WR

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - :: :: The Weekly Digest for Canterbury Music Addicts :: :: Issue # 104 :: :: Thursday, September 24th, 1998 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "William Storage" <storage@nerve-net.com> Subject: Kevin Ayers Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 17:23:40 -0700 [In WR#103, Aymeric Leroy wrote:]>Ayers seems a little pessimistic about his future work,>more or less saying he has little inspiration to write new stuff. Was this >only the mood of the day? I can't say... When I saw him perform in San Francisco a few months ago, he seemed to be looking at the whole thing as some sort of unwelcome nostalgia trip and seemed embarassed by the fact that half the audience was washed-up females screaming "I love you". In any case he didn't seem thrilled with the prospect of being a musician. Bill ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: GHenry1480@aol.com Subject: Pip Pyle's album Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 22:33:19 EDT I have been trying to get Pip Pyle's cd Seven Year Itch,but am having aproblem over here in the USofA.Can any one help with some info on how to getMy e-mail address is GHenry1480@aol.com...thanks greg ,the Jersey Gypsy ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert Hampton LeGrand III <rhl0940@cs.tamu.edu> Subject: CDs wanted Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 22:41:44 -0500 (CDT) Howdy! I'm having trouble finding the following CDs: Centipede - Septober Energy Egg - The Polite Force Gryphon - Midnight Mushrumps Happy the Man - Crafty Hands King Crimson - The Great Deceiver: Live 1973-1974 Magma - Kohntarkosz Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh Magma - Udu Wudu Magma - Attahk Matching Mole - Matching Mole Quiet Sun - Mainstream Robert Wyatt - The End of an Ear If anyone could help me locate any of these, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! Rob LeGrand III ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Justin.Joyce@wdr.com Subject: Mantra label Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 09:01:26 +0200 Hi - belated congratulations to you for reaching your 100th issue - I never knew there was so much activity on the 'Canterbury Scene'. I must say, that there are alot of musicians and bands that I had never come across before, and many old favourites as well - it is great to find out about a whole scene I never knew existed - my knowledge of this musical area only scratches the surface! I read every issue of WR with great interest, and I must start going out and discovering some of the stuff that is new to me. I have been trying for quite some time to find out more about the Mantra label, as I would like to get all Tim Blake solo material. I have been unable to order anything from any places I have tried so far, and I have not found any contact details or website for the label directly. If anyone connected with Mantra (or anyone else) has any idea how to contact them or who their distributors are in Switzerland or Britain, I would be most grateful for their help on my quest for the New Jerusalem! Thanks, Justin email: justin.joyce@wdr.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: mihra@cerbernet.co.uk (Roger Bunn) Subject: Hot news Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 18:37:26 +0100 The first meeting between Mihra and the UK Arts Council takes place at the end of the month. Informal discussion began today.. Blair Will be pleased.. ;-) Now, how much was it, that is owed to creators? Rr Policy Office Music Industry Human Rights Association UK Homepage http://www.cerbernet.co.uk/mihra US Satellite http://www.212.net / roger@212.net General Email Mihra@cerbernet.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "BRIAN BEECHAM" <b.bee@bigpond.com> Subject: Roger Bunn & Others Date: Sun, 20 Sep 98 20:22:24 PDT I suspect I'm not the only Wrattler to have been intrigued by the variety of past and present musical acquaintances mentioned by regular contributor Roger Bunn, but not quite able to place Roger himself. A quick dive for the reference books soon reminded me that he'd preceded Davey O'List and Phil Manzanera as Roxy Music guitarist, leaving in mid '71. A little internet searching turned up the information that a Roger Bunn album, Peace of Mind (mentioned by him in WR#92), came out on the German label Ohr, also in '71. However, the major claim to fame I should never have forgotten was Roger's having played bass with Pete Brown's Piblokto on their wonderful album Things May Come and Things May Go But the Art School Dance Goes on Forever (released 1970). Piblokto Canterbury connections? Julian Christou covered some of the ground in WR#67 but, in case you missed that or need reminding, one of the two credited drummers on