Thursday, 25 July 2013

horsemouth (the vegetarian)

as a vegetarian horsemouth is a bit of a junk food vegetarian (when he was a vegan he was a junk food vegan, when he was a meat-eater...). horsemouth is not a big foodie - he just eats to prevent death. when asked why he went vegetarian he usually replies 'peer group pressure' (which is pretty much the truth).

he's been reading j.m. coetzee's the lives of animals - this is less about animal rights than about reason - reason is the thing humans possess and animals don't (or possess less of it), it becomes the way we alibi our exploitation of them (they lack reason, they are just machines, we can do to them what we like) - kafka's report to an academy may derive from kohler's investigation of reason in apes (the mentality of apes) which could also be viewed as a training of them in problem solving, a training in a narrow instrumental reason, a remaking of them in the image of the scientific method.

interestingly there is a discussion of swift's intelligent horses (the houyhnhnms) - here because they are more rational than humanity they are in fact almost gods. this taps into the notion that horses are more noble than mankind (as adorno reports).

horsemouth reports that he feels no closer to animals because of his diet - indeed he may be further away.

this is stuff horsemouth hasn't thought about in a long time - being vegetarian has become so easy it has become invisible.

Saturday, 20 July 2013

the great 2013 myspace blog dieback (abstract sarcophagii)

'the idea of the life and afterlife of works of art should be regarded with an entirely unmetaphorical objectivity.'  

ok so horsemouth's blogs are archived on facebook in full as far back as january 2011 when he started doing them mainly on facebook and then would copy them over to myspace - horsemouth started on facebook in august 2007 and so he has the list of the titles of the blogs (and the first few lines of text) going back until then.

at the other end he has the first six months of blogs from myspace beginning november/ december 2006 through until june 2007... and then?  there may be a little more saved at his parents. and then that's all she wrote.

there are his diaries - mostly booking information - where he notes down quotes during the day - there is perhaps some material that could be saved from here. 

horsemouth remembers an account of the flowering of dry rot (he thinks there was some of it in his dream last night).

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

the first two and a half lines of horsemouth's blog posts 30th October 2010 to 30th April 2010.

unless myspace return them this is all that remains of the following blogs (with a few minor exceptions)

can't hamsters be trained to do it?
Saturday, October 30, 2010

of course horsemouth has not sent the email to the right place because he sent it where he was asked to send it therefore of course horsemouth is in the wrong for attempting to change his availability...

'he has created no concepts. he has not created his own concepts.'
Friday, October 29, 2010

horsemouth wrote a great post earlier and then lost it through attempting to have a conversation at the same time - he wishes there were a drafts folder where all these lost thoughts could go.last nig...

we have never been modern
Tuesday, October 26, 2010

horsemouth watched old silent movie haxan (1920?) where an explicit connection is made between witchcraft and hysteria - hysteria is the explanation for witchcraft. of course the then modern understan...

musica practica
Sunday, October 24, 2010

horsemouth took the wrong book out with him to read while waiting for a friend in the pub (he planned to pose with his copy of how I became one of the invisible - he therefore spent some time reading...

 the invisible(s) By Horsemouth Helliwell ·

Saturday, October 23, 2010 horsemouth has been reading david rattray's castaneda-like short story 'how I became one of the invisible' the beatniks go south to mexico become involved in some mendicant desert friar type existence...

barking mad By Horsemouth Helliwell ·
Friday, October 22, 2010

'you have never seen a movie quite this mad, quite this insane' - there's a discussion of andrjzey zulawski's possession - which is how horsemouth feels about his earlier movies e.g. the silver globe...

autoplagiarism By Horsemouth Helliwell ·
Wednesday, October 6, 2010

while ill as a child vladimir nabokov had a dream where his mother went out and bought him a pencil - such a small gift for the servant to be carrying it he thought. later she returned home with a gia...

he dreams what is going on inside his head By Horsemouth Helliwell ·
Friday, October 8, 2010
 by jonathan cott (£1 charity shop). a literate and enjoyable selection of interviews with various hippie and yippie players - godard, the last poets, john lennon etc. but he also interviewed elliot ca...

how to train bomb disposal dogs in the comfort of your own home.  ·
Saturday, October 9, 2010
horsemouth has just seen a book of this title in a bargain bin (£1) - he was very tempted to get it but instead focused on a al fresco (well al bus stop) picnic with his former manager mr. bushwhacker...

gardening in eden (permaculture)
Sunday, October 10, 2010

this is one for the bushwhacker. in a strange way horsemouth is responding here to a bee-keeping, permaculture thinking fellow hunter friend of bushw(h)acker's who finds himself in a warzone. horsemou...

horsemouth and the tragic view of guitar playing
Monday, October 11, 2010

horsemouth has been having a john fahey/ al 'bind owl' wilson/ henry 'sunflower' vestine phase - go listen and read. he is as usual avoiding work as he types this - but tonight he thinks he will begin...

WDY play that african guitar music like you used to?
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

few hours ago horsemouth was dead to the world asleep. sean came round and they had a conversation. a question came up - why does horsemouth no longer play the kind of african influenced guitar he di...

mementum
Saturday, October 16, 2010

 a mis-spelled memo in a fritz lang movie (fury horsemouth thinks) - a plural of memento. horsemouth was reminded how strange this 'social networking thing' is - the crazed narcicism of it all perhap... Like ·

 learned behaviours
Sunday, October 17, 2010

today is a beautiful crisp bluesky day with golden sunshine. horsemouth went walking in the salt marshes - by the side of the canal he watched swans diving deep into the dark water their necks darting...

an instrument made from an asses jawbone and a dream
Monday, October 18, 2010

(horsemouth has just lost his post so he may be a little briefer than he would normally be)phew - horsemouth is tired, he ate something that disagreed with him and he has been vomiting. horsemouth watc...

real subsumption with eric and ernie
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

of course this should read bert and ernie - this mistake leads horsemouth to think about double acts and domestic arrangements. virginia woolf is supposed to have thought up most of to the lighthouse... Like ·

 real subsumption with eric and ernie
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

(horsemouth hopes he's spelled that correctly (he has - he's just checked it in howard slater's article in noise and capitalism)- sorry it was just too good a joke to waste)sometime on friday night ... Like ·

 learned behaviours
Sunday, October 17, 2010

today is a beautiful crisp bluesky day with golden sunshine. horsemouth went walking in the salt marshes - by the side of the canal he watched swans diving deep into the dark water their necks darting...


after the end of the world - don't you know that yet
Friday, October 1, 2010

last night horsemouth boiled potatoes and watched koktebel (a film by boris khlebnikov and alexei popogrebski) - he's going to need to watch it again but so far he thinks it is nice enough but nothing...

