War On The Dancefloor - 22.01.16

Frighteningly accurate enactment

My first DJing of the 2016 and it's the stompy grounds of War On The Dancefloor at The Q Club. Laying down the sets before me were Darren (who needs to be more confident and move himself up the listing) and Chris, and then Hallam kept them going till the end. For a Friday before the post Christmas payday it wasn't that bad a turn out, and they have started stocking McEwans Champion at the bar so it all got a bit tired and emotional near the end....

11:30 to 12:45

Police State - Birmingham 6

Land of Rape and Honey - Ministry

Bomb the Clubs - Caustic

Scumbags and Spent Slags (Be My Enemy mix) - Flesh Eating Foundation

Airstrike - Seething Akira

Run You - The Quemists

Hallo Spaceboy - David Bowie

I'm Afraid of Americans (Nine Inch Nails mix) - David Bowie

Ace of Spades - The Chaos Engine

Survivalism - Nine Inch Nails

Beast - Rabbit Junk

Skinny Little Bitch - Anglespit

   {Brief Technical Pause}

Torn Apart - Stabbing Westward & Wink

Hammer of the Gods  - Fadderhead

Everything is War - Combichrist

Revolution Action - Atari Teenage Riot

Ghost Rider - Suicide

The Brief Technical Pause was due to DJuced 18 crashing when I tried to move a song from another playlist into the one I was using. Bug report filled and hopefully it'll be fixed in the next update, but I'll be looking into an alternative program if it's going to start playing silly buggers like that. Thankfully the floor waited for me to get things back on the go and they keep moving 'til the end.

Turntables at CES

To go with the recent news that "Vinyl Is Saving Music!" (it isn't, it's 7% of the market that happens to be a more expensive product so makes up a lot of sales value),  Sony and Panasonic have turned up to the Consumer Electronics Show ("This is what you could have had for Christmas!") with a pair of turn-tables. And thus "Vinyl Is Back!" screams everyone who hasn't got a clue what they're talking about but this time hopes they're going to be on the Cool Train.

Now firstly, and I want to make this very clear, the two decks in question are "Nice!". As in 'audiophile says these things are good bits of kit' nice. The Technics are essentially a more modern version of the SL-1200G which everyone of "a certain age" and calibre in DJing has used, because they were actually that good. Even if you weren't of the right calibre you've played on a rip-off of them, because they were just that ubiquitous for a reason, and now they have a nicer direct-drive motor in them so you'll get a smoother mix IF you still use vinyl. Which most people stopped doing years ago, which was why they stopped being made.

The Sony offering PS-HX500 is different approach entirely; essentially the most tricked out version of the "convert you're vinyl to MP3" that everyone one in the days between after you started switching to digital and before you found out you could download someone else's better copy from Pirate Bay. It's got internal audio-to-digital conversion, edit/mixing software, and you can technically hook it up to a audio rig and play out on it at a real good quality.

But you won't if you're serious about your music, because it's vinyl and vinyl sucks. Or, at the very least, it does when compared to modern formats. Yes, vinyl had a very important place in the history of music, and, yes, there was something nice about going to a record shop and fingering through the album racks, and, yes, if you must be the kind of person who's most important format decision is how obviously you can show off that you bought a record, it's nice to have a large physical item with a big cover on the front. I know this, because I've got a collection of vinyl myself as I go weak at the knees being able to touch a bit of music history; it mostly sits on the shelf whilst I listen to the FLACs. Some people still DJ on vinyl, however the two biggest reasons to do this are because it's all part of the performance of that particular event or they are stubborn die-hards that also don't set the levels back when they've finished their sets. Anyone who does it because it's only available on vinyl has long since converted the music to digital, because it's the only way to keep such precious content from falling apart.

Vinyl is heavy, awkward to carry, deteriorates rapidly, and is expensive to produce, ship, and stock. The reason that CD and digital is doing so well right now is because it's about a million times better for most everyday usage, be you a DJ or a regular listener. At one time vinyl sounded the best for the period, before wear and tear kicked in, but those days are gone and you can demonstrably get a far better sound from digital now, as scientifically proved on a number of occasions. You can also, if you're into making music, get it out and about in minutes rather than months by using the magic of electronics.

