Desert Shore w/ Rose Io

the very talented and eerie Rose graces the stage at Cellar bar Bournemouth 25th may

her Project Rokurokubi. is an eerie spooky blast of cold air

I’ll be playing dark disco and cold waves with Lil Mishap TBC !!

happy to be in the cellar bar its a unique venue and full of strangeness

maybe bournemouth’s most beautiful venue

here’s a new mix with some Levon Vincent new gear

[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=2195440702 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false

Turlin – Ambient / noise label

had the pleasure of meeting label boss Alastair. who runs this very interesting label

@viimeinen_ on instagram

http://turlin.bandcamp.com -.. Viimeinen and Lavender Blood  

http://soundcloud.com/viimeiset – Viimeinen Soundcloud. https://viimeinen.bigcartel.com/ – Viimeinen tapes for sale. 

see safari free music

making a few beds / trying out some different sounds in Ableton free or name your price, keen to hear any feedback or just send a message and if you have some music you want to share here happy to share it x

Desert Shore Bournemouth DIY Shows

The second installment of DS brings The Marbles and More to the Poole Hill Brewery on the 30th of March

Free entry 

Live :

The Marbles 
– High Energy Folk rock from these local young guns 

Sophie Avison 
– multi instrumentalist and constant musical collaborator, capable and innovative in Pretty much everything folk, polka, jazz and surprises 

EeeSquire 
-Deconstructive guitar assault 

Viimeinen 
-Tape loops and well crafted noise, a fluid formation of sharp sound within a rich sonic landscape 

Screening :

Karen Nikgol’s Total Recall 2

Desert Shore DJs Sea safari and little Mishap

Sentics / Sumatran Black corona colab demo

sentics has been plowing away making music and sitting on a load of demos for years

when will he release his music ? its annoyingly catchy post punk with very clever and sometimes quite dark lyrics that are buoyed up by his great melodies

 

he seems happy to release these great songs on youtube but I think he should take the plunge and release something on bandcamp !

 

I like Markus and his vocal style, its very authentic and anti glossy, anti polished,

Im a bit biased though, hes a great friend and we have been through thick and thin times, hes often given me shelter ( and a blanket )  and often listened to me in times of need, what a friend ! when im with him I find total SERENITY NOW AND ALWAYS !  and what a talented friendo he is , I hope 2020 is the year that Sentics releases a tape or even some wavs !  He should totally start  vanderlay industries records!

 

hopefully he will release some drones with me and Pete !

 

He sent some crunchy droney guitar and Me and pete set to work on it, I hope I can be a bit more proactive and pull my finger out and make 4-5 more tracks and also so we can finish our chesil beach project !

 

 

State Of Bass – Velocity Press

State Of Bass – Martin James, Published by Velocity Press

Velocity Press is a new publisher  started by the same people behind Knowledge magazine

Of great interest are the recent Join The Future by Matt Annis writer for Juno , dj and many publications and DJ under the guise Sell By Dave, a stalwart dj and promoter based in Bristol, personally I remember and respect to him as both a writer and DJ  as he was very active with his Bedmo Disco series ( bedminster the area of Bristol)

Matt’s book charts the development of British dance music and its first truly original sound of Bleep Techno from the warehouses of the north spearheaded by the legendary Sheffield power house that is Warp Records, Ill be looking to read this as soon as I have finished State of Bass, with recent events it has thrown a focus on the legacy of the raves and music that sprang up from this strange island.

Back to the future.. State Of Bass The reason for this updated reprint are manifold, the two main reasons are scarcity. The original was selling for crazy money up to £200 on Ebay and for the second reason to include events that happened after its first initial press such as Roni Size winning the Mercury prize for his Reprazent project. A lot has changed since the 90s and Drum and Bass is a global culture not just a music ‘scene’ its become a movement, music scenes come and go ( dubstep and Grime case in point two scenes that didn’t translate globally or last  )

 

but Drum and Bass is definitely permanent and has refused to water down, there are many new forms ( excuse the Reprazent pun ) new expressions and art works related and involved in the scene, it remains multicultural and independent weathering the ( music ) industries use and abuse.

