it’s the first Friday of a new month, so come over, gather in the leaves that have started to fall, and please let us know what you have been listening to, reading, watching, or otherwise getting up to in the last month.
and is there anything coming up we should know about ?
Here’s three things I listened to –
MINORU MURAOKA – Japanese shakuhachi player’s album from 1970 – brilliant playing throughout, lovely versions of “And I Love Her” and “Do You Know The Way To San Jose”, also some really creative tracks with excellent percussion
.
RANDY NEWMAN – can’t believe I’d never heard of this – the soundtrack to The Meyerowitz Stories – just Randy on piano, a bunch of short tracks. Just beautiful.
.
ANA MAZZOTTI – 70s Brazilian singer, only made one album, with members of Azimuth
A triple whammy there, Mousey!
I am very keen to hear all three.
Randy, Japan and Obscure Brazilian Lady. Utter bliss!
I copied his name in Japanese and posted on YT. I got this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rMtxfJZfk4
Next up was this.
Now there is something you do not see on Swedish TV.
No clips from me but have been
WATCHING
The jeremy dellar film about rave (blogged about), and of course the start of Bake Off. Helena the Spanish Goth is the breakout star for us, and Noel will clearly brain Hollywood if she goes out early.
LISTENING
Cheesy trance on running as I work up to the Birmingham Half, no need to go into that but its top pounding the streets music.
Discovered the Bush Tetras who surely are the ‘American Au Pairs’ and way better than they should be.
READING
Just started Titus Groan – quite dense and slow but enjoying Peake’s dry wit; disappointed in holiday read mega-novel Gnomon by Nick Harkaway – inside this 700-page monster there’s a cracking 300-page novel trying to get out.
Ok I give in – here is a clip – of the Bush Tetras – anyone who likes the post-punk scratchy funk sound we’ve heard so much of this week will be tuned right in:
I was knocked out by Titus Groan and Gormenghast, whilst agreeing that the first book is a struggle to get into. The third book Titus Alone is a step too far, I feel, and outstays its welcome. MP’s illustrations are essential to the books.
Haven’t read those since my early 20s. Lately I have a hankering to revisit them. The Gormenghast trilogy was a sort of staple read around that time for post-hippie freaks such as myself. I recall being enthralled, though they were not easy reads.
An interesting snippet I’ve just now read in his Wikipedia page:
Mervyn Peake designed the logo for Pan Books. The publishers offered him either a flat fee of £10 or a royalty of one farthing per book. On the advice of Graham Greene, who told him that paperback books were a passing fad that would not last, Peake opted for the £10.
Heard:
Frank Turner – No Mans Land
The album is a lot better than Frank’s last couple of outings
nicked from my blog review:
black midi – Schlagenheim
Sort of Post-Punk meets Prog meets Sensational Alex Harvey Band – it’s good, but I’ve only had one listen so far. I will definitely be returning though
Maybe it’s an age thing, but The Band – The Last Waltz is a phenomenal listen (it’s taken a good few years to arrive at that conclusion)
Read:
Ant Anstead – Cops and Robbers: The Story of the British Police Car
I know how to live me – Wolseleys, Rileys, Zephyrs, Rovers – there was even a Ford Mustang used once by the Lancashire Police Force
Seen:
Not much – finally got round to watching Season 2 of The Grand Tour (Season 3 to follow).
Watched some of The Goodies – amusing (very amusing in places) but sort of feels like a toned-down, less surreal, Monty Python.
Talking of which … 50 Years of Python next month – been re-watching some of the TV shows. Not jam-packed classics, but certainly more high bits than flat bits.
Seen: Cricket again! How good was the last day or so of the Headingley Test? A month or so ago I was faced with the choice of getting three tickets at £70 each for day 4, or £25 each for day 5 on Bank Holiday Monday, in the knowledge that if we saw less than 15 overs we get all our money back, 15-30 overs and we get half our money back. I’m a Yorkshireman, so I went for day 5. D’oh!
Film wise, watched a very disappointing follow up to an excellent low budget horror film. But I heartily recommend the original film, Hell House LLC. A film I did enjoy was Beats, the story of a kid from Chicago who becomes a recluse after a shooting incident, devoting his time to creating, er, Beats. Cue unlikely mentor and it’s a decent watch, albeit with a slightly disappointing ending. I wish I’d watched it before we went to Chicago last month though, as it may have made me do a bit more research on the location of the Airbnb we had booked. Two multiple shootings within a mile of us in the couple of days before we got there and a very uneasy walk to the station the first morning (followed by Ubers to and from the door after that!).
Read: Mark E Smith’s book, which is basically an alcohol fuelled rant in print. Re-reading the last two Walking Dead compendiums before the final one arrives this month. Otherwise, just reading the news headlines has been terrifying enough. Is there no depths this government won’t sink to.
Heard: Loads of Fall CDs that I’ve bought recently and thousands of live tracks. I’ve now finished creating playlists of live tracks by 33 different artists, basically the best version of every live song I have by the artist to create the ultimate live album by them. Some were quick to compile, others not so quick. For many it was just a case of choosing the version with the clearest audio or the less crowd noise at either end of the song. Whilst for others it was a bit more difficult. Dylan, of course, was the most difficult, not least cos there were 1,800 tracks to start with, but because there are so many variations of the songs, both to the tempo, style, electric/acoustic, the backing band…and that’s before you even start with the voice. Initially I thought it would be difficult putting recent recordings next to his early versions, but as I got into it I really enjoyed it and found I was choosing versions from all across his career. The most annoying thing was that on both albums that contain the Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, the ‘Judas’ and ‘play it f*cking loud’ are tagged on at the end of the previous track, so I don’t have them as the intro to Like A Rolling Stone. With the Stones playlist both ‘Charlie’s good tonight innee?’ and ‘Paint It Black you devils’ are there at the beginning of the respective tracks.
New music wise, got Kano’s new CD last week, so that will be getting regular spins over the coming weeks. It’s not as immediate as his last one, Made In The Manor, but I like it. Also downloaded Rapsody’s new album, so looking forward to finding a quiet hour to listen to that. Finally, Jesse Malin’s new album is his best for a long time. It’s produced by Lucinda Williams, who I was thrilled to finally see last month at Holmfirth Picturedrome. At one point she seemed confused to have so many fans in such a small town and asked whether we all came from Holmfirth, or whether we’d travelled in for the show!
Her between song banter at Cambridge seemed to suggest she’d had a glass or two of confusion there too.
Saw her tonight in Ottawa, big crowd at a festival. She said she was very happy to be back in Canada. Band were amazing especially the guitarist, felt she took a while to warm up. Shortish festival set and she was just getting going.
I read an review of her gig in Bristol that remarked upon her slow start. She was the same at Holmfirth too, which was a shame, because she played some of her better songs earlier on (seeing as though they’re earlier on the album). Her guitarist is terrific isn’t he. The group I was with all singled him out for praise too.
Yeah Stuart Mathis. The teenage daughter of my friend said he looked “a bit high” though! Was not a full album performance, am not too familiar with her ouvre, but I liked the songs from “Down WhereTthe Spirit Meets The Bone” best.
A bit high? Clearly I couldn’t comment, but his physique cries out to be better fed. Further suggestions would be stringing it out.
And surely @Paul-Wad you can include Ballad of a Thin Man so that it always precedes LARS. If you use iTunes I think you can also merge the tracks so they always play together even on random. If you have such an aversion to BOATM then you can, I believe, also set a starting time for the track in iTunes so that the track starts when the guy in the audience starts shouting.
Of course!!! And I thought I was an iTunes expert. You can’t merge tracks that are already on there, but you can do it as you download tracks from CD. I can then, as you say, edit the track once it’s downloaded so the chat is before LARS, rather than after BOATM. I already have my favourite BOATM in the playlist, which is from a bootleg with the Band in 1974 at Madison Square Gardens.
You know what you’ve done now though don’t you. I’m going to be re-editing all the live albums I have on CD so that the song intros are on the right track. It’s going to take ages, but I don’t know why the people that code the CDs don’t split it this way anyway. I guess they think that most people want the track to start as soon as they click on to it.
Along those lines, I was so disappointed when the Talking Heads True Stories/Blu Ray set came out a short while ago. I love the version of People Like Us with John Goodman on the vocals from the film. It has a more countryish feel to it. It had never been released on a CD and I scoured the dark recesses of the interweb for years trying to find a decent quality MP3, but never found one. Eventually I borrowed a USB turntable to convert a few records to MP3, so included that one, but the sound’s not great. So I was thrilled to see it was included in the new set. But they have ruddy edited it and removed the four drum beats at the beginning of the intro (like the Talking Heads’ own version). It’s only four drum beats, BUT IT’S JUST NOT RIGHT!!! [i shouted that last bit to demonstrate my disappointment}
Now you can just add them in because, otherwise, that CD is brilliant. I love all the non-Talking Heads vocals/tracks.
Mmm, editing a track like that is a bit beyond me. On my iPod I’ve just substituted the whole track.
The other film version I particularly like is Dream Operator. I like the film though and that period (Little Creatures/True Stories) is my favourite of theirs. The Wild Wild Life section of the film, which was used as the video, is just brill. My favourite TH track.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Love For Sale is their finest single.
Jings, you people! I just love eavesdropping on your conversations – if only I spoked your language.
It’s underrated, fo shizzle. So is And She Was, Houses in Motion, and my own particular favourite Nothing But Flowers. Johnny Marr transported to West Africa? Yummy!
Can you help me? I need to decode all my thingies into the other thingies so I can do something else with my thingie before I digitise my whatsit
I think you have a misplaced cucaracha on your thermistor, meaning your flange is misaligned.
Is this about gender fluidity?
You do and you’ll wipe it up, feller
I am Jed or Ward
….and so is my wife!
@paul-wad
If you have the Blu-Ray of the movie, you could always use a tool such as DVD Extractor to capture the soundtrack.
http://www.dvdae.com
It works on both Mac and Windows and has a fully functional 30 day trial. I use it to extract the audio (often in higher resolution than CD) of concert Blu-Ray's.
I'm guessing that the movie will be arranged in chapters and so you will probably need to edit down that particular chapter to get just the song, but there's loads of tools that can do that.
Seen
On holiday in Devon saw a couple of terrific concerts at the Dartington Summer Music Festival. Joanna MacGregor led a wonderful concert of piano duets which included Stravinsky’s spectacular version of The Rite of Spring for piano and four hands – an incredible piece to see played live. Then we saw a screening of the 1920s silent movie The Passion of Joan of Arc with accompanying live music. Wasn’t convinced by the music, to be honest, but ye Gods what an incredible film.
Enjoyed two more recent releases, Blinded by the Light, and Almodovar’s gorgeous Pain and Glory.
Read
Andrew Miller is one of my favourite contemporary novelists, and his latest book, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, a sort of revenge Western set in the time of the Napoleonic wars, is just a terrific read.
Heard
Really hardly listened to anything new this month – mainly holiday playlists of selections by the likes of Van, Ry, and Bob, all of which have reminded me how great they are. And you know that thing where you hear a work you’ve listened to before but not really got, and then suddenly it hits you? That, with, of all things, Brahms’ German Requiem. The fifth movement which is essentially a song for soprano, just kills me.
I like Joanna MacGregor. Interesting open-minded musician unafraid to take a few risks. I’ve seen a couple of her concerts, though none very recently.
SEEN: Well, Cambridge was the only night(s) out, as documented elsewhere.
HEARD: Bit of a blinder for new records this month, plumping for Modern Nature’s eponymous first, Weyes Bloods 2nd, ‘Titanic Rising’ and Lloyd Cole’s umpteenth, ‘Guesswork’, all lured in by the same cover disc from whichever of Boho/Unshod it was. Modern Nature is a terrific sound, bringing together elements of King Creosote motorik, Caravan/Canterbury vocals and the acoustic songs on early Hawkwind LPs, with the occasional skronky sax for good measure. Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) takes the promise of her earlier record and sends it into orbit, with strings and synths enveloping her Karen Carpenter vocals in a cosy marshmallow. And Lloyd? Well, he is back to writing choons again, instead of his recent infatuation with being a Lidl Lou Reed, but with OMITD style poppy electronica rather than the Commotions.
I also had an advance of Chrissie Hynde’s new jazz direction, Valve Bone Woe. I like it a lot, but it carries some also dead weight and pointless lets-add-a-bit-of-this to the mix, that being often of heavy handed dub and effects. I will bastardise my review more fully for a Night In.
WATCHED: Paul’n’Bob continue to gently lift my week with Bobs innocence and Paul tolerant chiding. I hate fishing but it is a delight. Sort of Detectorists meets a less abrasive Coogan and Brydon eating out. Binge watched Brassic, a lighter hearted This is England/Virtues type of thing, all Grim up North with laughs. New series of Mindhunter has kicked off well, moving into the Manson years.
Ah yes, new series of Mindhunter. Watched that, good stuff. New series of Hip Hop Evolution out this week too.
Very much agreed on Weyes Blood and have just purchased Modern Nature on liking what I heard – kind of krautfolk
August was near perfect in every way – I had three weeks much needed holiday, the weather was great (but not too hot) and I did so many fun things and saw so much of friends and family that it felt more like six weeks than three! Of course, as soon as I got back to work it felt like I’d never had a holiday…but it was good while it lasted.
Read:
Tara Westover – Educated – autobiographical about growing up in a strict Mormon survivalist family with a (probably) bipolar dad and a brutal older brother making everyone’s lives very challenging, and going from being (barely) homeschooled to a doctorate at Cambridge. Gripping and fascinating in its descriptions of the family’s paranoid lifestyle and how they choose to renounce her when she confronts them with her brother’s psychological and physical abuse. Highly recommended.
I’m sure I’m the last person to finally read Tracey Thorn’s autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen; I never listened to EBTG when I was young and thought they seemed a bit dull, so I didn’t think it would be very interesting to read, but I enjoyed it a lot.
I’ve been reading Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down by Allan Jones in the bathroom, it’s a mixed bag of rock magazine anecdotes veering from highly annoying to highly entertaining. Lots of tiresome people that you wouldn’t want to have a pint with, even if they make great music.
I also read a couple of Swedish books, one about the last outbreak of the plague in Stockholm in 1710 – very interesting and leaning heavily on documents from the time: diaries, letters and official records, making it come alive. And a biography/interview book about the author/illustrator Gunilla Bergström, who’s books I’ve completely missed, not having read them as a child and not having children of my own to read them to, but still found it an interesting book and her a pleasant aquaintance.
I’ve also read a soon to be published book (on a PDF file) that I agreed to review here (thanks to @Bargepole), but I haven’t been able to get a grip on how I feel about it yet, although I’ve tried to write it for the last week or so…in large part, I believe, due to not being able to easily flick through the pages of it in proper book form! I found the experience of reading it on a screen highly annoying, so much so that I think it may have tainted my view of the book’s content – but I’ll try again to get a review together on Tuesday when I have the day off. But I certainly won’t be buying a Kindle any day soon!
Seen:
I watched Blade Runner 2049 and didn’t like it much. IMO It lacked the soul of the original, it was SO slow, the soundtrack was intrusive and the bad guys were ridiculous, plus it had a silly ending. It was beautiful and had some cool elements here and there, but over all I was disappointed.
Also watched The Lobster, a very mixed bag for me. It reminded me a bit of the films by Roy Andersson: emotional numbness, heightened realism/surrealism, the absurd humour and long silences mixed with dialogue where people sound as if they are speaking to themselves rather than having a conversation. Very funny at times, but also often quite dull, and in the end it felt a bit pointless. Too long.
The first series of Castle Rock, which I’m three episodes away from completing. Set in the Stephen King universe and littered with easter eggs from his books, but not based on a King story. But also seems inspired by Twin Peaks in many ways. I still have no idea where it’s going and what’s going on…but the episode where Sissy Spacek‘s character is lost in an Alzheimer loop of memories mixed with real time events, jumping through time and desperately grabbing hold of her chess pieces to get a hold of reality, is one of the best episodes of television I’ve seen in a while. Just not sure how they will tie everything up in the end.
Heard:
Very little during my holiday weeks, too busy! But Jesca Hoop’s Stonechild is a grower, sort of gothic, experimental folk with a pinch of whimsy.
Mostly I’ve been dancing, being a disco chick through and through! Firstly to the irresistible modern disco on Inflorescent, the new album from Friendly Fires, sounding like an updated and poppy Earth Wind & Fire. This is brilliant, and if you can stay seated and immovable to this, it’s time to see your doctor. “Bap-bap-bap!”
After hearing brilliant single after brilliant single I finally took the hint and bought Lizzo‘s album Cuz I Love You. Another absolutely brilliant and dancetastic album with irresistible woman power at its core. Plus flute!
Also live gigs from Robyn, Dungen and many more (see Nights Out) as well as the free park gig of Roma music from Lele Lele Orchestra which was a joyful affair with the audience dancing together before and during the gig.
Coming up, I’m seeing Courtney Marie Andrews on Tuesday, which will be brilliant.
