Some thoughts.

One of the things I had intended for this blog when I started it was to use it as a vehicle for getting some of the stuff out of my head and down as writings. I think a lot about the world and the things that happen in it. I have always had trouble expressing the things that I think about while I'm working or tramping or gardening or even listening to music. I don't have the answers for the worlds ills and I am sometimes pretty cynical about society and humanity in general and sometimes pretty angry at some of the things I hear about. Of course, like most, I have opinions and Beliefs, not always well informed and I don't intend to be completely accurate with my writings, these will just be musings based on what I believe about the world based on my own experiences, media that I have been exposed and thoughts and beliefs that I have accumulated through my existing within the society I live in. It will be good practice getting my Ideas out into the world, I have things to say and just as much right to say them as any of the hatemongers, bigots, and fanatics who abuse their freedom of speech so much. Every day we receive information, from media, news programs, papers, magazines, TV, movies, books, songs, other people we interact with, social media, emails, phone calls and more and that information can trigger all sorts of thinking and sometimes emotions that influence our everyday existence. So with all so much going on around us and assaulting us from every direction, where do I start with my thoughts. How about these ones. 

Last night I watched the movie"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" Not a bad movie, based on Mandela's autobiography, but not as powerful a document as I would have hoped for a great man. A movie like that certainly evokes plenty of emotion and thinking about the things that transpired and I could spend several days expressing all the thoughts that passed through my mind during and after the film. But the thought train I want to look at right now is what happened after Mandela became President of South Africa. In the movie, Mandela was quite uncompromising in his requirements for the Blacks in South Africa: Total abolishment of the Apartheid system, one vote for every person and no power sharing with the whites if the majority voted that way, with the Majority being overwhelmingly Black. For a liberal type like myself these conditions sounded fine, especially in light of the disgusting treatment the Blacks had been dealt for so long and indeed he got what he wanted, The presidency, the dismantling of Apartheid and universal suffrage. Great progress for South Africa and humankind in general, right? What I am thinking now though is how much better are things actually NOW in SA after more than 20 years of being Apartheid free. A quick perusal on Wikipedia reveals that of the 53 million population, 80% are black and that in 2009 the unemployment rate was nearly 24%. That is an incredible almost 13 Million people unemployed and I could quite comfortably predict that a very large majority of them are Black. The Poverty then will be pretty bad and from what I have head from various sources and again from Wikipedia, the crime rate is one of the worst in the world. So after 20 years of Black rule in South Africa, is the average Black any better off than he was before. Well they should have more freedom from political oppression(I would think) but what else? Sure there is now a much larger population of middle class Blacks but I suspect that many have come from the ones that were already educated before the dismantling of Apartheid, like Mandela himself, who was a lawyer. And apparently, there are more poor Whites now than there was before, but this is a trend all over the world. So I am wondering why is South Africa still in such a mess. I think it is good that the Black South Africans are running their own country, although if they are like most of the other Democracies of the world, the real power lies with the very rich elite. Which brings me to my simplifications of the current conditions in SA. Money. I seems to me that money and the current economic systems we work under really undermine any advancement of social gains. I suspect one of the first pressures Mandela and his government would have come under would have been to protect the wealth of the ultra rich White elite and even today SA is ranked in the top 10 countries of income inequality. Of course there are a huge number of other reasons why SA is in the state it is and it is not all bad but it just looks like another situation where humans seem almost incapable of finding solutions so that all their people can have some reasonable quality of life.

David Bowie - The Next Day.(UK 2013)

Latest CD Arrival.

Bowie is back! After about 10 years, The Thin White Duke is back with a new album and it got voted No.2 album of the year in the Uncut Magazine best of 2013 album list. It doesn't sound stylistically all that different from his last two releases back in the early 2000's, but it has maintained the quality of those two records. Like some others of his vintage, Bowie has made a late career resurgence with some strong material that sounds like just what he want's to put out and not dictated by some record company jerks trying to sell mega quantities of albums. You probably won't hear any of this on commercial radio and it isn't exactly classic rock but there is some good stuff here and I especially like the smoky sax on several tracks, especially "Dirty Boys" Overall most enjoyable and gets a rating of 4/5.

Sun Ra - A Night In East Berlin/My Brother the Wind & Sun No.9 (USA 1995)

Another quality Leo release of various recording from the Sun Ra archive, this set comprises a couple of late period live recordings of superior sound quality and  excellent playing. The music presented here is mostly somewhat more accessible than a lot of other recordings by Ra and so is recommended for the less hardcore Ra aficionado. A great release, Rating 4/5.

