Sergei Nikolaevitch, a round little man with a plump, light-complexioned face, gazed first at the master of the house, then raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘I had no first love,’ he said at last; ‘I began with the second.’

‘How was that?’

‘It’s very simple. I was eighteen when I had my first flirtation with a charming young lady, but I courted her just as though it were nothing new to me; just as I courted others later on. To speak accurately, the first and last time I was in love was with my nurse when I was six years old; but that’s in the remote past. The details of our relations have slipped out of my memory, and even if I remembered them, whom could they interest?’

‘Then how’s it to be?’ began the master of the house. ‘There was nothing much of interest about my first love either; I never fell in love with any one till I met Anna Nikolaevna, now my wife,—and everything went as smoothly as possible with us; our parents arranged the match, we were very soon in love with each other, and got married without loss of time. My story can be told in a couple of words. I must confess, gentlemen, in bringing up the subject of first love, I reckoned upon you, I won’t say old, but no longer young, bachelors. Can’t you enliven us with something, Vladimir Petrovitch?’

‘My first love, certainly, was not quite an ordinary one,’ responded, with some reluctance, Vladimir Petrovitch, a man of forty, with black hair turning grey. -The Torrents of Spring.

“ Spring 2010. No.1 ”

01. Federico Aubele – Otra Vez
Amatoria (ESL Music, Inc., 2009)
02. The Clientele – Never Anyone But You
Bonfires on the Heath (Merge Records, 2009)
03. April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Colors
Songs for a Sinking Ship (Little Roscoe, 2010)
04. Devendra Banhart – Some People Ride The Wave
Cripple Crow (2005)
05. Holly Golightly – It’s All Over Now
Up the Empire (Sympathy 4 the R.I., 1998) (Live)

note: Ahh, spring is almost here. The snow is melting and your eyes are scanning the horizon from bedroom window. Your head is full of thousand plans. Drawing them in scrap papers to explore and conquer the backyard hills, and calling friend for secret meetings at the tree house. There will be more paper hats, wooden swords and unlimited supplies of lemonade and candies than last year. The world will be ours. This summer will be the most glorious ever.

image: swisscan

The brink-of-Spring-Winter-blues are contagious… much like good music. Below is a quick soundtrack to close out the cold, hush the hibernation, and ease on down the road to a seasonal rebirth – enjoi.

First a howling blizzard woke us, then the rain came down to soak us; and now before the eye can focus – Crocus. ~Lilja Rogers

Analogue Transit – Analogue
(Gearheart/ 2009)
Analogue Transit – Projector…
(Gearheart/ 2009)
Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart
(Fever Ray Deluxe LP/ 2009)
Fever Ray – Seven
(Fever Ray Deluxe LP/ 2009)
Port O’Brien – My Will Is Good
(Threadbare/ 2009)
Hird – Fading Blues
(Moving On/ 2005)
Hird – Water Under My Bridges
(Moving On/ 2005)
Port O’Brien – I Woke Up Today
(All We Could Do Was Sing/ 2008)

Photo Credit: Sekator

I have a friend in the tire business in Vladivostok. Alexei Gorbunov is 26, bearded, and not much of a dancer, and when we first met in the bar of the M.V. Rus car ferry in the middle of the Sea of Japan, he was drunk out of his mind. He was not alone. The dance floor was filled with gyrating car traders and scrap metal dealers and a troupe from Moscow’s Bolshoi Circus, which was taking the slow boat home after a tour in Japan. There were a few foreigners on board—a Finnish girl running from a boyfriend in Tokyo, a Japanese family about to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Germany, a Serbian motorbiker on his way back overland to Belgrade—but the vibe and pounding techno were perfectly Russian. The crowd drank vodka. The acrobats threw backflips. - 6,000 Miles to Moscow

.

” East-West. No.1. Lake Baikal. ”

01. Radio Citizen – Dust
Berlin Serengeti (Ubiquity, 2006)
02. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – The homeless wanderer
Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Ethiopia Song (Buda Musique, 2006)
03. Matmos – Memento Mori
A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001)
04. Skalpel – Theme From Behind the Curtain
Skalpel (2004)
05. Radio Citizen – Nightingale
Berlin Serengeti (Ubiquity, 2006)
06. Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – Ballad of the spirits
Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Ethiopia Song (Buda Musique, 2006)
07. Quantic & His Combo Bárbaro – Undelivered Letter
Tradition In Transition (Tru Thoughts, 2009)
08. Quantic – Not So Blue
Apricot Morning (Tru Thoughts, 2002)

note: I am in weird mood. One of those late winter/almost spring blues. So this is a complete self indulgence list, the rhythm is a little off, melody is sweet, but in very strange mode, etc. It is based on Maryam Guèbrou work, ethiopian blues. I also tried to do east meet west list. If there is anything, imagine a song for riding highspeed train across the siberian plain at 250kph. It’s so fast, everything floats except distance grand landscape and background chatter. Maybe little drink and friendly conversation with stranger about odd life circumstances and meeting on trans siberian train. The list suppose to be a little futuristic, but ends up very traditional, the melody part is very lovely. I might make another attempt with this theme. Yes I know, rock and punk are completely neglected. but what can i say. anyway njoy.

image: remuz [Jack The Ripper]

.

” 2 a.m. Heroin Vapour ”

01. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore – Destroying Angels
Black Earth (Ipecac Recordings, 2002)
02. Charlie Haden & Egberto Gismonti – Silence
In Montreal [Live] (Ecm Records, 2001)
03. Jaco Pastorius – Portrait Of Tracy
Jaco Pastorius (1976)
04. Christian McBride – Mwandishi Outcome Jam
Live At Tonic (Rope-a-Dope, 2006)
05. Miles Davis – Teo
Someday My Prince Will Come (1961)

note: Somewhere between cool jazz and recent sound. All in slow bass. It is a 2 am deep night list with classic imageries of jazz, with early sixties texture. That near hallucination perfect brass and bass combination, when demons lurk at the boundary of consciousness or seduction dissolve in warm night. Your other is in control and it’s perfectly engulfing the night. Rupture.

see also: Suspended Variation III
image: missha

Photo: Kinosport.

(There have been several readers experiencing problems due to server overload. At the end of this post you’ll find a link to download the whole set via mediafire as well as a link to hypem to stream the songs. Please help us save some bandwith.)

I

• Clinic - The Second Line
  Internal Wrangler (Domino, 2000)
• Electrelane – The Valleys
  The Power Out (Too Pure, 2004)
• Beirut – Scenic World
  Gulag Orkestar (Ba Da Bing!, 2006)
• Kurt Vile – Freeway
  Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher, 2008)
• The Beta Band - Assessment
  Assessment (Caroline Music, 2004)

II

• Mogwai – The Sun Smells Too Loud
  The Hawk Is Howling (Matador, 2008)
• Jacuzzi Boys – Island Avenue
  Island Avenue 7″ (Carrera, 2008)
• Thee Oh Sees – Tidal Wave
  Tidal Wave 7″ (Woodsist, 2009)
• Tame Impala – Remember Me
  Remember Me (Modular / 2008)
• Sunroof! - Cortez tha Killa
  Crippled Rosebud Binding (Music Fellowship, 2006)

III

• Boris – Statement
  Smile (Southern Lord, 2008)
• Liars – Mr. your on fire Mr
  They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top (Mute, 2002)
• Battles – Atlas
  Mirrored (Warp, 2007)
• Von Südenfed – The Rhinohead
  Tromatic Reflexxions (Domino, 2007)
• !!! – Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story)
  Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (Touch & Go, 2003)

IV

• Panda Bear – Comfy in Nautica
  Person Pitch (Paws, 2007)
• Atlas Sound – Quick Canal
  Logos (Kranky, 2009)
• Animal Collective – Banshee Beat
  Feels (FatCat, 2005)
• Air France – Beach Party
  On trade winds ep (Sincerely Yours, 2007)
• Lindstrøm – I Feel Space
  I Feel Space (Feedelity, 2005)

[Stream].
[Download the whole set].

Summer sensations are non transferable. There’s music and fragrances and photographs, all emblems of perfect happiness which appear in summertime which are harder to confront as time passes. The way things were, and how we had wasted time as though there was nothing to do. These memories taste much better when left less rich, less clear.
How I learnt to swim or how I learnt to kiss are all very good stories I’ve forgotten. I did not listen to music the first summer.