R.I.P. Mark Stewart

 

Mark Stewart (Photo: Beezer Redland)

It was with great sadness that I learned of the recent passing of Mark Stewart - one of the godfathers (possibly THE Godfather) of what became known as 'The Bristol Sound.'

When I arrived in Bristol in 1980, to study Fine Art at the city's Polytechnic, I would occasionally see posters for gigs by local band, The Pop Group. Their name was also dropped around college from time to time, in tones indicating they had already made something of an impact on the Post-Punk music scene, both locally and nationally.

As it happened, the kind of angular, punk/funk noise they pioneered was very much a prevailing sound in Bristol at the time - at least for those searching for something suitably left-field to fill the vacuum left by Punk's demise, but reluctant to settle for the lukewarm offerings of New Romanticism littering the charts (Kajagoogoo, anyone? - I didn't think so!). Nevertheless, even in a region that boasted a number of enthusiastic alt-funkateers, with varying degrees of 'edge', Mark Stewart's outfit stood out as something else again.

A (literally) larger-than-life front man - Stewart was a self-proclaimed visual and sonic collagist from an early age. His righteous anger and radical politics were matched only by his desire to glue together Punk,Funk, Free Jazz, Dub Reggae (in which Bristol was also rich) - and essentially anything noisy that didn't identify as standard Rock music - into something that might express his thoughts and opinions effectively. Their debut album, 'Y' [1.] was a blistering statement of intent - fusing all the above ingredients with Stewart's histrionic vocals - and tied together by Dennis Bovell's sympathetic dub-wise production. At its most extreme, the sound might easily become an unholy racket - but it is one one that always draws the listener in. Stewart's lyrics were often polemical, but the music's appeal is actually to the heart (and feet) as much as to the head. 'Y' is alienated, certainly - but never alienating, and it still has the power to both alarm and excite all these decades later.

I'm ashamed to admit that my own limited experience of the Pop Group playing live in their home town was on one of those confused, heavily intoxicated evenings, when I only discovered exactly what I had just witnessed by asking someone afterwards. To be honest, I don't even recall exactly where it was. In retrospect, it may be that they've come to symbolise some of the experiential turmoil (bafflement-even?) of that period in my autobiography! I do remember it being an inspiringly chaotic experience, and suspect it would have still been so - even had I been sober. The archives suggest that they often brought a similarly ramshackle aesthetic to live proceedings as another great M.S. - fronted act, The Fall.

That gig must have been towards the end of their relatively short existence, I imagine, as the first iteration of the band burned intensely, but fairly briefly - and disbanded in 1981. Despite that, theirs has proved to be a lasting and highly influential legacy. Indeed, one might regard Stewart and co.'s musical eclecticism, willingness to tap into culturally diverse musical energies on an equal footing, and sheer, unbridled commitment, as being key characteristics of much Bristol-based music in subsequent years. Without that example, would Massive Attack or Roni Size and his compatriots have been quite the phenomena they would become? And it's hard not to survey the city's continuing enthusiasm for clattering beats and cut-up sounds, its D.I.Y. attitude, and its deep Dub sensibilities, without also imagining Mark Stewart glowering approvingly from the shadows.

Ever the restless and energetic soul, Stewart continued to plough his own distinctive (and critically acclaimed) musical furrow down the years - and with little discernible sign of compromise. He would go on to be associated with the New Age Steppas, Mark Stewart and The Mafia, and Adrian Sherwood and his extended On-U Sound family, alongside many others, and also recorded several records under his solo imprint. In more recent times, he found room to resurrect The Pop Group for a second go-round, and also to release a fantastic Dub reworking of that seminal debut album (with Denis Bovell in even fuller effect) [2.]. I would personally contend that the latter record is as essential as its parent.

Anyone  keen to research Bristol's music scene, and to gain a greater understanding of Stewart's influence upon it, could do worse than read Phil Johnson's slim volume, 'Straight Outa Bristol' [3.]. One can only hope that the city will continue to generate crucial sounds on its own terms for many years to come. Nevertheless, it is certainly a little poorer for the passing of Mark Stewart. In fact - we all are.

[1.]:  'Y', The Pop Group, Radar, 1979

[2.]:  'Y In Dub', The Pop Group, Mute, 2022

[3.]:  'Straight Outa Bristol', Phil Johnson, London, Sceptre, 1997

R.I.P. Burt Bacharach

Plenty has already been (and will be) written about the recently deceased Burt Bacharach, and how his work represents the acme of popular songwriting. Suffice it to say, his career spanned multiple decades, and many of the most memorable melodies penned during my own lifetime  turn out to have been Bacharach (& David) compositions (even if I didn't know it at the time personally). Instead of adding to the forest of words surrounding his passing, it seems more fitting to just let the music be his true memorial...

To me, that represents a perfect example of a perfect tune, delivered perfectly. Although written for Dionne Warwick originally, I think it was Aretha who most best divined the profound depths of soul within the song.

The following seems to demonstrate how effortlessly Bacharach's writing transcended fashion, and the ever-shifting sands of genre, down the years. I sometimes wonder if much of the later classic Bristol/Trip-Hop sound, for which I still hold great affection - doesn't just boil down to that wandering piano riff. 

Walk on, Sir...

Authentic_ate

 

All Photo-Manipulations: November 2022

[Reconfigured/Translated Audio Transcription]:

Legendary singer-songwriter Andy Blob issued a rare public statement to apologise for his misjudgement in using the machine to beautifully record an interpretation of other artists' songs and it was released in early November in a limited run of 900 copies when a signed edition sold for 599 teeth from the publisher Smithson Asunder meaning buyers began receiving many copies of their books as images spilled online and quickly realised they were featuring the 81-year-old musician who said all his autographs over the years were hand-signed in 2019 when he had a bad case of vertigo which continued into the plague years when the road crew came close to enable these dizzy signing sessions and to safely find work and to sign anything but it didn't help that dates brought the idea of using a pen in a car offered along with the promise that such a thing would be done every time as the literary machine was an error of judgement and Smithson Asunder want to immediately correct partners at the gallery and do exactly what the sister apologised for during the controversy last week if any purchaser is not satisfied because the limited edition sticker book contains Andy's original autograph with buttons attached and a copy of signatures they wrote on Twitter and I'm buying his art now for over £12,000 whilst the UK Lottery has also been called in to question a tailor who sells prints of the Blob paintings and said he was completely unaware of the autopen and found that only two of the prince's lines published this year were signed with an autopen rather than by hand and that all the rest of the editions that preceded these editions were separated by himself which they wrote in a statement to buyers on the condition  that they return their original certificates of authenticity reflecting the automatic pen signature... obviously.

R.I.P Julee Cruise (The World Spins)

 

Sometimes, a certain piece of music, or the resonance of a particular performance, just stays with you through the years - regardless of how often you hear it, or how celebrated or overlooked the artist attached to it may have been. Clearly, Julee Cruise - who just passed at the tragically premature age of 65, was a talented artist, and one with her own (ethereally distinctive) voice. Nevertheless, she wasn't necessarily a household name (in recent years, at least). So I think it would be foolish not to admit that she wasn't largely ingrained in the psyche of many of us, through her associations with the film and TV director, David Lynch - and especially, as one of the angels presiding over the world of his 'Twin Peaks'.

That's hardly to diminish her legacy, however. Lynch has long been the master of embedding immaculately appropriate pieces of music within his film and TV work, in order to magnify their (often devastating) emotional impact. I think we might argue that Cruise's dreamlike and unworldly interpretations of songs like 'Falling' [1.], 'The World Spins' [2.], or 'Rocking Back Inside My Heart' [3.], are the absolute epitome of that. More than anything else, she seemed to capture perfectly a sense of the fragility of love, and the yearning for something pure within a  corrupt world, lying at the very heart of Lynch's small-town vision. As is the case for many other Lynch-casualties, a small part of me may never actually make it back from the Black Lodge. It's even less likely now - without Julee's pristine voice to guide us.

Those seeking a little more factual background regarding Julee Cruise's life and work can find it here. But for now, it seems far more appropriate to just let her music, and those truly timeless performances, speak for themselves...

[1.]: Julee Cruise, 'Falling', Lynch/Badalamenti, Warner Bros/WEA,1989 (From the Album, 'Falling Into The Night', and the Soundtrack to: Mark Frost/David Lynch, 'Twin Peaks' (Series 1), CBS, 1990.

[2.]: Julee Cruise, 'The World Spins', Lynch/Badalamenti, (From the Soundtrack to: Mark Frost/David Lynch, 'Twin Peaks' (Series 2), CBS, 1991.

[3.]: Julee Cruise, 'Rocking Back Inside My Heart', Lynch/Badalamenti, Warner Bros/WEA,1989 (From the Album, 'Falling Into The Night', and the Soundtrack to: Mark Frost/David Lynch, 'Twin Peaks' (Series 2), CBS, 1991

Music Re-View 11.1 (Remix)

All Images: October 2021

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I feel that in terms of music, what they do is often slowed down by Albion, buthereallyseesthat90[No Results Found]%ofthetime[Did you mean: of the time], and I think that's the kind of value I like. Do they have a taste for music that really goes into everything, as long as it's OK to be very profitable and you're willing to be brave and willing to experiment and they said take the next step to see what they can do with their voices It's a bit like listening to New Age gospel back and forth between these The summaries as well as chanting these rhythms in a wonderful voice line from Helen and I over and over / Surely beautiful music does not create a way to compose music like I don't know but as I said it's the most important without mentioning this exciting experience because it's the best part about the other itch, i t ' s u n u s u a l a n d s l o w a n d i t ' s h e a v y . Another more melodic song like a brighter and happier life, they do a great job.

It will make your butt a good and good exercise where you can nervously show off your weird techniques with a double negative dragon that can actually be like real singing and tunes where love songs are actually like real songs that you can really sing to believe in or just don't speak like that. Coincidentally, you're into crazy abstract noises that care to talk about it like some orchestra loves the entire Bible. Like noise and Helen's clever distortion and meteors on the edge of the scale before I decide to do what's really comfortable but negative. A move to grow there in the development revolution and I think it's because of my clothes so who's always going to get it so always trying to figure out how to create more treatment last weekend so I'll throw in the paint again or if I know it's the industrial intent because there's a lot I want to say I have two tracks on this record whose artificial densities cannot be animals of a very good standard.

I'm just coming. It's so beautiful because you just realized God is real, and I don't know I came in the morning, so maybe ****** how many days I'll wake up and realize I'm in the morning because I'm the melody and the low position in my chair it was in my mind so beautiful. Hecameupwithaweirdformulalikemelodyoutloudlikeachorus[Make sure all words are spelled correctly] / I think maybe they do it with a bit of continuity and I think it would have been better to leave the listener busy with constructive criticism because I think you practice what's going on there but other than that / It more or less works like time to chase music and exploration of just about anything, as long as the evolutionary stage of reading is just trying to blend in with gentle processing sounds for the speaker to hear, I really like the way they like it.

Music Re-View 11

All Images: October 2021

(Video Transcript)

I want to focus on in this review because there's some points on this record where you know girls and Mrs weather doing and it's working pretty much like the time chasing music and really digging to just about everything as long as it's call step in evolution going to try to just complex with beautiful arrangement sounds of the speaker reputation/ pretty much every track on this LP is a horse beautiful otherworldly blend of noise drown if you want to listen to the song disappearing religious experience through the next in which other voices are absolutely obliterated as the next gets progressively noisia/ and it's just like of course I'm not going to realise it's the same bed from the 90s because the music is literally so radically different their 90s and early like he population let's go take a look at the cover just looking at the song cover you can already f****** tell they're going to continue with the Noisy androni in industrial and screams like super abstract piece of art that belongs in the Museum of Modern Art history to come cry at even though it could be disappointing graphic that is custom rebuilt into like Microsoft paint or something/ How to DHL music raquel Fiat low 20220 10-k personally just my personal opinion.

I feel like with the musical matter what they're doing it's going to be down tempo in for most part creepshow Albion but it really is to see them 90% of the time and I think that's the payoff with a being like this I love do they have a question taste in music that really dig into just about everything as long as it's good at being like this pays off and dividends I feel like you are they are willing to be brave and willing to experiment and said take that  next step to see what they can do with their sound/ it is kind of like listening to new age gospel done right from here it's back and forth between these abstract and also moving those rhythms with wonderful vocal interplay from Helen and me again and again and again/ which is just absolutely f****** beautiful music it doesn't make any how do you make music like I don't know but it like I said the most important regardless of the the experimentation is as impressive as it is the best part is itchy another is phenomenal and slow and heavy and it to another song that's like a little bit more melodic in a little bit like brighter and happier life they do a great job.

It's gonna f*** your ass real good and the best low demonstrated irritable of your f****** kind of weird techniques with double negative dragon actually be able to have like real singing and melodies on top of it songs that like are actually like real songs that you can actually sing along to believe it or not just talking like a little bit of like here is a melody that happens to be on top of a f****** crazy abstract noise you mind talking about like how many orchestrate like an entire f****** gospel.of like vocal harmonies I just come in formula of like this noisy beautiful the album like doing all sorts of things I mean/ I do wish it had more to offer as far as a finish to feels almost like noise and distortion wise Helen and meteor bordering I'm going volume before you decide to in a really comfy but the potential negative I think it's gorgeous it's moving it's mine/  the book of Aldi aspect is pretty much on point so what can we do to expand a sound to grow and is definitely a cool step in in in the growth in there in the Revolution in development and I think what makes it a my clothes so who was that they're always going to continue to reach for what they're always going to try to you know create the most just complex but beautiful arrangement of sounds of the past weekend so I really whether it's emptying inlay back or whether you know it's intention industrial cos there's a lot of I would say have two tracks on this record really cannot have this industrial intensity to them very animal level is very well I love it.

I just come in this is just like what is so beautiful cuz you're f****** just realised god is real I don't know I guess I got in the morning maybe maybe maybe its f****** few days I'm going to wake up and realise I morning because the f****** and low put the seat of my brain whatever it is it's absolutely beautiful invented this new sort of weird formula like this noisy beautiful melodic like a heavenly choir/ I think they probably do it just a little bit better continuity I think it would have done a better job of keeping the listener engage in constructive criticism coming for my opinion you train a what was going on there but other than that/ for a level really love the way that I can wait and then all night very big language into I love it alongside this is where the/ vocal passage that sounds like a gannet so deeply influenced by folk music and yeah and change in one or more from it in another if this risk when on for any longer and pretty sure my ears with bleed/ but the point is it's very rare fantastic album holy shoes for watching let me know if you're thinking accountants holy shoes I love you loads maybe I'll check out the moment thing into it will see Wi-Fi now I'll see you in Utah/ do strong a on this one transition have you given the album listen did you need it but would you read it nation tonight you know/ so you can have an up please on this listing is reckon you find this review helpful please like this video and subscribe to the Channel and we will see you next time.

Music Re-View 10.1 (Remix)

 

All Images: September 2021

Many demons are intended for entertainment in the club/ a live image from the hippocampus shows a "hypersynchronous hippocampus discharge pattern"/ This experience in a "ruthless, violent environment" ultimately worked. I was there for about 18 months and couldn't anymore do/ there is a sense of familiarity/ elementary auditory hallucinations are gross and are described as buzzing, ringing, hissing, hissing, whistling, buzzing, high-pitched hissing, hissing or clicking noises from auditory sensations/ November I will buy. I am involved in their machines I am in this system, I am in this system. The blood flow through the lamella remains in the same direction (i.e. lateral to the medial), which is opposite to the flow of water through the bag/ the rear diffuser is made of carbon fibre, carefully handcrafted.

Overwhelming disappointment is connected to the album, it is often difficult to/ EtonapominaetuvedomieniyakaokonfidentsialnostivInternete, oblikovannyevsoootvetstvimimischtvirny/ Blagodaryaznachiyelnymuspeham to to/ Vymozheteslysshattrevozhnoetihoeprostranstvo, kotoroepolzetpokreyametoymuzyki, kazhdoymertsayuscheylinii synthesis ikaazhdoyslomannayakislotnayapetlyaplavaet, kakrazorvannoezveno/ I do not know, it sounds works or not/ Onvypustilryadfantasticheskihalbomov - ... Issledovatelskihrabot, vkotoryhreyvipostreyv - sharp senses are viewed through the prism of an educated person, but/really, that seems much, much more common, as it looks in this project/ the effect is similar to a video about unboxing ASMR:

There's something very funny about consumerism, isn't it?/ The album is dedicated to a world that's vileychis/ That's challenging and strange but not presumptuous/ Venture capitalists have played a huge role in softening the limits of our musical experience/ The treatment of persistent hiccups is unspecific/ There are several ways to remove a fishbone in the throat/ Driving Assistant Box-Box predlagaetoptimalnoeudobstvoi/ prihoditsosredy, 10noyabrya/ predlazhetvotimalnoeudobstvo/ Takzhemozhetpomochris, kartofelilibanany/ Yavyrosvkulturarabochegoklassamozhetbytochenamnii/ Dlyamenyaetostanovitsyasomnitelnympozzhevtekstesupominaniem psihodelicheskoyglavnoy/ Gentle actor/ gives way to a dizzying flicker. 

Many of these children have been incarnated for many years in their lives with the help of deconstructed New Year celebrations/ in addition, these symptoms are temporary psychological, anepychological deviations/ the requested resource could not be found due to the loss of this server Apple/ We are constantly looking for information on this serverApple/ We are constantly looking for information on "Inner Personality Conflict"/ I get it/ Nerve blocks and surgical treatment can be carried out/ But I'm very happy/ Nerve blocks and surgical treatment can be carried out The second most common scheme/ I'll fucking be the piano play and relax.

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Music Re-View 10

All Images: September 2021

For a place that's meant to be fun, the club is home to a lot of demons/ direct recording from the hippocampus shows a 'hypersynchronous hippocampal discharge pattern'/ this experience in a "relentless, brutal environment", eventually took its toll. I was there for about 18 months, and I couldn't do it any more/ the feeling of familiarity supervenes/ elementary auditory hallucinations are crude and described as buzzing, ringing, hissing, fizzing, whistling, humming, shrilling, sizzling or clicking auditory sensations/ but I'm not going to not buy. I'm involved. I'm inside this system/ I'm basically taking the physics of snakes and putting them inside cars/ regardless of the degree of folding, blood flow through the lamellae remains in the same direction (i.e.. medial), which is countercurrent to water flow through the pouch/ the rear diffuser is made from carbon fibre, which is meticulously crafted by hand.

The album's overwhelming sense of frustration often makes it a difficult listen/ it calls to mind online privacy notifications, issued in accordance with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation/ because of the significant progress made in recent years through the investigation of neurosurgical cases, technological advances in brain imaging methodologies and genetics/ you can hear the unnerving silent space creeping around the edges of this music, each shimmering synth line and acid loop floating like a detached limb/ whether that works or not, I don't know/ he's released a string of fantastic albums - exploratory works that look at rave and post-rave thrills through an educated lens/ but the truth of being out there in the world feels far, far more ordinary than this project makes it seem/ the effect is not unlike watching ASMR unboxing videos.

There's something about consumerism that's super fun, right?/ the record engages with a world that is "well and truly with us right now"/ it's sophisticated and weird, but not pretentiously so/ venture capitalists have played a big part in softening the edges of our experience of music/ treatment of persistent hiccups is nonspecific/ there are several ways to dislodge a fish bone stuck in your throat/ Driving Assistant Professional offers optimum comfort and/ arrives by Wed, Nov 10/ offering a plethora of options to engage with/ eating rice, potato or banana can also help/ I grew up in a working class culture and often working class cultures can be quite aspirational/ for me things start to seem questionable later in the text with mention of the "psychedelic high street"/ the smooth-talking actor/ gives way to panning, vertigo-inducing flangers/ all you get is sheen.

Many of these ideas have been played out through the deconstructed club and vaporwave movements for years/ furthermore, these symptoms are transient mental, not psychic aberrations/ the resource requested could not be found on this server!/ we're constantly being mined for information, extracted from/ Apple are really good at it/ "you feel as if you've been projected into the 21st century", says Savalas/ he describes this feeling of loss as "the laceration of the individual"/ I totally get that/ nerve blocking procedures and surgical treatments can be performed/ but I'll never do it like this again/ a low voltage, fast discharge is the second most common pattern/ I'm just going to fucking play some piano and relax.

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Playlist 16: Music To Make Contemporary Abstract Paintings To.

 

The current soundtrack...

Chairs Missing

All Images: November 2020

"I shake you down to say 'please', as you accept the next dose of disease" [2.].

[1. & 2.]: Wire, 'I am The Fly', From the Album: 'Chairs Missing', Harvest Records, 1978

R.I.P. Little Richard

Little Richard: 1932 - 2020

My musical tastes have expanded in numerous directions, over the years.  But, like anyone of my vintage, the popular music I grew up with was pretty much all contextualised by the legacy of Rock & Roll.  When I first started to take serious notice, in the early to mid 1970s, we were still less than twenty years from that music's first flowering.  There was even a diluted revival of those early stylings occurring in the Pop charts (if only in the fashions worn on 'Top Of The Pops').  However, like any hybrid form, its recognisable components had been around somewhat longer.  The same might be said of one of its founding fathers, 'Little Richard' Penniman - who recently died, at the age of 87.

Little Richard was the most exotic of those pioneering Rock & Rollers (of whom, I guess - only Jerry Lee Lewis now remains).  And, for me, he was always the most striking.  I've plenty of time for the early work of both Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee, and will still cheerfully hang around for Elvis' 'Jailhouse Rock', or 'Hound Dog', should they crop up.  Nevertheless, Richard's stuff seems to contain a greater edge of genuine hysteria - carrying it just a little further than the others, to my mind.  And, ultimately - isn't that what Rock & Roll was always supposed to be about?  As a cultural form, its ludicrous extremes always seemed self-justifying.  Previous musics had  sought to liberate the Id, to loosen the hips and feet, or to prioritise the groin over the head - it's true.  But, it feels like this was about doing all that with an even  glossier, almost cartoonish abandon.  The artifice of it all seemed integral.  Even more than all the other sleazy predators, macho brooders and redneck hell-raisers - Little Richard really seemed to get that.

The difference, of course, stems from his sexuality.  As if expressing the oppressed Black perspective to White audiences in still-segregated America wasn't enough - here was a patently gay man doing it, with nothing more than heavy make-up, an exuberant pompadour, and a swishy suit, for protection.  Richard preferred to label himself 'Pan-sexual', it seems.  Certainly, he must have grown up in the knowledge  that to be both Gay and Black, in the 1940s, was to almost invite a lynching, amongst certain denizens of his native Georgia.  But no one can have been in any real doubt - can they?  Alienated from his family - he'd been fourteen-year-old drag act before Rock & Roll took off, and the lyrics of many of his songs suggested a degree of sexual ambiguity, at best.  Tutti Frutti', even began life as a celebration of anal sex, by all accounts.  When Richard whooped and hollered, and, above all - screamed, it was a voicing of the outrage felt by someone fighting society's prejudice on two fronts.  Like generations of Gay entertainers, before and after, he took the fear and anger, and transmuted them into exuberant performance art.  The lyrics may have been superficially upbeat, but the right to party is often code for the right to be accepted and heard also.

Famously, Little Richard's real moment was over, almost as soon as it began.  Having released all of his most memorable records between 1955 and late 1957 - he retreated into the Pentecostal Christianity to which he was originally raised.  Whether or not his ministry  was a sincere act of penitence for the life he'd lived - only he could say.  Either way, it would certainly suggest an understandable degree of psychological conflict.  When he returned to performance, in 1962 - it was largely as a Gospel singer.  He revisited secular Rock & Roll in 1964 - but who of us can really name a memorably rockin' Little Richard composition after '57 (apart from possibly, 'Bama Lama Bama Loo')?

