Dinosaur Jr. ~ Green Mind

Water [1991]

I've always been perplexed by Green Mind and some people's opinions of it since it came out. I mean surely we all thought it was pretty crap after the astonishingly exhilarating electrifying insanity of You're Living All Over Me and the masterfully crafted devastation of Bug's mess of noisy slacker grunge and the sweet slacker-daisical vision of The Wagon single. Weren't we all disappointed with the lack of fuzzed up loudness on Green Mind? Once they'd released this half baked effort I thought they were finished as a cool, credible and influential cult group. I mean if you weren't absolutely killing it or pushing the envelope musically it was time to move on to somewhere else. There was an abundance of excitement, innovation and peak musical creativity in this era. There was no point hanging around listening to sub standard artistical statements. 

I mean J Mascis can be found talking about Green Mind on the youtubes saying:  "Maybe it didn't work out as well as it could have"

Yet some people liked it and five years ago many more were getting misty eyed and nostalgic about the 30th anniversary of Green Mind. I didn't get it and thought they'd all lost their minds. Somewhere in the back of my mind though lurked some doubts that maybe I'd been wrong all along about this album. So finally I had a little re-listen and while I haven't had a full revelation or complete reversal of opinion, I've had a surprisingly significant change of heart. I'm pretty sure before I traded in my Green Mind cd in the early 90s I thought it all sucked except for the first and last tracks but now of those eight despised songs How'd You Pin That One On Me is the only one so irritatingly offensive that I have to skip it. 

I get why the album was all so startlingly weird and disappointing at the time. A lot of the grunge noise and dreamy haziness had been stripped away for acoustic guitars, stark loud drums and an unnecessary close up focus on J's vocals. On those previously mentioned records the beauty was when J's warm lethargic but melodious vocal hooks were couched in just the right amount of distorted guitar overload for their classic signature languid maelstrom sound.  

It's Water that has become my new favourite forgotten Dinosaur Jr. song. In a way it's a precursor to the Neil-isms and crushing melancholia aesthetic blueprint that would be deployed on their 1993 classic Where You Been. Water's got that cool lazy slacker sound. Wait for that 2:28 moment when it accelerates into gorgeous melodic ecstasy. It's J's best trick and it's irresistible. 

 

Blowin It/Live For That Look [1991]

Dinosaur Jr. do the segue song thing once again and it's pretty glorious. I mean I still have my reservations about this record's production but these conjoined songs are undeniably top Mascis tuneage. 

*God what next? Am I gonna give Without A Sound another go next to see if maybe my disappointment about that cd was wrong too?  

Dinosaur Jr. - The Wagon (Sub-Pop Singles Club 7" Version)

[1990]

One of their finest pure pop moments. Still sounding remarkably fresh today.

This recording is an absolute anomaly for Dinosaur Jr. For one single only they were a five piece. Lou's gone but we've got Donna Dresch on bass, Don Fleming on guitars, J doing his thing and two drummers: Murph in one channel and Jay Spiegel in the other.

The Wagon was later remixed by J Mascis with some parts totally edited out for the cleaned up version that appeared on the Green Mind LP the following year..

Swervedriver - Rave Down

Son Of Mustang Ford [1990]

So I was still in high school when the first couple of Swervedriver EPs came out. These were Rage classics that we taped on VHS months before we could ever get our hands on the records. I mean we lived in the bush mate! This tune to me and my mates was just a grungier, more testosterone fuelled version of You Mad Me Realise. Which didn't make it any less great. I mean it rocked like a high octane drag racing mutha fucka didn't it. 

Rave Down [1990]

Then five or six months later came the Rave Down film clip and EP. 

Creation Records were on a fucking role with Loaded, Come Together, Glider, Ride, Play, Fall, Nowhere, Slowdive and these first two Swervedriver EPs. 

Rave Down's a glorious fuzzed up heavy psychedelic noise-rock tune of the highest order.  All sorts of swirling waves of sound, layers of textured noise, driving riff-a-rama, wild drumming and hooks galore.

Blistering, bouncy and blissed out... the best!

Peak 90s rock.

Zedhead [1990]

Another stellar rocket fuelled noise rock work out.

Sandblasted [1991]

Just over six months later came the third ep. Epic noisey psychedelia with dream-gaze passages and gorgeous hooks. They really packed it all in here! 

*I still kinda don't get why they weren't the premier noisey shoegaze band after My Bloody Valentine because at this stage they were very fucking killing it and had the highest strike rate of all the gazers of shoe. I saw both Ride and MBV live in Melbourne in '91 but Swervedriver didn't even tour down here until much later in like 94 or 95 when I finally got to see them at the Corner Hotel in Richmond.

Cars Converge Over Paris · Swervedriver

Never Lose That Feeling [1992]

Back to the good ole days when I was twenty. Me and my mate Tony would stay up late, drink and smoke, listening to all the new and groovy sounds on cd. I'd totally forgotten the epic grunge-gaze and kaleidoscopic sax-haze of Never Lose That Feeling/Never Learn. Alan Moulder sprinkles some magic at the mixing desk.

What a jam. 

Glorious.

Cars Converge On Paris [1993]

Unbelievably this tune, one of their greatest, was exclusively tucked away on the import only US version of The Last Train To Satansville cd EP.

Cars Converge On Paris might be Swervedriver's most psychedelic moment. Like a hazy mirage the desert highway with a mesmerizing intergalactic bass that swirls to infinity and vocals, drums & guitars falling upwards backwards in a disorientating dreamy daydream. 

Glorious.

Last Train To Satansville [1993]

Speaking of which here it is one their most famous video moments. An edited down version of Last Train To Satansville. A classic 90s guitar pop tune from these eternally underrated grungy shoegazers. A get home from the pub late and watch Rage classic.

Duel [1993]

Ok ok I can't stop now. There's just no way you can go past this remarkable historic tune. 

It's another one of their singles but this isn't the video because the original six and half minutes shouldn't ever be cut down. I mean it starts out pretty blissed up right from the get go but the sprawling euphoria keeps growing then it just keeps on expanding into wide screen ecstatic peaks so that by 1:35 the elation is reaching unbearable levels. The dreamy psychedelic exhilaration gets overwhelming then later in the comedown lulls it becomes a bit melancholy that is until it starts its upward trajectory again. Then the take it down now, wind-down is a splendid sonic seaside scenario.  

One of the the most sublime guitar tunes of the 90s.

Rewind!

Not Enough Girls In The World - Milk 'N' Cookies

[1975]

Cult glammy power pop tune from forgotten or perhaps never remembered 70s Long Island group. The twerps from Milk'n'Cookies recorded some of the most astonishingly poxy vocals ever committed to vinyl. These scuzzy wimps of late-bubblegum had a way with a hook though and their themes of adolescent lust are universal, timeless and a whole lotta fun. 

You gotta love that they got funded to make a entire LP of this shtick which was one of Island Records most unsuccessful records ever. This record still winds people up to this very day which just adds to their aura. 

Gilbert O'Sullivan - Get Down

[1973]

In the 70s there was Gilbert O.

Another toppermost poppermost cheerful singalong tune from Britain in the 70s. Duelling pianos in a sorta faux funky glam mode that's surprisingly excellent. It's gonna get stuck in your head for days, sorry.

Gotta love Gilbert O wearing a jumper with his initial on. G for Gilbert O.

Gilbert O even attempts in the video to bring a girl from the audience into the limelight like what The Boss and Bono would do ten years later with much more success ie. dancing and pashing. Gilbert O could only manage to to put his arm around her for a second and move her a few steps towards his piano before she shyly retreated, oh well Gilbert O.

Tom MacDonald Exposed - Stephen's Tune

[1981]

Wide open skies trippy Californian folk and soft rock stylings heading into breezy jazz zones somewhere between Joni, The Croz, John Martyn and god knows what. 

Not much info about our one album wonder Tom MacDonald from Nevada City anywhere but check out his vibe on the cover. Our breezy jazz-folk man of mystery is not havin' any of this sex rejection bullshit. Come on ladies! You need to check out his naked body. He's feelin so damn good about himself you need to offer up your body for some sweet sweet love-making. His mullet shall not be denied.

Four Albums Only

I'm starting to buy into the concept put forth by one of The Word guys either Dave Hepworth or Mark Allen a few years ago that all you really need or indeed actually want is only four albums from your favourite bands and singers who have recorded a truckload of albums. I mean am I ever really going to listen to every single one of my James Ferraro, Ariel Pink, Lou Reed, Swans or Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums ever again? I would say that's a hard no. 

Do I ever listen to any Rolling Stones LPs outside of Beggars Bangquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed & Exile On Main Street no...

...or Cocteau Twins outside of Head Over Heels, Treasure, Blue Bell Knoll & Heaven Or Las Vegas nope...

...or Sonic Youth outside of Bad Moon Rising, Evol, Sister & Daydream Nation not really...

Royal Trux: Cats & Dogs, Sweet Sixteen, Thank You and yes I do sometimes listen to Twin Infinitives. Recently though I've finally succumbed to the insane charms of Accelerator which I thought was crap when I first heard it in the 90s.

...or Scott Walker with Scott 3, Scott 4, Tilt & Bisch Bosch. I mean maybe some Walker Brothers tunes and The Drift and Scott 2 and Climate Of The Hunter and Scott... 

Kraftwerk outside of Autobahn, Trans Europe Express, The Man-Machine & Computer World is unnecessary now or hang on maybe I'd swap out Computer World and put Radio-Activity in instead. I guess it's really just the first three listed then innit.

Mark Kozelek with Down Colourful Hill, Rollercoaster, Ocean Beach and Benji.

