TIM MUNGENAST VON ZAMLA PHIL LESH HABIB KOITE

ISSUE 74 December 1999 US$2.00 new column interview essay

PARANOISE in posession of all the facts

BARRY GUY/LJCO VASEN MAGMA LIVE IANCU DUMITRESCU/HYPERION HOSEMOBILE OLD BLIND DOGS LUNASA BLAST Is Sci Fi Dying of Pokemon Flu? Aaand... Ed Morris Makes Us Strip Mine the Reagan Legacy ADVANTAGE: LINDSAY! One of modern music’s singular melodic voices, LINDSAY COOPER reflects on recent history, musical & otherwise, as well as what’s next,with our Third Stage Guild Navigator

Making her name during her tenure with Henry Cow, one of the great musician collectives of the ‘rock’ era, Lindsay Cooper moved on in 1979 with any number of other bands and groupings, writing wonderful, tuneful compositions for discerning folk who didn’t have to be able to sit through “Pierrot Lunaire” or “Kraanerg” to enjoy. Illness has not slowed her down, either, as she has done articles for ’s ReR Newsletter and with this issue inaugurates a column here in TONE CLUSTERS, having to do with music, politics and their many ancillaries. We are terribly proud to reintroduce her to you... not that she’s ever been away, really, as the #1 position for which A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, her recent CD on Impetus Records, shared with three other CDs on the TC Top 40 for 1998.

ARTICLE TRANSCRIBED BY IZZY TROUTMAN FOREWORD BY LINDSAY

27 photograph this page by Val W'rimer 28 LINDSAY COOPER terrible. I just spent 4 weeks in California and think I was the only person there who was who there person only the I was think and California in weeks 4 spent I just terrible. this because if Diana Simmonds, an intelligent woman, doesn’t know much about this about much know doesn’t woman, intelligent an Simmonds, Diana if because this tried which are a great help are acupuncture, various kinds of bodywork including bodywork of kinds various acupuncture, arehelp great a are which tried abound and eyesight can sometimes be affected. Speech can sometimes be slurred, be sometimes can Speech affected. be sometimes can eyesight and abound ago and been to several workshops at Ickwell Bury in Biggleswade, somewhere that somewhere Biggleswade, inBury Ickwell at years11workshops nearly several to been dignosed and Iwas since ago ever yoga studied I’ve Buddhism. Tibetan and yoga she was in a state of total ignorance about the disease. This Email caused me to write to me caused Email This disease. the about ignorance total said, of shestate asa in because, me was she backthanking me Emailed she andher Itold were. main my symptoms what know to wanting Australia, Sydney, inlives now who and mine of woman Fred Frith knows (who has it, but is still working successfully as a singer) told singer) a as successfully working still isbut it, has (who knows Frith Fred woman delighted that the effects of El Nino were so bad that we only had 4 sunny days. sunny 4 had only we badthat so were Nino El of effects the that delighted sun, the in sit and out go I if badly; veryit affects Heat it? doesn’t package, little cheery substances covering the nerve endings) are destroyed) and causes staggeringly high staggeringly causes and destroyed) are endings) nerve the covering (fatty substances sheaths myelin the sothat system nervous the attacking mistakenly system immune people things main The state. similar ain people more load abe must there then disease, complementary therapies which can help. And there’s a lot you can do; therapies I’ve therapies do; can you lot a there’s And help. can which therapies various complementary trying to open be and attitude positive ais develop to thing main the me, a it;as at looking of ways other are But there bleak. pretty sounds all That careers. intheir stage crucial a at and prime intheir with— cope they’re to when illness serious have a hot bath or go to a Turkish bath or sauna, all of which I used to enjoy doing, Ifeel doing, enjoy to usedI which of all sauna, or bath Turkish a to go or bath hot a have particularly when tired, and various sexual difficulties can be experienced. Sounds a Sounds experienced. be can difficulties sexual various and tired, when particularly levels of fatigue. Walking and balance can be difficult, bladder and bowel problems bowel and bladder difficult, be can balance and Walking fatigue. of levels physiotherapy and Chinese qi gong. But the systems which are closest to my heart are heart my to closest are which systems But the gong. qi Chinese and physiotherapy need to know are that it affects various parts of the nervous system (it does this by the this does (it system nervous the of parts various itaffects that are know to need More women than men are affected and it generally strikes just when people least need a need least people when strikes just generally it and affected are men than women More Sclerosis) (Multiple M.S. about Message A PREFACE-- Vuim: l DOIVnunimme: tl h da Songbook Adnan The h Ri Song Rain The Singing Waters Singing arr Year of Miracles of Year Victory Westbrook Mike arr Brodnck Dean arr Had an Email the other day from Diana Simmonds, who used to be a very good friend good very abe to used who Simmonds, Diana dayfrom other the Email an Had r Vra Wso Lvr. uti Dsedn, Prayer Descending, Curtain Lovers. Weston Veryan arr ai Bryars Gavin

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Lindsay Cooper Lindsay “Oh, I think aIago“Oh,few yearsthink I’d havehadreactionI’d that Left, concert cover of the program mentioned inmentionedprogram Resecond-guessing but now I’mbutnowsimply pleased to see it.” pleasedseeto the performers:the the interview the

specialises in working with MS sufferers and has had amazing success. I’ve always liked COOPER LINDSAY yoga because it’s not just Keep Fit but also works with the breath and the meditation. Someone I’m curently doing bodywork with (Mariora Goschen, sister of Sula who used to drive the bus for Henry Cow) also works with the breath and Ernest Coates, my yoga teacher, always used to say he’d never worked with anyone with a serious illness who didn’t have severe breathing problems.

Yoga meditation finally led me on to Tibetan Buddhism; I’ve been on a Christmas retreat led by Songyal Rinpoche, done a Vipassana weekend at Esalen in California, read copious Buddhist texts and meditate at least twice a day. Something I realised a long time ago but tend not to talk about except to fellow Buddhists or people sympathetic to Buddhism is that my Buddha nature certainly doesn’t have MS. Healing comes mainly through the mind and training the mind through meditation makes healing a lot more likely. All these ideas are something that few allopathic doctors would be sympathetic to, though I sense that more are sympathetic than was the case even 5 years ago.

Annemarie Roelofs, who I’ve worked with for years and who was a member of the Feminist Improvising Group, has done a benefit concert with [former member of —Ed.] and several other musicians and given the proceeds

“The question that few doctors are prepared to ask is ‘what makes the self turn against the self?’ The other pertinent question is ‘why are we choosing to live in a seriously toxic environment?”

to the Bassoonist Club [see TC 67, FOR(E)BEARINGS column-Ed.], something I find incredibly touching. As my friend Margot Nash (Australian film director) says, illness really does bring out the best in people. A woman was at high school with also has MS and she says the trick is to accept you can’t do anywhere near as much as you used to or would like— once you’ve been through that tough little process, other things flow in to fill the gap. That’s certainly been the case with me; I’ve been wanting to write (words) all my life but every time anybody asked me to write anything I had a knee- jerk reaction of panic and inventing various justifications for not doing it, limiting my writing activities to copious diary entries and letters to friends. It has to be said that writing words consumes a lot less energy than writing music, so until I get the music software (Fred Frith has got me the Overture programme, misheard by as “Overjoyed”) installed in my computer, writing words suits me fine.

Various other therapies I do which seem to work are based on the use of electro magnetic energy (something else that most allopathic doctors are horrified by). The only allopathic doctor I’m prepared to see uses applied kinesiology to work out what foods should be avoided and asks you to sit attached to an expensive German machine which analyzes and tries to reverse the electromagnetic frequencies that are affecting various bodily 29

