Arcane Machinery

A scant month ago I started a best of 2005 CD-R compilation for a friend's birthday but never finished it because i became disheartened at the lack of "good" tracks I'd saved away during the year. I tried it again this weekend and finished it quickly because... I absolutely loved quite a lot of the ones I chose. They were already sitting in the "\My Music\2005" sub-folders but, for whatever reason, I didn't pick half of them up the first time. Maybe I had a brain collapse or a lack of solid sleep.

But I'll wait till next year to post my final lists because there's still 2 months to go and I'm continuing to find music I absolutely enjoy.

Here's 4 recent tracks I've loved (from 2005 and beyond) :

mp3: Jan Jelinek - Lithiummelodie 1

Samples and loops - some of the mainstays of post-techno electronic music. And, apparently, Jan Jelinek is really, really good at them. I've no idea why I haven't heard his name before but, that's just the way things go in this wide, wide world. This track doesn't startle. Like a lot of music created using this technology it unfolds slowly with overlays and duplications and repititions. There's a lovely frission in the guitar and slight drums against the whirling electronics. Quite lovely indeed. [Find him at scape records]

mp3: The Shortwave Set - Slingshot

Another slow piece, albeit pop based and this time completely enveloped in 60s psychedelia. You can glimpse bit of Beck and The Beta Band in there as well (the same influences, maybe). But it's the fantastic melody and chord structure that makes it fresh. And it's topped of by a superb, if slightly ironic, arrangement - magic where I least expected it. [visit their cute website]

mp3: The United States Of America - Coming Down

Speaking psychedelicaly - The USA album was re-released in 2004 (I think) with some bonus tracks and a, supposedly, lovely remastering treatment but I hadn't heard that version till last week. "Coming Down" is one of the great psychedelic rock songs. No, sorry, make that THE greatest psychedelic rock song. Swirling 3/4 organ and violin spin around the 4/4 beat. Then there's that omnipresent descending fuzz bass. Synths, effects (especially a judicious use of reverb) and lyrics about a trip. It's got everything that 1968 could offer. [read all about Joseph Byrd, et al]

mp3: The Hollywood Jills - He Makes Me So Mad

Just one of the almost uncountable songs on the 4CD "One Kiss Can Lead To Another" box set of 50s and 60s Girl Groups. There's a lot of stuff in there that I'll skip over every time but then one like this will pop up with just the right amount of garage band backing and wonderful call and response lyrics - "he makes me mad, with the things he does, like... tellin' the gang that i swim raw (well, don't you?)". [girl groups are here]

But apart from these, there's a raft of things I've found that I won't even bother posting because you need a full cd to get into them:

Eliane Radigue - various albums from the 60s to the present: the pure sound of an Arp 2500 warping into transcendency.

Jim O'Rourke - Mizu No Nai Umi: 2 versions of the same long, slow, gorgeous drone.

Nurse With Wound - various albums from their career: I always ignored nww becasue the name reminded me instantly of SPK and so I assumed they were all noise / industrial. As soon as I saw an article about them I skipped it. So it came as some surprise to find that their music is easily the apex of dark ambient / drone.