uncarved.org blog

Man like Gutta nominated me for this…

It’s a weird one because like Kek, I don’t really feel ashamed about music any more – I’ve almost always been into pop stuff and… other stuff. Anyone who checked the office party mix will know that, right?

So this is more of a “ten records I have trouble justifying to other people”.

10. Rachel Stevens – Come And Get It (2005)

When you’ve seen the rest of the list, it might surprise you that this humble album has been the item which has caused the most vehement disagreements in our house.

I have no fear of owning up to liking Rachel’s earlier stuff like “Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex-”, and the singles off this album are wicked as well. “Some Girls”, “Negotiate With Love” and “So Good” are extraordinarily well-produced slices of sci-fi pop in which the vocalist is almost incidental.

We also have CDs in the flat by the Sugababes, Girls Aloud and Goldfrapp, which I have mentally filed in the same slot. For me, this is just an update to my Soft Cell and Human League records of yesteryear.

Regrettably the better half doesn’t agree and thinks it’s symptomatic of my mid-life crisis looming large in the form of lustful urges towards Ms Stevens. Which would be fine if I was constantly jerking off to her videos on youtube or had bedecked the bedroom with posters of her, but (as I never tire of saying) she isn’t my type and it isn’t about her.

Unfortunately my argument is slightly undermined by the fact that the non-single tunes on the album are rubbish, apart from the one which samples The Cure.

9. Anything by Vagina Dentata Organ

Probably the best example of industrial culture’s overloading of theory at the expense of tunes, Vagina Dentata Organ are more akin to conceptual art (with a nod to Dali) than music. Essentially the work of one man – Jordi Valls, the “group” focussed on releasing limited edition picture discs featuring unnerving field recordings.

Jordi managed to be one of the few people to exist in both of the notoriously antagonistic Throbbing Gristle and Whitehouse camps, possibly because he doesn’t seem to give a fuck about politicking. I met him briefly at some TG art opening and he was completely pissed – staggering about and spilling wine everywhere. Admirable.

So anyway, I don’t have any of the picture discs, just one album of wolf noises, one album of motorbike noises and one album featuring the last 40 minutes of 900 members of the People’s Temple committing suicide in Guyana at the behest of Reverend Jim Jones.

It’s not uplifting party music that’s for sure… but I still respect VDO’s sheer bloody-mindedness.

8. Howard Jones – Pearl In The Shell (shaped picture disc, 1984)

So, talking of vinyl fetishism – this was the first vinyl I ever handed over my pocket money for (having previously bought cassettes for me walkman). I actually have a big post about luscious pouting synth-pop sensation Howard saved in ‘draft’ that I should pluck up the courage to unleash on the world.

Suffice to say that the disc is slightly yellowing these days and the music hasn’t aged that well either. Furthermore, my teenage dreams of owning really rare artifacts that future generations would look at with awe lie in tatters and prove that I am a rubbish capitalist.

7. Two Muppet Show albums (1977, 1978)

These are pop culture genius! It’s fair to say that Jim Henson has had more influence on me than punk. The aesthetic of the puppets (notably their garish fur and googly eyes) is still brilliant and the arrangements of the songs on this are perfect – not least because they are delivered with crazed muppet voices. Me and my sister must have played these a thousand times as kids as well as making my parents suffer them recorded onto cassette on interminable pre-M25 car journeys to see in-laws.

My love of huge horn sections (fnarr fnarr) in reggae might come from here too. It’s more playfully surreal than Vagina Dentata Organ could ever hope – songs about the sound of worms, chicken love, the Great Gonzo eating a rubber tyre to the sound of ‘the Flight of the Bumblebee’, it is all here.

So I probably shouldn’t own this, but make no excuses for it. And anyway I’m now able to enjoy it with my daughter…

6. Five ‘christian pop’ albums

Pop music was one of my main vehicles out of believing in all the Church of England stuff I grew up with, so I have a weird fascination with xtian pop and keep meaning to write something about it. (Seriously – I’d love to do a documentary or book.)

For example, there is something quite compelling about this christian response to Crass. What I like about the genre is that it’s obviously all ideologically driven, like anarchopunk and to a lesser extent industrial music, but always manages to get it a bit wrong.

