'in the direction of a beginning'

another day another gift from the internet 

never heard this before. medicine raga by robbie basho from 1967. it's long (as the youth used to say) but basho is in control of it all the way through. 

in adventures in the skin trade a dylan thomas alike sets off to london from swansea (having smashed the family crockery before he went).  he hides in the toilet of the train. the publishers wanted a serious, studious autobiography from dylan (they didn't get it). 

yesterday the sun shone. horsemouth walked up over the common, along the hill and down over into the dulas valley to the corner where the trout pub used to be (when it was run by bill and pauline). he took his shoes and socks off and waded around in the dulas brook. the houses and farms  that used to be near ruins are done up very nicely thank you. and then he climbed back up the hill, past the paintball and glamping farm and made his way home. this knackered him so much that when his mum suggested a wander in the afternoon all he could face was a turn round the fields. 

otherwise he sat out and read (the daily torygraph, adventures in the skin trade). he drew a picture of the male pheasant.

he attempted to post yet another panegyric to musicians of bremen's musical output - in this case the humming which they released slightly over a year ago, but the internet frustrated him and ate the post. he had meant to go into more detail. 

the humming benefits from a number of happy accidents, that while howard was recording himself humming in an art gallery (don't ask some kind of art thing) one of the nearby displays contributed some jazz trumpet - this by itself would be a happy accident but fortunately for horsemouth (when he was adding his bert and john style guitar part) it sits in nicely with his part. (what he would have done if it had come in out of time or out of tune he does not know). 

malkin tower came about because horsemouth wanted to do a drone piece (continuing on from (S)erpents and on the banks of the pawtuxent on the previous album) using john clarkson's harmonium. sadly it is pitched about 50% above normal. he figured if he were to play the note and the note bellow that one frequency component would be the average of the two frequencies and thus be in tune (that note should also beat at the difference of the two frequencies). the human ear (well the human brain) tends to assign the pitch of things to the nearest note. they then had great fun howling and groaning along with it. it features in the film the fall of the house of fitzgerald. broadly horsemouth wanted to suggest some kind of magical transformation. 

punchdrunk blues howard brought. horsemouth just added the percussion and loads of clanging guitar. 

for the next set of recordings horsemouth thinks he should get the thumb piano and  the omnichord onboard, perhaps the banjolin too. in general though he wants to attempt some guitar duets. 

yesterday the sun shone. this is not totally true. it was often overcast. today looks like being grey and overcast all day, er. and rainy.  soon breakfast. then a walk then the one o'clock news.