Over Fifty

Black Dog got my tongue.

On the show this month:

Shel Silverstein - Fuckem'
Hermanez - Dope Feen
Oliver Huntemann - Tasmanian Tiger
Leedvd - Street Life
Alan Fitzpatrick & Jon Gurd - Electric Love
Emerson & Dubnitzky - Gentle One
Igorrr - Vegetable Soup
Bando - 345
Bambounou - Any Other Service
David Ezra Brown - Eleven Camels
Carmine - Pharmacodynamics
Arnoux - Nothing More Than Dead
Zoo - Manusia Baru
Pine Leaf Boys - Chère Chérie [Dearest Dear]
Cantankerous Riot - It's All In The Game
Martinibomb - The Love God
Pachanga Boys - Legs
Tiitus - Nocturne
Tim Rose - Morning Dew
Juno Reactor - Pistolero (MR.BLACK Remix 2012)
Mighty Dub Katz - Magic Carpet Ride (DJ's From Mars Remix)
Phunk Investigation, Schuhmacher - From The Dust
DJ Dan - Out Of Nowhere
Rob Acid - Prometheus

Visit Dandelion Radio for broadcast times.

Fifty

I've always experienced a physical response to music. Not so much arms and legs, I'm a bit too shy for dancing, but I feel my internal organs expand and contract with rhythm. I feel waves of energy ebb and flow through my nerves with melody. My mind bursts like a rising sun when these elements combine with meaning. I delight that artists are rarely aware of this synthesis of technique, passion and intelligence. The process of creating true art is necessarily totally involved in the moment of creation. So is it's appreciation.

I'm 50 years old this month. I felt moved to mark this passage with an honest expression of what truly moves me. I gathered 50 of favourite tunes of all my listening life and squashed them into two hours.
It was quite easy to assemble the playlist. Since digitising most of my collection, I've been listening to a lot of old music along with the new. These are the ones I keep coming back to. I can sing-along to all of them.

The real number of tunes I can't live without is more like 300. It was fun to narrow it down to the essentials. However, this list doesn't really represent my listening habits. There's only a few bits of electronica...that's because of how I listen to electro,,I like mixes, sets etc The individual tunes don't stand out so much...it's more about the experience and the dj. Actually, I listen to stacks of techno....Friday and Saturday nights my ears are glued to RTE2 (some awesome late night sessions). Also, this is a list of songs, not albums. That would be a very different list, and would include lots of Van Morrison, 70s prog and collections of old country music. My father-in-law sent me a cd of The Pine Leaf boys for xmas. Thanks David! It's nothing fancy...not new or groundbreaking, just honest modern, slightly slack, cajun. I love it! If you've listened to my show before, you'll now that I've also got a taste for music that some might say is considerably avant-garde. I would say that they should get out more, virtually speaking. Nothing in this mix sounds particularly avant-garde to me, but most of did to somebody at some time. ("That Hank Williams...plays dangerous music...we don't want his honky-tonking in our town").

Most of this music is several years old. I wouldn't normally consider anything a favourite until I've been listening consistently for several years, through several listening phases. There's a handful of current tunes in this playlist, and only one from 2012. 'Red River' by 'Tickle' is in my opinion the very best tune of last year,  and JStar's One Life One Hope the best of the year before.

You can here this mix throughout February on Dandelion Radio. Check there for broadcast times.

So, here's the playlist:

The Beatles - If I Fell
Bowmods - 17 Weeks
Caravan - Golf Girl
Billy Bragg - The Milkman of Human Kindness
Robert Crumb - My Girl's Pussy
Frank Sinatra - I've Got The World On A String
Aretha Franklin - I Say a Little Prayer
The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron
Hot Roddy - Suspicious Minds
Elvis Presley - Gentle On My Mind
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Fairport Convention - Matty Groves
The Nails - 88 Lines About 44 Women
Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind
The Chordettes - Mister Sandman
Bob James - Take Me To The Mardi Gras
Herb Alpert - Tijuana Taxi
Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview
Dionne Warwick - Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
Dirt Bacharach - St8 Outta San Jose
John Dowie - The British Tourist
Jaques Palminger - Tudeldub
DJ Reach & Roger Species - When I'm Licking Windows
Frank Zappa - Bobby Brown Goes Down
Lonzo & Oscar - I'm My Own Grandpa
...Native Hipsters - Mr Magic
The Flesh Happening - Useless Pumping
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
Television - Marquee Moon
The Velvet Underground - What Goes On
Santana - Oye Como Va
Buddy Rich - The Beat Goes On
The Grateful Dead - Uncle John's Band
Terry Allen - The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma
The Sons Of The Pioneers - Cool Water
Nic Jones - Canadee-I-O
Leonard Cohen - Tower of Song
Hank Williams - I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Country Joe & The Fish - The 'Fish' Cheer
Lea Nicholson - God Bless The Unemployed
Shel Silverstein - I Got Stoned And I Missed It
Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing
War - Low Rider
Toots & The Maytals - Sweet And Dandy
Tickle - Red River
Daft Punk - Revolution 909
JStar - One Life, One Hope
Sizzla - I Don't Give A Fuck
Blue Mink - Melting Pot
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up
The Beatles - The End

I wish love to any who want it
Peter

It's A Fookin' Pleasure

Currently my favourite joke:


This isn't just "and then I got off the bus", although that is part of the joke. It's the look on his face...that's what does it for me. The triumph of a naughty schoolboy performing to a willing audience.
It also serves as a point of ordinariness amidst all the surrealism. It's not really Mayor Vaughn...the knowing look says 'here's Chubby!'...a real person. This is a skillfully done technique for giving greater emphasis to the weirdness. I love every minute of this show.

Anyway...I'm back on the virtual air this month, though not with a show in the usual sense.
Here:  DANDELION RADIO . Please check the DR schedule for times.
I've made a 2 hour mix of some of my favourite tunes of the last 3 months, linked together with some occasional text-to-speech. It's not meant to inform or educate, although it may do so incidentally. It's pure entertainment. Mostly electronica...no grindcore moments this time, I promise.

For some time I've wondered about the point of an internet DJ telling you what he's just played. The website in front of you can tell you all the information you need to follow up on a tune if you want to....certainly more than the DJ can reasonably communicate. There is 'presence', of course. The difference between good radio and great radio. Weeeellll....7 years on and I still don't like the speaking bits very much, but I do love to mix down tunes. The fun task I have set myself is express my presence without being ...present...so to speak...and to allow a 21stC person to do it for me. We need to get used to these virtual people. There's only going to be more of them.

As this is one continuous piece of music and not a 'show' in the normal sense, but rather a 'session' by Coseyhead, I believe that I can break the normal rule (a licensing requirement) and give you the playlist now:

Technohead - I Wanna be a Hippy (Casketkrusher Mix)
Remute - West East (Original Mix)
Chinese Man - Miss Chang (remix by Tha Trickaz)
Proxy - 8000 (Original Mix)
Ankokushinwa - Lakeside
Green Velvet & Harvard Bass - Lazer Beams (Original Mix)
David Herrero - Eisbär (Tribute Mix)
RadicalG - Deathstar ( Original Mix )
C_C - To S_3
Blawan - Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage
Fanu - Shatner Rap (Feat Greenleaf)
Pole - Lurch
Hanetration - Rufus
Mueran Humanos - Leones en China
WPN-114 - Dialoghi
Rayman Origins - The Lums' Dream (''Glou Glou'')
Lucky Dragons - Mirror Makers
Blank and Kytt - Thursday and Snow (Reprise)
Goran Bregovic - Me Sam Devla Romani
Proxy - Shut Up! (Original Mix)
Limited Toss - Bodbod
Audio - Fringe
Tipper - Shatter Box
Miii - The Hardware Anthem
Remute - Planet Murdoch (Original Mix)
Cornell Campbell - Fast Car


Have a lovely Christmas everybody.
Turkey rights and peace!

It's been a fookin' pleasure.

Peter

The kiln blew up in the erotic pottery workshop and there are red hot ceramic penises everywhere!

I hope I can move like this guy when I'm his age, which isn't so far away. Tell you what though, they're right...old is cool.



 Another cool old guy.

 One more video. Chay from The Suicidal Birds and Orang Goreng from Pony Pack have a new album out as 'Milk & Morphine'. The album's called 'Can I Carve My Name In Your Face?', and it sounds like it. Get it free from bandcamp here.

 

 No show this month. I've got lots of music to share, but I haven't found the will to perform lately. I've been focusing a lot of attention on the label recently, and I feel very pleased about the way it's developing. I'm just ready to publish the fifth release of this year, a fine, gorgeous album by collage artist Don Trust.

Available from October 9th at wombnet.com. Forthcoming releases I can be relatively confident about include new albums from Ryan Hardy and Steveless & Syd Howells.




 I had a lovely learning experience last week. I briefly took up online poker...not for money, just for fun. I had a bit of beginners luck, then did a quick tutorial. Now, I don't know Poker...I've only played a couple of times in my life, and never 'got it'. After playing a bit online, and reading up on a bit of theory and technique, I began to see the beauty of the game. I love games, and although I don't have experience of the poker-type, I was a decent Bridge player in my youth. Though usually of gentle mind, as a gamer I'm calculating and ruthless. I have never cheated. As a good friend of mine put it "if you cheat, how do you know if you've won?" Nor do I play just to win...beating a vastly inferior opponent is boring. It's the music of the game that I love. Bridge is about harmony and balance. Each hand unfolds in mathematical perfection. Well, a few hours playing Poker and I could hear the song. So I read bit. Next day, I lost hand after hand after hand.... I was trying to play an elegant game against people who only wanted to win. The nature of that particualr game was that you could throw everything in...loose it all.....leave the room and return with a new stake....over and over again. There was nothing to loose...no incentive towards strategy, so several players would simply bet erratically, loose it all, reload and try again until they were lucky and won a big pot. Then they would use that capital to intimidate other players...scaring people off with large bids only they could afford, scooping up the other erratic players as they came and went. It struck me that they were being good citizens...playing the capitalist game. They didn't know any better....Anyway...easy solution...I was in the wrong room...what did I expect from a free public poker room....Ghandi? So there you go. Not profound. Quite ordinary, really. Occasionally we may wander into the wrong room. That's Ok. Leave.



breathe well
Peter

She was nekid, and sitting in this chair that come from France

Terry Allen-The Girl Who Danced Oklahoma
It makes perfect sense in context. The song is from his amazing album Lubbock (On Everything), which is arguably the finest country record ever made....Yeah, I know...the wise man avoids hyperbole, but in this case....well, just listen to it on youtube . Before you ask, it was not I who uploaded this just a week ago, but it's not the first such incident I've experienced recently. Serendipity is quite reliable.

This month's Eclectic Music For Mind And Bodhi is mostly pretty chilled out stuff I've been listening to during this beautiful summer. It starts with a Carol Voderman mash I found on youtube. The video's quite short and most amusing to my childish sense of humour, so I've embedded it.



 As usual, most of the tunes are from free netlabels, so I'll list them in order.

Ostad Khan from Darling ~Dada 0.1, the first compilation from that label.
Trollhead On The Loose and 5Y5 from Bedroom Research
Ryukau D040802 Sayonara Records
Aka Gelbart Please Please Me
Nebulist The Structure Of Chaos pt1 on Braincore
Sexton Ming & Colin Shaddick
Smill Prophecy ep and Kaleed Un Jerrikane... on Audio Activity
The Creature Cocoa Don't Explain It
Le Matin Chnasons
Knolios Melanin on Nanoloopsis
Ubik My Room Is The World on Musica Vermella
mmpsuf Retina on Sutemos
Sol Rezza Shorts For Radio
etc EP02 on Element Perspective
Indian Wells Night Drops
Jaws vs Paws
Ducktails

 The Dandelion Radio license doesn't allow me to publish playlists before or during broadcast...only afterwards. All the stuff above is Creative Commons, and not bound by PRS/MCPS rules, so the restriction doesn't apply. 'Free' isn't just about the price.
 If you only download one thing from that list, I'd recommend the Darling Dada compilation. An energetic slice of French underground.
 Understated and unassuming, 'Jaws vs Paws' is a lovely ride.
 Nebulists gets the prize for the most soul this month (unless you count The Supremes with a surprisingly filthy little number). Deep, moody and dark, but not depressing. It's a fine line.
 For creative weirdness... Le Matin's 'Chnasons'...what a great title.

