Showing posts with label You Are So Lucky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label You Are So Lucky. Show all posts

11.23.2011

Bad Luck

I found $5 on the sidewalk the other day: good luck.
Other than that, I've had only Bad Luck these days (not to be self-indulgent). I mean, even the $5 had been sitting out in the rain. Got all wet.


{jump to 3:00 if you don't want to see Richard Pryor chat with them}

This Bad Luck started months ago. Of course, I know someone else who had the very same run of bad luck. Very sad and very true.
But I won't go on about it here- blogs aren't the place for showing your face.



"Blue Notes" indeed.

Anyhow: this is a good dance song about bad luck.
[as Teddy states: "Ain't it a groove!"]
Bad Luck as a danceable theme may seem strange- but then, think of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." Stevie's song came out in 1972, and the above song (with Teddy Pendergrass and the rest of Harold Melvin's Blue Notes) came out in 1975.
Was Bad Luck in the air, in the æther, those days,
as it seems to be today?

5.19.2011

Sprang Thang: The Blackbyrds' "Thankful 'Bout Yourself"

It's pouring down rain again -- Spring has Sprung, I guess -- but let's bracket that, and listen to and download some summer something.


The Blackbyrds on YouTube

Download the Blackbyrds' Thankful 'Bout Yourself.mp3
This song is the kind that will go on the Cosby Show mix, "Hello Jello".

Speaking of BlackByrds, what is going on with all the bird deaths lately? Could it be....
a sign of the impending apocalypse?!?!?!
Clearly a rhetorical question.



Margeaux and I saw a dead bird by my house; I saw two more by Villanova's main chapel; the three ladies-who-lunch next to me are talking about seeing some too. I think it is fair to hazard that they saw different birds than the ones I saw. Which means that there is a minimum of four dead birds, seen by 5 different people -- clearly we have an epidemic on our hands.

But what kind of epidemic? Avian Bird Flu? Maybe the birds flew too much and died of exhaustion?: but what were they flying away from? The planet's impending doom, perhaps?
Or something more sinister?...?

Aren't birds supposed to get born, not die, in the spring?
Well. Anyhow.

6.08.2009

Got it?, Good!

As a treat to myself, I got me some more records, all of which are top drawer: they all get top billin'.


Audio Two - Top Billin'



One of them is this bad bad bad beat. An ol' skool hip-hop classic, I mean classic cut. On the Youtube comments, someone rattled off 4 big songs they knew that sampled this song- the drums, I imagine- and someone else dropped a few more on there.

A bunch of the other songs posted as this on Youtube are not the song; remixes (by Youtube users, not real remixes), other songs entirely (they will make you take the songs down sometimes, they = copyright holders, and people often put up a new song and leave the name of the old), and one version that was so very quiet, you couldn't hear the bass go

....boooooooooom.....

which, on this version, you can.

12.10.2008

If I have to Walk, I'm a get There just the Same - Wilbert Harrison goes to Kansas City

It's been a while, hasn't it. Chomping at the bit again, I'm sure. Here's a 'your new favorite song' to hold you over until I drop some serious mixes *plop* right in your lap.



There are about 5 in post-production right now (all in the "AMX" series which I mentioned); a long-finished mix called "Pretty Pretty Songs" that even a grizzled homeless guy would like; and a more recently accomplished mix in a series called "SHOWER JAMZ!" (yes, it must be in all caps- you'll grasp the enormity of it all, which requires decisive use of graphic effects, in not too long).

But for now, a little ditty by Wilbert Harrison:



...Download Wilbert Harrison's lil' corker of a tune, Kansas City...

I originally heard this song on a tape of old rock business. Don't think I'm faking, please: tapes are not picked over at Goodwills e.g., to the high degree that vinyl is. This would be a moot point, except I was at the time cruising around Portland, OR, in a car with a tape deck (and a SUNROOF boom! and red blam! and a goddamned SPOILER!). So I dug around a bit in the tape bins, and now that I think about it, that was the beginning of me listening to oldiesrock.



So, lucky me and lucky you: sunroof = tapes = Wilbert Harrison.


...Download Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City...


10.30.2008

Futurist Revelations - the Second (secular) Coming - Be Thankful!

