Council Estate Electronics - Arktika

Glacial Movements Records: 2016

Ah, it's good to be back in my familiar wheel-house: obscure ambient drone from an artist I have never heard of before. At least, I think that's my familiar wheel-house. Sure feels like it sometimes, especially after I discover a new label that piques my interest, going on a mini-splurge of material. Like this here Glacial Movements Records, a print that's been around for fifteen years now, housing such recognizable names like Rapoon, bvdub, and Celer. What good is such discovery without broadening one's exposure to new artists though?

So it goes with Council Estate Electronics, the sort of egg-headed alias that has me remembering such geeked out projects like Higher Intelligence Agency, New London School Of Electronics, and Institute Of Frequency & Optical Research. I have not a clue what this is all about, but tickle me intrigued for some polar drone with that kind of name.

Opening track Urals kicks things off on a rather brittle, dubby foot. A heavy, languid beat moves things along as distant percussion rattles in the distance, all the while what sounds like a muted fog horn pierces the murk. At nearly eleven minutes long, there's enough time for subtle tones and harmonies to weave about that noise, making the track rather laid back and chill for its runtime. Don't get too relaxed though, as follow-up 567 foot 33,500 ton goes quite abrasive, a noisy, buzzy sound dominating over another heavy, slow dub techno beat. Man, it almost reminds me of the industrial sonic grind from The Bug's collaboration with Earth on Concrete Desert. Say, who's behind Council Estate Electronics anyhow?

*one Discoggian dive later*

Hah! There is a connection after all! Turns out one-half of C.E.E. is Justin Broadrick, who frequently works with Kevin Martin under many aliases (Techno Animal, Zonal, The Curse Of The Golden Vampire, God). He's also been part of many industrial noise and death metal bands over the years, including founding Godflesh. There's many more, of which I'll be here forever name-dropping them all. Suffice to say, Justin's done a lot. Along the way, he paired up with former Godflesh member Dermot Dalton to make analog-based experimental music. Right, the background sorted, let's carry on with Arktika.

Actually, there isn't much more to say. If The Bug association wasn't a dead giveaway, we're firmly in industrial dub's domain. Big, cavernous beats, sometimes with distortion redlining way beyond reasonable levels (Rosatom, Polar Star), other times going as minimalist as dub techno of the '00s (Type LK-60YA, 60 Megawatts). 50 Let Pobody does a shimmery, cascading effect upon its dub treatments, while Liquefied Natural Gas edges out on the fringe of spaced-out reggae dub, but by and large, Arktika is mostly a clinical take on the genre. Just, y'know, performed in a noisy, industrialist sort of way.

Honestly, I'm quite surprised by this album, in that I had no idea Glacial Movements Records would also offer dub techno of this sort. What else might I uncover with this label?

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 10 - Odeon Budokan (1976)

Reprise Records: 2020

What a strange way to end Archives, Vol. 2. True, nothing could beat the triumphant cap of Vol. 1 that included all the chart-topping and critically lauded Harvest material, but a live album? And not just a live album, but recordings from overseas shows in London and Tokyo? I guess in keeping with the 'three Performance Series per Archives' theme, we'd get one exclusive to the box-set like Live At The Riverboat. This wasn't separately released prior, and I see no official plans to do so after.

If the timeline is to be believed, these shows were performed after Neil had joined Stephen Stills in Miami for their Stills-Young Band sessions, but before abandoning Crazy Horse to tour with Stephen instead. So in the course of a couple months, ol' Shakey had travelled from California, to Florida, to Japan, to the U.K. and back to Florida. Long may you run indeed, but not if you're gonna' burn both ends while burning your friends along the way.

As this disc is a cobble-lation of two shows performed literally half a world apart, it's appropriately broken up between the two. Oddly, they're not in chronological order, the London shows first, followed by the Tokyo jams after. My only assumption here is Odeon Budokan wants to recapture the same sequencing as Rust Never Sleeps, acoustic numbers opening the LP, then closing out with Crazy Horse 'rawkers'. To be fair, that's how Neil's concerts with Crazy Horse went regardless, I just have no idea why all the acoustic material comes from Odeon, and all the rock from Budokan. Just a happenstance of where the better recordings were?

So the acoustic set has some familiar tunes (Old Man, The Old Laughing Lady, After The Goldrush ...I'm honestly quite burnt out hearing that one on these live albums), plus a couple then-unreleased songs in Too Far Gone and Stringman. What's funny about these is you can really tell the unfamiliarity of them with the London crowd. Exuberant cheers upon hearing the first notes of the recognizable songs, then almost dead silence with the other two, save a polite applause after they're finished. Considering they wouldn't be officially released until way later, I'm sure Neil got a kick out of confusing the casuals in the crowd with them.

I'm not sure how familiar the Japanese crowd was with the freshly released Zuma record either, but they seemed to enjoy the rowdy rockers just the same. They also get a version of Cowgirl In The Sand, which isn't quite up to the epic outing as heard on Live At The Fillmore East, nor as tight as heard in later live albums with Crazy Horse. It was Frank Sampedro's earliest concerts with the group though, so just needed a little more time to fully mesh. Either that, or this was one of the supposed shows he'd taken acid at. Oh, hippie-rockers, never change.

And that's a wrap on Archives, Vol. 2! Join me again for Archives, Vol. 3, due for release ...whenever it gets released, I guess.

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 9 - Look Out For My Love (1975-1976)

Reprise Records: 2020

Full confession: the period between Zuma and Rust Never Sleeps is mostly a blank for yours truly. Granted, only two albums came out in that time (well, two and a half, but I'll get to that), with only two songs from them considered 'Essential Rustie Material'. One of them is the guitar epic Like A Hurricane, which I already have on the live album Weld, so no point in getting the scattershot American Stars 'n Bars just for that. The other is the country-leaning Comes A Time, from the album of the same name. I don't have that, but am not in any real hurry to ever get it. The tune's fine, just not on my 'must have' list, much less the record it comes from.

Disc nine of Archives, Vol. 2 doesn't reach quite that far though, capping this collection off in 1976. The first few tunes that open things are more Crazy Horse songs that likely would have featured on the vaporware album Chrome Dreams, including Like A Hurricane. Following that are two love songs, Lotta Love, and Look Out For My Love. The most surprising thing about these, at least for me, is they actually sound different from each other, Lotta Love more a loungy tune while Look Out For My Love inching closer to country.

Actually-actually, what's really surprising is Look Out For My Love was chosen for the title of this disc, and not just because Like A Hurricane is the more obvious choice. No, it's odd because this disc heavily features songs from the short-lived pairing between him and Stephen Stills, The Stills-Young Band.

Yep, despite quite the on-again, off-again musical relationship, the former Buffalo Springfield lads decided to give it another go in the studio. Story goes Mr. Stills was already in the works with a solo joint of his own, then had Neil over to hear some of the songs. Neil apparently got quite inspired with the tunes, such that he abandoned a tour with Crazy Horse to work with Stephen. Harsh, bro, but hey, maybe some truly kinetic jams would emerge from these sessions to rival even their work with Crosby and Nash. They even brought them in for some backing tracks, perhaps leading to a full-on CSNY reunion, but it was not to be, Stills and Young scrubbing their voices from the finished product. Harsh, bro, but hey, at least the forthcoming tour featuring Stephen and Neil would lead to some dynamite guitar action to hear. Except in typical Neil fashion, he flaked on his friend mid-tour, with one of the most classic kiss-off notes left behind. HARSH, bro!

As for the resultant songs, they're mostly pleasant rock, some leaning blues, some leaning country, but all sounding quite clean and polished compared to most of Neil's body of work. So much so, that songs like Ocean Girl and Midnight On The Bay could even be considered... *sigh* Yacht Rock. Of course Neil did a Yacht Rock.

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 8 - Dume (1975)

Reprise Records: 2020

So I thought I would be skipping this disc as well. I mean, just look at the cover art: it's basically Zuma all over again, and indeed, eight of that album's nine songs appear on here. Yet that's only half of the musical content contained within, the rest versions of songs that wouldn't be heard in LP form until at least Rust Never Sleeps. And even then, we get different versions here, so wholly unique items exclusive to Archives, Vol. 2. Welp, guess that settles that.

