Friday, September 28, 2007

The Frozen Friday Shuffle

((Start at the first track and on the shuffle setting, hit play and record the next arrangement of songs...Top 25...))

Here Goes -
a-Ha : Living a Boys Adventure Tale
Psychic TV : White Nights
Weimar Gesang : Remaining Years
Kraftwerk : Showroom Dummies
Day After : Desert of Time
The Alarm : Rain in The Summertime
Blacklist : Pure Joy In My Heart (AP cover)
Big Country : 1000 Stars
Byro & D.M.T : The Empty Street
The Servants : Its My Turn
DAT Politics : Rainbow Connection
Railway Children : Consider
Die Unbekannten : Radio War
The Ocean Blue : A Question of Travel
The Sound : Distortion
Ulois : Dune
Fra Lippo Lippi : A Moment Like This
A Blaze Colour : Cold As Ever
The Gentry : Visions of a Landscape
Psychic TV : Black Moon
New Order : Ceremony
New Order : Hurt
Solid Space : SPaceship
Sovjet War: It Became A Problem
The Sundays : Don't Tell Mother

And that's that....Back to not paying attention to order, as I work on designs. Ha!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Because Joey and I can't get enough of them

FUZZBOX


Its like once you encounter anything Fuzzbox related in the day you can't help yourself to going mad with absolute full absorption of whatever is out there....

And since fuzzy ramblings is not at my PERSONAL "beckoned call" this will have to do. Its amusing enough....

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

READ MY LIPS



[I am not posting the above, but the compilation, 1986-1989.]

I wonder how many people ever think to write an opinion of a band and site Austrailia's own Ikon, as a reference, for it seems that stuff like this is always compared to the Psychocandy era of Jesus and Mary Chain if there is a dark psyche fuzz element to it. However this is so much darker sounding than the JMC gang...Yet just when I started thinking about my own silly issues with musical journalism the next track rolls around and I start thinking of other elements of another band...and I start thinking of all those heavy drum machine wonders of the post "Some Girls Wander By Mistake" copies...

Then as if by a recognition of my own thoughts, the fuzz changes and I am sitting here with a very dark electronic album that borders somewhere in my head between the things I like, and the great thing I adore about the sound recording quality of demos.

I love a a lo res quality demo!
The sound of an unperfected static like resonance off the drum machine...reminds me of the Lowlife Black album a bit. But then I start to think about how all of this wording just starts to sound so review-esque and it makes me a bit annoyed because all I am doing is a typical music dork thing and sorting the bands by whom they sound like instead of trying to just plainly listen to the album and not analyze it into its place within the musical card catalog where cross references and similarities exist in this world of compare and contrast.

She Only Smiles begins and I begin to think of the slightly fuzzier elements of Abecedarians, yet another band that shoulda, coulda, woulda been a Factory band, but somehow wasn't....But I can't get Ikon out of my head when listening to this, and I wonder, is it just me?

So I think of something off my mind to say, yeah Savage Garden...Guess who????

I think the assortment of tracks on here are quite good, and if the dark brooding drum machine post punk bass line with a fuzzed guitar is what your after, then this is a keeper! I like it! But it keeps sounding like Ikon to me...why does no one ever mention those Aussies...

Or is it like almost everything today? Well it all sounds like Joy Division...because this doesn't sound like that at all! And why is it that Joy Division IS the definition of Factory, lest we all be reminded they were not the first band on the label. I don't think Durutti COlumn sounds like any Joy DIvision album, but its certainly Factory!

Why is it this album inspires me to think about almost everything but the album itself that Im listening to!?! Hmm, if I decide to write about music then I will listen to this and ponder about other things...Good ambience soundtrack!

LINK : Give me your hard shoulder to lie on

Friday, September 21, 2007

FROZEN FRIDAY

\* T R A C K L I S T *
Novy Mir / AUTUMNFAIR
Will The Ocean Wait? / BACIAMIBARTALI
Our Dreams Our Innocent / ASYLUM PARTY
Killing Dome / CHROMAGAIN
Reflections / SECESSION
Intermezzo / 48 CAMERAS
Filmen / KITCHEN AND THE PLASTIC SPOONS
Couloir FC4 / NEVA
Hold Out / THE FACTORY
The Condos / IRON CURTAIN
Messages Received / CABARET VOLTAIRE
Ring of Fire / WALL OF VOODOO

In conjunction with typical seasonal ailments that cause some of us, like myself, to get sore throats when the air changes and the temperature takes its first dip, I have noted today as mixed tunes day! So using the sparse amount music I have on my computer I composed a little coldwave sampler for everyone to celebrate autumnal chill, and the joy of Friday. So Ive put a little bass heavy groove in here, some electronic based minimal, and a little quirk just to keep it interesting.

