Showing posts with label luke vibert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label luke vibert. Show all posts

Sunday 30 September 2018

Log #105 - New Reggae Old Dub

Eddy Bamyasi


Today I read this in one of those excellent 33 1/3 album books. This from author Alan Warner writing on Can's Tago Mago album:

It is inevitable for writers writing about music that we must resort to image, simile, and metaphor. So you are going to get guitars playing on balconies across a mountain valley, and you are going to get keyboard solos compared to a killer whale rodeo. It is not something I am proud of, it is a tradition, a trope, a linguistic attempt to seize the myriad impressions and sensations which affecting music can throw at us. We resort to common poetry to describe the impossible, the same way scientists and physicists must when attempting to explain their most recondite flights. These images are variations of the pathetic fallacy but there is a tradition to it and sometimes the metaphors are apt. I like to avoid this plump fancifying but I cannot.

Musicians (and artists of all kinds in the public eye) are understandably dismissive of music writers generally and especially critics. Frank Zappa described music journalists as:

People who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.

Perhaps Neil Young summed it up best with these cutting words from Ambulance Blues:

So all you critics sit alone
You're no better than me
for what you've shown

I'm not sure about killer whale rodeo keyboard solos but Alan Warner is right - writing about music is very flawed. Is there a point at all? Are one's views so personal it renders any opinion irrelevant? Surely it is just better to hear for yourselves without any pre-judgment inflicted by a writer?

Do writers have any right to pass judgement on artists?

But there remains so much of it about. Even more so these days with the internet and the prevalence of review sites like Amazon where anyone can leave their opinion. And I use those opinions when deciding on a purchase - the wisdom of the crowd is often correct even though all public review sites tend towards the positive.

Most of my 33 1/3 collection

So I'll continue, but not without a feeling that my writing might be arrogant or self-important, or read by no-one and meaningless. Where I think the 33 1/3 books succeed is that they are for the most part written by fans describing their own personal feelings about a record - what it meant to them when they heard it growing up - rather than an opinionated critique. That's the approach I should stick to.


On to my personal selection this week then. I've gone for some reggae which was inspired by my daughter actually, who showed me some clips of new new kid on the block Protoje from a festival. I misheard this as Prodigy at first of course! My go to reggae album Catch A Fire follows and then a CD from one of the excellent Trojan box set series, which moves us, by way of Austrian DJs Kruder and Dorfmeister, into "dub". Dub I understand as meaning deep bass, not necessarily reggae although the two are often synonymous. We have a leftover from the Bob Dylan weeks with his beautiful Blood On The Tracks album and then bringing up the rear a set from the prolific Cornwall DJ (no, not Aphex Twin - the other one) Luke Vibert.


Protoje - A Matter Of Time
Bob Marley - Catch A Fire
Trojan Dub Box Set - CD 2
Kruder and Dorfmeister - Sessions
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
Luke Vibert - Musipal


What strikes me about the Bob Marley is the lack of what I'd call reggae in it! It's actually just great pop/rock music with great rhythms and some beautiful guitar playing (I don't know if this is Bob himself - I suspect not - from the films I've seen of him he seems to be the one either just singing with his guitar slung over his shoulder or he's doing the reggae chug chug chug strum strum). Who is on lead guitar? Is it Peter Tosh?

That reggae chug chug chug strum strum.

Lots of reggae chug chug on the Protoje album. It's much faster and poppier and the singer sings in a rap style. There are some great pop singles on here. It's immediately accessible to almost anyone which does worry me a little as I wonder if it has much staying power - that is one of the most fascinating things about discovering new music - how your opinion changes over the coming weeks, months, and even years (one of the original reasons I started this log actually).

Who is he anyway? Well from Wiki I learn that he is a contemporary reggae artist from Jamaica. That's an obvious description but an important distinction as I still think of most reggae (probably solely due to Bob Marley) as 70s music. Furthermore most the Dub stuff from Trojan is from even earlier.  

Real name Oje Ken Ollivierre, Protoje started recording proper albums in 2011 and this one A Matter Of Time is his fifth.

