Hailing from the town of Bristol, England Massive Attack are part of the Bristol invasion into the early nineties music scene blending electronic, ambient, jazz, hip-hop , soul etc into a new sound called trip-hop. Along with fellow Bristalites Portishead and Tricky, they really revolutionised the sound of England and did as much, if not more (in my opinion a lot more), than the whole BritPop explosion did during the mid-nineties to bring international attention to England’s music once again.

Safe From Harm was the third single from their debut album Blue Lines and is probably not the most well known song, we’ll have to give that to Unfinished Symphony, from what is a truely exceptional album in terms of production, experimentation and courage, yes courage in a sense of bravery to try something new. I’ve alway’s liked Massive Attack, even up to this day so I was somewhat dissappointed when I saw them live at the electric picnic 07 but that was probably more because of the high expectation from me as opposed to the performance of the band itself.

With vocalist Shara Nelson at the helm and 3D providing the ‘hop’ element the song’s beat is heavily, if not totally, sampled from the great jazz Panamanian drummer Billy Cobham’s song Stratus, well the begining of Cobham’s song anyway. The song quickly gets into the rythm with great intent. The song always reminds me of a human’s or animal’s instinct to protect those they love when Nelson sings the line

‘if you hurt what’s mine, I’ll sure as hell retaliate’

and could be extended even further to include inanimate objects that are very important to someone. To me the line totally encapsulates human behaviour in society in general whether they are trying to protect loved ones or trying to surive. The line is almost a Darwinian statement and is repeated a number of times throughout the song. Another line that I like in the song is

‘I was lookin’ back to see if you were lookin back at me To see me lookin back at you’

The line doesn’t necessarily hold any meaning for me but instead it’s the dichotomy betweens 3D’s rapper’s voice and Nelson’s beautiful voice that intrigue’s me and really bring the song to a higher level. Here is the origional video of the song which is itself pretty cool.

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A short post today because the chosen song is an instrumental from US based ambient composer Eluvium and for me at least the instrumental kinda speaks for itself. Its a really soft, inspiring piece of work that is best played in those quiet times when you don’t want any noise or distractions. For me this is what really defines the difference between tv and music in that you can actually concentrate really well while listening to music but the same cannot be said if you have the tv on in the background.

I’ve only ever heard the first two albums by Eluvium Lambent Material and the second album where the title of this song gets its name from An accidental memory in the case of death and both albums are really different. The second album the only intrument used is the piano whereas there are many intruments on the first album. Apparently the entire second album was recorded in one take with no production and in my opinion the album benefits greatly from this although Im not sure how this would fair out if it wasn’t just one boy and his old piano. So for those quiet, peaceful times look no further than here

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I always liked ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Once In A Lifetime’, probably Talking Head’s signature tunes. Being into Bowie, and especially his “Berlin trilogy”, I was bound to check out Brian Eno. While I can take or leave Eno, his production touches on Talking Heads’ Remain In Light album is something else. I was going to write about the album opener, ‘Born Under Punches’, but my brother recently got me into ‘The Great Curve’, which is even more danceable.

Remain In Light has been called a “white funk” or a “minimalist funk” album, and a lot of it was very out of step with what the new wave and post-punk groups were doing in 1980. Wikipedia refers to “funky African polyrhythms”, which to me is an extremely pretentious way of describing it. Either way, it’s a very dance-friendly album, but in a very arty, self-conscious way.

This affected, ironic knowingness is abetted by David Byrne’s lyrics, which throughout the album conjure up images of distance, ill communication, powerlessness in the face of grand schemes, systems out of sync…in short, a world that isn’t working quite right, with ghosts in the machine.

‘The Great Curve’ is a great example of Byrne’s worldview circa 1980:

“The world is here but it’s out of reach
Some people touch it…but they can’t hold on”

Behind lyrics that describe one woman’s effect on this esoteric world – the gyration of her hips causes it to spin on its orbit – is some of the best late-70s/early-80s music you’ll ever hear. With lots of “mickey guitar” (def: very low-slung, with chords played at the higher end of the register, in a very funky way), a propelling tribal drumbeat, and lots of shouting and harmonising.

Yes, another one of those tracks that are better heard than read about. Here’s the studio verion on YouTube and here’s a blistering live version from 1980, also on YouTube. If you like it, check out the Remain In Light album – a really good listen.

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Now that I’ve finally got mobile broadband in my apartment in Dublin, I can write some posts in the evening, as opposed to just lunchtime. ‘Computer World’ seems an apt choice. Taken from the Computer World album (or, as we Kraftwerk fanatics like to call it, Computerwelt, before slugging down a stein of Paulaner), this song is eerily prophetic and great music to robot-dance to (I’m just assuming).

