Favourite Albums of 2011 #9: "The Wicker Man"

Magnet & Paul Giovanni
The Wicker Man OST [1973]

This soundtrack album to the much loved film splits broadly into two – firstly we have a selection of songs, composed by one Paul Giovanni (who appears in the film – he is one of the singers in the pub) and played by a group of musicians formed for the film who called themselves Magnet. Although they are original compositions and although Mr Giovanni is from somewhere in the United States, the tunes conjure up a British folkie ambience. The second half comprises the incidental music from the film, itself often arrangements of olde folk tunes (one of which appears on Richard Thompson's 1000 Years of Popular Music record). These feature snippets of dialogue – just enough to remind you of the darkness that lurks behind the pagan idyll of Summerisle.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #8: "Black Goat of the Woods"

Black Mountain Transmitter
Black Goat of the Woods [2009]

This is that album set up to sound like the soundtrack to some low budget 1980s horror film. And it is all figured as one track so you will probably not get to hear any of it on the favourite tunes of 2011 CD-R I have still to compile.

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Little John and Nikitas

Greece is famous these days mainly for riots and its imploding economy, but there are other things going on there. Such as the release back into the wild of Nikitas and Little John, two bear cubs whose wild mothers abandoned them. The two little bears have spent the last nine months in a rehabilitation centre, where they have been learning survival techniques. And now they have been brought out to a specially dug den in which they will continue their winter hibernation before emerging as free bears in the spring.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #7: "1000 Years of Popular Music"

Richard Thompson
1000 Years of Popular Music [live] [2006]

This is the one where Richard Thompson plays a selection of popular tunes from the last thousand years (somewhat biased towards the music of the 20th century). To the extent that this project is famous outside the circles of obsessive Richard Thompson fans, it may be because it features the beret-wearing troubadour singing the Britney Spears classic 'Oops, I did it again'. With that song he foregrounds the creepy manipulation of the lyrics, making it sound like one of his own cynical and miserable love songs. And being sung by an old cynic you do get a sense of how disturbing these lines are when sung by a supposedly naïve teenage girl. The other standout track here is probably 'Bonnie St. Johnstone', a grim folk tune with lyrics about lonely childbirth and infanticide, or the jaunty 'So Ben Mi Ca Bon Tempo', which is in some kind of mediaeval French and so could be about anything.

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Dog Adopts Piglets

Six abandoned little piglets were recently brought into an animal sanctuary near Berlin. It is thought that some prick who likes hunting had killed their mother. The sanctuary is providing for the physical well-being of the piglets until they can be released into a nature reserve – and Baby the Bulldog is looking after their emotional needs. Baby has adopted the piglets, who are almost the same size as she is, and has remained by their side since they arrived in the sanctuary. "She thinks they're her own babies", says sanctuary employee Norbert Damm.

Baby is apparently a serial adopter, having previously mothered raccoons, cats, and other animals.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #6: the first album by the Tom Tom Club

Tom Tom Club
[Untitled First Album] [1982]

Many readers will already be aware of this record, the side project album from the Talking Heads rhythm section, joined by their friends and relations. You have probably heard 'Genius of Love', from it, perhaps on Stop Making Sense. Well it's all like that – infectious dance floor beats and naïve vocals, maybe with a slight undercurrent of danger or maybe not. I like it as a piece of uplifting pop perfection.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #5: "13 Most Beautiful"

Dean & Britta 13 Most Beautiful: Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen Tests [2010]

Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips play music to accompany screenings of Andy Warhol screen tests – short silent films of his various associates in the Factory. Warhol apparently tended to show the screen tests in groups of thirteen billed as the Thirteen Most Beautiful Girls, or Thirteen Most Beautiful Boys, or Thirteen Most Beautiful People, and so on; hence the album title. The album is a mix of original tunes and covers, chosen to go with particular people's screen tests. Some of the tracks feature production input from Sonic Boom, so it can sound a bit Spacemen 3-esque. There are also nods towards Galaxie 500, Dean Wareham's much-loved former band. It is all a fascinating piece of musical product and I listen to it wishing I could experience Dean & Britta performing it live to accompany the films.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #4: "Witch Cults of the Radio Age"

Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age [2009]

This is that record on which Broadcast collaborate with Ghost Box label artist the Focus Group. I am not quite sure how the collaborative process works here but the end result sounds much more like a sound collage than Broadcast's usual work. My limited exposure to the Focus Group suggests that their typical output is also rather collagey. However in this case the album's offerings come across like a collage of sounds made by Broadcast.

The album has a somewhat occult and ghostly feel to it, like we are hearing fragmentary echoes from another age (hence the title, obv.). And this spectral character is lent a certain poignancy by the recent death of Broadcast's Trish Keenan.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #3: "Embryonic"

The Flaming Lips
Embryonic [2009]

There are a lot of people who say that the Flaming Lips have gone all conventional and unadventurous. I think they need to listen to this album. Maybe it is not the kind of unconventional and adventurous that earns the respect of the more outré-loving members of Frank's APA (in whose pages this first appeared), but it is rather out there compared to anything Joe Normal listens to*. Not that there is anything wrong with what Joe Normal likes, but it is great that this kind of semi-psych weirdo music can find something approximating to a mass audience.

As previously discussed, the record cover seems to feature Wayne Coyne being born out of a woman's lady parts.

original review

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*I expect some disagreement with this proposition.

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Favourite Albums of 2011 #2: "The Lord of the Rings"

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL

Bo Hansson
Lord of the Rings [1970]

A slight cheat here, let us be honest, as I have heard this record before, but I have never owned a copy or listened to it that closely. To recap, the late Mr Hansson was this musician guy from Sweden or somewhere like that who produced this record of musical pieces inspired by Tolkien's novel. The individual tracks have names corresponding to episodes in the book, though it has to be said that the early parts are a bit over-represented. Much of the music is driven by organ playing and sounds that could have come from a synthesiser, were there such things back in 1970. The overall effect is quite otherworldly and suitably suggestive of the fantastic realms of Tolkien.

original review

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