Jacuzzi International

Thursday 26 September at 7pm I'll be joined by Lorne Clements (Baked, Bing, The Good Band) Daniel Erickson (of Bluetile Lounge, Mukaizake and Still) to present Jacuzzi International for Max Headroom on RRR. Blurb below:

Before the internet, before the mining boom, before $6 coffees and $15 pints of super, Perth had Jacuzzi International.

In the early nineties, Jacuzzi International was a loose collective of Perth-based underground rock bands who shared the bill on a number of gigs which were followed by after-parties featuring jacuzzis.

Encouraged by isolation, international indifference and $1 middies, the Jacuzzi bands attracted strong, well, decent local support, favoured insular cross-band collaborations and created a (small) number of strange and largely forgotten musical experiments. With Jacuzzi International guests Daniel Erickson (Bluetile Lounge, Mukaizake, Still) and Lorne Clements (Baked, Bing, The Good Band), tune in for some Jacuzzi doozies and peripheral Perth hits from before it all went down the toilet.

We'll be playing music from the main Jacuzzi bands but with only an hour, and a limited collection, won't make all of them, so apologies in advance for those we miss.

While no recordings of Bing exist Lorne kindly sent this recent 'where are they now?' image (L-R Myles Durham, Lorne and Mark Richardson):

... and Bluetile Lounge from back in the day:

Schweiz Rec

This track is an understated and under-appreciated gem that's been banging about my head for ages. Nothing special but everything fits just perfect. Surprised more hasn't been made of it, as I love it:



Schweiz Rec is who done it, only other thing to his credit is this for Workshop 10, also splendid:


Schweiz Rec is Patrick Harz, of which little is known, but a couple of credits in discogs dating back to 1995. In 2004 he produced 'Acid Love' with Peter Grummich, which Boomkat describes enticingly as harking back to classic Donna Summer. Grummich is an old Kompakt stalwart responsible for some early scorchers. This is one:

Scarlatti, K34

Finally found a Scarlatti sonata that's within the realm of my modest abilities. Even so, it will take me some time:


Guitar transcriptions work well too:


Here's Horowitz, a Scarlatti master, in Moscow, 1986, on the preceding K33:


Note the 'hushers' in the audience. Interestingly just read this about this concert:
‎

In 1986, Horowitz announced that he would return to the Soviet Union for the first time since 1925 to give recitals in Moscow and Leningrad. In the new atmosphere of communication and understanding between the USSR and the USA, these concerts were seen as events of political, as well as musical, significance. Most of the tickets for the Moscow concert were reserved for the Soviet elite and few sold to the general public. This resulted in a number of Moscow Conservatory students crashing the concert, which was audible to viewers of the internationally televised recital.

The recording was later released and became a bestseller. Here he is playing my favourite, K466:


And to end by fucking it all up, this Lady Gaga-Scarlatti Echojam/mashup thing, actually pretty good:

In the wee small hours, with DJ Jus Ed

I recently had the pleasure to go out late at night and see DJ Jus Ed playing records. I had fun, but the 2am start time meant I caught little of Ed’s performance. The Liberty Social is a fine small venue, with a good sound system, a not-too-reverent approach to DJs (i.e. not placed on too high a pedestal, although on this night Ed was a good foot or two higher than Patrice Scott, Portable and Vladislav Delay’s ground level performance on my first visit), a friendly audience and good cheap beer on tap. Located in the basement of heritage listed Tomassetti House.

Best of all was the small room out back, an old catering fridge converted into alternative dancing space, with DJ (at ground level) playing records (slowed disco/Balearic stuff) to a maximum audience of 10. No photos sorry.

Doors opened at 10, so we delayed our arrival to midnight, and still hardly anyone there. At 1am the warm up DJ was playing Omar S’s ‘The Shit Baby’, a killer, to an empty room.


I told him it was killer and had a quick shimmy, but scarpered to the Fridge where a handful were dancing, and kept at it. By the time of Jus Ed’s arrival, I was too drunk and tired, and not long afterwards hit the road.

Why can’t nights like this start at 10pm? 11pm? Midnight even! At 2am, what hope is there.