When the last bird sings, who will be listening?

Michael Clay Mix

The Broken Bird Sings

Sung by Ava Navana - written by S. Scholfield - recorded by Jake Long

.... AND THE ISLAND WENT INTO LOCKDOWN

Betty Spaghetti

Island

Prova del nuovo WALL OF SPRINGS  con solo l'utilizzo di un  Bicycle Delay Catalinbread.

Wall Of Springs -text

VALE SEAN BAXTER 
1970-2020

We are crushed by the terrible news of Sean's passing. The Melbourne (and all over) experimental / improvised / noise scene took a huge blow just a few days before the start of the confinement, with the passing of legendary drummer, noise artist, curator, DIY stalwart, lover and enthusiast for all things strange, fukkd and brutal Sean Baxter.
I made a radio show of his music, with a few anecdotes, stories and quotes thrown in. If anyone is involved in radio, online or otherwise, and wants to get it aired please feel free to download to get the files.

1. ‘Almost Lucid Fairytale’ - from Bucketrider 'Guignol’s Band’ - 1998 - Dr Jims Records
2. ‘Safety Pod’ - From The Throwaways 'Angle Grinder' - 1991 - Au Go Go Records
3. ‘Rock and Roll’ - From The Throwaways 'Postmadonna Primadonna’ - 1994 - Dr Jims Records
4. ‘Nancarrow (For Conlon)’ - From Bucketrider 'Guignol’s Band’ = 1998 - Dr Jims Records
5. Excerpt from ‘Open Space’ - From Western Grey 'Glacial Erratic' - 2003 - Dr Jims Records
6. Excerpt from ‘1’ - From Lazy ‘Microsonics’ - 2002 - Dr Jims Records
7. ‘Metamorphics’ - from Pateras / Baxter / Brown - Ataxia - Synaesthesia Records - 2002/2003
8. ‘Bern 4’ - from Pateras / Baxter / Brown - ‘Bern - Melbourne - Milan’ - 2006 - Immediata 
9. ‘Inland 4’ - from Pateras / Baxter / Brown - ‘Bern - Melbourne - Milan’ - 2017 - Immediata 
10. ‘Plates’ - from Sean Baxter - Solo Drumkit Improvisations - 2011 - Bocian Records 
11. ‘Blood Meridian (Tempering Agent)’ - Embers - Slag-Welter - 2008 - Heathen Skulls
12. ‘Unreleased’ - Sean Baxter & Valerio Tricoli - Recorded in Berlin 2012
13. Sean Baxter Classic Intro - Make It Up Club - 2018
14. ‘Windchimes’ - from Sean Baxter - Solo Drumkit Improvisations - 2011 - Bocian Records 

Quotes from Anthony Pateras, Steve Heather, Judith Hamann, Clayton Thomas, Miles Brown, Dale Baxter, Scott Sinclair
Compiled by Annalee-Rose & Will Guthrie - April 2020
Thanks to Dave Brown, Anthony Pateras, Clare Cooper

Vale Sean Baxter - 1970-2020

History is full of plagues, they come and go in waves and waves
But the strangest one there's ever been was Strasbourg in 1518

A woman there began to dance, a small crowd fell into her trance
They couldn't stop, they tried and tried, the rhythm would just not subside
In a feverish malaise, those people danced for days and days

Soon hundreds moved in unison, entranced, immune to all reason
Through weeks and months, through night and day, their flesh began to waste away 
Strangers prayed and loved ones wailed, doctors tried to help and failed
The numbers grew, the virus spread, the dance soon claimed its first few dead

The people brought musicians in, to draw the dance out from within
The city built a wooden stage, and night and day the music played
But in trying to lift the curse, they spread it round, they made it worse 
Those infectious melodies increased the spread of the disease

Toxic ergot fungal spores, growing through the rye grain stores
Are a documented cause of hallucinations and tremors 
Victims would be seized by mania, exhibiting bizarre behavior
Flailing limbs and muscle spasms, contagious enthusiasm
But that does not explain it all

Now we can read page after page on theories of cultural contagion
Was it some big psychogenic behavioral epidemic
Or was it a poison spider bite, or some secret pagan rite,
Or a curse sent down to claim the young from St. Vitus or St. John
Well, we may never know for sure

They never found a cause or cure, so there's no way we can be sure
That one day in a city street, our heaving pulsing limbs won't meet
With sweaty brows and heavy breath, as we all dance ourselves to death.



Words and music by Nick Wilson 2020. Additional vocals by Erin Hall & Lauren Garcia. Cello & clarinet by Lauren, Picture is a detail of "The Wedding Dance by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

The Dancing Plague

soundfossil