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 Murphy before -- 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:

 

Alive 2017

Sorry it's been so long.  I've thought about the neglect I've been showing this blog but kept thinking I hadn't really heard anything so there was nothing to write about.  Thought about it again yesterday and realised I've been wrong -- I've heard quite a lot that I've never blogged on, and all quite recently -- Skepta, SBTRKT, the new Depeche Mode, the new Tribe Called Quest, and more besides.  So plenty of stuff to cover.  I've also started to mess around a bit with making music myself.  I won't bore you with the details, but it's meant that I've been listening much more deeply to the music I hear now, which has been really good; it's been a while since I enjoyed music so much in that way.  I'll take it slowly though.  I'll start here with Roisin Murphy, as I have some time at the moment.

I first came across Ms Murphy back when she was in Moloko.  I heard "Sing It Back" while visiting the UK one summer and loved it.  But that and "The Time is Now" were all I really heard by them.  I'm in the US and Moloko weren't terribly big over here; I wasn't able to follow them or Roisin at all as she never came on my radar.


(Just heard that for the first time in years -- Wow.  The lyrics are great!)

 Then, years later, "Hairless Toys" came out and I made a Petridis-review based decision, one I've not regretted.  It's a lovely album, full of electronic music that's weird enough to be interesting but still very funky and danceable.  In fact I really should get it out and listen to it some more.



 That was in 2015; then Roisin came back up on my radar again at the end of last year, I forget why now.  I started looking her and her back catalogue up and bought "Overpowered" due to more good reviews.  There are some great tracks on there, and reading more about Roisin had me regretting that I wasn't following her all along.  Luckily she's still around and still doing great work so hopefully I'll get to see her live soon.   A stand out track from "Overpowered" is "Primitive", which I'll post below.  I love the sounds, the skittery beats, and Roisin's singing.



That's it for now.  The plan is for more soon.  But you know what they say about plans.  

Row your boat

The new David Bowie release got me thinking about streaming this past week.  I was discussing the album, and how certain reviewers make me feel  like just going out and buying albums before I've even heard a single track.  The same thing was happening with the Bowie album:  All the chatter about it, and the positive press, got me considering just going and getting it and listening to it afterwards.  Something good may have come of that decision as I may have given it more attention if I'd went through with a proper purchase -- I was looking forward to going to the record shop, picking it up, listening in the car, and so on.  But instead I decided to listen to whatever tracks were up on youtube and ended up finding the whole album there.  So then I just streamed it, and it was OK, but, for now at least, I lost the urge to buy it.  I think that streaming cheapens music too much in that regard -- with streaming I literally invest nothing in the music, so I can just take it or leave it, not really pay it a whole lot of attention.  I think some very good work probably gets short-changed that way.

As for the Bowie, Petridis says it's proper jazz, not just a band with some horns.  He also thinks the music is quite avante garde.  This is another possible problem with reviews, they can really send your expectations in a certain direction.  Thankfully, in this case I think Petridis overstates the case a bit -- to me this sounds exactly like a good but normal band trying a little too hard to be "different" -- or maybe the spectrum of pop music is so wide now that something like this album ends up sounding quite normal, in a good way.


I may have issues with streaming, but I'd say modern changes to the way I consume music have overall made things better.  I heard this BC Camplight track on 6 music via my phone, and then found it on Soundcloud  for this blog.  Because of that I heard the rather nice track by Amason, who I'd never heard of otherwise.



Speaking of 6 music, the Chemical Brothers were on that over Christmas for a three hour show.  It was good, just a nice show with chatting and music and mixes.  The Chemical Brothers came across as very current, which is kind of remarkable for a 20 year old dance music act.  But even though they talked about things from the past, to me they didn't seem like one of those  nostalgia acts that are around.  They seemed like a relevant act who happen to have been around for a long time.  It was good, made me happy for them.  The show's worth checking out for some of the mixes and remixes, especially the Tom Rowlands remix of Doves' Kingdom of Rust.  Six years in the making apparently!   That mix is the last half hour of the show, or you can hear it by itself here.   The old tracks have held up very well -- I'd love to see these guys live again.  Fun fact: I ended up buying Q tip's solo album after listening to the show; you'll have to listen to the show to find out why though.



Lastly, earlier today my wife and I were discussing the lack of diversity amongst Islamic scholars, the best known of whom are basically all men.  We agreed that there must be well qualified women out there who just aren't being given the opportunities that men are, which is very problematic, for multiple reasons.  I think when someone like my wife identities a problem like this, they have to act.  Which, of course, brings to mind the Streets:

Nu Free Sounds

In my last post (see below, probably) I wrote about Ghostly putting a free new compilation with a Dauwd track on it.  Initially the Dauwd track (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: