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ALTAIR FIVE
THE ALTERNATIVE GUIDE TO INTERESTING MUSIC BY MARK PRENDERGAST.

This is an archive edition.
The most recent issue is here.

RECEPTION

Hi. Welcome to Altair Five. For many years I've written extensively about new, electronic and interesting old music for dozens of publications worldwide. I've always tried to push the new and innovative through the staid and trendy pages of many a publication. Particularly in Britain the agenda is set by popularity or notoriety. An artist like Vini Reilly from Manchester's Durutti Column has therefore relied mostly on myself for any decent coverage in the British Isles. A little trawl through my background might help.

Born in Dublin in 1959, a year as auspicious for Paul Newman's stage notices as it is for William Burroughs seminal 'Naked Lunch, my semi-blackness allowed for a certain amount of cultural overview. Hence English culture was only part of the story, America playing a bigger part. Europe was the land of the Gods. I began writing about film at Trinity College. First review The Deer Hunter of all things. Then it was gig reviews for The Irish Times. (I once reviwed Echo & The Bunnymen three times in a row because every set was different.) The odd thing for Hot Press including a crazy 1983 interview with Noel Redding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience during a very stoned drive to West Cork where we ended up ditching the car down a ravine. After a couple of years of frenetic living I lived by the sea and etched the book 'Irish Rock' which to my dazed surprise became an Irish bestseller in 1987. Then I moved to London.

This was a hallowed ground for the English rock tradition, a ground I wanted to put my stamp on. Odd skirmishes with NME and Melody Maker led to my finding a niche in the electronic & Hi-Fi press. I specialised in the lengthy interview and profile with the likes of Eno, John Cale, Terry Riley, Philip Glass. I worshipped new music, or more specifically those people who had something new to say musically. This expanded to include ECM jazz, Windham Hill, alternative Rock (Galaxie 500, Opal, Durutti again) and more. Writing relentlessly led to my contributing to dozens of publications worldwide. The Japanese loved the Eno, Harold Budd stuff. The Americans loved interviews with producers like Daniel Lanois (of U 2 fame) and in Britain I did things on Stockhausen and new Techno for the broadsheets while reviewing new music for hardcore classical magazines. Titles like New Statesman handled my occasional rants at the music business in general. One article in particular considered why The Velvet Underground had been overrated!

Outside these collaborations on a Rough Guide To Classical Music and three Tangerine Dream and related boxed sets kept me busy. By the way Tangerine Dream are the most under-rated group in the history of rock. Each time a scribe in NME or The Wire (an organ which took about five years to catch up with my vision) write about them it is in these look-down-upon-your-such-a-boring-band terms. The recent Krautrock craze attributed to Julian Cope is utter piffle as well. German music has existed and will continue to exist outside the narrow definitions of British rock journalism. Look at the success of Pete Namlook's Fax label from Frankfurt in undermining what is a trendy cliched scene by releasing a baffling one album a week. The poor hapless editors just cannot keep up!

During the last year I've devoted my time to an alternative look at twentieth century music, a book which is still in progress. It is to be published by Bloomsbury and information about this will be posted in future bulletins. What follows is a look at my current listening. Records old and new which you should check out if you have a mind. Some have been bought, others fell through the letter box. Others are straight out of my private library. Whatever they are their music is somehow important, it has a visceral and emotional pull. Categories are for convenience.

ARCHIVE

Miles Davis - Live-Evil (Columbia):
I stayed away from this record for years because jazz-rock was something I couldn't really get my head around. An article in The Wire some years back about the artist Mati Klarwein directed my attention to 'Bitches Brew' , the 1970 double album which to many is the jazz-rock blueprint. I bought it because one day in Brian Eno's studio I noticed it sitting on his couch. Anyway 'Live-Evil' is a sprawling improvisatory work recorded in Washington and New York the same year as 'Bitches Brew' was released. Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Airto Moreira, John McLaughlin (on explosive guitar) plus many other jazz greats all play on this. The hallucinatory work of Klarwein is still in evidence - a pregnant African earth Goddess looks out at you with abundant power. The contents titles like 'Sivad', 'Selim'. [Davis's' name spelt backwards], 'What I Say' and 'Funky Tonk' will take years to gel into my consciousness. This is jazz at the furthest orbit of its possibilities, a music so different than the controlled scales of 'Kind of Blue' or the Andalucian scapes of 'Sketches of Spain' that it boggles belief. Put this on to wake yourself up from lethargy.

