Showing posts sorted by date for query jandek. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query jandek. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 April 2024

Jandek – "Baltimore Saturday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0865) 2024



 Yet another Jandek recording from 2009.This one has got electronics on it,so it's quite unique in the Jandek canon. Also Susan Alcorn appears again making weird noises on her pedal Steel Guitar.
If that don't make you wanna hear this double CD then there's something wrong with you....well...maybe not? It's a good one though.

Here's that tit (I notice he has two of them) who regularly threatens the safety of your much valued scribe
He's the fat one on the right,meeting his hero......I wonder if this was taken in 2009?...still waiting for the Vancouver release.He says he's gonna 'find me' if I post that......which of course I will.

Tracklist:

1-1 It's All There 6:45
1-2 Love Relation 1:44
1-3 Gone On Me 3:04
1-4 Turn The Key 1:42
1-5 Make Me 1:50
1-6 On The Highway 1:51
1-7 Another Block 4:51
1-8 I Asked 2:38
1-9 Last Friends 4:03
1-10 This Other Me 2:09
1-11 The Minutes 2:58
1-12 The Moonbeam 3:38
1-13 I Talk To My Self 4:27
1-14 The Words 2:39
2-1 Splashing In The Streets 11:42
2-2 Drew On The Meadows 20:06

Saturday, 17 February 2024

Darkthrone – "Land Of Frost" (Self-Released) 1988


 

Whereas someone like,...say...Jandek,has a vision of life as a grim pointless reality; our Norwegian buddies in all those Death/Black metal groups,live in a fantasyworld almost as life unaffirming and silly as a Christian UFO Death Cult....but with better music. Especially when its as lo-fi as this jolly jaunt into the permafrost of the arctic Tundra of  Metal.
They think they're frightening us but their ,frankly, daft, game of thrones world is nowhere near as Horrific as the life as portrayed in any Jandek recording.
That Scot Walker album with Sunn(((o is probably the way to go for these growly long-hairs. A Jandek Death Metal collaboration would go a long way to lessen the silliness somewhat.
Not unlike that Metal collaboration album with Mark.E Smith (Mutation?), who continued to frighten the crap out of a bunch of very muscular Metalheads for the duration of his appearance.
Nevertheless, I do like a bit of Ferric-oxide cassette based Black Metal,with the production values of Danny and the Dressmakers.
I could listen to that all day as long as they don't do that growly barking thing they have a tendency to stoop to from time to time. Keep the vocals deep in the background please boys,and no suicides or murders please....not big, not clever.

Tracklist:

A1 Land Of Frost 3:57
A2 Winds Of Triton 1:53
A3 Forest Of Darkness 4:32
A4 Odyssey Of Freedom 3:26
A5 Day Of The Dead 5:23


Friday, 16 February 2024

Jandek – "Nashville Friday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0863) 2023


Another Live Jandek from the homeland of American music recorded in 2009 (again). Enough to make the Grand Ole Opry spontaneously combust.....so no bad thing.
On this outing we find one of spontaneous music's legends in Ladonna...er... Smith.....no relation I guess? Ladonna who played on all those batshit crazy Davey Williams records. And still scraps the viola in a complementarily warped fashion...as in both warped like a record,and warped like a mind.
One would love to see Jandek do a surprise appearance at the Grand Ole Opry one day,eh kids?
Here,we are treated to a singing Jandek avoiding tunes like obstacles in an obstacle race,skimming the jagged surface of every obstacle the sonic backing can conjure up.
Disc one seems to have a Horse theme running ,or should i say, cantering, asunder the rancid chunks of  dueling banjo's that accompany Jandek's dream of becoming a wild Mustang for the 8 long minutes this equine nightmare trots unsteadily along.
And we all like a nice Horse Theme don't we boys'n'girls?
And Yes, Sterling whips out the Fretless bass to further compound those heinous acts of violence against taste that occurred in the 1980's;but, Kajagoogoo this is most certainly NOT!

Tracklist:

1-1 Now That I Want You 10:37
1-2 Shadow Of The Horse 11:12
1-3 Tennessee Flower 9:20
1-4 The Mustang 8:04
1-5 Castigated To Be Free 11:02
2-1 Don't Be Seen 10:25
2-2 This Isolated Moment 7:08
2-3 It Don't Matter 9:17
2-4 Linden Row 7:21
2-5 When I Got You 15:30

Monday, 12 February 2024

Jandek – "Vision Of Jewels" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0864) 2023


While we is on the subject of Japan, I realised there is someone else who begins with 'J' that's been overlooked recently,and certainly never drives on the correct side of the road musically speaking.
Jandek innit?
He's got a new studio album out which sounds like a lot of his post - 2010 live output.but without the sparse applause. 
Its improvised,no vocals, no credits, no info,so i can't verify if it actually was recorded within the last 15 years. So no proof of the carrot topped bard's continued existence on this planet.
I presume that the cover art is a photograph of the Representative's home planet,whizzing around in one of the outer spiral arms of the Milky Way;.....either that, or Sterling R. Smith has just discovered image editing software?......Nah! That's Planet Jandek.
Its as good as anything The Scratch Orchestra did at least.Would have liked to have been around for that Derek Bailey Jandek collaboration that was never discussed.I suppose i could do a fantasy audio montage of this fictional event one day?
When i first encountered a Jandek record I thought it was Funny,but upon listening to subsequent releases I realised that he wasn't fucking Joking!? I thought it was just shite Self-released by a nutter with too much spare cash? Where he got that from I dunno,as i thought he used to work in a Machine Shop somewhere in Houston?
Nowadays I think its less Shite,and especially this stuff,which could pass for Free Improvisation in any number of pretentious enclaves dotted around the metropolitan Chumbawumba beer kellers of planet Jandek.

