just off the top of my head
Haven't let fly absolutely at random here for a while - and you probably haven't missed it. Currently listening to the awesome London Zoo by The Bug. I thought it wasn't out until Monday next week, but having been ordered a while back it came through the post today. Dubstep and Grime have been mentioned in a lot of the reviews, and it draws from those scenes, but there's a hefty Dancehall element too, only without the misogyny and (especially) homophobia that gives it such a bad name. It's conscious, state-of-the-nation stuff, ranging from the physically overpowering (Angry, Fuckaz, Warning) to the more subtle (Freak Freak, Judgement).
Apart from being a fucking great listen (and many of the tracks have battered dance floors as singles already) it fitted in nicely with a line of thought I'd been following for a day or so. Some of the tracks feature vocal performances and vocal edits that could comfortably pass for sound poetry taken out of context. Ricky Ranking on Murder We, Warrior Queen on Poison Dart particularly come to mind. Poison Dart especially has a great opening - the scattering of vocal sounds reminiscent of the way David Thomas Broughton builds an almost random constellation of notes during Ever Rotating Sky. Ah shit, did I just go off the deep end again? Cool - follow me.
Anyway, the relationship to sound poetry of things that aren't sound poetry was the thought I'd had scratching the inside of my brain to get out, although with not many examples to back it up. The two obvious ones for me are Lenny Bruce's To is a Preposition, Come is a Verb, and various of Keiji Haino's vocal performances - I was particularly thinking of I have decided to tear you to pieces... from Abandon All Words... (good title in the circumstances). You should really listen to all of these things, all of which I bought curiously enough - apart from the one that I stole.
And if your poetic tastes are more vanilla then go back to London Zoo anyway listen to the insane scansion Tippa Irie manages around two and half minutes into Angry and marvel. Well, there's got to be a point of light somewhere - santiago's currently looking for a new flat and it's fucking awful. There was a perfect flat at a great price, but then it was offered to someone else, but then they dropped out, but then having gone back the neighbouring tenants decided they wanted a female. Still a few viewings, but have to move by July 15. Another great listen is the piece Mike Cannell's put together for our collaboration. I'm going to vandalise this by putting my shit over the top? Hell yeah! Maybe I should eat before I do anything else though...
Apart from being a fucking great listen (and many of the tracks have battered dance floors as singles already) it fitted in nicely with a line of thought I'd been following for a day or so. Some of the tracks feature vocal performances and vocal edits that could comfortably pass for sound poetry taken out of context. Ricky Ranking on Murder We, Warrior Queen on Poison Dart particularly come to mind. Poison Dart especially has a great opening - the scattering of vocal sounds reminiscent of the way David Thomas Broughton builds an almost random constellation of notes during Ever Rotating Sky. Ah shit, did I just go off the deep end again? Cool - follow me.
Anyway, the relationship to sound poetry of things that aren't sound poetry was the thought I'd had scratching the inside of my brain to get out, although with not many examples to back it up. The two obvious ones for me are Lenny Bruce's To is a Preposition, Come is a Verb, and various of Keiji Haino's vocal performances - I was particularly thinking of I have decided to tear you to pieces... from Abandon All Words... (good title in the circumstances). You should really listen to all of these things, all of which I bought curiously enough - apart from the one that I stole.
And if your poetic tastes are more vanilla then go back to London Zoo anyway listen to the insane scansion Tippa Irie manages around two and half minutes into Angry and marvel. Well, there's got to be a point of light somewhere - santiago's currently looking for a new flat and it's fucking awful. There was a perfect flat at a great price, but then it was offered to someone else, but then they dropped out, but then having gone back the neighbouring tenants decided they wanted a female. Still a few viewings, but have to move by July 15. Another great listen is the piece Mike Cannell's put together for our collaboration. I'm going to vandalise this by putting my shit over the top? Hell yeah! Maybe I should eat before I do anything else though...
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