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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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Playlists

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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Features

Feature: Six Degrees

There are several ways of dealing with requests that you do not like when you are working in a night club. Option one; go with the “I”™m not doing requests” theory. This is all well and good on a quiet night, but on a Friday or Saturday you do tend to get abused by the customers and then promptly fired by the management. Not so good. Option two; try saying “I”™ll try and fit it in if I”™ve got time.” Unfortunately though, people tend to figure this out after a while. After all, it is just a polite way of saying “bugger off that song is a load of crap”…

Option three; (an option most DJs avoid at all costs) Just play the damn track. Swallow your pride, dust off your NOW albums, and search. This does, unfortunately, create an all new problem to deal with. That problem being that at the moment you are playing Iron Maiden ”“ Run To The Hills, and the attractive blonde that you want to impress has asked you to play Britney Spears ”“ Toxic. Now obviously you can’t just play it next – that would be a hideous contrast of styles. So what do you do? This is where my game comes in, based on the movie game “The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” where in theory you can link any actor to Kevin Bacon within six movies. My game of “Six Degrees” is the challenge to link any one song to another within six other songs. For example,

Iron Maiden ”“ Run to the Hills has a similar metal feel to”¦

  1. Korn ”“ Freak on a Leash the Nu-Metal elements link to”¦
  2. Linkin Park ”“ Faint this more up beat track flows into”¦
  3. Hadouken! ”“ Liquid Lives the Nu-Rave dance style takes us to”¦
  4. Pendulum ”“ Granite the more poppy feeling guides us to”¦
  5. Bodyrox ”“ Yeah Yeah and this can finally lead to”¦

Britney Spears ”“ Toxic.

There we are, I have achieved it in five steps.

Now I thought, just for a bit of fun (there will be no prizes), I”™ll give you two songs to connect in the best way you can. Please reply with your entries in the comments section below and we will see what you all come up with. Lets all hope it is better than my attempt above…

Your two songs are Foo Fighters ”“ Monkey Wrench and Jordin Sparks featuring Chris Brown ”“ No Air.

Good Luck.
MOGGY

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Playlists

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!

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News

News: Cheltenham Underground This Friday

Yes folks it’s that time again! It’s time for me to bleat on about my local music scene and big up my favourite music promotion team The Cheltenham Underground.

After successfully returning from their summer sabbatical with a tremendous show, The Cheltenham Underground have hardly given us time to get our breath back before presenting their next event. Returning to the Frog and Fiddle on the 8th October, The Cheltenham Underground are promising an evening of upbeat, uplifting, dance-your-socks off music.

On the bill for the evening are Waiting For Kate with their brand of alternative ska rock which never fails to get the crowd moving. Get ready to skank the night away!

Next are Emmett Brown and we aren”™t talking about the character from Back to the Future here. A funk rock fuelled explosion of ska-esque reggae this band gives a quite unique live experience.

And finally there is Zen Elephant and apart from having one of the best names for a band that I have heard in a while they create an acoustic-based groove accompanied by passionate vocals, and rhythms which encompass elements of traditional folk, reggae and roots music.

Once again it looks like it”™s going to be a great evening and I”™ve got my dancing shoes (or at least my skanking boots) ready, so come on down and join me for a fun filled evening.

Doors 8pm, £4 entry/£3 NUS

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Reviews

Review: The Spinto Band – Moonwink

Autumn has an image. The season is in full swing as the darkened leafs and conkers litter the ground, the nights creep in, and everyone starts wearing scarfs again. But rarely does Autumn have a signature sound. For me, the Delaware-based outfit The Spinto Band will always feature on my Autumn soundtrack. There’s something about their uniquely jerky yet enchantingly melodic character that fits perfectly with the withering scene outside.

Quality exudes out of the band’s 2006 debut album, Nice And Nicely Done; an album that flittered between styles and themes with a quaint elegance. With the release of Moonwink in 2008, it is clear that the group have tried to go further into solidifying their signature sound, but it seems as though they somehow fall short of the charm of their first effort.

Moonwink isn’t bad by any means. With upbeat tracks like ‘Vivian, Don’t’, ‘Pumpkins And Paisley’ and ‘The Carnival’, this sound bursts into life in a flurry of energy. There are also some slight nods back to the more soul-filled moments on their debut, as seen on the sullen ‘They All Laughed’ and the jaunty yet oddly delicate ‘Summer Grof’. One stand out gem, the anthemic ‘Needlepoint’, crystallises exactly what The Spinto Band do best, and that’s exciting the ears of the listener. However, despite these high points, the direction that the band have taken appears to have corrupted their former, rich character. It’s as if Moonwink is the band’s attempt at being younthful and exciting, as opposed to Nice And Nicely Done which now acts as the soulful maturing album. Whether or not this was intentional, Moonwink fails to deliver the same chills and goosebumps that were present in the debut, for example on tracks like ‘Oh Mandy’ and ‘Direct To Helmet’.

Having said all that, Moonwink still manages to impress and delight, and in turn leaves you longing for more material from the band – the hallmark of an engaging album. So, one question remains: what else would feature on the perfect Autumn soundtrack? Any suggestions?

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Playlists

121 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 6th October 2010 – James TAE

‘Ow doos. Dave is busy getting ready to come to Londonium, so I’m taking over the site today. And, shamelessly, I’m putting up one of my own playlists, deal. This one is a list of the best music that, I feel, has come out of Scotland. Being half Scottish (you didn’t know that? I’m sure I mentioned it. No, I definitely mentioned it) I love the personality (some would say I have a bit of it) and the place has generated some really great music (Bagpipe Reggae aside). A couple of these bands I shall be seeing with Davey boy on Thursday, so keep an eye-out for a joint review. Between us we’ll no doubt be updating our Twitter feeds with our escapades.
James

Me Says:

I was late to the Frightened Rabbit party, but vocalist Scott Hutchison is a fantastic example of the humourous cynicism and straight-up ‘don’t mince your words’ vocabulary I love. The Twilight Sad take both bleakness and being in your face to even further extremes, and I have to say that their indie/folk/wall-of-noise sound has been owning my ear drums for the last couple of years. I even met the band after a show once, got them to open their own album with their teeth and then sign the front cover.

I encourage you to follow the narrative of the James Yorkston track – don’t worry, I found the opening lines particularly cliché-ridden too, but, by the final line of the track, hopefully you’ll see that that’s the point.

Mogwai don’t need any introduction, but for me they are, along with Godspeed You(!) Black Emperor(!) they are at the pinnacle of post-rock.

The overblown Biffy Clyro are brought right back down to earth with the frankness of the hilarious Arab Strap.

Closing the playlist, I know Beck isn’t Scottish, but he feels this Boards Of Canada (who are Scottish) remix of Broken Drum is the best remix he’s ever heard, and I’m inclined to agree with him.

Hope you’re cracking out the Whisky and shortbread after that. Enjoy.

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Reviews

Review: This Town Needs Guns – Animals

Animals

This Town Needs Guns are an Oxford based outfit formed by Stuart Smith and Tim Collis in 2004. Several band members and a few moderately successful E.P.s later they are still touring the world over and in 2008 released their debut full album, Animals. This album brings you 13 (well 12½) tracks of their unashamedly experimental math rock. Not always an easy genre to listen to but interesting none the less. The album’s tracks are all named after different animals but this has very little bearing on the content of the lyrics. While they were writing the album they named all their tracks after animals as temporary placeholders with every intention of giving them real names before release but in the end they just did not bother. Anyway on to the album itself…

One of the first things you notice about this album is that the band appears to have mislaid their distortion pedals. This leaves the music very stripped back – you might even say pure – which is astonishing when you realise how much is actually going on with the guitars and the huge amount of notes that they cram into each track. The meandering guitar parts dance around the fretboards throughout the whole album, which is fine until it begins to feel that you have been just listening to one long track rather than 13 different ones.  The only let up in this never ending barrage is the final track, Zebra, which replaces the now tiresome guitar with what sounds like a Glockenspiel and some discordant strings. The string parts feel like they have been carried on from the previous track, Rabbit, as the guitar fades away towards the end of this track and leaves the strings alone – it has a definite reminiscence of Damien Rice. This is by no means a bad thing but is all unfortunately too little to late to rescue the album from becoming awfully samey.

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Playlists Reviews

Feature: Tomorrow’s Sounds Today

Hi everyone, and welcome to another addition of Tomorrow”™s Sounds Today where we at Spotisfaction Incorporated fire up the kettle and brew a hot steaming mug of the best music picked from the recent additions to the “What’s new” section on Spotify. This week I’ve come up with the provisional tagline “October 2010: So you can teach an old dog new tricks!” as it seems to be a significant number of the big releases this week are new works from artists of the past which in some cases we had feared were gone for good.

Robert Plant ”“ Band Of Joy – Earlier in the year we reviewed “Angel Dance”, a new single from Robert Plant, and it was well received. Fast forward a few months and we now have Band Of Joy which is thankfully as good as the single which preceded it. It”™s been some time since we”™ve seen some work from Plant, the last piece being a duet with Alison Krauss back in 2008. I am pleased to say this album ticks all the expected boxes and doesn”™t disappoint. It is clearly a solo effort but it does have that unmistakable Zeppelin flavour running throughout a number of tracks, and it manages to not sound like a weak, watered down solo Zepp or some sort of strange pastiche. Kudos.

Manic Street Preachers ”“ Postcards From A Young Man – A welcome return for Blackwood”™s favourite sons, and something strange seems to have happened… the Manics seem to be happy?  I”™m not saying every album of theirs is a wrist-slitting emo depress-fest, but there is an unmistakable positive energy to this work compared to some of the previous angst-writhen or politically charged pieces. It is not surprising, then, that in some of the music press both Mr. Wire and Bradfield have said they are shooting for this album to be more radio focused in order to gain airplay. With some heavyweight guests in the form of John Cale, Duff McKagan, and both Ian McCulloch and Tim Roth on the cover, the pieces are in the right place and the album doesn”™t disappoint.

Neil Young ”“ Le Noise – At a scant 8 tracks long I”™m not sure if this should be classified as an album or an EP.  With that in mind the tracks are a good length so overall there is meat on the bones. Whilst at its core the music is classic Young, the title of the piece is not just lip service – there is a definite “noise” element to the production without breaching into genres that his vocals are perhaps not suited to. At times the split between low tuned, distortion heavy, almost grungy guitar acts as a little too much of a difference to the high, soulful but almost reedy vocals, but thankfully this never ultimately detracts from the music.

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Playlists

Girls, Girls, Girls

Morning all. I’m only in the office for Monday and Tuesday this week before I head out to London for a spot of schmoozing with industry-types (read: going to visit Spotisfaction editor James TAE for his birthday, bless’im), so this week will be a bit manic. If any of you fine folks are in London this week, though, let me know on Twitter and we’ll go for a drink or something.

Today’s playlist is by staff-member Simon Mogg and is entitled “Girls, Girls, Girls”. Hope you enjoy as much as I am currently.

Cheers,
Dave

Moggy Says:

I do not like Female Vocallists. I cant really explain why, I think it could be the genral lack of gravellyness (clearly not a word). At least thats what I thought until I started making a list of the songs with female vocals that I do like. Turns out there’s quite a few.

I love this Justice track. Best one on the album in my opinion. In the Bodyrox track I like the way Luciana’s voice kind of cracks at the end of some of the songs lines. When I was VP of my university Rock Music Society we booked Zombina and the Skeletones to support [spunge] at our alternative May Ball. I’ve liked them ever since. Live performance is particularly good. Look forward to seeing them again in November. Yeah Yeah Yeahs = Awesome. Need I say more.

I liked No Doubt as a spotty teenager (partly because of a big crush on Gwen Stefani). Then they went away from their Ska style and I lost interest. Having said that, going back to Tragic Kingdom is always a pleasure. The Shangri-Las were my mothers teenage angst put to music so she used to play them a lot. Thats why they feature here. This song sticks in your mind like you wouldnt believe.

I really like the Noisettes at the moment. Wild Young Hearts has a particularly nice retro feel to it and the track I’ve picked is my favourite. I first heard the Tori Amos track in an episode of The West Wing and thought it was beautifully haunting. Finally, Skin’s vocal in all Skunk Anansie songs has such passion and power that I can’t help but be impressed.

Well, enjoy my selection of girls. Any other recommendations of quality female vocal would be greatly appreciated. Put them in the comments box below.

Ta, MOGGY.

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Features

Feature: Gig Rig

Howdy folks, and happy binary Friday (for those of you who are geeky enough to know what that means)! Another fortnight has passed, which means that it’s time for the lowdown on the best live music coming to a stage near(ish) you.

Giants of the dance world, Faithless, will be hitting some of the larger venues around the country in December, after returning with their sixth album, The Dance, earlier this year.

A couple of smaller bands that have been doing the rounds lately in the blogosphere are Sleigh Bells and Warpaint, and you can catch them both at some of the smaller gig venues in Bristol and London later this month and in November.

Hit the link to see the full gig listing…

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Playlists

119 Spotisfaction Friday – 1st October 2010 – Dave Christensen

Happy Friday, kids. Another week, another inbox full of cracking submissions from you lovely people. If you’ve recently started reading/listening to Spotisfaction and you’d like to get involved, send us your playlists, reviews, articles, news and anything else you find interesting. We’re always looking for the odd one-off piece, and we’re also looking for a couple of regular staff members, too. Let us know if you’re interested.

Today’s playlist is by Dave Christensen and is entitled “Accent”. I really enjoyed the blurb today, and I’m finding it quite fun Googling interviews with some of these singers to see just what they sound like in real life. Thanks hugely for the submission!

