Four Records Old and New

Loula Yorke Volta (2024)

I'm basically so impressionable that when one of my social media buds said that a former classmate of his had released a record and that it was quite good I went straight to Bandcamp and downloaded a copy. It is plinky electronic music of a relatively downtempo variety, with a retro sound to it. Verdict: appealing.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

v/a Fantastic Voyage - New Sounds For The European Canon 1977-1981 (2024)

This is an Ace Records compilation put together by Bob Stanley & Jason Wood of late 1970s tunes supposedly inspired by David Bowie's Berlin period. It is kind of a sequel to their Cafe Exil record, which is meant to evoke the music Bowie was listening to before recording Station to Station, Low, Heroes, The Lodger, etc. It is a top notch collection and I recommend it to all readers. Most of the tracks are by UK artists imagining what it would be like to be living in somewhere like Berlin, but there is also "Eisbär", sung in German by actual German-speaking Swiss people (I gather the song is quite well-known and deals with a man who would like to be a polar bear).

The album features many great tunes, often of an edgy electronic quality, but top marks go to the compilers dredging up a tune from the strange period when Daryl Hall released a Robert Fripp produced album. The other amusing track on the record is the Walker Brothers "Nite Flights", from the album of the same name. One hears of this record as Scott Walker's first step along the road to weird unlistenability but the track is a surprisingly groovey number, almost cheesy, and one that you could happily play to your most conservative disco loving aunt.

Buy it from Ace Records

Serge Gainsbourg Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)

OK so yes I had this before on vinyl but I thought it would be a good idea to pick up a digital copy I can listen to on my iPod. If you haven't living under a stone you will surely be at least aware of this record: Gainsbourg's masterpiece, produced in collaboration with arranger Jean-Claude Vannier and an army of top notch session musicians, very influential on artists as diverse as Air and Beck. And this is the extended version, with a load of extra tracks that are mostly extended versions of the main tunes or else a couple of tracks that were left off the original release for reasons.

Melody Nelson is an odd record. It's very short for one thing, and it begins and ends with what sounds suspiciously like the same very long song. These tracks, "Melody" and "Cargo Culte", both feature Gainsbourg muttering rather than singing over freakouts by the musicians. And the music really is amazing, with what sounds like jazz influenced drums combining with throbbing bass and sensuous guitar licks to create an incredible sonic groove. Gainsbourg does actually sing on the other tracks but it his spoken word pieces that are the most memorable, particularly on "Cargo Culte" where they are offset by the music building, building and building.

And of course if you are a non-francophone like me you only know what the record is about by reading a summary of it on Wikipedia. People who can understand French generally talk about how it greatly improves one's enjoyment of Gainsbourg's music to get what he is saying, but there are times when I have my doubts about this. For Melody Nelson is a concept album, telling the story of a dirty rotter who meets a teenage girl, brings her to a hotel and shags her, after which she dies in a plane crash, leaving the dirty rotter to feel sad. It's not really the sordid story that I like about the record so the full details of the lyrics are perhaps left unknown to me.

Because it is the music that is so striking about the record you would have to wonder whether Gainsbourg is coasting here and it is actually Vannier we should be crediting with everything likeable about it. Vannier is only credited aa a co-writer on some of the tracks, and not on the key ones, but he arranges all of them and arguably that is the key thing here. And yet, I have heard a Jean-Claude Vannier solo record, and while it is enjoyable enough to listen to, it does tend a bit towards tuneless nonsense, which makes me think that maybe the Melody Nelson X-factor is Serge after all.

Extended versions of albums are often terrible but here the addition of extra material works by giving you more of what you want, in particular an extended version of "Melody" and an instrumental version of "Cargo Culte". If you already like Melody Nelson you need this. If you don't already like Melody Nelson then you still need this as you should give it another listen.

