Colour Television

 

As we are nearing the end of the year which gifted us the numerous effects of the MAGA Movement's Project 2025, I thought we could revisit this.

Before we continue, perhaps a little palate cleanser from all that fair use library electronic music with actual good one could be of benefit.

During this Expo, up to 6000 concerts were given and more than 130 contemporary music compositions were commissioned. This one is notably the most emblematic of them all. This composition's title was also the name given to the overall theme of the whole affair.

You will notice in the thumbnail the stabile installation Trois disques by Alexander Calder.

The links provided by Nour Symoun in the youtube description of the musical composition Terre des hommes could also be completed by this article to figure out a bit more about what the fuck Michèle Lalonde's poem libretto was about.

If operating a translation of that article should prove to be too arduous, let's just say that several of the themes and concerns included in Terre des hommes (Land of Men) can be somewhat found in this movie, too: 

Iannis Xenakis also had one of his famous Polytope multimedia installations.

Of course, L'Infonie was also born at the Expo. Here playing their interpretation of Terry Riley's classic In C. It will be added to a reissue of Terry's first album in 1998.

But why was the compound of The Fishes located in Canterbury in Children of Men?

The day Daevid Allen died, my friend Xilèf was playing at La Passe. At some point, Raphaël Foisy-Couture started playing a bass motif from Gong's You Can't Kill Me.

See if you can spot that motif.

Later on, Xilèf will add on the head of the composition of Ornette Coleman's Lonely Woman. A little more than a year later, Gilli Smyth will join Daevid.

The Infoniaques were writing their names backward, and since Félix-Antoine started doing music with Yug Niuoht (Guy Thouin) as part of the heArt Ensemble, I started calling him Xilèf.

In a previous apartment of his, Xilèf had set up a row of movie theater seats he had salvaged from some defunct venue. With a pull down projector screen large enough to cover an entire wall and a digital video projector plugged into a computer, Xilèf would host events for whomever vivid enough friends might still care to join him. In the company of Raphaël, we watched this movie:

But we have to move on...

Speaking of Damon Albarn's Africa Express, this organization came about as a frustrated reaction to the Live 8 worldwide charity concert of 2005 (that time Pink Floyd reunited).

Here's a fabulous sample from the Africa Express most recent release.

If I remember correctly, when Fly Pan Am played in New York City in 2004, my friend Eric Gingras told me that a yellow-fluorescent-jumpsuit-wearing Tony Conrad approached them after the concert, bouncing around and shouting "Lots of fun ! Lots of fun!"

What John Cale said about using asthma inhalers to make methamphetamine, that's how Kerouac wrote On the Road. You would open the inhaler and take out a specific sheet wrapping the interior, dip it in liquid and drink it. Something to that nature... I'm not an expert in that sort of ugly narcotics.

I used to own a vinyl copy of this.

I have only been to Île Sainte-Hélène on three occasions. Twice as a kid (for La Ronde) and much later in life to attend this open-air concert (the higher I ever payed: 65$... go fuck yourself Taylor Swift and Ticketmaster).

La Ronde holds firework events and this concert was no exception, displayed right behind the stage (you'll fully hear them pop). We also sang happy birthday to Björk's friend Sjón (you know about his old 1970s neo-surrealist collective Medusa, right?). The guys from the Matmos duo were also there (and Björk did make them step on that snow-looking thing for the concrète sound effects during Aurora) and the awesome Zeena Parkins on harp, too. Completing the lineup for this Greatest Hits tour date was Leila Arab on keyboards.

The only comment Belinda made for the whole concert was when the song Pluto began. "I knew she would play this one", she said, with sparks in her eyes... and in the sky. It was pretty grand.

Sorry for the crappy audio noise reduction the fan heavily used on this recording, creating this haloing buzzing sound throughout.

(For more pictures and info)

Leila featuring the late Terry Hall (The Specials).

I saw Björk with Belinda, our friend Roseline and her friend/roommate whom I completely forget her name at the moment, unfortunately.

On Roseline's birthday, we saw Eric at FIMAV. I have a Le Navire «Night» recording of the radio broadcast and if I can just find a tape deck I'll properly digitize it someday. Meanwhile, here's another fan bootleg recording.

For this special festival event, Fly Pan Am were accompanied (offstage) by Jon Asencio on loops and tapes, with Tim Hecker "Live processing" the whole thing back inside the hall (and I bet all of that sounds far clearer and better from the radio broadcast).

