Monthly Archives: September 2008

Is it really thirty years since these tracks?

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It’s been a wonderful weekend, I’ve had a great time, and feeling quite ‘up’ for a Sunday evening.

Kinda taken aback to suddenly realise that it is now thirty years since these debut tracks were released. My world’s still shaking from the implications of these…

Is there a rule for debut singles? I kinda think they should be like a manifesto. After all, it may be the only shot you ever get, so sing it loud and sing it proud…

The Fall -‘Bingo Master’s Breakout!’ mp3

Steel Pulse -‘Ku Klux Klan.’ mp3

Scritti Politti -‘Skank Bloc Bologna.’ mp3

Gang Of Four -‘Damaged Goods.’ mp3

Adam and the Ants -‘Young Parisians.’ mp3

Magazine -‘Shot By Both Sides.’ mp3

This is a cheat, but it was the b-side and just as good as the a-side…

The Cure -’10:15 Saturday Night.’mp3

I could also have posted Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kate Bush, P.I.L…

the big question is: will we realise who all the good debut singles of 2008 were by at the end of this year, or in thirty years’ time? Answer below please…

Whose Sonic Youth is it anyway?

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I have written on these pages before about my love of both Sonic Youth and The Wire magazine. But I have to be honest, I found myself bristling when I got Issue #295. No less than three Sonic Youth books were being reviewer, and they were all slated by the reviewed David Keenan, a writer I normally have a lot of respect for. Keenan’s attitude is best summed up here: ‘Who are all of these people who go to sellout Sonic Youth shows and yet never pick up a record on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace label or even know any Sonic Youth albums pre-Daydream Nation?

Actually, I have investigated and bought Sonic Youth albums pre-Daydream Nation, and I do have stuff released on Ecstatic Peace. But I’m not happy with the idea of people being looked down on because they don’t.

To be fair to David Keenan, he obviously really knows his Sonic Youth inside out. And that includes all the side projects, the releases they have done on the SYR records, the solo albums and the collaborations, be they with Lydia Lunch, Jim O’Rourke or Merzbow. This needs documenting, and I’m still learning. But is it really fair to turn your nose up at the people who came to Sonic Youth via seeing them on Lollapolooza, MTV’s 120 Minutes or Alternative Nation, or hearing them in Juno? Whilst it’s one thing to feel that a book isn’t properly researched, it’s quite another to be snobby about it. Courtney Love once commented that the problem with Alternative Rock was that it was riddled with middle-class snobbery and she is absolutely right. And this extends, most definitely to notions of the avant-garde.

I first heard Sonic Youth in late 1990, when a friend played me Goo. This did lead to me investigating their back catalogue. I have to put my hand up and say that I have only seen them live once. Sometimes geography can be a real barrier, as can money and oh yes, a day job. But if someone hones in on Sonic Youth because of hearing their cover version of the Carpenters’ ‘Superstar’ why is that less worthy? There will be people whose epiphany moments will come as a result of those moments in High Fidelity, Garden State or Juno. Does this make them less adequate fans?

There have been lots of side projects, and I cannot write about them all here because I do not consider myself qualified to do so. As Ciccone Youth they recorded cover versions of Madonna’s Burning Up and Into The Groove(y) (sic), and Robert Palmer’s ‘Addicted To Love’ working with Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis and the Minutemen’s Mike Watt. I treasure my Sonic Youth/Mudhoney split single where they cover each other’s songs. But I don’t think the less of someone who still thinks that Dirty is a better album than Bad Moon Rising.

Some of the side projects can be disorientating. The collaboration beween Thurston Moore, Evan Parker and Walter Prati, The Promise, can seem like a bewildering listen. I know many felt completely freaked out by the Goodbye 20th Century SYR release. I like the ‘J’accuse Ted Hughes’ release from earlier this year, but this isn’t for everyone. Other projects, like Thurston Moore’s solo album from last year Trees Outside The Academy or Kim Gordon’s ongoing side-project Free Kitten are more, dare I say it, accessible. That doesn’t mean that they’re boring or lack experimentation, it’s just that they’re easier to listen to and get into.

