TOTW: The Prodigy_ Omen

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Last week we had another passing of a highly influential musician.
Keith Flint provided the vocals on some of the Prodigy’s biggest tracks. His snarling aggressive sound complemented instrumentals with the same values.

Their aggressive sound was a key influence bringing dance music to a larger audience, providing a bridge between rave culture and rock music. It’s a sound that is still a key factor of dance music to this day.

“Omen” demonstrates their sound and Keith’s vocals at their best:

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TOTW_ Talk Talk_”Spirit Of Eden”

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It was sad news to hear of the passing of Mark Hollis this Monday. What surprised me was the outpouring of dedications that came on my social media feeds for the work of an artist/band that fell out of favor, even in their prime.

But I shouldn’t have been surprised, My feeds are full of artists and especially musicians. Their dedications didn’t highlight tracks from Talk Talk’s most financially successful work but from what Wikipedia dismissively terms as their “experimental period”.

It was a period I unfortunately knew little about until a few years ago. Their now classic albums “Spirit Of Eden” and “Laughing Stock” came out when i was 1 and 3 years old respectively. For many years, the only thing I really knew about Talk Talk was their song “It’s My Life”, and I didn’t even know they’d recorded it. It was denigrated to a highlight on a best of the 80’s compilation CD.

That all changed when talking to fellow music producers about what albums they think are the best produced and hearing “Spirit Of Eden” come up several times. To have never heard about an album that was in such high esteem from my peers certainly intrigued me. I gave it a listen and I was blown away.

I often worry about missing out on great music. Just how many acts of sheer brilliance have been buried under other musical mediocrity? “Spirit Of Eden” proved that my fears are justified. That you can easily miss some of the greatest work ever made, even if you are trying to pay attention.

“Spirit Of Eden” is a masterpiece in production and mixing. Released at the end of the 80’s it stripped back on the synthesis of Talk Talks early work and relied more on traditional instrumentation, which is recorded to highlight its best qualities and treated to fit the album.

The album creates a strong mood by focusing on a wide dynamic range and creating lots of space in the composition. It goes against the grain of pop music in the 80’s; traits that have continued to consume the industry to this day.

Plenty of people have written better more detailed essays on the creation of “Spirit Of Eden,” so I won’t go further into it except to say that Talk Talk were dedicated to creating their art, even if it cost them some commercial success. Veering off from the pop music du jour resulted in them loosing favor with the industry, but this didn’t stop them continuing to follow their artistic drives with aplomb on their final album “Laughing Stock”.

Now, the music that didn’t fit into the time has become timeless. The care and attention to the work shows through to this day and I think it’s the key reason many musicians and producers have affection for these two albums and Mark Hollis.

As an amateur artist, thoughts on what you would do if you reached a level of success are always there. Would you cater your work to your audience or make the work purely from your own point of view? Successful musicians have fallen all over this spectrum. Some manage to create music that both fulfills their artistic aims and their fans needs, Others sacrifice their own artistic aims for greater success. Mark Hollis did the harder and rarer option, He followed his own vision at the expense of his success within the industry and did it after proving that he had the ability to make what was de rigueur at the time.

Mark Hollis dedicated himself to his principles and in turn created some massively underappreciated gems that are proving their quality with the test of time. For that he should be respected and remembered not as just a musician, singer and composer but as a true artist.  

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TOTW: Nujabes_Kumomi

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Each year, on the week of his death, I commemorate hip hop producer Nujabes because he still holds a strong place in my heart and record collection.

When I first heard his music on the show Samurai Champloo, I loved his Jazzy style of hip-hop and wanted to know more. So, I scoured the internet for the limited and poor quality rips of his music at the time. Finally I came across his first album “metaphorical music” in full.

Even in the poor quality MP3 state I managed to fall in love with it to the extent that I had to own the record. At this point, his second album “modal soul” had come out, so I imported them at an astronomically high price (at the time each record cost me nearly 2 days wages of my poor student job).

With a large cost, and nearly a month’s worth of waiting for shipping, my anticipation of the records had peaked dangerously high. Although I’d heard a poor quality version of “metaphorical music”, “modal soul” was completely new to me, and I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to the first record, or the price I’d paid to import it.

