Trollheart

With the dearth of entries for March it seemed pointless to bother doing an update last month, so instead I've combined this month and last into the one update, which I here present for your perusal.

The return of Blank brings us more of http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...l-pleases.html, and what does he damn well please this month? Um, go quietly (or not so quietly) mad, it would seem, with pictures by OccultHawk. Ohhhhh-kaaayyyy.... Moving on ...

A little more sanity in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ravaganza.html where he's looking at The Black Angels and Skinshape while

http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...obably-dl.html include the likes of Charli XCX, The Beach Boys and The Knocks. Goofle's also kicking his http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...63-2017-a.html thread back into life, with a list of his top ten for 2017. No doubt more to come in due course.

Always eclectic, always interesting, almost always something to make me say “wtf? Never heard of that/them/him/her?” http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...nnerspace.html has Read the Music by Beth Winegarner and the music of Harold Budd and John Foxx. Hey! I know who he is! Foxx, that is...

Ki appears to be back. Again. And he's updating http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...iii-story.html with some typically existential writing, as well as looking at Divinity Original Sin II, The Witcher 3 and others in http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...-whenever.html.

MicShazam is putting (again) so much work into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ong-picks.html that I'm just going to have to skim lightly over the plethora of music and entries here. Most importantly, of course, there are two reviews by yours truly, my first for some time, on both Helloween's Better Than Raw and The Frail Tide by Be'lakor. I did try Tori Amos but it's not really a review and it just pissed me off. Mix himself dives into the discography of Britney, and there's the usual from Dire Straits, sorry Dir En Grey, as well as Waltari, The Agonist, Infernal Rain, Kylie, Tori, Jinjer, Medina and so very much more, but I simply have not the time or energy to go through everything here. I mean, this guy is writing in terms of double-figure pages! What a workhorse! Definitely check it out: there should be something there for just about anyone. And if that isn't enough Mix for ya, look into http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...not-music.html for comic books, DVDs and games and, you know, stuff that isn't music.

Not reviewing http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...p-lighter.html this time round. See further for why.

Finally, we have an interesting new journal from an interesting, not new member but one who doesn't seem to post perhaps as much as she should. Yeah, it's http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...g-odyssey.html and it is well worth a look. Weezer feature heavily of course, as does, well, nothing else yet, but I'm sure she'll be expanding her repertoire soon.

Funny Post

of the Month
Goes to Occulthawk for this attempt to understand, explore, or at least laugh at the crazy pathways of the brain of the guy we know as Blank.
I can't honestly award

to anyone else this month. I mean, who else but Mix has written almost twenty pages in one month in his journal? Seriously: the man's a machine!

And now, before Hawk starts checking flights to Dublin and makes sure he has a full box of ammo, I've decided to bring this back:

Many of you weren't around when this was a thing, and those of you that were probably don't care, but just to let anyone who does care know, here's what it is. I selected a journal I believed to be a classic one, one into which there was a lot of work put and which, over the course of the updates, didn't get the in-depth review that it deserved. I would then go through it, week on week, month on month (and in some cases even year on year) and give a detailed (or relatively detailed anyway) description of what was in it). I'll be doing this with other journals this year too, and depending on how old they are (or how much work has been put into them) each will run over several entries. For the larger ones, these reviews will run in tandem with, but not necessarily at the same time as, the monthly update. Some of the larger, more detailed journals may end up being posted about weekly or even, who knows, daily.

So the first one up, perhaps unsurprisingly, as I think I've been leading up to this, is
OccultHawk's
From Freak Fighter to Lamp Lighter
which has been running now since July 2017, making it almost a year old.

After presenting what I personally felt was a pretty poor journal which featured just about nothing but links to experimental music, Hawk dug in and set about creating what I would call a proper journal. I have no idea what the title means, what, if any, theme or direction this is meant to follow, but he certainly keeps it updated and knows his stuff, so maybe that doesn't matter.

The journal began without fanfare and inauspicously enough. No explantion of what he was doing, no long convoluted Trollheartesque introduction, no mission statement, no quotes or images and no logo. The first words he wrote in this journal were lines from the song he would post as his first entry, by the English metal band Fen, the song being “Winter II: Penance.” July 2 2017 and the fight had begun!

Keeping it British for now, next up was Scottish field recording ambient musician Peter James, thsn it was off to link the music of The Caretaker with the movies The Shining and The Exorcist, via Memories From a Haunted Ballroom (which is kind of interesting, as one of my favourite vocalists, Tim Bowness, has an album called Abandoned Dancehall Dreams: no, they're not the same but there is some crossover there, though the music is wildly different) and then “mellow indie folk” from Hollow Coves. A quick moment to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Dalek's debut album and it was on to Alexander Scriabi, a Russian composer whom Hawk regards as “one of the most important composers of all time”.

Nearly two weeks into his journal, Hawk gave us this tantalising bit of info as to the future direction, or partial direction anyway, he'd be going in: One thing thing I want to try to do in this journal is explore the careers of certain musicians who managed to play on a surprisingly large number of great recordings. I know that people who start up ideas often bite off more than they can chew. This is one I'll just have to take my time about because naturally there's more writing to do if the musician is prolific.

Recognising that this is/was a pretty big undertaking is an interesting take from the man with an ego even bigger than Batty's and kind of Saturn to Frownland's Jupiter, but there it is. The first artist he focussed on was Philly Joe Jones, who used to drum with Miles Davis. Then it was on to Thelonius Monk (and his mother) and stopping in 1927, cos Hawk thought this was a very significant year. Who am I to argue with him?

Another typical quote from the uncompromising Hawk was this: “If you don't like this you should kill yourself, cos life ain't worth living.” Normally I'd roll my eyes at him, but hey, he was talking about "Old Man River", and who doesn't love that song? So yeah, maybe he's right in this instance. The reference to that song was of course to let us know that Show Boat premiered that year, and there was also some pilot who flew across the channel and had his baby kidnapped and killed: you may have heard of him? Edgar Varese, too, apparently the grandfather of electronic music. Also Albert Ayler and Joe Meek. Page one completed, three weeks in.

As July came to a close Hawk started on 2 Live Crew, who apparently formed something of the soundtrack to his youth, and proceeded to regale us with a story about some party or others, which showed how deeply flawed and warped an individual he is, with references like “she got passed around a lot and I don't like any other dick going into it, but a book ain't no worse just cos you got it at the library”! Yeah, man. This. This is why we love you. Sometimes. Top ten reggae songs, Page and Plant and back to Philly Jones, and July was done.

Done? Bitch, he just gettin' started!

And that's where we leave Hawk and his journal for now, but August will be posted pretty soon. It's also where we leave the update so until next month, toodles!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018