This is a thread where you can post your reactions to the mixes you have (hopefully) received. The more in depth and rambling the better, to keep things lively. If you signed up and haven’t posted yours out yet, consider this your very last alarm call!
We’ll try this as one post. I’ll put up a comment for each group and those members can put their views across as replies to that comment (and anyone else with something relevant to say can jump in of course). Once all reviews are in I’ll go back and add the tracklists to the comments and the recriminations can begin (“you made me listen to Yes!”). Hopefully that format will not become too unwieldy. Let’s go.
@ralph / @count-jim-moriarty / @locust
@ralph, have you sent your CD? And have you heard anything from Jim?
Yours is finally in the post. Apologies for tardiness. I’ve not heard from Jim
No worries, I was just fearful that it might have gotten lost in the mail (the Swedish postal service having been a bit untrustworthy in the last year or so, big scandal!)
Jim seems to be AWOL, so if anyone wants to join in the fun but didn’t register in time – PM me, I have a spare CD to swap!
and @locust‘s spare CD would have sounded like this, if anyone was smart enough to take her up on that offer
1. ”Free Ride” – Brainpool (1996, lyrics…plus added bonus in-joke of musical Beatles references)
2. ”Du e för fin för mig” – Dungen (2004, second album)
3. ”Dinga linga Lena” – Pugh Rogefeldt (1974, lyrics)
4. ”Luke Skywalker” – Broder Daniel (1995, debut album)
5. ”Du e inte man” – Noice (1979, debut album)
6. ”My Best Friend” – Hello Saferide (2005, debut album)
7. ”Vara vänner” – Jakob Hellman (1989, debut – and only – album)
8. ”The Mountain” – Andreas Mattsson (2011, lyrics)
9. ”Non Ti Amo Più” – Christophe (1962, childhood soundtrack)
10. ”År” – Veronica Maggio (2008, lyrics)
11. ”Vill va High Won” – Ison & Fille (2004, second album)
12. ”La Equivoca” – Ariel Ramirez & Jaime Torres (year unknown but early 60s, childhood soundtrack)
@contraryarticle / @moseleymoles / @yyMatthew
@contraryarticle – just completing my second listen – improved on the second which is a good sign.
Sorry @moseleymoles, been awol in Ireland visiting family but back now (should’ve had an Afterword meet-up! Seems to have been a few Afterworders there around the same time.)Tried logging in on my phone but forgot what my password was & couldn’t sort out getting a new one. Was going to try & catch up this eve but got back to internet not working(now rectified obviously, but I’m knackered& need an early night. Have got a few notes already after the first 2 listens. Will definitely catch up by the weekend. Any news on @yyMatthew? Sent him on the cd but heard nowt more. Mebbe we frightened him with our bizarre musical selections? (I should speak for myself, I know!) 🙂
@contraryarticle have finally not listened to your CD in the car so able to jot my blind tasting notes:
1.
A gentle opening – I like the drum patterns and the way everything lazily drags behind the beat. But it goes a bit meandering once the vocal comes in. Pleasant.
2
Some electronics – something that is in short supply in this disc (just observing a predilection for the acoustic). Nice textures but a bit short on the actual tune material. Tungg? Definitely a folktronica vibe.
3
Acoustics. 70s country soft rock here, but possibly a revivalist rather than an original. A bit dull, Sutherland Brothers and Quiver? Quicksilver Messenger Service? Not my area of expertise.
4
Powerpop. The tune is pure Aimee Mann. The vocals are pure Fountains of Wayne – have I got it? Like this. Probably turn out to You’ve Got Foetus on Your Breath.
5
Gotta love a spoken word track. Ok there’s a bit of singing now. Not a clue who this is. The Charlie Daniels Band? There’s a violin somewhere. The aetheist went down to Georgia.
6
This drifts past without much to grab me. It’s not that long.
7
Deep voice. Like a more less gravelly Tom Waits. Suffers a bit from being in the same tempo (mid-tempo country rock) as a few too many on this mix. Like the female vocalist. She’s quite good. Improves a lot as it goes on.
8
Bit of electric guitar. A bit sludgy, a bit early nineties. Buffalo Tom?
9
Again, not a clue who this is. It has a space garage rock sixties feel but beyond that I’m lost. Roky Erikson?
10 Hmm
11
Two-thirds of this song is annoying – if very appropriate lyrically. Love the coda – saves this song completely. No-one sings on it, which is possibly a good thing.
12
Best track. Not a bad place to put it. Weak vocals but that’s not really what this song is about. A bit like Everything Flows by Teenage Fanclub its 90% coda to 10% song. Great ending. Again, not a clue who it is.
Not sure about where @yymatthew is. Review ours mate even if you can’t send us yours!
Hey @mosleymoles, great minds. was intending to review yours tonight. Sorry I’ve been slow. Just very busy. No. I’ve heard nothing from @yymatthew either.
So gave yours at least 4 or 5 listens. Had to skip a couple o’ tracks after the initial couple o’ listens but here goes.
Track 1 – Electronic, with indistinguishable voices in the background. Kept waiting for it to build but it kind of drifted off
Track 2 – Sounding like souped up modern gospel. Yeah, didn’t mind it. Nice atmosphere from it.
Track 3 – Oh, this sounds so familiar. Is it someone like The National? I’m sure I’ve heard it before. I quite like this. I do keep meaning to listen to them.
Track 4 – Ha! This is sweet. I do like this. A joyous thing.
Track 5 – Bleepy. Reminds me of The Mountain Goats mixed with Sukpatch. I like this one.
Track 6 – Yikes! Simply Red remix? Nope. Cheesy.
Track 7 – A bit of cultcha. Some classical violin. Me being an ignorant swine I haven’t a clue. Goes on a bit.
Track 8 – Oh nice. This’d be my favourite on here. Lovely old soul track. Don’t know who this is but I like it a lot.
Track 9 – This has got to be an 80’s track. Don’t know it but I like it.
Track 10 – Hmmm… my friend had a little brother who used to annoy her by making “neep neep” noises in her ear like an asthmatic zebra finch. This’d be the musical equivalent of that. Ok. It changes as it goes along to some overblown bombast. Sounds like something used over some stunning footage of icebergs on a BBC wildlife programme. At least the zebra finch is gone, but no.
Track 11 – Oh god.
Track 12 – Electronica. Our tastes are quite different aren’t they? Now it’s Electronica mixed with jazz. Doin’ nowt for me.
Oh well, I liked about half of it, but the stuff that annoyed me really annoyed me. I will check out some of them. That soul track definately.
Eh, @moseleymoles
Track 7, That’s not a woman singin’. HCB would be most put out. Ha!
& Track 4, well think he was an old boyfriend of Aimee’s, & they’ve worked a lot together, him mostly as a producer.
Track 8, Buffalo Tom? With that Scottish accent? Thought ye’d like the background noises. Marbe not. Oh well. I tried!
Here is @contraryarticle‘s tracklisting. I heartily endorse her final choice.
1/ I Don’t Know Where To Begin – The Pictish Trail
2/ The Diary Fire – Half Cousin
3/ Where The Road Begins & Ends – Aaron Lee Tasjan
4/ Gotta Start Somewhere – Jon Brion
5/ In The Beginning – Todd Snider
6/ Ending Start – Metric
7/ Moved by Hands To Shelter – Hugh Christopher Brown (David Corley on bv)
8/ All You Need To Know Is Now – Monoganon
9/ If I Stay Too Long – Thee Oh Sees
10/ This Is How It Starts – Swell
11/ When It Begins – Kevin Drew
12/ Cow – Sparklehorse
and @moseleymoles – with sleevenotes!
BEGINNINGS – Moseley Moles
Track 1
Intro – Andy Cato from Times and Places
I’m a sucker for a good intro track. Only makes sense on an album as it should…
Track 2
Get Started – Young Fathers from White Men Are Black Men Too
… slam into a classic upfront Track 1 proper like this.
Track 3
Start A War – The National from Boxer
I’m not the only Afterworder to go ah-hah when this came up on their iTunes search…
Track 4
Valentine’s Day by Klaus Nomi from Ze Bakdz
Pretty sure I am the only Afterworder who found this. I remember Klaus from the 80s NME but have never ever heard a track of his until this georgeous piece came up on my Spotify Discover. So it’s my beginning with Klaus.
Track 5
Brand New Colony by The Postal Service from Give Up
Love this album, a classic case of the side project being better than the parent group (Death Cab for Cutie)
Track 6
Something Got Me Started (Hurley’s House Remix) by Simply Red
Compilations can be all about the tyranny of good taste eh? So here’s a cheesy but very enjoyable slab of pop-house. The compilation LP Hard To Find has some classic 80s/early 90s extended remixes on it.
Track 7
Bach’s Violin Partita No 2 in D Minor 1: Allemande by Aaron Rostand
The tyranny of good taste eh? The first track on my itunes. Actually no it’s second. First is the Grange Hill theme by A.Hawkshaw but we all know how that goes.
Track 8 Stop To Start by Jimmy Lewis from Still Wanna Be Black
Quite good eh?
Track 9
It Feels Like It’s Starting To Rain by TV21 from Snakes and Ladders
Championship-level Scots early 80s miserabilists that I have a soft spot for and this is a tune.
Track 10
Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun by M83 from Before the Dawn Heals Us
Every compilation needs an epic track…should be soundtracking a Michael Mann movie.
Track 11
New In Town by Little Boots
Retro-80s pop stomp. One great album and that was that. Same, more or less, for Ladyhawke, La Roux and so on.
Track 12
Your Good Times are Just Beginning by Gold Panda from Good Luck and Do Your Best
Again, always good to end on something more reflective. A fantastic album from last year.
Ok I have to say @contraryarticle we may live in parallel universes – of the artists you have included I’ve head of precisely two: Metric and Sparklehorse. And possesses tracks by none. So pleasantly surprised to see that Sparklehorse was my favourite. A bit let down that none provoked a ‘doh was it really them?’ Moment. Need to hear more Sparklehorse clearly.
Ha! @moseleymoles I get that a lot, & not just on here, in life in general. 🙂 Yeah, I can definately recommend getting more Sparklehorse into yer life.
Hunted down some Jimmy Lewis to buy. Thank ye for that’n.
Will be hunting some Klaus Nomi down ditto, TV21 likewise.
All’s well that ends well eh?
@pizon-bros / @deviant808 / @stellarX
Both CDs arrived (many thanks to my matched ‘victims’). 🙂 Have listened to them and shall provide witty/insightful/scathing/drunken feedback ASAP now that we have this vehicle so-to-do! Cheers.
Thought I’d try the “live” feedback approach (ie, making notes concurrently with the first listen) for the offering from @pizon-bros. The other one obviously requires a more “considered” approach if @stellarX is ever going to talk to me again 🙂 Or it could just be that I’ve already heard it a few times…
Anyway, here we go. Excuse typos etc, hadn’t been drinking, I just appear to have the manual dexterity of a sloth in oven gloves at the moment.
01 Nice opening, I often like to start a mix with something that begins with a sample and the police sirens work well here. Jazzy uptempo soul number, can’t spot an obvious connection to the theme or guess who it is.
02 Bit of a jarring transition into something that is a bit reminiscent of a dripping tap! Interesting but inconsequential.
03 Wow, this CD is all over the place in terms of style and tempo! Old timey cowboy bluegrass number that I rather liked initially, but it got a bit wearing by the end.
04 Another stylistic lurch, French language folk-punk with added seagulls. My French isn’t good enough to spot a themic reference in the lyrics, if that’s where it is. Goes a bit over the top on the Guitar Heroics in the middle for me but overall I did like it.
05 More French (maybe) singing, sounds a bit like mid-period The Damned
06 More Francais. Clopping backing track and growled vocals, this is probably my favourite so far. Something about rain falling in the lyrics?
07 Slashing stabbing riffing guitars and a drawled lyric (back to English too) this is probably closest to my usual tastes and definitely the one so far that I’m most likely to go and investigate further. It’s not them, but not a million miles from Afghan Whigs, Mark Laneghan or Josh Homme’s various projects.
08 Smokey jaunty jazzy French offering about someone called Johnny. Fun stuff that’s not something I’d normally listen to.
09 Bits of Blake’s “Tyger Tyger” in there on top of a wheezing accordian/organ. Definitely odd/short enough that I can see it reappearing in my own future mixes 🙂
10 Downtempo electronics, a bit of a jungle (the location, not the genre) feel to it. Vocals sound a bit familiar, I have a feeling I’m going to kick myself when I find out who this is. The second vocal that comes in two thirds of the way in sounds a bit Scandinavian, which suggests someone like The Knife? Though I’ll be surprised if it is them.
11 Back to the blues. Like this one a lot.
12 A litany of Japanese brands over a casio-keyboard backing. It’s lightweight, but it works.
All in all, a bit of wild – and at time disjointed – ride through your Anglo/French collection, where I wasn’t able to recognise anything or pick up even one connection to the theme! A few things in there to follow up on, and nothing I actively disliked, so not too bad at all thanks.
Have just left my feedback for yourself below – but do not adjust your feedback for me just because I liked your compilation!
As if I would…
I’ll do you a few notes on the Bonus Disc sometime too.
Bonus Disc Bonus Feedback!
1) Heavy riffing opening, more my stuff 🙂 Hang on, I know this, it’s Half Man Half Biscuit and “She’s In Broadstairs”
2) Psychedelic scousepop with “Back to square one” as it’s themic link. Sounds a bit like The Coral after too much cough medicine.
3) Skittering drum ‘n’ bass, probably the same vintage as Roni Size’s “New Forms”, sounds really familiar but can’t place it. Good stuff.
4) “Freakin’ Out” by Graham Coxon. “Happiness In Magazines” is somehow the only album of his that I’ve got, largely bought on the strength of this single.
5) XTC-influenced neo-FolkPop from The Young Knives, Leicestershire’s finest band (though admitedly Being Better Than Kasabian isn’t a particularly high bar to clear) in recent history.
6) Vaguely new-wavey, nice spoken interlude, not sure if it’s vintage or a modern track with the same influences. Good stuff though, and something new to investigate after a few tracks that I already knew.
7) Sounds familiar again, eighties C86 downer pop. I’ve got a feeling I really should know who this is…
8) Talking C86. Classic tune from The Bodines, massive influence on the way my tastes evolved as a student. I was always faintly disappointed that I never met a cute indiechick called Therese back then, though I’d probably just have done something embarassing involving being knocked to the ground.
9) Another classic, earlier in vintage from the Post-Punk times that you were around for and I was a bit too young 🙂 Devo and “Mongoloid” for those following along at home.
10) Three classic acts in a row with The Chameleons. Too young for these too at the time, but saw the reformed version live a few years back and they were astonishingly good. Impossible to choose one of course, but if pushed “In Shreds” would be a candidate for my favourite song ever.
11) Soul Finger! It’s the Bar Kays isn’t it? Irresistably funky, impossible not to love.
12) Oooo, this is good. Underlying heavy industrial feel, with African flourishes on top and a vaguely housey (but not cheesy) keyboard riff. Art of Noise style “dum dum dum”s out of nowhere towards the end, then finishing up with the slightly disappointing appearance of a couple of way overexposed samples that took the edge off slightly. That is really good though, and definitely something to follow-up on.
The tailoring to my tastes definitely worked in that I own half of these already, and there’re four of the other six that I’m interesting checking out.
Glad you liked your bonus disc – had I known you would tolerate the main one so well, I wouldn’t have bothered! 😉 Seriously though – have been meaning to do something like this for you ever since you sent me the unsolicited compilation entitled something along the lines of “Nice tunes sung by nice people with words that mean something.” Mind you, I had THAT one coming! 😉
P.S. Hope you liked the covers. Yours was rather spiffing.
For the benefit of random readers, here is Deviant808’s bonus disc track listing:
01 – Half Man Half Biscuit – She’s In Broadstairs
02 – Kakuzi – We Can’t Even See
03 – Kosheen – (Slip & Slide) Suicide
04 – Graham Coxon – Freakin’ Out
05 – The Young Knives – The Decision
06 – Felony – The Fanatic
07 – The Pastels – Breaking Lines
08 – The Bodines – Therese
09 – Devo – Mongoloid
10 – The Chameleons – Tears
11 – Bar-Kays – Soulfinger
12 – Pink Panther Club – An Hour Before Sunrise
I saw the “9” playing this one in a little room, he then told us who he saw in the semen he had in his hand.
I really hoping that this comment has lost something in translation somewhere along the line… 😉
It happened in that order. Knowing the man, ones would even find that normal.
Okay, so here goes with my feedback. I’ll take them in the order I received the CDs, so here’s my piercing insight into Deviant-808’s Afterword CD SWAP 2017 01…
A confession before my review: Deviant-808 and I know each other in the ‘real world’ and have previously exchanged Velvet CD compilations. We have a pretty good idea of each other’s tastes (as prior scathing feedback will attest) but I don’t think either of us have adjusted our latest track choices as a consequence (though I did send him an additional alternate compilation that I felt would be more up his street, by way of compensation for making him endure my main offering!).
I only recognised one of Deviant-808’s tracks – which is a good thing, as I prefer being exposed to new material (it maximises the chances ‘getting into’ someone new).
01 – Solid start to the compilation. Fantastic bass/strings intro to a great soul track. Puts me in mind of title music for a late 60s or early 70s ‘Blacksploitation’ flick. Horns on the outro – can’t beat ’em. I shall be listening to this again. Definite Thumbs-up.
02 – More soul/funk goodness – another track with a 60s vibe. Very ‘James Brown’ but with more subdued vocals (and much the better for it). Another track worth revisiting. Assuredly, a Thumbs-up.
03 – Sample of a crackly vinyl Spanish Guitar intro, morphing into hip-hop rappiness. I’ve never been one to hide my dislike of this genre of music, which I find largely tuneless, repetitive and dull. This natural aversion makes it impossible for me to appraise such tracks on their own merits. Suffice to say this one’s not for me – but if we were all the same, the world would be a dull place. Thumbs-down, sadly.
04 – Melancholy, Indy female vocal (very Dubstar). Definitely a modern-era track but produced with an excellently-recreated 60s electro-vibe. Looking forward to discovering who this is and seeking out more by them. Yes, I could ‘Shazam’ the bugger or search Google for lyrical clues – but I prefer to wait for the big reveal. Top tune. Excellent, a Thumbs-up.
05 – Up-beat jingly Indy-pop, presumably entitled ‘Christine’ based on the chorus. A bit ‘thin’ vocally but pleasant enough and I shall be perfectly content to hear this number again. Thumbs-up.
06 – Another track I like a lot. A Franz-Ferdinand-like, driving bass intro with female vocal reminiscent of Debbie Harry in her pomp. What’s not to like? Step One: seek out more from this artist. Fabulous. Thumbs-up.
07 – REM – Begin The Begin. I see what you did, there. I remember getting the album shortly after release, which seems a lifetime ago. I am such an old fart. A top band who have stood the test of time and only occasionally disappeared up their own arses (are you reading this Thom Yorke?). Classic. Thumbs-up.
08 – Urgent, guitar-based Indy pop/rock. Bit of a Bauhaus vibe with a Siouxsie-Sioux vocal. Nothing special but perfectly listenable-to, so at the risk of causing Deviant-808 to faint, it’s another Thumbs-up.
09 – Another guitar-driven offering with solid female vocals. Sounds like Garbage (the band, not a judgement), thus I like it. We’re on a roll, with yet another thumbs-up.
10 – I should know who this is and am going to kick myself. The underlying bass-line is reminiscent of ‘Blue Monday’ but by no means a rip-off. Very ‘New Wave’ but I would wager it’s a far more recent release. Another winner. ‘Floating like God in his heaven’ would probably give it away via Google but again, I’ll wait for the reveal. A definite Thumbs-up.
11 – Slower tempo – and lovely stuff. Makes me want to dust off the old Zero 7 CDs. ‘Back to square one’ is the lyric and millennial electro-dub is the vibe. I await the reveal with keen interest. My thumbs are getting tired now but they are still ‘up’.
