Log #172 - Also Sprach A New Generation Of Songwriters

A mixed bag, as you'd expect, from Mojo's presentation of "A New Generation of Songwriters"; a compilation from the "Communion" label given away with their magazine in 2011. This "generation" mostly refers to the folk revival of the end of the noughties led by artists represented on this disc:

Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, and Matthew And The Atlas, plus a few other singer songwriter types outside of folk like Michael Kiwanuka.

There are also bunch of artists I've not heard of on this 15 track CD. Tell you what - see for yourself:

Tell me a tale (Michael Kiwanuka) -- Three tree town (Ben Howard) -- Circle in the square (Marcus Foster) -- Vintage red (Jay Jay Pistolet) -- More than letters (Benjamin Francis Leftwich) -- Sister (Mumford & Sons) -- Walk through walls (Communion version) (Kyla La Grange) -- In the honour of industry (Johnny Flynn) -- Hands in the sink (Alessi's Ark) -- Fictional state (To Kill a King) -- Emily Rose (Three Blind Wolves) -- I will remain (Matthew and the Atlas) -- Sculptor and the stone (Jesse Quin and the Mets) -- Peter (Daughter) -- Early spring till (Nathaniel Rateliff)

Which of this new generation has gone on to great things a decade later? Probably about half a dozen of them, which isn't a bad hit rate. The classiest tracks I've noticed on the record have tended to be from these now established artists - Kiwanuka, Howard, and Flynn. The Marcus Foster is a good track too - an artist I may explore. Same too for To Kill A King - their Wiki profile says they have been compared to Grizzly Bear and Frightened Rabbit, and they've toured in support of Dog is Dead (I just found all that slightly amusing).

Mojo Presents Communion
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Holger Czukay Moving Pictures

Nucleus Elastic Rock

Richard (1864 - 1949) is the Strauss who wrote the main theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey: Dahhh Dahhh Dahhh... Da Da!!! Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom - you know the one.

One of the most famous riffs in classical music

He is not Johann Strauss (strictly II) (1825 - 99), who did write a lot of the famous waltzes also used in the 2001 film. They are not related, although Johann was related to other composers - his father (strictly known as Johann Strauss I, and brothers Josef and Eduard) - just to add to the confusion.

There's some rock trivia for you then.

The title translates as Thus Spoke Zarathustra as inspired by the book of the same name by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Who was Zarathustra? He was a religious prophet type geezer who hung out around Persia (now modern day Iran) we think around 600 BC or so. Dates and details are a bit sketchy. He also goes by the name Zoroaster.

More rock trivia.

By the way what a great film, and story, 2001 was: such a brilliant concept. Intelligent aliens arrive at Earth 2 million years ago. Find a bunch of apes scrabbling around in the dirt. Decide to run an experiment to see how long it takes them to reach the moon, but not before giving them a shot of intelligence via the mysterious monolith. Jump to present day, the apes have evolved into space explorers. Man uncovers a monolith on the moon which sends an (alerting) signal into space and the mission begins to track its source.

All the more amazing that the film came out just a few months before the real moon landing in July 1969. What perfect timing. Talk about the planets aligning.

Meanwhile back on earth much delight is being had hearing Meddle again. Not just the brilliant Echoes, but the nice acoustic songs (and they are real songs) on Side One. And the Van Morrison is a long lost (to me) classic (1973) which is pitched between St. Dominic's Preview (1972) and Veedon Fleece (1974) in chronology, and sounds exactly like it should. Not particularly like either of them, but a perfect transformation between those two most excellent records.

Moving Pictures is typically obscure and odd, from Holger Czukay. Some spoken word over lots of ambience. Not as invigorating as, and not to be confused with, his classic album in my opinion, Movies. No songs here, but a nice background listen which is as unique as most things Czukay did.

Also loving Elastic Rock from 1970. A superb jazz fusion album with lots of electric guitar riffs, hypnotic walking bass guitar, and Ian Carr's trumpet melodies over the top. Nucleus should have been a lot more famous than they were. No songs here either, just great instrumentals.

