#Fuzz Orchestra

[spilladabalia]

Fuzz Orchestra - Morire per la patria

[muse-soup]

((Tag dump.))

[gofishygo]

i know this is pretty niche in terms of topic, but i just want a strings orchestra conductor! john price n first chair violinist! reader.. (definitions below bottom banner)

price of the burningham royal string orchestra has the unfortunate habit of losing his first chair.

his first victim was johnny mactavish- an ex military- just like him. sharp mouthed and witty, with an obnoxious mohawk that the man had sworn he would tear right off of his head. but what had stuck out to him the most was his passion for his arts running far less silently than price's had, even in the old days from before he had started conducting. but after an incident dug out from his sas days had left him half deaf, with a starburst shot on the side of his head and bad blood to be cleaned, he had bid farewell to soap.

and next in line was kyle garrick, who had shared a desk with johnny. unlike soap, who was sharp, loud, a serenade written in baroque times, kyle was much more snide with his work. charming, and gentle, in all the right ways- he'd guided you to your desk with a gentle hand on the small of your back in your early days- but as price's successor, had coined his conductor's ability to lay a heavy hand, a sharp look when needed. but kyle, he has his own fatal flaw; he often finds himself entangled in brilliant melodies, lost in his own interpretation of every piece of repertoire. and soon, that leads him to conducting an orchestra of his own, taking on the studies of a musician like price had, and leaving the first chair cold.

but unlike other fleeting faces, johnny and kyle only fill out two of the four he'd bothered to remember. because he remembers bringing out a hand to first cellist simon for a few months since kyle's transfer, the shadow and backbone of his orchestra.

and he also remembers you.

you, with your pretty face and nervous expression as you had ducked your ways through the chairs and stands in your first days as a violinist under the burningham's string orchestra- and the sparks that had flickered behind doe eyes. even then, you had always had some sort of bratty rebuttal hidden under the tonal qualities of your violin- the way you would glare at him with quiet concern when he would slip marlboro cigarette between his lips in the small breaks during rehearsals, how you would look up at him and promptly play your own, quieter interpretation of the repertoire you gave him. your silent determination- it takes up space in the sounds of his own viola, fills the gaps of what he has longed for during lonely nights. it is your quiet, ingenious spark, and the wisdom behind your eyes that makes him offer you the first chair with a firm tap of your shoulder after rehearsal, the quiet liverpool drawl of his voice inviting you to his office for a chat. it is not the sparkle in your eyes when you focus, the fluster that you try and fail to hide when he attempts conversation with you, how perfectly he imagines your face would fit in the palms of his hands. it is not that at all, he thinks, he lies.

but behind the closed doors of his own office, whatever bubbles in his chest can no longer be fought off by the low hum of whiskey or the pleasant fuzz of tobacco in his veins with you- such a lovely songbird- trapped in his cage. and he simply cannot help it, with the melodies that escape your lips in between his kisses.

so now, you finally sit in the first chair that he knows you have worked so hard to deserve- and you also lay in the arms of the man who has managed to entangle you- wholly, truly, melodically.

first chair- usually, first chair in violin 1 is considered a very prestigious seat in any string orchestra. they act as musical leaders, tune the orchestra, and work very closely with the conductor. them, and the conductor (and guest of honor), usually take bows at the end of a performance.

conductor- a person who directs an orchestra. i dont know what else to say girl

*a strings orchestra will usually consist of instruments: violin, viola, cello, and double/alto bass.

[octuscle]

So I activated the "Blending In" preset in the Chronivac and set it to Slow Burn mode. I'm not sure how long it would take to make changes, but to have some fun, I also made sure I'm only partially aware.

Went to this gym nearby, though maybe it was bad timing that there were those toxic school bullies and big meatheads. Well, they're actually fine when they start talking with me like I belonged. Maybe they're alright.

Of course you're not one of them. You play the cello in the school orchestra, are active in the student council and are involved in animal protection. But still, it was cool with the guys. Their tips sounded quite useful. And after you had a big protein shake with the boys after training, you had a lot of fun farting in the competition. No question, you came in last place.

Then outside the gym they went back to pretending they didn't know you. Nick, the alpha meathead, almost ran you over with his motorbike in the gym car park. Anyway, maybe he just didn't see you.

The next morning you wake up full of energy. You jump out of bed, do 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups and go to the bathroom. Hehehehe, should there really be some beard fuzz? You shave every morning anyway, hoping that the beard will finally grow more. Maybe that will finally be successful. Don't bother with the shower. Today you're going to the gym again after school anyway, so you can take a shower then. A quick sniff in the armpit. Still working. To save time, you put on yesterday's gym clothes for school.

In class today you find it harder than usual to concentrate. In maths you actually nod off for a few minutes. But Nick actually greets you in the corridor with a fist bump. And he even talks to you when you finally get to lie on the weight bench and lift weights after school. After the workout, the boys ask you if you'd like to come watch football in the diner. You'd love to. But you have driving school today. You want to finally get your licence for the motorbike.

The next morning, when you go to the bathroom after your run, push-ups and sit-ups, you notice that you didn't shower yesterday. Armpit check. Fuck, you finally smell like a man. And the hair in your armpits finally comes out. You pose in front of the mirror. Yes, the training is paying off. And the protein shakes too. You'll be further ahead in the next farting competition.

You forgot to do your homework at school. That has never happened to you before in your life. When your French teacher asks you how you want to excuse it (en francais, s'il vous-plait), you let out a loud burp. You have detention. The boys in the back row applaud. And burp even louder. Gym is cancelled today. Or rather, it will take place for all of you without dumbbells during detention. With burpees and farts. When you are released, your teacher has to hold a handkerchief over her mouth and nose.

On the way to school, Nick and you have a race on your motorbikes. Shit, you lose. And the winner gets to fart in the loser's face during the bench press. Nick's farts are the worst. Thank God the first two hours are sport. Football is your favourite hobby after pumping iron. And Coach is very happy with you. Let's see if the quarterback position works out for you next season. At the end of practice, Coach reads out a message that you are specifically asked to shower after practice. Classmates and faculty have complained. What pussies! But you combine the pleasant with the useful. When jerking off in the shower, you become second in width to the cum.