a a program for a film Left, a compilation of wrote the soundtracks . Next two pages, the front and back cover of festival for which Ms. Cooper film music on Review Records, MS MS and several other auto-immune diseases like lupus and arthritis (AIDS is also well- have— illnesses seem to a have habit of appearing exactly when you need them. unreleased material it’s going to be a double CD) is going to be out to coincide with a singing a number of pieces my me and the bill is going to be shared with Lindsay spoke of in the text, which occurred on Nov. 15,1998 at the Institute of EDITORS’ NOTE: This essay was a handout with the programme at the Gemini concert known to be related to the immune system) are becoming a lot mopre widespread. The looking at things and the thought that we might be on the brink of a quantum leap rather Contemporary Arts, London. inevitable little administrative knots makes everything go much more smoothly. fairly I’m It’s It’s a compulsive pattern (in my case thinkI stemming from the fact I’m an only child) and proposed CD released my instant reaction was “no,no,no, it to has be done on my own.” question that few doctors are prepared to ask is “what the makes self turn against self?” the The other pertinent question is “why are we choosing to live in a seriously toxic my breath London, away. —L.C., November 1998 concert Ian Mitchell of Gemini is organising for November 15 [1998]. It’s going to include several several compositions by Gavin Bryars. I’m already excited the by prospect ofthe CD and one one that I see over and over in other creative artists. Now I’ve accepted help (as I did at confident that this CD (called VIEWA FROM THE BRIDGE- now containing so much AFTERWORD nicerto say something positive than focus on feelings fearofwhen confronted by my environment?” Of course, as I’ve said, some doctors are sympathetic to another way of crutches that come up in them. But it has to be said, on some days I get severely fed up than a continuing obsessional quest for a magic bullet when dealing with illness takes (the (the left leg and balance were working regrettably badly) so had to ask a very kind woman Something this illness certainly teaches you is how to accept help; when Sheppard Christopher asked at the first Bassoonist Club meeting what help I needed getting my the concert but have no intention of going to back the workingkamikaze style I to used afterwards to go out to John Lewis and buy a new VCR. was I having a bit of a bad day she she said “I think you’re very brave coming out to a crowded John Lewis to get what you that meeting) from Kersten Glandien feel I so much better- having somebody to share the for help. It’s uncanny how timesat one unerringly woman’s picks the perfect best friendperson- also has MS so she was this very good to talk with. As she was leaving with wearing my brave clothes. want.” People often say similarthings and I understand why they do it- it’s so much functions. Last time sawI him and was attached to the Bicom (the machine) I decided

LINDSAY COOPER LINDSAY COOPER LINDSAY TONE CLUSTERS: Often before I begin an interview I think of a line from Enid Bagnold’s 1953 play THE CHALK GARDEN, in which Mrs. St. Maugham is interviewing a governess for her troublesome granddaughter, and she asks rhetorically, “Now what sort of questions do two perfect strangers put to one another?” [Ed. note: for those of you who are not incurable Anglophiles like our interviewer, Enid Bagnold also wrote NATIONAL VELVET.] LINDSAY COOPER (chuckling): Yes, I’ve heard thatl TC: My first exposure to the , the instrument for which you have been considered most notorious, was in Prokofiev’s PETER AND THE WOLF. For some reason his use of the instrument to portray a grumpy old man gave me the impression that the instrument is best at emanating a sort of dourness. But listening to your work proves otherwise, just as in THE RITE OF SPRING Stravinsky opens the piece with a bassoon evoking a very primal sort of mystery with no difficulty at all. Of course the “difficulty” I was expecting was only my own. LC: Yes, I don’t believe Prokofiev used the bassoon at all well in that piece. TC: He isn’t one of your favorite composers. LC: Not really, no. LINDSAY COOPER FILMKOMPOSITIONEN