What's happened with the recent vinyl boom is that a bunch of people decided to be hip and focus on the iconography of vinyl and the retroism of it. The novelty of buying something which a whole generation are just not used to seeing anywhere has kicked in, it's become a cheap luxury item and a means to show musical eliteness with the minimum of effort. And because of that boom Sony and Panasonic have gone "lets make the thing that everyone is asking us for, because everyone's got an MP3 player or streaming device and they all threw their record players away in 2005". They are adding either some minor technical innovation (because it's a technology that stopped advancing 20 years ago) or some consideration to how the technology is being used these days (because the other formats are just more convenient). But they are not going to break the bank with these devices, because vinyl is not going to come back as anything more than niche. No matter how much people scream about it.

Which is not to diminish the kit they are selling, because it is very nice.

The Sonics: Psycho-Sonic and This Is The Sonics

The Sonics are one of those bands that never made it as big at the time as we now think they should have, because what they did didn't really make that much sense to a lot of people until many years later. For the brothers Andy and Larry Parypa in 1964 Tacoma, Washington state, that thing was to play a style of stripped down rock and roll that burned with a rawness, a passion, and a power that would be the tinder and the fuel everything in the line of American folk music that would eventually end up being called punk. Rather than follow the norm of the time and "move on" towards psychedelia, progression, or pop, they hunkered down and tried to find out how much more could be beaten out of the original formula.

The result was the two albums, Here Are The Sonics (1965) and Boom (1966), which have been collected, along with with all the singles and alternative / live versions held from their time with Etiquette records, in the "Psycho-Sonic" album. In this you can hear their dance hall circuit origins in Boss Hoss, Louie Louie, and Roll Over Beethoven: tunes that they attack with a gusto and a sheer volume that clearly was beyond the means of that periods equipment to capture. It's a sound of people who grew up on Blackboard Jungle, rather than with it, and who just wanted to make it bigger. You can also hear the start of the outsider anthem, especially the triumvirate of The Witch, Psycho, and Strychnine, which mixed the dark social/horror themes of the blues with a James Dean swagger that had no clue where it was going or how but knew it had to get their fast. It was anger that wasn't sure why it felt that bad, and only felt worse because everyone else was having such a good time. Its a savage piece of America, but with a musicianship and core listenability that makes it enthralling and occasionally even introvert, and that carries the DNA that you can hear in the likes of The Stooges, The Ramones, and Nirvana (to name but a few of the bands fans). As an album it's a slice of a specific piece in time, of an underground that was just discovering itself, and a timeless piece of rock and roll mastery that you may have overlooked.

Given the history of the band, of their signing to a major label to then have their sound neutered and for them to split before tasting fame, it's natural to ask "what would happen if they were given a second chance now that everyone knows how great they were?". Thankfully This Is The Sonics, recorded 50 years later in 2015 with 3 of the original 5 members and following on/off live performances since 2007, answers this with a clear and concise "exactly the same thing, only louder". "I Don't Need No Doctor", "The Hard Way", and "Livin' In Chaos" are stand outs by a nose, That a bunch of 70 year old's can continue to rock as hard as before impressive in itself, but that they can do it with a sound that comes across as classic rather than retro is pure brilliance. Even the dirty-distortion of their first period is maintained, technology having improved enough to get the full glory of their overdriven glory as this is a band that could play a triangle and make it sound like it was hocked into a Marshall stack. About the only change is that they sound a little more focused, a little less confused, but in no way any more mellow nor one jot less rocking.

