An Index of Metals

 

An Index of Metals by Tosh Berman

The Albums That Were Important To Me in 2002

 

2002 was when America opened up the Pandora Box concerning Iraq and other faraway places. We are, to this day, can't bring the evil spirits back into that box. Nevertheless, the world's anxiety brought three magnificent albums, and those three were made by veterans of the pop music world. At this point, I remember feeling a sense of shame that I loved these albums over Wilco's release of that year, for instance.  I pretty much ignored the newer artists for these old guys, yet, the music they were making was way more ahead of their time. 

Bryan Ferry's "Frantic" is one of his more astonishing recordings. Unexpectedly I didn't think this would be even an impressive Ferry album. I was wrong. It's a superb album with Ferry in all his strengths. Also, I presume that the album was recorded over a time or even years. Still, the recordings and songs were as fresh as my memory of hearing the first Roxy Music album. It sounded like 'now,' and for whatever reason, "Frantic" sounded contemporary in the right way. The Ferry originals are up there with his classic songs from the past. His two Dylan covers on the album, I think, are magnificent. The classic here is an Eno/Ferry tune, "I Thought." It captures the early Roxy, but also the haunting lyrics with even the sad music is something of great beauty. 

Looking at the present and forward at the same time is David Bowie's "Heathen." The album does have the post 9/11 mood, which I believing he was recording this album on that date. "Sunday," "A Better Future," and "Heathen (The Rays) are first-class Bowie tunes, and having Tony Visconti back in the production seat is also a plus for this late Bowie masterpiece. His cover of The Pixies "Cactus" is respectful to the original. And his beloved early idol, Legendary Stardust Cowboy's "I Took A Trip On A Gemini Spaceship, is a goofy but incredibly romantic song. 

Most hardcore Sparks' fans feel that the Island Records era of Sparks is the masterpiece era, as well as "No. One Song in Heaven." "Lil Beethoven" is a masterpiece as well. Like Bowie, very much in the present, and their eyes on to the future.  In places, it reminds me of Steve Reich's music, but with a strong hip-hop overture and melodic tunes. Chamber pop but done in the 21st century. A masterpiece. Everything else released in 2002 was neither here nor there. Still, these three albums are influential works by artists with a beautiful history. 

BOOK MUSIK - "Recombo DNA: The Story of DEVO" by Kevin C. Smith

 

Book Musik 033 – Recombo DNA-The Story of Devo or How the 60s Became the 80s by Kevin C. Smith

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Book Musik

Tosh and Kimley discuss Recombo DNA-The Story of Devo or How the 60s Became the 80s by Kevin C. Smith. Smith takes a deep dive examining just what made Devo tick and twitch. From 1970 to 1979, he takes us through the background and influences of this Ohio band who experienced the Kent State shootings, discovered Dada, enjoyed manipulating the ideas of de-evolution, experimented with film and multimedia shows and ultimately became a band with top 40 appeal. They managed to find themselves in the company of the people best suited to further their cause from Toni Basil to Brian Eno to Neil Young. Talent and timing is everything.

Theme music: “Behind Our Efforts, Let There Be Found Our Efforts” by LG17

Tosh Berman For ARTBOOK / D.A.P. : "The World's Worst: Portsmouth Sinfo...

"The World's Worst: A Guide to the Portsmouth Sinfonia" Edited by Christopher M. Reeves & Aaron Walker (Soberscove Press)

ISBN: 9781940190235

Off the top of my head I'm going to presume that this is the only book on the legendary Portsmouth Sinfonia. A combination of a scrapbook as well as a series of interviews by people (musicians?) who were involved with this English orchestra. Which included Brian Eno, Gavin Bryars, and Michael Nyman, among others. What makes Portsmouth Sinfonia unique is that they did the popular classics we all love and know, but they couldn't play. If they were musicians in the orchestra, they played instruments that they didn't know how to play. The conductor, couldn't read a music note if his life depended on it. Still, they manage to play at the Albert All among other classical orientated concert halls and made three albums. What seems to be a joke to some is in actuality an art practice at work. The thing is everyone involved with the orchestra was serious in doing the best that they can to perform the music. For me, it's another way of looking at the classics. It's interesting to hear these familiar works in punk or at the very least, a new way of approaching music. The book expresses the joy of being in the Portsmouth Sinfonia as well as its importance to the avant-garde music world.

