A year in music: eight random things
Best shock of the new (old) moment
After a ten-month Covid-enforced break, it took all of about 90 seconds for me to realise that live music still very much matters. There I was, sitting in the basement of Hundred Years Gallery in east London listening to Graham Dunning torturing various weird pieces of equipment while I gulped down a large glass of red wine, and … bam! Live music was back. I was back in the groove. For all of my lockdown fancies that perhaps live music didn't really matter that much, here it was - proving the exact opposite.
Band missed most times because of Covid cancellations
This was Hamer, the Yorkshire psych-noise band mentioned several times previously on this blog, whose shows in Barnsley and Leeds were both promptly cancelled as soon as I made plans to go. The curse of Niluccio - beware all bands.
DJing highlight
While my glorious DJ career goes from strength to strength in my head, in reality it's going ... nowhere. Having dished out years of between-the-bands stuff at the Windmill in Brixton (received with almost universal indifference from a beered-up audience there for the bands, not some boring DJ bloke), the Niluccio on noise roadshow now finds itself becalmed. However, during 2021 I did manage to finagle a few minutes testing my new pocket-sized Numark DJ2GO2 at a friend's artspace in the midlands. It was loud! It was exciting! And (to my ears at least) my amateur stick-some-tunes-on-and-do-a-bit-of-mixing-'n'-scratching DJing sounded almost listenable. Roll on 2022 and a sudden influx of interest in Niluccio on noise's exciting DJ sounds. It’s gonna happen …
Like the sloth that I am, my usual approach to most things is to doggedly stick to a certain path/tree, moving/climbing slowly, obscurely confident that what I'm doing is right and worthwhile. So for years I've stuck with Podomatic for my monthly podcasts. No more! No, 2021 saw a minor revolution in this department. With Podomatic getting increasingly niggardly with its data allowance, I finally jumped ship and have now thrown my lot in with Mixcloud (full story here). It's a disgraceful lack of loyalty on my part really. May god forgive me.
Second-most obscure personal technology decision taken
Actually, this should perhaps have been the obscurest one, but anyway … one day I happened to notice on Twitter someone mentioning that Bandcamp had introduced a function where you could compile a selection of tunes as a playlist. (Or had this always been the case and I just hadn't caught up with it? - quite possibly). Anyway, I kinda liked it and thought I'd probably start doing these on a regular basis. So far I’ve done precisely one.
Most notable thing done after hardly any prevarication
… well, after just 16 years of putting it off. Yep, I finally got around to sorting out about 20 old recordings (on minidisc) of John Peel’s shows. Part of my (gulp) 28 years of recording his shows. These were the last few weeks and months before his death in October 2004. You can read all about it here. To cut to the chase, and pathetic though it may be, "I'll be keeping it Peel until my own untimely death in an ancient Inca city far from home and with my plans for the following weeks left undone …".
Did this involve me suddenly deciding that David Bowie, Prince and the Beatles were all wonderful artists and that I’ve been on the wrong track all these years with my disdain for these sainted performers and my perverse interest in the Velvet Underground, punk and dub? Er, no. Nothing like that (such a major life-values reversal would instantly mean the end of the Niluccio on noise blog and probably mean a slow but inexorable decline in all my life functions). No, but I did - and get this - I did decide that Peter Saville seemed like a funny and interesting bloke after watching Grant Gee's 2007 Joy Division documentary. Yeah, that's the sort of re-evaluation that can turn a personal world upside down. Peter, Peter - I’m sorry for thinking you were a slightly pompous bore all these years. Let me say here and now: I like your shiny blue-black stubble (circa 2007) and please forgive me.
Stuff I've enjoyed listening to (in no particular order)
Cheap Synths, People Keep Sayin
Pat Thomas, Coming Home (Original Ghanaian Highlife & Afrobeat Classics 1967-1981)
Mikki, Itching for love (M & M mix/John Morales re-edit)
Mans, Mellow Magic Marker
Don Redman & His Orchestra, Shakin' The African
Death's Dynamic Shroud, Loving Is Easy
Bleekman, I Think That What Remains In Our Memory Is Not ‘Construction’ …
The Human Knives, She's Attracted To
Sweaty, Bristol
Swell Maps, Another Song ('78 Peel session)
Etran De L'Aïr, Toubouk Ine Chihoussay
Muqata'a, Al Maqtu’a المقط
Soft Walls, You're A Fool
Sound From Front, DB beat
Bobby Ramone, Rocket To Kingston album
Anne Briggs, The Recruited Soldier
The Honeymoon Killers, Kansas City Milkman
Jubilee Allstars, Don't Give Up On Me
Dignan Porch's monthly new releases during 2021
And there you have it, brothers and sisters. Quite a list, no? As we stumble into 2022 I have just one message for you - keep it random. Bye ...
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