gigs, visits, books, records, films - january 2016

gigs;
6/1 - stick in the wheel, nancy wallace 
10/1 - sun at night (roshi, gagarin, georgina brett, skopje)
12/1 - david thoms brougton / arvid sleta films (ICA)

visits;
2/1 - tate britain (artists and empire, frank auerbach, artists and empire)
5/1 - housing demonstration
19/1 - no. one the thames (site visit), baggins bookshop (rochester)
29/1 - dulwich picture gallery (talk and workshop)

books;
althusser's lesson - ranciere, the history of reading- steven roger fischer, the black spider- jeremias gotthelf, dread: the rastafarians of jamaica - joseph owens, the history of myddle - richard gough, the gift of death - derrida (part), captain swing - e.j.hobsbawn and george rude, the apocalyptic art of ludwig meidner, the joseph rowntree charitable trust report on the housing bill.

films;
the phantom carriage (victor sjostrom), inherent vice, the knick (first two episodes), nightcrawler, mad dog morgan, the haunted castle (murnau), the stone tapes, children of the stones, parajanov’s shadows of our forgotten ancestors (part).

saint brigid's eve - and am I born to die? - the 101st anniversary of the birth of alan lomax

horsemouth thinks this (the 100th anniversary gig with the owl service and others) was his favourite gig of 2015 and he went to twenty odd others - ok grandmaster flash was great  in a hip-hop karaoke kind of way, it was great to see marshall allen 'conducting' the magic science orchestra, and it was good to be back at the roundhouse to see electric wizard raising the ghost of black sabbath and goblin.

tonight is one of those celtic quarter days - when milk churns in dresses with no face are processing from door to door collecting 'donations' for a party. as a child in south wales horsemouth remembers being shown 'the king of the birds'  - a wren in the coffin of a matchbox (and being upset about this), he also remembers his dad's workmates arriving with a horses skull on a stick in search of beer, he remembers snow on the ground in winter (but mostly he remembers rain - months of it).

horsemouth (due to inefficiency) missed the housing march - instead he wandered about and then did a bit of babysitting. he's just done a bit of babysitting this morning - he's not sure what he's up to for the rest of the day.

one of the songs that lomax collected was idumea (and am  I born to die?). horsemouth has put up the doc watson and gaither carlton version before - so here's country singer john fullbright's one. 

be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven, they are signs but not to be feared

‘they have destroyed everything even down to the last memory’ said the photographer nadar of the haussmann-isation of paris (a stage ably described by zola in the kill). horsemouth is back after working in the west and after a sneaky post-work pint with co-worker matt. they discussed kung-fu films and heavy metal and surviving on in this city, the moment the first credit crunch hit the banks and horsemouth’s opinion that craft beer is the crack cocaine of gentrification (but very pleasant nonetheless).

horsemouth has made a start on richard gough’s a history of myddle (so good a name for a 17th C. town near shrewsbury that horsemouth at first thought it was made up - like akenfield). ravens follow a murderer from the scene of the crime (that is how he is identified), a pair of pigeons herald death, gough loses faith in astrology ‘bee not dismayed at the signes of Heaven, they are signes butt not to be feared.’


meanwhile howard has put up another mix (and very good it is too) - seemingly it has the origin for a sample used in the ghost dog soundtrack and a song from musicians of bremen: volume one (the one where ruth sings the main vocal) and, if horsemouth’s ears are true, a dub version of ain’t misbehaving.

the gift of death (pay no attention to the mule)

                                                                 photo by john clarkson

so the housing bill and its knock on effects is moving closer to horsemouth (see it is a strong bill, a bill that has knock on effects before it is even passed by parliament). horsemouth is noticing the phrase ‘direction of travel’. the direction of travel here is the destruction of social housing, the warehousing of ‘surplus population’ (hail cobbett) out of the metropolis, the effective and deep down social cleansing that will paradoxically increase the number of poor people in the city (more people will become poor than will be lifted up - the poor that there are will resort to overcrowding).

horsemouth sees the thames foaming with blood - not again horsemouth, go have a lie down.

