Friday, December 21, 2012

2012 list

As promised, here are ten mixed-media stocking stuffers to see you through the yuletide. Best wishes for a happy Xmas and a great 2013!

1) Exploratorium documentary by Jon Boorstin. Be there when the nice lady with the red cardigan opens the music room, stay for the light show powered by flute.

2) Pathways to Quality. Beautiful training video for Manchester Metropolitan University's Department of Clothing Design & Technology, circa 1990. One of many, many treats on offer at Toastrack.



3) Renée Pietrafesa.

4) Ordinary Lives books. The stories of unspectacular East Londoners - a loo attendant, a former pig farmer, a chorus girl - as told to oral historian and writer of ribald rhymes Clive Murphy. Some include flexi-discs.









5) Derek Boshier's films, especially Reel (1973). Amazing footage of pre-pedestrian Leicester Square. Note brief appearance of Lovecraft sex shop near beginning. (thanks Julian!)



6) Luciano Berio: C'è musica e musica (1972). An Italian TV show on contemporary music hosted by Berio. There are loads of episodes up on the tube but this is my fave. I haven't seen Berberian Sound Studio yet but I suspect the world being conjured there is something like this.

7) Georg Riedel - Riedaiglia. Free-love jazz psych from Sweden, 1967. I think this was the soundtrack to an Alvin Ailey dance production. Great beats and witchy keening in the vein of the Vampires of Dartmoore OST.

8) La faute de l'abbe mouret (1970), starring Gillian Hills.

9) Equipo Humano Uno. Experimental sound collage cassette out of Barcelona. One to watch in 2013. I was also sent some lovely tunes by a band called PRE-Be-UN. Super!



10) The Hart of London by Jack Chambers. Part 1/Part 2

8 comments:

  1. I was just going though your year list and I am so honored to find my name on it. It means a lot coming from you! So glad you like it. Thanx.

    PRE-Be-UN/Nicolai

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  2. Only half way through yet... that Berio show is incredible, and the Riedel record is marked red now on my wants list. But I'm soo curious about that Pietrafesa record with the two Korg synths on the cover. She has a lot of clips on her website, but not from this record, it seems. What is it like?

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  3. Cheers Nicolai, great cassette!

    Dispo, three of the tracks are here: http://www.pietrafesa.org/obras.htm

    (basically the stuff before 1981: i.e., Travesuras, 4 para flauta, Sugerencias...)

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  4. Thanks Ben, I listened to these already. So it's not a synth-only album as I hoped from the cover (I also have the synth on the left, a Korg MS-20)...

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  5. Thank you Ben; we are hugely honoured to have been included on this list alongside such esteemed company.

    Wishing a happy New Year to everyone at Toys & Techniques.


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  6. Hi Nicholas. Happy New Year! Have loved looking at Toastrack over past few months.

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  7. Happy New Year Ben! Looking forward to Toys and Techniques in 2013.

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