– these are the things that have been in our ears this week, please explore and if it sounds interesting then hit the links and make your own minds up, our reviews and thoughts are mere signposts designed to guide you to the things you might like to feast on yourselves... don’t you just love the www. 

Camden is not only a place of originality in the fields of music, fashion and alternative culture but also a place of fascinating history. It's at the very heart of one of London's most culturally, politically and ethnically diverse areas. It attract people from all over the world, of all ages, all interests and all backgrounds. Nowhere has ever been quite like Camden market, and NOWHERE ELSE EVER WILL BE IF WE LOSE IT! We've lost the Kings Road, and Kensington high street as the last bastions of alternative culture to the corporate developers over the last fifteen years... Please, don't let Camden go the same way. We can't let the stables be torn down - They are such an integral part of Camden and London itself won't be the same without them. They are part of our culture

Please, please, please give us just 1 minute of your time and go to:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/camdenmarket/

It goes straight to the government and officially has to be responded to. This could be our last chance to make a difference.  Surprisingly few Londoners even know about the plans. Do anything you can think of to help! This isn’t just about London though, this is happening in cities all over the UK, it will be your alternative shops and venues, it will be the little people in your town or city pushed out by the Starbucks and Live Nations. Time to make a stand against gentrification and the corporate stranglehold, we do not need the alternative and culturally important parts of out cities turned in to identical soulless shopping malls. Spread the work, cut and paste this on to you Websites and my Space blogs. Even if Camden Market isn’t your particular thing, this still matters to you.
 

John on the phone...

Win Heaven And Hell live albums here Who are they? The Ronnie James Dio version of Black Sabbath of course. Meanwhile we are told RESONANCE FM is almost ready to fly in a live sense again, expect Sunday night service to resume maybe on September 16th, maybe on September 23rd - maybe? Watch this spot Oh and Tim said the new recordings were almost ready - maybe on September 16th, maybe on September 23rd - maybe? Watch this spot

ORGAN TV?

ORGAN TV  is on your screens in the UK right now. Every Wednesday evening, 10.30pm  on the OPEN ACCESS 2 Channel on SKY160. And now due to the fine response, repeated every Sunday on SKY883 at 11.15pm.

This coming Sunday we have the following videos...

BLEEDING THROUGH - Kill To Believe 
SOHODOLLS - Right and Right Again
65DAYSOFSTATIC - Don't Go Down To Sorrow 
THE KEITH JOHN ADAMS - Other Side Of The Road 
BEE STRINGS -   Pressure (Running Away) 
AMON TOBIN - Verbal 
ANTI PRODUCT - Better Than This 

Next Wednesday and Sunday we have...

OURLIVES - Sandra
MY VITRIOL - This Time 
BEE STRINGS -   Pressure (Running Away) 
TO THE BONES - Tycho 
DAN DEACON - The Crystal Cat 
COLT - Never know 
THE KEITH JOHN ADAMS  - Other Side Of The Road 
BEECHER - Function! Function! 

What's it all about? Simple, just good music, and the art of good video making...  Same musical policy as we've always had with Organ - the labels are just handy signposts, as long as the music and video making has that X factor - expect a healthy eye/earboiling mix of metal, punk, prog, beats, post rock, post punk, post man pat, hardcore, indie, alternative, pronk, whatever..... music and creativity for the open minded 
 

DEMO OF THE WEEK
DEATH QUNT – Now 69: Shit In Your Bed – More of their free-form instrumental hardboiled lo-fi progressive avant jazz, a whole album’s worth of it. Bits of clever fusion and Gong jousting with awkwardly flowing homemade pleasant-on-the-ear tenor sax driven psych-jazz honking and tight impressive percussion that on occasion sounds rather like an easy listening version of those beautiful Flying Luttenbachers (that was a massive compliment), they’re from Leeds, here’s where you find out more – www.myspace.com/deathqunt

ALSO CHECK OUT
THE HOPE AVENUE – Journey’s End - Well they’re fired up with enthusiasm, really though, as much as they’ve been shouting at us and demanding attention and coverage, this really isn’t quite ready. At best The Hope Avenue’s post-rock influenced instrumental constructions are little more than hopeful slices of work in progress right now - sketch book ideas that they really should keep to themselves until they’ve developed their art a little more. There’s potential here, little hints in the obvious ambition, we look forward to hearing where they take things. Not really ready yet though, more a journey’s start that hints at good things to maybe come.  www.myspace.com/thehopeavenue