A Small Selection Of Things Lemmy Did Other Than Motorhead

If you are anything like me then the the chances are that today, and quite possibly tomorrow and a good number of days after that, your reaction to the passing of Lemmy is going to be playing a lot of Motorhead cranked up good and high. And after the 15 hours of blissfully wonderful studio albums, and god-alone-knows hours of incredible live recordings, (see multiple previous postings) you might want some of his other work to listen to so you can hear the true range of this mighty Rock & Roll Warrior's works. Because as long as we're still listening to him he's still with us.

The Rocking Vickers

Sam Gopal

Hawkwind

Robert Calver's Band

Lemmy And The Upstetters

Headcat

And a massive list of other collaborations and guest appearances, as you can't keep that much music tied down to one thing.

RIP Lemmy, you will be missed.

Duran Duran @ The NEC Genting Arena - 04/12/2015

The Genting Arena is best described as a cross between an airport departure lounge, what premier league football stadiums dream they are and an exercise in seeing how much you can overcharge for every kind of food and drink under the sun. It's also got lovely staff and on this brisk - but not too stormy - night, it was the venue for the return of Birmingham's greatest 80's export (or, as Simon Le Bon put it, it's "bastard children"). The venue was mostly rammed, the audience was mostly over thirty and everyone was moderately buzzing at the chance of going back to their youth. The only problem was: both the acts they had heard of had actually done a lot of stuff since they were last heard on the chart countdown.

Before that: Bloom Twins, a pair of quite talented Darkwave performers from Ukraine who do a good line in synths, live drums and mixing of 50's cinema tunes, with modern sounds that ends up being haunting, emotional and interestingly minimalistic. It was also wasted on the audience - the few that had turned up to see them by that point - and, in a neat nod to the 80's, suffered from the Ultravox problem of 'how do you make things look interesting on stage if everyone is stuck behind a sodding huge set of keyboards". I would happily listen to them again if their tunes came on the radio and would love to see them if they played in a club, but at 500 feet it was, inevitably, a bit of a non-event.

Little known fact: Seal has done seven studio albums since he released "Kiss From A Rose", something that he was quite happy to tell an audience that appeared to think he'd been keep in stasis since 1994. However they would be forgiven for having that thought, as 52 years olds really aren't supposed to be able to belt out tunes with that much power AND command the stage with that much presence AND interact with the audience with that much grace and warming wit. He started, perfectly, on Crazy and Killer which got a huge reaction. He then, perfectly, did a brace of soulful, R&B meets rock, classics from his other albums which were meet with polite applause from everyone more than three rows from the front, and finished on an, unsurprisingly perfect, rendition of "Kiss From A Rose" that got everyone singing and cheering.

Duran Duran have also not been resting on their laurels since their heyday of 1981 to 1989, especially with departures, returns and a brief hiatus when no-one really thought they would get back together again. They also (finally) have a really solid album (Paper Gods) to show off and thus were more than happy to kick things off with the title track, before kicking into a set that was 50/50 classics/tracks most of the audience didn't know because they weren't written in the 80's. But they lapped it up because it's Duran Duran, they can rock it like devils and they were overly happy to be playing to their hometown crowd, so wanted everyone to know how chuffed they were to be there.

The stage show wasn't anything too fancy and involved a bit of AV with well timed lights; the theatrics were kept minimal with only Danceophobia having any real choreography. But the impact was undeniable; the charm, charisma and confidence just dripping off every more and note. Simon Le Bon and John Taylor stalking their stage like the pop superstars they are, Nick Rhodes stayed at his keyboards like a conductor-general marshalling his forces and Roger Taylor just hammered his kit.

When they played tracks the crowd knew, everyone was dancing; when they played tracks the crowd didn't, everyone was listening - and when the moment was right, then everyone was singing. The big moment for that was the encore with Save A Prayer; something that was obviously going to be emotional, given it having become somewhat of an anthem for the Paris attacks. Le Bon introduced it well, stating the facts and offering it up as a song of hope - and then let the audience do most of the legwork. Hopefully there won't be much call for things like this in the future, but that night it gave a much-needed sense of togetherness and optimism. Then they kicked into Rio and people got back with the main point of the night: brilliant Pop that's a bit daft, occasionally poignant, and always damn good fun.

