en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal The Last.fm journal for amodelofcontrol. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/30/2u4tua_tuesday_ten%3A_best_of_2009_so_far_%28tracks%29 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:40:20 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/30/2u4tua_tuesday_ten%3A_best_of_2009_so_far_%28tracks%29 Following on from the previous post, now for the best tracks so far this year:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Zero

This band had kinda passed me by before, other than a couple of marvellous singles, but this is such a joyous explosion of a track that it was impossible to resist. Less guitars, more electro, and the result is the best thing this band have done by miles, and an obvious contender for best track of the year.

Little Boots
New In Town

I suspect that this could be deemed a guilty pleasure by some, and I'll freely admit that it is here, too. Either way, it's a slinky electro-pop tune with a sky-scraping chorus - and to me, far more interesting and engaging than the 80s-retro boredom of La Roux.

Röyksopp feat. Robyn
The Girl and the Robot

Talking of pop tunes, another extraordinary single that is so good it eclipses pretty much all of the the album that this comes from. I suspect that sadly it may suffer a little in the charts this week following the mayhem surrounding a certain dead pop star.

The Prodigy
Take Me To The Hospital

The Prodigy's hugely successful comeback appears to have taken everyone by surprise, especially as the album has turned out to be great fun. Pick of the album is this astounding nod back to their raving past - cheesy synths coupled with monstrous beats that helps to remind why we loved the Prodigy in the first place, and why it's great to have them back.

Manic Street Preachers
Vision Blurred

A second mention for the Manics today, mainly as this was released fleetingly on the NME website and quickly disappeared (if you want it, it isn't hard to find online). Anyway, this is a cover of The Horrors track, and is the real nod by the Manics back to The Holy Bible - a brutal three minute burst of punky energy that will leave your jaw on the floor by the end of the first, spine-tingling chorus.

KMFDM
Davai

A second mention for KMFDM, too - the best moment by far on Blitz. A stomping industrial track, with Sascha K. expanding his lyrical horizons further by singing (well, snarling) this in Russian. The use of this harsh-sounding language works to spectacular effect, and I'm hoping they play it live when I see them in a few weeks time in London (who else is going, btw?).

Cyanotic
Terminator Theme (Glitch Mode Mix)

In advance of the long, long-awaited new album The Medication Generation, this was released to much surprise - and joy, when we released how awesome it was. Basically an industrial remix of the theme, it leaves the core of it as it is and is great fun to play as a DJ, watching people's faces as they realise what it is...

Uberbyte
Under the Cross

A second album in quick succession from Uberbyte, and this first track from it is a cracking track - heavy-duty, pounding industrial with intelligent lyrics about the hypocrisy of religion and it simply crackles with rage.

Coreline
coreline builds better robots

Expect the full review of this album, with a bit of luck, on Connexion Bizarre in the coming days, but in the meantime, this is by far the best track on it (and enormous fun live, too). It's been released before in slightly different forms, but the apparently final version here that includes a school choir, crazy rhythms and off-kilter beats is a work of twisted genius.

HEALTH
DIE SLOW

Finally - a band I heard by chance following a random recommendation elsewhere, and I'm glad I followed the link now. Nominally this band are described as "noise-rock", falling somewhere between shoegaze and the power of Swans at points, but this new-ish track, apparently a precursor to a new album, puts quasi-industrial rhythms underneath shoegaze-y vocals and sheets of guitar, and frankly it's fucking amazing.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/30/2u4sm0_tuesday_ten%3A_best_of_2009_so_far_%28albums%29 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:26:54 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/30/2u4sm0_tuesday_ten%3A_best_of_2009_so_far_%28albums%29 I don't usually do this, but as I've remembered - and there has been a fair amount of stuff to recommend - I'm taking a break from the usual Tuesday Ten subjects to do a rundown of ten albums and ten songs worth hearing from 2009 so far, as we reach the halfway point of the year (already!). They are, it should be added, in no particular order.

Ok, so albums first, ten songs to follow on a seperate post.

SKET
Depleted Uranium Weapons

The first new material from SKET in a while, and it's a belter. A meticulously constructed concept album around the effects and legacy of the titular weapons, it comes in the usual Hards card slipcase with a booklet detailing the background behind some of the tracks and titles, and the whole album has a furious, apocalyptic feel that makes for an unsettling but riveting listen. I would recommend individual tracks but it's a difficult one with the whole album being so good.

Alter der Ruine
The Giants From Far Away

This one came out right at the start of the year, and despite it's lofty and pretentious-sounding press prior to release, the album itself turned out to be anything but. A riotous mix of pounding industrial, funky electro and some cracking sample use, nothing is taken too seriously and it's infectious power has seen it (to me, anyway) gain unexpected fans and become something of a dancefloor smash.

Synapscape
again

Synapscape are an artist that I've had little more than a passing interest in until recently, but all has changed with the release of this. Maybe it's their extensive use of distorted, scratchy vocals, but something about what this act do simply makes them sound unique. The music is abrasive but catchy, harsh but fun, and it makes for a great album.

Esa
The Sea and The Silence

The consistently high quality releases from ESA show no sign of abating with this, the third album in as many years. Evolution is the name of the game rather than revolution, with industrial power featured prominently as before, but with lengthy, slower and calmer sections - the two part (and fourteen minute) title track being a particularly staggering piece of work.

Prometheus Burning
Plague Called HuMANity

Something of change was found with the new album from these guys, with a distinct change for much of the album from the searing industrial of previous album Beyond Repair to a more old-school industrial feel, all wrapped in a loose concept that again actually works. In many respects an album that is a less challenging listen than the previous, but it's no less good. Also worth getting for the extraordinary cover of Ministry's You Know What You Are that closes it.

