WOEBOT

It's k-punk's birthday soon, and he's always been plagueing me for a comp of Mover/Gloomy Stuff, so I took the time to dig out and go through all my Gloomcore tracks and cherry-picked 2 CDs of stuff, which I recorded to disk from vinyl.

Does anyone know these tracks? Was I the only person besides blissblogger (?) who managed to source any of these at the time? Does anyone have any recherche recommendations?

I found 80% of my Gloomcore in one go. In Spitalfields market there was an extremely dodgy little store run by a creature (OK thats unkind ) called Tog. I found over 100 PCP, Cold Rush and Dance Ecstacy releases in one of the bargain bins. It took a very long time to convince the bloke to actally sell them to me (3 weeks ringing him up and pestering him up) He said he needed to get them priced accurately, but I think eventually gave up, and sold them to me for a quid or so each. I actually went through them a few years ago (2000?) and weeded out the crap, quite thoroughly and well, if I remember so no gasping at the back. Sacre blue! etc

Was very weirded out at the time cos I was a member of the Alien Underground Gabba mailing list (where I found quite a few other PCP tracks, that along with the Soul and Dance M&V where I scored Spiritual Combat and Into Mekong Centre, actually Spiritual Combat was the only track i wished I'd put on here, but must have forgotten to hook it out). Anyway Alien Underground had an editorial where they said their container had been broken into and a load of PCP records had been stolen. I did REALLY worry that, given the quite shady nature of Tog, he might have been complicit as a Gabba fence. But, BUT, the dates were wrong. My records were available BEFORE the alleged break-in. Still it was a bit uncomfortable, though I stopped short of ringing Simon Underground and telling him lest he impound my Gloomcore

Just for the record, in the past I have permanently boycotted 2 record stores who I found knowingly sold stolen records. I'm a righteous git at the best of times.

AND BEFORE YOU ASK, NO, YOU CAN'T HAVE A COPY OF THESE CDs.

NO!

This one's for the k-punk alone.
Though I was amazed how much Arcadipane was available at Gemm, so get thee hence.

ps For the record, two of these tunes "untitled" and the Slaves to the Rave Remix come from a cassette Simon made me back in 1997 (!!!). I have a version of Slaves to the Rave on vinyl as well, but its the original. The remix, in this instance, is superior.

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:38 AM | Permalink

Back in April when Bossman Reynolds was over I excitedly pitched him the idea that I was going to attempt to go down to Rinse to write a piece for my mag FACT. Simon replied kind of casually, "Oh I'm going down there with Martin Clark tomorrow night." I was totally crest-fallen. Just typical I thought. I was green with envy when i read Blackdown's subsequent note here. Later on I mentioned to Martin Clark aka Blackdown in an email that I would have loved to had the chance to visit the station, but thought it was pretty much a done deal. So I was surprised when he said he didnt think it'd matter at all. I plucked up courage and asked Reynolds, who also didnt seem to mind. Subsequently, thanks to Blackdown, I made contact with the station's management and arranged a date. Also luckily for me the man Luke Davis agreed to come along and keep me company. We've both (Luke and I kept shtum about the visit online) really out of deference to Simon, but as Blissblogger has pointed out the Rinse visit was only one part of his incipent piece. Whats more FACT has been on the streets for nearly a month. Anyway, without further procrastination here's my uncut version of the piece replete with photos.

-

Wiley/Trim/Maximum/Jammer/Syer

Darren and DJ Glamma pick Heronbone and I up at the tube. We're on the way to Rinse FM, London's most notorious, high-profile pirate station, running now for over ten years it has recently reached a critical momentum with it's Friday night DJ, Logan Sama (the Tim Westwood of Grime), being picked up by Kiss FM and Roll Deep, the station's biggest resident crew, about to make a media splash with their debut LP in May. The ever-modest Rinse management have kept the ball rolling since the twilight years of Jungle and its the continuity of presence which they've given the station, as much as their skill in maneuvering within the charged political atmosphere of Grime and their flair for picking artists for the station's roster, which has been instrumental in its success.

Wiley lets us into the studio. We hasten to the basement. The space is divided in three parts, an unlit area visible only with the light of one's mobile phone, comprising a kitchen (a transmitter's LEDs blinking beside a chrome sink in the dark) and toilet. Further on one enters a long low ceilinged room, the floor carpeted in red, with walls of grooved varnished mdf and sporting two flouncey sofas (from Courts?) which nestle beside the sound booth wherein Tubby martials a scorching set from MCs Bruza and Footsie. It's a shock to be confronted so intimately with artists whose work I've followed for some time, whose personas I feel so familiar with. The last time I came this close to Wiley was at Eskimo Dance in November 2003 when he and his entourage performed a walk-by surveying the length of the thousand or so strong queue. In such intimate company it's easy to forget what a huge cultural presence he is. He's introduced to us William and cadges a Stella off us.

