A great torchy song about solitude and lonliness transformed into a thumping dancy powerhouse! Chris Rea was so right in getting Ms. Shirley Bassey to record the vocals on this song and Oliver Adams and Johan Gielen remixed the rather bland original into an amazing fast-paced house anthem!

Was already a fan of the LP "Gideon Gaye" with its lovely mix of Beach Boys meets Steely Dan production. Sean O'Hagen is a Genius. He's really outdone himself with this record! SUBLIME!

The Kings of Convenience have often been described as Norway's answer to Nick Drake. They blend lyrics of nature and love with sensational flowing acoustic guitars. Erlend Oye and Erik Glambek Boe have the most hauntingly beautiful voices you may ever hear, and expertly incorporate harmonies that drift perfectly through the notes of their guitars. This is my absolute number one favorite song of all times. Listen closely on the bridge for this incredible arpeggio that just catapults the song into ethereal territory.

This record always raises my temperature. Honest, charming, and always a delight to hear. The same chemistry that Burt Bacharach crafted comes across here without pretension or compromise. Great mix of loungey now sound and blue eyed soul. A timeless classic, and it doesn't stop there!

This track makes you wish you had some of the title. A crazy mix of marimba, sax, and sitar grooving in a rock-jazz mode. Probably his best work from the period, apart from his great jazz-mass from the previous year with Lalo Schifrin. This album is full of now sound madness, with Oliver Nelson leading most of the set in good form, but the two PH directs himself, this one and "Guv-Gubi" make the record worth seeking out.

A slow number from Gainsbourg�s classic concept album, �Ah melody� opens with that picked acoustic guitar sound which the group Air have now imitated and made one of their trademark sounds. The arrangement is very bare, with the guitar accompanied by just a vocal, bass, and a spikey, funky drum beat. Later in this short track, strings and Bacharach-style horns slip in and out of the mix, before everything stops abruptly. It�s a great track from what I find otherwise to be a slightly disappointing album.

A perfect song. I love every note. The mood is desolate, yet warm and reassuring as well. The bassline and guitar playing recall some of the great early-period New Order tracks. The track fades in beautifully with bass, drums, and guitar. The drums and bass are steady, while the effects-laden guitar shimmers over the top. Liz Fraser's vocal is at first understated, until the chorus begins. Her voice soars as a simple piano sound joins the mix. The chords are simple, almost inevitable, but the instrumentation and execution are quite stunning.

Happily, you can hear this song and see the original video at the Cocteau Twins official site: http://www.cocteautwins.com/html/media/video.html.

Very different sounding song for me. It sounds like a mix of late 60ies pop with arabic/turkish influences. A bit sad sounding, but still there is hope :)
I love it cause its got great harmonies, and a mix of guitars, violins, and spanish guitars.

An unusual take on this classic Burt Bacharach tune, more commonly heard sung by Sandie Shaw. This Swedish vocal group adds a musical phrase to the song which adds something to the atmosphere. The incredibly wide vocal range of the group is used to full effect. The result is a very appealing mixture of 60s pop and vocal jazz.

condensed, funked up version of the song with a shitload of guest appearences. It all flows together pretty nicely, with fantastic beats and great, ridiculous larger-than-life aggressive tough guy/girl lyrics. Perfect tunage for sweaty parties with a few good friends and foes.

Try to find this 1971 electro-gem and let your feet do the rest...A German group called Senor Coconut released a couple of albums on 2000 and 2001 remixing Kraftwerk tunes over a latin flavoured electro setting--pretty far-fetching stuff according to critics. Just listen to this one and you'll find out that Perrey have already done this all this time ago! Party synthesizer music!

My Favorite for the moment, charmy folky soul! Don�t mix this Oyssey with a later one who were more into the disco.

Surprised to see nothing by the Pet Shop Boys on Musical Taste. Now the only remaining intelligent British pop act, the Pet Shop Boys have consistently mixed dramtic chord changes with pathos-loaded lyrics. Being Boring is possibly their finest moment - reflective, sad and beautiful.

This track is only available on the japanese reissue of "Garra" as a bonus track. I can only assume it's from the same session, if so it's completely beyond me why this gem has been left out, maybe it didn't fit in the context of the album since it's incredibly mellow with great flutes, horns, piano, oboe and silky strings and possibly didn't properly mix with the rest of the songs on the record.

A brilliant psychedelic dance record mixing over-the-top orchestration and brilliant harmonized vocals. Plus the kind of innocent-meets-intense vocal that I find immensely attractive in pop. Pity it's not officially available on CD, but that could change...

this is possibly the first Motown-influenced Doves number i've heard -- and it's fucken brill, with the right dose of thumping beaty-ness, atmospherics and excellent lyrics. as it is, i suspect that "Some Cities", the band's new album will be on my list of Top 10 Records of the year... but this track totally knocked my socks off, and is now slated to be a mixtape favourite too. :-)

The very mysterious DJ Black Lodge, from Manchester. This is a person who played his cards so close to his chest that his first couple of singles didn't even name the tracks.

Blood / Brass combines the music from Dumbo (that 'Pink Elephants' tune) and some heavy dub. And, if that doesn't sound genius to you, well, I do despair.

A pendant's note: this track actually apears on two singles, his first on Acupuncture (where it appeared untitled and without so much dub content), and the remixed version that I am recommending here, a limited-edition release on an unknown label through the Rough Trade shop.

Put some SPF-40 on your ears before listening to this unadultered mix of bossa-pop sunshine from the duo of Miho Hatori (Cibo Matto) and Beck session man Smokey Hormel.

An infectious guitar joined by percussion and horn slinks around and through Miho's precise, breathless vocal.

Four plus minutes of aural ecstasy. (You have to work awful hard to make something sound so easy.)

My experience of Boogaloo, a style to which I'm quite new, has been varied. In short, I love some of it and don't quite get the rest. The key to me seems to be the right instrumental and percussive blend, and vocals that don't dominate too much.

Although it sounds quite generic, this track manages to satisfy me on the criteria above. From a very lucky thrift store find (this album is up there with James Brown's 'Black Caesar' among my top bargains ever), this opens with a nice solid groove, featuring saxophone, brass and layered, relentless percussion. The vocals seem pretty much off-the-cuff - the main 'Boogaloo baby - baby baby do the boogaloo' is joined by a mixture of muttered Spanish and screaming. The attraction of this song is really the texture - it can't really claim any musical or lyrical sophistication. But the instrumentation and groove are really first rate.

Funny, fast, w/ weird stream of conciousness lyrics. Mary Prankster (a funky mix of punk, rock, and rockabilly) is in-your-face, vulgar, clever, and original. Also great live--check out MaryPrankster.com for tour dates.

"I'm really stoned, and I think mom put acid in my orange juice again"

Was on Mixmag Lost Classics CD.

This is the record that pretty much kicked off the whole 'bastard pop' genre - where a clever bootlegger would fuse the vocal track of one song with the backing of another. Here we have Public Enemy and Herb Alpert (Bittersweet Samba, from Whipped Cream...).

The reason this record (unlike most of the other mash-ups) works so well is that it sounds like a genuine collaboration - the parps of the Tijuana Brass and Chuck D's rap spits meld perfectly. It's a smart-arse idea that becomes a work of art.

50's bollywood song with sort of a tin pan alley vibe.
Kind of intense, really swingin'. Dig the sassy-sounding deliveries beween Kumar and his female vocal partner, and the typically bollywood insane-yet-non-obtrusive bridges.

cat mane MIAOW!

i really want to mix this with "trick me" by kelis.

"Captain Future" was an end-70s Toei Animation science fiction series directed by Leiji Matsumoto (The same team who did all the clips for Daft Punk's singles from the "Discovery" album). For the german release of the series a whole new soundtrack was recorded by Christian Bruhn. The title track is an incredible mixture of funk and disco with sequencers and analogue keyboards galore and very Edda Dell'Orso sounding vocals providing the lead melody (the similarity is striking, but the vocals were performed by Bruhn's wife Erika).

My favorite cut from this amazing soundtrack. A mix of Alpert, Glockenspiel, and jazz scat... Unlike anything else recorded really.

I spun this once on a friend's college radio show, and he said he had never heard a song with the bass mixed so heavily...honestly, the needle was so deep in the red we thought the Eisenhower-era console was going to explode. Once you get past that, you find yourself listening to an absolutely storming early reggae instrumental, with a beautiful slow, loping groove and a horn chart very reminiscent of a Stax session from around the same time. I met Lester Sterling in 1995 and talked to him about this song, he told me that he'd been trying to remember how it went for twenty years! Making me even prouder, the next time that the Skatalites came through town, they played it. The original Byron Lee LP that it appeared on has terrific naked lady cover art, to boot!

This is a rather ridiculous but super–catchy take on this theme to the 1967 spoof Bond movie. Performed by German session musicians, it ends up being a rather groovy mix, with viola d’amore, flute, female wordless vocals, harpsichord, and that other staple of the Baroque era, funky drums. It’s short and sweet and really very cool. The late sixties were cool for many reasons, but one of them is that they could accomodate TWO albums called 'Bacharach Baroque' - this one, and the other great Snuff Garrett-produced one by 'The Renaissance'. Both are superb.

Songs that are this good make life worth living. I’m listening to this now and I can’t believe quite how magnificent this song is.

It’s all the best bits of Slowdive, Stereolab and Seefel mixed into a gorgeous, cello-fused rhapsody. Oh, bring it on!

Despite couple of questionable decisions over the arrangement and mix, this is an extremely good song with an excellent lyric.

Particularly good is the harmonically-driven chorus, but there are a number of subtleties, as is evident from the opening instrumental sequence.

Why does he insist on recording his voice with so much distortion? It could almost drive you crazy...

Hyper-lounge remix of definitive Puffy Ami Yumi song. While the original track put forth more of a Sunday soapbox derby theme, this remix is Formula 1 all the way.


http://puffyamiyumi.com,
http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/ES/Puffy,
http://www.sonymusic.com.hk/puffy,
www.furinkan.com/tomobiki/wagaku/artists/puffy.htm .

bfore the busta rhymes song and the recent av8 indian break, top producer timbaland already used the nightrider theme bassline in this one.
tr�s fonkee, indeed.
it's a prototype timbaland late 90's production, and one of his best works, if u ask me.
eclectic, and complex in its beats, but yet plain simple and very dancable.

Although this track is not my favorite from Berlin's Jazzanova, I think it best represents the best bits of of their own work and their remixes for others. This track is a few years old but has been newly remixed by Japan's Fukutomi. Jazzanova are at the forefront of the nu jazz scene in the dance world. Beginning with a soulful piano introduction, the tune breaks into a heavy bass driven uptempo beat, sprinkled with a bit of a jazz scat, and a sample of a very haunting and seductive flute solo that sounds as if it has been lifted from an old soundtrack. The song however is not as simple as this review and must be listened to carefully to appreciate all that it offers.

Gorgeous track off Goldfrapp's latest - a lush slice of 60's tinged sexiness, all breathy vocals, soaring pop strings and hints of Serge Gainsbourgh.

A mere pastiche? More than that I think. The track certainly has strong echoes of times past, but there is also something distinctly modern in the mix too.

There is other good stuff on this album, but it took me a few listens to absorb and appreciate it - which is no bad thing.

This track wasn't what I expected. My previous favorite version of this song (although I have many) was probably the one by Mel Torme on his 1962 album 'Right Now'. And since that version was arranged by Ogerman, I had expected this version to be simply an instrumental version like Torme's recording - a cool, finger-clicking, jerky pop number. In fact, there's something much cooler and more sophisticated about this version.

The tune is picked out first by an organ, and then by the brass and woodwinds before returning to the organ, which then jams around the main tune. A really beautiful string section comes in early on, creating some unusual chords that really add to the song and work very well alongside the 'cool' effect of the organ and rhythm. I wish Claus had recorded more songs with this mixture of percussion, jazzy instrumentation and lovely thick string parts. A few tracks on one of his other 60s LPs, 'Latin Rock,' come close, but I'm not sure any of them are as nice as this one.

Its a delightful track, modern big beat sensibility with a great tune, a groover of the highest quality, sounds great in a car, in a club or at home. Full of hooks, vocal, guitar and rhythmic. One of the things I love about the band as well are the crappy pictures of themselves they use on their covers. Theres a promo 12 with a remix on it that is all Bongo's and Organ that didn't make it to release thats pretty good too.

A great song that almost defies explanation. Suffice it to say there is a lot of the WB influence here. An incredible mix of young male melodrama and orchestral excess, but as genuine as it gets. I read mixed reviews of Don Gants voice from most people when they hear this album, but if he nails it, it's on this track for me, no question. The more I listen to this stuff the more timeless it becomes. My favorite line : "I turned on the today show and wished it was yesterday..."

Dave Gedge, main man in long-time British alternative band The Wedding Present, decided to do something a bit different in the latter part of the 1990s, so he enlisted girlfriend Sally Murrell and a number of musical friends and put out some really good material under the name Cinerama. The purpose was to do some less noisy, more classic-pop oriented tunes, and it worked like a charm! This track, their second single, is a sprightly '60s-influenced number, which means it's mega-tightly produced and has the rhythm guitars at the back of the mix where they belong. It also has a nifty string and piano arrangement. Lyrically it's a fantasy about a girl he wants very badly (not in real life presumably). The song is on my '90s top ten list for sure!

An electronic collusus,the real joy of repitition ,its influence is 50% Kraftwerk and the same of Giorgio Moroder,a lenghthy epic dance workout ,increasing in intensity as it hurtles ,train like, to its sweaty conclusion ,its one concession to its American origins is the radio friendly vocal style ,imagine Hall and Oates being produced by Moroder and you are some way there .

A small hit at the time which has grown into a genuine dance classic,re mixed and revised several times ,but its always that relentless rhythym which grabs the listener,refusing to let go .

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.

Absolutely cracking track. I was nuts for this back in 1990 when it came out and recently rediscovered it. A really nice mix of guitar driven pop, excellent Beach Boys influenced vocals and catchy, shuffling beat. Just a great track. Bob are a hard band to track down stuff by because their name is so generic. But you can listen to it (and all their releases actually) at their site - http://houseofteeth.co.uk/

I got turned onto the Peddlers from Mojoto on this site. Now I've been grabbing all I can get. Sometimes funky, often smarmy. Reminds me of a mix between Scott Walker and Tom Jones.

Its 4 tracks into the CD, and after one of the fluffy pop numbers, so it quite takes you by surprise when a guitar kicks in of such rawness that it feels like small blisters are erupting over your eardrums.
In come the bass and drums, and the girly vocals (Janet presumably) with a nice sarcastic tone. The sarcasm seems to be a feature of the band.
Threres also a triffic 1980 style disco remix on the extra CD, for extra amusement. To be honest I love the whole LP, it has nice fat drums, lovely rolling bass, and they aren't afraid to use the technology, it was hard to pick one song out, but this one had the edge for Janets voice and that ruff guitar. God I love Fuzz.

Oddly the person who played the CD to me first dismissed them as just another Oz-Rock band. Nah, way off the mark.

The bell chimes on the intro both haunt me and pull me into the song. From that point on I'm hooked until the end. Nice guitar hook in the middle. I just find it quite flawless as a song. Everything was layered out rather neatly.

This is one of those songs that you put on when you want to sit back, relax, and float away to somewhere warm and safe.

A friend of mine once told me that she had an out-of-body experience to this song as she was meditating.

This is a song that I put on a mixed tape to give to a lover once as a way of showing that I would be there with her through it all, accompanying her journey as you explore the realms of love and life.

[01] Norty Cotto Radio Edit (3:35)
[02] Norty Cotto Club Remix (7:39)
[03] Norty Cotto A Little Bit O' Dub Remix (6:32)
[04] Nevins 'Rock Da Club' Radio Edit (3:18)
[05] Nevins 'Rock Da Club' Remix (7:29)
[06] Nevins 'Rock Da Club Extended Radio Edit (5:45)

In a stupid pop mood tonight, egged on by seeing the recent McFly recommendation. The sun finally came out over South Yorkshire today too, which is probably what's making me think of this enthusiastic pop-reggae workout. I really click with this, despite the OTT misogynistic lyrics, Beenie Man's homophobia and the general rubbishness of most of his back catalogue (that which I've heard, anyway).

Ms. Thing doesn't really do much to shut Beenie and his sexist mouth up, but at least Shawnna has a but more life to her which is why I'm recommending this remix with her rap on.

The video's cute too, especially where Beenie, Thing, Shawnna and various cronies do a ridiculous trot-dance at the end.

More first rate synthesizer music from the 1980s. The album also features a remixed/re-recorded version "Jewel". Catchy. Unfortunately this line-up only recorded this one "proper" album plus an album of remixes before splitting up. The album is excellent almost throughout, the band's slightly artsy aesthetic conveyed lyrically and through mixing atmospheric chordal writing, inventive instrumentation/production and some almost industrial-sounding beats. Kraftwerk were never remotely this musically interesting. Propaganda were also better looking...

Multi-layered tranced out head nodder. Ticks all the boxes for ambient tribal techno house. Easily available on a mix cd by Anthony Pappa, which also includes the excellent Solstice by James Holden. You will like these if you like music by Orbital, Future Sound of London, Orb, etc.

I have this on the original CD (or at least a CD-R of it) and a French remix 12, which has 3 good mixes including a fantastic one by Manta 1000. Both are very good. The song itself is a mix of the traditional and the modern (with Production by aging Gong-ster Steve Hillage), Arabic and Indian. Violins, Bollywood style singing from Amar blending with Khaleds' gruffer style - all with an irrisistable rhythm underpinning it. Another one chock full of great hooks, where I can't understand a word, perhaps I should take up the study of languages.

This is one of the Deftones first songs that got them started. Although other hits off Adrenaline were played more, this is always a fan favorite. Deftones was one of the first artists to mix rap and heavy metal, and did a damn good job of it, paving the way for bands like Limp Bizkit and E-Town Concrete. If you like heavy music but want to just chill, this is for you, its heavy but it also has the ability to let you shwerve.

To me, Depeche Mode was primarily a great singles band, with the exception of "Some great reward" (1984) and "Violator" (1990), which were consistently great albums. "Enjoy The Silence" shows Depeche Mode at the top of their game: Gore's songwriting talent, Gahan's vocal performance and Wilder's impeccable arrangement. The newly remixed "Enjoy The Silence 04" clearly shows why the original just can't be improved in any way.

I didn't entirely get Ed Motta until I listened to this album. For me this is his perfect mix of sacred and profane styles, his soul and his jazz. Only his third album and his first two employ retro styled instrumentation, it sounds like a 1970s session from Luther Vandross without the glitzy disco production. Ed's voice sounds so great paired with the Fender Rhodes which dominates this album. The arrangements are complicated, unpredicatble but entirely accessible. Entre e Ouca, which means "Enter and Listen," has a mid-tempo disco feel with a bouncing bass line, sharp guitar lines and that rhodes. I like his newer, more challenging albums as well, but this sound immediatly speaks to me like the best crafted pop songs.

I'm not usually into DJ's and "stuff like that", but DJ Cybo stole my heart. this was one of my faves from her infinite resume of mood altering sounds..... xoxo

http://www.djcybo.com/Music.html

No one talks about this band much. Not in my experience, anyway. It's all instrumental, so I guess they're not for people who are lost without vocals and lyrics. But have a listen - to me they really seem utterly superb. I would love to see them live.

I only have a couple of albums, but they're great. This one was released in 1996 (shit - that was 9 years ago!), but recorded in 1990. Really beautiful twangy surf-pop that fits in perfectly with the whole David Lynch mood that I find so appealing. The album is an intoxicating mix of energetic surf tracks and slower, more atmospheric ones like this. Their recent 'Local Warming' album is great too. Can anyone recommend me any more of their tracks?

