For all of those who noticed, there has been a small flurry of activity at the Farm this evening.

Well there’s a simple reason for that. I’m trying to clear my desks as I’m heading off tomorrow to the grand old city of London, where’s i’ll be attending the All Tomorrows Parties event i’ll be your mirror, which has the utmost of heaviness, including… SLAAAAAYER performing “Reign In Blood” and other assorted tunes we hope. Dude it will be sweaty and delirious!

So while I’m having lots of fun, there will be minimal activity going on here over the next few days. But as a small parting shot, i’m leaving you with this frankly cranked up to the hilt headrush from an act on my mate Jonny’s label, MARIA AND THE MIRRORS.

I don’t have enough time or energy to go into too much detail why this record is great (but thankfully this man Has done that for us all). But needless to say that this record packs dirt. The type of dirt you get from just sheer wanton Ego-abandonment and flailing yourself at the mercy of the rush, the dance, the sheer ecstasy of it all. I may be getting on a bit, but too often you feel let down by what’s called the aesthetic style of partying. Looking good, being seen, projecting coolness, mingling with “the beautiful people”. It’s a global scourge i tell you.

Fuck that. I have NEVER been cool. and i’m too fucked to start now. Just give me the bacchic tinged infusion of grime, degradation and no regrets any day.

Goodnight…

It’s an interesting record. Very sampadelic, with lots of Latin flavoured beats. The first half had a very heavy Café Del Mar vibe, but did have a few ho-hum moments. But the second half is pretty much all killer. Interesting that there are very good hardened beats, but when i asked him about it in a separate interview, he said that he wasn’t listening to any new music whatsoever. Interesting.

Anyway. have a listen foryourself, and if you like it, then do him a favour and buy it. He makes his living from skate videos and the health benefits from that are awful.

Here you go peeps! For all those that managed to listen to my mix on the Exotic Pylon Radio show last Friday (all 5 of you), well done!

For those that didn’t you’re a bunch of fair weather scumbags. But I’m a forgiving person, so instead i give you the mix to listen at your leisure.

DOWNLOAD “THE ATEMPORAL DEATHLINE”

The roll call is really impressive. Genesis P.Orridge, Lydia Lunch, Boyd Rice, Coil. The Hafler Trio, Current 93, Laibach, Psychic TV (When HÖH was a member), Nick Cave, Clint Ruin, etc, etc, etc, as well as written piece and poetry from the likes of Michael Gira and Henry Rollins.

Of course if you’re in Reykjaivk, you can loan the book. If not the It all on Google book right HERE:

Needless to say this book came to mind instantly when i found this VERY intriguing video that was posted on YouTube recently. Bits of it have been posted before, but never in its entirity.

Titled “The Sound Of Progress,” it was a documentary produced for Dutch TV and the Rotterdam Film Festival sometime in the late ’80s. Containing interviews and live footage from David Tibet, Coil, Test Dept, and JG Thirwell.

What’s also intriguing is the whole watching experience. You’ve got Test Dept, looking as if they’re extra from a  film about a Scottish regiment in the First World War. Then there’s David Tibet, looking and sounding thoroughly pissed of with the whole of Western culture (can blame him to be honest). And then there Coil. While there’s humdrum stuff of sleazy working and programming the synthesizer to produce drum sounds, you’ve got the likes of John Balance looking very young and impressionable (even though he was 26 at the time). The real highlight though is their discussion segment, where they talk about their music over dinner that descends into a Le Grand Bouffe style sleaze-fest. Balance spends his time sucking the juices of sleazy’s fingers! Eww!

The video itself, an old VHS rip, the warping audio and twisting visuals only adds to the general unease and queasiness, as if it was some kind of transmission from the past that has a grave warning aobut what western pop culture was becoming.

Some night listening moves for You all. A mix of bastardised electronics of all sorts. Make sure you have extra Tin foil on those TV screens to boost the signals…

Goodnight

Huuuurrrr Hurrrr. sorry for my mild brain spasms, for I have been getting back on that scribing tip today. After what seemed like an eternity this week, where i pretty undertook a full breakdown of my faculties, I’ve finally felt the desire and need to put my thoughts to paper and other porous surfaces.

But now that’s done for the day, it’s time to undertake something that has been lacking over the last week or two. Yes, it’s sunday and that means that it’s time for another slice of celluloid madness. It’s… THE SUUUUUUUUUUUNDAY CULLLLLLLT FILMMMMMMMMMM CORNEEEEEEEEEEEER (belch…).

And, for no other reason than i can, i´ve decided for the next few weeks to curate a slew of movies from the old country, the true birthplace of civilisation, Britain (yes you heard me). titled BRIT GRIT, the next few weeks will se some lovely moves from the harder side of British life, to show that it’s not all afternoons of cricket, high tea, the monarchy and incest.

