Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Apocalypse Now!
The sky turned dark and it has been raining steadily all day in Tokyo. Severe weather warnings are being issued and a massive typhoon is scheduled to wreak havoc upon Tokyo's well oiled transportation system some time tomorrow morning. It feels kind of exciting and it's nice being trapped inside on these kinds of days. I always prompts me to pull out my Sunn O))) and GYBE! records too.
Any other suggestions for tunes with that "apocalyptic" feeling?
p.s. for the vinyl fetishists amongst us. I bought the first GYBE! LP when it came out and got to choose which photo I wanted on the front cover. Inside are loads of cool handmade inserts and a 1 cent canadian coin that has been run over by the train that went past the barn where the album was recorded!
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Comets on Fire, Earth (The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull);the new Shit and Shine is pretty terrifying. Early Explosions in the Sky (Those That Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those That Tell the Trith Shall Live Forever). A little Merzbow at full volume usually upsets the neighbours. Squarepusher's Go Plastic?
Trith?? Truth, of course.
Storm Warning by Latyrx fits the bill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG7z5M6xu1U
Obscure European Jazz department: Edward Vesala and his band Saund and Fury, playing 'The Wind' from the album Lumi.
Some GYBE, plenty of Killing Joke - Pandemonium, would be a good one, JC's "The Man Comes Around" overplayed, but still works. Whoever did the soundtrack to 28 Weeks Later or some early Mogwai....Would be a great theme for the last ever RR.
@Mnemonic - Donds for Explosions in the Sky, Squarepusher and ...well everything you said! Is the new Shit and Shine worth getting? Are they still on Load Records?
@SV - am listening now. Sounds great. Oppressive sounding hip-hop is new to me, but I think it works.
@Abahachi - now THAT, i would LOVE to hear!
@Shoey - i'm pretty sure it's GYBE! that do the soundtrack to 28 Days Later - at least I think they have one track on it. Indeed, last ever RR theme, it has to be surely!!
Shit and Shine had a poor review in The Wire but I've been really enjoying it. If you put it on an iPod, turn the volume down and then adjust upward til you reach the limits of your own comfort zone. I'll send you a couple of samples.
If the weather turns really apocalyptic, you could try Black Ships Ate the Sky by Current 93!
I LOVE GSYBE!!
For apocalypticism, Trail Of Dead?
I have Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven on LP, and it smells like sick. I think this must be the printing process, and the materials used for the sleeve, but it really hums!!!
i've just had a sniff of my copy and it only smells of cardboard...slightly damp cardboard maybe...but i've got a couple of LP's that reek too, can't think what they are now....
apocalypse update:
i'm just heading off to bed and it's really picking up now, the rain is coming down and the wind is starting to whistle (albeit in fits and starts at the moment) around the flat....bring it on!!
My Cd version smells like a perfumed garden with a hint of chocolate. Would caution against the sniff test for Shit & Shine.
Hey, JP. Do you know anything about Tenniscoats? Have been enjoying their new album with the Pastels & am working backwards from there. Probably not, I realize, the best day to have you cycle to the local vinyl emporium to conduct exhaustive research. Be safe.
I like the jamc cover on the pastels/tenniscoats record, i like the pastels, but don't know much about tenniscoats.
Ahhh ... Stephen Pastel. Yet another reminder to me that I really must get up to that attic and mp3ify all my old C86 era vinyl - most of which has never been (nor never will be) released in any sort of digital format.
When the Apocalypse arrives I'll probably put on Miles' Dark Magus, if there's a glimmer of hope I might downgrade to Live-evil.
Hope your Shoji hold up, Japanther.
Have quite a lot of digital Pastels, Toffee if you want some slung your way?
@shoey - i'm afraid I know the Tenniscoats name only and don't own any of their stuff....looks pretty interesting though.
Post-Apocalypse Update:
The End Of The World was a slight disappointment, I did get caught in some nasty rain as i headed for my 9a.m appointment, which then cancelled on me at the last minute, and i got stranded at the wrong end of Tokyo's busiest train line and had to wait for over THREE hours (maybe par for the course for British Rail, but in Japan 3 MINUTES late is an outrage!) as ALL of the main train lines were completely stopped....not a good day....and it ain't over yet..ah...back to work..
Edward Vesala obscure!? Quite well known over here. Here's Seagull http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvUKlIbwrF8 The sound of a flailing seagull caught in a typhoon. And if that's not enough here's a link to Mop Mop, which is what the citizens of Tokyo might be doing right now. http://www.yle.fi/player/player.jsp?name=El%E4v%E4+arkisto%2F05786_1 From the fine album Ode to the Death of Jazz.
And staying in the far north there's always Swedish proggers Black Bonzo with their epic "The Sound of the Apocalypse" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmbJDo2bCL0 Not really very apocalyptic.
'Here' being where, Finland? Until offered substantial proof to the contrary, I doubt whether 90%+ of jazz fans in the rest of the world, let alone anyone else, has heard of Vesala, and so I stand by the term 'obscure'. Would you prefer 'brilliant but completely neglected outside his native region'? Whoever you are?
You're right Abahachi. Vesala is pretty obscure outside of Finland but I knew someone who had been to one of his Sound and Fury jazz "workshops". Sorry, I don't really know how else to describe the sort of jazz training this person got there. Vesala was very influential in Finland and hence I tend to think of him as being better known than he actually is.
Fuel.
GOG
@ Shoey - sounds good to me. I have the following in the attic:
Up For A Bit With The Pastels (LP)
Truck Train Tractor (12")
Comin' Through (12")
Thought I had more ...
Toffee. Will sort something out over the weekend. Did you get the ukranians from a couple of months back - can resend if not?
coming back to this late, but just wanted to say cheers for the Edward Vesala link Fuel, I really enjoyed it!
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