Nitin Sawhney - 'Homelands'

Went back "home" for a couple of nights and a few hours... Home? I thought it could be here, my home? Can I choose still? Or are these new customs officers posted at the train's arrival at St Pancras a bad omen? 

I say you create your own world. 

I'm the last offspring of generations of nomads. I'm not going to let anyone tell me that should change.

Home is where the heart is. England is the home of so many sounds, a crossroad. That's why I love it... For the rest, tomorrow is another day and I still wear this little heart on my sleeve with hope and joy.

To the worst, I'll still have the music.



Nitin Sawhney - 'Homelands'

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - 'Longing'

I had been looking for this song for years...
Thank you, BBC Radio 4's archives!

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - 'Longing'  

Nusrat Was My Elvis

Listen to the programme here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02sx7jq

21 August 2007


Jeff Buckley was just one of the Western musicians to fall under the powerful spell of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - a Pakistani singer of Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music whose origins can be traced back to the 8th century.

In this programme Navid Akhtar explores the Nusrat phenomenon with the help of Nitin Sawhney, Peter Gabriel and Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja.
Part of Radio 4 on Music, re-releasing the best of Radio 4's music back catalogue.

#LondonIsOpen and always will be

My city :)



#LondonIsOpen and always will be


We are lucky to have millions of people from across the world who have decided to make London their home. They are Londoners, they belong here and they will always be welcome. We're getting the message out loud and clear around the world that despite Brexit, London remains open to the world. #LondonIsOpen

11/11/11

Track of the day...


3D & Vermona (Demo) - 11/11/11

3D - Vermona (demo) 11/11/11


Published on 11 Nov. 2011

Massive Attack have released this track via their Facebook in celebration of 11/11/11. 

The track is called 'Vermona', which is a type of German analog synthesiser, and was created by 3D, who's one half of Massive Attack.

November

 What a sweet entry into November here in North London...  

November used to be my "scary month", versus October, which I particularly affectionate for its colours and feeling of melancholy.

But November is the month of all these allsaintsday, remembrance of grief, loss and death... Cemetery and "dias de los muertos"...

But it did all play out as lessons. "Live and Learn".
Healing.

Have a beautiful Scorpio Season everyone.

x

Reportage : Le Brexit vu par les artistes et curateurs d'art d'Irlande du Nord

Cette semaine dans Vu d'Allemande sur DW: 

* Le 9 novembre, "jour du destin" allemand,

* Et mon reportage en Irlande du Nord, où les artistes redoutent la fermeture de la frontière entre leur territoire britannique et la République d'Irlande, après le "Brexit"

Pour écouter :

https://www.dw.com/fr/le-9-novembre-jour-du-destin-allemand/av-46196635



Le Brexit vu par les artistes et curateurs d'art d'Irlande du Nord

À cinq mois de la date envisagée pour la sortie officielle du Royaume-Uni de l'Union européenne, la question de la frontière entre l'Irlande du Nord, territoire britannique, et la République d'Irlande, membre de l'UE, constitue toujours un des principaux obstacles à la conclusion de l'accord de divorce. 

Un modèle a bien été évoqué, celui du "backstop", qui éviterait le retour d'une frontière physique entre les deux parties de l'île en assurant le maintien dans l'union douanière et le marché unique de l'Irlande du Nord, mais Londres estime que cela porterait atteinte à son intégrité territoriale.

Parmi les secteurs qui risquent d'être touchés par un rétablissement de la frontière, il y a celui des artistes et organisateurs d'expositions pour qui la séparation serait un obstacle majeur à la circulation des oeuvres et des idées.

Un reportage à Belfast de Melissa Chemam.

Et selon un sondage révélé en début de semaine par la chaîne Channel 4, 54% des citoyens britanniques se prononceraient aujourd'hui pour un maintien du Royaume-Uni dans l'Union européenne. Le sondage a été effectué en ligne auprès de 20.000 personnes dans tout le territoire. Il est présenté comme le plus grand sondage d'opinion indépendant sur le Brexit.

'I Want You'

#MusicHistory: 

A cover of Marvin Gaye's classic love song 'I Want You' - by Massive Attack Feat. Madonna - was released on her compilation album "Something To Remember" in November 1995, after a single release in October...

Enjoy the sublime and intense video:

 I Want You (Official Music Video)

"Remainer Now "

Email of the day:

Dear Melissa,

In June 2016 I voted to leave the EU.

It was a hard task trying to decipher exactly what leaving would mean but it sounded attractive – a quick and easy deal resulting in more money for our public services, more trade deals and with people enjoying the same benefits as they do today.

I thought by voting to leave the EU we would be getting more. In reality, we’re getting less.

