I only knew what hunted thought Quickened his step, and why He looked upon the garish day With such a wistful eye; The man had killed the thing he loved And so he had to die.
Yet each man kills the thing he loves By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!
Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold.
Some love too little, some too long, Some sell, and others buy; Some do the deed with many tears, And some without a sigh: For each man kills the thing he loves, Yet each man does not die.
He does not die a death of shame On a day of dark disgrace, Nor have a noose about his neck, Nor a cloth upon his face, Nor drop feet foremost through the floor Into an empty place
He does not sit with silent men Who watch him night and day; Who watch him when he tries to weep, And when he tries to pray; Who watch him lest himself should rob The prison of its prey.
From 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', by Oscar Wilde.
The first review of the Kodagain album Letters from Quentin can be found here, along with a review of the Serbian-language Kodagain album Vranje and another project on which Kodagain guitarist Vladimir Ristic has worked, Spoon-Blinded Williams.
In case your Croatian is a bit rusty I offer some mangled Internet translations of the reviews below (although it might be easier if you just try the link, which is less garbled):
Vranje
KODAGAIN - Vranje (2009, listen to the loudest)
Naslov albuma dovoljno kaže? Album title says enough?
U vrlo kratkom periodu knjaževačka Kodagain objavila je dva albuma nakon odličnog "000" (2008, Slušaj najglasnije). In a very short period Knjaževačka Kodagain released two albums, the excellent "000" (2008, listen to the loudest). Mislim da i nema pretjerane važnosti kojim su redom objavljivani, mada se može utvrditi da je dio banda otišao u solo vode (Vladimir Ristić - Spoon Blinded Williams), ali to nikako ne znači da se band raspao. I think that there is no excessive importance which the order published, although it can be determined that a part of the gang went to the water solo (Vladimir Ristic - Spoon Blinded Williams), but this does not mean that the band broke up. Rade oni punim plućima... They work to the fullest ...
Na samom početku mora se napomenuti da je ovo prvi album Kodagain koji je otpjevan u potpunosti na srpskom jeziku, te da je ovo praktički solo rad Čombeta koji je sve pjesme sam aranžirao, otpjevao i odsvirao na električnu gitaru i klavijature uz samostalnu pomoć kibernetike. At the very beginning it must be noted that this is the first album Kodagain which is sung entirely in Serbian language, and this is practically a solo work Čombeta that I arranged all the songs, sang and played the electric guitar and keyboards with a self-help cybernetics. Još prije je Čombe kazao da nema nikakvog prevelikog tehničkog znanja, te da pjesme radi po vlastitom nahođenju, onako kako osjeća, ali ovdje se mora priznati da je pogodio na najbolji mogući način u pravi kantautorski hardcore-pop. Even before the Čombe said no too much technical knowledge, and that song is at your discretion, as it feels, but here it must be admitted that he struck the best possible way in the real kantautorski hardcore-pop. Minijaturne linije s 2-3 akorda, po običaju minimalistički posložene u vrlo kratke pjesme koje jedva da prelaze preko 2 minute opčinjavaju svojim emotivnim folk motivima i naravno, nebeskim vokalom Čombeta koji bi bez ikakvog problema mogao voditi osnovne linije nekog melodijskog vokalnog anđeoskog zbora. Miniature line with 2-3 chords, as usual minimalist arranged in a very short songs that barely exceed more than 2 minutes opčinjavaju their emotional folk motifs and, of course, heavenly vocal Čombeta that no problems could lead to the basic melodic vocal lines an angelic choir. Ne znam (ustvari znam) šta se to događa na ovoj problemima okupanoj sceni koja nagrade za vokale dijeli šakom i kapom onima koji objavljuju albume samo za velike etikete, a ovakav glas Čombeta nikada nisu čule. I do not know (really know) what is happening at this stage that problems bathed award shares vocals with his fist and cap those published albums for major labels, and this voice Čombeta never heard. To je, za kritičarski pojam najgora sramota. That is, the term kritičarski worst shame. Uostalom, sam Zdena Franjić kaže da njega kao izdavača nitko od velikih medija ne shvata ozbiljno smatrajući ga 'tamo nekim šarlatanom'. Anyway, I Zdena Franjić says it as one of the big publishers do not understand the media seriously considering it's there some charlatan.
Vratimo se na temu... Let us return to the topic ... Čombe je na ovom albumu napravio izuzetan splet vrlo kratkih inteligentnih narodnih i tradicionalnih pjesama adaptiranih u izuzetnim varijantama koje se bez ikakvih problema mogu izvoditi na najvećim pozornicama world-musica. Combi is on this album made a remarkable combination of very short-intelligent folk and traditional songs adaptiranih in exceptional variants which no problem can be run on the biggest stages in world-music. To je to - jednostavan, britak i neprikosnoveno napretenciozan Čombe u solo varijanti. That's it - simple, britak and inviolable napretenciozan Čombe the solo version. Mogao bih sad napričati cijele kobasice od teksta, ali nikakva vajda od toga. I could now napričati whole sausages from the text, but no Vajda than that. Ako do sada niste ukapirali veličinu Čombeta, sumnjam da će te i nakon ovog albuma koji je prekrasan, blago lucidan i ironičan, ovaj puta u etno pop-hardcore verziji. If you have not ukapirali size Čombeta, I doubt that you will after this album is beautiful, lucid and slightly ironic, this time in the ethno-pop-hardcore version. Legenda. Legend.
Ocjena (1-10): 8 Rating (1-10): 8
Letters from Quentin
KODAGAIN - Letters From Quentin (2009, listen to the loudest)
Nakon onih izleta u eksperimente s albumima "Speed Up" (2007) i paralelno objavljenog solo Čombetovog "Vranje" potpisanog kao Kodagain, te solo projekta gitariste Vladimir Ristića - Pekara pod nazivom Spoon Blinded Williams (album "The Dark Side Of The Spoon", 2009, Slušaj najglasnije), došlo je još jedno u nizu klasičnih Kodagain albuma. After those trips to the experiments with the album "Speed Up" (2007) and simultaneously released solo Čombetovog "Vranje" signed as Kodagain and solo project guitarist Vladimir Ristic - Bakery called Spoon Blinded Williams (album "The Dark Side Of The Spoon" 2009, listen to the loudest), there is another in a series of classic albums Kodagain. Sve je poznato - kratke i jezgrovite ritmičke i melodične pop pjesme s dva-tri akorda koje iznose uglavnom oko 2 minute (s ponekim izuzetkom od 3 ili 4 minute), te onaj poznati nebeski vokal Čombeta koji uvijek daje poseban pečat njihovoj nepretencioznoj i jednostavnoj formi. Everything is known - short and concise rhythmic and melodic pop songs with two to three chords, which amounts mostly around 2 minutes (with occasional exception of 3 or 4 minutes), and the famous heavenly vocals Čombeta who always gives a special seal their nepretencioznoj and simple form . Osim njih dvojice (Čombe je ovdje u nekolicini skladbi svirao klavijature), na albumu su još prisutni Vladislav Dopuđa Arči (double bass) i Bojan Ristić - Pekar (bubnjevi), a čitav tekstualni opus uzet je od stanovitog Quentin S. Crispa. In addition to the two (Combi is here in a few compositions played keyboards) on the album are still present Vladislav Dopuđa Arči (double bass) and Bojan Ristic - Baker (drums), and the entire text was taken from the work a certain Quentin S. Crisp. Nisam imao vremena da se pozabavim detekcijom tko je taj lik, ali uz činjenicu da je od iste osobe preuzet i omot albuma može se zaključiti da je riječ o nekome vrlo bliskom ovoj ekipi. I have not had time to address detection of who that character, but the fact that the same person taken from the album cover and it can be concluded that this is someone very close to this team.
