Last week I grabbed AR Kane's debut album 69 from 1988 out of my rack to listen to it once again. While listening to this record I thought it will be a good idea to write about this underrated band. A few days ago Adam made a superb piece of writing about them and with his 40 Minutes Of AR Kanethe most is said. I discovered this record in our local record shop and and was fascinated by the cover. The plate cover is emerging as also on white background a dark circle in the middle of which we can faintly make out the number 69, which is shaped like two dark, undulating spirals. Inner-case's intricate shading shows the blue background and more clearly six-figure as a pregnant woman and nine-figure as a man, both swimming, in harmonious movements. After a few minutes watching the cover I bought this record without listening to any sons because I thought artist, that are able to create a cover like this couldn't make a bad record. When I came home I put the record on the turntable and started to listen. It seldom happened that I was so confused about what I heard. Not that I didn't liked what I heard but I was unprepared about the facets of their music. It started with a jazzy scat intro on Crazy Blue to turn into one the best pop songs of this era (they described it as dreampop later). Rudy Tambala once joked years later that AR Kane sound like a band with a bit of Velvet Underground and a bit of Cocteau Twins, Miles Davis and Joni Mitchel. And this describes their sound very good. A lot of everything good and always the ability to combine their influences with a massive pop attitude. An outstanding band and an outstanding album and the blueprint for a new generation in music.
It was a long time since I featured A.R.Kane, a British musical duo formed almost 30 years ago. Their forgotten album 69 is still a favorite of mine.I found it in my collection a few days ago and I listened to it from the start to the end. It's like a spacey trip to another planet. Influenced by various artists like Miles Davis, Velvet Underground and a bit of Cocteau Twins they made a record that is still worth to listen.
Welcome to the new millennium and to a new employer. As I have already indicated last week I have got difficulties with my directors. To cut a long story short: he put the blame on me because he lost his face in front of all other employees. Because I would not longer stand any other chicaneries in the future I have already applied last year for a new job. With some connections I built up the last years I got a very good job in our capital Stuttgart. It was hard to leave the company and all my co-workers behind after 23 years. But I have also been glad about the new challenge. The first weeks were hard because it was all new and totally different. I used to work in a familiar bank and now I came to a bank that tried to work as a really big bank. Anyway, I did my best to get my position in this bank.
Christiane and I have grown together more and more and we decided to take a longer time out and go traveling to India for 5 weeks. We spent a lot of evenings to plan our vacation. I haven't been there before so it was a great surprise how it will be. I heard about the poorness, dirt and crowded places but I wanted it to see by myself. In fact that this is a very big country we decided to travel 'only' through the southern part of India, Kerala. And we wanted to travel by ourself - not with any guided and fully arranged tour. So we fixed the places we wanted to see not knowing how to get there. We traveled by bus, train and sometimes by a taxi and it worked easily. We have seen a beautiful and for Indian relations a rich country. Kerala produces the most of home vegetables in India and their number of illiterates is less than 20% because this region was civilized by Portugal. Impressed of a lot pictures and places we have seen we spent a week to relax on Goa, a place where the hippies went to in the late 60s. A few of them were still there but most of them toothless and stoned. When you sat at the beach at sundown you could hear sounds that my ears didn't knew before. So I was introduced to the Goa sound.
Not much records this year but it might be my fault because I listened much to old school jazz, funk and soul music this year:
Radiohead - Kid A: More electronic sounds with influences of Krautrock and Jazz now on it now
Phoenix - United: This summers record comes from France
Coldplay - Parachutes: This record is the reason why I listen to them still
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven: Canadian instrumental post rock - fantastic
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature: They are back on the same high level
Underworld - Everything, Everything: Just dancefloor but awesome
Santana - Supernatural: His last good work
This are some songs from 2000 I remember very well:
Of course we went to the cinema this year again:
The Perfect Storm: Fantastic novel and a congenial movie as well
Gladiator: A good period movie
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Martial art at it's best
Billy Elliot: Great movie about a boy going his way
Oh Brother, Where Art Though: The Coen brothers going to Homer's Odyssey
The Beach: I've been there
High Fidelity: What are your top 5?
Almost Famous: Movie about the Rock and Roll Circus
Snatch: Crazy story with an excellent Brad Pitt and Vinnie Jones
Let's take a little look what happened in the rest of the world:
Pope John Paul II apologizes for wrongdoings by members of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the ages // Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia // Civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa starts // The Tate Modern Gallery opens in London // At the Roskilde Festival 9 people die and 26 are injured on a set while Pearl Jam performs // France defeats Italy 2:1 after extra time in the final of the European Championship // The Russian submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea, all 118 members on board die // Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits Temple Mount and Palestinian riots erupt
Calexico's third record Hot Rail was a great step forward in their career. Sure they played that sound before but now they added horns and violins in their sound. As I was a kid I used to watch a lot of western movies and I loved when the gunman hit the saloon and saw a Mariachi band playing. Dressed up in their suits and big sombreros the played their Mexican instrumental songs and mostly added with a trombone. These pictures comes to my sense when I listen to Calexico. Named by a town in California they play a kind of desert rock (often called Americana but I don't like this classification) with a lot of influence by the Mariachi sound. It is one of these records I have chosen when I had to drive a long distance. There are less records that are so relaxed and cool as this one. The songs slowly develop from easy, almost monotonous rhythms and quiet melodies. Partially these are rather sound collages than songs. Every movement solidifies, the thoughts become pleasantly sluggish. Only the Mariachi inserts rouse the listener over and over again briefly to let feel him, however, immediately that he has mounted again only of one fates Morgana. I know a similar mood from "Siesta" by Miles Davis.
