Gambling for life, then.
Sounds dramatic, does it not?
but if we broaden our definition out to a bigger one
than a mere chemical reaction with added respiration and awareness
then maybe it has more utility as a concept
Is not life a pathway?
What if that pathway should seem blocked?
Then the traveller must decide on a course of action:
remain at the blockage
choose a different pathway
remove/overcome the blockage
The latter is a direct combat, which is a gamble
The first is yielding, or biding time, but always a gamble
But the second is the biggest gamble although it requires travelling in order to know
and the blockage may follow, if it be perceptual
In many ways, words are judgements. The label is a judgement. Yet judgement is an incomplete process; the true goal is understanding. Understanding is much harder, as it may mean the assimilation of uncomfortable perceptions that would prefer to be ignored, hence why it is so easy to stop at judgement.
The attempt to understand is a gamble, as you may end the world as you know it when you understand it.
The good news is that it will be replaced by a more coherent one.
Enter the drastic marathon in fading light the tortuous circuit
with no disregard for the losers in the crush of the titanics
semantics to battle, semantics do battle their eyelids
I’m not sure if I believe my eyes now as I know they’re only filters
descent begins, crawling at a time when there are no beginnings
and there are no times so relativity is perceptual
is anything actual? any thing total? anything factual?
this argument is a hologram and by its nature it’s perpetual
So, when I say I’ve been locked away recording, what I mean is that I’m using my upstairs bedroom PC which is not internet enabled. I still have a job to do, and other boring things where I can at least still refer to my music library. I mean, that’s why we have them, right?
I was listening to the first Menimals release after a sweaty session the other night, and tracks 2 and 3 in particular gave me indescribable pleasure. I had one of those moments where I had to give thanks for being alive at the time when this music was made. So it seems apposite to kick off with this:
I’d forgotten about this, found it whilst going through some old CD’s I’d ripped over a decade ago. They almost out-Cave Nick on this one:
Madrugada – Black Mambo
We’ve had what we in the UK think of as a batch of hot & humid weather lately. My crappy weather app kept promising thunderstorms, but not once was a promise fulfilled. Accuweather, for that and many other failures of forecasting, I want to say publicly that you’re shite. (sidebar: what a gig weather forecasting is. If I was as good at my job as the average weather forecaster, I wouldn’t have a job anymore. Yet still we glue ourselves to their predictions. The human need for certainty is probably the root cause of all our troubles, not the crappy explanations we then argue over and start wars over and then say that’s what the problem with humanity is.)
*cough* anyway, here’s a storm related tune:
Little Axe – Storm is Rising
So, as an upshot of that Rusalnaia album I’d blogged about, I did something I occasionally do which is to click on a random fan, follow their taste and see where that led me. It ultimately led me to the collection Wahkeena Sitka, who makes the song below, which also comes with a seal of approval from my daughter, even though it’s of a type neither she nor I listen to much:
Back when Sexwitch first came out, I read a lot of utter bollocks from armchair critics who wanted to tell Natasha Khan she wasn’t allowed to reinterpret music that is of Pakistani origin even though she herself has roots there. I made the mistake of allowing that to put me off a bit and I wish I hadn’t. Music is as music does and will always speak for itself, and I fucking love what she’s done and I say do it again.
Pontiak’s new album is their best, and I really should do a post on it. While I think about that, listen to this:
and I know I only recently banged on about this, but it rules, it really does. Have it now, and have it loud:
There’s something about the music made in and around the mediterranean area which seriously appeals to me, from the desert blues of North Africa (some of which I shall bring you at some point) to the wonderful Malayeen who I mentioned earlier this year, and many stops in between.
The story for this album is detailed on the bandcamp page so I shan’t rehash it here. What I shall say is that I like this album so terribly, terribly much. It obviously sounds like the area it comes from, but there are also hints of Hamza El Din (could be the oud playing) and a certain bluesy feel, reminiscent at times of the why-weren’t-they-household-names Little Axe. Some of the tunes aren’t afraid to incorporate western rock leanings, too. It is yet another album that has me floundering for descriptors, which proves to me that this is the real stuff. I’ve got something brewing about that.
Soundbergs 