May 29
Today I was listening to "Every Man Got Dreaming" by Sandoz (aka Richard H. Kirk). At some point I noticed that each time the rhythm loop went around, Chester the parakeet was tweeting at the same point. I listened more carefully. Not only was he tweeting with the music, he was alternating between "cheep" and "cheep cheep".
A few days back I was listening to The Beatles’ "Abbey Road". All was quiet until Paul McCartney started singing on "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer", and then suddenly there was an angry sounding squawking. Things calmed down again after Paul shut up and Ringo took over for "Octopus’s Garden". At the time I thought it was coincidence, but maybe not.
The bird also seems to like King Crimson.
Feb 15
If James Brown is the hardest working man in showbiz, Richard H. Kirk must surely be the hardest working man in electronica. He seems to be able to effortlessly drop an album or two every year without the quality suffering. I noticed the other day that most of his back catalog is now available from the iTunes music store, generally priced way below what you can find the limited release CDs for.
Meanwhile, Leningrad Cowboys Go America is finally available on DVD…in Finland. Or from an online store in Denmark, which wants $32 plus shipping. Ouch.
TELEX have a new album out later this month, How Do You Dance? (answer: badly). No sign of it appearing in the US. There’s also a single and a video, can’t find any trace of those either. $19 for the CD, plus shipping from France, equals ouch again.
I suppose I should be grateful that Kraftwerk’s complete remastered box set hasn’t appeared yet.