La-la-la

My mind's ear re-bends to 'electronic' Musica con Spirito...

Re-re-remembering those late Sunday to Monday sunrises of my hometown Santa Barbara,

drawing/painting to SPR soundtracks cast from the heights of the Granada Theater (99.9 FM) thru a small mono clock radio...

Cosi fortunati.

Here amongst Moog tributes are 'Three Pipers at the Gates of Dawn':

Pete Namlook, Klaus Schulze and Bill Laswell,

Collage of Memories

A fragment of John William Waterhouse's 'Hylas and the Nymphs' painting gazes up on the cover of 'Symbol' by Susumu Yokota.
A Japanese composer, who mixes classic fragments from Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Tchalkovsky and Saint-Saens to the moderns of Cage and voice of Meredith Monk.
Each song is a sound collage layered with Yokota's own instrumentation; piano, flute, percussion and samplings -
Ambient and trance-looping music that spark memories in my blinking mind's eye.

Rushing Red

My favorite color was red when asked when I was young.

I learned the planet Mars was red...

'Spirit Preparation' on 'Planetarium 2' New Composers with Pete Namlook (Koolman rev'd)
takes me to that sand pit behind the farm fence from the movie, 'Invaders from Mars'.
After I saw this 50's classic, I later noticed a mole on the nape of my Father's neck and was certain he was needled by the Martians because of his behavior that day...
I convinced my younger Brother Paul, Dad had been taken by the aliens.


A joke from 2nd grade (still instilled in me ol' grey matter)
 'Why are Fire Engines red?'
'Cause they're 12 inches in a ruler,
Queen Mary was a Ruler, she also was a ship,
ship sail in the sea, in the sea are fishes,
fishes have fins, Fins fought the Russians,
Russians are red...
and that's why they're rushin' all over the place'.


Enjoying the red Christmas bulbs' glow
and the green baby Jesus' halo.

From Russia

I was introduced to much of my Eastern Euro music collection at Klasky Csupo, an animation studio that housed Hungarians, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs and Russians with great taste and talent.
There we shared CD's amongst the cubicles and floors.
Yelena Tokman (last seen at a Holger Czukay performance), shared a St. Petersburg duo-
                                                             New Composers' 'Astra'

Brian Eno worked and produced with the new Composers as well as Russian Art Rockers

Zvuki Mu

Zvuki Mu - Crazy Queen (1989) - YouTube

One advantage of the Klasky Csupo's locale, was that its first studio's home was a block up from Aaron's Records on Highland Ave. Hollywood... a lost song would come to mind while drawing...oh,  time to take a break and search the bins. The studio then moved to the grand Sunset Blvd. across from Amoeba Records... 

There I found the works of Alexander Kopelkin, a Moscow experimentalist of sound and textures.

'Shadow Trap's tracks are listed as locations...

Eleven locations that place me well.

Neue Deutsch Psychedelische Musik

verdammt gut!

Ya, the German bands of the 70's capture schooon memories for me.

I wasn't aware of the sounds of Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel, Amon Duul, Kluster, Neu! Faust and Can 'til I moved to Santa Barbara in '73 and caught Guy Guden's Space Pirate Radio on the late air waves.

Re-inspired, I played guitar again experimenting with tape looping and synth sequencing.

                                                               Manuel Gottsching  Berlin 

DJ Scungilli  Santa Barbara

Sever Tomorrow

Porcupine Tree plays presently in my ear goggles.
                A British band that'll hold up as well as Pink Crimson 'til 2205...
                                                                                            If we're still hangin' around.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Doin' that Scrapyard Thing

Always loved a good bass line; Donald 'Duck' Dunn's for Stax recordings, later Jack Bruce's for Cream...
I was asked to play bass for Thousand Oaks' 'Cast of a Thousand' in '72.
At the time I was diggin' 'The Move', a Birmingham band that went from Pop to Rock in the UK.

Rick Price replaced Chris 'Ace' Kefford's grindy bass, just as well.

Jim Rolfe, the lead guitarist of my new found band of Thousand Oaks, told me that Chris Squire of 'Yes' got his metallic bass sound on fresh Rotosound bass strings... I couldn't afford a fresh set of strings for each gig, so I'd rub alcohol into their round wound grooves.

I was a guitar player that wanted the bass to stand out melodic but still have a bottom with the drums.

Late 70's

The Punk scene is happening, dismissing the Prog'bots' scalies...

'The Stranglers' arrive.

Jean Jacques Burnell's bass lines brought it back with a vengeance.

Love that Large Mouth Bass.

  

Norwegian Shining

Per mio Primo Nipotino Norvegese Merrick,

Shining, not to be confused with the Swedish 'Shining'-

'OneOneOne' of this year, continues this band's venture into blackrebellajazzprogpunkin-scheet.

'Ottanta'  influences with DJ Nonno Scungilli's vox-

 

That Sixties' Sustain

The sound that made me want to play lead guitar rather than just rhythm was the fuzztone.

More than just distortion, sustain. To be able to hold a note infinitely it felt.

The left switch on the VOX pedal gave you that sustaining power.

So Cal bands: Iron Butterfly, Children of the Mushroom and Spirit were those that clearly stood out with its sound.

Dunlop's pedal was Jimi Hendrix, Robert Fripp to name a few's favorite

fuzz.  

Then came the sustaining 'E-Bow', a hand held device that plays upon the pick-ups' magnets and steel strings.

I was re-inspired.

The first I heard its effect was on the strings of Steve Hackett's guitar on Genesis' 'Carpet Crawler'. 

 Applied live on Bill Nelson's Be Bop Deluxe guitar...

I had to have one.

Still do.

Wish I still had my VOX Super Beatle and pedal.

  

...And the Whole World

Never gets old.

Kevin Ayers along with David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mick Fincher, a young Mike Oldfield,

 the accompanying voice of Bridget St. John and fellow tune smith Robert Wyatt.

Wish I knew this cover artist.

Canadian Blenders

When I first heard 'Sex Mad' back in the mid 'me-me-me-eighties', I thought of King Crimson on jimsom.

The Wright Brothers are still flying.

Icelandic sounds

 An 83 flight layover in Iceland, 

Enough time to feel the terrain and rain on top of the earth.

Nice to be reminded.

 Tak.

Grails

I find instrumentals great accompaniment to drawing.

This guitarist of Portland Oregon's Grails takes me back to the shore break of Santa Barbara mixed with Popol Vuh on the airwaves. 

                                           Thanks for the Pacific sounds, G3.    

Circa '67-69

Brainville

Live Banana Moonshine from an ol' friend, Signor Divide Dali en Da Casa and a missed Hugh n' Pye.

Hope for Happiness!

The Lost Episodes

After the news of Ray Collins passing (12/24/12), I've been listening to old Mothers of Invention... particularly the 'Lost Episodes' of Frank Zappa. A CD box of joy with the art of Gabor Csupo.
'Fountain of Love', with true Pomonalovetonedowop of Ray and some f'an'tastic tastey fuzz bass.



Thanks Frank.

Frank Zappa

12/21/40 - 12/4/93

I had the pleasure of doing his caricature for the '88 tour

Off-Broadway.

Musica per un Amico

                                    Una tenda Veneziana si sente il calore di un'ombra

                                                                

                                                   Non mi rompete...Sancti Coglioni di Petri!