Yeeeeuh... another mix, matched so mean! This one is the originally planned mix for The Second (Secular) Coming: this one deals not with my colossal narcissism, but rather with the purity of spirit which is my Divinity Proper.
HELL YES!

Link it up : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

As a mix, it moves from slow-burning but intense/driven (1-3), to sprawling dirty grandeur (4-5), quietism without passivity (6-8), a darkness (9-11) pefiguring The End and Resurrection (12-13). Quite a history here...


Here is the cast of characters, in the order in which you ought to listen to them:
1 Eternity Is Here *The Gun Club* Danse Kalinda Boom
2 Coded Language *Krust (Featuring Saul Williams)* Coded Language
3 The Prophet *The Make-Up* Untouchable Sound—Live
4 Revelations *Panthers* The Trick
5 Dead Souls *Joy Division* Permanent
6 My Body Is A Cage *The Arcade Fire* Neon Bible
7 City Of Refuge [Acoustic Version] *Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds* B-Sides And Rarities Volume I
8 Be Thankful For What You've Got (orignially by Devaughn - live cover) *Yo La Tengo*
9 Death To Everyone *Bonnie "Prince" Billy* I See A Darkness
10 Share the Fall *Roni Size and Reprazent (Grooverider's RMX)*
11 I Swear *Tulipomania*
12 Back *Alpha* Come From Heaven
13 I Am The Resurrection *The Stone Roses* The Complete Stone Roses

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip


Share the Fall- sparse and epic. Like Fitzgerald, as 'read to me' (i.e. quoted) by Deleuze:
"twilight on a deserted range, with an empty rifle in my hands and the targets down. No problem set — simply a silence with only the sound of my own breathing." The sound of a faraway, lifeless planet: it bakes during the day and it freezes at night.

Body is a Cage: Church organs, giving the grand sweep, the operatic heights, appropriate to the Declaration of Divinity.


Eternity is Here: Once started, this song begins to instantly, insistently proclaim itself. Whipcrack drums, plaintive guitars. Its insistence is almost a prosyletizing.

Death to Everyone: see the cover for a picture of the aforementioned planet.



Lyrically, this songs does this:
"Stars turn, balls burn / Coming kids are raging

Death to everyone is gonna come / And it makes hosing much more fun"

"So strap me on and raise me high / Cause buddy I'm not afraid to die
But life is long and it's tremendous / And we're glad that you're here with us".

Dead Souls- Joy Division made this song, which later was covered by NIN (on "The Crow" Soundtrack). You know what this one sounds like. It sounds like JoyDiv, so how could it not go on a mix about the Second (secular) Coming?:
Ian Curtis died by his own hand (as did Jesus- well, His Dad asked Him to die, and He consented - since He is, in a mysterious but essential fashion, His own father. He consented to His own death: that is, He is a suicide),
and the Crow character COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD to avenge wrongs done him. And what is Divine Justice if not supernaturally aided punishment of the wicked?

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

Back- Alpha is always slept on: I told you this already. Some fantastic male crooning here; you'd do well to check it out if you like Rufus Wainwright, or the more sedate Morrissey even. This song has a hazy quality: incense floating through a still afternoon.
But In A Barn.
A barn with a record player. And records (for sampling): old ones, very scratchy and mellowed with age.

I = Resurrection- Manchester Madchester : Woodblock like the cowbell in a Will Ferrel SNL skit. "I put my raver-sized corduroy pants on the same way you do, mate: except when I put on my pants, I make GOLD RECORDS!" (cue laugh track)
(please?).

Coded Language - Man, when this one breaks, it B R E A K S out for real. Massive world consuming clattering drums. Some lyrics (By the great poet Saul Williams):
"Motherfuckers better realize, now is the time to self-actualize.
We have found evidence that hip hop's standard 85 rpm, when increased by a number of at least half the rate of it's standard, or decreased at a third of its speed, may be a determining factor in heightening consciousness.
[somehow, he is actually rapping all these words -
- believe, brudda, It Works]
Thus, in the name of:
Robeson, God's son, Hurston, Ahkenaton, Khalo, Kali, Whitman, Baldwin, Ghandi, Gibran, Shabazz, Hamer, Holiday, Davis, Coltrane, Morrison, Joplin, Gaye, Hathoway, Nostradamus, Nefertiti, Shiva, Ganesha, Yemaja, Kennedy, King, four little girls, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Marley, Cosby, Shakur, Those Still Aflamed, and the countless unnamed!"


