In some ways an obvious pop-punk classic, but still one that's generally overlooked in favour of their singles. One of the greatest nights between my best friend and I was the time that not only did we discover this was both of our favourite Blondie song, but we found out that, rather shamefully, each of us harboured a secret crush on Rimmer from Red Dwarf.

The song is the best among some real class on Plastic Letters. The noises made by a band on the brink of the mainstream super-success they were so worthy of. Deborah Harry never sounded tougher (except perhaps on Rifle Range), a persona that fits her like the ripped catsuit she famously sported on Top Of The Pops.

Ever wonder what a collaboration between Young Marble Giants and Tuxedomoon in, say 1981, might have sounded like? Well, now you know....
Stark bass lines, antediluvian drum machines, and lilting, little-girl-lost vocals collide with welters of noise and lyrics full of images straight out of David Cronenberg's "Scanners".
Gorgeous, grisly and grim - a great track from what might be the record of the year.

A moment of silence, (and/or eardrum-shredding noise), please folks, for the memory of the late, great Mr. John Balance of Coil who passed earlier this month. This track is one of my favorite �songs� by this organization, the title track from their sardonic exploration of club culture in the early 1990�s. Coil were never an �industrial� band � though they could create tracks of brutal, grinding sound. They were always too musical, too playful, too smart. On this tune � and there is a really catchy tune here � Balance does his best Christopher Lee impression, growling/singing of love as sickness, mixing quotes from William Blake and Roy Orbison, over a backing track that sounds like H. P. Lovercaft does Esquivel. Brilliant stuff from a brilliant man, who will be missed.

The amount of 80s talent was really incredible on Electronic's debut single: Bernard Sumner (New Order) doing vocals and synths, Johnny Marr (Ex-The Smiths) on guitar (pulling off a wonderful solo in the middle of the song), Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) providing background vocals and Anne Dudley (Art Of Noise, arranger on ABC's legendary "Lexicon Of Love") orchestrated a wonderfully lush string arrangement. The outcome is a fluffy, elegant, slightly melancholic and almost timeless piece of british pop music (except for that dated, rather bland sounding electric piano).

Ely Arcoverde is a Brazilian organist. His sound is similar to Ze Maria but not as chime-like and almost even a church-organ sound at times. I love this LP because it has a real low meditative sound. It is a quality I find in much of the music from Bahia as opposed to that from the south. The quarteto inludes organ, drums, bass and - a quality that I love alongside the organ - an accoustic guitar. It is mostly instrumental with some vocals similar to the way Jorge Ben would just make repetetive humming and moaning noises in his early LPs. The whole record has a very dark and mysterious feel - sad and lonely the perfect LP for the dark just the light from the stereo tubes flickering. It is available on ebay a lot, it is Ely's most popular LP and it should run you about $50 - 75.

I first heard this cover of a traditional folk song via the 20 jazzfunkgreats blogspot. But I'd heard of Fairport convention previously, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson and all that, but like so many English people i couldn't bring myself to listen to an English folk group - well MY LOSS.
The song is in two parts, with an eye opening second half drone jam. Spellbinding stuff, with the violin scraping long notes, and (presumably) Richard Thompson scattering trebly white noise almost chords around on top it. It's hard to gauge how much cross fertilisation back and forth between America and the UK their would have been but it's hard to imagine that this wasn't informed by the Velvet Underground.

vocals, guitar, drums, synthesizers. Flaming Lips songs remind me of impressionist paintings with little bursts of color everywhere. This song isn't as colorful as some of their others, but it's definitely likeable. The lyrics can be interpreted as deep, but they're delivered really casually in a flowing manner. This isn't a sparse piece. There's little interesting details happening all the time, like intermittent cymbal crashes to little guitar moments to weird synthesizer noises. It creates a texture that's interesting to listen to, but at the same time simple enough to listen to without exploding your brain or something. A really enjoyable piece overall.

Danceable stoner rock. Rock instruments (vox, gtr, bass, drums, keys)
Just has a good vibe. It's laid-back but heavy rock, got catchy melodies & a good beat.

Totally overdriven, psych-noise power trio rawk. (There, that should satisfy your need for critical cliche.) Seriously, though, this is one of my favorite tracks by High Rise. The band just seems totally in sync here while still going nuts. Especially potent (as always) is Munehiro Narita's guitar soloing. The band puts so much in the song that it really feels longer than it is, and it's still not nearly long enough. Recommended for people who love great guitar solos and just plain fierce rock and roll.

Sublime bossa from Japan's Himiko Kikuchi. The sound of a soprano sax causes many to reach for the "off" switch (thanks Kenny G!), but Himiko has made it not only acceptable again, but almost hip (almost!). The song starts off with baby noises, before wordless, female vocals come in and introduce the memorable melody. It then moves into a suitably paced bossa rhythm. I have been listening to this track for a few years now (courtesy of Compost Record's "Gl�cklich IV" compilation), and I just can't tire of it. It's one of my all time favourites.

this song makes me happy. it's got all the great 60s elements. they're from the norwegian city drammen. you can find the song on freetrax.no: http://www.freetrax.com/cgi-bin/pointgo.cgi?url=http://195.92.248.80:1331/u02/freetrax/prd_0000001535/01_Track_1.mp3

A great, great pop song. Just over three minutes of swirling noise and chunky power chords. Now readily available again on 'Capsule', a limited edition best of double CD. Nice one.

Originally to be released at the Norberg Festival '05 in Sweden

A band who specialise in "petrochemical sounds", burning up every musical regulation on their sole album (thus far). Their sound ranges from very off-kilter semi-melodic noise, of which this song is a good example, and, well, a din. I love it all. Although I know not much about them, this is the best new-release album I have bought this year. Enough to make even the most jaded "music offers no surprises anymore" type rush back to the turntable.

I love music that can make you visualize in your mind what the song is trying to convey. This is one of those songs that always makes me feel nostalgic and wistful whenever I hear it - nostalgic not because it's a song from my childhood but because it talks about happy times gone by. When I hear it, I can picture in my mind a group of friends driving in a car through their hometown with an orange sunset in the sky. This is a song about happy memories which is something that everybody can relate to.

The instrumentals are nice too. I like how the guitar flares up at the chorus, and the steady beat of the drum, and how the singer's voice seems to echo throughout the song even after he's sung a word. This song might not seem very special, but it's amazing to listen to!

An intense and beautiful epic, this track is the opener on the band's superb 1998 album, 'Deserters Songs'. I'm quite fickle, and usually prefer two to three-minute songs, but this track is so brilliant that it seems short at 6 minutes. It builds up beautifully, starting with just an echoey string aura, with vocals, synth (a Supertramp-like wurlitzer sound) and guitar coming in one by one. The music finally explodes after a couple of minutes, with full drums and eerie oscillating noises. It's incredibly beautiful and dense, and the song has a melancholy air that is very affecting. Mercury Rev have a habit of putting incredible tracks at the beginning of their albums. I'm glad they are now getting more of the attention they deserve.

Considering how much I like this track, I'm surpised I didn't recommend it earlier. To me this is the standout from the band's seminal 1991 album 'Loveless'. To MBV fans, this track might seem an obvious one to recommend, but I think it sums up their appeal very well, with its beautiful ambient noises and simple but catchy melody. MBV's trademark use of weird echoey effects on the vocals and guitars is in full effect, and it's quite beautiful.

A brief and understated mix of haunting vocal samples, subtle guitars, hip hop beats...
Taken from Onra's Les Chinoiseries- a collection of tracks that sample music from China and Vietnam. Whole album worth a listen!

I get the impression that even a lot of Pavement fans don't know this one very well, presumably because it's on a pretty duff album (wowee zowee). However, it's one of my absolute favourite pavement songs. Musically it is very quiet - it's essentially just an acoustic guitar, though the funny noises the band make are quite entertaining. However, I really love the structure: there's nothing that can be called a verse or a chorus there - he just rambles on until he is finished. It has the full extent of Pavement's lyrics - completely ridiculous, funny, and sometimes very moving. Plus, as ever, malkmus' weirdy voice is a joy to listen to. So, if you like the pavement style - slow, quirky, funny, and often amazingly beautiful musically, and you don't know this one, you should really look into it. There's a brilliant solo version of it you can get off Napster (legally - Pavement distribute this stuff) - search for "we dance acoustic" - means you don't have to cough up for the album too.

A lovely triptych. Plaid keep their trademark odd noises (creaking doors and weird duck quacks in this track) more in check than usual, and the result's a little more conventional than a lot of their work, but it's also very pretty. It's tightly structured, with a happy little introduction followed by three sections marked by their different, though related, warm basslines. Each has a gentle melody of its own, and between each there's an interesting break. Warm, sophisticated, and full of beauty.

The album that this track is taken from was one of those strange albums that acquired mythical status in my mind. Based on a mixture of rumor and personal imagination (I could never actually find a copy), I convinced myself that this must be the coolest album ever made, a perfect fusion of moog, latin and mod sounds. A few years later I picked up the album very cheaply on ebay. Beautiful and interesting as it is, many of the tracks go slightly over the line for me.

'Dansero' is the only track on the LP that captures the blend that I was looking for. It's nice and short at under 3 minutes, and features a delightfully kooky introduction that sounds like the Jean-Jacques Perrey moog flourishes that the group Stereolab sampled on their 'Transient Random Noise Bursts...' album. The drums and moog then join up for a nice pop instrumental, catchy and bouncy. Different moog effects are piled on, but always quite effectively, making this one of the most enduringly successful moog-pop tracks in my collection.

I normally don't like this sort of music, but My Style, actually the whole Monkey Business album is one of my favorites. It's in the select few of complete albums on my iPod, and I love listening to it when I'm working out or just having a party. I listen to it when I play chess! To my knowledge, the track in question is mainly audio loops or digitally- created noises.

Overall, it's a fun song to sing along with.

The third in a series of 3 linked postings, the other being White Rabbit and the original Jefferson Airplane version of this song.

It probably wouldn't be unfair to describe this as a fairly cheese-y dance cover of the Jefferson Airplance song. It puts a fairly similar sounding vocal over a dance track, with some extra squelchy noises.

I would never have thought the world needed a dance version of this song, but its good fun, and it fills the gap when you have one of those need-to-hear-a-disco-fied-version-of-a-60s-goth-classic moments.

Where it gets really wierd, though, is the video. The singer is a fairly genericvideo female without many clothes on. But she's shot as if she's a giant lying across several fields. And then you see a number of babies parachuting out of an airplane, and eventually landing on top of her. You could say its tasteless, crass, sexist or all three (and I probably would), but its kind of nutty enough to suit what there is of the howling vocal.

legendary primal surf track with werewolf noises. Talk about a guitar sound with authoroty! I really like the tribal drums and the kitchy spoken(or should that be spooky?)word intro. one of the coolest halloween compilation tracks around. The Cramps love it.

spacy female vocal-based sadpop, perfect for cold weather and sunday afternoons. these guys pioneered this kind of music, if you're familiar with white noise,
os mutantes or even broadcast this album is your jackpot.
it's one of the more calm and mellow tracks on the albums, and one of my favourites.
absolutely gorgeus chorus, totally wide, deep string based arrangement.

..And dig the gentle, almost non-audible rhythm track.

Vulnerable, moving and heartbreaking. Karen O reigns in her vocals, and the band cuts out the noise leaving behind an incredible post-punk love song that will blow your mind. The best and most understated track on an amazing debut album.

Does anybody really know what's going on here? Probably one of the oddest records you will ever hear, unless you are completely jaded by Japanese noise & IDM. A legend to those who know him, but if you have only heard his collaborations you need to hear this, because it explains nothing. I chose this song merely because it's playing right now... This album is a giant standing on the shoulders of giants, the (pen?) ultimate of LA studio excess. What more can you say?

great electronic effects-laden psychedelia from their 1969 album "an electric storm". a spooky and beautiful track with lots of echo and spacy non-melodic digressions. oddly, it stays quite coherent despite all the insane stuff going on in the background. Female singer, beautyful breathy voice, kind of a "nico light-" thing going on.
the track "firebird" from the same album is also highly recommended.

by the way, i�m pretty sure each member of broadcast have their own copy of this album. The song "marooned" on wire's 1978 album "chairs missing" shares some melodic qualities with this track. would probably sound great if mixed together..

(if you're interested in aquiring the whole album, it�s pretty hard to come by, at least in vinyl form. i think it's been reissued on cd by some obscure label, but as i only have a cd-r copy, i'm not sure. side a is very good, but from what i heard they ran out of studio time, forcing them to make side b a bit more...shall we say, "experimental" in order to make it lp lenghth...)