SIGNS #2

Oh buggeration! Not another of them pesky on-going series...

AKRON/FAMILY, GROUP DOUEH, OMAR SOULEYMAN LIVE!

*Rises from sick-bed* to finish off time-travelin' back to last sunday:

Despite having lived in Bedminster in a previous life (over a chemist's shop next door to Joan Armatrading's percussionist! - sad to see the old Roxy cinema has long gone; I remember seeing a Biker film double-bill there back in the day; and they once filmed a set-up for Shoestring outside the flat.) Kek failed to navigate Farmer Glitch to Fiddlers. So, our heroes pull up outside an pub and ask directions from a couple of white be-vested punters. "Fiddlers? Is that a gay or a straight pub" asks one of them. Errrrr...?

Later, the dynamic duo have a back-street run-in w/ Cheech & Chong's classic VW camper - w/ C&C still tie-dyed and in the command-cockpit, cast adrift in time from some 70s/80s stonerfilm.continuum.

So Kek phones Tim Goldsworthy who consults his AtoZofBrizzle and says, "Head for Asda; it's around there somewhere." So they do and it is.

Kek really wanted to like Akron/Family but somehow just couldn't bring himself to do it. Too fussy, messy, twiddly or something; each song containing 15 different micro-genres or too many references to something-or-other. "A band with an indentity crisis," said The Farmer, dryly, his eyebrows probing the air like antennae. Kek likes proggy, complex, twisty stuff, but this was too...too, Kek dunno, infused w/ US Indie and trying too hard. It's a shame, cos they were obv. nice guys (much later they were drinking beer and dancing lots to the SF acts), and Kek feel churlish n hateful for saying such horrible things about um, but: hrrrmm...

The bits when they chowed down on their guitars and heavied-up were the best, rather than The Talking Heads play CSNY in a Samba stylee for 15 seconds in 13/8; there was a rolling/loping funksturm that caught Kek's ear too, but too little and not often enuff.

Still, here they are:



And here's their most recent album - "Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free" on Crammed. Not really sure what to make of it, tbh.



Have the same reservations as for their live set - too jingly-jangly, too fussy for the most part: fast/switching tween Byrne-ish twitterfunk, urban.tribal chants, Zappa guitar breakdown (trying to think which song's being referenced there - "Zombi Wolf", maybe? Certainly something off "Overnite Sensation" - no wait! - it echos a line off of "Roxy and Elsewhere" - yeah, got it now!), atonal Magic Band/Waits clangbloozesturm, baroque.pop orchestration and early 70s 'Ard Blues riffage - and that's just one track lol! On paper a mighty confluence of musical confectionary, but somehow just not quite working, dunno why...the vocal harmonies grate a bit too. Anyway...

Group Doueh were waaaaay more funkier than Kek expected w/ a Yamaha keybrd.station providing preprogrammed Saharawi riddims and some seriously phat Worrellesque b/lines. Jamal Salmou (son of Bamaar aka "Doueh") pumped up the N. African fonk-runs while his mom Halima slapped a tbal drum, sang and got roars of crowd approval for hr brazen dance.shapes. A be-robed Bashiri handled most of the vocals, holding himself in a way that could best be described as dignified and dude-like, but it was Doueh who really fascinated - a man who was so freaked when he first heard Hendrix on the radio in the early 70s in a small Western Saharan town that it changed his life forever, and here he is now, 35 years later, playing his music back to us and changing our own perception of the world and how it should sound.



Yep, the Jimi-licks are all present and correct, along w/ that warmly dissonant gtr-tone of his. He plays some blistering runs - often at unexpected moments - but also knocks out some razor-sharp rhythm-work that's skeletal, but sooo tight that it puts Chic to shame. Again, that rolling, lurching heavy-funk bounce - so unexpected - sometimes dark and afrofuturistic; sometimes bouyant, loose-limbed and supple...the three of us are bopping around now - a trio of crazy old men - everywhere we look people are grinding at the air and grinning.



(The end to each groove/track is signposted by a bubbling watermark of flanged gtr-noise which reins the rest of the band in to a halt behind him as if they were a wagon-train pulling up at a water-hole. Hmmm: like the idea of bands/artists having unique trademark/signature sounds to end each song - the only example that comes to mind right now is Frank Sidebottom's "I really do, I really do" vocal/ukele/casio stutter-finish that he uses as a running-joke/meta-stop to every song. Wish more groups would end songs in a formalised manner beyond the trad.rock Beyowwwww! powerchord exit-strategy.)

At one point a track stretches out for 5, 10 minutes - an ebony roil of sound that moves in bow-tie/infinity-sign shaped micro-cycles of rhythm, creating overlapping circles of acid-funk that even Byrne n Eno could never have anticipated. Even Doueh's feeling it now, allowing his face to split into a grin as he sees the crowd are getting down. He slings his geetar over his shoulders and plays a solo on his back. Baamar Salmou: Hassanian guitar-hero. You rock!





(Doueh takes it to the (guitar) bridge)

Outside, a visibly-moved Chiz - from promoters/co-tour organisers Qu-Junktions - tells Kek that tonight is like a dream come true for him. He says that Group Doueh and the Omar Souleyman band have bonded really tightly on the road, that the two groups are having a whale of a time. Yep, and so are the rest of us.

Later on, Kek wanders down the alley in search of the lavs and spots an open door, inadvertently catching Syrian superstar Omar Souleyman as he has what could only be described as A James Brown Moment. Omar is sat alone in his robes on a chair in a large, otherwise empty room preparing himself for the show. It is a wonderful image (oddly reminiscent of the cover of "Ray Charles: A Man and His Soul", with Ray brooding into his coffee-cup with a jacket drapped over his shoulders) and Kek finds himself reaching for his camera until he realises what a shitty thing it is to intrude on someone else's privacy and solitude, so he respectfully backs off. No picture, but a moment his eye will never forget.

