Tuesday 17 March 2009

Qawwali Flamenco


Allah Hoo

The shoes that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan left behind will probably never be filled.
Having witnessed THAT voice in action live and listened (listening) to countless recordings, perhaps it is an insurmountable task.
Though recently there is a name being mentioned that perhaps can fill that void.
Faiz Ali Faiz has stepped into the shoes before. His uncle Rehmat Ali Khan ­ who plays harmonium in his qawwali party ­ used to do the same for Nusrat, and when the great master fell ill, it was Faiz Ali Faiz that he called on to take his place at a qawwali, even though he was not a member of his family.
You be the judge now.

Allah Hoo - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Allah Hoo - Faiz Ali Faiz
& lastly a version of the same song (known to Qawwali since who knows when) as performed in June 2005, the Faiz Ali Faiz ensemble were joined by Spanish flamenco artists Miguel Poveda, Duquende and Chicuelo for a groundbreaking collaboration at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. Their performance underlined the common roots of flamenco and qawwali in the subcontinent.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan & Ustad Mubarek Ali Khan - Oh Disdi Kulli Yaar Di


(Part 1)

(Part 2)

'Oh Disdi Kulli Yaar Di'
This is a recording by Fateh Ali Khan, Mubarak Ali Khan & Party, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Father & Uncle probably from the 1950's.
You can listen to the Qawwali performance in two parts above.

(If anyone can supply any more information please leave a comment.)

Monday 16 March 2009

CAN DVD's Reposted from 'Filmuzika'/'Fan - Pit'

Can (By Peter Przygodda) 2003
Subtitles included: English subtitles when German language
Can.[Documentary.1999].DVDRip.[k].ogm
DVD 4:3 | 700 MB | 620 x 456 | DivX 5.02 | 192 kBps ogg surround | 86 mimutes
Can.[Free.Concert.Cologne.Sporthalle.1972].DVDRip.[k].ogm
DVD 4:3 | 703 MB | 620 x 452 | DivX 5.02 | 288 kBps ogg surround | 51 minutes
Can.Notes.[Peter.Przygodda].DVDRip.[k].ogm
DVD 4:3 | 703 MB | 620 x 464 | DivX 5.02 | 208 kBps ogg surround | 81 minutes

Notes:
June 2003 marked the 35th anniversary of the founding of Can when Holger Czukay (bass), David Johnson (flute), jazz drummer Jaki Liebezeit and beat guitar player Michael Karoli met in classical conductor and piano player Irmin Schmidt's Cologne apartment in 1968. Their first gig, a collage of rock music and tape samples, took place at Schloss Nörvenich (Castle Nörvenich, near Cologne).The show is documented on the audio cassette Prehistoric Future.

The nameless collective had established its first studio, Inner Space, at the castle when American sculptor Malcolm Mooney, visiting Irmin and Hildegard Schmidt, joined the band. His intuitive drive led the musicians toward a unique take on rock music and the track Father Cannot Yell originated from one of these early sessions. David Johnson, who by then had become the band's sound engineer, left at the end of 1968. Around this period, the lack of a name was solved by Mooney and Liebezeit who came up with The Can.

The first Can album, Monster Movie (1969), defined Can music. Played and recorded spontaneously and driven by repetitive rhythms, the album was recorded directly on to a 2-track machine and then extensively edited. Soundtracks featuring film scores from 1969 and 1970, was the next album. Just after the record was released, Malcolm Mooney left the band and returned to the U.S. following a psychological breakdown. The Mooney era is extensively documented on Can - Delay, released in 1982.

In May 1970, Japanese singer Kenji "Damo" Suzuki joined Can after being spotted by Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit busking in Munich. The very same evening he performed with the band at the Blow Up club.

In December 1971, Can founded the Can Studio - known as Inner Space until 1978 when Can soundman René Tinner took over running the operation - in a former cinema in Weilerswist, close to Cologne. All subsequent Can albums were produced there except Rite Time. The studio has now been painstakingly disassembled and is being reconstructed to scale as a working exhibit at the German Rock'n'Pop Museum in Gronau, near the Dutch border.

The period 1970-2 was a breakthrough time for the band with Tago Mago (1971) impressing critics in England and France as well as Germany. Ege Bamyasi, released in 1972, featured the track Spoon, the theme tune for the crime thriller Das Messer and also the band's first chart success in Germany. The track, which was the first time that Can used an early version of a drum machine, led to a Goldene Europa TV award in recognition of Can's soundtrack work. Ege Bamyasi also included the music from another TV crime series in the form of Vitamin C.

The success of Spoon inspired the band to try to reach a wider audience which led to the Can Free Concert. The event was filmed by Martin Schäfer, Robbie Müller and Egon Mann for director Peter Przygodda at the Cologne Sporthalle on February 3rd, 1972. British music weekly Melody Maker wrote: "Can are without doubt the most talented and most consistent experimental rock band in Europe, England included." French magazine Rock & Folk portrayed Can's music as "one of the most impressive musical experiments offered by contemporary bands."

Future Days (1973) was the last Can album with Damo Suzuki. First Michael Karoli took over the vocal duties, followed by short interludes with a succession of singers, among them Tim Hardin. The recording of Soon Over Babaluma that same year marked the end of the era of recording straight onto 2-track. Landed (1975), was the first Can LP to be produced using multi-track technology. The album led Melody Maker to call them "the most advanced rock unit on the planet."

Double album Unlimited Edition (1976) was an extended version of a release that had quickly sold out as Limited Edition two years earlier. Among the tracks were the multi-facetted experiments known as the Ethnological Forgery Series (EFS). Flow Motion, also released in 1976, featured the disco hit I Want More and saw the band performing on UK primetime hitshow Top Of The Pops. The following year Can was augmented by ex-Traffic rhythm duo Rosko Gee (bass) and Reebop Kwaku Baah on percussion.

Holger Czukay had retired as a bass player and on Saw Delight was in charge of "special sounds". His new instrument was a shortwave radio receiver; while his idea to create new impulses for the musical process via radio signals didn't fit within the new Can structure, it became the basis for his first solo album, Movies (1979). The next Can album, Out of Reach (1978), was recorded without Czukay, who had left the band in May 1977, during the final Can tour. On the last show of the tour, in Lisbon at the end of May, Can performed in front of 10,000 fans. The double album Cannibalism (1978) was not just a "Best of ...." compilation, it was in fact, an early indication that Can's reputation would continue to grow.

The British avant-garde and several punk acts were deeply inspired by Can. Speaking for many, Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) is quoted on the Cannibalism cover: "I never would have played guitar if not for Marc Bolan and Michael Karoli of Can". At the end of 1978 the band released Can. Meanwhile Michael Karoli built the Outer Space Studio studio in France, close to Nice. It was there in November 1986 that the original Monster Movie line-up got together again, with vocalist Malcolm Mooney to record Rite Time. The album was released in 1988. The band assembled again at the Can Studio with the same line-up minus Holger to record the track Last Night Sleep for Wim Wenders' film Until the End of the World.

In May 1997, the remix CD Sacrilege provided further evidence of the durability of Can's music. For this tribute, prominent representatives of the techno, dance and ambient scene reworked 15 classic Can tracks. Ironically, the importance of Can's contribution to the wider musical pantheon was summed up by Andrew Weatherall who refused an offer to remix a Can track for Sacrilege: "I love to remix other people's work. But Can? No way. You don't touch music that perfect. There is nothing to add or take away."

The band's chosen means of celebrating its 30th anniversary in 1999 was characteristically original. Eschewing a reunion tour as too obvious, and, more importantly, as being against the spirit of the group, the Can Box and the Can-Solo-Projects tour were the ways in which the group marked the occasion.Can Box includes recordings from the period 1971-77, a tri-lingual book featuring a comprehensive group history, interviews, reviews and photos by Hildegard Schmidt and Wolf Kampmann plus a video with both the Can Free Concert film by Peter Przygodda, and the Can Documentary by DoRo-film.

The Can-Solo-Projects tour, which featured Holger Czukay & U-She, Jaki Liebezeit's Club Off Chaos, Irmin Schmidt & Kumo plus Michael Karoli's Sofortkontakt!, started on March 19th 1999 in Berlin at the Columbia Halle. The tour was so well received that a second leg was organised for September 1999. This went ahead without Holger Czukay who was obliged to pull out at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances.