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Log #171 - A new decade, a new Van

Thinking Roxy Music were just a glam pop outfit? Think again after hearing For Your Pleasure - their second album released in 1973 and one containing as much rock and electronic experimentation as your next serious rock band.

Roxy Music For Your Pleasure
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell
Holger Czukay Moving Pictures

Elbow The Seldom Seen Kid

Then there's Meddle. Some people's favourite Pink Floyd album. It's not my favourite but it's up there in the top 3 or 4. I'm not sure what my favourite is actually. It used to be Wish You Were Here but I probably play Animals the most. Then again The Wall is an amazing project and I've recently spent some time discovering some of the band's groundbreaking early records like Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother. Meddle's greatness lies in some excellent acoustic songwriting songs on Side 1 and then of course the epic Echoes on Side 2 which could be their greatest achievement. This track was just mind-blowing for a school kid growing up in the 70s - with its submarine sonar opening, it's beautiful theme, and the funky heavy bit in the middle. #TopClass

Talking of prog Elbow offer something a little different. This is the only album I have heard of theirs. It seems to offer a very gentle laid back version of prog rock with subtle dynamic changes employed instead of the usual pyrotechnics associated with the genre. The Seldom Seen Kid is the Manchester band's 4th album and won the Mercury Prize in 2008. This is Elbow's first appearance at the blog.

Speaking of gentle we move to Sufjan Stevens' very very gentle Carrie & Lowell album. Whispered singing and sparse instrumentation it's gentle... and lovely, although you have to be in the right mood. The album is an ode to Stevens' parents, pictured on the cover. Interesting to note as Log #171 brings us into a new decade, Carrie & Lowell appeared in my first ever blog post Log #1 back in October 2016 along with Suede, Afro Celts, Paolo Nutini, Carole King and Badly Drawn Boy.

Final word to the great Van the Man. I have no idea why I have not heard this classic Van album before. It's up there with the best of his first 8 albums which took him on a golden run from Astral Weeks through to Veedon Fleece, the album with which this one shares its tone the most. [Astral was actually his 2nd album but the first one doesn't really count and was not officially sanctioned by Morrison. Ed]. It's a joy to discover a new Morrison album from his hey day and as this one is going to be less familiar to me (and I expect other fans too who may not have gone much beyond Astral and Moondance) I feel it is going to get a fair number of appearances this year/decade.

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Log #115 - Vital Music For The Human Condition At The Dawn Of The New Millennium

Some new procurements this week with a Suede charity bin pick up, the debut album from German electronic duo Mouse On Mars, and a deep dive into minimalism with New York composer William Basinski. Radiohead's excellent follow up to Ok Computer retains an entry as does Ricochet from Tangerine Dream. The ever reliable Holger Czukay from Can makes a return with his very down tempo Moving Pictures album.

Mouse On Mars - Vulvaland

Radiohead - Kid A

Holger Czukay - Moving Pictures

Suede - Coming Up

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops III

I've been very impressed with the post Ok Computer offerings from Radiohead. Both Kid A and Amnesiac were pleasant surprises, taking the band far beyond what I expected after that album. Straight from the off with the gorgeous organ introduction to Everything In Its Right Place you realise Kid A is, again, going to be something new. This is quite an achievement for a band that could so easily have rested on its laurels after the critical success of the previous album. In fact many "best of" lists rank Kid A above "Ok" as the top Radiohead album.

Throughout the record Radiohead mine new ground, from the Tangerine Dream/Kraftwerk like electronics on the opener, through Efterklang glitches and crackles, Daft Punk vocal distortions, and bubbling percussion on the gem of the title track which packs a huge amount into its 4:44 running time. National Anthem has an insistent distorted bass and goes all out jazz fusion. The fourth track How To Disappear Completely recalls the more usual miserabilist Thom Yorke singing and unremarkable acoustic strumming but there are lush strings in support. The ambient instrumental Treefingers is a super little track, up there with the best Aphex Twin and Brian Eno compositions (sorry Thom, sometimes the band don't need you). Optimistic and In Limbo are again a bit more standard Radiohead but I love Idioteque with it's Aphex Twin like backing percussion. Morning Bell is probably my favourite track - seeming to perfectly mesh the old rock and new electronic Radiohead.

