tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38395032024-03-16T11:52:38.576-07:00blissblog"my brain thinks bloglike"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!COMMENTS NOW ACTIVATED! SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comBlogger2916125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-3789874982632594042024-02-29T11:45:00.002-08:002024-03-01T08:37:11.042-08:00Bad Company I think I've probably played games less than 20 times in my life. (Unless we're counting Pong, which my granny had for some reason). Despite unfamiliarity with the whole area, its idiolect and lingo, I could understand this fascinating Vulture piece by Kieran Press-Reynolds on the outwardly mystifying appeal of the game Lethal Company. A grim, grinding parody of precarious work SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-89785356961532796142024-02-22T00:17:00.006-08:002024-02-23T10:38:04.686-08:00 SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-63441377058406443882024-02-20T18:28:00.003-08:002024-02-20T18:28:59.322-08:00BamaLove this video, love this song - the video made by my son Eli with his creative partner Max Schneiderman, the single is by their super-talented friend Julia Robyn.SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-4893217815182640472024-02-16T12:00:00.001-08:002024-02-16T12:00:15.331-08:00"Divine Decadence Darling!"I had a lovely time talking with Jeremy Gilbert and Tim Lawrence for their triffic music + politics podcast Love Is the Message. Our chat covered glam and punk and postpunk, themes of suburbia and boredom and the political economy of 1970s Britain. You can listen to the deftly-condensed and music-illustrated conversation at Apple or Spotify or PatreonSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-36720966292091063912024-02-10T13:41:00.009-08:002024-02-11T12:30:37.315-08:00RIP Damo SuzukiNot Damo-specific although he appears here and there, check out mash-up-ologist Tom Caruana's Can-tribute-via-loop-distillation release Inner Space - there's an instrumental version and then one (the primary one in fact) which uses these de facto Can breakbeats as a base for rappers to do their thing.Jump to 40.09 for the Vit C meets MC merger (in this case Denmark Vessey)"Vitamin C" isSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-21259261543493168342024-02-04T13:13:00.003-08:002024-02-04T13:15:16.304-08:00RIP Christopher Priest I think have only read the one book by Christopher Priest - A Dream of Wessex. Read it when it first came out, borrowed from Berkhamsted library (almost certainly the edition pictured above). And then I read it again in the 2010s, having picked up a hardback of the original US edition (mystifyingly retitled The Perfect Lover) at Glendale's s.f. + fantasy specialist shop Mystery and SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-65818141560802806002024-01-28T12:23:00.010-08:002024-02-01T17:31:40.424-08:00Neil, continuedTributes keep coming... Here's one you should really read - a loving portrait from his close friend Simon Price, full of details and stories I never knew. For The Quietus.Update February 1st: lovely extended meditation by Cam Scott on Neil and specifically his book Eastern Spring: a 2nd Gen Memoir . Here's a mix Neil made to go along with Eastern Spring. David Stubbs SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-27813986605030387002024-01-23T12:08:00.007-08:002024-02-22T10:35:53.593-08:00RIP Neil KulkarniStunned, heartbroken, by the news about Neil Kulkarni.I never met Neil in the flesh but I feel like I did, his personality is so vivid in his writing, and as a social media presence and podcaster. By the time Neil started coming down to Melody Maker from Coventry, I would have been mostly in New York. I did have some lovely phone conversations with him when getting him to review rap records for SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-44329151074059222082024-01-21T10:50:00.010-08:002024-01-25T18:40:02.752-08:00Head Over Heels about "shitpost-modernism" Gutted about what's happened to Pitchfork.Bizarrely, both me and my son had pieces pending when the news came - and they've both just run. One of the great things about Pitchfork is the space they've given to young writers to go wide and deep (old writers too!). Here's Kieran Press-Reynolds with a thinkpiece on shitpost-modernism: "the flood of 2020s music that straddles the line SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-76979990061459495782024-01-17T11:13:00.006-08:002024-01-29T15:48:21.094-08:00the original doomscroller As the end of a year approaches, Sasha Frere-Jones invites writers, musicians, and artists to come up with some words about that year. "Reflections on 2023" went up on his Substack on January 1st and it includes some thoughts from me about doomscrolling. You'll have to - haha - scroll down a ways to find it, though, as he's got a hell of a lot of guests and some of the contributions SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-17619468247948724322024-01-14T16:48:00.004-08:002024-01-18T14:47:16.488-08:00the final (connect_i)cutTalking about blogs operated by musicians, word comes that the last ever album by connect_icut, also known as Sam Macklin and whose nom de blog was Bubblegum Cage III - is now out on the Blasted Gorse label. And it's really excellent, weaving Sam's abiding passions for early UK post-rock (Disco Inferno and that kind of thing), left-field electronic music, glitch, et al, SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-88696636764776707342024-01-10T21:50:00.174-08:002024-01-18T14:47:27.736-08:00blogging, continuedXenogothic with some thoughts on blogging. Among many other things, Matt talks about blogs operated by musicians, by the likes of Deerhunter and Phil Elverum, as a whole other field of bloggy action. I suppose Momus's Click Opera, mentioned in the previous Blissblog post about blogs then and now, counts in this category. In an earlier longer version of the GuardianSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-54334684401568320112023-12-26T15:55:00.044-08:002024-02-13T12:01:07.432-08:00ou sont les blogs d'antan?The Guardian asked me to write about blogging. One thing I observe is that although the freedom and fun offered by the format endures, the inter-blog communication of the heyday has faded away. At least, in this particular corner of the 'sphere. Blogging has become more of a solitary activity. A blogpost will be sparked by something "out there," or by something within, but rarely SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-79701766001665051102023-12-18T17:54:00.004-08:002023-12-27T16:45:50.430-08:00prolific progenyA round-up of write-ups from Kieran Press-Reynolds - who's been on a bit of a tear recently.Sweet piece on growing up as a digital native and discovering a cache of Gchat and Buzz scribblings from when he was 11 years old (for Insider)Fun run-down of his most enjoyable nightlife experiences of 2023.Countdown of top tunes from the past year, starting with this entry on Bar Italia. SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-46345635634780032022023-12-11T19:32:00.015-08:002024-01-18T14:47:55.546-08:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Yuletide Edition : Moon Wiring Club; The Focus Group; Jabu; Do You Have Peace? compilation; Gespensterland compilation; Prends Le Temps D'Ecouter musique d'expression libre des enfantsChristmas is coming and that can only mean one thing - new stocking stuffers from Moon Wiring Club!These comprise excellent new album Sepia Cat City, a new issue of Catmask, a calendar, a T-shirt, an array of badges, and a selection of seasonal greeting cards.Sepia Cat City is the final instalment of MWC's Cat Location trilogy (see The Most Unusual Cat in the Village + The Only Cat SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-41815555459321383582023-11-26T18:01:00.012-08:002024-01-18T14:48:08.560-08:00RIP Geordie A guitar anti-hero, scalding ears with that sulphuric sound.Revelations is the peak, for Killing Joke and for Kevin "Geordie" Walker."Forbidden was bidden...""We were drunk, intoxicate" Revelations is where Killing Joke arrives at itself, brutally shearing off precursor-traces and exterior inputs.Which is not to say the journey to absolute individuality is without SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-69193062688446457732023-11-20T18:11:00.005-08:002023-11-20T18:15:19.473-08:00RIP Catherine Christer Hennix Spinner of one of my favorite sound-spaces of recent times - "The Well-Tuned Marimba". From Selected Early Keyboard Works. An interview with the composer-performer-poet-mathematician. From 2020, at Tone Glow, conducted by Joshua Minsoo Kim.Another interview with the composer-performer-poet-mathematician. From earlier this year, at o bo, conducted by Nora SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-1756997847710171122023-10-25T10:58:00.002-07:002023-10-25T10:58:30.292-07:00Biennale for now I'm off to Italy for La Biennale di Venezia, where I will be on the panel Futurhythmachine, chatting with McKenzie Wark, Steve Goodman aka Kode9, and Valerio Mattioli + Valerio Mannucci of Nero Editions.If you happen to be in town, it's at 11 am on Friday 27th October, at Biblioteca ASAC.SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-4514950889400621592023-09-28T11:52:00.006-07:002024-01-18T14:48:20.811-08:00Dream dazeLovely to speak with Rudy Tambala for the first time in 34 years about A.R. Kane and the wonderful new A.R Kive box of their kore kreation. The distillate of our 3-hour conversation appears at Pitchfork as this Q+A. Chatting with Rudy by Zoom, I learned a surprisingly large number of things I never knew about the group, which is perhaps odd given how many times I interviewed SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-21708566439289319862023-09-26T12:16:00.001-07:002024-01-18T14:48:35.194-08:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Harvest Festival edition - Elizabeth Parker, The Stone Tape, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Kilkenny Electroacoustic Research Laboratory Anthology Vol. 2 Trunk Records recently put out a very nice compendium of short spooky works by long-term local resident Elizabeth Parker, who'll be familiar to many parishioners from her volunteer work for the Radiophonic Workshop. The vinyl long-player is called Future Perfect. And what an attractive cover! This piece in particular struck me as SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-46754020117789092022023-09-16T13:22:00.001-07:002023-09-16T13:22:14.340-07:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter: Exchange Student ProgramHere's a cool side-project by two members of the hauntology-aligned Ghost Box groop Beautify Junkards - João Branco Kyron and Tony Watts aka Hidden Horse. Here's what I said of the new album Incorporeal, which is out now in vinyl and digital editions on Holuzam:“A startling step sideways from Beautify Junkyards’s sweetly
spooky psychedelia, this parallel project brings the New Sonic SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-24540691777322921332023-09-10T17:23:00.003-07:002023-09-10T17:23:48.168-07:00RIP Richard DavisThe heartbeat of Astral Weeks - and effectively the band-leader.Another of a number of other career highlightsAnd anotherSIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-34060822655002062032023-08-22T09:14:00.002-07:002023-08-22T10:38:48.095-07:00thrills versus landfillKieran Press-Reynolds on how "the recent explosion of remixing — from sped-up edits and nu-SoundClown mashups to fanmade bootlegs — is rewiring the way we create and consume music in both thrilling and unnerving ways". At No Bells blogzine.Upside: "It’s hard to deny the wild thrill of tempo-twisted remixes, and it’s cool to see them gain wider appreciation. The appeal of shifting the speed SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-22135479185241078902023-08-01T09:43:00.003-07:002023-08-06T00:11:51.608-07:00Hauntology Parish Newsletter - Harvest Edition - Lo Five; eMMplekz; A Year in the Country; Belbury Poly Spied in the window of Book Nook!Cover Design by Rachel LaineAlerted by Folk Horror Revival - detective work by John Coulhart at { feuilleton }Also to be seen on the shelves of the Book Nook Yes, a new tome from the prolific Stephen Prince - A Year in the Country: Lost Transmissions: Dystopic Visions, Alternate Realities, SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839503.post-22446900177959708502023-07-22T16:41:00.017-07:002024-01-18T14:48:49.950-08:00The NamesakesTalking of phonetic near-namesakes, it has come to my attention that there's a lot of Simon Reynoldses out there. Simon was a very common name for baby boys in the '60s and '70s in the U.K. - a knock-on of the popularity of The Saint, with its dashing Simon Templar character, and then a bit later Simon Dee the "with it" TV presenter. Reynolds is a fairly ordinary name, not quite Smith SIMON REYNOLDShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01282478701882900354noreply@blogger.com0