Stewart Smith

Free Greta Thunberg and the rest of the illegally detained flotilla activists.

This is grim & dangerous over reach.

This is a government that have lost the moral argument & are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent.

Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose.

Great album, love the near silence to molten heaviness dynamics

Hugely excited to be putting on the great Bhutanese experimental guitarist Tashi Dorji @dorjitashi.bsky.social at @starandshadow.bsky.social on Monday 6 October. A post-colonial disembowelment of guitar traditions RIYL Derek Bailey, John Fahey and Bill Orcutt www.starandshadow.org.uk/programme/ev...

One piece of infallible advice I'd pass on to future generations would be to never trust anyone who says they're neither on the left or the right. They're always on the right.

LORT BURN SPECIALS: 3

Featuring OWEN HATHERLEY, ANDREW HANKINSON, KATE LISTON and music from BEN LOWES-SMITH

SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 7PM

@alphabettitheatre.bsky.social

MAKE NEWCASTLE MITTELEUROPA AGAIN

Newcastle says no to fascism.

The far right brought a hundred or so with them, bussed from far and wide. This city turned out 1000s, from local communities, estates and streets. Geordies of all backgrounds coming together and outnumbering the purveyors of hate by some distance.

Newcastle united.

It’s a stunner!

Or rather drops Friday!

Listen Ship, by Henry Threadgill 16 track album

Just dropped. All guitars plus two pianos, so it’s all about the strings. Bill Frisell, Brandon Ross… henrythreadgill.bandcamp.com/album/listen...

Seconded! You heard his new one, all guitars?

No words.

Headline: Scale of ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march shows free speech ‘alive and well’ in UK, says minister – UK politics live Peter Kyle said he was not ‘disturbed’ by huge Tommy Robinson-organised far-right protest but condemns violence against the police

Whether it is out of sheer incompetence or ideological alignment, this government is doing the far right's work

The only consistent thing they have done since getting in power is echo reactionary talking points. There is not one bad faith reactionary tirade they won't lap up and recite.

Where is Keir Starmer? Where is the leadership?

Fascists marched on our streets yesterday and he hasn’t said a single word.

Instead the Prime Minister spends his time defending the “best pals” of paedophiles.

He is a coward. He should resign.

Posh lad jazz-rap horrors aside, I do hope that some of the jazz students in the audience will have been put on some righteous paths from hearing James Brandon Lewis and the Fugazi rhythm section up close.

...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it feels a bit secondhand, like they're catching up with the London and LA of a decade ago. Worst bit was when we went to see JBL & Messthetics and a local student band supported. The bandleader put down his horn to rap about his skiing holiday... 😳

My experience of the RC in Glasgow is that it's the classical students who gravitate towards the local experimental/improv scenes. The jazzers have little to do with it, which is a real shame. There's long been folk crossover, but the current ones are going for the groovy stuff...

Interesting... I think it really depends where you go, who your teachers are, what local scenes you're part of etc.

Too many conservatoire jazz musicians with really boring taste in guitar music. They need a solid diet of Napalm Death, Bill Orcutt and Ava Mendoza.

Don’t even think it’s good ragtime. It doesn’t do anything characterful or innovative with it (unlike say, Threadgill in the 70s or Jason Moran more recently), it’s just pastiche. Same goes for the classical stuff on there.

There are a bunch of “fringe” events around Newcastle for it, but it’s very much industry led, not much from the grassroots.

Haha, I just had a quick dip, so I’m sure you’re right. Guess he’s this year’s Fergus McCreadie: bourgeois jazz from the Celtic nations.

The token jazz album “takes Britpop as inspiration” 😬 Pleasant enough mainstream piano trio but in a year that has given us outstanding releases by [Ahmed], Pat Thomas, Alex Hawkins et al that’s really not good enough.

absolutely rotten stuff. horrible. fuck off

For the landmark 500th issue @thewiremagazine.bsky.social I had the honour of interviewing the great vocalist, composer & improviser Fay Victor

Unquenchable Fire by Deep Listening Band / Joe McPhee Quartet album cover. Illustration of a person in the woods with tree branches/antlers for a face and head.

'McPhee describes #PaulineOliveros as “a philosopher, a poet, an artist, and the most wonderful person in the world.” Oliveros’ Deep Listening Institute commissioned McPhee to write Unquenchable Fire'

First Movement, from Unquenchable Fire (2003) - The Strange World Of #JoeMcPhee

buff.ly/dzdMvjo

If you’re doing a ‘double tap’ strike on a hospital, you’re a war criminal and a terrorist.

BREAKING: Award-winning Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty has been arrested after wearing a T-shirt reading 'Genocide in Palestine, time to take action'

Police arrested the I, Daniel Blake writer in Edinburgh this morning

Joe McPhee - Sound on Sound album cover. A copy of the Teac Reel label with handwritten titles.

'McPhee’s experiments with multi-track recording, microphone feedback and Echoplex take his music into extraordinary electro-acoustic realms informed by Stockhausen, Sun Ra, Lukas Foss and Harry Partch'

Cosmic Love from Sound On Sound - The Strange World Of #JoeMcPhee

buff.ly/dzdMvjo

U.N. Declares a Famine in Gaza, Where Over 500,000 Face “Starvation, Destitution and Death” The United Nations has formally declared a famine in the Gaza Strip.

U.N. Declares a Famine in Gaza, Where Over 500,000 Face “Starvation, Destitution and Death”