Posted 28-06-2015 at 17:12
Emily Portman's abbum Coracle was released on 22nd June 2015.
From folkradio.co.uk: The first song, Darkening Bell, is one of the album’s highlights, its subject matter a visit made by Emily and some friends to the ancient Gop Caves in North Wales. On the top of the hill in which the caves are located is Gop Cairn, which is thought to have been constructed some 6,000 years ago – it’s also rumoured to be either Boudica’s grave, or the burial place of a Roman general – while the caves themselves have been said to lead into underground tunnels used by the Celtic warriors of the local Tegeingl tribe to mount guerrilla attacks on the invading Roman army in the 1st century AD.
It’s no surprise, then, that Emily’s lyric reflects the site’s richly inspirational history with a highly evocative word picture of one of its possible pasts. A distant banjo and slow, stately percussion sparkle like ancient gold behind the smoky strings of Lucy Farrell and Rachel Newton (Emily’s bandmates in her trio) before the tempo quickens to an intense and atmospheric conclusion.
Posted 22-07-2015 at 14:26
Bizarre random find of the day!
Lee Hyla's "We Speak Etruscan". From the Mobtown Modern "Low Art" Program, recorded October 7th, 2009 at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, MD. Performed by Brian Sacawa and Jennifer Everhart, with a remix by DJ Dubble 8.
Posted 08-08-2015 at 17:37
The Stones Of Wisdom by Gandalf
Musician, composer and producer - born and living in Austria - a Painter of Musical Landscapes with worldwide acknowledgement.
His music is inspired by the beauty of nature and by the wisdom and myths of ancient cultures. In his mostly instrumental compositions he captures moments full of magic and fascination, tells tales of joy and sadness, love and cosmic harmony. The music is rich with emotions, from soft and tender to powerful and uplifting.
Also made a soundtrack album – A collection of picturesque pieces written and produced by Gandalf in 2013 as the music-score for various projects, mostly for the TV-documentary “The Stone Age Enigma” by Ronald & Roswitha Vaughan
Posted 27-09-2015 at 21:54
While trying to explain to my son the dubious joys of late 80s rock discos, Youtube spewed up this one - The Sisters Of Mercy - Dominion - classic song to late 80s goths but I hadn't seen the video. 10 out of 10 to son for recognising the backdrop as Petra, they look like they had fun making it as well.
Posted 30-09-2015 at 22:34
Brainiac 5, spotted in Record Collector Magazine (son is getting into collecting classic vinyl so my old records are finally getting some appreciation)
Formed out of the ashes of free festival favourites the Half Human Band – also featuring Griffin – the initial Brainiac 5 line-up of guitarist/vocalists Charles Taylor (aka Charlie Nothing) and Bert Biscoe, bassist John ‘Woody’ Wood and drummer Steve Hudson made a name for themselves on the isolated yet thriving Cornish pub, club and festival scene.
This photo looks to be from the late 70s/early 80s
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Fast forward to 2013 and with Taylor returning to the UK after 20 years running Reckless stores in the States, the opportunity to reconvene the Brainiacs results in Space Is The Place, a 10-inch EP of new recordings on Bucketfull Of Brains magazine founder Nigel Cross’s Shagrat label. Garnering effusive reviews from the likes of The Wire and Shindig! magazines, and with Charlie and Woody now joined by another Plummet alumnus Duncan Kerr on guitar, along with Nick Onley on sax and flute and Wayne Worrell on drums, Brainiac 5 are once again very much a going concern. A long strange trip indeed!
Posted 09-10-2015 at 21:21
Am I allowed to extend 'music' to the LP version of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Soundtrack, which came 'Live' from the imaginary cinema The Classic, Silbury Hill.
As recommended by Stephen McCauley who has an alternative music show on BBC Radio Foyle each week called Electric Mainline:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06dr44x
Stephen's other programme is 'Soundscapes' which is a mix of contemporary classical, electronica, ambient and acoustic music - highly recommended if you're into this sort of thing
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055v6x8
Posted 24-10-2015 at 22:01
A double historical reference here on Sapokanikan by Joanna Newsom. ‘Sapokanikan’ is a place name, used by the Lenape Native American tribe for a small seasonal village and trading post which they inhabited on Manhattan Island, on the east bank of the Hudson River.
There until the early 1600s, the Lenape – also known as the Delaware Indians – would hunt and fish and trade with other tribes and early European settlers. The Lenape spoke the Unami language, and the name ‘Manhattan’ comes from the Unami ‘Manna-hata’, which has been translated as ‘island of many hills’.
The cause is Ozymandian
The map of Sapokanikan
Is sanded and bevelled
The land lone and levelled
By some unrecorded and powerful hand
In antiquity, ‘Ozymandias’ was a Greek name for Ramesses II, the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and often regarded as the greatest pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire owing to the series of campaigns he undertook in the Levant, including across the extent of modern-day Syria. The name is best known however as the title of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most recognised and most anthologised poem. ‘Ozymandias’ was first published on 11 January 1818, in the London weekly The Examiner.
Posted 02-11-2015 at 22:36
Here's the new album, (his first in English) by the North Wales songwriter Gai Toms.
Track 2 Sea and Mountain should strike a chord (groan) here with lyrics enthusing the outdoor life like 'ramble, hike, climb, first to the cairn' so it just about qualifies depending on the type of cairn!
"Imagine a Conor Oberst galaxy colliding with a Nick Cave event horizon, captured in a Super Furry lamp and left on Earth, the Genie of which enters the soul of a 39 year old Welsh guy... then you're halfway there!"
