My irreverent nieces’ voicenotes are just the best when end of term varsity work is driving me a bit insane.
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Category Archives: music
the bangles – hazy shade of winter (1987)
“Time, time, time, see what’s become of me…”
Great Simon and Garfunkel cover, recorded by the Bangles for the soundtrack of the film Less Than Zero in 1987.
the magnetic fields – too drunk to dream
The sweetest bitter little song.
section 25 – inspiration
“Once you’ve left the floor there ain’t no beat no more…”
Last track on the 1984 Factory Records release, From The Hip.
emily wells – becomes the colour
There’s no such thing as going home
I’m not formed of myself alone
fever ray – i’m not done
kate bush – something like a song
An unreleased song from 1973 (she was 14 or 15).
feist – intuition (demo version)
From Leslie Feist’s self-produced demo session, informally called “The Red Demos” (2001).
laurie anderson & antony hegarty – strange perfumes
odetta – another man done gone
down in june – hollows of devotion
Death in June cover project (2008).
tunng – tale from black
From Mother’s Daughter and Other Songs (2006).
world’s end girlfriend – listening you
Off Ending Story (2000) by World’s End Girlfriend, a solo project of Katsuhiko Maeda.
marco
May you remember who you were;
You didn’t use to be.
townes van zandt – waitin’ round to die
The song appears here in the documentary of 1970s outlaw country music, Heartworn Highways. Van Zandt is seen performing in his Austin, Texas home with his friend the “Walking Blacksmith” Seymore Washington, who is visibly crying as Van Zandt plays.
#sharpsharp
goo goo g’joob
The Beatles’ song, I am the Walrus, slowed down 800% and set to the 1969 film Vertige by Jean Beaudin.
“Sympathetic but subtly critical, Vertige presents itself as a psychological portrait of the escape and/or contestation tactics of the decade’s youth: while war, violence, famine and poverty continue to devastate the planet, these youngsters seek refuge in the hedonistic haven of sexual liberation, lysergic research and communal fictions.”
Watch the film at ubu.com. And HERE is an etymological investigation into the phrase “goo goo g’joob”.
leonard cohen – anthem (live, circa 2009)
giovanni battista pergolesi – stabat mater
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)
– STABAT MATER –
Duet: Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Mirella FRENI, Soprano
Teresa BERGANZA, Alto
Solisti dell’orchestra “Scarlatti” di Napoli
Ettore GRACIS, Conductor
Recording: 1972
the raincoats – moving (album)
Released on Rough Trade (1983); re-released with this tracklisting in 1993.
In his definitive study of London punk, England’s Dreaming, Jon Savage describes The Raincoats as “rigorously feminist.” While Savage is perhaps the only writer to assign the word rigorous to The Raincoats’ music (a 1980 Village Voice piece contained the line, “The Raincoats say they rehearse”), it is rigorous nonetheless in the way it creates its own aesthetic space and in the way it pursues fun. “They seemed like ordinary people making extraordinary music,” Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth wrote. “Music that was natural that made room for a cohesion of personalities.”
Read more of this biography of the band HERE.
kalahari surfers – upon looking up at the statue of cecil john rhodes
This was written in 1979 and can be found on Kalahari Surfers’ first album, Gross National Product, originally released by Chris Quircke’s OBS Productions in 1983.
maurice marechal – solveig’s song
Maurice Marechal plays this haunting melody from Peer Gynt, the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play of the same name, written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1875.
Here is another beautiful recording of this tune, sung by Luisa Tetrazzini, from 1914.
billy childish & sexton ming – don’t be a misery guts
robyn hitchcock & the egyptians – arms of love
From Respect (A&M,1993).
ethel waters – his eye is on the sparrow
Pause to watch, listen and reflect.
Have you ever experienced the weird magic of coming across something obliquely on Youtube, on your way somewhere else, and it speaks so powerfully, so uncannily, to all the things happening right now around you that all the hairs on your body stand on end? This is one of those times. The scene comes from a 1952 film called The Member of the Wedding, based on the book/play by Carson McCullers, starring Ethel Waters, Julie Harris and Brandon De Wilde. I came across it because my housemate Khanyi and I were singing this old hymn, hamming it up Lauryn-Hill-in-Sister-Act-2 style. I wanted to check out some of the older versions… and this clip revealed itself to me, complete with contextual preamble.
Just to tether this to a little of my own current context (I unfortunately don’t have time to write much right now), here is something written by one of my MPhil classmates about the student protests demanding the removal of the statue of Cecil John Rhodes that are currently happening at UCT, and here is the official SRC statement on the matter.
edge of wrong 10 festival next week!
I’m on the organising team for the Edge of Wrong. Join us in Cape Town next week – it’s going to be an exhilarating ride!
Edge of Wrong Cape Town 10: A five day festival of experimental, improvised and provocative music.
It’s been a busy six months for EOW. Last October’s event saw noise artists, opera singers, free jazz, chiptunes and the sound of the Ebola genome perform at a metalworks. In January, we hosted a performance of Terry Riley’s In C for two laptops, improvised analogue synth, a postrock/drone quintet, and a memorable moment under a highway bridge with cello and saxophone accompanying traffic noise.
Now, we invite you to join us for our flagship event, the annual Edge of Wrong festival: five days from 25 to 29 March 2015, featuring a diverse range of international and local artists, each of whom epitomises our ethos of encouraging experimental, uncompromising, dangerous music.
This year, the line-up includes cutting-edge Norwegian performers Vilde Sandve Alnæs, Inga Margrete Aas, Harald Fetveit and Morten Minothi Kristiansen (founder and chief provocateur of Edge of Wrong), along with improv jazz outfit As Is, Juliana Venter and her motorbike ensemble, EOW stalwart Dizu Plaatjies and his Souls of Ancient Fish project (with Ruben Mowszowski and Maxim Starke), the Darkroom Contemporary dance troupe, Gugulethu’s jazzy G-Clef, US field recording artist Erik Deluca and EOW co-organiser Aragorn23 on custom electronics and live data manipulation.
The festival will unfold over several days at a number of venues (including a spontaneous flashmob orchestra in the central city which you can join) so be sure to check out the details on our Facebook event page. You can choose between buying tickets for individual events or an all-access pass for the week.
annette hanshaw – would you like to take a walk?
I’m stuck on the 1930s. “That’s all!” (as the charming Miss Annette Hanshaw always ended her recordings – annoyingly they chopped that off here).
einstürzende neubauten – dead friends
From Perpetuum Mobile (Mute Records, 2004).
sons of kemet – beware/inner babylon
Hailing from the shadowy world of the London post-jazz scene, the incandescent Sons of Kemet are saxist/clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, tuba virtuoso Oren Marshall, and the stunning double-drums team of Tom Skinner and Seb Rochford, powering a mix of dancefloor hooks and New Orleans street music with the percussive intricacy of west African drum music, a dose of Caribbean dub, and free jazz.
cherry bomb, pan african space station, 2010
This is a live set I played on the Pan African Space Station in September 2010 – some dark, psychedelic stuff. The sound quality of the recording is not the best in places but there are some great tunes.
fleurmach 