books
on collecting - lord eccles (still reading but will finish soon),
man and his symbols - ed. c.g. jung (first few chapters),
fools, frauds and firebrands - roger scruton (all),
thoughts on machiavelli - leo strauss (introduction only so far),
cultural capital - robert hewison (dips),
gigs
sharron kraus, directorsound
films
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, groundhog day, the big sleep (michael winner version), pranzo di ferragosto.
Saturday, 31 October 2015
Friday, 30 October 2015
did ganesh remove the obstacles? (and did horsemouth re-install them?)
horsemouth is thinking that ganesh has answered his prayer for more gigs but that horsemouth (the little bolter that he is) managed to refuse to accept his good fortune the first time around. perhaps he can make himself accept it second time around.
halloween (this time last year) horsemouth was playing a gig, he'd played two gigs prior to it as part of musicians of bremen, he had a new CD to promote (the CD and cardboard instance of what can be had online as the first 3 EPs) and indeed he promoted it by extracting it from a small pumpkin live onstage.) this year howard has launched musicians of bremen on i-tunes - here's the single and here inline is a youtube link for blackwall tunnel.
but now the cafe bohemia gig opportunity direction appears to have shut off (presumably due to horsemouth’s failure or inability to quid the pro quo or pro quo the quid - it’s too early in the morning for him to be able to tell which, well a failure to reciprocate with the gigging certainly). and horsemouth is scuffling about for more gigging opportunities - he's like to take musicians of bremen out somewhere (but it's problematic).
but at least let us thank fuck the week is over.
on the plus side horsemouth is ahead by leo strauss’s thoughts on machiavelli (1.99 oxfam pimlico) as a consolation prize, it will go with althusser and coletti’s thoughts on the matter. to move it on here we have a class of german elementary school students singing we are the robots.
halloween (this time last year) horsemouth was playing a gig, he'd played two gigs prior to it as part of musicians of bremen, he had a new CD to promote (the CD and cardboard instance of what can be had online as the first 3 EPs) and indeed he promoted it by extracting it from a small pumpkin live onstage.) this year howard has launched musicians of bremen on i-tunes - here's the single and here inline is a youtube link for blackwall tunnel.
but now the cafe bohemia gig opportunity direction appears to have shut off (presumably due to horsemouth’s failure or inability to quid the pro quo or pro quo the quid - it’s too early in the morning for him to be able to tell which, well a failure to reciprocate with the gigging certainly). and horsemouth is scuffling about for more gigging opportunities - he's like to take musicians of bremen out somewhere (but it's problematic).
but at least let us thank fuck the week is over.
on the plus side horsemouth is ahead by leo strauss’s thoughts on machiavelli (1.99 oxfam pimlico) as a consolation prize, it will go with althusser and coletti’s thoughts on the matter. to move it on here we have a class of german elementary school students singing we are the robots.
Thursday, 22 October 2015
‘O, How I Dreamt of Things Impossible.’ (the apocalypse and graphic design)
while jung was comfortable with this death imagery freud was not - viewing it as oedipidal on jung’s part - on their way to america in 1909 they’d stoped off at the bleikeller in bremen (which horsemouth assumes is like klatovy or brno in the czech republic with air dried monks or citizens incorruptible in the church crypt) - ‘he cherished the peculiar idea that I contemplated his early death’ said jung.
Saturday, 17 October 2015
When and why did you first write music?
When and why did you first write music?
At College on my Fine Art Degree I became interested in minimalism making white paintings and gently scratching into them with a blade. At the time I was going to see a lot of the American minimalist composers at the RFH. Back at college I found a room full of dusty old musical equipment and proceeded to experiment with multi track tape loops, I couldn't play any instruments so it was just voice and found sound. As a kid I'd always been fascinated with Revolution No 9 by the Beatles so I guess I threw some of that cut up method in there too.
