Jul '07 Archive
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Bumping For Alteration
More Effort Please Originals 001
A little track of my own for your ears…
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Greg Wilson Live @ The Garden Festival 2007
Holy smokes kids, we got a winner!!!!!!
The legend that is Greg Wilson has been kind enough to furnish us with this killer live mix from the recent Garden Festival, over yonder in that there Croatia….
Greg Wilson – pioneer, innovator and all round good egg. This man’s been at it since 1975, had the first residency at the Hacienda, had a hand in the now legendary Electro series and he’s still goin right strong as you’ll be able to tell from the mix…it’s a total smasher!!! I’m not gonna go on any more, I sound like a geek….JUST HAVE A GO ON IT….
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Twin Beams
Pedal Steel III – Susan Alcorn
Finally I get to finish off the pedal steel trilogy… well worth waiting for though. (Feedburner tells us there are 14 of you now… crikey, someone ring the lawyers!)
The third track ‘Twin Beams’ is by the Texas based pedal steel improvisor/composer Susan Alcorn whose gorgeous solo pedal steel pieces are really worth tracking down.
This piece was written as part of a collaboration that Alcorn had taken part in with Chris Cutler in 2002, accompanying poetry he had written about the Kosovan war. It is also included, as a solo piece, on the 2006 album ‘Curandera’ on Fleece Records, which I couldn’t find for sale online – but should be available by emailing the label I’d imagine. Go on – buy it.
I had a very pleasant and obliging round of emails with Susan – who sent me the track via email last week. After reading that she had previously collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, an artist with a deep understanding of live instrumentation and electrical and electronic processing, I asked particularly about the relationship with electricity and whether the amplification of the steel guitar bore any influence on how she composed. Below are excerpts from her reply.
Concerning Pauline. Yes, I have worked with her, and even more importantly, her outlook on music resonates with me. Pauline’s approach is to listen deeply. She calls this Deep Listening, and she’s built a whole theory of music around it. It’s a more feminine, more round and holistic, way of approaching notes and sounds – listening, reacting to and incorporating everything you hear.
I think Pauline thinks deeply about electricity and its relation to sound. I, on the other hand, don’t really think much about that on the conscious level (though at times I wish my instrument were acoustic – I have played slide guitars for almost my whole life, and I miss the pure and direct sound of the dobro. I do, however consider sound as an abstract quality, though I never really intellectualize it (nor anything else in music for the most part). I try to play my instrument as a partner with respect, listen to the instrument, listen to the sounds inside and outside my head, feel what it is I want to communicate. I’ve played the (electric) pedal steel guitar through amplifiers for over thirty years, much of that in bands at dance halls, so perhaps because of that, I take the electric and amplified aspect of it for granted.
Whatever subtleties come out of the notes I play, are for the most part not related, I don’t think, to electronics. They’re more related to the ways I approach the string and the instrument physically.
Actually (I’m contradicting myself and thinking as I type) amplification plays a big role because without amplification, the tiny little things which become so evident when you hear them on a recording or live are only audible due to amplification. I use a volume pedal and that’s an important part of it. I can use different manners of picking, etc. to help bring out different sounds.
I wrote the ‘Twin Beams’ piece at about 5 or 6 in the morning in Leipzig, Germany for a concert with the Chris Cutler Project. He had written a series of poems related to war, Kosovo, etc. (2002), and he encouraged us to write music for them. We were in rehearsal, and he still needed more material, so I wrote it before rehearsal the day before we were going to play. The piece – written for piano, percussion, three voices, cello, and pedal steel guitar – made use of quarter tones and chord voicings that combine very “consonant” sounding intervals with dissonance – so you have, on the one had a very physically pleasant sound like a major triad and then an extra note or two that is fairly outside that tonality are put in, which to my ears it makes it more interesting. When I play this piece solo, to accommodate the quarter tones, I bend my bar which gives it a more microtonal feel. The sounds that seem to arise from nowhere out of a note are done with harmonics and bar manipulation. This is the steel guitar and the different communities of sound coming out, and electronics plays a part in this being able to be heard, kind of like a microscope does visually, but I rarely think about this. I usually think (though that’s not a good word) about something I want to communicate and go from there. I try to listen and give room for space. So there, to make a short story long, is the answer to your question The short answer, I guess, would be, “very aware, though I rarely think of it consciously”.
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Genius of Love
Tom Tom Club – Genius of Love
Wowser wowser wowser…..
So – been a big couple of weeks, the brain pain has set in…but cripes it was worth it!!
The Garden Festival absolutely rocked – totally amazing from start to finish, amazing sets from the likes of Soil & Pimp, Rainer Truby & Eddy Ramich, Crazy P (big up you massive beauties), YesKing (Salop Massive!!) Phat Phil & the Sick Trumpet crew, Bobby Beige, Tirk boys droppin Disco gems on the terrace, Faith, Unabomber Luke and so many more besides, it were right bloody special…massive big ups to Nick, Eddie and the Crew for what has to be one of the best rave experiences of my life.
All that topped off with a Pirates of the Adriatic Futureboogie megarave boat party – big love to Domu for helpin us smash it right up and big love to everyone who reached on that weekend, you know who you are…smashin…
So with all that love in the room, here’s a little bit of something from that special place….oh my lord, I’m havin an online moment…
Bristol People – come join us at the Park on Friday for more Club Dave Party Action, free entry before 11….
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Lufuala Ndonga
Every now and then, undefinable lo-fi genius comes to town…
Bristol take note – Konono No.1 bring their wall of speakers to Fiddlers on Friday August 3rd. I reckon it might get sweaty.
More on Konono No.1 at Crammed Discs
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Banana Boat Song
Croatia Massive!!!!
Woop woop… setting sail in the morning for The Garden Festival on the beautiful Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
A little festival, only one year old, but it looks like it’s gonna be a little smasher. Loads of wicked DJ’s and live acts, amazing setting and last year it was a right good knees up so fingers crossed everyone’s in for more of the same.
We’re doin a Futureboogie boat party on the Sunday so if you’re there, climb aboard and say hello.
Sunshine days – here’s a little bit of boaty action for you…
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Strawberry Letter 23
Shuggie Otis
Big thanks to everyone who made it down to Hotplate on saturday, it was a blinder!!!
Thought I’d post up some stuff for everyone still suffering from Glastonbury, there seem to be a lot of us out there!
Any chance you could move it to later in the year Michael??
Guess not….
Heard this at the festival and remembered just how amazing it was…
Sundrenched psychedelic soul vibes from way back in the early 70’s from the LP “Freedom Flight”... absolutely amazing stuff, as is most of his material. Although the amount is limited due to his retirement at the age of 22 he’s definitely worth investigating. I have no idea what prompted this but I’m sure there’s an interesting story out there… check out the guitar solo over the last minute or so of the tune, tripped out floaty action (does that make any sense or am I still suffering?) – what a dude.