Interview : Berg Sans Nipple (Shane Aspegren)

1. Your first musical memories?
I remember completely destroying the first toy drumset that I got for Christmas. I also have fond memories of AM radio in the countryside of Nebraska.

2. The best record you received as a present? / The worse one?
Lori gave me a couple of Gainsbourg discs for my birthday shortly after I first moved to Paris. It was a good marker of that time.

Worst? I remember getting some new age Christmas music from a relative when I was a teenager.

3. The first record that you lost?
I must not have been very attached to it because nothing comes to mind. I’m sure it was some metal from my childhood.

4. The name of your imaginary band?
Sri Lanka Best Pink is my band with my daughters. It’s not imaginary, but for the moment, we talk about it more than we actually make songs, so I guess it’s kind of imaginary.

5. In which environment do you like to record music?
Somewhere with windows and sunlight.

6. What will music sound like in 50 years / 5000 years?
It will sound like the present, I suppose.

7. Which underrated album will start a new musical genre?
Fang Bwiti – Music from an Equitorial Microcosm

8. Which album should never have been made?
It’s all good in some way or another.

9. Your favourite album to have a drink?
Any Studio One compilation would work well for an apero.

10. Your dream collaboration?
Luis Bunuel would come back from the dead and we could score a film for him. The film would be, of course, about him coming back to life.

11. The record that freaks you out?
Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music just came on a while ago and it is pretty stressful.

12. The record you would like to listen to right now?
I’ve been listening to Let England Shake from PJ Harvey a lot lately. I could listen again right now.

13. The film that tickles your creativity?
Bernard Hermann‘s scores in any of his Hitchcock films makes me wish that I could score an orchestra.

14. The little-known track thateveryone should have heard of?
Afe Ato Yen Bio - De Frank & His Professionals

15. An album or an artist you wouldn’t want to be?
I’d rather focus on what I would like to be.

16. The cover version you would love to do?
A Gringo Like Me – Ennio Morricone

17. The mashup you would love to do?
A puree of sweet potatoes, parsnips and ginger.

18. The text you would like to produce a soundtrack for?
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

19. Have you ever had auditory hallucinations?
Every day.

20. How would you like to die?
Too much love.



Go to their website, to their myspace, see Change the shape (their new single) and listen to them on spotify

Crossroads

There's a bit of Matmos The West (still one of my favourite tracks/albums) on Nicolas's Russian Dolls, but today's choice is:

Nicolas Jaar - Angles (2010)

I’m like the Blair Witch nigga in the rented

Ce soir le Wu Tang Clan sera à l'Olympia et je n'y serai pas. Ça faisait même longtemps que je n'avais pas écouté un morceau du Wu Tang. Celui ci est écoutable (il y a Ghostface Killah...) mais la phrase I’m like the Blair Witch nigga in the rented (1) et la photo de Sophie Bramly (2) sont parfaites. Comme une sorte de Candyman blairwitchien...

Raekwon - Molasses ft. Rick Ross and Ghostface Killah (2011)

(1) extrait des paroles de Molasses*
(2) La photo est extraite de l'expo de Sophie Bramly 1981 & +

* Le procédé de commentaires de paroles participatif de RapGenius est vraiment intéressant, une sorte de wiki hip hop... If you don't know, now you know

Future Pop

Echo Lake - Young Silence (No Pain In Pop)

This video was shot on Microsoft Kinect by Dan Nixon.

Sub Hip Hop, the forecast: heat, with chance to blast*

Sub Pop vient de signer son premier groupe de hip hop : Shabazz Palaces pour leur nouvel album Black Up (sortie prévue le 28 Juin). Promesse tenues : il y a des chances que ça blast.

Shabazz Palaces - An echo from the hosts that profess infinitum (2011)

Shabazz Palaces - Swerve... the reeping of all that is worthwhile (noir not withstanding) (2011)


* the forecast: heat, with chance to blast est un extrait des paroles de An echo... 
pix : soundonthesound

L'art moderne sur le bout de la langue

Je m'étais promis de ne pas parler du dernier album des Black Lips produit par Mark Ronson, le producteur de Winehouse et de Robbie Williams, qui nous assènent un énième album de revival trop parfait entre les stones à Nellcôtes, le velvet, et tous les pyschélismes, Brian Jonestown Massacre en tête.