Last week's demo of the week - OAKWOOD / EPSTEIN SUPERFLU

Previous demo's of the week - THE FURIOUS SLEEP / FUNERAL CRASHERS / THUMPERMONKEY LIVES! / HELLFIRE / MR PHORMULA and LEWS TEWNS / THE APPLES / ONSEGEN ENSEMBLE / SASSY / ALEX TAYLOR AND THE EVIL EYE / MONTY CASINO / TO THE BONES / 4 OR 5 MAGICIANS / JACK SHIRT / HERZOGA

DEMO REVIEW ARCHIVES

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
PRE – Epic Fits (Skingraft) – London’s Pre coming at us via Skingraft (the best label in the world), love it! They found their perfect home. This is a hissy fit of high pitched screeching hardboiled pronkoid song noise, this is awkwardly difficult listening and pointy stabby twitches of new wave pink paint on pale flesh. Screaming yelling yelping relentless girl voice and erase all errata and have Karen O make the tea before they bring on a Cardiac Arrest - yes in capitals, we were namedropping and going off and things! The early bird catches the worm and that’s the way we all go, more vile vile creature locust noise, love it! love it! Epic fits indeed, meticulously slicing and shriek shriek – clever tight crafted razor sharp noise tantrums and everything is just so right – beautifully unawkward and very easy to listen to. Yes! Pre do make the noise jump - Scratching Crawling Scrawling Gibber and Twitch. www.myspace.com/prepreprepre or www.skingraftrecords.com
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK 2 LOU REED/ZEITKRATZER – Metal Machine Music (Asphodel) -When Metal Machine Music first came out originally back in 1975 the reaction was, to say the least, extreme. At the time it was probably the most misunderstood work ever created by a popular musician. The original double vinyl set was mostly noise: feedback squalls, amplifier hums and the tortured screech of electronic gadgets. The consensus at the time was that it was not music, the label, RCA, did not want to release and indeed withdrew it from sale after three weeks (something to do with the high number of people returning it to shops). Some saw it as a joke, some as a wickedly destructive piece of contractual obligation. Today, Metal Music Machine is respected as a landmark album, accepted by the avant-garde and highly regarded as a vital part of the evolving noise movement. You might say the logical extension of those atonal Velvet Underground things like Heroin or Sister Ray.  “Let me give you a little Background” says Lou Reed. “Metal Machine Music was made 32 years ago. It was taken off the market three weeks after it was released. Time goes by and people get more used to what you call loops and electronics and noise and feedback. Zeitkratzer gets in touch with me, ‘can we play Metal Machine Music live?’ I said ‘It can’t be done.’ They said ‘We transcribed it. Let us send you a few minutes and you tell us.’ They sent it, I listened to it, and the results were unbelievable. I said, ‘My God! Okay, go do it’ They said, ’Will you play guitar on the third part of it?’ So Metal Machine Music finally got performed live at the Berlin Opera House. It’s extraordinary, because all those years ago it was considered a career ender.”         That’s how it was, 2002 and Metal Machine Music is played live by ten classical musicians know as Zeitkratzer and Lou Reed. 2007 and we have a plush double CD/DVD package (expansive packaging, good sleeve notes and imagery). Lou Reed has always been a little vague, obtuse or indeed deliberately contradictory when it comes to the original album and the ideas behind the piece. I wasn’t around at the time, I’ve only ever been able to view/listen to it in historical context. By the time I did actually get around to listening to it I’d heard many other things obviously influenced by it - it fitted in to some kind of logical span that included Stockhausen, Cage, Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, Throbbing Gristle, Lustmord, Merzbow, indeed Velvet underground themselves. I guess the only way to really listen to this new live album now in 2007 is to throw out all the history and listen to the piece afresh. And when you do that then it works – it works as a fresh piece of refreshing avante music, it works because of the space allowed by the orchestration, the live ambience, the way it expands and breathes and lives. Indeed the only piece that really doesn’t work as something fresh is twelve minutes in to the final part when Mr Reed’s guitar comes in. Mostly this works, this is a buzzing set of avante orchestral electronic/organic insects all tingling away as the whole thing expands in to new life where maybe the original now sounds a little swamped in layers. This is refreshing and a lot more alive than you really have any right to expect it to be 32 years on, this really does work.          The Package features the live audio CD, a live DVD of the performance and a twenty five minute interview with Lou Reed (that I’ve deliberately avoided until this was done) presented in a gatefold digipak fold-out sleeve. Yes, this works in 2007. www.asphodel.com

