Artist: Various

Album: On The Floor At The Boutique: Midfield General (2000)

Song: Mulder — "Don't Give a Damn" - click for audio


Time for another mix album (well, the random factor of my album-shuffled playlist decided it was time), this one from Big Beat maestro and Fatboy Slim-buddy, Damian Harris aka Midfield General.

The mix begins and ends with a bit of 70s funky soul, Gwen McCrae's 90% of Me is You kicking things off great style, before the mix heads off into hip hop, drum & bass, techno and big beat, and finally comes full circle, ending with the funky keys of Dexter Wansel on the penultimate track, followed by Natalie Cole's soul-pop classic, This Will Be.
It's maybe something of a DJ mix cliché to include or end on such soul and funk tracks, yet it damn near always seems to work. I'm not a great fan of the Natalie Cole track, and the album doesn't quite feel like it's earned such an upbeat climax, but it's an undeniably chipper way to end.

In between these bookends, the mix starts pretty well with hip hop from the 80s from Just-Ice and the 00s from Bumpy Knuckles, some bass-heavy d'n'b from Prisoners of Technology, and some big beat in the form of a nice, if not spectacular Lo Fis b-side. Soon after it descends into a techno / house melee beginning with LFO and ending with DJ Natsu, much of which is a bit too repetitive and not very memorable. This may be fine in a nightclub, with the music banging out loud and the revellers teased into a frenzy waiting for the next uplift, but it's a bit dull here. The better of the tracks in this section are Idjut Boys & Quakerman's Schlam Me and Kevin 'Reese' Saunderson's Inside Out. Thereafter, we get a decent track from the DJ's own back catalogue, and an Speedy J track that's ok, but far from his best, before we're back in the funkle zone.

So, slightly disappointing overall, due to a third of the album being not very special, but it's mostly well-mixed and there are a some good numbers. Depending how I'm feeling, top choice could be that Gwen McCrae track, or else the one I've chosen, which cheekily starts with a minute-odd of The Message before going seriously, bass-wangingly junglistic on your ass.

Artist: Parliament

Album: Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome (1977)

Song: "Bop Gun (Endangered Species)" - click for audio

"To dance is a protection
Funk is your connection"


I'm in the midst putting together a made up Parliament / Funkadelic "Best Of", so this album coming up in the shuffle was timely. I first heard of (or at least consciously acknowledged) Parliament about 20 years ago, when a concert of theirs was broadcast on late night TV, back when there were only 4 channels. The gig was compelling, seemed very assured, but honestly, I didn't really get it. Now I'm older and wiser, and am in possession of at least a modicum of tha funk, I find there's a fair bit to enjoy. That said, their albums can be incredibly self-indulgent and many of the talky tracks don't make for great repeat listening, IMHO. I don't mind the presence such tracks on the original releases, and a listen once in a while is fine, but the invented characters, the band's mythos if you like, seem to overwhelm the albums at times, and I can't be chuffed with the likes of Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk (Pay Attention - B3M) clocking in at nigh on 11 minutes, and I wouldn't want such tracks bogging down a shuffled mix.

From this album, there's really 3 standout tracks that I'll definitely be retaining for my Best Of - Wizard of Finance, Flash Light and the funktastic winner.

Artist: Infected Mushroom

Album: Classical Mushroom (2000)

Song: "Sailing in the Sea of Mushroom" - click for audio


So, number 50 in this project is the second album from Israeli psychedelic trance (psytrance) act, Infected Mushroom. I discovered these guys via YouTube searches for other artists, and wowzers, what a find! I like a bit of trance now and then, but I find most of the commercial chart-invading stuff is (or rather, was, a few years back) a bit too formulaic. The other issue with trance in general is the ridiculous length of tracks - perfect for clubbing, but on CD, back-to-back 8, 9, 10 minute +, and often quite repetitive, tracks can be a bit wearing. I can sometimes hear only 3 songs during a half hour journey! Contrast that with punk, where I might hear 10+...

On this album, Infected Mushroom solve the first issue - formula is out of the window and the duo's amazing production skills are demonstrated in tracks of great invention, with endlessly variegated and glorious fizzy, wibbly, squelchy, phasey, bouncy, wonky (and many other adjectives) electronic sounds squeezed from out of their synth-holes and some pretty frisky, thumping drums. And though the track lengths are in the same realms as those of other trance acts, they don't outstay their welcome - the songs constantly evolve and change, and there's just too much aural assault for them to get boring. There's a couple of potential downsides to this approach, which will put off some sections of the audience - one, that the band's disinclination to iteration means the songs are less immediately memorable than your standard trance track; and two, that all the synth acrobatics make the album showy, over-produced, or even cheesey.
For me, neither of those things is a problem, but in some regards, I'm the kind of guy who would be happier if his cake had twice as much icing and twice as much cream filling, but only half the sponge...

All that said, this isn't my favourite of their records, and I dropped a few of the lesser tracks from miPod. Hard to choose winner from the remaining tracks, but Sailing is a fine example of early Mushroom.

001) Hot Hot Heat - Make Up the Breakdown (2002) - "Get in Or Get Out"
002) Beastie Boys - Ill Communication (1994) - "Sure Shot"
003) Chali 2na - Fish Market - The Official Mixtape (2004) - Chali 2na & Roots Manuva — "Join the Dots"
004) Rob Smith - Up on the Downs (2003) - "Don't You See (feat. Hazel Jayne)"
005) Rise Against - The Unraveling (2001) - "Sometimes Selling Out Is Giving Up"
006) Doves - Kingdom Of Rust (2009) - "Kingdom Of Rust"
007) The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Pushin' On (2005) - "The Conspirator (Main Theme)"
008) Tom Waits - Blood Money (2002) - "Starving In The Belly Of A Whale"
009) Raekwon - Only Built For Cuban Linx (1995) - "Wu-Gambinos (feat. Method Man, RZA, Masta Killa & Ghostface Killah)"
010) Various - Dub Chill Out (1996) - King Jammy — "Dub it in the Dancehall Dub"
011) R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office (1987, UK re-release 1993) - "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)"
012) David Bowie - Diamond Dogs (1974) - "We Are the Dead"
013) Madvillain - Madvillain (2004) - "All Caps"
014) Various - Mr. Scruff Presents: Keep it Solid Steel (2004) - The Arsonists — "Flashback"
015) Tool - Lateralus (2001) - "Reflection"
016) Morrissey - Southpaw Grammar (1995) - "The Boy Racer"
017) Various - LateNightTales: The Cinematic Orchestra (2010) - Sébastien Tellier — "La Ritournelle"
018) Lamb - What Sound (2001) - "Gabriel"
019) Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy (2001) - "Found That Soul"
020) Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords (2008) - "Inner City Pressure"
021) Coheed And Cambria - Best of Coheed And Cambria (2002—2005) [Grampilation] - "Three Evils (Embodied in Love and Shadow)"
022) One Self - Children of Possibility (2005) - "Fear the Labour"
023) Elbow - Asleep in the Back (2005) - "Red"
024) Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005) - "Dare"
025) Sage Francis - A Healthy Distrust (2005) - "Bridle"

Artist: Stellastarr*

Album: Harmonies For The Haunted (2005)

Song: "Love and Longing" - click for audio


I don't recall how I first came across Stellastarr*, but their brand of indie pop just appealed from the off. This is their second album, and Shawn Christensen's slightly unusual (though by no means bad) voice seems dialled down a notch from the band's debut. Add to that the female backing vocals from bassist Amanda Tannen, and a guitar sound which is reminiscent of Hot Fuss-era Killers on some of the uptempo tracks, Disintegration-era Cure on opener Lost in Time, and there's even a shade of U2 in the chosen track.

Speaking of which, Love and Longing wins from a front pack of 4 — the others being the aforementioned Lost in Time, infectious single Sweet Troubled Soul and Stay Entertained, any one of which is worth a listen.

Artist: The White Stripes

Combo Album: The White Stripes / De Stijl  (1999 / 2000)

Song: "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise" - click for audio

"Her stare is louder than your voice
Because truth doesn't make a noise"


I wasn't a huge fan of The White Stripes debut album when I belatedly heard it, so I burned a disc containing it's 4 best tracks (IMO) plus all of De Stijl, and consequently that amalgam is wot also appears on m'iPod. Had I chosen 1 more track from their debut, it'd have it's own entry on the damn machine, and therefore in this thread. But what you gonna do.

De Stijl is pretty much great from start to finish, with one niggling 'not that good' exception, in A Boy's Best Friend. It's more bluesy than White Blood Cells and the 2 instrument starkness (plus a rare bit of harmonica and piano) seems more abundantly clear than on it's successor. I really like the 4 tracks from The White Stripes album, a pair of bouncers and a pair of more downbeat numbers and, once again, I think I should probably go back and listen to the whole album in case I've missed a gem.

So from this comboid album, several tracks vied for top spot, including Hello Operator, Little Bird, Your Southern Can is Mine (Blind Willie McTell cover), When I Hear My Name and One More Cup of Coffee (Bob Dylan cover). I probably settled on the wrong choice, cos those two covers are amazing, but the eventual triumpher is still a great track.

----------

Speaking of the cover versions, I took the liberty of checking out the originals of all 3 on YouTube. The White Stripes version of One More Cup of Coffee appeals significantly more than Dylan (+ Harris) original, but Son House's original of Death Letter and Blind Willie McTell's late 20s / early 30s mysoginist classic are tremendous. Check 'em out, dummy!

 

Artist: Various

Album: Xen Cuts (2000)

Song: The Herbaliser — "8pt Agenda (feat. Latyrx)" - click for audio with impressive "kinetic typography" fan vid

"We don't believe in You controlling We.
I'm not obligated to do or say or listen to a god damn thing"


This is the 3 disc version of the immense Ninja Tune compilation album, including the Missed Flipped and Skipped disc, but it's had a double pruning - first I dropped a few tracks I didn't care for, and second, I removed a bunch of tracks that I already had on artist albums. So from the original 46 tracks, 21 remain, which still makes for a substantial and varied album, taking in hip hop, nu jazz, cut-up, downtempo and breaks plus the usual funky Ninja weirdness.

Great tracks from the likes of T-Love (need to check out more of her stuff! Not much female fronted hip hop in my collection), a coupla non-album tracks from Mr Scruff, Amon Tobin feat. Roots Manuva ("Saba who, Saba what now?"), a really nice track from Kid Koala, The Infesticons (Mike Ladd is another hip hopster I really oughta be checkin'), The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination, DJ Food, Saul Williams ("I think I saw Jesus, he was playing hopscotch with Betty Carter
Who was cursing him out in a scat-like gibberish for not saying 'butterfingers'")

The title fight was between two tracks I love - the final (hidden) track Quincy's Bruce Lee MC and the eventual champ, and it was a close-run thing.

-------

As I go along, I'm putting together a playlist of all the top choices, with the occasional amendment - e.g. I chose Hey by Pixies instead of Monkey Gone to Heaven cos although I love the latter track, I've heard it a hundred million times. When I come to add a track from this album, I'm gonna have the same internal argument as I had here, as to which of the top two should make it...

Artist: GZA / Genius

Album: Beneath The Surface (1999)

Song: "Beneath The Surface (feat. Killah Priest & RES)" - click for audio

"Bees with sweet honey in they mouth
Have bitter stingers at they tail"


GZA's follow-up to his stone-cold hip hop classic Liquid Swords had a lot to live up to, and it received a bit of an unfair bashing on release. It is true that Beneath The Surface doesn't have RZA in the back, laying down hard backing loops and East Asian film samples - a variety of producers came in for this album, and the sound is altogether lighter, cleaner and more commercial. There is some truth in the argument that GZA & his guest rappers seem neutered somewhat under this new sound - despite the lyrics, the rhymes just don't seem as hard as when accompanied by the stark and gritty Wu Tang clicks. There's also an increased presence of choruses, a few tracks with female backing vocals and "advert" skits orated in gentle tones between some of the tracks, all of which serve to soften the hard edges further.

Still, there really isn't a bad track on this album, and had it been GZA's first solo release, I'm sure those initial naysayers would have been more lenient on it. Oddly, the track that sounds most like the GZA of 4 years prior was not produced by RZA (High Price, Small Reward (feat. Masta Killa) - produced by Mathematics), and the one track he was responsible for fits in more with the newer sound than with the Wu / related stuff of old.

It was a 3-way for the winner's spot, with Hip Hop Fury (feat. RZA, Hell Raizah, Timbo King & Dreddy Kruger) and Stringplay (Like This, Like That) (feat. Method Man) ultimately left bleeding in the gutter.

Artist: Various

Album: Skweee Tooth (2009) (first listen)

Song: Limonious —"FriscoBum" - click for audio (mistitled on YT)


By a couple of degrees of separation, Ninja Tune led me to the Scandinavian phenomena that is skweee, and to this compilation of skweee tracks from the Flogsta Danshall label. Skweee is basically an electronic music subgenre akin to chiptune (8-bit music and electronic music based on or recreating old video game sounds), which, according to Daniel Savio (via wiki) is an attempt to skweeeze out the most interesting sounds from available synths. Depending on the musician, the music may lean towards glitch, electro, minimal techno, ambient or dubstep (and possibly other genres), and/but it tends to be pretty upbeat and chirpy (in both senses of the word).
With me so far? Good, good.

This album was only the second instance of skweee that I'd heard, and it's a fairly recent purchase, so I've only heard it through twice (well, thrice now), but it has influenced me to investigate the genre further.
My top picks for this album at present would be Daniel Savio's Tough Guy Music, V.C.'s KOR For Life, Mrs Qeada's Liikutuksia, and the album's only vocal track, Slow Hand Motëm's Idea, plus of course, the winner, from Limonious, aka Pavan, who also assembled this comp.

Erm...... it's all squiggly electronica. Tryzit?

Artist: Bad Religion

Album: Recipe For Hate (1993)

Song: "Struck a Nerve" - click for video

"Introverted, I look to tomorrow for salvation,
But I'm thinking altruistically
And a wave of overwhelming doubt turns me to stone"


Gah! I fucked this entry up, accidentally overwriting rather than quoting it (in order to use the formatting for the next entry).
Shites. Never mind... quick redo:

Bad Religion, were one of the best US pop-punk / hardcore acts from the late 80s through the 90s, with strong tunes, singalong-ability, Greg Graffin's gruff tones, Brett Gurewitz's guitar, intelligent political and naturalist lyrics.

Top few include Kerosene, Portrait of Authority and Skyscraper. Top 2 = this and the also awesome American Jesus.




EDIT: Was just looking at my old thread from a couple of years ago, and found this quote from foz, which I wholeheartedly agreed with, as I re-watched the video for this entry's winning choice....

quote:

ORIGINAL: foz
Struck a Nerve has the most annoyingly literal video though - it was as if Pan's People had done it

Artist: Slugabed

Made-up Album: Best of Slugabed (2009 - 2012)

Right then...
I first heard Greg Feldwick aka Slugabed via the Ninja Tune podcast, and I really liked the bass heavy noodlage, so I packed my knapsack and went off hunting. My "best of" comp is derived from the EPs and 12s pictured above - The Moon Zoop EP, Gritsalt, Ultra Heat Treated EP, Moonbeam Rider EP and Sun Too Bright, Turn It Off, plus a couple of extra mp3 downloads, Donky Stomp and Sweet Baby Electric Fire.

The Moon Zoop EP is a split release with Coco Bryce, and it was Bryce's tracks (and his Facebook page) that made me aware of, and instigated my interest in, Skweee.
The podcast mentioned Sluga in the same context as the "interesting things currently happening with dubstep", but I know precious little of that genre aside from the very hit & miss Chase & Status, who's music seems to have been borne out of the post-2000s drum & bass, and the odd bassy Radio 1 playlist botherer, which usually have vocals, and sound to me like bassed-up grime or garage tracks (or summat), or else are diluted down (popstep?), depending on the track and artist.

So, Slugabed's music, I guess, combines skweee and dubstep, as well as glitch and probs some other shit, too, and gawd knows what to class it as on m'iPod (an eternal issue). For me, for now, I guess it belongs lumped with the skwee and chiptune stuff. The earlier stuff seems to be all about the bass, whereas some of the more recent tracks are more melodious or have more typical contemporary dancey beats, and I was initially concerned that what made Slugabed cool might be getting watered down a little as he progresses, but I'm reassured when I hear mental tracks like Whirlpool from Sun Too Bright, which sounds like he's found the soundtrack to the awesome 1980s Spectrum game Starquake and give it a violent wringing out.

Best way to explain it, of course is to link up a sample track, and from my 20-track Best Of, the likes of The Moon Zoop Jam, Let's Go Swimming, Skyfire and Sweet Baby Electric Fire all do the job. The top choice just won out over the slowbass stomp of Gritsalt (though that song is still worth a listen, especially for that joyously buoyant final minute).

---

* AMENDMENT *
The top song choice in this post was previously Moonbeam Rider, however, that song appears on the album Time Team, which I bought later, and could be chosen as winner for that entry (see #142, page 11), so... I've amended my Best Of Slugabed comp album, cutting that song, plus Sex and Dragon Drums to avoid duplicons.
Consequently, 2nd choicer for this entry now wins by a walkover...

Top Song: "Gritsalt" - click for audio

Artist: k-os

Album: Joyful Rebellion (2004)

Song: "The Love Song" - click for video

"Lyrical optometrists with 20/20 vision
Are serving rhymes like my granny used to serve provisions"


The second album from MC / singer k-os aka Kevin Brereton is a very good, if commercial-sounding, hip-hop record. Despite the accessible sound and comparisons with Wyclef (don't worry, he's a better rapper and far better singer than Wyclef), k-os isn't massively well known outside of Canada, which is surprising when you hear tracks like the semi-MJ-tribute Man I Used to Be. It's also quite surprising that I like this stuff - it has a poppy edge and certainly isn't 'core. If the album, or singles from it, had been more successful (especially in the UK), I might have had less interest in it, though the strong production, variation of styles, and k-os' undeniable mic skills and lyrics lend it a certain quality feel that may yet have overcome my cynicism.

The Trinidadian-Canadian performer is equally proficient singing melodies as he is rapping, and most of the tracks feature both vocal styles. Top tracks include EMCEE Murder, Man I Used to Be, Crabbuckit, B-Boy Stance, Dirty Water, Clap ur Handz.... really, it's all good, and it works well as a cohesive album. The Love Song wins.

Artist: Eero Johannes

Album: Eero Johannes (2008) (first listen)

Song: "HAL Manifesto" - click for audio


First listen = Blimey!
Some lovely squidgy, mind-bending skweee that maintains melodic phrases but peppers them with giddy noises that make you feel like you just spent the afternoon in a cake factory, and it happened to be caramel-testing day.

It's an almost entirely uplifting experience (with the exception of some spookiness on the likes of Eläin), as electronic goodness and retro synths are put through their paces, and you can't help but smile when Mr Eero pulls another wobbly... thing out of the bag.

Very hard to choose a fave on first listen, but I immediately liked We Could Be Skweeroes, Finnrexin and HAL Manifesto. One of them was victorious.