Dr Rob lives in Japan. This is his response to recent happenings. Help where you can people. Ed.
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雨ニモマケズ
風ニモマケズ
雪ニモ夏ノ暑サニモマケヌ
丈夫ナカラダヲモチ
慾ハナク
決シテ瞋ラズ
イツモシヅカニワラッテヰル
一日ニ玄米四合ト
味噌ト少シノ野菜ヲタベ
アラユルコトヲ
ジブンヲカンジョウニ入レズニ
ヨクミキキシワカリ
ソシテワスレズ
野原ノ松ノ林ノ ノ
小サナ萓ブキノ小屋ニヰテ
東ニ病気ノコドモアレバ
行ッテ看病シテヤリ
西ニツカレタ母アレバ
行ッテソノ稲ノ朿ヲ負ヒ
南ニ死ニサウナ人アレバ
行ッテコハガラナクテモイヽトイヒ
北ニケンクヮヤソショウガアレバ
ツマラナイカラヤメロトイヒ
ヒドリノトキハナミダヲナガシ
サムサノナツハオロオロアルキ
ミンナニデクノボートヨバレ
ホメラレモセズ
クニモサレズ
サウイフモノニ
ワタシハナリタイ
Be Not Defeated By The Rain by Kenji Miyazawa
Translation by David Sulz
Be not defeated by the rain, Nor let the wind prove your better.
Succumb not to the snows of winter. Nor be bested by the heat of summer.
Be strong in body. Unfettered by desire. Not enticed to anger. Cultivate a quiet joy.
Count yourself last in everything. Put others before you.
Watch well and listen closely. Hold the learned lessons dear.
A thatch-roof house, in a meadow, nestled in a pine grove’s shade.
A handful of rice, some miso, and a few vegetables to suffice for the day.
If, to the East, a child lies sick: Go forth and nurse him to health.
If, to the West, an old lady stands exhausted: Go forth, and relieve her of burden.
If, to the South, a man lies dying: Go forth with words of courage to dispel his fear.
If, to the North, an argument or fight ensues:
Go forth and beg them stop such a waste of effort and of spirit.
In times of drought, shed tears of sympathy.
In summers cold, walk in concern and empathy.
Stand aloof of the unknowing masses:
Better dismissed as useless than flattered as a “Great Man”.
This is my goal, the person I strive to become.
[Dr Rob]
Other Sites We Like: Mangiami
March 28, 2011
Everyones likes to eat and even better when some of the best disco DJs in the world are stood in the corner providing the soundtrack. This is the blog of a restaurant and bar in NYC. They record everything and slowly share them. Get involved here…
[Apiento]
Just Because 022: It’s A Smiley Sort Of Day
March 25, 2011
[Apiento]
Mix: Jan Hammered – Fly With Me
March 23, 2011
New Release: Todd Terje – Ragysh
March 22, 2011
More new music for you. From bonkers drum tracks to full on syncopated disco and a lovely beatless version excursion this one has it all. If we had a value for money rating Terje would get a hearty 9/10. Running Back now have a tumblr by the way so take a look here if you haven’t seen it yet. Anyway, back to the tracks. I always like the way Gerd of Running Back describes his music so here we go…
“Touched by the hand of Todd…Drumroll, please…New 12-Inch with original productions since…Ragysh, Bonysh and Snooze 4 Love…First edition comes in super nice recycling sleeves, second edition in not so nice sleeves… Trans dance from the Norwegian Chief inspector that is Todd Terje…Greatysh hypnotism, properysh beats and a lovelysh Terjerine dream to round it all off…Vinyl contains some hidden tracks and extra elements… Cannot stop listening to it… …Touched by the hand of Todd…”
Todd Terje: Ragysh (Excerpt)
Todd Terje: Snooze 4 Love (Excerpt)
Todd Terje: Bonysh (Excerpt)
Todd Terje: Snooze 4 Love (Version) (Excerpt)
[Apiento]
New Release: The Mythical Beasts ‘Communicate’ (Ft. Remixes By Brennan Green / Permanent Vacation / Alphabet City / Das Volt) (iFeel)
March 21, 2011
It’s a good day for new music. Just got this one and the new Todd Terje on Running Back (more on that later). The Mythical Beasts are Felix Dickinson and Toby Tobias who will be familiar to most of you. Felix has just done the last Originals compilation on Claremont and Toby Tobias has been doing stuff on Rekids amongst other things in recent times.