King Crimson on Tosh Talks

For most of my life, I think I hated the English band King Crimson. Still, these are the times when one should challenge their taste, and actually, spend time listening to music that I once hated. Keep in mind that I never heard a full King Crimson album until recently. So my taste was based on being prejudiced and against the idea of 'prog rock.' My first reaction to King Crimson is criminally wrong.
I purchased seven albums by King Crimson. "In The Court of The Crimson King," "In the Wake of Poseidon, "Lizard," Islands," "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, "Starless and Bible Black, and their last album of this grouping "Red." Although I always admired Robert Fripp as a guitarist and making music with Brian Eno, David Bowie, and others, it was very recently that I sat down and listened to all seven early King Crimson albums. Here I confront my prejudice ways and come out as a new admirer of King Crimson.

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Joe Meek on Tosh Talks

Joe Meek on Tosh Talks



Joe Meek is without a doubt one of the intriguing figures that came out of contemporary music.   A gay man who lived in London when it was illegal to have gay sex or even hinting of having a relationship with another man, very much lived in his working space on Holloway Road in North London.  He didn't leave his flat/recording studio that much, as he was, at the time,  focused on making recordings that to this day is revolutionary and profound, in the sense that he was probably one of the first DIY personalities in the recording world.   On this episode of "Tosh Talks," I focus on three albums by The Meek planet.  Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, Heinz, and the brilliant "I Hear a New World" (1960) billed as Joe Meek and the Blue Men.  I also commented on Brian Eno's "Another Green World" and how that is the little sister or brother to Meek's "I Hear a New World."    A friend commented that Meek is the bridge between Les Paul and Phil Spector, but to me, as he was a non-musician, he used the recording studio as an instrument, similar to what Eno did years later.  A remarkable sonic artist in an extraordinary era. - Tosh Berman

"Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond" by Michael Nyman (Cambridge University Press)

ISBN: 0-521-65383-5

Even though it is only an illusion, but it seems that when John Cage walked into our room, the world has re-started in some fashion.  Cage is the stone that was thrown into the pond, and future experimental music came from those little ripples from that rock.   Michael Nyman, a great composer, by the way, wrote this book in 1974 at the height of Brian Eno's Obscure Records label, where he focused on the British wing of the musical avant-garde.   Before Nyman's work with filmmaker Peter Greenaway, he was acutely aware of the tradition of contemporary classical music and all its strange and beautiful routes it took through the later years of the 1940s to the publication date of this book.   In such a fashion the book appears to be a classic textbook on its subject matter, and Nyman is very much the instructor in taking the reader from point A to point B, and so forth.  Not one only gets the foundation of Cage, but also the works of Fluxus era composers up to the British talent such as Gavin Bryars, Christopher Hobbs, and the Scratch Orchestra, as well as the world of Terry Riley, LaMonte Young, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich.  Illustrated with music scores and rare photos, this is a remarkable and essential piece of work regarding the world of the avant-garde sounds and its artists.

David Bowie - The Leon Suites Complete - 1994 (audio)

The above is a demo for David Bowie's "Outside" album.   Unreleased at the moment.

"Irma" an opera by Tom Philips. Music by Gavin Bryars. Libretto by Fred Orton (1978) Obscure Records. Produced by Brian Eno.

"Irma" Obscure Records, produced by Brian Eno

"Irma: An Opera by Tom Philips.  Music by Gavin Bryars.  Libretto by Fred Orton" (1978).  Obscure Records.

April 28, 2015

I spent the day on the ninth floor of the federal court building on Temple and Spring.  I was on jury duty in a murder case, and I didn't get chosen, due that I wasn't paying any attention to the case on hand or the procedure or rules.  For one, I had a flask with me, and was drinking from it from the jury box.  The Sheriff took the flask away from me, and at one point I was falling asleep while being questioned by one of the attorneys. It was kind of embarrassing if I think of it, but like other unpleasant experiences, I like to store them away in the back of my head.   As soon as I was dismissed (they kept the flask), I walked towards the library on fifth and Flower.  On the way there I went to the Last Bookstore, not for their books, but their vinyl department.  My timing was perfect because I found a perfectly fine used disk of "Irma: An Opera by Tom Philips" in stock.  The price of the album is $19.95, and I immediately took the recording into my arms and paid for it.  Once I got home, I put on my "audio-technica air' headphones on, and went into another world with this album. 

The album is on Obscure Records, which are a label started by Brian Eno, during the mid 1970s.  He produced 10 albums for the label.  Now it doesn't exist.  If one is a collector, there is a need to have all ten albums.  If nothing else, for the design.  All of them are fantastic albums, and my favorite one of the bunch is "Irma."  

"Irma" is an opera by Tom Philips, but it seems when it came to the recording, Gavin Bryars took over, not only the opera, but also had Fred Orton write the libretto.  So, I'm not sure what is left of the Philips' version.  All I know is that Philips wasn't pleased with the results of the album that was released on Obscure Records.  Then again, Philips based his opera on a visual motif - 93 random phrases from the 1892 novel "A Human Document" by W.H. Malloch.  On the other hand, the album is excellent.  

The composer, Michael Nyman is on the record, and his piano playing to me is always uniquely his.  He can only play 'charm' that is his signature on a recording.  To me, he's the Noel Coward of serious (sort of "ha") music.  His playing is always witty and quite sophisticated.  "Irma" of course is all sophistication.  Although Obscure Records are thought of as releasing 'experimental music, ' there is nothing really experimental about "Irma," at the very least, the Obscure recording headed by Gavin Bryars.  Perhaps a touch eccentric, but what isn't eccentric in the works of a British citizen? I imagine if Lord Berniers was alive, he would be part of the Obscure Record label world. 

I was called back into Jury Duty, and beforehand, I made a MP3 of the album, so I can listen to it while in the courtroom.  The case, if I'm not mistaken, is about a police shoot-out with some other gang or another.  Not to my taste, really.  So hearing this album makes the time go faster and forces the tedium of a long arm of distance. The thing is I have to make sure the deputy or the judge does not see my earplugs.  

Portrait of Brian Eno by Tom Philips

As I watch (I really didn't listen) witness after witness giving some sort of tedious information, I started to think more about this recording of "Irma."   I find the music to be very soothing, but not in the 'new age' way - more in tuned with the beautiful melodies that are within this piece.  Tom Phillips wrote the opera as a conceptual piece, but Gavin Bryars turned that concept into a beautiful piece of music.   When you hear the word "opera" one thinks of a staging or a theatrical experience - but as far as I can tell, "Irma" is a music piece - and it is performed as a concert work - but not with actors -unless one thinks of the vocalists as acting out the libretto by Fred Orton.  The libretto was taken from the victorian novel, it has a romantic feeling, although one is not sure if that is the purpose of the piece or not.  The way I listen to "Irma" is totally emotional, and I'm impressed with the romantic sweep of its emotions.  Overall, when I hear a work by Bryars, it is usually emotionally tainted, in that it conveys a sense of romance and lost.  

Gavin Bryars

I have been listening to this album over and over again.  I never tire of it, and I often sing the phrase "love is help mate."   To me, it sounds like Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart."   Both equally doomed, and therefore music that is essential to one's health and being.  On the other hand, I suddenly noticed that the lawyers on both sides of the case are starting to look at me with some sense of contempt.  The judge's eyes are like darts aimed towards my heart.  Other jurists are looking straight ahead and pretend that I don't exist.  The lawyers are called to the bench, and I suspect that I won't last for more than three minutes. 

The Sunday Series: Sunday No. 2 (January 18, 2015)

Photo from https://www.etsy.com/shop/VintageMadeByDucky/about?ref=l2-more-about

Sunday No. 2

It took me awhile, but I think I arranged a chance to fuck “her.” It seemed like it took forever to get her to my point of view, that I was desperately trying to convey to her.   Her beauty has been a consistent heartache as well as a pleasure of sorts.  To want something, and being so close to “it, ” is like walking across two skyscrapers on a thin rubber-band in the wind.  She is standing perfectly still in front of me, but the wind is pulling me back, sideways, and this time, I hope forward.   She would often drop hints of sensual adventure, but once I try to act upon them, it is like it never happened.   Either by design, desire, or just a cruel version of torture, she would wear this piece of jewelry on her body that is like waving a red cape in front of a horny bull.  It was a thin chain that is connected to her waist and goes up to the back, and then around her beautiful neck.  If she was wearing a blouse it would appear to be a thin necklace around her throat.  But when she is wearing her backless black dress, you can see the full design, except the part that is connected to her, what I imagined, is her perfect waist.  When I was with her, especially in public, I could barely stand it.  

I’m consistently on the telephone with her, and she slipped in the information that she was planning to wear the “necklace,” in case I was planning to come over her house - which it seems she will be alone.  My reaction is like the wolf in a Looney Tunes 1940s cartoon, where my eyes are jumping out of my sockets, and my tongue is rolling over my thick lips.  I told her for sure I will be there, and since it’s Sunday, I’ll bring some things over.  Neither one of us works in the sense of “work,”… like Monday you have to go to work type of thing.  Personally I was daydreaming that I would be spending a week in her bed, while I trace my fingers against her jewelry.   In fact, I wanted to remove her jewelry piece, and with a felt pen, draw another version on her skin.   For the whole week beforehand, whenever I saw a felt pen on a table, or in a stationary shop, I would get an erection.  While we were talking and arranging a meeting just now, that is exactly what I was thinking.   Before I left the house I took at least three pens with me and put it in my bag.  

I knew she had a turntable in her apartment, so I stopped at Amoeba to locate Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s “Evening Star” on vinyl.   Some years back, I remember having sex with this music in the background.  Side two is “An Index of Metals, ” which lasts for the whole side.  I think 28 minutes.   Perfect time length for intercourse, as well as climaxing at the end of the track.  Knowing this piece so well, I can use it as a guide of sorts, while actually fucking her.   I did find the album, although used, and looking at its surface, I did see scratches on the vinyl.  In theory, I thought this will be OK, and may even add creative tension in the sex act, with this in the background.  

As I was heading out towards the line to purchase the Eno/Fripp album, I saw a 45 single by Timi Yuro called “Interlude.” I stopped.  I turned around and picked the single up. This was a song, that I wanted like forever.  Timi was a favorite singer of mine, and often I felt, mine alone.  She was an American, died young, and had a big voice for a little girl.  This song, for me, is the ultimate doomed love song.  I often cried when listening to it, and that was embarrassing because a friend of mine had the single.  I tried to buy it off him, but he refused. He told me that once I find it, the song will bring new meaning to you.   I looked at the grooves of the vinyl, and it looked like it never has been played.  The store wanted $12.99 for it, and who am I to argue if the price is too high.  What I’m buying is not only art, but something that is essential to one’s life, or even identity.  With that in my hand, I started to walk towards the cashier, when all of sudden something caught my eye.

It was the front cover of an album by an artist or band called Perfume Genius.   I was struck by the beauty of the young man on the cover, and I immediately went to the record like an abandoned cat in a rain storm approaching a neighbor’s cat food plate.  The song titles were intriguing to me, especially the one called “Queen.” With my I-Phone, I found the track on YouTube, and watched and listened to it at that spot.  It was the glam rock song of my desires.  I gave up hope of ever hearing a new glam song, and this one with its pansy sexuality, was superb.  I played found another video of his, called “Body, ” and that too was magnificent.  When one discovers a new record or a new sound, it is like falling in love.  One wants to go around and shake people from their shoulders and tell them to listen to this.   Common sense told me that this was not a good idea.  So I took that album and put it under my arm with the Fripp/Eno album as well as the Timi single.  While standing in line to purchase the goods, she called me and told me if it is ok to come later over her house.  I said sure, and she said that she is really looking forward to seeing my face.  I felt good hearing that.  Also it gave me a chance to get back home and listen to the records.

Every time I play a record on my turntable, it takes me five minutes or so to clean the needle.  I’m obsessed with getting the best sound possible on my set-up, and I actually enjoy the procedure in preparing a record listening session.   I quickly checked the Eno/Fripp record to see if it’s in a good condition, and for a used album, it looked like it wasn’t played a lot.  There was a crackle here and there, but overall it sounded good, and therefore perfect for tonight’s planned love-making.    I then put on Perfume Genius “Too Bright” album.  

“I Decline” is the first song on side one.  At this moment, I ‘m taken to another place in my world.  I don’t even recognize where it is, but I know I like it.   Then comes the song “Queen.” It is like someone put a knife on my chest and cut it open, and released all the tension within me.  “No family is safe when I sashay.” I keep lifting the needle after the song is finished and replaying it.  I remember in Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus” when the main character, a poet, would sit in his car parked in his garage listening to messages on the car radio from the underworld.  I feel the same way when I hear this song.  “Queen” is communicating with me directly.  Slowly, as I meditate on the song, it becomes clear to me that life is so multi-dimensional.  

Once the whole album was over, I immediately went into my work-space and got my head-phones and played the whole record again.  One of the things I admire about the record is its sonic textures.  The melodies are all strong, but there was something ‘ugly’ about the sound as well, which brings out the beauty of the lyrics and melody.  Due to the cord attached to the mixer, I couldn’t sit on the couch, so I got a big pillow, and lay on the wooden floor.  As the sound overcame me, I fell asleep and I had this odd dream of me being in bed and someone entering the bedroom.  It was a ‘she’ and I presumed it was my desirable obsession with the jewelry.  As soon as she got in bed in total darkness, I reached out and said her name.  She then told me that it wasn’t her, but someone named Sue. I didn’t recognize the voice, and I didn’t do anything. I just pretended that I fell asleep.  When I woke up, I hear the needle going back and forth at the end of the record. 

I then put on the 45 rpm single of Timi Yuro’s “Interlude,” and time truly became a dream.   I slowly realize that my desires are a dream.   There is my life as a living being, but beyond that, and through music, I realize that I am something more.   Not necessary a  better person, but I’m not the same guy that morning, then I am now this evening.   Time is like a dream, and my lust for her, has changed into a beautiful melody. 

May 15, 2014

May 15, 2014

It has been expressed that Norrie Paramor passed away without getting any recognition for his services as producer of various Cliff Richard recordings, but the one’s that I find the most interesting is his work with The Shadows.   His recordings of the pre-fab-four are to this day the most haunting to me.  When I hear Hank Marvin/Jet Harris recording from the early 1960s, it sends me to a world where I can smell the polluted River Thames, and the “Man of Mystery” overwhelms me with a sense of melancholy.

I think their masterpiece is “Wonderful Land” due to not only Hank’s brilliant guitar playing, but also how Paramor’s strings fit over the song like putting a coat over a drunk man in some Soho street in the middle of the night.  Of course there’s great skill in making these sounds, but it's the magic aftertaste that gives me goose-bumps.  Eno is another favorite of mine, but in the long run, ironically enough, he hits against a wall, like a car speeding towards its final destination.   He is all about thinking and sound making, but there is something vacant regarding the emotional aspect of his music making.  His records all have roots from someplace else, mostly from the avant-garde recordings of the 50’s, but also the classic low-budget recordings from the 60s as well.  The big difference between Eno and say someone like Joe Meek, is that Eno is totally aware where he is, and what his place in history will be.  Meek, like Oscar Wilde, thought at the very the end no one will pay attention to him. Norrie Paramor I think should be considered to be as important as Meek and of course, Brian Eno.

Paramor reminds me of certain portraits done by Richard Avedon, in that you’re looking at an image that is very stark, but the emotional aspect of that subject matter really yells out to the viewer.  The Shadows’ “A Place in the Sun, ” especially in stereo is like overhearing a conversation between the two guitars.  It’s intimate, and the track on the right is slowly embracing or chasing the guitar track on the left.  The sensuality of the tension being built up is so subversive with respect to a recording made in the early 60s.  One of my all-time favorite authors is Arthur Schnitzler, because the way he portrays the main character’s struggle to reach out for some sort of reality, in a world that is slowly going insane.  The tension between the culture and the individual is therefore very strong, especially in his short novela “Dream Story.” For a man who kept track in great detail of his sexual experiences, he writes poetically about the nature of sex as it is placed in the context of 19th Century Austria.   So he is a writer who can record his times accurately, yet play with that information and turn it into a profound piece of art, that is an odd juxtaposition of being turned-on and horrific at the same time.

With respect to Eno, I admire him greatly, especially for his early recordings.  If there was a sense of passion and being adventurous, it would for me to be his first four solo albums, including “Discreet Music.” It can be either due to youth, or Eno just learning something new, but the way he used the sounds of the past (Meek and Paramor) to in his mind, something totally new, should be applauded.  On the other hand, it is a work that can be stale, because again, it lacks a certain amount of emotional care or landscape. L. Frank Baum invented the world of Oz, that is not logical, but it is a world that is composed of desire, a need for home, and therefore an emotional state of mind.   When I look at the works of Jasper Johns, I’m seeing how he use the everyday or something that is emotionally loaded, such as the American flag, and give it a fresh perspective.   But at heart, I think the true masterpiece of someone like Walt Disney is “Plane Crazy, ” which was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon.  Who would have known it would have led us down a road that is now Disney culture.  A world that seems to be emotional, but the fact it is in the business to look “emotional.” So when I hear the works of Paramor and Meek, I feel like I am about to enter a great journey.  When I listen to Eno, I feel it's the end of the journey.

Robert Wyatt Story (BBC Four, 2001)

Tosh Talks -Joe Meek part3 "Telestar by The Tornados"

January 26, 2014

January 26, 2014

As an older and much more mature man than I was some years ago, I am almost embarrassed how I acted in front of women with my two friends Roger Vadim and Eddie Barclay.  What we three had in common was drinks, music, literature, and...women.   When the three of us got together a certain madness took over, that wouldn't happen if we were separated from each other.  Thinking back now, it is scary.

There was a beautiful girl, whose name has stayed with me for many years now.  Jenny Colon, whose name I like to think is more of  a grammar issue than a body function, used to go out with a common friend of ours, Gérard.  Or we should say he wanted to have her as a girlfriend.  She sort of played with him in a rather cruel way, and when the three of got together we became obsessed with seducing her.  While we were sitting at the Taboo club, drinking what I think was our third bottle of wine, we thought of a plan to invite Gérard and Jenny to my apartment that wasn't too far away from the club.

I remember the three of us had an argument what records we should be playing on my turntable. Eddie thought of Jacques Brel, but I wanted something more ambient sounding - we finally all agree on Fripp and Eno's "Evening Star" album.  It was my theory that the pacing of the music was perfect for sex.  It was quiet, but there were points in the music where there was a subtle amount of intensity building up, which to my experience was perfect while having intercourse with a woman.  Once we agreed, and all three of us spent time cleaning and testing the sound of the recording, we cleaned up the apartment.

First things first was that we got rid of the chairs and tables.  There would be only two choices here.  Either standing up or laying on the floor or the bed, which was the only furniture in the room.  It was small, there was this room, a small kitchen and toilet with a very small shower.

Gérard showed up with a bottle of wine, but as he entered us three looked behind him to see where Jenny was.  I actually immediately left the apartment and went down the flight of winding stairs to see if she may be on the first floor for some reason.  When I came back up, Gérard was in tears, saying that he and Jenny had an argument before leaving his place.  The three of us looked at each other, and we just without saying a word, left the apartment, leaving Gérard alone with the bed and his bottle of wine.

"The Man Who Fell To Earth" Documentary on Brian Eno

Thanks to Greg Yermakov and Gregg Mann for noticing this documentary.

"The Roxy Music Story" Documentary

A great documentary with fantastic interviews with Bryan, Eno, Andy, Phil, and Michael Bracewell, etc.

"Fear of Music" by Jonathan Lethem

My favorite type of critique on a particular piece of art is the one where the author uses it as a subject matter - and then goes off into the inner world of that art work - or in this case the Talking Head's album "The Fear Of Music."  Jonathan Lethem tears into the album if it was a mysterious lost code in his childhood.  If you want to know about the making of "The Fear of Music," or what the band was thinking about - this is not the book.  But if you are either a fan of Lethem or just interested how an album can affect someone - then this is a mighty good read.  One of the better books in the pretty mighty world of 33 1/3 series.