adrian belew - desire caught by the tail

benchmark

this was belew's first serious solo attempt, and his last for many years. it's also a record of quite subtle merits, but revolutionary in it's own sphere.

there's a lot of accusations one could honestly level at belew on this, without the need for much of an argument or the production of much dissent. does he really know how to write tangos or "gypsy music"? does he know anything of substance about the impressionism and serialism he's leaning towards? well, it's rather apparent that he doesn't, really. he consequently falls into a number of clichés in the process of being pretentious about the whole thing. the reality is that he doesn't have a phd in ethnomusicology and it very much shows.

so, he's not al di meola.

....but if you want a di meola disc, there are plenty to choose from. this is a different animal altogether, in the sense that it is apparently entirely synthesized. if you've flipped on a synth, you know how this works. you start by perusing the preset banks for a bit, pushing a few keys and just kind of jamming. when you get to the last preset bank, you're presented with a series of instruments you've never heard of before. you think "gee. what's an ocarina?", as you hack some asian sounding thing out. within twenty minutes, you've got the board split to gongs on the bottom half (which you're mashing with your palm) and a synthesized wind chime on the other, and you're pretending as though you know what it would feel like to discover a pristine, untouched lake on the china/tibet border...

after an hour or so, the guy that owns the store hits you with a mallet and you snap out of it. it was fun while it lasted...

....you certainly never contemplate releasing what you just did on island records, then expecting it to sell more than ten copies. note that this disc is currently many years out of print.

so, it's easy to deduce that this is how a lot of the non-western sounds found their way into this: simple curiosity spurred on by playing with the presets on a synthesizer. yet, the sound on this record isn't being produced by a traditional keyboard synthesizer. rather, it's being produced by a cutting edge roland guitar synthesizer. for that reason, i'm very much willing to forgive the pretension. see, it's what the record is: a self-taught, abstract guitarist playing around with a toy that wasn't just new to him, but pretty much new to the world. if you remove a handful of words from the title tracks, what you're left with is music that sounds like it came from nowhere on this planet at all.

that's not to say that the songs are badly constructed. the clichés are at times heavy-handed, but the record is stronger for them. take the third track, for instance. it sounds exactly like a self-taught guitarist pretending he knows how to write ethnic roma music, which is precisely what it is. yet, breaking through the pretension produces a bizarre jam that stands up well on it's own, when taken out of that context. i mean, i wouldn't have otherwise thought to think that. the second track combines circus music with a standard blues progression, all through a haze of synthesized guitar work, in a way that leaves you scratching your head and wondering what you just listened to. so, stripping out the hackneyed attempt at ethnic music would deny the record of it's charm and leave what is yet another experiment in frippertronics. that doesn't mean that the hackneyed attempt at ethnic music needs to be interpreted as ethnic music at all; rather, it's nature as a hackneyed attempt makes it very easy to completely ignore. a more substantial criticism is that the tracks are obviously mostly improvised, and might be perceived to meander a little. yet, that meandering can also be perceived as comprehensively exploring the synth tones. i don't personally find that it drags, but i realize that my own bias on the point (being a fan of abstract guitar music) is likely substantial.

the result is admittedly a record that is defined more by the tools used to create it than by the notes within it; insofar as it is the latter rather than the former, it's a substantial piece of music in a historical context. this is the sole reason i'm grading it as highly as i am. the last point is really central: i am a fan of abstract guitar music. if you are not, this might not be for you. if you are, you'll likely at least appreciate the record as carving out a unique space in the spectrum of guitar music. no, it may not excel as a conventional piece of music in much of any way, but as an unconventional piece of music it's not really convincingly comparable to anything else i've ever heard. that makes it something to isolate as unique and still potentially genre-defining, as well as an essential record to explore - if not an essential record to love.

stream:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mpb8sKnQAZ8yQ8ZEuMGji1pNwXFR8l6_o

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/artists/AdrianBelew/1986-DesireCaughtByTheTail/index.html

adrian belew - here

listenable

musical success is a difficult thing to understand in the era of big labels and mass marketed products. what seems to cut through the haze of aggressively marketed plastic images is often a sense of accidental honesty (sometimes accidentally on purpose). belew had the right combination of talent and eccentricity that he may have potentially been able to tap into this back door to large scale success had he simply done the things that made him unique. instead, he lost a few years in the early 90s trying way too hard and falling flat on his face. this site reviews my personal collection, which does not include the records he released in 1989, 1990 or 1992 because they do not overlap with my tastes - and more or less precisely for the aforementioned reason.

nor was he at all coy about it. 1989's mr. music head opens with a duet with his young daughter that declares that he's going to make it to the big time. gabriel references aside, there's a certain desperation in his projection that seems utterly forced. this was followed up quickly by a collaboration with david bowie, 1990's young lions, that is as notable for bowie sounding tired, clichéd and ten years out of date as it is for belew trying to piggyback him to greater success. these records do not veer far from belew's out of touch sense of popular music, which happens to also be a blatant attempt to emulate the bands he had previously done session work with.