Thankfully I wasn’t dissapointed, Both records were above and beyond my expectations. They were played in rotation throughout my entire summer and became for months the soundtrack to my life. I couldn’t believe music this good was so unknown. Part of me cherished the fact that I had something so special all to myself. I was listening to music that nobody else was. The other part of me wanted to change that. I became a spokesman for the records, playing them to anyone who would listen.

Over time it became clear that I wasn’t the only one. At the beginning, the internet was baron of Nujabes info from non Japanese sites. But this started to change as more people heard his music. A fanbase grew in a natural way, and the more it grew, the more proud I was of this fantastic artist.

It hit me hard in 2010 to hear of his sudden death. There was still so much potential that had been snuffed out before it had time to develop. I felt like the world was robbed, not only of new and beautiful music, but also the chance for that music to influence more musicians and artists to continue his brilliant legacy.

Fans of his music have continued to carry the banner for Nujabes. There’s something about their fanaticism that makes it so special. He has always felt like a bit of an outcast. In the early days we used to argue with HipHop fans who wouldn’t give him the time of day because he was Japanese and not American. His particular style of HipHop and Jazz has fallen in and out of fashion, but one thing that has always stood the test of time is truly great music.

And that seems to be the case with Nujabes. Now that his catalog is available on streaming and has been added to playlists, more and more people are becoming aware of an artist who managed to blend his own style out of jazz samples to create music that is timeless. Although dead, he lives on through the many old and new fans that continue to listen to his music over a decade later.

With little to no promotion his fanbase continues to grow because of his raw brilliant talent. The music speaks for itself, and it’s time to let it do the talking. Rest In Peace Jun Seba, you’re sorely missed:

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Totw: Ash_Sometimes

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When I was getting into music, outside of my parents record collection,”Ash” were one of the first bands to catch my interest.Their ability to create really good pop/rock music during its heyday was down to great melodies and the really catchy guitar solos provided by Charlotte Hatherley.

“Sometimes” is one of my many favorites from their back catalog. The guitar tone on the solo is phenomenal and oozes raw emotion, elevating an already good track into a classic that I still enjoy all these years later.

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TOTW: M83- Echos of Mine

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The French have an ability to make music that is so ostentatious it would be considered pretentious from other nations, but they can pull it off with credibility, and even a coolness.

M83 makes no exception. The music he creates wears its emotions on its sleeve. Open in a childish whimsical way that is very hard to achieve without sounding too saccharin, Yet its’s achieved on all their albums to great success.

For me M83’s best work is still on the double album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”. It perfected the sound that was developed through the previous albums with better production, which exaggerates the complex shimmering walls of sound M83 can create. This is exemplified on the track “Echos of Mine” where you are immersed in a wash vocal/synth pads, colliding guitar and drums that are so huge it is almost overpowering.

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TOTW: MGMT_ Of Moons Birds & Monsters

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MGMT’s First album “Oracular Spectacular” is a weird and wonderful piece of work. On its incredibly catchy first half songs like “Kids” and “Electric Feel” blended psychedelic styles with a strong pop direction bringing many people to the record.

The records second half gets a little looser and spacey. The Influences that become prevalent in future MGMT releases start to show through a little more. But they don’t loose all of their pop sensibilities or play times. It’s in this space that one of my favorite tracks comes forth.

Of Moons Birds & Monsters mixes vocal verses with psychedelic space rock instrumentals, building to the halfway point that breaks into the guitar hook which gets me every time. Dave Friedmann produced this record and his unique ability to elevate lo-fi/garage rock elements into massive walls of sound shines through. It creates a soundscape that I have loved since the first time I heard it.

It’s a track that has stuck with me. It’s been there to pick me up in low moments and elevated the good to new heights. Of Moons Birds & Monsters pushes into territories outside of poplar music further that other tracks on this album but it reigns it in. It takes a track that could easily sprawl out into a self indulgent monster and confines it into a short and sweet playtime that keeps you coming back for more.

