A tribute-ary of History

Field Music are one of those bands I don't have much of a fix on -  I'd sort of mentally filed them as the kind of group Pitchfork habitually gives a good review to, alongside I dunno The Microphones / Mount Eerie 

(Actually looking into it they've had some pretty mixed reviews from P-Fork and they seem  more like a British Dirty Projectors if anything).

 At any rate, not sure I've ever knowingly heard Field Music but this morning I read a poignant account about how in order to make ends meet as a band they've opened up a sideline as a Doors tribute band - Fire Doors. 

After getting a disapproving response from a fan, one of the brothers involved wrote this rebuttal / rationale: 

Streaming is one of the main culprits when it comes to the non-viability of being a professional musician. Here's an interesting piece from Ryan Dombal at Hearing Things (the new magazine venture by a bunch of former Pitchfork people) on why they have decided to have no more truck with Spotify (mostly the truck seems to have been doing article-related playlists through them).  Instead they are having truck with Apple and Tidal. 

I subscribe to Tidal, having grown addicted to their superior audio as an erstwhile contributor given a complimentary sub (nice while it lasted). I do have a vestigial Spotify account, which I never use as a  daily listener. But because a bunch of playlists based around books of mine are up there I don't really want to close it down - the links are still out there in the printed books. 

Still, perhaps going forward I should only do playlists through Tidal and Apple (I believe you don't have to subscribe to Tidal to listen it, just put up with the ads - same as with Spotify. Don't know about Apple). Or even do a playlist through YouTube, which has the added enhancement of visuals a lot of the time. 

None of these places are recompensing musicians the way they used to be and should be. But they don't seem to be actively Satanic to quite the same extent. 

Hauntology Made Easy

 

Product description:

Hauntology - a massive 3.2Gb of organic electronic music samples from acclaimed composer and producer Si Begg. The library is full of amazing abstract, melodic and percussive loops as well as weird effects, sweeps and tonal textures.

Via Dissensus's 0Bleak in this thread

Here is what Si Begg says about the library:

The aim of this library was to make a range of usable tools that could create the electronic sounds I heard and loved as a kid. Whether it be the quirky off-beat bleeps and bloops of Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the dystopian soundscapes of John Carpenter or the early film scores by the likes of Tangerine Dream, these are the sounds that soundtracked many of my favourite films and TV shows, scaring and delighting me in equal measure. Often these kinds of recordings were made on a shoestring budget with idiosyncratic equipment that would drift in tuning or distort unexpectedly, but these are the very faults and errors that gave them such character and I’ve tried not to make things too “perfect” or clean to retain that feel. The sounds have been culled from a variety of sources, old reel to reel tapes of my own early experiments, more recent sessions using half broken, dusty old synths with crackling pots and experiments with circuit bent effects units. They are raw, untamed electronics, curated into a fully usable format to add some organic textures to what can, sometimes be a sterile experience with modern computer based recordings.

Ironies abound... "raw, untamed" sounds served up to you on a "curated", easy-to-use platter, a palette of "dusty" sounds you can use de-sterilize your recordings

Seem to remember enjoying some of Si Begg's tunes in the late 90s - quirky, glitched-out, proto-wonky, with whimsical titles like "Blue Arsed Fly"

Seems to have been doing soundtracks in recent years

Brutalist / Botanist

 

This whole Brutalism thing has gotten a bit of out of hand now.... they are scraping the barrel bottom, I think. 

Mind, you, these photographs are cool in a J.G. Ballard, The Drowned World, London-gone-tropical kind of way..

Via Hoxton Mini Press which fairly places it as a product (cute little logo though)

Talking about Brutalism...  what did people make of The Brutalist? I watched it on the airplane, which is ridiculous - seat-back screen versus the widescreen, Dolby-sound grandeur of imagery and music that it is all about. Despite these reductions, I was really into it until about two-thirds of the way through when a plot twist occurs that seemed ludicrous and after that the whole thing seemed to cop out, or crap out.... 

A past gone mad, part 397

Glenn Gregory subbing 

Named after Bowie's worst single (at least of the 1970s... he surely out-did it in the post-Let's Dance era) 

Marc Almond, Clem Burke (RIP), Glen Matlock, and Gary Kemp have been accomplices in the past.

Reef? Replenish? There's a market for a 30th Anniversary tour?!? Tour, meaning multiple dates around the country!

(I cannot even remember who Reef ever were in the first place)

 

The Gang of 2 celebrate Entertainment!'s 45th anniversary - actually the 46th, but who's counting...

40th Anniversary of what? The Wedding Present's existence?  That silhouette figure composited out of album covers..... 

Rounding out this round-up.... 

Goodness, a mega box set of Swing Out Sister's second phase career, when pop success was quite a long way back in the rear view mirror.... 

SWING OUT SISTER Certain Shades Of Limelight 27 June 2025 8CD

Swing Out Sister Celebrate Their Sophisticated Sound with New 8CD Box Set:  Certain Shades Of Limelight Cherry Red Records proudly announces the release of Certain Shades Of Limelight, a beautifully curated 8CD box set celebrating the vibrant and soulful evolution of iconic British pop sophisticates Swing Out Sister. Spanning the years 1994 to 2004, this definitive collection captures a golden decade of musical exploration, refinement, and reinvention.

Old Is The New New

 

This boutique front snapped on a recent jaunt to London - or was it taken in NYC? - at any rate, their slogan "Old Is The New New" reminded me of a London vintage store called Pop Boutique that I once spied, whose pitch to consumers was: 

"Don't follow fashion. Buy something that's already out of date."

But the pro-vintage sentiment above has an eco-fashion tinge - recycling garments is not only cool and requires a sophisticated eye, a finely-tuned sensibility - but it might just be planet-saving too. 

C.f. the campaign against fast fashion, the ultra-wasteful turnover of trends and outfits, as campaigned against by Farmer Alex (with his "Slowing Down Fashion" documentary of a few years ago) among others.