By this point of the song, trust me, we are all aflamed. Lit up by millenia of song and millenia of thought, all compressed into (the Coded Language of) quantized drums. INTENSE.

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

Be Thankful- a mellow little interpretation of the ol' soul-ish/reggae-ish classic. Be Thankful that I put this on there. (You might even snap your fingers during it!) Yo La Tengo is supremely good at covers- get into it and see what I mean...

Revelations- Panthers started out super-Futurist, very much in the vain of !Nation of Ulysses!. The Kids wanted their revolution, by gum, and they were going to knock on the squares until they got one. Now, Panthers seems more gripped by the ennui of being a hipster who knows that he's a hipster, and who also knows what this means: they have become nearly paralyzed by awareness of self-awareness. But the music hasn't frozen - oh no - they have moved away from any formulaic punk and added that rad heavy stoner drone psych grind that the Kids these day like so well: more Black Sabbath and less !Nation!. It's a good mix- heavy, but still with momentum/propulsion.

DOWNLOAD : The Second (Secular) Coming.zip

DEATH TO ALL KINGS
LONG LIVE THE PRINCE OF PRINCES

10.13.2008

Narcissistic Revelations

Or, NarciCHRIStic RevelAWESOMEs. Take your pick.
In a former post, I revealed to you my divinity. (It was of world-historical import. But trans-historical, too.)

As was said about me in Oscar Wilde's 'Salome', "When he cometh the solitary places shall be glad. They shall blossom like the rose. The eyes of the blind shall see the day, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened. The sucking child shall put his hand upon the dragon's lair, he shall lead the lions by their manes."



Here are some of the first fruits of my new rule over man and beast.

A MIX! (the opening of ears!)

NarciCHRIStic RevelAWESOME.zip

TRACKLISTING =--=


I Wanna Be Adored>> The Stone Roses>> The Complete Stone Roses

I Am Pentagon>> The Make-Up>> Untouchable Sound—Live

New Morning>> Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds>> Tender Prey

More Than This>> Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music>> Street Life

(It Will Have To Do) Until The Real Thing Comes Along>> Wibert Harrison>> An Introduction To Wilbert Harrison

Didn't I>> The Delphonics>> WIBG 99

I Am Mister Big Stuff>> Jimmy Hicks

Me Myself And I>> De La Soul>> 3 Feet High And Rising

9 Lashes (When Michael Smacks Lucifer)>> Vast Aire>> Look Mom...No Hands

Touched by the Hand of God>> New Order>> Salvation Original Sdtk

Y.T.T.E. (Yield to Total Elation)>> Matmos>> The Civil War

My Week Beats Your Year>> Telefon Tel Aviv

U Don't Know Me>> Armand Van Helden

Bunk Trunk Skunk>> Be Your Own Pet>> Be Your Own Pet

Time of the Season (Zombies cover)>> Snowden

JUSTIFICATION of Tracklist:

So this mix came out of the attempt to put together a series of songs having to do with revelations, prophets, etc. But as a ran through some CDs, I also started thinking about the monumental narcissism of proclaiming myself as the Second (although Secular) Coming.
I have no problem with my monumental narcissism; it's just something I noticed.
So out of that mix (coming later) came this series of songs, which combines my posturing and my awesome nature.

The Stone Roses are British, and British rock bands often have God-complexes. Remember Oasis, and how they claimed to be as big as the Beatles? And remember how the Beatles said they were bigger than Jesus?



My Divinity has been geometrically demonstrated, according to Spinoza's mos gemetricos. Turns out the damn thing's a Pentagon! Who'd've thunk it?

There's nothing more than this [this=me].

And even if there IS something more than me, it ain't here yet, is it? So you'll have to wait, then, until the real thing comes along.

With that clear, irrefutable reasoning just then- didn't it just blow your mind?

Either that, or it only makes sense to me. Maybe I'm a little 'touched'...
TOUCHED BY THE HAND OF GOD more like it! (!zing!)