Mary & the Pigeons Like Water (2024)

I would love to say that this is a record by a woman who has trained pigeons to play instruments but this is not the case. Instead it is a record by Mary Barnecutt, with the Pigeons being the extra musicians she plays with. I first came across Barnecutt when she played at the first Stoneybatter Festival concert, impressing me with her idiosyncratic music. Like her previous music, this album is fronted by Barnecutt on both voice and cello, with other people coming in on other instruments on different tracks. It sounds completely adrift from anything else going on in music at the moment and doesn't even sound that much like most of the other music I am listening to these days, which I think is a good thing. It's very song-based and maybe nods towards modern composition (that could just be me being seduced by the cello) but there maybe is a slight jazz influence to the drumming.

Actually I did find myself thinking of one thing the record kind of reminds me of: Dresden Dolls. The record has the same kind of slightly bouncey cabaret-esque sound to it at times, and not just because it features piano-keyboards, but it doesn't have the gothic angst of Amanda Palmer's vocals and lyrics, which some might consider a plus point.

Buy it on Bandcamp.

Quick ones: some short record reviews

v/a Stax Gold - The Hits 1968-1974 (1991)

So this is a collection of Stax classics from Ace Records. It's a great selection of southern soul sizzlers, but you probably know that already.

LoneLady Nerve Up (2010) & Hinterland (2015)

You will recall that I went to see Ms LoneLady earlier this year, at what was basically my first proper gig after the menace of Covid was vanished from the world. I picked these up at the concert. If you've listened to the LoneLady track I included on my 2021 compilation you'll get the basic idea: nervy vocals over a somewhat retro accompaniment of electronics and edgy guitar lines. LoneLady's Julie Campbell plays almost all the instruments on both records. Nerve Up is a bit more guitar-oriented than the later record but they are both broadly of a piece. There are Tim Burgess listening parties for both of these (Nerve Up & Hinterland), which I keep meaning to play back while listening to the record. Probably should have done that before writing this.

You can buy these and other records by LoneLady in record shops or from Bandcamp: https://lonelady.bandcamp.com

The Anchoress [2022 covers]

In an effort to rake in the $$$s, the Anchoress has been posting cover versions on Bandcamp for short time periods. I keep downloading them. The first one here is a cover of "The Tradition" by Halsey. I have no idea who Halsey is so the song has no prior residence for me. It's nice enough. The second one is "These Days", originally from Nico's debut album Chelsea Girl. I have a troubled relationship with that album: while it is certainly pleasant enough, I feel like it is basically False Nico, in that she is singing a selection of nice songs written for her by other people. It is also from before she acquired her harmonium and started writing her own songs of subterranean doom. "These Days" was written by Jackson Browne, reportedly when he was about 16. While it was not written for Nico, she appears to have been the first person to record it commercially. The Anchoress croons her way through it; divorced of my difficulties with Chelsea Girl it's hard not to listen to it here and conclude that this is in fact a beautiful song with appealingly wistful lyrics about loss and regret.

And then a cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence", the electropop banger slowed down. It's fine but not revelatory. Continuing the trawl through goth-adjacent tunes of yore, the next one is The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love". I've never liked this song and the switch from the uptempo poppiness of the original to the slower and sparser version her does not change my opinion that this is one of those fundamentally bad songs that everyone in the world bar me loves.

The last track is "Pennyroyal Tea", originally be Nirvana and released by the Anchoress after the US Supreme Court's revocation of the Roe v. Wade judgement (pennyroyal has history as a herbal abortificant of variable efficacy). The cover is fine but again, not revelatory.

