Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby

Jackson Browne - Somebody's Baby (1982)

This just tears me apart. All these conflicting emotions within this song mixed with nostalgia for a time when music like this was on the radio and the dysphoria of 2023 coalesce for a perfect storm of intense poignancy. I honestly couldn't tell ya if Browne had any other decent songs but who cares, it this one that matters. 

The demented elated loneliness of being so in love but knowing your relationship is a doomed slow burning ticking time bomb, the heart wrenching jealousy of imagining the one you love fucking somebody else, the empty bliss of one night stands and all that shit comes rushing back upon hearing this. 

Then there's that whole vibe of the song being on the radio when you were eleven. So you could only imagine what this song's sentiments were all about but you felt them through your preteen heart anyhow. And flashing back to that feeling as an old bastard who ended up going through all those emotions, it's a complex array of feelings. All the feels.

Talk Talk - It's My Life

Talk Talk - It's My Life (1984)

Because it's like the greatest 80s tune: An undeniable timeless anthem. 

We need more songs like this in our lives to remind us that, yes this is our life and it doesn't belong to the fucking retarded government, the insane cultural revolution people who run everything, the fucking hideous mega corporations, the mental patient climate alarmists, big tech, big pharma, the UN, the WHO and all these unelected fucks trying to social engineer everything. 

Australia is done. They have forgotten what pluralism means and there must only be one viewpoint à la Stalin & Mao style otherwise you are demonised as an extremist.

I'm not changing any of my fucking words. I'm not participating in the daft cultural revolution. Fuck identity politics. Fuck the victimhood olympics of the mental intersectional oppression hierarchy. Fuck cheerleading endless war. Fuck the idiots who think male-inclusive lesbianism can be a thing. Fuck the censorship industrial complex. Fuck the racial division of Australia's voice to parliament. Fuck Kieran Perkins. It's all nonsense! 

Anyway thank you Mark Hollis for your song that strikes me right in the heart of my human-ness. A lot of us wish it was still 1984 instead of Nineteen Eighty Four.

Is the best quality in a pop song defiance? 

Mortiis - Født til å herske

Mortiis - Født til å herske (1994)

Old school Norwegian ambient black metal that's now categorised as dungeon synth. Had to post this as it's an example of what a masterpiece in the genre is. Creepy organs, even creepier liturgical chanting and whooshes of exquisite darkness. Supreme sombre tone throughout. 

Hole Dweller - Flies The Coop

Hole Dweller - Flies The Coop (2019)

This is the sorta sound that I was expecting from the previous post's Gnometopia by Eldergleam. Even though this album has been termed "Comfy Synth" it's still pretty much "Dungeon Synth" ie. it isn't dissimilar to Burzum's ambient tracks or early Mortiis. Flies The Coop would have been called black metal or dark ambient back in the day. In the last fifteen years however many of these recordings dating back to the early 90s have been retro-actively categorised as Dungeon Synth. Then in the last five years a few current divergent micro-genres have emerged from that including "Winter Synth", "Dino Synth" and "Comfy Synth". The type of music in these new categories is pretty self explanatory and perhaps a bit stupid.

In the comments of this Hole Dweller video I notice a lot of nerdy references to gaming, tech, hobbits, pipeweed etc. but it's just good synth tunes to me. Like church organs emanating from a Norwegian woods, these pastoral synth jams sometimes become haunting and at other stages quite anthemic. 

Eldergleam - Gnometopia

Eldergleam - Gnometopia (2023)

So I came across this somewhere on the interwebs and thought well thats the best album cover ever. Hoping it was gonna be some kind of cute black metal crossed with something like Tubular Bells or at least some classic old school dungeon synth. That wasn't to be. It's eleven minutes of simple wobbly synth ambience which is lovely enough while it's playing. Apparently this is part of the recent "Comfy Synth" genre which is actually related to "Dungeon Synth" which was a 90s black metal micro-genre. Anyway there is a childlike innocence here to match the cover, perhaps just not matching what the band logo promised. I guess it has a retro science/kids telly vibe which in turn makes it a somewhat distant cousin to "Haunty-logic" music. I mean this is much closer sonically to Paddy Kingsland than say Depressive Silence.

The New Breeds - Girl In Love

New Breeds - Girl In Love (1966)

This group didn't even release a single in the 60s. The New Breeds only had one recording Girl In Love which appeared on a 1966 compilation album that was never commercially released. Hillside Album No. 1 was a promotional sampler for a bunch of Columbus Ohio bands that was used to try and get gigs. Then this tune wasn't rediscovered until it appeared in 1998 on the brilliant Teenage Shutdown Volume 6: I'm Down Today compilation. 

Hearing something like this you might assume half the 80s Flying Nun roster, The Blue Orchids, The Moles or The Beta Band were big fans but Girl In Love wasn't in wide circulation until 1999 long after The Moles Tendrils & Paracetamol or Beta Band's The Three EPs had been released. 

A moody garage classic: The rolling jangles, atmospheric organ and to die for enthusiastic gloomy harmonies all add to the el-cheapo lo-fi bargain basement Beach Boys charm of this record.

One of the best 60s tunes you never heard...unless of course you have.

The Riots - I Can Go On

The Riots - I Can Go On (1966)

Premium moody garage. Swirling horror movie organ with menacing guitar strums and a dark bass tone weave their black magic and yet the doomed melodic vocals are somewhat uplifting. You gotta ride the doom to escape the gloom... I think I just made that up. Timmy's discount aphorisms: I'm giving them away. 

The Outsiders - She's Coming On Stronger

The Outsiders - She's Coming On Stronger (1965/6?)

Then sometimes you just need an insane rave up where everything's in the red. A manic stomping beat with spirited crowd chorus vocals to shake off your cobwebs. A wild energetic burst of sound to obliterate your mind for a moment, well, two minutes and eighteen seconds of moments.  

This is The Outsiders from Tampa Florida not to be confused with The Outsiders from Cleveland or The Outsiders from The Netherlands. This lot recorded two 7" singles on Tampa's Knight Records.

The Innsmen - I Don't Know

The Innsmen - I Don't Know (1966)

Another charming slice of pre-Velvets moody & broody teen beat garage that really sounds like it coulda been an 80s or 90s Velvets-damaged lo-fi indie tune. If you told me Lou or Sterling or Dean had played on this I wouldn't have battered an eye. 

The Innsmen were a bunch of teenagers from Edsel Ford High. They were another Michigan group who did just the one 7" single in 1966 and that was their recording career done but... 

...this kid's lead break lives forever! 

Keggs - Girl

Keggs - Girl (1967)

Then there's the other side of garage rock, quite often literally the flipside. These groups would put a garage rocker on one side and a slow sad tune on the other. One Teenage Shutdown compilation's sub heading summed it up nicely calling it "Moody and Brooding Teen Misery Garage Rock". A lot of this stuff is pre-Velvets proto-indie slow-fi.  

This tune Girl by Keggs is a fine example of what we're talking about. A wide eyed and innocent break up song with an atmospheric tone set by the minimalist low key instrumentation that really is a blueprint for the twee-core of Jonathan Richman. 

For creating such a seminal tune Keggs really get fuck all recognition. Anyway it's a crackin' tune whether it's part of the narrative or not innit.