Two blues/rock guitar legends passed away recently.

On November, 5th Link Wray, aged 76, died in Copenhague where he was buried in privacy on Friday. Link Wray started playing western swing after the war and got famous in 1958 with Rumble, a blues instrumental with a powerful, menacing riff. The first known use of a power chord (fuzz tone) in rock music. Apparently Wray punched a hole into his amp. At least ten years ahead of its time. Jimi Hendrix is unthinkable without him. Neil Young acknowledged Link as one of the big influences on his noisy guitar style. I found a live version of Rumble from 1977 on this ILM thread on Wray which he performed as a member of Robert Gordon's band at the Loeb auditorium in NYC.

Chris Whitley died on Sunday from lung cancer. He was only 45 years old. Most pictures on his website show him with a cigarette in his mouth. Chris had a very intense and personal way of playing the guitar. To me it often sounded as if he was expressing his darkest and deepest feelings through his blues guitar. Listen to Can't Get Off from 1995's Din of Ecstasy. A heavy-riffed blues with soulish almost funky vocals.

Vashti Bunyan in an interview on BBC Radio 4. About the good old times. Which I missed as I was born too late but was always looking for. Lookaftering (two songs to stream) is the next album on my wishlist. Hippie stuff, more than 35 years later. She had a long baby pause. Her music still sounds thrilling to these ears. Donovan, Sandy Denny, Joni Mitchell etc., the usual suspects come back to my mind.

How to make technology sound warm. One secret of the charm of Boards of Canada. The childhood associations which come automatically when listening to them. The naivety and spirituality in their music. As if unreligious people have got a more direct grasp of transcendency. Not obstructed by dubious beliefs. Who needs a god if there are Boards of Canada?

The Montgolfier Brothers use kids' and adults' voices in the background on Seventeen Stars. Just like BoC did before. Then BoC don't use them anymore (or only buried deep in the mix) and instead have an acoustic guitar playing simple hooks on the new album. A kind of stripped-down version of the acoustic guitar which is mainly responsible for the Montgolfier's sound.

I just listened to Dayvan Cowboy (see last post) on headphones when being sober and realised that it needs space to blossom. Its impact is strongest on good speakers when you are on a trip. Be it a trip in a car or a mind trip like when you've had some red wine, e.g.

Whereas Everything You Do Is a Balloon (my other fave BoC track) is ok on headphones. Maybe as it is more varied and/or calmer and not building up? It also seems to last so much longer (I think there are only 2 minutes difference between the two). Whereas Dayvan Cowboy always seems to finish much too soon. Maybe that's the best about it. It never reaches its climax. Like a withhold aurgasm (what a great name for a music blog).

Both tracks have two parts. The first part is in both cases rather impressionistic, an introduction. Like when you smell the wine. In the second part the wine touches your palate. On ... Balloon it stays there for about five minutes and slowly warms in your mouth whereas on Dayvan Cowboy the wine runs down your throat and it heats you from inside. The song is too short though so that the narcotic effect of the wine cannot yet take hold of you.

jason pierce: soft, effeminate, opera-singer like, a pain in the ears

sonic boom: young, innocent, sexy, wise, determined

god how i hate jason pierce's music. and his obsession with words like lord and jesus.

for the new Boards of Canada album The Campfire Headphase which will come out on October, 17th.

• In the Pitchfork interview Marcus Eoin and Mike Sanderson reveal that they are brothers. Slightly less surprising is their love for the Cocteau Twins. The interviewer compares the new disc which includes some guitar treatments to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Of course they feel flattered.
• Over at so totally, the selector, XYZ, a rarity from their Peel Session which starts with the trademark BoC sound but evolves into something more experimental with electronic beats and clicks.
• Finally last night an mp3 saved my wife is so generous to offer us '84 Pontiac Dream as a taster for the new release. A nostalgic, awesome piece to which childhood memories (read the post) impose themselves.

Pere Ubu is

• not now nor has it ever been a viable commercial venture.
• to Devo what Arnold Schoenberg was to Irving Berlin.
• a funeral rite for humanity after the catastrophe: there is the anguish of an inescapable fate, there is the agony and the ...
• a rock band.
• David Thomas: vocals Tom Herman: guitar, organ, backing vocals Robert Wheeler: EML synthesizer, theremin, piano Michele Temple: bass, piano, ...
• the central character in a series of absurdist plays by Frenchman Alfred Jarry (1873-1907).
• inevitably coloured by the shadow of their classic first album, 'The Modern Dance', which was key in showing the way music ...
• not easy music, though, with their well crafted pop hooks, they are more ...
• just kidding around with me, I can make my own decision about what their material means to me, can'tI?
• the most consistent band I can think of, especially considering they've been around since the mid-70s.

Zulya. Great voice, great music, great everything.

From the ILM thread Who is the Piano Man?