In light of all the new information on Brexit and now with a better understanding of the EU, I’m demanding a People’s Vote on the Brexit deal.

It’s ok to change your mind, and I’m not the only one who has. We know that as new information has come to light, more and more people who voted leave are now backing a People’s Vote.

Are you one of them?

I VOTED LEAVE BUT BACK A PEOPLE'S VOTE

There’s lots of people out there who feel the same way as I do. If any of your friends or family think this way, please get them to sign up here. 

TELL US WHY YOU SUPPORT A PEOPLE'S VOTE

When it comes to persuading MPs, we know these are the most persuasive stories. We will use this information to step up our campaigning and make it clear to MPs that across the country people have changed their minds and now want a People’s Vote.

Thank you for your continued support,

Hugh Norris, 
Remainer Now 
Leading Supporter of the People’s Vote campaign

'Take Me With You'

These times are a lot about her voice:



Elizabeth Fraser - 'Take Me With You'

Music: Michael Kamen Lyrics: Alan Rickman Performed: Liz Fraser


Cd Album : "The Winter Guest" (Soundtrack)


The Winter Guest is a 1997 film directed by Alan Rickman in his debut as a director, which stars Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson.

*** *** *** *** *** ***


Lyrics


Your eyes are still closed Are you sleeping? Can I touch you? Would it make you fall? You sail in love through the sky When there's a close slips in between us Am I livin' your dreams? Take me with you. The night is still cold Let me hold you Drifting homewards Do you know how the wind blows You sailing love through the sky And I will keep you close beside me Am I livin' your dreams? Take me with you. Drifting homewards Do you know where the wind blows Take me with... Take me with you You sail in love through the sky And I will hold you close beside me Am I livin' your dreams? Take me with you. Am I livin' your dreams? Take me with you.

'LEARNING TO COPE WITH COWARDICE'

Great news for a piece of music history.

Mark Stewart was one of the first wizards of Bristol's music scene and definitely a key personality in my research for my book on Bristol's music and art scene!

Book should be out in February 2019.

In the meantime, listen to the music:

MARK STEWART

DEFINITIVE RELEASE OF DEBUT SOLO ALBUM

LEARNING TO COPE WITH COWARDICE

ALONGSIDE 10-TRACK UNRELEASED MATERIAL - OUT 25 JAN 2019

Press release: 

Learning To Cope With Cowardice, the groundbreaking debut solo album by visionary post-punk iconoclast Mark Stewart, is to be given a definitive reissue alongside The Lost Tapes, a newly discovered cache of unreleased material.

Learning To Cope With Cowardice will be released on Mute on double vinyl, double CD and as a limited edition double clear vinyl (with a percentage of the vinyl sales going to the Mercy Ships charity) on 25 January 2019.

Listen to ‘Paranoia’, the first taste of what to expect from The Lost Tapes, a 10-track collection of newly discovered material – smarturl.it/mark-stewart

Mark Stewart himself perceives The Lost Tapes as a document that now possesses a storied significance: “It was a real adventure discovering this forbidden history, a twisted tale of Muswell hillbillies, French pirates and a Dutch schizophrenic doctor doing psychic archaeology.” Whilst Adrian Sherwood describes these works as characteristic of a distinct primitivism: “[The Lost Tapes represent] the early childhood of the songs before Mark and me conducted frenzied, scorched earth, slash-and-burn, twenty hour mental, manic editing sessions at Crass’ studios that led to birthing the finished album.”

Ahead of release, Mark Stewart will take over, in true pirate style, the BAD PUNKshow with 'Learning To Cope With Radio'on Resonance FMat 10pm BST on Friday 5 October.

After disbanding The Pop Group in the wake of a final performance at a momentous CND rally in 1980, Stewart had grown disillusioned with the UK’s music industry. Besides working for CND Stewart had embarked on a prolonged visit to New York the same year, where he encountered a nascent hip hop scene anchored by Kiss FM’s Kool DJ Red Alert. Together with the sounds of inner-city construction sites, in particular the heavyweight impact of pile drivers, his exposure to the pioneering cut-and-paste of early hip hop represented an epiphany that catalysed Stewart’s daring next project. 

For this vision, Stewart and emergent dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood, assembled a core crew of reggae players including legendary horn player and alumni of the fabled Alpha Boys school ‘Deadly’ Headley Bennett as well as the ringleader of African Head Charge Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah. Alongside them Stewart added Charlie ‘Eskimo’ Fox, a drummer he had heard backing Ranking Dread, and Evar Wellington of classic British reggae band Merger, a bassist both The Pop Group and Public Image Ltd had previously shared a bill with. Other miscreants and affiliates added studio contributions to this central faction, including George Oban, Crucial Tony, Desmond ‘Fatfingers’ Coke and John ‘Waddy’ Waddington (The Pop Group) With this group convened and christened ‘The Maffia’ Mark Stewart, in his first ever collaboration with soon-to-be regular production partner Adrian Sherwood, forged a record that has to be heard to be believed.

Just as the broadcasts of Red Alert were interjected by the sound and fury of construction work during Stewart’s New York trip, on Learning To Cope With Cowardice the mammoth dimensions and ruthless rhythms of dub are ravaged by interference by way of industrial noise and plundered transmissions. Above the constructed chaos Stewart remains a commanding and mercurial presence, sitting at extreme boundaries within the mix and wrestling with themes of alienation, doubt, power, and political resistance. From the thunderous distortions of the eponymous introduction through the mixing desk sabotage and visions of urban blight on ‘Liberty City’ to the sublime subversion of ‘Jerusalem’ (an unforgettable rendition of William Blake’s poem) Learning To Cope With Cowardice is a blast of volatile soundsystem music for modern dystopias, the ones we knew back then and the ones we know now.

The backdrop in which Stewart and Sherwood produced the record was one of pressure and unrest, an atmosphere driven by severe social deprivation and unemployment, Cold War disquiet and fears of nuclear conflict. Exemplifying its pertinence to the temper of the time, the recordings that comprise Learning To Cope With Cowardice were shaped by sessions that Stewart and Sherwood conducted at the studio HQ of anarcho-punk outfit Crass, wildly creative stints that coincided with the riots that erupted in Bristol, London and across other areas of the UK in 1980 / 81.

In the severe dislocation and exiled exhilaration of Learning To Cope With Cowardice Stewart and Sherwood epitomize these turbulences, creating a disfigured and cataclysmic music that, as outlined by the theorist Mark Fisher, “captures the spirit of the times perfectly”.Preserving an astonishing sense of prescience – a trait identified in Stewart’s work by Mute’s own Daniel Miller - Learning To Cope With Cowardice is a record of radical devastation that still resonates.

Alongside this faithful reissue of the original comes The Lost Tapes, a collection that represents the outcome of a painstaking search and arrangement of previously unheard material. Brought together into a sequence of embryonic prototypes, frenzied dub versions and new archive discoveries, The Lost Tapes chronicles the early ideas and unknown stories that defined the outset of Stewart and Sherwood’s vastly influential work together.

With the seething assault of ‘Intro’ the collection provides a glimpse into a project Stewart originally intended for William Burroughs whilst ‘May I’ presents a never-before-heard spectacle of raw dubwise disorder recently discovered on an unmarked tape in an archive in France. Elsewhere there are significant coups in the form of ‘Paranoia’, a pristine yet tough alternate version to ‘The Power of Paranoia’, and in ‘The Weight’, another previously unreleased track that, in its forthright lyricism, reveals the vigour with which Stewart has, for many years, been committed to the Campaign Against The Arms Trade. Other revelatory inclusions include ‘Conspiracy’ the first ever collaboration between Stewart and Sherwood and ‘Jerusalem [prototype]’, a historic first version of Stewart’s defining anthem, originally aired at the fateful CND rally in Trafalgar Square that signalled an end to Stewart’s days in The Pop Group and initiated his solo career.

Learning To Cope With Cowardice is a vital chapter in the legacy of Mark Stewart & The Maffia, a project that would prove to be a revolutionary benchmark for many, from the innovators of the ‘Bristol Sound’ (The Wild Bunch, Smith & Mighty, Tricky, Massive Attack) through to the likes of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. Collected together this set realizes an expansive restoration of one of Stewart’s most audacious statements. As it was in the early 1980s so it is now, Learning To Cope With Cowardice is a masterwork of mutant design and a rude awakening of extraordinary bite.

Tracklist
LP 1 / Disc 1
1.         Learning To Cope With Cowardice
2.         Liberty City
3.         Blessed Are Those Who Struggle
4.         None Dare Call It Conspiracy
5.         Don’t You Ever Lay Down Your Arms
6.         The Paranoia of Power
7.         To Have The Vision
8.         Jerusalem

LP 2 / Disc 2
1.         Intro
2.         May I
3.         Conspiracy
4.         Jerusalem [prototype]
5.         Paranoia
6.         Liberty Dub
7.         Vision
8.         Cowardice Dub
9.         High Ideals & Crazy Dub
10.       The Weight

Pre-order Learning To Cope With Cowardice- smarturl.it/mark-stewart

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Listen to 'Paranoia' on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VYI-ATbIGqE

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Tune in to ‘Learning To Cope With Radio’ on 5 October - https://www.resonancefm.com/