tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54998322008-10-01T08:44:06.062Z<strong>A SIDE: SONIC TRUTH</strong> /// <strong>B SIDE: MUZ'S VERSION </strong>Brucenoreply@blogger.comBlogger169125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-10235230424833830082008-09-30T20:56:00.006Z2008-10-01T08:43:53.043Z

As Pelosi and other reps got up to the podium on Monday to announce that the bailout wasn't going to be waved through by Congress, Republicans and Democrats were having more identity crises but still deliberately disinforming on the issues within the frame of the unwelcome 'nationalisation' of (yet more) toxic assets being somehow redolent of 'socialism'. The Times didn't help either today with

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-9814176850608671262008-09-28T12:27:00.004Z2008-09-28T12:49:04.721Z

More wedding reception disco dancing action last night, this time on the compact carpet floor of the floating Chinese restaurant in Regents Park. Only a few weeks back all the older relatives bowed out to give the 30-something friend core a dedicated dance-off in the basement of the Thames-side Trafalgar pub in Greenwich - the stadium house of Jaxx, Armada and co, 80s revivals and new soul did

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-30662616475948142932008-09-17T20:54:00.003Z2008-09-28T12:45:40.744Z

A minor chuckle surfaced when BBC6's Now Playing digi-radio function, handy for when you’d like to find out a tune straight away as is de rigueur these days, turned up Orchestra Babe when it should, clearly, have been Orchestra Baobab with their tidy Senegalese percussive blues-trance Ndeleng Ndeleng. No such spelling errors among the humans listing it up on the tube.

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-6989684484105601232008-08-29T19:39:00.007Z2008-08-30T20:19:25.315Z

R&S have found a new distributor in the UK and are shortly to release an In Order to Dance Best Of, with inevitably the hardcore rave period of roughly late 1990-early 92 looming large in the overview. It’s an unusual situation to see several of one's absolute fave raves – either gleaned though 12 inch or LP collection and immersion at home or mainly via the thrill of the dance itself – the

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-16656141331854653172008-08-13T21:54:00.002Z2008-08-13T21:59:07.132Z

Nothing projects quite so much careerist vacuity as the leather jacket. Badly concealed within that thick animal piping and cosy lining lie blatant aspiration and a dearth of inspiration/imagination in the wearer. Good designs do exist and it’s not often the generic jacket itself, but those signals. Not, as might be desired, a classic, effortless cool au James Dean or for the more risqué Sid

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-44505340196575857702008-08-06T19:30:00.005Z2008-08-06T19:53:42.772Z

Cynics may wish to consign blunted and industrial beats from the rave-breaks-hip-hop junction back in the 90s bin where they came from but Michael Forrest has kept the faith in those riddims and in Majectica Electical – his third full-length and available for free download for a while – they’re really made to work. The nuum of rhythmic experimentation may be seen halting but I see no exhaustion

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-48428001109802420492008-07-30T22:09:00.002Z2008-07-30T22:33:15.935Z

"It’s not clear how popular grime is (especially with the danceable garage genres claiming a lot of the space), but it’s clear that the music’s current realist mode isn’t helping... doubtless there are still real quantas of innovation, but generally the soundtrack is bleak, the rhythms monotonous (often devoid of funk at all), the outlook non-escapist and the overall quality lacking (not helped

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-32175130183299571922008-07-17T19:20:00.008Z2008-07-18T10:35:32.810Z

Like many others this blog has its five-year anniversary in 2008. Five years and crinklechrist knows how many posts. In that time blogs have become my main go-to inspiration, my main education even, as one click leads to another and you build up through truly interactive push learning. My workday routine – start surfing prior to lunch, pick out articles to read and print one on recycled paper for

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-24141691736586022462008-07-06T19:23:00.003Z2008-07-06T19:38:26.357Z

Punk is many things to many people, the end of something, the start of something or merely the next stage. Here’s some of the many theories up for a debunking: The end of the second world war – as argued by Phil Oakey in the Made in Sheffield doc. This is the long view, suggesting that the UK socially and culturally was so grey, so controlled, so straightjacketed in the post-war era that it

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-54954624325395561012008-06-28T14:06:00.002Z2008-06-28T14:08:44.522Z

With literal hours to go the liberal disquiet still grows at Jay Z’s imminent performance on the fields of our very own Avalon – Glstnbry. Like the Roc-a-fella himself, they have invoked the commercial imperative, this black man is not cricket and has inspired poor ticket sales (nothing to do with complete festival saturation then). Of course, in curtain-ruffling England the new breed of cultural

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-14634936835182028422008-06-16T21:32:00.004Z2008-06-16T21:45:37.667Z

My Bloody Valentine returned to live performance on Friday 13 June with a rehearsal gig for their few UK comeback dates. They did an expected set of purely 87-91 Creation albums and EPs. The a-side of the awesome 1990 ep, Soon and Glider (repetitive sliding technicolour bursts precede industrial dystopia) is represented. Agree with Bliss that a favourite is the grungey e-bounce of Slow on the 88

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-48714663073197344942008-05-30T14:43:00.002Z2008-05-30T16:44:40.844Z

“I don’t want to employ the services of a beautiful Chinese call-girl. I’m quite happy to stay ‘out of the game’, thanks very much. I have no desire to act on desire.” This was the situation 22 I found myself in on another ‘business’ trip to Singapore - if being holed up in an office robot-editing stories for three days can be called corporate travel (and next time I’ll just get up early and do

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-55104437347197350662008-05-14T21:41:00.006Z2008-05-15T12:20:23.201Z

***Update, it turns out MC/r council themselves were only prepared for the pseudo event of celebrating football, etc, and not the reality of 100,000 Rangers fans pissed out of their mind and irate when a) one of the main screens went off b) they lost 2-0 and a significant minority used the city centre site for a rampage. MCFC.co.uk, of course, fails to mention this side of the occasion at all in

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-88501399516906361662008-05-07T21:31:00.005Z2008-05-07T21:49:15.268Z

Back to rave last week. Czuk and I landed in some stereotype nu jungle jump-off in ghetto rave venue/pubclub Goldsmiths Tavern, a night made palatable by an enthused local crowd even as the music made a standard out of its own bog. Yes the mood was better there than last time, what with laydeez free and the still-liberating deshackler of the madfast jungle, put on by Kings of the Nu School and

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-27744586905522888492008-04-28T19:19:00.003Z2008-04-28T19:37:02.462Z

... what Shakin Stevens is to Rock 'n Roll" Saw this in Mojo over a man's shoulder while on the 8:30 to Sutton and had to laugh. Ten seconds looking at images of the Brit New Yorker funking his guitar off, or indeed walking back to Amy-Lily-Sadie-Kate's at 4am, and the rock-soul man's sheeny oeuvre begins to grate. You know how serious producers disdain to mix business with pleasure, Marky Mark.

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-20054256806803997492008-04-26T23:17:00.004Z2008-04-27T12:03:57.824Z

I’m adding to the noise around the 20th anniversary of rave, the summer of 88 generally credited with its birth as a mass movement. Twenty years, that’s a lot of anthems. By going overground and then splintering into a million different if not mutually hostile factions, dance music was able to constantly regenerate and replicate, keep going without lapsing into a cult. Hip-hop may have lasted a

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-82526106162905923042008-04-09T20:33:00.006Z2008-05-07T21:44:34.881Z

(changes wanky headline, corrects beer jerky to beef jerky) A week back from a work trip to Houston and San Antonio, Texas, and I've finally been able to blog the experience. This attempt at covering What I Saw during those four nights and five days is a dwarf in comparison with Nina’s regular, real-time and photo-supported travelogues. With audio and video to hand and a bit of space on a

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-16943282827404643882008-03-19T21:54:00.000Z2008-03-19T21:55:25.656Z

The sonic truth is that while I piss around in digital jetsam as the Djkeyll or analysing techno timbres, it’s my wife who is in the studio as I type. Well it’s not a studio but some film soundtrack guy has brought down his machines to record her accordion playing, and hopefully it will make the cut. MP3s of the tracks or at least her Citano riffing inna eastern European roma style to hopefully

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-10218903706907173782008-03-18T22:16:00.004Z2008-03-19T13:33:37.547Z

***Warning – this discussion of the components of sonic architecture may not be for naturalist music lovers, who like to see a song as a miraculous whole pumped direct from Mark Ronson’s muse to live stage, where brass, guitars, voice and real drums work in perfect harmony I have probably used this anecdote before but one of my mates once said he didn’t like dance music because it was all ‘

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-5598517883012445252008-02-18T21:58:00.002Z2008-02-18T22:02:31.646Z

I wouldn’t have picked a cold night in New Cross among the students to be my best night out in years (I’m not quite old enough to be their father etc) but then picking implies prior arrangement and pre-ordained nights aren’t usually the best either. The Allez Allez DJs have been nicely building up their reputation and their night at the refixed Amersham Arms has also been developing a following

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-29144813655306031942008-02-17T22:34:00.003Z2008-02-17T22:46:51.473Z

Ecosexual politician Jeremy McClintock has apparently claimed a musical exclusive - first hearing of the tracks on the new Coldplay album. On a simulated change forum tour for troubled kids in Innsbruck, Jez's buddy Chris Martin turned up and whacked off a few tunes from the follow-up to X&Y, tentatively titled 'Kofi's Dream'. Early reaction from Coldplay's legions of fans is available here...

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-88786596700898601172008-02-11T22:36:00.000Z2008-02-12T10:02:47.103Z

1:29pm, Denmark Hill South London. We were running late after filming some McClintock. Rich and I tuned in to 909 in the car and thought the reception was out because we couldn’t hear anything, like a Big Brother transmission where birdsong replaces profanity. But it had happened – Blues “observed” the minute’s silence and from then on moral right was on our side (I told anyone who would listen

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-76025653667933051392008-02-06T22:38:00.000Z2008-02-06T23:14:34.663Z

Or ‘the past was yours but the present’s mine’ “I don’t like looking back. I want to be in the present looking forward. It’s hard having been in this group with this story, but really for me once something is done it’s time to move forward. “The past is like a dream, it’s like it never existed. The present is something you can touch, feel, smell… By now I’ve dealt with whatever I needed to deal

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-12783703032780143372008-01-31T00:01:00.000Z2008-01-31T10:21:41.709Z

Proof were hardly further required but another example of club culture’s atrophy has been the appropriation of hedon’s space by the breeders. The newly-parent, media-organiser whordes are taking over some of the country’s leading autonomous spaces with their precious offspring, and getting down. Re-re-re-wind, says the annoying toddler and the funny yummy mummy. Now you and yours can Dance Like A

Cullanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5499832.post-16503204804451347372008-01-04T21:52:00.000Z2008-01-06T16:17:06.935Z

Blackdown’s ‘funky’ convention raised so many issues which I'm addressing from my perspective as an aged raver on the margins occasionally dipping his toe in. It didn’t just discuss Wot Do You Call It?, although I would agree it probably needs to be denominated ‘funky’ for it to be specified away from mainstream ‘funky house’, if the main movers really believe it to be different. It also raised

Cullanoreply@blogger.com