The science guys, from every clime,They all pitched in with overtime.
Before they knew it, the job was done;
They'd hitched up the power of the gosh-darn sun,
They put a harness on Old Sol,
Splittin' atoms, while the diplomats was splittin' hairs...
(Excerpt from Old Man Atom by Vern Partlow)
Taking the sterling atom-splitting work of those science guys as a guide i have strapped down, gagged and thoroughly harnessed up Young Sol.
Disappointingly she hasn't unleashed any hitherto untapped and boundless energy though.
Instead she is pretty inert.
So inert that it now behoves me, in her well harnessed incapacity, to weave a web of meandering sentences together and to continue this here blog thing for her.
Horrorshow.
Advanced apologies, to anyone fool enough to continue reading, for the woeful cobbling together of semi-coherent inane jibber-jabber i will now, doubtless, spew out.
Sorry.
Anyways, here goes...
Friday night and, in lieu of having an actual social life, i am shivering in my bedroom, cursing the foul chilly English weather and hoping that a randomly chosen platter of wax might warm the cockles of my heart. And, indeed, the cockles of my entire frosty body.
I got a whole lot of cockles what need a-warming.
And warmed they are, for Hilary has directed me to a delightful double LP on the Equinox Record Label.
One Year & A Day - A Sound Exposure Vol. 2.
Equinox is a record label run and founded by German DJ, DJ Scientist. This is the second full length release on the label and features a whole host of different artists blurting out a raft of different sounds (all loosely held together with a core of hip hoppish beats and electronicky noodlings). If you shuffle on over to his MySpace page you can endear yourself to your ears no end by copping a listen to the promo mix of the album.
Hilary's first hunt unearthed a surprising treat.
Blue Riddim Band - (unititled?)
A well manicured, yet surprised, eyebrow was raised by Hilary because the makers of the sweet reggae music, emanating from the record, happened to be from Kansas City. Right down the road from where she is from.
How their existence had eluded her for so long, she knows not. But she is most glad to have found them now.
Click away and hear for yourself the surprisingly fine sounds of Kansas City reggae.
Whilst i continued to shimmy shammy about on my bony behind, listening to the 2LP of beaty goodness, Sol was sent into her record stash to unearth a second melodic morsel.
This time she returned chomping at the bit of a copy of the Brother Ali - Champion Remix 12''.
A twelve inch she declared as being 'the perfect vinyl single'. Three of her favorite tracks from the Champion EP. Well worth the pennies spent in buying it.
And still my original choice rumbled on.
Forcing Miss Allen back into a box of vinyl to try to mine another sonic nugget.
And she struck gold.
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Continuing with the theme of talented white fellas making music, next up came the El Michels Affair and their LP, Sounding Out The City. According to Miss Allen, Todd Simon (the trumpeter of the Affair) is a nice dude. And most mightily talented to boot. More than recommendation enough for me to put this record on my wish list.
Finally Dj Scientist and friends released their magical musical grip on my foolish flappy ears and i was free to delve into the vinyl pile again.
Having delved, and delved well, i emerged triumphantly gripping a copy of The Bug's Dem A Bomb We featuring Warrior Queen on jukeboxy style 45.
The Bug is producer Kevin Martin. He has been using his insectoid moniker to release a steady stream of crunchy, dirty, noisy ragga/dancehall for a while now. Previously he has made similarly abrassive sounds as Techno-Animal (industrial noisy hip-hop) and God (industrial noisy industrial metal music) with Justin Broadrick. Young Sol is fond of Mr. Broadrick. I am fond of Mr. Martin. Yet neither of us have heard any God and i've only copped a very brief listen to some Techno-Animal far away in the dim and distant past. I suspect we will both try to remedy this musical oversight and endeavor to discover exactly what kind of sound the two crunchy sound making misters make together.
With the El Michel's Affair still beguiling her ears, i got a chance to grab another record.
One of my all time favorite artists, Caetano Veloso with his Transa album.
This album was Caetano's third (and final) recording made whilst being exiled in London for a couple of years. The album blends Brazilian Tropicalia with the rock'n'roll of London, with lyrics in English and Portuguese. All coming together delightfully and allowing Caetano to express all the home sickness and nostalgia he felt for his beloved and lost Brazil. It is a really fine album.
