Translation: Why should a victim be a good man?

Translation: Can one yearn for knowing less about everything than what one knows?

Fehlfarben spielen am 21.10. in der Batschkapp im Nachtleben. Aus Düsseldorf (35 km von dem Kaff wo ich herkomm) sind sie und nachdem ich die beste Band Deutschlands 23 Jahre lang verpasst habe, werde ich diesmal auf meine alten Tage dabeisein. Die neue Platte kenne ich nicht, aber Monarchie und Alltag war mindestens genauso gut wie seine Einflüsse: The Clash, The Cure, The Specials und Madness.

There is a telephone ringing during the whole of this song from Swell's chef d'œuvre, their third album 41 from 1994, named after the street number where they recorded the album, in a warehouse in in Turk Street, Tenderloin, San Francisco.

It's ringing in the far distance, in the beginning there is hardly any music and there is just the telephone. And it is so important that no-one ever picks up the phone. The ringing is just there for the song. It is stripped off its original meaning, i.e. to signify that someone wants to talk to someone else. For the sake of art. Its sound is telling me that if someone really wants something from me he bloody has to turn up himself and not use such a stupid technical device ;-). It's a very relaxing sound, in the background, going on forever. Without anybody taking care of it. That's so swell.

A catchy single is to a well flowing album what a quickie is to real sex.

Did they or didn't they? And if they did was it illegal, immoral etc. etc. ILM thread of the day:

The KLF burn a million quid: my theory...

Call it synchronicity or bad memory. For a moment I thought fucktastic was a word I had just made up myself. But of course not. It even is in the Urban Dictionary.

• Paula Abdul
• Whitney Houston
• Anne-Sophie Mutter
• Ute Lemper
• Natalie Merchant
• Tori Amos
• Sheryl Crow
• Brigitte Nielsen
• Tatum O'Neal
• Brad Pitt
• MC Hammer
• Thomas Anders
• Eros Ramazotti
• Jean-Pierre Papin
• Til Schweiger
• Graciano Rocchigiani
• Julian Lennon
• Michael Jordan
• Seal
• Johnny Depp
• George Michael
• Coolio
• Lars Ullrich
• Quentin Tarantino
• Steven Soderbergh
• Garry Kasparov
• David Gavurin

P.S. I forgot Peter Stamm and Gilad Atzmon.

P.P.S. I also forgot Ian Brown, Jimmy Osmond and Johnny Marr.

P.P.P.S. And Eva Cassidy, Holly Cole, Norman Cook, Gordon Gano, Nils Petter Molvær, Grant Lee Phillips, Andy Rourke, Dean Wareham, Harriet Wheeler, Kevin Shields and Ian MacKaye.

I am bathing in I Believe in You from Talk Talk's splendid Spirit of Eden right now. This thread on ILM brought this album back to my mind. And there is another looong and instructive thread on Talk Talk.

How to describe this celestial music? A blend of lots of soundtrack, some symphony, a little progrock, a wee bit of jazz improvisation, a lot of blues and a voice (Mark Hollis) which would have annoyed me ten years ago but which does meld just perfectly with the mostly sparse and understated arrangements with so many instruments.

There is not a lot happening in the music, it is not for short time-span attentionists. I have listened to it a couple of times yesterday and today. It is nice background wallpaper music but it is even better when you really listen to it, when you pay attention to what's going on. My favourite instruments besides Mark Hollis' voice are the distorted harmonica and the percussion and the bass and and and. Just every bloody instrument. And the breaks, the pauses just before the waves continue to roll. There are also these violent non-expected eruptions like in Desire which make this album a soundtrack of real life.

This is one of the albums you should listen to on headphones and smoke a joint to. Though this is a contradiction. Joints are made to connect to people and not to disconnect from the world.