Griff says: Solstice Reborn

Don't worry about the title, this site hasn't suddenly shifted from blogging about music to blogging about games. The Solstice reborn I'm referring to is the latest precious musical offering from Streetlamp favourite Syd Lane (pictured). You may be a little confused at this point, and may even be asking yourself; "Has Griff lost it? Why he rhapsodised over Syd's new album, Hypatia, only last month." Indeed I did, and for those who are not yet acquainted with the very lovely Syd, you can catch up 'here'. But tonight I'm talking about a newer album, or rather a new, old album. Confused? Let me explain.



On the 21st December (the day of the Winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere) 2009, in her home studio in Dublin, Syd Lane recorded nine songs in a couple of hours, with no breaks in the recording process. The album was named The Solstice Sessions and can still be found on Syd's bandcamp page. Syd felt at the time that she didn't want to hold the songs back and, in January 2010, she released the songs as they were, but deep in her heart she knew that, like all great works of art, they weren't quite finished, but instead abandoned. Syd has now returned to these songs and, with Jason Raspa of frogville originally ear-marked for mastering duties but unable to do so, has herself produced the fully realised conception of that which she heard in her mind back on that short Winter's day in 2009. So how does the remastered Solstice compare to the original? Well, magnificent, of course, but whatever I have to say about it I doubt very much that I could top either this review 'here' by the poet Jeremiah James for insight and affection or this 'here' by the irrepressible Smally of Quixodelic Records for sheer enthusiasm and passion. Please check them both out as they really will make you want to listen immediately to this wonderful album. Incidentally, the album now contains 10 tracks due to the inclusion of Love Far Away. I'd like to write more about how beautiful and sincere this music is but I feel constrained not to. I guess that sometimes I feel that Syd is like a tiny, fragile bird that I'll damage if I hold her too tight with my words, so instead I'll let her fly free and leave you with my two favourite songs from the album.






Beautiful! If you loved those, and I fervently hope that you did, then you may also want to check out Syd assisting Jason Raspa on frogville's brand new Syd Barrett covers EP; Songs In the Key of Barrett. As with Syd Lane's, all of Jason Raspa's music, including new album Love, is free to download from bandcamp.






Griff
xx

Poly Gone! A Tribute To Poly Styrene

It seems almost inappropriate, indeed downright offensive to begin such a personal and poignant piece by quoting a pompous buffoon who has no place in the ~Streetlamp~, but....."How long? How long must we sing this song?"
With the metaphorical ink barely dry on our obituaries to Ari Up and Tura Satana, once again we find ourselves in mourning at the passing of another of our musical heroes and Pop Culture icons.

For today we wake to find that Poly Styrene has passed away.
Poly Styrene (real name Marianne Elliot-Said) was the lead singer with one of Punk's most unique and thoroughly original bands, X-Ray Spex.
One of the first wave of Punk bands in the UK they sounded completely apart from the rest of the movement, but were as every bit as essential as any of the others. Most of Punk's original icons had a distinctive look (a far cry from the heavily xeroxed rent-a-Punks that comprised the second wave); just look at Lydon, Vanian, Strummer, Ari Up, and Siouxsie for example. But Poly was way out on her own, dressed in eye-scorching Dayglo, cheap plastic accoutrement's, and with her corrective braces still wired defiantly to her teeth. She was an imposing sight for sure, frightening my parents on Top Of The Pops like she'd just arrived from another planet whilst I sat agog and agape, enjoying every second.
Vocaly too, she was quite extreme, possessing one of Punk's true Marmite voices; you either loved it or hated it.....I'll let you guess where we stood on the matter.
And then lyrically, well, again she was out there doing her own thing. Unlike the other Punk voices of the day she wasn't whining on about unemployment, boredom and the state of the nation. No, she was singing about turning the world Dayglo, teen consumerism, OCD level cleanliness, spiritual and physical bondage, non-conformity, and of course pure individualism. Something Poly had in spades.
I can't really speak for Ray on this matter but I know that Griff and I must have played X-Ray Spex's first (and in a sense only real) album 'Germ Free Adolescents' in excess of a thousand times. And no, I'm not exaggerating! I know this must be the case as I own the original vinyl pressing which I got when I was still at Primary School, the CD re-issue from around 1990, and then the Special Edition Box Set CD with all the demos, B-sides and a full concert. It's always been a record that has been around us.
And why not? Unlike some other Punk records, the playing is immaculate; the band incredibly tight with the startling juxtaposition of Lora Logic's mournful sax rubbing against Poly's shrill vocals.
Below are a few of my favourites:





After 'Germ Free Adolescents' X-Ray Spex just seemed to fritter away. Poly vanished from the scene, becoming a bit of a recluse....to put it mildly! Occasionally she would do interviews but these seemed to wander off into talk about the Hari Krishna movement and the existence of UFOs.
John Lydon remained a friend but even he seemed troubled by her fragile state of mind.
There were often rumours of some kind of comeback and only recently did she release a new album called 'Generation Indigo' to very favourable reviews. There was even speculation of some live dates to accompany the release. As I write this I haven't got the new album yet but it is high on my agenda. I had also hoped to persuade Griff and Ray to go and see her in concert if she toured. Now, sadly, just like the final Slits tour that we never got to see, it's not to be. I will probably write about the new album in this Blog at some time in the future, but now it's time only to reflect on a beautiful human being and an extraordinary talent.
Farewell then Poly,
You turned the world Dayglo for us,
We thank you....and we miss you,
Sleep well xxx

~Gordon~




A little addendum:
Several years ago I was at a record fair in Glasgow and I noticed that the original vinyl pressing of Germ Free Adolescents, identical in every way to my own much-loved copy, was going for a price in excess of £50. Not a bad price when you consider that I probably only paid a few quid for it. Needless to say, however, I wasn't tempted cashing-in. To even consider parting with this record for monetary gain would be on a par with selling my soul to the devil. No, this LP stays with me until the bitter end. In a sales-driven world of high-turnover, disposablity and accelerating consumption, always remember that there are higher ideals, deeper truths and alternative paths to walk... that's what Poly taught me.

Griff

Rudimentary Peni...And The Fine Art Of 'Losing It'

If there's one thing we here at the ~Streetlamp~ love, it's a bit of diversity.
So for every sun-dappled reminiscence about some beloved Sarah Record there'll be some wallowing in the grime of some caterwauling anarcho-punk scrawl; for every moody and pertinent piece on a new ukulele and autoharp duo there'll be a skreeeeee of nails-down-the-blackboard Industrial Post-Punk cacophony. And so it only seems fitting that, following some deeply ironic incense and Holy Water stained prattlings about apparitions of the Virgin Mary(see Blog here) that we should come to write about a band whose anti-religious fervour teetered on the brink of madness. Teetered...and then fell in!

Yes, welcome to the Rudimentary Peni Blog. Be warned....it's NOT pretty!
I've always loved the diversity of music! When I was at High School it was not unusual for me to buy something by Japan or Blancmange one weekend, and something by Cabaret Voltaire or the latest release on Crass Records the following.
Just last week Griff and I were discussing that many of Morrissey's fans seem to like the things that he does solely because he likes them! The trouble with this is that most of the things he likes aren't very good; thus The New York Dolls and Jobriath are held in high esteem by Morrissey's fans when in fact both are crap!
Likewise, not everything that was released on Crass Records was necessarily all that good either, yet we still bought them. Some WERE good, some were very poor, and a couple were outstanding.
And nearly 30 years on, Rudimenary Peni's 'Farce' e.p. still sounds magnificent!!

A 7" single, featuring 10 songs and lasting around 14 minutes, 'Farce' is a volatile explosion of jagged edge music and some of the angriest vocals I've ever heard; and all housed in a sleeve that seems to have been designed by a very troubled mind (more on that later!)
It's the sheer force of both vocal delivery and playing that propels this fine record along; the music, despite it's aggression, is very precise and very intricate with 1000m.p.h songs stopping dead on a sixpence. But the vocals, delivered by guitarist Nick Blinko, give the record a uniqueness that stands it apart from most other 'Crass' bands, and indeed most other Punk bands.
For an easy introduction, let's try E.P opener 'Sacrifice'. Listen to the absolute rage in Nick's voice as he bids us in with "God is nothing more than an obsessive lie// While Sunday school children are brainwashed into the line//And presented with as truth what's really just a lie//Another childs' self-belief is sacrificed"....take it away Nick:

Then, we notch the outrage up just a smidgen. On 'Cosmetic Plague', Nick's anger is threatening to take over. You can almost see eyeballs popping from head, veins in the neck bulging to bursting point:

But for all out venting of spleen, it doesn't get any better than 'Mice Race'. Remember when Ricky Tomlinson, while playing Bobby Grant on Brookside, would go into one of those fully committed rants, usually in support of striking workers, a performance he would hone to perfection playing Mike Bassett, England Manager? Or one of those performances from Michael Caine when he REALLY loses it? Well that's what we're dealing with here. This is one of the most apoplectic rantings I've ever heard from a vocalist in ANY band. Check the moment out at 1min55sec when he goes up a notch into full screaming outrage....it's quite incredible. I wish I could have been in the studio to see him capture this performance. I can only imagine it must have been like watching some great method actor....or, he really was THAT angry at that moment.


Rudimentary Peni are John Greville on Drums, Grant Matthews on Bass, and Nick Blinko on Guitar and Vocals and worked with both Crass Records and Corpus Christi in the early 80s. They have continued playing, albeit sporadically due to health problems; Grant Matthews being diagnosed with cancer, and Nick Blinko's psychological illness.
Over the years, Nick has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals, having been sectioned under Section 3 of the Mental Illness Act. As you can probably tell by the brilliant but troubling artwork that accompanies RP's records, and of course by Nick's manic performances on record, this is a man with serious issues. It has been said that he creates his artwork while NOT using the medication he has to treat him. He also once created an entire album while sectioned in hospital called 'Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric', and is still highly regarded as an artist by the Outsider Art Scene.

Hugely influential upon many US Hardcore acts, RP are still viewed with great fondness by Punks and Outsiders alike. Probably because it was pretty obvious they weren't faking it, or indulging in bullshit platitudes.

Rudimentary Peni....turning the act of 'losing it' into a work of art.

~Gordon~

You can download the 'Farce' EP here

And their mighty 'Death Church' album here

Look Who's One Year Old Today

Today is our first birthday and we'd like to invite you to join us in the celebrations and also thank you for sticking with us throughout the year. It's been a wonderful year for us, we've met loads of nice people, heard a vast amount of fantastic songs and our faith in humanity has been restored. Those of you who've been with us from the beginning will remember that in our very first post we outlined the reasons we felt the need to push one more music blog into what is a, frankly, already saturated market. In those first fresh and innocent blog posts we hopefully gave a sense of our 'mission'; to promote the music which we as individuals love, to promote new bands and musicians as part of a non-commercial culture which prizes art over commerce, and to give space on the internet to those artists with genuine merit, both old and new, who might otherwise be overlooked by more mainstream music sources. We hope that we've been succesful in meeting those ideals and we hope that, above all, each of you has been introduced to an artist somewhere along the line who has come to mean as much to you as they do to us.

Speaking for The Streetlamp team I have to say that the success of the blog has far exceeded our expectations. We entered into this venture not really expecting a huge audience for an outsider music blog with occasional diversions into left-wing politics and classic European literature, so we've been really surprised at the depth of readership. With over 20,000 page views for our articles and over 6,000 views for one of our SadPanda videos we can declare ourselves both surprised and delighted. Every person who has read one of our blogs, watched one of our videos or given us feedback we consider to be part of The Streetlamp family. That's why, as part of our first anniversary celebration we'd like to introduce you to (drum roll); 'The First Annual Streetlamp T-Shirt Competition'.


A Streetlamp T-shirt, you say! Hmmm, how does that look? Well, take a look at the one in the picture, below, as worn by our gorgeous Streetlamp model.



That's a quality t-shirt, folks! Now just imagine, having one of your own to roll around in on top of your own pile of pricelss art. How do you get one? Easy, to take part in the competition, here's what you have to do. Take a long hard look at the picture, above. In true Streetlamp psuedo-intellectual style we have posed our model on top of a random selection of pretentious records and books; some well-known, some obscure; which were influential on The Streetlamp teams cultural development. Your job is to see how many you can recognise. Stick your answers on an e-mail to sadpanda@hotmail.co.uk along with your name, address and t-shirt size (state if you want male or female fit). The person who recognises the greatest number of The Streetlamp's precious cultural artefacts gets a free t-shirt. Simple!
Think it looks kind of hard? Don't worry, here's a clue; the photo contains 23 books, 28 7"singles and 26 12" albums and singles. Still too hard? Ok, to make it really easy, have a look at the pic minus the model, which you can download 'here'.


We look forward to hearing from you. And remember, The Streetlamp would like to continue to build on its first year, so if you're in a band, or if you make videos, or if you fancy submitting an article, get in touch.



Griff
xx