Necrotek
Menschenfeind

Talking of old-school industrial, another bowing down at the altar of it is this new artist from the US, who, as I wrote in my recent review of this, has done a great job of creating an album of searing nihilism and hate from the base of 'Puppy-esque beats and FLA-style atmospheres, without being a slave to those influences.

KMFDM
Blitz

This year marks 25 years of KMFDM, and their latest album is their best in many years. Yeah, it's not exactly re-inventing the wheel - and if you don't like KMFDM, this isn't going to change your mind - but in taking a look back at their past, as well as looking to the future, and evening throwing in a cracking cover of Human League's Being Boiled, it's a fast-paced, satisfying album that is an appropriate celebration of their long history.

Manic Street Preachers
Journal For Plague Lovers

Talking of history, this album has certainly something of the past about it. Eyebrows were raised when it was revealed the new album was using lyrics left by Richey Edwards, but happily the album is a resounding success. Having the album produced by Steve Albini has helped, too, with it sounding rawer and more heartfelt than they have in a long, long time. It's no Holy Bible, but it's not fair to look at it like that. Either way, it's marvellous, doesn't waste a second and if you went off the Manics in recent years, this should get you interested again.

Mastodon
Crack The Skye

Can this band do no wrong? A hugely technical metal band with prog-ish tendencies should not be as absorbing a listen as this, and certainly not be able to continue to release such brilliant albums. Anyway, this album is just seven tracks spread over fifty minutes, and despite two tracks of well over ten minutes each, the album never drags at all. Well worth a listen if you have any interest in metal whatsoever.

sunno)))
Monoliths And Dimensions

Finally...something that will only appeal to a small number of people, let's be honest. Right? Well, apparently not, given the huge amount of coverage this band get. An extraordinary creation based around droning, pitch black doom that brings in choirs, vocals and all manner of unexpected effects. Best listened to really fucking loud.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/23/2titaq_tuesday_ten%3A_music%2C_my_dad_and_me Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:14:40 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/23/2titaq_tuesday_ten%3A_music%2C_my_dad_and_me It was of course Father's Day this Sunday just gone, and for this week's Tuesday Ten I thought it appropriate to use this theme. I think my voracious appetite for music comes from my dad - ever since I can remember there has been a steady flow of "new" music into the house, in a variety of genres. And, of course, it's true that we don't always agree on music. However there are a number of artists that I have got into - even if that was years later - and even a few that I have played a part in getting my dad into. So, here they are.

As always, there is a Spotify playlist: which is here. The Spotify URI is: spotify:user:asw909:playlist:41BEMVDvzWPFRwy4KntMur.

So, let's start with music from my dad, as some of this goes back years.

Leonard Cohen
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: First We Take Manhattan
Where to start? Probably one of the few artists that both my girlfriend and I heard a fair amount of when we were younger - although she no doubt heard a lot more (if you don't know, my girlfriend's mum is a well-enough known Leonard Cohen fan to appear on TV talking about him, goes to the various fan meet-ups around the world, etc). Bizarrely, though, my first recollection of hearing Cohen's music was from the Famous Blue Raincoat "tribute" album by Jennifer Warnes rather than his own material, although I was familiar with some of his songs by the time I was into my teens. I'm not a massive fan of Cohen, by any stretch - actually listening to Cohen a lot only really happened for me after hearing Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah, and the Cohen tracks on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack - but it's not something I'll turn off and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't go and see him live in the past year or two.

Prince
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Little Red Corvette
I was first exposed to hearing Prince back in the mid-80s by my dad, during the period where Prince was pretty much releasing album after album of quite extraordinary material, culminating in the sprawling double-album of Sign O' The Times, which remains one of the best albums of the eighties in my eyes. A Prince album was also the first album that I bought myself - I bought Lovesexy pretty much on the day of release way back in summer 1988. I don't listen to Prince as much as I used to - at one point I had just about every album he had released - but I still have no problem listening to it (and still know most of the words, too). Oh, and Prince is another artist that I've never seen live.

Bruce Springsteen
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Born to Run
I'd suspect that Bruce Springsteen is probably my dad's favourite artist by a long, long way - his almost childish excitement prior to seeing him live last year in London (after probably 30 years of waiting) was a joy to see, and he wouldn't shut up (in a good way) about the gig afterwards, either. I'm by no means as big a fan as my dad, but Springsteen certainly has a way with a song, and he was awesome in the Superbowl half-time show this year, too (why did it take so long to have him doing that?).

Tom Waits
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Downtown Train
While I love Tom Waits' material nowadays, this was certainly not the case back when I was a kid. In fact, my dad used to play one of Waits's albums (usually one of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs or Franks Wild Years) to shut my siblings and I up in a long car journey! It took me years before I began to properly appreciate the really rather left-field wierdness of Tom Waits - it was probably the first dEUS album that made me take another look. Oh, and if you've only ever heard the Rod Stewart version of Downtown Train, Waits' original version is infinitely superior.

R.E.M.
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Orange Crush
Thanks to my dad, I've been listening to R.E.M. for as long as I can remember, probably in fact for some time longer than most other bands, and interestingly I suspect that both of us stopped listening to new R.E.M. releases around about the same time - about eight or nine years ago, with the notable exception of The Great Beyond, which remains one of the greatest songs the band have ever released. Thanks to this long, long association with the band's music, I think, and my dad's almost constant playing of it, it's always been Green that has remained my favourite album, rather than the perhaps more-lauded successors that saw them reach ever-greater success. Of the various singles on this album, though, it's the furious anti-war tirade of Orange Crush that is the pinnacle for me and I could never tire of hearing it.