Can worked together for the last time in August 1999 at Irmin's studio in Provence with Jono Podmore, to record a cover-version of The Third Man theme (from the film of the same name) for the Pop 2000 compilation released on Herbert Grönemeyer's label Grönland/EMI.

On November 17th, 2001, Michael Karoli died after a long fight against cancer.

In March 2003 Can received the most prestigious prize that the German music industry can offer: the Echo award for lifetime achievement was presented at an awards ceremony in Berlin. Herbert Grönemeyer, one of Germany's most famous artists, made the official speech while Brian Eno sent in a short, witty film about the group. The prize was handed over by the Red Hot Chili Peppers whose guitarist John Frusciante also spoke of his appreciation and respect for Can's music.
-
Go here or here.

Varg


Sunn O)))


Bow to the FM3 Buddah machine


The Buddha Machine is a small musical loop player. The name and idea derived from a popular Chinese music player similar to the FM3 that intones repeating loops of Buddhist chanting. It continuously plays one of 9 ambient sound loops (drones) that range in length from 5 to 40 seconds.
The second edition has 9 new loops and a wheel to bend the pitch.
An interesting article from 'The Far Eastern Audio Review' here icluding secular machines from Tibet and Taiwan which includes a semi-transparent image of the bodhisattva Guanyin sitting on a lotus flower. Behind her, a swirling, kaleidoscope of rainbow light beams emerges in a mesmerizing 3-D effect.
There are also videos of these machines playing against each other!
Interview with FM3’s Christiaan Viant here.
You can play the machines over the web at Zendesk here.
Finally a review of the 'Jukebox Buddah' album featuring exclusive contributions by Adrian Sherwood + Doug Wimbish, Blixa Bargeld, sunnO))), Thomas Fehlmann, Sun City Girls, Gudrun Gut, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Jan Jelinek/Andrew Ekler/Hanno Leichtmann, Mapstation, Aki Onda, Robert Henke, Es, Alog, Minit and Wang Fan all of whom used these machines here.




Tracks from 'Jukebox Buddah'

SFA play new album live tomorrow on net


Super Furry Animals will play their new album 'Dark Days/Light Years' live on the net here tomorrow morning (8:00 AM Melbourne time).

Never mind the bollocks!

Sunday 15 March 2009

ExileGuy's handy hints for surviving the recession - # 1



Contact: exileguy@gmail.com

Eh?

Clofu = George Clooney flavoured tofu!
Story from 'The Washington Post' here.

(Not even April the first and isn't this a rather cannibalistic idea for vegetarians?
'Oxymoronic' for sure!)

What was that you were saying Rooney?


Manchester Utd 1 VS Liverpool 4
Full report from the 'BBC' here.

Fuctbook

"The answers are always inside the problem, not outside."
Marshall McLuhan

Interesting that on the 4th of March when there was a press conference to unveil the new layout of FB that Marshall McLuhan's name was spelled wrong!

The medium is the message indeed!
A relevant interesting article on these changes here.
PS: Facebook - listen to what your users are saying...this is two major fuck ups in the space of a month or so.

What is wrong with this picture?

With the news that Michael Jackson has sold out ALL 50 shows at London's O2 Arena he probably thinks that he is still 'The King of Pop'!

(The answer is of course EVERYTHING!)

Saturday 14 March 2009

Varg



Taking a break



"The FUCK poem!"

