THE CAPTAIN & TENNILLE: "LOVE WILL KEEP US TOGETHER"

"Love Will Keep Us Together": the opposite of Joy Division.

Had this song going thru my head all week. (Nice pharty-Moogy-bass-line)

(You might have to ramp the volume a little on this, tho; seems a bit quiet)



"The Captain": how brilliant it must be, to be called "The Captain"!!

Got his moniker from Brian Wison, apparently.

JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #296

Judge Dredd Megazine #296 hits the streets any second now - if not already - featuring (or so I'm told; not actually got a comp. copy yet) an interview with Me about my Non-Career in Comics, courtesy of Matt Badham (age 9).

(oh, and some bloke called Jesus Redondo lol. Fucking luv his stuff!)

Comes pre-bagged w/ a floppy Best of Pulp Sci-Fi collection that includes "Welcome To The Machine", a tale I penned back in the 90s that was stunningly rendered by legendary artist Colin Wilson. I'm not exagerating when I say that Colin's art on this story is - as ever - totally awesome.

Available in W H Smiffs, assorted high-street newsagents in the UK and on-line.

Mike Oldfield has an asteroid named after him: 5656 Oldfield.

It's reached that terrible point where I'll do anything - anything! - other than work tonight lol.

Was just gonna post a picture of a mosquito's proboscis, but the image was copyrighted and locked; so luckily that broke the spell. Then I watched a few minutes of "Armageddon" ("...I dooooooon' waaaana miss a thiiing..." lol). Then I had a bag of crisps. Then I looked at a picture of April's freshly-painted appartment that she'd posted (nice pad!).

But that sentence still doesn't read right. Cadence is off or something.

Howcum I blasted off 600 words this afternoon quicker'n a pigfart with kids screaming at me, neighbours hammering sheet-metal and numerous other distractions, huh? HUH!!!??

Procrastinate, procrastinate...

*whistles tunelessly*

*looks at ceiling*

I think I'll have a cigarette. Yeah, that'll do the trick.

Jeez: this thing I'm trying to get finished...think I've managed one longish sentence in the last 45 minutes.

Shit. A glacier just lapped me.

Digging out some old, long-unplayed vinyl for a bit of variety and just realised I haven't bought a new record by Squarepusher for about 5 or 6 years.

Have I missed anything?

There's a brief mention and - *eeeeeek* - a photo of Junkcrunch in this week's Western Gazette, which - as any ex-pat Yeovillian will tell ya - is the ultimate aspirational accolade for anyone who plays music round here lol.

I'll spare you the horror - and me, the embarrassment - of reproducing the pic. People have been stopping me in the street - in Yeovil, there is only one street! - and asking: "Was that you in the paper yesterday or some weird-looking woman-thing?" I have had to kill at least three people today. One guy started the sentence with: "No disrepect, but..."

The Farmer sent me an email that just said "Beatnik Hippies!" - which kinda sums it up better than I ever could. I look like a fucking member of the original line-up of Gong, which - come to think of it - is a counter-intuitively correct look to rock right now in this stage of my life. However, if I could get a decent pair of enormous cream-coloured Oxford Bags and a pair of wooden-heeled clogs right now, then I'd happily shear off my hair and move into the next phase of my 'career' as a Local Pest.

The last time I appeared in the Guts Ache - as we fondly call it - was here. The, um, synthband I was in, back in the late 80's - Kickstate - also ended up in the WG Ents Section on a couple of occasions...so, really, this now makes me something of an overachiever. There's nothing for it now but to retire disgracefully and/or kill myself. I've achieved my life's ambitions and - like Buzz Aldren - everything else in my life will be a pitiful anti-climax, ending in a spectacular downwards arc into some twilight, gin-fried Hades of my own making.

You have been warned!

I noticed that we also got an honourable mention on the Somerset Express webpage where - despite cutting and pasting a chunk of my own press release - they referred to me as "Ken W" lol.

Ken W: that's my Pseudo-Nipponese Production-Office Nom-dum-plum. Look out for my forthcoming films: "Earless Black-Haired Gore-Witch: Attack!" "Full-Metal Wolf Ramones" and "Calamari Boy O".

I'm spinning off multiple-identities now like a super-heavy element shedding valencies. Ha!

SYLVESTER ANFANG II APRIL TOUR

Some extremely cool friends of mine (piktured here in previous karmic inkarnation):



They're some of the nicest people I know. And my favourite Acid Rock band in the whole wide world. Sylvester Anfang II.

