285: Goldie - The Journeyman 3 CD Synopsis (Metal Heads / Cooking Vinyl Ltd. ) by Andy Popin

...official SubVersion review of Goldie - "The Journeyman 3CD", by Andy Popin

It's fine to comment on whole triple albums...and if you are reviewing for publication purposes other than self, it is just the kind of sheet you do, implicitly. But for me, there's something extra extra special about the closing (read: not bonus) third CD that concludes Cliffy 'Goldie''s best work since "Timeless" in his triple disc mother lode, "The Journeyman" on Metalheadz. Not only did it manage to make this hefty rockhead shed a few tears at recent exterior memories on my favourite piece of his whole album, the totally friggin terrific "Run Run Run" piano focused piece (yes it has piano, go figure) but "The Instra Suites", as this ascending journey disc spanning nearly eighty minutes and no less is titled, confirmed to me what I love best about Goldie - when he "actually finishes a tune".

Insult? No way. 

For anyone who knows Ciiffy, whether it's just journalistically from afar like me and the average Joe, the ethic of putting the kitchen sink in good and proper - on each tune - is clear, and that dialectic genius he has of one of the precious few which too much weed didn't mess up musically from the 1990s is as clear as day on, for me personally, and to agree with Goldie for once, a better opus effort than "Timeless", the album that garnered so much acclaim. 

Let's dispense with the long-winded verbals for a moment, and just appreciate the scene. Goldie has been around. God, is that an understatement? James Bond's assasin in The World Is Not Enough; the two left-footed Dad on Strictly Come Dancing; faux-thug on soapy depressant Eastbenders (pardon no pun); first-year psych workout Celebrity Big Brother glam points on a career spanning over three decades from the foundations of B-boy graff, Reinforced Records graft and London street seller grit and grime. It really shows on the closing dnb-turned-Detroit-tech cut "Redemption" at the end of disc three, a fiercely inventive swipe at the hangers-on of Jeff Mills, Frankie Knuckles Chicago-an House, Laurent Garnier acid techno Eiffels; his 'ardcore Rufige Cru life. Meanwhile as on the opener to this journey, "Natalie's Truth", "tomorrow lies in a sculpture", which points towards the Body Of Songs project "Electric Abyss" paradox-psychology of concept construction. 

Speaking of more close-to-home, hearty influences, the sounds of "Timeless" engineer Rob Playford (Omni Trio) are dotted all over the analog bass balm and early club warming up sounds of "Horizon". The bass pattern plays a simple trajectory; minor 7th addition to major 7th subtraction but the drum counterpoint reverses and kaleidoscopically explodes the flow. In addition, musically so, glimmers of light piano and Rhodes points to roads untravelled by liquid funk since Lincoln Barret and Dom of Calibre subtracted the stepper breakbeat multi-match and doused in the rinse-and-repeat club putty of rolling percussion. These sounds speak of the unspoken divide between the liquid funk sub genre and atmospheric techno, rotating their influences like a heart-on-sleeve pallbearer passing out pamphlets of multi-faith worship at a parish. In lesser terms, that does not normally happen. 

The next chapter takes us down into a Massive Attack and Portishead style meander - and a great one, with utmost focus - called "Mountains". It's too heavy for a strictly chill station; too light for a jungle tearout station. The best kind of description for stuff like this is "saturated hip hop", that Photek tune of the same name. This to me is better, and not just because it's more musical, it also has production balls, not saturated fat. "Ballad Of Celeste" takes that blueprint and adds violin, reducing (or rather transducing) the overall granular convolution that comes with forgetting memories on a journey as they start to happen. The album is low on lacular amnesia, to borrow from The Caretaker's titles; everything fits into place nicely, and is recollected as a memory pure, as it should be. Nice rice-grained harpsichord irons out the attention tenets of the time listening to "Celeste", which is "Mountains" romantic candour and counterpoint suggestion, also bookend with baby chuckles and samples of twinkling Poinsetta prettiness. "Castaway" ups the pace to around 162bpm by my internal heartbeat. 

For the first time in this CD, wind instruments are ferociously introduced, darting all over the beat like a moth caught in a circus lightshow. Echoes of the synth used on Seal's "Killer" ("solitary brother, is there still a part of you that wants to live? Soiitary sister, is there still a part of you that wants to give?") sprinkle in the background like a kind of confetti-coloured moss; a disguised past. And that's exactly what "The Journeyman" feels like, on the whole...and a "glorious future past". The transition from hardcore to dnb reimagined for a less nascent, more grown up audience. It's an absolute mind killer of a journey, to use that dnb buzz word; it takes me to spiritual and heavenly palaces of the eye andear without moving a finger, except those on the hand to put this in the CD player with. Everything fits into place, as I have stated throughout. 

It's like "The Journeyman" just came to show us that in tomorrow, and even yesterday, lies a sculpture of optimism...and that the journey of life never ends. 

Andy Popin

284: Pseud's Corner

There is a horrible projection in all of us, yet we do not always see our own faults as the worst cracks in the mirror at that particular time.

278: Drumfunk Opacity

Here's one for ya. Drumfunk, the buzzword for drum-driven drum and bass, percussive dance of sorts, as Chris Inperspective of the Technicality label would like to term it, once upon a time (2007). How does it gain its environmental opacity? By opacity I imply the “right ambience”. The right ambience is something we look for heavily in gentrified “mood music”, specifically music for setting a scene. Indeed much “mood” in shorthand is ideal for scoring films, movies, whatever you call them.

Much success, I would think, comes down to the “time bomb ethic” of the drums. The “timbre” of the track. These two things, qualities, et al, are not separate, rather they compliment each other in the “right ambience”. You see where I'm going with this? What I am simply saying is “drumfunk needs the right ambience for its potential to be fully realised, and I think we can all agree what we once hated can turn into things we love”.

Take Paradox Music. To some the drums might sound like washed out cardboard rolling down a hill. To the trained ear crunchy crisp percussions are the order of the day, and for once there's no unnecessary filler side salad; flights of fancy. The discombobulation Nucleus & Paradox turn on the “Fuzz and the Boog” drum hit on the piece “Fuzzy Something” is a timeless, riotous wonder.

To understand is to understate, always. Hence the adjectives, because I will never truly so “get it”.

2K17 Mrb Poetry - Nature and death afflictions

Womb kicks

the blow is fetched on someone, the blow regains its power

storms blow and trespass in hemispheres

by the hourly tide 

you shone with your arms out wide

just perched there like a scarecrow

an innocent crucifix with no ribbons

and no bows. 

i would bow in your presence

but it would only sacrifice humility for pretense

the art of pompousness in portent

unrelenting destruction relating to conundrums of the soul

scoring an own goal, kicked off the pitch

wind blown in a ball, all the air kicked out of it

all the air kicked out of it

all the air

kicked out of the very thing that gave life its speed. 

Death waltz

The line
Drab
Inked into dust
Cast on the sky
A dusk constellation either way
Waltzing with sentient beings
Obsessed by atomic death
And clause by cryptographic clusters
Cloying to the mind's eye.

 Apartness

Apart you say
Who are we
Alluding to catastrophe
Dismay dismay dismay

The path seems rocky
Your bones will soon find
Frailty is not proposed by the wind

Nor is calamity produced by snow
Catastrophe, who are we
Dismay, dismay, dismay.

Apart from the seasons we experience treason
All down to psychiatric failure
No rhythm
No reason
Oh dismay
Are you fickle?
Are we a trickle
A raindrop
Dismay dismay

Oh, apart we turned to gray.

Convalescence

The transcription of wit
From an inked glass
Blotted like a murderer's paper
What are these deeds, you ask
A cornucopia caper
A trick of the devil
An illusion of relativity
Or a convalescence of greed.

The bright sun shines outside
Oh widow, won't you weep for me.

Affliction of the distinctive soul

Something comes from nothingness

Always from death to life

Pain to strife

Regenerating forwards and back like a marble lock

The smell of machinery gloats on the dock

Cogs in machines

Cogs in streams

Buried from view

Alligators swallowing marbles

Drowning the marbles of others

This ode to death cannot be recovered

It can only be docked

As a regeneration process from death to life

One which we all experience

At a later time in life.

Copyright Michael Robert Buckingham - MRB poetry 2017 all rights reserved.

Specialist Curry Recipes By Michael - First 10 Collection (2013-2017)

Muttley SubVersion

· 27 January 2015 ·

Cooked an awesome Chinese curry lst night. Ingredients list:
Special Recipe By Michael 2 - Chinese Tandoori Chicken, Mustard Seed & Cinnamon Strong Curry
3 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 cloves garlic
2 red onions
4 boneless chicken breasts
3 tbsp mixed spice powder
2 tbsp sauce thickener
2 tbsp tandoori curry powder
1/2 a courgette
1 yellow pepper
1 chicken stock cube/400ml boiling water
2 teaspoons chilli seeds
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup/2 cups boiling water brown rice measure

To cook well, just follow the directions of my previous homemade curry.

