, come back to suburban Chicago to prevent his earlier self from setting off on a path of slackerdom leading to a dismal failing position as high school principal – he’d do everything he could to keep him on the straight and narrow, wouldn’t he? Even Ferris’s sister could be seen as trying to help make him see sense and face up to his truancy and lack of commitment issues.

Any others out there?

Was the Nakatomi Corporation a powerfully destructive multinational actor which could only be stopped by a dedicated team of vigilante environmentalists led by Hans Gruber attacking its headquarters?

Did Rose engineer the sinking of the Titanic just so she didn’t have to marry Cal?

(Other) great blogs to aggregate?

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I’d like to know your favourite blogs – sites that entertain and inform, even outside your comfort zone – and that might prick my media bubble. _______________ Here’s the background:

One attraction of letting myself loose on Facebook when this site crashed was discovering interesting fan groups and news sites to follow.*

But this year I realized that my FB news feed was really outside my control, somewhat random, and temporary – posts came and went and I could spend endless time scrolling for little informed enjoyment, apart from a few memes and LOLs.**

The posts I did like were the long reads – considered articles from knowledgeable posters. In search of more, I came across Feedly – a news aggregator. You select your sources, categorize them if you want, and you can create your own magazine. I’ve now found about 60, ranging from environment to politics to economics to culture to music.***

There are lots of interesting bloggers out there, plugging away at their own furrows – and not all as big as The Atlantic or London Review of Books – though both of those are good. I’d be happy to share some of the best ones I’ve » Continue Reading.

May, you never – lose!

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As the PM drags her heels out of No 10 slowly enough to have been in office for (just) longer than Gordon Brown, the record she leaves behind wouldn’t look out of place in the Thread of Shame. What cultural reference points would be a suitable tribute to her?

May, I be amazed?

As the (division) bell rings, the May polespins?

Theresa place?

Nuts in May?

Sugar and Spice duets

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Thanks to @rosbif, I have had the pleasure of hearing a new song from Shakespears Sister. They’ve been away too long (26 years), and the delightful tension of their rivalry which extends even to their contrasting vocal styles is present as it was in ‘Stay’, etc.

It makes me want to hear other examples of duets that delight, bringing contrasting styles that draw out the best of each performer. Can you help me out with your favourites?

Spring flea market in Bonn Altstadt

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Once again, it’s that time of year when the cherry trees go full blossom riot in the old town of Bonn, and many of the local residents and others stick their bric-a-brac on fold out tables outside their front doors for the rest of to wander round and gander and poke at. A lot of it is kids or their parents selling clothes and toys they’ve grown out of – my wife’s the expert at snuffling out worthy truffles in that area, so I leave that to her, and I wander off in search of cheap books, DVDs and CDs.

Each year I wonder if it’s worth it – few books will be in English, and in these days of streaming audio and video, is it worth cluttering up valuable home space with plastic of uncertain quality? But it can be interesting to rummage through people’s collections that they are dumping – who knows if it’ll be more than just best sellers and greatest hits?

This year, partly because of the sudden shower of hail (?) which led to hasty covering up with plastic sheets, there was very little on offer and I almost went home empty-handed. But » Continue Reading.

Fly – Nick Drake

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So I’m randomly drifting through my music collection, late at night, and this track comes up – normally part of the flow through Bryter Layter – and so not normally noticed as a separate song.

But this time, I’m frankly half cut, and Drake’s words trip me up a bit. The delivery is always a bit unclear – is he being prissy, laid back or desperate in his smooth enunciation?

I put it on repeat play, where it is still playing, many times later. I google it and notice it’s got accompaniment from Jon Cale on viola and harpsichord, almost from the very beginning of the song. Now I think it’s the soothing scrape of the viola sweetened with the golden brown harpsichord tickling Drake’s voice that makes the song. My ears drift off with the viola and forget the halfhearted plaintive, then reconciled words.

I don’t know what it would be without the antique sound of the harpsichord or the drones of the viola together making resonant space for Drake’s pleading and guitar plucking. They improve his song, but do his words add to their music?

I also don’t know what to make of the song just stopping, » Continue Reading.

Dreadzone – 30th anniversary

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Venue:

Islington Assembly Halls

Date: 27/09/2018

Last night l flew over to the UK for birthday celebrations with some old friends, and we went to see Dreadzone, who’ve been making music as long as we’ve known each other – kind of fitting. I’d never seen them live before, but they put on a good show, not so much playing a set list as following the mood of the audience and diving back into songs if the reaction showed we wanted more of the same. Wonderful, indulgent dub getting my hips moving all night, even after being up for 15 hours and sat through a Ryanair flight.

The audience:

Midlife, but not all as old/older as me. A fair few ageing Two Tone fans, I thought. I haven’t been to a proper gig for about 4 years (Moon Duo), and reading live reviews on here, I was expecting loads of cameras and people chatting. To be fair there was a bit of that, but not much and quite discreet. Mainly there was a lot of dancing and participation in the songs. A big roar went up for ‘Chase The Devil’ at the end, loads of people singing along – ‘…put » Continue Reading.

Les chansons aux autres langues – Lieder in andere Sprachen

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This may well go down like un canard mord/Ein toten Ente, but does anyone one else of a multilingual bent translate songs into other languages? I know I do. Here’s an example. Let’s see if it flies high, or has got something in its beady eye that makes it plummet.

Pere etait Pierre Roulant. Ou se trouve son chapeau c’etait chez soi – sans honte.

That was five minutes of my life I won’t get back

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A phrase usually said after listening to a song that didn’t appeal (longer for a film/book, etc), and often countered with – it would have gone anyway, you can’t stop time, or summat like that. But I want to reclaim the phrase by interpreting it a different way. Think of it not as time that’s gone forever, when it wouldn’t have done otherwise. Think of it as a chunk of time we won’t choose (or be able) to recall later, because it was unmemorable. Choosing to listen to, watch, read something, there’s a hope that it will have an impact beyond the time given to consuming it – that it will be added to the treasured vault of memories, to be drawn upon in later life, and to give comfort in dotage. Not everything make the grade, and the phrase is just a way of marking that disappointment.

Oh, and feel free to post examples of songs that disappointed, if you like.

Wholemeal music

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I try to have a healthy diet – organic, local, farmers market produce – that sort of stuff. That includes wholesome, wholemeal, often rye bread. Long lasting, slightly damp, chewy, it’s tolerable when toasted, but coming down for breakfast of a morning, I’m not sure I always relish the rather dull and cloying prospect awaiting. Having said that, though, there a part of me that likes the solid, healthy taste and I know it’ll sustain me well through the morning – slow release of energy, that sort of thing.

Some music’s like that. I look at my collection and wonder what to listen to and my heart sinks a bit. I’ve heard that band so often, I know them off by heart; that singer’s songs are all much of a muchness, etc. But if I start listening to them, I start to remember why I like them – the wheat shows through the chaff.

Galaxie 500 are a good example of that. Their ponderous instrumentation and somewhat amateurish vocals which vary little from song to song give me the sense I’m going to enter a musical swamp when I play their songs. Yet, once immersed, I get mesmerised, and Dean » Continue Reading.