a gentrification supernova will hit newham (allegedly), an arc of opportunity sweeping down from stratford, through canning town and out towards the campus of east seaside towns municipal college. meanwhile former plague pit islands (with former mental hospitals where lobotomies were performed) near venice will be leased out to help pay italy's debts. furthermore despite repeated sightings of the horror even sleepy dunwich appears scheduled for re-molition (like demolition but with a coffee shop). as horsemouth remarked (following benjamin - or was it kracaeur - it was benjamin) -
"even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins.”
horsemouth fumes and rages - by pure chance recently he was drunk in a pub discussing the relevance and usefulness of the term gentrification (glass, hamnett et al), the first drinker did not think gentrification was a very useful term as they found it difficult to pronounce, the second averred that they had never heard the term before today in their lives but, having heard it they thought it might be useful. he has to add that the pub was not in hackney (where the only topic for conversation is the closely related property prices) but the dock tavern near the excel center. however when having left horsemouth turned back to wave goodbye to his fellow drinkers he discovered it was in fact a ruin (having been demolished to make way for a land bank).
Sunday, 27 April 2014
joined in the harmonium (celestial harps)
here it's a grey morning but with signs that it may get better. no sign of the mouse last night (but then horsemouth did have the doors to his room closed and things shoved under the jamb). horsemouth has made clear to the mouse that it is not welcome - he should buy some inhumane traps today just in case it doesn't take the hint. and perhaps borrow a cat.
yesterday horsemouth went to chateau bremen (well ok first they drove up to the lake listening to the latest mixes). first they recorded an extra line of backing vocals and mixed the werewolf (but at the end of the day they concluded they may have turned howard's backing vocals down too low and may have to turn them back up again). they then mixed silver raven (a tricky one this- there's an instrumental verse but no real solo to go on it, there are many elements, it requires careful mixing to get the best out of what's on tape as it were). as the session was winding down horsemouth then spent some time recording a fauxharp ukelele part (to follow the fauxharp guitar part) and then a drone for father death blues, he topped it off with a meandering (because uncertain, because he does not play keyboard well) fauxharmonium part following the main melody. father death blues, as played by ginsberg, sits between western church music and indian music (joined in the harmonium), horsemouth is trying to move it in the direction of celestial harps. as a final thought they applied an eq to the voice (to hide the limitations of horsemouth's singing). howard may do some backing vocals. they've bought a new organ and are just waiting for it to come, they will then use it to add another drone - hopefully this will be enough to save it.
they then adjourned to the murder mile (howard remarked that this time it did not seem to be infested with ponces but horsemouth noted that instead it was infested with children, horsemouth suggested a running track round the main drag of the pub, howard a climbing frame outside - the unassuming famous singer from a famous band was there also, howard spotted him). after a restitutive three pints they returned and drunkenly listened through to the day's work, the tracks from the last two weeks and the best tracks from the band's work last summer. they have to make some choices about what sounds first rate and what's an also ran. horsemouth (of course) loves it all (as a parent would love a wayward child), other people may be inclined to be more critical however and so it is necessary that the track be beautiful and well behaved (to mix metaphors).
monday horsemouth and howard are back to work - the musicians will go into storage. it's a short term, hopefully they will be back to the musical endeavours soon.
yesterday horsemouth went to chateau bremen (well ok first they drove up to the lake listening to the latest mixes). first they recorded an extra line of backing vocals and mixed the werewolf (but at the end of the day they concluded they may have turned howard's backing vocals down too low and may have to turn them back up again). they then mixed silver raven (a tricky one this- there's an instrumental verse but no real solo to go on it, there are many elements, it requires careful mixing to get the best out of what's on tape as it were). as the session was winding down horsemouth then spent some time recording a fauxharp ukelele part (to follow the fauxharp guitar part) and then a drone for father death blues, he topped it off with a meandering (because uncertain, because he does not play keyboard well) fauxharmonium part following the main melody. father death blues, as played by ginsberg, sits between western church music and indian music (joined in the harmonium), horsemouth is trying to move it in the direction of celestial harps. as a final thought they applied an eq to the voice (to hide the limitations of horsemouth's singing). howard may do some backing vocals. they've bought a new organ and are just waiting for it to come, they will then use it to add another drone - hopefully this will be enough to save it.
they then adjourned to the murder mile (howard remarked that this time it did not seem to be infested with ponces but horsemouth noted that instead it was infested with children, horsemouth suggested a running track round the main drag of the pub, howard a climbing frame outside - the unassuming famous singer from a famous band was there also, howard spotted him). after a restitutive three pints they returned and drunkenly listened through to the day's work, the tracks from the last two weeks and the best tracks from the band's work last summer. they have to make some choices about what sounds first rate and what's an also ran. horsemouth (of course) loves it all (as a parent would love a wayward child), other people may be inclined to be more critical however and so it is necessary that the track be beautiful and well behaved (to mix metaphors).
monday horsemouth and howard are back to work - the musicians will go into storage. it's a short term, hopefully they will be back to the musical endeavours soon.
Tuesday, 22 April 2014
'a town without intimations'
horsemouth is very taken by albert camus description of oran in the introduction to his the plague (red cross I think it was - no british heart foundation - lewisham - two pounds fifty, when horsemouth got it home he discovered that he already had a copy - undisclosed charity shop 25p, but by then he'd started reading it... and anyway this just gives him a duplicate copy for disbursement). the reading of it goes smoothly and quickly (like camus' early stories that horsemouth read recently), it's like a j.g.ballard or defoe's journal of the plague year, or the opening set up of the decamaron or the opening set up to artaud's theatre and it's double, or foucault on the social discipline necessary to overcome the plague. (anyway it goes quickly p.84 so far)
it even opens with a quotation from defoe's robinson crusoe,
'it is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which does not!' - robinson crusoe's preface to the third volume of robinson crusoe. (there are of course several games being played here).
further to this horsemouth has also finished ronald blythe's account of an east anglian village akenfield which is truly great - he ends it by interviewing a gravedigger (who wants to be cremated and his ashes thrown straight up into the air). horsemouth may have to find another copy to give to is parents.
this morning horsemouth trammed it to lewisham and wandered from there over blackheath and down through greenwich. the sun shone and then it pissed it down. by the time horsemouth was home it was sunny again. for the next 4 days horsemouth works, and then similarly for the next 3 weeks, and then what?
it even opens with a quotation from defoe's robinson crusoe,
'it is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which does not!' - robinson crusoe's preface to the third volume of robinson crusoe. (there are of course several games being played here).
further to this horsemouth has also finished ronald blythe's account of an east anglian village akenfield which is truly great - he ends it by interviewing a gravedigger (who wants to be cremated and his ashes thrown straight up into the air). horsemouth may have to find another copy to give to is parents.
this morning horsemouth trammed it to lewisham and wandered from there over blackheath and down through greenwich. the sun shone and then it pissed it down. by the time horsemouth was home it was sunny again. for the next 4 days horsemouth works, and then similarly for the next 3 weeks, and then what?
Monday, 21 April 2014
portraits of curious characters
ok horsemouth did not go out to record store day - he went and recorded instead.
he played a backup guitar part for the instrumental verse on silver raven and a slide guitar part for it - they will probably pull out horsemouth's backing vocal for this this bit (just to give the tune some variation). horsemouth has been a little scared of the lap steel after getting a good take out of it first time (on sorrows of tomorrow) and then never again subsequently - fortunately he seems to have broken that jinx.
they also had a go at recording sorrows of tomorrow - horsemouth put on an acoustic slide guitar part (tuned daddad to avoid that pesky major to minor thing) and a pedalling octave bass part (d and a) on the lap steel creating something of a shuffle beat for it. it was all sounding too busy at the end but by pulling it back to just the ukelele and the vocal and the shuffle beat (and then judiciously adding other elements only as and when required) horsemouth and howard think it can be saved. you may have to wait a few days to hear the result of these endeavours - howard may try borrowing a keyboard and adding it to some of them.
 |
| artisan lapsteel guitar, zoom recorder, cheap sm58 copy microphone, recording either silver raven or sorrows of tomorrow. on the sofa - the 'bad taste' country guitar (cheap hummingbird copy). detroit arts festival t-shirt and remaining hair model's own. |
he played a backup guitar part for the instrumental verse on silver raven and a slide guitar part for it - they will probably pull out horsemouth's backing vocal for this this bit (just to give the tune some variation). horsemouth has been a little scared of the lap steel after getting a good take out of it first time (on sorrows of tomorrow) and then never again subsequently - fortunately he seems to have broken that jinx.
they also had a go at recording sorrows of tomorrow - horsemouth put on an acoustic slide guitar part (tuned daddad to avoid that pesky major to minor thing) and a pedalling octave bass part (d and a) on the lap steel creating something of a shuffle beat for it. it was all sounding too busy at the end but by pulling it back to just the ukelele and the vocal and the shuffle beat (and then judiciously adding other elements only as and when required) horsemouth and howard think it can be saved. you may have to wait a few days to hear the result of these endeavours - howard may try borrowing a keyboard and adding it to some of them.
Friday, 18 April 2014
'he don't even break the branches where he' s been and gone'
so horsemouth has listened to a documentary on the critics group a ewan macoll attempt to raise standards of folk song performance by means of the theories of stanislavsky and laban, by considering the meaning of the song and the position from which the song is sung, and how the singer can connect the words with his or her own experiences to change the emotion with which the song is sung (and have the conscious technique to be able to alter and control the singing voice to match this). of course the primary technique of the group is workshopping, performance and critique, and of course it become a cult, ending badly and explosively with accusations of theft of the equipment and the tapes of the crit sessions.
so howard asked, how would horsemouth think about this in terms his recent recordings for the musicians of bremen?
neither the werewolf nor silver raven are sung from the perspective of anyone in the drama - the singer of the werewolf is neither the werewolf, nor his human counterpart, nor someone who merely suspects he might be the werewolf, nor an assistant of the werewolf, but merely an average countryperson noting the phenomena - the critical line is 'he don't even break the branches where he' s been and gone' , (well ok his absence from the narrative must give rise to suspicions that he is the werewolf but it's no more than that). it is less stanislavsky and more tarkovsky, it's an experience of being in the woods, of a slight dissociation. cat power's version is in there, she is the werwolf 'tear(ing) off his clothes' (but not really), this is obviously her motive line, so is michael hurley's (but being a boy it's a bit less PC). horsemouth does not feel comfortable with this conflation of sex and violence and so has cut this line, though it remains the motivating pleasure in listening to the song. he sang it first in the projecting style of a first person actor (think johnny cash), then in a slightly more impressionistic 'dab' style (if we are thinking about the voice as gesture) - it is melodrama (in a term that macoll would use as a term of abuse). it's more mack the knife brecht and cabaret than method acting- certainly gentleman john is more this, a character sketch of a miscreant with no moral improvement intended.
silver raven is even more problematic - from what perspective could you see the silver raven flying beyond your dreams? the song is about exceeding a merely human point of view and yet the song repeatedly asks have you seen the silver raven like a sideshow barker (it's kind of have you ever been experienced an invitation to a carlos castaneda ethnomethodological glory). the only perspective it make sense to sing it from is a gods-eye-view one. (it's kind of a jonathan livingstone seagull cosmic country song). just as the scene was the forest, the scene is now the desert.
in blue crystal fire however we are directly the celebrant of the mystery, the song takes us into the soul of robbie basho dancing with deer with silver antlers.
none of these songs is strictly a folk song - none tells a tale, there is no protagonist within the drama who could sings it really, there is no 'I' who is 'drawing water from the well' noticing (distractedly) that it's spilling over on the grass. melodrama is a perfectly acceptable form of drama (practically all johnny cash's songs are of this sort - I taught the weeping willow how to cry- there's a man in black persona that is performed, and it is accepted as such.
father death blues at least is clearly sung from the perspective of (ginsberg) the son - he has a message for his father that death is not to be feared, we are surrounded and united in the family of death, dead mothers, aunts and uncles rising up out of the floor and getting on with everyday tasks in a strange combination of buddhism and the mexican day of the dead. everything is beautiful despite and because it already has death in it. ginsberg moves it further out into abstractions teacher death, genius death, suffering, ignorance until he returns to his father and to himself pronouncing himself cured of grief. (secretly horsemouth is horrified at the cold-bloodedness of his treatment of his father, the oedipidal revenge in this).
in singng bright phoebus horsemouth is simply the lover who is in love for the very first time precisely at that suspended moment when language turns into poetry. horsemouth likes this game.
so howard asked, how would horsemouth think about this in terms his recent recordings for the musicians of bremen?
neither the werewolf nor silver raven are sung from the perspective of anyone in the drama - the singer of the werewolf is neither the werewolf, nor his human counterpart, nor someone who merely suspects he might be the werewolf, nor an assistant of the werewolf, but merely an average countryperson noting the phenomena - the critical line is 'he don't even break the branches where he' s been and gone' , (well ok his absence from the narrative must give rise to suspicions that he is the werewolf but it's no more than that). it is less stanislavsky and more tarkovsky, it's an experience of being in the woods, of a slight dissociation. cat power's version is in there, she is the werwolf 'tear(ing) off his clothes' (but not really), this is obviously her motive line, so is michael hurley's (but being a boy it's a bit less PC). horsemouth does not feel comfortable with this conflation of sex and violence and so has cut this line, though it remains the motivating pleasure in listening to the song. he sang it first in the projecting style of a first person actor (think johnny cash), then in a slightly more impressionistic 'dab' style (if we are thinking about the voice as gesture) - it is melodrama (in a term that macoll would use as a term of abuse). it's more mack the knife brecht and cabaret than method acting- certainly gentleman john is more this, a character sketch of a miscreant with no moral improvement intended.
silver raven is even more problematic - from what perspective could you see the silver raven flying beyond your dreams? the song is about exceeding a merely human point of view and yet the song repeatedly asks have you seen the silver raven like a sideshow barker (it's kind of have you ever been experienced an invitation to a carlos castaneda ethnomethodological glory). the only perspective it make sense to sing it from is a gods-eye-view one. (it's kind of a jonathan livingstone seagull cosmic country song). just as the scene was the forest, the scene is now the desert.
in blue crystal fire however we are directly the celebrant of the mystery, the song takes us into the soul of robbie basho dancing with deer with silver antlers.
none of these songs is strictly a folk song - none tells a tale, there is no protagonist within the drama who could sings it really, there is no 'I' who is 'drawing water from the well' noticing (distractedly) that it's spilling over on the grass. melodrama is a perfectly acceptable form of drama (practically all johnny cash's songs are of this sort - I taught the weeping willow how to cry- there's a man in black persona that is performed, and it is accepted as such.
father death blues at least is clearly sung from the perspective of (ginsberg) the son - he has a message for his father that death is not to be feared, we are surrounded and united in the family of death, dead mothers, aunts and uncles rising up out of the floor and getting on with everyday tasks in a strange combination of buddhism and the mexican day of the dead. everything is beautiful despite and because it already has death in it. ginsberg moves it further out into abstractions teacher death, genius death, suffering, ignorance until he returns to his father and to himself pronouncing himself cured of grief. (secretly horsemouth is horrified at the cold-bloodedness of his treatment of his father, the oedipidal revenge in this).
in singng bright phoebus horsemouth is simply the lover who is in love for the very first time precisely at that suspended moment when language turns into poetry. horsemouth likes this game.
Sunday, 13 April 2014
history of the siege of lisbon blues
strangely jose saramago's history of the siege of lisbon gets a reference in john jeremiah sullivan's the ballad of geeshie and elvie in todays new york times - we are in the world of the collectors and archivists (harry smith, alan lomax being the only names horsemouth recognises) - and we are in this world with a desire to wrestle the lone voices on the recording down from the aether into photographs, birth certificates and surviving family members.
a young researcher placed with an old archivist just happens to have kept photos of documents after it 'doesn't work out' , one clue leads to another and we are with the surviving family and their stories. at one point our author worries that a document has been faked - like the history of the siege of lisbon where the editor of a boring conventional history decides to insert a not - the crusaders decide not to stay to help the portuguese retake lisbon from the moors. now make a history out of that says his boss.
maybe the history of the siege of lisbon is a clue here, perhaps we are being sold a pup, misdirected. horsemouth can't help reading it as a betrayal of trust, as a scam, and to what end, with photos (and family accounts) of the singer in later life we are really no closer to the mystery of the voice on the tape, or even of the guitar notes, as soon as they were recorded they split off and became themselves, this is what music does, the singer achieves a strange kind of immortality by lottery, of what gets saved from the wreck of ephemeral life by archivists and collectors. in publishing an account of this world the article has done us a favour.
a young researcher placed with an old archivist just happens to have kept photos of documents after it 'doesn't work out' , one clue leads to another and we are with the surviving family and their stories. at one point our author worries that a document has been faked - like the history of the siege of lisbon where the editor of a boring conventional history decides to insert a not - the crusaders decide not to stay to help the portuguese retake lisbon from the moors. now make a history out of that says his boss.
maybe the history of the siege of lisbon is a clue here, perhaps we are being sold a pup, misdirected. horsemouth can't help reading it as a betrayal of trust, as a scam, and to what end, with photos (and family accounts) of the singer in later life we are really no closer to the mystery of the voice on the tape, or even of the guitar notes, as soon as they were recorded they split off and became themselves, this is what music does, the singer achieves a strange kind of immortality by lottery, of what gets saved from the wreck of ephemeral life by archivists and collectors. in publishing an account of this world the article has done us a favour.
Saturday, 12 April 2014
a necessary corrective to a pastoral idyll
last night horsemouth read lillian hellman's introduction to anton chekov's letters but then started in earnest on ronald blythe's akenfield his account of a suffolk village, this was later made into a film staring local people - kind of like moi, pierre reverte...except without the murders, horsemouth has the press release from 1975 about it he found safely tucked away in the book.
the first story properly told in akenfield is of leonard thompson, a farm labourer, despite his brother dying in the boer war he joins the army in march 1914 just to get off the land and is delighted when war breaks out in august. he puts on weight in basic training because he is being fed properly for the first time and not worked to death, 'it literally happened. it is not a figure of speech' . at harwich 'we were bursting with happiness. we were all damn glad to have got off the farms' . at the dardanelles on the beach they find a marquee tent, inside that are the rotting bodies of the dead. they take and lose and retake hill 13 to the turks, by the end of it only 3 men of the 60 in his unit at harwich have survived. after gallipoli he was sent to france, he survives the somme but is taken prisoner after arras, in clogs in winter they dig the keil railway, many prisoners die. on november 5th 1918 some mutinous german sailors arrive and free them advising them to go and pick potatoes in the fields. he eventually makes it back to the village. some things have change for the better - there are unions and a wages board, but in the summer of 21 there is a drought, the corn act has been repealled because the government doesn't want to pay the subsidy, it descends into years of poverty and persecution before the union can be re-established again in the thirties.
horsemouth thinks this is a necessary corrective to a pastoral idyll that is portrayed as preceding the first world war as if everything was ok until then.
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