WOEBOT

Technicolor Shuts Down.

If you didn't notice Jess Harvell's Technicolor has shut up shop. Actually I missed the party, though thanks to Google cache-ing checked out a little. Excellent superbly informed writing. Read between the lines at Jess's recent NYLPM post (Monday February 17th 2003) and worked out Jess is fed up with the whole palaver, even angry at all this open-source pettiness. He makes the point elsewhere that we should all grow up and make money from writing.

I don't intend to blog forever. I've given myself a theoretical year online, some commentators say the average blog lasts three months (of frenzied activity) then peters out, I'm not ruling that out either. Are people getting fed up with with the sheer volume of blogs? Have a look at DJ Martian's compilation and shudder. Does anyone feel that the more voices the less interesting the phenomena,? Notice that Google have bought Pyra (Makers of Blogger), we're in for alot more of this stuff.

I, despite sounding like "monsieur-le-plus-hip" am a classic Johnny-come-lately. I'm always the last one on the bandwagon. I'm exactly the kind of dork who drives true hipsters like Jess crazy. I don't want to put words into Jess's mouth but the dude is so sick of the net he aint even replied to my email. I waited and waited before posting this.

I stand by my little effort. I've no problem with thousands of music blogs. An evening spent combing through the aforementioned DJ Martian list revealed 4-5 which I rated. That's only 4 or 5 people writing about music whose writing and insights I valued. So what if everyone and their dog wants to have a bash, maybe other people like their blogs and think mine's piffle. Let's not forget that many bloggers have jobs already (I'm not about to chuck in Animation). Maybe I'm being paranoid but why do people assume that because one's not earning money from a practice that its irrelevant. I am often a victim of this thinking, I worry (obsessively) about paying the bills like everyone else.bou

Amateur has come to mean "bad", but why? Some of the greatest things of the world are the work of amateurs. A case in point, and a particulary apt example for many reasons, not least because this web page (In case you hadn't noticed this is my own URL, not hosted by Blogspot) is probably floating on it: Apache and or even Linux. These, in case you didn't know are the fruit of thousands of boffins (lost deep within the lines of UNIX) tinkering and collaborating, disagreeing, coming up with new suggestions and twists on the vision. A massive Pan-Global amateur endeavour. The virtual equivalent of thousands of potting sheds at the end of thousands of gardens. Maybe music journalism isn't so consequential, but frankly you're asking the wrong guy to give the reasons why.

Recently a remark DJ Shadow made in an interview made me stop in my tracks. He was in the basement of a record store and said referring to the records (paraphrase) "Gee this is so humbling, look at all these broken dreams." The suggestion was that all these artists suffered the tragedy of not making it in the music business. They weren't dignified like him (maybe I'm being unkind) and talented enough to make a career of it. Er hello Shadow, anyone home? Can you imagine a single Ardkore/Jungle/Garage record ever being made if the artists sincerely believed they were going to make a living out of it. More often than not they were having a laugh. Amateurs the lot of 'em.

Finally I'd point out that blogging about music circumvents grim Industry back-handing. I don't want to sound too anti-Industry but there should always be healthy contra-practices and voices. In a simiIar way I have a profound respect for those Professional critics who get their hands dirty and muck in with Amateurs like myself, gawd bless 'em. In fact I reckon the Industry progresses by consuming these practices. A recent healthy example being Richard X and the Sugababes at number one, and maybe the better bloggers will want to wind up writing professionally. While I may not always have the same burning enthusiasm for blogging, when I do get my coat I won't be slagging the whole thing off.

Techno Riddims.

Readers may recall my comments re:Garage riddims being "not much without an MC". More recently have had my socks rocked and head turned by trax which have made me flash on the oevre of one of my all-time heroes, Chicago's hard jacking Steve Poindexter. Wizzbit's "Jam Hot" even has a looped refrain "Jam Hot" which I swear I've heard before, maybe it's the passing resemblance to Reese's "Bounce your body to Box" or Paperclip People's "Jam the Box" (Detroit, Chicago, whatever!)

It seems like stations who can rent a dizzyingly verbose MC are not the norm. Those minimal backing tracks must often suffice on their own. Who cares when they're as fucked up as 2nd II None's "Bulldozer", Big Shot's "Glitch", Wizzbit's "Jam Hot", the Menta Remix of Jammin's "Tonka" or Slimzos "2"?

