Back in the saddle and feeling quietly confident about the road ahead, just as the whole of Europe looks as if it may fall into financial ruin my finances are given much needed and appreciated assistance so I can finally head towards a debt free future. I will often rile against the greed and avarice of our species and society when I know that I am racked with it myself, but luckily I don’t believe in hypocrisy or wait maybe I do believe and just don’t care enough not to openly flaunt my own. Maybe it’s a perfectly survival trait to take the easiest option and to always look for a way to get things as quick as possible as we never know when we might get eaten by a lion, but as usual we will fall back on the excuses of primeval instinct when the world we live in is far from primal and it’s not so much Lions we have to worry about now as much as the jaws of the Fat Cats. It is hard to live the life you believe in sometimes because your own views will not always run concurrent to the opportunities and restrictions that are imposed on you by the society in which you live, life is about compromise and carving your own place in a larger sculpture. It’s quite dour advice to hand on to future generations but I sometimes feel like telling them that rather than daydreaming of adult freedoms and the sparkling example they are going to set to mankind probably best to start working on some coping mechanisms before the entire population becomes either ravaged alcoholics or gun wielding fanatics. I took out all the loans offered to me and then took out more to pay for the repayments I couldn’t afford, I’m still repaying debts that I can’t remember acquiring and have been scratching around skimming the interest of the top of a large pile each month, but hey most major governments have been doing it for years so I won’t get too down on myself. Money confuses me, it scares me and as hard a s I try to live a bohemian life it seeps in to motivate me, I don’t like numbers at all, they immediately put me into a place in my brain when I feel small, dumb and idiotic which I then go on to perpetuate by acting in exactly that manner. I want a world that is fair, which may well be impossible, and Money is the greatest or at least most obvious indicator of the disparities in apparent fairness, you can’t on reflection asses someone’s apparent happiness or their level of contentment so we rely on the outward indicators that would suggest this veil of happiness but obviously we are lying to ourselves, these possessions and outward trappings don’t breed happiness but that sure as hell don’t stop us wanting them and giving it a try, so we borrow and accumulate and try to make ourselves into the smug prick in the nice car drinking the expensive wine who in reality is probably drinking to drown the sorrows of his unopened red statements and silence the sound of a bailiff knocking on their door. We are slaves and fools to the people who offer us more and until we learn to live on our own merit and to our own means we will continue to wallow in the bottom of their pockets. Every individual has their own needs and desires, wants and wishes and sadly it is unlikely that everyone will have the means to achieve these but is it right to have the idea that we could flaunted in our faces. Over a period of 2 years I successfully sued NatWest Bank for unfair charges that they had applied to my account but could it not also be feasible to sue them for letting me walk down a path it was so clear I had little chance to return from purely so they could turn a profit from my misfortune. Viva la Revolution Viva La Apocalypse.
On a strict diet of new music I find brief time to listen but when I do cram in as much as I can, it’s hard to put anything too interesting on in the work environment as it does hinder concentration and as much as most music makes me happy I do get moaned at for my “miserable” taste in music, but what the hell do they know, I mean listen to the jingle jangle riffs on ‘Portamento’ by The Drums although the sound is initially upbeat the lyrical content is sour and scathing, I can’t decide if this album is annoyingly infectious or infectiously annoying, I guess this lies with the contrast in the music and the lyric with the constant up-strumming of the guitars and the lifting hi-hat is sounded under tales of death and disappointment. Even after this their second album the band are apparently on rocky ground and don’t sight themselves as having a long shelf life but on listening more to the second album this does seem like a shame although the lyrics might be simple they are effective and there are some lovely sounds that give the record that addictive quality that is easy to get lost in. This isn’t a big album the success of the first album has maybe made them retreat into themselves rather than become grandiose and they have taken up business with a smaller label so as to produce something that is probably very personal and whether you like it or not, quite engaging.
The winner of ‘The Mercury Prize’ was awarded last week, a prize I watch with eager anticipation and occasionally mild annoyance, after working in music retail when the award was handed out I notice the opportunity the award offers to open people’s eyes to new types of music. Although I do think that the awards are adopting a taste all of their own and there are always so many formulas and ideas that they will pick the outsider but on reflection I think they are at least an interesting reflection of what is on offer even if you don’t agree with the eventual winner, and as Guy Garvey said in Interview they are apparently the best party for artists in the calendar. So in the spirit of discovery and with a breath of relief that neither Adele or James Blake walked away victorious I listened to ‘On A Mission’ by Katy B as much as I might want to say that this isn’t my thing at one point and in one part of my musical soul it most certainly is. When an artist is lauded with rising star status it can be a lead weight around their necks especially when the artist comes from a ‘Brit School’ education and is trying to compete in the highly fickle dance and urban music genres. I guess what has stopped my musical hackles from being raised is the quality of the songs, there has been no single band wagon jumped on and there has not been a endless list of collaborators and remixes filling up the dub step dance floors. The main ingredients is definitely Katy’s voice and although there are other unsung heroes whose voices have adorned D&B classics for years it is a good thing that these sounds are getting rediscovered with some professional credos behind them. There are a couple of smashers on the album but I think it is the subtler songs that attract the attention and showcase Katie’s voice the best. I think there is no surprise that this album attracted Mercury attention I mean they are the people who chose Roni Size over The Prodigy and Radiohead in 1997.
More power to PJ Harvey though two time winner with a very original concept and a corking album.
More little scampsters who seem to have their music well back on track much to my relief as shown in this realisation of where their talents really lie on ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’ by Bombay Bicycle Club even at such a tender young age these London Folk/Rockers have had quite a musical journey. I have always been stunned by their talent and craftsmanship threaded through their work and although I must admit I was slightly bent out of shape with the direction they had taken on the last record I am smiling now listening to a band do what they do best, imbuing that British Folk sound into pointed and perfectly executed heavy guitar driven rock. The album is well textured and pitched with Steadman finding space for his folk fascinations between songs that will have them being toast of the live stage with the young and the older admiring their great playing ability. There are songs of massive enormity and pomp and circumstance there are tender and sweet moments and there are pop hits and sometimes all three collide inside a four minute song. It is great to hear them on top form and continuing to carve a career for themselves as interesting and dynamic musicians.
That’s all for now and although there are many great Records in my airwaves there is never enough time and sometimes you need just that one last listen to make your mind up for sure, so speak soon and keep your ears and minds open.
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