Stingbert's Area
(temporarily Nicked)
Stingbert's Area
(temporarily Nicked)
So - you're here! Which means you're either Nick or a nosy bastard, or possibly both :) Anyway, while we're both here I might as well spit some HTML and ramble a little on the choice of tracks for the Obscure Stuff compilation I made, darling...
[1] g. kruv (tout le cacque) by Lobster. One of my oldest friends and fellow
chemistry teachers, Lobster is a compulsive player of puns and bass guitars.
This piece was originally called "gott kruv" (still an interesting spelling of
'groove' if you ask me :) and is based on some mathematical framework that
eludes me completely. Damn catchy though!
[2] Emmène-Moi you might know the film? If so, I may no longer be the only
person in the unvierse who liked it... this was the soundtrack to a woman slitting
her wrists in the bath after downing half a bottle of vodka in one gulp.
Just the sort of thing for Peter Hammill to score really! :)
[3] This Is The Life of Robert Gózon (his real name despite allegations).
He had the cheek to call the album A Frayed Knot after misunderstanding me over
the phone once again. Yours truly's gooey backing vocals remained in place though.
[4] In The Court Of The Crimson King by M. Walking On The Water, probably
Germany's loudest band. Great live if you bring your own earplugs... and I'm still
highly amused every time to hear what a Krefeld woodhead can read into a lyric that
didn't make sense in its original English in the first place! A "fernal march", anyone? :)
[5] Jeannette D'Arc Cut by percussionist and sound engineering professor
(wot?) Rene Commie Van Commenee in 1989, this was obviously done in the day and
age of analogue tape machines. And the day and age when Belgian kids would still
sing to strangers coming up to them in the street!
[6] Ten Nine Eight Well, one of mine. An older one. There's not anything
I can possibly say about it without having it turn into regretful carping about
the lamentable recording quality, so I rest my case and offer the potentially
intriguing information that this was written on bass guitar and originally
started on the memorable line "Do crusaders smell of peach, mama?" :)
[7] Aerosol Grey Machine by Van der Graaf Generator before they went all
heavy and serious. I want one! (Er, either will do.)
[8] Tief Im Meer "Wir Grubenkinder" means "us kids from the coalmine" and
was Jochen the singer's idea. A beautiful bit of morose Germanness I'm evidently
struggling hard to transport on piano. Hey, I'm a jolly person really! :)
[9] Old by Jan Kleinschnieder who incredibly enough beat you to the
position of First Thin Mud-Blond One-Eyed Mac-Wielding Guitar-Toting Songwriter
In My Life!!! Freakily enough, he
lost his right eye to the exact same infection that got into yours. Small world.
This was film music for an avant-garde project set on the moon, and is included
here because I'll spare you his lyrics. They're not an eye patch on yours frankly. :)
[10] Poison M. Walking again - this is here for purely egoistic reasons,
it was my favourite song in my first year at uni. Also a pretty brilliant unintentional
impression of Monty Python's Pontius Pilate: "Thwow him to the gwound!"
[11] Architecture More weird noises from my adopted uncle Peter Hammill
(I did that to him after one too many avuncular enquiries on tour about where I was
staying that night, whether my recording contract had come through and if the
Roquefort was any good. He's lovely though.) This is Musique Concrete at its most
literal. *grin* The high bits of the house corresponding with the high bits in
the singing etcetera. Hey, I wrote my final dissertation in Eng Lit about that!
[12] Cairo Cairo The epitome of ruthless rhyming!! Judge, the author
(well the tune is traditional) is currently mad about airships, and quite rightly so.
[13] Paracelsus shows off Rob's Borges obsession. Appropriate really for a
chap who's spent the best part of his youth in Argentina and still can't tango!
Taken from his album "Tlön" and subtitled "it re-roses" in an attempt
to reproduce one of the Tlönian languages that doesn't have any nouns. The whole
sleeve is nounless in fact. Think about that. :)
[14] Glass Music Yes, both the composer and the amorphous silicate I
suspect. The full but short story, plus pictorial evidence of me bleeding for art, is here.
[15] The Moebius Loop "How come I didn't recognise the revolving door?"
Easy, Peter. You've been on the tequila too early in the day. *sigh* Again, an
entirely unrepresentative but intriguing piece of Hammillry from when he liked
to mess around with seven-yard tape loops snaking around picking up the dust, ash and debris
from the floor of Terra Incognita Studios. Can't do _that_ on digital any more! :)
[16] Here Comes Iocasta is obviously the sound of me larking about in the
studio-cum-bedroom after a hard day's being-the-intense-woman-on-piano-and-voice-
who-does-not-quite-do-chanson-because-she-can't-speak-a-word-of-French-but-what-the-
heck. Its mother album was called Unsailable, and fortunately has turned out not to be...
Well, that was some of the stuff I like. Apart from, er, flashy TV documentaries,
coriander, typing "form" istead of "from", eyebrows, clusters of adjectives, being
touched behind the ear, certain shades of purple and an alphabet's worth of other
stuff generally subsumed under Life In General (or possibly Life - A User's Manual.
That one just _had_ to become my favourite book of all times!! :)
Hope you've enjoyed the little trip; signing off rather more quickly than expected
a my sitting ball is letting me down rapidly,