The Limits Of Science

In a sleek black box small enough to fit in one hand with a gleaming white light of power I bought myself a portable device capable of storing two terabytes of information the likes of which it seemed vastly unlikely would ever exist when I was born let alone be owned by somebody who was in no big way into gadgetry or hi-tech equipment. Such is the speed of the advancement of technology, but what are its limits, what can it offer us as a species and does it ever distract from us as biological creatures with simple flaws. I remember seeing our first family PC showing a video on screen of David Bowie singing ‘Changes’, I was simply blown away, before this computers had meant long painful minutes dragging into long painful hours listening to noises never since heard as simple games were loaded in low resolution with very few colours, now there was a video moving in full colour glory – things had changed indeed Mr. Bowie. I remember my first dealings with the internet as television programs used to hold up large strips of card with indecipherable addresses which lead you on a map that we could never understand to pieces of information that we would have never had access to before. Moving to the present day we expect a whole catalogue of moving images and relentless amounts of information to be available to us at all times, wirelessly appearing in our homes or even to the palms of our hands without delay or interruption, it would seem quite unthinkable to deal with some situations in any other way other than relying on this vast and relatively new technology from limiting our time spent in the supermarket to organising planning and booking events in our personal time to providing us with a vast array of entertainment and information from the pointless to the day to day of recipes and solutions to simple day to day problems. We can type anything in a small box and expect to get a myriad of opinions and solutions and the companies and organisations that provide these services have become household names and  their names have become verbs themselves so engrained they have become in our everyday thoughts and actions. I have a love hate relationship with technology, the part of me that pines for global catastrophe and a return to the simple life odiously views it as unnecessary and a distraction from purer pursuits of the human kind but me as a modern man craves the uses and applications of technology and the ways it makes things available to us with ease and accessibility. I am a greedy reader and an even greedier still for listening and the Internet is where I find discuss and explore the very latest releases with relative ease, filtered through different online conduits I can have data given to me that would take far longer and be for more cumbersome to achieve in a physical format and much that would never be produced if not for the ease that this medium was presented. At work I know that no recipe is sacred that learning new ideas and ingredient combinations is at the touch of a button there are no secrets when sharing is so easy. The Internet has revolutionised the music industry and while some may think it has killed it I am still firmly in the camp that believes that greater exposure is the greatest thing an artist can wish for. Social media sites save my friendships from the ravages of my unsociable hours and I can still feel the warmth and share the insults with my wide and disparate group of friends across the world and people from my past do not fade into the obscure. As you can tell I love to chronicle my thoughts and through the storage facilities that these sites offer we will have a cache of knowledge of how we grow as people that will be greater than Samuel Peeps could have ever wished for, children will be able to view the youths of their parents and understand them more as they start to create their own store of life knowledge and though you may think that it is mainly pointless information that is passed across these sites it is in essence the pointless and the everyday that makes us who we are.

My problem with how technology infiltrating our lives is the obvious frustration this causes when it chooses not to work and I use the word ‘chooses’ quite pointedly as I believe that artificial intelligence is alive and well and is humming away in front of you as you read. The reason I bought the shiny new hard-drive was to backup my music collection (Which is without a doubt my most treasured and irreplaceable possession) when my computer decided that half way through a mundane activity that it had been carrying out faultlessly for some time that it would stall and stubbornly refuse to turn back on again no matter how many times I turned it off and on again. Then I am left in the wasteland of my lack of knowledge, in my youth these machines would only be owned by those who had an in-depth knowledge of how they work and how to operate them but now they are everywhere and I know nothing. When there is a problem with a sauce I am making or a pastry is too flaky I don’t panic, I understand the problems and can identify the solutions but with computers I am baffled and irritated by the notion that I should be expected to understand any of these commands and prompts that come across the screen for the privilege of owning what has become such an everyday machine. What right do they have to get words like command and prompt into their linguistics, I command you damn box I prompt and tell you what to do and never should it be the other way round. When the machine is working it is my portal to untold knowledge and experience but when it is not it is like poking a belligerent teenager and trying to convince it to do their homework. I expect imperfection and variation when I request tasks to be carried out by humans, we are in our very nature fragile and fallible, we have moods that affect our performance and changeable conditions that alter our abilities but a machine should be constant and unchanging. I feel that technology rushes so fast to be new it sometimes skips over the part where it must remember who it will be used by and how consistently it can perform the tasks that it is touting it can complete.

