To listen to the show, or to download it, just click on the tab
"Where did July go? Is it under my pillow?"
C.C.C. FOXY MARCH
C.C.C. (Chris Shaw to his mum) was a mash-up artist who had a thing about about mashing up The Beatles with anyone he could get his hands on. Sadly, he's not been active since 2007 or so, but this track is taken from his LOVELY AND EASY EP, released in 2006 when he was at the top of his game, but not in a mood for mashing up The Beatles. Instead he mashes up Jimi Hendrix with John Barry's Space March from the You Only Live twice soundtrack. Before that, however, I had it emerge from the opening few minutes of A Psychedelic Opera, by Japanese composer J.A. Caesar (or Terahara Taka'aki to his mum), both of which provide the perfect intro to the show.
I do believe that I've run out of superlatives for Kelli Ali; suffice to say that this is another gorgeous track from her album ROCKING HORSE, an album of sparse, understated, beauty that contains simple pastoral-folk songs sung with an almost medieval sense of grace. One of my favourite albums from 2008, and still sounds fresh as a daisy.
NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA BERLINER LUFT
North Sea Radio Orchestra are a small orchestral ensemble led by a husband and wife team, Craig and Sharron Fortnam, that make the sort of music that regularly get them compared to the likes of Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Brittan; and who make albums that use the poetry of Chauser, Thomas Hardy and Tennyson instead of lyrics. This sort of thing gets them confused with a folk band, but for their third album, I A MOON, released 2011, they change track somewhat and add an element of Krautrock into the proceedings – on Berliner Luft, Sharron’s light, sad, pretty, folkie-meets-chorister voice floats above a track that sounds like Neu! without the electric guitars or drums; in fact, it’s the worlds first baroque-Krautrock-folk-madrigal-electro-pop album.
FLIBBERTIGIBBET MY LAGAN LOVE
A folk group pairing consisting of two former members of semi-legendary acid-folk group MELLOW CANDLE, vocalist Alison O’Donnell and mandolin player David Williams, who, following the demise of the original group, bizarrely moved to South Africa and released one extremely rare privately pressed album under the name of Flibbertigibbet (an impish child, or silly, scatterbrained person) which was barely heard of outside the Johannesburg folk scene, such as it was back in 1972. MY LAGAN LOVE, taken from the album of the same name, collects together all of their live and unreleased studio recordings from around that time. It was released in 1978 and once again very little interest outside of the Jo’burg folk community, as local music was largely ignored in that country and, for all I know, still is. A missed opportunity really, as Alison O’Donnell could sing a shopping list and it would still sound lovely and enchanting.
ALAN BLACK SONNETS
It all got a bit messy here, but mostly what happened is that I played Sonnets from the album CRIPPLE CRAB CRUTCH, a mash-up concept album based around the spoken word released in 2010 by Alan Black. Sonnets features Helen Vendler (a leading American critic of poetry, fact fans) reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 30 and excerpts from Sonnet 146 over music from Harold Budd, John Foxx and Brian Eno. The rest of the album features source materials ranging from the paranormal, the historical, the literary, the philosophical and the religious, film excerpts, strange old recordings, perplexing radio shows, Bill Hicks, and an old Disneyland attraction, so it's pretty clever. You can check it out here
GONG MR LONG SHANKS: OH MOTHER I AM YOUR FANTASY
Whilst that was all going on, though, there was very definitely a bit of Gong happening too, an excerpt from the track Mr Long Shanks: Oh Mother I Am Your Fantasy, taken from their album CAMEMBERT ELECTRONIQUE, released in 1971, and as deliberately wacky as the title suggests.
THE JAM TALES FROM THE RIVERBANK
Tales From The Riverbank is taken from the B-side to Absolute Beginners, a cracking single from 1981 when The Jam were playing around with their neo-psychedelic Revolver period. This was my favourite phase from The Jam's story arc and roughly takes in Sound Affects and the singles that led up to their last album, The Gift. I've been meaning to use a track by The Jam from this period for some time, and finally narrowed it down to Tales From The Riverbank or The Dreams Of Children, the B-side to Going Underground. In the end Tales From The Riverbank won out because it had a pastoral, Syd Barrett quality to it that makes me feel quite wistful for an imaginary childhood I never had.