FUCK dogs
FUCK cats
FUCK birds
FUCK fish
FUCK trees
FUCK the beach
FUCK your nature strip
FUCK your homes and gardens
FUCK your 4 wheel drive
FUCK your sports ute
FUCK your BMW
FUCK your vintage rolls
FUCK your Vincent black lightning
FUCK your 38 ford v8 chopper
FUCK your laws and orders
FUCK your jails and mental institutions
FUCK your terrorist paranoia
FUCK your rich fat inflated new age self-lovin’ paraphernalia
FUCK self-avoiding finger-pointing victim thrust
FUCK yr dirty looks
FUCK your dirty minds
FUCK your finger lickin bubblin-under suppressed paedophilia
FUCK the stupid flag
FUCK nostalgia
FUCK Australia
FUCK your bank accounts
FUCK credit extensions
FUCK your hypertension
FUCK your gold card wine rack
FUCK you right up the crack between your stupefied day job and your late night porno movie wank
FUCK your mortgage
FUCK your semi-legal drugs
FUCK meth ice crack smack
FUCK your feel good pills
FUCK your crucifixion bloodlust
FUCK yr endless paranoia about drug busts
FUCK yr clothing that just about covers up your monstrous self-loathing
FUCK yr beliefs
FUCK your god
FUCK trust
FUCK lust
FUCK madness
FUCK sadness
FUCK the rich and
FUCK the poor
FUCK your illness
FUCK your secret lies
FUCK compassion
FUCK your mission
FUCK aggression
FUCK your permission to fill in what’s missin with 50 fucking fucks
FUCK circumcision
FUCK seduction
FUCK rape
FUCK sodomy
Fuck FUCK
FUCK old people
FUCK kids
FUCK racism
FUCK political correctives
FUCK shock jocks with tiny fuckin cocks
FUCK life
FUCK your wife
FUCK the world
FUCK your girl
FUCK you yeah FUCK you yeah FUCK you
FUCK poetry
FUCK this venue
FUCK Byron Bay
FUCK the councillors
FUCK the mayor
FUCK pussy whipped employees everywhere
FUCK everything not included here
FUCK this poem
FUCK never saying FUCK
Fuck EVERYTHING I say
And if you don’t agree

Well…..

FUCK ME

(Daevid Allen)


"Greetings friends!

In response to widespread enquiries I have attached the curious story of Stefanie and I being thrown out of the Woodford Folk Festival in the good old boy Australian state of Queensland at the end of 2008 for unrestrained POETIC use of that universal magick word affectionately known as FUCK.

Apparently it is OK that people of all persuasions use FUCK in all walks of life EXCEPT in a poetic, humorous or imaginative literary performance. Such is life in the deep north of the sixth most retrograde, over regulated and childishly obedient nation in the world. If you imagine that, in Australia, at an apparently alternative folk festival, the festival organisers might have some idea of the popularity and breadth of modern performance poetry and its use of multi media in 2008.

Given that I was partly responsible (see Machine Poets with William Burroughs) for the pioneering of multi media poetry performance in Paris and London ICA in 1962 and in fact represented Australia with the same show at the Paris Biennale of 1967, my treatment by Woodford Festival poetry organiser Shirley Friend seems just a trifle over the top. But then, as you see here, they wouldn't want to know about all that. They only seem to know about BUSH poetry and maybe also a little bit of SLAM poetry might be allowed....So welcome to modern Queensland alternative culture my friends. But dont you worry about that. There are plenty of pumpkin scones!

Love and pataphysical belly laughs,

daevid"



Friday 13 March 2009

Jack White & Alison Mosshart form new band - 'The Dead Weather'

+

The new group includes Alison Mosshart of The Kills, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Greenhornes with Jack White on drums.
Story from 'NY Times' here.

Ricky Gervais meets Elmo


From 'The Hangover - Helper' here.

Dutch police foil Amsterdam terror attack

Story from 'Radio Netherlands' here.

(A concern as son number one lives over in Amsterdam.)

The Blog

From 'coisas do arco da velha' here.

How Dutch is that moggie in the window?

(Photo by Hippie Coco.)

Artifacts for a dream home

Tourbillon turntable.
Details here.
Speakers here.

Libertate


Short film by Jose Alvarado.

Thursday 12 March 2009

Francoise Hardy

An old Dutch beer drinkers joke (as told by Chief Heineken)

"So what is the similarity between drinking Heineken and making love in a canoe?"
"I don't know what is the similarity between drinking Heineken and making love in a canoe?"
"They are both fucking close to water!!!
"

Wednesday 11 March 2009

The lunatic ninja 'roo

WANTED
"
An Australian couple thought they were being attacked by an intruder when a kangaroo crashed through their bedroom window and started jumping on them. "My initial thought, when I was half awake, was it's a lunatic ninja coming through the window. It seems about as likely as a kangaroo breaking in," Beat Ettlin told local media on Monday. The three metre (9 feet) kangaroo smashed through the window in Ettlin's Canberra home on Sunday night. "
Full story here.

Keith Moon blows up his drumkit (and nearly Pete Townsend too!)


The Who - 'My Generation' (Smother Brothers Comedy Hour, 1967)

New Doherty solo album hits the blogosphere

Search around and you will score 'Grace/Wasteland'
Will it be a hit?


Pete Doherty & Dot Allison- Sheepskin Tearaway (Live)

doll face

Dave McKean


Miles & Herbie

Kafka's 'The Trial'

The official site for artist/filmaker/musician Dave McKean is about to launch from here and there is a good fan site here.


Sonnet 138

Reason - Dave McKean

The Week Before - Dave McKean

Jane Fonda

"Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood."

Girlz With Gunz # 26

Chuck Norris wants to be President of Texastan!

Story here.
(One word: IDIOT!)

Iain Sinclair

Novelist, film maker & psychogeographer Iain Sinclair talks to 'The Guardian' here about his new book 'Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report'
'BBC' interview here.
When I was living in London back in the late 70's & early 80's I used to buy books regularly from Iain Sinclair at his stall down in Camden Walk.
In my opinion he is truly one of the greatest novelists writing today as well as being a really decent bloke. When his first novel 'White Chappell,Scarlet Tracings' was published a copy was actually sent out to me here in Australia by the late, lamented Mike Hart from Compendium.
William Gibson has said that Sinclair is his favourite author.
If you haven't read any of his books (and you don't mind some intellectual stimulation) then I heartily recommend his work:
* Back Garden Poems', poetry, 1970
* The Kodak Mantra Diaries: Allen Ginsberg in London, documentary, 1971
* Muscat's Wurm, poetry, 1972
* The Birth Rug, poetry, 1973
* Lud Heat, poetry, 1975
* Suicide Bridge, poetry, 1979
* Flesh Eggs and Scalp Metal: Selected Poems 1970-1987, poetry, 1987
* White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings, fiction, 1987 (originally a limited edition from Goldmark but reprinted by Paladin)
* Downriver, novel, 1991
* Jack Elam's Other Eye, poetry
* Radon Daughters, novel, 1994
* Conductors of Chaos: a Poetry Anthology, editor 1996
* The Ebbing of the Kraft, poetry, 1997
* Lights out for the Territory, non-fiction, 1997
* Slow Chocolate Autopsy, fiction, 1997 (with illustrations by Dave McKean)
* Crash, essay, 1999
* Liquid City, non-fiction, 1999 (with Marc Atkins)
* Rodinsky's Room, non-fiction, 1999 (with Rachel Lichtenstein)
* Sorry Meniscus, essay, 1999
* Landor's Tower, novel, 2001
* London Orbital, non-fiction, 2002 (paperback edition 2003)
* White Goods, poems, essays, fictions, 2002
* Saddling The Rabbit, poetry, 2002 Etruscan Books
* The Verbals, in conversation with Kevin Jackson, 2003 Worple Press
* Dining on Stones, novel, 2004
* Edge of the Orison: In the Traces of John Clare's 'Journey Out Of Essex', non-fiction, 2005
* London: City of Disappearances, editor, various essays about London psychogeography etc, 2006
* Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire: A Confidential Report, non-fiction, 2009

More on Iain Sinclair here (including reviews of some of his books).

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Kruger gets the blues!

More wonderful paintings of blues musicians can be found at Sebastian Kruger's blog here.

More blues paintings here & here.

'Captain Keith' by Sebastian Kruger

More of Sebastian Kruger's work here and here.

Backstage with Bob Dylan

Mona 1 VS Wired 0

'Anna Matveyeva (pictured here), who received this year's prize for "best debut." She wins a next-gen mobile phone.'
via 'Wired' here.

I knew that something was up in the world of Miss Atom by virtue of the fact that in the space of a couple of hours yesterday I had over 500 hits from Germany alone to my previous post here.
Google took me to the 'Wired' blog and I thought looking at the photo above that a worthy winner had been found. Reading the article made me realise that the photo was not of the winner.
So who had won?
The article originally said the winner was Yelena Bulgakov and there was a photo of the winner at the official Miss Atom site here, but even with my limited knowledge of Cyrillic characters I knew that Екатерина didn't translate as Yelena. Further investigation took me to 'Der Spiegel' online here and one of the contestant's photos was clearly of the winner and there was the name Ekaterina.
A comment was left at 'Wired' and they have now changed the winner's name accordingly!

UPDATE:11/03/09
They still haven't spelled her name right. It's not "Yekaterina"!

"Boris. Why is always Boris?"
(The Wire)