musicians of bremen in the mix - tune selection by horsemouth (mostly)

The Golden Glow broadcast 18 December 2015 by Howard Grange on Mixcloud

tunes selected by horsemouth (mostly) - mix assembled by howard:

ganesha chant - where would horsemouth be without his ganesha alarm clock, 
blackthorn winter- sproatly smith - something new and good from herefordshire/ weirdshire,
we are the robots sung by a class of german infants (wearing cardboard box robot costumes), horsemouth as a big kraftwerk fan (he made his brother buy all the records),
an al 'blind owl' wilson harmonica raga, (possibly with john fahey predating canned heat),
 alice coltrane intergalactic gospel of peace piano, in a trio with the great ron carter on bass,
concrete jungle by you know who, (simply the coolest thing horsemouth had ever seen when he played on the old grey whistle test),
rosemary lane sung by bert jansch,
angel of death hank williams,
bedlam stick in the wheel,
serge gainsbourg in dub,
the jaynetts sally go round the roses, manufactured girl group one hit wonders later covered by pentangle, good use of the lee morgan sidewinder rhythm,
william burroughs speaks of seven souls,
four loom weaver june tabor,
suspira, race with the devil (a horror movie turn)
sun ra with horsemouth's theme song,
in the evening karen dalton,
roses and snow by the great robbie basho (with added tabla),
wicked leaders by king ayisoba,
the timely war pigs by black sabbath,
ending out with blind willie johnson's magisterial 'dark was the night, cold was the ground'

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next time horsemouth picks it a few more brazilian or african things, something electronic or avant garde classical, more early blues things, some john fahey, some pentangle.

horsemouth and the dead body (the youth and money)

last night horsemouth dreamt he was carrying a dead body about (it seemed impossibly ancient perhaps archeological) he was somewhere near whipps cross. on reflection he doesn’t take this dream too badly despite how grim it at first appears - with his jungian lenses he sees that part of himself has been under-utilised for a long time and is beginning to wake up (at least to the extent of becoming a burden).

horsemouth has acquired two beer trophies, one of which occasions some guilt (bad horsemouth) and the second he has only just remembered (a water bottle). these are recompense to himself for the grey tasks necessary to secure a living (but he must watch that kleptomania it reeks of wanting to be caught).

recently horsemouth had a difficult child portee - one who insisted that horsemouth take smaller steps, ‘take smaller steps’ , it said. horsemouth was confronted with the meaninglessness of his existence, the meniality of his allotted role, in a kind of ethnomethodological experiment in servant humiliation. horsemouth (the maker of sense) was denied the right to do so. he experienced the frustration of the honest journeyman. once again he became angry, and he doesn’t think he succeeded in hiding this (usually when horsemouth becomes angry he takes malicious pleasure in hiding this from people - ok he frequently fails and steam comes out of his ears). round three is next week - horsemouth plans evasion by compliance (the schveikian model) - he will do what is asked of him and pass the unsatisfactory results up to his betters (there you go).

yesterday horsemouth (wearing his postcapitalism and that hat) attended a meeting of the committee for the reinvention of money - the youth want to be nudged at the contactless point of sale, they want to be scanned so as to be offered ethical choices likely to appeal to them, the youth want an authentic handshaking relationship with the merchant in their local shop. the youth distrust the alienated nature of money (its fungibility) that it is not trackable to source or destination, that it is the universal solvent making all such questions irrelevant, capable of dissolving the organs right out of your body.

only one group identified time as a factor in this proposing that design could be used to get the proles to spend faster the better to hasten the next economic collapse (the bar code becomes circular - the ‘link’ logo a chain).

this excess expenditure it’s not sustainable said the youth- but what capitalism needs now is precisely for the proles to throw off prudence and spend spend spend like there’s no tomorrow. having been burnt once the proles are cautious. in fact the youth’s distrust of this thing you call money is part and parcel of this.