Still, Kek snagged the intro of Omar's set on vid (nice n trashy overloaded sound here), cutting off just as the beats kick in and the venue slides into total bedlam (what a tease!):



No - really! - it was a great build-up; and when the drums kicked off the dance-floor went completely mental. The beats were a fusion of jump-up Dabke wedding-dance rhythms and raw hi-bpm Bashment thrills - "Syrian Dancemania vol6!" - courtesy of the astonishing Rizan Sa'id, who worked his sampling-station to death, manually hammering-out some wicked two n three-finger'd snare-roll-rushes and twisting sample-loops of assorted reed instruments and ouds into rubber-fingered solos that would've made Rick Wakeman wept. At points it sounded like a giant mosquito was Stuka-bombing the beats. Percussion-loops ratchet'd and chirrup'd up n dn the kboard, weaving in and out of the drums and some blistering electric-lute licks. Occasionally, a string-sample would dance its way across the pastic-ivories and the music briefly threatened to turn into a wrong-footed Irish jig or reel - Steeleye Span 'pon The Magic bus.

Regulars will hopefully understand that Kek uses the term 'cheesy' in a non-pejorative manner, meaning, errrm, 'unselfconsciously 'obvious' in a thrilling way' or, uh, 'moments in which the mainstream can present signifiers of the ecstatic' or something; and so it was that the Souleyman band walked a wonderful tightrope between the cheesey and the retro-raw; creating a musical crossroads between places and moments that we never expected to see collide; well, not in The West Country. For an hour or so, all sorts of unexpected false-futures and misimagined-pasts peeled off from themselves and crashed head-on, recombining in a way that was joyous and raucous. There was a def. Old School Rave-Energy hovering (hoovering?) around the band, one that I'm certain would be enjoyed by some of Kek's elderly, early-90s-marooned Dadnuum-worshipping blog.colleagues

The guy on Omar's right in the vid is the legendary Mahmoud Harbi - "The Whisperer" - who provides Omar with lyrical/poetic 'ammunition' by pssst-pssst-psst-ing in his ear during the set, directing the vocal flow and acting like a human karaoke prompt. Loved the way he just wandered around at points, arms folded (UK smoking-ban, see?) like a bodyguard or minder, occasionally whispering at Omar, sometimes clapping - Doueh was also on stage at this point, videoing the performance and the audience...more Brit.bands should have members or associates who just occupy the stage, wander around aimlessly carrying out non-specific tasks; Kek'd like to see a move away from traditional rock-designated instrumentation roles where A is The Guitarist, B is The Drummer, etc - Tim commented on Mahmoud's leather trousers as being a look you couldn't get away with in the US/UK outside of a leather-bar or fetish-club; he's right...up 'til that point Kek'd figured that only East European guys could rock that look as casual street.attire with any degree of confidence, but it looks like the Syrians can pull it off as well. It appeared as if Mahmoud had a sort of second belt made of monogrammed rubber. Awesome. Also dug Omar's incredible and expensive-looking brown shoes; they were kinda winklepickeresque, pointing upwards as they narrowed into pointy tips.

Later in the show Omar surreally interviewed the audience via an interpreter (he and the rest of the band seemed genuinely delighted and surprised by the way the audience responded to their tunes - at one point it was starting to turn into a serious Pogues-style knees-up) until someone inverted the interview and asked (incredibly politely) if the band could play "just one more song" - which, of course, they did!

Timmer kinda goaded Kek into getting some vinyl autographed - not that he needed much goading, sad fanboy bastard that he is...but - duh! - missed Doueh packing away his guitar, but managed to nab Bashiri and Jamal...



...and also grabbed Mahmoud (yay!), who's now officially one of Kid Shirt's alt.cultural heros! Love to use his whispers on an Ice Bird Spiral track. Wonder if we could sort something out there?



Anyways, Kudos to Chiz and Mark and the Sublime Posse for putting together this remarkable night, and for Tom Bugs for live-mixing a bizarre blend of digital, accoustic and accoustic sonix; a lesser man would have surely cried and ran away. Wanted to have a quick chat w/ Alan Bishop - who was sooo helpful with Kek's recent FACT piece - but we had to hit the road in a 2am hurry.

To be honest, Kek oughta declare that he has no real interest in Star Wars (or Star Trek, etc) as such - the first two or three movies were good fun when they came out, but beyond that, well...it was fun tripping to S/W IV every other weekend in the early 80s ("It's more yellow than last time" etc)....still, the whole mythology and the ever-increasing hypercomplexity of the S/W canon/non-canon r v. fascinating (tho also synapse-boggling) - and that's part of what he's trying to summon up w/ new fiction piece, the way S/Ws has exponentially snowballed until it became its own microreality; what if that somehow leaked out into the 'real' world n began absorbing elements of it into its own fictionmass? - creating a sort of Venn diagram overlap between the two. What if elements of 'our' own lives became non-Canonical?

So last couple posts were just info-dumping/thinking-out-loud, so that left n right-h sides of brain came into conjunctn thus enabling commencement of typing. Ha!

Anyway, this is all now up and running v. nicely, so thank you v. much for listening even tho it was mostly rhetorical thinking. Last piece of puzzle was provided by accidentally watching a documentary that slid the whole piece into a late 40s perspective. There's going to be quite a bit about, uh, carpentry in there too. And, no, not Harrison Ford.

All of wh/ leads (kinda) to:

Darren on being a geek in The Twenties/Thirties (Heh. I can hear you saying, "Why would you want to do that? What a terrible time to have lived - mass unemployment, tent cities, no health care, an 'every man for himself' culture, etc, etc." Sound strangely familiar?)

...and which itself neatly dovetails into a great little series of tweets a couple days back by W. Gibson on Atemporality, for example "Very creative people get atemporal early on. Are relatively unimpressed by the "now" factor, by latest things. Access the whole continuum."