Texas Flashbacks Volumes 1-6 - Various Artists (USA 1960s)

A Recent Arrival.

I originally had a couple of volumes of this set on vinyl many moons ago and came across this boxset on some obscure webshop while looking for the impossible to find Rubble Collection Vol 11-20. I bought this cos I knew there were some pretty good tracks on the volumes I had. After several days on random play in itunes I have discovered a plethora of new raw 60s teenage garage beat songs and covers to keep me amused. Plenty of great guitar shredding snotty punk songs along with several top notch tracks I know from other compilations. A few duds but overall a great collection, highly recommended, Rating 4.5/5.

John Zorn - Filmworks IV - S&M + More (USA 1997)

Latest Zorn Filmworks Arrival.

This release is another compilation of various film musics from a bunch of obscure flicks that not many of us have seen. The tracks here are a lot longer that the many short music samples from most of the previous volumes. The set kicks of with a sort of late night dubby thing that cruises along quite pleasantly and is a lovely relaxing vibe, where as the second track is far more esoteric and is actually a number of smaller sound bites from the same film soundtrack all indexed as one track. As usual with Zorn there is a vast cornucopia of musical styles on offer here, making for an intriguing listen, although not all of it is riveting and some of it will work better hearing it in the context of the film it was created for. Rating 3/5.  

Luc Ferrari - Cellule (Tzadik 1998)

Some older Tzadik release. 

I picked this out of Tzadik's back catalogue while browsing the other week cos the dude has a cool name and the French put out some pretty out there music. Luc doesn't disappoint. Two extended tracks with the first one having a strong Minimalist vibe and some cool percussion before developing into even more interesting sounds.The second track is even more experimental but is also very cool and I keep thinking back to Igor Wakhevitch as a reference point.Totally non commercial and very  far away from conventional "classical" music, Luc has composed some interestingly different music that works well and keeps me interested throughout. Rating 4/5. 

Buffalo Springfield - Buffalo Springfield (USA 1969)

Off The Shelf

Been reading Neil Youngs' "Waging Heavy Peace" And got to his bit about meeting Stephen Stills in LA which lead to the formation of The Buffalo Springfield. There are three bands from the 60s (Outside of The Beatles and Zappa's Mothers of Invention) that stand out head and shoulders above all the others for me(and that is against some mighty stiff competition). Spirit is one, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and the mighty awesome Buffalo Springfield. 

This was their first of only three albums and it kicks of with their big hit, which most of us will know, the magnificent "For What It's Worth". The rest of the album is a fantastic blend of folk, country and 60s pop, it is a powerful set and just oozes self assurance and quality. This is also the album that introduced us to the mighty talent of the incomparable Neil Young, with his 5 compositions being the best ones for me. Better than the Byrds, massively influential, a classic album which I should listen to far more than I do. Rating 5/5.

John Zorn - The Hermetic Organ II - St Pauls Chapel NYC (USA 2014)

Latest John Zorn CD

Johns second Organ recital and pretty much like the last one which was something I didn't really get into all that much. This one is slightly better and a bit mellower than the first one. Perhaps better to see the event live but still, listenable and I'll rate it 2.5/5.

John Zorn - Filmworks III - 1990-1995

Another Zorn filmworks CD.

The next volume of Zorn's Filmworks releases arrived a couple of weeks back and it is another collection of over 50 tracks in just over an hour. The first 12 tracks are most important as it was the first coming together of the four musicians who went on to form Masada and it is a great bunch of nice jazz tracks. The tracks 14-25 are Zorn and Marc Ribot letting loose on some very cool music. There is some real lovely mellow laid back stuff amongst the more raucous stuff. I don't think I have heard Ribot and Zorn play together like this, just the two of them, it is very good. The rest of the collection is apparently a bunch of advertising jingles, so to speak and most  are very short and cover a vast amount of musical territory with some familiar themes which I recognise as they were developed further later on on some of the Naked City releases. Overall a most interesting release.Rating 4/5.

Sun Ra - Space Probe

The latest Sun Ra Arrival.

As I head towards owning probably the largest Ra CD collection in NZ, this latest arrival is another of those collections that shines yet another light on the musical world of Mr Ra. The 17 minute title track is a spaced out extended experiment on the new Moog as of like 1970 and is way ahead of it's time and quite an impressive collection of weird noises which are very cool on the headphones late in the evening.(don't play it to your Grandma). The rest of the set is a small ensemble recording and parts remind me of Moondog. All very good Sun Ra and the recording quality is some of the best. Rating 4.5/5.