New Cat's & U-Turns

So there is a new cat in Downing Street, let’s hope for his sake that he has a healthy appetite for rats because that place seems to be crawling with them, but then again The Fat cat and the Political Rat usually end up getting on famously. It’s been another week of U-turns half measures and distraction as we are goaded into some sort of caring attitude where we will shoulder the burden and basically keep quiet and turn the other cheek for a constitutional bitch slap.

I really don’t know if it’s in our genetic background to be caring for our fellow man and have strong minded community spirit, some will say that we have evolved past the survival for the fittest pattern of self preservation and have developed a moral obligation and the ability to share the wealth’s of the world, to be giving of ourselves. This might be a well and good notion to put forward if we are operating in a fair and meritocratic society in some sort of pluralist quasi reality but for the current administration (it’s getting hard to call it a government) to suggest we band together in some kind of unexplainable sizeable society is too put it quite frankly a fucking insult. This is not blitz Britain where the brave and noble came together to get through hard times, to unite against a shared enemy that was creating the problems that were facing them, because this time the enemy, the problem isn’t a fascist dictator intent on world domination it’s a fascist organisations that we technically own crippling us financially to aid their aims of world domination. Capitalism has created an unfair society where some will have and some will be forced to do without and instead of trying to level the playing field those with the power are taking more from us and then telling us to band together and take it with a smile on our face, all filling our ever dwindling free time involved in community minded projects. The unemployment in the country is forcing people into competition with each other with the youth suffering the hardest, it’s dog eat dog for personal survival and yet the comfortable elite are suggesting we do more to lend a helping hand to be quite frank again, go fuck yourselves.   

Maybe we have some power though maybe we have more than our pointless vote to make a difference maybe protesting and direct action can make a difference as we see a complete U-turn on a policy set out to sell public forests, or maybe it’s a tactical rethink to make us think we have an understanding and open eared government, pick your fights because they will certainly pick their moments to show compassion.

Maybe the answer is to reform the way our voices are heard through voting, to appropriate a system that increases our choice and clarifies our way of expressing our political desires. Or maybe we are having the ropes that bind our democracy pulled like strings on a marionette and the utter futility of it all blatantly paraded through the notions of choice and free will before it crumbles in a sad and tired pile in front of us, leaving its supporters more angry and defeated than ever and giving those in opposition strength to their fraudulent claims of operating in a true democracy.  We can’t seem to motivate the people of this country to get to the ballot box let alone give a hoot about what happens when they actually get there and giving the average Jo more things to decide seems like a pretty poor way of getting more people of getting more people involved. Make it more fun more sensational make it more like ‘It’s A Knockout’ or get large foam cotton bud, physical violence and the noise aghhhh-woooogha! Involved, that's the voting reform we need. Given the chance to have a democratic vote on the multi million pound football transfer deals that take place I’m sure we would have a much greater queue outside the local primary school than that for one to be involved in the multi-trillion pound deals being made with our money, made by people masquerading under the notion that they fairly won the job of making the decisions on our behalf. Democracy is a joke and one that will always be protected by those who can dangle its notions of fairness and morality in our faces as it selfishly serves their interests.

But like I always say there’s always the music. Don’t let the fuckers grind you down, although for one artist it will grind to a halt as he ends his four album reign of thug-laureate in his last outing ‘Computers & Blues’ by The Streets I remember very clearly where I was when I first heard Mike Skinner’s voice invading my ear-space and being instantly dismissing of it but remember it slowly making its way into my musical conscience and as I see the lyrics play out in situations in my own life falling for this loveable rogue. The sound he in part helped to create has gone through a lot since the original pirate material locked down our aerial’s  but Mike has stuck to his guns and delivered an album of tidier but definitely personal sounds with a rare funk that gives him space to use his skill of making the inane seem poetic.  Facebook love affairs and the ever present use of Google to solve all our problems may seem shallow but it’s real and as all his music has been it’s of the moment and full of the heart on your sleeve honesty it’s hard to mock. While so much music gives youth twisted ideas of attainment and a warped sense of values the moral of Skinner is admirable yet always infused with a sense of mischief and fun. “Sometimes you have to find out for yourself, Sometimes you need to be told, Sometimes you never find the answer”, comforting and realistic.

