bus vibes #18 - steve legget (yes, that one) and primal scream (or if you like prml scrm)

hello there

friday was, as i mentioned for those with an interest in such things, another day during which i listened to some vibes on my travels to and from verk. this was whilst on the bus on my way to and from verk; hence the title, look you see. a week of bus travels that were, as you can read here, quite a challenge. but you are here for vibes.

i have, over the years, been rather fortunate enough to both befriend and be befriended by some people of exceptional talent, be that talent in arts, business or life. over the years they have been kind enough to share with me the result and the knowledge of their talents, and Friday morning's vibes was such a case.

my mate Steve Legget, with a chap called Greg Blackman, has released a new slab of vinyl. it's called Aquarius, and you can get the 12" by clicking the title, or alternatively go have a listen here.

what, you may ask, is the record? well, mostly it's house music. whether it is, as i like to view it, psychedelic trance house or, as younger ears that i have played it to suggest, either old school house or "4am chill zone" house, well, that's up to how you hear it and want to label it, i suppose.

all i know is that, for all of his life that i have known him, Steve Legget has been a connoisseur of cool, awesome, amazing sounding funkadelic vibes. it was he, many a year ago, that introduced me to Prince, for a start. when not engaged in other artistic ventures - ones that make the front pages of the newspapers from time to time, no less - he can be found in a studio making vibes that he considers to be full worthy of bestowing upon the people of the planet. and, indeed, bestowing upon me, as he very kindly sent me good quality .wav files of the 12" single. in turn, Apple very kindly made it so that it was merely the work of 40 minutes for their sh!t itunes software to convert it into a format that they considered to be acceptable for use on one of their devices. and make no mistake, they view their devices as theirs forever, no matter how much money you give them.

did i particularly like the record? yes. when done properly, as is the case here, house / trance / dance music can be some of the most elegant, versatile and perfectly constructed sounds and vibes you can get. it is not all music made by 12 year olds with a laptop, you know. 

of the three mixes, the Mark Hand Rework is perhaps my favourite. why? it's got a lovely bass highlight on it, and i likes the bass, i do. here is a poor quality snippet for you if for some reason you could not be bothered to click on the free soundcloud link above.

would Steve like to be one of them big massive celebrity DJ types that gets to headline festivals and that? what makes you think that he isn't? to my knowledge over the years he has been involved in some pretty major events - in rave terms - but he's not such an insecure personality that he requires it to define him. i think, for him, the fact that DJs are spinning his tunes and the kids are getting into the groove of it is pretty awesome, and all he ever wanted from it all.

if you are into your whole rave / techno stuff and for some reason are reading this blog, usually a bastion of rock, then i would encourage you to give the vibes of Aquarius a try. get down and, indeed, get with it.

a quick break from vibes to give you something that is somewhat vibes related, then. i stumbled upon this next image by chance. yes, indeed it was within the pages of a magazine of ill repute; the kind of which you can only buy from 'private shops' with the windows blacked out.

just how awesome is the Rod Stewart lookalike?

actually, i think i know who that Rod lookalike is. i don't know him from a bar of soap, but to me it looks like it could be a very young Simon Honey, who has fashioned a career under the imaginative name of Ben Dover, which he uses when he stars in certain quasi-educational breeding videos.

at some point, yes, to justify the inclusion of the above here, i will listen to some Rod on the bus. perhaps his solo stuff, maybe a Faces album or two. but, after finishing listening to Aquarius, i went with whatever i could find with ease on the ipod, and that turned out to be Primal Scream.

oh my. XTRMNTR sounds as good today as it did when it was released in the early days of 2000. hard to believe it is now 15 years old.

what's the sound of the album? pretty much the angry, confrontational punk like ways of Bobby Gillespie, bound together with his and the rest of the band's love of hardcore dance, rave and heavy duty, flat out, leather waistcoat and flares wearing rock. all thrown together it works very well indeed here, helped of course by the one they call Mani being on bass.

if it's an angry album, what is it angry about? pretty much everything, really. at the heart of the rage of the album seems to be some distress about how complacent life had become around 1999 - 2000. everyone was all excited about the coming of the year 2000, there were not too many major wars on the go (at least not ones that affected the first world) and basically people just got on with stuff. Bobby was most upset by this apparently, as the title track sees him calling for civil disobedience. for him, the upper classes were still at war against the lower classes. yeah. that probably makes him a Scottish Paul Weller, i suppose, but it's not like that is a bad thing to be.

i think that NME still regards XTRMNTR as the "best and most important album of the 21st Century". it is as good a choice as any for that, i suppose, if that particular title really does need to be awarded. then again, NME still consider Regret by New Order to be "the best and most important single of the 1990s", which indicates that they missed a very great deal of the whole decade, nice as that song was.

a snippet? surely. my favourite off the album is easily Shoot Speed Kill Light, so here you go.

the best thing about the anger and rage of Primal Scream is, and i must stress i do love the band, is that it's that very nice, safe, in-no-way-ever to be acted on anger and call to arms, a very safe, first word kind of "down with this sort of thing" approach to it all. the band famously created a song called Bomb The Pentagon as a follow up to this album, recorded at a time when it would have seemed to make you look cool to call for such a thing safe in the knowledge that it was unlikely to ever happen. around about 12 September 2001, though, the band got up one day and decided it would be best to rather change the lyrics somewhat and call the song Rise instead. there is no need, after all, to ruffle feathers and get yourself banned off of America just to prove courage of conviction in this day and age.

if for some reason you've never heard XTRMNTR, go get a copy. actually, of all Primal Scream albums. they are sensational.

finally, then, for no apparent or relevant reason in the context of it appearing here, a still from the coming film adaptation of the brilliant novel The Martian.

i cannot say much as it would give spoilers, but The Martian was one of the funniest, most entertaining and engaging novels i have ever read. the film will have to be somewhat different from the book to work as a film. i am sure the film itself will be great (it's Ridley Scott who has made it), but i would suggest you read the novel anyway as it's just that good.

and, on the subject of books (actually there's a hint of relevance i suppose), i will be back to reading next week, so the vibes reviews shall take a break.

thanks for reading, and get down and get with it.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!