Peter Gabriel
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: San Jacinto
Another one that I started hearing in the eighties - the first material of which I remember hearing comes from So, which if you are not familiar with as an album, I'm pretty damned sure you'll recognise Sledgehammer, if only for the video. It's more experimental stuff, however (like the frankly chilling Mercy Street) are the tracks that always pop into my head when I think of this album, though. His stuff prior to this is fantastic, too, although something of an acquired taste, I'd think - as were Genesis when Gabriel was part of the band, but I never got into them at all. (A note: San Jacinto is included on the playlist only because that's all I could find on Spotify!)


Ok, so what about stuff I got my dad into? Surprisingly - to me at least - there are a few things over the years that my dad has appreciated in time that I have played him. I'm sure my dad wouldn't complain at me suggesting that he is something of an audiophile, and there has always been a top-notch stereo system at my parent's house. So naturally, it's not been unheard of for me to take the odd album back to my parent's to "try" on the stereo there, and every now and again my dad has gone out and bought something on the back of that. But there are other ways too.

Pearl Jam
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Rearviewmirror
There's something of an irony in my dad liking Pearl Jam nowadays. Back when my stepbrothers and I got immersed in the alternative-rock/grunge explosion in the early-90s - yes, we all wore plaid shirts, torn jeans, long-sleeved t-shirts under short-sleeved ones - my dad dismissed bands like Pearl Jam as whiny rock. So, imagine my surprise when in a car journey with him a few years ago, he puts on the best-of (Rearviewmirror) and is quite happily singing along. Interestingly, they aren't a band that I have paid attention to in recent years, other than listening to their early material - hence why I'm including the titular track from the best-of here.

Arcade Fire
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
This is a band that I'm not sure he had actually heard before I got him both albums one christmas. My dad had suggested that I surprise him with some music that I'd think he would like a couple of years ago, so I went for these guys, and much to my surprise the reaction was overwhelmingly positive - although as I recall he prefers Neon Bible, whereas I far prefer Funeral. Interestingly my next band suggestion for him - The Hold Steady's Stay Positive - was also something a success, perhaps not so much of a surprise with it's clear Springsteen influence...

The Levellers
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: [track artist=]Liberty Song[/track]
I've never entirely been sure how my dad ended up liking The Levellers - I suspect that their generally "inoffensive" folk rock and highly political lyrics probably had something to do with it, as well as my step-brothers and I again having listened to this band since about 1992. Either way, I reckon that he probably listens to them more than I do nowadays...

Rammstein
Track featured on the Spotify playlist: [track artist=]Sonne[/track]
Finally, perhaps the most unlikely band that I ever thought my dad would like: Rammstein. But there are unusual reasons for this. My dad spent his teens living in Germany, and has retained a fluency in the language that meant when he first heard Rammstein - probably Sonne on MTV or suchlike, or through my playing of it a lot at the time - he immediately understood and appreciated the black humour that frequently permeates Rammstein's lyrics. I don't believe he has bought any Rammstein albums, though...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/16/2swey2_tuesday_ten%3A_crimes Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:09:54 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/16/2swey2_tuesday_ten%3A_crimes A list that seemed to grow every time I even thought about it, this one - songs about crime. Perhaps I wasn't specific enough in my initial criteria, but hell, I've got so many I'm going to be covering more than ten this week. Songs about crimes go a long, long, long way back in music, and I'd suspect there is a song about just about any crime you can think of. The only question now is where to start.

As usual now, there is a Spotify playlist for most of this, here. The Spotify URI is: spotify:user:asw909:playlist:6YqcFdxwHCSE9OfZvhMz6g

Judas Priest
Breaking the Law
British Steel

So, let's start with the oh-so-slightly-cheesy rock thrills of this legendary track, which has possibly one of the cheapest and tackiest videos ever (robbing banks with guitars, etc). What laws are they breaking? This is never made especially clear, except in the video.

Public Enemy
911 Is a Joke
Fear of a Black Planet

The first of a number of rap tracks in this list, and isn't strictly about a crime - it's more about the issues in reporting one. New York's Public Enemy detail here the problems of getting the cops to respond to a 911 call:911 is a joke we don't want 'em / I call a cab 'cause a cab will come quickerAnd while the point is serious, Flavor Flav's wordplay and delivery make this an amusing, upbeat track to listen to. This also spawned probably one of the most inappropriate and worst cover versions ever - Duran Duran's cover of it on Thank You.
See also: KRS-One | Sound of Da Police
See also: Cop Shoot Cop | Lullaby

So what about individual crimes? Remarkably, it's amazing the stuff that is written about. Feel free to add more to the list, particularly if they cover a different crime to these!

Supergrass
Caught by the Fuzz
I Should Coco

An early Britpop single, this bloody marvellous two-minute pop rush details the (true-to-life) problems of being arrested by the police for possession of marajuana while a teenager - and then the difficulties of dealing with the family in the aftermath. Never mind just being a fantastic track, it's also a picture-perfect image of those awkward moments when in trouble. We've all had them, right?

Jane's Addiction
Been Caught Stealing
Ritual de lo Habitual

Two chords, the sound of some (very large) dogs barking, and we're off doing a runner with Perry Farrell, stealing as much he and his loved ones can. Why?When we want something / and we don't wanna pay for itFair enough, then, I guess. Either way, it's an alt.rock classic that has endured for nigh-on twenty years, remarkably.

Snot
Joy Ride
Get Some

The turbocharged punk-metal of this track - where the late Lynn Strait pulls out his gun, his booze and his anger on other drivers getting in his way, the kiss-off of the track being that he crashes his car at the end. It was almost a prophetic track, too, as Lynn Strait was eventually killed in a car accident not long after this album was released...
See also: Offspring | Bad habit

Sublime
Date Rape
Sublime

Sublime's sun-drenched, languid reggae-tinged punk rock frequently hid much darker themes under their usually sunny demeanour - and indeed singer Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose before this album, which turned out to be a massive hit - was released. It probably didn't get much darker than this - the tale of a girl being date-raped and the consequences that follow - that sees the rapist get chucked in jail and then "violated" himself in prison...

Filter
Hey Man Nice Shot
Short Bus

Onto public figures, and an infamous event, too. Filter's first single, going back many years now, was a slow-burning, grinding industrial rock track about the very public (live on local TV) suicide of Pennsylvania politician Budd Dwyer following his being found guilty of involvement in receiving kickbacks from state Government contractors.

Fun Lovin' Criminals
King of New York
Come Find Yourself

The second mention of FLC within a few weeks - and there could have been other songs mentioned here, too - this gets in due to it's tales of organised criminals, and in particular crime lord John Gotti. It could justifiably said, perhaps, that this song does glamorise organised crime somewhat...

N.W.A.
Fuck The Police
Straight Outta Compton

I did say there was more rap in this list - and this raging, lengthy track, one of the first and most furious "gansta rap" tracks ever, details allegations of brutality and racism in the LAPD, in the inventive form of a mock court case where the testimonies come from the members of the group, and Dr Dre presides over proceedings as the "Judge". It should also be noted that it pre-dates the LA riots by some years...
See also: Body Count | Cop Killer
See also: Combichrist | Joy to the World

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Stagger Lee
Murder Ballads

I could hardly let this list go with including something from this album - and probably one of the best known tracks from it is this adaptation of the much-covered/changed folk standard Stack O' Lee, and here the titular character kills a number of people and wreaks havoc in a small town, a story made all the more thrilling by Cave's dramatic delivery and the soaring, thunderous musical backing the Bad Seeds give him.
See also: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | O'Malley's Bar[track] (and just about anything else off Murder Ballads)
See also: Pearl Jam | [track artist=Pearl Jam]Once

Painbastard
Nyctophobia
Accession Records Klangfusion Vol.1

More rather darker corners of the criminal world are dealt with here, and it is instructive, perhaps, to know what Nyctophobia is: a fear of the dark. In this case, however, it's a fear of what the dark may bring - this is, needless to say, a song about child abuse whose song is as dark as the lyrics and subject. It is very, very long, though, and some of the remixes do shorten and improve things a little.
See also: Stabbing Westward | Sleep
See also: KoRn | Daddy

Johnny Cash
Folsom Prison Blues
With His Hot And Blue Guitar or At Folsom Prison

Finally, of course, we end in the appropriate place for all these crimes - prison. And, of course, with the definitive song about prison, from Johnny Cash, where the protagonist laments his criminal life and wishes for freedom - and what he'll do when he's free...]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/09/2s9s22_tuesday_ten%3A_lust Tue, 9 Jun 2009 12:32:31 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/09/2s9s22_tuesday_ten%3A_lust This week was going to be a run-through songs involving one or more of the seven deadly sins, which many of you may remember me asking about a few weeks back. But finding a selection I was happy with has been very hard indeed, so this week I'm concentrating on just one of the sins, and will come back to covering all seven later.

A lot of music deals with the subject of sex. It's a little more difficult to identify songs that are more about lust than sex, but I think I've just about managed it here. Ironically, Charlie Brooker was yesterday on about passion killing songs (and Spotify playlists, too), so you can perhaps see this as the flipside. As always, feel free to add more suggestions in the comments...

Click on the link for the Spotify playlist for this Tuesday Ten (you can get Spotify here).

The Afghan Whigs
Somethin' Hot
1965

Greg Dulli has never been backward in coming forwards when it comes to sex (and his legendary "ladies man" status has got him into more than his fair share of trouble, too, as I recall), and he's spent many a song (and album) both apologising and celebrating his (and other men's) actions. The more celebrationary feel wins out on this extraordinary track, an explosion of euphoric lust that really does sound like it was recorded (as it was) in the sultry heat of a New Orleans summer. Also, these guys remain the only band to have truly nailed a merger of hard rock with soul/r'n'b in recent times.

Queens of the Stone Age
Make It Wit Chu
Era Vulgaris

The California sun permeated my summer sounds TT the other week, and here it is again - from another singer who has probably had his fair share of experience in lust. The languid, bluesy-rock of this track could only come from a sunny place, and the lyrics make it plainly obvious that Josh Homme would be happier during this song doing but nothing spending some, er, quality time with her.

Grinderman
No Pussy Blues
Grinderman

It's the opposite problem for Nick Cave in this song. He's getting old, he bought her "a dozen snow-white doves", he even "sucked in his gut", and still "she doesn't want to". You know exactly what she won't do. Like all Cave lyrics, it's awesomely witty and acerbic, and it's quite clear he's growing old disgracefully. Which frankly, is the only way we'd like it. Particularly if more of his stuff is the dischordant, searing racket that this is.

Pulp
This Is Hardcore
This Is Hardcore

Pulp had always touched on the oh-so-slightly sleazy side of life, but with this track it was all blown out into the open. Six-and-a-half long minutes of cinematic, sweeping strings and a backing band in thrall to his demands, where Jarvis Cocker finally gets hold of the subject of his lust, and he appears oddly keen on filming the moment for posterity - just in case that, maybe, he doesn't get the chance again. It's almost as if, later, in the song, that he can't quite believe his luck and begins to fumble his lines. For once with Pulp, it's not Sheffield that this song brings to mind as a location, either - particularly given the cinematic connotations of the song - instead it's the seedy, neon-lit streets of Soho in London to me.

Divinyls
I Touch Myself
diVINYLS

A song that caused a little bit of a controversy when released, mainly because of it's somewhat bloody obvious subject...anyway, it's all about lust, of course, for an absent partner, and how she whiles away the time without said partner. It's sweet, it's fun, and it's a fucking fantastic pop song, too...

Edge of Dawn
Elegance
The Flight (Lux)

Frank Spinath is another lyricist who frequently touches on the subject of sex in his songs, quite often in quite dark terms. Here, in his "side-project" from his main band Seabound, he is a little more direct. It's the classic image, perhaps, of the unattainable girl, not asking her to provide anything, as it were, instead she can take all she likes. He even helpfully details all the images in his head of what would happen, which is perhaps a little more information than we really needed. The song itself, like anything that Spinath gets involved in, is near-impeccable synthpop with a cold, detached edge and frankly almosts feels wasted as a side-project track...

My Dying Bride
The Whore, the Cook and the Mother
34.788%...Complete

Another band where I'm hardly short of songs absolutely dripping with lust, but this track - from probably MDB's most divisive album - is one of my favourites of all so this one it is. The lengthy opening track to this album, the first half of which roars and twists like consummation of the lust, then the second half is the calm in the half-light afterward, before roaring back into life again as the (twelve minute) track comes to a close. Lyrically, it's filthy, pretty much, leaving the listener in no doubt whatsoever as to the intentions of the protagonist...

A Perfect Circle
Magdalena
Mer de Noms

Maynard James Keenan is not an vocalist/lyricist who I would ever have expected to write a song like this, but the unbelievably tense music, and his yearning vocals - and the controlled explosion of the chorus - certainly sounds like a seething mass of lust to me, invoking religious imagery and sheer lust at the same time. Like so many songs written by this hand, there are many, many interpretations of the track, and I'm not sure I'll ever believe which the is correct one. Either way, it's APC's best moment by a mile.

Massive Attack
Inertia Creeps
Mezzanine

Like the rest of the album that this comes from, it's mired in the shadows, and you get the feeling that they preferred it that way. The track simply looms out of the pitch darkness, the tribal-esque drums providing the perfect backdrop to Robert Del Naja's semi-whispered, semi-growled vocals - detailing what sounds like an endless night with a lover, and you can almost see the sweat-drenched air by the end of the track as it reaches it's metaphorical climax.

The Undertones
Teenage Kicks
The Undertones
The fantasy of the girl that you really, really want...but are likely never to have. Not that it mattered to Fergal Sharkey back in 1978. All these big plans he had, things he wanted to do, but you always get the feeling that it's all in his head and he never actually gets the girl. Still, even with that disappointment, as it were, this track's awesome two-minutes and twenty-eight seconds are already assured immortality, and too right too.

Other songs that didn't make the cut:

Iggy Pop | Lust for Life | Lust for Life
KMFDM | Lust | Angst
Liz Phair | Flower | Exile in Guyville
The Wildhearts | Just in Lust | p.h.u.q.
Nine Inch Nails | Closer | The Downward Spiral
Elastica | Car Song | Elastica]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/02/2rnw7e_tuesday_ten%3A_tracks_of_the_month_%28may%29 Tue, 2 Jun 2009 16:16:30 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/06/02/2rnw7e_tuesday_ten%3A_tracks_of_the_month_%28may%29 Another new month (where is this year going?!?), so time for my usual monthly roundup of ten tracks you should hear. If there are other things I should hear, please tell me...

Cyanotic
Terminator Theme [Glitch Mode Mix]
T3RM1N8T0R.COM
It's a little bit of a diversion while we keenly await the forthcoming album The Medication Generation, but as always there is somehow no hint of filler about this. Sean Payne from the band mentioned in an interview I did with him last year that the soundtrack for Terminator 2: Judgement Day was his starting point for music generally, so taking on this theme was perhaps a logical step. It's a bruising rework of the theme, too, that keeps the spirit of the original theme while still unmistakeably sounding like Cyanotic. The new album can't come soon enough...

Left Spine Down
Welcome To The Future
Voltage 2.3 - Remixed and Revisited
Cyanotic's labelmates Left Spine Down have also been busy of late, releasing recently this remix album that saw a number of takes on various tracks from their debut album Fighting For Voltage - intriguingly leaving their best track U Can't Stop The Bomb well alone - along with a couple of covers (She's Lost Control and Territorial Pissings) and then this one new track. Which, as might be expected, is more high-paced electro-punk that doesn't really do too much different to what has come before, but then, when it ain't broke...

Komor Kommando
State Of Destruction
das EP
I very nearly included two tracks involving Seb Komor in this list - his remix of Reset on the Left Spine Down album above is the best remix on it - but I decided in the end on just this. The pace of this pounding, dancefloor-aimed CD is reduced just once, for this hulking brute of a track that sounds almost like a Noise Unit production, except with much, much heavier beats. And it sounds awesome.

Sunn 0)))
Big Church
Monoliths and Dimensions
This new album has had something of a hysterical reaction in the press, it's lengthy - and very loud - drone-based music being seen as something of a pinnacle for these guys. While they do appear to be the cool name to drop (again), they do do what they do very well indeed - and this particular track, featuring choirs and other assorted effects, is jaw-dropping. The album as a whole is by no means the second-coming, and let's be honest - you will either love or hate this, there is no in between - but is certainly very good indeed.

Hecq
Howler
steeltongued
I have had so many people recommend this artist to me - I've only ever heard his remix work for In Strict Confidence before I got this - that I had to pick up an album at some point. I chose to start with the latest release, and it's pretty impressive, the almost impossibly clean and precise electronics making for a sound that sounds truly unique. I suspect that I'm going to need many more listens yet to be able to appreciate the whole album, but it's this track that has caught me first - breakcore chaos and almost orchestral sweeps, all in the same song, and it's ace.

