the Crude Decade

hey followers

2010-01-31T21:47:00.000-08:00

...hey hey....just in case you didn't know it....the continuation of this blog is taking place elsewhere,
and that is HERE !!!

last blog for 2009 .

2009-12-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

I'd like to sincerely thank all of you who've followed this blog over the year, and of course years previous, and I hope you all join me for the next installment - which will be kept as one unit for a number of years as opposed to this and last years annual blog. La Deccenie Brut is the title of the new blog, and I'll use that virtual space to natter on about nuttin much from 2010 to 2019, so long as blogspot and the internet are still going, so long as I'm here to write i suppose.

This mission of mine is a kind of alchemy. My music is refined gradually. Releases and actions are measured and represent the latest stage of refinement. There is no arrival; only movement and further refinement to come. The Crude meme started rough-as-guts, obscure, immature, silly - like a schoolboys science project. And it still is really.

Placing myself into the culture has been complicated. There are many layers to it - we have the local culture, Dunedin, with 4 or 5 venue/culture mafias or door-keepers one simply must play ball with. I won't name them here. Small city/large town socio-cultural politics is as fascinating as it is stifling. The golden rule - this town is far too small to actively burn bridges within the creative sector because one day you just might run into and even have to work with whoever you burned again and again and again in the future. You will also limit possibilities for others - artists who just want to get on with people and their projects. All in all bridge burning is a selfish and unwise act. I learnt that lesson years ago. Sort of.
On a slightly larger scale is the national culture - and the same rule applies here because New Zealand is very small. Although you can disassociate yourself from other groups a lil' bit. You define your realm firstly with the genre of music you perform and secondly by way of your politics(and even if you believe yourself to be apolitical - news flash - there are skilled observers out there who'll ascertain your 'leanings' even by the vway you wear your hair). The gatekeepers in NZ are manifold - those who rise up through the ranks are often blessed with the gift of the gab, have plenty of cash reserves, can network up a storm, have friends in leadership positions both corporate and governmental, exude mana (or know someone who exudes it), and whos music is commercial, rootsy, work-affirming, healthy, and humble. My position within New Zealands culture is seemingly microscopic - but it's cultish. NZ's music 'scene' utilizies Crude as a sort of last resort, a filler story, a novelty act or a curio. But 'at the end of the day' Crude is always there. Like oxygen. Permanence and timelessness are my aims. A refusal to go away and die. Transmuting ones everlasting soul into data to be stored, backed up, and filed away for ever. Crude is a southern entity within the national schema, its southern roots stretching deeper and deeper into the soil with each year, the south as base of operations - as home, as nest. Of course, we all know New Zealand music is Auckland-o-centric, and so alot of my work is neglected, because i rarely appear there in the flesh. Luckily those into the type of music i record are usually very progressive and reasonable people. But I can't wholly escape the odd barnyard jape and redneck reference. You just can't. Invercargill is Invercargill. And it will be forever.
The final placement for the project is the international realm. This is acheived in the main using the internet, usually by joining borderless world-wide interest groups and actively participating in them. I feel that the net has spawned a truly international electronic music movement. We congregate under the webs umbrella and inspire and inform each others works. It is a perpetual conversation. It is disembodied, mobile, anarchic, self-organizing and very powerful. One can record, remix and deliver a track to someone in Malaysia and get it back in a new form quicker than it takes to walk to the dairy and back. A guy in Siberia will know more about your latest release than the guy in the next room in the house. You can send a track instantly to 100 different people in practically every corner of the globe quicker than it takes you to hand a cassette to the guy down the hall. Of course, this is OLD NEWS, we all know this...but come on, its still pretty amazing! The ramifications must frustrate local media cliques no end - especially those who crave control of it.

So anyway, thanks again for spending a little time looking at things from my perspective. I really. truly. appreciate your support. You are supporting me by reading me. And if you're compelled to purchase a cd, why! that's all the better. But i'll be happy even if you go stream a crude track.
Yessir, its a struggle. Mein Kamph. I struggle on. On and on against a world I didn't design. Sport reigns supreme here, its mega-church is being built down ravey road as I write. Sport. Rugby. A sport to find the team who can safely collect the food package or the kill back across opposing tribal terrain and to the village. Or safely bringing a message home perhaps. Now we just click a mouse.
Apparently, my right-leaning relatives bellow - there's piles of money out there. Millions of dollars all up for grabs. Anyone can crawl up from the bottom and become a zillionaire! So why do i feel like theres this huge corporate vacuum cleaner in the sky - like an evil silent alien drone, sucking,skimming and feltching out every last cent out of every last human to fatten the already grotesquely over-loaded pockets of a few sociopathic, narcissistic, control-addicted and sadistic men? (oh sorry - thats right. It's us 'welfare criminals' that are the cause of the crisis)

2009-12-07T01:32:00.000-08:00

next thing

2009-12-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

from jan 1 2010 the ongoing cruddy saga blog switches to the following url:
http://crude2010-2019.blogspot.com/

statement

2009-12-05T23:17:00.000-08:00

.....Dunedin warmth, Dunedin Hands. Oh the passionate realm of music and art, it attracts them all, the control freaks, the mommys boys, the daddys girls, the special kids, the damaged, the abused, the destroyed, the weak, the troubled, the cursed, the rich, the poor, the sick, the god-fearing, the god hating, the open, the closed, the ambitious, the driven, the insane, the mysogynists, the homeless, the home-schooled, the priveledged, the defiled, the down-trodden, the brilliant, the deviant, the defiant, the maladjusted, the introverted, the extroverted, the forlorn, the quietist, the political, the apolitical. There seems to be different approaches to performance and performance situations - some are there to assert their domain and claim the next decade as theirs, some treat the structural aspects of a multi-act performance as a forum for that insidious kiwi pathology - passsive-agressive behaviour. Last night there was a perfomance at None Basement, or 'Fight club' as I now call it. Having played the venue under its various guises off and on since 1997 it is a place of solace and sentiment for me, somewhere to 'be myself', to 'let down my guard' , a place with a strong anarcho-liberal philosophy to it - a place of un-restricted creativity, and mutual support and encouragement. Last nights show was an eclectic amalgam of musical schools - a jazz/folk/psych act, an anarchic dada outfit, some noise rock, a laptopper, some electro, and myself, attemting a sort of 'live beats' thing with a laptop and the sterling gentlement i've been freestyling with over the last few months . Long before the show was to begin I tried to ascertain what the line up would be, when i should play and for how long etc. As is normal with many gigs of an anarchistic nature a kind of 'it'll sort itself out' attitude is assumed, one attempts to spontaneously assess when it is appropriate to perform, one assumes there isnt a hierarchy to the lineup, its an egalitarian event, fuelled by the music itself, the audiences response, the flow of the piss, the blood on the floor. Trying my utmost to be all things to all people as usual, (I tend to be what you think i am)I cranked up my set as the jazz outfit were seemingly winding down. There were two 'zones', on each side of the basement, creating a kind of genre specific schism, perhaps reducing the severity of the interjection. But no. The two zones were as one stage. Would I get up on stage with a group when they hadnt finished? No. But this was...something altogether different. A real headfuck. Cutting my sound ejaculation (self coaxed of course) I was informed, in the form of the lead vocalists beautiful voice, that they were to play 'one more', a song of about 20 minutes. They finished eventually, their fans yelling encore, my supporters giving me the nod. Before i was to play two members of the jazz outfit confronted me, looking inconceivably put out and angry, like i had just ruined their careers. Deeming the gravity of what i had done by misjudging my liberties was not as heavy as the vibe exuding from these gentlemen I dismissed them, rather abruptly, putting on an air of haughty arrogant self assurance not normally my style (how dare I! I should have cowered and blithered in apology). Picking up a phone call and walking away must've added to the general wankerish feel - I must have looked like a real cunt trying to defend myself. The two guys spent my set seething - their hatred for me festered. Rallying their troops they heckled and defamed my name on a chalk board, this matt middleton guy - what an ego he has! He thinks he is the hot shit! He thinks he is great! He like listens to his own music! That is self congratulatory! How dare he! And so i finished up the set - which went well, and after packing my equipment the angry gentlemen, their honour in tatters after my insidious comments and the sound rape i let loose as they played, it had broken their concentration, I had defiled the purity of their set, I had usurped their one and only shot at fame it seemed. I was then informed that the gentleman would very much 'like to punch me in the face'. My short stature must've really been empowering for them at this point. The standover continued, the taller (hes tall as!) stood over me, like Thurston Moore wearing Burroughs style spectacles, his face buckled and spattering out psychotic old-jazz-soldier rules and taboos and tapus and biblical threats. I then tried a formal apology - apologizing firstly for making a sound when they were playing, and then for my dismissive arrogant display previous to my performance. The response was 'I don't want to hear you say sorry'. So then question I had to ask myself was what did he want? Did he want me to get on my knees and pleasure his member? Was I in for a masonic hazing? (well YES it turns out - even their songstress got one in). Did he want me to pay him off?? At this point my integrity as a human came into sharp contrast in my mind. Was I to be walked over, was I to roll over like a dog when kicked, leaving a pleasing ruddy glow on their cheeks, or would I do something a little more ..acute to highlight the unreasonable nature of their fury. Oh yes there had been breakdowns in communication right from the get-go. Did I have a plan to make an enemy that night? No. Was I told for how long and when I should exactly play? Not really. Did I think a couple of blasts of noise from me would cause such a crushing blow to these guys egos resulting in their need for my head on a plate? No. Maybe no-one really wanted me to play that particular gig in the first place - and in typical passive fashion no-one said 'i don't want crude to play'---like hey I would have gladly not played - of course no-one told me.
I walk back, assume this pseudo martial arts stance and suggest that they 'beat me up'..
(a fight ensued, one of those squirming, wriggling, locked-down scrums, some hair pulling, clothes tearing and biting (on my part) and a few punches.)

