2008-07-11

Alright...
Part 2 of the resurrected blog. The political agenda.
I'd like to start by stating that I'm not an activist, nor do I consider myself to be a liberal or conservative, democrat/ republican, monkey/ zebra. I'm simply someone who is fed up with the two-party system in America, and the 'pathetic' choices it offers us. Obviously, I don't support Obama or McCain, and I didn't much care for Clinton, either. However, I don't believe ex-Governor/ wrestler/ mime Jesse Ventura's assertion that we should add 'none of the above' to the ballot. That's wasteful and proves nothing. If anyone (born in this country, and old enough) can be president, surely someone must be worthy?
And that's where I'm headed with this...
Just because we held primaries and caucuses; just because both candidates secured their nominations; just because all delgates are pledged; does NOT mean this election could be, or SHOULD be, a two-person race! We're less than 4 months from election day... Republican McCain has SAID nothing about the pathetic mess called the economy, or what he plans to do to get us out of the muck and mire. He's simply another 'war president'... great, just what we need. Both candidates have narrowed the essence of their 'platforms' down to a single 'buzzword'... McCain's is "Victory". As in- if elected, his 'victory' will lead to 'victory' in Iraq, which in turn means 'victory' throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world, resulting in untold prosperity (think V-E/ V-J day) for every man, woman, and child in America. Or something like that. Until then, nothing need be said, or done, about the economy here at home... 'Victory' will take care of us.
And who do we have as our alternative. Democrat Obama. The man with the plan (?) Everyone knows his buzzword. "Change". All the while going up against Clinton, he was the candidate of 'change'. She was 'Bill's wife'; Ms. Corporate Interests; politics-as-usual. He was 'change'. Although, with his recent reversals on important issues, a more apt buzzword might be - "CHANGED". Sure, he's just going to the center, where the voters are. Typical. Politics-as-usual.
Sadly, we're indoctrinated to believe that these are our only choices. It's a two-party system, right? Our last great hope to end this charade was Mr. Ross Perot back in '92... a businessman entering politics before it became fashionable. Now, any Tom, Dick or Harry with $20 million-plus in the bank wants to be your governor... your congressman... your mayor. Some ridiculed Perot for his 30-minute TV ads (remember those?)... Ross with his charts and graphs, trying to educate America on the evils of NAFTA before it got signed.
But enough about Mr. Perot. His time has passed; we had our chance. But that chance has come around again, fresh and with a new face. I'm speaking of Dr. Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas. Yes, I realize he's dropped out of the race, as has everyone but the two 'centrists' we have left. I don't believe that has to be an obstacle, though. The race to the White House is not over. Hell, the race to the CONVENTION isn't even over! Both candidates are only the PRESUMED NOMINEES of their respective parties... nothing's written in stone! There's still TIME!
Mr. Paul's website explains his credentials, as well as his views on various major topics, in much greater detail and eloquence than I could muster here, so I'll simply provide the link to his site: http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ ...you can check him out there. (I find myself agreeable to about 80-85% of his views... best part is, he's no front-runner, so there's no need for him to flip-flop and go where the votes are.... didn't John Kerry get into trouble for doing that? I guess things are different now.)
Anyway, if you've made it this far, I thank you for reading and, most of all, for keeping an open mind. I would be more than willing to converse with anyone, on this or any other subject, through the trusty comments section of this blog. Ultimately, I feel (as many others do) that this country- not Iraq, or any other country; that THIS country- is off course, and has been for many years. Our dear President Bush makes it clear that if you do not favor sinking barrels of money, not to mention the endless and inexhaustable supply of servicemen and women, into the false promise of 'victory' in Iraq, that you are an 'isolationist'. For shame. Not mine, though. I'd rather worry about how Bernanke and the Federal Reserve wants more control over Wall Street, so they can get us out of this mortgage crisis we seem to have gotten ourselves into. Seems like a good plan. The Federal Reserve has done such a wonderful job at trying to completely devalue the dollar, why not put a little more on their plate!
Somewhere, we need new ideas. Substantial ideas. Not just 'victory'. Not just 'change'. It's not enough.
All I ask of anyone reading this is to consider an alternative. Could your mind be swayed, by reading this, to check out Dr. Paul's site? Could his site sway you to support him? If you support him, could you set up a site, or webpage, or blog, to incite others like yourself? Pure grassroots.
Sure, I'm probably naive. Maybe it IS too late. I hope not. I think there's still time. I HOPE there's still time.
End America's two-party system today!
Thank you for reading, and thinking.
Bob H.
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It's been awhile since I've posted any music, simply because I wasn't sure how (or if) I wanted to proceed. I, like many others, check out Totally Fuzzy every day, and I'm really only interested in doing this as long as it's different, as well as mutual. There's really only so many times somebody can post a Beatles album, or Eagles or Led Zep, right? My last attempt at reciprocal posts (the Frippertronics, or Fripp-related posts) did not result in ANYONE offering links to other Fripp-shows, which I would gladly have posted for all to share (these links are still generating downloads, so I'll leave them up).

I've decided the best way to continue (with the music part of this blog, anyway) is to 'test the waters of reciprocity' once more. I'm posting a few hard-to-find 'sound art' albums, as well as one of my own. Here's the list:


Gavin Bryars - 1976 "The Sinking Of The Titanic/ Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" (Obscure Records)

The original, on Brian Eno's 'Obscure' imprint from 1976.

Beautiful, haunting chamber music.


DJ Food - 2005 "Raiding The 20th Century"

An aural history of 'sound art'.

Everything from Alvin Lucier to Dickie Goodman to Steinski and

beyond. Wonderfully realized and essential.


Osymyso - "Intro Inspection"

A comparatively-short (12 minute) mash-up of only the beginnings

of hit songs from the 70's and 80's, mostly.


John Oswald - 1990 "Rubaiyat - Plunderphonics"

John Oswald - 1993 "Plexure"

John Oswald is the 'plunderphonics' (his term) master. "Rubaiyat"

is the project he undertook after his 1989 "Plunderphonics" album

caused such a flap in the Michael Jackson camp. You can read all

about Oswald's legal hassles in more detail (if you like)...

I'm posting "Rubaiyat" because the music excels (especially the

'ferocious' tribute to the MC5, "Mother"!)


"Plexure" is impossible to describe... 1000 70's and 80's hits (some

not even one second long) sliced, diced, overlayed and/or mutated

in every way. Unbe-freakin'-lievable...



(and mine)

Ocean Miner - 2008 "WheatleMix" & "Talking Cars"

Here's the gist: I read somewhere (I think it was on 'Go Home

Productions' site) where the person was responding to people who

thought 'mash-ups' were as simple as putting 2 songs together, and

how that wasn't the case, and it got me thinkin'...

What if mash-ups could be as simple as putting two songs together?

That's what my stuff is... take 2 songs, put them together (with as

little meddling done to the originals as possible), just to put things

in a different context. That's all sound art is, as far as I can tell...

A new way to listen to the same old songs, or sounds.

"WheatleMix" came from my realization (after George Harrison's

death) that, with Keith Moon and John Entwistle gone, the Who

needed a drummer and bass guitarist. Well, who's left from the

Beatles? So, if they joined forces, could it sound like this (in mash-

up land)?

"Talking Cars" takes the fact that I've always loved the Cars albums,

but their sound was kinda thin (very 80's, synth-drums and bass).

So I added their sound to another late-70's/early-80's band I love

(the Talking Heads, who have a very heavy-percussion/ bass-driven

sound) and I ended up with an interesting combo.


(Disclaimer: I do NOT include my stuff, which was done cheap-'n'-quick, along with these other CLASSICS to prove my worth, or to imply that I belong 'up-there' with John Oswald, et al.)


Sound art is pretty much the only 'new' music I listen to these days. ALL of these (with the exception of mine, 'natch) are CLASSICS in sound art, and I've got plenty more if people are interested. I hope this will spark interest in more sharing of 'sound art', but (especially) I'd LOVE to hear what others are doing! Surely there's people out there with ideas and a little free time and a frewware 'Audacity' (or similar) program on their computer, right? Let's hear from you! Let's share! Let's create, just for the fun. Just for the ideas!


Rant now over. Bob H.
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2008-04-16

A Frippertronics correction...

On my first post, I listed one of the Frippertronics shows as "Le Pretzel Enchaine, Montreal, PQ, Canada 8/19/79", when, in reality, it should be "KCOI-FM Studio, Montreal, Canada 8/18/79", so the tracklisting then should read:
01 1904 (over '1986')
02 1903 (over 'Red Two Scorer')
03 1902 (over '1983')
04 1901
05 1900 (over '1901')
06 1899 (over 'God Save The Queen')
Again, enjoy! Bob
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Hello everyone.


2nd Post. Still (more) Frippertronics.


Quite successful on that first post (223 downloads and counting)...

Lots of Frippertronics fans out there. Glad to see that, although I was hoping for an exchange of shows so everyone benefits. Perhaps people with other shows to offer haven't seen the blog yet, or don't frequent Totally Fuzzy... anyway, I digress. Back to the post.


Here's 4 more links for downloads. The first two are the albums by The Roches which Robert Fripp produced ("The Roches" in 1979; "Keep On Doing" in 1982). If you don't know The Roches, but love Fripp, you should check these out. The Roches (especially Maggie) were all great songwriters and singers, and Mr. Fripp's restrained production (audio-verite, as he put it) fit them like a glove. The best songs, of course ("Hammond Song", "The Married Men", "Losing True", and the amazing "Jerks On The Loose"), all feature some great Frippertronic leads and fills.

Wonderful albums.


The next link is for what was a free interview download from Robert's DGM site. It's from WRAS in Atlanta, July 11 of 1979, and it's a great 1/2 hour interview (even if the female interviewer gushes a bit). For the DGM download, however, the songs were removed, with a disclaimer that the listener could insert the songs back in 'as a project'. Well, to me, an interview with gaps where those wonderful Fripp-related songs should be just doen't work, so I put the songs back in, and it's perfect. Give it a listen!


Lastly, I've made a Fripp-mix. The 5 songs on the mix came about from the fact that "God Save The Queen" and "Let The Power Fall" are, in fact, live albums. The songs on the albums are the loops Fripp had been making on his Revox machines during his appearances in 1979 at various coffee shops, record stores and pizza parlors. The only thing missing are the solos, which were not recorded, but played over the decaying loops. So I've taken the following songs from the Fripp shows I previously uploaded:

"1859", "1858" & "1854" (all off of 'Cafe Campus, Ste. Foix, Canada 8/15/79')

"1911" (from the 'Midnight Special 10.5.79)

& "1988" and "1832" (both off 'Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis MN 6/22/79')

...and I've layered them over the top of the album-version for which they had been the source. Then, I put everything together into one continuous piece (42 & 1/2 minutes, complete with applause).

It's not perfect. Trying to link "1854" with it's 'Discotronic' counterpart "The Zero Of The Signified" was hard (I'm sure it goes 'out-of-phase', a la Steve Reich, quite often... but I think it works). It gives the shows a fuller sound, while giving the album-versions back what they're missing- the solos! Anyway, it was a fun experiment... give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Here's the tracklisting:

01 "1859-Red Two Scorer (from 'God Save The Queen') Mix"

02 "1858-God Save The Queen (from 'God Save The Queen') Mix"

03 "1854-The Zero Of The Signified (from 'God Save The Queen') Mix"

04 "1911-God Save The Queen (from 'Midnight Special') Mix"

05 "1832-1988-1988 (from 'Let The Power Fall') Mix"


I'm really hoping for some new Frippertronics show links to come from all this... I'd love to do some more of these 'layerings'! Enjoy... Bob








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2008-04-14

First post.

Frippertronics.

The aim here is to post some hard-to-find Frippertronics shows from the late-70's/early 80's, in the hopes that other Fripp-lovers might share their shows, and then everyone benefits. True file-sharing.

Robert Fripp is not the showiest guitarist in the world, but he is certainly one of the most inventive, and I think that comes out more in the Frippertronics/ Soundscapes series more than anywhere else. I was only 16 and completely unaware of this music when he was making it, but then, I probably wouldn't have 'gotten it' back then, as this is far from 'Top 40' material. I do have two other shows of Frippertronics, one from the Kitchen in NYC in 1978, and one from the Kitchen in 1979, but I'm not sure if they are the shows I was told they were (# of tracks don't match, etc.) I'll try to post them later, if I can verify the source.

4 of these links are for shows from 1979 (Cafe Campus, Ste. Foix, Canada 8/15/79... Le Pretzel Enchaine, Montreal, PQ Canada 8/19/79... Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis MN USA 6/22/79... & Robert's Midnight Special TV appearance 10/5/79)

I've also included a link for Mr. Fripp's vinyl-only, long-out-of-print 1980 album, "God Save The Queen", and links for King Crimson's appearance on the early-80's ABC-TV show 'Fridays', during which they performed "Elephant Talk" & "Thela Hun Ginjeet". (HEADS UP: Watch for Robert's amazingly perverse-yet-sincere grin for the cameras at the 1:30 mark into "Elephant Talk", which he holds for a full 15 seconds, completely unaware that the camera has left him after 3!)

Enjoy, and PLEASE share whatever you can. If you could provide a link in the comments section, or even a link to your own blog or homepage, I'm sure Frippertronics-lovers would be most grateful. I know there's many, MANY more of these shows available... if anyone has anything different, please offer. THANKS! Bob

http://rapidshare.com/files/107404979/12.4.81__Fridays_____Thela_Hun_Ginjeet___.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107402903/12.4.81__Fridays_____Elephant_Talk___.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107382486/1980_-_God_Save_The_Queen.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107313599/1979_-_Walker_Arts_Center__Minneapolis_MN._6.22.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107312022/1979_-_Le_Pretzel_Enchaine__Montreal__PQ_Canada_8.19.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107311039/1979_-_Midnight_Special_TV_Appearance__Burbank_CA._5.10.zip

http://rapidshare.com/files/107310817/1979_-_Cafe_Campus__Ste._Foix__Canada_8.15.zip
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