keep it on the one, bubba
2007-06-16 05:14:00
Sometime ago I promised/threatened to post some P-Funk, so here you are.This fantastically odd picture of the P-Funk massive constructed in Lego is taken from this site. I thought that it reflects the beautiful madness of George Clinton pretty well.The Horny Horns were the the horn section of both Parliament and Funkadelic, led by the legendary trombonist Fred Wesley, who I guess may be better known for his work with James Brown and the JBs. They are possibly one of the more sampled members of the P-Funk family, with a drum fill from Four Play in particular being used on numerous hiphop tracks. This one is a less sampled tune, but a classic nonetheless. Recorded in 1979 it took a long time to see the light of day, eventually being released on Vol2 of the 'Family Series' collection put out on Essential Records.Horny Horns - Lickety SplitThis next track has a special place in my heart. Not only is it incredibly funky (of course) it was also one of only two tracks that I felt I could li
remember me, so tenderly
2007-06-13 12:40:00
My Name is Earl is back on UKTV this week and so, in honour of Randy, I thought I'd kick it old skool with this post.(image taken from here)When it was released in '88, this track just blew me away. It sounded like nothing else I had ever heard, and still sounds fresh to this day. It definitely had an influence on wider genres of music than just house and acid, particularly on certain UK industrial metal bands, like I claimed in a previous post. It remains an absolute classic, and weird to think that it's almost 20 years old.Stakker Humanoid - HumanoidAnother seminal masterpiece of early bleepy-techno here that effectively launched Warp Records. Its sparse minimalism sounded amazing at the time, but the 'woahs' and daft Chipmonk-esque 'this is Tricky' date it quite a lot. Still great though, and for those who need visuals, the video is here on ubertuba.Tricky Disco - Tricky DiscoThis next track, from a Junior Boy's Own collection, was recorded by the Dust Brothers in 1992. Unfo
we are not the same
2007-06-11 11:53:00
Well, after watching this extended encomium for what all the kool kids are calling 'Web2.0' I finally succumbed and upgraded the blog. And what a frickin' carry on it's been. Obviously I knew that all the formatting on my template would be deleted, but I didn't know it would be so incredibly difficult to try to recreate it. A user friendly interface it ain't, so don't believe the hype kids.I was going to use this post to put up some stuff released on Ninja Tunes, given that I own so much of it and have posted so little. But then I changed my mind and decided to put up a, erm, new release instead. Especially since I've not really put up many guitar-based tunes for a while.Good Shoes are a new-ish band from Morden in London, who play some crackin', spikey pop music in the mould of The Cure and Violent Femmes. I can detect a bit of Blondie in the mix too, combined with a distinctively dry sense of humour typical of the best British lyricists.I reviewed their recently released alb
faster still...
2007-06-04 13:00:00
I'm going to a conference on Wednesday for a few days, so I thought I'd put up one final track before then. I'll write a fuller post for N when I get back.This track is taken from one of Hubbub Records' later compilations. The album notes describe it as a 'slick slice of raw funk', but I think the track is a lot deeper than that. There's something about the way the lyrics bounce off and compliment the pathos of the downward chord progression, that I think is really beautiful. It was originally released as the b-side to 'Slums of the City', but became the more frequently played and hence better known track. So if that 45 you find at a record fair puts this track as the A-side, you know it ain't an original release.New Establishment - Ridin' HighBuy [if you're super-rich]Buy [if you're less rich]Buy [if you have little ca$h but are willing to wait]
i gotta rock
2007-06-03 05:54:00
I'm on a bit of a roll at the moment with this blogging lark, so I thought I'd maintain the momentum.I picked up this mixtape at a Kid Koala gig in about 1999 for a couple of quid. It's not very long, but I think it was completely worth the cash as it has clearly been put together by a more creatively minded artist than is usual even for turntablism. The mixing, such that it is, is incredibly inventive, blending beats, music loops & samples from old films & TV progs, and the scratching is (as you'd expect) top notch. The use of the Charlie Brown sample, on the first side of the tape, is pretty clever. And funny. As are the clips from some super-woman show - or are they from a Russ Meyer film, I'm not sure...As I said, it's only short (30 minutes in total) but I still thought I'd keep it as two files for ease of up/downloading.Kid Koala - Scratchcratchratchatch, left sideTracklisting:start hearemperor's crach course in Cantonesetubanjothe prank calldinner with yodastatic's
goin' all the way back
2007-06-02 05:21:00
I was going to save this track for an entry on 'covers' once I got back round to C. But I couldn't wait.Laibach is German for Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, and also the name for Slovenia's most famous/controversial musical export. There's a pretty good account of the band here (by ubiquipedian standards), that has certainly made me want to search out their seven song deconstruction of Sympathy for the Devil.This track was a great favourite of a friend I knew in the early 90s. He became a DJ on local Radio Gloucestershire. Funny the way things end up...Laibach - Life is LifeBUY!WORRY!
viva la diva, pt.2
2007-06-01 13:48:00
I came to love Chaka Khan relatively late in my music-buying career - 2002 in fact. Of course I have always loved this trackChaka Khan - I feel for youbut, possibly due to its brilliance I'd always pigeonholed her into this 'early-80s post-rap synth-disco genre' (a genre I'm not overly fond of) rather than check out her other stuff. I didn't even know that Chaka wasn't her birth name, but was a moniker that she chose after being radicalised by the Black Panther's breakfast program. And finding that out about her, just made me love her even more.It was when I listened to this track, included on a first-rate soul-funk compilation put together by ?uestlove of The Roots, I realised that I had been missing out on something truly great. Chaka's vocals are absolutely sublime: restrained and tender for the most part, but powerful when she needs to be.Chaka Khan & Rufus - Magic in his eyesThat track started my 'Chaka-quest' for more of her stuff in a soul mould rather than the syn
viva la diva, pt.1
2007-05-29 13:07:00
I think it's about time Grace Jones was rehabilitated from the pop's correctional facility, and restored to her proper place as one music's great artists. Some of you may think that I'm continuing with the humorous bent I took in the last post, but you're wrong. I really think that Grace Jones is one of the most criminally under-rated singers of the last 30 years. Perhaps it's because a lot of the tracks on her albums were covers; perhaps because she was adopted as a Patron Saint of the New York Gay Scene [-yes, the capitalisation is warranted]; perhaps because in the 1980s she became better know for her, erm, erratic behaviour and less-than-convincing acting performances. I don't know. But somewhere along the line the great music that she recorded in the late 1970s became derided.Grace first registered on my musical horizon with the re-release of her classic 'Pull up to the bumper' in the 80s (1986?..). In a slightly weird 'Little Miss Sunshine' kind of moment, I remember d
a cornetto, two choc-ices and a strawberry mivvy...
2007-05-21 13:02:00
Something happened yesterday that hasn't for a while: I got called 'cute'. I'm 32 for fucksake. I mean, I know I hardly look like manly-man, but I'm pretty sure I should have grown out of that adjective by now. Here's some nice instrumental hip-hop that I've magpied from various places.DJ Premier needs no intro, being possibly the most successful and influential hip-hop producer. Here's some really soulful tracks he put out on his Time to Chill LP:DJ Premier - Get it all goingDJ Premier - It's like this and like thatJaylib get all Yorkshire on your ass, adopt a Barnsley accent and chat about t'Tykes. You can't hear it on this instrumental version of course...Jaylib - Champion SoundAnd finally, one half of Jaylib... Of course I've mentioned before how much I like the brilliant music that Madlib just keeps on churning out. Here's some choice cuts from his double 7'' Beat ConductaMadLib - Collie and beerMadLib - Pikes strikeMadLib - Soul snatchaAnd finally, a mad track he d
yer mobile smells of chips mate...
2007-05-18 13:26:00
Does humour belong in music? I don't know. Let's have a look, shall we?To kick us off, lets have a track that isn't actually music. But it is fuckin' funny & is from a hip-hop mix CD by DJ Yoda. So it kind of qualifies:Delta EbonicsOf course the man who has done the most, or some would argue the least, for humour in music is Mr Francisco Zappaterionoski. Here's one from the hippy-baiting 'We're only in it for the money', recorded with the original line up of the Mothers.Mothers of Invention - Take your clothes off when you danceI think this live version of BBGD is funnier than the original recording on Sheikh Yerbouti. Possibly due to the way that they corpse at the end. They also change 'homo' to 'Tonto', which not only is funnier, it also makes the track sound a little less homophobic:Frank Zappa - Bobby Brown goes downAnd this third one is from the album of the same name - a record about racial identity politics in the US. It isn't thought to be a particularly good exam
¡Ya basta! ...