Take care, folks.
Dave

Dave Says:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7922639/Rock-n-roll-best-sung-in-American-accents.html

I”™m a scientist and I hate it when science is reported badly or when bad science is reported. This article from the Daily Telegraph really irritated me because it was obviously rubbish. The word “science” isn”™t actually used in the article and the researcher doesn”™t claim to be a scientist, but it is written by their science correspondent and is found in the science section on the website. So it is reporting the work as science, which, I feel, is unfairly associating those researchers doing useful things with their time with people like Andy Gibson. If you can”™t be bothered to read the article (and it”™s only short so you should), it”™s suggesting that it”™s more natural to sing pop or rock songs with an American accent and that it”™s actually difficult to sing in your own accent. Of course it is possible to put on accents when singing, like the “Mockney” of Lily Allen or my own imitation of whoever I”™m singing along with, but where the spoken voice of a singer has a similar sound to the singing voice, surely this would suggest a natural accent? Obviously not, so here are a load of fakers with accents as bad as Dick van Dyke”™s.

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Features

Feature: Do You MP3?

Hi guys, I have a question for you: Do You MP3?

The other day I was performing some long overdue maintenance on my PC when it occurred to me that the 70-80GB worth of MP3s I have on my hard drive haven’t been touched now for quite some time. A quick peruse of my programs showed that Winamp (my long-time MP3 program of choice) wasn’t even installed on my latest OS install, something I had done some months previous.

I wondered at that point what I should do with them. Should I leave them on one of my drives taking up valuable space that could be used for more useful data like educational videos [Editor’s note: “educational vids” indeed… ahem], or should I pop them into offline storage? Another thought occurred – would it really be a big deal if I deleted them altogether?

It was the fierce protection of my MP3 collection that got me making backups in the first place, a process that I have long gotten out of the habit of, and this leads me to the nub of the matter:

Is the humble MP3 already a dying format? We’ve all been there – I’m sure if many of us went up into our lofts and garages we would find VHS cassettes or (if you’re an early adopter) Betamax tapes, we’ll find old C90s, minidiscs, and maybe even the odd 8-track. Do any of us still have the devices on which to play them? I would say in most cases probably not, so why do we hold onto them? Is it the aesthetic value? Is it habit or is it a strange notion of duty for all the pleasure they gave us?

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Playlists

118 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 19th September 2010 – Mike Sheldrick

It’s a hectic day here, so this playlist is a bit late, apologies. But what a playlist it is from Mike Sheldrick today. Keep the submissions coming, we love hearing them and letting them be heard. Here’s Mike’s blurb for his playlist Road Trip.

Mike Says:

And hello again, my friends. And in this episode, its all about turning the volume up to eleven, windows down and sunroof open. Yes, folks its time for a great Spotisfaction Road Trip. So without much further ado lets fill up, and get rolling.

And off we go, with the epicness of Mr Meatloaf (or at least a tribute). Nothing better to get the spirits up than a classic rock anthem. The rest of our journey will continue in very much the same vain as we carry on on our Road to Hell. We get a bit dancey with Hey Boy, Hey Girl and Insomnia, intense enough to keep our motors engaged. And so onto our little sing-a-long section. There comes at time, on every journey, for reflection, with that in mind, the always pleasant ”˜On Your Way”™ will soothe the soul.

We carry on our little trip with a few tracks with a bit more energy to keep us going. With the exciting riffs from the Aliens and the Foo Fighters, you may end up needing to check the speedo. Sadly I could not find The Arcade Fire version of Keep the Car Running, but I found the next best thing. A cover that I feel best represents this finger tapper. And of course, all good trips must come to an end, and I think a nice way to conclude our mini excursion would be with the poetic genius of Drive by Incubus. Have a safe trip everyone, and send us a postcard!

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News

News: Counter Culture

London’s 4-month multi-arts festival Counter Culture finally opened its doors for launch night on Friday to a capacity crowd and a guest appearance by the one-and-only Suggs.

Held in a pop-up venue (formely Jacks but now happily Counter Culture for the next 4 months) under London Bridge, the project held a first class night featuring performances from A.Human, Viva City and Man Like Me (joined by the aforementioned Suggs) and The Subs. In the second room were DJ sets from Sunday Girl, Anti Chris, Hatesy, The Invisible, Rotating Leslie and RightClickSaveAs, the place was busy until the early hours of the morning and the organisers can be immensely pleased that the project kicked off with such success. I’ll include some photos from launch night once they’ve been published.

The party continued on Saturday with the Counter Culture house DJs, and on Sunday was the first weekly film night, with a free showing of Withnail & I (whilst supping White Russians and eating the free nibbles). Sundays will, from next week, by hosted by Short & Sweet, showing short films, music videos and animations from a range of known and unknown directors.

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