MIND DE-CODER 52

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MIND DE-CODER 52

“Each day, each noise I gather explodes, leaving me to death; to rest in the solace of silence and to be re-born.”  

                                Gopichand Lagadapati

BROADCAST     CREATION DAY MAGIC FLUTE WAY

Following the sad and untimely death of Trish Keenan in 2011, Broadcast only had the one album left in them – the soundtrack to the cult horror film Berberian Sound Studio that they were working on at the time of her passing. But then MOTHER IS THE MILKY WAY appeared, a roundup of bits and bobs they were working on and were no doubt going to get back to one day. It’s a resolutely tuneless affair, but quite lovely for all that, full of song sketches and experimental flourishes that has an undeniable hauntological quality that puts in the same psycho-geographical location as previous collaborators The Focus Group and, indeed, the Moon Wiring Club. It was originally released as a tour-only EP in 2009 but was later released as a download in 2011 to stop e-Bay sharks cashing in on Keenan’s death.

THE FLAMING LIPS      SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEART CLUB BAND

I’m no great fan of the Flaming Lips, me (except for the rather marvellous She Don’t Use Jelly from 1993’s TRANSMISSION FROM THE SATELLITE HEART, obviously, which you’d have to be particularly hard-hearted not to enjoy) but one of my favourite releases of the year was the band’s track-by-track remake of the Beatle’s classic SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEART’S CLUB BAND, renamed in this instance WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FWENDS. I’m not entirely sure they even appear on this particular track, largely featuring guest appearances from My Morning Jacket, Fever The Ghost and a searing guitar solo from J. Mascis. The album is messed up and often misses the point of the original by a country mile but, for all that, there’s an incredible sonic buzz to it that demands to get turned up to 11 whenever it hits the decks.

CONNAN MOCKASIN     IT’S CHOADE MY DEAR

Choade is a tricky word, isn’t it? It’s either stoner acronym slang for chilling, as in Chilling Hard On A Deck Every Day, or, and its provenance is unclear, a derogatory term for a penis that is wider than it is long (an uncommon medical condition, apparently). A cursory glance at the song lyrics leaves me none the wiser as to Conan Mockasin’s use of the term, but given the otherwise languid, drowsy, psychedelic whimsy of FOREVER DOLPHIN LOVE, the 2011 release from which it is taken, I’m inching toward the former (no pun intended), although what with one thing and another, I suspect that literal meaning takes a backseat to dreamy nonsense for the most part.

MOON WIRING CLUB     PERIPHERAL PEACOCKS

Having been a fan of Ian Hodgson’s Moon Wiring Club for some time now, I remain never less than moderately amazed at his ability to put an onomatopoetically appropriate song title to his hallucinatory imaginings. Peripheral Peacocks is the first of several tracks on this evening’s show that I’ve taken from his latest release, LEPORINE PLEASURE GARDENS, a kaleidoscopic assemblage of charmed fancy and consummate variety. Initially intended to be based around vocal/voice samples, it features much audio chicanery, often propelled by intricate rhythms and a newly devised complexity that precisely mirrors a half-remembered long-eared trance-speed world of warped dimensions and jugged kinetosis. Marvellous, as always. 

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES    PEEK-A-BOO

Peek-A-Boo was seen as a much welcomed return to form for Siouxsie and the Banshees, but it was mostly the last great recording for a band that had lost its way. Taken from their ninth studio album PEEPSHOW, released in 1988, Peek-A-Boo is nevertheless an incredible track, a crazed assortment of fairground accordions, distant to-and-fro vocals and reversed horns that manages to be both 30s hip hop and entirely futuristic at the same time.

SPROATLY SMITH     THE MAGPIE’S NEST

Haunting acid-folk weirdness from Sproatly Smith, who never forget to be anything less than lovely, no matter how peculiar or curious their sound-world of pagan-inspired bucolic folk tunes actually are. The Magpie’s Nest is taken from their second release, 2010’s PIXIELED, a gorgeous album of transcendental pastoral loveliness.

BROADCAST     THE APHID SLEEPS

More spooky goings on from Broadcast’s MOTHER IS THE MILKY WAY.

TRWBADOR     CO2 (excerpt)

Bit of a cheat this, as I only use the first few minutes of this track (before the supernatural dance beats kick in) from enchanting Welsh duo, Trwbador, to provide something atmospheric for a bit of dialogue from the classic British horror movie Village of the Damned to play over. On the rest of their gorgeous album, SEVERAL WOLVES, they mix a folky acoustic openness with introspective electropop beats – think a pastoral version of St. Etienne somewhere between their Tiger Bay/Good Humour albums mixed with mid-period Stereolab and you’ll be in the right neighbourhood, although that doesn’t really do them any justice at all. I shall do good by them in the next show.

DER PLAN     KLEINE SCHLAGER-REVUE

I came across Der Plan in David Stubbs excellent discourse on Krautrock, Future Days, in which he describes the group as a compact post-script to Krautrock, inasmuch as they shared the same driving imperative to innovate as their more classic forebears. Kleine Schlager-Revue is taken from the group’s second album NORMALETTE SURPRISE, released in 1981. Their early use of sampling suggested whole new ways that music could be reassembled – all sudden vistas and surprising collapses of perspective, and the odd bit of porn thrown in for good measure.

ELEPHANT’S MEMORY     OLD MAN WILLOW

If you’ve heard of Elephant’s Memory at all it’s probably because they provided the music for the Warhol-esque psychedelic party scene in John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, which I’ve rather cleverly weaved into the track (even if I do say so myself). On the other hand, they were also known as John and Yoko’s backing band for a couple of years, where they were renamed the Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band for live performances. Old Man Willow was included on their eponymous 1969 album.

MARK RONSON feat. KEVIN PARKER     DAFFODILS

A rather marvellous little taster from the forthcoming UPTOWN SPECIAL  album from Mark Ronson which features a host of guest performances and, on this track, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker who apparently sings on two more tracks and provides a lot of the albums instrumentation. This track is by turns mesmerizing and hypnotic – a joyful explosion of psychedelic exuberance.  I can’t help feeling that the album will be fab.

MOODOÏD     LA CHANSON DU CIEL DIAMANTS

Another artist who benefited from the Kevin Parker touch is Parisian multi-instrumentalist Pablo Padovani, guitarist for Melody’s Echo Chamber. On his debut EP, simply called the MOODOÏD EP, released in 2013, he invites Parker to create a mix that’s both dreamy and languorous, flitting between sonic experimentation and full on psychedelic bluster. It could do without the umlauts, though.

ROTARY CONNECTION    SURSUM MENTES

This little throwaway piece, lasting no more than 43 seconds, can be found on the eponymous debut album from the psychedelic soul band Rotary Connection, who released their first album in 1967. Tripped out and experimental, this is the sound of a band exploring new dimensions in sound – I just wish they could have explored them for a little longer, is all.

MOON WIRING CLUB     37 DAYS FROM THIS POINT

Another track from LEPORINE PLEASURE GARDENS that haunts and delights in equal measure

TEMPLES     A QUESTION ISN’T ANSWERED (A BEYOND THE WIZARD’S SLEEVE REIMAGINING)

I’m very excited by this – Temples gave over their debut album SUN STRUCTURES to the Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve boys who take the ever so slightly restrained arrangements of the original and replace them with acid-fried expanded versions, soaking the drums in dub, ramping up the fuzz and sending strings and harps spiralling into the ether. A Question Isn’t Answered in particular benefits from the reanimation, sounding lowdown and dirty, strutting and self-assured – it sounds like it wants to shag you. The rest of the album, now renamed SUN RESTRUCTURED, is this good.

THE MOON WIRING CLUB     ONLY YOU CAN SEE ME

A clip from a dream about a trip to the seaside played backwards, I expect.

VASHTI BUNYAN     JELLYFISH

Ephemeral, diaphanous, exquisite – Vashti Bunyan’s HEARTLEAP is almost naked. Achingly fragile and lovely.