This is one of these sensationally sensual, wonderful instrumental tracks only the italians could pull off in late sixties/early seventies. This is the title theme to "La morte cammina con i tacchi alti/Death walks on High Heels", one of the numerous gialli (thriller movies with that special italian touch) to come out of italy in heavy doses from the late sixties up to the mid seventies. Wonderful scores have been one of the constitutive elements of these films and while the scores that Ennio Morricone did for these movies (e.g. "L'ucello dalle piume di cristallo/Bird with the crystal plumage, "Cosa avete fatto a Solange/What have they done to Solange", Una lucertola con la pelle di donna/Lizard on a womans skin" or "Le foto proibite di una signora per bene/ Forbidden fotos of a lady above suspicion") have been long released, a lot of excellent music is still locked up in the vaults of CAM, Cinevox and other italian soundtrack labels. Thanks to the hard work of the guys at DigitMovies a lot of these scores now successively get a proper, remastered release (often for the first time ever), music otherwise would have been lost in oblivion forever. Stelvio Cipriani may not be remotely as well known as Morricone (who, naturally, overshines just every other italian composer), but he was very prolific in the heyday of italian cinema, scoring an equally wide range of different genres from westerns to gialli and from romantic movies to italain police (so called "poliziotteschi") and crime movies. This title track of "La morte cammina con i tacchi alti" doesn't have to hide behind the best of themes Morricone did, in fact the orchestration does sound very Morricone itself with an uptempo-ish bossa nova beat, lush strings, wonderful harpsicord and a female voice carrying the main melody with a bitterweet tone. The voice is delivered by Nora Orlandi, one of the very few female soundtrack composers and she could easily be mixed up with Edda Dell'Orso here. Wonderful stuff, recommended for anyone who enjoys the "Mondo Morricone" comps.

I can just imagine people sitting in a seedy New York movie theatre on 42nd Street back in 1961 watching a b-movie called "Satan in High Heels". The film is in its last reel and suddenly the main female character comes out on the nightclub stage wearing a leather outfit complete with 6-inch dominitrix boots and a riding crop! The music swells and she starts to sing:
---
i'm the kind of woman, not hard to understand,
i'm the one who cracks the whip and holds the upper hand
I'll beat you, mistreat you, til you quiver and quail,
the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
---
This little film isn't likely to have ever had a soundtrack album which in a way is sad because in addition to this camply little gem there are a couple of other cute vocals by Meg Myles and the other actresses in the film and some great jazz instrumentals sprinkled throughout as well. The fine folks at Something Weird Video have kindly put this little film out on DVD. You can also catch the scene containing this song on their compilation of movie trailers (where I first discovered this film) released to inform people of their DVD catalog.

a wonderful production, this song features a good mix of stereotypical rock and dance sounds with Amanda's raspy vocals. i wish i heard it dance clubs more often.

A lovely, gentle samba with wordless three-part mixed harmonies, gently swinging organ and subtle percussion.

Erasure is always guarenteed to get your feet moving and this song is certainly no exception. A surreal dancy story of alien abduction set to a great housy beat with prominent piano work that brings Robert Miles' "Dreamland" album to mind every time I listen to it. A great bassbeat mix of 'In My Arms' also appears among the nine tracks on this single.

Everyone is mixing breakbeats with bossa nova and lounge these days, but rarely as good as Zuco 103 on their album 'Outro Lado'. Probably because other bands don't have a singer as sensuous as Lilian Vieira. Surpisingly my favourite track of this record is the one without beats: it could be discribed as 'bass 'n' violins'. If you like Bebel Gilberto, listen to this song.

I consider it a mix between britpop and country. However, it sounds great.

A nice cover song as Towa Tei (SRATM) will do. I haven't heard the original but would like to. This one is in the two-step style which I am also unfamiliar with except through Towa Tei's interpretations. An excellent song. "Girly" as TT songs with vocals can be. Dancy as TT songs usually are. Commentary from some Jamaican/British type (!) and breaks down into a remix of itself toward the end - but in a very respectable fashion! -- I recently found out that this CD features copy protection, funny enough that kind of changed the way I felt about it. I want to make it clear that for that reason I can't recommend that anyone buy this album. ;)

Freakishly cool jet-set jazz from the great Benny Golson. A Gary Mcfarland tune that he wrote for his "In Sound" LP, and I must say his version seemed pretty hard to top,until this. A mindblowing mix of styles from the period are included in this one track:Gary Mcfarland's easy-latin swing(complete with whistles),The elecrtrified sax sound of Eddie Harris, and a swirling vocal ensemble thats almost in a Hugo Montenegro mode! Wild!!