Saturday at last! All day in the gym and then cruising with the bikes in the evening. Nick is already waiting for you, talking football with your old man. And about the army. If graduation doesn't work out, this could be a real alternative for you. Your father was in the Navy Seals himself and, unlike your mother, doesn't think it's a bad idea.

At the gym, Nick is whining about how envious he is of your beard growth. And how shitty he thinks it is that his parents don't allow him to get tattoos. Anyway, after the summer it's either college or military academy. Then you can do whatever you want.

[cellarspider]

6/30 The road to hell

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We return to the movie equivalent of an incompletely-assembled Ikea PAX / BERGSBO wardrobe surrounded by chips of particle board and eight thousand extra screws, Prometheus.

If that analogy made sense to anybody, congratulations! You too are succumbing to The Madness.

Content warnings for terrible archaeology, terrible chemistry, and blunt force trauma to the audience with a piece of exposition.

Increasingly extensive alt-text ramblings include the logistics of securing items in moving craft, linguistics, atmospheric science, colorblind-friendly diagram design, swearing about orology, and cursing the crew for their fictional crimes against archaeology.

Many on Tumblr are familiar with Chekhov’s Gun, a piece of writing advice that calls for economy of storytelling: if you mention a loaded gun in your story, it should go off at some point. Sergius Shchukin phrased it this way: “Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." 

So Prometheus takes the rifle down off the wall and smashes you over the head with it, just to make sure you saw it.

CH: “Wow, nice place.”

D: “It's actually a separate module with its own self-contained life support. Air, food. Anything Miss Vickers would need to survive a hostile environment.”

CH: “Okay, so she lives on a lifeboat.”

MV: “Yes. I do. I like to minimize risk.”

Gee. I wonder if Vickers’ lifeboat living quarters will become relevant later.

Then, Chekhov’s rifle hits us with its next flurry of blows.

“Charlie, look. It's a Pauling Med-Pod. They only made a dozen of these.”

Gee. I wonder if the Pauling Med-Pod–-yes of course it’s going to be relevant later

You want a movie where a literal Chekhov’s gun gets fired off, along with Chekov’s crossword puzzle, Chekov’s ketchup packet, Chekhov’s swan, and Chekhov’s farmer’s mum, Chekhov’s everything all weaving back together again in a beautiful symphony of hilarious violence? Watch Hot Fuzz! Do it! Just watch Hot Fuzz! Not Prometheus!

I have said it before and I say it now, this movie is TERRIBLE at providing the audience with plot-relevant information. It hits you like head trauma. It bellows at you like Hans Zimmer has his entire orchestra hiding behind your chair, ready to let loose with an Inception Noise.

Vickers is here to make David mix drinks and to be a Corpo Ice Queen who demands that the team not make any direct contact with any alien life they find while they’re here. She doesn’t think they will, though. She thinks Weyland was delusional. But she’s the one in charge of the company money, so she’s the boss here.

Which begs the question of why she’s here at all, rather than back on Earth. This is actually a plot point, but because it’s not explicitly called out like the LIFEBOAT with the PAULING MED-POD, and everyone else has acted like loons anyway, it does not stand out. It just seems like another dollop of irrational behavior in the unpalatable stew of these characters.

However, Vicker’s demand that no direct contact be made? Very sensible! In fact, this was the point in the movie where I distinctly remember thinking in the theater “wait, they don’t have a first contact protocol already?” 

Like, Vickers doesn’t think that anything’s going to happen, but there’s enough of a chance that she’s giving orders not to engage. The sum total of their formal first contact attempt was yeeting a cultural message packet at the planet while in-transit to see if they got any response. The only one who appears to have been preparing was David–he basically spent the last two years learning comparative linguistics, with the aim of acting as a translator, should they get that far. That’s a sound choice, though its actual implementation is going to leave me incensed later.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of what they’re planning to do. Weyland certainly believed that they were going to meet aliens here. He’s arrogant enough to have demanded this whole project happen, and he didn’t have anything to say about what should be said if they made contact without him? 

This is, possibly, a plot point. But everything else that happens around this in the next five minutes is pure, howling madness.

Because they’re immediately descending into the atmosphere of this alien world.

This is too fast. In Alien, they landed on-planet to check out a possible distress signal, and it was a goddamn pain in their collective ass that they were only doing out of legal responsibility. In Aliens, they were a bunch of hopped-up marines ready to go shoot bugs. 

These are, again, scientists. The team leads are archaeologists! Aerial archaeology is a thriving field today that’s only going to get more useful as technology improves! There is no sense that they’ve done any scans, they don’t even know what the atmosphere is made out of, something we, right now, can already determine about exoplanets. Really! We can! 

We are explicitly told, in fact, that all this is happening within the same day as everyone waking up. The events of this movie appear to happen over two days, maybe three at the max.

And now, Spider yells at cloud. Or rather, the atmosphere.

The movie claims that if you spend two minutes on the surface without an oxygen supply, you’re dead. Why? Atmospheric CO₂ is over 3%.

Now, 3% CO₂ is not a fun time, and you will definitely experience weird physical and cognitive effects. But if you hang out in 3-5% CO₂, you’re going to be pretty okay for anywhere from four hours to over a month. 

What I've heard consistently is speculation that the movie meant carbon monoxide levels at 3%, which, yeah, that'll kill ya. In fact 2-3 breaths of 1.28% CO makes people pass out and die within under three minutes. 0.01% CO is enough to result in headaches and memory problems, as one redditor demonstrated to the internet back in 2015. 

But no. For whatever reason, the movie script says “CO₂”. Consistently.

And now, we get to the bit that had me screeching under my breath in the theater. Most people who saw Prometheus lost their sympathy for the human characters about 5-20 minutes after this point. I was ahead of the curve. I hated these characters before it was cool. Because they see a structure. They see what looks like roads.

Holloway, who I remind you all, claims to be an archaeologist, demands they set the ship down on one of those roads.

Let me tell you all a story. A few years before this movie first blighted me, I signed up for an archaeological field course. The university offering it didn’t have a dig permit lined up for the year I went, but their campus was in an area that had seen continuous human habitation for at least 15,000 years. They scouted out a bit of lawn, we cut the turf, and started digging. 

A week or two into the dig, we realized that the top layers were probably modern infill, dirt that had been trucked in from somewhere and completely jumbled. We started hacking away at it with mattocks to get down to the actual archaeology, which was delayed by a day or two when I struck 1940s asphalt. 

Like, literally struck it with my mattock. It felt like biting down on aluminum foil, but spread out over my hands to my shoulders. The professors rented a small mechanical digger to tear up the old car park, and also some of the plywood on the sides of our trench by accident. I have never seen a bunch of professors so gleeful about being turned loose on heavy machinery.

But finally, we got to what we were there for. A bunch of 13th century houses, and a Roman road.

I remember we made sure there was photo documentation that captured every fucking pebble on the medieval surface of that road, before we dug in. We were encouraged to sketch it, too. We took precise GPS coordinates of where the edge of the road started. We sifted through the road surface as we dug it up, finding dozens of tiny artifacts, because centuries of people had tossed little bits of trash onto the road, lost things out of their pockets and pouches, all the random little events that might happen on a stretch of road two minutes' walk from the parish church. 

I remember one student found the metal tag off of a horse’s bridle, that would’ve been used to identify it with its owner’s mark. Another found an 800 year old silver coin, tarnished on one side and perfectly, shiningly pristine on the other. It was beautiful.

And over and over, we were told: “A road is a find.” A road itself is history. A road is a place shaped by human hands, where humans have lived their lives. We can learn a lot from roads.

And that was what I was whispering at the screen in the theater, increasingly incensed. “A road is a find. A road is a find. A road is a find!!”

I was ready to reach through the screen and strangle that motherfucker Holloway from this moment on. The movie had lost me fully. Not because of this moment in isolation–if the rest of it had been consistently competent, I would have sighed and done my best to hold onto suspension of disbelief. But the drip feed of problem after problem had taken me from open and interested in the movie to actively spiteful in about 30 minutes or less.

So, fine. The movie seemed determined to make me watch a bunch of unprepared morons stumble to their deaths. Usually, this sort of movie doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t find much use for the kind of movie where you’re supposed to feel antipathy toward the main cast, as a free pass to watch them suffer. It’s why I still haven’t seen Alien Covenant. But I had been unexpectedly ambushed by just such a movie, and I was rooting for whatever horrors awaited them.

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Citations for alt text rambling:

1. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bane-vs-pink-guy--2

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions 

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumulonimbus_incus 

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons

[melissonomos]

we need a new vaporwave but for 00s public radio. bj leiderman NPR theme songs. tinny renditions of Beethoven by the local symphony orchestra. the static fuzz when you're driving into the no-mans-land between radio stations. search your feelings you know it to be true

[strawberryblondebutch]

What kind of music do you like?

I'm not going to be boring and say I listen to everything, because that's not actually true, but the genre matters less than two things: (1) dense, evocative lyrics, and (2) "traditional" instrumentation -- guitar, bass, drums.

Most of my favorite artists are emo bands. The Wonder Years will always be my number one. Say Anything, Fireworks, Spanish Love Songs, and Hot Mulligan round up the top five. Heart Attack Man, Thursday, Glassjaw, Head Automatica, Sincere Engineer, and the Menzingers are also all in that style.

I'm also really fond of bands with a more dramatic sound. Orchestral isn't the right word, neither is theatrical, because Manchester Orchestra has pretty traditional instrumentation, but they just sound very epic. I'd say the same about Circa Survive. The Dear Hunter, Leprous, and Caligula's Horse all kinda fall into that. Josh Ritter is a little less epic with his physical sound, but his storyweaving has that same quality. I'd say the same about Amigo the Devil.

I don't really like electronic music. Synths are a turn-off. I'm picky about my rap and my pop. I like strong vocal presence in those genres. The only Billie Eilish song I really liked was her Bond theme, because it felt like she was using more of her voice. Megan Thee Stallion and Chappell Roan are the most popular artists I actively like (I saw Meg this summer!) because they have a presence that I think other popular artists lack.

There's also a special spot in my heart for bluesy garage rock, because that's what I grew up playing. Stuff like Royal Blood, Black Pistol Fire, ZZ Ward, Rival Sons, old Queens of the Stone Age. Super fun guitar lines. Love a fuzz pedal.

[burlveneer-music]

The Ironsides - Changing Light - lush cinematic soul, with orchestra (Colemine Records)

The Ironsides have arrived. Changing Light is the first full-length effort from this masterful collective of Bay Area musicians. It melds classic psych-soul sounds with sweeping orchestral arrangements – reminiscent of a cinematic soundtrack from a 60s European film. Inspired by the soundtracks and library music of European composers during the 60's and 70's, the Ironsides set out to create a collection of lush songs that evoke a diverse range of feelings, emotions, and memories. The Ironsides enlisted the help of Lou King, a New York based maestro, who had previously made arrangements for Max Ramey (Bassist). Once the tunes were ready to go, the band started contacting the local musicians who would bring them to life. “We hired a group of Bay Area working musicians,” Max explained. “Many of them play a range of music, from jazz to classical, in clubs and orchestras. Using these local musicians was really important to us.” The Changing Light evokes strong imagery of an open road, a breathtaking view, and scenes of a vast landscape begging to be explored. Cruise up the coast, where sweeping orchestral arrangements rise and fall with the tide. As you head North, the countryside opens to an undeniable groove. Tremolo-soaked guitar tones grow on the vines, and timeless, soulful bass lines flow like wine. In higher altitudes, French horns and trumpets soar like eagles. A river below carries bellowing cello tones through a mountain pass into an expansive canyon. Down in the desert, fuzzed-out electric guitar cuts through the dry heat and leaves the listener thirsty for more.

[theseimmortalsouls]

Take It From The Man! Anton Newcombe’s Favourite Tracks via Quietus by Julian Marszalek

With The Brian Jonestown Massacre's UK and Ireland tour in support of recent LP Revelation starting in Brighton on Saturday, the band's frontman shirks the album rundown request, opens up his DJ bag and gives Julian Marszalek a top 13 songs mixtape.

If there’s a common thread that runs through the Baker’s Dozen section it’s that artists struggle and anguish over which 13 albums make their final cut. What’s to go in? What’s to be left out? Will the subject’s mind change before publication? Decisions, decisions…

The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe is no different. But it’s not just the choosing of albums that causes Newcombe consternation; it’s that he doesn’t really like discussing other people’s music.

"I was never one of those guys that sit around and talk music with people because I’ve always been interested in playing music. I even find this a little bit weird," he tells the Quietus via Skype from his Berlin studio. "As much as I’ve been into music my whole life, owning thousands of records or something, that’s not been my connection to other people."

But that’s not to say that Newcombe isn’t a music fan. Far from it. In addition to his day-to-day duties with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe can often be found spinning records either for Berlin-based radio stations or at gigs, clubs and parties and, as exemplified by his choices for his Baker’s Dozen, is a man with catholic tastes. He’s just not that stoked about discussing them.

"Music’s been my personal salvation; it’s like my church or something that I go to," he says. "There’s a refuge that I seek and that’s what I identify with the music and that’s something that I can’t really share with people, and it kind of annoys me when other people get into it, although I do a little bit with people. It all depends on my mood."

Thankfully, Newcombe is in a fine mood. In an interview punctuated with much laughter and a genuine love of his choices that’s palpable throughout, the psychedelic overlord proves to be highly entertaining (virtual) company. But there is a caveat. Any attempts to choose his favourite 13 albums ended with head-spinning frustration on his part so Newcombe has instead elected to open his DJ bag to choose 13 songs.

"This can sort of be my mixtape to you," he laughs as we begin to go through his choices…

Popera Cosmic - Philadelphie Story

On an emotional level, I can identify with it because of my own aspirations of wanting to make music. It’s passionate and it’s an earworm. I posted it on Twitter and Andy Votel, who’s a DJ in Manchester and runs Finders Keepers, and is one of those crate pickers who’s always looking for those lost gems, was like, "Oh my God, Anton! Do you know anyone who’s got this?" and it turns out I do know someone who’s got a copy in Iceland, but they only made a few hundred copies of this record and it went nowhere. On another level, just bringing this up, I can relate to it because every song I used to write – even if I thought it was great but it wasn’t executed well – people always thought they were amazing and I think about all the copies of the NME and all the stuff they used to rave about that was so important that it had to be in your face, and that means nothing. And me not even being able to get into the papers about something, I could just identify with this guy because, to me, he’s like a master – a master at work. And it’s like a prog-orchestral thing in a way that I can understand. Like, something like King Crimson is a little bit too much and this is obviously coming from the same kind of place except without the jazz-fusion, and I was just like, "Wow!" And also, I like psychedelia that isn’t limited to just paisley shirts and fuzz boxes. There’s this whole other side of it to me, which is mind-expanding and that’s where the whole rock orchestra thing comes in. I love music that allows you the space to interact with it.

2. Barış Manço - Ölüm Allah

He was like the John Lennon of Anatolia, Turkey. He’d made dozens of records and when he died there were a million people or something at his funeral procession. There were people lining the streets with his portrait. On his birthday, they have a special design on Google Turkey and his name trends on Twitter worldwide. There are a lot of Turkish people here in Berlin and on German YouTube you tend to find more Turkish channels. I was looking through their oldies channel because I like Eastern musics and a lot of artists from North Africa and when I find something good on a channel then it’s worth my time to dig through their crates. I figure it’s an anomaly in this day and age if someone had three good records, so if I find someone who’s doing something really good then I’m going to check out all of their stuff. See his visuals, someone who looks like this vampire crusader guy, really over-the-top with these Black Sabbath-looking clothes with the long hair and the beard and I was just like, "Wow!" In the 70s he started recording with some German guys so it’s really rocking out. I really fell in love with this song and I started playing it on this little radio show I have when I DJ. My friend in Sweden got me the actual disc and I then read about him in Mojo and I was like, "I didn’t find out about him from you guys! Where did you guys find out about this?" So I was wondering how that went viral. But he was great and he died while screwing some young chick on the side and he just went out like a legend. But the best thing about this song is the title which I looked up: ‘Death Warrant Of God’ and that fits right into the puzzle, because he looks so outrageous and the song has this heavy air about it. I translated the lyric and turns out it’s all about God signing your death warrant – look out! I think that’s so rock, you know?

3. Simon & Garfunkel - Richard Cory

My family is ethnic and on my dad’s side they all used to send me money for my birthday and I’d become attached to music before that. By the time I was two-and-a-half it was something that I responded to, and my mom was always playing music and she always worried about me touching the record player, so she got me one of these Mickey Mouse tiny little record players. I basically looted her 60s record collection and one of those records was Sounds Of Silence. I didn’t like ‘The Sound Of Silence’, but what I liked was side B of the album, which are all these songs that are so dark, and out of those songs I really like ‘Richard Cory’. ‘A Most Peculiar Man’ is really great, too, and it’s about this guy who doesn’t talk to anybody – he lives in this tiny little world with his books and that was fine by him, but nobody knew that he died in that tiny little room which is the way he wanted it because he was this most peculiar man. ‘Richard Cory’ has this story about this guy who has everything in the world. He���s like a City of London banker or one of these Russian guys; you’re always reading about him and he owns a football team and he has parties in Monaco and he owns a yacht and you wish you were like him and then you read the paper one day and he’s blown his brains out. I just love that flip around! It’s little bit lefty, this song, obviously, but it’s good poetry and it’s a good story and it’s that culmination of folk-rock that I really like. The way they overdubbed that stuff with Glen Campbell really kicked butt. And those guys’ harmonies are just untouchable – in ’65 those guys were kicking butt for pop music.

