SUMMER IS HERE! come and gather in the shade of the Rowan tree, help yourselves to a cold drink from the tub, and please share – what have you been listening to / reading / watching / otherwise enjoying ? and is there anything coming up that you’d like us to be aware of ?
Blogger Takeover LIII
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Salut, El Hombre!
Seen:
Tried dipping my toe in real life this month. Chernobyl deserves all the praise it’s getting. The Sky lady, introducing, says some viewers may find certain scenes disturbing. I wouldn’t want to meet the people who remain undisturbed.
Apollo 11 is a proper experience. It’s a documentary constructed entirely from footage of the mission – and what footage it is!
For those who like colour and context, I recommend listening to the BBC podcast 13 Minutes To The Moon – which interviews in depth many of those involved in making the moon landing possible – before immersing yourself in the pure power of the movie’s images.
Heard
Of the new-to-these-ears records I’ve heard this month, the one I’ve enjoyed has been the electro pop of Good At Falling by The Japanese House. I’ve also been revisiting New Order’s Mini-Album, which catches them at a fascinating moment in their career. I’m afraid I don’t care for Movement at all and I wish it had been shelved so that the fantastic, confident, new noises of TMA could have been the new band’s opening statement. I love the way very early 80s synths and drum machines, which should sound dated, have – at least to these ears – a timeless quality which the beats and synths from later in the decade do not..
Read
It’s summer hols, so I’m having fun reading Flann O Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds yet again. Its gloriously daft ideas and intoxicating wordplay never fail to thrill. When I was a teenager I was inspired to write a “book” – having just read, in succession, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and A S-T-B, which nicked everything from both and attempted to mash them together without anyone noticing. It was rubbish, of course, but, looking back, I’m impressed I managed it between all the w**king.
Other Business:
There’s a new album imminent from Chance The Rapper, I’m going to try the gig thing (real life again) by going to see Jenny Lewis in the flesh and simply walking in the park is doing wonders for my mind as well as my waistline – highly recommended!
Seen:
Lots for decent telly recently. Killing Eve continues to be engagingly dark and daft, not quite as sharply written as Waller-Bridge’s episodes, but essential viewing for psychopaths. Years and Years was terrifyingly plausible… up until the last part, where the whole plausibility thing fell apart. Apparently you can overthrow fascism by telling people in pubs that it’s happening. Hard to see what all the fuss is about, if it’s that easy. Handmade’s Tale, or ‘Misery Hour’ as it’s known in our house, is still a hugely harrowing and depressing way to end your weekend.
I gave Good Omens a go. It seemed only fair with the cast and resources it had, but fuck me, what a mess. There’s a time in every man’s life when he finds Pratchett’s humour funny, and that time is between his 13th birthday and the first time he has sex. No amount of gurning from Tennant and Sheen can make up for poor source material and confused adaptation.
I haven’t seen Chernobyl coz we don’t have Sky but I did go there last month. Pripyat’s being slowly reclaimed by nature and is decaying rather beautifully, even if a lot of the images you see – gas masks, shoes and dolls in empty schoolrooms – have been a bit, um, embellished by 30 years of intruders. There were ten people there the day we went – after this series there will probably be thousands.
Heard:
I’ve been listening to Cake a lot. It’s like getting reacquainted with an old friend. Fashion Nugget was one of my favourite albums of the 90s but it wasn’t until Spotify and Sonos came into my life that I explored the canon further. Funky, silly, nut-tight and the perfect soundtrack to making dinner with a G&T on the go and the back door open to let the neighbours enjoy it too.
Read:
James O’Brien’s How To Be Right. Like Eddie Mair, O’Brien has the knack of letting interviewees tie themselves in knots simply by prompting them to probe their own beliefs. He makes the case for fact-based discourse with an essentially civil base, rather than the tribalist, echo-chamber pile-on virtue-signalling point-scoring finger-pointing I-believe-therefore-I’m-right shouting match that we currently have. Because that’s not really working for us, is it.
Oh! Nearly forgot… I have a (self-published) book out, called Vanity Mirror, which includes variations on a couple of things that first emerged here – my reviews of No Parlez https://theafterword.co.uk/?s=no+parlez and Owen Paul https://theafterword.co.uk/?s=owen+paul and others, so thanks for the inspiration chaps!
Quotes for the dustjacket of the second edition:
“The Owen Paul piece is classic, epic, seminal, a sonic cathedral of words.” – Moose the Mooche
“Boooo-dowwwww!” –Pino Paladino
Seen
I liked Killing Eve a lot more than many did and enjoyed the exploration of the Eve / Villanelle relationship. The Bigmouth podcast was good on this when discussing the escapism element and how domesticity is always portrayed and stifling and argumentative while Villannelle strides the globe in fabulous clothes causing us to cheer with every killing (probably the only one in the first series to get the same reaction was Bill. I’m sure we were all delighted when she stabbed Bill to death on that crowded Berlin dancefloor).
Besides that I’ve been enjoying a lot of the world cup football, and join the national adoration of our new Wimbledon darling Cori Gauff. We’ll see how far she can go, but she’s been fantastic so far. I’m not a huge fan of sport, but this summer it has been more uplifting the Glastonbury coverage, none of which has particularly moved me (other than that kid performing Thiago Silva with Dave) though I’ll continue to look out performances on iPlayer.
On stage, we saw The Rutles on the last date of their tour at Colchester Arts Centre. I had gone expecting good songs, amiable presence, old pros who know how to put on a show – that sort of thing, but I was amazed at what a great band they actually were, and hats off to Neil Innes for putting on a terrific show, at the end of a tour, for two and a half hours at 74. The day after found us at Barking Folk Festival for a sunny day of world-music-themed acts culminating with the Afro Celt Sound System. If you have seen the Afro Celts you’ll know that their name is a close to guarantee of a great night out as you can get, and we left grinning from ear to ear.