Plus, I went to RUBA this weekend -Before Sunday!- then back to mine. Proof positive that "My Week Beats Your Year".

And if I'm not JC Jr., then certainly Armand Van Helden is. That guy... I mean that guy, he invented speed garage, made guitars work in house music (mixed blessings, that), etc. He made a Tori Amos song cool- if that's not magical power, then what is?

We'll just close out this justification with some lyrics from the final song by the Zombies



(but our version is a cover by Atlanta's Snowden):

"What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?

Has he taken
Any time
To show you what you need to live?
Tell it to me slowly
Tell you what?
I really want to know..."


Wait, wasn't Jesus a Zombie too?


T H E C I R C L E I S C L O S E D

8.23.2008

Female Rap Battle

Yes yes yes! If you thought my post about Def Dames was good...
sheeeeit, you ain't heard anything yet:
Come on and Get Some!

(Download "Come on and Get Some".mp3 by the Cookie Crew here!)

This is the first in an ostensible series
called:

___x___ BATTLE!!!

('x' is a variable, so it changes, but the battling aspect remains. Next time, I swear that I am shitting you not, is 'French pseudo-New Wave' Battle! EEEEP! Get excited OH WAIT you ALREADY totally are!)

Since I've already given you a taste of some Def Dames, and I just got this other record recently, the scene is set for an EPIC Battle between.....

Cookie Crew !!!! ((Some Very Bad Girls!))
Bad Girls (Rock the Spot).mp3 - Cookie Crew

and Def Dames !!!! ((They're 'bout to Set it Off!))
Set It Off.mp3 - Def Dames

Another well-sniffed out piece of vinyl!
The hints this time were:

A) it's on the ffrr label
(which I recalled put out LTJ Bukem's classic: Logical Progressions)




----- 1) And then I learned that ffrr was founded by none other than Pete Tong?!?! Hey Koob!!
----- 2)and also learned that ffrr stands for "full frequency range recordings"
----- 3) and that both the label's logo and it's name were both bitten from Decca!
:Stealing is fun!)

B) has a track called "black is the word"

C) has a track called "Dazzle's Theme"
(which you can download on mediafire

or stream from this little fella:



----- 1) which, as a "theme", must be the DJ's own special little jam. DJ's are one of the OFFICIAL pillars of hiphop (which broader than rap- rap itself is 'just' a pillar ), and so a Crew that is paying homage to their DJ understands the roots of hiphop. They get that you can't just spit rhymes, however good, over stupid beats.
Over STOOPID beats, yes, sure. That would be good, to do that.



Watch Cookie Crew on Youtube, that is, if you want to see some more of the above circa '90 "fashion":



D) had the same tracks on both sides (sort of...*), which means that it is a record meant for DJs. Lots of rap records have the same tracklisting on both sides. When you see duplicated tracklistings, you should assume that the vinyl is either
----- 1) a party jam (so that you can throw it on right-quick without looking for the right side) -OR-
----- 2) vocal tracks on one side, and the same tracks as instrumentals on the other (or, one side is Radio-edit [no cursing!] and the other is the LP version [shit-tons of cursing!])
----- ----- a) which demonstrates that you are holding some SERIOUS DJ shit in your hands...

*Sort of... it turns out that they just glued the same label on both sides!... which, since this was released on VINYL and CASSETTE only

(at least Stateside- did I mention that Cookie Crew is BRITISH?!? which makes their rapping skills that much more impressive. As I've said before, the British, despite speaking the very same language as Americans, could not figure out how to rap for the longest time! Go ahead and name 3 British rappers: see?)

means that I almost could not find out what the first side's tracks were. BUT someone commenting on amazon listed the tracks, and although they were for the British CD, and thus were still not exactly right, I made do. YOU ARE SO LUCKY that I put in that effort, huh?

Aw, you're welcome, you old so-and-so.

Now, Def Dames respect the DJ too. They gave him his own track too, wherein they query, "Do You Wanna Battle Tomkat????"


----- 1) the answer would be no, you do not want to Battle Tomkat ("Don't be a fool!"). He'll take your title, you sucka DJ!



Born this Way - Cookie Crew

There, now you tell me:
who won this here Battle?

