[FTAL] Simon James French - Soundscapes Radio - Episode twelve

 https://sjfmusic.bandcamp.com/album/soundscapes-radio-episode-twelve

 On this collection of three long-form ambient music tracks for radio transmission environment, SJF creates tonal hues likening him to producers on the Subvert Central forum such as Formication ("Agnosia" EP, but much lighter) and ennui (but much less spacious). 

With a fractal portent that yearns for patient listens, Simon James French has produced another installment of fine musical pieces that are as harmonious as they are beguiling. See the link for more information. 

Dangerous Pike - Aquarium Jazz LP - finally the trilogy package is complete

For more information on all that, scroll back a few posts to the "like Tangerine Dream" post.

There's a rundown there. Here's your link to the origins of Dangerous Pike on BC since Crimbo:

Fear Pain Grief LP

https://focisleft.bandcamp.com/album/fl-fear-pain-grief-compilation

Snakes And Lathers LP

https://focisleft.bandcamp.com/album/fl-fear-pain-grief-compilation

Aquarium Jazz LP [third in the official trilogy of CDs]

https://focisleft.bandcamp.com/album/fl-fear-pain-grief-compilation

For the record, "Fear Pain Grief" and "Snakes And Lathers" are NOT DP LPs per se, they are just origins records, not part of the trilogy at all. The official trilogy record weighs up like this:

1. Treacherous Paths LP
The most concise, and dosed-sounding music by FL's new side project, withdrawal music.
2. Trail LP
Two long-form tracks, 24 plus minutes each. Comprises micro-passages, with a sound not unlike William Basinski in his prime. It's also the happiest sounding DP music, made for my father's Day.
3. Aquarium Jazz LP
The most low-fidelity of the three CD records. Everything works as part of a compositional whole.

Finally, there are remixes of "For David Robert Jones" by Basinski, "Under The Coke Sign" by Boards Of Canada and "A Deeper Silence" by Steve Roach. Those are omitted from self-release, so keep your ears peeled for how I can get public versions of those out there in other forms. =)

In a similar vein to 36, Boards Of Canada and Tangerine Dream

Evening,

Currently I'm compiling and decompiling punctuation and musical asterisks for the first Dangerous Pike artist trilogy album.

It's a bit of a "Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was", just not quite as bleak and blustery.

Expect a pie graph in musical form most parts distant melody, with fractions of movement and textural sustenance.

The 3CD set comprises [3 bonus "name" remixes excluded]

Treacherous Paths CD
Trail CD
Aquarium Jazz CD

The third one at the time of writing is still in progress.

It's partially inspired by animal communications, particularly pikes (snakes). Nothing to do with bad dives at all. Otherwise, a nod to Arthur Lowe and Pike in Dad's Army and their bond in the Home Guard.

Likely been the most life-affirming music I've consciously made since the "Nothing" original.

Keep in touch to see what's cooking here, and be sure to revisit www.focisleft.bandcamp for all.

AUDIO AT: www.soundcloud.com/subversion-2

"Awkwardi" is a new release on the SC Affiliated (loosely) Foci Left label, in that I do hardly any promotion like Statto,and the records are always "awkward", in that not a lot of people like many of the tracks. That is no skin off my nose, simply aim to please myself, looking after number one means the goodness can spread from the root without decay trails.

This particular ambient album is very very lo-fidelity, not a lot happens microtonally, yet at the same time lots of shifts occur in seismic tone and morphing tonics toward sonic peace, ecstatic peace, and the generalized feel of mood music at large. The rippling of earlier releases is replaced by a mature understatedness and a empty reverb pocket to fill in hope.

Expect to hear influences from Ennio Morricone, Angelo Badalamenti, Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Sylvain Chaveau, Jandek and Nils Frahm, amongst others. It's serious music, there are numerous influences I could list, but influences are vague at the best of times. Ultimately, the album exists as a two-part longform live album, with two live tracks, and numerous side pieces.

www.fluid-radio.co.uk Retrograde Review: Francis M. Gri - Boke (Krysalisound) - Mick Buckingham review

Francis M. Gri - Boke - Krysalisound - Mick Buckingham review

Having recently lost a close(r) family member to Alzheimer's related illnesses, I can partially sympathise and empathise with how Francis M. Gri, owner of Krysalisound label, feels with this neat new record. Boke means "Blur", and is made to represent memory disorders and the time it takes for an image to do just that. Gri calls it "the memory illness" - it's always dementia, Alzheimer's or some such. Great novelist Terry Pratchett was taken from us by the latter; many its link.

On with the record itself, and this uses repetition as a narrative device. Give 'em a few rounds, then hit 'em with the boomerang. It catches us unawares. Succinctly peaceful, the album is so decent it dispenses with nom de plume's such as "beautiful art" - I don't want to wax insincerely about a delicate subject that has affected so many, and is being shown to put pay to Covid figures among others. What does one do when the memory is ready to pack up? Francis communicates the point well in some of my investigative email questions: "you transform in an empty box...we ARE memories it's undeniable!"

It is like that - life is a blur, because the present is at best a memory, since memories are about dream or goal meeting, and fantasy becomes secondary. Memory loss is rife with grief, and that is presented emotionally on "Boke". Especially that track, which closes the record. The music sounds like it comes from a very faraway place. A bit like Bvdub's, and his recent record "Ten Times The World Lied" on Glacial Movements, of similar ilk. Directionally but not genre wise, the sombre feel of Massive Attack tracks with Tracey Thorn and the like. Those have a similar emotional trippy poignancy to them.

In its palette spectrum, much ground is covered, painting in cool blues, treading miles upon miles in a dead body's shoes. That lifting of a classically trained surfeit, Francis working with many musicians over the years, now producing his own material most of all, has never sounded so comforting in my own rough time with with coming to terms. I can tell you now, "Boke" is destined to be a quiet memory in the back of your mind for years to come. It, like a blur, will wait for you.

Blue, Reflected 2020 Variations

In the squawked pigeonn English of Kali the foul-mouthed pigeon, "you will see me do sumfinng!" with my next record.

I'm using basic recording tech and also some resampling. I plan to integrate speckled live sounds across tracks, with software intervention. Sample manipulations.

