May 2023 – diasyrmus

Transference Valence

Four favourites from the week, four absolutely a-grade tracks too.

Horace Ferguson – Tranquilizer

Reissued on the excellent Death is Not the End label, a track off the 1987 album Sensi Addict. Produced by Prince Jazzbo, this cut has the sweet-voiced Horace Ferguson riding that compulsive Sleng Teng riddim.

Skeng – Elvis Presley

Track of the year so far, no question – that bass! And ok, I accept Skeng isn’t exactly the most wholesome role model for young people, but he’s got a way with the lyrics and delivery, and the burberry ofc. London was everywhere and was a track of the year last year, as I expect this one will be. Good video too. V thin. Do you think he gets enough to eat 😐

Som.1 – Ultimatum

Coming straight out of Montpellier, hefty, buzzsawing breakbeats, dark and lowering bass and a driving ’don’t stop, gooooo!’ catchline. Killing it.

Bree Bree – Eva Bless!

Clean, catchy and direct. Confidence in the skill and the song. Great riddim too, that little shuffle that Bree Bree rides to deliver the momentum.

YouTube playlist link:

Reading Janet Malcolm The Impossible Profession at the moment, hence the playlist title.

col tocco d’arrosto

I’ve written about pasta col tocco d’arrosto before. ‘With a touch of the roast’: pasta cooked and thrown in to the roasting pan with a little of its water, swirled around on the gas with some parmesan, until the ‘sauce’ is somewhat but not entirely reduced and sticking to the pasta, and the roasting pan is almost entirely clean.

Somersaults

It is important to know, for instance, that actors had to be real acrobats capable of turning a somersault without spilling the water from a glass they held while performing the exercise.
The Grotesque in Art and Literature — Wolfgang Kayser (p39 – Extension of the Meaning of Grotesque)

May Day Food Post

I’m pleased to say I’ve been doing more cooking again recently. Maybe it’s the bank holidays, maybe it’s the lengthening evenings.

First up, hake and salsa verde from Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain. It’s supposed to be with asparagus, but it hadn’t quite made its appearance in my grocers by this point, so I did it with peas and the water the peas in which the peas had been cooked. By moving the hake slowly around in the pan, the hake releases gelatin, which further thickens and binds the salsa verde. Will be doing this with asparagus this week I think. It’s very simple and fresh tasting.

fish, in a green sauce with peas and new potatoes, on a white plate, on a walnet table, books and magazines in the background

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