I somehow doubt that Sonic Youth sit there worrying, anyway. Over the course of more than half a century, they’ve ploughed their own furrow. this year, they have released a best-of through Starbucks music, and then announced that they’re signing to Matador. Perverse buggers.

From Goo, still my favourite Sonic Youth LP

Sonic Youth -‘Kool Thing.’ mp3

and just to prove that I do know something of Sonic Youth away from their more mainstream stuff, Mr. Keenan…

From 1987’s Sister LP

Sonic Youth -‘Schizophrenia.’ mp3

From Free Kitten’s release Inherit

Free Kitten -‘Erected Girl.’ mp3

From last year’s Trees Outside The Academy

Thurston Moore -‘Fri/End.’ mp3

[Oh, these last two tracks are from the Ecstatic Peace label. There now, we can all share!]

From the aforementioned Thurston Moore, Evan Parker and Walter Prati release The Promise

>Thurston Moore, Evan Parker and Walter Prati -‘Our Future.’ mp3

Sonic Youth’s official site/Sonic Youth’s mySpace

Ecstatic Peace website/myspace

Album Review: Mogwai

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Mogwai – ‘The Hawk Is Howling.’ (Wall Of Sound/PIAS)

It’s been a pretty good year for Mogwai and their fans. Earlier this year, Chemikal Underground re-issued their seminal debut Young Team, their latest EP Batcat has debuted at no.1 in the indie charts, and now they release their sixth studio album.

More than a decade into their career, Mogwai are also still capable of surprising us. This is exactly what makes them such a rewarding listen, and why I still get excited about each new Mogwai release. For the last couple of months, the mp3 of ‘The Sun Is Too Loud’ has been doing the rounds. John Peel used to say about The Fall that they were ‘always the same; always different.’ And that sums up Mogwai particularly well too. ‘The Sun…’ features more of an electronic take on their sound than we’ve ever had from Mogwai, and it makes sense listening to it that on their forthcoming tour they will be supported by Fuck Buttons.

This release has been described as being more cinematic than previous releases, and I would agree with that. Whilst there’s no repetition of that moment on their debut’s ‘Like herod’ track when it explodes, making you jump like the final scene in Carrie, there’s still gorgeous echoes of ‘Mogwai fear Satan.’ ‘King’s Meadow’ particularly is a gorgeous slow number.

As a mostly instrumental act, Mogwai have forged their own distinctive sound. They’re labelled post-rock, but Mrs. 17 Seconds commented that they sound scottish; not because they use the bagpipes, but because of the way the guitars and drums sound. Mogwai are a mass of beuatiful contradictions that always seem to balance perfectly. A decade in, and each album still sets its’ own stall out differently. No collaborations with Aidan Moffat or Gruff Rhys here; these have been done before.

Is there a gameplan? Who knows, but on the strength of this latest release, Mogwai seem incapable of letting us down, but always surprising and delighting us. Long may they run.

****1/2

The Hawk Is Howling is released on Monday on Wall Of Sound/PIAS

Mogwai -‘The Sun Smells Too Loud.’ mp3

The video for current single ‘Batcat.’ If ‘Xmas Steps’ seemed to evoke David Lynch, this evokes The Wicker Man and It.

Six of the records that shaped dance music, 1977-1989

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A friend came to stay the other week who I’ve known for twenty years. As is the case, we spent a fair amount of time discussing music. He’s been more of a dance fan than ‘indie’ over the last decade, though those two genres are not mutually exclusive. he’s been excavating the old dance stuff, and with my love of music from 1977-1982, it’s clear that this era stamped its’ mark on dance just as much as indie.

Having picked up an Arthur Russell compilation (on whom more to come!), I thought I would post three dance classics:

First up a classic. I wrote about Chic’s Good Times back in March, so here it is again.

Chic -‘Good Times.’ mp3

I mentioned Arthur Russell earlier; I will do a No Wave post one of these days…

James Chance -‘Contort Yourself.’ mp3

This record featured an American vocalist, but it’s a very European-sounding record.

Donna Summer -‘I Feel Love (12″ version).’ mp3

These guys came out of the same Bristol scene that spawned Massive Attack, Nellee Hooper, and Tricky, amongst many others.

