[andy popp]

Cool. Apologies for some of last night's posts, I was a bit pissed!

[al]

I was a bit pissed!

ha ha, i did wonder

[andy popp]

I was a bit pissed!

ha ha, i did wonder

Mind you finding all the Brel had got me quite excited as well. Al, I've pm'd you.

[Will Hunt]

Love it.

[Johnny Brown]

Bow down, you curs.

Never mind his impassioned chanson, what's that guy's ape index?

[Houdini]

Ah don' wanna classify you like an animal in the zoo, but it seems good to me to know that you're homosapien too.

[Houdini]

Schwarzer Welt  (1982)

[Houdini]

[Johnny Brown]

We all love The Beach Boys, I think we can take that as a given. And of course, going deeper, we all worship Brian Wilson as the great addled genius behind them. But how many of us give his brother Dennis the credit he's due?


This festive period I've been digging Dennis.

That Dennis was the second-best songwriter in the Beach Boys was amazing, as was the band's failure to appreciate him as such. Bursting with creativity, this album is the result of years of songwriting, only a small trickle of which wound up on Beach Boys records. An absolute classic, and so much better than anything the Boys did in the 70s up 'til this point (with the exception of "Sunflower," which is another Dennis showcase).

(Copied from the ..beats thread, at Houdini's request)

[andy popp]

So is that album the best starting point Johnny? Anyway, here's a girl with a gun

[Stubbs]

Anyway, here's a girl with a gun

Sorry to lower the tone with much hated on French Hip Hop, but I'd always wondered where the sample for this came from

[Johnny Brown]

So is that album the best starting point Johnny?

To be honest I'm no expert, copied some stuff off a mate's hard drive. I think that album is his acknowledged masterpiece, though you can't buy it so will have to trawl the net for it.
His version of Forever is very good also.

[Houdini]

Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder?

Just put it on now. 


It has a nice Sunday matinee feel.  I like it, building quite nicely; Wagnerian, epic.


Anyone care for the late Karl-Heinz Stockhausen?  Abstruse proto-electronic material, he was a real innovator.  Recent Guardian obituary. 



Only in Germany.

[Houdini]

Crumbs Andy the conclusion to part 1 (op 12) is just out there.  Elizabeth Connell/soprano, divine.

[Houdini]

Schönberg Gurrelieder: very strong finisher, paces himself perfectly, even male/female dichotomy; on more than one occassion I thought I was watching Wizard of Oz.


On the classique-trip may I recommend Camille Saint-Saens Dance Macabre. 

[Houdini]

Fuck off !  I claim the prize!




Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.




Bomber -



I've got you by the balls this time, ha ha!

[Houdini]

You know the 3rd.



Just voices

[andy popp]

Glad you enjoyed the Schoenberg Paul, I'm listening to it now myself. I know the Gorecki that's about the holocaust, is that that one? I have been checking some of your recommendations as well, it'll be Knut Hansun next. I love the diversity of this thread, though I'm not sure the original title is quite the right one now.

[andy popp]

As well as the music being fantastic, I also love the way the Gurrelieder is like a big fuck off to all the critics; 'Oh if you insist, I'll show you I can do this shit just as well as anyone else'.

[Houdini]

Yes, good thread.






Dust this one off, eh?  Always liked Brix-period Fall.




The Shönberg will take a few listens to sink in.  Gorecki - think the 3rd symph specifically regards the holocaust; Miserere is also very sombre, but worth a listen.  Love to hear his 1st & 2nd symphonies.
And yet to find a reasonably priced Winterreise, but I'll keep looking.

Knut was one very potty writer - lifelong Teutonophile, supported the Reich etc..  Barking.  And Hunger is crazy stuff.

Look if you ever get overly serious/tired and just fancy an amazing funny unique book then you have to get

Here comes the big tip, people,
*Ducks low*



It's four books in one edition and it's uncommonly good, A1.  Arturo Bandini is the funniest literary character ever.  There were times when I was reading this that I had to put it down because it was too good, it would've been wrong to rush it.

To quote from the back cover -

One of the great outsider figures of 20C literature, John Fante possessed a style of deceptive simplicity, full of emotional immediacy and tremendous psychological point...    ...The Bandini Quartet tells of Arturo Bandini, Fantes fictional alter-ego, an impoverished young Italian-American who, armed with only a Jesuit high school education and the insane desire to write novels, escapes his suffocating home in Colorado to seek glory in a Depression-era Los Angeles.  This ed also includes the 1st UK publication of Dreams from Bunker Hill, the brilliant final novel which a blind and wheelchair-bound Fante dictated to his wife, Joyce.

[Houdini]

Restless Natives    (Dir.  Michael Hoffman '85)



W/Big Country soundtrack.

[andy popp]

Never heard of that. Finished Hamilton's Hangover Square, discussed above, which lived up to its promise; a rich seam of pathos. Going to check the Fante next - need to escape drear, desperate 30s England. I was going to give in to temptation at this point and nominate Proust but will instead for now recommend Le Grand Meaulnesby Alain-Fournier. Paradise lost indeed.

[Houdini]

You're doing the right thing; Fante/Bandini was 2007s saviour.

[Jaspersharpe]

You're doing the right thing; Fante/Bandini was 2007s saviour.

Looks good. I've just ordered a copy.

What do people reckon to Michel Houellebecq? I read this a while back and thought it was absolutely brilliant...



........seriously thought provoking, funny, shocking, unbelievably sad but ultimately positive....then I read Platform and thought it was good but not in the same league. His other stuff has left me thinking that maybe he's a bit of one trick pony (Lanzarote, Whatever) but I've not read The Possibility of an Island yet. Anyone know what it's like? Also, I've not seen the film adaptation of Atomised as I think I'll be disappointed. Is it any good? Can't see how it'd live up to the book.

[andy popp]

I know Houdini is a fan. I've read Platform, which I had mixed feelings about but which I liked enough to want to read more. I felt in ended very powerfully - with a tenderness I didn't expect from what had gone before.