so horsemouth will miss the vegetable sermon for the year - an annually preached (27th may) sermon on the benefits of horticulture. hunter gatherers and their anthropologists may object to it but on the whole horsemouth views horticulture as an excellent thing. (on the other hand horsemouth is not a fan of keeping animals - he believes in the separation of humans and animals even if it means the end of cheese rolling).
the flood waters receded the new world became visible. the vegetable kingdom put forth new shoots and takes back the mere earth with magical speed. horsemouth walked across a round field (presumably the site of an old waterworks) and found a field of buttercups. this is the image horsemouth found interesting in noah - it is an attempt once again to re-enter the garden of eden. please give the song a listen and let horsemouth know what you think. he's proud of it, he's proud of the big kosmiche delayed guitar swirl of it (musicians of bremen the stadium rock years)
horsemouth has been reading elizabeth west's hovel in the hills (from howard - which he compares favourably to deep country). he supposes rather than a desire for the solitary off-grid existence hovel is motivated by a desire to get away from alienated labour (if only as far as is possible). horsemouth likes the failure of the locals to mention that the cottage floods, he likes their willful refusal to discuss their problems with condensation and the mold that all the local cottages suffer from, he likes the cycle of bodged repairs (bed springs in the hedges) typical of agricultural areas before they are gentrified.
he's within a page of finishing it. it ends with lists of wild food eaten, birds spotted, and gives you their garden plan, 'the simple life on a pittance' . faced by the interminable political defeat it is tempting to go off to the hills and grow potatoes and eat more wild salad. this was broadly horsemouth's grandparent's plan after the second world war - except they moved to devon (which is considerably warmer and drier) and horsemouth's grandfather had been working as an agricultural labourer for a while.
conversely today is the anniversary of the founding of st. petersberg which (like venice) just goes to prove anything can be done.
saturday is the anniversary of the birth of harry smith.
Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Monday, 25 May 2015
horsemouth and noah (and horsemouth's self-inflicted beer injuries)
horsemouth's head hurts. last night (to celebrate horsemouth's getting a guitar part in time and a general freedom from work) horsemouth and howard went out for a beer at the murder mile. they drank and they drank and they drank. at about 9pm the music seemed to get better and horsemouth and howard went from being their dads (sitting in a pub with glasses of bitter bemoaning humanity) to becoming the sad old dudes you see dancing in pubs while pissed. howard thought it might be better if the people danced (it wasn't).
horsemouth is slightly barbecue flavoured as the result of a small fire they had in the back garden after - they listened to music on the laptop dream baby dream by suicide, the kiss by judee sill, superstition stevie wonder.
horsemouth was there to put a guitar part on noah but they couldn't get it to sit in and stay in time - the tempo seemed a touch too fast, the initial ukulele part a little too roughly timed - they decided to scrap what they had and re-record it to drums rather than to click track using cubase to loop the verses and choruses and using the best takes for each. horsemouth layed down two simplified rhythm guitar parts (using howard's acoustic and his own resonator) and then a track of solo. he also double tracked the main vocal. there will be two versions of the song - one for horsemouth's upcoming solo plus guests recording (with a horsemouth lead vocal) and another extended version with drums more in the line of howard's recent recordings. both howard and horsemouth will be going out separately as the musician of bremen (there that should confuse them) and perhaps sometimes combining forces to become musicians of bremen.
horsemouth's blog post today was going to be about boredom - but he's feeling a little too rough to discuss such weighty topics.
Saturday, 23 May 2015
may's books (so far) (and gigs)
- 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
gigs
- electric wizard, the cosmic dead
- magma
on the benefits of posthumous fame
once again it was sunny before horsemouth woke up and has gone cloudy-ish after. later he goes to a meeting (how much good it will do he doesn't know). edith sitwell's english eccentrics ends with the treatment meeted out to milton in his coffin at st. giles cripplegate, his jaw smashed, his arm taken, his hair ripped out by souvenir hunters - all this in a chapter entited on the benefits of posthumous fame.
horsemouth will never be famous (posthumously or unposthumously). he will never have groupies by the score, a stately pile and/or musical differences (horsemouth, venal creature that he is, is mainly interested in the unposthumous benefits of fame). in this, as in so many other things, life is deeply deeply unfair. he will however continue to live (what's the alternative).
next week (half term for breeders and educationalists) horsemouth goes to make some music with howard, to finish off noah most probably. it looks like howard will be away somewhere sunny over the summer - then horsemouth will probably put some work into recording his solo album (with the odd guest spot) and his existing collaborations. he wants to do some more work with john clarkson on a harmonium/ omnichord and guitar duo (they haven't for a while) and the guitar and vocal duo with andrew minty continues well. he will hunt out some more collaborations. it's all part of his plan to move from having guest spots to appearing as a collective the next time he is booked as the musician of bremen.
he'd just like to make a further plea for the genius of alice coltrane here...
horsemouth has been playing la fille au cheveux de lin a lot - slide, guitar tuned open-G. there's more to be done like this - debussy's pagodes for example (which horsemouth planned out in november 2008 but never completed leaving the guitar tuned ready to play it in the cupboard for a number of years), l'arlesienne the main theme from bizet's opera later adapted as the hymn agnus dei (this horsemouth would have to relearn how to play).
horsemouth will never be famous (posthumously or unposthumously). he will never have groupies by the score, a stately pile and/or musical differences (horsemouth, venal creature that he is, is mainly interested in the unposthumous benefits of fame). in this, as in so many other things, life is deeply deeply unfair. he will however continue to live (what's the alternative).
next week (half term for breeders and educationalists) horsemouth goes to make some music with howard, to finish off noah most probably. it looks like howard will be away somewhere sunny over the summer - then horsemouth will probably put some work into recording his solo album (with the odd guest spot) and his existing collaborations. he wants to do some more work with john clarkson on a harmonium/ omnichord and guitar duo (they haven't for a while) and the guitar and vocal duo with andrew minty continues well. he will hunt out some more collaborations. it's all part of his plan to move from having guest spots to appearing as a collective the next time he is booked as the musician of bremen.
he'd just like to make a further plea for the genius of alice coltrane here...
horsemouth has been playing la fille au cheveux de lin a lot - slide, guitar tuned open-G. there's more to be done like this - debussy's pagodes for example (which horsemouth planned out in november 2008 but never completed leaving the guitar tuned ready to play it in the cupboard for a number of years), l'arlesienne the main theme from bizet's opera later adapted as the hymn agnus dei (this horsemouth would have to relearn how to play).
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
we are into the bright quarter of the year
ok (as promised) back to business as usual (or its opposite) with a quote from benjamin that could be by platonov (here goes);
we are into the bright quarter of the year - the 13 weeks of the longest days and strongest sun. outside it doesn't look too bad (horsemouth will probably go for a walk). faced by the continued blockage of historical time horsemouth returns to cyclical time to be re-energised. to cheer himself up friday night he went out to see magma with sean - a world in which a band that is essentially a cross between the carmina burana and return to forever can prosper for decades is a world that can afford hope (hell, behind horsemouth someone was loudly singing along). in a way it reminds horsemouth of ravel's chansons madécasses based on lyrics in a fake ethnic language by evariste-désiré de parny (1753–1814).
some have responded with anger and frustration to the election result (moving nicely down kübler-ross straße) but to horsemouth this is not necessary - we are exactly where we were before the election (except that people have realised the scale of the task). we cannot, in brecht's phrase, elect another people, but another people has been created by decades of tory and blairite rule. whenever horsemouth engaged in reformist means he was firmly told that they could not work and yet people seem to be taking the election to heart - but it cannot work as any kind of an assessment of what people want - they answered the question put to them - they were not asked do you want a better world? how do we get there? they were asked how do you want your capitalism/ austerity/ racism/ militarism? etc.
the road out of hell is a long one - the road to the bearable first circle of the virtuous pagans is long enough.
'this immense wooing of the cosmos was enacted for the first time on a planetary scale, that is, in the spirit of technology.' - walter benjamin from the last paragraph of one way street.
we are into the bright quarter of the year - the 13 weeks of the longest days and strongest sun. outside it doesn't look too bad (horsemouth will probably go for a walk). faced by the continued blockage of historical time horsemouth returns to cyclical time to be re-energised. to cheer himself up friday night he went out to see magma with sean - a world in which a band that is essentially a cross between the carmina burana and return to forever can prosper for decades is a world that can afford hope (hell, behind horsemouth someone was loudly singing along). in a way it reminds horsemouth of ravel's chansons madécasses based on lyrics in a fake ethnic language by evariste-désiré de parny (1753–1814).
some have responded with anger and frustration to the election result (moving nicely down kübler-ross straße) but to horsemouth this is not necessary - we are exactly where we were before the election (except that people have realised the scale of the task). we cannot, in brecht's phrase, elect another people, but another people has been created by decades of tory and blairite rule. whenever horsemouth engaged in reformist means he was firmly told that they could not work and yet people seem to be taking the election to heart - but it cannot work as any kind of an assessment of what people want - they answered the question put to them - they were not asked do you want a better world? how do we get there? they were asked how do you want your capitalism/ austerity/ racism/ militarism? etc.
the road out of hell is a long one - the road to the bearable first circle of the virtuous pagans is long enough.
Monday, 11 May 2015
On defeat (a range of responses)
it has all happened before and will happen again
horsemouth supposes that we are back with the days of looking to the house of lords and the general synod to defend us from the government. back with decades of uninterrupted tory rule. back, in fact, to the eighties. (gawdelpus)
had it been different it would still be the same
of course if things had been different they would still be the same - this is the beauty of the stability of the british political system (a million people will vote green - they will get one seat). instead of five years of horrific destruction of the welfare state under the conservatives we would have had five years of mealy mouthed failure to defend it under labour (the originators of the marketisation of the nhs lest we forget).
when horsemouth's friends voted labour they were voting for the bevanite dream of the nhs and the welfare state but they would have received a blairite reality check from ed balls and (at best) a less steep deficit reduction curve.
bring forth the scapegoat
let us be frank - 'immigrant' and 'scrounger' kicking plays well not just in the provinces but nearly everywhere. it is much easier to blame people of low social status who are near to you for problems than to blame people of high social status who are far away, or indeed global economic systems. indeed the labour party succumbed to 'the politics of fear' themselves in issuing anti-immigration mugs, failing to embrace the SNP, and to cap it off will probably now be playing a brisk round of 'blame ed milliband he does look a bit funny doesn't he'. prognosis: rightwards lurching, embracing of marketisation etc.
the country and the city
friends have been reading raymond williams' the country and the city, there may be something in this. horsemouth always used to think this whenever he left hackney and got the train back to his parents in the wilds of herefordshire - as the green rolled by horsemouth's sense that revolution was imminent (the way it looked in hackney in the eighties) would evapourate like mist on a summer day.
it's all the fault of the proles (who are stupid and smelly and racist not like the cosmopolitan elites who are intelligent, well-groomed and er... cosmopolitan)
(st. george of orwell says it so it must be true).
one of horsemouth's problems was that the first thing he did was check social media and horsemouth's friends are pretty much of the same opinion (broadly) as horsemouth (this is why gchq and the nsa like it so much), it was only later that he checked the mainstream media and realised the full extent of the defeat. from horsemouth's own experience anti-east european racism simmers away among builders we are just not confronting the arguments like we should.
tories for scottish independence if you combine the labour and SNP vote it's still a defeat (but a narrow one). but if scotland gets independence it's a permanent defeat that cannot be overcome. think on that you conservative and unionists.
if you didn't vote you can't complain. if you did vote you voted for it in a democratic system so you can't complain.
complain as you like but do as you're told.
if it happens again I'm leaving (UB40)
horsemouth has no problems with being in exile (as long as there's sun). cambodia is the new thailand. horsemouth's friends sing the praises of burma.
any other good responses horsemouth hasn't considered yet?
------------------------
ok next time (business as usual) - a beautiful quote from benjamin that's just like platonov.
horsemouth supposes that we are back with the days of looking to the house of lords and the general synod to defend us from the government. back with decades of uninterrupted tory rule. back, in fact, to the eighties. (gawdelpus)
had it been different it would still be the same
of course if things had been different they would still be the same - this is the beauty of the stability of the british political system (a million people will vote green - they will get one seat). instead of five years of horrific destruction of the welfare state under the conservatives we would have had five years of mealy mouthed failure to defend it under labour (the originators of the marketisation of the nhs lest we forget).
when horsemouth's friends voted labour they were voting for the bevanite dream of the nhs and the welfare state but they would have received a blairite reality check from ed balls and (at best) a less steep deficit reduction curve.
bring forth the scapegoat
let us be frank - 'immigrant' and 'scrounger' kicking plays well not just in the provinces but nearly everywhere. it is much easier to blame people of low social status who are near to you for problems than to blame people of high social status who are far away, or indeed global economic systems. indeed the labour party succumbed to 'the politics of fear' themselves in issuing anti-immigration mugs, failing to embrace the SNP, and to cap it off will probably now be playing a brisk round of 'blame ed milliband he does look a bit funny doesn't he'. prognosis: rightwards lurching, embracing of marketisation etc.
the country and the city
friends have been reading raymond williams' the country and the city, there may be something in this. horsemouth always used to think this whenever he left hackney and got the train back to his parents in the wilds of herefordshire - as the green rolled by horsemouth's sense that revolution was imminent (the way it looked in hackney in the eighties) would evapourate like mist on a summer day.
it's all the fault of the proles (who are stupid and smelly and racist not like the cosmopolitan elites who are intelligent, well-groomed and er... cosmopolitan)
(st. george of orwell says it so it must be true).
one of horsemouth's problems was that the first thing he did was check social media and horsemouth's friends are pretty much of the same opinion (broadly) as horsemouth (this is why gchq and the nsa like it so much), it was only later that he checked the mainstream media and realised the full extent of the defeat. from horsemouth's own experience anti-east european racism simmers away among builders we are just not confronting the arguments like we should.
tories for scottish independence if you combine the labour and SNP vote it's still a defeat (but a narrow one). but if scotland gets independence it's a permanent defeat that cannot be overcome. think on that you conservative and unionists.
if you didn't vote you can't complain. if you did vote you voted for it in a democratic system so you can't complain.
complain as you like but do as you're told.
if it happens again I'm leaving (UB40)
horsemouth has no problems with being in exile (as long as there's sun). cambodia is the new thailand. horsemouth's friends sing the praises of burma.
any other good responses horsemouth hasn't considered yet?
------------------------
ok next time (business as usual) - a beautiful quote from benjamin that's just like platonov.
Wednesday, 6 May 2015
horsemouth (you know the name)
outside the wind blows, the clouds move and the sunshine comes and goes. later horsemouth thinks he will wander off in search of cheap coffee (they were doing two for a fiver on lavazza at the megamart in docklands). horsemouth has nothing to do today but shuffle about, read books, and possibly buy bread so he can polish off the sneaky camembert he has lurking (is it stinky? yes it is.)
lukacs writes a new introduction (to history and class consciousness) specifically to argue that he is irrelevant and that the marxism of lenin is utterly correct and has been completely vindicated by history - he is batting on a slightly sticky wickett because he has to make use of the work of rosa luxemburg (horsemouth has the paul frolich book on her round here somewhere) who is more than slightly heretical having had the temerity to 'improve' things.
last night horsemouth watched large chunks of charlie aherne's wildstyle (in italian) - the trains roll round the city like large mobile works of art delivering the art to the populace (whether it wants it or not), style wars is similar. if all goes well horsemouth will work a two-and-a-half day week next week and that will be it he will be free (nay oblidged) to frolic in verdant pastures all summer long. (to such extent have the conditions of the working class improved).
following a suggestion by denise horsemouth has been playing through susan reed's version of I'm sad and I'm lonely (to a foursquare C, F,G,C) rather than the (E, Am, C, Am) version he's been playing with howard in musicians of bremen.
lukacs writes a new introduction (to history and class consciousness) specifically to argue that he is irrelevant and that the marxism of lenin is utterly correct and has been completely vindicated by history - he is batting on a slightly sticky wickett because he has to make use of the work of rosa luxemburg (horsemouth has the paul frolich book on her round here somewhere) who is more than slightly heretical having had the temerity to 'improve' things.
'every quotation is also an interpretation' - lukacs
last night horsemouth watched large chunks of charlie aherne's wildstyle (in italian) - the trains roll round the city like large mobile works of art delivering the art to the populace (whether it wants it or not), style wars is similar. if all goes well horsemouth will work a two-and-a-half day week next week and that will be it he will be free (nay oblidged) to frolic in verdant pastures all summer long. (to such extent have the conditions of the working class improved).
following a suggestion by denise horsemouth has been playing through susan reed's version of I'm sad and I'm lonely (to a foursquare C, F,G,C) rather than the (E, Am, C, Am) version he's been playing with howard in musicians of bremen.
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