Good Morning

Book 43 - Ian McEwan "The Cockroach"

Ian McEwan "The Cockroach" (Vintage)




We thought political satire was dead; how can you satirise figures like Johnson or Trump, who apparently have no shame, no empathy, and no goal other than power for its own sake?

Ian McEwan shows that we can. His reverse telling of Kafka's Metamorphosis posits a cockroach waking in an unfamiliar, unattractive but strangely utilitarian body, with an important job, that of Prime Minister of Great Britain, and an important task to complete. By doing so, he shows a natural propensity for gaslighting, the dissemination of fake news, backstabbing, manipulation of the media, and sundry other dirty tricks that would normally be beneath a cockroach. He does draw the line at murder though.

This novella shows that even today, satire is still possible. The chapter on the doctrine of Reversalism (McEwan's Brexit proxy) is so well imagined, so obviously insane but yet tantalisingly appealing, that I had tears running down my cheeks. Especially as I imagined fans turning up to a Justin Bieber concert, expecting to be paid. And as the Prime Minister tries to determine whether the American President, worryingly inconsistent in his comments, is actually "one of them".

A brilliant riveting book.

Mildlife - Automatic Album

When Mildlife’s debut album, Phase, was released in 2018 it didn’t so much explode on to the scene as ooze. Their mellifluous mix of jazz, krautrock and, perhaps more pertinently, demon grooves, was the word of mouth sensation of that year among open-minded DJs and diggers searching for the perfect beat.

Their emergence was backed up by European tours that demonstrated a riotously loose-limbed approach to performance that was every bit as thrilling as Phase’s tantalising promise. What was more impressive was how lightly they wore influences that took in Can, Patrick Adams and Jan Hammer Group, while primarily sounding precisely like Mildlife.

By the end of 2018 they’d been nominees for Best Album at the Worldwide FM Awards (Worldwide’s Gilles Peterson was a notable champion) and won Best Electronic Act at The Age Music Victoria Awards back home in Melbourne. Their progress post-Phase was cemented with a UK deal with Jeff Barrett’s Heavenly, who released How Long Does It Take? replete with Cosmic doyen Baldelli and Dionigi remixes, while last year they were officially anointed by DJ Harvey when he included The Magnificent Moon on his Pikes compilation Mercury Rising Vol II.

With Automatic, the band have made a step-change from their debut. It’s more disciplined, directional and arguably more danceable. As on Phase, they are unafraid to let a track luxuriate in length without ever succumbing to self-indulgence. The arrangements, tightly structured thanks to Tom Shanahan (bass) and Jim Rindfleish’s fatback drumming, permit space for the others to add spice to the stew, topped off with Kevin McDowell’s ethereal vocals as Mildlife effortlessly glide between live performance and studio songwriting. “The recorded songs kind of become the new reference point for playing the songs live,’ says Kevin. “They both have different outcomes and we make our decisions for each based on that, but they’re symbiotic and they both influence each other. It’s usually a fairly natural flow from live to recorded back to live.”


The centrepiece of Automatic is the title track where the band sound like Kraftwerk and Herbie Hancock on quarantined lockdown in Bob Moog’s Trumansburg workshop. It’s both a departure and quintessentially Mildlife. This is music you can dance to rather than ‘dance music’ and it’s all the better for it.




A Neil Young Primer #1

Flipping online through old copies of the Primer articles in Wire I came across one called the alternative Neil Young from Oct. 2008 issue of this excellent music magazine. The Primer looks at an artist or genre and gives you signposts to their best output.

Buffalo Springfield - Broken Arrow

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Down By The River

Neil Young - Revolution Blues

Neil Young - Tonight's The Night

Enjoy.

Part 2 will be posted later.

Just Wondering

Do you use fabric softener, dryer sheets, wool balls or something else to make your clothes soft?

Do you line dry, machine dry, and spared them around the apartment/house and hope for the best?

How old were you when you first learned to do the laundry?