Slow Is Smooth

 

Tonight is the final of the German Football Cup, which would be nothing worth mentioning if VfB Stuttgart didn't get the chance to lift the trophy once again after almost 30 years. Stuttgart played a sensational season last year and finished second to be allowed to play in the Champions League this year. Which they did more than passably well. These additional games and bad luck with injuries meant that no more than 9th place was possible this season. All the greater the chance of being able to play internationally again next season with a win. Which, with all due respect, should be possible against an opponent that was promoted to the third division last week.

Today's song is from Viper Patrol, a band I don't know much and I couldn't find much more about them that they released their songs via Berlin's NEIN label. They are active since a couple of years and move on the ground of post-punk disco. Stickem convinced with a pulsing bass, echoed guitars and bleeps. An unexpected find.

Sasha

 

VfB Stuttgart supporters have not exactly been spoilt in recent years. Several relegations to the second division were well deserved - as was the immediate promotion to the Bundesliga. Otherwise, our capacity for suffering was tested as we regularly found ourselves in the lowest regions of the table. At the end of last season, we escaped another relegation by the skin of our teeth. It is all the more astonishing that we are now level on points with Bayern Munich and will almost certainly play internationally next season. Many people realised that this team has potential, but the fact that it can translate its strengths into winning games amazes me almost every weekend. We will see where this journey will take us. 

Another newcomer released a new single last week. Uche Yara is a 21-year-old musician and producer from Austria with Nigerian roots who currently lives in Berlin. Her music sounds like a psychedelic trip accompanied by Far Eastern folklore, guitar solos and a dark, pounding beat. Uche Yara impressively demonstrates her vocal range here. And now we also know that she can rap. An impressive pop song and one should follow the further development of this artist.

October

 

It is now October and once again I realize how quickly the has year has gone by. Three more month until the turn of the year and two of them filled with work at the office until I can go on vacation again in December. Like another nine months until I retire. Everything moves fast and what was important this year is mostly arbitrary in retrospect. Things come and go and you should be happy about here and now. For example that VfB Stuttgart is in second place in the Bundesliga after six days, after the supporters had to suffer for years, were only bland football was offered and hat to experience two relegations to second division. Autumn will ever be the time for me when I pick out some classic folk music because I think that fits to the season when the leaves are starting to fall. While I was thinking bout a song with October in its title I remembered a song by Roy Harper form his debut album The Sophisticated Beggar. Released in 1966 after Harper stopped travelling around Europe and North Africa to force his musical career. Harper is a member of the 60's folk-rock triumvirate beside John Martyn and Nick Drake. Listening to this song again after a long time I think that this kind of music is timeless and could be played to every time.

Roy Harper - October Twelfth

Chrystalline

 

After a long season with many disappointments, coaching changes and games that should never have been lost, Stuttgart won the first game in the relegation against Hamburger Sportverein with 3 to 0. I have seen many games this season that have disappointed me and in which the team has not played up to its potential. That makes me all the happier that the first step towards staying in the league was taken after this game. Thank you, boys.

Nashville Ambient Ensemble is a project by composer and keyboardist Michael Hix and is on duty since a couple of years. Their sound could be described as Mark Peters with a massive pedal steel guitar. But this file doesn't work well because their sound is much different. Hix included guitars and piano, a bit of krautrock and sometimes vocals into his sound - but always with a big touch of cosmic spheres. Some might name this kind of music as simple background music that doesn't mind but for me it is a urban, organic kind of music that shows what country music could be if you free your mind.

I thought it would never happen again

 

After a very long time I went to watch my team live again. After the pandemic, I didn't renew my season ticket anymore because I didn't want to watch how Stuttgart lost almost every game at home and spoil a whole Saturday away from home. I watched the games particular on a TV-scream at my local pub or missed the games at all and I took the chance to watch them in the stadium when a working mate asked me if I am willing to join him because a friend of him didn't have the time to see the game. So I started at late morning and hit the train to meet the supporters on a sunny and warm day in cult-pub. They were all surprised to see me again after many months and we had a great time talking about this and that with a couple of beers beside. The game itself was what I expected from a team that is close to relegation. Dominating Augsburg over the whole time but not able to create scoring chances until the last 20 minutes. Until then it was a draw 1:1 and Stuttgart started fighting and winning the game. They created in 10 minutes more chances than in the 80 minute before. But not successful because shooting the ball on the post or Augsburg's keeper had every ball safe. You can't imagine how the crowd went crazy when Stuttgart made the final goal to win in the third minute of the extra time. And this is what I sometimes missed during the last months.

Today's song is the new one by Dives, a three piece female band from Vienna that was featured at this place a couple of years ago. I liked their sound inspired by pop, punk, surf and garage with a massive feeling for vocal harmonies. Wanna Take You There impresses with its catchy indie sound, multi-voiced vocal harmonies and a beautiful hookline that won't let you go so quickly. "The perfect late summer/autumn soundtrack: melancholic but extremely danceable.  

Monday's Long Song

 

During the last week there was a lot of work to do in the office and I didn't found time and inspiration to keep the blog going. And it seems that this week will not be much different. On Saturday all of thoughts cruised around the last game of Stuttgart. They needed to win against Cologne and simultaneous Berlin has to lose in Dortmund. Sadly I got no tickets so we had to watch the game in a local pub. The pub was filled over one hour before the tingler and Stuttgart made probably their best game in the first half this season but missed like always to make more than one goal. So it happened like many times this season that Cologne made the balance by a huge mistake of our goal keeper. The same time Dortmund made the 2:1 against Berlin and we come to terms with the relegation this week until our mid-field player Endo made our 2:1 with a header in the extra time. This results were enough and we will play in Bundesliga next season again. All over the town we saw so many happy people that we missed the third relegation in six years. Today's song is from a new compilation called Sound From The Iranian Ultraverse I got aware last week. Artists from the Iranian diaspora located sometimes in the Bay area and New York became a platform for slamming electro, techno and propulsive breakbeats with parts of dizzying synths and warehouse raves. This song by Voiski is a good example of what is possible for these artists. Foreboding minimal techno with a massive futuristic touch.

Diego Maradona

 

This evening the sad news arrived that maybe the best football player died at the age of 60 in case if a heart attack. For me he was the perfect football player ever and it doesn't matter how he ruined his life during the last years on drugs and alcohol. I remember a day in May 1989 when I was witness of the UEFA-Cup final between Stutgart and Napoli. The first game in Napoli was a deception when Napoli got a penalty that never was a penalty and we left 1:1. The second leg ended 3:3 and was one of the best games I ever saw. Maradonna was the one that directed Napoli's game and we were lucky enough to see a great game.

He was also the one who has beaten England by the hand of god but also made one of the best goals in history. No English defender could stop him by making a goal. 

A few month ago a band appeared on the scene named by Daniel Passarella a former teammate of Maradonna winning the world cup as a defender. It is a song I didn't play for a longer time but I think it is worth to play it again in memory of Diego.

Passarella Death Squad - In Heaven

Rest easy Diego.

To Say Goodbye

This will be a strange day because episodes end today. First a fellow I worked together for 15 years will have his last working day before he gets retired. We started as co-workers and finally became friends. He was one the few different people in my office that also was an exalted music lover and a great supporter of VfB Stuttgart. Later this day I will join one of my favorite pubs for the last time. It is the first one in my town who became victim of Covid-19. Almost three months the pub was closed and the owner had no chance to make business volume. Sure the government was there to give her cheap loans but you have to pay back the credit in the future. And if the sales are just enough to make a living from I can understand that you easier want to live without debts than to agonize how to pay the monthly rates. So me and a handful of regular customers were invited to have a last good evening there. I gave thoughts what songs would fit to this and came back to Iggy Pop because songs from The Idiot were played often at this place. A great place to be will be closed but we will remember the good times we had there talking, playing pool, dart or just watching football on TV.

Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight
Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing
Iggy Pop - Funtime

Monday's Long Song

Paul Woolford a Leeds born DJ and dance music producer released under his alias Special Request  songs where he combined techno, ambient, drum 'n' bass and early rave to a very unique sound. A few days ago he released Bedroom Tapes, an album with old and lost songs that might be an entrance to his music.

Last weekend I got my season ticket for Stuttgart and I struggled a long time to get it because my team disappointed me many times during the last season. Finally I decided to get this ticket because the managers try hardly to form a new team and getting rid of players that were only in it for the money and didn't performed to their high salary. We will see how this team could play in league two.

Only Human

Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet released a new track under his alias KD. He tried for years to get the allowance to use Nelly Furtado's track Afraid as a sample. Finally they found an agreement for the copyrights and he Hebden presents us a mass compatible track with very catchy vocals, looped and strapped to an ongoing beat and added with some syhths shining in the back

This afternoon will be seminal to the future of my team. We are in the table still close to relegation and we await our table neighbor from Hannover. To beat them is necessary otherwise the days in Bundesliga might be counted.

Floating

Another new band came to my ears the recent days. I use to follow the charts of Austrian radio station fm4 because this station is far away from the mainstream in my country. This station has indebted them to be a platform for independent, electronic music and local artists as well. Not everything touches my musical taste but a lot of songs were played there for the first time. In their last chart the highest new entry were Slide, a Swedish indie-rock duo. For me this songs sounds like a mixture of their musical tastes jointed together in a pop song. They borrowed a chorus by Oasis to create a pop song like Beck would probably do and stealing the melody by Pixie's Where is my mind and you get a very nice pop song.

In the late afternoon I will go like all two weeks to the home match of my team to be able to be present after long time once again at a victory. Well knowing that it will be a hard work to beat Freiburg it might be one of the last chances to stay in contact to the teams that might think their save.

Disgraceful Defeat

Last night I was a witness like a football team everything has forgotten what they were able to do a few month ago still. Stuttgart lost at home 0:3 against Frankfurt and will be on the bottom of the table for the next week. They are far ahead of their football abilities and now most of the supporters will recognize that we will play against relegation. This will be the last time I see them live this year and I hope that I will see a better game when I am up in Glasgow at the end of the month. So I will investigate for the new Bob Dylan box-set this weekend. It is about one of my favourite Dylan records Blood On The Tracks and it shows how the songs develop form the first take. Songs only the man and his acoustic guitar and then with bass and sometimes with organ.

Darkness Rains

This is the title of Los Angeles based psychedelic and punk influenced Death Valley Girls. They are back as usually with militant beats, chaotic lyrics, swirling riffs and some pop harmonies. All songs were kept together with a psychedelic frame. Made to be played loud. Later this day I'll see what Stuttgart will do to left the bottom of the table. We got a new manager but a few players came back playing that needless Nations League. And we will play against Dortmund standing on the top of the table.

Another Great Scottish Band

It is probably true that in Scotland is a music scene that keep the talent of writing great songs up like no where else. Following JC's long lasting series about Scottish songs I think it might be true. Another example is a band from Edinburgh called Broken Record. I never heard anything from them before but their latest album What We Might Know is this kind of ace that made me listen to several times during the last days. Nothing really new of course but that what they made is deeply based in classic rock or pop (whatever you want name them for). Their songs are mostly straightforward and very well arranged. The bass is sometimes borrowed by Peter Hook and the whole record is worth to listen from the start until the end. For me it is a band that would probably be better live than on an album. But until then I enjoy this little great record. Today we will go for a home-game against Hamburg that was on the bottom of the table. Everyone I know will expect a clearly win against them. But in my opinion they will have the last chance to stay in the Bundesliga and so they have to play for success. We will see what happens.

VfB Stuttgart

Yesterday I wrote down what happened to my team and I was hoping that we still continue the way we had chosen. But things change in this business as soon as our ink was dry. The president and the manager chosen a manager for the team that everyone among the rest of the supporters can't agree with. It is the one no one would like to see at this place, even if he grown up in the neighborhood of our place. So now in my opinion the road to League two will be reserved for us. It is still hard to see the that plans for the future were destroyed by leading persons in this club. I think about to give my season ticket give away to someone else who is willing to watch this team suffer. Anyway, on Sunday I booked a flight to Sri Lanka again for three weeks recreating my little soul. Only two weeks and I will be in the sun again for a couple of weeks and none of these themes will bother me in  these times.

McCarthy - Red Sleeping Beauty

Money, Money

As usual as every second weekend we went to support our team in Stuttgart. Knowing well that we are rightly at the bottom of the table and this means less to most of the supporters. Looking back in history we played Champions League against Manchester United and had a bright future. But stupid presidents and corrupt management took us to the second league at last. Therefore we changed management to replace the old system (as we was told by all those who had something to say). Trying to get a new idea of playing football with young and talented payers. We had success with this concept in league two and we promoted to Bundesliga with a young and promising team. I didn't saw great football during this season and we lost more games than we won. The last games were hard to watch and in only a few games I missed passion in playing. Anyway, last Saturday we lost against Schalke 04 and the result is totally okay. But when I switched on my laptop on Sunday morning I read the headlines that Stuttgart suspended the manager and asked myself why. Probably the machinery works well in this business and the discharge of the manager is comprehensible but for me this club lost its soul and honesty. Typing these words don't mean that I lost my affection to the team but my aversion against the management is growing day by day.

Horace Andy - Money, Money