November 2012 Playlist
T.S. Elliot suggests that April is the cruelest month, but I think the
first tendrils of winter and rapidly shortening days of November make April
seem positively gentle by comparison. So
to combat the onset of harsher, darker days a playlist of summery and seasonal
songs….
Just listen to the playlist on Spotify or enter the labyrinthine world
of Nine Feet Underground with video accompaniment, whenever actuality and possibility
are as one.
Starting off my November playlist is the hazy 2012 take on psychedelia
that is ‘You Won’t Be Missing That Part Of Me’ the second single release from
the eponymous album by Melody’s Echo Chamber.
Melody Prochet has put together
an immersive, melodic album which in songs like ‘Crystallized’ and ‘I Follow
You’ transports you to a beach on a summer’s day with warm water lapping gently
at your feet. There is a breathy warmth to
her voice which not even the effects and low vocal mix can hide. Loping beat, rippling waves of synth and
female voice tinged with a French accent - here’s the video…
By contrast Sharon Van Etten has a melancholic sound more in tune with
the season – ‘Give Out’ is from her album Tramp
which has been a slow burning grower from 2012. A sparse sound – drums and
guitar alone - which only heightens the focus on her voice and words.
‘Dorothy’ opens with a summery guitar sound sliding effortlessly into a
laid back groove with a spacey feel and stop-start surprises. Syd Arthur – for
it is they – who wrote and played this engaging song – have been saddled with
the mantle “the new Canterbury Sound”. The band have made no secret of their
love of the music from the heyday of the Canterbury scene, nowhere more
apparent than on ‘Paradise Lost’ from their album On and On, a song that seems to channel something of the first part
of ‘Be Alright/Chance of A Lifetime’ grafted onto part of ‘A Hunting We Shall
Go’ both from Caravan’s excellent album For
Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night. I
look forward to Syd Arthur’s next album.
Next up is ‘Electric’ by Teen. Not sure I like the video much – but
then I find more often than not that videos detract from, rather than add to a
song. There some nice rhythmic interplay
between the singing and the beats. Nice!
There are so many songs from Richard Hawley’s excellent album Standing At The Sky’s Edge that I could
have chosen, but when I put the playlist together ‘Don’t Stare At The Sun’
seemed to fit best. The album version is on the Spotify playlist but the video is
a performance of the song from ‘Later…with Jools Holland’. Those who claim to
know say it’s his psychedelic album, so that nicely fits with an emergent
November theme.
I’d never heard of Woodpecker Wooliams until I listened to the Uncut magazine cover mount CD from the
October 2012 edition. Liked the track
and the album – it was certainly different…here’s a live performance at a
bandstand in Nottingham:
What can I say? Todd Rundgren performing ‘Real Man’ on the Nearly Human album tour - a personal
favourite from his mid-seventies songs.
This is taken from the excellent Esoteric Recordings album Live At The Warfield - 10th March
1990 a double-CD expanded release which is part of their ‘Todd Rundgren
Archive Series’. The album’s well worth
a listen as it contains excellent live performances of most of the tracks from Nearly Human (though sadly not
‘Fidelity’) along with a bunch of favourites and a Marvin Gaye medley. I can’t
wait to see what Esoteric’s Todd Rundgren Archive Series releases in 2013.
Seemingly Tame Impala were everywhere in the latter half of 2012 and –
unusually – deservedly so. Kevin Parker
released his debut album, Innerspeaker,
as Tame Impala in 2010 and since its release has been holed up in his studio
creating and crafting the songs that form 2012’s poll-topping release Lonerism. A psychedelic soup of guitars,
keyboards and vocals it’s a sound that both looks back to the hey-day of the
brain-frazzling wig-out and forwards with its closed ProTools sound. Music To Walk Home By epitomizes this,
as well as having a cool title…takes me back….
I love Bo Ningen. They have hair. Lots of it. They have guitars that
shriek, feedback and sound like sheet metal being ripped apart. They sing in Japanese. Their motorik rhythms
are relentless. Chitei Ningen Mogura is one of the best tracks from 2012’s album Line The Wall.
This video is not of the playlist song, but the opening 1-2 minutes
(though the whole track is worth a listen) speak for themselves. My words
cannot do this justice.
The name Sun Kil Moon suggests a doom metal band. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
Lower Dens make compelling electronica without resorting to this year’s
default 80’s grave digging. Brains is
from their album Nootropics. Like the song, not so sure about the video...didn’t
someone once write a song about that?
Pond includes members of Tame Impala’s touring band. Elegant
Design is a favourite of mine from their wonderfully named album Beards Wives Denim. You’d almost have to
buy an album with that title, whatever the music was like. Thankfully it’s at
least as good as the album title.
Comments
Post a Comment