A bunch of new albums finally arrived after the self-imposed August drought, and first impressions are very good! (I would have bought albums in August if it hadn’t been for the dentist wanting so much money for mending two teeth that I managed to chew to pieces the week before my holiday…)
Hi Locust,
If you ever fancy hanging out with Roy Andersson, he often has a dagens lunch on his own at the Indian Palace restaurant on Sibyllegatan. I’ve seen him twice there now!
I think I’ll pass on that opportunity…running into Lars Norén almost daily for years on my street was quite enough of a brush with culture’s top dogs for me! 😀
Eh. A quiet month.
What have I listened to? Nothing new, but a growing appreciation that I would pay good money to let Bobby Gentry sing the phone book to me. That, and the fact that I had to review The Scottish Band’s concert got me back into them.
Watched? A buttload of British/Australian/NZ crime stuff. We get Lucy Lawless’ “My Life is Murder” new episode each Monday. Is it innovative? Groundbreaking? Nope. Is it pleasant, reasonably well acted and understand where it is in the TV pantheon? Yes. I actively look forward to it. I’m just not looking for anything heavy, or ‘new’ right now.
Reading? Revisiting a lot of C V Wedgwood and Christopher Hill right now. Barbara Tuchman’s look at Europe pre-W1 is as masterful as her “Guns of August” if slightly more episodic. I had a slight back-and-forth with Salwarpe about C17th religious groups on Facebook, and came to realize I really, really appreciate Christopher Hill as both a historian and writer. Each time I read him another preconception about the Civil War gets upended.
I rarely contribute to this monthly thread mainly because I can’t remember what I did this morning let alone 28 days ago. But over the years it has lead me to many, many records, books, TV shows etc that would have otherwise passed me by.
Back in the day Blogger Takeover would always harvest well over a 100 comments. How sad
Me too.
However, August is always quiet and that’s reflected in September’s Blogger Takeover, which, otherwise, still attracts lots of comments. Plus, things have been busy with Brexit, The Ashes and 60 years of albums.
Looking at the most commented, The Afterword still looks healthy to me.
I’ll give it a go.
Heard: Early days but new Lana Del Rey is wondrous. Found her hard to warm to before but this is really engaging, full of textures and hooks. Emotional, sad and beautiful. Sounds modern and nostalgic somehow. Too many tracks though?
Seen: The OA. This is very good. A certain ridiculous notion behind the story but if you go with that it’s really gripping. You can never predict what is going to to happen next. Reminds me of a David Mitchell or Murakami novel. High praise indeed. Trippy things are afoot! There’s a logic there but then something wtf happens. They’ve created a series that is it’s own world. Shame season 2 is where it stops.
Also Manhunt The Unabomber. Much of the best TV is this kind of faction genre. I guess because truth is always stranger, and a better story. This is well done.
Read: David Mitchell Black Swan Green. Relatively straight forward tale of school days. Straight forward by his standards, although a disturbing sequence of events. As good an evocation of being a teenage school child as you could find. No sentiment here. Life was bleak for a many a boy at that age in the late seventies. The awful, relentless, competitive hierarchy.
CSN by Peter Doggett. This is quite a tale of monstrous egos. A story suitable for the author of You Never Give Me Money. Hippy millionaires having their cake and eat it. Ultimately I think Neil Young was the greater artist.
Update. Every track on Lana’s album deserves it’s place there. Masterpiece is my current assessment. Yes really. The greatest is a bit Beatles-esque and very good.
I heartedly agree, Diddley.
Have you heard Raphael Saadeq’s Jimmy Lee? That makes two masterpieces in a week!
Heady days. Not as yet. I’m currently investigating the new Bat for Lashes release. It’s sounding very promising.
I have never knowingly listened to Lana before – this is indeed a belter, who knows maybe even a classic?
Is all her stuff this good – where to start?
Her previous albums are never less than interesting but I don’t think any are on a par with NFR. A lot of that is down to her co-writer & producer, Mark Antonoff. You’ll know him from his work with Taylor Swift. He strips back a lot of the excess Hollywood schlock and brings some lovely, simple melodies into play. The best moments on NFR are when Lana sings backed only by a subtle acoustic guitar or a polite piano. Having said that, he’s unafraid of a dramatic flourish, of which Lana is fond. Her lyrics are far better focussed, too.
Cheers – I now remember I tried Ultraviolence but thought nah: maybe I was Wrong?
Depends who it was directed at.