Roger that!

Anyway, can't stand here yipping all day, The Fictional Gods of Fiction are riding me like a two-girl rhumba-loa right now. "Fire up the wyrd-processor!"

Um, and another thought that just occurred, following on from the initial Lucas brainstorm below, is the debt that Star Wars owes Jack Kirby's Fourth World series - which was itself in part derived from Old Testament/apocalyptic Jewish theology, blahblahblah...ie The Source/The Force, The Anti-Life Equation = Dark Side of The Force, etc..this is something that has been long acknowledged by comic-book fans, but not cinema buffs. Kirby certainly alluded to it a couple times and was "flattered" apparently. Not sure if Lucas has ever acknowledged the links; he mainly talks about the 1930s/40s cinema serials of his childhood and the 'universiality' of world religions.

Kek's piece on the Sublime Frequencies label wot he wrote for the last ink edition of FACT is now available on-line.

Very much looking forward to tonight's SF show in Bristol; looks like a few old friends will be in attendence. Cool!

GEORGE LUCAS' HOROSCOPE (RMX'D POST)

Kek's been researching this stuff for a forthcoming short-story. I think he's a Taurus (or Iyar). (Lucas, I mean, not Kek - he's a Shevat, whose month-letter is Tzadik (tz), wh/ means "righteous" lol):

"Iyar is the month between our yearly rebirth in Nissan and our new maturity—which we achieve by receiving the Torah—in Sivan. Accordingly, the letter of this month, vav (v), represents the straight line of truth. The sign of Taurus, the bull, signifies the individuality and stubborn devotion to this truth, the prerequisite for maturation. Iyar is thus the month of “correct thought,” the attribute on which we focus in preparation for receiving the Torah. The tribe of this month, Yissachar, excelled in their loving devotion to the study of the Torah."

Lucas is not Jewish - in fact, he's a self-declared "Buddhist-Methodist" - tho a lot of people just naturally assume that he is; so it struck Kek that it might be fun to deconstruct him for the piece in a quasi-mystical Jewish context.

Here's a quote from a piece by Gary Rosenblatt in The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix from some years back:

"Lucas said he put The Force (a God-like energy) into the movie "to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people - more a belief in God than a belief in any particular religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the mystery." Indeed, Lucas has created a kind of 21st century Haggadah, a cultural ritual intended to instill in children a sense of wonder, interest and, ultimately, belief." Of course, you have to ask what kind of belief - a belief in the Star Wars franchaise world-view itself? Kek mean, Kek can't belief that Lucas is that, um, spiritually altruistic...but maybe Kek'm wrong.

Interesting how many people now put Jedi as religion on passport applications, etc. The idea that a bogus/pop.culturally-invented religion/philosophy might one day become more popular than a 'real' one (more people 'speak' Klingon than Welsh, etc) - the whole Jedi thing is a mulch of vague Holywood Hills bullshit celeb.buddhism vs wishy-washy faux-zen platitudes. A 'religion' for people who haven't actually got *time* to commit to a religion; a hobby-religion. (Aren't they all now?) Jedi: the religion of The Spectacle, a philosophy of convenience.

Um, just trying on some ideas for size here: the idea that the Jewish community can clearly see Jewish moral:memes leaking thru the tissue of The Lucasverse is a testiment to his success in genericising (is that a word?) - okay, then: homogenising global religious/spiritual concerns, tho Lucas would prob. prefer the idea that he has helped highlight their linked-ness and universality. The word 'commodify' comes to mind tho, personally.

Gary Kurtz on Lucas (almost certainly apocryphal/fan-boy joke, but Kek love the sentiment expressed) : "You should not think of that man as your hero. When I saw what had become of him, after he said Empire was terrible and how he wanted to put Ewoks in the next film, I tried to dissuade him, to draw him back from the dark side of money-making. We fought...George eventually fell into the whole computer division of Industrial Light and Magic, where he spent most of his time before Jurassic Park arrived. When George clawed his way out Skywalker Ranch, the change had been burned in him forever--Jar Jar Binks, lots of useless aliens, Gungans, bluescreen, digital cameras and an all-digital cast. Irredeemably dark. Scarred. Kept alive only by computer machinery and his own black will to make more money and play with his tech toys." lol: Lucas as some sort of temporarily reclusive Hughesian figure (kept half-alive by IL&M tech)...well, he is superficially a very public figure, but is also very private. Does anyone really know what he's thinking or what he's actually like? H/core S/W fans claim Kurtz has told them at conventions that Lucas is "not to be trusted" lol - as if Lucas has, himself, been seduced by the Dark Side of The Force.

Amazed at how many Christian sites are doing comparitive studies of The Bible and The Star Wars Time-Line/Mythology. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

Fascinated by the idea of Lucas as an accidental/closet Jew. A troubled but fabulously-rich semi-reclusive Jewish denier obsessed by technology. A man whose true talent deserted him when the bucks started rolling in. Conflicted on a daily basis by artistic impulse vs. cashflow. A pretty dark dude.

GEL RECORDS/PUKERS: BORN IN THE U.S.A

A new NY-based label – GEL – has begun flaunting its tapewise wares recently. The imprint comes atcha courtesy of Daren Ho from the sadly now-defunct Iowa band Raccoo-oo-oon.

Daren and Kek inter-pen-net-pal'd a bit somewhile back and even finally got to meeting when the great Rac-posse musically ramraided Bristol a couple years ago. He's a top bloke, is Daren.

The label's named - you might guess - because of their preference for spookily bleached-out transparent acetate covers. As yet they don't have a web-presence – tho that's soon to change; more info, o data-famished ones, soon as it doth hit the airwaves.

