a loaf supreme

montage by ib.

I have Holly to thank for this learning curve. For joining the dots and uncovering shared DNA from a time not so long ago when king ether and happenstance still reigned absolute; when genetic code could not be matched through a Uniform Resource Locator.

Supreme Dicks came together in Massachusetts in 1982.

Somewhere between the insular slacker campus of New Hampshire College and Amherst; just under 100 driving miles from Boston.

Erecting their tent on the scavenging grounds once frequented by Chickatabot and the Mahican wolf tribe.

Where once there raged wars with "people of the place of the flint" - the Kaniengehaga of three elder brothers - the blood sown plains sired Amanita Muscaria. Fraternities of Psilocybin.

Visited by the spirits of the bear, the wolf, and the turtle, Supreme Dicks allied in council. Oxemberg; Shere; Shafel. Kicking against the pricks.

They issued a truncated declaration of independence in 1992, "Sky Puddle", followed by a more comprehensive document on the Communion sub-division of Homestead Records: "The Unexamined Life". Recruiting Louis Knox Barlow to pluck a string on one strange song along the way. "Working Man's Dick" came next on the UK based Freek label. And a third, "The Emotional Plague", in 1996. A brooding phratry. And then they folded.

I know a thing or two about folding, myself. I know a good deal less about the Supreme Dicks.


▼ SUPREME DICKS: RANADA'S DEMON from "Working Man's Dick" LP (Freek) 1994 (US)

ikue mori: desert colonies

Where to begin ?

Ikue Mori arrived in New York from her native Tokyo at some point in 1977, quickly gravitating toward the CBGB's scene in downtown Manhattan. It was there, presumably, that she first encountered guitarist, Robert Quine.

In early 1978, Mori replaced Dublin born Gordon Stevenson in Arto Lindsay and Robin Crutchfield's DNA.



DNA, 1978: ikue mori; arto lindsay; robin crutchfield.

As the tiny No Wave movement gathered momemtum - disenchanted with the market forces which had descended on the Bowery - intermarriage and incest between localized tribes became rife. An open exchange of creative fluids.

Where one cell might bleed out, perish, mutation was a more likely prognosis.

Stevenson was invited by Lydia Lunch to play bass in Teenage Jesus and The Jerks. He accepted. Lindsay and Crutchfield instantly recruited Ikue Mori to sit in on drums for DNA. As it was, both bands appeared on the Brian Eno project, "No New York". Alongside The Contortions and Mars. Shortly thereafter, Crutchfield himself bowed out and was replaced by Tim Wright, formerly of the Cleveland incarnation of Pere Ubu.

Crudely painted at best, you get the picture. A petri dish seething with bacterial fermentation. As far removed from an irradiated desert as is imaginable.

DNA disbanded in 1982. Mori was drawn to collaborating with a sequence of experimental artists including Fred Firth, Tom Cora and John Zorn. She jettisoned traditional percussion in favour of a signature arrangement of three self-programmed drum machines. An evolution of the synthesized sound arguably pioneered in New York by Alan Vega and Martin Rev.



Bob Quine, of course, is no stranger On The Bleachers.

His work with a diverse range of artists through the eighties and nineties until his death in 2004 goes well beyond the remit of session musician. Or his tenure as Voidoid. By 1994 when he teamed up with fellow guitarist, Marc Ribot to revisit the landscape of Ikue Mori's "Painted Desert", Quine had previously worked with Zorn (and Frith) on 1985's "breakthrough" recording, "The Big Gundown". Itself a radical reworking of popular themes by Ennio Morricone.

Familiar territory. But stripped of the complex structure of Zorn's earlier project; the sheer weight of competing performance.

Recorded at Sear Sound, NYC, 14-16 February 1994.

Mixed by Joe Ferla at Sound On Sound, 24 July 1994.

Ikue Mori: Drum Programming;

Robert Quine, Marc Ribot: guitar;

Recorded by Alec Head. Produced by John Zorn.

▼ IKUE MORI: SANTA ANA EXCURSION from "Painted Desert" CD (Avant) 1997
▼ IKUE MORI: MEDICINE MAN from "Painted Desert" CD (Avant) 1997 (US)

clyde barrow p★etry lesson

F@ck the Kray Twins. I have no time at all for those crocodile twats.

Mixed by Danny Briottet and Mark Stent.
Sample from Serge Gainsbourg.

▼ RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE: RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE (7" MIX) from "Renegade Soundwave" 10" + 12" Maxi (Mute) 1994 (UK)

wind currents

"...though the prevailing direction is actually from the north-northwest.
In contrast to the shamāl is the less frequent qaws from the southeast.
The wind regimes of Najd and the Rubʿ al-Khali are complex,
particularly during spring. The winds may come
from any point of the compass and vary in intensity..."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Anouar Brahem: oud;
Ustad Shaukat Hussain: tabla;
Jan Garbarek: tenor & soprano saxophone.

Produced by Manfred Eicher.

illustration by ib.

▼ ANOUAR BRAHEM; JAN GARBAREK; SHAUKAT HUSSEIN: QAWS from "Madar" CD (ECM) 1994 (Germany)

chicago now #2: spiderwebbed

EFA 04950-2.



dedicated to the memory of michael f. cergizan.

dan bitney; john herdon; john macentire; douglas mccombs; bundy k. brown.

Recorded and mixed by John McEntire at Idful Music Corporation; Chicago, Illinois; November 29th - December 5th, 1993. Written by Tortoise for Wrapped in Rubber Music. Thrill Jockey Records / City Slang.

The sound of a cold fire slowly building. "Onions Wrapped In Rubber"; "Tin Cans & Twine." In a windy city buffeted by police sirens and the memory of prohibition dollars.

▼ TORTOISE: SPIDERWEBBED from "Tortoise" LP / CD (Thrill Jockey) 1994 (US)

PURCHASE TORTOISE

the cramps

mr. mystic's uncle bill out on the pull.

Huge fans of Boon County's Hasil Adkins, Ivy Rorschach and longtime beau Lux Interior invite us all to a Texan hoedown with all the frills.

Just don't do it on my doorstep.

▼ THE CRAMPS: LET'S GET F*CKED UP from "Flamejob" LP/CD (Epitaph/Creation) 1994 (US)