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camellia_uk. (Don't make a habit of this, now.)
List five songs that you are currently digging - it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and the five songs (with artist) in your blog. Then tag five people to see what they're listening to.
The meme doesn't mention writing about the songs in any detail, but I've got to make this more interesting somehow, if only for me. So, five tracks I'm "digging", as they call it, at the moment are:
1. Beats International feat. Lindy Layton, "Dub be good to me"
Who would have thought that mild-mannered Norman Cook would take the dance scene by storm? Answer: anybody who heard this. I first heard it on "Smash Hits 1990" -- the first chart pop album I ever owned, given to me for Christmas by one of my more trendy aunts. I expected to file this "pop" stuff (which involved putting posters of boys on your wall -- weird!) in the same category as all that "makeup" stuff that equally well-meaning relatives were starting to give me, but it was love at first listen, and this was one of the best tracks on the album.
At the weekend I picked up a cheap copy of "Let them eat bingo", the 1990 album by Beats International. None of it is quite as jam hot as the hit single, but it's all good.
2. "Closer to Mario" [MP3]
This. Is. GREAT. It's a mashup of a NIN song and the Super Mario theme. (Thanks tomobbsy for pointing me at it, and to all the people who explained to me what a "mashup" is.) It's simultaneously the best joke I've heard in weeks (yes, addedentry, this does include the one about the man with an orange for a head) and a huge, bouncy, crunchy bucketful of pure get-up-and-dance. Where can I find more like this? Who does this stuff?
3. Zimra Ornatt with Leon Rosselson, "Ashira Ladonai"
When Oxfam throws out a huge pile of battered and scratchy records in foreign languages, I'm there -- even if it means a half-hour trudge manhandling a bike and a rucksack along narrow pavements, struggling to carry a paper bag full of records that's slowly disintegrating in the rain. Among the predominantly Hungarian pickings (surprisingly intact after their journey home) was an LP of "Israeli Songs" by these two artists.
I know nothing about Israeli music, but to an uninformed Westerner this sounds like the best bits of the 1970s folk movement (a confidently clear-voiced female singer, accompanied by sensitive but precise and deliberate fingerstyle guitar) with added maturity, depth and passion. I've picked the first track on the album because it made me sit up and listen, but it's all good.
4. The Magnetic Fields, "Strange Powers"
I first heard the Magnetic Fields nearly a year ago now, playing live at the Royal Festival Hall. They were so fantastic that I fell in love with the boy who bought my ticket for me. :-)
"On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island / under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand / Our hair in the air / our lips blue from cotton candy / when we kiss it feels like a flying saucer landing / and I can't sleep / 'cause you got strange powers / you're in my dreams / strange powers"
Thomas Tallis, "Spem in Alium"
Having finally got my CD of Tallis back from a long-term loan to an infrequently-visited friend, I'm delighted to have this around to listen to again. It's breathtaking in its scope (with forty separate vocal lines) and in its sound, a shifting and shimmering kaleidoscope of closely interwoven melodic patterns and seamless, effortless harmonic progressions. When music reviewers start babbling incoherently about sonic cathedrals, this is what they're looking for.
*
I'm not going to tag anybody explicitly, but I'd be delighted if people wanted to follow up with something that's currently on their "must listen" list. Extra bonus points if they provide an mp3 link so I can listen!
camellia_uk. (Don't make a habit of this, now.)List five songs that you are currently digging - it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and the five songs (with artist) in your blog. Then tag five people to see what they're listening to.
The meme doesn't mention writing about the songs in any detail, but I've got to make this more interesting somehow, if only for me. So, five tracks I'm "digging", as they call it, at the moment are:
1. Beats International feat. Lindy Layton, "Dub be good to me"
Who would have thought that mild-mannered Norman Cook would take the dance scene by storm? Answer: anybody who heard this. I first heard it on "Smash Hits 1990" -- the first chart pop album I ever owned, given to me for Christmas by one of my more trendy aunts. I expected to file this "pop" stuff (which involved putting posters of boys on your wall -- weird!) in the same category as all that "makeup" stuff that equally well-meaning relatives were starting to give me, but it was love at first listen, and this was one of the best tracks on the album.
At the weekend I picked up a cheap copy of "Let them eat bingo", the 1990 album by Beats International. None of it is quite as jam hot as the hit single, but it's all good.
2. "Closer to Mario" [MP3]
This. Is. GREAT. It's a mashup of a NIN song and the Super Mario theme. (Thanks to
mobbsy for pointing me at it, and to all the people who explained to me what a "mashup" is.) It's simultaneously the best joke I've heard in weeks (yes, addedentry, this does include the one about the man with an orange for a head) and a huge, bouncy, crunchy bucketful of pure get-up-and-dance. Where can I find more like this? Who does this stuff?3. Zimra Ornatt with Leon Rosselson, "Ashira Ladonai"
When Oxfam throws out a huge pile of battered and scratchy records in foreign languages, I'm there -- even if it means a half-hour trudge manhandling a bike and a rucksack along narrow pavements, struggling to carry a paper bag full of records that's slowly disintegrating in the rain. Among the predominantly Hungarian pickings (surprisingly intact after their journey home) was an LP of "Israeli Songs" by these two artists.
I know nothing about Israeli music, but to an uninformed Westerner this sounds like the best bits of the 1970s folk movement (a confidently clear-voiced female singer, accompanied by sensitive but precise and deliberate fingerstyle guitar) with added maturity, depth and passion. I've picked the first track on the album because it made me sit up and listen, but it's all good.
4. The Magnetic Fields, "Strange Powers"
I first heard the Magnetic Fields nearly a year ago now, playing live at the Royal Festival Hall. They were so fantastic that I fell in love with the boy who bought my ticket for me. :-)
"On a ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island / under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand / Our hair in the air / our lips blue from cotton candy / when we kiss it feels like a flying saucer landing / and I can't sleep / 'cause you got strange powers / you're in my dreams / strange powers"
Thomas Tallis, "Spem in Alium"
Having finally got my CD of Tallis back from a long-term loan to an infrequently-visited friend, I'm delighted to have this around to listen to again. It's breathtaking in its scope (with forty separate vocal lines) and in its sound, a shifting and shimmering kaleidoscope of closely interwoven melodic patterns and seamless, effortless harmonic progressions. When music reviewers start babbling incoherently about sonic cathedrals, this is what they're looking for.
*
I'm not going to tag anybody explicitly, but I'd be delighted if people wanted to follow up with something that's currently on their "must listen" list. Extra bonus points if they provide an mp3 link so I can listen!
