My initial thoughts on Mystery the LP it came from: How is this not a city pop album from 80s Japan? The lovely plaintive vocals remind me a bit of Sarah from St Etienne. How have I not heard or even heard of this before? Perhaps they never made it to the pages of Australian Smash Hits.
I feel like this is the kind of record Bob Stanley has probably written about in the past. Nightwind is one of the outstanding tracks from Mystery. This post-disco pop is impeccably put together. Wait for the very excellent 4.04 moment when it swells up and breaks down to the wind and synth moment. Atmospheric synth bliss ensues for two minutes before the chorus returns. Nice. There seems to be a video game theme tune within this song as well which is a neat bonus. The timeless vibe here was possibly even nostalgic at the time of release.
*Turns out the mastermind behind RAH Band, Richard Hewson, had his hand in arranging and producing hundreds of pop releases since the mid-60s. From The Beatles, Bee Gees, Nick Drake and Diana Ross to Pilot, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Cliff, Shakin' Stevens and Toyah.
I totally missed this when it got a revival and a reissue. It wasn't on my radar in the 90s or early 00s so I'm guessing it got dug up and rediscovered after I was no longer paying attention. Once Comus, Trees, Fresh Maggots, Dr Strangely Strange, Cam Am Des Puig, Mark Fry etc. had entered my life I thought that was the lot for the unknown 70s psych-folk from Britain. But nah there always seems to be more and ten or eleventy years ago voilà this turned up.
Tony, Caro and John are more on the accessible fun pop side of psych-folk-rock with their well honed whimsical bedroom crafted pop and delightful girl/boy vocals. These middle class hippies sure have some kind of special knack for creating warm and catchy tunes.
Having said that Sargasso Sea is the most out there track from their one and only LP All On The First Day.
Tony, Caro and John - Eclipse Of The Moon (1972)
This one is so goddam infectious with the enchanting girl/boy harmonies of Tony & Caro, the handclaps, the tripped out guitar fx, Incredible String Band meets Beatles melodies, jew's harp and mucho reverb. An understated masterpiece, Eclipse Of The Moon surely coulda been a number one hit. This is two track recording at its finest. Nice!
So I ended up here at the music video for this Neptunes production from twenty two years ago performed by forgotten million dollar signing pop R&B star Nivea because I'd just watched a disturbing mini documentary about this charismatic sensation and her stalled career.
Then I started thinking I wonder if all these wonderful Neptunes tracks, that were so beloved at the time from the late 90s and early 00s, still stand up. Are they revered, going to be revered or will they just be tossed in the ephemeral pop culture heap that I imagine every pop, rap and r&b tune released this year will be?
It had me wondering whether this music was the last moment where pop was created with an inbuilt afterlife or did they just miss that boat so as to never enjoy a resurgence of interest ever again. My previous theories and cut-off points of cultural relevance for particular dance genres and hip hop have somewhat shifted so I'm not really sure. Music just by being released in the 21st century does tend to give material a certain unintentional disdained stain. Once upon a time I would have really cared about these ideas and had ready to go arguments but now...
I still stand by my rock theory that no rock group who formed post-1993 are able to be seriously considered for the historic rock era.
Run Away still sounds pretty damn nifty. Not just a wicked hypnotic Neptunes beat but great performances from Pusha T and Nivea.
The Liks - Best U Can (2001)
The beats here coupled with Pharrell's contribution had me flashing back In Search Of... era NERD and surprisingly that was a good thing. As in I wanted to get out my old cobwebby cd that if I recall correctly was really the last cd I owned to get a hammering as it was loved so much by everyone for its party anthem vibes.
Dunno if I recall any other Liks tunes but they might have been worth checking out if this is anything to go by. Apparently members of nu-metal groups Deftones and Linkin Park do cameos in this video.
N.O.R.E. - Grimy (2001)
Now this Neptunes track is fucking insane. Psychedelic, minimal, hard, crisp. intense, seemingly simple and deliciously catchy. I mean the entire beat is the hook innit. This is still irresistible!
Fabolos - Young'n (Holla Back) (2001)
Don't recall this one at all. Pharrell contributes Sympathy For The Devil "WOO HOOS" I wonder if he had to pay Mick Jagger for that? Or were they just generic howls? Then at the 2.50 mark Timbaland enters although he's not credited.
Usher - I Don't Know (2001)
This is still an infectious banger. A precursor to Yeah really.
Ray J feat. Lil Kim - Wait A Minute (2001)
Perhaps we can never forgive Ray J for helping foist the fucking Kardashians upon us by fucking Kim on videotape but his other historic moment is undeniably ace. This is peak Neptunes tuneage pre-Pharrell's face fatigue era. This beat is so good they loved it so much they basically recycled it for Lapdance, one of their own In Search Of... hits. Hindsight's a funny thing, it tells us Wait A Minute was wasted on this tool. Then again who's not a tool in the music industry? So who gives a fuck.
Philly's Most Wanted - Cross The Border (2001)
The latin influenced riddim here is utterly contagious. There is no way you are not bumpin', noddin' and toe tappin' to this genius monster jam despite what you may think of the reprehensible lyrical content. Cross The Border is insistent instantaneous infectious pop. However do you want to rewind? Or are you happy to never hear it again?
Jadakiss feat. Pharrell - Knock Yourself Out (2001)
The sexual "ooh aahs" here are so stupid it would be absurd to think this was meant to actually be sexy but the beat is irrefutably stellar. Peak performance from Jadakiss too. No need for thinking here. Hip-hop to tear the club up doesn't get any better!
Britney Spears - I'm A Slave 4 U (2001)
This may have helped usher in the retarded hyper-sexual pop era. Then again that had been a project started many years prior. I mean my dad thought the back cover to Madonna's Like A Virgin LP was outrageous soft porn not fit for teenagers eyeballs. Who knew that by the 2010s primary school kids would be able to stream the most depraved pornographic videos imaginable and adults would barely even batter an eyelid.
I'm A Slave 4 U is peak Brittney combined with peak Neptunes. She's wearing sexy knickers on the outside of her raunchy rock star leather pants like she's a sexual superhero.
...So the jury's still out for me with regard to The Neptune's legacy. I mean these beats were legendary, cool and innovative at the time and are still fresh and fun now. I can't really gage the perception of significance placed upon them today though. They obviously have their place in the history of rap, r&b and pop because they happened.
The Neptunes were so ubiquitous they absolutely owned the radio and music video shows in 2001/02 particularly. Once their inventive heyday was done by the late 00s was there any value left in these old beats? I mean once the next generation of beat science masters arrived to take the crown what purpose did these beats serve? The over exposure and saturation of The Neptunes aesthetic in the early 00s left people fatigued of such a sound and a massively popular resurgence in interest in these sonic artefacts hasn't really come to pass.
Still that was a very good half hour of tuneage, even if it wasn't as nostalgic as expected. There was a vague sense of of meaninglessness permeating these tunes. That's pop music for ya, however pop music nostalgia probably isn't meant to be the tunes from when you were at the end of your twenties. I can understand that it's much deeper feels when songs are from childhood, teenage years or even your early twenties. Plus for me those eras all happened to be in the historic music era of the 20th century.
*This is just a nine track selection of The Neptunes output for 2001. These tunes are probably not even 15% of what they produced in this incredibly prolific year.
Laraaji - Meditations 1 & 2 (slowed and stretched)
As if Laraaji wasn't awesome enough! Who knew you could make his recordings even better?
So this guy on youtube has, using the Paulstretch app, stretched the last two tracks from 1980's Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance to levels of absolute serenity. Twenty six minutes of music has now been stretched and expanded to three hours here. This stretching has the effect of smoothing the sound events and noticeable musical note playing into just a remaining ethereal drone. Most people familiar with the original track probably wouldn't even recognise this as Meditations. I can't really detect the zither at all, it's all just a lovely glowing eternal resonance.
This shit is just pure peak funk. The rhythm track here is off the fucking chain. The whole band is on fire though. Proper deep in the funk block party goodness.
It doesn't get better than this.
Lunar Funk - Space Monster (1972)
The Counts did a coupla 7" singles under the pseudonym Lunar Funk. This is smokin' supreme funk of the deepest variety. There is no way you are not gonna get down to this peak party rhythm.
Then sometimes you find yourself listening to black ambient cassettes from the 90s at five in the morning. This is a whole lotta fun with all sorts of demented and murky vibes. It's folk. it's ambient, It's dark, it's slowcore, It's black metal, it's lo-fi, it's atmospheric, it's psychedelic, it's post-rock, it's even pop and it's good times.
Is it the French Cookie Monster in a forest wrestling a dark-psych-folk El Kabong?
The last three and a half minutes is a sublime post-rock hypnogogic slowcore jam or something. It's definitely something!
Could you get any more 80s soundtrack-y? How could this not be in a movie! Also very moving or as the kids say all the feels.
Toshifumi Hinata - Colored Air (1986)
More ace eighties soundtrack ambience, this time with even more bells! Plus it's called Colored Air!
Toshifumi Hinata - A Moment (1986) Eighties soundtrack ambient with backwards bits. Toshifumi could have done this for an hour and I would have been enthralled.
*Actually I've just realised Reality In Love might not even be a soundtrack. I just always assumed it was due to its soundtrack-y-ness. However I think this record was before he got gigs doing scores. Doesn't really matter whatever it is...
Celtic harp played by a French bloke with strings and chorus from the seminal 1971 LP Renaissance De La Harpe Celtique. An all round ambient proto-new age ethereal vibe then check out the trip-hop beats that enter at 2:05. Pretty visionary and captivating. Nice.
Opening tune from Renaissance De La Harpe Celtique. Waves and harp then halfway through strings, flute, double bass and er... tablas are added. Nice.
Natural Snow Buildings - Satanic Demona Part I (2009)
I was just poking around the internet looking to clear up some things in my head. I kept getting confused I saw this album by Mount Eerie and thought I'd heard it before but then I was thinking maybe that was Mount Kimbie and who exactly are Panthu De Prince and The Microphones. And are...Natural Snow Building who I've been mixing up with slow Buildings, no some post-punk revival band Life Before Buildings for twenty years? And is James Blake the guy I've been thinking is some other guy for a long time maybe this other guy Dean Blunt? Is this Eluviam guy from Mount Kimbie the same guy from Portland who does ambient records? All these people and more have been conflated and confused in my brain for a long time. At the same time I don't wanna check out stuff I already decided was bollocks years ago but how will I know? Maybe I need to make lists of all the music I've checked out and disliked...anyway...
So I decided to look into Natural Snow Buildings. Turns out they are French and not who I thought they are or were. I may have investigated them in the past but I don't remember. Some people out there think they are really good and say their 2009 five cassette set Daughter Of Darkness was the best music of that year. I'm getting through disc two and I gotta say it's pretty enjoyable black as night psych-folk-drone of the highest order so far, so that appears promising. Some of these tracks of apocalyptic strumming & sustain are over forty minutes long! I don't know if they're cool or dorks or poseurs or earnest or revolting hipsters or have a moronic political agenda or what and I don't really care. This shit was old hat then as it is now but it seems to be quite a likeable, seductive and enchanting hat so... thou shalt enter the darkness.
Natural Snow Buildings - Daughters Of Darkness (2009)
Undeniably exquisite drone-y psych-folk: Night Trippin' in all the colours of the dark.
