A Few Forthcoming Releases (November)

This month’s list of things on the horizon. The Fennesz date is a guestimate, by the way. Everything else is official or semi-official.

3rd Nov
BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP – The Radiophonic Music (Mute)
FUNCKARMA – Vell Vagranz (N5MD)
JOHANN JOHANNSSON – Fordlandia (4AD)
NORTHERN VALENTINE – The Distance Brings Us Closer (Silber)
SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS – Alpinisms (Ghostly International)
ZEROVA – I Think We’ve Lost (Herb)

10th Nov
FLAMING LIPS – Christmas on Mars (Warner)
HELIOS – Caesura (Type)
LARSEN – La Fever Lit (Important)
PETER REHBERG – Work For GV 2004-2008 (Mego)

17th Nov
ARVE HENRIKSEN – Cartography (ECM)
B12 – B12 Archive Series Vol. 1 (B12)
CHRIS ECKMAN – Last Side of the Mountain (Glitterhouse)
PAVEMENT – Brighten the Corners (2CD edition) (Domino)
VARIOUS – The Factory Box Set (Rhino)
VARIOUS – Complete Motown Singles Vol 11A: 1971 (USA) (Hip-o select)

24th Nov
CALDER – Lower (Make Mine Music)
DAVID BYRNE / BRIAN ENO – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (Todo Mundo)
DISTANCE – Repercussions (Planet Mu)
IBITSU – foolproof betters fools bettering foolproof (Mego)
LIBRARY TAPES – A Summer Beneath the Trees (Make Mine Music)

1st Dec
DAKOTA SUITE – The End of Trying (Karaoke Kalk)
FENNESZ – Black Sea (Touch)
FLIPPER – Sex Bomb Baby (Water)
HEXSTATIC – Hexstatic Presents Videos Remixes and Rarities (Ninja Tune)
MURCOF – the Versailles Sessions (Leaf)

8th Dec
NEIL YOUNG – Sugar Mountain (Live 1968) (Reprise)
VARIOUS – Complete Motown No. 1s (Universal)

15th Dec
B12 – B12 Archive Series Vol. 2 (B12)

19th Jan 2009
JAH WOBBLE – Chinese Dub (30 Hertz)
MENDOZA – Si Me Duermo… Choco (Static Discos)

9th Feb 2009
MOS DEF – The Ecstatic (Downtown)

The M M & M 1000 – part 2

Twenty more of the Music Musings and Miscellany 1000.

CHAMELEONS – A Person Isn’t Safe Anywhere These Days / Thursday’s Child (Statik 6 1983)
The influence of the Chameleons is all over the place these days, from Interpol and Glasvegas to shameless carbon-copyists Editors. They seldom get due credit. “A Person Isn’t Safe…” is one of the stand-out tracks on A Script of the Bridge, an album frankly full of them. It’s an edgy and paranoid tale of urban threat with thumping riffs.

PREFAB SPROUT – A Prisoner of the Past / Where the Heart Is (Kitchenware 70 1997)
Few would make a claim that Andromeda Heights is one of Prefab Sprout’s best records, but this single taken from it juxtaposes sweeping, lush strings with a fairly creepy lyric about obsession. A long way from jumping frogs.

DISCO INFERNO – A Rock to Cling To / From the Devil to the Deep Blue Sky (Rough Trade R2983 1993)
Disco Inferno were a group out of time. When everything was baggy and Britpop, they were making dense, sample-heavy records that were way ahead of their contemporaries. They had a small, dedicated coterie of fans, but jacked it in when their (uninsured) van and equipment were stolen.

MAGAZINE – A Song from Under the Floorboards / 20 Years Ago (Virgin 321 1980)
Lyrically inspired by Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, “A Song from Under the Floorboards” was typical of a time when intelligence in pop songs wasn’t derided as pretentious. Great McGeoch guitar riff, too.

