Now it’s a race against time. We have the rest of this evening, all day Saturday and Sunday but my lower back is not dealing with it all very well with all the lifting and all the standing, pain is constant – gravity is a sod and even Olivia’s young back is suffering. It was swim and shower day today and we left a little earlier so I could walk up there a little slower. Once in the water, all that lower back pain starts not to totally disappear but is certainly eased. I’m swimming pretty hard non-stop for 50 minutes to make that mile but I can feel my body relieved rather than strained. Just getting off my feet and floating is wonderful, all the swimming strokes and breathing are practised and I’ve trained myself to be able to complete my goal of 64 lengths, perhaps lifting heavy boxes gets easier too? A girl in the pool today told me, “You swim the front crawl very well”. “Thank you,” I said in response. But the relief doesn’t last too long, as soon as you get vertical, my head has great expectations, my body can’t keep up.

The boxes are piled up high and they’re heavy. Even the boxes without records in them have books in them and they’re also heavy. This is why you have to ship by container and not by road because with containers it’s about size not weight, whereas a truck can only take so much, like our bodies. There are four removal men coming on Monday. One of them has moved my collection before so he knows what he’s in for. I’m hoping he might be grateful that we can hand the boxes through the window and not have to walk them from the main room up the stairs, down the corridor, left out of the door and into the truck around the corner. Also because of limited access we have to have a smaller truck to ferry the boxes to the bigger truck parked somewhere else. The size of truck we need simply won’t fit down these narrow Cornish streets.

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On the way back from the pool, we always walk past this one particular tree at about the same time (7 PM) and it always has a murder of crows just sitting there on the branches, waiting. There are no leaves so you can see their silhouettes beyond the branches framed against the dusk. Ominous and even more so with their silence, the occasional flutter of a wing but mostly moody statues contemplating something we can never understand.

That’s it for the day because the rest of the day is filling boxes, feeling the strain on your thumbs as you grab the records and pull them out of the shelf. Taping up the bottom of the box and the sides and hoping it holds for its journey to Portugal. I’m hoping to make it back to Portugal in one piece too and eventually with this wonderful collection, create an irresistible musical environment to share – if anyone wants it. Which reminds me, Olivia went and bought 40 spare discontinued lava lamp bulbs yesterday – that wax looks gravity-free, like the swimming pool.

Genesis – Selling England By The Pound – 1973
Genesis – Trespass – 1970
Fotheringay – s/t – 1970
Hurdy Gurdy – s/t – 1971
Freedom – Through The Years – 1971
22-Pistepirkko – Big Lupu – 1992
November – En Ny Tid Är Här – 1970
Amon Düül II – Yeti -1970
Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine – 1978
Stina Nordenstam – And She Closed Her Eyes – 1994

Music Of The Daze

Great help in the archive today packing boxes from Hud and Aram, thanks, guys. It was all going so swimmingly well, Hud and Aram had gone and Olivia and I were continuing on when suddenly all the shelving units in the middle of the room creaked and fell knocking over another shelf in its path as well as the shelf behind it so we had a pile of records, broken shelves and CDs, a crumpled mess on the floor as if there had been an earthquake. I’m not sure how it happened but something at one end had been supporting the whole row and in breaking it all down some key supporting factor had been disengaged. So far casualties have been Allman Brothers Idlewild South vinyl, broken in half and Concrete Blonde CD single of Caroline missing a chunk. Some bends on some of the covers but considering the size of the disaster, we did well to only lose a couple of things – so far. I thought my fantasy death of being crushed by my own falling vinyl collection might have come true tonight.

Earlier in the day, Olivia had been out to pick up her boots from the shoe repairman who told her he was going away and she must be there before 4 PM. At 3.30 PM she got there and he was gone, back Tuesday, she leaves Sunday. Luckily I leave Tuesday, so he’d better be there. On that trip, she dropped into Supervolt, the electric shop, and bought 40 30 watt bulbs as spares for our lava lamp collection. They are being phased out, everything replaced by horrible harsh LED but the harshness isn’t the problem. The problem is that LED bulbs don’t give off any heat so the lava in the lava lamps doesn’t rise up. Who knew that Psychedelicising your house could be interrupted by such unseen and unpredictable problems.

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Orders are coming in thick and fast for the Arktik Lake – Shimmer EP, including in clumps from the record shops in Australia.

Short one today, all the precious hours are for sleeping and for packing.

Music today has been the usual list of random goodies:

Tim Hardin – This Is Tim Hardin – 1967
Tim Buckley – Lorca – 1970
Doris Day – You’re My Thrill – 1949
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited – 1965
Bob Dylan – Another Side Of Bob Dylan – 1964
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – 1963
Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home – 1965
Funkadelic – Maggot Brain – 1971
Funkadelic – s/t – 1970
Tom Petty – Wildflowers – 1994
Tim Hardin – The Best Of – 2002
Neu! – s/t – 1972
Sigur Ros – (  ) – 2002
Graham Gouldman – The Graham Gouldman Thing – 1968
Robin Gibb – Robin’s Reign – 1970
David Gilmour – s/t – 1978

Music Of The Daze

Arktik Lake have a new video to coincide with the release of the Shimmer EP on October 4th. The song is Promises We Made and quite coincidently was made by a human in Cornwall where I am right now. The limited-edition coloured vinyl, 4-track EP will be available next week to order through Bandcamp but if you are in Sydney, I just got a message telling me that Red Eye Records will also be stocking it. If we get any other confirmations of where it is available at other stores around Australia we will let you know. It’s only 200 copies and for those of you who don’t know what it’s all about, I’ll tell you one more time before Monday’s release. One of my sessioneers, Tony Rumble, wrote the songs and he asked me to sing them, one is an instrumental. Olivia also sings on the EP and it was put together between Sydney and Penzance with bass player DC at the controls over there and Dare at the controls over here (and some vocals too). I also play the lead guitars and acoustic rhythms, with Tony playing the guitar, too. The drummer is Nigel Macara from Oz legends Tamam Shud. I promise I won’t tell you all this again.

 
Hot on the heels of the first sessioneer project, Space Summit with Jed Bonniwell, we are hoping for the third sessioneer project, Afridi/Willson-Piper, to be out digitally only, in November. As far as Brix Smith, The Wild Swans, Jerome Froese and Salim Nourallah, I’ll let you know when I do, but Brix information is imminent.

Another full day in the archive packing boxes, tearing a corridor through the centre of the room. The issue has been space and we’re just starting to move a little more freely although there’s still a lot to do. Good news, sessioneer Fred and his wife are coming over from Minneapolis to help us for a week in the storage house in Wells! Thank you, crazy people x. It looks like we have the approval to bring all this stuff into Portugal without any fees or duties as residents moving to live in that country. It’s a result because it means that I will be able to take guitars back with Ariel, instead of later in a container on a big boat. Can I bring a VOX AC 30 too? Hmm, maybe, might be too big to fit especially if I bring a stash of guitars. I definitely want to bring my stereo, decent stereo system is a priority in our house.

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As it’s Wednesday we had to hit the gym and the pool so we could get a shower and for me some not gravitational exercise. It’s incredible how the pain in my lower back comes from the work, the lifting, the carrying, the twisted angles, but as soon as I get into the water it all changes. Remember I’m swimming a mile, 64 lengths non-stop but any pain I have from working vertically doesn’t bother me in the pool, in fact, it makes it better. Although all those lengths sound like a really tiring swim, it isn’t if you’re trained for it and I come out of the water pain-free despite the effort.

Big day tomorrow to carve another breach in the walls of vinyl. It will all have been worth it the day I open that door and there it is, alphabetised with Siamese cats.

Music today will be following the same pattern as yesterday just with different albums, so here’s the list:

Genesis – Nursery Cryme (1971)
Robert Plant – Carry Fire (2017)
Aerosmith – s/t (1973)
Free – Fire And Water (1970)
Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967)
Espers – s/t (2004)
The Doors – s/t (1967)
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust (1972)
The Rolling Stones – Aftermath (1966)
Concrete Blonde – Bloodletting (1990)
Kate Bush – 50 Words For Snow (2011)
Radiohead – OK Computer (1997)
Be-Bop Deluxe – Axe Victim (1974)
R.E.M. – Document (1987)
Argent – All Together Now (1972)
Harold Budd & Brian Eno – The Pearl (1984)

Music Of The Daze

Crashing towers of CDs, vinyl boxes too heavy for a mere mortal to lift, the problem of space when the boxes are full, breaking down the shelves, where do we put them? It’s actually back-breaking work and we’re racing against time with the removal men coming on Monday. The pace is also slow, mainly because of the space which means you have to get yourself into all sorts of angles and my thumbs are killing me from stretching and grabbing records and pulling them out in small bunches. We are having to work long hours and with no shower here we have to get to the gym and pool every couple of days to get clean, and that takes time out of the day. Aram came and helped today which was great because he filled a load of boxes with books and DVDs, CD box sets and the like. We discussed the difficulty of getting into The Dead and agreed that we liked Anthem Of The Sun. Seshes are on the calendar but today Chris in New Jersey and I decided that as he was earlyish that the internet might not work properly anyway that next week would be better. Jeff in Ohio also changed to next week but this time because it was chucking down with rain and the internet seems to get worse when there’s water falling from the sky. So trying to keep it short tonight so we can sleep and wake up as early as possible to get straight back into it.

As I’m writing the Kop are singing on Meddle and tonight was the night that Liverpool were playing in Porto, we would have gone, plus they won 1-5 – perhaps that’s why it was best we weren’t there, holding back our excitement as we sat in the Porto end with Porto friends. RIP Roger Hunt, Liverpool striker, who has died today aged 83, he was my youth and although I was a Liverpool fan, I never went to a league game in the seventies but went to one cup game against a German team, that I barely remember. I think the original reason I supported them was because I liked the idea that they had an all-red kit, instead of a different coloured shirt and shorts. I remember one of the lads in my year, Richie Stebbles, had a Liverpool kit, all red, great.

On a tangent, I was walking down the main street a couple of days ago and walking towards me was a young lad dressed like Michael Jackson. He had the shades, the pants too short with the white socks, the haircut and he was carrying some kind of speaker that was blasting out Jackson’s music. That’s a fan. In my youth, we didn’t have the opportunity to carry around some loud music box so that we could blast out Van der Graaf Generator but I do have an image in my head of the kids with transistor radios pressed to their ears, bliss on their faces as they listened to the Small Faces or The Kinks.

I was sad to hear that Alan Lancaster, Status Quo bassist, had passed away. My first experience of them was Pictures Of Matchstick Men with that weird guitar sound and Francis Rossi’s haircut. I was never one for learning the songs of the bands I liked. Not totally true, I remember learning Sunshine Of Your Love and tried to play along with the solo but I didn’t try too hard and never figured out Smoke On The Water properly or any of the lovely Jimmy Page songs on Houses Of The Holy. Everyone learned the beginning to Stairway To Heaven which guitar shop owners banned their customers from playing – again. But…I did learn to play the riff to Caroline and Paper Plane. RIP Alan Lancaster who can now form a band with Rick Parfitt with an alien drummer till John Coghlan joins them and another Telecaster-playing singer with a waistcoat or a dodgy haircut, there must be someone out there in the universe on the other side that can stand in for Francis Rossi till he climbs the golden staircase. Does anyone remember when he changed his name to Mike? Weird, I imagine he thought Francis was too posh, haha. His real name is Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi, he must have thought all the other names were also too posh.

Music today has been immense and the work would have been way harder without it. I’ve been figuring out how to keep the stereo going till the last minute and I now have the speakers on their sides on top of the boxes with a secure spot on the windowsill for the CD player, the turntable and the amp. So instead of going on about how great today’s music was and spending precious sleeping time doing so, I’m just going to list the albums I played and let you imagine what listening to these 16 albums in a row might have been like:

Badfinger – The Very Best Of (2000)
Alice Cooper – Killer (1971)
Frank Zappa – Hot Rats (1969)
Grateful Dead – Anthem Of The Sun (1968)
Bosnian Rainbows – s/t (2013)
The Nits – Doing The Dishes (2008)
Dr. John – (The Night Tripper) Gris-Gris (1968)
Mountain – Nantucket Sleighride (1971)
Jane Weaver – Flock (2021)
The Beatles – Rubber Soul (1965)
Jellyfish – Bellybutton (1990)
Porcupine Tree – In Absentia (2002)
Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn (1975)
Pink Floyd – Meddle (1971)
Quatermass – s/t (1970)
Harold Budd – The White Arcades (1988)

Music Of The Daze

Monday has come and it’s time to put records in boxes. Starting on the funk/soul/disco/doo-wop section, it’s currently looking like about 11-12 boxes per shelf and the idea is to plonk the boxes down where the shelves were, except the boxes aren’t as stable as the shelves and you can’t stack them so high, so space is an issue. The boxes aren’t ideal, they’re a little too heavy for one person and only just strong enough for the number of records they hold. Not quite a disaster but we’ll see where we are as the week progresses. Then there’s the question of where do you put the shelving? One must have the attitude of head down, do it, worry about it when the Earth stops spinning, the stars fall from the sky and the oceans are sucked into space.

One positive thing happened today, we bought the more expensive flexible tickets on the ferry and we called today to see if that meant we could change our departure date and they told us we can, so worst-case scenario, if we run out of time and can’t make our original leave date of October 12th, we have more time to finish. The removers are coming on October 4th but the last date of the lease is October 9th, so if we didn’t get everything done, we have another week. As long as we leave before the half-term holiday because like the rush hour, they charge more when more people want to travel for holidays. I was wondering how do they live with that? Surely buses and trains should be cheaper when everybody needs them, not more expensive. Why not try and help the public who already have to deal with the horror of rush hour and are spending their lives at work. Also, why punish the people who work normal hours? Say you work lunch in a restaurant, you might not need to be there till 10.30 AM so you miss the price hike. It’s not really fair, is it?

We managed to get to the pool for me and the gym for Olivia today. The archive has no shower, just a toilet and a sink. It was strange to be back at the old pool, the water depth is different, the edges of the pool a different height, so I was banging into the walls like a badly packed synthesizer in a box. They also only give you 50 minutes here and getting into the water on time isn’t so easy because the last crew have to get out of the pool before we can get in. Still, somehow, I managed a fighting 64 lengths, finishing my last link as the clock ticked over to 12 – it was like the winning goal in the last second of the game.