I was also very impressed with the Mouse On Mars album. It is a bit more ambient and down tempo than Autoditacker which featured in Log #109. I was amazed to discover the record was released in 1994 - it sounds so contemporary.

The CD that requires most explanation in this selection is William Basinski's haunting 9/11 elegy Disintegration Loops.

One of the most pre-eminent American artistic statements of the 21st Century.

To indicate the power of such music consider that I had three other people in the room while playing this album. One said they liked it, the other two asked me to turn it off - one because they simply found the music distressing, and one, who initially managed the music ok, became distressed after I told them the story behind it's conception. 

For a piece of music, or any piece of art actually, to have such a profound effect on people (positive or negative) I think is impressive. In fact maybe it is (or should be) the point. The only other piece of music I recall having such a strong physical effect on listeners was 6 Pianos by Steve Reich.

The most important minimal compositions of the past decade.

The effect is however surprising. Not least as it is ambient music and very very ambient music at that. It is so background it would have seemed almost inaudible to a casual listener.  Except it wasn't!

I got a bunch of tape decks and tape, some scotch tape and scissors and started fooling around and recording everything and mixing and playing around.

The loops are literally loops (very short ones). The music repeats every couple of bars creating a hypnotic effect. On each cycle the music literally deteriorates ever so slightly (as Basinski's source tapes gradually disintegrated on playback) eventually leaving only fragments and flickers of the original buried beneath distorted rumbles and echoes which sound like the roll of distant thunder or perhaps even the falling of the Twin Towers themselves - solid at first, before cracks form and spread, eventually leading to an accelerated tumble into dust and rubble, and then finally nothing... blackness, death, silence, peace.

Basinski grapples with his tapes

It is interesting how you listen to these pieces. Your expectant and conditioned mind inevitably fills in the gaps as the actual music falls away. Something similar occurs when you read a passage where olny teh frsit adn lsat ltetres of ecah wrod are in teh rhigt oedrr. Experiments have shown that our sight can be unreliable with our mind making up images that are expected but aren't actually there. 

Stunning. This is vital music for the human condition.

But what is the effect? Is it sickness, or depression, or boredom, inquisitiveness, or horror or indifference? I doubt the latter would be the case for most listeners. This type of hypnotic music generally does something to your consciousness reaching parts of your brain usually left untouched and this piece particularly packs a powerful emotional punch. It's hard to remain neutral. Is a negative effect more valid than no effect at all? Is this piece of music the equivalent of a giant black canvas by Rothko? 

Is it any good? How do you define good? And does it matter? Is it a massive con? Or is the effect the important thing? Does the music stand up alone or is the back story essential? I have to admit once I knew the context it became very hard to extract the music from it's surroundings. The two are inextricably entwined and whether by chance or design the music is a startlingly vivid soundtrack to a momentous historical event.

I would argue that it is the personal effect a piece has on you that is important, above any cold technical analysis, and that's why the sticker on the cover of the CD has the above quotes [or is that part of the conspiracy? Ed].

The cover shots were taken on the evening of 9/11

Some other initial thoughts: This CD (part 3 containing Loops 4 and 5) is one of a series of 5 albums (over 6 hours of music). But I don't think I need to hear any of the others, not any time soon anyway. I'm not sure I will play this one that often to be honest - maybe just when I'm in the mood - I figure it could be useful when drifting off to sleep or when unable to sleep (if it doesn't give me nightmares - perhaps it wouldn't be wise to listen to this in the dark). Actually I didn't play it all that soon after purchasing it as I felt I knew what it sounded like already having sampled a couple of clips.

Interesting isn't it...?

After the events of 9/11, everything changed. The whole world changed. The context of Disintegration Loops changed. And I felt, with my experience being in New York at the time, and what I went through and what I saw my friends go through, I wanted to create an elegy.

As for the subject matter I would prefer to think of it as a homage in honour to all those who lost their lives or were affected by the terrible events of 9/11 but I can understand those (including one of my fellow listeners above) who consider it an unnecessary and macabre reminder or even an opportunistic or unethical endeavour? Personally I think it is a valid and important document which arose by genuine chance and random timing without contrivance or manipulation. For many that may find the work distressing there will also be others who find it comforting and cathartic.

Finally it has just occurred to me that The Disintegration Loops has some parallels with Kid A - the Radiohead album was released a year before 9/11 and it's songs of disconnection and alienation could equally be considered vital music for the human condition at the dawn of the new millennium.

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Log #77 - Exile Sur la Rue Principale - The Rolling Stones in France 1971

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1. Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

2. Paolo Nutini - These Streets

3. Sensational Alex Harvey Band - The Impossible Dream

4. Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next

5. Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Live

6. Holger Czukay - Moving Pictures

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I came late to the Rolling Stones and they come late to this blog too via, perhaps subconsciously, Marianne Faithful from last week (and also more consciously through considering going to see them for the first time on tour in the UK this Spring).  

When I was younger I considered them a bit of a novelty band, neither tickling my ivories as a heavy metal band or progressive rock.

I consequently didn't really get Exile when I first heard it - as a beginner it didn't even seem to have any of the tunes I was familiar with - the likes of Start Me Up or Brown Sugar that used to get us excited at discos!

Oh how green I was. My dismissal was misguided. The Rolling Stones were and (incredibly) still are a classic rock band with a unique take on a loose and ramshackle form of rhythm and blues, and much cooler than the prog rock bands of the time or the heavy metal bands they preceded. 

Now I get it and can appreciate Exile too. Capturing a moment in time when this band were at their peak the album almost defined the bohemian and decadent rock and roll lifestyle with 18 tracks of raw and spontaneous back to basics swampy honky tonky country blues that were very much at odds with the progressive rock movement of the time and some of their own more expansive experiments of recent times. By single track you may not recognise much as being the best of the Stones but this is an album of atmosphere where the whole is something greater than the sum of its parts like Neil Young's desperate Tonight's The Night.  

A sprawling experience made in the idyllic surroundings of a French villa surrounded by guitars, drugs, hangers on, and pretty girls, those (must have been) the days...

...or were they?

The album and its making is surrounded by rock 'n' roll myth, but what was the reality? The Stones were actually genuine tax exiles forced (against their will) to decamp to France to avoid 93% tax rates in England.

I just didn't think about it, and no manager I ever had thought about it, even though they said they were going to make sure my taxes were paid. So, after working for 8 years, I discovered nothing had been paid and I owed a fortune. 

Mick Jagger

Keith Richards had rented Villa Nellcote, a sprawling mansion near Nice in the South of France and moved there with partner Anita Pallenberg and 2 year old son Marlon in early 1971. The rest of the band followed although they didn't actually stay at Nellcote, renting alternative accommodation nearby.

However once attention turned to recording a new album the Stones' new mobile studio was moved into the basement and Nellcote became the HQ for the band who would drop by with the crew to  record (and socialise of course) although it soon became obvious this arrangement rarely worked for the nocturnal Keith Richards. He was sinking into the throes of a serious heroin addiction and could barely make any scheduled sessions - not on any account of disrespect or rudeness he recalls - he "was just asleep".

In reality, far from luxurious the allegedly former Nazi headquarters from the war was rundown and damp (the basement was cramped and the band's instruments would constantly go out of tune).

It wasn't a great environment for, like, breathing. 

Keith Richards 

Tensions in the band were high. Richards and Jagger (who was often absent, more interested in visiting his new and pregnant wife Bianca who sensibly avoided Nellcote preferring to stay in Paris) weren't getting on and London boy Charlie Watts was homesick. Worse still new boy Mick Taylor was about to join Richards in his drug habit.

The house not surprisingly became a magnet for a multifarious selection of musicians, employees, friends, executives, advisers, groupies, and drug dealers, some welcome, many not. One night a thief walked in and helped himself to Richards' guitars.

We were never by ourselves... day after day, it was 10 people for lunch... 25 for dinner...

Anita Pallenberg

The sessions such as they were became shambolic jams that went on for days, often thwarted by power cuts, with hundreds of takes of rambling songs that were never finished. In fact contrary to the myth, many of the songs were written and demoed elsewhere, including London, and finished off with additional recording and production later in LA. After the birth of Jagger's daughter, Jade, he instructed the band to just carry on recording instrumental tracks and he'd add the vocals later.

Out of decadence and adversity came the Rolling Stones’ defining masterpiece.

Of course despite all this, the band frictions, the shambolic arrangements (both living and musical) and sloppy playing have contrived together to produce a ramshackle masterpiece. But at the time critics, fans, and the band themselves weren't particularly impressed with the outcome. Jagger recalls the muddy mix where his vocals struggle to be heard over the general din:

When I listen to Exile it has some of the worst mixes I've ever heard. I'd love to remix the record, not just because of the vocals, but because generally I think it sounds lousy. 

Richards wasn't sympathetic of course:

Lead singers never think their vocals are loud enough.

The place was eventually raided and Richards was banned from France. He still states: "While I was a junkie, I learned to ski and I made Exile On Main Street." Fair enough. Many consider this Richards' album.

Personnel

The Rolling Stones:

Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards – guitars
Bill Wyman – bass guitar
Charlie Watts – drums
Mick Taylor – guitars

Additional musicians:

Nicky Hopkins – piano
Bobby Keys – tenor saxophone
Jim Price – trumpet
Ian Stewart – piano
Jimmy Miller – percussion, drums
Bill Plummer – double bass
Billy Preston – piano, organ
Al Perkins – pedal steel guitar
Richard Washington – marimba
Clydie King – backing vocals
Venetta Fields – backing vocals
Joe Green – backing vocals
Gram Parsons – backing vocals
Chris Shepard – tambourine
Jerry Kirkland – backing vocals
Mac Rebennack (Dr. John) – backing vocals
Shirley Goodman – backing vocals
Tami Lynn – backing vocals
Kathi McDonald – backing vocals

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Log #76 - Two Rock Mavericks at Opposite Ends of the Scale - Introducing Holger Czukay and Alex Harvey

Favourite record this week is a little known gem from German maverick Holger Czukay (1938-2017).  Most famous for his work with German rock band Can the late Czukay was also a much sought after collaborator working with artists like David Sylvian, Jah Wobble, Brian Eno and The Edge, and also produced a string of his own very original solo albums.

Unfortunately it seems it is quite hard to come by his albums these days (although coincidentally a 6 cd retrospective boxset is just about to be released this week) – I managed to pick this one up on ebay while researching my Can album ranking post.  Moving Pictures (not to be confused with his most famous and in my opinion best album Movies) is very ambient in the most gentle of ways. I had it on rotation all day before I even noticed it consciously, but meanwhile my subconscious had been enjoying its subtle and relaxing beauty.  Czukay’s wife U-She provides ghostly vocals. Sadly she died last year and Czukay followed only a month later.

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1. Erukah Badu - Baduizm

2. Carole King - Tapestry

3. Marianne Faithfull - A Stranger On Earth

4. Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Next

5. Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Live

6. Holger Czukay - Moving Pictures

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Another maverick of Rock was Scottish singer Alex Harvey (1935-1982).  Joining forces with his “Sensational Band” he produced a series of well received albums in the mid 70s that bridged a gap between blues, rock, and glam, with a unique vaudeville flavour. These two albums are a good representation of the SAHB:  Next being many fans' favourite and having a good mix of rock (The Faith Healer), cabaret (Next and Giddy Up a Ding Dong), and epic (The Last of The Teenage Idols); and Live being a sample of one of their incendiary live shows including the theatrical Framed. For a full run down of the Alex Harvey discography please see my album ranking.

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Log #17 - Jaki Liebezeit (1938 - 2017) and the Motorik Beat

1. The Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur
2. Holger Czukay - Movies
3. Klaus Schulze - Picture Music
4. Tangerine Dream - Encore
5. Can - Ege Bamyasi
6. Can - Sacrilege

Well with a pseudonym like Eddy Bamyasi it was inevitable there would be a "Krautrock" entry sooner or later in the blog. The term "Krautrock" in music seems to have been generally accepted without too many negative connotations. Perhaps that is because the purveyors are almost exclusively held in high esteem and are frequently name-checked as hugely influential by more modern artists. Krautrock doesn't literally mean all German rock - it refers to a particular genre arising in the early 70s through bands such as Can, Neu!, Faust, Kraftwerk, Amon Duul, and Tangerine Dream, characterised (very generally speaking) by experimental electronics, and repetitive heavy beats termed motorik.

Here we have three albums shared between Can and Tangerine Dream plus solo efforts from Holger Czukay (of Can) and Klaus Schulze (of Tangerine Dream).

Breaking News! Sadly I have just heard, literally mid post, that Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit died this week (the music selection being entirely coincidental but subsequently appropriate and poignant). I was surprised to learn he was 78, and was due to play a concert at the Barbican, London, this spring with fellow Can member keyboardist Irmin Schmidt.

Can was one of those bands that blew my mind when I first heard them. I had not heard anything like them before and a huge characteristic of their sound was Jaki's drumming. From that moment on he became, and remained, my favourite drummer.

Jaki Liebezeit behind his minimal kit and singer Damo Suzuki

Ege Bamyasi is probably the best starting point for any new Can fans. Released in 1972 with its Andy Warhol inspired soup can cover it is the middle one of the celebrated "Damo" trilogy, offering more focused grooves than both the preceding avant garde epic Tago Mago, and the following more space-prog-rocky Future Days. Can covered a wide range of genres in their music over their core career (essentially 1969 - 1979) including heavy rock, funk, jazz, and electronic, and even classical avant garde and minimalism (founding members Czukay and Schmidt studied under Stockhausen). Well known for their extended jams and improvisations Ege Bamyasi efficiently covers most components of the Can sound across seven tracks of power and beauty, all underpinned by Jaki's metronomic drumming high in the mix as beautifully demonstrated here in Vitamin C.

As well as Jaki's drumming the bone crushing rhythms were augmented by the thump of Holger Czukay's deep bass. Czukay liked to experiment in the studio with other instruments and unusual sampling, and his full ambitions were realised on a number of experimental solo albums - some with collaborators including David Sylvian and Jah Wobble. Movies must be one of the earliest pop/rock albums (1980) to draw extensively upon samples. In particular Czukay would record voices he picked up on short wave radio. The album has two short poppy tunes and two extended experimental compositions. All four tracks have enough ideas for a whole musical career! There certainly wasn't anything else that sounded like this album when I first heard it, and I don't think there is even today. If you would like to delve into the bizarre mind of Holger Czukay start with the Persian Love tidbit and then progress to the soundbite rich Hollywood Symphony.

The Can Sacrilege album was aptly named as it is a double CD of remixes (by Brian Eno, System 7, Sonic Youth, and The Orb amongst others) of revered Can classics. But I don't think purists should be too precious. It's actually very good and the tracks are different enough to be interesting but at the same time retain a lot of what Can was all about. Befitting of the release date of 1997 (and the Can blueprint itself) most tracks are of the drum and bass persuasion giving off a massive sound!

Tangerine Dream, and former member Klaus Schulze, specialise in what I call pulse music. The tracks are all instrumental (I believe Tan Dream only released one album Cyclone with vocals which was panned by the fans, but I actually think is one of their best) and usually lengthy (these two albums for instance each have single LP side length tracks of around 20 minutes each). Unlike electronic contemporaries Kraftwerk the beat is usually provided by pulsing gated synths rather than drum machines.

There is no death, there is just a change of our cosmic address.

 Edgar Froese

I guess with the emergence of popular music in the 1960s there will now continuously be artists reaching their 60s and 70s and becoming nearer to a change of cosmic address. While researching this piece I learnt that TD's founder Edgar Froese had passed away in 2015. With each passing a chance to see an iconic artist or band live for the first time passes too - a realisation that has resolved me to buy a ticket to see Damo Suzuki coming to Brighton this Spring. Damo is usually backed by a band of local (relatively unrehearsed I assume) musicians at each gig - an intriguing concept not entirely alien to the former Can front man. One can hope his random sonic journeys will lead to the resurrection of some familiar riffs in his sets.

German "Krautrock" pioneers Edgar Froese 1944-2015 and Jaki Liebezeit 1938-2017

To learn more about some key Krautrock artists have a look at this article http://observer.com/2015/07/8-krautrock-artists-you-need-to-hear-right-now/

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