TC: I have an observation from the staff here about PIA MATER, a 1997 release on Blueprint U.K. [reviewed in TC 70-Ed.], which was composed and performed by yourself on wind instruments and your longtime collaborator Charles Gray on synthesizers. We were very gratified at your and Mr. Gray’s approach to the music; it was free-flowing, deeply melodic, almost like Debussy’s later orchestral work. I mean, much as I enjoy Varese, Xenakis and other recent composers, I wonder at the awful darkness of much of what they do... and often that criticism will extend to improvised music as well. LC: I’m reminded of a very interesting conversation I once had with Ulrika Hager, are you familiar with her work? TC (faking it, as usual): I believe I am... LC: She’s part of a group called the Rainbirds. And we were talking about how very bad improvised music can sometimes become. It often seems to say nothing more than “Mummy, Daddy, I hate you!” [Laughter] We both thought that quite amusing, and exactly the right thing to say about it. TC: Sounds almost Freudian! LC: Oh, no, I don’t think we’re playing into his hands at all. And it’s not that I disagree with Freud overall. TC: We also liked PIA MATER’s sense of warmth, the prescence of synths notwithstanding; in fact, it had much of the positive spirit and the witty use of 31 32 LINDSAY COOPER thought out. But artists who are familiar with each other’s work can communicate can work other’s each with familiar are who artists But out. thought the about and mind, inhad Gray Mr. and you what about bit a talk you Would TC: {ESD TOWER ROUND A FROM MUSIC Campbell’s Dirk in heard we that sequencing TC: Weill And it has this natural fit of elements to it, as if it had been very thoroughly very been hadit if asit, to elements of fit natural this has it And Weill TC: can one what to opposed asmade itwas how of realities the know to interesting It’s LC: CD. Dirk’s loved Itruly since praise, welcome That’s LC: review-Ed.]. 65for TC see USA; Records, for Impetus Records UK, called A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. THE FROM AVIEW called UK, Records Impetus for MATER? PIA of recording it and asked me to play over it. over play to me written asked had itand Charlie actually while music, of piece well-composed a itwas hearing after that MATER PIAconclude to were if they disappointing it find even might Some it.in hear differently, after all. It’s almost telepathic, or something that came out of the of out came subconscious. that something or telepathic, almost It’s all. after differently, TC: Fortunately or unfortunately, the subconscious is not available to be questioned! be to available not is subconscious the unfortunately, or Fortunately TC: LC: Absolutely. LC: LC: I’m so happy to talk about thatl It’s a compilation of some things I’ve done since done I’ve things some of compilation a It’s thatl about talk to happy so I’mLC: assembled you’ve release 2CD the about bit aus tell you could may,I if Now, [Laughter] weeks. SnsfrBsonadOceta n e oa icswt Pi Mno n Maggie and Minton Phil with pieces vocal afew and Orchestra” and Bassoon for “Songs Nicols. Luckily it’s now being manufactured and will be available in time for a concert I’m concert a for time in beavailable will and manufactured being now it’s Luckily Nicols. for a change. a for the Gemini, about me tell Now closer! were London Iwish this like It’stimes TC: called piece ais There works. other some and do to commissioned I was some 1990, C o’emkn ews yfml antlf nln 0 er g! ilyu be you Will ago! 300years England left hadn’t myfamily wish me making You’re TC: for heard I’ve news exciting most isthe That 15th. November on London in having htrato, u o ’ ipypesdt e t Ad ni ’ese i oe Iwon’t done it seenI’ve until And it.see to pleased simply I’m now but reaction, that contemporary chamber ensemble that you’ll be working with for this gig. this for with working be you’ll that ensemble chamber contemporary ebr r,aan Mgi n Phil. and Maggie again, are, members conducting? 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' even know what arrangements [pianists] Mike Westbrook and will make of COOPER LINDSAY my pieces. TC: WestbrookI You’re in safe hands there. What’s on the song list? LC: There’s “A Year of Miracles,” “Victory” from , Veryan Weston’s done a new arrangement of the second half of . TC: Sounds unbelievable. If you don’t mind I’ll ring you next week to see how it went. LC: I’ll be only too happy! TC: A friend wants me to ask if you or [lyricist] Sally Potter have had any second thoughts about the lyrics to OH MOSCOW since the coming of perestroika in the late ‘80s and the following breakup of the Soviet Union. LC: Actually I don’t know that ‘thinking twice’ enters into it, because I love those lyrics as they are. Recent history set aside, you understand. And Sally wrote them exactly as she thought. And they were perfect. said a while ago, while the Soviet Union was breaking up, that the words were as they should have been. TC: Calling a piece of music “dated ” is really only an intellectual exercise anyway. Maybe a pseudointellectual exercise! Now I’m thinking of a piece on your MUSIC FOR OTHER OCCASIONS, “The Number 8 Bus,” as elegant and concise a description of a certain English class situation as anything I’ve heard in the form. But the despair is real,

“[A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE] is a compilation of some things I’ve done since 1990... There is a piece called “Songs for Bassoon and Orchestra” and a few vocal pieces with Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols.”

as much so as that similar state of mind described in The Sun and the Moon’s “A Picture of England” [from their eponymous 1988 U.S.Geffen release, now out of print-Ed.] Now what about these certain societal injustices that get papered over, and we’re left only with the artists to remind us about this? Largely because the newspapers are more interested in talking about the global marketplace or Cool Britannia. LC: You know, I must tell you that I’ve found my life has greatly improved since I gave up reading newspapers! [Laughter] TC: Speaking of newspapers, as you recall you were kind enough to send us a copy of the article you wrote for the British newspaper THE GUARDIAN, having to do with some problems you had with the [the UK’s health insurance service, not the rock band~Ed.] in getting your questions about your condition answered in a hospital situation, to say nothing of proper treatment [for multiple sclerosis]. As you recall I made about 15 calls to the GUARDIAN and finally they refused to grant us reprint rights. LC (sigh of exasperation): Which I really think was inappropriate, to be polite about it. TC: Well, why should they deal with us? We’re not even a glossy! [Laughter] At any rate, perhaps you might summarize your points in the article if you would. LC: Gladly, since all the things I mentioned in the article are still uppermost in my mind.

33 34 LINDSAY COOPER the fact that you were a “single, unmarried female” played any part in how you were you how inpart any played female” unmarried “single, a were you that fact the treated. with how the human mind affects the progress of the illness and which way diet can help. can diet way which and illness the of progress the affects mind human the how with still not exactly certain what her problem is. problem her what certain exactly not they’re stilldate to herand on performed was knew doctors the test every nearly but course, with something they did not understand. not did they something with better. getting she’s But TC: fora need lessened the includes medicine non-Western about know I little What TC: TC: In your own situation, going up against the noncommunicative doctors you doctors noncommunicative the against up going situation, own your In TC: Exactly. LC: (Laughter] efforts!best doctors’ the Despite TC: mine, I mentioned that whenever I visit my acupuncturist I come out feeling a good deal good a feeling out comeI acupuncturist my visit I whenever that mentioned I mine, n hyrfsdt nwrte. otikta h a etr mdcn ok is works medicine Western way the that think do I them. answer to refused they And with Carla Bley and wants to know if the Marxes ever recorded anything. recorded ever Marxes if the know to wants and Bley Carla with been you’ve projects many the of one about question A GUARDIAN the Hopefully [Laughter] us!sue it. won’t Iappreciated wrote, you what over going for Thanks TC: Yes. LC: procedure. a after time recovery lengthy questioned, I ask the following question in all delicacy, of course, but I have to wonder if wonder to haveI but course, of delicacy, all in question following the askI questioned, better than when I went in. And I never got that benefit from Western medicine at all!at medicine Western from benefit that got never I And in. Iwent when than better disgustingly narrow-minded. In an email I sent the other day to a very good friend of friend good very a dayto other the sent I email an In narrow-minded. disgustingly bit more at the concert— and she came back nearly ready to die. She’s better now, of now, better She’s die. ready to nearly backita concert— came she the at about andher hospital—more bitin to was talk I’ll recently [Potter] Sally And yes. extent, an To LC: questions that I asked the doctors, which they were too frightened to answer, had to do to had answer, to frightened too were they which doctors, the asked I that questions Fear.” That’s about as simple as one needs to go. They were terrified and could not deal not could and terrified were They go. to needs oneas simple as about That’s simple. quite it’sFear.” “Oh, said, he and had, I difficulties doctor these about good spoke very Ioneis There whom with Isee it. with do to something hadhave might well very That LC: wonder if there have not been some definite improvements since then.since improvements definite some been not have if there wonder aet a httecnetoa hat ytm n rti i utdpoal. The deplorable. is just Britain in system health conventional the saythat to haveI C egacd f h ujc fcmoigerir n a odrn i o have you if wondering Iwas and earlier, composing of subject the off glanced We TC: My friend Glenn Leslie saw you three when you passed through NYC a few years back years NYCafew through passed you when three you saw Leslie Glenn Lindsay]. Myfriend and Born, Georgie Potter, [Sally Brothers Marx the years, the over with involved C Imsryt a edd’,ad lkdta ru. ewr a o hr-ie, really. short-lived, too far were We group. likedthat I and didn’t, we say to sorry I’mLC: netgtdayo h uia opsto otaeotadaotjs o. hn I When now. just about and out software composition musical the of any investigated nevee PpPl o C7 ewssyn nc hnsaotCbs,atog I although Cubase, about things nice saying hewas 70 TC for Pyle Pip interviewed edn newspapers!” reading that... myhaslife that... “...I must tellyou“...I greatly improvedgreatly since Istoppedsince

