Monday Long Song

Authentic instrumental acoustic Americana this week, from an unlikely source - The Netherlands. Joost Dijkema (pronounced Yowst Dykuh-ma) was born in 1989 and started his musical journey behind a drum kit before having his head turned by LPs such as Leo Kottke´s ´6 & 12 String Guitar’ and Michael Chapman’s ‘Time Past and Time Passing’ after which he spent several years developing his own fingerstyle acoustic guitar technique. Dijkema has thus far released two solo albums, 'Sacred Revelations' in 2016 and last year's 'Time Thief' (both available to check out here). 'Why in the World Evansville' is a new tune taken from the latest instalment of Tompkins Square's ongoing Imaginational Anthem series, 'Vol. X : Overseas Edition'.

Joost Dijkema - Why In the World Evansville

Monday Long Song

For all sorts of reasons buying records has slipped down my list of priorities just lately, but a new LP that I was very glad to bag was one of the 150 available copies of 'Dickfehler Studio Treffen I' by КОМВУИАТ ЯОВОТЯОИ. The German four piece have issued a steady stream of music through their Bandcamp page over the past couple of years (here), but frustratingly little of it on vinyl, thus far at least. Here's a 2020 tune, not featured on the new album.

КОМВУИАТ ЯОВОТЯОИ - KR IV.III

Farewell Steve Priest

On Friday December 21st 1973 I saw Sweet at The Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park. It was only my third ever concert, but the second time I'd seen the band at the iconic venue that year. Five years would elapse before I saw Sweet live again and a further three years before I caught them for a fourth and final time, albeit in a Brian Connolly-less trio configuration - a three piece Sweet if you will.

Bassist Steve Priest passed away yesterday at the age of 72, leaving Andy Scott as the sole survivor from the classic line-up. The December 1973 Rainbow show was recorded and seven of the thirteen songs played that night appeared two years later on the double compilation LP 'Strung Up'. 'Hellraiser', which had reached No.2 in the singles chart earlier that year, opened the set.

Sweet - Hellraiser (Live)

The Texture and the Flavour

My Dad did it for years. The former Mrs S did it for a while. A number of my friends are doing it on a regular basis. Our mutual blogging chum John Medd is a past master at it. My social media platform of choice is full of photos showing the results of complete strangers doing it. I'm referring of course to the baking of bread. And now, at the ripe old age of 60, I can report that I too am belatedly getting in on the act, after giving further consideration to a comment I left over at Alyson's place last month....

'While on a birthday Skype call with a couple of friends last week, they each impressed me with tales of their respective sourdough bread making exploits. I absolutely love sourdough, but haven’t got the first clue how to make it – nor the patience to try I suspect. Also, if I did somehow manage to make an edible loaf, I doubt that it wouldn’t last more than five minutes before I demolished it! I try not to eat too much bread in general, but have little willpower where a fresh, warm loaf is concerned. 

Towards the end of his life my Dad got into baking his own bread, baking two loaves at a time – one for he and Mum to use straight away and one to put in the freezer for later in the week. It took him a very long time and lots of tweaking to perfect his own particular tasting recipe, but it was well worth the effort. The highlight of any visit home was a big toasted slab of Dad’s bread. When he died suddenly in 2007, his last loaf was left in the freezer. A couple of weeks later, Mum and I defrosted and shared the loaf, knowing that we’d never taste his bread again – it was quite a moment.'

So last week I had a go at baking my first ever loaf of bread. Fully expecting to have to chuck away my first half a dozen failures (as I recall my Dad doing all those years ago), I attempted the most simple, straight forward, plain white loaf....... and was frankly astonished to produce a surprisingly edible debut effort.

This week, still flushed with success, I, perhaps over-ambitiously, attempted a boule and added a selection of seeds into the mix. The result was visually a little lacklustre, but the seeds improved the taste considerably. The long term aim is to move on to sourdough, but patience is a virtue, I have to learn to walk before I can run.

In the old world, I was scheduled to catch up with Mark Lanegan in concert again this week, but it was not to be. Here he is with Screaming Trees back in 1992 covering The Small Faces.

Screaming Trees - Song of a Baker

Monday Long Song

This one's been in the bag for a while, as you'll appreciate if you glance over at your calendar. The Eighteenth Day of May's particular take on hazy psych-influenced folk lasted a little over a year and then they were gone, leaving just the one self-titled album behind them. I took the CD for a spin in the car just a few months back and it sounded every bit as good to me as it did when I first bought it 15 years ago, so I was surprised and delighted to spot an imminent double LP re-release featuring a bunch of additional rarities and demos, which I ordered without hesitation.

My self-imposed rule for the Monday Long Song feature is that it has to be over seven minutes long to qualify, making today's offering at just shy of 6½ minutes my shortest ever, but hey, it's the opening song from a very fine album and, well, take a look at the date. Then listen to more here.

The Eighteenth Day of May - Eighteen Days

Times Were So Tough, But Not as Tough as They Are Now

The cancer that attacked your lung last year, then moved to your brain, has finally taken you. We'd been given notice that the end might be near, but nevertheless we're reeling. The one comforting aspect in all this is that you were at home with your amazing wife and daughter at the end, not locked down and out of reach in hospital.

Inevitably, since the news came through, I've been poring over photos, reigniting memories of when the five of us really were as thick as thieves - the fun, laughter, jaunts, music and, it has to be said, substantial quantities of alcohol. One day I'd like to be able write more about you and our exploits, but right now the words won't come.

We had some bustin' times though didn't we?

The Jam - Thick as Thieves

Monday Long Song

When it became clear that long cultivated NYC-related plans for my recent 60th birthday were destined to come to nothing, I decided to allow myself a vinyl treat or two to make up for the disappointment. One of the records I picked up was a copy of 'Platte', the 2003 LP by Electric Orange. To quote the band's blurb, they've been delivering '...krautrock and psychedelics from Germany since 1992...' Their catalogue is substantial and a smattering of it can be found here. It's well worth a poke about if you ask me, I mean who could resist dipping into an album entitled 'Krautrock From Hell'? Meanwhile, back at 'Platte'.....

Electric Orange - Holzbock