A beautiful original, mixed with a great hip-hop bassbeat. This was Madonna's first album after her admittedly excellent performance in the film, 'Evita'. In preparing for the film, she had actually taken professional voice instruction where she learned to project her voice and put less strain on her vocal chords. The transformation was amazing and she has sounded so much better since. She was also on a spiritual journey as she began her role as a mother and the lyrics bespeak this journey in her use of very emotional words and the warm sound in her voice. This is not, 'like a virgin', this is a woman reborn!

This is just a great example of the Connells, a band you can either kick back and listen to, or jump around and go crazy. This band from North Carolina never made it big, but they still keep playing their music for anyone who will listen. A great college band, only they stick with you long after college, as witnessed by the mix of frat baseball caps and balding heads at a recent concert.

Another wonderful, genre-defying track by Marcos Valle, Garra is a bouncy mix of scat vocals and funky, soulful pop. The arrangement somehow manages to remain very tasteful and tight. The entire album is highly recommended.

rick white is a prolific songwriter, whether with eric's trip, or his more recent project elevator. 'girlfriend' in particular characterises the sound with acoustic guitar up front, fuzz guitar in the background and floating away vocal. eric's trip came out of the so-called halifax pop explosion of the early 90s, and their name comes from the sonic youth song. but their sound is a lot more lo-fi and home recorded, guitars and sounds popping out of strange places in the mix.

This is a simple but rather bitter pop song, although on the surface it sounds quite sweet. If I recall correctly, it was written about the singer that Twinkle was seeing at the time. The gentle arrangement features acoustic guitar and some brass. It's not hard to hear why Morrissey liked this song enough to cover it with The Smiths.

Twinkle has a lovely clear voice, and much as I respect Moz, this version towers above the one done by The Smiths, which suffers from a strange mix of production styles. That said, I have a strange mix of emotions on hearing the song, since I heard the Smiths version at 14, but only got into this one in the last few years.

It's a marvelous song coming from a perfect album : " A t�bua de esmeralda" . Represents the highest level this artist achieved. It's an example of crossover mixing Samba - Soul - Psichodelia. A must for good music lovers.
A song for sophisticated ears.

Simon Warner sings beautifully orchestrated and heartfelt songs with a mixture of 60s (e.g. Scott Walker) and modern pop (e.g. Julian Cope) sensibilities. Most people ignored his album when it came out in 1997. Apparently he recorded a second that even his record company ignored. I was lucky enough to see the great man a few times live in 1997. He's an incredible performer, with a slightly rough but very tuneful voice. The compositions, all his own, are also first-rate. This is my favorite track from the album, a melancholy pop tune with piano, guitar and bass, and later a full orchestra.

An instrumental of monumental brilliance. Mixing religious moods with tight beats and strings really seems to work for me. The track opens quietly with piano chords and a bass guitar. A slow, funky drum beat comes in, and after this the track goes on all kinds of journeys, building up and down with doomy strings and psychedelic guitars. A really incredible way to set a mood...

A jazzy upbeat song. Just a little hip-hop to add to the mix.

guitarist and songwriter greg brown tells us how he feels when someone says 'haveAniceDay'. midtempo acoustic number with gruff bassy vocals. very good for themed comps or person-specific mixtapes. from an album called The Live One and various MPR/NPR performances at their archives. repeat listening assured.

Dubstep with pop flair

So I'm watching the finale of Survivor: Marquesas (a year ago, in May '02) and on comes this ad for The Gap with, to my utter astonishment, the guitar intro to this 1967 classic. And better yet, they got the correct version! Meaning, the one with the gritty-sounding guitars (there have been a number of inferior versions released that were re-recorded, or at least remixed badly, or something). "I See The Rain" should be quite familiar to British readers but perhaps not to Americans. Anyway, I've always loved this song, and it's the aforementioned guitar sound that makes it stand out, although those harmonies in the chorus and a just-right unhurried tempo help make it one of my faves ...

I Won't Lie Down isn't just a punk song. It is more of a melodic punk song, then just punk. Face to Face originated in Southern Claifornia but has spread there wonder sound throughout the U.S. I Won't Lie Down isn't jus a song you can rock out to but a song you can groove to. I Won't Lie Down was also remixed (techno version) and put on the Mortal Combat souindtrack. Although the remix is good, it isn't as good as the original, but what is?

psychedelic
procul harum-esque

fantastic track on saint etienne's recent mix cd. Anyone know anything more about this track?