ALSO CHECK OUT

VENICE IS SINKING – Sorry About The Flowers (One Percent Press) – One of those wonderfully rare moments when an unexpected piece of music – an album or a demo or something - just turns up in the post (this time from Athens, Georgia) from a band we’ve never heard of - put it on with no idea what to expect and whoooooooooosh, they just stop everything with their wonderful emotion.  Venice is Sinking make creamy dreamy sophisticated lush clever breath-taking orchestral alt.pop and this is an album packed with gems. Dreamy shoegazing Americana, dense harmonies and perfect quiteness –honey-filled voices (male and female vocals) all flowing on a bed of warm orchestral strings – a gentle whirlpool of violas and uplifting violins. The strings are perfect, they don’t swamp things, they’re not there as a gimmick or an after thought, they’re an integral part of the deliciously rich sound - as is the flute. I guess if we must have reference points then think Sundays, Spiritualized, Death Cab For Cutie, Slowdive and maybe even early Mogwai, nothing is that obvious though – these are just reference points and this warm passionate uplifting orchestral dreampop that really will enrich your day. www.veniceissinking.net or www.myspace.com/veniceissinking

THE FLATLINERS – The Great Awake (Fat Wreck) – Gravel throated trademark Fat Wreck style melodic hardcore punk-pop with traces of ska under the surface - mostly for fans of bands like Bad Religion. Heartfelt and committed, catchy and powerful without really doing anything you haven’t heard before – the commitment and passion carries them through and make them worth your time. www.fatwreck.com or www.fatwreck.de

CHRISTOPHER REES – Cautionary Tales (Red Eye Music) –  This time he’s taken his heavenly voice in to (very) mellow slowcore Americana and flirting with country banjos and (very) mellow guilt infested bluegrass and gospel and melancholy (cold) heartbreak and the seven deadly sings (through a pin hole camera). Torch songs and duets with sirens and sublime jazzy blues and empty beds. Soulful country and restrained banjo driven Appalachian folk and sinking in to shades of blue and Nick Cave and Tindersticks and Michael J Sheehy and Willard Grant Conspiracy and buckets with holes and comfort from the kindness of strangers. He made another fine and rather beautiful album, he keeps doing it. www.christopherrees.co.uk

KNIGHT AREA – Under A New Sign (Lazer’s Edge) – That classic early 80’s meaty bouncy proggy sound, the sound of fine fine bands like IQ, Pallas and Quasar and jumping in unison down the Wardour Street Marquee. Preposterously long-winded melodic keyboard passages and songs that build up on euphoric foundations that lead us on to many melodic uplifting wondrous stories and going for the one – melting Marillion guitar breaks and Twelfth Night drama that feeds off 70’s Genesis and classic Yes. It was a uniquely 80’s prog sound and If you loved all that, and you can’t stand most of the sanitized churn-it-out pap that passes for (neo) prog now then these fine Dutch men are very much for you. Proper prog rock, the last great musical taboo, this is right up there with the very best wave parting sky moving jester poking knight move moments of early Pallas - sounds like early IQ in places  – cool as f.  www.knightarea.com / www.myspace.com/knightarea

THRUSHES – Sun Come Undone (Birdnote) – More dreamy reverb drenched female fronted shegazing alternative dream-pop. My Bloody Valentine meets Yo Lo Tango, Jesus And Mary Chain meets Mazzy Star, spiraling sonic emotion and Galaxie 500 and Sundays and Craines. Thrushes are from Baltimore, Maryland and they have a clever lo-fi edge rather than just the lushness of others – they have the lushness as well of course – and a rather good drummer who adds to the texture. Thrushes have a little edge of their own, well worth your time - www.myspace.com/thrushes

VOODOOSHOCK – Marie’s Sister’s Garden (Exile On Mainstream) – Melodic doomed out heavy rock, righteously retro and stoner flavoured. Classic heavy rock guitar solos, lashings of Sabbath doom with a healthy hint of Lizzy/Wishbone Ash style guitar here and touch of that Trouble sound there. Descends deep in the dark fields of St Vitus land when it needs to – bit of Sensational Alex Harvey band or maybe Jethro Tull. This is the long awaited second album from the band that rose out of ashes of cult heroes Naevus. Classic Seventies flavoured none more retro heavy rock. Lyrically things are little dejected and helpless, defiant as well though, defiantly righteous and good for you. www.voodooshock.de or www.mainstreamrecords.de

SENDELICA – Spaceman Bubblegum and Other Weird Tales From The Mercury Mind (RAIG) – Welsh band signed to a Russian label, is that a first? We’re talking well played, well produced imaginative instrumental guitar based psych/space rock with a healthy retro blues/prog rock flavour – www.myspace.com/sendelicapsyche

W.A.K.O – Deconstructive Essence (Casket) – Crunching muscled–up brutal stomping modern growl-metal from Portugal for people who like it heavy and brutal and stomping and growling.  www.myspace.com/wakoplanet

BEEHOOVER – The Sun Behind The Dustbin (Exile On Mainstream) – From Germany, a two piece outfit, just bass and drums, that’s all, just bass and drums. Grooved-out low-end avant-doom and a Kyuss meets Stinking Lizaveta thing that boings and booms and bounces in that churning Monkey Boy/Primus way - ends up sounding rather unique and rather good. Been out a little while now, but hey we only just got our hands on it – www.myspace.com/beehoover or www.beehoover.com

MINUS THE BEAR – Planet of Ice (Undergroove) - Third album and they’ve gone all slick (over slick?) mellow modern AOR flavoured neo-prog on us. Not neo to the obvious extent of a Spocks Beard, no, more that mid-80’s super slick chin stroking aren’t we clever look at us coldness that mid 80’s King Crimson or Todd Rundgren or Rush or even The Police left you with. I don’t know, I was hoping and expecting a lot lot more. Some of this is irritatingly polite and far too slick – “each beat each note played perfectly” he sings – this is the kind of thing that makes people hate prog rock so damn much, damn damn damn, I really wanted this to be a good album - www.undergroove.co.uk

THE BLACKOUT – We Are The Dynamite (Fierce Panda) – I guess this six piece Welsh band are for fans of Funeral For A Bullet and I guess if that’s you then you’ll need this link - www.theblackoutmusic.co.uk

EMIGRATE – Emigrate (Motor) - Emigrate is the side project of Rammstein guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe, this is an album of polite/slick industrial radio friendly pop/rock/metal for people who have a taste for polite/slick industrial radio friendly pop/rock/metal. Some of it apparently forms the soundtrack for the new Resident Evil film, if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat then I guess he does it well. Decent enough, not that challenging- here comes the link - www.emigrate.eu
             Actually, truth be known, I haven’t been able to take anything to do with Rammstein seriously since Global Noise Attack opened for them in that much loved and long since gone Finsbury Park hellhole/slice of heaven called The George Robey back in the late 90’s. Already big in their native Germany, Rammstein brought their giant stage show with them and tried to cram it all in to the venue. They hospitalised one of their poor roadies with a preposterous exploding pyro incident during the sound check - an incident that nearly destroyed GNA’s drum kit and indeed drummer – explosives and yelling Germans everywhere! Then when they finally did get around to starting their actual show (after what seemed like hours of keeping the 150 or so of us in the audience waiting) with the lead singer coming on to the stage (after a big build up) in burning flameproof clothes of some kind, the Irish barmaid had a fit. She yelled something about Jesus, Mary and Joseph as she jumped over the bar and leapt in to impressively prompt action, put his flames out with a foam filled fire extinguisher that took out a load of equipment and delayed things even further - those who were there still burst in to fits of laughter when the night is mentioned... 

EVILE – Enter The Grave (Earache) – Old school thrash metal, Evile can’t quite decide if they want to sound just like old Metallica, exactly the same as early Onslaught or if they want to ape the first moves of Slayer, they end up with a rather predictable rehash of all three – they even brought in Flemming Rasnussen to get that Ride The Puppets sound! I guess they maybe have a killer EP here? All a little tedious over the length of a whole album though – Municipal Waste or SSS they are not! If there really is some kind of thrash metal rebirth happening (or being engineered) right now then Evile are probably, at best, the new Slammer. And those lyrics – oh dear – Bathe In Blood? Wonder where they got that from? www.earache.com

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA – Plagues (Ferret) – In which the awfully named band match their talent for name choosing with some heard it all before sledgehammered emo screamo metalcore. Subtle is not a word in their dictionary, artistic originality is not a concept that they allow to distract them. Still, not as bad as Fightstar though and nothing that Rip Cruncher’s blunt claw hammer won’t cure.  Apparently Fightstar’s album is Metal Album of the Month in Q magazine (snigger), the ghost of Busted has been well and truly rested and we really don’t know what we’re talking about. How on earth do we sleep at night? 

BLESSTHEFALL – His Last Walk (Ferret) – Emo meano screamo beano, Marty, get in here and sign me more nemo, if that’s what the kids want to buy then hell, we’ll sell it to them... 
X

Last week's album of the week - SCRAPS OF TAPE Previous album's of the week - EVERY TIME I DIE / SOHODOLLS / LIARS / UPSILON ACRUX / MIKROKOSMOS / ODD NOSDAM / MENENDEZ /  GEORGE WASHINGTON BROWN  / CHROME HOOF / TWELVE / WEEDEATER / LASSE MARHAUG / MOTORHEAD / TWO BANDS AND A LEGEND / ANEKDOTEN / ORIGINAL SILENCE / GIRL BAND / MORVISCOUS x

ALBUM REVIEW ARCHIVES

LIVE REVIEW ARCHIVES

SINGLE OF THE WEEK
BRENDA – The Coldest Geometry (Airbag) – Diverse flights in to the ambitious fields of (mostly instrumental) post rock. Unlike so many others, Bournemouth’s strangely named Brenda clearly have a desire to challenge – this is not the same old safe option post-rock by numbers that we’re hearing so much of right now. Brenda are (rather successfully) trying to find their own edge, they’re challenging both themselves and their audience with their expansive sound. When they do bring in the vocals they add to the genuine inventive beauty. Clever low-key rhythmic intervention, hopeful uplifting and gloriously dramatic - souring, evolving - something rather delicious happening here. Yes you can spot their influences, here the influences are absorbed in a positive way though, nothing is ever obvious and as much as this really is recommended to appreciators of bands like 85Days, Red Sparrows, Vessels, Mogwai and such, Brenda are already a fine band in their own right and interested in far far more than just serving up more of what we’ve already heard  – Brenda are here as an influence rather than to be influenced – this is a very very fine.  A rewarding, highly recommended and rather original two track single, well worth exploring - www.myspace.com/brendaband or www.myspace.com/airbagrecordings

SINGLE OF THE WEEK 2
CHAUFFEUR DRIVEN AVIATOR – Leather Jacket (Dirte) – Now this is what a band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are supposed to sound like, they sound nothing like the BRMC, they sound like London and Leather Jackets (with their name painted on the back) and curled lips and punk rock ‘n roll and the Ace Cafe and the Kings Road in 76 attitude. Actually no, they’re the band those Towers Of London would love to have been. A damn cool debut single from a damn cool new band – www.myspace.com/cdaband or www.dirterecords.com

ALSO CHECK OUT
THE BROKEN HEARTS – Black Cat/Blanco (Mute Irregulars)  - Debut single from The much talked about Broken Hearts. Well known faces on the alternative Burlesque scene, a scene that seems to be evolving rather nicely at the moment. The Broken Hearts serve up a warm upbeat eclectic and rather original blend of 20’2/30’s swing/jive, 50’s skiffle, old black and white Hollywood Art Deco movies, Lily Allen style shanty songs and classic early rock’n roll. Play it three times and the girls will have you hooked. The girls are Nisha Thirkell and Amber Jane - a performance/DJ duo - and here they’re collaborating rather creatively with Whitey.  www.myspace.com/2brokenhearts / www.muteirregulars.com

ZEBEDY RAYS – Religion (Little Hellfire Club) - Energetic urgent scratch blues-edged lo-fi wrong pop clatterness that tastes rather like The Fall barking and yelping at the Strokes and demanding throat lozenge shaped attention. They’re from Worcester and religion is a thing of the past dear God. You might like to be there in their shoes, listen in and black out  - www.myspace.com/zebedyrays

BLACK LIGHT THEATRE – 1402 Valentines Massacre (Hooked Up) – Confident dynamic indie guitar rock that has a certain snarl to it. They’re from Sheffield, think vaguely along the lines of Hard-fi doing a bit of a more straight-forward take on Joy Division and if that sounds interesting then a visit to www.blacklighttheatre.co.uk could well be worth your time. Alternatively check out www.hookeduprecords.co.uk

Last week's single of the week - FIGHT LIKE APES

Previously -THE SOUND MOVEMENT / THE CULT / LIARS / DAN DEACON / TWIN THOUSANDS / ZAN PAN / THE GENTLE GOOD / TRUCKDRIVER JNR / FRAN RODGERS / SOULSAVERS / THE NOVA SAINTS / VILE VILE CREATURES / CHRONICLES OF ADAM WEST / OIB SPLIT VOL 1: 7” GAY AGAINST YOU / LONELY GHOSTS / MUNCH MUNCH / THE TUMBLEDOWN ESTATE / WE START FIRES / THE THERMALS / DAS WANDERLUST / 65DAYSOFSTATIC

MONO – Gone: A Collection of EPs 2000 – 2007 (Temporary Residence) – A collection of now hard to get out of print EP tracks and such, including the much sort after Hey You EP and a track previously only available on a vinyl split album the Japanese band did with Pelican. This release comes on CD or as a plush gatefold triple vinyl set. This one is probably for those of you who are already Mono fans, although it does serve as a good introduction – some of it may already be a little dated now, the band have evolved, indeed Post Rock as a genre has been evolving rather rapidly since the turn of the century. This is mostly that classic instrumental epic post rock thing that Mono do so nicely, they’re not a band who are going to really challenging you, they’re more just a nice pleasant peaceful relaxing experience and if you’re in the right headspace then that can be more than enough. Black Rain is the standout track, complete with a female spoken word part that leads them in to yet another spiraling touch the sky epic climax, one of many. Mono aren’t that revolutionary, they are a nice experience though. - www.mono-jpn.com

PREVIOUSLY - DEEP PURPLE / NUB / ANTHRAX / OMD

What makes Glastonbury The Movie so important is that it's the record of a single Glastonbury festival, THE Glastonbury, in 1993, poised at the cusp between the peaking of underground festival culture, the moment before the slide downhill towards commercial assimilation.  If that sounds like good-old-days miserablist cant, then watch this and understand, or remember; compare with most big current festivals, those punter milking parlours, nauseating giant advertising opportunities and fossilised Rebellion™ and you'll weep for what is lost.  Thank goodness these fine filmakers caught it, and thank you to them for putting this sweet memorial together: at the time, if the mainstream (music) media wasn’t ignoring or denying what was really going on in Britain then, it was ridiculing it.  This was Glastonbury at the time when the rave, indie, festy and punk/metal scenes were fusing and creating in their own sweet way; outside the walls. It was raw, rough and spontaneous, but with its act together; it was pure, unselfconscious creativity for its own sake... it was innocent. It was the year after the famously near-disastrously muddy one, which must have put off a few of the lightweights, leaving the following year's beautifully sunny and mellow event to those who really cared. 

So the Glastonbury The Movie main feature captures a time with a bit of magic to it, for many reasons; it does so by being sweetly random and laid back and following the pace of the three days.  There's that wandering-about-looking at all the little wonders of a good proper festival - the humans, the quirks, the ingenuity, the quite splendid untrumpeted bits of art and creativity - studded by live music of all kinds.  There's a bit too much of a couple of rather average small bands (mates of the film-makers it seems) and some of the incidental music is not as good as it could be - but that's the only quibble, really.  Overall, it's a joy, and the live footage is beautifully handled; performances by Porno For Pyros, The Verve, Back To The Planet, Lemonheads and Spiritulized are spectacularly good. The combination of high-end quality footage (with a creamy atmospheric film look) with straightforward, immediate editing is wonderful - how refreshing to actually get the time to focus on what's going on, to watch the band.  The Porno For Pyros section is worth your dosh alone... 

