Tuesday, 9 August 2022

new excuses for the anti-social ('mabley green is like death valley')

so the photos are coming in from the camping trip horsemouth did not go on (dammit).

yesterday a walk up to walthamstow st. james street - there and back again 5 miles or so. horsemouth pretends he was going there to look for books but in his heart of hearts he knew the oxfam was shut and that the other two charity shops he visits on the bottom of the market have very limited selections.  really he went for the walk and he went early - not quite the first customer in the doors but nearly.

he types this wearing a jumper (it is a grey morning only just clearing). this he thought would never be possible again yesterday afternoon. a week of plus 30 beckons. 

for the early part of yesterday afternoon horsemouth hid in doors - a friend described mabley green as being like death valley. he listened to the hawkbinge podcast episode about PXR 5. they take as their guide the order in which the albums were released and only take the studio albums. horsemouth suggested that  really you should listen to hawklords next (which was released before PXR 5 but actually recorded after) so the order would be astounding sounds - quark - PXR 5 - hawklords. this would be a good guide to the calvert years.

possibly sonic assassins too. chipped in a friend. 

yes. this is their defect (replied horsemouth). they won't allow themselves access to the live albums. the singles. the bootlegs. they are forced to pretend that the good stuff wasn't usually recorded live and then overdubbed (in the case of PXR 5 this would be  robot and uncle sam's on mars). though frankly it does mean clunkers like back on the streets can be avoided. matt (the youngster) does at least lead one to the important questions such as - why on earth you would follow up high rise with a clunker like PXR 5? why on earth you would ever commit flying doctor to tape? 

once you let yourself listen to sonic assassins you  can hear that harvey bainbridge and martin griffin (of devon band ARK) had heard stratus by billy cobham. this horsemouth had never suspected because he didn't hear stratus until much later (as a result of massive attack robbing it for safe from harm), you can hear calvert attempting to busk or freestyle the lyrics (and why the through composed version on hawklords is so much better). 

later the C4 news. the ex-PM is having a nice rest and refusing to do anything (to be fair this was the condition of being allowed to keep the keys to no.10). meanwhile the future PM is engaged in hand to hand combat for the delectation of the tory party faithful. the plan seems to be to sacrifice the people to greater profits for mammon in october (and have some tax cuts for the rich).  horsemouth suggests they sort that one out in a hurry. 

after the C4 news horsemouth could find nothing he fancied watching. he fiddled about on the computer and then he went to sleep early.

it is 7 years since the release of musicians of bremen volume two an album with which horsemouth had surprisingly little to do. it is essentially a solo album for the other musician of bremen - horsemouth contributes a lyric and some guitars to blackwall tunnel and he sings and plays vast quantities of guitars on noah (a song he co-wrote), other than that it is all yer man

and very good it is too. yer man is mostly playing the hohner 6 string guitar (but also the ukulele for sure on noah and blackwall tunnel), all keyboards, and he recruited a singer (ruth chiat) for two tracks who does a great job.  horsemouth thinks it is the neglected jewel in the collection. 

based on yer man having recorded a solo album (in all but name) horsemouth was able to argue that he should have his own solo album in all but name (and that would be volume three with horsemouth singing the main vocals and yer man singing the back ups). 

they then re-united (to a certain extent)  for volume four, covers, the humming, and all of that. if horsemouth has a criticism of volume four  it would be that he's not convinced they reformed the band nor that they picked the right tracks for the album - amarach he is convinced by, am I born to die he is not, wonky he is convinced by (but it's entirely yer man's), blindspot  so nearly makes it, he could go on. 

a friend has purchased the collection - horsemouth should wander the CDs down to him. 



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