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The Mire

Toshiya Tsunoda

Very interesting little piece from Toshiya Tsunoda about his approach to field recording, on the Erstwords blog. Tsunoda's approach is very specific to him, but for me his comments cut through a lot of very wooly thinking which is written about field recordings. A lot of stuff intends to document/preserve certain environments, but apart from the moral dimension of this (obviously to the fore in times of climate change) it seems a rather conservative with a small c aesthetic. Who's to say what is to be preserved and what isn't? That very few field recordists come up with a compelling answer to this question makes me wonder if many of them aren't just landscape painters for a new generation.

The Mire

Who'd'a thunk it?

Congratulations to the family man of UK Noise, Dylan Nyoukis, on his recent elevation to the avant garde pantheon. Ubuweb has just added a pile of tracks by Dylan to its already monumental library of 20th/21st century avant audio. The tracks feature this doyen of the DIY underground in various guises and combos, including Blood Stereo (a duo with the missus, Karen Constance).

The Mire

Sublime Frequencies in Berlin

When the Sublime Frequencies European label tour hit Berlin, its hosts, Club Transmediale, set up a series of talks and discussions, including The Wire 's Marcus Boon giving a talk on ethnopsychedelia, to support live sets by Group Doueh and Omar Souleyman. All the material, live sets and talks, has now been archived online here

The Mire

People get on board

Somehow I'd missed until David Stubbs mentioned it that the longrunning US soul show Soul Train is now up on You Tube . It might have only happened recently, but if you're in the UK this is like a portal opening up into 70s Black America – Soul Train has only ever been glimpsed here in occasional clips in documentaries. They're currently putting up classic old shows recently. When I talked to Jeff Mills a while back, he mentioned the kids doing a soul train in the classroom, and I didn't quite understand what he meant, even though I knew of the show – some sort of conga line? But I guess he meant the communal dance at the end, where over some ridiculously funky tune the audience line up to take it in terms to bust their moves. This sort of audience participation is really unfamiliar to British (and especially English) types. People clap the...

The Mire

The Middle East Coast

Occasionally records pop up on email lists which, simply by virtue of their titles, beg to be heard. Raks Raks Raks: 17 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60s Scene certainly hit this mark. Indeed, at one point you wondered whether it was too good to be true; the title ticked so many boxes (garage, psych, Iranian, 60s…) you wondered if it was designed by some enterprising committee of music forgers. Indeed, there's virtually no independent info about the artists online. But not only does this stuff sound completely of the time, but after a bit of contact with the compilers there's a fascinating story behind it. Released on the Raks Discos label, it's a long running labour of love for Dutch and Turkish collectors, who jointly sent some responses to my questions. The first question was how the hell they got wind of this music. "Knowing the fact that under...

The Mire

KoP doing GoS

The best Michael Jackson clip you'll see over the coming weeks and month of media coverage.

The Mire

Marshall Allen exclusive ticket offer

The legendary saxophonist and de facto leader of The Sun Ra Arkestra Marshall Allen plays a one-off UK show at London’s Café Oto on 6 July. Allen, who is touring Europe with the Arkestra during July, will be joined by the Arkestra’s piano player Farid Barron as well as some of London’s leading free music players for this exclusive and extremely rare event. Tickets cost £16 in advance, £18 on the door. But in an exclusive offer, readers of The Wire can claim a special discount and get tickets for just £14. To buy discounted tickets, click on either of the links below (NB Discounted tickets are limited and available on a first come first served basis): We Got Tickets or SU Tickets For more information on the event click here

The Mire

Sonar 2009: The Wizard (aka Jeff Mills)

Check out an exclusive excerpt from Jeff Mills's DJ set as The Wizard at Sonar 2009, 18 June: http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5246595&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

The Mire

Sonar 2009

If you're in Barcelona for Sonar today & this weekend, come by The Wire 's stall in the editorial fair (it's in MACBA's main building) and say hi... We'll be around all today and tomorrow selling back issues + free CD w/each issue, T-shirts and earplugs (!) checking out the music and generally hanging out. Inspired by the artistic environment, we've constructed an interactive sculptural installation as an added attraction (see below) Stay tuned... We've got some rough and ready video excerpts of Jeff Mills's DJ set as The Wizard, Luomo (Sasu Ripatti aka Vladislav Delay) and Konono Nº 1 live onstage to upload when we get a chance.

The Mire

Rowe Words

Interesting link forwarded to me recently of Keith Rowe describing in detail the thoughts and ideas behind his recent ErstWhile/ErstLive release . Some fascinating ideas here, but such is their conceptual density throughout each minute of the piece, you wonder how (or if) a listener is expected to gain access to this extraordinary inner world of ideas and schemes from the relatively austere music on the disc. This rare glimpse into this artist's inner monologue is nothing like my experience of playing onstage, though. Most of my thought processes were along the lines of 'what shall I do for the next few minutes/where do I want to be in ten minutes'.

The Mire

Fela, Voice Of America

I'm probably the last person on the planet to discover these, but I only just ran across these recordings of Fela Kuti from Nigeria in 1965. Some of these early tracks have been released elsewhere, and often it's a little like hearing the early Wailers – the pieces just haven't fallen into place yet. However, these recordings, made for a show called Voice Of America , I understand, are surely must-listen material.... http://www.voanews.com/english/africa/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry;=8DC92121-9F33-ED7A-D547329B08561449