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Steve Hillage has had a long and interesting musical life- part of the Canterbury scene in the early 70s, solo and with Kevin Ayres and Soft Machine, then Gong with Daevid Allen (and where he met his partner Miquette Giraudy, his and Miquette's 1979 solo ambient opus Rainbow Dome Musick, production work with Simple Minds in the early 80s and The Charlatans a decade later and from 1989 his and Miquette's ambient/ dance outfit System 7 with The Orb and Youth and he played a key role in establishing the dance tent at Glastonbury.

Steve and Miquette are not standing still. System 7 are back with a new album, Flower Of Life, out later this month. A single came out ahead of it at the end of March, I Want More...

Coldcut's Matt Black is present on I Want More, which starts out with Can inspired bass and then mutates into pulsing synthlines, Matt's demo the launchpad for a soaring, insistent, four- four track that began as a discussion about Miquette's early 70s film soundtrack work, specifically a French underground film from 1969 about heroin addiction in Ibiza called More (to which Pink Floyd contributed the soundtrack). This short clip provides a flavour of the film...

This is Pink Floyd's Main Theme from the soundtrack, a very late 1960s Floyd track- cymbal splashes, wheezy organ, skittery drumming and throbbing bass. The sound of what they called a Happening. 

Main Theme

System 7's album follows in couple of weeks, ten tracks with early 90s ambient/ progressive house grooves and synth sounds. The title track pulses with positivity. On Beulah Alex Paterson from The Orb shows up, crunchy drums, synth squiggles, a Mae West vocal sample and visions of fields filled with dancers. There are faster and thumpier tracks, full on banging psy- trance on Atmosphere and an Eat Static collaboration Transceptor. Penultimate track Bonjour takes us down, three minutes of comedown with a slightly paranoid edge that eventually evens out. Flower Of Life finishes with a System 7 remix of Delia Derbyshire Appreciation Society, Dubby Chain Signal is an extended downtempo/ ambient, chill out room delight that could be twice its seven minute length and not outstay its welcome. 

Echoes

I promised a post about Pompeii and here it is. Pompeii really is a most extraordinary place, a city of 20, 000 people that stopped in time in the year 79AD. Two weeks ago we spent several hours there- surprisingly for a Saturday in August it was fairly quiet too and there were times when we could turn a corner and be the only people in a Pompeii side street. Standing in the streets, on the pavements, in the houses, shops, baths and bakeries, is to feel some kind of connection with those people who lived there 2000 years ago. The extraordinary thing about Pompeii, apart from its size, is its ordinariness, its similarity to modern cities and to see that their lives were very similar to ours. 

There are pavements raised above the paved roads. There are grooves from the wheels of wagons that were making deliveries to shops and food outlets. There are stepping stones to cross the road safely. There are the large houses of the wealthy and the smaller houses and flats of the poor. There are streets of shops and the bakeries (25 of them) that provided the Pompeiians with their staple daily food. There are fast food units (thermopolia), their counters facing the street with sunken jars embedded into the counter to serve snacks from. The city of Pompeii feels very like a town or city that we might live in.

There are also the showpiece attractions- the theatre (the teatro grande) with its perfect acoustics, stage, backstage area and seats for 5000 people.

 

Next door to the teatro grande is the smaller odeon teatro next door, a venue for 1000 people, the equivalent of your small indie venue and the bigger medium size band venue round the corner. 

Those Pompeiians who could afford it decorated their walls with art, hand painted frescos supplied by local artists in whatever style and depicting whatever subject matter was fashionable and popular at the time. The survival of these, their colours and scenes is incredible (the frescos up the coast at Herculaneum are even more impressive). 

There are paintings that demonstrate the fun that could be had at the Lupanar brothel, for those with the  money and inclination. The women that worked there earned three times the average wage of unskilled urban labourer. 

And then there's this chap, in the House Of The Vetti, the home of two men who were freed slaves and made a fortune selling wine. The well endowed gentleman is Priapus (obvs), the God of fertility and abundance. As well as his enormous member there is a set of scales piled with money, representing the wealth the two men accumulated. 

The men who owned the house and commissioned the painting of Priapus were Aulus Vettius Restitus and Aulus Vettius Conviva. They likely had the same master and when freed went into business together.