Last week was The Light’s birthday, so we went to the opera on both Saturdays for a Mozart heavy schedule. The first was a very funny and brilliantly staged Magic Flute by the Scottish Opera at Hackney Empire, the second a less thrilling Marriage of Figaro at Covent Garden. It may have been the heat, but I found the farce flat footed and spent much of the second half watching the orchestra, which was superb under the conducting of John Eliot Gardner.
I between we were in Stratford Upon Avon for a couple of days, and as it seemed rude not to take in a play at the RSC we went to The Provoked Wife, a Vanburgh regency era farce. Jonathan Slinger, John Hodgkinson and Caroline Quentin were all superb in lead roles, but at over 3 hours including the interval it made for a long night in the theatre. The American tourists next to us were left wondering where they could get dinner in Stratford at nearly 11pm.
Heard
As usual, I haven’t really done ‘new’. I’ve spent most of the month listening to one of those cheap 5-CDs-in-a-box affairs of Scott Walker (Scott 1 to 4 and one other) which has been a great journey. It’s no secret that Julian Cope, and old favourite of mine, is a huge admirer but Walker’s 30 Century Man literally sounds like it could have been an out-take from Fried.
I also picked up Mary Coughlan’s 1997 album After the Fall on our travels, and primed for dram by Scott Walker, find that it makes great late night listening. Throw in tracks from the soundtrack to Killing Eve 2 and it’s been a month of lush songs and dramatic orchestration.
Read
Again, not so much. Picking up a trilogy of David Lodge novels from a chazza reminded why I loved Small World especially when I was in my own student years. Judith Mackrell’s The Unfinished Palazzo is an excellent history of the lives of three astonishing women who lived in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice (which you may well know as the Guggenheim Museum) through the twentieth century. I have just started Duncan Fallowell’s How to Disappear which is an autobiography disguised as a travelogue in search of infamous people who have vanished from public view. So far it’s very promising.
Read
I’m really enjoying the audiobook version of Michael Palin reading “Erebus, The story of a ship”. The story is fascinating enough, but with Palin’s narration it’s an all-round experience that I don’t want to end. Highly recommended.
Watched
Killing Eve (obviously). I’m enjoying as much as the first series with both Jodie Comer and Sandra Oh even more stunning than before. I’m starting to lose patience with the Handmaid’s Tale but I’ve come this far and so will probably persevere as long as it doesn’t become another bloody “Lost” . I finished the “Santa Clarita Diet” on Netflix. With the plug pulled on a fourth series, it’s now come to an end that I found tidy enough. Timothy Olyphant , who I was not familiar with was great in this.
The Women’s world cup has taken up far much more of my viewing time than I would have imagined possible, and I’ve really enjoyed it.
Listened
“A Different Kind of Human” by Aurora is a rather splendid way of staying down with the kids. I’ve played it through a few times, that girl has certainly got something. I’ve kept my old fart credentials intact however with Bruce Springteen’s Western Stars and Steelye Spans new album Est’d 1969. The opening two tracks of the Steeleye Span record are as good as anything they’ve ever done.
There’s been no cinema for me this month, but rectifying that tonight with a family outing to see the Beatles thing.
Watched:
Still catching up on Black Mirror. We’ve also just started Elementary, the ‘Jonny Lee Miller does Sherlock Holmes’ thing. Amazed to learn that it’s already up to season seven, making JLM the actor to have portrayed Holmes the most. Filmwise: Us, which was okay, I suppose. I liked it better in retrospect. Ditto You Were Never Really Here, which I found a bit inert. Best thing this month was The Virtues. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I love the way Shane Meadows takes worn thriller tropes and dresses them up as Ken Loach movies. I’m too lazy to look up the name of the woman who played the sister, but she is surely a star in waiting,
Read:
I’m ploughing through a biography of 4AD, which is a bit of a slog, to be honest, with further points knocked off for the author’s lofty dismissal of Colourbox’s Hot Doggie, Just Give Em Whiskey and Looks Like We’re Shy One Horse, all of which are stone-cold classics in my book. But, you know, I’ve started so I’ll finish. Had no idea that Robin Guthrie was such a… handful.
Heard:
As a result of the above, I’ve listened to a lot of 4AD and realised that I don’t like the label nearly as much as I thought I did. Dif Juz? Modern English? Clan of Xymox? Non merci. Even, and perhaps especially, the likes of the Cocteaus, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil are best heard in small doses (although I do think that TMC’s ‘Song To The Siren’ may be the best song ever recorded). However, I have renewed my passion for Pixies and finally gone beyond Doolittle (well, as far as Bossanova), as well as Lush, Pale Saints, and especially Wolfgang Press, who just got better and better.
Leaving 4AD behind, it’s all fuzz and games until someone loses an eye: Niights album Hellebore is a cracker. The first half is 90’s-inspired grungy shoegaze (think Curve, Garbage), the second is very down-tuned and doomy stoner rock. Recommended. Props also to Lorelle Meets The Obsolete for De Facto, which again takes shoegaze and dream pop as a starting point, adding a synth-pop element for good measure. Lastly, I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill, who sound like Dylan Carlson’s band Earth, only a more eventful version.
‘I’m too lazy to look up the name of the woman who played the sister, but she is surely a star in waiting’.
Niamh Algar. And yes, yes, she surely is. The Virtues deserves every plaudit its had. Superlative tv.
@leicester-bangs
I will have to find my copy of the first Pale Saints album (The comfort of madness..I think) which is much under valued.
Quite like the sound of a couple of your recomendations…Niights and Lorelle wotsit.
Good stuff! Both those albums v good (as is $75) but having listened to both again today I think Lorelle is the one with the staying power.
I saw Dif Juz live once. Not one single introduction to anything, even their name.
Gosh! Dif juz. A name I remember from way back when but I couldn’t tell you one thing about them.
Cinema
Second visit to “Amazing Grace,” and I really, really liked “Gloria Bell” and rather wish I had seen the original version. Booked tickets for the Leonard Cohen film/Q&A with the director.
TV
The Women’s World Cup has been a revelation. The Cricket World Cup, listening to Vic Marks now, is also on a knife-edge, though, I confess, it’s the Irish and Australian Test matches that I am really waiting for. Bizarrely, three weeks before the Ashes begins, I might go to a pre-season football friendly tomorrow – eh?
Read
Beatles (RC)/Stones (Mojo) Specials, the Brian Shindig wasn’t yet in this morning. Who’d have guessed that the norm in a newsagents c. 2019 would be Paul, John, Bob, Mick, Brian etc. staring at you from the magazine shelf rather than the also-rans of 35 years ago? Brilliant.
Also got a Rockabilly Special, and since I bought it I seemingly can’t walk into a charidee shop without buying a Rockabilly CD.
Heard
Rockabilly, and, despite owning a vinly, finally really listened to James Taylor’s 68 Apple L.P after buying a CD for a fiver. … an unbelievably great record, up there with the late 60s output of Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen etc. … I think it’s probably better … and incredible that it’s so little mentioned.
Seen: Binged a NZ show called 800 words, which struck me as a quintessential BBC Sunday show. Anything with plot gags about The Boss and apostrophes is worth it!
Also Women’s World Cup, which has been refreshing.
I am bingeing any Westerns I can find on Amazon Prime, which reveals the amount of OMG Bad films that have been made.
Listened: Western Stars. And I still have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, lush, and on the other, there’s something not-quite-Springsteen about it.
Erland Cooper – it’s a bit samey, but it’s really nice Sunday morning music.
I’m also getting the gradual release of the Frightened Rabbit covers album (Tiny Changes) and the Daughter cover of Poke is killing me.
Read: Comics. The Book of Magic series (Tim Hunter) is really good, and has an appeal at every level. But it reminds me that the best Boy Wizard series is Luke Kirby from 2000AD. I’m restarting Christopher Hill’s ‘The World Turned Upside Down’, a Marxist look at the 1640s. No, wait, don’t run. It’s a majestic look at ordinary people and their beliefs and actions in extraordinary times. He was a great historian, and more importantly, a great writer. I keep going back to him (see also: Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic).
Green Lantern series with Simon Baz is a different take on the GL mythos, and all the more welcome for that. At some stage, though, DC are going to run out of redos.
Oh and Peter Fitzsimons. Once known as a fisty Aussie 2nd row, he is now a good journo and writer. I’m on his Mutiny on the Bounty book, after finishing his bio of Nancy Wake. He has the wonderful ability of writing engaging history bios, and both these are excellent.
The Chris Hill stuff is niche; Fitzsimons is accessible to everyone. Explore him.
Seen: Finally got round to watching Deutschland ’83 and ’86 and really enjoyed them, particularly the first. Also watched 22 July, the film about the terror attack in Norway and, whilst the film was very good, I couldn’t really say I enjoyed it because the subject matter was so terrifying. The rise of the far right in general is pretty terrifying. Good Omens was okay enough to keep me watching till the end and I’ve also finally got round to watching Peep Show, where I’m now into the second season. I do like David Mitchell, so I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get to this. And I bought one of those Roku sticks. There are countless ‘channels’ available on it, which all seem to have similar films/TV shows that are in the public domain. It’s no good if you are after the latest blockbusters, but if you love old horror, film noir and western films, as I do, there’s plenty to watch. To start with, I’ve been going through the films noir channels, watching everything that has Bogie or Edward G Robinson in.
Heard: The new Hot Chip album is the best for ages, so I treated myself to a signed copy. J Majik’s Full Circle is another fab new album, as is Jamila Woods’ LEGACY! LEGACY! This month’s best new artist discovery is Pete Flux and Parental. laid back jazzy boom bap. Their Infinite Growth album from last year is an instant favourite.
Read: In between dozens of magazines on Readly I’ve also been reading James O’Brien’s How To Be Right. I read the chapter on the age gap last night, which gave me another thing to worry about for our kids’ future. It’s a good read though and I had to laugh when I read his tactic when he hears someone moaning about the EU enforcing laws on us, because he did exactly the same as I did to my dad and asked which law they are looking forward to overturning. Of course, his listeners, like my dad, had no answer to that!
On what format did you buy J Majik, Paul? I wanted it, but £40 for the vinyl was too much and I didn’t see a CD on offer…
No, there’s no CD, not even a promo CD as far as I could tell, so I downloaded it. I’ll keep checking though, as occasionally promo CDs turn up. I’m still on the lookout for the promo of Life in Motion by T.R.A.C., as that’s never been issued on CD either. CD’s still my format of choice, but there’s quite a few albums over the past few years that have never been issued on CD. Annoyingly, it’s most common with Hip Hop and Drum and Bass albums, e.g. Something Blue by Blocks & Escher, Never Come Down by Kooley High and Mumble Rap by Belly.
I hear you. For D&B the Bandcamp model of getting the vinyl plus HQ downloads suits me. I’d go that way with J Majik but £40 is a wee bit too much to stomach, even for the man who gave us Spaced Invader and Solarized.
I really don’t want to get back into vinyl. I just buy the Stephen Duffy ones, where I’m a completist. I was looking at the first Etherwood album though, as some of them came with a CD. There wasn’t a standalone CD. I’m considering buying a set and then flogging the vinyl.
SEEN
It’s cricket highlights (just heard if Eng reach the final it’ll be free on Sky) and one match in the flesh at Edgbaston. Womens WC also an excellent watch in the latter stages. Not much else, though looking forward to Midsommer as Hereditary went down well chez moles last year. oh, forgot What We Do In The Shadows, another midas touch moment from Matt Berry. Colin the energy vampire is the stand-out character surely? Like all elsehere grooving on Killing Eve – though it’s become a bit ‘sap of the week’ with the hospital kid and Julian Barrett coming to heavily sign-posted ends…
HEARD
Summer innit so that means Prince Far I and Ibibio Sound Machine who are both made for this stuff. Henry Saiz’s Natura Sonoris is monumental, though 2 years old. Lots of Cricket on the radio.