Finally, do take a look at my netlabel wombnet. There's a new album from Chris Cook that you've got to hear.

'till next month then.
.. do lots of things I wouldn't do...

Peter

Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?

Yeah, well, OK...this title is a bit different from the last few.

A couple of young friends of mine have recently discovered Pink Floyd, after I passed on to them a copy of the 8 bit version of Dark Side Of The Moon. They got the original, on vinyl, and are loving it. I've wondered about suggesting Wish You Were Here. Many musicophiles like myself...of a certain age...consider this the only Floyd album worth hearing. The Syd Barrett albums are charming, but hardly great music. 'Moon' is perfect, of course, but maybe too perfect. A little too polished. The late 70s albums are dull as pig shit and after that it all went a bit downhill. In the middle of that early phase is the crazy diamond that is this glorious album. The only record they did with soul. If you haven't heard it, do check it out. 1975 was quite a year for music, with many of the credible acts of the late 60s and early 70s reaching their maturity before the long slide to the tastelessness of the 80s. Isn't it amazing how some musicians can get a lifetime of fame and cash on the strength of just one great record. That's show business!

That's my rant of the month.

No EMFMAB, but I do have an episode of my reggae show 'Dandelion Roots' airing on Dandelion Radio this month. Go there for daily show times. Here for more details.

Can I share with you my musical pick of the month?
Can you handle French rap?
This album grabbed me from the first bar:
Kaleed - Un Jerrikane de plus - Chainsaw Attitude Volume 2
on the netlabel Audioactivity.

The photograph of 2 Green Woodpeckers on a telegraph pole opposite our house was taken last week by my wife Sarah. We get a lot of birds around us.
 A bird story follows:
A Kestrel flew in the house a couple of weeks ago. It went for a kill on the sill and tumbled through the open window, along with the bird it was after! I was sitting a few feet away. It quickly came

to it's senses and flew towards another window that was closed, banging itself repeatedly, and loudly against the glass. It was only at that point I realised what it was and what had happened. We have small birds coming in fairly often. They tend to freak out a bit, then calm down, look around and head straight for the open window they came in through. They're not stupid. A Kestrel, if you don't know, is a small British bird of prey. (This photo may be the same individual, but we cannot be sure. It was taken in the garden 3 years ago. We have at least one local pair. This male bird has an ex-rat in it's talons.) I say small, but that's just relative to others of it's kind. It's a pretty big and fierce bird to have freaking out less than 10 feet away, I can tell you! I wasn't truly scared that harm could come to either of us, 'cos I knew it was just frightened. Anyway, it did calm down after a minute (That's a long time to a bird. They perceive about 10 times faster than us.) I called Sarah in from another room, and she arrived in time to see the bird get it's bearings and fly straight out the way it came in. It was a couple of minutes before the Blue Tit that had been its

intended meal emerged from a corner of the room where it had been hiding...doing that phasing out thing that they do where you can look straight at them and not see them. It was a bit shocked.They can go very passive when frightened....linked to the aforementioned invisibility in some way, I'm sure...so this one needed Sarah's help to get out. She has boundless compassion for small creatures. (The Tit in the photo is almost certainly not the same individual, but is probably from the same family.) Everyone survived the experience, that time, but a Kestrel must eat to live. Consider all the insects that Great Tit would have eaten in it's life that would have been saved if the Kestrel had been successful. Do not all entities have an equal right to life? Thaddeus Golas said something astute about this in his 'Lazy Man's Guide To Enlightenment'; "There is no important difference between live and dead matter, since both are made up of live entities." Listen here.

shine on
Peter

If You Think I'm A Nutter You Should Talk To My Sheep

 It's an interesting thing about language that it's possible to come up with an arrangement of words that has never been heard before and yet does make sense.