4"33' for christmas number one
 Friday, October 1, 2010

today horsemouth found a copy of the guardian film and music supplement on the bus - inside it he actually found a number of things to enjoy.he liked the attempt to make john cage's 4"33'(4" 33' of si...

 east coast west coast
 Sunday, October 3, 2010

horsemouth is in trouble again - he will gladly clear up any misunderstandings that he can and apologise for any errors - but whatever remains is a genuine disagreement and will probably require a bit...

killing time in the library
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

horsemouth spent a couple of hours today reading this book on the films of jean cocteau or at least much as he could manage at one sitting - it made the time pass quickly. he now regrets the copy of c...

2 cul de sac
Wednesday, September 29, 2010

following on from the interview with american primitive guitarists - one remarked that as his band cul de sac began to add electronic instruments the only thing that continued to cut through were acou...

 'rabbits are gifted archeologists... lobsters too'
 Monday, September 27, 2010

horsemouth is a little tired by his commute across the seaside towns. apparently they once had donkeys on blackheath in london before the trade was driven out to the margins of society - now the beach...

hrsmthwrx
 Sunday, September 26, 2010

horsemouth enjoyed idiot soup's birthday and thanks rust and masumi for the invite. sadly this meant he spent most of friday hungover in bed having stayed up into the wee small hours discussing palm ...

 the water margins
Thursday, September 23, 2010

capitalism 4.0 'a new form of capitalism is going to be re-invented' (horsemouth loves it when a contradiction comes together) - two pundits join the queen in moaning that economists didn't spot the c...

war on the bullshit (happy equinox everybody)
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

horsemouth is at work - he hopes that the notional breaking of taboos in posting this will stimulate his creative juices. 'Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.'the quote above is from ro...

a pig and a fish and a journey
Tuesday, September 21, 2010

.... and that's all horsemouth can remember of his dream this morning (and you're lucky to get even that he forgets his dreams so utterly unless he struggles to remember them and write them down). hor...

rapture
Sunday, September 19, 2010

this weekend horsemouth has mostly been reading and enjoying a biography of Edmund Kean by giles playfair - hazlitt was a big fan, as was coleridge, horsemouth has put the charles lamb to one side. h...

load up the mule
Friday, September 17, 2010

what a busy week and horsemouth has agreed to even more work the week after - possibly too much on mature reflection. still never mind - load up the mule! he'd better be incredibly innactive over the...

rubbish rubbish rubbish day
Thursday, September 16, 2010

cor bloody hell what a rubbish day. horsemouth was stuck in the swamps of lewisham trolling up and down the tideline listening to assininities, imbecilities and all other kinds of sweeties til the prov...

horsemouth (fearless vampire killer)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

this afternoon horsemouth watched roman polanski's fearless vampire killers (with its appearances by alfie bass as a jewish vampire and max wall as a very british van helsing type in truly terrible pr...

diaries, dream journals and diddy wah
Monday, September 13, 2010

sadly horsemouth and sean talked all the way through neil young under review but some semblance of order was established when they came to watch the captain beefheart episode fo the same series - feat...

 'to the success of our hopeless mission'
Saturday, September 11, 2010

horsemouth is hungover and as usual when he is hungover quite remorseful (he also appears to have a pouch of somebody's tobacco- eww gross). horsemouth was out being sociable last night catching up wi...

On the high summit of Mount Luipan
 Thursday, September 9, 2010

'Under high skies and fleecy clouds,We, watching wild geese dissolving south,Agreed that he who fails to reach the Great Wall could hardlybe the hero;Reckoning up, already we had come twenty thousand ...

 the last time anybody cared what intellectuals thought
 Tuesday, September 7, 2010

yesterday horsemouth travelled to that notorious den of vice holborn to proudly display his non-biting donkey certificate and state his availability for fat child portage work (up and down the beach i...

the novelty instrumentals of dr. mabuse
Sunday, September 5, 2010

horsemouth has been contemplating the gardens of dalston and whistling blues by the reverend gary davis, who opined that slide guitar was cheating - and so it is. this uses an open d6 tuning dadf#...

pantisocracy by the banks of the susquehanna
Saturday, September 4, 2010

while hazlitt disparaged coleridge as a filthy backslider it may have been that coleridge's support for the french revolution was just a pose behind which lurked his desire to go off and start an agri...

what's wrong with you? are you a member of the salvation army?
Thursday, September 2, 2010

so said trotsky to the young simone weil when she gave him grief over kronstadt - there's an appreciation of her life on radio 4 (warning: with mathew parris), two pieces of misrecognition, first hor...

erik satie is alive and well and living in dorset (year zero day three)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

weather - rainy and grey.horsemouth has been listening to friends children playing satie - gnossiennes no.1 and no.3, and some of gymnopedie no.1 - that was all horsemouth recognised (his musical kno...

back2life
Friday, August 27, 2010
horsemouth has just enjoyed a meal in his own home including courgettes grown on his bathroom roof (and there are clearly more to come). he is back in the seaside towns following his sojourn in dorset...

open the gate
Saturday, August 28, 2010

steve goodman is 'genuinely happy' that 'someone has finally, negatively or positively, engaged with some of the philosophy in my book' and will be annotating the review of it by horsemouth, sadly he ...

tidy
Tuesday, August 24, 2010

the kitten is asleep on horsemouth's knee but the coffee is doing its necessary and mysterious work... this morning the sun is shining but the wind is a bit nippy. last night man sized waves crashed o...

'never read my letters in the hope of finding reliable information about the outside world'
Tuesday, August 17, 2010

said george sand. (put that in your pipe and smoke it robert graves)horsemouth has a giant streaming nose of a cold. he is in the countryside with a kitten sitting on his shoulder (if anyone asks it ...

pudd'nhead
Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Otto Rank's the double has itself an interesting publication history with a number of versions, some from before rank's break with orthodox freudianism some after. It helps that they are each given a...

excommunicating kittens
Thursday, August 19, 2010

horsemouth dreamed of travel difficulties at work while trying to wake up, of incomplete railway timetables. anything else he dreamt last night will have to be wakened by an event during the day. he n...

the waking dream of reconcilliation
Friday, August 20, 2010

yesterday horsemouth went for a walk in the hills to the east of bridport - there were tales of the bad behaviour of eminent qc, friends of cabinet level tories - seemingly intent on living out the ...

'friends I have none but instead of them booksellers'
Saturday, August 21, 2010

horsemouth dreamed of a lectern with amplification and a light show.horsemouth has finished pudd'nhead wilson (a harsh and depressing book), he notes how hostility to record companies by musicians was...

day one year zero
Monday, August 23, 2010

horsemouth has been celebrating his birthday with a torchlight parade and then a giant bonfire on the beach. the rain water collected in puddles on the shingle steamed and boiled. the local samba band...

the student of bridport
Sunday, August 15, 2010

double double///////fdWith the arrival of the camera everything became profoundly uncanny. Every person or object ever photographed or filmed became haunted by its double. These doubles of ourselves ...

horsemouth's guitar repair shop is open for business
Saturday, August 14, 2010

horsemouth's regluing of the bridge onthe korean'laramie' c&w; guitar appears to have worked - he has fitted new tuning pegs and restrung it (though not spent much time checking the intonation). hors...

1 the marginalia of casterbridge
Friday, August 13, 2010

horsemouth has been helping his father lay the foundations of a new greenhouse. throughout it all his father has been slow motion whistling 'he who would valiant be...' this has crossfertilised with h...

intellectual animal
Thursday, August 12, 2010

'I am tempted to say about metaphysicians... they are said to understand each other but I don't believe it at all.- nicholas chamfort.'just as fish flap their fins and birds display their feathers , i...

back
Thursday, August 5, 2010

horsemouth is back. unlike last year, this year he has suffered less resistance to the idea of putting the pantomime horse suit back on, he has suffered less from the notion that he should write 'I'. ...

ear infection
Saturday, August 7, 2010

horsemouth is back but spent most of yesterday under a headache - he has an ear infection. 'let's have a look at the good ear first' said the doctor, 'blocked!... and the bad one.... infected (and blo...

ghost dance with alan lomax
Sunday, August 8, 2010

yesterday horsemouth watched two films and bought a loaf of bread and some cheese. the film show talked of doctor mabuse, of british character actors who have made a careerout of being 'foreign'.lo...

pavane
Monday, August 9, 2010

today horsemouth went off into islington in search of the sheet music to faure's pavane (£7.95 ouch - that does it he's definitely learning it). well ok - horsemouth also had a cheque to bank. he trie...

journal writing for self discovery
Friday, July 16, 2010

horsemouth is feeling a little grey around the gills - he's not sure why. he could have done with being sociable this evening but he was also knackered from just a few hours work. (his last of the yea...

los recuerdos
Sunday, July 18, 2010

yesterday horsemouth had two doses of nostalgia - meeting up with two sets of old friends from a long time ago. he also spent a lot of time bining (well putting in the recycling) a lot of old papers f...

'I guess I'm an enabler..'
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

this week horsemouth learnt that gabriel fauré once played organ at a village fete in llantwit major, he watched piccadilly with anna may wong - a film made before horsemouth's parents were born and U... ·

the only living boy in new cross
Saturday, July 10, 2010

last night horsemouth was trapped in south london (new cross to be exact) and had to take a 21 bus out when the new overground train system underperformed. he was there to watch nick DD's band crackle...

no relying on muscle memory ·
Sunday, July 11, 2010

read a marker pen injunction on a whiteboard up on the studio wall as metallica recorded st.anger. horsemouth was impressed by the performance coach and the record's producer for their unswerving focu...

a long walk through the salt marshes to the sea
Monday, July 12, 2010 yesterday

horsemouth took a long walk through the salt marshes to the sea (inclusding a visit to st.anne's limehouse) - afterwards his ankles hurt. he needs to be re-shod, there's not enouth cushionin...

Moi, Pierre Rivière ayant égorgé ma mere, mon frère et ma soeur…
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

'I Pierre Riviere, having slaughtered my mother, my sister and my brother...' - horsemouth has watched Rene Allio's great film of this - for horsemouth it brings up reminders of the Raoul Moat case, ...

the return of the political
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

horsemouth can't sleep and is up early. his brain began reminding him of political battles lost and soon he was angry and awake - this is a complete waste of everybodies time - shut up and go to sleep...

'mercy is the justice of sensuous life'
Thursday, July 15, 2010

grey skies, none too warm, rain.for his travels horsemouth needs a new pair of trainers/ walking boots, a torch and a pencil. at least the crap weather will enable horsemouth to show up at the airport...

 'man stood up on his hind legs... and folly trailed behind him like a shadow.'
Wednesday, June 30, 2010

while the sun was hiding horsemouth began this.he just saw his mum off from paddington station (hustling her onto a train at the last minute when she'd probably have rather stayed and talked - oops) a...

water the garden
Thursday, July 1, 2010

horsemouth has been watering the garden (in particular his little roof garden) - the courgette seeds his father gave him are doing well 10 out of 15 came up - some of the wildflowers are coming up, t...

under canvas
Monday, July 5, 2010 horsemouth is back from a camping weekend in the countryside with a load of brummies to help celebrate angela and martin's wedding - it was great (they're a friendly bunch). they had a secular service...

'what is it that we experience at the sight of sand without footfall  ·
Tuesday, June 29, 2010

asks george sand.horsemouth has been doing a lot of reading - he's enjoying chapter 7 of george sand's letters d'un voyageur again - she's supposed to go and visit liszt but she gets sidetracked into...

'genius of the parish' By Horsemouth Helliwell · Saturday, June 26, 2010 horsemouth is having a slow start to the day, he should probably be lifting weights and doing sit ups in an effort to reduce the harm that being a couch potato in his 40ies has done to his once puny p...

'I have told you many times of a dream I often have...'
Friday, June 25, 2010

so begins chapter 2 of george sand's lettres d'un voyageur one that horsemouth enjoyed reading enormously before going to sleep last night - a boat approaches the shore, it is filled with sand's frien...

social life
Thursday, June 24, 2010

horsemouth is wearing a t-shirt and shorts and has a number of mosquito bites - he must be on holiday. furthermore he has been out and had a social life - Lois was leaving MUTE - horsemouth went to he...

the philistine, disguised as a horse adddicted to sugar
Wednesday, June 16, 2010

horsemouth is reading a very restful book about a couple taking a large fishing boat through the canals of france to the mediterranean just after WW2 - theauthor (george millar)had previously been i...

epiphone hummingbird
Thursday, June 17, 2010

horsemouth (as you know) has been hiding out at his parents - he is now picking through the jumble from the village hall's bring and buy sale looking for bargains. there are two guitars there - one is...

lettres d'un voyageur
Friday, June 18, 2010

horsemouth has been to hereford to buy guitar parts - new machine heads, new string pegs, new strings etc. - the hummingbird copy is glued and clamped up - the glue-ing process itself gave horsemouth ...

''you keep taking note of whatever confirms your ideas...'
Monday, June 21, 2010

summer is arriving the animals are behaving very strangely - squirrels are fighting in the trees - yesterday (slightly bruised by beer) horsemouth sat in the park there was a cawing of rooks horsemou...

I confess
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

you may have realised that horsemouth suffers from anxiety problems - here's his latest one. horsemouth is worried that the guy at the post office has just fucked up horsemouth's passport renewal app...

'yesterday I got drunk. and shaved off my moustache.'
Friday, June 11, 2010

horsemouth is hiding out in the countryside at his parents house - he's just missed a major social event (or indeed is missing it as we speak) but that's ok - he just wants to be sure he won't have a ...

notes to relieve tedium
Sunday, June 13, 2010

horsemouth is back at his folks - when the sun shines it is beautiful when it doesn't it is merely pretty. the cockerell died yesterday despite horsemouth's parents best efforts and the vets best anti...

'the more an author conceals his views, the better for the creation of an artistic work'.
Monday, June 14, 2010

nightwaves helped horsemouth find this end of the internet short story by e.m. forster the machine stops, there was also a brief piece on self-publishingat the end ofopen book. horsemouth finds the ...

just when horsemouth thought he was out... he realised he was...
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

horsemouth has been indulging in the bureaucratic form of nostalgia - going back through old diaries and emails. he was looking at his former editorial work with the beachside donkey rides gleaner - w...

you want quiet? visit of museum of unpopular things
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

this is horsemouth's second attempt at posting this - he's done his shopping, cooked, cleaned, and shuffled round the guardian since. last night horsemouth was seized by a raging tiredness - afterward...

 and death shall have no dominion
Friday, June 11, 2010

actually it's the george clooney/steven soderberg solaris that horsemouth watched wednesday night while babysitting rather than tarkovsky's original- this he saw late night onbbc2 as a child and has...

fanfare for the common mule/ when the faun met alice
Sunday, June 6, 2010

horsemouth has recorded and placed on myspace a song in a day. he did this with the help of bert wheedon's 'play in a day' songbook (that horsemouth first recieved when he recieved his first guitar at...  · 

just say no to work
Monday, June 7, 2010

horsemouth has very little time left to serveat beachside donkey rides and then he is free to actually sit on the beach himself get sunburned and read books.when horsemouth sat down with his workmat...

we're all going on a...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010

horsemouth is very very very nearly out the door - he's decided to be greedy for 4 hours more work on friday and then (in theory and all probability) he is free to travel the world. he liked dave beec...

gnossienne no.5
Wednesday, June 2, 2010

horsemouth has just listened to gnosiene no.5 by satie and in now listening to pagodes by debussy played by Pascal Rogé- these are both tunes he is ambitious to learn and play. there was a noctur...

auto-da-fe
Thursday, June 3, 2010

horsemouth is reading canetti's novel - he read it once before years ago but he was too young for it - in the book an ageing bibliophile and his library of rare books are burnt up - horsemouth is very... Like ·

 horsemouth's criminal records - don't buy them.
Friday, June 4, 2010

horsemouth is a bit nonplused as to why a [BUY] button has appeared next to his songs - all he can say is don't buy his music listen to it for free, the manner in which it was created and the manner i... Like ·

 bank holiday
Monday, May 31, 2010

horsemouth has belatedly realised it's a bank holiday - the stock exchange is closed, share values will have to continue their inexorable collapse another day. today horsemouth will only be taking car... Like ·

 the deaf leading the deaf
Tuesday, May 25, 2010

horsemouth is hiding indoors from the heat of the midday sun (this is a good thing to have to be doing - horsemouth has no complaints about hot weather). things are proceeding well with the tongue set... Like ·

 in a materialist way
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

horsemouth isn't reading play of the eyes because he hasn't been able to find a copy. he did however buy a copy of pierre macherey's in a materialist way (£10 judd books) - so far he's been unable to... Like ·

 a) horsemouth is a dirty scab and b) please go and read his article

Thursday, May 27, 2010 a) horsemouth is a dirty scab there are some things horsemouth is even more reluctant to admit to than his addiction to internet porn, being a scab is one of them. today horsemouth crossed the ucu pic...

halleluljah By Horsemouth Helliwell · Friday, May 28, 2010 the sun shines and horsemouth goes to finish work for the year (in real terms) - from here on in it's only isolated one-offs. he must get all his invoicing etc. done and out of the way. perhaps horse... Like ·

 manuscripts don't burn... tell that to gogol
Saturday, May 29, 2010

horsemouth has had a lazy saturday (with some coughing), he's torch in my earing it (more canetti) who is now trapped in some pre- goodbye to berlin world of boardinghouses, hyperinflation and post W... Like ·

 'it's all too beautiful'
Saturday, May 22, 2010

today horsemouth was in oxford, the sun shone, hot pants were popular and the acres ofyouthful creamy pale flesh that were on display were soon to be sunburned. horsemouth had a hellish journey there... Like ·

 'the faultiest expressions have the greatest attraction'
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

 'La vie de henri brulard de stendahl.. fut sans doute mon modèle, un exemple de ce que je voulais tenter en écrivant l’histoire de mes de buts dans la vie. je crois que c’est l’unique autobiographie q... Like ·

 die young!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010

horsemouth is saddened by the death of ronnie james dio - not that he was a particular fan- the devils horns - do this in remembrance of him. allegedly he learnt it from his granny as a way to ward o... Like ·

 islands in the stream
Saturday, May 15, 2010

horsemouth is halfway through former golfing columnist lauren st.john's walkin' after midnight - (bargain bin £1) an account of nashville in the era of new country. horsemouth also read the guardian, ... Like ·

 "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia"
Sunday, May 16, 2010

horsemouth is just emerging out from under a hangover. he was at maria's birthday party (thank you maria), he played a little, howard dj'ed, he managed a solid 10-15 minute conversation with a french-... Like · 

picardy (featuring the ionian recorder consort)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

horsemouth has just put upa remixed, rearranged and partly rerecorded version of picardy featuring the ionian recorder consort (their clarinettist also plays and sings in gertrude). this morning hors... Like · 2

' we no longer derive man from 'spirit' we have put him back among the animals'
Wednesday, May 12, 2010

after many mornings sneaky-reading a companion to the works of elias canetti in (or near) the secondhand philosophy section of dillons (as was), horsemouth arrived this morning to find that an interlo... Like ·

 the anniversary of the arrest of Osip Mandelstam
Thursday, May 13, 2010

horsemouth is going to go for a walk round the salt marshes then he'll reread and post off somefinished work. he's going to take nadezhda mandelstam's hope against hope. he's researched alegrias - t... Like ·

My Age - by osip mandelstam (1923)
Thursday, May 13, 2010

my age, my beast, who will be ableto look into your pupils and with his own blood glue togetherthe vertebrae of two centuries?blood-the-builder gushesfrom the throat of earthly things,only a parasite ...

kicks like a mule
Sunday, May 9, 2010

horsemouth continues to be impressed by how hard life kicks. he thinks he does not do two things at once very well - note to self 'one thing at a time horsemouth'. nonetheless he has posted stuff off ... Like ·


 fanfare of the common mule
Monday, May 10, 2010

horsemouth has shrugged - perhaps now things will become clearer to him. he feels like an afternoon snooze then he's off to work this evening. he can't tell if the sun has gone in or if it's just grim... Like ·

 the night we saved the world by drinking III
Saturday, May 8, 2010

oh dear horsemouth has been saving the world by drinking yet again with predictably painful results today. (don't worry gentle reader a quick afternoon nap and he will soon be well again - now that ho... Like ·

 object to be destroyed
Thursday, May 6, 2010

horsemouth is hiding in his room (the masses are watching eastenders) and the cat is tearing up the place. horsemouth tracked auto-destructive art back from gustav metzger to man ray's object to be d... Like ·

 the night we saved the world by drinking II
Monday, May 3, 2010

horsemouth is tired having been for a walk up in neighbouringepping forest (it's a bit of a schlep up there but worth it). of course at one stage they were lost.last night horsemouth saved the world ... Like ·

 manuscripts never burn/ homo homini lupus
Wednesday, May 5, 2010

well there was feuerbach's formulation man is god to man and what horsemouth thinks was probably marx's retort man is wolf to man - no he's wrong it's an old latin saying- it crops up in doctor zhivag... Like ·

 'everything is well with me in both the visible and invisible part of my life'
Saturday, May 1, 2010

... in the 20th century music ceedes its place to noise, the logic of the avant -garde (art into life) versus the logic of autonomy separation....these are the kind of thoughts buzzing round horsemout... Like ·

 the night we saved the world by drinking
Sunday, May 2, 2010

david harvey interviewed - capital doesn't resolve its crises and contradictions , it simply moves them around. time to do a byron and learn greek thinks horsemouth. following on from all that deleuzo... Like ·

 réfutation des erreurs de benoit de spinoza
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 'what exceeds the bounds of knowledge demands acknowledgement'- simon critchley, the ethics of deconstruction. this morning on the bus a large person with mental health issues was doing lots of tibeta... Like ·

les six.
Thursday, April 29, 2010 horsemouth listened to this show on two members of les six -francis poulenc and darius milhaud(le boeuf sur le toit).polytonality eh... murmurs horsemouth. he also listened to some songs by anne b... Like · 

horsemouth is out of sorts
Friday, April 30, 2010 he's going to put some music on and trundle round the flat doing some tidying -up. as usual every flat surface is covered in stuff to read or stuff to file to such an extent that the cat is miaowing ...

'notes to relieve tedium'

Jun 11, 2010

 horsemouth is hiding out in the countryside at his parents house - he's just missed a major social event (or indeed is missing it as we speak) but that's ok - he just wants to be sure he won't have a headache like he had yesterday. he's not reading the book he's showing you but a book by tarkofsky and by the same translator kitty hunter-blair time within time a selection from his diaries. tarkovsky 'yesterday I got drunk. and shaved off my moustache.' 




he is reading kenko-khosi's notes to relieve tedium.

'valses nobles et sentimentales'

Mar 17, 2010

'...le plaisir delicieux et toujours nouveau d'une occupation inutile...'
(Henri de Regnier)

horsemouth is listening to valses nobles et sentimentales by ravel as we speak in a concert of french piano music (his favourite source for thievery) on the wireless (arf!).

piano pieces  - they may be complicated but they're short - that at least is a blessing. he has the sheet music that he bought for 20p in a library sale. horsemouth doesn't so much read music as barks at dots laboriously transcribing them into a's, b's,c's etc. and is frankly a bit tone deaf but like the counting horse little hans you can learn a lot from watching the reactions of your audience. horsemouth recalls a recent programme offering advice on buying a recording of debussy's  preludes - it pointed out the many misprints in the scores (little things like double sharpenings of notes that had often confused horsemouth).

the pianist (jean phillipe collard) thinks of debussy's preludes  as being like a digestif - an eclairage  - with debussy one goes outside into the light - you can play just one at the end of the concert. horsemouth must have a look at satie's  gnossienes again soon and debussy's general lavine.

he's been practicing humming the theme from la chanson d'orphee  while picking the backing chords in a habanera style (think bizet's carmen) its a little tricky but he's getting there -he's not thought of anything smart to do with the 6/8 section yet. there are probably french lyrics. other than that he's been doing some work on charles trenet's la mer - once he's got the chords and words learnt there's a whole second line to worry about. if that's not enough there's always maple leaf rag, he still hasn't recorded (or in fact learnt all of) pagodes, he wants to go back and re-learn bizet's agnus dei because it is in fact chopped out of his l'arlesienne (the girl from arles) which horsemouth now wants to attempt as a guitar instrumental. if that's not enough there are also a couple more faure songs he'd like to have a go at.

horsemouth listened to the book of the week about chopin and george sand visiting mallorca- he doesn't like the guy who's reading its' voice. banning eyre (author of in griot time a book on the troubles of life as a musician in mali that makes one glad to live in a fully developed capitalism) tours round north georgia including a visit to a shape note singing convention.

today horsemouth worked at the writers colony for a bit (less fun than usual - the course is finishing and a mild air of discontentment haunts the place) but he did bump into a number of friends on the way home - they are academics and are looking tired. work is being slightly vexatious. horsemouth should probably put a bit more effort into sorting himself out other work elsewhere but his mind is really on a holiday.

the queen is dead/ le pendu

Nov 7, 2011

not really! though with prince charles getting a previously undisclosed veto over any legislation that might affect his interests as a private millionaire she may as well shuffle off right now for all the constitutional improvement that's going to bring.

horsemouth is still ill. he has however been listening to the smiths the queen is dead - while he doesn't think the album as a whole is a work of genius it does contain some great one liners. truth be told horsemouth was never that great a fan of johnny marr's guitar and he finds the smiths in rock n' roll mode frankly (mr. shankly) tedious. morrissey fails to make any racist remarks (that horsemouth can detect) - on the basis of bengali in platforms (from viva hate) horsemouth is clear that morrissey is a racist (however he does write a good lyric). he also listened to portishead portishead which hasn't aged quite so well (though horsemouth remembers absolutely loving it when he first heard it).

howard reports seeing the sun in his dreams on a regular basis - so that about wraps it up for Nerval (who says that you cannot).

last night horsemouth made soup - he's enjoying his time off ill. he's back to work tommorow. the central heating worked for a bit this morning (it's probably on a secret timer).


le pendu
horsemouth is ill - his body has finally said no to 40 hour weeks and building work and stress. it has filled his lungs (and nose) with mucous, then withdrawn its lubricating properties to leave horsemouth with a dry painful cough (but still a full nose) as usual when horsemouth is ill he has been practicing his bass notes.
to compound his suffering horsemouth is working his way through a collection of gerard de nerval (kind of a french de quincey - though without the opium). horsemouth had not realised he was a folk-song collector (in the valois) and that he had participated in free-jazz type music making on a collection of brass instruments that none of them knew how to play with petrus borel and his friends... that and the apocryphal tale that his last writings were found in the pockets of his hanging body.

horsemouth's central heating is playing up - last night when horsemouth returned it worked then horsemouth managed to inadvertantly kill it. fortunately the weather is mild. he watched a little of halloween to put him in the mood.

'rabbits are gifted archeologists... lobsters too'

Sep 27, 2010

horsemouth is a little tired by his commute across the seaside towns. apparently they once had donkeys on blackheath in london before the trade was driven out to the margins of society - now the beachside donkey ride is a semi-clandestine affair.

horsemouth discovered that one of jeff keen's films was soundtracked by legendary sound poet bob cobbing (in horsemouth's namesake ian helliwell's documentary in the gazwrx box set). he also discovered much pleasure in charles lamb's essays of elia - he has a minor obsession going on with quakers and a positive appreciation of their silences during meetings, but a dislike of scotsmen (pretendng not to quote swift's 'hints towards an essay on conversation' which gives some advice on attempting it with scotsmen).

 the title quote comes from a radio documentary on collecting, horsemouth liked the various versions of spem in alium on offer by modern composers. he found this documentary on joyce hatto quite sad. quite how much of her recordings were replaced by with timestretched or sampled parts from recordings of other pianists by her husband (and sound engineer) on his home computer is not clear. he claims his intention was to remove the parts of her recording that were not up to scratch due to the pain of her cancer, in any event her reputation is ruined.

 horsemouth thinks of glenn gould's recordings - the end of the notion of an unbroken document of a performance in the classsical music scene. and indeed the sheer amount of work horsemouth does on his singing and guitar playing once it has been recorded - let no one imagine these are documentations of performances. subsequently, researching american primitive guitar, horsemouth came across the story of a fan invited by john fahey to impersonate him, to re-play and re-record the entire of fahey's death chants and military breakdowns for subsequent release on the shanache record label. this was done but the record remained unreleased until some tracks were released by accident as being by john fahey after his death.

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

horsemouth - the story so far (now read on)

musical formation
when does it begin?

horsemouth hears 'at home he feels like a tourist'  by gang of four on the radio and gets a guitar for his 15th birthday. he's started listening to punk and reggae on john peel as well as his parents record collection pentangle, the beatles, the moody blues. he can't play. he can't tune the guitar, it is in any event barely playable. ps. he also gets the bert weedon play in a day book as well. his friend robin is talking about getting a synthesizer and eventually does. they are all listening to a strange mixture of punk, ska, prog and hard rock. while horsemouth is at school mod happens but he's not much interested in it. in truth the main influence on him is hawkwind (the first band he ever sees live - on the live 79 tour) and science fiction.

it being south wales at school horsemouth is always surrounded by people who can sing (but conversely he is always told he cannot). also there's no history of music making in his family (as far as he can work out). it is here that it is first suggested that horsemouth should be in a band - that he should be a bass player and that floss should play lead guitar - presumably doing something similar to led zeppelin, motorhead and thin lizzy.

