Some songs for August on the 2nd day of the month. August is high summer in the UK, the month of summer holidays, those endless days as children when school had vanished, the sun shone and the possibilities were endless. September and everything it brings- change, the back to school rhythms, autumn- is weeks away. As a teacher I've kept these school days rhythms all my adult life and August always feels like this.
August is named after the Roman Emperor Augustus, the month it is said of his greatest triumphs (the conquest of Egypt among them). Augustus Pablo shares a name with the Emperor and while he may not have achieved the same imperial feats the Emperor Augustus did not record any seminal dub albums, the 1976 King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown among them. Is Jamaica's influence on music the equal of the Romans on the history of the world? All empires fall but dub will last forever.
In 2023 PJ Harvey released I Inside The Old Year, Dying, an enigmatic, poetic and forbidding record and one that only she could have made- a triumph in many ways. The album's first single was this-
Echo laden folk, piano, a guitar and drum and her voice, softer and more tender than sometimes. It feels as old as the hills.
This one is from 2022 by Turkish composer Ozan Tekin. I know little about it or about Ozan- a minimalist pianist/ musician, born in Istanbul and resident in Cologne. This track starts out as a piano piece, slightly Satie- esque, and dissolves into distortion and feedback at the end. From an album called Anarya.
Shrag were a Brighton based five piece group, post punk/ c86 indie, who made three albums between 2003 and 2013. Sharp and raucous live wires with pointed and funny lyrics.
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