gigs, books, films, events january 2022

books

- that awful mess on via merulana (carlo emilio gadda) 

- life after lockdown: how do we best recover from the pandemic? by rebecca seal, the observer 16/01/22

- the year of the big spring clean in the year's best science fiction no.6 1973 (brian aldiss)

-  rose simpson's and mike heron's autobiographies (part)

- montaigne's essay on books

- lea ypi's free review in the nlr (and her interview on talking politics). 

- dangerous visions and new worlds guide to the new wave of science fiction (part). 

- whack-a-mole by rivka galchen article (and talking politics podcast on vaccines and anti-vaxxers) 

- hitchens versus didion lrb inigo jones

- various short things on chris marker's early career 

films

gialli etc.

- eyeball (gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro - 1975) umberto lenzi

- shadow of illusion (ombre roventi 1970) 

- something is creeping in the dark (1971)

- the black belly of the tarantula

- the fifth cord

- dario argento refresher (suspiria, profondo rosso, the stendahl syndrome, four flies on grey velvet)

- seven deaths in the cat's eyes (1973)

-  autopsy (aka macchie solari or sunspots, armando crispino)

-  l'etrusco uccide ancora (armando crispino)

- the red queen kills seven times

-  all the colours of giallo (giallo documentary)

- la polizia chiede auito

- 23 paces to baker street featuring a blind detective which is the inspiration for...

-  the crimes of the black cat (1972)

- giallo podcast fragments of fear 

other films 

- dementia (1955), john parker soundtracked by early blue oyster cult

- the booksellers, a documentary on NY antiquarian and rare bookdealers

- the brood (cronenberg)

-  a documentary on lean urbanism

- ramblings at dawn robert calvert

- je t'aime, je t'aime (alain resnais)

- chris marker (junkopia and clips from sans soleil, jean-pierre gorin's appreciation of him etc.)

-  mudflat sculpture park (ric reynolds)

- outlaw bookseller various videos

- islands of abandonment by cal flyn (radio 4 series)

- the coming storm podcast

- viewfinders: ways of seeing (john berger) at 50 

events

webb david's techno-dub show on new river radio, the CD of the new album by the robert lawson trio arrives, comrade S visits, claudia's 50th.

that metalwork in the kitchen is generally considered a bad idea

it had to happen sometime. RIP norma waterson. 

metalwork in the kitchen? well yes, opines horsemouth. it is a capital offense.

especially when there is the entire  rest of the house, a garden is available, and there is even (whisper it), the possibility of hiring premises in which to conduct the metalwork. if the offending one was the kind of person who tidied up meticulously after himself and put stuff away this would not be so bad... but he is not, he is an enthusiast who leaves every forgotten project to gather dust exactly where it fell from his hand when the enthusiasm left him. 

it is wearing remarks horsemouth. horsemouth has expressed himself frankly on the matter and he thought he had secured agreement and then came down to find the fucking machine running one morning 'just for ten minutes'. in a nudge he has transported the machine upstairs to the (misnamed) living room so that, if, in an access of enthusiasm, the offender should be tempted to turn it on it will in fact not be in the kitchen. 

he is tempted to rename the kitchen the forge of vulcan.  

of course horsemouth could always bang in a complain to the relevant co-op authorities. 

progress is being made (at least) in returning the living room to a condition where anyone in the house could in fact use it as somewhere to sit and read or watch television (or indeed grind metal). the metalworker has had need of the space (and so has been forced to make it appear).  huzzah mutters horsemouth. (the space will presumably vanish as soon as the metalworker no longer has need of it. but horsemouth has at least seen the floor boards for this ritual year). 

there was the same bollocks last year. oh the comedy. so much for cyclic time. 

we are sneaking up on imbolc- halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and to celebrate horsemouth has a gig (5th february at water into beer). 

ironically it is brigid, the celtic goddess of healing, purification, childbirth, fertility and smithcraft, who is honored at imbolc (or so says one page). 

horsemouth has not been feeling the music of late perhaps it will come back to him. he will pray for the return of his mojo. having played only at midsummer  last year (thank you weirdshire people) horsemouth now wants to get on with music making, travelling and the transformation of his lifestyle into that of a trustafarian -  a lazy good-for-nothing who lives only for their own pleasure (or so horsemouth would have thought when he was a dole-bludger).  

horsemouth has published (slightly early) his gigs, books, films, events list for january 2022.

it is a necessary corrective to his feeble memory that would tell him that he has read nothing (for it seems to horsemouth that he is reading much less). what he is doing is watching lots of gialli, he should add five dolls for an august moon 5 bambole per la luna d'agosto (1970) to his list (featuring the generously proportioned edwige fenech). he awaits the release of the next hawkbinge podcast (on the mighty levitation) but in the meantime is making do with the outlaw bookseller's  'unboxing' of the atomhenge reissue of sonic attack.

can horsemouth learn to love the post silver age horsemouth catalogue (literally the bronze age)? having once walked away from it. nik turner's punkadelic inner city unit / bob calvert and krankshaft  were a better fit to the post-punky times than hawkwind's (misguided) attempt to smuggle space rock within NWOBHM when the audience were all off at festivals.  

