Do You Remember

It is 35 years ago that English poet, spoken-word artist Anne Clark appeared on the scene and it was the first time spoken words were big at our place. Many people translated her poems into German language and were surprised about what she said. After all these years it is nothing at all but the way she performed her lyrics was awesome these days. Bit of avant-garde and probably the first one that tied her words to electronic sounds made her new and unique. In these days I went to see her live and it was one of these gigs I went after half an hour because her words came from a playback tape. From this times on I stopped listening to her until now I got into a mood to listen to their songs again after ages. Without this experience I would like her songs more than now. Afterwards I turned more into another spoken words artists like Laurie Anderson.

Pale Green Ghosts

John Grant announced that he will release his new album the next days. I only heard a few songs from this record and it sounds really electric and didn't hooked me listening to this songs by the first times. So I took the chance to go back to his album Pale Green Ghosts from 2013. It was a record I still listen from time to time and can enjoy always. It is this kind of record that was underrated and only less people could see the beauty in it. Almost classic songs, recorded with musicians from Island and guest vocals by Sinéad O'Connor in a slowed down tempo. If  you don't know him - give him a chance and I am sure you won't be disappointed when you got a feeling for classic song writing.

John Grant - It doesn't matter to him
John Grant - Vietnam

Handsworth Revolution

A few days ago a song came to my ears I didn't listen to for ages. It was Ku Klux Klan by Steel Pulse and I couldn't believe that their first album was released 40 years ago. Later that evening I grabbed out the old vinyl and listened to this album in full length again. It is still a great record and a lot of people agreed to it at these times. Not all the songs have still the power like long years ago but they still have class and it is worth to listening to them after all these years.

Steel Pulse - Ku Klux Klan
Steel Pulse - Prodigal Son

Part Of The Union

Yesterday my company engaged my to assistance works council election. Not only to assist but further more to be a member of the further work council. I agreed because I have the knowledge about the system and specifications of this job. It took more than four hours until we had the final result and finally they elected me as the first substitute member of work council. I never expected this and therefore it is an honour to represent my associates in the company. Therefore I offer you a very old song by The Strawbs. Almost 40 years ago they released this unusual song for a folk band. This song accompanied me for decades because it was the first song that made me feel like a part of socialism intellectual world.

The Strawbs - Part of the Union

Felt

It was back in the early 80's a band appeared on the scene that gave a lot of inspirations to bands like Belle and Sebastian or The Charlatans. Blessed with jangly guitars, great songs and a post-punk attitude added with superb songs made them a big place big place in history. They released a couple of outstanding records these days and sadly were forgotten now. Listening to albums like Crumbling the Anitseptic Beauty or Forever Breathing the Lonely is still a pleasure after all the decades and worth to feature them on this pages.

Felt - Cathedral
Felt - Down but not yet out

New MusicFor A New Week

After listening a longer time to music from the hard drive of my mobile phone I checked out some new music that was released during the last weeks. There were many outputs of albums and it is impossible to listen to them all. So I only checked out records by artists I know. There were less albums that made me want to listen more than one or two songs. Finally Lucy Dacus' new album Historian is worth to be recommended (David Byrne's new one is the other). Her first album from 2016 No Burden was not the one to be liked but enough to please. Pure indie-sound according to Courtney Barnett and Waxahatchee. She's another high talented indie singer-songwriter from USA and their songs often opens with a lone, clean guitar line and morph into a wall of distortion and cymbals. Most of the lyrics are very intimate and born on love and frustration.

The Old Man's Back Again

Back after a few weeks relaxing recharging my batteries I started working life two days ago. Everything went fine until riots started. It didn't touch me really but the things were discussed by a lot of natives. It began at the beginning of last week with a traffic accident in the district Kandy, famous for his tea plantations and in the middle of Sri Lanka conveniently. A truck driver wanted to allow to not overtake four youngsters apparently. The apparently drunk boys got revenge brutally and killed the man. The culprits were Muslims who define themselves in Sri Lanka as an independent group. The victim belonged to the majority of the Singhalas. As a result set out of mob. Local residents in Kandy and in other places speak of organised groups. They lighted shops, private houses of Muslims and a mosque. The government closed down all social mediums and still there is no contact to my friends there available.

Anyway, this blog will continue as before.
Have a good time people.

Scott Walker - The old man's back again