I should probably make some aside comment about the state of European politics and the imminent fall of the Euro zone but in all honesty my understanding and tolerance of such issues is quite pitiful and my main interest in the possible ensuing catastrophe would be the possibility of me getting a decent value on my currency exchange and getting myself a nice cheap European holiday, who cares if a continent needs to be dropped into economic insecurity to get that.

Reaching towards the end of the year and music releases slow down to a gentle trickle and we can begin the process of contemplation as the shelves fill with compilations. It has been a great pleasure to closely watch the music of this year unfold and hope you will stick by me through 2012 as we see where the music will take us. There have been some gaping holes in my reviewing which is time related and as I have said before sometimes an album doesn’t kick you in the guts straight away they are more appreciated after a while apart and we hear things on second listen we missed before so I will review a few albums from earlier in the year that somehow failed to make it to the page. Ohhh and a quick alternative media entertainment recommendation would be to go and see ‘The Rum Diary’, Johhny Depp back playing a Hunter.S.Thompson creation in magnificent drunk style, well worth a look see.

‘C’mon’ by Low undisputed masters of a genre they have no desire to be categorised in, these Slow-core legends have a style all of their own that can deliver raw power and natural emotion effortlessly. There is a dark majesty to the band’s music and a haunting echo that is created from the church in which they do much of their recording – there is no new ground here for the band but when you have a style so personal and innovative that delivers all the emotional resonance you want I don’t feel new ground is needed. The songs are not as heavy as on ‘The Great Destroyer’ we don’t have images of drug addled failures with no chance of salvation there is a melancholy hope woven into the reverberated sound. There is a renewed confidence in the guitar line and a strong sense of a band really coming in to their comfort zone with a big sound which is well worth a long listen.

‘Mirror Traffic’ by Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks without the pretence of a ill informed reunion that is becoming the vogue Stephen Malkmus is back on our radios all be it comically censored and on BB6 Music most shows are touting new single ‘Senator’ as something quite special, this song is not really representative of the album in whole but is the most visceral and angry malkmus has sounded for some time. Malkmus doesn’t seem to age and his impish need to keep writing songs seems to shine through in these songs with his very own style of angry, and quirky shinning through twee and impish, it was the building blocks of the indie era having something to say but not taking yourself too seriously because at the end of the day it was all about turning out lots of great music. Not retreating into a middle aged love of long solos and guitar wankery this is an album of upbeat and happy songs that draw you back in to the great sound of his voice which can be quite addictive while playing along with the tight formula of a great band. Catchy, quirky, edgy and loveable.

‘Go Tell Fire To The Mountain’ by Wu Lyf another album recorded in a church but did they really need it to give the album there own sound which they create with every fibre of their beings. Much hyped and courted by the press and A&R the band poked at convention and went as far as being downright rude knowing that nothing could distract from the raw power of the music. Tight and distinct musically the band are a growing explosion of sound that swells and bites in all the right places. The set apart piece of this band are the animalistic vocals of Ellery James Roberts half man half wolf this powerhouse snarls up the lyrics and growls them over the mic with power and control, like Captain Beefheart entering a smoking competition with Tom Waits this is a great and intriguing counterpoint to the considered instrumentation. The organ work in a church is made to sound at least dark if not satanic by this writhing vocal display. They have shunned notoriety spoke out against hyperbole and then delivered an album that starts with the drama of the apocalypse and builds from there. You might find it fractious and difficult but believe me when I say it’s good and maybe it’s important.

‘The Rip Tide’ by Beirut  The warm familiar yet strange and obtuse sounds of Beirut return to envelop us in a soft blanket of lovely sound. There has been no change in the style of Zachary Condon’s music though the genre and movement he originally surfed the crest of has long since crashed and transformed into something much difference. No longer is this a quirky style of music or moreover quirky is now completely acceptable and this blend of the new and traditional is far more commonplace than when ‘Gulag Orkestar’ first hit the indie scene but the band still has much to offer with their duality of happy and sad pinning yet optimistic there is a strong sense of character to the voices presented and a warmth even in the coldest moments. There seems to be a strong sense of history in all the band’s music and although it treads no new ground it is still a fuzzy joy to listen too.

So I leave you to the cold and the dark nights and hope that you are all finding somewhere warm to hold up and be warmed in the bosom of great songs and great company. As festivities begin I will retreat further into my work as I watch the fun that others are having while I sweat and toil but that is my burden and with a new Kate Bush record and more from The Black Keys I’m sure there will be enough auditory salvation to have me smiling through the cold. Have fun and I will speak soon.

The Long Season That Suits Us Best

So the nights draw in and the wind starts to bite at our bones in a way that draws us indoors and has us pulling on our jumpers and coats, even when the sun is bright there is a chill to the air which will be passed off as just “fresh” by all those who are still desperate to stay outdoors. Soon I will drive to and from work in the dark and although I will gain an extra hour sleep on a Sunday it will be followed by mornings scraping ice from windshields with jumper sleeves pulled over my knuckles as makeshift gloves. The long dark grey will fall over our glorious England and once again we will remember who we really are. I love this time of year and the gloomy weather and temperature that goes with it, I love my jumpers – from the oversized baggy ones that may have never seen the inside of a washing machine to the preppy smart ones which are that bit too tight. I love my coats, from the ¾ length black I got as a present when I passed my ‘A’ levels, to my large green army jacket that has seen me through nights asleep on the beach, I pine for them over the summer because as much as we may try to disguise it this is what suits us. Rolling up the legs of our jeans on a surprise hot day or the people queuing to buy beer on Brighton beach dripping from the sea in their underpants shows how blissfully unprepared we are for summer, the pasty arms and chicken drumstick legs of the English are not meant for tropical climbs.

As a chef the start of a new season is always an exciting time when new ingredients become available and the colours of your plates changes and you bring out the cooking techniques that have hibernated over the summer and you slow braise and casserole meats and serve up hearty hot bowls with billowing steam billowing over your dishes drawing people in on undulating tides of smell. Everything shall be topped with a drizzle of truffle oil and once again we will resist the Spanish urges of summer cooking and dig into our grandma’s English recipe store for the true heart of British cuisine. Though it may be a real pleasure to sit in a beer garden eating Tapas enjoying a long glass of Alcoholic ginger beer spiced with Rum on a seemingly endless afternoon during an Indian summer it is not truly me or indeed us, we have taken it from other countries Australian Ginger with Jamaican Rum on an afternoon that seems so out of place we even name it as a time from another place. Glorious Englishness is alive most at this time, in the spring we show our wilful optimism in the summer we show our quirky idiocentricity, the Winter is for our stiff upper lip and stoicism but the Autumn is where we are ourselves, wistfully melancholic in the hinterland between two extremes where we make do and mend and remind ourselves of our true nature as we kick piled leaves and hide our heads in hats.