They also happen to be on tour v. soon:

April 3rd: La Suite, Paris, France
April 4th: Le BPM, Nantes, France
April 5th: Handclapping Girls, Clermont-Ferrand, France
April 6th: Grrrnd Zero, Lyon, France
April 7th: Cave12, Geneve, Suisse
April 8th: MusikVerein, Nürnberg, Germany
April 10th: Chapeau Rouge, Prague, Czech Republic
April 11th: Leipzig, Germany
April 12th: Madama Claude, Berlin, Germany
April 13th: Utmarken, Göteborg, Sweden
April 14th: Aarhus, Denmark
April 15th: Copenhagen, Denmark
April 16th: TAC, Eindhoven, Holland
April 17th: Ffus, Stuttgart, Germany

Check them out, you slobberin' freaks!



Expect solo sets from Hellvete and Bear Bones, Lay Low too - both of which are also big favourites round these parts (just search the blog if ya don't believe me)

"A new slab of tranced out psychotic psychedelia from the occult loving Belgium-based clan. This new incarnation being Sylvester Anfang II reached a new level of awesomeness last year with the incredible double LP on Aurora Borealis, on "Commume Cassetten" they continue their bizarre trip into the darker, but somehow super-psychedelic realm of the occult-obsessed mind. There's a real fucked-up Krautrock boogie vibe throughout but retaining some of the doomed funeral folk qualities of the original Anfang guise, as well as some loose-as-hell, total stoned-out ritualistic baked grooves..." via Blackest Rainbow.



That biiiig long-promised Hellvete interview post to follow soooon, honest!

VLUBA, VLUBA, VLUBA!

...and our good Argentine friend Aphra Kadabra checks in w/ news of a new release by Vlubä on Chocolate Monk: "Tomá... Vlubääbulv!"




"The return of these Argentinian psych mountain mind men. Here we find them grabbing about on the dirt stage, eyes pleasantly bulged on spiked yerba mate, no doubt sipped from a skull-shaped gourde. Space cave yodelling is backed up with the fungal shimmering of a guitar on its last legs & the kind of drumming that gets you kicked out of the tribe. This world below is slowly being bathed by the syrupy transmissions from their Chrome Moon studios. Watch out for flying flutes and objects, not to mention mesmerism, burbiling ritual & elementary feets. Now excuse me while I nail a toad into this beard."

Yep: that sounds about right!

SLOATH

New s/titled LP from Sloath about to drop on Riot-Season: should tickle the disembodied entrails of those of you who enjoy a nice bit o'sludgily-ecstatic Stoner-Doom.

RIP JOHN HICKLENTON

A sad farewell to Brit.comic.artist/illustrator John Hicklenton - a fucking fighter to the end.

Bless you, sir.

HAITI KIDS KINO

Rather nice write up in yesterday's Guardian about the Haiti Kids Kino initiative that's being run out of The Cube Microplex in Bristol, one of my favourite venues in the whole darn world.

'Scuse my shitty A4 scanner.



You can read the piece on-line here.

From a Cube mail-out I recieved last night:

"Our two Cube volunteers, Marko and Dave, equipped with a projector and screen, have been in Port Au Prince for less than two weeks and have already shown children's films to more than 2,000 Haitians, in all areas of the city - makeshift camps, at a funeral, car parks, the City of Tents and schools."

Marko and Dave's blog here.

More info on how to help, contribute, etc here.

THE SHAKY KANE INTERVIEW (PART 1)

Yeah, what he said! Very heartened to see Mr. Ellis giving props to Shaky Kane and David Hine's soon-to-drop new series The Bulletproof Coffin last night. 'Course, I'm completely biased here 'cause I love Shaky dearly both as a fan and a friend.

Some weeks - nay months! - ago (I can only apologise, for Kektime is both lumpenly granular and glacial) I asked you kind folks to send in your questions for Shaky to chew over. This seems a very appropriate time to finally roll out the answers (done in a sort of quasi-mid-60's Marvel letter-page fashion).

First up is Mark (age 8) from Northern Ireland, who asks: "What have you been up to since Black Star Fiction Library?"

Shaky: "First out my e-mail bag is a question from Mark, who hails all the way from North of Ireland up there in bonny, bonny Scotland. Thanks for asking, Mark!

"I often get asked the same thing. Just what do I do when I’m not grappling with an HB pencil, laying down the graphite to spin out a yarn that I know is going to knock your tartan socks off?

"Well, the truth is, Mark, sometimes I like to play at being a regular guy. In fact, I get my biggest kick out of just walking around with nobody even knowing who I am. Sure, being Shaky Kane has its advantages - I’d be lying to you if I said otherwise! - I get free parking at Cribbs Causeway and, why, I even get to see great drawings free of charge way before they hit the stores!

"But you know, I like to think that there’s a little bit of Shaky Kane in all of us and that each one of us has a very special role to play to play in this 80 Page Giant that we call life."


Reader Matt Badham (age 9) of - well, I'm not entirely sure where he's from - asks: "Looking back, how do you feel about your 2000 AD and Megazine stuff?"

Shaky: "Very kind of you to ask, Matt. I remember it fondly, I did the best job I could, and, as far as I know, they didn’t get a single letter of complaint. And I made sells for the company and that’s what it’s all about.

"But you know, Matt, I’ll be candid with you here: the way I understood it, and it's probably still true today, a comic book artist is only as good as the script he’s given. A lot of fellows around today like to call themselves writers. Well let me level with you: the greatest writer who ever lived was one H. G. Wells and that’s a fact. They broadcast his stuff and people ran out into the streets in a blind panic. I saw an old lady get shoved under the wheels of a tram. I saw it happen with my own eyes. Blind panic. Now these fellows today call themselves writers. Well, most of them couldn’t write their own obituary.

"You know what would have been a big hit in 2000 AD? Voodoo Romance. Voodoo Romance...or anything mentioning Haiti with a hint of Romance and it would have flown out the stores.

"Only nobody asked me, so: screw them. Their loss."


Reader Emperor (aged 113) from, er, Mongo...weighs in with three questions:

1. Any chance of reprints of your early work (like those from Deadline and Escape)? Looking at the samples of your art for The Bulletproof Coffin, I can see there will be more converts to Shakyism and getting hold of your early work is tricky.

2. Reading the interview with David Hine on Broken Frontier I was very introgued to hear about your channeling of Jack Kirby - has that continued? Is there any more you can tell us about it? Any other unusual things happened to you along those lines?

3. Is the Shaky Kane Zone gone? It seems like someone has nicked the domain - is there a new offiical site? And, you know, the other usual questions: What next after this, etc? But I'm sure you are going to ask them anyway. Cheers for the opportunity and I look forward to reading the interview..."

Shaky: "Here you go, Emp...

"1. I get asked that very question a lot. And you know what, Emp? - I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some enterprising publisher isn’t looking at my past portfolio right this moment and saying, “Heck, we could really clean-up by publishing this old Shaky Kane stuff”.

"But, you know something? Its not anything I’ve ever worried about. I like to live in the here and now.

"In fact I’m working on a brand new book, THE BULLETPROOF COFFIN, out on IMAGE in summer 2010, and believe you me, when the COFFIN hits the newsstands, why, it going to cause a sensation" Its going to make Watchmen look like The Flintstones the movie. And you can quote me on that!

"2. I take it that you’re referring to the “Hand of Kirby” quote.

"Now this isn’t my personal opinion, this is a verifiable fact. Jack Kirby happened to be the single greatest artist who ever lived, EVER.

"And you know, the way I figure it, if the comic buying public - and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all the support they’ve given me over the years! - if they can see even a glimmer of that magic in my work, then I have done my job, and I could die happily confident of my place in Valhalla.

"3. You know something. I can’t make heads nor tails of this computer stuff. Where I come from you buy yourself a sheet of Bristol board, a 2B pencil, clear off the dining room table and, boy, you’re in business.

"You see, Emp, comic books are the medium of the common man. You don’t need a fancy degree and a heap of overpriced hardware to draw the funny papers. Anything else is just an ostentation. It's unhealthy and it's un-American."


Ade (age 4) from, uh...can't quite read the handwriting here, Ade...sorry! - asks: "Can you draw me a cyberman?"

"Well, actually I can, Ade, and unlike a lot of so-called artists I can draw just about anything else you might want, and - if I may add - in a very unique style:"



Make good choices!

SHAKY

12-TONE DEAF

Why's everyone so down on Schoenberg (part 2).

Wife comes home unexpectedly early from work, catches me blasting Schoenberg String Trio in kitchen (Sunday Afternoon Art Club, innit).

She switches off hearing-aid and removes it from her ear with a theatrical flourish. "Guess I won't be needing this, then," she says, narrowing her eyes at the CD-player.

THE APPARITION IN CHAMBER SIX

"IT WORKS! NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW!"

Industrial Writing-Related Accident!