In fact I think all of these covers are inessential, with the exception of "These Days"; none of them leap out at me like her 2020 covers of "Wicked Game" or "Martha's Harbour" did. But I'll probably keep chasing the buzz by downloading whatever covers she releases next. You can do the same by keeping an eye on her Bandcamp page: https://iamtheanchoress.bandcamp.com

Confidence Man Tilt (2022)

I feel like I bought a Roisín Murphy album by mistake. This is fine as far as it goes and the songs would probably be great live if you had Janet Planet and Sugar Bones dancing in front of you, but there aren't enough lyrics about how Ms Planet is amazing and everyone else is a loser. Some of the tunes also sound a bit over-reminiscent of other tunes by other artists. Howard Blake "The Moon Stallion" (1978)

This is the theme from this now quite obscure TV series that is now completely unavailable on home media and has never been released on English-language DVD. Its unavailability is a shame, as anyone who remembers seeing it will recall it as a classic of spooky 1970s kids' television. Its use of the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy interspersed with a plot mixing up Arthurian myth and Graeco-Roman paganism would make it highly relevant to our current revived interest in all that folk horror stuff. If you've seen it you'll remember its late-Victorian setting and its spooky plot based around the mysterious white horse of the title, with anyone who catches sight of it being doomed to die in the near future (conveniently the story's heroine, played by Sarah Sutton, is blind).

The theme, downloaded from YouTube, is of short duration, but in its 50 seconds it manages to evoke the stallion's untamed gallop while hinting at the esoteric content of the programme. The theme isn't even on YouTube (the "Moon Stallion" hits you find there are for a completely different programme), but it can be listened to here. Give it a go, but don't blame me if next thing you find yourself meeting a spooky white horse and then dying in an unfortunate accident.

images:

Stax Gold (Ace Records)

Hinterland (Bandcamp)

Diana (Sarah Sutton) and the Moon Stallion (Bradley's Basement: "The Moon Stallion")

Two compilations: "Bob Stanley Presents 76 in the Shade" and "Cafe Exil: New Adventures In European Music 1972-1980"

These are two of those compilations released by Ace Records and put together by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne (in conjunction with Jason Wood in the case of Cafe Exil). They're both collections of music from the 1970s. In 76 in the Shade we are back in the notoriously hot summer of 1976. Thanks to England's Dreaming (Jon Savage's brilliant account of the Sex Pistols and their milieu) I think of 1976 as the year of punk, for all that 1977 was when it went overground and exploded into the living rooms of olde England. But there's none of that here. Instead the album has a collection of languid tunes that evoke a sense of being too damn hot to do anything.

It is in the nature of the music that individual tracks should not really stand out, but two tracks that really catch my brain are Lynsey De Paul's "Sugar Shuffle" and 10cc's "I'm Mandy Fly Me". With "Sugar Shuffle" I may perhaps be drawing of memories of when Lynsey De Paul used to appear on 1970s TV a lot, most notably when she competed in the Eurovision. She was a total sizzler and little me has a massive crush on her. "Sugar Shuffle" sees her seductively inviting listeners to join her doing said sugar shuffle. Sadly De Paul's style of music was swept away by punk and new pop, and she went on to go Tory, but hey, nobody's perfect and for a brief period in the mid 1970s she made perfect sense.

"I'm Mandy Fly Me" meanwhile takes its title from some innuendo laden advertising campaign where named lovely lady air hostesses would beckon businessmen to fly with their airline. The lyrics are ambiguous and could be about a plane crash or someone completely losing it, but it has an oddly disconcerting quality that brings it away from the mainstream of these heat-drenched tunes.

If the thoughts of 10cc and Lynsey De Paul providing the compilation's best tracks fills you with dread then you might want to stay away from 76 in the Shade.

Cafe Exil meanwhile is conceptually a compilation of interesting European music from the 1970s, together with tunes from some similar UK acts. Looking at the roster it is a bit krautrock (Faust, Amon Düül II, Michael Rother, Popol Vuh and Cluster all appear), but not exclusively so. The odd things is that although the acts here are all of the cool variety, unlike the mid-70s AOR and MOR terrors on the 76 in the Shade record, the overall feel of this is not too dissimilar from the other record, making it an ideal compilation for late night listening.

One Cafe Exil track that really stands out for me is Annette Peacock's "Pony", on which to an electronic accompaniment (at least partially her own) Ms Peacock sings about her fondness for her pony in an oddly strangulated tone. And then there is the Jan Hammer Group's "Don't You Know", a cheesy but laid back groover that sounds like it would be right at home on 76 in the Shade.

So yeah, two fun records. I'm looking forward to seeing what treasures Bob Stanley unearths next.

images:

Bob Stanley presents 76 In The Shade (Ace Records)

Cafe Exil - New Adventures In European Music 1972-1980 (Ace Records)

v/a "Before the Fall"

This is a compilation from Ace Records of tracks that have been covered by popular band the Fall. Some of these I had heard before, some I had not. Overall there is a bit of a bias towards '60s punk and broadly that kind of music, which I suppose reflects the kind of tunes that the Fall play themselves. But there some odd side steps, like 'Lost in Music' by Sister Sledge. The Fall covered that on The Infotainment Scan, the first Fall album I ever heard, and their version remains surprisingly disco, for all its Fall arrangements.

With other songs where I was hearing the original for the first time, the difference was sometimes rather striking. On 458489 A-Sides, 'There's A Ghost In My House' has an almost gothic post punk quality. On this compilation, R. Dean Taylor's original is revealed as a Tamla Motown stomper.


An odd track here is 'I'm going to Spain' by Steve Bent, a tune whose cover by the Fall I have never heard. It is a gentle song about some guy who has had enough of rainy England and is heading off to live out his life in Spain. But for all it's 'I'm off to the sun!' qualities, there seems a poignancy to it, as though the singer's heading off to Spain effectively marks the end of a life of failure. He does not actually seem that excited about his impending emigration and it might not be projection to imagine that his moving to Spain is code for suicide.

My beloved tells me that apparently 'I'm going to Spain' has some kind of reputation on some hipster website as the worst song of all time, which seems a bit unfair. I would not describe it as one of my all-time favourites, but there are definitely far worse songs in the world.

FURTHER RESEARCH reveals two astonishing things:

1. I have heard the Fall's version of 'I'm going to Spain', as it is on The Infotainment Scan, but I had forgotten this as I have not listened to that album in years as aside from two great tracks (not this one) it is a bit dull. Listening to the Fall cover again I would have to say that it is inessential.


2. It seems that it was actually Kenny Everett who invented the idea that 'I'm going to Spain' is the worst song in the world, by including it on a compilation called The World's Worst Record in 1978.

One song that is definitely far worse that 'I'm going to Spain' is 'African Man' by Iggy Pop, again a song whose Fall cover I have never heard. This is a song from the shite period of Iggy's solo career (i.e. nearly all of it) and it features Iggy singing basically racist stuff about the kind of primitive and fairly bestial life lived by African men, one of which he proclaims himself to be. The music is rubbish too.

[Oh wait, I have heard the Fall's version of 'African Man', as it is appears on Are You Are Missing Winner, a record I do not listen to that often as it justifiably has a reputation as the worst Fall album ever]

I will not go through all the songs, save to mention that there are many classics here, many of which you may have already heard. I suspect that most of my readers would find this record interesting rather than enjoyable, as you would have to have some interest in the Fall to enjoy it - enough to be curious as to the originals of these songs but without the kind of musical knowledge that means you have heard them all already.

Image source (from Ace Records, with a more useful description of the record's contents)

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v/a "Nippon Girls: Japanese Pop, Beat and Bossa Nova 1966-70"

This compilation comes from the ever-dependable Ace Records and is one of those things that does what it says on the tin – if you want 60s beat and pop music sung by Japanese girls then this is the record for you. It also comes with fascinating sleevenotes about the artists and Japanese music generally at the time, which was heavily influenced by Bossa Nova, of all things. The production is great too. There is not really much more to say about this, except that it is almost like the perfect record. However, I was interested to read that a great many of these girl singers were hafu - with one Japanese and one occidental parent. Apparently such people had considerable perv appeal in Japan during the period in question.

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Nippon Girls