Heir Commander Cameron gave a speech extolling the virtues of our nations great and malevolent past, quickly I passed this ideal around my International friends mainly my friends The Celtic Tigers in Ireland (who’s Colony is well overdue an inspection) it was an act of amusement that might be derived from our pompousness and presumption of making light of a situation that in reality had our elder brothers pointing guns at each other. But while I might see this type of political positioning as puerile and disingenuous I also see the method behind the Magner’s in his intent to remember the alliance and cohesion that has been achieved in most or at least some of those post colonial countries and use the avenues of our history as a good tool to explain or exemplify our current existence. Some of our youth are unaware that the English empire once governed over India and without this knowledge of history how can we expect them to understand the integration of Bradford the rise of Islam and the evolution of the chicken tikka masala. Without the facts of the thirteen states and the Canadian domination how can the “close relationship” make sense and the subtitles of Comedic differences of opinion on the uses of sarcasm be truly appreciated. From the sublime to the ridiculousness and far too often veering into the disturbing stories from our nations past how can we expect to understand the present and move to the future?

And then we ‘Occupy’ our own country in a means of protesting against the ownership and government which controls us, I mean I have lost all my faith in the process of protest it seems to be mindless looting or some sit down yoghurt weaving process that only seems to irritate the most mundane among us. I yearn for a time of change and for blows to be struck against the heart of the capitalist consumer culture but I don’t believe putting a few tents in front of a church is going to make a blind bit of difference it only goes to make people look desperate and think and hope that next time they can store their energies up for something a little bit more spectacular. Wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularised in the film ‘V for Vendetta’ gives some pretty violent backdrop to what is in essence a sit down process – we need explosions, we need gunpowder, we need a light lighting under peoples arses that can’t be ignored. Two blogs in a row and I’ll say it again Viva La Revolution.

And then Music shows us both the quirky nature of Britishness and a connection to a by-gone age of brilliance and simultaneously shows the capitalist desire for cold hard cash as ‘The Stone Roses’ announce a reunion and some hometown shows that are sure to pad their bank balances to quite a comfortable level. As a nation we have undoubtedly created some of the greatest musical groups of all time and pushed our style and influence all over the globe an empire of music that there is really only good things to say about. Our home music scene is fiercely competitive and local in nature that has created alternative scenes and musical feuds within the confines of our small island nation, The Stone Roses where at the crest of a wave for a seemingly short amount of time but there influence was huge and there are many bands and indeed entire scenes that owe their existence to these Manc chancers. For me the band marked the end of my days obsessed with the music of The Beatles and an opening of my ears to a wider array of sounds and musical possibilities, I bought their eponymous classic on a market stall in the centre of my mining town homeland and remember rushing out of the urban hub so I could sit in a park and get enveloped in a new sort of sound, not only were there great songs here it opened my ears to new sorts of music and broadened my horizons. I fondly remember ‘The After Dark Club’ in Reading and there weekly Indie night where I would grip my plastic cup of rum and coke between my teeth so I could raise both hands in the air in riotous appreciation of the first few bars of ‘I Am The Resurrection’ so booze soaked and brain addled it is a band I will always be pleased to hear. That doesn’t make me suspect them of being untimely musical whores who will play to an enormous crowd of diehard fans who will be easy to please and make a massive pay day out of it, I guess that the proof of the pudding will lie in any new music and if they can manage to muster the same level of exciting newness in there sound – I wait with baited breath.

Music has been flooding over me in the last month great soothing tides of brilliant albums which makes it difficult to decide what to mention and not to seem like I have become a gleaming goon who thinks everything is fantastic but I will attempt as always to be subjective and let you in to what has been keeping a grin on my tired face over October.