The Art School Dance was Rob Tait, who played on a couple of tracks on Kevin Ayers' Joy of a Toy and was an erstwhile member of Gong. (BTW, Aymeric, the Calyx profile of Laurie Allen has _him_ playing on Art School, but Dave Thompson is the other drummer on the sleeve credits. Still, Laurie must fit in here somewhere, since Roger refers in WR#89 to writing up the part in his autobiography dealing with "me, PIBLOKTO, Laurie Allen and Pete Brown".) Getting back to Rob Tait, he was also in the previous Brown band, the Battered Ornaments, with Chris Spedding on guitar (pre-Nucleus) and Nisar Ahmed Khan, aka George, on saxes and flute. "George" gets a credit from Robert Wyatt, along with "Brian" (Hopper) towards the end of Rivmic Melodies on Volume Two. He gets proper sleeve credits on Ruth is Stranger Than Richard. [The "George" mentioned by Wyatt on the Soft Machine album is actually the sound engineer, George Chkiantz - AL] Okay, with George we're already at one remove from Piblokto (and Roger), but sticking with him turns up some interesting links ... For example, the People Band album (1970), a kind of European version of ESP label improvising and production values also involving Lyn Dobson, who Roger tells us (WR#101) was in the "Pete Brown supported" Endjin with him in the _early_ sixties (?). Another George project (NB from here I'm relying on the 1986 edition of Trevor Hounsome's Rock Record, not personal familiarity with the records) was the 1971 Formerly Fat Harry LP, which definitely _did_ have Laurie Allen on drums, and also Electric Music for the Mind and Body era Country Joe & the Fish bass player Bruce Barthol! (Can anyone tell me what that's like? I see in Wrong Movements that FFH played the Blackhill's Garden Party in Hyde Park in July 1970, where Kevin Ayers & the Whole World also appeared, with Wyatt on drums, moonlighting from the Softs. But I digress.) George also appeared on both Solid Gold Cadillac albums. There are several Canterbury and Pete Brown connections there, but let's not get too bogged down. One of those connections, Brian Godding, played guitar on the 2nd SGC LP, and 1977 saw George reunited with him, recording on Compendium with Steve Cook (bass) and Dave Sheen (drums) as Mirage. Again choosing just one of the connections, in this case future Soft Head Sheen, we come to another curiosity, on the Gull label (home of Isotope etc): the 1975 solo album of one Kieran White. White sang and played guitar in a group called Steamhammer in the late 60s and later appeared on Nucleus' Under the Sun (as a vocalist only?). His self-titled Gull album has Sheen on drums and, amongst others, Chas Jankel on keyboards and, on bass, ... Roger Bunn. Is it worth seeking out, Roger? I hope we do get an autobiography from you one of these days - you've obviously seen some interesting scenes. Which brings me back to Piblokto and "Canterbury". Tracing overlaps of personnel doesn't necessarily get you to the heart of the matter. Another way of looking at the connection is that, in their different ways, both Pete Brown and the Softs represented the more intelligent, genuinely imaginative side of the late 60s/early 70s underground". In their book Art Into Pop (1987), Simon Frith and Howard Horne go some way towards acknowledging Piblokto in this regard, describing The Art School Dance as "jokey, exclusive rock ... which celebrated a specific collective attitude: the art school combination of ironic hedonism and a commitment to the weird." What's implied here - that there's an element of immaturity and smugness - isn't really fair, although those elements do jar on the previous Brown album, especially on "Politician". What's actually said is pretty close to the mark. And if you think about it, a similar description would just about fit Volume Two. Now, compare this more general quote from jazz critic John Fordham's collection Shooting from the Hip: "This was a period in London life which has now [1992] become the subject of a mixture of myth-making and caricature - the Oz obscenity trial, the Arts Lab, Soft Machine, psychedelia, revolution through love - but which was nevertheless driven by an intense and inspirational impulse to read what was written on the reverse of a piece of received wisdom." It's nice to see Fordham isn't afraid to give the "underground" credit where due. Whether he places the Softs among the determined challengers of conventional wisdom or the creatures of myth isn't entirely clear. Possibly it's both. What I'm getting at though, is that just as the Frith/Horne quote is apposite for the Softs too, the Fordham one could easily have taken in Pete Brown and his successive bands, which were undoubtedly part of that "period in London life". Well, of course, there's a history to that period as well as much after-the-fact