Blog: Spoilt Victorian Child

Certainly, Sir - How You Been Certainly, Sir - Happy If there were an award for the band with the politest name in music, Certainly, Sir would definitely win. I can't think of any others actually. Yes Please was the name of a Happy Mondays album. Anyone? Rudely shoving politeness to one side, I am baffled as to why this fantastic group do not have a record deal in Europe or America. At

Nope, it's not another post extolling the virtues of BBC Radio 2 (although it is pretty damn good).... But a quick post to say that we don't have a track to post today.... We have over 130.... sort of! Regular readers of this site might have noticed the SVC Radio thing over in the sidebar, and you also might have noticed I haven't updated it about 6 months... very slack of me I know. Anyway, I've just added another 80 or so tracks that have previously been written about on SVC, and the beauty of is is that [...]

Nope, it's not another post extolling the virtues of BBC Radio 2 (although it is pretty damn good).... But a quick post to say that we don't have a track to post today.... We have over 130. Regular readers of this site might have noticed the SVC Radio thing over in the sidebar, and you also might have noticed I haven't updated it about 6 months... very slack of me I know. Anyway, I've just added another 80 or so tracks that have previously been written about on SVC, and the beauty of is is that SVC Radio [...]

Popol Vuh - Aguirre I One of the funniest films I own is "My Best Fiend", Werner Herzog's documentary about his relationship with Klaus Kinski. It always cheers me up. That tells you a lot about me, doesn't it. Herzog threatens to shoot Kinski if he walks off set. The Indians offer to kill Kinski for Herzog. The insanely listing ship during the filming of Fitzcarraldo - do they stop? No! Herzog telling the nice middle class couple that when Kinski lived in their apartment, he slept in leaves and wandered around [...]

The Hypnotist - Pioneers Of The Warped Groove I've just finished reading Simon Reynolds' book 'Energy Flash', which documents the evolution of dance music and the surrounding drug culture. It was an excellent read, encompassing everything from the early Detroit techno pioneers, through the Acid house movement, gabba, jungle, right up until speed garage and big beat. It had me digging around in my box of C90s to pull out some choice rave mix tapes, and even resulted in me resuscitating my dying walkman*, which had been lying unloved in a drawer for a [...]

Coil - The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant This keeps happening. I start off with the intention of writing about one thing and end up somewhere else entirely. This time it was going to be Dionne Warwick's version of the Previn/Previn song, "(Theme From) The Valley Of The Dolls", which has to be the most dignified number about losing it that I've ever heard. For some reason it made me think about Coil. Maybe "losing it" is the connection here. Lost and gone, sadly - John Balance's death affected a great many people, myself included. [...]

Ray - Mountain Song Ahhh there's nothing like a spot of nepotism between friends eh... Would you have it any other way? So then to Ray; Ray are brothers Mark and Nev, lest we forget Chris and Ed, who make music according to The Guardian that is 'sublimely melodic'. Whatever that really means? They've been around the block a bit releasing their first LP 'First Light' on Rough Trade in 2001 and for me they are at a stage where they seem most happy in their skins. Playing live this is certainly [...]

Feedle - Song For Dogs Feedle - Home I'm more than a little excited about this. If you like your music of the melodious electronics, ragged drunken beats and howling noise variety, then I can only assume you'll love this. 'Leave Now For Adventure' by Feedle is released today on SVC Records and has already been getting quite a bit of attention, not least from BBC Radio 1's [...]

Hunting Lodge - Silver Prince Hunting Lodge provide the perfect soundtrack to an evening spent dismembering a horse in a glue factory. Melody doesn’t really factor in Hunting Lodge’s sonic manifesto, it’s all about a pummeling bass that rumbles like a world-war II bomber, the freeform guitar lines of a crack-addled Robert Fripp dragged mercilessly through a wasp farm and a vocalist whose squawks and screeches smack of the sugar-fix tantrums of a retarded 6-year old. Hunting Lodge’s lyrics are, for the most part unintelligible. Those that can be deciphered offer tales [...]

Today sees the release of bravecaptain's latest album 'Distractions', and not only is it damned good, but you don't have to pay a penny for it as it's available to download on bravecaptain's website for absolutely diddly squat... How smart is that? (it will no doubt appear there at some stage today, so keep checking back... I'ts well worth it.) bravecaptain is of course a certain Martin Carr, formerly the songwriter and guitarist with one of my favourite bands of all time, the ever brilliant Boo Radleys. So when I recently got the [...]

What a completely ferocious and cuckoo melee. Proper mental. (shame the video stops so abruptly.) Things to look out for: - mental kid in mask at the front - skeleton girl - stage diver swinging from the gantry Think it was Bernard Shaw that said something along the lines of 'youth being wasted on the young'. What a knob! Buy - Hypermagic Mountain Amazon Visit - Lightning Bolt for lots more video and MP3s

David Sylvian - The Good Son Just heard the very sad news that Derek Bailey passed away on Christmas Day. He abandoned a career as a session player to pioneer a whole new approach to the guitar, and in doing so developed a totally individual voice. This is one definition of true virtuosity: to learn how to play your language, no one else's. So: thank you for the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, for the Music Improvisation Company, for working with Ruins, for this collaboration with David Sylvian, for your fantastic contribution to [...]

Me & Bobby - Capsized Me and Bobby Live - 26th January We're going to kick off 2006 with a headline show at the Spitz this Thursday the 26th January. Support comes from the lovely, folky Rosewood Green and Steve Dalgliesh. Entry is £5 with flyer , and tickets are available in advance from www.spitz.co.uk Come down and help keep us warm... _____________________ Capsized Another monday opens up and blinking I am born again Another weekend put to [...]

Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists! My friend David didn't like the goat/devil image used in the Black Sabbath post, it unsettled him. It made him queasy and David doesn't scare easy I can tell you. Not good. So then, I'm hoping to make amends today by posting a truly beautiful piece of music that is bewitching and elegant with a picture of some pretty ladies and not Mephistopheles himself. This should banish David's dark dreams and if in the process it warms the hearts of a couple of [...]

Black Sabbath - Iron Man Buggeration! Just got dusted on ebay again. I'm currently on a shopping expedition for those old Pan and Fontana creepy anthologies and I was after "The Unbidden" by Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes, who wrote a vast amount and edited a vast amount more in this line. It looks like there are a lot of people just like me, all chasing the same damn things - that is, the books they really loved when they were kids. Which usually had the following names on the front: Peter Haining, Robert [...]

Hockey Night - For Guys Eyes Only Hockey Night - Saturday Night Gallop Ok, let's get the obvious out of the way... Hockey Night sound a tad like Pavement, but even as a big huge Pavement fan, this actually doesn't bother me. It probably helps I saw them by accident not knowing who they were so it took a little while to even hear the Pavement thing cause live they sounded more like their own

There is an report on the BBC News site today describing a recent study into the human relationship with music. The findings make pretty grim reading... We are 'apathetic', we don't appreciate music anymore and music is simply just another commodity. Can it be true? Are 'we' apathetic, has music lost 'it's aura'? If the findings are true and music is now a commodity then surely that has as much to do with the record industry making music readily accessible (remember record shops?) as it has with the download generation and [...]

Masquerade - (Solution To) The Problem Ballsy great Beatbox? Check! Reagan and Thatcher samples? Present! Scratching? Yes! Robot Voice? OH YES! Apocalyptic overtones with a rallying cry of "We will work it out"? I very much think so. This was Mutually Assured Destruction on the dancefloor (not that I ever went out at the time). I didn't know anything about the band, I think I bought the record on the strength of the sleeve. Multi racial military chic with a couple of attractive revolutionary women. A powerful cocktail for a [...]

Victor Scott - Gotta Go Victor Scott - Mareel Once in a while something turns up in my inbox that makes me smile with glee... And Victor Scott's music certainly did that, and when I asked if if I could release his music on SVC Records and he said yes then you can imagine the big Cheshire cat grin on my face.... Joy! So here we are, the [...]