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Thoughts etc

TOTW: Scott Walker_ Best of Both Worlds

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Scott Walker has had a log and evolving career. Starting with a more standard popular music fair with dark tinges, which over multiple releases slowly seeped their way into experimental dominance on his works over the past three decades. For record listeners who enjoy hearing an artist develop, there are few out there that have developed so extremely as Scott Walker and yet still have a mood that resonates throughout their entire catalogue of work.

Best of Both worlds goes back the late 60’s and the beginning stages of His solo career. His iconic vocals haunt almost any instrumentation he sings over. It’s this sinister edge added to the orchestral accompaniment that really elevates the lyrics and the track as a whole to a level other versions of the song from different vocalists can’t achieve.

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TOTW: Oh Sees_ Jettisoned

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Orc is the latest album from the prolific band Oh Sees who have released thirteen albums over the past nine years. Although on my radar over the past few albums due to highly positive reviews. I haven’t really given them the chance they deserve until now.

Orc manages to blend many different areas of rock music with a garage rock aesthetic and with it comes an album full of vigor. It works better as an album as tracks complement each other well blending the harsh and smooth to great effect. So choosing a single song is a little hard and I recommend you give the whole thing a listen however I need to pick one track for the week and that will go to Jettisoned as it manages demonstrate a nice blend of their different influences:

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Charles Bradley- Victim Of Love

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Charles Bradley- Victim Of Love

Last week we lost the incredible voice of Charles Bradley who passed away from cancer. He didn’t rise to success until later in life, working as a handyman and even living homeless before his music finally got recognition. Like all great singers he can pull from this experience and add a weight to his delivery which goes further than the lyrics themselves.

Victim Of Love is a great example the qualities unique to Charles Bradley. The power and pain that come from his vocals make this track more than the sum of its parts. It’s a skill that will be sorely missed:

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TOTW: Nina Simone_ Who Knows Where the Time Goes

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Originally an English Folk song written by Sandy Denny, Who Knows Where the Time Goes has been covered by many artists and always manages to entice with its wistful lyrics and interesting chord progressions.

On this cover Nina Simone manages to portray the longing of the lyrics which is only enhanced by an instrumental accompaniment that gives plenty of breathing room. The track is also a live recording which creates an intimacy and seance of place that makes it even more compelling.

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TOTW: Marvin Gaye- Funk me

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Listening to Soul, Funk and Disco music has been fun over the past month and helped me raise my awareness to old classics that I’d either never heard or forgotten. It also made me aware that I hadn’t put one of my favorite tracks on my Track Of The Week playlist yet. Funk me may be less well known than some other tracks by Marvin Gaye but it has one of my favorite bass lines ever recorded which manages to be both technically complex and catchy from first listen.

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TOTW: Squeeze- Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

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I simply love this track, The punk influence is clear as the track crashes straight into its opening and continues to keep busy in its arrangement instrumentation and composition to create a song that’s constantly shifting and staying vibrant throughout its four minute playing time and stays that way on repeat listens:

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TOTW: Oneohtrix Point Never- Leaving The Park

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I always look forward to a New Oneohtrix Point Never Release. Danial Lopatin under the OPN pseudonym has always pushed electronic music in unique and exiting directions.

On his new project this sound has been reigned in somewhat due to its purpose as the score for the feature film Good Time. This results in his most accessible work to date for the general listener and a perfect place to start for anyone new to his sound.

Leaving the park features looping arpeggiated synthesis that interweaves with other electronic sounds that vary from the wistful to the sinister. Creating a style reminiscent of the music of John Carpenter whilst also keeping the soundscapes and sound design found in other works by OPN:

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TOTW: DJ Shadow- This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)

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Over the Past few weeks I have listened to a lot of music fitting into the funk and soul genre as I gather a collection together to DJ and I came back to this lesser known gem by DJ shadow.

His work has always sampled music from the history of soul and funk and chopped them up into strong beats and iconic melodies but on this track he decides to return to the very origin of the works creating a modern soul classic with the history of the genre at the forefront but mixed with the modern production techniques that weren’t available at the time to create something that fits into both worlds.

The result is something quite special. A track that seems to come from a parallel universe where soul music stayed close to its routes and in that way it manages to work well in both a modern and old DJ set and can even provide bridge between the two.

Give it a listen below:

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TOTW: Glen Campbell- Wichita Lineman

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Glen Campbell passed away this week after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for the last few years. He leaves behind a collection of brilliant country songs and one of my favorite tracks of all time Wichita Lineman.

There are songs that resonate with you at particular points in your life and in the future bring those memories back with vivid detail, Wichita Lineman is a perfect example. One perfect moment where it correlated with me traveling back from visiting Glamorgan university for a taster day when I was 18 years old. My mini disc player had run out of batteries and so I plugged my headphones into the virgin trains seat and on comes Wichata Lineman to accompany me as the train wound its way over the lush greenery of South Wales on a clear day as the sun hung low in the sky.

Listening back to this song takes me to this place and time in my life. A moment when everything was ahead of me. Multiple paths leading to the horizon with both the luxury and fear of the choice to pick which one to walk down. At that moment alone on the train with a Whichita Lineman playing in my ears I came to the realisation that things were changing, I was growing up and yet it was all going to be all right. Feelings I will always associate with this song for the rest of my life and with that Glen Campbell will stay with me long after his passing. A true representation as to the power of music at its best.

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TOTW: Hans Zimmer_Submarine

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Hans Zimmer has been at the forefront of modern film composition for over 10 years now especially in his collaborations with director Christoper Nolan. He has managed to set many trends that have permeated through all of western cinema which has made him somewhat a divisive figure in circles of film composition. Personally I feel that his work does what great film scores should do and that’s to enhance the cinema experience, beefing up the emotions shown on screen subliminally. what he can lack in melody he more than makes up for in sound design and composition.

On Nolans newest film Dunkirk we’re treated to a relentless barrage of stress and tension as the fear of death lies heavily on the entirety of the film and the score does a fantastic job of complimenting these emotions. Although the whole score is worth a listen, Submarine manages to exemplify the ideas for the whole score succinctly.

A recording of a ticking clock provides the backbone of the tracks which is enhanced by the orchestra and synthesizers to create a feeling of dread. Add to that the compositional technique called the Sheppard tone which gives the impression of a continuous escalating pitch your left with a discomfort that perfectly suits the film:

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