myth-making, and it turns out there were interactions between the major figures, not just the more minor ones (no offence to Roger, Rob Tait, George et al). The Fordham piece was originally written for the program of an exhibition or some other gallery event celebrating the recently deceased Mal Dean, illustrator (same Liverpool College of Art year as John Lennon) and trumpeter/convenor of the Amazing Band. Thanks to Wrong Movements, we've belatedly become aware of the Amazing Band 1970 LP Roar, unreleased at the time but now out on CD, with Robert Wyatt on drums. And who played double bass? None other than Jim Mullen, guitarist and main co-writer with Pete Brown in Piblokto! But it gets better ... Dean actually did cover art and publicity graphics for Brown. Their relationship went back to 1961, when the Beaulieu Jazz Festival brought together several groups of post-Beat art-jazz-and-poetry types for the first time. Another such alliance forged at Beaulieu was the one between Brown and Mike Horovitz, who'd already established himself as a figure among a new generation of anti-intellectual poets by publishing a collection of them (and excerpts from William Burroughs' The Naked Lunch) in New Departures. The next step for Horovitz and Brown was to take the poetry off the page andbring it to life with Live New Departures, events with poets and musicians performing together. They managed to establish and sustain this concept, and in 1963 had a Tuesday residency at the Marquee. And 3 June '63 gives us the tangible evidence of the spiritual tie-in between the future Piblokto leader and the future Canterbury giants. On that day Live New Departures featured The Daevid Allen Trio (Allen, H Hopper and Wyatt), occasionally augmented by Ratledge or Horovitz. I haven't heard the CD and I don't think I want to. As the various quotes in Wrong Movements make clear, this was a very unformed group. What's interesting is their preoccupations at the time - not Terry Riley, tape loops, fuzz boxes and odd time signatures, but beat literature and anything that called itself "modern jazz" - and who the established figure in this scene, indulging them with a chance to play, was (and would become). To conclude, since this rambling has to end somewhere, let's just go back to 1970 and one last interesting little morsel from Wrong Movements: "June 25 - Amazing Band, Mercury Theatre, supporting Piblokto"! I'm sure a wonderful time was had by all that night! Does it get a mention in the autobiog, Roger? bb ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mark HEWINS <hewins@musart.co.uk> Subject: HiyA Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 16:53:53 +0100 From the MUSART Noticeboard; Phil Miller has just told us uf the next InCa Concerts... But first is a Duo with Pete Lemer (Keyboard wiz) at the VORTEX on THUR. 1st OCT 1998 SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST; Douggie Boyle!! The VORTEX IS AT: Stoke Newington Church St. Stoke Newington, London N16 InCaHoots in Europe 15th OCT; Dizzy, Rotterdam 16th OCT; Argenteuil, Paris 17th OCT; Massy, Paris 20th OCT; Travers, Brussells 21st OCT (TBC), Liege That's all the details we have I'm afraid... But if you want to see the Band, You'll know where! P&L>M ∞∞∞ MARK HEWINS ∞∞∞ < http://www.musart.co.uk/hewins.htm > (try the new CHORD PICKER) < http://www.musart.co.uk/script/chords.htm > ∞∞∞ ∞∞∞ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Marcel Mailly <marcel.mailly@sympatico.ca> Subject: new releases Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 11:41:47 -0400 hi,could you send me some informations about the latest releases like in cahoots.i live in quebec city and i want to order some of them but i don't have any adresses.this is my e-mail adress:raef045@hotmail.com thanks ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Zero the Hero <jeller@unf.edu> Subject: Dreams Wide Awake back on the Internet Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 13:20:10 -0400 (EDT) Hello,I'm pleased to announce that my progressive music radio show Dreams WideAwake is again broadcasting over the internet, after a painfully longhiatus. Lots of zeuhl, RIO, KC, and Italian prog get played, as well assymphonic, Canterbury, and electronic styles. Very little neo :-)Go to the URL below for details and playlists, and tune in! Thanks, Jason -- jeller@unf.edu Computing Services, University of North FloridaListen to DREAMS WIDE AWAKE http://www.unf.edu/~jeller/dreams.htmlFriday nights from 6 to 10 PM Hosted by Jason EllerbeeAiring from the University of North Florida worldwide via the Internet at http://www.unf.edu/groups/wosp/stream1.