Jedward
Seconded – remarkably good album
Seen
The Professor. Johnny Depp plays the titular academic who’s dying of cancer, poor chap. He decides to live his remaining days to the full, which apparently involves drinking a lot, taking a lackadaisical attitude to work and other responsibilities, smoking spliff and receiving a blow job from a fella. The heavy handed message of the film is, of course, that everyone should always live every day as though it’s their last. But I was just left with the feeling that drinking too much is a foolish waste of time. I far preferred a film called I Am Not A Serial Killer, a low budget indie thriller with Christopher Lloyd and blood and aliens and stuff.
Read
I’m still reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It’s sooo long. I’ve been reading it since before the beginning of time and I expect to finish it long after my death.
Heard
Springsteen‘s newie is macho dullsville, James Blake‘s is very delicate and pretty, Vampire Weekend‘s is exuberant and Taylor Swift‘s sounds like Jedward (and vice-versa). But what I’ve really been liking is two songs. One is called Soolaimon and it’s by Neil Diamond, of all people. It came up on my iPod somehow and I’ve been playing it ever since. The other is by murderer and artist Bobby Beausoleil. Bobby was BFF with Charles Manson back in the wacky 60s and the first to kill someone for him. He’s in prison still and sends music and art out to the world via the wonders of internet. A lot of his music is pretty tosh, tbh. Psychedelic waffle. But there’s this one song, Hard Road, that sounds a bit Tom Waits meets Robbie Robertson meets Little Axe. It’s great.
I’m halfway through Shantaram too. I keep looking at it and wondering whether I can muster the effort to finish it. It’s been good but time consuming.
I’ve read Shantaram too. Thought it was excellent but is it just autobiographical fiction? The follow up, “The Mountain Shadow” (a similar length) is on my bookshelf but I’m not sure whether I will ever read it. I felt a little conned, that after reading so many pages of a book, it hadn’t really finished.
I read Shantaram around 10 years ago and as you say @Pinmonkey it is more ‘autobiographical fiction’ but I really enjoyed it. The follow up also sits on a shelf somewhere around here, think I’ll get it out and place on the ever-growing pile by my bed.
Postscript: fans of industrial/ambient/electronica should get over to emusic pronto and snap up Triumvirate by Carter Tutti Void – collaboration between the Throbbing Gristle musos and Nik Void. Being brilliantly reviewed everywhere, and it is absolutely brilliant.
Cricket, obviously.
The football season continues apace and I got to see my annual F.A. Cup match in London at the weekend. Wouldn’t be the same without seeing at least one. If Truro City progress it might soon be doubled. Also saw my first Rugby Union match of the season.
Bought a new (2019) CD … the first of the year … in September! … jolly well done to the Record Industry!
The 3-CD set of Rainbow Ffolly’s sole L.P. for £6.99 in Selectadisc even though it was £20 in Fopp.
Saw live – Wizz Jones. I like to give youth a chance.
Taped on Talking Pictures, but haven’t seen yet – The 1969 series, Special Branch.
I was very remiss last month when it was the first time I hadn’t posted on Blogger Takeover so apologies if you missed my ramblings. In truth I was very busy and meant to post but when I found time the month had already gone.
HEARD:
My absolute favourite album this month is Sunset Kids by Jesse Malin. His voice has never sounded better and the songs are great. Its interesting that he has moved away from that Punkish Ryan Adams type personality into a more rounded performer – it hasn’t done him any harm.
Also Threads by Sheryl Crow – has some very good collaborations and some that miss the mark but overall more good than bad.
Sly and Robbie vs Roots Radics – it was a job to find this as a physical product but worth the search. Love most of Sly and Robbie releases and this has some big hitters contributing.
A Natacha Atlas 2 cd compilation is really excellent and adds a lot I was unfamiliar with.
Joan Shelley Like the River loves the sea was highly recommended in the music press and rightly so – she has a great voice and some pretty decent songs, a female Bonnie Prince Billy in some was and no surprise he joins her on one song.
Brian Eno Apollo reissue with a bonus disc is very good too.
And then there is the Kathryn Williams boxset – at 20 discs it is a lot of music but a lot of very good music – haven’t got through it all yet but there are some fantastic rarities that make the box a real treasure.
READ: A very good football autobiography by Lee Howey Massively Violent and Decidedly Average.
it benefits from him being self deprecating and without the ego of the superstars. It was also written by him without ghost writers and he certainly has a gift for humorous writing. Recommended to me by Geacher formerly of this site.
