Monday, 4 May 2026

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, an energetic metallic surf/space rock jam. 

Thursday, 30 April 2026

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 tricks to make this insane and electrifying.

Number One baby!

Wednesday, 29 April 2026

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. 

Sunday, 26 April 2026

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. 

Wednesday, 22 April 2026

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 top 50 albums of 1998! 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 I probably didn't star in as a child then again...

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

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!

Monday, 20 April 2026

(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 what going on with the deranged blokes doing the all over the shop backing vocals. 

Genius.

Cult classic baby!

Saturday, 18 April 2026

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...

Thursday, 9 April 2026

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.

Wednesday, 8 April 2026

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.

Monday, 6 April 2026

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. 

Saturday, 4 April 2026

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!

Wednesday, 1 April 2026

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.

Sunday, 29 March 2026

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. 


 

Saturday, 28 March 2026

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.

Friday, 27 March 2026

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. 

Thursday, 26 March 2026

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.

Tuesday, 24 March 2026

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

Thursday, 19 March 2026

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.

Tuesday, 17 March 2026

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.

Sunday, 15 March 2026

A Trip To Trumpton


Camberwick Green - Freddie Philips [1966]
Dreamy acoustic guitar and glockenspiel. 


[1967]

Here is the clock
The Trumpton clock
Telling the time steadily, sensibly 
Never too quickly
Never too slowly
Telling the time for Trumpton.


Mrs Honeyman: The Village Gossip [1966]
Genius succinct twenty second song from Brian Cant and Freddie Philips.

Chatter chatter
Have you heard the latest gossip...
Not a word to anyone

But do you know the... 
Natter natter
Well, my dear, you know 
You could have knocked me over with a feather

I was shocked


Urban Hype - A Trip To Trumpton [1992]
Trumpton samples, breakbeats, anthemic pianos and ruff rave riffage. Hardcore raving goodness or as one mush in the comments says "cheesy chart shite". I mean it's hardly very hard hardcore but its a whole lotta fun. Some called it Toytown Techno or Chartcore.

Friday, 13 March 2026

Grange Hill Theme

Da Feem Choonz


The opening credits for the first episode of Grange Hill from 1978. Featuring the unmistakable sounds of Alan Hawkshaw. 

Apropos of nothing Emma put on season 5 of Grange Hill from 1982 after tea the other night. Not seen these episodes since 1982 but I probably watched it up until the late 80s. Maybe the ABC stopped showing it, if my memory serves. Anyway surprisingly some episodes were still quite watchable, then again some were horrendous and infuriatingly unwatchable. Mainly what makes it interesting though is the time capsule aspect indicating how much our freedoms have been eroded since I was a kid. I mean in Starmer's Britain some of these scallywags would be getting a visit from the the fuzz because of words. 


Alan Hawkshaw - Chicken Man [1976]
Feem tune gold.

An absolute banger and all time classic British telly theme tune.

The jolly bouncing funkiness of it all is so infectious, exuberant and full of cheeky swagger.

Make no mistake this isn't just a great library music or top theme tune for the telly, it's one of the greatest pieces of music of the 70s!

So the Grange Hill theme came from a 1976 music library record from Themes International Music called Rock Comedy

Fun Fact: Hawkshaw played keyboards on Donna Summer's classic 1977 LP Once Upon A Time.


Write the theme tune, sing the theme tune.

Opening credits for Minder. Funnily enough Dennis Waterman didn't write the theme tune at all. It was co-written by his Mrs, Patricia Waterman and some other bloke.


Dennis Waterman - I Could Be So Good For You [1979]
Absolute time capsule gold of a video. Filmed at Church Street Market London before the influx. Waterman seems very strange or maybe he's just had one pint too many. Worth watching for the lady with the dog sequence and the bit where he's sleazing onto a saucy parking inspector...  so much awkward... everybody seems to hate him. They don't make 'em like this any more folks.


Back in the days when there was comedy. 

Comedy: It's funny. You might like it. 

You haven't got long to live you know. Go on give it a try.



Opening and closing credits to Only Fools and Horses.


John Sullivan - Only Fools And Horses Theme [1982] 
Here's a video that prints the lyrics which sheds some light on what they're on about. 

Stick a pony in your pocket 

?

*Reliably informed by the Welsh lady in residence that a pony is 20 quid.

Many think this is Rodney singing. I just assumed it was Chas n Dave. Anyway it turns out Only Fools creator/writer John Sullivan wrote the tune intending for Chas n Dave to sing it but they couldn't make it on the day so he just sang it himself.


John Sullivan - Hooky Street [1982]
This clears up what some of those lyrics are. 

Mush


*Emma tells me a mush a dude

The end of an Only Fools And Horses episode is great because you get this, the best closing credits song in the history of telly.

"TVs, Deep Freeze & David Bowie LPs"

"No income tax or VATs

No Money back, no guarantee"

Thursday, 12 March 2026

Chicory Tip - Son Of My Father


[1972]
In the 70s there was Chicory Tip...

Chipper Moog led pre-glam rock bubblegum goodness on the beach with mums pushing prams in the background.

Number one baby!

Tuesday, 10 March 2026

Denim - Middle Of The Road


Denim - Middle Of The Road [1993]
Still a fucking top tune!

"Force fed your so called heroes"

I always assumed this was some sort of minor hit because I heard it on Melbourne's airwaves on 3RRR and 3PBS back in the day but maybe it was just on those British obsessed specifically Anglophile shows I used to listen to. And I recall the genius pop triumph Back In Denim getting in the 1992 Melody Maker best albums of the year chart but...

Anyway there's a very good book about Felt/Denim/Go-Cart Mozart main man Lawrence that came out last year written by Will Hodgkinson. So maybe he's finally having a resurgence and will get be famous in his 60s. Can you have a resurgence if you didn't really get a surgence.


Denim - Back In Denim [1992]
Stomping glam choon with massive crowd chorus worthy of a terrace chant. Before Suede and Oasis jumped on the bandwagon. Legendary.


Denim - Song For Europe [1992]
Lawrence and the boys and lady some of whom were Glitter Band veterans on Vic & Bob's Popdoodledandy. This was a 1992 pilot for channel 4 for a show that was never commissioned. The hilarious episode didn't got aired until 2012 and is now considered a cult lost item in Vic & Bob lore. There you go, you learn something every day.


Denim - Summer Smash [1997]
I didn't even know they did anything after Back In Denim. I mean I thought music was done by 97 so I wasn't really paying attention. All the great 90s genres were finished: Shoegaze, Grunge, lo-fi, ambient, hardcore rave, jungle, techno and whatever were over. Post-rock, trip-hop and brit-pop were starting to get way too fucking boring and I wasn't into tech-step or speed garage until later when I realised I had been wrong. 

This tune though coulda been a an absolute summer smash to go along with Bittersweet Symphony and Tubthumping before the teenybopper-ization increased its stranglehold on the second half of the 90s. However that was not to be. The story goes that this Radio 1 single of the week was cancelled just after promotional copies had been sent out due to the death of Lady Diana. It was considered that mourners may have thought the title was in poor taste at that moment in time.


Mozart Estate - Relative Poverty [2022]
Lawrence is still a card and this is funny stuff.

Come On sing it!

"I'm living in relative poh-hov-erty

I'm living on a tenner a day

Goodness gracious

a tenner a day!"

Brilliant video for a brilliant tune directed by Jesus And Mary Chain's bass player Douglas Hart and Valerie Philips. Someone in the comments neatly calls it ChaznDaveWave. Actually the comments are onto it: Syd Barrett, The Kinks, Marc Bolan, Chaz n Dave, wrote the theme tune sang the theme tune - Minder, Grange Hill & Only Fools And Horses. 

Those upbeat bouncy synths redolent of British TV sports themes and library albums put this in a zone similar to hauntological acts like Position Normal and Belbury Poly. Actually I've always thought the first Denim LP could have been a precursor to all that stuff too maybe was it just the track The Osmonds.


Mozart Estate - Electric Rock n Roll
This one's just from a coupla months ago. A revival of of a twenty year old Go-Kart Mozart tune. I wanna go down town tonight to the disco like I'm 23 years old again.

Girl, I feel good now
So put your red dress on
Oh, you look so cool
Nails and make-up done

Oh we're all gonna go downtown tonight
Oh we're all gonna go downtown tonight

All those nights she danced to electric rock and roll
All those nights she danced to electric rock
Electric rock and roll

Girl, oh you taste good
Oh you turn me on
Move to the DJ
I'm gonna shoot my gun

Electric rock and roll

Monday, 9 March 2026

Jimmy!


Saving your frisbee could set your flares on fire! 

...or even worse... 

...aww no...

Jimmy!

RIP Jimmy.

Moral Of The Story: Save your flares not your frisbee.


Sunday, 8 March 2026

Lawrence English - Viento


Patagonia [2015]
A very windy wind recording. Lots of wind. Squalling wind. Not just the wind though, all the the things around being affected by the wind like abandoned buildings, trees, road signs, fences, grass and misc. other items. 


Antarctica [2015]
Chilly winds captured in Antarctica. The sound of the howling wind during a blizzard battering the recording equipment and the base camp building causing all sorts of reverberations, drones, low frequency vibrations and general sonic havoc.

Saturday, 7 March 2026

The Scenic Route - The Pattern Forms


Five years later: The Scenic Route is a splendid album that still holds up which is pretty good for a retro faux library LP. Lush downtempo electronic library jams. Exquisite arrangements and melodies take this beyond mere library muzak recreations. These are sublime luxurious instrumentals, smooth, sweeping, soulful and cinematic.  

For cruising or daydreaming in any kind of weather at any time of day... 

Nice...





This cover designed by Paul Flack of Trunk Records fame is excellent, appealing on so many levels. So evocative of idyllic seaside drives. Then there's the whole fantasy of living the lighthouse life...


Gee I dunno... you think it was inspired by this 70s library LP cover at all... 

This original design was done by Nina Klein for Studio G's 1974 music library Scenic and Romance: Volume 2.


This fascinating documentary from the BBC Archive might put you off your living in a lighthouse fantasy. 


Peter Balke [1845?]


Clarkson Stanfield [1836]

A coupla great ye olde paintings with lighthouses in. Also containing boats. I like a very lot.

Thursday, 5 March 2026

The Secret Love Life Of The Octopus - Pierre Henry


[1967]
Abstract reverb drenched musique concrète.  


I would have liked to have heard the entire thing sans French fella voice over but that doesn't seem to be available on anything. 


Pierre Henry & Michel Colombier - Jéricho jerk [1968]
Musique concrète crossed with funky rock for novelty fusion fun in the 60s.


Pierre Henry - Appocalypse De Jean [1968]
Before industrial, dark ambient, noise and drone you had Pierre Henry and this epic one hour and forty minute apocalyptic musique-concrète jam.  

Biblical man!  

Sunday, 1 March 2026

Steve Hiett - Down On The Road By The Beach


[1983]
Dreamy sun drenched summer days to infinity. 

Hazy sea breeze hypnagogic surf guitars glisten on the beach.

Friday, 27 February 2026

Wenn der Südwind weht - Roedelius


Wenn Der Südwind Weht - Roedelius [1981]
The all time greatest electronic album nobody ever says is the all time greatest electronic album. The reassuring halcyon loveliness of Wenn der Südwind weht is irresistible. 


Veilchenwurzeln - Roedelius [1981]
It's lush, pastoral, sparkling and mildly euphoric. The lightness of touch and unhurried approach is a winning and charming musical strategy. 


Mein Freund Farouk - Roedelius [1981]
These gliding breezy melodies all seem so effortless like they always naturally existed it's unimaginable how they were even created.


Auf Leisen Sohlen - Roedelius [1981]
As serene as the delicate glistening of raindrops on leaves in the golden sunlight...  idyllic. 


Saumpfad - Roedelius [1981]
Somehow he even makes the only vaguely ominous tune on the album just as comforting as the tranquility he usually delights in. 


Sonnengeflecht - Roedelius [1981]
Gentle elation evocative of playful childlike innocence...

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

ZERKALO [The Mirror]

 

JS Bach - Das Alte Jahr Vergangen Ist, BWV 614
I don't think this is Artemiev but it might be Simon Preston from a Deutsche Grammophon 14 cd box set compilation Johann Sebastian Bach: The Organ Works. The only Bach albums I have are Switched On Bach, Johannes Passion Version IV (1749) and Matthäus-Passion so I'm no baroque expert and find it tricky navigating classical catalogues. Simon Preston is best known to pop culture plebs for playing some Bach on his organ for the Rollerball (1975) soundtrack. 



[1975]
The first 22 minutes and 40 seconds here are the original Aduard Artemiev recordings for the soundtrack of Tarkovsky's 1975 masterpiece Zerkalo aka The Mirror.









Saturday, 21 February 2026

The Korgis - Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime


[1980]
Supreme synth-y soft-rock with incredible 80s synthetic violin solo and er... some zither!

How many top 10 hits have a zither in them? Probably only this.

Another one from back in the primary school dayz, although I feel like this popped up in a couple of movies in the 90s/00s and was there a techno cover version, maybe...

Never seen this video or maybe just forgotten it but I guess I probably just thought this was the same group who did I'm Not In Love...

Lyrical sentiments similar to Talk Talk's philosophical bent of getting your shit together/self improvement to make sure you have a good meaningful life.

Vibe achievement.

Wednesday, 18 February 2026

Chris Watson - Winter


[2013]
Now for a journey to Lindisfarne and the sounds of nature on the Holy Island as captured by Chris Watson. Featuring the sea, an array of birds and the wind. 

Monday, 16 February 2026

Oklahoma After Dark · Phil Geraldi


[2024]
Hypnagogiamericana!

Static On The Airwaves. Ghosts on the highway switching the dial. Mirages on the horizon of cosmic cowboys playing hypnagogical twanging guitars.

Thursday, 12 February 2026

Interior of an Edifice Under the Sea - Pan·American & Kramer


Lamenting The Colours Of Melting Ice - Pan·American & Kramer [2025]
Speaking of peak Labradford. This here is main man Mark Nelson and Lamenting The Colours Of Melting Ice is nostalgic ear candy for me as it reminds me of early Labradford. 

Over the last couple of years Mark (Pan·American) has collaborated with Kramer for two fantastic LPs of spaced out dreamy and drifting improvisations occasionally dipping into glowing psychedelic ambient Americana. Shadowy shifting shimmering tones...  lovely.


In The Time It Takes To Drown - Pan·American & Kramer [2025]
Absolutely gorgeous post-rock ambient-Americana. The "beautiful like the stars at night" guitars and keyboards are couched in marshmallow-y reverb for a supreme secluded nocturnal atmosphere. Depending on your mood this could be lonesome and melancholic or the sound of serenity found in solitude. 

Monday, 9 February 2026

HyperNormalisation Tracks


Thomas Ragsdale - Warning Mass [2015]
Been watching Adam Curtis' HyperNormalisation (2016) again after also watching Academic Agent's critique of the documentary from the right, sensible centre and centre left. We've all known (well a lot of us) for a bloody long time that the partisan division is a joke, left/right is an obsolete gauge, this fake scam is protecting power and people actually want the same things ie. an end to the hyper-capitalism of, dare I say it, neoliberalism. 

There's plenty of Curtis' usual suspects on the soundtrack like Morricone, Eno, Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, Burial et al. But there's also a few less famous artists utilised to great effect in this masterclass of sound design too.

Some of you might know Ragsdale as he's the fella behind Sulk Rooms whose albums have featured in some end of year lists here at CardrossManiac2 anyway Warning Mass is a classic ominous minimal track that moves the atmospheric tones around that then swell into calamitous intensity. It was perfect for the show.


Pye Corner Audio - The Black Mill Video Tape [2012]
This awesome tune popped up which I hadn't heard since Ghost Box released Sleep Games fourteen years ago. Some post-Carpenter hauntological synthwave goodness. 


Gavin Miller - Fotograf (Part 2) [2013]
Then there was this excellent eerie track that I didn't know.


worriedaboutsatan - Blank Tape [2016]
Blank Tape is dark, minimal, ambient with a hint of ye olde post-rock. This was a duo featuring Gavin Miller with the unmistakeable touch of Thomas Ragsdale. Incredible spectral electronics.


worriedaboutsatan - All Safe All Well [2015]
This bit of atmospheric minimalism reminiscent of peak Labradford. Shifting tones of gloom.