READ
Farewell My Lovely, completely ace. Shampoo Planet by Douglas Coupland, a mixed bag sophomore effort from one of my favourite writers. The Crystal World by JG Ballard – Heart of Darkness with added Swarovski on demand.
Boom! I was listening to Prince Far I’s Crytuff Dub Encounter *as I read your post*.
Initially misread that as Cruyff Dub Encounter. I suppose a footballer who got past opponents by pretending to be one place and being in an another was very much “I and I”.
An Afterwordwhack. Call Dave Gorman.
Live music: the wonderful Solid Sound festival. Little Steven at Ottawa Bluesfest (awesome band).
Recorded music: Brooooooce!! Great album. Also new Raconteurs (OK) and Sharon van Etten (interesting).
Watched: Black Mirror-disappointing, only 1/3 episodes anywhere near the best ones. It has always been a bit uneven but I wonder if Charlie Brooker is running on empty. Also Yesterday, which was pretty much as expected (mediocre) and Rocketman which was brilliant.
Read: Re-read a couple of Freeman Wills Crofts books from the 1930s – splendid ‘humdrum’ crime from the Golden Age. I’ve also been enjoying Uncut’s King Crimson special – a band much more interesting to read about than to listen to, in my view. I love Fripp’s ambient recordings but Crimso don’t really do anything for me.
Seen: A few foreign crime dramas that aren’t coming to mind just now…
Heard: Lots of mid-90s music from the Belfast music scene – a kind of golden era in terms of a lot of bands, enough pubs putting on live music, the birth of the self-release CD possibility etc. – because I’ve been on a mission to digitise lots of it. I covered local music for a newspaper back then so have a box full of cassettes, CDs, demos, obscure releases, even the odd bit of end-of-era vinyl and a few off-air radio sessions and off-the-desk live recordings. I’ve uploaded a load of montages (period pics, sleeves, newspaper pieces chopped up into manageable chunks) to YouTube – start with the Minnows, Sweet Mary Jane, Stonefish, Strawman, Iain Archer, Disreali Gears, the Good Things, the Mighty Fall, the Legends of Tomorrow, the New Brontes… The early works of Foy Vance to come next…
AOB: Related to the above, I find that I’m running a charity gig at a Belfast music bar on September 20th featuring reunions / part reunions of 4 acts from that mid-90s Belfast scene – all on the back of these montages. It’ll be legendary…
I’ve also been digitising some early 70s off-air reels for a friend, which has yielded this epic:
Read:
I finally finished reading Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami. In Sweden it was published in two volumes (some early reviews I read said it would be three, confusingly) and I read the first part and liked it early in the year. Bought the second volume a few months ago but didn’t have time to read it until my recent vacation. Unfortunately the second half didn’t fulfill the promises of the first one. It was too detailed and either badly written or badly translated; very clumsy. And the more “fantastical” elements of the story were in the end pointless to the story and unconnected, leaving me rather confused about what he was trying to say. I did enjoy parts of it, but those parts would have worked better as separate short stories.
I also read Ghachar Ghochar, a very short novel by Vivek Shanbag which I liked a lot better. It tells the story of an Indian family whose rapid rise to wealthy middle class status makes them morally corrupt. Their relationships (internally and with outsiders and spouses coming into the family) gets disturbed and twisted by the influence of money and the fact that this new lifestyle depends solely on one member of the household. The ending is quite brilliant.
Now I’m reading a book about our relationship with bees and beekeeping through the ages, by a Swedish journalist called Lotte Möller. Interesting and well written.
Seen:
My plans to have a private film festival for one during my holiday fell a bit short of the goal…but I’ll pick it up again in August when I have three more weeks of vacation planned. This time around I only had time to watch a few films.
Gräns (English title Border) is an adaptation of a short story by the Swedish horror writer John Ajvide Lindqvist of “Let The Right One In” fame. Interesting story about a woman finding out through meeting a strange man that she isn’t a human being but a troll (and not the computer kind). They fall in love and she explores her new troll identity (including some very bizarre and funny troll sex…) Her troll lover is however driven by a deep hatred for mankind and when she finds out about the horrible things he’s involved in she has to choose between him and her troll side or her human side. Good, not great, but interesting and unusual, with some good acting and beautiful cinematography.
Annihilation is also very beautiful but IMO a rather dull and unoriginal sci fi film. It doesn’t get interesting for me until at the end when the main character (played by Nathalie Portman) reaches the lighthouse. That part is good but then they ruined everything in the very last scene at the hospital, which doesn’t make sense at all to me, for many reasons. That may be a fault of the script, or the editing, but either way it was completely unnecessary. The dialogue isn’t very good either, so I’m leaning towards a bad script being the biggest culprit. The music in the final scenes is ace at least, and it all looks very interesting; shame about the rest of the content not going far enough into weirdness.
I also watched Glass, the third installment of the Unbreakable/Split/Glass trilogy. Very much the weakest link in the chain; it’s quite entertaining but has a ridiculous plot with the psychiatrist and the unrealistic hospital they all get locked up in, and her trying to make them doubt their powers… This dialogue isn’t going to win any awards either. Still, there’s tension and some excitement through most of the film and it’s not trying to be anything but a bit of harmless fun, which it is.
Heard:
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Fishing For Fishies. One of their best in a while. It’s no coincident that three of the tracks have the word “boogie” it their titles, many more could have as they are bluesy boogie chugs with just a sprinkle of psych flavour on top. A couple of tracks ignore the boogie and throw some 70s sounding smooth rock in the mix instead. “The Bird Song” being one of them and my favourite on the album.