Elem, pjesme su odreda temperamentne, uglavnom laganije s ponekim izletom u brže forme (npr. glam-rockerska "Thomas Ligotti" u pravom stilu ranih Roxy Music, te "The Iowa writters' workshop lacks yuggen" koja može parirati i pop/rock stilizaciji The Smiths), a najinteresantniji dio albuma je skladba "Kamakura" na tekst Kaneko Misuzu gdje Čombe, vjerovali ili ne, pjeva na japanskom jeziku. Elem, songs are temperamental detachment, generally lighter with occasional excursions to the faster form (eg, glam-rock-"Thomas Ligotti" in the true style of early Roxy Music, and "The Iowa writters' workshop lacks yuggen" that can counteract and pop / rock stylisation The Smiths), and the most interesting part of the album's song "Kamakura" in the text where Misuzu Kaneko Combi, believe it or not, singing in Japanese. Također vrijedi izdvojiti veoma sentimentalnu temu "Mushrooms" koja je gotovo polovica instrumentalnog karaktera. Also applies to single out a very sentimental theme "Mushrooms", which is almost half of the instrumental character. Kad su Kodagain već tako daleko otišli, od njih bi se moglo još tko zna šta dobiti u ovakvim prepoznatljivim, ali istovremeno i neuobičajenim, najjednostavnijim mogućim pop obrascima koji su često okupani sa blagom psihodeličnom atmosferom. When Kodagain has so far left, one of them could be more who knows what to get in such a recognizable, but at the same time unusual, pop the simplest possible forms that are frequently bathed with a mild psychedelic atmosphere.
Ponovno lijepo, fino i dotjerano djelo Kodagain koje se izdiže iz gomile svih onih drečavih, cviledretajućih i pekmezavih brit-pop/country/americana razmaženih ucviljenih šminkerskih albuma. Re nice, gentle and polished work Kodagain that rises from the crowd of all those drečavih, cviledretajućih and pekmezavih brit-pop/country/americana razmaženih ucviljenih šminkerskih album. Kodagain sa svakim svojim novim albumom pokazuju kako se dostojanstveno korača utabanom stazom na vješto dovitljiv, duhovit i inteligentan način. Kodagain with each of their new album shows that the dignity walking off the beaten track to skillfully clever, witty and intelligent way.
Ocjena (1-10): 7 Rating (1-10): 7
The Dark Side of the Spoon
SPOON Blinded WILLIAMS - The Dark Side Of The Spoon (2009, listen to the loudest)
Ovo je novi projekt sastav Vladimir Ristića, gitariste knjaževačke Kodagain, a potpisuje se kao Spoon Blinded Williams. This is a new project structure Vladimir Ristic, guitarist knjaževačke Kodagain and signed as a Spoon Blinded Williams. Sa njime ovdje su još učestvovali stanovita Sour Cherry Baby i Josseph Joy E, ali na omotu, a niti na njihovoj web stranici nema nikakvih podataka koje instrumente koriste. With them here are still a certain part Sour Cherry Baby and Josseph Joy E, but on the cover, nor on their website there is no data that the instruments used. Po glazbenoj konstituciji moglo bi se zaključiti da uz osnovni instrument ukulele ovdje koriste mnogo nekakvog priručnog instrumentarija (kućanske predmete, čaše, drvene palice, improvizirane zvečke i sl.), laganu potporu samplera i kompjutera, te u nekolicini brojeva bubnjeve kojima se služe u vrlo minornoj količini (bas bubanj, vodilice, okvir doboša). Music by constitution could be concluded that the main instrument used by many here ukulele priručnog of some instruments (household items, glass, wooden sticks, improvised rattles, etc.), light support sampler and computer, and drums in several numbers that are very minornoj quantity (bass drum, guides, frame drums). Kasnije mi je sam Vladimir javio da je uz ukulele koristio marakasi i nekakvu dečiju pištaljku, te da je Jože Zupan napravio ritmove na synthu za par pjesama, dok je ženski vokal Višnja Fičor. Later I am told that Vladimir the ukulele marakasi and used some sort of children's whistle, and that Jože Zupan made on synth rhythms for a couple of songs, while the female vocals Cherry Fičor.
Glazba je vrlo minijaturna kao iu slučaju Kodagain, svedena je na osnovnu melodiju koja ne prelazi izvan pop pragova, no čitav album odiše vrlo mirnom idiličnom atmosferom iz vremena ranih godina 20. Music is a miniature as well as in the case Kodagain, is reduced to the basic melody, which does not exceed the thresholds pop out, but the whole album exudes a quiet peaceful atmosphere from the time of the early years of the 20th stoljeća uokvirenu povremenim psihodeličnim i eksperimentalnim izletima. century framed occasional psychedelic and experimental excursions. Pjesme su vrlo kratke, u prosjeku negdje oko 2 minute, te nakon početnih eksperimentalnih improvizacija "I don't want to set the world on fire, take 1" (obrada E.Seller/ S.Marcus/ B.Benjamin/ E.Durhan), "Out of season grapes", lo-fi psihodelične "Oh yeah" koja djeluje kao da je proizašla nakon nekakvih čudnovatih spojeva Can, The Residents, Flossy And The Unicons, Blackout Procession, neo-folka i akustičnog komornog gothica s uvrnutim vokalom za kojeg je vrlo teško zaključiti da li je muški ili ženski, dolazi se do nekoliko vrsnijih skladbi na albumu. The songs are very short, averaging around 2 minutes, and after the initial experimental improvisation "I do not want to set the world on fire, take 1" (cover of E. Seller / S. Marcus / Benjamin B. / E. Durhan ), "Out of season grapes" lo-fi psychedelic "Oh yeah", which acts as the resulting after some kind of strange compounds, Can, The Residents, flossy And The Unicons, Blackout Procession, neo-folk and acoustic chamber with a twisted gothic vocals of which is very difficult to conclude whether it is male or female, there are several vrsnijih compositions on the album. To je "All I really want to do", vrlo kratka jednominutna obrada Bob Dylana, zatim kabaretska "Bagel Dreadel song" kao da je ponikla u vrijeme crno-bijelih filmova '20-tih godina 20.stoljeća gdje je vokal mutan i namjerno nerazgovjetan, no baš upravo zbog ovakve produkcije ne samo ova kompozicija, već i čitav album ima strahoviti starinski šlih vremena kojih se jedino prisjećamo zahvaljujući prastarim filmovima između dva svjetska rata. It is "All I really want to do, a very brief treatment of one Bob Dylan, then a cabaret" Bagel Dreadel song "as if it originated during the black-and-white films of the year '20-20th century, where the vocals intentionally blurry and indistinct but just because this production is not only the composition, but the whole album has a tremendous old šlih time which can only remember through ancient films between the two world wars. Jedan od najupečatljivijih komada je obrada Johnny Casha nazvana "Folsom spoon blues" u kome se može osjetiti suptilan spoj pop melodije, bluesa i rock svjetonazora na minimalistički obrađen način s obiljem psihodelije koja prevladava u posljednjem dijelu skladbe. One of the most impressive pieces is the treatment of Johnny Cash called "spoon Folsom Blues" in which he can feel a subtle blend of pop melodies, blues and rock into minimalist world view cultivated way with an abundance of psychedelia that prevails in the latter part of the composition. U drugoj verziji "I don't want to set the world on fire, take 2" pojavljuje se prekrasni elegičan ženski romantičan vokal Višnje Fičor kao uzet iz '20-tih i '30-tih godina 20.stoljeća kada su swing, tango i kabare imali svu draž onoga što danas otprilike nazivamo pop glazba. In the second version of "I do not want to set the world on fire, take 2" appears in the wonderful romantic elegiac female vocals Visnja Fičor as taken from the '20-'30 and the year-20th century when they swing, tango and cabaret, all the charm of what is today called about pop music. Isti ženski vokal pojavljuje se u "I only have eyes for you" (obrada A.Dubin/ H.Warren), zatim u neuobičajenom spoju duba i trip-hopa na akustičan lo-fi ukulele način kroz pjesmu "Oh Gretchin" koja je popraćena s tri ženska vokala od kojih je jedan na francuskom, a jedan na njemačkom jeziku, te u nešto temperamentnijoj "San Antonio" pred samim krajem albuma koja ima i neke elektronske elemente. The same female vocalist appears in "I only have eyes for you" (cover of A. Dubin / H. Warren), then in an unusual blend of dub and trip-hop to acoustic lo-fi ukulele way through the song "Oh Gretchin" which is accompanied by Three female vocalist of which one French and one German, and in some temperamentnijoj "San Antonio" in front of the end of the album which has some electronic elements. Skroz neobično. Totally strange.