The result will be a development on "Neurondisiac" project, in terms of stylistic density. Software "and" hardware. A real blend.

I have a track right now that is resampling audio from my flagship cheap analog keyboard, the Casio CTK (available in Argos 8 years ago), which puts analog Clavichord and Warm Pad presets through electronic Crystal Reverb, the filters of my hardware, and the reverb module built in to the synth. It's basically a remix of "Blue And Reflected Instrumental" with the FX used, and the way it sounds. Really pleased with it.

Ed: here you go...

1- Blue, Reflected, 2020 Mix
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/fl-blue-and-reflected-2020-remix
2- Disco Cravings
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/patho-disco-cravings
3- You Beauty
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/fl-you-beauty-21032020
4- Buttercup Fields
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/fl-buttercup-fields
5- Curry Aperitif
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/curry-aperitif
6- As Lossless As Breathing
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/fl-as-lossless-as-breathing
7 - The Fate Of The Idle Randomite
https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/longformacus-the-fate-of-the-idle-randomite

The March 2020 Foci's Left LP - Blue, Reflected Variations (Unsigned)

DJ Muttley - 2 new mixes for ya

DJ Muttley - Afro Waffles (St. Vincent, Junior Senior, Cigarettes After Sex, DJ Friction & Nu Balance...
DJ Muttley - Skinned Potatoes (Mood Music CD samples, Supergrass, Explorer Flamenco Music, 40 minutes)

What can I say about these...home studio curated, plenty of ducking and diving, slipping and sliding. Love the Masseduction remix, that's big. Also fancying the DJ Friction & Nu Balance mixed with the supergay Junior Senior. "Skinned Potatoes" takes a more ironed out route, but perks up half way through flamenco music. I was inspired by one of my Paco Lucia CDs bought for my father the paralyzing and hypnotizing power of Spanish Flamenco music...like being locked in a lover's gaze. Mixing the flamenco with Britpop seems a original idea, not many people have tried that except Santana.

Enjoy the soundscapes. They're in .m4a format, straight from studio microphones. No messing about. No hipster FLAC lol.

http://subvertcentral.com/thread-63018-lastpost.html

SV Stop 303: Fractals And Auditory Hallucinations

Hi friends and acquaintances,

Working on a type of think piece on auditory fractals. This simple example:

• Something playing on the stereo, can be transduced as something else.

Filling this out: it's understanding auditory hallucination. It does help that my "out of it / drunk 24/7" state does lend me a certain cloudiness. Importantly though, anyone can listen to a tune on someone else's stereo and think "hang on, x sounds like y". "Then z, maybe", after they've assessed the gap between reason and logic.

Since the concept of perception is logic and reasoning based anyway, and each person has more of one reptilian brain variable than the other, the monkey-brain and neocortex are responsible for y and z decisions. That for one is simply because the amygdala reptilian brain processes things first, then the two smaller brains within the brain come up with other options. Plus other three-brained options. And so on and so on.

• Depends on amount of possible timbres, pitches, and algorithms possible at any 1-2 bar interval.

1 bar, 2 bar. Space between takes in all of these certain typesets in music. The timbre is the type and quality if sound. The pitch is its melodic consonance and key. The algorithm is the particular processing of sounds.

• Losing data (lossy Mp3s?) can transduce the idea that something is not quite normal.

Personally it's one of the most intriguing notions in music today - generation and regeneration in digital files whatever the format (CD, vinyl, Mp3, FLAC, et al)...machine code being manipulated.

• Also the repeat function (fn) on music players changes the tone sometimes.
• Whatever the musical content, the idea of lateral (mapping) thinking onto another thing is relevant.
• It’s related to cross-examination in law, but importantly the point of it is to uncover deeper facts.
• Conclusively I do not need to listen to a huge amount of “surface different” music to get a good fill.
• This type of thinking could be argued to have stabilised the music industry of “tried and tested” method.

Bjork (and Bjorkanspiel)

I have a lot of love for Bjork Gudmasonnitir (her stage name, at least, but aren't they all). I have all her studio experiments, but only one album physically - "Vulnicura" from 2015, on acetate for Record Store Day (coincidentally, as it happened). I bought everything else back from eMusic.com...luckily I downloaded everything before they made their needed alterations to the site (which only unfortunately wiped every account of its previous downloads; but kept the saved lists).

I met her once, and while she was warm and friendly, there was a natural likeable aloofness that resonates chiefly in her music creations. She is at the forefront of a superbrain production ethic, amassing layer upon layer of cellar-dwelling closet skeletons with bones for emotions. The density of each composition - take "Possibly Maybe (Lucy Remix)", with its erotic language intoned over vocoded scatterbrain chromatic synapse-wringing, speaks of a deification of the female spoken word.

A good place to start is "Debut". One of my favourites from Bjork from the start was "Play Dead"; later "Venus As A Boy"; "Isobel" has its moments; and "Big Time Sensuality", "Army Of Me" and the classic "All Is Full Of Love" neatly make up a fair portion of the "Greatest Hits CD" highlights. While no track is a standout, every track is a statement. But it's poetic, and like the best poetry, the meanings are endless, not robotic. Bjork is one of those artists where, like Alison Goldfrapp after her, the syllables she speaks can be about anything - they, just like her music and attitude, is frankly stunningly beautiful. "Big Time...sensuality, oh baby".

SubVersion Stop 275: SV Recommends Ambientblog Headphone Commute Endorsed Mix

Bit of a mouthful, that title, isn't it? But it's all relevant. SubVersion Ambientblog and Headphone Commute are all ambient publicising blogs. I'm recommending this new "DreamScenes" series mix from Ambientblog, published also on Headphone Commute, and it's a cracker. A real stayer mentally

I cannot link you PvC's kindly provided MixCloud widget, as my blog doesn't allow that. So what I can do instead, is provide you the post I found it from, sent to my email address for press after 7pm.

New show by ambientblog

Mind Awake, Body Asleep By ambientblog Ambient, Cinematic, Experimental, Instrumental, Experimental Am...

The moment I heard Rami Malek whisper "Mind awake, body asleep" (Mr Robot, series 2) I knew this would be the inspiration for a new mix. A mix about half-sleep, lucid dreaming impressions... ungraspable images... and about "letting go". After all, Mr. Robot's tagline was "Control is an Illusion". Control proved to be an illusion indeed, with these different, unrelated, fragments coming together like pieces of a puzzle, creating a mix "like its own cinematic score." (H_C) This mix was created for - and is co-hosted on - *Headphone Commute* - for which I am very very grateful! Detailed playlist, download version and surround version on Ambientblog.net: http://bit.ly/2pwawAI

2017 Mrb Poetry - To Myself

Mrb - To myself

Where my mind bleats for quiet, my heart skips for an answer
Where my head loses memories by the second, a whisper is often something I can muster
I muster
To myself
that cold cold chill
That permeates the radium of the world
Turning pipes inside out
Piping hot food used for body charcoal
And the ash of time as a vanguard for nails on a cross.

Retrograde Reviews: Bonnie Prince Billy & Bitchin' Bajas

"Nature, makes us, for ourselves".

The music on Bonnie Prince Billy's latest rustic folk outing starts melodically enough, before embracing woodwind and the suitably gentile lines "may life throw you a pleasant curve". It's on the second track that the rhythmic focus really kicks into gear, loosening the weight of a breathy introduction. "Nature, makes us, for ourselves".

You see, with a track title aim to be storyteliing meets self-help-provoking, this album can be taken kindly to from the first listen. The meanings spread out like fireflies, meeting a warming destination, a natural concave. Bonnie Prince is ast as the governor of a hundred baritones; instruments serve his plans to assist us in becoming calmer, getting happier.

Much of the sound palette is pure rustic folk, a Johnny Cash meets Joanna Newsome quirkiness abounds throughout. There are no female vocals though, only a journeyman's horn of plenty with guitar chops to match. I first heard about BPB, not so humbly around 10 years ago, so I know he's been about the field for a long time. But at the same time, it's as if he's trod a heavy path through folk and country, meaning he understands how to not complicate a tune.

This is most evident on euphoric closing piece "Your Hard Work Is About To Pay Off. Keep On Keeping On". Incidentally the ending is abrupt, leaving the listener craving a second shot of the honey-whiskeyed atmosphere Bitchin Bajas and Billy create. That's how the record feels essentially, like whisky. It's so addictive I can drown in it, but for the luck of the draw, it's only my sorrows that are cleansed.

Mick R. Buckingham

SC - Currently On Your Stereo at www.subvertcentral.com

widzhit ...http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07sxfjj
Thom Yorke guest hosting on Benji B's show.

Muttley ... Genius discovery, widzhit. Should be interesting for the tonal rubbing of urban and avant.

Me: Chick Corea 5CD. Five original albums, not including 'Return Of Forever'. I've got so sick of hearing the "what game shall we play today" line in my head. These records are equally important, quality findings from the 1970s as such, showing progressive jazz at creative epitome. What Corea is to psychedelia Miles Davis was to jazz. Both greats in an epicentric tonality cauldron, drawing on their own cultural home brew.

...In terms of closcrate - drawing on modern classical and soundtrack music, the week's arrival of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks Original Remastered Score hits the spot. Chucking out impure embers of saccharine, "Laura Palmer Theme" is a delight that was chordally repeated by fans VUM on their "Solid Waves" (Psychotropic Jukebox LP, 2014). The vinyl sounds very earthy and perfectly represents the nineties era of dusty back street New York record emporiums.

I'm also a big fan of the shared project Mike & Rich - Expert Knob Twiddlers 2CD on Planet Mu right now. Representative of the 'Selective Ambient Works' in www.soma.fm's 'Groove Salad' channel, and the timbral 'Hasty Boom Alert' on Soma's 'Space Station Soma', Aphex Twin and u-ZIQ blow the covers off my noughties library electronic music obsession for formulating progressive beats with a knack for snapback and pop structure. The rhythmic angles the music on these discs thrusts is typical of their intelligent sound design, warm gourmet nuggets, tasty to the delicate touch, not rough round the edges at all, and indispensable as such. I got my CDs from eBay.

Jo Quail - Five Incantions (Mick Buckingham review)

The uniting factor in Jo Quail's music has always been its all-consuming omnipresence. How it engulfs the listener whether listening loudly or quietly, softly or harshly. Where opener 'White Salt Stag' on this beautifully designed digipak CD edition is earthy and enchanting, closer 'Gold' takes a malleable, shaping of man-made metal angle in the form of Quail's use of electric cello and electronics, and the formulation of solid materials. There is a probability you'll not have a
whisper to it, but a blast, as the mourning strings stretch up through the inner ear and the drones throe-in the low ebb.

I am certainly taken by the 'Five Incantations' theme: take five simple steps, craft five complex tunes with over twice the narrative arcs interwoven. It is spectral music; to borrow Simon Reynolds' term, it creates a "cathedral of sound". A line can be traced like a silken sheet, a thinly woven cloth, a metal wire, all tension and never enough to satisfy in one take. Indeed, the music doesn't sound one take at all. Jo as her name goes knows how to put the work into her rhythms of refuge, her insomniac getaways. The sound art is rife with the kind of aching passion that teased through Greg Haines'
'Until The Point Of Least Resistance' from 'Until The Point Of Hushed Support', 2009. The psychological unease of it all.

Luckily for us there are plenty of moments where the tension reaches satisfying climaxes rather than plummeting us down. This factor makes a good album, in short, especially one that takes mood music so seriously. Mood music has a specific aim:to create that mood, to set one mood, no other mood, and anything else is futile. Resistance from the creator of the music would be his or her achilles' heel in the eyes of a mood music connoisseur. I have spoken of fine lines, and this record
is like a spider diagram, in that respect. Full of bewitching Bjork-esque cello and viola-register harmonies, the genie inside 'Five Incantations' is no fickle spellcaster - that thing has a mind of its own, an organic one, one that grows on you like greed does to a gambling addict. What does this mean? If you have any money left by now, by now, buy it.



www.joquail.co.uk

Mick Buckingham

SubVersion Stop 262: Foci's Left - What I Think - review by Andy Poplin

For a FTAL direct self-promotion, I thought I'd offer some clandestine words on what makes up 'What I think - Right Bus Of The Psyche' LP by FL.

The album begins with a surf pop woozy wash in a remix of 'Or Jaw Slints', fed into a slush puppy mixing can that drums at the edges like it's attention deficit to the max. Not able to stay still, the piece eventually wears itself out, Foci's Left having recorded this on a 1970s Clavinova then reversed the track with post-processing. What happens next isn't untypical of most post-rock idioms, in that the next work in progress, 'Lament To A Broken Generation' is a slow burn of a shoegaze match, eddying vibes of ambi-dub pioneers Bvdub and Carbon Based Lifeforms, dedicated to Ryan Griffin's tireless work at A Strangely Isolated Place. It's a little long - over 16 minutes for the full insert - which means the record needs some tempo breathed into its veins, and there's where FL goes next, with 'Assata' bringing the Covert Operations sound that inspired it into full view, with ASC-sounding synths and replicated roboticness in the drum programming. FL went back in on the arrangement for this and brought it up to date from the year it was produced, back in 2005 to be precise. It was unreleased on his desktop PCs HD until now and remastered from tape. 

The track that follows, 'Inorganic Beings Cull' is one of the best Foci's Left tracks in hir catalogue, with a Depeche Mode and Pink Floyd style rhythm section augmented by plinky plonky piano strikes and schizophrenic playing that reflects hir mental health condition. It's the ultimate in blues part of the LP, rising and falling like a shark caught between barbed wire (see the 'Gymnopedie No.1' lift from Erik Satie) and paradise. 'In Debt To A Decaying Era (for Daniel Crossley) is shortened on this album and the full work (all 21 minutes of the original - the 2h 31 minute microtone version is at hir Bandcamp in 'Dumping The Rock EP') bookends one of the pinnacle Foci's Left records this reviewer has had the pleasure of being a part of, in a conceptualised bus trip into prosperity.

SubVersion Stop 260: Xmas Charts from Muttley Statto & MetaLX...

SubVersion End Of Year Chart from Muttley (http://www.focisleft.bandcamp.com / http://www.twitter.com/MuttleySV, http://www.kapsil.net/muttley, http://www.facebook.com/muttley.subversion.3, http://www.subvertcentral.blogspot.co.uk, http://www.mixcloud.com, www.souncloud.com/subversion-2, http://www.nightshiftmag.co.uk writing, http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk writing).

A lot can happen in a year...I found love within myself. I released albums with good reviews. I bought lots of mind-scultping records. I delightedly  changed my accommodation with help of the local mental health services. And I realised, all along the way, that I didn't have to go anywhere - the party moves with the indivisual.

01. Favourite track: Run close by Tamaryn - Sugar Fix, Little Red - The Huntsman, Kid Moxie - Mysteries Of Love (feat. Angelo Badalementi), and Marina & The Diamonds - Gold, and finally, Markus Guetner - Magnetar (A Strangely Isolated Place vinyl, like our space station, frankly)...

02. My album of the year is Bjork - Vulnicura, followed by Bat For Lashes - Sexwitch, then Kid Moxie - 1888, then Tamaryn - Cranekiss. David Borden - Music For Amplified Keyboard Instruments, Marina Diamandis - Froot. Of my own solo LPs, it's Nothing, Early Riser (released at Rapture, Witney, Oxon UK today), What I Think - Right Bus Of The Psyche, or LUV. All my releases are available at www.focisleft.bandcamp.com.

03. Favourite label: Low Point. Bought their entire discography (32 + digital releases, subscribe to their newsletter, they have 2 new tapes from Kogumaza today - it's Hardwick's label) on Bandcamp this Autumn. Kyle Bobby Dunn, Gareth Hardwick, Lviv, P Jorgesen, Ex-Easter Island Head, Apalusa. So many more. Absolute goldmine catalog if you love minimalist ambient and drone.

04. Favourite mixtape: Foci's Left - Any And All Things - Live @ GTI, Sep 26th 2015 (Live improvised mixset, first electronics gig conscious). Fixated for 15 years in 34 minutes.

05. Favourite book: Emotioanal Intelligence And Understanding Emotional Intelligence: Daniel Goleman, pbk 1995.

06. Favourite gig: Gig of zee year I went to Friday 18th December, 10 months on:

After the Thought begins our evening with a warm and enveloping techno cheer that doesn't prepare the audience for what's to come. In the best way of course, because Gappy Tooth never disappoint in terms of stylistic diversity and act quality control. Matt Chapman-Jones, who is After The Thought, uses a Launch software technique that he's honed to a fine ambiental art since Midwinter Dronefest this time last year.

Utilising sparing guitar in reverb clusters with a different way with a Sigur Ros sample, cryptically it sets the tone for The August List, a husband and wife team I've never seen live before. Their demo of the month in Nightshiftmag.com 2012 impressed me, but now there are extra, gentile layers to the multi-tracked sound, taking the Lawrence vibe Matt had earlier and injecting auto harp, steely guitar chops spanning decades of folk arrangements and an intergender icy vocal call and response. Go see them - they're glad and very good.

Zurich could be a loose cannon in print, a glorious take on New Order speech styling s and Blue Monday catapulted into oblivion. Borne from the smoke of local Oxford band The Scholars, they're like the best combination of two of my fave post punk groups: The Horrors and lesser known rockers Glint from the United States. Much of their themes are loosely piloted - driven by raucous noise, and makes their and headline act Balloon Ascents appearance well worth the wait.

There's a lot of punches pulled by a 4-strong bunch of youths equally to the previous guitar storm, but Balloon Ascents tone down the heat inside the candle and hold the Radiohead, not dick head light strongly, with a clutch of new songs, most from 'Dont Look Down', making Nightshiftmag.com Top 25 in 2015. Their set is the perfect send off to Gappy Tooth's year in gigging, and mature lyrics tread the band to places where the instruments tell them that they're wrong. Gig of the year? For me personally, by a mile.

