i can't sleep

Broughty Ferry, September 16th 2009.

neglect

Cycling

electric music aka

Tangentially related to my recent post about the Associates, 'North London Spiritualist Church' was the first album from Electric Music AKA, a band featuring Tam Doyle, the author of the excellent Billy Mackenzie biography "The Glamour Chase", and fellow Dundee ex-pat Anth Brown - from vague memories of an NME piece at the time, both had been members of a failed "baggy" band and found themselves in London. The album was released in 2000 on ZubiZaretta, a short-lived UK offshoot of the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label, if I remember correctly. Despite positive reviews, the record never broke through, though Sanctuary did release an equally excellent follow up ('The Resurrection Show') in 2003. Now recording as Boo Hooray, the duo have completed a third album which they are hoping to release this year.

Both albums are full of mid-tempo, slightly downbeat, pop songs, taking cues from the likes of the Blue Nile, Spiritualized, The Flaming Lips and Talk Talk. Highlights are "If The Good Times Are Killing Me" from 'NLSC' and "Something Up With the Stars" from 'TRS', so start with those if you need to start somewhere - both are lovely, especially the overlapping vocals on the latter. The first album is available to download from the link below.

I remember listening to 'The Resurrection Show' quite a lot over the summer of 2003, it definitely was one of the many influences I was working from when we started The A Forest.

[MP3] Electric Music AKA - 'North London Spiritualist Church'
[Stream] Electric Music AKA - 'The Resurrection Show'

associates / alan rankine - 'the glamour chase'

The following is my report of the recent showing of the Associates documentary 'The Glamour Chase' at the DCA, and the accompanying Q+A with founding member Alan Rankine. Originally posted on the Associates thread on I Love Music, just felt like re-posting here.

The full 40 minute edit of the documentary "The Glamour Chase" was given only it's second public airing at the DCA in Dundee tonight. It was originally made in 1999 for Grampian and STV. It's good, fairly zips through the life and times, I never saw the original 23 minute version when it was broadcast, but it must have battered through at a fair pace! Most of the detail is familiar from Tom Doyle's book of the same name, unsurprising as he was involved in the making of the documentary and the fact that the book itself was fairly exhaustive. There's talking-head contributions from the likes of Michael Dempsey, Max Hole, Chris Parry (a "Kiwi c-nt", according to Rankine...), Billy's father and sister, Boris Blank, Martin Fry, Glen Gregory, Marc Almond, Siouxie Sioux, Noko from Apollo440 and others. There's a few clips of the Ronnie Scotts performance in 1984 in a kind of jazz trio arrangement, not sure how widely available that has been but it looked great - the sound quality was good and clear, it would be great to have the audio of that.

Afterwards we got "Billy Sloan in Conversation With Alan Rankine", which was quite enjoyable. Sloan was knowledgeable and understated and not at all playing up to his reputation. Sloan basically asked him about his time in the band from beginning to end, his memories of Billy, that sort of thing. A few questions from the audience at one point but I couldn't think of anything to ask. On the subject of "William It Was Really Nothing", Rankine said that he doesn't know if anything ever happened between Billy and Morrissey, but if he knew Billy as well as he thought he did then he probably shagged Morrissey ragged... By the sound of it, they had fun at the time. He also mentioned that they got their rights back for recordings a month ago, I assume he meant "Fourth Drawer Down" and "Sulk" and the "Double Hipness" material which was previously licenced to V2, and that they'll probably be doing something with it. On the subject of watching Billy carry on as Associates after his departure, he did say that other than some of the songs on "Perhaps", he didn't really rate the post-"Sulk" output, and that it was clear by the "Wild and Lonely"-era videos that Billy's heart wasn't in it.

The Q+A was finished off with the playback of a recently made recording of the lost Associates song "The Twins of Gemini". Rankine said that they'd worked on it at the time, but never recorded it, finished the lyrics or properly performed it other than maybe accapella at parties. Apparently this version was only finished the night before, and features Steven Lindsay on vocals, Craig Armstrong on piano and Rankine on bass. Someone asked him later if it was getting a release, he said they'd maybe be doing some more work on it but that it was a possibility.