Laleh – Vänta! Swedish favourite Laleh lives in LA and works as a producer/songwriter for other artists most of the time nowadays, but still makes her own music as well. This is probably her weakest album yet – and her albums seems to have become less interesting and quirky since her move. But the title track is wonderful, and the other tracks are OK, just a bit generic and unmemorable, which is unusual for her.
Vampire Weekend – Father Of The Bride is brilliant and has been on repeat for weeks. And it very much feels like an album that goes from A to Z, where every track is elevated by being listened to in this order, which is unusual. “Harmony Hall” has rightfully become a radio hit.
The Prince vault collection of Originals; songs written for other artists and recorded/never released by their composer, is fun and the recordings are good, but I want to say that it’s quite clear that he kept the best tracks for himself… Still enjoying it, but none of the recordings would make the cut for a Best Of.
Swedish artist Kristian Matsson, AKA The Tallest Man On Earth has a new long awaited album out; I Love You. It’s a Fever Dream. It’s a great collection of songs in the contemporary folk/americana vein, I only have a slight issue with it’s production at times being a bit too sparse and home demo-sounding (but it’s not a big problem, and not on all tracks). But the songs are very lovely, as I would expect from this guy.
Bill Callahan is an artist that I’m on the fence about, and that goes for his latest album as well; Shepherd In a Sheepskin Vest. The best tracks are ace, but often he sounds very dull and repetitive. It all depends on what mood I’m in when I try to listen to it.
Mdou Moctar – Ilana: The Creator is another artist mixing the Tuareg tradition with rock influences, and I tend to enjoy all of them. But if you only buy one Tuareg album this year, I’d spend my money on Kel Assouf instead. This is very good, but not as interesting.
AOB:
I had two very restful weeks of vacation after a long and stressful spring, now back at work energized enough to put up with the summer stress, after three colleagues quit unexpectedly…but I’m going to be SO ready for my next vacation in August! At least all of the extra work is helping me lose the weight I’m determined to fight off to hopefully get rid of my diabetes… I’ve lost around 7 kilos so far and it’s all going well. It’s been unexpectedly easy this time around – I think I was just ready to make the changes I needed now, so I haven’t really had any cravings or difficulties dispensing with my usual comfort foods. And having been 80% vegetarian before, making that 100% wasn’t a very drastic change. Bread and cheese has gone, but mostly it’s just a matter of eating smaller portions (being a great cook is not always a good thing 😉 ) No exercise added yet – not time for it and right now the workload means plenty of workout for me.
Read:
As prep for an afternoon of playing Queen on vinyl in my local café, I read Lesley-Ann Jones’ Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury. He was a strange cove.
Seen:
It’s Love Island so the family TV is block-booked by my 16-y-o. I’ve been in the study, catching up on iPlayer science docs and Glastonbury footage.
Live I saw Fonda 500 at The Portland Arms a couple of weeks ago, and Grass Roof at the Big Weekend (an free open-air festival in Cambridge with unfortunate weather this year).
I have a couple of gigs coming up at the Portland in the next couple of weeks and The Hot 8 Brass Band at the Junction. I’ve never seen a live New Orleans brass band before.
Heard:
Lots of Queen. All of their albums contain some real clunkers, even their best – Sheer Heart Attack – had me thinking “how long is this going on for?”. I ended up playing Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2.
A DJ set at the local school fete saw me sweating cobs for 4 hours and playing “world” music (it seemed to fit the weather). The Bhundu Boys and the like. It seemed to go down well, or at least nobody complained, and the event raised over £4000. “I know you!” said a tipsy civilian. “You’re the bloke who plays records on Sundays.” Yes, love, and every other day of the week.
AOB:
I spent a day at Easter engineering a live-in-the-round session for local prog-folk act Tape Runs Out. I can’t think of any other act with a hammered dulcimer. They’ve put GoPro camera footage over the music and posted it online for your listening and viewing pleasure. Blink and you’ll miss me drinking tea and listening (footage of me plugging in mics is too dull).
Oh bugger it, here are the tracks. Where’s Edith when you need her?
Sod it. I give up!
READ
Other than usual Readly stuff I’ve been enjoying Chris O’ Leary’s two Bowie books Rebel Rebel (1964-1976) and Ashes to Ashes (1976-2016). Both essential purchases for fans, some lovely stories and facts. But not quite in the league of Nicholas Pegg’s The Complete Bowie which is the benchmark.
SEEN
When Then See Us (Netflix) This is the dramatised story of The Central Park Five, five innocent Black and Hispanic tennagers who were convicted of the Rape and Assult of a female jogger in Central Park in 1989. Probably one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in American history, the four-part series follows these boys from the offence to their final release years later. This is pretty unmissable, the acting especially from the young cast is outstanding but Jharrel Jerome playing Korey Wise (the only one that went to an adult prison) is phenomenal. He is the focus of the last episode and will make you cry, laugh and scream with anger. Plus it will make you hate Donald Trump even more.
We’ve also started on a box set of the Twilight Zone which as good as you can imagine. 156 episodes of spooky, twisty, and sometimes heartwarming genius.
HEARD
Loads of good stuff. Some nice box sets Lullabies For Catatonics (British Avant-Pop/Art Rock 67-74), Moviegoer (Pop Cinema and the Classics) & 1977 – The Year Punk Broke three nice 3 CD boxes from Cherry Red. Punk Rock is Nicht Tot! is a entertaining overview of Billy Childish’s career. I received the two Kate Bush boxes for my birthday, lovely remastered stuff. New releases, Chanctonbury Rings – Justin Hopper & Sharron Kraus with The Belbury Poly a beautiful album of spoken word and spooky sounds about an area I know very well (It’s a Prehistoric Hill fort on the South Downs with beautiful views and a creepy atmosphere) totally wonderful.