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Antony Freemont <info@strangemusic.com>Subject: NYC Perf 11 Oct 98 - also: need distributors for CDs Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 22:56:13 -0700 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 19 September 98 PATRICK GRANT GROUP in the Alterknit Theater at THE KNITTING FACTORY Sunday, October 11th at 9 PM 74 Leonard Street, NYC res: (212) 219-3006 tickets: $7 Patrick Grant ----------- composer and keyboard Keith Bonner ---------------------------- flute Thomas P. Oberle -------------------- clarinets Darryl Gregory ----------------------- trombone Bob Windbiel ------------------------- e.guitar Michael Evans --------------------------- drums David Simons ----------------------- percussion Paul DeSilva ------------------------- keyboard Jed Distler ----------------------------- piano Marija Ilic ----------------------------- piano Alejandra Mahave ------------------------ viola Anja Wood ------------------------------- cello Mark Steven Brooks --------------------- e.bass Composer Patrick Grant returns to the Knitting Factory with his group to perform three large-ensemble pieces, two of which are premieres. Each piece has as a distinguishing structural characteristic that they are comprised of thirteen sections, the same number of musicians in the performance tonight. As well, each piece is exactly half the duration of the piece that precedes it. This kind of self-description and self-similarity on the macro scale runs through all of the works on the smaller scales to some degree, showing Grant's ongoing interest in fractaline forms as one of the generative factors of his music. The first on the program, "Influx Rev.3" (1998) 34 min., is the crystallization of six months of reflection upon his artistic influences, musical and non-musical. It was written as a self-exorcism of these aesthetic mannerisms, a sort of "fighting fire with fire" purge of all that he feels has shaped his writing up until this point. He hopes that these elements have been combined and have been synthesized into a whole whose sum is greater than its relative segments. Avoiding pastiche, Grant layers process upon process in order to obfuscate where one influence ends and another begins while, at other times he contradicts this technique, and the music will take sudden turns, purposely jolting the listener into another world. This will be followed by "Music for an Imaginary Horror Film" (1995) 17 min., a piece that was written to be part of a recorded installation at the 1995 Venice Biennale. Grant has been waiting to premiere this energetic, pulse-driven piece of music live in an October performance where he could link it to the celebration of Halloween. During this highly narrative and madcap "morceau", there are times when the ghost of Erik Satie can be felt directly overhead. Finally, Grant has chosen to end the performance on a serious note with a piece whose working title is "Channels" (1998). As of this writing, all that is known is that it will be newly created for this performance, that it will be 8.5 minutes long and that it will be comprised of thirteen sections. webpage: http://www.goddard.edu/wgdr/kalvos/grantpa.html tel: (212) 421-9342 fax: (212) 758-4816 info@strangemusic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TALandon@aol.com Subject: none Date: Tue, 22 Sep 1998 18:14:25 EDT Dear Aymeric - and everyone else, A rousing bravo to you all! WR is really everything it might be - and more (the examples are too numerous to mention). I've just downloaded the first 50 issues and already seen several things I'd like to share or ask about. A few questions and answers: 1) In one of the early WRs, someone asked for info about Jean Karakos (or Caracos - don't know). There are two things I know about him:In 1983-4, as a young man freshly arrived in France (where I still am - anyfans in Montreuil (93)?), I shared a (pretty awful) hour-long weekly slot on aFrench Pirate radio, Radio Mouvance - our slot was just after the ComoranLiberation Front. This radio, which basically had a transmitter and a bedsit -occasionally raided by the police to add flavour to the proceedings - existed,I understood, thanks to one Jean Karakos (who I recognized from Gong's BYGalbums). I had always assumed he did it for reasons of anarchism.Incidentally, although my co-presenter was into French pop, I managed to playquite a lot of Canterbury music of the time (Robert Wyatt, kevin Ayers, HenryCow's "Bittern Storm Over Ulm" - surely the ultimate Canterbury single-that- will-never-be). 2) The last time I heard of Karakos, it was as the "Producteur" (i.e. financier) of the worldwide summer dance hit "La Lambada" a few years back. Via an indirect contact (friend of the bassist), I understand that his dealings around this one were not too clear, either. Anyway, they were eventually sued (and lost) because they'd ripped the tune off from (I believe) a Brazilian musician. Plus ça change... 