august shuffling

Some shuffling on the iPod today (I've not done that for a while) and I've heard - 

"Marian" from the Sisters of Mercy - Goth heaven! To be honest this is closer to the sound of the Mission which Wayne Hussey was shortly to form, but whatever it's a terrific song, and Eldritch's vocals are wonderful. the word 'subterranean' seems appropriate... 

"Artists Only" - a Talking Heads demo from late 1975 when the band was still a trio, yet the song is fully formed, and although not quite as obviously loopy as the More Songs... version, it's still a very peculiar piece. Very! 

"In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated" - Brendan Perry live in 1999. A lovely rendition of an always brilliant song. This is played very close to the DCD original and Brendan's vocals are just magnificent. 

"Cold Metal" - Lord Igworth of Pop, live in 1993 with his band blasting through this one at breakneck speed and Iggy at his most manic. Lots of almost unintelligible screaming and swearing as the song begins and Iggy singing ferociously as the song gets going. He's either really really cross about something, or really really happy. It's absolutely impossible to tell which! Not the best performance of this track however. 

"People" from King Crimson's THRAK. I love this track, it's about as poppy as Crimson ever got - it's pretty much an Adrian Belew song, but played by the Crims. Great singalong chorus too. Very catchy. 

"Big Science" - the live version from United States. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Laurie Anderson has always been so impressive as a performer, and her songs somehow seem sadder and more emotional in a live setting. This has a very wistful, melancholy mood, much more so than the studio track. 

"Fill Your Heart" - David Bowie from the recent 2015 master of Hunky Dory. It may a be a silly bit of space filling fluff, but it's probably the jauntiest song I own. There's that impossibly happy vocal, the bouncy trumpet, the sprightly piano and I'm running out of 'jaunty' synonyms, but you know what I mean. 

"PPP" from last year's Beach House album Depression Cherry. Vaguely Cocteau Twins / shoegaze ish, but more summery and American. Ish. Good band though, and their last album Bloom is really terrific. The new ones I haven't got really used to yet, they're less immediate, but rather good. 

"Lighthouse" - the first demo that no-man made for this brilliant song. It dates from 1994 (the finished track ended up on Returning Jesus in 2001). Although it's fairly primitive (the drum machine is basic in the extreme) most parts of this long song are in place (including some parts that were later dropped) and it's a lovely alternative. Tim Bowness' vocals are stunning, as always, even on a demo.

"Driving Me Wild" from Bryan Ferry's Avonmore. This was a great remix which can be found on his soundcloud pages. Unlike many Ferry remixes which are very dull and lifeless without any input from the man himself, this one runs to seven minutes, but sounds as if it's simply the full length version of the song. Wonderful track. 

"Andean" - Michael Brook live in 1992. Really good stuff. Brook was always good value live, busily fiddling with dials and buttons whilst striking infinite guitar notes and controlling programmed beats.  

"The Only Daughter" from cheery Mr Sylvian's bleakest album Blemish. All glitchy and buzzing electronics. Maybe it's time and familiarity, but this didn't seem quite as forbidding or as cold as the last time I heard it. After 13 years I think I'm warming to it!

"Golden Years" - classic Bowie doesn't get much better than this. This was the 7" single which sadly fades out a little earlier than the STS album version soon after DB starts his nonchalant whistling. It's a brilliant production - ultra slick, very cool, love the handclaps and almost lazy sounding percussion. It's danceable for sure, but very laid back danceable, not really breaking much of a sweat. 

"The Bends" - haven't heard this Radiohead track for ages. It ROCKS. I've rather lost touch with Radiohead. Their last couple of albums are impressive but I don't find them very likeable, and don't really feel the need to play them. This one is 20+ years old, but really doesn't sound like it. A very punchy modern sound. 

"A Gift" from Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby. Funny stuff. Again it's a very laid back song, jaunty almost, but those lyrics are so self mocking aren't they? You can actually hear the knowing grin on Lou's face as he sings, in mock seriousness "I'm just a gift to the women of this world..."

"The Rest Will Flow" - a lovely sunny Porcupine Tree track from Lightbulb Sun, which is probably their most commercial and poppy album. Interestingly Wilson would soon after hook up with Aviv Geffen in Blackfield who really carried on with this delightful 3 minute pop song approach, while PT switched to a rather harder sound with In Absentia and Deadwing. I wonder if he'd not met Geffen whether Wilson would have let PT have more of his more commercial songs? 

"Ghosts" - Japan. Utterly perfect. How it became a top 5 hit I've no idea, but it's a brilliant song. 

"The Real" - from Eno's Drums Between The Bells. Excellent ambient backing track, with various backwards things happening, but I'm still not convinced by the female narration. It would be better, I think, either with Brian himself doing the monologue, or just as an instrumental. In fact the Drums instrumental disc is, I feel, considerably more successful than the vocal disc. Oh well. 

"Fire Of Unknown Origin" - a weird Patti Smith track (b side of "Because The Night" I think), but frankly not very good. Patti is very whiney, there's little discernable tune and it's a bit of a waste of time to be honest. 

"Heidegger's Silence" from Jan Bang's excellent …And Poppies From Kandahar. Wonderfully moody and mysterious and exotic. This is a cracking album, and a great companion record to Uncommon Deities. 

"Pocket Calculator" - Kraftwerk live in 1990, on my birthday in fact, in Bologna. Trying out the new Mix versions of songs, this is a brilliant concert. Some stuff is all shiny and new - like the spiffed up Mix version of "The Robots", some is still the old style Kraftwerk ("Radioactivity" is very much the 1975 original version) and some - like this one - are a kind of mix of the two. Excellent quality audience recording - I must play this whole gig again soon, it's terrific. 

"Fear Of A Blank Planet" - Porcupine Tree live in 1998. Really pounding version of an already heavy song. There's a fearsome relentless quality to this song. Brilliant.