tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35050224525086655672024-03-18T18:18:53.186-07:00RETROMANIA"this person's not had enough of useless memories" - John Lydon, possibly misheardSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger1087125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-83299105875143520102024-03-14T18:55:00.000-07:002024-03-14T21:02:26.271-07:00good retro versus bad retro<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Last year, on Twitter </span><a href="https://linktr.ee/stuffbymark" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">a designer</a><span style="text-align: left;"> who identifies himself only as <b>Stuff by </b></span><b style="text-align: left;">Mark </b><span style="text-align: left;">put up a bunch of imaginary movie posters that took New Wave songs and imagined</span><b style="text-align: left;"> </b><span style="text-align: left;">each of them as a film from the New Wave of British cinema aka 1960s kitchen-sink realism. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxn-cDmDbZDY52fKdRiMYHkIAu_Da6TQItsSfQ_1UH91B8MtAvmIbQrirR2GoryxNDIDcgs0tJ6N1OPlmHYe76M_Qc-4bn_LR2IFbP6cOCtgSeZoBGjBDYCajkIIEigdADG6XfFCaal4l6dfJQaDxXqi7rSVfXDTdeE8MxueFf7LaeossnF-xOAlw/s680/FpLx2-JWABkm9pr.jpg" style="background-color: white; clear: left; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-wrap: nowrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="543" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxn-cDmDbZDY52fKdRiMYHkIAu_Da6TQItsSfQ_1UH91B8MtAvmIbQrirR2GoryxNDIDcgs0tJ6N1OPlmHYe76M_Qc-4bn_LR2IFbP6cOCtgSeZoBGjBDYCajkIIEigdADG6XfFCaal4l6dfJQaDxXqi7rSVfXDTdeE8MxueFf7LaeossnF-xOAlw/w512-h640/FpLx2-JWABkm9pr.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ7yX7b3ol9I9TqqmIo4ac6ah8d8319_7BEcNowSJxsMlv953WdjClhtq_iPmLP5gfXLsh-wDg6vtGwKdqZ3J49T82bsxZHn5yDzQxSo3-zEQICA_oAaoxGPIw9PS-t8c93QCxmEEyg1QCS24xbQDuiGmq0DHhoZyPM1upei7_zUzgaGhSnB_pfY/s680/FonvYH_XsAg7ZLN.jpg" style="background-color: white; clear: left; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-wrap: nowrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="543" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZ7yX7b3ol9I9TqqmIo4ac6ah8d8319_7BEcNowSJxsMlv953WdjClhtq_iPmLP5gfXLsh-wDg6vtGwKdqZ3J49T82bsxZHn5yDzQxSo3-zEQICA_oAaoxGPIw9PS-t8c93QCxmEEyg1QCS24xbQDuiGmq0DHhoZyPM1upei7_zUzgaGhSnB_pfY/w512-h640/FonvYH_XsAg7ZLN.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbeXQ8P-ZPB2EariDin_fFVEuZr7o5XPQtTpLfb0Kw9VyiHmg8hjgvpFMNQ0W7Yl-nch4F4GdnLWMR-ghccPZy0TDr8AxQH_jJk5r6ATsUbW6EQOZ--mCC68jkLphmYsltFZKx-ESC-XBLXA3bPl-MpwQwYWJOaGbUxNxc_awfkofU7z0PD61A5c/s680/Fn0TJzRWIAMVIAy.jpg" style="background-color: white; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-wrap: nowrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="543" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbeXQ8P-ZPB2EariDin_fFVEuZr7o5XPQtTpLfb0Kw9VyiHmg8hjgvpFMNQ0W7Yl-nch4F4GdnLWMR-ghccPZy0TDr8AxQH_jJk5r6ATsUbW6EQOZ--mCC68jkLphmYsltFZKx-ESC-XBLXA3bPl-MpwQwYWJOaGbUxNxc_awfkofU7z0PD61A5c/w512-h640/Fn0TJzRWIAMVIAy.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SQZjUfd-M80e23FiQcPmws4FLPDQJFWkppqfFEsAuQJEdi4giP1LEsTtORevEbRy8TRAvS_QbAgZWDUXuglSIZ0cISHkfKzG6S6kgSQg4Wr48qbvIS2rCiF8PbihT0RXpeBfH6WYAqijU8xlwnZtHJmO23Rvo7mxEwWU2tZV93Xrkh0Z5fd7WVw/s680/FoYPf_qXsAUh4h5.jpg" style="background-color: white; clear: left; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-wrap: nowrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="543" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0SQZjUfd-M80e23FiQcPmws4FLPDQJFWkppqfFEsAuQJEdi4giP1LEsTtORevEbRy8TRAvS_QbAgZWDUXuglSIZ0cISHkfKzG6S6kgSQg4Wr48qbvIS2rCiF8PbihT0RXpeBfH6WYAqijU8xlwnZtHJmO23Rvo7mxEwWU2tZV93Xrkh0Z5fd7WVw/w512-h640/FoYPf_qXsAUh4h5.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">I thought these were clever and attractive. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This kind of thing strikes me as "good retro" . It's work that's fun to look at but it's based in an affinity between the two things being mashed together: British realist cinema of the late '50s / early '60s, the New Wave / 2-Tone school of late 70s / early '80s groups, Films and songs about ordinary people and ordinary life, equal parts wry and gritty. Social comment, social observation, class-consciousness, deglamorized documentary-like pictures of real life. A tone of undisguised bitterness. These were new things in pop in the late '70s, as they'd been in British film in the early '60s.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The affinity is even clearer in the case of the Squeeze song, which takes its title - and lyrical ambience - from the Sixties film. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Stuff by Mark puts out a steady stream of, er, stuff, all based on bygone graphic styles. Prints of the work are for sale from the website.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But just like there's good cholesterol and bad cholesterol, so there's good retro and bad retro. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And this recent offering strikes me as the bad kind.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It takes the track list of the one and only album by <b>The La's</b> and imagines each song as a movie poster in the style of the legendary <b>Saul Bass</b>, famous for his title sequences for films by Hitchcock, Kubrick, Preminger and Billy Wilder, among many others.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu8cCDbc1KYYqeGNW_v74dO_u57xUvQqzAQG6iarSX6nb56sDzPQZSZp-CNTpsJEwG4yqT-Ixm6Th6wX9sD9dB0w0OsM5PBoVl1Gr79I9CKx4Yk_m_Yyrhs5ituyO6YxtwLd8cmnlzVUOpLhuuXUQqBWz6_-XpdQkeS0VX0g8tKNLfFaKV7m_1T0JA/s3276/the%20la's%20as%20saul%20bass%20cover%20stuff%20by%20mark.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3276" data-original-width="3085" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu8cCDbc1KYYqeGNW_v74dO_u57xUvQqzAQG6iarSX6nb56sDzPQZSZp-CNTpsJEwG4yqT-Ixm6Th6wX9sD9dB0w0OsM5PBoVl1Gr79I9CKx4Yk_m_Yyrhs5ituyO6YxtwLd8cmnlzVUOpLhuuXUQqBWz6_-XpdQkeS0VX0g8tKNLfFaKV7m_1T0JA/w376-h400/the%20la's%20as%20saul%20bass%20cover%20stuff%20by%20mark.jpg" width="376" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Why "bad retro"?</div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike with the New Wave songs as New Wave film posters, there's no aesthetic affinity between the La's and Saul Bass.</div><div>'</div><div>The La's were an edge-of-Madchester / proto-Britpop outfit, immortal for "There She Goes", itself totally retro - or perhaps "time travel" is the operative word, the true hopeless desire at work here. (Famous story of Lee Mavers rejecting a vintage studio console because it didn't have "proper Sixties dust" on it). </div><div><br /></div><div>But the region of the recent past that the La's were obsessed with reenacting was completely separate from the world that Saul Bass operated in - the Hollywood mainstream. You think Saul Bass and you're instantly in the era of Mancini and Martinis and mid-century modern (the kind of look and feel that suffuses the decor and costumes of <i>Mad Men</i>, say). </div><div><br /></div><div>Whereas The La's reference points are Beatles and Merseybeat and perhaps a bit of Crosby Stills and Nash (the Graham Nash bit). The look and feel of <i>this</i> 1960s is a world away from Saul Bass's world. Rock, then, saw Hollywood as showbiz, as phony, as nothing to do with youth culture (or hopelessly clumsy and out of touch when it tried to deal with it). </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ka1iANkyo5M" width="320" youtube-src-id="Ka1iANkyo5M"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>The La's own album artwork is faintly Swinging Sixties / mod / Carnaby Street, or just ugly.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcoUTnIw5b7Ynjf202l8PVukPJb_A0Txokr1VQrXgr7Q0EtLu5qrHeiArfgSOhSep9AIecDqPLEXsmoX-hCiQ1W-MQjtdBTdbUMXEiSmKSIGHAOThlFexEfIt2nRlGJpz8eI1wdD9vBwwBMQfCqE-ekvl0f0mbLFng3-jhCK6ZKsIKTalFjSyxH1P/s600/R-13657871-1558433533-8578.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="599" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYcoUTnIw5b7Ynjf202l8PVukPJb_A0Txokr1VQrXgr7Q0EtLu5qrHeiArfgSOhSep9AIecDqPLEXsmoX-hCiQ1W-MQjtdBTdbUMXEiSmKSIGHAOThlFexEfIt2nRlGJpz8eI1wdD9vBwwBMQfCqE-ekvl0f0mbLFng3-jhCK6ZKsIKTalFjSyxH1P/s320/R-13657871-1558433533-8578.jpg" width="319" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyvIW-JgOCtcneB2eHoOHDjH6-bWrCPww-VqT4QMlcJwHBKXJbwcBhuW3TSVzSCpdBMORAbM9RBQ5pJTByMubTs5vL0EYu0l07kE6rykdIVufRwDFsGr3k6EAsAyef6khnX5I0AH6TFrNNc4yDIH5fmWvCjcnM9lFLjyZkhhEMe5nyPU1BrjgJhmQ/s600/R-1661574-1463512811-4008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="600" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyvIW-JgOCtcneB2eHoOHDjH6-bWrCPww-VqT4QMlcJwHBKXJbwcBhuW3TSVzSCpdBMORAbM9RBQ5pJTByMubTs5vL0EYu0l07kE6rykdIVufRwDFsGr3k6EAsAyef6khnX5I0AH6TFrNNc4yDIH5fmWvCjcnM9lFLjyZkhhEMe5nyPU1BrjgJhmQ/s320/R-1661574-1463512811-4008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The other big difference is that The La's are throwbacks, while Saul Bass was absolutely modern in his moment. Ridiculously with-it and au courant.</div><div><br /></div><div>More to the point, whether it was the credits sequences or his film posters or his logos for corporations, Bass did <i>things that had never been done before</i>. He innovated with typography, with cut-out animation, with methods of production. The very idea that a title sequence could be a miniature work of art in its own right was a new thing.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/frWLpyI3lXY" width="320" youtube-src-id="frWLpyI3lXY"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aPBWvfMKV10" width="320" youtube-src-id="aPBWvfMKV10"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qqM3McG4-LE" width="320" youtube-src-id="qqM3McG4-LE"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>So it's an arbitrary marriage of contraries, done according to the additive logic of the mash-up: "<i>Here's two things I like - Bass's designs, Mavers's tunes and voice - so let's combine them</i>". </div><div><br /></div><div>AI means the world is going to be choked with this kind of thing. Already is being choked by it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Like low-density lipoprotein, it clogs up the arteries of the culture. </div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-53054731106554137242024-02-20T18:34:00.000-08:002024-02-20T18:34:38.201-08:00authentically derivative <p> "<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/11/tribute-bands-tina-turner-u2-arctic-monkeys-happy-mondays?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2qkO2VOUFQWgzuj6jI5Ju_PmRWc_iGhQLqq0ir6wbaEUnntUovUKmOhxQ_aem_AdGVFkRd17ckuIw5ydGeypOWVEHcVvwmYpuYQBAKsEGeFSDFCtpnJdJnrXddFM7FT0g" target="_blank">I feel like myself when I'm Morrissey</a>"</p><br />SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-20381101050626885562024-02-16T17:48:00.000-08:002024-02-16T17:48:28.173-08:00You Don't Have to Go to Collage (retro-blogging)<p><b><i>Not sure if I did post this on Retromania, as opposed to Hardly Baked... an oldie riffy-rambler from 2011</i></b></p><p>This summer we went to see two exhibitions in Los Angeles – one was in nearby Pasadena (Clayton Brothers: Inside Out) and the other was in downtown at the MOCA and called Art in the Streets, a mammoth retrospective of graffiti and street art going back to the very beginnings... Clayton Brothers do life-scale shacks and diorama-type things, lots of stuff based on old illustrative styles, newspaper fonts, etc – readymades either literally or in inspiration, but the overall agglomeration of it tinged towards the surreal-creepy-macabre-twisted... a sort of dayglo American-Gothic... At Art in the Streets, a lot of the more recent work involved very large pieces, real-size reproduction of actual real-world stuff – like a bodega, with cans of vegetables etc – or a shabby taxi hire office in a shady part of town, those band or advertising or prostitute type stickers stuck over every surface – one artist (Neckface, we used to see his graff in our old neighbourhood in the East village) did a thing that was literally street art -- the recreation of a dark, dank alley in a scary, grotty part of NYC, complete with a sleeping bum.</p><p>Anyway this got me thinking... about readymades and collage, the tradition that starts with Duchamp... with Schwitters with the merzbau and the merzhaus... then proceeds through Lichenstein, Warhol, Richard Hamilton.... Lari Pitman, whose work draws on decorative and kitschy-retro graphics and fonts... Jeff Koons.... and then into the post-graffiti/hip hop era with people the Alleged Art crew (heavily present at this exhibition)... some of whom were into stuff like the tags left by hobos on the side of railcars, or they were into tattoos... </p><p>The late Margaret Kilgannen of Alleged used a lot of commercial imagery... hand-painted shop front signage, imagery from advertisements in old magazines... in the Alleged crew doc Beautiful Losers she says something about how "a<i>ll this stuff becomes interesting to me when it's no longer selling anything to me</i>"-- in other words, once it's divorced from commerce in the immediate here-and-now, it becomes capable of being aestheticized, which is a great description of how vintage chic works</p><p>But what struck me about all this in connection with Art in the Streets and Clayton Brothers is that underpinning the whole century-long thing was One Idea – a REALLY BIG idea - which is treating the objects of manufactured modernity as if they were nature, as beautiful as a tree or landscape... (c.f. James Ferraro's description of Far Side Virtual as "<i>the still life of now</i>" - the audio and video landscape of our digitized, augmented-reality daily surroundings)</p><p>But also it’s a move of taking the non-art, the infra-art, and just moving it across a line... commerce becomes Culture, the mass produced aura-less product becomes the one-off, aura-full handcrafted object ready for the art market.</p><p>And as the Ferraro comparison suggests, it's the same move being made by the hauntologists and the hypnagogics (a lot of post-Ferraro music is Pop Art meets psychedelia), you take what is deemed beneath or outside Proper Serious Rock-as-Art, so that would be ancient cheese pop or mainstream AOR or library music (in the case of hauntology) or with Ferraro now it's ringtones and computer start-up jingles and so forth i.e. today's equivalent to library/Muzak... and then you say well actually if you tilt your head this way slightly , it’s sublime – or even (upping the ante) in some cases it’s just better and more weird than self-conscious Arty art-rock.</p><p>And then the art work for a lot of those hypnagogic cassettes is chopped-up magazine images (eyes, lips etc) like a more grotesque and cack-handed version of what the British Pop Artists did... like the popcult unconscious throwing up all over the page (and that's no diss, i love all that artwork)</p><p>the low > high context-shift</p><p>Nick Katranis calls this artistic move "<i>looking at what is right in front of you</i>"</p><p>for most people "<i>right in front of you</i>" nowadays means that what they can find on the internet, what’s trawl-able on YouTube etc etc</p><p>e.g. Oneohtrix scavenging for alchemy-susceptible materials on YouTube, the stuff that’s beneath consideration, infomercials or ancient clumsy computer graphics, or Chris deBurgh... or with Replica, the new LP, he's sampling from a DVD of 1980s and ‘90s daytime TV commercials</p><p>What I'm a-wonderin' is whether the BIG IDEA that i mentioned, whether that is so very very BIG -so fundamental and capacious in scope and potential - that it can just carry on and on and on... or is it a 20th Century idea that has just lingered a bit into the next century and hangs on while we all try to think of somewhere new to go?</p><p>Post-script: what do you know, Aaron Rose, the guy who co-curated Art in the Streets and was owner and director of Alleged Art (and also directed the <i>Beautiful Losers</i> doc) has co-written <a href="http://collageculture.com/" target="_blank">a book </a>called <i>Collage Culture: Examining the 21st Century's Identity Crisis</i> that looks to be a rather <i>Retromania</i>c-al polemic ("why has the 21st century become an era of collage, in which creative works are made by combining elements from the former century?", "THE PAST MUST NO LONGER SERVE AS OUR MASTER") which sorta suggests that even as he was pulling together the exhibition he might have been having similar anxieties as i did looking at it</p><p>here's what he says in an interview with Oyster:</p><p>"<i>Everything in this world is built on references. I don’t think that’s really such a problem, that’s part of the creative process. Although where the amount of original input is below 5%, that’s when I feel like there’s maybe a problem... I think the contemporary art world is horrible [as an offender]! And in music. Music, I think, is really bad. Music videos, especially — horrible — are like, basically just taking things frame for frame.</i>" </p><div><br /></div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-20077913248589315312024-02-10T13:01:00.000-08:002024-02-10T15:42:58.616-08:00museal techno and futures forestalled<p>An <a href="https://infinitespeeds.substack.com/p/techno-inside-the-museum-of-the-living" target="_blank">interesting article </a>with an interesting title - <i>Techno: Inside the Museum of the Living Dead </i>- from interesting new-ish blog (<a href="https://infinitespeeds.substack.com/" target="_blank">really a Substack</a>) <b>Infinite Speeds</b>, the interesting work (go check the archive of previous essays) of <b>Vincent Jenewin. </b></p><p>This essay juxtaposes the "musealization of techno" with the club-closure crisis.</p><p>I particularly enjoyed the bit about "<i>the little "Drexciya-industrial-complex" that has popped up within the last few years</i>". It is bizarre - yet also all too logical - how that tuff little unit has become the basis for a production line churning out PhDs and dissertations. Not that they haven't made some great records with a fascinating mythos wrapped around them.... But you don't see the same level of exegesis with the equally-rich-and-ripe text that is Marc Acardipane / PCP. Or [insert your own example].</p><p>But more to the point, there's plenty of fantastic electronic dance music that doesn't have any text around it as such - music that sonifies rather than signifies - tracks that simply execute the task it's been set . But for those reasons gives academia nothing to latch onto. </p><p>Musealization seems to capture everything eventually, perhaps it's futile to resist. or pointless to complain... And of course I'm in this business myself, rather often. </p><p>But in the conclusion to the original 1998 <i>Energy Flash</i> I suggest that the vitality of a genre or music movement is in inverse relation to the amount of history written about it, before wryly noting that my own tome might well be an early sign that the prime was passing - had literally become The Past now, past-ure ready for memory-mastication and digestion. For when things are most vital, things move too fast for retrospection: you're in it, living it. Under the bracket "history" could be included not just books but exhibitions, box sets, documentaries, podcasts, oral history features, and every other form of curation and annotation. </p><p>If techno-house etc is fundamentally a bliss-machine, then... well, this old favorite quote springs to mind:</p><p>"<i>Criticism is always historical or prospective... the presentation of bliss is forbidden it: its preferred material is culture, which is everything in us except our present</i>" </p><p>- Roland Barthes, <i>The Pleasure of the Text.</i> </p><p>This one too: </p><p> "<i>Beauty will be amnesiac or it will not be at all</i>."</p><p>~ Sylvère Lotringer, "The Dance of Signs" </p><p><br /></p><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p>Related themes and quandaries - ideas of futurity, lost futures, looking back to looking-forward - flicker through two new excellent bits of writing at <i>Pitchfork...</i></p><p><a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/burial-dreamfear-boy-sent-from-above-ep/" target="_blank">A review </a>by <b>Philip Sherburne</b> of the new <b>Burial </b>release "Dreamfear"<span style="font-family: inherit;">/ “Boy Sent From Above”</span> </p><p><b>Gabriel Szatan</b> s Sunday Review <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/jeff-mills-live-at-the-liquid-room-tokyo/" target="_blank">flashback to</a> <b>Jeff Mills</b>'s <i>Live at the Liquid Room</i>, <i>Tokyo, </i>the legendary 1996 deejay-mix-CD </p><p>The Burial release - it suddenly struck me that it is now </p><p>A/ almost 20 years since Burial's recording career started </p><p>B/ in reference to the darkcore-'93 flavour of "Dreamfear", we've probably now had<i> </i><a href="https://energyflashbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2018/04/x-panded-replica-rave-retro-jungle.html" target="_blank"><i>at least</i> 20 years </a>of aunterlogikal ardkore </p><p>(Well, the very first example dates to 1997 - Jega's "Card Hore" - but then there's a long gap, before you get Zomby's <i>Where Were U in '92? </i>in 2008... I don't think there are any examples between Jega and Zomby... Then again, there was The Caretaker's <i>Death of Rave</i> project)</p><p>Listening to "Dreamfear", I felt the same way I <a href="https://simonreynoldsfavesunfaves.blogspot.com/2022/12/atemporal-faves-of-2022.html" target="_blank">did about</a> <i>Antidawn</i>, that it floats in this zone where it could either seem self-parodic <i>or</i> consummate + inimitable, depending on how you tilted your head. More of the same, only <i>more</i> so. </p><p>Here's how Sherburne negotiates similar feelings: </p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">One of Burial’s chief fixations has long been nostalgia for a halcyon era of renegade freedom... </span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">Or i</span><span style="font-family: courier;">s it becoming a shtick? It can be hard to say. If you love Burial—particularly the maudlin turn of his work over the past decade—you’ll love the outsized pathos of “Boy Sent From Above” and the high drama of “Dreamfear.” If you feel like you’ve heard enough pasted-on vinyl crackle to last a lifetime, or aren’t particularly invested in the hagiography of rave music’s formative years, you probably won’t find anything new here.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">But newness isn’t the point. Using not just the same tropes but even many of the same samples he’s used before, Burial seems to be pursuing his long-running project of world-building and self-mythology to increasingly hermetic ends, burrowing deeper into a state of déjà vu—as though if by recreating the memory from every possible angle, he could preserve it forever.</span></p><p>And here's the relevant bit in Szatan's incredibly in-depth, gets-into-the-nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts-of-turntable-artistry review of <i>Liquid Room</i>, where he zooms out to this question of futurity: </p><p><i><span style="font-family: courier;">"In a recent campaign for fashion house Jil Sander, Mills was asked to expound upon a theme, “mid-’90s optimism”—with the unspoken “that we’ve lost” echoing not far behind. There’s no glint of awe in our collective eye when DJing’s premier cosmologist collaborates with NASA. It’s just a thing that happens. The idea that technology could be inspiring or even fun anymore has dissipated. Accordingly, the notion that techno might be a pathway to revolution has lost resonance. So many arenas and aircraft hangars have passed in front of Mills’ eyes now that, by his own account, he sometimes zones out mid-performance and begins to dream, instead, of the stars. To some degree, he stands as an avatar for a future forestalled.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-family: courier;">"Yet I’d encourage you to listen to the mix and consider the opposite: that this is the work of an individual who believed so unreservedly in the possibilities of what lay beyond that they gave up their best years attempting to tear open that wormhole. At the root, Mills told author Hari Kunzru in 1998, his spin on techno has always been “about making people feel they’re in a time ahead of this present time. Like if you’re hearing someone speak in a language you don’t understand, or you’re in surroundings you’ve never seen before.”</span></i></p><p>The final point Szatan makes resonates with me: that for all the talk of posthuman this and posthuman that, 'the machines are taking over" etc etc - that excitingly depersonalized discourse that many of us got caught up in the '90s - what makes the record exciting is that it's a human being grappling in hands-on real-time with (by today's standards) unwieldly mechanical technology and analogue slabs of sound-matter. The friction and the sparks come from this battle between the will-to-flow and the resistance of materiality. The disc captures a pre-digital moment, steampunk almost compared to what can be done today... </p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-85228509695898442122024-01-03T14:16:00.000-08:002024-01-03T18:03:45.250-08:00The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr. versus The Beatles and the Stones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CeFEaKIptMM" width="320" youtube-src-id="CeFEaKIptMM"></iframe></div><br /><p>Via <a href="https://www.stereoembersmagazine.com/paula-cole-releases-90s-summoning-new-single-the-replacements-dinosaur-jr/" target="_blank">Stereogum</a></p><p>"<i> Paula Cole Releases ’90s-Summoning New Single “The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr.”</i></p><p><i>The follow-up to the Massachusetts-born singer/songwriter’s American Quilt (2021) is called Lo and the album’s first single will make ’90s music enthusiasts turn their heads. Titled “The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr.” the song chronicles Cole’s introduction to those bands by her late friend and musical mentor Mark Hutchins. Hutchins, who died in 2016, produced all of Cole’s early demos and was the one who introduced the singer to a wide array of alternative bands, like XTC, A Tribe Called Quest and Daniel Lanois. "In a statement about the single Cole wrote: “Mark exploded my mind. I literally heard the Beatles first with Mark. Also The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr., A Tribe Called Quest, The Pixies, and a lot of gorgeous early-90’s alternative music folks might not associate with me. We connected in our love for Peter Gabriel’s music. I was mourning, honoring, celebrating Mark when I wrote this. I wanted to acknowledge him and his lasting influence in my life. Mark should have had an enormous career. I’m so grateful. The song needed to be fun, like he was.”</i></p><p>This inevitably reminded me of <b>The House of Love</b>'s "The Beatles and the Stones"</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0Sl3ga8S6cA" width="320" youtube-src-id="0Sl3ga8S6cA"></iframe></div><br /><p>But also - more appositely - of <b>The Replacements</b>'s own "Alex Chilton"</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ftTOEJfzdq0" width="320" youtube-src-id="ftTOEJfzdq0"></iframe></div><br /><p>That, then, was A/ quite clever and B/ indicative </p><p>Indicating the Replacements's perverse drive to fail in the marketplace, just like Paul Westerberg's revered forebear, the ironically-named <b>Big Star</b>. </p><p>But Big Star was only ironically named in retrospect - they really wanted to be big and thought they could be. Listening to the Anglophile distillate of Beatles-Stones that is their perfect first album, the fact that they did fail, that radio didn't embrace them - it seems so mystifying, so wrong. The music is full of self-confidence and sense of destiny. </p><div>Later on Chilton did - of necessity, through self-destructive impulses - make a right cult of himself. </div><div><br /></div><div>But he and the rest of Big Star wanted to be big. </div><div><br /></div><div>Plus he'd already been a pop star, in The Box Tops, with the massive hit "The Letter".</div><div><br /></div><div>"Alex Chilton" the song is also a significant contribution to <a href="https://tidal.com/magazine/article/songs-about-songs/1-86322" target="_blank">the canon of meta-pop</a> - "<i>I'm in love / With that song</i>", it captures that feeling of being ravished through the radio. (Or in this case, it being Big Star, not through the radio). The chorus enacts what it rejoices in - the seizing of the ear, the endlessly renewing miracle of pop. Yet releasing a song titled "Alex Chilton" as a single virtually guarantees it'll never be a hit (except in the hearts of college radio deejays and fanzine editors).</div><div><br /></div><div>As for The House of Love, doing a song titled "The Beatles and the Stones" and then releasing it as a single, it just seemed like a form of self-humiliation - as if the only way they could ever be mentioned in the same breath as the B and the S was by this ruse of titling a song after them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Talking of the Beatles, here's legendary-era-of-blogs ex-blogger <b>Owen Hatherley</b> surprising us with an excellent<a href="https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/studio-trickery?fbclid=IwAR0GeQL34fxPuDBctzr2bt5xO7bPwQ7_PpOi2q2xOr7QZnxMVcG4jPAJMCo_aem_ASGqNpvPU4K16YPn61VMZQlKSXOHpZzqenYTy-ebAZzQTAtgY1mipE_uJKQ61gexyJ4" target="_blank"> piece </a>in <i>The New Left Review</i> about the AI-concocted half-lives of the Beatles </div><div><br /></div><div><div><i>"The rise of McCartney’s reputation at the expense of Lennon’s over the last few decades has something to do with the way popular music has become a less crucial part of youth culture. People still listen to music, it still changes and develops, but it is no longer the main vehicle for social comment or subcultural identity, far less important than social media; perhaps on the same level as clothing. Gone is the idea that pop music could ‘say’ something, that it could be a means of commenting on society, or an integral element of an oppositional counter-culture. McCartney’s solo work now seems unexpectedly prescient, anticipating modern listening habits. McCartney, Ram, Band on the Run or McCartney II all deliver the immediate dopamine hit and the restlessness with genre that you can find on Spotify playlists; they are albums already ‘On Shuffle’.... </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"What has also virtually disappeared from pop music is ‘politics’. The Beatles’ politics were complicated, to be sure. Each of them owed almost everything to the welfare state. Starr’s upbringing was rough, and a spell of childhood illness saw his life saved by the new National Health Service, which sent him to a sanatorium, an unimaginable thing for a working-class child before 1948. McCartney and Harrison grew up in good suburban council houses, and their families – sons and daughters of Irish migrants – were in skilled, stable work during a period of full employment (Lennon’s father, a Liverpool-Irish sailor, was a ne’er do well, but he was raised by his middle-class aunt in a large semi). Lennon and Harrison went to Liverpool College of Art, and McCartney sat in on lectures, later recalling attending a talk on Le Corbusier..... </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>"The ‘new’ ‘Beatles’ songs have been devoid both of the interesting if generally failed political content of Lennon’s solo work, and the musical invention of McCartney. They are the worst of all worlds, leaden plods saying little more than that Lennon in the late 70s didn’t have much to say anymore. That was likely why he wasn’t saying it publicly, declining to release the songs in his lifetime. Yet, tellingly, ‘Now and Then’ has far outsold an actual new album of actual new songs by the actually living Rolling Stones, who were sixty years ago the Beatles’ nearest competitors. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>".... Nostalgia can be spun out of the flimsiest of mid-20th-century golden age cultural phenomena – Cliff Richard, whom Lennon and McCartney loathed, is currently on tour – but, unfortunately, the Beatles really were special. It isn’t all a hoax; there has never been anything quite like the sheer speed and promiscuity and drama of those six years of actual Beatles music. They proved that working-class people from ordinary places could create, in the 2.5 minute slots of the lowest of low art, work that is bottomless in its complexity and richness. There are entire worlds in A Hard Day’s Night, Revolver, Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour or the White Album, evanescent spaces in which rhythm and blues, Victoriana, cheap chanson, electronic avant-gardism and Indian classical traditions are all mixed up and transfigured in the studio by people who, as the Get Back film revealed, could not even read music. Theirs was a world in which everything was getting better, with new possibilities, new ways of hearing and seeing opening up every minute."</i></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Opxhh9Oh3rg" width="320" youtube-src-id="Opxhh9Oh3rg"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-66436266511338727472023-12-30T09:19:00.000-08:002023-12-30T09:21:07.793-08:00The Retro Man<p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycbdpYMXGILC4NfjB3QXxc51d8v61DxaT3zgQnPLwJMlzaCoV6x-fxdGSgzIffW2-PxwSmdYL7gZqcOYiT4wW-RNTf7JUs_4hQg8iDTUrElYAepH_f61dIsHAqBT6AAAg1SDS_XZhdAxyHtz2rSUxMidcaAEEFbe2R3ZjxPhj5oSyPH6vCFWXFpCR/s277/download.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="277" data-original-width="182" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiycbdpYMXGILC4NfjB3QXxc51d8v61DxaT3zgQnPLwJMlzaCoV6x-fxdGSgzIffW2-PxwSmdYL7gZqcOYiT4wW-RNTf7JUs_4hQg8iDTUrElYAepH_f61dIsHAqBT6AAAg1SDS_XZhdAxyHtz2rSUxMidcaAEEFbe2R3ZjxPhj5oSyPH6vCFWXFpCR/w421-h640/download.jpg" width="421" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">"<i>This second volume in a series bringing together short stories of veteran science fiction author Gordon Eklund leads off with 'The Retro Man,' a visionary tale of a man reliving his life in reverse time.</i>"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">A</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"> science fiction short story from 1977 - and quite an early appearance of the concept of "retro" in the Anglosphere. (In France, it's in use from the beginning of the decade, referring to a kind of nostalgic cinema).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">For instance, I have not come across any "retro" references in Anglosphere music writing until the early 1980s.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-15996510663566504132023-12-20T12:23:00.000-08:002024-02-12T09:41:29.051-08:00The Pathos of Obsolete Reference Books<p>The library at the academic institute where I work part-time recently had a massive chuck-out. Scanning the tomes strewn across the tables, I was struck by the high proportion of reference books - encyclopedias, dictionaries, guides, thesauruses, -ographies of various types. Quite a few seemed to be just <i>lists</i> bound between hard covers - an inventory of modernist sculptures made in the UK between 1945 and 1972 along with their current institutional location; a list of works by female visual artists; a cataloguing of examples of land art. </p><p>Reference books used to be one of the most reliable generators of revenue within publishing. The sheer number of libraries around the world provided a guaranteed base level of sales, and there were other institutions that might have a specialist interest in particular reference works. Back then, you could also probably count on some individuals buying them as well - people with professional or obsessional reasons. Then with general knowledge encyclopedias, there was the association of owning a set with self-advancement and edification. </p><p>But it was the profusion of specialized reference works that grabbed my eye as I browsed the bargain-price tables in the library. It seemed to me that it must have been such a thriving market that publishers of these kinds of books were incentivized to come up with new subjects and concepts for reference works, to the point of inventing needs and desires that didn't necessarily exist until the idea was put out there. How else to explain some of the titles that I saw - like the <i>Dictionary of Literary Characters</i>. Or like these - </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ85at-2PAm5JlhjpMhPT5rEwaJQvsRGvEY7-9xec3gCPUzVOphTKgouwXamLyq80z5vD1K_unGdYEs-8lQ8s5FImVaTGuqDfEMkrO3C5HW1guOZQiyZ1UujemwreZN7DyokAl0FdIZ11R8sU0oLykNC3MkMgvJh3KYGVBvw18ADZGoCgZeQBzTXHoA/s3475/dictionary%20of%20homophones%20and%20homographs.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3475" data-original-width="2607" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ85at-2PAm5JlhjpMhPT5rEwaJQvsRGvEY7-9xec3gCPUzVOphTKgouwXamLyq80z5vD1K_unGdYEs-8lQ8s5FImVaTGuqDfEMkrO3C5HW1guOZQiyZ1UujemwreZN7DyokAl0FdIZ11R8sU0oLykNC3MkMgvJh3KYGVBvw18ADZGoCgZeQBzTXHoA/w300-h400/dictionary%20of%20homophones%20and%20homographs.jpg" width="300" /></a></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3i8gTkDVSP6H4tv65dClRqZLJRH_L0DRfY7PonRtSryCHrFGIHGZx_gAAnoR5pRfgp5EKVQ2OpE9mpgyGJWXdB6Q9ahezQGl2MC-PkRxV3QmIDW1-weKKP3FwerRbzFEeq9uKKKgraQYN8uXaWhRiMUuXo0KXG7OKhE19XEvEoc5TrcI8sA-cZP4_BA/s2554/dictionary%20of%20hymnology.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1868" data-original-width="2554" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3i8gTkDVSP6H4tv65dClRqZLJRH_L0DRfY7PonRtSryCHrFGIHGZx_gAAnoR5pRfgp5EKVQ2OpE9mpgyGJWXdB6Q9ahezQGl2MC-PkRxV3QmIDW1-weKKP3FwerRbzFEeq9uKKKgraQYN8uXaWhRiMUuXo0KXG7OKhE19XEvEoc5TrcI8sA-cZP4_BA/w400-h293/dictionary%20of%20hymnology.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsjO8qlWSH-JtA8aG5QjMRFhIjGnriB7nrg_1Y6NA0fAtZ6B1K90mOM9qHLZYZy2A5SwB3RB93JxUX5hKMkBrwN2PCcnQfCfFPA9iegtNkEKoFrEAG0N87X1KgvldjUzby_dg1Gdpiz0Fw94RHbcvdV-3NDT1u4QP8GBuWttwVgJTnzkZc0XZTa5xjw/s3070/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20cover.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3070" data-original-width="2387" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxsjO8qlWSH-JtA8aG5QjMRFhIjGnriB7nrg_1Y6NA0fAtZ6B1K90mOM9qHLZYZy2A5SwB3RB93JxUX5hKMkBrwN2PCcnQfCfFPA9iegtNkEKoFrEAG0N87X1KgvldjUzby_dg1Gdpiz0Fw94RHbcvdV-3NDT1u4QP8GBuWttwVgJTnzkZc0XZTa5xjw/w311-h400/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20cover.jpg" width="311" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWR2coP3AuSnRqiLlJAEhu7KkZtIzHQZG7xk9HDGfl6bhJDCuQ9tIs9RUkkW9E9fMrDi3UcV71EEN5ABYWEySe5jSNqhju3F8iZcJDcyAl39GwtZgMysoWTnceTiNgjH3SnfbeM8ysyJNTq3vFBct9QRXfofXD1NG8r1ro6lVr04t7JWxOySspstu7aQ/s3359/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20frontispage.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3359" data-original-width="2361" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWR2coP3AuSnRqiLlJAEhu7KkZtIzHQZG7xk9HDGfl6bhJDCuQ9tIs9RUkkW9E9fMrDi3UcV71EEN5ABYWEySe5jSNqhju3F8iZcJDcyAl39GwtZgMysoWTnceTiNgjH3SnfbeM8ysyJNTq3vFBct9QRXfofXD1NG8r1ro6lVr04t7JWxOySspstu7aQ/w281-h400/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20frontispage.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQkwwwWXGMNWH-UN2NkMciQ2uOoT6h9ddxvCHzKbhU99Mkvg0FBU-NAGNIcVIoSchTOJJdkqtIbYUv80l_nXytRyX7tGu9_MHnLTHNH6B3l-JwHjZrhQVOjgyvJ4QD6i9tD3Z34SmTz-y93LVnybd2ufEZBfcJAl1TGdZxIF38Lu05qwg4EXx4HFZZg/s2478/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20table%20of%20contents.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2478" data-original-width="2441" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQkwwwWXGMNWH-UN2NkMciQ2uOoT6h9ddxvCHzKbhU99Mkvg0FBU-NAGNIcVIoSchTOJJdkqtIbYUv80l_nXytRyX7tGu9_MHnLTHNH6B3l-JwHjZrhQVOjgyvJ4QD6i9tD3Z34SmTz-y93LVnybd2ufEZBfcJAl1TGdZxIF38Lu05qwg4EXx4HFZZg/w394-h400/Encyclopedia%20of%20Women's%20liberation%20table%20of%20contents.jpg" width="394" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkdUyo81iTzLZbs3VDalp5VX4OiH_O72gg7m8g8PUp8DLWMjkj7R_2JleJOmFccej9tdNyzMXq4PoeKj4-y5-RxeDbtO-VR3aObrI1XEgSGqR_aikzBDaKKwsJywp377iUm-zonuw8duUsdhg-p1L1DElpurd8HJHVwLH_-q8ROWgRCTYzG0xwOqAXw/s3373/Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Essay.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3373" data-original-width="2662" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkdUyo81iTzLZbs3VDalp5VX4OiH_O72gg7m8g8PUp8DLWMjkj7R_2JleJOmFccej9tdNyzMXq4PoeKj4-y5-RxeDbtO-VR3aObrI1XEgSGqR_aikzBDaKKwsJywp377iUm-zonuw8duUsdhg-p1L1DElpurd8HJHVwLH_-q8ROWgRCTYzG0xwOqAXw/w316-h400/Encyclopedia%20of%20the%20Essay.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsb4SbxHJPJIJIDfHqqE5EX2oYr8bV8nzREvt8ySdLZGKWSlKdVcr1-5Eef9OTB5mya9u_BFSxeWo3CFEr0NxKK5UGx6anemUlkINDU2dpFo5SnguXELC5qfWEJ8YEw_txy7r8TNiJhtzzhuZsUIsTDDuzH2m4tXhrUQ54zx_FN4A03L07onKTQCrAQ/s1332/pronouncing%20dictionary%20of%20proper%20names.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="1332" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsb4SbxHJPJIJIDfHqqE5EX2oYr8bV8nzREvt8ySdLZGKWSlKdVcr1-5Eef9OTB5mya9u_BFSxeWo3CFEr0NxKK5UGx6anemUlkINDU2dpFo5SnguXELC5qfWEJ8YEw_txy7r8TNiJhtzzhuZsUIsTDDuzH2m4tXhrUQ54zx_FN4A03L07onKTQCrAQ/w400-h221/pronouncing%20dictionary%20of%20proper%20names.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">There were various other kinds of reference works that weren't exactly encyclopedias or dictionaries. I was fascinated by these bound volumes of <i>New York Times</i> theater reviews from just one single year in the early 1970s - attracted by the illustrations printed directly onto the burlap-like cloth covers, instead of onto a dust jacket, but also intrigued by the idea that these compendia even existed. </span></div><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdkGmn9mIqzQYiIdfc-OrU2dZMB7Ke1rxzVuMgNvd5NZlwVhyphenhyphenjsJyDQHb729z_ZXB2ZwbKBxtB18x0DSmaAvTaqFhs_33Wb9xzg6AcnZ-sQkbDPZQHvQCgkyfCHOukXNUca84Gfiswe2iaE9-wK4RXQ4nTTVBtOpegHj_e5C_zzK5jwCQWfwuwelFaw/s3169/new%20york%20times%20theater%20reviews.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2171" data-original-width="3169" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwdkGmn9mIqzQYiIdfc-OrU2dZMB7Ke1rxzVuMgNvd5NZlwVhyphenhyphenjsJyDQHb729z_ZXB2ZwbKBxtB18x0DSmaAvTaqFhs_33Wb9xzg6AcnZ-sQkbDPZQHvQCgkyfCHOukXNUca84Gfiswe2iaE9-wK4RXQ4nTTVBtOpegHj_e5C_zzK5jwCQWfwuwelFaw/w400-h274/new%20york%20times%20theater%20reviews.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p>But thinking about it, for a drama school or a university theatre department, having these in book form would be much more preferable in terms of ease of use than having to scroll through back issues of the <i>New York Times</i> on micro-film. Each edition of the <i>Times</i> is vast and on micro-film there would be legibility issues. Ergonomically, and in terms of eye strain, micro-film readers are a nightmare. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzqOVQG6jukhkLNM_Y0DrH677LTIzkmOmgDe5-2LVOpYS9JSlV7gC7RjwbJ6ms1ElZ1ftFWzniNv2J5FaJPScYdqTtt2JjVGlbTQs8eCQbyIqFCEhbulxtKvWIAJjRADFNc60TGU7_wsZ-hRohmb4l1xuNaUKYnmbRCl6lwxhyphenhyphenvDz3UDF2XQz7f1H/s300/Microfilm-reader-300x215.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="300" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzqOVQG6jukhkLNM_Y0DrH677LTIzkmOmgDe5-2LVOpYS9JSlV7gC7RjwbJ6ms1ElZ1ftFWzniNv2J5FaJPScYdqTtt2JjVGlbTQs8eCQbyIqFCEhbulxtKvWIAJjRADFNc60TGU7_wsZ-hRohmb4l1xuNaUKYnmbRCl6lwxhyphenhyphenvDz3UDF2XQz7f1H/w400-h287/Microfilm-reader-300x215.