- besides my first live audience piano consciously at the James Street Tavern alongside Megan Josephy, Tom, Hugh McManners, Kosmosis , Cowley and first live audience keyboard and electronics consciously at The Wheatsheaf, High St, Oxford, experiences. Bjork at Wilderness Festival, of course, Braziers Park.

08. Favourite food (or Snax): I'll break this up into 3: meal, curry meal and Dastardly Exposure drink. Meal was the one I had today at Hackett's Bar, Witney. High Street, who had a saxophonist akin to Mikael Tariverdiev seemingly using a program to play along to like Music Maker Jam for iPhone. It was Chicken & Ham Hock Pie w peppered creamy mash, steamed veg (broccoli, carrots). Close runner up on the meal to the cruise Lobster w butter Sauce, asparagus and wild mushroom soup.

Curry meal was on the cruise, gotta say, despite wonderful Mutton Kodai, Chicken Balti and Korma curries from my favourite land restaurant, The First Floor Cowley, and Spiced Monkfish at La Cucina Cowley. Sindhu restaurant, Ventura ship. Soft shell crab (all edible) from the head chef with sauces and appetisers. But the real win came in the 3 course main meal after that: a sequence of rich korma, Lamb Rogan Josh and Tandoori Salmon Tofu, w a choice of high standard Marshmellow Cake or Chocolate Mega Profiterole. Included rice, sundries and Tarka Dhal. The main course was Atil Kochar's Big Plate.

DE drink would be Bavaria Lager, or Lager Shandy, from Holland. You can buy it in stores like Morrisons, ASDA (we have these in Carterton, Oxon - ASDA just opened).

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Blogging

10. Favourite random moment: finding love (in a hopeful place week 22nd Feb ending) randomly, for the first time. The real kind of love, not the digital maelstrom I am sludgily used to. Hats off to a lovely lady for helping me heal from the time I was without feeling. Now I feel so loved and so alive.

 

PM Find

Edit Delete Reply Quote Report

 

MetaLX
Space Dog

Posts: 9,575
Threads: 475
Joined: Dec 2005 

 

#102

 

20th November 2015, 01:28

It's about that time of the year again. I'm glad to be reminded early, actually.

PM Find

Reply Quote Report

MetaLX
Space Dog

Posts: 9,575
Threads: 475
Joined: Dec 2005 

 

#103

15th December 2015, 07:10 (This post was last modified: 17th December 2015, 17:55 by MetaLX.)

 

01. Favourite track(s):
Chris Janson - Buy Me A Boat
Miranda Lambert - Smokin and Drinkin
Big & Rich - Run Away



02. Favourite album(s):
A lot of house/electronica/dnb from the late 90s, early 00s


03. Favourite label:
Haole


04. Favourite mixtape:
2 Bad Mice Mix - Euphony
Atmoteka 2.4 - Aural Imbalance
Southern Bluegrass III - dj MetaLX


05. Favourite SC thread:
Anything with good banter and or music


06. Favourite gig:
DJ Euphoria Live on futuredrumz.com 13.11.15


07. Favourite book(s):
Morris, Marc. 2015. A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain. London: Pegasus Books.
Morris, Marc. 2015. King John: Treachery and Tyranny in Medieval England: The road to Magna Carta. London: Pegasus Books.
Seward, Desmond. 2014. Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Queen Mother of the Middle Ages. London: Pegasus Books.
Davis, Jefferson. 2010. The Rise of the Confederate Government. New York: Barnes & Noble.



08. Favourite food (or Snax):
Beer!


09. Favourite guilty pleasure:
Blogging


10. Favourite random moment:
Finally realising just how different I am from those around me.

PM Find

Reply Quote Report

 

Statto
Administrator

Posts: 56,997
Threads: 1,822
Joined: Oct 2002 

 

#104

 

15th December 2015, 10:33

01. Favourite track: Roger Robinson - It Soon Come
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KxI2ukcEuw

02. Favourite album: André O. Möller & Hans Eberhard Maldfeld - In Memory of James Tenney (Edition Wandelweiser)
http://www.wandelweiser.de/_e-w-records/...r1503.html

03. Favourite label: Edition Wandelweiser
http://www.wandelweiser.de/

04. Favourite mixtape: K-NeT Karant - The 40th Papy Zhamiq Birthday mixes (June 2013, but I only discovered them this year)
http://www.artskorps.org/labels/192-knet...thday.html

05. Favourite SC thread:  POLITICS So Jeremy Corbyn is the new boogie-man?
http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthre...?tid=61147

06a. Favourite gig (Jan-Jun): Mesa of the Lost Women ft. Junko, Rammel Club, Nottingham (20th June)
http://www.rammelclub.org/2015/06/rammel...-lost.html

06b. Favourite gig (Jul-Dec): Ex Cathedra, Southwell Minster, Notts (10th December)
http://excathedra.co.uk/gaudete-southwell-minster/

07. Favourite book: Matthew Collin - Pop Grenade (Zero Books)
http://www.zero-books.net/books/pop-grenade

08. Favourite food (or Snax): Tunnock's Caramel Wafers
http://www.tunnock.co.uk/products/caramel-wafer/

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Scoring 158 in an official Mensa test (Cattell III B)
http://www.mensa.org.uk/iq-tests

10. Favourite random moment: Being interviewed about genderqueer (as background research for a US web magazine article)
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/..._from.html

PM Find

Reply Quote Report

 

Muttley
Posting Freak

Posts: 8,206
Threads: 314
Joined: Feb 2006 

 

#105

 

15th December 2015, 20:40

Thanks MetaSpandex and Stattandroid.

SubVersion Stop 255: Nissenmondia

New tune is LARGE. Sounds like acid houser Manacles of Acid live mixed with rock bombaism.

http://thequietus.com/articles/18743-listen-new-nissenenmondai

https://soundcloud.com/nisennenmondai/fan

SubVersion Stop 248: Audiograft Night 3 - [rout] ensemble feat. Jennifer Walshe, James Saunders, Felicity Ford @ Holywell Music Room, Oxford, 13.03.15

Nightshift prospective review 11: [rout] at AudioGraft night 3, Holywell Music Room, 13.03.15

 

Audiograft's third event of 2015, organised by the reliable Oxford Contemporary Music and featuring sonic art from Jennifer Walshe, James Saunders, Felicity Ford and others, proves to be a remarkable event even just three pieces in. The [rout] based collective on display tonight forge new paths out of the finish Trevor Wishart, a pioneer of the term 'sonic art', profligated since musique concrete made headway from humble origins in the 1930s jazz destructuring, later advanced by The Radiophonic Workshop.

