October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
~George Cooper, “October’s Party”

• The Leisure Society-Are We Happy?
  The Sleeper (Willkommen, 2009)
• The Coral-Cobwebs
  Roots & Echoes (Deltasonic, 2007)
• Ambulance Ltd-Heavy Lifting
  LP (TVT, 2004)
• The Decemberists-Architect
  The Hazards of Love (Rough Trade, 2009)
• Super Furry Animals-Hello Sunshine
  Phamtom Power (Beggars Banquet, 2003)
• The Zutons-Not a Lot to Do
  Who Killed…The Zutons (Epic, 2004)

 October is my favourite month of the year: It’s my birthday and too  of the Kid A, Thom Yorke, John Lennon,  Groucho Marx and many others.  In where I live the autumn is a second part of spring: the sky is allways in a perfect blue, doesn’t matter if are at 10:00 am or 5:00 p.m.  There can be nothing better to get out and walk, the beads of sweat now, are breaths of wind. 
This playlist works for see those lazy sunsets, when the night appears in slow motion.

Illustration: Charley Harper  

“When the Compact Disc first emerged in the 1980s, it participated in the undermining of one of our most long-held assumptions. With the C.D., the whole distinction between Side A and Side B of the old vinyl record was collapsed. With the C.D., all the tracks are on the one side.”  - Gyorgy Scrinis, from the essay “CDs & Other Things”.

1. Kraan – Young King’s Song
(Flyday, 1978)
2. D.R. Hooker – Weather Girl
(The Truth, 1972)
3. Marcos Valle – Voo Cego
(Vento Sul, 1972)
4. Kraan – Buy Buy
(Flyday, 1978)
5. Family - Larf and Sing
(Fearless, 1971)
6. ESG – Moody (spaced out)
(ESG, 1981)
7. Liquid Liquid – Lock Groove (out)
(Successive Reflexes, 1981)

Ahh, it is excellent to be back in the motel. I’ve been a busy bee of late, travelling around collecting records, photos and other ephemera. All good news for readers, as there is plenty of new and forgotten music to share.

But to begin, a slight deviation from my beatsy, more electronic tastes – this is a list compiled from records collected whilst travelling, mostly from Berlin.  The sound is certainly down a psychedelic, no-wave kind of tip – but important steps along the development of my current taste. They are tracks that i did not discover / enjoy until i had flipped the record a number of times back home. Hopefully relics worth a visit…

Photo: Author’s

Ecstasis is trancelike self-removal, schizoid or shamanistic. Dionysus’ amorality cuts both ways. He is god of theater, masked balls and free love- but also of anarchy, gang rape and murder.
- Sexual Personae, Camille Paglia, 1990

• Kenton Slash Demon – Sun
  Sun (Tartelet, 2010)
• Mock & Toof – Farewell to Wendo
  Tuning Echoes (Tiny Sticks, 2010)
• Houses – Endless Spring
  All Night (2010)
• Sumsun – Call it Home
  Samo Milagro (Leaving, 2010)
• Crystal Castles – Celestica
  Crystal Castles (Last Gang, 2010)

Ecstasis could mean anything from ‘taking you out of yourself’ to a profound alteration of personality. I’ll be inviting disaster to join me the rest of the week. Crash and burn, in the most aggresive ways possible then start it all over again. I’m trying to fall out of love with you. Theoretically speaking, the less I feel like myself… the less I recognize my surroundings, the closer I’ll get to ecstasis.
The horses are running until they forget they are horses.

What was going on? Had decades of sucking down so much high-fructose corn syrup not only made Americans incredibly obese, but also messed with white brain chemistry to the point that some sort of tipping point had occurred?

Not a bad theory, but no, there’s a simpler explanation, with two parts: For the first time in their lives, baby boomers are hard up against it economically, and white boy is becoming outnumbered and it’s got his bowels chilled with fear.

“In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown,” writes Ronald Brownstein in his July National Journal article, “The Gray and the Brown: The Generational Mismatch.” That’s a polite and understated way of saying that older white folks are losing their shit as they’re being replaced by young brown and black kids while the economy is in the crapper. – Village voice.

.

