Bells and Calls

One of my correspondents in Frank's APA was talking about being in Malta. Malta is apparently quite Catholicy, and at one point on his visit the churches started ringing their bells simultanaeously, creating a weird and spacey sound effect. This reminded me of sitting on the walls of the castle above Tripoli in Lebanon and hearing a load of mosques simultanaeously doing the Muslim call to prayer. There was one long sustained note on which they all seemed to be unintentionally harmonising, creating a strange and otherworldy sound that cast me into unintentional direct contact with the sublime. It was on of the strangest and most fascinating experiences of my life. I know a lot of people who think that the world would be a better place if it could be expunged of religious devotion; it is experiences like that that convince me they are wrong.

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The Contemporary Music Centre – an apology

It turns out that a lot of what I wrote previously about the Contemporary Music Centre was not entirely true. Yes, that's right – inaccuracy mars blog. Looking at their website again, I see a number of things. Firstly, they do not really seem to publish CDs themselves, but rather their shop sells CDs by artists they support. They might stump up some of the money to fund the issuing of the CD, but I can see how they might feel that it is up to the record labels to really push the recording out to the public. In any case, the shoppy bit on their website is also quite usefully arranged, allowing you to browse music by subgenre and suchlike. So I do not know what crack I was smoking when I went on my rant against these fine fellows, although I still believe that the attitude of the people on that radio programme you have all forgotten about (an episode of Nova on Lyric FM, featuring a load of whiny composers) was a bit self-defeating.

I am making this apology of my own free will and without having had any undue influence brought against me. I have furthermore drafted this apology myself and am not being held in a dungeon underneath the Contemporary Music Centre and am not being repeatedly tortured by irate members of the Irish contemporary music community.

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If you had a pint of Harp…

Here is a link to a compilation of Irish music and stuff from the 1970s and 1980s: Níl Sé Anseo* – a combination of commercially released music, TV themes and ads, snippets of dialogue from ads and TV programmes, and so on. If you are Irish and roughly my age, listen to it and feel the nostalgia. If you are young or foreign then this is a fascinating vision into a strangely different time and place.

I particularly recommend this to anyone thinking of going on holidays, as it features a priest talking about how important it is to bring the Ten Commandments with you on holiday.

And no, I did not compile this myself (and I am not just saying that to scare off the copyright facists), but I think it deserves a wider audience.

*I can advise non Galtee readers that this means "He is not here".

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Important Concert Features

At the relatively recent Bowlie 2 festival I was talking to someone who said that she greatly enjoyed the Belle & Sebastian set. She was particularly grateful that they played 'Lord Anthony', as it meant she could nip off for a piss without missing any good songs.

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Dreams In The Witch House

I went on holidays to Lanzarote in January. Flying home, I found myself listening to the strange electronic music of Broadcast, a wonderful accompaniment to my sleepy flight. The next day I learned that Trish Keenan of Broadcast had died following swine flu complications. People die all the time, particularly people involved in the world of music, but her death affected me a bit more than most. She is roughly the same age as me and was struck down not by some crazy rock star ailment but by a very everyday disease that could strike anyone at any time and usually just makes them a bit poorly for a couple of days. If the dice roll badly for her, they could for me too.

Keenan's death came at a time when my interest in the music of Broadcast was on the up. I had gone off them a bit around the time of Haha Sound (I had found that album a bit tuneless, though now I think perhaps it was just a transition from the faux-60s sound of their earlier recordings). I found reading about the recent album they had done with the Focus Group fascinating. It seemed like Broadcast were moving decisively in an almost occult direction, trying to become modern hierophants fashioning a spectral music evoking imaginary cults of cyber magi. The pictures of Broadcast that appeared in The Wire at this time were rather striking, with Keenan having put her youthful looks behind her in favour of an aspect more akin to that of a high priestess of secret wisdom.

And now she is no more. I am very sorry now that I did not get to any of the festivals Broadcast played last year and I think with sympathy of James Cargill, her musical and life partner. Listening to the album Broadcast made with the Focus Group, I am struck by how spectral the record sounds. Now with Keenan actually dead, yet still able to sing to us from when she was alive, it is like she has herself become a ghost of the electronic age.

This is of course my second piece on Trish Keenan. You can read its rather similar predecessor here.

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More Syria Action

Oh look, I have posted the third part of my background pieces on Syria on my other blog.

I have also fixed links here.

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Elisabeth Sladen

When I was very small, I used to watch Doctor Who. Tom Baker played the Doctor, Ian Marter played Harry, and Elisabeth Sladen played Sarah Jane Smith, who was kind of like all your nice primary school teachers rolled into one. After a while Ms Sladen left Dr Who, but she went on to appear on a TV programme for small people called Stepping Stones. After a while she stopped appearing on that as well and largely disappeared from the television. Some years later she showed up in a not-very-good Dr Who spin-off called K9 and Company, before returning to make occasional appearances on non-canonical nu-Dr Who.

Ian Marter died some years ago. And today I read that Elisabeth Sladen too has died, aged 63. Here is her last appearance on Doctor Who.

Fierce Otter Goes On Rampage

The Co. Clare town of Tulla has been terrorised by a fierce otter. Not realising that the townsfolk were trying to help it back to the wetlands that make up the usual otter environment, the furry menace lashed and snapped at all comers, repeatedly escaping from human custody. So fierce was the little fellow that he had exhausted himself by the time he was brought to the water he had to be saved from drowning and held in custody for another fifteen minutes until he was ready to swim and bite again.

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Selda [Untitled Finders Keepers album]

This was a Christmas present. As you know, Selda is this Turkish protest singer from whom Finders Keepers have brought us this record as part of their Anatolian Invasion series. I will not lie to you, I already had this on vinyl, but it is great getting a copy of it on CD so that I can blast it onto Mr iPod. Just a reminder of how this record works – Selda herself sings and plays guitar (or maybe a Turkish guitar-like instrument more akin to a bouzouki or some such), but here she is joined by the cream of the 1976 Turkish musical scene. They play a variety of electric instruments and electronically treated versions of Turkish traditional instruments. The result should perhaps be an awkward mish-mash of styles, neither satisfyingly one thing nor the other, but it somehow all works creating a wonderful folk-psych hybrid all driven by Selda's powerful voice. My Turkish is non-existent, so I have no idea what she is protesting against, but I feel like I have been persuaded to join her in opposing it.

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Shakira "She Wolf"

Rarrr! Now here is someone who is not afraid of digitisation. As you know, I have a certain fondness for Ms Shakira, which leads me to occasional acts of foolishness. She Wolf is of course Shakira's most recent album, one perhaps taking a more electronic pop direction than previously trod by her. I think this maybe suffers a bit too much from the over-relentlessness associated with today's pop music, so although there are a lot of great tunes on here the album is not really something you could put on and listen all the way through. Plus it is very much not really the kind of thing my actual beloved likes, so I have had to keep the record hidden from her.

The title track (which was probably a big pop hit or something) is a stormer, but even better is 'Loba' – the same song sung in Spanish. Shakira has been singing away in English for ages now, but she is still a way better singer in her native language. I remember in Portugal noticing that the contestants in some local X-Munter programme were also far better at singing in Portuguese than in English, so I am guessing that in general it is easier to sing in a language you speak well. I wonder why this is the case? You would think that singing is really just about hitting the notes, making understanding the words unimportant. Yet it does seem like people cannot really throw themselves into it unless they are fully comfortable with the language. Who knows? Anyway, I am sad that there is only one Spanish-language song on Shakira's album. Maybe it is time I tracked down one of the Spanish language albums from the flower of Colombian womanhood.

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He Bear