skinnywhiteboy

I bet few people own a record of wildlife sounds. I don’t.

Then I found the Listen to nature archive, where you can listen to some of the beeb’s millions of recordings. Well worth a browse for an hour or two - you can browse by location or species, and you can find some truly inspiring stuff. Brent geese at Chichester Harbour, for example, or the masked crusader, the Black redstart, at Kings Cross.

If you live in London, you can hear the sounds of the city through Wildweb - a great way to explore the capital’s wild spaces and noises.

Inspired, I said (hmm) - so I put together a top 10 of wildlife-related tunage.

10. Heavy horses, Jethro Tull
9. Halfmole halfbird, Deerhoof LISTEN
8. Wake up little sparrow, Devendra Banhart
7. Birdhouse in your soul, They Might Be Giants
6. Rats, Birddog LISTEN
5. Blackbird, The Beatles
4. Pumpkin gets a snakebite, Animal Collective
3. I Saw The Apeman (On The Moon), The Lillingtons LISTEN
2. Cold turkey, John Lennon
1. Porpoise song, The Monkees (why? see previous entry)

Digging around afterwards, I found Eric’s list, and felt a lot less nerdy…

Chalk grassland roof at the Crew Club, Whitehawk, blending in well to the winter downland.

The timber bonanza from the wreck of the Ice Prince was in full swing on Brighton beach today. The city was out gathering arms and cars full of the stuff, but not everyone was so lucky.

On our walk to the marina, we found a harbour porpoise carcass amongst huge drifts of the ship’s timber at the high tide line. It was badly ripped and scraped - half the tail had been torn off and the nose was bashed in. A very sad sight - my guess is it had drowned whilst trying to surface amongst the huge raft of wood at sea, which has reached as far as the east coast of the States already.

The Ice Prince went down off Portland Bill on Tuesday - over half the Swedish cargo is still on board but they reckon 2000 tonnes has been spread far and wide by the wind and swell. If you take it’s supposed to be reported to the receiver of the wreck. Not much chance of that happening, methinks - some industrial quantities were leaving the beach today.

Cetacean live strandings or carcasses should be reported - the latter to the Natural History Museum, the former to British Divers Marine Life Rescue, RSPCA or the Environment Agency. Dolphin Care has more details. I didn’t have a phone so went to the RNLI station at the marina. Hopefully someone will pick her up and find out for sure how she died.

Fun mix here from Deerhunter/Atlas Sound man: Micromix12.

1. the bats - block of wood
2. b-52’s - private idaho (live chicago 1979)
3. simon finn - very close friend
4. bionaut - electric campfire (in a neo-ackerman style)
5. birds nest roys - me want me get me need me have me love me
6. captain beefheart - bat chain puller
7. dead c - sky
8. dock boggs - old rub alcohol blues
9. tamas ungvary - basic barrier (1973)
10. solex - another tune like not fade away (kid 606 mix)
11. ramones - i wanted everything
12. orton socket - iron wire
13. nobukazu takemura - a flying squirrel
14. quickspace - semtex

The b-52s live sound like The Fall would if born in LA rather than The North.

Today the UK government gave the green light to nuclear power. So, no surprise there. Yesterday, the government announced that GPs will stop prescribing antibiotics for coughs and colds. Unrelated stories? Let’s see.

First here’s what a recent study by the Mayor of London concluded about nuclear…
- decentralised energy (locally generated and used heat and power from renewables and natural gas, with energy efficiency) could provide a cut of 27-32% in London’s emissions by 2025
- centralised nuclear power (with more stations as proposed today) would in contrast deliver 23%. In fact, in UK terms 10 new stations would only reduce emissions by around 4% by 2025
- decentralised energy systems give other benefits - local control of energy brings more energy security, uses less primary energy, empowers communities and has been done by other countries.
- nuclear power brings waste and security issues, protest, and cost. The time it takes to commission and build new stations (10 years +) sucks up money that renewables and combined heat and power so desperately need. Of course, it’s also been done by other countries.

So what about that link then? Something about breeding superbugs in nuclear reactors? Fall out generated killer viruses perhaps? Well no…. but unnecessary use of antibiotics cost the NHS £1.4 billion/year. 10 reactors at £2 billion each over say 10 years = £2 billion/year. Gordon Brown’s a sly one - I wonder where he’ll find that extra £600 k…your pension, perhaps.

(Refs Powering London into the 21st Century, Guardian online)

In reverse order, the best albums of 2007*

10. Mum - go go smear the poison ivy

A joyful scatter of strings, beats and mournful scando voices. Not just for middle class dinner parties.

9. Wu Tang Clan - 8 diagrams

The wait was worth it…just. Looking forward to more hip hop competition in 2008’s best of.

8. Flaming Lips - at war with the mystics

Beer adverts haven’t ruined it - their weakest record but still the better than 99% of guitar bands out there. And they remain very out there.

7. Sons of Noel and Adrian - EP

Sons of Noel and Adrian - Untitled EP
A surprise live sensation discovered on my birthday - as yet unsigned Brighton folk band who will undoubtedly go big. Stormy acoustic tales of salty sea captains and broken hearts on dark beaches…topped by the voice of an undead lover.

6. Miracle Fortress - five roses

Brian Wilson had an awful come back this year - he should have left it to this odd Canadian, Graham Van Pelt. Wilsonesque, yet up to date thematically and musically (and far less tiresome than Panda Bear, who’s solo album made most ‘best of’ lists this year).

5. Thurston Moore - trees outside the academy

This should have been terrible - what other 50 year olds are making rock music this relevant? But it’s a tour de force (possible exception of the ‘experimental’ final track, Thurston at 13), combining acoustic tunefulness and abstract noise - it’s (steady…) fun!

4. Beirut - the flying club cup

Zach Condon and friends discover France, and throw accordions and songs of old Parisian postcards into the pot. Given that the pot already contains mariachi brass, eastern European folk and that wonderful dirge of a voice, it’s a fine feast. Can’t get tired of it.

3. Devendra Banhart - smokey rolls down thunder mountain

The Laurel Canyon freak folk nutter finds rock, and bursts through the confines of lo-fi. Not that his lo-fi folk wasn’t great - it was - but this album sends him to the bosom of Iggy Pop as well as Neil Young, and even chucks in some dub for good measure. 16 great tunes - and he kicks it live.

2. A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble - eponymous

This EP saw a happy marriage of Hungarian virtuosos Hun Hangar, with New Mexico-based violin and accordion/percussion/vocals duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw. Truer to eastern Europe than previous records, and less experimental with it, nevertheless this isn’t ordinary stuff. Cymbalom solos, rocking brass, Heather Trost’s errie violin and the unfairly talented Jeremy Barnes doing pretty much everything else. Another great live act this year.

1. Deerhoof - friend opportunity

If I was being really honest, I’d have filled the top 10 with this record. That would have been a bit pointless, I guess, but shows how far ahead of the rest of ‘em I think this is. Perfect music - a righteous balance of noise (knife edge guitar, one hell of a drum clatter, odd time signatures aplenty) and tune (the usual out there soprano nursery rhyme vocal, bass like McCartney at his very best) and nary a duff track. Say no more - just get it!

*as measured scientificallilly by their ability to inspire one or more of the following: joy, jumping around, shock, awe, tears, peaceful sleep.