Calan Gaeaf...Great October Revolution time for a break.

What a week- Halloween, Calan Gaeaf,


November 5th



and the Anniversary of the Great October Revolution...



Time to take a break.

I was going to post this on November 7th- but i'll be away, so here is the proclamation of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, made at 10:00, October 25th 1917 (The Gregorian calendar was implemented in Russia on 14th February 1918- they missed out 1st -13th to 'catch up'):



(From the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
To Citizens of Russia
The Provisional Government is deposed. The state power is transferred into the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee, an organ of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which heads the Petrograd proletariat and garrison.
The cause for which the people has been struggling — immediate call for democratic peace, liquidation of ownership of land by landed nobility, workers' control over the industry, creation of the Soviet government — is ensured.
Long live the revolution of workers, soldiers and peasants!
Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies
October 25, 1917, 10 a.m.)

This is what you get when you mess with us...

Here is Professor David Nutt (MRCP MRCPsych FRCPsych FMedSci)- if you Google Prof. Nutt you cannot help but come to the conclusion that he knows an awful lot about drugs. He's head of the Psychopharmacology Unit at the University of Bristol, holds a position at Imperial College London and is President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
He was head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Was. Until he expressed his views on the relative risks attached to the use of certain drugs. Something he 'd be an expert on.
Unfortunately for Prof. Nutt his views did not suit the agenda of Home Secretary Alan Johnson, so he was fired.
To quote the BBC:
Prof Nutt said he was not prepared to "mislead" the public about the effects of drugs in order to convey a moral "message" on the government's behalf.
I'm not advocating the use of any drug. This is not a comment on the classification of drugs in the UK. It is a comment on New Labour's manipulation of truth, evidence, opinion. The way in which they attempt to impose their will and prevent people from making judgements based on balanced evidence.
So the government's message? It's bad because we tell you it's bad. And here's a clever doctor to back up what we say. And if he doesn't we'll send him away and find one who jolly well does.
Here's the story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8334774.stm

The third and (for the moment) final installment of Ali Baba

Here’s a few more based on this riddim.
Still can’t find a few cuts by U-Roy and I- Roy based on this, but this’ll do for now...
Natty Chase The Barber- Ranking Joe
Nuclear Bangarang- Devon Clarke
Ali Baba- Joseph Cotton aka Jah Walton
The Ruler- High Plains Drifter
Lightning & Thunder- Sluggy
Move Dem Out- Richie Spice
I Trim The Barber- King Tubby
Don’t Let Them Suffer- George Nooks

Anaksimandros- Burning Aquarium (2002)

I am always conscious of the fact that one genre that we have totally overlooked here at Burning Aquarium is Finnish acid folk/ free improvisation.
Well, here's a little taster- this is Anaksimandros with the track Burning Aquarium taken from their 2002 tape Camels Running Through Life. You can find more of their stuff over on the Newness Begins Here blog.



Actually I came across Anaksimandros whilst googling myself (oo-er missus)- intrigued to find a track titled Burning Aquarium.
This blog wasn't named after the Anaksimandros cut- I found the name in a line from Bottom by Arthur Rimbaud:

Tout se fit ombre et aquarium ardent.

I am reminded here of my old freind Patrick Kavanagh- when asked if he was named after the poet Patrick Kavanagh he replied 'how can I deny it?'

Butler Shaffer said...

Butler Shaffer said: ...it is not madmen who turn states into the brutal systems they are: it is the state itself that mobilizes our "dark side" energies into destructive practices, an end brought about only through our willingness to lose our individuality in the mass-mindedness that is essential to all political systems. In the language of "chaos" theory, the state becomes an "attractor" for the kinds of people who are disposed to use violence and intimidation against others; people who are willing to exploit the sociopathic nature of all political systems. It is not madmen to whom we must look for explanations of the genocides, wars, "terrorist" attacks, and other collective atrocities, but to our perpetuation of insane systems that amass those dark forces that we deny or repress at our peril.

Utah Saints- Something Good (1991)

Leeds based Utah Saints - Jez Willis and DJ Tim (Garbutt), originally released this stormer in 1991. It features samples from Motorhead and Kate Bush's Cloudbusting. John Kelly takes production credits.

Petition...

Good petition here- http://www.petitiononline.com/bastopdm/petition.html
ask British Airways to stop peddling racist homophobic trash!

The Tiger Lillies-Shockheaded Peter - A Junk Opera (1998)

Written in 1845 by Heinrich Hoffman, a 36 yr old Frankfurt psychiatrist, Der Struwwelpeter is one of the most memorable works in any genre, in any language, from any era. It comprises ten rhymed stories with distinctive illustrations concerning the disastrous consequences of ‘misbehavior’.
Shockheaded Peter-a Junk Opera is a 1998 theatrical adaptation of the stories with music by Martin Jacques.
Features on the original book here.
The text here.
And the record here:

Gerrard Winstanley

The following are extracts from the works of Gerrard Winstanley, written 360 years ago. Great stuff.

Therefore we are resolved to be cheated no longer, nor to be held under the slavish fear of you no longer, see the Earth was made for us, as well as for you: And if the Common Land belongs to us who are the poor oppressed...
yet my mind was not at rest, because nothing was acted, and thoughts run in me that words and writings were all nothing, and must die, for action is the life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing.
From: A Watch-Word to the City of London and the Armie, August 1649

So long as the earth is intagled and appropriated into particular hands and kept there by the power of the sword......so long the creation lies under bondage.
From: Fire in the Bush 1650

Those that Buy and Sell Land, and are landlords, have got it either by Oppression, or Murther, or Theft.
From: A Declaration from the Poor Oppressed People of England Directed to all that Call Themselves or are Called Lords of Manors, 1649

This declares likewise to all Labourers, or such as are called Poor people, that they shall not dare to work for Hire, for any Landlord, or any that is lifted up above others; for by their labours, they have lifted up Tyrants and Tyranny; and by denying to labour for Hire, they shall pull them down again. He that works for another, either for Wages or to pay him Rent, works unrighteously,
From: The True Levellers Standard Advanced - April, 1649

The JAMs- It's Grim Up North (1990-91)

Bolton, Barnsley, Nelson, Colne, Burnley, Bradford, Buxton, Crewe, Warrington, Widnes, Wigan, Leeds, Northwich, Nantwich, Knutsford, Hull, Sale, Salford, Southport, Leigh, Kirkby, Kearsley, Keighley, Maghull, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Oldham, Lancs, Grimsby, Glossop, Hebden Bridge. Brighouse, Bootle, Featherstone, Speke, Runcorn, Rotherham, Rochdale, Barrow, Morecambe, Macclesfield, Lytham St. Annes, Clitheroe, Cleethorpes, the M62. Pendlebury, Prestwich, Preston, York, Skipton, Scunthorpe, Scarborough-on-Sea, Chester, Chorley, Cheadle Hulme, Ormskirk, Accrington, Stanley, Ossett, Otley, Ilkley Moor, Sheffield, Manchester, Castleford, Skem, Doncaster, Dewsbury, Halifax, Bingley, Bramhall.

I consider Bill Drummond to be an artist of unparalleled genius.

It's Grim Up North was first released in December 1990 as a limited edition "Club Mix" with Pete Wylie on vocals
KLF Communications released a re-recorded version with Bill Drummond on vocals in October 1991. This was the last release under the name The JAMs

Through the downpour and diesel roar, Rockman and Kingboy D can feel a regular dull thud. Whether this is the eternal echo of a Victorian steam driven revolution or the turbo kick of a distant Northern rave is irrelevant. Thus inspired, The JAMS climb into the back of their truck and work.


What we have here are the Club Mix, the Radio edit, the full version and the Omsk Mix along with Jerusalem on the Moors.

Basement 5 1965-1980 / In Dub (1980)

Partly formed out of the Art Department of London's Island Records HQ in 1978, Basement 5 fused the politicised brand of post punk that was in vogue at the time with the principles of dub reggae.
This brings together two releases from 1980.
Produced by Martin Hannett.

Dennis Morris - vocals
J.R. - guitar
Leo 'E-Zee Kill' Williams - bass
Richard Dudanski - drums

Leo Williams went on to found Big Audio Dynamite with Mick Jones and former Basement 5 member Don Letts- he also featured for Screaming Target, Dreadzone and Carbon/Silicon.

More Ali Baba…

I’ve managed to unearth a few more tracks based on the delightful Ali Baba Riddim- here we have a cross section of the evolving styles of Jamaican music right up to the digitalized age of Ragga, as well as a contribution from the sophisticated Dreadzone.

Ali Baba- Sidney Mills
My Decision- Glenn Washington
I Don’t Want To Wait- Sluggy
Ali Baba- Dreadzone
I Killed The Barber- Dr Alimantado
Wish It Was Me- Al Campbell
Too Much War- George Nooks & Merciless
Nice n Slow- Razah
Militant Profile- Michigan

Got a couple more on the back boiler for next week.
Infectious or what?

Augustus Pablo- Original Rockers (1979)

Augustus Pablo (Horace Swaby 1953-1999), started out as an organist. When a girl gave him a melodica to try out, he became besotted with the instrument. Pablo transformed the humble melodica, previously considered a children’s instrument, into a staple of reggae music through a series of successful releases such as East of the River Nile, Song of the East, and The Red Sea between 1971 and 1973 for Herman Chin-Loy's Aquarius Records, bringing a new, exotic sound to reggae.
Chin Loy had used the name Augustus Pablo for any keyboard artist appearing on his label, and the success of Swaby’s early cuts for him with his band Now Generation caused the name to stick.
Augustus Pablo suffered from the nerve disorder myasthenia gravis, and died as a result of a collapsed lung on 18 May 1999. He was a devoted adherent of Rastafari.




Aston "Family Man" Barrett, Robbie Shakespeare - bass
Carlton Barrett - drums
Earl "Chinna" Smith - guitar
Augustus Pablo - melodica, organ, piano, clavinet
Dirty Harry- tenor sax
Don D Junior- trombone
Bobby Ellis-trumpet
Producer - Augustus Pablo
Mixed By -King Tubby,Philip Smart,Prince Jammy
Recorded at Dynamic Sounds & Channel One Studios. Mixed at King Tubby's.
Record date : 1972-75

Gal Costa & Caetano Veloso- Domingo (1967)

I don't normally post links to other peoples' uploads, but Joao Kartoshka recently posted this gem on his curious bossa nova/ retro/ football / chess blog (?!).
Спасибо, Joao...

Don Letts- Social Classics Volume 2 - Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (2001)

For me, punk still works on a day-to-day basis. It's an ongoing dynamic, and, if you're brave enough and smart enough, you can be part of it. I could have chosen an easy path and followed the herd, which is very much in vogue now. Instead, I revelled in individuality.
Don Letts -The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009.

Londoner Don Letts has quite a CV.
As a 19 yr old he was running the clothing store Acme Attractions, which drew in many stars of the proto punk scene. He became a friend of Bob Marley in 1976. When the legendary Roxy club opened, Letts was the first house DJ, and his playlists of reggae had a lasting influence on the punk clientele, particularly The Clash. Letts later appeared on the cover of the Black Market Clash LP (the rasta seemingly facing off a legion of coppers in Brixton). In 1978 he made his first film, The Punk Rock Movie, the most authentic document of the early punk scene.
Letts’s first foray into the music industry itself was a brief spell as manager of The Slits (he got them a supporting slot with The Clash). He was associated with early Basement 5 before they made it on to vinyl and in 1978 recorded an EP, Steel Leg v the Electric Dread, (with Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, and Steel Leg).
In 1984 he teamed up with Mick Jones and former Basement 5 bassist Leo Williams to form Big Audio Dynamite.
As a director he has made videos and documentaries for a diverse range of artists, including Tony Christie, Franz Ferdinand, George Clinton, The Jam, Sun Ra, Gil Scott-Heron, Elvis Costello, Musical Youth, The Pretenders and , of course, The Clash.

About this record: Social Classics Volume 2 - Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (2001)
On the sleeve: Selected by DJ Don Letts. The soundtrack to London's legendary Roxy Club December '76 - April '77.
Don Letts wasn't the bringer of Reggae. Paul (Simenon) was into reggae, Joe (Strummer) was into reggae and John (Rotten) was into Reggae. They were turning me onto tunes. It wasn’t always the other way around. It was one of the reasons we got on. Don’t forget that early skinheads were into reggae, Trojan and ska. Black music was and will always be rebel music…Both reggae and punk was rebel music.
Don Letts- Punk77 Oct 2005.


Despite this modest assertion there is no underestimating the importance of Don Letts in introducing the punk generation to reggae. What we have here is
a compendium of some of the finest reggae records that were finding their way to London from Jamaica in the early and mid seventies. A great compilation (ideal for the car?)
There’s a good interview with Mr Letts here.

Tolstoy and anarchy...

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910 pictured here with Maxim Gorky) was noted for the vastness of his opus and his beard, but I only recently became aware of his anarchist tendencies.
Prince Peter Kropotkin wrote of Tolstoy in the article on anarchism in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
Without naming himself an anarchist, Leo Tolstoy, like his predecessors in the popular religious movements of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Chojecki, Denk and many others, took the anarchist position as regards the Sovereign state and property rights...With all the might of his talent he made (especially in The Kingdom of God is Within You) a powerful criticism of the church, the state and law altogether, and especially of the present property laws. He describes the state as the domination of the wicked ones, supported by brutal force. Robbers, he says, are far less dangerous than a well-organized government. He makes a searching criticism of the prejudices which are current now concerning the benefits conferred upon men by the church, the state and the existing distribution of property…

As early as 1857 Tolstoy asserted: The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens ... Henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere.

Tolstoy's views were influenced by a visit in March 1861 to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, then living in exile under an assumed name in Brussels, and Tolstoy ‘borrowed’ the title of his most famous work, (Война и мир-War and Peace pub.1863-69 various forms) from an earlier work by Proudhon (La Guerre et la Paix-pub.1861).
Almost half a century later, Tolstoy’s association with anarchist thinkers remained strong. He took risks to circulate the prohibited publications of anarchists in Russia, and corrected the proofs of Kropotkin's Words of a Rebel, illegally published in St Petersburg in 1906.
Here are some other gems of wisdom from the Count…



The essence of all slavery consists in taking the product of another's labour by force. It is immaterial whether this force be founded upon ownership of the slave or ownership of the money that he must get to live.

Man must not check reason by tradition, but contra wise, must check tradition by reason.

The earth is the general and equal possession of all humanity and therefore cannot be the property of individuals.

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.

All governments are in equal measure good and evil. The best ideal is anarchy.

Governments need armies to protect them against their enslaved and oppressed subjects.

The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without Authority, there could not be worse violence than that of Authority under existing conditions.


Hats off to Highlander at Cactus Mouth Informer for this excellent book recommendation, which in turn led me to some of the material for this post.

Kung Fu Meets The Dragon- The Mighty Upsetter (Lee Perry)- (1975)

I'll let the great Mr Perry himself introduce this one- here are his sleeve notes:
Good evening and greetings you people of the universe-this is Lee Scratch Perry- The Mighty Upsetter- madder than the mad, dreader than the dread, redder than the red, dis yah one heavier than the lead. We are here at the turntable terranova, it means we are taking over. We’re taking over the air, we’re taking over the mounts, we’re taking over the star, we’re taking over the sun, we’re changing time, we’re changing power, we’re changing space, we are doing things that His Majesty sent us to do in this Armageddon.

Augustus Pablo- melodica
Boris Gardiner- bass
Earl Smith- guitar
Mickey ‘Boo’, Benbow- drums
Bobby Ellis, Dirty Harry- horns
E. Sterling- piano
Lee Perry, Skully- percussion

The Return of The Durutti Column (1979) La Retour De Colonne Durutti (1966)

Musical virtuosity may not have been the defining feature of the British 'post punk' era, but virtuoso is an apt description of the Mancunian guitarist Vini Reilly. Graduating from punk band Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds ( he was replaced by Billy Duffy- later of The Cult, and Ed Banger by a certain Stephen Morrissey) Reilly was an early signing for Factory Records. In fact Durutti Column were assembled by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus before they embarked on the Factory scheme. After various line up changes Durutti Column effectively became Reilly's solo project, and this, the first Durutti Column LP, was a collaboration between Reilly and producer Martin Hannett. Included here is a two track record by Hannett that came with initial releases of the album.
Being an admirer of the Anarchist Buenaventura Durruti I had often wondered if there was any significance in the misspelling of his name as used by Reilly, or was it merely an error.
This brings us on to Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus, and their seeming fascination for the Situationist International movement of the 1960's. Fac 51- The Hacienda Nightclub, would later be named from Formulary for a New Urbanism , a Situationist work by Ivan Chtcheglov,(the hacienda must be built...)
Le Retour de la Colonne Durutti (The Return of the Durutti Column), was a 4-page Situationist comic by Andre Bertrand given away at Strasbourg University in October 1966- so the misspelling was not down to Wilson, Erasmus or Reilly, but was faithful to Bertrand's text.



*Translation below

The LP itself also made reference to the Situationists. Like Guy Debord's book Mémoires — It came in a sandpaper cover,(the idea in Debord's case being that this would destroy other books on the shelf).



Vini Reilly & Martin Hannett



*Cowboy 1: What's your scene, man
Cowboy 2: Realisation
Cowboy 1: Yeah? I guess that means pretty hard work with big books and piles of paper on a big table.
Cowboy 2: Nope. I drift. Mostly I just drift.