At the centre of Pompeii is the forum, the public square (a rectangle actually) with the council offices at one end in the basilica and temples and shops round the other sides. Vesuvius looms in the background, the cause of the town's destruction and its survival. 

We wandered for hours, visiting the baths and the villas, walking up and down streets, poking our heads into people's homes and businesses, marveling at the size and scale of the place and how well preserved it is. The only place where access was limited was the amphitheatre- the floor was covered in chairs for a series of concerts being held there, titled Beats Of Pompeii, and with a line up including Jean Michel Jarre, Nick Cave with Colin Greenwood, Andrea Bocelli and Norwegian folk band Wardruna. It was disappointing not to be able to stand in the centre of the arena but in some ways it was good that the venue is being used, a stunning backdrop for any artist.

I've always been a bit averse to 70s Pink Floyd but their 1972 film Live In Pompeii has recently been re- released and it ties in nicely to this post. The band played songs over four days with no audience other than the film crew, director Adrian Maben and some local children who sneaked in. They had to pay local dignitaries off to get the use of the ampitheatre and had issues with the electricity supply. Floyd's gear took four days to arrive by truck and Maben spliced stock footage into the film alongside his own shots of Pompeii and the band. This is Echoes...

Is There Anybody Out There?

For sheer joy and exuberance in the pleasure of making uptempo music with new technology that allows non- musicians to experience the same creativity as musicians Bassheads 1991 single Is There Anybody Out There? is hard to beat. Built around a bunch of samples , the song started life with Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, The Osmonds and Afrika Bambaataa at its centre- not surprisingly some of these had to be interpolated or replayed following legal shenanigans before it was officially released on Deconstruction. 

The rap is a particular joy-

'What's this for a ceremony, hanging around?
We got to get down, rock it off on this shaky ground
Come on and spit it out your hearty-party moon everywhere
Let's see you people laugh at people punching out in the air

Get down to the hiphop be-bop-a-lula
You get a sound that is all coming to ya
I wanna get ya, I wanna teach ya
I'm gonna get this beat to hit ya!'

Is There Anybody Out There? (Extended)

In November 1991 the duo, brothers Nick and Desa Murphy from Neston on the Wirral, rounded up some mates and performed the song on Top Of The Pops when it went top ten- in another edition of Top Of The Pops that was rave heaven Bassheads appeared alongside Bizarre Inc. and Love Decade (and the previous week the video was played on an episode with Rozalla and the mighty Altern- 8.

More

I have a long standing dislike of Pink Floyd, dating back to the 1980s. At university between 1988 and 1991 a friend convinced me to give the Syd Barrett stuff a go and I conceded some ground, but on the whole I was firmly against everything else. I'm not entirely sure of the reasons- in the 80s they seemed too wrapped up in the whole compact disc, old guard, polished, tasteful coffee table, guitar solo world. I have never taken to Dave Gilmour's voice- it grates on me like fingernails down a blackboard. A pub we used to frequent in Liverpool while at university used to play Money every night at closing time- ponderous, over the top, post- hippy nonsense. What else irritated me about them? The album titles like A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. The Wall. The Dark Side Of The Moon (and everything about it's 'classic' status). Middle aged men in tour t- shirts and bad leather jackets proclaiming the Floyd as 'real' music unlike [insert band name here] which was 'made by machines' or 'played by people who can't play'. It all seemed ridiculous to me and the antithesis of what was good/ real about music. People would tell me to try Atom Heart Mother or A Saucerful Of Secrets or Meddle, tell me they'd be right up my street, they'd fit in with my love of The Orb and similar. 

I still have these prejudices deep inside me. But here's a Pink Floyd song (from after Syd Barrett left the group too). 

More Main Theme

An instrumental, experimental piece, very splashy cymbals and some wheezy organ, slowly building and atmospheric and then some driving drums, the sounds panning from left to right, some drones and piano and a guitar picking it's way in. Lovely late 60s inner space travel vibes. 

In 1969 Pink Floyd were asked to provide the soundtrack to a film called More. Set in Ibiza, the story of a hitchhiker, parties, drug use and abuse, director Barbet Schroeder wanted the music to be integral tot he scenes, not just the backing music. This was the group's first album since Syd left and  they worked it out quickly, semi- improvising and recording live to a stopwatch to match the length of the film's scenes, no overdubs. I still struggle with Pink Floyd but this is one I'll happily listen to every night as the pub called last orders. If going to a pub ever happens again. 

Life Comes In Phases Take The Good With The Bad

Back in the mid- 90s when the Beastie Boys were the best band in the world they release a run of albums- Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty- that were effortlessly brilliant. Mixing rap, funk, punk, dub, scratching and sampling with live instruments, adding Money Mark on keys and their own particular, cockeyed worldview- anything from science fiction films, late 60s/ early 70s fashions, golf visors, ramen, the mullet hairstyle, Lee Perry- they had a golden streak where it seemed like everything they did was a brilliant idea and that you were in on the joke even if you only got 25% of the references. Anyone else from the same period that could be considered for the 'best band in the world' title had nothing on the Beastie Boys.

Their golden phase was heralded in 1989 by the album they made when they took themselves away from Def Jam and off to Los Angeles and re- thought everything they did. Hooking up with the Dust Brothers (the real Dust Brothers) they rented a villa with a pool and the owners wardrobes, stuffed full of 70s clothing, and made Paul's Boutique. This album showed they were not the one- joke frat boys of Licensed To Ill and that they were not going to be one hit wonders. Paul's Boutique is a rich, complex- but- simple, layered record, samples from one hundred and five different records sprinkled over backing tracks The Dust Brothers had already created. On top of this multi- coloured, vibrant album where songs are constructed with split second timing, the three Beasties placed their three way rhymes, adding another layer to an already dense record. Not that it sounds too dense, it's all done with amazing beats, a sense of humour, innovation and a lightness of touch that draw you in from the moment the needle finds the groove (and this is very much an album that should be listened to on vinyl).

Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun is one of the most straight ahead songs on  Paul's Boutique, a dusty rock drum beat (borrowed from Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band and their song Last Bongo In Belgium) rumbles away for a couple bars before the heavy guitar riff comes in, sounding like it's on a turntable that is slowing down, and then the Beasties and their whining NYC rapping and smothered in echo describing the stupidity of violence...

'Rolling down the hill snowball getting bigger
An explosion in the chamber the hammer from the trigger...'

There's a Pink Floyd sample in there, the piano chord from Time, clanging away. The super heavy Black Sabbath rock vibes continue through til the tension snaps at one minute fifty...

'Looking down the barrel of a gun
Son of a gun son of a bitch
Getting paid getting rich'

A pause, then the drums beat doubles and a guitar chord crashes in- both stolen from Mississippi Queen by Mountain- and the second half gets underway. Rambo, Bruce Willis, Son Of Sam and Clockwork Orange get name checked and the crunching riff and rolling drums carry us through...

'You’re a headless chicken chasin’ a sucker freebasing
Looking for a fist to put your face in
Get hip don’t slip knuckle heads
Racism is schism on the serious tip'

The vocals finish at that point but there's still a seriously deranged guitar riff to deal with, circling down the plughole, before the drum beat comes to dead stop.

Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun

Time To Make You Mine

Credit where it's due- I was reminded of this by reader and citizen of Salford Paul Bob Horrocks and it's a stunning way to start Sunday. Rochdale's Lisa Stansfield remixed by Battersea's The Orb- ten minutes of ambient soul with a large portion of dub, beautifully smooth, slinky and chunky. Also quotes from Pink Floyd.

Time To Make You Mine (In My Dreams Mix)

Sign On You Crazy Diamond

...was a line in a Half Man Half Biscuit song. Not that that's what's here today. I'm not a fan of Pink Floyd. Most of this is irrational (or rational) prejudice formed in the 1980s. I watched The Wall and hated it. The sleeves are pretentious. The music always seemed pretentious too, too 6th form, pseudo profound. Their fans are... well, Pink Floyd fans. Roger Waters seems totally disagreeable. I don't like Dave Gilmore's face. And so on. In the late 80s as a student in Liverpool there was a pub we frequented, The Brookhouse on Smithdown Road, and each night as the bell was rung for last orders someone always (and I mean always) put on Money. It ruined every last pint I had. I still get chills at the sound of those cash registers.

However, as as been noted here several times, I do like The Orb. It's a circle I can't square. This came on a magazine cd recently, The Orb covering Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two). It's The Orb, so y'know, maybe Floyd can't be all bad. Can't believe I just typed that.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two) (The Orb)