Posted 07-11-2015 at 18:40
I've switched the concept round for this one - how about some obscure stones inspired by a well-known musician.
In August 2002 local gardeners landscaped the area around the village hall in Durness in the Highlands of Scotland. Part of the garden was dedicated as memorial to John Lennon, the only permanent memorial to him in Scotland.
The memorial is a set of three standing stones, created by local craftsman Neil Fuller, which feature lyrics from the song In My Life (There are places I remember).
Do we think these memorial stones warrant their own 'modern' site page?
Posted 29-12-2015 at 20:00
Motorhead write: “There is no easy way to say this … our mighty, noble friend Lemmy passed away today after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer."
“We cannot begin to express our shock and sadness; there aren’t words.
“We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please … play Motörhead loud, play Hawkwind loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD. Have a drink or few.
“Share stories.
“Celebrate the LIFE this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself.
“HE WOULD WANT EXACTLY THAT.”
The band signed off: “Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister
“1945 -2015
“Born to lose, lived to win.”
Lemmy on pyramids and pizzas:
"I like hotels. They give you clean sheets. They bring you your meals, and then they take that dirty shit away and wash it. Wonderful! I don’t let them in the room to clean it up. I make my own bed. I don’t want them to ***** with my stuff. They take things away that you want to keep. I mean, I’ve got a pizza in that second drawer down there that I bought the first night I was here, you know, because they only sell you the big ones, so I eat a pizza for three days, and it’s great. It’s an acquired taste, you know? I think it’s the sound quality in there. We discovered in Hawkwind that sound can affect things. You can shake things to bits with sound, so if you build a pyramid it keeps everything in sharp and shit, so I just put the pizza in the drawer there – it’s acoustically enhanced pizza."
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/29/lemmy-a-life-in-quotes
[ This message was edited by: Andy B on 2015-12-29 20:46 ]
Posted 31-12-2015 at 23:25
During the brief English Commonwealth (1649-1660), a number of radical groups blossomed across the land; nonconformists, nudists, shakers, quakers, opponents of Church/State and of property ownership, free-thinkers, Diggers, Levellers and Ranters.
In the equally austere years of the post-punk permafrost, and under the grip of another ruthless despot, freedom was in part personified by the widely vilified and brutally attacked people's Peace Convoy - a manifestation of idealism that was grotesquely smashed near Stonehenge on 1 June 1985; 537 arrested, children terrorised, idealism and hope stamped on with fear and violence.
What was essentially a class war had been joined in the previous year with horse charges and gloved fists against miners and their families across Yorkshire. This was clearly intended to force home the point: "You are nothing. We own you and your labour. You work for us."
It was during these dark times that Normil Hawaiians third album 'Return Of The Ranters' was written, recorded and shelved. It has now finally seen release.
One track, "Battle Of Stonehenge" is a powerful and emotive recording detailing the band's personal experience of the aforementioned Police ransack of the Peace Convoy from the same year, and as a result provides the rallying point of album. Beginning bravely as a solitary spun-out voice, the song eventually becomes awash with choruses of guitar and reverberating synth, joined finally by adornments of violin and an entrancingly agile beat.
Posted 03-01-2016 at 21:53
Good one. Here's an obscure fact about Eva Cassidy - the first band she was in, aged 16/17 was called Stonehenge, where she met her guitarist.
Mr Kokoschka, it just happened again (sad, so sad)
They struck the museum like a hurricane (sad, so sad)
All of our culture, it's dead and it's gone (sad, so sad)
From Babylon, baby, back to Babylon (sad, so sad)
There's stuff you find along the way and stuff you leave behind
And it all ends up as stuff that you can buy
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
In old Baghdad, they're dusting off the antiques (sad, so sad)
It's the fourteenth Guernica we've had this week (sad, so sad)
I got twenty-five dollars for a Persian vase (sad, so sad)
Hold the critique, I think I'll go large (sad, so sad)
Posted 24-02-2016 at 21:00
Stonehenge Aotearoa in Carterton, NZ was the place to be for Pink Floyd fans last Saturday evening with tribute band Eclipse paying homage to the musical legends.
Organiser Mark Rogers said it was an excellent night for all involved. Mr Rogers said Stonehenge was "packed out" with fans of the psychedelic rock band. He said people had travelled from all over New Zealand to see the performance, as well as from Australia and America.
Posted 25-02-2016 at 15:17
Strangely, there seem to be two bands called Henge, one from Manchester (odd but funky, fun and interesting). Their video features some mad intergalactic dowsing at Nine Ladies (I think it is?) and there's even a model stone circle landscape near the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptlU2AWfaDI
In Praise of Water / Valerian Tea (Double B-side)
Posted 25-02-2016 at 19:57
A mention for Eriu's Child by Michael Morris and Earthsong Music, a 13 track CD which describes itself as 56 minutes of music from the heart and soul of Ireland.
It features reconstructed prehistoric instruments played by Ancient Music Ireland. Track 3 is the Song of Amairgin which is a very ancient bardic poem, discussed more here.
The artwork on CD itself, is by Martin Brennan, author of Stars and Stones, and depicts the K 52 Backstone from Newgrange in a cosmological light.
The CD is available in the megalithic.co.uk Online Shop for just £4.99 plus worldwide post. It's also available in the USA here, with audio previews available.
OFF-Line
Posted 28-06-2015 at 17:12 