The embedded player above features 10 tracks. If you press on the tiny Greek Temple logo (at the acropolis of internet's documents open access), it will open the site's designated webpage in another window for your informational delight. You will also be able to download FLAC files of the concert over there, if you prefer.

If flying is not your thing, perhaps ride the Neurotrain.

From the still existing webpage of the missing-in-action Le Navire «Night». There hasn't been anything to replace this show since Radio-Canada pulled the plug on it in 2004.

Speaking of Tim Hecker playing hidden behind gauze at Madison Square Garden (for that Sigur Rós event), I was at the following concert. Tony Conrad often played behind a curtain.

That was the first part of that show. Than Fly Pan Am's labelmates (Constellation Records) Hangedup came on stage and played their set. Lastly, we have the third act right here:

Many thanks to Eric Craven (that's the drummer) for uploading this to his youtube channel.

If we are to talk about obscure Bologna music, I brought Eric Gingras to a concert of the mini-festival Ragù Boréal at Théâtre La Chapelle in November 2002.

This was an encounter between Jean Derome (Ambiances Magnétiques, Montréal) and Andrea Martignoni (Laboratorio Di Musica & Immagine, Bologna) on the 14th. In full bliss, Eric told me this was another one of those sacred psychotronic enterprises he was happy to have witnessed. It was followed by Paolo Angeli and his famous prepared sardinian guitar.

Our poor Bad Movies reviewer couldn't tell the difference between an harmonica and a theremin when speaking about the psychotronic energy.

The following day with Belinda, we went to hear the encounter between Bernard Falaise (electric guitar) and Jean René (viola), for our Ambiances Magnétiques half, and the duo I Gastronauti with Mirko Sabatini (drums, prepared drums and electronics) and Vincenzo Vasi (electric bass, theremin) of the Collettivo BasseSfere. 

Apparently, Mirko decided to go live in a "primitive hut" with his wife and son, in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The stuff you end up learning while assembling this blog...

For context, the very first sound you will hear is Mirko standing 5 meters away from the table where all his electronics are set up. By clapping his hands together, a small microphone will send that signal to a laptop triggering it to remotely record a sample - the shout Mirko did almost simultaneously as he clapped - and automatically play that sample on a loop to start improvising around.

Excerpts from radio recordings I did digitize, many years ago, after my break up with Belinda. So many concerts I attended were eventually broadcasted by Radio-Canada.

You may slowly absorb the project Maritime Rites by Alvin Curran, as we've completed this portion of our island exploration.

There are 20 tracks in the Maritime Rites playlist below. It's a double-CD package. You should be aware that each compositions/improvisations have a intro presentation track that goes with them which, for some reason, are all assembled at the end of each CDs (the programme introduction for track 1 is track 7 in the playlist, and so on). You should listen to the introductions first then hopscotch to their respective musical pieces.

Or alternatively: follow the link right here, where you can reorder the tracks manually.

Here's an exclusive Surrealdom deluxe video tutorial on how to:

Or like I suggested, take your time... Read the liner notes and go listen to one composition at a time, go back for the rest of the liner notes and so on... Learn how to listen less passively, you know.

And since we're right in there, you might as well watch the documentary In the Ocean.

Like Belinda and Eric, Roseline was also a former L'Échange employee. Knowing that I attended a shitload amount of contemporary and avant-garde music concerts, she once asked me to be on the lookout for any performance of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3.

About 2 months after this, I saw there was going to be one at some church (Église Saint-Jean Baptiste on the corner of avenue Henri-Julien and Rachel street east), and that it was going to be free. That would be our first time hanging out just the two of us.

I also brought her to St. Kevin's Parish on Côte-des-Neiges for a fundraiser at one of the community organizations I helped while working for Moisson Montréal (the church had a food-relief program... as long as churches had proper logistics and were not forcing any form of parish attendance or mandatory prayers onto people coming to them for help, keeping both activities fully separate, MM would supply such agencies). So I took Roseline in that basement at St. Kevin for an evening of children gospel singing and Jamaican food. No one else sets up an evening like I do.

Obviously, we didn't got to have Portishead's singer when we went to Górecki's performance, nor was the orchestra directed by Krzysztof 'fucking' Penderecki.

Don't you just love all the speculations around the reasons why David Lynch used his Threnody for the Trinity nuclear test scene in Twin Peaks. Many were just clueless (firstly because average viewers don't know shit about contemporary classical music, don't listen to it, don't know it exists) and don't know the story behind the composition. The amount of people only acknowledging this genre of music strictly as horror movie film scores always remains quite staggering (after all this time, motherfuckers will even hear avant-garde jazz for the first time and wonder what the fuck is going on... or anytime music leaves familiar structures, somebody must have smoked a little something because such music creation would be inconceivable otherwise... "I'm telling you, Jimi Hendrix wore a bandana because he would make an incision on his forehead and put a tab of LSD directly in it before getting onstage").

You can even read in a few places that some authors claim that Penderecki was somehow forced to change the title of his composition by the Communist Party, to align it more appropriately for cultural propaganda purposes. Which is bullshit.

Sure. This music will sometimes depict horrors. But a music exclusively created to serve as support for horror depictions in movies?

That brilliant vocal performance of King George III was by Mr. Julius Eastman.

In October 2011, I attended Laurie Anderson's Delusion solo performance at Usine C (opening a performance space in a converted jam factory was also brilliant). 

Since 1992, Laurie was in a romantic relationship with Lou Reed. When you're the guy...

 

Did you know that the entire province of Québec uses hydroelectricity exclusively? Consumers don't have to shop around for their power provider and none of it is produced through nuclear fission. Hydro-Québec is a nationalized company owned by the Government of Québec. It even exports some of it to the New York State.

Have you seen the documentary How to Power a City?

Fermi 1

Basically, instead of privatizing the shit out of everything...

That said, let's enter the 1970s.

I promised F.D Signifier we would get into Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another but we need to cover quite a lot of material before correctly entering that subject.

This question has been getting old for a while.

(Another Anton Corbijn directed video)

But then, we have to take a look at the Stade Olympique. In the very first beginning of this blog, we breifly glanced at the Olympic Games in Paris, but let's have in mind that if nothing changes, the Los Angeles Games will still have Trump as the president of the hosting country.

And since we have also heard about Romanian kids on this blog, born the year after those 1976 Games, I had a bunch of schoolmates named Nadia.

I already feel the fun begin. Aren't you as well? All these useless competitions...

Also, picture this. I am fully aware about monetization on "social media" platforms like Youtube and the likes. But with that type of shit, there's always more.

Speaking of building an audience organically, the opener at that Björk concert was Bonnie "Prince" Taylor, here with a decent close to 3 million views (although since 2012). I have consulted rank charts and this is his most popular song by the way.

Now let's compare with this other Icelandic band I enjoy. Only 37 thousand views since 2018. What would it take for this to ever become more popular?

It always feels rigged, doesn't it? A very tricky subject, indeed. 

(This was Alison Goldfrapp's first recording)

I remember when the album Felt Mountain came out. I had read the review in Voir and when the music video for Utopia came out, I VHSed it and shown it to Belinda who brought the CD back from L'Échange.

I dug up this student graduation film project from 1988, starring a 22 years old Alison Goldfrapp. Uploaded to Youtube in 2023, it has a grand total of 55 views thus far. It's a funny and very enjoyable little film, and I suggest we make it go viral (very unlikely).

 

Before moving away from that hill, if you didn't know already you should probably learn that in the 1960s, in Roma (Italia), Alvin Curran was a member of Musica Elettronica Viva. As for Ennio Morricone, he was much more than that movie scores composer, he was part of the parallel Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

Next, we have a little TV show I used to casually watch at the time. I didn't make it past a few episodes during the second season, but it's significant for a few reasons.

I hope you enjoyed this video by Juicy Pop and perhaps you know about The Notorious B.I.G.'s hit Juicy, but do you know the original source which the horrible Diddy sampled?

If you didn't know, James Mtume was part of the fantastic Miles Davis post-Bitches Brew 1972-1975 band. The first time I heard Rated X on college radio in Montréal, I just flipped the fuck out. 

"Rated X" 

Recorded at Columbia Studio E, New York City, on September 6, 1972

Miles Davis — electric organ

Cedric Lawson — electric piano

Reggie Lucas — electric guitar

Khalil Balakrishna — electric sitar

Michael Henderson — bass guitar

Al Foster — drums

James Mtume — congas

Badal Roy — tabla

We also need Bill Laswell's version.

Stephanie Mills is the singer on Juicy Fruit. Here on a James Mtume & Reggie Lucas co-production.

The kickass Miles Davis Group.

It's fascinating how listening to Stockhausen's Hymnen...

... and meeting the right woman can change a dude.

The bassist Michael Henderson also had a bunch of hits after Miles went into hiatus in the late 1970s.

These tunes by James Mtume or Michael Henderson are all good examples of what was known as Quiet Storm. 

Anyway, shapes shifted since earlier Mtume's projects.

