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whats with the photos?
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| Originally posted by j�c� whats with the photos? |
congrats jdat .. ur abject postwhoring just took the 1000th post in this thread....
bloody typical it went to a foreigner 
yay for long informative posts! jdat you into web/graphic design? 
my back's fuckin sore. 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by fieroavian my back's fuckin sore. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by webmeister sounds like someone had a good weekend of either that or a lot of |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by webmeister sounds like someone had a good weekend of |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by webmeister either that or a lot of |
i just hit the weightroom yesterday, nothing sexual! 
here's your daily dose, before i hit the sack.
AG Guide to World Music
The term World music is a self-centered term that refers to any music that is not part of United States or European Pop traditions. It can be anything from Chinese Folk songs to African Blues. World music is not any music made elsewhere, but music made elsewhere that relies to some extent upon native or traditional styles or instrumentation. In other words an Javain Punk Rock group is not World but Punk, but a Javain Punk band that uses poetry derived from Macapat Poetry would be World.
African:
There are thousands of different styles of music coming out of the continent of Africa. African music, through the forced Diaspora of the African people, has been highly influential throughout the world. Blues, Jazz, Rock and Roll, Samba, Bossa Nova, Reggae, Hip Hop and everything that came out of those styles owes much to African traditional styles. In turn much modern African music has absorbed and adapted to modern international styles. The sounds of Rock, Jazz, Reggae, and Hip Hop and everything in between are filtered through tradition to form a number of different, modern African styles.
Traditional African:
Traditional is a catch-all term for any style of music not directly influenced by modern, international sounds. It could be anything from Arab singing to Nigerian drumming. Traditional music is typically categorized by its country or region of origin.
AfroPop:
AfroPop is an umbrella term referring to all modern African music. Everything from AfroBeat to Rai to Soukous is AfroPop.
Afro-Beat:
Afro-Beat is a West African dance music highly influenced by Nigerian Highlife and American Jazz and Funk. Imagine the James Brown band really high and playing with a group of tribal drummers and dancers. AfroBeat is largely the creation of one man, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Fela, a Nigerian singer, saxophone player, and keyboardist fused Nigerian Highlife rhythms and chants with Jazz-Funk, black consciousness and black nationalism. Fela�s son Femi carries the AfroBeat torch today.
Mbalax:
Mbalax is a Senegalese conglomeration of traditional rhythms and instruments with Afro-Cuban Jazz. The Star Band and its most famous alum, Youssou N�Dour, are prime examples of Mbalax.
Rai
Rai is a North African, mainly Algerian, style of music which combines traditional Berber, Arab and Beduin musical styles with a myriad of modern influences from Jazz and Rock to Reggae and Hip Hop. Cheb Mami and Cheb Khaled make excellent, funky, and soulful Rai music.
Asian
Asia is a huge continent and has produced a vast array of different musical styles. For the most part these are categorized according to country or region of origin.
Indian Classical:
Indian Classical music is complex, religious and improvisational. Featuring instruments such as Sitar and Tabla, and performed in long, meditative Ragas (organized more around keys and modes than melodies), much of what we know today of this music was influenced by Padma-Vibhu san Acharya Allauddin Khan. Great modern performers include his son, Ali Akbar Khan, and Ravi Shankar.
Bombay Pop:
Bombay, or Indian Pop, is music produced in Bombay by the massive film industry. It combines traditional Indian vocal techniques with European and American Pop production styles. Despite its modern influences Bombay Pop maintains a decidedly Indian tonal scale.
Qawwalli:
Qawwali is an Islamic devotional music from Pakistan. Its soaring melodies and meditative rhythms are used as religious meditation. Qawwali has found international popularity through the work of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
(from AMG) Qawwali is the exception to the rule for Islamic religious ceremonies; music is not allowed. Qawwali is popular in Pakistan and India and is played occasionally during weddings, child birth, and when a child is learning to read the Koran. The music is characterized primarily by its quick rhythms so that listeners can become inspired. � Keith Johnson
Cadence:
A constantly changing style, Cadence evolved primarily among the islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, and Haiti. The cadence era was exciting and extremely fertile, requiring musicians of only the highest caliber, who could master not only Antilles pop styles like beguine and Creole mazurka, but also those of Haiti and the other neighboring islands. The cadence years saw the evolution of the pop influences that embellish the rootsier foundation of today's Antilles musicians, allowing for expression in an internationally familiar musical language: electric instruments, riffing horn sections, trap set drums, topical lyrics, and specific stylings of rock music, reggae, soca, American black music, and more. In addition to Les Aiglons, this was the heyday of big bands like La Perfecta, Typical Combo, La Selecta, Les Maxels, Les Lopards, Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe (whose co-leader, Pierre-Edouard Decimus, went on to create the group Kassav' at the end of the decade), and Gordon Henderson's Exile One of Dominique. Recordings from this era, while fascinating and enjoyable, often suffer from out-of-tune instruments and subpar recording quality. Cadence led directly into the early '80s and the rise of zouk, and it was the musicians schooled in cadence who were the first zouk stars. The major catalyst behind the emergence of zouk was the desire to produce a new Caribbean music that treated the multifaceted music of the Antilles to the state-of-the-art recording technology of the Paris studios.
Beguine:
Throughout the long history of the Beguine, the dominant sound has been that of the clarinet and trombone (both solo and as a duet), and it can still be heard today throughout the Antilles musical milieu, from the most traditional music to the cadence era or the pop sounds of today's zouk. While the phrasing often recalls New Orleans jazz, the overall sound is unmistakably Caribbean. Any contemporary music that uses beguine as its base, even that which ventures as far off as contemporary jazz, is considered "beguine moderne." The classic music of carnival in the Antilles is an uptempo version of the beguine rhythm, called "beguine vide."
Beguine Vide:
The classic music of carnival in the Antilles is an uptempo version of the beguine rhythm, called Beguine Vide.
Beguine Moderne:
Contemporary music that uses beguine as its base, even that which ventures as far off as contemporary jazz, is considered Beguine Moderne.
Celtic:
Celtic music is the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. Though the musical conventions are slightly different according to geography, Celtic music is easily recognizable, and is most often played on instruments like the harp, the tin whistle, the fiddle, the bodran, and the uillean bagpipes. In general, Celtic music can be seperated into dance tunes, of which there are many different types, and slower ballads. Famous Celtic artists are the Chieftains, the Bothy Band, Clannad, and the Boys of the Lough.
Eastern European:
The term "Eastern European music" covers a wide variety of genres, from Jewish Klezmer to Transylvanian choral music to Polka from Poland. The constant turmoil and changing of national borders in parts of Eastern Europe has had the effect of mixing these genres up so much that often Eastern European groups play an assortment of many different styles. The group Muzikas, for example, has released albums of Jewish Klezmer music, gypsy folk music, and Eastern European interpretations of Bartok. Keeping the genres clearly delineated can often be difficult when the artists themselves mix them so freely.
Klezmer:
Klezmer is Jewish celebratory music, traditionally drumless and arranged for such instruments as clarinet, violin, and accordion. Its mood ranging from jumpily frenetic to gracefully elegant, Klezmer is one of the most entertaining musical genres there is.
Indigenous Music:
Indigenous music is the most varied genre there is, as the forms, styles, and even instruments indigenous music can be played on are often particular to one small tribe. The original, and richest, genre, and about as far from �pop� music, in composition, intention, and execution, as you can get.
Calypso:
The musical output of Trinidad and Tobago � Calypso, steel band music, and soca � is centered around the carnival season that begins shortly after Christmas and culminates with Carnival Tuesday, the day before the Catholic feast of Ash Wednesday. The island calypsonians compose (or buy) at least two new songs annually, which they then perform nightly throughout carnival season at the calypso tents. Of course, all those who can arrange it will also produce recordings of their songs that will be released sometime between Thanksgiving and a few weeks before Carnival Tuesday.
The annual music crop is highly affected by two major music contests in which the vast majority of calypsonians compete during carnival season: the National Calypso Monarchy (best calypsonian of the year) and the Road March (best party song of the year), as well as by a host of other smaller competitions like Junior Monarch, Calypso Queen, and Extempo Monarch. Most compositions are a reflection of attempts of calypsonians to win these competitions. Consequently, they fall into two camps: party songs vying for Road March and lyrically strong calypsos vying for the Monarchy by addressing a wide range of social and political topics.