I think that's what I've been looking for with these absurd blog titles. Of course, English is particularly appropriate for this kind of word play because of the huge vocabulary available...and many other factors...and this makes substitution of inappropriate words for comic effect quite easy. The title of this blog is really just such a substitution. "....and then I got off the bus....". It raises a smile, but it's not got funny bones. I think it's difficult to invent something totally new, something totally originally absurd, and I have great admiration for those that can. The language...the form...hasn't really got anything to do with it. Surely watching Basil Fawlty beating a car with a broken tree branch is funny even without understanding the language or the cultural context? I think so. I think the same of music. If music is truly original it somehow transcends cultural barriers. Ironic, really, that powerful artistic movements often began with idiosyncratic or even revolutionary individuals on the fringe of their disciplines.

 Something to think about there, then.

 Creatively, it's been an interesting time for me. I've not got much juice for the radio show. It suits me to take a few months off. I'm playing live a couple of times this month. Brighton, as usual. Drop me a line if you're interested.

 What is choice? That has been on my mind. Who is choosing? There's more than one me, and not all of them experience choosing. As children, most of us seem to have little choice about the physical circumstances of our lives. Until we leave school, even the hours of the day are controlled by others. Many people carry this helplessness into adulthood, and end up doing all the crappy underpaid jobs that just serve to keep them busy, while making a few people they've never met rich from their sweat. But really, which one of us is free to act totally as we please without regard for anything? Thankfully, none, although sometimes it seems to be the goal of modern thinking...to replace the perfect balance of nature with a version of the world as simply a thing for us to use as we please?
 So what do we choose? There is the chocolate or vanilla question. What do I have for breakfast? Questions for which the desired answer is no answer....it doesn't matter, and we usually end up in distress if we pursue the meaningless as if it were real. Religions have been built upon such trivia (i.e. the con/tran-substantiation debacle, if you know your theology). I would say that this is the choice we face most commonly. Almost all human affairs are no more important than chocolate or vanilla. Why do I say it's so trivial? Because any experience or thought based upon perceptual evidence is defined entirely by the point of view, and not just how issues are answered, but more importantly what contexts are chosen. Essentially, everybody is right from their point of view, and the quality of an experience is determined not by rightness or wrongness, but by a pre-existing desire to prove a point.
 That's as far as my reasoning takes me right now. The only meaningful choice I perceive is "do I choose to see the world through the eyes of fear or the eyes of love", and what the fck does that mean in practice? At the moment, I see no middle ground between the formless realm, where choice is irrelevant 'cos all is one, or the organised, rigid world of individuality where choice is an illusion, 'cos we are always overwhelmingly effected by other forces (where born, what parents, what school, what weather today, what Govt etc, etc). So, as has become my custom, I've tried to explore this huge issue musically, in the classic form of the mixtape. In the hope of deeper understanding, I give you:

Coseyhead Presents - Choice DOWNLOAD MP3 (75mins,173MB)

See Krishna explaining to Arjuna how to act without judgement. Only the truth can set us free. (But I would say that 'cos I've got Stn/Mrc in Aq square Nep in Scorp. My self perception is pretty accurate, it's my cosmology that's delusional.) Ah, Krishna, only your true form can open my eyes!
This mix follows on from Mythunderstanding. It was mostly complete last year, but finished off recently. I hope to have part 3 ready before the end of the summer. It will be a lament for Pan, who is not dead, so it becomes a celebration. Goatboy is the ultimate idiosyncratic, revolutionary artist.

There may be a Dandelion Roots Reggae show over at Dandelion Radio next month...remains to be seen whether I'll have the time 'cos of the aforementioned gigs.

This month I have been mostly listening to
Goran Bregovic-Karmen (With A Happy Ending)
which I highly recommend.



 tarra a bit
 Peter