Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 08:34:35 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: Liz Fraser & Mark Clifford "Michael R. M. Cheselka" wrote: > > Seems like they are refering to Milk and Kisses, except it should be > out on Fontana, right? No, the report was of a Clifford/Fraser project, not the new Cocteaus album. Found "Ancient Lights and the Blackcore", compilation which includes three new Seefeel tracks, at the weekend. One long Scorn track, three so-so Seefeel pieces (one of which is very short), a recording by David Toop of a lot of South American Shamen shouting and shuffling, and something by Timothy "having cancer is great" Leary which I haven't got round to listening to yet. One for obsessive Seefeel fans only, I think. Comes from that well known nation of occult shamanic ritual, Belgium. -- Andrew Norman, Leicester, England // nja@le.ac.uk // 11/09/95 On my walkman this morning : Mazzy Star Find also in the sound a thought, Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 09:38:45 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: the real death of rock and roll Jens Alfke wrote: [Theological/philosophical discussion snipped] > > ObThislisty: While in Germany last week I picked up "Ancient Lights and the > Blackcore", the comp with Scorn and Seefeel. The Scorn track is nice, > rather more ambient than their LPs. The three Seefeel tracks are variations > on a theme and I found them actively annoying; little clinky samples looped > together with no noticeable bass or vocals. The Seefeel tracks sound half-finished to me - rather like Mark Clifford's contribution to the "Imaginary Soundtracks" EP on Leaf records. I hope he's not going to develop the Richard James attitude regarding quality control (i.e. put out anything you record). The other "side" of the CD consists of a lot of South American shamen shouting and grunting, and something by Timothy Leary which I still haven't got round to listening to yet - there's something about Leary I find oddly repellent, but I can't put my finger on it. Scorn don't really do much for me - similarly, I bought mu-Ziq's "Salsa with Mesquite" EP/album recently (EP price, 7 tracks, three quarters of an hour). Mike Paradinas has been touted as some sort of techno genius, but on this evidence (and I have another EP and some compilation tracks by him) he's just another chap with a sampler and a drum machine. Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:13:56 +0100 From: Andrew Norman (nja@LEICESTER.AC.UK) Subject: Re: the real death of rock and roll "Kent J. Vanderwaal" wrote: > > I read something about Leary having cancer and he is thinking of > an assisted suicide so he doesn't have to linger (there's a > Cranberries song in there somewhere) and something about freezing > his brain. "Timothy Leary's dead, no no no, he's just outside, > looking in", what a bunch of hippy crap. You know, the evening before I read this, I finally listened to the Leary track on the "Ancient Lights" compilation. It is every bit as bad as I had thought - run-of-the-mill ambient techno with Leary blathering on about your brain being programmed by the food it gets, and so on. And as I pondered on the deep significance of it all, I thought "I bet the old hippy has arranged to have his head cut off and frozen". And lo! it came to pass that Kent did confirm my suspicions. What a stupendous cosmic coincidence! Cryogenics is a big con, by the way - your brain turns into mush when it is frozen, and nanotechnology is still little more than a theory. Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 11:50:13 -0800 From: Jens Alfke (jens@MOOSEYARD.COM) Subject: Re: Softlights and the Black Core... "Ancient Lights and the Blackcore" was pretty dull IMHO. The Scorn track was decent if not memorable -- I have a feeling it's a very heavily remixed version of an album track -- and the Seefeel stuff was a bunch of pointless Casiotone twangings, even more sterile than "Succour". The Yanomami shamen were uninteresting -- I was glad it was audio-only so I didn't have to see them blowing hallucinogenic powders up each other's nostrils or later vomiting as a result of same, but unfortunately the booklet does give vivid descriptions of such. And Timothy Leary was lame, a tepid ripoff of Terrence McKenna's earlier and already damn lame attempt at druggie-rambling-over-ambient-techno. Avoid.