The Pile

 

Every now and then I return to soul music a genre I am not the greatest expert in but I really enjoy great voices and sounds this genre is able to give. In my opinion more and more new artist integrate soul elements into their sound and it is a good thing. One of those is Adam Scrimshire, a London based musician, producer, DJ and singer with a huge fondness to 70's soul. Last year he released his latest album Nothing Feels Like Everything that I discovered a few weeks ago. He developed his own very warm and jazzy kind of electronic music, which in some moments recalls the albums Terry Callier recorded in the 70's. Scrimshire builds on these ideas and expands them with a contemporary sound palette. The Pile is the best example what I mean. A great bass line and accented guitar licks make the floor for Scrimshire's vocals that were added by strings and piano. A song that stands alone in a row of soulful releases last year.

Willi Resetarits 1969 - 2022

 

For his dialect blues and rock, the Austrian singer Willi Resetarits was known as "Ostbahn-Kurti" - now the musician has died at the age of 73. He died on Sunday by an accident in his home. He started his career in the late 60's as a member of Schmetterlinge a political agitating band. They got country-wide known as they represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977 where less people understood the irony in their song about commercial mass compatible songs. Since the eighties Resetarits, switched to lead vocals and harmonica, portrayed the rock'n "roll art figure Ostbahn Kurti. He invented the fictional biography of the forgotten Viennese suburban rock'n' roller with proletarian pride, slippery street-smart Viennese wordplay and earthy interpretations of great post-sixties blues and rock classics in the Viennese dialect, including his versions of several songs by Bruce Fire ("Feia"), Townes Van Zandt's "At my Window" (Liagn and lochn) and songs by Dave Edmunds, ZZ Top, Steve Miller or Frank Zappa. In recent years he has been very committed to social projects and became one of the most humorous and therefore most credible and vocal speakers for integration and dignified dealings with refugees and minorities of the republic. He was not a phenomenal musician or songwriter but beyond doubt a very good live artist and I can bear witness when I saw him several times live with his band during the last decades. 

Rest easy Willi

Monday's Long Song On Tuesday

 

I didn't manage to create my regular post for Monday this weekend so I decided to deliver another long song one day after. According to my post from last Friday I think it great to post a song from long times ago another time. Alex Harvey and his Sensational band were one of those bands from the pre-punk era that are worth to be remembered. Formed in Glasgow in  the early the 70's they they highly influenced punk and new wave band in Europe and all over the world. Harvey made his unique interpretation of rhythm and blues compatible for many bands that came a decade later. Faith Healer is a masterpiece of him and for me a song for eternity.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Faith Healer

Let's Do It Again

 

Last week Jamie xx dropped a new song since a couple of years. Let's Do It Again fulfills any expectations I had on this. Another forward driving song with sharp, repetitive electronic beats and backing vocals with a massive touch on gospel. This could be a new anthem for the clubs this year. A song heard once and I can't get it out of my head.

Live Adventures Of Past Times

 

Travelling in the 70's was much more difficult than today. Especially when you have a very low budget to spent. Under normal circumstances it is not a big problem to get a cheap flight to any capitol in Europe. Back then those flights were invaluable for one who had started his education as an apprentice boy. Nevertheless I needed to have a break to see other countries and cities. The cheapest way was to buy an Interrail Pass. This ticket was valid for one month and you could travel to in and between all participated countries for approximately 30 pounds. So me and my younger brother bought the tickets and traveled by train through Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France mostly close to the sea during July 1977. And it was fantastic to see all the countries, sleeping in youth hostels and meet all that different kind of people.

When we walked through Copenhagen we saw many bills announcing  The Sex Pistols playing two nights in town. I have to admit that I heard of them and that they are spearhead of the new punk movement but I didn't know any song by them. So I decided to get us tickets for the show and looking forward what will happen. Daddy's Dance Hall was a smaller but elevated club with a small stage and a long bar. The DJ before the show started played his records from a gallery circa 10 feet over the ground and the first song he played when we arrived was a loud version of Faith Healer by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. And this loundness was silent by comparison to what The Pistols would be able to. Sadly there were only a few dozen people watching the show but they missed something special. Not the sound - this was horrible and overcharged but to see those guys in their rotten and leather outfits playing with an energy I never saw before and seldom after. As far as I remember the gig ended after 45 minutes but they played all the songs they had in these days. From EMI to Anarchy In The UK, Pretty Vacant and God Save The Queen and a cover of The Stooges No Fun. But this concert changed my musical taste radically.

Sex Pistols - EMI

Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK

Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant

Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen

One Of 4AD's Finest

 

4AD was always a record label that had it's antennas looking out for new and fresh sounds. In the early 80's they signed The Wolfgang Press a post-punk band inspired by PIL's Metal Box. In their early days they played another post-punk music like many others but during the later years they created from their roots a sound that absorbed funk and dance into their sound. Bird Wood Cage their third album from 1988 was one of those which were at the height of times back then and made it easy for those who could try to step into a new sound experience. Almost three decades ago The Wolfgang Press made a record that is worth to be remembered although the mass didn't recognized them.

The Wolfgang Press - Kansas

The Wolfgang Press - Raintime

In 1991 they made a cover version of Randy Newman's Mama Told Me Not To Come a song about a desert party in Los Angeles in the seventies of the last century in which drugs and whiskey were the basis for extensive orgies. I love this song in almost every versions but the way The Wolfgang Press played them was extremely great.

The Wolfgang Press - Mama Told Me Not To Come (Bad Boy Mix)

Another Underrated Album From Last Year

 

It is almost one year ago when Preston romantics White Flowers released Day By Day their first full album. I got this one digital, listened to it and forgot. When I cleaned um my hard drive I found this album once again and finally I saw the beauty of this record. Some might call it another shoegaze record or a poor copy of the Cocteau Twins or a slow version of Siouxie but I think they have all the named ingredients but on a very own way. There are ethereous voices over all songs and sparse orchestrated but always with a touch of dark sound. For some times this albums works very well and it is worth to be featured at this little place of the internet.

Monday's Long Song

 

SUSS are a NYC-based quartet playing a different kind of guitar dominated music. I featured them months ago due to the release of their last album Promis. A few months ago they released Night Suite, the first EP of a series of Ambient-country sound. It is a combination of their unique combination of classic Americana instrumentation wit pedal steel, deep tempered guitar and harmonica interwoven with loops and synthesizers. Therefore they left the east-coast and moved to Arizona and New Mexico to fathom the possibilities of new desert music. The result was an atmospheric piece of music showing a new kind of music that works well in midnight to dawn.

SUSS - Ash Fork AZ

Bruce Willis

 

No, there is no talk here about Bruce Willis, who announced his retirement from the movie business a few weeks ago due to his illness. It is about Japanese Television, a new band from London. I heard that Jimi Hendrix once said You'll never hear surf music again and listening to those quartet they rove the opposite to him. They twang on their guitars and add some synthetically psychedelic sound  and keyboards to it. The result are a couple of songs that made me smile listening to their own interpretation of history. Sadly the full album isn't on the level of these songs. But it could be a nice EP.

If I Only Could Remember My Name

 

In 1971, now over 50 years ago, David Crosby released his first solo album. I found this again when I made safety copy on my external drive and I couldn't resist listening to it once again. This album is one of those from the early 70's that is still worth to listen from time to time not only for one that always liked his voice. It has this kind of westcoast sound based on blues and filled with great harmonies. As far as I know many artists from associated bands like Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and CSN&Y supported him on this album. This is retro sound of course but I think there were less musicians today who are able to make records like these.

David Crosby - Music Is Love

David Crosby - Tamalpais High (At About 3)

My Mum Was Nico's Driver

 

A few days ago a song by a band I've never heard before came to my ears and never let me go since. HANN is a Manchester based indie-pop band and derived by the singers first name Hannah. I don't know if the story of the song is true but it is clever using name dropping in a good pop song. Of course nothing new and exciting but just another good song for the upcoming summer.

The brilliance of the song's lyrics is that I remembered Nico once again. Born in Germany as Christa Päffgen before the war she became a model and moved to New York where Andy Warhol got aware of her. He also was the one who introduced her to Velvet Underground where she got a member of. Although she couldn't sing her voice fitted together perfectly with the Velvet's sound. In 1967 she released her first solo album Chelsea Girl a little masterpiece by her. With the help of her bandmates Reed and Cale and Jackson Browne she created probably the blueprint of doom and gothic sounds that should became decades later famous. On 18 July 1988 Nico swings on her bike; dressed in black leather trousers and other heavy clothes, her emaciated body collapses in the shade at 40 degrees in Ibiza. The woman, who turned the head of many of the most desirable men of the 60s and also became an icon musically, leaves her life on a roadside in the bright sun of Spain. 

Nico - These Days

Dirty Window Or Opportunity

 

Nothing new to say today - just another new tune by Pye Corner Audio, the electronic music project by Martin Jenkins for your pleasure. And it is another superb piece of music. Synthesizers and occasional piano inserts are improvised over a constantly driving beat that work well in a club and as well at your place. Good stuff.

Female Post-Punk Bands

 

In addition of Sunday's post about Wet Leg, Echorich named in his comment a few a few all female bands that hit the scene back in 1979, the year everything in music was possible (and fantastic). In many countries girls formed their bands and made records. Some of them were just on the fringes for a couple of month, others became influences for other bands that appeared years later. This made me listening to those bands that were still in my mind but I forgot listening to them during the last years. This should be a short appreciation for what they did for music more than 40 years ago.

The Raincoats were a London post-punk band formed by Gina Birch and Ana da Silva when they saw The Slits live in the late 70's. Later The Slits ex-drummer Palmolive joined the band for their first self titled album. Their sound was mostly dissonant but stunning because of their energy and fun playing their instruments. 

Leeds gave us not only Gang of Four and The Mekons, also Delta 5 were formed there. A band that also absorbed funk into their unique sound. Mind Your Own Business is their legacy and still a song that sounds fresh like in the days it was released.

Kleenex/Lilliput were a band from Zurich, Switzerland that are typical for European female punk. Trashy and with unconventional lyrics (in German and in English as well) they created an unique sound that impressed John Peel for a session. 

Monday's Long Song

 

The release of Horace Andy's new album prompted me to listen to the music of Massive Attack again after a long time during the weekend. When people talk about one of their best albums they seldom name their second one Protection. For me it also a highlight of Massive Attack's output and not only they were lucky to replace Shara Nelson by Tracey Thorn. Protection had except the title track no song that reached high position in the charts but the whole album has a very special mood for relaxing. In 1996 they made together with Mad Professor a remix album on a dub floor. This version of the song is one of the highlights of this project.

Massive Attack - Protection (Radiation for the Nation Mix)

Attention Hype

 

The word hype is a relic from another era. Back then, in the 1990s, more guitars were probably sold than mobile phones. With each print edition of the NME magazine, a new "best band of all time" was proclaimed on the front page. This and beyond the Atlantic, Alternative Rock, Manchester Rave, Grunge, Brit-Pop and strumming indie-rock entered the charts. Mocking lads and nonconformist riot grrrls became role models, celebrities and fashion icons. Before the crash came, Tony Blair even celebrated the Champagne Supernova with a British premier. And today? In times of media irritation, the name Wet Leg is probably noted between two glass of beer with a shoulder twitch. Brilliant! But you don't have to know them. This were my thoughts when I listened to Wet Leg's self titled first album. I have to admit that I really liked their first single Chaise Longe that was one of last summers songs and I didn't expected anything from the album. But singer Rhian Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers from Isle of Wight were able to write more indie-rock songs high above the level you could expect. The music may sound like a best-of-indie rock of the past 30 years. But the way Wet Leg handles the challenges of our time is fueled by an unusually snotty attitude. All in all an album that makes fun at the time but I suggest less people will remember their names in a couple of years. 

El Mirador

 

It is good to know that something is reliable in times were many things quickly change and life we used to have isn't the same now. So I was happy that the new album El Mirador fulfilled every expectation I had on it. Of course Joey Burns and John Convertino didn't invented a new sound but it is good to know for me that they are still able to make their Mariachi/Americana guitar based sound as we was used by them. Most of the songs have the touch of desert/border sound and it should be the perfect soundtrack when you drive with your cabriolet along the Mexican border.  

Live Adventures Of Past Times

In the early 80's Oz, a new discotheque (later it was called as a club) opened the doors in Stuttgart. The specific at this place was the basement where the owners realized a small venue for live concerts. I remember one evening when me and a couple of friends owned tickets for a new band from West Sussex. The Cure came to promote their second album Seventeen Seconds and we expected nothing more than a good gig. What we became was one of the best concerts I ever had the luck to be part of it. The venue was very small and constructed for maybe 300 visitors but at this evening there were more than 500 persons in this venue. You could imagine how it was standing in a crowd  close rank to your neighbor, the air was filled with a full load of cigarette smoke in the air for a couple of hours. I remember also that lots of people standing on the stairs and watching the show. The concert started with the supporting act, Abwärts a punk band from Hamburg and they were full of the energy punk gave them in these days. I really enjoyed their fast and amateurish songs. The perfect support for the main band. I saw The Cure several times during the last decades but they couldn't beat this gig. Robert Smith and Lol Tolhurst had so much fun playing their songs and made their gloomy songs brighter. After almost two hours playing most of the songs from their first two albums they finished their gig and giving the audience a session of four songs together with Abwärts playing a few standards by associated bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees. All in all a venue were we came back often in these days.

Abwärts - Computerstaat

The Cure - A Forrest

Cool Kids Of Death

 

Tiger Bay was the third album by Saint Etienne an indie-dance band from London released in 1994. I have to admit that I always liked them because they their name not only was lent by French football team AS Saint Etienne that had their best times in the mid 70's when they played in the pre Champions League and lost the final in Glasgow unfortunately against Bayern München. The main thing about the band was that they were able to combine different kind of genres like folk, rock, dance club music into their very own sound. Their debut Foxbase Alpha from 1991 was a groundbreaking record for me, introducing this sound to my ears. Their third album Tiger Bay three years later is an underrated album in fact of following albums by artists that made great first records their following albums bear the fate of repeating the same once again. But listening to this album I think there are so many great songs on it that are worth to be listened to decades later. Cool Kids Of Death by the remix of Underworld shows once again that their songs are so good and worth to be remixed.

Saint Etienne - Cool Kids of Death (Underworld Remix)

Free

 

In 1992 Scottish band Primal Scream went after their eponymous album Screamadelica to Memphis to make an album with legendary producer Tom Dowd and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section. The sessions lead to an album that never saw the light of day until a few years ago. Many of the tracks were released on their fourth album Give Out But Don't Give Up but the songs from their sessions were much better than on this album. Primal Scream and Bobby Gillespie had never before and after more soul than in Memphis and better musicians in the background. Never expected that a Scottish band could play soulful song like these. I still come back to their Memphis' recordings from time to time with great joy.

Primal Scream - (I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind

Primal Scream - Free

Weekender

 

In 1992 Flowered Up appeared on the scene as another indie-pop/alternative dance band. Formed in Camden Town, London they were part of the Manchester scene in these days. Their legacy was a 15 minutes tour de force of rhythm, guitars, bass and some voices and they hit the sound of this summer. The band split up after only one album in 1994 amid massive drug problems. But what will be in history is this song remixed by the great Andrew Weatherall.

Flowered Up - Weatherall's Weekender (Audrey Is A Little Bit More partial mix)

Monday's Long Song

 

Mark Hollis was the mastermind behind Talk Talk and died too early three years ago. They started in the early 80's with synth-pop and new wave and became great commercial success. After the first albums Hollis moved more and more to a different kind of sound. More ambitious and intimate than before. Most of these songs are intimate reflections of his life and thriftily arranged with less instruments. And it is just this what I loved about his music. Seldom artists were able to make songs like these - one other was Nick Drake. But this is another story to be told. This version is from their live album from 1986 showing them at the peak of their creativity.

Talk Talk - Renee

In A Dream

 

Last year Sheffield's musician and producer Yarni brought us the superb album Boro that sadly not featured on this little place yet. Boro is taken from the Japanese word for patchwork textiles and the music on the album is just like this: a mixture of jazz, funk, rock, ambient and a lot of electronica. Since I found this album it is one I always get back to when I want to relax and slow down. Now Yarni is going to release another album during the next week and In A Dream i an appetizer. A laid back song with piano and thrifty guitars and jazzy horns made perfect by the voice of Emily Marks. The perfect start for me into a Sunday where winter has come back to my town.

Live Adventures Of Past Times

 

It was back in 1979 when German fun punk band appeared close to the place where I used to life. ZK (absolutely sickening) where from Düsseldorf and formed around the punk scene from their home town. And they were an original punk band and often not knowing how to handle their instrument and later become Tote Hosen, probably the most well known post punk band in Germany. I really liked them in their early days and don't agree what they became decades later: just another mainstream band playing hooky songs in the tradition of punk adding rockabilly and schlager to their sound. I was there when they played their gig in spring 1979 in a very small venue. The place was called mouse trap in was in the first floor in an old house in central Stuttgart. You have to move a step to get there and the venue was on the left side. The main problem that there was a whorehouse on the right side and the customers had to push themselves past the concert visitors. I remember that the concert was very nice and amusing I we had great fun with the band. We were standing at the bar and a young person showed up to us and asked us if we are able to buy him a beer because he was to young to buy it in person. Of course we spent him a drink, not knowing that it was Campino, the main figure of the Toten Hosen, who became the leading figure of German punk rocker years later.

ZK- Conrad