His star would wax and wane over the following years - and incorporated the almost requisite substance-abuse and routine personal tragedy of the Rock & Roller, before he returned to active evangelism in 1977.  A year or two later, I was busily absorbing the implications of Bob Dylan's back catalogue - just around the time he too announced an alarming right-turn into Born-Again Christianity.  Disappointing though this may have been, it was also intriguing to learn that Dylan's own evangelising was often done on a double bill - with none other than Little Richard.  And the debt that American popular music (particularly Black music) pays to religion, must be acknowledged, of course.  His early songwriting was as knowing as all Hell, but the manner of its delivery was only a step away from what would have been commonplace in the church services of Richard's youth.

  

Ultimately, what really matters is that 'Long Tall Sally', 'Lucille' , and all those other early classic cuts still sound as fresh and urgent as they did a lifetime ago.  And, as others have pointed out: without Little Richard - would we have ever had James Brown and Jimi Hendrix, or McCartney's vocal stylings and Jagger's camp strut, or Elton John's piano-bound theatrics, or Bowie's androgynous shape-shifting and Prince's actual, and seemingly voracious, pan-sexuality - at least in the form in which we now recognise them?  And, with reference to the above - let's not forget that Bob Dylan's earliest-known, teenage recording, was a ham-fisted tribute to the man himself.

With the passing of Little Richard - it feels like a certain era might also have come to a close.  Certainly, the World will be a drabber place without him.



    
           

R.I.P. Andrew Weatherall

Andrew Weatherall, 1963 - 2020

And so, we lose another of the greats - far too early.  It is with sorrow I must mark the passing of DJ, musician, producer, and all-round Dance Music eccentric, Andrew Weatherall, who recently  died from a pulmonary embolism, at the age of 56 (56 - for crying out loud!).

Weatherall's work has been an important part of my own consciousness since I first became engaged by the layered productions, polyrhythms, repetitive beats, and overall sonic experimentation of 'Dance Music', back at the turn of the 1990s.  He seemed to have been there, as one of that scene's pillars of wisdom, from very early on, coming through the Punk and Post-Punk years as a youth, before involving himself in the new emerging forms in the best way possible - as an enthusiastic record collector.

If an element of vaguely punk-ish contrarianism hung about everything Weatherall would go on to do, his real guiding principle was the impulse to dismantle and fearlessly experiment with sounds that came from the great Jamaican Dub producers.  For many, that was first encountered via his reinvention, as a producer, on Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica' Album, in 1992.  It was a record that, I recall, seemed to get played everywhere that year.  It also  turned an under-achieving Indie guitar band into the epitome of what might happen when sullen white boys discover MDMA, stop just staring at the floor (or their guitar frets), and dare to dance.

With all due respect to 'The Scream', that album sits in Weatherall's discography, far more comfortably than in theirs, and kick-started a fruitful career as the go-to, cutting edge producer/remixer of the day.  Nonetheless, it's to Weatherall's credit that he eschewed the course of easy wealth and fame for diminishing returns that might have resulted - just as he would decline the equally available option of becoming an increasingly predictable 'superstar DJ'.  Instead, he went on to chart a far less orthodox, and far more creative, zig-zag path through Dub, House, Techno, and even a bizarre kind of Rockabilly/Dance hybrid thang (in which he even, gasp - sang!).  Above all, everything he turned his hand to, seemed to be done for the best of reasons, namely - that it interested him at the time, despite what anybody else thought.

As a result, exploring the best of his deeper cuts can lead to a slightly arduous search for deleted gems and over-priced rarities, albeit one that consistently repays the effort.  For what it's worth, my own personal favourites would be the two albums, 'Haunted Dancehall' (the pinnacle of his work with The Sabres of Paradise), and 'Stockwell Steppas' (with Keith Tenniswood, as Two Lone Swordsmen).  The first is a loosely conceptual, and often eerie, melange of sounds and references that other producers might only dream of.  It's also a perfect example of that rare beast - a great Dance album that actually hangs together as such.  The second is a wonderfully dry, endlessly satisfying, collision of Dub,Techno and  Deep House, that has rarely been far from my CD player - both at home and in the car, for decades now.

Search those two out, if nothing else - to know why Andrew Weatherall will be missed by everyone in the know, and why so many called him 'The Guv'nor'.  Trust me - you'll wish you'd heard them sooner.

Music Re/View 7

All Images: November 2019

It is easy to become selfish as a listener of music / While curled up in the fetal position in the closet at midnight / Let’s be clear – if you’re not used to ‘difficult’ music, this is not for you / Consider yourself warned / Retaining clarity – this new album is different, once again, from the majority of what has gone before / At first, it seems painfully simple, and perhaps missing the explosions of sound one might have enjoyed / in nature documentaries / Its pace sets a dramatic tone, like we're about to meet our maker / But the devil is in the details, and once one begins to peel away the layers / Scavengers may feed on the decomposing meat for months / don't be conventional / You will need time / How much time is left? / despite the music’s severe linearity / It unfolds like a flower in one of those slow-motion shots / after a traumatic personal loss of some sort / It shouldn’t work. It does. Go figure.

The announcement of a new album earlier this year was certainly a cause for celebration, but also apprehension / Imbued with cult-worthy status and cryptic vision / The World's Strangest Band has existed on the outer fringes of the music scene for almost 40 years now / They’re much easier to respect than like / surveying the landscape they travel through with a wicked eye / We too might have perceived the difference between terror and strangeness / have they accepted the joy and peace in fizzling out / Are they venerating such a breakdown / just dimming the lights and pouring red wine / or bursting out in explosive surprises / In the best new music, after all, to create a third entity is the idea: 1+1= 3 / it’s also another example of the band’s central problem / they pivot and move away / while replacing the shock value of references to slavery and rape with the quotidian drama of relationships / there’s definitely something in our brains – maybe that base reptilian part at its darkest core that desires / A bullet through the head of one still so young!

these post-rock monuments reach up from the depths, grab you by the throat and slowly but surely pull you down / into the bottomless abyss / It’s whatever you want it to be / shimmering, flickering multi-guitars and electronic drone feel misleading / and not exactly gloomy or forbidding – resonantly oblique is more like it / things can’t be this simple / I’m naked and drifting / The Jodorowsky-like atmosphere of this buzzard chant is so visual / Boom! It breaks into gargantuan multi-instrumental waves of rolling tympani, chorus and sundry other stuff / they allow her to play the massive church organ, and then she creates these amazing sounds / It’s not like the herky-jerky improv you would expect with some jazz / The addition of what sounds like children’s backing vocals, tubular bells and buzzsaw synths only amplifies / vast spheres of empty space that can inflict a useful sort of claustrophobia / She’s such a positive, jolly person / circling circles of orange/yellow/brown/beige/black/red / and then she comes up with this demonic music.

The lyrical themes here are all familiar by now / His songs catalog human misery—violence / comfortable / degradation, abusive sex / beauty / death / and other equally Parmenidean topics / with an unflinching eye / The verses can be confessions, which become incantations via much repetition / It’s deeply disorienting, recalling the ramblings of a mad man or a soothsayer / There is a nihilistic fatalism constantly at play in the words uttered / there is a nihilistic fatalism constantly at play in the words uttered / he evokes the kind of weary tragedy endemic to sad drunks and wastrels / Salvation is an illusion. Negation is the only certainty / the skeleton then becomes a source of sustenance to mussels, clams, and microbes for years or even decades to come / Printed out, it wouldn’t surprise me to find the words sliding off the page, or bleeding into the page like blotting paper / They exist in a class all to themselves.

I never realized just listening to an album could be as physically and psychically draining as this is / The world is not going to get any brighter / Even when there’s no longer a band. Not really… Except there is / a gathering around firelight / we realize immediately in that we’re still very much in the presence of / a band who just can’t stop / It’s like a soundtrack to exploring some abandoned, centuries-old / sonic skyscrapers / filled with expensive furniture / Few can graze a concrete product / And now there’s this / haunted-house version / on the beginners slopes / You’ll be back. You won’t be able to help yourself / in the grand scheme of things / You know you want / this type of output