Old Is New Is

I like the oldWave creepings from OneOhtrix, Dylan Ettinger, Raoul Rorschach etc. They've sometimes added steel, other times they've smoothed/gritted tracks. They've broken machines and fixed them. They've addled information and occasionally come up for air. All good. But this year I've used these bands more than I've bought them (some are on my Christmas list). Used them to relisten to their antecedents, in fact used them to find more of their antecedents...



The new kosmiche is as good as the old, in parts. The old was only good in parts too.



The spread of gatefold LPs is welcome too. Friendly. As of Summer 2010, I stopped buying CDs and only bought albums again (this was mostly to do with having a new house and new daybed looking out into the garden and new positioning for my record player, now dusted and looking brilliantly old, nee retro).



I've had a little less time for music but I've given it more time. I've listened a little more intently, let it press as many buttons as it could. There's maybe 10 albums and 12"s now which I can hear phrase for phrase, swirl for swirl. In MP3 shuffle era that seems like a lot.



And the old stuff, rediscovered and reformulated, really seems like it was predicting the future...



One thing though. From what I've heard this year, I don't think Eno did any of the Kosmiche guys any good.

Brazil are Germany are Us aren't Brazil

I imagine Mark will do this better over at Minus The Shooting (actually, I've just checked and he has; bugger that boy's quick - could use him in the England Back Four etc).

The Brazil are Germany are Us aren't Brazil.

Watching Brazil's typical, topical, bullying demolition of Chile was like watching the Germany of old, stirring the same feelings of admiration / apathetic loathing, though the commentators insisted throughout that each and every example of Brazil brutalism and efficiency (not a bad thing at all, really) was somehow an exception to the rule; that despite what we were seeing (i.e. an incredibly organised and tight and hard working unit) they were actually playing Samba style sexiness like they always have (or like they used to up until, say, 1982).

(cf; I know it looks like we're letting the bankers get their bonuses despite it all being they're fault but really it's for the good of everyone...)

It was like watching Liverpool in the 80s. Very organised. Very quick. Very efficient. They had skillful players but even they knew when to put their foot through the ball. Contrast the England of this World Cup, playing at being possession footballers, not playing at being Premiership footballers.

Both Brazil and Germany are playing a version of our game. Way way better.

Brazil are the best team at this World Cup and it's because they were the most organised. Some of them are technically gifted, yes, but it's the organisation that's destroying teams. Importantly, they seem to know what they're doing and are making the most of what they have (and shedding what they are not - Ronaldinho, take a bow).

Brazil are Germany as they used to be. You wonder how come you hadn't heard much about the German players until the World Cup (until every World Cup)? Because organisation doesn't have star potential. Because pace and power and a game plan isn't easy to stick on a DVD best of. It isn't what people want. People want triumph despite the lack of organisation. That's sexy football. That's what that Brazil team of 1982 almost pulled off. That's the Grail.



Socrates: 'True opinion is as good a guide as knowledge for the purpose of acting rightly'?

But they didn't pull it off. And the Brazil team of now are an indication of what can happen after the crushing disappointment of the Golden Generation; you can start all over again, from the beginning, from the back.

The goals given away by Brazil 82 against Italy in that match were the equal of the silly, sucker-punches that England gave away against Germany on Sunday. England didn't have the players to rally - and neither did Brazil. Even the Golden Generation couldn't muster enough skill to win despite no organisation.

Brazil learned from this. England will have to. Play to a pattern, not to players.

Now, anyone out there have a pattern?

Psychic TV at The Bierkeller

PTV play the Bristol Bierkeller on 17th September. How theIR dayglo transgender hypno-retroscending hyperDelia mixes with the scum and cider froth of Bristol's premier German-themed dancehall I can only imagine but it looks like it might be worth a wander up the traintracks. Anyone interested? Doppelganger, can I stay at yours?

Techno Tuesday

If you'd told me a couple of years ago that I'd be buying austere Techno twelve inchers again, I would've almost certainly laughed in your face saying "that sooo mid-nineties, maaan". But somehow it happened, and frankly I can't get enough of the stuff. The kind of techno I'm focusing on here is the minimal, frequency-obsessed variety, so faceless in it's presentation that I can't even think of a suitable image to accompany this post. Perhaps I should've just added a bit of random eye-candy for all the sad thirty/forty-somethings out there who maybe liked a bit of Hawtin or Dave Clarke a decade ago, but nowadays listen to Radiohead, Coldplay or whatever it is their kids have got stored on their iPod Nanos and fantasise about shagging that fit Irish bint from Girls Aloud. C'mon people, get a grip. It's not too late to get obsessed about mindless pulsating blips, squirts and swooshes again. And where better to start than Berlin. Christ, I love them Germans. From Cluster 'n' Kraftwerk via Monoton, Holger Hiller and a bit of Neubauton, through to Basic Channel, Chain Reaction and the whole Hard Wax axis, my appetite for electronics with a dash of sour kraut seems to flare-up at irregular intervals. Some freshly digitised vinyl nuggets, for your consideration..

Sleeparchive - Null Sekunden

Marcel Dettmann - Getaway

Substance & Vainqueur - Reverberate