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Posted via email from manikmoon's posterous

What the hell, seems I've spent so much time resding other folks blogs I've forgotten my own - what would my hoard of admiring fan think of me?

I'll use tge excuse of 'been busy', well I have been working (almost) full time since my last, er, blog. Now I'm officially 'full-time' (for the next three months anyway), I suddenly have time on my hands again - theres's a moral in there somewhere...

But! This bit o' free time is tarnished by several handicapping factors: no free coffee - and coffee here at the airport requires a deposit and a bjdget payment plan! No 'puter access to exploit is a tad restrictive - no doodling with drawing or music proggies, one finger, er, stylus typing on the cellie to Twit or tweet or tap out diatribe here...

Groan

Planes come and go, off to the exotic, or banal, ( or in some cases neither!) , this place has a frizzon not unlike a mall at xmas time, that scent of eagerness and expectancy. Annoying at times.

Ah well, so it goes...

*blink*

Erm, how tardy of me, nearly a year since my last blog, blame it on overload, ban me from cyberspace. Blegh, i've trouble enough thinking up a witty byline for Facebook..and then something equally chin-strokingly mind-bending for Twatter. I barely give Myspace a glance these days and even there some kind of bon-motte is required accompanied with an aptly matching smily-face.

Working full-time again now, two jobs on the go and lets not mention all the other bits n bobs that filter my way after hours. The near two years of 'self-employed' bliss has gone by the wayside, on one hand spurred by a dwindling savings account on on the other by the temptation of doing something fun. It is fun, of course, there's the bloody paperwork that comes with any kind of job. But, I get to meet interesting people, handle lovely merchandise and spend loads of other peoples money!

Oh, what am I doing : well, I have a 3-day a week job as African art buyer, handling books and music as well; the remaining two days I'm plying the old trade of visual-merchandising again. Whilst, any time left over, scribbling and doodling away at illustrations and cartoons.

Phew!

It's good to be out amongst people again!

I also get to read some damn fine literature, I've become a bit of a fan of travelogues, whether its Ewen McGregor slogging through Russia on a motorbike or Dana Snyman wandering around mostly Southern Africa chasing down elusive tales.

Which brings me to the ranty bit o' the blog. We have it too easy, this internet thing and all, we, at a flick of a mouse button can visit, research, query anything we want. We don't ever actually see it or experience it and yet, can hold ourselves expert at whatever it is...'cos we read it on the net. Digital philosophers, I guess, able at an instant to pull some meaningful quote (often completely out of context btw) or some fact and figure (also out of context) to back an idea, a thought, an ideal drawn out of the back of the swivel chair. Few and far between are the folk who go out, grip the information along with the dirt of the road. Few are the people who are making tales and adventures instead of piggybacking someone else's - which, more often than not are piggybacked in the first place. Its so terribly easy to slag a person, a people, an ideal off when sitting in the comfort of your swivel chair, looking at it from one side, your side, the side that 's been carefully built up with endless half truths, skewed perception and unbalanced fact, from the net, the net that's never wrong.

Blah, anyway, aint that what I'm doing now...?

As you were....

Bullets From The Belfry Zorch Factory Special

So, anyway, trawling around my list of links, e-mails subscriptions and Blog reader whatsits I come across a lone line advertising a free download of a French band Camp Z's 6 track ep. Whoaw...free, I gasp.."This last release mixes electronic backgrounds along with dark feelings, raw guitars and post punk energy!" says the blurb...colour me interested - I've sort of rediscovered the whole French/Euro coldwave genre of the 80's as of late and have subsequently kicked myself at being so damnably Anglo-centric in my musical gleanings in those bad old days - ok, there was no internet, and the genre was largely ignored by the (Brit/USA) press of the day any mention of which was probably quickly passed by by the likes of I (not being able to see anything in the flesh as it were, also didn't help), I mean, I thought Plastic Bertrand was all there was!! So, consequently I devote the latest Bullets From the Belfry (and this blog) to Zorch!





Subsequent investigation led me to Zorch Factory Records and their eclectic stable of artistes from Europe (and other parts of the globe) in the dark indie/goth/deathrock/postpunk/coldwave/electronica field of things that i generally immerse myself in. Headed up by Manu, member of aforementioned CampZ, his dream to present a forum, a home, a promotional tool for some of the many truly independent artists forging out into the interwastes trying to elevate themselves to better things. All the material is published under Creative Common License free to download. His aim to create a fanbase for the bands so that interest is tweaked, demands made and the music industry swings their way, whether interest by some established label or enough interest is created to make music sales of future product viable. Manu's dream is based on love, not profit, the artists free to move on to greener pastures when their boat comes in!




After hastily glomming the CampZ goodies : a dark buzzsaw caterwaul of postpunk excess- with strong leanings back to coldwave, overlaid with Manu's harsh, angry vocals - no fake Brit/Amerikan tones here....without meaning to sound condescending, the French accent is perfect for this music! I went for the rest with glee.




Joy Disaster, also from France have a recent live concert recorded in Italy up for grabs. I suppose any band described as postpunk and having 'Joy' in their name is going to be compared with, ah, Joy Division...well yes, the comparisons are there, perhaps an early JD, maybe even Warsaw rather, harsh, brash, angry (I entertain the notion that if Warsaw formed today and listened to Interpol a lot...) Cyclic, all music is cyclic but in doing so it does not have to imitate, re-invention is part of the game, re-interpretation, it does not have to cater to some fixed audience to 'fill a dance floor' ( She Wants Revenge....pheeggh!!!). I take emotion over polish any fucking day - I see big things for Joy Disaster.