Merengue:
Merengue music originated in the Dominican Republic where it remains wildly popular. Often played with both a tambora drum and an accordion, Merengue music was a major influence on Salsa.
Son:
Son, or Rumba, as it is often known in the U.S., was the dominant form of music in Cuba before Salsa took over. This is the music documented in the Buena Vista Social Club.
Salsa:
Salsa grew out of Cuban "Son" music, (often called Rumba in the United States). Primarily a dance medium, Salsa is a Cuban and Puerto Rican phenomenon that has had much international success with artists such as Tito Puente, Joe Arroyo and Ruben Blades.
Samba:
Samba is a term for a number of related Afro-Brazillian musical styles. Complex rhythms and instrumentation make this folk music fast and dancey yet its lack of syncopation gives it a very un-African sound. Sergio Mendes is a popular Brazilian artist who has recorded quite a bit of Samba music.
Mini Jazz:
Originating in Haiti during the 1960s, the mini-jazz movement was influenced by other Caribbean music styles, the British Invasion, and French pop. Comprised of electric guitar, bass, saxophone, and drums, these mini-jazz groups � most of them teenagers � covered imported pop hits and traditional Haitian classics; by the 1970s, many of them developed into larger and more proficient units, some even relocating to the U.S. to seek fame and fortune.
Tropicalia:
Tropicalia was a revolutionary musical movement arising in Brazil in the late �60s. Taking their inspiration from Bossa Nova, Brazilian Folk and American Psychedelic Rock, artists like Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso created sublime and dangerous music. The movement was crushed violently by Brazil�s military dictatorship and Gil and Veloso were exiled for as number of years. Tropicalia died out only in name however and continued to flower and grow as MPB (Musica Populare Brazilia). Gil and Costa continue to create, as do other great artists such as Airto and Flora Purem, Thom Ze, and Azymuth.
MPB:
Modern, popular Brazilian music. An amalgamation of Tropicalia, Bossa Nova, Reggae, Rock and everything in between.
Western European:
Western European music is an extremely general geographic term encompassing French cabaret music from the 50s, Flamenco from Spain, and German folk tunes, among countless other genres.
Polka:
The Polka is a dance that originated in Bohemia around 1830. Throughout the 19th century it became quite popular in both Europe and the United States. The tempo of the dance is moderately fast and is set in a duple meter of 2/4. During the late 19th century polkas were composed by a number of ballroom composers, including Johann Strauss, both the younger and elder.
Zouk:
Zouk is a contemporary dance music of the Caribbean that uses both traditional and high-tech musical resources. It is based on interlocking rhythmic and melodic patterns rather than a dense sound where all instruments are played simultaneously. It is connected to a number of Caribbean musical styles such as biguine, merengue, compass direct, cadence, guaguanc�, and danzon. Like all of these musical styles, in zouk, rhythm is one of the most significant elements. There are many musical influences on zouk, and the differences between borrowed styles are often smoothed over rather than accentuated. Strong beats are reinforced and the syncopated bass pattern, like that of salsa or funk, is not used. The timbre of the music (its color, the different ways music "sounds") are a vital element in zouk. By using the technical resources available to musicians today, sound can be manipulated to make the familiar sound new. The sound of the conga may be manipulated electronically to give it a variety of sounds. A drum set may receive the same treatment with some parts of the set being left "natural" while others are altered. A basic rule of zouk is to create space in the music by avoiding an overwhelming density of simultaneous parts, allowing the insertion of interesting sounds into the "holes" that are created. Zouk instrumentation usually includes a brass section, two synthesizers, guitar, and bass, and a rhythm section that includes a gourd shaker, conga, drum set, and tumba. The bass line is more than a rhythmic or harmonic instrument, having taken on more of a melodic function. Of the two synthesizers, one acts as a percussion instrument, reproducing what the percussion instruments do, while the other inserts melodic lines at strategic locations. The guitar plays melodic riffs (short repeated melodic phrases) rather than strumming chords, and is also used for solos. The brass section plays in unison, rarely soloing, and is sometimes used to set up counterpoint to the main melody.
AG Guide to Punk Rock
Punk Rock emerged nearly simultaneously in both New York with the Ramones and London with the Sex Pistols. These pioneering bands, rising out of the ashes of Garage rockers like the Stooges and the MC5, Glamsters like the New York Dolls, and the minimalism of the Velvet Underground, were loud, fast and in your face.
Rock and Roll had become bloated on ego and excess (both personally and artistically) and Punk drained the fluid right out of that mangled corpse, leaving only the essentials. 3 chord riffs, loud and fast beats and angry lyrics scared the establishment and titillated the youth much as early Rock and Roll had done.
Punk flirted with mainstream success only briefly in the States and soon fizzled in the UK as well. What was left stayed underground, growing and subdividing until the term Punk is now not much more descriptive than is the term Rock.
'77 Style Punk:
�77 Style Punk Rock hearkens back to the glory days of Punk's stripped down, 3 chord, non-pop, too slow for Hardcore sound. The Sex Pistols embody this sound as do imitators like Blanks �77. It is now the year 2001, so �77 Style Punk has sucked for 24 years.
Cow Punk:
Cow Punk is Country Punk. Los Angeles Art-Punk pioneers X grew into a sort-of Cow Punk band as their career progressed. The Beat Farmers, Mojo Nixon and Dash Rip Rock are all Cow Punk bands.
Hardcore Punk:
Hardcore Punk is just that, Punk but harder, louder, faster and more aggressive. Hardcore, of course, doesn�t mean a damn thing any more because there are all sorts of sub-genres. Minor Threat is probably the best example of a typical (except for the fact that they were atypically good) Hardcore band.
Emo:
"Emo" or "Emo-core" is short for Emotional Hardcore. The term began as a derogatory one but has been proudly and vehemently claimed by lovers of this dynamic, intensely emotional splinter genre of Hardcore. Really good Emo is characterized by sudden, surprising shifts in rhythm, ragged, screamingly emotional vocals, pretty instrumental breakdowns, slightly unconventional song structures, and a decidedly un-punk embrace of poppy elements. Sunny Day Real Estate made a couple of amazing Emo records, and The Get-Up Kids and The Promise Ring are pretty good too. Emo would be a great genre had it not given birth to Math Rock, one of the coldest and most annoying of all of the post-punk splinter genres.
NY Hardcore:
New York Hardcore is typically (though not always) a straight-edge (i.e. anti drugs, alcohol, meat, etc�) and shouted version of Hardcore with simple yet brutal rhythms. Youth of Today, Sick of it All and early Agnostic Front were all important NY Hardcore bands. This music is not only loud and obnoxious, it's pretentious too, making it about as Punk as you can get.
Oi!:
Oi! is a violent offshoot of Hardcore Punk. Though often associated with skinheads, this music is not necessarily racist (just right-wing and violent). The Anti-Heroes, and the Business are big-name Oi! Bands.
Pop Punk:
Pop Punk is just that: Punk music (and most importantly a Punk look) with melodic lyrics and basslines. There are tons of bands like this, from MxPx to Screeching Weasel to Pennywise.
Psychobilly:
This genre of music is ostensibly Rockabilly music played by Punks, with a strong influence from both skinhead culture and B Horror movie imagery. The Cramps, although they avoid the distinction and don't play an upright bass, can be seen as the godfathers of this sound. Other bands of note include the Guana Batz, the Meteors, and Demented Are Go.
Riot Grrrl:
First arising in the late �80s through a network of new bands, labels, and fan-published �zines, Riot Grrrl is typified by a loud, abrasive Punk Rock sound and attitude, and aggressive feminist politics. Drawing inspiration from early girl-punks like the Raincoats and Yoko Ono (believe it!), Riot constructed a new ethos of empowerment and creation, making it OK for girls to scream, rock, and do it themselves. Hole is the best-known Riot Grrrl band, but Bikini Kill and Babes in Toyland are far more legitimate.
Ska Punk:
Ska Punk takes the British Mod-Ska of early �80s 2-tone bands like Madness and the Specials and charges it up with Punk speed and guitar riffs. The Clash did this way back in �77 and Fishbone did it throughout the �80s but Operation Ivy are the blueprint for most of today�s ska-punk bands like Buck O� Nine, No Doubt and Reel Big Fish.