” Thursday afternoon Web surfing ”

01. Thee Oh Sees – I Was Denied
Warm Slime (2010, In the Red Records)
02. Wild Nothing – Chinatown
Gemini (2010)
03. Blonde Redhead – Here Sometimes
Penny Sparkle (2010)
04. Les Savy Fav – Lets Get Out Of Here
Root For Ruin (2010, French Kiss)
05. Women – Eyesore
Public Strain (2010, Jagjaguwar)

note: Thursday afternoon, cruising on the web reading random stuff online. I for one think Village voice is getting too predictable. How about just old skool explanation? In time of crisis and shrinking pond, all the creatures start biting each other heads off. The people who has the most, can afford scream the loudest. In other word, it’s just another day in paradise. The usual crazies pulling all the strings. So, yawn. The game is still the same … Maybe better background music will help the situation. Little thursday afternoon rock maybe?

PS. I don’t check email anymore. so just yell somewhere in here or post in the forum. Moka is busy being international business gal next week. So, you all are stuck with the rest of the crew. I don’t want to hear any whining and complaining, or I’ll post glitch-hop, noise and Shostakovich for a week. hah!

image: Terence McKenna

We are a campaign – a group of individuals who share a zealous lust for music – music that invades our thoughts, music that propels our bodies – music that allows us to revel in passion and pleasure. We refuse to dilute the energy that constitutes our lives – this seamless integration with the pulsing of sounds and shrill notes sailing wildly through nightclubs and concert halls across the globe. Instead we’ve elected to thrust ourselves into this sea of binary manna – information which helps us sustain our ravenous appetite for music – the Internet.

Our goal is to exalt the unexalted, to bring you goth, noise, electronica, techno, punk, indie rock, darkwave, no wave, jungle, hardcore, world music, and things we would dare never even classify. Utilizing the liberated mp3 format, Epitonic.com aspires to live up to our neologistic moniker, the center from which waves of disruptive purity emit. -from epitonic’s about.

.

” Certain Elegance from the early decade. ”

01. June of 44 – Of Information and Belief
Four Great Points (Quarter Stick, 1998)
02. Rosa Chance Well – And So Then Were We
Rosa Chance Well (Kimchee Records, 2001)
03. Timonium – Filamented
Until He Finds Us (2002)
04. Dean Martinez – Ethchlorvynol
Atardecer (Knitting Factory, 1999)
05. Pavement – Greenlander
Slanted & Enchanted (Matador Records, 1992)
06. The New Year – Chinese Handcuffs
Newness Ends (Touch & Go Records, 2001)
07. The Go Betweens – The Clock
The Friends Of Rachel Worth (Jet Set Records, 2000)
08. The Strokes – Last Nite
The Modern Age ep (Xl Recordings, 2001)

note: A handful of sites and event influenced and shaped MdM to become what it is now, Epitonic.com is one of them. Back in the dark age of internet digital audio, it was soundless internet. Around 1998, web browser, Netscape 6, was finally a reliable killer app PC software, html proper proliferated, and most people used 56k v.90 dial up to read the net. Text and image were functional and the promise of internet arrived, but internet audio did not exist. MP3 files was to big and exotic until around 1999. Three things happened. Napster showed up out of nowhere and thrive on college campus network. Those who were lucky to have connection fast enough for transfering mp3 size file. The first generation of digital audio player is out in store (Rio player), and of course practical mp3 ripper for PC finally available online. Music selection was mainly metal, R&B, hip-hop top 40, mtv or at the time “alternative” and grunge, the great reaction to metal. Only the hardiest of music lovers know more by cultivating relationship with local record stores, newsletters or exchanging tapes. So, good music was only for those who brave chaotic Napster or informed underground. Until Epitonic.com.

It was a magnificent site, not only it served mp3 files on the web, but one could listen and downloaded full song without the chaos of napster. Best of all there were far larger genre and sound to explore guided by well written and informed opinion. Nobody was watching over or looking disapprovingly. A good techno is just as deserving as indie rock or lyrical acoustic. Modern classic and experimental are as fun as latest pop to explore. It was forward looking and opening large sound vista. This was what MdM learned. Not only individual songs, but how genres can be viewed and organized, what size of music landscape is possible online. It was revolutionary. Particularly, the dark dissonant indie sound that often shows up in MdM post is the sound of epitonic.com. The sound color you see is the early days of internet, not merely indie list from early ’00. Certain elegance, somewhat moody and different.

Long story short. Epitonic folded in 2004 because the economic model didn’t exist back then for such activity. The server cost finally brought them down. This was before itune/ipod mind you. But they are back now. So MdM is helping to spread the word for their fund drive. If you have some lose change drop them here:

Epitonic.com: Relaunch by the Original Founders

You can still visit the old site archive here while they are building a new one : Epitonic.com

image: fangleman