Melt Yourself Down

I'm about to make one of my ever more rare forays out into the real world - back in a couple of days. I'll leave you with a selection that almost makes me glad I don't have a record shop anymore. I mean, where exactly would I file the remarkable 'Melt Yourself Down' LP? In the avant-ethno-jazz-funk-electronica section I suppose. Whatever you choose to call what they do, the band produce a superbly bracing racket, but a word to the wise - don't watch the clip for 'Fix My Life' if you're sporting a hangover!

Small Claims Court

On his BBC Radio 6Music breakfast show, Shaun Keaveny runs a regular feature called 'Small Claims Court', during which listeners call in with true-life, but ridiculously tenuous, brushes with the rich and famous - very small claims to fame. A personal example would be that I once had a double espresso made for me by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio.

Then there was the time in 1997, when I pulled into the car park beneath the Bournemouth International Centre prior to a Bob Dylan show, to find a lady having trouble with an uncooperative pay & display machine. The lady was PJ Harvey and by our combined efforts we managed to coax that pay & display machine back into action.

Finally, about 10 years ago, I attended the launch of a Sesame Street DVD at a small theatre in New York, with my cousin and her young children. The bash was for media personalities and their kids, my cousin was invited through a friend who worked in TV. The hundred or so assembled kids went bonkers when Ernie, Bert, Elmo and Big Bird appeared 'live' on stage before us, as part of the presentation. A couple of rows in front of where we were seated, presumably accompanying his own child, was Martin Scorsese, who stood several times to record the family event on a small, personal, hand-held digital camcorder, which he also panned around the entire audience, to capture the atmosphere. I can therefore boast, in all honesty, that I have appeared in a Martin Scorsese film!

Saturday Scratch #34 - The Upsetters...and a bit of Dillinger

Swans are a common sight on the marshes around these parts, alone, or more commonly in pairs. While out walking one day early last summer, I stood silently for a full quarter of an hour watching one such pair in the early stages of constructing a nest, a little inland, by a riverside path. They displayed such co-operation and attention to detail - it was quite something to behold. Here's the thing though. Every now and again, if I'm lucky, I'll see swans in flight and they are invariably in a group. Why not as a pair, or solo, the way they live on the ground? Is it a social thing? Communal exercise perhaps? Just the other afternoon, while chopping wood, (does that make me sound like a great outdoorsman?) I heard the familiar sound, which always reminds me of the slow motion helicopters in the opening scenes of 'Apocalypse Now'. That unique whooping thwack of wings keeping ungainly bodies aloft. Then I saw them, seven majestic swans flying in formation across the garden and down towards the river. Breathtaking.

To my knowledge there are no black swans locally, I've certainly not seen any, but here's a shot of one I saw foraging around near Manningtree a few years ago. I wish I had photoshop on my laptop - I would've taken out the brick! The reason I mention black swans is that the record label Black Swan, popular for it's Ska output in the early 1960's, was briefly revived by parent company Island Records in 1976/77, and was an outlet for a small selection of Lee Perry productions. Around a dozen singles and a couple of LP's were issued before Black Swan shut up shop once again. The rekindled label's catalogue may have been slim, but the quality was high. Here, from the flip of George Faith's sublime cover of William Bell's 'To Be a Lover', are The Upsetters with 'Rastaman Shuffle'. Oh, and if you're wondering how exactly Dillinger's disembodied and out-of-sync toasting fits in with opening two minutes of the tune, well...it doesn't. Apparently Scratch would re-use blank tracks on previously recorded tape for financial reasons and in this case an unrelated section of 'Roots Train' somehow made it through to the final pressing.

Sweet Baboo

With a certain inevitability, no sooner had I put down the metaphorical pen on my 'Tracks of 2013' list, the tunes I forgot to include began popping into my head with alarming regularity. 'The Morse Code For Love' by Sweet Baboo is just one example. Stephen Black (as he's known to his mates) has fingers in many musical pies (Cate Le Bon, Gruff Rhys, The Voluntary Butler Scheme and The Slow Club to name a few) and yet still finds time to create irresistible pop moments such as this.

At Night in Dreams

At first it seemed like a little yappy fox pup, so I opened the gate to let it in, but as it came closer I saw saliva dripping from it's mouth and the yap became a yelp became a bark became a blood curdling howl - then it lunged at me. Close up, the dog was big, very big indeed. Rancid breath, teeth sickly yellow, biting at my legs. I tried to get away, but it was too large and too strong, so I kicked out again and again, swinging my leg wildly in blind panic at it's head. My foot connected full in it's face, but it didn't flinch, just growled terrifyingly and kept biting and biting me. I had to get free, but couldn't. No escape. Kick, kick, kick. 

Then I woke up. It was 3.30am, dark and quiet. My foot hurt like hell......so did Mrs S's leg apparently. Surprisingly, she's still talking to me.

The Tracks of My Year #2

I'm honoured to, once again, be included among the contributors to Tune Doctor's year-end round-up, where I've selected 20 of my fave raves from the past 12 months (here). As usual most of my choices are in no particular order, but this year, for the first time in a long time, I've stuck my neck out and actually nominated my own personal toppermost of the poppermost.

A tune that doesn't feature in my 2013 selection is the fantastic 'Birth in Reverse' by St Vincent, which arrived slightly too late for consideration, but, as the album isn't due until the end of February, you can expect to see it vying for position in my 2014 picks, come the end of this year.

(While you're in the neighbourhood, be sure to sample Tune Doctor's entire 'Best of 2013' range!)

Benjamin Curtis R.I.P.

Some very sad news to start 2014, with the announcement of Benjamin Curtis's death at the age of just 35. Curtis was a member of Tripping Daisy and Secret Machines, before forming School of Seven Bells with twin sisters Claudia & Alejandra Deheza in 2007. Benjamin was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in February 2013 and passed away on December 29th. School of Seven Bells released three albums of quality indie pop, often infused with an indefinable melancholia. Here are two fine examples.