Both do it for the right reasons so we are happy to hear this one coming out sounding like a super super slow mo disco track in original form. It’s so slow you could almost push it over but it’s all the better for it. All the remixes add a different flavour so check them and make up your own mind. This one comes on 180g vinyl and in a nice sleeve to boot. Not sure when it’s out to be honest. I’ll try and find out.
The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Excerpt)
The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Alphabet City Remix) (Excerpt)
The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Permanent Vacation Remix) (Excerpt)
The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Brennan Green Remix) (Excerpt)
The Mythical Beasts: Communicate (Das Volt Remix) (Excerpt)
[Apiento]
Design: Adesivo Del Vagabondo Con La Chitarra
March 18, 2011
Loads of nice stuff going on over at Ying Yangs. These images are of a character called Adesivo Del Vagabondo Con La Chitarra which apparently means vagabond with a guitar. They were associated with the cosmic scene in Italy in the early 80’s. Well hippie.
Thanks to Jiro at Ying Yangs.
[Apiento]
The Face: Philip Sallon Interview (July 1984)
March 18, 2011
This one is taken from the July 1984 edition of The Face. Philip Sallon talks about the Mud Club. Love the journalist, Fiona Russell Powell’s description of the music at the club.
[Apiento]
The Face: Prince Interview (June 1983)
March 18, 2011
Prince interview by Carol Cooper taken from The Face in June 1983. Great photo. Just watched the Omnibus program on him from ’91 and it’s pretty amazing stuff. Sheila E and a tour of his house. What more could you want.
[Apiento]
Party: No Ordinary Monkey / New York
March 18, 2011
Tonight it’s birthday time for No Ordinary Monkey… And check their website. They have Whatever We Want Records and other stuff coming.
[Apiento]
Piece: Spectrum By Terry Farley
March 17, 2011
Story: Terry Farley Photographs: Chris Abbot
On April 11th 1988 the vast space that was (and still is) Heaven opened its doors to an ‘Acid House’ night. The problem was apart from around 200 people who frequented Shoom and Future nobody knew what Acid House was, let alone how to dance to it.
The promoters were Ian St Paul and Paul Oakenfold and the club held around 2,500 people. On the first night there were 124 people and everyone passing through the doors got a free E. Two weeks later there were still a hundred or so people wearing an odd mixture of Ibizan hippie and mid 80s football casual clobber trance dancing to music imported straight from Alfredo’s playlist of the 87 season at Amnesia.
Week three saw an influx of curious souls and young kids who had heard whispers around town. The following week the queue went up the hill onto the Strand. The next week had 1200 bods, and then by the following one the 2500 club was packed to the rafters. London had never, and never has since, had a clubbing phenomena like it. The club had a sound system unmatched by any other in the UK and a lazer show straight out of NY’s finest gay clubbing culture. The queue started 2 hrs before opening, and at 3.30 am when the club finished the Strand became a huge party with thousands of kids on E jacking on car roofs and stopping the West End traffic. This was the club that heralded Acid House as an explosion of biblical proportions and its legacy still lingers on today around the world. Fucking awesome…
It was also the start of the superstar dj cult with Oakenfold perched high above the massed crowd in a huge dj booth playing mad classical orchestral recordings of Wagner mixing into heavy Detroit beats with Fini Tribe’s ‘De Testimony’ and Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Join in the Chant’ jostling for peak time action alongside House hits such as Black Riot ‘A Day In The Life‘ and Derrick May’s seminal ‘Strings Of Life.’
The main room also ended up as the birth place of the Acid Ted with bandanas and smiley t shirts replacing Chevignon and Chippie as the look of the sweaty fledgling foot soldiers. On the middle floor the kids who considered themselves too cool for downstairs, the three month Acid House veterans, danced to the more Balearic grooves of Roger the Hippie and Terry Farley. Big anthems up there ranged from Yello’s ‘The Race’, The Woodentops ‘Why Why Why’ to the Mamas and the Papas ‘California Dreaming’ and even Jackie Wilson’s 60s hit ‘The Sweetest Feeling.’ The look up there was more ‘future’ inspired – baggy jumpers, Lee dungarees and beat up Kickers.
This piece originally appeared on Faith, home of acid house banter. Click here to read more from the chaps.