‘The Year Of Hibernation’ by Youth Lagoon  is an instantly engaging album that has enough familiarity coupled with a ghostly newness that makes it an at times haunting and yet reassuring sound that is quite an accomplishment for a 22 year old musician all alone in his quiet Idaho suburb. The rise of the bedroom producer has re-sparked an interest in the Lo-Fi production that started with a raw grunge sound that now encompasses some intensely professional offerings that make up a large segment of the accomplished indie scene. The melodies at use in this album are beautifully crafted and used to poetic effect to rise through the song to change their timbre from spooky chants and whispered memories to chest beating anthems in recognition of who we are. It is easy to draw comparison with the work of bands like The xx who have given new focus behind the simple sound but young Trevor Powers seems to have accomplished this without any of the posturing and faux coolness that make The xx almost intolerable and incomprehensible to me, he shares more with the vast sounds of Sigur Ros and as far as to the pounding yet placid heart of Mogwai. The Year of Hibernation as the name suggests does not seem to be a desperate attempt to become part of the IT crowd, to be a trend setter or push any scene forward it is an album that can be deeply personal to anyone who has the pleasure of listening to it and can perfectly soundtrack that descent into the wonderful maudlin feeling of autumn. I can’t fault this record for its sounds or its ambition without the need to be pushed into a limelight that only helps to shadow the music, you can take The xx and James Blake and shove them up NME’s arse because this level of brilliance is what studio’s and bedroom producers are going to have to rise to. A treat of an album and quite obviously strongly recommended.

Recommended to me by a good friend who has loved this artist for as long as I can remember but has never managed until now to batter down my resistance is the latest release by a Cardinal’s free release ‘Ashes & Fire’ by Ryan Adams It’s been a long road for this Alt/Rock troubadour and he has seen scenes rise and fall as he produced music through it all and has always been an under rated champion of true love of musicianship in all its forms but with this his 13^th release he seems comfortable at home and back on top form. Set to quit music with the end of his band The Cardinals and an illness that damages his balance and hearing he was driven back to the music of deeply personal and engaging music by pure love of the art and by a competitive spirit as he listened to releases by artists such as Laura Marling who are taking the genre of Alt/Country and modern folk to new extremes. So Adams comes back with ferocity and knowledge of production that spans over a decade and creates a great future for his music that resonates with the strength of his back catalogue.  The southern twang in his voice gives a history to this man singing the blues and he pulls on rich use of instrumentation that give the songs an inviting warmth and hospitality to them. There is a great deal of sadness peppered through the album that casts the singer as a ghost in his own life viewing events with a detached sense of reality that can give at times feelings of hope and helplessness, its powerfully emotive while still being musically engaging and will have you pounding the door of your car as you sing along with the soaring impassioned vocal. It is never going to have a raw edge with such polished production but that too leaves no room for error and a great sounding board for a great singer and lyricist.

Stepping up the pace for the need to drive quickly and feel that pumping in your chest is the second studio album ‘Audio, Video, Disco’ by Justice having mainly heard the first album at ear splitting volumes from speakers meant for rooms far larger than the ones they have found homes I pressed play on this the French duo’s second offering with trepidation of torn ear holes to follow and was richly surprised and delighted. The band themselves have dubbed this as a mellower album of ‘Daytime music’ but in reality it sets them apart as innovative musicians with a lot more to offer than we may have first thought. The album is a pastiche of everything from 70’s glam to Big Stadium rock without forgetting to nod a head to the creators of a scene closer to home. Few artists can span War of the Worlds, Ac/Dc, and Led Zeppelin while still mastering your hero’s style with Daft Punk robot precision. It might not be the powerful bombast of the first album but it is humorous and well paced outing and a stroll around the odd scenes that have influenced the artist. Most music is retrospective and draws heavily on influences and it is one of the great gifts of dance music that you do not have to be shy of tipping your hat or blatantly taking segments of music from other producers to create something of your own. When this is done with reverence and humour it can make music that can’t fail to put a smile on your face.

That’s all for now but I would like to just spend a sentence to dedicate this post and my thoughts to my friend Loncey John Ngahooro who died this month and left a lot of people thinking back to happy days with him in places past and far away. He was a true gentle giant and I will always remember him with the sun on his back and a smile on his face. Keep your ears and hearts open people because it’s all just a fleeting chance.

The Debt and The Payback

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.