Check out the first track on the album 'You Don't Know Me'.
Having had her mind well and truly blown by the awesome second side of the El Michels Affair LP, Suttree's Adoptive Mother needed new listenings.
And these new listenings were again of the talented white guy variety.
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A limited promotional 7''...Thrash Unreal b/w You Must Be Willing by the Florida punk band Against Me! lifted from their 4th album, New Wave.
The flea-bitten Adoptive Mother proclaimed herself satisfied with the 45, in particular the flip side.
Rattling through their punky songs double quick, as those speedy guitar playing punk types are prone to, meant Rabbit Lovin' Hilary required another record.
This finally brought to an end the run of white boy music...landing a Jimmy McGriff record, Countdown, from 1983 on her lap.
This was the Hammond organ playing soul-jazzman's first record on Milestone. Rabbit Fan Hilary found it maybe a little too 80's sounding in places but still considered it a solid date. Strong sax apparently. Yeah.
SAX, baby.
It was at this point that things started to get a little weird.
Whilst sharing sounds with each other we tend to witter a whole lot. Ocassionally this wittering slips, shamelessly, into woefully inept double entendre making foolery.
After mentioning sax, strong sax at that, we engaged in a duel of such word nerdery.
All well and good...except...as we linguistically cavorted, Jimmy McGriff decided to play a tune called 'Blow Your Own Horn', thereby completely whooping us both at our own game.
The swine.
And then my next record selection came up...
Spankrock - Put That Pussy On Me b/w The Sr Yeah Megamix (Money Studios, 2005).
Big booty Baltimore party sounds in a 2 Live Crew style...with big booty on the cover.
Was the vinyl trying to join in with our frivolous banter?
Quite possibly, it seemed.
Saxy Sol's next choice unearthed a gritty, funky, bluesy LP.
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Nothing obviously saucy going on with Howlin' Wolf's The Howlin' Wolf Album (Chess, 1969). As you can probably tell from the photo of the cover, Howlin' wasn't overly fond of this particular record. However Horn Blower Hilary is pretty fond of it. She was also fond of the track names, as she demonstrated with her next message to me...
'while you are Down In the Bottom with your spankrock album, i'm going to let in my Back Door Man who happens to be Three Hundred Pounds of Joy. he's gonna give me the Evil, Red Rooster which is Built For Comfort and i'm going to be Moanin' At Midnight'
Yeah, the records are definitely trying to join in.
Cheeky bastards.
Having recovered from the intrusive behaviour of our records, it was time for me to grab something new to listen to.
And it was actually something new, since i hadn't played the record before.
Sixtoo feat. Damo Suzuki - Boxcutter Emporium b/w Storm Clouds & Silver Linings (Ninja Tune, 2004)
The tracks are from Sixtoo's album Chewing on Glass and Other Miracle Cures, which i have listened to many times. So there was nothing new to listen to really. However i am always happy to listen to some Sixtoo and always enjoy the freeform, improvised yammerings of Damo Suzuki (best known for his time as singer with the krautrock band Can). A most pleasing listen.
Howlin' Wolf was still howling, leaving me to change records alone.
I was directed towards another 12''.
Antennae - Water (Botanica Del Jibaro, 2005)
More politically and socially conscious hip hop from the Botanica Del Jibaro label - deep, melodic and funky. As with most of the releases on this label, highly recommended.
It was starting to get late and i was staring to get hungry.
So i sidled off to the refridgerator to see what i could find for my rumbling belly.
I found an egg.
One egg.
Misery and woe.
Unfortunately this is a common occurence. Being an impoverished, unskilled and inept warehouse worker both my wallet and my cupboards are regularly bare.
Any food parcels anyone might want to put together will be gratefully received. Feel free to slather any such foody produce with terrible poisons to avenge your poor eyes for having to wade through all this awful, stuttering prose. I don't mind. Just as long as i have something to eat.
Damn, i'm hungry.
Meanwhile Howlin' Wolf had now quit hollering.
Leaving Hilary to holler for a new record choice alone.
One random selection later and a highly contented Hilary expressed her delight at the choice, exclaming that she had been wanting to listen to the album forever.
Della Reese - Black Is Beautiful (1970, Avco Embassy)
Now i had never heard of Della before. A quick internetty search revealed that she is mostly famous for starring in a schmalzy, overly emotional sounding television series 'Touched By An Angel'.
However before she starred in this heart-warming, inspirational televisual monstrosity, she began her career as a gospel and then a jazz singer. The album Black Is Beautiful marked something of a departure from her musical roots being a more funky and soulful affair.
It also has a cover of a Gene McDaniels song. Gene McDaniels was a singer and songwriter who wrote a whole lot of socially and politically conscious songs. Check out his two albums on Atlantic Records, Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse and Outlaw, if you get a chance. Good stuff.
Anyways the song covered by Della on her album is the protest song, Compared To What. And what many consider the definitive version of this song is on an album i got to listen to the last time we played this vinyl playing game, Les McCann & Eddie Harris's Swiss Movement.
Once again our record collections are proving to be companion sets.
As for Della's version of the song and the rest of the album, Hollerin' Hilary considers it really uplifting and fine. Such praise and the fact that Compared To What is on the album has prompted me to order a copy of the album for myself.
This game is fun...fun and financially crippling.
I needed something new to listen to, so the Cackling Harridan Hilary decided to send me on an arduous vinyl safari and demanded that i count 4,987 records in from the right of my record stack. Okay, so it was only 52 in from the right. But it was late by now. I was tired. I am old. It felt like i was counting to 4,987. And probably took as long.
Once again the records seemed to be trying to toy with us.
I returned from my safari with a record with animals all over the front cover...
Isan - Clockwork Menagerie (2LP, with bonus 7'', on Morr Music from 2002).
This 2LP is a collection of earlier, rare and hard to get hold of tracks released by a fledging Isan (who are an English electronic duo...by which i mean they are a duo who create electronic music rather than the hybrid electricity-human creation of some mad English scientist).
I'm not really a huge fan of Isan. I was initially intrigued by what sounds they might make given that the duo don't actually physically work together but, rather, live miles apart and communicate their musical ideas by post and the internet. However most of what i have heard from them has been a little too twee and cosy, pop-electronica for my liking. But this is an interesting insight into an earlier incarnation with them melding the familiar poppy melodies of Isan with a little sprinkling of experimental electronic jiggery-pokery. All in all not a bad listen.
With the soulful songstress Della running out of steam, Shuffling Sol needed to be sent shuffling about her home again in search of something new to listen to.
She returned, a short shuffle later, with a record by the dead sexy Carly Simon. No Secrets, released in 1972 on Elektra.
This was Carly's third album, ably produced by super-able super-producer Richard Perry (one of the most ridiculously sucessful producers in music history). The album contains her hit single, You're So Vain.
A song i have loathed for a good, long time. Probably because of the interminable number of times i have had to hear it playing on radios.
The No Longer Shuffling But Contentedly Swaying And Singing Sol assured me that it is, in fact, a very fine album with instrumental values which she considered way ahead of their time. Probably in no small part due to the aforementioned super-producer and the host of talented musicians gathered together to perform on the album. All held together by Carly Simon's own inimitable voice.
So maybe i'll try to quell my revulsion of You're So Vain and listen to this album some day.
With the not entirely unpleasant electrical warblings of Isan still floating from my speakers, it was Madam Allen who once again had to dig into a crate.
And she did dig out a companion safari album for my Clockwork Menagerie.
Sonny Fortune - Serengeti Minstrel (1977, Atlantic)
Post-bop, funky jazz stylings from the Philadelphian saxophonist which Madam Allen appreciated and, doubtless, bopped to good and hard.
Whilst the post-bop bopping continued apace, the more gentler sounds of Isan had come to a finish.
Leaving me in need of a new pick.
And the new pick laid the ground work for the scary culmination of the evening's impossibly freaky, weird record coincidences.
Hilary directed me to the record 2 UP in the second vertical stack. Teasing me with her choice of easily accesible stack and then forcing me to have to dig down to the bottom of the darn thing.
Yes. The bottom.
The round, juicy bottom.
We weren't about to let any bottom get by us without a comment.
So as i rummaged about the round, juicy ass of my vinyl stack, Hilary's last record came to end and she requested further listenings.