One of my favourite tracks is No Guarantee which has this slickly produced video below (and also a catchy downward guitar riff):



Protoje himself has commented on the video:

This video is shot exclusively in Port Royal and shows bits and pieces of everyday life. Moments that often go unappreciated even unnoticed but are essentially all that we have. 

Tell me are there things you take for granted too often?

I've never visited Jamaica. I'm sure there's lots of what we would describe as poverty but that sea (and dare I say the way of life?) looks beautiful. Port Royal is a suburb of Kingston.



The Kruder and Dorfmeister double CD Sessions is a superb piece of music. For a brief moment in time it was actually my favourite album. The album consists of heavily dubbed out remixes of tunes by artists like David Holmes, Depeche Mode, Roni Size, Lamb, Count Basic and Bomb The Bass. CD number 1 is slightly more upbeat with CD 2 a touch more chilled. Sometimes this blissed out down tempo trip hop type music can become a bit too much like elevator music - a criticism K & D masterfully avoid (although you would have almost certainly heard some of their tracks before, even unknowingly, via TV background music). The other thing about this duo is they actually really do improve the originals - a case in point with the Depeche Mode remix below:



I had a look for the Luke Vibert album on Spotify and it wasn't listed. I then realised Luke goes under the name of Wagon Christ for this 2001 release. That's not his only pseudonym. He can also be found under the following names: Plug, Kerrier District, Amen Andrews, and the Ace of Clubs, although his own name plus Wagon Christ are the ones he uses most often. I believe each nomenclature indicates a different style of music whether it be trip hop, acid or drum 'n' bass, but I'm not enough of an expert to distinguish. What I can tell though is Vibert has a unique sound in the IDM (intelligent dance music) field identifiable across all his releases. This one starts off with the following sample and Luke always delivers. 

The premise of this album is very very simple - to listen to messages of soul with a solid beat.

For new listeners I'd also recommend Stop The Panic as a good starting point - available super cheap from amazon at the moment. This album expertly melds Luke's solid beats with slide guitar by BJ Cole creating a unique experience:



All for now, have a good week of musipal discovery!






Sunday 30 April 2017

Log #31 - David Sylvian - From Pop Star to Serious Musician

Eddy Bamyasi

David Sylvian found fame as the flamboyant front man of pop group Japan who were actually active a lot earlier than I'd assumed. They were formed as far back as 1974 ie. in the hey day of prog and glam. This surprised me as I'd always thought of them as an 80s pop band of the Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Spandau Ballet type, rather than contemporaries of Roxy Music and David Bowie. To be fair they didn't really emerge proper until the early 80s having adopted a new romantic style.

David Sylvian did not like to be associated with the new romantic movement which may explain the break up of the band at the peak of their success at the end of 1982, and his subsequent about turn in his solo recordings which began with Brilliant Trees in 1984. But the real eye opener for me was Secrets of The Beehive which I heard at a friend's house shortly after it's release in 1987. Frankly, it blew my mind. I thought it was superb and could not believe it was David Sylvian. I don't play it that often now but for a time it was one of my favourite albums and one of those nice surprises to share with others (I remember Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden was a similarly revered "surprise" album).

Continuing his bee obsession Dead Bees on a Cake came 12 years later. It's a lengthy album with 14 mostly substantial tracks touching on jazz, rock, blues and world music - beautifully produced and performed by Sylvian's usual plethora of top notch session musicians who included Talvin Singh, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Ryuichi Sakamoto on this one.

David Sylvian through the ages


1. Prem Joshua - Yatri
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. Van Morrison - Enlightenment
5. Luke Vibert - YosepH
6. Luke Vibert - Stop The Panic

Sunday 23 April 2017

Log #30 - Impressive Beards / Mixed Results

Eddy Bamyasi


1. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Mojave
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. John Surman - Coruscating
5. Luke Vibert - YosepH
6. Arbouretum - The Gathering


The Willard Grant Conspiracy album is so so. I used to love this sort of laid back Americana stuff but now it sounds pretty middle of the road and very low key. Actually a bit depressing. The lead singer has one of those baritones popularised by The Handsome Family, Tindersticks and Nick Cave. Sadly on googling a meaning for Willard Grant (there wasn't one particularly) I learn that the lead singer died only this February and that wasn't his name.

