Thoughts on negative reactions to live music; inspired in particular by Billy Nomates / Tor playing Glastonbury 2023 and The Who in Toronto 2016: Continue reading
Author: N. P. Ryan
Etran de L’Aïr: The Desert Blues Brothers
To mark the commencement of a 2023 US Summer tour, Etran de L’Aïr—which translates to the Stars of the Aïr—have released two live tracks recorded in Seattle earlier in the year; available for digital download, they’re also NYP (name your price, which includes free if you need it to be).
Seattle is a long way—seven-thousand miles thereabouts—from Etran de L’Aïr’s hometown of Agadez, Niger; a city located in the Sahara desert and the country’s fifth largest.
Etran de L’Aïr’s sound is generally described as desert blues. It’s a genre description in much part originating from the epithet desert rock already being taken in the West by a bunch of stoners who liked recording while out of their trees while out in the deserts of the States—some groovy tunes coming from their endeavours, it should be said—while the sound coming from Africa has a vibe and undercurrent distinctive to musicians in the region. Continue reading
Death Pill: the ferocious all-female face of Ukrainian Defiance
Monday the 12th saw a first visit to the Louisiana, Bristol. Knowing nothing of the headliner, it was another case of a flyer grabbing attention in the timeline and hitting interested on the event from there.
Then came a surprise a couple of days beforehand when finding an article on the BBC website singing the praises of Death Pill’s cause; this I didn’t know about.
Death Pill’s story is phenomenal; so much so, it’s humbling writing now to think I got to witness part of it. Continue reading
POHL Dancing
I don’t know how POHL’s FREAKSPEED found its way to my ears, but I’m sure glad this ecstasy of crushing sludge rock did.
The overall vibe is a heady mix of Alice in Chains, Jucifer and Weedeater.
Weight of the World
A question of context, perhaps perspective; maybe a journey through the unwinding impact writing can have: the calm sea at which the stream of consciousness ends having started on a harsh, craggy mountain side . . . Or maybe it’s nothing so dramatic as that and instead just a pondering on whether things were in fact better or worse in the old days.
Header image: Star Lore Of All Ages (1911); licensing. Continue reading
The Incarnation of God Who DID Visit Weston-super-Mare
While it’s safe to say Jesus Christ didn’t visit Weston-super-Mare, what about anyone else thought an incarnation of God by followers of a religion?
How about that incarnation of God also being someone once given weapons and ammunition by the Nazis with which to fight a war?
Or to up the ante more so, the person not only being black, but in the same year—2020—as the much covered throwing of Edward Colston’s statue into Bristol Harbour, one of this individual got smashed to bits in a London park with hardly a mention in the press?
The Idiots’ Guide to Being a Successful Musician
And what’s more it comes in poetic form!
Header image (cropped from original) showing the Rolling Stones on stage by Jim Pietryga, 2015, licensing. Continue reading
Handsome Devil
A.k.a. the vain atheist’s prayer.
With thanks to Максим Власенко for use of the header image (alt text; a man visible from the waist up, naked, painted red and wearing horns, he looks to the camera unamused). Continue reading
Hey, Teacher!
Contemplating the origin of teaching in abstract poetic form.
With thanks to Andrea Piacquadio for use of the header image (alt text; a teacher with an open book, looks to the class while pointing at a chalk board).
Girls Like Us: Bitter ‘Til The Bitter End; a review
Girls Like Us (GLU) released Bitter ‘Til The Bitter End the same weekend I caught the band live at the Chelsea Inn, Bristol.
It was a blistering set, part of another top night there (In With the Inn Crowd), during which I was about to turn to a mate and say, ‘killer bass line’ only for him to beat me to it with the exact same words.
The debut album certainly lives up to its name with lyrics plenty raw enough to suggest lived experience fuelling its theme of two-timing, dickhead boyfriends/blokes more often than not from entitled backgrounds. Continue reading
N. P. Ryan 