Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
What amounts to a dream anymore? / A crude device; a veil on our eyes / A simple plan we’d be different from the rest / And never resign to a typical life
Common fears start to multiply / We realize, we’re paralyzed / Where’d it go, all that precious time? / Did we even try to stem the tide?
Before I start I want to let you all know the Sidels are doing just “fine” today. As I mention time and time again, The Idelic Hour is my creative outlet. Collecting, gathering, compiling and listening to these records truly gives me “soul satisfaction,” even in, or may I say especially in light of this horrible Covid/election year. So hear I lay, dumping all my emotions, problems, fears, anxieties and joys while sharing an hour of music with friends.
So with this in 2020 I must point out that tonight is the full moon of Mercury in retrograde on the All Hollow’s Eve. With the election looming on Tuesday there is just a lot of weird shit in the air. No exception here. This week’s events were in fact spooky weird. We had an power outage, computer failure, our dishwasher broke, doors need replacing, and worst of all of our Mercury in retro nightmares came to pass as our son Jonah broke his leg skateboarding Monday afternoon.
I guess the mainstream consensus on John Carpenter is that he’s just one in a long line of filmmakers who started out strong, hung in there for a while and then faltered as time progressed. And our current motion picture industry does a good job of making it seem like he’s retired; his last effort was The Ward, which hit US theatres, or a few of them anyway, back in 2011. But for an ever growing pack of buffs, Carpenter is a very special auteur indeed. Gaining his biggest commercial and critical success with Halloween in 1978, it and the titles surrounding it in his filmography are trim, energetic no-nonsense affairs emerging from a motion-picture scene noted for self-consciousness and excessiveness.
Madison, WI | Strictly Discs in Wisconsin, in a Pandemic: ‘Right Now It Doesn’t Really Feel’ Like Things Will Turn Around: With cases in Wisconsin continuing to surge, Governor Tony Evers put a 25% capacity restriction in place for retail — until a state judge blocked it. In October 1988, Angie Roloff and her husband Ron opened Strictly Discs in Madison, Wisconsin, after Ron left a career in the biomedical research field to pursue his love of music full time. Nearly 31 years later, the couple made the difficult decision to shutter in-store operations due to COVID-19, roughly a week before Governor Tony Evers forced a mandatory shutdown of all non-essential businesses. Now that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has overturned Evers’ stay-at-home order — ruling it “unlawful” and “unenforceable” — the Roloffs and their employees have 
Three Landmark Frankie Goes To Hollywood Albums Set For Reissue: ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’, ‘Liverpool’ and greatest hits collection, ‘Bang!’ are set to return on both CD and vinyl. Three landmark albums by 1980s pop superstars Frankie Goes To Hollywood are set for reissue on both vinyl and CD. Welcome To The Pleasuredome, Liverpool and Bang!…The Greatest Hits will be available through UMC on December 11, except for the US where all three will be available on January 22, 2021. Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s legendary debut album, Welcome To The Pleasuredome was first released by ZTT and Island Records on 29 October 1984. Originally issued as a vinyl double album, it was assured of a UK chart entry at number one due to reported advance sales of over one million. Featuring the band’s signature hits, “Relax”, “Two Tribes” and “The Power Of Love”, the album was also a top ten seller internationally in countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, and New Zealand. Produced by Trevor Horn, it was widely-regarded as a ground-breaking release and helped 
NEW RELEASE PICK: Judith Hamann, Shaking Studies & Music for Cello and Humming (Blank Forms Editions) Released conjointly on October 30 (though there might be pressing plant delays), Shaking (on LP) and Humming (on CD) comprise Australian cellist Hamann’s debut as a soloist, though she has recorded with Tashi Wada, Graham Lambkin, Alvin Lucier, and Rosalind Hall. Knowledge of those names will clue one in to Hamann’s boldly experimental bent; suffice to say that lovers of the drone will want to get acquainted with these sets (she has worked La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela), even as the titles make clear that Hamann’s thematic focus for both releases goes beyond “simple” elevated note extension. Far beyond. The abundance of cello on these albums also strengthens connections to the classical avant-garde, though as the label points out, Hamann is consistently resisting “chamber music orthodoxy.” Shaking’s relation to its titular action is subtle but discernible; Humming spreads out to nearly 80 minutes and, due to the human need to breathe, is rife with pauses, strategically executed. A 
