27/17 - I'm Celebrating On A Vibrancy

Merry Christmas! Tired of Band Aid and Chris Rea yet? Here's my blissful holiday mood in good, not necessarily Christmas themed music:

Ariel Ramirez - Kyrie (Vidala-Baguala)

Let's jingle the bells like they do in Argentina!

Franz Schubert - Winterreise: Der Leiermann

Now let's bring it down. Imagine yourself snowed in, in a tiny cottage in a deep dark forest. That is the mood. Now let the hurdy-gurdy man play you a tune...

Björk - Blissing Me

Nothing to do with Christmas, but anyway: bliss. Bliss on all. Love, love, love, love,love,love,loveloveloveluv💕

Jussi Björling - O Helga Natt (Adams julsång)

Allow me to have at least one perennial classic on the list this year. Btw, I can recommend a listen to Soul Music's brand new episode on the history and impact of the tune. While you're at it you might as well check out their earlier Christmas episodes on Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Fairytale of New York as well. Guaranteed to tug at your heartstrings.

Yoko Ono with Cat Power - Revelations

Bless you for your anger
It's a sign of rising energy
Bless you for your sorrow
It's a sign of vulnerability 

Bless you for your greed
It's a sign of great capacity
Bless you for your jealousy
It's a sign of empathy 

Bless you for your fear
It's a sign of wisdom
Bless you for your search
Of direction 

Bless you for the times
You feel no love
Open your heart to life anyway
In time you'll find love in you 

You are a sea of goodness
You are a sea of love
Bless you, bless you, bless you
Bless you for what you are 

The world has all that you need
You have the power to attract what you wish
Wish for health, wish for joy
Remember, you are loved 

I love you

26/17 - Imagine A Future And Be In It

Looking forward to the future, shrugging off the past.

György Ligeti - Musica ricercata: Nr. 7

This makes for a really nice transition from the last list, if you were to go to the archive and listen to all lists in order. What useless considerations I make.... 

Arca - Coraje

While waiting for Björk's new album to arrive I decided to go back and listen to her collaborator's latest album, and discovered that it is probably one of the best albums of the year. Stunning sounds and vulnerable vocals in constant transmogrification.

T.Y.E. - Eternity / Real Eyes

The joke's on me
Well what the fuck did I laugh for?

A Tribe Called Quest - Black Spasmodic

Few make it look so easy. They're just playing aren't they? And they're tripping up death while they're at it, letting Phife shrug him off and dip back into the game.

Björk - Future Forever

Exactly what the world needs now: a follow up to All Is Full Of Love (complete with a lyrical nod: "trust your head around")!
Utopia is astonishing and bewildering in equal measures. Possibly her most exquisite soundscape yet (and that's an impossibly high bar), but at the same time some of her most difficult songs to grasp. I'm not gonna lie; I do miss the old big melodies Björk at times. But then I put this album on in great speakers and it's absolutely like entering a magical futuristic forest, where I don't mind if I get completely lost at times.

25/17 - For The Later Parade

The warm feels of a cold season, in temporary hibernation nests.

Sigur Rós - Gong

Yes, Sigur Rós still does it to me. The other day I had one of those magical music experiences that make everything else fade away. Having just listened to a beautiful episode of Radiolab that had already put me in a wondrous and emotional mood, I was walking through St. James's Park in the dark, now with Takk... in my headphones, and it just filled me to the brim. I got tears in my eyes and a large grin on my face and felt strongly I wanted go on living forever and ever.

Cat Power - The Greatest

Another blast from the past. That string intro almost made me cry the other night when it caught me off guard on random iTunes.

Once I wanted to be the greatest 

No wind or waterfall could stall me

And then came the rush of the flood 

Stars at night turned deep to dust 

Sufjan Stevens - Sleeping Bear, Sault Saint Marie

A third blast from the past. A voice of comfort for dark mornings on the bus to work. I slumber against the window pane and dream hazy dreams about the abandoned village on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Tim Buckley - Sweet Surrender

Definitely not my favourite Tim Buckley album, but when he starts playing with his voice and that string riff towards the end... there's no denying that, is there?

Sentieri Selvaggi - Child: Child: IV. Sweet Air

A gorgeous lullabyesque tune discovered on Björk's lovely The Cover mix.
I still haven't gotten my copy of Utopia!! Gah! Can't wait!! But I will wait! No listen until I can hold it in my hands. That's always been the tradition when the genius has a new release, and I'm not going to break it.