7.29.2008

Humility and Repentance : Let There Be Music

So I apologize for the last blog. I haven't heard any complaints, but I knew going in that my screed, my decree, might be decried as grandiose. That it might tickle some of you as off-topic, even though it WAS the topic.

((Well! Don't say I didn't warn you of My Awesome Powers when the Christo-Pocalypse rains upon the earth.))

But I know that you come here not for spiritual revelation, but musical revelation:



AND THUS IT SHALL BE.



{{updated August 5th, with some streaming audio and direct links to select MP3s!}}



DOWNLOAD The Coup : http://www.mediafire.com/The Coup- Get Up.mp3



STREAM The Coup at IMEEM :







Here is a mix I made (should I say, of which 'I Am the Creator'? Hmmm...) All the tracks are all stone-cold rockers; real cuts as Lindsey says; all killer no filler; etcet etcet.

Here is the cover that I made for my copy of the mix:







With Less Ado:

"Kill: The DJ.zip"







More Mix CD’s for you: MIXPLANATIONS




I teach at a Philadelphia-area university, and last semester I taught 'philosophy of contemporary music'

It was pretty great.



((btw : THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS IS THAT I WANT TO BURN THESE MIXES FOR YOU- you being actual friends: actual meaning that you have a face- WITH AWESOME CD SLEEVE DECORATIONS AND PICTURES AND STUFF: SO TELL ME IF YOU RIKEY AND I WILL MAIL THEM TO YOU BECAUSE I WUV YOU: I wuv you if you have a face, that is))



I put a few tracks together almost every class, and although I usually forgot to play more than one or two, I sent all selections via email. Great. But that only means that some of my students (some of them- I think most never listened to any of it) got to hear.

BOO I like you better than my students.



http://www.mediafire.com/Sleater Kinney - I Wanna Be Yr Joey Ramone.mp3





What okay so I took all the songs I ever picked out, and chopped them into 8 different mixes. 8 which on its side is the symbol for infinity. Cos that's a lot. Most of these have a musical sound that they ride through the mix.



*SOME BACKGROUND* I never thought mix CDs should be letters to a friend, or documents of a 'moment', or eighty minutes of your favorite or most fun songs that you could think of, off the top of your head-like.

My default mode for mix CD'ing is closer to a DJ. There will be a mood or a song with a very specific musical quality to it, and then there will be a selection of all the songs that resemble the mood/song. Then, you pare down the songs on the basis of which ones fit together. There will probably be certain songs that

M U S T MUST must

be on the mix, and so you have to get from point A (must 1) to point B (must 2), using those other songs that might work, that might make the cut. So it fits together from song to song and as a whole.

And still to me that is the model of a mix. Points as Joints: each song, as a relatively discrete point, must form a jointure with the next point, and together they form something like an organic whole. LESSON OVER now on to the Kill: The DJ.zip mix I made from class. They are all tootoo dope.











Wheres Jack the Ripper? (Origin Unknown RMX) - Grooverider



This first one is called "Kill: The DJ".zip, not "Kill the DJ". OKAY? This one is very good. It is not happy with your testwork. It has some stunners, and it might maybe have a headache. But it won't give you one, prolly.







Panic (live) ----- Billy Bragg



I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone ----- Sleater-Kinney



Love Will Tear Us Apart ----- Joy Division



Age Of Consent ----- New Order



Paint It Black ----- The Rolling Stones



Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) ----- Neil Young



Summer ----- Mogwai



Sluta Följa Efter ----- Dungen

http://www.mediafire.com/Dungen-Sluta Följa Efter.mp3



What's Ya Take on Cassavettes ----- Le Tigre



Posse Slash ----- Vast Aire (f Karniege, Breez Evahflowin, Poison Pen & Aesop Rock)



Get Up ----- The Coup



Earth People ----- Dr. Octagon



We Enter RMX ----- Optical



Where's Jack the Ripper? (Origin Unknown RMX) ----- Grooverider



KILL: THE DJ .zip



You probably recognize some of these, and if so, you should have a decent mental image of what the others sound like, based on the shared feel of the ones you know.

It is the of utmost import that you listen to these IN ORDER: I didn't just pick out like the best songs ever (although I most certainly DID do that), but also sequenced them properly. (It's a gift; what can I say.)