Skepta reading off the missed calls.

Darren feels a little defensive about the station's illegal stature. Certainly we don't care. The DTI's stated reasons for shutting down pirates and impounding transmitters (at £400 a pop) is that they interfere with frequencies reserved for the emergency services. This is quite obviously rubbish, it's clearly commercial imperatives which motivate the policy to keep real estate on the FM dial clear for license payers. However you'd be wrong to assume there was any money to be made in pirates, Darren reflects somewhat ruefully that at the end of the month, even taking into account the financial contributions crews make for the honor of going on air, they usually are out of pocket. Of course Rinse is but one part of a mini-media empire, operating as a promotional focal point for other more profitable ventures (an Rinse CD is mooted right now), but it still disappoints them that they will imminently lose one of their better DJs in Logan Sama to a major station (where he'll earn good money, better money than Darren does) and that Radio 1xtra can descend with it's chequebook and rebrand their innovations. I ask him if they ever intend going legal, but it would be costly and in going off-air for three years (as the DTI stipulates) it would be difficult to maintain momentum. Wiley hi-jacks the conversation. It'll only take one person to strike gold he counsels us and it'd be sorted, then we'd make the station legal. It's sobering to reflect that the government aren't their only problem. The placement of transmitters on certain tower-blocks frequently inspires a territorial response from "Urban" music fans themselves. Time is often wasted explaining to irate callers that, no, the equipment isn't being moved on their so say so. Apparently for smaller stations this is a wearingly persistent problem. Transmitters are also frequently stolen.

Wiley

DJ Glamma fields a call from Dogzilla. Dogzy is pushing a fifteen-year-old MC on Rinse. Darren wearily insists that the guy isn't ready yet and again Wiley intervenes. Wiley has been down in Dagenham recently and, perhaps with a trace of humor, insists that Dagenham is overflowing with talented MCs like Dogzy and Roll Deep's own Syer. I was down there the other day, he says, and everyone one was coming up to me, greeting me, "Hey Wiley!" There's something in the air right now in Dagenham, he volunteers, again with something like a grin. Darren insists the guy isn't ready yet, but Wiley, who seems to telescope in stature at times during the evening (you could swear he was eight foot tall) persists in fighting the case for this unknown white 15 year-old he's never heard or met. It's weirdly touching and precisely the reason Grime has a future. I remark to Darren that it must be difficult to strike a balance. It is he insists, enjoying Wiley's entreaties but at the same time obviously a little put-upon. I suppose that was Jungle's weakness I remark, that it's self-appointed cabal failed to let new talent through. They did us a favor, we got our own thing, comes back the answers, but even now not without a shade of bitterness and regret.

D Double arrives sporting a Dirtee Skank t-shirt, some kind of indication that the rumors of him being signed to Dizzy's own label are true, looking incredibly focussed, maybe even glowing with some lambent energy. He shakes hands gently before wandering through to the sound booth. Cloudy with sinsemilla smoke, and throbbing with Tubby's mix of his own slickly-produced Grime and the latest dubplates. Two decks face the east wall and a black and white TV screen trained on the studio entrance rests in the far corner. D Double hits his stride: "more bars than the west end" as we press against the back wall. He's so nimble and ferociously angular it's breath-taking. The house mobile shows 70 plus missed calls, people registering their delight. It's interval time and the adverts roll.

Roll Deep's DJs Maximum and Karnage sidle through. In the meantime other members of the Roll Deep entourage file in, appearing first as ghostly figures on the street on the CCTV. Trim, Flow Dan, Syer, Roachie, producer Skepta in turn cram into the tiny room and the rhyme temperature rises. Grime MCs are very much like super-heroes in a Marvel comics vein, put five or more together and their magnificence increases exponentially, each of their special powers complimenting the others, collectively united against a common foe. Wiley steps up and tips the balance. The vibe begins to reach fever pitch, Maximum starts pulling rewinds as the massive ignites like a chorus of drunken pirates, chanting eachother's verses. Just as Trim takes the mic and bemoans the absence of key crew in the form of Riko Dan (the acknowledged MC don dada) and Scratchy D, we're thrown a complete wild card, and none other than Jammer pitches up. Everyone's sheer glee ratches up another few notches, Jammer (though strictly speaking not an MC) takes the mic and delivers a hoarsely hilarious set. Shouts of "nekkle" and "shower-face" trigger yet more rewinds.