24/17 - Facts Are Facts and Fiction's Fiction

So, last weekend I was at the Le Guess Who? – a festival in picturesque Utrecht which I cannot recommend warmly enough. It was a blast, and the line up was a smorgasbord of mesmerising and strange acts. So this list consists of five tracks that were played at five of the best gigs. Apart from these I also saw: Den Sorte Skole, Liu Fang, Protomartyr, Weyes Blood, Richard Youngs, William Basinski, Prurient, Moor Mother, ICP Orchestra, Pharaoh Sanders, John Maus, Les Amazones D'Afrique, Hieroglyphic Being, Julianna Barwick, the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jane Weaver, Sun Ra Arkestra and Princess Nokia. 

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares - Moma Houbava

22 Bulgarian women laying incredible vocal harmonies in the Utrecht Dom Church was an absolutely magical beginning of the festival. These arrangements are mind-blowing to experience live. Whoops and swoops, soaring solos, and almost flippant vocal acrobatics to wrap each composition up.

Juana Molina - Estalacticas

Realised I've listened to Juana Molina for at least 15 years by now. Finally I got to see her, and she absolutely ruled. Un Día was absolutely frantic, the trio was as joyful as it was flawless in its playing together, and I danced like a lunatic through the whole gig.

Liars - Mess On A Mission

It was high time I was reminded of my long time love for Liars. I went with some trepidation as I know Angus is of recent the sole official member of the band and I didn't know if it was gonna turn into a full-blown raucous Liars gig as I've known them from before. But boy was I wrong to worry: songs from the entire Liars oevre in an absolutely gloriously noisy mess of a concert.

tUnE-yArDs - Look At Your Hands

Another positively WILD gig. Can't wait for the new album after having being completely pummelled by some new songs live.

Mario Batkovic - Ineunte

If Philip Glass had been restricted to an accordion as his sole output. Experiencing the sounds the good Mario managed to force out of his instrument live was an awesome thrill. That riff at 6:52 for example. Exquisite.


And as a bonus, here's some Arkestra madness:

23/17 - We Could Be Diving For Pearls

OK, a quick one before I go on holiday:

Jan Johansson - Skobonka

Current mood. Nervous and antsy, in a good way, because I need to get up at 2am to go to the airport to go to Venice!

Kamasi Washington - Desire

Listen to this whole EP! It's soul balm!

Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding

Reacquainted myself in a deeper way with this classic after listening to an excellent episode of the Soul Music podcast. Highly recommended.

Håkan Hellström - Hoppas att det ska gå bra för de yngre också

Obvious pairing with the above. GBG <3!

Kanye West - Ultralight Beam

Chance the Rapper brought pure elation to the tail end of my birthday party.

I'm just having fun with it!

22/17 - Thunderstorm, Come, Scrape Those Barnacles Off Me

Spicing up October with gigs and movies. And futuristic/future-fearing headphone-music.

Björk - Thunderbolt

The truest genius of our time. Craving miracles over a bassline made with a Tesla coil. I'll love you till the end of time Björk.

Federale - Black Sunday

Finally got the opportunity to see A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night in the cinema. Movie magic goosebumps. The montage soundtracked by this Morriconesque tune is only one of a continuous sequence of utterly stunning scenes.

Kiosk - Yarom Bia

Yeah, I'll cram in yet another song from the Iranian vampire flick. A close to perfect film.

St. Vincent - Fear the Future

My third St Vincent gig was not perhaps the best one, but yet somehow the most awesome. Staged and theatrical to an extreme, with a backing track instead of a band, but still she managed to just rip through every song in the most brutally direct way. High heeled guitar-goddess that she is.

Fever Ray - To The Moon And Back

She's baaaaack!!!! Best news of the week!

Also went to see Mulholland Drive at the cinema. First time watching it since my late teens I think. It's still marvellous. Unfortunately, this earthshaking cover is not on Spotify:

21/17 - You Better Beware of the Happening

I can't think of anything more boring and limiting than a streamlined music taste. Here are five tunes from five countries and five genres. All fitting perfectly into my world.

Yma Sumac - Virgines del Sol

Take it away bird woman!

Marcia Griffiths - Don't Let Me Down

One of the best Beatles covers I know. This song was made for a backbeat. I really love the little solo guitar noodles as well.

Venetian Snares - Kétsarkú Mozgalom

It feels like this track sums up all my feelings this October. Melancholia, nostalgia, lethargy, overlaid with moments of energy, manual labour and political anger. Also some wonder.

Georg Riedel Orchestra ft. Emma Pettersson - Gubben u kallinge tonte sej yver gardi

Ancient and indecipherable Swedish folksong gets turned inside out by a big band.

The Supremes - The Happening

So much melody! Such tight arrangement! Supreme pop!

20/17 - This Is How The World Will End

Five contemporary hits. The world is beautiful and terrifying.

Thed Jewel - Fuchsia

Another recommendation from Ali. What a monster beat. The drop at 0:50. And then the addition of a tambourine at 1:38. Banging.

St. Vincent - Los Ageless

Annie Clark pens her most shamelessly catchy radio hit, and it's bloody irresistible. I sing along in the kitchen each time it comes on BBC6. Can't wait to see her next month

How can anybody have you and lose you and not lose their minds too?

Grizzly Bear - Neighbours

The new Grizzly Bear album is like a burly gregarious uncle lifting you up and embracing you tightly, while peppering you with affections, questions and anecdotes, hardly letting you get a word in. Then he proceeds to take you out for drinks and food and pushes a few pound notes down your breast pocket while he's at it. It's just on the verge of being too much, but then you give in and just revel in being pampered for 50 minutes. Every track is jam packed with gorgeous little melodies that hardly get to run their course before the next lovely segment bursts in, and the arrangements are just piles and piles of perfectly calibrated details and warm sounds. It's overwhelmingly generous, is what I'm saying. Just listen to those razors of guitar lines cutting ribbons through the lilting bass while voices swirl around on different astral planes and a bubbling synthesiser merge with curtains of woodwinds. 

Face to face  

We'll watch our bodies break 

Not a care in the world

PJ Harvey - The Ministry of Defence

It took me a while, but I finally made sure I had a complete PJ Harvey collection by purchasing the latest album. And what do you know; once you listen to it as an entity it reveals itself as another masterpiece. I was hesitant before, but I'm a convert now. Blunt and simplistic in one light, raw, powerful observations in another. The production really is a perfect mix of old-school lo-fi Polly Jean and spacious, delicately detailed backing tracks.

Death Grips - I've Seen Footage

I've seen footage...

19/17 - The Hole In My Belly Has Started Growing

Heroes dying. Others returning to fight.

Hasse Alfredsson - Styrman Karlssons äventyr med porslinspjäsen

Hans Alfredsson passed away last Sunday. I doubt anyone outside of Sweden knows, and I don't know why I write this in English other than it being the chosen lingua franca of this blog. But I could not make a blogpost without acknowledging it. Out of all the people I've never met I don't think there is another person I've loved as much. And I've loved him throughout my life. From being a tiny kid, listening to this – one of his children's songs; to watching TV screenings of all his classic revue shows throughout my childhood; to discovering his books in my early teens and wanting to write comedy (Gummitummen – still one of the funniest books written); to, when becoming a cultural omnivore, rating some of the movies he's been involved in as among the best in Swedish film history (Den Enfaldige Mördaren, Äppelkriget, Ägget Är Löst, Att Angöra En Brygga...), to more or less on a daily basis have one of his innumerable skits, monologues or songs pop up on my random iTunes. Among all other things, he was definitely a master of endings. He dictated that his gravestone will read "Log och dog" (= Smiled and died), and, while not as all-encompassing, the ending of this song is maybe the best thing about it: "...i en byrålåda i en chiffonjé, olé!"

Alice Babs - Dedicated To You

Another Swedish legend, who passed a few years ago. But how the warmth lingers in every single second of this song.

James Blake - f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

Don't use the word 'forever'.

serpentwithfeet - four ethers

Ali turned me on to this track the other day. The arrangement of this is just stunning. And then there's that voice, wrenching light from the darkness.

Björk - The Gate

The future is here, and it is care.

18/17 - The Wayward Ways of This Wayward Town

I've immersed myself in old blues and jazz for tired times on the Clapham commute. 

Bessie Smith - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

I've heard many a good version of this, but none that sounds so genuinely desperate as Bessie's. The emotion in her voice stops me in my tracks. And then that sad little trumpet solo to really put the dagger in.

Cab Calloway - St. James' Infirmary

Another oft-covered classic in one of its very best incarnations. The strut, the glint, the voice acrobatics.

Anita O'Day - Love For Sale

I've listened to a lot of Anita lately. Inherited her entire discography from uncle Hasse. She's one of the coolest.

Betty Carter - 'Round Midnight

On a list full of amazing vocal performances, this stands out as the most satin soft one. That sudden surprising samba break at 2:30 only serves to underline the loveliness of Betty's voice.

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No.4, Op. 40: II. Largo

Went to the BBC Proms last week to celebrate the centenary of the Russian revolution with this guy Leif-Ove playing perhaps my favourite Rachmaninoff piece. He's sure got a knack for dramatic swooning beauty that Sergei!

17/17 - Alla Utom Jag Vet Hur Det Skall Gå

Flying back to London in a few hours. As usual, the last day in Sweden brings an abstract feeling of worry, and lots of melancholia. Maybe more than usual this summer. I don't know where the hell I'm heading...

Mando Diao - Strövtåg i hembygden

Gorgeously sad rendition of a poem by 19th century poet Gustaf Fröding. The ultimate Sweden-nostalgia.

Och det är som jag såge en gavel stå vit
och ett fönster stå öppet däri,
som piano det ljöd och en munter bit
av en visa med fin melodi.  

Och det är som det vore min faders röst,
när han ännu var lycklig och ung,
innan sången blev tyst i hans dödssjuka bröst
och hans levnad blev sorgsen och tung.  

Det är tomt, det är bränt, jag vill lägga mig ned
invid sjön för att höra has tal
om det gamla, som gått, medan tiden led,
om det gamla i Alsterns dal.

Peter Lundblad - Mumrikens äng

My favourite childhood music, based on a story by Tove Jansson and with words that can still bring a tear to my eye.

Då flög en vind från havet in med lockande musik
En mumrik spelar på sin flöjt i sömnig sommarvik
Någon kappsäck har han aldrig haft och aldrig trånga skor
Han vandrar på den gröna äng där inga sorger bor
Men vem ska trösta Knyttet och förklara att en sång
är bättre än en kappsäck ifall vägen är för lång

Håkan Hellström - Jag var bara inte gjord för dessa dar 

I feel like I'm forever slightly out of place, slightly out of time. 

Ta mig till den där festen i stan
Där människor är som du och jag

Monica Zetterlund - Var blev ni av ljuva drömmar?

And the world seems as lost as I am. What to do, what to do...

Vi som satts att leva i besvikelsens epok – ja, vad gör vi nu?
Vad ska vi tala på för språk?
Ett sätt är att, även om det blåser lite kallt
Tro på det vi trodde på – trots allt!

bob hund - Tralala lilla molntuss, kom hit ska du få en puss

Happily, one of the best bands in the world is still going strong, and I went to see them on Friday and got reminded that it's really all a bit silly, this worrying about stuff. Fuck it. Let's just go for a ride.

Jag har varit dum mot mig själv
Jag är så bra på sånt, eller hur?

16/17 - We're Not At The Mercy Of Your Chimeras And Spells

All things move towards their end. All things unfurl, unravel and scatter on the late summer wind. The entropic flight of flower petals and fleeting tender moments.

Bagad Men Ha Tan & Doudou N'Diaye Rose - Rohan / Duc de Rohan

The fantastic exit music for the stunning (but incomprehensible) Taiwanese epic The Assassin.

SHXCXCHCXSH - SsSs

I thought I'd already put this on a list! But no, it got lost by the wayside for a couple of months. Now it makes me want to return to my studio, and have this whole self-regenerative AI album cleanse my palette.

Drexciya - Birth of New Life 

The obvious follower for the prior track.

The Verve - Catching the Butterfly

It's not often that I go in for britpop revival these days, but when I do, this dazed, rollicking guitar-hallucination stands out as one of the strong survivors of 1997.

Radiohead - The Numbers

Fuck you fascists. We've got the numbers.

The future is inside us 

It's not somewhere else

15/17 - For Another Week's Disease

Meh. It's a piecemeal kind of summer. The weather comes and goes, some joys are found, but something is missing. It's like I'm just waiting it out. Same goes for the music somehow. No great anthem, no season-defining album. Just a few choice pieces here and there. And here are five of them.

Timber Timbre - Demon Host

Atmospheric little piece I discovered in the excellent film Stories We Tell.

Ornette Coleman - Chanting

A rare moment of simple beauty on a crazy and unique-sounding album.

Tyler, The Creator - 911 / Mr. Lonely 

What kind of stitched together Frankenstein's monster of a production is this? Its sutures are as beautiful as its flaps of skin though. Closest to a summer hit I've found so far this year.

“[Frank Ocean] was like, ‘Let me try something.’ He just started saying ‘chirp chirp chirp chirp’ about 400 fuckin’ times.”

 Check out the Colbert performance for a bit of pure joy too:

Squarepusher - Papalon

More of patchworky delicately balanced constructions in this oldie goldie from one of the bestest bass-beasts. His breakneck bass-neck runs after the 4-minute mark are a massage for my ears.

Four Tet - Planet

Speaking of ear-candy. Four Tet released some new dance-music and nails every single sound as usual.

14/17 - I'm Going Where My Nervous Blood Will Sway

Let's go all Swedish on this list. Since I'm a Swede in Sweden after all.

Evert Taube - Fritiof och Carmencita

The most classic of Swedish classics. With the profoundest of life wisdoms:

Carmencita, lilla vän, akta dig för rika män!
Lyckan den bor ej i kalvar eller kor
och den kan heller inte köpas för pengar!

Olle Nyman - Don't Let Those Bastards Reel You In

A discovery from Staden's interview with Mattias Alkberg. The resistance knows no borders.

Christian Kjellvander - Portugal

I just finished reading José Saramago, so I've spent some weeks in a melancholic 1930s Lisbon, parallell to the city of my birth. 

All that I love will disappear
even if I stay

Freddie Wadling - Trubbel

One of the best Swedish songs ever, in a version by one of the best Swedish singers ever. It might not be evident from a first listen, but this is so, so devilishly good. It also chimes remarkably well with another good novel I read in the past few days: Lena Andersson - Wilful Disregard

Och trots all kärleks brist och trasighet och fransarDig ska jag älska livet ut, dig har jag kär...

Jan Johansson - På ängen stod en björk

The right way to collude with Russia.

13/17 - Everyone's Reckoning Something Is Beckoning

It's all about the vocalists on this list from my parents' house.

Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb and his Orchestra - Undecided

I'm listening to so much Ella. She is music. And her early recordings have got such an irresistible cockiness to them.

Ivie Anderson with the Duke Ellington Orchestra - Delta Bound

One of the lesser known classic jazz singers, despite so many amazing recordings with Duke. Once you've seen her swaggering performance in A Day At The Races, it is highly unlikely for you not to be in love with Ivie.

Rihanna - Needed Me

That chorus! It's like a perfect backscratch, sharp-nailed and pleasure-inducing.

Kate Tempest - Perfect Coffee

First I was skeptical. Then I was curious. Then I found a favourite hit. Now I am a complete convert. Watched her absolutely awe-inspiring gig from Glastonbury and was in actual tears by the end of it.

You think it's coming up 'round here?
It's falling on its sword

Ella Fitzgerald - Airmail Special

Did you miss the memo at the beginning that Ella is the shit? Get with it! I will never tire of listening to the first lady burning down the barn with nothing but the slightest drumshuffle to back her. Who's on the mountain?!

Duke with Ivie and Ella. Just chillin' with two of the greatest vocalists ever

12/17 - I Woke To The Sound of Dogs

From hope, to anger and sorrow, to hope again.

Ella Fitzgerald - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Listen, it's the First Lady of Song seducing you in the most sensuous, sultry manner. So many fantastically naughty lines delivered in the most innocuous way: "worship the trousers that cling to him", "Thank God, I can be oversexed again", "Those ants that invaded my pants"...

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Castor et Pollux, Acte I, Scène III: Prélude "Tristes apprêts,  pâles flambeaux"

Sad apparitions, pale flames. 
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Gonzaguinha - Geraldinos E Arquibaldos

Everybody! Let's sing along to oddball acapella samba and feel our fighting spirits rise!

Grizzly Bear - Mourning Sound

Obsessed. I want the new album NOW!

We woke with the mourning sound
It's the sound of distant shots and passing trucks

Radiohead - Man of War

After two decades of listening to various live bootlegs, suddenly, there's a studio version of this quintessential lost gem. It's a strange feeling listening to it, and at first I was hesitant, but I'm coming around to the conclusion that they fuckin nailed it.

The worms will come for you, Theresa May...

11/17 - How Could You Disappoint A Moon That Shone So Bright?

After the first uplifting (kind of) election result since I moved to Britain, let us relish socialism's return to the accompaniment of some old time afternoon jazz. I inherited a whole bunch of records from my late uncle and am slowly working my way through them and finding little gems.

Stan Getz - Her

Gorgeous innit? Sentimental perhaps, but come on; it's got all the confident panache of a classic Bogart/Bacall melodrama!

J.J. Johnson - Who Will Buy?

J.J.'s trombone tone is something I always react positively too, but rarely has it been so sing-a-long-friendly as here. And how awesome are those shuffling drum-shifts?

Basie's Bad Boys - Love Me or Leave Me

Early Count Basie slays. Tightest swing there is. 

Django Reinhardt - Finesse

A tune that lives up to its name. Every line, every single note, is simple elegance incarnate. The little clarinet flourishes round 1:30 give me the shivers.

Johnny Hodges & his Orchestra - You Walked Out of the Picture

That perfect voice of sadness shows up on a whole bunch of old Johnny Hodges recordings, and apparently it belongs to a Mary McHugh, whom I haven't been able to find a single picture of. I guess she walked out of them, and left an air of delicate melancholy for us to build a fantasy around.

10/17 - I Remember Syrup Sandwiches and Crime Allowances

Unloading some incredible tracks with a red thread of simple but deadly basslines.

Big Boi ft Killer Mike and Jeezy - Kill Jill

Big Boi and Killer Mike on the same track has been a recipe for greatness for 17 years now, and the new single from the former is no exception. I could kinda do without Jeezy, but that otherworldly Hatsune Miko sample makes up for that easily.

TV On The Radio - Golden Age

Can't believe this modern classic hasn't been on a list yet, and of course it's ironic to include it a day after Trump betrayed the planet, but hey, let's hope a golden age is coming 'round!

Give it up 'stead of grabbing for decay
What we viewed as gold I believe pollutes this space
And its grace ascending
Like a snake up your tree

Bootsy Collins - I'd Rather Be With You

Sleazy and irresistible. Those massive farts of bassnotes, and then that super-weird/-pervy outro chat. Plus handclaps. Brilliant.

Schoolboy Q ft. The Dogg Pound - Big Body

Continuing on an almost identical recipe: sex-crazed lyrics and 3-4 notes of ridiculously fantastic bass sounds.

Kendrick Lamar - HUMBLE.

I wanna go to a party where we all dance to this. Soon. Again, it's the simple details that does it. If you don't rock to that piano riff, I don't know what you're made of.

09/17 - You Kiss My Blood And My Blood Kiss Me

Songs for slowly letting go to.

The Incredible String Band - Air

Gardening for a living. Gardening at home. Having breakfast in the garden. Having BBQ in the garden. The swifts have arrived. The Incredible String Band completes the arcadian pleasures.

Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra - Mali Sadio

Just what was missing from this blog and this spring; some West African music. With a heavy slightly idiosyncratic beat, mind you.

Lin Di - Mountain Song of the Highlands

Speaking of beats. Loving the way the drummer pounds this into gear again at 3:25.

Soulwax - Is It Always Binary

IRRESISTIBLE beats!

Chris Hughes - Slow Motion Blackbird

Suddenly the whole day has passed in a daze and I'm still out in the garden as darkness falls and the blackbird's song sails like magic ribbons through the air.

08/17 - I Ate All The Rest And Now I've Gotta Eat You

I'm frustrated. Been getting easily annoyed with others for no reason and then realising it's entirely because of my own shortcomings, which leads to being really angry with myself and then feeling opportunities slipping through my fingers. So I turn to a few gnarly pieces of music to flush the grumpiness out with feedback. 

Music Machine - Talk Talk

JAMBINAI - Echo of Creation

Why sing, when you can whinge and moan really loudly?

Monster Magnet - Space Lord

Oldie and goldie. Guitar crunch, 2:30.

Car Seat Headrest - Destroyed By Hippie Powers

My end goal isn't clear

Eels - Cancer for the Cure

Buckle up and endure

07/17 - The Fighter Still Remains

Ah fuck. I let the ball drop again. Weeks passed. The ball lay where it had rolled to. Dust settled on its upper dome. No foot stepped up to kick it, no hand to bounce it. I was elsewhere, in thought and body. But before, while the ball was yet in motion, I put aside five songs to be posted – as I thought then – imminently. So now, like a kitten stealing up to the mysterious sphere to curiously nudge it into action, here is a list of sad songs. I am not sad at this point. It just so happens that this was my approximate mood back a month ago, when the dropping of the ball occurred.

Nicolas Jaar - No

The king of gorgeous beat-drops does it again at 5:19.

Simon & Garfunkel - The Boxer

Sometimes even the most over-played classics suddenly shed their familiarity and reveal themselves in all their glory again. What a fucking song this. All that thundering production (the bass harmonica in the 5th verse being the most awesome of course) and yet Paul's words shear through it all in their humane brilliancy.

I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles; such are promises
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest

Kris Kristofferson - When I Loved Her

Aw. Laying it on a bit too thick here maybe. But don't we all want someone to make what we're doing seem worthwhile?

Leonard Cohen - Treaty

Tired, not quite awake, en route to work with my head against the bus window, Leonard caught me off guard and suddenly the tears were streaming. No special reason for my silent weeping, just everything summed up in that melody and those words. And then, just when I thought I'd gotten my defences up again, there's the reprise string version at the end of the album and afore long my eyes welled up again. It's crazy how he ended his entire recorded output with one of his most achingly beautiful songs ever.

I wish there was a treaty we could sign
I do not care who takes this bloody hill
I’m angry and I’m tired all the time
I wish there was a treaty between your love and mine

Fred Åkerström - Epistel nr 80: Liksom En Herdinna

The sublime, surreal and melancholic experience of listening to a Swedish 18th century pastoral love ballad whilst looking out on a rainy London from the top deck of a red bus.

06/17 - Hear The Sounds Of Creatures Upon The Earth

It is almost spring. 

Yma Sumac - Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)

Buds and beetles in the backyards of Brockley, Bermondsey and Battersea. A bumblebee broke my beauty sleep by its buzzing. Birds bellowed brashly from the bushes.
And fuck yeah for Yma Sumac and her five octaves!

Midlake - Winter Dies

Been a while since there was a guitar solo appreciation moment on the blog, but this germinating and sprawling screech picks up the mantle with honour.

Dawn Richard - The Louvre

When I'm alone in the studio, this is what I'm singing along to, serenading my drawings:

Ooo-oooh you're a work of art!

Rita Hayworth - Put The Blame On Mame

Gilda; what a movie! How I love watching old masterpieces in the cinema. Shivers all over from the cinematography, and from Rita Hayworth's exquisite performance. Decent? .......yeees....

Cat's Eyes - Everything Moves Towards The Sun

Just an absolute gorgeous song from last year.

05/17 - We've Galvanized The Squall Of It All

The first list from my new studio. Finally an inkling of being on track again. 

Bon Iver - 8 (circle)

Still a certain uneasiness. Where do I pick up? 22, A Million still seems to embody loss of direction in an avalanche of choices.

John Cale - Taking Your Life In Your Hands (M:FANS)

The clock is ticking...

Stina Nordenstam - Get On With Your Life

How about that transition eh? One of my favourite Swedish albums ever, with sublime arrangements and details in every single track. Those clarinet lines, those little bass flourishes... And that constant battle of defiance against anxiety.

They put a needle once in my spine
It took them so long to find it... 

Hot Chip - Atomic Bomb

I forgot to put a William Onyeabor track on my last list, to honour the passing of that fantastic man, so I'm doing it now. But in the shape of a cover. Which could be sacrilege, was it not for the fact that Hot Chip and Onyeabor is pretty much a marriage made in heaven. This is so fucking irresistible, I'm gonna explode!
Also, with North Korea edging us closer to nuclear war, why not have a dance about it? :S

Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping

It's ridiculous how much being in the studio infects my mood. I almost feel like things are going to be alright in the end! (of course they won't)

04/17 - Wake Up

Excuse me while I wallow in my current irrelevance. I'm not getting anything done. But here, at last, is another top 5. Wordless music again, perhaps symbolic of me failing to have anything worthwhile to say.

Julien Marshal - Insight XVIII

Let's start with where previous list left off, because I'm just growing more and more in love with this album (and its predecessor). So glad simple beauty like this still gets produced.

Hannah Peel - Octavia

Listening to a lot of stuff from The Quietus' 2016-list still, that I can't quite get my head around. This album made no sense to me, until this fantastic interlude just clicked.

Wu Man - Hangzhou Blues

Heck yeah! Play that... ..that... lute? !

The Comet Is Coming - Star Furnace

Notice a certain propelling chugging motion to the mid-three on this list? It's to make up for the fact that I'm going nowhere. Seriously though, this is punch-the-air-worthy weirdness right here. Undefinable.

Pèteris Vasks - Gramata Cellam: II. Dolcissimo

The benefit of having a top-class cellist as housemate is getting introduced to relatively obscure contemporary classical beauties like this, live in your living room. Heard Miriam rehearse this (with vocals and all) and it absolutely got under my skin. In a good way.

03/17 - Back In The Berenstain Timeline Zip

A list dedicated to Steve Bannon and his manchild clown.

Édith Piaf - Heaven Have Mercy

Heaven have mercy, indeed. The drama is thick and rapidly unfolding, like this fabulously over-the-top arrangement.

J.S. Bach - St. John Passion, BWV 245: Herr, unser Herrscher

Saw Tarkovsky's Mirror at the cinema. The ending, soundtracked by this epically intense chorus, is just devastating.

Billy Bragg & Wilco - All You Fascists

People all over this world are getting organised

Run The Jewels ft. Danny Brown - Hey Kids (Bumaye)

Say hello to the masters, on behalf of the classless masses...

Julien Marchal - Insight XXI

...and to end on a beautiful, graceful note. This entire album is just stunning.

02/17 - ...

Not that many lists so far 2017. It's because I'm suddenly working quite a bit. I've got plenty of selections though. Just not the time to blog them. Here's a left field instrumental list that's been evolving for a while:

Colin Potter - Knit Where?

I appreciate that in the wrong mindset, this slow build of carefully calibrated noises can become a little bit grating. In the right mindset however, they are totally tremendous sounds!

Fontän - Neanderthaler

Epic and uplifting.

Alexandre Desplat - Trains 4

Oh it makes me so very happy. This entire soundtrack.

Gilson et Malagasy - Valiha

Kieran Hebden keeps affecting my music taste with his splendid choices.

Tim Hecker - Black Phase

So beautifully ominous!

01/17 - You Can't Get Past Me, I'm Stuck In The Future

So. 2017. Fresh start. New colours. New determination.

I did 34 Top 5 lists last year. A far bit off one every week, but still, considering what a strange and busy year it was, I feel it shows a decent persistence. Will 2017 see my interest in making playlists wane, or will there be even more frequent updates this year? I don't dare to prophecy, but I'm currently listening through what's on other people's end of year lists and I feel as excited to discover new tunes as ever.

For the second year in a row I didn't do a best-of-the-year-list myself. I simply feel there's so much I still haven't gotten around to listen to, so it wouldn't be fair, plus a few of the obvious highlights are not on Spotify anyway.

So, the first list of the year is not a Best of 2016, but nevertheless, it is comprised of only 2016 tunes:

Run The Jewels - Call Ticketron

On the one hand, I knew it was going to be great. On the other, it seemed almost impossible that they could keep improving their formula three albums in a row without it becoming repetitive. But then RTJ3 blazed through my headphones and it seemed like the most obvious thing ever that El-P and Mike would actually be even better than before. No brakes, no lulls; this feels like the only album I need to power through another year. Killer Mike's baritone tongue-roller at 2:25 is the thing I would most like to see live this year.

Oransi Pazuzu - Lahja

I've missed my dose of experimental metal for a while. Luckily The Quietus turned me on to this rollicking powertrip.

David Bowie - Girl Loves Me

Trust David Bowie to include a song written completely in two different slang languages; one fictional (from Clockwork Orange) and one historical, on his farewell album. The sense of pain comes through strong though

Klara Lewis - Too

A track that opens up.

Marissa Nadler - All the Colours of the Dark

Best I've heard from Marissa Nadler in a long while. I've always loved her voice, but at times her songs tip over into wishy washy preciousness. Not so here. Balancing just on the right side of gorgeousness.

I must have made years of surrender

Oh and ok then, here are my five favourite albums of 2016. In no particular order. No surprises I guess: