noisefromthevoid

this song is such a VOID classic. I so often start the show with it, slowed down a few bpm. But how can i help it, it is such a beautiful piece of music? From their 1976 New Age of Earth album. Picked it up about 12 years ago, and is one of the few pieces of vinyl I will always keep, even if I end up selling off most of my collection in the digital future..

enjoy..

…that maybe you didn’t know about..

Released in 1987 under the pseudonym Disco-D, this is the first Larry Heard (aka Mr Fingers) track I ever picked up. Used to drop it at the end of my sets back in my London djing days. And this is one of those rare occasions where the you could casually throw in the term “deep house” without wanting to run for the exit. Deep, moody, introverted and slightly otherwordly. Perfect for my monday afternoon state of mind..

enjoy..

Disco-D - High Noon.mp3

VOID reedit - the wait.mp3

I first fell in love when i was 17. She was only 2 years older than me, but in some ways it felt like 2 lifetimes. She loved music, was smart, fun and highly opinionated. She also had a boyfriend. But umm, that didn’t stop us. In between the late night sneaking, marathon sex, radical political discussions, bad jokes and cheap beer we also found time to listen to a sh*tload of records. As a consequence it was she that introduced me to much of the music from those turbulent early 80’s that I still adore today. And topping that illicit list of late night musical mischief would have to be The Sound, whose 1st and most mindblowing album “From The Lion’s Mouth” was in hindsight the perfect soundtrack to our doomed love affair..

The Sound were, like many bands I liked back then, refugees from the London squatting scene. They were also label mates with pop icons Echo and The Bunnymen, though they never managed to escape the Bunnymen’s shadow despite in my opinion being far superior musically. The Sound’s under appreciated musical talents lay mostly in the skills of their singer/guitarplayer Adrian Borland, whose undiagnosed bi-polar condition no doubt fuelled their music’s dark and powerful edge, giving them an almost hypnotic intensity that gripped you in a vice of human frailty and tragedy. A fitting description perhaps, as Mr Borland - like so many talented artists before him - couldn’t take the weight of his overwhelming manic depression and threw himself in front of a train a few years ago. But his sad death set off a chain of events that has led to the Sound’s music being rediscovered, revived from obscurity, and re-issued again on Renascent Records who’ve also been busy reissuing a bunch of music by the Comsat Angels, The Woodentop and Wild Swans amongst others..

Anyways onto the music, and I love The Sound so much I’m gonna share not one, but two favorites trax of their’s. Both of which I’ve played in the VOID many times. So enjoy, and thank f*k for youtube..

my ol’ matey Thomas (of Wicked & Rub’n'Tug) has been releasing some new music recently..

here’s what I consider the best of it. An amazing collaboration with Edward Ruscha who also produced the Dada Munchamonkey track that Garth remixed a few years back and I included on my Emotions Electrique mix CD..

but believe me this takes it to a whole ‘nother level..

so listen & enjoy..

the rose.mp3

I’m feeling wickedly twisted,

so yea, a pox on you!

listen - Silver Apples - a pox on you.mp3

I’m not gonna write much about about New York psychedelic legends Silver Apples, their music and history has been posted all over the internet in the last few years, plus you can go check their website for yourselves after you’ve listened to this dark and demented homage to love gone wrong that they released back in 1968. Yes 1968. Some folks were just waaaaaaay ahead of their time…..

Well it’s 40 years on, and the voodoo is going strong as one of the original members is performing again under the Silver Apples moniker, and in fact here’s a video of him from just a few months ago putting the pox on you..

and see you in the VOID tonight..

I went out this evening, alone..

looking for the sunset..

and instead found the moon hovering elusively over the city..

and so in homage to that magical moment, here’s a great new song from They Came From The Stars..

play it LOUD..

and maybe go buy their album on iTunes.

they came from the stars - moon song.mp3

“learn to ride a horse and wield a sword,
for we have entered into the new dark ages.

fvck the world not the planet!”

or so proclaims the website of this very pagan Berlin based girl/boy duo.

Welcome to Crossover, who have released quite a selection of cosmically dark electro jams since they formed back in 2001. Though some of their music leaves me feeling indifferent, some blows my f*kin mind, in fact this isn’t the first song of theirs I’ve posted on my blog..

So if you enjoy this lo-fi slow burner, why not check them out for yourself..?

one of my favorite bands - The Chromatics - did a cover of this track a lil’ while ago, but the original is a masterpiece all of it’s own..

almost 30 years old, but what genius..

1979 going on 2009..?

[another selection from the vaults of my misspent musical youth]

Sex Gang Children - Beasts

[more musical amusement from the dark depths of my record collection]

the acid generation.mp3

“chicago our inspiration, acid our destination……..”

Chicago may have the claim to fame as the birthplace of acid-house, but it was London where it really hit, and came to life. It’s arrival in the late 80s, hopelessly unprepared for, was like the perfect storm, swallowing up everything that had come before it, laying waste to the dregs of that self-centred decade and redrawing the city’s music and cultural map forever..

Of course fashion-conscious London was as eager to see the back of acid-house, as it was to welcome it when it first arrived. To many it was just a fad. One to be cashed in on, and then demonized & discarded as the next variation/mutation in style and music began to emerge. Fair enough - we all got sick of the ubiquitous acid smiley t-shirts that briefly became all the rage. But truth is I was never one for that trendy side of big city life, or for the addictive potential of the drugs and alcohol so easily available on every street corner. However, for some reason I let my guard down long enough to get hooked on this new sound, with it’s snake like rhythms of pulsing 303 bliss, tempting me into a new vivid world of chromatic excess, psychedelic abandon and acid madness..

Maybe it was a throw back to my mother’s own ‘experimental’ youth and my desire to relive it, but differently, or maybe I was simply in the mood to be metaphorically hung upside down by my skinny ankles and watch as my whole world fell out of my pockets and into the swirling musical abyss awaiting below. Either way I was down for the ride, and while London was predictably moving on to new sounds, I was instead digging deeper. In fact if it hadn’t been for acid-house I don’t think I’d ever made it out to San Francisco. London had acid-house, San Francisco the acid-tests. It didn’t take long for the parallels to become obvious, and there was no where else for my friends and I to go, but to get on the plane and make the 5000 mile intercontinental connection. And I’m glad we did, though the myths of course turned out to be bigger than real life. All that was really left to see of SF’s 60’s psychedelic revolution was the greying Grateful Dead scene, and a few touristy tye-dye stores on Haight St. What goes up must come down? It didn’t really matter though - we brought our own flavor of musical revolution with us from the UK, one that went on to dominate locally for a big chunk the 90’s. Sure we’ve all moved on from that time too, and thank-god, but I’ll always have a moment or two to stop and reminisce on the magical journeys the music back then helped provide, upwards and outwards to the farthest perimeters of the body, soul and mind. True, coming back/down from such euphoric abandon wasn’t always easy, but being away makes you appreciate what you’ve been away from all the more, and helped us all (I hope) appreciate the realities of real life for what they are - a struggle, a pleasure, but above all a gift..

to be cherished… : )

acid is dead, but long live the acid generation.