There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out

The good people at Google's Blogger service have deleted The Vinyl Villain today- not just a post, the entire blog. Two and half thousand posts, over six years work, gone into the internet wind. This is a cause of great sadness and of a lot of righteous anger. The record industry still can't see that music blogs are places that promote music and therefore the sale of music. They see us as the enemy. Important message to the music industry- we are actually helping you; you are going down the drain really fucking fast and we are helping you to stay alive, because we love music too. 

There's a post at Drew's place and a long comment conversation about it you could have a look at. Thankfully JC (The Vinyl Villain), an inspiration to a lot of music bloggers including this one, has fired up a new Vinyl Villain. You can find him here (and in the links below to the right). Pop in, say hello and offer your support if you like.

Without Music Blogs 2

Without music blogs I would probably also have missed this- the Prins Thomas remix of The Grid's classic 1990 Floatation single, stretched out, zhizzed up and as dreamy as yesterday's Brian Eno remix. The music blog in question was Nolan Micron's Castles In Space, which continues to provide top quality tunes. When I was in Piccadilly Records a while back I found a copy of this on 10" vinyl. Circle completed.

Floatation (Prins Thomas Miks)

The Man Ray portrait is of Genica Athanasiou, a Romanian actress and Antonin Artaud's partner. Which doesn't really explain why he was looking so unhappy in his portrait. Unless he was annoyed his curtains had been pulled down.

Without Music Blogs

Without music blogs I would never have discovered this- Mojo Filter's Remix of Brian Eno's Another Green World. Remixing Brian Eno carries some risk but this carries it off brilliantly. It is utterly beautiful, nearly ten minutes of blissful, upbeat splendour. Davy H of The Ghost Of Electricity fame posted it last autumn and every time I listen to it I'm glad he did. The joy of sharing eh?

Another Green World (The Blue Realm Remix)

Back to the Man Ray photos, something else I can't get enough of; this time Nancy Cunard, writer, heiress to a shipping line and political activist. She rejected her upper class family, instead fighting fascism and racism while hanging around with Aldous Huxley, Man Ray, Ernest Hemmingway, James Joyce, William Carlos Williams and Wyndham Lewis among others.

Music Submission Inbox Overload

I didn't start Bagging Area as a new music blog but inevitably I do get sent music by artists, bands and people hoping for some (admittedly limited) exposure. I've been there myself. Recently I haven't had any time to investigate the stuff that falls into my email inbox and I do feel bad about it periodically. There's no point putting up posts by bands or artists when I haven't listened to the music and I haven't had the time to listen to the music, let alone then go and write a post, put links in and so on. So, 17 Pygmies, Dire Con, Nothing But Noise, New West, Amish 82, Sameblod, IDC, Spunk Tractor (only one of these bands is imaginary) and all the others- I apologise.

This is recent postees Felt, who I have listened to and know that I like.

I Didn't Mean To Hurt You

Weatherall Remix Creation

I can't let this Creation series go by without including Andrew Weatherall's remix of My Bloody Valentine's Soon, which was and is a stunning example of the art of the remix. Weatherall said recently that indie-dance remixes just involved sticking a breakbeat under a guitar track but I think there's a bit more to it with this one, with that Westbam sample, the clanging riff, ghostly noises, the 'here we go' vocal refrain and the crunching beat. Su-chuffing-perb.

This track was the starting point in a way for me- it was looking for an mp3 of it that led me firstly to Stx's Audio Out blog. The link had expired but he kindly supplied me with it, and many more tracks besides. That led to exploring a load of other blogs, which led eventually to Bagging Area. So, Soon Weatherall Remix, you've got a lot to answer for.

I was in indie nightspot South on King Street at some point in the late 1990s. The Stone Roses bassist Mani was djing and he played this. Coming through the speakers it sounded huge, distorting South's iffy soundsystem, reminding me of the greatness of the track and with a Stone Rose playing a Weatherall remix joined a few dots neatly for me. Yep. I should probably get a life (popular early 90s saying).

Soon (Weatherall Remix)

Moon Triplet

Moon Duo (Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada) have an excellent new album out, Mazes. Some copies of the vinyl came with an extra cd of remixes, all of which are very good. This one is by Sonic Boom (of Spacemen 3 fame/infamy). Sonic Boom monkeys about with an already psychy/krauty drone to make it moreso. Although the remixes are just numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 this one- 1- is a remix of Scars, one of the standouts from the album. The other remixes are just as good and some get weirder and psychier.

Don't ask me what's going on with the link below. Things have gone funny here tonight. Mediafire's gone weird. Blogger's being a bit odd too. Technical issues and I'm not sure if it's me or them. Recently the powers that be deleted Beastie Boys' Dr. Lee PhD track from my account but left the earlier post of the same band's Egg Man alone. Something else vanished from my account as well, can't remember what. How many strikes does a blog get?

Frankly, I have been getting a bit dicey about the morality of this kind of music blogging over the last couple of days. The request for the full Half Man Half Biscuit gig was interesting (not the whole reason for my qualms but it played a part). I didn't start this to post full albums or full gigs, just individual songs. No real reason, that's just how it seemed to work in my head when I started out. Mr H, who has the whole gig, was uneasy about posting it- after all, it'd be obvious where the gig recording and download would have come from, and he felt HMHB might be peeved. They might not be, but you can't be sure, and without the bands' permission it didn't feel right somehow, especially as they'd been such charming and friendly guys before and after the gig. I know the theory and the justifications and the whole stick-it-to-the-corrupt-music-industry arguments but a) I know some of the stuff posted here is otherwise unavailable or out of print, but some of it isn't, b) although feedback received here tells me that tracks I've posted have led to actual, paid for download or physical sales I don't know what the proportion is and how far this justifies this, c) I'm not here to deprive people like Nigel Blackwell or Billy Childish or Andrew Weatherall or whoever out of hard earned cash but that has probably happened, d) the writing and creative side is still enjoyable, I love it, and so are the links made with many of your goodselves but I dunno sitting here tonight if this justifies giving other peoples' art away for free without their permission. Yes, it is the promotion of music, and yes some people have given permission for their stuff to be given away for free, but still... I dunno. No decisions for now, just thinking aloud.

http://download1321.mediafire.com/9k2pepqb6rog/0qzbwahxb5qqref/01+1.wma

The Black Balloons

OK, here we go. I'm new to this so bear with me if stuff doesn't work. I wouldn't say I've been an early adopter with internet things, but about 3 years ago I discovered some of the music blogs. The first ones I remember reading and going back to on a daily basis, and eventually leaving comments at, were Audio.Out and The Vinyl Villain, then Acid Ted, 17 Seconds, The Ghost of Electricity, Song By Toad, Across the Kitchen Table, and in the last year Ripped In Glasgow- all inspirations for finally getting this off the ground. Following a guest post for The Vinyl Villain in May 2009 I began to think about doing a blog more seriously, but it was only in the last few weeks that it began to ferment properly in my mind. I 'm not sure I've got a clear idea yet of what I'm going to post and write about. It won't all be one type of music, I don't know yet if it'll be old or new music, I don't see much point in posting songs which are widely available but I don't want to be wilfully obscure. Often though the most interesting music/art is made away from the centre, towards the fringes. What I think is going to happen is I'm going to write about some songs, and hopefully attach some kind of story or justification to each one. I dunno if that's going to be of interest to anyone but I'm going to have a stab. So, here we go.

I originally stumbled across Audio.Out when I was looking for mp3s of early Andrew Weatherall remixes. STX had posted several on his blog but the links were dead. I left a comment and he kindly obliged. I think I should start this blog by completing a circle from where I started, and featuring someone who I've followed for nearly 20 years. Andrew Weatherall records take up a large part of my record collection, his outlook is spot-on, and these days he's sporting a lovely Victorian-style moustache. I've not got set up yet for ripping vinyl, so I've scoured my cd's for a Weatherall track that hasn't been covered at either Acid Ted or Ripped In Glasgow. From a Rotter's Golf Club compilation Machine Funk Specialists (2001) Fowler's End by The Black Balloons, sounds like the kind of thing Weatherall and Tenniswood could knock out in their lunch-hour, but a diverting enough piece of electronic music for 3 minutes and 16 seconds. Fowler's End- a place, or the last bit of a scouse Premiership footballer? Who knows.

mp3: Fowler's End