9 posts tagged “music”
Andy's finally got around to putting the work of a dozen years of "mildly frustrated but entertaining knob twiddling" on Last.fm - check them out if you're a fan of electrosmooshy dance/trance/random goodness.
In true "Mr. Organised, King of Spreadsheets, He Before Whom Messy And/Or Chaotic Data Quakes" style, he's organised them into four albums complete with digital artwork, and yes, that is yours truly with the artist on the cover of Bandycoot Beats. Trés cool.
I get into these moods sometimes, and sometimes I will know without a doubt that a certain song completely embodies the emotions of that mood. When that happens, I take steps to luxuriate in that song, and that song alone. I put it on repeat and just let it wash over and around me until I feel immersed, until I'm saturated by it. It gives me a sense of complete freedom, to just give myself over to this one collection of harmonies, melodies, lyrical content, and to experience it over and over again. Each listen is slightly different, influenced by the one that came before. If I liken it to traversing the length of an emotional journey, each listen is a footstep along the way. When I am satisfied, when I have reached journey's end, I sit in silence.
It probably wreaks havoc with my Last.fm stats. ;-)
Dang, I meant to write about this aaages ago to give people time to decide whether or not they wanted to come along. Then I got ill and stayed that way for weeks, and all plans went down the drain. :-p
I've lived under a rock for the past while, so I only discovered today that The Organ has disbanded.
In Memoriam, my favourite song of theirs:
I love Late Junction. Quite surprisingly, they played Gert Vlok Nel t'other day (erm, t'other day, like, a few months ago)... specifically Hillside Lullaby, taken from the album Beaufort-Wes se Beautiful Woorde.
It's the first time in all the time I've been listening to the show that I've heard South African music on it... I wonder if Nel's considered especially good, or if he just has a canny publicist.
Everyone really likes the José González version of the song Heartbeats, used on the Sony bouncing balls advert. (See how effective that was Sony? I can't even remember what you were trying to sell me.) And yes, it's nice and gentle and everything, but really, compared to the original, it's a limp fish. The original, you ask? Truly, not enough people know the genius of The Knife, that rather strange Swedish brother-sister duo who first released Heartbeats on their album Deep Cuts in 2003. Their version kicks ass, and I present it here for your audio edification.
What's your musical horoscope? (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) Inspired by Stephanie.
- The Dhammapada Chapters 5-8, Zencasts
- It's Only A Reprise, Herbert, Bodily Functions
- Love in War, Outkast, Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (disc 2)
- Drinking in L.A., Bran Van 3000, Glee
- Broccoli, Slag Boom Van Loon, Slag Boon Van Loon
- Love Her Madly, The Doors, L.A. Woman / Waiting for the Sun
- China (follow the red brick road), Banco de Gaia, Last Train to Lhasa (CD Three)
- Chocolate Charms, Clint Mansell, Requiem for A Dream (feat. Kronos Quartet)
- I Don't Know You People, Orbital, The Middle of Nowhere
- All These Things That I've Done, The Killers, Hot Fuss
I listened to the five (count them, five!) Frou Frou tracks I have on the way in to work this morning, really listened, and at the end, I wondered what had taken me so long. I first came across them through the Garden State soundtrack, and these five tracks have been sitting in my iTunes since then, unheard.
You may or may not know that Frou Frou (what a fabulous name!) does an ultracool version of that awful 80s power ballad, Holding Out For A Hero, which was used on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Their treatment of it redeems the song completely, IMO; it's edgy and desperate while still retaining a low-frequency sense of humour.
I particularly love the way the singer's voice swings from full-throated to barely whispering, with almost no in-between. If I knew more about music and singing, no doubt, I would know a more technically accurate way of describing what I mean. ;-)
Hear it here:
What song or lyrics are stuck in your head at the moment? What album is it from?
Submitted by Lox Ly.
"You're out on the streets looking good, and baby,
Deep down in your heart I guess you know that it ain't right"
From Piece of My Heart by Janis Joplin, not sure of the album it first appeared on.