Got the chance to shake Rankine's hand on my way out, didn't really have much to say. He had a few signed, unplayed 12"s of "White Car in Germany" that he was handing out, got one of those.

The picture above is indeed the signed copy of "White Car In Germany".

Although I was aware of the Associates before hand, they first captured my imagination properly in the Autumn of 2002 when I first moved to Dundee and bought Tom Doyle's Billy Mackenzie biography 'The Glamour Chase'. It's a great read, partly because Billy's life itself is so fascinating and partly so because it was the first time I'd read a "rock biography" and been familiar with the not just the places named, but also some of the social backdrop to the story. The book appears to be out of print now.

The beauty of Billy's music for me is in it's unpredictability - both in terms of how other worldly it can be, but also how varying in quality it can be. I won't pretend I like every note that Billy/the Associates ever committed to tape, but when they hit their mark they were fantastic - "The Affectionate Punch", "Tell Me Easter's on Friday", "White Car In Germany" and, of course, "Party Fears Two" amongst many others.

The play 'Balgay Hill', inspired by Billy Mackenzie, runs at Dundee Rep until 27th June. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go and see it after my night shifts.

[Video] Associates - "Party Fears Two" ('Top of the Pops, 1982)
[Video] Associates - "White Car In Germany" (Dutch TV, 1982)

laeto - "ecuador"

First new Laeto track in five years! From the eternally forthcoming 3rd LP, picks up pretty much where 'Zwoa' left off. Good stuff. This is a nice stop motion-style video. Enjoy!

animals at camperdown park, sat 16th may 2009

More photos! Went to see the animals at Camperdown with my sister, my nephew and Katie - they are the ones on my side of the fences, if you're having trouble. Not the nicest of days, started raining as we were leaving, so a lot of the animals were keeping hidden.

I'm never sure how I feel about zoos and the like, on the one hand they do have an educational value and as long as the animals are well looked after then there's not much more I'd ask, however there is something a little sad about seeing an animal like the Lynx or a Bear cooped up in an enclosure. I've not been to see the animals at Camperdown for about 15 years, so it's good to see that the new Bear enclosure is a better size.

As for the photos, I was swapping lenses quite a lot and shooting through mesh for a few of the animals (Bears and Otters especially). The longer lens is manual focus, so one or two are a little out of focus, but I've left them in anyway. I even used the flash on a couple, doesn't seem to have been to intrusive but I was wary of upsetting the animals.

[Photos] Camperdown Park (II)

the view from the law

first ride of the year

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2746391

No exciting and new picture, I'm afraid. I did take my camera, but discovered after leaving the flat that the battery was dead. This one is from a previous trip round a part of the route.

Started off by going up by Strathmartine Hospital, as I'd not been up that way before. Followed the road round and ended up in Bridgefoot, so carried on up my normal route until I reached the turn for Auchterhouse. At that point I decided to carry on to Tealing out of curiosity.

Once I reached Tealing I saw a sign for the Tealing Dovecot and Earth House - maintained by Historic Scotland, so I thought it would be rude not to have a look. Wouldn't go out of my way to see it, but reasonably interesting all the same. The Dovecot was built in 1595 - an act encouraged by the authorities of the time, until they realised the pigeon population was out of hand. The Earth House is a gallery cut into the ground, dating from the Iron Age. At the time, it would have been covered with a thatched roof and likely used for storing food.

After this, I carried on to the road up ahead that turned out to be the A90 Dundee - Forfar. Not fancying my chances amongst the early-evening traffic, I turned back and headed back to Dundee by the first available turn off (signposted for Kirkton of Auchterhouse, if I remember rightly) and made my way along a fairly long stretch of nondescript road, passing the Strathmartine electricity substation. I'd already passed over an NTS (National Transmission System) pipeline, is there no escape from work?

My favourite bit was probably Emmoch Road, a nice long downhill section with a decent enough gradient to get some speed up. Quite looking forward to that again. The road came out at the edge of Dundee, not too far from home, so just followed the road round.

11.3 miles in total, not too taxing - wasn't particularly tired when I got home. Will probably go out that way again with the camera on a nice day.

avast! + popolo + andrew mitchell at dexters, sat 14 mar 2009

Some photos taken at the Avast! et al gig last night at Dexters. Still getting to grips with the D40x so they're not amazing, but I think I'm maybe getting somewhere with it. Only managed to get one vaguely salvageable shot of Andrew, which is a bit of a shame. All shots taken without a flash - general light levels were pretty low so they are all quite dark. Tips, comments, etc all welcome.

The gig itself was really good. Andrew Mitchell from the Hazey Janes opened up with a solo set on electric guitar, with some nice looped elements and drums from Donald from Avast! later on. Not sure if the songs were new Hazeys ones or something seperate, but they were quite lovely, slow, coutry tinged efforts. There was even a touch of Codeine or Low to them at points.

Popolo continue to be generally awesome. Something I've liked about them right from the start has been their ability to keep things nice and concise - generally, instrumental math-rock tends to be a bit over indulgent for me, but one of Popolo's strengths is to keep things nice and short, and not let an idea overstay it's welcome. Most importantly, they are fun and you can dance to them.

Avast! were mostly playing new songs from their forthcoming (I assume!) second album, and it was the second time I'd seen them with their new guitarist Graham. The extra guitar fills out the sound nicely, and most of the new material sits well against the 'Faultlines' stuff, I just wish there were more vocals on a lot of it. Just a minor gripe, I guess, they were on great form last night. It's a shame I couldn't get any clear shots of Donald, the man put in a good shift behind the kit.

Avast! + Popolo + Andrew Mitchell, Dexters, Dundee

holga photos on flickr

In my final year at school I saw a segment on BBC Breakfast News about Lomography, and was instantly fascinated. A couple of years later, after getting internet access, I stumbled accross it again and got the DCA Shop to order in a Holga for me, one of the cheaper cameras on offer - certainly cheaper than a proper Lomo. I've only ever shot a few of rolls of film on it, as 120 format film isn't easy to get processed - Jessops can still do it, but it has to be sent away and takes around a fortnight. Part of the appeal is not knowing what you're going to get until the photos come back - for a start the casing is prone to light leakage, though this can creat interesting effects. Overall, I've found the results to be best when used on a clear, sunny, day.

I've had a Flickr account for a while, but never used it as I find Picasa easy to use, especially with the uploader. For a change, I've put these photos on Flickr as a set which you can view here. View other Holga photos here.

general round up

Not much activity for a week, but there have been a few things I've intended to write about. Unfortunately, they can be crammed into a few sentences...

Have now seen both Frost/Nixon and Milk. Won't bore anyone with attempts at reviews, but will say that both films are good and worth seeing. If you only have time for one, make it Milk. It's wonderful.

I've finished reading Join Me by Danny Wallace - since seeing Yes Man a month or so ago, I've read all three of his books. None of them are particularly hard going, but they are all good - enthusiastic, funny and touching in places. Or, in places, touching. Nothing dodgy. I'm not sure reading the book was enough to make me want to become a Joinee though, I think I'd find doing a random act of kindness every Friday a bit tricky - anyway, I try to be kind all the time!

My step-dad gave me his old 35mm SLR, went to Camperdown to play about with it. I took a couple of rolls, which you can see pretty much all of here. I'm a little disappointed that some of them didn't come out as I'd expected (many of them a lot darker than I'd anticipated), but looking at them now I think there's some good first efforts there. Anyway, the point of getting a film-based SLR was to force myself to think more when setting up the shot, so it's all a learning experience. Excuse some of the dodgy scans...

Kaput played at Fat Sams on Friday night with the Hazey Janes. The Hazeys were fantastic, probably the best I've ever seen them, and we all enjoyed playing our set. It was the first time in nearly 11 years of playing gigs that my sister had got to see one of my bands. She said she enjoyed it. The whole set was filmed, will get that uploaded once I've actually seen it!

