Tag Archive: Syd Barrett


TOTALLY WYATT – A TESTAMENT TO FREE WILL

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August 10, 2015

DIFFERENT EVERY TIME – The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt – by Marcus O’Dair (Serpent’s Tail, 2014)

a wyatt bookI look for two things in a biography. Firstly, I like to learn something new and/or surprising about the subject; secondly, I want what I already know (or think I know) to be presented in a way that shares my enthusiasm. Marcus O’Dair‘s marvellous book scores top marks on both counts.

Based on extensive interviews with Robert Wyatt and most of the key people he’s worked with over the years, it is meticulously researched but never stuffy or overly academic.

The author (who is also a lecturer, broadcaster and musician) gives well-informed opinions but never seeks to force his point of view on the reader.

Robert’s story comes two parts – divided by the accident in 1973 that confined him to a wheelchair at the age of 28. Continue reading →

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BATHING IN BIG BLOOD

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September 22, 2011

big-blood-1373221784-19325Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella from South Portland, Maine were once part of Cerberus Shoal, as much a musical community as a band with a revolving and frankly bewildering cast list of members.

When the two made a baby together they decided to perform as a duo, record at home and call themselves Big Blood. Caleb says : “We play when the baby is sleeping… we just play music with and for each other”.

To confuse matters they are sometimes billed as a foursome although closer scrutiny reveals that Asian Mae and Rose Philistine are in fact invented names to express the alter egos of Colleen and Caleb respectively.

They have released an album on Maine’s Time-Lag records but the majority of their albums are DIY affairs, put out on CDRs with lovingly crafted sleeve designs complete with original artwork and handmade album inserts.

Brad Rose of Digitalis is among their devoted fans and appreciates what he calls their “Hypnotic screeching folk jams”.

Colleen’s singular banshee-like wail is what makes their sound so appealing to me and Caleb’s quavering vocals give her a run for her money. There are obvious roots in the old weird America but this is blended with an array of contemporary ‘new weird’ influences.

You can always get a good clue to an artist’s musical kudos by the songs they choose to cover. In the case of Big Blood you will find highly individual unplugged versions of The Cult’s She Sells Sanctuary (on Already Gone I), Blondie’s Heart of Glass, Captain Beefheart’s Beatle Bones ‘n’ Smoking Stones (both on Already Gone II), Syd Barrett’s Terrapin (Big Blood & the Bleedin’ Hearts), Can’s Vitamin C (Sew Your Wild Days) and , perhaps strangest of all, “Indang Pariman” (1.20.07) , a cover from Folk & Pop Sounds of Sumatra Volume I put out on Sun City Girls’ Sublime Frequencies label

You can really dive in anywhere in their back catalogue and be sure to discover strange delights.

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WELCOME TO THE FLOYD MACHINE

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July 11, 2011

Pink Floyd …..NOT

I have lived a sheltered life.  Last week I saw my first ever tribute band.

Emilia Romagna’s very own Floyd Machine offered an Italianised version of Pink Floyd live at the Rocca Malatestiana, Cesena.

Tribute bands are a relatively harmless way of celebrating groups / singers who have died (either literally or metaphorically).

Even if relics of rock are still performing they will mostly play infrequently at soulless stadium venues and even if you do get to see them (as dots in the far distance) there is no guarantee they will play all the hits. Even worse, they may want to prove their artistic longevity by subjecting audiences to new material. Continue reading →

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THE LO-FI STORIES OF CHAD HAGANS

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February 23, 2011

On the Syd Barrett song If it’s in you from ‘The Madcap Laughs’, there’s a great moment at the beginning when he makes a hash of hitting the right note and you here him saying in an agitated state:   ” …………look you know….. I’ll start again,  I’ll start again…its not …. it’s just the fact , you know, of going through it…… I mean if you if we could cut…* It’s great that the producer (Roger Waters here, I think) had the sense to keep this in as it gives an insight on how wired and fraught this recording session must have been.

Chad Hagans certainly doesn’t sound anywhere near as on edge but something in the intensity of his home produced debut EP (Morning Stories) made me think of Syd. This, admittedly tenuous, connection I made when listening to the song Summer’s Child where he sings: “Do you ever feel like nothing is real, Like your body is steel, As if you have no feelings inside your chest, As if your life is broken and it’s time to rest” while a  line from the song ‘Someday “Exhale the pain, keep yourself insane” could easily have been written with Syd in mind (but I’m sure wasn’t!).

Chad from New York USA (unlike Syd from Cambridge,UK)  is, so far as I can make out, a sorted out individual. This I conclude from the fact that he has the courage and determination to take the plunge and go public with this record. The seven track EP can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp.

The  inevitable lo-fi quality gives the recording a slightly muffled quality but his introspective acoustic ballads have a very personal flavour that I warmed to immediately.  He sings mainly of relationships in which there is as much anguish as joy but despite this the tone is more honest and reflective than deliberately downbeat. Continue reading →

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PSYCHEDELIC WAVELENGTHS

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June 29, 2010

In a recent interview for The Wire magazine Trish Keenan of the enigmatic Midlands based duo Broadcast said of their 2009  album : Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age’ :  “I’d like people to enjoy the album as a Hammer horror dream collage where Broadcast play the role of the guest band at the mansion drug party by night, and a science worshipping Eloi possessed by 3/4 rhythms by day”.

I was intrigued to see how such a trippy atmosphere could be recreated live so I went along to see Trish and musical partner James Cargill in the flesh at the Rocca Brancalone as part of this year’s Ravenna Festiival, the second in a series of four individual audio-visual shows under the title ‘Musica & Visioni – Weird Tales’ (other performers being Austria’s Fennesz, Mexico’s Murcof & Italy’s own Massimo Volume) Continue reading →

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