Recorded by Wire mag types Resonance FM London, this gig makes an oblique statement early: is the room about to explode? Because here the pipe system of the Holywell has been modified to impression springing a multitude of audible leaks. It's engaging enough stuff on the surface - peppered with instrumental sprinklings - but it's the second piece for full group, a dilated worldview organism of a score, that strikes as a collapsing limb trying to admirably rebuild its core aesthetic.

After a segmented voice and movement piece at its best in choral/body matching tendencies, then a 10 minute interval, the amply attended gig takes on a tutorial pattern recognition exercise where chromatic scale is treated as a cornerstone to voice a dual idea from - "A, B, E" - "strum, strum, strum", combining the small acoustic guitar and extrapolative leanings in body direction. A gong-y double bass tone starts out a more moat-mouthed exponent of castle-like sound sculpture. The wailing violin sonar counterpointed with saxophone and Christopher Bissonnette-esque tribal gong sounds like the waves began to play their own tune. The prepared piano sidelines a melodic bridge in higher register, only to be a postcard sent from a forgotten land.

The last piece is testament to [rout] collective's vision - a fantastic old school drama with disharmonic piano and mournful strings, topped off by French vocals. Strangely, for all the craterous pacing, [rout] seem to have their roots in all adventurous places possible.

Mick Buckingham (www.kapsil.net/muttley / www.focisleft.bandcamp.com)

SubVersion Stop 240: SubVersion's End Of Year 2014 Charts

An example of a previous chart:

2012 (7 contributors - 10 entry format)

This year it's a max of 15 extravaganza with the SV Drip-Feed underpinning everything.

I'm at the bottom for reasons of space. :)

Jonathan

01. Favourite track: Tom Chang - Spinal Tap: Goes to 11

02. Favourite album: various - The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners (Sub Rosa)

03. Favourite label: Dancing Wayang

04. Favourite mixtape: DJ Trax - Mixrace 92-96 mix (for Blog to the Oldskool)

05. Favourite SC thread: In this thread we post tips to decrease apathy

06. Favourite gig: Dave Phillips, Rammel Club, Nottingham

07. Favourite book: Ivan E. Coyote & Rae Spoon - Gender Failure (Arsenal Pulp Press)

08. Favourite food (or Snax): Borders' Dark Chocolate Gingers

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: I'm too old to feel guilty about pleasure.

10. Favourite random moment: looking at the Championship table today and seeing Brentford in third after a 4-0 win

InfiniteSloth

Label (overall): Samurai
Label (for concept and art direction): Weevil Neighborhood
Snax: almond butter and raw cashew cheese tacos
Remix: Hidden Element and Liquid Break - Outsider Blues (Icarus Remix)
Gig: NOizefest, New Orleans
Streaming platform: Spotify
Dig: Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker
Youtube channel: Numberphile
Random moment: Lenny Kravitz strolling down the street while I was walking the dog.
SC thread revivalist: firefinga

Kermit McBollocks Muppet Version 10

Favourite trak - Kermit Ensemble - It's Not Eezy Being Green
Favourite albm - ASC - Troof Bee Told (Soylent Seesawn)
Favourite fred - Kermit's Dictionary Fred, wer I correct der fadar about his grown up werd usage.
Favourite muppet - Muttwee, the ever-stinking ferris Wheel Of Fortune of the internet.
Favwit book - Pool Mackendra - Change Yor Loif In Seven Daze - vewwy moteevational!
Favwit feckwit - Russell Brand, he iz raizin his Sultan status of shitness by der day.
Favoureet telly - Mongrels, so oi can curse at der Nelson for not pimpin der Destinee
Favvit food - caveearr, ho ho ho and a bucket of finest Champagne.
Favourite mix type - Stattzi
Favweet label - Elmo, it bee zee ome of Muttwee's loif in pictures, and in the past tense.

Yelp! 

firefinga

*) SC Thread of the Year:

Most "current" sounding subvert dnb made in the 2000's?
http://subvertcentral.com/forum/show...-in-the-2000-

*)Label of the Year:

Euphony's Omni Music, Pinecone Moonshine, Subtle Audio, R & S

*)Mixtape/Radioshows of the Year:

DJ Trax and Nucleus' "Catch A Groove" Shows, Code's "Sublte Audio" shows, both on Jungletrain.net.
Euphony's Omni Sessions, Law's and eXtreme's mixes.

*)Guilty Pleasure 2014:
Reading the News section on Factmag.com and occasionally posting links on here.

*)TV Show 2014:
Last season of "Breaking Bad"

*)Movie 2014:
Snowpiercer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/

*)Book 2014
Bernie Krause "The Great Animal Orchestra"
http://www.thegreatanimalorchestra.com/

*)Album 2014:
+)Subtle Audio Vol. III
+)The Bug "Angels & Devils"
+)Dev Null's "Darkside Compilation" on 8205 Recordings:
http://8205.bandcamp.com/album/darks...mpilation-2014

*)Track of the Year:

DJ Trax and Naibu "All Is Silent" on Subtle Audio Vol. III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q-OvAYtkq0A

Euphony

01. Favourite track: Too numerous, but the following had me groovin' in my undies; Entama - Primeval Forces (Cadence)

02. Favourite album: Cryogenics - Through the Eons LP or Rainforest - Path of the Warrior LP

03. Favourite label: Monochrome

04. Favourite mixtape: Anything mixed by Cryogenics :)

05. Favourite SC thread:

07. Favourite book: Intelligence in nature (Jeremy Narby), Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness (Sheldrake, McKenna, Abraham) and Ninja by John Man

08. Favourite food (or Snax): My delectable spicy casseroles

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Walking on my own in the rain

10. Favourite random moment: Either: going out for a pub meal and sitting there complaining about the fact that they had to change the menu, as the previous one was really good and better value, and complained to the staff as a result. We also didn't like the way they had re-decorated, but we kept that whinge to ourselves. Anyway, it wasn't until we were driving home out of the village that we suddenly spied the pub we were meant to (and thought we were!) eating in! d'oh!....That's something my dad would do! jaysus....or: Trying to gatecrash Brad and Angelina's film set in Gozo only to be chased away by dogs

J-Breaks, www.omnimusic.org

02. Favourite album: Kontext - Dispersal (Absys Limited). Definitely my favourite release this year! I've come to expect original ideas from Stan for a while now and I'm never disappointed.

