So it was quite a heavy weekend (one way or another) and it took a massive cocktail of stimulants (caffeine/sugar/exercise*) to get my brain out of it’s semi-catatonic state this morning.
A couple of obvious life lessons became more and more apparent as the day progressed-
1-’have a good time all the time’ isn’t a motto that pays long term dividends
2-you can never get ‘too much’ sleep
If I’d had the full ‘hard 8′ hours last night I would be writing anincredibly well crafted post which would somehow incorporate peak oil, tuscan sausage, the increase in under-16 smokers, 70’s brasilian cinema into somekind of wonderfully telling meta-narrative.
As it is all I can think about is how comfy that dog looks.
Been a quiet week here at the hl-as a reward for our lacsidaisical attitude to posting, here is something extra special. Fresh from the 24 hour production powerhouse that basilika towers has become recently is a dirty, dirty re-edit of the Prince classic and hl fav ‘Bob George‘.
Whereas the original keeps it all stripped down, raw and darkly funky, part-time shark trainer and international jazz pastry chef ‘crispy’ teacakes moves the vibe away from seedy detroit underbelly with some seriously dance-floor compliant tweaking and editing.
people can do strange things in the name of love. they can kill, suppress, obliterate and deny. they can hurt, hate and destroy.
and then theres the things people do for love.
out of and in love.
it might be the joys of spring and bursting buds in the canalside hedgerows i’ve just walked past but i’ve been thinking that surely the best of life is that which is created in the expansive security which true love provides.
of all the beautiful things in the world, of all the art, music, architecture, literature, film, poetry. of all the feats of endurance, of sporting prowess, of academic, philosophical or scientific research and discovery. of all that was ever created to bring joy or to say thanks, the best and most affecting are those which came from the place of surity in the creator’s heart that they could and would accomplish what they had set out to do because they were doing it for love, with passion and confidence, with scope to fail and even more scope to achieve.
and despite what the first law of thermodynamics says about energy not being created or destroyed it seems that the exception which continues to prove that rule is when you open up to the possibilities of honestly loving something (or someone) it comes back at you ten fold.
and in a funny way that means the pressures off.
that old adage about setting that which you love free and having it return to you, i’d always thought was an angsty self sacrificial paean to accepting all manner of ill treatment in the name of love but i’d been putting the emphasis in all the wrong places in the sentence, in fact, maybe it should say if you love something then you let it free.
anyhoo, since we’re all a bit busy at hl’s various london outposts and things might be quiet this week i’m going to take the self indulgent liberty of posting my favourite birthday present, something which i’ve been looping so much that i’m starting to hear the hook in the city’s twilight chorus, passing shop doorways i think i catch it on a radio and the hydraulic closing of tube doors on the jubilee line mimics it’s tempo perfectly, from the crazy exclusive ‘in the light of day’ ep a man called horse spreads a little love in all your directions with this beautiful piece of work.
its a been a hard week. maybe because i’ve actually been really applying myself to the job that pays the bills while trying (and sometimes failing) to keep up with the fun stuff too. and its starting to feel like there’s some great new music finally coming out for oh-7 which goes to show i should be more patient, since just when i think theres nothing new to like out there some rich new vein opens and i end up worrying about how i’m ever going to find the time to listen to it, let alone assess and write & post about it… but hell we’ll get round to it soon, so expect some gems from ongaria, the awesome and soon to be released great lake swimmers new album next week amongst other things.
in the meantime (though this is by no means a stopgap) here’s a little sumthin-sumthin’ for you to get your feet shuffling to ce weekend.
doubtless this joint will be playing out at the elbow rooms in shoreditch at somepoint on saturday night when those multi-talented basilika boys (featuring the long overdue return of the northern contingent, the musically well-endowed illa lloyd as well as our own jaksoul and stablelad the teacake) hit the town with their own brand of get-up-and-dance.
