Happy Christmas - War is Coming

The merriest of Christmases to one and sundry and I hope and trust Santa and her elvises have been good to you.

And continued apologies to those less than avid readers of this less than average site for my lardiness regarding the governance/maintenance/effluence of this musically inclined blog.

So then, gentle, accursed reader, why should you feel compelled to, with the myriad number of more esteemed alternatives available, read this hastily assembled post? (Warning: contains Prog...)

Well, it's got MUSIC in it!!!

Of course, I don't mean the music you ignore on your TV, mishear on the radio or eat on your computers...

I mean this...

And this...

Maybe this...

Definitely this...

In a year characterised by just awful shit happening here and everywhere music was one of the few things that kept the insane sane.  

Hip Hop, more specifically, female Hip Hop, ruled the roost - with releases by the already mentioned Tierra Whack, Jean Grae, Rico Nasty, Black Milk, Georgia Meldrow and Dej Loaf addressing and undressing the hubris generated by white, ugly, rich men.  They didn't slay those fucks but they came mighty close.  Maybe next year...

More great records?

Francis MacDonald, nango, Bang Messiah, 79.5, Roger Doyle, Proc Fiskal, Low, Johnnny Jewel, Quelle Chris, Grouper, Dr Octagon, Marie Davidson, Yo La Tengo, Ben Hauke, Sleep, Lando Chill, Mr Fingers, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, Mary Gauthier, Laurie Anderson and The Kronos Quartet, n-Prolenta, Lotic, Brigid Mae Power, Marlowe and 2 great records from one of the musical phenomenons of the year, the genius that is Sarah Davachi.

And hear she is...

Reissues?  I'll give you issue reissue...

And this...

And this...

Definitely this...

The King is dead - long live The Klitz!!!

Excellent compilation album, prodeuced by the genius that was Alex Chilton, with deliciously fine sentiment attached it exemplified a marvellous year for reissues,  coming hot, thick and steamy from places deep and far and wide and tall.  And broad.  

Including: Haruomi Hosono's back catalogue, Happy Rhodes, Takashi Kokubo, Carl  Stone, The Glands, Joan La Barbera, MKWAJU Ensemble, John Coltrane, Gladiators, Skull Snaps, more from the KPM reissues' series, Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes, Marcus Valle, Brown Sugar and those amazing Steven Wilson remixes of classic Yes albums.

And here they are!!!

We did say there'd be some Prog and we did disappoint....

So 2018, a year of some highs, some low lows, lowest of lows if truth be told, with more to come in 2019 no doubt.

Merry Christmas and unhappy listening - and to make that possible - my favourite record of the year - no surprise, a reissue, but what a noise!!

X

It's Christmas time. Be afraid.

Merry Christmas!

And, many apologies to those less than avid readers of this less than average site, for my tardiness regarding the maintenance/governance/effluence of this music etc blog.

So, then, gentle, accursed reader, why should you feel compelled to be similarly cursed to read this hastily, poorly assembled thing?

Well, it's got MUSIC in it!  

Of course, I don't mean the music that you see on the television, hear on the radio or eat on your computers.

I mean, well, this...

 And this... 

 

And maybe this...

Definitely this...

 

Lastly this...

In a return to monstrous form Aphex Twin and Locsil both released fantabulous records - music that ran the gamut from danceteriaeria to sit down, listen, shut the fuck up.

Also: Dan and Letha Rodman Melchior, Flying Lotus, Cut Chemist, The Weather Station, Orcas, Angel Olsen, FKA Twigs, Beck, United Nations, Scott Walker and Sun O))), Grouper, Fatima Al Qadiri, Ex Hex, Clark, Jonathan Richman, Perfect Pussy...

It was a quieter year for Hip-Hop with a myriad number of releases - but little that was outstanding.  The mighty Madlib reigned supreme - his collaboration with Freddie Gibbs proving, once again, to be 2014's Rap high point.  Disshonourable mention must also go to Run The Jewels, Shabazz Palaces and Edinburgh's very own Young Fathers - who released their weirdly wired debut on Anticon early in 2014.  Marvellous stuff.

Reissues?  I'll give you issued reissue...

