Scritti Politti: Classic Or Dud

I don't think Dr C was disparaging explanation, Alfred, I think that comment was part of the ongoing old-ilx discussion of the value of "chops". If someone back then had pitched up and said "I like record X because that dude is so good on the guitar" they would have been disparaged, so the Doctor was asking why it's better to say "I like record Y because that dude is so good at using the studio."

I think its the lack of explanation he's pointing out - what he wants is "this production is great because it does this and this and that ends up doing this and this to me when I listen to it".

The nearest old-ILM came to a consensus, I think, was that no-one wanted to value technique for its own sake, thinking end product more interesting.

old ilm = old punks.

Here they come,
shalalala laa laaa,
shalalala laa laaa,
The part time ILXors

They post on Tuesdays...

(etc)

the production on this (and david gamson's fairlight programming) is sublime.

In 10 years time this will be "ah old ILM".

I remember when "Cupid" came out and thinking it was just the thing I'd been looking for - "new wave" people doing r & b. Recently this promoted me to listen to all of the late seventies & early 80's funk I could find, it goes better with that music.

is this the most delightful bedroom guitar youtube of all time??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPClpdbnbk0

chik-kahhhhh

hey so i will be at the show this friday if any of you will too

:)

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/01056/97120514-cb58-11e5_1056010b.jpg

following the recent white-person-with-dreadlocks conversation, I was wondering if scritti's original drummer tom morley was the first white-person-with-dreadlocks pop star? I'm probably forgetting someone really obvious

he still has dreadlocks btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EG3LO3i4FI

Wonder if we'll get a new album from him soon? Already eight years since White Bread Black Beer.

― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 1:35 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Weird to think that he's in his 60s now.

he is appearing at the 'end of the road' festival later this year, so perhaps there is new material to showcase.

he's been threatening a new album this year, but who knows

he played new stuff in February!!

Screeetti Poleeetti's guide to DIY record releasing (from 1980):

https://twitter.com/MusicLikeDirt/status/756564212760084484

My favorites. They make my heart invincible.

alfred can i just say how much i love your blog?

Echoing that completely (your aloneness piece was great as well). I'd probably pick the same 15 tbh.

thank you both!!

Do fans of this group like these songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RydKrJo0mko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJkvyZ73kZ0

This is what it sounds like to me.

i do

Obvious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuWE26Qwqdg

I wanted to post this live recording up as I was going back through hard drives and have been listening to it quite a bit recently.

It's from The University Of London 11-16-1979, pretty fascinating, in my humble.

I had read that they made songs up on the fly during performances and was always a bit sceptical, but this recording bears that out and the whole gig seems, well really quite fraught but compelling.

It's interesting to hear them pull a song out of thin air and there's also a song that I can't find any mention of on Google called "John's on the dole' (the notes call it 'drums on the door' though) which is pretty great despite equipment problems and what sounds like some very vocal, smart alec-y mates in the audience.

https://we.tl/t-SzlTBDz7zf

Great in depth interview by Trevor Jackson with Green Gartside on NTS

https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/trevor-jackson-green-gartside-29th-october-2019/

THANKS!!!

somehow it's amazing to hear GG talking like a normal person thinking about things. I have actually met and spoken to him irl, fwiw, but the meeting is a blur. We talked about the fact that we were both wearing very similar yellow jackets. It's honestly the only thing I remember other than how tall he was (I'm tiny and was overwhelmed)

Yeah, this is really fascinating. (Just getting to the end right....now!) Thanks!

Thanks for sharing that, lovely stuff.

I can feel a Scritti jag coming on, where nothing else will do for a week or so.

this is a phenomenal interview

:O @ that early version of "wood beez"

That early version is as great in its own way.

waiting to see if Green pops up at all in the Henry Cow book.
Heard taht chris cutler was less than complementary about the early Scritti stuff he was played.

awesome

I love how Trevor Jackson played the System and Robert Palmer's "You Are in My System" and forced Green to choose.

Goodness -- I didn't know about this Pete Rock remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywr4GN6DS5E

Kraftwerk saying they hate reggae vs. Robert Palmer calling while swimming with dolphins.

Green's the 600th person to insist that Palmer's appetite for music was at odds with his image.

No RP was a total music nerd...just look at his choice of covers...he even covered Husker Du...ps the story of his mum smashing the Beatles 7” was utterly heartbreaking...

ICYMI, two new Green songs (a single, in fact) released yesterday:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0kSN6bCRIdNskZmOlQhnVg?si=jksozpT_QbCSJWogjUBrtw

I've been dealing with Anomie and Bonhomie the last week. What an album. It doesn't work, but this collaboration between Gartside and Mos Def, Ndegeocello, etc is fascinating for its era. The rock guitar is a bit much.

imo it totally works

green is ashamed of the foo fighters worship tracks but i love them, great power-pop

"Brushed With Oil.." ranks among his best too, and I love the remixes.

Still thinking about it.

yes "brushed with oil" is gorgeous

i think "umm" is one of my top five scritti songs

I bought Anomie and Bonhomie not long after it came out. It was a complete WTF for most people, myself included. But even before it aged well—and that’s maybe a bit debatable and he sounds a bit like a guest at times—you had to tip your cap to the fact that the guy just gives no fucks and does what he wants, whether it’s the rap metal and fey grunge of this or the I’m-gonna-carbon-copy-my-best-album-and-top-it of Provision.

Interested in the new single.

https://scrittipolitti.ffm.to/reissues

vinyl reissues of cupid & psyche and anomie and bonhomie

yes i bought both immediately

https://pocketmags.com/mojo-magazine/jun-22/articles/1133453/he-s-back-after-16-years-green-gartside-readies-scritti-politti-lp-six

just stumbled over this - didn't read the actual article but it sure sounds promising!
fingers crossed...

Still can't get over the name Green Gartside, I love it

There's a great recent episode of the Martyn Ware podcast with David Gamson as the guest. Some funny stories about the recording of Oh Patti and a surprising citing of 'We Don't Talk Any More' by Cliff Richard as a big musical influence. And it's led me to Hannah Diamond's music (Gamson is producing her new LP) and made me wish Green would make a hyperpop record - something that pushes 21st century sound design possibilities like C&P did back in '85.