Another group who did a lot to push a sound into the mainstream return to the with their star studded aggressive second album ‘No More Idols’ by Chase & Status the dirty sound of dub-step has invaded the bastions of aggressive dance like a plague, a bass driven vomit of power that leaves those swept up in it slightly mocking of everything that came before like Drum & Bass is the cute bunny that has been torn apart by this bull mastiff of new noise. But dance music fans are fickle and the market moves fast, too much of the same and you’re not with the scene, don’t give them what they want and the toy’s are quickly thrown out of the pram. Lots of big names help to keep the attention and though it at times sways well over into melodrama the album has the punch and anger that it needs to push you towards the inevitable drop. I believe there is an appropriate time for most types of music and possibly unfortunately the volume required to do this music justice is rarely appropriate for my life at the moment but this outing certainly makes you yearn to crank up the speakers, I’m sure it will be the soundtrack to many a speeding ticket. The inclusion of a Jim Morrison sample is bordering on sacrilegious but then again the gravely pith of the lizard king’s voice can quite easily brush aside the brash swagger of Mr.Tempah or the high speed ranting of that balance challenged Rascal, and if Morrison could be returned to us I’m sure he would be hugging the speakers and begging for the jump off.

At another side of the trying to make you dance floor giving you some intense eye contact is this offering ‘Blue Songs’ by Hercules & Love Affair  from the first beat this album is very gay, not the happy go lucky, look at me bounce around gay of ‘The Scissor Sisters’, or the high camp super sexy ‘Kylie’ gay this is the two dry fingers straight up there super butch gay, though the strings bounce along nicely there is a cool directness  in the voice that can’t be ignored and is quite intimidating. I’m not using the gayness as a negative it’s just highly evident and hard to ignore, unfortunately the music is as confused as the sexuality and the album tries to be bitter and touching while wanting you to bop your head. With ‘Anthony Heagerty’ the last album was given the validation in the sadness that it needed but the beeps of the house sound are in so many ways just not for me. Reach for the poppers and listen in a dizzy headed state of aural arousal and maybe it’s right up your street but I’m not sure they know where their heads are at anymore which decade, which hole and what sound.

And finally something that is definitely right up my avenue of angst and prompts me to turn up the volume despite of what the neighbours think ‘Tao of The Dead’ by And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead.... The pomp and circumstance of the guitar opera sound get’s dusted off and thrashed around for another dark mystical tale, slaying all in its path. I have loved this band since I first heard them swagger and crunch perfectly time their soar to capture you in the racket and then deliver the pointing finger at just the right time. Swirling grandiose power throws us around like we are being battered by a musical storm and being dragged down into the mind of a deranged clown. Listening to this album makes me think of the strange power in the sky that two star fleet captains are attracted to in the film ‘Star trek – Generations’, I saw AYWKUBTTOTD live once and listening to their music now is like a personal endeavour to get back to that feeling of being there locked inside the experience. ‘The Who’ tried too hard to get their point across and ‘Mars Volta’s’ story was too convoluted for anyone to pick up on it, but with this you can feel the noise or get trapped in the nuances. ‘Muse’ ruined themselves in the waves of the popular and made that space rock sound a dirty word but these guys will take you to the heavens and into the afterlife.

So I’m getting towards a routine and should be connected back to the warming information fountain of the world wide web very soon so I can make up for lost time and keep my finger a little closer to the pulse. Some musical big hitters on the table next week, lot’s to live up too. Keep yourselves beautiful.

The Money Snake the Noises we Make

I have been remarkably removed from the world at large since I last posted, somewhat tied up in an ever increasingly complex set of problems that life deals to me year in and year in, but let’s face it I wouldn’t have it any other way and I’m not going to be the sort of person to traipse my personal problems across the internet, this is not about what is happening to me it’s about all of us.

That being said it does make me look, as I too often do, at the staggering levels to which Capitalism consumes us all and in some way succeeds in making an ass of all our achievements.  However much we may try to avoid involvement in the system it tends to jump up and bite us in the ass, whatever artistic holes we try to hide ourselves in it somehow smokes us out and puts a price on our head. When we interact with the world we have to play by its rules and its controlling systems and the odds are stacked high against us and when you have learned this, been burned a few times its hard not to want to build a wall around yourself to protect yourself with the only thing the system understands – Money. I was put in a tight spot, one that required me to make quick decisions and step out from the comfortable bubble that I had been operating in and throw myself into the fray, how quickly the vampires smell fresh blood. If I had been in a weaker state I would have been eaten up and left in a very uncomfortable position, I only made it through because I have managed to operate on the level, not a conscious player but a person accepting of my unavoidable involvement in a tour de force of control that infiltrates every part of our day to day existence. Now I am forced to measure my worth in money when what I really want is artistic ambition, I have to set a level of what I feel would be underselling myself to accept, to become a commodity that is to be traded and vied for, all so I can get back to the level and find another artistic hole to hide in. Our economy is awash with scared faces unsure of their futures and unguided on the first steps into an unfair system and they have no clue what to be proud of, we don’t need to re-strengthen the faith the world has in our currency we need to re-shape and support the populations faith in themselves. Making people feel valued as individuals and like their endeavours are meaningful makes it a lot easier to swallow the bitter pill of realisation that we will not all live the blessed life we see portrayed across the popular media, that maybe the whispered mantra of ‘you can be whatever you want’ was a misguided and rose tinted white lie that holds little weight in a world creaking to overload with want to be millionaires. Accepting one’s position in life is less harrowing when you feel you can take pride to the bank.

I did mightily enjoy David Cameron’s somewhat badly timed attack on multiculturalism the sort of rhetoric that manages to point fingers at everyone involved and end up making them all look like fools. The Left get very uppity every time anyone says anything that could half be taken as possibly maybe offensive to one social grouping or another but I always feel this may sometimes be a huge barrier to discussing things that might actually becoming an issue. The tie in with the largest rally to date of the mask clad hooligan group ‘The English Defence League’ is really not as stirring as they would have us believe, to make these nationalist parties seem ridiculous all we need to do is give them airspace and they will do it fantastically themselves, in paper there words of disenfranchisement and lack of identity might strike a chord but in pictures it becomes a much less appealing group to corner with. The right on the other hand love railing against the liberal establishment and all that it is doing to dilute our national spirit (Cameron is far from a Euro sceptic) but when there is a quarter word of support they are embracing them and him as a figurehead of a wave of national patriotism, take your eyes away from the news’s of ridiculous football transfer fee’s you lager lout fascists look to the schools to the hospitals to the dissent and disillusionment and then tell us we are a nation brimming with patriotic pride.

But as always the stereo is the last thing to be packed and there is always time for new music especially when it is a as hotly anticipated (by me at least) as ‘Kiss Each Other Clean’ by Iron & Wine it’s very hard to listen to anything completely subjectively and I go into this album already liking it and have my faith affirmed at every track. When you love the tone and meter of a group it’s hard to not like anything that might come out of their mouths and with Iron & Wine I have been thirsty for more of the same for a while and they deliver and add in new sounds that delight to boot, not to mention a stunning front cover artwork that has me aching to press play. There is assured folk quality with a dreamy use of backing vocal to surround the clear quality of voice throughout, it all seems to come so naturally I’m relaxed by how easily it all seems to come together, but there is a funk to this album as well an uplifting bounce that comes to the fore with great saxophone breaks and a deep rolling bass tone, as with all their work it’s a thing of beauty that can pick you up from the biggest of knock a welcome tonic in an uncertain world.

‘Native Speaker’ by Braids is another wash of warm welcoming sounds that sway in-between inviting and soothing and pointlessly vague. There is definitely a musical landscape being created here with counterpointed and contrasting subtle riffs in plinks and occasional plonks that run over the large swooning drones and atop this landscape is a series of long notes of vocal which don’t give away any clue as to which nation she might be a ‘native speaker’ of for I can’t distinguish a single word. At times this album vies into the Uber cool indie version of wale music relaxation tapes, but in others it has hints of the loopy brilliance of African jazz and the modern purveyors of this such as ‘Mouse On Mars’ or like ‘Welcome To Mali’ has been piped into drainpipe jeans and been given a quiff.

Now this next album was a surprise much hyped by the ‘cooler than cool’ American press but quite unlike what I was imaging when I heard the name ‘Kaputt’ by Destroyer I like the feeling of not knowing what to expect when hitting play, its half of the fun of new music, stripping away preconceptions and let the music do the talking, this album quickly yell’s ‘Belle & Sebastian’ but I’m sure that is a comparison this group would be familiar with and happy to garner. The loneliness and self deprecation in the vocal the bitter sweet occurrence of a twee female voice and the drum beats that are half Casio demonstration and half ‘New Order’. The appearance of Saxophone  and  nylon string guitar gives the album a not dated but timeless sound which make it a work aside of all these comparisons you might throw at it. Lyrically and melodically the vocal blends with the music doesn’t try to stand ahead and compete for attention which gives validity to a wonderfully subtle venture.

Already with this blog I have been accused of being a miserable ‘emo’ sympathiser who is scared of anything that might raise a smile, in part this is true I am drawn to a style of music that has an emotional resonance but I don’t want to get closed in to one style of music so let’s take a spin through ‘Gutter Rainbows’ by Talib Kweli  with all the swagger you would expect from someone who is on the cusp of being a rap heavyweight, the macho talk in skits of a rise from the ghetto and the high life are with Talib set against the innocent sound in his voice and the reluctance to just sound like a bark like somewhat of the more bulldog rappers. There are some great soul drops and gospel sounds that mirror the religious confusion in the lyric. At times I feel the production could be cut back that there is a richness to the sound that deflects from the tightness the warmness of the sound  can take the edge of the deliverance but I have to remember this is made to cater to a very different rap market than we have in the UK.

So I will be back when I can, no Internet in the house is driving me up the wall and keeping me out the loop but I will keep my ear to the ground and keep it vaguely imaginary.