J'avais pour articulation principale Modern Art avec ses paroles niaises sur le bien fondé de la visite d'exposition d'art moderne : je relève la mèche de mon oeil et whoua les montres molles de Dali c'est trop deep. Au lieu de ça je voulais revenir sur la pochette de Good Bad Not Evil qui reprend la tombe de la pochette des Count Five avec son sous-titre "T'es vieux et t'es déjà mort" mais en version short de plage et tongs, et revenir sur O Katrina!, Bad Kids et Elijah qui avec leur chant déraillé et leur fuzz dégueu apportaient un peu de fraicheur à tout ce revival déjà un peu périmé. Puis j'aurai prolongé sur le joyeux foutoir qui s'est dissou dans la superficialité d'Arabia Mountain, genre ça sent un peu trop le savon et pas assez la chatte... oui mais voilà, il y a Modern Art et le clip de Brian Butler qui retrouve un peu tout ça et nous dit que c'est aussi du second degré. Et ça fait 32 fois que je l'écoute à la suite, la chair est parfois faible et malgré le savon...

Allez on relève le nez, on se dégourdit la langue, on essuie ses yeux qui piquent et on reprend (en hurlant comme des veaux) : K-hole at the Dalí / Seeing the unknown / Well it might have been a molly / 'Cause my mind's being blown...

PS : Voir la pochette des Count Five et celle de Good Bad Not Evil

It's Good For You!

Promise, next one will be cheery.

Violent Femmes - Don't Sart Me On The Liquor (1994)

New Start

There’s nothing like a new set of sheets. I’ve just changed mine and I feel like rolling under the duvet even though the sun has finally pierced through the clouds and I’ve got about a million things to do before bed time – not really but I’d like to think so.
If you want to experience for yourself the great new sheets experience (by 'new' I mean clean) you have to make sure you do not wash them for at least 3 months in summer (up to six months in winter). Then you get a fresh set.
But before giving it a go, remember the Emergency Stains Colour Code (ES2Cs): Yellow, Fine. Red, Think About It. Brown, Get The Bleach Out.
Enjoy.

Flipper - Scentless Apprentice (2000)

2011: A Space Odyssey

Commodity culture has taught us to question whether there is such a thing as an inherent ‘object-hood’, ‘being’, ‘corporeality’ or whatever you want to call it…or is everything around us merely reduced to a series of signs and semiotics, spelling out what something stands for? A learned egoistic language, which we are able to formulate, understand and digest.
For me, a more interesting observation doesn’t concentrate on the ‘thing’ itself but rather the insistent process that drives us to search out this idea of an inherent ‘being’ within that named object. In Lacanian terms, we are driven by the process of fantasy and not the fantasised object in and of itself.
A great example of this well-versed Lacanian theory is found in Mark Leckey’s latest show at the Serpentine Gallery: SEE WE ASSEMBLE.

Leckey proclaims that he views the world as nothing more than a series of images. Nothing of particular interest here, as this card that has been played out for decades post-Warhol. Rather, the interesting part lies in the dialectical tension made evident between subject (artist / viewer) and ‘object’ (art / commodity).

In the back room of the gallery the artist has placed a tall, stone Henry Moore sculpture – it epitomises objectivity, standing proud as a Modernist totem, proclaiming its presence and authority over the viewer. Opposite the Henry Moore, stands a huge stack of speakers, equal in height and directly facing the object. At intervals throughout the exhibition, the artist bombards the sculpture with a series of sounds and noise, apparently with the aim of entering into some form of communication with the mysterious ‘thing’ - an attempt to break through it’s constructed image surface.

The rationally minded amongst us know that it is ultimately a failed endeavour to get the stone sculpture to react in some way, but I would argue that this is beside the point. We know that any reply from the sculpture, or revelation of its inherent being is the stuff of dreams and fiction – a pure fantasy – it will never happen. And this is in fact the point.

In the adjoining room, Leckey substitutes the art object (the Moore sculpture) for the commodity object (a fridge). Here, the exact same fantasy anxieties are performed out on a different stage. A large, black, talking Samsung fridge stands in the middle of the room, stylising itself on the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But unlike Kubrick’s monolith (that which can not be symbolised), the fridge’s identity is beyond it’s perceived function. It is 'SAMSUNG', it is pure surface and it is first and foremost, the object of our desire. – the fact that it will keep our beers cold is not at all important.