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TOTW: The Antlers_Two

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This year, on it’s 10th anniversary The Antlers are re-issuing their album “hospice” and backing it up with a tour.

Hospice is a fantastic record that still deserves peoples attention. Its a bleak concept album focusing on a relationship between two people, one struggling with with bone cancer. The album manages to represent and keep this concept in its lyrics, music and production throughout its entire playtime which is no mean feat.

it also makes it an easy record to get lost in and in turn a hard one to pick an individual track from. “Two” comes at the beginning of the final 3rd of the album and it still sticks in my head many hears later. Although a quieter point of the album it’s an emotional crescendo that concludes the relationship between the two characters. The lyrics take you as a listener between the anguish of the current events in the verses and a montage of life events between the couple. Towards the end of the track the past and present blend together for the final verse brilliantly reflecting the protagonists thought process In a time of trauma.

All elements of the track reflect the feelings of the character so well that it can be a hard listen but a worthwhile one none the less. If you haven’t give Hospice a listen and if you have it’s 10th anniversary is a perfect time to revisit a modern classic.

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TOTW: Tim Hecker- In Mother Earth Phase

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Tim Hecker has always had a strong focus on sound design in his works, with instrumentation characteristically heard in non traditional ways. On his album “Konoyo” he took this one step further by predominantly using instruments from the traditional Japanese form “Gagaku.”

Recording and processing these instruments in his usual way, Tim Hecker has added another level of abstraction for the western listener; you can hear the echoes of something organic, but with processing it has become a shadow of its former self. This hints at memories and emotions in the listener, without ever directly confronting them.

Although each track on “Knoyo” pulls different emotions I decided to pick “In Mother Earth Phase” as for me its the most positive track on the album. Instrumentation drifts in and out of the piece and sounds almost like an alternate orchestra tuning up. These sounds create a strong otherworldly mood, enveloping attentive listeners in a audio quilt of unique sound design and interesting instrumentation:

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TOTW: Skee Mask_Soundboy ext.

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“Compro” made my album of the year list in 2018 by being greater then the sum of its parts. The album feels like a DJ set. It flows through a collection of different genres of dance music, with Skee Mask’s stripped down sound of Icy pads and complex drum patterns.

On “Soundboy ext.” Skee Mask applies his style to Drum And Bass, with the break being filtered and chopped to within an inch of its life. It is filterd to make it mostly snare and hi-hat, allowing a massive sub bass line to dominate the low end. It gives the track a feeling of building tension throughout, which is partially relieved at the halfway point when the drums are allowed more of the frequency range to dominate the track for a few bars.

For the last minute the drums fade away leaving an ambient soundscape, which provides some respite before the next dark driving track “Dial 247” kicks in.

“Soundboy ext.” is a great track on the album and in its own right and demonstrates the qualities of a rising star in the electronic music world:

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TOTW: Burial_Raver

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The beginning of the year is always a time for musical reflection for me. After spending the last three months heavily listening to new albums for consideration on my albums of the year list, its good to go back to some of my favorite works and clear the mind. Classics that remain just as great today as when they were created.

Untrue by Burial is one of those classic albums. On it, William Emmanuel Bevan takes iconic dance music genres and tackles them with such a clarity of vision that in the process he seems to create an entirely new sonic landscape.

Electronic and sampled drumbeats shuffle their way through his work; never locking to the grid of perfection, but with a natural organic swing of a real drummer. It’s this blend of the electronic and the human that make his music still so relevant. It could be the soundtrack for a robot A.I. starting to gain emotions, or a human loosing theirs to become more robotic and fit themselves into the algorithms that now seem to run what has become our external social media selves.

It is a sound that is now regularly imitated but never matched, partly because copies never have the same emotional weight as Burial achieves. On the albums final track “Raver” Burial takes some of the most iconic sounds of the 90’s dance floor, namely the string pad sounds found on so many of the classic dance anthems, and distorts them into a mirage of their former selves. “Raver” becomes a nostalgic view of a hedonistic time that the world has now become too serious to exhibit. With time, that nostalgia grows, and so does the power of this album. It’s a prophecy for things that are now coming to pass. “Untrue” is an essential listen for anyone.

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