The Heights of Ian Brown - 1999-2004

Following the drawn-out demise of the Stone Roses, Ian Brown made a complete break with his former band's sound. In place of the predominant guitar pop (and later Led Zep blues-rock) Brown unveiled a stark, lo-fi minimalism on 1998's Unfinished Monkey Business. However, that album was to be rendered a mere prologue as the singer unveiled an aesthetic based on richness and depth, a layered stew where electronics jostled alongside samples, organic instrumentation of all stripes and a throw-everything-in-the-mix approach that revealed new details on each listen. This process began with 1999's Golden Greats and continued until 2007's The World Is Yours where a more unified, string-heavy sound became prevalent.

So Many Soldiers:



One of the highlights of Golden Greats, "So Many Soldiers" melds acoustic guitars, soaring electronics and vocals that drift in and out of the soundscape. This song is a microcosm of the album as a whole, neo-psychedelia that begins as social commentary and rises into the mystical spirituality that characterises Brown's solo work: "this road you walk/this path you tread/sweet I shall see/and heaven fed."

Stardust:



Similar to "So Many Soldiers," "Stardust" seamlessly mixes the acoustic and the electric, the synths bringing the mellotron to mind, again positioning Brown's work in the neo-psychedelic sphere. As for the lyrics, they concern the idea that the building blocks of humanity (and all organisms) arrived from celestial bodies - truly trippy within this musical context, and proof that Brown's subject matter is wider and a lot more interesting than most other mainstream musicians.

Solarized:



The title track from the 2004 release, "Solarized" is often overlooked by casual Brown fans. That may be due to its subdued set-up, but even a cursory listen reveals this to be an intriguing effort (it certainly caught my ear on first listen, remaining for me the stand-out non-single on the album.) The cold flame flickering of the synths alongside tablas, backwards percussion and prominent bass coalesce to create an ominous mood, a creeping sense of disquiet that taps into the darker side of Brown's sound. That's not to say that the song itself is a depressing one - on the contrary, the lyrics are hopeful, ending with the half-spoken finale "the light that she lives for in the dark she'll always find." And that sums the track up, a sense of escape rather than surrender.

These 3 songs represent a minute portion of Brown's discography, and I'd urge anyone who hasn't paid him any attention to listen to the 3 masterpieces he created from 1999 to 2004, Golden Greats, Music of the Spheres and Solarized. Some critics in the past portrayed his career as that of a Britpop cast-off, but acclaim has also followed him in the post-Roses path, and rightly so. As can be gathered from his recordings and his interviews, he is fiercely individual and wary of living off past glories - and with a catalogue as rich as his, I can only say that I see his point.

Nicky Wire On The Libertines

Great to see Nicky Wire's comment on The Libertines in this month's NME, two of my favourite bands and I echo Wire's thoughts on the group:

"The last band I belived in, for all there raggedness, was The Libertines. They were more than just a band, they were a lifestyle, a mythology."

Belfast Funk & Soul Mix

Here's an approximation of my set at the Belfast Funk & Soul Club on the 3rd September. There's a mix of big tunes and some more obscure ones, as well as leaning on the soul rather than funk side. I say approximation because I can't remember the exact order I played some songs in (a messy night!) but the majority is right.

1. R Dean Taylor - There's A Ghost In My House
2. Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels - Shake A Tail Feather
3. The Tempos (Countdown) Here I Come
4. Jimmy Ruffin - Gonna Give Her All The Love I've Got
5. Jamo Thomas - I Spy For The FBI
6. Bobby Paris - Night Owl
7. The Four Tops - Bernadette
8. Sly & The Family Stone - Stand!
9. Soul Patrol - Peter Pan
10. The Fabulous Counts - Jan Jan
11. Wynder K Frog - Green Door
12. The Singing Principal - Women's Liberation
13. Marvin Gaye - Too Busy Thinking About My Baby
14. Paul Anka - I Can't Help Lovin' You
15. The United Four - She's Putting You On
16. The Chandlers - Your Love Keeps Drawing Me Closer
17. Len Woods - Do It Funky

http://rapidshare.com/files/419014916/Burst_Into_Heaven_-_Funk___Soul_Mix.mp3

When 60s Pop Collides With a Vague Sense of Horror

Any time I've read about the classic Seeds song "Pushin' Too Hard" it's always been in reference to the supposed ineptitude and rawness of the track, and its nature as an example of all that's good and bad about 60s punk. While this is undoubtedly important, I always wondered why no one picked up on its sinister mood - it's always carried an eerie mood for me, from the backing vocals to the creepy electric piano solo, placing it alongside Doors tracks like "End of the Night" or "Not to Touch the Earth" in my dark psychedelic top 10. Thank God for allmusic.com then, because reading Richie Unterberger's review proved that others have garnered a similar feeling.

Choice analysis includes: "the two chords that are alternated between throughout the song, for one thing, are pretty odd: dark and minor, yet nigglingly creepy. The combination of thundering stiff hyper-fast drums, fuzzy guitar, and electric piano creates a foggy...stormy atmosphere" and "crucial to the musical appeal of this recipe are the ethereal, nerve-jangling high harmonies at the end of each verse, as the other Seeds mournfully drone "too hard." So there you have it, a small critical consensus! The appeal of much of the Nuggets continuem isn't in the bands' apparent ineptitude itself, but in the very strangeness spawned from their attempts at emulating more professional pop music.

The Great Forward-Thinking Sound of the Silver Apples!

The Silver Apples are one of the most interesting bands in pop music history. Propelled by the constant, propulsive drum rhythm that would later become known as "motorik" when used by Neu! and textured with early synths, the result is a clash between control and chaotic noise. The synths ambush the ears and create a trippy atmosphere, the antithesis of the steady rhythm section. Well worth a listen if you want to hear the strange beginning of not just krautrock, but the foundations of electronic music as a whole.