In the late nineties I was in a couple of bands, improv and the like, also was in an electronic duo, with a mix of improvisation and Atari ST sequencing.
What’s your composing method? (a) sitting at a piano (b) computer (c) pencil on manuscript paper (d) improvisation with musicians (e) other.
All of the above I've done in the past.
With the first MOB album I would usually get a line or a chord sequence and take it to horsemouth and we'd flesh it out together. With the latest EP, we did some of that but the majority was me playing around with the ukulele. I consciously tried to stay away from obvious chords, but on the ukulele that's hard to do. So I bought a guitar which I don't know how to play and that helped free me from knowing what I was doing.
Where do your ideas come from?
We have one song where we have lifted the lyrics out of the Quran, but even that has a familiar theme of loss, of water, of distance between people. The first album was directly related to the end of a relationship. horsemouth and I would have these competitions as to who could find the bleakest songs and that influenced my writing and allowed me to go to very dark places. I wrote about me, but also was influenced by the news (man loses job, kills family, etc). This EP I tried to make more positive, the bleakness, the sense of helplessness is there I think, but there are hopefully some uplifting choral moments. There's a song we have done two versions of (Noah), mine ends on a positive note whilst horsemouth's is more in the spirit of the band.
I got a lot of lyrics for the new songs too from listening to conversations on buses or trains. One was inspired by a road rage incident I saw, another came from a report about the Blackwall Tunnel that horsemouth saw. I wove that one into a memory I had of being in the back of a car whilst the couple in the front seats were arguing about the most trivial things, yet they'd managed to keep their relationship alive for years.
Do you find inspiration from other musicians? Which?
Yes lots. This kind of music is fairly new to me, I must say I have immersed myself in the folk scene over the last couple of years, before that it was a small part of what I listened to. A lot of the first album with the Musicians of Bremen came from listening to old folk songs especially from Appalachia. I'm a hoarder when it comes to music, so I have a massive collection. People say they can hear the old Madchester scene in some of the songs on the new EP, I admit I did try to give a few songs a Mondays bounce. I can hear a bit of Nick Drake, certainly the Beta Band and Department of Eagles. All fairly conventional really. One direct influence on the tune 'Yer up and Y down' is Syd Barrett weirdness and a track by Bauhaus called 'The sky's gone out'.
yer up and Y down is a completely improvised track, which goes into this ambient part based on a holiday me and horsemouth went on. It's supposed to be us watching a group of people sitting in a pub and then walking home, but I imagined I was by myself in the song, so you hear only one set of footsteps. Oh forgot to mention a track by Caribou remixed by Four Tet, it's called Melody Day. A few more, Painting Silhouettes by Quantic, some of the Hush Arbors stuff, John Sinclair by John Lennon and Skydive by the Astronauts.
Which non-musical influences are important to your music?
Listening to conversations on buses, a few of the conversations I recorded and included on the last EP. Some of the stuff I see whilst cycling, especially the really angry scenes that can sometimes occur.
What do you say when asked to describe your music?
No one's asked me to describe it. I would say it goes through waves stylistically. I think the next music I/we record will have less structure, be more experimental. What would I say if someone asked me; it's well recorded, it says something worth hearing. I'm proud of it. It's the kind of music I would go out and buy and if I was a punter, a listener, I would be excited to hear what might come next. Actually I would probably just say, it's a bit folky, acousticy, with harmonies. Some of it's a bit depressing. A lot of the songs on this EP are about love (in a strange sort of way)
Do you think about the listener when you’re composing?
I think, would the people I know be interested in listening to it, they have good tastes, so if it can pass their judgement then I'm doing alright.
When did you feel ready to call yourself a composer?
When I started composing.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
I don't feel guilty about listening to music, that's a very Catholic question.
What’s your ideal night out?
It's not going out and dancing all night like it used to be. Although actually an ideal night out would be wandering around a big festival like Glastonbury with my best friends and seeing what strange events we can find.
One last question: What are you doing musically at the moment?