... and then horsemouth moves away on his 16th birthday to darkest herefordshire.





at college he meets other musicians - he gets a bad yashima les paul copy and an utterly ugly 50 watt amp and begins to practice with bill glover, alan and the others (sorry dudes I've forgotten your names) - the band might have been called shadow factory. they practice lunch times at college (she's lost control by joy division and wardance by killing joke) but it doesn't get much beyond that. the others being a year ahead of him go off to university or to local jobs. horsemouth thinks bill played in band called outbar (which eddie reader was in at one point) thereafter he does not know.

horsemouth survives what he thinks of as his rural purgatory (though in retrospect it wasn't that bad) and  goes to university in london (this would be 1981 or so).

the great wen

there, on perhaps the second night he meets jez from newcastle who can really play (and even better has a good ear) - and meets a number of other people who want to be in bands. he goes out to a number of folk gigs - pentangle, bert jansch, martin carthy - and he discovers reggae and anarcho-punk with ross and richey etc. he sees reggae musicians play too - barrington levi, misty in roots, aswad...

he plays one rehearsal with ross in the CRB band practice room and he begins his tragic involvement with anarchist politics - horsemouth comes up with the cunning plan to start a band with ross to distribute anarchist propaganda but with more interesting music than most of the anarcho-punk on offer. he goes to see blyth power play a lot rather than conflict etc. the college disco plays white lines and the message a lot.

in the summer 1985
- he moves to hackney.

he discovers hackney record library - tons of reggae, tons of african music. he wants to build a band practice room in the basement of his house so that he can be in a band and practice and by the third house he actually manages it. he studies african guitar (briefly) under folo graff (who played in the UK-based african band orchestra jazira) at jenako arts on balls pond road.

a friend finds him a bassist (andy), andy, ross, and him play - they record 3 tracks as a 3 piece at a studio in norwich(?) this would be about 1987, ross sings on one, horsemouth and andy rap on one, one is a soca type instrumental, and then... andy goes off on holiday for a year, then ross goes off travelling. rave happens...

eventually they come back, andy meets a singer noma on the train to ipswich - (thank you noma for putting up with us) they find a percussionist (pete), ross's girlfriend (elsie) gets then their first gig (1990) supporting the levellers at city of london poly. needing a name for the poster  they pick the band name bush house  (horsemouth's suggestion) - but nobody is very keen on it. they play the gig-   horsemouth plays - but is to scared to turn round - he thinks a cassette tape exists of this somewhere. they get a manager sten.

bush house

the band play lots of benefit gigs and lots of pub gigs (the george ropey etc.), mostly north of the river, some south of the river, working up towards support slots to the likes of  back to the planet, senser, dub the earth, one style. they are quite well regarded but  not the mainstage. nobody on the alternative/ anarcho music scene has their world set on fire by them. nobody is interested in their (frankly merely post-punk) mixture of punk and world musics - basically their sin is trying to invent brooklyn afrobeat in hackney in the 90ies.



meanwhile andy is working as a roadie (for jah wobble and then for the shamen) and there are a number of stand in bassists (thank you denny, nick and the kid from bournemouth) as the band continue to gig 20-30 times a year to ten people and a dog.

there are various attempts to record - the first at RAK studios where nick was working as a tape-op, but recording sessions are always rushed and everyone in the band is nervous and lacks technical ability and confidence so they never sound quite right. the band never releases anything on cassette so that fans can hear what they sound like between gigs, they never tour.



they have a showcase gig, they play a gig upstairs at the dome to the world (it seems like) - and 3 songs are videoed and then stuck in a bank vault somewhere the tape uncopied. they work with mickey mann (pressure of speech) a lot and record 4 demo tracks in a studio in south london with him - they then get a DAT recorder and try integrating working to click and backing tracks  into their live set. just when they were beginning to get some traction with their original direction...  they change direction. they practice a lot (like once a week for years on end) - first in the basement of horsemouth's house, then in the basement of andy's house and then in music practice rooms. but they never make it - they don't have a DIY ethic, they are waiting for a record company to come and feed them and it never quite happens.



with andy's roadie work increasing and the band stalled noma decides to leave to concentrate on her acting. she gets regular, tv, theatre and radio work, and in 2006 she wins the laurence olivier award for best performance in a supporting role, she appears in doctor who too.

horsemouth plays on lush 3.1 by orbital (he comes in at 2.57 under some doubletime hi-hats). andy subsequently goes on to play on a number of orbital tracks and tracks by pressure of speech and has a  very successful career as a tour manager. ross played drums in a number of bands the most commercially successful of whom were probably the ecologist - a few years ago horsemouth  found an artwork made by the main guy in the tate modern. horsemouth plays on crow road by pressure of speech and sniffs around various other bands.

but before this the band decide to reform but without pete - pete plays percussion with one style MDV a few times. he then goes travelling to India and dies while there of hepatitis A. everyone is gutted - he was a lovely guy.

meanwhile
aiming to become more electronical - the remnants of bush house spend a year working on backing tracks on a c-lab, s1500, mixing desk set up round ross's house (paid for by ross and andy) and try out a number of women singers (dil, katz - again thank you). in that time the girlfriends of band members form a band hormone rage (which draws comparable crowds) released a split single with another band ross was in and an electronica record is made on ross's set up by lee walker as the mellowtrons - various bush house members get co-producer credits on one track or another.


boomclan

through friends they find leroy from distant south east london who can rap, toast, sing and human beatbox - as boomclan (leroy's choice of name) they play a number of gigs and do some recording with andy peak. again no-one is entirely happy or more accurately quite knows what to do with them once they've got them.

they record a few attempts round a friend of sten's house (Clive - thank you) of some tunes of Leroy's - they sound pretty good.

a 12inch single is made of one of the least commercial tracks- though with two very good remixes (one by pressure of speech one by the mellowtrons) - the band decide they don't want any cover on it - they want it to be a white label.  leroy is erratic about showing up to practices. ross admits that he's had enough, andy wants to continue, horsemouth decides to call it a day.

end of the band.

by now it is 1995. horsemouth  falls in love and gets a job and moves out of hackney (he abandons anarchist politics also) - he works briefly as a roadie, he works briefly as a web designer. he has the guitar riff for the devil song and starts working with a new bassist over in west london- also called andrew (and a drummer who was formerly in crisis - bill(?)) - but the bassist's production design work picks up again and the drummer loses interest.  shame -it was all sounding quite good. he also tries to blag his way into the co-creators new project (which would be his ideal gig really) but it's a no.

he abandons playing music and gives away his (thoroughly battered) yamaha guitar amp.

he starts reading the wire and becoming enthusiastic about drum and bass - he starts going out clubbing, goes out to metalheads rather a lot.

he falls in love (again). his girlfriend sings in a balkan choir and likes drum and bass. horsemouth gets a PC for work. he tries out to be a guitarist in an indie band (but his heart isn't in it). he rehearses, playing bass for a live set of a friend's project called lumohe dj's a bit round friends houses when drunk (mostly graham's).

horsemouth and goatboy

some years pass and the relationship ends -it's about 2000 - iona's brother duncan proposes they work together, he wants to be called goatboy, so our hero (on the spur of the moment) becomes horsemouth. horsemouth insists that they be an acoustic duo just to make it a bit more manageable. in the summer of 2002 they record 8 tracks round sam's - they play 2 gigs at the foundry - they fall out and part company.

goatboy puts 4 tracks up on myspace.



horsemouth's description of these tracks can be found here.



meanwhile horsemouth starts recording round graham's on his PC  - the majority of his songs on myspace come from this period, but initially his plan was to burn them to cd. he records with denise ishaque - he puts these up on myspace too and on two CD of music made by members of the housing co-op they are in featuring tracks by horsemouth, goatboy, denise, rust, gertrude, ayesa, iona, jj, steve corr  - these he co-curates with howard.


when on holiday with denise and johnny (and sometimes graham and iona) he often plays guitar a bit round the campfire, fed up with being limited to just the solo guitar he starts to sing. (he has changed his guitar style around to make it possible). he starts reading (translating) music - doing old folk songs and french piano pieces - he starts researching music - records and puts some tracks up on myspace..



2004 - he plays live once at the wild hare club in stretton sugwas in herefordshire - it goes well he enjoys it. ps. this was his favourite guitar - ryan air made him abandon it at stansted airport.

horsemouth and rust 
(aka idiot soup or
evolutionarycul-de-sac)

the spread of music recording software has made the whole process of recording much easier - and the arrival of myspace (2006 or so) makes it look like music distribution is similarly going to be affected. sometimes he records round at rust's - he writes the lyrics for and sings on a song of rust's 'gentleman john', mixes and produces a number of tunes (notably 'blueskies' with iona singing) but rust wants to do it live. and in any event eventually his PC dies.

horsemouth buys a microphone and records a few tracks on his PC - previously he had mostly recorded elsewhere and then painstakingly edited on his own computer.

apparition 
and theonics 

he buys a set of cheap record decks and a mixer - he starts a DJ duo with a friend alex DJing drum and bass. once (when alex is ill) he DJ's disco to a roomful of italian women. they play a number of people's birthdays, the odd housing co-op party, they record a few mixes and stick them up on myspace. but while horsemouth's musical ideas are quite good his mixing isn't tight enough (and besides drum and bass is already moving away from its golden period). horsemouth loses interest.



horsemouth moves back up 
to stoke newington

and meets his old friend nick on a bus - horsemouth records 4 songs round nick's (two of which make it up onto myspace partie de campagne  (a long slide guitar piece) and picardy -  though with picardy horsemouth adds iona playing recorders and oboe round hers). possibly the last thing he records round his for this project is fanfare for the common mule, the cherry tree carol, in 2012 he records a duet of himself and robert lee playing violin on a version of  hear us o lord (from heaven thy dwelling place) while at their place in bridport on holiday.  

meanwhile 

the snatch foster band 

nick also wants to play songs by his band  live - after trying out on guitar horsemouth decides it would be better if he played bass, and gets rust in on 2nd guitar. with clive (the drummer)they play 4-5 gigs in the space of two years 2010-2012, there's some work (about 5 minutes) on doing the devil song with the band or in doing versions of some of rust's songs, they do a version of gentleman john and once (at a christmas gig) they do a version of in the bleak midwinter  and then they fall out variously. horsemouth enjoys playing bass (and would gladly do it again) - but it often left him with blood blisters on his bass-playing finger.

the snatch foster band can be found on soundcloud here (though horsemouth isn't playing bass on any of these recordings) - they also played some covers,  elvis costello's (could you still love) a man out of time (which pretty much is the band in a microcosm) and wire's outdoor miner (great fun to play live).



he continues to sing at parties - either with rust or on his own (or once with maria on la pistola y el corazon by los lobos). the devil song becomes popular and ends up being sung when horsemouth isn't even there.

at iona's birthday party in 2012 horsemouth, with rust playing guitar sings 3 songs - golden hair (by syd barrett and james joyce), gentleman john (by himself and rust,  with nick singing a backing vocal), and the devil song (written by his good self).



the musicians of bremen

howard takes up playing ukelele, singing and writing songs, they put videos of the two of them playing two songs on youtube (I'm sad and I'm lonely a DJ shadow cover and paper moon by harold arlen). they record most practices on their phones. they are scheduled to play live (as the musicians of bremen) but howard gets ill and horsemouth ends up performing two songs on his own (the devil song and  a la luna yo me voy be eliades ochoa). for a while it looked as if the band would be a trio with masumi playing violin but domestic pressures put paid to that.

the story so far right up to the present day...

howard writes a lot of songs and can sing harmonies and to put it bluntly he has a nice voice (which horsemouth does not have). for this horsemouth is mostly playing nylon strung guitar. they borrow a 4 track cassette recorder then buy an 8-track digital recorder and howard begins recording in earnest. the results can be heard on soundcloud here.