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Feature: Tomorrow’s Sounds Today

Hello and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow’s Sounds Today, where, as always, our crack team at Spotisfaction have crossed palms with silver, tossed runes, followed black cats and polished crystal balls till our fingers were mere nubs to bring you the latest and greatest releases on the Spotify shelves.

Also I’m afraid I’d also like to have a little moan but best to get it out of the way before the good music! I’m not sure if this is a function of Spotify or their wrangling with the evils that are record executives (I have my suspicions but at the moment they are unproven), but a number of the newer releases I’ve been listening to recently are starting to have that growing trend of only including part of the full release. It can’t be my account as I’m currently running the full premium (mostly so I can listen on my iPad) so I can only assume its deliberate. My concern is that some bright spark at (x) records has decided that if we cant hear the full album on Spotify, we’ll rush to the nearest MP3 vendor or better still, the killer margin of a high street record store to buy their wares. Can I just say, if any of you are listening, no this won’t! It will make me more likely to look online for the rest of the album. Once I have made the decision to spend my hard earned on streaming services I am not buying your overpriced plastic discs! Recent articles have shown in some territories, Spotify makes more for the artist than regular sales, stop robbing us of half the album!

”¦. and breathe…

Onto the good stuff! This week we have a nice mix of genres for you. In the lead up to Christmas I’m sure we’ll start to see the compilations and seasonal albums ramp up, but for the moment we’re still getting normal releases thankfully!

UNKLE ”“ Where Did The Night Fall – Opinion appears to be divided as to whether the current releases by UNKLE are as good as their early work, personally I’m a fan of all their albums but I’m sure the debate could rage in the comments section :) This album was an easy choice for me following my slightly unhealthy repeated plays of one of its tracks, Follow Me Down which reminds me of early Sneaker Pimps. This record contains some great guess artists and a good range of subtle blending of styles which for me just create a really complete sound and a really solid record. To those new to the artist, there is nothing about this record that will disappoint, but to those fans of the old, I’ll leave you to make your own minds up!

Rumer ”“ Seasons Of My Soul ”“ Considering the amount of coverage and hype Rumer has had, its hard not to remember this is still her debut album. Countless comparisons to the likes of Karen Carpenter are easy enough to hear in both her voice and the tunes, but at the same time these comparisons feel a little lazy. One of two of the tracks certainly seem to have been written to show that style of vocal of which she’s more than capable of, but she also has enough range to be strong on her own and not just be seen as a clone of a former favourite of the collected consciousness. This album might feel safe to some but I see it as a great example of someone playing to their strengths. It’s a perfect sunny morning, coffee and danish, feel good about yourself record and I think there are days we all need that.

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132 Spotisfaction Monday – 1st November 2010 – Woody Whyte

Morning kids. I hope your weekend was as awesome as mine – spent my Saturday screaming like a little girl at Alton Towers, and then spent an extra hour in bend on Sunday. Bliss. Now though, I’m hoarse as hell and work today is a bit of a shock to the system, I’ll be honest. No matter, though, we have another playlist to get us through the Monday blues!

Today’s playlist is by staff-member Woody Whyte, and is curiously entitled “In Bed With Grace Jones”. Incredibly camp playlist today, sir. I approve.

See you folks on Wednesday,
Dave

Woody Says:

So, I’m not entirely sure what I was thinking when I came up with the title of this playlist. Obviously, I was thinking of Grace Jones, but this playlist isn’t a list of songs I would play her if we did happen to end up in bed together, which lets face it, is probably unlikely. But anyway, this playlist is more a collection of songs which, after listening to ‘Slave to the Rhythm’, got my brain all excited about the prospect of a playlist of new wave/electronic/pop and everything inbetween music from the 80s and early 90s.

I would recommend you only play this to other people if they already expect you to play socially awkward music at the complete wrong time. Otherwise, listen in your room and freak out like you’re Kate Bush on acid for an hour. It will do your soul wonders…

Woody x

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131 Spotisfaction Friday – 29th October 2010 – Dave Christensen

I’m not sure if it’s WordPress being annoying, me failing, or people not refreshing their browsers before editing stuff (*cough*), but for some reason today’s post reverted back to it’s pre-edit version and we lost all the changes. So here, again, is Dave Christensen with his “2009” playlist. Thanks, fella.