'if you have ghosts... then you have everything'

horsemouth is not too proud to admit that this is actually the first version he ever heard. 

he should be a knowledgeable oldster and know the roky erickson version (but no). he thinks it is quite sweet really. the goth youth of phoenix arizona are there in their goth finery (green hair, black lipstick, studded leather jackets). he thinks in later years it will be seen as an error to have focused the camera on the band. the swedish band ghost perform in a mock european accent, some kind of 'the count' style anglo-hungarian. 

ghost make the song stadium rock. the audience know the words already and sing along. 

roky erickson's own version is steeped in that southern south and psych. now you may know roky from his 13th floor elevators' song the kingdom of heaven is within you (this is another song that is big with horsemouth - largely because of scriptural reference). 

horsemouth spent a lot of time singing it round and round attempting to find a version he could sing where the tune was similar to the original (or even ghost's cover) and suited his voice. but all the while he was failing to learn the niceties of the lyrics and tune. despite this he thinks it's a runner.  he'll spend some time today writing it out. 

that was pretty much his evening ladies and gentlemen. in the day he child-minded (transportation duties). today he is shocked to discover a snap election in portugal (well it has been on the cards for about 3 months since the failure to negotiate next years budget) - the left of centre alliance containing the socialist party, bloc izquerda and the old-school communist party having fallen. it will be interesting to see where it all goes.   

the harvester of eyes (malaga to barcelona)

the CD from the robert lawson trio (live in malaga) has arrived. the gentlemen are gathered round their musical equipment all wearing hats and coats (this is a very good look). they all look very intent and focused.  the download is available to purchase here. 

horsemouth is just listening to it now. the bass  is a bit too prominent for horsemouth's tastes given horsemouth's speakers which are set up from drum and bass and modern musics (i.e. a bit bass heavy). in comparison when he was listening to the video of  it over his computer speakers he couldn't really hear the bass, all he could hear was that the dulcimers were a bit quiet. the drumming is good and the drums are clear. unfortunately this squeezes the dulcimers out to the edge of the frame where it becomes texture, a detailing on the beat. 

horsemouth would probably wind even more treble off the bass to put it even more in jah wobble rather than bill laswell territory (but then he likes those kinds of bass) and then (by the miracles of mastering or overdubbing) turn up the dulcimers.

there are times when it has a kind of electropop feel - as if we are not dealing with dulcimers but with marimbas and balafons or some keyboard analog of those. (marimbas and balafons appear in the distance). certainly when the dulcimers are on their own they produce a very strong atmosphere. there is some nice interplay and good solid performances. 

last night horsemouth watched eyeball (gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro - 1975) by umberto lenzi. a barcelona (and sitges) set giallo (nice to see the old place). horsemouth hasn't been there in at least a decade - he would have gone at new years with tim and darsavini attempting to reach some teknival or other but ending up on the ramblas for an outbreak of world peace and cava bottle smashing. 

today is something like the 30th the anniversary of a benefit gig horsemouth's onetime band bush house played at the samuel beckett in stoke newington (a benefit for the waterloo defendant's campaign).  by that time the band had gone all ravey davey gravey there was a backing track etc. 

horsemouth is feeling (a bit) better this morning (thanks for asking) which is just as well because he is off to do some child minding later. there was the possibility of beer and pizza over at howard's but horsemouth was keen to fulfil his obligations. 

'this book is the last of its kind' (dangerous visions and new worlds)

a while ago comrade S was recommending japanese jazz (of which there have been many stellar re-releases lately). here we get an almost perfect coltrane quartet reading of scarborough fair (down to the mccoy tynerisms on the piano). mind you horsemouth quotes from the comments  'beautiful modal remaking of a great simon and garfunkel tune'. 

he also recommended french band (horsemouth thinks) slift who play a great suzzy hawkwind/ pink fairies thing (horsemouth hears steve hillage as well - he went and looked them up last night). as a comix (horsemouth does hope he's got that right) fan comrade S was mainly enticed by the cover. 

athbhliain faio mhaise dhuit (he says - that's happy new year to you and me).

'2022 is looking good, brexit is going well. hey, you know what they say about britain's difficulty being an opportunity for the irish. not only is a 32 county republic on the horizon - it happens in 2024 according to star trek - but we're (the irish) the only people with free movement in europe AND the UK.

for the British... well, this year will be harder than last year, but it will be easier than next year.

good to hear the hawkbinge lads are into PXR5. 25 years is definitely the weakest of the calvert-era albums (and I'm including captain lockheed in that)...' 

the political situation continues to look hopeful to comrade S (but then his main interest remains irish unity). 

he hailed brexit for placing northern ireland in a separate customs condition to the rest of the united kingdom (as it should be). as to the rest of the united kingdom he frankly disparaged the scottish nationalist's  political will to achieve independence given their tactic of delaying demands for independence until after the pandemic (the welsh and cornish likewise presumably). 

the last time they met comrade S was pressing horsemouth about new material - there is a plan for comrade S to do a cartoon cover for the next musical outing. 

there then, (if horsemouth's memory is correct, for this conversation did take place a while ago) followed a great discussion of barney bubbles' 'lifts' (comrade S memorably describing the doremi sleeve as 'barney bubbles does jack kirby'). which horsemouth would love to reproduce for you but at this late remove would require further communication from comrade S to do so.

now that the rock bands of horsemouth's youth are getting their just recognition (hawkwind even  got the cover of record collector magazine recently) the campaign begins to critically re-evaluate the literary science fiction of the era - the scene round brian aldiss and harlan ellison's dangerous visions, michael moorcock's new worlds and the science fiction releases of the women's press. horsemouth recently enjoyed some clips he found online of brian aldiss recounting his life story (and so did comrade S).

it is a week to go until horsemouth (and howard's) first gig of 2022. yikes! horsemouth better get on with it then. he seems to have recovered his ability to sing the high d required for hear us o lord. it's a greyish day out. horsemouth will drink some more coffee and contemplate some musical work. howard is working. ian is off out the door. the dustmen have been. 

'she has taken his hand' (the revenge of vera gemini)

good morning (grey morning). horsemouth is alive and well and living in ________. 

horsemouth was delighted to find a whole silent movie (dementia (1955) directed by john parker) sound tracked with early (near b&w) blue oyster cult (ok ok there's a couple of tracks from agents of fortune in there). it's a rough old life for our un-named heroine on skid row, alcoholics, grabby bullying men, procurers, fortunately she has a flick-knife to defend herself with.

in the evening horsemouth attended (via zoom) a meeting of the communal endeavour. it all went more smoothly than he imagined it going, an attempt to roll back a vote was defeated. 

later he watched loads of videos by modern metal band ghost (not to be confused with japanese semi-improv band ghost). who play nicely with genre conventions between 80ies metal and black metal and clearly have a budget. they had been suggested to horsemouth as a kind of modern equivalent to the blue oyster cult in that it is both poppy and creepy. 

 

horsemouth spent some time yesterday singing through the revenge of vera gemini. (the albert part) it has one of those nice diminished chords and a horses  referencing chorus. 

he also found a great song by singer tina and poet david meltzer (actually another east-coaster) let the door stay open which has a kind of magic incantatory part to it (hmmm doubletracked vocals). he thinks that may make it on to his next mixcloud compilation, he thinks it would go well with ennio morricone's macchie solari. 

today? more walking. horsemouth's cough seems to be improving (but he did throw up last time he went for a walk). more reading. further consideration of the question are book collectors crazy?

should horsemouth need to take public transport or go into a shop (or any crowded area) he will continue to wear a mask. 

the further adventures of the greased piglet

here we see the similarity of the projects (but the differences also) in jacken elswyth's latest mix -pharoah sanders' japan and john fahey's red cross, disciple of christ today you know the mule appreciates (for he has anthologised them himself before). but there are the differences also, more modern stuff. a better (deeper) appreciation of the acapella english folk tradition. for example horsemouth appreciates derek bailey (but he's unlikely to pick a track by him for you). 

the mix seems to have garnered some likes from horsemouth's friends (which is good). 

jacken's experimantal band sullow play water into beer thursday night and then there's the gig with musicians of bremen on saturday february the 5th.  

'in 1980, a third of people lived in socially rented homes, at genuinely affordable below-market rents. that’s now fallen to 17%. over the past 30 years...'

this evening a meeting of the communal endeavour (whose central project is housing lest we forget). at this horsemouth will be continuing his campaign to get the communal endeavour to create a miniscule amount of social housing. 

in other political news the greased piglet continues his extraordinary political career. not one tory MP can find the bottle to stand up and challenge him so they were holding out for the gray report to come out before going in for the kill. but now the gray report is to be delayed and redacted to allow for the police investigation. how wonderful, horsemouth hears you say, the  police having been convinced to do their duty so conveniently (and how wonderful to live in times where a police investigation of the prime minister is good news). 

if the prime minister (the greased piglet) can make it to may (oh the irony) and the local elections he stands a chance. wouldn't he be happier on the after dinner speaker circuit anyway? probably but he needs to be a glorious success of a piglet (and crucially to achieve it all without doing his homework). 

horsemouth is doing his homework honest. (god he's such an egregious swot). horsemouth's cough means he is having difficulty hitting the top notes in hear us o lord (he's been thinking of dropping it to c) and the arthritis in the little finger of his left hand makes playing it a little difficult. he is starting to think he should farm the singing of the top line off on howard. 

it's a grey morning. horsemouth has had his coffee. next it's the museli and the news. 6 years ago horsemouth was off with john clarkson to the isle of grain. all the current evil was but a twinkle in the eye of the universe residing in some batcave somewhere. 

last night's gialli? 

shadow of illusion (ombre roventi 1970) egypt set ancient gods/ woman in peril thriller (beware the evil hippies babe (cos they're gonna get you yeah)),  then something is creeping in the dark (1971) dark and stormy night marooned travellers haunted house sort of thing.