Whither the sumptuous 3d bounce of Pay as U Go Kartel's "Champagne Dance" or London Dodger's "Down Down Biznizz"? These heartless rhythms are mechanoid and spasticised. Minimal not as in (post-Einstein) Phil Glass. This, like old Chi-town j-j-j-jack, is minimal by virtue of being utilitarian. Utilitarian because they're someone's drug-noise. These are tracks in the truest sense: mono-directional lateral horizontal, broken only by the punctuation of the gap.

It's tempting to assume that somewhere along the line production knowledge has been lost by the wayside (depth of sound so often means production "skill" as in Deep Dish and Brian Transeau, however lets not forget "skill" as in Martin Zero). Tellingly the richest production of the aforementioned is by "nearly-old-skooler" Menta (see the DND spiel), here brilliantly salvaging a humourless Jammin track on the Bingo Beats label, (which along with the work of El B nearly stymied my love of da garage). The 2d bite of these other riddims is basic in comparison, raw and flat like a Van Gogh.

Do I miss the MCs? Nah! I do my own rapping whilst washing-up Louis Theroux style: "I like a glass of wine etc".

This month has brought a rare chance for me to meet the glocals at the deeply creative Norfolk Windmills (Hi Jess!) and mind blogglingly brilliant Heronbone (the Luke of repute); also another virtual Eastender Position Normal dropped me a line to point me to his new website. Say hi too to the Glaswegian-without-organs too at David Howie's pensive i have zero money

Big blog highlights included The Astronaut's Notepad's Sunblindness list (tape of this too please Jon!), Reynolds peeling off his gasmask and white gloves and marching against the war, Marcello writing movingly on the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (it mattered not a jot if you've heard the records). "Oh Ambassador with these free-range music journals you are really spoiling us......"

Minutes of The Earful Club 19th February 2003.

I recently attended the second gathering of the Earful Club. Set up by Famous Record Producer as an evening in which some of his friends (and me) could come together and play eachother their favourite bits of music. It's a genteel version of those soirees one had as a teenager when everyone slumped around stoned going "Wow" to the latest sounds. A big "Alright!" to the teenagers reading this. The last Earful Club was over two years ago, it was the first time I heard Girls on Pill's "Being Scrubbed" (played by Acid-house Popstar Pioneer) and Peaches (played by our host).

The Earful Club has a distinct set of rules, each attendee can play only 5 pieces of music (any format allowed, we heard mp3s, LPs, a White Label 12", CDs, 7"s and a 78), everyone has to bring a piece from the genre dictated by the Host (this month Musicals, next time Protest Songs). Everyone must write down the names of the tracks they played, and these are all recorded by the host, who then forwards a CD of the evening to all Earfuls. In attendance were Glamorous 80's Popstar, Former Indie Star/Record Store Boss, Deep Electronica Engineer, Jazz Hammond Maestro, Brainstormer, Advertising Copywriter and me. In stark contrast to the usual TWANBOC policy of dropping as many names as can reasonably be squeezed into a sentence, I've decided to preserve the anonymity of these particular suspects.

What piqued my interest this time:

1) Metro Area : "Orange Alert DFA Remix"
I like Metro Area, particularly their number 3 EP (that's the best) but this was also really brilliant, unfortunately it's a limited edition thing. While I get the arguments about this being retro disco, it triumphs through sheer gourgeosness and expansiveness (the originals of this era can sound quite claustrophobic and compressed). Maybe it's a shallow victory of modern production techniques?

2) Girls in the Garage: "...er sorry didn't get this down"
Brought along by Brainstormer as part of her Ladies do Metal set. We got one from this Nuggets style compilation. Very tasty.

3) Anthony Quinn : "I Love You"
7" by the actor in which he does speaky over period rock. Would be kitsch if it wasn't wonderful.

4) Sindri and Otto Von Shirach: "Plasiq Phantom People."
This was a really tasty pink 7" (more impossible to find beatnik-elitist music) which had a Tony Conrad sawed electric viola sound over discreet beats. OVS I know just did an LP on the now maligned Schematic label. Maybe it's worth checking out......

5) Jimmy Scott: "Love is a Wonderful Thing."
Played by Advertising Copywriter, we got the story too of Jimmy's aborted LP on Ray Charles's label. Jimmy suffered from some genetic disorder and consequently sings soprano. I know Church of Me did a sermon on him recently, so read that if you want to know more. Jimmy is now is in his eighties, after working as a doorman since collapse of aforementioned deal, did a gig at Ronnie Scott's that was, I imagine, like the recent Brian Wilson transfusion. I got in trouble for this comparison from Earful's who attended the Wilson show (some twice, oh dear!) Advertisng Copywriter also expanded on the genealogy of Sex, Boots and Dread, the pre-Morris Gay Rasta 10".

6) Ive Mendes: "If you leave me now"
My personal highlight. A brazilian cover version of Chicago's track. Stunningly romantic, deeply moving and intensely erotic. Aaaaaaaaaah...........You must hear this!!!!!!!!!!!

7) Herbie Hancock: "Succotash"
Off Inventions and Dimensions, one of the Blue Note Era records. This was pure maths. Very attractive stark modernism. Now that all the Pan-Futurist Global meltdown stuff is looking a bit, well Nineties, we should do Herbie a favour and examine more deeply. This prompted a cool story from Glamorous 80's Popstar who had met Herbie whilst on tour in Japan. Hey name-dropping by proxy is allowed!

8) Johnny Cash: "Personal Jesus"
Spun by the host who rounded off the proceedings by playing a blues 78 (show-off!). The original is of course Depeche Mode's, you can almost hear the bleeps in this. Johnny sounding scarily authoratitive (and queerly not unlike Warren Zevon in patches). This is obviously suggestive of a whole new genre Country Electronica TM. We can immediately lump in Boards of Canada and Lee Perry.

It was generally agreed that this month's was a cracking Earful. The Musicals section brought forth innovation on the theme too in the form of John Coltrane's "My Favourite Things" and a choice bit of Bollywood Lata Mangeshkar's "Aaona Wohi Rehta Hai". Naturally what I played will remain a closely guarded secret, snicker. Really looking forward to my CD, and if you're curious enough (dear reader) you can have a copy off me too.

Pop Life at TWANBOC.

Last night I had two guest passes to the Adidas/Yohji Yamamoto fashion launch. I've spent the last ten days designing a 12 screen projection for the newly opened uber-club Sketch where the premiere was happening. 12 half-hour DigiBeta clips, now thats alot of data. Nearly as much as evident on the recent ILM Christagau extravanganza. Missy Elliott was to be doing a show, supposedly in town for the Brits, but then couldn't make it. The replacement act....N.E.R.D. or The Nerds as the fashionistas kept referring to them, perhaps presuming they're one of these Definitive Article Bands TM.

Catherine dolled up for the first time in two years and I put on my boiler-suit and binbag. At the entrance we waded through paps and celebs (both Trevor and Janet Jackson) and into the club populated by people lifted from the pages of Vogue. My projections looked fabulous (darling), I managed to bottle on my inner terror at seeing the odd mistake and the Mrs and I snogged and cuddled. Then we left before I turned into a pumpkin. Before The N.E.R.D! I was hoping that they were to be the centrepiece of this scribble, but my honey was tired and keen to see her baby sleeping sound so we peeled off.

What a lucky escape! Guess who they brought with them, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. It would have taken more strength than I have to have stopped myself from striding onstage, poking a finger in JT's eye, kicking him in the shins and dragging him around the platform by his hair. As for Ms Aguilera if I hear another meta-pop apologist saying how much they like her "Dirrty" (and anything by JT for that matter) I'll tear their throats out. Am I protesting too loudly? Of course it would have been an interesting spectacle in front of such a tiny crowd (350 people). It reminds me of that time I was on the Eurostar back from Paris during the World Cup Match Final. Not that I like football. You see the parrallel. A mate who did stay said it was "scary". It also pinpoints exactly what is so fucked up about The Neptunes.

If you hadn't noticed it's open season on Chad and Pharrell. They deserve a good bashing for all this Britney/Timberlake thing. Its 'orrible. Can you think of an equivalent in the history of music, of a production team so at home with the notionally "underground" (though lets face it platinum rap shifts units) and the queasiest pop. Three of my faves of last year, Clipse's "Grindin" Remix, Noreaga's "Nothin'" and Snoop Dogg's "From da Chuch to da Palace" were Neptunes things dammnit. On the subject of the Snoop track, did no-one notice it and its mentasm fx, was y'all too busy compiling your end of year lists? Maybe thats also the problem, they're detaching the sounds from their signifiers, using them for just plain flashiness. To use the mentasm sound you have to have raved in a muddy field at least once.

