He’s a crafty old bastard that Reynolds. Tell me the future he says. If I do, can I get an A&R job Simon?
The blissed-out one’s idea of an update of his points-to-the-future article in The Lime Lizard in 1994 has put me in a right spin. Do I ignore the entry (as in: “I’m not telling you!”) but then risk looking the copyist when his collation is exactly the same as mine would have been? Do I trust him to accurately credit my ideas? (Paranoid as ever) Will he be upset if…….I dunno? Do I want to be strong-armed into laying all my best cards on the table anyway?
After thinking long and hard on the matter I’ve decided that I would blog up here my responses. That way no one will be under the impression that any of this comes from him (So difficult to escape your shadow oh master!) Also I’m hoping (raises eyes to the skies and gives supplication) that what was once full, and which thus is rendered empty will again be filled anew. Also, now we’re talking stocks and shares, If I big up my own collection, it can only increase it’s own worth (I’m as crafty as the best of them!) My only restraint here being that I’m not going to name names in many cases, only genres. It’s getting to easy for all you eBay/Gemm jockeys.
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MY 1994 POINTERS:
As a general rule the following prove that it’s never a good idea to believe that culture is capable of much imagination, and that in my case (and please forgive this little arrogance) it’s better to assume that my own tastes are going to be everyone else’s in ten years time. (I know, I know, horrible to say, but in this instance it’s true):
WHAT I SAID:
1) BIG BAND CUT UP.
Now no laughing in the back! I pitched this to every man and his dog. People on the tube. Strangers in the park. I saw some kind of collision happening between Ellington (one of my heroes), Ra and Hip-Hop/Dance Music. Actually the new Herbert album proves me to be a little “on” here as I guess do The Cinematic Orchestra and a few Coldcut things. However all of these are decidedly dreadful and perfect examples of being careful what you wish for.
2) SONGWRITING IN DANCE MUSIC.
Ask Simon. I was hitting him with this ages ago (now buried somewhere in an EEC Mountain size deluge of emails probably). Slightly came to fruition with The Beta Band, Badly Drawn Boy (which went horribly wrong just before the LP, which actually I like in a Nick Drake-y kind of way), Leila (oh no!), Shantel and even The Horrorist (c/o Reynolds)
WHAT I WAS LISTENING TO:
1) POST-PUNK
A Director I worked for gave me his entire record collection (10 boxes, cos I asked, amazing!) It was a perfect time capsule of 1979-1983 full of both hip stuff (Ze, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Zapp, late B52s, Vivien Goldman, The Associates) and okey doke not bad stuff (Fun Boy Three, Kid Creole, Imagination, Lynx). It mashed up nicely with the Tricky Kid/Massive Attack stuff I was listening too, and really made me dig up my own Post-Punk collection (to give you an idea, 10 of the tracks of Launderette were stuff I owned well before this)
2) AFRICAN MUSIC
That’s a whole other story. One day (maybe in November when I’m off this course) I’m gonna give you the full Director’s cut. We’ll call it “Africa” month.
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OK you smart-arsed git, I hear you saying, that was probably all complete bollocks. We don’t trust you, you, you slimy turd! If you’re so f****** clever tell us where it’s all going to go next, without going crying to your so-called-friend Simon “Celebrity Journalist” Reynolds and cribbing his stuff you pathetic clone. (And you think some people are harsh on me, listen to my inner voice!)
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COME IN YOUR TIME IS UP:
First of all lets mop up:
1) Arthur Russell: A god of course, but bled dry with the exception of reissues of scraps (I have these and they’re not worthy of your attention) and The Tower of Meaning and Instrumentals LPs (the word boring springs to mind).
2) Ardkore: Sad to say but……..
3) Terry Callier: Enough folk-isms already!
4) Lee Perry: There are so many other brilliant Jamaican Roots Producers. Give Lee a rest.
5) The Velvet Underground: The greatest band ever (of course!) but now giving too much weight to diverse stuff like Tony Conrad’s re-hashes, endless Angus MacLise re-issues (I had a MacLise poem read at my wedding, but you know one LP would do), Lou Reed projects and by extention the eighth wave of Velvet’s copyists (now on a minimalist tip).
6) Musique Concrete.
7) David Axelrod.
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LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET:
1) Post-Punk
2) Disco.
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THE TRAIN IS LEAVING THE STATION.
Retro revivals gathering steam:
1) Blissed Out: Poor old Reynolds, he’s been dreading this. Just look at the cover of the new Jockey Slut, I quote: ”My Bloody Valentine. How the wall of sound space-rockers have shaped today.”
2) Early Dancehall: Soul Jazz have decided early Dancehall is now dead enough to be safe for clod-hopping Beatniks.
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……….IS THE NEW NIGERIA/ETHIOPIA
OK you’ve got the Strut (RIP) Comps and the Shrine Comps and the Fela Kuti Box Sets and the entire Etiopiques series etc etc
1) Mali
2) Guinea
3) Zimbabwe
4) South Africa
Cloudy heads will be unlikey to latch onto the sweet gentle music of the Congo, Senegal and Madagascar. They like it dark, hard and weird.
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……IS THE NEW BRAZIL
Argentina.
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RETRO DANCE.
OK so you’ve found all those old Ardkore records….now what?
1) Early UK Garage.
Time marches on…
2)) Late Chicago.
After Acid, before Relief.
3) Gloomcore.
This one is going to keep fingers dusty!
4) Early New York House.
As per my entry in the Gangsta Techno thing.
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SO HIP MY FINGERS ACHE TYPING IT
1) Vanity 6 and early Prince
2) Bleep’n’Bass
3) The Associates
4) The Minutemen
5) Glen Brown
6) Gil Evans (toss away your Ra!)
7) Early Einsturzende Neubauten.
8) Early 80s Conny Plank (I have a new cache of this stuff, snicker….)
9) Rock on 99 Records (as in NOT dance)
10) Francois Rabbath
11) Harry Hosono.
12) The Black Dog (the early work, am gonna work on Ken to get this reissued)
13) DJ Premier
14) Egyptian Lover
15) Juice Box
16) Retroactive
17) Field Recordings (the height of capitalist-commodity-feitishisation-sickness i know!)
18) Bollywood
19) Classical Music
etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc
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WHO I WILL ALWAYS HOLD IN THE HIGHEST ESTEEM DESPITE THEIR ENDLESS FLOGGING TO DEATH AT THE QUALITY END OF THINGS/PERENNIALS:
1) Jimi Hendrix (as I was saying to Michelangelo the other day…..)
2) Can
3) Neu
4) La Monte Young (How art thou guru?)
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How do I feel? Naked! Spent! Fragile! In need of a stiff drink! I’ve held a bit back just so I can go, aaah but that was one of the things I didn’t mention. There are also going to be things I’ve completely forgotten about, I’ve only been fairly rigorous putting this together. I only hope all you other saddos are as generous to Reynolds with your nest-eggs as I’ve been and so I get some shit back in return. As I was whingeing to Tim, it’s all give-give-give at TWANBOC!
Posted by Woebot at May 10, 2003 09:56 PM