What is also hugely entertaining is that for every xtian rocker there will be some fusty old vicar going on about how they are either great for “the youth” or actually crypto-satanists who are trying to lure kids into a vortex of evil with their primitive carnal rhythms.

Anyway, these records are all great in their own way, but not the sort of thing to play in front of relatives or children.

5. Sheena Easton – 9 To 5 (1980)

Yes yes, she was the first “reality” pop star and went on to get all pervy with Prince. That’s not the whole story for me, really.

I think I must have bought this at some point in the 90s when I was pissed. It cost 70p and was well worth it just for conjuring up all those images of yesteryear. It has that quasi-Nolans trebly singalonga vocal style but it’s the lyrics which drew me in, I think. There is a drudgery about commuting (which is what my Dad did every day) but also this weird hedonistic frisson running underneath it “he works all day, to earn his pay, so we can play all night”. This comes to the fore towards the end:

“I’m crazy, mad for him,
and he’s crazy, mad for me,
When he steps off the train
Amazingly full of fight”

Which I always misheard and thought was Sheena getting all orgasmic at the prospect of commuters engaging in hand to hand combat. I think it just reminds me of St Pancras and London in the old days, a bit grim but full of possibility…

Several years later I was living in a dive in Haringey and saw Sheena on some daytime TV programme with an L.A. accent talking about how she didn’t understand how people could take drugs because it was all about altering your reality and her reality was pretty amazing. As I looked around our living room I decided that going to get some drugs might not be such a bad idea.

4. Twenty Psychic TV live albums (and twelve other ones… er, and a load of singles)

There’s really no excuse for this at all, and I can only apologise profusely to everyone who has ever helped me to move house.

3. Matt Bianco – Get Out of Your Lazy Bed (1983)

Possibly another pissed charity shop purchase, I don’t actually know if I like this or not. It has a weird skank to it and the daaaaaaaa-dooooooooo-da female vocals probably relate in some distorted way to my love for fifties and sixties (and 00′s – see 10 above) girl groups.

It is unforgiveably jaunty, though, and I have to confess to having used it as a weapon of torture one hungover morning fairly early on in my relationship with my better half.

2. Trio – Da Da Da (1982)

This is just genius, proper minimal synthpop with a casiotone and boom-tish drummng. It even eclipses Laurie Anderson’s “Oh Superman” in the pop art states by having hardly any lyrics in it and then having those lyrics in German on the b-side.

I have this on loud right now and it reminds me of Kraftwerk and the Art of Noise and Suicide and a whole heap of totally credible stuff that isn’t nearly as fucking POP as this. It seems to annoy the shit out of everyone else in the world though – fellow bloggers aside, no doubt

1. A golden 7″ flexi disc by Jonathan King (1978)

Nobody, of any age or gender, should own this record.

Which is probably why I’ve kept the thing. Did you know Jonathan King once stood as an MP? Neither did I until I found this in yet another (probably sober this time) 90s charity shop trawl.

The record is titled “Vote For Yourself For A Change” and seems google-proof. It features the man himself, talking animatedly, accompanied by the music from the Hamlet cigar adverts (which is of course called something, which eludes me now).

He was basically a populist Tory (“what do you think? Let me represent your views in parliament”), but had “liberal moral views”. Exactly how liberal certainly became clearer later.
On a more positive note, I would like to keep this thing going by nominating:

Dubversion

Expletive Deleted

Panda Rescue

I’m fairly sure they are men…

TV “List programmes” are always annoying and the recent BBC4 effort “The Seven Ages of Rock” was no exception. The usual array of self-serving industry talkingheads rubbed shoulders with “I was there” merchants, which left very little scope for anything fresh or current or subversive to leak through. I guess there is so much commercial mileage in ROCK that experimentation with the narrative or format is out of the question. Hell, some of the audience might even head down to a record shop or fire up Amazon afterwards to reacquire that long lost album! You don’t want to scare them off, right?

I found the final episode about “indie” particularly galling. I hate the current usage of the term with a vengeance. Situationist one-upmanship aside, this has to be one of the most frustrating (and inevitable) examples of something experimental and open being clawed back by corporations.

Indie used to mean… anything! When I first saw a copy of the indie chart in one of the inkie music papers in the mid-80s it took me ages to figure out what it meant. Initially I thought it was about Indian music, possibly because it was alongside charts for soul, reggae and/or african music. But those titles – everything from Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel to Bogshed to The Sisters of Mercy to… whatever.

Reading Rob Young’s book on Rough Trade recently, I was reminded again of the sheer diversity of sounds that the post-punk scene threw up, and also of the ideology behind it all. A certain commitment to experimentation, subversion, of being in some way distinct from and opposed to the mainstream (whilst being obssessed with it). An admiration of other ‘outsider’ cultures such as reggae (Rough Trade releasing some great records by Augustus Pablo and Horace Andy, for example) and hip hop. Maybe even internationalism.

The BBC prog didn’t try to tackle this. Instead it simply dived in at Oasis’ massive Knebworth gig and back-filled from there.

So according to the programme, “Indie” sprang into the world with The Smiths and then proceeded via Madchester to Britpop. There were some slightly embarrassed asides about this then leading to Coldplay and Jamie Oliver’s “Music To Cook By” CD. Of course, everyone knows that “indie” is all basically about white blokes with guitars now, but y’know, some people take the bland stadium thing too far, yeah?

Even on its own terms the programme failed to cover the great female bands of the period adequately. But y’know – “indie” is about lads, innit? Lads and beers and guitars. Keep repeating that mantra and all the other music will vanish…

A more honest look at “indie” could have started with the NME C86 compilation, or maybe even with the Postcard Label. Now, that may have complicated things because there might be acts which varied from the “indie” template and y’know some of them might have slightly radical ideas about music or politics (another timeline to draw is how the opposition to Thatcherism changed into support for New Labour and visits to Downing Street), but hey, worth a shot? No?

OK, then. Simply start with one radio presenter.

The spectre haunting “indie” is John Peel. He barely got a look in on the programme. Perhaps because the connections with Oasis were somewhat tenuous. But perhaps also because there is a whole weight of post punk and other music lurking in the Peel wardrobe that can’t be let out in case it ruins the “indie” game. I mean, you wouldn’t want The Bundhu Boys and The Sewer Zombies showing up and spoiling the party, would you?

This narrowing is what really annoys me. More, I think, than the idea that independent can become “indie”. There is something truly radical in the idea that you would get shoe gazers talking about Peel playing Fela Kuti and Bolt-thrower. That Peel could play happy hardcore and jungle and The Fall and Duane Eddy. Of course, there was a lot wrong there as well, but the idea that Peel can now be nicely repackaged as an avuncular eccentric uncle is enraging for people like me who actually listened to his shows for years – originally on headphones under the bedclothes, in the dark, with the tape on pause.

And it wasn’t just Peel – people actually bought all these mad records. Because they were looking for something, because they meant something.

This is not, I hasten to add, to take anything away from people who like a beer and a laugh and a singalong. The kids are (as ever) alright. Seeing The Smiths on Top of The Pops was great at the time and great to be reminded of. The Stone Roses and Suede still sound fantastic. The whole acid house crossover with Madchester is a fine example of, well, all sorts of things. The strings in “Wonderwall” still do it for me – stuff like that will stand the test of time.

But… what really fucks me off is a bunch of commentators and journalists packaging history for everyone. Again. That ROCK needs to be documented, again, above other things. That the central image of the programme needed to be Noel Gallagher driving a Rolls Royce into Knebworth to check it out. And don’t get me started on all that shit about people having “lost their way” and the music being a wonderful example of people being able to be “essentially British again” – at a time when jungle was kicking off!

Here are some Indie Charts for you. They are just from the back issues of the New Musical Express I couldn’t flog on ebay, but will probably explain the above much better than I ever could. Click on the thumbnails for the image.

NME January 1984

NME November 1984

NME July 1985

With thanks to: http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=6107

John Eden - Office Party Mix: Blogariddims 12 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A festive session featuring divas, teenagers, ice queens and those in between

1. “Everything I have is gone”
2. “Trying not to pose”
3. “Perhaps if I held you”
4. “The pleasures of night”
5. “It didn’t matter that he was tame”
6. “It penetrates your brain”
7. “A place to stay”
8. “I never get enough”
9. “Conversation is interrogation”
10. “You’re like a big expensive drug trip”
11. “She looked down on me”
12. “He’s not evil”
13. “Now you’re going to get a beating”
14. “Sleazy brown dirty macs”
15. “Leave your job and have some kids”
16. “Yes we do”
17. “Scorched and dieing”
18. “Never had a friend or wanted one”
19. “A criminal on the take”

How to get it

http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogariddims/Blogariddims.xml

is the link. Here is an idiot’s guide of what to do with it

You can also get it direct from http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/ or via itunes music store.

You really should subscribe – all the previous mixes rate amongst the highlights of my year. I’m slightly reticent about lowering the tone with this one, but only slightly

What’s it all about?

Blogariddims doesn’t have an office, which is just as well – given the people involved I doubt that much work would ever get done. That doesn’t mean we can’t have an office party, though, does it?

Crack open your chosen festive tipple and blast this out whilst wearing your most ill-fitting suit. For my part I created the correct atmosphere by chugging down a pint of mulled wine before even touching the turntables. So, swing your arms in the air… think about who you will try to catch under the miseltoe… scan in your arse. Despite my state of inebriation, I take full responsibility for the music here – this time of year is not the point to get obscure and credible.

Bonus blogariddims festive competition

Blogariddims being what it is, some of you may be less extrovert than others. Never mind lurking in the corner, we have a special ice-breaking party game for you lot. Being attentive to detail, you will have already noticed there is no tracklisting for this mix. Instead, each track is flagged up by a short quote from its lyrics.

Your mission, spotters, is to identify as many tracks as you can and then email the name of the artists and tunes to me by midnight on the 17th of January 2007. Use the [eden at uncarved dot org] email address with the subject line “blogariddims festive competition”.

The person who gets the most artists and/or titles correct will be sent a CD of my “Best of 2006″ mix, which will not appear online anywhere, and will only be burnt to 23 CDs. The full tracklist of the Office Party Mix will appear here on this blog on the 18th of January.

yesterday, down my road:

mentalist 1: “oh yeah I found loads of great dubplates in there”.

me: “huh?”

mentalist 1: “yeah Studio One, Prince Buster…”

me: [speechless]

mentalist 1: “yeah all that stuff like the Fun Boy 3. [mutters] it’s not my thing really. [continues muttering, stares into space].

me: oh right. I guess that’s the luck of the draw…

mentalist 2: “oh you don’t see many people buying those these days, oh yeah I’ve still got my dansette we used to get it out during parties y’know when family came round I had one aunt with blue hair and one with pink hair I’ve got two kids but I never see them I never go there it’s always raining”

me: where’s that?

mentalist 2: Blackpool. [shuffles records]

Nestling in the pile of sevens were a couple of Fun Boy 3 singles which I picked up. I was beginning to think that perhaps mentalist 1 was actually on to something, and that somebody else had unaccountably deposited some (no doubt hugely valuable) Studio One records in the shop since I had last been in there 2 days ago.

Such is life. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a Sizzla CD for a quid.

I bought the FB3 records and some others. It was a joy to hear “Our Lips are Sealed” again after so many years. Nobody really rates the Fun Boy 3, do they? I always thought they were ace – the logical continuation of “Ghost Town”‘s bleakness.

“OLAS” is produced by David Byrne and features a b-side in Urdu. Bang on! I never knew this before and was sorely tempted to post an mp3 of it.

But this morning I discover that my mate Merrick has, in a freaky example of synchronicity, already done this at his new mp3 blog, Dust On The Stylus.

Merrick is exactly the sort of person who should have an mp3 blog as he is fantastically enthusiastic, eclectic and random in his music tastes. A fellow charidee shop mentalist.

Also thrilling to discover that one of the many videos I used to see on that Max Headroom show is “Get Out of London” by Interferon – another tune in my head identified 20 years later…

Avid readers of my comments boxes will note my eternal blagging of CDs off people is beginning to bear fruit.

Greg has sorted me out with an excellent compilation of “meditative” tunes. Some excellent tracks including some great female vocal cuts (Lovejoys, Real Eyes meets Sister Gloria) more trad stuff (Stranger Cole, Viceroys, Maytals) and some huge electronic biz from Teledubgnosis.

Perfect listening on my walk through The City of London towards Liverpool Street on the way home last night. But just as I was getting off my train, nearly home, I was stunned to hear some very peculiar opening beats ‘n’ rumbling.

And then it struck me: The 1st few bars of “Time” by Paul St. Hilaire (the artist formerly known as Tikiman) sounds uncannily similar to (my memory of) the 1st few bars of “Rock DJ” by Robbie Williams.

Marc Almond is critically ill in hospital after a motorcycle crash in central London.

Fingers crossed for a full recovery…

Big up Amblongus for top tenning Fad Gadget and Fox’s “S-s-single Bed” – the latter is a campy disco smasheroo that I bought on 7″ in the basement of Camden MVE on the basis that it was on the same label as my version of “I Feel Love”, which was picked up at a car boot sale in Leighton Buzzard.

I seem to have some unwritten rule which forbids me for paying more than 50p for camp disco-pop classics. Divine’s “You Think You’re a Man (But You’re Only a Boy)” was another one – 20p on 12″ in Barcelona.

Anyway S-s-single Bed is one of those tunes I have listened to occasionally without knowing any background since I bought it. I kept meaning to find out more or do a google or even read the label but preferred just to slap it on the deck now and then and enjoy it for what it is. The opening beats are sorta train-like and her voice is all “wrong”. It’s great!

Interesting to see Simon’s trials and tribulations exposing his son to music. The daughter been obssessing on the local kid’s disco since the last time we went.

“What do you like about the disco?”

“Errrrmmm… The lights, and the other children. And the chips.”

Further interrogations revealed that she also liked dancing, but wasn’t really that fussed about the music. Possibly because this is a steady diet of The Cheeky Girls, Mark K-Punk’s fave DJ Casper, and maybe a bit of Sean Paul if you are lucky.

Actually these tracks make a lot more sense in that environment, with the older kids doing all the moves to “Cha Cha Cha Slide” brilliantly and many of the Mums, half cut, doing the Macarena towards the end. Big up the Mums!

Anyway: The daughter’s current top 3:

1. Chris & Cosey – Driving Blind (Vapourspace Mix) off the “Twist” remix comp CD 1995.

Aka “The Lady Song” in our house, because the little one likes Cosey’s vocals and will echo the “with you” from “I’m never like this when I’m not with you”. This was a total chance re-discovery after much random rummaging through the CD rack. It’s actually well worth checking out if you like your deadpan electro pop. [ = Proud Dad!]

2. Marc Almond – Ruby Red, off the “Stained EP” 1986
This is a killer track from the much underrated Virgin years. Interesting instrumentation -marimbas etc and some class lyrics.

3. Grievous Angel Soundsystem – Watch This Sound 2004
Usually induces much jumping up and down accompanied by “whommmmm, whommmmmm” bassy noises. And sometimes the daughter joins in as well .

OK, here we go, against my better judgement…\
\
I was skint and sleepless throughout 2003 so these lists are going to be a bit unrepresentative. Hardly bought anything myself this year and relied on blagging and the kindness of friends and relatives \’96 so this is also an opportunity to say \’93thank you\’94 to them.\
\
Singles (chart)\
\
Needless to say, I didn\’92t buy any of these except \’91Like Glue\’92. A good year for tweaky electronic pop, though, and the man Sean Paul surely gets some sort of prize for consistency and \’93representing\’94\’85\
\

1. Blu Cantrell feat Sean Paul \’96 Breathe\
2. Sean Paul \’96 Like Glue\
3. Sean Paul \’96 Gimme The Light\
4. Beyonce & Sean Paul – Baby Boy\
5. Lumidee – Uh Oh\
6. Sugababes – Hole in the Head\
7. Rachel Stevens – Sweet Dreams My LA Ex\
8. R. Kelly \’96 Ignition (Remix)\
9. Electric Six \’96 Danger High Voltage\
=10. Jamelia \’96 Superstar\
=10. Kylie \’96 Slow

\
\
Singles (breakcore mash up)\
\
A great year for this stuff as well, but I worry about 2004 being the time it becomes a little bit generic. Who will stay ahead of the game?\
\

=1. LFO.Demon – Rave for Communism 7″ (Sprengstoff) “hey big spender… put the poor people on your agenda” this rules!\
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=1. Aphasic: Yeah Yeah Yeah Whatever 12″ (Junk) see comments below (courtesy Jason Aphasic)\
\
3. The Bug feat Cutty Ranks \’96 Gun Disease Cdsingle (Rephlex) do-over of “Gun Man Lyrics” which is on the Dancehall Techniques LP (courtesy Marcus @ Rephlex)\
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4. Leyton Breakers – I Drink Your Blood 12″ (Still Raven) “The strange thing for me is that I have never been to Hackney… I hope to God there isn\’92t a rave…” Retro hardcore massif!\
\
5. Killahman Machine \’96 Amen/Lighta 7″ (Clash) mashed madness from Bong Ra off-shoot.\
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6. The Bug vs The Rootsman featuring Wayne Lonesome \’96 Slew Dem 7″ (Razor X) A proper seven. There needs to be more ‘version’ sides in this genre. (courtesy Kevin)\
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7. V/a – Speedhall 12″ (Koolpop) Loony distorted ragga biz including Snow\’92s ‘Informer’. Also a salutary warning against sampling stuff you know nothing about \’96 one of the tracks is called ‘Battybwoy’ and it seems that nobody involved particularly knew what this meant \’96 assuming it was a general dis rather than homphobia. Plonkers.\
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8. The Bug vs The Rootsman featuring Daddy Freddy / DJ/Rupture split 12″ (Tigerbeat6) Mixed feelings about the spoken word stuff on the Rupture side but you can\’92t mess with The Bug (courtesy Kevin)\
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9. Base Force One – Expenditure of Excess Energy 12″ (Still Raven) “a little bit… harder!” (courtesy Christoph @ Praxis)\
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10. Sonic Belligeranza – Straight Edge Rastafari 12″ (Sonic Belligeranza) Bolognese insanity including folk music samples (courtesy Riccardo @ SB)

\
Singles (reggae/JA/etc)\
\
Hardly bought any new stuff and most of the stuff I did buy was 12 inches from the 80s. Hence impossible to keep up! (Also some confusion about what came out when \’96 for example Diwali was clearly 2002 despite Wayne Wonder\’92s smash hit this summer). It’s a mixed bag of roots and ragga, naturally.\
\

1) Immigration riddim (Al Ta Fa An) – Bouncy, nice bass, a proper new reggae riddim which made it onto the mix CD.\
\
Luciano – You Can Have The World\
Admiral Tibet – No Fear\
Anthony B & Tafari – Rise Up\
Mark Wonder \’96 Rasta\
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2) Tai Chi riddim \’96 future style from early in the year \’96 nice oriental touches and great cuts from TOK, Sean Paul and Tanya Stephens.\
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3) Coolie Dance riddim \’96 current madness which I intend to buy at the earliest opportunity.\
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4) McKay – Take Me Over (Go Beat) – A nice do-over of ‘Double Barrel’ by the guy from Portishead. A UK production and release, no less!\
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5) Ba Ba Boom riddim (Jammy$) – Nice bouncy reggae 2003 style. Came out of nowhere and then vanished.\
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Ward 21 – Reggae Pledge\
Shocking blue – Artist War\
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6) Real Rock riddim (Xterminator) \’96 funky reworking which packs a punch. Again I ain\’92t got this but it\’92s top of my wants list, especially the Tanya Stephens and Michael Rose cuts.\
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7) Luciano \’96 Sweet Mama Africa (Joe Frasier) on “A Darker Shade of Black”\
\ Party Time riddim \’96 another one from earlier in the year, based on an old chart rave track I forget the name of. (Strictly tape off Rodigan… again!)\
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9) Roll Wid riddim (Black Scorpio) \’96 nice downtempo/melancholic riddim with a funky tweaky guitar at the foundation and some nice stummy/plucky bits on top. Cuts by Stretch (in a more hip hop style arguing that you should watch what company you keep) and Turbulence & Higher Trod (on Selassie). Courtesy Paul Meme.\
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10) Jungle Rock riddim (Free Willy) \’96 more 2003 melodic bouncy reggae business courtesy of Paul Meme.\
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Lukie D & Admiral Bailey – Gangsta Call\
Anthony B & Norrisman \’96 We Have To Make It\
Singer J & Egg Nog & New Kids \’96 Weed Flossing

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LPs and more to come…\