Tracklist:

1 White Quartz 16:16
2 Color Streaks 15:19
3 Star Specks 12:45
4 Viewing The Realm 23:59


Sunday, 8 October 2023

Jandek – "Brooklyn Sunday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0859) 2023


Heeeeeeres Jonny!....on a crusade for truth justice and the unamerican way.....and a quest to make unpopularity popular again.
All that, played out to a soundtrack of atonal improvisation by the unpopularly popular JANDEK.....he knows she didn't do it,come and SIGN THE PETITION,before you read the facts,and wallow in the acidic bath of becoming ripe Troll bait.Satisfied in knowing you done good,perched on the right side of History.

There seems to be an actual theme to this recording,again from 2009,but featuring outsider Pedal Steel Guitar, Susan Alcorn.
It seems to be about a miscarriage of justice leading to execution,and eternal punishment.
Jandeks Harmonica and Alcorn's Steel Guitar seems to suggest the regular abuse of justice carried out in the old Wild West.
Of course this doesn't happen today does it?With all that technology ,foolproof scientific tests,and statistics? Nah!
That said I've got a bee in my bonnet about something......

Wasn't there a Nurse from the wild north west of England who was convicted purely on the strength of flawed statistics, and easily contested circumstantial evidence that her state funded defense team hardly bothered to contest? The stats said she was there every-time a very ill premature baby died,statisticians have shown it more to be a case of fitting the statistics to the person rather than,a person to the stats....They died of what, they never really established,despite The Coroner having already ruled the deaths as natural causes. There wasn't even a proven crime committed.But, oh no,like some people still refuse to recognise that Elvis could have died from natural causes, it seems that there are plenty more would don't believe a sick baby could die without being murdered.
Of course I am referring to the Lucy Letby case,who, along with other such cases involving health workers,has been stitched up like a kipper and thrown under the bus to save the NHS's blushes.
I mean,J.H. Christ, where do you want me to start!? The apparent ease in which the Police can change a cause of death from natural causes to Murder is deeply troubling,coupled with a trial that didn't seem to feel the need to present the science that explained why these very ill babies died,the Plumber the joke of a defense team called,tried his best;but he explained that the ward was rife with the permanent presence of pathogens and virus's,leaving the infants exposed to killer conditions like Sepsis.....in fact Lucy even complained on 17 occasions about the conditions....strange behavior for a murderer me thinks.
Lucy did overtime,so she must have murdered them because she was in love with a handsome Doctor. Such was the blatant misogyny in all areas of this case that this was put forward as the only desperate excuse for a motive ever heard in a British Court!? Yeah, that's right, she murdered babies to gain admiring glances from this dashing blade from the senior Doctors department.

The case against Lucy Letby has often been referred to by those of us who have looked closely at the evidence as a 'witch hunt', a crime that particularly impacted women,
When "Expert for Hire" Dr Dewi Evans was questioned about Lucy's possible motives, he gives Lucy's status as a "single woman"(?) in her late twenties and alleged 'infatuation' with Dr A as a grounds for suspicion, this after he mentions earlier in the interview that he remained single into the beginning of his career as a consultant. He considers himself career focused while she is suspicious.
I'm not sure how useful this comment is in terms of appeal, especially because flagrant sexism seems to be ignored or taken as a normal worldview especially in older members of the population, but in Dr Evans case I can't help wondering if evidence pointed to an unmarried, 'career- focused' doctor, his finding might have been a bit better informed?

But the Public are angry...yes the Fucking Public again,are foaming at the mouth like rabid Baboons,baying for blood,and revenge, like a 17th century Wytch trial.If you drown you're innocent, if you don't we'll hang you.

Jandek would have been burnt as a witch if he was around Salem back then.....maybe today he would just get away with a sound beating from a drunken Mob of Morons, or maybe not.Humans are dangerous.


Lucy Letby was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of her life in jail for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder six others. She is facing retrial for one further attempted murder charge. On five other counts of attempted murder the jury could not reach a consensus. She has consistently maintained her innocence and some close friends and colleagues have supported her. No motives for the killings were ever put forward,except that she wanted to impress a Doctor she fancied. She was convicted almost entirely on circumstantial evidence from "expert" witnesses, who were often testifying on subjects outside their expertise. In particular, medical doctors were testifying about areas of medicine for which they were not specialists, or presenting their conclusions as "scientific", without applying correct scientific methods. As a result the evidence on which she was convicted was flawed and partial, and other likely explanations for the deaths, such as hospital infections, were not presented to the jury as part of the expert evidence. Flawed evidence was allowed to pass unchallenged in the court, or accepted as "uncontested fact" by the defense, who appear to have been out of their depth with the medical complexity of the case. Incredibly, given the nature of the evidence against her, no expert witnesses were called to testify on Lucy's behalf. This is a summary of some of the worst errors, identified by experts in their fields who able to be part of the proceedings. There are links to more detailed information available on the Science on Trial website. All this evidence was presented to the defense team during the trial, but,inexplicably, none of it was used or put before the jury?!