Just managed to put a staple through the tip of my left index finger - went all the way through, but bounced off the inside of the fingernail!

Hurts like fuck, but doesn't seem to have affected my ty5$&*g.

Listening to a particularly shrill bit of Schoenberg in the kitchen (wife at work!).

Kid Kid Shirt says: "That's the sort of music that teachers listen to when no one's around!"

UM: DRAGON STOUT MUSINGS

Someone please give him his own TV show. Or something.

INTRO/TEST: EKOPLEKZ VOLUME ONE

Project “E”. Diary Note of Initial Assessment Meeting. 10/01/10

Attendees: @Thrifty_Vinyl @kekw
Apologies: None.

Bullet Points:

1) Nick buys an Eko organ (with built-in drum-box).

2) Kek says: “Could you do me a track for "Local Horse Artists" using it, something short and sweet, something song-based, maybe?”

3) Nick says: "A track?! with this organ? Blimey! S'pose I could dust off the 4-track and see what happens... "

4) Kek thinks about Italian Organ & Synthesiser Manufacturers for a few minutes.


Mail Intercept/Catchment App (designate: “Postie”):

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 8:13 AM, Nick Gutta ********@******.com wrote:

"Well this is the first piece of music I've made on analogue gear for about 6/7 years. Be gentle with me...

https ://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php action=batch_download&batch_id=***********

"In the end, I stuck with the purity of the organ sounds on their own, but with some heavy treatments and some random noises. It sounds quite, y'know, old. And very brief!

"Yes, the 'edit and tweak' phase will come later. I think the methodology will be to just dump a shitload of sounds and ideas onto 4-track and then have a big editing session later on - that's where modern technology will come in - even a fervent retro-enthusiast like me doesn't want to go back to the old pause-button editing days! Essentially, get the initial creativity straight from the id, then conceptualise it all later."

Then these start appearing.

Then this guy gets involved.

Then this arrives:



The first track transports me. I’m in the living-room of my old flat in Woodland Rd, Bristol; it's 1978 and it must be a Wednesday because I’ve skived off a lecture about viral genetics to read my weekly copy of Sounds. There’s an interview with some 'new' Sheffield electronics band called Cabaret Voltaire who sound pretty fucking interesting; they’ve got a 7” EP out next week. I remember the electric bar-heater in the fire-place of the flat, the old telly, the freezing-cold lean-to kitchen (more like a glass-house than an actual room), the small table that Hugh and I used to eat our tea off while watching Crossroads.

I dutifully pop into Revolver Records to score a copy of “Extended Play” – the first record by the Cabs. No doubt, Roger, the record-shop owner, makes some pithy remark as I hand over my dosh (“Don’t buy that; it’ll give you a bloody headache, huhr, hurrh, hruh. Ah, no, wait, you’re that twat who bought the Throbbing Gristle album the other week – you’ll be alright, then: hruh, hruh, ha.” (God, I fucking miss Roger! Sometimes he’d put records into a small brown paper-bag and say, “well, I wouldn’t want you to get caught taking something as fucking uncool as that out of my shop...hurh, hurhhh heh.”)).

I am transfixed/transformed, truly removed. This has sent me somewhere else.

I pass my 19yr old self travelling in the opposite direction; an inverted Meme:Stream.

“Intro/Test", the opening track by Ekoplekz, backflips me back thru time; reminds me how fresh – how uncontrived – all that shit used to sound. What CV were especially good at doing on their earlier, arhythmic, more Tape-Collage type pieces – and which Nick has nailed perfectly here (but in an unselfconscious, non-pastiche-y way) – is the idea of Radio as Disembodied Voice, of accidental Burroughsian audio cut-up (spliced by static and signal-drift) – hrrmmm, think: the “Control Voice” from Outer Limits TV-show intro; the idea of fragmented information-flows hidden in the aether, yet accessible via something as simple as an old transistor-radio – a wireless – a wire-coil and some fucking diodes – transmissions from elsewhere/voices from the void; the cold outreach of Authority – disembodied, yet still present all around us – an invisible/Orwellian analogue presence...

I cannot hear radio-static and not think of outer-space. Yet CV were so overtly edgy/un-Hippy, so Anti-Kosmische. In their version of drone/drift.history, Space has already been colonised by the military. There is no geosynchronous utopia; no geodomes or modernist spacewheels, just hardware, HUDs and The Control Voice: The Man got there first.