 

The book delves deep into its stories, its infighting, its scenes stalwarts and the development into this huge ever-evolving culture.

 

To use a quote from Roni and Krust on Mask – released on dope dragon Bristol Sound

 

It’s a dictation and it’s a definition on how we livin’

 

 

What this book illustrates with numerous interviews and analysis is that this musical movement bears multiple facets more than other music and youth culture from the last 40 years , Punk begat independent music and a means to self record and release, hardcore and jungle did this with no use of the mainstream media or very little and it must be mentioned John Peel was up to his death still playing Jump Up, Tech Step and even Gabba representing the offshoots and DNA splices and Mutations that sprang from Rave … He never lost his hardcore…. and with his son Thomas Ravenscroft that lineage and important representation has not been forgotten.

 

 

 

 

I digress, the UK Hardcore sound grew to be what drum and bass is today as one of the most far reaching musical exports, with so many scenes heard across the globe, from Poland to Vietnam from Southampton to Graz, Chicago to San Francisco where there is a an urban environment and sometimes even a rural setting there is a crew making beats and creating parties, releasing records both physically and digitally on labels big and small.

 

Living an independent existence based around celebration and coming together regardless of ethnicity bear that in mind that it is the culture that sprang out of the raves and parties it is this fusion of cultures that developed here, in the UK under the hot house conditions of a country in recession and a society that was opening up. If you’re from Britain you can say this is the thing we should be most proud of, a whole culture and means of production AND industry owned independently see Jeremy Deller’s excellent film Everybody In The Place for more on the theme of owning the means of production.

 

Drum and Bass / bass culture/ rave culture offers an identity, career possibilities and a focal point for communities, it is the whole and referencing the legendary Hardcore party documented in the book it is AWOL A Way Of Life

 

a whole chapter could be written on Desert Storm sound systems & DIY , Circus Irritant , WDA, Spiral Tribe and other free party systems and this is a theme I want to return to as a fall out and departure from society.   I must mention the excellent Photo Book No System here by Vinca Petersen https://vincapetersen.com/no-system-product/

 

 

 

But lets focus on the book and Drum and Bass

 

It’s a standard device now but the suggested listening section at the end of each chapter throws up some classics and lesser known examples for instance In the chapter Valley Of The Shadows where we learn of the development and evolution of the hardcore / dark sound and time stretching techniques and the economic situation that developed in 92

 

a fine example is DJ Crystyl Warpdrive , a still futuristic blast of chopped and stretched breaks and floating ambience and the sound of the warp drive – RUSH 4 U

 

 

 

Compare with the 2004 remix, it keeps to the same theme of total drum chaos evolving flexing, going backwards, chopping multiple breaks

 

And it came out on Photek Productions label an artist covered in the book and figure head the somewhat tricky / divisive genre label of Intelligent

 

 

https://www.discogs.com/artist/417-Photek

 

 

For a great example of the development and experimentation and ever darkening skies around hardcore there is the classic compilation/ mix by Kemistry and Storm ( Kemistry who tragically died in a car crash coming back to London from a gig in Southampton April 25^th 1999 as I would learn from friends who attended the gig )

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/04/kemistry-storm-the-tragic-story-of-the-drumnbass-originals

 

Enforcers: Above The law

 

https://youtu.be/tv1L0aDSsus

 

 

Featuring Refige Kru (Goldie and Rob Playford – Metalheadz and Moving shadow respectively two of the biggest labels) https://youtu.be/-DblfFRL4ek it set the standard of the fall out from the day glo rave scene as the ecstacy became weak and the europhia was replaced by a creeping paranoid atmosphere assisted by Sci Fi and horror samples to match the worsening mood as recession bit hard in 92

(side note …where were you in 92 an honorary mention must go to Zomby for this album Where were you in 92 that uses Bizarre Incs Playing with Knives piano riff over a whole album )

 

Bizarre Inc Playing with Knives https://youtu.be/TLlvYaCZ8Vc

Zomby – Float https://youtu.be/9FriS8EVVJg

 

And of course Special Request for bringing the hardcore back,

 

 

 

Darkcore was a reaction to the helium vocals and over use of pianos the division of hardcore into the white toy town infantilism and the more roughneck darker sound which would eventually evolve into manifold styles … to read more about the DNA and theories, splits, alliances and allegiances you really should buy this book along with Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds https://g.co/kgs/BK5WLT

 

and Altered States by Mathew Collin https://g.co/kgs/798hQE

Bandcamp Help out Artists with no fees

So its Bandcamp day !  Bandcamp for it is they who created a service so good you can ,with a small team , dedication and graft  make your music your job and be free of needless soul destroying penury 

Bandcamp are waiving their ( small fee) so that us shut in musicians can make some Paper in these dark times …. So  who should you choose to give your quarantine saved monies to ?

