Quaint ramblings and occasional reflections of a journeying Aussie musician...

30 January 2006

London Calling V - Blue in E

I'm finding myself a bit more at ease with the place these days....

Just little things....instead of feeling like I have to walk as fast and hard as I possibly can everywhere I go, I find I'm taking my time in little spots here and there, easing into a more comfortable, laid back stroll....walking the streets now, at least in the parts I frequent, I'm a bit less depressed with how the whole place looks, or maybe I still am but it doesn't affect me as much, doesn't affect me in the same way it used to....

Heads up for electronica fans here by the way - been checking out a CD by Eivind Aarset, guitarist for Nils Peter Molvaer - chilled out, wild stuff. My electronic music collection is still quite small, but my housemate X has turned out to be something of a connoseiur, and this one is totally connecting with me (title of the album, funnily enough, is 'Connected'). Electronic music can feel a bit inhuman to me sometimes, so I guess it's that meeting place between the bleeps and bloops and instrumental improvisation that the material starts to take me somewhere. It somehow fits in a whole lot more with here, the constant cloud cover, no sunlight...the alien brown-green glow of night rising above endless terrace house rows. Oz feels a lot more like a place where people would be more likely to play instruments in bands, in between beers in the backyard or down at the beach....

Funny now how used I am to the part of London that I live in...I was briefly down in South London last night, and it almost felt uncomfortable walking down the big open streets they have down there round Oval and Kennington, like I wanted to run back to the winding nonsensical alleys of the North West. How bizarre!

But while perhaps becoming more at ease here in terms of getting to know it all, as well as the great gigs and work situation, the people thing is starting to get to me. Dr A made an astute observation once that wherever you go in this town, you're never more than a couple of metres from a person, even when sitting in your own living room or asleep in your bed. I'm starting to feel kind of negative about this in a big way, particularly with the housemate situation at the moment.

Sunday afternoon was ridiculous! I'm vacumming in the living room and DJ is lying there sprawled on the couch, apparently in some strange indirect effort to keep B out of the living room. And then I go in to clean up in the kitchen and B is sitting there, bitching to me about DJ! Once again, I'm just doing my easygoing thing, you know, reeds in the wind and all that, trying to gently suggest to each person how the other might see things a little differently, when I'm feeling this increasing need to grab'em bowf by da colla an mash veir 'eads togevva, innit!?...tell them to both get over themselves and find some kind of middle ground between their respectively hardened ways...or maybe I'm starting to get too high and mighty about all this. Must keep head down, back to the piano, mind back on the job....ho hum!

Speaking of the music, another audio heads up for all you hip hop fans....beside the house stuff, DJ knows a bit about hip hop here and there, and has hipped me up to Mos'Def, 'Black on Both Sides'! Rocking my world! It's not quite music from another universe like D'Angelo is, but it's pretty much there, and definitely resonates. And so, henceforth, I shall have occasion to end this particular entry with a quote from the first track of said album, strangely relevant to my own musical situation. If you exchange the word 'hip-hop' with maybe other musical genres, then you might know what I'm talking about...

"People talk about hip-hop like it's some giant livin' in the hillside, comin' down to visit the townspeople....we are hip-hop. Me, you, everybody, we are hip-hop, so hip-hop is goin' where we're goin'. So the next time you ask yourself where hip-hop is goin', ask yourself, 'Where am I goin'? How am I doin?' And then you get a clear idea...."

Until next time, my love to you all...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

dear micky, howdy, have finally made it to your blog! and I can't remember if I passed on preuss heads details either..... sounds like you are getting used to london town, I truelly want to go there, have not felt like travelling in a long time, but london makes me wanna do it! Have a 6 month residency for the first half of this year but maybe after that...did you see the whale in the river? kate smith