I'm having a break, I have passed on the studio and most of the instruments to horsemouth so he can have a go. I have started a Musicians of Bremen podcast where once a month we put a track listing together and release it to the internet. Sometimes it's good to have a break though.
Friday, 16 October 2015
on gentrification ' the problem just moves somewhere else'
ah it is in the morning that horsemouth’s regrets come and line up round his bed. oh look - they’ve brought a picnic. looks as though they’re here to stay.
horsemouth plans to curate a series of unintentionally illuminating verbatim comments lifted from his surroundings (only minimally improved by the mule you understand) of which ' the problem just moves somewhere else' made in a discussion of photographs of shop fronts usually inhabited by bowery derelicts (but not for the purposes of the photograph) and now presumably gentrified is the first.
the poor are of course ‘a problem’ (as any fule no) and gentrification just means they, or singularly ‘the problem’ - just ‘moves somewhere else’. which is pretty much the meaning of gentrification as horsemouth understands it - it is however nice to see it as policy emerge glistening and fully formed from the head of liberal humanitarian complaint.
at least, thank fuck, no one is talking about ‘solving it’. (though doubtless photography would have a role to play here too).
on a photographer taking a photo of a vulture waiting for a baby to die
' there is an animal looking for human death for it to feed itself'
(misheard on the train) 'should the opportunity prevent itself'
(read in discussion on time) ' unfulfilled necessity'
(in a proposal for a new language) 'ten vowels which also serve as digits'
horsemouth plans to curate a series of unintentionally illuminating verbatim comments lifted from his surroundings (only minimally improved by the mule you understand) of which ' the problem just moves somewhere else' made in a discussion of photographs of shop fronts usually inhabited by bowery derelicts (but not for the purposes of the photograph) and now presumably gentrified is the first.
the poor are of course ‘a problem’ (as any fule no) and gentrification just means they, or singularly ‘the problem’ - just ‘moves somewhere else’. which is pretty much the meaning of gentrification as horsemouth understands it - it is however nice to see it as policy emerge glistening and fully formed from the head of liberal humanitarian complaint.
at least, thank fuck, no one is talking about ‘solving it’. (though doubtless photography would have a role to play here too).
on a photographer taking a photo of a vulture waiting for a baby to die
' there is an animal looking for human death for it to feed itself'
(misheard on the train) 'should the opportunity prevent itself'
(read in discussion on time) ' unfulfilled necessity'
(in a proposal for a new language) 'ten vowels which also serve as digits'
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
the monkey in the mirror
When and why did you first write music?
It would be when I got my first guitar when I was 15. I thought it would attract the girls if I could sing some songs but I couldn’t sing anyone else’s (so I set out to write my own). Later I was told that I couldn’t sing - so I just concentrated on playing the guitar (even though I was terrible at that also - at first).
What’s your composing method? (a) sitting at a piano (b) computer (c) pencil on manuscript paper (d) improvisation with musicians (e) other.
Mostly (e) Other - guitar, pen, various bits of paper, my voice. Normally I’ll have a few guitar parts sitting around for ages and then some ideas for a topic will come and then I’ll sit down and work at it until I have all the lyrical bits and all the instrumental bits stuck together in kind of the right place. Then once I can play it through I stop work on it. Jarvis was right - lyrics are kind of like the homework that has to be done so you can play the song - this is why I favour songs with repeated choruses, wordless lyrics..., working with other people to write either the music or the lyrics, or both. I spend a lot of time arranging, working on other people’s stuff, trying to find the useful thing for the guitar to do in the tune, or for any other instruments. I’m quite quick at writing lyrics - normally songs come very quickly but take a long time to be finished.
Usually I don’t write enough lyrics to tell a story - but perhaps enough to suggest that something is going on. Really I think you only need a few really good lines - and the rest just have to be good enough so that they don’t let the song down.