The Lost Summer Of My Discontent

Well it seems that July and August fell off the edge of the calendar for me, really not for lack of anything to report but possibly completely the opposite my life became swamped with the constant barrage of work and the chaos, emotion and high jinks that creates. Sometimes I have no idea why i do the job i do because on paper it looks so daft but at others i couldn’t wish for anything i want more. But here is not the time to talk about my job, this is not the space for the disgruntled chef part of my I.D that would be a different and more curse word filled blog altogether, but like i say under the title of this blog, the world does get ugly and i have been driven to one or more violent outbreaks last month and not so much fits of depression but definitely despair and it is only now on drives home with the stereo turned up high in the middle of the night that i am finding the musical ropes to pull me on to a more manageable September.

The world is once again showing us its ugly side, its wanton desire for destruction and ability to create individuals who are so detached from the moral compasses to which most of us steer that they will hold their dominion of death and destruction no matter what. I managed to escape the business of life for a week in the Lake District where it was easy to retreat into the feeling of the smallness of life and our own inconsequential existences against the vastness of nature. But on my return the news was full of stories of great anger and hatred as someone’s cold blood had boiled and massacred innocent children in his retaliation of what he couldn’t understand about the direction our population is taking with its decisions. There are so few platforms of legitimate revolt existing that people are pushed and pushed in a highly restrictive pressure cooker where there possibly tainted views are twisted and left to fester and the desire for outlet becomes more and more vicious and as their views become more outrageous the walls that restrict them seem higher and the force needed to break them becomes greater and more bloody. Whenever a massacre of this nature occurs and people are shocked and outraged i am never in the crowd saying 'I don’t know how someone could do that', or 'It doesn’t make any sense' i am too enthralled with looking at the systems that restrict peoples outlets for their thoughts, no matter how bigoted and backwards and wondering how these incidents don’t occur on a day to day basis.

And then London burned, then the apparently disenfranchised youth raised their hoodie covered

heads and demanded to be listened too, they took to the streets to show those in power that they will be heard - if only that were the truth. For anyone with the spirit of Punk coursing through their veins it is a pleasing sight to see London Burning to feel that the anarchistic rebellion is upon us and that blows are being struck right at the centre of the rat race, that displays are being made that Capitalism is not unshakeable, but in reality this was just a sad indictment of the throttle hold that consumerism and avarice has over the young and how utterly unmotivated they are for change. With people rising together in anger we can show a message to a holidaying government that we will not stand for their impositions but instead it is seen as an opportunity to add to one’s personal collection of material possessions and show utter dependence on the simple and benign. When you hear riot and rebellion you think of fighting for a cause and a struggle of an oppressed people, like the Greeks condemning their governments spending spree and showing their anger but all we have here is a pathetic show of how terminal the consumerist tumour is that the desire to own will so easily bury and moral's and the self preservation is a distant memory in the land of the selfish.

Television channels parade the most vacuous and puerile members of our community happily handing out 15 minutes of fame to those with very little to offer. This is not documentary making designed to highlight a problem that needs to be solved it is sensationalising the ridiculousness of our society for the pure amusement of others, it’s a carnival freak show that sends me to the darker places of my psyche where i feel that a serious cull is in order. Lowest common denominator has become aspirational, brats and idiots spout celebrity as the only career they would consider entering and the perspective of our youth is bent so badly out of shape they take to the streets to parade their idiocy and mediocrity in the public eye.

Well as summer came and went in the flash of an eye and for me was spent inside feeling the heat of a different kind it is maybe even more important to have the sounds of a good 'Summer Album' to brighten up our days, by this i don’t mean a collection of BBQ tunes but an album that sits well alongside a long road trip or that uncanny feeling when you think life should and could go on  

The Tripper by The Fruit Bats this great band have whimsy and great story running through all their songs and have a style that has laid back written all over it. An Acoustic groove is created in repetitive patterns and the vocal tells us tales of another place that seems so enchanting. With this offering the band are layed back to the point of reclining fully horizontal and there is a relaxation in their music that is hard to ignore. By this their 5th album they don’t have anything to prove and if you have already enjoyed previous offerings then this album will sit well with the maturing band who are settled in to a relaxed groove, this is one for a stoned afternoon in a field in the middle of nowhere, not a festival just a field and the characters conjured will prove all the friends you need for a summers picnic.

