After the apparent flippancy of Dire Straits, I attempt to recover my tattered credibility with this remarkable record. (Gotta say, no apologies needed for Romeo and Juliet ….)
An accidental recording. Basinski editing his disintegrating recordings on the morning of 9/11 is overtaken by events.
Personally, I struggle to erase the images of that day. Too troubling to think of the last moments on American Airlines 11 or United Airlines Flight 175. The footage of The Falling Man is too much to bear. This music just helps somehow. A bit.
Basinski’s results are remarkable, Brian Eno, John Cage, Philip Glass-esque minamilist perfection. A wonderful record. Details here.
It’s been weeks since I’ve had the indulgence to post a spot of minimalist dub techno from the 1990s. But, it’s Friday night, and other than catching up on the new edition of The Economist, there is little to do ….
Fluxion released two wonderful (and pretty rare …!) LPs on the enigmatic Chain Reaction record label out of Germany. An offshoot of the seminal Basic Channel stable, Chain Reaction only released 11 albums and every one of them is superb (I’m a trainspotting completist obviously).
“Fovea Centralis” is typical of the Vibrant Forms LP and Basic Channel/Chain Reaction in general. For similar stuff, check earlier post here by the peerless Maurizio.
Part of the greatest double A sided single of all time?
“The Model” on one side and “Computer Love” on the other.
The mechanistic vocals are the perfect complement to a sublime melody. The whole song is perfect, but, from 3:20 onwards, when the additional rhythm kicks in, this track takes to the stratosphere and never returns.
One of the greatest records of all time. 7+ minutes of pop perfection.
Perfect post for a Sunday morning following a great party last night that involved the classic combination of Cluedo, croquet and table tennis ….. (try and explain that to the young people of today).
We left while others were still looking for the Reverend Green who fell off the board and is somewhere in the garden with the lead piping.
The Kieran Hebden (previously of Fridge) led Four Tet have stuck to a brand of electronica that has always appealed even if it has never quite hit the heights of, say, Aphex Twin. But this track gets pretty close.
I’d been holding off posting this for a while but a very good old friend pointed out that the time was nigh!
In recent years (2008), this track underpinned a remarkable documentary on 21st century life in Wales (“Sleep Furiously”). A really poignant film but not in the class of some of the high points of the 20th Century British documentary movement (check here and here, for a couple of examples)
Aphex Twin has dozens of tracks worthy of future inclusion on this blog, but why not start here?
I’ve loved this record since first hearing it on John Peel and then on the wonderful double LP “Drukqs” released on Warp Records in 2001. Hearing my kids play it on our piano merely confirmed the perfection.
Ok, I need to take a few deep breaths and step back from the temptation of The Smiths abyss ….. without a touch of discipline, this evening might have descended into some nightmarish, maudlin, navel gazing, weepfest bringing in prime time New Order and, conceivably, ending up in some Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet” flavoured gutter.
Err, hang on, that doesn’t sound so bad …..
Fortunately, Bestmusicofalltime is made of sterner stuff.
So, leap forward 20 years to some classic German Deep House. A fantastic track whose provenance is surely located in Marshall Jefferson and the classic deep house sounds that emerged from Chicago after the initial blast of Trax Records/DJ International heaven in the late 80s/early 90s.
Many artistes have tried to capture this sound, this track succeeds more than most …. Hey, a song from the last decade, the “kids” will just love it!
Those pretentious, bombastic lyrics; the ruffs; the spectacle; and that echoey drum sound probably invented by Martin Hannett for Joy Division’s classic “Closer” LP (and then abused by every two bit producer for the next decade).
Stumbled upon this on the iPod and thought it deserved an outing.
Really takes me back to my time in Manchester in the mid 1980s. Sure we loved The Smiths and New Order, literally worshipped at the shrine of Joy Division and were always willing to check out underestimated genius like The Chameleons. But, we have to remember, there still was Top of the Pops and Smash Hits!, etc. And this was one of the best pop records of the decade.
We will all have our views on Malcolm McLaren. The scheming svengali managing the New York Dolls and then, brilliantly, the Sex Pistols. The chaos of The Great Rock and Roll Swindle and then bringing South African township jive and electro into the UK mainsteam (“Double Dutch” and “Buffalo Gals” anyone?)
All great stuff with many examples to come in future posts. But, why not start here with a wonderful fusion of early electronica and, ahem, opera … even as you read it, a no brainer winning combination .. what could possibly go wrong?
So far, I’ve not really posted enough electronica or stuff from this century.
Sure, I’ve posted the odd Detroit techno classic (here, for example) and also nodded to a couple of the classics from the Basic Channel/Chain Reaction stable (here) but I’m going to have to do a lot more – Aphex Twin, Black Dog, Bochum Welt, Underground Resistance, etc are all going to need to make an appearance.
In the long and distinguished history of electronica, Hot Chip may seem doomed to be something of a shortlived footnote. Having said that, this is a brilliant record (apart, that is, from the pointless indulgence between 3:34 and 4:04 which is the musical equivalent of adding a tattoo to the Mona Lisa) – feel free to skip that bit ….
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