THE SOFT HEARTED SCIENTISTS     THE UNKNOWN TIDE

Last year saw the release of the Soft Hearted Scientists sixth album of off-centre psychedelic wonderment's, THE SLOW CYCLONE – all spooky and innocent and timeless. You can hear breathing, coughs, cat miaows, cheap drum boxes, cardboard box percussion, songs about decommissioned robots, a daydream about being the destroyer of all evil, a guest vocal by the wolf from the 3 little pigs, and Cobra Clouds. Charming, endearing and beguiling. 

MIKE RATLEDGE     RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX SEQUENCE 2

Created by former-Soft Machine member, Mike Ratledge, RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX is considered by many to be a ground-breaking electronic score. Composed using ARP, Moog and synthesisers modified by Denys Irving, the man behind the mysterious and controversial 1970s band Lucifer, Ratledge's soundtrack provides the perfect minimalist backdrop to the 1977 cult film's avant garde storyline. Dreamlike and timeless, there's a space-age quality to the Riddles of the Sphinx sequence with its myriad of synth rhythms, synthetic melodies and 8-bit progressions.

LES BIG BYRD     THEY WORSHIPPED CATS

Motorik meditations and krautrock vibes dominate in this far out debut from Sweden’s Les Big Byrd (I mean, just check out the album's cover). The eponymous title track is heavy on trippy textures, wandering synths, and a production that simply grooves.

MOON WIRING CLUB    ARIADNE’S DREAMHOUSE

This is what drugs make the world sound like, kids.

DOG AGE     HALF BAKED

More Scandinavian psychedelic goodness, this time from Norwegian psyche-rockers Dog Age. They’re a band undoubtedly inspired by The Beatles and Syd-era Pink Floyd (nothing wrong with that, of course) but on their second album, SIGH NO MORE, released 1991, there’s an air of resigned melancholy, as exemplified by this track, Half Baked, that I feel quite drawn to.

THE FLAMING LIPS     LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS

The single that everyone was talking about, featuring Miley Cyrus and Moby. Miley Cyrus doesn’t distract from the song half as much as you’d imagine, imbuing it instead with a detached iciness that counters the acid-burn out of the rest of the album. Not entirely sure what Moby added to the track, though.

GHOST OF A SABER TOOTH TIGER     MOTH TO A FLAME

A loopy tripped-out extended epic from Sean Lennon and partner Charlotte Kemp Muhl to close their wondrous album MIDNIGHT SUN. Rather than escaping the landscape of Strawberry Fields, the album skips through its marmalade meadows and plays beneath its kaleidoscopic skies producing one of the richest psychedelic treats of the year.

CAN     FUTURE DAYS

FUTURE DAYS, released 1973, finishes the run of Can’s classic albums and is the last to feature Damo Susuki on vocals. It’s a largely ambient affair and fairly divides the critics – some seeing it as a fully realised vision of the band’s trip, while others, like Julian Cope, saw it as a schizophrenic stalemate. It’s hard to deny, however, that the title track, which opens the album, is one of the band’s most wistful, epic and exquisitely beautiful songs.

GRUMBLING FURS     NEIL MEGSON FANCLUB

Another little tripped out noodle that barely lasts 40 seconds or so but which contains all that is lovely and weird. This is the opening few moments from the Grumbling Furs third album PRETERNATURALS – the critics appear to be raving about it, but I can’t help thinking that this is the best thing on it. Inasmuch as I know about these things, the Neil Megson in question is either a retired U.S. soccer midfielder who currently coaches youth soccer, or Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV front man and all round singer-songwriter, musician poet and occultist Genesis P-Orridge who was born Neil Megson in 1950. You decide.

CLIFF EDWARDS WITH THE DISNEY STUDIO CHORUS     WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR

The American singer and voice actor, known as Ukulele Ike, is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket from Disney’s 1940 Pinocchio, of course. Sometimes it seems that Mind De-Coder is all about wishing on a star, so it was a good track to end on.

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