Fu-Schnickens - Nervous Breakdown
Proper old school hip-hop from an English outfit I certainly had never heard of before. Based on YouTube views, their most popular song seems to be one called True Fuschnick which is certainly a fine piece of music, but this particular tune I've linked is my favourite from the Nervous Breakdown album. It's funky with smatterings of darkness. The first three songs on the album are a brilliant one-two-three combo of sucker punches which if you don't enjoy, you won't like the rest. If you enjoy 90s hip hop, before the shit about stabbing people, falling in love at the chippy and chasing status (and, indeed, Chase And Status) became parts of the game, then this is definitely worth a spin.
Elbow - The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a video of the song Colour Fields from this album that I could place on here (weird that...), so if you wouldn't mind skipping to that one on this video, or My Sad Captains, that'd be handy. Those are my two current favourites from this album. For the uninitiated, Elbow are proof that there is still plenty of good music around nowadays, can't stand it when people say all music is shit these days. Nonsense. There's always been shit music, since the very dawn of time. It just so happens that shit music isn't remembered, so looking back on the past will always yield positive results, you bloody fool. Anyway the album's amazing, a true return to form (though Elbow only nearly kind of lost their footing with Build A Rocket Boys!, but not quite).
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor
Now we enter the more esoteric. This album came out in Japan in 1979...and if you know anything about anything, you'll hear right away that this is at least a decade ahead of its time. The tunes would fit perfectly in a Sonic The Hedgehog game, it's pure Japanesey electronica cheese and I happen to bloody love it. The song linked, Rydeen, is unique to me in that I can't think of any other electronic band who use animal sound effects in song. It's really quite catchy too. If you're comfortable dipping your toe in the deep end of the nerd pool, give the song Solid State Scouter, a tribute to this album, a listen. You might find the cheese of all of this a bit overwhelming though, be warned.
Disclosure - Settle
I'm massively late to the Disclosure party. Which doesn't surprise me, actually - this isn't my usual type of music at all. I have to say though, these two young lads are proper fucking good. The whole album I admit is a bit samey, but when the beats and the melodies are as infectious as these are, you don't tend to care much. Miss Aluna Francis sounds like a five year old on White Noise here, just a heads up. Seriously, release your inhibitions just long enough to enjoy this tune and you never know, Disclosure might just be a garage group for you too!
Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion
You're stepping dangerously close to crossing the hipster line with this album, so just watch your fucking self, ok? I think it's worth at least one listen, it's basically what would happen if you got The Doors and Joy Division and smooshed them about in a big band blender. The guy sounds so much like Ian Curtis it's quite uncanny. I should say it was difficult picking which song to showcase there, but I've went with Flying Into The Sun because it was my first taste of Crystal Stilts, found whilst listening to Golden Animals. If you'd prefer something much trippier, Alien Rivers is the song for you. Fucking great band name too isn't it? If a little silly.
The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
That song there be Spineless Jelly. Maybe you already have an inkling as to what kind of music FSOL produce. Well, they eventually changed their name to The Amorphous Androgynous and started making freakier and spacier shit every year. Looking back, however, they've always done the same sort of stuff. Their album here, Lifeforms, seems to be one of the high points of their career spent as FSOL. Absolutely amazing to just sit back and chill to - very ambient, trippy and soothing. Perfect for a rainy Sunday evening on the headphones.
La Femme - Psycho Tropical Berlin
One of the three very recent releases on this list (the others being Disclosure and Elbow) and by far the weirdest of them all. La Femme are a French group with seemingly infinite members, making psychedelic electronica in (mostly) their mother tongue. The vocalists are good, I particularly like the girl on this song and Antitaxi. Obviously this kind of music isn't likely to go down well at parties and may suit the arty farty batties of you better than the casual listener. As far as I know, hipsters haven't gotten a hold of this group yet, so it's still 'safe' to enjoy them. I know I do anyway.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
Now this is prog rock! I've always been a huge fan of this song here - You Know You Know. Very slow and almost menacing. I regained interest in this group after getting quite into Massive Attack's One Love, which minimalistically samples this very tune. You can surely gather that this is the kind of music for a quiet night in by the fire, probably dropping acid or something, I don't know. What I do know is that the music on this album makes me feel very cosy and sleepy, in a good way though! I can't recommend this particular song (at least!) more, be sure to give it a try if it's your kind of thing.
And that's all for today! There's no set pattern for when I'll do these, because you simply can't predict when your passion for music will suddenly explode one day and you end up getting these mixed bags of goodies and baddies, so we'll see. What I do know though, is that next entry will see me examining in a bit more detail the tunes of Thin Lizzy, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Rush.
Finally, to celebrate the birth of a new blog which I'm already pleased with, let's have some Massive Attack, with one of my favourite performances of theirs (I can't put their performance of Mezzanine on Abbey Road here, what garbage):
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