I’m starting to think that the craft ale industry is just a collection of graphic designers all buying the same weird tasting beer from a mass producer in order to produce new cans every week that look like Warp releases.
Remember when you’re feeling a bit down on yourself that Bobby Gillespie made 2 indie albums and got a dance remix of the third one and landed the job of deciding who and what had soul for the next 30 years. Believe in yourself. Anything is possible.
Every electronic musician I hear on 6music has a lengthy. complex dissertation style explanation of their new work. Space, solitude and isolation. The club. The after club. The void between. And yet, after all that work, it still just sounds a bit like encore une fois by Sash.
Ambient music is such a fucking breeze to make, it's almost liberating, it's the new punk rock.Unfortunately because it's long and tedious and mostly shit, and made by a bunch of over serious men, it's also the new prog rock. Swings and roundabouts.
That bloke from Ride joining Oasis, banging out bass on some of the worst music of all time and still being welcomed back into the shoegaze outsider community is the real Easter story.
New John Lewis Xmas advert idea. Brexiteers and Remainers dressed as soldiers on a battlefield. Xmas morning they all move to the centre of the battlefield, cease disagreeing and listen to a small child play pipes of peace on a modular synth and swap smallrun tape releases.
Top production tip.
Let someone with loads of disposable cash make an ambient record using a whole host of expensively purchased synths and modular hardware which were then ran through a mile long tape loop and bounced to a vintage quarter inch reel to reel. Then sample it.
I honestly do feel a sense of embarrassment still attempting recording and releasing music at the age of 46. Especially electronic music. It’s a bit cringey. I’ve no idea what clubs are like or anything. I’m just a fat lump sat on my chair with an iPad and I should stop soon.
There’s now a radio 6 ambient show and I just can’t imagine the hard on that will give a lot of middle aged men who still harbour dreams of musical success. Not me. I can’t get hard ons.
Farcical day at the football yesterday. However, thanks to the club's initiative of letting the fans pick the pre match playlist I managed to get the team warning up to Omni Trio's Renegade Snares. Light jogging soundtracked by incendiary 90s jungle included below.
Really sad news about Neil Kulkarni. An absolute champion for unfashionable music, unfashionable towns and unfashionable people for most of my music journalism reading life.
Noel Gallagher: "acid House Changed My Life" via
@DJmag
Upon hearing the joyous transcendental grooves Noel vowed that he would go on to produce some of the most reactionary workmanlike guitar music the world had ever heard.
For the first time since I was 16 I’ve bought myself a cheap electric guitar (that one bit the dust in the post rock wars of 93/96). Please accept this picture as formal notification that I intend to get the band back together.
Sold most of my records in a fire sale about 5 years ago but I’ve been thinking recently that I still saved enough quality stuff to put on a really exciting monthly indie/techno/electronica night. With that in mind I’m going to sell the rest of them.
IMO the very high point for DI. Weird how shit old straightforward Brit shoegaze is getting some kind of big crowd renaissance whilst this sort of stuff that, to me, seemed like a reaction to those bands barely break a sweat recognition wise. Pic courtesy of
@nothingelseon
Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but
She passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.
When I hear Band Aid on the radio I always think that one of the least charitable and festive proclamations that I can think of is thanking God someone else is starving to death and not you. Top tune though.
I know a lot of people will be having less than great evenings but last night my lad asked my wife what “having a wank” meant and she said that I’d have a word with him tonight about it. So. Just spare a thought.
My son was tasked at school to make a factsheet about his favourite musician. “I might do my Dad” he told his teacher “your Dad?” his teacher said semi mockingly, “yeah, he was in a band”
And God love that kid, he came home, got on with it and did his fact sheet on Eazy E.
My oldest friend Craig has compiled his gorgeous work as the humble bee and created an attractive looking bandcamp page. Reckon he goes under the radar when people discuss the proper dons of ambience but I think he’s the big boss of the micro hiss scene!
That designated “Blue Monday” in January where everyone was a bit down in the dumps about going back to work and credit card bills dropping appears now in retrospect to have been like a fucking sun dappled summer bank holiday in comparison with this entirely crushing shit show.
Bought this single on the strength of this humble flyer. Went to see the band. The drummer didn't turn up. I got up on stage and joined the band. And that's a very potted history of how I came to be assessing Housing Benefits.
Musicians who moan about not being able to sustain a living by producing music forget they're often complaining to loads of people who can't sustain a living by making music *and* having a full time job.
You know who’ve really stepped up during all this. The middle class. From sourdough starters to yoga tips. Delicious Dhals from scratch to how to plan a productive home schooling day. Guys. Thank you. May you continue to be interviewed on the BBCnews in front of your bookshelves.
Anyone worried about the possible harm and distress this Teacher’s strike may cause to the pupils. Don’t fret. My son is off school and is quite frankly buzzing about it and is fully preparing himself to do fuck all, all day.
#Solidarity
Thank you to everyone who has contacted me on here to wish my mum n dad a speedy recovery. I was really touched. They’ve had a week out of isolation, managed a stroll and a little shop and have generally blown me away with their resilience! Very scary couple of weeks!
Not sure if anyone is interested. But I see loads of ableton or modular fetish things on here. All my songs are made my live mixing 8 track loops on GarageBand. because I have no idea how to do anything else. Not one clue.
You're wrong if you think you can't turn your life around in your 40s. Just look at me for example. When I was 20 I used to think it was disgraceful that parents got drunk whilst letting their kids run wild around pubs and restaurants. Now I think it's a fucking fantastic idea.
Both my mum n dad tested positive for C19 last weekend. They let their grandson in to use their shower after he’d finished work because my sisters boiler was bust. I’m out of my mind with worry and doing like 13 carecalls a day. They’re weary.Don’t cut corners. That’s all really.
Got the tip off that
@more_eaze
and
@clairerousay
touched upon The Remote Viewer whilst listening to Empress in this months (I think) The Wire magazine. That was a nice surprise!
Every hour for the last two days my little notification button lights up and I think somebody could be tagging me and telling me that Aphex Twin has played one of my songs. But it’s just another person liking that Jason from Sleaford Mods called me a fucking loser.
One of the greatest mysterys in recent musical history is how the fella from The Charlatans has turned himself into an alternative musical icon just by getting into weird music 30 years later than everyone else did.
I'll be truthful. I was absolutely on the verge of stopping making music. I don't sell records,never do shows and I've lost my iPad charger. I'm Les from Creme Brulee. Beaten and nostalgic. Anyway. Just saw Robbie Williams got the World Cup gig so I'm gonna give it another year.
Someone in little Tesco last night asked the bloke if he had any forks. He asked if she wanted plastic ones and she said no, real ones, made out of fork.
House and techno producers. You may have a massive studio with loads of analogue stuff and a big old desk and some plug ins and top of the range computer and some modular gear. But. You still use bongo loops.
Thanks for all the people on here that interact, make me laugh and make it worthwhile. Have a top day tomorrow if possible. Also if you’re gong to have a shit day tomorrow send me a message on here and I’m happy to chat.
My son posted a YouTube video of him making music. His other posts have titles like “more than one view plz” and “just 1 like”. Anyone fancy clicking on it and boosting his figures?
Put some (more) respect on this record. At the intersection of the King Tubby, Movietone, Tricky and half speed Hank Marvin Venn Diagram.
@mnpanamerican
From the cradle of Bristol’s influential early ‘90s post-rock scene swirling Crescent, Third Eye Foundation and Flying Saucer Attack; Movietone’s incredible, hushed 1994 Peel Session, available for the first time
⤳
Ok. So. You may know me as depressed dad. Or guy with the rat. Or Accrington Stanley bore. But. I also attempt to make music. You can listen to this release for free (or pay !) If you can RT that’d be sweet. X
I reckon that you shouldn’t be allowed to take this piss out of “live,laugh love” and “Prosecco time!” signs if you are a man who has a little wooden stand for your record cover to nestle in whilst you play your vinyls.
I’m not saying that we’ve completely lost track of what our son has been up to whilst he’s been off school for 3 months and we’ve both worked full time at home but this morning he asked for some grapes accompanied by the phrase “ big dog gotta eat like a G”.
Gotta say the rise in popularity of the craft brewery tap rooms this summer is a real bonus for those, like me, who had previously struggled to find the right industrial estate car park to enjoy a pint in.
Roses are red.
Love is spurious
I’m watching Accrington Stanley vs Lincoln City after it was rescheduled for a 6pm kick off tonight owing to a frozen pitch yesterday meant the original fixture couldn’t be played.
And my wife is furious.
Hopefully going to get some sort of music out this year. Haven’t left it this long between some sort of underachieving effort since I was 16. I’m 49 tomorrow😬
The most overrated platitude on
#MasterChefUK
is that cooking from the heart or cooking with love somehow elevates the finished dish. I do all the cooking in my house and it’s always with maximum resentment and often seething hatred, and I’ve had very few complaints to date.
I don't know this fella. But he lives in Spain and has made himself a t-shirt for the band that me and my friend did when we were 17. Lovely that. Nice t-shirt as well!
#thefamousboyfriend
Little known fact. If you slow the bird sounds down in ambient music you’ll actually find out it’s a tape loop of Brian Eno telling you to kill your parents.
Club nights showcasing emerging house and techno artists that start at 10pm and finish at 5am, housed in spaces with limited seating are elitist bullshit designed exclusively to exclude 44 year old men who need to rest their legs and be in bed by 9pm from experiencing new music.
Craig has moved. But, incredibly, he has painstakingly reconstructed his shed studio in his new garage. Brilliant day with my oldest friend and the undisputed king of micro ambience!
#thehumblebee
#thesoundofyounghelmshore
.
5 years in the making. Chris and Nicola of universally loved slowest-fi kids Empress finally unveil album number 2 as New North Wales.
Of interest to
@pastels_the
@more_eaze
@ourmodernlove
and any number of top dogs who loved Empress and their surrounds
There’s a point in your life we’re you’re sat at work and the new starter tells people he plays guitar and someone says “ oh. Andrew used to be in a band” and you’re sat with a tie on and your wedding trousers and just feel terrible and they say “ he played Banjo with Muse”
And as he heard this futuristic hybrid of Teutonic machine music and uplifting US disco floorfillers Noel immediately took to putting together a band of men capable of fusing the music of the Beatles and Slade for the next 25 years.
Focus on the positives. Here is me hugging my lad this morning after his brilliant team won their last game to win the league. The afternoon. Not so good. And boy is he upset. Highs and lows.
Back in the 90s you weren’t allowed to make electronica on your own. You had to make an appointment at the job centre and they’d match you with someone else in a 5 mile radius who liked the first few Skam 12s as well. New Labour policy I think.
Flag shaggers. They’ve given you Thursday and Friday off to celebrate the Jubilee. Stop trying to spoil the Saturday by organising Queen shit at the weekend as well.
Got to watch A Certain Ratio with my best friend from high school who pretty much ran through every Factory Records and Factory Benelux catalog number for me whilst we chatted and then walk for 3 minutes to get home. Perfect.
When I play music I don't sensually make love to it, I'm drinking 3 bottles of wine, taking it upstairs and struggling to get an erection whilst crying and apologising to it for a lifetime of poor life choices. Until the music eventually tells me to sleep on the settee.
That Lychee DIPA I bought the other week in the push button objects can tasted suspiciously like the mango imperial stout I just bought in the Richard Devine EP can.
Don't want to get too sentimental. But when Steve Lamacq comes on radio 6 at 4pm it always makes me want to travel back in time to 1992.
Where I could have done something drastic about ending his broadcasting career there and then.
Happy lockdown birthday to my long suffering wife
@LynseyJ41354467
who put her own “happy birthday!” bunting up in the garden last night because she knew I’d never get round to it.
The Blue Nile.
1989. "what is this Mike and the mechanics bullshit"
2019. "it's me, I've quit my job and rented a small flat in a strange Scottish city. I'm going walking tonight. Under misty orange streetlight. Down alleys. To a small bar. I'm not sure if I'll be coming home".
Paris 1994. I first met Stephane. He was doing National Service but went AWOL from his barracks to see Hood do our 1st French show. He stood at the front in full military uniform pouring beer over his head. Last night he suprised us by coming from Paris for the evening. Love him.
Apologies for the onslaught of nostalgia. Most of you didn't know me in my 20s. Think yourself lucky. Here's essentially the entire 10 years in one gig review.
Late 90s early 2000s bedroom electonica hasn't aged well at all. Which is sad really as I spent a good part of the late 90s and early 2000s making bedroom electronica.