4. Fabio Viscogliosi - Nostro Caro Angelo

I ended up DJing with my friend, the French rock photographer Richard Bellia, in Switzerland recently and we were doing song-for-song and this guy has insane tastes in music. He just carries a little box of 45s with him and he came there to fully kick my ass DJing! The only person I chicken out of doing this with is Andy Votel – he asked me to do it with him in Berlin and I said, "No way. You’re too good." See, Andy would have everything that I have and he’s going to have something I don’t have so I’m going to be left playing some B-52s song or whatever. He’s too good with everything! But Richard had this single in his box and it immediately caught my ear. I was like, "What is this?" because to me it had the sensitivity of Elliot Smith and there was something that I recognised in it – this softness and a vulnerability in the song. I looked Fabio up but there wasn’t too much information in English except that he’d worked with Blonde Redhead, which is OK in my book because those guys are a trip. Blonde Redhead always keep their distance from me. I remember this one time I was backstage and I went to talk to Kazu Makino and the twins [Simone and Amedeo Pace] just formed a gate in front of me on either side like cartoon royal guards; it was just bizarre! They’ve both dated her which I find absolutely bizarre. But however that works into their art is just phenomenal and I’d like to hear more from them in the future if they’re not done. But I’ve found out absolutely nothing about Fabio. I think he’s French-Italian and any time I play that song they really like it, which is cool.

5. Nina Simone - Ain

So many of her records are live and the live version on the record is great, too, but that film of her playing in Harlem and watching that band play with her and thinking about that time period after Martin Luther King was killed and all the troubles – and they were still headed for more troubles – that woman was laying down some heavy soul. She wasn’t lying. Every single word of that song… she was like, "This is what I got. I ain’t got all of these things but I’ve got me." That kind of power is so important and the power of that band is so amazing. It’s something you don’t get from DJs; it’s a totally different energy. It was hard for her to relate to other people and her life was hard and even though she was universally accepted she doesn’t get her dues. People don’t realise how great she is in jazz music because of her attitude. As time went along she was trying to communicate how awful it was. People were trying to hit her up because she was rich and had records and she had to move to Switzerland so people could leave her alone and treat her with respect.

6. Marvin Gaye - What

The thing about Marvin is that it’s a personal journey. He spent so much time entertaining people and making them happy and smiling a lot and looking sharp and being really, like, Mr. Manners for the whole label. ‘Sexual Healing’ and all that stuff came a lot later. He went through a lot of personal pain. That whole Vietnam thing… people don’t realise in England how many black people fought there. The race riots and all that stuff kicked off and the drugs that were coming back in… it looked like so much of the progress… what with Dr. King’s death, it was so crazy what was going on and Motown wasn’t about that. Motown was classy black people doing their thing, you know, and it wasn’t about the revolution. It was the opposite to the word on the street. So, for him to even do this record, against Berry Gordy’s wishes, was like, this is not the role you play; this is not your archetype in this parade. It was amazing and the way he articulated all that stuff musically and lyrically is so smooth but it’s filled with so much pain. I could feel that so it speaks to me as a listener and it never gets old for me. A lot of these songs, when I go backwards, all of this stuff is songs that I wish I could write but it’s all pretty much once in a lifetime stuff. It’s so amazing that this came out of him; it’s so honest. And that’s what art is supposed to be and it’s one of the things that only art can do – speak to everyone and speak for everyone. Sometimes art just nails it.

7. Bob Dylan - Isis

Dylan’s done the same as Marvin but in a way he sings about absolutely nothing and he goes on and on about it. With the songs from this period, and several of the ones that I really love, there are so many words in these songs but I just enjoy it, and there are points of reference that lead to books and things. I could have chosen dozens of Dylan songs that I’m really crazy about but I find myself DJing this one all the time. I really like the drum track and it’s a good way to kill a couple of minutes. I DJ really odd; I’ll DJ at concerts or whatever and I like to DJ first, even if they put me headlining. I’ll do it right when the doors open and be gone before anybody gets there. Why? Because I couldn’t care less! Some of his stuff is hidden messages. In ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ he’s saying shit like, "The rules of the road have been lodged" and he’s talking about Masonic lodges; he tosses these things in and then it’s like, ‘Don’t trip! It’s alright, ma; if I can’t please everyone then that’s alright.’ And with ‘Gates Of Eden’ it’s based more on literary points of reference and classical literature, I think, and poetry. I think ‘Isis’ is more fun and it’s a weird tongue-twister that only he seems to be able to pull off. And in ‘Hurricane’, which comes before on the record, is this true story and he just nails that one. But a lot of his protest stuff is very vague. I find people like Bobby Jameson, when they’re being aggressive, to be more to the point about the system or something in folk music. I just find that Dylan, at times, was being super-vague. But you know who’s even crazier without saying anything? Beck. It’s like, we don’t know anything about that guy! He’s been around for like, 20 years, and nobody knows jack shit about him. It’s amazing! I know his brother and I’ve met Beck a few times and I really like him.

8. David Bowie - Wild Is The Wind

I see Bowie [these days] kind of doing like a Ringo Starr sort of thing. Ringo’s like, "Look, I signed millions of autographs and I’m not fucking doing it! Sorry!" and I love him for that. And Bowie’s kind of doing his own thing, probably. He’s always had his ear to the ground and lifting all those styles and incorporating them. I have so much respect for that guy in a lot of different ways. Here’s another artist where I could have picked anything; I could’ve jumped in right at that moment and said, "This is my favourite Bowie record" because he’s a man that’s produced albums. I even enjoy Station To Station as an album. Everybody says Low and I love that and I love all these albums so much, but his version of ‘Wild Is The Wind’ is emotionally amazing. What it does to me, the listener, is that it kicks it up a level and it kicks it up a level from Nina Simone’s version which I love. He makes it believable to me in this weird operatic way. It has the same effect like I was watching an opera and just get caught up in the story and believe that Romeo and Juliet are two people in love and not just two actors on stage. It’s a suspension of disbelief.

9. The Velvet Underground - Rock & Roll

We keep running over the same fertile ground and it’s like, how many Velvet Underground songs can you choose? But to me, The Velvet Underground is The Velvet Underground & Nico, and I do like White Light/White Heat, but I can relate to this song. See, I don’t like Lou Reed as a person but I was so sad that I cried when he died. He epitomises New York and I hate New York; I hate it but I love it! The New York that he is doesn’t exist. I love John Cale, though. I love that guy. I love who he is now and I love his band and I love that Chelsea Girl recording and his attitude and his whole career has been cool. But anyway, in the song, the picture that Lou’s painting is about how your life is saved by something; it’s the only thing that’s happening. There’s nothing happening in your life but you tune in to this thing and it grabs you. And it saves your life because it gives you something you identity with and so that song captures the whole story right there. And for him to be able to articulate that… see, because he already has that experience with the doo-woppers, and that led him to get involved with music in the first place. So he already had that experience before that and here it is coming up at the start of the 70s and he’s whipped this one out in a totally different style than the doo-woppers. He’s speaking the truth and it’s an amazing track. I tend to DJ this one too. And it has the aesthetic too. Not all of my choices have this aesthetic.

