So, at Record Club last night, leading off Round Two, Chris Cochrane plays this piece--it's kind of raunchy, bluesy rock; my initial impression was Mountain (!). Scroungy guitar, thick yowled vocals, fuzz-saturated, pretty nicely throbbing in a way that some bands were '69-'70. The rhythmic thrust reminded me a bit of "Willie the Pimp" and some of the slide guitar work reeked of Zoot Horn Rollo. I'd never really heard Mallard, but that was about as close a guess as I could hazard.

Nope, it was Sir Paul from his recent album with Youth (a person, I take it).

Could've knocked me down with a feather. Now, I'm not going to be rushing out and buying this by any means but within the genre, it was a pretty damned good number. I know that, historically back through the mid-60s, McCartney was the Beatle with by far the most adventurous tastes (into Ayler, attending AMM, etc.) but something like this, which is only fractionally along that kind of pathway, still makes me want to smack him alongside the head as it hints at what could have been for 40 years. But no, instead we get Wings...

As always, a fun evening at Record Club. Chris also brought a Henry Cow live performance from the recent 40-year anniversary box, a piece I went back and forth on, liking some aspects, finding others too mechanical. Nayland played a great piece from the Ethiopiques series, a rousing number from '71 with female vocalist and a fairly awesome sounding "police band". Julia had a couple of nice ones--a French film soundtrack from '70 or so with great funky organ work and Miles from the soundtrack to "Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud". Nina expanded RC boundaries with a tape of her younger brother, aged about 8, playacting a horror film at home in the late 70s; fantastic "field recording", actually.

I played the first track from John Butcher's "Resonant Spaces" and the Dirge from Britten's "Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings" with Peter Pears (thanks, Betsy!) which, to me, stands as a strong antecedent to Scott Walker as well as being quite beautiful in its own right.