David Bowie '69-'73:
The year of Bowie's 50th birthday provides an interesting chance to retrospect. None of the recent BBC/ITV documentaries were any good. Alan 'yawn' Yentob was OK with some footage from the Berlin period. The ITV non-linear two hour documentary was interesting but too much Bowie and not enough archive. Top Of The Pops had a few video clips but what we really wanted was a great programme of video clips from Space Oddity to the present day. I didn't see China Girl once, his best vid ever and possibly his greatest song. Anyway one day I decided to go to Beckenham where The Dame spent a lot of his youth and buy up all his early records again. Obviously someone had dumped his entire RCA catalogue and went off and bought the CDs and so I snipped up a clutch of classic albums for œ4 each in one of London's last great record stores! I'd heard them all before, had some on disc but surveying them again was fascinating. 'Space Oddity' (1969) is a great record for the title track and the poignant 'Letter To Hermione', a folky dirge to one of his earliest girlfriends. Other commendations are the baroque 'An Occasional Dream', acoustic 'God Knows I'm Good' and the brilliant rock track 'Unwashed And Slightly Dazed'. Next came the metal rock of 'The Man Who Sold The World' (1970), a track which Kurt Cobain made famous on the Nirvana unplugged sessions some years back. 'Width of A Circle' is a fascinating outing, famous for Mick Ronson's rippling guitar. 'Black Country Rock' is pure heavy rock, 'She Shook Me Cold' Bowie's most Hendrixy/Zeppelin outing, 'After All' a ballad so shrouded in melancholy that you just wonder what its doing on this album. 'Hunky Dory' (1971) is so full of invention and spectacular dramatic quality ('Andy Warhol', 'The Bewley Brothers', 'Life On Mars') that if your reading this you must have it already.'Ziggy Stardust' (1972) is a classic, a must have in any record collection. Audacious in its conceit, brilliant in its realisation. A concept album about the alien Ziggy coming to save the world in the form of a rock God and committing rock and roll suicide. 'Aladdin Sane' (1973) has its moments, the lightning flash on the face cover is one of them. Mike Garson's piano is another. Highlights are 'The Prettiest Star' a track written for the lovely Angie Bowie (with Marc Bolan) in the studio, the pushy 'Cracked Actor', the title track and 'Lady Grinning Soul' for Garson's sheet like piano notes and the rockers 'Let's Spend The Night Together' and 'Jean Genie'. 'Pin-Ups' (1973) is a tribute to his '60s idols like Syd Barrett and The Pretty Things. It includes the sublime 'Sorrow'. I collated the most interesting moments on a tape which makes for fascinating listening.

A future note on the trilogy of incredible albums made between 1976 and 1977 in the form of 'Station To Station', 'Low' and 'Heroes' will follow in future postings. Just to say that 'Low' is the single most influential album on my decision to write about 'new music'. Its release in Jan 1977 literally changed my life.

The Byrds:
One of my favourite groups of all time. The cover of their debut 'Tambourine Man' inspired me to get cuban heels when I was only 19! Columbia did me a great favour when they released a spate of Byrds albums in new CD editions, super-bit mapped with lots of colour pics and extra tracks. They are being released in batches of four and if you missed them 'Tambourine Man', 'Turn Turn Turn', 'Fifth Dimension' and 'Younger Than Yesterday' are all graciously out there at mid-price. Next up is 'Notorious Byrd Brothers' (Columbia 1967) one of the great '60s albums of all time. I've been listening to this most of my life. All the tracks bleed into each other and are full of McGuinn's electronic glee. 'Space Odyssey' is pure electronic soup whilst stand-out cuts 'Goin' Back' (credited to Gerry Goffin and Carole King), the incredible Crosby anti-war song 'Draft Morning' and the famous guitar-phased wildness of 'Wasn't Born To Follow' is some of the best American music of the 1960s. 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo' (Coulumbia 1968) is good if you like country-rock, and contains a Brian Eno favourite 'You Don't Miss Your Water'. 'Dr Byrds & Mr Hyde' (1969) is electric tinged country music and is somehow flat on record (the new CDs aren't in my possession yet). It contains 'This Wheel's On Fire' (Bob Dylan) and the anti-racist 'Drug Store Truck Driving Man' , co-written with the late Gram Parsons after been snubbed in Nashville. The other 1969 album 'Easy Rider' is dispensible , in my opinion, but contains 'The Ballad of Easy Rider' another Bob Dylan opus which graced the film of the same name. During my record hunting I picked up 'Untitled' (CBS) a double album from 1970 which is one side live, one side studio. This will be in the second batch of Columbia re-issues later in the year. On record it's a humdinger, the weird kaleidoscopic cover doing it justice as a classic gatefold. Inside are great photos of Clarence White, Gene Parsons, Roger McGuinn and Skip Battin. McGuinn looks pensive in front of his Moog synthesizer. The live sides are extraordinary including a sidelong jazzy 'Eight Miles High' which is really different than anything I've heard before. The studio disc contains three incredible tracks- 'Chestnut Mare' with its mystical acoustic interlude of flying on a Pegasus like horse over the American landscape, the ecology song 'Hungry Planet' with its strange sound effects and the tour de force raga of 'Well Come Back Home'. What an album, what a band.

Spirit:
Another group to benefit from Epic Legacy's extensive re-issue programme of 1960s bands. Last year the appearance of their first four albums was a godsend. I've been looking for 'Clear' (1969) for years and here it comes in a picture disc with transparent pictorial cover and four extra tracks. The gorgeous instrumentals 'Ice' , 'Clear', 'Caught' are the right side of jazz-tinged Topanga Canyon psychedelia but the great lost track here is the limpid and mesmeric 'Give A Life, Take A Life' the first Spirit track I ever heard. Their 1967 debut 'Spirit' is a lovely record which includes the proto-Zeppelin track 'Taurus', a cut which Jimmy Page used as his inspiration for the descending chord sequence of 'Stairway To Heaven'. 'The Family That Plays Together' (1968) is really good, dreamlike and flows with much seguing and is heavily recommended if you like that just woke up on a sunny beach feel. 'Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus' (1970) is one of the strangest albums in rock. Produced by David Briggs on a recommendation from Neil Young, it took five months to make. Bob Irwin and Vic Anesini's super bit mapping brings out an incredible depth of sound. Acoustically the album is flawless 'Prelude', 'Nature's Way','Life Has Just Begun', 'Why Can't I Be Free' are beautiful creations and the way the jazzy bass and vibes of 'Love Has Found A way' break into the ocean-colour of 'Why Can't I Be Free' is one of the finest moments of West Coast American rock. The album ends with the same words it began "you've got the world at your fingertips, nobody can make it better than you". The melting photos of Ira Cohen are also a plus.

Todd Rundgren:
The prototype Prince. A Philadelphia genius whose Nazz albums were great, who wrote the ballad 'Hello Its Me' and whose eclectic '70s output paved the way for The Artist's dazzling output of the '80S & '90s. Rundgren's 1972 'Something/Anything' (Bearsville) is heavenly and essential. At a Christmas party somebody recommended 'Todd' his 1974 opus on Bearsville. I also found this in Beckenham. This is unbelievable music, 'The Spark Of Life' alone worth the price of entry with its synth/guitar soloing of extraordinary aspiration and skill. The old Philly sound is there on the vocals, lush production, the nirvanic guitar solos, the humour and the eclectic styles. Why can't people make double albums like this nowadays? Why can't people have green and red hair and get away with it in 1997?

OTHER ARCHIVE SPINS

1. The Graduate - OST with Simon & Garfunkel (CBS 1968)
(Thrilling alternate versions of famous songs like 'Mrs Robinson').

2. Santana - Caravanserai (CBS 1972)
('Song Of The Wind', 'Waves Within' and that incredible blue sun cover!)

3. The Rolling Stones
- Goat's Head Soup (Virgin 1973)
- Hot Rocks (London 1986)
- Sticky Fingers (Virgin 1971)
- It's Only Rock And Roll (Virgin 1974)
- Exile On Main Street (Virgin 1972)
- Rock And Roll Circus (Abko 1995)

(A great party band, a great listening band, a great band!)