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LINDSAY COOPER LINDSAY LC: Fred Frith has given me a very good computer program to write music, it’s called Overture, but it needs to be updated, and as soon as it is I shall be back to writing music again. Fred uses it, as does and I’m sure a few others as well. TC: I believe Dave Stewart has used it too. LC: Possibly. But my friend who helps me with the computer says my version does require updating. TC: I see. LC: It’s quite good having all these friends; it means one can just lie on one’s bed and let them do everything! [Laughter] TC: Listening to you, I have to say you’re a very lucky woman. LC: (mischievously): I must admit, I think often it seems an awful lot of trouble to have to go through, to develop MS, to get all this! But it’s been worth it. TC: So fortune presents gifts not according to our own lights. [Quoting Marlowe again, are we?-Ed.] LC: I believe that, yes. In a way I believe I’ve done enough. I was talking to Sue Steward who used to work for , and I was talking about my illness. And she said, “Well, actually you’ve done enough playing and writing. You don’t need to do any

“In a way I believe I’ve done enough... Sue Steward... said [to me],’’Actually, you’ve done enough playing and writing. You don’t need to do any more.”

more.” And I thought, “Fantastic!” Because there are so many people who describe emotions of what I’ll have to call pity. And it just feels so good to talk to somebody who realizes that you might need a bit of a break. TC: Sue is a wise woman. LC: Oh, yes, very much so. TC: Now I have one Henry Cow question, just one. said he wasn’t sure of the answer [see the interview in TC71], so now it’s your turn. My friend Michael Bloom wants to know what it might have been about the band that made everyone in the group Improve upon their work once they left it. LC: Actually, that is a true observation, and I’m sorry to say I don’t know the answer to it, but I would like to hear it if you get one from one of the others. TC: Strike two, Michael! [Laughter] Well, we may be getting into one of those areas where talking about the creative process sheds more heat than light. LC: I’m currently at the stage, just now, of thinking about my next composition. And with me, that stage is very vague, just a kind of sense that I’m soon going to start writing. But the process of writing music, I find it actually quite fascinating. One thing I heard from Carla Bley is that whenever she had a composition to do she did lots of laundry. Kate Westbrook [Mike’s wife], on the other hand, tells me that Mike has no idea how the washing machine works. And that’s really it, it’s basically what you do. Everyone has their own individual thing they do like a washing load which finally emerges as a finished composition! 35

. . ) http://members.aoI.com/mungenast/tm So, So, lots ofhighly amusing observations, sumptuous arrangements, melodies you can whistle without In In this collection oftoons between written 1986 and 1999 he will, however, sing “Eat me, eat me” Since we mentioned Tim in the 1998 retrospective article in TC 71, it seemed only fair to give him 1081, 1081, Watertown, MA 02471-1081. His website: rereading rereading Bruno Madcrna’s biography... all in all a very fine disc willthat tide us over until he does mustache, mustache, He’s Put Something The In Bag You. For And no, it is a one-shotnot deal. narrator comes up againstnarrator the awful, “how awful glad truth: I am to finally understand/ that spinach is lung!/ Ring the bell, be unwell/Let you with them electricrub penguin gel/ Shed your skin/Trade it in/ If Rock Rock Criticism, supplies bass, spare glycerine vibraphone and occasional fake David Byrne yelps on slippery slippery click-click percussion from Jonno. Michael Bloom, the Dean of Cyril our Connolly School of me feel so unashamed and put back me into the game...” Some oftalk delusions follows and suddenly our another another one. Cucaracha. --K.E. (All lyrics copyright 1986-99 Tim by Mungenast. His snailmail: PO Box to. to. Oh, yes, don’t turn the CD off “Spam” ends right after because, again the paraphrase to magic grown in sand.” Something you won’t in read I’M OK, YOU’RE TOAST. Also commendable are some “Temple Of the Unwell.” Don’t ask. Well, spend“I deadpan: sincemy days youserenely did, soaking here’s in a the snippet, deliveredsun/ doesn’tIt in seemTim that I’mto matter M’sin an iron station back then but never did, like YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY-era Byrds, Pink’s “A Pillow ofWinds” Hawkwind’sor “Space Deep”Is ) , to say nothing ofhis breakingpurposefully the record’s mood (credited with “sick, sick lead guitar”). Any more effects boxes and it would have sounded like a bagpipe solo. “Spinach” takes a page out ofMEDDLE-era Floyd and chimes nicely with the odd flamenco from flourishMac while Mungenast dithers, “ One afternoon was all it took/Read my pop psychology book/ Made spinning towards the earth and we will soon die/The passengers think they job/Andcan do better a the in a song “Spam” about (the ofMonty Unwanted variety, Python not Email), the Heartbreak announceor “Spam,” “Spam,” a psychedelic recessional could as that, Zappa have once said, you might as well smoke as listen seriously. seriously. Refreshing! Of course, he won’t necessarily a fewrecord telltimes you and whatyou’llright out they are, but listenfigure them out. to this Moreover, equipped as he is with a reasonable baritone not with the title piece, a guitar-heavy withinstrumental notably melodic twirling ofthe axe from Mac pilot is by replaced an angry mob...” Well, I’m sure it seemed like a good forget M’s idea at the tuneful time. way with a hook within his And musical let’svocabulary (the Hendrixyodd not touch in you’re you’re credit’s good the drainage can begin...” outrages Other follow in quick succession, bringing us to Robyn HitchcockRobyn (one S whosesquared work I never particularly liked) write and a song about his wife and his dead wife. “Alligators,” early 1970s left-of-pop on the level ofthe stuffyou wished they’d play on the local FM with admirable lack ofaffectation in Wheel”: “Mahatma “The pilot does knownot how to fly/We’re too unlike Ayers’ own and a very singular arranging,head for Mungenast knows than better to pull a maybe maybe some critics’ problem with the form is it predates rock (recall Woody Guthrie) and has often been that artist’s that much more blunt, jaundicedless attitude. Unlike ofany irony-topheavynumber wordy types who I’ll someembarrass other time by naming out loud, Tim M. actually does take a thing twoor “first ups” ups” “first in the issue in which MONSTERS,OF BIRTH his first CD, was reviewed. the wait. And it was MONSTERS worth is the proofthat singer/songwriter gig isn’t as played out as some of us think it is; prone to byabuse its practitioners Lightfoot,(Gordon Dylan on day, bad etc.).a IfTim M. avoids the TIM MUNGENAST - Birth OfMonsters (Self-released, USA; CD only) been-there-done-that virus, and he does, it’s because his unwillingness to face reality a la Kevin Ayers has More More than anyone else, LINDSAY for grace under pressure; SALLY POTTER and AMOS FIELD READ ofAdventure Pictures, London, for getting us information aboutBassoon The Club (to foundbe in TC 67): INGELA, Lindsay’s assistant, forfaxes nearly before suburb of (not since the Archeozoic era, anyway); IZZY TROUTMAN, fpr Lindsay’s, in October ofthis year. month, our interviewerwas told that the concert went very well, and Lindsay was looking THE Thank-You-Kindly List EDITOR’S NOTE we requested them; RUESCH INTERNATIONAL, forforgetting that London was not a This interview took place in early November 1998. Catching withup Lindsay laterthat transcription beyond the call of duty; and to you our readers, for infinite patience. forward to more gigs ofa similar nature in England and Germany. The column idea was MUSIC APPRECIATION DEPT.