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Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 7th March 2010 CE
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Popel Vooje
Popel Vooje
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Re: Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 7th March 2010 CE
Mar 08, 2010, 17:00
The Gang of Four - A Brief History of the Twentieth Century.
Picked this up for three quid in order to find out if their post-"Solid Gold" stuff was any good. The tracks from "Songs of the Free" are ok, but sadly it seems that they subsequently metamorphosed into Level 42 with lyrics by Latitia Sadier - and that's no more appealing to listen to than it sounds on cold paper.

Oneida - Secret Wars
I have my reservations about all this multiple triple malbum malarkey that they seem to have gotten into now - does the world really need a post-rock "Sandinista"? - but both this and "The Wedding" catch them at their far more economical peak.

Kraftwerk - s/t.
I like the vast majority of what Kraftwerk released up until the patchy "Electric Cafe", but nonetheless it would have been interesting to see how their music might have developed if they hadn't ditched acoustic instruments altogether. This album is the missing link between early Soft Machine, the Velvets and Neu!.

Billy Nicholls - Would You Believe
Britain's answer to the sunbaked harmony pop of the Millenium, Sagittarius and the Association, with a healthy dose of amphetamine-spiked English freakbeat chucked into the stew for good measure. "Feeling Easy" is almost gorgeous enough to momentarily turn into Wimbledon Broadway into Sunset Boulevard if you shut your eyes and ignore the choppy wind. There are a few relatively half-formed songs a couple of cheesy lyrical flourishes here, but hey, he was only 19 when he wrote this stuff.

The Plastic People of the Universe - Egon Bondy's Happy Hearts Club Banned
Did anyone else sound this dark and vitriolic in 1974? Even without being able to understand any of the lyrics it's palpable that this music was made under strained, oppressive circumstances as it crackles with a degree of biliousness that would rival early Black Flag, despite its obvious roots in the avant/jazz fusion of the Mothers of Invention and Family. Not only that, they seem - bizarrely - to have anticipated the sound of the Fall three years early with "Podivuhodny Mandarin" (although this must be pure coincidence as these recordings weren't circulated outside of Czechslovakia until 1978).

The Troggs - Hit Single Anthology
Intresting how the Troggs envolved from proto-punk snots to romantic psych-pop balladeers within the space of the three years covered by this compilation, and even more interesting that that they covered both styles equally well. Doesn't include "The Troggs Tapes" but you can't have everything.

Sagittarius - The Present Tense
I'm attempting to will spring into an early existence by broadcasting blissed out sunshine-pop vibes into the cosmos from within the rarifed environs of PV Towers, but to no avail so far.

The Russian Futurists - The Method of Modern love
Under-rated and at times utterly brilliant collection of downbeat lo-fi synthpop from Toronto-based Matthew Hart that somehow manages to recall both the Flaming Lips and the Human League in equal measure, with lyrics and hooks that rival the Magnetic Fields' Stephen Merrit in terms of their ability to convey dark sentiments in the guise of bittersweet melodiec confections. Sadly, their subsequent two albums aren't quite in the same league, but this alone should earn them at least a footnote in the annals of subterranean electronic pop.
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