Topic: Musical highlights of 2024

You know I can't help myself guys. I had a lot of fun with music in 2024 again, playing out way more often than I have ever done, and mixing up 25 hours of italo disco funk house and all that for IFM and some other Soundcloudpages and such. Biggest fun deejaying was had at the IFM Fest, where I played the acid bunker for an hour.
Playback here: https://soundcloud.com/starborough-1/lo … dbunkermix

However, I also really enjoy (buying and) listening to albums, with no intention to use them in my mixes. I've been having fun posting stuff from my collection for a while now, here: https://www.instagram.com/4.7inches/

So yeah, that. And since I am crazy about making lists, here that goes.

Favorite live show: The Necks, Bimhuis Amsterdam, november 14th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kXL3xZ … osethemiss

Favorite theatre performance: BOG & Het Paleis - BAS, Koninklijke Schouwburg Den Haag, march 23rd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7W9u9B … =hetpaleis

Favorite film: Mutiny in Heaven - The Birthday Party, De Witt Dordrecht, februari 20th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWEcR8z … exoStudios

Favorite book: Thurston Moore - Sonic Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzTButK … %2CNewYork

Ten favorite albums:
- Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine & The Alchemist – Hall & Nash 2: The Original Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOME5Hy … Gunn-Topic

- Pentagrams Of Discordia – Teleportation To Gliese12B - Extd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Db1a-Z … fDiscordia

- Machinefabriek – Omval
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pdOHu … Recordings

- Monolake – Studio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7OSqre … lake-Topic

- Kim Gordon – The Collective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=papO2TK … rdon-Topic

- Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRcLqkc … tion-Topic

- The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BvcayR … Cure-Topic

- Dirty Three – Love Changes Everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyRWtJ- … DirtyThree

- Brian Eno, Holger Czukay, J. Peter Schwalm – Sushi. Roti. Reibekuchen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-1nm5s … nEno-Topic

- Lorenzo Dada & Luciano Michelini – Lucifer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUQFmUA … el=KOMPAKT


Show me whatever you remember being good big_smile

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

2 (edited by coae 2025-01-01 22:54:55)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Music wise it's 'same procedure as last year' - mostly metal, mixed with some NTS and IFM.
https://www.nts.live/shows/midnite-madness Also been listening to some poesy this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkZbZPEzuCM

---

Favourite book was Cormac McCarty - Blood Meridian, which tbh is probably the best book I've ever read. (Also read 'The Road' by same author but that one don't come close.)

Favourite film - The Zone of Interest

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Nice one, coae, ordered a copy of Blood Meridian. Funny you rate it higher than The Road as that is the most lauded one I think. I'll let you know when I've finished it!

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

4 (edited by coae 2025-01-02 22:06:51)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

I think Blood Meridian is considered McCarty's Magnum opus, but perhaps The Road and 'No country for old men' is more widely know because of the films. It is however (imo) two completely different calibres of literature when it comes to BM vs TR (haven't read NCFOM, yet).

Personally I thought TR walked a thin line between good litterateur and not so good, and with my 'humble-glasses' off i cant see that much of difference between TR and lets say a video game franchise. But hey! Many would disagree, the craftsmanship was present and kept it from falling.

The violence in BM might turn people of, but being the psychopath that i am (just kidding!) i thought it was a refreshing gut punch from the filter fiction often have when it comes to violence (e.g a murder in a Agatha Christie novel can almost take on a cozy atmosphere.)

Yeah would be interesting to hear what you think! (Even if you don't like it it would be interesting to hear some input). I would suggest reading it knowing as little as possible (worked for me). The language in the English version is apparently(?) a bit hard even for English speakers, just so you know....

5 (edited by DumbBot 2025-01-03 08:53:13)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Never been good that these, and don't buy any music anymore....so it;s almost impossible to keep track of what I've listened to. I've been following along on 4.7inch Insta though... Brian Eno, Holger Czukay, J. Peter Schwalm – Sushi. Roti. Reibekuchen, and the Pentagrams Of Discordia a new one for me.

Let's get Dumb

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

@coae; he won the Pulitzer price for The Road.. I picked up a Dutch translation, arrived today, I will let you know what I think!

@dumbbot; so nice to know that you are following the posts on 4.7inches, means a lot!!

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

7 (edited by coae 2025-01-04 07:39:44)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Mmm you cant always trust those big awards. Don't know if the Pulitzer Price is handed out in retrospect or if it have to be something somewhat contemporary (release 2006 - awards 2007), if it have to be contemporary it's quite possible it was one of 'the best' american books that year (it is a good book), but I wonder if a debutant would have gotten the prize, or if McCarty's whole life work was taken in account. If not contemporary he should have gotten it for BM.

His writing is of course excellent and is (imo) what raises the book, but turn down the craftsmanship just a notch, and say it was released by a John Doe, and im not sure the story would have been praised the same way, or read with the same 'glasses'.

Then again it's quite possible i would have loved The Road considerably more if i had read it before Blood Meridian. Perhaps i was coming down from the BM-rush. Taste is subjective and many would disagree with me about my gripes with TR, but i think most would agree BM is the better book.

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Started reading this morning, spent an hour reading the first 3 chapters, and liking what I am reading so far. But damn, it's pretty violent and intense!
Nice fit with your trash metal preferences :-)

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

9 (edited by coae 2025-01-07 21:48:21)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Humans surely are capable of extreme violence. Because the setting is long ago, and in an exotic environment e.g. the act of scalping almost feels fictional, easy to forget that the same cruelty is present in modern times.

Do love the thrash, but while reading the book I think i heard something like this playing in the back of my head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMxtdlDMiMo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2oHsVNCHtc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-M4u8LjlyE

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Finished Blood Meridian just yet, what an intense ride that was.. a feverish cowboy nightmare with satan as the judge. Thanks a lot for the tip!!

This was (part of) my soundtrack of choice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1NrHbB … gicRecords

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPlU-9e … darthtolis

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

11 (edited by coae 2025-01-16 11:48:51)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

https://i.redd.it/ztf45fzdvy6c1.png

Nice! Excellent soundtrack selection for a film (that probably wont be any good if it's ever made). The Grails album hade some 'oddness' sprinkled on top of the desert/western theme which was very fitting.

Spoilers below!

I guess it's the several layers that made the book appeal to me and made me think about it long after. The language (CM's writing), the odd time and place (when it comes to literature on this level), the raw violence, the history and the fact that it's based on a real life gang, this mixed with CM's 'supernatural' take that almost gives the book a Twin Peaks flavour. The religious aspect. The gang, in this harsh environment, are so deprived that they attract the devil, or a demon, or the good of war (have even heard someone speculate the judge shape should be a metaphor of the snake of Eden). The Volcanic scene is almost like they come to the edge of hell and the gunpowder was the price of their souls. The ending with the outhouse/ the Judge playing the fiddle is both poetically trivial, eternal and chilling at the same time.

Yeah... smile

12 (edited by JayStarbo 2025-01-16 16:40:14)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Funny you mention Twin Peaks, it has a very Lynchian vibe to it indeed.. Is it a nightmare? A hallucination? I also like the philosopical, sometimes Nietzschian, sometimes more Satanist way the Judge speaks, it is very much rooted in the ultimate will of survival as the founding principle of human existance.

I don't know if you know this, but I work in theatre, where we get our fair share of violent and tragic stories, be it from Shakespeare or from the Greeks.. and for me, this resembles one of those stories too.. A lonely protagonist in a tragic, cruel world, slowly graviting towards an inevitable ending.

Also, it made me realize just how violent the relatively recent past of Mexico and the United States is.. which kind of explains the omnipresence of violence in those societies nowadays to some extent.. 

I've been thinking about making a real radio show for IFM, not mixing, but playing songs and maybe talking about them a bit, somewhat of an extension of my 4.7inches insta blog, and this book makes me want to do it even more and use it as one of the storylines of an episode..

// Floating away in a hole darker than yours //

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

JayStarbo wrote:

I've been thinking about making a real radio show for IFM, not mixing, but playing songs and maybe talking about them a bit, somewhat of an extension of my 4.7inches insta blog, and this book makes me want to do it even more and use it as one of the storylines of an episode..

You've absolutely got to do this, it's the perfect realisation of the 4.7inches concept. And fantasy soundtracks to books/play/stories/ is also a great show idea.

run with it

Let's get Dumb

14 (edited by coae 2025-01-17 21:03:48)

Re: Musical highlights of 2024

Well there you go, one more layer. The Odyssey aspect i didn't even reflect upon (strangely enough)...

https://artusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/terpningcomanchespoilers.jpg

Having a image from western films of cowboys in hat and scarf and 'Indians' wearing native american attire - the Comanche attack with them appearing out of the dust wearing stolen western clothes, e.g. pigeon tailed coat worn backwards, stove pipe hat and even a wedding veil and so on, almost felt like an surreal nightmarish dream or an hallucination (the apocalyptic fashion of the Liberian civil war(s) came in to mind). Same goes for The Glanton gang's clothing. Toadvine's cut of ears and branding apparently was a punishment for horse thief. CM did his research.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Seth_Kinman_Reclining.jpg/1280px-Seth_Kinman_Reclining.jpg

Yeah, violence breeds violence and that part of the world have seen a lot. Heard an interview with the author to the book 'Empire of the Summer Moon' about the Comanches and their cruelty, and how dangerous it was to settle Texas. And (earlier) a bit south there was the Aztecs and their human sacrifice and later the Spanish who brought even more battle-hardened brutality to the table. The cartel violence today makes you question humanity, and in this modern context the devilish Judge Holden and his ideas is definitely still present.

This is what i meant when i said i like the violence in BM, many authors would instead have drooped an sympatric and kind protagonist, the likes of Hercule Poirot, in the midst, and perhaps made a more clear distinction between good and evil. The violence would be distant and clouded in some heroic filter. CM manages to balance the supernatural with reality without it turning in to a fairy tale, a bit like Lynch.

I knew you work with theatre, cool! Agree with DumbBot it sounds like an awesome idea! You working with theatre I'm sure your able to weave in some story with the music, if you choose to go that rout. The human presence at e.g top 100 always seems to be welcome at Ifm, so I'm sure your ide with some talk would be much appreciated and interesting. Do it!

https://youtu.be/fump5P3PugU?si=coypqj8Ee9jfHUBv

........

Speaking of David Lynch... Rest in peace.