[Terry Farley]
Photos: Last Night Of Shoom
March 16, 2011
Our mate Graham Styles took these years ago at the last night of the Shoom. Love the one of Pete Heller with arms aloft. Happy happy.
Thanks to Steven Hall, Graham Styles and Emma Warren (who dumped her mates outside so she could get in on the night).
[Apiento]
Exhibition: Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark / Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s
March 12, 2011
Today me and the boy (my 13 year old son) visited the new Barbican exhibition. Apparently a lot of the work comes from the time that the downtown NY scene came together across the mediums of art, music, dance and architecture (often all in the same piece). By the way, excuse the bad iPhone photos below but you’re not really allowed to take them so you have to sneak the snaps.
From a music perspective there are some nice pieces to get into from Laurie Anderson. There is ‘The Handphone Table’ (above), a table where you place your elbows into small holes and place your hands over your ears so the sound of a poem travels through your arms. It’s a nice idea and you get more of a feeling of the poem being read, kind of blobs of sound, than are actually able to hear it.
Laurie Anderson also has an installation called ‘The Electric Chair’ where a Farfisa organ has a chord held by a heavy vice placed upon it, while two fluorescent lighting tubes and a spinning turning chair are all mic’d up to create an ever changing sculpture of light, crackles and movement. It’s nice. I think it was created for this exhibition and is based upon the above drawing.
One of our other favourite parts of the show was one of it’s centre points, Trisha Brown’s ‘Walking On The Wall’, which was originally created in 1971. Five dancers are suspended on the wall via a system of harnesses, ropes and a girder and move around two walls in a sort of geometric fashion – stepping over each other and walking backwards and forwards. It’s very peaceful to watch and in the boys words ‘though slow it’s pretty entertaining.’ The Guardian said ‘A walk on the wall side… This exhibition is worth the trip for Trisha Brown alone.’ Couldn’t agree more.
Another key piece of the show is Gordon Matta-Clark’s ‘Splitting’ where he took a house in New Jersey and in his words ‘does a dance with the building’. Slowly breaking it into two parts and pushing one part back on its own foundations. Special mention also to his lovely shots of 70s graffiti from the like of Lee (below). Apparently he had an affinity and solidarity with young people obsessed with defacing public property. I like him.
We’ve picked out the obvious parts of the show but there’s lots to get into and to me it felt like an important part of that musical lineage that we love.
For more information on dates, times and how to get there click here to go to The Barbican website.
[Apiento]
This looks like a nice evening out. On April 3 Bing Ji Ling of Incarnations and The Phenomenal Handclap Band is playing live to celebrate the launch of his debut solo album ‘Shadow to Shine’.
In support is Shawn Lee playing tracks from his recently released World Of Funk on Ubiquity, with DJs Moonboots and Jason Boardman. It’s all happening at the Castle Hotel in Manchester. There are 50 advance tickets available from Piccadilly Records, Manchester priced at £5.00 plus booking fee. Bargain.
[Apiento]
The Face: Malcolm McLaren Interview (June 1983)
March 10, 2011
This one is taken from The Face in June 1983. Paul Rambali goes duck rock with the don Malcolm.
[Apiento]
Just Because 021: Advert For Grace Jones ‘Living My Life’
March 10, 2011
[Apiento]
Caught By The River (if you don’t know it take a look but I guess most of you do) are promoting an event on Wednesday April 20th at The Social on Little Portland Street. The main event is Grasscut live with support from Jack Northover amongst other. I was sent a link to a piece called Off The Beaten Track to go along with the flyer and it was such a pleasant read I just reposted it all below. Hope that’s alright Caught By The River people. I’ve tried to keep it in their style.
Robin says: If you were to plot a perfect record to appeal to this third of Caught By The River, you couldn’t get much closer than the Grasscut LP “1 Inch / 1/2 Mile”. A grab bag of glitchy electronics, celestial harmonics, samples of W G Sebald and Ezra Pound and scratchy old 78s that comes accompanied by a plotted walk over the South Downs, Grasscut’s debut LP pushed open a door to an off-kilter world, one where the entire roster of Warp Records seemed to be fighting over the same Ordinance Survey map. I pored over the South Downs walk while listening to the album then remembered that Friend of the River Mathew Clayton had recently relocated to that neck of the woods. Being time-pressed (read: bloody lazy), I asked Mathew whether he fancied doing the walk and writing about it. Luckily, he’s made of sterner stuff than me.
On the outskirts of Brighton is an unlovely suburb called Woodingdean, and on the outskirts of Woodingdean, in a perfect downland valley, there was once a hamlet called Balsdean. It included a Norman church, two farms and some cottages. During the Second World War the area was requisitioned for army training, the buildings were used for target practice and Balsdean, which had existed since at least the 12th Century, was completely wiped out. All that is left is a small stone plaque, partially hidden by grass, stating it was once the site of the altar of a church.
A few weeks ago I drove to Woodingdean with Andrew Phillips who has used this disappeared village as the imagined setting for one of my favourite albums of last year, One Inch/ 1/2 Mile, by his band Grasscut. Our plan was to follow a walk he devised (see attached map) to accompany the album. We parked the car opposite a large housing estate but soon were surrounded by rolling hills that blocked out all sign of human habitation. As we walked Andrew explained his aim had been to make a classic folk album, one that felt deeply rooted in the landscape, customs and history of England, but do it entirely on electronic instruments.
One of his points of inspiration was the opening sequence of the Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale that blends two moments in time – a medieval hunting falcon transforming into a Spitfire. The album is full of moments like this, fragments from the past bursting into the future. It starts with a quote from WG Sebald, includes bits of poetry recited by Ezra Pound and finishes with a wonderfully loopy sounding Hilaire Beloc singing about riding a winged horse across the countryside. Alongside these are snippets of everyday conversations (one track is based around a clandestine recording Andrew made of his mother talking about the year 1946, ‘grey, very grey, not much colour’) and field recordings of the valley at Balsdean (with church bells chiming in the distance) all played over a mixture of creaking synthesisers, delicate pianos and rumbling bass.
The album is mournful, multi layered and full of unexpected changes of direction, the song Muppet starts with an angry barrage of electronic noise and ends with a celestial sounding boy’s church choir. It does, however, feels like the expression of a unified vision of the landscape (and in turn modern Britain). Beautiful but slightly broken. Britain’s countryside isn’t really wild, most of it is like the South Downs bordering urban areas; flowers and fly tipping, downland and dual carriageway side by side. As we climbed back to the car park the sky had turned to candy. Swathes of orange and pink floating over the fields and the city. Epic psychedelia. Along the coast, past Portslade and Shoreham, I could just make out Worthing pier turning gold. We got in the car and drove home.
1 Inch: 1/2 Mile, is on sale in the Caught by the River shop, priced £10.00.
The ‘Off The Beaten Track’ piece was written by Robin Turner and Matthew Clayton and originally appeared here.
While you are there check the whole of the Caught By The River shop as it’s full of mellow bits and pieces from t-shirts (not sure a t-shirt can be mellow but if it can the ones they are selling are) to badges, books and mugs – a lot of which has a fishing lean.
[Apiento]
Mix/Piece: Tokyo-To Kissa #9
March 4, 2011
Artwork by Kaii Higashiyama
I wake in cold blue before the sun. Unraveling the dreams I have come to treasure. One or five AM. I have no idea. My head so cold it aches. I check the kids are covered and brave downstairs. Three degrees in the kitchen. But the fish are still swimming. I light the stove with stones thrown from Asamayama soaked in kerosene. Set the coffee on it. A shower, the quickest way to warm up. But it`s hard to get in. Ice on the inside of the window. Frosted glass. Move the frozen laundry. On tip-toes against cold tiles. Harder to get out.
Minus eight during the day. Minus twenty at night. All effort spent on keeping the family alive. No time for anything other than the business of surviving the weather. Chopping wood while the sun shines. Sleeping once it sets. A complicated city boy with a simple country life. It can be good to have your priorities straightened once in a while.
Snow makes roads impassable, so I carry my youngest son to school. My own personal trainer. These weeks we are working mainly on calves and shoulders. Dressed in cheap Wellingtons, three layers of thermals and a goose-down jacket that was too warm to ever wear comfortably in England. Now I never leave the house without it.
We take a short-cut. Across jidoukan. The snow has cleaned everything. Made everywhere new. It shines with countless jewels. Our footprints the first. It seems a shame to leave them. Ever more elaborate chandeliers of ice, dragon`s teeth, hang from drainpipes and branches.
Down empty streets early morning in Nakakaruizawa. Not the Old Town, with the summer houses, the bessou, the money, the famous and the expensive French restaurants, but the community of people who work to serve the holiday makers. Jimoto no hito. Those that suffer the seasonal cold. Lack of activity and lack of work. Together. Don`t worry. Shinpaishinai de kudasai. There`ll be skiing come February. The roads will soon be busy again.