Pigbag -‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag.’ mp3

And the first sample strewn record to top the charts in the UK:

M/A/R/R/S -‘Pump Up The Volume.’ mp3

Of course, by the end of the eighties, it wasn’t just New York and Chicago doing house, but Italy was doing ‘Italia House.’ And this was probably its’ best known hit:

Black Box -‘Ride On Time.’ mp3

Of course, there are many more out there…watch this space…

Rick Wright remembered (1943-2008)

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17 Seconds would like to extend its’ heartfelt sympathy to Rick Wright’s family. The Pink Floyd keyboardist passed away yesterday at the age of 65.

Though much of the coverage of Pink Floyd over the years has focused on founder member Syd Barrett (whose solo albums Wright contributed to), and the power struggle between bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour, the contributions made by Rick Wright (and drummer Nick Mason) to the band cannot be underestimated. Floyd’s albums have (mostly) dated extremely well, and it should be remembered that rick Wright has been an important factor in that.

Though he tended to focus more on performing keyboards, he also contributed to songwriting in the band, one of his earliest contributions being ‘Paint Box’ the b-side to third single ‘Apples and Oranges.’ ‘The Great Gig In the Sky’ and ‘Us and Them’ from The Dark Side Of The Moon. The only Floyd album to which he didn’t contribute was 1983 The Final Cut, having been effectively kicked out of the band by Waters in 1979.

We salute you sir, here are two Pink Floyd related tracks, the aforementioned ‘paint Box’ and the opening track from their 1967 debut The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, ‘Astronomy Domine.’ Although this wasn;t credited to him, Rick Wright actually sang lead vocals on this track.

Pink Floyd -‘Paint Box.’ mp3

Pink Floyd -‘Astronomy Domine.’ mp3

Rick Wright at Wikipedia

Album Review: Hanggai

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Hanggai – ‘Introducing Hanggai’ (World Music Network)

Hanggai are a Beijing-based group. They specialise in adaptations of songs from the inner grasslands of Inner Mongolia. This is their debut album, and stands as one of the most astoundingly beautiful albums I have heard this year.

This album has already picked up some excellent reviews, and deserevdly so. Whilst I don’t knowingly understand a word of what they are singing, at least until I read through the lyrics on the web, at the risk of descending into cliche, there are times when the music-making and the singing itself transcend the need for this. Over the course of ten songs in forty minutes, it is a charming listen that stretches across continents. I’m not an authority on ‘folk/world’ music (and I’m starting to have issues with the concept of ‘World’ music; The Wire’s ‘label’ of ‘Global’ is a slight improvement) but the feeling of listening to this album is how it has something in common with music that comes from very different places. Comparisons have already been made with the Velvet Underground, due to the use of drones, but there are also hints of The Incredible String band. Penultimate song ‘Drinking Song’ could have men from anywhere joining in highfiving each other.

The album involves techniques like throat-singing, and traditional instruments like the two-stringed lute and the horse-hair fiddle. The album was produced by Robin Haller and Matteo Scumaci. As with much ‘East meets West’ music, there will no doubt be those who feel that things are being ‘westernized’ in order for sales;* and anyone who’s listened to the Bhundu Boys might feel that concern (see the different recordings available of ‘Waerera’), the feeling at the end of the forty minutes is that this is just a beautiful album on any terms. Do yourself a favour and check this out now.

*****
Hanggai -‘Yekul Song.’ mp3

Hanggai -‘Five Heroes.’ mp3

Hanggai – ‘Haar Hu.’ mp3

Hanggai’s official website/Hanggai’s Myspace

* In The Wire 295, Julian Cowley’s review comments that: ‘revivalists perform a balancing act that’s tricky enough to accomplish without such pressure from a thumb on the scales.’

Autumn…

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It’s here. My favourite time of year. A time when everything seems to be changing.

