Orbital were one of the first electronic acts I got into as a spotty young'n. I'm pretty sure the first tune of their's I heard was off of a free tape that came with Select magazine -- a live version of "Impact (the Earth is Burning)" that was recorded at Glastonbury. I'm happy to say they're back and recording again and I do like the current single "Tiny Foldable Cities" -- it's got a pleasing weirdness to it that helps it stand out bit over the many, many electronic tracks out there.
I've blogged about Roisin Murphybefore -- another dance music survivor who happily puts out off-kilter tunes. She's appeared on DJ Koze's latest album, another one which Alexis Petridis persuaded me to buy, and one of her tunes is the one I keep going back to again and again. "Illumination" is pretty great:
In my last post (see below, probably) I wrote about Ghostly putting a free new compilation with a Dauwd track on it. Initially the Dauwdtrack (which is, as always, amazing) was my only point of interest, but I've listened to the whole compilation a few times now and I highly recommend you check it out -- it's full of great, quality stuff and it's FREE. You have nothing to lose! You don't even have to download it cos you can stream it at the site -- so go ahead! I'm quite happy that something that's being given away is still so good.
I also posted not too long about Caribou (Dan Snaith) posting a massive playlist of his favourite tracks on Youstube. It's full of gems, and as I come across especially good ones I may post them, which I'm about to do. What I really like about this tune is it's sheer weirdness, makes a nice change.
Lastly, a track I've had on my mp3 player for months now cos I enjoy it every time it pops up. Originally recommended by Alexis Petridis, I can't say I love the whole album it comes off of, but this track is quite stirring. Part of me wants to resist, cos the track obviously wants to take the listener to a certain place; but it's so well done that the time has come to share it with you. Check out 'Says' by Nils Frahm, preferably on good speakers or headphones and at a good volume:
The Christmas period is usually a good one on BBC radio, and this year is no exception. There are great specials and wrap-up shows to be heard. I haven't really been tuning in enough but when I have I've heard some great tunes. I was discussing the amazingness of the BBC yesterday with one of my patients at work -- it's a bunch of non-commercial stations that don't really do government propaganda and we found ourselves asking... Why does it exist? What do they get out of it? They don't make any money, or profit I should say, so I suppose it's there just as a cultural good for the country (and for the world). It's such a strange concept when viewed from America, where everything is basically profit-driven. It's hard to imagine or remember that there's another way of doing things...
So, first up a couple of tracks I just heard on Gideon Coe's dance-themed show tonight. Just nice songs really, nothing much to add, just listen and you'll get it. Though I will say that I'm quite impressed by the number of great tracks I've heard that Malcolm McLaren's been involved with.
This next track I heard on Mark Riley's show tonight. He's not one of my favourite 6 music DJ's, as he usually plays things on the weirder end of the spectrum and I'm not sure how my patients feel about some of his choices. This track is dangerously twee but the jangly guitars save it for me. Makes me think of summer, and sunshine, and grassy fields.
There's more to come, don't worry. I'll leave you with some links to other media I consumed today -- I read this article about the current dance music scene in the UK, and I checked out this video about Jackmaster -- both good, and I'll be putting up more inspired by those two links later on.
Short post. Ex Hex are a local band who I keep coming across in a bigger way -- they're on Radio 6, they're on the Guardian's best of 2014 list. I checked out their website and wasn't super-impressed by the tunes on there, but this song that keeps coming on the radio has grown on me. The thing is, I want to like them, because they're local. Maybe I'll give them another try.
I'm at home today, not feeling well, so I'm going to keep this pretty short, at least on the words being typed front. Lately, for reasons I won't go into right now, I've started thinking of this blog as a bit of a party playlist, at least in regards to my posts. I had that in mind when I made the first few selections that follow; then then, today, at home, I heard some other songs that I think are worthy of a post too. That's alright though, I think any party benefits from an eclectic selection, as long as the picks are good.
First up, Years & Years, who I first saw on the Jools Holland. They've been tipped as the sound of 2015 by the BBC, but I'm not sure what they're basing that on since their Soundcloud page has about three tracks on it.