In any case, need I say it one more time? Okay. Kraftwerk at Electric Picnic 2005 was my. Favourite. Gig. Ever.

The song kicks in with a driving, insistent drumpad percussion, as synthetic as you like. All sounds are made by plugged-in things, and the melody instantly makes an entrance. Kraftwerk songs are built like lab creations, a product of the very best German engineering, an ironic take on the creative songwriting process. While all of this is true, they also make, in their own scientific way, timeless melodies.

After the music has set the scene, the lead singer drily intones, in an extremely efficient voice:

“Interpol and Deutsche Bank, FBI and Scotland Yard”
“Business, numbers, money, people”

For anything even pretending to be a pop song, these lyrics break all convention, reading like a cross between Forbes and a business motivational speech. But the lyrics are, retrospectively, disingenuous. Kraftwerk are presaging the Internet, and the “computer world” is a logged-in network to which all of the above agencies subscribed back in 1981.

“Time, travel, communication, entertainment”

The internet has freed up time for many people (it’s also a bit of a time-waster sometimes, let’s face it); booking online is now an integral part of travel; e-mail has revolutionised communication; and anyone can find entertainment in any form on the Web.

Here’s a great user-generated (cheers ‘Dosswerks’!) video of the song here. If you like it, check out probably their best albums, The Man Machine and Trans Europe Express. There’s another thishereboogie post by another classic Kraftwerk song here.

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With John Lennon barely cold in the grave, this single was released in 1981 by his oft-ridiculed concubine Yoko Ono. Dismissed by many as a cash-in by a lot of people who don’t know their music, this song actually stands up very strongly.

A distant relative to Joy Division and Gang of Four’s mechanised post-punk, and not dissimilar to Bowie’s Scary Monsters… album, this song was also a big influence on current bands such as The Rapture, !!!, LCD Soundsystem, and a host of other “new new wave” (or whatever it’s called, all those bands that sound like Television) groups.

The bass line is snaky, one of the best bass lines I’ve heard in a while. The percussion sounds like drumsticks being slapped together, while the familiar post-punk guitar slashes and chugs are buried deep in the mix. I was stunned to read that it was John Lennon playing guitar on this – it sounds unlike anything he had done before. Surprisingly new wave and dancy, Lennon was apparently very excited about it during the final few recording sessions (he was clutching a copy of the mix when he was shot). 

Ono’s lyrics deal with how life is down to chance to a great extent, and how “the throw of the dice” can decide one’s fate. Lennon’s murder of course rendered these lyrics extremely poignant. The disillusionment of these lyrics is obscured (or rendered more pointed, depending on how closely you’re listening) by the danceability of the track- I’d say this was a club favourite back in the day.

Listen to the song here on YouTube, and marvel yet again at the comments underneath by ignorant people. Most of the comments are about how ugly she was, and others bemoan the fact that Lennon’s dead. Although one poster is slightly more charitable: “I saw worster [sic] women”.

Ah, YouTube.

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I’m really liking Klaxons at the minute. Their Myths of the Near Future album (which gets an unfair dissing on rateyourmusic) updates early ’90s rave music and staples it to solid pop grooves, brilliant harmonies, and quasi-mystical lyrics to brilliant effect.

‘Two Receivers’, the first song on the album, starts with a grungy drumbeat that seems to come from the ether, before bass and cascading keyboards announce the introduction to Klaxons’ worldview:

“Krill edible oceans at their feet
A troublesome troop out on safari
A lullaby holds their drones in sleep“

I’m not even going to try to interpret this, but the alliteration and phrasing of the lyrics work very well with the song and backing harmonies. With song titles like ‘Atlantis to Interzone’, ‘Golden Skans’, ‘Totem Timeline’ and ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ (nice to see fellow Pynchon fans), it’s safe to say that many of the lyrics are digressive in-jokes and meanderings.

But one meaning I got from this song was a 2001: A Space Odyssey-style set of ‘receivers’, positioned “nearly out of reach” and tracking everything that humankind does, to report back to base camp. Hmmm…very profound.

The music, like all of Myths of the Near Future, is layered yet very hummable. Listen to this three or four times and you start to notice things in the music, the keyboard riff beneath the keyboard riff. It’s difficult to know what their next album will be like – they should be jailed for starting the ‘fluorescent adolescent’ craze in the first place – but ‘Two Receivers’ and the rest of the Myths… album are worthy debuts. Listen to the song on this YouTube video.

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Or ‘White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)’ by Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel, to give it its full title. But by all accounts, the Flashmaster had nada to do with this classic early hip-hop cut. In the early ’80s, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel tried to bring a What’s Goin’ On-type social consciousness to the rap party, which until then was about girls, parties and generally getting down. Lyrics dealing with inner-city violence, crime, unemployment, Reaganomics and the scourge of cocaine (the subject matter of this song) suddenly became de rigeur in rap and hip-hop. Until the Beasties came along, that is.

‘White Lines’ kicks in with one of the funkiest bass lines ever. There is only two notes in it, but it’s driving, insistent force tells you that a message is on the way. The ironic danciness of an anti-cocaine song (”Rang dang diggedy dang di-dang”) makes the message hit home that bit harder. Melle Mel spins lines that show his disgust for the drug, with the payoff: “White lines blow away”.

Once the poppy part of the song is out of the way, it’s time to get down to some serious talk:

“Little Jack Horner sitting on the corner
With no shoes and clothes
This ain’t funny, but he took his money
And sniffed it up his nose”

This was a time before crack cocaine decimated entire neighbourhoods in urban America, and Melle Mel’s lyrics are very prescient. Here’s the video on YouTube – directed by a young Spike Lee and starring a young Larry Fishburne. If you like this also check out the Grandmaster Flash cut ‘The Message’ – pure gold.

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I haven’t listened to the Screamadelica album in a long time, probably because it always brings back a time and place that I’ve really gotten too old for. Primal Scream’s third album is a concept album of sorts, charting a night from dance-music-fuelled start to weepy-Stones-ballad comedown finish, with a bit of redemption in the end, like all the best concept albums. Personally, I think 1997’s Vanishing Point is the better album.

It’s dated in parts (’Come Together’ for example) but it really was a step forward for British indie music when it came out, and is still highly regarded in the UK. If you haven’t heard it, you’ve surely heard ‘Loaded’, with it’s “Just what is it that you want to do” snippet from some movie or other.

‘Higher Than The Sun’, the fourth single from Screamadelica, is probably the best song on the album. The soundscape created behind Bobby Gillespie’s vocals is intriguing. It’s a mixture of yawning groans, “the angels sang” keyboard flourishes, theremin-like sounds, and what to my ear is a respirator. It’s very strange indeed – almost dub-like, and the first 45 seconds have no apparent musical structure to them at all. Probably the Scream’s finest musical moment, and one they re-visit to darker effect on Vanishing Point.

Over this churning groove, Gillespie gives his take on life:

“I’m beautiful, I wasn’t born to follow,
I live just for today, I don’t care about tomorrow,
What I got in my head you can’t buy, steal or borrow,
I believe in live, and let live,
I believe you get what you give”

The lyrics, a mesh-up of Gill Scott-Heron, Joe Strummer and Jim Morrison, are vintage Gillespie. But I don’t think he ever crystallised his world vision as effectively as in the above verse. Here’s a YouTube video with high-quality audio of ‘Higher Than The Sun’. And notice how I didn’t mention drugs once in this article? Damn. Well, I mentioned it just that once. Listen and enjoy.

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Another band that were sibling-recommended, Fujiya & Miyagi are absolutely class. They’ve got a really controlled funk style, where the drums, bass and lead guitar are consciously holding back, giving a really tight, almost aggressive feel to the song, while still coming across as quite laid-back.

Transparent Things, the album that ‘Collarbone’ is taken from, is an album that I’m getting to like more and more. Lead singer David Best whispers like a vaguely threatening Ian Brown (who’s threatening enough himself!), and uses repetition to get the point across, like all the best lyrics.

Rumour has it that this group met while substitutes for a football team – now that’s a great way to start a band. They’ve got a great way with influences too – think the Stone Roses trying to play like a ‘krautrock’ band.

Anyway, enough of my dithering, let’s get to the meat of the post – the song itself. Here’s the excellent excellent footie-themed video for ‘Collarbone’. Check out the bassline. If you like it, have a listen to ‘In One Ear & Out The Other’ and ‘Ankle Injuries’, two great tunes from F&M.

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For those of you that don’t know Tubeway Army was an alias that Gary Numan used in the late 70’s before embarking on a successful solo career as, well, Gary Numan (b.t.w another stage name). A few years ago I decided to check him out at the electric picnic festival but only based on two songs of his that are by far his most popular songs – Are Friends Electric and Cars. As these songs epitomise the whole 80’s snyth pop era. What suprised me about his live performance was how heavy his music was, real hard rock at times. I was expecting keyboards, synthesiser’s etc but found gibson’s instead and he was brilliant.

This song features some very heavy use of synthesiser’s which reach some very high notes and backed up by your normal drum and bass digest. To be honest I haven’t a clue what the song is about except that he’s talking about friends or so called friends which I believe are ‘robots’ judging by the song title. Here’s a live version of the song that was performed on the Old Grey Whistle Test music show. By the way the spoken word in the song reminds me a little of Mark E. Smith….

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