Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – We’re OK. But We’re Lost Anyway

I could imagine the Fire! Orchestra doing this in their more accessible moments.

Probably this would not be considered accessible by most people, but I may or may not be most people. For all I know, these, and indeed many other artists I post, could be so ubiquitous in your lives that you look upon these posts with scorn and say ‘you call that obscure?’ My finger has dim and distant memories of the pulse; the pulse knows not what my finger is and cares even less.

I’ve started using that ‘may or may not’ phrase quite a lot recently, which may or may not be influenced by both my children now using it regularly.

The youngest of these – currently 11 – said to me she had an idea for a song title – ‘Slave to the algorithm.’ I thought that if, when I was 20 or so, these hyper-connected times in which we live were going then, that may have been an angle I’d be going so it goes without saying I’m pleased to see she shares my cynicism. Doubt I’d have got there at 11, though.

One Dog Clapping – Influx Arena

It was just as well I did the artwork before the lockdown, innit? Said artwork was done before the final mixing. This thing has taken me longer than I was expecting as it was.

Its follow up would, in normal circumstances, be out pretty soon after. Until I can get back to work to scan in the artwork, though, ain’t nothing happening. Of course, I have to draw that first…

There’s sort a theme. There’s always a theme, with me. Otherwise it would just be YAFODCA.

 

One Dog Clapping – Luna Takes Asylum (The Lunatics Return)

So, once I finished that series I did last year, I did, as promised, put my guitar down for a bit and listen to some music other people made. But I also had sessions of listening to my archive, probably for reasons of vanity but using the excuse that I wanted to hear it to get a feel of the context of what I’d done. And one thing happened quite soon – I was listening to Are You Hanging Comfortably? from this here album here, and I was getting annoyed by it. This had always been my least favourite album, largely because it was the last of the trio of albums I’ve since come to think of as the slapdash 3, and I was going through a period of self-doubt at the time I originally finished it which will also have coloured my perception of it. But as I listened to and got annoyed by the aforementioned track, what was bugging me the most was that I thought it was a decent tune thoroughly hidden in bad recording and production. ‘Well then,’ said an all-too familiar and frequent thing I’ve come to call That Bloody Voice In My Head That Always Thinks It Bloody Knows Best, Usually When Saying I Bloody Told You So, ‘why don’t you re-record it?’

Aaaand one thing led to another and here we are.

I haven’t spent all year on it; I’ve actually concentrated on new stuff seeing as I had a guitar in my hand anyway. But I decided to lean into the Mercury Retrograde periods by focussing on this during those, and those of you who know about such things will note that one has indeed just passed, and this timing isn’t a coincidence. Well, it is, but it’s more than just the coincidence of two things happening at a similar time.

For those of you who may have heard the original, this is different in ways more than just re-recording it. The opener on the original was called Lance, Speak, Deafening. Well, Lance… met and married a song I’d only ever recorded on 4 track in the 90s called 1000 Howling Devils and they had a child and that child now opens the album. Also, the original track two just wasn’t satisfying me anymore. I therefore replaced it with a song that was not only written contemporaneously but is also coherent thematically with the album. The rest of the songs are as they were, with some or more lyrical revisions.

I’ve also done something I haven’t done before by putting a nominal charge on the album, though each track does come with its own artwork now; the lyrics decorated with my inimitable doodles, and then inverted in some program or other. I’m going to add such things to my other albums over time, so if you want those others while they’re still Name Your Price, get in there now.

It is not beyond the realms that I may update one or two other albums during future Merc-Rets. However, the next thing I’ll put out, and it may even be this year but if not will certainly be early in the next, will probably be called Influx Arena.

Finally, I am incredibly and unimaginably indebted once again to my friend Chris Hall who helped me with Tech just as a typically merc-ret thing happened and my PC went dead when I was very nearly finished with this. Thanks again, Chris!

Rape Tape – Прочь

So this is another Russian bus, with a few more stops this time.

Some people don’t like getting on this bus because of what they named it, but when you look into their reasons for doing so, then it seems to me that these are thoughtful human beings who are ultimately amongst us good guys, so the ride has to be worth a go.

Now, I don’t speak the lingo so I don’t understand the signs and frankly I can’t even map the cyrillic symbols even slightly to sounds that I associate with words. So, I’m going on overall sound and feel alone, and let me tell you, I really enjoyed this ride.

Russia make good buses. I’m particularly looking forward to the next multi-stop ride from Shortparis.

Priests – The Seduction of Kansas

I thought I did their first album on here but I’m confusing that with something else vaguely similar I discovered around the same time.

I just went down to make a cuppa before doing this post and I had the opening line, but I’m now back up and I’ve forgotten it. Blame it on my current headache. I have headaches as hangers on at the moment. They think it’s cool to be seen with me for some reason. Something about the The Times they are a-Raging.

The good thing about rage is you can make music with it that is your standard rage music, and heaven knows we’ve all done that sometimes and how much fun it can be, but you can also channel it into more subtle forms and make people think you’re just trying to write pop songs or something, delivering the rage to the listener via the medium of the earworm. You can put sugar on snarls, you know.

Funny thing about getting older, and it’s only really the last year or so I’ve noticed this – whatever was the last thing I listened to goes round my head until I listen to something else, no matter if it’s the first time I listened to it or the million and first. I listened to ‘Jesus Son’  for the first time on a Dusted review last thing before getting in the bath a couple of Sundays ago and it was still going round my head when I got to work the next Monday morning.

It’s not all bad though. It’s an ace song, and there are other ace songs on here too.

