TIMR 24: John Foxx and The Maths: Rhapsody (UPDATED)

John Foxx - one of the more un-centred parts of my music history - important but more tangential or something. Perhaps, to explain....

I missed Ultravox! - I am sure that Hiroshima Mon Amour was on Countdown and the link with Eno was there, but their time and mine did not fit (recently have gone to those early albums and enjoy them).

After the split obviously Vienna and the new romantics were about and more prominent and while Underpass was a small hit for Foxx, the album didn't reach me. Then Impact Records in canberra sand its siren song to me and I picked up some 12" single in sales and eventually got the four Foxx albums - Metamatic, The Garden, The Golden Section and In Mysterious Ways. My favourites were 4, 2 , 1, 3 by the way.

Then he went quiet.

On a trip to England in 2005 in a small record shop I found the double album of the first two Cathedral Oceans albums - beautiful ambient emerging from The Garden. There was also a live album there - I think it was the Omnidelic - but I didn't pick it up - another missed opportunity.

Anyway, a few years later something nudged me & I looked into him on the web and found the resurgence with Louis Gordon in the late 90s/early00s. This developed his older material and also included some wonderful new albums.

His career has continued since - there have been more ambient albums; ambient collaborations with Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie; songs with Belbury Circle and Jori Hulkkonen this year; some great resissues and compilations; 

And most recently teaming up with Benge to form The Math - Rhapsody is their most recent release. There shared love of analogue synths provides great warm sounds to go with Foxx's still subtle and always striking voice, often half spoken.

Throughout this long career Foxx has revisited past material and released it in live and studio albums: Rhapsody is another in that line. It takes ten songs from Ultravox! onwards and re-records them, live in studio before going out on the road with them. These aren't radical reworkings but rather presenting the music with the current lineup, modified slightly and subtly tweaked.

As I say, Foxx (perhaps because he dropped out after 4 great albums) was never central in my music world, but those albums got a lot of play and still do, and the newer ones are also high in my mind when I want some joyous electro or thoughtful ambient. It is great he is back.

Caveat - there is one album of his I don't like: a collaboration with Theo Travis (flute, sax) and to me it is too close to New Age: I have also avoided Travis's collaborations with Fripp.

A great discography is at
http://www.quietcity.co.uk/discography.html

And Foxx's own page is pretty great
http://blog.thequietman.co.uk/

UPDATE: Foxx's album A New Kind Of Man which is Metamatic, the first solo album, plus other tracks from the same period performed live in 2007 is now available from townsend records for pound1.99 - great buy, great bargain

TIMR ?: Nothing to something

solipsism to the MAX

Yep - new carpets

TIMR 23 : tom phillips

OK - a person not a thing, but then Tom Phillips isn't in my room, he is a presence.

My memory of his entrance into my mind starts with non-knowledge: I had King Crimson Starless and Bible Black and Eno Another Green World without realising that the covers were by Phillips.

A synchronicity of sorts happened while I was in Canberra. There was an article about him in The Age Monthly Review, I found a copy of IRMA (Gavin Bryar's version of Phillip's libretto & score - he doesn't like this, but I love it) which was released on Eno's Obscure Records so I bought it, and the National Gallery had The Heart of A Humument in their shop.

Which brings us to what is his signature work - A Humument. He has taken a Victorian novel Mallock's A Human Document and with a mesmeric obsession excavated it. The Humument itself is in it's fourth edition - the first included every page of the novel as transformed by Phillips. Each page is a miniature marvel. Here is one at random drawn from the web.

Text is extracted to make a minipoem and an image drawn around it. These can often reflect other aspects of his work, other themes. The text has been used in a variety of other works - IRMA is based on texts suggesting sounds, words and moods to create the score. Since the first edition there have been 4 more, and with each some of the pages have been changed so that by the next edition no page will be the same as the first. I now own four versions of this book, plus that original The Heart of A Humument which takes small central fragments and creates even smaller images.

Much of Phillips' work comes from obsessions or concepts - and while much conceptual art doesn't work, I always find his does. These include paintings based on recreating postcards, or specific parts (such as a series of Union Jacks as seen in cards); coloured edges and components based on recycling old paint and I Ching sequences; the Mappin Gallery where he took a postcard of an art gallery and recreated the individual painings as full size - and then recreated the whole room; 20 sites in N years where he goes back to 20 spots in a walk round his neighbourhood and photographs the same view from a fixed spot, creating a view of the changes.

Others of his books that I have are

The postcard century - for each year to the 20th century he curated a selection of 20 cards from his collection, providing a visual history of changes but also recurring tropes.

Works.Texts.to 1974 - This essential text combines 50 Recapitulatory Paintings 1962-1974, which are recreations of works from this period in the size of the book, with reprints of the originals and short text, with essays and images about specific works (Benches, Mappin Art Gallery) or themes (Flags, Berlin Wall). Plus a little about photographic projects and all of his music scores (including the IRMA score [mined from Humument])

Works and Texts - from 1992, this covers some of the same ground in terms of the essays, but brings the artworks up to date, and is larger scale with better production. This one is easier to get, but both are essential.

Dante's Inferno: he translated the Inferno and provide 4 illustartions for each canto, all including worked extracts from Mallock and extensive notes. This was also made into a television series (A Television Dante) with Peter Greenaway

A Humument for iPhone (there is also an iPad version which would give a better experience because of the screen size, but I didn't own an iPad) - go to the app store.

The books give me many happy hours - looking at the pictures, reading the poems in Humument or rereading the texts about how some of these works evolved. The blog is worth following - a high point was when Phillips was creating a multipanel piece and showing pictures of it as it grew and changed. I have been fortunate to see some Humument pages and otehr works in a show in Canberra years ago - to my mind Phillips is not sufficiently celebrated, and I don't know why.

Where to end? A portrait of Brian Eno seems appropriate.

(Note - I have put in links to the relevant pages of the Tom Phillips site - it is a brilliant and detailed beast. Other links are to Amazon where you can see more detail about some of the trade publications). 

TIMR 22: fossils and drones

In 1996 we went on holiday to San Francisco. My father-in-law  was a visiting professor at Berkeley & so Carol's parents rented a house & we visited for 3 weeks. It was a fabulous holiday. 

We loved SF, it felt like somewhere we could live (though when we took a bottle of wine out the first night & were told they don't serve liquor it was a bit of a jolt to our BYO selves). The house was in El Cerito, a few Bart stops up from Berkeley. A strange suburb for a holiday, but the mall was just down the road and I loved wandering the supermarket. And the wonderful Bart was only a couple of minutes walk away. 

I loved amoeba in Berkeley & got some good second hand bargains (some Muslimgauze, Bill Nelson) and the Storm of Drones was also a SF find. It was a period when I was into FAX & went to meet Charles Uzzell Edwards over in Mill Valley (these days I'd love to see Steve Roden or Michael Bentley).

We all had a weekend together in Yosemite, with a stop in Sonora. Beautiful. 

The next weekend Carol & I flew to Phoenix, hired a car, and drove to the Grand Canyon. An amazing drive and the end was worth it - truly somewhere photos can't do justice to. We often laugh about the crows playing in the updraft. 

These 2 fossils were from a shop at the canyon, run by the woman we had booked our accommodation via email in those early Internet days. They are probably from Morocco or somewhere like that & the trilobite is glued together. But it's the memories. 

To further date me, I have a diary of the trip which I typed on my Newton with external keyboard. I still have the Newton too - but doubt I could extract the files. 

My only trip to America but a very happy one for many reasons. And encased in these rocks are three weeks of memory. 

TIMR 21: Muslimgauze

Iranian Womens Table Tennis Team

A couple of objects to represent my Muslimgauze collection/obsession. 

Bryan Jones, Manchester based musician, was a fascinating and confounding character. His interest in the Arab/Israel conflict, and then more widely the Muslim/west interactions provided a polemic for his music often heightened by choices made by his labels for cover images: and his music was often denounced as antiisraeli or antisemitic. But for every Hebron Massacre, Azzazzin, Vote Hezbollah or Rape of Palestine there were many Arab Quarter, Gun Aramaic, Lahore & Marseille, Azad or Hand of Fatima. And albums or tracks often belied a wicked sense of humour. 

The music is far from polemic. Rhythmic, melodic, infused with samples, hypnotic, distorted, monolithic, subtle are some possible descriptors. In simple terms Muslimgauze work in a relatively narrow range, but does it with a skill and facility which makes each album different. 

Perhaps the main criticism that can be made is that Muslimgauze's reputation may have benefitted from judicious editing. He initially released his own albums and then found labels who were willing to release just about everything (& he released on many labels simultaneously - but mainly Staalplaat and Soleilmoon), including a subscription series. Thus there is a huge catalogue - not a problem for the fan (except the full-on collector) but can make it hard for someone looking from outside to find a way in. It also means that albums are referred to by their 'period' sound (early rhythmic, late crunchy) or broad classifications. 

On the issue of how much is too much, I think that the net has in many ways closed that question. Artists can now make available as much of their creation as they want easily and cheaply - examples would be DGM, Dave Stafford's eternal albums or YouTube channel - and if people want all you can offer, fine: no one is made to buy anything. And for the monied collectors there are multibox anniversary etc reissues (anyone want to buy Road to Red for (pounds)150?). 

My first Muslimgauze release was Veiled Sister - from Peril - a beautiful slowrhythmic ambience. As a bit of an obsessive I started collecting. In those early days the Internet was used to arrange physical exchanges. I swapped Fax items for Muslimgauze and my collection grew. I bought some from Staalplaat, and also started getting free ones when I got on their reviewer list. 

Bennett deceiver

Along the way I came in contact with Terry Bennett who runs the Messenger, a website dedicated to Muslimgauze, including the essential discography. I think Terry did much to keep the Muslimgauze flame alight. 

Anyway, I became the 'official' reviewer for the website & many of my reviews appear attached to releases there. Terry also sent me copied of some releases - only ever out of print items, with recreated covers. 

The complete oblique

One of my proudest musical moments is an acknowledgement on the cover of the release Terry did of pre Muslimgauze Bryn - the Complete Oblique. Funny, seeing my name on a physical release really chuffs me. 

(Other proud moments, for the record, every time an artist has thanked me for a review, when people send me unique or very limited releases. Humbling moments: when I look at all the music that people have entrusted to me to comment on).  

Anyway, I have too much Muslimgauze and indeed too much music. I can never play anyone enough - if I started my iTunes library this morning it would keep going for nearly 200 days. But I regularly play something by Muslimgauze and am never disappointed. 

TIMR 20: before the web

There are a lot of things in my room from before the web. But this book reminds me of what fandom was about. 

From the Joy Division web site. Seems this came out in many editions - growing as it went. And worth about $80!

The web beyond its initial origins was partly built by fans. I remember the early days when it was FTP, text based, HyperCard stacks. Twin Peaks was almost the quintessential web show - the mystery, clues, plots were expounded on the web. The other big thing was JFK conspiracy sites. For music (or film or books) there were news groups of traded information, images& sometimes even sound. 

This 'book' came out in 1984ish (I got a real surprise when I read that - I didn't realise it was that long ago). It is a complete guide to Joy Division and New Order full of essential information:

• A discography for JD then NO (including bootlegs), a concert list (essential for making sure you have all possible boots)
• photos of the front and back of boots - 18 pages, 3 per page (how many would there be now!)
• Lyrics - including singles, live albums (Still), peel sessions up to Power Corruption and Lies. 
• Some FAC numbering info and details. 
• The main 2/3rds though is clippings - music press, fanzines, reviews (albums and gigs) not all in English, collected over 4 years to give a history. 

I remember pouring over this, checking the lyrics, working out if my combination of bootlegs gave me all the JD recordings, cross referencing. 

I supplemented it with the more glossy history An ideal for living which had more concrete data on demos etc. 

The physical nature of it made it seem more special - something you had to buy and keep - not a website you could quickly find it all on - and I don't think you would read that informal history that the cuttings give on a website.

I must admit I got into Joy Division late - the Love will tear us apart single and the news of Ian Curtis' death - perhaps being in Australia meant that the buzz around them was muted. But I soon got into JD/NO, got a bootleg tape of the Warsaw releases, a bootleg disk which had some of the then unreleased sessions (but now have them all nice digitally thanks to the box set), and have followed New Order pretty closely, though fading a bit after techno - lots of the 12" singles, the Substance double cassette was terrific and have the Retro box set.

Notice, JD/NO didn't make it into the guilty pleasures list - 

TIMR 19 : bill nelson boxes

Looking at my music collection and thinking about long term relationships, an important one is Bill Nelson. And it's a strange one. In my musical world there are three main types of relationships: there is the central trio of Eno/Fripp/Bowie. There are old friends who I often turn to - Jethro Tull, ELP, Steve Harley, Incredible String Band, Beatles, Joy Division/New Order, and many more - people who were important at various stages and who I followed (and still do) and have a warm affection for; but I'll probably not write many TIMRs about them. 

Contents of trial by intimacy

Then there are artists who fall between - people who I have known for a while and followed though their development: Bill Nelson is one of these, David Sylvian and John Foxx are probably the next closest ones, others migh include Paul Weller. People who I have travelled with through various groups and guises, and who offer a range of different music. (Some of my more recent relationships are starting to get long term!)

So to Bill Nelson - the dating of my memories is hazy!

I am pretty sure that my first exposure was Do you dream in colour - a minor hit out here. In a fabulous sale (i have very fond memories of sales in various shops, flipping through the bins for known and unknown quatities; queuing before the shop opened to get the one off gems) I bought Live! in the air age (a double album of full album plus 12" ep) which was my broader introduction to BeBopDeluxe [I later bought the double album of singles and rarities (The best and the rest) and then the double cd - and while I enjoy them they are later exposures and not as formative {similarly I have heard Ultravox retrospectively, after getting into John Foxx}]

Around the same time I got Quit dreaming and get on the beam and Bill Nelson's Red Noise. I can't say which I got first, though I am leaning towards Quit dreaming. It came with a free album of ambient instrumentals Sounding the ritual echo - and in a trend which becomes increasingly prevalent in the Nelson discography, this is from demo tapes recorded in his home studio.

Whichever, it was Quit dreaming and Sounding which turned me right into a Bill Nelson fan. The rock/pop album is full of hooks and great songs, while the ambient is mellow attractive and enchanting. I became a seeker of the arcane knowledge. 

I think my next purchase was the four album set Trial by Intimacy, bringing together four albums of the ambient, with a booklet of arcane photos and text, cards and knowledge of the Bill Nelson fan club. I can't fathom how I found out about it in those pre-internet days, and while I am pretty sure I ordered it through the post, it could have been through an import record shop: either way it was a big investment - but worth it.

Many albums followed

The love that whirls - possibly my favourite; though the range of The two fold aspect of everything (singles, hits, ambience) brings it up there.

Then there are many more - Chimera, Getting the Holy Ghost Across, scores for Das Kabinett and Beauty and the beast, Savage gestures, the Orchestra Arcana albums, Crimsworth, Chance encounters in the garden of light (double album plus 7" single of ambience, another high on the favorite list). The music across that list covers a whole range of styles.

His sound is generally recognisable - the guitar, the voice and mood. But the combination of song based albums and ambient across the years is very attractive. His output ranges from Crimsworth (a very minimal ambience) through guitar based ambience such as Chance encounters in the garden of light, beautiful pop like The love that whirls to the early sampling of the two Orchestra Arcana releases.

Another box set came out - the four cds of Demonstrations of affection - which at Peril they broke up so while I didn't get the t-shirt or box, I got 2 of the four disks. Then My secret studio - four albums of demo songs with some small card; the Confessions of a hyper dreamer (my secret studio volume 2). To be honest, by that time in the mid-nineties I was becoming financially Nelson-fatigued. But music still emerged. There was another multidisk set that was tempting (Noise candy), and then the Nelson club got even more active creating even more. There were some ordinary releases as well. If you look at the discography on wikipedia almost half of the three columns are post 2000.

I have maintained a light contact with the expanded oeuvre, but it is that period to just before 2000 which really resonate for me. As with other artists it came at a time when I was being exposed to more new music through the reviewing. 

Looking at my iTunes library I have about 39 albums from Bill Nelson, BeBop (only a couple) and Channel Light Vessel. In many moods I'll whack on a bit of Bill and always enjoy it. And there are the boxes & their contents, which are permanent TIMR reminders. 

two later collections

TIMR 18: building stories, chris ware

A child of the UK and Australia, I never really got into comics (I am not sure if there is any relationship between those two phrases, when looking at them after I typed them. But I feel that at the time I was young (OK, the {late - vanity}50s and 60s) comics hadn't got much beyond the very ubiquitous Phantom and Superman). Though I did read the comic sections of the newspapers.

As time went by I observed the growth in the genre and its maturing - the switch from Batman to the Dark Knight for example. But by then I was too 'mature' to think of reading thngs like the Sandman and others which are now presented as classics of the developing genre.

But I was always intrigued, and bought the McSweeney's issue that celebrated comics (number 13)- partly for its excessive production but also out of interest. And I enjoyed it heaps.

Chris Ware edited it, seemed like a key figure in the graphic novel area, and had won prizes for Jimmy Corrigan Smartest Kid on Earth - which had called to me when it came out but I had resisted. Resist no more.

What I found was a complex, intriguing character study, with historical aspects, plus using the graphic side to create diversions (such as models you could cut out a build if you wanted to destroy your copy) and to make knowing nods to the format. It is very episodic which reflects its creation as separate vignettes. But a complex and satisfying read. And look. And it looks great - Ware has a spare flat style that carries the whole so well.

So when I heard about Building Stories it was a no brainer:

• A new novel or set of interconnecting stories by Chris Ware - what's not to want, plus
• The package. It comes in a box that is 11.7 x 1.9 x 16.6 inches in size - like a board game. Inside are 14 separate pieces in various formats - full size newspapres, fold out card the size of a board game, books, booklets, pamphlets. The picture below (from wikipedia which also has a description of the book and its parts) shows the cornucopia on offer)

It is a colection of stories based around a building and centred on four inhabitants: a married couple, the elderly owner, a single woman (at the start) with a single leg, and a bee. The stories intersect at times and cover many years.

One of the many pleasures is deciding what order to read them. This reminds me of the other book-in-a-box, B S Johnson's the unfortunates (he is a postmodern pioneer) from 1969 whre the sections of the book can be read in any order other than the first and last. With Building Stories it means that you are also having to 'build' the characters stories as you go - is this earlier or later than the bit you read before? Ah, that explains the other section etc. No one reading is prioritised and a sequential order might not even be possible.

Again, reflected in the variety of bits, he plays with conventions on how to read the individual works - some requiring rotating the book or following lines, or understanding the base structure so that you can follow the panels.

But beyond the pleasure of the thing, the story is also excellent. Ware tends seem negative - there is a lot of unhappiness in this and Jimmy, and it is also reflected in his comments in the Acme sketchbook of his I bought. But many stories are sad, and this is not bleak. Each individual is drawn (literaturally and literally) in details which grow and develop. You become engaged in their lives and fortunes - and may even search the bits to see what happened next!

It may be a comic format, it may be in a box, but what it is is a well written series of short stories. A pleasure on many levels

(and on my panorama you should be able to see it perched on top of the bookcase - and we could even start a spot the TIMR in my room competition)

TIMR 17: vietnam

OK - not really a thing in my room - though I do have this carved box - but rather an opportunity to reflect and bask in a recent holiday. Not a blow by blow but some thoughts.

And yes, we went to Vietnam. Just over 2 weeks, most in Hanoi but a 3 day excursion up to Sa Pa, one down to Halong bay.

First off, it was fabulous. We stayed in the old part of town, narrow streets full of people, noise and excitement: the antithesis to home here on the property. But we fell into it surprisingly easily. It was our first time for an extended visit to SE Asia and concerns and preconceptions were not met. We moved carefully - kept away from markets where there could be live animals, didn't stray to areas that could have dog restaurants: overall we were pleasantly surprised by the number of well loved dogs and cats around. So to some thoughts

The people - were overall the most friendly we have met or come in contact with anywhere. A young punk in a clothes shop was dismissive and the hotel staff didn't apologise for the sour milk & sent housekeeping up to check we hadn't raided the minibar when we left (minor irritations). Most people we cam in contact with had good english - including the 'minority' women in Sa Pa - and we were approached at the lake in Hanoi by a couple of students wanting to practice their excellent skills. People were helpful but not diffident and had a great sense of humour. (The most annoying people all trip were an american and some aussies in a cafe; a group of french, american and english trekkers; and being stuck in a bus with for late 20s silverspoon expats).

Technology - Mobile phones everywhere, in the hands of everyone; free wifi all over the place (the only time you have to pay is expensive hotels); big TVs even in the low Sa Pa valleys. A reminder of how ubiquitous this all is.

halong

Hanoi, Sa Pa, Halong - We saw three different parts, to get a taste of the country. Hanoi is busy, exciting, full; Sa Pa is beautiful and the overnight train trip (done in style on an orient-express style sleeper with dinning car) was wonderful. The mountains are the home of various 'minority' group (see also the Museum of Ethnology) whose way of life has been maintained and is being supported as a major attaraction. We went on a walk through a couple of villages with a Hmong guide and it was eye opening. And then Halong, beautiful and relaxing - though the ride down is long (3 hours in a minibus) and there isn't enough time on the cruise)

Sa Pa

Ho Chi Minh museum - an amazing high point. The first two floors are ordinary, the second has photos of local heroes etc - but the top floor is dazzling. As you move round the circular building you see episodes from the history of the world, communism and Ho's life in modernist dioramas. A constructivist painting of a tower lives as a model, parts of Guernica emerge from the walls as sculpture, there is a bit that looks like a cross between superman's citadel and the tardis.It is really weird and yet also an overwhelming sculptural artwork, full of symbolism and mystery.

Traffic - the only time it is quiet is from about 2 to 6am: when we got back from Sa Pa it was strange to be able to walk almost empty streets. motorbikes, motorbikes, motorbikes, cars, people people people, parked bikes. There seem to be few road rules, just suggestions; size matter (don't mess with a bus); go with the flow, even through red lights; take care but be forceful. We didn't see any accidents, and the closest we came was someone coming to park their bike on the pavement (which is full of bikes, walk on the road) and just came straight for us.

Food - we were less adventurous here. Vegetarian so fewer options, western worries about street food. We found a few good places in hanoi we liked: the Tamarind, only 5 minutes from our hotel and a begetarian menu we never got through; Cafe Kangaroo, better than you would think, excellent local food plus some home comforts (vegemite, weetbix); the restaurant at the Museum of Ethnology, run as a training centre; The Loft, a little french based cafe/patisserie. And the hotel in Sa Pa and the boat on Halong were great.

Music - or should I say musak: terrible piped music of slow torch songs in many places. My portable sound system came in handy. And I even played Quet Americans Vox Americana in Hanoi. Nice one.

Communism - what is communism these days? There were people driving Bentleys, you have to pay for late secondary or higher education, is there equality?

I could go on, but I don't want to bore y'all. But it was an epiphany (if you can have one over 2 weeks) about a reality of Asia. Loved it.

puppets at the museum of literature

TIMR 16: ...i listen to roden's book

I am slowly circling round my Roden obsession. Eventually to present it, but here is something else of his in my room. 

It is interesting that my two favorite artists collect postcards. Tom Phillips' a postcard century is a great extract from his collection containing 20 cards for each year from 1900 to 1999 - including their text. Roden also collects - though primarily original photocards with an often musical bent. These have often  appeared on his blog (link at side). |

In addition he gathers old singles - in all denominations - musical, spoken, self recorded, flexidisks - whatever. Again some have appeared on the blog or in a radio show he curated. 

Last year the two came together in a book published by dust-to-digital, an imprint that specializes in resurrecting old musics.

... i listen to the wind that obliterates my traces (music in vernacular photographs 1880-1955) is a beautiful book. Through nearly 200 pages we are presented with a wonderful array of photographs of people related to music in various ways: playing, collecting, advertising, amateurs or professionals (players and photographers). Most are black and white, sepia in various tones. Some are damaged, other faulty, annotated. 

Each picture tells a story, but usually one we don't know and which we try and tell ourselves. The book can be wandered through at random, imagining the world around them. Roden has curated his collection carefully - as you go through there a periods of theme: machines, relaxed guitarists, holding a stringed instrument, families, music horns. But these swiftly disappear and smaller and larger themes echo through. There is very little text - a thoughtful introduction and well chosen quotes. The pictures are able to stand alone.

Embedded in the inside covers are the two disks. Again, a seemingly random selection of tracks from his esoteric collection. Cohering around various sound effects, there are home recordings, folk songs, spirituals, country, blues: crackling music that comments very obliquely on the photographs.

The images and sounds here are far from the music of Roden's oeuvre or the images that are available on his website or catalogues (or for those lucky enough to see/hear his works live). What we have is a glimpse of the broader life of the artist (together with his blog) which allows us to see (I originally wrote understand, but that is unrealistic) a more three dimensional artist.

And as well as that it is a beautiful book - solid, robust and wonderfully produced. The http://www.dust-digital.com/wind/, as does Amazon. It is money well spent

TIMR 15: a box of singles

This box is a perfect size for what in many ways is/was a perfect medium - the 7" single.

And inside I have:

• steve roden: one stone
• Taming Power releases 1 (selected works 1996-97) and 13 (Fragments of the name of god)
• Early morning records (Askild Haugland's) 2 compilations of experimental music
• Muslimgauze - Hammer and Sickle, a very early release; Minaret Speaker, a lovely heavy vinyl picture disk; and Red Crescent a single sided release with etching on the non-music side
• Buckets and Batteries self-titled release in a hand made envelope sleeve
• Neck Doppler - Sit down backed with Straight Outta Mongolia - complications
• Sheffield - The bridge (clear vinyl) and Barbed - Pocket reminder, both from Elevator bath
• j.frede - isolate in a sewn cloth sleeve, an early submission for review
• Higgins/Felipe - Proerties/ribbons and He-Pea - Falafel avantgarde, both from Public Eyesore
• 10 releases from Drone Records before they started sending me CDs of their releases (which I don't blame them for at all, asting their precious actual vinyl releases on me). These come on a nice heavy vinyl, some coloured - I have blue with green highlights,orange with black,picture disk, puke green, clear red, clear, clear with yellow highlights, and of course black.

Also in here, because it came in a faux 7" cover is an ambient collection - The walls are whispering - that steve roden sent me.

So why when 99% of my vinyl and my record player is in the roof do I have these here? Because like all the things in my room they mean something to me. It could be who/how I got them, the fact they remind me of the generosity of labels and artists to reviewers, of the time when my reviews seem to have engulfed part of my life but also were appreciated by artists and readers, and because they are more than just 7" pieces of vinyl: they have colours and packaging which make them collectible to me. Below, unidentified, are some of them (either covers or disks) - on the right are 8 of the Drone releases, the left has a goodly selection of the other disks in order if you want to try & identify them).

TIMR 14: music collection

These are pictures of some of my music collection.  My main in-room cd selection can be seen in the banner - there are more in my roof. But these contain my digital collection and subsets which are what I mainly play from. 

Here, on the back of my desk, beside the Shinjuku Thief collected box is my main hard drive. 1Tb, my second drive, has everything I have digital and want to keep - self recorded vinyl, purchased mp3 and ripped CDs, downloads from the web (mainly from web labels). My first (smaller) drive is at work with a selection of the music - it is a bit frustrating at times when recent acquisitions or genres aren't there - but I can live with that. 

My main organizing principle is genre - I use it to group net labels (stasisfield or zeromoon are genres for example) or real labels (accretions, dorobo) or artists with a lot of representation (steve roden, muslimgauze, miles davis, taming power) & then all my own genres (such as electropop, ambient, environminimal, beaty, NZ, Nordic etc) to give a total of 107 genres for my 42736 items in 302Gb. 

And here, sitting on my pioneer sound system are three of my players. On the left my iPhod - my original 3GS phone which served me well as a phone, even after I killed the camera taking pictures in the rain, but has become effectively a touch once I upgraded to the 4. It's not pictured here, cause I use it to take the pictures, but it is part of my portable paraphernalia - it has a small memory so I just have a few artists that can provide instant solace - eno, roden, fripp, stafford. 

The old iPod doesn't get much use - its battery isn't charging but I've put some netlabels and harder stuff on it for those times you need an extreme. 

And then there is my Mambo X - my first player. I bought it because iPods were expensive and tied to iTunes and DRM. I looked at a lot of options & got this one because it had a line in with the ability to record. And my collection started by ripping CDs in soundjam but also hooking this up to my amp via the earphone jack and recording. It was lo bitrate, sometimes distorted (had to re record) and always a full side of vinyl. But despite that some of those recordings are still listened to parts of my collection. The Mambo sadly is of historic value only - the battery failed and the power jack got loose & wouldn't charge - and it's probably not worth getting fixed. Plus the folders/file interface was a little tedious!

Sitting on my kitchen sound system is the iPod classic - 120GB of the mainstreamish sort of stuff I can play in the 'public' areas of the house. It's probably the one I'll take away with me. 

And there is another one - an iPod touch which carol uses mainly for some podcasts. As my iPad is a work machine I have a few music apps (the Brian Eno range, figure, glassworks, mixtikl), but don't use it for storing or playing music. 

Sometime (most times) I think I have too much music. I remember the days when I only had a few albums and knew them all - and I can still sing the songs in my head. But while the choice can be overwhelming at times, I do like the thought of all the wonderful and varied music I can hold and listen to from these devices. 

TIMR 13: staalplaat material series

Mens 

Staalplaat is a innovative and interesting label. Early supporters of muslimgauze, the Morte aux Vache live series plus many more; they have always appreciated varied formats and presentation. Picture disks, sets, individualized covers (Muslimgauze Azad with a piece of newspaper), limited editions - reflecting the range you would expect from a medium sized small label. 

But in many respects the high point for me was the material series. Not explicit like the Morte series or Muslimgauze releases, this was a subtle grouping tied together by aesthetics. And by what I think represents a pinnacle of what can be done with a jewel case. I present my case:

The disk itself was a little used beauty called AB-CD I think. It was a full 5 inch disk made of transparent colored plastic (a shade that was appropriate for that release). In general the music was about 20+ minutes - or what would normally be a 3" cd. Only that part of the disc  was silvered, giving a darker central region with a lighter coloured halo. Simple but very effective. 

The jewel case was clear plastic see-through - nothing special there - but it was etched with the details. Generally artist/release & track titles on the front , recording details, staalplaat info etc on the back (with some variation). Subtle minimalism (though a pain if the case broke [see below] as it was unique).

Finally, instead of cover insets, there were pieces of material, different for each release - the ones I have are:

• Massimo: minimo - gold brown card with a wave pattern on it giving a 3d effect - the disk is gold yellow
• Kozo Inada -  a[] was that plastic sheet with ridges that is used to give postcards depth or movement - this is blobby parallels, red disk; d[] is in a yellow transparent case, yellow disk and the insert a small yellow plastic mesh
• Goem: Punik - insert an orange card with regular small holes
• Heimir Bjorgulfsson: "Machine natura(...)" - clear case with green tray, green disc and a green wallpaper insert
• Pure: low - full length CD with speckled copper label, the insert is a fine copper mesh
• Thilges 3: Polka - clear disk with white label, the insert is thin sheets of polystyrene
• Radboud Mens: "Sine" - the disk is dark blue and the inserts are incredibly heavy metal mesh which just about destroyed the case on the trip over here (big picture at top)

a[] open (top), Goem (bl) d[] (br)

Discogs lists one I haven't got, and you can go there to see better pictures.

Bjorgulfsson (tl) Massimo (tr) Thilges 3 (bl) Pure (br)

I have a couple of other releases using the same format

• Pimmon: Orquesta del arrurruz - is listed in the series at Discogs, but I don't agree. The AB-CD format is used, but the information is printed on the cover not inscribed. It is a lovely piece though, as instead of inserts it has green truf-like material , a light green disk and some green felt instead of screenprinting on the disk, in a green jewel case (without the disk-insert).
• Muslimgauze: Ayatollah dollar - uses much the same format without a cover insert (there is a back one) and a number of his releases came in cases that had the information etched on.
• Radboud Mens: Pulse - printed on the cover is radiating grid which together with a similar print on the disk gives nice moire interferance patterns.
• Banabila, Vennik & Bobby: "Cards on the table" - clear case, printed information, clear AB-CD but in the disk tray there is a piece of plastic table cloth and a playing card (and the catalogue number, like Pimmon, is in the right range.

TIMR 12: supportive labels

Here, in the CD section of my Ikea Billy bookcase, is a special section for labels that have small labels which supported me amazingly when I was into high level reviewing. This is a brief acknolwedgement for them - some of which will get a special mention later. But as the TIMR is about things around me which have meaning for me when I look at them, here is a bit of a trip down memory/thankyou lane.(Later we may have an artist special)

• Public Eyesore and Eh? - Bryan Day
• NoType - actual releases from the amazing netlabel
• KrKrKrKr and related New Zealand labels - David Khan
• Mystery Sea
• Burning Shed
• Fencing Flatworm
• TwoThousandAnd
• Accretions - Marcos and Marcelo
• Bowindo
• Foton
• Crouton
• Pax
• Henceforth
• Absurd
• Humbug
• AES
• Throat
• BipHop
• The Foundry - eM
• Grob
• pfMentum
• Consume
• XI

And more I am sure