I'm beginning to think that writing a little about every record/CD I buy this year may be harder than anticipated, after an unexpected trip to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago found me in Fopp, and then on Saturday morning I got the chance to rake through all the new promos in Grouchos...my wallet has taken a beating. It makes me sad that there's a generation of "music lovers" who will never really experience the joy of spending a chunk of your Saturday raking through random CDs, hoping to strike gold, and getting a bit of banter and recommendations while you do it. Sure, there's a social element to Last.fm or some torrent clients, but it's impersonal, nowhere near the same as actually speaking to other people in person about music. I just hope that it's not something that's completely lost too soon, especially in smaller cities/towns. I'll try and write a January round-up when I get off night shifts.

That's pretty much all for now, I'm off to watch A Room For Romeo Brass.

baxter park fireworks: november 5th 2008

I took my camera along to this years firework display at Baxter Park in Dundee, first time I'd been to that one in a few years. Managed to get an okay spot and the photos turned out better than expected, but I think that was more luck than skill.

alamos album launch, with popolo + bullet hell

Friday night saw the launch of Alamos' second album, 'Captain Indifferent Says, "Whatever"', with a gig at Dundee's Fat Sams. Support came from Popolo and Bullet Hell.

Popolo were up first, a fresh faced 4 piece from Dundee, Fife and Glasgow. They play short bursts of melodic, jerky instrumental "math" rock with tinges of Foals or Battles, for want of better reference points. None of the tunes outstay their welcome, with the band having the good sense to know not to stretch anything out for any longer than it needs to be - this was slightly disorientating when songs ended abruptly at their first show a couple of months ago, but only a couple of gigs later they have grown in confidence. Looking forward to the recordings being promised later in the summer.

Bullet Hell played next. Always a joy to watch, and it transpires a joy to photograph too with all of Kev's rawk! poses on full display. Bullet Hell make an almighty noise with just bass and drums, albeit with the bass amplified a second time with the sound manipulated towards that of a guitar. The best i can do for reference points is Motorhead, in terms of the relentless drive and heads down intensity. It's quite fun to watch a bass be played as if it was a guitar, without it sounding wrong, though that makes no sense to say. Sadly, Bullet Hell also currently do not have any recordings available.

Our hosts for the evening were Alamos, finally letting their second album free into the world after a year's wait. They've been playing the many of the songs around and about for over a year now, so they've had time to sink in for me - probably quite helpful as the sound is less immediate than on the first record - still all good though! The set was a mixture of old and new, so it was good to hear the hits dusted off. Fritz's bass was suitably booming, so much so that the vibrations knocked my pint off the ledge I'd rested it on... I've only had the chance to listen to the album once since picking up my copy, so it's a bit early to have something to say about it other than that I like it. You can listen to a couple of tracks from it and order the cd from Alamos' myspace.

Not sure how happy I am with most of the photos, I took quite a lot and maybe 1 in 5 were ok. My main complaint is that a lot of them came out grainy, or just slightly blurred. Often this hadn't shown up when I was setting up the shots or reviewing them on the camera itself, so there were quite a few that I had thought would come out well that didn't. I think this may largely be due to having to use fairly long shutter exposures and a low aperture to get sufficient light in. I guess I just need to find a way to work around it, or failing that persuade more bands to play in better-lit venues! I took one or two shots with a flash, but just didn't like the way they turned out.

vosu

The view from outside my flat at about 8:30pm tonight. The recent long days of glorious sunshine have been swiftly replaced by fog and rain and gloom and it's now like there is no summer. After one day. It was a shock to not be woken up by the sunshine this morning, just as it initially had been a shock to have been woken by the sunshine while not having slept in for work! Please come back summer sunshine, I had plans for you!

Otherwise an uneventful day. I did manage to pick up the new Spiritualized and Wedding Present albums on the way to the gym. Just listening to the Spiritualized ("Songs in A&E") now, and eight tracks in I'm quite taken with it. "Sweet Talk" is especially lovely. The Weddoes will get next listen.