Which brings us to the Timbaland thing. Sacha Frere-Jones is holding court at the Voice saying OK good year Neptunes but no "Work It". He's right, and I was astonished at how lacklustre the response to "Work It" was. I practically crashed the car the first time I heard it. OK the LPs a bit okey-doke. SFJ is also totally right about the N.E.R.D boys in general (being a bit ikky) but he's got Timbaland wrong. He is trying to squeeze Tim into his Wu Tang-DJ Premier proper hip-hop mould. This dates back to an old interview he did with Tim in which he nearly got decked by Mosely for saying that, unlike Premier, Mosely's beats were clean. They may pack a punch and they are raw but they sure as hell aren't dirty! I think it put a swerve on his thinking. Timbaland managed to reinvent Hip-Hop because what he was doing was equal parts R'n'B, Disco, and New Orleans Bounce. That's what made him interesting for goodness sakes. The DJ Premier, Wu-Tang strain of grimy hip-hop was great but a cul-de-sac in many ways. The natural successors for this particular tradition are the likes of Lootpack, Madlib (any Stones Throw stuff) and even the backpackers. Tim's stuff is too superficial. I mean this here as a compliment. If Hip-Hop got any darker, worthier or male it would have withered. Tim's stuff was a breath of fresh air for precisely the reason that reason that it wasn't like the "Hip-Hop" before it. Of course the sting in the tail is that he's opened the gates for the likes of Nelly (smelling sour already, I loved "Country Grammer", but hate "Hot in Herre", what utter rubbish...) and N.E.R.D.

I'm actually having misgivings about that first N.E.R.D LP, it's "lite"-ness and generally slightly nasty vibe has been getting to me. As for the rock re-make puhlease!

The Deeply Dysfunctional Stereolab Sleeve Tearer.

For the past six months a visit to the Camden Music and Video Exchange always meant confronting the trail of damage of North London's own "Ripper". A quick inspection of the Stereolab/Duophonic bin would reveal that some sicko had been tearing expensive second-hand Stereolab LP's in the top right-hand corner. Usually this was a gash an inch deep into the likes of "Emperor Tomato Ketchup" (on red vinyl). Record sleeve after record sleeve ruined. The staff told me they had to hook them out and sell them at reduced prices, now resorting to only putting a white sleeve in the bin, lambasted with taunts to that elusive ripper. I pressed them for any anecdotes, were there any suspects? One guy was apparently in the frame, but they "didn't want to cast aspersions." Quite right this loser could turn nasty! Leaving the shop I felt a distinct unease behind the counter.....come on, it wasn't me!

DND Delight.

DND. Who are they? What do those forbidding initials stand for? Deep 'N' Dark? Deadly 'N' Destructive? Dave Nick and Dan? Doris Natasha and Daniellle? Whatever it's tempting to view them as a Garage anachronism, a 2000-era US R'n'B remix project, now that we're all blinkin' ardkore rappers. DND have two classics under their belts, first the slamming "Reach and Spin" remix (caned to death for years on the pirates) with its skippy beats and lolopping acid squelch a track that sounded like a rude bwoy in a Porsche overtaking and undertaking on the M6 the tyres gripping the road at thrilling speeds. Then the totally dynamite "Diamond Rings", with its likkle rap loop, also belting out of the gate like a greyhound on it last race.

And guess what they're at it again. The totally f**kin amazing "Down on Me" remix of Ashanti. OK I admit it, I don't have a problem with the remix thing. People have said of Garage: "Oh No, another bleedin' remix", and yes I suppose it contributes to some people's perception of Garage as a music without it's own centre. But if you're a wee bit cleverer you can appreciate that well yes this music is "junk", anonymous white labels, bits and pieces from one hit wonders (no lasting stars), commisioned remixes, sporting a complete lack of interest in packaging, but that's what makes it alive and interesting. It's a big bog of seething life. What would we rather, and I know I'm going to make enemies here but here goes anyway, Horsepower Productions?

"Down on Me" is practically the "Aftermath" for the Noughties. I don't mean Tricky's "Aftermath" either, you've got to take that Garage Rap head off (briefly), but Nightmare on Wax's "Aftermath". Ashanti ripped from her warm R'n'B backing is dropped into a bleak wasteland of smearing pulses and fast-forward snares, cos that is where her head is at. She's lost in a deep frightening love dependant on some heartless beast (played here by Ja Rule) pledging herself in a way any man knows, in spite of her looking as hot as hell, is almost designed to alienate reciprocated affection. "Boy you got me, I will never leave...." over and over again. She's history! She's gonna be inconsolable too, and guess what, you won't be able to take her down the chippy and cheer her up. She doesn't like her beer warm like that Gwyneth Paltrow, she's too good for you and she knows it. It's a classic panic track and no they didn't use a sample like N.O.W. they actually got paid to make it..........

Beatnik/AvantYob Addenda.

1. Brother/Sister thing
One of the first things that got left out of the original diatribe. The strange yin/yang thing going on with the Beatniks and AvantYobs. It seems every Beatnik has their AvantYob counterpart. The Clash vs The Pistols. The Beatles vs The Stones. The MC5 vs The Stooges. John Cale vs Lou Reed (tension!). The Streets vs Roll Deep. Madlib vs Diamond D. Porquoi?

2. Beatniks who think they're AvantYobs
Nothing I find more grating. Remember that whole Harder !Louder! Faster! thing? It was a Skam/VVM bundle put together as an AvantYob offering. Geez that made me cringe. I think it goes back to my description of myself being a Beatnik with his face pressed against the window. I wouldn't have the chutzpah to call myself an AvantYob. Reynolds insists he is one. It's possible to tie a knot in a piece of string and pull it so tight that you can't feel the knot is there, but trust me it is, ya get me. Perhaps it is possible, vis a vis the ultimate form of slumming it, when suddenly you find you're no longer a bohemian, you're a bum, as described by Dylan in "Like a Rolling Stone", or as pictured by Richard E Grant* in Withnail and I (Don't worry I won't start talking films! This aint like those other blogs written by normal people who have proper lives) But clearly to have an AvantYob record on your hipster-wishlist on the basis of a written reccomendation makes you a died-in-the wool beatnik. Heard it down the dance or on the pirates? Well maybe thats a different story.....Despite picking up Ardkore since 1991, I've begun to wonder how close I've become to those Robert Crumb/Terry Zwigoff Blues 78 collectors. At least I haven't started lamenting the absence of any other fulfilling music.

3. Roots Reggae as Conundrum
Here's a rum one. This is the "beat-scenius" 10 years of Joe the former TV Salesman, Osbourne the Electrical engineer and Keith the Dentist (that's one for the real afficionados out there to puzzzle out) making concious tracks. The cynic might say that Kingston sussed "foreign's" taste, and this is kind of upheld towards the end in Lloyd Bradley's Bass Culture tome, but it sure as hell is about 78% of the whole picture.

4. Detroit vs Chicago
Detroit Techno - Beatnik. Chicago House - AvantYob

5. The Rolling Stones
AvantYobs right up till last year and Mick Jagger's charming (not) little auto-biog film and solo LP.

6. France
All French people are Beatniks.

7. KLF
Greatest recent Beatniks. Burning a million pounds: "Eh Jimi we lost money on that one." You heard that gag here first.

8.Women
Not many women are AvantYobs. Despite Reynold's assertions, its a hell of a lot easier to be a girl and a Beatnik. Easy on me ladies now!

9.The Idnik TM
Not to be confused with the totalising Yobnik. The Idnik is a "mouse-breeder" in touch with his inner yob. Currently exemplified by MC Pitman and DJ Rupture.

*Thanks Tobes.

Are you an AvantYob or a Beatnik?

I was going to build this piece out of responses to The Astronaut's Notepad's enthusiasm for what Jon describes as AvantFolk. Still waiting for Jon's comps to arrive, I wandered down to Rough Trade and checked a couple of the records out, the one by the No Neck Blues Band and the Jackie O Motherfucker record. I liked them, the music is a folky free-jazz low-fi rock mash-up, very droney and stretched out. What was really salient, to my mind was the way they've chosen to record themselves. It sounds like the band is crouched in one corner of the recording studio and one mic is pointed in their general direction. The model? Sounds like an ethnographic recording of a tribe of hairy refuseniks, the CD is an aural document, the recording of a lifestyle in opposition to Global Capitalism. Maybe what is at the heart of this approach is a belief that to enter into the mechanics of recording is to enter into into the same machinations as perpetrated by the state. They may be right? But perhaps to even record and market your "product" you're entering the same arena, especially now as so many of today's tiny-indies are distantly owned by the big record labels. It's the same political conundrum which many a group has got themselves appealingly screwed-up about.

Jon's piece was characterised by a nervousness about what he may feel is Beatnik music. Music which gives a damn, which wears it's heart on it's sleeve, which tries to battle through the minefield of contradictions. Beatnik music is of course more than that, it comes with a whole baggage of cultural markers. Beatnik music has as it's mirror image music which we could term AvantYob, both essentially have as their target a notion of mainstream society. Lets break out both the cliches:

Beatnik-------------vs------------AvantYob
-----------------------------------------------
Bourgeois-------------------------Prole
Conscious-------------------------Unconcious
Constructive----------------------Destructive
Refusal----------------------------Ignorance
Literate----------------------------Illiterate
Meditated -------------------------Instinctive
Audible----------------------------Noisy
Harmonious----------------------Cacophonous
Angelic----------------------------Diabolic
Celebrity--------------------------Scenius
CD/LP-----------------------------12"/7"

I just find it amazing how clearly music can be slotted into one or other of these categories. The notion of Beatniks being Celebrities and AvantYobs not, might seem to be a contradiction. In some ways it is, but the true AvantYob is just one interlocking gear in a machine. Some AvantYobs, when they become famous become apologists, forever trying to illustrate how they slot into the scene. The AvantYob is often turned into a celebrity by the lazy Beatnik Music Press transposing it's value system onto the AvantYobs. Fame can be thrilling for the AvantYob, but as soon as they forget their implication in the machine they wither like flower without soil, the Beatnik, on the other hand can flourish. Having said all this you can't keep a good AvantYob down, and there is such a thing as grassroots celebrity, in which AvantYobs emerge as "figureheads" by virtue of being so feckin' brilliant. All this relates to Brian Eno's now "well kicked-around" notion of "Scenius", the AvantYob is one element in the scene sharing a group responsibilty for the generation of the genre so DON'T THINK Bob Marley, THINK everyone in Kingston, Jamaica popping down the recording studio after a hard days work to cut a 7" like the one they heard at the dance last week.

Beatnik------------vs-----------AvantYob
--------------------------------------------
MC5----------------------------The Seeds (Garage Punk)
The Clash----------------------Eater (Punk)
Parliament---------------------James Brown (Funk)
Bob Marley--------------------Big Youth (MC Reggae)
Led Zep------------------------Black Sabbath (Brum Metal)
Sonic Youth--------------------Dinosaur Jr (US Hardcore)
Fela Kuti-----------------------King Sunny Ade (JuJu)
The Prodigy-------------------DJ Hype (Ardkore)
Def Jux------------------------WuTang (Horrorcore)
(Delftones)--------------------Slayer (New Metal)

I'd like to steer well clear of any value judgements attached to either AvantYob or Beatnik. I don't think it's at all helpful, there are very good arguments for both positions, and wonderful music arises from both. Really what interests me is the exclusivity of each position. I really don't think you can be both. A very few people have made a decent stab at being what I now officially dub YobNiks TM. The YobNik TM is essentially a compromised but still fascinating character. You couldn't say the YobNik TM succeeds in all his ambitions, but he or she manages to tick quite alot of all the boxes. I've thought about this for days and all I can think of are Goldie, Mark E Smith and Jimi Hendrix. That's a pretty queer gang, and they'd probably have difficulty together at a dinner party. Jimi I'm least certain of, he's probably the greatest Beatnik ever. But in a real sense they are also characters who want it all desperately. They want the whole cake and the plate. Maybe the YobNik TM holds the key to the future?

How I feel about music at the moment right now is that I know I hopelessly skewered in favour of the AvantYobs. Its a tough time for Beatnik's right now, mainly because being a political radical ain't what it used to be, it's not enough to wave your copy of No Logo and stroke your beard chaps. Sometimes I think groups like Ultra-Red and Beta Bodega are as about as hard as being a Beatnik gets these days with all their cross-border grassroots activities, but we're still a long way from 70's Germany and Amon Duul harbouring members of the Baader Meinhof don't you think? It's also possibly down to a general smartening up of culture, maybe you don't get the kind of anti-social excess practised by the Beatniks of yore. The Deleuzian idea that aspiring to be an AvantYob, ignoring mainstream culture and concentrating on generating one's own personal positivity will contribute to undermining Global Capitalism is a liberating one. But of course we're a bunch of Beatnik wannabe Avant-Yobs reading all this into the dionysian activities of the subculture.

Which brings me to my final point. What are you, are you a Beatnik or an AvantYob? Like me I imagine you're a Beatnik, with your face pressed tightly against the glass. Because if you were a true AvantYob you wouldn't be reading this bollocks.

Rewind Seleckta!

Still reeling from blissblog's stunning maximalist Garage Rap History. A knock 'em dead freestyle rap as delivered by the Guttah scholar himself. Pure intensification, Reynolds guarding his patch with the loyalty and tenacity of a Pit-bull on steroids. You may have noticed the spelling-rap-spat rearing its ugly head. This is (not) turning into a bitter feud. In reply to Reynolds assertion that "Fly Bi"...is the B.O.M.B. and what's wrong with the spelling thing anyway' I replied by email 'the N, the O, the N, the O, the T, the H, the I, the N, the O, the T, the H, the I, the N, the G' . Amazingly I actually found a copy of "Fly Bi" last week, so got to really examine my opinion. My conclusion, spelling rap is the equivalent of water in your lager, a lot of water. I was certain there was a "10 most awful spelling raps of all time" in the Ego Trip book of Rap lists (buy!) but sadly I must have been hallucinating. It looks like I'm all alone on this one.

I'd like to give some constructive feedback about Reynolds's amazing Garage Rap Radio Highlights CD (see Phil's Rap) but I got stuck on the 3rd track of the first CD. Horra Squad's "GUTTAH THROUGH AND THROUGH 'I man a get MESSY bwoy' TOOO GUTTAAAHH" with its Reese bassline midi-keyed into the gear action of a Czechoslovakian Juggernaut importing Crack to the UK on a P&O ferry. I just keep re-rewinding it and shrugging like a Looney. So sorry about that.

As for "Cockney Translation" being the first Garage Rap Record. That's pretty good. I am going to ask to refer with my colleagues on this one, my Reggae connection is in Togo at the moment (for real), but he's on the email so here's crossing my fingers. Though (slightly off subject here), have you heard I.Roy's 'Camp Road Skanking' in which the master himself does a little cockernee intro? By all reports Reynolds has garaged himself out, like the apocryphal Monty Python character that had one 'waffer' too many, I'm worried about even mentioning the word around him.

-

A few other bits and pieces David Howie from Glasgow dropped me a line to say:'I suppose this is just to let you know, if you live in Glasgow or just visit or whatever: there's a new record shop run by Stephen Pastel in new vegan restaurant across from the 13th Note in Mono. It's pretty good, stocking your usual Missing-style Large Alt.Rock Section, a good (for Glasgow) electronica section, and a nice quiet atmosphere.' Thanks for that David. Also my brother emailed me to say I'd spelt Matmos, Mathmos, (since corrected), which I guess is the equivalent of your mum telling you your flies were undone after you just collected the "Most Dilligent New Boy" Prize, thanks Tobes.

6 Great Mid-Period Hip-Hop LPs.

This time last year I was lost somewhere deep in Audiogalaxy. I have had a gander at SoulSeek (which looks like it may have been shutdown) but really there is no comparison. AG was the mutha of mp3 fileshares. Napster, pah, rubbish! How did they get away with it?

Of course what made AG so special was that it logged centrally what you had available for sharing on your hard drive, so if you were offline your colleagues had the opportunity to earmark what they wanted, and when you came back online the mp3s were then made available to them. SoulSeek does have a similar arrangement but the amount of files available is far less and importantly the way of selecting them more rudimentary. For example a search on Sun Ra on AG would bring up 20 full pages (40 tracks per page) of tracks, such a search on SoulSeek brings up a long list, but alot of it is just tracks with the word "Sun" in them. Like "Sunset" by Kenny Barron and "Sundance" by Chick Corea.

The joy of Audiogalaxy was that it spread like a whisper. I told all my friends in hushed tones what I was up to, wink nod "don't tell a soul", as if I was slipping them a fiver. I told my best mate Sacha Dieu in this manner (quite ridiculous because he's a complete luddite), he just laughed at me gently for being a sad freak, but must have stowed it away in that bit of his brain marked "of possible interest to people who own computers". Anyway Sach was in town, and who did he bump into at the Bus-stop but the Aphex Twin. Sach (and me, and me!) and The Twin have a particularly nerdy friend in common, so they got chatting. It turns out the Twin has been caning Audiogalaxy, he's got gigabites of downloads. Sach tells the Twin that he has a mate who's at it too, and that his mate (that's me, are you following this?) is wondering how long they're going to get away with it? And the Twin says something like "No Comment" (twinkle in his eye). You've got to admire the lad's political suss.