And getting back to those extras mentioned before, that Stonehenge '84 doc... well, its a short, shambolic film school project from a time when committing anything to video was enormously difficult, but it sent shivers down my spine. A window on a wild, wild time that seems both five minutes ago and a thousand years away - another planet (Oh, and there's a few seconds of what we think is the Dagaband playing in the background at one point!).  Stonehenge '84 deserves its own feature, of course (the footage is out there) but this inclusion adds something hard to define to the whole experience of this DVD.  The Avalon documentary shows a piece of that underground spirit surviving very healthily into 1999, the organisers of the Avalon Field coming across as warm, wise and likeable as they wrangle bands and talk about steering clear of Babylon (the rest of the festival!).  I can't tell you if Glastonbury has any of this spirit left as I can't afford the mortgage on a ticket (and besides, I'm worried about bumping into Trinny and Suzannah or hearing some James Blunt... unfair? I hope so...!). 

Even more extras - a great little documentary on the Miniscule Of Sound (the world's smallest nightclub), a graffiti picture gallery (bet you wish you hadn't burnt those Banksies for firewood) and some Australian loon interviewing everybody he meets, finally ending up in a moshpit... then there's a collection of oddball quicktime videos of, well, random stuff... then there's hours of music - whole sets from Bender, The Verve, the Co-Creators, bits of Ozrics... Oh, hang on, just found even more extra stuff: a pretty fine set of songs from Evan Dando by a campfire with some friends, more footage of... This review's taking forever, so lets just mention the finest thing in it – an amazing man playing the tambourine. Airto Moreira, go YouTube for him - I'll say no more. Oh yeah, and the man in the ice cream van... and the... Look, its brilliant.  This has to be a work of love, of rare understanding for the subject - massive applause for director Robin Mahoney and his team of co-directors, producers and camera team. They come clean in an interview and say they wanted to make a modern equivalent to the legendary Woodstock film... and they might well have succeeded.  Even if you hate the very idea of the Glastonbury festival, especially if you've been put off by what it's become or by the way the BBC now cover it, Glastonbury The Movie is an uplifting, gorgeous looking, often funny, warm hearted creation in itself.  The dvd package does it more than justice: the generous extras make the most of precious footage and the additional documentaries are the icing on the cake.  This is a vitally important snapshot of what was really going on in the UK in the early 90s, musically and culturally, for a generation that was ignored or misquoted, pigeonholed and almost always ridiculed.  It vindicates our memories - and inspires for the future. An essential document.

www.glastonburythemovie.com or www.myspace.com/glastonburythemovie
 

PREVIOUSLY - BOOK: THE LANGUAGE OF THE BLUES – Debra De Salvo / BOOK: BERNARD SUMNER – CONFUSION / ZINE: NOISY No5 / DVD: SAMMY AND THE WABOS – LIVING IT UP IN ST.LOUIS / DVD - NAZARETH – FROM THE BEGINNING

"I had a heated discussion with my music class teacher. She completely  discards are forms of noise in music as nothing more than just that, noise. I even played her various avant-prog, harsh noise music, and even The Flying  Luttenbachers.  All these she found as nothing more than music that, in her words, 'goes nowhere'. It just seems so strange to me, I personally see noise as a way of further progressing music, and even if you wish to not view it on that level, it's still nonetheless exhilarating! It was a sad, and somewhat frustrating day in my life. I sure you're rolling your eyes  reading this, but you seemed like one who would possibly share similar opinions on noise with one like myself."

Well, your teacher is behaving very ignorantly. You see, what the Flying Luttenbachers do is extremely structured and almost all of what you hear on the albums since infection and declined is largely determined by very coherent and well-thought out logic. If your teacher can not recognize this objectively, I posit that she has shit in her ears. If she knows anything about music, she should be able to recognize these elements even if she doesn't like - or hates - it. Her own taste is besides the point . . .all of my compositions "go somewhere". Most of them are structured with tension and release, peaks and valleys, introduction, body and  resolutions. Hell, most of them use very traditional, simple song forms! The process I use to write is rooted in the same processes people like Bartok, Stravinky, Messiaen, etc. have utilized - if she can say they're  "noise" and "don't go anywhere", I think this is a done deal: she's a big windbag that probably hates anything but the most obvious tripe. 

What I would say is this: don't waste too much energy trying to convince people that don't understand that they're missing something. Let them be clueless. Be proud of the fact that you have an open mind and that the hypocrite that is claiming to know everything is full of shit.  Ultimately, those people are their own worst enemies. This is the way the world works and the sooner you get used to it, the easier it will be to get by and do what you want.

ww

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