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The stuff in this stacks-clearing sale was going dirt cheap and I was sorely tempted to rescue some of the orphaned tomes - but I was put off by the sheer weight of them (going to this place of work involves a lengthy commute by public transport) and also the knowledge that - after an initial flick-through - I would almost certainly pile them up in some corner and never look at them again, The house is already horribly cluttered - I must have around 400 unread books. </p><p>Still, there was something melancholy about these bereft books - I thought of all the effort, diligence, care that must have gone into their laborious construction. The sense of responsibility, based in the belief that what was being undertaken was of real value. And I'm sure they <i>were</i> valuable to users. Remember just how hard it was to find things out before the internet. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rLWVkMOOtIy7CDDX99skfdujQ-uo6MMqFRWd30IGbbLAhdVNQfk44pM8Yy-Ov_yENBKoEEpf-KAEhHne7bvmWQK5XFw04UwXGb_t-hiZalHFho_x_tJs4IsWL7kPflbhdS5JezV3j8oJ5gaUP0Zb8oeHXaYFO99FxNzZNRL2e7xtZc8IoW_s8_6t/s852/volumeinternatio0000unse_0001.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="582" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0rLWVkMOOtIy7CDDX99skfdujQ-uo6MMqFRWd30IGbbLAhdVNQfk44pM8Yy-Ov_yENBKoEEpf-KAEhHne7bvmWQK5XFw04UwXGb_t-hiZalHFho_x_tJs4IsWL7kPflbhdS5JezV3j8oJ5gaUP0Zb8oeHXaYFO99FxNzZNRL2e7xtZc8IoW_s8_6t/w438-h640/volumeinternatio0000unse_0001.jpg" width="438" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Of course, pathos suffuses the objects in any second-hand store - books, records, magazines, whatever. You think of the creative excitement behind each object - the labour not just of the authors but of everyone involved in making a project reach fruition and get out into the world: editors, designers, marketing etc. The anticipation of impact. DJ Shadow's comment comes to mind - about the record store basement as "<i>a big pile of broken dreams</i>".</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1gpKYnRdf0A" width="320" youtube-src-id="1gpKYnRdf0A"></iframe></div><br /><p>But with music, there is still the possibility of a life in the culture - radio play or streams or YouTube views... crate-diggers unearthing things and sampling, bringing it back into circulation if often anonymously. The analogue husk of the music is not necessarily the end of the story. Fiction and non-fiction can get reissued or rediscovered by new readers. But reference books - here, it's the very function that has been voided. The internet has usurped the role of the bound ink-and-paper repository of information. </p><p>Before the internet took over, back in the 1990s, one of my main ways of procrastinating - putting off the work that needed to be done - was to pull a reference book off the shelves and flick through it. usually something to do with music. Often it was the<i> Rolling Stone Albums Guide</i>, which had somehow come into my possession - it's not something I would have bought. I'd skim through it and my eye would come to rest on an entry for the Allman Bros, or Bloodrock. Or I'd reread and be freshly bemused by the <a href="https://shockandawesimonreynolds2.blogspot.com/2022/12/sparks-and-american-rock-critics-hate.html" target="_blank">loathing directed at </a>Sparks, or snort once again at the measly 3 out of 5 stars afforded My Bloody Valentine's <i>Isn't Anything</i>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oH8lW8MSJ8Ld2y6X93D6PeUKXKVgeJbacEBN8ehbXNljwkUmsC2GpIblgmbUFEWYeAm_mx2VksI-XfVAkDfrZjXKxnRMkKCvxpyu7gkk4v68SJdZKZLAxIVexDhqiZ0DFWSnwXQfCGCx8TZJ37yHx7b6zzFFo-HjOu_G2UxQZbcUYiIHy6sRl2VibA/s1000/91YKsxILhzL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="610" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oH8lW8MSJ8Ld2y6X93D6PeUKXKVgeJbacEBN8ehbXNljwkUmsC2GpIblgmbUFEWYeAm_mx2VksI-XfVAkDfrZjXKxnRMkKCvxpyu7gkk4v68SJdZKZLAxIVexDhqiZ0DFWSnwXQfCGCx8TZJ37yHx7b6zzFFo-HjOu_G2UxQZbcUYiIHy6sRl2VibA/w390-h640/91YKsxILhzL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="390" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Chuck Eddy's "guide" to <a href="https://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2018/04/six-songs-connected-to-rip-it-up-and.html" target="_blank">greatest heavy metal albums</a> was another thing that was good for dipping into. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvU8EtFsMbhvMx_rDLNuGBTadUZBYlWinLQrFKRTt8ulNguRWt2oj-ZESibfCwDP2Ru82NOtiOVlo3q_2mvp7PcMNZvcsIj-tJblSQ9NazqSVYAqlDBfkbR1_xv1qj077GIS1MG6jjOWIc5mv6l8RiXYc9efI15LI3BMav8FSaOuO_7uVd0XtkYbJ7kA/s500/9780517531754-us.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="368" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvU8EtFsMbhvMx_rDLNuGBTadUZBYlWinLQrFKRTt8ulNguRWt2oj-ZESibfCwDP2Ru82NOtiOVlo3q_2mvp7PcMNZvcsIj-tJblSQ9NazqSVYAqlDBfkbR1_xv1qj077GIS1MG6jjOWIc5mv6l8RiXYc9efI15LI3BMav8FSaOuO_7uVd0XtkYbJ7kA/w295-h400/9780517531754-us.jpg" width="295" /></a></p><p>Thinking back to much earlier in my life, certain reference works were revelatory. Take <i>The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction</i> - a thick, full-color book teeming with illustrations and reproduced covers of paperbacks and s.f. magazines, but also crammed with well-written, informative essays on various sub-genres and scenario typologies, and mini-thinkpieces by some of the great writers in the field (there's a terrific one by J.G. Ballard on the cataclysm novel). </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxDAcXkHSqEe9AkoImt4Ztuo3oPW7BeRK1VEuqk-6ZxLa6LirT8lWDe0s7oEWz9btDAFwsJde9aSL6SZC_T2N-4blUHM6NuBFRL5L7pZcTrwB_5d4xo8qrcJCd7Q9h0Aimx5pWUAGYTx-IhifZwQJuuvwpdGLnnuKSPgVX6yjeWopoD87dvsyRl4m-w/s3285/program.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2403" data-original-width="3285" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxDAcXkHSqEe9AkoImt4Ztuo3oPW7BeRK1VEuqk-6ZxLa6LirT8lWDe0s7oEWz9btDAFwsJde9aSL6SZC_T2N-4blUHM6NuBFRL5L7pZcTrwB_5d4xo8qrcJCd7Q9h0Aimx5pWUAGYTx-IhifZwQJuuvwpdGLnnuKSPgVX6yjeWopoD87dvsyRl4m-w/w400-h293/program.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPW1UZ01huapOAXx65axulk3RlblpoOgg5SnJ5Jcw8izGZiYATBgnXu92zvAKcerauCtpLuHxFDq8y0VlQwyuFl7LpABQmeO7yef4UIGTg_EwR0BBwpVET0ZhbcpBveFaHCqH5_rrBUHNNk7DQLF7HWpGLJTiTa33AyA8CNDIb-jAdTilqDbYHDkIRDA/s3726/cataclysms%20and%20dooms.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2658" data-original-width="3726" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPW1UZ01huapOAXx65axulk3RlblpoOgg5SnJ5Jcw8izGZiYATBgnXu92zvAKcerauCtpLuHxFDq8y0VlQwyuFl7LpABQmeO7yef4UIGTg_EwR0BBwpVET0ZhbcpBveFaHCqH5_rrBUHNNk7DQLF7HWpGLJTiTa33AyA8CNDIb-jAdTilqDbYHDkIRDA/w400-h285/cataclysms%20and%20dooms.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fNhN8ZEHlmGQNmtBPkoyBFfROgA2BxNe-tfxUoYjeUEQBkDc2OZd6v0l3-3sjaJmrf1RZ1-4ykndGrb30yaG3dsIgcBOPzuJwvvlqBoIZZuQmZqeAwkzw8XwY7wgBcrmcDbvJI4Gte5FaX17_AJChJdG2f-1n0mxBfI6-U5c-9TitOIXVYgxt_LRig/s2597/ballard%20essay.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2597" data-original-width="1220" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9fNhN8ZEHlmGQNmtBPkoyBFfROgA2BxNe-tfxUoYjeUEQBkDc2OZd6v0l3-3sjaJmrf1RZ1-4ykndGrb30yaG3dsIgcBOPzuJwvvlqBoIZZuQmZqeAwkzw8XwY7wgBcrmcDbvJI4Gte5FaX17_AJChJdG2f-1n0mxBfI6-U5c-9TitOIXVYgxt_LRig/w301-h640/ballard%20essay.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgws7ddiGqrkme004uBWx3EFbbIrXfZIM0jvLUbQcyNnUocdcsC9klLOWQx8Q4nfiEsVUjHH__EpwG10ZmQKSdwe0NRXzndTvg8bqsBYVUmWN1IRCWyeVLMhN3924q2jmW4XNj5HiCLL4yjDFzVVTHCe_x8H_nbhfLzdcUD_Malv5F1VxlYZ2fZvdMg/s3357/inner%20space.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2791" data-original-width="3357" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgws7ddiGqrkme004uBWx3EFbbIrXfZIM0jvLUbQcyNnUocdcsC9klLOWQx8Q4nfiEsVUjHH__EpwG10ZmQKSdwe0NRXzndTvg8bqsBYVUmWN1IRCWyeVLMhN3924q2jmW4XNj5HiCLL4yjDFzVVTHCe_x8H_nbhfLzdcUD_Malv5F1VxlYZ2fZvdMg/w400-h333/inner%20space.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvfczHXQx8dOZKKIbmrv1ybE4fLR878-7rdyqGXRmIDnTG63fqg2PhTnbCn6Pirh08VU_NO5DFgotLazH-u0Kj4Qek4cqQj1hyphenhyphenliwcQWYVabxD4b-VLkzYsyHP1JlbKUEmALYQlX7HtBkmSPp8CE2nKWvY-oNZNGTYLKW96fqO3vq5jr-yRG2SdwEkjA/s3490/mutants.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2652" data-original-width="3490" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvfczHXQx8dOZKKIbmrv1ybE4fLR878-7rdyqGXRmIDnTG63fqg2PhTnbCn6Pirh08VU_NO5DFgotLazH-u0Kj4Qek4cqQj1hyphenhyphenliwcQWYVabxD4b-VLkzYsyHP1JlbKUEmALYQlX7HtBkmSPp8CE2nKWvY-oNZNGTYLKW96fqO3vq5jr-yRG2SdwEkjA/w400-h304/mutants.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPJDVOjchew-CYjOs22nhegvcia2Yg5F5erxgQy6C_CbunofKzJEzlc0C3BsN1LTuWXPhlfQXmRyYffx6BlkJbiPS1PBBcOhv5ZP36gxeZ0aGehAV5ZCC4w31qOwIefUu9Q0Pkxi20H6MTXIzmeFw7a3aoqRwE9YIA9Xd5CCQfwG_RV-bJnnFeYuy-Q/s3239/science%20fiction%20magazines.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3239" data-original-width="2429" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAPJDVOjchew-CYjOs22nhegvcia2Yg5F5erxgQy6C_CbunofKzJEzlc0C3BsN1LTuWXPhlfQXmRyYffx6BlkJbiPS1PBBcOhv5ZP36gxeZ0aGehAV5ZCC4w31qOwIefUu9Q0Pkxi20H6MTXIzmeFw7a3aoqRwE9YIA9Xd5CCQfwG_RV-bJnnFeYuy-Q/w480-h640/science%20fiction%20magazines.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><i>The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction</i> was a present I asked for for my 14th birthday, or maybe it was Christmas 1977 - I'm not sure. Another present request was a pictorial dictionary - the one below. See, I fancied being able to recognise and name things like, say, all the different parts of a shoe, and to know all the different kinds of shoe as well... basically have at my command the names of appliances and tools and vehicles and garments and plants and creatures and ... every kind of object and substance in the world. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHcB9Eg91PJcuw9ixdE9Doe024ei8bvOXwUxmPJ98h0fYrQgJ-HxPLnlIVmnqucQ5yUpq8UGOKWfo7iJJQ3HjbapBKNypckI0GR2Oq4THUfsFjrqW57_J7Wj9cnyc_MQaKTeC6g4c9dmY1H1Sqgqs312_Mrwd8QfhN3p6S697jfDlIyY7klCh_2OJnQ/s3634/pictorial%20dictionary.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3634" data-original-width="2371" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHcB9Eg91PJcuw9ixdE9Doe024ei8bvOXwUxmPJ98h0fYrQgJ-HxPLnlIVmnqucQ5yUpq8UGOKWfo7iJJQ3HjbapBKNypckI0GR2Oq4THUfsFjrqW57_J7Wj9cnyc_MQaKTeC6g4c9dmY1H1Sqgqs312_Mrwd8QfhN3p6S697jfDlIyY7klCh_2OJnQ/w418-h640/pictorial%20dictionary.jpg" width="418" /></a></p><p>However although I never got rid of it - and recently was reunited with the book after years of it languishing in storage - I have never <i>once</i> found myself using <i>The Oxford-Duden Pictorial English Dictionary</i>. So I still couldn't identify the different bits of a shoe or name many types of footwear. I guess there's still time... </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKohWQGcEwQT59VZa-5EKE_KxnL7k4GE0UjnOhAA7xzw-2yWGXSHXQNsEw1PGlo9F42kGn4wLH1BHZCJ2Ko_6OyegbdvRb8SDayPFZbXZeqZEiPRc4QKUaQbhQbLV1tTxjlPcRBphcUqEJApgiX1jY70aL1DSP5eO-fYCiYJKkQKd-JBlsBommmjklhw/s3656/shoes.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3656" data-original-width="2191" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKohWQGcEwQT59VZa-5EKE_KxnL7k4GE0UjnOhAA7xzw-2yWGXSHXQNsEw1PGlo9F42kGn4wLH1BHZCJ2Ko_6OyegbdvRb8SDayPFZbXZeqZEiPRc4QKUaQbhQbLV1tTxjlPcRBphcUqEJApgiX1jY70aL1DSP5eO-fYCiYJKkQKd-JBlsBommmjklhw/w384-h640/shoes.jpg" width="384" /></a></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHBGqRnHJTpb28BKBrqEp6vlfACOP3E7ISoqrxeADC28A3-ordntwMjzIzT9Kw0tpYvKH7hOQ7-QCZ7AoOJe8swkRJnCsv6zGP-4oH4msjupoDcZKiH8Rt2FmSILNpE-jk9RREOJUBnuuUoPuJTuYrvZaCwuNPEQI8Q_0tBSVAR4oniMac1PcS6mi3g/s3618/childrens%20clothes.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3618" data-original-width="2128" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIHBGqRnHJTpb28BKBrqEp6vlfACOP3E7ISoqrxeADC28A3-ordntwMjzIzT9Kw0tpYvKH7hOQ7-QCZ7AoOJe8swkRJnCsv6zGP-4oH4msjupoDcZKiH8Rt2FmSILNpE-jk9RREOJUBnuuUoPuJTuYrvZaCwuNPEQI8Q_0tBSVAR4oniMac1PcS6mi3g/w376-h640/childrens%20clothes.jpg" width="376" /></a></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjHiFk69O3yfF6EMWKYBZ61WvItEXmfXJXS-YAlvAXeAKYaSUwQ20wPZphmRherW4PuPwQwjsKplqAurGYYEHUO2V13k8Ai2FXYCRBReFJw8HgTrV9uC8oBQv8MSpty73Cco5ELv2Buh0Vrbr-qKXcc99OC-ZWKKO0O8UGNs9MqSg7Y6d_2tPS3y1mA/s3697/underwear.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3697" data-original-width="2159" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjHiFk69O3yfF6EMWKYBZ61WvItEXmfXJXS-YAlvAXeAKYaSUwQ20wPZphmRherW4PuPwQwjsKplqAurGYYEHUO2V13k8Ai2FXYCRBReFJw8HgTrV9uC8oBQv8MSpty73Cco5ELv2Buh0Vrbr-qKXcc99OC-ZWKKO0O8UGNs9MqSg7Y6d_2tPS3y1mA/w374-h640/underwear.jpg" width="374" /></a></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rosuoVftWBkELO_lELMybbR6EdEr5wQY_aeVJFluKrFN52FUiX3uy8n4eUHhliGjo2YSedHuNhgZKdPELfDjgPYyaQxRPS4mo0QcsQ9JnEDhgWkQ1Tpkb1Uw7ePWZs6qhyphenhyphenQetlEbpJ0hYxhLwl1xKKUvhSNpSzItWr8YRNnVjvh1CvpRJkM2OPsUZg/s3672/drawing%20office.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="2176" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9rosuoVftWBkELO_lELMybbR6EdEr5wQY_aeVJFluKrFN52FUiX3uy8n4eUHhliGjo2YSedHuNhgZKdPELfDjgPYyaQxRPS4mo0QcsQ9JnEDhgWkQ1Tpkb1Uw7ePWZs6qhyphenhyphenQetlEbpJ0hYxhLwl1xKKUvhSNpSzItWr8YRNnVjvh1CvpRJkM2OPsUZg/w380-h640/drawing%20office.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="text-align: left;">Among my late father's effects were a number of reference books, including <i>Who's Who</i> and <i>Debrett's Peerage</i>. But they were all too yellowed and crumbly to welcome into a home. I particularly regretted that his copy of <i>Brewer's Phrase and Fable</i> was not in salvageable shape. But of course, if I ever did need to know the origins of an idiom like Hobson's Choice, or "sent to Coventry", there's always the internet.</span></div><p style="text-align: left;">Still, perhaps there remains some demand out there for these kinds of work in solid form, use that is still made of them. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Indeed recently I was hired to do some consultation on a music encyclopedia (it just occurred to me I have no idea if it is ever going to exist in paper-and-ink form or is just going to be available online, through subscription). I also contributed a few entries. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Back in the 1990s, I did some things for <i>Encyclopedia Britannica</i>. The entries can be found online, credited to Simon C.W. Reynolds - but they have been updated by unknown hands, so after a certain chronological point in each entry, the style - and the opinions - are no longer mine. (Of course, they were probably not meant to have discernible personal style or a non-objective perspective in the first place). I don't know if any of these entries ever made it into the book form of the <i>Britannica</i>. Obviously I quite fancied the idea of being in this gigantic set that door-to-door salesmen used to flog to families who saw knowledge as aspirational, a form of status. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Then there's the <i>Spin Alternative Record Guide</i>, where being opinionated was valued, although there was also an emphasis on encyclopedic comprehensiveness (every last release by an artist had to be at least listed at the top of the entry and graded - but ideally mentioned in the entry itself, even if only passingly). There was also an element of faux-objectivity maintained for the grades awarded each recording (we as contributors were instructed to be restrained with our 10 out of 10s... but the editor was noticeably generous with his own favorites). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5autKEPAdVC_sTvPpeTjF2m7VFlml8KPNpZ4TaaFBOJ_Pa30EDa3vMHmUHnyVnQpa8sFBezd2V9ZEtrtEkgyWNDRHiwfidmLt-QBOIOzg9eQe9NgolGLcICi40LXBAsiDZ8wjzOsdk1V2_Tq54LCX4bqaPiclDdDnYWp9gV3p3PS87BM7xH49mih/s2720/Spin_Alternative_Record_Guide_(1995).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2720" data-original-width="2464" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA5autKEPAdVC_sTvPpeTjF2m7VFlml8KPNpZ4TaaFBOJ_Pa30EDa3vMHmUHnyVnQpa8sFBezd2V9ZEtrtEkgyWNDRHiwfidmLt-QBOIOzg9eQe9NgolGLcICi40LXBAsiDZ8wjzOsdk1V2_Tq54LCX4bqaPiclDdDnYWp9gV3p3PS87BM7xH49mih/w363-h400/Spin_Alternative_Record_Guide_(1995).jpg" width="363" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">People of a certain age have testified what a lifeline the <i>Spin Alternative Record Guide</i> was in those days just before the Internet took off - especially if you lived somewhere remote. For there were no easily accessible sources of information or guidance when it came to left-field music. But beyond that the <i>Guide</i> was something to read for the pleasure of reading. The contributors were the best in the American business at that time - and they were expected to be stylish and individual rather than restrained and quasi-objective. </p><p style="text-align: left;">And there are other reference works that count as literature, guide books where the compiler's personality suffuses every sentence. Most famously: David Thomson's <i>A Biographical Dictionary of Film</i>. A flickable feast of perceptions and descriptions to savor, sat right alongside gluey globs of facts (every last film a director made, an actor starred in). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqI5YolAKu8IwyYIPM4ASiwS4rG6U0k917CtRxdFUbNchT5fiACo3e5gi5TTL_4LfAc5nP7OO7eq-454V-X5nZkyaJPBA_eM0pH2MQpmjtUhQjihsB24JjMqZtcPGBoKfCBAC8sH79bXQgDnDtxdReKk42KTmbe40kFSuf6pnfF9aQsn7hAD1oRrtK/s500/s-l1600.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="313" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqI5YolAKu8IwyYIPM4ASiwS4rG6U0k917CtRxdFUbNchT5fiACo3e5gi5TTL_4LfAc5nP7OO7eq-454V-X5nZkyaJPBA_eM0pH2MQpmjtUhQjihsB24JjMqZtcPGBoKfCBAC8sH79bXQgDnDtxdReKk42KTmbe40kFSuf6pnfF9aQsn7hAD1oRrtK/w400-h640/s-l1600.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">I also love <i>Have You Seen...?</i> - DT's twist on the 1000 You Must See/ Hear / Read Before You Die format. I'm always blown away by the way DT deftly threads together background stuff about the making of pictures (money, the process of a script coming into being, disagreements over casting, conflict on the set) with aesthetic responses, zooms into details of scenes or performances, where a movie sits in the arc of a director's work, meta-thoughts about the nature of cinema. Here, reference and reverence, usefulness and ecstasy, coexist. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXSpzC54VBJoRBz7Kg-8Y0EIkzVpJ6REhfkrB1ivAeAV3OzGLknp2t-RqWOBugrTRbySgEzSqdbwuEHIBxst9yQmcbkWZYbgXUMdZh08538TC80wN1Xb2OUvMvMQT7PPwyxTa27BXboqCUc_cpLoA52t-yVV8yYAvWiCH0e4PNqdE_OI-KJ54eEZ-/s435/3359703.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="318" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtXSpzC54VBJoRBz7Kg-8Y0EIkzVpJ6REhfkrB1ivAeAV3OzGLknp2t-RqWOBugrTRbySgEzSqdbwuEHIBxst9yQmcbkWZYbgXUMdZh08538TC80wN1Xb2OUvMvMQT7PPwyxTa27BXboqCUc_cpLoA52t-yVV8yYAvWiCH0e4PNqdE_OI-KJ54eEZ-/w293-h400/3359703.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">As long as I live I won't forget this line from his <i>Blow Up </i>entry.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">"<i>As long as I live I won't forget the breeze in the trees in that park</i>"</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7wSvXuSE8Gg" width="320" youtube-src-id="7wSvXuSE8Gg"></iframe></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Winging its way through the post, a little Christmas present to self.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmEWRtzrghp9fhTaT_bR55NCC_mOzAfqHrR10mMNflypfj2WrSY99t0Z5O2N3d1F85LYSNeMDxCWPmb8wInRA2dEHrBPzpOAlhu5fBpdS9FeCcCy-ys8KL-XXcqINcjEb6KAO9FOXCqcDTTH7gRk4mbOftALc37zSuqp3BT6-eYCALaqxkOhQLwaPx/s500/9780130777768-us.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="354" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmEWRtzrghp9fhTaT_bR55NCC_mOzAfqHrR10mMNflypfj2WrSY99t0Z5O2N3d1F85LYSNeMDxCWPmb8wInRA2dEHrBPzpOAlhu5fBpdS9FeCcCy-ys8KL-XXcqINcjEb6KAO9FOXCqcDTTH7gRk4mbOftALc37zSuqp3BT6-eYCALaqxkOhQLwaPx/w454-h640/9780130777768-us.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>postscript</b></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Just remembered I recently got sent this attractive-looking and impressively detailed listening guide to genres of British popular music in the second half of the 20th Century - </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b>Home-grown Sounds, Far-out Visions</b></i>, conceived and written by <b>Richard Costa </b>with design by <b>Leo Cooper</b>. If you are stumped for a stocking filler (in the case of this large format book, stocking distender) for a music nerd, this is an <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-grown-Sounds-Far-out-Visions-British/dp/1399968351" target="_blank">ideal candidate</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeEjhdKCr8G-ac3No9IJB9zjhI0UXYWfztdfakJDVPD0BCCBDp9SZQNJD5_VzLF_UoqcOhtFp-FL4wLUPjPt7mEepYmi9uA9Va6tNA-huToMUXxITGeoJQ3Tr2MzcwssH35J8WfH0-miyt9mFCksV9tx5_VRdcYZFbs_GGfs3WcLmXICju65wxZZO/s800/1698708140714.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeEjhdKCr8G-ac3No9IJB9zjhI0UXYWfztdfakJDVPD0BCCBDp9SZQNJD5_VzLF_UoqcOhtFp-FL4wLUPjPt7mEepYmi9uA9Va6tNA-huToMUXxITGeoJQ3Tr2MzcwssH35J8WfH0-miyt9mFCksV9tx5_VRdcYZFbs_GGfs3WcLmXICju65wxZZO/w400-h400/1698708140714.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vVxd5MMfOqs2RjzWLmydSd6i7WNhm5K01MEIBsxZiNOCdZUGtAEbBGPFcdVLUCSrZ1emI2_Q5_vfXyhRSwRbGd5UnvZ-p1tKpOySBRlgWNL8InnhtMdCsNhJO10IEe7Ql0sCVy-dqyH-Jhtgod2aFkfB6dzg8YcSmGWTrTvJsaEiD3R58ZFm4WVV/s1000/61+Tz9K-sVL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="1000" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9vVxd5MMfOqs2RjzWLmydSd6i7WNhm5K01MEIBsxZiNOCdZUGtAEbBGPFcdVLUCSrZ1emI2_Q5_vfXyhRSwRbGd5UnvZ-p1tKpOySBRlgWNL8InnhtMdCsNhJO10IEe7Ql0sCVy-dqyH-Jhtgod2aFkfB6dzg8YcSmGWTrTvJsaEiD3R58ZFm4WVV/w400-h399/61+Tz9K-sVL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3oR4P9oGF7eB_Egmrr30jLUDJOlRS4f4qavSSpA-fhE5jVfRLca68-fp8CaIRAdC2LAxgy0sEvrxa6BcsCCci9s-ERGfcDHIieVjfgsxTQFfSe1YOhUfhQnSYLLFKYgmAgHbSmsHnsSuNR7meCmcnfUzx4ntVxyamrbUyzvYUEMez6hCDAwVG3Y7/s1430/71Oo1XpFCSL._SL1430_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="1430" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT3oR4P9oGF7eB_Egmrr30jLUDJOlRS4f4qavSSpA-fhE5jVfRLca68-fp8CaIRAdC2LAxgy0sEvrxa6BcsCCci9s-ERGfcDHIieVjfgsxTQFfSe1YOhUfhQnSYLLFKYgmAgHbSmsHnsSuNR7meCmcnfUzx4ntVxyamrbUyzvYUEMez6hCDAwVG3Y7/w400-h400/71Oo1XpFCSL._SL1430_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQT_c6ueR4APEQTv_PChN064thc7-Bao007xTaTStJ1YGlQHs4G4YBHmCYt4FRVGlbq_XxqQZqOaV49VFYw8ps2yclLdL0zJDkdf9eZV_ycDOCYcCj5eGFELY297D4qxUo-_Ma98s6oLqoSWwg8gauLnT_hXT99gGoJh2miFSr0pFAfPy0Lcp37VK1/s1428/71D5can7AaL._SL1428_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="1428" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQT_c6ueR4APEQTv_PChN064thc7-Bao007xTaTStJ1YGlQHs4G4YBHmCYt4FRVGlbq_XxqQZqOaV49VFYw8ps2yclLdL0zJDkdf9eZV_ycDOCYcCj5eGFELY297D4qxUo-_Ma98s6oLqoSWwg8gauLnT_hXT99gGoJh2miFSr0pFAfPy0Lcp37VK1/w400-h400/71D5can7AaL._SL1428_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-41768094345808353852023-12-18T18:27:00.000-08:002023-12-19T14:56:07.033-08:00inventing "inventing the future" ?<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNdwRJoHVGFcn2SSFlTe9ZKdqVmT6OqS0WeADW97bNEmR5zPJtv-GoCOxG8Y4yLd_YxA7nGOwpg86_lwk0Hqzv6d4ErhPnrxoHn-q9L6oqGmo9lZ7y9aecDRjC8NVJeGgPBr4WqE8tzlmGo2LYELrA4oe7zJIwePzGIxYRILVkDcirzxdofiRIAcI/s3542/SR%20Krautrock%20column%20Feb%2025%201995.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3542" data-original-width="789" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNdwRJoHVGFcn2SSFlTe9ZKdqVmT6OqS0WeADW97bNEmR5zPJtv-GoCOxG8Y4yLd_YxA7nGOwpg86_lwk0Hqzv6d4ErhPnrxoHn-q9L6oqGmo9lZ7y9aecDRjC8NVJeGgPBr4WqE8tzlmGo2LYELrA4oe7zJIwePzGIxYRILVkDcirzxdofiRIAcI/w142-h640/SR%20Krautrock%20column%20Feb%2025%201995.jpg" width="142" /></a></p><p> </p><p>There's this trope that music critics sometimes use, where they talk about a particular artist, or a particular record, "inventing the future" - or "inventing our future". There's a variant of it where the critic asserts that this particular artist or record invents a much later artist (or record).</p><p>I associate this trope with a particular blogger prone to this construction, this kind of assertion - and who particularly loved doing it in situations of maximum incongruity and over-reach (such-and-such a Bucks Fizz B-side "invents" Autechre - that kind of thing). </p><p>Here's an example of me using the trope in a 1995 column on Krautrock.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNdwRJoHVGFcn2SSFlTe9ZKdqVmT6OqS0WeADW97bNEmR5zPJtv-GoCOxG8Y4yLd_YxA7nGOwpg86_lwk0Hqzv6d4ErhPnrxoHn-q9L6oqGmo9lZ7y9aecDRjC8NVJeGgPBr4WqE8tzlmGo2LYELrA4oe7zJIwePzGIxYRILVkDcirzxdofiRIAcI/s3542/SR%20Krautrock%20column%20Feb%2025%201995.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6uQNi-WPdeAsCwZ9APVxXm67OKg3-Kzzjm_3vK2hKm0dRubUlX4qjDHd5pBm-L1oavMdWaxGRt_HjFsSNYI7olkCo98iteUi2MAARymHrvZY1JP8iIyMebjmlsnw5gOS4AYOqEhd_MeylwetcqOt5TRqmAk-cEaWgZgk3viyeJTYw4FQY1unsgD-s/s713/inventing%20future.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="713" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6uQNi-WPdeAsCwZ9APVxXm67OKg3-Kzzjm_3vK2hKm0dRubUlX4qjDHd5pBm-L1oavMdWaxGRt_HjFsSNYI7olkCo98iteUi2MAARymHrvZY1JP8iIyMebjmlsnw5gOS4AYOqEhd_MeylwetcqOt5TRqmAk-cEaWgZgk3viyeJTYw4FQY1unsgD-s/w400-h158/inventing%20future.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I don't imagine I was the first to use "invents" in this way in the world of music criticism. That said, I haven't come across earlier examples.</p><p>I'm wondering if I picked it up from reading Harold Bloom. It's a construction he uses often as part of his whole <i>Anxiety of Influence</i><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/102635/the-family-romance" target="_blank"> view of </a> literature as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_romance" target="_blank">family romance</a>: a net of filial links that bind poet to ancestor-poet, and from which the later poet struggles to break loose (adding parricide to the filial filigree) . So he often write about how a certain precursor poet "invents" a later poet.</p><p>But Bloom also loved to say, repeatedly, that Shakespeare <i>invents us</i> - meaning Western consciousness, modernity, our conception of the psyche and human motivation etc. (More pointedly still, he asserts that Shakespeare "invents" Freud - massively preempts him - talk about family romance).</p><p>"Inventing the future" also has a life, as you'd imagine, in the world of writing about science and technology, futurology.</p><p>Here's an example I found from 1992 - "<a href="https://www.danielpipes.org/217/japan-invents-the-future" target="_blank">Japan Invents the Future</a>".</p><p>Back to my Krautrock column - another notable thing about it is the piss that the Melody Maker reviews editor is taking out of me for my relentless vanguardism. </p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU4BXs3KFYTWjZ1lyEe75DBQeGRWdFq4xYp-pELTTUT3KgiD7XCoWQII6Tb4CzdCLMevUVUqkPq_NxHtcfrQxN8oBSleMIK3w7rY0ENJlvbOvTnWotZd0q_KFW_QVfmp9iVAJnbKt9T-TvIbWi022JzlPQgzslXqDc0Ld8Eorg5Dl4i4igTHSidzhj/s713/inventing%20future.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Xb6HqTRW6HHi3xRpO34mQS32LNXBPVL7n-krT05uFkOgmXpxdpmdw2bXoj_Os0vEIo-q33O1_B2VSftD6hcLOk01WFGnQGRgxbuOAeCjy0oIONpafIdPbVrKDz44jaFCBQcwF0yIlPoBxzFkattL3pLHpPLp4GqEj7PdtvsBHij84x8kB1mSxF5l/s1127/pisstaking%20me.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1127" data-original-width="724" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Xb6HqTRW6HHi3xRpO34mQS32LNXBPVL7n-krT05uFkOgmXpxdpmdw2bXoj_Os0vEIo-q33O1_B2VSftD6hcLOk01WFGnQGRgxbuOAeCjy0oIONpafIdPbVrKDz44jaFCBQcwF0yIlPoBxzFkattL3pLHpPLp4GqEj7PdtvsBHij84x8kB1mSxF5l/w412-h640/pisstaking%20me.jpg" width="412" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNdwRJoHVGFcn2SSFlTe9ZKdqVmT6OqS0WeADW97bNEmR5zPJtv-GoCOxG8Y4yLd_YxA7nGOwpg86_lwk0Hqzv6d4ErhPnrxoHn-q9L6oqGmo9lZ7y9aecDRjC8NVJeGgPBr4WqE8tzlmGo2LYELrA4oe7zJIwePzGIxYRILVkDcirzxdofiRIAcI/s3542/SR%20Krautrock%20column%20Feb%2025%201995.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3542" data-original-width="789" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNdwRJoHVGFcn2SSFlTe9ZKdqVmT6OqS0WeADW97bNEmR5zPJtv-GoCOxG8Y4yLd_YxA7nGOwpg86_lwk0Hqzv6d4ErhPnrxoHn-q9L6oqGmo9lZ7y9aecDRjC8NVJeGgPBr4WqE8tzlmGo2LYELrA4oe7zJIwePzGIxYRILVkDcirzxdofiRIAcI/s16000/SR%20Krautrock%20column%20Feb%2025%201995.jpg" /></a></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-32805974529252355142023-12-13T19:23:00.000-08:002023-12-15T14:21:24.916-08:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Yuletide Edition : Moon Wiring Club; The Focus Group; Jabu; Do You Have Peace? compilation; Gespensterland compilation; Prends Le Temps D'Ecouter musique d'expression libre des enfants<p> Christmas is coming and that can only mean one thing - <a href="https://www.moonwiringclub.com/happening" target="_blank">new stocking stuffers</a> from <b>Moon Wiring Club</b>!</p><p>These comprise excellent new album <i><b>Sepia Cat City</b></i>, a new issue of <i>Catmask</i>, a calendar, a T-shirt, an array of badges, and a selection of seasonal greeting cards.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1u6ke6TKKaadEyF2jpdVwQ8kaWIPR9XVWU_f94DjO5qkQHiJDxD_AJjIFqyKGnDlcxRKzbMMUJtFas1DLz65u5RaIq_DZxEtBtXqE5DIFRCv4Ng6q60kJYiIz7_PuQx-IrrdCKiMxR4tDaaY9R7Lh9Fx8vWFh7eqIJ7XxoQ4OMUn-tJouf0/s945/SCCALL+200+P02.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="945" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil1u6ke6TKKaadEyF2jpdVwQ8kaWIPR9XVWU_f94DjO5qkQHiJDxD_AJjIFqyKGnDlcxRKzbMMUJtFas1DLz65u5RaIq_DZxEtBtXqE5DIFRCv4Ng6q60kJYiIz7_PuQx-IrrdCKiMxR4tDaaY9R7Lh9Fx8vWFh7eqIJ7XxoQ4OMUn-tJouf0/w640-h640/SCCALL+200+P02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>Sepia Cat City</i> is the final instalment of MWC's Cat Location trilogy (see T<i>he Most Unusual Cat in the Village </i>+ <i>The Only Cat Left in Town</i>). It's one of Ian Hodgson's excursions into the entropic, possibly my favorite of his modes (although I do love the classic reverb-bassline, dankly dancey mode too). If anything, this is more delirious-sounding than some of his boggy seepage of recent years. Minded me of nothing else at all really, except just maybe some of the more disintegrated moments on 23 Skidoo's <i>Seven Songs. </i>Particularly enjoyed the skidding scumbles of the aptly named "Scatterbrain 9" and the whiplash churns of "Boarded Up House Musicke".</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K-pLSWDe32M" width="320" youtube-src-id="K-pLSWDe32M"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Ian Hodgson</b> holds forth about inspirations and orientations: </p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"For quite a few years I’d vaguely wanted to do something with Punk aesthetics.... A lot of the Punk visuals I recalled were (despite the fluorescent hair) monochromatic, undoubtably this was absorbed via exposure to the photocopied zine scene. So from an early age Punk seemed a bit ancient and gelled in my mind with similarly monochromatic Victorian sepia daguerreotypes... As long as I can remember I’ve had Sepia Punk as an unfocused aesthetic floating around my noggin. In <a href="https://shout-tv.com/sapphire-and-steel/sapphire-and-steel-s4-e1-the-man-without-a-face-part-1/54b958cb69702d070cd70100" target="_blank">my favourite series</a> of <i>Sapphire & Steel </i>(Assignment 4), the opening episode, which is set circa 1980, has a group of children playing in the back yard of a shared house ~ they’ve all been taken out of a Victorian photograph and have sepia toned skin & clothes. There’s something about the studio setting + ‘off’ videotape telly colour of it all that makes it really appealing. From this I’ve always liked the specific idea of a Sepia Ghost Gang... </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u2fx8wNSfM8" width="320" youtube-src-id="u2fx8wNSfM8"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMgQcSJdO9kUQrD2_GMGqwHmaajnKwSbLfztuhkx9S5Z9_5W001-uu1B7QRGKsxhZaGWcnbyGd_rw2IU3r7UngbvhnM-8RI9pkDSSdI07CXC1_f4t03oVXwZYMjFbZ_2IhJk7Km94D3f6FBfdl0QqOs9Mz6vmmNyctoxUu5H3xcDAoUDKlZw/s768/MV5BZTJkZWUyMGYtMGNjOS00NTAxLTk3OWMtZTAzNDc3Mjg5NjI2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDcwODI0Ng@@._V1_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMgQcSJdO9kUQrD2_GMGqwHmaajnKwSbLfztuhkx9S5Z9_5W001-uu1B7QRGKsxhZaGWcnbyGd_rw2IU3r7UngbvhnM-8RI9pkDSSdI07CXC1_f4t03oVXwZYMjFbZ_2IhJk7Km94D3f6FBfdl0QqOs9Mz6vmmNyctoxUu5H3xcDAoUDKlZw/w400-h300/MV5BZTJkZWUyMGYtMGNjOS00NTAxLTk3OWMtZTAzNDc3Mjg5NjI2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDcwODI0Ng@@._V1_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p><b style="font-family: helvetica;">"Over the past couple of years, I’ve also been watching quite a lot of grimy New York films. There’s something about the 'decaying city as movie backdrop' that I find really appealing, and it really fits with the current state of the UK ~ collapsing deregulated infrastructure. I’d say the less-obvious ones that stuck in my mind were <i>Smithereens</i>, <i>Cruising</i>, <i>Wolfen</i> (bit daft + so good) and <i>Desperately Seeking Susan</i>.... In pretty much every film there’s some kind of gang activity going on, and most of them are wearing leather jackets. I also really like the mixture of musical styles... often a default excellent funky post-Shaft score would be underpinning everything.</b><b style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;"> </b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/foPtweycZE4" width="320" youtube-src-id="foPtweycZE4"></iframe></div><b style="font-family: helvetica;"><p style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></p>"This fed into my long-term Punk rumination ~ how can you make a Punk album if you don’t really like punk rock music? If you set out to make an ‘authentic’ Punk record it would be totally boring even if you succeeded... The solution I came to was that you could make a Punk album inspired by what may have influenced the musicians of the time, rather than the specific music that was actually made. </b><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"I also read Cathi Unsworth’s excellent <i>Season of the Witch</i> Goth book... one snippet that really stuck in my mind was that Magazine wanted John Barry to produce their second album.... It really got me thinking ~ 'what if you took a load of the more arty Punk inspirations (John Barry, Avengers, Vivienne Westwood, <i>2000AD </i>comic, Herzog, even something contemporaneous like Cindy Sherman) and made something with an attempt to emulate that mindset?'. </b></span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KvuzskNEHicXh9xMLz1GQ8BLTk6gZ7ID3hJPO6xaZ-LASM46TfeK8un98_C-eWzkbNQjFkdQ-pLqItO_k2-TioXFrQOLohOuUzBPtE2NfOSYRmQz-Gwcf0b7B3FWhx-e8rTj_6R9iLNswPlK1KeGFjyN4zPAkZvl_NmbKJTNWvvXbQf3Wn0/s945/IMG_7602.jpeg.c115eb00c0bbf1153a5d711a474cfbd4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="945" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KvuzskNEHicXh9xMLz1GQ8BLTk6gZ7ID3hJPO6xaZ-LASM46TfeK8un98_C-eWzkbNQjFkdQ-pLqItO_k2-TioXFrQOLohOuUzBPtE2NfOSYRmQz-Gwcf0b7B3FWhx-e8rTj_6R9iLNswPlK1KeGFjyN4zPAkZvl_NmbKJTNWvvXbQf3Wn0/w640-h640/IMG_7602.jpeg.c115eb00c0bbf1153a5d711a474cfbd4.jpeg" width="640" /></a></p><p><b style="font-family: helvetica;">"... I started gluing everything together with Sepia Punk in mind. I’m strongly in favour of recycling audio, so along with a large variety of newly conjured bits n bobs, I went through the MWC archive ov tat and pulled out stuff that I thought might fit with the style. What I found was that certain fragments that had already been used on specific MWC releases could be nicely repurposed ~ especially once combined / glued together / looped into oblivion with a freshly composed segment. So it was as if the defining characteristics (or the potential) of the overriding Sepia Punk idea had latently existed within the original material... </b></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"The Cat Location LP format - 4x10min tracks - suited this composition mix, and from a narrative perspective the idea that you move from a cozy but unsettling village, to a deserted echoing town to eventually ending up joining a stylish ghost gang in a corroded city was exactly right. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"The artwork allowed the fashionable Punk / alternative characters to manifest naturally, but one thing I always wanted was not to have a uniform style of city architecture ~ most cities are a mishmash of styles so it was important to include that crumbling Victorian warehouse vibe rather than just ‘can’t-we-have-something-else-please default Hauntology setting’ 70s concrete. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"The first track "Ghosts of the Underground Market" - I’ve always been fascinated by Underground Markets, specifically <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/gallery/inside-manchesters-forgotten-underground-market-25343014 " target="_blank">this one </a>which used to have a few alternative / weird shops before the '92 IRA bomb allowed mass homogenisation / insidious gentrification to creep in. If you walk over the concreted street site now, I reckon on a rainy Sunday morning you can still hear the dusty ghosts of the market shops, sedimented inside rusty escalators and echoing with the patchouli oil-scented sounds of grotty ’78 records + bootleg post-punk cassette tapes." </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"The third track 'Boarded Up House Musike' is a combination of two interests ~ in those 70s NYC films there would often be a grot disco scene and I wanted a representation of a dodgy svengali / hippy cult leader style figure that always features in squat / commune dwelling telly." </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><b>"After I’d sent the LP off for manufacture, I deliberately didn’t listen to it for about 4 months... The main thing that it reminded me of was <i>20 Jazz Funk Greats</i> ~ which sort of makes sense going by the inspirations. I’m happy with that because it would have been completely impossible for me to make a record that sounded (a bit) like Throbbing Gristle intentionally."</b></span></p><p>Ah, so I wasn't a million miles off course with my 23 Skidoo thought.</p><p>As for <i>Catmask</i> No. 2 - this ultra-vividly designed publication lurks somewhere undecidable between a pop annual, a hard-spined comic book in the Tintin tradition, and <i>Radio Times</i> (albeit with dramatically upscaled paper stock and color reproduction). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj__KkOF22AeVZXhCBPtQlhzn-YNqxWj4hL8zgCnNX01-xvpQip207Sx3lwuXzQcAwYMoWa8ZI3wllo8oLXiYBAhGpHCoDN0tDHObnDw27Hc6JiIW_nhyYVoCex-NHZ74d2VPZYtH_dCJza8SpB4RhD-Rw81PbvE7Mv7Gfta2_oNz5W06ZflAA/s945/SCCCM2+200+P08.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="945" data-original-width="945" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj__KkOF22AeVZXhCBPtQlhzn-YNqxWj4hL8zgCnNX01-xvpQip207Sx3lwuXzQcAwYMoWa8ZI3wllo8oLXiYBAhGpHCoDN0tDHObnDw27Hc6JiIW_nhyYVoCex-NHZ74d2VPZYtH_dCJza8SpB4RhD-Rw81PbvE7Mv7Gfta2_oNz5W06ZflAA/w640-h640/SCCCM2+200+P08.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Must say I do really like the new 'punkified' twist on the Moon Wiring Girl, as seen on the postcard below. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVD2BNvGT98ukFuQgI3Z_UFaljp-2LHFsILDOjVnWNj7X3s7Hnx11fklRcfaMxMZHziFkaOEZKz3r0A2vSf1qiGBgzLxhLmo3yVyWaCtAe8_NsjEp0pGx0qRGAOCZbQW6Gh3Cmj_HvjvA8RaKtbQ6YT6FQQ2BEGOrQuVzLAAcFHGHInbTjZNI/s1170/haywire.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="840" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVD2BNvGT98ukFuQgI3Z_UFaljp-2LHFsILDOjVnWNj7X3s7Hnx11fklRcfaMxMZHziFkaOEZKz3r0A2vSf1qiGBgzLxhLmo3yVyWaCtAe8_NsjEp0pGx0qRGAOCZbQW6Gh3Cmj_HvjvA8RaKtbQ6YT6FQQ2BEGOrQuVzLAAcFHGHInbTjZNI/w460-h640/haywire.jpg" width="460" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>With the vinyl LP, there is a fold out poster that features a bunch of alterna-girls and sepia punkettes - it reminded me just a teensy bit of the Gee Vaucher fold-out for Crass ("Bloody Revolutions" I think) with Margaret Thatcher all anarchopunxified. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Apart from that... it's pretty quiet in the parish. </p><p>But hey let loose your credit card, as there's a notable reissue - <b>The Focus Group</b>'s classic mini-LP <i>Hey Let Loose Your Love</i>, originally released in 2005, <a href="https://www.ghostbox.co.uk/news/hey-let-loose-your-love" target="_blank">is out again</a> on 10-inch vinyl, compact disc, and the various digital formats and avenues. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KOIVjP6pJj0" width="320" youtube-src-id="KOIVjP6pJj0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Part of that originating starburst of hauntology landmarks - alongside <i>Dead Air</i>, <i>The Willows</i>, <i>An Audience of Art Deco Eyes</i>, <i>Other Channels, The Death of Rave</i>- <i>Hey Let Loose</i> is one of my Top 5 albums of the 2000s. Something I've never stopped playing, in fact. </p><p><br /></p><p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>But yes here in the parish, there's a hibernating feeling</p><p>In a<i> neighbouring </i>village, though, stirrings of note - a Bristol-aligned, if not always Bristol-located sound that is sparse but sensual... bewitching twists on time-and-place rooted traits.... soulful, sombre, spacey, desolated, dubbily reduced and not-all-there. </p><p>Via the label <b>Do You Have Peace?</b>, <a href="https://doyouhavepeace.bandcamp.com/album/boiling-wells-demos-19-22" target="_blank">an album</a> by <b>Jabu</b>, <i>Boiling Wells</i>, and <a href="https://doyouhavepeace.bandcamp.com/album/always-forever" target="_blank">a compilation</a>, <i>Always + Forever.</i></p><p>There's also a vinyl version of the Jabu album <a href="https://sixofswordslabel.bandcamp.com/album/boiling-wells-demos-19-22" target="_blank">available via</a> <b>Six of Swords</b>, the Bristol label started by <b>Dave Howell </b><a href="https://banbantonton.com/2021/07/28/interview-dave-howell-on-fatcats-split-series/" target="_blank">of FatCat </a>and before that <i><a href="https://www.discogs.com/label/15864-Obsessive-Eye" target="_blank">Obsessive Eye</a></i> <a href="https://datacide-magazine.com/obsessive-eye/" target="_blank">renown</a><i>.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WX8kVUOiuG0" width="320" youtube-src-id="WX8kVUOiuG0"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SD3gHlgL6cI" width="320" youtube-src-id="SD3gHlgL6cI"></iframe></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p><p>Release rationale - <a href="https://doyouhavepeace.bandcamp.com/album/always-forever" target="_blank">Various Artists, <i>Always + Forever </i></a></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>‘Always + Forever’ is the first compilation to be released on Do You Have Peace?, the Bristol-based label run by Jabu. Collecting thirteen unreleased tracks from artists both new and familiar to the label, the album weaves an unorthodox collaborative web.... Originally conceived as a project to link together the dream-pop oriented leanings of a disparate group of artists, as the project grew it became more amorphous and developed its own narrative, held by a strange, half-awake quality throughout. The pop leanings are still there, although often buried under clouds of reverb, and they take their place among less heavy-lidded bedroom confessionals, DIY chamber pieces, and teary-eyed instrumental passages. The majority of the vocal-led tracks occur on the first half of the album, leaving the second section to drift into more sedative, hypnagogic terrain. Where further voices do reappear, they feel more like half-remembered fragments of dream-speech. As the words eventually leave us completely, the album closes out through three chamber pieces, transposing classical instrumentation from the lofty heights of concert halls to more intimate and familiar settings: a box room in a flat, a bedroom, a memory of lying awake staring at the ceiling and trying to go to sleep again. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>An essential addition to Do You Have Peace?'s catalogue, the record serves as another example of the label’s continual reframing / recontextualising of their music and influences. Like Jabu’s gradual shift from their post-dubstep / hip-hop roots to a more ethereal dream-pop sound, or the continual shift and sprawl of their NTS show with Andy Payback (one of the very best shows on the platform), it foregrounds an impeccable taste and a masterful grasp of context and connectivity. Wonderfully zoned-out and immersive, it’s a meticulously programmed, fully cohesive compilation that leads the listener on a journey ever deeper into the night. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>Featuring Equiknoxx's Time Cow, HTRK's Jonnine, and Jabu's Guest (appearing both solo and in collaborative mode with Birthmark), there are solo outings from Tarquin Manek (aka Silzedrek / Static Cleaner Lost Reward) and his sometime collaborator YL Hooi. Young Echo's Vessel contributes both solo and in tandem with Rakhi Singh (Manchester Collective), Zaumne appears with relative newcomer Hermeneia. Teresa Winter's 'Juniper' offers a sweet bridge to the tracks it's bookended by, and a counterpoint to the two consecutive offerings from the mysterious Laughter of Saints. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>'Always & Forever' is set for release on December 8th on digital formats and a limited vinyl edition of 300 copies. Featuring cover artwork from Skkinz, the record is pressed on black vinyl with full download coupon. </b></span></p><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5LilajpSDiE" width="320" youtube-src-id="5LilajpSDiE"></iframe></p><p>Release rationale - <a href="https://doyouhavepeace.bandcamp.com/album/boiling-wells-demos-19-22" target="_blank">Jabu, <i>Boiling Wells </i></a></p><div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">Demos/sketches/interludes from the hinterland between records. Drum machines and single take vocal sketches tied together with downtime synth experiments and recordings of local disappearing areas.’ </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">True as it is, Jabu’s strapline is a somewhat understated take on what also proved to be a transformative experience for them. The follow-up record to their 2020 sophomore LP ‘Sweet Company’ (and the ensuing ‘Versions’), ‘Boiling Wells’ sees tracks stitched together in one long, seamless flow and weaves a smudged, group-mind spell. Originally released earlier this year without fanfare as a ltd. cassette and digital release, it now receives the proper release attention it deserves, issued in a neatly packaged vinyl edition of 300 copies. Dreamlike, woozy, raw and in dub, the album documents a blossoming process, and encapsulates a fragment in time - holed up in the country, soaking up the atmosphere in collective isolation, creatively embracing the limitations of a small recording set-up, and finding a new way to work as a band...</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">Jabu’s debut album proper, ‘Sleep Heavy’, arrived in 2017 courtesy of Blackest Ever Black. A sublime, focused meditation on grief and loss written largely by Amos and Al, it marked the debut of Jasmine Butt (aka Guest), adding a further layer of vocal texture to their palette. ‘Sweet Company’, their first album written as a trio (released via their own Do You Have Peace? label), drifted into lighter, more ethereal introspection....</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">. A celebration of the endless tapestry of interrelated musical connections, it runs parallel to Jabu’s own reinterpretation of their influences. For ‘Boiling Wells’, Amos remembers a diet of “A.R. Kane, Cocteau Twins, DJ Screw, Southern/Memphis rap mixtapes, early 90’s jungle, Karen Dalton, Sybille Baier, Vashti Bunyan, Svitlana Nianio, a lot of soul, Armand Hammer & Alchemist, Grouper, Bobby Caldwell. Jazz was a constant, Japanese, Polish, Latin, American…”. And from those diverse strands, something new and singular has formed, to line up alongside them. </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></div><div><br /></div></div><div>Some slightly earlier stuff - like a lover's rock Maria Minerva</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Va6McsmKaQY" width="320" youtube-src-id="Va6McsmKaQY"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Affiliated once, or maybe still, with the Young Echo cru </div><div><br /></div><div>Neatly, sweetly, described by a Bandcamp commentator: </div><div><br /></div><div><i><span style="font-size: medium;">It's like if Tricky ran a orphanage and had all of the foster kids from many different backgrounds learn how to make trip hop tunes...but with their own experiences with Punk, reggae, Hip hop, etc...i love this collective. </span></i> </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, of course, now I think about it, Tricky was one of the first artists to get the word "hauntology" <a href="http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/007666.html" target="_blank">affixed to him</a>, right... </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoaluXnzqVXOxbYsn570mDmxSZFSIp3gqDKWVFujaKYIbTRIif2bcQPS_wS_u4VlJgwHsAruuXaQI4U-az5Ld1BDWGxWyFLPMWozCthrW-5mSp57F8i58psQWtx8kwdbm0b7hLB13TLTczCzaFS9TbXej97oKQx_ZjAMhaBG1Vj5S9FOIfg_0/s1872/tricky-on-rusty-hull-or-pier-maxinquaye-ad.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1872" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoaluXnzqVXOxbYsn570mDmxSZFSIp3gqDKWVFujaKYIbTRIif2bcQPS_wS_u4VlJgwHsAruuXaQI4U-az5Ld1BDWGxWyFLPMWozCthrW-5mSp57F8i58psQWtx8kwdbm0b7hLB13TLTczCzaFS9TbXej97oKQx_ZjAMhaBG1Vj5S9FOIfg_0/w466-h640/tricky-on-rusty-hull-or-pier-maxinquaye-ad.jpg" width="466" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Did really like this first Young Echo album </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eAHzR__C47c" width="320" youtube-src-id="eAHzR__C47c"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Inna GRM stylee </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(didyaseewhatIdunthere)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Stirrings even further afield - in our twin town in Germany, <i><b>Gespensterland</b></i></div><div><br /></div><div>Local reporter Louis Pattison <a href="https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/gespensterland-compilation-feature?utm_source=notification" target="_blank">tells of a compilation</a> on the <a href="https://bureaub.bandcamp.com/album/gespensterland" target="_blank">Bureau B label</a> of spektral sonification: </div><div><div> </div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>"The sound they make blends the contemporary and the traditional, stitching-together archaic instrumentation and modern electronic production techniques, all wrapped up in the influence of folk songs and nursery rhymes, fantasy, and myth. Its makers—who release their surreal and dreamlike music under names like Brannten Schnüre, Kirschstein, and Freundliche Kreisel—sing in their native German about strange and eerie things: hauntings and silences and absences. This sense of mystery is further cultivated by the fact that the people who make this music prefer not to speak publicly about it, refusing conventional press interviews. Perhaps they fear that added context will weaken the unusual energies that move through their music. Ghosts, after all, can’t thrive under the cold light of scrutiny....</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><b style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: small;">"This is meticulous, occasionally mischievous music, dotted with distinctly German cultural reference points. Schoppik’s self-titled debut solo album under the name Läuten der Seele, released in 2002, took samples of Heimatfilme—a post-war genre of German cinema consisting of sentimental morality tales—and gently twisted them into something distinctly unheimlich. There are scattered references to the supernatural and occult. Writing of the experimental sound manipulations he performs as Baldruin, Schebler invokes the psychokinetic activity of the poltergeist, a German term that translates as “noisy spirit.”</b></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/grDLD1ZroL0" width="320" youtube-src-id="grDLD1ZroL0"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Teutonic rendering of "Scarborough Fair" there - cross-contamination of volkisch traditions.</span></div><b style="font-size: small;"><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sIKQZI2qnCc" width="320" youtube-src-id="sIKQZI2qnCc"></iframe></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PRLA_vjAgLg" width="320" youtube-src-id="PRLA_vjAgLg"></iframe></div><br /></span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The whole compilation is also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grDLD1ZroL0&list=OLAK5uy_nO6DQkFUjjjNB6Y0-J3yr5GeNNkH4g5nI" target="_blank">audible here</a></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Mr. Pattison notes that the <i>Gespensterland</i> compilation cover is a "<b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">blurry image</span></b>" that appears to capture "<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b>a scene from some pagan festival: a flower-wreathed Green Man transplanted onto the streets of suburban West Germany."</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Zq2GqK55rKu1awsCN_RkGYafLm1gesy_4i08xtLewLH_W2Lrm9hdKD2evrS047H7VIJmFX8nZgbhf1IIyvz_Niz9hLkZSKw02O-waA3Zm22_FgYF9RDdgKZ92plIfW7ryDW9vUilfwHiq457FO5fLchkiyMeYzPmUS89-AbQfVCBYtsGxHg/s640/a0440458460_16.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Zq2GqK55rKu1awsCN_RkGYafLm1gesy_4i08xtLewLH_W2Lrm9hdKD2evrS047H7VIJmFX8nZgbhf1IIyvz_Niz9hLkZSKw02O-waA3Zm22_FgYF9RDdgKZ92plIfW7ryDW9vUilfwHiq457FO5fLchkiyMeYzPmUS89-AbQfVCBYtsGxHg/w400-h400/a0440458460_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Gespensterland</i>, if you are wondering, translates as <i>Ghostland</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>All this reminded me of the German on the roster of Ghost Box - <b>ToiToiToi</b>, whose <i>Vaganten</i> I particularly enjoyed, making me think of "<i>Der Plan if they'd formed in 16th Century Swabia</i>" </div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rx0mlWy3t3M" width="320" youtube-src-id="rx0mlWy3t3M"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Finally some ancient maunderings 'n' mitherings <a href="https://richardjlockleyhobson.tumblr.com/post/735585384531181568/back-in-2014-myself-and-simon-reynolds-began-an" target="_blank">on the subject</a> of H-ology, between myself and <b>Richard Lockley-Hobson</b>. During the course of which I observe that:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">I think every country or nationality... has its own Hauntology. Potentially anyway. This sort of cultural or para-cultural substrate of common experience that you don’t really notice until it’s gone.</span></b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>update 12/15 </b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">From our twin town in France - a late addition, via a tip off from Dave Howell:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><b> PRENDS LE TEMPS D'ECOUTER - Musique d'expression libre dans les classes Freinet / Tape Music, Sound Experiments and free folk songs from Freinet Classes - 1962/1982</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPVKA-C0Vo3a-oizqz-rQjXz3wsBzFElk1o7JBRSpKD9eC2N3jMOI9mdnvWO5xtW3KRzbzb3jtvtBiIpKdYjCwxM9pNGJyAIGajvxeRcH-knjLTTX3BSNn5DDzbg2x5ZQX70uFJgRBjS_kF4v4b5m9cobdvUh5HS59P2GMH6f7Q6YCO2ukNo/s700/a1784448884_16.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPVKA-C0Vo3a-oizqz-rQjXz3wsBzFElk1o7JBRSpKD9eC2N3jMOI9mdnvWO5xtW3KRzbzb3jtvtBiIpKdYjCwxM9pNGJyAIGajvxeRcH-knjLTTX3BSNn5DDzbg2x5ZQX70uFJgRBjS_kF4v4b5m9cobdvUh5HS59P2GMH6f7Q6YCO2ukNo/w640-h640/a1784448884_16.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br style="text-align: left;" /><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Before listening I wondered if this was real or whether it was one of those fictitious 'avant music made by schoolkids' releases <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2010/nov/23/moon-wiring-club" target="_blank">like D.D. Denham</a>'s <i>Electronic Music In the Classroom</i></div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/znkHojBm_48" width="320" youtube-src-id="znkHojBm_48"></iframe></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After listening... well, I'm still not sure<br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;" /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;"><a href="https://lancepierre.bandcamp.com/album/chevance-etc-outremusique-pour-enfants-1974-1985" target="_blank">An earlier release</a> by the same label, <b><a href="https://lancepierre.bandcamp.com/music" target="_blank">Lancepierre</a></b>, also seems like a prime slice of French hauntology, or </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;">at least the kind of thing that would <i>inspire</i> a French hauntology: a</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;"> reissue titled O<i>utremusique pour enfants 1974-1985</i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqCv0vn1y8SDVHInEdBpk9_-Gt8xpojVQt9jFtzoEMMsqf3shwCG6TYLzR19JO1G4HUewX_7WtjxdhENZYuv0u5o4D8MneHXzwteveSmf3PabNKMjeiujkok2mWXS2txWtrEmbCEB3agysVy73ANPRvm_ulYTMxTD2X2jUg0dS8NK-REYEXY/s1200/a3007471512_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqCv0vn1y8SDVHInEdBpk9_-Gt8xpojVQt9jFtzoEMMsqf3shwCG6TYLzR19JO1G4HUewX_7WtjxdhENZYuv0u5o4D8MneHXzwteveSmf3PabNKMjeiujkok2mWXS2txWtrEmbCEB3agysVy73ANPRvm_ulYTMxTD2X2jUg0dS8NK-REYEXY/w640-h640/a3007471512_10.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #202020;"><span style="background-color: white;">Just look at the set-up for the rerelease-rationale:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #202020;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="background-color: white;">"In the land of Presidents Giscard and Mitterand, thermal clothing and elbow pads, Sautet films and Sunday roasts, the carpeting of a nursery is strewn with a handful of 7-inches. There, exotic birds and courteous elephants guarding a castle built with cakes form a Front for the Liberation of the Imaginary: colourful, systematically framed illustrations standing out against the cream background of gatefold sleeves… doorways to a maze of sounds at the crossroads between the neatest form of chanson and the most prospective jazz.</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #202020; font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Founded in the course of the 1970s by Philippe Gavardin, the small collection named Chevance is above all the story of buddies who were out and about between the twilight of the Trente Glorieuses and the disenchantment that followed the socialists’ rise to power, gravitating around this mentor known for his kindness and curiosity. Originally a linguist, Gavardin was one of these open-minded intellectuals, with one foot in the Contrescarpe cabarets and the other in step with the avant-garde, combining his apparently classical tastes with a keen interest in the novelties of his time. It is notably with Jean-Louis Méchali—a drummer from the free jazz scene who became Gavardin’s team-mate and arranged a good deal of the releases—that he forged the identity of this series of recordings for the younger generations: musically janus-faced, definitely literary, impregnated with a surrealism that echoed the decade’s psychedelic and libertarian experiments. The label developed a real editorial policy disregarding commercial constraints. Each record took a clear direction: modern fables, bestiaries, musical tales, cookbooks… Words were the backbone and every release was both carefully designed and perfectly manufacture..."</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gNdJTC1_neE" width="320" youtube-src-id="gNdJTC1_neE"></iframe></div><br /><i><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; text-align: start;" /></i></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;" /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8PkGleJZsIc" width="320" youtube-src-id="8PkGleJZsIc"></iframe></div></div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-62240026523542467482023-11-30T12:44:00.000-08:002023-12-12T09:43:03.579-08:00ticking all the right ghost boxes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">A piece by Louis Pattison for Bandcamp about a German </span><a href="https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/gespensterland-compilation-feature?utm_source=notification" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">scene-not-scene</a><span style="text-align: left;"> that strangely doesn't mention the word "hauntology" even though the parallel fairly screams out, not least because the </span><a href="https://bureaub.bandcamp.com/album/gespensterland" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Bureau B compilation</a><span style="text-align: left;"> that is the focus of the piece - </span><i style="text-align: left;">Gespensterland </i><span style="text-align: left;">- translates as "Ghostland". </span></div><p>"<i>The sound they make blends the contemporary and the traditional, stitching-together archaic instrumentation and modern electronic production techniques, all wrapped up in the influence of folk songs and nursery rhymes, fantasy, and myth. Its makers—who release their surreal and dreamlike music under names like Brannten Schnüre, Kirschstein, and Freundliche Kreisel—sing in their native German about strange and eerie things: hauntings and silences and absences. This sense of mystery is further cultivated by the fact that the people who make this music prefer not to speak publicly about it, refusing conventional press interviews. Perhaps they fear that added context will weaken the unusual energies that move through their music. Ghosts, after all, can’t thrive under the cold light of scrutiny</i>.</p><p><i>Gespensterland</i>'s "<i>distinctive cover.... the blurry image seems to capture a scene from some pagan festival: a flower-wreathed Green Man transplanted onto the streets of suburban West Germany.</i>"</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX002E9wb5aJL_6JJUwFstcsDXpb2wNqn5bV7NPq_6T6GQTr35g1MRK0aGqPyGKAhBVcQAWBF4gn_2KQE7-y1Ytjj-2PZZeEQ-oNvgkO4hYTQBy5MQ_-VbiiQJHRxCOzbtY-iElF4tKRGtd5KYCogqlGNqD5PsB6kKRlbKPGZF0fKinniJ4wNzFcwM/s700/a0440458460_16.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX002E9wb5aJL_6JJUwFstcsDXpb2wNqn5bV7NPq_6T6GQTr35g1MRK0aGqPyGKAhBVcQAWBF4gn_2KQE7-y1Ytjj-2PZZeEQ-oNvgkO4hYTQBy5MQ_-VbiiQJHRxCOzbtY-iElF4tKRGtd5KYCogqlGNqD5PsB6kKRlbKPGZF0fKinniJ4wNzFcwM/w640-h640/a0440458460_16.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p>"<i>This is meticulous, occasionally mischievous music, dotted with distinctly German cultural reference points. Schoppik’s self-titled debut solo album under the name Läuten der Seele, released in 2002, took samples of Heimatfilme—a post-war genre of German cinema consisting of sentimental morality tales—and gently twisted them into something distinctly unheimlich. There are scattered references to the supernatural and occult. Writing of the experimental sound manipulations he performs as Baldruin, Schebler invokes the psychokinetic activity of the poltergeist, a German term that translates as “noisy spirit</i>.” </p><p><br /></p><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/grDLD1ZroL0" width="320" youtube-src-id="grDLD1ZroL0"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: small; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Teutonic rendering of "Scarborough Fair" there - cross-contamination of volkisch traditions.</span></div><b style="font-size: small;"><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sIKQZI2qnCc" width="320" youtube-src-id="sIKQZI2qnCc"></iframe></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PRLA_vjAgLg" width="320" youtube-src-id="PRLA_vjAgLg"></iframe></div><br /></span> The whole compilation is also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grDLD1ZroL0&list=OLAK5uy_nO6DQkFUjjjNB6Y0-J3yr5GeNNkH4g5nI" target="_blank">audible here</a></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><br /></div><p>All this reminded me of the German actually already on the roster of Ghost Box - <b>ToiToiToi</b>, whose <i>Vaganten</i> I particularly enjoyed, making me think of "<i>Der Plan if they'd formed in 16th Century Swabia</i>" </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rx0mlWy3t3M" width="320" youtube-src-id="rx0mlWy3t3M"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IMArVzaLBz0" width="320" youtube-src-id="IMArVzaLBz0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-29881622875330275362023-11-07T09:36:00.001-08:002023-11-10T10:20:10.067-08:00Unboring Postcards<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_m_PJS0sN9bcgyUu5cJElh1T_rKc6UFLJcDhcJBQ0HsUiH-nSOu4mROA-sGHt5O4cqvjTAqEYfeipHsehjPIr4YJMeINoyiL4YrTVAIvT7wKesZnjKqhsrxcYEbpXGrp8QccH0shJU33V_Gbi7TLjxvF4ifLk8mDSQiZ6i-hmA9crqEmuT-ZOUcCT/s1000/Soviet_Bus_Stops.jpg.1000x1000_q90.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1000" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_m_PJS0sN9bcgyUu5cJElh1T_rKc6UFLJcDhcJBQ0HsUiH-nSOu4mROA-sGHt5O4cqvjTAqEYfeipHsehjPIr4YJMeINoyiL4YrTVAIvT7wKesZnjKqhsrxcYEbpXGrp8QccH0shJU33V_Gbi7TLjxvF4ifLk8mDSQiZ6i-hmA9crqEmuT-ZOUcCT/w400-h318/Soviet_Bus_Stops.jpg.1000x1000_q90.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgrIFSrb2Jtn5Lmlc1MSMyq2_-OfWywJHr9SY-9vcoOGfiCr3FeOgGl13SR6vd1RQSPL4LgBO6ncLuXbW2KLEEOV15k73dF5ZjorbcoIzALMJiRqm-if9GNRcV46YLMKJeB8DqN4QAla4kFXiP5Hr6WiOfMQV_Gw1O9Lw8z_9_txMc_HkGf3m5GU8/s2048/soviet-bus-stops-volume-2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEgrIFSrb2Jtn5Lmlc1MSMyq2_-OfWywJHr9SY-9vcoOGfiCr3FeOgGl13SR6vd1RQSPL4LgBO6ncLuXbW2KLEEOV15k73dF5ZjorbcoIzALMJiRqm-if9GNRcV46YLMKJeB8DqN4QAla4kFXiP5Hr6WiOfMQV_Gw1O9Lw8z_9_txMc_HkGf3m5GU8/w500-h640/soviet-bus-stops-volume-2.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEV-5r9NV7_6jMbukxCrefKpkmvkUn5K2-7pjuy1yaTXMn5Kex_4Z8Qm7OiEoSK0k_63As27_YLLOR_cp2bZFMw6HQOyClXShM287DIeMJpi4FyFw4IOZ5sx8eM0I8C-hqWoWXkw78Mk6OYhXcIsjszttHCtcAMkJekSPQNZenHL9tt2FmW-0Mv9i/s880/image-asset.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="880" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKEV-5r9NV7_6jMbukxCrefKpkmvkUn5K2-7pjuy1yaTXMn5Kex_4Z8Qm7OiEoSK0k_63As27_YLLOR_cp2bZFMw6HQOyClXShM287DIeMJpi4FyFw4IOZ5sx8eM0I8C-hqWoWXkw78Mk6OYhXcIsjszttHCtcAMkJekSPQNZenHL9tt2FmW-0Mv9i/w640-h470/image-asset.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZdUAVbsUAeA6FW0TzP9AZCvRGHdMsLSrz6eEWDgGR4T-sVtONTnEwwDIDv-ulScsEm_8Y7DWfUoysz5_DvTkv2TnhLZe5D8tZiuOGpKm2ne5fuIPFUukY1hFk8DmeSGmqQYZJehxrdl-1Mp1NfY68c5WV0iYpaVLH0zM0s6mHk3-weUuyI9c_GEB/s900/5a423e1b85600a72d30aa9b7.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="900" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLZdUAVbsUAeA6FW0TzP9AZCvRGHdMsLSrz6eEWDgGR4T-sVtONTnEwwDIDv-ulScsEm_8Y7DWfUoysz5_DvTkv2TnhLZe5D8tZiuOGpKm2ne5fuIPFUukY1hFk8DmeSGmqQYZJehxrdl-1Mp1NfY68c5WV0iYpaVLH0zM0s6mHk3-weUuyI9c_GEB/w640-h350/5a423e1b85600a72d30aa9b7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5FAGzTWOpODDuNTvSUw45p6yg0DfR1BhSKfWBNVyql8VG2CKc9vtoe2C-2AeZSt8Vp53iI0epCv41hJcficKJzNMKFqtgb2PvRjb3y31XbEs-DojAS5mw36I7Bk9lGjgY64Fu-tSja1ph9UH8b1PENcC0ztHVYEdjecmNAs50h8wutPwuK-PGAqLr/s1499/1_ah4fn62u8x5Cjn_vFbUNCA.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1499" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5FAGzTWOpODDuNTvSUw45p6yg0DfR1BhSKfWBNVyql8VG2CKc9vtoe2C-2AeZSt8Vp53iI0epCv41hJcficKJzNMKFqtgb2PvRjb3y31XbEs-DojAS5mw36I7Bk9lGjgY64Fu-tSja1ph9UH8b1PENcC0ztHVYEdjecmNAs50h8wutPwuK-PGAqLr/w640-h426/1_ah4fn62u8x5Cjn_vFbUNCA.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>There's a soundtrack too, points out Asif in the Comments</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #202020; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://fuel-design.com/publishing/soviet-bus-stops-soundtrack-lp/">https://fuel-design.com/publishing/soviet-bus-stops-soundtrack-lp/</a></span></div></div><div><br /></div>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-48305435178703976692023-10-16T09:33:00.000-07:002023-10-16T09:33:03.935-07:00"the future's here to stay"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/caP3tAmMEbc" width="320" youtube-src-id="caP3tAmMEbc"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-61804892503602017202023-09-26T12:23:00.004-07:002023-09-29T16:07:22.442-07:00"cluttered with regurgitations"<p><a href="https://djmag.com/features/what-future-sampling-ai-edits-pop-hip-hop" target="_blank">A piece </a>by <b>Chal Ravens</b> at <i><b>DJ mag</b></i> asks "what is the future of sampling"?</p><p>The first half is more about the present (the craze for edits on the dance scene and bootleg tracks that rip from well-known pop songs) and even more so about the past of sampling. Indeed it's a bit of a samplescape itself, with loads of quotes (including one from Kieran!) and some fairly familiar history (stuff about the Akai MPC, court cases in the early '90s).</p><p>Gets really interesting in the second half when it looks at the artistic potential and cultural implications of AI.</p><p>Like the STEMS technology that enables producers and deejays to cleanly separate the instruments within a sampled stretch of music. (Similar AI demixing technology enabled the remixing of Beatles albums where the four-track technology of the era had meant that tracks had been bounced down, smushing together instrumental parts inseparably - until now)</p><p>Then there's software that can "<i>generate entire songs based on text descriptions</i>" like Riffusion . "<i>Through text prompts, the model can find the midpoint between otherwise unrelated sounds — what’s between, say, Goa trance and Don Cherry’s trumpet? Ask Riffusion and it’ll spit out a sample that imagines exactly that, despite the impossibility of making the “real” thing.</i>". </p><p>Then there's deepfake raps, where a producer can generate a convincing simulacrum of a guest feature by a star artist - not quoting an existing performance and redeploying (as with jungle borrowing bits of dancehall and gangsta rap) but creating an all-new performance in another's style. </p><p>I wondered though - do either of those <i>really</i> count as sampling? Aren't they more like AI-assisted pastiche, or AI-assisted impersonation, or AI-assisted identity-theft? </p><p>The text-to-audio stuff seems like it's outsourcing the kind of zany hybridization that supergroup initiators like Bill Laswell liked to do. Or wackily eclectic genre-colliders like. I don't know, Primus, that kind of band. The creativity reduces to thinking up the goofy idea; the craft of implementing it is left to the technology. But as Jaron Lanier says piquantly in the piece, the struggle to realise an unlikely or adventurously preposterous idea is the point: “<i>Would you want robots to have sex for you so you don’t have to? I mean, what is life for?</i>” </p><p>Likewise the things that Holly Herndon have done with training a vocal entity by feeding it human singing seem so far removed in process, intent and outcome from sampling as audio-quote that it doesn't really make sense to think of Spawn et al in the same breath as mash-ups and collages. </p><p>Ditto patten's deployment of "<i> text-to-audio AI samples from Riffusion, a model based on a database of sonograms</i>" on <i>Mirage FM</i>. This feels more like a convoluted form of synthesis than a citational mode in the tradition of Pop Art / Appropriation Art. A <a href="https://youtu.be/frXDpMmqlrs?si=58Rak9yju9wI-2mn" target="_blank">couple of steps beyond</a> Todd Edwards's sample choir into effectively sourceless ethereality. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>One thing worth noting is that until recently - the rash of interpolations and quotes in pop songs, driven by <a href="https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2023/05/retrotalk2023-nostalgia-industrial.html" target="_blank">publishing companies looking to exploit assets to the utmost</a> - overt sampling had become rather rare in mainstream pop. It was particularly noticeable with hip hop during the 2000s and 2010s: the whole historical branch of it based around the deejay-as-crate-digger became a niche underground aesthetic (Dilla being the most visible exponent). Probably the only major mainstream rap auteur still basing his thing around recognisable sample quotes during this period was Kanye. Whereas trap, for instance, hardly ever featured samples. When it did - Future's "Mask Off" with the use of an obscure soundtrack song, Migos clumsily deploying "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" - it was striking, had a pronounced throwback feel. For the most part trap - and mainstream rap generally - in the 21st Century wasn't about breaks and loops; it involved programming beats, synths and keybs, and other elements assembled and organized within digital audio workstations. Beat-makers might still sometimes call themselves "DJ", but what they did had little relation to the deejay skill set. </p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-6204365831712139402023-09-24T10:26:00.007-07:002023-09-26T10:13:09.829-07:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Harvest Festival edition - Elizabeth Parker, The Stone Tape, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology Vol. 2 <p><b>Trunk Records</b> recently put out a very nice compendium of short spooky works by long-term local resident <b><a href="https://www.elizabeth-parker.co.uk/" target="_blank">Elizabeth Parker</a>, </b>who'll be familiar to many parishioners from her volunteer work for the Radiophonic Workshop<b>.</b> The <a href="https://trunkrecords.greedbag.com/buy/elizabeth-parker-future-perfect/" target="_blank">vinyl long-player</a> is called <i>Future Perfect</i>. And what an attractive cover! </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrFzU2gIVBb2LMAhG8dfIOJvFpSQhtDQ5TFs1gOJ91l6acKqdxZTEPsbaCpbZNsuwNFXXcR0wlmmIFfBniLKfXtei7SJrfu4k7FCgHhRvi_QaP4-W3bHqcc5AtxGouXlHqrofYWXReykBwMWSmCXylSM0Asdi_QNnnYuJnHkW2pl00S0chBF6AGGpL/s474/100544282910054.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="474" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrFzU2gIVBb2LMAhG8dfIOJvFpSQhtDQ5TFs1gOJ91l6acKqdxZTEPsbaCpbZNsuwNFXXcR0wlmmIFfBniLKfXtei7SJrfu4k7FCgHhRvi_QaP4-W3bHqcc5AtxGouXlHqrofYWXReykBwMWSmCXylSM0Asdi_QNnnYuJnHkW2pl00S0chBF6AGGpL/w400-h399/100544282910054.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This piece in particular struck me as <a href="https://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-caretaker-baron-mordant.html" target="_blank">Caretaker</a>-adjacent in theme and vibe if not texture and method</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zZErRbPgzXw" width="320" youtube-src-id="zZErRbPgzXw"></iframe></div><p>Release rationale </p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Elizabeth Parker is a composer you may not have heard of until now. Well here she is, in all her musical glory, having worked for decades at the front line of British electronics, radiophonics, soundracks and more. This is an album full of musical ideas ahead of the curve, with contemporary technology that was to go on and very much shape the future of sound we know now. From classic tape loop techniques to modern sampling concepts you will find dark ambience, drones, beer adverts and drifts into space. This is the first ever Elizabeth Parker LP and represents (with 26 tracks) a very small retrospective of her extraordinarily prolific and commercial output. Not to be missed.</b></span></p><p>Ms. Parker back in the day being interviewed about soundtracking <i>The Living Planet</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uYQp5BP9cb0" width="320" youtube-src-id="uYQp5BP9cb0"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p>An<i> Electronic Sound </i>interview with Parker, i<a href="https://www.electronicsound.co.uk/interviews/elizabeth-parker-the-last-post/" target="_blank">n which she talks</a> about being "the last" Radiophonic composer and also her encounters with Delia Derbyshire. </p><p>A <i>Sound on Sound</i> <a href="https://www.soundonsound.com/people/elizabeth-parker-flexible-working" target="_blank">interview </a>about Parker's post-Workshop career </p><p>Underscores and FX that aren't on the Trunk comp </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ICXYT4HiSns" width="320" youtube-src-id="ICXYT4HiSns"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pzaRGJdAblU" width="320" youtube-src-id="pzaRGJdAblU"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XJT3sF3oJvk" width="320" youtube-src-id="XJT3sF3oJvk"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z8F5UWeUZFc" width="320" youtube-src-id="Z8F5UWeUZFc"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p>Something else BBC-vibed... </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwD9QEerkNHd3z10oDzCxUoWr4HI8OF1VUKEEEeWr96T1_B06e_YJz6x3cOYPXxk_0WCt3fEId88lwd9L7cUyGglh1vsPG4ZPaKlkuDov-P804lyx9bBCdswNpXHA5BGwExHOMLDkCTAQUf_OkdOGmT_CTnYwCyEirTaR-MKmTVTwXpvNZQeeMrHlD/s2000/stone%20tape.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="2000" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwD9QEerkNHd3z10oDzCxUoWr4HI8OF1VUKEEEeWr96T1_B06e_YJz6x3cOYPXxk_0WCt3fEId88lwd9L7cUyGglh1vsPG4ZPaKlkuDov-P804lyx9bBCdswNpXHA5BGwExHOMLDkCTAQUf_OkdOGmT_CTnYwCyEirTaR-MKmTVTwXpvNZQeeMrHlD/w640-h480/stone%20tape.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Release rationale <a href="https://hiddenbritain.bandcamp.com/album/the-stone-tape-analysing-a-ghost-by-electronic-means" target="_blank">via Bandcamp</a>:</p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Christmas Day 2022 marked 50 years since the original broadcast of the ground-breaking BBC supernatural thriller, 'The Stone Tape', written by Nigel Kneale.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>In early 2023 Hidden Britain commissioned a group of UK based musicians to produce a new piece of work inspired by this extraordinary 1972 TV film.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>The result is a 16 track tape compilation which blends reimagined theme tunes and Radiophonic incidental motifs with dark ambience and hauntological synth explorations.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>The artists involved in this release come from some of the finest electronic and experimental labels currently operating in the UK, such as Wayside & Woodland, Clay Pipe, Castles in Space & Spun Out Of Control.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Out in late October, in an edition of 50. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Limited edition C90 transparent cassette tape with foldout artwork inlay and exclusive sleeve notes by writer and comedian Stewart Lee. Also ships with an exclusive A3 Risograph print on 270gsm Colourset paper.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Tracklist</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>1. The British Stereo Collective - Written In Stone</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>2.The Hardy Tree - Chuffy</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>3.The Heartwood Institute - Taskerlands</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>4.The Night Monitor - It's In The Computer 02:57</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>5. Mike Dickinson - Brock's Prayer</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>6. SWLLWS - There Are Words</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>7. The Lost Past Society - We're Getting Data All The Time</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>8. Charles Vaughan - The Summoning</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>9. Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Comparing The Properties Of Stone, Brick And Concrete 03:52</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>10. Drew Mulholland - The Strange Beyond</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>11. E.L. Heath - Whiston</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>12. The Soulless Party - Vigilamus</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>13. The Metamorph - The Uncertainty Principle</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>14. The Toy Library - Lethbridge</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>15. Nicholas Bullen - When They Return</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>16. The Twelve Hour Foundation - Time's Patina</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p>Now one doesn't want to be a wet blanket - but isn't this kind of thing a teensy bit on the late side? </p><p>Still, perhaps to expect hauntology to be timely, or to evolve, is to misunderstand the genre... ... it wouldn't shuffle off the scene punctually... it would malinger on, fixated on the same totems and talismans... </p><p>This appears to be <b><a href="https://hiddenbritain.bigcartel.com/products" target="_blank">Hidden Britain</a></b>'s first audio release - they are a company that sells "<i>handmade signs and print from British Folk Horror and unsettling TV. Film and literature</i>" [sic]. Again, can't help wondering, looking over their <a href="https://hiddenbritain.bigcartel.com/products?page=2" target="_blank">product range</a>, how such a settled canon could still unsettle... </p><p><br /></p><p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>One of the contributors to <i>The Stone Tape</i> - <b>Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan</b> - had <a href="https://warrington-runcorn-cis.bandcamp.com/album/building-a-new-town" target="_blank">a new record</a> out last month, <i>Building a New Town, </i>on <b><a href="https://castlesinspace.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Castles in Space</a></b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgU8ArGH7MGI5vS_MEW4YWfAFLFl7SGYTZcpGHmcSDPIBPGbZuaMb-yc0MpG1jF4Ym7sLNLEjz4uLOzXmHLDAoNs8m6hdxbOZ6GlOZmaq_w6r7fDBwVrOYw1nfgyjy0C1R7SZQDUImB_sHT9AsMFJtaMf6dN7ajQ1s2xcDW1iTYe07O4hWpuUNbUL/s700/a1300961927_16.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvgU8ArGH7MGI5vS_MEW4YWfAFLFl7SGYTZcpGHmcSDPIBPGbZuaMb-yc0MpG1jF4Ym7sLNLEjz4uLOzXmHLDAoNs8m6hdxbOZ6GlOZmaq_w6r7fDBwVrOYw1nfgyjy0C1R7SZQDUImB_sHT9AsMFJtaMf6dN7ajQ1s2xcDW1iTYe07O4hWpuUNbUL/w400-h400/a1300961927_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>Release rationale:</p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>"Recently found during the closure of New Town House, Warrington, these tapes formed part of the advertising by the Development Corporation in the early 1970s. Showcasing a more pastoral, rural idyll than the architecture might imply, this represented an opportunity for people from smoke grimed cities to escape into a greener, healthier setting."</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>The new towns claimed the perfect suburban life in a green paradise with spacious parks and tree-lined boulevards. This chimed with post-hippy ideals of returning to nature and living The Good Life. The music filters through period inspirations such as Pentangle, Mike Oldfield and early Tangerine Dream."</b></span></p><p>There was <a href="https://warrington-runcorn-cis.bandcamp.com/album/the-nations-most-central-location" target="_blank">also this </a>from earlier in the summer</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPvtF7NZcXbkRL8OaF11SggYgnx9PQfuJTiD3QW7AxNK98pqGOoFYS_X8TGgKsoHPh0U3QZPYTrboYMG6DeIENiniHz67dDqLpVFZR5PVkFGK40yTSUubh_rGTr5CVolRGLUp_yOfhABPraUhGvGw3UBK7BBZi5A0S-sruQA2P8v_wc3tAvodUUH9/s1200/a0448440109_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimPvtF7NZcXbkRL8OaF11SggYgnx9PQfuJTiD3QW7AxNK98pqGOoFYS_X8TGgKsoHPh0U3QZPYTrboYMG6DeIENiniHz67dDqLpVFZR5PVkFGK40yTSUubh_rGTr5CVolRGLUp_yOfhABPraUhGvGw3UBK7BBZi5A0S-sruQA2P8v_wc3tAvodUUH9/w400-h400/a0448440109_10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Artwork for the previous releases:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7OaI9cB-KYHclBXBmXHcgMhA6p01H9Cj12EmAHcFzZTSkAka1FbM6NMC9Ebfu1S87oY4yoSF10ak_i21iq0gkRlFuuZYpTaJxPVf7C7nAk-1uUf07emfohLzt9jPftEUYD_vjQ_m1PY5d0DW1ELDt60W3eSIQgoejnmduMW-7-8n-osLTMwkwrfUW/s1200/a1746762876_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7OaI9cB-KYHclBXBmXHcgMhA6p01H9Cj12EmAHcFzZTSkAka1FbM6NMC9Ebfu1S87oY4yoSF10ak_i21iq0gkRlFuuZYpTaJxPVf7C7nAk-1uUf07emfohLzt9jPftEUYD_vjQ_m1PY5d0DW1ELDt60W3eSIQgoejnmduMW-7-8n-osLTMwkwrfUW/w400-h400/a1746762876_10.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLkbzxW0VpofgdNlTaUVZtA1g8RdvyaVK0-MSfUm5LdWAFpPSEG4t6KcjSVtVX3TtU3q8nP7IXuOh-kNwA_F3Mj6NOX5coUlMFe1Pkav36isuuNnaEKR5dgKjnIuhC8BGBxFSwJOk95Cr0XSc_TnRBIyyEcr9j00B9FJr2dJ804DDMMFNLglI0gead/w400-h400/a1703513035_10.jpg" style="color: #0000ee; text-align: center;" width="400" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</p><p><br /></p><p>A last minute addition to the newsletter - the announcement of <i><b>Vol. 2</b></i> of the <b><i>Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology</i></b>! It's out on October 6th.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguL_zLCKPxTd_xOh_aGeC5oA8B46pHr5ay_qVBzL0fEYt3nPJwKXCvADAmOrxGvc6n9xP2SGOD7sftC24HzG8gR4RDboRlTD32tKB-85k6XtjK4XbKX9sGCuXT_uGyy9WMkChUxAICvLmqX0JvcMCCxIJ3lFFlysaQxaHylhXruAnMEn0OZ5WCX2k9/s3000/Kilkenny%20Electroacoustic%20Research%20Laboratory%20Anthology%20Vol.%202%20.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2986" data-original-width="3000" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguL_zLCKPxTd_xOh_aGeC5oA8B46pHr5ay_qVBzL0fEYt3nPJwKXCvADAmOrxGvc6n9xP2SGOD7sftC24HzG8gR4RDboRlTD32tKB-85k6XtjK4XbKX9sGCuXT_uGyy9WMkChUxAICvLmqX0JvcMCCxIJ3lFFlysaQxaHylhXruAnMEn0OZ5WCX2k9/w400-h399/Kilkenny%20Electroacoustic%20Research%20Laboratory%20Anthology%20Vol.%202%20.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://miuin.bandcamp.com/album/kilkenny-electroacoustic-research-laboratory-anthology-vol-2-raidi-na-heorpa" target="_blank">Check it out here</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Release rationale: </p><p><b><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology Vol. 2 – Raidió na hEorpa</span></i></b></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">This is the second volume of the Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology, which is a music compilation anthology attempting to preserve the fictional history of a small composer community based in rural Ireland existing from the late 60’s until the late 80’s. The project is written by the Irish composer and artist Neil Quigley.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">This second volume in the series is released as a compact disc and an accompanying 50-page booklet contextualising the organisation and each of the selected tracks in probably too much detail. It is released on the record label Miúin.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: courier;">Volume 2 of the anthology was influenced by a variety of Irish news stories and cultural ephemera, Alasdair Gray’s Lanark, Garry Shandling, and post-war electronic music of the U.S., U.K and Europe.</span></p><p> </p><p>No videos as yet for the new compilation but here's some reminders of <i>Vol. 1</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aEzlEWMM-JQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="aEzlEWMM-JQ"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E4utZvlK9Tk" width="320" youtube-src-id="E4utZvlK9Tk"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/URw0j8QHl0Y" width="320" youtube-src-id="URw0j8QHl0Y"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tAD9kJyLJpM" width="320" youtube-src-id="tAD9kJyLJpM"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YHfHMOLzKx8" width="320" youtube-src-id="YHfHMOLzKx8"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CmByIMzuoqU" width="320" youtube-src-id="CmByIMzuoqU"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-30435286424940639312023-09-07T10:35:00.003-07:002023-09-07T10:35:36.751-07:00Good Citations (a syndrome identified)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHLl0idMYqg9lwlBYnGq4o0S5297azHIa8nAXs77lPtedMAAviRgmdqmrzmnsLYB8PHt9MRS1Jf5hb39-mShK3Q_OiGxSC16kAbLFis8Z_SJdSRtjvuEf00O0wKR7Tfbe-DP5hw5gQnHV5rAQPUdVD9xUPSrwh_uynBSuZ-RUTWz63RTQA-T6luEb/s1061/birth%20of%20record%20collection%20rock%20chapterhouse%20SR%20singles%20sept%208%2090.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHLl0idMYqg9lwlBYnGq4o0S5297azHIa8nAXs77lPtedMAAviRgmdqmrzmnsLYB8PHt9MRS1Jf5hb39-mShK3Q_OiGxSC16kAbLFis8Z_SJdSRtjvuEf00O0wKR7Tfbe-DP5hw5gQnHV5rAQPUdVD9xUPSrwh_uynBSuZ-RUTWz63RTQA-T6luEb/s1061/birth%20of%20record%20collection%20rock%20chapterhouse%20SR%20singles%20sept%208%2090.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="529" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrHLl0idMYqg9lwlBYnGq4o0S5297azHIa8nAXs77lPtedMAAviRgmdqmrzmnsLYB8PHt9MRS1Jf5hb39-mShK3Q_OiGxSC16kAbLFis8Z_SJdSRtjvuEf00O0wKR7Tfbe-DP5hw5gQnHV5rAQPUdVD9xUPSrwh_uynBSuZ-RUTWz63RTQA-T6luEb/w320-h640/birth%20of%20record%20collection%20rock%20chapterhouse%20SR%20singles%20sept%208%2090.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I believe this singles review of Chapterhouse, from September 8th 1990, is when I more or less formulate the idea of "record collection rock". There had been earlier intimations I should imagine, when pondering Creation Records and Primal Scream, or when confronted with a Lenny Kravitz single in the heap each time it was my turn to do the Singles Page. But here I'm identifying it as a syndrome and an affliction that's a hallmark of the age. Records that are just "good bits" from an individual's vinyl archive. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(Typo alert - "funny wah wah riffs" should be "funky wah wah riffs", although I quite like the idea of "funny wah wah riffs" now I think about it).</span></p><p>Then right below it I take issue with another kind of bittiness - sampling when it's just a patchwork as opposed to an uncanny entity. The postmodern emptiness of good bits that don't add up to more-than-the-sum, let alone something new-under-the-sun. </p><p>Norman Cook would go on to build a career on teetering to one side or other of this divide between collage-as-bits-and-pieces versus collage-as-new-thing-in-itself.</p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-66133178858704302612023-08-24T18:51:00.000-07:002023-08-24T18:51:51.189-07:00Beyond Retro<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxICcpKn9RWm7VY11g8BCBOvYb7nnZrzVj012zE1DGyBVHQR8io1ZgxkfqqhNBGHxs4BU7jibUDC_JtgNVm-aUZAkRv1K6e-FYZbcSjAQBE3U8i5BCVLlpOZaWU-fl_LMyZC3AADdJgGg4mr5AGJLu6Tbf1HLjD3EGitm-X5uY-_Dn2E3uexKV0wyo/s4032/beyond%20retro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxICcpKn9RWm7VY11g8BCBOvYb7nnZrzVj012zE1DGyBVHQR8io1ZgxkfqqhNBGHxs4BU7jibUDC_JtgNVm-aUZAkRv1K6e-FYZbcSjAQBE3U8i5BCVLlpOZaWU-fl_LMyZC3AADdJgGg4mr5AGJLu6Tbf1HLjD3EGitm-X5uY-_Dn2E3uexKV0wyo/w640-h480/beyond%20retro.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-69481610939140778622023-08-20T07:50:00.009-07:002023-08-20T07:53:31.394-07:00Retroland<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIuUtXtW01A3uv4G-AbeiDkhf-alJ4xusXQ_vyf925dXn2Op5o6PbGPahw1S2UylbJGeHOUQYkO0KDRBxJjPLPB52OzLGT0uApEgOX0k2URFkp4aZrduW8RFJGdhae9qp5t4ZQ-4HQGv4EFQIgKEJyM1l6_1YiWsfYgxqQrpHO39pV9v7YdOFPFuXV/s3253/peter%20kemp%20retroland.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3253" data-original-width="2244" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIuUtXtW01A3uv4G-AbeiDkhf-alJ4xusXQ_vyf925dXn2Op5o6PbGPahw1S2UylbJGeHOUQYkO0KDRBxJjPLPB52OzLGT0uApEgOX0k2URFkp4aZrduW8RFJGdhae9qp5t4ZQ-4HQGv4EFQIgKEJyM1l6_1YiWsfYgxqQrpHO39pV9v7YdOFPFuXV/w442-h640/peter%20kemp%20retroland.jpg" width="442" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A book whose title caught my eye while in the UK last week - understandably!.</p><p>Presumably a play on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Land_(1973_film)" target="_blank">Betjeman</a>'s <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5i3sp7" target="_blank">Metroland</a>.</p><p>Publisher's blurb:</p><p><i> Over the past fifty years, fiction in English has never looked more various. Books bulkier than Victorian three-deckers appear alongside works of minimalist brevity, and experiments with form have produced everything from verse novels to Twitter-thread narratives. This is truly a golden age. But what unites this kaleidoscopic array of genres and styles? Celebrated writer and critic Peter Kemp shows how modern writers are obsessed with the past. In a series of engaging and illuminating chapters, Retroland traces this novelistic preoccupation with history, from the imperial and the political to the personal and the literary. Featuring famous names from across the United Kingdom, United States, and the wider Anglophone world, ranging from Salman Rushdie to Sarah Waters, Toni Morrison to Hilary Mantel, this is a work of remarkable synthesis and clarity—a wonderfully readable and enjoyably opinionated guide to our current literary landscape.</i></p><p><i>The Telegraph</i> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/retroland-peter-kemp-review/" target="_blank">says</a>: </p><p><i>Peter Kemp has written a history of the English novel since 1970. (Retroland describes itself as a history of fiction in English, but doesn’t refer to short fiction, and hardly touches on North American, Australian, or even Scottish or Irish writing.).... Another history might have considered the impact on fiction of debates about cultural appropriation, and certainly the internet and social media.</i></p><p><i>Kemp’s overall analysis is that fiction in English has been driven by an obsession with the past. In particular, he says that historical fiction is now at the centre of fiction’s achievements. His second contention is that fiction in English started to be written by subjects of the old empire with invigorating effect.</i></p><p><i>....This might have been a contribution to the debate if it had been written when it was first conceived of. As it is, it bears all the marks of a manuscript tinkered with over decades, the mind and opinions of its author never shifting from those far-off days or paying attention to major developments. A history of contemporary fiction from a book reviewer who, fundamentally, is rather scared of new things. </i></p><p><i>The Guardian</i> also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/11/retroland-by-peter-kemp-readers-guide-to-dazzling-diversity-of-modern-fiction-review-an-author-preoccupied-by-his-past" target="_blank">quite caustic</a>: </p><p> <i>a pell-mell survey of the past half-century of British fiction... it sets out to argue that modern novels are overwhelmingly preoccupied by the past; a thesis that’s persuasive enough, and one that possibly goes some way to explaining why, come Booker time, writers who buck the trend by staying in the here and now – Gwendoline Riley, Sarah Moss, Ross Raisin – seldom get a look in.</i></p><p><i>Kemp’s tantalising introduction sketches the extent of what his subtitle dubs the “dazzling diversity” of fiction in the period at hand, taking in “a novel that uses only the 483 words spoken by Ophelia in Hamlet” (Let Me Tell You by Paul Griffiths), another “narrated by the first edition of Joseph Roth’s 1924 novel Rebellion” (Hugo Hamilton’s The Pages), and another “that excludes the verb ‘to have’” (Next by Christine Brooke-Rose). Yet you won’t find any of them in Retroland proper, home, instead, to discussions of Midnight’s Children, Atonement, Possession, et al – not so much off the beaten track as stuck on the M25.....</i></p><p><i>But no matter; you read on eagerly, keen to know Kemp’s explanation for the patterns he justly identifies: the “pervasive[ness of] the dual-narrative, double time-scheme novel which juxtaposes a contemporary story with one set in an earlier era” (yes! What’s with that?); the ubiquity of the “trauma plot” (ditto); and the enduring 90s revival of historical fiction, which the late Helen Dunmore attributed to pre-millennial anxiety about what lay ahead in “the blank, silent sheet of years around the corner”.</i></p><p><i>.... Despite the setup, Retroland is really a pretext for a whistlestop tour of dozens of novels loosely bunched into four groups –novels of empire, novels of “buried trauma”, novels about history and novels built on older novels (such as Smith’s On Beauty, pegged to EM Forster’s Howards End, or Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein), all of which rush by in a largely contextless blizzard of titles, names and plots, with next to nothing by way of logical signposting.... </i></p><p><i>About his subject, Kemp knows all there is to know – that’s clear – yet as a tour guide he left me muttering at the back of the group, itching to sneak away to the dodgier locales we’re warned off....</i></p><p><i>Sometimes Retroland reads less like a literary-critical survey than the minutes of a 50-year colloquy between every author who ever put pen to paper: ... When Kemp segues from Sarah Waters’s The Night Watch to The Little Stranger to The Paying Guests to Alan Hollinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child and The Sparsholt Affair, or from John Lanchester to Zadie Smith and Sathnam Sanghera, or from Francis Spufford to Carys Davies and George Saunders, he’s just pasting his old Sunday Times reviews right in. Those examples account for about 10% of the text and there’s a lot more where they came from – he’s been reviewing for 40 years....</i></p><p><i>Did Kemp think no one would notice that Retroland is substantially an elaborate patchwork of self-plagiarism? Or does it not matter?... Did Kemp (or his editor) even figure out who Retroland was for? Either way, it’s a runaway train – and the carriages are full of recycled plot summary.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><i>Irish Times</i> is kinder</p><p><i>"Kemp's loose thesis – the past is a present country – leads us to some good writing (his own included)"</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-3803813489622526672023-08-05T14:18:00.007-07:002023-08-18T19:05:33.879-07:00the (band)body without (original) organs<p><b>Michael Hann</b> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/04/meet-the-bands-with-no-original-members-left-yes-soft-machine-odyssey-molly-hatchet" target="_blank">at the <i>Graun</i> on</a> bands still touring and recording but with no original members left - among them Molly Hatchet, Napalm Death, Soft Machine, Yes (debatable but strictly-speaking correct) and Odyssey.</p><p>The current incarnation of Gong is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/nov/18/gong-daevid-allen-steve-hillage-prog-rock-psychedelia" target="_blank">another example</a>. </p><p>It's a bit like organ replacement and limb transplants taken to the extreme, such that there's no original body left.</p><p>Perhaps it's not so odd... You could see a band as an institution (like a school or hospital) or a commercial entity (a shop, a company). Why shouldn't it perpetuate itself after the resignation, retirement, or decease of the founders and original staff?</p><p>Then again, in rock and pop, so much of what makes a band is the players as individual instrumental voices and the almost-instantly-identifiable composite of their playing as the band's sound. </p><p>Likewise the voice of the singer - and in some cases how the lead voice meshes with the harmonies of other members. </p><p>(E.g. the way Fleetwood Mac got increasingly ersatz in certain phases when most of the principals had left). </p><p>(Conversely, you could take Fleetwood Mac's journey - with original central figure Peter Green long gone, the arrival of a wholly new creative engine in Buckingham-Nicks - as a good example of evolving longevity in a band-as-institution.... That said, they always had the continuity of the rhythm section, which was also the source of the band's name)</p><p>Given that rock and pop are audio-visual hybrid forms, you could further say that the physical appearance - the face, body, expressions, gestures, mannerisms - of the performers are part of what makes a band a band. </p><p>In fact, given that rock and pop are audio-visual-verbal-textual hybrids, you could further-further argue that a particular way with words, an imagination, the personality and humour of a band - expressed in lyrics but also interviews, stage banter - is what makes a band a band. (Oasis isn't just the songs, the recordings and the concerts, it's the interviews, the ongoing saga of Liam versus Noel... )</p><p>In rock and pop, you are consuming audio-visual products but you are also consuming identities. </p><p>If a band is both the personalities in it <i>and </i>the collective personality of the group, how can that still be said to exist in the absence of all the original persons that constituted its make-up?</p><p>In the arc of ersatz, at what point does a band where all the originating members have left effectively morph into a tribute band? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qfmlJfkXne4" width="320" youtube-src-id="qfmlJfkXne4"></iframe></div><br /><p>Some members are more integral and identity-constitutive than others. Ergo, they should have disbanded after Moon died... like Zep did after Bonham.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5IY6SuDR5-s" width="320" youtube-src-id="5IY6SuDR5-s"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-6211018924941039772023-07-31T10:29:00.005-07:002023-07-31T10:29:39.248-07:00"The Retromania Election"<p><a href="https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023/07/the-retromania-election" target="_blank">Piece in the</a> <i><b>New Statesman</b> </i>by <b>Fergal Kinney</b> on the stagnant and deja vu condition of British politics takes for its title <b>"The Retromania Election"</b> - and not only has a para on my book-of-the-same but also a para picking up on recent points I made in <a href="https://firstfloor.substack.com/p/simon-reynolds-has-thought-a-lot" target="_blank">this interview </a>with <b>Shawn Reynaldo</b> for his <i>First Floor </i>newsletter. </p><p>Talking about the way that British pols routinely reference distant predecessors and slogans from bygone electoral campaigns, Kinney asks, " <i>Do British politicians and their advisers have any reference points beyond themselves? If these people are able to draw from history or finance or literature, they’re doing an excellent job of hiding this. British politics’ retromania is what happens when politics is drawn heavily from those who have studied politics – the line is blurred between practitioners and, well, fans. It creates a language that’s off limits to younger voters who might look for inspiration to figures in tech or in activism instead of cultivating a working knowledge of Labour’s grand old men.</i>"</p><p>Here's a good gag:</p><p>"<i>That sense of every decade happening at once has recently
become part of British politics. “If you think our job in 1997 was to rebuild a
crumbling public realm,” Starmer said in May this year, “that in 1964 it was to
modernise an economy overly dependent on the kindness of strangers, in 1945 to
build a new Britain, in a volatile world, out of the trauma of collective
sacrifice – in 2024, it will have to be all three.” Labour in government: the
deluxe Greatest Hits box set</i>."</p><p>Tangentially the piece reminded me of the way that "retro" type insults and accusations were wielded in previous UK elections - <a href="https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2015/08/corbynmania-retro-politics-or-nowist.html" target="_blank">each side accusing the other of being a nostalgic reenactment or tribute act</a>. </p><p>It's much the same in the USA, where looking-back and dynasticism (the longing for hereditary monarchy and regal succession that's buried not-deep in the American political consciousness) results in grotesquerie like RFK Jr.'s campaign and - out on the loopy-loo perimeter - the bizarre fantasy of an undead JFK Jr returning to form a double-ticket with Trump. </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-77314622396048080082023-07-27T11:10:00.008-07:002023-08-06T00:12:08.992-07:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Harvest Edition - Lo Five; eMMplekz; A Year in the Country; Belbury Poly<p>Spied in the window of <a href="https://www.muchadobooks.com/contact" target="_blank">Book Nook</a>!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYEq1EUIPCG1HyUJ5Geo02GGZoLIpIVPKAzmv8zdaIDKdOqwm4Tz4V7fgUVJh0_XF27MmZFuAXvDvfmwY1dZnLuPCwlLM3gnuuh3DrHWuuYwaxKLq7DxACztBb7rDlKM3AAic_9U56Utkl14tZ8I5ypH_fQvxSeTz4IHaXsRbNxXon6ySHkllMJZQ/s866/observer-book-of-hauntology.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKYEq1EUIPCG1HyUJ5Geo02GGZoLIpIVPKAzmv8zdaIDKdOqwm4Tz4V7fgUVJh0_XF27MmZFuAXvDvfmwY1dZnLuPCwlLM3gnuuh3DrHWuuYwaxKLq7DxACztBb7rDlKM3AAic_9U56Utkl14tZ8I5ypH_fQvxSeTz4IHaXsRbNxXon6ySHkllMJZQ/s16000/observer-book-of-hauntology.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Cover Design by<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bifrostgirl/" target="_blank"> Rachel Laine</a></p><p>Alerted by <a href="https://twitter.com/folk_horror" target="_blank">Folk Horror Revival</a> - detective work by <a href="https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2023/08/02/biblio-hauntology/" target="_blank">John Coulhart at { feuilleton }</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Also to be seen on the shelves of the Book Nook </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVk8l2nxx8fqrixT3Bab0xiZhZzFwrxCQiilcB33GHmyWqqyM2nvaX0Kb7xcKyobSCMhhfcd9hMtsnNieW_kFNWL-wiTA7hVezzRbT2DVbboOCVKrB8u_FD5W2nnlB2Gmt_W06hAQnv83gFuX0tHv1w_lwu7qXRy6awP7aN6n4UgE21hrBdqSpC8DY/s1080/A-Year-In-The-Country-Lost-Transmisions-book-cover-Stephen-Prince.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="723" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVk8l2nxx8fqrixT3Bab0xiZhZzFwrxCQiilcB33GHmyWqqyM2nvaX0Kb7xcKyobSCMhhfcd9hMtsnNieW_kFNWL-wiTA7hVezzRbT2DVbboOCVKrB8u_FD5W2nnlB2Gmt_W06hAQnv83gFuX0tHv1w_lwu7qXRy6awP7aN6n4UgE21hrBdqSpC8DY/w428-h640/A-Year-In-The-Country-Lost-Transmisions-book-cover-Stephen-Prince.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, a <a href="https://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/the-a-year-in-the-country-lost-transmissions-book-released/" target="_blank">new tome</a> from the prolific <b>Stephen Prince - </b> <b><i>A Year in the Country</i><i>:</i> <i>Lost Transmissions: Dystopic Visions, Alternate Realities, Paranormal Quests and Exploratory Electronica</i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g6nDTBSHRrnkEZ6EzZAKATiyVbPV9XQCUPypzZrNeWS_Xwr6IdX2oHHGaNt4q-IxnG385VBxy0FLn4CAl3z5cpWzMYo-wVJMAcxv82fz9fvq-JVxXTHXIDyuUJ9y25zZMdGjkaLVrWiBOrV6Z55qY8XvHeCbMh70UG364lo0A9t4BK-NRdGBYvUX/s1771/A-Year-In-The-Country-Lost-Transmissions-book-contents-July-5th-2023c.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1771" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g6nDTBSHRrnkEZ6EzZAKATiyVbPV9XQCUPypzZrNeWS_Xwr6IdX2oHHGaNt4q-IxnG385VBxy0FLn4CAl3z5cpWzMYo-wVJMAcxv82fz9fvq-JVxXTHXIDyuUJ9y25zZMdGjkaLVrWiBOrV6Z55qY8XvHeCbMh70UG364lo0A9t4BK-NRdGBYvUX/w640-h390/A-Year-In-The-Country-Lost-Transmissions-book-contents-July-5th-2023c.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>It follows swiftly on the heels of <a href="https://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/the-a-year-in-the-country-cathode-ray-and-celluloid-hinterlands-book-released/" target="_blank">last year</a>'s <i>A Year in the Country: Cathode Ray and Celluloid Hinterlands: The Rural Dreamscapes, Reimagined Mythical Folklore and Shadowed Undergrowth of Film and Television </i>- and the <i>three</i> <b>A Year in the Country</b> books that preceded that! With another two tomes not in the series, that makes <a href="https://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/the-a-year-in-the-country-books/" target="_blank">seven in total.</a></p><p>I don't know how Stephen does it... I feel like a right slow-poke in comparison.</p><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p>Talking about prolific fellows,<b> </b><b>Lo Five</b> has a very nice new record, <i>Persistence of Love</i>, recently <a href="https://lofive-cis.bandcamp.com/album/persistence-of-love" target="_blank">released on</a> Castles in Space. Inhabiting that muzzy grayscale sound that is all his own. Makes you feel as if there's a film across your ears - like looking at a landscape with reduced visibility caused by light rain. Suits these unseasonably overcast and damp days here in England. </p><p>Here's Neil's release rationale: </p><p><i>"This collection of tracks came about during a period of transition for me, from changing the way I wanted to make music to a method that was more intuitive and free-flowing. I spent a lot of time experimenting with sequencing and different bits of hardware I'd acquired. I was also playing around with an old four track cassette recorder, which was loads of fun. I think the end result feels a little broader in sound and composition as all but one of these tracks were the result of recording a live jam down to a stereo mix. I recorded dozens of these until I'd found 'the one'.</i></p><p><i>"That way of capturing a performance really excites me, it's like a crystallised moment in time when the planets have aligned. When you're really absorbed into the flow of it and there's something extra guiding you.</i></p><p><i>"Thematically, it all reflects this ongoing interest I have in consciousnesses, spiritual enlightenment, truth realisation, whatever you want to call it. At the time I'd been reading a lot about advaita, which is Sanskrit for 'not two', or what western spiritual teachers call non-duality, where it's seen there is no separation between anything, no individual self, no subject and object, just this infinite eternal consciousness. I read a few of the classic teachings from gurus such as Ramaana Maharishi, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Nisargadatta Maharaj, which reflect modern accounts of contemporary teachers like Richard Rose, Jan, Frazier and Rupert Spira.</i></p><p><i>"There seems to be this slow reconciliation between ancient eastern spiritual teachings and western psychology and neuroscience. That really fascinates me and seems to filter through to whatever I'm working on."</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0p-Po_NqGY" width="320" youtube-src-id="w0p-Po_NqGY"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p>Unexpected silo seepage from a retiree of this parish! A trio of remixes by <b>Baron Mordant </b>of <b>eMMplekz</b> fan favorite, "Gloomy Leper Techno" - <a href="https://emmplekz-cis.bandcamp.com/album/gloomy-leper-techno-mongrel-versions" target="_blank">also on Castles in Space</a></p><p>Emission transmission: </p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The
collaborative eMMplekz project between Baron Mordant and Ekoplekz ran itself
ragged from 2012-2016 and yielded some of their most satisfying work for the
Mordant Music label - the Baron had finally found his
voice in a skip behind Poundland and let his fetid alphabet loose across
Ekoplekz’s mouldy electronic battlefield…lyrical Escher abstractions married to
Cy Twombly soundscapes at a time when maybe only the Sleaford Mods were
harrowing similar ground, albeit more commercially…the project bowed out on a
low high with the ‘Rook to TN34’ album and the “Cheers mate, bye” lyric pinging
off every surface…in 2022 with that still naggingly in mind the Baron set out
on reframing ‘Gloomy Leper Techno’ in some different shades and the resulting
‘MMongrel versions’ were picked up by Castles in Space for this 12” vinyl</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">release…njoi/endure…IBM,
Hastings 2023.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">GLT scrawl:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">“Cheers mate, bye</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I see rooftops
in Staines, people as drains (cheers mate, bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The bee in the
bonnet humming Ashcroft’s ’Sonnet’ (cheers mate, bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Rhyming’s like
climbing, surmounting a fountain (cheers mate, bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Wanking the
walk, tanking the talk (cheers mate, bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">A dismal day
in every way (cheers mate bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Bandcamp’s
digital damp (cheers mate bye)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I want you to
follow thru…why is it you let him in?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Cheers mate,
bye.”</span></i><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ih4L99Ulhqs" width="320" youtube-src-id="ih4L99Ulhqs"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qRNoRSxrdH0" width="320" youtube-src-id="qRNoRSxrdH0"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^</b></p><p>Finally, there's a new <b>Belbury Poly </b><a href="https://www.ghostbox.co.uk/news/the-path-coming-august" target="_blank">album out </a> on <b>Ghost Box </b>in a few days time<b> - </b><i>The Path</i><b>. </b></p><p>It's unusual - a full-band sound, incorporating a spoken-word element. And the voice speaks in an American accent!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xy7OCb8vA5c" width="320" youtube-src-id="xy7OCb8vA5c"></iframe></div><p><br /></p><p> </p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-37336522090792383942023-07-12T10:44:00.004-07:002023-07-12T15:11:03.374-07:00"the essence of a seemingly essenceless moment"<p>Much discussed on the socials, <a href="https://www.thedriftmag.com/dream-of-antonoffication/" target="_blank">a piece </a>by <b>Mitch Therieau</b> for <i><b>The Drift</b></i> that fingers <b>Jack Antonoff</b> - not so much an uber-producer as a ubi-producer, as in ubiquitous - as "pop music's blandest prophet".</p><p>People are picking away at it, as they will do, but I thought it was persuasive and full of great lines and sharp sonic analysis of Antonoff's twin modes of cinematic maximalism and quasi-intimate whispery minimalism</p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"It is like Springsteen’s <i>Tunnel of Love</i> on a histrionic sugar high — or like cutting into what you thought was <i>Tunnel of Love</i>, expecting to find a substantive work of pop craftsmanship and introspection, only to find cake. Unlike the Fun. records, <i>Strange Desire</i> deals in a strangely hollow maximalism. You might call it, as many critics have, “cinematic” pop. In other words: pop made to serve as a soundtrack. And at the center of the swirl of sound that often doesn’t register as music so much as undifferentiated yearning, there is an empty space for you, the main character. Appropriately enough, Antonoff’s fans often describe his music as a kind of catharsis machine; a soundtrack to which you can, in the words of one YouTube commenter, “drive and cry and vent and go trough every emotion humanly possible.” It is as if Antonoff discovered that the only way to keep pop-rock viable in conditions increasingly hostile to its survival was to reduce it down to a mechanism for delivering a concentrated shot of big feelings.....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"... a distinctive yet elusive sound whose hallmarks are less musical than emotional. Verses ratchet up sweatily to choruses rather than building organically or shading into them. Choruses are strenuous; the unbearable longing they often convey registers as nothing other than the indomitable drive to become a hit....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"... nearly collapsing under the sticky surplus of emotion.... "</span></p><p>On producers notorious for hostile and abusive work environments:</p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"... treating women artists in particular as interchangeable and disposable bearers of their hit-children" </span></p><p>Spinning off discussion of "Out of the Woods" (a Jack + Taylor song whose appeal and resonance beyond its author I find particularly mystifying): </p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">"A Jack song always seems to take place in a sort of ambiently traumatic limbo where reconciliation is right around the corner, if not just out of reach..."</span></p><p>^^^^^^^^^^^</p><p>I suppose the bit where the argument loses me a little is the idea that Antonoff's career has something to do with the diffusion of indie-pop aesthetics into the mainstream. </p><p>See, I can't really hear the indie-ness. At least it doesn't correspond to what I think of as "indie" (I know, there's multiple strands; it's evolved over time; indie in 2023 is different from indie in 2003 is different from indie in 1993 is different from 1983 etc etc). But if I think of indie from the perspective of one who saw it emerge - who can remember a rock world before indie even existed - indeed one who wrote about it during its emergence.... one of the defining things about indie is that it's not melodramatic. I associate it with the laconic, the low-key, the understated... small voices and non-singers... a sense of the ordinary transfigured </p><p>(I suppose there are exceptions... that line from Band of Holy Joy through to Tindersticks and Jack... Pulp too. The Scott Walker loving thread. Nick Cave, also, with his love of "entertainment music, though some might call it corn" . But are any of them really "indie"?)</p><p>For the most part indie = constitutively anti-theatrical, naturalistic, mumblecore. </p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-67523600540077707262023-07-09T17:18:00.003-07:002023-07-09T17:18:34.744-07:00"we have so much greatness from the past to reference"<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vxP9kKzbCFA" width="320" youtube-src-id="vxP9kKzbCFA"></iframe></div><br /> At 1.09.22, some <i>Retromania</i>-ish argument from Daniel Lanois, talking about the shift from musical invention to archival collage<p></p><p>(via Droid) </p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-86252469841237070192023-07-04T11:16:00.005-07:002023-07-04T11:19:06.211-07:00Decline of the Wes (slight return)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr10_OTqnC9uTsUVmrDZS8K23m9-RzBXmgNDpbsV_NjxADkYtoOllCvg36JCiD8RaP-5clc_PZwyUcU-_lNQOeg5NZBQH3rYVWHTJBJUuFnlWf7neGYab7TYWEySlGXpIBAGypKL8E0UyGkYDcQkVLP3KrE2FeQZ5ydg6iKyWWbSUFyTwfX8IRSnjo/s2560/AC_FP_00119-scaled.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBpIgzsdetFtSRkzm1Q35cz-T2j6_AmIRZuKg2Z2lEM4GKfqSCWDjHAkQqh5vbgNGLAVKiZQGRKIWRtxwDQRfLWiGAPmzPqJv5A-rd8iTZIoOmR_mXKbrjjrYDtUzr7Bs_oeUQunGxChynjdCT-tyRX1eV-rF7f6ZsOco_zKf4uST7AmGzEBpJtcR/s499/AsteroidCity_Poster-2-e1683741968379.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="499" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBpIgzsdetFtSRkzm1Q35cz-T2j6_AmIRZuKg2Z2lEM4GKfqSCWDjHAkQqh5vbgNGLAVKiZQGRKIWRtxwDQRfLWiGAPmzPqJv5A-rd8iTZIoOmR_mXKbrjjrYDtUzr7Bs_oeUQunGxChynjdCT-tyRX1eV-rF7f6ZsOco_zKf4uST7AmGzEBpJtcR/w400-h240/AsteroidCity_Poster-2-e1683741968379.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Counter-view worth a view: <b>Richard Brody</b> in the <i>New Yorker</i> reviewing <i>Asteroid City</i> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-wes-andersons-asteroid-city-the-artist-is-present" target="_blank">arguing that</a> <b>Wes Anderson</b>, contrary to appearances / conventional critiques (including my earlier <i>Decline of the Wes</i> <a href="https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2022/05/decline-of-wes-or-three-movies-three.html" target="_blank">take</a>), is a deeply emotional auteur and a political one too... </p><p>(Here's his similarly angled takes <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/the-french-dispatch-reviewed-wes-andersons-most-freewheeling-film" target="_blank">on</a> <i>The French Dispatch</i> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/loving-moonrise-kingdom-for-the-right-reasons" target="_blank">on </a>Moonrise Kingdom)</p><p>Oh dear, he's very nearly convinced me that I'll have to see <i>Asteroid</i> ("<i>will</i> get fooled again"). </p><p>Counter-view worth a view:<a href="https://thebattleground.eu/2023/06/21/society-of-the-spectacle/?fbclid=IwAR3eBS67kCqD-mYEVT1z2klhdSxoeHBAzBiROiaz2PL_GPXa0Frt-pCXNVc_aem_th_AV_EJ8WHU9W3xAGtf_ycCUdClFhzB5tmB2pNBUUaoiZqi9RRXPjkZDyjlc1rezTwdhQ" target="_blank"> a reading</a> of <b>Jacques Tati</b>'s <i>Playtime</i> by <b>Charlie Bertsch</b>, very different to my own in the aforementioned <i>Decline of the Wes </i><a href="https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2022/05/decline-of-wes-or-three-movies-three.html" target="_blank">triptych </a>but no doubt closer to how Tati intended the film to be taken. One point where our opposed readings converge is connecting the Tati reaction to modernity with the Situationist critique.</p><p>The stumbling block for me as a recent first-time viewer approaching it with no preconceptions or foreknowledge is that I simply did not find the look of <i>Playtime</i> to be grey, soulless, or even especially dehumanized (the technocratic spaces are after all teeming with humans bustling about and being bumblingly comic... not to mention that the spaces are built by humans and wouldn't exist without human design and human imagination). However Tati intended it to be received, to me the Paris of <i>Playtime</i> is shimmeringly attractive - as beautiful in its own way as the old city with its traditional Gallic charm and ancient buildings. But that may well be a trick effect of time's passage, the way that the Mid-Century Modern / New International aesthetic has a nostalgic allure now, its own period charm. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97y3UF_Bqou6EvZoiV0upjjjbq0Q37S9Nh8LHN5AqWxtc8NTE7If5hIF4RmX_jhA0piPO1-NifVg7glY5r8KmuivXWXf8JFtFM8p4L5ainIr83V5BM2SuLrFY6BM3NYZD4iZp9Xe6gONHMWA5VPJSnU7aRzs8GMqFk4cpG1oRZdFbBYlAWf-4av6m/s2000/W1siZiIsIjQ3MjQzOSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcXVhbGl0eSA5MCAtcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MTQ0MFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="2000" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg97y3UF_Bqou6EvZoiV0upjjjbq0Q37S9Nh8LHN5AqWxtc8NTE7If5hIF4RmX_jhA0piPO1-NifVg7glY5r8KmuivXWXf8JFtFM8p4L5ainIr83V5BM2SuLrFY6BM3NYZD4iZp9Xe6gONHMWA5VPJSnU7aRzs8GMqFk4cpG1oRZdFbBYlAWf-4av6m/w400-h226/W1siZiIsIjQ3MjQzOSJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcXVhbGl0eSA5MCAtcmVzaXplIDIwMDB4MTQ0MFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr10_OTqnC9uTsUVmrDZS8K23m9-RzBXmgNDpbsV_NjxADkYtoOllCvg36JCiD8RaP-5clc_PZwyUcU-_lNQOeg5NZBQH3rYVWHTJBJUuFnlWf7neGYab7TYWEySlGXpIBAGypKL8E0UyGkYDcQkVLP3KrE2FeQZ5ydg6iKyWWbSUFyTwfX8IRSnjo/s2560/AC_FP_00119-scaled.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="2560" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr10_OTqnC9uTsUVmrDZS8K23m9-RzBXmgNDpbsV_NjxADkYtoOllCvg36JCiD8RaP-5clc_PZwyUcU-_lNQOeg5NZBQH3rYVWHTJBJUuFnlWf7neGYab7TYWEySlGXpIBAGypKL8E0UyGkYDcQkVLP3KrE2FeQZ5ydg6iKyWWbSUFyTwfX8IRSnjo/w400-h166/AC_FP_00119-scaled.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuQrCpdB_d6RPC8QVLvClexS8jr6jww49LjY3R8n2pWmDe_86Wemw-9uHp9X7ZDgN8Szg4_47yHRIqazMZUIhumRrlpj5bSHcWCOvNFnvitjNc3Q8qCpKyVxv148HcAbbNeVwXP6PKnVyFDnqG0uNjELdVE9caWnyvzayL3P1vKyO6pNZEUJvYm9M/s648/26938359.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="648" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuQrCpdB_d6RPC8QVLvClexS8jr6jww49LjY3R8n2pWmDe_86Wemw-9uHp9X7ZDgN8Szg4_47yHRIqazMZUIhumRrlpj5bSHcWCOvNFnvitjNc3Q8qCpKyVxv148HcAbbNeVwXP6PKnVyFDnqG0uNjELdVE9caWnyvzayL3P1vKyO6pNZEUJvYm9M/w400-h231/26938359.jpg" width="400" /></a></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDgJ_uB4Ke8-5UnjT-HVXZ1W--CK4VFAVaIsP1T2l4uuGN_trhy5er_2cn3QOCZ0JEW2nKzEDZ1HrBbxkDSVurF5Q_rgc5SwaP7yjvCfZRxzuJK38mlZjgdEnvO3zO2GqRWA-0ob0eo68EPaFAHw_c0skRPvc2ktirSPrRsv3puPc4_wCFIbMR-2wi/s1800/646f7778ba23eb11c34f08c7_Asteroid_City_180Studios_3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1800" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDgJ_uB4Ke8-5UnjT-HVXZ1W--CK4VFAVaIsP1T2l4uuGN_trhy5er_2cn3QOCZ0JEW2nKzEDZ1HrBbxkDSVurF5Q_rgc5SwaP7yjvCfZRxzuJK38mlZjgdEnvO3zO2GqRWA-0ob0eo68EPaFAHw_c0skRPvc2ktirSPrRsv3puPc4_wCFIbMR-2wi/w400-h168/646f7778ba23eb11c34f08c7_Asteroid_City_180Studios_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-91256541633446057452023-06-29T17:43:00.000-07:002023-06-29T17:43:03.207-07:00retrotalk2023: recreative garbage<p>Substack called <b>Anglophone Xenotrope</b> and person who goes as Thunder At Twilight <a href="https://xenotrope.substack.com/p/the-end-of-culture" target="_blank">riffs on the</a> "<i>conjunction of futuristic technology and retro</i>" thing I mentioned <a href="http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2023/06/retrotalk2023-where-post-mortem-meets.html" target="_blank">in the last post</a>. (Strictly speaking retrotalk2022 as the post - titled "The End of Culture" - is from the very end of last year). </p><p>"<i>Retreads, reboots and remakes were ascendant in the first decade of this new century but the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the return of the Star Wars franchise—combined with the digital de-aging technology, pioneered by Industrial Light & Magic—added considerable fuel to the nostalgia fire</i>.</p><p>"<i>When Disney bought Lucasfilm and ILM, they were not just buying Star Wars; the work that Lucas had done in bringing dead actors back to the silver screen in the form of digital composites was arguably even more significant. To that end, the corporate giant has made integrating these creations into existing brands a core part of their corporate strategy.</i></p><p>Examples include: </p><p>"<i>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, featuring actors wearing digital masks of the deceased Peter Cushing and the (then living) young Carrie Fisher</i>"</p><p>and Marvel's use of </p><p>"<i>the technology to provide a curious kind of continuity, allowing much older actors to play younger incarnations of their characters in earlier eras</i>."</p><p>and most recently (at the time of writing):</p><p>"<i>the trailer for the new Indiana Jones film featuring a very respectable depiction of a much younger Harrison Ford.</i>"</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eQfMbSe7F2g" width="320" youtube-src-id="eQfMbSe7F2g"></iframe></div><br /><p>Twilight at Thunder speculates:</p><p><i>"Seeing cutting edge digital rendering technology used as a means of rehashing and remaking the past leads one to reflect on possibly the ultimate manifestation of the mash-up: AI systems such as GPT and Stable Diffusion. Soon we might be able to look forward to machine created films, featuring digital recreations of characters from existing franchises</i>.</p><p>".<i>... AI models cannot create, even if their outputs are novel. By definition, these systems are synthesising based on statistical inferences</i>."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fYWv1oD3dv8" width="320" youtube-src-id="fYWv1oD3dv8"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O0CljyOd1pc" width="320" youtube-src-id="O0CljyOd1pc"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e2PyeXRwhCE" width="320" youtube-src-id="e2PyeXRwhCE"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3505022452508665567.post-16893533107275911812023-06-24T11:36:00.004-07:002023-06-24T15:07:26.467-07:00retrotalk2023: where post-mortem meets postmodern<p>A <i>Washington Post</i> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/22/ai-avatar-death-ghost-future/ " target="_blank">piece by</a> Bina Venkataraman about the potential use of AI to create "ghosts" - of famous performers who'll keep making records or acting in films after their physical death - but also of loved ones, who can continue to fulfil the function of companion or confidante long after their decease. </p><p>"<i>But what about people who aren’t so famous? Should we perform from beyond the grave, too, to nourish the nostalgia of family and friends who might want to remember us? We might want to think twice before haunting our friends and descendants like ghosts of Christmas past</i>.</p><p>"<i>Grief tech is already on offer. So it might be inevitable, if trends hold, that someone will try to make an AI apparition of you. Seance AI offers an AI chatbot for the living to “communicate” with dead loved ones.</i>" </p><p>"<i>The current offerings are mostly stilted and glitchy — and a poor substitute for the experience of actually talking to a lost family member or friend. It turns out summoning the King’s likeness to sing and thrust his hips is simpler than capturing your late father’s full personality, let alone the unique way he interacted with each of his kids.... </i></p><p><i>"However, as language models get better at imitating the natural speech of individuals, and as techniques improve for cloning human voices and facial expressions, it’s going to get easier to imagine a next generation of these technologies with the same degree of verisimilitude as the musical performances — that is, interactive AI avatars who survive us, embodied by augmented-reality holograms or robots who look and talk something like we once did</i>."</p><p>It could be an end to mourning and its healing closure: </p><p>"<i>Avatars lurking around the living room could thwart the grieving process of the living, depriving them of the peace that comes from letting go. People already mistake and confide in chatbots as if they were human; those who are suffering loss might come to depend on AI avatars as stand-ins, prolonging their grief</i>."</p><p>On the immortalized performers level - it's a new twist on that old line (Marx's?) about the dead tyrannizing over the living. Imagine as a new artist / writer / actor / musician, having to compete for attention / support/ audience / a public, not only with your contemporaries, not only with the archived and ever-more-easily accessible works of the reknowned dead piled up and demanding time from listeners and viewers and readers - but having to compete with <i>new works</i> <i>and new performances</i> by artists from earlier eras long beyond their natural lifespan! Radical inequality. But it will be irresistible for estates and rights holders to attempt to milk more money from the eminences of yesteryear.</p><p>Been doing a few interviews recently about retroculture, part of this recent seeming uptick in retrotalk, and one thing I've remarked upon is this conjunction of retro and futuristic technology - hologram tours, AI (e.g. <a href="https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2023/04/retrotalk-2023-commemorative-churn.html" target="_blank">AISIS</a>, the "new Beatles song" aka "<a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/paul-mccartney-clarifies-new-beatles-song-ai-1235359865/" target="_blank">The Final Beatles Song</a>" . the AI-enabled <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/breaking-down-the-beatles-giles-martin-and-the-miracle-of-the-revolver-de-mix" target="_blank">de-mixing and remixing </a>of earlier Beatles albums). This seems to be opening up a new frontier for retromania: the unsettling and eerie convergence of science fiction and nostalgia. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KsYxTuX5wC4" width="320" youtube-src-id="KsYxTuX5wC4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com6