12 – The final track shifts gear into an up-beat dance/rave instrumental. Another genre that I tend to avoid, largely ’cause I think it’s shit. I manfully held back from a premature flush and listened to the whole thing – but shan’t be giving this one another outing. Thumbs-down.
So on the whole a hugely positive experience. Several tracks in there I like (a lot) and will be seeking out more from the artists, once I know who they are. Overall 10/12 positives makes this a truly excellent compilation. Cheers!
Blimey, given that it was nailed on that you weren’t going to like 3 and 12, that’s a bit of a result there 🙂
You’re telling me! 🙂 Presumably we get to post the track details here once all feedback has been received? Am all-a-dither with anticipation…
For ten, the vocalist is very distinctive, but it might be putting you off that this is not his usual band, he’s doing guest vocals for someone else…
@Deviant808 RE: Track 10 – is it Phil Oakey?
Got it 🙂
Guesting for The All Seeing I, who you may remember from their “Walk Like A Panther” single that featured Tony Christie.
Aha! “Ah yes, I remember it well…” I still have my copy of the CD single of ‘Walk Like A Panther’, from an era when people didn’t just download. Halcyon days… Absolutely loving this other track from your mix CD. Playing it (and others) to death. 🙂
Second to arrive was the offering from Pizon-Bros, which has had three listens to-date, so is due some feedback… 🙂
01- Street sounds & sirens introduce this 60s psychedelic/soul belter: ‘Expressway to your heart’. Great horns. Absolutely love this track. Never heard it before but it’s a winner and far too short. Thumbs up.
02- Bizarre kids’ TV programme/cartoon/film instrumental. Continental-sounding origin (the accordion makes me think ‘French’). Strangely hypnotic. Interesting to hear but not entirely sure it’s gong to be top of any future playlists.
03- Redneck blues, ripped from the original vinyl. The kind of track you hear in documentaries charting the roots of modern popular music. Pleasant enough, if somewhat repetitive – but always good to hear a genre one wasn’t expecting on one of these compilation CDs – it grabs your attention and keeps you interested. Nice one and another Thumbs up.
04- In a parallel universe somewhere, Tom Waits is born in Paris, joins ‘Rose’ Floyd and is produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto. This is from the resultant, Mercury Award-winning album. A curious and enthralling beast; extremely melancholy but strikingly unforgettable. I cannot imagine any other circumstances under which I would be exposed to this track. Here’s to compilation CD swaps with random strangers. Thumbs up again.
05- I honestly cannot tell what language this is sung in. Ultimately, it sounds like complete gobbledygook performed by Ramones wannabes. The tune itself is pleasant enough punk/rock with a decent riff – but the disconnect with the lyrics doesn’t help. Just ‘okay’, so the thumb remains horizontal on this one…
06- Tom Wait’s Gallic twin (or Jacques Brel’s offspring) with another interesting offering. The slower tempo suckers you into thinking it’s a ballad, then suddenly – WHAM! – you’re in the audience of some demonic circus, where terrifying clowns play a sinister dirge on their ‘Flying V’s. Scary stuff. In more ways than one. Not exactly a ‘foot tapper’. Thumbs down.
07- Am sure I’ve heard this before. Vocally, it sounds very Ian McCulloch. Arabic pipes morph into the rock anthem love-child of U2 & Primal Scream. Great riff, harmonica, tambourine, distorted vocals. Thumbs up.
08- Another total shift of genres – a swing/jazz duet à la française. Once suspects the lyrics possess some comedic qualities, which are sadly lost on a single-language dullard such as I. Very much liked the vibe however, so another Thumbs up.
09- A nautical atmosphere is created by the squeezebox accompaniment to Ivor Cutler reading William Blake’s ‘Tiger Tiger’. Utterly bizarre but strangely pleasant. I can give it nothing other than a Thumbs up.
10- As a confessed viewer of the History Channel’s ‘Vikings’ I would put money on this being a track by (or involving) Fever Ray. Dreamy, relaxing & mystical. Thumbs up.
11- Crackly, vinyl-ripped Creole blues. Somewhat repetitive, sung by a gravelly-voiced hillbilly momma. Glad to have heard it but am ambivalent about ever hearing it again. A second horizontal Thumb, I’m afraid.
12- When our two girls were much younger, they would merrily torture us by singing the ‘Fast Food Song’ by Fast Food Rockers. Fast-forward many years and I have happily forgotten all about that abortion of a song. Imagine my glee to discover that the Fast Food Rockers have reunited to grace us with their latest classic, of oriental origin, replacing the fast food brands with brands of Nipponese technology. Thumbs down.
An extremely interesting compilation that a lot of thought has gone into, to ensure a true mix of different genres by juxtaposing tracks of different styles. Bravo. Not everything is to my taste – but then one never expects that of these things. There are a number of tracks here that I like as well as the superb opener. Thanks for the mix! 🙂
And we have a first tracklisting to post! @Pizon-bros ‘s mix goes like this
01 Expressway To Your Heart by Amen Corner
01 Les Pinces À Linge by Klimperei
03 She shook her gin by Barbecue Bob
04 Roi, fou, pantin by Kommintern
05 Hur E de Nu Lilla Du Kaj P. Dal
06 Comme à Ostende by Arno
07 Mantra Slider by The Soundtrack Of Our lives
08 Le petit commerce by Boris Vian
09 Tyger by William Blake – Singer Allen Ginsberg
10 Dry and Dusty by Fever Ray
11 Jacksonville Nellie Florence & Blues Barbecue Bob
12 Ya-Ma-Ha by Humpe Humpe
“Ahhh…. interesting… most interesting..!”
I guess it’s no surprise that a fellow named Pierre was going to favour songs of Gallic origin, so I stand by my feedback comment “I cannot imagine any other circumstances under which I would be exposed to this track.” That applies to most of this compilation – and that is a truly great thing. This is exactly what these CD swaps are for – being exposed to new music you would never normally consider. I shall be seeking some of these artists out for more exploration. Others, less so! 😉 I still think track 9 is Ivor Cutler… Thanks Pierre!
OK, then feedback for @stellarX offering. As requested, not toned down in the slightest just because you liked mine for once 🙂
I listened to this a couple of times, and generally enjoyed it, before sitting down to do a review listening. Three times I tried this. Three times I fell asleep within the first two tracks! Which I’m sure was completely unconnected. Anyway, onwards…
1) Pleasant enough strummy backdrop, but the singer is over-emoting far too much for me. Sounds like one of those late nineties soundalike worthy guitarpoppers (Athlete? Starsailor? Turin Brakes?) who fans tend to defend with phrases like “At least they play their own instruments / write their own songs” as if that was relevant when between them they’ve never produced anything that sounds as good as Girls Aloud doing “The Promise”. He does sound a bit like the singer from Dogs Die In Hot Cars though, who I do like.
2) Has a seventies style but is probably something far more up-to-date. I quite liked this on first play, but now I think it’s trying a bit too hard and the bloke on backing vocals is annoying me. I do like the Eighties keyboard riff halfway through, the guitar solo that follow it not so much. Have found myself singing the hook now and then, so I’m perhaps being a bit hard on it.
3) Starts a bit like Subterranean Homesick Blues for a few seconds, then starts eulogising about cocaine. Jaunty little number with excellent mouth organ. I like this.
4) Groovy little instrumental number, making good use of some sub-continental flourishes, that never settles into predictability and is constantly throwing interesting sounds into the mix. Really like this. It’s not any of them I don’t think, but it’s not a million miles from the likes of Kojak, Black Star Liner, Thunderball and Marxman. Which is good company to be in.
5) Sultry vocals, that I like a bit less the more effort she puts in. It’s little bit coffee table, but overall very pleasant and I might well explore a bit more.
6) Hmmm, I’ve tried to get into this sort of modern R&B (Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean et al) but it really isn’t for me.
7) Sounds a bit familiar this, is entirely possible that it’s been on a “tasteful” advert as it’s inoffensive/non-descript enough. Probably perfectly serviceable if you like this sort of thing, but it’s a bit polite for my tastes. Which I’m aware is a bit hypocritical of me as it’s not too different to Damon Albarn’s solo album and I liked that fine.
8) Yay! A bit of a classic is this. It’s the first thing I heard by them, but I doubt that’s the connection to the theme.
9) Late period disco from the more soulful end of the genre, could be Earth Wind and Fire or someone like that? A bit floaty for me, I prefer my disco more like Chic.
10) I’ve heard this before somewhere, but haven’t a clue where, possibly – again – used on an advert? Not my usual kind of stuff (sounds like it’s one of the late seventies prog rock dinosaurs / yacht rockers having an experiment) but it’s infectious and bouncy enough that you’d have to be an ever bigger curmudgeon than I pretend to be to dislike this. Admirable sentiment too, who wouldn’t rather be banging on a drum all day than working? I doubt I’ll be checking out anything else by them/him, but have found myself singing this in unguarded moments which has necessitating cleansing myself with early Wedding Present b-sides as therapy.
11) A bit of seventies (I’ll wager) lovers-rock. Perfectly pleasant. I know the song, but this isn’t the original or the best known version. (Interesting coincidence, there’s a link between the most popular version of this and the first track on my CD!)
12) Live track with soulful piano opening, my hackles are rising already. Thankfully it’s not Elton John, Billy Joel or their ilk. Pretty decent, though a little mannered compared to the more raucous and uptempo soul & blues I tend to go for. Slight shades of Otis Redding and B.B.King, but am 99% sure it’s neither of them. Has a good voice though so someone to check out further, especially if they have stuff where they let rip a bit more.
All in all, a pretty decent hit rate and I enjoyed most of it on one level or another. Probably only 1 and 6 (and maybe 7 if I heard it too many more times) that I actively disliked, and will definitely investigate #4 further at the very least. Thanks!
Ha ha – I think the most telling feedback is the ‘falling asleep three times’ comment! 😉
Track 2 is early 80s (’83/’84). You have two guesses where you have actually named the artist concerned. Track 11 is well and truly 1970s (Trojan Records), so spot-on. 🙂
I see that Pizon-Bros’ tracks have been revealed now that we’ve both supplied feedback – time to reply to that post…
P.S. It won’t surprise you that I very much like Girls Aloud’s ‘The Promise’ – but I do have soft spots for ‘Good Souls’ by Starsailor and ‘Painkiller’ by Turin Brakes. But then as you know I am happy to embrace my inner “don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks” musical tastes! Pity the poor souls matched with me next time around… 😉
@Pizon-Bros…
Hi – please can you let me know if you received my compilation CD? When you did not acknowledge receiving the first copy I sent to you, I sent a second copy via recorded delivery. This second copy has just been returned to me having been unclaimed from your local post office. Cheers.
Yes, I received it, then, the second compilation went away before I arrived from “holidays” (three days before). I am sorry for the time it took,
I will give you both feedback this week.
Thanks for confirming – I was just worrying that you may not have received either package. 🙂 Cheers!
Helluva week.
thank you, mr @deviant808!
’Theme from Cleopatra Jones’ – Joe Simon (The theme goes at the beginning of a film!)
’The ABC Song’ – Diamond Joe (Beginning of the Alphabet (also, coincidentally, his last single))
’Left My Wallet In El Segundo’ – A Tribe Called Quest (Just moved house, this is on the first album I played in the new place)
’Come On Let’s Go’ – Broadcast (Stretching it a bit, Let’s Go and make a start on this)
’Pristine Christine’ – The Sea Urchins (First release on Sarah records)
’Step One’ – Tender Trap (What to do when you begin a new band)
’Begin the Begin’ – REM (First track I thought of for this, so is also where this CD began)
’Leave Home’ – Desperate Journalist (After you leave home, that’s where real life begins.)
’No Endings But Only The Beginning’ – Taffy (Says it all)
’The First Man In Space’ – The All Seeing I (From a parallel world where Phil Oakey began the Space Race. )
’Back To Square One’ – Maya Jane Coles (…and begin again)
’Reset It’ – Special Request (Before we begin, we need to reset it)
Hmmm, I really should’ve spent longer than what appears to be about 90 seconds writing those notes!
Thanks for posting though.
I think I wrote some better ones, but they’re on my laptop so will check when back from hols next week.
and not to forget @StellarX!
01 – Royworld – Wish Ourselves Away
02 – Missing Persons – Walking In L.A.
03 – Old Crow Medicine Show – Tell It To Me
04 – Chris Joss – You’ve Been Spiked
05 – Onuka – Look
06 – Frank Ocean – Pink + White
07 – Pete Fij & Terry Bickers – Love’s Going To Get You
08 – Belle & Sebastian – Lazy Line Painter Jane
09 – Earth, Wind & Fire – That’s The Way Of The World
10 – Todd Rundgren – Bang The Drum All Day
11 – Susan Cadogan – Hurts So Good
12 – James Booker – True
P.S. The ’Beginnings’ hook is that these are all the first tracks I ever heard by each of these artists, who I have since gone on to love and follow.
@geacher / @retropath2 / @gatz
(cutting and pasting the bit Geacher wrote about Gatz’ mix in another thread – hope you don’t mind, and feel free to post any further thoughts, changes of mind, etc)
1) African vibes, I liked this, I will listen some more
2) Female singer-songwriter? A bit bland and strummy… again, another listen.
3)Tull?
4)Carly Simon sounda-like? OK.
5)Funk! I love funk! Investigate further.
6) Big band sound, a torch singer…cannot tell whether it was recorded last week or 1942. I love big bands!
7) I wrote “80s”, and ten minutes later I cannot remember what the song sounded like. First one that I can say did nothing for me.
8) Country vibe…Jayhawkish… Liked it a lot.
9) Really really liked this one. The pick of the bunch for me. I would/will go out an buy an album on the strength of this one.
10) 80’s again? Not sure about the singer…. might like it to play some more, might not.
11) The old BeeGees classic sung a la Eva Cassidy. Nice voice …would like to here more from this lady before making up my mind.
12) Odd one……
So far I have resisted to take a peek into the setlist, and will continue to do so until told.
Retro on @gatz:
1. I know this! I’ve got this, I’m sure. Transglobal Underground?? No Natacha or rapping, tho. File under tip of my tongue and love it. Right up my street.
2.Unmistakeably Thea Gilmore, but not one I have heard. I like the acoustic spareness, suggesting it’s an old one.
3.Tull. Voice thinner than expected so possibly solo Ian Anderson.
4. Lovely voice, classy arrangement. Lyrically very dated, as is the guitar. Complete guess: Claire Hamill?
5.Gospelly side of soul. Is it Mavis (Staples)? Again sounds at least 20 years old.
6. Lawks, too rooty-tooty for me. The stylisation smacks of an Etta or a Bettye, uncertain which.
7. Fabulous intro. Vocally reminiscent of Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Perrett. I feel I should know it. Got it! Barmy lyrics reveal it as Copey from Tamworth.
8. The Fannies. Love ’em. Got it. It isn’t complicated.
9. On the damper side of bed-wetters for me. Mid period OMITD when they added “normal” instruments?
10. I know the voice. Or at least the voices the singer has in his influences. Goth goes Bowie or is it old Mr Party Two Feats madness himself. Landfill pententiousness, unless it is Billy McKenzie. In which case it’s normal for him.
11. The consummate Kathryn Williams from her sublime covers album, Relations.
12. Lovely song. Is this John Cooper Clark’s singing LP with Hugh Cornwell? Sounds older than that, so is it, oxymoron alert, a good song by the Fall?
Some interesting punts, gents, and some very good detective work from Retro in particular – yes to solo Ian Anderson, and it’s on old Thea B-side from the days of CD singles.
Interesting you both thought number 4 was a woman, though it’s actually a local musician whose only releases are on Bandcamp. You know how it is – you go to a small local gig (Michele Stoddart in this case) and your heart sinks a little when the support is a guy who works in the local coffee shop with his guitar. Then this one surprised me by being really good.
Unlike the two of you I attempted to select tracks which were about beginnings, though I suspect some of the precise reasoning might escape me now. If I’d followed your leads in selecting tracks which were somehow a beginning to you I could have
chosen anythingwidened the range.I’ve typed up some still-scrappy notes and will post them unedited tonight, so don’t worry that I’ll be influenced by your comments (‘bed wetters’ indeed).
i’ll submit my funky stuff tonight…. @gatz is updated, and @Retro almost completed.. probably between 7-8pm… looking forward to discovering who is who…tho’ I did eventually get Kathryn Williams.
Gatz
1: No idea who it is. Sounds like a band that I have from a couple of magazine cds…. quite like it. Would I buy it? Maybe.
2: Thea Gilmore Retro thinks? I don’t think that I’ve knowingly heard of hers. Sounds a bit Richard Thompsony, which is no bad think… the song I mean, not the guitar playing. Would it make me pursue this artist further? Yes. Liked it more and more.
3: Ian Anderson, Got that straight away. Got shed loads of his stuff, and he has done better.
4: Still think it is a girl singer, even tho’ it isn’t. A modicum of talent there. Gatz tell the coffee shop boy that he has something…does sound very 70sh tho’. Good effort.
5: It is nothing new, nothing that would make me rush out and buy it, but it is what it is, and it was good. Mavis Staples? I can see why Retro tagged that.
6. Big band sound, a torch singer…cannot tell whether it was recorded last week or 1942. I love big bands!
7. Nope, did not like this at all. Of all the 24 songs, this was the only one I actively disliked.
8.The Fannies? Never heard of them. I liked this very much. I will seek out the Fannies. They sounded like Hazeldine, no bad thing. And buy.
9: The Bed Wetters! My favourite of the whole album. If this is OMITD, I will shoot myself.
10: Nope. Singer not for me. Moving swiftly along
11: Yep. Kathryn Williams.
12: Still can’t suss this one out… probably give it a miss.
I apply the same logic that I use when listening to the various free CDs that music magazines… listen to it all, and if you find one new act, then it is a plus
#8 & 9. I will buy.
1,2,4,5,6 I will investigate further.
Anderson & Williams I already have.
The rest, no. A good batting average!
@Retro
1: Cracking start. This is fucking bonkers, it really is. Not a scooby doo who or what. Tell you what, there is great joy there in the playing…… Radiohead it ain’t.
2: Blues. Recognise the singer, I may even have some of his stuff, but struggling with memory….. again a good ‘un, but I am going to kick myself.
3: I wrote Sun Kil Moon when I first heard it…. less so on my seventh or eighth listening…. Retro on a roll…. AGAIN I am sure I have stuff from this guy.
4: 1970’s New York……… Judee Sill? Probs not as I have lots of her stuff. Two or three minutes too long.
5: Oh I loved this, I really did….AGAIN I recognise the voice. American. Marvelous. Is it from the 70’s?
6: Mmm. Not my cup of tea… oddly I graded it “B” on my first listen. Not now. “C” at best.
7: This is the theme tune to a 60’s radio show…it bloody well is, and if it isn’t, then it bloody well should be. It is what it is. Wouldn’t hurt me to hear it again, but I wouldn’t put 6d in the JukeBox either. Boy can play the guitar tho’.
8: Yep, I like this. American I again I guess.
9: Good stuff… Sounds a bit dated, but I like it…. some middling band from the early 70’s?
10: Back on track. This is American. Kathleen Edwards? Another winner I would say.
11: Big band sound, a torch singer…cannot tell whether it was recorded last week or 1942. I love big bands!
12: Dave Gilmour. Or his second cousin, Simon Gilmour. I think.
#3,5,8,10…. will buy
#9,12 Will investigate, as long as #12 ain’t Gilmour.
The remainder were songs I would listen to again, and nothing I didn’t like. apart from perhaps 6.
What fun!
@Kid Dynamite …did I send you my track listing? Don’t think I did?
I don’t have it in my messages, so please send it on. Thanks!
@Geacher
1. I do love a cool, retro organ sound and this was terrific. Not for the last time in Geacher’s selections the initial notes I jotted down mentioned a filmic feel, a slow and prominent bass line and a long intro which initially fooled me into thinking there may not be a vocal. The vocal, when it comes, may well be my pick of all the voices here.
2. More cinematic moods and slow bass, a woozy vocal adds to the hazy feel. Very nice, though the texture and feel grabbed me more than the song.
3. More woozy vocals, but with a barely-bothered shrug of a performance this time. This one didn’t really do anything for me I’m afraid.
4. Aha! Got one! It’s Tim Buckley! I don’t recognise the song, but that voice is unmistakable, and in TB’s case that’s a very good thing indeed.
5. Stone the crows – it’s Stone the Crows! The only one I already have in my collection, and Maggie Bell’s bluesy vocals and the roomy arrangement and prominent bass means it fits right in with the selection here.
6. Bit countryish, Dylan-ish vocal – I liked this a lot and it may well be the one which makes me want to investigate the band (or singer?) further.
7. Here’s an upbeat, hippy vibe which makes me think an accompanying video would involve a bunch of long-hairs mucking about on cars in the desert. Passed the time pleasantly enough, but it didn’t make me want to find out more.
8. By this point I’m starting to imagine Geacher in a great-coat drenched in patchouli. Some heavy hippy riffing, a nutter on the bus singer, and a terrific Hammond organ sound.
9. We may have reached peak Geacher! Bluesy, prominent bass, cinematic, long intro, impassioned vocal (when it finally arrives) – I’m calling a full line on my bingo card. At first I thought this must be a Led Zep out-take, though the fiddle didn’t fit in with that. It’s fabulous late night groove.
10. As we wind down towards the end its time for a folkier vibe. From the intro I was all set to join in ‘I am a poor wayfaring traveller…’, but I would have been wrong. Very enjoyable, and another one which makes me want to find out more about the performers (it’s a male/female double vocal). The violin across the spare arrangement is lovely.
11. We seem to have a made a rare foray into the 80s, and at first I thought this was Lloyd Cole, though I’m pretty sure I’m wrong. It’s enjoyable, but not my area.
12. Although this passed the time well enough I kept forgetting to write any notes for it. My attention somehow slid off the recording.
@ Gatz In response.
1) Very prescient. The singer got his jotters not long after this and he was replaced by a “name” singer. Fuckwits.
2) Again, spot on. I love this album, but it is a “whole” album, and one songe seems to segue into the next.
3) Fair enough.
4) tick
5) tock
6) Oh you have taste, and if you think that HE sounds like Dylan, you want to hear his brother.
7 ) They should have got you to do the video….
8) You make it sound like a bad thing!
9) Larry Taylor on bass. NOT Robert Plant on vocals
10) two girls… the curse of the mistaken sex strikes again. One is very well known
11) Lloyd Cole? Oooof, and Gatz hits the bar……
12) Shoulda. coulda, …bad choice as a CD closer.
@Gatz
1974sh, me and my then G/F went up to Glasgow for the day…I had on a “sports jacket”… we went into a record shop, I bought some stuff and mary bought some joss stix and a phial of patchoili oil… the glass phial broke (no memory of how) and stunk my jacket out for years.
Everytime I smell that smell…..
Retro on @geacher
1. Colosseum! T1S1 Valentine suite. Love this album (and, post script, I listened to this selection before the recent Bargey post on the record.)
2. So if T1S1 is the theme, this is some Floyd I am unfamiliar with. Or sounds like it. Has to be Nick Mason on drums. Wonderful steel playing.
3.Massed mellotrons? Procul Harum influences aplenty but it isn’t Gary Brooker singing. Very english, cusp of the 70s, front end of. No idea beyond that.
4. Vibes. Surely not Family, given Geach’s “relationship” with Chappo. Voice naggingly familiar. Gottit. Tim Buckley.
5. Delaney and Bonnie? Stone the Crows? Vinegar Joe? One of them, probably british. It isn’t that one they always have on Whistle Test compilations, Elkie Brooks on heat, is it? I’ll pitch my guess there.
6.So Bruce-like, bar the vocals, it’s not true. Deffo Roy Bittan on piano. Is it someone like Gary US Bonds or Southside Johnny. Little Stevie even?
7. Stones riffing, hoarse vocal and 2 guitarists. Humble Pie, Frampton era, still on a slightly more melodic wavelength., Marriott before his voice totally shot??
8. 70s rifferama with a hammond underpin that I like. Is it Carl Palmer drumming, in which case early Atomic Rooster or even the Crazy World, even if the vocals less clearcut than Arthur Brown?
9. Cripes, electric blues fiddle. Luvverly! Flock? Its a Beautiful Day? Or do I plump for someone more akin to Campbeltown like String Driven Thing?
10. At last another I know. Linda Ronstadt, Adieu Dear Heart, her duo record with a cajun singer. Ann Savoy. They do a great version of Walk Away Renee.
11. Sounds like a Lou Reed song, maybe a cover, as it isn’t Lou. Nick Cave as a wild guess?
12.Tortured stuff. I like the fiddles underpinning the drums and dated guitar solo. Can’t place the singer. Bit Waterboys, a bit Jagger? I’ll kick myself, I’m sure, but can’t get it.
@Retro
1) Yep! I saw your thread…knew you would get it then
2) Not Floyd.
3) Album released last year.
4) Yep
5) Stone The Crows it is.
6) Nope. He is someone who if not for his health problems, would be a star. IMHO.
7) Compliments indeed!
8) Rob Tait drumming…singer only gets to sing because he wrote the song. Good tho’ yes?
9) String Driven Thing do have a Campbeltown connection, you smarty pants you…SDT were very good live….but wrong continent.
10) Yep.
11) This band released one of the greatest albums ever… and it died a death. There is an Afterword connection, a very strong one.
12) Tortured indeed.
@Retropath2
1. Here’s bit of straight laced, straight-faced folksiness. Strict tempo rhythm and none of that electric nonsense. ‘Albion Band?’ was what I jotted down. A bit dry and academic for my tastes.
2. A lovely guitar lick and a shuffling beat lead us into what I initially thought was a Lyle Lovett song, though by the time the chorus came around I was less sure. Still, I like Lyle Lovett and I liked this very much.
3. Is that a hurdy gurdy I can hear? Here’s a vocal that would fit right in on much of Geacher’s selections.
4. This made me think of Frazey Ford, but the style seems to be a bit more 70s Laurel Canyon. Like a lot of Retro’s choices, the vocal is fairly low down in the mix making you lean in to listen to it. Most of these songs have to be listened to alone rather than as background for a group. I liked this one a lot and want to know more.
5. Paul Weller, I’ll be bound. I always loathed the Jam with the sort of passion which sets in so hard in teenage years that it can never be overcome, but if Weller we must have then his acoustic noodlings are by far the easiest for me to take. I even (whisper it) enjoyed this.
6. Getting funky now, with a nice bubbling bass, though I could take or leave the singer.
7. Oh now this I loved. More funky soul with a fantastic guitar sound. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve got plenty of this sort of thing on my hard drive already. Could be new, could be 60s, but this groove is timeless.
8. Erm, ok. I can’t say I’m too bothered about this one. The singer certainly doesn’t sound like he is. Next?
9. No, it’s no use. This is the one I forget every time I play the disc.
10. Hurrah! We’re back on track. My notes say ‘nice bit of yawing’ or possibly ‘yawning’ though makes just as little sense. On first listen I liked something that begins with ‘y’ or maybe ‘g’ anyway. Retro’s the doctor but I’m the own whose writing I can’t read.
11. More in the category of ‘I love this sort of thing even if I don’t know who it is’. It’s the sort of hot, jazzy sound I associate in recent years with collections of those radio shows Bob Dylan presented. Great sax sound.
12. I sort of forgot it was playing. It Was it number 9 again? Nope, listened repeatedly but there’s just nothing there.
Here’s Geacher’s tracklisting….
Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum: Butty’s Blues.
A A Bondy: Fevers
Cat’s Eyes: Chameleon Queen
Tim Buckley: Buzzin’ Fly
Stone The Crows: Love ’74
Simone Felice: Molly O
Poco: ”..And Settlin’ Down…”
Pete Brown & Piblokto!: Aeroplane Head Woman
John Mayall’s USA Union: Crying
Linda Ronstadt & Theresa Anne Savoy: Adieu, False Heart
Love & Money: Johnny’s Not Here
Alejandro Escovedo: I was Drunk.
@retropath2 @gatz Don’t think I have your tracklistings, but you’ve had the two expected reviews so please either send them to me or post them yourselves.
I sent mine to MoseleyMoles. Here it is n all it’s glory
Track 01 : The Feeling Begins, Peter Gabriel (Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ)
Track 02 : Lightning, Thea Gilmore (Juliet, CD single)
Track 03 : New Blood, Old Veins, Ian Anderson (Homo Erraticus)
Track 04 : Fly, Silenceofsound (Cinderella)
Track 05 : Brand New Day, The Staple Singers (he Gospel Truth: The Gospel Soul And Funk Of Stax Records)
Track 06 : Stop Talkin’ And Start Walkin’ , Annie Laurie (The OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957)
Track 07 : Cheap New-Age Fix, Julian Cope (Interpreter)
Track 08 : Start Again, Teenage Fanclub (Songs From Northern Britain)
Track 09 : Come To Me, Steve Mason (Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time)
Track 10 : New Generation, Suede (Dog Man Star)
Track 11 : I Started A Joke, Kathryn Williams (Relations)
Track 12 : I Wanna Be Yours, John Cooper Clarke (Word Of Mouth: Very Best Of John Cooper Clarke)
I sent to the Moseley Mole too, but here it is!
I can’t believe @gatz and I both included the same Ann Laurie track AND both failed to recognise it in each others list………
1. The BEGINNING of the World: Ashley Hutchings & John Fitzpatrick from The Compleat Dancing Master
2.START It Up: Robben Ford from Robben Ford and the Blue Line
3. False START: Peter Bruntnell from Peter and the Murder of Crows
4.BEGINNING Tomorrow: Joy of Cooking from Joy of Cooking
5. Brand New START: Paul Weller from Modern Classics
6. Get STARTED, START a Fire: Graham Parker from The Mona Lisa’s Sister
7. Head START: Joe Pass from Better Days
8. START A War: The National from Boxer
9. START All Over: Kula Shaker from K
10. START Point: The Bushburys from Brand New Day
11. Stop Talkin’ And START Walkin’: Annie Laurie from OKeh Rhythm & Blues Story 1949-1957
12.Where We START: David Gilmour from On An Island
Who is the fiddle player on the John Mayall, @geacher? Is it Sugar Cane Harris?
Yes. The album is called USA Union and is much forgotten about by Mayall fans, apart from me. JM, Don “Sugercane” Harris, Larry Taylor, Harvey Mandell. I bought when I was still in school, 45 years ago, and no month goes past without me giving it a spin.
I DID notice the duplication of Annie Laurie (HUGE coincidence), so that is why I gave them identical reviews… (I love big bands, me)
Both of you liked Simone Felice’s “Molly O”. The album is called “Strangers”. It is a bloody great album. The Sunday Times gave it *album of the week* status, and I will steal part of their review….”Proper grown up music for grown-ups”
I enjoyed this experiment. Kula Shaker I have in my collection, but I did not recognise it!
I may try the Felice album; his old band continues to frustrate me with the random quality control across any of their records- usually a couple of (very) good tracks surrounded by dross.
USA Union sounds one I will definitely seek out. I had honestly wondered whether it was Sugarcane, based on the tone, before seeking a more mainstream guess. Papa John Creach had been another thought.
After recording and then touring for a couple of years with Mayall, Harvey Mandel and Sugarcane Harris had a band called The Pure Food And Drug Act. Very early-’70s!
Must have been during his tenure with Mayall that this oddity got recorded at the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival.
“New Violin Summit” featuring Jean-Luc Ponty, Sugarcane Harris, Michal Urbaniak and Nipso Brantner all on violins plus Terje Rypdal on guitar, Wolfgang Dauner on keyboards, Neville Whitehead on bass and Robert Wyatt on drums.
.
Sugarcane is last of the four to solo on the opening track.
I actually have spoken with Simone Felice (got the foto also!) and he hinted that he was frustrated by how Ian Felice was the main man in the Felice Bros, and it was very hard for Simone to get any of his stuff onto an FB album.
As much as I like the Felice Brother’s stuff, and I do, very much, “Strangers” is in a different post code to anything they did.
As for your output?
Robben Ford I know, and have some of his stuff. Will buy…. Peter Bruntnell also Joy of Cooking yes.. a worthy experiment all round!
@paulwright / @baron-harkonnen / @ron-cucumber
My apologies to @paulwright & @ron-cucumber (did you know that `the Devil`s vegetable` the cucumber is a very health giving vegetable, so thank the Devil for that), I digress I was never messaged any address`s to send a CD to. I presumed I had been deemed out of favour by the AW hierarchy due to an unfortunate episode recently.
And my apologies to Ron – firstly for being so late, and secondly for my rather cheesy CD being considerably inferior to his. And the 2 tunes he included that I considered, were better than my choices. My defence for the first is that I have been away from home so much. I don’t have a defence for the second.
So,
1. A rather trancey piano driven thing that it quite pleasant – no idea who it is though.
2. My House by Chuck Roberts – funnily enough just been listening to Talking Heads and this kind of reminds me of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I missed house because I was too old. And now its 20 years old. or more?
3. CSNY? Harmonies and lyrics sound like that but I don’t know it
4. No idea – bluesy thing that reminds me of the late 60s, but could be a more modern replica.
5. Sounds a bit like Goldfrapp around 7th Tree – but isnt. I like it. No idea. Repetitive keyboard figure that reminds me of blinded the light.
6. authentically 60s I am sure – but don’t know it.
7. funky and again I reminded of Talking Heads, but no idea
8. REM – Begin the Begin. Miles Standish proud. What does that mean? One I considered, and should have used.
9. Another very bluesy track. Which I don’t recognise. Nice harmonica.
10. Beth Orton. Funnily enough I used a different Beth Orton track instead. Obviously I like this.
11. Its our kid Liam doing a Beatles impersonation I am sure. But I don’t know it. Either that or World Party. Dangerously rockist opinion – I like Liam’s voice.
12. Smooth jazz but no idea who.
Excellent – very enjoyable. Thanks. So, who are they really?
And apologies for my cheesy and predictable selections in return.
Cheers for the CD @paulwright It’s not cheesy at all, some new (to me) gems in there!
1. Stones – Start Me Up. Obvious choice it may be, but there’s nowt wrong with obvious when it’s great. And bonus point for using a live version. What era is the recording?
2. No idea. Sounds a little Velvet-y or something circa Nuggets? Great thrashing away at the guitar at the end. I like it muchly!
3. Polyphonic Spree – this was originally on my list too (iTunes threw it up due to the album title “Beginning Stages of…”)
4. Pleasant instrumental, but not a clue who it is or even what era. 80’s / Smiths era perhaps?
5. Carpenters – it’s one of those songs I’ve heard many times in the background but never really listened too properly until now. I like it.
6. Short and sweet acoustic tune. No idea.
7. Not heard this before, but I like it – is that Fergal Sharkey singing?!
8. Beth Orton.
9. Is it Radiohead? Sounds vaguely familiar but I can’t place it.
10. Jazzy, smooth, with great vocal harmonies and a nice bit of jazz flute (Ron Burgundy?). I like it, what is it?
11. BRMC – Stop (I see what you did there!)
Do the mods put the tracklists up now? Or do we do it ourselves? @kid-dynamite
Fairly convincing score there – 8/11 (being a little generous).
@kid-dynamite will now hopefully put up the scoreson the doors, but the missing tracks were;
4. A new career in a new town, Bowie from Low. Yes I hear what you mwan about the Smiths
6. Plain Sailing by Tracey Thorn from A Distant shore (about meeting Ben Watt)
10. Beginning of a new day by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson.
Nice I had one you considered and vice versa
@paulwright gave us
1. Start me up – Rolling Stones, Atlantic City ’89
2. Beginning to see the light – Velvet Underground, Matrix tapes
3. Reach for the sun – Polyphonic Spree, the Beginning phase of …
4. A new career in a new town- Bowie, Low
5. We’ve only just begun- The Carpenters, Gold
6. Plain Sailing – Tracey Thorn, A Distant Shore
7. Julie Ocean – The Undertones, Positive Touch
8. What we begin – Beth Orton, Comfort of Strangers
9. Where you end and I begin – Radiohead, Hail to the thief
10. Beginnings (first minute of a new day) – Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson, From South Africa to South Carolina
11. Stop – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Take them on on your own.
2. Ahh, it was 100% Velvet-y then! Is this an early track?
4. There go any chances of getting into the Bowie fanclub!
7. Ahh, it’s “Julie” Ocean – I was hearing it as “To The Ocean”. And it *was* Fergal Sharkey’s voice too!
9. I’ve even got that album, but probably never really given it much of a listen – will re-investigate. Funny how hearing a track out of context can draw you in in a way you don’t get when it’s “in it’s right place”.
10. Funnily enough, I thought of GSH when hearing it, but convinced myself the voice was too smooth to be him. Cool track.
while @ron-cucumber served up
1. Once Upon A Time – Air (which is how all good stories should begin)
2. My House – Rhythm Controll (“In the beginning there was house…”)
3. Better Days – Graham Nash (from Songs for Beginners)
4. Pretty Girl – The Beginning Of The End
5. Waiting For Something to Begin – Smoke Fairies
6. Then The Heartaches Begin – The Hollies
7. Let’s Start The Dance – Bohannon
8. Begin The Begin – R.E.M.
9. Brand New Start – John Mayall
10. Where Do I Begin – The Chemical Brothers
11. Start Anew – Beady Eye
12. A Child Is Born – Eddie Harris
@vulpes-vulpes / @craig42blue / @wheldrake
Hi both. Thanks for the CDs. A good mix of the familiar and the strange on both. Still bedding in so will come back with comments after me hols!
Hope you are enjoying my effort.
Enjoying both of your cds, will get back soon…
Me too – thanks both.
A couple of great collections that will be in the car for some time. They are very different too, which is enormously entertaining. I’ve written down my first thoughts in some detail after a few listens, and as soon as I return from hols, having ruminated further, will compose something of which others might be able to make some sense and post it up here.
Great idea this; shame it’s giving some folk kittens!
Vulpine CD – There is no beginning or end, just now…
After the 1st bizarre track, a meld of tunes & styles, this was a wonderfully warm sounding compilation, one to wallow in; excellent stuff!
1 – No Idea! African and Indian influences and then a harpsichord, prior to Keith Emerson style keyboards – Prog? Probably… Gentle Giant?? ***
2 – The Floyd with ‘Free Four’ from the underrated ‘Obscured by clouds’ I’ll give it ****
3 – Mix of ace brass and ‘leccy guitar – late 60’s feel – warm sound – loved it *****
4 – Starts off a bit Moody Blues then goes into a wonderful syncopated groove – great ****
5 – Dub, Black Uhuru or Lindon Kwesi Johnson ?? ***
6 – ‘Every Kind of People’ – but is it it Robert Palmer or not? ****
7 – ‘How I Miss You’ ? Good lounge feel, torch song, a bit like a Todd R ballad ***
8 – A Moving Hearts tune? Or is this an even more frenetic Gaelic group? ****
9 – Kinda Caravan/P.M. Gong/Camel? Basically I have no idea – it has a bit of a French feel ****
10 – John Cooper Clarke – either solo with backing or a collaboration – not a well known one I think ***
11 – The Walker Brothers’ ‘No Regrets’ sung by Willie Nelson? ***
12 – Moody Blues circa 1969/70?? ***
13 – A forgotten classic ‘One Day I’ll Fly Away’ – Randy Crawford ****
14 – Reminds me of 1990 and Bomb The Bass or even Santessa – again no idea? ***
Thanks a lot Vulpes. I can’t wait to find out more… Resisting use of Shazaam…
Wheldrakean CD –Beginnings (It’s the journey that counts).
An intriguing mixture of stuff interspersed with quotes from ‘The Prisoner’, as diverse as the Vulpine cd but with ‘Beginnings’ being more literally taken as the theme. A dozen tracks exactly as specified. Great packaging features a Prisoner/Portmeirion intrigue. I am unsure if there is any connection here to any artist(s) at Festival no. 6 but again, this is excellent stuff!
1 – …intro… (countdown)
2 – Classical, maybe a film theme, very pleasant I’ll give this ***
3 – Sounds hi-energy like The Go-Team? A cover of ‘Absolute Beginners’ – good stuff *****
4 – Maybe ‘Life Is Just Beginning’ or something similar by a 1960’s UK beat combo?? ****
5 – …link…
6 – David Bowie – I must have this somewhere in my collection! Sounds like a spare track from ‘Black Star’ – but it could be a bit earlier? Great! ****
7 – I know this one, I think, Teenage Fanclub – sounds like a fine tune from ‘Songs from Northern Britain’? ****
8 – May be titled ’The Original Fire’ ?? Rock/Power pop – I have no idea who this is? ***
9 – …link…
10 – Sounds very much like CSN 1970ish era – never knowingly heard this before – okay but not a high-point of this compilation ***
11 – Clearly this features Colin Meloy and so is probably by The Decemberists – again not one I know but very enjoyable ****
12 –…link…
13 – Indie, possibly The Editors but I’m not sure – not a track lifted from their fine ‘The Back Room’ though ***
14 – This may be called ‘Just The Beginning’ maybe not, the voice is kinda like Ian McNabb – I loved this one – but who is it? ****
15 – Late 1990s?? Entitled ‘Tie Me Up (or Tie Me Down)’ [‘fnaar’ – Moose] – I know it’s not Rock’n’Roll, but I like it ***
16 – …outro…
17 – Another film or TV theme? Is there any possible connection with track 2 or Patrick McGoohan? Mmm… again I don’t know; nice ***
Thanks for this Wheldrake – still playing this and Vulpes’ cd. Cheers Craig……
Two great CDs and here’s some first impressions
Craig’s The Morning After – a laid back collection with some annoying familiar, yet hard to place, tracks. Intrigued to find out who some of these are!
1. A short instrumental in the trip hop style? Good intro but no idea who it is.
2. Some cool bass on this track. Familiar male vocal but again, who is it? Possibly from the 80s?
3. Ah, I know this song. I Say A Little Prayer, but I think it’s by Hue and Cry? Certainly a blue-eyed soul version. It’s okay but a bit too reverential.
4. This sounds a bit proggy. Another male vocal and quite an abrupt end. I assume it was the first “movement” of a multi-piece song?
5. A gruffer, gravely male vocal here. Again it’s maybe a bit proggy? Some lovely slow piano on this track.
6. Beth Orton, lovely stuff. A duet with Johnny Marr. But this is from the only album of hers I don’t own – Daybreaker. I think I’ll have to buy it now.
7. Another annoyingly familiar male vocal. Proggy again? I think it’s called Dear Friend, but no idea who it is. Good though.
8. Nice funky groove to this one with bluesy guitar over the top. The singer is moanin’ and groanin’ apparently. Like it.
9. Ah, St. VIncent. I know this one. Good stuff.
10. Well this is probably the longest track on here. Instrumental that starts in a sort of mournful, melancholy way with acoustic guitar and sumptuous strings. Then moves to a more insistent second half, martial drums and bass. Jazzy? I like it.
11. Now this is, I think, Hall and Oates, but not a song I know. Still, anything by them is listenable.
12. Now this is a bit folky. Two female vocalists. Is it The Unthanks? It’s good whoever it is.
Thanks Craig!
Vulpes CD, another great comp that has some tracks I’m keen to know the details of.
1. What a start. Very prog. All human life is here. This sounds like the Dawn of Man. Chanting, massed vocals, birdsong, jungle drums. Sitars, flutes, harpsichord, then a full blown organ recital before the electric guitars come in and a very sudden end. Phew!
2. A more traditional song next. Some great guitar work. This sounds very 70s. Like it.
3. This sounds like it’s from a blaxploitation soundtrack. Horns, funky bass, good groove. Very good indeed.
4. Jazz inflections here. Acoustic start, lovely saxophone, mainly instrumental. Good stuff.
5. Ah, reggae. Not something I listen to as a rule, but this is nice.
6. Robert Palmer, Every Kind of People. Superb.
7. Now this is very mellow, very laid back. Is it jazz? Can’t tell if it’s a male or female vocal. Good though.
8. We’ve gone a bit Celtic here. Fiddles, drums. Another great instrumental.
9. No idea who this is, but it sounds very end of the 60s.
10. John Cooper Clarke, I believe, set to a Middle Eastern vibe. Good stuff.
11. Well, this is No Regrets. But who by? It seems to be a country version. Is this the original?
12. I’m guessing at the Moody Blues? Must be 60s prog.
13. Another superb choice – Randy Crawford: One Day I’ll Fly Away.
14. A trancey/dancer vibe to this. Trip hop? Is it Morcheeba? Very good.
Thanks for the CD. LOvely stuff. Can’t wait to see the track listings for both.
This is the tracklisting for Vulpes’ CD. Looks very nice…
Moody Blues: Procession
Pink Floyd: Free Four
Harvey Mandel: Before Six
Mick Softley: The Song That I Sing
Yabby You: Chant Down Babylon Kingdom
Robert Palmer: Every Kind Of People
Shuggie Otis: Island Letter
Ashley MacIsaac: Sophia’s Pipes
Sopwith Camel: Coke, Suede And Waterbeds
Suns Of Arqa: The Truth Lies
Tom Rush: No Regrets
Moody Blues: The Story In Your Eyes
bonus tracks:
Randy Crawford: One Day I’ll Fly Away
Smith & Mighty: The Same
Any CD with Vivian Jackson on it must be worthwhile!
Pink Floyd! I have a blindspot where these are concerned, but really liked that track.
Definitely some stuff to explore a little deeper there. Great CD
OK, a little tardy, but here is my first review, with the second to follow shortly.
This is Craig’s CD I’m listening to:
CD title: The Morning After
Here we go with a neat doomy synth piece that initially brings to mind Massive Attack, though I’m pretty sure it isn’t them. Certainly someone’s been listening to a few African Dub LPs by the sound of it. Maybe it’s one of those unfathomable Ninja Tunes artists? No idea, really, but it resolves itself with a brief burst of applause that sounds as if the road crew have just been subjected to a bit of buggering about during a sound check and have responded with a cheer and a clap. Nice, then, and doesn’t outstay its welcome, which is good.
Oh, the second track rings bells; I’ve heard this before somewhere but can’t recall if it’s something I actually own. There’s a Talking Heads thing going on but it sounds British. Stonking bass playing with lots of spaces left. “A man wakes up” the refrain goes, and it sounds as if it ought to make sense, but I have no idea what it’s really about. Smart-ass, maybe, but I like that about the Heads, so that’s OK. Nice melodic guitar parts, good funky groove and that bass is truly great. Nice backing vocals. The song seems to be very positive and life-affirming; I like this a lot and will listen to it again, without doubt. Pleasingly, it finishes properly and leaves a space behind that is just the right shape for it to have occupied. Satisfying.
Aha, here’s Jackie. Oh this is sublime, wonderful, classy, effortlessly top flight. I don’t think the man has ever recorded anything that I don’t either admire or adore or both. Fab song, smooth arrangement, great playing and the Leven magic. Huge guilty pleasure. Like bathing in warm milk while sipping a good malt. Marvellous. Isn’t it?
Next: Thought we were on the Sloop John B for a second there, but no, here come the strings as if it’s The High Llamas, and then drums and treated vocals like a less frightening late period Crimson. Hmm, I’m stumped here, but I like it a lot. This is unmistakeably progressive music. Again, bells are ringing, but I can’t place it. More please, but tell me who it is!
I’m not sure if the previous track is meant to end so abruptly, but it does, though it might just be a crafty edit that makes it sort-of finish neatly. Still none the wiser about the prior artist when the profoundly recognisable tones of Kevin Coyne march in, like a stilted Procul Harum, and we are treated to a stark account of one man’s return to the living daylight after what must have been a night of self-destructive abandon. Disturbing – it’s Kevin pulling no punches as usual – and perhaps very much in the admire camp rather than the adore camp. This would probably repay repeated listening, but that would require a darkness of mood that eludes me, thankfully, at the moment.
Track six, and a female voice that I recognise, but cannot place. Sadly the song doesn’t really do anything for me, and fails to really develop or go anywhere. Her voice is bland and whiny to my ears, and the song is dreary; though well enough played and arranged it leaves me cold and I’m waiting for it to end. Fast forward to the next song I’m afraid. *sound of MISS klaxon*
We are back in Beach Boys territory it seems as the next song starts with a pleasant waltz. There’s a hint of mellotron in the backing, then some jangly Rickenbacker and we go up a gear. I’m getting hints of Rain Parade here, but the vocal is hard to place as regards side of the pond. Oddly, there’s a Sacha Distel nonchalance at play, with a hint of paranoia mixed in. Some fine wah-wah guitar noodling over a Floydian swing, and a real melodic flair asserts itself. Under the surface there’s a much harder mood trying to get out, as the guitar builds to a great gnarly rush. As the song progresses – and that’s the right word – through tinkly piano and big chord flourishes (that organ tells me that someone’s been listening to the Butterfly) it’s somehow clear that this is a British artist. Finally it dawns on me that I think this is Jonathan Wilson. I have a few of his, so I need to get them out and find this little gem again. Rather magnificent.
Spangly guitar. Oooh, a groove. Is this going to be one of those remix albums (Beautiful People style)? Now this could be one of many electronic artists with whom I have had little deep contact. As before, maybe a Ninja Tune artist? There’s a vocal that’s oddly like John Lee Hooker from time to time, but the groove just repeats; it’s not developed at all, and is just looped over and over. Sorry, but this is lazy and rather dire and it’s time for the Fast Forward button again. *sound of MISS klaxon* NEXT!
Another female voice. This girl has good pipes, but the grindingly unimaginative synthetic backing is awful. I’m reminded a little of Miss Fraser, but with discernible lyrics. The song sounds interesting, but the music, oh dear, what a waste of a classic chord progression. That’s two in a row. Shame. *sound of MISS klaxon*
A lovely instrumental follows, a blue reflection on fabulously played acoustic guitar which in turn picks up a growing surge of backing band, building well into a simple crescendo. This maintains my interest throughout. There are hypnotic qualities here, with interesting instrumentation; lovely brass and strings too, sparingly used, which makes me think of Islands era Crimson. There’s a chiming change of direction after a while that manages to introduce a new, slightly more muscular sonic landscape without obliterating the pensive mood that’s been established. This is rather gorgeous, as it rumbles, bubbles, and via lovely horns then fades and falls into quiet. All in all, this is pretty damn magnificent.
It’s Daryl! I love this album, and this is really special. The Sacred Songs album is a brave production that ploughs its own furrow, resolutely. Once more there’s a Crimson connection here, with the unmistakable tones of Fripp meandering through the background, never over played, complementing the song exquisitely. What’s not to like?
Track twelve. Silence for 25 seconds. A bass drone pulses and this skips along quite briskly. Simple vocals, and some nice melodic touches. A key change, and back to the pulse. Good bass line that drives things gently but doesn’t jump about unnecessarily. An understated piano, acoustic guitar and some sparingly applied percussion reinforces the simple tune. The focus is on the repetitive vocal; I have no idea who this is, but I’d welcome hearing more from them/her/him. An intriguing end to a great compilation.
*applause*
Thanks Vulpes – I am glad to find out that you found more to like than skip over and I am sure Kid Dynamite will respond with the details of the Hits and Misses you heard. Can I just say that the last, excellent tune was from E.P.1 at https://porterandmaymusic.bandcamp.com/
Thanks for that, and I have a confession to make. Unlike all the rest of the tracks, I Shazam’d that one because I liked it so much, and I am now the proud owner of all three of theirs, hand-written delivery note, hand-made sleeves n’all, along with a sweet little badge that I would gladly wear if I had a blazer to pin it on. They are a great find, so thank you!
And finally, just in time to let ver Kid off the leash before the end of August, here’s my review of Wheldrake’s fabulatious CD:
Beginnings
Ooooh, some neat sounding sound-track sample to start with – I love a concept album!
Right, down to business. Doomy synth, great washes of chordage; this sounds so Blade Runner it can’t be Vangelis can it? I love the guy’s stuff, but I don’t recognise this one. Crikey this is really channelling the big Greek chappie. Oh, only two minutes of it – there should have been more, that was ace!
OK, on to track two, and it’s the chord sequence from Absolute Beginners, but it’s been buggered about with and this version has what sounds like Alex James and his cheesy mates yelling some indecipherable babble in the backing track, while a treated female voice intones the lyric. There’s the unmistakeable sound of turntable scratching in here, presumably for some cred points, while the Blur boys drift in and out along with some distant samples and that woman comes back again. No idea what this is about at all, and now it’s just going round again, and again, and again. Oh, a minor chord, how revolutionary. Oh dear. Dullsville on Sea. Fast forward. Next please.
Aha, cellos! This sounds like a Bam Caruso re-release of some kind. Hang on, I know this lot. It’s The Creation innit? Pop psych mentalism in a purple haze of Carnaby nuttiness. Bung another instrument in! Where’s me harpsichord! Help me work out how to get out of here through the doors by which I came without turning myself inside out! Ace bonkers.
More soundtrack stuff – it’s The Prisoner! Of course!
*gets all excited*
Oh no, it’s bloody Bowie next, in one of his doomy bollocks phases. Ghastly self-indulgent twaddle I’m afraid. Oh fuck off David, make me sing or make me dance or shut up. What a shame after the pink perfection of the previous perfumed poptastic performance. Quick, before he intones any more shite – FF outta here quick.
*deflated*
A tele tells a tale and we are off again with the Fannies! Yeah, this is more like it. A chord progression nicked from around 1964, recorded classically with chiming guitars and clear vocals. This is pop music. Is this from the first album? It’s a blast anyway.
*glances over shoulder at retreating Bowie: “hey Dave, cheer up man, THIS racket is what we want”*
Instantly, track 8 throws the Fannies into a ditch, fires up a V8 and heads for the highway in a plume of tyre-smoke and gravel. This is good old fashioned rock music a la Stray. But it ain’t them – that’s not Del straining his cords is it? Big Les Paul riffage. Meat and spuds bass and drums. Yelling. Mental yelling even! Throat shredding and repetitive riffulation. I’m getting sweaty just hearing this, and I just know that in a hot small club after a gallon or so of dancing cider and this would go down a treat. Probably not what I’d play on yer average weekend afternoon, but good going out music. No idea who they are, but they sound like good value.
Aha, another clip, and this time it’s official, Number 6 is speaking, and he’s threatening violence. Go for it mate!
Track 10 starts and a calming recognition comes over me at the dulcet unmistakeable tones of Mr Stills. This is glorious, gorgeous, mellifluous stuff. You just know this was written in the Canyon, demo’d and practised at Cass’s place or Joni’s, and the word went out to put the band together to record this beauty. Fab tune, fab song, and so effortlessly brilliant. I think this is from the Manassas album. Whatever, it’s head and shoulders above the last few!
Now track 11 clearly rings bells but I can’t think who they are. This is worthy folk-rock, but there’s not really a memorable tune. I’m pretty sure I have this, probably on one of the many “buy because of a review or recommendation, play once, put on shelf, never bother to play again” CDs I own. As the track progresses it’s a bit up its own fundament. Gawd they do go on. Pleasant enough but that’s all. Can’t say I’m bothered enough to figure out which disc this is from in order to investigate further, I’m afraid!
Leo berates Number 6 on track 12 and reveals the full horror of what we have allowed to evolve. McGoohan answers brilliantly. Loving these little vignettes.
Track 13 then. Is this REM I wonder briefly? No, is it one of those other hard-to-distinguish modern bands with decent tunes that all sound like versions of each other? It’s upbeat and has fairly interesting lyrics, but sadly they don’t develop the song, which becomes a round of the same chords. Nice enough, without grabbing me in any way, and eventually it outstays its welcome. Three minutes and ten seconds? Wonder how much more there is? Ah, just under four minutes. Mercy.
Edwyn to the rescue on track 14! More invention in the first verse than the previous bunch demonstrated in just under four minutes! Proper music! Goes off like a racing greyhound, all elegance and suppleness, without sounding like he’s just snorted a pile of Ajax. Class. Keeps you interested and leaves you wanting more. Great guitar interlude. Fantastic lyric. Did I say class? Good, I meant it; he’s got it in spades.
Number fifteen (the Prisoner bits have upped the count a tad) sounds like The Art Of Noise at first. But without the imagination. There’s a smattering of Pookiesnackenburger percussion. This is growing on me a little after my initial disappointment, but then they go round again with somebody buggering about with the faders in order to stretch things out a while. No, can’t be having that. No amount of dustbin bashing can make up for blatant paucity of musical ideas. Where’s that FF button? Right, we’re done with this drivel.
Back to The Village, and it’s the theme tune. Boy, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore, more’s the pity. This is so sixties it has paisley horn charts and brings its own joss sticks to the party. I love the way it sort-of ends after the requisite time to cover the end-credits, hangs about a bit and then bursts back into life again. It’s almost as if they anticipated the DVD boxed set to come, forty years later, with longer credits to cover.
F. A. B.
What a great journey; lot’s to like and lots to skip!
This CD, like Craig’s will definitely get more plays at Foxy Towers in the coming months.
Thanks both, this has been great fun.
Hi Kid Dynamite Can you share the track listings for Wheldrake and myself, we’re all reviewed here thanks…
This is @craig42blue ‘s tracklisting (heads up @Vulpes-Vulpes!)
1 An aborted beginning – Nils Frahm
2 A man wakes up – Brian Eno, Karl Hyde
3 I say a little prayer – Jackie Leven
4 Start the day right – Field Music
5 Here comes the morning – Kevin Coyne
6 Concrete Sky – Beth Orton and Ryan Adams
7 Dear Friend – Jonathan Wilson
8 Sure Thing – St. Germain
9 Prince Johnny – St. Vincent
10 Lament for Levenshulme – Stuart Maccallum
11 Why was it so easy – Darryl Hall and Robert Fripp
12 Long Live Love (Acoustic) – Porter and May
I don’t seem to have @wheldrake‘s track listing I’m afraid. Either they sent it to @moseleymoles instead, I had it and mislaid it, or they were keeping their cards close to their chest (remember, three can keep a secret if two are dead…)
Stuart Maccallum you say? Right then, off to the dodgers…..
Eno and Frahm too.
Do me a favour, Kiddo, and delay publishing Wheldrake’s track listing for a week or two.
This was the studio version from Stuart’s ‘Distilled’ – if you get ‘Distilled Live’ let me know which version you prefer?
I’ve ordered the bog standard Distilled CD. Although I was well impressed, there’s no way I’m coughing up fifty sovs plus for the live version!
Should have known that Daryl Hall track, I have Sacred Songs!
Some lovely stuff on here I’ll be exploring further. Cheers Craig!
Wheldrake’s listing, retrieved from the Entire Internet Archive maintained by the Shining Ones on Epsilon 3:
“Transmission begins…”
1. Arrival – Daft Punk (from the Tron Legacy OST)
2. Absolute Beginners – Saint Etienne (from Boxette)
3. Life is Just Beginning – The Creation (from We Are Paintermen)
Interlude: “Will You Never Learn?”
4. Wishful Beginnings – David Bowie (from Outside)
5. Start Again – Teenage Fanclub (from Songs from Northern Britain)
6. Original Fire – Audioslave (from Revelations)
Interlude: “Do you still think you can escape?”
7. So Begins The Task – Manassass (from Manassass)
8. A Beginning Song – The Decemberists (from What a Terrible World)
Interlude: “There are some people who talk”
9. An End Has a Start – Editors (from An End Has A Start)
10. The Beginning of The End – Edwin Collins (Hope and Despair)
11. Heart Begin To Beat – Savage Progress (from Elektro Diskow)
Interlude: “Tomorrow, you will wake up a new man”
12. Opening Title Theme – The Prisoner (from The Prisoner OST)
Ah, so it was Saint Etienne who were responsible was it? Spank that Cracknell, it was awful.
Hmmm, Audioslave you say?
There’s an Audioslave shaped gap in my CD wall. Think I’ll need to ATM to find out what to buy, if anything.
Hmm, the Decemberists. It was probably December when I last played their CD, and I suspect they might struggle to get another spin before December this year, despite all their positive reviews. Can’t see it myself.
I was surprised that I didn’t know Edwin was featured. Also St Etienne? I never would have guessed…
I’m going to take a punt on the Tron Legacy OST as well; if the rest of it is as, er, Vangelisist, I’ll be well chuffed.
By the way, where the heck is @Wheldrake anyway? Is he on holiday? Has he joined ISIS? I thought he’d be in here, roundly condemning my trashing of his Bowie choice at least, but nothing.
Surely he’s not a flouncer?
How very dare you!
The Daft Punk Tron soundtrack is well worth a listen. Nice to see I crept a couple past your watchful eyes!
I’ll stand by everything on that CD *blows raspberry* (OK the St Etienne is, shall we say, of it’s time….)
Heh! As you can see from my newest acquisitions, I have indeed recently been daftly punked:
@timtunes / @lemonhope / @fortuneight
I listened ‘blind’ initially, then Shazammed the track names
CD from Fortuneight – Each track was from the first album of the band or artist = Beginnings
Let me start by saying that this kind of “Rock” music is not my genre of choice, I like rock music, I have lots of it in my iTunes library, but I don’t generally buy albums of this particular strain, it’s more the odd track here and there. That said, let us begin –
track 1 – Danny’s Song – Me First & The Gimme Gimmes, a new band to me, from what I have discovered on the web they specialise in covers and this was written by Kenny Loggins and recorded by Loggins and Jim Messina in 1972. I like this track. A good start.
track 2 – She’s As Beautiful As a Foot – Blue ÖysterCult,
hmm, a strange song, not sure about the message here, musically it’s ok, so lets move along…
track 3 – Know Your Enemy – Rage Against the Machine, I guessed this was they, although I can’t say I knew the song, it just sounded Rage-y, if you know what I mean, I like this track, I can’t make out the lyrics so I just enjoy it as a whole
track 4 – Joe & me – Robbie Macintosh Band, He’s played with everyone it seems, and on a number of albums I love [eg. Talk Talk] One of my favourite track on the disc, it chugs along nicely, if the vocals are a little weak in places. My best friend’s name is Joe so that probably colours my feelings toward this one a little.
track 5 – California Sun – The Dictators, this is a good one, recorded in 1975 it’s a pre-punk trashy rocker in the best possible way.
track 6 – Clifton Grange Hotel – Thin Lizzy, immediately recognisable [well, as soon as the vocal comes in anyway] I’m only familiar with Thin Lizzy from their hits so it was good to hear an album track for a change. It’s a strange song and it fades out abruptly, but I like it.
track 7 – Wish You Were Her – Reeves Gabrels, another one to nod along to. Former Bowie collaborator and Tin Machine member, Gabrels guitar is all over this track as one might expect. It has a good live feel to it, another one I enjoyed.
track 8 – Topaz – Journey – At first I thought this was Dire Straits, then Santana, both of which I would have been happy with. This is a slightly proggy instrumental track, still a lot of guitar going on. It’s good, I like it!
track 9 – Left Coast Groovies – Govt Mule, Not for me this one!
track 10 – Good Rocking’ Tonight – Montrose, another one not for me.
track 11 – Hard To Get – The Rubinoos, This is better, ’70’s power pop
track 12 – Confidence Man – Jeff Healey Band, sorry, another one to skip!
Overall a good CD, 75% of which I will happily play again. It’s introduced me to a couple of new bands, and some unfamiliar tracks from familiar bands, I’m happy with that.
CD from TimTunes – I got on much better with this disc than the other one, but this is more up my street to be fair. The premise – a couple are breaking up, they are apart, he despairs, they re-unite and all is well – it’s a ‘new beginning’
track 1 – Without You – Natalie Maines, I didn’t recognise the name but it turns out she was a Dixie Chick. A good start, punchy, well played and strong vocal.
track 2 – Going Nowhere – Neil Sedaka, instantly recognisable voice, beautifully crafted as you would expect. A new song to me but I like it a lot.
track 3 – Goodbye (She Quietly Says) – Frank Sinatra, this is terrific. From a concept album released as his career was stalling somewhat.
track 4 – I Can’t Tell My Heart – Emitt Rhodes, love this track, I was unaware of this guy, but now know he’s been around for years. Nice 70’s singer songwriter feel to this track, although it was released last year
track 5 – Pas Sommeil – Benjamin Biolay, another 70’s sounding track, but again it’s from last year. I zoned out when I first heard this, foreign language songs don’t usually do it for me, zoned back in around the halfway point – it’s epic. Love it
track 6 – Little Person – Jon Brion, lovely, sad song. [Vocal by Deanne Storey]
track 7 – Divine Intervention – Matthew Sweet, the first track that I was already familiar with, from his minor classic ‘Girlfriend’ album
track 8 – All My Stars Aligned – St. Vincent, gorgeous track, it was already a favourite of mine.
track 9 – Take Me Home – Crystal Gayle, from the OST ‘One From The Heart’. Lovely stuff
track 10 – Everything is Good About You – Chris Clark, old Motown track that was new to me. Does what you would expect but a little bit below the quality of the others
track 11 – I Like The Sunrise – Duke Ellington, classy Jazz
track 12 – The Beginning – Eels, Mark Everett in chilled, hopeful mode. Lovely
All the tracks that I didn’t already have are now nestled in my iTunes library. Result
After reading the comments for the other Cd’s I quickly realised that I didn’t read the memo – I feel rather silly now having all the info before I wrote my thoughts – in my defence I did play them three times before cheating 🙁
I’ll do it right next time round…
Initial reactions – the CDs I was sent were presented far more attractively than mine. I didn’t send track listings – can’t recall if I was supposed to. I did mine fairly quickly before a 3 week trip away, which prevented procrastination over tracks. Of course, I thought of others once I’d sent the CDs off. Anyway, on to the music. I played each 3 times and (mostly) avoided using Google to help identify tracks
@Lemonhope
Track 1 – Some spoken word – an American voice I don’t recognise who proclaims that “music is the proof of the existence of God” . Followed by what sounds like a well refreshed party singing “Happy Birthday” – a 53rd birthday I think.
Track 2 – Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard – It doesn’t sound like the Paul Simon version I know, nor the Dave Matthews one. It’s live and it has a few less bells and whistles than the PS version, which I think improves things.
Track 3 – A Hard Day’s Night – a slighty trippy feel, with the bass guitar leading the song. I can’t tell who the singer is – it’s a woman with what is mostly very crisp diction. By the third play the voice started so sound a bit less head girl and a bit more Motown. It’s growing on me.
Track 4 – Lots of swirling synth, and bass and vocals that suggest Japan to me. I only like their first album so bit of a guess on my part. If it’s not Japan they should sue.
Track 5 – A live track, male voice and acoustic guitar. Might be called “Saturday Night”. Or “Who Do Love”. Captivating vocal. Haunting with a helping of melancholy. I love it.
Track 6. – All twang and reverb. A psychobilly band? The most appealing aspect was that it only lasted 1:41. Not for me.
Track 7.- Quite a pleasant ditty – fuzzy drums with cowbell under harmonious vocal. One that between plays I seemed to forget. No idea who it is. Perhaps called “Sunshine”? It’s growing on for sure.
Track 8.- Banjo, mandolin and double bass. Quite possibly this might be what is known as “Americana”? I wouldn’t know – but I do know I like this. A song about getting married. A while back someone played me some Avett Brothers. Sounds like them?
Track 9.- This might be called “Home”. “Big” vocal – maybe a bit strained at times – can’t decide if I like it or not. Lots of synth.
Track 10.- Man and guitar in what sounds like a demo track. I know this song. It’s called “Kooks”. I smugly note the fact that it’s Ray Davies. (I’m probably the only person in the AW community who didn’t immediately realise it was Bowie. The penny dropped with me on the 3rd play and with a small nudge from Google)
Track 11. – The intro makes me think of Pet Shop Boys or ABC. Bops along nicely. Maybe called “Appetite”.
Track 12.- The vocal is enough for me to know this is REM, called something like “The Wall of Death”. I’ve never listened to much REM – this is very agreeable.
Bonus tracks – tucked away at the end of REM are two more bits of music. The first could be Kylie but probably isn’t. The second is the cartoon Lemonhope singing “Lemonhope’s Got Feet”. I’ll confess I’d never heard of the character. Absent the pictures the singing voice is a hard listen. The cartoon seems well regarded having looked online, but I found it mildly disturbing.
I reckon the theme of the CD is the arc of life – birth, school, meeting someone, marriage and kids, with the eventual wall of death. All in all I liked the CD and will play again – there’s only 1 track that has me reaching for the skip button, and I’d like more of Track 8.
@timtunes
Track 1.- No clue who this is. Shimmering guitar that bops along, and a female vocal. Googling the lyrics enabled me to find out who wrote it but I still don’t know who is performing this. I like.
Track 2.- I reckon this is Neil Sedaka singing a song probably called “Going Nowhere”. It’s a big production number, full orchestra, backing singers. It’s very much not the sort of thing I listen to, but it’s quite enjoyable.
Track 3.- Ol’ Blue Eyes? Called “Goodbye”? It’s a somewhat sorrowful ballad. I’ve always liked Frank’s voice, albeit more so on the up tempo big band numbers. Again, quite enjoyable.
Track4.- No idea who this is but I really like this. A male voice and piano that builds and the double track vocal sections are tremendous. Nifty guitar solo too. I will look for more by whoever this is.
Track 5.- A French lyric which always runs the risk of a childish ‘Allo-‘Allo reaction from me. This grew on me – the first 3 minutes or so are fairly loungish , but then it shifts course and wigs out a little and becomes quite epic. I’ll play again.
Track 6.- Female voice and piano. Quite haunting and beautiful. Didn’t grab me on the first couple of plays but the 3rd spin I was hooked. Maybe called “Just A Little Person”.
Track 7.- Fuzzy guitar and feedback kick this one off, with an edgy riff. Lot of guitar all over this one and a fake ending. It’s growing on me. But no idea who it is.
Track 8.- Glissando piano backing a female voice. Didn’t really get my interest at first but by play 3 it was growing.
Track 9.- Piano and a female voice singing “Take Me Home You Silly Boy”. Short & sweet and quite lovely.
Track 10.- A Phil Spectorish sound, or maybe more Motown. Enjoyable without making me want to go back for more
Track 11.- Male voice and guitar. A gruff vocal, with a catchy chorus. I like.
Track 12.- Back to the big band stuff – possible called “I Like The Sunrise”. Not sure who is singing – reminds me of my Dad’s Nat King Cole records or maybe Duke Ellington
The tracks seem to start in a sorrowful vein but then get a little more hopeful. Nothing here I disliked – a CD I’ll play again for sure, and a few artists I want to follow up.
All in all this was fun. A bunch of stuff I’d never ordinarily listen to and some artists to look into further.
I’ve now opened the track listings. Mildly pleased at the correct guesses on one or two but expect my AW membership to be revoked for thinking Kooks was Bowie when it wasn’t. Doh!
Good detective work @fortuneight – glad you enjoyed some of it too
Thanks @fortuneight for the cd, here are my thoughts
Overall,this cd make me think I was too fey on mine…I feel I should have had tight jeans and a cheesecloth shirt on whilst listening
1. We get off to a high energy power pop, sort of US New Wave, start. Lucky One – I know this tune but not this version. Bit too skinny tie
2. Ah, this one I know – in particular because I recently saw BOC do this whole album live.
3. Rage Against The Machine, I presume? Nice track – I should know but don’t..good and bouncy with crunchy riffing guitars. Nice
4. Joe & Me, I presume. A bit pub rock – not my fave so far
5. Great start, then Phil kicks in. Quite jazzy in terms of arrangement at times – presumably early Thin Lizzy?
6. Oh keyboards then guitars recorded in a basement. Good vocals, a bit Ian Astbury. Great guitaring. Great track – favourite so far.
7. Jazz-rock with the emphasis on the rock. After a few listens the synth break, guitar squeal routine was starting to get a bit repetitive but then more expansive soloing. Dunno, who though – Return To Forever?
8. Another track with some jazz influence, but maybe more bluesy. Classic white blues vocals – oh, harmonica. Probably good live.
9. Sammy! Montrose from their first album – aha! Beginnings!…Shame it’s not Space station No.5..but great vocals, and soulful solo-ing.
10. Sort of power pop/white soul thing, spare production – Ah! Voiceover, I like a voiceover.
11. This’ll be Jeff Healy off See The Light. Saw him at the Portsmouth Guildhall, I force of nature
Cheers, fe really interesting selection of guitar tunes. Quite a bit of blues. Favourite new one was Track 6.
@timtunes – glad you enjoyed it. Needless to say all my jeans are tight – although that’s more due to pork pies than fashion. When I saw that your selections tell a story it made the way I selected my tracks seem a trifle basic.
Thanks for your CD @lemonhope , enticingly presented.
1. Hmm..a Johnny Cash type dude then Happy Birthday
2. Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Paul Simon or is it? Not? Live though. I prefer PS when he is not doing ‘ethnic’ – bit too Sesame Street.
3. I think I know this version – from one of those In Kraut compilations. Always a sucker for a bit of German kitsch.
4. This’ll be Japan, My New Career. Still sounds like nothing else.
5. A bit Daryl Hall? Quite nice song – better with a full band?
6. Cramps? Good contrast to the last one – perfect for a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. ‘Love Me’?
7. Great start, interesting. Hope the band kicks in. Yes, a bit.
8. Banjo. This one is the grower here – first time I thought ‘Mumfords lite’, but it’s a nice tune.
9. Or maybe this is the grower. David Bryne I presume. Instrumentation gets more complex. Good one.
10. A version of Kooks. Is that Dave or not? Can’t quite call it
11. Appetite by Prefab Sprout. Fantastic band and album. Just a thought what would it sound like without that 80s production?
12. Wall of Death by REM. Come back REM, you’re missed.
Good varied selection, lemonhope – lots of styles. Favourite new tune would be a tie between 8 & 9.
Here’s how the acoustic version of Appetite goes, minus the 80’s production. I think I prefer it to the original!
Nah! It’s lovely, but sucks all the drama out of the original for me.
Thanks Carolina!
Surprisingly I miss the maximum-80s – particularly the backing vocals vs. as played on the guitar
Thanks for the kind review Tim – glad you mostly enjoyed it.
You guys both have my tracklist but here it is for those who are following this thread – I’ve enjoyed discovering what the tracks are in others Mixes – and once again let me express my deep regret at f*cking up my initial post by listing your tracks – so sorry chaps.
1. Birth of The Cool Theme [live]/Happy Birthday (1975 Rap) – Miles Davis/Joni Mitchell – The Complete Birth of The Cool/Mingus
2. Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard – Paul Simon – Complete Unplugged
3. A Hard Days Night – Katja Ebstein – Katja
4. My New Career – Japan – Gentlemen Take Polaroids
5. Saturday Night [live] – Gary Clark – Make a Family single b-side
6. Love Me – The Cramps – Off The Bone
7. Sunshine (come on lady) – Josh Rouse – 1972
8. January Wedding – The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You
9. Home – David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
10. Kooks – Ron Sexsmith – live cover
11. Appetite – Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen
12. Wall of Death – REM – Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson
It’s beginnings as interpreted through a life cycle, birth, school, friends, work, partner, kids, home, death and the ‘beginnings’ each event represent. Also chosen as they represent artists that were/are important beginnings in my musical journey, either by the artist or the original composer, and sometimes both.
Cheers Lemonhope – cool theme, I thought it must be something like that
Oh, and here’s my tracklist – WARNING! A bit of pretence/artistic licence ahead…
The scene opens on a couple
1. Without You – Natalie Maines
And from afar, I lie awake
Close my eyes to find I’d never be the same
Without you, without you.
But they have run their course
2. Going Nowhere – Neil Sedaka
Going Nowhere.
The end comes
3. Goodbye (She Quietly Says)- Frank Sinatra
There is no great big ending, no sunset in the sky
There is no string ensemble, and she doesn’t even cry
And just as I begin to say that we should make another try
She reaches out across the table looks at me and quietly says good-bye
He struggles to come to terms
4. I Can’t Tell My Heart – Emmitt Rhodes
I can’t tell my heart whom to love
I can’t tell my heart what to feel
And sinks into despair
5. Pas Sommeil – Benjamin Biolay
The heart broken, the sore body
I merge memories pink and gray
I am surprised to be still alive
I do not have Sleep
I do not sleep at all
Lost..
6. Little Person – Jon Brion
I’m just a little person
One person in a sea
Of many little people
Who are not aware of me
Prays for something to change things
7. Divine Intervention – Matthew Sweet
I look around
And all I see is destruction
We’re all counting on his
Divine intervention
And hope returns
8. All My Stars Aligned – St. Vincent
I read the signs, I got all my stars aligned
My amulets, my charms, I set all my false alarms
So I’ll be someone who won’t be forgotten
I’ve got a question and you’ve got the answer
..and manifests itself in a reunion
9. Take Me Home – Crystal Gayle
I’m so sorry that I broke your heart
please don’t leave my side
take me home
you silly boy
cause I’m still in love you
Life is good
10. Everything Is Good About you – Chris Clark
‘Cause everything’s good about you
I couldn’t live without you
You’re so sweet, you’re so fine
I’m so thankful that you’re mine
…it’s a New Beginning!
11. The Beginning – Eels
Pulled her closer to me
To keep her warm
And everything
was beautiful and free
In the beginning
She woke up
late in the morning
I pulled the curtain back
The sun came pouring in
12. I Like The Sunrise – Duke Ellington
I like the sunrise so heavenly to see
I like the sunrise and I hope it likes poor me
rather daringly, @lemonhope picked an REM song that wasn’t ‘Begin The Begin’. Out of the clique forever, I’m afraid, Mr Hope.
1. Birth of The Cool Theme [live]/Happy Birthday (1975 Rap) – Miles Davis/Joni Mitchell – The Complete Birth of The Cool/Mingus
2. Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard – Paul Simon – Complete Unplugged
3. A Hard Days Night – Katja Ebstein – Katja
4. My New Career – Japan – Gentlemen Take Polaroids
5. Saturday Night [live] – Gary Clark – Make a Family single b-side
6. Love Me – The Cramps – Off The Bone
7. Sunshine (come on lady) – Josh Rouse – 1972
8. January Wedding – The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You
9. Home – David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
10. Kooks – Ron Sexsmith – live cover
11. Appetite – Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen
12. Wall of Death – REM – Beat The Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson
“The concept is songs by, or featuring artists that have represented musical beginnings for me, [or covers/live versions where the song is too familiar] – – loosely based around the theme of life as a series of new beginnings – e.g., birth, school, friends, work, partner, home, kids, & death!”
and I also see he put it up a week or so ago. It’s all repeats these days, isn’t it?
@timtunes‘ tracklist was leaked upthread, but consider this post the official release of a much loved bootleg
1. Danny’s Song – Me First & The Gimme Gimme’s
2. She’s As Beautiful As A Foot – Blue Oyster Cult
3. Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
4. Joe & Me – Robbie McIntosh Band
5. California Sun – The Dictators
6. Clifton Grange Hotel – Thin Lizzy
7. Wish You Were Her – Reeves Gabrels and His Imaginary Friends
8. Topaz – Journey
9. Left Coast Groovies – Gov’t Mule
10. Good Rockin Tonight – Montrose
11. Hard To Get – The Rubinoos
12. Confidence Man – Jeff Healey Band
kid-dynamite / @fatima-Xberg / @rigid-digit /
(fortunately, I had saved this one)
This is a running commentary on Fatima’s mix, typed as I first heard it.
1) hmm, this sounds like it could be…yes, it is. Followed this lot on and off for twenty years now, and saw them again earlier this year They are a great festival band. . I know the song, but I don’t recognise this mix. Love the litany of jazz greats at the beginning. Good song, nice version
2) lots of hazy synth, alternating with brighter, cleaner, acoustic (?) guitars (?). Quite narcotic, but also propulsive, like being in the back seat of a car at night when you’re young and tired, and it’s dark outside with the light from street lamps flashing over your face. I like this one. Oh hang on, I thought we’d gone on to the next song, but it’s still track 2….a bit more song-like, but still with that hypnotic undertone. I can sort of hear the connection to the first part, but I’m not convinced it’s not just clever mixing on your part. Nice woodwind fadeout. I am intrigued by this track.
3) A Middle Eastern flavour here. The intro is quite spooky with treated vocals and noises – sounds like I have always imagined Muslimgauze might (NB I have never actually heard Muslimgauze). Turns into more of a triphop kind of thing, sounds like it could have fitted on one of those Arabesque compilations from fifteen years ago or so, but the vocals are still entertainingly strange. Some birdsong, and then…right, this is definitely you mixing, isn’t it? Back to the song referenced in track 2,
4) next, but these numbers may be becoming increasingly arbitrary. And it’s one of my least favourite bands! I think it’s that they fall between two stools for me – when they are arty and experimental, they’re not experimental enough, and when they rock, they don’t rock enough. I really don’t like the singer’s voice either. This sounds alright in the context of the mix though, maybe it’s just at album length that I should avoid them. Moves onto something much more traditional, which is okay but not that memorable, and then a nice piano coda, with a melody I absolutely recognise but cannot place.
5) is a blink and you’ll miss it effort, but I rather like it
6) I am probably the only person on the Afterword who won’t have recognised this right away. Onto 7) and the realisation that all this slick mixing is just a way of getting round the twelve tracks rule, isn’t it? Well, I’ve rumbled you, young lady and don’t think I haven’t. I like the back half of this one a lot more than the first, once the lady starts singing and it gets a dusty groove on.
The first part of 8) is another one I know, and one I am kicking myself for not thinking of when this mix happened. It flows really nicely from the end of 7). Going a bit folky now, winds up with a pretty music box noise.
9) starts with nice trumpets but soon reveals itself as a brazen attempt to curry favour with the Afterword, specifically Tigger and Deram. I’m sorry you got paired up with the useless old goth who likes black metal instead. Finishes with another song I should really have thought of – Sunday and morning ticks the beginning box twice over. Assuming you think Sunday is the beginning of the week, that is. I had a big argument with my dad about that once. It’s still going on, to be honest. Good cover, this, I like the gender swapped vocals.
11) is quite nice. I like the overlapping vocals, and the keyboard melody, has a whiff of XTC about it, a nice college radio vibe. I had thought we’d settled down to one song per track now, and 12) started off as a nice wind down to the mix, simple sleepy guitar fading out, but now Bob’s popped up with another rather thematically appropriate number. And then the friendly birds play us out…
I am impressed with this mix, Fatima. You have obviously put a lot of effort into creating it, and it pays off. I can’t say I liked every track (you might have noticed I didn’t have much to say about 7) and 10)…), but there are quite few I’ll be looking out for when the tracklists are revealed. Plus it hangs together really cohesively, and maintains a consistent mood and vibe throughout. I must also say the packaging was fantastic. Good work!
Fatima XBerg CD
Packaging was great, with a card inserted suggesting that there must be something on here to enjoy. If not, you don’t like fried chicken
(well, that’s me told – and it put’s to shame my hand scribbled CD in a broken jewel case and printed A4 explanation of contents).
Did I enjoy it? Yes (so I must like fried chicken then)
1) JJ Cale vibe going on here. Very reminiscent of the sort of stuff I play on Sunday mornings to gently wake me up (it does happen sometimes). No idea who it actually is, but nowt wrong with it at all.
Verdict: Might explore further
2) Aah – this is Some Velvet Morning, but not sure that is Lee Hazelwood (it might be?). Wild guess: Nick Cave.
Hang on, there seems to be another track here – or is it the same one? Starts with pretty chimes a la Velvet Underground Sunday Morning, but then goes into piano led vocal territory. Quite “dark” if I’m honest
3) Middle Eastern feeling (I’m thinking Morocco too). Maybe it’s me, but this just sort of happens. Not bad, but just doesn’t grab me.
And then another track appears half way through (a TV advert? Something from the Black & White Minstrels?)
And then another – is that Johnny Cash?
4) A live track – can’t say I recognise it immediately, but the sound of Thom Yorke is pretty unmistakeable. The performance is as expected – intense. I might go and find the original version and compare..
And then another track occupying the same Track name (this is becoming a theme) – sort of Country & Western oompah with a bit of Elton John (when he was good) thrown in.
5) That’s Ringo!
6) Segue into “Good Morning” – taken out of context from Sgt Pepper, I’ve never noticed the driving horns on this track. That guitar sol is still brilliant though.
7) A laid back feel with a Lennon-esque vocal. Fine track (another I want to investigate further).
And has become a theme, Track 7 has two parts – the second part opens with a Fleetwood Mac “Oh Well” style guitar, and then vocally sounds a bit Mac-cy as well. I’m sure I know it, it’s either got stuck at the back of my head, or I’m lying to myself.
8) Sounds a bit REM-y. Low, almost whispery vocals, and then opens up into an absolutely brilliant chorus that gets stuck in your head. Who is it? I want to buy this and play it a lot.
And guess what? There’s another track (or it could be part 2 of the same song?). All a bit folky, but nice enough (but I can’t say I’ve heard it, or could even guess who it is)
9) That’s David Bowie (it must be!) – no idea what the track is, or where it’s from. I’m guessing the title from what he sings, but can’t find anything similar on the late period DB albums I own.
And part (b) of Track 9 – I’m sure I recognise it, but can’t place it.
But this Track has a part (c ) – Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning, but not by The Velvet Underground. It takes real skill to produce a naff cover of a great song, and I can report that whoever this is does not have that particular skill and the song remains un-ruined
10) A reedy woodwind introduction followed by acoustic guitar. Perfectly fine, but really my cup of beer
11) A burbling start a bit like Baba O’Riley, with Ben Folds singing. A Bit of a 70s vibe. Another I want to explore more
12) A pleasant introduction giving no real warning of where it goes next – and then a Motown/Soul Revue style horn kicks in, and Bob’s voice takes over.
Don’t recognise the track, but it is a good ‘un – another chorus that will drill into your earholes. Those horns are a bit fine, and this track draws the CD to a close on a high.
Here’s my impression of the disc from Mr. @rigid-digit
1 | Oh dear – it starts with a fanfare. And it’s not even ironic as it’s the Star Wars theme and opens a “humorous” version of “American Pie”, all about Jedis and Jodas and stuff probably very popular among fans of the movies. I hate this song with a vengeance.
2 | This is better. A nice, vaguely psychedelic instrumental that sounds like one of the link tracks from some long-forgotten concept album (The Caterwaulies From Hell?)
3 | Lou & His Velvet Undergrounds next, all jangly guitars and mumbled vocals only partly obscuring a great pop song.
4 | Marc Bolan in his prehistoric bongo mode, predicting the beginning of doves or something.
5 | Starts like the acoustic introduction to a Jethro Tull song, but no: it’s the Jerusalem hitmakers with a track from “Trilogy” – which I’m just remembering used to be my favorite ELP album. Includes, rather untypically, Hank Marvin guitar, even more bongos, and a wacky synth solo straight from a “Psychedelic Cumbia” compilation.
6 | The Sound Of Young Woking. This should have been produced by Clanger/Winstanley.
(A pause, indicating time to flip it over to side two.)
7 | A track that sounds like an early 80s Postcard Records B-side. Probably by a band with a name like The Goatees, The Geckos or Exploding Truss.
8 | Another heavily phased instrumental. I imagine Frank & The Sandalmen produced by Micky Most.
9 | Mid-to-late 70s, I guess. Power pop without the charm of a Stiff Records one-off or the chart potential of a Roy Wood production.
10 | The first of three tracks announced as the first independent singles in the accompanying notes. This must be from Chiswick then, as it surely doesn’t sound like a single from Dandelion Records.
11 | The mighty Martin Hannett wall of sound points to Factory Records in their full Goth glory (there: I’ve said it again!)
12 | And finally, The Real Thing from Stiff Records.
And that’s it. A great mix that I still play at the office (even track 1). It comes in two halves, the first six tracks sound like one of those MOJO samplers that you think are not worth the effort at first – but later find yourself enjoying immensely. The second half has the bizarre charm of a compilation like “K-Tel’s History Of New Wave” or something similar. And that’s really meant as a compliment.
My my this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later but he’s just a small fry.
He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Saying soon I’m gonna be a Jedi
—–
The only decent thing to come from The Phantom Menace
Track 7 – oh so close. the band name begins with “The Ge….”, you just have the wrong choice of next letters.
Exploding Truss would be an absolutely brilliant name for a band
Tracklisting “Afterword Morning”
01A | ALABAMA 3: Woke Up This Morning (Volume Mix)
01B | DANGER MOUSE: Morning Fog (Interlude)
02A | SLOWDIVE: Some Velvet Morning
02B | TRYPES: (From The) Morning Glories
03A | YOKO ONO: Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over The City
03B | Good Morning From WOXI
03C | JOHNNY CASH: Sunday Morning Coming Down (Live on TV)
04A | RADIOHEAD: Morning Bell (Live on TV)
04B | THE BEACH BOYS: Tears In The Morning
05A | JOHN LENNON with Brian Matthews: Saturday Morning
06A | THE BEATLES: Good Morning, Good Morning
07A | THE NITS: Cold Grey Morning
07B | THE PENTANGLE: Sunday Morning Blues
08A | THE FEELIES: Morning Comes
08B | DANDO SHAFT: Till The Morning Comes
08C | DANGER MOUSE & DANIELE LUPI: Morning Fog
09A | DAVID BOWIE: In The Heat Of The Morning (2001 re-recording)
09B | THE CHURCH: Monday Morning
09C | BECK: Sunday Morning
10A | ALESINI/ANDREONI feat. David Sylvian: Come Morning
11A | PHISH: Silent In The Morning
12A | BRIAN ENO & DANIEL LANOIS: Silver Morning
12B | BOB DYLAN: New Morning (Big Band Version)
Notes: The Danger Mouse tracks are from the album “Rome”, recorded with the original Italian band that played on the 60s Morricone soundtracks. Types are an offshoot of The Feelies. The Yoko Ono track is John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman in Power Trio/Jamband mode (and no, there’s no mixing on my part: the full 5:30 min. are on the “Plastic Ono Band” album, including the same birdsong samples as Pink Floyd’s “Cirrus Minor”, fact friends). The Nits track is a demo recording that later evolved into three separate (and better) tracks. The Feelies track is from their 2011 comeback album “Here Before”. Bowie’s re-recording is from the unreleased “Toy” album. The Beck cover version is from one of his “let’s record a classic album in one day” projects – he also did INXS “Kicks”, Skip Spence “Oar” and “Songs Of Leonard Cohen”. The Phish track is from their dreamy/nightmare concept album “Rift”.
Further (immediate) investigation time, now I know what I’m looking for:
Alabama 3
The Nits
The Feelies
The Church
Phish
plus a Bob Dylan album from the 70s which isn’t Blood On The Tracks
(assuming the suffix “Big Band Version” is not a different take to the album)
The big band version of “New Morning” is on the “Another Self Portrait” volume of the Bootleg Series, not on the original album.
Cheers – I’ll look out for those as well
@kid-dynamite CD
1) A single trebly note heralds the introduction to this CD, and then the song opens up. I know this, I’m sure I do. What is it? If I keep playing it I might remember (edit: nothing yet, but I’m not going to stop playing – I shall call this “Track 1 Instrumental” probably for the rest of time
2) This is a bit more rockier, and then some fine fine wailing horns. Another top notch instrumental (henceforth known as “Track 2 Instrumental”)
3) Now, I’m sure I recognise that voice? Or perhaps not, because whilst the song seems familiar I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.
Let’s not beat about the bush – I’m loving this track and want to hear more
(I demand Track Listings NOW!)
4) The thing about instrumentals is that one can’t pick up on a phrase and Google it to pretend “Ah yes, I knew that all along”.
I like this one too (bit not as much as Track 1 and Track 2
5) I definitely know this one. It was under consideration for my CD, but I left it off thinking I didn’t like it that much. I was wrong – “Classic REM”
(Be honest – when the theme was announced, how many on The Afterword said: “Ah yes, REM – Begin The Begin”
6) Ah, a slab of reggae – I’ll have some of that. No idea who it is though – always had a bit of a blind spot when it comes to reggae. I really should listen to more – one day it might go in.
7) First impressions: Starts like a hybrid of Jazzy Blaxpolitation. Again, not something I would necessarily choose to listen to, or own. But maybe I should, because it’s pretty damn good.
8) Similar ground covered here. But this time with a sultry vocal. I’m definitely thinking I need to fill some holes in my collection.
9) Nowt wrong with this track – sounds like (to an educated me) a bit like a soundtrack for a War Epic or period drama
(I have probably just undermined your whole mix by saying that!)
10) Arpeggio guitar (oh hark at me and my use of technical terms) and bass start and then a dual male/female vocal (the female sounds lower in the mix almost fighting to be heard). Might be interesting to look deeper once I know who it is.
11) There’s an atmosphere here with a single keyboard, and then the guitar drums and bass kick in and I know it! I nearly said “gothic” but Fatima has already been told off for using that term of description for an earlier incarnation
12) And so we end this CD with a trip to the Disco. There’s a whiff of Sister Sledge here, but I’m going to say this aint the Sledgers.
Not really my world, but not a bad way to sign off
I think you will definitely know the artist for 3), but it’s not a particularly well known song of theirs. Careful attention to my posting history will give it away…
Re your question in the notes for 5), I have been collecting tracklistings and I can confirm that the answer is “quite a lot”.
(continues to scratch head for the identity of Track 3)
Search on posting history may be next plan
I think I’ve got it.
Is the singer called Justin?
Justin: one of the most un-rock and roll names … ever
(see also Jeremy, Barry and Colin)
You’ve got it!
@kid-dynamite CD
1 | First Breath After Coma – wish I’d thought of this as the opening track myself. Has an epic sweep without using the regular “soundtrack for an imaginary movie” cliches.
2 | Whereas this does – brass section, fanfares, busy drums… it’s all here. Sounds like the first track on a Dexy’s Midnight Runners album.
3 | We’re still at the cinema, and the mood’s quite dramatic with a singer who’s trying very hard to sound like a Bruce Springsteen impersonator pre-Born To Run. Dismal.
4 | Relaxing a bit now. This moves along quite nicely much like the first track, and all the better for it. I’ve got to have the album.
5 | Is this the proper beginning? Miles standish proud indeed. Obvious choice, great track nonetheless.
6 | Late seventies dub reggae. Since when is reggae about beginnings – isn’t it all about the end of Babylon an’ ting? (Oh I get it now, it’s rude.)
7 | We’re back at the movies. Mr. Junior Explosive bringing cinematic instrumentals to the masses. This is somewhat jazzier in a Working Week 12″-B-side-kind of way. (I hope it doesn’t turn out to be from the “Absolute Beginners” soundtrack…)
8 | Now this is great – vaguely Love Supreme-like baseline, a female singer who should’ve been in the Style Council, and lots of dub effects. Sounds like a selection from one of those MOJO/Uncut CDs that Paul Weller regularly compiles.
9 | See track 7. Coming close to the end titles here, so we get piano and a string section. But instead of the expected long fade out there’s…
10 | Electric guitars and vocals! I think I know this – is it from Australia? Great Neil Young/Zuma wig-out!
11 | The tank collector from Manchester and his friends. Sunrise – why not!?
12 | First Choice. Of course.
All in all (apart from the ill-advised last track) a very fine late night radio hour.
Thank you for the comments, @rigid-digit and @fatima-Xberg. Now that the reviews are in, I’ll put up the tracklisting. There’s no clever underlying theme, I’m afraid, just songs that feature a synonym of ‘begin’
1) is, as Fatima clocked, “First Breath After Coma” by Explosions In The Sky. It’s the first track on their breakthrough album “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place”, which for my money they’ve never bettered
2) “Junior Kickstart” by The Go! Team
3) Love that the reactions to this one went from “I’m loving this track and I want to hear more” to “Dismal”! It is New Model Army, and the song is called “Dawn”.
4) is the triffic Northern Irish post rockers God Is An Astronaut, with “Sunrise In Aries”. It’s on the “Far From Refuge” album, which comes highly recommended (as do their other records)
5) R.E.M.‘s “Begin The Begin”. Me and every other Afterworder.
6) “First Street Rock” by Tappa Zukie.
7) Japan’s Soil & “PIMP” Sessions, self proclaimed purveyors of death jazz. This number, “Dawn” is a relatively restrained one for them, but it flows nicely into
8) “Quiet Dawn Dub” by Prince Fatty. It’s from the album “Prince Fatty Meets Nostalgia 77”, wherein the Prince dubs up the soul jazz act Nostalgia 77. It’s right good.
9) More post-rock. “Quiet Flight, Sleeping Dawn” by Mono.
10) Eleventh Dream Day, from Chicago, not Australia, I’m afraid, although Fatima is right with the Crazy Horse reference – I always thought this one had a real Cortez The Killer vibe to it. I’d also love to know who she thinks this is, because I reckon I’d like to hear them. This song is called “New Rules”
11) As everyone guessed, “Sunrise” by New Order. This is like the ur-New Order song for me – it just seems to have every one of the elements that you associate with their sound (and I’ve just twigged it’s nice unconscious pairing with Rigid’s JD track)
12) Another one Fatima knew – the Frankie Knuckles mix of First Choice‘s “Let No Man Put Asunder”. Just to put the disco cat amongst the prog rock pigeons, really.
Now Model Army’s ‘High’ is in the post right now.
Explosions In The Sky ‘The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place’ may take a few more days (half the price on Amazon Marketplace, and got ‘How Strange, Innocence’ at the same time and still for less money).
As I suspected, this CD Swap thing is leading to Open Wallet surgery
As mentioned I went for that REM track on mine, and probably would’ve included “Sunrise” too if I could’ve found which box in the garage that my copy of “Low Life” was buried in!
And onto @rigid-digit‘s offering.
1) I like the fanfare, clever to kick off a “beginnings” mix, I thought…and then my heart sank when I realised it was a parody song. But! It actually turned out to be pretty good. Not sure I will listen to it over and over again, but it is still a bullet dodged.
2) Nice, but slight. I bet this was one where the title dictated the inclusion rather than the music, amirite?
3) I know this one, of course. Great song. The first and fourth are normally my go-to albums for this band, but I should listen to this one more often.
4) This is interesting. Has a kind of rustic, amateur feel to it, enhanced by the spoken bit at the beginning that makes it sound like it’s from some seventies educational television. I guess that hookline would be easily googleable but that feels like cheating
5) Starts like a vintage acoustic Neil Young number, which got my hopes up. Then goes a bit wibbly wobbly with bongos and succumbs to terminal feyness. Even a nicely bloopy bit of synth at the end can’t lift the stench of hippies. I must say I was expecting more three chord aggravation and buckets of gob from you, Mr Digit.
6) ….a bit more like this! Mind you, this is pretty far removed from punk in its own way. You can really hear the roots of The Style Council here, I think. Am I right in saying this isn’t on any of the albums? I must know it from Snap or something like that. A top tune that I haven’t listened to for a while. Cheers!
7) (Was the gap to pretend we were changing sides as Fatima speculates? If so, I like it!) Upbeat indie from I’d guess the early to mid 80s (only it sounds a bit better produced that, so maybe a bit later?) with an eye on the dancefloor. The young Franz Ferdinand were taking notes.
8) Psych-y instrumental stuff. I could imagine this being Sam Gopal or some other bunch of surly hippy proto grebos from Ladbroke Grove way. I quite dig this.
9) Yes! This is the Rigid Digit I was expecting! No idea what it is, but it sounds like it could fit nicely in on that The Sound Of The Suburbs comp, which should be available on the NHS.
10) Into the promised debuts on indie labels now. I do know what this is, but only because of the film. Have you seen the film? It’s brilliant, you’d love it. This is good, captures the excitement and have a go yourself spirit of the time really well
11) Familiar, but never unwelcome. This was in another film a bit like the film that featured track 10). Is this a little mini underlying theme? Roll on 12) and let’s find out. Letting this play through, and I moved to observe that it is brilliant. This is a big part of the fun of these swaps for me, hearing something you know well in a different context. Seriously, what a record. Off to the Heart & Soul box set after this disc finishes, I think.
12) Ah, not in any movies to my knowledge, but then I’m not 100% sure what it is. Definitely has the ring of Stiff, as Fatima says (clearly knowing more than me), but if I pretended I knew what it was I’d be lying. Decent though.
This is a good mix, thanks!
Tis true that the title of Track 2 ensured its inclusion (but there one of those bands that I would try and lever in somehow anyway)
Track 6 – correct, not an an album. Snap was its only real 33.3 rpm home
Track 7 – both Fatima and you speculate early 80s Indie (Fatima suggests Postcard) – sort of, but not quite. Certainly one eye on the Mod dancefloor though.
@kid-dynamite / @fatima-Xberg
Tracks 1 to 7 adhere to the “Beginnings” phrase by containing either variants of the word “Begins”
Tracks 8 & 9 continue the theme (loosely) – they are about “Beginning” or “Starting” but do not contain the word
(and then I ran out of inspiration, and/or relevant songs)
Tracks 10 to 12 represent the first singles released on independent record labels
(and for the sake of confounding predictability, does not include Stiff Little Fingers “Suspect Device”, even though their album was the first to be released on Rough Trade (a fact that Geoff Travis seems to have airbrushed from most contemporary histories))
1. Weird Al Yankovic – The Saga Begins
2. The Durutti Column – Beginning
from Return Of The Durutti Column, and as suggested it was the title that ensured inclusion here
3. Velvet Underground – Beginning To See The Light
from the fourth album – not my favourite, but still good. And another where the title fitted nicely
4. Marc Bolan – Beginning Of Doves
pre-Tyrannosaurus Rex demo. Was planned for a proper release in the mid-70s, but Bolan (or his management) got the release shelved (at least until 1985, when Simon Napier-Bell seemed to be licensing everything Bolan related that he had in the vaults)
5. ELP – From The Beginning
every compilation needs a bit of proggy noodling, and another where the title fitted
6. The Jam – Absolute Beginners
non-album single from 1981. 1981 was a weird year for The Jam with no album and only 2 singles – both got to Number 4 though
7. The Gents – How It All Began
mid-80s Mod Revival Band from Doncaster, but I can see the Postacard B-Side and Indie dancefloor refrences
8. Slade – Genesis
Track 1 from their debut album (under the name Ambrose Slade) ‘Beginnings’ (a double-whammy there)
9. The Boys – First Time
one of the original punk bands, and another to fall out of the London SS (see also Damned, Generation X, The Clash, Chelsea)
10. Rudi – Big Time
Good Vibrations GOT1 – Belfast’s first punk band, but the second to release a single (after SLF) on Terri Hooley’s (now legendary, thanks to the film) label
11. Joy Division – Digital
Factory FAC2 (FAC1 was the Factory Club itself). Digital was the lead lead track on A Factory Sample
12. Nick Lowe – So It Goes
Stiff BUY1. Nick Lowe had been carrying the demo tape for this and “Heart Of The City” around since his days in Brinsley Schwarz. Dave Robinson (his ex-Manager) gave him the chance to finally release it, and become Stiff’s in-house producer
@yorkio / @kool_aid_wino / @plasticpaddy
I’m still here and @kool_aid_wino and @plasticpaddy will, I’m sure, be delighted to learn that I’ve finally got my CD burner working so should be putting their discs in the post later this afternoon!
My excuse is pathetic but involves a problem getting padded envelopes. Got now, in the post tomorrow
First review for our team. Me on Kool_Aid_Wino Cd which i’ve listened to 4 times now. I enjoyed the CD, it made me glad i got involved. You can be so fond of your own favourite tunes so as to treat them as your own children. But its also important to be honest, so here goes:
Track 1: Like this a lot. Chaotic and miserable which you might not think i’d enjoy given what i sent out, but i do. Great guitar.
Track 2: Again, strong guitar, good guitar lick, pumping drums. Vocals are a bit weak, reminded me of the bloke from The Strokes (not a good thing) but i like it. This will stay on the iTunes library.
Track 3: Probably my favourite on the CD. Love this and its sounds Britpop era but i dont think it is. Tight drum and bass and its catchy without knowing which chord comes next, which isnt how it normally works.
Track 4: Like this a lot too. Just a bloomin good song. Probably should know what it is but i don’t.
Track 5: This one’s not for me. I find the keyboard lead line annoying the who whole thing is a bit too high on the ‘treble’ levels and there’s nothing else in it to redeem apart from being very short.
Track 6: Dark and certainly not over-produced which is a good thing. Sounds familiar but i dont know it. Sounds like the last song they’d play (whoever they are) before leaving the stage and coming back for an encore.
Track 7: Like this. There’s a Roger McGuinn type Byrds guitar running through it and good harmonies. These are good things.
Track 8: Is a good contrast the the rest of the CD so far. Its hard not to sit and just nod the head slowly in time to it. Feels like a reefer might help which would explain the near-ten minute track. Again, like most of the others, have no clue who this might be. Guitar solo half way through is marvellous. Lots of break-down and space before it all comes back again. Love it. Yeah Yeah.
Track 9: Straight off, i knew the voice (Jeff) but thought i had a reasonable knowledge of the catalogue and didnt recognise this, so though it might actually be his dad who i dont know (Tim). Looked it up and notice its on a legacy edition of the Grace album, which i didnt know and now need to get. Thanks for adding this.
Track 10: I know this song, dont know how and couldn’t tell you who it is. Maybe i’ve heard it a few times on BBC6 Music? Its pleasant, doesn’t grab me in the right places too much though.
Track 11: Just a good tune and a fine acoustic solo, and love the lyrics. “And found her letters, they said so many things, that hurt me bad”.
Track 12: Reminds me of The Flaming Lips. The guitar lick that sits through it is mighty fine. Would like to hear a vocal as a bigger part of the mix. I bet this is good live, whoever they are. Its all interesting which is a good thing.
On first listen, i expected to like 3 or 4 of these, but 4 listens in, this sounds like a positive review; only one track will sit in my trash can. Thanks for sending. Much appreciated.
Thanks for your review, I’m glad you enjoyed it on the whole. I’ve been away for a few days and came home to find your CD (I think) on the mat, so will be listening very soon.
My review for my CD from @plasticpaddy:
1) I knew who this was 12 seconds in, as soon as the keyboards kicked in. I like this band, but only have a greatest hits/singles CD, so wasn’t familiar with this one. It’s a good track to kick off with, and I presume it is the opening track from one of their albums?
2) If this is who I think it is, I wasn’t keen on them when they first appeared, but am enjoying this one. I think I need to investigate a bit more.
3) This puts me in mind of Jeff Buckley doing Robert Plant, which is good. Nice Eastern strings and percussion. No idea who it is.
4) On first listen, I couldn’t get into this, but it grew on me really quickly. It sounds to me like Zero 7, but not boring.
5) This reminds me of Ultra period Depeche Mode, but that’s only going by the singles I heard at the time.
6) Lovely. I prefer his melancholy songs to his jaunty ones, and this is tres melancholy.
7) Another group who I only really know by the singles, but always like what I hear. Is this from a solo album?
8) Another winner, but no idea who it is again. I assume the singer is from Liverpool, based on the way he sings “put cheap bleach on yer ‘air”, but what do I know?
9) I think I know this band, as a friend used to include them on compilations for me. I always found them similar to Tindersticks, but with a better singer.
10) This one doesn’t do anything for me, but I can’t express why. Sorry, I can’t really say any more than that.
11) That’s more like it. I (criminally) hadn’t heard this song for years, so it was like saying hello to an old friend. I can’t believe I don’t own the album this is from.
12) I thought this was Nick Cave at first, then realised the recording was too old to be him. Another good vocal from a CD full of strong and distinctive voices.
I’ll be very interested to get the track listing, as there a quite a few artists here I’d like to investigate more. It also reminded me of some artists I like but don’t have enough by. Thanks for the CD.
I have also received the CD from @yorkio, but haven’t had a chance to listen yet. I’ll do that over the weekend.
@yorkio CD “Beginnings”
1) A nice rockin’ start to proceedings. I’ve always liked this song, but know very little about the band. I’m not sure if this version is by them or not. I seem to remember Craig McLachlan doing a cover of this song, but there’s no mention of it on the internet, so God knows what I’m thinking of.
2) A Monkees song, but sung by The Mamas & The Papas(?), or maybe the original writer. Good, but not too different from the original.
3) A generic 60s Nuggets sounding blues rock song with harmonica. Not for me, sorry.
4) A very famous Elvis Presley song, but possibly an early version with no backing vocals or horns. I wasn’t certain if it was Elvis, but it must be, surely?
5) A nice laidback vocal. The words “Memphis soul” come to mind, but I have very little knowledge of what that actually sounds like.
6) Modern but retro. Is this one of those Nick Waterhouse / JD McPherson types?
7) I only really know this fellow’s “greatest hits”, but have been hearing a lot of “new” songs lately thanks to GLK London. This is another good tune.
8) I’ve always thought that if you’ve heard one song by this artist, you’ve heard them all. This doesn’t change my mind, I’m afraid.
9) An almost whispered, otherworldly vocal. I like it, but it creeps me out a little bit.
10) This makes me think of the Muppet Show. I can picture a little girl Muppet singing this with the Mah Na Mah Na guy parping away in the background. I know I’ve heard it somewhere before, but can’t imagine where. Very pleasant.
11) Is this AMC? I haven’t heard anything by them for years. A suitably epic end to the CD.
12) Wot, no track 12? Scandalous.
Overall, I’m very happy with my compilations. Most of the stuff will live on my iPod from now on, and I will definitely be investigating some new artists and some neglected old ones. Thanks again to @plasticpaddy and @yorkio for taking the time.
Eh? There was certainly supposed to be a track 12! @plasticpaddy Was your CD one short of the dozen too?
@yorkio‘s tunes:
1 I Want You to Want Me by Cheap Trick (Cheap Trick with Steve Albini)
2 Pleasant Valley Sunday by Carole King (The Legendary Demos)
3 Just Got Back From The City (Early 1966 Demo) by Captain Beefheart (Grow Fins [Rarities 1965-1982])
4 Suspicious Minds (Take 6) by Elvis Presley (Memphis Sessions)
5 Still I Long for Your Kiss by Lucinda Williams (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (Alternate Version))
6 Hypnotized by James Mathus & His Knockdown Society (National Antiseptic Outtakes)
7 Country Darkness by Elvis Costello & The Imposters (Delta Verité: The Clarksdale Sessions)
8 Spaceball Ricochet by T. Rex (The Slider)
9 Here (Demo) by Vashti Bunyan (Music And Migration)
10 He Needs Me by Harry Nilsson (The Popeye Demos)
11 Mr Humphries by Mark Eitzel (Hey Mr Ferryman)
12 All Things Must Pass (Take 2) by The Beatles (Mythology: Volume 3: 1966-69)
and from @kool_aid_wino
1) The Lemonheads – ”Ballarat”
2) The Nectarine No. 9 – ”Saint Jack”
3) Charlotte Hatherley – ”Kim Wilde”
4) The Cardigans – ”Communication”
5) Felt – ”I Will Die With My Head In Flames”
6) Codeine – ”D”
7) The Jayhawks – ”Stumbling Through The Dark”
8) Scott 4 – ”East Winter”
9) Shudder To Think & Jeff Buckley – ”I Want Someone Badly”
10) The Sleepy Jackson – Good Dancers
11) Sun Kil Moon – ”Glenn Tipton”
12) Built To Spill – ”Randy Described Eternity”
@bamber / @tiggerlion / @johnny99 /
@johnny99 and myself have gone “off-menu” and swapped CDs despite being in different groups… it’s anarchy, I tell you! Have already had one listen, but will have one more before posting initial thoughts tomorrow or over the weekend – cheers!
I’m on my second listen through of Johnny 99’s CD while my dear wife is out and I’ve a monitor either side of me listening to the wee ones snooze. One more time before I post a review but clearly my effort will seem somewhat vanilla compared to this trip into musical lands I rarely visit. I went back to the days when I made actual cassette mixtapes and probably went into safe mode, editing out the more eccentric selections. Think of it, or indeed listen to it in the car – if it ever arrives obviously.
Heard nothing from @tiggerlion. Had a few emails from @Bamber who has had laptop problems – CD has yet to arrive this side of the water though.
@metal mickey’s CD is a breath of fresh air – I had heard none of these before I got this CD.
My initial thoughts after some four listens are as follows :
1. This has very Steely Dan like overtones – to my knowledge they have done nothing recently but this does sound very much like them
2. This starts off with some phased vocals and, as if by magic it’s kaftans and flower power all over again – no bad thing at all. Called “How does it make you feel” unless they decided on another title just to confuse
3. I like this an awful lot – very rocky, lots of chants etc “Wake up look around”
4 This is good but I haven’t a clue about what he (?) is singing about as it’s in a language to which I am not privy. Were I forced to take a guess I would say Eastern European of some description.
5 Musically this sounds awful familiar – very spartan but decent track.
6. I loathe rap especially the sort of stream of consciousness crap that Eminem spouts. However (and despite myself) I like this ! If we can cast our minds back to the Spam sketch this does rather fall into the “well it’s not got much rap in it”. It’s a girl singing about “My hood” with a male rapper in and around it. It’s quite good but don’t tell anyone I said that !!
7.I like this – there’s a good soulful vibe going on. Good summer music. At a guess I’d say it’s called “Out of pocket”
8. This is quite jazzy and quite good.
9. “Another weekend out of my life”
10. Earnest female punky type vocals. Very good
11. Quite punky – the only track on this compilation about which I’m not too keen
12. Wonderful Dylanesque vocal. Looked up who was the current Dylan wannabe but can’t find it ! Seriously though this is superb.Very uplifting chorus “Let ’em get high, let’em get stoned” – and who can argue with that ?
As someone above said when you put on a cover mount CD and find one track that you like you think you’ve done well. This CD is very different to what I’ve been listening to recently and is all the better for that. There’s about four or five tracks on here that I would like to explore more fully.
Hi @Johnny99, really glad you enjoyed the CD so much, just a few “comments on your comments” in advance of the track reveal…
4. Turkish, since you ask…
6. Funnily enough I feel exactly the same about rap, but I love this track – maybe it’s “rap-for-people-who-don’t like-rap?”
12. Yes, fantastic track!
Here’s my review of Johnny 99’s compilation based on notes I took through my three listens – so far. I had a guess at the year of creation as I went along…
(1) Stanley Unwin intro. First thought was Spinal Tap – Faerie Folk but I subsequently thought Canterbury sound – what I imagine Caravan or Camel would sound like. Ultimately I thought it was early Pink Floyd or Procul Harum. I’ve a friend in Sligo who would no doubt instantly identify this but it’s a huge gap in my musical universe this pre-Prog, psychedelia stuff. Not really my bag – Man! 1970
(2) Widdly guitar and a NWOBHM vibe but more USA friendly – I’m guessing Whitesnake. No sitting on the fence here – this is not something I would voluntarily listen to again. Massively jarring key change at around 5.30 was the lowpoint. 1984
(3) Change of vibe. Chillout Asian style. Tablas. What I imagine Nitin Sawney sounds like but there was something amateurish or homemade about the production – maybe a reflection on when it was recorded. I liked this. 2008ish
(4) Uneasy listening – a very long drone heavy dark ambient soundtracky piece. I wrote down Warren Ellis, Johnny Greenwood or possibly one of Mr. Sylvian’s less melodic pieces – with or without Czukay. I like a bit of ambient but this was too relentlessly grim and extended for my taste. A bold choice for a mixtape. Reminds me of when I got rid of Portishead 3 – I just wanted it out of the house because I never wanted to think that I’d ever be in the mood to listen to it. 2010.
(5) Blues Rock heavy on the wah-wah pedal. Again not my kind of thing. I don’t have any knowledge of this area and it left me cold. I’m guessing British 69 or 70.
(6) A skiffle feel. Very Later friendly. A welcome change of pace and tone. I really liked this but had no idea who it was or when. If it was 50s or 60s I could believe it but something about the production made me think mid 80s.
(7) Back to Prog/Psychedelia again. They may be miles and years apart but I’d expect this to show up on a compilation with track 1. More hippyish. Again I’d noted Canterbury – Caravan or Camel – pre-Yes or Genesis Prog. 1970 or 71.
(8) First thoughts here were that it was one of Scott Walker’s more “challenging” pieces. There were major glam vibes in the chorus. My notes then said Nick Cave/Warren Ellis but eventually I reckon it was John Cale. It sparked my curiosity but came under uneasy listening as with track 4. For some reason I think this was 1984 or 85.
(9) A breath of fresh air. 80s style indie pop with lovely folky harmonies in the chorus. My notes say Canadian or US but I think it’s British although I’ve no idea who it is. I’d like to hear more by them. The lyrics are quite teenage to the pint of naivety but that’s quite endearing. 1988
(10) We’re back to the early 70’s again. Mellotron and a Greg Lake or John Wettonish vocal have me thinking ELP or some offshoot. I like some early King Crimson but it’s not them. I found it a bit heavy and laboured. Again my mate in Sligo would love it but our taste rarely overlaps. 1972.
(11) This was lovely. Uptempo Soul. I’ve a feeling I should know who it was. Great arrangement with a Motownish feel and a Dionne Warwick like vocal. could have been recorded early 70s but I reckon I heard this sometime in London in the mid to late 90s. Possibly during the acid jazz heyday. I’m guessing 1997.
(12) Nassau’s Gone Funky by Beginning of the End – I see what you did there. This was on the first funk compilation I ever bought – Funk in yo Face. I have great affection for it. Catchy with great brass. Did you know there’s a Part 2 to this Johnny?
Overall, it took me out of my comfort zone. I’m not likely to revisit many of the places it took me. It was quite a challenging collection and made me recognise that I went for safer territory with my own compilation. I’ll be interested to see the beginnings connection as it wasn’t immediately evident. Thanks Johnny 99.
OK, three listens in, and here’s my first-pass track-by-track on @Johnny 99’s CD…
(1) Lulling me into a false sense of security, starting with a track I identified even before the music kicked in, thanks to the Stanley Unwin introduction… nice start, and a song I’m sure many of the Massive will be intimately familiar with…
(2) And then there was… ROCK! None-more-80s widescreen-rifferema, with (synth?) strings and MANLY vocals… in all honesty not my line, but not unpleasant in a drivetime way, I’d guess it’s some later version of Purple, Whitesnake or Rainbow?
(3) Ah, we’re in the Chillout Room now… a 90s instrumental downtempo vibe, fairly generic of its type (there are even panpipes in there) but nice enough… maybe an Orb or FSOL album track?
(4) The big one – multi-movement minimal string drones and glitchy electronics, could have been made anytime between 1970 and last week, which I mean as a compliment! No idea who this is, possibly a relaxed Mogwai track or an abrasive Eno one…? Good stuff, though I don’t think I needed all 20 minutes of it…
(5) A blues/rock jam, I think that’s Arthur Lee’s voice, but either post-Love or from one of the later Love incarnations…? Very sudden ending, could happily have done with another minute of it.
(6) Is there such a thing as “acoustic garage”? If not, there should be! One of the highlights of the CD for me, a great 60s (or 60s-sounding track) I’m sure I know… did they rip-off that hook, or was it ripped-off from them?
