Showing posts with label The Chrysanthemums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Chrysanthemums. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 February 2023

Yukio Yung – "Valborgunmassoäfton" (Audiofile Tapes – aT 53) 1988



 "These tracks were recorded between 1983 and 1985 and were intended to make up the third Jung Analysts LP. The Jung Analysts no longer exist. - so sayeth Terry Burrows aka Yukio Jung, June 1988, London, England"
Not that anyone had noticed that The Jung Analysts no longer troubled existence, nor did anyone noticed them when they did.
Alas, jung Terry seemed to be a rather busy chap,generally.Apart from co-founding The Chrysanthemums with Deep Freeze Mouse Alan Jenkins(not a made up name),he is also a prolific author of books relating to music history, theory, and tuition, technology, business, popular psychology and modern history...... busy fellow is Jung Terry.
In between jobs,he also made an equally numerous number of experimental...here's that job description again, "Art Rock",projects,sometimes dispensing with the rock part all together,even collaborating with such prolific loony toons as R Stevie Moore,and Asmus Tietchen.
Oh Yeah...Jung Terence is also one of those Mucky Micky Oldfield types who describe themselves as a muti-instrumentalist,which in Mad Mucky Mick's case means he can play a lot of different guitars,which in my book classes that as just one instrument...A Guitar,singular.
As a Bass player/abuser myself,not something I'd put on my job description or waste space on my non-existent curriculum vitae,I fully realise that it is in fact just another type of Guitar,whereas Mike Oldfield seems to think is a different instrument altogether....No Mike, it's a guitar.
Terry seems mildly competent on the Drum Kit, but as far as Multi-instruments go he can strum and pluck and press and blow and,more importantly, Edit.He can make coherent noises with most things musical...just like all of us.Gimmie a Bassoon, and i'll make it dance for a certain open minority of eager ears if attuned to this nonsense.
If you're in a band like The Chrysanthemums however, some form of musical competence is required, so maybe he can strum a guitar approaching the competence of a level three Mad Mick's two slightly distorted guitars...(Tubular Bells Reference There).
No displays of virtuosity on display on this aborted third album for his old band The Jung Analysts however, lots of funny noises, and meandering keyboard-isms,there's even some Jandekian piano tinkling-a-foot!?...yeah 'its experimental',that celebrated cop-out phrase that helps one avoid having to actually make an effort.
Of course you can do both,The Chrysanthemums being a fine example.

Normal Member of the Public:
"Oooooh! That's a bit crap!"
Composer or band leader:
"Not Crap...Experimental;but you wouldn't understand that would you?"

Standard artistic snobbism......which does, in fact, have its place.
Listen to it all enough times and the two words become interchangeable.One wonders if Terry touches on this subject in any of his numerous Musical Theory tomes? The writing of which is no doubt his main source of income.
One man's "Crap" is another's "Experimental"
And Terry's album is certainly..."Experimental"

Tracklist:

A1 The End Of Wild Strawberries
A2 Alchemy
A3 The Thin Army
A4 The Theme From Ulcerative Colitis
A5 Fiximile
A6 Boys On The Job #1
B1 Boys On The Job #2
B2 Die Litze
B3 Elegant People
B4 Lanzarote
B5 Der Vorliegende Band
B6 The Saisho Connection
B7 Camomile
B8 Flowers
B9 Units At Risk
B10 Parlour Palm


Friday, 10 February 2023

The Chrysanthemums – "Is That A Fish On Your Shoulder Or Are You Just Pleased To See Me?" (Egg Plant Records – Two Eggs) 1987


The Chrysanthemums were Deep Freeze Mouse main man Alan Jenkins,whom I previously had decided sounded like Robyn Hitchcock on this one;with frequent collaborator Yukio Jung,also known as plain old Terry Burrows,best selling author on the subjects of Music History, Theory and Tuition.
Smart arses stick together it seems.
Yes this is the one thst sounds like The Soft Boys...only cleverer.The stuff that the lazy noun 'Art Rock' was invented for.
And this is what I was listening to as I wrote about The Deep Freeze Mice's 1989 album "The Tender Yellow Ponies Of Insomnia",which I likened to ...er...The Soft Boys(?)....;when they actually don't.Whereas,The Chrysanthemums do.....geddit?...'cus I don't!
Suspected Zappa fans ,DFM ,are far more DIY neo-Psychedelic in their cleverness than the abstract Indie mud-skipper dragging itself out of the primeval soup left behind by the shiny boots of Punk Rock,that is The Chrysanthemums.
Yet again more great song titles on this one,that tend to be better than the songs which can be overlooked merely for the recorded use of a Bassoon alone;but the fact that DFM and their many derivatives provide Further proof that Leicestershire is certainly not an illusion.....it really is like that!.....unlike Gloucestershire.

Tracklist:

1.Gloucestershire Is Just An Illusion 3:09
2.Bullshit 3:28
3.Mouth Pain 4:35
4.Geraldine 2:09
5.Logical Fish 2:10
6.The Unpronounceable Finn 2:53
7.The Holocaust Parade 2:15
8.You Are A Serbian (And I Like You) 2:59
9.The Ten Foot High Trim-Phone 1:14
10.Another Sacred Day 3:50
11.The Lawn 2:52
12.Geraldine (Reprise) 1:23
13.I Wish Marvin Gaye's Father Had Shot Me Instead 5:16
14.Buzzing Unobtrusively 2:42