Good morning, David Bowie, Diamond Dogs. 44 years old, and still confused after all this time. Birthed during dystopian 70s, dreaming of a 1984 musical, its birthday falls into a similar milieu (or worse). Always seems an autumn album, spring gives it a different cast. Hope? Maybe. Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)’s dark politics all too fitting. Let’s all be Rebel Rebels this Memorial Day!
Tag Archives: music
Good morning, Ice Baths, s/t. The opening track Freighter, all muffled mouths and warped instruments, wobbles forward into clatter. A great opener, and onward we go into the icey angularity of a past that wasn’t our future then, but could be, now. Tell then Paul sent you?
Night Trane
While reading Corey Mwamba’s blog posts at 3 a.m. about Coltrane’s revealing, yet mysterious, sketches of note/tone/scale relationships may not sound like the best way to wrap up an exhausting work week, here I am doing that all the same.
(Start here: http://www.coreymwamba.co.uk/rambles/1388150764)
It’s a fascinating music mystery. The first reason is because despite his fame, the length of time since his death, and the enormous impact he had on music, no-one is truly certain what these diagrams mean. Coltrane spoke very little about his music. He also died relatively young. Perhaps a smidge of racism? Perhaps. Considering that The Beatles were active around the same time, and the amount we know about them, it’s surprising how little is known about this drawing.
The other mystery, for me, is that this approach is very different from how I think of music—listening or writing. It’s a conversation heard through a faulty wire, where gaps of meaning come through the gasping wires at erratic intervals, providing a vague overview of the speaker’s intent.
That fault, is mine. The allure is still transmitted. One seeks to understand what lies beneath, the music muscle under the tight slacks of ignorance.
An ambient sound generator for the mind. A new box of crayons for tomorrow. A familiar picture seen from a new, illuminating angle.
Okay, John Coltrane. Your mysticism still travels the air these years since your passing. Teach onward.
RIP Jason Noble
RIP Jason Noble.
My suspicion has always been that this track was related to his illness. Whether it is or not, its tone is appropriate for reflection.
When a storage problem isn’t a storage problem
David Bowie: I Dig Everything