When I was in a band (bush house) playing electric guitar the bassist was incredibly inventive - whatever I played (or thought could be played behind it) he’d come up with something better, sometimes (though less often) other members of the band would come up with smart things and I’d respond to them. I’ve never really done improvised music and I don’t much like doing it really. I’ve written on computer (but I was always thinking about what the guitar, the bass or the lyrics would be doing) - it’s fun (it gets rid of a lot of that haggling with other musicians to get your ideas played that you get in male bands).
Music is an irrational activity so song-writing partnerships don’t tend to last long - the ease of recording that technology affords means the song can be quickly completed (and then it’s on to the next project). Now that you no longer need to be in a band to play some tunes they tend to stay together for less time.
Where do your ideas come from?
Life, books, newspapers, other people’s songs. I keep lists of good lines, good titles, ideas for playing things, ideas for songs, lyrics.
“Noah’ (which I co-wrote with Howard Grange) came because we were opening a book at random at picking out lines - once it was about Noah - once we had the chorus, the rest of the lyrics wrote themselves - for me it’s about loss, the world has been swept clean and can begin again but somebody is missing. The chords came (both verse and chorus) because they fitted with the ukulele part. Howard wanted a longer version of the song with more lyrics and a bigger overall production on it - so we did a version like that that’s on volume one - but there’s also a shorter version arranged much more how I would like it online (we’ll probably put it on my EP when i get round to recording it). The second guitar I wrote in the studio and started improvising out over the end of it - I’ve always been interested in layering guitar parts, it’s something I picked up from african music and my brief studies with Folo Graff at Jenako Arts in Hackney in about 1988.
Do you find inspiration from other composers? Which?
Since about 2002 I’ve started learning other people’s songs from sheet music, chord guides etc. and listening to more classical music and learning some of it (or at least trying). In particular french classical music written for the piano- debussy, satie, faure, messiaen. Conversely I’ve worked on learning country and folk songs because they are straightforward - the guitar is just there to support the singing and singing has become more important to me than fiddly guitar parts. In general I’ve been inspired to simplify.
Which non-musical influences are important to your music?
Life, books, newspapers, politics, sex, death. Death is big (I’m a bit of a goth really).
What do you say when asked to describe your music?
‘Post-apocalyptic folk’, ‘I play in a guitar and ukulele duo’, ‘Slide guitar versions of french parlor piano.’
Do you think about the listener when you’re composing?
Not really. Sometimes I imagine me playing it and people really liking it.
When did you feel ready to call yourself a composer?
Well I don’t. I don’t really call my self a song-writer either (I just don’t write enough songs). Musician for hire - Guitar, Bass, one finger keyboard, backing vocals, arrangements.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
Metal. Big cock-rocking guitar solos. Gangster Rap. R n’ B. Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes, Mike Oldfield, ECM airbrushed jazz ... I’ve always been told I had ‘bad’ taste in music. I can’t say I care very much.
What’s your ideal night out?
Old school Drum and Bass - I like to dance. Failing that a decent pub dancefloor. Failing that beer and friends. These days staying in and not having the hangover the next day.
One last question: What are you doing musically at the moment?
Working on singing a version of world turned upside down for the phoenix 35th anniversary party (and learning the lyrics), working on a slowed down version of bad moon rising by creedence (strangely apocalyptic), failing to finish writing a song that’s a cross between ghost town/ mac the knife and erik satie’s gnossienne no.1.
Failing to get on and record an EP with me singing and playing new versions of songs I’ve written, co-written or arranged, country, folk and early music. Plenty of Death and a little sex maybe. And slide guitar versions of french parlor piano songs.
It would be when I got my first guitar when I was 15. I thought it would attract the girls if I could sing some songs but I couldn’t sing anyone else’s (so I set out to write my own). Later I was told that I couldn’t sing - so I just concentrated on playing the guitar (even though I was terrible at that also - at first).
What’s your composing method? (a) sitting at a piano (b) computer (c) pencil on manuscript paper (d) improvisation with musicians (e) other.
Mostly (e) Other - guitar, pen, various bits of paper, my voice. Normally I’ll have a few guitar parts sitting around for ages and then some ideas for a topic will come and then I’ll sit down and work at it until I have all the lyrical bits and all the instrumental bits stuck together in kind of the right place. Then once I can play it through I stop work on it. Jarvis was right - lyrics are kind of like the homework that has to be done so you can play the song - this is why I favour songs with repeated choruses, wordless lyrics..., working with other people to write either the music or the lyrics, or both. I spend a lot of time arranging, working on other people’s stuff, trying to find the useful thing for the guitar to do in the tune, or for any other instruments. I’m quite quick at writing lyrics - normally songs come very quickly but take a long time to be finished.
Usually I don’t write enough lyrics to tell a story - but perhaps enough to suggest that something is going on. Really I think you only need a few really good lines - and the rest just have to be good enough so that they don’t let the song down.
When I was in a band (bush house) playing electric guitar the bassist was incredibly inventive - whatever I played (or thought could be played behind it) he’d come up with something better, sometimes (though less often) other members of the band would come up with smart things and I’d respond to them. I’ve never really done improvised music and I don’t much like doing it really. I’ve written on computer (but I was always thinking about what the guitar, the bass or the lyrics would be doing) - it’s fun (it gets rid of a lot of that haggling with other musicians to get your ideas played that you get in male bands).
Music is an irrational activity so song-writing partnerships don’t tend to last long - the ease of recording that technology affords means the song can be quickly completed (and then it’s on to the next project). Now that you no longer need to be in a band to play some tunes they tend to stay together for less time.
Where do your ideas come from?
Life, books, newspapers, other people’s songs. I keep lists of good lines, good titles, ideas for playing things, ideas for songs, lyrics.
“Noah’ (which I co-wrote with Howard Grange) came because we were opening a book at random at picking out lines - once it was about Noah - once we had the chorus, the rest of the lyrics wrote themselves - for me it’s about loss, the world has been swept clean and can begin again but somebody is missing. The chords came (both verse and chorus) because they fitted with the ukulele part. Howard wanted a longer version of the song with more lyrics and a bigger overall production on it - so we did a version like that that’s on volume one - but there’s also a shorter version arranged much more how I would like it online (we’ll probably put it on my EP when i get round to recording it). The second guitar I wrote in the studio and started improvising out over the end of it - I’ve always been interested in layering guitar parts, it’s something I picked up from african music and my brief studies with Folo Graff at Jenako Arts in Hackney in about 1988.
Do you find inspiration from other composers? Which?
Since about 2002 I’ve started learning other people’s songs from sheet music, chord guides etc. and listening to more classical music and learning some of it (or at least trying). In particular french classical music written for the piano- debussy, satie, faure, messiaen. Conversely I’ve worked on learning country and folk songs because they are straightforward - the guitar is just there to support the singing and singing has become more important to me than fiddly guitar parts. In general I’ve been inspired to simplify.
Which non-musical influences are important to your music?
Life, books, newspapers, politics, sex, death. Death is big (I’m a bit of a goth really).
What do you say when asked to describe your music?
‘Post-apocalyptic folk’, ‘I play in a guitar and ukulele duo’, ‘Slide guitar versions of french parlor piano.’
Do you think about the listener when you’re composing?
Not really. Sometimes I imagine me playing it and people really liking it.
When did you feel ready to call yourself a composer?
Well I don’t. I don’t really call my self a song-writer either (I just don’t write enough songs). Musician for hire - Guitar, Bass, one finger keyboard, backing vocals, arrangements.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
Metal. Big cock-rocking guitar solos. Gangster Rap. R n’ B. Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes, Mike Oldfield, ECM airbrushed jazz ... I’ve always been told I had ‘bad’ taste in music. I can’t say I care very much.
What’s your ideal night out?