We stand at a crossroads. Waiting for lights. Watching the sun reflect off everything in long broken sunglasses. A bright red hat bought from Slam City before the kids with “Destructo” stitched on it. I draw air through my nose and it hurts. I think about a balaclava. Then memories of meeting Millwall. I guess I might be a bit scary in a ski-mask. Most likely get arrested as I enter Lawson. Get shot as I go for my point card.
As we pass, a village wakes and shutters rise on a parade of shops where, customer-less, life goes on. Slowly. The bakery are playing my CD. With optimism, we talk of sledging and snowmen. My youngest son and I. We wonder at our freezing breath. We play at who can make the bigger cloud.
Weekends we go ice-skating. The open-air arena at Kazakoshi Kouen. My kids struggle with their laces, and I selfishly lose a Karuizawa minute in thoughts of Streatham on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes a Wednesday night. Nicola Sagar, Tony Chattaway, Dave Miller. Steven Wilbury, Robert Storer, Mark Perry. Karen Szulkai. Tony and Steven Robinson. DaSilva. Jackie and Janice. The Human League versus Frankie Smith. George Benson. Give me the night. Bauer hockey boots. The barrel roll. Galaxian and Centipede. Leaving my diary around so others might reveal my loves. To shy or lame to do so myself. Innocent days. Moments before drink. And discos. Twenty-nine years off the ice and fifteen minutes back on and I think of buying my own boots again. Smiling with the past for once. I watch a pretty girl skate backwards. Nostalgia. Love. Promise. To the south, mountains are all I see.
The skating has had another plus besides reminding me of being next to teenage girls in tight jeans and tie-blouses. It has put me back in touch with my second son. Six years old now, but only three when we arrived in Japan. In England I would carry him everywhere, and he would not sleep unless I was next to him. Then came his younger brother, putting some distance between us. And then came the language. More fluent now in Japanese, he often needs his older brother to translate my questions and requests. But by taking his hand on the ice a trust was renewed. I tell him to go faster. As fast as he can. I tell him I will not let him fall. To catch my sons. The only reason I remain strong. Now he reads me books in Japanese. Explaining words I might not understand. Carefully re-pronouncing them until I have managed to get them right. And every night he lets me read him The Mr Men.
Evenings, I keep the sake outside. No need for a fridge. My intake limited to that which has refused to freeze. Sake in moonlight. Tastes better this way. One long night late December our carpenters taught me that.
Come summer our new home will be complete. Underfloor-heating, four-wheel drive, a dishwasher. I won`t know what to do with myself. But I am happy now. I want for nothing. And now is what`s important.
Japan: The Experience Of Swimming
8 Up: Before Dawn
Sybarite: Without Nothing I`m You
Cocteau Twins: My Truth
Santana: Song Of The Wind
Gutter Snypes: Trails Of Life (Inst.)
Sergio Mendes: Iemanja
Seawind: Morning Star
Talk talk: It`s Getting Late In The Evening
Fluke: Cool Hand Flute
Dead Can Dance: The Arrival & Reunion
Kaine: Welcoming Idaho
Brian Eno: Mist/Rhythm
Santana: Tales Of Kilimanjaro
Cantoma: Pandajero
John Williams: Woodstock
[Dr Rob]
Review: Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise
March 4, 2011
I love a good electronic album and ‘Space Is Only Noise’ is quite a grower. Alongside the recent Isolee album it hasn’t left the CD player and stands up to the ‘lets play it all the time at work and see if people love it or hate it’ test. It gets love and questions on what it is. So it’s slow, glitchy – well you can see from the scale below what it’s made up of.
I like it a lot and can see it being liked for a long time. If I rated things out of ten I’d give it a really good seven or an eight. It’s a great piece of work. I’d love to see what he was capable of if he sat on it for a bit and refined his output. Jaar is clearly a very very talented producer who isn’t afraid to bend the rules. Highly recommended.
I’m not sure when this is out as I lost the press release but it’s very soon if not in the shops as we speak.
[Apiento]
Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 023 / 1969 Part 3
March 4, 2011
Part 3 of the 1969 series here from Mr Jon Savage. There’s a world of knowledge here if you fancy some weekend listening.
[Apiento]
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