Songs on Sunday: Little Drum v Nothing Ever Happens

There has been plenty that I could have said recently about many things, but there didn't seem to be much point. I have often been filled with the desire to be heard, as many of us do, but this is meaningless without connection and that seems to be significantly lacking. I've been feeling more aggrieved with social media during the last wee while, seeing movements with good motivations starting well and then quickly becoming subsumed by the seemingly monolithic forces of misery and hate that dominate online and offline presently. Politically, we might want to make capital out of this if it favours 'our side' but the internet, particularly social media, is a system and not a smart one at that. If it is currently favouring you (or your side) then that is because you are participating in a dehumanising process that strips you of your agency. A small price to pay to be continuously winning some might think, but those that originate these sentiments are usually very far from being truly damaged by them.

Anyway, here are two slices of Scottish misery for you.

Personally, I think that in retrospect it was a blessing to feel like nothing much was happening. There's a sense of freedom along with the ennui. The difference now is the constant screaming process of 'events' doesn't motivate the people, it instead gets treated as an entertainment, something to create memes about rather than something to engage with. For all the talk of 'engagement' on social media, really what's happening is a distancing and isolating, more so now than ever before.



"Little Drum" Frightened Rabbit

I was mothered like an orchid
Tethered to paternal sides
I hurried home in orbit
Close to where I know I’m fine
No edge of the seat
No arms ever broken, you see

I waited for
the crash to come
Too many days with
Too little to do
I waited but
Nothing came at all
So many days spent
In empty rooms

The little drum inside
behaves itself until you turn twenty five
And then it strikes us all
We’ve lived this long but only ever half alive

I waited for
the crash to come
Too many days with
Too little to do
I waited but
Nothing came at all
So many days spent
In empty rooms
It’s too late for
A wasted youth
All quiet on the eastern front
We dare not move
It’s too late
To wage a war
So quiet on the eastern front
We are all bored



"Nothing Ever Happens" Del Amitri

Post office clerks put up signs saying 'position closed'
And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats
And janitors padlock the gates
For security guards to patrol
And bachelors phone up their friends for a drink
While the married ones turn on a chat show

And they'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Gentlemen time please, you know we can't serve anymore
Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there's nothing to go
And by five o'clock everything's dead
And every third car is a cab
And ignorant people sleep in their beds
Like the doped white mice in the college lab

And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before

And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Telephone exchanges click while there's nobody there
The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care
Closed-circuit cameras in department stores
Shoot the same movie every day
And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed
Just survive constant action replay

And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before

And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

And bill hoardings advertise products that nobody needs
While "Angry from Manchester" writes to complain about
All the repeats on TV
Computer terminals report some gains in the values of copper and tin
While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs
For the price of a hospital wing

And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before

And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
They'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock
And we'll all go along like before

And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow

Songs on Sunday: Gravenhurst, 'The Velvet Cell' and 'Reprise'

To understand the killer
I must become the killer
And I don't need this violence anymore
But now I've tasted hatred I want more
The velvet cell within men
Gloriously rusted masks
Grey death heart crocuses
And I had always thought
The desire to kill was a disease you caught
But it's dormant in the hearts of everyone
Waiting for a spark, an emotion

Nick Talbot AKA Gravenhurst, 2005, from 'Fires in Distant Buildings'



Nick's interview with philosopher John Gray is excellent. I should re-read Straw Dogs as it's been some time and it would be interesting to see if it still resonates as strongly with me as it did in 2004. It was the spark of contemporary philosophy that made my degree choice for me when I was considering other paths...

Songs on Sunday: As the night draws in

[Verse 1: Ghostpoet]
I had a dance with the devil
I couldn't keep his pace
He gave a trademark cackle
I tried to hide my face
Trying to stay on the narrow
The straight's come to an end
I seek prose for a pep talk
I need your help, my friend

[Chorus: Ghostpoet]
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love

[Verse 2: Ghostpoet]
One step at a time
Tattered on our foot
You gave me food for thought
We're packed in on the tube
Bee's sweat on the mission
Crawling down my cheek
Eyes wide like a flatscreen
I haven't reached my peak

[Chorus: Ghostpoet]
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love

[Bridge: Daddy G]
Who gives a fuck if you be acting a clown?
Pass the queen's head and watch it go down
Tit for tat gets a young girl's passion
Hold it on tight to that glass of fashion
Knocking down the spirits till you're dropped to your knees
Don't sneeze, ninja please
We're dancing 'round the toilets in this whimsical scene
And if I be wicked then woe unto me

[Chorus: Ghostpoet]
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love
Woe is me
Just give it up
As the night draws in
We're all seeking love
We're all seeking love

© Obaro Ejimiwe/Ghostpoet 2017

Songs on Sunday: Introduction to Zen Buddhism

First, there is a mountain,
Then, there is no mountain,
Then, there is.