One Dog Clapping – Glitterheads on the Loose!

Glitterheads on the Loose! is the fifth and final instalment in the Meeting the Changing Landscape series I’ve been bombarding you with this year. I’m going to have a bit of break from all of this shenanigans for a bit and listen to some music made by other people for a while.

But first, for those interested, this is what it’s kind of been about. Bear in mind that the descriptions below are radically simplistic because that’s what happens when you have to use words for 4D concepts. I make no apologies for jumping between first and other persons willy nilly.

To give some context, I drew you all a picture:

Aren’t I nice?

The picture didn’t turn out quite how I intended – I had more of a kind of 3D spiral in mind but had to give it up when my lack of ability at drawing actual things made the futility of the effort all too apparent. So I went for more of a directional thing. But when I say directional, I don’t mean linear. This was not a linear thing.

The Castle is Burning is in the north. The north is associated with cold, restrictions, a harsh mistress, so it is naturally the obvious place for a burning castle.

Hills to Die On are naturally in the east. I shouldn’t have to explain that one.

Alternarratives are in the south. This actually works on several levels (hence why I wanted a spiral) but for the purposes of trying to make this seem a bit easier, these are the foundations and they are also a damn sight warmer.

Internal Route Fury has to be in the west, the land of death.

Glitterheads are on the loose above all of those places, and link them all together. They are both all of the preceding stories and something altogether more different.

The way I got to be a Glitterhead was by examining the Burning Castle for what it was, discerning it and not judging it, examining how I was reacting to the landscape it provides. It is quite one thing to say that this is what I don’t want, however, so I had to ask – what do I want? Hills to Die On were and are the answer. The tl;dr summary is that on those Hills you will find love, authenticity, your true voice, and the courage to express all of those things regardless of how you’ll look since the person you ultimately have to answer to is yourself.

To get to those Hills, I needed an alternative narrative, a better story – some Alternarratives. They have to take into context of where you are so that where you are going makes more sense, and most importantly, helps you want to buy into the journey.

There’s a reason we ain’t on them Hills, however. So I had to take these Alternarratives into the void where my demons lay waiting – they are actually rather active demons and don’t need much prodding; nonetheless, I felt that I had to take the fight to them this time.

This was the Internal Route Fury. In truth, this has been going on the whole time. I think it’s a feature of the human condition, rather than a bug. But if you can’t test your Alternarratives here, they ain’t worth telling.

Come out the other side, my friend, and you are invincible. You are a Glitterhead and you can be set loose. This does not mean perpetual gravy, far from it. You will still have to operate in a Burning Castle for the duration whilst you navigate towards your Hills, but you have Alternarratives and you can survive the Internal Route Fury. Of course I don’t mean literal invincibility, I mean fundamental invincibility. Bodies may come and go, but we will continue.

Any further questions should be sent by the ghost or on a broomstick, to meet me here at sunset when the tide has washed away. But don’t think you’re alone here. You’re a piece, not a fragment.

I offer this story and this series to Saraswati in perpetual and ongoing thanks for the continued flow of music through me.

One Dog Clapping – Internal Route Fury

Madness!

In many ways, but not all.

So I attempted linearity… actually, scratch that. I did no such thing. What I meant was that I attempted to make sense, but again, it’s just possible that I actually did no such thing.

So what happens when you purposefully take yourself through the void? Internal Route Fury, that’s what. You have to test these Alternarratives against your demons, after all, otherwise they’re a waste of words.

There is actually an overarching plan to all this. And if you believe that, you might just believe that it’s me that’s behind it. And one or more of those statements may only be a half truth at best.

The final instalment in this series will probably be called Glitterheads on the Loose! Because, ladles and gentlespoons, that is exactly what we are.

One Dog Clapping – Alternarratives

It is 9/9/18, and 9.09 pm (BST) when I click the publish button on Bandcamp. We have entered the time of the new moon. Fittingly, I have ‘Ritual‘ by Fire! Orchestra playing.

Alternarratives is the third album in the ‘Meeting The Changing Landscape’ Series, and the halfway point. It is about, broadly speaking, telling ourselves better stories so that we can head towards the Hills to Die On.

The next album in the series takes a turn back into the void as these better stories wrestle with the demons that would have them remain unspoken, and will be called Internal Route Fury.

 

One Dog Clapping – Hills to Die On

I could write a whole essay, nay dissertation, on the travails of getting this thing over the line due to PC breakdowns, temporary patches, surprise findings of old pcs in a cupboard, etc. I’m not going to, as it would be of very limited interest.

So this is the yin to The Castle is Burning!‘s yang, or vice versa, I’ve currently forgotten which one is which. I call this my positive album, whereby we find the pockets of light in the darkness that are worth living for, and thus also dying for. The tl;dr summary is: love, authenticity, dreams, banishing fear, and variations on those themes.

Once I’ve adapted to changed settings (for which credit and huge thanks go to my friend Chris Hall), I will get on with the next in the series, which will be Alternarratives.

One Dog Clapping – The Castle is Burning!

It is 103 weeks (I counted ’em) since I last bothered the world with music; it will be significantly fewer before I next do so – single figures, hopefully.

This is the first in a new series called ‘Meeting the Changing Landscape.’ There’s an obvious link to the first album from the previous series, but the most pertinent thing about this album is that it is my take on where I see the world at this moment in time.

The next album in the series will be about where I’m going to go, and the subsequent ones will be about how I’m going to get there.

I’m going to update the website later – it will still be a mess, but it will be a less cluttered mess with a brighter feel.