AG Guide to Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal, or Metal, is loud and fast Blues/Acid Rock without the Blues. It is aggressive, menacing Hard Rock. Though Metal is often crass and juvenile, its high speed riffage and soloing is often technically demanding on its musicians. Metal has subdivided and mutated so often during its almost 30 years of existence that it is largely an umbrella term now. Bands whose sounds were influential, (or derivative,) and big enough to typify the entire genre are AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Metallica.
Funk Metal:
Combining Funk basslines, Hip Hop/rapped lyrics and Metal guitars, Funk Metal bands like Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers were popular skate-rock bands throughout the late �80s and early �90s.
Hair Metal:
Hair Metal, a phenomenon concentrated in the mid �80s to early �90s, is poppy, commercial Hard Rock/lite Metal played by bands with an extreme image fixation. Permed hair, makeup and spandex pants were de rigeur for Hair Metal bands such as Def Leppard, Poison and Bon Jovi. Your girlfriend likes this shit, and you sing along to it with her in the car.
Industrial Metal:
Slightly less abrasive than its bastard son, Grindcore, Industrial Metal fuses Industrial beats, sounds and production techniques with Metal guitar and vocals. Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, and early Marilyn Manson are big name Industrial Metal acts.
Grindcore:
While the term Grindcore has often been used somewhat interchangeably with death metal, the two started out as very different, albeit similarly extreme, forms of music, despite becoming more alike over the years. When it first appeared in the mid-'80s, grindcore in its purest form consisted of short, apocalyptic blasts of noise played on standard heavy metal instrumentation (distorted guitar, bass, drums). Although grindcore wasn't just randomly improvised, it certainly didn't follow conventional structure, either; while riffs could sometimes be picked out, pure grindcore never featured verses, choruses, or even melodies. Grindcore vocals sounded torturous, ranging from high-pitched shrieks to low, throat-shredding growls and barks; although the lyrics were usually quite verbose, they were very rarely intelligible. Grindcore's jaw-dropping aggression was so over the top that pointing to its roots in thrash metal and hardcore punk hardly gives an idea of what it actually sounds like. Indisputably, the band that invented grindcore was Napalm Death, whose 1987 debut album Scum is also perhaps the most representative example of the style. In Napalm Death's hands, grindcore was actually rather arty, a sonic metaphor for the bleakness, violence, and decay of modern society; the group's lyrics were additionally packed with angry social commentary. More extreme in the lyrical department was Carcass, the only other band to really epitomize the original grindcore sound; their gruesome, gory rants were literally taken from anatomical textbooks for maximum shock (and gonzo comedy) factor. However, grindcore's original form was inherently limiting, and its intensity could easily turn into self-parody; on Napalm Death's second album, they had already begun to experiment with industrial textures, a fusion that would prove popular not only with bands who loved the jackhammer rhythms a drum machine could provide, but also with slower, moodier bands like Godflesh (itself a Napalm Death offshoot). Grindcore's blistering intensity was assimilated not only into underground heavy metal, but also into avant-garde and experimental music circles; Japanese noise bands like the Boredoms and Merzbow found it inspiring, and jazz musician John Zorn formed the grindcore-inspired group Painkiller (which featured former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris). Although pure grindcore was a distinctly British phenomenon, the early albums by the Florida band Death � which ratcheted up the aggression and morbidity of prime Slayer � had a raw, crude, assaultive quality that made them extremely similar. Apart from adopting the low, demonic growl of the grindcore vocal style almost wholesale, American death metal bands with relatively limited technical ability who played at fast tempos often resembled grindcore outfits with song structures. In fact, by the '90s, Napalm Death's sound was virtually impossible to separate from either death metal or grindcore, and Carcass had become a full-fledged, even melodic, death metal band. One of the very few bands to stick with grindcore's original form was A.C. (aka Anal ****), which primarily employed it to a snottily humorous effect.
Rap Core:
Rap Core is a hybrid, fusing Metal guitars with Hip Hop style lyrics. Originally, most acts took their cue from Run DMC, who pioneered Rap/Rock fusion with tracks like "Rock Box" and later "Walk This Way," and AC/DC whose power chord riffage Run DMC were sampling. Bands that typify this old-school Rap Metal style are Stuck Mojo and the Hard Corps. Typically Rap Metal bands have a rapper or two, a DJ (who scratches but doesn�t provide beats), Metal guitars, and a live bassist and drummer who lay down Old School Hip-Hop beats. A new wave of Rap Core acts, more Public Enemy and NWA than Run DMC, and more Slayer than Metallica includes acts like Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Rage Against the Machine.
Nu Metal:
Nu Metal is the post-modern offspring of a variety of influences that came together in the 90s. Combining the look, feel, and macho attitude of Heavy Metal with stylistic elemets heavily indebted to Grunge, Alternative Rock, even Hip Hop and Electronic Music, Nu Metal is the sound of adolescent angst in its most marketable incarnation. Limp Bizkit, Korn, Disturbed and many other bands with similar looks and sounds are prime examples of this genre.
Thrash:
Thrash was essentially the sound of underground heavy metal during the '80s, dominated by a driving, percussive approach to rhythm guitar (thanks to a pick-hand technique called palm muting) and furious levels of aggression. Thrash was often technically accomplished, taken at fast tempos, and emphasized heavy, sometimes atonal guitar riffs over melody; however, these generalizations are far from absolute rules. In its early days, thrash was essentially the same thing as speed metal, the product of American bands who in the early '80s fused the lean, vicious attack of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with the tempos of hardcore punk and Motorhead. However, the dexterity and constant intensity required to play speed metal proved limiting to some, and a variety of different approaches quickly took shape: some thrash bands concentrated more on midtempo grooves, occasionally accelerating into speed-metal realms; some, like Metallica and Megadeth, used their instrumental technique to craft more intricate and progressive music; others emphasized the music's aggression to project theatrically menacing images. Thrash provided a harder, heavier, more authentically metallic alternative to the accessible pop-metal bands who dominated the charts in the late '80s, and despite a dearth of airplay, it became quite popular, so much so that when Metallica and Megadeth streamlined their sound to make it more accessible in the early '90s, they became instant superstars. Diehard underground metalheads took refuge in the thrash-inspired death and black metal styles, which took thrash's dark subject matter and visceral force to intentionally disturbing extremes.
Death Metal:
Death Metal grew out of the thrash metal in the late '80s. Taking the gritty lyrics and morbid obsessions of thrash to extremes, death metal was � as its name suggests � solely about death, pain, and suffering. These relentlessly bleak lyrics were set to loud, heavy riffs that owed as much to the lumbering metal of Black Sabbath as it did to Metallica. Death metal bands also owed a debt to the complex song structures of '70s art rockers, though most of these winding, intricate compositional methods were learned through Metallica. Death metal never attracted a wide audience, but to some diehard heavy metal fans, it was a preferable alternative to Metallica and Guns N' Roses � who were selling millions of records in the late '80s and early '90s � or the pop-metal of Poison. It kept a small, dedicated cult throughout the '90s.
Black Metal:
Black Metal is Death Metal only harder, faster, more over the top and usually European. Samael, Bathory, Tiamot and Emperor are big Black Metal bands.
Symphonic Black Metal:
Though it's an imperfect designation, symphonic black metal is the most common term for a European-centered style that emerged in the mid- to late '90s. It isn't literally symphonic, of course; that simply refers to the thick-sounding instrumentation and sweeping, dramatic soundscapes. Nor is its connection to black metal always readily audible; although nearly all of its bands started out playing standard-issue black metal, symphonic black metal often bears little surface resemblance to its immediate forebear. The starting point for symphonic black metal was the early-'90s sound of Norwegian black metal, specifically the wing of bands that employed sorrowful, melodic keyboard lines as a counterpoint to their furious assaults. Black metal groups looking to push past the inherent limitations of the form began de-emphasizing the guitar and adding elements of progressive rock (primarily psychedelic space-rock bands like Pink Floyd) and goth metal, with its emphasis on chilling, eerie texture. The resulting sound is usually lush, and much more inviting and accessible than straightforward black metal. After outfits like Tiamat and Samael pioneered the form, a new wave of bands led by the Gathering also began incorporating ethereal female singers, sometimes as the sole vocal focus. The symphonic black metal movement remains somewhat limited, partly because of its epic ambitions and partly because it isn't traditionally metallic, but its fascinating synthesis of influences made it an instantly identifiable alternative in underground metal at the turn of the millennium.
Doom Metal:
Inspired largely by the lumbering dirges and stoned, paranoid darkness of Black Sabbath, doom metal is one of the very few heavy metal subgenres to prize feel and mood more than flashy technique (though the latter can certainly be present). Even more indebted to Sabbath than most metal, doom metal is extremely slow, sludgy, and creepy, feeling so heavy it can barely move; its deliberate pace and murky guitars are meant to evoke (what else?) a sense of impending doom. The movement began to take shape in the mid-'80s, as underground bands like the SST label's Saint Vitus, the critically acclaimed Trouble, and Sweden's Candlemass attracted cult audiences for their out-of-fashion, Sabbath-dominated sounds. Trouble and Cathedral helped bring doom metal to a wider (though not mainstream) metal audience during the early '90s, and doom's monolithic darkness quickly made it appealing to a variety of tastes. Doom metal was one of the formative influences on the retro-obsessed stoner metal movement of the '90s, and it was not uncommon for bands to find favor in both camps. Another dominant strain of '90s doom metal � pioneered by British bands like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema � fused Sabbath heaviness with the sounds and sensibilities of goth-metal, plus occasional touches of death metal; the results were sorrowful, gloomy epics. The '90s also birthed a unique doom metal scene centered in New Orleans; the sound of bands like Crowbar and Eyehategod was often described as "sludge metal" because of their heavy debt to early Seattle grunge bands like the Melvins and Soundgarden. Several doom metal bands incorporated progressive tendencies, though this approach was much less widespread.
Speed Metal:
Speed Metal took the speed and DIY attitude of Hardcore Punk music and combined them with Metal�s precision, guitar solos and lyrical content. Speed Metal dominated Heavy Metal music for a large part of the �80s producing such superstars as Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Pantera.
Ambient Music
Ambient music remains something of the scorned, dorky cousin of current electronic music. Dabbled in by scores of artists working primarily in other fields, but still for the most part too esoteric to attract a large audience, the music has been characterized as everything from dolled-up new age, to intellectual, over-indulgent dross, to boring and irrelevant technical noodling. Partly as a function of its relatively limited appeal, ambient in a definitional sense remains extremely vague, a notion also related to the fact that artists considered to be working within its "borders" seem to be drawn from such a wide spectrum of different traditions; more "academic" experimental electronic (Chris Meloche, David Shea, Asmus Tietschens, David Toop, Oval), space music (Robert Rich, Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana, Klaus Shultze, Jeff Greinke, Alio Die), dub (Bill Laswell, the Orb, Mick Harris, Drome, Woob), ethno- or 4th-world electronic music (Jon Hassel, Banco De Gaia, Astralasia), gothic or industrial (Lustmord, Merzbow, Final, Aube, James Plotkin), and the vast contemporary hybridity of back-room club culture (everything from the KLF, Global Communication, and Mixmaster Morris to Biosphere, Higher Intelligence Agency, and Sun Electric, to Tetsu Inoue, David Moufang, LTJ Bukem, and Autechre). As dance-based electronic music has moved increasingly toward the indiscriminant intermingling of influences characteristic of trip-hop, electronica, and jungle/drum'n'bass, ambient has shifted away from being a concrete genre and more toward a less identifiable (though no less specific) approach to sound, registering its influence in terms of space, color, and texture rather than the presence or absence of a backbeat, recognizable melodic or harmonic structures, etc.
Nonetheless, like other strains of experimental electronic music whose branches stretch into the most complex of arrangements, ambient has its roots, and historical evaluations of ambient music usually begin with Brian Eno. Although Eno's application of the term to his "background" composing of the late-'70s itself had precursors in the "furniture music" of Erik Satie, the dadaist and futurist manifestos of Marcel Duchamp and Luigi Russolo, the proto- and high-modernism of Claude Debussy and Igor Stravinsky (as well as in non-Western musical and religious traditions such as Indonesian gamelan and African pygmy chanting), and New York School experimentalists such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and LeMonte Young, it's with Eno that "ambient" music -- i.e. music designed to be heard as an integral part of the environment in which its played or listened to -- first became an end in itself. And his series of recordings bearing the term (and subtitled things like Music For Airports, Music For Films, and On Land) remain watermarks. Formerly a member of pop/new wave group Roxy Music, Eno was among the first to integrate found sounds and field recordings into the context of the recording studio in order to construct an environment with his music -- not necessarily (though in some cases) to recreate existing places, but to build from scratch a music which suggested a sense of context, one which could not only be heard but also experienced by the listener. It's also with Eno that ambient or "environmental" music was approached with predominantly electronic instruments; ambient has few contemporary examples of acoustic-based composers (Pauline Oliveros is one), although the combination of electronics and acoustic-based instruments is common (particularly among so-called electro-acoustic musicians such as Steve Roach, Carl Stone, and Michael Danna).
Of equal influence and importance to Eno's work was that of German synthesist Klaus Schulze, who represents something of the formalist arm of ambient's prehistory. Though aligned more directly with the European classical tradition than Eno (whose background in avant-garde pop and new wave had its consequence in the comparative subtlety and modesty of his music), Schulze's pioneering work in analog synthesis and his extended, highly conceptual compositions based solely on the timbral qualities of electronics were crucial in suggesting new directions for electronic music apart from not only its "pop," bit also its academic and classical contexts. Although Schulze's earlier work was more immediately caught up in exploring (and exploiting) the sonic particularities of his medium (a notion which has tended to garner him more criticism than praise), Schulze increasingly sought the fusion of his technical mastery with elements of the lived environment; pieces such as his Dresden Concert drew liberally from nature recordings and source tapes which documented the bustle of everyday life, and his mid-'90s recordings with noted new school ambient composer Pete Namlook (of the Frankfurt-based Fax label) brought Schulze's formidable role in forging ambient's early aesthetic full circle.
Although much of the more visible instrumental electronic and electro-acoustic music produced in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s appeared under the aegis of "new age" -- a marketing phenomenon more than anything else, applied most often to musics linked by some method or other to relaxation, meditation, and/or escapism -- even the overwhelming conservatism of that period had its antithesis in a range of musicians operating at the outer fringes of experimentation, pushing electronics-based composition into ever more challenging, abstract territory. Artists such as Steve Hillage (formerly of Gong), Harold Budd, early Tangerine Dream, Michael Stearns, Robert Rich, and Steve Roach, among others, sought to compose music as free as possible from the weighty baggage of both pop and Classical, as well as Western academic and high cultural traditions, turning instead toward methods of composition and performance lacking conventional developmental structure, music which relied instead on programmatic elements such as repetition, texture, alternate tonality, and harmonic and subharmonic relationships (over and against the chordal, melodic, pentatonic, etc. concerns of most Western musical forms). Members of this loose agglomeration of artists often referred to their work as "space music"; not, as is often believed, because it sounded like it was from outer space (although in some cases this was true), but rather since the music tended to refer almost singularly and directly to the space in which it was heard, as well as the inner, more subconscious emotional and contemplative spaces of the listener. Although quite apart from Eno's definition, which sought to locate music in some intermediate between foreground and background, space musicians sought to fuse the two in such a way that the music became the background of its own active exploration; the latter represented an extension of the former, since the relationship between music and the lived environment was the compositional preconception much of the music turned on.
Although the context was in many respects radically different, it was a similar impulse that led to ambient's renaissance in the late-'80s/early-'90s U.K. rave scene, the source of some of the most exciting innovations in not only the music's sound, but also its presentation. The by-now familiar construct of the "chill space" -- that back-room alternative to the high-speed hedonism of main floor raves -- was the nexus of that renaissance, with clubs such as Land Of Oz (at London's massive weekly Heaven), Telepathic Fish, and Oscillate some of the first blips on the new ambient map. It was at clubs such as these that DJs like Alex Paterson (of the Orb), Mixmaster Morris (of Irresistible Force), and Jonah Sharp (of Spacetime Continuum) began blending together the early ambient experiments of Eno, Schulze, Hillage, Pink Floyd, Robert Rich, and Steve Hillage with everything from stereo test and demonstration records, Songs Of The Humpback Whale and other nature and field recordings, minimalist Classical, non-Western ritual and traditional musics, Jamaican dub, and, eventually, live electronics. As crowds began turning out specifically for chill rooms, all-ambient nights and even weekend-long ambient events became more common, with the appearance of recordings by the KLF (Chill Out), the Orb ("A Huge Ever-Growing Brain" and Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, among others), Irresistible Force ("Space Is The Place" and Flying High), and the soon-to-be ubiquitous Pete Namlook (Silence, Air, Dreamfish) contributing momentum and a growing, non-club-based audience.