CHARLEY PATTON – A Spoonful Blues / Shake It and Break It, But Don’t Let it Fall (Paramount 12869 1929)
Charley Patton’s untutored howl, combined with the primitive recording techniques of the time (and Paramount’s notoriously poor quality pressings) make his records seem almost primeval, even compared to contemporaries like Lonnie Johnson and Willie McTell. “A Spoonful Blues” is probably his best known song due to the cover recorded by Cream forty years later. A copy, battered and scratched, recently sold on eBay for $1400!

MISSION OF BURMA – Academy Fight Song / Max Ernst (Ace of Hearts 104 1980)
It could be argued that Mission of Burma were the grandfathers of US alt-rock. Combining US punk and British post-punk, their records had an amazing energy. “Academy Fight Song” was their first, and probably best, single.

PHUTURE – Acid Trax / Phuture Jacks / Your Only Friend (Trax 142 1987)
HARDFLOOR – Acperience / mixes (Eye Q 18 1991)
Two very long singles, but both incredibly influential. “Acid Trax” pioneered the use of a 303 sampler to give that sharp, flangeing sound that came to define acid house. As a track, it’s as basic as they come, stretching one idea over eleven minutes. But that’s part of its appeal. As dance music mutated into endless genres and sub genres, the nine minute “Acperience” brought it right back to that acid sound, but with brutally hard techno beats.

BOBBY WOMACK – Across 110th Street / Hang On In There (United Artists 196 1973)
Blaxploitation movie theme tunes don’t come any better than this. The film wasn’t much cop.

ALTERNATIVE TV – Action Time Vision / Another Coke (Deptford Fun City 7 1978)
From the man who brought you “Sniffin’ Glue”, a fab three minutes of sloppy, angular punk-pop.

GRANDMASTER FLASH – Adventures on the Wheels of Steel / The Birthday Party (Sugar Hill 557 1981)
Recorded live in one take, “Wheels of Steel” sounded nothing like anything I’d heard before. It seemed impossible to figure out how he’d done it – incorporating bits of familiar records from Queen and Chic, and yet making it sound like they belonged together. This and Steinski’s three lessons are the Old Testament of turntablism.

AGE OF LOVE – Age of Love / mixes (React 100 1992)
Bruno Sanchioni & Giuseppe Chierchia’s “Age of Love” had actually first appeared two years earlier, but it was the definitive Jam and Spoon mix from 1992 that more or less laid down the blueprint for Trance which was to become all too ubiquitous in the years to come. Seldom a year goes by without new mixes of the track being dumped on to a credulous market without holding a candle to Jam and Spoon’s.

DIANA ROSS – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough / Can’t It Wait Until Tomorrow (Motown 1169 1970)
Diana Ross’ solo career was hardly living up to expectations when this came out. It’s more than just a remake of the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell hit – more a widescreen cinerama Cecil B DeMille production. Frankly, it’s ludicrous, but the melodrama and kitchen-sink production job are terribly seductive. In some ways it works precisely because it is so ostentatious.

LOUIS JORDAN & HIS TYMPANI FIVE – Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens / Let the Good Times Roll (Decca 23471 1946)
Farmer’s hassling his poultry, and the poultry are getting pissed off with his interruptions. I’ve never seen this record fail to bring a smile to anyone I’ve played it to. Brassy, bouncy and cheerful – I first heard it at a club in the eighties. Sandwiched between stuff like New Order and Heaven 17, the floor was shaking that night.

TEMPTATIONS – Ain’t Too Proud To Beg / You’ll Lose a Precious Love (Gordy 7054 1966)
With David Ruffin’s most soulful vocal, and possibly the sharpest backbeat on any Motown record, never has the desperate plea to a wayward lover sounded so uplifting.

KLEENEX – Ain’t You / Hedi’s Head (Rough Trade 9 1978)
More than just the Swiss Slits, Kleenex made ramshackle, strident records that had hooks as sharp as the best pop. They don’t make ‘em like this any more – more’s the pity.

