NWW @ Tramway

This Midsummer’s Day Dream was a suitable alternative to Pink who was just up the road @ Hampden.

I did not realise there was so many weird & wonderful people around the Glasgow area. Naturally I fitted in very nicely. I was not sure what to expect, but I was hoping for an acoustic version of NWW. This did not happen. It was a skronking, jazz,gltchy, krautrock, workout with what looked like Raymond MacDonald as guest on sax.

At times I could hear an Edgar Broughton Band influence on the mix among the glitches & the groove.

My only complaint was that the set was short (just over an hour), but I was reminded of some of the heftier performances @ Install down the road @ the Arches.

The surrealistic films by Steven Stapleton used as a backdrop are masterpieces & reminded me of films I had watched a month ago at the Tramway.

Shamen

Fuelling up each day with a lethal cocktail of Ginseng, Omega 3, Metformin & Java & currently reading the ‘Wire’ article of South Korea & Alfred 23 Harth & dreaming of the impact of Shamen on Korean culture.

King’s Park Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Out on Friday 25^th June 2010 to catch the King’s Park Brass Band @ Hyndland Parish Church. I had been @ this venue a few years ago as part of the West End Festival. That time it was to see Leo Saidenough & a Russian Choir.

My friend Claire plays El Cubano trombone, with the brass & she told me about the event. There was such a varied programme & although the band thought the sound was flattering, it was not in the loud passages.

I am very fond of brass band & I enjoyed this concert so much, as they threw a few of my favourite pieces of film music, into the mix.

Letting the Sand Run Through My Fingers

Why can I fail to see the continuous line between psychedelia and krautrock? Perhaps I was too close to the former?

Apart that is from Can, who I zoomed in on as a more acceptable band, than the rapidly declining Pink Floyd.

I missed the whole birth of Faust, why? I suppose I was stuck in the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy/Jazz thing.

Fortunately there is a wealth of krautrock now easily available & I have caught up rapidly.

Hallam Foe

I did not know exactly what to expect, but this film with it's stupendous soundtrack was a real treat.

David Mackenzie was known to me for his movies 'Young Adam' & 'The Last Great Wilderness'. I think he has created an even greater work with Hallam Foe'

Swinging Gypsy Guitar

I recently caught a documentary on Jimmy Rosenberg, the Dutch - Romany django - style guitar player.

I was in awe at his hand speed & the material, however his turn to narcotics & his father's incarceration & the break up of the family was heartbreaking.

There is really more than one jimi of the guitar.

This was sadly my first exposure to this genre for a long time & I was so glad I watched this powerful film.

Droning Backpacker Ragas

Apologies for late arrival of some posts, busy with mad things & I can barely keep up with Twitter/Facebook presence.

I have been busy with Droning Backpacker Ragas, playback singers & bombay taxi driving techniques

A Small Crack in the Cosmic Egg

Okay, I have finally got around to doing a very personal, but what I believe to be a definitive list of the best UK Psyche.

• Oberon - Midsummers Night Dream
• Sun Also Rises - S/T
• Quintessence - S/T & In Blissful Company
• Third Ear Band - S/T & Alchemy & MacBeth
• Pretty Things - SF Sorrow & Parachute
• Tyrannosaurus Rex - My People Were Fair
• Clouds - Scrapbook & Watercolour Days
• Nirvana (UK) - All of Us
• Spooky Tooth - Its All About & II & Ceremony
• High Tide
• East of Eden
• Blossom Toes
• Edgar Broughton
• Traffic
• Tea & Sympathy
• Family
• Principal Edwards Magic Theatre
• Heron
• Pete Brown & Piblokto
• Mark Fry
• Comus
• Jan Dukes De Grey
• Affinity
• If
• July
• Kaleidoscope (check out the usa band of the same name too)

A Merry Prank

Driving about with Peter Cusack's Baikal Ice blaring from the car. This soundwork has some groovy bird sounds that freaked my missus out each time she heard it.

The next time I am going to up the gears with some Chris Watson.

• Baikal Ice

...perhaps his most lyrical work: a documentary recording of nature and life by the lake at the end of winter, when the ice begins to melt. (Piero Scaruffi, 2003)

You can hear the vast spaces, the majesty of the frozen lake, and the 'pittoresque' of the location through the wind, bird, and human sounds, but also through the acoustical features of the recordings. We can hear unusual bird songs, children playing with an outdoor PA system, Cusack in his daily routine (mediated by his very dry sense of humor). The recordings are crystal clear and ... create their own stories and convey a sense of here and now...these recordings disclose a unique soundworld. This reviewer would not be surprised if a compilation album of remixes/reworkings based on these recordings surfaced soon. (emphasis added; François Couture, Allmusic)

Habibiya - If Man But Knew

I am a bird of God’s garden
and I do not belong to this dusty world
For a day or two they have put me here
in this cage of my own body
I did not come here of my own
I will not return of my own
to my own country..

A Bird In God’s Garden – Rumi / Archuletta

Dvds to Watch While Your Neighbours are Smoking Fish on Their Chimneas

No 1 on the list has to be : Katalin Varga by Peter Strickland. Although he wished for another classical soundtrack, the music & ambient sounds on the film are outstanding.

Includes Nurse with Wound tracks........

The whole film has a great atmosphere, gypsy madness, transylvannian landscapes. In fact the film highlights how remote this region is in the 21st century & reminds me of my own feelings in Yugoslavia back in the day.

The extras on the dvd are superb & his chat about the banning of horse-drawn wagons on the main roads tells its own story.

In Blissful Company

There is just something that happened while listening to Family Elan - Bow Low, Bright Glow. I was taken right back to those first 2 Quintessence albums.

I believe it may have been the voices, it is the voices that always takes me back to re- listen to those amazing psychedelic lps released in a world full of optimism.

Tunes to Whistle While You Are Boiling the Basmati

Lazlo Hortobagyi - 6th All India..

Enduser - Bollywood Breaks

Various - Bollywood the Hard Way

Sheila Chandra - Nada Brahmin

Bombay Dub Orchestra - 3 Cities

Bombay Dub Orchestra - Bombay

Bombay Dub Orchestra - Dub

Best CD Title

Ennio Mazzon - Ripples caressed by drones

Enoesque

The best Eno cd by another artist = Rim - Seas, Deserts, Skies.

I really enjoy cds that reflect natural phenomenon like breathing, the wind, surf on pebbles, tides.

I believe that there is something going on that draws us to these sounds & maybe that is what Eno is going to tell us next.

Sound Advice

Sound advice for the young at heart: more acid, less speed

Scotlands Hidden Reverse

There is nothing better for the urban explorer than to find hidden empty spaces to investigate.

Even although these sites might only be yeards from a main road e.g. Devil's pulpit, you often find yourself in the middle of nowhere, always without a map & always without adequate food & drink for diabetes.

I started off by parking @ Dobbies & then went down to the Allander. I followed the path up to Milngavie, pretty uneventful & boring, but I moved on to follow the river in the other direction & that is when I was on my own away from any other walker.

I was getting a bit lost, a bit parched & light headed after a while & I thought I was heading back towards the road. It was another road of course.

I ended up cutting across a field to get back to Dobbies & some liquid & my Gold Block.

All in all an outstanding ramble in unexplored territory.

Reading Groups Are Fun: Discuss

Almost a punch up at my last Reading Group in the library. 'Morven Caller' divided opinion totally. Myself & 2 others liked it, with 2 abstentions & 3 absolutely loathing the book, we reached a stalemate. I cannot remember such a heated, if interesting choice.

Walnut Whales

As I was so disappointed with the new Joanne Newsome, I went right back to the start for my choice of music on my favourite drive out to Stirling.

I knew what I liked about her & it is missing from her new album. Shame.

Old Friends

What a week it was for catching up with ghosts from the past. Martin (Madhu) popped into the library (what a history we share) as he is back in the area.

At an incredible Bridget St John & Michael Chapman concert in the Fraser Centre, Milngavie (the 2nd time we have caught them there!) I met my old mate Aitchi, who actually put some Michael Chapman vinyl onto tape about 50 years ago it seems.

I will have to chat to Aitchi as he may remember bits concerning the Maryland Ballroom, Glasgow that I may have forgotten.