11 February 2005

Earthmonkey in Rome

Example


Just back from a wonderful trip to Italy - edited highlights: the Head of Archaeology and the Head of Geography's head/face injuries whilst in the midst of an ill-advised experiment into walking through glass; snow on Vesuvius over an iced Pompeii; not becoming the new Pope; the sun setting on Herculaneum as Coil's Are You Shivering? plays out on the i-pod; driving towards Sorrento to Orbital's One Perfect Sunrise... more importantly the students we took re-affirmed my faith in education: no self-motivated moaning, no failing limbs; just unbridled enthusiasm and joy and interest and discovery.

All the travelling also got me exploring songs deep in the i-pod bowels that I'd never really listened to. Previously, those 20GBs seemed an uneccessary extravagance; always pulled down the curtains of consumer guilt but now, with Shuffled Play soundtracking everything, the memory churned out some gems...

One of which was a song by Earthmonkey that I downloaded ages ago and never paid much attention to.

Listening to Varansi Swing as I wandered around Rome, the light photo-real, the dry cold crisping everything, it sounded like a lost Orb track, one taken from the times before they got sucked into Monty Python leanings and Lewis-Smith stupidity or perhaps a track that fell off the Stolen and Contaminated Songs cd - the cover of that album seems to tell you everything you need to know:
Example
cloudbursts, gently morphing sound swings and swirls, long sighs, reversed drums, rattling chains, weird metal circada clicks from PTVs Dreams Less Sweet but all done without the dire, isolationist perspectives common with 'ambience' after Eno Cluster KLF etc...

This music seems to be full of light - you can imagine it playing at the End of Days as The Rapture kicks in; music for Funeral Parties when everyone's glad to be dead.

Earthmonkey - Varansi Swing


I found out when I got home that Earthmonkey is Peat Bog of NWW fame, produced by Steven Stapleton. I'm buying whatever I find.

5 comments:

the X said...

...Does that cover pic bear a vague resemblance to the inner sleeve of Coil's "Love's Secret Domain"(pills&psychedelic burst), or is that just me??
...And is that the same Earthmonkey who has recorded for Beta-Lactam Ring recently?? ;)

I am not Kek-w said...

Undoubtably, it is... since NWW have recently (in part) decamped to Beta-Lactam, who are, in my humble opinion, a fine little label.

Loki said...

yes on both counts: Stolen and Contaminated Songs (in it's original mail order only form) used a variation on the LSD artwork... and Beta Lactam is a great, though inconsistent, label with a fine line in exclusive weirdness...

Psychbloke said...

Look, I'm sorry, but as a trendy-wendy MP3 blogger, are you supposed to start posts with: "Just got back from a wonderful trip to Italy"?

Isn't it supposed to be "just roaded back from Croydon" or something?

Anyway, glad you had a good trip - must be easier now you don't have to do a shift on Mike watch.

Sorry I didn't post anything in your absence - 'specially with a fine set of pics of Cheryl et al in Arena this month - didn't want to get Kek all agitated about that Colston Hall gig again.....

Loki said...

Psychbloke... obviously i only hung around the scummiest of areas... the whole trip was more of a grime(y) investigation into the lastest Italo-house / techstep crossovers comin' ouhta the Naples' burbs... plus a little bit of otter hunting, obviously...

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