Thursday, December 15, 2005  11:39 am 

Lord Nuneaton Savage’s Reissues of theYear

Ok fellas, our comrade Matt has made a few write-ups of his re-issues of the year, listen with attention because he knoes his shit.

Also, of all the white people I know, he’s got the best way of saying motherfucker. That’s quite important too.

Jean Claude Vannier-L’Enfant Assassin Des Mouches

This has been a superb year for Andy Votel’s Finders Keepers records and as a result I have had to restrict myself to just one of their releases (I could list more; the fantastic ‘Welsh Rare Beat’ threw light on a whole genre that I, and many others, had never even had a sniff of before, not to mention the superb psych/ballet/jap-kraut epic ‘Yamasuki’).

But it speaks well of this album that it stands head and shoulders apart from its reissued peers. A bewildering mix of rock riffage, musique concrete, absurdist string arrangements and occasional heavy breathing interludes that sounds like nothing else on this earth or the next.

A concept album about a child fly killer? The (il)logical next step from ‘Melody Nelson’? The battiest French release of all time?

I’ve been listening to it for over six months now and I’m still not sure. Baffling and brilliant.

Jean Claude Vannier- L’Enfant Au Rouyame Des Mouches

Comus- First Utterance

In which Fairport Convention attend a serial killer convention on helium. A truly OUT record. 70s Brit-folk taken to its most extreme. Songs about murder, rape, necrophilia, incest and croquet (ok, I made that bit up) set to a backround of heavy strumming, bongo freakouts and odd groaning noises. Cats leave the room when this is played (trust me, I’ve tried it). Funnily enough whenever I play this to Hip-Hop fans they go mental. Not sure why, must be the bodycount.

Comus- Diana

Can- Remastered reissues

No suprises here then. Well, apart from the fact that these albums, after years of not-particularly-good cd pressings have finally been properly remastered. The results are staggering. Whole new light thrown on one of the greatest back catalogues in rock. People keep asking me, with an apprehensive look in their eyes, ‘Do I need to buy them all again then?’ my answer is always ‘I’m afraid so’.

No-one has regretted it yet.

Can- Vitamin C

Basil Kirchin- Abstractions of the Industrial North

Holy, holy holy. This album is just gorgeous. Jazz drummer/library music legend/avant-composer Kirchin’s glorious hymnal to the Northern steel towns of his boyhood. You can hear the klaxons, the trudge of boots going to work, the unexpected highs and the all to familiar lows of industrial life (he said from his library room). That all this can be communicated through the joyful process of note on note is one of the reasons that we all love music so much. Right?

Kirchin unfortunately passed away this year leaving the fine folks at Trunk records to unearth this beauty. A superb testament to a composer of genius.

Basil Kirchin- Viva Tamla Motown

Moondog- Viking of Sixth Avenue

The definitive Moondog document. The famous blind, homeless composer and percussionist (I’m noticing a theme here) who would stand on New York street corners busking his latest wares to a fanbase that included Stravinsky and Charlie Parker, is given due service by Honest Jon’s records. Home recordings, massed ranks of charging percussion, chanted vocals, Sunburned Hand of the Man have certainly been listening. Everyone else should too. Kids LOVE this album.

V/A: The New Thing

There’s no way you could have a round up of reissues without mentioning something from Soul Jazz and this be it. A sprawling collection of out-jazz from the late 60s/early 70s (and Sun Ra track from ‘56, just proving how ahead of his time the cat was) that sets in stone a genre that had previously been a record collector notion. Awesome and unpredictable, ranging from the wildest freak-outs to the slowest, heaviest spiritual jazz. Best compilation of the year.

Sun Ra- Angels and Demons at Play

Thank you Matt!! This is the sort of thing that makes running this place worthwhile…

NOW A REMINDER FOR THIS WEEKEND

Friday the 16th. that’s tomorrow, it’s the Do at the Core Club. open from 11 til god knows when, the Do gang is having a christmas ball and it’s going to be the shizzle.

Only a fiver to get in, 4 with one of our lovely flyers

A fat man with a beard and a red and white outfit (either Santa or the guy from Les Savy fav) has left us 50 cds for the first 50 people to get to the venue. There will also be a hundred zines for the first 100 people. All beautiful.

We’ll have christmas lights, cheap drinks (yeah) and the 8 of us playing the (un)usual pastiche of indie noise spazzy new wave rock and grime and god knows what:

Animal Collective, Nation of Ulysses, Lightning Bolt, Grabba Grabba Tape, Coachwhips, Can, NEU!, My Bloody Valentine, Clap Your Hands Say yeah, Lethal Bizzle, Les Georges Leningrad, Goxxip, Help She Can’t Swim, Old Time Relijun, Make Up, Beat Happening, Fall, Liars, Genders, Blood Brothers, Chromatics, Gravy Train!!!, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Buff Medways, Devo, Ninja High School etc.

If you don’t have anything to do before going to the Do, the two members of the gang who do the 20 Jazz Funk Greats at the Penthouse will be doing the 20 Jazz Funk Greats at the Penthouse. That’s us.

7.30ish-late (we’ll see how late), free entry, super-cheap booze

…playing lots of weird noisy stuff and celebrating the spirit of xmas with…

Wolf Eyes, Burning Star Core, Throbbing Gristle, Gang Gang Dance, Telepathe, Silver Apples, Black Dice, Cluster, Slint, many of the aforementioned…

…and other purveyors of seasonal hits…

Massimo Superbo will guest there with a super-deadly set of krautrock industrial mayhem. And Joanna Newsom. Nah, not Joanna Newsom.

And that’s it, hit us back if you find us annoying.

labels >> xxjfg