Perfect Tens Dept. - A Rainbow In Curved Air

 

"Everything's new to someone" as popular wisdom has it, but back in '69 this music was new to just about everyone. Our someone hearing it for the first time today would find it generically familiar, and check the boxes (ambient, electronica, etceteraria) before moving right along.

Back then (yesterday, in any meaningful sense) we didn't have the boxes to check. Little Boxes were stereotypical, aspirational, suburban homes made of ticky-tacky for pod people. Today the boxes are mental compartments for pod people. Everything gets genred, everything is informed by, rinse and repeat.

In 1969, the box didn't exist for Terry Riley to tick. A Rainbow In Curved Air was music, and that's as far as we needed to go. Music of our time. Riley's previous album for the CBS Music Of Our Time imprint, In C, was a little too formally academic for most, although it has become a standard in the contemporary repertoire.

Rainbow was just a record like no other.

The cover, with its Telly Tubbies good vibes, is absolutely right for the music and the times. Terry riding the rainbow and rocking a hairline receding faster than the Summer Of Love, already an embarrassment for the children of the revolution. This was '69, kaftans burning symbolically in the streets. Two albums featuring "electronics" that better mirrored that depressing year were Pierre Henry/Spooky Tooth's unlistenable Ceremony, and Electric Storm, by White Noise, both dark, scary soundtracks that threw the bad vibes right back in our faces. An early cover for Rainbow toed the dystopian line, all skulls and snakes, but got correctly rejected. So here's Terry, smiling like a sunrise over the Elysian fields. And a damned good thing.

Top side, the title track, was the aural equivalent of well, what? It made me unaccountably, unreasonably happy, and proved a fantastic part of the LSD experience. Flipside Poppy Nogood was night for Rainbow's day, without the nightmares. By today's standards, the "electronics" are primitive, the production almost lo-fi bedroom quality, but the music ... 

His sound and technique was quickly picked up in rock music; Colosseum, Soft Machine, the Monkees, and The Who using it as tonal colour. But nobody, including himself, ever again bottled the lightning. A Rainbow In Curved Air is eternally bubbling Champagne, never exhausted. The genuinely new never gets old.

Happy 90th birthday, Tezza!

Wilf Brimley's Pstairlift To Psychedelia! Dept.

Home Help Perkie "PP" Pumpkins retrieves Wilf's Werthers Originals™ prior to launching him into senior psychedelic experience! Legacy Foam-O-Graph© now available as luxury Art Print encapsulated in Champagne finish Lucite™. Specify key fob or NEW! wallet size.

 

"Hey! Whatever happened to Wllf Brimley?" is a question oft posed in letters to th' IoF©. Here's one from Sturdley Q. Kowznofski, Grease Pit, OR: "Hey! Whatever happened to Wilf Brimley?"sez Sturdley, echoed by Chyronette Fütz, Perineum, ND, who ax "Hey! Whatever happened to Wilf Brimley?" Well, Foameteers®, I'm here to set your fevered minds at rest! Since his untimely death at 107, T.V's Wilf [Bert Bupkiss in NBC's Bert's Bait Shop - Ed] has been riding his Pstairlift To Psychedelia right here on th' IoF©!

Today he has two treasures to share, brought back from his voyages into the Psychotropic Antipodes!

First up [above - Ed.] is Forty Watt Banana! Rare Indo-Jazz-Psych-Fusion from Kiwiland! Handsomely adorned with original sleeve - unavailable elsewhere!

Second helping [above - Ed.] is more sitar-soaked antipodean noodling from Sidney psychonaut Don Robertson! You certainly won't regret downloading today's dual deliverable!

This post funded in part by Kurt's Kangaroo Karnival, Oolowoolobongalong, Jumbuck County, Adelaide.

 

Critical Reassessment Dept. - Mark E. Smith & The Fall

Hello girls! Mark E. "Mark" Smith and his Funky Bunch, yestiddy!

 

Anonymous, in a comment somewhere below, whines about the absence of The Falls here on th' Io'F©. Ever keen to kow-tow to the demands of random anonymous internet grifters, I decided to give mean n' moody Mark [above - Ed.] another listen. I've been wrong in dismissing many bands, only to find real worth and enjoyment in their records decades later, so it was with a commendably open mind that I listened anew to the happening sounds of this oh-so-challenging contemporary combo!

Still shite.

 

 

 

 

 

It's Th' Sat'dy Slugfest! Dept. - Rush vs. Peter Sarstedt!

Longtime IoF© residents will remember with some affection regliar Sat'dy Slugfest™ FoamFeature©, wherein [grammar - Ed.] two wildly mismatched acts beat th' shinola outta each other in celebrity cagefights! Hoo boy! Some fun! Especially as outcome was decided by th' bums in' ringside seats - youse!

Who can forget thrilling contest between ... er ... anyway! This weekend you gots front row tix to th' hottest card in fightdom! Stepping into th' cage is none other then prog powerhouse and latterday FoamFavorites© Rush! Yay! Bellying up against the talented trio we have sensitive pop troubadour Peter Sarstedt! Which will be a cause for some astonishmink if you ain't read th' title of this piece awready, or, like Steve Shark, you ain't readin' this crap right here neither!

So! Who will wear the prestigious Slugfest Sash? Loveable Canucks th' Rushes, or winsome warbler Pete??? YOU decide!!! LET TH' FIGHT BEGIN!!!

Poptastic Pete prepares for fight by fingering dollybird fan! Note costly beverages, elegant smoking materials, stylish décor!

Th' Rushes relax before contest by propping each other up, too relaxed to stand!

Jason Statham's Portfolio O' Powerpop! Dept.

You'll know hunky Jason Statham from his award-winning participation in the 1990 Commonwealth Games, where his diving skills for Team Britain attracted major underwear designers! But did you know he's also something of an authority on Powerpop?! We relaxed poolside whilst [grammar - Ed.] Kreemé [can't source picture so have embedded placeholder image above - Ed.] served signature Vegemite™ n' Bailey's™ smoothies!

FT3 Jase, baby! Lookin' smooth n' stubbly with a twinkly hint o' GTA, maybe GBH! How's it hangin' my man!

JS Oh, comme çi, comme ça.

FT3 So - th' Jaseman digs Powerpop! Who knew?

JS Not I, dear boy! When do I get paid?

FT3 [laughs awkwardly] Ha ha! Which you brung us a couple albums awready!

JS You mean those things you forced on me as I stepped from the helicopter? I rather think my secretary disposed of them.

FT3 Haw! That's th' Stathers fo' ya! Always wit' th' gags!

JS My IBAN code. It's been fun.

 

[tape runs out at this point - Ed.] 

Yes, watersport fans, Jason's Powerpop Pick is a couple crisp biscuits from unfairly obscure Th' Tisburys, and gee, are they ever swell! You certainly won't regret downloading today's dual deliverable @193™! "A Still Life Revisited" is contender for prestigious IoF© Long-Playing LP Record Album O' Th' Year Award Award! BUY IT NOW! (Bandcamp link in comments)