upside downer

Don Drummond.

About time I got my skank on again.

The ingestion and subsequent description of the effects of mind-altering pharmaceuticals has had a pretty good run at various points along the lyrical landscape. For more information, listen to jazz, psychedelia, acid house and most of Hawkwind's output.

Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning? International Asbestos Testing Laboratories? Eh?

Magic people, voodoo people.

Getting together in the new year with a couple of former bandmates just to have fun (and maybe a gig or two) by running through some old tunes so I thought I'd treat myself with a new(ish) bass. I only wanted something functional and inexpensive for our meetups so I grabbed this at the auctions for £50, a Westfield B1000. It's clean and in decent nick with only two tiny dings on the body. As you can see from the pic I'm a strings-the-wrong-way-around player (maybe my username gave it away?) so I just had to flip the nut before restringing and had to slightly alter the saddles for the correct intonation. Put some flatwounds on it and now it sounds and plays really nicely. I've used Westfields before, Strat guitar in a duo and violin bass in my last band and I've always found them to be reliable and more than up to the job.

Well, I got to the end but needed a break halfway through, found this a tough one to take any pleasure from. I'm ok with not understanding the words but I do find the Castilian tongue to be a difficult one to listen to when sung, it all sounds so busy, as did much of the instrumentation on this. I think @BillyBass comparing it to Coldplay didn't help, either It was quite the relief when it wrapped up after 48 long, long minutes. Still, this is the whole idea of Album of the Week Club, taking you out of your comfort zone. One week you're pleasantly surprised, the next, you think the album is an... I agree, Dr Eerier. 2/10.

Here's mine. Recorded with Wavepad and utilising the many and varied beeps and squelches available in Ableton. Drums from both MT Drums and Looperman. Get me out of the Paranoid City, where the trees are scorched and the living is gritty, oh, won't you please take me home? A wary and weary band of cyberpunks plot their route through the mean streets where fear, suspicion and mistrust rule.

Boo Dadleys Dad Gadget Badly Drawn Dad Dad Cafe

Didn't really get on with this one. A couple of the tracks were OK-ish and gave off vague Third Ear Band vibes but many of the pieces outstayed their welcome. For the most part there was a lot of what sounded like an inconsequential, repetitive mix of xylophones and bing-bonging backed by vacuum cleaners and detuned radios which, in the right hands, might sound better than this forgettable effort.

Medúlla is very cleverly crafted. The sparse instrumentation and use of throat singing and (I'm guessing) treated vocals leads to an altogether different type of album than you'd usually be expecting. Björk is one of those artists who isn't afraid to bend and shape her music into myriad directions. Unfortunately, I didn't much care for it, though! Couldn't find myself humming along to anything here, I'm afraid. I don't mind bits and bobs of her other stuff (early Sugacubes and Army of Me is a belter) but I wouldn't be digging this one out again any time soon. 3/10.

Pup Will Eat Itself Veneration X Status Duo Black Flan Bream Shag 69 UK Pubs Jethro Dull Les MI5 Loft Machine The Jim Talc Talk Faith No Bore Kings of Loon Bee Goes The Lamas & the Papas The Smashing Bumpkins The Grifters The Wonder Stiff Atone Roses The Boasters Demo Arcade Fine Gentle Grant Aphrodite's Chili Moody Glues Joe Division Tools and the Maytals Gary Human Soft Celt Men Without Hams Simple Minks Tubeway Arms Britney Speaks That's more than enough. Probably some duplicates here but I can't be bothered to go through the pages again

Sud Cress Logs D'Amour Prince Tabby Peter Posh Water New York Rolls Johnny Chunders

The Fission Peter Wylie & The Mighty WAX! Sonia Youth Henry Now Iggy Pip The Sisters of Merry Blue Cheek Medicine Heal

Fop Fighters Stink Chef

Dad only had four albums. Two Don Williams, a Dolly Parton and a Greatest Hits of 1973 affair. Mum occasionally tuned in to Radio 2. As to influences, I'd go with my elder cousin who, when we were round Gran's house, would slip his collection of punk singles and albums on the turntable. "Turn that rubbish off!" 😀

I gave it more than one minute and twenty seven seconds Listened to it three times, and there's a couple of half-decent tracks but it never really grew on me. I don't mind a bit of jingly-jangly alt-rock but this had a 'much of a muchness' feel about it, it just meandered along and there was a lack of decent 'hooks' to get hold of. The recording sound is good but the whole album didn't leave a lasting impression. Best tracks - Loosen Up, No Say and Wake the Breathing Light. Overall - 5/10

Congrats @SH73, nice one! 👏

I quite liked Clive Dunn's reggae phase. "Permission to Toast, Sir?" and "They Don't Like It Uptown" are dub classics.

Hello, another member of the 'Disappointed With My Vocal Club' here. Tried to sound scary, ended up sounding like Malcolm McLaren 🙃 Our cheeky little heroine is off to school. Dunno how much work she'll get done, what with the mischievous and otherworldly nature of her classmates. They all seem a bit, well, y'know, rapaciously ravenous. She may well fall in with the wrong crowd, if she hasn't already... Recorded with Wavepad, Audacity and a Roland Micro Cube. Unbranded guitar using open C tuning with some delay in places, P-bass copy, Yamaha YPT240 keyboard, MT Drums and a handful of samples for screams and noises. Vox for those that are interested.

Intriguing. I'm in. Looking forward to getting some Slovenian dub psychobilly with hints of samba 👍

Beatles Special Happiness Is a Warm Nun Yelp! Ciggies Paxman We Can Pork It Out Octopus's Warden Why Don't We Do It In the Toad? Dig a Pond In My Wife A Day In the Lift

Yep, same for Walk Like An Egyptian, Walk This Way, The Way I Walk...and don't mention The Walker Brothers.

Next one up is the Professionals at the Craufurd Arms in Wolverton in early November.

Same here. Ordered tickets in January for the May gig in Corby that was then shunted to November and has now been cancelled altogether, got the news from Ticketmaster the other day. Not happy! Is that the reason? That was the excuse last time around. Their facebook page hadn't said anything about it the last time I looked.