2007-05-07 12:22:00
¡Ya basta! I've been reading quite a bit about fascism lately, of both the actual-fact type from the the past and the less-definite-but-reactionary-nonetheless variety that we're currently seeing. So I thought I'd post on a man who owned a machine that killed the nasty bastards.Woody Guthrie, as I'm sure you all know, was a lifelong socialist, trade unionist and all-round good bloke. He wrote many hundreds of songs during his all too short life, recorded versions of traditional folk songs which became the standard versions, and had a profound influence on subsequent music (primarily through folk like Bob Dylan). There is a pretty good biog of him here, though it is a bit descriptive and by the numbers, and a well-thought of book length treatment here.The most important things about Guthrie, I think, are the compassion he felt for his
Them birds got feathers on their hands
2007-04-30 14:24:00
Back to electronica this post, with one of Britain's finest exports: Fila Brazillia.I'll start with two pretty old tracks from them. The first is from their '95 album Maim that tune, and sounds typical of the languorous, shuffly beats of that era. The second (from Black Market Gardening, '96) has a far more 'disco' feel to it, partly due perhaps to its sampling of Last night changed it all. It really used to get the crowd going in the Welly Club on a Friday night.Fila Brazillia - LeggyFila Brazillia - Wigs, bifocals and nourishment2002's release Jumpleads was a bit of a change of direction for Fila. They'd been touring as a band since 1999, mainly playing live versions of the tracks they'd written and recorded as a duo, but this album was based around a live band and written with live performance specifically in mind. - One of these gigs almost messed my wedding up in October '99, because the manager of the venue got too mashed watching Fila the night before. But 'all was ma
Heavy, heavy monster sound. ...
2007-04-26 12:54:00
Heavy, heavy monster sound. It's been a long time. I shouldn't have, y'know, left you. At least, not without a dope beat to step to.This one goes out to all the metalicious noise mongers out there. Yep, I know that there's at least three of you. And I'm going to keep it short'n'sweet.Earache records was formed one sunny Wednesday afternoon in the late 1890s. Nottingham boy Digby Pearson thought: 'I know. I'll start a record label releasing a whole swathe of music which most people find either difficult to listen to, rather adolescent, offensive, or a mix of all three.' And lo, Earache was borneth.The first Earache band that made an impression on me was Godflesh, and this is the track that first attracted me to them. Quite a few of their 'hardcore fans' don't like the EP this track is taken off because of its flirtation with dance music. But that's exactly why I do like it. Listening to it now, it sounds like a
Directing traffic ...
2007-03-29 12:11:00
Directing traffic
I won't be able to write anything for a few days, so I thought I'd put up another post this week.'Back in the day' I used to DJ quite a bit, at parties and what not. I started out playing house, usually at the deeper end of things, but as my music listening changed I branched out into first Drum&Bass and later hip-hop. I don't think I was ever really that good - I tended to play tracks for longer than was necessary - but some of my sets went down really well with the crowd.So here's two mixes that I put together a long time ago, each digitalised from one side of a C90 tape. The files are hosted by zshare, which I found about here. They even stream the mp3, so you can see if it's your thang.This first is mainly house, but it develops into disco at the end. As was often the case with me, the final mix is a bit of a stinker, but I couldn't be bothered to re-record the whole thing again. Hey, I'd only had my decks
Mountain music ...
2007-03-26 12:04:00
Mountain music The picture above doesn't have a great deal to do with the music in today's post, I just find it funny.As I've said on at least one occasion, I haven't had many opportunities to post traditional American music. So I thought I'd use C to write about some banjo players, and the Clawhammer style specifically. I imagine that when most people think about banjo music, they're actually thinking about bluegrass. Such is the prominence of the bluegrass style, and of incredible musicians like Earl Scruggs, that a lot of people find it difficult to conceive of anything other than three-note rolls played at break-neck speed. While the clawhammer style sounds superficially more simple, in practice the slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs and double-thumbing techniques used by the musicians below result in a flexibility and variety that I think far surpasses bluegrass. For a special treat I've also included the tunings that the musicians
Read more: Mountain
wha gwan?.. ...
2007-03-22 13:51:00
wha gwan?.. After the guitar-heavy last post I thought I'd put up a bit of hip-hop. British hip-hop to be precise. Now, some of you might be thinking that sounds about as attractive an idea as posting some French rock'n'roll, but if you do, frankly you're eejits.There's so much hip-hop - good hip-hop - produced in the UK at the moment that I couldn't hope to cover it all without posting many, many LPs. There are really significant artists that I haven't included in this post. MCs like Blak Twang, Ty, Rodney P, Blade, SkinnyMan, Mr.45, Jack Flash, not to mention cracking DJs like Shortee Blitz, the Skratch Perverts, Skitz, DJ Format, Deasy (if I'm allowed to include Irish in 'the UK'...) and many others that certainly deserve a shout. Perhaps I'll put up some of their stuff in future posts.Given the breadth and depth of quality UK hip-hop, I thought I'd just try to give a snap shot of the kind of stuff that's comi
The special AKA ...
2007-03-15 15:39:00
The special AKA Bit of a personal post this one. I'm having difficulty getting started on it.In the very near future, a very good mate of mine, in fact probably my best mate, is leaving the country. It seems a wee bit adolescent to write about 'best mates', but that is what Alb is. We've known each other for getting on for 25 years, and we've been good friends since we were about 14. (That's us in the photo aged 18, I think. I was still describing my camera's shutter release when it took the photo. I'm not trying some hip-hop related hand gesture)Anyway, he's leaving to work in Australia - in other words, the place in world furthest away from the UK - and I'm going to miss him like fuck. So in recognition of that, I thought I'd post some tracks that remind me of some of our past exploits. These aren't really 'the songs that remind me of him', because I'm not sure what they'd be. But they are songs that when I hear them the
'It vas tventy years agohh...'
Perhaps ...
2007-03-12 13:03:00
'It vas tventy years agohh...'Perhaps those who haven't read this blog back to the start (and god, why would you?) wouldn't know that I've been trying to post music according to three rules. These have had both good and bad things going for them, but I think I'm going to change the rules slightly for the next round of posts.First, I'm going to widen my sources to include CDs, which should mean snap, crackle & pop on the mp3s and (potentially) more tracks as I'll be able to post quicker. Second, I'm going to ditch the attempt to include more than one genre of music per post, which I think has been a bit contrived at points. Third, I'm going to keep the alphabetisation, which has led me into some dark corners of my records. However I'm going to be a bit freer in the way I interpret the letter, including posts on labels, genres and, erm, other things.No tracks to download this post, but I thought I'd give you three YouTube vide-os of things that I've enjoyed watching over the
Z is for...
Zoot Sims
Mike Zoot
Z-...
2007-03-05 12:34:00
Z is for...Zoot SimsMike ZootZ-TripThe news has been a bit strange during past few days. Does anyone else think that the story of 5 Brits kidnapped in Ethiopia a bit, well, suspicious? I mean, these are people, apparently in the employ of the British Embassy - diplomats, according to some reports - who seemed blissfully unaware that the border with Eritrea is not the safest place in the world. Remember the border was the ostensible reason for a war between the two countries. It remains disputed. And so perhaps they shouldn't really be sniffing round it with photographic equipment. I'd put money on them being spooks.Anyway, back to the music. I made it through to the end: 121 songs [including today's] spread across 26 letters. Hope you've enjoyed at least some of the tracks that I've posted, and if not, then feel free to tell me in a comment.Continuing the jazz feel from the previous post, we first have Zoot Sims. I know he breaks the strict letter-of-the-alphabet rules (and more o
Y is for...
Nobuo Yagi
Yesterday's N...
2007-03-02 12:08:00
Y is for...Nobuo YagiYesterday
's New QuintetDJ Yuuga, aka JukkaThere wasn't much to go on in my collection of Y-vinyl. In fact I have no albums by Y artists, so I've mined into a few compilations. Some of the tracks are a bit 'jazz n jewellery', which I imagine may please and annoy in equal measure.I posted a track by Quasimoto a few letters back, so here's a couple more tracks by another of Madlib's creative outlets, Yesterday's New Quintet. YNQ represent the most accomplished fusions of hip-hop and jazz that I have come across, and since their debut in 2001, the various band members have also started to release projects through Stones Throw. I may post something off the LP by Ahmed Miller in a later post. These two tracks are from 'Jukebox 45s' compilation:YNQ - I am singingYNQ - KnuckleheadBuyAnd here's two more songs from a compilation that I've already used before. I know very little, in fact nothing, about DJ Yuuga aka Jukka, other than s/he has a strange name. Finnis
X is for...
Some people may not realis...
2007-02-23 12:07:00
X is for...Some people
may not realise that before Xzibit hosted that daft programme about putting microwave ovens into cars, he produced some really good music. But I've got to be honest that it took me a while to realise that. When he first released his debut LP, despite some pretty good reviews, I didn't think I'd like it. West Coast rap (as distinct from West Coast hip-hip) had never really made that much of an impression on me, aside from the stuff put out by Ice-T; we were just coming out of the G-Funk era, which again hadn't made much of an impression; and the cover of the LP had loads of cliched pics of X drinkin out of Seagram Forty ounce malt liquor bottles. So not that inspiring. Then I heard this track at a party, and it blew me away:Xzibit - The FoundationIt was clearly a 'west coast' product - the accent, the lyrical content and the production values screamed that instantly, but it was like nothing I'd heard from the West for a long time. Taking the premise of a fa
///\Special-non-alphabetic-post-time///\
...
2007-02-20 13:12:00
///\Special
-non-alphabetic-post-time///\Tim Fite has now released his new album Over the Counter Culture. It's available for free download, but I guess for a limited time only so I wanted to post on it now rather than wait for F to come round again.From first perusal this is a great hiphop album. His piss-take of MCs like 50 Cent - I've been shot - is absolutely brilliant, critiquing both the moron inferno that currently characterises a lot of mainstream hiphop and the racist backroom execs who get hard-ons for Black men running around killing each other.Tim Fite - I've been shotDownload the album here now!And, for a special treat, here's the vide-o of his single Camouflage:It's a fashion statement from a fascist nation.
W is for...Wichita, KS
and :
Wevie ...
2007-02-17 05:45:00
W is for...Wichita
, KSand :Wevie Stonder Stevie WonderThe site Statcounter is a really useful source for all kinds of info about who uses this blog. It tells me, for example, that since I wrote my exclusion list, there have been quite a few people coming to the site searching for Robbie Williams. Ha! (-And that mention will probably bring a few more. Ha!). More interesting though, are the number of regular readers/listeners from Wichita, Kansas. Perhaps it shouldn't surprise me, but in Wichita there is the largest concentration of SingDet devotees. I'm not sure what it is I'm doing (feel free to holla!!), but it keeps bringing you back.Wevie Stonder are a group who are difficult to research. Most of the info about them online is a load of nonsense - for example, that 'he' is an absurdist musician from Sweden. From what I can gather, they are a bunch of blokes from Hove, on the South coast of the UK. That doesn't in any way detract from their music of course - which i
V is for...
The Village Callers - Hect...
2007-02-10 07:19:00
V is for...The Village
Callers - HectorBuyI know very little about this band, but this track is fantastic. It was sampled on a Beastie Boys LP (I think), though they only used the very start of the track, even before the bongo starts up. Hector was the band's manager who, the track reliably informs us, sure is ugly.The VibrettesThe Humpty Dump by the Vibrettes is a cut of classic raw funk. It opens with one of the most widely sampled drum loops in music, played on what sounds like a really loosely tuned floor-tom rather than a bass drum. The vocals are odd too - sung throughout by two women in unison. Although it sounds like it's another euphemistically titled funk track - like 'The Push and Pull', 'Do it fluid', 'Pick it up and lay it in the cut' or many, many others - in fact it describes a dance that has slipped into the mists of time. Listen closely to the lyrics and see if you can recreate it. Altogether: '...Pat your thighs. Shade your eyes...' The Vibrettes - The Hump
U is for...
The Unknown
Unlimited Touch
U...