Also best of the month is Schlagenheim by Black Midi, to be honest I still don’t know make of this. Experimental, Math Rock, Funk, Improv it’s all in there. It sounds rather thrilling in places, this lot is one to watch in the future.
Ah, yes, we watched When They See Us too. Frightening isn’t it. I shudder to think how many times things like that happened and are continuing to happen. Nice to know that Trump has always been a dangerous, racist man. The scary thing nowadays is how many dangerous scary man seem to be reaching positions of power and how many people are blindly following them.
Nice to see that some of the Five now work for victims of miscarriages of justice and have given some of their settlement money to that cause.
SPOILER (for those who haven’t seen the show or read the news!)
And the man in the archive clip who said the five boys (aged between 14 and 16) who were fitted up for sexually assaulting the female jogger should be sentenced to death, even going as far as spending $85,000 ($172,000 in today’s money) on full page advertisements in all four of New York’s major newspapers calling for the death penalty for rapists “of all ages” prior to their trials, is now the US President…despite having admitted sexually assaulting women!
Seriously, had this been a work of fiction, and the bit about the Trump character going on to admit sexually assaulting women himself before becoming the President, the script would have been thrown out of Hollywood for being too far fetched.
Decided to keep a log!
WATCHED: The wife was in Turkey for the middle 3 months of the month, ahead of my joining her for the last as it span into July, so LOAAAADS OF TELLY!! First up, and before she went came DEADWOOD; THE MOVIE. On prime so no subbies, sadly needed to knead all the more nuance out of the delightfully filthy turns of phrase. All the favourites, a full 9 years from the last episode, and no disappointment. I swear Ian McShane gets better year on year. CHERNOBYL as good as everyone said, absolutely chilling. LOOMING TOWERS continues to grip me, one of the few programmes I am patient enough for weekly instalments. (Have the finale downloaded and ready: I wonder what happens?) VIRTUES was as scary as Meadows ever is, exemplary acting. KILLING EVE, s.2, seemed to have mixed reviews. I loved it, especially the higher camp it got, the Julian Mighty Boosh fella episode being my favourite. GOMORRAH’s back!! Binged it over a single w/e, engaged by the ghastliness of it all, one surely not subsidised by the Naples tourist board. Finally, as I am the only one who still can stomach zombies, I watch the boxset of FEAR THE WALKING DEAD, s.3. Good in parts, I guess, but still streets ahead of the parents programmes current state.
READ: Yup, time to read, kicking off with DEAD MAN’S TROUSERS, the latest adventures of Renton, Spud, Sick-boy and Begbie. Clearly written as a pre-emptive script for Transporting 3, I hope it will be. Less of a stopgap piece than the Blade Artist, helpful as that was as an interim character manoeuvre. From that it was onto GOMORRAH, yes, the book. So good the series I bought the non-fiction books later fictionalised by the same author, Robert Saviano, for the TV show. Uncertain what the italian for purple prose might be, but it certainly has all the hues of the red/blue combination. And the lists of names can get confusing, as the characters in the programme. A good read but had me, at times, whether his witness to events was itself fictionalised. SENSE OF AN ENDING, by Julian Barnes, was a present. I had never read any of his books, assuming a cleverness intimated by reviews of him I had read might be off-putting. And I found his TV writing to be too knowing. So it was a wonderful discovery as to quite how brilliant this book actually is, read in a single sitting. More, please.
LISTENED: Not much new beyond the new Santana, AFRICA SPEAKS, or, should I say, the new Buika, with nice Santana guitar. Every bit the fabled RtF and some. Terrific. Also the new Bill Callahan, SHEPHERD IN A SHEEPSKIN VEST: for me he could sing the shipping forecast and I would rave about it. This is better than that would be, after an opening track that suggested he has taken up dicking around like Bon Iver. Thankfully normal service ensued thereafter, mellow acousticity and sombre baritone musings on happy domesticity. And I listened, after all the fuss here, to UNKNOWN PLEASURES for the first time. Yes, never before. Despite having a few New Order ads, I had decided I didn’t like the earlier iteration, entirely based on that forever being repeated clip on Whistle Test. Quite good, innit?
1. Yes, I should have mentioned I watched Deadwood as well. And, like you, I found myself, after so long away, floundering, trying to keep pace with the subtle and sharp phrasing. I did feel, though, that the whole thing was just an appendix for us fans rather than something that merited existence on its own terms.
2. Have you heard Closer, retro? completely different kind of record, but – IMHO – on a whole other level of brilliance…
Closer? Doubt it as covered by that self same 4 decade prejudice. Fancy I might, see what the youngsters groove at….
Seen:
Went to see soul singer Tahirah Memory at Luton’s Bear Club – a great little atmospheric venue that regularly puts on jazz and blues gigs. She was really good and it all got quite emotional at times as she worked through her new album with a trio featuring pianist Jarrod Lawson, who had his own acclaimed set out a couple of years back.
Heard:
Couple of new releases destined for the end of year top 10. First up, Philip Bailey’s “Love will find a way” – a superb collection of covers in a loose-limbed jazzy funky live in the studio kind of way with Robert Glasper producing. Includes a version of “Once in a lifetime” to upset the purists.
Abdullah Ibrahim’s “The Balance” is a beautifully recorded stunner with a fine mix of ballads and African jazz flavours – and a real throwback to those excellent late 70s/80s Ekaya sets. Bit of a coup too for UK label Gearbox following on from the great Dwight Trible set earlier in the year.
Elsewhere, enjoyed Laurence Hobgood’s “Tesseterra” – excellent jazz piano plus small string section tackling some interesting cover versions and also Fred Hersch’s “Begin Again” with Vince Mendoza and the WDR Big Band on a range of sweeping arrangements of his solo work. More cover versions – with classy jazz singing from Tierney Sutton and Judy Wexler on their respective new albums.