Tinchy Stryder

Roll Deep melt away into the night, supplanted by the less rambunctious but more tightly focussed Ruff Sqwad. I talk at some length to Tinchy Stryder their slyly intelligent ring-leader, complimenting him on their latest tunes "Bring it down", "Jam Pie" (apparently a collaboration with Jammer) and Tinchy's new track "Underground" the video of which is now heavily rotated on Channel U, before myself slipping away, reflecting on what couldn't have been a more enervating experience, a memory I'll always treasure.

Posted by WOEBOT at 10:48 AM | Permalink

Anyone else picked this up? I was a little disappointed, but its not bad. What it does have in it's favour is that they're actually making a sound. Does anyone else know what I mean by this? Its as if Wire music is so nebulous and intertextual that bohos are actually afraid to strike out, be direct, not be determined to make record-collection music.

Actually I reckon its not as difficult as people make out to be original, people have just become used to being toadies. Theyv've got used to the emotional security that comes with not being original. Original may even be the wrong word (thinking out loud) cos this isnt that startling innovative, praise the lord, its just direct. Unfussy.

Also the other thing I thought was that maybe this signals the end of "The Dominating Hegemony" of ambience or post-ambience over Wire music. By that I mean that the mag, since Toop's "Ocean of Sound" has pretty much explored every cul-de-sac leading out of the market phenomenon know as Ambience. Avant-Garde Classical music, Free-Jazz, Glitchtronica etc all this I reckon, in its purest essence, is consumed and construed as a form of Ambient music. OK you say Keenan and his post-Bangs Rock-into-Free music trip, hmm, I dunno if that would be sustained by a Rock market. I reckon that's been sustained by a post-Ambient market. Certainly thats how most people I know ended up with a taste for the Avant-Garde....

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:36 AM | Permalink

STILL
REMAINS
PUBLIC GUILT

One third of metal-maelstrom Hip Hop combo Dalek, where he provides pyrotechnic performances as deranged as those of Yamatsuka Eye, Still sees himself as a turntablist with a difference. While not wanting to demean the craft of Qbert and DJ Disk, Still is keen to use his 1200s to create his own sonic palate. Rather than manipulating the tone arm in a staccato manner in moves such as the tear, flare, orbit, twiddle, crab, tweak or scribble to create rhythmic patterns, he instead goes in completely the opposite direction using the apparatus of the deck to seek out long ambient passages of sound, using amongst other source material tone arm feedback, background ambience picked up by the needle and cartridge at concerts as well as procuring static and scratches from vinyl though treating these sounds with effects pedals.

The process of assembling “Remains” was reputedly as long as two years, a result of Still’s practise of assembling the music; starting off by allowing the tape to spool on unrestrained before later painstakingly piecing together the (often more melodic) sections and adding overdubs. Still, like Dalek, has a quite startlingly catholic and surprisingly Rock-influenced set of influences for a Hip Hop producer, Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”, Flying Saucer Attack, Merzbow and Tim Buckley all get the nod. The results of his approach are equally anomalous to the turntablist canon (notwithstanding the likes of Philip Jeck), which though remarkable for their deep textures are not dissimilar to The Aphex Twin’s “Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2”

While his approach is novel it’s difficult to discern how turntablism as a technique actually enriches “Remains”, who’s crackling vistas, though often lovely, could have been created in the black box of a hard disk. Thus there is a confusing yaw in the CDs execution, which slightly mars its integrity.

Posted by WOEBOT at 12:23 PM | Permalink

SMEGMA
RUMBLINGS
HANSON

Smegma’s instantly likeable, preposterously hairy junkyard clatter is puzzlingly robust and awe-inspiringly confident where much of todays slightly tepid Free-Folk shambling can sound a bit fey. But once you discover this gang of inspired Neanderthals actually started off on their cosmic trajectory in 1973, when The Godz were still together, it all starts to make sense. Smegma even played a part in the formation of The Los Angeles Free Music Society. Sealing its status as some kind of iconic document, deranged vocals are provided by none other than legendary rock hack Richard Meltzer (appearing here as Borneo Jimmy) lyricist for the Blue Oyster Cult and guiding light for D.Boon’s Minutemen.

These doyennes of liberated Rock aren’t teet-sucking post-modernists oblivious of the chemical bond between the methane of Avant-Garde sonics and their magmatic origins amid the molten rock of volcanized Folk music. “Worms”, “Moonleggs” and “Rumblings” strewn amidst the debris of clattering guitar skronk, beat poetry, squeeling woodwind and all manner of feedback actually Rock in a classical sense. These tracks recalling the messier quarters of Tav Falco’s Panther Burns and even the more unhinged Neil Young as much as elsewhere the ghost of Albert Ayler.

The accompanying video squeezed on the end of the CD (technology has come on in the ten years since their last LP!) with its collage of freight trains makes plain ”Rumblings” affection for machine power, check-shirt-clad working-class unionism and the righteous hobo mythologies of the USA. This is free music at its least prosaic, so while Smegma were rapturously received by power electronics audiences on the Wolf Eyes tour (whom they supported) and Jackie O Motherfucker fans will be sure to love them, they may even deserve a broader audience.

Posted by WOEBOT at 12:22 PM | Permalink

(absolutely no apologies whatsoever for posting this in the thought forum)

Lots obviously. If being a hipster actually means copying what other people do, making decisions based not on what is meritorious and splendid but what is a generational consensus. If it means not actually thinking for yourself and not thinking. If, I suppose, it means valuing something on the basis of its radiosity above anything else.

The thing is, almost everyone I know who would be pejoratively described as a "hipster" is almost by definition ahead of the curve. They're searchers (scarves fluttering in wind). They're actually the last people in the world to follow anyone's lead.

That last point though is maybe problematic. Radiosity. The thing about "hipsters" is that real quotient on the hipster-icity is their ability to sense what sounds "fresh". This could be genuinely problematic. (stepping back slightly) As someone who might be construed a "hipster" I often worry that always valuing something on the basis of its vital energy means that my listening (and this could equally apply to Art, Film whatevs) tends to be consumed in a heat of white light. Its quite often difficult to hear anything other than energy. Also seeking energy can obviously make one feel quite superficial, like a moth.

On the other hand, what is there but energy? This might seem like a vapid remark, but would you want to eat rotting vegetables? Who reads yesterdays papers? And although Bergson gets quite short shrift in these parts (you have to read the books themselves people, not trade in assumptions) isn't the vital force that which is most divine?

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 11:30 AM | Permalink

There's a resurgence on interest in this bloke's works, largely in these parts owing to Ariel Pink's championing of him (though now it appears they're no longer pals!?!) just last week i went here:

http://www.rsteviemoore.com/

which is slightly gruesome in the way that most outsider art is. what is it about outsider art that is so distinctly repellant? i suppose its difficult to qualify precisely what characterises an outsider artist, recognition of them seems to be more based on an instinctual reaction one (OK 'i') have upon being confronted by them. someone like harry partch for instance. you could argue he's an outsider, but somehow his vaulting ambition, enthusiasm for culture and historical adroitness (he's an archetypal modernist) compensate.

even someone like sun ra, who cons you into believing he's an outsider (and all the discourse around him suggest he is) plays ball with the zeitgest time and again. being a member of the AACM, signed to esp, even doing versions of funk (UFO) and Rap (Nuclear War) to keep his hand in. nah, Ra's not an outsider. ariel pink's the same too. he's no outsider, theres some kind of tension between the fame and obscurity in his case (maybe thats where his and rsm's rift founders) but THANK GOD, he's engaged with the here and now.

all the arguments in favour of outsider artists appear strong and valid, even more valid than those "locked within discourse with their time and place". you know, the indefatigable auteur shaking his fist at the corrupt body of capitalist-dominated toadying fake art. all thats bullshit i reckon. even more strongly i've begun to come of the opinion that the true artist is the person who self-conciously emulates rather him than strives for individuality. probably ancient chinese wisdom of some flavour but STILL anathema to the standard western romantic traditions of appreciation and enculturation.

maybe the refusal to engage with the broader culture instead of producing bracing originality engernders a kind of solipsistic hermetecism. the word wank immediately springs to mind.

when i hear r stevie moore's music, and actually no i'm not bothered that everyone from the rather charitable mr robert christagau downwards thinks he's some lost genius, i hear mildew and carpet-stains. of the 34 songs i've heard which are available to download off his site i've not heard a single one which doesnt make me wince. and c'mon who but a total idjut is going to make his bad songs available as a taster for the public?

sure there's sonic similarities to lots of things in there (i'm not valorising "connections" im just using it here as some kind of barometer for engagement) you can hear second-hand traces of paul mccartney's solo albums (being a bit snide here in case you need me to underline it )

two thoughts sprung to mind. one that r stevie moore might, even more than kylie minogue be the apposite "pop" artist in that he's only playing lipservice to the cultural groundswell of the day. actually, weirdly, listening to these quasi-demos gives me (shudders) the same feeling as listening to past-its-sell-by-date pop music like for instance brian and michael's "matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs" that unmistakable odour of public toilets (i'm no cottager honest guv!)