Lucy Letby was found guilty of killing six babies by injecting them with air. Again this was not from evidence gathered at the time. The post mortems recorded natural causes of death. Instead the prosecution relied on expert evidence from a retired pediatrician Dr Evans) through an investigation carried out several years later. The correct procedure for establishing death through air embolism should be a particular postmortem technique. But this was not done. The next best would have been a CT scan. But again this was never done. Instead the cause of death was inferred from X-rays taken before the babies died along with analysis taken from a study carried out in 1989 during the early days of ventilating preterm babies. The study used is entirely inapplicable as it examined babies with lungs damaged from high pressure oxygen, which is very different from injecting air. The expert witness in the case was not a pathologist or forensic scientist, and did not follow the correct methods for determining the cause of death, which could only have been done to any degree of certainty, through a comprehensive post mortem.


There were two babies Lucy was convicted of attempting to murder by injecting insulin. These cases were presented as "the smoking gun" which showed there was a spate of murders in the unit, rather than the more logical explanation of an uncontrolled series of infections. In the notes of these two babies investigators found (a couple of years after the event) entries of very high levels of insulin and very low levels of C-Peptide. An expert witness from the lab where the tests were done at Liverpool University NHS trust, said this pattern could only come about through injecting insulin. To the jury this was presented as proof of insulin poisoning - while Lucy Letby was the one on duty.  However the lab that did the tests specifically says in its online information that the lab test used was not designed to determine cases of insulin over-dose, and that if exogenous insulin were suspected then a different test at a different lab would be necessary. Lab experts say the type of assay tests carried out by the lab are prone to error and that the extremely high figures in the notes, which was many times the level required to send an adult into a coma, was much more likely a false result. While the result is recorded in the notes, no further tests were ordered, nor was a more accurate test by photo spectrometry carried out. Instead two hours later one of the babies (both of which survived) recorded normal glucose levels, strongly suggesting the insulin test recorded was indeed a false result. Unfortunately Lucy's defence, who seem to have been out of their depth, made an agreement early on with the prosecution where they conceded that insulin poisoning through injection of insulin into fluid bags was "established fact", based testimony of one professional expert witness:Dr Dewi Evans.


These and many other aspects of the case are covered in a more comprehensive critique of the evidence which you can read at your leisure HERE!. It was put together during the trial and sent to the defence lawyers who said they read it, but then failed to follow up or use it?????


Then we have to mention the "I AM EVIL" post-it note.On which the prosecution seemed blind to anything else except the "I AM EVIL I DID THIS" line at the end,taking it totally out of grammatical context.

The "They" she refers to is obviously The Police and her accusers.

"THEY went I DID THIS,I Killed Them on purpose because I'm not good enough to care for them,I am Evil I did This."

She is writing about her finger pointing accusers.A simple case of self-flagellation, Absolutely nowhere near a Confession.

The note is dissected expertly HERE!  




Much was made of the fact that Lucy Letby was the only one present during the deaths or sudden collapses of all 19 babies in the case against her. This was presented as too much to be co-incidence. However it also very misleading. She was not only present at all the deaths and collapses presented in the case. There were many other deaths in the unit where she was not present, and the unit suffered a higher than normal death rate over a five year period. There was no statistical analysis as to whether the proportion of deaths she was present at could have been  the result of chance or not. Neither was there a statistical comparison with other spikes in deaths in other NHS units, known to have other causes than a series of deliberate murders, to see if what happened in Chester was comparable.  It is this omission to investigate other possible causes which is most worrying.  This increase in deaths over the five years followed a similar pattern of sudden collapses, whether Lucy Letby was present or not. The most likely culprit for any spike in unexpected deaths in a hospital is an outbreak of infection. Yet this was not investigated. Nor was there any evidence from an epidemiologist or infectious diseases expert during the trial, to rule out this possibility. Yet all the babies in the case had "suspected sepsis" written in the notes. Some had confirmed viral and bacterial infections. All but one were preterm. They covered a wide range from the smallest three babies who were less than 28 weeks and below a kilo, to others who were more mildly premature. There were several multiple births. As such they were a group who were extremely vulnerable to infection. In addition most of the babies in the case were on ventilation. Everything suggests that these were a very sick cohort of babies. The high mortality in the unit led to outside investigations, one of them by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) which was critical of the senior leadership of the unit. 

Exactly the same thing happened to another Lucy in the Netherlands, Lucia de Berk, at the appeal trial of which Statistical expert Richard Gil, exposed the glaring inaccuracies, leading to a total exoneration of Ms de Berk.......Check the de Berk case out HERE!

And Richard Gil on the  Lucy Letby case HERE!

These and many other aspects of the case are covered in a more comprehensive critique of the evidence which you can read at your leisure HERE!. It was put together during the trial and sent to the defence lawyers who said they read it, but then failed to follow up or use it?????