it's not that this record veers particularly far from what he was doing in the early 90s. there is a noticeably heightened beatles influence, but that was always present. he's still drawing heavily on both berlin-era bowie and on the talking heads. it's more that he seems to have regained some perspective about who he is as an artist. the fourth track on this record, fly, seems to end the thought that began mr. music head:

after all, i'm only sand
to irritate the oyster and
to wait for a pearl
and even though i must concede
greatness has eluded me
i'd still miss the world

he actually seems to be contemplating (and firmly rejecting) thoughts of suicide stemming from what he's interpreted as a failed career as a pop musician, opting instead for a resignation towards the meaninglessness of existence. the track is absolutely gorgeous, and a fan favourite, but it's also a turning point in his career. from this point on, his concern shifts purely to producing abstract music. this is where he seems to have finally found himself, in his mid 40s.

for the disc at hand, this does not manifest itself in a radical change but in a greater focus on both the depth of the songwriting and in the nature of the production. he sounds refocused and more down to earth. the hooks are more fluid, the flourishes more idiosyncratic, the solos more heartfelt. ironically, it's once he gives up that he produces something that could have been a left-field alternative rock hit in the late 80s. by '94, though, the music world had changed far too much for any chance of this selling beyond his existing fan base. regardless, i'd argue it's the best of his handful of pure pop records.

so, there's maybe a lesson here about staying true to yourself.

stream:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKoDHRV0ImP-Ur3lR19tRb7ZypFZJT4N1

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/music/artists/AdrianBelew/1994-Here/index.html

"we want democracy, like they have in america"

*sigh*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU68dGqLe0Q

what the report is doing is drawing attention to the false dichotomy that is presented in over-simplified news reports. it's not just in ukraine that we see this. we see it essentially anywhere there is public action. the media consistently wants to ignore the actual views of protestors on the ground by folding them into what the political opposition is dictating. the projected perception is that protests are organized by establishment groups in the opposition, in order to carry out their aims. the reality is usually that establishment groups co-opt the protests and use them as an excuse to ram through their already existing ideas.

this is exactly what's happened there. the government that has taken over is a coalition of nationalist extremists (svoboda) and the established conservative party, which is composed of eu-backed bankers and ukrainian oligarchs. they're taking advantage of the situation (in a shock doctrine sort of way) to ram through imf policies designed to loot the country and destroy the economy.

so, a popular revolution? hardly. if the republicans seized power from a democratic administration as a result of escalating street protests, that wouldn't be considered a revolution in america because nothing would have actually changed. likewise, what happened in ukraine was that power was handed over from the left-leaning section of the elite to the right-leaning section of it. the elite remain dominant.

so, what of the people? what do they think? where is their voice, in the crosstalk between factions of the ukrainian elite?

there's been almost complete media silence on the issue.

freakishly small feet strike again.

a few months ago, i bought a pair of little girl's rainboots because they fit and they were only $6. not sized.

my shoes are demoed to the point that walking on moist ground produces wet socks, so i took a walk around. i'll get some goo later and save them for emergency; i just wanted to see if i could get something cheap, as that's easier. it turns out i'm a children's size 6, and just about any pair of adult shoes is literally not made in my size.

seriously. i spent an hour in the adult section looking for something small enough, before i walked over to the kid's aisle...

i actually can't remember the last time i bought a pair of sneakers. for years, i've been inheriting shoes from my sister, who has a habit of ending up with shoes that are too small, somehow. i don't ask questions, i just take the shoes. but it means i'm not sizing my feet. the ones she gives me are usually a tad big, but i deal with it.

well, now i know. and there's an upside to it, as kids shoes seem to be cheaper...

the ones i picked up were in a weird store a few blocks down that is something like a cross between a dollar store and a kmart. everything in the place is cheap. they actually had a two-for-one sale, which is the only reason i bothered. even if they are gone at the end of the year, two pairs of shoes for $15 is something i can deal with in the short run.

i think i'll make 'em last longer, though. i've been known to wear $10 shoes for three or four years - until they develop holes, basically.

with stuff like shoes, i'm actually convinced it all more or less comes off the same assembly line. $10 walmart shoes and $150 nike shoes are made by the same children in asia, they just have different labels stamped on them. i don't see any reason to pay more than the least amount possible for it.

it's less that the inexpensive shoes aren't cheap and more that the expensive ones are just as cheap and preposterously priced.

the handful of counter-examples seem to mostly be skateboarding shoes, which are built differently because there's a higher wear level. i have tended to gravitate towards them for that reason.

it actually seems to be the salt that finally ate through a part of the pair i just replaced. i'm thinking if i clean them up, then patch them with the rest of the epoxy i have left that should extend their life. but i needed something with better grip, anyways.

for me, a big part of "urban living" is walking everywhere. this isn't currently the best city for that lifestyle, which just puts extra stress on the shoes. when you're regularly walking five or more km, it doesn't matter what the label on your shoes is - they're going to fall apart. so, you'd might as well try and strengthen them.

i think with the salted through ones, the epoxy will actually make them stronger.