2007-02-05 14:09:00
U is for...The Unknown
Unlimited TouchUnsaneUnsung HeroesYesterday, I was woken up by a Robbie Williams track on the radio, and so I've been feeling a little misanthropic. It put me in a really bad mood for a couple of hours afterwards due, in no small part, to a particular line that I absolutely hate. It got me thinking abut other aspects of songs that, when I hear them, mean that song is forever shit. Here's my thoughts so far.1. The Williams wrongdoing: 'I'm singing my song...' If, at any point, a singer utters these words, they instantly assign their song to the shitbucket. No ifs or buts. You're crap and so is the damned song you're singing.2. Rhyming moon/spoon, ghost/toast, baby/crazy, or anything else taken from the songwriters' rhyming dictionary. And don't think you can get round this by singing 'ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-baby, I think I'm going ca-ca-ca-crazy...' No, you still sound like a twat.3. Any hip-hop track that rhymes bitches with riches (or snitches). Let it
Pushin' on
2007-06-22 11:41:00
I'll keep this post a short 'un.From the website:'The QSO is the project of Will Holland, multi-instrumentalist, writer, arranger, producer and all round hard working man [...] It is separate to his Quantic project as this is strictly about live music all the way, no samples or studio tricknology allowed. The QSO is not the live band for his Quantic music, but a separate project where Holland explores the funk sound he is passionate about.''The hugely influential sound of funk is continuing to show its power, as a sound you cannot help but dance to. It also shows good music is good music no matter what the genre. Funk is not retro. Hip hop is not classed as retro even though it is over 30 years old, and nor should funk be.'Couldn't have put it better myself.Quantic Soul Orchestra - Introducing...the QSOQuantic Soul Orchestra - The ConspiratorQuantic Soul Orchestra - Pushin' OnBuy Pushin' OnBuy other Quantic/True Thoughts releases
in a new world
2007-06-24 05:32:00
This one goes out to Tom...The Roots are, arguably, the most successful hip-hop group of the past decade. They have some turn over of band members over the years, for a variety of reasons, but they're currently working on their 10th album - a significant achievement for any group in any genre. Their music has been consistently innovative, interesting and intelligent, despite, and in opposition to, the bootification of hip-hop pushed by the industry.I recently gave a lecture on hip-hop music and culture as part of this Masters' module. The students were largely a bit schtum, but they responded really well when I showed them What They Do, taken from Illadelph Halflife. They had not considered, it seems, that within the hip-hop community itself there is a small but nonetheless significant number of people who oppose and criticise the modern day minstrel show that hip-hop has sadly been reduced to. The Roots are a key part of this critique, showing what hip-hop can be when creativity is
S.F.B. are a collaboration between t...
2007-06-29 11:46:00
S.F.B. are a collaboration between three artistes: Swedish Jazz quartet The Stoner, down-tempo electronica musician Carl Borg and his live-partner, and my favourite electronic beat-chopper, Eric Wahlforss.Their album, The Lektor Tapes, was created in September 2005 for a gig they had planned the following month in Stockholm. The idea was to see if two laptops, 'played' by Carl and Eric, could work with a live jazz band. The result is an inspired combination of musical genres, that draws variously on the strengths and influences of the musicians but, across the album, doesn't favour either analogue or digital sounds. -And that was a bit of a surprise to me, expecting the cut up, occasionally extreme sound of Forss and Borg.At points, the band achieve some of the more beautiful moments of music I've heard in a long time. I'd love to post a few tracks from this album, but I'll restrain myself in order to encourage you to buy it.This is the album's sublime, pensive opening song:S.F.
not for ever, just for now
2007-07-04 12:49:00
For a while I've been planning to put up some stuff by Uncle Tupelo, but my mate SteveDomino over on Domino Rally beat me to it. No matter, I thought, I'll put up some stuff anyway.As Steve says in his post, UT meant a great deal to us when we were younger. I had almost all their stuff on a tape that I practically wore out I played it so much. So that, plus the fact that the original releases of everything they did were really hard to get hold of (barring Anodyne, which I bought myself the day it came out), meant it was sometime before I actually bought their back catalogue.The album that first tempted me was March 16-20, 1992, partly because it was always a favourite and partly because it was repackaged with some demos & other unreleased tracks that I really wanted to hear (see below).The opening of the album really can't be faulted. Each of the first five songs are absolute belters on their own, but it's together that they gain real artistic strength, with their repeated referenc
fairy us fun quiche hit
2007-07-07 12:20:00
A lot of blogs do Top 10 lists - the top 10 hip-hop albums, the top 10 albums from last year, that kind of thing. But very few, in fact none that I have come across, have written about their top 10 various albums. Compilation albums can get a bad press, and with good reason of course. With shit like That's what I call No.1s, Dad Rocks, this dross - not to mention detritus like this or this or even this - clogging up the, erm, cultural drain, perhaps its no surprise that variety is not championed.So I thought I'd heap some praise on a selection of compilations that have, at one stage or other, meant quite a lot to me. These are the rules: no mixtapes; no band anthologies or 'best of's; no soundtracks.Three things, I think, make a good compilation. First, a fine balancing act between breadth & depth: I want variety in the selection of tracks but not so much that it no longer makes any sense as a united collection. Second, the crate digger in me wants some tracks that (a) I don't he
Read more: fairy
|
Recommend Site To A Friend