so remarked a friend on witnessing horsemouth’s positive spin on possible events (at least in a personal sense). all the government needs to do is nudge people (with a little shock and awe) and they (ok no we) will begin to move to realise their (our) dreams (within the confines of harsh economic reality).

horsemouth replied that it was like nudge in pinball (or perhaps shaking the table) - some of the balls would end up in different (better) holes and some... (would end up in the fires below). forgive horsemouth if he does not discuss the clinamen - the swerve that will save us all (or maybe just some of us).

of course the basic rule discovered by organisational theorists in the course of their researches is that any change (of lighting, work patterns, queuing order in the canteen - even ones that can seemingly only reduce productivity) will increase it - because of the novelty effect, because of the feeling of warmth people get from being ‘consulted’.

horsemouth (king of the ‘I-told-you-so’s) is deriving less pleasure from this than he might (he wonders why). horsemouth does go on (long may that continue).

----------------------------
so what has horsemouth been reading?

yesterday he sauntered into a library (muttering his new mantra pay no attention to the mule) and had a decent stab at reading derrida’s the gift of death - in part a discussion of jan potočka (for all those killed by cops)’s ‘ heretical essays on the philosophy of history’, in part a discussion of kierkegaard’s fear and trembling. the cover is of an angel holding back abraham’s hand to stop him from slaughtering his son. beneath christianity and plato there is an irrational urge within europe that is kept under control (but not killed off) by these two strategies.

horsemouth also flicked through the apocayptic art of ludwig meidner who produced a precient series of apocalypses (though he did not call them so) before the first world war (and it seemed to horsemouth the first great irrational surge of the 20th century).

 perhaps he will just have to retire to a sunny seaside town and live on lentils.

the seven ambiguities and the seven souls of david thomas broughton

The Ambiguity of David Thomas Broughton (trailer 1) from Oh Kestrel Film on Vimeo.

so horsemouth went out to see the ambiguity of david thomas broughton down in sunny central london (at the institute of contemporary art doncha know) being shown as part of the ongoing london short film festival (lsff). he has a how did you like the show questionnaire somewhere (he picked it up thinking it might be a flyer or a money off voucher) he may use that to structure his response.

 1.which film/ event did you attend?

the ambiguity of david thomas broughton with a filmed introduction by the filmmaker greg butler and statement too (a shorter film on norwegian musician arvid sletta) at the the institute of contemporary art.

2. how would you rate the film/ event? 4 (assuming 4 means good on a scale of 1 to 5 - horsemouth is a polite beast)

3. how would you rate your overall experience of LSFF? 4

4. have you attended an LSFF event before?

yes. well maybe. wasn’t the robbie basho film part of that?

5. how did you hear about us? facebook

do you have any other comments?

 has some comments on the films (but first a whine about ticket prices - how much! for less than two hours of entertainment! in my day blah blah grumble grumble etc. etc.)

 statement too (a short film on norwegian musician arvid sletta) was nice and inoffensive and short - arvid’s songs were nice too, short and a little ‘outsider’-ish, it briefly looked like it was going to open out into a discussion of empathy and a refusal of judgement and success. apparently he sells well in the cardiff/ swansea region.

the ambiguity of david thomas broughton (with a filmed introduction by the filmmaker greg butler) was pleasant also - they interviewed his family, his record label, various other acoustic guitar slinging types, the filmed him wandering round near leeds (horsemouth might have guessed he was a yorkshireman). he draws, he’s a keen birdwatcher, he may be living in pyongyang at the minute.

he plays guitar well, sings in a good but slightly uncommercial manner, writes good solid (if elliptical) songs - but his main claim to fame seems to horsemouth to be that he uses his loopstation pedal not to multitrack himself singing banal harmonies but to attempt to destroy his own performance. at last a use for these infernal contraptions. at last something interesting going on on stage rather than the endless rehearsal of good taste and technical competence.

this is all (as if) explained away in the film as being due to an unexpressed rage and his eccentricity, half-arsedly positioning him as some kind of outsider artist and not bothered about going any further.

