Playlist 5

The soundtrack to this month includes several majesties and a milkman...

‘Their Satanic Majesties Request’, The Rolling Stones

Conventional wisdom labels this a failed attempt to compete with The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’.  It’s certainly not as well resolved a piece, but I actually prefer it.  If ‘Sgt Pepper’ is ultimately about taking drugs, this sounds like it was made on drugs.

In places ‘T.S.M.R.’ may degenerate into the shambolic stoned jamming with bongos style typical of the period but the best parts still sound, as do all good Stones songs, like they evolved from Keith strumming riffs on someone’s battered sofa.  Surprisingly, Bill Wyman’s ‘In Another Land’ provides an arch riposte to ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’.  Although the band was always rooted in the raw blues tradition, this album is still a fine piece of English Psychedelia.  ‘Citadel’, ‘She’s A Rainbow, and ‘The Lantern’ are memorable.

‘Secondhand Daylight’, Magazine

I rediscovered this after a friend described photographing a recent reincarnation of Magazine.  Howard Devoto shrugged off the Punk straight jacket early to pursue a more sophisticated musical course whilst retaining the sullenness of the times.  Magazine’s sound is often described as a kind of Post Punk Prog. and certainly, they were unafraid to switch either musical style or time signature mid-song.  The album frames Devoto’s alienated lyrics and anxious vocals with edgy guitars, chilling synths and occasional saxophone to create something palpably cold and unsettling.

‘Individuellos’, La Dusseldorf

La Dusseldorf Circa 1981

La Dusseldorf was formed by Klaus Dinger, - previously half of the better-known Kosmische band Neu!  There are definite similarities between the two projects but La Dusseldorf’s material emphasises Dinger’s role as the more abrasive, subversive element of the earlier duo.  What do remain constant are the wonderful steady, ‘motorik’ drum patterns that Dinger originated.  I love how both bands seem to be propelled in endless progress.

‘Individuellos’ was the third La Dusseldorf album, - reportedly made despite a dearth of original material.  As with Neu! 2, this led Dinger to experimentally rework the same themes several times but for me, the individuality of each piece means it’s no problem.  It’s also possible his sense of the absurd was getting a little out of hand at this stage as there are tracks here featuring massed kazoos and clip-clopping horse hooves.  It’s easy to imagine Klaus the prankster smirking along with those endless beats.

‘Mirrorwriting’, Jamie Woon

There seem to be loads of smart young men called James or Jamie designing life-style music these days.  This album won’t change the world and might end up as one of those dinner party background suites but I enjoy its spare arrangements and spotless production.  Woon has a soulful voice and augments his plaintive, emotive songs with enough Burial-type atmospheres and contemporary beat science to hold the attention.

‘I Was Young And I Needed The Money!’, The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination

Clifford Gilberto Gets A Little Camper

Florian Schmitt adopted the groovy CGRC moniker to release this in 1998.  It adheres to the ‘Drill & Bass’ sub-genre aesthetic of madly accelerated jungle beats and blends them with Latin, Jazz and Funk elements to good effect.  Like all the best music of this kind it proceeds in both manic and laid-back timescales simultaneously and proceeds with style and good humour.

‘Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)’, Benny Hill

Benny Hill peddled his brand of saucy postcard humour to ever diminishing returns throughout my formative years.  To some he’s a cheeky chappie, - to others, an evil misogynist.  Back then it was de rigueur for comedians to release novelty records and, whilst I never need to see his TV show again, this was his finest hour and always makes me chuckle.

‘Glass Swords’, Rustie

The most interesting dance/beats based musicians no longer seem hidebound by fidelity to genre or stylistic authenticity.  For many, the manner of production now seems to involve compiling a grab-bag of sounds from any source or tradition and assembling them into pleasing new forms with a willingness to contemplate limitless combinations.  ‘Glass Swords’, - the first album by Glaswegian Russell Whyte, epitomises this and displays a pleasing disregard for the dictates of ‘taste’ in the process.

Whilst its underlying day-glo aesthetic might derive from Hardcore Rave, flavours of R&B, Trance, Dubstep, Hip Hop, and just about any other style you care to mention, are all thrown into the mix with cheerful abandon.  This sonic feast of synthetic squiggles, percussive fizz-bombs and cartoon exclamations initially sounds like a Game Boy addicted A.D.H.D. sufferer let loose in a Pick n Mix but further listening reveals each track to have a coherent internal logic and seductive fluidity.  It’s also clear that Whyte possesses a surprisingly strong melodic sense.

‘Good Companye, Great Music From A Tudor Court’, The Elizabethan Consort

'Portrait Of Henry VIII As A Young Man',
Artist Unknown, 16th Century

I recently enjoyed Hillary Mantell’s Thomas Cromwell novels, set amidst the decadence of Henry VIII’s court, so this provided some excellent period ambience.  I’m always amazed how a bunch of self-serving gangsters and megalomaniacs were subjected, daily, to music of such beauty.

This includes Henry’s own celebratory composition, ‘Pastyme With Good Companye’, - a song that also turns up on…

‘Gryphon’, Gryphon

Aah, - the Prog. Seventies!  It was a time when extravagantly hirsute music college graduates like Gryphon and Lincoln’s own Amazing Blondel, could don period costume, pick up recorders or crumhorns and make perfectly credible Medieval Folk Rock.  As musicians, Gryphon were the real deal, - even giving album credits to the period instrument builders who facilitated their antique sound.  This was their first album and, along with King Henry’s ditty also includes the lovely ‘The Unquiet Grave’, - a traditional song with a familiar tune that breaks my heart whenever it resurfaces.

‘Magnificat’, Thomas Tallis, (Performed By Chapelle Du Roi).

'Portrait Of Thomas Tallis', Niccolo Haym (After Gerard
Van Der Gucht), Engraving, 16th Century

Here’s something else from the Tudor period.  Thomas Tallis composed sacred music throughout the reigns of most of the dynasty and, despite remaining Catholic himself, managed to negotiate the upheavals in faith that define the period.  I’ve no involvement with religion but cannot escape the profound beauty of this music.  I’ve always loved the vocal intertwining of choral polyphony and find Tallis to be the absolute champion of the form.  What need of God if humans can create such sounds?