65daysofstatic
Retreat, Retreat (Live)
Escape From New York
This live album, recorded in New York when 65Dos were supporting The Cure, hasn't met with such a great reception from the press, which in some respects seems to be a little unfair. Certainly this album is a stopgap prior to a fourth album, and the two new tracks included in the sets - which I'm pretty sure they also played when we saw them in Sheffield earlier this year - don't appear to be the finished article yet. It's the older stuff, though, that shines the most here - in particular the usual heartstopping run through the track that is possibly the closest 65Dos have got to a song with a pop-structure, although wordless of course. After a number of years of repeat listens, it still sounds a bit like Mogwai, but I've still not tired of it yet.

Tori Amos
Give
Abnormally Attracted to Sin
I was left a little disappointed by much of this album when listening to it on Spotify, but the opening track - a sparse, spacey track that sounds as though it was recorded in the dead of night - is fantastic, and one of the best tracks that Tori has done in years, in my opinion.

The Berzerker
All The Things She Said
not on album
As dreadtemujin noted at the time, it's interesting to wonder how exactly The Berzerker managed to record this track or film the video while keeping a straight face for any take at all. This cover - a grunting, pseudo-grind take on the TaTu hit from quite a few years back - is perhaps the most
unlikely cover ever released, and if there are any more unlikely covers than this, I'd like to hear about them.

Babyland
Fucked Equipment
Outlive Your Enemies
I'd love to get hold of the new Babyland album at some point, however it appears that Metropolis have not made it available online, at least for the UK/Europe, so I'll have to order it and wait for it to arrive via snailmail sometime. In the meantime, I'll continue listening to this fantastic album, from which this track is by far my favourite track - a thumping, raging track whose beat seems to sound like it was fashioned from beating metallic objects before being treated within an inch of it's life.

Swans
A Hanging
Greed/Holy Money
Another band I'm never going to get tired of, I think, is this band. They may have been "gone" for twelve years or so now, but I'm still listening to them a lot, although my preference for which album goes on my iPod seems to change every month or so. And right now, I'm back into listening to their older, more extreme material, but it's this track that always gets me - the bizarre, almost choral vocals followed by the monstrous tribal drumming that ends the track.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/05/26/2r2nny_tuesday_ten%3A_the_sound_of_summer%3F Tue, 26 May 2009 12:07:59 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/05/26/2r2nny_tuesday_ten%3A_the_sound_of_summer%3F Travelling down to Cambridge on a warm summer's day on Sunday got my girlfriend and I thinking about songs that we associate with the summer. Certainly there are some songs that simply "work" better, or suit my mood more, when the sun is shining (and likewise similar happens with other songs during the winter). So, here are ten songs that to me are best listened to at this time of year.

As before, I've even managed to create a Spotify playlist for these ten tracks (Spotify URI: spotify:user:asw909:playlist:2PsbFmw9fX68cNnDhDNIX4).

Arab Strap
The First Big Weekend
The Week Never Starts Round Here

Not, in most circumstances, the most summery band of all - in fact, Arab Strap, and Malcolm Middleton's other work since, are generally about as dour as it gets - but this first single by the band is a marvellous tale of the "first big weekend of the summer", detailing the antics over a long weekend involving parties, friends, cheap alcohol and all manner of asides about life as they see it. It's brilliantly funny, and probably rings true for many of us in the general happenings over the course of the weekend...

The Orb
Little Fluffy Clouds
The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld

A rather more sunny track in general is the shuffling bliss of The Orb's probably best-known track, famously featuring the apparently stoned ramblings of Ricki-Lee Jones evoking images of endless summer evenings where the sky turns a vivid orange as the sun slowly sets. And unlike much of The Orb's earlier work, it doesn't hang around longer than needed, either...

Primal Scream
Come Together
Screamadelica

The Orb had an involvement in parts of this album, too, but not as I recall this track. I never thought much of the truncated single mix, it's full glory being the ten-minute epic that is one of the centrepieces of Primal Scream's best album by miles. The languid, lazy beat - when it eventually gets going - is perfectly matched by the gospel choir weaving in and out of it, and somehow never seems quite right when played in the depths of winter.

The Chemical Brothers
Leave Home
Exit Planet Dust

I first remember hearing this upon release back in the summer of 1995 (God, that long ago?!), and I've always associated this album with the summer ever since - it's sheer energy and danceable nature make the summer the best time to hear it. For me, too, the Chems have never bettered this track, either (it ruled at Reading '99, too, which was a sun-drenched festival where this act's set was perfectly matched to the glorious weather).

Fun Lovin' Criminals
Smoke 'Em
Come Find Yourself

Time for a break from the sunshine, perhaps, and time to chill out a little with the FLC's ode to kicking back and smoking dope. Like much of this album, it's almost-cartoonish, bright demeanour lends itself well to summer listening, but none more so than this track.

Pavement
Range Life
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Still with a more mellow feel, this single from Pavement's finest hour is, as with all Pavement tracks, somewhat cryptic in the lyrical department but appears to be about little more than a wish to enjoy a simple, relaxed life (and perhaps without having to tour with some of the bands they namecheck in the song, which doesn't half date this a little) - and doing that in the California sunshine sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

Fu Manchu
Evil Eye
The Action is Go

I'd suspect that there is a damned good reason that there are three Californian bands in this list - making music in a climate like that is more likely, I'd think, to result in something of a sunnier outlook. Not all music from there does (Slayer, Korn, Metallica, for starters), but I was hardly short of options for this list. Seventies-influenced rockers Fu Manchu were one of my first thoughts, and in particular this track, which I first heard on, of all places, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, the legendary skateboarding game from quite a few years back. The track itself is simply a grizzly rock track with a kick-ass chorus and hummable hook that I've had back in my head since Sunday now...

Incubus
New Skin
S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

The last of the three Californian bands are another whose early output at least sounds like it was drenched in the California sunshine, and as a result this is an album which unlike many of it's early "Nu-Metal" contemporaries eschews negativity and instead has a bright, positive outlook on life that somehow doesn't step into being preachy at all. New Skin remains my favourite track here, a spring-loaded, high-paced track about shedding the past and creating a better future for the protagonist that was bloody fantastic live, too.

Battles
Atlas
Mirrored

Crossing to the other side of the US, this track - one of my top tracks of 2007, and eighteen months on I'm still not bored of it yet - has a brightly coloured video to match the technicolour vision of this really quite unusual track. Built around a "Glitter beat", clever electronics and bizarre vocal treatments, it was by far the best left-field pop thrill of that year and always makes my day brighter whenever I hear it.

The Dandy Warhols
Every Day Should Be a Holiday
The Dandy Warhols Come Down

Finally? A wish from The Dandy Warhols that I wholeheartedly agree with - a wish to disappear for ever from the trials of work and to enjoy a holiday for ever. Needless to say, this track suits perfectly the "slacker" image that the Dandy Warhols gained early on (and indeed this was the first track I heard from them, and was the reason I paid for an expensive import of the album long before it was released in the UK), even if it's synth-heavy, driving rhythms are some unrepresentative of what they sounded like then and since!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/05/06/2pdhd0_tuesday_ten%3A_tracks_of_the_month_%28april%29 Wed, 6 May 2009 16:59:19 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/05/06/2pdhd0_tuesday_ten%3A_tracks_of_the_month_%28april%29 Time for my usual monthly roundup (a day late, apologies).

Coreline
coreline builds better robots [featuring Easingwold School Junior Choir]
Bone and Blood as Stone and Mud

A full review of this is "in the works", and will follow later this week. In the meantime, here's the opening track (and one of the standouts) from the album - considerably re-worked, as I recall, from it's original version released about a year ago, this version has much more of a punch and sounds like a quantum leap from earlier Coreline material. Even more amazing is that Chris has somehow got away with using a junior school choir for the vocals...

Necrotek
Back To The Grave (Terror Punk Syndicate rmx)
Menschenfeind

A full review of this album will appear later this week on Connexion Bizarre, but in the meantime, here is the pick of the album - this remix of Back To The Grave, which basically turns the track into a new Skinny Puppy classic – complete with hulking beats and savage guitar samples. But if only SP could still write stuff like this. The whole album is great, by the way.

1349
Serpentine Sibilance
Revelations of the Black Flame

The first new track to break cover from the long-awaited new album (on a Candlelight E-Card), this certainly bears the mark of it's producer (Tom G. Warrior from Celtic Frost). It sounds somewhat different from the last (astounding) album, but then a step forward is welcome as far as I'm concerned - keeping a more raw sound doesn't mean that the band can't evolve. Either way, this really is an album that could well be one of the essential extreme-metal albums of the year.

Little Boots
New In Town

I'm seem to recall, now I've heard this, that Little Boots was one of the "great white hopes" of the music industry for 2009. Well, for the first time in a while, here's one I'll agree with. I've heard this track on MTV2 a few times in the past week now, and I'm struggling to get the damned song out of my head, which as far as I'm concerned is probably a good thing - if nothing else, it's made an impression on me. Anyway, the track itself is a marvellously catchy electro-pop song with a chorus that explodes like a glitter cannon.

HEALTH
DIE SLOW

Somewhere the other end of the electro spectrum are this LA foursome, who somehow manage on this track to merge industrial rhythms and shoegazing vocals and guitars. Fuck knows what the lyrics are about, the few that can be worked out, but no matter - this is awesome stuff that sounds utterly unique. Some feat in these times.

Inure
This Disgrace
Subversive

Been meaning to pick this up for ages, finally got it from eMusic this past week. Later track The Offering takes things in a different direction, but this pounding electro-industrial track is still great, with sparse electronics layered on top of a muscular rhythmic core.

Zeitgeist Zero
Party For One
Dead To The World

I got the promo for this some time ago, and then picked up the album at last at Whitby (having missed them live, again) - and it's really impressive. The production, I think, is the thing that's really made the difference, although some of the more electronic tracks - like this one - are the real stars of the album, taking the band into darker, near synthpop realms. This track is the highlight of the entire album, though, and it wouldn't be a stretching the imagination much to be suggesting that we should be hearing this on mainstream radio.

Dizzee Rascal & Armand van Helden
Bonkers

There's something about the manic energy and crazy electronics of this that I just love. The beats bounce around like they are on springs, it's heading towards breakcore at points, and this is simply going to slay dancefloors. As nuts as the title suggests, although I still reckon the single version at least is a little too short...

Synapscape
who painted my cat black
again

Strange title from a strange band that have always stood out to me as being rather different from their labelmates on Ant-Zen. Not least their complex rhythms that are often nowhere near rhythmic noise, much as on this track, where it's beats ebb and flow wonderfully with a real driving power, and the hissed, snarling lyrics - something this lot use a lot - add something more than a bit unexpected.

Neurosis
Stones From the Sky
A Sun That Never Sets

The final track this month is a look to the past, following a conversation with Matt over the weekend that has got me listening to this again. Probably my favourite Neurosis track, this epic, slow-burning track would probably work quite well as an acoustic lament, but in this form is rears out of the murk as it builds to the climactic finish like some mythical monster. The album version is near ten minutes of doomy perfection - the video edit is rather shorter.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/04/19/2ntrkz_review%3A_iamx_%40_corporation%2C_sheffield Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:27:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/04/19/2ntrkz_review%3A_iamx_%40_corporation%2C_sheffield A bit later than planned, but my thoughts on IAMX at Corporation can be found here.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/04/14/2nchrx_tuesday_ten%3A_religion Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:54:39 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/amodelofcontrol/journal/2009/04/14/2nchrx_tuesday_ten%3A_religion With it being Easter this weekend, I thought it perhaps apt that I turn to the subject of religion for this week's TT. Although not unexpectedly, perhaps, with the music that I listen to, it proved somewhat difficult to find that many songs that cast religion in a positive light. Still, I did find the odd one to ensure some kind of balance, at least.

Also - the ten tracks featured here can be listened to on a Spotify playlist:
HTTP: http://open.spotify.com/user/asw909/playlist/5A4ootRi9i4AImGh9foFND
Spotify URI: spotify:user:asw909:playlist:5a4ootri9i4aimgh9fofnd

Front 242
Welcome to Paradise
Front by Front

Opening with the sample of "Hey poor! You don't need to be poor anymore! Jesus is here!" sets out the stall of this track straight away. Even with it now being over twenty years old, it's classic use of cut-up samples of evangelical preachers gently pokes fun at religious evangelists by using only what they say (and the beats are pretty ace, too, although the live version is far superior.

Super Furry Animals
God! Show Me Magic
Fuzzy Logic

Still not entirely serious, the Super Furries went a different route a few years later, simply asking for God to prove he exists, in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way. It's a cracking track, too, one of those songs that has an amazing ability to wedge itself in your head and not go away, and it doesn't overstay it's welcome either, lasting less than two minutes!

Tori Amos
God
Under the Pink

As noted above, trying to find more positive songs about religion for me was pretty difficult, but here's one. Tori Amos is an artist who has consistently used religious imagery and references in her songs, although few as obvious as this - the lyrics are about male-dominated religion, and cheekily asking God if he needs a woman's touch to help "him" out...

Deicide
Once Upon the Cross
Once Upon The Cross

While this is about as un-christian as it's possible to get - lead man Glenn Benton branded an upturned cross into his forehead years ago - this track suggests an alternative reason for Jesus being on the cross. Deicide's defiantly anti-Christian schtick frankly gets as tiring as pro-Christian music does, though, and sometimes it's so ridiculous that it's hard to take it too seriously.

Behemoth
Slaying the Prophets ov Isa
The Apostasy

Yes, more growly death metal shouting about "RELIGION=BAD", but here in perhaps a more measured way (Behemoth are one of those bands who put lengthy explanations of their songs in the lyric booklets, which is often helpful as you can't make out an awful lot of the lyrics) - with this awesomely bludgeoning track bringing forth a vocal detailing how they anticipate a time where religion is not relevant, where, as they put it"we are free to project ourselves the way we want on the map ov [sic] infinity".Slayer
God Send Death
God Hates Us All

Slayer are also no strangers to songs criticizing religion - each album seems to have at least one, although this album was full of them. Pick of them for me, though, is this one, a rampaging track roaring it's disapproval of religion as a tool for war to spectacular effect.

Nine Inch Nails
Heresy
The Downward Spiral

When not wallowing in his own misery (with admittedly striking results) on The Downward Spiral, Trent Reznor did have the odd moment when he become somewhat less insular and turned his jagged rage on a different target, and Heresy remains, fifteen years later, a quite astonishingly powerful track. Underpinned by a gigantic, stomping beat, the vocals are all treated-to-hell - the verse vocals being reduced to an almost meek hiss, before the chorus simply explodes with fury.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Mercy Seat
Tender Prey

Probably one of the most extraordinary songs that Nick Cave ever wrote, this is one of many, many Cave songs that feature or reference religion at some point or another, and in this list it is perhaps a rare track that casts religion in a positive light - telling the tale of a murderer facing the electric chair, and finding redemption in finally admitting that he did commit the murder after all, and being ready to face heaven.

Depeche Mode
Blasphemous Rumours
Some Great Reward

This was a song that apparently caused no end of ruckus with the Church upon release, mainly due to the suggestion that God has something of "a sick sense of humour" - the song tells the story of a girl who tries to kill herself, survives, finds God, then gets killed by being struck by a car. Either way, it's a great song, although perhaps dated a little now.

Swans
Sex God Sex
Children of God
Somewhat unexpectedly, this album's credits are finished off with thanks to "Jesus Christ, Our Lord" - Michael Gira never having struck me as being a particularly religious chap, but this album as a whole is riddled with imagery that suggests God was never far from his mind when creating this album, which is something like the bridge between the searing brutality of early Swans material and the more reflective, less extreme (but no less dark) later period work. Anyway, this track - already long enough on CoG, the version I've linked to on Spotify from live album Feel Good Now stretches well beyond ten minutes - is the incredible centrepiece, where the concept of "connecting" with God is deliberately confused with sexual imagery to awesome effect, and as the wailing choirs build and build in their devotional sound, it's appears no accident that it is also structured to sound like a sexual act.

Other suggestions that didn't make the list:
The Haunted | Godpuppet | One Kill Wonder
Kill II This | Kill Your Gods | Deviate
Suicide Commando | One Nation Under God | Axis of Evil
Diskonnekted | Pray Vote Donate Buy | Old School Policies
Tool | Opiate | Opiate
Je$us Loves Amerika | dogma (verse 02) | Advanced Burial Technology
Bathory | One Rode to Asa Bay | Hammerheart]]>