but horsemouth thinks it is simpler - he thinks david has read some books on anthropology, on ethnomethodology in particular, in which the anthropologist (in order to discover how a particular social ritual works - queuing say - deliberately breaks the rules of it to see what will happen). the best known example of this is probably carlos castaneda he broke the anthropology rule about doing fieldwork and having an informant when he wrote his celebrated teachings of don juan books.

what david thomas broughton does is break the rules of singer-songwriter performance - but let us be blunt about this - not by very much - this is not dylan going electric - little is at stake in this procedure (apart from his own health at the hands of disgruntled audiences).

alternatively it could be that david thomas broughton has read some books / articles by fellow (to horsemouth) MUTE contributor mattin - where he challenges improv musicians to challenge the rituals attending the performance of improvised music.

or perhaps he has taken attali’s complaints about recording and repetition from noise: a political economy of music too much to heart.

or it could be that he arrived at it by his own intelligence by accident while fiddling about with delays.

 there is wiliam empson’s book seven types of ambiguity and there are william burrough’s discussions of the ancient egyptian notion of the seven souls that a human being possesses - one of these souls is best imagined as a small statue of a hawk shrunk down with your face on it. this might at least interest david who is a keen birdwatcher.

back to the questionnaire; tell us about yourself

6. sex (please tick) male

7. age group (please tick) 45-64 (was my number)

8. ethnic group? (please tick) white

9. do you consider yourself disabled? no

10. do you work in film/ media/ arts? no

11. how far have you travelled today? (please tick) 0-5 miles.

pump up the volume

sean has been in touch;

‘Will be around soon... most likely tues. Haven't seen horsemouth for a while - maybe catch up tues evening?...’

 (indeed they did horsemouth treated sean to a rushed cup of coffee at the ICA before he got the bus out and before horsemouth went in to see the david thomas broughton movie)

sean continues;

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

‘.... been following horsemouth's blog; enjoyed the mix - whats not to like about alice coltrane, karen dalton, goblin and sun ra, right? Even so.... isn't that slightly predictable? Not wishing to be critical - its fair enough to stake out a basic aesthetic terrain (and prove status as a man of taste) with first posted mix - but.... had I not read the previous horsemouthfolk archive post on the subject, the jaynetts would have been completely new and unknown to me.... more curveballs like that would be welcome. btw, I only knew rosemary lane through the espers cover. turns out it IS better than the jansch version. not a surprise. but still not as good as their cover of flaming telepaths from the same album. they also do durutti column and nico... which strikes me as exactly horsemouth's cup of tea.

but actually, he likes these stick up the wheel people. it seems they are very much flavour of the month - surely worth checking out what with the horsemouth seal of approval, no? '

(indeed horsemouth does like them and indeed he repeats his recommendation)

'erm... that's right, no. normally yes, but in this case no.

sorry, but they're a bit too hey nonny no for me. Moreover, they sound too hey nonny no... as if performed by chumbawumba!

a heinous offence, for which they will be shot when the revolution comes if I have any say in it (which I probably won't, but I will at least petition the soviets once they have spontaneously formed from the ruins of the old world. that will be sometime in late august I should expect, given the pace of anti-capitalist action set so far in 2016 by our chinese comrades from the finance sector)

looking forward to the next mix. African/brazillian sounds promising.’

holiday, holiday, first gig of the year

photo by steve bubble

horsemouth is back from his first gig of the year - stick in the wheel, nancy wallace all up at what’s cooking in leytonstone. gig wise this was a bit a meeting of the tribes with horsemouth bringing andrew and martin from his block and john bringing steve from the stonehenge expedition. by dint of asking nicely they got seats down the front (mostly) - andrew couldn’t stay for the full thing (it being a work night) and it may not (entirely) have been martin’s cup of tea (he seemed to ditch out at some point).

stick in the wheel were their current gig hardened selves everything boiled down to its most perfect expression. nancy wallace was suffering with a case of irresponsible fingers that seemed determined to sabotage any song no sooner than it was announced. notes were blued, choruses delayed and replayed - sods law was well and truly in operation. still her voice and the songs were great. she’s moved (‘escaped’) to montreal for half the year - horsemouth wishes her luck. he’s visited there in winter and in summer - its a great town.

horsemouth will have to check out what andy and martin made of it all. (he’s checked - they liked it).

tuesday horsemouth went out on the housing demo and indeed participated in a wander round the outside of the ministry of defence.

the changes the new bill brings in are momentous - the effective end of ‘social housing’ - the farming of a much higher proportion of the workers incomes by means of rent going direct to private landlords. paradoxically the numbers of poor people in the seaside towns may increase - as more people are driven down into poverty and because the poor in multiple occupation can outpay the poor in single occupation (of course it will not always be so) - the city as youth culture ghetto, as adventure theme park and then rinsed out to the edges, the destruction and removal of any settled working class communities (again).

and of course in proportion to the task the size of the demo was tiny. lots of ‘old faces’ many looking even older, look there’s the most evil man in britain on his waking stick. they have of course won wheras we have been defeated. what are you doing going off marching don’t you know I’m coming out to speak to you in a bit gestured diane abbot from the members entrance. the same old banners and slogans - well ok the banners are obviously new and expensively printed. truth be told horsemouth went because he was bored, because ayesha reminded him of his political duty, because he thought others might go.

‘the lessons give by practice do not transform consciousness quite as easily as we were told’

so horsemouth is hiding out in the wilds of bethnal green. last evening he went for a little wander and bumped into ayesha (long time no see) just as he was making a bee-line for the cheap book rack outside one of the buddhist shops. the cherry tree seems to be closed for reclamations. he has identified the old george - site of the first balls brothers pub and their sherry and port import business.

despite having harry white’s fine book on music and irish literature to be getting on with horsemouth has been drawn back in to ranciere’s quarrel with althusser. althusser’s lesson (a book horsemouth could have done with reading before he wrote his piece on them way back in the past) reveals althusser taking short-cuts, attributing positions to marx that marx didn’t hold. but it is not the lack of textual fidelity that disturbs ranciere but the failure to respond adequately to the events of 68 and it’s aftermath. he finds people regurgitating the old lessons of their masters (or the new lessons of their new masters) rather than engaging with what actually happened and what people actually said. at the time ranciere put his faith in something like a transplanted or re-imagined cultural revolution (like many on the french left). time has been harsh with all of this. but horsemouth is still in the early pages of the book.

last night he watched the haunted castle by murnau (while recommending the sorcerers by michael reeves for a friend) and read.

autocorrect - another burden for horsemouth to bear

so horsemouth has survived new years - the going out the night before and as a result being slightly wary worked well (horsemouth limiting himself to 3 bottles of beer and a glass of champagne - he was not tempted out onto the spirituous substances) and thus his head was pretty reasonable the next day.

he saw in the new year up at denise’s - after the fireworks (they love their bombs in the suburbs) the acoustic guitar was produced and various tunes were sung (davy, claudia, horsemouth, denise) - the werewolf went down well, as did dance me (to the end of love), also sometimes our dreams (float like anchors) and I still miss someone.

horsemouth did walk on gilded splinters, going down the road feeling bad and je te veux (but he doesn’t think anybody noticed). he backed denise through a version of ride on and tempted her out onto a few lines of slabh na gael (or whatever it’s called) and the orginal susan reed version of I’m sad and I’m lonely.

horsemouth would like to point out that this is technically his first gig of 2016.

at 3am horsemouth faded suddenly and had to go for a lie down.

2015 - horsemouth's year

in blog posts since april

all performances should be free improv (... all folk music should be performed by drunken yokels while engaged in getting the year gone. pensioning off clapped out old donkeys psalm for a revival mojo working, the weekend offered debauch thereafter his memory is blurred.

a man out of time (reactivate the sediments)nine whole years of horsemouth’s willful self-exposure on various platforms the hero raised by the half-man half beast rises again the greenwich foot tunnel appeared first as a submarine then as video game.

horsemouth wishes to be left out to feed the animals after his death, like the four evangelists there were four sons of horus and like them also three were animals. the tabernacle of the sun. (the sufis danced and scattered rose petals in a circle) 'are you her grandfather?' youth power, the oldies out and euthensasia campaigns.

 more MPs should be reduced to tears on a regular basis.

 'when the sun shines london becomes a kind of paradise’


gigs

shakti sings (and various druidical goings on) - sunrise at the winter solstice stonehenge, totally tidy tours’s christmas party - the windmill, brixton hill, the unthanks - union chapel islington, dave webb and justin patton - vinyl deptford, sharron kraus, directorsound - the betsy trotwood, thomas mccarthy, gemma khawaja, fran foote - bermondsey folk festival, grandmaster flash, levi roots - er. grillfest, walthamstow, orchestre baobab. blick bassy - rfh and simo lagnawi in the qeh foyer, laura cannell, angharad davies, oliver coates (and another violinist) individually then all together - cafe otto, stick in the wheel, the gentle people, jack sharp - album launch party underneath holborn viaduct, magic science quartet (marshall allen, henry grimes and various guildhall music schoolers) - the barbican foyer, sons of kemet - in the rain, wharf of canaries, stick in the wheel, vincent cross and gemma khawaja - leytonstone folk club, charlemagne palestine - barbican, felice brothers - islington t&c2 (?), dzamba aquilevi orchestra, kasai allstars, nazinja, la-33 - walthamstow garden party, the coal porters (nice version of heroes dudes), kadialy kouyate , august list, the thameside mummers , piers haslam, laura cannell, lost harbours and many others - leigh on sea folk festival, opium lord, wiremother, damn teeth, tropical nightmare - stoner/ sludge gig the unicorn camden, electric wizard, the cosmic dead - the roundhouse camden, magma - somewhere posh west london, mis-shappen pearls - down south somewhere, fritz welch, olivier di placedo, and yoni silver trio - limehouse town hall, the owl service, gentlefolk, long pike hollow (piers haslam), nancy wallace, lost harbours with the poet justin hopper on the first song, you are wolf , sharron kraus, plinth (michael tanner) - all at a disused mental asylum in south london am i born to die mini-festival, the seen - at limehouse town hall, richard youngs and tom james scott - balfrom community hut.

films:

psychomania, night of the demon, it follows, tideland, the jacket, don't look now, groundhog day, the house that dripped blood, whatever happened to jack and jill? russian ark, zatoichi the outlaw, deconstructing harry, percy jackson and the lightning thief, the man who knew too much (uk version), robbie basho: voice of the eagle, sweeney todd, the big sleep (michael winner version), pranzo di ferragosto, generation kill -7 episodes, hammer house of horror - 3 episodes. the curse of the werewolf, the twilight samurai, valhalla rising, assault on precinct 13, quatermass and the pit, bonnie and clyde.


(auto)biographies:

homicide: a year on the killing streets, the goncourt journals, two stories and a memory, a death in the family, the air-conditioned nightmare, the literature of labour, anais nin, joan didion, documentary and educational films of the 1930ies - rachael low, words - jean paul sartre, wartime notebooks, english eccentrics - edith sitwell memoirs of remarkable misers , sun and steel - yukio mishima, mary wollstonecraft (and godwin’s biography of her), patrick leigh fermor and lord eccles, walter benjamin (a berlin childhood 1900), karl kraus, george steiner ,sergei aksakov (childhood), cabeza de vaca - the shipwrecked men, bowles.

russians, frogs, utopians, transcendentalists:

history of the church in the middle ages, selected writings of the transcendentalists, alternative communities in 19th century england

new writers to me: bunin, erofeev, leskov,

 ---------------------------------------------

chronological order to date (roughly);
captain swing -e.j. hobsbawm, george rude (started),
a history of the chinese cultural revolution - jean daubier (introduction),
letters written during a short residence in sweden - mary wollstonecraft (and godwin’s biography of her),
a time of gifts - patrick leigh fermor,
on collecting - lord eccles (all),
mimesis: the representation of reality in western literature-erich auerbach (started),
a berlin childhood 1900 - walter benjamin (started),
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 (part)
man and his symbols - ed. c.g. jung (first few chapters),
fools, frauds and firebrands - roger scruton (all),
cultural capital - robert hewson (part),
chamberlain and the beautiful llama - stefan lorant,
the pageant of summer - richard jefferies (part),
performance theory -,
middlemarch - george eliot (half, still reading),
a history of the worthies of england - dd thomas fuller,
men of ideas - bryan magee (the sections on/ with isiah berlin, charles taylor, herbert marcuse, heidegger, wittgenstein, ernest gellner)
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
 art history and its methods: a critical anthology - ed. eric fernie (introduction only),
lifelong learning: concepts and contexts - ed. sutherland and crowther (start),
 a country doctor - franz kafka (illus. karel hruska),
 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
the three arched bridge - ismail kadare,
 the hawkline monster: a gothic western - richard brautigan, 
ends and beginnings - alexander herzen (part),
 from rousseau to lenin - lucio colletti (introduction and a few essays),
 a fortunate man - john berger and jean mohr,
 two years beside the strait - paul bowles, 
we the cosmopolitans - ed. lisette josephides and alexandra hall,
 affective relations: transnational politics of empathy - carolyn pedwell (introduction only),
 literary theory - terry eagleton (introduction only)
a hovel in the hills - elizabeth west
ghost of chance - william s. burroughs
the eve of fluxus - billie maciunas
the philosophy of history - voltaire (started),
think of the self speaking -harry smith continuing with
western marxism - j.g. merquior, for which horsemouth needs to
read history and class consciousness - g. lukacs (started)
 the law of white spaces - giorgio pressburger
 war with the newts - karel capek
 making the world legible - ed. julian evans (dubravka ugresic etc.)
 english eccentrics - edith sitwell
 managing in turbulent times - drucker
 memoirs of remarkable misers (online)
 william blake's holy thursday from the songs of experience
20th century russian reader - mandelstams, platonov, pasternak, akhmatova and others new to horsemouth, mary deare - hammond innes,
beyond good and evil - nietzsche (part),
sun and steel - yukio mishima (part),
yellow back radio broke down - ishmael read
the marvellous adventure of cabeza de vaca - haniel long.
miami - joan didion
documentary and educational films of the 1930ies - rachael low
words - jean paul sartre
wartime notebooks - marguerite duras
shoenberg's 'moses and aaron' - worner (some)
 hangover square - patrick hamilton
fear and trembling - kierkegaard - introduction
 the literature of labour - h. gustav klaus (most)
anais nin - journals vol.2 (all)
goldberg: variations - gabriel josipovici (all)
althusser: a critical reader - gregory elliot (introduction)
 the record as artwork (1977 fort worth art museum) - germano celant
 the democracy project - david graeber
chronicles of consensual times - jacques ranciere (several articles)
modernist radicalism - stephen crook - (dips)
a death in the family - karl ove knausgaard
julius winsome - gerard donovan (all)
the air-conditioned nightmare - henry miller - (dips)
the elaghin affair and other stories - ivan bunin
moscow circles - benedict erofeev
two stories and a memory - guiseppe di lampedusa
a history of the church in the middle ages - f.donald logan - most
selected writings of the transcendentalists -
some alternative communities in 19th century england - dennis hardy - dips
renee mauperin - goncourt brothers
the melancholy science - gillian rose - some
homicide: a year on the killing streets - david simon (all)
the goncourt journals

horsemouth back from the stones

photo by steve bubble

horsemouth is back from seeing in sunrise on the day of the winter solstice at stonehenge (8.05am). and now he’s frankly knackered. there was a plan to go out and get beer (but he might have to dodge it).

when horsemouth first arrived an al fresco youth club was in progress. one of the youths must have been drenched in a rain shower and earlier and had taken off his top and jacket and was drying them on a barb wire fence next to a fire. horsemouth and crew had a few beers and then retired for the night just before torrential wind and rain began lashing the car.

photo by steve bubble

when horsemouth woke up in the first dark of morning the djembe players and other drummers were already gathered at the gate champing at the bit. and then the rain stopped and they were off wandering across the fields making towards the stones. the sun came up - but it was cloudy still so it only got light. there was singing, and druids, and an accordion player dressed up like a hobby horse, two dudes in ram skin costumes one with a long hunting horn (like something out of a behemoth video).

at about 9 or so the clouds parted briefly and the sun shone through.