2012 A review - Part #1

Looking back on 2012, there was some great new music released & also some great old music re-released.

Goat came out of the leftfield in 2012, and what a crazy bolt from the blue it was, and still is. Musically it's all over the shop, but in a great, dark psyched-up way. We're talking fuzzed-up psych, Sabbath-riffing and afrobeat percussion grooves. Let them into your life! Find it on Spotify here

I finally got to see the fantastic Hookworms from Leeds this year. They're well worth checking out live, as is their split 7" with Kogumaza from early 2012. I'm looking forward to their forthcoming LP, Pearl Mystic coming fairly soon & they also have a track on the forthcoming Sonic Cathedral ep.



It was great to see David Thomas Broughton returning to the UK to play live this year, as it had been a while since I last caught him. If you've not come across him before, a lazy description would be to imagine if John Martyn had been signed to WARP records. Maybe. You really need to catch him live, but in the meantime enjoy his last album, 2011's Outbreeding.

DTB live @ No Direction Home Festival, 2012. Photo (c) me

Some old DTB, from way back in the mists of 2005. Such a long time ago.

Sharon Van Etten was a surprise live. Her "Tramp" album was a highlight of 2012, and the band she'd assembled to tour it really did a great job.  She'd appeared on Jools Holland the night before the Sheffield show & met her hero (& mine) John Cale. I had a brief chat to her after the show (something I don't usually do) & she dedicated my CD "I hope we age as well as Cale". Lets hope.

At the same show as David Thomas Broughton, I also caught Peaking Lights who I'd not managed to see live before. 2012 was a treat as we got both the album "Lucifer" and the equally excellent "Lucifer in Dub".

On the re-release front, 2012 saw Lights in the Attic release an excellent Lee Hazlewood compilation, "The LHI Years: Singles, Nudes & Backsides" There was also a release for his hard-to-find Swedish release "A House Safe for Tigers". Both excellent and both essential.

Still on a reissue tip, the My Bloody Valentine remaster/re-issues finally appeared this year, an event that looked less likely than the Mayan apocalypse in the great scheme of things. It's great to have all those tracks collected, cleaned-up & in one place after enjoying them on worn vinyl & battered tapes back in the late 80s/90s. Remember when EP's kept you going between meals?

I'll wind up this first part of my review of the year by mentioning a couple of great 12"/single track releases:

The Field  - It's up There (Blondes mix) 
Great stuff from 2 acts well worth keeping your eyes on


Wooden Shjips - Crossing (Andrew Weatherall  remix) 
It's been great to have Mr Weatherall right back on form these last couple of years. This is a proper sleazy, synthy, low-slung, druggy epic.


Semtek - Bento
I thought I'd sign off with something more upbeat. See you soon for part #2 ...

MMXIII: Happy New Year & hello again

Wow, 12 months since the last entry! Another year.

I'm still here, but due to various things* getting in the way, I've not blogged at all.

I didn't plan for the blog to stop or go dormant, but when the uploaded music disappeared (when Megaupload went down) things never really get back on track again. I did see the blog as somewhere that would be a repository of hard-to-find, interesting stuff (not the copyright breach-fest of some places!) But without music to hear, the blog was just words which wasn't really what I envisaged at all. 

So, I'm still unsure what to do with the blog. In the 12+ months since last posting, I've heard some of the best music I've ever heard & I'm sure 2013 will be the same. There's still so much great music being made and the old stuff never goes away, and more stuff is excavated.  So one option is to pick things up again, covering the hard-to-find stuff of note.

Another option is to kill things off altogether. To call it a day.

A further option is to continue but add photos and images to the blog & widen the remit. I did debate when I first started doing a blog of my photos, or to mix them in with the music. Over the last 2 years,  amongst other less savoury things, I have taken a lot of photos.

Also, in the interim, I have started DJing in public again. Something I did a great deal of back between 1995 - 2003/4. So my Soundcloud will hopefully be an outlet for new mixes and stuff from the archive as well!  It's here: soundcloud.com/mark_armstrong

I think I'm going to go for option 3. Continue the blog, add more visual stuff & blog as and when there's time.

x

The author, Monterey California 3/5/2012. Suggested soundtrack 

* Going back to work in Sept 2011 after winning the opening battle with cancer, having a roadtrip on Highway 1, having another brush with hospital in July 2012 & starting DJing Techno/House/Electronica again!