Oh music music music - the JOY of it all. Lots of desperately poor people (like m )running round with not enough food in their bellies and too much booze in their blood.

To conclude, I love the people at None. They have been some of the most consistent and encouraging people i have known - reasonable people - non-judgemental, highly creative and progressive, real people. I don't have a beef with None. I try my best to be reasonable with my music and performances. If I have built a reputation over the years as being a 'wanker' or that 'i think i'm better than you', thats a real shame. Lots of young people come down to Dunedin and have their mind made up about who and what I am. Have i become this sort of dinosaur that must be put out of its misery to let the young blood through? Am I a thorn in your side?
At the end of the day we wake up and its all turned to memory, another heated exchange in the fight club, just another outburst by that matt middleton cunt, and we get on with our lives. But this incident was particularly depressing, its the sort of soul-destroying thing that puts you off ever bothering with it again, and it makes you wonder if all the twenty-something musicians or artists of today share this bizarre, sinister,dry ambitious streak and a corresponding sense of immediate entitlement to absolute respect.

'Oral Histories'

2009-12-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I'll (I mean ...Crude ) receive(s) a little attention from the world of music journalism and cultural heritage archivists. An interview here and there can really bolster morale - its a validation - it's evidence that what one does is not only out there (in new zealand in the main)(inside hard drives), it is deemed good enough to be acquired and archived and written about. People have penned articles - like Jonathon Bywater and his Listener article, Shayne Carter covered Crude in Real Groove and portrayed me as a very underground kiwi artist perhaps overlooked and under-appreciated, and the Hocken Library and the National Library have over the years acquired many Crude titles, some of them incredibly rare cassette editions that i don't even own any more. All the old lathe 7"s are down at the Hocken, as well as the first ever Crude cassette 'The World is so you Have Something to stand on'. Last month I was fortunate enough to be interviewed for an 'Oral History' project - whereby my life story as an artist, or whatever, was discussed, in my interviewers words it was a project that hoped to paint a picture of the artist as a human being. Whether I acheived that aim I'm not sure yet! I want to thank those who nominated me for this esteemed project - even if I only had the oppurtunity thanks to the veritable kaumatua of the lo-fi scene, Alastair Galbraith , turned the job down. I can think of se veral other senior figures who may have been more deserving of a place in this - people like Peter Gutteridge, George Henderson (you would need a huge amount of hard disk space for his story im sure) or , I dunnow - Celia Mancini maybe?? But yeah. I hope the transcript, which gets stored away up in Wellington, is eludcidating and assists with that future thesis on CRUDE. Yeah, maybe. Might just disappear.

changes into 2010

2009-11-26T17:34:00.001-08:00

Under a insidious barrage of 'cunts' and 'dicks' and 'faggots' I bring you this - the crude decade - the journal of living. The life lived. Naked without an mp3 player on foot in this pokey little town, i think back to the armoured days of Winter '09 where i'd wrap up in a disgusting out-of-style suede jacket and plug my ears up with positive affirmations and hexes and creeping synth figures. So as to block out the george straza dialogos. The righteous egalitarian hoards brandishing secateurs spattered with poppy-pulp.

Anyway my family, you who live and let live - next year the blog adress adjusts again.
Here's the LINK:
http://crude2010-2019.blogspot.com/

news - release party for the Annual Crude DVD is DECEMBER 18 at CHICKS HOTEL in Port Chalmers. The Aesthetics also perform, and alos special guest Nick Knox.

Also, december 5th Crude performs at NONE BASEMENT with the torturers et al.

to the DoD FBI NSA CIA GSCB

2009-11-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Hi there, I hear you're scanning blogs lately. Hi . My names Matt Middleton, I'm a nobody from a tiny lil' town called Dunedin in that lil' blip of a country called New Zealand, just south of Australia. Hope you enjoy scanning my blogs, and everyone elses! I hope you enjoy the anecdotes and, ok, I must admit, some of my ranting is a little wayward, a little deluded. I hope you extract something out of these blogs, you can test the political mood here, our planning, what we're talking about, our habits, how we respond to legislation and major world events, where the anti-establishment voices are hiding out etc. I have nothing to hide, and will keep voicing my opinion. We all know we have the camera wedged up our assholes, thats old news. Even here, in rural NZ. I know you can tell if i have dandruff from a satellite, I know you can read this, my bank details, my personal records, my medical history, where i conduct my eftpos transactions, what im buying, eating, shitting out. I hope this HELPS. I may indeed be a REAL THREAT to your nation. I could hold the key. I could be the link. Who knows with whom i conduct business. Well, yeah, you do. I buy coca-cola from the dairy. Down the road.

grandmother - new track

2009-11-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

CRUDE - GRANDMOTHER
november 4 2009

Waiting in the wings
Your daily performance is about to begin
Tighten your grip
Around the charm
Your grandmother left for you
Will it bring fortune
or will it be madness
will it burn your bridges forever Amen

The track ‘Grandmother’ by Matt Middleton aka Crude is representative of one facet of his various new aesthetic approaches to music. Nowadays Crude is often recording music that is acoustic in nature, recording production becoming less and less important - the aesthetic value residing within the atmosphere generated and the lyric content. Middleton is playing piano and bass recorder here, treating each instrument with effects near the end of the piece. Over this year Crude has recorded many electro-acoustic works playing with woodwinds and voice. oh i love writing in the 3rd person. me. him. it.

how great thou art

2009-10-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

Every so often a blog about music seems a little fanciful and a blog regarding the true horror of life a necessity. Some days require it. To witness and hear and digest what one does about the machinations of the world, we write to formulate our idea.

The great northern hemisphere. Here i sit in this little remote spot, truly removed from the big grown-up behemoth that is the great northern hemisphere. The seething, churning, bubbling broth that is the northern hemisphere. Sophisticated and majestic and lined with deep veins of blue. Its industry - many and varied. Here is one of them: the traffic of women and children from east to west. To satiate the needs of the great western men. A thriving multi-billion dollar a year industry. A constant demand, a constant supply. A flourishing organisation to administrate it. Its success as an enterprise lubricated by thousands of corrupt politicians, police, lawyers, judges, customs officials, military, real-estate owners, media, doctors, shipping companies, logisiticians,city councils, bankers and accountants. All complicit and on the take. Legalization of the industries connected to mafias is in no-ones interest. Not the state, not the law, not the corporates, certainly not the mafias. On and on and on the juggernaut rolls. And it grows and grows and grows. Age old cultures of misogyny and misanthropy fuel to this fire. Oh the great entrepreneurial spirit! The wonders of late modern capitalism, true freedom! Capitalism - the only truly moral system! The great oppurtunities afforded you by this system! "Come with me to London Anya, you'll earn more in one week than your mother does in a year. A better future awaits you!". There's money to be made! There's gold in them there hills. The market will sort it out. Let the market decide. Of course, it is not only black markets and organised crime whose works are nefarious - hundreds of legitimate enterprises foster pain and death and they have their hands in all the right pockets. The world is a vile and gnarley network of sick, corrupt operations. And no 'benevolent' enterprise is left untarnished for all interlocks. The picture is painted: It will not and can not be stopped - for it is a machine - a self replicating and self administrating machine. This is what I learn. And they wonder why I prefer a life of subjectivity and repose and isoloation and intoxication. Oh yes - we are the lazy ones, the foolish ones. We who do our best to step outside of this sick world, look in, and, using our various mediums, display what we see back to the world - allbeit in opaque and cryptic forms.

'Beta Test' music film

2009-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

a simple video concept set to a crude track from 1997, the classic 'beta test', which was featured on the dirtlove/artless intent cassette 'Informtik 105' (now available as a cdr) and also transcribed to acetate 12" in the form of the 1998 stabbies and the rocket title 'beta test'....

Cold Black Waves

2009-10-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.archive.org/details/Crude-ColdBlackWaves

From the up coming data dvd 'archive 2009' (gosh - imaginative title) this hour long, well, 55 minute piece is an experiment in slowing sound down as much as possible. The piece revolves around a short sample of human exclamations and ecstatic utterances. As is typical with 'Dark Ambient' music, reverb is liberally applied to the affected area. There is a persistent high-pitched tinitus-type-tone that weaves throughout the piece, which may annoy some sonophiles. Think of it as, um, errr, the tv in the backround. Cold Black Waves shares similarities with the piece 'Jupiter', on the classic 'UHF-F9' cdr/cassette. Best listened to at night with the moon in crescent form with a full view of the stars, near a body of water after several glasses of expensive red wine and a handfull of psilocybin containing mushrooms. No - best listened to after just killing a hangover headache with 6 panadol, on looking out the window and witnessing an overcast grey day in an industrial area, and deciding not to leave the house for a week. Whatever. enjoy . or not. byeee for now!

this strange gulf

2009-10-13T00:28:00.000-07:00

This strange gulf i'm feeling - its like a strange anger - a grey murky miserable hatred. How much prime information can one take - that premium internet culled and life conjoured data that screams at you how utterly screwed we truly truly are. How bent and sick this system really is. And all the private interests - how they keep death and pain in perpetuality to keep their shit-eating lifestyles alive and kicking. How they flaunt their sick accumulations of wealth, skimming off more, skimming off more and more and more. Each new method of money-rape a vile and nefarious victory for them. Wealth concentrating tighter and tighter and tighter and in fewer and fewer hands and they keep flaunting it and flaunting it and maintaining their global hold on the masses - using media. Using deep psychology. Using our own fears against us. Taboos. Freud. Public Relations. Fear of shit. Edward Bernays. Carefully formulated regimes, oh you can buy think-tanks, you can buy science, you can buy your very own governments. Fuck it. The misery and skull-fucking day in day out work eat shit die bills bills bills. feed those reptiles. keep feeding those fucking reptiles.

peasant armies/informationisation

2009-10-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

The computers' on the fritz, booting up then switching off then rebooting. A real bitch. And it makes me realize how important these machines are to the Crude mission.
Essential equipment. Crude is basically a digital enterprise now. Conceived, constructed, distributed and broadcast digitally. But that dosent take away from the fact that its a nice sunny day here in Dunedin. Buddies as software. And why not. Facilitate away i say. The new Aesthetics line-up perform for the first time this friday at none gallery. As well as Ducktails from the US of A, the forgotten guests (leyton rotor + & katrina thompson) , and Allllex Mac.\

the BLOG vid

2009-09-22T00:34:00.000-07:00

yr th' blaster!