Gotta bundle o'tapes thru the mail recently-ish, for wh/ I heartily thank Daren – so, here's one to set yer taste-buds a-singing (more laters, Kek promises, so sit still n stop fidgeting, kids): this is GEL04: "Born in the U.S.A." by Pukers (and, appropriately enough, comes equipped with a see-thru ghost-pic of Springsteins's arse n cap):



Starts off sounding like a caracature of some solemn n arcane swearing-in ceremony; an oath sworn – right hand on an old batter'd n coffee-mug-ring'd copy of Re:Search - to The Grand Flag of Retardo. But the solemnity is insincere; a template that is parodied and ignored as much as it is adhered to.

The spaz-spirits of Jim Henson and Frank Oz hover o'er the proceedings. Professional voice-artists are shot out of a cannon and hurtle thru the ozone towards the orange city-walls of some distant fuzzy-felt city, never quite impacting.

The biggest drum-kit on planet Earth goose-steps an implauso-beat while modulated feedback-vox whinge n wail and carry on something chronic. “What do you think about cops?” asks a startled passerby. The answer is incoherent, a drunk let loose in the bull-rink with a loud-hailer. "Skzzztt-fssshen-gah....cops."

A Muzak version of The Beatles' “Yesterday” puts in an appearance and this three-ringed Circus of Qualuudes tries to play along. Later, everyone puts on a brave face as another song is tackled.

On ze flippin' heck side things get kinda hysterical wid an Animal-from-The-Muppets style surf-spaz drumalong and a bruised larynx shriekathon. ”Born in the USA” is an hilariously misread quasi-Arabic take on The Boss' hymn to blue-collar disillusionment – a call-to-prayer broadcast thru a hostage-negotiator's throat-mic. Part sarcastic, part Brutalist squaaak the song soon descends into a wordless drone-howl w/ whistling, overdriven gtrs and grunted backwoods backing-vocals.

Ooooooh: smash them drums! Someone call security! A young woman's getting passed around the crowd like she's a – no wait: it's a guy.

Don't even think about snogging to this tape.

Plan B magazine bites the dust.

Not that you could ever fucking buy it in Yeovil.

FUNKMOSPHERE INFOMERCIAL

TEAM BRICK'S WRONG WEEKEND

Team Brick and a cast of dozens kick off a loooong marathon b/holiday weekend o'gigs in Bristol, featuring various pals n allies of Ice Bird Spiral (but not IBS herself; tho a live show is imminent):



(Click to n-gorge for info)


Joey Chainsaw.

Boxcar Aldous Huxley.

Kylie Minoise

Bbblood

229 2299 GIRLS AGAINST SHIT

Kek takes a few moments out from writing a press-release for the forthcoming Shit and Shine album "229 2299 Girls Against Shit" to pop outside for a fag and to quickly mention that it's a total fucking corker. The album, not the cigarette. Of course, Kek's completely biased, but you don't come here for objectivity - why should you? - you can get that pretty much anywhere else you care to look on the mediasphere. It's a dollar for a baker's dozen, that shit.

Object/vity, smeared with a gooey, smarmy, marmite-like dollop of reasonableness. No thank you - oh and by the way: go fuck yourselves, Sonic Youth hayters.

("Where were you in '82?" to paraphrase Zomby)

And so, *ahem*, to conclude:

(a) New Shit and Shine album.

(b) It's called "229 2299 Girls Against Shit"

(c) You should buy it when it comes out.

(How's that for wham-bam thank-you-mum "late-era capitalism"?)



Kek says the press-release should explain all the above points in greater detail. (Hrrm: you'd have thought Riot Season would have learned their lesson after the last one, wouldn't you?) Craig, he's still trying to a sort that interview in Backstreet Heroes.

Keep checking here for more info. Or, even better, here.

CHROME: "YOU'VE BEEN DUPLICATED"

DOPPELKEK

...And, already, rumours are starting to circulate the internet that I might not be the real Kek.

That I am an imposter, a Cuckoo-Kek; a Simulacrumkek, an analogue...that I (but -wait! - who am "I"? Am I me or am I someone else? Am I the 'real' me or a false-me and unaware of it...or is this just some weird double- or triple-bluff? Am I a Bogus-Kek who's playing you like an invisible puppet-master? Passing my own replacement off as a joke.)...have I been duplicated, replicated or cloned by someone - something - else? What if this post is just part of a bigger cover-up - a smokescreen to hide some wider, more awful conspiracy.

Trust no-one. No-one is what they seem. Are you even certain that you're the person you thought you were? Check the mirror: are you sure that's you? Check your reflection again. Check it three times.

Get yourself fingerprinted. DNA-tested.

Cut yourself. Is that real blood? Is that...is that human blood?

Not a hoax or an imaginary story: over the coming days certain bloggers will disappear, while others will change...alter... in subtle ways that only their closest loved-ones can discern.

You have been warned: this is just the beginning.

You're not irreplacable.

SUBLIME FREQUENCIES UK TOUR

So - apart from Farmer Glitch and me - who's coming to the Sublime Frequencies show in Bristol this sunday?

TAMPERE ELECTRONIC MUSIC PHESTIVAL

Tampere Electronic Music Phestival @ Out of Juice, Tampere, Finland, 4 - 7 June '09.

I'm slightly worried - concerned? bemused? - that someone called Kek-1 is playing at this. Need to track down this imposter...no wait, what if - in a paranoid PKDickian twist of fate (an accidental dose of an experimental reality-inverting narcotic; the invention of a corporate-sponsored more-human-than-human android species, etc) - it's me that's the imposter.

Oh fuck.

MIZZ NOBODY/BESOKARNA

Thanks to Martin from the Beyond the Implode blog who's been sending me mp3s of some old Swedish Punk and Post-Punk bands. We're both fans of The Leather Nun. Well, the early stuff.

