Hail All Ye Heathens, Pagans & Refuseniks,

How’s this killer summer treating y’all? Me, I just combined business with pleasure by taking the family on a roadtrip to Cornwall, to pick up a massive purple 6x12” speaker cabinet that I’d had built by a tattooed Cornish metal dude who lives down on The Lizard, the mysterious almost uninhabited upland situated at Britain’s southernmost point. Best of all, Dorian and I got to revisit the all-white quartz stone circle at Duloe for the first time in over a decade. With its small diameter and tall gnarly pillars, Duloe really bears no resemblance to any other Cornish circles, most of which generally feature around nineteen low stones set in wide diameters. And it’s tempting to see this unique place as some kind of judgement seat, especially as the stones stand on high flat ground, equidistant between the East Looe and West Looe rivers.

The night before we left, Dorian and I travelled to Bristol to watch Thrones’ show at The Croft, and pay our respect to the mighty Joe Preston, who walked out on stage bearing a massively rock BC Rich Bich bass and proceeded to blow our collective minds with his deeply adventurous programmed doom. Many times have I attempted to write about Mr Preston via an Album of the Month for such Thrones albums as SPERM WHALE and DAY LATE, DOLLAR SHORT; his epic Melvins solo album also remains a favourite. But Joe Preston’s place in the Heavy Rock Pantheon is just so ubiquitous, so very locked within his own culture that I’ve not yet been able to reach his amazing muse with words alone. Mr Preston, it was a real honour to meet you and I shall certainly continue to try…

Hey, what about all this shit Hezbollah has been stirring up for the Lebanese with their wild random shooting of rockets into civilian areas of northern Israel? These parasite assholes – who were supposedly kicked out of that neck of the woods two years ago – certainly knew what they were bringing down on the poor Lebanese; and what an outrageous Israeli response! I don’t know about you, but I think the Israelis are way way out of control this time. They can say all they like that they’ve told these villagers to leave for their own safety, but where are the southern Lebanese gonna go? Bombed in your beds or bombed on the road, what kind of choice is that? I’ve always believed that Israel’s right to rigorously defend its borders is stronger than other countries purely because of its geographical position right in the middle of peoples who wish to annihilate them. But whether or not they like it, Israelis must accept that they are the ambassadors of the worldwide Jewish Diaspora, and foul racists are always looking for an excuse to blame Zion. As a democracy, Israel has to be seen to be erring on the side of caution, or risk the wrath of their supporters in so-called Christendom. And you know how capricious Western liberals can be – many are such hippy doormats that they’ll support Islam’s most extreme racist chauvinist pig homophobes just to be contrary and because their own sorry white asses are comparatively safe.

Okay, I’ll slither off my lofty perch and talk some rock’n’roll, because there’s plenty to discuss this month. First off has to be the debut 7” single from French trio Aluk Todolo, whose two raging strung-out dark untitled instrumentals come across like a Wodenist ‘Komakino’-period Joy Division. You can find them at www.impliedsound.com, but hurry, because it’s a beautifully packaged limited release of 500 copies. Next up has to be the masterful synthesizer/percussion freak out of THE EXCHANGE SESSION VOLUME ONE by Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid, which I’ve been listening to for months now and smokes my pole down to the cheroot every time. Like a combination of ALPHA CENTAURI-period T. Dream filtered through a free jazz mindset, this is a shamanic offering of the highest order, and bravo to Domino Records for laying such a barrage of righteous thunder upon us. I also really dig the OUT OF THE WOODS E.P. by The Sundancer, which you should check out at [email protected]. It has that ever-increasing loose acoustic soul groove found on the first Dino Valente LP or maybe the first two Stephen Stills albums. I wish the songs were at least twice as long, but this first statement has a beautiful end of a hot summer vibe about them. Even better is the Japanese ALL NIGHT RAINBOW SHOW on the retro-obsessed Ain’t Group Sounds label. Available at www.geocities.com/aintgroupsounds, this Various Artists package is a brutally surreal joy, collecting together some of the most notable early ‘70s Japanese protest bands such as Murahatchibu, Yellow, Dew, Acid Seven and Zuno Keisatsu (Brain Police) in one gigantic celebration.The inclusion of Zuno Keisatsu’s legendary but uber controversial ‘Pick Up You Gun’ is a sheer joy. But the biggest surprise on the disc has to be ‘Brother’, Yellow’s marvy 15-minute bump’n’grind Stooge-a-thon. Finally finally finally, seek out the free rock blitz of Taurpis Tula’s mind numbing STEEL RODS BRUISE BUTTERFLIES on the Chocolate Monk label. For those of you fearful of the coming Patriarchy, this single 33-minute electric storm - from a power trio informed by the blond banshee vocals of Hell Herself - is the most useful meditative blast in months, so get your skinny asses down to www.volcanictongue.co.uk and pronto, Tonto!

And now I shall clear off. Maybe I’ll see a few of you at the Beautiful Days festival in the middle of the month, where I’m contributing a solo set. Until then, stay alive and survive in the heat, and don’t let non-motherfuckers grind you down.

U-Know!

JULIAN OF YATESBURY (The Very Reverend Son-of-a-bitch)