FROM THE [GOOGLE] DOCS #001
I've got to be honest, I'm still not quite sure what it going on, but here we are.
Hey there. Happy Saturday (or Friday), actually, happy wherever in the world you are. Like I said, I’m still getting my head around what Selected Works is going to be, and how often it’s going to happen, but like I said before, here we are.
I started writing about music seriously in 2007, but you could argue that I actually started writing about music in 1999/2000, so I’ve got a pretty decent archive of interviews, reviews and features I wrote in the late 2000s and early 2010s for New Zealand magazines like Groove Guide, Rip It Up, Back2Basics, Pulp, New Zealand Musician and North & South. I think I’d like to share some of those stories through this newsletter. That said, I’d also like to share some more contemporary writing, so I think it will end up being a bit of a mixture. I’ll probably also drop in a few photographs I’ve taken and the like.
This week I’ve put together some reflections on some music, literature and cinema I’ve been enjoying lately. I’ve also included links to a couple of articles I wrote this month, and some information about two radio shows I have coming up soon.
Cheers,
Martyn
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Cy Timmons, The World’s Greatest Unknown, (Bright Size Records)
Sample song: ‘Nowhere’
Born in 1941, Atlanta, Georgia singer-songwriter Cy Timmons is the master of Batida Americana: a bossa nova variant articulated through sonorous song, percussive guitar figures, unusual vocal techniques, and a love of cool jazz, traditional pop, and early R&B. Cy styled himself “The World’s Greatest Unknown”, also the title of his second album (released in 1974) and his storytelling, voice and command of mood and tone make for a singular experience. He also released two other albums, 1972’s Cy Timmons and 1998’s Heaven’s Gate. The World’s Greatest Unknown and Heaven’s Gate have both just been reissued by new Japanese imprint Bright Size Records (order here).
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
Maria Tumarkin, AXIOMATIC (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Over five essays on truth and intimacy, Australian author Maria Tumarkin uses real life stories - a community processing a suicide; a grandmother fighting to keep her grandson safe; a community lawyer’s sprawling battle with the legal system; the effects of intergenerational trauma; and a history of the author’s longest friendship - to reflect on how our pasts, collective, family and individual, shape the cultures we live within. Searing, illuminatory stuff (order here).
WHAT I’VE BEEN WATCHING:
Elia Suleiman, It Must Be Heaven (Rectangle Productions)
This is the film I desperately wanted Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control (2009) to be. Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman wanders through the streets of Nazareth, Paris and New York, while life, disappointment, dreams and daydreams play out around him. Elia plays himself, and I think he utters about four words in the whole film. Perfectly paced and meditative, It Must Be Heaven is a visual extravaganza, but the more surreal Elia’s experiences become, the more real, or portent they feel. I watched it at Lighthouse Cinema in Wellington.
WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:
My quarterly new music column is live on Dazed & Confused now. Sonic dispatches from the underground in the US, Russia, Uruguay, Jordan, the UK, Berlin, and New Zealand (click here).
I Interviewed Robert Charles Roper aka DJ Mastermix, the brilliant mind behind late 80s/early 90s UK Street Soul record label Top Secret Recordings (TSR) for Bandcamp Daily. We talked about the label and the music he released on it as Special Touch and Gold In The Shade (click here).
Whenever I have some spare time, I blog over at the open-eared Test Pressing blog alongside Apiento, Piers Harrison, Bruce Tantrum and Tom Dubwise. I’ve always got something going on there (Click here).
WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP:
Between 1-4pm New Zealand time today (Saturday 17 October), I’m DJing on my local alternative radio station, Radio Active 88.6 FM in Wellington. The plan is to play a mixture of UK and NZ Street Soul and Swingbeat. You’ll see Street Soul is a bit of a theme for me at the moment. If you’re not in Wellington, you can stream the show online later today (click here).
From 4-5pm UK time on Tuesday 20 October, I’ve got a one hour special on Street Soul and Swingbeat from Aotearoa New Zealand airing on the internet radio station of internet radio stations, NTS. Expect a lot of Fuemana, Sisters Underground, Semi MCs, Houseparty, Teremoana Rapley, Jules Issa, Sound Foundation, etc. After it plays, the mix will be archived online (click here).