But all is not lost; invert the metaphor and the fractured transmissions start to mean something else. The music has another implicit narrative: if we cannot hear everything that is being said, it is because The Control Voice is being partially blocked, filtered...the deep-space static - the interference - has become our friend. In laying bare the methodology of Control and its processes - in merely revealing its presence - we have taken the first steps in fighting back. The music of CV and their descendents becomes a weapon.

I like the fact that Nick's opening track reminds me of all this - that lessons have been forgotten over the years. Ground lost.

"Hole in my Sound" is the other flipside of the early CV-sound: if "Intro/Test" is some twenty-ten's analogue of their early tape, radio n modulator mash-ups, then this track carries a distant echo of their all-to-brief incarnation as a Garage Band (albeit one that's been de-psychedelicised, stripped bare and left for dead - their rehersals taped on CCTV and played back on an old detuned TV-set).

Nick wears his heart on his sleeve here; he deliberately taps into what he calls "classic organ, drum-machine and bass-guitar trios like CV and YMG..." But what I really like about this so far (we're only two tracks in) is that - unlike some of the so-called 'hauntological' outfits/artists - so far, this music all sounds wonderfully un-ironic and non-wilful. It feels like the only conscious choices Nick initially made were which armfuls of gear he was going to bring down from the attic and lug into the garage.

Ekoplekz soundz incredibly sincere and unselfconscious, wh/ is more than I can say about...well, fill yr own names in here.

I really want to stop talking about CV and so forth now, because it's unfair and I'm unnecesarily casting a shadow over Nick that he doesn't deserve to sit inside. Step out into the sunlight, mate...because things start getting really interesting, I think, with track 3: "Empty 3 Ex". Wonky (with a small 'w') organ echo-loops slide in and out of focus, lapping each other, over-lapping: it's like some Radio Repair-Shop version of Steve Reich.

I really didn't fucking see that coming.

The filter-enveloped/wah-wah'd rhythm that lurks beneath "Rebus Neu" sits at some midpoint between crunch and squelch. I love the lo-fi filmic/minimal-but-ominous keyboard motif that hovers over it like a coda from some early-60's Romanian thriller.

(Some notes I wrote last week: "....there's something vaguely East European about the creased loops - the crinkled repetition...cascading tones; not-quite organ-notes create a warped-tape waterfall of supposition...")

And I didn't expect the Shadows-esque (again, slightly cinematic) gtr-twang on "Mangoloid".

"Spirit Catcher" is beautifully creepy/sneaky-sounding with its chugging drum-machine, nagging flanged gtr-line and duelling oscillators.

What I love on this CD is hearing Nick trying different ideas on for size. He's not content with constantly locking onto one particular sound-mode. Some work better than others, obviously, but the best stuff is terrific. Everything is relatively short; some tracks have a strange, gleaming shine or even seem to twinkle ("Withered Spool"); others are murky, mucky, clunky ("Grubstep").

(I'm listening to "Styloskronk" right now and it's great to hear him stretching out, playing an electric-bass, starting to layer sounds - interjections - that weave in and around each other.)

I'm intrigued to see where Nick takes all this.

If I actually had some spare time I'd like to co-produce some Ekoplekz tracks - except that I can't, uh, actually 'produce' lol. I can't ever remember thinking to myself "Cor, I'd really like to produce that band!", so that says something in itself. Though I'm not entirely sure what.

Nice one, Nick.

PEVERELIST MIX

Our old pal Peverelist, on fine form - as ever! - weighs in with this wonderous mix of exclusive and mostly-unreleased tunebuilds for FACT magazine.

And if you haven't bought his LP - "Jarvik Mindstate" yet (pictured here in its natural habitat: Rooted Records o'Bristol), then bloody shame on ya!



Yes, yes: I built the cover art. Alright then, since you twisted my arm:



Posted a link to this on Twitter a while back, but not here...

"Bluez":

JUNKCRUNCH: LIVE IN YEOVIL

"Abandon All Art Now!": ah, that'll be Farmer Glitch's car, then!



Have I remembered me ironing-board? Yep!



(Actually, I went and 'hired' this meals-on-wheels, mobile 1970's zimmerfoodtray thing from the YMCA charity-shop down the road to put all me junk on, but forgot to take a photo of it; wish I'd bought it now - it was great! - but I'm running out of room to store all me crap!)

Some of the Farmer's wonderful array o'hand-hacked kit and squelchboxes:



Okay, then, if we've got everything, then we'll just have to get on and play the damn show! A cross-section thru the middle of our set, footage courtesy of Kid Kid Shirt, aged 9:



And what a great job she did too, despite her 5yr-old sister mugging into the camera and pulling faces to put her off lol! There's this brilliant bit at the beginning that sounds like bloody Throbbing Gristle or something, but all these 5yr-old kids are dancing to it - with their hands over their ears!

