Deranged but still writing

I’m filling my head with the deranged sounds of The Residents and People Like Us, both of which are so incredibly diverse and innovative, whilst still keeping a strongly specific sound, so that you know that is who you are listening to. I think I have written about both of them in earlier entries to this blog. The whole of the People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download here.

There is a statement on the website:

“Many thanks to the brilliant Ubuweb for hosting the tracks below to make it more accessible for more people to download for free. We strongly believe in the power of profit through free distribution, and the publicity that comes along with that – so we are putting our money where our mouse is. Often people have never heard of an artist because they aren’t being distributed through as many channels as they should be, due to the very poor state of music/media distribution for non-major label music coupled with ignorance of the way that avant garde art forms infiltrate mainstream culture.”

All of this music is helping creativity to move again. Last night I spent a couple of hours preparing my third book of poems for publication by bluewater books. It is called ‘edge of water’. See an extract from it here.

I’ve also been writing new material for the next collection, ‘the alice conversations’, due out soon. I wrote something last night, which veered off into recollections of summer holidays as a child in Margate, Kent, England. Strange that it should come into my mind, but there’s a useful vein to mine there.

I’m having artist days – to focus the musical background as I work away at the computer. Today was Robert Wyatt day, spent listening to the 7 albums I have by him. This was prompted by being hugely impressed by listening to the Soft Machine double album ‘Peel Sessions’ yesterday. I’ve had this for a while now, and his taken until now to grow on me. Upcoming artist days include King Crimson, David Sylvian (guess that’ll last a few days as I have so many albums by him!)

And here’s a crazy idea for digesting. I’ve always dreamed of being a DJ. So, why keep it as a dream. I’m going to do what I can over the next couple of months to see whether I can find some means of getting on the air even if it is only for an hour a month. Signing off now, turning dreams into reality.