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August 31, 2011

Abandoned Cities - Harold Budd [1984]


Worlds remote n dead, space deep n sombre. Expansive yet claustrophobic. A stranded nexus between something and nothing. Colour n emotion bled out in protracted keyboard drones of Eno produced ambient wash. Anaemic flickers from n exhausted star.


Bracing.


Oddi wrth y brawd
dark star

August 30, 2011

Laurie Bird - Natural Snow Buildings


Shimmering testimony to the occult attraction of total ur-drone immersion. Required listening for doubter, neophyte n aficionado alike. Layered loops, sprinkling echoed guitar in delayed wash n fuzz filter. Ideas, moods, repetitions morph just as the groove threatens stagnation - perfect. Melody hovers on the edge of emotional audibility amid a gurgling folky mess n glinting murk n mire. Occasional layered vocals. Ends on dark chanting coda into the shadows.

Oddi wrth y brawd
mehdi & solange

August 29, 2011

Dreaming With Alice - Mark Fry [1972]



Do Good's deeds live on? No, Evil's deeds do, O God. Touchstones. Lewis Carroll, Alan Watts, R. D. Laing, C.S. Lewis, John Everett Millais, Albert Hoffmann and Donovan Leitch. Pure class and oh so very easy to slip under its mimsy spell.



Oddi wrth y brawd
call of semordnilap

August 28, 2011

Magic Carpet - Magic Carpet [1972]



True psych-folk eastern fusion. Blended sitar (Clem Alford), keening vocals (Alisha Sufit), guitars (Jim Moyes and Alisha Sufit) and Indian tablas (Keshav Sathe).


High quality combination of classically trained sitar player - as opposed to usual home counties chancer - imaginative songs delivered in slinky timbre and quick moves from lower to higher register. Hypnotic, dreamy and melodic chime. 


This, the 2011 reissue with 20 minute bonus Raga outro....nice. Now off with you to  http://www.magiccarpetrecords.com




Oddi wrth y brawd
we bring you to ride




August 27, 2011

"Cymru, Lloegr a Llanhari" - Ddy Bobs


Like some thoughtful Euros Childs inviting Sufjan Stevens in for a cuppa and semi-serious ontological chat. Ddy Bobs has got summat to say and he's not giving up. Acoustic taste 'o tasty growers. Get this fellah's stuff at Welsh music specialists Sadwrn.

Pencampwr... Dal ati Pritch!


Oddi wrth y brawd
o hyfryd fyd



August 26, 2011

Paint a Lady - Susan Christie [1970]



Lightly psychedelicised, mildly experimental folk rock. Eschews gossamer flummery typical of period ssw acid-folk genre in favour of open throttle roister doister. Well worth a shufti.



Oddi wrth y brawd

August 25, 2011

Jan Švankmajer Collaborations - Zdeněk Liška


Selection of Czech composer Zdeněk Liška's muscial scores for Švankmajer's animated art pieces. Sound, atmosphere and moving image in perfect thematic harmony. Nowhere more so than on Jabberwocky's layered though entirely legible evocation of innocence had and lost. 


01 a game with stones 1965
02 punch and judy 1966
03 et cetera 1966
04 historia naturae 1967
05 byt 1968
06 the ossuary 1970
07 don juan 1970
08 jabberwocky 1971



Oddi wrth y brawd
brillig

August 24, 2011

Earth Covers Earth - Current 93 [1988]


Or the hangman's beautiful Thelema boys and girls. David Michael Tibet leads post-industrialist cast - Rose McDowall [Strawberry Switchblade], Steven Stapleton [NWW], Tony Wakeford [Sol Invictus], Douglas P. [Death In June], John Balance [Coil], Boyd Rice - in acoustically driven meditation on impermanence and immanence.


01 The Dilly Song
02 Hourglass for Diana
03 Earth Covers Earth
04 Rome for Douglas P.
05 Time Tryeth Truth
06 Hourglass for Rosy Abelisk
07 The Dilly Song (alternate version)
08 At the Blue Gates of Death
09 She Is Dead and All Fall Down
10 God Has Three Faces Wood Has No Name
11 The Blue Gates of Death (Before and Beyond Them)
12 The Dreammoves of the Sleeping King: I He Falls Into Fields of Sleep II the Dreamer   Dreams a Dream

Essential addition to C93 canon and Tibet caught in media res defining his apocalyptic vision. Both versions of At the Blue Gates of Death are needful recordings: one a shorter, somewhat paranoid rendition, all grinding backwards bass; the other, a gorgeous ode to life well lived. Enormo slab of incongruous noise constituting bookend track is patented Stapleton - be warned.



August 23, 2011

Pass the Distance - Simon Finn [1970]



Little wonder that C93's David Tibet obsessed on this album to the extent of reissuing on Durtro label: gnostic Christianity, proto new age revelation, love found / lost, and sex. All handled with deftness mixed with a manic, sinister edge. Strong meandering melody and conflicted lyrics very much in Bill Fay vein - another notable Tibet lost and found project.


Centre piece track is Jerusalem, all maniacally strummed acoustic guitar, swirling church organ, hand drums and muddy bassline. Sets redemptive and apocalyptic tone. Satan gets a look-in too on Where's Your Master Gone. It's not all unsettling Jesus freakery, mind. We get a number of obliquely gentle love songs too.


All in all, cynical, creepy and a rather beautifully poetic psych folk ornament for our times. 



Oddi wrth y brawd
start rite



August 22, 2011

Spleen and Ideal - Dead Can Dance [1985]



Ancient religious evensong and Lisa Gerrard's glossolalic forays into antique incomprehension. Like some immense home cinema in a cathedral. The Goth stops here.



Oddi wrth y brawd
de profundis

August 21, 2011

A Beard of Stars - Tyrannosaurus Rex [1970]



Easy pastoral love pump action. Electrick prelude to bopping elf rampant. Great god Pan priapic, no mistake: First Heart Mighty Dawn Dart (at a push Organ Blues n' Woodland Bop). No more arse sitting cross-legged acoustic Tolkien schtick. Be upstanding for mighty Marc n' Micky. Less warble, more strut.



Oddi wrth y brawd
dedicated to the priests of peace, all shepherds and horse lords and my imperial liege lord - the king of the rumbling spires innit

August 20, 2011

Fluttering Briar - Damien Youth [1984]



Eerie teenage home recordings. Darkling whimsy in acoustic Hitchcock / Barrett / Bowie tradition. Gauche with uncanny knack to zero in on melodic heart of each song. 



Oddi wrth y brawd

August 19, 2011

Versatile Arab Chord Chart - Vibracathedral Orchestra [2000]


Freak-psych jamming good on eponymous eastern drones. Frazzled and entrancing. You know what you need to do.



Oddi wrth y brawd

August 16, 2011

Tinakenkalurtta - Kuupuu [2008]



Finnish multi-media artist Jonna Karanka and her home-baked loops, lo-fi drones, partly improvised sweet cakes, clattery nick nacks, found melodies, time travelling toys, and spooky boogie tapes. Oh yes.


http://www.lurtta.com/




Oddi wrth y brawd
puukuu



August 14, 2011

August 13, 2011

The Holy Mountain - Alejandro Jodorowsky [1973]





Absurdist auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky - film maker, composer, graphic novelist, astrologer, tarot adept, poet, painter, mime and mystic - takes us to The Holy Mountain: epic, unbridled and maximally surrealistic; a stunning mystic imagistic mess. Cinematic occult revelation, divine acid trip, science fiction-fantasy, socio-sexual-religio-cultural critique...have it which way you will. Jodorowsky certainly does. 


Sledgehammer subtle symbolism onslaught all over the shop. Eclectic pastiche is reflected in multi-genre hopping soundtrack composed by Jodorowsky, aided and abetted by Ronald Frangipane &  Don Cherry (not methinks beloved Canadian hockey commentator -  that would be surreal -  but Don the jazz cornetist of some renown). Weirded out chant Trance Mutation, ritual riddims Pissed and Passed Out, jazz flute lite Violence of the Lambs, free folk acid Drink It, Cecil B. DeMille big orchestra soundtrack Christs 4 Sale, and them's just the first five tracks. We go on to Albinoni baroque, bachelor pad lounge core, fuzz garage and proto-dubstep. Last one's not true but you get the picture. Or maybe you don't...

Because da picture finds Christ figure wandering amid bizarre, grotesque scenarios, meeting mystical guide who introduces H/him to seven far our beings (1+7 = 8 planets in solar system folks). Said stellar signifiers, our protagonist, guide and guide's assistant divest themselves of worldly goods and seek out the Holy Mountain in order to displace the gods/old ones and so become immortal - innit. Enough references alchemical, tarot and astrological to give occultist freaks their spot the meaning kicks.


Harum scarum trailer on cinema release gives flavour - though film is, frankly, stranger:


Kaleidoscopic, crude, and thoroughly spiffing in both sound and vision. Check it out.


(Spoiler alert: film's ending suggests everything, even the film is, like...you know, an illusion...)



Oddi wrth y brawd
maya domo

August 12, 2011

Y Gore a'r Gwaetha o'r Tebot Piws - Y Tebot Piws



Llythyr i'r wasg:
    Yn ddiweddar bûm mewn Cabaret lle'r oedd y Tebot i fod i gymryd rhan, a gallaf eich sicrhau
    imi glywed un o'r perfformiadau mwyaf gwael a diymdrech gan unrhyw grŵp pop Cymraeg 
    erioed. Ni chredaf eu bod  wedi cyrraedd terfyn unrhyw un o'r caneuon oherwydd y gwamalu 
    a'r lol. Roeddwn yn teimlo dros y rhai a weithiodd yn galed i geisio gwneud noson 
    lwyddiannus, a'r gynulleidfa yn gorfod dioddef y fath sothach.
Y Cymro 22 Rhagfyr 1971


Ha! Arloeswyr Be Bop a Lula'r Delyn Aur...


Anarchic pioneers Welsh language folk-rock-pop scene 1969-1972.


Bonus documentary: Gwreiddiau Roc - Y Tebot Piws [w/subs]. As bois Sbardun, Pws, Ems & Stan move on to other  groups of era - Mynediad am Ddim, Edward H Dafis, Ac Eraill - expect potted overview of era.



Oddi wrth y brawd
ie ie 'na fe

Hud A Llefrith - Mr Huw [2009]


Mr Huw, y dyn, y chwedl. Dal i wenu a casau pob un? Blydi Holly'n jeifio i'r indie stomp llachar. Losing ei head over suicide, dead best friends and cannibals n' sex combos. Drinking poison wid butter fingers, he got bones to pick. Swimming in da bloodily morose, feeling dirty, fearing da fear. Ffycin grêt. (Dim ots, mae pawb yn dal i wenu).

Mordant, jocular and fucking great. When dis boi gets serious, look out!

Check out new fideo creaduriaid  byw at http://mrhuw.com/

Buy Mr Huw at http://www.sadwrn.com/




Oddi wrth y brawd
rhywbeth mewn cyffredin sydd yn cadw ni'n un

August 10, 2011

A Perfumed Garden [Highlights] - Various




Garage psych excess no home should be without. Culled from titular three Volume collection.

For your information:

Uno
I See The Light - Uglies
It's What You Give - The Actress 
No Place For Lonely People - Adams Recital 
Which Dreamed It - Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup
For Your Information - The Cedars 
Take Her Any Time - The Longboatmen 
Get Back Home - The Majority One 
Baby I Got News For You - Miller 
Evil Woman - Pete Sully & The Orchard 
Line Of Least Resistance - The Reign 
Hold On - Rupert's People 
Through With You - Serendipity 
 Lust For Life - The Wolves


Dos
You're Too Much - Eyes 
Try a Little Sunshine - Factory 
Nine Til Five - French Revolution 
It's Shocking What They Call Me - Game 
Strange Walking Man - Mandrake Paddle Steamer 
The Bird - Nimrod 
Listen To The Sky - Sands 
Reputation - Shy Limbs 
Grounded - The Syn
Vacuum Cleaner - Tintern Abbey
Floatin' - Vamp 
I'm coming Home - Deviants
When The Night Falls - Eyes
Francis - Gary Leeds & Rain
No Home Today - Kult
Mister Number One - Kult
Liar - Fleur De Lys
Reflections Of Charles Brown - Rupert's People
Security - Thane Russal + Three







Oddi wrth y brawd
psych 1
psych 2

August 08, 2011

Search & Destroy, Uncut Freebie - Various [2010]


Fresh n' refreshed aprés Lester "Goddam" Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (chilluns, how can it be that y brawd has come so late to this particular reading salon that cover of spanking new edition be tarted up - only semironically mind you - with "star of Almost Famous" come on? Come on! Sure, LB reveled in a name, a cipher for gunslinging hipster rock hackery from times antediluvian and pre sick joke Burchill & Parsons. Tony Parsons, marked for death! But sure, no way do we appreciate that ol' LB is A GREAT AMERICAN WRITER and we dinnae need Rolling Stone Magazine t'tellus so. Not one to willingly undersell an enthusiasm, m'lud Yatesbury of Cope's blurby effusion is rite on't money: "one of life's great gurus". Ever wonder where the Archdrude copped his music prosody mojo? You guessed it. Furthermore, in a double barrelled insult Julian once noted of Ian "Duke" McCulloch that it's not enough to call Bono a twat; you need to know why he's a twat. Relish in your jaded mind's eye if you will the field day LB woulda had with a review of The Joshua Tree if he hadn't overdone the Darvon and checked out in 1982. LB always knows WHY even when he is plain wrong) and having a yen to share the occasion, and in lieu of compiling a killer collection of Count Five, ?+the Mysterians, the Dictators, the Godz n' suchlike creatures you get this. (Get that utter nonsense: 15 EXPLOSIVE TRACKS BY BANDS WHO WERE PUNK BEFORE PUNK.)


Copywritten drivel aside, rock n' roll fire-cracking rockets and y brawd's idea of entertainment.


Oddi wrth y brawd

August 07, 2011

The Secret Life of the Love Song & The Flesh Made Word - Nick Cave


Lecture 1: el Cueva's field guide to "what is" & "how to write" a love song. Written for 1998 Vienna Poetry Festival and performed at London's Royal Festival Hall 1999, this is a studio recording including piano & voice West Country Girl, People Ain't no Good, Sad Waters, Love Letter, and Far From Me.


Lecture 2: Cave, Christ and the creative imagination. BBC recording 1996. Revealing stuff.


Oddi wrth y brawd
logos

August 06, 2011

13 - Lee Hazlewood [1972]


Whereat dirty ol' Lee revels in a decadence that passeth all understanding. Perfect! Brass blusters and zings like sleazed up opium fiends (whatever that is). Uh, look out! She may look like like a lady but oh brother.... Lee sings vignetted folderol about getting high, laid then buggering off sharpish.  Just thought you'd like t'know.



Oddi wrth y brawd

August 05, 2011

And Now It Is So Early, Songs of Sydney Carter - Bob and Carole Pegg [1972]


Sydney Carter (1915 - 2004), folk poet, holy sceptic, gentle satirist, theological iconoclast and composer of two of the most popular songs sung in morning assemblies in British schools: One More Step and Lord Of The Dance. Neither appear on Bob and Carole Pegg's [ aka Mr Fox] collection of interpretations, though Lord of the Dance is covered on their contemporaneous He Came From the Mountain


(Sydney wrote Lord of the Dance in 1963, as an adaptation of Shaker hymn Simple Gifts featured in Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring. Sydney sees Christ as "the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality... I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.")


Bob and Carole present a mix of borderline street cabaret (Last Exit to Brooklyn, Doctor Spock) and wyrdly Christian (Come, Love, Carolling, Shake and Shiver, Judas and Mary). To these ears, it's the latter pieces that continue to resonate most fearsomely.


Fearless and declamatory, Friday Morning has the robber crucified with Jesus cry out: 

"It was on a Friday morning that they took me from my cell 

And I saw they had a carpenter to crucify as well. 
You can blame it on to Pilate, you can blame it on the Jews, 
You can blame it on the Devil, it's God I accuse. 
It's God they ought to crucify, instead of you and me, 
I said to the carpenter a-hanging on the tree."
If any church comes close to holding Sydney's allegiance, it is the Society of Friends, with its rejection of dogma, and reliance on personal experience, social activism, and affirmation of God's presence in every human being. Suitably Morris flavoured closing track George Fox then is a canny choice. Fox toured the country giving sermons arguing the irrelevance of consecrated buildings and ordained ministers to the individual seeking God.


Sydney: "Bibles, legends, history are signposts: they are pointing to the future, not the past. Do not embrace the past or it will turn into an idol." Jesus is central, not "the official Jesus - but the Jesus who is calling you to liberty, to the breaking of all idols including the idol which he himself has become." 

01 Come, Love, Caroling
02 Run the Film Backwards
03 Glass of Water
04 Last Exit to Brooklyn
05 Up at the House of Cecil Sharp
06 Port Mahon
07 Shake and Shiver
08 The Holy Horses
09 Judas and Mary
10 Friday Morning
11 Doctor Spock
12 The Candlelight
13 George Fox


Oddi wrth y brawd