LIDA HUSIK STRAWBERRIES ARE GROWING IN MY GARDEN (AND IT'S WINTERTIME)
Lida Husik with a delicious cover of The Dentists' 1985 release Strawberries Are Growing In My Garden (And It's Wintertime) which you can find on her 1995 album JOYRIDE. The Dentists were an English psychedelic band whose debut single, Strawberries..., reached the giddy heights of Runner Up Single Of The Week in teen music mag Smash Hits before more or less disappearing from the public consciousness. Lida Husik is an American who makes experimental-pop music who, despite being seven or eight albums into her career, looks likely to head the same way.
MARK VIDLER MY DOG, MY FRIEND, MY WEE HAIRY COMPANION
Ah, a much needed touch of levity to the show with this track by Mark Vidler, otherwise known as mash-up artist Go Home Productions. My Dog, My Friend, My Wee Hairy Companion, a gentle Ivor Cutler pastiche, is from his album THE FUTURE, THE PAST AND THE PRESENT TENSION, released 2009 as a free download from his website here.
THE JOKER'S DAUGHTER CAKE AND JULY
The deliciously unlikely The Joker's Daughter - hip-hop production married to pastoral-folk charm - and The Cake And July, another track from their debut album THE LAST LAUGH, released 2009, and consisting of kaleidoscopic, story-bookish songs accompanied by a light-handed production that plays around with sounds and traditions. What's not to like? One of my favourite albums from 2009.
BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW TWIN OF MYSELF (GO! TEAM REMIX)
Black Moth Super Rainbow are, as you might expect from their name, a band that write insanely catchy electronic-psychedelic-folk-pop songs with added flutes and whistles that one might associate with the sound of acid-rain falling on a meadow on an otherwise sunny day. The original version of Twin Of Myself can be found on their most recent album EATING US, released last year. The Go! Team remix you have here simply makes it as bright and breezy as a summer's day.
SHIDE AND ACORN ELEANOR'S SONG
Here's a rarity - Shide and Acorn only issued 99 copies of their album, UNDER THE TREE, as a private pressing in 1971 and gave them all away to their friends, so for years it was impossible to get your hands on until a reissue in the 90's. Was it worth the wait? Well, they were no Pentangle, but the album did feature this one song, the fragile and lovely Eleanor's Song, which would have made it worth a bob or two of anyone's money, in my opinion.
DJ ZEBRA FUCK THE HIPPIES
A small sample from the 40th-anniversary of Woodstock mash-up album, BOOTSTOCK, by French bootleg producer DJ Zebra in which he mashes up Country Joe McDonald from the original soundtrack and morphs it into something by Big Soul. There are bits and pieces of the album littered throughout this evening's show and the whole album is available as a free download from his website here
WOODEN SHJIPS WE ASK YOU TO RIDE
An organ-led homage to The Doors as crossed with Spacemen 3 by San Fransciscan psyche-rockers Wooden Shjips. We ask You To Ride is taken from their eponymous debut album, released in 2007, which pulsates with krautrock menace and frontier desert looseness.
THE TIME AND SPACE MACHINE CHILDREN OF THE SUN
Killer single from RIchard Norris's Time And Space Machine, Children Of The Sun was released in 2009 but can be found on his album SET PHASERS TO STUN, released 2010 - it's all driving snares, twangy bass, floaty organs and 60's-tinged multi-part harmonies. Marvelous.
STEREOLAB JENNY ONDIOLINE Pt. 2
I once spent 15 minutes listening to the washing machine on spin cycle thinking I was listening to a new Stereolab single on the radio. Admittedly it was under what I'm choosing to call 'enhanced circumstances', but there's a part to this track where it actually does sound like a washing machine taking off in your living room. I love it. Tim Gane always claimed that Stereolab owed their biggest debt to Faust, but Jenny Ondioline is all Neu! with the safety valves turned off. It can be found on their third album TRANSIENT RANDOM-NOISE BURSTS WITH ANNOUNCEMENTS, released in 1993 - one of the most experimental and eclectic albums in their early career. Jenny Ondioline is Stereolab at their most mesmerising, motorifik, krautrock best - a phase they've now sadly left behind. Probably my favourite track on tonight's show - I may be the only person who seriously believes that, though.
JANE WEAVER EUROPIUM ALLUMINATE/A CIRCLE AND A STAR/
THE FALLEN BY WATCHBIRD
The opening three tracks from THE FALLEN BY WATCHBIRD, a concept album by Jane Weaver, released in 2010, that apparently tells the tale of two lovers who communicate using birds until one of them gets shipwrecked and…well you’ll just have to listen to it yourself. The album’s chief influences seem to be Eastern European children's cinema, Germanic Kunstmärchen (I’m not about to pretend that I know what this word means), 70's television music and early murmers of 80's synth pop, which produces an otherwordly charm which feels at once ancient and yet staunchly rooted in the prog-influenced sounds of 70’s acid folk (it even includes guest appearances by Susan Christie and Wendy Flower (one half of '60s psych-folk legends Wendy & Bonnie). It really is rather lovely, and was followed by its own remix album, released in 2011, called THE WATCHBIRD ALLUMINATE, featuring collaborations with The Focus Group and Demdike Stare.
MOON WIRING CLUB ANOTHER DREAME
In 2012 Ian Hodgson’s Moon Wiring Club released two versions of the album TODAY BREAD, TOMORROW SECRETS, one on CD and one on vinyl, each with an entirely different track-listing. Confusingly though, both versions start with a track called Another Dreame, although neither has anything to do with the other. The vinyl version of the album, also known as The After-Show Supper edition is almost an entirely beat-free affair comprised of charming after-show thoughts, lullabies; pondering, wistful signals and shadows of a vaguely unsettling nature. This spooky little vignette is from the vinyl version.
GEORGE HARRISON DREAM SCENE
It turns out that George Harrison was the first of The Beatles to record a solo album, which he did in 1968 as the composer of the WONDERWALL soundtrack, beloved of Oasis, and the title of a little known cult 1960’s film that very few people have seen. The music is a blend of Indian ragas and contemporary rock music and is very much of its time, but it contains lovely little gems like Dream Scene, and I’m almost certain other tracks will appear throughout Mind De-Coder.
CAN HALLELUJAH
The full 18 minutes and 26 minutes of this mighty track, described by Julian Cope as ‘The Meters playing avant-garde music’, which clearly doesn’t do it any justice whatsoever. This track takes up all of side two of Can’s classic 1971 album TAGO MAGO, the closest Can ever came to creating chamber music which, in fairness, also fails to do it any justice either.
BEYOND THE WIZARD'S SLEEVE WINTER IN JUNE
When you live in New Zealand the song title Winter In June doesn't have the same mind-bending possibilities that it's no doubt supposed to have if you come from England, but the track is taken from the rare as hens teeth album WEST (500 vinyl copies only), released last year and a sonic garden of otherworldly delights which seems to have taken Flowers Never Cry by late 1960's L.A. psychedelic also-rans The Mystic Astrologic Crystal Band, slipped it some acid, and introduced it to Percy Thrower. I, for one would like some of whatever's growing in his garden.
BLOSSOM TOES TRACK FOR SPEEDY FREAKS (OR INSTANT LP DIGEST)
A bit of speeded up psychedelic filler taken from the 1967 album WE ARE EVER SO CLEAN by THE BLOSSOM TOES, a little known and quintessentially English psychedelic band who lasted a couple of years back then. Although largely forgotten these days, and Track For Speedy Freaks (Or Instant LP Digest) is by no means representative of their sound (sadly), the album is listed in RECORD COLLECTOR’S list of the 100 greatest psychedelic records.
AUDREY HEPBURN MOON RIVER
This exquisite record wasn’t even available on the original soundtrack to BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, and it wasn’t until 1993 that it finally became available on the album MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF AUDREY HEPBURN. I was never a big fan of the film myself, and I don’t think that she should ever have got into that taxi with George Peppard at the end of the movie – it was all going to end in tears and I gave them six weeks, tops - but can anyone fail to be moved by the sight of Audrey Hepburn strumming away to this song on her fire escape in the sky? KID KOALA messes around with this track live – I’ve just borrowed a few scratches from You Tube.
And that was Mind De-Coder 7. I thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment