17/13 - Indignation

First off, I'll tell you that I've been to the cinema four times this week, and all of the times were brilliant: First, John Boorman's smart stylish technicolor-thriller Point Blank (< just look at that trailer, what a marvel!), later, Pedro Almodovar's new flamboyant and audacious smile-fest I'm So Excited, and on Friday night – an all-time fav – the tour-de-force of perfect scene composition, Rushmore. But it was the premier I saw earlier that day that most gripped me; the new film from La Haine-director Mathieu Kassovitz: Rebellion. An unflinching, brilliantly realistic and absolutely infuriating tale from the dark side of neo-colonialism. And it is that disappointment with a world that doesn't look better than it does that may have coloured this week's list:

The Dead Weather - Jawbreaker

Well, it jumps out at you, doesn't it? Sets the tone.

Fugazi - Suggestion

Fugazi's looseness attracts me greatly. There's raw intelligence at work here, for sure.

Queens of the Stone Age - God Is On The Radio

One of the best rock-albums of the last 20 years or so if you ask me. Here's hoping their upcoming new album recaptures some of that heavy majesty.

The Wailers - Burnin' and Lootin'

Lately I've been thinking that this is one of Bob Marley's all-time greatest moments. Which may be controversial, given that in relation to his overall message of unifying love and understanding, this is downright sinister. But that's exactly why. All of the other lovely tunes get their weight from the fact that, just as any committed person would, at some points Bob could just go "Know what? I've had it. Fuck you with your oppression and your lies and your whole bloody system." And what makes it so gloriously menacing is not primarily the ominous synth-bass, or the sawtoothed backbeat guitars... it's those drawling, almost lethargic vocals on the choruses. This is the sound of people who just don't care what they might loose anymore. Pure terrifying. Stand up for your rights fuckers.

Keren Ann - It's All A Lie

Keren Ann has made a couple of mesmerizing and underexposed albums that I discovered many years ago, and on this track she quite reminds me of Low, which can never be a bad thing.

The lips of time
they kiss again
and I walk alone
into the night

Now, this is a bonus I forgot about last week, which I'm quite happy about, since it fits so well in with this week's tunes. Their track Husbands was one of my fav discoveries at the end of last year, but this, this absolutely tops it. From the opening statement to the magical crescendo/outro. So annoyed I'm not free to go see them play Glasgow on Thursday:



And as a send-off, another Jack White-video, because I think the darker of his backup-singers is sexay. (sorry to end on such a male-gaze kinda note, but she is amazing)

16/13 - Comedown

The last couple of weeks of exuberant moods have finally given way to a more familiar troubled state of mind. The dentist wants half of the money I won, I'm tired and uninspired, and I feel lonely. Music's still good though:

Tim Buckley - Pleasant Street

You don't remember what to say
You don't remember what to do
You don't remember where to go
You don't remember what to choose
You wheel, you steal, you feel, you kneel down

PJ Harvey - The Sky Lit Up

You know those albums that have been in your life for years and years and you're so familiar with you more or less take them for granted? Then every once in a while you sit down and listen – I mean, really listen to them – and they strike you with all their force and you remember why they form such an integral part of your collection? I had one of those re-revelatory times with Is This Desire? this week. The way Polly Jean uses more or less every guise of her voice across the album – from threatening whisper via vulnerable quiver to hysteric falsetto; the way the music ranges from industrial noise in Joy to circular piano melodies in The River, while still presenting the album as an undeniably unified sound-universe; the way extreme emotions and fates are packaged within cold and restrained little cells and all the ages seem to clash... What a masterpiece. As so many of her albums.

Jonny Greenwood - Prospectors Arrive

The more time pass the more There Will Be Blood stands out as one of the supreme artistic statements of the 21st century so far. One of the most brilliantly written, fantastically filmed, devastatingly acted, and of course perfectly soundtracked movies there are. The fact that I only need to listen to one track of the soundtrack to conjure up its drama in my mind is testament enough.

Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust

I was listening to a bootleg of one of the concerts of the Rolling Thunder Revue, and Joan Baez performed this song a few numbers before Bob Dylan came on stage for his set. Quite haunting, since, of course, the song is about Bobby and their strained and eventually lost loveaffair.

György Ligeti - Clocks and Clouds

This is where you crank up the volume one more notch and just float away in a zero-gravity field of pure sound.


Afterwards you may as well keep the volume up and play this marvellous remix (the kind that Nicolas Jaar churns out as though it was the easiest thing in the world) on repeat for the rest of the evening:

15/13 - Soundporn and Worldchange

What can I say? The week's been great. I won a lucrative award for my art. Several of my friends won awards. I got terribly drunk and threw up in a bucket. People took care of me. I wandered the streets of Glasgow listening to two of the best albums of the year. I bought nice clothes. I loved life.


The Knife - Raging Lung
I think I've found my album of the year. Astonishing and bizarre. It makes me so happy that there are creative people out there prepared to go to extremes to make uncompromising, sprawling, boundary-pushing, beautiful and political music like this.