Just been playing "Smittad" by Mizz Nobody: great to hear a flanged guitar on a Punk single lol; and then there's a cool Bluesy-ish breakdown that sounds like it leaked in from a back ish of Mojo or Classic Rock magazine. I'd kinda forgotten how up in the air things were back then; I remember seeing Penetration - in '78, I think - at one of the Bristol Poly sites and getting mashed on a bottle of sherry from an offie in St. Pauls with my mate John from Dudley...and being surprised at how 'Eavy they sounded live. It sounded like there was a Brummie Hard Rock band trying to climb out of the Punk riffage, if they'd slowed down a notch or so...I think there were a few greebos n bikers in the audience too.

Anyway - Mizz Nobody: it's a spiky slice of hi-velocity Punk-Pop.

But the real gems were the two sides of a 1979 single by Besökarna that he sent over.

"Anna Greta Leijons Ögon" is particularly brilliant, sounding like a weird Punk/Psych hybrid - a contender for some sort of New Wave Scando Nuggets comp. I'm picking up a weird blend of The Fall, Metal Urbaine and some lost pumped-up Farfisa organ 60's Garage-Rock classic. The B-Side - "31 Timmars Skrack" is pretty good too, more overtly Psych-ish.

To his credit, Martin was raving about this single to me ages ago; I really shoulda chased it down months back.

Yeah, I reckon this is great:

KW-QUARTERLY

Some new bits n pieces up on The Kek-W Quarterly (and loads more coming down the pipeline in the next few days), incl. a piece by the legendary alt.pulp writer Michael Waspman. I've been a fan of his stuff since, well, waaaay back before the internet days, so I'm espesh thrilled to snag a piece by him.

Thanks, Michael.

EQUINOX FESTIVAL

THOR JAM

The 2000th Kid Shirt post is a tribute to Old Skool Metal dude Thor.

I confess I'm curious to hear some of his early stuff as it was influenced by early 70's UK Glam. He was also tangentially alligned w/ the rockier edge of US Punk: covering "Search and Destroy" in a post-Dictators' style before finding a nice schlocky side-show Soft Metal niche in the 80's.

First up, Thor bends a metal bar with his teeth while his guitarist endulges in some serious fretwankery:



From 1977, the classic "Keep The Dogs Away":



"We Live To Rock!" (oh, yes, we surely do!):

STAR TREK: THE IOWA REBOOT

Specially for Mr. D. Bauler:

My local small-town paper - The Western Gazette - reviewed the latest Star Trek film, saying, "Kirk spends his time in Iowa, getting drunk in bars, hitting on women and starting fights."

I might go and see this. I don't like Star Trek, but the idea of setting one of the films entirely in Iowa appeals to me greatly. It sounds like a novel way of rebooting a faded franchaise.

The Western Gazette asked people coming out of the cinema what they thought of the film (these are genuine quotes from the article):

Fenn Roberts, aged 17, of Yeovil, said: "I found it a bit hard to follow, but the special effects were good."

Alan Powis of Scotland (who seems to have come all the way to Yeovil to see the film), aged 60, said: "It was a bit hard to follow in places, but I'll probably watch it again so that I don't miss anything."

The film is rated 12A.

JJ Abrahams is already preparing a sequel - Star trek 2. According to IDMB: "Kirk spends his time in Yeovil, getting drunk in bars, hitting on women and starting fights. It will also be a bit hard to follow."

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FICTION #35

Ye Gods: these things are like buses or policemen or...something. You wait ages, etc.

And so, yesterday...not one, but two parcels came at the letterbox like a disgruntled neighbour with a spadeful of burning catshit and a petrol-bomb.

Yep: It's The Journal of Experimental Fiction #35. And what a handsome, well-endowed fella it is too. The blinkin' thing's massive: two-thirds way to magazine height and as thick as a Dorset Doorstop. Ideal for putting on yr head and practicing The Alexandra Technique. Tho, watch out if all those words leak into your bonce at once. I refuse to be responsible for the consequences.



I've mentioned this book before. I'm prone to doing that. It's me age, see. Got a case of early-onset Pratchetts.

This volume has been a little while coming, but as editor Eckhard Gerdes says in the foreword: he's not the fastest editor in the world and - hey! - what's the rush anyway. It's time to sit down and savour stuff for once.

Don't be put off by the word 'experimental' in the title. I know it scares some of you, but JEF #35 is full of great stories and pictures by some top-notch contributors. It's like an old-fashioned literary journal, except it ain't old-fashioned. You should buy it; it won't hurt you. In fact, I know a lot of ya would really enjoy it.

You should see what's coming down the JEF pipeline. There's some amazing stuff due to hit. And not just written-word or printed matter. Oh, no.

Eckhard is a cool guy and a terrific writer in his own right. He likes Amon Duul 2, early Hawkwind, Michael Moorcock, assorted Krautrock shit...and even makes his own music. He may even turn out to be the lost brother I never knew I had.

Oh, and did I mention that JEF #35 contains a story by me called "The Documentary" that's completely different in tone, style and length to the one I posted about yesterday? It could've (almost) been written by a different person. Maybe it was. I think I've got a bad case of literary-MPD. Good job I haven't got an agent, it would make it really difficult to position me in the market-place lol. But - you know what? - fuck that shit. You gotta follow the road.

Tomorrow I promise to talk about someone other than myself.

BARE BONE #11

My contributor's copy of the Bare Bone #11 antho arrived today, smashing its way thru the front-door with a red fireman's axe. "Heeeeeere's Lucy!!"

Edited by that suave-looking psychopath Kevin Donihe and wrapped up in a neat brown gimp-harness designed by Carlton Mellick III. This is Horror, But Not As You Know It. Be prepared to read this book side-saddle.



In amongst work by such card-carrying brainfuckers as Cody Goodfellow, Paul Finch, Cameron Pierce and (yay) Forrest Armstrong you will find a biggish story by me called "Getting Old". It's in a faux-genre I call Neuro-Noir, which is - well, hard to describe - but imagine an old fashioned Ed McBain police procedural set in a weird early 60s "Outer Limits" universe riddled with secret conspiracies and old-school black-science. It's a Cop Story, but not like any one you've ever read before, suckers. I think you'll like it.

Buy it here. Or here, courtesy of the folks at Raw Dog Screaming Press.

And be quick about it!

(Bags-I be Mysterio!)

Apparently, my youngest daughter found this piece of wrastlemania type cardboard packaging lying in the road this afternoon and kept hold of it 'til bedtime when I got home and she could give it to me.

My wife said she became obsessed with it; she hung on to it all afternoon and kept saying, "Dad'll really like this!"

And I do.

COUGH: SIGILLUM LUCIFERI

Cough.



Gatefold vinyl available from Jelle and his friends at Electric Earth, purveyers of bespoke Doom, Stoner Doom and Heavy, Heavy Rock.

SWINE-FLU SKANK

The dance-craze that's currently sweeping the UK:



"Catch it! Bin it! Kill it!"

HOLGER CZUKAY INTERVIEW

Okay, so my interview with Holger Czukay from the legendary German band Can is now standing up by itself on its hind-legs. Hope you enjoy it.

Holger is appearing at The Roundhouse in London - this thursday, I think. He's also taking an electronic-music master-class the following day. It's not to late to book for these...

And, of course, I asked him a couple of questions that were purely, selfishly for myself lol - daft fan-boy stuff, 'natch. These weren't included in the published interview (because they were for me - bwahahahaha!) so when that's been up for a little while, I'll be posting them here as a sort of postscript to the main piece. So, keep your eyes open.

DUSTIN LAVALLEY

Yo! Shout out to Dustin Lavalley!

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS

"NOW I AM JIMMY NAIL"

A personal message from James Kirby (see: previous post) to all Kid Shirt and FACT mag readers:

"NOW I AM JIMMY NAIL".

Heh. See?

So, come on, ye bastids - go'n pre-order that album!

THE CARETAKER: ARTICLE/INTERVIEW/PODCAST

...and speaking of perennial Kid Shirt favourites: there's an article on/interview w/ James Kirby (aka The Caretaker, The Stranger, V/Vm) by myself over on the FACT site.

I'm not going to beat around the bush here: James' new material is fucking fabulous and it's going to seriously turn some heads this year. My understanding is that a new CD/double-vinyl - "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was" is due to drop fairly soon, but a recent mail hinted that he now has such a backlog of quality material that there may even be a series of vinyl releases staggered throughout the year. If you don't know what all the fuss is about, then check his site for downloads/streams - plus some of his marvellous back-catalogue is now reavailable for purchase.

I know the other guys at FACT are big fans of his work - in fact, Kiran suffixed the piece with a cry of "Support the artist!" and I can only echo that. As well as being a lovely guy, James has the potential to be a major musical playa in my opinion. Please buy his material (the vinyls are always beautifully mastered and the CDs lavishly packaged), not trawl the arse-end of bit-torrents looking for some scrappy-sounding old compressed-to-fuck mp3.

James also kindly agreed to put together an exclusive podcast to accompany the article - so if you're looking for freebies, then here's one (now bloody well go and buy something off him lol!). I was lucky enough to hear this a few weeks back and it's marvellous.

I hope you think so too.

GREETINGS FROM THE TEXAS FRIGHTMARE WEEKEND

Regular readers will be aware that in the Kid Shirt Mythverse, actors n actresses like Marilyn Chambers, Fred Williamson, John Saxon, Sid Haig, Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson, Stella Stevens, Bruce Li/Bruce le/Dragon Lee, etc, etc, etc [fill in yr own b-movie heroes] are accorded far more cultural weight than the hollowed-out spin-assisted back-projected nobodies that mostly pass for Hollywood mega-stars these days. And for this I make no apology lol.

So, when Texan film-maker Jayson Densman told me he was working at the Texas Frightmare Weekend and kindly asked if there was anyone's autograph I'd like him to get for me, I mentioned it would be really cool if he could snag a paw-print from the amazing Caroline Williams...and, well, Dick Miller is another long-time hero of mine - a legendary character-actor who's been in, well everything - Mr. Miller is a guy who, if even if you can't quite place the name, you'll def. know his face from a zillion+ films...Linda Blair fascinates me too - not for "The Exorcist", oh no - but for all the great exploito-stuff she did in its wake ("Chained Heat", "Roller Boogie", "Savage Streets", etc)...Karen Black's got a really fascinating CV too, one that ranges from cool 70's alt.hollywood to arthouse to semi-grind straight-to-dvd, but at this point I thought enough's enough... it was really great for Jayson to ask, but he's a busy guy and he's got his own shit to do, etc...he ain't gonna have time to track down all these folks. But, hey, it was nice of him to ask...

What I didn't realise was that things kinda, erm, escalated - as they often do when Jayson's at the wheel lol - so, instead of settling for autographs he upped the ante and put together a short film sequence which he sent over to me this morning.

Anyway, check this out; it's awesome - my jaw hit the ground and shattered when I hit the bits where Karen Black and Caroline Williams gave me a shout-out (Caroline Williams!!! - jeez: life doesn't get much better than that!)...but this isn't just for me; it's for anyone in the UK who has an interest in these folks and others like them, and who's never had a chance to step up and say "hi" to some of their own 'underground'heroes. Whether yr into Horror or weird B-movies or whatever, then this is for all of you too:

TFW4UK


A big thanks to Jayson for taking the time to do this - it really is very much appreciated. He says to pass this clip on and post it on yr own sites, specially if you live in the UK. You can grab some embedded code here. Spread the work: these folks are cool. And the Fest. looks like a total blast!

Of course, there's also a semi-serious side to this...there's a whole raft of uber-cool under-used (and often under-appreciated) old school actors and actresses out there, some of whom have fallen thru the cracks - it's easy to forget that many of them are still active, jobbing actors still trying to eeeek! out a living. For every one that gets a cameo or a career-lift in a Tarantino or Rob Zombie flick there are dozens that don't. Luckily, there are a whole bunch of true-believers, fans and afficiandos around who love their work and like to shout heir names from the rooftops...as well as mags like Psychotronic and so forth that keep the flame alive.

So, all I was gonna say was if there's any independent film-makers out there in the UK (or anywhere) reading this, then do the right thing - who wouldn't want Caroline Williams in their movie lol...ditto: anyone out there running the UK Horror fests - next time yr thinking about what guests to invite...well, it would be terrific if some of these great folks were to make it over to this side of the pond.

Thanks to Jayson for making my year. I've been boiling up a big post on his own film-making exploits for some time now and that should see the light of day sometime v. soon.

BERTIE BASSETT

For any non-UK readers (puzzled by my reference in the post below), here's some pics of Bertie Bassett, The Liquorice Allsorts Man who haunted the candy-induced nightmares of many a Brit child...

You may be surprised to find that he even featured (kinda) in a vintage episode of Dr. Who (so that's Doppelganger's next Who-related essay sorted out then! - like the cybermen, his earlier (eyeless/noseless) incarnation is more sinister I reckon...and also has a sort of Residents feel to it...)

In Finnish: "Englannin lakritsi" or Englannin laku" - "English Liquorice" lol.

ERIKOISODANCE 11: OMNI GIDEON

Kid Shirt lifers may recall that, altho I generally affect a certain vague distain for a broad raft of comtempo Techno, I am particularly keen on the music released by the Helsinki-based electronics label Erikoisdance. Every few months Tom sends me his most recent releases and they're almost always pretty damn good.

Erikoisdance 10 and 11 landed in my mail-box many moons ago. I've been amiss in not mentioning them, but other stuff always seems to get in the way - and increasingly so, these days, or so it seems...but the imminent arrival of Erikoisdance 12 has finally prompted a tardy response from yrs truly...

This time I'm gonna focus in on Erikoisdance 11 - "Sähkölasku" by Omni Gideon. (Tho I may retro-review the previous volume at some point, if time allows) Each Erikoisdance release is usually based around a 'theme' and this one is no different, it being an attempt at allowing assorted electronic-kit to auto-'compose' its own take on Machine-Funk.



I particularly like the fact that the tracks are 'titleless', each being designated the same short continuous line in place of a name. Kinda reminds me of Warholian asterisk'd film-titles, but this seems to designate a generic null or an unknown of some sort. Let yr imagination fill in the blanks.

So here's some vague, impressionistic thoughts on the tracks translated from my *ahem* 'notes'.



1. Syncopated cee-threepio Robo-Funk n Drumulator'd R2-D2 comms-squawk that sounds like it fell off the back of the Clear Records roster circa 1994 and lived wild in the woods for a few years, subsiding on tungsten nuts and bolt-berries. Now it's hopping off towards The Big City like an excitable electronic squirrel, but there's something oddly strident, almost purposeful about its flightpath - it hops from foot to foot as if it's standing on hot coals, but there's also a sense that it has some ultimate destination in mind.

2. I like how 'dark' this feels. It's murky, dim n distant - a reverb-smudged darkling that creeps its way across a black marshmallow landscape. The reverb after-image look/sounds like wire-wool - a cloud of data covered in minscule prickles. Nano-velcro.

(A micro-narrative is forming in my head, but...): I'm imagining muzzy-sounding, self-regulating machines - the postmodernist info-sifting equivalent of nodding-donkeys - they're pumping at the data-soil, raising clouds of machine-code pollen. Hexadecimal spores that never quite seem to germinate.

Are the machines mining for something? Someone - a small kartoon bot; a Liquorice Allsorts Man - makes his way back to his lonely little home. He sounds weary, wistful. What awaits him there?

This is a snapshot of a small life being lead in the shadow of Technology. A blurry, smeary, vague little life whose details seem superficially unimportant, who are dwarfed by some vague, almost irrelevent form of industry. I feel sad for this little fella. I wanna tell him it's gonna be alright, that he does matter. We all matter.

3. I'll tell you what I'm hearing here: a frantic single-note cow-bell samba. It reminds me of the breathless commuter-surge rhythms that underpin the very first Yello album - tho it sounds nothing like that, of course! This is tinnier, thinner, brittle-sounding, skeletal...rather than that boisterous, crowd-sourced Brownian Motion cum urban hustle-bustle that "Solid Pleasure" invokes. (tube-train doors open and shut on fast-forward CCTV, disgorging robotic office-workers; but this is bleached out, low-rez YouTube footage and, like some burnt-out PKD protagonist, we fail to recognise ourselves on the screen) This is a stressed-out crowd-of-one; less-than-one, even...a remainder; a reminder...we are less than zero; we are alone in a crowd; we are alone in our heads. We. Are. The. Robots.

Later, a skinny Bernie Worrell soundalike performs an endless synthphunk solo.

The solo leaves a dark froth in its wake.

4. Mock proclamations from King Kurluu Kuurth of Flat Earth F.

5. A(nother) lonely machine restlessly prowls the Outburbs of (K-1)th Street, his metal feeler-pole tap-tapping on the slidewalk. He is followed by a Quu-- [Static Intero-Interrupt]

This track is as stunningly beautiful as it is simplistic.

6. Huh?? A 'House' Mix of an earlier track by ODJ Harri from Sähkö Records...?

Ha! So linearity is restored, after a fashion, but it's a lop-sided one at that, or at least it is at the beginning. But that spongey little tick-drum does little to erase the music's subtle poignancy.



