Back to being back to the fractured portal again or the planet or blaming turtles or repwating things and we did say all this last week and the week(s) before and while the whole world window that stares back at us, only it probably was a television fizzing and going off and things back then when we first heard of the Whole World Window – now the window is a fractured portal and we like the simple stuff. And we never did find out about what happened to Norman Bluntz and his tie and jacket combinations, some way he wentt ote West Coat with Sid the Snitch, I like to imagine he got away with decking Chief Daniels in the end but we all know the world doesn’t work like that for the Normans of this world. This five musical things thing is mostly about just that, five musical things that have passed by in the last few days, five soundbites, five slices of musical information along with those oh so vital vital links and signposts staring back and making that hissing noie. You do read all this right? You did read that bit about Bandcamp Friday last week> yeah right, two dollars?! is that al lthe thanks we get from you bands and labels with gold plated bath taps?

And like we said around about this time last week (or the week before), on we go some more, on we go yet again, Burn down the internet some more, do it just for the insurance money or soemthing like that, nothing but repeated words and well there is always music isn’t there? There is always repeating things and doing a cut and paste of what you said last week isn’t there? Well isn’t there? Five more musical things then, same as we said last time, repeat these things, five (or so) musical things that have caught ears over the past few days, five musical things plucked from the overflowing in-box or the feeds or the clouds or wherever these things come from. boo hiss again…

1: Lady Rage – Don’t know about the claim of a “musical revolution” but hey, we do need the riot to keep rejuvenating and firing up again and more queens of the scene and fresh atttiudes and they do rage well or hard or against the machine or the price of Bikini Kill tickets or something like that. There’s some Riot Grrrl flavoured goodness brewing up. Like the rest of us they got locked down, but for Lady Rage it was just as they were starting to build a bit of of a buzz, awful timing jsut as they were kicking off. We see they’re starting to plan live dates again though, did we spy something about something?Maybe an overseas gig? Well south of the river, Deptford, overseas for us here in East London, a gig at the Birds Nest, not until July but hey, dare we think about live bands in proper small venues and pints in hand, it has been a year and a few days or moresince we last did now. We do like the look of this teaser, bet she does as well, she’ll be painting them soon! Rage hard, bring it on, let the tornament begin, don’t give up and don’t give in, bring on the Bird’s Nest and all the lady rage you have…

2: Kazuya Nagaya – A remix, of a track because some days it just needs to be about a very loud positively repetative electronic rush. You can find this track or more about this track and whatever else you may need to find via that Bandcamp thing, There’s some rather lush about this piece, not in the slang sense, in the properl sence, properly lush, something that stands out from the electronic crows, just something and somtimes all that’s needs is that something….

“Singing bowls, bronze bells and gongs resonate through the mindful layers of Japanese percussionist and ambient producer Kazuya Nagaya’s music. In Zen Buddhism, bells are believed to wash away the cares of the mortal world, as the listener follows the resonance of the bell into the silence and stillness within all beings. It is a penetration into the depths of one’s self. Out last year via SCI+TEC, Nagaya’s ‘Dream Interpretations’ was an immersive masterclass in ritualistic simplicity. Floating in a cloud of billowing ambience, it’s nine tracks inviting the listener to traverse a broad spectrum of spirit. Now, almost exactly a year later, the Tokyo master returns, this time drafting in an impressive array of names to reinterpret the very same tracks. First up SCI+TEC head honcho Dubfire delivered a wonderfully atmospheric and glitchy rework of ‘Thanatos,’ and released this week, German producer VRIL presents a distorted techno remix of ‘Heathen.’

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3: Ava Mendoza is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Her guitar work has received acclaim for its technique and viscerality. She is best known as leader of experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, and as a solo performer on guitar/voice. Performing/recording credits include work with Carla Bozulich, Fred Frith, Malcolm Mooney, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, John Zorn, and Negativland.  This Paranois Party album actually came out back in 2019 but hey, just how good is it? Yeap, this one got past us until last week when the Internation Women’s day Other Rock Show special was being put together. Just listen to it, more from us any moment, lots lots more I exepect.Here’s the Bandcamp. Going to have to go back to our best albums of 2019 piece and add a stop press – ORGAN THING: The best albums of 2019? Le Grand Sbam, Poil, Peter Hammill & Isildurs Bane, Helium Horse Fly, Child Abuse, Throwaway, Flying Luttenbachers, John Ghost and… – well we did say we hadn’t heard everything. More Ava in a moment.

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4: Part Chimp are apparently Back From The Dead, this it would seem is a track from the band’s forthcoming fifth album Drool, due out in June so say the people who know about these things, don’t be asking me, I know nothing, there’s a Bandcamp thing under the video, there’s always a Bandcamp thing (why haven’t we got a Bandcamp thing? Didn’t we have a record label once? Isn;t there a massive back catalogue over there in the corner somewhere?) Where is my soul? The Chimp are sounding good, but then they always did, did anyone ever call them The Chimp?

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5: Gryphon have a new album out, came out back in January actually, should have mentioned it then but hey, lock down and track of time and it is of course a delight, a glorious delight. Is it maybe more Gentle Giant sounding than Gryphon sounding?

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Meanwhile over in New York, a million miles away from the very Englsih delights of Gryphon, the sound of Shimmer. Hang on, have we done five already, is this feature called Sic Musical Things? No it damn well isn’t

6: Shimmer – Now back in 2017 we said of New York band Shimmer’s debut album – ORGAN THING: Here you go then, Shimmer, your new favourite band… That fitst album was great, no, it was far more than that, great will not do, it was far greater than that! We shouted about it, we played it on the radio, unfortumately their press guy back there wasn’t so great, he was a complete a-hole actually, what was his name, forgotten now, one of those music business people who forget that it isn’t all about them. Shimmer press man had a hissyfit about us and so we heard nothing more of the band (who were no doubt paying him a fee for his services and not knowing he was dlipping things up), There had been lots of positive coverage and radio play, not enough for Mr full of himself pressman though, so news of the 2019 album took until today to reach us via a chance algorithm-defying social media posting by Dan from the excellent Star Period Star that just happened to turn up on a feed. Back in the old world of 2017 we raved, we frothed, we shouted, doing the same again here for an album that’s now two years old seems a little bit well, you know, almost, well, all a little bit after the lord mayor’s show and after the horse has bolted and all that, is there any point? Shimmer still sound exciting, they still sound like they were pushing at the edges two years ago with this second album, still challenging themselves, they sound like they really built on the foundations of that first freat album and not in the obvious aay they might have done either. If this had landed here in 2019 we’d have been shouting again, it does rather feel like clapping with one hand now in March 2021 though and well, here it is, And I Revel, go listen to it, do they have the same ice cream vans in Brooklyn as we do here in East London?. This really is a delicious head pecker of a second album, delightfully derrrrrrranged, disturbing and never as obvious in terms of a follow up as it could have been, and oh well, you don’t need our late to the party words, here’s the Bandcamp, go listen yourselves, like we might have said before, good music is timeless…

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Some stolen background for those who like the facts

“The second album by SHIMMER, one of the most exciting bands playing in Brooklyn right now, and something of a super-group. With 2 members of Palberta, Simon Hanes of Tredici Bacci and ex- of Guerilla Toss, and Paco Cathcart aka The Cradle, one might expect SHIMMER’s sound to be a bit of a hodge podge, but the opposite is actually true. SHIMMER has a laser-focused sound and vision, frantic and noisy, but equally precise and complex. With SHIMMER, the visual component is equally important, and this album also exists as a “visual album” with an accompanying video for each song. And what can be said of the character named SHIMMER, which appears to front the band? An entity that appears in reflections and refractions, a visitor from another world? Or a being of pure light itself?”

Ans while we’re here that aforementioned Star Period Star (we just mentioned Dan in that bit about Shimmer) and an album that we reviewed back in 2018 – ORGAN THING: Star Period Star are back with a prog as flip new album…

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Right then, here’s some pre-covid Lady Rage from back in the old normal

7: And here’s a classic Cheer Accident just because we haven’t mentioned them for a least a week now – “A festival date that will live on in infamy. We met so many good folx (which is maybe why we felt compelled to shake their hands within the first ten seconds of our set) in that there Seattle. This particular excerpt (the first of many) features two of our festivalmates, Dan Rathbun and Michael Mellender, both of Free Salamander Exhibit. Oh, and if you wanna get up-to-the-minute updates (in the form of rare live footage such as this, a brand new song every month and lots of odd ephemera), go and enlist in this“

Right, that really is all for today…. Can I reat soemthing from last week?

And that was that, another bus load of music during these strange locked-down times.  A big big thanks to anyone and everyone who has visited these pages, checked out the links, the music, the art, the exhibitions, the Cultivate on-line exhbitions, a big big thanks to all involved in the art shows or making the music we cover. And do let us just point out that everything here on these fractured Organ pages was done for free, all our time and effort and we just get so stupidly swamped in the week before this damn Bandcamp Friday, seems like every band and label in the world wants us to support something or other each month, you bands and labels are making a fortune out there every bandcamp Friday, “hey, tomorrow is Bandcamp Friday, we need to gold=plate our bathrtoom taps and we can’t charge you a fortune to get into or gigs anymore and can you help s out with a plug please?” Hey, we for overdue rent as well you know, while you sell two hundred millions albums every Bandcamp Friday maybe…. Hell, at least back in the day we’d get Manic Street Preachers albums in the post that we could go flog at Cheapo Cheapo down in Soho to pay the bills, all we get these days is a link. We haven’t got no box of money like Norm Buntz had stashed…

So if you do feel like making a small donation – We bring all this art, music and underculture to you for free, we really don’t want to clutter up our pages with annoying adverts, no one wants that, but it does take up a lot of time, hours and hours of time. If you should feel like supporting Organ/Cultivate (for it is one in the same) by making a small donation to help keep all this flowing that would be delightful, thank you.

And while we’re here, just one more episode, one last one, you can never have too much….