Daniel Crossley, www.fluid-radio.co.uk

08. Favourite food (or Snax): It's cooking fillet steak 'asado style' over the grill outside our van in the many wildcamping spots we found throughout Argentina

dionysus

01. Favourite track: Maybe not the greatest song eva! But the track I've listened to the most is:

Dawn Day Night - The Re-Animation of Scottie

Have a good New Year y'all! Off to Barca...

 
Muttley

01. Favourite track: Grouper - Holding (Kranky, released October 31st 2014).

(1st of Top 20; remainder 19 of Top 20)

Angel Olsen - Windows
Ryan Teague - Scale And Ratio
Digital & Spirit - Wayout
Colo - Doorframe 1
Betty Davis - If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up
Audion - Motormouth
Tropic Of Coldness - Distressing Dilemma Of Rational Choices
Saaad - After Love
Blue Six - No Two Things
Little Red - Down
Bat For Lashes - Skin Song
ASC - Some Other Life
Mizeyesis - Spring Hope
Equinox - Tribulation
VVV - Turn Away
Jo Quail - South West Night
36 - Always
DJ Trax - '89 'Till Infinity
Foci's Left - Anything Becomes Possible With Time

02. Favourite album: Little Red - Sticks And Stones (All Will Be Well)

(1st of Top 5; remainder of Top 5)

Grouper - Ruins
Jo Quail - Caldera
Christopher Willits - Opening
Metamorphosis - Conception 1982

03. Favourite label: For once, as there's too many labels I like to choose from, it's a production house: Novation.

I bought this analog synthesiser in the Summer as a proto-housewarming present, and have since been making several practice live sets with the machine. It looks like this:

http://d19ulaff0trnck.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/novationmusic/products/Bass-Station-II/BS-II-Banner-ii.jpg

Here is the ongoing live sets archive:

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60699-Foci-s-Left-Live-Set&highlight=foci%27s+left+live

04. Favourite mixtape: Little Red @ Old Fire Station, Oxford, Friday 14th November 2014. Second would be Blevin Blectum's Liveondublab set (on SoundCloud), actually from 2012, while following that is SB81's 92 Hardcore Favourites Mix.

The latter two are reposted at www.soundcloud.com/subversion-2, my and Statto's joint account.

Of my own spurious output it's FTAL 005 - Handling Grief (in the 60,000 unique viewers strong For The Ambient Lovers (FTAL)...review and mixtape archive 001 thread:

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?56404-For-The-Ambient-Lovers-review-and-mixtape-archive-001/page12

05. Favourite SC thread: "today, I..." (begun by Statto in January this year. Because I'm partly a narcissistic bastard).

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60224-today-I

06. Favourite gig: Little Red + Stuart Clark + Gus Hewlett @ Old Fire Station, Oxford, Friday November 14th 2014.

http://www.subvertcentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/subversion-stop-233-little-red-stuart.html

07. Favourite book: Carlos Castenada - The Art Of Dreaming

(Excerpt from the book, as I haven't really read any other books this year)

"You are not yet ready for a true merging of your dreaming reality and your daily reality", he concluded. "You must recapitulate your life further".

"But I've done all the recapitulating possible", I protested. "I've been recapitulating for years. There is nothing more I can remember about my life".

"There must be much more", he said adamantly, "otherwise, you wouldn't wake up screaming".

I did not like the idea of having to recapitulate again. I had done it, and I believed I had done it so well that I did not need to touch the subject ever again".

"The recapitulation of our lives never ends, no matter how well we've done it once", don Juan said. "The reason average people lack volition in their dreams is that they have never recapitulated and their lives are filled to capacity with heavily loaded emotions like memories, hopes, fears, et cetera, et cetera.

"Sorcerers, in contrast, are relatively free from heavy, binding emotions, because of their recapitulation. And if something stops them, as it has stopped you at this moment, the assumption is that there still is something in them that is not quite clear".

"To recapitulate is too involving, don Juan. Maybe there is something else I can do instead".

"No. There isn't. Recapitulating and dreaming go hand in hand. As we regurgitate our lives, we get more and more airborne".

Don Juan had given me very detailed and explicit instructions about the recapitulation. It consisted of reliving the totality of one's life experiences by remembering every possible minute detail of them. He saw the recapitulation as the essential factor in a dreamer's redefinition and redeployment of energy. "The recapitulation sets free energy imprisoned within us, and without the this liberated energy dreaming is not possible". That was his statement.

Years before, don Juan had coached me to make a list of all the people I had met in my life, starting at the present. He helped me to arrange my list in an orderly fashion, breaking it down into areas of activity, such as jobs I had had, schools I had attended. Then he guided me to go, without deviation, from the first person on my list to the last one, reliving every one of my interactions with them.

He explained that recapitulating an event with one's mind arranging everything pertinent to what is being recapitulated. Arranging means reconstructing the event, piece by piece, starting by recollecting the physical details of the surroundings, then going to the person with whom one shared the interaction, and then going to oneself, to the examination of one's feelings.

Don Juan taught me that the recapitulation is coupled with a natural, rhythmical breathing. Long exhalations are performed as the head moves slowly and gently from right to left; and long inhalations are taken as the head moves back from left to right. He called this act of moving the head from side to side "fanning the event". The mind examines the event from beginning to end while the body fans, on and on, everything the mind focuses on.