Always had a soft spot for The Doobie Brothers’ “Captain and Me” and their new live album runs through the whole thing alongside “Toulouse Street.” Very enjoyable and reminds you that the “Captain” title track is the best thing CSNY never did.
Finally – not my usual thing at all – but there’s something very charming about Daughter of Swords “Dawnbreaker” – a quiet country/electro set featuring Alexandra Sauser-Mannig from Mountain Man who put out the recent John Denver tribute. This and Tahirah Memory’s “Asha” make for ideal summer listening.
Read:
“Deep Country” by Neil Ansell is a reflection of five years of solo living in a very remote cottage in the Welsh hills, observing the wildlife and changing seasons. A little slow in places but then that’s the life he lived.
John Capouya’s “Florida Soul” is a little more entertaining – chronicling the rise and fall of the state’s neglected musical history and time in the sun in the 70s when George McRae, Betty Wright and KC and the Sunshine Band were all over the charts. Neglected artists like Latimore and Little Beaver are also given a chance to tell their fascinating stories.
SEEN:
A House Is Dead – A House, the Dublin band who split in 1997, had a night of glory in Dublin’s National Concert Hall when two-thirds of the band came together to play their I Am The Greatest album. Quite a few lump-in-throat moments, in particular the re-written Endless Art and the appearance of Dave & Ferg’s teenage daughters to sing I Am Afraid. It seemed that everybody in the audience was in college in nineties Ireland and had a babysitter at home.
Elton John: Having seen Rocketman and being bowled over, I realised that Elton was playing Dublin the following week. When the tickets had gone on sale in early 2018 they were €200 a pop and EJ announced the tour with a shockingly bad foghorn-like rendition of I’m Still Standing on Stephen Colbert’s show. But when a cut-price ticket became available 48 hours before the gig, off I went. Turned out to be a pretty good seat, only 14 rows back in the large 3Arena. I hadn’t seen him before, but similar to McCartney, when he appears on stage it’s a bit of a shock that it’s him because he’s so familiar and has been a constant presence in my life of pop culture consumption. He hammered the single first chord of Bennie & The Jets, dramatically paused and goaded the crowd to go wild, then had us eating out of his hand for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Like McCartney, the voice isn’t the same, but again it doesn’t matter. Plus Ray Cooper was in the band, which was cool.
WATCHED:
Watched Good Omens, it’s fine if you like that kind of thing. Slowly going through 30Rock, near the end of Season 4, what a consistently funny and brilliantly written show. So many prescient throwaway gags about Mexican walls or Bill Cosby.
HEARD:
I like that new Black Keys album. That’s the newest thing I’m listening to.
Is nobody is listening to Nothing Is Real the top podcast about the toppermost of the poppermost band of all time? I’m listening to nothing else! Those hosts are excellent! https://podnews.net/podcast/1462587848
@drj
I loved and still love that A House album…an underated classic if ever I heard one. Didn’t know about the re-write…what’s that all about?
Aw man, how did I not hear about this? Maybe, like when Paul Cleary felt the adrenaline at the Phil Chevron tribute, this might create an appetite for more live A House (although the title they chose suggests finality).
Also: never been to the NCH and always have an eye out for an excuse – this would have been it..
There have been 2 re-writes
Endless Art 2 was the female version
Endless Art 2006 – an update of the original capturing some of the more recent losses.
I wonder if it’s time for a 2019 update?
(Endless Art 2 should read More Endless Art)
Here is Endless Art 2019.
Arf! It was coming to the end there and I was thinking “surely they’re not going to leave out Bowie?” Neat.
I had the exact same thought seeing them do it live…”where’s Bowie?”
LISTENED: A bit late to the party on the Rendell/Carr Landsdowne re-released vinyl, but boy they are worth tracking down.
In other releases – years after giving up on Plaid I love their new one Polymer. I think I like Holly Herndon, PROTO and the new Hot Chip is their best in ages after I had almost given up on them.
Other than that it the pairing of this box set, purchased from a thread here last year and is really amazing value – it’s the deep cuts by the (to me) unknown that continue to charm
And of course, why is noone talking about the absolute treat that the new Rammstein album is
[Video, unsurprisingly, NSFW]
Live Music
Edward 11 -a wonderful entertaining evening of reggae infused with folk muisc
Harp and a Monkey – never less than wonderful
Film
Secret Life of Pets – 2
Toy Story 4
Kids films knock spots of most adult films, hence why two portly almost 60 yearold gentleman could be found sat o a Monday afternoon watching these
Heard
Lot’s of Springsteen as I tried to revise for the podcast, rather enjoying the new one as it grows on me
Unkown Pleasures ….. bought it on release,who’d have thought 40 years later
The Membranes – What Nature Gives. Nature Takes Away if you like post punk with a splash of choir and string, this is for you. Surprisingly good., in fact I’d say very good. Come the end of the year will be in the top list.
The Archers….. I’m addicted
13 Minutes to the Moon – BBC podcast… insightful, they do these sort of things rather well
Book
The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man – Jonas Jonasson …bought it when it was released, finally got around to reading it. It was never going to live up to the first book but It’s good, flagged a coupe of times but on the whole most enjoyable.
Record Collector. The magazines on a run of good issues at present.
Films I’ve enjoyed just this month alone:
All Is True – about Shakespeare’s final years in Stratford-Upon-Avon, starring Branagh and Dench.
Charlie Says – about Charles Manson, starring Matt Smith.
Mapplethorpe – about Robert Mapplethorpe, starring Matt Smith again.
Giant Little Ones – a sort of gay coming of age thingy about how sex doesn’t necessarily define sexuality. With Kyle MacThingummywhatsit who was excellent in Twin Peaks.
Stockholm – about the hostage situation that led to the term Stockholm Syndrome, starring the always excellent Ethan Hawke.
The Professor – about facing up to impending death, starring Johnny Depp.
The Professor And The Madman – about the unlikely friendship between the two collaborators who compiled the first Oxford English Dictionary.
