Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline - Gomez

Track List:

1. Shitbag 9
2. Bring Your Lovin' Back Here
3. Emergency Surgery
4. Hit On The Head
5. Flavors
6. 78 Stone Shuffle
7. We Haven't Turned Around [X-Ray Mix]
8. Buena Vista
9. Shitbag
10. Steve McCroski
11. Wharf Me
12. High On Liquid Skin
13. Rosemary
14. The Cowboy Song
15. Getting Better

Running time: 49 minutes
Released: 2000

So into proper titles now, but still flying back nearly 15 years.

The first thing I note looking down the track list is more profanity in titles; at least it is just profanity this time. Not clever but not mean spirited or offensive to me.

I remember hearing Gomez first on Later... around the time of the Mercury nod for their debut (the Mercury Prize will crop up a few times as a discovery point) and finding their evolution of Britpop more palatable than what had come before. This album, a couple of years later, was a collection of unreleased material, live recordings and B-sides from their early life. It is, therefore, quite hit and miss - more-so than albums tend to be anyway,

The opener is just an intro, then we get into an upbeat number that seems to me to be pretty typical of their more radio-friendly songs. Emergency Surgery, however, completely changes the tone (not in a good way in my book). Sparse sounds and an oddly delivered vocal line. It is an interesting combination, but not a song to really listen to. Hit On the Head continues that theme, but with a different vocalist. That's actually one of the things I liked about Gomez when I got into them, different singers for different songs (or parts of songs) because that was worked for the track.

Flavours is a hybrid of the style introduced with Emergency Surgery and the more established guitar-based sound. I actually really like this track because it shifts that latter point enough to create interest without going too far down the former route to lose musicality. It is not groundbreaking, just a good mixture of styles. 

78 Stone Wobble from Bring It On was the first Gomez song I remember hearing. I thought, at the time, that the live version here (titled 78 Stone Shuffle) instead is a superior track. Not sure whether this is just the live rendition or if there was more to it than that. However on this listen, I find myself tiring of the track pretty quickly and I cannot quite put my finger on why. I would rather it did not give way as it did though; this mix of We Haven't Turned Around I find very poor. I think that song was my favourite on Liquid Skin but the rendition here has none of the charm or easy sounds. Musically it is... challenging for my ears, and I find the vocal a lot harsher and less appropriate as a result. It is, however, much shorter. Thankfully.

So I am doing this listen as I waffle on whether to get outside and do some gardening. It looks a nice day, but I am fighting the great beast of "cannot be a***d" after what was a very busy week. I thought this would be a nice distraction.

At points it is. Buena Vista is my favourite Gomez song despite the length (I seem to be contradicting my stated preference a lot, eh?). The build, the song and the bluesy orchestration all work for me, there are echoes of Floyd in some of the playing in the first half and I find it a very easy listen. It could easily finish on a good length, but unlike some songs where the continuation feels like a bridge (or chorus) too far, the long lead out on this track feels appropriate. It helps that it is similar enough to feel at home with the opening, but different enough to sound like a change. Listening now, I think it has strands of The Stone Roses about it. The outro is too long though. The song should wind up at about the 7 minute mark, but there is still 2 minutes of less interesting wind-down to go. Yes, it is another change of tone, but it is so evidently lead-out that it may as well not be there. It does not destroy my love of the earlier part of the song though.

Unfortunately the rest of the album is very much less interesting. Shitbag actually crams a lot into its 1 minute run time, especially given the vocal does not start for 25 seconds or so; it is more pleasant than the name, but not of real interest. Steve McCroski is unpleasant, Wharf Me is too sparse for most of the track - only bursting into life sporadically. High On Liquid Skin could be interesting by construction, but frankly I find the actual musical lines uninteresting; what goes where has me paying attention but what I pick up makes me yawn. I was all set to be disparaging about Rosemary too - saying it was too slow, but I was allowing my fingers to get ahead of my ears and my memory to inform. Listening I find that my memory is a harsh critic - the tempo of the verse is fine; the vocal in the chorus could be a bit more lively though, and there is an extra minute of outro on the track that would be better excised.

The Cowboy Song is a funny little interlude before the album closes with a cover of the Beatles' Getting Better. I am not a Beatles fan, never have been; I can appreciate their role in the history of music without appreciating the music they produced as a group. In fact at the time I first heard this I did not even realise this was a Beatles cover. I think it is probably a good cover, though. At least I like the song I hear here. The structure suits the vocal talent, there's a good twang on the guitar and it closes the album well, although again the last minute could probably be removed with little loss.

Its coming up to lunchtime; gardening has been successfully delayed until after food, at least.

10000 Hz Legend - Air

Track List:

1. Electronic Performers
2. How Does It Make You Feel?
3. Radio #1
4. The Vagabond
5. Radian
6. Lucky and Unhappy
7. Sex Born Poison
8. People in the City
9. Wonder Milky Bitch
10. Don't Be Light
11. Caramel Prisoner

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2001

Is this really 13 years old, predating the death of Brian Clough? One seems a lot longer ago, the other seems more recent (they've just had a 10 year memorial article on the BBC for Clough). It is funny how we see time, and different events on different timelines. Anyway, this is the last album before I start on A. It's only taken a month to get through numbers and punctuation!

10000 Hz Legend is a more muted affair than Moon Safari in some respects. Air crashed into the public consciousness with the latter in the late 90s and suddenly being French was slightly less uncool (I jest!). I remember being hyped to pick this up, especially as Beck was guest vocals on The Vagabond (and I want to say Don't Be Light too, without looking it up; I went off him soon after). And then not being blown away by the whole. Actually in that sense I think this album is pretty much classic Air - fantastic high points, meaning that the whole work is disappointing in comparison.

They veer from quite loud and brash to soft and gentle, and at either end of that scale they have both interest and boredom - sometimes within the same track. How Does It Make You Feel? is a great example of this: the tracks soft acoustic back and raspy whispered vocal are interesting, but the chorus is as dull as anything and leaves me with the feeling the track is not really very well conceived/put together. It is an Air album in microcosm.

Would I call this dated? Not sure. I think there is a case that it is but something like Radio #1 sounds, to me, like the wall of radio-supplied music that I only ever encounter walking around shops. I have never listened to radio much, instead picking up music from associations/recommendations, blind purchases, gigs and latterly LastFM. I suspect the effect is more down to me not really listening in the "out and about" circumstance, and so yes, it is dated. That said, unlike Vangelis' synths from a decade before, to my ears Air's sounds do not have the same artificial, tinny edge. I think there are some noticeably poor sounds in there but in general the age of the album does not seem to account for a loss of sound quality.

I still quite like The Vagabond. Its rhythm is just above soporific, the guitar is plenty engaging and the build is nice. I am, I find, less enamoured of the vocal these days and the ending sucks balls, but the other 5 minutes are pleasant. Radian is, I have a feeling, my favourite track from those presented here. It has a slow burn of an opening that flares into some more life about 3 minutes in. I can forgive the length of the track because that opening does feel like a build, and then when it does flower and open into the light, airy, musical melodies you want them to last a while. It keeps building too; there is still a relatively dark bass and melancholy strains to what is (to me) generally a light, hopeful piece. The comedown on the end is possibly a little longer than I would like but that is a small quibble. It is a definite high point.

I used to think the same of Lucky and Unhappy. Pretty sure I liked this track a lot in times past. Now, though it just feels dull. The constituent parts are all there to make a pretty decent tune and yet I am bored. This is definitely a more dated track; some of the sci-fi electronic whizzes and beeps serve that purpose, along with what feels like a 90s vision of an edgy futuristic beat. I am glad when it gives way to the soft acoustic base of Sex Born Poison, for all of 2 seconds before I hear the "spacy" sounds atop the plucked melody. When the vocal comes in it harks back to Moon Safari in effect but the track takes a nosedive in interest. Later in the piece it picks up again, but for me the damage is already done. I have tuned out. I can see why people might like this track, but it is not for me.

It gives way to a tune that I feel would be much better without a vocal. Musically speaking I like People in the City, lyrically and vocally it is a mess. The distorted vocal simply obscures a nice (and I hesitate to use that word lest it damn with faint praise) structured track that goes through more melodic and darker points but holds together well until the klaxons heralding the end. When I was younger I used to approve of injudicious swearing/bad language more as it was "edgy"; now creative and appropriate use of expletives can still raise a smile (and I acknowledge I swear too much in person; actively avoiding it in shared postings is a nice thing to do) but throwing terms like "bitch" around in titles seems trite and unnecessarily and casually misogynistic. That definitely dates it for me. I find the tune quite boring, too.

Don't Be Light is Beck. It is also one of the better tracks on this album, at least until it slows down for him to read out a monologue. I like the faster pace and driving distortion so when that drops out it is a little disappointing, and the tune never really recovers, but the hard start leaves an impression that I am happy to have last. I will be glad when the album is done though as to be honest the second half is less than impressive. Some of the tunes are not up to snuff, others are just a little weak. I am tempted to cull the electronic versions of several tracks but not ditch the disc. Whilst I am looking to clean out my library I am not necessarily looking to lose access to things that I keep part of.

I have some time to decide on that though, and at least Caramel Prisoner is better than I remember. This listen definitely bolstered my opinion of Air as creators of some great tracks, but ones who generate a lot of chaff too.

1958 Breaks - Skalpel

Track List:

1. Break In (Backini Remix)
2. 1958 (Quantic Remix)
3. Break In (Dr Rubberfunk 'Live @ No.10A' Remix)
4. 1958 (Skalpel Remix)
5. Break In (J's Remix)
6. Break Out (Skalpel Remix)
7. Low
8. Low (Reconstruction By The Amalgamation Of Soundz)
9. Break In (Paradowski Remix)
10. 1958 (Extended Version)
11. Laboratorium

Running time: 47 minutes
Released: 2005

To be honest, I suspect this is not going to be a great listen for me. Too many remixes and I have a nagging suspicion that I ended up only liking one or two Skalpel tracks despite the stable of tunes (I have the eponymous album and Konfusion too). I guess I will find out in due course. However I went through a phase of digging Ninja Tune (blame Bonobo and The Cinematic Orchestra) so picked up the odd thing here and there.

I  think that I picked this up as part of the purchase of Skalpel but I really don't recall now. The tracks on 1958 Breaks are mostly reworkings of tunes from that album, with Low and Laboratorium the exceptions, thus everything is somewhat familiar in the general sense, if not the specific. The folk doing the remixes are not familiar though, except for Quantic. In truth I think Skalpel have more than a hint of the shuffle about them so I am not massively surprised to see Quantic pop up here.

The fact that the first six tracks cover two tunes (I am making the assumption here that Break Out is a reworking of Break In - that does not seem like a stretch), and there are thus only 4 different base tunes comprising the 11 on this collection is one of the main problems I have looking back at old single purchases - where your reward for buying the main track is 3 more versions of it you will never listen to. Gone were the days of meaningful B-sides. Having said that, Dr Rubberfunk's take on Break In feels sufficiently different to the Backini mix that started the listen and J's mix is a whole minute shorter so there may just be enough variation in approach to make the whole work better than feared. They may all blur into one and drawing specific distinctions may prove troublesome but so long as I am not utterly tired and bored by the end of it... no foul.

Whilst I think "inoffensive downbeat shuffle" is a fair tag, I think it applies in less accusatory manner than against The 5th Exotic - which I guess is just be a pretentious way of saying I like this more. The general tone of Skalpel's stuff does tend to be inoffensive, downtempo and low key but there is more variety and more going on to change that tone in the overlay. Not all of it works, Break Out is a bit of a mess, its variation on the Break In base not to my taste at all but I am pleasantly surprised by how 1958 Breaks maintains an interest. Low comes in to change things up at the right time though. It is a pleasantly atmospheric soundtrack piece, putting me in the mood of hardboiled film noir and nighttime shots of LA in the 40s or 50s.

The reconstruction, which follows immediately, has a very different tone simply because the percussion is highlighted more, and the tempo is higher. It gives the piece a tension that was not necessarily there in the base tune. I find myself grateful of both and listening to them back to back is no chore at all. It is as I go to try to check LastFM for how these are recorded there I notice that somehow the scrobbler has not activated for this listen, so my record of having done it (aside from this post) is incomplete. Well, no-one cares but me, and I can live with it!

It tickles me that the "extended version" of 1958 is a whole minute shorter than the other mixes on this album. It is, of course, extended in reference to the version on Skalpel which is a minute and a half shorter still. To be honest, the other mixes were better and if this is just an extra 90 seconds of the same base, it is unwarranted - but I am not about to check, and S is a very long time ahead.

I am glad as Laboratorium begins and the album is winding down but on the whole it has been a lot more enjoyable than I expected. There is no drive to excise any tracks; one or two would probably be no loss, but neither are they bad enough to demand being shown the door.

1492: Conquest of Paradise - Vangelis

Track Listing:

1. Opening
2. Conquest of Paradise
3. Monastery of La Rabida
4. City of Isabel
5. Light and shadow
6. Deliverance
7. West across the Ocean Sea
8. Eternity
9. Hispanola
10. Moxica and the horse
11. Twenty eighth parallel
12. Pinta, Nina, Santa Maria (Into Eternity)

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 1992

A soundtrack from everyone's favourite Greek synth wizard. Vangelis is probably best known for Blade Runner's score (woo, film mentioned in 2 of the last 3 posts), but a slew of other records exist - both soundtracks and original works. My first was Soil Festivities, though many years after it was released.

I have never seen 1492: Conquest of Paradise to which this is the music, instead acquiring this on my familiarity with the composer. However it is pretty easy to conjure up an image given the title and the dramatic titular track.

I have to say listening to it now, Vangelis' music is very much of its time... it sounds incredibly dated and there is a tinny quality to some of the synth sounds, as if they were from a video game.  This obviously detracts a little from a modern perspective and - if we're honest - it probably did back in 1992 too. The golden age of synth was past, but modern sonic reproduction not advanced as much.

That said, the construction of the pieces is still to be applauded and there is a real sense of atmosphere created in each track. In Deliverance the presence of guitars tempers the dated effect and the piece feels richer whilst they are playing. The use of choral pieces is interesting for me. Although (or perhaps because!) my mother sings in choirs I have never really been able to stomach most choral music. Their use here is not unpleasant though - the choir is not the star so they simply form part of the canvas.

Having got a number of Vangelis albums spanning 20+ years of his career, I hear refrains in the pieces on this album that are incredibly familiar and it is really hard for me to place whether that is because I am recalling these tunes or whether they are echoes of works from other recordings. My gut says it is a little of both.

The tracks have been flying by, dated but enjoyable, tinny around the edges and yet evocative and emotive. Looking at the time, the album is back-weighted with longer pieces and despite being on track 9 of 12 I am approximately half way through the listen. If I were mad I would require myself to go watch the film now and place things in context but that is pushing the project too far, stretching it thin, and making it even less completable. So no to that.

I would like to see if I can get to the 1-a-day target, but being generally busy, and amidst a run of albums of around an hour's length that has not been easy. I think I have to resign myself to that not being achievable and thus should I complete this project I may well be into my 40s by that time. That is a shocking thought. I still do not anticipate carrying it through, but I am reaching the end of the numerals - only 2 more to go before A once I am done with this.

Moxica and the Horse is a longer track, and in listening it splits into two tracks (maybe more, but my mind wandered in the early stages). The second of those sub-tracks is surprisingly "modern" - we lose the elements that speak to the Rennaissance and new world exploration, the sounds that have been cultivated to date. It is quite jarring, though the tune is pretty enough. Twenty Eighth Parallel also seems to be lacking the thematic grounding until the main theme from the title track reprises - and even then the orchestration is much less evocative. Pleasant piece of music though, albeit I find it somewhat mournful; that could be the desired effect, or not. Hard to tell without the film as context. It does retain a sense of wonder, though - like the world is suddenly much bigger than you thought. The aural equivalent of walking into a majestic cathedral and taking in the high vaulted ceilings.

I am into the final track now, all 13 minutes of it. It sounds like end credits music, too metallic to suit any other visual, and although it has a very different timbre pace and tone to the end credits from Blade Runner there are commonalities between the two pieces. The wailing guitars make me think of Pink Floyd from ~20 years prior to this soundtrack, as if the music wants to go all Prog but keeps getting pulled back. Given the length of the track, I am happy that although the basic rhythm and structure seem to be maintained with little change, there are overlays that create more interest for the listener and break up the pattern of repetition. The track actually grows on me as it goes, which is unusual given - as I stated when listening to 301 - I tend to prefer it when tunes start, build, climax and end rather than stretch out. I think in this case it is because by now I have almost tuned out the base and rhythm loops and I am only listening to the melodies, and as they change, interest is maintained. Or it could just be tiredness, alcohol and not having a proper work day tomorrow.

The final 2 minutes feel as though they should have been a different track. They return to the evocative scores that opened the soundtrack and it feels tacked on to the end of the longer piece.  It then ends rather abruptly, leaving me in silence, bar the whirr of my laptop fan and the tapping of my keys.

400% Dynamite - Various Artists

Track List:

1. Bongo Herman - Chairman of the Board
3. Prince Buster - Girl Why Don't You Answer
4. Barrington Levy - Under Me Sensi
5. Lloyd Robinson - Cuss Cuss
6. King Tubby - King Tubby Dub
7. Dennis Alcapone - Cassius Clay
8. Honey Boy Martin - Dreader than Dread
9. Toots and the Maytals - 54 46 Was My Number
10. General Degree - Pot Cover
11. Paris Connection - Who's That Lady
12. U-roy - Stick Together
13. Lyn Taitt - Soul Stew
14. Granville williams Orchestra - Hi life
15. Cimarons - We Are Not the Same

Running time: 44 minutes
Released: 2000

A compilation which I can only assume must have been a gift at some point. Missing track 2 (Tenor Saw & Buju Banton -  Ring The Alarm Quick) for some reason. Ho-hum.

54 46 Was My Number becomes the first track to feature twice in this play-log, which is probably going to be the most noticeable thing about this post.

I suspect casualties here before I begin, and the first track confirms that will be the case. It is just not my cup of tea. I am hopeful of find something worth keeping in the midst of this somewhere though.

I am not sure that I can find anything interesting to add about this - good nor bad. I have already spilled a few of my feelings on reggae when listening to Toots and the Maytals, so I do not want to re-cover that ground. My opinion of the music is not that low so there are no interesting rants, negative dissection or similar to share, and I am not positively enough engaged to generate commentary. That said, I quite like Under Me Sensi - it presents with a more engaging style and whilst it is a little too repetitive for my case, the "woah" vocal has a charm.

When that song ends, I get a surprise. The ordering of tracks in my library is not as per the list in the caption here (which was pulled from Amazon) but I am not about to rearrange it now. Maybe the tags got screwed somehow. 

I am pleasantly surprised by what I am hearing though, and 5 tracks in, only 2 are for the chop. 54 46 will get added to this (I can no reason to keep a second version) but the album is shaping up better than expected. I recognise King Tubby Dub from plays that came up on library shuffle previously and it is another keeper. I think the bass is slightly lighter than on most of the Jamaican music I have been exposed to over the years, and it makes for a more pleasant sound in my book. Personal taste, and all, but apparently enough for me to have previously "loved" it on LastFM. I cannot say the same for Dreader than Dread, which I just find dull, or Cassius Clay which feels bland somehow for a track about one of history's greatest sporting icons.

In my minds eye Pot Cover would be so much better if it was actually a cover of Pot by The Phoenix Foundation (from Buffalo) - that would be one hell of an interesting song to see done in different styles but keeping the charm.

It seems that the Amazon listing even gets a track name wrong. "Soul Stew" should be "Soul Food". I feel that I should change this, but if I do I would also feel compelled to sort out the ordering too and frankly I cannot be bothered with that faff so I will instead leave the error there.

As the album draws to a close I feel that actually it worked in general. Compilations are actually pretty decent windows on styles when you are not familiar with them, and shifting from artist to artist tends to make each track sound different. Comparing this listen to 20 Massive Hits it comes out favourably, as the Maytal's best of ended up feeling much more samey. I have kept 8 tracks in the end, discarding 6. I am happy with this paring down.

301 - Esbjörn Svensson Trio

Track List:

1. Behind the Stars
2. Inner City, City Lights
3. The Left Lane
4. Houston, the 5th
5. Three Falling Free Part I
6. Three Falling Free Part II
7. The Childhood Dream

Running time: 60 minutes
Released: 2012

It's late, I cannot sleep - mind buzzing. Maybe because I feel guilty in not doing one of these for a while, as I have been busy? Nah - in actual fact it is more likely a question of being wired by the Bloodbowl game I won earlier, a see-saw match that started (and thus ended) later than I would like as it was my only scheduling option this week. That, and the book I am reading. Ellroy always has me chewing mental scenery. That, and going back to work after a week off.

The passing of Esbjörn Svensson in a diving accident at the age of 44 robbed the world of a great musical talent. 301 is a record, released 4 years after his death, that I have never really listened to. The pieces were recorded at the same time as Leucocyte, but held back by the band after the accident. Late night, whisky in hand, is a good time for jazz though. Maybe it will buy me sleep at the cost of an hour.

Behind the Stars is a gentle opener, short and quiet. There are hints of what I did not like about Leucocyte with discordant notes here and there and I am hoping that is not a theme. See that, not the posthumous thing, is why I never really listened to this album after acquiring it. Inner City, City Lights is much longer: 11.50. Major work. It feels like mood music for Sin City for the first 4, threatening riff and not too much else of note but there is always Svensson's piano to cut through that tension. It is a track to get lost in thought to - as I just have. It is almost mesmeric in rhythm and structure but there is not really enough going on to command full attention, thus I drifted off in thought. Thus far I cannot see any merit in the idea I saw somewhere that this may be E.S.T.'s ultimate album in any sense other than being their final one.

For me, classic E.S.T. is Seven Days of Falling/Tuesday Wonderland - the melodies, the intensity, the sheer joy and power I find in those tracks sets a high bar. So far nothing on this album measures up for my money. The Left Lane is more active, but it does not feel like it hangs together properly. It is another epic in length and I think that works against it. Whether it is growing older, or some other factor, but I am coming to appreciate more these days when things know when to stop. I like endings. There are nice moments in longer tracks, sure, but generally my appreciation is greater for works that build, climax and complete in a more timely fashion. I do not know if it is the same mood that drove me to be writing this now that is interfering with my ability to enjoy the listen, or the fact that I feel like I am hearing a ghost - a sense that does not materialise with their other work.

Or perhaps I just do not like the musical direction they were heading. Houston, the 5th falls into this category for sure. To me, there is nowt musical about this track. Instead it resembles the sort of sound experiments that kids might make with their first recording device. Utter bilge. When it gives way to Three Falling Free Part I there is a ray of hope. This opens with a nice piano line but does not seem to build. Instead it meanders and for some reason I bring to mind Blade Runner, the scene where Rachel sits at the piano. The meander is a pleasant one but, like much that has preceded it, not coherent enough for me to fall in love with, and I find myself wanting Part II to start to see if that (despite its length) is better. This is turning into the most disappointing listen to date, though not the most unpleasant.

Somewhere, it turns out, Part II did start. I missed it whilst looking for a clip of the Blade Runner scene. I also found the review that called this perhaps E.S.T.'s greatest work. I wonder what that guy was smoking. Part II builds more than other tracks to my ear, I would say that it is comfortably ahead in the "star of the album" stakes despite the length. That said, it is not necessarily building to a good conclusion. There is darkness in this piece - and whilst certain sections echo tracks from my favoured albums there is much more... noise. The listener is not encouraged to settle. Some might see this as a good thing; right now, I do not. I will say that once it gets going, the track is anything but dull as a result.

The opening of The Childhood Dream gives me optimism for this track, which the name re-enforces. The tune is much more of a classic jazz melody - not what drew me to E.S.T. but more welcome than the noisy distortionate stuff that seems to have been their bent before it all came to a tragic end.  It is a beautiful tune though, less schmaltzy than Believe, Beleft, Below but of the same cloth. It is a good end to an album that I did not rightly enjoy, and that leaves me feeling happier as I contemplate heading back up to bed and hoping to have better luck with the whole sleep thing this time.


I would not contend that this is a good jazz album for whisky in hand late night listening by any shot, so my earlier comment was clearly made in ignorance. However I cannot bear to clear the album from my library because I love E.S.T. so very much.

100th Window - Massive Attack

Track List:

1. Future Proof
2. What Your Soul Sings
3. Everywhen
4. Special Cases
5. Butterfly Caught
6. A Prayer for England
7. Small Time Shot Away
8. Name Taken
9. Antistar

Running time: 73 minutes
Released: 2003

I've been away a bit, not jacked the project in quite so soon. Back from a 5 day jaunt to Scandiwegia to see an old friend and the 4 kids they have had since we last met. Squeezing this in before I am off away again - this time to my niece's 4th birthday party. Life is busy sometimes, just not often.

Everyone (pretty much) thinks Massive Attack peaked with Mezzanine. They are probably all right.* Seeing them play Bristol Student Union just after that album was released is still a highlight, 16 years on.

My memory tells me that there are good songs on 100th Window, which was what followed, but also some weaker material. And the 19 minute length of Antistar reminds me of hidden track nonsense.

Future Proof confirms that initial thought - I have always liked this track. It is dark and brooding, good mood music for an urban or cyberpunk RPG session, with the electronic clicks reminiscent of background static in a slightly frantic percussive manner. The light airy vocal, disconnected from the ominous track enforces that sense of unease; it works for me. We then move on to the first of 3 tracks voiced by Sinéad O'Connor.  I think that, at the time, I did not realise all 3 tracks with female vocals were O'Connor - not sure why. I certainly did not realise at the time that Damon Albarn (credited as 2D from Gorillaz) was involved, but back then I thought Blur were shite and nothing of Albarn as an artist. Times change us. I am not fond of What Your Soul Sings, I just find it really bland - lyrically, vocally, musically, it is just dull. It is also too long, but that makes it feel such a relief when it gives way to Everywhen. I fell in love with Horace Andy's vocals the first time I heard him on a Massive Attack record (probably One Love or Hymn of the Big Wheel from Blue Lines), and picked up some collections of his reggae recordings later on, to find that several Massive Attack songs with him doing a new vocal are pretty much re-recordings. I do not think Everywhen is in that category, but I could be wrong. It plays a bit like a less urgent Future Proof, with an unsettling, dangerous air, a floaty voice and relatively clean sound in place of the more chaotic opener. I would say it is a slightly more hopeful track, but it is hope stemming from darkness all the same, and a rich darkness at that. It is probably the best track on this album for my money, and my instinct is that 100th Window's bolt is now shot.

Special Cases is more O'Connor; it is less dull than What Your Soul Sings and there is much more going on but I still cannot find any love for it. The doomy theme continues, which makes it powerful background sound, but for actually listening to? No thanks. I do not own any Sinéad O'Connor records and do not find her voice doing anything for me, though I do think A Prayer for England utilises her better (or perhaps it is just a better song). As Butterfly Caught starts, I find myself not recognising it which is slightly disturbing, and the first of what I guess will be many such experiences of going "oh, that's not what I thought it was" for this project. Not knowing stuff before I get to it is one thing, but not recognising something I thought I knew is different, unsettling. Like this track (which I recognise once more once the vocal comes in). An edginess and paranoia flow from my speakers, quite at odds with the brightness of the day outside. It is midmorning on a Friday - not the ideal time to immerse oneself in the themes of this record.

My time in Brizzle was right at the tail end of the Bristol sound ("don't call it Trip-Hop") era. Mezzanine was just out and was the end of that era of Massive Attack, Portishead had gone on their long break etc. I also lived in very different parts of the city to those that spawned the edginess. Still, I feel a degree of affinity to the place and the music it spawned even now, when it is a part of my life that is fading in memory - contacts lost, friends rarely seen etc. Listening to these bands brings back those thoughts.

Yeah - A Prayer For England is just a better song. There is purpose in the driving bass, menace even. That links with the urgency of the vocal and the lyrics and the slightly shorter length to produce a much more compelling listen. There is almost a relief when it gives way to the more chilled Small Time Shot Away; chilled, but still dark. More cyberpunk mood music. Albarn's backing vocal is so indistinct that I miss it even knowing it is there now - I mean, it is audible in places, but hard to tell who it is. The last 30 seconds of the track are really weak... continuation for continuation's sake and I am definitely relieved when Name Taken starts. It is another slow dark menace sound, rather than urgent dark menace (this album only has two flavours). Andy is back, again floating over the music angelically, reinforcing him being up there as one of my favourite male vocalists of all time - along with the sadly missed Terry Callier - who, of course, provided the vocal on Massive Attack's Live With Me (along with Paradise Circus from Heligoland, which was used as the theme for the BBC's Luther, the only great tracks Massive Attack produced since Teardrop). I am certainly struggling to find too many other names to challenge those two on a purely vocal level.

Ah, now we're into the dregs. Antistar just started and I cannot find much to like in its opening refrains. Calling the bolt shot after Everywhen was harsh as although the middle of the album is not superb it generally retains a level of interest and is certainly keeping a consistent theme which makes the album as a whole a very attractive keeper. The vocal mellows Antistar a bit, but not enough to make it a good listen; the menace is still there though and I realise that for proper mood music I would want to dump the vocal anyway as it would be a distraction. Too bad.

Right, now to see about this secret track bullshit. It actually starts fairly promptly - which is good - but as I recalled it is just a loopy, oscillating, bassy sound which lasts far too long. It ceases to be interesting almost as soon as it starts and... zzz

* If anything, it was earlier.

90 Bisodol (Crimond) - Half Man Half Biscuit

Track List:

1. Something's Rotten In The Back Of Iceland
2. RSVP
3. Tommy Walsh's Eco House
4. Joy In Leeuwarden (We Are Ready)
5. Excavating Rita
6. Fun Day In The Park
7. Descent Of The Stiperstones
8. Left Lyrics In The Practice Room
9. L'Enfer C'est Les Autres
10. Fix It So She Dreams Of Me
11. The Coroner's Footnote
12. Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools

Running time: 38 minutes
Released: 2011

Aha! After a few albums I did not enjoy much, this is pure pleasure.

I cannot recall why I picked this up, whim I think, but I am very glad I did. It has received a fair bit of car-play in the last few years, only coming out in the last couple of months.

The only thing I knew about HMHB before buying it was that the late lamented John Peel  (whose posthumous semi-auto biography I read earlier this year) liked them a lot, as did someone on a forum I frequent.

What I did not know included the talent for amusing stories in song form, wry humour that suits my sense of fun (hence the comedy tag; it is not a comedy album), dark tales delivered in a melodic and accomplished manner. I did not know about celeb references, twee murder ballads, necrophilia, korfball or selfish suicides. The tracks are all rather short but each recounts a scene that is vivid, and imagined to music that is far more tuneful than I had expected.

Yeah, the singing is not the best, but when everything else is so perfectly set up I can look past that easily. Any lyric that includes "jump off the roof of Dignitas" is definitely my sort of thing.

Joy in Leeuwarden (aka the korfball song) is probably the only one I do not really like on the album. It is a little... bland and the rolling guitars do not do it for me enough to cover the slightly dodgy harmonies in the vocal. That, though, is the worst I can say about anything on this disc. It is one of those where you press play then smile until it is done. There is an odd moment in Excavating Rita when I think it morphs into The Trickster (from Radiohead's My Iron Lung E.P.) which I do not remember but otherwise I find myself without too much to say about each track as they pass through, washing over my ears... I just like listening to this more than thinking of something to say about it.

Some of the stories are actually really disturbing, horrifying even. They would be darkly comic but unpleasant if they were not delivered with such wit, charm and with a generally simple, but reasonably accomplished tune set to back them up. This is another reason why I think genre-tagging is meaningless: I could not categorise 90 Bisodol to my satisfaction if my life depended on it. I like that; it shifts around styles and whilst, yes, it is made by white boys with guitars, they are clever about it.

My favourite song on the album is The Coroner's Footnote, no question - the picture painted is complete, vivid and wraps up in a conclusion that might punch depending on your point of view.

At time of writing this is the only HMHB album I own... I should really look up more of their stuff.

'64-'95 - Lemon Jelly

Track List:

1. It Was...
2. '88 AKA Come Down On Me
3. '68 AKA Only Time
4. '93 AKA Don't Stop Now
5. '95 AKA Make Things Right
6. '79 AKA The Shouty Track
7. '75 AKA Stay With You
8. '76 AKA The Slow Train
9. '90 AKA Man Like Me
10. '64 AKA Go

Running Time: 53 minutes
Released: 2005

I held off getting this album for a very long time. I was warned against getting this album by my brother who worked with (or moved in circles with) Lemon Jelly back when he was an audio engineer and still has artwork produced by Fred Deakin's art studio adorning his living room wall - received as a gift from Deakin, I think. Come to think of it, there may be a second (and possibly third?) piece too.

I loved Lemonjelly.ky and Lost Horizons so I gave in eventually and picked this up. Last FM suggests only 3 listens to tracks from this album though, so bought and appreciated are certainly not the same thing.

It Was... is just a short intro, so there are really only 9 tracks here. With a 50+ minute runtime they're long ones. Each samples a song from 19XX where XX is the year at the beginning of the title. None of them are recognisible to me, though track 10 has Shatner on vocal. The Shat will appear a couple more times before I am done.

I can see from Come Down On Me why there was not much enthusiasm for this one. It is a complete departure from the sounds of their earlier work. Bland, repetitive and boring. Only Time is, on the face of it, more like Lost Horizons era Lemon Jelly but it is one quite short loop repeated ad nauseum which is old before the track is half done, but continues still. It is a relief when it cuts out, but what replaces it does not have much to recommend it either and the distorted vocal is disturbing rather than tuneful. It peters out then segues into Don't Stop Now which has a very weak beginning. The backing for this gets a little more interesting, but the base loop is quite unpleasant and the oft-repeated vocal is really not musical. It is a shame, there is a half decent tune in the constituent parts, but it feels like they have been assembled in the wrong order, like IKEA furniture put together by a blind man and his guide dog. This is, so far, a tremendous fall from grace and I am ruing my decision to go against the grain.

Make Things Right has enough of the old magic to raise a smile. A solid loop and enough variation over it to keep it moving and from getting too staid. That said, keeping it going for 6 minutes seems like it will be a stretch. I have got past 3 and the variation is just dying to the point of gone when it drops out and changes, saved from the edge by an interlude. Half-decent song this, but it is no Ramblin' Man or Tune for Jack.

A title like "The Shouty Track" worries me, but whilst it starts with a louder sound than you might expect from Lemon Jelly it is not immediately shouty or horrid. Quite bland though, and I am glad it is short. Not a fan. The odd shouts here and there are just that... odd. At this stage, I am thinking that this album fits the "casualty" tag nicely, but I reckon I should keep Make Things Right at least.

Stay With You starts to feel a bit like Quantic. It has the air of shuffle about it. Pleasant enough, a lighter sound, but it quickly devolves to boredom and a feeling of "can the music start now please?" In general I feel that this album relies far too strongly on repetition - of beat loops, of vocal samples, of general tone. Each track feels very samey as a result, a problem exacerbated by their length. Once or twice this is broken up mid-tune but overall it is left to linger too long to the detriment of the overall effect. I am hoping that Shatner can alleviate this, but there are a couple more tracks to get through first. Slow Train again starts reasonably positively, but drifts into stasis. By the time it gets a bit more life the track is almost half done, and that life is lost as quickly as it was slow to arrive. Too much of a pattern to deny. I have to say that given this, I am glad Lemon Jelly stopped producing music together when they did so I did not pick up any more than 1 album's worth of dross.

Man Like Me feels like a re-hash of Come Down On Me, adding further still to the sense of repeated content. Like many of the other tracks there are some interesting sounds captured. Like many of the other tracks this does not help to cast off the perception of a homogenous blancmange that simply cannot really be enjoyed.  It is almost as if they lost their magic touch and started mixing the same ingredients together but coming up with divergent results.

I wonder how much of my opinion is based on loving the other discs too much, and thus anything that strayed too far was doomed to mediocrity in my eyes? Preconception also does not help, and having been warned off, I certainly had that. And yet, I do not think that alone explains the disparity. Shatner is talking now but the levels seem off. Backing too loud, vocal too low. Backing too... ugh. No, this post is becoming like the album, overdoing one theme, and not even Shatner could save it.

Casualty definitely fits, even if I do keep Make Things Right. And hang on to the physical disc.

30 Days - Various Artists

Track List:

1. KKFS - First Day, Some Lake
2. Kilowatts - Glob Story
3. Ruairi Lazers - Blown Subs
4. Rochie - The White Grass Bending
5. Bogsnarth - Acid Casualty
6. Antenne - Blue Light
7. Spark - The World Has Spoken And Blow
8. dgoHn - roasted
9. Darren McClure - Dec_19
10. Aligning Minds - sEkrAT
11. Cube - Rampant Zoo Sex Orgy
12. Atomly - Medianoche
13. the Square Root of Evil - Frolic
14. Peekay Tayloh - Vast Minority
15. sawe - Brain Cloud
16. Domotic - Ma Stereo
17. Sunny D. Levine - Got Something For Ya
18. Secret Mommy - Bowls
19. Venetian Snares - Peeing_yelloq
20. Zephyr Nova - Patterns and Parallels
21. Nedavine - Nihongo De
22. Svenedikt - The Attack Of The Jellyfish
23. The Flashbulb - Smoking Blue Midi
24. Santosh - I Am Not Mad
25. Lee Hutzulak - Drops
26. Polichinelle - Dans My Poitrine
27. Orangebox - Our Lines
28. Sky Barstow - Can We Leave This Place
29. Peter Fuhry - No Is A Wonderful Word
30. Alice Rose - A Poem In Slow Motion

Running Time: 82 Minutes
Released: 2006

So hot on the heels of one odd free music project comes another from the same label which predates it. 30 songs in 30 days by 30 artists. 27 of which are free on LastFM here. As with 52 Weeks - Fall I have not heard of the majority of artists here, though obviously Orangebox and Sky Barstow were in the prior listen, and Venetian Snares ring a bell for some reason.

In finding the release date for this work, I stumbled on http://freemusicarchive.org/  which could be dangerous. I am not sure I really want to go digging through for reasons of time and wonder. It did at least let me recover the three tracks LastFM did not make available from this album, though.

I suspect this 82 minutes will feel like a shift... only one way to find out.

It starts simply enough with a piece that is incredibly repetitive in nature and could be a soundtrack for a skit or sketch in some kind of black and white film. It is not something I want to hear again. Like 52 Weeks - Fall the artists have shaped their tracks to produce seamless transitions, and track 2 has pretty much the same underlying rhythm as track 1. It breaks down into a more interesting electronic mashup but again, is not a keeper. Whilst I quite like the overlay, the beat pattern does my head in.

There is more of a break before Blown Subs starts and this is more tolerable, even tuneful in places. I think the beats have a bit to much weight to them, but this is actually a reasonable ambient track with airs of the FTL soundtrack by Ben Prunty which will be coming later. It gives way to The White Grass Bending in a nice switch that gives me hope I might actually salvage a few keepers from the 30. Two are gone already and this one is probably going to join them after devolving from a promising start. The beats get less interesting, and the overlay is too weak to hold interest.

Acid Casualty picks things up again though... from a keys-based start to interesting patterns that remind me of that track from Dark Side of the Moon (the name of which escapes me now). This is never music I would listen to a lot, but I am hearing merit for occasional play. The first vocals enter with Antenne's Blue Light - quite light and sparse over a spacious backing, this tune grows on me as it goes. Already I am keeping as many as from the last effort, and so far it's a 50% hit rate. Hurrah!

Downhill again now though... good job I can keep half an eye on the BBC's Transfer Deadline Day coverage whilst doing this, to keep myself amused by the outrage and entitlement of their audience pieces if nothing else. I am not engaged as a fan of any team involved, which allows me to snigger and harbour scornful thoughts about the correspondents. That said, there were some great team formation graphics produced earlier in the day after ManUtd signed Falcao. I particularly liked this one (who knows how long it'll be here).

Man Utd 2014/15?

That aside, a couple more uninteresting tracks have slid by. One quite unpleasant, one OK but dull. That gives way to ambient so ambient it is barely there; not my cup of tea at all and that 50% hit rate is back down to 33%. How close to the minimum 10% will it get?

I am not well disposed to sEkrAt before it begins. The leet-speak capitalisation annoys me much more than the crappy alternative spelling for secret. When the tune starts it is more of the same, so-so, nothing electronic ambient that cannot decide what it wants to be, jumping from one tempo and sound combination to another at whim. Still - it is not called "Rampant Zoo Sex Orgy", and you have to wonder about anyone who names a tune thus. It is worryingly a much more enjoyable tune to listen to, and even their vocal sampling seems to work reasonably. Not quite a keeper though.

I somehow managed to close my typing window with the palm of my hand, whilst typing. Thankfully the regular saves mean no wasted effort. I hate this trackpad.

I do not want to sound too harsh here; these tunes were all pulled together in a day each, so it would be wrong to expect too much. A number of them are disappointing in that way that leaves me thinking they could have actually been something if they had had ample time and effort applied. It is a neat idea - especially since the artists are from all over the world and so many may not even have had a day to get done and pass on (the supposed format of the working).

As I go through and tag all the tracks I got from LastFM as "last fm download" I am embarrassed for whomever left the other tags I see, a direct result of too many numbers substituting for letters. In that time a few more dull tracks have blown by, taking me to half way. Unless there is something good soon, my patience will be severely tried!

Even without exploring more of the free music archive I have more "odd" stuff like this to come. I am certain that OLO Worms fall into this category, for instance... I do not believe I have listed to Yard Is Open at all since picking it up on the strength of the delightful I Shot Shrieff (I only just realised it is not "sheriff") from Bare Foot.

More guff has passed, whilst I fiddle with graphic placement and fail to find a decent location and margin. I should have written more up top, but I have not got anything more to add. I really want out of this listen now but there is still half an hour and 9 tracks to go. I thought for a moment that The Attack of the Jellyfish was going to be good. It started well then fell apart before pulling itself together again. Unfortunately the falling apart overrides the rest in my appreciation. Smoking Blue Midi also starts reasonably, but does not grow and so gets thrown out... oh wait. There is a little development there and actually I think this may be a 4th keeper. The transition to I Am Not Mad is cool and that song continues the upturn. It really helps that they are short works though... not leaving time to really get too bored providing there is a little change-up in there somewhere.

The listen practically stops for a track, there is so little going on. Like a background noise recording but with no attention paid to turn it into anything. Colour me unimpressed. Still, down to 5 to go; it will all be over soon.

Word to the wise, do not search for "poitrine" at work. I could not place the word (my French is very rusty) so the internet told me it is "chest" or "breast". Guess which it had images of? I do not feel bad for not recognising the word now. The track of which it forms part of the title is dull, dreary. It gives way to the Orangebox track I grabbed after hearing their effort for 52 Weeks, but I am immediately disappointed. There is much less of interest in this tune, and it will be purged with the rest.

Seriously flagging now waiting for the end and a chance to scrub out my brain before going to bed. I am vaguely hopeful for the last track because of the title, but I do not really expect that hope to be well founded. It is certainly nicer than most of the disc, and the hope was not a million miles from the mark. There is more music here. A keeper to end with.

Glad this journey into the wonders of free music has ended though. 52 Weeks was short enough to endure, but almost an hour and a half for a total of 6 tunes worth holding on to is a rough trade. 20% return in terms of tracks. Still, it could be worse. For a long stretch it looked like 10%

The other 80%? Purge them with fire (or, y'know, just hit delete).