my other thought is that i'd rather (a thousand times over) listen to an honest failure. some poor band who falied in their absurd attempt to reach recognition, like i dunno The Associates or maybe even St Etienne (?) than some under-ambitious disapproving self-obsessed self-sufficent crackpot. you got to fucking put it out there, try to engage, even if you know everyone's going to think its crap.

r stevie moore=bad vibes

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Enjoyed this:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1679

via Blissblog:

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_blissout_archive.html#111823558391914615

except this slightly feeble definition of Rockism:

"For purposes of this discussion, rockism is an approach to music that uses the values of one genre as an unquestioned set of rules and then judges other music by those values."

Which makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

I thought long and hard and came up with this:

"For purposes of this discussion, rockism is an approach to music that uses a music's coordination within the matrix of previously released music as a criteria for its evaluation, thereby prioritising Geography, Tradition, Community and notions of Integrity."

How does that sound? Can anyone improve on it? Or even explain what Erick Bieritz was suggesting in clearer terms if you think I'm barking up the wrong tree and there is some kernel of truth to his assertion (I don't think there is, I just think he missed the mark on the definition).

I ought to opine that I really like the idea that Pop-ism is a useful self-regulating tendency on the otherwise unimpeachable tactic of Rockism.

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:34 AM | Permalink

I've always slightly glossed over this, just have never been that interested in it, not so sound mean or unkind its just been off my radar. However just recently I've found this bit of what they do http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/best/ quite useful in a journalistic kind of fashion.

I dont check it all that often, but its a useful snapshot of what some people think is hot and what is snot. Actually I dont tend to find any great surprises there but its good to be open to to new stuff (of course innit!). Its quite handy the way they link to that shop where you can check mp3s too, so for instance the Architecture in Helsinki record (which looked like it might be good) i was able to dismiss in one go (grins, im not exactly sounding that +ve am i?)

Anyway i was quite surprised to realise that Dave Stelfox, Martin Clark, Jess Harvell AND Phillip Sherburne now all have what amounts to a column there. All specialising on their chosen topic. Thats the bloggers man dem. And I'll admit that for a split second my tiny face fell, why hadnt they asked me (?!) and then i quite cheerfully and quickly came to the realisation that, well, I'm not actually an expert on anything (gurgle gurgle). And of course (ha!) if they had asked me (full of bravado) i would have turned them down instantly!

But you know, on the simplest level, Pitchfork, thats a good thing....

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 11:32 AM | Permalink

Just put together my latest CD-R round up of the Grime scene.

These are my favorite comercially-available tracks from the past six months:

------------------

1-3. Come from the Aim High Volume 2 CD.

4-9. An astonishing 6 tracks (all solid gold) are Ruff Sqwad tunes. These boys are really carrying the can for the whole scene at the moment. Damn I love them. A year or so ago (even after Anna) I was really sceptical of their talent, but believe, they've MORE than delivered the goods. So hot right now.

11-12. Come from the Aftershock Mix CD. Mixtapes seem to be sopping up alot of the "proper" release material. Combined with TD's and Wiley's seeming reluctance to actually put out music without a chance of serious remuneration.

13-14. Only two tracks from Jammer's slew of releases. Murcul Man is crap but I have a real affection for it. Luka will tell you why.

15-16 Fire Camp Bizniss. "No" trumps "Pow" for me anyday. "Backwards" a bit daft, but it just about makes the grade (only two tracks I couldnt fit on this comp, usually I cast aside 5-10)

19. Ebony and Ivory, an obscure but fantastic track. There seem to be a lot less of these one-offs from small crews. My other 3 compilations Grime Scene, Grime04aCD and (its imaginatively titled successor) Grime04bCD were full of this kind of spirited orphanry. Not a good sign really, shows consolidation around "the names" Reminds me of the times near the end of my dalliance with Jungle when THE ONLY things I was picking up were Full Cycle and V tracks (which was more or less the same label).

22-23 Two very hot instrumentals. The more I hear "Shank" the more I think it stands up on its own. Heard a bloke called Tim playing this the other night at the ICA (totally Dissensus set he was spinning) went and said hi, and met man-like Trevor Jackson for the first time (anyway, i digress )

Original Thread Here

Posted by WOEBOT at 09:45 AM | Permalink