Oh Yeah....if you've made it this far(?)...The Jandek record is great,and relevant only in the fact that he is an Outsider,as is anyone who supports justice in Lucy Letby's case.Which just might be the greatest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
BASTARDS!


Tracklisting:.

1-1 Sacramento 16:39
1-2 The Trial 9:48
1-3 The Sentence 3:47 
1-4 The Chamber 11:01 
2-1 Deep Thought 10:22
2-2 Resurrection 14:06
2-3 Eternity 18:52

and

Friday, 6 October 2023

Jandek – "Vienna Wednesday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0862) 2023


As Hitler roamed the streets of pre-war Vienna searching for his raison d'etre,destiny would dictate that a professional nobody called Sterling Richard Smith would plough a similar furrow so often gouged by the talentless. 
Adolf Schiklegruber would go on to adopt a single word as his nom de plume, just as Richard Smith would do a hundred years later, as a tradename for the clueless artwork they offered a disbelieving world.The Hitler one, was not gifted in the art department,even though he could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon.....TWO COATS! I think he sold even less paintings than Van Gogh....meaning ZERO.
But....Hitler committed the cardinal sin of the arts,...he gave up!? Then took out his frustrations as a narcissist down on his luck out on humanity......and we let him do it!
One thing Jandek certainly did NOT do, is give up. His art is...let's face it, total kaka, unless viewed in the whole, as a Gilbert and George style living concept. He is the Art,whereas Hitler was too stupid to realise this concept within himself.
How conscious The Corwood Representative is of this is debatable,but it can all be an acquired taste that becomes almost.....I said 'Almost'.....an addiction.He IS the Gilbert and George of Outsider Music.
And here he is,one hundred years on from the Bier Keller Putsch, almost to the day, and The Ginger Bard of Outsider-dom Jams with the Viennese locals,putting together another two CD's worth of tuneless noise,augmented by Jandek's painful moan. Again recorded in 2009,along with nearly 100% of his most recent output,fueling more rumours of his secret demise. He's dead, and whoever he entrusted his estate to has a dumpster full of Jandekian free Improvisation  ready to release on the public,stretching into the next century.
The question is often asked as to would the Holocaust have happened if Hitler had been accepted as an Artist?.....well knowing quite a few artists,the answer is a deeply harrowing 'Yes'. Of course it would,this planet is covered with Human's,and they can't help but do stuff like this, Artist or Not?
Another Question has to be asked concerning the Ginger One,as to whether he would have become a mass shooter if idiots like us didn't read too much into his music,which he undoubtedly would have. So,in conclusion, nerds like us save lives.Start by telling your kids that their awful paintings are works of genius,and you may just have saved the lives of dozens of college students. Or better still make them get a job, or don't live in the USA........No Guns, no shootings.....a slogan of pure logic that yer average American Republican is totally blind to!?


Tracklist:

1-1 Sidewalk 11:44
1-2 I Go To You 12:43
1-3 Cloud 8:46
1-4 Intensity Of Love 12:52

2-1 Galaxy 8:34
2-2 I Never Dreamed 12:16
2-3 Everywhere 7:22
2-4 Still With You 15:55


Wednesday, 5 April 2023

Jandek – "Manhattan Thursday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0855) 2022


Another recording from 2009? Sterling and downtown scratch band sound like no-one knows how to play any instrument, and they're playing four different tunes at the same time but in different time signatures......That's Jandek in Manhattan,a place where nobody is allowed to say that Jandek is Shit. It's a challenge for the Downtown NYC muso's to improvise with someone who has not the slightest clue or interest in conventional tunings,musical notes, or technique.The downtown elite would give their eye-teeth to be this close to the year zero of music without their muse,the Corwood representative.
There are some awful moments when the Saxophonist begins to sound like a Blue Note session player from 1959,but thankfully this is brief. If you wanna listen to some self-identifying sophisticate's standard Jazz boredom, then go and worship the Bird in your own privacy.
We do get treated to more of Jandek's improv sixth form poetry,which makes up for the crowd pleasing moody be-bop somewhat.....I can almost see audience members nodding their heads,eyes closed digging the poetry like a beatnik coming out of a vegetative state. Coooool.
It also appears that Jandek don't do encores, even to persistent trendies applauding post-ironically to tempt the ghostly face of the representative back into the limelight.Even the sarcastic screams of a very misguided lower Manhattan hipsterette could not,and correctly Not, move the Rep to cede to the audience's fake demands.....coooooler.
 
Tracklist:

1-1 Taken Out The Numbers 11:01
1-2 Where I Find You 14:47
1-3 Crossroads Of Life 15:11
1-4 Your Little Sister 12:11
2-1 What Really Matters 9:36
2-2 Outside The Way 12:08
2-3 Mystic In The Nothingness 24:10

Monday, 3 April 2023

Jandek – "Tilburg Saturday" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0860) 2022


Oh Shit! Jandek on piano warning!!!!!
As recorded in a Dutch recording Studio,with audience of eager applaudees, in Holland, the Netherlands,in somewhere called Tilburg,which, obviously ,is in the Netherlands.
He may not pass for an Irishman(he does),but if someone told me he was Dutch I'd say absolutely Dutch,... deeply Dutch.
Thankfully, its not just solo Piano tinkling, the man does his lo-fi improv poetry atop the bloody awful piano shit. Not kidding, but i reckon he should stick to the poetry a lot more.That stuff can empty any room of any normals, and leave only the kind of people we can get along with, pretentious art posers excepted....bastards!
This is also recorded in 2009,the most prolific year in Jandeks entire recorded life. So,did he die in 2009? It looks like it!?....are there any pictures of The Representative walking barefoot anywhere? Is he actually Paul McCartney? Probably not...its the voice, and probably the total lack of melody in his entire canon.
Yeah, he's dead alright, but don't think that's the end of jandek. There's a massive vault of jandek improv's that will take us clear into the next century. This guy is immortal.

Tracklist:

1 The Evening Starts 10:32
2 Like A Dot 6:05
3 Altar Of Chance 7:12
4 Flying Past Mountains 6:43
5 Outside Of Me 6:10
6 Dance The Trance 7:07
7 Reluctant Aversion 7:03
8 Shadows Of The Stars 11:29


Sunday, 2 April 2023

Jandek – "Northern Ireland July" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0857) 2023


More recordings from 2009?...was that the year he died?.....don't worry Jandek Saddoes,I'm only speculating. I'm sure he's real......and by all accounts rather good at this spontaneous music malarky.
Northern Ireland is too important a hotspot to only get individual concerts released on corwood.This is a whole Tour in a box!?
This ain't Outsider music, but it is made by an outsider,that being the  ginger post-reclusive Richard Smith.
He does indeed look like a member of the Real IRA, but is too pale to be in the continuity IRA, and too Ginger for the INLA. Most of these IRA splinter groups consisted of no more than minus one to one nationalist idiot as a rule, rather like all the so-called 'Groups' on Bandcamp. Its like the USA labelling the UnaBomber a terrorist group.
Maybe Bandcamp should be labelled a terrorist group too?
But,Nothing gets on British peoples Tits more than some senile American getting involved in things they don't,can't,won't understand....like Joe 'I'm Irish Me' Biden. 
Hopefully Jandek's lack of interest in this crass stupidity will help cancel out Irish Americans once and for all.
Good stuff this maybe,but the drummer sounds like he was recruited from an Orange Order marching band......yeah,its gonna happen.....on Drugs....Hahahahahaha.
I'm so funny.
Americans can't really get involved,mainly because most of them think Northern Ireland is somewhere in the Bronx,and native Americans are restricted to outdoor concentration camps called Reservations for their own good.Then they start slagging off China for doing what they were doing.
Its seems wrong to label Jandek an American,but there is no other place on the planet that he could have possibly come from.

Tracklist:

1. Larne Sunday 1:15:50
2. Bangor Monday 1:07:09
3. Belfast Tuesday (Afternoon) 23:13
4. Belfast Tuesday (Evening) 1:15:48
5. Londonderry Wednesday 1:13:55

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Jandek – "The Wizards Hour" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0858) 2023


Is it me or is Jandek's output lessening? Only two albums in the first three months of the year so far....so I guess the answer is an emphatic NO! However, most of his recent releases seem to be recorded in  2009...a seemingly very prolific year for the Bard of Corwood.....I wonder if Corwood (Jandek) ever thought about issuing someone other than The Representative himself. If they(he) did,how would we know it wasn't Jandek pretending to be a group or something similar? He has form in that area......The Units,as credited on the debut Jandek,before it was credited to Sterling's alter-ego, after he got threatened by the similarly monikered synth-punk bands the Units.He changed names pronto as soon as legal action was mentioned....lightweight!
The Wizards Hour,dunno if he was refering to himself,benefits from being a recording made for WNYU 89.1 FM and having a strict time limit,so no 6 cd's worth of stuff here.......thank fuck.
A shimmering but scraping yet juddering note-less meander through the ox-bow lakes of The Bardo Pond outtakes bin.
The Rep and uncredited chums make ,what normal people would call a Psych-Drone journey into Outsider Space. That's all well and good,but with tunes like this our favourite Outsider is rapidly becoming an Insider. If you took away his entire pre-2000 lexicon of Outsider-dom,he would be now be filed alongside The aforementioned Bardo Pond, Loop, SkullFlower, and Ascension.Largely due to his unnamed guests I would suggest.It was about the time they appeared that things started to go downhill Outsider-wise. Musically, No-longer an Outside,but maybe, personality-wise,he still retains that threat to Bigots and Fools everywhere...in other worlds not us!?.Sometimes the Emperor needs to look into the mirror,and realise he's wearing new clothes that are no longer invisible. I blame the Internet and that cunt who wrote that book ....you know, the one that inexplicably puts Syd Barratt and Don Van Vliet in the same category as.....coff...Jandek?.......maybe he's right about Syd, but Don?...an Outsider he most certainly was NOT!