To start it all off, this week a give you a true underrated classic of gritty ’50s British cinema that’s as black and hard as the cargo it carries. Ladies and gentlemen, i give to you HELL DRIVERS.

Directed in 1957 by Cy Endfield, it lifts the lift on the hard knock macho life of Ballast truck drivers. It stars Stanley Baxter as Joe “Tom” Yately. Fresh out of prison and looking to make a clean break, he takes up a job at a haulage firm, transporting gravel. It’s a tough life where speed is of the essence and one false move could cost you your truck, or even your life. When he decides to go up against the Big dog (a man nicknamed Red) for the record number of hauls in a day, the other workers decide to freeze him out. Just when he’s about to leave, his only friend in the company has a major accident, whereupon the company secretary confides in him about the corruption endemic in the company. Tom then decides to expose the company’s corrupt practices.

“Hell Drivers” is probably one of the best, grittiest examples of the genre that is the ’50s British B movie. In those days, you’d be lucky if you got a single “Damn” or “Bloody” out of the script, but the actors of the screen were men, reaaal men, who did not give a fig for things like feelings, personal grooming, or washing their hands after going to the toilet. The world they inhabit is relentlessly grim and grey, a land of cold baths, boiled meat and cabbage and incessant abuse. Laughing and joking are but alien concepts to these people.

If all this sounds an awful prospect to watch, then don´t be disheartened, for Hell Drivers is positively dripping with talent. As well as Stanley Baker, you’ve got Herbert Lom, Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell, Gordon Jackson, Sid James, David McCallum and Sean Connery. Meanwhile the director Cy Endfield went on to make the classic film Zulu. It’s pure black gold on celluloid.

So if you want to see some really heartless classic Brit grit, then get that mug of milky weak tea, some tongue sandwiches, and settle back for some serious trucking action.

Some very important news you all need to know. Several weeks ago i was asked by my Good friend and Exotic Pylon records impresario, Jonny Mugwump, to create a mix for his record show on Resonance FM. I duly created said mix and got so excited that i told a lot of people, even my Brother who thinks that Resonance FM are “all over the shop”.

How prophetic my brother’s words turned out to be for on the night when it was supposed to be aired the slack arsed amateurs who were managing the station that night DID EVEN PLAY THE RIGHT PROGRAMME! Jonny was apologetic and stuff, but it was definitely emos all round.

But now it’s back and tonight on Resonance 104.4 at 8pm GMT (9pm British time), Nordic Interstitial Thresholds will take over the Exotic Pylon Radio Show and play sill buggers with your mindz!

You can listen online RIGHT HERE. I think you should do it. My ferrets of death know where you live….

I reviewed the debut album from Anglo Icelandic artist LOW ROAR for the Grapevine.

It’s definitely an example of the “new ephemeral” sound that happening a lot. Home recordings, mixed with lots of laptop effect, delay and reverb. A freeze dried church sound.

I need to listen to some Slayer…

OK i should apologise for the lack of blogging action over the last couple of days. Things have been….. hard over here at the farm and some real black dog days have not helped things at all. And i still have a few things that need finishing this week. The big feature i’m trying to do is moving along at it´s own pace. It WILL get done, my professional career (ha!) is banked on it.

But this week should see things move along a bit on that front. Right now i’m listening to a lot of old Icelandic albums I ripped from copies from the city library (and which I’ve forgotten to take back,m so now I’m definitely getting fined), and I’ve realised that i haven’t done that many Icelandic album reviews on here for a while. So i should look to get one done soon i think…

Until then here’s something that i HAVE been listening to a lot. the latest album from BASS CLEF has really been pushing my modulating buttons so to speak. It has that old acid house feel, but has no real retro attachments to it. You can’t really place where and when it was made. I do know it is something of an electronic “concept” album on the changing landscape in East London with the approaching Olympics.

Well this track is my personal favourite. Just the way the drum hits like an piece of gunfire in a large hallway, with the chiming piano lead melodies. I often find myself moving involuntarily to it.

CHOOON!

Goodnight…

Just a couple of bits of admin i think are needed to be put out there first.

Number one – A small review i did a while back for local musician ÞÓRIR titled “Janúar”. all self recorded, it was actually a really nice listen. Lots of cold punk punk tinged goth sounds, allied with some spacious drone noises. He’s beginning to expand out of his old punk/hardcore days into something much more interesting. His album is available for listening and downloading HERE.

2: Other plan are afoot, which may include more recording stuff. But that will have to wait while i get the go ahead. Stay tuned for more info.

Meanwhile i got just ever so tipsy at the pub, and now have been writing up interview questions for a rush job over the next couple of days. Meanwhile here’s a nice video that someone has made splicing some nice 80s TV action footage (i imagine) to some solo work of ex-buzzcocks member Pete Shelley, and…. Simple Minds. Yes that them! This was before they got all big and stadium sized in the mid ’80s. Some really interesting 80′s electro pop grooves. Strangely listenable…

goodnight…