The proximity of chill rooms to rave culture meant much of the music reflected elements of acid house and techno, and hybrid terms such as "ambient house," "ambient techno," "ambient dub," etc. began to circulate, serving to differentiate this music not only from the more rigorously environmental experiments of the '70s and '80s, but also (and increasingly) from many parallel contemporary strains of ambient. Including such varied sources as the U.K.-based Beyond and Rising High labels, the (respectively) Frankfurt and Belgium-based Fax (Pete Namlook's prolific label) and Apollo imprints, as well as the electronic experiments of Mille Plateaux, dark ambient/industrial and isolationist artists such as Coil, Mick Harris, and Aube and labels such as Cold Meat Industries, Projekt, and Staalplaat, ambient soon, as journalist/producer David Toop put it, began taking on the properties of a "glue term," sticking to whatever it was thrown at. But ambient's steady demotion to the status of textual modifier also suggests the increasing fervor with which barriers separating styles were up for dismantling in the atmosphere of the mid-'90s post-rave experimental underground, a process that's given birth to more variations on the theme of electronic dance music in the past four or five years alone than in the previous two decades. This stylistic deconstruction has given birth to dozens of new genres, subgenres, and sub-subgenres (ambient dub, dark ambient, ambient jungle, electronica, post-rock, etc.) even as it's made the very pursuit of "genre" a mawkishly naive task. This is not to say ambient artists working more or less within the tradition of many of the music's earlier strains have ceased to exist -- indeed, ambient's proliferation in the last several years has also contributed a sense of focus to artists pursuing one or another of its mutant strains -- but rather that the palette of sounds which constitutes the raw materials of atmospheric or environmental music has broadened to such an extent that many of the definitional criteria of the music (lack of prominent percussion and/or a strong melodic presence, etc.) have been steadily reoriented or altogether abandoned.
Because of the range of musics (to say nothing of the ambiguity) implied by the term, no single, encompassing introduction to ambient exists. However, many good compilations are available which serve to fill in significant portions of the music's historical progression. Virgin's four-part Ambient series -- each a two-disc set bringing together many of the biggest name artists from the '70s, '80s, and early '90s -- is a good place to start. Also released by Virgin is the double-CD Ocean Of Sound, compiled by musical historian David Toop to accompany his book of the same name (published by Serpent's Tail in 1995), and including everyone from King Tubby to Aphex Twin. Label compilations also provide good reference points (particularly with regard to the music's more recent mutations), with Beyond, Rising High, Instinct, Fax, Apollo, Warp, Silent, and Recycle Or Die all reputable sources for high-quality various artist collections.
Essential Recordings
01. VA - The Ambient Cookbook (Fax)
02. VA - Ocean Of Sound (Virgin)
03. KLF - Chill Out (TVT)
04. Irresistible Force - Flying High (Instinct/Rising High)
05. Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land (EG)
06. Pete Namlook - Air 2 (Fax)
07. The Orb - Orbus Terrarum (Wau!/Mr. Modo)*
08. Robert Rich & B. Lustmord - Stalker (Fathom)*
09. Tetsu Inoue - World Receiver (Instinct)*
10. Global Communication - 76:14 (Dedicated)*
11. Vidna Obmana - The Trilogy (Relic)
12. Woob - 1194 (Instinct/Em:t)
13. Eno & Fripp - The Essential Fripp & Eno (Virgin/EG)
14. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. II (Sire/Warp)
15. Throbbing Gristle - Second Annual Report (Mute)
GREAT!
Drum & Bass
While the U.K. underground dance scene has been both an important point of introduction and a source of almost limitless expansion of American dance music forms such as disco, house, acid, techno, electro, and rare groove, England, it's often been noted, has never really had a dance music of its own. Not, that is, until jungle. Although jungle's most direct roots lie in the hardcore breakbeat style of techno popular in clubs in the late '80s and early '90s, the music's mutation of elements from not only hardcore, but reggae, ragga, hip-hop, jazz, and dub, as well as its origins in social and economic factors such as racist and class-based oppression, is a distinctly British mix. Born largely in the working class suburbs of London's East End and the island's Eastern seaboard and now popular throughout England, as well as Europe and North America, jungle has coalesced since it's birth into one of the most exciting and distinctive British musical movements since the 1960s rock explosion.
Like American hip-hop (to which it is often compared), jungle (or drum'n'bass, a stylistic synonym used to describe the music's two main aesthetic components) is an extension of the larger breakbeat heritage which extends back to American funk, soul, and jazz. And like hip-hop, which uses samplers to capture drum break segments from old James Brown, Meters, Jimmy Smith, and Bob James records, jungle uses the beat as a jumping off point, starting with a four- or eight-bar break and cutting, splicing, rearranging, and recombining elements of the beat in almost endless variety. But it's this last element that gives jungle its unique place in the evolution of electronic music; where hip-hop and other sample-based forms of dance music work with beats in a more or less serial fashion (looping, combining, adding, subtracting, etc. rhythmic elements), jungle's approach is nonlinear and, increasingly, polyrhythmic, approaching beats, rhythms, and basslines as more or less malleable raw materials from which new musical ideas can be extracted.
One of the key developments in this approach has been the availability of cheap, relatively easy-to-use sampling technology and desktop digital sequencing tools such as Cubase and Vision, which allow for incredible control and variety. In many respects, these tools have made the music possible, as new techniques such as timestretching (extending a sample's length without altering its pitch) and the music's cut'n'paste approach to rhythm have only recently been made possible through the explosion and subsequent economic democratization of digital audio.
Although, like most origin mythologies, jungle is fraught with intriguing stories of its birth and etymology (even extending to a street gang in Kingston, Jamaica known as the Junglists), most agree that somewhere down the line "jungle" took on a racist connotation stemming from its popularity among England's inner-city black population (although, to a far larger extent than in America, England's inner-cities are of mixed race and are stratified more by class). True or not, the term has been widely embraced by musicians and audiences alike, and remains a genus-type classification for the dizzying array of species of drum'n'bass that have popped up in recent times (see below). In an historico-aesthetic sense, jungle's immediate roots lie, of course, in the English underground rave scene of the early '90s, when the repetitive banging of acid house and techno gave way to hardcore breakbeat techno. Although originally referring to a more rave-oriented strain of hardcore (so-called "happy hardcore," which translated many of the more escapist elements of acid-house and dancefloor techno into a breakbeat context), a more complex and abrasive strand of "darkside" hardcore soon began to grow in popularity, becoming the post-rave underground music of choice, particularly among urban inner-city and working class youth.
Drawing from the music's audience (and of course the musicians themselves), the music began incorporating more complex beat patterns and elements of reggae, ragga, dub, calypso, and other non-Western black musics, mutating (through artists such as Rob Playford/2 Bad Mice, SL2, Acen, and Urban Shakedown) into the high-speed breakbeat madness of jungle's first wave. Though still the soundtrack of the urban English underground, by the time ragga jungle hit, a wider audience began to form around the revolutionary new sound, particularly as labels such as Suburban Bass, Kickin', Sound of the Underground, and Moving Shadow began to move into CD-based compilation releases, which helped spread the music into new geographies at a rapid rate. Though the cliches of ragga dated quickly (the booyaka chants, the Scientist samples, etc.), the basic skeleton of the music was refined and elaborated (in a less-obvious fashion) in so-called hardstep and darkside, which aimed at preserving the intellectual and emotional impact of the music in a more mature, less gimmicky fashion. The following years would see a dizzying mutation and hybridization of styles, as jungle worked its way into every stylistic context immaginable (from Lee Perry and the Wu-Tang Clan to Soul Coughing and Everything but the Girl), with styles continuing to proliferate to the present day.
Like early hip-hop and, to a large extent, present day house and techno, drum'n'bass remains primarily a 12-inch culture, with the bulk of artists and musicians engaged in nuts'n'bolts music-making designed directly for DJs and dancefloors (although, like techno, the gap has begun to close a bit through wider popularity of ambient and "intelligent" styles and large-scale CD production and distribution). The rapid intermixing and evolution of styles is also fueled in part by widespread use of white labels, dubplates, and test pressings, which allow artists and DJs to gauge the popularity of a tune only hours after its been completed in the studio. (Dubplates and test pressings are wax and mylar versions of records -- usually only playable ten to fifteen times -- cut prior to mass production to insure proper manufacture.) A reasonably reputable DJ may spin anywhere from 10 to 50 percent dubplates in a set, with artists who also DJ often cutting their tunes months in advance of their release (if indeed they're ever released!) to build crowd excitement and anticipation.
As discussed above, like other recent directions in experimental electronic music, jungle has sectioned off into a dizzying array of subgenres and style classes (ragga, hardstep, darkside, jump-up, techstep, ambient, and ) that can make getting a handle on it pretty frustrating. The following is a brief description of many of the most prominent:
Hardcore/Happy Hardcore
An urban working-class offshoot of techno, popular in the late-'80s/early-'90s, with looping, sped-up breakbeats and dense, angular basslines. A more mainstream, rave-oriented brand of "happy" hardcore remained even truer to the music's acid house roots, drawing wailing divas and upbeat piano and synth lines in close proximity to hardcore's brash rhythms. (Artists: Acen, 2 Bad Mice, SL2)
Ragga
Ragga jungle was one of the earliest and most widely embraced forms of drum'n'bass not to rely overtly on the cliches of hardcore techno, and was a direct reflection of the rising embrace of drum'n'bass among the street-level urban population (of which a sizeable portion are of African and Caribbean descent). Ragga jungle is characterized primarily by fast, complex beat patterns, deep, tight bass, and the use of sound system-type MC chanting sampled from old reggae, ragga, and dancehall records. Ragga also makes jungle's connection to African and Caribbean traditional and popular musics most evident, with rhythms recognizably descendent from nyabinghi and calypso-style drumming. (Artists: 2 Bad Mice, Rude Bwoy Monty, Shy FX, Amazon II)
Hardstep/Jump-Up
A spare, limber refinement of hardcore and ragga, which retains the hardness and rhythmic complexity of both while subtracting much of the bonus fat (rude bwoy chatter, excessive samples, etc.). Hardstep also carries more of a sense of progression, varying drum patterns more musically and focusing on bass as a melodic element. Although slight variations obtain between hardstep and the more recently-applied jump-up (with the latter generally referring to a sprighter, more dynamic brand of hardstep), the two are for the most part used interchangeably. (Artists: Ray Keith, DJ SS, Dillinja,DJ Zinc)
Darkside
A somewhat historically rooted term, darkside refers to a sparer, more pessimistic style of hardcore seeking to differentiate itself from the more above-ground, mainstream appeal of rave that by the early '90s was producing only the most repetitive and uncreative of music. Darkside artists stripped the bright melodies and sped-up samples from hardcore and replaced them with gloomy basslines, and less obvious melodic passages more reminiscent of Detroit techno than happy hardcore. Darkside is also something of a bridge between early hardcore and the increasing sophistication of the hardstep and experimental drum'n'bass of DJ SS, Solo, Source Direct, and the Metalheadz artists.
Techstep
Techstep is similar to hardstep in its beat structures and attitude, but differs in the use of techno-type elements such as bleeps and synth squelches, as well as dense, heavily treated basslines. After the softening of drum'n'bass in the wake of jungle's first wave of widespread popularity (major label signings, international tours, etc.), darker techstep-type jungle has risen to the fore of the underground, proving one of the most active and interesting splinter styles in its experimentalism. Labels on the bleeding edge of this style include Emotif, No U-Turn, Penny Black, and S.O.U.R., and a good introduction exists in Emotif's label compilation, Techsteppin', as well as S.O.U.R.'s Nu Skool Update. (Artists: Ed Rush, Nico, Solo, Shapeshifter)
Ambient/Intelligent
First used to designate drum'n'bass styles drawing heavily on atmosphere and environment, the term has come to have something of a negative connotation among the hardcore, referring to loopy, relatively unchallenging rhythmic programming and a predominance of sugary, pop-oriented melodic textures. Most likely the backlash has as much to do with the fact that it was the softer, jazzier ambient style drum'n'bass that was the first to sever its roots with the underground, gaining popularity among a wide audience. (Artists: TPower, Omni Trio, Source Direct, Photek, 4Hero, Dave Wallace)
Musical Visions � My Weakness
By Semirrahge. To be read with "My Weakness" � by Moby, in three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Fade from black... as the camera spins erratically, turning up onto a vertical axis over an unmade bed, focusing finally on a man. He lies awkwardly, the sheets and blankets rumpled and pushed aside, his arms and legs lay as if he was thrown onto the bed. The twisting and turning orbit of the camera somehow manages to keep his face in focus, and bits of the room � all messy � are visible during some of the more stable moments.
As the music begins to pick up, the action slows and the camera�s movement becomes more stable as the image zooms onto his face. His face; torn by pain or fever, or perhaps the inner demons of his own memory, is frozen in an oddly gentle rictus of agony, the look of one who has succumbed to the peace of unconsciousness, leaving his subconscious mind to fight alone while his body receives some measure of respite
And the camera finds his left eye, -still open, unfocused- and we slowly crawl into its inner blackness. Darkness comes, and-
The colors are twisted, psychotic blues and a touch of a blur tint the image that we are now a part of. The landscape we see is a lush green plain of rolling hills and a blue sky, yet the bizarre coloring shows us that is it not a peaceful scene we view � rather, a scene of sinister nightmare, thinly disguised in its veil of peace.
The music crawls into a sobbing cry, and our image moves down, around � and we find below us the man from the bed before. He staggers as one drunk or in great pain, and after a few quavery steps falls to his knees, denting the soft ground beneath and breaking the cover of the green grasses to show the rich brown-black of the soil.
Our view moves down to the top of his head, the hairs matted and sweat-soaked, and rotates down until his face fills the frame. It is no longer torn by some inner agony, but his eyes are full of unshed tears, and the surrounding face seems to be a wall, resisting the tides of sorrow pushed upon it by the weak and traitorous eyes.
The wall slowly crumbles, and turning to view his profile, we see the tears come streaming from his eyes � and throwing his head back, a scream tears itself from his throat. On and on it shrieks, echoing off the seeming-soft hills that show themselves now for what they are: prison walls in this nightmare dream.
Camera: rotating around, and finishing where it began � facing the tormented. Arms thrown wide, fists clenched tightly, his scream seems to be alive of itself � no part of the tears dripping steadily down the sides of his face.
As abruptly as it started, the scream ceases, the echoes stopping instantly, and he convulsively pulls his arms in to his chest. Head down, face enveloped by his once-clenched hands, there is brief silence � but the music plays on, relentlessly driving him onward, and it climbs now into its final end.
�Why?� he moans, or perhaps says �No...� But the end has come. He is knocked forwards, left arm outstretched, fingers grasping the ground in a futile attempt to ward off the inevitable.
The fingers, - nails full of grit � meet hands, - fists full of grass and soil � and slowly crumble, merging with the dust they hold. He � we? � sob convulsively, and it is a plea for respite from destiny.
No avail. The camera coolly shows the hand, arm � and the entire self slowly fails, clothing crumpling without support; and then, as the music begins to fade away, the camera swings up- over the silhouette of clothing �and even that remnant fades away as the camera spins on its axis, the colors fading...
...And rolls in from black to rest in an open doorway. A room, a bed � the same? Ours-his? It is empty and neatly made, pillows undimpled by fevered heads, the room clean and orderly �
-and the music stops.
Short Story: A Fault On The Line
(by Irvine Welsh)
As far as it went wi me it wis aw her ain fuckin fault. The ****s at the hoaspital basically agreed wi ays n aw, no that they said as much in so many words, bit ah could tell they did inside. Ye ken how it is wi they ****s, they cannae jist come oot and say what's oan thir fuckin mind like that. Professional fuckin ettiquitte or whatever the fuck they call it. Well seein as ah'm no a fuckin Doaktir then, eh! Ah'd last aboot five fuckin minutes wi they ****s, me. Ah'll gie yis fuckin bedside manner, ya ****s.
Bit it wis her ain fault because she kent that ah wanted tae stey in fir the fitba this Sunday; they hud the Hibs-Herts game live oan STV. She goes, - Lit's take the bairns doon tae that pub it Kingsknowe, the one ye kin sit ootside ay.
- Cannae, eh, ah sais tae ur, - fitba's oan it three. Hibs fuckin Herts.
- Wi dinnae huv tae stey long Malky, she sais, - it's a rerr day. It wid be good fir the bairns.