Tracklist:

1. The Wizard Awakens 20:44
2. The Wizards' Afternoon 24:51
3. The Wizards' Dream 16:34


Wednesday, 15 March 2023

Robert Ridley-Shackleton – "Shut Up Egg" (Self-Released C-30) 2011

The absurdist prince of cardboard funk has less lovely Eggs to poach here which makes The Lovely Eggs themselves sound like Pat Methany in comparison.
Zero-fi and child-like,you will be forgiven in thinking that this was a clandestine recording made at the music therapy day-center for Kidults with learning difficulties.
Is this Outsider Art? Or a neo-Dadaist approach to sound collage,inspired by  Huge-o Balls.
No prizes for guessing that RRS is yet another demented Bristolian trying to eliminate the shame of being in the home town of Massive Attack. Maybe these extremely dull Trip Hoppers are represented by the Egg,as we ALL would like them to shut up,.....permanent like!
Presenting an image not unlike a member of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers gone even more wrong, with a degenerative wasting disease. RRS is the latest in a long line of completely mental musical eccentrics that Britain seems to effortlessly produce with considerable ease.
He either can't get a Girlfriend, or he has a Girlfriend...either way,he's Fucked, or not fucked?! Trapped in vicious circular mental torture specific to heterosexual males that lead to a special kind of beta-male torture like this. Make a cassette called Shut Up Egg or just...well....Give Up.Not something British Legend,and RRS namesake, Earnest Shackleton ever considered during his incredible escape from certain death in the antarctic,almost single handedly saving his crew from a slow death on Elephant Island in the south Atlantic.....maybe RRS is a distant relative,which would explain why he behaves as if he is still stranded on a small rocky outcrop in the antarctic hinterland,surviving on a diet of Penguins and piss.
 
RRS...Not an outsider? and definitely NOT in the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?

With a production rate that puts Jandek in the shade, you can part with some of your hard earned spondulicks at his Bandcamp site for dozens of one take madnesses spread over several formats for around three english pounds a go. A cheaper way of spending time that you will never get back I would be struggling to imagine.

Tracklist:

A1 Shut Up Egg
A2 Coconut Bird Crazy
A3 Flabjack
B1 Silly Little Poochie
B2 Poor Old Humpty

Monday, 27 February 2023

St. Christopher – "Bacharach" (Sarah Records – SARAH 403) 1990


I've made this joke before, but i like a good ten incher in my hands,so here's another Sarah Mini album which fulfills the current Twee Dreampop remit,yet also manages to pay Tribute to the recently departed genius of one Mr Burt Bacharach. 'Genius' is a word I try and avoid, but i'm afraid there is no other adjective than can describe Burt's lengthy back catalogue of sheer blinding brilliance-ness. Not many achieve genius status,and i'd be challenging myself to name but a few....i'll take a chance.....Dylan(?).....they must always be referred to by family name only....so for Dylan that must be Zimmerman.....or was that Hitlers real name????.....ah...Shciklegruber wasn't it. That's a jolly fine name for a band of gay twee pop playing skin'eads innit?
Ok, reluctantly, I'm adding McCartney to the list,despite the last 40 dreadful years of his work, he did enough by 1971 to warrant a mention. Ray Davies???.....nah...not good enough, and no-one uses just his surname in reference to the great man,so is automatically rejected to the second tier. Maybe Mozart?....sorry, only limited to 20th century and onward genius's (Collective noun alert!)......he used too many notes anyway.
Not particularly a 'fan' of any of these nominations, but one has to be objective doesn't one?
And NO, Jandek is NOT a Genius!

I've used the rear of this Mini-Album by yee olde York in yorkshire based twee pop combo St. Christopher, because the cover is too garish and offensive to the eye to feature here...the rear is acceptable,so I'll use that.
This jangly bunch of earnest young men get the Digital reverb setting stuck on Large Hall,close to saturation levels as the singer croons in a Pete Wylie-esque fashion,fighting for space with the drums,while the sparkly guitars cut through the fog to restore some focus for us cloth eared bastards at the other end of the XLR cables.
They also use the obligatory reference to the Autumn and Winter winter months that Sarah bands seem obsessed with.
Awww they sad.

TrackList:

A1 A Prayer For The Sea 1:56
A2 The Thrill Of The New 3:14
A3 And I Wonder 2:42
A4 Almost December 2:46
B1 She Can Wait Forever 3:41
B2 Who's Next On Cupid's Hit-List ? 2:34
B3 The Love Of A Sister 2:44
B4 Gabriel 3:01


Wednesday, 25 January 2023

Edward Barton – "Here Is My Spoon" (Wooden Records – WOOD 10) 1990


 

Edward Barton looks and sounds like an artist,he may even be an Actor,for he once resembled a Drama student,or a member of Furniture (UK arty one hit wonders)...but we'll settle for 'poet'!?
Young Edward, first came to our attention attacking his acoustic guitar while writhing on the floor and screaming about his Mini on the exceedingly awful and sickeningly Hip early evening pop magazine programe ,"The Tube".The vile creature that spawned Jools Holland in his mission to make music as bland and pointless as yer Aunties cakes.A raison d'etre that this boogie woogie terrorist embraced with all the efficiency of a death camp Kommandant and the spiteful enthusiasm of his uncaged wife.
Inexplicably,YouTube has no footage of Barton's first appearance, but luckily there is a performance of his debut single,"I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs".
Edward embraced this fifteen minutes of fame eagerly,and made it last about twelve minutes before spending the next thirty years in artsy obscurity.
His other three minutes of fame belong to the unaccompanied vocal Hit single Edward penned,With girlfriend, Jane, "It's a Fine Day", which was one of those rare 'Good' singles that hit the top ten in several countries.Other versions exist,including one by bloody Orbital!?
His songs,"It's a Fine day" excepted, have all the requisites that make Jandek's works so provocative,except I rather suspect that our Edward has the sense of Humour that The Corwood representative so patently lacks....which of course, makes it Funny.
Eddie's songs are funny too,but he actually intends this....so,he is an Artist after all, yes?
Alas, as a lifelong Mini owner,I thoroughly approve of Edward Barton. 

