Sundowning

 

Mark Peters, an English songwriter, musician and producer released last year Red Sunset Dreams, one of those albums I always come back to during the last six months. I follow him since his since he released his Innerland albums/remixes and for me it was an album I can relax by and get rid of many thoughts that buzzed around my mind. A peaceful, warm and relaxed album filled with songs you can drift away. Some might reduce him to another artist surfing on the Balearic scene but for me his songs has a deep like I listened seldom to. That he had the chance to collaborate with Dot Allison for a couple of songs makes them brighter than most others. This is a newer remix by Richard Norris and he made a great song better than expected.  

Never Get Out Of The Boat

This song appeared yesterday on my way to my office. Never Get Out Of The Boat by The Aloof, a British electronic band, formed in London was one of the musical highlights from 1990 and it accompanied me during the last decades. A smooth and elegant rhythm with various breaks and the vocal sample "never get out of the boat, absolutely goddamn right, unless you were going all the way" from Martin Sheen in the movie 'Apocalypse Now' is outstanding and one of this tunes I will always come back to.

Which Side Are You On

 

Yesterday I wrote about the big strike in Germany and I don't know if it was successful or not and if the parties found the time for new proceedings to find a solution. Until then I think it is necessary to play some songs from an artist that has been always the tongue of the deprived. I noticed Billy Bragg in the early 80's as an English singer/songwriter and left-wing activist. Since then he was the one that could write about social grievances but also as the one who was able to write heartbreaking introverted songs. Today there should be featured songs to force the strikes - wherever they might be.

Monday's Long Song

 

This Monday, Germany is affected by a strike the likes of which I have not experienced for a long time. The entire public transport system will be on strike. There are no buses or trains, not to mention planes. From my point of view, the strike and the union's demands are absolutely justified. Permanently rising energy costs and the cost of food are bringing many people to the brink of affordability. The fact that the employers refuse to pay more is due to the system and also, if only with difficulty, comprehensible. But I have no understanding when employers spend a lot of money on managers' salaries or absurd purchases and do not think at all about how their employers can make ends meet financially. I have decided to take a day off because I don't see any way of getting to work and supporting the strike in this way.

Today's long song is the opening track from Underworld's third album Dubnobasswithmyheadman from 1994 showing them on a high class level. I could use almost every song from this album in this series.

Underworld - Dark and Long

 

The Chemical Brothers will be back this year with a new album. No Reason is the first harbinger of the new album that Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons are currently working on. After a 25-second drumroll acid synth intro, one would probably expect a hard, gloomy techno track. But that's not exactly what the Chemical Brothers' new single "No Reason" is. At the climax (drop in EDM-speak) there is suddenly this funky bassline. And as if that wasn't enough to make a good song, the bass and the drums pause every now and then. If I go diving into this kind of genre I will surly not miss this song.

This Stupid World

 

For those who don't know, Yo La Tengo are an American indie-rock band from Hoboken, New Jersey, and active since almost 30 years. The main figures of this band, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley, made during this decades songs and albums I always like to visit them with great joy. Sadly it is a band that only got limited critical acclaim for what they have done in musical history. I can't remember any album that I couldn't listen to and saying that it didn't fulfilled my expectations. The recent weeks they released their new album This Stupid World and it is one of those I will surely play it many times this year. It is a superb mixture of many different styles that were created during the last decades and surprising with no cover versions. Yo La Tengo is a band of vibes, more than ever. Organ drones and spherical chords held in the air form the basis, fuzz guitars) classic acoustic guitars or distorted vocal tracks pierce through the meditative uniformity, are splashes of colour in the monochrome. The highlight is "Fallout" ,a beautiful shoegaze piece with a majestically opening chord progression, in which the dominantly distorted electric guitar combines fantastically with the motoric, high bass tones.

Fire On The Mountain

These days arrived the news that London based collective Rude Audio will release a collaboration with Welsh musician Dan Wainwright called Psychedelic Science. They only released an appetizer from their forthcoming album Fire On The Mountain, but what I heard was more than I expected. Both artists were featured on this pages during the last years and they released a lot of outstanding music for me. Now they changed they musical style and combined Grateful Dead's Westcoast sound with British reggae. The result is nothing more or less a very big surprise that made me happy. I listened to this song the first time and can't stop to play it once again. This are some words they made when they released this album:

Inspired by radio play and club support from the likes of Don Letts and - bless his cotton socks and may he RIP - Andrew Weatherall and rooted in our love of US psychedelia, especially the Dead and Jefferson Airplane, we decided to buckle down and create a massive dub lp, steeped in mycological and herbal goodness, that would appeal to the head(s) and the feet and work in clubs, back rooms and bedrooms. We were joined by Ken Kesey's right hand man on the Acid Test, Ken Babbs and psychedelic and spiritual guru, Mr Ram Dass, for part of the trip.

Deep Sea Skiving

 

 

I can't believe that is 40 years ago now that a girl group appeared on the scene that brought us the pop album of the year. And I can't remember anyone who couldn't agree to Bananarama this summer. Their first album is still an outstanding album in British post new-wave pop. Together with Fun Boy Three they made the blueprints of the upcoming sound. Influenced by various styles like 60's pop, new wave enthusiasm, tribal rhythms and the talent of selecting the songs that fit to their attitude they recorded some great songs that stood the time. 

Bananarama - Really Saying Something

Banararama - Aie A Mwana

Monday's Long Song

Today's song is by Big Blood, an American psychedelic folk/experimental rock band formed almost 20 years ago. Originally formed as a husband-wife duo of Colleen Kinsella and Caleb Mulkerin in South Portland, Main. They are a musical institution in New England and known as a superb live band. Their music is torn between new folk with Colleen's bright voice and psychedelic guitar excursions. Serpent Skies might not be the trademark of their music but I like the easy drifting and moving kind of flow in this song. 

Another Band To Remember

 

By regularly listening to new and very old music, I find that I always forget classics that I have always wanted to hear again. I come back to them when I get an impulse to do so. That's how I felt when I read that Pedestrian Verse by Frightened Rabbit had been re-released. It's an album by Glasgow-based brothers Scott and Grant Hutchinson and was released 10 years ago. They already proved that Frightened Rabbit could write great songs with their previous album The Winter of Mixed dreams. Here they go one step further and add another dimension to their guitar-based indie sound. Scott Hutchison proves this directly in the opener Acts Of Man, which begins as a piano ballad in falsetto and ends in a drum loop. A song that Coldplay would kill for in its epic breadth. That Frightened Rabbit are nevertheless a group that can perform in a Glasgow pub at any time they prove with a highlight of this record with The Woodpile. Rediscovering such treasures is pure pleasure for me.

Frightened Rabbit - Act Of A Man

Frightened Rabbit - The Woodpile

Intrigue Pt. II

 

Let's go back diving in the new/progressive sound of the late 70's where a lot of bands started blew up structures of contemporary music and opened my ears for something that was more real to me than every thing else I heard before. 

Magazine - Back To Nature

Magazine was one of the first post-punk bands that had more than raw energy and anger and released with Real Life a masterpiece that I almost played to death at these days. All songs have a massive depth and hooks other bands didn't had in this era. And they are all well arranged and combined the energy of punk with the classic rock roots. That they influenced many other bands after their first albums is not necessary to repeat. Back To Nature is from their second album Second Hand Delight and a good example why they got all the critical acclaims.

Simple Minds - I Travel (Extended Version)

Formed in Glasgow in 1980 Simple Minds were one of those bands who made a few great albums in their beginnings to get arbitrary during the years. But their early output is still fantastic and still worth to get a listen to. Their legacy? Probably one of those new wave bands that made experiences with synthesizers and built a bridge from their guitar based roots to electronic music. I Travel is the opening track from third album Empires And Dance from 1980.

XTC - Complicated Game

Complicated Game is a song by XTC, a band that started as pioneers of new wave and from their best early album Drums And Wires from 1979. The whole album is one of those that I often played when I was DJing in the early 80's. Not just because I can hear the fun and enthusiasm in every song they made on this record. It was more as a door opener to many other bands from this era. And what talent Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding had they showed us on various later released albums.

Stutter

1986 was a good year in music and many remarkable albums were released in this year. For me one of the best albums is James' debut album Stutter. Many filed this album as a folk rock album but for me it is still a monument in songwriting. James were a part of Manchester's club scene, supporting New Order live and close to a contract with Factory records. They made complex songs with very unique arrangements you can enjoy still after a few decades. Stutter is one of those albums I will ever come back to. 

James - So Many Ways

James - Johnny Yen

James - Sculldaggery

The Candle And The Flame

 

Most of you will know that Australian guitarist, singer and songwriter Robert Forster became famous as a forming member of The Go-Betweens, one of the superbest bands from the 80's that made a few albums that are still highlights which I come back regular. The Go-Betweens were history when Grant McLennan died in 2006. After this Forster made some albums that were also far above the average of songwriting tradition and I always was happy when he released a new album. Now he released The Candle And The Flame, a new album filled with songs for his wife Karin Bäumler who is married to him since more than 30 years. The close relationship of the couple was put to the test in 2021 when Bäumler was diagnosed with cancer. The songs on this album are filled with memories, hope and tragedy of the last decades of their life and many may call them simple but for me I seldom heard better songs about love and optimism during the last years.

Monday's Long Song

 

The late 60's were stamped by post-psychedelic and blues influenced music. The most popular bands came from across the ocean and psyche and guitar based from from Europe played in league two. While bands in Germany developed krautrock as a new musical style our neighbors in Netherlands tried to find new ways in rock music. In 1969 Dutch rock band Golden Earring released Eight Miles High an album inspired by a song by The Byrds. The essence of this album is a 19 minute long version of this song showing what was possible when a bass is taking over the leading position to give it back to a heavy blues-guitar. It is a song I listen often to in my very younger days and came back to it when I listened to The Byrds recently. Still a great version even if it is out of time now.

Golden Earring - Eight Miles High

From The Deepest NYC Underground

 

These days I got aware of a compilation called Blacklist Bar: Androgyns and Deviants - Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels  and just because of the title I made some further investigations. It is a compilation I only can listen to because of it is a document from musical history. This are further information the releasing label gave to us:

From June 1992 to March 1995, in the mist of the AIDS crisis in NYC, an extraordinary thatrical collective emerged fro the queer underground. Blacklips Performing Cult, initiated by ANOHNI and joined a cabal of fellow artists, drag queens, punks, nightlife veterans and students, performed a new play every Monday night at 1:00 a.m. at the Pyramid club on 101 Avenue A. Blacklips never courted mainstream attention. However the group left a sustaining impression within New York's late night subculture by melding hysterical drag, surreal horror and diconcerting tenderness.

Listening to the songs I understand that they didn't got much critical acclaim because they will only work live at this place. Some individual covers like Lou Reed's Satellite of Love will work well when you can see the artist, others are good electronic experiments and others are shouted out lyrics with obscene contents. After all it is nothing more or less a document of a scene that was only alive for a few years and it is more punk than many thing else that was released.

Dirty Hugs

 

Yesterday a few remixes of songs from GLOK's album Pattern Recognition were released and all of them were fantastic. Regular visitors of this pages will know that I am a fan of Andy Bell and I featured his work and remixes during the last years. Richard Sen's remix of Dirty Hugs shows another time how great Bell's song were. As he did a great work on his version of Dissident he didn't disappoint the second time. He took the original 20 minutes long song and added a hypnotic krautrock inspired groove to Bell's guitar licks. A perfect start into the weekend.

Intrigue

 A few weeks ago Intrigue a compilation by Steven Wilson, known as the founder, songwriter, singer and vocalist of Porcupine Tree, named as Intrigue: Progressive Sounds in UK Alternative Music 1979 - 1989. I owned this box set just because a lot of songs from this decade were very familiar to me. Listening to those songs brought me back to glory days of new music I developed in these days and I am thinking about to start a little series based on the music I rediscovered during the last days.

This Heat - Health And Efficiency

This Heat was an experimental band formed in London in 1976 and filled as another punk band from the beginning. They only released two albums and an EP with the same title. Health and Efficiency is one of their highlights and shows what could be possible when your musical ideas has no limits. Their sound was seminal because they included different influences like krautrock, dub, noise and post punk into their unique sound. Still an underrated band that should have more acclaim to their works.

In Camera - Fatal Day

To be frankly In Camera is a band that I hadn't on the radar until I listened to them on the compilation. This London based post-punk band formed by Andrew Gray who became later a member of The Wolfgang Press, were heavenly inspired by PIL and Joy Division and sadly they were unable to release a full album. File as another underrated and forgotten band.

Have a great weekend people.

Happy Endings

 

A few weeks ago Scottish producer and musician Sean Dickinson aka HiFi Sean released his first album with his longer time collaboration with British singer David McAlmont Happy Ending. I got this album when it was released, listened once and forgot about it. During the last days I rediscovered this album and listened a few times to it and I have to admit that it grows the more I listen to it. I enjoy their music whatever the musical press would say. It is an album that I will call timeless because this songs were far away from any popular genres today. Songs that lives because of McAlmont's mighty and also easy voice, well arranged with orchestra and strings. Sometimes it remembers me on the music Marc Almont did ages ago and Kevin Rowland would be proud to sing. A little highlight this year so far. 

Monday's Long Song

Sometimes I notice a new name in music and only because of the name I go for further investigations. This happened the last time when I first got aware of Hunterbräu. As far as I know Hunterbräu is an electronic music artist from Manchester. His music is some kind of merging of 80's synthesized rock/pop and acid house from years later. I have to admit that I didn't listen to Depeche Mode's original for a long time but this version with it's reduced electronic rhythm, cautious synths and the vocals shifted in the background is coequal to me.

 

Facciamo L'Amore

 

After another stressful week at work I enjoy staying at home reading some good books and listening to music. I think the older I get the less the duties of my job. Especially when my company is going to turn everything upside down at an incredible pace. This song was released yesterday and was the perfect soundtrack to slow down. A ten minute track built on a simple rhythm and added with warm synths, a bit of guitar and whispered voices makes this song worth to be played. Rheinzand is an electronic collaboration from Ghent, Belgium, and featured at this place the last time when they released their superb self titled album back in 2020. The title of the song means Let's Make Love and has nothing in common with the song Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg made decades ago.

Wayne Shorter 1933 - 2023

 

The sad news arrived yesterday that Wayne Shorter died at the age of 89. Shorter was one of the main figures of modern jazz/fusion and one of those I always liked listen to. To be honest the jazz thing was never the music I could listen to. Maybe because it was too sophisticated and those who were in this kind of music praised every chord they played and seldom fusion for got no soul at all. But Shorter was a uniter. He played his jazz thing with legends like Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock and Santana as well. What will stand the test of time is the way he played his saxophone and his ability to enrich his instrument the sound of many others. This one is a footage of a gig he played with Carlos Santana back in 1988 at the Montreux festival. For me still a highlight in this genre with it's piano and percussion parts.

Cello Song

 

I am not a fan of albums paying tribute to an artist or a band. Most of the songs that were interpreted by various artists have no further ideas to play a song in a different way. This was my first thought when I got the news that The Endless Coloured Ways a tribute to the music of Nick Drake was released. Nick Drake only released three albums before he died on the abuse of antidepressant drugs too early. He was one of those artists who was able to touch me with his very own way of writing songs that came straight to my heart. I gave this tribute a chance and listened to a few songs. The only one that I can commit with was Fontaines D.C. because they didn't tried to make a version of this song. This little band from Dublin tried to transform this song into their own sound and the result is much better than I could expect. Anyway, a good job but you can't beat the original that touched my heart from the first time I listened to it.

To compare: here is the original.