With Roy Montgomery, Yo La Tengo, Boards of Canada, Townes van Zandt, Horace Andy, Josef K, Slint, Muslimgauze, Angus MacLise, Jonny Trunk's 'Funny Old Shit Vol1', Pablo Moses, Public Enemy, Drexciya, Sly Stone's 'I'm Just Like You.'...

However, Boom!

And Bang!

A-Boom-Bang-Bang-Shang-A-Fucken-Lang!!!!!!!!!

Tav Falco's musical outburst is almost certainly the album of the year - funny, hysterically so, it meanders Cramps like through every inconceivable music genre - creating some new ones in its sweet-smelling wake.  It's a delight - ask Santa to buy one but don't expect him to have any in stock as Donner and Blitzen both sold their souls for this Rock and sweet and sour Roll.

To finish, it wouldn't be Christmas if we didn't have some Svenonius.  'Minimum Rock and Roll' was a lovely stinky thing - worth the admission money alone for the line 'We want the Middle Class to feel alone.'

And we all want that don't we Pop Snickers?

Happy Christmas.

Bobbi Humphrey: Jazz Musician.

Bobbi Humphrey is a comparatively rare phenomenon in that she's one of the few women ever to record for Blue Note records: the label synonymous with, and celebrated for, the hard bop style that originated in the 1950's and which was popularised by musicians such as Horace Silver, Art Blakey and Miles Davis.

All men. All middle aged men.

It must have been a tough gig - literally and metaphorically - for the 21 year old Bobbi.

The flute playing on these 1970's Blue Note releases is as tight and accomplished as any contemporary male instrumentalists - so much so that artists as creatively distinctive and industry renowned as Stevie Wonder and Duke Ellington wanted her to perform and to excel on their records.

And play and excel she did, paving the way for other, similarly talented female musicians and singers to be successful in their own rights often under their own terms.

Bobbi Humphrey's third LP for Blue Note is her best.  'Blacks and Blues,' is a gorgeous record - evocative and irreverently funky, not unlike the records being made by the more celebrated George Benson at CTI and label mate and trumpeter extraordinaire, Donald Byrd.  

A great and underrated musician, still recording and performing today, look out for Bobbi Humphrey.  

Boy, can she play.

'Friends, Romans, comedians, lend me your ears.'

 

I only just heard about the death of one of comedy's greatest figures - the incomparable Sid Caesar.

Sid's life and career spanned ten decades - as a comic actor and performer, on stage, screen and, famously, on television. Less well known, however, was his musical prowess - as a saxophone player - for musicians and bandleaders as forward thinking and as indomitable as Art Mooney and Benny Goodman.

It's the small screen however, that has the most to be thankful to Sid. His imperious 1950's shows signalled in a new era in comedy writing initiating the careers of Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen...the list does go on and on.

Unfortunately for us, human beings don't last for ever. We are all extraordinarily lucky to have basked in Sid's talent, his appreciation of it in others and his overwhelming generosity of spirit in developing these then new custodians of comedy.

Thanks Sid.

It's Kanye's world, we just live in it.

 

I usually wait until mid-December before beginning posting poorly constructed opinions and biased reviews of the year's best records, movies, books etc. This allows me sufficient opportunity to arrogate obscure albums, independently released movies and stand-up comedy 'discoveries,' reviewed by other people, as my own.  

Completely my own.  

Absolutely me.

- Here's a record by someone I like -

Following on from the splendidly splendid 2012 release 'Gigantic Vol 1,' Jamil 'Small Professor' Marshall finds himself collaborating with Detroit's Byron 'Guilty' Simpson - Stones Throw Records' alumnus and J Dilla favourite (the reader of this blog will be familiar with how much we love and adore STR and its roster...)  Although not as on fire as the former record it's a sweet release reminiscent of the earlier sonic finery of MF Doom, King Geedorah and Madvillain (war and peace be eternally upon them.)

Kanye West.

DJ Rashad's phenomenally phenomenal 'Double Cup' signals a new high for both the Hyperdub record label and for the still pretty new electronic sub-genre of footwork.  It's an old fashioned record in a way but it has power, precision and a panther-like poise which marks it out as one of the records of the year.  I don't want this whole piece to focus either entirely or exclusively on Electronica or Hip-Hop but, in truth, as in 2012, they have been the dominant, the speediest and the most evocative genres of 2013.

