Playlist 8

Lately, it seems that just turning on the radio news is enough to make me despair at the ridiculous behaviour of our species.  Couple that with short, dreary winter days, frustrations at work and another stinking virus and I really felt like blowing up in exasperation earlier this month.  Some proper shouting Rock music helped a lot and a much more festive vibe is kicking in now.

‘Memory Motel’, The Rolling Stones

Only fools and millionaires could afford to attend The Stones’ 50th anniversary gigs but there have been bargains to be had on their back catalogue.  I picked up the oft derided ‘Black and Blue’ recently which, whilst being a mixed bag betraying signs of their mid-70s fatigue, is much better than critics pretend.  It also includes this wonderful ballad which I’ve had on heavy rotation ever since.  ‘Memory Motel’ has a great melancholy lyric, lovely, almost Baroque guitar work and surprisingly sensitive vocal interventions from Keith.

‘Incense and Black Light’, Rod Modell

Detroit-based Modell has released numerous albums under different names including Deepchord, Echospace, (with Steve Hitchell) and CV313.  They’re all variations on the Ambient Dub/Ambient Techno/Basic Channel type of immersive urban soundscape, and pretty effective too.  At the dubbier or more ambient end of things Modell’s sound often dissolves into a miasma of pure texture. This one’s slightly more varied in its aural palette however, - with a more prominent Techno skeleton.  Apparently inspired by various nocturnal locations in Tokyo, it really does seem to take the listener on a hypnotic journey to the end of the night.

‘BCD-2’, Basic Channel

Basic Channel is both a label and the Berlin-based production team of Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus.  The nine 12 inch vinyl singles they released between 1993 and 1995 are widely recognized as milestones of Techno.  This compilation, whilst not definitive, is the most coherent collection of their music on a single disc and chronologically charts their evolution from harsh, minimal rigour to something with far more dubby reverb, smeared textures and vaporous atmosphere.  It’s easy to discern the jumping off point for their more explicitly Dub-based work as Rhythm & Sound, and indeed for those, like Rod Modell who mine similar seams.

For some weeks I’ve been grudgingly attending a gym.  On headphones, these endlessly repetitive abstractions are a perfect antidote to the establishment’s generic House and R&B and provide a rhythmic accompaniment for my attempts to reduce my waistline.

‘Bossanova’, Pixies

For a brief period, around the release of their ‘Doolittle’ album in 1989, Pixies seemed like the coolest band on the planet.  They played in Leicester one night and nearly blew the roof off the University Union.  Their neat trick was to combine brutally grungy noise rock, surf-style guitar work and Black Francis’ weirdly intelligent lyrics delivered with entertaining eccentricity.  ‘Bossanova’ appeared the following year after tensions had emerged within the ranks but, without scaling the heights of its precursor, did consolidate their distinctive sound.  What it does have is a skewed Sci-fi sensibility and one of my favourite ever screaming-at-the-wall songs in the coruscating ‘Rock Music’.  When frustrations with the day job start to build, that one provides much-needed catharsis.

‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’, Pixies

A little Pixies always leads to a load more Pixies so it was inevitable ‘Doolittle’ would get played too.  This was the recognisable anthem from that album, being pretty lush and melodic by their usual standards.  Francis still can’t resist a bit of a shout though and demonstrates how to address environmental concerns without sounding remotely worthy.

‘Candy Apple Grey’, Husker Du

This raucous American Indie Rock palaver gets pretty infectious sometimes and is a proven way to squeeze out angry thoughts.  Husker Du were acknowledged precursors of Pixies, and thus, Nirvana later on.  They combined manic, hardcore thrash with hooky Pop know-how, whilst guitarist/joint songwriter and vocalist Bob Mould fairly seethed with palpable disgust at the human condition.  Released in 1986, ‘Candy Apple Grey’ sees them stretching out into slower, more melodic territory but still finds room for the gloriously shouty opener, - ‘Crystal’, (during which Mould simply explodes with erudite rage).  ‘Eiffel Tower High’ is a blast of cornball joy and ‘All This I’ve Done For You’ closes the album on an energetic high point.

‘Birds’, North Sea Radio Orchestra

When I reviewed NSRO’s ‘I A Moon’ around a year ago it was the one of the most refreshing things I’d heard in a while, (it still is really).  ‘Birds’, its predecessor, was unavailable for a while but has been re-released and I snapped up a copy recently.  It has all the qualities of pastoral beauty, and English Romanticism, stiffened by an understanding of Minimalist/Modernist strategies and subtle electronics, that I loved in ‘I A Moon’.

As with their eponymous debut album, the lyrics derive from the canon of English poetry, including Chaucer, Blake and Tennyson and may just evoke the England that, secretly, many natives still wish they inhabited.  Yet, in a way I can't quite define, they always avoid a descent into the merely twee.  Sharron Fortnam is my current favourite female vocalist, (being the equal of Sandy Denny for sheer emotional clarity), and her pure tones are augmented with beautiful choral arrangements on several of these pieces. Amongst the original compositions lies a wonderful instrumental reworking of the Medieval Christmas carol 'Personenet Hodie', putting a modern twist on an ancient tune that could lift the darkest Winter mood.

'On This Day', The Choir of King's College, Cambridge

Each December I embark on the season of compulsory shopping and religious lip service with a fairly heavy heart.  I'm not opposed to Christmas per se, - just the reality of the contemporary routines we can get lumbered with.  Actually. I'm all in favour of mid winter festival to lift the seasonal gloom and welcome those rare moments that are genuinely moving or convivial.  This is Gustave Holst's 19th Century take on the 'Personent Hodie' tune that always helps to make sense of it all.




Despite my secular  outlook, it's only fair to acknowledge the Christians have both great music and architecture so listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King's has become one of my annual rituals.  I sat in King's College Chapel one December day many years ago, as the choir rehearsed.  As the organ reverberated around the Gothic stones I realised the music was its own justification.

'A Christmas Gift For You', Phil Spector

I guess that, as Christmas rituals go, this is the other end of the aesthetic spectrum.  It's cynically commercial, deeply kitsch and performed by the manipulated puppets of a subsequently convicted murderer, - so Merry Christmas everyone!  Those vocal arrangements and patented 'Wall of Sound' production are hard to beat though, and who doesn't love 'Frosty The Snowman'?

'Christmas In The Heart', Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Always With The Interesting Hats, - But Why The Wig?

Bob, - what were you thinking?  Dylan proves he's no Grinch by croaking his way through a pile of cheesy festive favourites and a couple of genuinely interesting oddities.  Along with his band he throws himself into the accordion-driven rave-up of 'Must Be Santa', (with a video that must be seen to be believed), and both 'The Christmas Blues' and 'Christmas Island' are hard not to love.

Good job it was for 'charidee' though...