Hope everyone enjoys it, and is well in their respected places. I am sitting here with a humidifier blowing vapors at me while I work...Someone asked me if they could get a manicure and pedicure...I wish, for I could use a little extra cash! Who couldn't?!

ENJOY!
(Please follow the stuffed order in the files 01_, 02_ for loading purposes)

DOWNLOAD

Monday, September 17, 2007

Autumnal Glory

Once upon a time I woke up into the greatest feeling of seasonal bliss. The smell of burning leaves resonating in the air from the night before, the slight dewyness of a cooler morning than in the previous months, and an unleashed feeling of the most beautifully colored spectacle known as the death of life...or otherwise known as autumn. I refer to the leaves changing color and falling from the trees and lining the front and backyards of suburban homes with a bounty of joy to be raked then jumped into for zeal of childhood spirit, if to only be raked again...oh but so worth it!

The temperature turning to a cooler nature and the sky revealing the many splendours of hues of warm colors swirled and streaked every which way and watching each day close shorter and shorter but yet feeling a sense of life and confirmation that everything was yours for the taking! It also meant that Halloween was near and that meant free candy...oh autumn is a graceful time. It is a seasonal beauty that magnifies the coming of age and maturation, and also rekindles a romance we have with our inner regressions. How can one thing that we cannot truly touch and claim materialistically have such an impact upon us? How does one truly contain the meaning of maturity in one's years, by also enveloping the chards of beauty that were our earlier days and smiling upon the sun that sets and takes us closer to shorter and colder days? Is there one thing that does this?

Well no, but for those much like myself, we have a tendancy to mark these days by our journeys with music, and there are certain genre's and bands that we tend to gravitate towards that serve as an enhancement to our daily muckings about, and make the time past all the better. That which serves to make everything around us heightened and packaged together like the best bite sized chocolate in a divine wrapping that you almost hate to undo, but want the savoring to start immediately.

Its a cherished moment. Indeed it is.

In lieu of the coming days that will mark the start of autumn, and the knowledge that I won't have those feelings and senses heightened, as Oakland is kind of in a perpetual haze of summer and then spring, TRUE autumn will not be mine again this year...well there will be that one week...or two. I rekindle the flame of yesterday and think of the one band that so perfectly fits that which is autumn, and that band which makes me sad in a most poetic way, and so exuberantly gleeful in a most joyously childlike way....

The Wild Swans...

Here it is, the Incandescent collection, shared for you, by me, whom wishes that everything magical is hereby imparted...

Now You're Perfect

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

On a Cloudy Day

There is no rain but it feels as if there is something lifeless stirring outside...

Hence, I put forth some dismal pop...But you enjoy it ever so much, don't even try to lie...

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Your Music Would Sound Like This...




Just think about those bands and the sentiments of those songs which make you want to curl around a tune like you would with a blanket on a cold day on a couch with the expectations of the most wonderful thoughts. That song that musically touches upon everything that is right with everything that you love about music, which in essence, once again, reaffirming that your taste in music is exceptional, and that you're not the only one who can confirm this. No, I don't mean obnoxiously, I mean that others out there seem to be exactly what you are into which means the artists you think are grander than grand are universally, to some extent, felt in the same manner.

And Also The Trees. Pale Saints. Cocteau Twins. The Ocean Blue. Ride. They all got together, toured America, touched base in Arizona, and decided to grab a couple of kids who played music and listened to them and said, "Take this melody and sentiment and spread it to others. If you like us so much, then let the others know, that in America there are still people who can play what is always defined as "euro"!"
So the guitarist, whom had to put Echoes on a Shallow Bay on pause while being spoken to said, "this is true. If For Against did it, we can too!"

Start the project known as HALF STRING.

They went into their recording studio adorned with the artwork of Vaughan Oliver and Chris Biggs and some Brassai photographs, and on a rainy day the track Hue was created. It would be their first recorded track and the one that would confirm for all of them that they were onto something. Most importantly, being the slightly righteous lads they were, they never wanted to be an indie sell out band, but merely play the music they wanted to and be the band that could honestly admit that their albums were part of what they were currently listening to. When I stood back after reading that in a magazine, I thought, there is absolutely nothing selfish about that at all. You SHOULD make the music that makes you want to listen to it as if its your favorite band. It makes total sense.

The following week, with instruments in had the guys hit the studio after finishing watching a bunch of old films while hanging out with their female counterparts the night before over a really comfortable meal at their off the hillside diner. Oval, Sun Less Sea and Slow Engine Kill were spawned and well, every following week another great song was recorded and the EP's of Hue, Oval, and Eclipse were completed.

One afternoon one of the members stumbled upon a Lively Art compilation at a record shop and after listening to it, called the other guys and they all agreed, that combined with the immense amount of Sad Lovers and Giants, particularly "Epic Garden Music" that that they had been listening to, that this was the direction they wanted to take their last ep. Some of them had their doubts if others would get the early Midnight Records influence in the songs, "Would they know we had been listening to Snake Corps?" They called up their friends in the Abecedarians and inquired if anyone had ever gotten too wise to the act they were doing.

"Has enyone blatantly called you out for probably being huge fans of Royal Family and The Poor and The Chameleons, and that you have an undying love for Faith by The Cure," but honestly there was no problem.

"We just play and record what we would want to listen to."

With that the recording continued and the final ep of the trilogy was completed. This shimmering beauty of novelty distributed out to the indie masses and warmly received by fans who thought, "gosh this sounds like it has all the influences a band should."

It was in the end, exactly what it was meant to be at the start. And with that, I was grateful to encounter them, and am warmed to share them with anyone whom is so willing as to have a great addition to their collection, if you don't already. Highly advised for those rainy gray afternoons in early spring.

LINK : Maps For Sleep

(and yes, none of this is true, but it certainly does make a good story and is highly probable in an alternate universe)

Friday, September 7, 2007

Mentally Waxing Poetic With Myself

Memories of being a youngin during those laughable high school years.
It was during my junior year of high school that I really started to loose
myself within the worlds I created through songs. These below, are songs
in particular of bands in particular that I listened to ad nauseum, and
found solace in a world that to me felt perfect.

THE OCEAN BLUE / mercury

[ from the album Cerulean ]

RIVERSIDE / waterfall

[ from the album One ]

MY BLOODY VALENTINE / only shallow

[ from the album Loveless ]

CURVE / horrorhead

[ from the album Doppleganger ]

CRANES / starblood

[ from the album Wings of Joy ]

I dont like this version but as we all know, there
is no video for this.

THE CURE / a strange day

[ from the album Pornography ]

Oh those moments spent roaming about my neighborhood with my walkman
and mixed tapes listening to these songs at night feeling like no one
understood me and how I was so alone. Oh the smile one can bear now
in realizing how trivial we once were...but all in a life's day, right?

Thursday, September 6, 2007

This Is The...Forever

Since 11:23am this morning, until about 2pm, these were my recent 25 songs that shuffled through my mp3 player at work:

1 This Is The Sea The Waterboys
2 Inner Voice Day After
3 Crocodile Tears The Dentists
4 Bo Bo Dolly Feud
5 Messerschmidt Parade Bart & Jan
6 Telegraph OMD
7 Out of The Moving Life of Circles (demo) AATT
8 Un Monde Parfait Les Innocents
9 Cant Make Love Wall of Voodoo
10 Sea Change AATT
11 Too Late For Tears Burning Skies Of Elysium
12 Shakes Tones on Tail
13 Blue Shifted Blacklist
14 Senses The Gentry
15 I Feel Lovely The Wendys
16 Moon Pink Turns Blue
17 Mutti Teflon Fonfara
18 Wild West (peel session) Pink Military
19 Djakarta Trisomie 21
20 NYISC x-1 (hee hee)
21 Michaels Bones Morrissey
22 Pregnant For The Last Time Morrissey
23 Know Who You Are At Every Age Cocteau Twins
24 Hide The Danse Society
25 Now and Forever Wild Swans


(i do have a soft spot for this song)

SOmetimes I wonder why one band will repeat when there are many other bands that dont even get played....did I need to hear 2 Morrissey songs...I probably didn't really didnt need to hear 1...I would have far preferred if one of those Cardigans tracks played instead. So it goes...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

I Don't Care....

A C MARIAS


Can I sing the praises high enough for some of the material this fine woman has released? I can honestly express that my familiarity with her is quite recent, for it has only been a year...I think I missed a bunch of stuff in the years I stopped being so addicted to music and focused on being a girl.

Introduced through her involvement with Dome's "Cruel When Complete" which you can listen to here, (please left and right click or control + to download, im being nice here), I thought her voice was a beautiful moment in that hollow stuck in the corridor way. The way that much of minimal synth has sought to do in production, and the glory that is the resonance of how an un overly produced Harold Budd piano just leaves you radiant. The songs within this album by A C Marias are really magical in their nature and have a special place in me reserved for moments when I feel a bit needing of transience.

I do confess that part of me also wishes that I was her a little, for I enjoy watching women create things that sound so amazing and to know that for although the scene was rather small with women and this genre, those who contributed did it in such a truly splendid way, I'll give a shout to Anne Clark as another, Lisa Gerrard (pre DCD), and let us dare not forget the divine AND unique vocal stylings of Mrs. Colin Newman, Malka S. You can have solo acts and be really provoking, and your name doesn't have to be Nico, whom I confess again, really does bore me...

The point here is that this is a lovely talent and one whom sadly slipped by me most definitely due to the fact I had no exposure to her as I was too young to be on it enough as a music dork at that time, as I was cruising the DM and new wave catalogs for almost forever, and then not really ever diving into what has become a very much appreciated catalog of Colin Newman projects...save for the overly obvious one. Sometimes the gems slip through the cracks, but such as long as someone is nice enough out there to share the treasure, well then you can still consider yourself blessed and cherish the kindness of others appreciation.

Appreciate I do. Believe me! So this is my treasure to impart on all of you today, for a moment of grace and solace, take your beverage of great warmth, stand sit down in front of your freezer with your favorite blanket at your side, and put this on play. Just when you start to feel a chill more noticeable than before, blanket yourself and feel that initial comfort of warmth, and this album will make all the more sense to you! A keeper for your first frost of winter.

LINK : {One Of Girls}

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

A Mellow Progression


[OFFLINE]

I can feel the fingers pull back in hesitation with thoughts, "What is she doing? She posted Die Unbekkanten last Friday to follow it up with a playlist featuring A-Ha? Is she completely delusional? Does she have no idea about what merits good from bad?"
Well the fact is folks, I infrequently discriminate from the things from my past that I enjoyed, just because my musical quotient these days might be just a tad bit more refined. (TAD being the more than appropriate word, ha!)

I do like that A-Ha song, the synths are very smooth and pleasing and isn't of the annoyance factor that some of the other A-Ha material contains, so I will not shy from the podium in defending why I am posting it. Where this play list stems from, Im not sure, but all these songs make me feel at ease and bring a small dose of sunshine to my day, in a happy memory type way. Plus as I was arranging them, they all seemed to flow really well, and if it is one thing I will make a point in notating, I think I happen to be good at arrangement as it pertains to song flow and editing. Once hailed as the master of the mixed tape, I do hold it as a talent that one either posses or does not...how to go from B Movie to Tools You Can Trust to Baltimora and end with Marine Girls, without making it so eclectic that its beyond cliché pretentious hipster, but honest and well crafted....well Id like to think Ive got the gift.

Am I horrible that like phase 2 of The Damned? Well in all honesty I have shared a pleasant and humorous banter with a friend over this song, and that is why it brings a smile to my face. As well as the Ellysgarden song, and this past weekend was a rather nice time spent while listening to the Half String ep that contains this song, as for the Pulp track, that album has always brought a simple smile of a delicate fancy and adoration to this girls face, and well, I think the early material by Tears For Fears is still good, and that song has some rather good lyrics however down they are. But makes no sense to this mix save for the time relevance to the A Ha and The Damned, but you know how music is for precious ears....sometimes you just want to hear something, and perhaps it makes no sense to the other things you have been listening to, but at that moment, your ears just feel the continuity of love.

After all, isn't it all about the moment, and that's the great thing about so much of it...having amazing moments contained in 3-4 minutes of someone else's talents that make you feel all the more better, or simply all the more, about things. Thank gosh for mixes! Thank gosh for folks who can find pleasure in assortment!

Tomorrow I'll return to the regularly scheduled program of pretentious coldwave, haa haaa.