I’ve had my head in books about the late 60s and early 70s recently. I fully recommend Trips by Ellen Sander if you can get hold of a copy. She was there…with Joni & Graham at Lookout Mountain…in the room when Stills belittled Young…at Altamont when the bad wine and bad acid was going around and started to create the bad vibes. She floated around the Laurel and later Topanga Canyon sets and her book is real analysis from the inside. I’m With The Band by the Grandmother of all modern groupies - Pamela Des Barres - talks more about the scenes and rock stars in general, as she was over in a different part of LA with Jimmy Page and his special suitcase, but she was a big part of Gram Parsons life until his OD and was a founder member of Frank Zappa’s GTOs…
Finally I recommend Barney Hoskyn’s Hotel California. Looking down the barrel of history at a time we all now know was doomed to consume itself, Hoskyns tells the story cleanly, giving air the dreams of dreamers - of how it could have been.
Reading about all this music I needed to get in and listen to some of it. So I tracked down as much as I could. Trying to piece together the fractured stories and backgrounds of the musicians and bands I was reading about with an aural map. It led me to discover some beautiful music which I felt compelled to put together and share with my friends. So here it is…put your headphones on and sit back - imagine that wherever you are is actually a veranda in Laurel Canyon late 1975, and you are flicking around the radio until you find Miss Lorelei on WKLA…
I try to make a habit of not paying too much attention to celebrity culture. Despite this I think it’s hard to ignore Britney Spears’ continued descent into personal disaster. It’s the dark side of the obsessive culture of fame we live in; someone breaking down before our eyes played out as entertainment.
On the flipside it’s been a great week for east london producer and cosmic voyager, Joseph Quaid ,with his deep new track ‘Feel’ being playlisted on Gilles Peterson’s all conquering ‘Worldwide’ radio show and big getting blog love from the superb Grooveprovider.
This track therefore is not only a freaky slice of jazzed-out dark-soul, but a reminder that a you’re only ever one track from the top and a haircut away from the gutter. Britney Spears-Slave 4 U (quaid’s pitchdown edit)
i should apologise, this year’s been a bit all over the place for me so far, and as such my usual keyboard meanderings about the music that’s gotten me all fired up over the past twenty four hours have been replaced with whinging by-lines about having no where to live.
well that stops here and actually it wasn’t all bad anyway (please say it wasn’t all bad…) as it led me back home (ok, ok this is a terrible pun, even i admit it) because the lovely adam from hometapes braved the latitudes and furnished me (and we all know that then means you, dear reader) with a pre-mixed and unmastered recording from paul duncan’s new album.
we here at hl love hometapes because of what they do and how they do it, like this…
“ Hometapes makes official the little things in life that define us. We’ve been making things since we were kids, together even then, from every moment we collect. Product architects. Happy just to leave behind something you’ll remember. Hearing and making music, taking pictures, writing something down, designing a page or a package, watching through windows, driving, walking, talking: these are the modest pillars of Hometapes. We engineer products that represent us, our friends/collaborators, and creative everyday life. Sometimes they exceed our expectations and we surely hope they excite yours. Hometapes = music, art, and everything else.“
you can’t not love them after reading that can you?
anyhoo, back to the matter in hand. if you hit up the hometapes (or even paul’s own) site the new paul duncan album’s got no name but is slated to hit the shelves (or servers now i suppose) some time in march.
well, the album’s actually called ‘Above the Trees’ and right here is a chunk of soaring loveliness, which according to Adam Hometapes “sounds incredible” in its finally mixed and mastered version.
i’ve been looping it on repeat/repeat/repeat (always a great sign of greatness) and there’s a new levity to paul duncan’s voice on this track (compared to the occasional growl which rumbled over ‘Be careful…’) which will doubtless draw lazy comparisons to bonnie prince billy and (smog)’s bill callahan when the album is released. and once more his lyrics are balanced, considered and apposite… “my love i’m excited - because we will get older” weighs in to the seasoned mood of ‘red eagle’ with the acoustic guitars strings lapping over a quiet snare, while a calming steel guitar winds its way around the vocal and strings like wood smoke from a cabin in the woods.
so keep the hometape fires burning by checking in on them regularly and see where they’re at and be excited by gorgeous music made by lovely people.
