Fast Sounds for Slow Listeners

Japanese modern horror films are taking me to strange places. It all started with 'The Ring' & 'One Missed Call' & other movies by Takeshisha Miike are so totally off the wall, you are open jawed at the end.

Do not watch the Western remakes, they are so inferior.

Rainbow, Rain & Paradise

The Only Lake in Scotland

I do not visit this beautiful loch often enough. Yesterday with the protracted days of bright sunshine seemed the ideal opportunity to return.

It always looked so busy in those old photos of the winter curling on the frozen water. Yesterday was so clear & Ben Lomond shone brightly & sharp reflections of trees & hills decorated the water.

Skulking Around at the Back, as Usual

Tir Na Nog, the Angels, Golem, Treebeard & the Heebeejeebies

I finally got around to stopping @ Tir Na Nog on the way between Drymen & the crossroads forking to Stirling or Aberfoyle.

You know the shops have soup, angels & lots of outstanding art, many objects are made from natural substances.

They even had a manual heebeejeebie, but I now have the manual as well as the electric variety.

If you been at the Findhorn Centre then you will be at home here.

From Woodstock to Milngavie (Again)

Artists from Woodstock turning up on frozen evenings @ Fraser Centre in Milngavie is becoming a regular occurrance.

This is the 2nd time I have seen Robin Williamson there & it is such an intimate evening.

My childhood friend Peter was enlightened & he was there too. My wife was singing along & I guess I may have been doing likewise.

40 years since he played Woodstock & he keeps getting better.

Is Not Nature Wonderful?

Life under the flightpath, pt 786

As I search for sleep, I hear the thumping blood, circulating through it’s dodgy, pump & the drifting outdoor sounds are mashed alongside.

I feel as if I am living inside the Alan Splet soundtrack to ‘Eraserhead’.

Although much is in my head, I hear creaky, old buildings with loose floorboards & dying plumbing & heating systems, ill –fitting doors & windows & leaky, dripping taps long past the need of washers.

Town sounds bleed into the mix; planes, cars, wheelie bins being emptied or somersaulting in the high winds, football in the park, drunks singing Irish rebel songs or just shouting, the constant screaming of the alarms of emergency vehicles, that conjure up images of NY, or a riot.

I wonder why so many young people with to listen to silly music on their iPods, when there are so many more interesting sounds around.

Perhaps it is a control thing: you may wish to use your own choice of music to cover up these environmental sounds?

Life Under the Flightpath pt 111

Perhaps there are unconscious benefits from a life under the flightpath?

Something drives me to go out on my own to wide open spaces, where you only hear the natural sounds of the countryside.

There are no better sounds than a trickling stream or a raging waterfall or birds hovering or the wind in the long grass or the treetops.

Maybe this is what prompted me to give up making my own music & to concentrate on recording the environmental sounds around me.

There is also something very relaxing in the drone of machines.

Recently I have also been listening to some superb soundwalks & I would wish to recommend the outstanding Chris Watson’s work, Resonance Fm – Framework series as well as Touch Radio.

There are lots of great examples of phonography around & some of the websites are great works of art…e.g. check out Punck’s work or as mentioned in early dispatches the ‘Devil’s Plantation’ site is inspiring.

Tracing My Childish Dreams

These long weekends I have before the end of the year give me the opportunity of following in my own childish footsteps & living the dream.

Last week I tried to find the places where I caught newts & frogs after school & the what to me was an inaccessible pinacle, but what now seems tame & it is hidden in the undergrowth.

Further on, on the way to Craigton, I was annoyed to discover those daily routes after school, have now been diverted to make room for an increasingly large quarry.

Is this alongside the landfill or in place of?

It is shocking for me to see something that was essential for my wellbeing is being eroded to pave the way for industry.

Moptops in the Treetops

When you feel bad, because everyone calls you a moptop & you cannot avoid the evil eye, search out Shekinah's 'Masstashadhu' - it is the best thing you have heard since the last great thing.....you wont be disappointed.

Woodend Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club

Not a bowling ball or tennis ball in sight in a dreicht, wet October night, but Alan Henry had brought Jackie Leven to play again this year & I was going to pull out all the stops to attend.

It is a small venue & it was full to bursting, Jackie did not disappoint & his set was over way to soon. Although he played & chatted for ages, time stood still.

Without a doubt he is the premier Scottish artist.

Finnish Afro Funk

If like me, you are pining for another Jimi Tenor tour, try & content yourself with this blend of Finnish Afro Funk (was it 12" album??) .

It is something that brought together the great talents of Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen.......oh yeah......

The Hanging Thief

After you have feasted on the handy bitesized, mango fingers & all is right with the world, treat yourself to the glorious long, drone sounds of the Hanging Thief - you wont regret it.

If you can imagine being hard-wired to your favourite hoover or fridge, while doing the Wahl thing to your hair & while someone is sawing a boiling kettle in half with a Faust chainsaw - you are not even close or in the same ballpark!

Steppin Out

I had a brainwave a trip to the sauna/jaccuzzi would ease my backpain & get me back to the 5-a-sides toutes suite.

I had not factored in all the old guys in the sauna who saw me as one of them, someone the same age as them, a fellow oldie.

They really treated me as someone just like them. It is a small wonder I keep away from all truthful mirrors.

HeeBeeGeeBees in the Jacuzzi

I have had to gives my 5-a-side the bodyswerve, recently as the backpain I am suffering is too much.

I have taking a days holiday so that I can attend the public baths & hit the Jacuzzi to see if it relieves the pain.

Do you think it is safe to take my HeeBeeGeeBee in as well, to give myself an Indian head massage at the same time?

Some Album Titles Currently Scratching at my Freakfolk Beard

Sproatly Smith – Yew & Hare

Hare & Moon – S/T

Trysting Tree – Midnight House

Natural Snow Buildings – Shadow Kingdom

Chora – Baptist Grip

Kukomo- Lauluju Surun Karestra

Part Wild Horses Mane – Poisson

Master Musicians of Bukakke – Totem 1

Harappin Night Recordings – Glorious Gongs

Iditarod – Ghost, elf…

Deep Mind – Balance

Jean Cohen Solal – Flutes Libres

Goatfooted/Hunting Rituals – split

Album titles that make you laugh out loud

1. Friday Group – Who wants to look at a bunch of broken pottery when you can haul ass down the freeway

2. Grey Park – Words are little creatures that work for the black sun

Greasy Truckers

Listening to Man recently and I flash back to the whole period when Man & Gong were setting the world on fire.

I have seen both bands & I regard Man as the Welsh equivalent to the Quicksilver Messenger Service. The track titles are coming back to me ‘Many are called, but few get up’ & others offered some sound advice for those ‘Interesting Times’ e.g. ‘Never say nups to Nepalese’ I am sure I do not know what that is about.

Observations of a Flower Child, part 23

• No matter how far you travel in the world, it is the inner distance that really counts
• Lose the ego
• Whether you are on Colva beach, Goa 1973 listening to a personal mantra played non-stop by whom? ‘All Things Must Pass’- how appropriate
• Or if you are in an Afghan border town or a Pakistani gunshop or opiumshop: Buddhism teaches you not to grasp anything, let it go, it is all an illusion, Maya, smoke & mirrors……..as GuruBrian would say, ‘I just wasn’t made for these times’
• Consumerism is running rampant & panders to the ego- I want, I need – we are all sold a lie- possessions = clutter, we don’t need the latest this & that
• Satan has found new, subtle methods of operation & it is difficult not to get sucked in…..to conclude with the wise words of GuruBob…..’he eats but is not satisfied…’