Mmmmmm, Mexican goth/punk/deathrock, I love it, ever since I frightened folk off the dancefloor with the likes of Los Meurtes Vivientes and the Ultrasonicas! The Acid Bats have a couple of releases on Zorch Factory, an 8 track ep, 'Exhumacion' and a earlier demo recording...fabulous stuff, can't wait to ever be invited back into a dj booth with this in my must play box!! (If I promise to play at least one She Whines Revenge track, can I ? Can I???)



The more eclectic Crimson Muddle do a wonderful cover of Joy Divisions 'Means To an End' on their ep, their sound veering into almost steampunk territory, but still with that endearing coldwave feel.Lamentations Psychotiques and Nuit d'Octobre round off the ep in a darkly whimsical manner.

On and on, it's like stumbling into a sweet shop of delights, Les Modules Estranges evoke the spirit of Siouxsie Sioux on tracks like Crash, Cocteau twins on say Am I Blind. lovely vocals, fragile guitar, veering toeards but not drowning in shoegazer territory. More tracks including remixes are available here.


From Spain come the enigmatically titled Red Crayon Aristocratic Club, think Yeah Yeah Yeahs meets Ladytron whilst picking up The Cranes on the way... A splendid cover of The Clash's 'Stay Free' is a gem on the cd.


Germany's Monozid have 2 ep's available on the Zorch Factory site, think postpunk, think Chameleons, early Psychedelic Furs, Wire here.


Rounding off the podcast this week- The Trespass, perhaps the most traditional goth/deathrock band on Zorch,' traditional' being a misnomer really in that their roots are solid postpunk, a bit of Echo and the Bunnymen lilting through their epically sweeping songs.


All in all, a valuable cause to support..and download, and hopefully, eventually, lay hard cash down for! Zorch Factory Records, Bullets From the Belfry salutes you!!

g'night and g'd d'loading!

Some Funnies etc

So, I'm working with one Mr Chislett on some writings that he has put to paper..I've turned one of em...so far, into a webcomic.....read it here: The Chizz..

Meanwhile, here are some humorous asides:





















The wee jet there was snapped by an old friend of mine at a recent airshow in Scotland... the Suffragette pic I nicked off the web somewhere, I saw it and it begged dialog....

Bullets From the Belfry

I have to use this thing more-it has value...

Henceforth those that read it will be regaled by my doings on the podcast I host.
That's Bullets From the Belfry, by the way. We're up to episode 8, after a wee break due to technical problems on the German side.....

This cast has only 4 artists, but good ones indeed..First up on the show is a band called Apteka, from Chicago...not to be confused with a Polish group a few years ago with the same name. This Apteka describes themselves as psychedelic rock, I would compare them with Serena Maneesh on one side, perhaps a more spikey early My Bloody Valentine on the other. excellent tunage ranging from the rocky The Sheet to a more winsome If You Were Here (both featured on the podcast and downloadable from their site). They have a furious touring schedule and this polish shows on their tunage. Oddly enough they haven't an album out yet....get a move on lads!!


Next up on Bullets 8 is a young chap from Pretoria, AnDroidgeny is his projects name and as the name suggests, expect a sleazily robotic techno-fused sound. There's a lot of ebm/idm/techno originating in Pretoria at the moment, projects like Cyvergence and Nul for example, are certainly a help getting me over my disdain for most things 4x4 beat driven and dance-floor orientated. Bullets 8 features two tracks from AnDroidGeny, Little Girls Are Evil and Blood Addiction , both designed around a Pied Piper call to the kind of sweaty hedonism The Henkie (AnDroidGeny) likes to create in his club events.



The Funeral and The Twilight are more my style, infusing a post-punk sound with heavy dollops of American Gothic, the vocals snaking through the songs, snarling and shrieking in places, telling tales of despair, society..well, life really. The vocals bring to mind the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce of Gun Club fame and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds as does the music, a howling swampy brew best served with the moonshine of your choice. The two tracks on Bullets 8 are the rocking Down By the Sea and the (deceptably- till the howling starts ;-p) mellower I Have Returned To You. Again, nothing relaesed as yet but all their songs are downloadable from their Myspace site.




Last up on Bullets From the Belfry 8 is an industrial project from Switzerland, Blue Screams of Death. Now I have a beef with 'industrial', or rather what passes for the genre today (dance floor fodder-blah). Blue Screams revives my interest in industrial by making it experimental, innovative, thinking music as opposed to lets-get-the-kids-on-the-floor with monotonous beats and gutteral German lyrics (ooh, sooo daaaangerous!). Blue Screams of Death use found objects, drones, musical intruments (in interesting ways) and voice to build soundscapes dark and massive, brooding and moody.Involved in the project is one Martin Jacklin, poet, singer and writer. Martin is involved in several musical projects, some of which I hope to feature on future episodes of Bullets. I've included The Great Machine is Dead and Farewell to Your Arms as a mere sample of what Blue Screams of Death is about.

fishcakes

Well, after successfully deleting the comment i was working on!!

anyway, as you were, or I was, rather...

I said, time flies, working on the Bullets From the Belfry thang (where loadsa good music's going down, btw)amongst other things. Getting the old comic/cartoon muscle going with redrawing Mr C Visser's Hunters storyline..here's page 2 for your perusal: see right....................


Otherwise, I'm sitting, sulking, nursing a soggy case of bronchitis..moan, moan