The Mekano Set

According to her web site, the marvelous Martina Topley Bird is going to be supporting the Frankenstein's Monster, The Early Years that is Jamie Callum... Wow, a real-life musical gulag. I can't believe he's still around. I can't believe more people don't know Martina's still around. And I'm sure Callum's a really nice lad but that whole marketing / P.R. perception of 'jazz singer' is so naff and basically M.O.R. and just totally un-jazz-like.

Do people actually call it jazz just because it's got blue notes, a bit of swing and a bit of Frank in it? I mean I can't make a chord shape anymore without automatically making it a 9th / major 2nd {they sound much nicer to my ears and they're actually easier to play on a guitar} - but that doesn't mean we're jazz! Actually I was told it would mean we'd sound like Lionel Richie...

{That bit was maybe a bit too muso wasn't it? Sorry. This is a music blog after all.}

Picture the scene: record companies start coming up with facts {or 'statistics'} to show that jazz is going to be the next big thing. Real jazz. So they assemble a few teen wannabees, all the right image-consultancy / production values etc. and present to the world a For Real jazz ensemble: a bunch of troubled, egotistical, chaotic, anarchic, tragic, smug, obtuse, alcoholic, heroin-addicted, sexually subversive nihilists who wear shades 24 hours a day and have a general approach to the rest of the world that even make flowers angry.

They'll drink neat gin by the pint, brush their teeth with raw cocaine, wear the same clothes for months on end, and play music that is so loud, so fast, and so alien that it causes the kind of physical, psychological and emotional damage usually only suffered by the innocent, well-balanced 'native-folk' of distant, wholesome un-capitalist shores at the hands of crusading / marauding Christians. And the general public will find them freakish, offensive, frightening and generally 'gay'...

See when I get up on this, one of many soap boxes, I'm always told "yeah, Jamie Callum isn't really jazz but hey, he's turning on a lot of people to jazz" - but generally speaking I don't think that's true. The majority of the target audience for that brand of "buy this record so you can say you like jazz without actually having to listen to jazz, or go out of your way to find out about jazz, or actually buy a jazz record" won't be bothered to take it any further.

It was the same with New CoUNTry a few years ago. I'm sure it's been said on the schvtrn web site before, but it seems like the majority of music that's put out these days is providing a product for people who like the idea of owning lots of CD's and being seen as someone who likes music, but who don't actually enjoy listening to music. Anyway, I won't go on about it anymore {for now}.

I suppose it would at least be funny to see someone market a drone-rock pop star. Boy Blands dirging, whispering platitudes, getting visibly upset as they shake their battered-yet-vintagely-expensive guitars, looking glum / tragic / stoned. Playing non-rock instruments in a 'serious' manner. Actually Radiohead weren't far off. And I wonder if my dislike of them has more to do with jealousy rather than resenting the site and sound of them appropriate and drop grunge, Talk Talk style post-rock, Warpish abstractions etc. Even wealthy upper-class English white boys have a right to be miserable now and then, it just seems odd that they'd want to make a career out of it.

So I think I might be getting a cold. I've spent the week sitting here in a draft because I can't be bothered to leave my desk and put more clothes on, and I like having the window open because it:

a: it reminds me I live by the sea,

b: that summer is on it's way,

c: that the rest of the world is just as full of lost, tragic, mentally and emotionally disturbed drunks as the building in which I live.

In odder news, it seems that the new and 'improved' {i.e. full of 'neat' little lo-fi dynamic .html / Flashy bits that apparently serve no purpose whatsoever} Garbage site is useless unless you pay for it. Things like their discussion forum are only available to paying customers.

It actually all sounds like some kind of internet porn thing: paying subscribers get access to the "Members only web site featuring intimate, behind-the-scenes video...." Certainly, Shirley is a thing of wonder, but I don't need to watch the woman play with herself to appreciate what she does... I mean, it's a lovely thought, but still...

On the other hand, considering that people are just as likely to illegally / legally download your music as they are to go to a store and illegally / legally acquire your 'product', maybe it makes sense to attempt to recoup some of that loss. After all, we live in a world rife with capitalism, where if it's free it doesn't taste as good, where recycling expensive wine bottles is just as cool as wearing equally expensive trainers assembled by the hands of slave children. Cool. Yeah. Really cool. So cool it's cold.

Share the wealth. Share the ill health.

Rant over, I wonder if it would be interesting to 'release an ep' that is all-downloadable. The only hard-copy being the version you put together yourself. I wonder how many people, when downloading sounds, print off sleeves and inlays and stuff as well? I haven't even burned an audio CD for myself in ages.

See, I want people to play our CD's and listen to the .mp3's. But I hardly ever play CD's anymore, let alone go out or go on-line and buy them. I'm an .mp3 person I'm afraid - but I also still listen to analogy tapes, minidisk, and I really want to get a new turntable soon cause vinyl is the best quality format that your ears can take for the most extended periods without bleeding. I'm certainly listening to music a whole lot more these days.

When I first started making music in the late 90's I hardly listened to music at all. I basically listened to nothing but things like Main for years. It took me a long time to open-up to music again - particularly the idea that it's OK to have a 'tune'. I've said it many times but basically I think growing up in a house where the likes of Yes, Led Zep and Sabbath were on constant rotation at full volume really put me off guitars, and music in general, for a long time. It was only getting into Curve and The Chameleons that made me see / hear / feel that you could still make some fantastic sounds with a guitar.

So yeah, what if really high-quality .mp3's were available as well as artwork and 'sleeve notes'? A cut-out and keep ep? That's the thing I miss I think - the sleeve-notes, the obscure jokes, the overly-elaborate artwork. I grew up in a house where vinyl was the thing - big gate-fold things. Big artwork. Big concepts.

It's interesting now where you have generations of people growing up only having access to digital sound and images - what effect that'll have - in the sense that the ears and the eyes {and the rest of the body} can receive digital info for shorter periods than analog info before they start to get tired. So does it lessen interest, or do we adapt?

I've been listening to some of the more earlier / mid period Talk Talk stuff. I've always loved the sound of Mark Hollis's voice, their overall approach to sound, the sudden bursts of noise mixed with the real intimate quiet moments {Grunge anyone? Industrial anyone? Post Rock anyone? DrumNbass anyone?} but I often thought that - for the most part - the rhythm section was a bit plodding and unimaginative - defaulting to the vocal and the dronage {which is at odds with the way they talked about every instrument being equal, including voices}.

So it's a bit odd to realize that some of my beats sound like their early stuff - maybe just in terms of the production.

Note to self: stop listening to music when your ears start bleeding.


The Mekano Set