SEVEN SONGS

Got passed this latest blog meme t'ing by Paul over at Deeptime...

‘List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to’.

1) No.1 Astronaut - Soundesign
Delightful little home demo recorded back in 1995 by Bob Bhamra (who now records as one half of Data 70). Over a ramshackle tropicalia loop Bob weaved some beautiful melodies using the same sort of delicately distressed keyboard sounds that Boards Of Canada would become famous for a few years later. Amazingly, to this day Bob still hasn't heard a single thing by BoC, yet this suggests that there were strong points of parallel progress between him and them in the mid-90s. Forthcoming on the album "At Home With No.1 Astronaut" via Bleepfiend.

2) nøvim - Other People's Bees
Another '90s home demo, utilizing very basic drum machine + fx to create an intense rhythmic flow of scuttling percussion and distorted tom-toms, underpinned by a solemn low-pitched melodic drone, like a lo-fi Pan Sonic drum workout crossed with early Autechre. Forthcoming on Bleepfiend.

3) Dusk + Blackdown - Focus
See my album review in previous post. I might well have gone for "Rolling Raj Deep", but as Paul already nominated that one I thought I'd go for this wicked Croydon-meets-Detroit-via-Bristol-inspired piece instead.

4) The Stranger - Inverted Burial
The most bleak and depressing V/Vm alter-ego. This track comes from the appropriately named 'Bleaklow' album and is fairly typical of the thunderous, cavernous atmospheres on offer. The nearest comparison I can make is with the heavier end of the dark-ambient/Isolationist movement that briefly flourished in the mid-90s. It's a bum trip, baby, but the perfect soundtrack to another wet, miserable English Bank Holiday. More info here.

5) The Caretaker - Long Term (Remote)
Another V/Vm side-project. With so much haunted music drawing from childhood memories of the '60s and '70s, The Caretaker steps back even further, seeming to dredge the past of our grandparents youth, with this track being a particular favourite from his latest collection "Persistent Repetition Of Thought". Impossibly ancient-sounding, spectral ballroom music caked in a dense layer of static-noise. Alzhiemer-ambiance...the soundtrack to a dying generation's collective memories. Extremely fucking deep. Further info here.

6) Ice Bird Spiral - 5 Black Yachts For Jean
My man Kek and his partner-in-improv Cloudboy unleash another horribly mangled cacophony full of jagged fretboard abuse and other noxious noises, interwoven with seagulls, passages of unfathomable French dialogue and a dispassionate female intoning about morphine injections...transporting me into some kinda TG-circa-"Heathen Earth" nether-zone. Bloody horrible racket yet strangely compelling. Available via Classwar Karaoke net-label.

7) Hot Gossip - I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper
Well after listening to the last three, you need a bit of light entertainment to keep you from falling into the pit of despair, and what better than this magnificent slice of space-disco nonsense, which I played three times in a row earlier on today. I have no idea where this is available to buy/hear these days...I have it on a K-Tel compilation elpee called "Action Replay" from 1978, which also features, among many others, Cerrone's "Supernature", Boney M's "Rasputin" and, somewhat improbably, "Come Back Jonee" by Devo.

Tag you're it:

Kid Shirt

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Spen 78

Farmer Glitch

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An Idiot's Guide To Dreaming

West Norwood Cassette Library