I asked about the philosophy/concept that underpinned the Omni Gideon: project-product-object.

"Omni Gideon is done by me too. Or more accurately by a bunch of machines and me. I don't think of myself as really being responsible for the finest moments on that record.

"Here's the story:

"The main idea behind the project was to really let the gear "do the thinking" and just control the machinery enough to ensure that the outcome of the sessions would be possible to categorize as music. And yeah, of course the material sounds quite musical, even melodic at times - obviously because the machines in question are designed for making just that: music.

"So the thought/philosophy is of making the work of the designers and engineers who designed and built the machines audible, by trying to really dig out something that sounds like nothing else than just the machine in question is present here too. Just as it was in the stuff I did for the earlier "Non-baryonic Form" release. But the approach was much more purist on this one.

"It was all done with a very limited setup (well, most of my stuff is actually). Using just one synthesizer keeps the sound spectrum naturally in control, so there's a better chance of the outcome not being just total chaos when you work like this.

"But, you know, saying "just one instrument" is totally misleading when you're talking about polyphonic, multitimbral synthesisers. It's not like I was limited to using just a guitar or bongo drum or something. People have done whole careers with much less equipment!

"Every track was done as one single stereo-recording, with no overdubs or other stages in the process that would allow too much logical problem-solving or "corrections" to be made. The logic of the compositions is fuzzy machine logic.

"So that's mostly just my ESQ-1 you hear on the record, getting funky almost completely by itself!

"The house edit is quite great too don't you think? ODJ Harri - Helsinki House-DJ since Day 1 - did that one for me. He's one of the guys behind Sähkö Records and their sub-label Keys of Life (and has been running other very interesting labels too, over the years). I'm lucky to know him from work from some years back. So that made it possible to order the remix from someone inside the club scene (although I operate 100% outside of that myself), which in turn made it possible for something as weird to happen as Jori Hulkkonen playing Erikoisdance in his DJ sets!"

What does "Sähkölasku" translate to...? I know Sähkö means "electric" - it's one of the few Finnish words I know. (Something I hope to remedy at some point!)

"The name of the record: in English, it means "Electric Bill". No connection to the mentioned label tho, other than Harri doing the remix."

"Electric Bill" LOL.

I really like the fact that the tracks on the Omni Gideon MySpace are different to the CD; it implies that there's a near infinite sequence of self-composed machine-built cuts n we're only hearing one incarnation of them. I like the apparent arbitrariness of track endings or the sudden, unexpected appearance of certain sounds...

Next up is Erikoisdance 12:

"The 12th Erikoisdance CDr offers a long EP length of old material by the labels in-house Outsider Dance super group Die Todesmaschine. Here the notoriously unproductive duo display their trademark style of homegrown synth tracks in 4 examples, along with some versions and remix material — epic Vangelis-on-a-budget strings, off-center basslines obscured by metallic flange, faux 70’s Glam Rock drum patterns and a healthy dose of crunchy tape delay feedback.

"The release includes pretty much everything they have recorded during the last 6 or so years (except for the one track released under the alias Detox, on the now sadly defunkt Kommando 6 label back in 2004). A remix by Vince Koreman (of Ra-X and Virgin Fang fame), exclusively commissioned for this release, is also included."

"This new one is a collection of tracks I've done together with long-time band and electronics mate Torsten Colerus. The oldest ones are from the beginning of the 00's, the most recent ones recorded in 2007. So I guess you could call it a retrospective."

And after E12?

"Coming up next is a dub-inspired thing - very heavy, deep stuff with demagnetized mono reel-to-reel sounding production. After that a little collection of recordings by semi-obscure Helsinki band Mallisto, whose music would be easiest described as "Ambient Synth Folk" or something. I wasn't involved in the band, but did a remix for this CD-r.

"Some of the tracks on that one will be from 15 years back. Looks like I'll have to really be carefull not to veer off into doing only dusty old archival releases! The Erikoisdance Museum of CDr-ology..."

Erikoisodance releases are available direct thru their MySpace or from Clone Records.

FINAL FACT/SUBLIME FREQUENCIES TOUR

The lastest - and sad to say, final - ish of FACT has just hit the streets, feturing a whoppin' gert big piece by me on the fabulous Sublime Frequencies label.



Yes, 'tis the last issue, I'm afraid...but fear not, little ones, for - sad as I am to see the demise of my favourite music.inky - it was not a victim of Da Recesshun. Although my personal preference is always for analogue media, much big fun will continue to be had over on the newly expand'd FACT site, which seems to be carving a very nice little niche for itself and picking up a readership of kulchur-starved peeps (both young and old) at a rate of knots. The folks that run FACT bought out one of the last remaining vinyl pressing plants in the UK a while back, so I know their hearts're in the right place. FACT is produced by music fanatics for music fanatics. There's a couple biggish new pieces by me imminent - but don't let that put you off! - go'n check the site out if you haven't already; they've got some really excellent talent working for them, incl. some familiar names from the blogosphere.

And speaking of Sublime Frequencies, the SF Tour hits the UK any second now, courtesy of those lovely people at Qu Junktions:



Featuring Omar Souleyman and Group Doueh...miss this tour at your own peril! It's going to be one of the music highlights of the year. Chiz kindly invited me to host the audience-led Q&A w/ Alan Bishop, Hisham Mayet and Mark Gergis at The Cube in Bristol on Tuesday, 19th May, but sadly I can't make that one - it would have probably degenerated into total bedlam with me at the wheel lol - but it promises to be a great night with the SF crew telling up tales of their various musical treks into the unknown, along with a host of exclusive films and footage and music. You really should go! Hopefully, I'll be making the live show at The Fiddlers, Bristol, on sun 24th, so may well run into some of you at that.

Meanwhile, here's a couple of tasters for y'all:





Unmissable!