(Plus some incredible telly: Years And Years, Chernobyl, The Virtues.)
Fascinating stories all, for grown ups. “Kids films knock spots off adults films”, you say? Bunkem and balderdash, says I.
I’m adding Styx to the above list of films seen this month. A film about a lone yachtswoman who comes across a boatful of refugees, too many for her to help. Like all the films listed above, it makes me wonder why anyone would bother with kids’ films when there are such genuinely thought-provoking stories being told.
HEARD:
Further, by Richard Hawley. He’s pulled well away from the massive sound and landscapes of Standing At The Sky’s Edge a few years ago and has fallen gloriously back into writing the sweetest of two and three chord melodies. There are some pearls of songs on here.
Scott Walker: Five Classic Albums. Picked up in Fopp a few weeks ago and a bargain. Evocative histrionic ballads. Songs for swinging strings.
Dr Feelgood: Taking No Prisoners (with Gypie Mayo 1977-1981). Probably a heinous opinion here; as much as I truly enjoy and admire Wilko, I prefer this era of the Feelgoods. Gypie had more about him than Wilko’s undoubtedly brilliant ‘chop’. His riffs were chippier and brighter. “Looking Back’, ‘Take a Tip’ and ‘Milk and Alcohol’ blew my BHS school socks off all those years ago.
SEEN:
Most recently, ‘Dark’. A Netflix series made in Germany in (I think) 2017 which emulated the Stranger Things missing children/spooky time travel theme. Rather more adult in tone and content, and undoubtedly intriguing. A plot point depends on a brass clockwork device that triggers the time bending elements of the story. I hate that sort of thing usually. A magical device which undercuts the sinister mood. It smacks of cheap, easy fantasy and laziness in the writing. But, hey, it’s all impossible anyway so why not?
Talking Pictures TV (Freeview Ch. 81) Hours and hours and hours of black and white films from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s mainly. A lot of of it is dull old cobblers only remarkable if London is in the background and you can see how empty the streets were of cars. Occasionally though a cracker makes it through. Sid James, Alfie Bass, Denis Price, Kenneth More, Jack Hawkins and an elegant lady called Valerie Hobson (wife of John Profumo, Cliveden House fans) were in virtually everything made in the UK at that time.
READ:
Prussian Blue, by Phillip Kerr. Excellent but overlong.
Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household. A re-read from years ago and nothing like I remember other than the den in the holloway. As taut as the all-important catgut in the final scene.
Everything Trump Touches Dies, by Rick Wilson. An American liberal journalist tears Donald to shreds in an appalled frenzy of loathing and sarcasm. It’s all too late now though to engineer any sort of fall before November 2020. The Democrats need to gussy up at the polls. It’s the only way now.
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. A virulent flu wipes out 90% of humanity in a few short weeks. Some survivors remain congregated where they were at the time of the hit, in one case an Airport terminal, while others roam in small groups in small local circles. No vehicular transport exists. Just leg power alone. This plays on the swift re-emergence of superstition and shamen and how they fuck up with reason. Amongst other things…
Help I Am Being Held Prisoner by Donald Westlake. This was a disappointment after a good initial premise. An inveterate practical joker pranks himself into a 15 year jail sentence and into the good graces of a prison gang who are duped into thinking him harder than he is. Some of the early situations and dialogue are gold, but once the frankly unwieldy plot kicks in it all crumbles into disbelief.
Richard Hawley’s Further may very well be one of the albums of the year.
I’d agree with that, good Mr D
I take it you are aware that series 2 of Dark has, like nightfall, um, dropped?
I am that, Mr Path2. Bloody right n’all given all the loose danglers.
Well!
Danglers, I say! Loose.
All danglin’ abaht.
Late to the party but here goes:-
SEEN:
Not a fan of period dramas ordinarily but I did enjoy Gentleman Jack.
Killing Eve part 2 was great – especially the Dutch prostitute scene which was hilarious.
England at womens World Cup – comforting to know they suffer the same affliction as the men ie. they can’t score penalties. Can I just say here and now that VAR has become a pain in the arse – Antiques Roadshow started 10 minutes because of the delayed conclusion to a game where VAR was administered a couple of times.
Read:
Hooked on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher following my introduction to him last month. Reading Pst Tense and enjoying what I am reading. Nearly finished it and over the two I have read there is not one swear word – pretty unusual for a modern day thriller writer. Not sure it reflects reality.
HEARD:
Heard the Peter Tosh classic Walk and don’t lo0ok back for the first time in countless years and had to go and buy the best of Scrolls of the Prophet. Fabulous.
I was real by 75 Dollar Bill is more dense than their first one – more in the direction of Desert Blues and varyb good too.
Years to Burn the Calexico/Iron and Wine collaboration is really very good but is far to short – left me wanting more which is maybe not a bad thing but felt slightly shortchanged.
Unplugged by Southside Johnny and Little Steven – a Radio broadcast with some interesting covers ie. Wonderful Tonight and Like a Virgin to name but two. Greatly enhanced by the violin playing of Scarlet Rivera.
Finally following a business trip to Mexico I wanted some good Mariachi music – I picked up a budget priced 2cd Café Mexico which is not bad but a bit Mariachi Light. Can anyone recommend anything a bit meatier?
I adore the Tosh/Jagger versh of Don’t Look Back. One of the most joyful, upbeat songs ever.
With one of my few non-civilian friends we sometimes play “Guess who this is?”. In the rules of the game it has to be a band/singer that the other person knows well and has albums by. I’ve won a couple of times recently, with Springsteen’s ‘Lift Me Up’ and with Peter Tosh’s ‘Fool’s Die’ (included on Scrolls Of The Prophet).
You might like some Robert Rodriguez, the film director buddy of Quentin Tarantino who supplied some of the Kill Bill soundtrack and the concert footage on the extra disc. Can’t remember name offhand but will get back to you.