books, records, gigs, films august

books: 
george steiner - after babel, 
edward timms - karl kraus: the apocalyptic satirist, 
derek raymond - the crust on its uppers,
lucian - trip to the moon (intro and part), 
sergei aksakov - a russian schoolboy (intro and part), 
cabeza de vaca - the shipwrecked men 

records: 
miles davis - sorcerer,
lee perry - black art compilation

gigs: 
sons of kemet 

films: 
generation kill -7 episodes,
hammer house of horror - 3 episodes.
the curse of the werewolf.

horsemouth has published his booklist for august, some photos of the flat in its new dispensation and some photos of his scrbbles.

the booklist shows a continued interest in language and writing - george steiner,  edward timms, karl kraus, the  lucian has a section on how not to write history, he continues with the slavophils versus the modernisers (as described by herzen) with sergei aksakov's a russian schoolboy (intro and part), and he continues with his interest in castaways, monks, penitents with cabeza de vaca's the shipwrecked men.

horsemouth needs to hurry up tidying up his flat (though it does look good with blinds and more shelves) so he can get on with recording - the zoom reproaches him from its box. he's got a few weeks before the year begns again but even once he's working again he has plenty enough free time for music making. he should also get out and gig again.

'he's only saying what people are thinking'

The Golden Glow by Howard Grange on Mixcloud

howard has been busy and has opened up not only a musicians of bremen facebook page - 45 likes so far - and done a podcast of fingerpicking type music - he has promised (on behalf of musicians of bremen) another one in a fortnights time - right then horsemouth better get listening and selecting. similarly howard has filmed a video to go with his tune another world.






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bedwas- trethomas and machen are in the rhymney valley just up the road from caerphilly (next to the rhondda valley - one that people might have heard of - ok the byrds covered the bells of rhymney) - bedwas used to have a coilery (now it has a grassed over slag heap), they all did, and a main road running up through them. when horsemouth was a child the rhymney river ran black with coal dust.

horsemouth's main memory of it, growing up as  a child there  in the 70ies, was that it was pretty fucken poor and pretty fucken white - ok there were a handful of black and asian kids at the school horsemouth went to. UKIP have just deselected their candidate for the by-election there as a result of an investigation by the caerphilly observer. he said in a social media post that immigrants should be gassed but then (as one of his supporters literally said) 'he's only saying what people are thinking'. he has also 'liked' various pages by the EDL(!), britain first etc. and other full-time racists but seeing as he was not a member of these parties this did not stop him from becoming the UKIP candidate.

horsemouth is of course against racism, nationalism, petty chauvinisms etc. - he just regards them as archaic (not in a good way) and stupid.

horsemouth has never understood welsh ukippers - there's no interest in welsh nationalism or plaid cymru or speaking welsh in the valleys but then it's the same as up north of england really, post-industrial, disaffected labour heartland. horsemouth fails to see what wales gets out of being part of the UK (there's EU social fund money but horsemouth guesses that most of that money stays in cardiff anyway) and he really doesn't see what the advantages of 'loyalty' are (or liking a page by the EDL bach) .

horsemouth was 'english' as a child, as were his parents, and his dad worked for the customs, his mum was a teacher - it was a very colonial set up. horsemouth has never gone back. the nearest he comes to it is newport railway station. the rhymney river has allegedly regenerated and is clear and full of wildlife, the old coal carrying railway lines are cycle paths. he suspects that many of his schoolfriends will have gotten out but that most will have stayed. if asked nowadays horsemouth will often claim to be welsh.

those 4 musician of bremen EPs: sorrows of tomorrow

sorrows of tomorrow - what's the story with this one?


'sorrows of tomorrow' itself started with howard's ukulele and voice and then horsemouth adds slide guitars - the first time horsemouth played the lapsteel guitar on this he improvised a great part for it ...er... and then couldn't remember how to play it again. the part at the start is what he could remember of it. the lyrics enchain - the last part of the line is the first bit of the next line (this was horsemouth's contribution to the lyric writing process, that and recommending repeating part of the lyrics rather than writing anything new). there's a kind of boom-bip on it made by dulling the strings on the lapsteel guitar.

- golden one (folk). they'd written the lyrics before, howard arrived with new chords for them and a new melody, horsemouth just follows along (as he does on 'painted toes').

- sad and lonely. learnt from the sample used by dj shadow from susan reed's 'I'm sad and I'm lonely' - howard had changed the chords, horsemouth just just fingerpicks along as he does on howard's 'magic memory girl'

the four EPs of musicians of bremen: what a wonderful world

what a wonderful world - what's the story with this one?


'the werewolf' from michael hurley's 1965 'the werewolf song' appalachian beatnik anthem. sung by horsemouth with howard on backing vocals. the guitar is lifted from cat power's version and the lyrics bowdlerised for modern sensibilities.
- 'what a wonderful world (this would be)' sung and played by howard. a version of sam cooke's song. howard appeared with the chords (an Am and a C)
 - 'gently johnny' by paul giovanni from the soundtrack to the wickerman. by the time horsemouth got there howard had changed the chords, (ah well that's the folk process) fortunately they were like the chords for 'the cuckoo'. 
 - 'father death blues' by allen ginsberg. horsemouth on vocals, guitar, ukulele and keyboards.
 - 'blue crystal fire' by robbie basho. guitar by horsemouth, robbie basho uses a strange tuning for this, horsemouth plays it in standard, howard sings.
 - 'a la luna yo mi voy' sung in spanish (sort of) by horsemouth (with howard on backing vocals on the choruses) by eliades ochoa from the afrofuturism album.
- 'silver raven' by gene clark . howard and horsemouth on vocals. horsemouth on guitars and lapsteel guitar on the solo
- 'sorrows of tomorrow' (original) - that's actually one we wrote.

did I mention it's free...?

the four EPs of musicians of bremen: all my dreams

all my dreams - what's that one about?