3) Lastly, an open question to everyone out there: I note, from my recent immersion in early WRs, that Richard Sinclair played in Holland in 1996 with a guy called Dave Rees-Williams. I am pretty sure that he was the music scholar David Rees-Williams who I was at school with in the 1970s, when I lived for Canterbury music, and I never even knew that he had similar unusual tastes - I thought I was the only one who even knew about Hatfield and the North until I converted a few select people. Anyone know anything about what he's doing and where I could get in touch? Anyway, thanks for so much pleasure via the Calyx site and keep up the good work. Tom Landon talandon@aol.com [I can't confirm anything about David Rees-Williams, but my impression is that he wasn't into Canterbury music at all. He's an acoustic pianist for a start. Richard Sinclair apparently met him in Canterbury, but they didn't play together because of Sinclair's past, it seems - AL] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** FORTHCOMING CANTERBURY-RELATED CONCERTS ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * [for more info : check out the 'Concerts' page of CALYX - see URL below] CARAVAN[Hastings-Sinclair-Richardson-Coughlan-Leverton-Boyle-Bentall] Oct 30 - London, Astoria IN CAHOOTS / EUROPEAN TOUR Oct 15 - Rotterdam (Holland), Dizzy Oct 16 - Argenteuil (France) Oct 17 - Massy (France) Oct 20 - Brussels (Belgium), Travers Oct 21 - Liege (Belgium) [tbc] DAEVID ALLEN - SOLO DATES Sep ?? - Nevada City (with Terry Riley) [tbc] Oct 0? - Bellingen (Australia), Festival Oct 1? - Mullumbimby (Australia), Palmwoods Rock Ceremony DIDIER MALHERBE/PIERRE BENSUSAN Oct 02 - Jersey (C.I.), Festival International Oct 03 - Jersey (C.I.), Festival International Oct 05 - Oxford, The Zodiac Oct 06 - London, The Purcell Room Oct 07 - Cambridge, The Portland Arms Oct 08 - Nottingham, Bonington Theatre Oct 09 - New Milton, Forest Arts Centre Oct 10 - Tamworth, The Arts Centre Nov 27 - Paris (France), New MorningDec 05 - Alençon (France), La Luciole [tel: 02.33.32.83.33]Jan 22 - Elancourt (France), venue unknown [tel: 01.30.51.53.54]Jan 23 - Montereau (France), venue unknown [tel: 01.64.70.44.14]Feb 26 - Valenciennes (France), Théatre le Phoenix [tel: 03.27.32.32.00]Feb 27 - Faches-Tumesnil [near Lille] (France), Les Arcades [tel: 03.20.62.96.96]Mar 06 - Jarny (France), Espace Gérard Philippe [tel: 03.82.33.12.25] CHRIS CUTLER - MISC. DATES Sep 30 - Paris, Instants Chavires [w/R.Lussier] Oct 17 - Berlin, SFB Radio Haus [w/S.Hirsch/L.Glandien] Oct 24 - Bucarest, Radio Haus [w/I.Dumitrescu] Nov 14 - Berlin [w/L.Glandien]Nov 16 - Kracow, Goethe Institut (Audio Art Festival) [w/ P53]Nov 19 - Paris, Instants Chavires [w/JJ.Pauvros/JM.Montera/T.Buck] FRED FRITH/CHRIS CUTLER DUO Oct 10 - Torino, Salone Della Musica Festival Oct 11 - Vilnius, Jazz Festival CHRIS CUTLER with various projectsSep 30 - Paris (France), Instants Chavirés [with René Lussier]Oct 17 - Berlin (Germany), Prix Europa [with Shelley Hirsch/Lutz Glandien]Oct 24 - Bucarest (Rumania), Radio House [Iancu Dumitrescu Orchestra]Nov 14 - Berlin (Germany), venue unknown [with Lutz Glandien] Nov 16 - Krakow (Poland), Audio Art Festival [with P53]Nov 19 - Paris (France), Instants Chavirés [with Tony Buck/JM Montera/JJ Pauvros] FORGAS BAND PHENOMENAOct 23 - Paris (France), Theatre Dunois [opening for John Wetton] Nov 13 - Paris (France), Le Glaz'Art [tel: 140.364.849] And a plug for our Japanese friends... BONDAGE FRUITOct 16 - Fashes-Thumesnil (France), Les Arcades [info: 03.20.62.96.96]Oct 17 - Brussels (Belgium), Magasin 4 [info: Travers (31) 2.218.1509]Oct 23 - Göteborg (Sweden), Scandinavian Progressive Rock Festival [info: (46) 40.46.66.44] ...and a plug for our Kobaians friends: MAGMA Oct 20 - Brussels (Belgium) Oct 21 - Hamburg (Germany) Oct 22 - Leverkusen (Germany) Oct 24 - Berlin (Germany) Oct 25 - Bratislava (Slovakia) Nov 07 - Torcy (77) (France) Nov 27 - St.Nazaire (44) (France) Nov 28 - St.Quentin (02) (France) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * END OF ISSUE 104 _________________________________________________________________________WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? - WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?_________________________________________________________________________ CALYX - The Canterbury Website http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/calyx.html THE ULTIMATE ONLINE CANTERBURY DISCOGRAPHY http://www.alpes-net.fr/~bigbang/cantdisco.html WHAT'S RATTLIN' ? BACK ISSUES - ONLINE ARCHIVE http://musart.co.uk/watrat/watrat.htm + search engine : http://musart.co.uk/ssearch.htm Send all correspondence regarding 'CALYX' and 'WHAT'S RATTLIN' ?' to : bigbang@alpes-net.fr _________________________________________________________________________