TOTW: The Beatles_ I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

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It’s not hard to be a fan of The Beatles. I grew up with their songs so they are engrained in my subconscious to the point that being analytical about any of their work is almost impossible.

Over time, one thing that has become more obvious to me is just how incredible and eclectic their output was. They have influenced almost every genre of music since, which goes to show just how versatile their records were. Add to that the short seven year window that they released records in and it deserves nothing but respect.

It’s a feat that will probably never happen again because they capitalised on a massive cultural and technological change during that seven year window. They didn’t rest on their success but used it, with the help of George Martin, to experiment. They pushed the boundaries of popular music into areas it had never been before, and in turn opened the door for others to do the same.

Abbey Road came towards the end of the group recording together and marks some of their finest work, ending with a masterful collage of musical fragments that results in one of the best b-sides of all time. Before that, at the end of side one comes I Want You (She’s So Heavy); a mix of prog and heavy rock that has one of my favorite blues riffs. It’s loud, brash and addictively listenable, which is a good thing as it repeats over and over again until the track’s famous hard cut to finish. It leaves the listener in a state of bewilderment and unease; a perfect place to be in to get the full force of the joyous “here comes the sun” once you turn the disk over.

I Want you is a sound that most bands make a career out of. For The Beatles it was just another string to their bow. For me, it is also proof of their abilities, and an indication that if you only know them from a handful of singles its time to go through their entire catalog and see what you are missing.

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TOTW: 65daysofstatic_Radio Protector

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Since it’s recent update I have been playing No Mans Sky and this got me thinking about its music and its creators “65daysofstatic”. Their blend of rock and electronic has always excited me since I first herd this song.

Radio protector exemplifies what the band do well fitting a math rock/post rock sound with electronic sampling virtuosity:

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TOTW: The Niel Cowley Trio_Scaredy Cat

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The Niel Cowley Trio started as a traditional three piece Jazz band before they added greater emphasis on sound design in more recent music.

What originally enticed me to their work was a blend of the traditional, with an interest in keeping the melody catchy and recognisable even in its iteration during repetition. This leads to a sound that grows on you quickly and stays with you on repeat listens.

Scaredy Cat starts with a wash of arpeggios which interchange with a more rigid and melody focused second section. As the main melody iterates on every repeat it gains complexity until it becomes as fast and fluid as the arpeggio section. Its this balance between the atmospheric and static that makes the piece shine.

This more accessible Jazz is a great place to start for people who aren’t yet fans of the genre without loosing what I like the most about it. A natural sound of musicians playing together in the same room, bouncing ideas of each other and creating something exiting.

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TOTW: Ulver-Eos

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Ulver have created some brilliant albums over their twenty five year career but “Shadows of the Sun” is something truly special.

Starting as a black metal band, Ulver have slowly changed their sound, adding more classical instrumentation and electronics whilst keeping their dark aesthetic. This experimental mix of instrumentation works incredibly well on Shadows Of The Sun. Classical string instruments created hundreds of years ago sit side by side with white noise and synthesis harmoniously.

The mood the album creates is at times all consuming. Eos opens the album and takes you into infinity. It manages to be the soundtrack to the unknown, The feeling you get when you look up at a clear night sky and realise just how lucky and yet insignificant you are in this beautifully complex universe.

For me this song is transformative. I was once driving along Lake Conniston in the Lake District on a winters night. Thick fog hung low and I had little visibility as the road wound up and down along the lake. Suddenly, as I climbed up the crest of a hill, the fog cleared and I was welcomed to a crisp cloudless night with a sky full of stars. At this moment my Ipod on shuffle loaded up this song to accompany my car as it dipped between these two worlds. Every time I hear it it takes me back to that magical moment. An event that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Without my experience, Eos would be a great track, but with it, its a seminal one.

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TOTW: Kids See Ghosts- Feel The Love

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Kanye West is becoming more well known for his social media presence and personal life then his music at this point. It sometimes feels like he builds up controversy before a release to see how deep a hole he can dig himself out of. A challenge to see just how much people will forgive him due to his talent as a rapper and producer.

It’s a raw and unbridled talent that keeps his productions unique. A single vision that although influenced by other things always carves its own path regardless of whats currently in or out of fashion. Kanye always feels like he wants to set the trend rather than follow it.

The single minded arrogance that makes Kanye such a polarising figure is also the reason for his success as an artist. It enables him to take risks in mainstream music that others couldn’t. Feel The Love is another example of him pushing a genre in an experimental direction with help for Pusha-T and Kid Cudi. The aggressive vocal delivery emulating drums is a bold choice but it pays off creating a fresh sound in a well trodden genre.

TOTW: Three Lions (footballs coming home)

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The World Cup has been going for a few weeks now and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. Almost every match has been hugely entertaining no matter which teams playing and that’s a good thing as my job entails that I see most of them.

