Sunday 27 November 2016

School of Underground Scrape Part 3

A Guide to Underground Violin sounds:

Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief
Fairport Convention - Babbercombe Lee

Well, to talk about the extraordinary importance of Dave Swarbrick's violin in the history of British music, and in particular the electric folk explosion of the late 60s/70s, is to make an understatement seem, well, understated. So an underground figure? Absolutely not. But the heavy electric fiddle sounds Swarbrick pioneered on his cuts with Fairport Convention not only sent him deaf, but also set a blueprint for just how intense and raw a fiddle can sound without pushing it into the sort of absurd realms your narrator is certainly guilty of. AND whether or not you see Fairport as a dusty old folk rock band your Dad loves, or trail-blazers who originated some of the Gothic electric sounds that would appear a few years later in extraordinary displays like Black Sabbath's Volume 4, there is something of use in much of their early output, particularly in their masterpiece Liege & Lief, though I personally find the Swarbrick dominated Babbercombe Lee to also be of note. But aside from this, explore everything Swarbs did back in the day, including the purely English folk filled solo records, the one that features a sozzled looking Swarbrick on the cover, sawing away at the violin with a fag hanging out of his mouth is of particular note, and his beautiful duos with Martin Carthy. Go on, it's worth it. RIP. 

Steeleye Span - Please to See the King

The hiss and scrape of Peter Knight's electrified fiddle on this Steeleye Span British electric folk classic from 1971 is not so distant from the sound of the more well-recognised wild-man fiddle of Fairport's Swarbs. It rips and tears through the jigs, reels, and ballads present on the one truly dark and forboding Steeleye record Please to See the King, a wintery collection that features Martin Carthy's booming electric guitar, Knight's scraping folk filddlisms and the haunting vocals of Maddy Prior. While Knight's playing itself is not as radical as some of the underground fiddlers I've discussed in these pages, and indeed there's not much "underground" about Steeleye Span or Fairport for that matter, there is a spirit of RESISTANCE in this work in its historical context. And this, my friends, is the true meaning of the underground, NOT "undiscovered", but "resistance", resistance to the status quo, to blind growth, greed and capitalist abandon, a call to return to the land and show it respect and love. There's much to learn here, very useful indeed, and the harsh, gain-knob-cranked sound of Knight's fiddle on this record is hands-down some of the best electric found scream you can achieve, a highly recommended choice for all and sundry, plug the fiddle into the biggest fucking valve amp you and find, straight in, and crank the gain. Cold. Should mention also what sounds like the fantastic drumming on the body of the electrified violin, accompanying the haunting vocal harmonies present on 'Boys of Bedlam', excellent use of the magnifying glass of amplification on the violin's surprisingly useful wooden body. 


John Doherty - Bundle & Go

This is an absolute classic of unique-as-fuck fiddle genius from an Irish Traveler who had lived such an itinerant wanderers existence that for the recording of this particular record, the engineers had to find him a fiddle to play on since he didn't presently own one - bringing to mind other mind-altering not-give-a-fuckers like Blixa Bargeld who by all accounts didn't own a guitar during his trail-blazing industrial noise forays in the early Bad Seeds (the Nick Cave kind of course). Of course to place Doherty - a great traditionalist - in the same breath as Blixa is perhaps incongruous to any of you stupid enough to read this, but there is a simple similarity in the immediacy of personality present in the playing. To depart from this line of thought instead let's reflect on ol' Johnny Doherty's life. A traveler, tinsmith (as were all Doherty's in the area it seems) and fiddler of the Donegal tradition, he would travel from house to house plying his wares (pots, pans and other useful goods, including tin fiddles it seems) or doing odd jobs, after which he'd be rewarded with a meal, some drink and in return he'd entertain with his fiddle and his rhythmically recited oral histories. His playing style is so narrative, packed with what seem to be improvisations impersonating animals, and the characters in the stories these songs tell, sometimes dating back hundreds of years, others more recent (that is the turn of the 20th century to the post-war period, Doherty passed into Saint Cecilia's arms in 1980 having been born at the dawn of the century in 1900). To see a prime example I recommend watching this excellent film and check out the scene where he plays in a pub to a collection of drunk blokes who request a piece that deals with a hunting scene. Bundle & Go is perhaps a limited snapshot of Doherty's life of song and story, hard work, and understated hardship, but it is a beautiful document of how music stays most alive within the oral tradition, and is only hung and dried when written down. Make your own oral traditions, and leave them that way will you.