Olivia read some information about the Brix et Moi album, Lost Angeles, online today, I haven’t heard anything yet but as soon as I do I’ll confirm what it said, which was this.

The internet behaved today for my sesh with Matt in Brooklyn as it did with Brian in Indiana yesterday but both were a little later, I’m hoping an earlier sesh with Chris in New Jersey at 6 tomorrow will work, we’ll see. It’s so frustrating when you are used to an instant response. I know we should be grateful that technology has given us this amazing communicative invention and placed it at our fingertips and let us remain on the couch to operate it, but you just get so used to the efficiency and nothing else will do.

I went into some of the shops in Penzance today, firstly Rowe’s for my pasty, nice to see Amy (and Lisa yesterday). I spoke with Dawn in one of the charity shops and Jo in another and managed not to buy anything (result). I went down to Supervolt, the electrical store, because Dare told me they have boxes and packaging to give away. They had none left but the subject of lava lamps came up and there’s some new rule about selling lightbulbs and replacing them with LED lights and of course LED lights don’t give off any heat so therefore your lava lamp won’t work. So I’m considering buying what stock they have of heat making lightbulbs so my lava lamps can continue to do their thing. You just can’t imagine how things can develop into frustrating conundrums, unsolvable, your hands tied and your lava lamps dormant.

Music today has been another eclectic mix, starting with Pentangle’s Solomon’s Seal (1972) featuring some moody electric and acoustic folk with Danny Thompson’s brilliant double bass sound and style, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn on the guitars, Jansch and Jacqui McShee on vocals and Terry Cox on drums, it’s a classic in its genre. I love the opening track Sally Free And Easy, written by songwriter Cyril Tawney.

Next came Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1963) which I listened to because when I popped into W.H. Smith’s to say Hi to Pete, I noticed there’s a new series of vinyl and magazine that’s just started with Dylan albums and the collector in me had to get it, it was only £7.99 too (they did it with The Beatles a while ago). Now I have to find a nice friend who can pick up the bi-weekly or monthly copies after I’ve gone back to Portugal – hello nice friends.

Next was a Canned Heat compilation from 1989. After seeing the Top Of The Pops Let’s Work Together (sung by Bob The Bear Hite) clip with the dancers, it’s classic sixties style and I’ve always also loved Going Up The Country sung by Alan Blind Owl Wilson in that weird voice (he also sang On The Road Again). I think Canned Heat get a bad rap, there’s a lot more to them than a generic boogie band, guitarists Henry The Sunflower Vestine, Blind Owl and Harvey The Snake Mandel had the magic (as did bassist Larry The Mole Taylor). Then there’s drummer Adolfo Fito de la Parra whose been in the band since 1967 and is still there.

Next, over dinner, we listened to The Beach Boys‘ Pet Sounds (1966). We like to listen to the album, not just for its beautiful vocals and wonderful songs but for its odd arrangements, such an accessible and complex record, way ahead of its time structurally.

Next Olivia wanted to listen to King Crimson‘s Red (1974), another classic album, King Crimson as a three-piece with Fripp on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums and John Wetton on bass and vocals. It’s raw and melodic, experimental and beautiful, love it. It would be seven years before they’d make another album and then the band was a whole new thang.

I saw that my triple vinyl 50th-anniversary copy of Rory Gallagher’s debut album (1971) had arrived and although I’m not really finding the time to play all kinds of recently arrived vinyl records, my CD version of the album was at hand. Such a great tone and you can hear his heart on every note and throughout all his albums. I saw him twice, once at the stadium in Liverpool and once at the Reading festival in the seventies.

After mentioning Ed Wynne and his face carved onto the renovations on Wells Cathedral, I thought that a long-overdue listen to Ozric Tentacles‘ Jurassic Shift (1993) might be appropriate with earthquakes and volcanoes on the move around the world. Great cosmic jams.

I’ve seen Anna Calvi live three times and even interviewed her once for some internet thing I was doing when I worked at Pet Sounds Records in Stockholm. I wasn’t on board with Calvi at first but once it hit me, I became a real fan. Unbelievable voice, especially live and great creative guitar playing. Tonight I listened to her self-titled first album (2011) which has just been reissued on vinyl with different artwork.

Last but not least a trip into the mind of Don Van Vliet with Captain Beefheart’s Safe As Milk (1967). The Magic Band at this point featured Ry Cooder at age 20. It’s a nutty wild bluesy ride into the avant-garde, a fascinating mixture of the traditional and the far reaches of the creative mind. You must also get the CD version with its excellent mad bonus tracks.

Music Of The Daze