Study Music

So today, as everyone undoubtedly knows, is the 461st anniversary of the Council of Trent! Yeah, I've got a mod-Europe history exam tonight... Therefore, in lieu of exam-time, and the different music-listening-while-studying habits we all have, I figured this would be a good excuse to share some music that helps me study.

Procrastinate:
• verb delay or postpone action.

Tried, tested, and truly excruciating. Knowing about the exam for 3 weeks means nothing, it's now the night before the test - cram cram cram. Spastic and erratic music fits the enchanting mood of hair-ripping-out-of-skull action, better than anything else. And best of all, it's actually productive. It suits the dire situation.

Calm:
• adjective 1 not showing or feeling nervousness, anger, or other emotions. 2 peaceful and undisturbed.

Sometimes that fragmented clatter progresses your studies so well that you're back on track. You've dug yourself out of that hole. There's no need to cram. Studying can now continue, but now at a comfortable pace. Sadly, the music no longer fits. You think of peaceful valleys and still lakes - panic is no longer possible. But, in an act of delicious irony, procrastination ensues once more, as soothing sounds enter the ears.

Repetition, repetition, repetition, until you're dreary-eyed and passed out. There is no other way. Well, that is unless you actually know what you're studying. Without an ounce of hubris, I'd consider myself a Peter the Great scholar. No cramming - I've got his foreign policies, domestic reforms, and cultural revolution down pat. And if those last few sentences come back to haunt me, well then, truly the gods are against me today...

NB - What I mean by procrastination music is, the music listened to as a result of procrastination, not the music causing procrastination. Calm music would be the latter.

Procrastination Music:

MP3: Big Black - Bad Penny
MP3: Brainiac - Pussyfootin'
MP3: Bong-Ra - Suicide Speed Machine Girl
MP3: Lightning Bolt - Assassins

Calm Music:

MP3: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
MP3: Jens Lekman - Black Cab
MP3: Tortoise - The Suspension Bridge at Iguazú Falls
MP3: Windsor for the Derby - The Melody of a Fallen Tree

More Procrastination Music:

MP3: James Chance & the Contortions - Contort Yourself
MP3: Pere Ubu - Navvy
MP3: Squarepusher - Rustic Raver
MP3: Venetian Snares - Pwntendo

Domino Records - Scottish Re-Issues

Good for Josef K (pictured above), they're the belle of the ball (the Scottish post-punk ball, that is). Domino Records just released Entomology, a collection of Josef K's work. I love them, have for a while, and they're suddenly getting praise and hype (justifiably) in the blogosphere. Well-read, introspective, and Scottish, what's not to like?

But Scotland played a major role in post-punk, so where's the love for the others? Thankfully Domino re-issued both Orange Juice and the Fire Engines last year.

Josef K had some great rhythm going, flirting with pop, but were never as dance-able and truly funky as Orange Juice. Josef K's label-mates, Orange Juice were plenty of fun. OJ proved that Post-Punk didn't have to be about the gloomy wasteland of life or unfulfilled desires. Just listen to that sax 'n synth combo in 'Rip it Up'. Also of note, Uncut Magazine declared The Glasgow School, as the top re-issue album in 2005.

Josef K were a sort of middle-ground in Scotland. They had rhythm, but also an edge. On the other end of the spectrum were The Fire Engines from Edinburgh. Their sound was brittle and cold. Sharp, piercing guitar and thin vocals. Forget funk and pop, this was edgy and angular. 'Get Up and Use Me' is all about twisted and shrieking vocals with alarmingly distorted strings to match. It's very similar to music found in the No-Wave movement (James Chance & the Contortions, Bush Tetras, etc.) in NYC. As a tribute to one of their greatest sonic influences, Franz Ferdinand have been doing some work with them lately, swapping covers.

Here are six (6!) tracks from the three Scottish collectives, highly recommended.

Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing [mp3] [buy]
Orange Juice - Rip it Up [mp3]
Josef K - Sorry for Laughing [mp3] [buy]
Josef K - Romance [mp3]
The Fire Engines - Get Up and Use Me [mp3] [buy]
The Fire Engines - Everything's Roses [mp3]

Bark Bark bark

I really dislike Malcolm McLaren. He's despicable, vile, and most importantly a manipulative greedy bastard. He was fake. He manufactured images for monetary profit. He valued integrity less than the money from last week's paycheque (I didn't get one). He was a businessman and capitalist, not an independent artistic producer. He destroyed punk's primary values in the way he ran the Sex Pistols.

When you allow the shroud of controversy to clear though, he's quite an impressive man. Following the Sex Pistols bust-up, he put his guile to use and took on a new project. Bow Wow Wow was formed out of a defunct Adam & The Ants (defunct because of McLaren's doing, which isn't surprising I suppose). He carefully created one of the most original and fun groups in post-punk. Not to mention an extremely unlikely cast pairing.

BWW's debut was the amusingly titled See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah, City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!, released in October 1981. Its bass and percussion runs wild. The album is raw, seemingly untouched and unstained by impurities. Looking beyond the surface reveals the bizzareness of the lyrics, song content, and Annabella Lwin's vocal stylings. The backbone of their sound (in the beggining) is tribal, yet the vocals (apart from the chanting) and guitar don't fit with it. Songs about televisions and such, it really was a fascinatining experiment - transplanting African sounds and rhythms to the West and mixing it with new-wave. I almost feel like I'm listening to Dexy's Midnight Runners when 'Jungle Boy' comes on. Certainly they did turn to simple synth-pop in time, but for a short while they were unique and progressively brilliant amongst their contemporaries.

However sarcastic it was meant to be, one line that struck me as odd, in 'Chihuahua', is "I'm a Rock 'N Roll puppet, in a band called Bow Wow Wow." Given McLaren's reputation, and having Lwin pose (at only 15) for See Jungle!, I'd be willing to bet there's more truth to it than originally believed.

Bow Wow Wow - Jungle Boy [mp3] [buy]
Bow Wow Wow - Chihuahua [mp3]
Bow Wow Wow - (I'm A) TV Savage [mp3]
Bow Wow Wow - Golly! Golly! Go Buddy! [mp3]

Post-Punk Mix [DAN 001]

1. The Durutti Column - Sketch For Summer [mp3]
2. Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag [mp3]
3. A Certain Ratio - Do The Du [mp3]
4. Orange Juice - Rip It Up [mp3]
5. Josef K - Romance [mp3]
6. Aztec Camera - Oblivious [mp3]
7. Subway Sect - Ambition [mp3]
8. Swell Maps - Let's Build A Car [mp3]
9. Pere Ubu - Nonalignment Pact [mp3]
10. Public Image Ltd. - Careering [mp3]
11. James Chance & The Contortions - Contort Yourself [mp3]
12. Minutemen - The Big Foist [mp3]
13. Mission of Burma - That's When I Reach For My Revolver [mp3]
14. This Heat - S.P.Q.R. [mp3]
15. Gang of Four - I Found That Essence Rare [mp3]
16. The Specials - A Message To You Rudy [mp3]
17. Au Pairs - You [mp3]
18. The normal - T.V.O.D. [mp3]
19. The Fall - Barmy [mp3]
20. Suicide - Cheree [mp3]
21. Killing Joke - Follow The Leaders [mp3]
22. Throbbing Gristle - Hot On The Heels Of Love [mp3]
23. Devo - Mongoloid [mp3]
24. Joy Division - She's Lost Control [mp3]
Length - 82:00

I've switched mp3 hosts to a private one provided by myDataBus, which provides 5GB of webstorage free of cost - highly reccomended. I've decided to start things off with the next host by posting a mix of mine. I posted this mix up a few months ago on my last.fm, but the download link has long since expired. These are essentially a roundup of some of my favourites of the post-punk era. There are a plentitude of artists that are missing and I'd like to add them on a future mix I create. Joy Division's 'She's Lost Control' was not in the original listing, but decided it was worthy of inclusion. Ian Curtis, Joy Division's frontman, is pictured above. If you're interested in buying this material, click the artist link which will lead to their last.fm page, which can be followed to Amazon.

Post-Punk Artist Du Jour - Thomas Leer

Leer was a DIY pioneer, literally making his music single-handedly in his flat. Amazingly, in his early days he didn't use a synth to create the seemingly electrostatic feel. Instead he created several methods to improvise for this absence - heavily processed instruments and extremely primitive electronic gizmos.

Private Plane was his first single, released on his own label, Oblique. It was successful, especially for a DIY, becoming the NME's single of the week. 'Private Plane' is very celestial. It starts off with a bassline combo'd with a scrambled transmission from a "plane". Leer whispers meekly throughout - so that his girlfriend, who shared his flat, wouldn't be woken at night, but hey, it perfectly fit the song. As the song closes, further bleeps and blorps are heard. Again, amazingly without use of advanced electronics. " International" is similar, in that it's a quiet exposé of Leer's vocals, but it also includes a great guitar 'n bass combo. While other Leer tracks are more experimental ('Letter from America' is a kind of mutant funk) and unfocused (possibly in a good way), these two are his most accessible.

Thomas Leer - Private Plane [mp3]
Thomas Leer - International [mp3] [buy]

Let's Take the Subway

Admittedly, much of my post-punk discoveries derive from Simon Reynolds' fabulous Rip It Up And Start Again - a nice overview of the p-p/new-wave years (1978-1984 according to Mr. Reynolds). I've posted a link of it on the right hand side-bar of this page, which will direct you to the Amazon UK store - definitely worthy of a read.

One such discovery that he pointed out was the Brit-punk group Subway Sect, headed by Vic Godard. Teaming up with very notable company including The Banshees, Clash, and Sex Pistols, Subway Sect were in a very true sense, an original punk band that would precede the upcoming wave. And not only original in the chronological sense, but more-so due to their uniqueness. Without stealing too much of Reynolds' findings, suffice to say that they had a rebellious punk spirit, but never overtly expressed it like their contemporaries. While the Pistols would vehemently make snarling lyrical quips, Godard intelligently crafted his music to defy what "rock music" was. Cutting ties with the past, starting anew, and certainly ignoring the norm, Godard purposely made music that deviated from the pack. Not to mention their style, strange antiquated getups, not quite meshing with the punks.

This all sounds fantastic - fresh and vigorous ideas from a band solely concerned with creating new unique music; new styles; new ideologies; new everything. This begs the obvious question - why are they unknown while the other contemporaries I've mentioned all rose to fame? Their single "Ambition" was extremely well regarded and sold quite well following a rise in the charts and being featured in several prominent musical publications. Godard was even hailed alongside other forward thinking punk champions such as Mark Perry (Alternative TV), John Lydon (Sex Pistols to P.I.L.) and Howard Devoto (Buzzcocks to Magazine and later Luxuria). Despite this, the band manager, Bernie Rhodes, also happened to be the manager of the Clash, and made no secret of the fact that Subway Sect were his second fiddle. As a testament to that fact, the band's debut album never saw the light of day. That'll surely sully any chance of success. Having said that, it truly mystifies me as to why another label wouldn't have picked them up and subsequently released the album, especially considering the eagerness of many label heads to jump on the punk bandwagon and sign anyone that showed a remote inkling of prowess.

The interesting thing to me is that Subway Sect were thinking ahead to post-punk just as punk had started. Godard's quiet rebellion which brought about his forward-thinking demeanor is an extremely notable attribute and was mirrored soon after by the likes John Lydon of P.I.L, following his breakup of the Pistols. Sadly, my collection of Subway Sect is very limited, though recently I've found a small source for more of their singles. I've included Ambition, easily their most successful work. It's quite catchy and enjoyable mainly due to its pop-twinged synth-line and light nature.

Subway Sect - Ambition [mp3]
Buy it from the Rough Trade Shops 25 Years Collection