If you've been keeping up with your handy-dandy Neil Young time-line mega-diary, you'd know this was about the point where his long-time backing band of Crazy Horse finally found themselves a worthy successor to the fallen Danny Whitten. Like, don't get me wrong, Nils Lofgren was a fine stand-in for the time he was there, but the musical wonderkid was a bit too talented to be playing rhythm guitar in an unabashed, undeniably average garage rock band.

Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, however, fit perfectly snug into the roll, in large part to already being a massive fan of the group's '60s work with Neil. Intimately familiar with their classics such that he could easily jam away with Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina, all he had to do was prove himself to the mighty Young as well, which he done did while the boys partied the nights away in Malibu. Guess that's why Archives has titled this disc Dume, the name of the other cove and beach in that region. The more famous one, of course, being Zuma Beach. What, did you think the 1975 album was titled that because of something Aztecan related? Haha, who'd ever think that? *cough*

Seriously though, such a connection to Aztecs and Incans makes sense, what with Neil going off on about mystical danger birds and killer conquistadors. He may have felt a full album of such material would have been overkill though, so songs like Ride My Llama and Pocahontas got the axe in favour of more tunes about break-ups like Don't Cry No Tears and Stupid Girl. I don't know what's crazier though: that such songs wouldn't officially appear again for several years, and then only as folk versions, or that Powderfinger wouldn't either. Okay, so it wouldn't have fit on Zuma, but couldn't it have been rescued for American Stars 'n Bars? Decade? Heck, Comes A Time, if nothing else but for the LOLs?

Supposedly, such songs may have ended up on another of Neil's tantalizing lost albums, Chrome Dreams. Makes sense, between this and material in the next disc in Archives, Vol. 2 having plenty 'nuff for another LP. T'was not to be though, thus wonderful songs like Hawaii, Born To Run, Kansas, and Too Far Gone would go unheard for decades (save the odd concert bootleg). Man, guess Rusties should be thankful Ride My Llama, Pocahontas and Powderfinger only took a 'brief' half-decade to appear on Rust Never Sleeps.

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 7 - Homegrown (1974-1975)

Reprise Records: 2020

This album was pencilled in for a release after On The Beach. Pre-hype from those who'd heard it thought it would be just the record to resuscitate Neil's career back to his Harvest glory. Bold claims, and maybe words that should have been left unspoken in Mr. Young's presence, as at the eleventh hour, he pulled it from publication, going with the two-year old Tonight's The Night instead.

The long-held reasoning behind this is due to the fact both were played back-to-back off the same reel of tape. Comparing the two, Neil felt Tonight's The Night was the stronger collection of songs, and perhaps he's right in that regard. As time's passed, however, with more music from this era of his career emerging, a clearer picture's formed. As the previous disc in this Archives collection can attest, Neil's relationship woes were at an all-time low, songs almost exclusively being written about his feelings over Carrie Snodgress' absence. Some of these were strong enough to consider studio time with, with a backing band, proper LP roll-out, and everything.

Swell beans, but gosh, these are still quite personal and emotionally raw, aren't they? Like, at least the songs in Tonight's The Night also dealt with broader topics of living life on the skids, not just about the tragic deaths of friends. Maybe best to shelve Homegrown for a little while longer, let it sit while those emotional wounds heal some. See if you're feeling the same after, and if it's really such a good idea to let the world get this close to one's broken heart. And wait... and wait... and, oh, hi, fine lady, your name's Pegi, you say? Life moves on.

Still, it's undeniable that Homegrown would have made for a fascinating companion piece to Harvest, had it been released back when. Heck, it still could serve as such, should you choose to listen to them back to back. With songs like Out On The Weekend, Harvest, Heart Of Gold, and A Man Needs A Maid, you can glean a sense of growing puppy-love from Neil, a whirlwind relationship on the rise. Homegrown, meanwhile, is the inevitable break-up, bitter and despondent. I didn't say it was a happy companion piece.

Musically, we're in familiar territory as Harvest, with slide-guitarist Ben Keith and bassist Tim Drummond from The Stray Gators on hand. There's a couple more rocky country jams on here (Vacancy), some talking about weed (We Don't Smoke It No More, the titular cut ...yeah man, feckin' 'home-grown' *anxious pat of the head*). Elsewhere, White Line, a song that remained unpublished until 1990's Ragged Glory, is given the gentle acoustic go here, while Star Of Bethlehem with Emmylou Harris would appear much sooner on American Stars 'n Bars. And smack in the middle is Florida, an... abstract spoken-word bit? Huh, just when you thought you'd heard Neil Young do every style of music under the sun (and beyond!), he throws in something leftfield like this. What's next, Yacht Rock?

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 6 - The Old Homestead (1974)

Reprise Records: 2020

Despite the rather jovial start to the Tonight's The Night tour, it didn't take long for things to go just as sour as the Harvest tour. Unsurprisingly, poor ol' Shakey grew even more despondent, retreating back to the studio with some pals, took a bunch of supplements called 'honey slides' (surely up on Erowid, if you're curious), and came out with On The Beach, an album that goes about as deep into the 'ditch' as you'll ever hear. Yeah, it has some peppy tunes like the Crazy Horse regular Walk On and the 'rawker' Revolution Blues. Gads though, Motion Pictures, On The Beach, Ambulance Blues... does that poor violin ever sound like a sad, howling hound dog.

I've already covered most of this in my review of On The Beach though, so let's skip that particular disc in Archives, Vol. 2, and move onto disc number six, The Old Homestead (1974). Seems things just kept getting worse for Mr. Young, his relationship with Carrie Snodgress crumbling as well. Makes sense that he'd start writing a pile of songs dealing with his feelings on the matter, using his own studio to record acoustic versions of them. Never mind if he ever intended to release them to a wider audience, there was at least some cathartic release in performing them to an audience of a few behind a mixing board.

A handful of these songs did emerge down the line. Blues-rocker The Old Homestead cropped up on the relatively forgotten Hawks & Doves. The laid-back country vibe of Deep Forbidden Lake earned a spot on the Decade retrospective. Moody acoustic number Bad News Comes To Town got a big-band blues cover during Neil's This Note's For You period. Still, most sat in his archives, untouched, unloved, mostly hidden from the world. It's quite possible these songs cut just a bit too deep into the emotional wounds he was feeling at the time, old scars he really didn't want revisiting, much less making known to a wider audience that was already rather invasive into his erratic activities.

Which makes Neil's decision to join with Crosby, Stills & Nash again for a massive American tour all the more strange. Maybe he thought 'getting back with the boys' was what he needed to knock him out of his funk, but while he was gung-ho about it during rehearsals, he turned right back into 'The Loner' while they went out on the road. Which may have been just as well, since by all accounts, 'the Doom Tour' (as Crosby put it) was a debauchery mess, if not financially successful – performing in stadiums would do that. A couple recordings from that tour appear on this disc, but it's clear Neil doesn't want it to be a focus of this collection.

By the end of The Old Homestead, the vibe does seem to be turning around a little, some regained confidence and peppier mood permeating the final clutch of songs. Neil wasn't quite done with the tunes of relationship woes, however, piecing together what would become one of his long-lost albums...

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 4 - Roxy: Tonight's The Night Live (1973)

Reprise Records: 2018/2020

We're entering prime 'ditch' territory here, folks.

I'm sure we all know the story up to this point now. Harvest tour, a mess. Fame and fortune, found wanting. Close friends, dying of dope overdoses. Neil, trying to deal with it all, retreated to a make-shift L.A. studio with some of his musician buddies, where they drank hard liquor and played music to their fallen comrades, resulting in the album Tonight's The Night. As Archives, Vol. 2 presents everything in chronological order, it makes sense those sessions being the third disc in the set, despite the actual album not coming out for a couple years later. I've already reviewed it though, so let's skip ahead to disc number four, Roxy: Tonight's The Night Live (1973).

Why review a live album of songs I've already talked about? The fact this was even unearthed is a talking point, by g'ar! Despite some of these tunes becoming staples in Mr. Young's future concerts, they were all unknown to a wider public at this point. There were no lead singles, no album in support, and those who were coming in to see Neil Young in concert had to be even more confused than those who went to the Harvest shows. At least he'd still play favourites like Old Man and Heart Of Gold among the newer, unreleased ditties like Time Fades Away and Don't Be Denied. You didn't even get that with this tour. I'm sure it's exactly as Neil preferred it. Heck, I'm not even sure he intended this to turn into a tour that stretched into the U.K., the songs just a tad too intimate, personal, and raw for international audiences unfamiliar with the material.

Still, if this live set is any indication, things at least started on a positive note. The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip had just re-opened under new ownership, including future label mogul David Geffen. It hadn't quite shaken off its former strip club atmosphere though, so the bluesy, down-and-out, skuzzy vibe that permeates Tonight's The Night fit snuggly with the joint. Possibly feeling inspired by the setting, Neil morphed into a caricature of the sort of Orange County (or Miami Beach) lounge lizard who'd host such an establishment. No longer the charming, folksy warbler of country-rock hits, he was a downtrodden, washed-up grease-ball only a mother could love. Andy Kaufman would have loved it, if he'd seen it.

The smaller venue also provided the perfect vibe for the music, Neil far more personable and interactive with the crowd, all the while backed by his A-team of associated musicians. Dubbed The Santa Monica Flyers, you had the remaining Crazy Horse members on rhythm, wonderkid Nils Lofgren on piano and guitar, and dependable Ben Keith on slide guitar. All had been in lock-step with these tunes since their creation, so rolled into the Roxy quite polished in performing them. And even if no one in the audience knew them, they all seemed at least hype enough being part of the Roxy's grand opening to indulge Neil's dalliance from the norm. All in all, a fun night out, this performance, even if the subject matter remains bleak as all Hell.

Neil Young with The Stray Gators - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 2 - Tuscaloosa (1973)

Reprise Records: 2019/2020

The Archives series is a continuous project, segments coming out with great frequency. In typical Neil Young fashion though, it remains an erratic one. Instead of a steady, chronological re-telling of his discography, it's made massive time-jumps with each release of the Performance Series. Confounding things further are additional items released after they should have been properly sequenced, relegating them to x.5 in their numerical order.

Example: Live At The Cellar Door, a show recorded between the Live At The Fillmore East and Live At Massey Hall sessions, is designated PS02.5. This is all very dorky, OCD-levels of going about re-issuing one's discography, but it does leave some tantalizing hints of what else might come out, especially when there's a six volume gap between Live At Massey Hall and A Treasure (the country shindiggin' tour of Old Ways).

Cagey marketing aside, there's a more practical reason why some of these archival performances come out in non-chronological order: they're harder to resuscitate than others. Or put another way, even though Tuscaloosa (1973) was always intended to be volume four of the Performance Series, getting a good remastering of those recordings was apparently a herculean effort.

This is from the Harvest tour with The Stray Gators that went down as one of the most disastrous tours from Neil's long career, one that started on a rather bleak note when their practice sessions with Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten wasn't turning out, got sent home and promptly overdosed. Those arenas were already sold out though, folks eager to hear hits like Heart Of Gold live. So hit the road Neil and the Gators did, though not before financial wrangling added even more sourness to the proceedings. Throw in Mr. Young's insistence at playing new material over Harvest songs as the tour progressed, and it lurched to an unsatisfying end once the American portion was completed, a European stretch cancelled.

As fascinating as it would be to hear those shows, Tuscaloosa wisely gives us a glimpse of the tour in its earlier days, when things hadn't quite gone to such shite. Even then, there was only so much audio they could cobble, portions of it apparently going unrecorded.

So we get a couple solo acoustic numbers to open up, then it's right into the Harvest tunes with the Gators. The opening salvo of Out On The Weekend and Harvest sound great, the live energy vastly improved over the studio versions. Old Man and Heart Of Gold are as they are, but it soon settles in that, as professional as the Gators are as a backing band, that's all they are. Neil really wants to coax a little Crazy Horse out of these Nashville pros, but it just isn't happening.

The set ends off with Don't Be Denied, somewhat of a harbinger of things to come. Neil goes autobiographical, his voice gets harrowed and raw, and the music fades away, in doing so jettisoning the traditional post-song applause of a live album, the audience disappearing before us.

Neil Young - Archives, Vol. 2: Disc 1 - Everybody's Alone (1972-1973)

Reprise Records: 2020

Aw shit, here we go again...

Like, you knew this was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before Neil Young put out another Archives collection. It's why, despite the various, unearthed items that had recently come out from this period of his career, I let them pass by, fully expecting them to appear within this box-set. And for sure I'm gonna' review Every. Single. CD. that's included here, mwa-ha-hah! Okay, I'll probably skip on discs that are heavy on material from the albums I've already reviewed (Tonight's The Night, On The Beach, Zuma), because who needs redundant reviews like that? There's already ten discs on Archives Vol. 2 - gotta' cut corners wherever I can.

That all sorted? Good. Now, where were we? Ah yes, Mr. Young had just released Harvest, achieving a fame and fortune few could have dreamed of ten years deep into a music career, much less ol' Neil. In fact, he was so flustered with all the success that he kept trying to run away from it, which seemed to have the opposite effect. Part of a break-out rock band? Break away and do folksy solo stuff for a while. Get popular enough to join a super-group and play to crowds of thousands? Buy a ranch to get away from it all. Feel so inspired by your surroundings that you write some of your most heart-felt tunes yet, leading to chart topping albums and tours in sold-out arenas? Well, now things are just getting ridiculous. What must one do to get away from all this success? Drown yourself in a ditch?

That's jumping ahead a little though. Archives, Vol. 2 instead kicks things off in the immediate aftermath of Harvest. Titled Everybody's Alone (1972-1973), it's a sort of mish-mash of demo recordings and previously unreleased material of Neil trying out new and old songs with The Stray Gators, his backing band of Nashville session musicians (save an original recording of future tune Human Highway with Crosby, Stills, & Nash). Some of these would end up on the album Time Fades Away, including previously unreleased versions of The Bridge, L.A., and Time Fades Away (a right hootenanny of a tune!). In fact, I think the only tune that appears as on this disc that also does on that album is Yonder Stands The Sinner.

And you may wonder, why not just include the actual Time Fades Away songs, remastered, like as done on the previous Archives collection? To which I respond, “Have you actually heard the quality of those recordings?” They're not good, infamously recorded as performed live, with little in the way of proper studio tapes or mixing console used in the process. It remains one of the only Neil Young albums to never see an official CD re-issue, Neil either unable or unwilling to polish it for modern ears. It has finally found its way onto streaming services if you're insatiably curious, but you're probably better off with the versions as heard here.

Drowning In Atmospheric Rivers: An EMC Update

I won't front: personally, I'm not directly affected by all the flooding that's happened in my corner of the world. Vancouver-Proper hasn't seen any of the catastrophic damage so many nearby areas have. That doesn't mean there haven't been issues though, as supply chains get disrupted. It's easy to think, that's what we get, having just one route in and out of the Lower Mainland, but we really don't. There are multiple routes, and in years past, when there's been severe weather disruptions, at least one or two of those routes will remain open. That this substantial percipitation managed to knock-out all the routes is almost unprecidented! Throw in the killer combo of re-routing through the States ain't an easy task due to COVID restrictions (not all truck drivers are eligible for border crossings), and you have a logistical nightmare for those who's job it is to handle the movement of goods to local communities. I've had a hectic past couple weeks, is what I'm saying.

That all said, such a work schedule wouldn't have been enough to completely de-rail this blog's productivity for half a month. Nay, the other reason there hasn't been any updates in a while is because the next item in my queue is gonna' take up a significant chunk of time to get through, and I didn't want to split it between two months. Yep, it's another box-set, one where alphabetical stipulation won't let me work around it like the Lucette Bourdin one. Figured I'd wait until November ended, by which hopefully most of the Real World nutiness had cooled off a little. I... can't say it has, but eh, no sense putting this off any longer.