Of course, we don't like genres so fuck that shit.

 

More past and future noiseniks?, more new/reissued records by these c****: Julia Holter, Tim Hecker, Big Inner, William Onyeabor, Omar Souleyman, Drexciya (again), David Bowie, Josephine Foster, Felix Kubin (and Karl Bartos!) Parquet Courts, King Khan and the Shrines, Daughn Gibson, Elvis Presley, Sonny Smith.  

Grouper 'Living Room'

The Urinals 'I'm a Bug'

Patty Griffin 'Go wherever you want to go'

And The Fall.

'Live at the Witch Trials,' was reissued...(we know...)

Although not covering any new ground Savages' 'Silence Yourself,' was that increasingly rare thing - a bloody good pop record with tunes.  Haim, Bleached and Iceage - remember them from their marvellous 2010 release, 'New Brigade' (copyright 'Down with the kids' kids) delivered an excess of really nice and good but both lacked crucial hormones when it mattered.  Savages, by contrast, had the bat, the ball and the court all to themselves. 

  

'Disco-vered' by Brain Eno busking in a New York park in 1979, Edward Larry Gordon is still an unknown.  You hear so much of what he was doing in so much of what so many others are striving to do today - the new Boards of Canada/Oneohtrix Point Never albums are basically homages to the L.  The collected 'Celestial Music 1978-2011' is a monumental work full of beautiful, timeless vistas of sound.  It is hugely influential and hugely important - a catalysing force for so much of what we know today as electronica or electronic music.  Available from All Saints Records. Ask Santa for one.

More records: the mighty Dot Wiggin Band, Yo La Tengo, Amor de Dias, Deafheaven, Fat White Family, Glenn Jones, Happy Jawbone Family Band, Locust, reissues from The Mountain Goats, Sid Hemphill, Goodiepal, Karen Dalton, the entire output of the Light in the Attic label, Bear Family's incredible 'Street Corner Symphonies - A History of Doo Wop, Wolf Eyes, Henry Flynt, Jack White's increasingly increasing Revenant label, Warp's BOC vinyl represses....

Laurel Halo 'Chance of Rain'

Palmer Rockey 'Feelings of Love'

William Tyler 'Cadillac Desert'

Speaking of Warp...

And, finally, more speaking, we will always be more speaking, about the maverick, the madness, the fragile and the strong, the sometimes silliness, the never, never, never boring or dull, the one, the only, Kanye West - the overarching genius of our time delivers the album of the year easy-queasy-peasy.  Forget all about Tyler and Lamar and all the best of the rest and the rest.  KW is the realest of deals, super arrogant, super talented, flawed tae fuck and (f)lawless.  He's our flavour of the year.  What beautiful music he mistakes.  

Until when...

For John.

 

Elvis and Stax: a match made in Heaven.

For many Elvis fans, the 1973 June and December Stax Sessions represent a high watermark in his illustrious recording career.  The set contains myriad versions of all six of the singles the label issued from 1973-1975: and there's not anything approaching a dud amongst them.  

Personal favourites include his marvellous rendition of Chuck Berry's 'Promised land,' a stalwart of his live shows at the time, and 'There's a Honky Tonk Angel (who will take me back in,) co-written by countrypolitin troubadour Troy Seals and covered by the likes of Mr Conway Twitty as well as the Elv.

The recordings exude a passion and intensity that was missing from much of Elvis's output of the time - even the country, and countrified versions of many of the songs are electrifying: you can tell that Elvis, freed from the considerable shackles of an increasingly constricting and hierarchical RCA label, and his ensemble cast of musicians, flown in for the sessions, were enjoying every God damn minute of every God damn minute.....

What, more than anything, that emerges from these fun packed, gloriously musical sessions, is a totally fearless Elvis - more than ever before willing to embrace different musics and musical idioms with a ferocity that both the 1968 performances and the American Sound Studio Sessions a year later alluded to, an Elvis Presley, shorn of the malign influences that deadlocked and stifled his talent for nigh on ten years, reborn.

Buy it now.

We All Hail West Texas (We All Hail...)

John Darnielle has been recording music for over 20 years - and nobody ever told him.  Gloriously lo-fi, Darnielle's music has much in common with fellow long-term barbists Bob Pollard and Mark Davies in that it gloriously grates against much of today's over-produced hype-shite.

Merge Records have recently reissued The Mountain Goats magnificent 'All Hail West Texas,' surely 2002's 18th best LP.  Full of songs about love and death, hospitalisation and the fatalistic attractions of hot metal music, it's an album to hold to your heart and, secretly, to your pants.  

And, to not, to never, let go..

Touring - Glasgow at The Arches on the 10th of October.  You should go.

Marcia, my dear...

 

When I worked in music shops - many years ago - it was not uncommon practice to source some records and tapes from 'non-traditional suppliers:' in some cases, literally, off the back of a tatty, smelly van that had almost certainly, like much of the stock they carried, recently failed its MOT.  Many an hour was spent gently idling in these vehicles - pouring over some long deleted Magma LP, caressing the spines of remaindered Jetstar compilation albums and fingering the holes of some long forgotten cut-out.

Sex was always an option...

On one such occasion however, I found, to my surprise and no small astonishment, an album that has, even to this day, continued to beguile and bewitch.  Six copies of the album, to be exact.  I took them all - at a dealer price of less than £3 - and boxed them up, tenderly, lovingly, placing them next to an oddly juxtaposed admixture of Psychedelia, Easy-Listening and Jazz records (it was that kind of a shop.)

I never did sell any of the albums - well, reader, I sold one.  But I'll certainly never forget the feelings of exhilaration and transcendent joy when I took 'Sweet Bitter Love' home, placed the needle over track one, side one and listened to Marcia Griffiths sing.

Mondo Franco...

 

Despite what many might think, Jesus 'Jess' Franco was much more than just a trashy latter day purveyor of tits and ass (liberally covered in bright red stuff.)  Franco, who died earlier this month, was a ghoulish gourmand of gore who slathered his beautiful women and similarly adorned hunk-a-men with blood and guts and brains and more blood.  

Always, more blood.

Except that wasn't the whole picture.  Franco, in many ways, was the unlikely progenitor of much of the great Spanish horror that is current today.  Sure, his style may have been a bit workmanlike, lacking in the cinematographic niceties and technical brio of some of his more revered contemporaries, but central to all of his films, and this is why his movies will continue to captivate, thrill and be watched, is a consuming love and passionate intensity for the art of film-making - irrespective of the genre, the budget, the stars or, often, conspicuous lack of them.

Director, writer, musician, artist - Franco could do it all.  And, thankfully, for over 50 years, as the clip below of perhaps his most celebrated film, 1971's 'Vampyros Lesbos' shows, he never tired of making films the uniquely Franco way...

Hell, we can even forgive him 'Mondo Cannibale...'

  

   

Louie CK Louie CK...

Sometimes, I feel this way..

Louis Szekely has been a stand-up for over twenty years, performing and writing for, amongst others, David Letterman and Chris Rock.  It's only now, how and ever, with the relatively recent broadcast in the UK of his *stand/sit show on post-terrestrial TV, that's he's gained recognition. 

And, pleasantly surprisingly, popularity.

Like all trenchantly funny things, his comedy will not appeal to everyone.  However, if you're a fan of the slightly surreal - and we'll deal with the greatly surreal later - then you might just like Louie CK.

Cue, the greatly surreal:

 

*stand/sit - a show which features a combination of 'stand-up' comedy and 'situation' comedy. (copyright, S. Lee)

As an adjunct to the above, the Glasgow Comedy Festival starts today. 

Spread over a number of venues, the vast majority of which are conveniently located in the centre of the city, there's something for everyone, whether you're a fan of Jerry Sadowitz or not (and if you're not, why are you reading this blog?)  

Anyway, here's David Kay, the undoubted star of Stewart Lee's 'Alternative Comedy Experience.'  

 

Oscars - What Oscars?

Of course, The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards, and the vast majority of the films that contest them, are a slavering, hyperbole fuelled nonsense... 

Or are they?

The picture above, one of the great films, featuring a supremely talented ensemble cast and two magnificent central performances, puts the above contention into highly entertaining perspective.  

Judy Garland, a shoe-in for the 1954 best actress Oscar in Cukor's remake of 'A Star is Born,' lost out to, an albeit fine performance from Grace Kelly in 'The Country Girl,' in what Groucho Marx - who knew a thing or two about celebrity and its malign influences - called 'the biggest robbery since Brinks.'

The conservative nature of The American Academy tacitly enshrines and ensures that a certain kind of film nearly always wins the big prizes - it's nothing new when a John Sayles film fails to win anything.

Some of the greatest movies, actors and directors have never won an award, any award.  And, as in the famous example indicated above, great actors, great performances - often genre defying and defining - are routinely passed over in favour of what undoubtedly are/are perceived to be, both at the time and retrospectively, lesser works.

I've always preferred films that either poke fun/ignore the self satisfied smugness of awards, and the often ludicrous ceremonies that accompany them, or which celebrate the craft of writing, performing and direction above all else.  

It doesn't matter who wins, it's the not taking part that counts....

 














 

 

Glasgow Film Festival 14-24 February

The Glasgow Film Festival has been going for nearly 10 years now - almost - and it's showing no signs of getting wearisome. This year's festival has a number of delights to tease, torment and tantalise including, for this moviegoer, a retrospective of the movies of James Cagney, the sweetly sado-masochistic showing of Spielberg's 'Jaws' at the Tall Ship and a welcome showing of Mario Bava's marvellous 'Black Sabbath;' newly restored and all the more sexy and scary for it. 

 

The veritable and venerable Monorail film club have chosen 'Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me,' as one of their picks of the festival. For those of you unfamiliar with one of Memphis' finest, this is a fabulous introduction - including interviews with both Andy Hummell and Jody Stephens. It promises to be something special.  

A highlight for this writer, is the showing of Carl Theodor Dreyer's 'The Passion of Joan of Arc,' at Glasgow Cathedral.  Dreyer's film is one of the most evocative ever made, and has stood, more than any of its contemporaries, the screen test of time.  With a live musical and vocal accompaniment, it promises to be a crowning highlight of the festival.

So, whether it's David Hayman playing the parts (sic) of Sawney, Jake Schreier's wryly delivered comedy of human and robotic manners, 'Robot & Frank,' or Billy Wilder's supremely gothic melodrama, 'Sunset Boulevard,' there's something for just about everyone in this year's festival.  

You really should go.

To finish, two trailers for films I really want to see...

Shaky, rattle and roll...

Michael Barratt, otherwise, and far more famously known as, Shakin' Stevens will be the grand old age of 65 next year.  

Most people will remember Shaky as an incredibly charismatic performer - his string of 11 top 5 chart hits in the 1980's bearing eloquent testimony to his abilities to entertain and beguile.  What many forget/do not know is, prior to 1981, and his first UK number one record, Shaky had been a performing and recording artist for 13 years - gigging up and down the country and abroad with The Sunsets - to considerable acclaim.

The Sunsets were, as contemporary articles agree, one of the great live bands, attracting the attention of NME hacks, John Peel - who attempted to sign them to his own Dandelion record label and, finally, and certainly most importantly for Stevens himself, Freya Miller who signed him to Epic Records.

The rest was history....

Thanks Michael and thanks to the mighty Shakin' Stevens and The Sunsets - one of the great British exponents, along with Billy Fury, Johnny Kidd and Bob Fish, of rrreal Rock and Roll...

Lastly, and entirely in keeping with Michael's music, Everyone here at Twat Bubble would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's the end of the year as we know it...

I usually wait until mid-December before beginning posting poorly constructed opinions and biased reviews of the year's best records, movies, books etc. This allows me sufficient opportunity to arrogate obscure albums, independently released movies and stand-up comedy 'discoveries,' reviewed by other people, as my own.  

Completely my own.  

Absolutely me.

- Here's a record by someone I like -



Kendrick Lamar's official debut album is, for many people, this year's great Hip-Hop record.  In a year where the music has enjoyed considerable and renewed commercial and artistic success - many contend that it's been the best year for breaks and beats since the early 1990's - Lamar's 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' sets a considerable benchmark.  

