Wednesday at Wickes

Today doing a boring survey at Wickes in Eastbourne. AAGGHH!!

Had a beer when i got home from ther - a nice pint of Dark Star at the Evening Star. It went down very well.

Bought tow CD's cheap from Rsident and Snoopers. Graham Collier "Charles River Fragments" (Jazzprint) and Glen Brown with King Tubby "Termination Dub" (Blood and Fire).Played some fela Kuti as well ,esp Underground System and more Oneness of Juju which GC woul dlike a copy of.

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Played quite a bit of Fela Kuti's afrofunk stuff.

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Tracks from some of the above albums and the Tony Allen ones,esp. "Nepa". Kick out the jams.

Below are the two Oneness of Juju CD's "African Rhythm" and "Space Jungle Luv" which GC would like done. Shake your booty love.

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Well i just realised its quite late and i am falling asleep at the keyboard aftefinishing off a bottle of red wine.Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Thursday's Thumping Big Twelve

Playlist time again

1/ Fela Kuti and Afirca 80 - Underground System CD
2/ Kokono no.1 - Congotronics CD
3/ Oneness of juju - Space Jungle Luv CD - more of dat funky stuff
4/ Sur Incise - Pierre Boulez CD - avant-garde classical stormer
5/ Tallis Scholars -Live In Rome CD - esp. Allegri "Miserere".Great polyphony.
6/ Bob Dylan - Visions of Joanna (from Blonde On Blonde CD) - sublime!
7/ Scott Walker - Climate of Hunter CD - a supeb reissue!
8/ Various Artists - Ethiopiques Vol.4 CD (the jazzy one.)
9/ Sten Hanson - Oips! (Five Text-Sound Artists CD) - last 2 mins is sound of woman in orgasm.
10/ John Peel and Sheila - The Pig's Big 78's CD - just brilliant!!!
11/ Maulawi - Street Rap (from New Thing! CD on Soul Jazz) - hip to the beat.
12/ John Adams - The Chairman Dances (from "Nixon In China" opera CD)

So more varied than you shake a stick at. From afro-funk to folk,skewed pop to gothic plainsong,serilist modernism ,sound-text-poetry,and operatic iterludes

And now for some pretty pictures..

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Talking of Scott Walker - his new album is due this month - his last was "Tilt" from 1995. Well where have you been man?

The American primitive collection by Harry Smith is highly recommeded - both volumes, and the Ethiopiques series is well worth getting.

Actually i prefer the studio version of "Miserer" by Allegri to the Live Rome version but eaxch to his own.

Spotlight on Pioneers

I have decided to spotlight some pioneers of early electronic muisc and concrete sounds such as Pierre Schaeffer,Edgar varese,Milton Babbit,Morton Subotnik,Pierre Boulez,Pierre Henry,Louis and Bebe Barron,Sten Hanson,Tod Dockstader,John Cage and loads more. One good place to start is "OHM The Early Gurus of Electronic Music" a S CD box set on Ellipsis Arts and now resissued with extra DVD (sod it - got mine when it first came out). For sheer inventiveness the soundtrack to the film "Forbidden Planet" which introduced us all to Robbie The Robot is unbeatable, done by Lous and Bebe barron and available on CD - but currently out of print.

These developments both happened here in Europe and in the States. France and Germany predominated with IRCAM ,GRM and Cologne Radio,but there was activity here in Britain as well as Sweden and Finland. Any album by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is well worth getting esp. "BBC Radiophoic Workshop" (BBC CD),"BBC Radiophonic Music" (BBBC CD) and "Dr.Who At THe BBC Radiophonic Workshop Vol. 1 & 2" (BBC CD - two separate issues).

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Sub Rosa are doing a good service in releasing so far 4 volumes of electronic music from pioneers to newer artists of the genre called "Anthology of Noise and Electronic Music".

Another important set highly recommended is the "Archives GRM" 5 cd box set from the French Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM for short).This gorgious set features some of the most important pieces of electronic music from the past 50 years. Just some - Pierre Boulez,Edgar Varese,Iannis Xenakis,Francois Bayle,Bernard Parmegiani,Pierre Schaeffer,Christian Zanesi,Luc Ferrrari,Dennis Smalley,and Michel Redolfi.

Oska Sala's "Suharmonic Mxtures" is a superb electronic album dome on a device called a Trautonium. Also recommended is Arne Nordheim's "Electric" on Rune Grammofon,hence the Norwegian connnection to pioneers of electronic music. If you push it and the money to spare the excellent "The Art of Arne Nordheim" (Aurora 7 CD's) box set is worth it not only for his electronic music but his orchestral and choral works.

Well thats part one. Part two tomorrow with Brian Eno and The Aphex Twin and moving on towards sound-poetry and the stuff that Henri Chopin and the Swedush text-sound artists get up to.

For now my electronica playlist

1/ Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
2/ Poeme Electronique - Edgar Varese
3/ Boat Woman Song - Holger Czukay
4/ Oraison - Olivier Messiaen
5/ In C - Terry Riley
6/ Rainforest - David Tudor
7/ Williams Mix - John Cage
8/ Oips! - Sten Hanson
9/ Doctor Who Original Theme - Ron Grainer
10/ Blue Veils And Golden Sands - Delia Derbyshire
11/ Silver Apples On The Moon - Morton Subotnik
12/ Melange - Klaus Schulze
13/ Conret pH - Iannis Xenakis
14/ Unfamiliar Wind - Brian Eno
15/ Forbidden Planet (OST) - Louis and Bebe Barron

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