Three Lions is a song that comes back into the public consciousness at every international football tournament that England play. Although it is a football song with a chantable chorus, like many of its ilk, the one thing that cements it’s success is the lyrics. Written by David Baddil and Frank Skinner, they tell the story of an England fan. Rather than an overly optimistic view of winning, it portrays the Hope that a supporter has for their team winning, even through all their failures.

This slight twist on what would normally be a regular football song elevates it above the others. It becomes a song just as much about fanaticism as it is about football. It’s a feeling most people can relate to. Sticking through the good and the bad of something because of raw passion, a belief that can’t be explained rationally because it exists emotionally.

Its a song that was written not for a football team but for the fans by fans. It is accompanied by the music of The Lighting Seeds’ Ian Broudie, whose pop sensibility is proven in his own work and the producer for several bands.

Although created for the 1996 European Championships, this song has stood the test of time, becoming England’s unofficial national anthem, to be sung for many years to come.

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TOTW: DJ Shadow_Mutual Slump

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DJ Shadow was a pioneer from the beginning of his career. His ability to blend a vast collection of samples from different genre and force them into a Hip hop groove both created the genre name Trip Hop and demonstrated his prowess with an AKAI sampler.

His debut album “Endtroducing…” is recognised by the Guinness book of world records as the first completely sampled album. It showed that sampling was just as much an art form as playing an instrument itself. The album works so well because of its ability to demonstrate a versatility in its sounds, without loosing an overall aesthetic.

It can be seen as a love letter to listening to music. It takes a keen ear and a fanatic interest to listen to thousands of tracks and find the samples used in this record. And an artistic sensibility to find the connections between those tracks and curate them.

Mutual Slump is dominated by a massive open drum sound that is chopped and looped to give it a natural swing for the other more ambient textures to bed into. Leaving the track with a dark dreamlike quality that is representative for the rest of the album.

If you want more from DJ shadow (apart from the rest of his catalog). It’s worth watching this Boiler Room DJ set which demonstrates his incredible ability as a Vinyl DJ. Mixing a collection of music with large changes in tempo, key and instrumentation with ease. A calling card for just how great a talent he possesses, something unfortunately rare in a lot of current popular DJ’s.

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TOTW: Don Mclean- Castles In the Air

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Don Mclean is most well known for his track “American Pie;” a track that is so gargantuan in success that it dwarfs the rest of his career, leading many people to know him as a one hit wonder. That’s a real shame because I think its success has subverted the acclaim he should have as one of the best lyricists to have ever lived.

His ability to tell detailed stories in his songs, and colour these with beautiful symbolic poetry, happens countless times throughout his historic catalog. His stories are vast in scope, and manage to portray emotion in such an open way that you can easily be swept into the piece, living it more than listening to it.

Although many of his tracks should be on my TOTW list, I will start with my personal favourite. I can’t quite say why I love this track so much but “Castles In The Air” has always stuck with me since hearing it when I was a child. The gentle, meandering lyrics and music give the track a dreamlike quality. Together they manage to be both a metaphor and a mood for the subject. A dreamer, restless with his world and moving into a new one, whilst holding regrets for the past. It’s done with a maturity that surpasses his age at the time of writing. An early piece from his first album that demonstrated a potential he went on to prove in his continuing career.

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TOTW: Oneohtrix Point Never_We’ll Take it

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Every release of an Oneohtrix Point Never album has left me dumbfounded. His ability to constantly vary a sound that sits on the fringes of modern music has made him one of my favorite musicians currently working.

His latest album “Age Of” is closer to pop music than any of his previous works. However, it’s mangled through a unique production and composition techniques that create a surreal and often bleak experience for the listener.

Many of the tracks contain vocals as a leading element but for this week I decided to go for an instrumental piece.

“We’ll Take it” sounds somewhere between music and machinery. Jittering percussive electronic hits provide the basis of the track as they rip their way into a cavernous spring reverb. The percussive elements may be in the front and center of the track but its the samples and synth pads that create its sinister tone. As the piece continues it undulates in different directions, defying expectations to its very conclusion.

As modern electronic music continues to push the boundaries of music, OPN leads the charge. In doing so he creates fresh and exiting music that’s always worth a listen.

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TOTW: Skee Mask_Kozmic Flush

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On latest album “Compro” electronic artist Skee Mask takes you on a Journey. Over it’s hour long playtime it morphs from an ambient, dark and brooding textures to percussion led dance music.

The track Kozmic Flush comes towards the end of the album as it’s in full swing. Percussive rhythms, reminiscent of Aphex Twins finest breaks are complex and constantly changing.

These rhythms are underpinned by cold, dark samples and synth textures covered in reverb which warm up in the breakdown before the drums plunge us back into the icy coldness for the tracks conclusion.

The album is great, The track is great and if your a fan of electronic music it deserves a listen:

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