The twang's the thang

From Magic Alphabet a seventeen track album using only the humble jews harp (with a bit of tambourine sometimes). Like the tampura track I posted ages ago it's hard to believe such a simple instrument can make such an otherworldly and somehow futuristic sound. I know it's highly repetitious but I find it such a fascinating noise, conjuring up an image of a ravenous pan-dimensional worm gnawing away at the fabric of the universe. Just me? Anyway, a bit reminiscent of Spacemen 3's Suicide or, in places, some of your more minimal acid house (my favourite kind).

Daniel Higgs Cosmic Equinox

Still on Daniel Higgs but this time from the snappily titled Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot. A good one for the walk to work I used to find, stick with it for the all too brief stretch of chiming harmonics from 4'24"

Daniel Higgs Spectral Hues

Holy mountain magic men

I'm going off MOJO magazine a bit but I still think the cover cds they do are good and they’ve put me onto a few great bands. Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators for one. And the Wooden Shjips for another. They featured on a cd entitled, rather tenuously, “In Search of Syd”. Their track was “SOL 07 Pt 1” and I liked this so much that I listened to it (alternated with one of the other tracks) all the way through a 220 mile car journey (rough calculation: about 13 times). I followed this up by buying their album which I don’t think has a name but which starts with “We Ask You To Ride”. It’s very good but not quite as frazzled as “SOL 07”. When I was buying it I thought I’d check out what else their label (Holy Mountain) churned out and this is where I found Daniel Higgs.

Like his label mates Higgs is a hairy fellow. I would say he’s moved quite a bit further out from psych rock though, his album “Magic Alphabet” is just him playing a jew’s harp – I’ve only listened to samples of it and I’m not sure I’ll buy it but I love the fact that he’s done it. I doubt he gives toss but I think it's a shame that his psychedelic banjo music is unlikely to ever trouble the charts or radio stations, despite being hypnotically catchy. The only downside: I find his vocal style a bit…Old Testament? Which is something I’m rarely in the mood for and so my favourites are instrumentals. Like this:

Daniel Higgs: Leontocephaline Rhapsody

Leontocephaline, I would imagine, means something like lion-headed. And I will use this most slender of prompts to relate what is probably my proudest crosswording moment, when I (correctly) got the word dolichocephalic in the Times crossword. I have absolutely no idea how I knew this word.

Wooden Shjips: SOL 07 Pt 1