Alexis Zoumbas - A Lament for Epirus, 1926-1928

The folk and early-mid 20th century musics of the Greek isles, especially the heartbreak of Rembetika, are truly worth exploring for anyone with half a mind. In the depths of this era of migration, refugees, war, terror and fascism (I'm talking about the 20s-50s in Greece but you know we could apply that to now pretty effectively), Greeks in exile produced records of soul-crushing beauty, and none more so effectively then this prize depressive Alexis Zoumbas. Recorded while he was in exile in the United States, these pieces collected by Long Gone Sound's Christopher King, feature Zoumbas' aching, broken-hearted violin, crying for what's left of his homeland. The wild, sliding, moans characteristic of this music, drag you down on your knees to weep for a homeland you never had, or inspire you to dance like a drunk marionette in the style of the ouzo-soaked gangster dandies depicted in Kostas Ferris incredible film Rembetiko (1983). A Lament for Epirus is an essential listen for any violinist, nay ANYONE, wishing to join the cultural resistance, for no truer notes were ever scraped out of bow, gut and wood.

Swans - The Burning World

The violin work on this album by NY industrial darkness peddlers Swans had a big impact on me upon first hearing it some years ago. I love this record and the other Swans records of the late 80s/early 90s that delve into this more neo-folk, folk-noir area, and the violin scraping on The Burning World is played by a host of legendary musos including Fred Frith, Mark Feldman, a Shankar! of the L. variety (double violin whatever that is), and Larry Packer who I hope is not one of those Packers. Rather hilariously, this record is Swans only major label number, recorded in 1989, and it would simply be amazing to think of a major label putting out something as bleak as fuck as this in the 21st century. At the time fans seemed to have thought it was a sell-out from the heavier industrial sounds that preceded it, but in the present context that seems laughable to say the least. The fiddle playing is not hugely exciting in and of itself, but it is inspiring to hear the mournful cries of the violin in the context of such monumental Gothicness. The violin is perfect for Doom and there should be more of it.

My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans

To continue the gloomy swan theme I need to make mention of a band featuring violin that brought the instrument into the hallowed field of Doom Metal. Perhaps the most prolific Doom fiddler they had on board was Martin Powell - who plays violin and keys on Turn Loose the Swans - a leather and chains Goth nutter who also played quite a bit with Melbourne Doom Goths Cryptal Darkness, and laid keys on Cradle of Filth albums like 2000's Midian which was quite a popular listen amongst 17 year olds when I was a 17 year old. The first half of Turn Loose the Swans is great Death-Doom with violin, keys and a dark, grave-roaming Gothic feel that's well worth the trip. Then things get weird on the second side, and electronic and largely forgettable in my opinion. Still, My Dying Bride deserve respect for going so far out on a limb with such a weird album. A following release, Trinity, is a better listen in my opinion, but perhaps less of a milestone chronologically in the significance of violin DOOM.

Völur - Disir


Staying in the Doom and Gloom position, it's worth briefly exploring this recent gem. Volur distinctively feature a trio of drums, bass and elec violin + vocals. The violin is distorted to high hell, of course emulating metal guitar, but it still sounds distinctively violin and catatonic in its wailing. Trance-inducing doom, with Heathen themes and mournful melodies, it's well worth checking out this Canadian trio, buying this tape, and supporting a band who dare to take the fiddle to Doom weepage with such catastrophically beautiful effect. 

That's all in this lesson. Please note THE SCRAPES shall be playing 28/12 at The Bearded Lady, in Brisbane's West End, with Primitive Motion and Glam Fail joining us. Doors at 8pm. Tickets at the door shall be $10. We'll have vinyl copies of The Songs of Baron Samedi with us as well. Come along. Don't be shy. 


 


Wednesday 16 November 2016

Tonight 17 Nov at The Junk Bar, Brisbane

17/11

I will be playing with the mighty JIVE CANYON at Brisbane's finest venue The Junk Bar, in Ashgrove, this evening.

DETAILS


And a sample of what we do from the upcoming 2017 album:



See you tonight if you can make it.



Monday 7 November 2016

School of Underground Scrape Part 2

Some more key recordings of Underground Violin music:

Reaching back to the beginning of electric violin shredding we find a couple of diamonds in the rough so to speak, rough diamonds, uncut and filthy despite their hideous Hollywoodish American schtick historical placement. Both created some extraordinary music for the times it seems, with the first being one of the great innovators of Rock 'N' Roll, the other a more obscure choice, being both African-American AND a woman no doubt playing some part in this, although a life of cheesy cruise ship gigs and Las Vegas orchestra jobs, as well as becoming a TV personality, probably didn't help to overshadow her greater artistic triumphs.

The first to whom I refer is none other than Bo Diddley, whose background is famously enough rooted in the violin music his mother got him to play in church as a child, and without a doubt, like other guitar gods who followed such as Eddie Van Halen who also shared a childhood schooling in the violin, you can hear violin licks in Diddley's guitar playing. He never really got the violin out much in his legendary Rock 'n' Roll trailblazing, except for on a cut I recently discovered on my travels in NYC, spun by a 45 rockin' DJ at Troost in downtown Brooklyn one fateful September eve. I couldn't wait to tell Henry Flynt about it, before winding up a little drunk and promptly forgetting about it as I hit the air again Helsinki-bound, only to be reminded of it by fellow Scrapes founder Ryan Potter a few weeks later while I made my way through a can of Karhu in my Turku accommodation. I did finally share this piece, known as The Clock Strikes Twleve with Henry and it blew his mind - "this pre-dates my American ethnic music by several years"...well... - and my mind remains suitably blown.

A basic 12 bar blues R & B piece of late 50s rockabilly ilk expected by any of these guys, the standout element being that the instrumental features Diddley on electric violin as the key solo instrument. The fiddle creaks and soars, downtrodden and distorted like a futurist vignette of decades of black fiddle music, buzzing with a tone that harks back to West African bowed chordophones like the gondze or riti and as high and lonesome as the rustiest harmonica. It is an extraordinary document, and one can only wonder what woulda happened had this vein of fiddle rock been taken up on mass at the time. Alas that was not the case, but around the same time another fiddler, having studied with the great jazz violinist Stuff Smith, shook her stuff in great early, obscure be-bop numbers, like A Woman's Place is in the Groove, recorded in a gimmick all-female ensemble which seems to have barely hidden a genuine feminist sub-text by performing such a number. The violinist wailing in this band was known as Ginger Smock, and her playing is truly singular and sadly overlooked by most of the planet.

Ginger's playing on much of the extant recordings featuring her, isn't hugely special (although the feel is wonderful and has more of the Black Gypsy of Eddie South to it than the clean polish of her mentor Stuff Smith), but it is unique enough. There is one recording though that is of a similar mind-manifesting level to Diddley's aforementioned masterpiece, and that is Ginger's Boogie, a mysterious piece found on a rather innocuous compilation called 'Boogie Woogie Gals' (2015, JSP Records). A standard 50s boogie woogie tune, it winds up into a vamp over which a male voice asks Ginger about her "mighty fine box", licentiously referring of course to the violin, which Ginger then cuts loose on with the wild abandon of a woman who wasn't going to let that sorry motherfucker anywhere near either box. The solo is mean, intense, and wilder than anything I've come across from the era, and far too short, a burst of free electric fiddle mung in a sea of sexist, formica coated, Hollywood bullshit.

This is just scratching the surface of early electric violinists, but I dare say this is some of the heaviest stuff from the 40s and 50s set to groove that anyone could readily find.