one group literalised cultural capital (if you listen carefully you can hear adorno rotating) by combining it with basic income - now there’s a thought experiment to run in a university) but sadly most of horsemouth’s learning is undocumented and so he cannot be paid for it.

 the old sat around and took notes simultaneously fascinated and a little bored by the micro-bacillus focus groups throwing up religious material, old episodes of logan’s run etc. dreaming of hearing the idea that would make them king.

making plans for horsemouth (stamping in the studio)

Dfbm #78 - Morning Raga Pt. VI by Dying For Bad Music on Mixcloud

one day horsemouth will get the hang of this making plans lark (one of many things he could do with being better at). you see he had it all beautifully organised. his plan was to go after work to see ben’s new film in progress at the ICA (and possibly meet someone there but if in the end they didn’t go no worries horsemouth was still going).

this seemed like an excellent plan to horsemouth - low stress, no pressure, good possible outcomes, walkable even.

but then his possible meetee gonged it off and howard appeared digitally in alienation space waving tickets to the *unthanks - horsemouth consulted timetables to see if it were possible to do both, concluded that it was, concluded that it wasn’t - and then, crystalising his disappointments on ben’s film (and thinking it was a good idea to see howard whom he hasn’t seen in ages in flesh space), went off to see the *unthanks (of whom more later).

sorry ben. 

in many ways horsemouth imagines he was excellently prepared for ben’s film by a discussion of conceptual art earlier in the day and the work of sol lewitt - here the locutor emphasised planning of an action and repetition of an action, often something from the repertoire of daily life (stamping in the studio for example), something that looks like the repeated performance of an experiment but is in fact more akin to obsessional repetition. something repeated until the that joke isn’t funny anymore moment (and beyond for good measure). (musically an example might be satie’s vexations a piano piece designed to just go on and on and on.)

of course all of this shows the division in our thinking about repetition - one the one hand a mechanical repetition toxic to humanity and destructive of the human frame (think repetitive strain injury) and on horsemouth’s other hand (the one without RSI and rheumatoid arthritis) a generous ritual cyclic repetition allowing access to something unobserved in the ordinary passage of life.

of course these may not have been the right thoughts with which to confront ben’s film - horsemouth can’t tell you yet because he hasn’t seen it - he has seen a photo of the event - he can see the backs of a few heads he recognizes.

the *unthanks very nearly ended their set with a song sung acapella about running around with burning barrels of tar and throwing them on the bonfire to celebrate new years eve (previously horsemouth had only heard of this activity at ottery st. mary). for horsemouth there were things to like in what they did - the clogging, the acapellas, the blend of the voices, the trumpet, the northumbrian accent, the cover of shipbuilding (sounding like an elegy for a lost world) and there were things that worked less well for him - the professionalism and polish of the accompaniment, its gil evans voicings, in general its good taste.

good taste is something horsemouth thinks is almost invariably fatal in music. instead of their repertoire horsemouth wants to hear what the band could actually play. the extensively rehearsed music has had the air squeezed out of it, it no longer responds to the possibility offered by the time of performance but instead offers a reliable effacement of its passing. (so far so attali).

not that horsemouth (as jobbing musician) is against being tight you understand. horsemouth is being a bit harsh here (there were some very good moments) it's not that he's demanding that all performances should from now on be free improv (or that all folk music should be performed by drunken yokels while engaged in a dangerous ritual activity involving fire or swords or both).

'letters written during a short residence'

broadly two weeks to the solstice. horsemouth who works autumn equinox to winter solstice, then roughly groundhog day to spring solstice, then has a three week break and then serves out his time variously (normally finishing before the summer solstice), is watching the galactic clock. he has been accused of wishing time away and there is some truth in this. frankly he’s a little knackered and could do with getting the year gone.

next year (from january - well february really) horsemouth has little idea of what he is doing - a large chunk of his beachside donkey portage work has had the timetabling centralised - resulting in the usual chaos.

next season (september onwards), it may be even more difficult again. non-medical helpers may no longer be required at the beach (or may have to be paid for by the beach authorities - horsemouth is unclear). the health and education benefits of beachside donkey rides are no longer appreciated - horsemouth (and his fellow mules) may be replaced by a small train. frankly horsemouth still believes in the quality of the service (compared to its steam powered alternative) but it’s a difficult argument to make in this day and age (when everything else has gone over to steam within horsemouth’s lifetime).

it has been a good corner - horsemouth expects it to stagger onwards for a while yet (if only while they get the track laid). he may approach the various beaches for work with a hand-typed begging letter, or maybe some agencies. there may be some pensioning off of clapped out old donkeys to be had - maybe a field with green grass to run and play in and a moth eaten blanket in winter. or they may just take them out behind the bike sheds and shoot them - who knows.

yesterday he went out with john clarkson - first for a pie n’ mash in greenwich (horsemouth has lived long enough to see vegetarian pie and mash), then for a perambulate round the second hand bookshops of the area (he has discovered one that is nearly a match for halcyonandon) and then up to vinyl deptford for coffee and cake (and a bottle of beer) and to hear dave webb play.

dave’s set had a musique concrete quality caused by the grainy-ness of his sampling keyboard and the lack of easy editing that the looper pedal provides - still good crunch stuff. the next guy up (justin paton) played an old school acid house set (tb303 a-like, flanger pedal etc, nothing you haven’t heard before but nicely done, tight, on the money, a recording exists of justin’s performance http://beautyanddisgust.bandcamp.com/....
mary wollstonecraft was influenced by rousseau’s reveries of a solitary walker (the most charming of his books largely because he claims to be disillusioned and not to care anymore).

the rick burners first gig saturday 28th november (compilation album)

day one

horsemouth tends to suffer when he drinks (not that it stops him you understand so he is not deserving of your sympathy). last night (until this morning) he had the excuse that he was making music (with andrew minty, a guy called pete on bass, a guy called phil on harmonica, denise, morven, siobhan, various others at various times). he enjoyed it enormously but horsemouth must admit to being a little loud (sorry children).


day two

horsemouth is back amongst you at his full (slightly manic) strength. having surfaced from under the hangover (er. sunday mostly) he is now back to cheerfulness and is able (at last) to take pleasure in the musical achievements of saturday night. he has to admit he does look a bit crazed in the photos.

he thanks andrew minty and martin for dragging him out. as far as horsemouth can remember the setlist went something like this (got my) mojo working, eagle (by abba), silver raven, (inexplicably not painbirds), I still miss someone and big river johnny cash (but not dark as a dungeon), catfish blues, backdoor man, power in the blood, how great thou art, naviagator, who do you love, sometimes our dreams (float like anchors)  ... and thereafter his memory is blurred. he was a cheerful creature on the bus journey home.

day four

before they went out saturday night there were tarot cards - not the usual rider-waite ones but the dangerous vorticist crowley ones. strangely (though he wasn’t aware of it) sorrow was upmost on his mind - the weekend offered debauch - the rest is unclear (or has grown fuzzy in horsemouth’s memory) - all good stuff.

book gig film list november

books;

on collecting - lord eccles (all),
mimesis: the representation of reality in western literature-erich auerbach (started),
a berlin childhood 1900 - walter benjamin (started),
a time of gifts -patrick leigh fermor (2/3rds),
man and his symbols -ed. carl jung (all),
the enchanted wanderer - nikolai leskov (all),
thoughts on machiavelli - leo strauss (started),
origin of rhymes, songs and sayings - jean harrowven,
the idiom of the people - james reeves,
our faces, my heart, brief as photos - john berger

gigs

none(!) - ok singing and dancing children in the wilds of walthamstow

films/ dvds;

banshee (first series), synecdoche new york (the extras - no the movie), the sorcerers (michael reeves featuring boris karloff), deadman (jim jarmusch)