Leckey is evidently aware of his cultural references, everything from dance culture to sci-fi film. References are surrogate images, and as such they further remove us from any pretence that we can exist beyond the signifying surface level. Having said this, paradoxically it is this very surface ‘gloss’ which builds our anxiety and strengthens our drive to get ever closer to the heart of the object (if such a heart exists).

Leaving the gallery, I thought again about the fate of the Kubrik’s spacemen as they slowly approach the monolith…they too are bombarded with an excruciating noise. However, in this case it is a fatal noise, a leaking of some primordial ‘thing’ beyond the space travellers’ own symbolic order.
Leckey’s reversal of this act, back on to the object is inevitably impotent. Effectively he employs an image of an image played back on to an image.

For some reason I can't get MGMT out of my head tonight...'we're fated to pretend'…

Margaret goes hardcore

The King, Backstage

The Nightingales - Elvis, The Last Ten Days (1982)

L’Amiral flottant

Rencontrer Berg Sans Nipple, L’Amiral flottant et écouter Build with Erosion

Back On The Old Habit

Dinah Washington - Drinking Again (1966)

Love buzz : Caribou + Kode9 + James Pants à la Villette Sonique 2011

Villette sonique 2011 ? Que s'y est il passé ? Would you believe me when I tell you - A peu près tout et n'importe quoi. J'y ai vu un très mauvais concert vendredi soir, inutile d'y revenir. Samedi après midi j'ai vu le soleil de Caribou rejouer son album live à la note près (mais c'était plutôt plaisant) et les gens danser et les playmobils sauter et j'ai parlé de Se distraire à en mourir - Joli titre, m'a dit C. - You are the king of my dreams.

Dimanche après midi je me suis assis en plein soleil à 14h30 - Please don't deceive me when I hurt You - avec des amis et du poulet et de la salade et des chips et de la bière - fraiche ? - et du vin rouge - It just ain't the way it seems -. J'ai raté Groupe Doueh - en fait entendu porté par le vent - et j'ai vu Kode9 - excellent show, la basse enveloppante montant progressivement, un peu d'ombre - I need you like a desert needs rain - et le flow du prédicateur - you wanna see what i see - montant en pression. J'ai dansé, j'ai pensé à Saul Williams virant dub et de retour sur la grande pelouse j'ai confondu Dan le Sac et Scroobius Pip - I would rather like to die. J'ai pissé contre un mur plusieurs fois, et dans un carré d'herbe sèche aussi.

Un peu après je suis retourné écouter James Pants mélanger Nirvana et Shocking Blue - LOVE BUZZ - puis mélanger tout et rien et Aphex Twin - windowlicker - et Vanilla Fudge - you keep me hangin on - et Arabian Prince ? et ? et de la drum'n'bass et du garage - Darling I hurt when I do not see you - et ? et dans un joyeux blind test ensoleillé comme une sorte de Lee Scratch Perry vs Alan Vega (oui, il chantait parfois faux et à contre temps dans une immense reverb). A nouveau sur la grande pelouse, je retrouve : des amis, des cerises trop mures, des tomates cerises trop chaudes, des contre jours toujours magnifiques sur la géode et Oxbow se prennant pour Nirvana - mais heureusement ils étaient loin. On s'est enfin tous embrassé et on a retrouvé les embouteillages en Twingo - So spead your wings and fly - et on s'est endormi et c'était déjà lundi. Can't you hear my love buzz?

Les Dogs

1973 : « Bonjour, on s’appelle Les Dogs et on vient de Rouen ». Les Thugs s'en souviennent encore...

Plus d'infos ici

Composing History

ohhhhh, we're missing him now...

Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song (1996)

Savannah Rain

Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower (1976)
*painting: Untitled, 2005 by Tom McGrath

They Came Early

Give it a bit more distortion and you get the music that was to come ten years later.

Altered Images - Beckoning Strings (1981)

Of course, the version with a bit more distortion does exist, it's on a Peel Session from 07/10/1980. Unfortunately, the sound is pretty bad on the only copy I could find. And now I'm not sure which one I prefer...

Beckoning Strings (1980's Peel Session Version)
It's the wrong album cover (the song is on Happy Birthday) but I know the French will appreciate the gesture

Orange Juice

Money Motivated Movements - Four Tet & Guilty Simpson on a track from Chrome Children Vol. 2 (Stones Throw 2007)