It’s been a long weekend. Long, in the sense of ‘I’ve had mroe than just Saturday and Sunday off.’ Long in so many ways…

There’s a huge pile of CDs to be reviewed, Glasvegas’ debut didn’t get to no.1 and I’m frazzled. But hey…

Ash, one of Mrs. 17 Seconds’ favourite bands, released this track ten years ago on their Nu-Clear Sounds LP. To me, it sounds like autumn. It was never a single, at least in the UK, but hearing it again reminds me of how much has changed in that time, and how much is, thankfully, still the same.

Ash – Folk Song.’ mp3

Album Review: David Grubbs

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David Grubbs -‘An Optimist Notes The Dust.’ (Drag City)

This album has been described by its’ creator as ‘A step into the void.’ It’s fitting that it’s out on Drag City, a label visionary enough to release music such as this. It’s more surprising to read in the accompanying sleevenotes that it was mostly recorded in Brooklyn, bteween November and March. A surprise, as the sound and feeling David Grubbs evokes are hot, hazey, dusty summer days. The ones that are inland, that make you tired and yet, are somehow really beautiful.*

Then, looking further at the sleevenotes, it transpires that additional recording was made by Paul Oldham in Kentucky in July 2007 ‘on a day that hit a record 105 degrees before thunderstorms came, turned the sky green and thrashed the cornfields.’

While something as unique as this record is hard to compare to many other artists (hence the allusions, in true British style, to the weather), think Slint circa Spiderland, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy circa Master and Everyone. Third track ‘Holy Fool Music’ is perhaps the most different sounding track on the album, my notes reading that it evokes Pavement and prime-era Sonic Youth, with a hint of Led Zeppelin circa Physical Graffitti.

David Grubbs’ music is something other, something special. Check this album out to hear it. I think I’ve exhausted my thesaurus.

****

David Grubbs -‘An Optimist Declines (edit).’ mp3 [taken from the Drag City page]

An Optimist Notes The Dust is released on September 29, 2008

David Grubbs’ mySpace

* Mind you, Transformer was recorded in London.

It’s David vs. Goliath…

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…oh no, hang on, it’s not. A mere nine months after 17 Seconds bigged them up and interviewed them, Glasvegas are going head to head with Metallica in the album charts.

Is it about sales? Well, no, but it’s a sign of how far a band can come…watch this video from the UK’s ITN news.

Glasvegas v Metallica in the battle of the bands
Glasvegas v Metallica in the battle of the bands

Amusing, no? Although the idea that for running a race you get chocolate and fizzy drinks (note to non-scots: in scotland ‘juice’ is the name given to fizzy drinks, not necessarily something that comes from fruit), perhaps speaks volumes about Scotland’s health issues…

Anyway, 17 Seconds is firmly routing for Glasvegas in this battle.

Album Review: Martina Topley-Bird

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Martina Topley-Bird -‘The Blue God’ (Independiente)

Five years since her solo debut, Quixotic, Martina Topley-Bird releases the follow-up The Blue God. This is an album I’ve been really enjoying over the last few weeks, and it’s about time that I sat down and wrote the review.

The first thing to say is that like her former collaborator, Tricky, it is time to consider this album without expecting it to sound like Maxinequaye. While there is no denying that it was and is an astounding album, we need to consider his and her works on their own terms.

So, no, this is not trip-hop. Rather like Santogold’s album from this year, this is an album which is pop, in the intelligent sense of the word, rather than the connotations with manufactured acts that have sullied it, and dumbed it down. It’s probably appropriate that it’s produced by Danger Mouse, who has firmly established himself as one of this decade’s key producers. Those vocals are still there, gently nagging at you and pulling you in. There’s a hint of blues, a fair bit of soul, a lot of sheer gorgeousness. In fact, this album has far more in common with, say, prime-era Cardigans than trip-hop.

Highlights of the album would include the single ‘Carnies’ and ‘Poison’ but what impresses is just how each time I play this album, another track puts itself as a contender for the album’s strongest cut. It’s time that Ms. Topley-Bird is acknowledged as one of Britain’s great singers and viewed on her own terms.

****

The Blue God is out now on Independiente

Martina Topley-Bird -‘Carnies’

Martina Topley-Bird -‘Poison’ on Jools Holland


Martina Topley-Bird’s webpage