Hopefully this now works!
Dave

Dave C Says:

Ahhh 2009, that was a good year, wasn”™t it? Nostalgia ain”™t what it used to be…

We have two great features on Spotisfaction ”“ Tomorrow”™s Sounds Today and Classics Collected. The first tries to introduce us to a new selection of albums with some clever connection. The other forces us to “blow the dust off some records” that we might not have heard for a while or might have missed. ‘Why is there no middle ground?’ I think, while I struggle to find a niche for myself as a new contributor here. Well, maybe I”™ve found it, or maybe this is just a single playlist. Yeah, it”™s just a playlist.

So, I made a massive playlist of albums that were released in 2009 and that I listened to loads last year, but not much since. Then I listened to the lot and narrowed it down to an appropriately sized playlist. I think these are some great tracks from mostly brilliant albums (not Phrazes For The Young, that was awful). I hope you enjoy it. If not, make your own damn 2009 playlist. It took bloody ages.

Dave

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130 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 27th October 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Afternoon all. Sorry for the website outage this morning – our provider had a bit of a hiccup (they managed to lose an entire datacentre, bless ’em), so we were out for most of the morning. Back now, though (uh, obviously otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this…), so apologies for the delay to the playlist today.

We’re running a little short on playlists at the moment – if you have an idea for a concept; if you have a story you’d like to tell with music; or if you just want to chuck a bunch of random tracks into Spotify, please send them our way and we’ll publish them.

Today’s playlist comes from Kev Atkinson and is entitled “The A-Z”. Brilliant concept, and a very enjoyable playlist. Thanks fella!

Laters,
Dave

Kev Says:

As a little side project on my personal blog I”™ve been creating a series of playlists with artists starting with the letter A and working my way towards Z. When I started on this project I quickly hit upon the problem of what to do with bands that began with “The”, did I ignore the “The” or did they all count as Ts? Well the decision I made was to discount any artist beginning with “The” and create a separate playlist for them. Once I started on this idea I took it one step further; could I do a complete playlist of artists beginning with The and then the following words going from A to Z? Well I came close and thanks to James for coming up with an I as I was completely stumped by that one.

Kev

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Feature: Classics Collected

Hello and welcome to another edition of Classics Collected, where we at Spotisfaction Towers go all Time Team on you and dig up some classic record relics (and Dave would make a good Tony Robinson).

Presented to the experts for valuation this week (purely for insurance purposes, naturally) are a nice mix of styles from Rock through Hip-Hop and Dance to the Tarzan and Jane of Jungle. I’m sure each one will come back from auction as a bobby dazzler and we hope you enjoy them too. As always, make good use of our comments system, let us know our hits and misses and if you have any suggestions for future editions, be they albums, artists or themes, then let us know!

Stereophonics ”“ Word Gets Around – Deluxe Edition – Our first choice this week is an album I’ve long known that I would be including at some stage, but my hand has been forced by its recent re-issue (or at least re-inclusion to Spotify) as a deluxe edition. With many of our choices, the albums represent a great deal to those of us, and indeed to those of you who were of a certain age at a certain time. This album in itself represents a great piece of songwriting, let alone as a debut, with each song expertly spinning its own tale of life. Its impact to my social scene at the time was huge and, as a result, this album and its follow-up will always have a special place in my heart.

Ocean Colour Scene ”“ Moseley Shoals – This album was chosen as it had a similar impact to the above at the time of its release. Helped a little by heavy use on the popular show TFI Friday I’m sure, and spawing a large number of songs, this was a massive commercial breakthrough for the group. It started a miniature mod revolution on the back of it and, for a few summers, you didn’t have to go far to find coverage of Ocean Colour Scene.

DJ Shadow ”“ Endtroducing… – This artist has a massive heritage in the hip-hop production scene and has worked with more artists over his career than I’ve had pointless arguments on internet forums. This was an important breakthrough album for DJ Shadow and as a piece of musical work created almost entirely on samples and loops, it inspired a massive number of bedroom breakbeat Beethovens.

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129 Spotisfaction Monday – 25th October 2010 – James TAE

Goood moorning Spotisfactionnn, gooood moorning eeverybody.

Hope you’re all well. London is both sunny and absolutely freezing at the moment, I think it’s going to be another iced-over winter. I’m looking forward to the days when I don’t have to come to work because of it. Then I can work on playlists all day, which is why we’re all here, right? Of course, you don’t want to hear from me all the time, and truth be told neither do most people here at the site, so make sure you get your best (and worst) playlists submitted to us. Check the Submission Guide on how to do so. Keep those playlists a-comin’!