Album ima i mnoštvo eksperimentalizacije (teme "Oh wow", "Nice work if you can get it" - obrada George Gershwina, "Hey you", "To smile", "Mamboo", "Rye yellow"), no sva ekspresija se svodi na oživljavanje starinskog duha od prije skoro stotinjak godina. The album has a lot of eksperimentalizacije (theme "Oh wow", "Nice work if you can get it" - treatment of George Gershwin, "Hey you", "That smile," Mamboo "," Rye yellow), but any expression of the tantamount to the revival of old-fashioned spirit of almost a hundred years. Kada bi se generaliziralo, uz sva namjerna škriputanja, šuškanja i cjelokupnu prikazanu glazbenu građu zasnovanu na starinskom zvuku ranih godina 20.stoljeća, biti ću slobodan navesti da je ovakvu strukturu mogao napraviti jedino vješti futurist koji je igrom slučaja mogao predvidjeti što će se u popularnoj glazbi dešavati kroz naredno stoljeće. When the generaliziralo with all deliberate škriputanja, lisp and the entire musical collection presented based on the ancient sound of the early years of the 20th century, will be free to specify that this structure could make only skilled futurist who by chance could not predict what will be popular music fare through the next century. Dakako, to nisu mogli predvidjeti niti najvještiji kompozitori tog vremena koji su otvarali nove horizonte u eksperimentalnoj, avangardnoj i electro-acoustic glazbi, pa je stoga ovaj album u određenu ruku vrlo dosjetljiv i nadasve neobičan spoj starinskog romantičnog zvuka i uglavnom klasičnih pop formacija. Of course, it could not predict or most skilled composers of the time that they opened new horizons in experimental, avant-garde and electro-acoustic music, and so this album in a hand very witty and, above all, an unusual blend of old and mostly romantic sound of classic pop formations.
Vrlo zanimljiv, po domišljatosti i kreativnosti veoma originalan i nadasve raritetan album. Very interesting, the ingenuity and creativity are very genuine and quite raritetan album.
I've just set up a photo album for images and art related to the music album Letters from Quentin.
Above is the front cover. Below is an unfinished version of the back cover, with a number of the songs and one band member missing. I hope to post more artwork (updated and finalised) there later.
Please also expect more information on the album and its musical content. Thank you.
At least, I think that's a common expression. I'm not sure, because I've never really had much occasion to use it.
As you already know, my latest story (or the latest to see the bleary light of day) went online recently at Ligotti Online.
I have further news. Kodagain have been in the studio and the album Letters from Quentin is now in the can. That is, it's been recorded. The final tracklisting (and I believe, but am not sure, this is in the correct order, too) is:
I Am Here With You Kamakura Thomas Ligotti Honolulu I Looked Back Princess Kaguya The Nagai Kafu Way of Life The Iowa Writers' Workshop Lacks Yuugen The Parable of the English Businessmen and the Japanese Emperor Boys and Girls I Can't Help Smiling Take This Tip From Me Annette Funicello Mushrooms Creaking Gate
I estimate the running time as approximately 38 minutes and 24 seconds.
The CD will come with a booklet containing lyrics, and sleevenote-like little snippety comments on all the songs from me. I've seen the PDF file for the booklet (almost finished) and it looks fantastic.
Thank you very much to Kodagain:
Sasa Zoric Combe - vocals Vladimir Ristic Pekar - guitar Vladislav Dopudja Arci - double bass Bojan Ristic Pekar - drums
And my apologies once more for not being able to write your names with the correct accents. I'll need to do a proper cut-and-paste for that sometime.
More information on the album is to follow, together with cover art etc., when I have a little time.
I hope also to have other news about creative things soon. Please hold your breath in excitement. But not if you have small lungs.
The following is the list of songs that have resulted from my collaboration with Kodagain so far. In no particular order:
Boys and Girls Mushrooms Stars and Dandelions I Approve of Sifow's Lifestyle The Return Magibon Is Awfully Quivering The Death of Walt Disney Annette Funicello The Maestro An Interesting Case Kamakura How Will I Know My Love? I Wonder Who's Watching Me Now Designer Vagina Radish-Patch Rain Sea and Seagulls Purple Loosestrife Princess Kaguya The Letter I Can't Help Smiling You By the Bayou [Two different songs with the same lyrics] Leonard Hatred Tristan Disappointed Earth, To Me You Are a Teenage Actress Three Cherry Trees Tao Te Ching The Iowa Writers' Workshop Lacks Yuugen Thomas Ligotti Mannerisms The Candle The Nagai Kafu Way of Life Nervous, Before Breakfast My Well Known Views on the Subject Fear of Sex I Love You, Psycho England and France Creaking Gate The Old Violin You Are a Half [Lyrics by Justin Isis] Short-Term Solution Susan Tully Now Do You Understand? Honolulu I Am Here With You It's Never Going to Happen The Beauty of Anti-Life Writing Berlusconi Stole My Teenage Girlfriend Do You Think I Was Born This Way? Failures Destroy the Diaries David Niven Take this Tip from Me Quentin S. Crisp is Tired of Life Incompetent Doctors Pearl Harbour Newsreel I Looked Back Injured Ninja Presence People Like You Fishes
I think that's all. I calculate that makes 60/61 songs, and counting. (60 different lyrics and 61 different songs.)
Some of the songs are featured on the Kodagain MySpace page. Sometimes new ones are added, and sometimes a song that has been featured for a while is taken away.
The song embedded in this blog post is not part of the collaboration, but comes from the Kodagain album 000.
If one goes to the re-listen function for Stuart Maconie's Freak Zone (available for 4 more days) one may be able to hear the song It Is There, from Euston Piret and Lidwine. At the end of the song, mention is also made of myself. As far as I understand and can judge, this augurs (the possibility of) some of my collaborative work with Kodagain being played on the show.
It Is There starts at 18 minutes and 20 seconds in.
Some regular, or irregular, readers, may have begun to wonder where they can obtain compact discs containing the musical output of the band Kodagain. The answer is, from Croation record label, Listen Loudest.
Looking at the catalogue, I find the following Kodagain titles listed as available:
1978 – 81 1985 – 92 a drink with something in it commercial diggin' deep ain't no sleep speed up the nowhere land's echoes
I wonder if this is out of date. There has since been the album 000.
On Monday, I posted an entry on a song collaboration between myself and Sasa about Eleanor Powell in the film Honolulu. The demo of that song has now been uploaded to Kodagain's MySpace page, and is currently second on the tracklist, after Vampira, Maila Nurmi. I've been playing it a lot.
Fairly recently (I believe it was some time last year), I conceived an interest in tap-dancing. As a spectator. Actually, I'd love to tap-dance myself, but it might be a bit late for that. Besides, I've got no money, and don't know where I'd go to learn. Anyway, that's not the point. I find myself regarding some of Eleanor Powell's routines with we're-not-worthy AWE. Clearly I'm not the only one. From Wikipedia:
According to accounts of the making of [Broadway Melody of 1940], including a documentary included on the DVD release, Astaire was somewhat intimidated by Powell, who was considered the only female dancer ever capable of out-dancing Astaire. In his autobiography Steps in Time, Astaire remarked: "She 'put 'em down like a man', no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself."
This one makes me well up sometimes when I watch it:
(I love the exchange between the guy and his jealous girlfriend at the table.)
I wrote to my musical collaborator, the incomparable Sasa, and told him that I wanted to write some lyrics about this dance sequence. He responded with marked enthusiasm, but asked me to keep the lyrics short, as I have a tendency to be prolix. Anyway, I have now written some lyrics (under the title, 'Honolulu') and delivered them into Sasa's capable song-writing hands.
Well, the latest track to be added to the Kodagain MySpace page (scroll down to the bottom of the track list), is My Well Known Views on the Subject, lyrics in a recent blog post.
Luckily there's the music of Sasa Combe Zoric, for whom, as you all know, I've been writing lyrics like someone with the opportunity to write lyrics for a really great and relatively unknown band.
But Kodagain's Cycast profile has recently been whittled down hugely. So, if you want previews of the kind of material that we're working on, you'll have to visit the Kodagain MySpace page while the tracks in question are still there. The two songs currently featured on that page for which I have provided words are Take This Tip From Me and Kamakura.
Also, I still love this very simple song, for which I always seem to be in the right mood:
And, at this link, there is another of my very favourite Kodagain songs.
I'm still working on lyrics, and someone should probably stop me, before I do myself a mischief. Current titles include My Well Known Views on the Subject and Incompetent Doctors. The most recent of our recorded demos, I believe, has been The Death of Walt Disney.
There are actually a few things I wouldn't mind doing blog posts on at the moment, but I'm a bit pressed for time, what with one thing and another. I still want to finish the Momus review, for a start.
It's not going to happen, is it? I should just face it.
I also still want to do a proper review of the Kodagain albums I have recently received and a post on Robert Aickbon. Towards the first of these two things I thought I'd just cut and paste here something I recently wrote in an e-mail about one of the Kodagain songs, currently my favourite:
I've been listening to A Drink With Something In It, by Kodagain. I really like Danse Russe. The words are from a poem by William Carlos Williams. You may know it:
Now, that's hardly the best poem ever written, BUT, it is about fifty-billion times better than most song lyrics, and when you hear it put into a 'pop song', you realise this, realise how much more daring literature (in this case poetry) is than pop music, if only it also had the popular stage to present itself upon. This kind of thing is like the most daring of the Smiths' lyrics, like, "Charles don't you ever crave/To appear on the front of the Daily Mail/Dressed in your mother's bridal veil". I mean, imagine if Bono sung about dancing grotesquely and admiring his own buttocks. He'd win back my respect, the boring cunt. I think that what poets need to do is each have their own pop song-writer who puts all of their stuff into music, and they'd blow the current music scene away.
I really need to make dinner now... while dancing naked, grotesquely, swinging my shirt around my head, and so on.
If I don't get time to put the details up here, remember the Peter Harris Experience tonight from 10.00 GMT on Phonic FM.
Today I don't wish to make of my body a pin-cushion for daggers and long for the grave to obliterate the obscene embarrassment of my existence quite as much as usual, because I have received a package containing a number of Kodagain CDs (five in all), including the demos so far of the Quentin S. Crisp/Kodagain album project, Letters From Quentin. I have not felt this excited about music for years.
I have listened to the demos for Letters From Quentin on the big speakers downstairs for the first time (rather than on the computer speakers here), and I am currently lost for words as to the... I told you I was lost for words. I only think that this will be the best album ever made.
I'm going to be naughty and give you a peek at the titles of the demo songs so far, like a saucy minx lifting her skirt to show her garter. Not all of the songs here (about thirty, I think) will appear on the final album, probably, and there may even be songs as yet unwritten that do make it. Anyway, there'll probably be just over twenty songs on the album proper. Here are the titles so far:
The Letter Purple Loose-strife Short-Term Solution The Iowa Writers' Workshop Lack Yuugen Three Cherry Trees Creaking Gate Radish-Patch Rain Thomas Ligotti Tristan Disappointed Nervous, Before Breakfast Princess Kaguya Annette Funicello Mushrooms Boys and Girls The Candle Mannerisms Tao Te Ching Sea and Seagulls Designer Vagina The Nagai Kafu Way of Life Fishes Stars and Dandelions Leonard Hatred Take This Tip From Me The Old Violin The Return I Can't Help Smiling You Are A Half (lyrics by Justin Isis) Magibon Is Awfully Quivering England and France You By the Bayou
31 titles. I'm going to have to stop sending lyrics to Sasa, because even as it is, it's going to be agony excluding some of these songs from the album.
Anyway, after listening to this demo album, I put on one of the other albums, Diggin' Deep Ain't No Sleep. What can I say? Apart from anything else - a fantastic start with It Takes So Long To Say Goodbye, the whole song resembling a fantastically baroque and wistful yodel. The next song was A Suggestion to My Friend, Liu, a poem by Chu-i Po set to music:
There's a gleam of green in an old bottle, There's a stir of red in the quiet stove, There's a feeling of snow in the dusk outside -- What about a cup of wine inside?
To which I reply:
There's a brown parcel on the mat this morning, There are CDs from Eastern Europe inside. There's snow outside the cottage, and coal tits flurry by. How about listenting to Kodagain for a while?
I realise making promises is the last thing I should do, so I won't, but don't be surprised if I write more about some of these CDs later.
Accompany me, if you will, on a creative journey...
Down the road, by the river, where I just took a walk, and the beginning of some new lyrics came to me, as follows:
I Can't Help Smiling.
Before they killed her, the kids nextdoor Put out her eyes with a white-hot poker Because they were bored And recorded it all on camera.
The ignorant pigs! I'd like to break every one of their ribs!
Still, I can't help smiling Every time I remember Because there'll never be anyone else like her.
And that's as far as I've got so far. What do you think? I suppose you want to know where I get my ideas from. Well, the germ of this one came to me from watching the film Lars and the Real Girl last night. At one point - I don't want to spoil the plot, but - someone dies, and someone else says of her, "There'll never be anyone else like her." The phrase started to go around in my head, especially as the Lars character began to smile when he heard this.
I just really liked the idea of someone smiling in the face of adversity or tragedy for reasons that were not necessarily immediately obvious. (I'm really demystifying the lyrics here, aren't I?) Anyway, as I was walking along, the other words I've written down sort of came to me. They really fell into place when I realised the first words had to be, "Before they killed her".
I'm not sure where I'll take the lyrics from here, though. I've a notion that I might start the second 'verse' (as I conceive it), with the line, "He was a builder", but this might prove an unproductive route. Or maybe I'll just leave the whole thing as it is. Anyway, I'm hoping to include these lyrics in the project that I'm currently pursuing with Kodagain and Saša Zorić Čombe. I'm also working on a number of other lyrics for this project, which is now perhaps half way through, creatively speaking.
In terms of influences, for me, there's the obvious one, which I suppose I shouldn't mention. But there are others, too, including, well, me. And my life. But I also really like just early pop which had charming lyrics that actually rhymed, and were sort of quaint, and told a story. I'd love to write something like this. (Fantastic voice.) Or like this. I mean this. (I'm still mourning the loss of so much Annette Funicello material online; I've been getting used to non-ownership of music and films, which means not needing to find space for CDs, DVDs and so on, but the Internet is an unreliable archive. Oh, there's a case in point; that video clip no longer works. Try this, instead. Fantastic voice!)
I also like Noel Coward kind of witty lyrics, like this. I'm afraid that my wit and skill at rhyming don't quite match up to this, though.
I don't know why I'm writing this, really, except that, I've been looking through my favourite Youtube clips and thinking wistfully of all the people, living and dead, that I would love to meet, but probably never will.
Still, I can't help smiling.
Hmmm, there's a bit on an internal rhyme thing there. Maybe I could use that in the lyric.
WIDGETIZE