REISSUE/ARCHIVAL PICKS: Catherine Christer Hennix, Unbegrenzt (Blank Forms Editions / Empty Editions) Along with two books, Poësy Matters and Other Matters, Blank Forms and Empty Editions have already issued two magnificent archival volumes of unheard music from Swedish composer Hennix, Selected Early Keyboard Works and The Deontic Miracle: Selections from 100 Models of Hegikan Roku, the latter sharing the top spot on my Best Reissues of 2019 list. Recorded in Stockholm in 1974, with Hennix (recitation, percussion, electronics) and Hans Isgren (bowed gong) “performing” “Unbegrenzt” (Unlimited), one of 15 text pieces from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) the nearly 52-minute piece (split over two sides of vinyl) is to my ear superior to the version from 1969 that features Stockhausen himself. I’m not alone in this view, as the PR describes Stockhausen’s concept of “intuitive music” as “Eurocentric,” while Bill Dietz’s liner notes are considerably less kind to ol’ Karl, and that’s perfectly fine. Parts of this suggest traces of AMM and gamelan music as heard from inside a radio communications outpost, and that’s very fine. A 
Zazou Bikaye, Mr. Manager (Expanded Edition) (Crammed Discs) This set follows Crammed’s 2017 reissue of Noir et Blanc, which was the collab of Congolese vocalist-composer Bony Bikaye, French musician-producer Hector Zazou, and modular synth team CY1 (that’s Frenchmen Guillaume Loizillon and Claude Micheli). Mr. Manager, originally a mini-LP, came out in 1985 with Zazou Bikaye solidifying as a band as CY1 exited the scene. There were additional selections recorded at the same time and in ’86, once intended for LP release but shelved as Zazou Bikaye moved on to release Guilty in ’88. This expansion rounds up that set-aside material (including two remixes of “Get Back” dating from 1990) for an 8-song LP (the mini-album held five) and a 14-song CD (a full download accompanies the vinyl). I remain quite enthusiastic over Noir et Blanc, and I like this too, but just not as much. The debut reminded me a little of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (except I consider Zazou Bikaye’s record to be stronger), and the continued African/ European fusion of Mr. Manager hits my ear a smidge like Talking Heads at their most dancy. But more eclectic, which is appreciated. A-
The Fall, The Frenz Experiment Expanded Edition (Beggars Arkive) The reissues by Beggars Arkive of The Fall’s Beggars Banquet output have been highlighted pretty extensively in this column, and by extension, I’ve mentioned at least once that back in the day, the band’s albums for the label were somewhat contentious, as many felt that Mark E. Smith and company (which at the time, included Brix Smith) had lost the plot and smoothed out. The Frenz Experiment, which included a UK-charting cover of The Kinks’ “Victoria,” didn’t curb the griping, but that’s a long time ago now. I find the record holds up well, especially in these 21-track 2LP and 28-track 2CD editions. Both include “Bremen Nacht Run Out” and “Mark’ll Sink Us” from the 45 that accompanied the UK and German first pressings of the LP. Exclusive to the CD version are four tracks from an unreleased BBC Radio session, a cover of “A Day in the Life” (very good), a nine-minute “Bremen Nacht (Alternative),” and an additional version of “Mark’ll Sink Us.” Overall, not as strong as Bend Sinister before or I Am Kurious Oranj after, but sharp, nonetheless. A-
Burlington, VT | Checking in with Burlington Records: In the past few weeks, I’ve been checking in with local record store proprietors to find out how the pandemic has been treating them. I was also particularly curious about what kinds of records have been moving, as a nod to Seven Days’ formerly weekly and long-retired inclusion of record store sales in this section. Even before I started doing this series, I’d asked record store owners in past conversations about their best sellers. I always presumed, somewhat facetiously, that they sold a lot of copies of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Burlington Records’ Ian Doerner recently confirmed that, indeed, the classic 1977 album is his best-selling disc. “It’s annoying to say that, because if you asked a record store clerk that in 1981 and 1991 and 2001, it’s always gonna be the same goddamn answer,” Doerner said, noting that he sells, on average, one Rumours per day. “It’s 
Denver, CO | Angelo’s CD’s & More: Denver’s businesses respond with a sigh to new COVID-19 rules: Some will lose revenue. Others have been ready for this since the summer. …Despite visiting a dozen retail shops, we couldn’t get comment from most people working at them. For the most part, owners and managers weren’t in, leaving employees to say they couldn’t speak on the record. But we did find the general manager of Angelo’s CD’s & More on South Broadway in Overland. Sean Batz rolled his eyes at the new rules. “I stopped listening to the mayor in March,” he said. “I felt we have been on our own as a business.” When his shop reopened in May, just after Denver’s stay-at-home orders lifted, he decided he’d only allow ten customers in at a time. He’s not exactly sure what his maximum capacity is, but he’s confident he’s been operating below 25 percent for months. He even lowered his maximum allowance to just five customers for Record Store Day last weekend. His staff monitored a line snaking down the sidewalk outside as customers took their turns. He said he wanted to be sure everyone was safe, 