My playlist today is entitled Poets Union, and it’s a collection of songs featuring my favourite verses, lines, spits and flows. You might look at the list and think that there are some dubious choices, but hopefully I present here an appreciable bunch of lyrics and performances. By way of a blurb, I think I’ll quote a favourite line or two from each of the songs. You can just leave this here and listen to the playlist, or read on for these snippets from the songs.

Take it easy
James

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128 Spotisfaction Friday – 22nd October 2010 – Paul ‘Fozz’ Foster

Morning kids. Got a pretty feature-packed day for you today which hopefully explains why the playlist is ever-so-slightly earlier than normal. Some good news to kick off with: Spotisfaction HQ is getting crowded these days as we’ve had a couple of newbies join our staff ranks – say hi to Dave Christensen, Rob Tite and Tom Girard. Look out for stuff from these fine chaps in the near future. We’re always looking for more content, just so you know, so get in touch if you want to join our illustrious ranks and write for Spotisfaction.

In other news, James TAE keeps stealing the biscuits, and Kev smells distressingly of booze – thank God it’s the weekend and I can get out of here! In the build up to escape-time, today’s playlist by Paul “Fozz” Foster is, frankly, stuffed full of relentless energy and has gotten me completely pumped up for the weekend. I’m sat here listening to The Bloody Beetroots and dancing around like a loon. Wahsomes, kudos to you Fozz.

Catch you next week, amigos.
Dave

Fozz Says:

There’s no particular theme to this playlist, it’s just a bunch of tracks that have caught my attention over the last few weeks. It does work best listened to at high volume though, at the risk of irritating your neighbours/housemates/parents.

I absolutely love each track for various different reasons so it’s hard to pick any stand-outs, I just hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I have.

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126 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 20th October 2010 – Simon Mogg

So, another Wednesday. I think Monday gets a bad rep, to be honest – all weekdays are pretty crap, not just Monday. And on that lovely note, happy birthday to contributor Ben Mercer! Love!

Anyway… Today’s playlist is by Simon Mogg and is entitled “The West Wing”. I’ll be honest, I never really watched it. I may need to bug you for the box sets…

Later!
Dave

Moggy Says:

There have been seven seasons of The West Wing. I’ve watched them all… a lot. I love everything about it. I think all elements of the show are of tremendous quality and that includes the choice of music. Other than W.G. Snuffy Walden’s incidental music, they pick a mixed selection of tracks to complement the episode that they are included in. Many tracks are very emotive, some very strange but most are just very good. Here is a playlist of some of the best from all seven seasons, in order.

The Yo-Yo Ma cello piece is absolutely beautiful. I very much like the tone of the cello. The Dire Straits track used at the end of season two really swells the mood of the season finale and helps create a dramatic climax. Tori Amos‘s very breathy version of ‘I don’t like Mondays’ is coupled with a storyline about a bomb in a school and adds a haunting feeling that can bring a tear to the eye. I could talk at length about the rest of the tracks as well but it would be dull for all of those who don’t know the show. I will just leave you with this advice: even if you skip the rest of the playlist, at least listen to Massive Attack, Steve Miller Band and the two Chopin piano pieces they are all brilliant in their own way.

Hit the link for info on which tracks came from which seasons.

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Feature: Tomorrow’s Sounds Today

Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Tomorrow’s Sounds Today, where we at Spotisfaction Towers exercise our inner domestic goddess and serve you hot, delicious spoonfuls of the latest and greatest tunes fresh from the Spotify Fridge.

A good mix of music this week, from the eclectic jazz of Afrocubism to current commercial darlings Kings of Leon. As always, we hope you enjoy our choices but I would welcome all your feedback on the highlights, lowlights and slow burners this week. Did we miss a glaringly obvious release? Let us know and it might make a revisited page or even warrant its own full length review! The comment section is below and remember that your voice empowers you (but please be polite). And so, to business!

Kings Of Leon ”“ Come Around Sundown ”“ I’ll be honest and say I’m not the world’s biggest Kings of Leon fan, but they are still very popular despite this, so I am sure that news of the album will be well received in some camps. Musically, this record doesn’t sound a huge departure from earlier work and that’s by no means a bad thing. I almost get the feeling they’ve played it safe, ensuring they hit the same target as before. It’s a competent, enjoyable album but I fear the only negative, if there is one, is that there is not the immediate impact that the singles of its predecessor had.

