Paris In The 20th Century

On a slight sci-fi kick right now and this little fellah came up on the steam-sonar...

Not read it yet but it's joining the list (Christopher Priest at the moment, as recommended by K-Punk) and it seems to be eerily prophetic... I'm guessing with all the University Humanities Depts closing and everything scurrying to be declared 'technology' or 'applied' less the cuts bite even deeper, this has to be rattling a few nerves...

Disneyland Paris will never be the same again.

Burial Hex/ Zola Jesus

Up to date, as ever.

Well, more or less what he said. Had this split album kicking around for a bit and didn't really give it a fair shot but it's actually pretty great, especially the Zola Jesus side; very creepy headphone music (ideal for marking student essays, as it happens). She even gets the title right (I worry about song titles in these genres) - Julius and Ethel has an easy-going horror about it, that works well in an understated don't-mention-the-chasm-of-demons kind of way. Implied horror. Unforced. Unless of course it's about Julius Caesar and Ethel Merman, in which case I'm utterly bereft.

I guess Plague Mass era Diamanda Galas might be somewhere near the mark sonically - though Zola Jesus is not such an eruption, it doesn't obliterate, which makes it much easier to listen to. I mean, how often do you play your Diamanda Galas records these days? I know you've got them somewhere. Under the bed, gathering T-cells.

This is my kind of wailing, as Barrymore might have said.

But no, it's not as creepy as that.

Throbbing Gristle Ltd

as a supplement to John's Uncarvings on the Throbbing Gristle Ltd. Astoria gig... here's some adverts you might remember... I can vividly remember staring at these and wondering... really wish I'd got off my arse and up to London... in them days it seemed so far away...




Images sourced from here

The only recording I can find is this one, a bootleg cassette... Anyone got it? I'd love to hear this baby...

And, while we're on the subject, is there a complete audio record of the 1989 Mean Fiddler gig? It went on for 3hrs or so, if I remember correctly (I probably don't, to be honest)

Test Dept

I never much liked* Test Dept but they did give good picture.






*I dunno: maybe too ordered, too propulsive, too militaristic, too lean, too controlled, too muscular... Or maybe I did like them. Actually, I loved Ecstacy Under Duress and Beating The Retreat and used to know pretty much all the words to Goddodin and was really annoyed when they got bottled off stage in Swansea and an early version of King Mong / Dada Ix Tab was pretty Test Dept orientated and....

Still preferred Neubauten though.

Dark Day

"The nudes were in the forest waiting for the big barge. Then came the siphon under the tree. There was a still life with an arm by the red statuette. And two women with a bird. One of them was Big Julie. The two girls took to their bicycles. They went to see the snowman. With Duck Alice and the Drum Kitten. Automatic Irene and Willy Nilly nearly caught the hook and ladder before the crow began to budge. They knew it wouldn't take the bait."

Dark Day - Nudes In The Forest

A Yousendit steaming

Willy Nilly is an underrated lyric in casio-driven steam-techno from the early 80s. As far as I can see, Dark Day is still out there somewhere, must check out what he's doing now. In another life, Soft Cell became isolate and insecure while Dark Day ravaged the charts and got this covered by Leona Lewis.

Amal Gamal Ensemble

There's a very limited CDR release from the Cyclobe/Coil/ Lemon Kittens related Amal Gamal Ensemble available at the Cyclobe website - I haven't got mine but I seem to remember Cloudboy saying nice things about their live incarnation at the Cube (he lives there, I think). They're also playing an excellent looking German avante garde festival alongside some Faustians and Damo Suzuki...

Goya: Yard With Lunatics

There's a scratch n sniff edition of Nietzche's Birth Of Tragedy, available in red or green, that comes with authentic Greek olfactions. Rub off the tiny smudges and breathe deeply and you're transported, like an eidetiker, right into the heart of it.

Collide - The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum

A Yousendit Hairbraner

Simple. Yet. Effective.

I like the idea that darkwave kept going on, when everyone else was turning away from it. It helps to remind me that The Wire, The Observer Music Magazine and the blogs are probably not still going to be there when you open your eyes.

Of course, I don't listen to this stuff anymore; that would be foolish but occasionally I like to dip my feet into the water to see how warm it is.