Manafonistas

Very few British bands of the 60s & onwards ever wrote as exquisitely as did the Kinks. They made poetry in song out of Victoriana & its eccentricities, lauded Britain & its varied classes „taking the piss out of“ everyone from toffs to those „who actually did the work“. They also laid the foundation of one of the finest riffs of the sixties & beyond, check out „All day & all of the Night“& „You really got me“, just for starters. They wrote love songs which we all were drawn into, whether we were in love or not, (Waterloo Sunset), lauded & exposed the dandies of Carnaby Street (Dandy). They Inspired Richard Thompson to expose the demons of the business world (The money shuffle). The Kinks ventured into murky waters of the time, & sang about gays, transsexuals & transgenders with aplomb (Lola). They also inspired, well I believe they did, Roy Harper to write a classic, which gave heart to the passing of traditions. (When an old cricketer leaves the crease). The more I think of it, the more comes to mind. But if I spoon-fed all of the gems to you, what would be left to test your mind & offer you a wonderful journey of discovery. Yesterday never knows, good night and good luck.

… from the state of independance, my kindest regards, my deepest love, my never-ending applause for the latest song cycle of  writer / singer / composer John Darnielle, and his most „Steelish Dan“ – work to date. One of my five star albums of 2017, this is the music I like to listen to in the shower, and in the electric studio with all candles burning! ALL CANDLES BURNING. LOVE LETTERS STRAIGHT FROM MY HEART. Rewind, „steelish dan“??! Yep, from the point of view of jazz vibes, accuracy and smart lyrics.

One of the secrets of my Radio Nights – since „A Coroner‘s Gambit“ fell into my hands, one of my top ten „lo-fi“-albums ever (Neil Young‘s „Tonight‘s the Night“ is another one), I played songs from nearly every single Mountain Goats record what is quite a lot looking back the long and winding road of times lived & times lost. Thus, for the unconsciously unhappy majority who never heard a fucking note of this genius, another chance to revise history, this is what Dan Mork from PopMatters said about „Goths“ … (just let me add, John Darnielle had experienced more darkness in his childhood days than good Dan seems to suggest, tons of darkness, and it has been no „old friend“)

Goths is the first Mountain Goats album to be completely devoid of acoustic or electric guitars. It’s an album about wearing all black to mid-afternoon warehouse shows, dark, drug fueled nightclubs, and hardcore elitism. And it has no guitars. Of course, John Darnielle’s tremendous songwriting makes it work better than it would with guitars. The smooth, calm horns and electric piano enhance the juxtaposition of adulthood and youth, of internal identity and external presentation, of mainstream popularity and self-fulfillment. Darnielle’s writing is as dense and evocative as ever and works well with the jazz and soul instrumentals. Goths is an album of subtle conflict and quiet rebellion, an ode to the darkness from an artist who has accepted his place outside of it. The refrain on „The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement“ perhaps sums up the album’s thematic material best as Darnielle sings, „I’m pretty hardcore, but I’m not that hardcore.“ (Dan Kok)

Friederike Mayröcker ist ein Morgenmensch. Sie steht zwischen halb vier und vier Uhr auf und arbeitet bis zum Mittag. Sie ist 1 bekennende Exzerpiererin. Jacques Derrida (Die Postkarte, Glas), Peter Waterhouse (Hopkins Journal, eine Übersetzung), Gertrude Stein, Jean Paul (Lebensberichte) usw. Es ist noch dunkel, pink moon, die lady liest, begeistert sich an dem, was in und unter der Struktur der Sprache liegt, sie macht Notizen, beschriftet 1 Blatt Papier und mehr, setzt sich an die Maschine, verwandelt ihr Material in Magie, montiert sie mit anderen, bereits vorhandenen Notizen, die in ihrer Wohnung in Wien in kleinen bunten Plastikkörben gesammelt sind, reihenweise, eine Fülle an Stoff, der sich ausdehnt, schon nach kurzer Zeit völlig verzettelt, Flucht vor die Wohnungstür, Weitertippen im Schneidersitz, von Büchern und Notizen umgeben, die sich ausbreiten,  Schutzwall, Sätze und Wörter aus Träumen, Tagebuch einer Diebin, über der die Sterne hängen, 1 Zeile wieder gelöscht, 1 Taumel, Taube, Pulsschlag, freak. „Dann hast du in meine Kapuze HINEINGEGUCKT und gerufen, wie lieb!: in meiner Kapuze war mein altes Gesicht (wie weggekauert) …“ unter einem Himmel aus Porzellan, aber alles Fiktion, bloß keine Erzählung [Trompetenbaum in der Vitrine] sobald sich ein Erzählstrom ergibt, reißt sie das Steuer herum, schneien Papierschnipsel, fluoreszierend.