SEEN:
They see us now – an excellent Netflix documentary about 5 black teenagers wrongly convicted of a brutal rape in Central Park. They served up to 18 years of a prison sentence before the perpetrator confessed. Even then there were question marks over their innocence. At times it was visceral and made me feel very angry about the injustice and the authorities seemingly intent in prosecuting a case that was flimsy at best. To think at the time Trump took out a full page newspaper advert advocating the Death Penalty.
Brassic was hoovered up in one evening – hilarious. A cross between Inbetweeners and Shameless – can’t wait for season 2.
At the cinema Blinded by the Light which I really enjoyed. And Once upon a time in Hollywood. What can I say? The reviews were mixed but I think it is Tarantino’s masterpiece. Typical slow build up but a breathtaking finale. Its also a homage to the Hollywood of the 60’s – many references to films and tv of the era and as usual a fabulous soundtrack. The scene between Bruce Lee and Brad Pitt’s stuntman was genuinely laugh out loud funny. There was apparently a lot of opprobrium from the Chinese community. I don’t understand that reaction – the scene was to highlight the grittiness of the Brad Pitt character not to denigrate the Bruce Lee lookalike. And very well done it was too.
I like the sound of Castle Rock as mentioned by @Locust – I will search that out.
Hmmm … only £55 for the 20-disc Kathryn Williams “Anthology” box set. That’s a reasonably fair price, I’d say.
@stevet : which Natacha Atlas , the 2005 ‘Best Of’ or ‘Habibi: Classics and Collaborations’, by which I mean, whichever one you mean, get the other as well. My favourite track, from the latter:
@Retropath2 Habibi classics and Collaborations. Will take a look at the other best of.
Read
During August I put on hold my project to re-read all the Bond novels in order and read a couple of Ben Macintyre real-life spy books instead: the one about Philby and the one about Gordievsky. The latter is an absolutely incredible read that pretty much blew my tiny mind, although I’ve since found out that my dad’s a fan and he preferred the Philby one. Now reading the autobiography of David McGillivray, who wrote lots of British horror and exploitation films in the 1970s. Enjoying it so far.
Watched
The above has neatly coincided with me wolfing down my Norman J Warren blu-ray boxset (McGillivray wrote two of them: Satan’s Slave and Terror). It’s one of the few boxsets where the extras are just as appealing as the main features. McGillivray and Warren are great fun in their two commentaries, Stephanie Beacham is a scream in her appearance in the Inseminoid documentary, and there’s a section where Warren talks about the making of Bloody New Year — particularly the involvement of berserk producer Maxine Julius — that’s absolutely hilarious. I have a Pete Walker boxset nestled in my shelves and the plan is to revisit that next. Although I love Hammer’s imperial period, for me the 1970s is the golden age of British horror, with that trio — Norman J Warren, Pate Walker and McGillivray — its main architects. Oh, and I also introduced my 14-year-old to Amicus with a screening of From Beyond the Grave.
Heard
A strange month that involved binges on the following: Elastica, Campag Velocet (mainly second albums for them — both of which I missed first time round), Young American Primitive, Hardkiss, Cirrus (absolutely the best in progressive West Coast breaks) and Dubkasm. During this period I discovered that Elastic’a Stutter is about a guy not being able to get it up and I’d never really paid much attention to the lyrics before, but, “You’ve had too much wine to stumble up my street.” OF COURSE IT IS.
AOB
For reasons too humdrum to go into, the theme tune to Friday the 13th is now my most-played iTunes song. Play count: 402!
Live
I made my first visit to Shrewsbury Folk Festival and was very impressed. Having said that the weather was fantastic and I found myself a few times thinking that it would be a different story it is was pissing down. I didn’t care for the big tent and stuck mostly to the middle-sized one which had very good sight lines and big screens on either side of the stage. Of the new-to-me bands I was keen to see Birds of Chicago and wasn’t disappointed; they were just fabulous and Alison had the whole audience in her pocket throughout. I also enjoyed The Rev Sekou and the Freedom Fighters, a stonking township jive set from Mankala, an an impressively energetic set from Capercaillie in a really hot marquee. Of artists I’d seen before, honourable mentions to Merry Hell who absolutely smashed it on Saturday night and Eddi Reader who played a top notch 1hr 45m set on Sunday afternoon
I saw Merry Hell a few years ago. They gave the headliners a run for their money, very good indeed.