It's a raging lung
and a difference
What a difference
a little difference would make

Tyler, The Creator (ft. Earl Sweatshirt and Domo Genesis) - Rusty
I keep feeling drawn to the Odd Future crew, then I'm repulsed or just put off, and then I'm drawn there again. A sore tooth-syndrom kinda. Why don't they apply their supreme wordplay and charm to something that is worth saying? But then again, they're kids, and that's probably exactly the kind of question that provokes them to invent new clever ways to say 'fuck you'. Tyler pretty much sums up the problem in this one.

Fucking sick and getting bigger like I sneezed on Adele
And bitches getting touchy-feely like they reading some Braille 

I'm harder than DJ Khaled playing the fucking quiet game
The fuck am I saying? Tyler's not even a violent name
About as threatening as stained windbreakers in hurricanes
But he rapes women, and spit wrong, like he hate dentists
God damn menace, 666 and he's not finished
And my shit's missing, he hates women, but love kittens
See y'all niggas tripping, man

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television The Drug of a Nation
This has been waiting to fit into a list for a while now. It's the perfect thing to listen to after watching Charlie Brooker's equally brilliant enlightenment-series How TV Ruined Your Life


Deltron 3030 - Memory Loss
A titillating description from wikipedia:

The album's story casts Del in the role of Deltron Zero, a disillusioned mech soldier and interplanetary computer prodigy rebelling against a 31st century New World Order. In a world where evil oligarchs suppress both human rights and hip-hop, Del fights rap battles against a series of foes, becoming Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion.

James Blake - To The Last
The boy is a genius. There's no denying it now. The album lived up to my very high expectations. Amongst all the gorgeous melodies and lyrics what really stands out for me is the sheer sound-porn going on here. The production in any one minute of this album brings as many spine-tingling moments as most artists manage to produce in a whole discography. Case in point: the way the vocals here seem to be repeatedly emerging from beach-breaking waves of distortion into clear, salty air; or the way the bass punches you lovingly in the stomach at 1.55; or the way some kind of outmoded analogue eggclock that recalls actul physical mechanics accentuates the beat at odd points; or... well all of it, really.


And while we're gushing over James Blake, this is a pretty solid remix of probably the best track of the year:



Once again, one of my main tunes this week is nowhere to be found on Spotify. I found Doom's fantastic album Born Like This in Monorail's second hand-section, and this wonderful track is produced by J Dilla and samples the great maverick Raymond Scott who's been on my lists before, so it just has to be here as a bonus:



ONE MORE! This is bloody awesome:

14/13 - Ding, Dong

Life is seldom as good as it is today. Install went great, and since then I've been tidying up, buying clothes and enjoying the sunshine.

Kings of Convenience - Summer On The West Hill
Norway's finest been in my headphones all week. This album brings me back many years.

I feel at home here
in the middle of nowhere

The Band - Chest Fever
Heaviest organ track in rock history, with the best beard in rock history. Ray Manzarek has got nothing on Garth Hudson.

Beirut - Postcards from Italy
Walking through Kelvingrove Park just as spring overwhelms it; this is the perfect soundtrack.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sacrilege
This song has completely ruled this week. Every time I listen to it it just get better; and it doesn't hurt that it was given one of the best music videos of the year as well:



And as if that wasn't enough, they also showed up on Letterman to prove that the tune gets even better live. <3 Karen O




Christian Kjellvander - Deliverance
And to finish off this happy list, one of Sweden's best songwriters. I was listening to this on the train over to Edinburgh for the second day of install, slumbered off and got the first little taste of the bliss that would follow.

So long, my native tongue

Extras


This video has a really nice feel to it:




Finally and obviously, being in Glasgow on a day like this I can't really avoid posting this tune:

13/13 - Hand-In

So, I pulled it off. Well, there's still install later this week, but on Saturday we drove a van over to Edinburgh and handed over all the works for the exhibition. I finished my last piece at 2am the night before. It's been very, very hard work, and the relief now is awesome. Like these songs:

Echo & the Bunnymen - Get In The Car

Nothing's gonna get us down

Kate Bush - Cloudbusting
So, me, Nick and Steph were in the van, heading across the Scottish fields, the sun cut in parasol-shapes through the clouds and from an old mix-cd, this played. One of the most powerfully optimistic songs I know. And I felt it. I just know that something good is going to happen.

Vampire Weekend - Holiday
...but first, two days of just pottering about, cleaning my room, taking a walk in the West End, maybe getting some new clean, whole clothes. Mmmmmmm.

Pavement - Range Life

If I could settle down,
then I would settle down

I'm actually not sure if I would. Often during the last few weeks it has felt that way. But now I'm not so sure. I don't think Malkmus is either.

Raymond Scott - Sprite: Melonball Bounce
Whatevs. Right now, life's like this tune.



Bo-bo-bo-bonuses: