mixtape | bleak house: a uk post rock primer (vol 2)

and without further ado, here's volume 2. this one picks up at 1994 and ends in 2007 with the slo-core bliss-out of epic45.

i should point out that these two mixes focus on the "experimental" side of post rock. a primer on the sturm und drang noisy side (mogwai etc.) is coming soon.

::: main - rail
::: pram - life in the clouds
::: hair & skin trading company - *
::: 'o'rang - little brother
::: navigator - driving bell
::: state river widening - unsung couples
::: third eye foundation - a galaxy of scars
::: fridge - five four child voice
::: rothko - april 18 / undone
::: hood - closure
::: epic45 - the stars in spring

fill your boots.

mixtape | 090909

i'm not one of these people that reads great significance into dates like today's, but that doesn't mean i don't get a small thrill from it. plus it makes for a convenient mixtape title.

i've been listening to lots of britpop lately for some reason, perhaps i'm homesick/nostaligic. but i've steered clear of that for this - if you like that kind of thing then you've probably got it, right? as usual, this is a pretty random mix of current listens, old & new...

::: years of rice and salt - plankton
::: the cravats - i am the dreg
::: rocket jockey - db onion ass
::: the stretch heads - 3 pottery owls
::: a witness - raw patch
::: the mercury program - from athens to rome
::: pram - omnichord
::: blue roses - i am leaving
::: dub sex - time of life
::: riceboy sleeps - stokkseyri
::: sick lipstick - come get yr. eggs
::: dragon or emperor - part of me says
::: dark captain light captain - questions (hatchback remix)
::: indian jewelry - everyday
::: the nightingales - crafty fag
::: irving klaw trio - jizzo the clown
::: kaki king - night after sidewalk

get.

pram | omnichord/sixty years of telephony

keith wurlitzer jukebox is one of those chaps that deserves to be showered with floral tributes and such for frittering away hard-earned disposable income from a day job on slithers of black plastic for our enjoyment and his ultimate debt. clearly such a business model is unsustainable in the long term, and hence wj is no more, but we'll always have the music. cheers.

7" released by the mighty wurlitzer jukebox in 1996.

sublime.

kylie fanzine #1

i'm back from the uk, and i brought with me various "papers" that i've hoarded over the years. and so begins the laborious process of scanning them in.

the first fruit is the first fanzine i ever did, back in i think 1992, with my friend conrad. it has some bands that i still really love, like moose, beatnik filmstars, bleach (though it's a rubbish q&a!) and pram. some that have disappeared into obscurity (coma and zu). and even one i didn't particularly like at the time but now rather do (adorable).

and it has tons of adolescent hand-ringing about everything from riot grrrl to sex. still, at least we didn't waste time sitting on the fence.

i miss this pritt-stick-and-scissors approach to design. it's all too easy these days.

Kylie Zine #1

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Music Culture scan fanzine

various | monsters, robots & bugmen

talking of genre-defining compilations, here's another. similar genre but broader in geographic scope and slightly higher in profile. some of the tracks are exclusive but not all...

disc 1

1. bardo pond - tantric porno
2. long fin killie - man ray
3. godflesh - gold teeth (charles atlas mix)
4. third eye foundation - sleep
5. hair & skin trading co. - *
6. fuxa - photon
7. on the run - pretty note
8. ui - the grand piano
9. bowery electric - slow thrills
10. brise lace - neither yield nor reap
11. pram - sea swells and distant squalls
12. magic hour - chance was
13. labradford - sfor 77

disc 2

1. mercury rev - everlasting arm
2. flying saucer attack - feedback song
3. jessamine - ordinary sleep
4. yona-kit - dancing sumo wrestlers
5. windy & Carl - preparation
6. godflesh - crush my soul (ultramix)
7. sabalon glitz - the lonesome death of elijah p. woods
8. stereolab - les yper-yper sound
9. cul de sac - doldrums
10. roy montgomery - departing the body
11. us maple - aplomado
12. space needle - before i lose my style
13. stars of the lid - goodnight

released in 1996 by virgin.

blush and bashful.

various | will our children thank us

occasionally a compilation comes along that is nothing less than genre-defining. foundry's "will our children thank us" is one of those. but what genre exactly? i guess you'd have to call it british post-rock perhaps. or new neu maybe. or something else entirely. or better still nothing at all.

1. throwing a curve ball - appliance
2. glenda - billy mahonie
3. carnival of souls [ghost train dub] - pram
4. fonk - electric sound of joy
5. close frank falling - wisdom of harry
6. peggy's well - novak
7. biggest lie - piano magic
8. eeriel - isan
9. not growing out of, growing into - rothko
10. moriko mori shoots - state river widening

released in 1999.

i'll have what she's having.

pram | in dreams you too can fly

pram are one of those bands that i don't listen to very often, but when i do get me all misty-eyed and nostalgic for the days when i bought vinyl records, wrote off letters to the contact addresses and got disappointed when they didn't reply.

thus i have copies of the iron lung ep and the stars are so big... on my record shelf, and thus i wrote to the band, i think with some bad questions for my fanzine, and thus they didn't reply... except they did - a few weeks later guitarist matt sent me not just a letter but a taped copy of their debut, very hard to find, mini album, gash. sadly that tape fell by the way side a long time ago, but swedish nurse has it in full, along with a contemporary interview.

there's something wistful, child-like, other-worldy about pram, a quality sustained throughout their career (note: haven't got their last 2 albums mind), but a quality marvellously undercut by their use at early shows of an ironing board as keyboard stand, a jolt of mundane practicality to offset their free jazz leanings.

one day i'll dig out the interview they did for me, but for now, here's a selection of stuff:

:::: pram - cumulus (from iron lung, 1993)
:::: pram - the ray (from the stars are so big, the earth is so small... stay as you are, 1993)
:::: pram - in dreams you too can fly (from the stars are so big, the earth is so small... stay as you are, 1993)
:::: pram - cinnabar (from north pole radio station, 1998)
:::: pram - carnival of souls [ghost train dub] (from the will our children thank us comp, 1999)
:::: pram - the owl service (from the museum of imaginary animals, 2000)

pramface.