LP 1

LP 2

(My initial contact was via Inconstant Sol, the audio source used here. After the initial American print in 1972 and a second one for Japan in 1974, Strata-East only reissued this album again in 2016 for the European market. Don't worry, we will get to John Sinclair later on this blog)

And don't worry Chocolate City, I will not pass GoGo under silence.

All that to say you now may have a better idea about where the hell these musical numbers from the Bang Bang Bar (aka The Roadhouse) in Twin Peaks came from and why.

It's the business. Have you heard about Spike Lee's latest?

The Postman Always Rings Twice

Indeed, the exquisite Jeffrey Wright...

So, do we want to have some Basquiat?

I was just a kid at the time but I can testify that this song was on the radio all the time. Its Wikipedia page is fun to read. Wall to wall tubular bells included.

Popping up that fast out of the underground, I guess you do need to wear dark glasses.

You saw the DNA performance, right. The band's drummer is Ikue Mori who has been working with Zeena Parkins for decades at this point.

Prior to joining DNA, the bassist Tim Wright was one of the founders of Cleveland's Pere Ubu back in 1976, alongside the recently departed David Thomas.

Spike's Highest 2 Lowest is somewhat of a remake of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low from 1963. As automatically happens with remakes, many were critical, stating this new movie didn't stuck close enough to the original, and so on. So let's talk about it. I just love how missing the point is so much at the forefront of the critical methodology available to these reviewers.

Since it would seem we love bullshit comparisons, did Tricky look close enough to David Bowie or is it all baloney?

Far from wanting to disparage any of what Mtume said, remixes can be brilliant... This one is entirely different but feels like tripping out in 1970s Ghana.

DFA is the duo of James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) & Tim Goldsworthy (early member of U.N.K.L.E.).

As for 12" Extended Play. Sure a little afternoon quickie is good, and good for the radio. But if you take your time and luxuriate... And think about the club, folks dancing...

Well, that almost doesn't exist anymore. Just going out dancing? What do you mean? It's possible to not go out spending all your money on stupid Moët like rappers keep talking about over and over in every other fucking songs?

In that case, think about me, always alone at home, I need long-acting results. 

This was the extended play. Originally released in 1976 on Island Records, produced by Jo Jo Hookim, one would guess it was most likely recorded at his Channel One Studios with the house band The Revolutionaries.

It derives from this:

Goldsworthy had left U.N.K.L.E. by the time they released their first album Psyence Fiction. By now, it was his former partner James Lavelle and the newly arrived DJ Shadow (you remember his 6 Days...). 

(Hopefully you have recognized the actor Denis Lavant)

Speaking of Thom Yorke, this new Paul Thomas Anderson movie once again has an original soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood.

So much bitchin'. Would you also lament over Brian Jackson's newly released remake of Winter in America?

My first exposure to Gil Scott-Heron was on the Arsenio Hall Show. Those late-night talk shows when I was supposed to be in bed for school the next morning...

I had VHSed it, and with my friends we would smoke some weed and watch it at least 5 times in a row. Sadly, I can't find that specific footage, but this one from the Jon Stewart Show is very close.

Let's go back to 1983 in Chocolate City.

Twenty years later, Don Letts did this next one for the BBC.

My second exposure to Gil was on the CBC, once again a late-night program but on the radio. For that release of the Spirits album in 1994, Brave New Waves did a showcase on him and that's where I heard The Revolution Will Not Be Televised for the first time. This was during my high school days, when I was learning the English language, and I did a presentation in front of the class inspired by that song. I also did a presentation on Spike Lee (as I have previously mentioned on this blog already). Our professor was most likely the only one to understand what I was saying because, you see, although we learn English throughout high school, you don't need to pass that class to graduate. According to a 2021 survey, 46% of the population of the province of Québec can hold a conversation in both languages (which is minimal at best). That percentage is mostly due to the youths who have raised it higher since 2006. In the mid-90s when I was in school, many were sporting their unilingualism like a badge of honor, in nationalistic (but mostly populistic) reactionary defiance against the rest of Canada, which very few would have been able to further explain the reasoning behind anyway. "You see, it's the culture. Our cultures are so different", sure but "How much so?" you would ask, "Well, you know... first, we don't speak the same language", and so here we go. Living inside your personal little bubble where you don't need to learn or try anything. Go get craddle in your frustrations by your heavy metal music of which you don't even understand the lyrics to. Né pour un petit pain.

BNW used to feature showcases or interviews about underground or non-commercial musicians and composers. I still have cassette tapes with interviews with Sun Ra, Jon Cage, John Zorn, Rhys Chatham and even with The Sugarcubes (Björk's band prior to her solo career), all of which are in desperate need of being digitized.

In January, the newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani will start trying to make New York City's public transport free (at least the buses), among other projects. We'll see (or not).

Finally, I invite you to also watch this documentary from the British Classic Albums series about the recording of Pieces of a Man.

Where did I first heard Ursula Rucker? For that we have to go back to 1994 again for that magnificient Do You Want More?!!!??! album. It was the last track on the record. Ursula is with Questlove on drums, Scott Storch on the Rhodes electric piano and the late HUB on bass.

It ended on a short skit by Rahzel whom Björk will hire for this song from Medúlla, following that concert we have listened to. The song also features Mike Patton. That source material for that album was made entirely of voices and vocal experimentations (and some sparse electronics to tie things off). The video is directed by Gabríela Friðriksdóttir.

What about Ron Carter? Well... With Vinia Mojica on vocals and Q-Tip rapping.

You know Ron Carter. The Classic Miles Davis Quintet... with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams. A few days after that agitation at Expo 67.

Butterfly (of Digable Planets) now flutters around the palaces of the mythical Tribe of Shabazz under the nom de plume of Ishmael Butler aka Palaceer Lazaro.

Into the realm of that free jazz-spiritual jazz thing.

Let me introduce you to Alice Coltrane's nephew.

Flying Lotus also directs movies more recently. I have only watched that one so far.

This is just the best. The video is directed by Zack Fox and features the writer and director Quinta Brunson.

Also featured in the video, we saw Kali Uchis calling 9-1-1 on his ass. This video was directed by Nadia Lee Cohen.

Lastly, the ladies Thundercat was trying to attract at the end of his music video, gracefully emerging from the trash, are the HAIM sisters. This video is directed by... Would you look at that... It's directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

It figures since Alana Haim is in both Licorice Pizza and in One Battle After Another.

Zack Fox is the backyard barber right here in this Angeleno Bizarro World.

If you are looking to put an additional smile to your life, just compare the freeze frames at the end of Dragonball Durag and at the end of this next one.

When I was a kid, of course I had the Thriller album. I also had The Jacksons' Victory. Both of them on vinyl.

What was Tyler, The Creator saying in that Kali Uchis song? The Tito to my Randy...

I even had the album How Could It Be by Eddie Murphy. It was produced by the mysterious Aquil Fudge. Some say he might be one of Stevie Wonder's cousins, but with a name like that, it's far from clear. The only song on that album not produced by Mr. Fudge was the hit Party All the Time, by Rick James.

You can just feel the cocaine...

That Torture music video production revealed a few interesting things. 

So, this was Paula Adbul's first ever gig as a choreographer.

And we are just going to casually throw out there that Jeff Stein directed some random rock documentary? 

Now, what happens if you look up Dr. Sardonicus? You learn that the character first appeared in a short story by Ray Russell in the Playboy magazine.

And I used to have that album on vinyl.

I nice little pub I used to visit closed during the COVID 19 lockdown. I would often see that music video on their TV screens. The song and the video combined, this is just such a gem.

The dancer is named Storyboard P.

He is also featured in this other Kahlil Joseph music video.

This video always makes me feel so queasy. This was shot in the middle of the native ground of the notorious Bloods street gang in Los Angeles.

When I was hanging out at Sao's place, this video was often playing.

It features a Los Angeles roller skate dance company owned and led by Candice Heiden (the blonde one). 

Candice also choreographed this video by the California duo Tuxedo featuring the great Zapp.

How about some more Shabazz Palaces. Another gorgeous video by Stephan Gray.

I basically only watched the last two seasons (1993 &1994) of the Arsenio Hall Show. I would stay up to peak at the guests list and if nobody interested me, I went to sleep.

Before leaving for the next part of this mind-numbing seminar, David Bruce mentioned the composition The Dharma at Big Sur by John Adams. For those in the know, the title evidently shows its inspiration from Jack Kerouac's book.

California, man...

And of course, who was just about to leave but still living in Big Sur at that exact same time that Kerouac was there?

Laurie Anderson: synclavier, violin, whistle

Adrian Belew: guitar

Bill Laswell: bass

Anton Fier: drums

Daniel Ponce: percussions (bata [Iya & Ikonkolo], shekere, gankogui)

William S. Burroughs: vocals

Brenda Nelson, Dolette McDonald & Michelle Cobbs: back-up vocals

Co-produced by Laurie and Bill Laswell

Recorded at The Lobby (Laurie's home recording studio), New York City, sometime between July and December 1983.