'well i never' we declare, each of us, as it is revealed to us that we are playing 'jazz', and that the place we are playing it is on radio 3's 'jazz now'. the question of genre is a particularly vexed and vexing one for the goo that is MESHMASS since we can honestly state that we have no idea what we are playing - only that it is MESHMASS and that there is always MORE of it and comes sometimes from the machines, or out of the vats, down pipes, and through the manipulation of electricity. we generally feel ourselves to be 'post-' something rather than 'alt-' anything, but this is the merest affectation, of course, except that in some sense we are not to be considered close enough to anything to be in the relationship implied by the prefix 'alt-' in regard to it. the closest i have recently come to being able to define it in any way is (in conversation, of course, and at someone else's suggestion) 'psychedelic'. this discovery was in reference to the so-called 'lewes psychedelic festival' which happened recently for i think the 3rd or 4th time without ever attempting to engage with anything that might be considered 'of lewes', (or indeed psychedelic, for all i know). it's certainly in any case not a festival since a (music) festival is an extended weekend of attempted debauchery in a muddy field. MESHMASS being IN lewes, and being (in lieu of anything else) 'psychedelic' to the considerable extent that people listening to it on acid get confused were nevertheless not at any time approached to play at the 'festival' and find themselves once more and indeed doubly bewildered. psychedelic is anyway and when used by me in particular, a quite loose term capable of swelling out to cover even MESHMASS, or at least parts of it, cotaining as it does the possibility of electro-acoustic semi-improvised instrumentals with occasional vocals and elements of dance, trance, techno, systems and ethnic musics also with reference to kwela and dub. of course it must be jazz if it is played on 'jazz now', but i have the feeling that it implies it was once something else. now, having not realised that it was (or had turned into) jazz, neither had i realised what it was before it became jazz, but i understand that it must have been something else. not jazz, then. but we must move with the times, albeit backwards in this case, and not stand in the way of regress.*[see footnote]~~~~~~ anyway, the essential thing to be stated is that whether or not we can be considered 'jazz' we are to be played on radio 3's 'jazz now' on monday 19th of february, to our considerable delight and surprise. the piece to be played is called 'altiplano' and is an entirely improvised duet. we are in fact and by inclination in terms of 'school' or 'skool' not old skool nor its presumed opposite new school but no skool. SO HERE IS OUR LESSON FOR THE WEEK, SOMETHING TO TATTOO ON OUR FOREHEADS. MESHMASS. NOT OLD SCHOOL BUT NO SCHOOL. ~~~~~~~~[footnote] "regress, i've had a few, but then again, too few to mention", after all. "non, je ne regress rien" is not appropriate in this case.