2009-09-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

an obsession

2009-09-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Daoism, that archaic and arcane world. No, wait. It lives and breathes and has a future that is more vital than any other religion or philosophy on Terra. But no, that implies competition, so i desist. It was not until I had left the nuclear anglo-saxon buffer-zone that is living with ones parents in invercargill new zealand that I first encountered this strange philosophy. A young twenty something, vital, damaged-goods, looking back I was living the classic 'bohemian' life (as much as possible in 1990s dunedin - perhaps watered down, perhaps quaint and colloquial) - creativity and chaos at the expense of everything else (but did i care? i think not). Magic was in the air the day i rooted myself to the chair in that cute lil' cafe, a quaint bookshelf beckoning to me , a little slip of a book(let) gathered up into my tender 22 year old hands, what is this? The tao te ching? Dc Lau? I jumped straight to the text , ommiting Lau's intro; it was the famous 1st verse. And it was so simple, so utterly simple - it spoke straight to my silly little heart. The first verse was a challenge of sorts - a sort of baracade, a disclaimer. Thats it - its a disclaimer - the tao cannot be told, but if i must tell it, i will go on. i had discovered a take on the world unlike any other that day. it would take months for me to find my own copy. Years would pass before i even took to reading it in full. And the years passed and i read it in full and the years passed and my taste, my ravenous interest for the Dao, especially in its surface, its philosophic manifestation, grew. Daoism, and its namesake, the dao, has been a vital companion and an obsession of mine ever since that day. But why? Because it speaks truer to me than any other creed. It seems to point so clearly to the truth of existence, of human existence, of nature, of time and space, and oh! the beauty of quietism - the wisdom of it - the going along with it, riding with the truth, the murky essence behind all. The folly of needless ambition, of greed, of excess - temperance is of course a feature hinduism,buddhism, islam and christianity. Unlike abrahamic religions however, daoism has no central authority, no anthropomorphic deity. It is simple and earthly. Its is an utter going-with and letting-go, of letting be, and doing this nimbly, expertly, in tai chi i have found a practice that expounds many key daoist concepts - in a way that reveals itself deeper and deeper the longer i do it. Often i wonder why ancient china fascinates me so. I tend to see China more as a Mother of civilization than africa. China seems to be the seat of human refinement and knowledge. So simple, so real, so economic. How it steeps itself now in advanced capitalism seems a little sad, as was mentioned in AS Kline 'like water or clouds' - China will find itself increasingly at odds with its heritage the further it embraces its fierce brand of state capitalism. But yeah, I now quietly study this stuff like a real little nerd down at otagos central library. And i love it. All of it. Otagos' taoism section is probably the best in New Zealand and its a real treasure.

4 cruddy vids

2009-09-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Having just discovered the amateurish delights of Windows Movie Maker i thought i'd mess about with some cruddy stills i had lying around on the old crude hd and ad muzak to them. The ideas are there, theres even a terribly cheesy montage of images smacking of the political in ' new zealand', it's just , well, you can tell i've just started out with this..this..format. Oh well, its something to do isn't it.

that

2009-09-01T18:01:00.000-07:00

Artless Intent news - a new PLATTER is out:

BARNES QABALISTIC ORCHESTRA

'FRIENDSHIP, FEAR, FORCE & FANTASY'

a concept album, raw electro-acoustic music - guitars/effects/coins/drums/other ephemeral instruments. By Dunedin's Dene Barnes. More info on this release soon/ email me for info/pricing

them

2009-09-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

They, the external - that, them: the other. The right would like to believe themselves independent of and not generated by the biosphere and that their wealth and station in life is purely their own doing. The fibres that keep their clothes together, the foods and chemicals they ingest, the electricity they wield, the tools they use, the water they drink, the plumbing they soil, the refridgeration they keep foods fresh with, the entertainments they devour, their mobility and logisitics, their comforts and luxuries, indeed all the commodities they consume, services they use and assets they 'own' - "thats none of your business mate". Has one ever really sat down and thought about how utterly interdependent and universally reliant we are on the labour, support and services provided by other people? The vital life-nurturing elements produced by animals, plants and the rounds of birth and decay? How utterly reliant we are on the other, that very other we tend to dismiss as so much useless shit? My mind boggles when i stop to think - everything i see around me and use has been created or provided by other people or other living things. Nothing is the exception.

on invercargill.

2009-08-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

The predominant genetic trait within my family on my mothers' side is shortness. You can spot us in the street, a raft of pixie-like southern folk, on the surface down-to-earth, deep down - eccentric, alcoholic, and esoteric. Smallness, in the face, eyes and nose, in the legs and arms - indeed, littleness is our trademark. Southland is the home province of Crude, a small and very conservative area in the southernmost parts of the South Island. Southland is a dairy and sheep farming province - steeped in old money. Theres an aluminium smelter too. In comparison to other provinces in NZ, Southland is fairly wealthy. Its largest city and its capital, Invercargill, is basically a farming town of just over 50,000 people. Its a small town. It cops alot of flack, and is the butt of many jokes New Zealand wide. If you are from there, live up north and tell people about it, you either have to be staunchly proud of it or squirm and apologize. It has its wealthy, and its very poor - its north/south dividing line a classic socio-economic partition. If you don't want to conform - socially or culturally - Invercargill does not provide you with many options - paradoxically freaks are sometimes nurtured and admired as 'characters' - thats if and only if they stay there for life and are outwardly patriotic. It has it's gangs - the most powerful a very ruthless white supremacist biker gang, its rivals are ethnic street gangs and the Mongrel Mob. It has a strange mafia-esque organisation that monopolizes the liscencing of the towns taverns - the Invercargill Liscencing Trust.
Many musical freaks have emerged from the town, most famously Chris Knox. George Henderson of the Puddle lived there. And of course punk and oi had its day in the form of Moral Fibre - their drummer Keiran Monaghan moving to Wellington and branching away from the Oi into free-improv, world music and dada realms. Invercargill's port Bluff has or at least had an extremely tight and passionate metal scene, with religious importance placed on American thrash band Slayer. Invercargills young bands tend to embrace metal, espeically Pantera-esque/Slayer-esque power rifferama. It has a reclusive and very underground bohemian scene. And a smattering of punk-a-billy tottoo culture. It also has its garage punk freaks. The work of Mike Patton is held in very high regard amongst many musicians in Invercargill.
I am from Invercargill. Invercargill taught me self-reliance, how to make my own fun, the need for ambition, that there's nothing wrong with eccentricity so long as its real and from the heart. My roots were Metal. I listen to metal everyday again.
I am listening to Slayer. My best friend in the world lived there (for a while) .
Living in Invercargill taught me about true friendship and how to reject the norms. If i wasnt brought up there, i would not have had any drive to musically reach for the beyond.

SoundCloud group Artless Intent Web-Editions

2009-08-20T15:39:00.001-07:00

Artless Intent Web-Editions

recording progress

2009-08-16T17:38:00.000-07:00

...and.....repeat. Locked in in this ever repeating prison of times and dates. Whenever it is or was, it was either on a monday or a tuesday or a wednesday or a thursday or a friday or a saturday or a sunday. Surely a kind of mass hypnosis is acheived with all this repetition, a type of jaded familiarity and regularity, a kind of sub-surface malaise and death. 'What a pretty day to die' - ne'er a truer word were spoke , by french new waver Marie Moor .
And it 1.30 on our miserable monday now, the grey sky is still grey.

Whats news? It's just amazing whats' news-worthy these days...as for Crude news... a little bit of the cruddy opus has made it up onto Itunes, and thats the motley collection of un-kempt and hirsute 'electronic(a) (now that the future is here it almost seems silly to be futuristic - maybe the time for techno is over) tracks that go by the name of 'DOPAMINE 20'. So, go to Itunes, and search and look for it. I cant find it. So you find it. Or buy it off me.
The 'Archive 2009' dvd is coming along nicely, a few track titles thus far:
001. crude - 'um-bobo' bit-beat voudoun slap/tickle
002. crude - 'the call' thoughts of 40 year old man in shit smeared room with beheaded doll, bucket and wearing nappies
003. crude - 'cc cc' usb/lan, high-rad levels & crackle tackle
004. crude - 'diving lights' plop collage
005. crude - 'cold black waves' 50 minutes non-romp - synth goop
006. crude - 'the rain' squirt festival
007. crude - 'orthodoxicon' - naughty out-takes from russian choirs, heavy reverb
008. crude - 'scarface(crude mix)' - naughty remix of haunting moroder synth sequence
009. crude - 'thebaine pt 1/pt2' - more vocal snores/loops/drawls/gurgling
010. crude - 'blog' - made famous at chicks recently - song motivating people to blog and/or snog
011. crude - 'bulb' - uncoordinated bum-beat for squares
012. crude - 'pant' - slimy tremolo melt
013. crude - 'puck' - trickey lite-patter pitter
014. crude - 'ritual' - sexualized hell soundscape
015. crude - 'somnolence' - word play/easy lay

....there's more where that came from, the old 'faux' tracks'll be tacked onto the dvd, and whatever else i conjour up over the next few months.

fantasy / fact

2009-08-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

As in Guido. Tanning galleries. Factory farms. As in nuptials. Vortex. And pissant. Because we emptied those pockets back in 1989. The not-now. Not-now time, that big thick-skinned black-hearted other. Buddhism recommends not clinging.
Ways and means. "Money is not an issue". Sorry, but no, money is always the issue. Like the kind of people who can "spare no expense". Oh the power of it. Oh the absolute power of money. It can render grown men to snivvling toddlers who'll agree to the most horrid degradations. It can bring whole ecomomies to their knees. At Rockerfellers whim. The whim of the mutli-billionaire is like an earthquake - the psychology of those with that amount of money is a morbid fascination of mine. The ultra-rich. I'm not talking about the multi-millionaire down the road. I'm talking ultra-rich. The kind of people who can uplift who they wish, who can destroy who they wish. Imagine growing up in one of these families. Surely a kind of megalomaniacal psychosis would ensue. Surely. Madness. The power available to you - surely the novelty wears off. It must get boring, surely you'd end up joining a torture ring or the like to get your kicks. I can only imagine the sadistic games these people could potentially play. They could hire their own armies. Whole mafias. They could infiltrate pharmaceuticals, governments, criminal syndicates, the entertainment industry. Space and defense. Scientific research. Media. The courts. Real estate. Construction. Education. Oh the corruption. Of course, true power is nature herself and fraudulent power like that of money, a human invention, has no true sustainability. But until then - oh the things you could do. And they do.
Say you had a band. Or an act. You could literally buy your way to fame. I would buy a megalithic advertising campaign and pay off the entire infrastructure to favour us. Or maybe that wouldnt even be necessary. You could pay off, lobby, invest and influence the record companies, radio, television, venues, airlines, hotel chains, catering firms, clubs, private bouncers, stadiums, logisticians, local gangs, retail chains like the rock shop, i'd buy huge warehouses, trucks/vans/tractors with Crude insignia, i'd hire only the best graphic design firms - id place ads in prime time, i'd have lawyers, accountants, PR people all at my service..

How very sad. It's probably a good thing that I don't have this 'power'. I think i'll just keep on keeping on with this nanomarketing campaign.

Wu :last fm

2009-08-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

Hiya. Well, Wu now have a modicum of a online presence, in the form of a fledgling lastfm page. So, go check it out, there's 3 tracks from recent live shows/sessions in it. Will also have a Wu page comnig off the crude site very soon. Thanks for your time.

WU'S LAST FM PAGE

recent happenings/review/introducing WU/futures

2009-08-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

A lil' review of the Aesthetics/Bastardwisher/Stevie McCabe gig is nestled over at the Axemen blog/archive HERE. A couple of mini-vids tacked on too! The youtube stage clips cleverly disguise the soul-destroying, almost surreal psycho-drama(s) that unfolded behind the camera that night but hey....the show went on didn't it. I had all the energy of a slightly melted piece of plastic when i crawled on stage but the show did go on. And, well, its all gone.
Under the bridge. Where i drew some blood.
Did the whole 'concept' thing the other night at the Chicks bar to a fairly spartan but quality audience..thanks to everyone who came out, hope y'all derived some form of pleasure from it all, this was an experiment in the use of the WORD as a musical/percussive physical sound item. Many simple repeated slogans and sections of dialogue.. Think it went down well. I think. Stuff's been fairly strained lately but spring is on its way here in new zealand and with it that lovely revitalizing ambience y' get. Oh yes, lovely. Like a good long psychoanalysisis sesh on a good long leather couch with a goatee'd dude in the finest Irish tweed. Like a thousand invites to a million facebook events you didn't know about but do now and will never forget about again. Spring with updates. And I'd like to take this oppurtunity to (re)introduce WU, which you've probably already heard of but anyway this is an improv trio: Lee Noyes on drums, Alex MacKinnon on guitar/pedal array and Middleton on sax/clarinet/shawm. Very propulsive and exploratory stuff i suppose you could say - I bleat on , pull the mouthpiece out and whistle etc, some screaming, some warbling, slow vibrato, trills, overblown arcs, scratches, octave hopping, key popping, staccatto sections, processional shawm lines for the exotic effect, clarinet for its richer timbre and creepier resonances. Alex scratches out some searing gat with that hyper-kinetic energy that's his trademark, and Lee, man...in all my years i've never had the pleasure of jamming with a more intricate and adventurous cans man. Intra-band flattery. Healthy? Maybe, maybe not. So now i just shut up. I'll construct a myspace page for the band etc, the project will be equally aligned with any online forums or activities that Lee and Alex administrate - Wu is an egalitarian triad as much his as his as mine. You dig??
Wu: L:mackinnon. R:me with something in my mouth again.

Wu: l.mackinnon c.noyes. r.middleton

So, anyways, the future. Aesthetics have had a shake up and will appear in a new form next time. All is platonic and benevolent. Shit happens. Crude will continue on as it always has, it'll never end , not until the last copy of a copy of a copy of a crude cd is vapourized. Not until every crude mp3 is torn organ-like from the architecture of the internet, which is impossible coz i can't remember all my passwords... And what a couple of months! Its been the year of the narcissist. Famous people dying, people killing people, facebook encroaching further and further into real-life. Theres just too much going on, yet not enough. Too many events, too many updates to maintain. Too many posters. Too many brands of energy drink. Too much scatalogical data all the time. Thee eternally updating world. A thousand events. Strangers strung together at events, all the while overlooked by this huge and ugly utility/presence, like a jealous god, a mile long ufo hovering in stasis, our motives all facebook fodder. A when you get together it's like your just a version of your facebook page, when its supposed to be the other way round...and STILL i update it...then again, it IS a nice way of keeping in touch.

2009-08-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

BLOG. BLOG. BLOG. BLOG. BLOG. BLOG.
And life moveth ever forward. And we reap what we sow. And we bleat and we blow. In the sleet unt the snow.

ENDGAME - THE FIVE ACTS, JULY 31, Chicks

2009-07-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

Statement of Resignation. From madness to Quietism.
From slime to Civilization.
From oedipal jealousy to non-duality
from passion to serenity.
Signing off.

ACT ONE : WORD
ACT TWO: SOUND
ACT THREE : MOVEMENT
ACT FOUR : WORD AND sound
ACT FIVE : CONCLUSION

A full transcription of the speeches and choreography will be posted to this blog soon after.

phenomenonenonenonny

2009-07-19T18:41:00.000-07:00

july 15

2009-07-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have this image, not unlike the body farms portrayed in The Matrix, each of us wired up and drained in this relentless and incrementally intensifying fashion by a sinister behemoth, this nameless, disembodied vampire - it creates money from nothing, and skims money from every head..every foetus another latent resource..as natural resources dry up new abstract resources become commodities...referencing Enron's desperate profit creation tactique just on the cusp of their mighty fall....and with each fiscal year the beast grows greedier and more virulent, it has been self-sustaining and self-replicating for decades now, a super-malignant tumour...and it proclaimeth 'who is like unto me?'..Profit at all costs..Those varied companies and utilities and govt deparments and slum-lords we pay, don't be fooled - for consolidation and mega mergers abound and the money they exhume from us just trickles right up to the elite. I have this image of a huge ufoid vacuum cleaner floating overhead, sinister and looming like Israeli helicopters, coins, lint and bank-notes helpless against the suction...the surreal looting spree indomitable and un-fettered by time and space..day after day after day forever amen..my bank account, merely a way-station for funds before they are ingested, at the speed of light, into skull-shaped coffers and vaults arcane.

july 14

2009-07-14T02:39:00.000-07:00

Tinkle courier, tangle, tinkle asian asian restauraunt. Au. Au. Begorrah. slack. Pink. Lack. Hull. Lackey. Braggard. Pill. Lipid. Protein Creme.
easy wafers, in my Pottle o' foetid. words upon words upon turds.
In an anal hedge-fund. In ano, lodge of anal pride .
Tinkle courier, pottles of bridgette.
Care, care, cremation fo care.
Cremate thy care, expunge, and ejaculate.
Put fizz in his britches, buzz over his frig.
Millet in his trenches, jelly o'er his gig.
Rank, rind, holocaust.
Caustic chancre, syphilis is sip.
Sip lilly hick noumenon.
Liminal flip.
Cass, cass,
foid foid trick.
Put her in the bin
filiments of play
filiments of play.
hip.
hop.
Holiday.

july 13 pt 2

2009-07-12T23:27:00.001-07:00

the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development. the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.the ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the mthe ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. The ministry of social development. creative new zealand. work and income new zealand. the ministry of social development. work and income new zealand. creative new zealand. private/public. private/public. patronage. private funding. public funding. tax payers. gangs. the proceeds of crime. only way. private/public. work and income new zealand. housing new zealand. incest. gangs. the ministry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.inistry of social development. john campbell. the ministry of social development.

monday july 13

2009-07-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

Sharp cold blue steel type day here in Dunedin. The conditions that freeze y' down to silicate crystal. And Weatherston still pleads not guilty. It all happened just up the road from me. I remember having one of my voodoo themed dreams that night, someone was buried alive..the industry keeps chugging along..patter..patter, NZ music, all co-centric circles and black hoodies. And Auckland city. And the visual arts, all triple zeroes and knobs of paint and strange assemblages and odd people. The arts, they attract all the psychos. Narcissists, co-dependents, paranoids, borderliners, obsessive-compulsives, depressives, addicts, mother-fuckers, oedipus, elektra, bed-wetters, rapists, misogynists, mummy's boys, daddy's girls, rich-kids, brats, cum-heads, sex-addicts, boot-lickers, back-sliders, dealers, wheelers, cheerleaders, healers, hair-dressers, leather-facers, paddy-farmers, aeronautical engineers, knob-twiddlers, politicians, pyromaniacs, klepto's, pedo's, emo's, euro's, ho's, bros, real-esate agents, undercovers, bogans, bodgies, boogiemen, road knights, skinheads, nazi skinheads, white power skinheads, hells angels, head-hunters, satans slaves, trey, troy, bruce gates, jism, sputum, pus, bile, curd, whey, toe-jam, sweat, stench, cud, mank, bogeys, smegma, turds, religion, war, leaders, jesus, poos.

big night in

2009-07-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

The Dao de Jing puts it beautifully - ones absence renders one conspicuous.
Well, we hope. Oh my atrophied ego, see how it yearns, see how it deludes itself. I commited a cardinal sin this evening, I ticked the 'attending' box in a facebook event page and didn't even turn up. And in my head I conjure up a vocal collage..'where's matty?' ....echo....echo.....echo...'I thought Matt was coming out......'...'jelquing is illegal in Wyoming...'...
'Farrys fraud! Chin on a String'...'..'Sieg heil!'...
No desires. No motive, no hidden agenda. No Die! Die! Die!.
Just fat accumulating around my middle. And the relentless whirr of my PC's fan. No party at None. No frenzied networking. No pink-cheeked affirmations.
No sharing of a cigarrette with a local named Trevor, warm ethyl-breath exchanges and bristly man-on-man kissy. No shouting and stumbling and the primordial satisfaction of an distended bladder unleashing its alchohol-charged fluid into a graffittied receptacle. The splayed arrangement of purses, jackets, cellphones, wallets, keys, pouches of tobacco, bags of filters, tampons, chewing gum, broken drum sticks, condoms, lipstick, eyeliner, spent syringes, receipts, coins...
Die! Die! Die! are a very professional unit with a sober head for the business side of it all and a keen sense of progression.
There are 2 types of band. One, 'gets somewhere'. The other dosen't get quite as close, but might enjoy a 'cult status'. If you really do want to 'make it', sober up right now. Get sober and get real. Analyse the kiwi acts who make it, compare them to those cult acts out there. The cult acts seem to enjoy a deep respect (or is that sympathy?), they're freak acts, often mentally ill, their guilt complexes making them complete push overs ('yeah, hey...I'm just happy to get to play...'), it's the phenomenon of unreliability that makes them at once exciting to their fans, a risky liability to the business. Once a reputation has been built, it's virtually impossible to knock it down.
The bands that make it are often if not always powerful networkers, self-esteem un-tainted by abuse, are hard-workers and will always do what they say they're going to do, are unshackled by any drug or alcohol addictions, never come across as desperate in any way and know how to work as part of a team. They will also have a keen instinct for selecting the right people to work with. And once a network is established, it will be nurtured and protected, like a mafia, until such time as the contract is up. And, they won't never give you something for free.
So, what am I saying here.
Fucking nothing.
Go download my latest ALBUM.

phenomenonenon july 09

2009-07-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

the tees - new approach

2009-07-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have decided to forgo mail-order for the recent tee shirt microline. As orders may over-ride the actual quantity, rendering the sale into a kind of hit-and-miss auction, i have decided to only sell them at crude/aesthetics gigs, in a 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get' fashion. whats there is whats available, whats sizes are there will be what sizes are available. This oughta be a more efficient method. Then one can inspect your product then and there. For out of towners, tees will be avail when we tour, or , when a sizeable line is manufactured, mail order will be made available again.

microline of crude 'cutter' design tees

2009-06-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

info HERE

More Listening - Crude - Winds of Wood and Winter..

2009-06-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Crude - Venti Di Legno e Dell'inverno (Winds of Wood and Winter)

Woodwind works by Matthew Middleton. Featuring recordings using Bass Recorder, home-made Shawm, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone, and effects. Recorded 2008 in Dunedin New Zealand. These tracks feature on the 2008 data dvd release " L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno"
These recordings are at a lower bit-rate than the actual release, for info on purchasing the above mentioned dvd, go to this page:
http://crude.co.nz/recent%20releases.htm

LISTEN HERE!

Murderbike, Not Even Owls, Volt, Radio Cegeste, Wu and DJ Voodoodroid...None 20 june '09

2009-06-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

Kitchens of Distinction - Kill thy Father - Butchered at Birth - Wax'n'Tax - Not quite - As if - Parallelogram - Tighten thy Noose - Tend thy Garden - Volt: Pete.G/Justin.T/Richard S - Sound Organism - Digi-Bodies - Pure Sound - Home-Made and Wired up by Correspondence - Thee Mighty FUSTIGATOR - Fizzle, Quack & Catflap - Catatonia - Annus Mirabilis - Anicularum lucubrationes - Aegri somnia - Audio, video, disco - Report - Report - Report - He Thinks He's - Opinions: like assholes - Everyone Has One but Some People Have To Wear a Colostomy bag - a Buddhist Sin - Fustigation across the Nation - Not Even Owls: Toki/Eddie - Sludges and Judges - Beta Beats - Toki on th' Sauce - Eddie on Not Enuf Owl - True Dat - Insert opinion - Was/Is - The The - Tank'd-Girl - Millipede - Sanctimony - An Haitian Disc Jockey - DJ Voodoodroid - Castin' out that Hex - I gots the Evil Eye outside WINZ - Boogie Down - Bugalu - Tokyo R'n'R Street Dance - Breakdancers - Rockers - Trojans - Hillbilly,Hellbelly - Bellyfull o' Mater's Ruin - 7 Year Bitch - Spintronics - Litl Paisley represent - Wu - Blue - Spew - New - Who - Mackinnon/Middleton/Noyes - Collaboratron - In Homage to thee Big-German wit' the Beard - In Homage to thee Big African-American with the Mo' - Bing! Bang! Swerve, Swoop, Loop, Feed - Noyes: Shaman-of-thee-Skins - MacKinnon: Conjourer of the Waves - Middleton: no comment - Audiatur et altera pars! - Confess! - Confess! - Confess!! - Murderbike - It ain't a Trike - Its the MURDERBIKE - Beat'n'Synth Greul'n'Biscuit - Meat'n'Potatoes - But Transcendental Potatoes - Lines of Fright - Synth Bombs - Beats'n'Bongs - Fluorescent Yellow & Flourescent Blue - Triangles - Vector Graphics - Dirty Keys - Murky Pads - No uplifiting Choral Chorus here - Just lo-down Primtive Synth Gurgle/Gravel - and Iso/Rachels' Finespun-Homespun Sing-Song - Mono-Harmonic & Clandestine - Radio Cegeste - Stairwell install - Ghost channels - Bogan Ghosts scream for Stairway to Heaven - Fine-tune my Runes - Droppers und Spoons - Motoko/Vapour/Viol - Ether transmit - Aurorae, Weather, Morse - European Venous Forum - Estonian Volleyball Foundation - Quantum Rind - Kitchens of Distinction - Probiscus O'er Tanin Tainted Sugar Lump - Grace Jones - Quick and Easy Loans - Cash next Pay - Warm Leather - Von Robinson Industrial Design - Street - Eat - Beat - Los Alamos Fuel Model - LaFleur Petroleum Services ||||||

...upcoming shite

2009-06-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

July 28 - WUNDERBAR CHCH
July 31 - CHICKS DUNEDIN
August 29 - DUX DE LUX - CHCH

2009-06-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

live track..

2009-06-19T19:23:00.000-07:00

setting up a sorta live online archive at last.fm, first piece is my 7.47 set at chicks the other week----
GET IT HERE

bastardwisher presents...chicks 12.6.09

2009-06-15T18:31:00.000-07:00

This is the blog the upset everyone, so iv'e deleted it.
If, however, you would LIKE to read it, email crude696@yahoo.co.nz and i'll send it to you.

..rasberry reich/dual roles

phenomenonenon

2009-06-15T03:28:00.000-07:00

a gig review for last weeks bastardwisher presents thingee'l be up soon, meantime here's sum photos by the quietly brilliant markus gradwhol ....unfortunatley no bastardwisher pics but...a lensman can only stay out on the town so long..

lines of flight photos - a tenuous link

2009-06-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

theres an awesome collection of photos from lines of flight (there's me at the bar) on facebook right now. Dunnow how hard it is to get through to 'em, like, i imagine u need to be friends with the photo-putter-upperer ? but , well, heres the link to the photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=87492&id=617704210&ref=nf

vote for the crude decade as best blog!

2009-05-30T03:34:00.001-07:00

http://www.netguide.co.nz/webawards

of that internet archive - 3 new crude stream urls - and a great link bank

2009-05-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.archive.org/details/LiveOverEmptyEyes-ACrudeLiveToAir
http://www.archive.org/details/CrudeKenjiSiratori-AlienExtermination
http://www.archive.org/details/Crude-Faux2009
photo by ALAN TANSLEY @the aesthetics live sammys feb'09

FAUX (2009) now on the Internet Archive...

2009-05-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.archive.org/details/Crude-Faux2009

track listing slightly different than thee last.fm version.

live - never perfect, always fun.

2009-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

I truly now believe, after years of practice, and never quite achieving perfection live, that you are never gonna get a live show without un-predictable fuck-ups, the sound being somehow shitty, something breaking, something being out of tune, madness and tantrums by either one member of the band or all members of the band, or the audience members, someone in the band not being able to hear the other instruments properly, why, all manner of problems. And so I state it for you now - and you are most likely already well aware of this : A LIVE SHOW IS NOT A RECORDING, IT WILL BE MESSY, NO MATTER HOW PRACTICED and MUSICAL PROFICIENT WE (THINK WE) ARE, THERE WILL BE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, SOMETIMES IN ABUNDANCE. This is what a live gig should be. It is truly the atmosphere created by the band that denotes a 'live show's' beauty, the energy created, the reference and re-interpretation of those recordings you know and love, the alcoholic gnosis, the social co-factors, the mob-mentality, the party afterwards, the haze, the fog'n'dimness, the yellng into your friends ear, the improvised sections....every band in history has fucked up live. Unless they're corporate robots. So there. Perfection, as inhuman as it is, is something to be worked towards (in vain of course) in the studio. So, bare this in mind when you go see The Aesthetics or Crude next. A live gig is a live gig.

the nth island tour report

2009-05-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

HERE

Crude Auckland live-to-air

2009-05-26T02:31:00.000-07:00

THE LIVE TO AIR ON FLEET.FM

---basically a bit of juno 60 spit'n'polish with delay effect, slightly soused sax blather-bake, grindhouse juggernaut synth greul, and blip chaser

THE CRUDE INTERVIEW

---where i say not-very-much in quite a few words.

the full daif kent fleet fm show - lotsa music!

--the golden axe man's '2 dollar show' on fleet.fm is great listening - i espeically like the track '2001 ways to love me' by cortina. Haunting!

tvklvln

2009-05-18T03:49:00.000-07:00

Have been in wellington, am in auckand
historically a very rich abundant centre for anger prose/poetry on my part
more news coming soon..........

Crude - Faux (2009)

2009-05-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

album homepage

stream and download at last.fm

STREAM THE BASTARD AT THE INTERNET ARCHIVE! (NEW)

crude wellington : instore appearance

2009-05-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

.....AT SPACETHING 2PM MAY 16TH WITH BRIGHT COLOURS!
gig that night at ADELAIDE with NEWTOWN, ZOMBIE FUCK & THE AESTHETICS

phenomenonenom

2009-05-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

....back from a self-sufficient world where the concept of rent is laughable, where living off the land is the default, where the land is communal and yours forever amen, where you are the nation and the nation is you, where your mere existence is a right to a living. That was Samoa. And now im back to New Zealand, maybe the most liberal property/land markets in the world, the polar opposite of the samoan system: any entity private corporate or both could buy up any micro/macro hunk of 'dis land and use it for bilderbuger satanic ritual abuses...and it makes me wonder.
And racing this time we got a northward trek in less than a fortnight, the Aesthetics and Crude playing Wellington on the 16th of May at the Adelaide bar with Zombie?Fuck! and a guest act (that ole' filler phrase) , The Aesthetics, The Spunks and Celia & th' Cigarettes at Whammy bar thurs 21st of May in Auck, The aesthetics, Piece War, The AXEMEN! and The Hairdo's at the Ambassador bar in Pt Chev on friday the 22nd of May.
This is the 'big push', bringing ambitious amounts of fresh vinyl to our great northern city states.
And the big news - Flipper play Auckland and wellington soon.

And the little news, Dunedin city life, dunedin city pressure. Life, living, and lives. Go ahead, break out the knives. Don't forget to swap your wives. I've suddenly broken out in hives. We go to Auckland with nothing to lose. Nothing, except copies of that overly simplistic bum rock album i keep talking about. And why not? Its not like Sony is doing us any favours. And you know what? Fuck em. Fuk em all. My allegiance is to you, the reader, not some reptilian record industry interest. The new method is the new method. roll it over in the mind. This is the new industry model - a low to the ground street level viral approach that is constantly changing. It is pure chaos and only the chaotees will make it through. Them or the choronzonic chameleonic types. and those loud,perpetually compensatory napoleonic types.

Sales of last years dvd " L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno" --' have dipped a little, but the disc has managed to worm its way into some important libraries (national,hocken,audio foundation archives)$ and music collections. I am very proud of this work, i listened to it as i circumnavigated (on wheels) Samoa and my lord what a juxtaposition it provided to the paradisical scenery.

what else? lord knows.

lordy lordy lordy.

he told me not to hoardy,.

another middleton review.....

2009-04-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

A review of the Aesthetics gig with Europa Kid, Brains and Bastardwisher , posted on the Aesthetics Trashed Non-Adventures blog is HERE

last.fm 4 crude 4eva

2009-04-05T19:02:00.001-07:00

           crude inflitrates last fm 
Current mood:  breezy                                   
Category: Music                                                                             

yeah, last.fm is more tailored towards music - so i've uploaded a big swag of stuff there, including my 'free album' for 2009, a lazy comp of off-cuts and riff-raff i recorded in january. Now i'm scared to list links here cause myspace will prob think they're spam , but i'll do it anyway - just copy and paste them to yr address bars.

crude last fm page:
http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude
the free album 'faux' :
http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude/Faux
another album 'syringe/insekt'
http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude/Syringe%252FInsekt%2BLP

and as i talked about in the last blog, 'kenji siratori and crude's alien extermination is up for free in it's blood soaked entirity::
http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude/Kenji%2BSiratori%2B%2526%2BCrude%2B-%2BAlien%2BExtermination

ENJOY AND DOWNLOAD AT WILL

Lines of Flight 2009 - barfly perspectives

2009-03-29T22:30:00.000-07:00

---and yes - there are photos from LoF and several recent shows by Markus Gradwhol
----------------here

...Well has it been a busy couple of weeks or what. What with all the glueing and folding and eating. And all that smiling and nodding and waving. And all that breathing. The lunatic fringe gets it's soap box once again here in dunedin and we all get drunk. And the money trickles somehwere else.
The Lines of Flight festival is a now an institution - an annual rite celebrating sound art and the supercilious lives of the sound artists themselves. Crude got in. I'm gonna attempt a review. I missed the 1st evening, which was a great night apparantly, Tillakaratne , Mela, Tim Coster, and White Saucer performed, must've been artfull and scintillating, this is art, it's art god-damn you, it's kunst. Of course i would attend the 2nd night because I was playing it. Oh the breathy awe of a star-lined soundcheck late afternoon in Port! That satisfying amber glow of mutual acheivement and endevour.
That knowing and self-conscious bustle of ampage and the nutty odour of hops. The merch bench emblazoned with the ltd-edition cover designs of New Zealand sound-art royalty.
The evenings' opening performance was by Peter Wright, a member of the increasingly active Christchurch contingent. I remember him for his industrial work, he was a member of the classic krkrkrk band TMA1 alongside original Aesthetics bass player NoTV/j-mz robinson (not to be confused with the prolific abstract expressionist painter). Wright pulled out the rivets and joined the masonic ranks of the free-noise/guitar improv world several years back. Not surpisingly his performance was guitar-improv du jour - a virtual nuclear power plant of pedals and gadgets inside a get-smart style gat-case; the digital dash-board transforming a simple guitar strum into a synthetic cascade of drones, melodic feedback and hypno-rhythm. Wright was seated on the floor for the duration of his performance and so was his audience, creating a flattened, sorta egalitarian effect. Like a night down at the Hindu temple. Just lovely.
...Most music of the Lines of Flight ilk demands yogic concentration and poise of the audience. For an attention deficient child like myself I find this level of commitment a real trial, preferring the tactile huslte of the bar. And out the back.

And on the ceiling. And at the end of someone's doobie. And i was on. And with a few hyper-adrenalized heaves my gears were set-up and the filthy pseudo-euro synthesizer lines of flight charged up and everyone stands up. everyone stands and i just keep dealing it out, those old synth lines i do like - oh yeah this is how i describe it (from my last.fm page) ...an art-noveau-Ming the merciless style science fiction synthesizer motif - dark and hallucinatory alien mantra....the sinuous, circuitous tunnels of a sexualized,black lacqeur, ky lubricated alien beasty... ritualized, almost fascistic fanfare for b-grade alien leader..organic, psylocibin drenched 1930s ufo tune.' So i do that for a bit, then hit this appegiated/staccato motif and whine about how I hate this invented character called 'Thomas' and that i was born in the 1970s.(As sean O'Relly said the nxt morning 'so you were born in the 1970's - how was that for you..) Behind me was a Kim Pieters film, edited specifically for my performance (so flattered) entitled 'magnet'. I believed it worked.
XE played after Crude, a very different angle here - one of the rare Lines acts that included vocals. Rachel Shearer played keys and sung with Dean Roberts and Sean O' Reilly layering delicate, almost shoegazeresque guitar over Guy Treadgold's gingerly handled drumming. The overall effect was beautiful - this is the sound of resolved psychic turmoil. Eye played next and they were on fire that night - The sonic/energetic peak and trough formula not as obvious this time - obscure sound sampling was used masterfully.
I had missed the matinee, so i missed the oppurtunity to be blindfolded for rotor + 's concept performance..and Sandoz lab technicians would have been fascinating. Check out the photos HERE

....Saturday night was the big night - i waltzed in half-way through Adam Willets truly amazing synthesizer work-out, an undulating beast of a set, or half-set, beautifully exo-terrestrial. The venue was packed out, the big draw-card for the night was of course the Dead C who do things the overground music media in New Zealand simply don't or won't recognize - constant international releases, shows and festivals all over the globe, both Morley and Russell travelling and exhibiting and performing in their own right here there and everywhere - a healthy following in the States that is only growing with the net..so yeah, the home crowd will of course drag themselves away from Campbell Live to see the boys who did good. The wild card of the evening and IMHO one of the true highlights of the event was a total misnomer - Adrian Hall was supposed to perform, he does a runner (he's so utterly conceptual) and the act he chose to collaborate with him had no choice but to do something..Pete Gorman's latest home-built synthesizer/installation, the 'Fustigator' - another synth assault/work-out/demonstation and what a brilliant trans-personal experience it was. Pure electronic sound current super-sensitive to the touch,,with individual audience members absolutely out-of-their head and gloriously posturing to the sounds (and that is how you 'dance' to 'noise' - it's a series of wild postures,,sky punching etc), Gorman seemingly interpreting their every move with a sonic surge..
Next was Christchurch's Stanier Black Five whos set focussed on a wide spectrum of steam-engine/rail sounds, grinding them down into their constituent parts and reassembling into a temporally logical constructivist ambient suite. A friend described it as 'pure industrial'. Subtle reverberating sounds and noise - maybe 'dark found sound'? 'black ambient' ? Dare i make the 'steampunk' connection here? Either way - it was great stuff.
Stanier Black Five would be the last of the nights' lap-toppers and the traditional drum/guitar/guitar template took the stage in the form of the Dead C. I think this is the 1st time the band has played here for a couple of years and so they got eyes to the front. And that dirge set in. And it was the Dead C. And Robbie would'nt play. And the guitar drone went on. and Robbie wouldnt get up. And the guitar dirge went on, and someone or something motivated the infamous cans man onto his throne. His style is totally his own, a snare heavy swagger beat only the truly soused and limber could imitate.

In conclusion , I truly think this was the best Lines of Flight ever. So there.

But wait...theres more. The after party was even better - with Lines rejectees Rise of the City Cat Cult having the last laugh as they delivered the most subtle, sinister, psychedelic new-wave science fiction keyboard noise death-wave i've ever heard. The venue, the abode of local art-students is so utterly cool it may never put on a show again. Or will it. I have no idea. Sorry. Goodbye.

goodbye. matt middleton, conformist

zard: heraldic quum of zorthuuum.

2009-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

we, the people of Zard - proclaim this : our foundational statement.
Mountain: Mantis. Self - no-self.
Null - your fiendish monetarism is null -
our protein sucketh up no more cud
growing thither and hither amongst the rancour reeds of RORSCHASH.
Cull! Cuntish weasles!
Bosh and fug!
Nuisance and EDITH!

phenomenon

2009-03-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

That private water. Cocaine cola, no puritan would ever. There's a work-ethic to it all, this sickness benefit subsistence. 'Tis the ignominious toil of being human.
A teenagers rainbow party-cum-consumer prison. Being itself, wrong time, wrong place, wrong body type. Being. Being-in-spectacular-time.
Each spin of that Crude cd generates a little charge, a little quantum fizzle. Each spin casts off an alternate universe, a universe in which crude was actually U2, a universe where crude was propagandized as heavily as Michael Jackson, a universe where Barack Obama was a lazy-eyed dairy farmer from Twizel. Each pulse, each sliver of crude's sound lives and dreams and prays and ascends ever higher, a zionist lobby group of a noise, an apocalyptic, billowing, sanguine cloud of colloidal drums, boyish vocals, angry reed-spatter and a deranged orgy of synth.
Aesthetics Lps in adolescent bedroom formation, such utter stress. It's a tough road, going it alone, doing it yourself, defying the Australian music bosses. Copies will trickle out of the bassinet at a pace dictated by demand. One at a time: emailed request, postal address, bank account number, payment received, there you go.
Money families, molestation. Richard Dawkins. Sultana Bran. The Maktoum family. Exopolitics. Blog. Butchered at birth. Fatalism. Mens' Lacrosse.
Alkalize thyself to get ye higher. Alcoholize thyself to attract ye a buyer. Crown thyself thusly 'thee hardest tryer'. Don't drink that milk mate, it's clearly expired. I'm not on the dole I'm simply retired...and data entry, well, it just makes one tire. Oh do shut up, you pathological liar. But, sir, these buttocks, are taut and fo' hire! Big pharmaceuticals and the ministry of social development - a very cosy relationship.

The Aesthetics, Wolfskull, Bastardwisher and Crude at Sammys

2009-03-02T15:26:00.002-08:00

There is something special about Sammys, it lends to a musical event a sort of old-world magnificence and a cavernous cathedral-like sound. That proscenium arch, gorgeous art-noveau, i couldn't help think it some sort of old-time Dunedin Scotts- masonic reference to Nuit:

Yes, the small pub-rock boys get a big stage once more, only the second time, and we get all toy-store excited. This was the 'big night' , the official launch party for the 'ugly ambition' LP, and the weeks of preparation and facebooking and interviews boiled down to this moment. And , quite objectively, I think we pulled it off. As you all know, i tend to 'self-review' alot, a fairly dodgy practice. But really, if I don't do it no-one will so here i go again. As punters dribbled in, their entrance barred first by friendly bouncers, then id checks, then a table of beautiful screenprinted LPs (care of the great 'Little Paisley') , then a friendly door person ,that inimitably Sammy's style atmosphere began to brew. Lots of oxygen, lots of nooks , lots of crannies and cliques. First up was Crude (here goes - that 3rd person
charm that only the artist themselves can muster) - crankin up the ole' juno 60 with a new cheap distoriton pedal and layin' a few pseudo-occult 'alien' ritual fanfare motifs on the audience...oh! those acoustics - such ghostly resonance! Lots of harmonics and quasi-islamic tone bending - then the old square-shawm instrument attempts (doing a rather nice job of it actually) to emulate the synth sounds. The set ends with a suicide inspired glitch/pulse number emblazoned with the cutesy vocal mantra ' I'm the glitch bogan'. Yes, matt, you (I) certainly am (is).
Bastardwisher hit the apartment-set-studio-type-theater-stage next, with sly and sullen coolness, with that streak of psycho,,Jason Barrett brandishing his elusive Alto sax, John on drums and the Sefton on laptop,a raging rodeo of a set - a misanthropic rock'n'roll teddy boy high on jazz-pizazz at thee helm, dark and angular and skinny, cropped sefton all sweat and jap-noise anger, john from alabama slappin the cans like a improv octopus. Very impressive, Lynch-like set.
The LPs were getting snapped up !! Opinion leaders and followers alike had their very own copies proudly under-arm evoking that WINZ icon, (you know the one, the blue thing with the orange thing under it's arm - a sort of image representing 'skills' or maybe a 'cv' or an orange to keep you going while your on 2 week stand-down..)
Next on, and perhaps the best thing about the night, was my perosnal favourite band in town, that very masculine band 'wolfskull'. The acoustics, like a pitch black chasm , were perfect for the skulls, and they played up to it like true champions. Amazing set. Duane Zarakov was truly on fire, his playing a psychedelic engine room , groovy tom tom chatter ubiquitous and constant and spinning any dancer into a dervish -delirium (hey, don't play with my delerium...hey..)Iso, the frontman, was totally in his element, and I can only hope they play the venue again.

The Aesthetics hit next, and i can only say that the bass and drums were so beautifully solid, that my sluggish musical bumbling didn't actually matter. its always hit and miss, 'feeling out' a new venue, a new situation, a new set of equipment. Nevermind. We churned out 'Drive on' , a few oldies,,,,,,,,,,bringing heady smiles to the right people and glazed indifference from others....it all turns to memory and disappears.

Kenji Siratori and Crude - 'Alien Extermination' goes free!

2009-02-19T18:10:00.003-08:00

After a few years for sale, this absolute classic collaboration by myself and bizarre Japanese cyber-punk writer Kenji Siratori has now been put up online at Last.fm for free. yep, this last week at Crude hq has been a spasm of uploading and digital altruism - simply to enhance the aesthetic lives of those perhaps not daring enough to put money down on such experiments.

direct link to the album at last.fm

album page at crude.co.nz

Crude - 'Faux' - the FREE RELEASE FOR 2009!

2009-02-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Yes, with all this work on 'Ugly Ambition' it's good to slip in a little Crude action, and here is your free release for 2009, much like Syringe Insekt was last year, and 'Slurries volume two' the year before that. Also - the web-site has finally been updated. Anyways - heres the dirt:
Crude - 'Faux' (56:45)

1. Beat Tactique (8:26)
2. Video Video Video (9:48)
3. The Nines (5:17)
4. Opiophobicon (9:46)
5. Decade (23:25)

‘Faux’ is the official FREE RELEASE by experimental electronic artist Matt Middleton/Crude for 2009. Based in Dunedin, New Zealand , Middleton has amassed an impressive back-catalogue of works, and every so often a title is released for free via the net. As with the free release from 2008, ‘syringe/insekt’, the album is the first selection of works for the year and will be included in the official Crude release, a data dvdr featuring all videos, blogging, and music recorded by Matt Middleton for 2009, released late December 2009.
Also soon to be released free online is the album "Alien extermination' by Kenji Siratori and Crude. Info for this release can be found here

stream and download

album page

cover art

2009 dvd page

crude audio suite 2009

free rice

2009-02-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.freerice.com/

end timez list..

2009-02-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

here's the setlist for the radio one natural selection...if you listened to the show i mentioned i'd provide info on the artists if you're at all interested so i've hypertexted the artistes..
set 1 -

the caretaker - persistent repitition of phrases
abandoned place - untiltled track
esplendor geometrico - anima triz
anenzephalia - abiding broadcast contamination
natasha barrett - three fictions (northern mix) in the rain
luc ferrari - track from the album 'cycles des souvenirs (1995-2000)
thomas koner - nuuk (night)
asmus tietchens - tielmenge_39
bernard parmegiani - etudes elastique
dome - this
marie moor - pretty day
crude -cardboard bohemian
alu - camarillo boogie
catalogue - KGB-CIA
arthur doyle - something for casserlo, larry and irma
von lmo - leave your body
phonophani - kreta
coh - 7
crude - decade 2 (radio edit)
the aesthetics - friday
alvin lucier - music for...

oh 9

2009-01-30T16:38:00.000-08:00

Dunedin city is blossoming once more, bright eyed young things are streaming into the city all cute and energetic and magical. The cynical guardians of Dunedins' occult bohemian lore'n'legend ghoulishly anticipate their next quota of souls to seduce into apprenticeship. The banks tailor package deals and overdrafts and loans. The city's economy is fattened up a little. Local music heroes strategically get seen and stake their claim as the business.
Was good to see some new faces at last nights sensory adventure, noise is still hip, noise will define 2009. That and heavy psychedelic. And experimental electronic. And the young crowd are discovering it all at a superluminal net-mediated pace. In the USA it's all about folk, a kind of luddite revolution, a reaction to all the machinistic clutter and android indifference that betokens computers, but here we lag behind a little and that suits me.
The Oh9 show was a visceral merger of new electronic art and wild music. The evening began with the art - several installations by several artists---each one a joy to behold. Most notable, well, you couldn't help but hear it anyway was Pete Gormans' installation - micro-cameras and oscillators and crackle and static and wailing electro-noise ..how to explain it...one was filmed by a micro-camera, the image was gravely and black/white, sorta like yr classic tv-static,or that 'threshold' effect you can play with on photoshop, and as u got closer to the camera the oscillators changed pitch. Groovy effect. Very Affecting. See more of his gadgetry work HERE .
All of the installations were playful, minimalist in spirit and unashamedly digital. Except for Alex MacKinnon's cassette player arrangement, which was unashamedly analogue.
And back to music....that which is easier to write about, (i don't quite feel qualified to review art)what an awesome show! The None basement is really starting to take on a life of it's own as a real inner-city venue option, of course it is a residence but hey--you gotta play somewhere.
Whiskey drinking had retarded my social skills quite markedly - content to talk to myself and babble like an infant I missed a good chunk of the show. But what I saw was indelible. Richard Neave, with Lee Noyes on drums was a delight - Neave, hailing from chch, performed a semi-cathartic, angular guitar improv set, engaging everyone with his scholastic good looks and tall,sinewy gait. Radio Cegeste, another chch act , with guest star Toki wilson, entertained with radio coaxed flotsam and jetsom. If only i new how to sit still I'm sure the meditative wafts would've brought on a satori. And then..the harsh noise camp. Dunedin's first laptop-driven-all-noise-all-the-time act, complete with destruction of stuff. They bashed it up good. That's Bastardwisher man, whew, a dunedin duo, 2 laptops and enough catharsis to heal a small town. Gorgeous wild consistent screaming digital din - like a stream of bloody urine from a badly distended bladder. Great to see in a live setting. They'll be playing with The Aesthetics, Wolfskull and Crude at Sammys 27th of Feb. I have yet to tell Sammy's about the finer points of the bastasrd's act...ach, I'll leave it as a surprise.
If 'Oh9' was a lil' magical ritual to potentiate and ensure a boutifull harvest for the year, we'll sure be eating well in 2009! I wish everyone involved all the very best for the year. May we all overcome our differences, eradicate the need for ego gratification and ugly competition and create constantly and with ever increasing refinement, gain further and further respect in the community and nation for our arts and performances, may new zealand society increasingly become aware of the nobility and indispensability of the creative and reward us accordingly..may the northern hemisphere look to new zealand as a hot-bed of progressive sonic pursuits, may our works be archived and protected for future genrations. May 2009 launch many a career and be a time of gratuitous aesthetic celebration. (oh dear....do shut up)

obscure crude albums - new covers

2009-01-28T00:20:00.000-08:00

phenomenonenon

2009-01-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, starting at 6pm on Radio One (Febuary the 1st) there'll be another installment of 'the end times jukeboxx'. The focus this time will be film music, dark ambient, obscure new wave, New Zealand music and 20th century music. Radio One streams online HERE
And it's goodbye to the Bush administration.

A review of the fabulous instore at reocrds records last sat'll be posted soon. Missing the Eugene Chadbourne show was a terrible socio-cultural misdemeanour, by all accounts it was a very special performance.

meantime - check out this conspiratorial vid!

and this one:

the puddle

2009-01-13T02:05:00.000-08:00

Blog: The Puddle/The Dark Beaks - Chicks Hotel Sat 10 jan -
-________________________________________________

A lyricist like no other - that's GD Henderson. Such an evil strain - caustic commentary of a profoundly immediate socio-political nature..so slick you just wouldn't know it. There's revolutionary science going on there. And my god how romantic it all is. Rose petals coloured red, white and black. And blood spatter. And intra-city travel.
Here's a post-flying band who have seriously gotten their shit together. Small scale -a small business model perhaps- correct and prolific use of web 2.0, slick merchandising, your Puddle experience looked after all the way down to the custom stamp at the door. 3 new albums - all real cds, all backed by a label, reviews in the Listener, some serious gigging - centred on the cities that like it, not wasting any time - a strategic assault. Indeed - a war. And so, they (he) came to Dunedin to perform, to celebrate, as it were - this administrative success - his very executive existence a slap in the face to those corporates who tried to snuff it all out forever amen.
Different crowd than I was used to, a different class? A different age...must've unconciously anticipated this and I suffer this gnarley panic attack on the way out..of course instead of deep breathing it was deep drinking and man, anxiety was transmuted to this sort of goofy confused clown-routine that my girlfriend just cringes at....first
band on was The Dark Beaks - comfortable pop rock of the Dunedin persuasion, middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter stuff , with that Dunedin bent - lead-man Andrew Jameson exuding that rosicrucian/hermetic look with no hair and evil ears,,,nodding into eternity with that guitar.. the place had filled to capacity.
Several goofy faux pas later, The Puddle set up and kicked off - and that familiar hex set in - like that old black cat you know and love so well - those melodies - the new works - the old works -
When groups of Facebook users get together in one space - it's madness. Oh, the possibilities. Oh - no need to talk now - we'll have our communications mediated later on...it's like this wierd psychic vacuum, all these arcs and vectors and selves and non-selves...each person both an individual AND a part of a network - the network is another thing entirely - all types and tiers of discource a possibility - not necesarily now, sometime when you've logged onto facebook...
bye

as it is now

2009-01-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

What a journey. It's strange how the distance between 1994 and 2009 seems less profound than the equal distance between 1964 and 1979 - less tumultuous change perhaps?
Or maybe there has been much more change but it has been masked somewhat? If McKenna was right, paradigm shifts should be occuring every second.

Crude aesthetic approaches for 2009:
Anyway, it's 2009 and the Crude work for the year won't be on offer until December, I envisage the recordings to be highly abstract and ultra-minimalist (simple terms but ideal here). I'll be developing and refining the 'linguistic' and 'word-play' motifs touched on in 2008, darkening and obscuring the woodwind tonal spectrum, everything stripped barer and barer. I'll also take the video piece 'wrk_ethk' as a springboard for further conceptual video works. Quietism. Catatonia. Movement in Stillness. Quantum activity, quantum behaviour. That slight discomfort you get when you seat yourself on a bus and find you are directly opposite someone: oh no! look somewhere, anywhere, avoid eye contact at all costs! Small talk. Obligation. Misery. Routine. Going through the motions. No UFOs, no nothing...

The state of the website, other online guff:
The official crude site requires a tweak or two right now (like, the 'myspace' link on the main page goes to a dead link (new link here)and the 'blog' link goes to the old one etc..)but it seems that regular blogging and social networking will 'make up' for that anyway - a lot of people don't even bother with web-sites at all anymore. The site will always be there for the sake of reference (don't all go there at once...yeah right) - the backcatalogue all credit card ready and charming with its basic html layout...

giggery
No crude gigs till....LINES OF FLIGHT 2009! (oh what a disaster!! yeah right)
..This event should occur around the smae time as the release of the Wire magazine compilation New Zealand music - which includes...Crude. The track is 'blackened, deadened keys', a searing, populsive synth-motorcycle videogame horror-psych slab'o'fuzz/noise.
.
the aesthetics
the LP will be available in feb/march.

comment

2008-12-31T00:45:00.000-08:00

The hills are alive. The hills have eyes. The Austrian man has a nice face. Maria. Maria. You're not the right man for me. I enjoyed every moment together. I shall return to Vienna. Somewhere out there...is a young lady....that i think,...will never be a N UN...auf weidersein ass-wipe! BIGGER! REDDER! BALLZIER! He's the biggest, baddest, killer this prison has ever seen! Nothing is what it seems. Earn the jersey. Earn the jersey. Liquid blast. Furry feeling. 75% off. I get more. A storm of savings.
You're gorgeous. I'd 'do anything for you. Works for up to 8 hours. I'd drive a motorbike thorugh Africa. I thought I ..just might find you here. No no,,,sit down...sit down...please..ha ha ha . You know..i was wondering two things.........I had an obligation to fullfill...Zion. rat people. It'll be fine. Sweep 'em under the carpet. But you are to be married. Valence. Valencia. Left. Right. Halt! Creedence. Clarity. Cough. Dead right. The snot annexed from the dead, bloody right. Snot. Reverend mother. Old mother Hubbard. Fleck o' vegemite - asshole's aflame! Yes!!! Yes!!
2009! My favourite protein cream! My favourite vector! My wicked past! My wicked wicked wicked oxygen flask - another vast slime grime crime lotty blot-paper crust core grindcore scum bag rock and roll in a blipper flipper stance austria austria austria --- silly whistle! silly whistle! silly whistle! Nothing comes from Nothing. somewhere in my youth, i must have done something gooood.
rat. Pat. fat. Jack. Lack. Kat. Yak. wack. Pack. Hack. Fact. Quack. Vinyl. viable. Pliable. Filial. Superficial. super-luminal. Pulse-dragon, up me vinyl. Circulatory pump-hump-marriages-r-us.
Marry-that-austro-hungarian-family now! now~! NOW! NOW! NOW!! NOW!!!!! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

remember 2008? heres the old blog url-

2008-12-29T21:08:00.000-08:00

http://crude2008.blogspot.com/

'tis been online kept for posterity...