So ah thinks tae masel, mibee no too bad an idea but. Ah mean, ah hud ma bevvy in the fridge fir the game, bit a few scoops beforehand would set ays up nicely fir the kickoaf. So ah sais, - Aye, awright then, but wir no steyin oot long mind, the fitba's oan at three so wi huv tae be back by then. So ah'm thinkin, lit hur git hur ain wey n it'll keep her fuckin trap shut for a bit.
So wi gits oot, n it wis a rare day n aw. Wi heads along tae the fuckin pub n wi starts gittin a few peeves sunk back: her oan the voddy n hooches n me oan the pints ay Carlsberg. The bairns ur happy enough wi thir juice n crisps, even though ah hud tae batter him for pillin her hair whin the cheeky wee **** thought ah wisnae lookin. Eh goat a shock awright whin ah gave um a fuckin wrap acroass the jaw. Ah sais, Aye, n dinnae fuckin well burst oot greetin like a wee lassie Jason, or yill fuckin well git another yin!
Anywey, ah've goat an eye oan the fuckin cloak, fir the fitba likes, but she's flingin thum back like fuck n whin ah says it wis time tae drink up n move, she starts. - Kin we no jist stey fir one mair, she's gaun, n ah'm gaun, - Awright, bit jist a fuckin quick yin mind, then wi fuckin well Johnny Cash.
So ah fling back ma pint but she's fuckin well strugglin. That's her aw ower: thinks she kin fuckin well take a peeve, but she cannae handle it when it comes tae the fuckin bigtime. Ah jist tells her, - C'moan. We need tae fuckin nash. So ah nod tae the bairns n thair comin doon the road wi me, n she's laggin behind, the fuckin fat cow thit she is. That wis the main reason that it wis her fault; too fuckin well fat, the doaktir said it; he fuckin well telt the ****, fuck knows how many times, eh. Ah'm shoutin,
- C'moan!
Course, aw she kin dae is tae gie ays that fuckin look which gits ma fuckin goat.
- Git movin, n dinnae well pit that fuckin face oan, ah telt the ****.
So wi gits intae Kingsknowe Station n ah goes, wi kin cut through here. She turns roond n starts walkin doon the platform tae that overheid bridge. Ah goes, - C'moan tae fuck ya radge, n jumps straight doon oantae the tracks, ken. She starts makin a fuckin exhibition ay hersel: gaun oan aboot the train comin, n ah should be able tae see that cause ay the people at the platform. - Aye, bit you're forgettin something, ah goes, ah used tae work for the railways. This wis before me n wee Tam Devlin goat the boot. The bevvy, ken? The ****s git as stroppy as fuck aboot that. Even a couple ay pints, that's you fuckin well snookered. N ah wisnae the fuckin worse, bit it wis scapegoatin, as the **** fae the union pit it. No thit that did much fuckin good but, eh no.
- Bit it's comin! she sais, thir aw waitin oan it! Ah deeks at the fuckin cloak at the station n goes, - it's no due fir another five minutes yit! Moan tae fuck! Ah takes wee Claire n lifts her doon oantae the track, n we go ower n ah lift her up ontae the platform at the other side. The laddie, that wee **** Jason, he's ower like a shot n she finally waddles oaf the fuckin platform doon oantae the track. Fuckin embarrassment that fat ****.
So ah've goat the bairns up oantae the platform, then ah hears this tinny noise and the track under ma feet starts tae vibrate. It sounds like one ay they intercity non-stoapin joabs. Ah jist fuckin tipples: these ****s've been diverted tae here cause ay that flood damage oan the other line. Ah minded readin aboot that shite in the News. So ah'm up sharpish and ah'm sayin tae this fat ****: - Gie's yir fuckin hand!
Well, ah grabs her mit, but the fuckin speed oan this inter-city joab; ah mean these ****s seem like thir gaunny rip the whole flickin station apart the speed they go through it at, an wi her bein that fuckin hefty, well, ah managed tae sort ay half git her up oantae the platform and she's screamin aboot the bairns and ah'm sayin the fuckin bairns ur awright, fuckin move, but the fuckin train comes along and it fuckin well hits her, n ah jist feels this force, pillin her, wrenchin her right ootay ma fuckin grip.
Well ah fuckin well jist aboot shat masel, ah'm fuckin well tellin yis. Whin ah looks up ah'm half expectin her tae be in fuckin Aberdeen or somewhere like that, ken, bit she's only a few feet away fae ays further doon the platform n she's lookin up at ays n shoutin: - You, ya fuckin stupit ****, at me, in front ay every **** in the station, eh. So ah'm tellin her tae shut her fuckin mooth or she'll git ma fuckin boot in it and tae git up oaf her fat erse n git a fuckin bend oan n wee Claire's laughin n ah looks at Jason and he's jist standin thaire frozen tae the fuckin spot, eh, so ah'm aboot tae lamp the wee **** whin ah look doon at her n ah realise that she's goat nae fuckin legs; it's like the fuckin train hud jist clean whipped thum oaf, n she's tryin tae come taewards ays crawlin along the fuckin platform, pillin hersel wi her hands and thirs this trail ay blood comin fae her.
The radgest thing aboot it aw is that ah looks doon the platform n ah sees the fuckin legs, jist sort ay severed fae her boady. At the thigh likes, eh, the baith ay thum. So ah shouts at the wee ****: - Jason! Dinnae jist fuckin stand thair, pick up yir Ma's legs! Git a hud ay thum! Ah wis thinkin thit ye could git thum tae the hoaspital n git thum stitched back oan. The wee bastard jist starts greetin, right oot ay fuckin control. Some ****'s shoutin tae git an ambulance, n she's lyin on the groond cursin n ah'm thinkin aboot the fuckin fitba, kick oaf in ten fuckin minutes time. But then ah gits tae thinkin thit the ambulance'll maist likely huv tae go past oor bit oan its wey up tae the hoaspital n ah could bail oot n catch up wi her back up thair, eftir the game likes. So ah starts gaun, - Too right mate. A fuckin ambulance then, eh.
Wee Claire's went ower tae her Ma's legs n she's picked thum up, gathered thum in her airms and she's running taewards ays, n ah lits that sneaky wee **** Jason huv it, right acroas the fuckin jaw n eh fuckin well felt that yin cause that stoaps ehs greetin right away. - You fuckin well should've goat they legs ya daft wee ****, fuckin leavin it up tae yir wee sister! She's only a bairn! How auld ur ye? Eight! Fuckin well act it!
This auld ****'s doon at her side hudin her hand and sayin, - Yir awright, it'll be fine, the ambulance is on its wey, try tae be still, n aw that shite. Another guy says tae me, - My god, this is terrible. Ah jist goes, - Fuckin well surein it is, probably missed the first two goals, eh. This nondy **** comes up tae ays n sais, - I know you must be under terrible stress but it'll be okay. She's hanging in there. Try to comfort the children. Ah jist goes, - Aye, right ye are.
So ah sais tae the bairns, jist as the ambulance comes, -Yir Ma's gaun tae the hoaspital fir a bit, but thir's nowt wrong wi her.
- She's loast her legs, wee Claire goes.
- Aye, ah ken that, but thir's nowt wrong wi her, no really. Ah mean, aye, fir anybody else, anybody ordinary likesay you or me, it wid be bad tae huv nae legs. But no fir yir Ma cause she's that fat she widnae be able tae git roond oan her legs that much longer anywey, ken?
- Will Ma die? Jason asks.
- Ah dinnae ken. Ah'm no a fuckin Doaktir, um ah? Dinnae ask such daft questions Jason. What a laddie for fuckin questions. See if she does, n ah'm no sayin thit she will, but see if she does, jist sayin, right? Jist supposin thit she wis tae die, n this is jist sayin mind...
- Like pretend, wee Claire goes. Mair brains thin her fuckin Ma, that yin.
- That's right hen, jist pretend. So if she wis tae die, n mind, wir only sayin wis, it's up tae youse tae be good n no tae gie me a hard time, cause ye ken what ah'm like when ah start gittin a hard time. Ah'm no sayin thit ah'm wrong n ah'm no sayin thit ah'm right; aw ah'm sayin is dinnae youse be giein ays a hard time at a time like this. Or yis git this, right? ah goes, clenchin ma mit n shakin it at the wee ****s.