1

Here's the recipe I just DIY knocked up:
Special curry by Michael 10.01.15 - Mushroom And Chicken Surprise
1 teaspoon mustard seeds...
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 strand spring onion (cut small)
2cm root ginger (peeled and cut)
4 mushrooms (large)
1 yellow pepper (chopped coarsely)
1 pack boneless chicken breasts (chopped small)
1 red onion (large chops)
3 cloves garlic (chopped small)
half a courgette (large chops)
chopped carrots (small)
additional ground chillies (to taste)
1 chicken stock cube / 500ml boiling water in gravy jug)
3 sprinkles Soy Sauce (at end)
basmati brown rice (1 cup 2 cups boiling water)
peanut sesame oil to baste

schematic: 1) prepare ingredients 2) brown chicken 3) onions, courgette, garlic, peppers in 4) spices, carrots in 5) stock
6) bring to boil 7) cook rice sprinkle over Soy Sauce and ground chilli to taste.

Now we've just got to see how it tastes. :)

3

Special Recipe By Michael 3 - Tomato, Cinnamon And Button Mushroom Chicken Curry Dip
2tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground coriander leaves
4cm root ginger, peeled ...
pack of button mushrooms
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 onions
1 yellow pepper
1.6kg cooked chicken
1 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp med curry powder
1 tbsp mixed spice
1 / 2 cup ratio basmati rice
1 naan bread

I have 3 special homemade recipes I've done in the last 2 months now. Before I invite house guests - family when they come for dinner.

Pseud's Corner (Philosophy)

Philosophy - mrb

One of the most tired, commercialised and ridiculed predicaments of pseud's corner is connoted from this well-worn phrase:

Glass half empty/glass half-full.

This is often used to denote placidly for the idea of overachievement, and not vice versa, because simply, humans want to feel good about themselves. This is all well and good, until you get a plethora of anecdotes joining its mundane projection potential.

Putting myself in their shoes
I'm very empathetic
You get out what you put in
He who dares, wins, (Rodders!)

Of course, what are we really trying to say here? The meaning becomes diluted, the thing that fits with 'putting more in' to make the glass 'half full'. But sadly, this is an illusion that comes a cropper.

This is ultimately for didactic and syntactic reasons, abtruding to tactfulness in mind game form, to trick the brain that it won't crash when our mood shifts to the idea that, plainly, was the glass really ever even half full? If the glass wasn't half empty, or half full, in simple terms, to begin with, can we really say it will stay that way?

We are not talking about change, vacillaton, oscillation, movement. We are not saying someone will drink from the glass, or even fill it up.

What we need to do is come to terms with the idea of mirror neurons, the concept of mirror neurons in psychology; as my pinned twitter post says:

"Technology is at genuine fault to play mirror neurons in unconscious loophole, which is where delusion of the self arises. Often nominative" ~ @MuttleySV

Simply, to end this juncture: form is sometimes solid, but perception is ever-changing, and the less we depend on solidity, the better.

"Be water, my friend" ~ Bruce Lee.

SubVersion Stop 265: Pulses Of Life, Pulses And Life, Pulses In Life

"Pulse is life, and life without pulse is until it morphs, lifeless. The meaning behind life then may not be pulse, but life without pulse".

Just to get philosophical in my pseud's corner euphoria for a moment, like the old TDD days. But yes, I've been thinking about how daily activity is measured. Pulse unites how people move, how we interact. Framerate is like pulse too, pixels in a camera metaphorical for so much of Instagram and Twitter's poularity. Seeing as we need facts and figures to operate, it's always me trying to push beyond three dimensions in LSD like lingo. But I do miss the highs of a high pulse. It's like a run, where you travel at speed, reaching a destination while the pavement stays stationary. And some things around you will move with you, such as other humans, animals, creations of man and woman, say machines.

But yeah, pulse. I actually have a very high pulse to be factual. It rests between 106 and 125 when I'm less well, or hypermedicated. Seeing and moving at a slower pace because of my 19 stone frame rate, so to speak as of now is concomitant with a slothful meandering style of living. I often wonder how, as when 10 years ago when I was 18 and 8 stone lighter, and much fitter, how my pulse has manifested in the psychic physiology of my body.

Discuss.