Industrial Music: Caustic

If you were after delicately nuanced or subtly composed music, then the tenth album from Matt Fanale / Caustic is not for you. This album is a steady, dependable, punch in the face; a throwback to the dawn times of industrial music that has gone "yeah - EBM, electro and the last twenty years of regular progression have been interesting and all that. But I just want violent, stompy noise and lyrics about hate." It's all stripped down, distorted beats, with shoutable tunes on themes of fucked-up feelings and disastrous emotions, designed to get people angry in the pit.

Opener "Attention Please" has a keyboard roll and lyrical delivery that reminds you of early rap tracks, whilst the instrumental "Michael Fucking Ironside" has a kind of bastard trance all the way through it like Brighton rock. The finisher "Bleached Asshole/The Deafening Beat of My Heart" touches on drone and "Toxic Waste" has the most modern sounding, near-gabba drums in it (along with some kick-arse guitar). But the rest of it, including the ironically dancefloor friendly "Bomb the Clubs", have a familiarity of the old school to them that is, frankly, awesome and needed.

Whilst experimentation and new directions are always welcome, it's great to have someone take it back to the start and go "no, this is how it's done and this is why its so damn good".  It also doesn't sound like rework-retro or hipster lo-fi, as it has a clarity of sound and depth of production that many of the early classics were missing. It's just a selection of the core concepts of the genre done with none of the extraneous elements that can often overcrowd or over-complicate things. Think of it as a cool glass of water after months of complicated juice bars and experimental health shakes, that someone has now pissed in and is challenging you to down in one. True: its not going to be for everyone. But some folks think it could both fun and healthy for you.

This Music Leaves Stains: The Complete Story Of The Misfits by James Green JR.

I've been thinking about doing an article about the influence that horror, sci-fi, and similar B-Movie
schlock has had on punk rock - and to a greater extent, rock music as a whole. However James Greene Jr.manages to do such a good job of it in pages 3 to 7 (covering the tradition of dark fantasy theme within rock since it's inception, the unrelenting thirst for content of 60s & 70s USA TV stations pumping the movies out, the move from 40's & 50's ideal lifestyles to economic pressures forcing mothers into the workplace causing more TV viewing by kids, and the kitschy anti-establishment & juvenile escapist joys found within them)... that there really isn't much more to add to his thesis.

As an added bonus, his observations are followed by a full and fully researched history of the progenitors of the Horror Punk genre. Starting with the first musical endeavors of founder member Glen Danzig and working it's way through to the contemporary Jerry Only period of the band, this book uses a combination of the historical record and interviews with an extensive range of members and associates of the troupe. Whilst doing so, it also gives a wider idea of the Misfits place and importance in the history of punk rock as a whole; something that previous works like American Hardcore: A Tribal History have touched on but never truly given the credit owed, due to either the lyrical/performance content of the heavy metal elements of their work not fitting into the established narratives of the genre.

Given the number of people who have gone through it's ranks, and the amount of disagreement over what did or didn't happen (often settled by legal action), the "give everyone's view, and let the reader decide" approach adopted by Greene is a practical solution to a complicated problem. It's also an approach that could leave the reader unsure as to what may have happened, however there is sufficient editorializing opinion thrown in to make it clear where the writer sits on many occasions. This could upset Misfits fans with a strong viewpoint on the personalities involved (which boils down to Danzig Vs Only), but the appreciation shown for the music and performances should avoid alienating all but the most entrenched of fans.

What you mostly get is a clear yet wistful message that if the band hadn't had it's internal rifts, it would never have produced the content it did - but the band could also have been so much more successful than it was. You also get some interesting (and often sarcastically funny) insights into what is involved in writing a book such as this, plus the egos that can continue, decades after the events. Add to this the true story of a band that failed to succeed at the time but became a huge influence to those who followed and the eventual return (of sorts) to the deserved acclaim all of this, helps make this book a great read, be it for fan or soon-to-be fan of the band.