OK Take Two

Let's try this again.

I'm still scratching my head why post #1 got removed. So far nobody has told me to fuck off so I can only assume for the time being that either (A) It was accidentally removed and whatever dipshit did so isn't up for owning up to being a dipshit (for the record I much prefer self-confessed dipshits to closet dipshits), or (B) It was maliciously removed for one of two reasons - either (B.1) Some egotistical bampot who loves Animal Collective and has a gripe with me thought it would be funny, or (B.2) Some Prozac-fuelled fascist doesn't like us putting out anything negative. Thanks to my propensity for paranoia, I'm swaying towards B.1, and if that turns out to be the case then I know EXACTLY where to look. But in the unlikely event of it being B.2 please let me say this - the random release button on CLLCT is like musical Russian roulette. I tried three times and if I'd clicked it one more time then it would have felt like I was proving that the button doesn't work.

Today, I'm going to put my listening fate back in the hands of the Random Release button again, and hopefully I'm going to prove that it DOES work and that there are real gems of DIY music just waiting to be discovered there. Those of you who already dig CLLCT as much as I do, now's the time to hold your breath with me and cross every finger and toe.

Here we go:

http://cllct.com/release/kingtime

Unbelievable.

Okay, so that's quite spooky, but at least it proves that it DOES work.

I know this record like the stigmata'd backs of my own paws. I even sailed with the guy who wrote it on an imaginary ship for a few months at the end of last year. For those of you who don't know him, Simon Piler is an American experimental folk-poet who has been recording with the Atom Band (a quite insane collective of musically talented individuals) for the best part of the last decade. KINGTIME is his most recent album, written and recorded in two months during the autumn of 2009 in Alaska for an Invisible Box-Set.

If you're familiar with his work then you'll be pleased to know it is more of the same. Traditional folk songs like 'ROLL' (perhaps my favourite Simon Piler song of all time), sit side by side with weird instrumental and spoken word interludes. Sounds drift in like electronic insects, vocals wail like Dylan on ecstasy, lullabies leap, and hissy lo-fi anthems roar. Check out the quite disturbing 'King TV' to see/hear how weird it can get. For now there really isn't an easy place to start with this music - every record is heavyweight, like the tip of an iceberg, and there are copious interviews and notes kicking around the internet that reveal some of the depth of thought that goes into making them. This isn't everyone's cup of morning coffee - it isn't a pick-me up shot of melody, but speaking from experience it can be one of the most inspiring slow-burning things you will hear. Some of you will hear it as a bamboozling little home-made opera about King Midas, and some of you will stagger away from it feeling like you want to know more, maybe even do more yourself. I think that's the thing I love most about Simon Piler - he is a charmingly complex singer-songwriter and very, very infectious.

There are albums of his I like better tha KINGTIME, but like I say, there's no shallow end to this. So hold your nose ,cross your toes and jump on in at the deep end. I give it 9/10 (just because you might as well hang up the songwriting hat if you ever hit 10 - see Jeff Mangum).

*Again I know that I am involved in the making of this record, mainly by taking the cover picture in some really weird acid-drenched woods in Scotland, and by writing one of the songs on it. But fuck it.

So that went better this time I think. I'm presently on a cloud high above Sydney (Australia, as opposed to Sydney Texas where I'm supposed to be), and I received the small fat middle-aged moustached Spaniard as requested for my services here. As yet still no sign of an orange hand or a Winona Ryder blow-up doll, and 'Pancho' (I'm calling him this, he doesn't speak a word of English and seems quite bewildered about the cloud situation) is unable to tell me about when the rest of my payment is going to show up. I'm back in Glasgow next week for some kind of vegetarian/animal rights concert that my childhood best-friend's wife is organizing so I'll try and check out some of the bands when I'm there and report back. Personally I feel quite hypocritical being a fox and a meat-eater turning up, but there's a back-stage pass and apparently Stella McCartney and Natalie Portman are going to be there, so I can't really say no. The last time I went to one of their charity gigs I ended up drunk and unconscious on an ice rink while my mate and the lassie from Belle and Sebastien skated around my head. Expect more calamity.

Yours sincerely

Willoughby Toad