The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.



Would you like more of an explanation?

No? Fine. Have some philosophy of politics and some logic.

Yes? Okay.

As I see it, we begin with our natural habit of labelling. This here, this is a mountain. Once we have been properly socialised, when we therefore see said physical manifestation (hills notwithstanding) we 'see' the label of mountain.

After, we have analysed this thought process, this socialisation of identification, we might then see the landmark and having unlearned what we have learned 'see' no mountain. Seeing instead what is there, which is not what the human language label says, it is not literally mountain as this is merely our language code for identification. Nor is it der Berg or le Montagne or Yama or any other language's term. What it is, is not a linguistic term. Through philosophical thought you have negated the linguistic mountain, now there is now no mountain.

But it is still there. It is after all existent reality. There is a large rock* there, you see it. (*Yes, it's not just a 'rock' but 'rocky shape' sounds no better) You have not made the mountain by naming it, it always had existence as it has existed, and one way of taking the 'third phase' here (as many do) is that the Zen Buddhist has 'over-intellectualised' matters and has now (in the third phase) returned to 'true' direct reality.

I think that this is not the case. It is not a matter of returning to the status quo unchanged. When we return to the 'there is' we are returning now (having been through phases one and two) as one whose usage of 'mountain' now accepts that it is a human label used merely as a tool for communication (i.e. what language is) rather than the true meaning of the existent 'object'. Existence lives around us, with us or without us, with language or without. There is a mountain.

Songs on Sunday: Maxïmo Park

The 2005 debut album by Maxïmo Park 'A Certain Trigger' was an exceptional piece of British Indie Rock. It was more of a shock for me, because at the time I was mostly listening to Electronica, Ambient and Techno, indeed, I probably only heard Maxïmo Park because they were signed on Warp Records.

I'm slightly upset that a number of previous YouTube video I've shared have since been deleted, leaving me with an ugly empty grey box, but I'm hopeful that this video (posted by the band) is less likely to be removed.

Warp Records are a music label that mostly focuses upon electronic music, so everyone was slightly surprised when they signed this post-punk slightly abrasive Newcastle indie rock band. There's not much I can say about the album other than it was my most listened to album for 2005 and for a considerable period after that as well.

However, although I continued to appreciate the excellent lyricism of the next two albums; 'Our Earthly Pleasures' (2007) and 'Quicken the Heart' (2009) they weren't reaching me in the same way and I drifted out of contact with the band.

Very recently, last week, I made an arbitrary decision to update the music on my smartphone and came across Maxïmo Park on my hard drive storage (which contains a great deal of not listened to and not watched films that makes me feel occasionally strangely guilty).

Listening to the first three albums I was surprised to discover that I found the later albums (particularity 'Quicken the Heart') were much more musically interesting to me than my old favourite 'Certain Trigger'. Although I would definitely still consider their debut a thing of real beauty, now I found I was more able to appreciate the subtlety and the word play more.

Intrigued (and aware the band were still around) I looked them up. Starting with their most recent album, the excellent 'Risk to Exist' (2017) and working back.



I feel strangely smug as if I've 'discovered' something, which is of course ridiculous. It's not like they were in hiding or anything. I suppose I'm just pleased that I've reconnected, albeit in a different way, with something that I appreciated so much before and to find it's not the same, it's better.

Merry Christmas to you all!

I had hoped to keep up with regular posting all the way up until Christmas, however, I've been really rather ill for quite some time now. Indeed, I hope to make enough of a recovery tomorrow to properly take part in Christmas day fun, this is made a little trickier as I'm at my partner's family this year, so don't really feel like I can make too much of fuss, even if I still feel awful.

Anyway, illness aside, I've really enjoyed the build up to Christmas this year. Having not only managed to get most of the shopping done befoe December but also that the presents were chosen and were not just random last minute pick. Still, well considered or not, many of them are (like me and JJ) very silly indeed.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas.

Here is a friend and excellent folk musician, Will Pound, playing an extraordinary version of jingle bells.

Peace

Songs on Sunday: Theme Song

Many moons ago, a good friend raised the topic of having a personal 'theme song' - his song was Air's Sexy Boy, which probably says a great deal about his self-confidence ;-)

My own choice was the song below, which for some reason I recently remembered. Thinking on it, I think I'd still pick it as my song...

I'll have to ask my friend if he'd keep the teen-aged choice he made.
:-)

Songs on Sunday: So Youthful

I've been hearing this song a lot recently. It seems appropriate.

Chansons du Samedi: Aux Champs-Élysées!

This is the closing song to the very excellent 'Darjeeling Limited' by Wes Anderson.

Parole de Les Champs-Élysées:

Je m'baladais sur l'avenue
Le coeur ouvert à l'inconnu
J'avais envie de dire bonjour
À n'importe qui
N'importe qui ce fut toi
Je t'ai dit n'importe quoi
Il suffisait de te parler
Pour t'apprivoiser

Aux Champs-Élysées
Aux Champs-Élysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie
À midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez
Aux Champs-Élysées

Tu m'as dit "J'ai rendez-vous
Dans un sous-sol avec des fous
Qui vivent la guitare à la main
Du soir au matin"
Alors je t'ai accompagnée
On a chanté, on a dansé
Et l'on n'a même pas pensé
À s'embrasser

Aux Champs-Élysées
Aux Champs-Élysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie
À midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez
Aux Champs-Élysées

Hier soir deux inconnus
Et ce matin sur l'avenue
Deux amoureux tout étourdis
Par la longue nuit
Et de l'Étoile à la Concorde
Un orchestre à mille cordes
Tous les oiseaux du point du jour
Chantent l'amour

Aux Champs-Élysées
Aux Champs-Élysées
Au soleil, sous la pluie
À midi ou à minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez
Aux Champs-Élysées

Songs on Sunday: Some avians

Haunted by Christmas Carols: The Holly and the Ivy

Why? WHY? It's almost April, why do I have a Christmas carol ear-worm? WHYYYYY?

Can't. Stop. Singing.

This carol has been running around my head non-stop for the last three hours.

Make it stop!

Haunted by Popular Music: Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove

Why?
I've been racking my brains, why I've had this song in my head all day.

Was it an advert? Can't think of one and don't have a TV, so seems unlikely.
Perhaps music in a film? I checked, none that I've seen recently.

Really, I just hope it's from a generally good mood that I find myself in.
The sun's back, I had a nice relaxing weekend.

Today really feels like a Magickal Monday
I hope yours is too.

Haunted by Popular Music: Ash, Girl from Mars

Do you ever wake up with a song in your head?

I often do and mostly they're songs from my adolescence.

Here's one that came from nowhere this morning. I haven't recently heard it, they were never a favourite band, I honestly can't think why it's in my head and now it won't leave.

This is often a problem with these songs that haunt me, they quickly become earworms and take most of the day to shift them. So, in an effort to get it out of my head I thought I'd impose it on anyone who'll listen.

Songs on Sunday: Martyn Bennett

Martyn Bennett (1971 - 2005)

1. An introduction

As I've mentioned before, Martyn Bennett is a musician that has a deeply personal impact upon me. His music was introduced to me in the same year that Bennett died and at the time I felt that I'd missed something, it had passed me by without my awareness and, as someone who grew up in Scotland and purported to like folk music and electronica, I felt a wee bit ashamed of myself for not knowing of him while he lived. The friend who introduced me to Bennett's music was also a multi-talented individual and also died at a young age. It is he that I keep referring to obliquely in my recent posts. That Bennett also died of the same type of cancer that killed my dad is another connection, albeit a tenuous one, but yet I feel a connection for these reasons to the music of Martyn. It also helps that I really like the music and the ethos behind the music.

However, this isn't just going to be a piece about the personal nature of my relationship to Bennett's music. His music also represents, for me, something important for the future of Scotland. Often an artist can offer a mirror upon the culture they are part of and thus display something of a commentary. Bennett's attempt to fuse the old traditional sounds with the new modern techno scene, and incorporate world music in a different manner, offers something like a description of a more liberal, but rooted, sense of Scottishness.

2. A short biography

Bennett was born in a Gaelic-speaking community in Newfoundland, Canada. He moved to Scotland aged six with his mother, when his parents separated. He moved several times while growing up in Scotland,  seeing all types of communities, from the remote small towns to the busy cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow (where he eventually went to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). He was a young talent with the bagpipes winning various prizes in junior piping competitions around Scotland. As well as the Great Highland Bagpipes, Bennett was also trained in classical violin and piano, something he immersed himself in the study of during his teenage years (in the Edinburgh City School of Music).After leaving the RSAMD in Glasgow (since 2011 it is now known as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Bennett decided to leave the world of classical music behind, primarily because of the lack of freedom such a living would entail. Around this time he began experimenting with free-jazz and fusion, as well as learning the DJ skills of recording, sampling, looping, in short using the new technology.

Here is his obituary from the Guardian newspaper.




3. The music (foreground)

Martyn Bennett made five albums and contributed to several more during his music career. Here are my own impressions of those five main works and some sample videos lifted from Youtube. 

His first album, the self-titled 'Martyn Bennett' was released in 1996.



Martyn Bennett describes his own album, "Recorded and mixed in just seven days, I listen to this album now with a hidden smile. Yes, I can hear the limitations of my knowledge of electronics and the small amount of equipment I had at my disposal, but this album, for me, is like a child. It’s full of fun and abandon. It does not care about the 'correctness' of the sounds or complexity of arrangement, it only cares about energy and light." (Link here)

Like many artists he has a obvious attachment to this fledgling work, as it possesses an energy and free play that his illness would later damage and make creating music much harder. Indeed, illness or no, this is a common complaint of artists, were one's initial projects seem to come much easier, but as time progresses one loses touch with what motivated you in the early days. 




As an early work it is obviously less crafted and more ragged than all his later productions, but it does carry and air of excited experimentation and an enthusiasm for the sound that is infectious. Also, it's easy to spot Bennett as someone with a background in the traditional, but with a love for all the new technology in music.

In his second album, 'Bothy Culture', Martyn Bennett was able to craft a much more professional work and this only a short time later. 'Bothy Culture' was released on Rykodisc records in 1998. It is quite possibly his best critically received work, certainly in Scotland, and remains one of his best selling albums (either first or second to 'Grit' based on sales on Amazon and iTunes). 



It's actually my least favourite album of Bennett's, but that isn't to say I dislike it, I just find myself less likely to listen to this album. Perhaps it's because out of all his albums, this seems the most categorisable as 'Celtic Fusion' and sounds very much like other bands of a similar nature, that is; Peatbog Faeries, Shooglenifty, and so forth. There's still a recognisable element of Martyn here though, his use of certain samples and his sense of humour that runs through all his work. It also allows him to reference the variety of Scottish and World influences, which includes the excellent track 'Hallaig' that features the verse of the Scottish poet Sorley MacLean.




For all that, perhaps the thing that I do find objectionable about Bothy Culture and why I consider it the least 'like Martyn', is the lack of risk, the safety and almost ordinariness of the sounds he creates. Don't get me wrong they are still an enjoyable listen and worthy of the album's attention that it gathered at the time.It's still quality Celtic Fusion and the equal of all other World music. It is liable to be the most accessible album for people coming from the folk music side and except for perhaps the later album Grit it is also probably the best known. 

It is with his third album, the excellent 'Hardland', that really sees Martyn Bennett setting out to create his unique and personal statement. Hardland was recorded in collaboration with Martin Low in 2000, when Martyn and his wife had moved out to a more remote part of Scotland.

The move of location is something that I'd suggest helped with the creation of this more personal statement. Unlike his previous two albums, Hardland is not an album meant to be played quietly, nor is it comtemplative or introspective, it takes its influence directly from the underground party scene and fuses it with traditional Scottish music. It wasn't overly well received at the time, as the folkies didn't like the hard abrasive techno sounds and the clubbers couldn't really get on with the traditional sounds of the bagpipes and so forth. It probably would have found more of a home in underground dance venues, but it's also hard to break into this scene as it's very faddish, led by group fashion, and word of mouth. Indeed, none of this would translate into anything like mainstream success. Additionally those critics that lauded the previous album (who were many) now were also the sort who were unlikely to appreciate this sort of musical experimentalism. It is however, for my tastes, the best album Martyn Bennett made. The ceilidh need not be a place of maintaining ancient traditions, but it is simply a mega dance party, albeit a Scottish one. This is what the album Hardland is, an exuberant celebration of modern Scottish culture with all its flaws and problems.



The vocal seemingly saying, "Evil, evil..." is actually "Eubhal," which is Gaelic for a small hill on a remote Hebridean island.

Bennett's fourth album, 'Glen Lyon: A Song Cycle', is quite a radical departure from Hardland but counter-balances it well. Glen Lyon seems like something of a personal project, while this is true of the majority of Martyn's work, this is especially true about this album.

It is a series of songs sung almost entirely by Martyn's mother Margaret in Gaelic, indeed, the only other vocals come from Bennett's great-great-grandfather Peter Stewart on the opening track. It is quite a spare, minimal album, but it is very beautiful, and it is a work that feels to be harking back to the past. Not just Scotland's, but Martyn Bennett's as well. Musical nostalgia might be an appropriate description.



As a companion piece to Hardland, Glen Lyon works extremely well. Whereas one highlights the vibrancy, energy, and 'hardness' of a new Scotland, the other tells us of remoteness, closeness with nature (the excellent gentle mixing of ambient natural noises throughout the album), historical connections with old traditions, and lyrical beauty. It's the ambient 'come down' album after a hard partying to Hardland.. Absolutely love it.

GRIT is Martyn Bennett's final album (although he did write a piece of music that was recorded shortly after his death, 'Mackays Memoirs', which is counted as his last work).

At the time of recording GRIT (in 2003) Martyn Bennett was very ill with cancer and no longer able to play, or rather he was no longer able to play and get the sound from the instruments in the way he had before. Thus GRIT utilises many samples from Scottish folk singers from the 1950's, as well as more contemporary sounds. In describing the title of the album Bennett has said several things, first from his own blog:

The obscure title means many things to me personally, however it is tied up in my ideas of where Scottish culture lies: GRIT can be seen on road signs anywhere in the world, it is an expression of determination, an onomatopoeic word: it reflects the contrasts found in its music both course and fine. There is an old intonation (tuning) throughout the album that I hope the listener can appreciate, because far from being 'out-of-tune', this flavour not only touches true grit in terms of tradition, but also exposes technique born of passion.

Secondly, and more pointedly, from his obituary:

"Cancer is a piece of grit inside your soul which you can't get out, so you have to try and make something of it. But grit is also rock salt, an old medicine. I also see it as representative of cultures trying to survive."

GRIT was the first album of Bennett's that I heard and as someone coming more from dance music than folk music, I found it easier to get along with. Not that I don't appreciate Scottish folk music, I certainly do, it's just that I feel more comfortable with, I have more knowledge of, electronic music. So, upon hearing GRIT it reminded me of Moby's album Play (something Bennett acknowledges) and other musicians who have sampled older musical styles and fused them with contemporary electronic sounds.

X

Songs on Sunday: What I'm currently listening to

This should perhaps be retitled as 'How I'm currently listening to.'

I don't seem to be listening to my mp3's stored on my external hard drive anymore, and I still haven't bought a CD (except as a present) for quite a few years now. I suppose I just listen to music on YouTube, I don't even bother with Spotify or any music platform like that anymore (got sick of the adverts and they can be blocked on YouTube).

So, I listen to new music I find, like The Gaslamp Killer:



I like being able to discover new music on YouTube, mostly from watching a vlog from one the many music reviewers (the best being Anthony Fantano @ http://www.youtube.com/user/theneedledrop). This makes me more likely to go see these bands or buy their music (although not in my case).

I also tend to seek out old tunes that I love, like this one by Martyn Bennett. Of whom I should really write a long review about the man and his music. He was an amazing musician and holds deep resonance in my life, for many reasons.



The good thing about music on YouTube is the possibility of people posting whole albums, although these seem to get blocked much quicker than single videos. Indeed, that is the whole problem with finding music (new or old) on YouTube. You might bookmark a video, or a couple of videos by an artist, but on returning after a week you find that several of your videos are now marked as a [deleted video] or [private video] or [unplayable video] as it now carries a copyright notification.

"The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement."

Once they're gone, it's total deletion, no record remains of what the video was (not in all cases, sometimes it remains, but won't play). So, unless you've an excellent memory of what video 17 in a playlist of 80 was, that band will probably stay forgotten.

Anyway, this isn't a post about open access or defending the right to download for free. I'm fairly ambivalent about these things, I can see that artists need to make a living as well. I'm less worried about record labels and whether the people making claims for copyright infringement are always representatives of a label or even have a just claim.

Songs on Sunday

Musician: Flying Lotus (SoundCloud)
Animator: Cyriak (YouTube)
Publishers: Warp Records 2012