Distracted by the thoughts of bottoms and my own late-night empty stomach (for yes, i was now hankering for a midnight snack something rotten), i directed Hilary to a crate and finally freed up my choice.
Capital D - Enough Already b/w Vent (All Natural Inc, 2004).
A couple of tunes and instrumentals from Cap D's 2004 solo release, Insomnia.
Capital D is the rapper from the Hip Hop duo All Natural. The other half being DJ Tone B. Nimble. They hail from Chicago and if you don't own anything by All Natural you need to remedy that situation with uncommon haste. Easily one of my all time favorite rappers, you really can't go wrong when Capital D is on the mic.
Whilst i was happily rocking out to Enough Already, allowing Capital D's flow to distract me from the hunger gnawing at my insides and further thoughts of bottoms, a big, bad HOLY SHIT of an exclamation exploded onto my computer screen. Blurted out by the usually demure and relaxed but now Fully Freaked Out Fraulein Allen.
Quivering with nervous anticipation i awaited her next email and the terrifying photograph it apparently contained...
Wildman Steve - Midnight Snack (Raw Records, date unknown)
Juicy round bottoms?
Check.
Midnight snack?
Check.
Wildman...Steve?
Check.
Mate.
Yikes.
Apart from being the terrifying results of some black vinyl magic conjuration, mucking about with our delicate minds and cast by some tricksome and capricious vinyl-game playing prankster deity, the Wildman Steve record is a comedy record. In much the same vein as Rudy Ray Moore or Richard Pryor. Only spoken, according to the still mostly terrified and gibbering Hilary, in an intense yelling southern preacher style.
But with gags like:
"i've never heard of a good war... ...but i have heard of a good piece."
I think i could handle the intense delivery.
Hilary could not and decided to listen to only the first side.
Leaving us both needing new choices and possibly some kind of anti-black magic amulets to protect us from further worrisome record grabbing coincidences.
Fortuitously the next pair of choices were bereft of more terrors.
Instead i ended up with another hip hop 12''.
Insight - Seventeen MCs b/w Visual Audio (Brick Records, 2005)
Insight is the MC from Y-Society. The vinyl game had previously unearthed their deput LP for me to listen to. This 12'' has Insight producing and rapping. Seventeen MCs, taken from his LP Blast Radius, is Insight showing off and adopting 17 different styles and personas for the track.
Hilary emerged from her vinyl induced catatonic state with a Depeche Mode LP, Black Celebration.
Usually i would expect the dull, samey sounds of Depeche Mode to lull anyone, fool enough to listen to them, into a catatonic state. But it seems the reverse happened this time.
Neither Miss Allen nor i are really fans of Depeche Mode.
But after grabbing a traumatic voodoo comedy record which revealed my life and thoughts on it's malevolent cover, it seems Hilary's brain was numb enough to appreciate their gloomy, maudlin tones.
She even went as far as to claim the record wasn't bothering her and that it was quite likeable.
Damn you, foul god of black magic vinyl. You've gone and frazzled poor Hilary's brain.
Irked and disturbed by this ghastly turn of events i decided i needed one final record for the evening.
Preferably something noisy and loud to banish the demonic vinyl and any lingering thoughts of Depeche Mode from my mind for good.
Result!
Violent Onsen Geisha - Balloon Collector In The Wilderness (Who Is Totally Naked) b/w Real Wild Thing (Japan Overseas, 1995)
Violent Onsen Geisha is Masaya Nakahara and he makes noise. And plenty of it.
He is part of the Japanese noise music scene. His take on the music, though, tends to be a little more whimsical and downright silly than most other noise artists.
Whilst i was being slightly bemused by the splenetic version of Wild Thing my ears were being assailed by, Hilary had finished with Depeche Mode and required one last record for the evening as well.
Kool And The Gang - Ladies Night
Pretty much the opposite end of the spectrum to my Japanese Noise 7''...some disco tinged funk from Kool And The Gang.
Possibly because of the lengthy vinyl listening session we were coming to end of...or because of that darn accursed Wildman Steve record...Hilary ended up not feeling quite as pumped as Kool And The Gang seemed to be trying to make her feel.
I was flagging a whole bunch too.
So, with yawns aplenty from me and mutterings about scary record selections from Hilary, we decided to part ways.
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