Don Juan said that the sorcerers of antiquity, the inventors of the recapitulation, viewed breathing as a magical, life-giving act and used it, accordingly, as a magical vehicle; the exhalation, to eject the foreign energy left in them during the interaction being recapitulated and the inhalation to pull back the energy that they themselves left behind during the interaction.

Because of my academic training, I took the recapitulation to be the process of analysing one's life. But don Juan insisted that it was more involved than an intellectual psychoanalysis. He postulated the recapitulation as a sorcerer's play to induce a minute but steady displacement of the assemblage point. He said that the assemblage point, under the impact of reviewing past actions and feelings, goes back and forth between its present site and the site it occupied when the event being recapitulated took place.

Don Juan stated that the old sorcerers' rationale behind the recapitulation was their conviction that there is an inconceivable dissolving force in the universe, which makes organisms live by lending them awareness. That force also makes organisms die, in order to extract the same lent awareness, which organisms have enhanced through their life experiences. Don Juan explained the old sorcerers' reasoning. They believed that since it is our life experience this force is after, it is of supreme importance that it can be satisfied with a facsimile of our life experience: the recapitulation. Having had what it seeks, the dissolving force then lets sorcerers go, free to expand their capacity to perceive and reach with it the confines of time and space." ~ Carlos Castenada, The Art Of Dreaming, p147-149.

08. Favourite food (or Snax): Beef Rogan Josh, Slimming World Fakeaway Style, with added Chickpeas.

Rogan recipe (For clarity when using Lamb instead of Beef as in the original Slimming World guidelines - just get some fry Beef Steaks or Boneless Beef for the Beef version and cook for the same time)

"This rich and meaty north Indian stew is infused with enticing spices that leave a lovely warmth in your mouth. We've
added carrots and swede, though you could use other root vegetables like potato or parsnip).

Free on Extra Easy and Original SlimmingW plan, 9 1/2 on Green (more vegetable based weight loss plan, the quickest diet)
Ready in 2 hours.

Ingredients

low calorie cooking spray
500g lean lamb steaks, visible fat removed, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed
4 tbsp medium curry powder
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sweetener
600ml boiling lamb stock
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 swede, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
small handful of finely chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

(Me: you might want to add natural yogurt/creme fresh to cool the heat down).

Spray a large, heavy-based casserole pan (or wok) with low calorie cooking spray and place over a medium-high heat.
Add the lamb and cook for 4 minutes, stirring, or until browned (you may need to do this in batches).
Transfer the lamb to a plate with a slotted spoon.

Spray the casserole pan with low calorie cooking spray again and add the onions.
Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft and lightly browned.

Add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, chilli powder, paprika and cardamom seeds.
Stir-fry for 2 minutes then add the curry powder and return the lamb to the pan (or wok).
Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes then stir in the tomatoes, sweetener, stock, carrots and swede.
Season well and bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and cover tightly. Simmer gently for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the lamb is meltingly tender.

Remove from the heat, scatter over the coriander and serve with rice of your choice.

*

I have had so much amazing food this year, mainly from The First Floor, Cowley, my favourite restaurant in my life so far. Some dishes:

Indian: Mutton Dopiaza / Handi Ghost / Butter Chicken / Chef's Special Lamb / Lamb Madras
Chinese: Szechuan Beef and Sweet Chilli Curry / Lamb in Oyster Sauce / Tofu in Sweet Chilli Sauce / Chinese Seaweed / Chicken in S&S sauce
Thai: Chicken Massaman Curry / Deep Fried Fish / Chicken Satay / Chicken in hot Mustard sauce / Deep Fried Thai Noodles

Other Oxford restaurants that come recommended are: La Cucina Italian (St. Clements); Thai Orchid (St. Clements); Arbat (providing you don't have an unremarkable starter, the Cheese-topped grilled Gammon with a Toffee Madeira Cake for dessert is great - Russian  - Cowley); Majiliss (Cowley); Mirch Masala (Cowley); Rice Box (Cowley); The Beehive (Carterton - particularly Puy Lentil & Sweet Potato curry).

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: losing 1 1/2 stone by Summer to take my weight down to a much healthier 16.7. For 6'5 I want to be getting down to a weight that still isn't overweight - hoping to touch 16st next year.

10. Favourite random moment: Favourite and least favourite at the same time - struggling with personal identity and family relationship as to how my family in relation to my friends fit into my world.

11. In light InfiniteSloth's adaptation list I'm adding two optional to others entries to mine, one being: favourite festival. Which is:

Pindrop Performances Presents: Midwinter Drone Fest @ Modern Art Oxford, 11.12.14 (Petrels, Paddox, After The Thought, James Maund, Lee Riley)

Mind blowing event.

12. Favourite below radar movement: Eilean Rec. - https://eileanrec.bandcamp.com/

EOY Charts 2013-2015 SC thread

SubVersion Stop 239: Tropic Of Coldness - Personalised For Muttley Live Session 17th December 2014

SV Xmas Drip-Feed Pt 5, exclusively available in For The Ambient Lovers (FTAL) archive. 

Tropic of Coldness are an ambient and electroacoustic superduo with former members from psychedelia/electroacoustic band Fuji Apple Worship. They've careened their complexity in disparate, streamed arrangements into "Demography Of Data" as Tropic of Coldness, a highlight album of my 130 subjects on www.fluid-radio.co.uk (under my penname). That LP is available here in CD and digital formats for an inexpensive price - make sure you check it.

https://organic-industries.bandcamp.com/album/tropic-of-coldness-demography-of-data-oi014

If you like what you hear and want something the duo made for me personally, under their agreement I'm dripping this for Xmas 2014. It's a 28:33 long live session with somnambulant, sleepytime bent. Recommended if you like Eno's "Music For Airports", Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie's "After The Night Falls" and ASC's "Truth Be Told", all timeless records in Muttleyland. 

Find the live session as #300 in FTAL (For  The Ambient Lovers...review and mixtape archive 001)

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?56404-For-The-Ambient-Lovers-review-and-mixtape-archive-001/page13

28:33 / 320kbps

Tropic of Coldness' track "Distressing Dilemma Of Rational Choices" is included in SubVersion's End Of Year 2014 Charts in my contribution. :)