WAY OUT WEST – Ajare / Montana (Deconstruction 24380 1994)
Jody Wisternoff and Nick Warren’s Way Out West project has never been afforded the same kind of respect given to contemporaries like Orbital and Underworld. Which, to my mind, is a real pity. “Ajare” is a fantastic slice of urgent, crunching progressive house.

PRINCE BUSTER – Al Capone / One Step Beyond (Blue Beat 324 1965)
The record that, more than any other, was responsible for the Two Tone movement a decade and a half later. Two indisputable ska classics on one 45.

REPLACEMENTS – Alex Chilton / Election Day (Sire 8297 1987)
Paul Westerberg’s paean to his hero combined the big pop choruses of Big Star with the scrappy garage rock of his own band. Impossible to listen to without bouncing around with a big shit-eating grin on your face.

BESSIE SMITH – Alexander’s Ragtime Band / There’ll Be a Hot Time In Old Town Tonight (Columbia 14219 1927)
This was already a well-recorded standard by the time Bessie Smith laid her version down in 1927. But she made it her own with that big, bold, booming voice of hers.

More soon.

Album: JAMES DEVANE – James Devane (Trans<Parent Radiation TRANS013 2008)

This was reviewed on the excellent Mapsadasical (which you probably read – if you don’t, you should). It sounded too good to miss, so I downloaded a (free) copy to have a listen myself. James Devane is based in San Francisco, and his self-titled album is an impressive beast indeed. The nine tracks are named after their start and end times – the album being a seamless suite that takes in drones, loops and field recordings.

It opens with eight minutes of guitar, feedback and organ drone that sounds good at low volume and skull-rattling played louder. Other tracks have a warm, low-key ambience, with gentle loops of plucked guitar strings enveloped in a sea of ambient hum. “15-21” has bird song and the clunking of wood amidst sweeping synths and wouldn’t sound out of place on Biosphere’s Substrata.

The Fennesz comparisons made by Scott at Mapsadaisical are most obvious on “23-27”. Elsewhere, though, Stars of the Lid, Murcof’s recent work and even William Basinski’s minimalist drones are nearer the mark if comparisons must be made. “27-32”, one of the stand-out sequences, combines a fuzzy drone with what sounds like the dripping of molten metal. “32-39” is nearly eight minutes of glassy monotone, oscillating and steadily growing in density and volume, crashing into the waves of molten guitar that end a fantastic forty minutes of sound sculpture.

The album will be issued in May next year in a physical edition of 50. In the meantime, it’s available to download for nothing from here.

Tracks
1. 00-08 8:34
2. 08-10 1:45
3. 10-15 5:12
4. 15-21 5:49
5. 21-23 1:54
6. 23-27 4:12
7. 27-32 4:32
8. 32-39 7:41
9. 39-41 1:23

Websites
www.jamesdevane.com
www.myspace.com/jamesdevanemusic
www.bremsstrahlung-recordings.org

Gig: Oxjam Music Festival (various venues, Ashton Lane, Glasgow, 26/10/08)

I spent six hours of yesterday’s Oxfam organized Oxjam Music Festival spending a semi-nomadic existence, flitting from bar to bar and trying to catch as many of the sixty or so acts on offer as I could. What I did see was a mere fraction – it couldn’t have been anything else. The general standard was very high – even those acts I didn’t particularly care for had some kind of personal twist on the kind of music they were playing. What was notably absent were any bands who could be pinned down as obvious acolytes of more well-known groups.

Eclecticism and individuality have always been the Glasgow music scene’s strongest suits. In Manchester, for example, if you saw an up-and-coming band in the late eighties, there was a high probability that they would fit neatly into the dance-rock baggy scene. Five years later, it was all trad-rock Oasis clones. It’s never been like that here. Granted, the city lacks the cosmopolitan nature of London, and Latin, hip-hop and R ‘n’ B don’t have anything like the same influence that they do there. Glasgow music is rooted in Celtic folk, country and American rock. But always with a twist.

El Dog‘s emotional soft-rock isn’t really my thing. The two singers had a strong sense of harmony, though, and the songs were short and flab-free. I enjoyed them far more than I thought I would. Tiny Montgomery were in some ways the opposite. Taking a jazzy, acoustic funk backdrop and adding a singer straight out of nu white soul central casting promised more than it delivered. Think early Massive Attack or Zero Seven, but with more soul and less hip-hop. It had its moments, particularly the bass groove to set closer “Throw Yourself Down”, but the music somehow lacked focus. Having said that, they seem to me to have a lot of potential.

A lot of the best acts had a definite country influence, but not always in an obvious way. Rags and Feathers – with a guitar / bass / autoharp line-up – looked like a 21st century take on the Carter Family, but had more in common with the Handsome Family. Country-ish, sure, but with a knowing, dark humour. Le Reno Amps‘ cowpunk with harmonies was also a lot of fun. Just two of them, trading vocals like the Everly Brothers, and guitar licks like Hendrix, they were both goofy and visceral.

The best two acts, for me, both played at the cavernous Loft – “like playing at gig at Wetherspoon’s” one remarked, quite accurately. Withered Hand lined up guitar and vocals, banjo, cello and drums. It looked odd, but sounded rich and full. There was a touch of Levellers about them, but the comparison that came to my mind was a kind of hillbilly Flaming Lips – or Flaming Hicks, if you will. They were damn good.

Meursault introduced something I’ve never seen before. The percussion was provided by a guy sat astride a big hi-fi speaker and playing it like the bongos. It sounded ace – big, cracking, bassy beats. When he wasn’t involved, he spent his time eating jam tarts and carrots. They too had a banjo and also a ukulele, but the main focus was on the singer/guitarist. Fast, strident and loud acoustic punk, but with much more subtlety than that description suggests. It was exciting, uplifting music. My only criticism would be that the supporting trio were a little underused – a couple of songs they were sat doing nothing (or eating jam tarts and carrots). Definitely the musical highlight for me.

There were other acts I saw snatches of – but not enough to give a fair assessment of. I only saw one song by trio Sparrow and the Workshop, but was very impressed by the singer. She has the same kind of smoky quality to her voice as Cat Power, but with about ten times the lung capacity!

I don’t know how much was raised. Entry to everything was free, but there was a small army of volunteers with collecting tins. “Make Music, Make Money, Fight Poverty” was the slogan. The first part was passed with flying colours – hopefully the second part too. The third – not so easy.

Motown News

The Complete Motown Singles Volume 11A covering the first six months of 1971 is issued (in the US) on November 18th. I don’t know when a UK release date is planned. Owing to the weak pound, the import price is prohibitive – something in the region of £70-80. It confirms the rumour that the 1971 and 1972 boxes are both to be split in two. There’s also a 10 CD box containing all the company’s number ones scheduled for a December release.

The ultimate Motown site can be found at www.seabear.se. It had oodles of info, and loads of label scans.

The M M & M 1000 – part 1

A few years ago I got hold of a copy of Dave Marsh’s book The Heart of Rock and Soul (ISBN 0140121080) that modestly claimed to be a list of the 1001 greatest singles ever made. While there were obviously loads of classic records in there, and it was fairly well written, it struck me as being totally beholden to the conventional Rolling Stone view of rock history, with very little outside of the mainstream aside from a smattering of obscure sixties soul and garage band records. I reckoned I could do better, and put together my own thousand. Then promptly forgot all about it.

A week or so ago, I came across the list when sorting through an assortment of unlabeled computer CDs. It’s about six years old, but holds up pretty well. I thought it might be worth sharing. Firstly I tweaked it a bit – added some things that were glaring omissions, cut some things which felt like flab. I also decided to limit it to the twentieth century, rather than attempt to bring it up to date. After all, the single is effectively a dead medium. Outside of DJ culture, and specially pressed up sevens for collectors, who actually buys physical singles these days? The singles chart is merely a most downloaded songs list – a great number which don’t physically exist as singles.