Here are some suggestions

Valencia based dark electronic labels also run a great online magazine supporting artists like Zarkoff

 

zarkoff genius producer and producer who has created his own dark image, strong punk diy ethics, complete control and uses his studio to help bands and musicians realise their self actualization , strong links to the Hague

 

fogschool – dark moody electronic music with husky vocals and huge bass

 

Le Chocolat Noir – Dark brooding energetic EBM , Cold Wave and sweet enveloping music, an artist to get hooked on

 

Kranke Jugend! Sick Youth ! sparse electronic pop with synth pleasure – deutsch 2nd new wave, total artist package , operating on a higher level than us mere mortals , lots of myths to investigate

 

Richard Chartier – Pioneer of Minimalism, beautiful ambient sounds LA based artist supporting tons of other artists

 

Textbeak , industrial technoid fantasies from a musician who is tirelessly creating , dark visions, whilst living in the nightmare that is the USA 2020, support his ongoing missions into soul retrieval

 

and of course Haram Tapes

is it possible to get a more thick inky blackness than Sumatran Black ?

His dark Ambient music is truly a thing of rare beauty , I never even knew it was an old friend from my home town making it as he is a happy go lucky guy

I never knew he had such a dark side to him !! anyway enough guff from me check him out

living in Istanbul he makes creepy downtuned smothering waves of sound that are perfect for the living and the dead I realy really hope we can make music together !!

go buy this album

he turned me onto Gas and for that I will be forever grateful

BleeD

bit  late to blog this but in an effort to get back into life and celebrating music I will note that the ever excellent casper / volte Face / electro survivor has put out out lots of good music on his own BleeD label and the finest one out of many fine ones for me is EP2 and track ,  Rote 3 is the great ‘running through the forrest but not necessarily scared’ track

Im getting Bandulu   Neu /Rother  and Gas  feelings from the very metalic but warm sounding techno and ambient available here

hail the ghost child

Donau Festival Preview

Donau Festival rolls round again to give Austria another unhealthy dose of outsider art and music in the bucolic ancient roman settlement of Krems – for nearing 10 years this festival has brought legends to host and to play with their various bands , create projects and collaborations in various venues all over the kleine stadt including Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth , John Cale (Velvet Underground ) , Genesis P Orridge ( Throbbing Gristle Pyschic TV) , Jason Pierce ( Spiritualized , Space Man 3 ) and Kenneth Anger to name a few.

In a deeply conservative town there are more shocking visual and sonic attacks to be found and this year promises all out war on the eyeballs and ears – here’s my faves (I’m a bit biased as I’ve worked for them and helped bring Ariel Pink , Gold Panda and this Year Hype Willams through Campari Safari Booking )

top of the list Is Omar Souleyman

cant wait to do the shoulder dance

Next is the deeply disturbing ambient death march music of Raime

A techno Legend who arguably gave birth to the curse of minimal Robert Hood ( albeit his stuff is the real shit )

horror sci fi dystopians Gatekeeper shock with their new material concerning haywire abusive automatons and more – hopefully will play the old horror italo stuff too

psychedelic disco funk jam band and hugely influential for the disco constant evolution !!!

play an epic set

and last but not least my pet project ..Ive been wanting to put them on for years and the time is right they insist on a huge bass system able to trouble your innards and enough smoke and lazers to take you the OTHER SIDE

Hype Williams

this is them in slow haunting dub …

ooh and also BEAK ( Geoff Barrow from Portishead and Bristol top man , Death Grips and Girls Against Boys with David Yow ( Jesus Lizard ) and loads more

tickets get yer tickets!