- all my dreams, this was co-written by howard and horsemouth but is played and sung just by howard. not a child ballad, not just a murder ballad, but a child murder ballad. I guess we just wanted to write a modern day folksong. horsemouth has sung a version of this live.
- the golden one, song by howard, slide guitar by horsemouth, horsemouth also pointed out it goes from a 6/8 on the verse to a 3/4 on the chorus - it's fun to play - horsemouth has even done it solo.
 - dorothy. one of horsemouth's favourites (wizard of oz theme) written, played and sung by howard. live horsemouth plays slide guitar part for this (so if you want to hear that you'll just have to show up at a gig).
- second skin. written played and sung by howard. horsemouth's contribution was to propose bringing in the ukulele towards the end of the song (so far they've never played this one live). a song of exile and terror
- you're not god. another song by howard, horsemouth follows along on the guitar. the keyboard makes this one

'this is a box, a musical box'

it's a grey unhelpful morning while horsemouth has the windows open he's also wearing a jumper.

horsemouth has dedicated a red metal file box he found to music. It now contains all the various lyric sheets, sheet music and scores for various things that horsemouth found in the course of his wanderings (at library sales, in second hand shops and alike).

 

 

 
     

horsemouth has been playing la fille au cheveux de lin a lot (well he stretches out some bits and omits others and plays it on a slide guitar tunes sebastapol maybe he'll rename it in the manner of tomita). he's thinking about making the first thing he records. then there's fanfare for the common mule. satie's gnossienne no.1 is a bit too obvious. over the years he has made many lists of tunes to record (and indeed recorded many of the songs on those lists). there was a piece by messiaen prelude no. 2 'chant d'extase dans un paysage triste' it was very satie-like (and for this reason it works for horsemouth). but first he has to learn to use the recording equipment and to do that he needs to get it set up.

 horsemouth has proposed moving to the hills and growing potatoes, corn and beans.

birthing behemoth

horsemouth is shuffling round the flat groaning a little. yesterday he travelled up to howard's to pick up and transport the music making equipment (on which they have made their recordings - and very compact it is too) down to his sunny abode in the arse end of nowhere. but first they had a pizza to get their strength up... er. and then a cab out of hackney (oh the expense mutters horsemouth).

when they got there horsemouth's abode was a little cluttered ('you don't have many visitors do you?' shrewdly observed howard) at the moment so there was nowhere to set up the recording devices. so they headed off to the pub instead - horsemouth took howard to the gun which while it is a bit of a walk is an interesting pub (it gets a mention in iain sinclair's downriver for example). on the isle of dogs to their south one housing group plan demolitions and the building of luxury flats 'birthing behemoth' as one commentator puts it - even the yoga teachers are up in arms about it. howard got the D6 out - horsemouth walked back up. before drunkeness stupified them they discussed the enthusiasm for corbyn.

a recent discovery of howard's while walking home was a rose-morris avon les paul copy guitar (so now horsemouth has that too) - it needs a saddle for the bridge (technical term), new strings, perhaps the electrics work - and if it works horsemouth will probably need an amplifier and a pedal board and oy... he's away into the land of rock guitar again. horsemouth now also has both the keyboards used on  musician of bremen projects and various tambourines and shakers.

musicians of bremen: volume one

while horsemouth was away in the forest howard has completed work on his first EP musicians of bremen: volume one - horsemouth plays guitar and sings on one track noah having co-written it with howard, he contributed one line of lyrics and some (quiet) guitar parts to the blackwall tunnel . these tracks horsemouth thinks are hangovers from musicians of bremen's way of working - howard arrives with tune, lyrics and ukulele parts, horsemouth retro-fits a guitar part. the other tracks on the EP seem stronger to horsemouth because they feature howard's 'untutored'  guitar. it's free to download and has a bonus track (so you may as well).



yesterday horsemouth and john clarkson wandered out to maldon in essex (and very sunny it was too) and then round to bradwell to the chapel of st. peter-on-the-wall (and the nearby othona community), eventually (after much wandering and leaving time for the tide to come in) they found a part of the beach where it was possible to paddle without wading through too much estuary mud. essex (as many have pointed out) is very flat and there, at the sea, the sky is enormous.

books, gigs, records july

booklist july
- karl krauss; apocalyptic satirist - edward timms (reading now),
- art history and its methods: a critical anthology - ed. eric fernie (introduction only),
- a russian schoolboy - sergei aksakov (introduction and start),
- lifelong learning: concepts and contexts - ed. sutherland and crowther (start),
- a country doctor - franz kafka (illus. karel hruska) (most),
 - the gods - alain (started and first few chapters),
- hodge and his masters - richard jefferies (all),
- aubrey beardsley - stephen calloway (dipped),
- 'I liked it, didn't love it' - rona edwards & monika skerbelis

gigs july
- stick in the wheel, vincent cross and gemma khawaja
 - charlemagne palestine,
- felice brothers,
walthamstow garden party saturday (hence)
- dzamba aquilevi orchestra, kasai allstars, nazinja, la-33

stoner/ sludge gig
- opium lord, wiremother, damn teeth, tropical nightmare

recordings listened to
- star rise: nusrat fateh ali khan and michael brook remixed
- filles de kilimanjaro - miles davis (lots)
- nefertiti, sorcerer - miles davis (once each)
- earth - joe henderson and alice coltrane
- universal consciousness, astral meditations - alice coltrane
- high times - mc5