So by the time the ambulance boys manage tae lug her intae the fuckin van, wi her fuckin weight, the game'll huv already sterted. Ah takes the legs oaf the bairn n goes tae lob them in the back wi her, but this ambulance boy takes them n wraps them in polythene n ice. We gets in n the back wi her n the boy thit's drivin's waistin nae time. Whin wir near our bit n ah sais, - Ah'll jist bail oot it the roundabout ahead mate.
- Eh, the boy goes.
- Jist lit ays oaf here, ah sais.
- Wir no stoapin here mate, we're no stoapin until we git tae the hoaspital. Nae time tae lose. You'll need tae register your wife and look after the kids here.
- Aye right, ah goes, but ah wis still thinkin ahead, - Is thir a telly oan the wards mate? Bound tae be bit, eh.
This **** jist looks at ays aw funny like n then goes, - Aye, thirs a telly.
A fuckin wide ****. Anywey, she's goat that oxygen mask ower her face n the guy's gaun oan tae her aboot tae try no tae talk n ah'm thinkin: some fuckin chance, ah've been tryin tae git her no tae talk fir fuckin years, eh. Hearin her n aw: gaun oan tae me like it's ma fuckin fault. It wis her wantin mair fuckin drink as usual, pished up cow. Ah telt her, if ye spent as much time lookin eftir the fuckin bairns as ye did oan the fuckin pish, then they might no be so far behind at the school, especially that wee **** Jason. Ah turns tae him n goes, - Aye, n dinnae think thit you're jist gaunny doss oaf the school, jist because yir fuckin Ma might be in dock fir a few weeks. You'd better fuckin well shape up son, ah'm tellin ye.
Sometimes ah think tae masel that ah'm giein the wee **** too much ay a hard time. Bit then ah go: naw, cause ah goat it aw, the very fuckin same treatment fae ma auld man n it did me nae fuckin herm at aw. Cruel tae be kind, like they say. N ah'm livin proof thit it's the best wey. Ah mean, ye nivir see me in any fuckin bother wi the polis, no since way back. Learnt ma fuckin lesson: ah keep ma nose clean n ah gie they ****s a wide berth. Aw ah ask ootay life is a few bevvies, the fitba n the occasional ride.
That makes ays think bit: what's it gaunny be like ridin her if she's no goat any fuckin legs . . . So we gits up the casualty n this doaktir ****'s gaun oan aboot me bein in shock n ah'm thinkin aboot the fitba n if these ****s've scored awready ah'll be in fuckin shock awright. Ah turns tae the boy n goes, - Hi mate, ken me n her, ken like whin wir the gither?
**** wisnae gittin ma drift.
- Ken in bed likes? The **** nods. - See if she's no goat any fuckin legs, will ah still be able tae cowp it likes?
- Sorry? this **** goes.
Thick as fuck. A fuckin doaktir this is n aw. Thought ye hud tae huv fuckin brains tae dae that joab. - Ah'm talkin aboot oor sex life, ah tell um.
- Well, assuming your wife survives, your sex life should be normal, the **** says, lookin at ays like ah wis some kind ay radge.
- Well, ah goes, - that's ah bit ay fuckin good news, cause it wisnae fuckin well normal before! No unless ye call a ride every three fuckin months or something like that normal, n that's no what ah fuckin well call normal.
So thair ah wis, tryin tae watch the fuckin game oan the waitin room telly. Nae bevvy or nowt, n aw they radges hasslin ays wi forms n questions n the fuckin bairns playin up gaun oan aboot 'is she awright', n 'when ur wi gaun hame' n aw that shite. Ah fuckin well warned the wee ****s aboot nippin ma heid n aw: see whin ah git youse hame, ah telt them.
Tell yis one thing fir nowt though, whin she's oot ay that hoaspital, see if she cannae dae things aroond the hoose, ah'm fuckin offski. Too fuckin right ya ****. Lookin eftir a fat **** wi nae fuckin legs! That will be fuckin shinin bright! It wis her ain fault as well, the fuckin fat ****. Fuckin things up fir me like that. No thit the game wis anything tae write hame aboot mind you, another fuckin nil-nil draw but, eh.
TRAINSPOTTING - (03) The First Day of the Edinburgh Festival
(by Irvine Welsh)
Third time lucky. It was like Sick Boy taught us: you've got to know what it's like to try to come off it before you can actually do it. You can only learn through failure, and what you learn is the importance of preparation. He could be right. Anyway, this time I've prepared. A month's rent in advance on this big, bare room overlooking the Links. Too many bastards know my Montgomery Street address. Cash on the nail! Parting with that poppy was the hardest bit. The easiest was my last shot, taken in my left arm this morning. I needed something to keep us going during this period of intense preparation. Then I was off like a rocket round the Kirkgate, whizzing through my shopping list.
Ten tins of Heinz tomato soup, eight tins of mushroom soup (all to be consumed cold), one large tub of vanilla ice-cream (which will melt and be drunk), two bottles of Milk of Magnesia, one bottle of paracetamol, one packet of Rinstead mouth pastilles, one bottle of multivits, five litres of mineral water, twelve Lucuzade isotonic drinks and some magazines: soft porn, Viz, Scottish Football Today, The Punter, etc. The most important item has already been procured from a visit to the parental home; my Ma's bottle of valium, removed from her bathroom cabinet. I don't feel bad about this. She never uses them now, and if she needs them her age and gender dictate that her radge GP will prescribe them like jelly tots. I lovely tick off all the items on my list. It's going to be a hard week.
My rooms is bare and uncarpeted. There's a mattress in the middle of the floor with a sleeping bag on it, an electric-bar fire, and a black and white TV on a small wooden clair. I've got three brown plastic buckets, half-filled with a mixture of disinfectant and water for my shite, puke and pish. I line up my tins of soup, juice and my medicines with easy reach of my makeshift bed.
I took my last shot in order to get me through the horrors of the shopping trip. My final score will be used to help me sleep, and ease me off the skag. I'll try to take it in small, measured doses. I need some quickly. The great decline is setting in. It starts as it generally does, with a slight nausea in the pit of my stomach and and irrational panic attack. As soon as I become aware of the sickness gripping me, it effortlessly moves from the uncomfortable to the unbearable. A toothache starts to spread from my teech into my jaws and my eye sockets, and all through my bones in a miserable, implacable, debilitating throb. The old sweats arrive on cue, and let's not forget the shivers, covering my back like a thin layer of autumn frost on a car roof. It's time for action. No way can I crash out and face the music yet. I need the old 'slowburn', a soft, come-down input. The only thing I can move for is smack. One wee dig to unravel those twisted limbs and send me off to sleep. Then I say goodbye to it. Swanney's vanished, Seeker's in the nick. That leaves Raymie. AI go to bell the **** from the payphone in the hall.
I'm aware that as I dial, someone has brushed past me. I wince from the fleeting contact, but have no desire to look and see what it is. Hopefully I'll not be here long enough to need to check out any of my new 'flatmates'. The phuckers didn't exixt for me. No **** does. Only Raymie. The money goes down. A lassie's voice. "Hello?" She sniffs. Has she got a summer cold or is it the skag?
"Is Raymie there? It's Mark here." Raymie has evidently mentioned me bacause although I didn't know her, she sure as fuck knows me. Her voice chills over. "Raymie's away," she says. "London."
"London? Fuck... when's he due back?"
"Didn't know."
"He didn't leave anything for me, did he? Chances would be a fine thing, the ****."
"Eh, no..."
I shakily put the phone down. Two choices; one: tough it out, back in the room, two: phone that **** Forrester and go to Muirhoose, get fucked about and ripped off with some crap gear. No contest. In twenty minutes it was: "Muirhoose pal? To the driver on the 32 bus and quiveringly sticking my forty-five pence into the box. Any port in a storm, and it's raging in here behind my face.
An old boot gives me the evil eye as I passed her on the way down the bus. Do bougt I'm fuckin boggin and look and a real mess. It doesn't bother me. Nothing exists in my life except myself and Michael Forrester and the sickening distance between us: a distance being steadily reduced by this bus.
I sit on the back seat, downstairs. The bus is nearly empty. A girl sits across from me, listening to her Sony Walkman. Is she good looking? Who fuckin cares. Even though it's supposed to be a 'personal' stereo, I can hear it quite clearly. It's playing a Bowie number... 'Golden Years'.
| quote: |
Don't let me you hear you say life's takin you nowhere -- Angel... Look at those skies, life's begun, nights are warm and the days are yu-hu-hung... |
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