Of course when "Druqks" came about the reason Aphex cited for it's release was that he had left his mp3 player on a Trans-Atlantic flight, and was anxious to beat the bootleggers. I have an improbable vision in my mind of some dishonest airhostess with a murky background in orbital raves pumping the Twin's unreleased tunes round the global fireshare and FTP networks. Perhaps there is a correlation between the vaste amount of music which can be fitted on an mp3 player and that commercially released triple-pack slab. Did you download an mp3 ripped off "Druqks"? If so you too are a part of this sorry story.

So anyway, yes Audiogalaxy, RIP and all that. I started this with the intention of telling you about my Hip-Hop downloads, and was going to instruct you to buy 6 Great Mid-Period Hip-Hop LPs. But I'll have to do that another time now.

P.S. If you're a lawyer, all of the above was an exercise in creative writing.

The Hard Grey Truth?

Very much looking forward to picking up the Soft Pink Truth LP. Their PromoFunk EP would have been in my top 10 of last year, if I'd had the alacrity to compile one. I certainly wouldn't have got it on the strength of it being a Matmos offshoot- but it's so much more than that n'est-ce-pas? I won't go into the music from a perspective of history/influence here in any depth, see Marcello's masterful portrait, however I've a couple of musical observations.

What singles it out to my mind is it's compositional strength. There's nothing "tracky" or haphazard here and maybe that's what people identify as being 80s-Retro about it, beyond the clear hallmarks. It has abandoned the minimal drift characterising 78% of Dance Music since Phuture's Acid Trax. We get 10 ideas here not 2. The four pieces on PromoFunk are built of distinct blocks of harmony and dissonance, (Pink) Lego Bricks in base multiples of four, buttressed together with a real flair for musical structure - we have intros and codas, chorus and verse, point and counterpoint . At first you struggle to get the logic, but soon you're hanging on the changes, waiting for that gorgeous bassline to kick in again. It reminds me of my coveted Black Dog 12"s and their elaborate structures, which seemed almost quaint at the time.

To add a slightly less hyperbolic twist I would also say one thing. Despite the fact that the Matmos boys have almost perfectly (deliberately, cleverly, temporarily?) camoflagued themselves as a Dance "Act", my excitement for the EP was mildly tempered by hearing it wedged amongst other "Pink and Purple" tracks on a tape I compiled for the wife before Christmas. It has a slight lack of that elusive quality "Fatness", (BASS!, mid-range generosity, breadth, swagger, whatever), even on the 12" format, which may mark it as an Indie endeavour (like, who cares?). This was distinctly audible when pitched against something like Roqui's "I've just begun to Love you". Maybe Arthur Russell met with similar remarks?

UK (Gabba-Gutter-Garridge) Bounce Update.

Not so many MC tracks in the shops at the moment, airwaves pumping though. Recent purchases "Strike da Match" (and it's almost drumless riddim) and "Vice Versa" (any sexual politics rap has to worth hearing). Don't ask me who the artists are- white labels are giving nothing away.

Simon and Tim have mentioned Wiley's riddims "Eskiboy" and "Freeze". I like the "Gunshot" riddim the best with it's likkle Tabla fill. These tracks are purely utilitarian, designed (karaoke-style) for anyone to rap over on the pirates. Great riddims but nothing without an MC. I cant imagine listening to them for kix (well maybe?) Lets just hope that all this doesnt mean that the MC is moving back to Pirate Radio and Dancehall mic. No great shame if you're in London with an FM aerial perhaps, but maybe we're less likely to see slabs of ART.......

Simon is reporting (via Luke-drop me a line bud) a one riddim LP in circulation proving incontrovertably the UK's rapping is JA-centric. Uh Oh! Right from 1974 Jamaica and Rupie Edwards pioneering "Yamaha Skank" LP this was a bad (meaning not good) thing. It's a healthy thing to Version, but mainly beacuse it'll produce 1 or 2 successful experiments. This doesn't mean I want to hear ALL the experiments! Lets hope we don't get "one-riddim-mania" like JA, although occasionally a one-riddim ragga radio mix can be wicked. Ever heard any of those one riddim dubs where you'll get 20 artists jabbering simultaneously? Now that is trippy. The producers love it, less work natch, and occasionally a good ragga riddim LP surfaces, (although I've never bought one) but it can stifle creativity and variety can't it?

Still the pirates are firing, and these super clean minimal riddims mean we can hear what's being said, a development in itself.