Der Band „fleur“, 2016 bei Suhrkamp erschienen, enthält Gedichte, die zwischen dem 24.3.2014 und dem 31.5.2015 entstanden sind. Friederike Mayröcker war zu der Zeit 90 Jahre alt, sie wird im Dezember 93. Mille de fleurs pour la madame! „fleur“, der Text = 1 offenes Meer, ich bin in 1 Rausch geraten, Lampionblume, Jasmin, ha! ich bin kein groupie (Verschiebung einer Struktur), c´est Friederike Mayröcker at her best!

a u d i o

Looking at PopMatters‚ top 10 list of „The Best Indie Rock of 2017″, I am happy to find Algiers at the top spot:

„The Underside of Power“, Algiers‘ follow-up to their 2015 self-titled debut, is everything that debut promised and more. The album fine tunes the balance between their dark, post-punk sounds and their soul and gospel groove. The group truly turns the post-punk genre on its head with double-time rhythms, bass grooves, and soulful vocals that come together like an AME church service in the Blade Runner universe. Vocalist Franklin James Fisher sings throughout the album about rising up, upsetting established power structures. It’s brimming with political fire and rage that’s tempered just enough with hope and youthful energy. The combination of elements is dense and seamless and reveals more with each listen and takes on new meaning. „The Underside of Power“ is an album of resistance music and music for the people into the tradition of soul, folk, and punk. This album stands as one of the most unique and powerful examples of protest music in recent memory. (Dan Kok)

Other albums in their list may be of interest to some of you around here as well: #2: Fleet Floxes („a jarring journey from beginning to end“), #3: The War On Drugs („breathy Dylan-like vocals float yearningly above vast soundscapes of expertly textured guitar solos and shimmering synths that transcend time and trend“).

„Musically adventurous and spiritually redemptive: this is what the music of our time should sound like.“ said PopMatters‘ original review of the album.

In July, Robert Loss wrote an extensive, interesting piece about the album: Algiers and the Political Structures of Noise, which draws connections between politics, history, noise and pop and is a nice addendum to my text about the issues raised in the movie Detroit. A few quotes from the article about the music:

„Cry of the Martyrs“ slips right into the album’s title track, a propulsive blend of soul swagger and the band Suicide’s drones until the chorus bursts into a beautiful pop melody. It’s Algiers‘ version of pop: a catchy hook fighting against backing vocals so delayed they sound like ghosts trying to drag the song back, an alluring but harsh noise from the past. „The Underside of Power“ sounds like „Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ covered by a post-punk band unconcerned with irony or cultural capital and instead trying to find some truth hidden in the song all these years.

(…) In 2017, we’re rightly suspicious of music that claims to be revolutionary. The normalizing forces of commerce, the spectacle, cultural institutions, and government as they relate to popular music are powerful, so I don’t blame you if you’re skeptical. But the possibility still exists. Small actions may play their role in the structure of noise—the voices of the oppressed and their allies, the voices of people who are just sick and fucking tired of being run over, shot, suppressed, arrested, buried, abandoned — a structure which might replace the old with a new order.

(…) It seems to me that revolutionary music today has to draw connections between the past and the present in order to point to the future. In this way we sense a history that otherwise is forgotten to us; we understand ourselves as historical creatures capable of replacing one structure of noise with another. Of the potential noises, sound hits our bodies first. How can there be a movement if we’re unwilling to move?

Can sound alone make us pay attention to the political, force us to hear a subject like racialized violence, or sway us into seeing the atrocities of the past and the present? Can it really rewrite the codes?

Algiers seem determined to find out, which is one reason why they’ve quickly become so important.

Here’s a short one of a their energetic live performances, live in the studio for Seattle’s KEXP.

Much like the sometimes psychedelic nature of their music is also firmly rooted in an often grim reality, the melodrama of their set creates a dense and intoxicating atmosphere, but never at the expense of truth and pragmatism. Their music rages against inequality and fascism, but as heavy as their themes are it’s also heady, rousing and danceable. By the time they bust out their latest album’s title track the room is fully plugged into the band’s irresistible groove, and with that comes immense hope, because as Fisher sings „I’ve seen the underside of power / It’s just a game that can’t go on.” Algiers’ unifying set at the Moth Club allowed no room for figureheads – rock star, religious, or otherwise. As their sign at the back of the stage reads, all the power to the people.
(Bekki Bemrose, musicOMH)