Augustus Double

This is the Augustus Pablo dub tune, covered by Jah Wobble at The Cinnamon Club on Saturday night- Augustus' song is dub in excelsis, deep and wide. Jah brought plenty of the dub too, but with a punk sensibility three decades old.

Augustus John pictured for an Augustus double whammy. In August too.

East Of The River Nile

Augustus

The National Portrait Gallery contains this painting of Augustus John (by William Orpen). I like Augustus John- the most technically gifted painter of Edwardian England, generally thought to have wasted his talent or not fulfilled it, and a man with an interesting life, some of it scandalising the Edwardians with his bohemian lifestyle, boozing and unconventional living arrangements. The National Portrait Gallery is a fantastic gallery, not at all stuffy or staid, well laid out and full of interesting art- it even held the interest of some of my 6th form students for a while. And it's free. There's a Man Ray exhibition opening next week as well which I want to get back dahn sarf for before the end of May.

I posted a song by 90s folktronic outfit Ultramarine a couple of weeks ago. This one features the vocals of David McAlmont (what happened to him?). There was a version with Kevin Ayres singing it too which I think I've got somewhere, lying around on a hardrive.

Hymn

Fearless Toy

Toy have made an autumnal dash for the end of year lists with their highly enjoyable self-titled debut album, heavy on psychedelic guitars and motorik drumming and a dash of Mary Chain menace. In this remix Richard Fearless sets the controls for the heart of West Germany circa 1972, with some lovely Neu! style parts. Ist gut.

Left Myself Behind (Trans Love Energies Version)

What Augustus John would make of Toy or Fearless I don't know. I've just read a book about him. John was a bohemian portrait painter who rejected Edwardian England's formality, spending a year roaming England in a Romany caravan with his wife and mistress, who grew his hair and beard long, wearing a kerchief instead of a tie, and allowed his many children freedoms other children at the time didn't get, so it's nice to think so. I suspect even our most liberal Victorian and Edwardian forebears would struggle with some of the repetitive noises we listen to today but who knows. Wasn't Stravinsky pretty far out sonically?

Der Alte

This song should suit your Sunday morning; Der Alte, which shuffled up on my mp3 player recently. I didn't know what it was, who it was by or where I got it from. I still don't know where it came from but it is a sublime piece of modern house music. Interesting drum track, lovely piano riff and some synth strings. That reductive description doesn't do it justice at all- it's a fantastic track. Highly recommended. It's from 2011, by Kolsch (there should be an umlaut in there), a well regarded German tech-house producer. Which shows how close my finger is to the pulse of current dance music. But I shall be investigating further.

Der Alte

Random picture- Augustus John, Welsh portrait painter and all round bohemian. Rocking it.