Identity Tussles

Rumours abound about this latest release from Rephlex. Is it Aphex? Is it Vibert using Aphex's kit? is it a Cornish acid collaboration?

Well - who cares really? The important thing is that its great! Picked it up yesterday, and after a fairly swift listen last night I can attest to its quality. The A side (at least I think its the A side) is a 45 RPM acid mash up very reminiscent of AFX's 1998 Helston Flora remix of Baby Ford's 'Normal'. The B side features 2 more sedate tunes that sound a bit like the Analord material crossed with the Railway Raver. Regardless of the hype, this ones a winner from (still) one of the consistently solid and most diverse labels out there.

I eagerly await the upcoming LP. And so should you.

Yah nah DJ - Yah talk pure punchline...

I said I wouldnt make a habit of this, but I cant resist linking up one more soundclash for you all to enjoy.

This ones a 1989 clash featuring the usually invincible Killamanjaro (with Ninjaman and Charlie Chaplin) being slaughtered by Creation DJ Papa San with a bit of help from Gregory Peck, Johnny P, Bunny General and Dirtsman.

Check out San's flow from about 15 minutes in! Literally unstoppable!

Jaro Side

Creation Side

Sound quality is OK but not great. These are temporary links so get them before they expire.

SuperNova

I'm a big fan of lyric FM. In the desolate wasteland that is Dublin's FM band, its ironic that the most diverse station out there is one aimed at the 'older' generation and dedicated ostensibly to classical music. I used to listen to Lyric when it shared a frequency with Raidió na Gaeltachta, coming on late at night and ending early in the morning. Since their expansion to full time broadcasting a few years back, their repertoire has also expanded, and you can now tune in at any time and hear some obscure Folk music and Electronica or Avant garde alongside the more everyday symphonic material you might be expecting.

One show in particular worth checking out is Bernard Clarke's Nova segment, which is broadcast in our old Power FM slot of 8-10pm on Sunday evenings:

Presented by Bernard Clarke. Nova is about new composers, new trends, new listening habits, new music formats and new audiences. All new music here and now, chronicling what's radical and what's conservative, who's established and who's in the avant garde. A blend of contemporary classical, electronic, experimental and more. Featuring composer interviews/profiles, Irish works, and concerts from home and abroad.

Check it out. His last show was an excellent WARP special, and it's always interesting to hear analysis of electronic music from a classical perspective. you can listen to it via the link on the right hand side of the page. Its a pretty shit Realplayer stream, but it's just about listenable to. Unfortunately the earlier shows aren't being archived, so if you enjoy this episode, Id recommend you email Lyric and ask them to add it to their (fairly slim) selection of podcasts.

Mixomatosis

Usual bunch of mixes and audio treats from the wonderful world of the internet for your enjoyment. Been sitting on some of these for quite a while, so apologies if any of the sendit type links have expired.

• Recent David Rodigan Interview from UKRG radio. Not the best audio quality, but a very good listen nonetheless.
  
  
• Naphta's appearance on Metalx's 'Its too loud' radio show from last month makes it onto Breaksblog. Featuring tunes from his forthcoming album (coming on our own label: The Fear later this summer), and some very incisive commentary. An essential download for junglists.
  
  
• Another must for jungle/hardcore fans. Two mixes featuring the Shut up and Dance crew - one from the early '£10 to get in' years, and another (the really exciting one) from their later incarnation as 'Blackman' on Red Light Records, when they produced some of the most ruffneck (and rare) reggae influenced Jump-up ever pressed to wax.
  
  
• Owen Howard's Myspace mixes. Came across this fella through a link refferal. Quality genre-spanning work. Good to see a bit of thought put into some mixes for a change.
  
  
• Gutta links up a big DJ Kano mix (4th post down).
  
  
• Dunno how many of you have seen Mutant Sounds? These guys are serious crate diggers, offering all kinds of obscurities for download - in fact their rate of upload is so fast that its practically impossible to keep up! Check it out if you like industrial/postpunk/Krautrock/pschedelic/NDW/crazy jazz/generally freaky music.
  
  
• Just came across Modyfier via Deeptime - Admittedly I havent had a chance to digest all the material on offer yet, but I really like her style. Lovely sketches accompanying the posts.
  
  
• The utterly essential African Serenades is coming to an end after 50 episodes. Im particulalry upset about this as the earlier episodes have all expired and I lost the first 40 or so in a technological SNAFU. Anyone willing to upload some for me?
  
  
• Not a lot of mixing going on, but a great selection of 80's dancehall: Mastermind Computer Style 2 from Copenhagen's Firehouse Sound.
  
  
• Another quality mix from the BAF board. 80s/90s digital roots from the impressive Iality Sound System.

Right - thats your lot! Back soonish with some more substantial input. Theres a lot of very exciting stuff in the works for June...

Blogariddims Orgy

The title may bring visions of John Eden and Paul Meme in matching leather chaps, Gutterbreakz in a chocolate ringmasters outfit cracking a whip, Wayne, Flack and Soundslike poledancing in nappies, Paul Autonomic 'observing' from the corner whilst a naked Tim Rambler conducts proceedings with a very suspicious looking baton... but NO! Its not that kind of orgy you filthy minded scum!

With a bit of help from Wayne, Greg has arranged for Blogariddims to be the subject of the latest end of term musical 'orgy' from Harvard based college radio station 'WHRB', broadcasting to the whole of Boston. As the WHRB orgy page explains:

Each January and May, during the Reading and Exam Periods of Harvard College, WHRB presents marathon-style musical programs devoted to a single composer, performer, genre, or subject. The New York Times calls them "idealistic and interesting," adding, "the WHRB Orgies represent a triumph of musical research, imagination, and passion."

So- over the next few days, every Blogariddims episode so far is going to be broadcast on the station - nearly 23 hours of mixes covering multiple genres - How I wish we had that kind of open minded approach to radio in this country! Heres the schedule:

BLOGARIDDIMS ORGY:
11 hours (wed 5/16, 10 pm to thur 5/17, 9 am)
+ 12 hours (thur 5/17, 8 pm to fri 5/18, 8 am)
= 23 hours of the entire blogariddims podcast in order of appearance

A co-production of the Record Hospital and The Darker Side , both programs of WHRB Cambridge Broadcasting live across Boston on 95.3 FM / Streaming live on the
web at www.whrb.org

Brought to you by blogariddimist-to-be GRS-One

For latecomers, unbelievers, or those of you who just cant be arsed to download all the episodes, this is also going to be streaming live on the web here.

It goes without saying, but Im very happy to see this series and its tireless contributors get some real-world airplay, so a very big thanks to Greg for making this happen!

Blogariddims 22 / Disintergrations

Epsiode 22 comes from that most distinguished of blogamuffins - the esteemed Tim Rambler. Tim has a real pedigree when it comes to classical and modern music, as any reader of his blog will know, and as the rest of the series has been (mostly) populated by dubstep dads, 'nuum-skulls, dancehall dilettantes, jungle geriatrics, electronic egomaniacs and other sundry chancers and lollygiggers*, its a real pleasure to have him back for another go:

There are strange links between Japanese traditional music and the European avant-garde, and I began sketching out a preliminary tracklist for a mix that would draw out some of these connections. Ultimately the most important connection is a particular sense of time: as the modern musical movement abandoned traditional notions of harmony, melody and rhythm, so the experience of time as something non-linear, cyclical and complex drew closer to some Asian concepts. Composers intermittently made such connections explicit through the 20th century by drawing heavily on Japanese and other oriental inspirations (Messiaen, Cage), but their discoveries had ramifications for the music of others who were not so heavily engaged with Eastern philosophies.

I've had this on rotation for the last month or so, and its another stonker. Those of you who think you dont like avant garde or modern classical music should download this now - theres some real tension sparking through this set - all due to some great selection and sequencing from Tim.

* Before anyone takes offence - these pejoratives refer mainly to the inhabitants of this sordid den!

Sound with Soul

Excellent selection of 7"s from Berlin's SWS label/sound. A buy-on-sight release for fans of 80's style dancehall. Get it here. Check out their mixes while you're there. I heartily recommend 'Still Hot Dis Year' parts 1 and 2.

Vinyl Burial

If you didnt already know - a truncated verison of the Burial LP came out on vinyl about a week ago. Its limited edition, and as we all know its been fetishised by the non-DJng collectorati so get it quick if you want to get it at all!

Mayday Artattack

Couple of very interesting events on over the long weekend:

MUSIC AND MATHEMATICS: TILING SPACE WITH MUSICAL CANONS:

"Most people believe that music and mathematics have little in common. Whilst one seems the fabric of dreams, the other is the skeleton of abstract reasoning. That both are in fact tightly linked will be shown by French composer Georges Bloch and Italian mathematician Moreno Andreatta, who are based at the interdisciplinary centre for music IRCAM in Paris. Using the rich examples of musical tiling canons, which tile the musical space in much the same way as the famous geometrical structures do in M. C. Escher's intriguing drawings, they demonstrate how much of music can be penetrated and/or inspired by mathematics - and vice versa, how musical questions can lead to interesting problems and answers in mathematics. The salon will finish with a multi-media improvisation, which combines sound and video, jazz and contemporary music."

More Info can be found here and here... The salon is supposed to feature improvisation and re-interpretations of works by Schonberg and Xenakis - now I doubt Ill make it to this as bank holidays are prime opportunities to get some serious work done, but it would be great to get a recording and hear the results.

The big gig(s) this weekend, and in a related vein is of course:

TERRY REILY - SPIRALS OF RAGTIME AND RAGA:

"Composer Terry Riley, who is one of the founding fathers of minimalism in music is celebrated next May 2007 with an Irish premiere of Chanting the Light of Foresight inspired by the eight century Ulster heroic tale “An Táin Bó Cuailnge” (the Cattle Raid of Cooley). The performances will take place in County Louth where An Táin legend is based. The weekend, entitled Terry Riley: Spirals of Ragtime and Raga features the first Irish performances by the composer. The Crash Ensemble will play one of Riley’s most celebrated works In C, which is recognised as the first great masterpiece of minimalism. There will also be an Irish premiere of Uncle Jard and Tread on the Trail with the renowned Arte Quartett from Switzerland."

Now, everyone from the Drogheda Arts Festival to the Irish times and the Louth Contemporary Music Society have got a hand in this, but I cant find a picture of the flyer anywhere online. Basically its 3 nights in St. Peter's church in Drogheda. Friday features some new compositions, Saturday is a couple of workshops and an interview, and Sunday (the one Im going to) is going to consist of a new performance of 'In C' along with the Crash Ensemble. Im told that the whole thing is to be broadcast on Irish classical radio station 'Lyric FM', and (heres hoping) it may even get podcasted.

Blogariddims 21 / Fusion Dub

We're nearing the end of the first year of this podcast, and its about time that some jazz made its way into the playlists. Blogariddims pillar Paul Meme has made yet another welcome appearance with episode 21, a miles Davis dominated trip into dubbed out jazz.

This time last year I was waaaaay deep into a series of pilgrimages deep into dubstep, a process that is still ongoing, though not as spiritually all-encompassing as it was. And part of my response to the influx of dubstep vibrations that have been flowing into me since 2005 has been a re-connection with deep dub sounds of… Miles Davis. My connection with Miles has always crossed over with dub, electronics and industrial. I got heavily into Miles, especially the electric period but also the Gil Evans orchestral period, at the same time as I got into Cabaret Voltaire – when I was 13, almost 14. It was only a year or so later that I realised how much of an influence he was on Richard Kirk and Stephen Malinder; all I knew was that the sonics and spaces of 2 X 45 were identical to On the Corner. In the same way as the threads connecting from the Cabs to acid to ardkore and thence to dubstep are obvious, for me, the thematic connection from Miles to dubstep is also clear, but it’s more a matter of influence than direct connection...

Paul's notes, alongside some great pics can be found here, and you can download one or all of the episodes at feedburner. Next one is due in 12 days time!