From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V9 #135 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Sunday, May 21 2006 Volume 09 : Number 135 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] Uri wrote.............. [Ari ] [idealcopy] Apiarist's anniversary [Fergus Kelly Subject: [idealcopy] Uri wrote.............. I have my suspicions however. ;)<< Graeme? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 20:57:50 +0100 (BST) From: Fergus Kelly Subject: [idealcopy] Apiarist's anniversary Bruno said: >>>>John wrote of 'BCG's refusal to listen to any music whatsoever'<<<< If this is indeed true it would explain some of that originality... belated happy birthday to the great man and may he feel like getting back onstage/in a studio with our favourite band at some point. ((( Chance would be a fine thing... AT Keith said: >>Well, I've bumped into him at enough gigs over the years to suggest that this may not be entirely accurate! ((( Bruce 'ceased consuming music' in 1980, which means he stopped buying and listening to albums. Aware that one is constantly assailed by music in various public environments, and exposed to material for technical purposes, he knows there's no getting away from it entirely. Impossible to escape its influence. And by 1980, he'd had 34 years of influence. I suppose going to gigs falls outside of his original remit.. Apparently, he had bought the new Kluster album of that year, and decided it was 'far too close to areas he might want to wander into', so opted to stop his record collection right there. All very noble and pure, but I've always had my doubts about how this may or may not work. I would argue that as an artist in any discipline, you should have some awareness of what's going on in the field. That doesn't necessarily mean religiously hoovering up all available material, but just get some exposure and sense of how the language and technology of the medium is shaping how we consume it and create with it. Otherwise there is a danger of constantly re-inventing the wheel, and one's ideas potentially going out of date. Of course Bruce has had moments of cracking originality, especially post Wire mk 1 phase, with Dome and solo work till about 90/91. I think his strongest solo work would be This Way, which made a powerful impression on me in its original context with Michael Clark's dance work in The Riverside studios in 1984. He was beginning to plough a very interesting furrow with these quite architectural electronic constructions. As far as work of the last 10 years goes, I can take or leave the random noise approach, I think it has fairly limited value. It's only very occasionally I listen to Ab Ovo. In Esse, less. Hardly ever in fact. And rarely all the way through. I think it's the arbitrariness of the approach that fails to engage. I keep returning to early 80s work, Dome, and especially MZUI - Dome's finest hour in my book - this work has held up so well over the years. I find it impossible to imagine not listening to music, with all the headspace, energy and inspiration it gives. Life would be so barren without its lively presence. I can't imagine what it'd be like to never have heard Wire (& projects), whose music made a deep connection from the start, and continues to be a vital reference point. I'm fascinated by the manner in which music registers itself on the brain when first heard. It's something we don't fully understand yet, but it certainly is not a simple matter, I think it works a bit like a sponge, in that it soaks up range of contingent factors which become part of the experience of the music - emotional states, physical environment, events, seasons/weather - - all of these elements are imprinted on the music and become a kind of template for future listening. Memory banks. The music also carries all its own cultural baggage and production qualities specific to its time. Each occasion certain music is heard over the years, all the old synaptic connections are refired, the old passions inflamed. Uri said: >>It's so in touch that it begs the question who wrote it? No one is credited. I have my suspicions however. ;) ((( Suspicions well founded. Odd he hasn't credited himself.. I wonder why... >>One thing that really comes across is how unstable Wire were after Chairs Missing and I guess pretty well ever since then. I've always believed that really good art comes from some combination of discomfort, instability, conflict and general dissatisfaction ((( Bang on the nail Uri. No good art comes from complacency, that's for sure. But don't get me wrong - I'm not proposing that hoary old chestnut, "you must suffer for your art". Looking back, Wire seem to last within roughly 5 year periods across the last 30 years: 76 - 80, 85 - 91, 99 - 04. >>and if that's right, I guess we've been quite lucky to have seen Wire at all ever since those days. ((( Each time I've seen them play over the last 5 years, it has always been tempered with an anxiety that it may be the last, such is their volatile chemistry. Fergus http://www.roomtemperature.org http://www.asullenrelapse.blogspot.com http://flickr.com/photos/55867717@N00/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 23:38:52 +0100 From: "Keith A" Subject: [idealcopy] I Can't Control Myself (1978, w- Howard Devoto) My soundcards buggered so I can't hear this, but it looks pretty good. np Silo - instar = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DDPjkHYmoma0&search=3Dmagazine%20howard%2= 0devoto [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of YouTube - Buzzcocks - I Can't Control Myself (1978, w- Howard Devoto).url] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 01:56:10 +0100 From: "Keith A" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] I Can't Control Myself (1978, w- Howard Devoto) Try... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPjkHYmoma0&search=magazine%20howard%20devoto - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ari" To: "Keith A" Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 1:38 AM Subject: Re: [idealcopy] I Can't Control Myself (1978, w- Howard Devoto) > 'unavailable old chap......... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 02:14:41 +0100 From: "Keith A" Subject: [idealcopy] GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS Remember the classic Prefects 45 that was a big hit with Peel all those years ago? Well there's a great live version here, recorded in Chicago last year by the band that the Prefects metamorphasised into - the Nightingales. http://www.thenightingales.org.uk/downl.htm Sure it's rough quality and it takes a minute or so to really get into its stride, but bear with it as once it gets going it manages to sound feature some Velvets in their more trance-like influences whilst also managing to sound like some mad, earthy blues act. A difficult comination to pull off, I would have thought!! The live How To Age and the Maida Vale version of the classic Urban Ospreys are well worth a listen to. And there's a new single, Lets Think About Living, out on Monday. A right enjoyable romp it is, too!! Keith PS There's live dates, too... May 27 2006 7:30P Little Civic Wolverhampton May 30 2006 8:30P The Magnet Liverpool May 31 2006 8:00P New Roscoe Leeds Jun 1 2006 7:30P Buttermarket Shrewsbury Jun 17 2006 3:00A The Grapes Sheffield Jul 8 2006 8:30P Buffalo Bar London Aug 11 2006 7:00P Limon Music Bistro Oberageri Aug 13 2006 12:00P Klangbad Festival Scheer ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V9 #135 *******************************