A really great day! It was a bit weird for me playing in civvies without some elaborate costume or mask - I'm saving the lo-fi theatricals, etc for future Orchestra Intangible '73 shows - but I really enjoyed it. I've known The Farmer for so long now that it felt more like just goofing off in public on a sunny day rather than a performance. V. relaxed stuff. Luckily we were playing right next to the pub, so our friends and family could sup their pints in the sunshine and just hang out.

No keyboards or laptops were used in the making of this: my own antique, 2ndhand Dellslab refused to boot - only finally firing up as the last note of the show died away; as if to make some sort of obscure conceptual point! So I made rattling noises on the QWERTYboard with a contact-mic instead. Farmer G brought a Mac to record the show, but didn't have enough time to plug it in, so we had two dead lappies on display lol.

Thanks to Jesus Pete and Ian from The Orange Box for the PA and mixage, our pals for much-appreciated support and to the Yeaovil Live folks for asking us to play.

The History of HUDs and SVSs.

VR-FLASHBACK

Been thinking a bit about VR Googles and how they once looked Hi-Tech, but now look Retro. Been thinking about The World That Never Came - The VR World That Never Came; about how other technologies/ideas/platforms surplanted it; a sort of Darwinian Survival of the Fittest Tech - as opposed to, say, The 1950's World That Never Came: the monorails and the nuclear jetliners and the Ditko cityscapes.

I think the term VR was first coined around '89 - I'd always assumed it was earlier - but it seemed so prevalent and zeitgesit-y for a while that there was even a dictum at 2000AD in the mid-90s that you couldn't use Virtual Reality in a story because it'd become such a cliche already. That really isn't that long ago, when you think about it, yet it already feels like another world, one already ripe for What-If-Piracy. Some novel, Post-Tron way of approaching the topic; new methodologies of moving 'outside' ourselves.

The VR-Tech research impetus spun off into attack-helicopter pilot HUDs where the concept of visual overlays took hold and planted the conceptual seed for AR: layered reality.

VR: it seems like yesterday now.

SOLDERING COMIC

HACKER FARM IS GO!

So, it seems we have a space for Hacker Farm. We have tables, power, shelter from the rain, etc. I like to think that this is due - in part, at least - to Fritz Bogott performing some sort of lighter vs insulation Melting Ritual on our behalf.

Lots of interesting ideas flying around today - plus: we kept 'accidentally' bumping into all the right people. Pronoia, innit.

Now we need people, not ideas. The plan is to have up to six initial work-sessions - probably friday afternoons - in the spring, with some sort of inaugural meeting kicking it off.

If you're interested in attending - or just interested - then drop us a line at:

hackerfarm [dot] yeovil [at] gmail [dot] com

and we'll include you on our mail-outs as n when this all starts to take shape.

For the next few hours it's all about tomorrow's Junkcrunch open-air show, so time to sort out me leads n kit, charge up batteries, fold up the ironing-board, etc. We'll be hitting the, uh, stage at about 3:15-ish Yeovil Meantime, down at the bottom end of town - the bit that used to be called The Triangle when I was a kid, but no longer seems to have a name - by Woods Wine-Bar / Stars Lane / the old Mecca Bingo Hall.

I thought we would just be kinda playing to passing pedestrians, like a sort of sound-art event that people walk past on their way to the pub or the shops, but now people are threatening to turn up and watch us!

That wasn't in my contract!

"DRIVE A GROOVE INTO THE GROUND"

An interview w/ Darren Bauler, one of my favourite postmultimedia ideas-people in the world (I hate to say 'musician', because what he does is so multi-layer'd n far beyond that tag) by April (an early Colin Tubb adopter!).

"April Larson is the surface world representative of a tribe of Jalaja-nāgā located within Atchafalaya Bay along the cost of Louisiana." Lol: gotta love that!

Darren and I are talking about building (or rather reconstructing/reconfiguring) a ballet together, hopefully later this year when other stuff stops getting in the way.

I interviewed him for FACT a couple years ago, but I've been a big fan of his recordings for a while now. I think he's 'important' in some way that I haven't quite figured out how to express yet.

Foxy Digitalis still rules. Fiercely.

We have meetings and stuff today. Fingers crossed.

I was in the health-food shop when a flustered-looking, middle-aged woman ran in. "I think I left my debit-card in here earlier," she said to the girl behind the counter.

"What's your name?" asked the girl.

"Er...Joan Crawford," said the woman, hopefully.


Joan Crawford: yeah, riiight...

"THE DANCE OF THE QUANTUM ZOMBIES FILLS YOUR HEAD WITH AQUACRUNK"

Rudy R says the latest ish of FLURB has been getting some serious traffic over the last few days. You really should drop by and check it out. Feel free to leave comments and feedback; Rudy loves to hear from y'all.

Thanks to Warren and Boing Boing for helping the cause. There's a lovely review by Charlie at i09. Cheers!

If you like any of the stories then please support yr fave writers by buying their print copies of their books, and spread the word via blogs n Twitter.

Thanks.

YASUDAH SOLO

Yay! It's our old musical mischief-making friend Yasudah, from Solo in Java...

So glad to hear he now has a web-presence. I very much dig - always have done - his unique blend of Gamelan, Musique Concrete, Serialism, Indonesian and Western Pop. He's a one-off.

Go, Yas, go...!!

FLURB #9

Live-to-Aether today is the latest ish (#9!) of Rudy's Rucker's seriously awesome eZine FLURB.

Danny Rubin! Adam Callaway! Rudy Rucker! Paul Di Filippo! Robert Guffey! Philip Harris! Richard Lupoff! Alex Roston! Jessy Randall! Chris Shay! Mari Mitchell! Kathe Koja! Carter Scholz!

And, er... me.

Yep: FLURB #9 features my story "Search". Hope you enjoy it; it's kinda personal.

Props to Rudy for putting together another excellent issue; he puts a lot of heart and soul into FLURB as well as behind-the-scenes sweat n effort. Rudy's Dudeness is as legendary as his writing.

You should buy some of his books.

A picture-book of his paintings has just recently gone on sale at LuLu. And I think his autobiography might be coming out later in the year - keep an eye out for that and his forthcoming novel "Jim and the Flims".

Meanwhile, my old story "Cobalt Imperium" is still available to read in #7 of FLURB.

DATAKIPPLE

Datakipple. Via @josiefrasier.

"Foistware". lol.

THE AUTECHRE SPREADSHEET

Jaysus H. Christ, it's a blinking Autechre Spreadsheet.

HACKER FARM / JUNKCRUNCH PR GUBBINS, ETC

A Press Release / publicity puff-piece I wrote a couple weeks ago for our latest endeavour:


HACKER FARM

presents

JUNKCRUNCH

Local audio-hacker and rogue coder Stephen Ives teams up with Yeovil-based writer/noise-magician/saboteur Kek-w to present JUNKCRUNCH - a celebration of the home-made, the salvaged and the hand-soldered. DIY electronics performed on obsolete tech and discarded, post-consumerist debris. Make-do and mend. Broken music for a Broken Britain.

Expect: circuit-bent mayhem, cassettemulch and modified-toy noise. A bit like Punk, but without the three chords or the riff borrowed from The Kinks. A beta-release of a better way of living.

Genre / File Under: Outsider Music, Carboot Electronics, Open-Source Sound.



Additional Data / quotes:

“Before Punk, there was Noise. Before Rock n Roll, there was Noise. Noise has always been there, buzz-buzz-buzzing in our eardrums. It is part of a proud artistic lineage that can be tracked back through the Dadaists, the Futurists and beyond. Noise is eternal. It is the soundtrack to our industry and our cities, our anger and our dreams.

There will always be Noise. It exists outside of genres, fashion trends and fads. There are as many varieties of Noise as there are types of Rock music: it can be harsh and abrasive, or soft, sad and immersive. As long as there is one bored, disenfranchised teenager sat in his bedroom reading Bill Burroughs or trying to figure out how Sonic Youth detune their guitars then there will always be Noise.

Hacker Farm is a new Yeovil-based initiative designed to create an infrastructure where local noise-makers, experimental electronic musicians and outsider artists can network, socialise and collaborate. It aims to offer a creative space where workshops can be hosted, and new skills, strategies and practical techniques can be swapped or acquired.

One of Hacker Farm’s principle goals is to encourage its members to build or modify their own musical instruments using discarded materials, recyclables and junk, along with cheap, locally-sourced electronic components. Its mission is to demystify and empower, to allow local musicians to access new sets of skills. Its remit includes visual / video ‘hacks’ as well as audio. Where appropriate, software will be used as well as hardware, but it should preferably be obsolete, outmoded, intuitive, easily modified and free.

Longer-term ambitions include the creation of a pool of alternative, uniquely-voiced talent in the Yeovil area that rivals that of a city. Hacker Farm is all about the exchange of ideas, so collaborations and cultural ‘swaps’ with similar-minded groups both in the UK and abroad also forms a logical part of its brief.

To put this in a more general frame of reference, it’s not that long since Jazz was considered ‘difficult’ or the music of Stravinsky inspired riots, now they are more-or-less part of the mainstream. Today’s avant garde is tomorrow’s must-buy coffee table CD. Hacker Farm aims to arm local experimental musicians with the tools they need to get themselves heard.

It’s time to put Yeovil back on the map.”

PRE-SUNDAY LUNCH IMPROV AT KETTLES YARD W/ PETE UM & PALS

Meanwhile, in The Other Cambridge, you can listen to some Improv Electronic Music before you pop off and have yr traditional sunday roast. What a great idea! Music for Hangovers.

Tomorrow, 12pm, (FREE!) at Kettles Yard:

Improvisation and inventions from local artists working with sound, noise and mixing instrumentation with environmental and mechnical sound sources.

C Joynes (Bo' Weavil Records): Innovative Cambridge guitarist now getting deservedly wider attention. Presenting new work using tapes/soundtrack techniques.

Cambridge Free Improvisation Society: Cambridge improv collective formed a few years ago and now putting out their first releases. Previously seen at Crushing Death supporting Eric Chenaux at The Shop, as well as elsewhere in Cambridge.

Babygrand: Norwich duo who use field recordings, musical saws, bowed metal, music boxes, mechanical birds, endless loops to create beautiful sound and music for close listening.

Pete Um: tapes and processing.

Local Radio: Cambridge-based sound and drone project using localised radio transmissions and exploring lo-fi sounds and spaces which began with a temporary installation at Kettle's Yard in 2008.

Pete says: "Going to do a short set of not-singing-over-tapes at this, but rather some live manipulation of archive experimental non-genre-lized free sound. TEAC A-3340S + filters and FX."

JOKER: "TRON"

Looove the sweater!



Forthcoming Joker tune (from a set by Headhunter? Mixed into a Pinch track...??)

THE CARRIE NATIONS

The Carrie Nations = The Kelly Affair.

I love imaginary Pop/Rock groups.

Just been watching Russ Meyer's bonkers-but-excellent "Beyond The Valley of The Dolls"; thought I'd share this with ya. It's a great song! The film also features a (rather tame, I think) Strawberry Alarm-Clock. Didn't The Adult Net cover their song?



The pop svengali guy ("Z-Man") looks like Tim Goldworthy's imaginary flashback younger brother. Wonder if this is how DFA used to sign their acts?

The music's by the great Stu Philips. Coincidentally, I bought a job-lot of Monkees' LPs yesterday.

Cascadia.

I've always liked the idea of hypothetical/notional nation-states. Particularly ones that straddle existing borders.

"Hypothetica."

AN EVENING WITH TONY BENN

It's been a surprisingly mad week: all sorts of crazy stuff flying in at me from different directions, making my head spin round n round like Linda Blair; some of it will surface in nxt few days/weeks and then all will become clear. Or not.



So, I took a few hours off on Wednesday nite to go and see Tony Benn speak in my hometown. Well, it would've been rude not to. He's 85 now, but still extremely entertaining. Fascinating hearing him talk about growing up in the 30s and 40s - the impact that The Spanish Civil War, persecution of the Jews in 30's Nazi Germany, etc had on him when he was young, filtered dn thru his parents; he met Ghandi when he was aged 6 - Benn, not Ghandi! - pamphleted for his dad when he was 10, etc.

An ITN news-wagon was parked outside to get a soundbite from him on the sad death of Michael Foot, another venerable old man of British Socialism.

(The links are for the benefit of Non.Brit readers; both Benn and Foot are v. well known to my fellow countrymen. Funny to hear Benn described as "a national treasure" when he was once called "the most dangerous man alive". Interestingly, he said he'd had a death threat again fairly recently; the first one in years...)

"HOUSE PARTIES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST!"

This made me laugh when it came thru the letter-box:


"Industrial gold contacts, platinum wires and crucibles wanted for cash!"

Thank God! Our house is awash with platinum crucubles - we just don't know what to do with them all - please come and take them away!

"House parties available upon request!"

Yes, lets hold a party for all our friends and they can bring all their old gold watches, medals, cheap earings. Bring pliers and pull your own teeth out!

It'll be fun.