Steely Dan Can't Buy A Thrill, Countdown To Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic & Aja but then again I've been listening to Nightfly recently so now I'm wondering if I need to get a copy of Gaucho or The Royal Scam which I hated upon initial listen.

It's gonna be a bit tricky reducing Miles Davis's classics down to just four though. I'll give it a crack: Bitches Brew, Big Fun, Agharta, Dark Magus, Get Up With It, Live/Evil. In Concert, Black Beauty, Pangea... oh well that's ten and only from his electric period which is only one of his eras. Maybe this four album only concept is stupid.

Autechre seems easier Tri Repetae, Chiastic Slide, LP5 & Cornfield. No worries.

...and Boards Of Canada only have three great albums so...

...and Radiohead have none.

Dinosaur Jr. it's You're Living All Over Me, Bug, Where You Been and well thats it really. I recall enjoying Hand It Over, the first J Mascis & The Fog cd and those first two reformation albums in the late 00s when the original three piece got back together.

For The Beach Boys It's Pet Sounds, Sunflower, Surf's Up and the fourth one is a hard choice. Is it gonna be Holland or Beach Boys Love You or Wild Honey or Friends... geez I dunno I'll have to get back to you on that one.

I mean I've got a stack of Can cds but I rarely listen outside of Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Future Days & Soon Over Babaluma.

Bowie seems like it might be tricky but lets see - Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Station To Station and Low at the moment but I am fond of at least five or seven of his other albums.

With The Flaming Lips I never listen to anything but Hit To Death In The Future Head, Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, Clouds Taste Metallic & The Soft Bulletin and really in the last 20 years it's just those last two 90s classics.

Siouxsie & The Banshees' top four The Scream, Kaleidoscope, Juju & A Kiss Inside The Dream House are the only ones I ever really liked so... 

Bardo Pond is also easy: Bufo Alvarius, Amanita, Lapsed and Dilate. They however remain one of the world's most underrated rock groups don't they.

Depeche Mode is a bit trickier but the four would be Some Great Reward, Black Celebration, Music For The Masses & Violator. Haven't listened to Ultra since the 90s and really when it comes down to it I only ever watch the live One Night In Paris dvd. I mean I've been obsessed with that video since the 00s, probably watched it over 50 times. That's kinda funny to me because Dave and Martin are often cringe-y dorks during the concert but I can't help but love it, In fact I think I love it more because they are cringe-y dorks. 

Cutting down Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to just four albums seems absolutely sacrilegious. In the last ten years it has really only been Ghosteen that I've been listened to but my favourites from high school in the 80s remain Your Funeral My Trial and Tender Prey and for the 90s you can't beat the now surprisingly underrated Henry's Dream and the brilliant Let Love In. I gotta say though of the 18 records they've done 14 are absolute classics in my book. 

I did solo Lou at the top so I should be able to give Swans a crack. Lets see: Children Of God, The Great Annihilator, White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity and The Seer. But that's a problem innit as it's missing the debut Filth and their original swansong (er, sorry) Soundtracks For The Blind. Maybe because I played Children Of God to death during my youth I'd put Soundtracks in instead. I'm much more likely to listen to Soundtracks, The Glowing Man or To Be Kind than Children Of God these days. 

AC/DC rule: Dirty Deeds, Powerage, Let There Be Rock and Highway To Hell. Sorry I'm Bon Scott era all the way baby.

Tangerine Dream is a bit perplexing. Zeit, Phaedra, Stratosphere and... I guess it would have to be Rubycon but I love and have listened to Force Majeure, Tangram, Ricochet, Sorcerer, Thief and Miracle Mile all very recently so...

Hang on what about The Fall. Geez I dunno. What about Grotesque (After The Gramme), Hex Induction Hour, The Wonderful and Frightening World Of The Fall and This Nation's Saving Grace but what about Dragnet, Bend Sinister and Extricate? I loved those too. I haven't listened to The Fall in so long I haven't a clue. So I guess they've been reduced to a zero album limit in the last 15 years. Slates was also a good one.

...and I could go on and on... maybe there will be a part two to get to grips with Ed Kuepper, The Church, Ariel Pink, James Ferraro, Cleaners From Venus, XTC, Manuel Göttsching, Roedelius, Heldon, Roxy Music, Black Sabbath, Harold Budd et. etc. etc. etc. etc.

*Most rock and or roll is pretty cringeworthy and down right embarrassing when you get down to it. I mean it's silly innit but we love it. 

**My favourite thing at the moment is watching this daily karaoke live stream on youtube from a tiny pub in Liverpool. It is just the greatest, most fascinating entertainment I've found in the last coupla years. I just love how fearless, confident, unselfconscious and joyous these Scousers are.

Lynsey De Paul ~ Sugar Me

[1972]

Get mesmerized by the sultry soundz of Lynsey De Paul. 

Jaunty piano led hazy erotic grooves with spank me drum machine intrusions, steamy organ and some gypsy violin.

There's just something about this... 

...a mood... 

...a vibe... 

...an atmosphere...

What is she even saying and who really cares...

...stirring...

The Rain The Park And Other Things · The Cowsills

[1967]

One of those vaguely familiar tunes you know you've heard before but can't quite place who or what it is, maybe its on a cd compilation of sunny psychedelic 60s stuff you've got in a dusty old box somewhere that you haven't played since the 90s. Who knows. Then suddenly you're deliberately listening to it and you realise it's an absolute sunshine pop banger: A baroque bubblegum classic. Right up there with I dunno The Free Design and way better than anything The Left Banke ever did. A toppermost poppermost tune from a family band back in the 60s. 

A magical mirage of a track that's alwayys coming and going, ebbing and flowing, conjuring up then dissipating just like the girl in the song. Did it even happen or was it all just a beautiful cheeze-y dream?

Jon Byron - Simple

[1976]

An AM treasure indeed.

The soft rock lounge soundz of Jon Byron's Simple is just what you need right now. Warm middle of the road countrypolitan vocals with a sprinkling of Fender Rhodes and some smooth sax-a-muh-phone. 

Nice. 

*Shout out to Lolvalstein the only guy on the internet who reviewed Byron's New Horizons LP. 

Alan Parsons Project - Sirius + Eye In The Sky

SEGUE SONGS PART 7 or 8 or something....

[1982]

Ok we're back to segue songs and here's one, well two, that I wasn't aware of as being integral to each other. I mean I know Eye In The Sky from the radio when I was 10. I didn't have the album though so I only realised it had an interlinked tune attached to it recently. Of course you have to get the album to experience the Sirius/Eye Of The Sky conjoined twins experience and once you've heard it like that it's wrong to hear one without the other ever again. 

This now goes into the Space Debris Segue Songs Hall of Fame along with other great tunes joined at the hip as previously mentioned like I'm Your Boogie Man/Keep It Comin' Love from KC & The Sunshine Band, Donna Summer's I Need You/Working The Midnight Shift, INXS' Face The Change/Burn For You, Palace Of Brine/Letter From Memphis by The Pixies and The Pale Saints' Sight Of You/Time Thief. I'm sure there's a million more. 

I was thinking you never hear this anywhere anymore in Australia but apparently in America the future synthwave sound of Sirius is well known because it is used a lot at professional and college sporting events and has subsequently been used in many ads and movies.

The Eye In The Sky single did not chart in Britain but guess what despite only making it to number 22 here down under it was unsurprisingly a number 1 smash in Canadia. Those Canucks had very specific taste and knew where it was at.

Boards of Canada - You Retreat in Time and Space

[2026]

Wait for the 2:46 moment when the cosmic new age ambience gives way to pure Boards Of Canadia nostalgic loveliness... those unmistakeable off kilter synth melodies that we will forever treasure these legends for. I mean this could be a lost BOC tune from the year 2000. 

I listened to the whole new album tonight. I'm not having the cargo cult/quasi religious experience some of these others are having. In fact some of the tracks downright sucked. I'm happy to stick with my BOC era as 1995 to 2005. I was only 26 in 1998 when Music Has The Right To Children came out and that was such a fresh and cool cd. And as previously mentioned Geogaddi, released a few years later, is in my cranky old deranged mind the greatest cd of this millennium. You can't really replicate that era and feeling, however You Retreat In Time and Space is a pretty good lil' tune so there's that.

*This music opinion is subject to change in the future time immediately after this post is posted! I damn well reserve the right right to change my opinion as it's probably wrong at this juncture innit.

Manchester City FC - Funky City

[1972]

Now for some smoov laid back funk from Manchester City FC. No actual strikers or midfielders or goalies playing on the instruments here, its actually the fellas from 10CC doing one v funky Meters-esque jam. 

Quite prescient as Manchester did indeed become a very funky city.

*Funky City was the b-side to Boys In Blue (see below)

[1972]

I'm Australian and haven't followed English soccer since the 90s and don't know a hell of a lot about it. Is this Manchester City's club song like in AFL where Collingwood have Good Old Collingwood Forever and they sing it after a victorious game and have done for eternity or is this just a one off novelty that probably got sung on the terraces in the 70s. Who knows?...

You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties - Jona Lewie

Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs - Sea Side Shuffle [1972]

A novelty accordion led zydeco-y tune cashing in on Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime vibe written and performed by eccentric Jona Lewie.

You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties - Jona Lewie [1980]

Here is Jona Lewie eight years later performing under his own name with his perennially overlooked synth-pop pub-rock classic. 

A record that sounds like nothing else. A one off.

I haven't heard this since the 80s but I guess somewhere in the back of my mind I thought this was a UK Squeeze tune. Did Squeeze have a song about a kitchen? Anyway my 8 year old brain wasn't that far off the mark as this is aesthetically somewhere between Ian Dury and Human League. 

Dejection to delighted all in the space of three minutes. The downbeat brown talk singing and dark synthwaves are evocative of drear times times in Britain but there are also bright shiny synths, hilarious lyrics, lovely female backing vocals and an upbeat change up in the song's story that counteracts the sonic despondency making this peculiar paradoxical tune totally irresistible. I mean its all a bit of a laugh innit. Look out for jaunty synth break in the song after he scores a bird in the kitchen at a party thus becoming chirpy, its mental.

"She was into French cuisine but I ain't no Cordon Bleu"

Rewind! 

Ron Robert - The Price

[1983]

This unknown synth country jam is pretty surprising as I don't think I've  heard anything quite like it. Outlandish synth and wide screen twangery in a new wave country folk style with a classic rock lead break. The Price sounds like its influenced by Wall Of Voodoo. Makes me wonder why nobody in the Hypnagogic scene ended up going down this path. This could have been the national anthem for synthwave country. Maybe there's a micro-genre that I just don't know about. 

*Virtually no info about this guy on the interwebs. This is the only video of Ron Robert's on youtube. He's not listed on Discogs or Rate Your Music however NTS has one sentence on him which tells me he self released this in 1983. I'm guessing he had an album called Elaine or single of which this was the b-side. Who knows? Then there's the unknown lady singing, who is she? The whole thing could even be fake. It's kinda cool to be this mysterious in the oversaturated digital information age.

Petula Clark - Don't Sleep In The Subway

[1967]

Our Lady of light entertainment with her pretty insane yet lovely slice of baroque pop. It's symphonic, it's pop, it's disjointed, It's cinemascope epic, It's post-Pet Sounds pop perfection. 

The disorientating Don't Sleep On The Subway, penned by songwriting legends and married companions Tony Hatch & Jackie Trent, is a high point in a career of many highlights for Petula. 

Gotta be one of the weirder tunes to make it to number one here in Australia. 

Brian Bennett - Chain Reaction

Brian Bennett - Chain Reaction [1978]

A strange yet beautiful journey into disco. Some funky shit right here folks. I wonder if this ever got played out. Before mutant disco, disco was already mutant making that future genre obsolete before it was invented.

Brian Bennett - The Investigator [1975]

Here's some of the coolest crime funk ever from the guy who played the drums in The Shadows. This library music jam turned up a few years later in the British cop show The Sweeney. 

Apache - The Shadows

[1960]

To get to Telstar you had to have this first. Still sounds sleek and modern, fucking great stuff. I'm wondering if there is a world of Shadows that I've missed out on. I know there's a wide wonderful world of drummer/composer Brian Bennett out there in theme tunes for sports shows, sit-coms, porno and crime dramas. He even played drums on some Walker Brothers and Olivia Newton John records as well as recording the space-age synth-disco-funk cult classic Voyage: A Journey Into Discoid Funk (1978). The other guys in the band though I know nothing about, I mean my old man had some Shadows records but I never paid them much attention. Was this their one great golden moment or...

Apache - Hot Butter [1972]

A year before Incredible Bongo Band made it their own Hot Butter did my favourite version of Apache. It's an outrageously futuristic proto-techno space age electro jam. Add N To X were never this awesome!

Telstar - Tornadoes

[1962]

Before the British Invasion Telstar rocketed up the charts everywhere. This was an even more modern invasion from the British Isles

I feel like Joe Meek must have gone "I really like the futuristic synth-y organ bit in Del Shannon's Runaway. So why don't we do an entire tune in this deliriously upbeat fairground anthem style but even more so." And Meek and The Tornadoes did and it was historic and we're still talking about it today.

A gift to seaside fairs, carnivals, sideshows and amusement parks across the world to this day.

Open Mind- Magic Potion (1969)

[1969]

THE scuzzy drug fuelled sound, the sonic revelation and ace riff-o-rama that preempted Black Sabbath, Hawkwind, Spaceman 3 and all your favourite things that have proto, neo & stoner at start.

A relentless rock'n'roll rocket!

Magic Potion: Yes Please.

Please sir, can I have some more.

Love Sculpture _ Sabre Dance

[1968]

Didn't know this tune til the other day when I began reading Will Hodgkinson's book In Perfect Harmony (2022). My dad had Dave Edmunds records, which I didn't hate, but he didn't have this one. 

This is a blast. The past, present and future all rolled into an energetic metallic rock'n'roll rocket of a space rock surf jam. 

Have I the Right · The Honeycombs

[1964]

Another rockin' pop tune with an unhinged quality. It threatens to go full mayhem but somehow its reigned in. Joe Meek does all sorts of studio trickery to make this insane and electrifying.

Stomping!

Number One in Australia and Canaidia baby!

Maximillian - The Snake

[1961]

The dude Max Crook who played the Musitron, an early synthesiser, on Del Shannon's Runaway did this instrumental that became a classic at mod discotheques and northern soul shindigs. Crazy funky sounds and hand clap-mania! 

Pretty cool. 

Del Shannon - So Long Baby

[1961]

We all love Del Shannon's debut 1961 seven inch single, the international smash hit Runaway but what about his nasty unhinged third single So Long Baby!  It is insane, relentlessly bitter, noisy, bizarre, gleefully spiteful and just brilliant. 

[1961]

Okay okay despite how many times you've heard it you really can't go past this instant slice of pop perfection where rock'n'roll met synthetic electronics for the first time. 

It's the toppermost fairground anthem and the ultimate jukebox selection. That mental space age musitron (a synth prototype) break is unmissable and exciting as is Del Shannon's vocal performance where he goes from rough'n'raspy to falsetto. The mysterious existential lyrics are set to an uncommonly euphoric tone making it the rave anthem of 1961.

Surprisingly still incredible. 

Turn it up baby!

Tape 05 - Boards Of Canada

[2026]

Boards Of Canada - Tape 05

Gotta say, sounds better than anything on the last record which was pretty disappointing. Tape 05 isn't so much the idyllic or even the deliciously eerie Boards Of Canada sound, it's more on the ominous tip and then there's a harp! There's even a hint of anthemic post-rock here. I kinda don't even wanna contribute anything to the discourse because just shut up everyone, I hate all your dumb and boring opinions and speculations and theories and breakdowns and lame youtube channels. Sometimes I think half these twits are just marketing nerds in it for the obscure advertising campaigns... 

In 1998 they were my private electronic duo. Maybe I want it to be just like it was in 1998 when my mate, an electronic music fan, a so called aficionado, didn't even care or buy the cd after I told him Music Has The Right To Children was the best thing in its field since Quique or Selected Ambient Works Volume II and the best album of the year. Astonishingly it didn't make Wire Magazine or Melody Maker's best 50 albums of 1998 lists! Simon Reynolds didn't even review it. I wasn't ever on the bloody internet so I was oblivious as to whether dorks were on there talking about it or not on their message boards and what not... so Music Has The Right To Children was my private little joy. It was just me, my discman and the glinting memory-delic Boards Of Canada with their oscillating off-pitch analogue synths and hypnotic beats. Glorious.

Smokes Quantity [1998]

The sound of my malfunctioning brain trying to conjure meaningful long lost memories but only getting nostalgic glimpses of a sci-fi wildlife documentary from the 70s that I probably didn't star in as a child but then again...

Dion - He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

[1975]

A lo-fi decelerated tape woosh of drug fucked suffocating wall of sound gospel so off colour, desperate and deranged it'll make you forget that you hated this song before this version. 

Delirious wonky pop genius.

Play it again Sam!

(I Was) Born To Cry - Dion

[1962]

One of these tunes you can't believe was hidden away on a b-side to an inferior track on the A side. What a blast. The entire production is an exercise in restraint of the looming mayhem, incredibly unique. Dion was such a great rock'n'roll singer and here it's all about being emotionally overwrought in the face of his existential predicament and somehow he doesn't make it suck and then there's that creepy sax that then bursts through for some sleazy sax-a-matazz and just what the darn heck is going on with the deranged blokes doing the all over the shop backing vocals. 

Genius.

Cult classic baby!

I LOVE HOW YOU LOVE ME ~ The Paris Sisters (1961)

[1961]

This song is so specifically influential on Jullee Cruise it's hard to not remark upon it, see what I mean. Californian gals Priscilla, Sherrell & Albeth Paris do a Barry Mann & Larry Kolber tune recorded by Phil Spector. A woozy slowed down doo-wop trip out with dreamy strings, seductive intimate vocals and a sultry spoken bit all basted in a thick syrup. So much purity and innocence amongst the wanton lust. 

Squeeze me tease me...

Bits & Pieces III "Let's Do It" More Of The 80's Medley

[1980]

Party time people!

Stars On 45 ripped off the Beatles section of this great bootleg 12 inch from 1980 for their chart topping proto-mash-up international hit. This mix put together by Canadians Michel Ali, Michel Gendreau and Paul Richer is the original songs edited into an awesome mega-mix for a fifteen minute funky dance floor knees up.

Get down.

Ritz – I Wanna Get With You

Madness– One Step Beyond
Young & Company– I Like (What You Are Doing To Me)
The Gap Band– Baby Baba Boogie
'Lectric Funk– Shanghaied
Kano– It's A War
Spinners– Cupid
Spinners– Working My Way Back To You
Gino Soccio– Dancer
Sparks– Beat The Clock
Carrie Lucas– Keep Smilin'
Lipps, Inc.– Funkytown
Heatwave– Boogie Nights
GQ– Disco Nights (Rock-Freak)
The S.O.S. Band– Take Your Time (Do It Right)
Sparkle Tuhran* & Friends – Handsome Man
The Buggles– Video KIlled The Radio Star
Shocking Blue– Venus
The Archies– Sugar Sugar
The Beatles– No Reply
The Beatles– I'll Be Back

The Beatles– Drive My Car
The Beatles– Do You Want To Know A Secret
The Beatles– You're Gonna Lose That Girl
The Beatles– Nowhere Man
The Four Seasons– Sherry
Everly Brothers– Cathy's Clown
Neil Sedaka– Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Roy Orbison– Only The Lonely
Penny McLean– Lady Bump
Wings – Silly Love Songs
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas– Jimmy Mack
The Fortunes– Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again
Brian Hyland– Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini
Electric Light Orchestra– Last Train To London
Ringo Starr– The No-No Song
Fred Wesley & The JB's– Doing It To Death
The Edgar Winter Group– Frankenstein

*Youtube usually hits these videos with copyright claims but for some reason this particular upload of Let's Do It doesn't have The Beatles tunes edited out.

Eagle · ABBA

[1977]

A pinnacle of 20th century pop. Say no more.

...but someone on the internet pointed out the obvious. The below tune's synth line was inspired by Eagle. How on earth did I not see this until now...

[1981]

A pinnacle of 20th century pop. Say no more.

...but someone on the internet pointed out the obvious. The above tune's synth line was inspired by Eagle. How on earth did I not see this until now...

Compare the pair.

Kestrel - Take It Away

[1975]

Jaunty progressive pop from mid 70s England doesn't get much better. Are Kestral even a cult act? Who Knows. They had organs, synths and mellotrons along with their guitars for their epic and melodic tunes. This one's the least proggy track from their one and only LP Kestrel which is an unknown minor masterpiece. Take It Away's rockin' easy-listening quasi bossa-lite insistent pop that really could have been an influence on Stereolab's entire aesthetic. 

Gimme Dat Ding - The Pipkins

[1970]

One hit wonder Party!

Here's another one that sounds like absolute rubbish on first listen but hey you can't stop playing it then bam the genius hits you. Hideous vaudeville novelty with awesome honky tonk piano. Warning: Absolute toe-tapper will have doing what you believe to be The Charleston within seconds. Also It'll get stuck in your head for the rest of the day and maybe the rest of your life. 

Now gimme dat gimme dat gimme gimme gimme dat ding!

Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? - Hurricane Smith

[1972]

Insanely romantic pop from the legendary normal* fella who engineered Rubber Soul and produced three early Pink Floyd LPs.

Romance, strings and so much Sax-a-muh-phone!

Look out this is pretty insidious, you might just end up liking this light entertainment banger a lot and end up adding it to your i-pod... 

*According to John Lennon.

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep - Middle Of The Road

[1971] [1972]

Bubblegum beauty and the song's not bad either. 

The outfit: Cheeky. 

The moves: Groovy.

The tune: Infectious singalong 70s pop, wee bit funky, genius words sung with folky lullaby melody and harmonies, crowd chorus and pre-glam take it down now hand clap delirium. 

There's something about Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep that makes you not hate it for some reason and then it eventually it becomes embedded in your brain forever. I mean some have called it a moronic pop crime but they didn't mean it as THE compliment that it is, yet as an aesthetic value a moronic pop crime is highly appealing. As an achievement this is one of the great moronic pop crimes. 

A pop masterpiece.

*And there's more than meets the eye. Emma points out there was something upsetting about this song when she was small. The thought of your momma or poppa mysteriously being "far far away" was horrifying for a child. The fact that these traumatic lyrics of neglect & abandonment were sung in a chirpy... er... sorry, upbeat manner adds to the sinister tone. 

 

Pilot - January

[1975]

The first song I recall liking. I was just over 3 years old but fuck me it was number one here for eight weeks. So I guess I heard it a gazillion times and maybe it was an involuntary decision in music taste at the time but I gotta say as a cranky old fucker this is a top tune, a pop-rock banger baby! Not a bad choice for your first favourite song.

Also gotta love a jumper with your band name on it... just not enough jumpers in pop music anymore. The day jumpers stopped being worn in rock might be the day it all turned to shit.

[1974]

Possibly even better though was their number 12 hit from the previous year, (It's) Magic. 

State of the art pop-rock finery. 

The sound of the 70s.

Toppermost musos! Looking into my crystal ball I can see a future for them in a little up and coming group called The Alan Parsons Project.

All the melody, rockin' 70s gee-tars played with a sixpence man, strings, funky wah wahs and hand claps galore: All luscious!

Chart-pop radio-rock perfection.

Momus: The Criminal (album version)

[2011]

Momus and John Henriksson get lost in a hypnotic hypnagogic existential dilemma in this lovelorn lullaby. 

Haunted & lonesome, I mean it's outsider Doo-wop dream-pop, innit. 

Mouldy Old Dough - Lieutenant Pigeon

[1972]

In the 70s Lieutenant Pigeon hit the scene...

Just not enough mums wearing crap witches hats in bands these days or cheesy honky tonk pub rock tin whistle glam recorded in front rooms. 

The weird thing is though, this is just fantastic.

Historic.

My Escapism - David Woodcock.

[2019]

Came across this the other day. A bittersweet tune. Seven years later and it's only had 2169 views. Somewhere between Dave Graney, Jarvis, Galaxie 500's echo-chamber and all those other lost indie singer/songwriters you've forgotten the names of from the 80s and 90s.  They call him the southend troubadour: The Essex Riviera's hardest working musician.

There's something missing

I'm just existing

I don't feel alive

Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan - Gateway To The North

Gateway To The North - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan [2020]

"It is an endeavour to provide a balanced town in which the motor car has certain privileges, public transport has certain privileges and people, perhaps most of all, have the privilege of walking about in in safety from their homes, as far as the children are concerned, to their schools and the parents to their... (audio dubbed out/washed out into oblivion but I've pieced the missing bit together) ... social facilities, to the shopping centre and so on"

This was the first thing WRNTDP did, a year before his debut album, and a great synchronicity of sound and vision it was. If you thought his music was a bit, you know, BOC-ish, well his very first video featured footage from the actual Film Board Of Canada where the two great Scots got their name.

Runcorn New Town [1974]

Here's the 1974 documentary from the Film Board Of Canada. The town planners and social engineers are at pains to deny any sort of utopianism going on.  

Check out the proto-hauntological closing credit music at 37:32. It's eerily dystopian with fx laden analogue synthesisers emitting a plethora of dark tones .

A Scarfolk Council Public Information Message

Just outside of the village is Lower Frontbottom. 

Don't forget children are dangerous.  

72 diseases.

Remember never accept sweets, cigarettes or alcohol from a child.

For further information please reread.

The View From Halton Castle - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan [2023]

The funny thing is when Colin added guitar to his usual synthetic formula he created his best record. It's a shame then that it was only an EP. I'm sure I'm not the only one waiting for him to head in this direction again on a future recording.

The chic double exposures and kaleidoscopic fx make this video pretty psychedelic and once again he's using footage from the Film Board Of Canada Runcorn New Town (1974) documentary to great affect.

Open Green Spaces - Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan [2025]

The true sound of the new towns where the idealogical utopian optimism sours and the green belt becomes just as bleak and brutal as the urban spaces of the derelict old town. The sound of where the darkest shit happens and the safety you were sold becomes a lie. It's grim up north.

Vic Mars presents A guide to your local countryside

Bucolic jam of the highest order. Featuring the tune Butterflies Bees & Other Insects by Vic Mars. The video though mainly features birds.

Another prime slice of bucolica from Vic Mars. This video featuring Walking On A Bearing which is another tune that turned up a few years later on his 2015 LP The Land And The Garden on Clay Pipe Music. 

The video's got ye olde hiking in the countryside. There's cows, roads, ruins, rolling hills, a bus, a village and a headland on the bay. Somewhere in Britain in the 60s or 70s I presume. Lovely.  

The Road Through The Village - Vic Mars [2015] 

More of the same probably from the same source as the previous footage. All manner of out of the way stuff. Some of these old clips seem to be older than the 70s. We get vintage images of canals, birds, boats, fishing, a salvation army band, babies eating butties, eldery folks, gardens, tea rooms, scones with jam and cream, ponds, parks, churches, fishies, ducks, even a bloody horse and cart, flora & fauna, the woods, couples on bicycles, quaint cars, a ye olde hardware shoppe and a tranquil sunset.

The Land And The Garden - Vic Mars [2015]

All this lovely music was apparently created on a mellotron and recorded on tape. Are all the flutes, guitars, dulcimers and glockenspiels synthesized too, I dunno. Mars is influenced by all sorts of things like memories, meadows, kids telly soundtracks by legends Freddie Philips & Vernon Elliot, ye olde composers like Vaughan Williams & Gustav Holst, Vintage British Railways posters, library music, specific geographical locations, early ambient, Virginia Astley, nostalgia for a lost England, school music etc.. All similar ingredients to hautological acts yet there's nothing disconcertingly sinister or particularly eerie about it. The picturesque  homespun warmth of these graceful pastoral jams is a pure delight.

The Land And The Garden is a deeply personal work based on the childhood memories of Mars' native Herefordshire composed while he was homesick in a foreign country. It evokes an idyllic time in the 70s and 80s when he would explore the liminal spaces at the edge of town of where the village meets the countryside and beyond.

Villages, Hamlets & Fetes - Vic Mars [2015]

Step right up, step right up every tune's a winner...

Wall Of Ivy - Vic Mars [2015]

In a way those above ye olde nostalgia videos detract from this charming music. I prefer just listening to the album, it's a whole lot more than a cheap nostalgia rush. The beauty of this music doesn't have to be tied to a specific time and place. I mean I'm enjoying it here and now in my autumnal Aussie backyard. Having said that this one's a bit Trumpton-y.