Following sexily, uncomfortably closely, great new albums by Odd Future, Action Bronson, Apollo Brown, De La Soul, Fushawn, JR and PH7, Prince Paul, Gangrene...

Two albums, however, for this writer, stand up and out.   






Small Professor's 'Gigantic, Vol 1' and Oddisee's 'People hear what they see.'  

Both are genre redefining examples of the new music: containing nods to an illustrious musical past - whether Soul, Funk, Rap or ? - whilst spitting and shitting, however respectfully, on their memory.  



If you like your music loud and Canadian then Metz may be for you.  Recalling the mighty Nation of Ulysses and, to these ears, Bob and Grant at their howling best, they know how to chill out the rolling rock in you.  Bone-cruising stuff.

More past and future noiseniks, more new records by these c****.  Batsauce, Chuck Prophet, Dan Deacon, Bill Fay, Bobby Womack, Dexy's, The Flowers of Hell, Josephine Foster, Mac Demarco, Mission of Burma, Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs, Momus, Orbital, Tindersticks, The Wave Pictures, The One Ensemble, Laurel Halo, Bob Mould...Momus.       

Momus?






If 2012 saw anything, it saw a return to 'floaty dreamscapes' - a bit shoegazey but where you could see your reflection in your uppers.  Both Tennis and Taken by Trees are fine examples.

It's been a great, great, great year for noise, noise, noise.  

Australia's Royal Headache delivered a fast and furioso set, harking back to torn and ripped ears/jeans of yesteryear.  Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot and Mike Ladd resurfaced on Anarchist Republic of Bzzz's marvellous eponymous album. 

More noise?  Records from Dean Blunt, Japandroids, Dope Body, Agent Side Grinder, Dead Rat Orchestra, Godspeed (in a magnificent return to form), remixed albums from Bjork and Mogwai and their various collaborati, Gonjasufi, El Ten Eleven, Mark Eitzel, The Fall, Iris Dement, La Sera, Astra, The Pheromoans, Death Grips, Kid Koala, Spider Bags, Dinosaur Feathers, This Many Boyfriends.  The Fall.

The Fall?



In an astonishing year for reissues, no album was more revered than William Basinski's 'Disintegration Loops.'  An awe inducing piece of work, it paved, and continues to pave the way, for much of what is happening in new electronic music today.  

You must have it.  

What else? Drexciya's phenomenal output collated in the 2 volume 'Journey's of the Deep Sea Dweller,' David Sylvian's 'A Victim of Stars,' the recent slew of Karen Dalton re-issues, more new King Tubby releases - especially those on VP records, the welcome remastered version of Lynch/Splet's, 'Eraserhead,' Oliveros's 12 CD box set (not forgetting the collected Deep Listening Band material reissued recently on Ltd edition vinyl), Virgin's Roxy Music Complete Studio Recordings and, of course, reissues of classic albums by Massive Attack, MBV, Ken Higney, The Heads, The Human League, Swans, Tortoise... and, of course, undoubtedly the best and most important, this...



So, 2012 rears and allows its ugly head to fall.  If you like any of these records why not buy them.  In your local record shop.  NOT HMV.  Y'hear?

To finish - Gerry Love's/Lightships homage to love - the beautiful 'Electric Cables.'  

Being beautiful is not impossible.

Now where did I leave that NEW SCOTT WALKER ALBUM!!!

                                            

Marfa, my dear...

"Art is made as one lives. It must be as decisive as acts in life..."
     Donald Judd, 1983

Larry Clark has chosen to set his most recent film in the border town of Marfa, Texas - made famous, some of the inhabitants of this small town would contend 'infamous,' by its close cultural associations with the artist Donald Judd and the proto-artistic community he established there.  

In common with other artist, musician and writer contemporaries, Clark is eschewing more traditional means of release/distribution by premiering the film on his own website for a nominal fee (see above.)  His first feature in 7 years, it will be especially interesting to see how such an uncompromising stance fares both artistically and, crucially, commercially - for Clark's sake and for others who share a similar viewpoint on hyper-commercialism in and beyond the Hollywood mainstream.

Despite some early negative critical impressions of the movie I, for one, hope it's a success.

- 'Marfa Girl' - released 20 November 2012 on larryclark.com