Torches by Foster The People it became somewhat impossible to ignore this band as every radio station and TV interlude started to use a snippet from one track to segway through their shows so when you actually got round to hearing the song proper you where sure you already knew it well. Maybe the album is a bit of a pop cliché, but maybe that is what the perfect "summer album" is all about giving validation to feel good sounds that us uppity musical snobs would usually pass off as meaningless and passé. The formula is all well worked out and extremely well delivered with vo-coded voices and a whistle you can’t help but purse your lips too, there is an infectious feel good nature to the songs and a definite air of celebration that I think imbues the album with sunlight.

Circuital by My Morning Jacket I’m sure that this will not feature into many people’s idea of a summer album but my perspective is sometimes slightly different and hell I’m not writing this for anybody but myself so you will have to listen to my strange pigeonholes. Although the album came out in May I have been somewhat behind schedule and this album hit me at just the right time. There is a magical quality in Jim James’s voice that have always made this band a standout act for me, surfing so effortlessly between the gloom and the sun I think they are the perfect band to play out a wet English summer. The album is comprised of some songs destined to have been played by ‘The Muppets’ in a project that fell through that shows the whimsy with which the band can approach songs that others would see as heavy. The band have a big sound but they use it to conjure a wonderful rhythm and drama, there are layers of sound and great rhythm in guitars and tambourines that create the image of a jamboree of musicians that are somehow always on point with retro sounds used to create a very individual and unique sound. Songs like ‘Holding on to Black Metal’ combine a James Bond esque brass stab with a choir of children which lends its innocence to a song about well Black Metal, and what a understated yet excellent guitar solo. Bringing the big band sound straight together with jangle pop and an epic sound the album is a not to be surprised at exceptional achievement.

But with little thought needed strolling to the top of the summer album charts and more than likely straight into the top ten of the year for the second year running with typical style and swagger comes D by White Denim This album is quite simply a tour de force of a group of musical maestro’s that have honed their complexities into a coherent album that is overflowing with killer riffs and more styles and seamless transitions than a Conservative spin doctor. Type the band’s name into Wikipedia and there style is described as so:

“Their music draws influence from dub, psychedelic rock, blues, punk rock, progressive rock, soul, jazz, experimental rock with home-based recording, jamming approach, intense looping work and unusual song structures.^”

I mean what’s not to love and the band flit through the styles and forms without dropping a beat are fluttering an eyelid. The rhythmic complexity is as engaging as it is jaw dropping and the layered intricacies of the guitar pattern is as mesmerising as it is face melting. There is a sense of dropping in to the middle of a Zappa esque freak-out after walking away from a jam with Fela Kuti, just before a jazz flute epic that would have Ron Burgundy spitting with jelousy. The band have scratched around with lo-fi recording techniques and moderate obscurity but with a second guitarist in place and access to a modern studio the band have delivered a masterpiece without diluting the kudos and spirit of the blues band that they had created in their previous recordings. There are very few moments of relaxation in this work it’s a driving sound of technical brilliance and counterpointed precision, does that all sound a bit over technical and musician wanky because the album certainly doesn’t, there is whimsy in the vocal and pure blues rock keeping the album securely on the rails and more than likely straight into another top ten placing from me.

So there it was the summer of 2011, and while I baton down the hatches for a rain filled September I am firmly back on the search for the new and interesting sounds which will fill my autumn with aural sensations. My finger is back on the pulse and will be poking at a keyboard a lot sooner this time, until then remember to live life like the captain of a sinking ship and I will swim in your escapades soon enough.