After studying philosophy and being an absolute fiend for music, I was first encouraged into blogging in 2004 by Mark Fisher, whose K-punk blog created a massive stir and helped propel some of Mark's best and most important writing. In the meantime, I had moved from South Wales where I had grown up, and via the midlands for a number of years ended up in London. For a while making improvised music with the Eidetic Band (some stuff came out through Bo'Weavil). In the intervening time, making music and writing have been a mainstay of focus, while also exploring some visual arts techniques. Rattle Journal (edited by Jon K. Shaw and Tom Robinson) published a few pieces both fiction and otherwise, musically, the focus went to recording written songs to make available and more recently live performance with the Fear of Fluffing improvising artist collective of Hackney Wick. Solo work as Solar Violet https://solarviolet.bandcamp.com
(AR 2022)
Partly what’s brilliant about Denis Villeneuve’s Dune is in how it takes human cultural artifacts and practises and bends them outwards to a space where their location as futural becomes entirely believable. What the film also has in its favour is that it has a fascinating clarity and purity in telling story in the most […]
A friend (R. Sutherland) mentioned this band he was due to see recently Beak〉and upon quick encounter it was immediately apparent to me that this is a high, high quality sonic outfit. The first track from them I came across was the sleekly brilliant ‘Oh Know’ (below), which also happens to have a fantastically discombobulating […]
For seventeen years between 1990 and 2007 BBC Radio 3 had a very extraordinary show called Mixing It on air that was broadcast once a week and featured the most interesting music of the time which had an experimental bent. A poppier sound or edge was never unwelcome and yet routinely there was an edge […]
Been really enjoying Dom Whiting’s mobile Drum and Bass sets recently, they’ve been catching fire on YT and are a rare treat. Dom is clearly riding a rising wave and its interesting that Drum and Bass is part of the equation. ‘This one’s a banger’ In part it helps to see where Drum and Bass […]
There were times growing up, when I was quite hooked to the tv, specifically the children’s programmes that would be after school. At other times I was very much an outdoor child, particularly when we moved to Pontarddulais when I was 8, a village-becoming-town (much more so now) situated in a valley to the north […]
Why did the series do so well…? It was strange. This was a question talk show host Larry King once asked the actor David Carradine – star of the series Kung Fu, consisting of three seasons broadcast between 1972 and 1975, it had a pronounced impact and was an international success. The story of Kwai […]
An untimely river, ‘Near Wild Heaven’ and Synecdoche New York (2008) Part 1 For a number of years, I hadn’t listened to R.E.M. much if at all. I came across Stipe’s performance a few years ago on late night American TV in remembrance of David Bowie, a solo sung version (above) of ‘The Man Who […]
This sketch from US Comedian Dave Chappelle’s show – which ran from 2003 to 2006 on Comedy Central is a gem. Its a very simple idea, a switch of cultural context and image in the portrayal of the US justice system’s different approach to white collar (white) criminals and drugs related, black criminals. Amazing in […]
Nature, traps and escape in songs from R.E.M.’s ‘Green’ album (1988) Like many people 1991 was when I first heard R.E.M. spearheaded into my consciousness via breakthrough single ‘Losing My Religion’, a song that blasted the band into the mainstream. While there had been early TV appearances, they were part of an alternative rock scene […]
Gruff Rhys, former front man with Super Furry animals has a new solo album coming tomorrow! (21st May) ‘Seeking New Gods’ and there’s a really lovely tune from that at the end of this piece. I’ve followed Gruff’s work in and out, from the wonderful ‘American Interior‘ from 2014 the lead song of which certainly […]
While not having much of a history of watching videos of this kind, I have recently seen some very interesting (and very different) recordings of ‘timelapse builds’ in the wild or outdoors, which lead out to a couple of interview videos where people are living with permaculture (in one instance) in a cob built house […]
A little while back this section of the Guardian featuring Sleaford Mods‘ Jason Williamson’s Cultural highlights caught my attention, especially his praise for the 2017 album ‘Party’ by singer songwriter Aldous Harding (Hannah Sian Topp of New Zealand). It led to seeing a couple of Harding’s videos and the fascinating way that dance is used […]
I’ve touched before on the use of electronic music in film soundtrack, something which at its best generates a sense of possibility for feeling and experiencing that takes the mergent synthesis (moving images and sound) to a different kind of place. Of course this can be said for all the best productions in this area […]
By way of Jay Griffiths, Wes Anderson, Rosie Swale Pope I’ve been working on an album of songs under the name Solar Violet for a number of years and the sound element has been finished for a good while now. While the album has been mastered by the peerless James Dunn of Cafe Oto, there […]
Following the last post, John Brown (Bass Player and 3D animator) sent this video through from Youtuber Ogmios and it is such a treat. Partly a car based exploration of parts of North London, with its unique socio-cultural communities and partly a meditation on road etiquette. It is a reminder that it is possible to […]
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