At the same moment he strolls off stage, and into the darkness.
OK hello how are you? After an unnecessarily dramatic first half of the year and subsequent work overload I’m calming down a bit, focusing everything on enjoying the summer and doing everything possible to swerve anxiety about global kleptocratic authoritatrianism and the weather being wrong. I’ve got a book announcement tomorrow, DJ gigs in Bristol on the 2nd and 3rd of August, Christchurch on the 10th and an ambient tea tent takeover at We Out Here on the 17th, a new monthly show on the extraordinary ROVR platform, plus all the usual articles and such, so enough to keep the dopamine going I guess. You ARE following my DJ and writing Facebook pages aren’t you? That’s where you can get all the news on all of that.
Now, there’s FOUR more Soft Music for Hard Times playlists, I won’t give it the big one but they’re great. Here they are: numbers 142, 143, 144 and 145.
If you don’t follow DJ Wrongtom on twxttxr, you’re missing out on one of the great sources of musical knowledge. Here he is on Dawn Penn’s “No, No, No”, a perfect example of a song that has a life of its own way beyond any gatekept culture.
You know me, I love a bit of “dataviz”, and I love a bit of dunking on the Nazi apologists who poison left-wing / anti-imperialist discourse so obviously this mapping of who they are and who funds them is catnip for me. Bonus content: here’s some deep digging on one of the most pernicious Putinist/Assadist “red-brown” snakes, his shifting identities, his manipulation of people in mental health communities and his grooming of minors.
Channel U was ground zero for UK hip hop, R&B and grime and this hour-long documentary / clips compilation is just a total joy and inspirational regarding how DIY culture can create niches for itself.
If you didn’t know we’ve been trialling an album guide over at Sound Of Life, every extra click it gets makes it more likely they’ll keep me doing it and BONUS!!!! you get ten fantastic albums to listen to each month.
With Reform having some MPs, even if they are already fighting among themselves like rats in a sack, it’s worth having a flashback to how much Farage is adept at getting a free ride from media and authorities.
Hope is good. For your mental health, for your resilience, for your ability to act, and ultimately for the world. Hope is not blind belief in good outcomes, it’s its own thing.
House before house. Absolute purity. Absolute pleasure.
Also house before house: Italians being VERY COOL in 1980.
I’ve been involved in more than my share of corporate marketing music “activations” and they’re usually awful. THIS ONE ISN’T THOUGH! There’s palpable love of the music, local pride, an authentic connection of generations, and fantastic New Jersey accents. Related: here’s my appreciation of Rah Digga.
Here’s a bunch of New Yorkers having a fantastic time a long time ago. KONK!
Here’s another Italian being very cool: Carlo Rovelli explaining time cones and whatnot. You can absolutely fry your head with this stuff. I find it kind of relaxing not being able to understand it? Just sort of let it wash over me and be glad it’s there.
Eamonn Forde doing the gods’ work here, laying down the realities of the new feudalism that comes from the record industry being top heavy.
Bob Cluness doing the ELDER GODS’ work here, doing a whistle stop tour of occultism and mysticism in tech and culture, absolutely fantastic buffet of brain food here.
Marty Feldman was a comic genius, infinitely more than just a pair of googly eyes, so this repeated documentary he made about the nature of comedy is absolutely worth watching as well as being a really evocative period piece.
David Kerekes’s appreciation of John Sinclair - White Panther, rabble rouser, stoner revolutionary, general mover and shaker - is just beautifully written and really gives you a sense of what “underground” can mean in the sense of the set of deep connections between individual minds… “The world is held together,” as James Baldwin put it, “really it is held together, by the love and the passion of a very few people.”
And finally, just for pure feelgood, here’s The Breeders in the forest. This just makes me feel good. They have always been the greatest and to see them being able to enjoy it so much is just right.
Alright we’re done for today. Next one will probably be a lot sooner as there are ANNOUNCEMENTS, but for now be nice, have a nice time, and always remember don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t believe the hype (wohohoaaa) xx