Belle & Sebastian ”“ Write About Love – So out with the politically neutral review of Kings of Leon, and into the selfish all-praising review of one of my favourite groups… Let’s not say we at Spotisfaction are not about balance! According to my Spotify, all the current Belle & Sebastian albums are 2010 releases so I suspect some contractual wrangling in the background or a mass re-issue. Earlier in the year we spoke about Push Barman To Open Old Wounds and how much I still enjoy listening to that record. This new LP is definitely a shift in direction but not a full-on change of lanes. It feels less relective and has a more dreamy shine to it, for want of a better description. Musically it is as strong as ever and I think will go down just as well with fans.

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126 Spotisfaction Monday – 18th October 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Morning kids. Hopefully everyone had a fab weekend? Mine was pretty good. Saw MF Doom on Saturday night, and he was completely mind-blowingly incredible, as expected. The downside is that I’m completely pooped and I don’t really feel like I got enough sleep this weekend. Therefore, I’ve decided I’m going to sleep at my desk today. If you’re passing, bring me hot chocolate and biscuits, yeh?

Today’s playlist is by staff-member Kev Atkinson, and is entitled “Two Pigs”. A perfect hangover cure for a Monday that arrived far too quickly. Cheers Kev!

Later,
Dave

Kev Says:

This playlist is named after a nightclub in Cheltenham. The Two Pigs used to be one of my favourite places to go at the end of a night out, as it was a good place to hear a nice mix of alternative music, and you could drink and dance until a silly time in the morning.

The problem is that the last few times I”™ve been there the music selection has been too tame, too mainstream, and it feels like they have been pandering to the masses a bit too much. This is why I haven”™t been there for a while.

What I have done with this playlist is put together a few tracks and artists that I would like to hear more of (or in quite a few cases, at all) when I go to Two Pigs – basically this is the sort of thing you”™d hear if I had a DJ spot there!

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125 Spotisfaction Friday – 15th October 2010 – Dave Prowse

Morning folks. This week has been brutally busy for me – my wife and I told friends and family that we’re expecting a baby (woop!), so our feet haven’t really hit the floor between doctors appointments, dinner dates and showing people ultrasound photos. Fun times! Good thing I had a playlist in reserve, eh?

This weekend a few of us are going to see the DOOMTASTIC tour hit Bristol (tomorrow night, in fact), and it’s going to be mindblowing. MF Doom (plus his myriad alter egos), supported by Introducing (a nine-piece orchestra performing DJ Shadow‘s Endtroducing) and a DJ set by Jamie xx. Whoa. Tickets are still available, and I think I’ve got room in my car from the Gloucester area – let us know if you’re coming!

Love, etc.
Dave

My Blurb:

Today’s theme is movie scores. Each of the tracks are either from a film, inspired by a film (or vice versa) or were written by people famous for their film scores. I really enjoyed pulling this one together, and it’s amazing how you can find virtually any genre of music in a film somewhere. The thing I love about film music is that I always recollect the particular scene or moment in the film as I’m listening to the track, so this playlist was a real treat for me.

Hit the read more link for a list of where each track is from.

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124 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 13th October 2010 – Simon Mogg

Morning kids. Quite a busy one today, so I’ll keep it brief. If anyone is going to see Doom (with support from Dangermouse – can anyone say Dangerdoom tracks?!) in Bristol this weekend, a few Spotisfaction staffers will be in attendence – let’s get our brew on, y’all.

Today’s playlist is by staff member Simon “Moggy” Mogg and is entitled “Super Dooper Upbeat Happy Songs”, which I think is probably the best playlist title I’ve ever read.

Peace and love, and other stuff like that.
Dave

Moggy Says:

Here is my playlist of happy songs to make you dance… DANCE MONKEY BOY DANCE! Sorry about that, got a little over excited. So, these tracks are not all ‘good’ as such (I highlight Professor Green for example) but that does not necessarily matter. They are all bouncy and unpretentious, and all round good fun (in my opinion).

Young MC‘s ‘Bust A Move’ is a classic hip hop track and one I like because it is not about bling and it is not entirely full of swearing, which makes a nice change. I am always quite surprised when I enjoy a Black Eyed Peas song. The fact that Travis Barker has had his hot little hands all over this one doesnt hurt. Think I might have a bit of a man-crush on him.

I remember ‘Boombastic’ from the claymation Levi’s Advert in the 90s. Later in life I remember it being played in clubs and finding it hilarious watching men and women alike gyrating to it. Brilliant. ‘Groove Is In The Heart’ is just a purely brilliant track as is the Fatboy Slim remix of ‘Body Movin’. I think it is a vast improvement from the version off the Hello Nasty album.

So there it is. Enjoy it all. I know I will.
MOGGY

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Feature: Classics Collected

Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Classics Collected, where we at Spotisfaction have a little dig around the archives and bring out some classic records you may not have listened to for a little while. Whilst we always like to hail in the new, sometimes it’s good to blow the dust off an old record and enjoy the wonderful sounds you may have forgotten.

This week’s edition is an all-female edition with four great female artists to tempt your musical palette. In each case I’ve picked what I believe to be their breakthrough record, but for each example, to be frank, there is such an excellent catalogue of work you could pick any one of them and just enjoy their back catalogue for the day!

Tori Amos ”“ Under the Pink – Not her first album but in my mind the best of her early work, classic pianist and songwriter Tori has a lot in common with one of our later choices today, Joni Mitchell. Her sheer volume of work means you could probably spend the rest of the week enjoying her sound alone, she has kept up an unbelievable standard in the work. Whilst not as adaptive as, say, Madonna in changing sounds and trends,  as the core dynamic remains there still is plenty of growth in her work. This album is relatively stripped down compared to some of her later work and focuses on her technical talent on the piano and her simply gorgeous voice.

Björk ”“ Debut ”“ The album that started it all, before the increasingly eccentric costumes, the airport bust-ups and the media battles. This album demonstrated her talent so well it became an instant hit and was a clear disconnect from her previous work with the Sugarcubes. Whilst a musician from a young age, this work has some real human qualities and subtleties that come across as an honest, driven debut from someone out to show her talent. It spawned a number of popular singles and shows a surprising complexity in places with a simple heart in others. It’s not hard to see why it was popular at the time and despite some of the oddness that followed, it remains a timeless work today.

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123 Spotisfaction Monday – 11th October 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Morning everyone. Sorry for leaving you high and dry last week, but London was fun and mucho dancing occurred. Success, in my opinion. Errors/The Twilight Sad was one of the very best gigs I’ve been to, ever, and I’m still completely overwhelmed four days later. We’ll have a review for you shortly.

Just a quick reminder that we’re always after your content. If you would like to create a playlist, write a review or come up with an interesting feature, we’d love to hear from you. If the one-off thing doesn’t appeal and you’d like to get involved as a fully-fledged staff member, we’re also recruiting a couple of people to regularly create content for us.

Today’s playlist is by senior contributor Kev Atkinson, and is entitled “Heartfelt and Heartbroken”. It’s a beautiful playlist, and a thoroughly challenging listen. Thanks Kev.

See you guys soon,
Dave

Kev Says:

Ok I”™m going to get straight to the point: despite the first track in this playlist being Happiness by Grant Lee Buffalo, this is not a happy playlist. I wasn”™t in a good place when I started creating this playlist, and to be honest, the first drafts were even worse than the finished article.

What I”™ve ended up with is a collection of songs that either have some deep meaning for me or that I find just touch that deep part of my soul. And because of that, I”™m not going to go into detail as to the individual meanings of any of the tracks.

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122 Spotisfaction Friday – 8th October 2010 – Mike Sheldrick

Morning folks. I’m posting this via the magic of scheduled publishing… wooooo… let me know what Friday’s like yeah? I’ll keep it short and sweet today, since I’m away galivanting in London-town. Today’s playlist comes from staff member Mike Sheldrick and is entitled “Easy Sunday”. Enjoy!

Love,
Dave

Mike Says:

Well hello again my friends. Today, the aim of the game is to relax. It seems to me that in this ever rushed, fast paced lifestyle we find ourselves in, seldom do we make time to sit down, relax and enjoy a little bit of quiet time. With this in mind, I have selected a small collection of tunes with the simple task of soothing the soul. So, I hope you find yourself in a position to perhaps put your feet up, relax, and let the gentle tones of today”™s track list refresh your mind.

We start with Lionel Richie, and I think you”™ll agree, a very ”˜Easy”™ way to introduce our theme. And in turn, I can think of no better way to conclude than with What a Wonderful World. Last time I heard it, myself and my better half were on a bus, on a daytrip from Rhodes town on the way back to our apartment. Without wishing to sound like a total wettie, it literally brought a tear to my eye. And I must say, it is delightful to be reminded of the power of music from time to time. But anyways, enough from me, I”™ll let Gomez and co speak for themselves. So yes, it may be autumn, but hang it. Open the window, for ”˜Here Comes The Breeze”™! Enjoy!