4. David Bowie : Changes Bowie (EMI 1990)
(The hits and nothing more than the hits. Original 'Changes One' from 1976 plus extra singles. Essential.)

5. Durutti Column :
'Return Of...' (Factory Too 1996)
'LC' (Factory Too 1996)

(One of my favourites, these two records digitally remastered with all relevant singles from the early '80s capture a unique guitar genius extending the possibilities of English pop and rock into the realms of classical music.)

6. Tangerine Dream : Dream Roots Collection (Castle 1996)

(Though I wrote the booklet myself there is one CD in this five disc box which is a must for TG fans for it contains unreleased recordings from late '85 to early '86 when Johannes Schmoelling had left the group and before Paul Haslinger had joined. Hence the disc is rare duo recordings by Chris Franke and Edgar Froese.)

ASIDE - CURRENT FILM /TV FUN

1. X-Files : As the series progresses Scully gets more jealous of Muldur's flirtations.

2. Brookside : Best soap in the world centred around Liverpool suburb.

3. I Shot Andy Warhol : Incredible film re-creation of Warhol's sixties through the eyes of Valerie Solanas , the woman who shot him in 1968 and virtually killed him. Great music and soundtrack album to boot.

4. Crimes And Misdemeanours : 1989 Woody Allen Film about morality and the film maker's life. Best line has Alan Alda talking to Woody Allen at party and then takes out personal recorder to say ' Idea for TV show, loser makes films that nobody wants to see.!'

5. Mahler : Ken Russell's '70s celebration of the life of the great Romantic is still a must.

6. The Birds : Hitchcock's early '60s vision of the apocalypse is virtuoso film making at its most breathtaking. Tracking shots, jump cuts, frezze frames and the unforgettable Tippi Hedren.

7. High Heels/Women On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown : Almodovar's sense of colour is breathtaking plus he really wants to get into the female psyche.

8. Above The Clouds : Portmanteau or sectional film from Wim Wenders and Michaelangelo Antonioni which explores the nature of human relationships. Empty, dull, repetitive with too much nudity and not enough nuance. Some of the images are fantastic but some does not a film make. Check out the original story ideas in Antonioni's 'Bowling Alley On The Tiber' (Oxford University Press 1986) and wonder why so much of the fibre of the texts never made it to the screen.

MODERN

John Adams-El Dorado (Nonesuch 1996):
The fifth giant of American Minimalism has been promising to deliver a great album for years. This is it. Part two of the title track is seductive orchestral Minimalism with enough space not to crowd the listener but with an addictive developmental theme. His setting of Ferruccio Busoni's 'Berceuse Elegiaque' (Sad Cradle Song) reminds us that 19th century Romanticism still has a place in modern life. Adams makes Minimalism fine art.

Michael Brook-Albino Alligator (4AD 1997):
Canadian inventor of 'infinite guitar' (U2's Edge made it famous on The Joshua Tree in '87) comes up trumps with brilliant guitar based album for Kevin Spacey's new film starring Matt Dillon and Faye Dunaway. 'Slow Town' displays a virtuosity with sustained electric lines and Barney Kessel-like chordings which is truly magical. Brook's work with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and U. Srinivas texturally seeps through the soundtrack of what is a modern day western.

The Future Sound Of London - Dead Cities (Virgin 1996):
Three years ago Future Sound Of London descended from the upper reaches of MTV soundtracks to give us 'Lifeforms', the weirdest and most exotic Techno Ambient of the '90s. FSOL's music was made all the richer by their cyberspace image, computer generated visuals and lack of physical presence. A Future Sound concert was strictly down the phone line to radio stations worldwide. 'Dead Cities' is their second album proper and is laced with choral voices, flutes, textured piano and Asian rhythms. Beats of all description litter this complex terrain but the final result has an unlikely meditative urban quality.

Bill Laswell:
This man never stops. Once a great fan of MC5 and The Stooges this super bassman became a hit producer (Herbie Hancock's 'Rockit') but now puts out endless versions of 'collision music' from his 400 square foot Greenpoint loft in New York City. His latest albums are many. 'Axiom Dub - Mysteries of Creation' (Island 1997) is a collation of lengthy dub extravaganzas featuring Sly & Robbie, The Orb, The Mad Professor, Adrian Sherwood, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit and DJ Spooky. Another dub album 'Sacred System - Book Of Entrance' (Roir 1996) is a cool mix of Ambient Techno and reggae ideas. 'Altered Beats' (Island 1997) takes the Funkcronomicon tribute to Hendrix of last year which featured the late guitarists Eddie Hazel and Sonny Sharrock plus Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell of Funkadelic fame and hands the tracks over to DJs like Rob Swift, DXT, DJ Krush for a mindboggling double disc set. The best Laswell of all is 'The Dark Side of The Moog V' (Fax 1996) where he hooks up with Klaus Schulze and Peter Namlook for one of the best Fax releases for yonks. Schulze's meditative Moog style of the '70s is nicely offset by Namlook's Techno Ambiences and Laswell's ethnic music samples collected on his world travels. A fascinating excursion that brings you from the new beats of the dancefloor to the very outer reaches of sound. Record of the moment.

Adiemus - Cantata Mundi (Venture 1997):
Karl Jenkins' highly successful follow-up to 1995's 'Songs Of Sanctuary' is a better record which hybridises choral music and electronica in a fluent effortless style.

Trance Europe Express 5 (Volume 1997):
Put this on and your feet start shuffling to Ian Pooley's 'Picture Palace'. Supposed to be a mixture of smooth Techno with the current drum 'n' bass thing. A track by 'Funky 3' is pure rhythm jazz. Some of this is sheer madness but it displays a willingness to search for new sounds that is admirable. Includes new stuff by Marshall Jefferson.

Heaven Deconstruction (Play It Again Sam 1997):
Soundscape concept by The Young Gods which has ghost of Eno all over it. Runs the gamut from bumps and squeaks to those lush widescreen-Ambiences of the maestro. Interesting.

Sally's Photographic Memory (Volume 1997):
Tribute to photographer Sally Harding who died tragically in Dec 1995. A boxed set with 44 colour book of her prints. All profits from the double disc go to Shelter, the British charity for the homeless. Includes nice contributions from Opus 3, System 7, Orbital and Banco De Gaia. All styles differ but most of the musicians sprung from the British dance scene.

Aqueous - Tall Cloudtrees (Hermetic 1995):
Sometimes a record falls through the door which is so strange you have to listen to it. This has one of those mythological covers, heads-of-Greek-Gods-and cherubic-ornamental-fountains-shot-in-some-country-retreat-like-a- Bill Nelson -or- David Sylvian-concept-thingy, from the 1980s. Inside you get tracks like 'Leaving Alexandria In The Half Light Of Dawn' and 'Within The Dream I Awake' . Compositions are attributed to Felix Jay and Andrew Heath. The former is a pupil of the famous German ex-Cluster musician Hans Joachim Roedelius. The music emanates from Wavestation keyboard modules and a Fender Rhodes Electric piano, a Proteus sampling module for ethnic samples and strings. All is put through much reverb. This music is original because the ideas are clear. You can nearly hear what the musicians are thinking and does return to the simplicity of early '70s German rock without stooping to imitate. These guys need more coverage.

Modern Record Of The Moment

Dark Side Of The Moog V
(Klaus Schulze, Pete Namlook & Bill Laswell)
(Fax 1996)

Archive Record Of The Moment

The Byrds
Untitled
(CBS 1970)

COPYRIGHT ON ALL OF THE ABOVE RESIDES WITH MARK J. PRENDERGAST. ANY EDITORS OR PUBLISHERS WISHING TO QUOTE FROM THE ABOVE WRITINGS CAN DO SO AS LONG AS THEY ENQUIRE AT PHONE (LONDON 0181 299 2998) OR FAX (0181 693 0349). THE WRITER IS FREELY AVAILABLE TO CONTRIBUTE SIMILAR IDEAS ON HIS FAVOURITE MUSICS TO PUBLICATIONS WITH A GENUINE INTEREST.

This is Altair 5 signing off for now. May the force be with you.

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