This Is Just A Test

It’s Friday afternoon, and that can mean but one thing.

It’s Friday Test Time. Oh joy.

So, let us concentrate for a moment, and contemplate the following:

What do you get, if you put Mogwai, John Carpenter, Neu! and Ananda Shankar in a room together for three days, with nothing but their instrumentation of choice, and basic provisions to sustain them? (5 marks)

Think on. Think on.

What did you get? Hmm?

If you didn’t get Same Actor, I'm afraid you were wrong. I’m sure you tried hard, but in all honesty, you should have tried harder. Next time, you will no doubt do better.

There is more Same Actor here, and you can hear him in ‘session’ on the Erm… show on Resonance tomorrow night at 11pm. Sharp Edges, his first proper long player is available on Bip-Hop, and you can get it here. And if all this warms your cockles, then you can see Same Actor and his sitar at Fortune Of War in Brighton on 17th October, and at the Gluerooms at the Amersham Arms on the 29th November.

The Test is now complete. You may leave.

Same Actor - Father's Day

Same Actor - Fig 17

Quality. Not Weight. Appreciate. And Float.

I have a tempered appreciation for Secret Machines.

In short, sharp bursts, I’m down with their business. Epic, lush, considered, rendered, a nice repose to the Do-It-Now take on visceral, up front times that we tumble on in.

But, prolonged exposure leaves me a bit flat, as it never really does anything new, nothing that really makes me step back and think, ‘hang on, what’s that all about’. It wouldn’t be right to say it’s all be done before, but then again, maybe it has. Maybe that’s the problem. I suppose it’s a case of never mind the quality, feel the weight.

These moments should be treasured though. The finest example of Secret Machines in splendid moderation is the combined b-sides to their Nowhere Again single, which adds up to nearly 14 minutes of wondrousness. It’s quiet, it’s loud, it’s epic, it’s proud, there are sounds of spaceships taking off in the background, it sounds like the mad-arse Judge bit in The Wall, it has a four minute mental out to end, and to top it all, it‘s a bonafide heartbreaker.

You can make your own mind up if you want anymore here. And if you do, you can get it from here.

Quality. Not weight. Appreciate. And float.

Secret Machines – An Epic Case Of Mistaken Identity I

Secret Machines – An Epic Case Of Mistaken Identity II

Eat Beak And Sing

That ginger bloke with the moustache would have you believe that a month on the mass produced, fast fed entrails’n’hooves’n’beaks diet will do you right up.

‘My guts are giving up!’ he cries!

‘My old boy is as limp as a leaf of week old lettuce!’ he wails!

‘I’m nearly dead!’ he whimpers!

Don’t believe him. He is wrong. DJ Scotch Egg has shown us this.

According to Ginge, 30 days within which to record an ‘album’ whilst existing purely on the multifarious magnificence of KFC, and her many illegitimate children, should leave you well nonced up, if not right dead.

If this were the case though, how would Ginge explain KFC Core? Hmm? Cat got your tongue, Ginge? Hmm?

By following the 30-day ‘chicken’ and album diet, DJ Scotch Egg has come up with a work of 8bit-speedbass-corecore-fairytale happiness, to shake the feather, and beak, and claw, and hoof, and filth out of anyone, leaving nothing but good good goodness. No guts failure. No death. Finally, we know the truth.

Get more goodness here and occasionally here, and pick up the full opus on ADAADAT from your local practitioner of fine music, or here. Live dates pop up here and there, and there’s a whispered promise of a tour with Ceephax Acid Crew in December, which should be a real good treat.

DJ Scotch Egg - Scotch Heads

DJ Scotch Egg - Acid Boy Two

If You Smiled, The Walls Would Fall Down

So, I’ve been away for a little bit, traversing the wilds of distant isles, shooting down mountains in the company of various reprobates and heroes alike, basking in the distantly reflected glory of those you’d expect, and those you wouldn’t.

But, I return, and clutching a fistful of possible treasures to boot.

Whilst I sort that lot out, please hold and be upstanding for another example of what it’s really all about.

Mental As Anything - Live It Up

The Unbearable Lightness Of Being

Sometimes, DudeWar sound like they’re tuning up in a big cave.

Sometimes, they write entire songs about the myriad benefits of tassles.

Sometimes, they chart the sudden descent of the kind yet simple mind from benevolent daydream, to violent destruction. And possibly back again.

Therefore, we like DudeWar, and therefore, so should you. You should go and see them. On the 24th September at the Prince Albert in Brighton, and on the 28th November at the Old Blue Last. That one is in the heart of London’s trendy Shoreditch. Hmm.

In the meantime though, because you can’t wait, listen to these. They are right, you know.

DudeWar - Hooper Scoop

DudeWar - Lurch At Church