Doing a 1 to 1000 list in order struck me as absurd. Anyone who boldly claims that X or Y is the 823rd greatest single of all time is clearly an idiot. So this makes no attempt to be in any order of merit. It’s a combination of objective and subjective views – historical importance and how I feel about a song. Nothing was added for reasons of balance, but some records that I like were ditched in favour of others that I like equally, but which are probably more important in the scheme of things. Having said that, there’s a lot that I included that are obscure, or just not widely rated.

As far as what is or isn’t a single goes, I discounted EPs where there was no particular lead track, but included those which had one. Some are US singles, some are UK singles and a few are from elsewhere. This isn’t an exact science. I thought of doing them chronologically, or alphabetically by artist, but plumped for alphabetically by song title. It mashes things up a bit. Finally, this isn’t my pronouncement on the greatest records of all time. If it’s missing, it’s missing – it may be because I forgot it, or it may be that I don’t particularly rate it. It’s not important.

Here’s your first ten:

BANG BANG MACHINE – 16 Years (Parallel 1 1992)
I wrote a piece on this here.

ROLLING STONES – 19th Nervous Breakdown / As Tears Go By (Decca 12331 1966)
Classic Stones tunes showing their cocky, slightly misogynous side, and their sensitive, caring side at the same time.

GRANT HART – 2541 / Come Home / Let’s Go (SST 219 1989)
The story of a break-up which could be applied to both the demise of a relationship and the demise of the band (Hüsker Dü). When I first bought it (on a natty three inch CD), I played it to my girlfriend. She burst into tears. A few weeks later, when she’d left, it dawned on me why. Nearly twenty years later, it’s still quite hard to listen to.

MAYTALS – 54-46 / Version (Trojan 7808 1970)
54-46 really was Toots Hibbert’s number when he was jailed for marijuana possession. It’s a record that represents the transition from rock steady to reggae proper. Brilliant bass line.

CORNERSHOP – 6AM Jullander Shere (Wiiija 48 1995)
“Brimful of Asha” may have been their number one, but this remains their defining moment for me. A brilliant, lazy skank that combines the surly, bloody-mindedness of the Fall with the rhythms of the subcontinent.

SAM COOKE – A Change is Gonna Come / Shake (RCA 8486 1965)
This was Cooke’s brilliant, final flourish before his tragic death. It’s THE civil rights anthem – a mixture of secular and Gospel, hope and suffering. One of those records you can play over and over and never tire of. Few, if any, artists have ever gone out on such a high note.

RAY CHARLES – A Fool For You / This Little Girl of Mine (Atlantic 1063 1955)
I can’t think of any song that the normally cocky Ray Charles sounds quite as vulnerable on as “A Fool For You”. It’s a slow, blues/soul ballad that is full of suffering. It’s by far my favourite song of his.

THE CURE – A Forest / Another Journey by Train (Fiction 10 1980)
The combination of that thump-hiss beat, and the simple four-note riff that underpins “A Forest” gives it that slightly panicky, slightly paranoid air. There’s no real warmth to it, something the band took to its logical conclusion with the Pornography album two years later – possibly the coldest, most paranoid album I’ve ever heard.

ELBOW BONES & THE RACKETEERS – A Night in New York / Happy Times (EMI 8184 1984)
I seem to recall that there was an August Darnell involvement in this record somewhere. I got it in a WH Smith sale for 10p! It’s such a swanky tune – disco meets the big band era via Havana. It just oozes the glamour of Studio 54 and the other up town clubs, but at the same time, there’s no elitism about it. One of the great Saturday night records.

POGUES – A Pair of Brown Eyes / Whiskey You’re the Devil (Stiff 220 1985)
“A Pair of Brown Eyes” is a perfect example of us Celts’ predilection for alcohol, sentimentality and nostalgia. Combining the experiences of World War One machine-gun fodder and Soho drunks in one song, there’s a shared undercurrent of wasted lives, ruined by war and whisky. In stark contrast, the titular brown eyes offer a reason to go on, even if they merely represent the memory of something that has gone for good.

The next bunch coming soon.