Mogwai, then Dungen?: It's A Must!





Sluta Följa Efter - Dungen




And how do you hopscocth from the Rolling Stones (very old) to some crucial junglist anthems? Why, you must get some rock-with-synths (thx Kathleen Hanna! Hai JD! ay Johanna!) in that-there mix! Then slide through some lurching, icy, creeping hip-hop. Smooth: easy breezy mang.



Panic is that Smiths joint. But here is a live Billy Bragg version.

*Joey Ramone has Corin Tucker making this way-rad squealing noise.

You have danced to this Joy Division at Making Time, AND at Click!. So, you know.

*When will the New (world) Order finally arrive?....

You may have wanted to dance to Paint it Black at Kelliann's in West Philly, but you never did.

*Mogwai puts on a fierce intense destructive live show. Some think that the album off of which this song comes is their best; some people are silly little things. COME ON DIE YOUNG is their best.

Dungen sounds old, and many-headed; it is new, and mostly just one person. He even plays the drums!!?!!

*Le Tigre: My take on Cassavettes is that I loved 'Faces' better than "woman under the influence", which is quite good. "Genius, or misogynist?": How about, "Both"?

Vast got vastly lazy these last few years: here he is still killing mics.

*The Coup are as relevant as ever. Funky Bay-area business, all in the name of black rights/consciousness/pride/greatness/etc.

Kool Keith is still Krazy.

*Optical is strictly for the heads- tell me if I know any 'heads' anymore please.... "and we enter, enter with the funk of the future...."

And this Grooverider track (though not this remix) is what got me into drum and bass decisively. I had Goldie's Metalheadz comp, and enjoyed it, but when I heard "Where's Jack the Ripper?", I lost it.



I never got it back.

KILL: THE DJ .zip

And neither will you.





6.23.2008

Miss Mo' Better

Portishead had a new album out not too long ago; but what you need (and SO what I am supplying you) is from an album 40 years old.
Miss Morgana King. Setting a template. A template worth knowing about.
I will, out of self-interest (enlightened self-interest, at least) rather than generosity, also give you some of this most-recent Portishead. Why do I say self-interest?: I am trying to "drive traffic", as the hackers say. You will come for Portishead, but what I really want you to have the Miss Morgana King.
That is why I will post the relevant Portishead songs near the end of this blog:
DADDY SAYS you MUST eat your (delicious!) vegetables before having your (also delicious!) dessert. The RULES are the RULES my son.

Ahem.
Listen to this song alone, and you will hear Beth Gibbons -- You will hear what you love about Beth Gibbons (she, of course, is the Voice of Portishead).

Miss Morgana King - Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child

Now, I often feel like a motherless child myself - I was raised by wolves (which I sometimes phrase as "I sprang fully formed from my own forehead") - so I can empathize with this song's effective working-through of mourning.

To continue with songs that evoke Portishead, we have the title of this song- "The Night has A Thousand Eyes".

Miss Morgana King - The Night Has A Thousand Eyes

Since I don't feel like emoting all over this blog, I will post, instead, the back cover of the album, which does a reasonable job of encapsulating

Miss

Morgana

King


miss mo 1 a
miss mo 1b

miss mo 2a
miss mo 2b


If your browser (or my blog itself) is giving you grief viewing these, go to my flickr page and view them fullsize. They, like Miss Morgana King Herself, are worth the time to engage. Although her music more than these texts, obviously.
Oh, you wanted some P-head too, correct? Here are some excellent songs of their new album, which (to my recent thinking) sound the most like Miss Morgana King. So, together with her songs to which you have listened, you will get a nice dense block of a particular sound.
Oooh! you are so LUCKY!

Portishead - The Rip

Portishead - Hunter

Perhaps this "Hunter" is hunting during a "Night with A Thousand Eyes"
-
Do You Think?

Ah yes I almost forgot to add this:
Tom Jones (!) covered "Motherless Child". With Portishead! BUT Tom did the singing himself.
I grant you permission to listen to a clip of it HERE.
I hope that marking out your preference for one song over the other will not tax you too greatly.
Thanks to Matt Beck for accidentally drawing my attention to a conversation about Portishead's new album, which was the spark that led to this blog: blame him - not me.