Log #206 - 3 Hawkwind Eras

Hawkwind - PXR5
Hawkwind - Levitation
Hawkwind - In The Hall Of The Mountain Grill
Hawkwind - Warrior On The Edge Of Time
Steve Miller - Circle Of Love
Mouse On Mars - Autoditacker

More Hawkwind retrospection this week - after the fantastic prog epic Warrior On The Edge Of Time Hawkwind reinvented themselves with a new record label as a more modern new wave rock band for a series of late '70s albums fronted by eccentric singer Robert Calvert. The final of these (four) albums was PXR5 released in 1979. The results throughout the series were mixed with shorter poppier songs which occasionally hit the mark but missed out on the mind expanding space rock experimentation of the early albums. A far cry from Space Ritual this period, for me at least, does not represent Hawkwind's finest hour. 

However at the turn of the decade Hawkwind changed again. With a new crack line up, which welcomed back slick lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton (who appeared on the debut album), plus ex Cream legend Ginger Baker on drums and ex Gong keyboardist Tim Blake, the band produced a series of more heavy metal based albums beginning with Levitation in 1980. The album is almost brilliant, the first two or three songs are fantastic demonstrating a renewed energy and vigour and brilliant playing. Just checkout how hot this band were:

Unfortunately it does n't quite maintain its momentum as the album runs a little out of steam. The follow album up Sonic Attack (although lacking both Baker and Blake) is more consistently heavy. Sonic Attack, although not necessarily a regular fan favourite, is particularly significant for me being the first Hawkwind album I heard. I saw the band when touring the album as reported here >>

The Steve Miller album Circle Of Love is most renowned for the side long groove of Macho City which was an innovative track at the time (as was the ending of 2 minutes plus of rain and thunder sound effects). 

  

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Log #156 - Whole Lotta Led Zep

Mouse On Mars Vulvaland

 Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here

Cluster Zuckerzeit

Cluster II

John Legend Once Again

Led Zeppelin II

Just the one survivor from last week's log #155: John Legend's growing album Once Again. Growing in this context meaning it's a grower on me.

The early chop fell on Beirut to whom I had promised to give more time but it only confirmed initial impressions: I don't like the singing and don't really like the instrumentation either to be honest (has a ukulele ever made it in rock?); so that's probably it for me and Beirut.

Feed the flowers, cut the weeds. 

I don't really get Wilco either. I do love Americana and Alt-Country but don't appreciate Wilco that much. Again, maybe it's the singing? Or maybe the persistent glum mood. As well as Yankee Hotel Whatsit I have their equally revered Being There double album which will get a spin one of these days.

Once Again Again From John Legend

As for last week's soul boys Anthony Hamilton, and John Legend in particular, I really started to enjoy their albums. The John Legend has some very catchy tunes and even some moments of raw Hendrix like guitar (although Legend's main instrument is the piano as on this lovely tune below). 

Let's go to the park

I wanna kiss you underneath the stars

Maybe we'll go too far

We just don't care

What is PDA (the name of the above track) anyway? It took me a while to figure. In this context it's not "pathological demand avoidance" or a "personal delivery assistant" but a "public display of affection".

Who is the guitarist elsewhere on the album - I assume it's not Legend (real name Stephens)? I can't find out (and not worth trying to read CD inserts is it?).

For this sort of super smooth mega produced soul music the mood and timing has to be right and the underlying songs have to be good enough to carry it off and they are on the whole in Once Again.

Cluster Leap

On to the new entries. Well not really new. As recent readers will have noticed I've been on a major Cluster trip for a month or two now and two of their albums return for further assessment. So this Sunday we have Cluster no. II and the follow up Zuckerzeit. Both excellent, both different. 

Whole Lotta Led Zep 

Why Led Zeppelin now? Well, you know, it's just great stuff and sometimes you just need to rock out. A more specific reason is I heard Whole Lotta Love on the car radio during the week and wow, what a track. I remember hearing it for the first time (even just the curtailed Top Of The Pops version) and it was everything I wanted in rock music. I purchased the live album The Song Remains The Same as it had a 15 minute version of Whole Lotta Love on it, but actually it disappointed. You really did need Led Zep II. 

So my first experiences of Led Zeppelin and Whole Lotta Love would have been around 1980. By then they were pretty much defunct (calling it a sad day after John Bonham died in September 1980, just two months before John Lennon) (Lennon was 40, Bonham just 32). 

I can't remember the order I purchased the Led Zep albums but I guess it would have been something like The Song Remains The Same, II, IV, III, Houses Of The Holy, Physical Graffiti, I, Presence, In Through The Out Door, Coda. Pretty exciting stuff even 10 years after the event but imagine hearing Whole Lotta Love and II in October 1969 on its original release. It must have blown a lot of people's minds.

Sometimes I realise I have 2 of the same albums in my collection. This is the case with Physical Graffiti, not clever...

The cover for Led Zep II was designed by David Juniper, an art school colleague of Jimmy Page's. He took an old German WW1 photo of the Red Baron's Flying Division and superimposed faces of the band and various members of their entourage including manager Peter Grant. The cover also allegedly includes Neil Armstrong and Miles Davis but this is debatable as the faces are heavily disguised. 

Mouse On Mars and The Emeralds

The Mouse On Mars album Vulvaland, their debut, is excellent powerful electronica with heavy beats and bass, and sprinklings of lush ambience too. It's scarcely believable this is music from 1994. The Emeralds album has all the elements I love but somehow doesn't quite float my boat (just yet) in the same way.

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Log #116 - Before Billy Became Bonnie

Mouse On Mars - Vulvaland

Radiohead - The Best Of

Palace Brothers - Days In The Wake

Griffin Anthony - The Refuge

Tangerine Dream - Encore

Death In Vegas - Trans- Love Energies

The Radiohead compilation was released in 2008 but actually only contains selections from the band's first 6 albums up to Hail To The Thief (2003). No surprises it's mostly early period biased with 6 tracks from their second album The Bends (1995) and only one from the excellent Amnesiac (2001). The tracks are not sequenced in chronological order which actually works well, helping make it quite a good coherent standalone album (or double album in old money with 17 tracks). I'm only just rediscovering Radiohead and don't have all their albums but this would seem an excellent summary either for a new fan wanting to discover more, or someone who only feels the need for one Radiohead album.

1. "Just" (from The Bends, 1995)
2. "Paranoid Android" (from OK Computer, 1997)
3. "Karma Police" (from OK Computer, 1997)
4. "Creep" (from Pablo Honey, 1993)
5. "No Surprises" (from OK Computer, 1997)
6. "High and Dry" (from The Bends, 1995)
7. "My Iron Lung" (from The Bends, 1995)
8. "There There" (from Hail to the Thief, 2003)
9. "Lucky" (from OK Computer, 1997)
10. "Optimistic (Radio edit)" (from Kid A, 2000)
11. "Fake Plastic Trees" (from The Bends, 1995)
12. "Idioteque" (from Kid A, 2000)
13. "2 + 2 = 5" (from Hail to the Thief, 2003)
14. "The Bends" (from The Bends, 1995)
15. "Pyramid Song" (from Amnesiac, 2001)
16. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (from The Bends, 1995)
17. "Everything in Its Right Place" (from Kid A, 2000)

Lots of tracks is a frequent bugbear I have with CDs (quantity winning out over quality). This is fair enough for the Tangerine Dream live album Encore as it was originally a double vinyl album. The single CD contains 4 "side long" pieces with evocative titles in keeping with the tour's location (the album was recorded during the band's North American tour of Spring 1977):

Cherokee Lane, Monolight, Coldwater Canyon, and Desert Dream.

Like most of TD's live concerts the tracks are generally originals but variations on the studio tracks do weave in and out of the performances.

The Death In Vegas album is also a lot of listening - over 100 minutes in my version which contains the bonus CD. The very first track is entitled Silver Time Machine but then weirdly it is the second track Black Hole that sounds like a cover of Hawkwind's Silver Machine. There are indeed a lot of influences in this music - krautrock, electronica, grunge, industrial, techno, 80s synth and indie. Definitely a candidate for the music map:

I have to say this map looks a bit sparse (the programme is based on users' preferences so I imagine there isn't much data on Death In Vegas). I certainly don't get the Up Bustle and Out reference.

Initial standout track is the ravetastic Your Loft My Acid:

Much more to discover on this band and album for sure. What fun.

Over staying a welcome is not an accusation that can levelled at our next two miniatures: the Palace Brothers and Griffin Anthony albums are a very manageable in both length and structure - a return to the basics of acoustic instrumentation and old fashioned song writing after (it has to be said) Eddy has been a bit "off on one" in recent posts.

Will Oldham is a confusing artist in terms of the names he goes by. Palace Brothers was his first moniker way back in 1993. Even more confusing this album (his second) originally had no title. In fact my copy is not titled (in keeping with the very understated music the cover of the album shows the singer in blurred silhouette against some net curtains). Later versions were given the Days In The Wake title although this was still not printed on the cover. The Palace Brothers name was then replaced by Palace Music before Oldham settled on his most famous stage name Bonnie "Prince" Billy which he has largely stuck with since 1998, just occasionally releasing an album under his real name.

The primary purpose of the pseudonym is to allow both the audience and the performer to have a relationship with the performer that is valid and unbreakable.

He has also revisited his back catalogue and in 2004 released Sings Greatest Palace Music where he re-recorded his solo Palace era music with a country band. About half of the tracks on Days In The Wake reappear in their more up tempo band setting on Sings Greatest....I love the album of reworkings although I have read original fans didn't like it and it received a bewilderingly scathing review in Pitchfork. Perhaps it was significant I heard Sings Greatest...before the originals. True, the versions are very different. They are almost different songs. But so what, Dylan and Young have been reworking their songs for years.

Palace period Will Oldham before he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy

One thing that is constant is Will Oldham's weak and fragile voice which literally cracks under the slightest of pressure. I love it. It may be weak in the traditional sense but it is packed full of emotion and is perfect for his songs.

He's also not afraid to stop when he's said enough. This album is small and perfectly formed with it's 10 tracks clocking in at a remarkable 27 minutes. Not the only time Oldham has served up a very short album (the delicious Master And Everyone springs to mind).

A weak voice is not an issue with country maverick Griffin Anthony who has one of those effortlessly laid back drawls synonymous with easy going country music. His Refuge is a pure and simple album which sounds like it was recorded in your front room. I guess with a bunch of crack Nashville sessions players too. Sure it's country (with a generous sprinkling of contemporary "alt" and "americana") and the lyrics confirm this - old tales of war vets, goldrush prospectors, and god fearing, hard fighting, working men fallen on hard times. But Griffin isn't afraid to rock out too - Only Hope Remains could be a stadium filler, or even get funky in places - On The Level with it's stuttering guitar strum sounds like Bill Withers. Nicely done.

***

It's that time of year when the year end best of lists start to emerge. I think many years ago there would be some degree of consensus in the press. There was less music around and a more focused genre of music attached to each era. Now anything goes and anyone can make a record.

One of the best lists around is produced by Brighton's local Resident Records. If you are in the area it is worth picking up a free copy of their Annual - actually I think the nice boys and girls there will send you one (or possibly add one to any online orders). It is worth a read and you're sure to discover new music. You can view online here too:  The Resident Annual.

I'll be doing my own 2018 review in the next week or so.

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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 #109 - The Cacophonous Glory of Caribous On Mars

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 1)

Stars of the Lid - The Tired Sounds Of (CD 2)

Brian Eno - Music For Airports

Manitoba - Start Breaking My Heart

Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records

Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker

With its reedy horns, jazzy keyboards and cymbal laden break beats Manitoba's classy 2001 album Start Breaking My Heart feels like St Germain's Tourist's (a very popular album in jazz lounges and student bedsits from the year before) baby brother. An obvious reference point is Four Tet but it also reminds me a lot of the early Efterklang albums when they were experimenting with clicks and glitches, and Penguin Cafe Orchestra particularly on tracks like People Eating Fruit with its gentle slightly off key organ refrain and choral singing and Children Play Well Together which sounds like the noise a telephone makes when left off the hook (something the PCO were prone to do).

What of the Caribou name? Manitoba musician Dan Snaith works under several monikers and this exact same album was re-released in 2006 under the name Caribou (the cover is the same except for the tiny type in the top left corner) after he was threatened with legal action over the Manitoba name by singer Richard Manitoba (yes, exactly... who?). Snaith quite reasonably suggested this was akin to The Smiths being sued by John Smith.

Dan Snaith as Caribou (always sensible to put your name on your school equipment)

Although Snaith plays live as part of a band this album is a solo produced affair. This is surprising as the music sounds very authentic and organic. It is verging upon the laid back easy listening end of the electronica spectrum but the music contains enough unusual turns, weird sounds and random rhythms to be both a pleasant listen and an interesting one. As such it has a soul which you don't always get in the mathematically perfect synthesizer music of a band like Kraftwerk for instance, or the aforementioned Tourist come to that.

I love the modern art cover too, which heads up this post. I can't quite make out whether it is a painting or a photo.

Brimming with fragmented melodies, spacey dissonances, edgy breaks, strange streams of sonic particles, and chaotic overlays.

Falling into the trap of comparisons again, German DJ duo Mouse On Mars remind me of U-ziq with their attractive melodies over energetic beats and deep bass. It's a lot heavier and faster than Manitoba. It's definitely dance heavy and doesn't take itself too seriously with a smattering of silly noises and twee tunes.

Many tracks have intriguing high pitched squeaks in the background which sound like er hem, mice! Mice trapped inside one of the Boards of Canada laptops. I like that, let's use that. Ed.

These mice sound not so much from Mars, but more like mice trapped deep inside one of the Boards of Canada laptops. 

Nice. Ed.

Maybe it's a trademark sound they use on all their albums. But there's a lot more than trapped mice beneath the grooves - the boys have thrown everything at the mix to produce a dense multi layered record within which I expect to hear new things on each listen. Is it 'Techno' perhaps? Not sure. But it is a bit like Autechre although an easier listen than that. Released as long ago as 1997 it is not surprising there are elements of drum 'n' bass on Autoditacker (how do you pronounce that?) too.

Despite this vintage I was tempted to say the music is ahead of its time or perhaps timeless. I'm not sure if that's truly the case. It is indeed more than 20 years old which seems incredible. But that's not due to the revolutionary electronic sounds necessarily (the likes of countrymen Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk began mining their seams of electronic music in the early 70s of course). It's more a sobering admission on my part of the passing of time and a realisation that there is a wealth of music out there I've never heard which has been around donkeys years.

20 years ago - this was in a pre-9/11 world (I know that's not relevant to music particularly but do you, like me, divide the past into pre and post 2001 sometimes? I remember imagining where I would be and how old I'd be in the year 2000. Jeez.

Anyway the technology may not have been that revolutionary by 1997 but 'MoM' are a fascinating and original addition to the electronic music scene. Formed in that hotbed of musical innovation Dusseldorf in 1993 micey duo Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma have produced 11 studio albums right up to this year's Dimensional People (Autoditacker was their third) and have collaborated with artists as diverse as Stereolab and The Fall.

Mice on Mars contemplate their leads

The Mouse On Mars website has an impenetrably long bio employing an academic English I feel a native speaker would rarely use:

A disorientating mix of pop and experimentation running from noise to strange beauty, their music is at the same time resolutely avant-garde and playful, though always charged with a destructive compulsion. Brimming with fragmented melodies, spacey dissonances, edgy breaks, strange streams of sonic particles, and chaotic overlays, Mouse On Mars' fluid sound aesthetic reflects their general mutability, which is deeply rooted in their restless ingenuity, quirky sense of humour, and fearless non-conformism.

There's much more but perhaps worth noting...

Multiplicity and diversity, in all of their cacophonous glory (including failure), form the crux of Mouse On Mars’ artistic agenda. Imprecision, noise, dissonance, intuition, speculation, spontaneity, improvisation, imagination, connectivity, loss of control, and overload constitute some of their many vehicles. Mouse On Mars’ musical and artistic universe thus emerges only through a holistic consideration of their extended constellation of collaborations, projects, and references.

Jan Rohlf

Sounds interesting doesn't it? Have a listen to their cacophonous glory (including failure?).

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