10. The 13th Floor Elevators - You

What an amazing record! We just left off talking about Lou and how it reaches this crescendo with the guitar break and this aesthetic feeling and here, imagine your mixtape going to this song and this kicks in with this tub-thumping rhythm and Roky Erickson’s vocals – it’s amazing! He’s hysterical! I just don’t see anyone else hitting that level; it’s the hysteria. The combination of everything is maddening to me. I love it. It has this 60s go-go element to it. There’s this whole California sound and Pacific Northwest sound and all these garage bands have this element and these guys are right up there. They were the best Texan psychedelic band, for sure. It’s an incredible noise that they made and it reminds me of ‘Paint It Black’ in a way but the din they create is otherworldly. I guess ‘Paint It Black’ has this more Andalusian thing with the bass going on but there’s this otherworldly spirit in it. And Tommy Hall’s jug! We still don’t know if he was going "toodle-loodle-loodle-loodle" into a microphone or he was really making it with some kind of jug. When you listen to those jug guys, they’re just blowing into it but we don’t know if he was just putting everybody on! See, I’m a bit of a troublemaker and I have a bit of the leprechaun blood in me and I wanna believe that he’s taking the piss! I mean, the absurdity of having an electric jug player – how cool is that?

11. Jackie Mittoo - Ghetto Organ

Jackie Mittoo was in The Skatalites and all that stuff and they were one of the major ska bands so I take it he was playing on everybody’s sessions because he was phenomenal. But that track – that’s another one of those things, see? Growing up in L.A. there’s this radio station called KEXP or whatever, and at weekends they had this full-on Jamaican lady just cutting into the tracks going, "Isn’t this a beautiful day?" as the music was going "boom-boom-boom". And she was talking in and out and hitting the faders for like 20 minutes and playing stuff. But of all the years that I’ve sat out there listening to stuff on the beach fanatically and enjoying that music, the Caribbean stuff, I’d never, ever heard that song before. The music was popular enough in L.A. to have a four-hour show dedicated to it but it wasn’t as big as it was in the UK. But I’d never heard that track and just ran across it on YouTube and I was like, "This is so cool, man!" I just love turning this up full blast. And then I was like, "I have to find this vinyl" and I found it in Rough Trade in London. It was the last copy and I was very pleased. In Berlin it’s weird with all these guys who have clubs and stuff where I’m DJing because they’re not into this kind of music so much, I don’t think, but I’ll just play it anyways.

12. Public Image Ltd - Poptones

This song is absolutely fantastic because of the way it goes "zhooooop!" They just press play on the tape and it goes "zhooooop!" into it. You can switch gears with this any time during your DJ set from any two types of music. I think it’s amazing but the thing that I wanna talk about with this song is, first of all, the PiL project – right there – is so much more than the ingredients, to me: Jah Wobble’s interest in dub and Johnny [Lydon] coming from forging this punk rock identity. You know, he claims he was into Can and dub and all this stuff before that when he was growing up, and Keith Levene’s approach on the guitar and then the polyrhythms on the drums and all that stuff coming together – I don’t think any one of those guys was smart enough to formulate what they actually created; the sum of its parts is so much more. To me, that is kind of like The Doors. They’re the only thing that I can see that’s kind of like that. In a weird way, it reminds me of The Doors because Johnny and Jim [Morrison] are both iconoclasts with their subject matter but with different pitches. And it’s a combination of different styles of music by talented musicians. When that stuff came out and I heard those records I was just like, nothing sounded better on acid. And going to see those shows! I saw all those shows as they were happening. I’m not talking about the ‘This Is Not A Love Song’ bullshit, I’m talking about those shows. They were just so amazing and the sound was so amazing. Back in the day, there was no indie section in the record stores, it was all imports from the UK so these records were all like, at the time, $25 – 30 which was like £50 a piece or something, and you really learned to like these albums. First of all, you learned that great records probably had great covers. You also learned that you better fucking like that record because there was no eBay then! So you got an open mind real quick. I would steal records from my older sister and stuff but that one really struck me and since that came out I must have had 25 or more copies of it. Every time I lose track of that record I buy another copy or if I see one for like £2 then I’ll pick it up because I’ll just give it to somebody because I find it that interesting. I’m not the only one. Alan McGee named his second label after this track, but all of these tracks were really interesting and inspiring in the post-punk world. Certainly more interesting than they knew and then Johnny just turned on everybody. It was like, "No, this isn’t a confederation of equals; this is a corporation and you’re my employees. Fuck you all!"

[c-40]

A-T-4 095 Euro-Rap Pt.1: Italy

Raf - Self Control the original Italian version which was a massive global hit for Laura Branigan. This is the extended version which has a rap in it (in my imagination every track made in Italy in 1984 has a rap in it somewhere). The rap divides people, I don't mind it, it's like the rap in Indeep's Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Raffaele Riefoli's Raf was marketed as Raff in Germany... I suppose it'd be like calling your band Isis now (there are a lot of bands and artists called Isis)

International Music System - Vanity Rap IMS's second album is as good as their first, The B. Generation and Freeze Rock match any American electro from the time

Gee Rampley - Radio Style (Instrumental) Gee Rampley speaks his vocals on the vocal version, you get a hint of that on the instrumental, I prefer the instrumental

Naïf Orchestra - Check-Out Five (Disco) head honcho of the Fuzz Dance that put out Alexander Robotnick's Problèmes D'Amour. Great this one it's a nonsense rap about a girl working at a supermarket

Trouble In Side - Zulu Rap another nonsense rap with nothing to do with the Zulus

[ilragliodelmulo]

Traum - Inner space

Luca Ciffo ci ha presentato il nuovo progetto Traum, che vede coinvolti – oltre che lo stesso Luca (Fuzz Orchestra, Il Lungo Addio) – Lorenzo Stecconi (Lento), Luca T. Mai (Zu) e Paolo Mongardi (Fuzz Orchestra). L’esordio omonimo, pubblicato ai principi di marzo dalla SubSound Records, è una lunga jam cosmica incisa in un antico casale… “Traum è la condivisione dello stesso orizzonte di…

[snackpointcharlie]

When you’ve got that run down, not-fresh feeling, take two tablets of Snackpoint Charlie and watch your cares and woes disappear. The latest curative airs tonight at 10pm Eastern Standard Time on WGXC, 90.7 FM in the upper Catskills of New York state. That’s Snackpoint Charlie, in your grocer’s freezer section: ask for it by name. Feel fresh & clean inside with this week’s episode, now podcasted in gelcap form for easy digestion

Snackpoint Charlie - Transmission 131 - 2024.01.17 https://wavefarm.org/wf/archive/z8f0yq [ ^ click for download ^ ]

PLAYLIST

1) Big ‡ Brave - “i felt a funeral” from A CHAOS OF FLOWERS https://thrilljockey.com/products/a-chaos-of-flowers https://bigbrave.bandcamp.com/album/a-chaos-of-flowers

2) Martin Rev - “Jomo” from MARTIN REV http://www.bureau-b.com/

3) Allison Burik - “Heiemo og Nykkjen” from REALM https://allisonburik.bandcamp.com/album/realm

(underbed throughout:) Pinchas Gurevich - “Fsckingmajor”

4) Willie Dunn - “I Pity the Country” from NATIVE NORTH AMERICA: ABORIGINAL FOLK, ROCK, AND COUNTRY 1966-1985 (VOL. 1) https://nativenorthamerica-variousartists.bandcamp.com/album/native-north-america-vol-1-aboriginal-folk-rock-and-country-1966-1985

5) Ryu Tsuruoka - “Wagamama” from OMAE https://ppudc.bandcamp.com/track/wagamama

6) Dr. Alimantado - “I Am The Greatest Says Muhammad Ali” from BEST DRESSED CHICKEN IN TOWN https://www.discogs.com/master/91461-Dr-Alimantado-Best-Dressed-Chicken-In-Town

7) Meiko Kaji - “Kanashii Egao” from GINCHO WATARIDORI https://www.wewantsounds.com/?lightbox=dataItem-lr661tlq

8) The Nelories - “Banana” from A HELLO RECORDING CLUB SELECTION - APRIL 1993 https://www.discogs.com/release/1052981-The-Nelories-The-Nelories

9) Pen Ran - “Koun K'Teuy (Baby Lady Boy)” from THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHEDELIC CAMBODIA https://www.discogs.com/release/5970582-Various-The-Rough-Guide-To-Psychedelic-Cambodia

10) ታምራት ሞላ [Tamrat Molla] - “እኔ እየወደድኳት [Ene Yewededkwat]” from ETHIO ROCK'N'ROLL - ORCHESTRAS & RHYTHM, FUZZ AND WAHWAH GUITAR IN ETHIOPIA & ERITREA, 70S & 80S https://ultraaanirecords.bandcamp.com/album/dj-mitmitta-ethio-rock-n-roll-mixtape

11) Yemane G/Michael - “ፈተነ [Experiment]” from VOL. 2 https://awesometapes.com/yemane-ghebremichael-vol-2/ https://ethio-pain-music.blogspot.com/2013/07/yemane-ghebremichael-yemane-barya-1992.html

12) فريد الأطرش [Farid El Atrache] - “يا حليوه (Ismaa)” https://www.discogs.com/release/6203453-%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B7%D8%B1%D8%B4-Farid-El-Atrache-%D9%82%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%87-%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%87-Ismaa-Yahlewa

13) Aine O'Dwyer - “Deep Sound' Invocation” from MUSIC FOR CHURCH CLEANERS VOL I & II http://mie.limitedrun.com/products/537633-aine-odwyer-music-for-church-cleaners-vol-i-and-ii-2lp

14) Ryuichi Sakamoto - “tri” from ASYNC https://thevaultpublication.com/2020/11/10/async-by-ryuichi-sakamoto-appreciating-differences-in-the-face-of-death/

15) David Greenberger & The Pahltone Scooters - “Leave This Hemisphere” from FRACTIONS BY STELLA https://www.discogs.com/release/15434343-David-Greenberger-The-Pahltone-Scooters-Fractions-By-Stella https://davidgreenberger.com

16) Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan - “Song of the Second Moon” from SONG OF THE SECOND MOON: THE SONIC VIBRATIONS OF TOM DISSEVELT & KID BALTAN https://www.discogs.com/release/492239-Tom-Dissevelt-Kid-Baltan-Song-Of-The-Second-Moon-The-Sonic-Vibrations-Of-Tom-Dissevelt-Kid-Baltan

17) Ryan Patrick Maguire - “moDernisT” from GHOST IN THE MP3 https://rpm7.bandcamp.com/track/modernist

18) Alba Haro - “L’Alba i l’Aurora” from TRÍPTICA https://www.microscopi.cat

19) Tony Elieh - “It's good to die every now and then” from ANTHOLOGY OF ELECTROACOUSTIC LEBANESE MUSIC https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-electroacoustic-lebanese-music with 20) Eartha Kitt - “The Beautiful Girl Who Had No Teeth” from FOLK TALES OF THE TRIBES OF AFRICA https://www.discogs.com/master/724703-Eartha-Kitt-Folk-Tales-Of-The-Tribes-Of-Africa

21) Derek Monypeny - “Laayoune” from Cibola https://derekmonypeny.bandcamp.com/album/cibola

[asidesandbsides]

Starts With M, Part 2: And They Were Singing...

Matthews' Southern Comfort - Woodstock / Ballad of Obray Ramsey

An excellent beginning for today's listening experience. Both sides are in excellent condition, with an exquisite Joni Mitchell cover on Side A and a super-bouncy bluegrass number on Side B. We get rich vocal harmonies and clear, ringing instruments. Absolutely a keeper.

Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra - Love is Blue / Sunny

It sounds nice, in that certain way a 60's pop orchestra sounds. Easy to take in, lots of pretty, exotically European instrumentation, a general air of self-conscious sophistication. Side A has taken a little wear, but is still pretty. "Sunny," on the other hand, is remarkably crystal clear. You can really hear that harpsichord.

Maureen McGovern - The Morning After (Song from The Poseidon Adventure) / Midnight Storm

After cleaning off a mountain of dust, we find... more harpsichords! With a lot of fuzz around the edges, alas. It's a pretty decent pop song, nothing special if you ask me. Not what I expected from a song from The Poseidon Adventure, but in fairness I have not seen it. "Midnight Storm" is a little more appealing to me, but is also marred by crackles. Ms. McGovern sure seems to like that thing where you overdub overlapping lead vocals in the outro.

Don McLean - American Pie Part 1 / American Pie Part 2

Exceptional clarity on this disc. I for one am a fan of this song in particular, whatever sort of reputation it has for being the ultimate in Boomer Nostalgia. That's this blog's stock in trade! The edited fadeout between the two sides is only slightly annoying, at least no more annoying than having to get up and operate a turntable in the middle of a song. Anyway, it's a stone cold classic if you like this sort of song. If you don't, maybe open up a bit?

Don McClean - American Pie Part 1 / American Pie Part 2

Same song! Different pressing, same song! It has a few visible scratches and even some slight discolorations, and it doesn't sound quite as clean, but still plays decently enough.

Don McLean - Vincent / Castles in the Air

Between the two, "Vincent" I find more obviously beautiful and classic. But it is interesting that "Castles in the Air" had another life as an A-Side of it's own, and was also rerecorded later by McLean. What I'm getting at is that you can tell how personal both these songs are, and as big as "American Pie" got in the public eye I think it's good to remember that all the poetry and acoustic sensitivity comes from something genuine. Oh, and the disc is still very listenable indeed.

[frilly2023]

Submarine Antarctica 😁 🫠 🥸 🤖 💨 🦾 🫂 💋 🦠 🩸 🫧 ❄ 🏔 🌨 🌍 🐧 ⛪ 🛸 🎭 🪞 🧮 🛋 🧽 🦺 ⚔

Frilly ran around in her thick coat and undergarments for the very cold weather. It was like a bright more on the dark side purplish blue "indigo" fuzz coat, with an iridescent hue. She had thick solid padded grayish white gloves on, and you could see her thick white boots. She had a hat covering her ears, purple, like a beret or cap without a vizer? She wasn't wearing jewelry. She had a medium sized backpack on, hot more on the dark side pink, sorta shiny with some glitter. She had about 1/2 inch heels.

She twiddled her fingers a little and already Andre Rieu came to pick her up as the orchestra manned themselves onboard the sub. He was grasping under her legs and booty. She was squirming a little and moving her arms some and even squealed sometimes. She settled in and was pretty stimulated.

Finally, the tour plunged down under. Some of the girls were nervous and Andre and some of them and even strangers comforted them and physically, with some massages, Andre still "holding onto" the little Frilly, gazing at them tenderly and sitting still more. Frilly's legs dangled under her coat and her boots stuck out so you could see the ankles. She had a brace under them, too, now.

Frilly could see her favorite animal! penguins, already! Her eyes sparkled a thick colorful light blue and her little pink lips with lipstick and gloss smiled brightly! She pointed her right finger, as she was mostly right handed. She tilted her head and was happy.

Some of them ate. Frilly was given a treat of chicken tenders and a cherry slushy. Then, still sitting in Andre, she was hand fed some fancy presented and mixed and designed ice cream, by the fancy waitresses in the bar and then by Andre. Andre took her to the bathroom, brushed out and combed down her curling white hair curling up to around the top of her little chest or nipple area and sprayed her, with babystuff, glitter and perfume. He stood her ontop a bench and smoothed out her coat, fixed her hat and pat it, and picked her up i him again and went back out.

They were going down under to see new sea depths.

They thought they saw something glowing?

Mostly, they enjoyed the submersion underwater. They stayed for 2 days.

[wroteonedad]

Songs for the Summer

Summer. The time of the year where all of your drinks become iced, when you over hydrate on water because it's too hot. The time of the year where you spend more time in the beer garden than ever before and you spend your whole time at work fighting for your life because there's no working air con. I always find that the genre of music I listen to drastically changes once the temperatures hit 20 degrees and I'm walking across the now tourist filled beach. The type of music that I would sip a can of Thatchers Gold to in a friends back garden at 10pm in July. I wanted to share some songs that make me feel that way.

Toquinho - Carolina Carol Bella (1970)

Rim Kwaku Obeng, KASA - Love Me For Real (2015)

HAIM - 3AM (2021)

Washed Out - Get Up (2009)

Electric Guest - Oh Devil (2017)

Bjork - Human Behaviour (1993)

Blood Orange, Yves Tumor, Ian Isiah - Smoke Remix (2018)

Niko B - Who's That What's That (2020)

GUM - Summer Rain (2014)

Kindness - SEOD (2012)

Macross 82-99, Yung Bae - Selfish High Heels (2017)

Paradis - Toi Et Moi (2016)

TOKiMONSTA, Channel Tres - Naked (2021)

Orion Sun - Mirage (2020)

Mount Kimbie - T.A.M.E.D (2017)

Manu Chao - Me Gustas Tu (2001)

Tourist, Ardyn - We Stayed Up All Night (2017)

Ross From Friends - Talk To Me You'll Understand (2017)

Patrice Rushen - Remind Me (1982)

architecture in tokyo - SUMMER NEVER ENDS (2013)

Rochelle Jordan - DANCING ELEPHANTS (2021)

BADBADNOTGOOD - Time Moves Slow (2016)

Jain - Makeba (2016)

Tyler, The Creator - Peach Fuzz (2018)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi Love (2015)

piri & tommy - beachin (2022)

Hotel Ugly - Ballad Of Eddie Jabuley (2021)

Makala - Algenubi (2017)

[rockattitudegr]

Στα πλαίσια του “Atlantis tour” ft. orchestra οι Soen έρχονται στην Αθήνα την Τρίτη 5 Σεπτεμβρίου στο Fuzz με special guests τους «Church of the Sea».