Next up a song by Kele Okereke of Bloc Party. I never really got round to listening to a lot of Bloc Party stuff but I heard this on the radio and liked it; got some 90's elements to it, as does the Years & Years track, which I don't mind.
Here's an actual 90's track that I think will enliven any party:
Just heard this thanks to the Guardian. Recently I've been a bit jaded about throwback-sounding dance music, but I quite like the samples used in this track by Context, a Norwich-born rapper who I know next to nothing about -- but if you like the tune you can easily do your own research. There's a very Mike Skinner-y remix by Mike Skinner out there too.
Also heard some nice dancey stuff from Appleblim, thanks to XLR8R, which I've been meaning to put up. Doesn't have the chunky feel of the Context track but I appreciate the smoothness myself. You can hear a full stream of the new EP below:
A nice coincidence this morning -- for the last few days I'd been thinking about doing a post on music suitable for the nice weather we're having around here (70 degrees F, no clouds, sun-dappled streets, the smell of cut grass, and the sound of birds chirping and kids playing -- I like!), thenthe Guardian went and did a potential summer tunes round-up. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed by most of the tracks, but there were two I'm going to highlight in a bit. Also came across another Guardian article that led me to this next track, which is very very good and has a great video to boot. Never heard of this song until today and it gets me wondering about all the good music I'm not hearing, despite my efforts! This is possibly too "pop" for a lot of the sites I frequent, but it's great! The article, by the way, is about youngsters making dance music. I don't really care about age as long as the tunes are good. Here's Duke Dumont, and a great video that celebrates the simple act of dancing like a loon:
Here's one of the tracks that really stood out to me from the Guardian's summer tunes round-up. Again, never heard of anyone involved, but that sometimes come with summer music territory. Got a bit of an 80's thing going on I think:
Jessie Ware's an artist I came across a few months ago and have been listening to quite a lot of. First saw her on Jools but immediately dismissed her as just another English soul wannabe -- there's a lot of them that show up on Jools, and then you never hear about them again. I was wrong about her though, her album Devotion ended up on a lot of best-of-2012 lists and I ended up checking it out right after she played a cheap, not sold-out, show in DC. Bah! I liked the album after hearing it a few times -- to me, it's a continuation in the line of British dance-soul that goes back to Massive Attack and Soul II Soul, though it's more on the soul than the dance side; the sound is very contemporary without being gimmicky. The track I'm going to put up though, is slightly different, in that it's more of a dance track -- not totally surprising as Ware started out doing vocals for dance acts. Also, this video got lots of dancing in it too!
She's still worth checking out even if that track isn't totally to your taste -- I don't believe it really gives a good idea of the music found on her album.
Now, for me, nice weather and reggae just go hand in hand. I heard this track on 6 music the other day and knew I'd have to find out more about the artist and stick it up on this blog. It's by Roland Alphonso, who turns out to have been a founding member of the Skatalites, a classic Jamaican act from the first ska era.
I'll be keeping my eyes open for a Roland Alphonso compilation of some sort now, as music like that and driving around in a car in nice weather go together like ... cheese and cucumbers. Well, that reggae vibe got me thinking about reggae legend, Horace Andy. Here's one of my favourite songs, Skylarking:
Well, this is already a mad long post, so feel free to stop now. If you'd like to go on cos you're just chilling with some juice on your balcony, I'm going to link to a few more good summery tracks. If you're too busy for it then carry on wit ya.
Lumidee - Never Leave You
I still really like this from a while back. It was hard to hear overtly dancey stuff here back then.
Yes, definitely, but that's OK, it's good to have a place to put down my musical thoughts and links.
I was in New York this last weekend and heard a couple of things I liked, but wow, how things have changed. Am I still the person who'd go to New York for a weekend just to see Ellen Allien(check out that mix btw, I'm listening to it and it's very good so far)? I don't think so really. The only music I came across on this trip was background music while I was doing other things (picking up jeans, drinking a cappuccino). But, it still counts, and with the wonders of technology I was able to remind myself who the first track was by and figure out what the second track was.
I'd forgotten how cool looking the video is to this song. I heard it again while sitting in a hotel lounge at seven am, and the funny thing is that this song sounds like hotel lounge music anyway! Still good though, very good:
Here's a Grizzly Bear track I like. I liked Grizzly Bear when I saw them on Jools Holland, playing live, but wasn't as impressed when I listened to them on record. Might have to give them a bit more time though. Definitely like the drama in this record:
Just came across this shamelessly retro track at the Guardian. Very late 80's sound to it I think, but maybe that says something about how forward sounding music was in the late 80's??
Couple of reading links now. I'ved lived in the DC area since 2007 but never really paid attention to the Washington City Paper(WCP)until a few weeks ago, when I decided to pick it up randomly. I'd been turned off in the past cos it didn't compare to the Baltimore City Paper, but I've been quite happy with what I'm finding in there now. It's a short read but there are always at least a couple of good articles in there. This week's issue has two good pieces that relate to music. One is an amusing tour diarythat seems to capture the modern life of an indie rock band pretty well. I'm not sure if the print version's intro is included, or if this fact was in the diary section, but the writer has been doing this for ten years. Keep that in mind as your read the entries... Second article is by Ian Svenonius, a local musician who's been popping up randomly for me recently. First read a bit by him in Harper's, then came across some more writing somewhere else, then an acquaintance was going to see him live, and now he's on the cover of this weeks WCP. He only stood out to me cos I found his writing quite funny and truthful, and now you can check it out for yourself here. I wouldn't mind picking up his books myself.
Well, first off, sorry for the mis-leading title: not everything I'm going to write about is actually new, but it may be new to you! First part definitely is new though, a new album of Bjork remixes that's currently streaming at the Guardian. The album, 'Bastards', is remixes from 'Biophilia' and it's rather good on a first listen; I'm even thinking about picking it up, but I think I'll take advantage of this free stream a few more times first. You can check it out at the link as I can't do an embed on this one, sorry.
On to Ash now, a band from my good old teenagehood who are still around and are on a 20th anniversary tour. I went to see them last night at DC9, a fairly small venue that was nicely packed for the energetic and happy pop-punk show Ash put on. It was definitely enjoyable, with some good trips down memory wormholes in search of lyrics I didn't even know I knew, from songs I haven't heard in years. But as well as the smile-inducing old stuff there were some more recent songs that were also really good -- I haven't really paid a lot of attention to Ash recently but it's great to know they're still around and still releasing good music, while the industry has changed so much in the 20 years they've been going. I couldn't help reflecting on things like that while I was seeing them, and also on the fact that when I first heard them we were all teenagers -- me, my friends, my brother, and Ash themselves. Now we're all in our 30's and it was a bit odd seeing Tim up there singing, still looking the same really, but knowing that things like Kung-Fu are now 20 years old. It was a little sad; I find a fair amount of Ash songs to be tinged with sadness anyway, I don't know why: maybe something to do with lost youth, or that yearning feeling all their tracks seems to produce? But we're all still here and OK so it's alright really. I also found myself wondering about what it's like to be ... them? Making a living as a band, doing it for 20 years, doing it while perhaps raising a family and all those normal things too but still getting on stage on tours and striking cool guitar poses on top of amps. It's a bit weird seeing people like this grow up -- they made sense as teenagers, playing this music, but it's almost strange now to see men in their 30's playing the same stuff. Ho-hum, my incoherent thoughts on music and aging once more.
I'm going to put up a random selection of songs I enjoyed, some old, some new, which'll hopefully serve as a decent intro if you've never heard of Ash, and a nice reminder of how good they are if you have. The show, by the way, was excellent; great crowd, lots of energy and movement, and great banter from the band too -- they really seemed to enjoy it, even though it was a pretty small place. I think it served as a great way to celebrate one of the best pop bands of the 90's. Not that they're done or anything mind; they mentioned working on a new album and touring the States again soon, so hopefully they'll be around for a while yet.
'Arcadia' was new to me and I was really happy to hear that Ash still make great pop songs:
So was 'Return of White Rabbit', which was surpringly funky but NOT crap in that punk-funk way!
I'm going to finish up with two songs from 'Free All Angels', the Ash album I most got into. These are two songs I hadn't heard in years and had basically forgotten -- until the first chords rung out last night, and they instantly came back to me. Good stuff!
In case you're wondering, Tim looked exactly the same except he's got a beard that's flecked with white hair (if he shaved it off I don't think he'd look any older really); Rick's got less hair but otherwise hasn't changed much (though he's really really thin); and Mark was slightly tubbier and reminded me of Rick Mayall for some reason.
Me again, had a couple of things I thought I'd highlight. Couple of Guardian links to begin with:
First, a link to a neat page they've got where music bloggers from around the world put up a compilation of their favourite new tracks once a month; each compilation is downloadable, or you can just hear individual tracks if you'd like. A cool way to hear some different, and worldly, sounds I think -- though of course it's only one track by one band picked by one blog per country, so hardly representative of what's happening in China or Denmark or wherever. Still, worth checking out here.
Next is a good article on the recent NPR-intern-thinks-Public-Enemy-are-crap "controversy". Agree with this writer's view, though I'd probably say the same about someone arguing the other side if it were convincing enough. You can read that here. The gist of it is, why should a 19 year old give a crap about an album that came out before his time if he doesn't like it when listening to it? I'm sure many of us had the same experience with supposedly classic albums -- we want to like them, we spend money on them, but they're a bit ... crap. I've had this argument in the past with my Rush and Pink Floyd loving friends -- is music appreciation an objective exercise? I would say NO! Especially when it comes to those last two bands -- I don't think I'll ever make time for them.
Now for some actual music. I first heard of Bicep thanks to Resident Advisor, perhaps a year ago. RA highlighted the fact that they make some funky house tunes, the best type of dance music basically. They had a review of their latest single recently, and that's when I noticed that they're from Northern Ireland. That got the old nostalgic-romantic-sentimental imagination working and I pictured really white young Irish people, in some sweaty little club, dancing to this funky stuff -- and you know they'll actually be dancing, as people on the other side of the Atlantic really like to get down to their dance music -- it's not just background for drinking and gawping (though I'm sure plenty of that happens as well). Well I checked out their Soundcloud, which is full of tracks, and I recommend you do the same. Gonna stick some below to whet your appetite:
Just wanted to highlight some decent blogs I've been looking at recently. First up is Class of 808, a superb throwback blog about the old sounds of Acid House and early Techno when it first took over the UK back in the late 80's. It's very frequently updated and posts up lots of great mixes -- I thought the sounds might seem cheesy 20-odd years on but they actually sound pretty great. It feels a bit sad to be nostalgic about music that's supposed to sound like the future but it happens to every scene eventually.
The other blog I've recently added to my "must check" list is Platform. Also out of the UK, the postings are Vice-style musings on various things but mostly music and pop culture related. I've not looked into the background of the site as I can't be arsed, but I've been getting a lot of links to new tracks and remixes through them (such as the Adele x Jamie XX one from not too long ago). Worth a look-in, I think.
Lastly, the Guardian had a good article recently about XL Recordings and how they're doing pretty well while the rest of the music industry is tanking. To me, XL is still rave music from the early 90's, but moved on pretty far from there. It's a good read, you can check it out here.
Thought I'd share this, especially since it's from the Guardian, my main source for music news. The writer's saying pretty much what I would like to say if I were a better writer -- there are a lot of micro-scenes in music now that are perfectly happy to be micro-scenes, which is all well and good unless you're an obsessive like me who wants to hear everything that's good. What he says about the lack of musical progress during the decade is something I hadn't really thought about, but it makes total sense, especially when contrasted with other decades. There's been a lot of rehashing but nothing really really new that's captured the public's attention -- not sure if I see that changing in the future? If people have easy access to their preferred micro-scenes, and are happy with that, then what need is there for a big mainstream change? Another article on the site also mentioned how easy it is now to access old music, which ends up competing with our attention too. Add DVD box sets, Youtube, DVR's, free newspapers, blogs, etc etc, and it's enough to make you miss FM radio and four TV channels as your only access to pop culture! Or is that just me?