Willard Grant singer Robert Fisher 1957 - 2017

I was surprised the band were still going actually. I saw them at our local Komedia venue many years ago, probably around the time (1999) of the Mojave album (which also has a pretty bleak cover) and they seemed jaded at the end of a long European Tour. I could see the drummer lying on the floor back stage before the band made their appearance.

Depressing imagery on the WGC album


Iron and Wine on the other hand really resonate with me. I came to them late when I saw beautifully bearded leader Sam Beam with full electric band at The Green Man Festival in Wales about 7 or 8 years ago. I thought they were excellent - superb musicians, great vocals, and powerful songs especially Your Fake Name is Good Enough for Me. Later I read that diehard fans of Sam Beam were not so impressed with his switch to electric band from his acoustic roots. I've now caught up on the more solo emphasized earlier albums and they are excellent, but that doesn't detract from Kiss Each Other Clean this week's cover album.

Sam Beam, impressively bearded well before it became fashionable


Finally this week a return for Baltimore rock band Arbouretum who I was surprised to see are playing at a tiny venue in Brighton in June. Tickets secured and I hope for some tracks from this guitar laden Gathering album.


Sunday 16 April 2017

Log #29 - I Love Luke Vibert's Acid

Eddy Bamyasi
1. Iron and Wine - Around the Well CD 2
2. Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
3. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake
4. John Surman - Coruscating
5. Luke Vibert - Lover's Acid
6. Luke Vibert - YosepH


I love these heavy beatz Luke Vibert albums from his early noughties acid phase. They sound so fresh and current even though they are both over 10 years old now. An artist who has kept up a remarkably original and consistent standard over a number of years and name changes including Plug, Kerrier District and Wagon Christ.

One of my fave tracks with it's Kraftwerk like pulses and vocoder is I Love Acid from YosepH which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Sunday 2 April 2017

Log #27 - Four Tet Doing The Rounds

Eddy Bamyasi


1. Rodriguez - Coming From Reality
2. Money Mark - Mark's Keyboard Repair
3. Fairport Convention - The History Of
4. Four Tet - Rounds
5. Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush
6. Van Morrison - The 1967 New York Sessions

Cover album is from Four Tet. I really like this DJ Artist, real name Keiran Hebden, who composes his own material. Seeing him live too was a good experience (not normally the case I find with DJ sets as a spectacle). This is the only album I have of his and by many accounts is the best one to start with. There are some great hooks and loops and lugubrious jazzy down beats similar to DJ Shadow's best stuff. Centrepiece is the piano piece Unbroken. And They All Look Broken Hearted is fascinating with it's phased Japanese koto.



Sunday 26 March 2017

Log #26 - How to Tell the Temperature from a Cricket

Eddy Bamyasi


1. Rodriguez - Coming From Reality
2. Money Mark - Mark's Keyboard Repair
3. Sly and the Family Stone - The Collection
4. Four Tet - Rounds
5. Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush
6. Van Morrison - The 1967 New York Sessions

Wagon Christ is one of the pseudonyms of Luke Vibert - a prolific DJ and mixer, like Aphex Twin, from Cornwall. What I admire about Vibert's output is that although he covers different styles (electronica, acid, disco, dance, trance) he always stamps his own personality on his music - a characteristic not all that common in the rather anonymous world of DJ mixing. I found my way into Luke Vibert via his Stop the Panic album with slide guitarist BJ Cole - an unusual marriage, but one that works brilliantly.
That cricket was chirping at 76 degrees fahrenheit.
Also on the playlist this week is an intriguing album from Money Mark. Money Mark is actually Mark Nishita who has played keyboards with The Beastie Boys. Hear this frankly bonkers but brilliant track Insects Are All Around Us and ponder if you have ever heard anything like it before.




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