Tracklist:

1 Listen To Edward
2 Knob Gob
3 Sorry Dog
4 What Shall We Do Today?
5 Everyday I Try To Find The Man Who Killed My Brother
6 Barber Barber
7 Violence
8 In Dreams I Drive
9 King Of A Flat Country
10 Dear Dad
11 I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs
12 Shover
13 Thin And Pale
14 I've Got No Chicken But I've Got Five Wooden Chairs
15 I Am A Mother
16 Two Cows
17 Me and my Mini (Bonus Track)

Wednesday, 11 January 2023

Jandek – "Diverseworks" (Corwood Industries – CORWOOD 0856) 2022


After a lengthy series of stuff about recently deceased musicians,I will risk my life by returning,briefly, to the possibly Dead Jandek,with another pseudo-classical improvisation from the seemingly infinite vaults of old recordings.Rarely do we hear anything from contemporary Jandek. I suspect there's enough in storage for Richard Representative to achieve musical imortality.We will all be long dead by the time the Rep and his helpers exhaust the well.....that is, unless he has expired and they are doing this already.
Here we have Outsider music turned inside out.This is as far as one can get from that creepy guy in his mum's cellar banging out deranged versions of the human condition on an old piano.
Jandek,once a ginger mist with an out of tune guitar that drifted around various suburban parts of Houston,howling like a slow wind across freshly laid barbed wire;alas he is now a trilby wearing version of Nosferatu,hanging around the toilets in the music department en campus somewhere in the Texas system for further education.
His purpose?...Recruiting insider studentia to help him make this very seriously experimental music.Rather like how Madonna and Bowie used to 'look for ideas'by stealing them off starstruck upwardly mobile producers and musicians.
I doubt any student of modern composition would be Starstruck by the appearance of Jandek in their campus toilets,more likely they would run away,unless they knew better.
The ones who did know better,saw this as an opportunity to get on an avant garde record with a guy would would pay for everything.
Jandek does virtually nothing on this record,except for twanging his detuned bass somewhat furtively .Leaving the recruits to make it sound like one of those spontaneous improvisation records he spotted in the 'Other' section of his local record store,thinking, 'Hey, I can do that'!...or rather, 'i can get someone else to do that and i'll credit myself' on the traditionally credit-less Corwood jewel case artwork.
It has now got to the point where Sterling the Corwood representative is no-longer listed as an Outsider Musician on Discogs, but has joined the much despised ranks of the "Free Improvisers".
So now any collective gathering of Avant Garde improvisers can be heard to scream:
"Lookout! It's Jandek...and he's looking for musicians!"
Whatever the collective noun for a gathering of Free Improvisers is....maybe a 'Scrape' of Improvisers perhaps?

Tracklist:

 Rehearsal:

1-1 Part One 16:01

1-2 Part Two 28:28 

Concert:

2-1 Part One1 9:05

2-2 Part Two2 6:22

2-3 Part Three 16:03

DOWNLOAD this diverse insider crossover moment HERE!

Thursday, 5 January 2023

Lemon Kittens - "Live 1980/81) (a Die Or DIY? product) 1980/81


A prolonged absence may have been noted by your faithful scribe,but i have been an unwilling victim of a Co-Vid variant!Despite having been vaccinated thrice, It fucked me over.and I was visited by the ghost of Christmas Future during my virus ravaged stupor.I was even planning how to keep the blog running after my imminent death!?
I's Still a bit fucked up,but managed to think of something to write about.....The Lemon Kittens of course?...i really don't know what i have been doing in the preceding weeks,but i'm already forgetting that terrifying dying feeling.Shit man, i was panicking about my estate rather more than yer actual fear of death. Soooooooo......!?