(7) Prog/Psych in the house! Very “English”, very early-70s, hard to say more beyond that I’m afraid…
(8) More psych, very “theatrical” … I’m 90% certain this is Kevin Ayers, though I’m not familiar enough with his oeuvre to know whether this is Soft Machine or solo, but early-70s regardless… one of those artists who I should check out more, as I like virtually everything I hear by him…
(9) Another track I know! Funnily enough I hadn’t heard it for years until someone (maybe Johnny99!) featured it in an Afterword thread some months ago (One-hit wonders? Should have been hits?), and I downloaded it accordingly… excellent new wave powerpop!
(10) Early 70s prog seems to be Johnny99’s wheelhouse, as here we are again, with an organ-driven, mid-paced number, fairly undistinguished to these unfamiliar ears, maybe Procol Harum?
(11) This one wrongfooted me somewhat – a long, bright, summery intro had me wondering if it might have been an easy listening MOR track (I jotted down “James Last?!” during my first listen!), before mutating into a terrific upbeat soul song (I’d hazard a guess it’s a Northern Soul favourite), definitely one I’ll be investigating further later.
(12) And then we finish off with another track I know well, the only one which (as far as I can tell) references the “Beginnings” theme, though as someone who all but ignored the theme, I shouldn’t talk! Great track, a summer playlist perennial chez Mickey!
Thanks a lot for that Johnny, certainly not a selection I’d have picked for myself, but a good helping of tracks I felt I ought to know, even if I didn’t, 4 or 5 which will get repeated plays, and all interesting at the very least, a good hit-rate – cheers!
I know, or think I know, six of @Johnny99‘s CD.
It tells a sad tale of innocence, hope, desire, longing, loss, grief and then a kind of hopeless hope. There is lots of Prog and Jimi type guitar (including Jimi himself in a lovely setting). I’m not that keen on the pastoral tracks even if they are full of earthly delights. Things get very strange for the long track four. The world stops still for twenty minutes. It reminds me of Messaien or a slow Schnitre piece. I liked it a lot. After that, the love light gets turned on and before long it has died. I actually own the last two but I haven’t listened to number 11 for a long time.
I do hope you are OK, Johnny. Most of these songs date back to the sixties and seventies, long enough for you to have come to terms with that the fact she’s not for you. Sounds like a joyous and painful experience for you, though.
Most amusing Tiggerlion ( and I mean that – not being sarcastic).
I will send the synopsis of the tracks to you shortly.
My review of your CD follows .
Well I think I know three of these
1 – I liked this as an introduction – is this some sort of film soundtrack ?
2 – I do like this a lot – it builds and builds and then builds a bit more. I shall be listening to this a lot
3 – This is a female singer – some sort of jazzy torch song
4 – Sounds a wee bit like someone’s listened to a couple too many Tom Waits albums
5 – A rather nice slice of reggae which sounds like a very good Gregory Isaacs impersonator if it isn’t indeed the Cool Ruler
6 – Oh I do like this – a very 60s funk feel to it
7 – Sorry – not my cup of tea at all – sounds like a singer who’s been coaxed into a recording studio and isn’t a natural singer
8 – Like this. Female singer with a very powerful backing
9 – Like this – a decent rock song but I’ve no idea who this is
10 – Dusty Springfield – unmistakeable voice
11 – I’m fairly certain that this is called “When a fire starts to burn” as that’s most of the lyric. American singer/intonator ? I really don’t like this as it just jars with me and I don’t know why – perhaps because of the keyboards
12 I am fairly certain that I’ve got this – I think it’s the Falcons from waaaaay back when
Here’s my review of @tiggerlion ‘s compilation. For some reason it wouldn’t play on my proper CD player but I’ve been listening to it in the car and on laptops and even the DVD player.
Track 1: Ominous soundtrack. Sounds like something John Carpenter might come up with. Good stuff.
Track 2: Uneasy listening territory? The applause at the start suggests it’s live. A moody ambient piece with Soviet sounding deep vocal underneath emerges after a clattery start. Sounds like something from those David Toop Ocean of Sound compilations from years back. I’d imagine it’s something @Poppysucceeds would identify immediately. It gets brighter as it proceeds – a feeling of dawn, daybreak. Quite uplifting ultimately. I liked it.
Track 3: Some beautiful chanteusing on this. It would fit on the Tom Waits’ One From the Heart album. In the classical style but clearly modern production. Other than the Irish chanteuses Mary Coughlan and Camille O’Sullivan, this is an area I have no knowledge of…Diana Krall maybe. I liked it and will Spotify whoever it is.
Track 4: Harsh sounding but fun. Bits of Waltzing Matilda melody and even Close to You (Carpenters) incorporated. Surely more than one vocalist. Reminded me of the little Pere Ubu I’ve heard. Some vocals were like David Johanssen to me. Haven’t a clue who this is but again I’ll check out more of them.
Track 5: 70s Lover’s Rock. I recognise the voice but can’t place it. Good stuff. I love sticking some Trojan on (ooer matron!) on a summer’s day. Sets the mood. Nice.
Track 6: Trebly guitar, jazz flute, wobbly organ – a cool mid to late 60’s groove – post Blow Up sounds to my ears. Enjoyable. I really enjoy this sort of thing. Another soundtrack?
Track 7: My first thumbs down – It’s probably one of those clever string quartets Kronos or Brodski (?) with the unmistakeable (unless I’m mistaken!) reedy, weedy vocals of Robert Wyatt. Never could stand his singing. Hitting the fast forward button as I type.
Track 8: Intriguing indie big band backing to a voice that seems somewhat limited and flawed but that seems to work perfectly here – reminds me of Wendy James of Transvision Vamp. I really liked this and will investigate more.
Track 9: Bouncy pop tune – Modern but sounding like 80s New Wave. Heavily produced vocals – maybe not usually a singer. Not bad at all. Haven’t a clue who it is.
Track 10: 60s girl group style big vocal. Initially I was convinced it was Dusty Springfield and definitely British but repeat listens have me doubting it – might even be early Ronnie Spector and American. Good tune. Another hit.
Track 11: Sample based punchy dance/soundtrack as I might associate with David Holmes or DJ Shadow. Don’t know who it is but I like it. This worked particularly well in the car – a great test for mixtapes.
Track 12: Doo-Wop leaking into early soul. I love this sort of thing but haven’t a clue who the belter is. The talky bits remind me of George Clinton a bit. I know he had a doo-wop background. I really like this one too.
All in all an enjoyable window into someone else’s obviously diverse music collection. Thanks.
Very interesting comments. I think I can now reveal the tracklist.
1. An Aborted Beginning – Nils Frahms. This is the live track but there is a long pause between the music ending and the audience clapping.
2. Birth – Roly Porter. Indeed, it would be a @Poppy-Succeeds favourite. I miss her contribution to the site.
3. Where Do We Start? – Sophie Millman. This one is from Take Love Easy.
4. Get Started – Young Fathers. They won the Mercury Prize doncha know! They are also Scottish.
5. Created By The Father – Gregory Isaacs.
6. You’re Starting Too Fast – Johnny Pate.
7. What’s New? – Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen. In which Robert Wyatt confirms that jazz is his real idiom.
8. First We Kiss – Anna Calvi. Her debut is her best album.
9. First Caress – Spoon. Superb band. This is track is from this year’s Hot Thoughts.
10. When The Lovelight Starts Shining Thru His Eyes – Dusty Springfield.
11. When A Fire Starts To Burn – Disclosure.
12. I Found Love – Wilson Pickett.
If I had my time over, I’d whack in a twenty minute ambient track like Johnny99.
Your review to follow, @Bamber.
Judging by his CD, @Bamber is clearly a lovely man and Irish. I suspect he’s quite a bit younger than me but he likes a lot of the same stuff I do. I was familiar with most of his songs, which are mainly uplifting pop music, even the moodier ones towards the end.
The first track is a nice eighties instrumental, in which Enya’s synthesiser washes are muddied by Robin Guthrie’s guitar treatments. A very pleasant start. Then, I feel I’m pitched into Bamber’s childhood with some silly dancing, daft games, strong friendships and a parting. I’m sure the children enjoy the dance, the Popcorn, but don’t realise that ‘mother’ refers to a sexy bottom. Playing in the fields, rolling down hills inside a ball, all great, innocent fun. But, at some point, we all grow up and have to make our way in the world, and, from Ireland, London is a long way. The parting is bittersweet. That boy, possibly named David, ended up chasing a different kind of butterfly, more beautiful and exotic, a woman. He was willing to humiliate himself on the dance floor, expose himself without a place to hide. It all ends sadly, desperate for anyone, an unwanted stray.
All in all, I liked all these songs without exception. You and I, Bamber, are cut from the same cloth. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. There was a biographical thread running through it but with a happy ending. I’ll elaborate with my tracklisting once the second review is in…
Just turned 52. I doubt that’s much younger than you …
Hmm…59!
@jonny99’s disc featured:
1. SMALL FACES – Happiness Stan
I think this is the perfect way to start with Stanley Unwin intoning “Are you all sitting comfortably . . . then I’ll begin”. Great song from a great band too.
2. TEN – Crusades/ All about love
TEN seem to be criminally ignored by the mainstream press (possibly because they don’t tour) but I think they are wonderful – certainly one of my favourite bands in the sphere of melodic hard rock. This track is the opening track from their first album cunningly entitled “TEN”.
3. SUNS OF ARQA – Discordant Dawn
“Dawn” – a beginning !
4. TANGERINE DREAM – Birth of liquid plejades
“Birth” – another beginning
5. LOVE – Everlasting first
“First” – beginning
6. THE ESCORTS – Turn on your love light
The very first recorded output from the late great Duane Allman.
7. ARZACHEL – Garden of Earthly Delights
Similar to The Escorts track in that this is the first recorded output of (to my mind) a major artist. In this case it’s Steve Hillage
8. KEVIN AYERS – It begins with a blessing etc
Again – very simply this features the word “begin”
9. SCARLET PARTY – 101 Dam-nations
The first single from the Essex band released in 1982. A nice bit of jangly pop never hurt anyone !
10. STEVE MILLER BAND – In my first mind.
Steve Miller when he was inventive
11. FIRST CHOICE – This is the house
A double “first” – the first single by the Philly soul outfit
12. BEGINNING OF THE END – Funky Nassau
A “beginning” and an “end” to these choices !
I’ll post my tracklisting tomorrow evening. Just giving Johnny99 a last chance to post his review.
My review of Bamber’s CD follows :
1. The CD starts with an instrumental which sounds like a soundtrack to a film set in South America where our hero climbs the last layer of an ancient Mayan ruin to get to the top and reveal . . .
2. Now this woman has done EVERYTHING – sounds a little like Grace Jones and the feel of the track is also very much like “I’ve done it again”
3 This is James Brown unmistakably
4. My notes for this just said “rocky”. Could this be the first track where I’ve heard the word “obfuscation” ? Quite like this
5 I was going to write “nice summery vibe” but as it starts with references to autumn that’s probably not appropriate. Like this.
6. I think I know the voice on this. Lots of references to London. Again I like this
7. Take a parachute and jump. I think the title must be something to do with “parachutes” but this isn’t the Pretty Things !
8. This sounds like an Irish band. On second thoughts the vocalist sounds like an older and wiser Graham Parker. Called “The kid with the butterfly net”
9. From vinyl ? “They’re all in my trance”. Nick Cave type vocal
10. Starts with rain. Good voice. I like this though I have absolutely no idea who it is
11. Female vocal – someone like Laura Nyro ? Not keen on the vocal
12. This is live unless Bamber has overdubbed some clapping on it ! Vocalist seems quite familiar but, again, it’s one that i have no idea about
On the whole the CD hangs together well – quite dominated by “singers” rather than bands. There’s nothing here that I would rush out and buy but as a whole entity it’s very listenable.
And that concludes the voting from the Reigate jury !
Thanks for the feedback @Johnny99 and @Tiggerlion Here is my tracklisting with explanations and tenuous connections to the theme of beginnings. I realised that my mixtape history of trying to impress girls or trading what floats our boat with distant friends led me to safer choices than most on this thread – nothing particularly challenging or discordant. As Tiggerlion hinted at, there’s an element of biography going on here too…
Track 1: Answered Prayers by David Sylvian. I like a bit of ambient and his album tracks were my gateway to the wider ambient world. My next stop was Bill Nelson who provides the lovely guitar on this track. This is the tune I wake up to in the morning. Perfectly fit for this purpose. Why not try it?
Track 2: Ego Trippin’ by Nikki Giovanni. My most obscure tack probably. I recorded this off the radio onto minidisc. There’s an inferior version with the Roots. As far as I know she’s an American poet. I love this tune with it’s eccentric, joyous take on Creation. Funky too.
Track 3: You Gotta Have a Mother for Me by James Brown. I love the funk and we all love our mothers – the beginning of everything. I don’t know why this track isn’t better known. It has it all!
Track 4: (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing by Field Music. This is as modern as my compilation gets. I’m a big fan of the Brewis Brothers in all their incarnations. I was listening to a lot of their stuff around the time of this challenge so I had to include at least one track. Might appeal to XTC fans. They’re an odd but entertaining live band too – great musicians.
Track 5: Zorbing by Stornoway who’ve recently called it a day. My wife’s favourites. I was looking for a track that had that feeling of falling in love, possibly first love and this seemed to fit the bill. It also references the feeling of starting Uni.
Track 6: Davy by Danny Wilson. It was either this or Aberdeen from the same album. Spookily it just came on my mp3 player on shuffle! I first heard the two songs on a mixtape a friend gave me when I left Dublin for London in 1987 in vain pursuit of the woman I loved. Both songs about new beginnings in new cities. It didn’t work out but I got over it very quickly and stayed in London for 12 years. My rock’n’roll years! The lyric about how “if you choose to come home, I won’t throw the first stone”, meant a lot to me.
Track 7: Parachute by Something Happens. This track is something of a classic in Ireland, probably unknown outside it. They were a great band and singer Tom Dunne is still good value on his radio show. Again, it’s about making that leap…taking a chance. The b-side was actually their countrified take on Abba’s Take a Chance on Me. They did a number of Abba covers.
Track 8: The Kid with the Butterfly Net by Graham Parker. Correct Johnny99! This is about the innocence of childhood viewed by a more world weary but not entirely cynical adult – like me looking at my two little ones, aged one and two just starting out in life. The absolute joy of watching them play and grow has made me so happy (so far!)
Track 9: When I Dance by Jonathan Richman. Recorded from vinyl. One of those Jonathan albums that never came out on CD and isn’t out there in the digital world either as far as I know. He may have done a later version as he does but I really like this. I had to crowbar some Jonathan in. One of his more egotistical pieces about how his moves can hypnotise a room – when he starts to dance. He is a great little mover.
Track 10: No Place to Hide by Declan O’Rourke. He’s quite well known in Ireland and has apparently been championed by Paul Weller. A beautiful understated acoustic track that I’ve always assumed was about the beginning of an arranged marriage or the arrival of a mail order bride.
Track 11: Anyone by Joan as Police Woman. Another of my favourites crowbarred in. My wife and I are big fans of the eccentric Ms. Wasser. This was the first dance at our wedding to the bafflement of 99% of the attendees. Aaaahhh!
Track 12: Stray (live) by Roddy “the Boy Wonder”, Frame. My first ever proper gig was Aztec Camera in Dublin in ’83 or ’84 and Roddy has been my “mancrush”, ever since. The album version of this never registered with me as it’s all jazzy gloss and over-extended. With just voice and guitar it stands out as one of his best songs.
So there you are. I’ve enjoyed this process, both the production and the critiquing. I hope there’s another round sometime soon. I’ll try to be more out there with my choices!
@bogl / @metal-mickey / @ivylander
Hope @bogl and @ivylander received my CDs the other week – am yet to receive theirs, but I’m sure they’re on the case!
I did, and I am..
It’s with massive embarrassment and relief – and apologies – that I announce the mailing today of my CDs. Will spare you the details except to say that I would not have wished the last few months of my life on anyone. (Things mostly better now.) I will be getting the track listing off shortly, and look forward to posting my response to metal mickey’s excellent compilation in the very near future. (Nothing so far from bogl.) In the meantime, all I can do is again say how very sorry I am…
poor @metal-mickey seems to be on his own in this subthread, but he came up with this, sleeve notes and all
A quick word about my track listing: in all honesty I found the ”Beginnings” theme a bit of a dead-end. Like many I’m sure, I started out with a list of “firsts” – first single, album, dance, CD, download etc., but the tracks I ended up with were, almost by definition, a) old, b) well-known, and c) not very cohesive. Picking tracks with “start” or “first” in the titles didn’t help much…
So, I tried to offset that by including a bunch of new songs from the past year or so (a bit tenuous, but “Beginnings”, see?) However, the longer I experimented with track listings, the more new songs I included, and before long it was a wholly “new” selection, which I then pruned into a vaguely “summer” vibe, hoping this might pass muster as an Afterword-friendly BBQ selection…
So here we are, 12 tracks from the past 18 months, nu-soul to nu-psych, Sarf London rap to Turkish synthpop, let’s funk pop a roll! Hopefully nothing too obvious, and hope my teammates enjoy it – cheers!
01 FIELD MUSIC – Disappointed
02 ONCE & FUTURE BAND – How Does It Make You Feel
03 WHITE – One Night Stand Forever
04 JAKUZI – Geriye Donemiyor
05 JAMES HERSEY – Miss You
06 RAY BLK featuring STORMZY – My Hood
07 MAYER HAWTHORNE – Out of Pocket
08 SPENCER LUDWIG – Right Into You
09 ARIEL PINK – Another Weekend
10 GRAVITY DRIVE – Wake Of The Dawn
11 SHEER MAG – Night Isn’t Bright
12 MONDO COZMO – Shine
I must admit that one of the reasons I haven’t joined in this swapping malarky is that I fully expect most of you to have heard the kind of songs I would’ve added.
Don’t let that put you off – even if it’s correct [and I doubt very much it would be – there’s no accounting for preference] I still enjoy listening to a mix where I don’t know what’s coming next, even if it’s something I know.
Locust has a vacancy, [up there ^^^^^^] why not join their group and see how it goes? Go on, go on, go on!
I’ve put some very obvious choices on my CD – I just have the advantage of being Swedish, so they’re not that obvious to you! 🙂 And a lot of “the usual suspects” talked about here on the AW are stuff I’ve never listened to in my life, so feel free to be as obvious as you’d like if you join us!
If I wasn’t going to Scotland for the next two weeks, I’d probably be able to muster something up.
Honestly – do not worry about that – just dive in and have a go. You may be pleasantly surprised. This is not an exercise in ‘who has the coolest taste in music’ – it’s just a bit of fun. Be great to have you on board for the next one! 🙂
Okay, I am pretty sure I have cleared out my inbox now. If your tracklisting is missing then it may be that I had it and missed it, in which case apologies. Either way, feel free to go ahead and put it up. Thanks to everyone who took part and entered into the spirit of the enterprise first by sending out your own mixes and then by commenting on whatever delights you got back. You are all now officially fast tracked to heaven (I had a word).
Thank you for all your effort.
When does the next one start?
Seconded!
Are you taking ideas for themes for Round 2? I have a few I’m happy to throw into the mix…
@Kid Dynamite – thoroughly enjoyed this little exercise – introduced me to a whole lot of new music which I was unlikely to hear anywhere else.
Thanks for co-ordinating this
Like metal mickey above I have plenty of ideas for the next one !
I think any ideas for themes can be DM’d to me and @kid-dynamite. This thread is getting a bit unwieldy so we’ll do a call-out for themes before the next round. Think we’ll have to ponder what to do about those who signed up but sent and posted nothing. But other than that the thing appeared to go off pretty well for a first effort.
An idea for next time, @moseleymoles & @kid-dynamite:
What if you announce the theme and a date by which anyone who wishes to enter must PM either one of you with a completed track list. That way you can put only people interested enough to take the time to make a CD into swapping groups, and you will also make sure that you’ll receive track lists from everybody taking part.
Two or three weeks notice should probably be enough time for most people to make or plan a CD and email you the details (obviously you’d then have to draw your own swappers from the people who sent their details to the other organiser, so you won’t have read their lists before getting the CDs).
Excellent idea