Old school Drum and Bass - I like to dance. Failing that a decent pub dancefloor. Failing that beer and friends. These days staying in and not having the hangover the next day.
One last question: What are you doing musically at the moment?
Working on singing a version of world turned upside down for the phoenix 35th anniversary party (and learning the lyrics), working on a slowed down version of bad moon rising by creedence (strangely apocalyptic), failing to finish writing a song that’s a cross between ghost town/ mac the knife and erik satie’s gnossienne no.1.
Failing to get on and record an EP with me singing and playing new versions of songs I’ve written, co-written or arranged, country, folk and early music. Plenty of Death and a little sex maybe. And slide guitar versions of french parlor piano songs.
Monday, 12 October 2015
'a little (art) can go a long way'
horsemouth was having cosy domestic dreams just a short hour ago. now he has the cup of coffee and the plan for the week.
yesterday afternoon he went out with john clarkson to a sharron kraus gig (with added synthesizer and drum) - the synthesizer was a moog rogue (which as moog is not in fact said ‘moo-g(uh)’ as horsemouth has thought all these years but ‘mogue’ - so as to rhyme with ‘rogue’ is not so strange as it first appears). it took horsemouth a while to realise that sharron was singing without the aid of a microphone (only the synthesizer being amplified). she played a few songs from her new mabinogen mid-wales themed album, women of flowers turning into owls (most owl service) - it was most excellent (it reminded horsemouth of those hawkwind acoustic guitar with synthesizer songs - er. but more musical)..
clay pipe recordings are having another shindig at the betsy trotwood pub every 2 sundays (that’s oct 25th and nov 8th), music from 3pm -ish I assume.
before sharron directorsound played a soundtracky accordeon and harmonium and flute and bells in a slightly east european style set to rapt attention. not entirely horsemouth’s thing (but well done).
the title for today’s blog comes from robert hewson’s cultural capital - the rise and fall of creative britain an account of arts policy under new labour - it’s adapted from francois matarasso’s use or ornament (francois was shocked, shocked ladies and gentlemen was viewed by many people as alibi-ing the whole thing, saying he never realised that politicians viewed culture instrumentally). horsemouth read this opposite the dome (cultural plague-pit that it was), as he read it a paddlesteamer went downriver.
like the four evangelists there were four sons of horus and like them also three were animals. (c.g. jung - man and his symbols - one squid - emmaus).
yesterday afternoon he went out with john clarkson to a sharron kraus gig (with added synthesizer and drum) - the synthesizer was a moog rogue (which as moog is not in fact said ‘moo-g(uh)’ as horsemouth has thought all these years but ‘mogue’ - so as to rhyme with ‘rogue’ is not so strange as it first appears). it took horsemouth a while to realise that sharron was singing without the aid of a microphone (only the synthesizer being amplified). she played a few songs from her new mabinogen mid-wales themed album, women of flowers turning into owls (most owl service) - it was most excellent (it reminded horsemouth of those hawkwind acoustic guitar with synthesizer songs - er. but more musical)..
clay pipe recordings are having another shindig at the betsy trotwood pub every 2 sundays (that’s oct 25th and nov 8th), music from 3pm -ish I assume.
before sharron directorsound played a soundtracky accordeon and harmonium and flute and bells in a slightly east european style set to rapt attention. not entirely horsemouth’s thing (but well done).
the title for today’s blog comes from robert hewson’s cultural capital - the rise and fall of creative britain an account of arts policy under new labour - it’s adapted from francois matarasso’s use or ornament (francois was shocked, shocked ladies and gentlemen was viewed by many people as alibi-ing the whole thing, saying he never realised that politicians viewed culture instrumentally). horsemouth read this opposite the dome (cultural plague-pit that it was), as he read it a paddlesteamer went downriver.
like the four evangelists there were four sons of horus and like them also three were animals. (c.g. jung - man and his symbols - one squid - emmaus).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)