In the lengthening history of 'Out There' during the Rock'n'Roll era, there has been, actually, a gaping dearth  of genuinely fucking weird groups this side of the grand canyon of 'Out'. You've either got it or you ain't,and 99% of 'Weird' just ain't is it? There's trying (embarrassingly Hard) to be weird,Volcano The Bear (one lp on that NWW bloke's label!?) spring to mind, and there's just plain old. Weird. 
Early Residents were effortlessly weird until they discovered computers. Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica is the epitome of Weird ,but he couldn't repeat it!....nah....'Decals' is 'trying' not 'being',like all his post bat chain puller stuff, pretentious, like his shite Art works;but hey we all need to make a living don't we? We also have 'Ill' weird, like Jandek, Daniel Johnston,and anything Outsider. You have to be Normal (conforming to general standards of 'Normal) to qualify as achieving 'Weird' status...like Moondog?
There are plenty of early industrial acts who sound weird,but are far toooo normal to fool me....like the bloke from Nurse With Wound*...but his public schooled mate David Tibet knew he was far too fucking normal, and spent his career languishing in,slash exploiting,the truly weird,and wonderful ocean of Dark Folk...now that certainly IS weird shit brother,but we is talking the world of 'pop' here,and Lemon Kittens qualify as being within the 'pop' format, like Don Van Vliet before them, even though they were regularly featured on 'Industrial' compilations.
"We Buy A hammer For Daddy" (also on that NWW bloke label!?) is easily the equal of "Trout Mask Replica" on the pantheon of Weird,with a better follow up to boot.
I won't bust a blood vessel listing albums I reckon are effortlessly weird,but that list would be a slim volume indeed,dangerously treading on pamphlet territory.
Yup, The Lemon Kittens were effortlessly so.
So,in the light of a lack of new material,here's a quickly cobbled together volume of very rare recordings of Dax and Blake supporting This Heat at the ICA....the bootlegger obviously arrived late and missed most of the Lemon Kittens set...twat....and another one supporting ...erm...Modern English!?...dunno what their fans thought of of it all?
That first Modern English LP was rather good I remember?....certainly Not weird,but classic British pop music;just like Lemon Kittens were classic British Weird.
It's a fascinating subject is Weird innit?
Asking what is the Weirdest Album of all time is akin to asking what is the worst album of all time. Mostly, the same record tops both charts, and maybe even tops the Best Album Charts too.....this has happened to "Trout Mask Replica".Alas "We Buy A Hammer" is far too obscure to feature in any chart,even the Obscure Chart....and dare I say, far too Weird?

*once upon a time, That Nurse With Wound bloke,was selling his first LP to the record shops in Camden,when he approached the infamous Ted Carroll of 'Rock On'.Ted asked what kind of music it was.
"Sort of 'Weird'said MWW bloke.
"Nah!" said Ted, that ain't weird....This is WEIRD!"..and proceeded to play The Human League's, "Being Boiled",newly released on Fast Product.
Y'know what I agree with Ted.

Tracklist: 

1.Intro (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
2.Up In Arms (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
3.Popsykle (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
4.Morbotalk (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
5.Small Mercies (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
6.Bookburner (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
7.Funky 7 (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
8.(unknown) (end cut) (The Venue, London 08/09/1981)
9.Afraid Of Being Bled By Leeches (ICA London 27-12-1980)
10. PVS (ICA London 27-12-1980)
11. This Kind Of Dying (ICA London 27-12-1980)

Saturday, 15 October 2022

Gaya – "Azerbaijan Vocal And Instrumental Ensemble" (Меlodia – 33 С60-06819-20)1976


Ukrainians, bless 'em, as much as they tried, did not have, what is commonly known as, 'The Funk', After witnessing centuries of, either,being targeted, witnessing,or gleefully taking part in, brutal atrocities on the Eurasian plate,their DNA is far too abstract and fucked up to embrace the joys of  dancing (unless its some lumpen folk dance). This explains why they and their Slavic cousins seem to have an overriding darkness as part of their shadowy aura's. 
I was once offered the chance to have my Aura painted by some new-age lady of questionable talents,but she gave up as i was, quote, 'Too Sceptical'.....er...yes?
These silly drawings normally comprise of splashes of abundantly happy colours,and basically everything's gonna be great. I imagine if she drew the aura of a Ukrainian,or a Russian, or anything serbo-croat for that matter,it would display a preponderance of monochrome drawn from the greyscale rainbow .
Now Azerbaijan doesn't have this genepool problem as, tectonically, it straddles the Asian and Eurasian plates. Although,they are mostly Turkish in origin,and therefore responsible for some very dodgy Genocides themselves,Armenians mainly...but at least they could dance eh?.
Yes they really are called Gaya!....a group name that could get you into serious trouble in modern Russia.
Any citizen found indulging in the undoubted delights of brown love,or doing carpet, would quickly be rewarded with one free flying lesson, without a plane, off the nearest tall building.
Gaya certainly had 'The Funk' ,but sprinkled with liberal quantities of grated cheese.....as the blatant lie "I'm Happy" seems to testify to,both in reality denial and funky naffness.
Another fun(?) song title for me is track 10,"I'll Find You",which is the catchphrase of the idiotic (David Ames) who wants to kill me for copyright infringements(?) on my copious Jandek posts in his self-appointed authority as The Corwood Rep's de facto minder.
FYI...i don't break copyright laws,all i do provide a link to the storage provider,(the massive Google)who is in fact the potentially culpable party,this has in fact been long established,and test cased during the Megaupload appeal.
However,copyright was not something that troubled any artist from the former USSR days,as they never got paid anyway,any profits were donated to the state,via the back pockets of of the local commissariat .But,alas,Yet another good source of breaks for your drum'n'bass project that no-one wants to hear. A crime that I have been responsible for in the not too distant past.
All we need now is a Moldavian Funk ensemble to add a cherry to a very unlikely cake.......you guessed it...it's up next!? 

Tracklist:

1 Doesn't It Seem To You...
2 There's No Prettier Blossom
3 I'm Happy
4 Charming Girl
5 Aman Yar
6 Spring Song
7 Always With Me
8 Thrushes
9 Quickly, Quickly
10 I'll Find You
11 Mexico