Misc

Our technical wizard and all round good guy, Mac, is going to jump off a tower in the name of charity.

Before we take a trip it would be utterly remiss of me not to mention the pioneering work from the early '80s of Echo & the Bunnymen’s guitarist, Will Sergeant.

They (the fans) don’t know why the bulk of the music loving public are missing out on the worst kept secret that British Sea Power are pound for pound, the best band in the world. To reiterate – What a band! What a fucking band!

We’re not polite anymore about things anymore, you know we just think right, we like that sound, and we’re gonna play it and tear down the fucking house! (Laughs)

Thank You For Being Insane Pervert Human Being – Try Getting A Hearing Aid On The N.H.S., Shithead (Sorry If This Is Printed Upside Down)

That’s by Satan The Jesus Infek’d Needles And Blood. And it sounds like five minutes of screaming bloody madness.

It’s also a record that plays around pretty shamelessly with the basic tenets of the genre, what with all the stop-start moments and atonal noise. And thank fuck for that.

I also like the quiet tip-tap drumming; its metronomic and ever so slightly trippy, like the Floyd with Barrett, it's job is to keep time and stop things getting too gushy or splurgy. That's not to say it doesn't splurge out; So Much For is classic 90-91 guitar pop, Lush style.

The album does feel a little overlong with a few of the tracks outliving their welcome. For the most part it is, however, fun for the fan of off-kilter pop.

Sadly there aren’t too many records that sound like Aztec Camera being made these days, either. Yet Two Doors Down sounds like the love-child of Martin Fry and Roddy Frame.

"Dutch Wire fans look incredibly battered (years of being glum and post punk can take it’s toll, not to mention the Sisyphean struggle of getting into increasingly ill-fitting drainpipe jeans) "

"Perhaps the cover’s job is to remind one of Generation X because the CD’s sound certainly harks back to a time when a hipster would be sound-tracking the extenuated moping about that passed for their existence to the strains of Daydream Nation, 69 or Sister. "

‘I want to take the pleasure with the pain’ he wrote and sang. For so long we thought that it might only be the pain Edwyn would get. But on this night he took his pleasure and we took ours.

Onasis I is, quite simply, wonderful. Onasis II, not so much, but it’s very listenable all the same, as long as you’re not seeking the depth and emotion of his previous records. I like to listen to this record whilst ironing.

"Ultimately this contrariness does seem to be a quite intentional (and sometimes even rather studied) aspect of Mystery Jets' music, and as a matter of fact it  does seem to be a significant part of their appeal to their fans, but for those who prefer songs to be straightforward and immediate then Making Dens may be at times rather difficult to swallow"

Try introducing someone to the Smiths by playing them Miserable Lie and I guarantee they'll run for the hills the second Moz starts yodelling.

With Frenzy of the Absolute there’s a ritualistic grandeur inherent in the music that is totally at odds with that live experience.

Another cracking release from Holland’s finest purveyors of intelligent noise.

Be warned, this isn’t a release that will instantly grab you; its self effacing nature means that the listener needs time and patience, but it’s definitely worth it.

Maybe it is not apparent to the listener but it was and is always the same heart and mind behind my music. For me it feels like I’m moving in spirals and the ideas of Harmonia - as well as NEU! - are at all times close to my heart, and part of my thinking.