This is a gorgeous summer tune in a similar vein to "Heartbeat" by Tahiti 80. This song makes you want to dance, a bit disco, a bit easy listening and a smudge of retro. I can't recommend the entire album - it's all over the place but this single is stunning.

the dubs of this song are great. Digitalism put a new spin on the song that is originally an r&b song. They give it a great dancefloor work over. Hard edged genius.

Take a mournful song about a late-night bout of insomnia brought on by lonliness, add a few synthesiser loops, some random and often indistinguishable chatter, and mix in a reading of St Matthew 6:9-13 (the Lord's Prayer) for good measure.

One of those perfect music moments from the "New Wave" era of the early 1980's.

An unusual-sounding instrumental that mixes a 3/4 time signature with a light breakbeat. The song (incorrectly cited as 'the name of the game' on the record I have) is a spooky and groovy instrumental, with a continuous organ riff, great strings, and a big beat. A different interpretation of this song by another British arranger, John Gregory, appears on the excellent German compilation 'the mad mad world of soundtracks'.

A wonderful track. As you may have read elsewhere, Wendy and Bonnie were young sisters who wound up releasing an album on the Skye label, which was owned by Cal Tjader, Gary MacFarland and Gabor Szabo. This recording benefits from some superb session musician work, and opens with a bluesey riff. The arrangement is simple, with a haunting organ joining the guitar and drums, and the Wendy and Bonnie singing and occasionally harmonizing over the top. The voices are clear and carry the melody very well. This short song has a rather enchanting moody feel to it, exemplified by the fade-out ending. The mix of earnest female vocals and great session musicians recalls the Feminine Complex.

This magical track is from a 1965 single produced by Rolling Stones impresario Andrew Loog Oldham. It's a folky pop song with a manically strummed acoustic guitar and constant beat. There's some more full orchestration (brass and strings), but it's slightly hidden in the mix. The charm of this song for me lies in both Nico's bittersweet delivery ("I'm not saying that I love you/I'm not saying that I care/If you love me..I'm not saying that I care/I'm not saying I'll be there when you want me") and the catchy chord sequence in the verse. Some of the bridge sections are slightly corny and obvious musically, but Nico's majestic vocal lifts the song and makes me want to hear it again.

I first heard this one on one of the radio mixes on Stereolab's website, and found a copy for relatively cheap on eBay shorty thereafter.

Anyway, it's great.

The sound reminds me of Gary McFarland's "Latin Lounge" stuff but with a bigger sound and an extra element of subtle funkiness. Gismonti's arrangement here is adventurous, unpredictable and totally engrossing.

The whole album is wonderful -- "Pendulo" and "Parque Laje" are equally as good -- but I'm still most partial to this, the first track that I heard.

This lost Jorge Ben stormer has a rawer sound and harder rock edge to it than usual during this, his greatest period. Relegated to an obscure soundtrack LP, it stomps all over the place at a slower, heavier and more menacing tempo than anything on "Ben" or "A Tabua De Esmeralda." The beat is anchored by that famous acoustic guitar sound, heavy bass and a loud cowbell, as Jorge yells out improvised nonsense in a hilarious mix of Spanish and English! "Rock Steady-O!!" Must be heard to be believed.

never liked musicals, especially not the ones done by andrew lloyd webber. this one though is a whole different story! strange moog sounds mixed with big band jazz.

The mother of all 'Jet Society' themed songs. Play this at your penthouse-apartment cocktail party and you'll most likely score a free layover with one of the air stewardesses. The choice of a lone laidback trumpet over piano chords is excellent. Mix in a soft percussion beat and you're all set. Come to think of it, phone up your friends and invite them over for cocktails in the grotto.

Very honestly sounding East Indian music. Oriental vocal pieces with original instruments, with just the right amount of electronics mixed-in. The whole CD "Shri Durga" is as good.

"Sun, the moon, the sky ... and you and I," - I wish I knew where the samples used in this track are from - from the opening piano melody to the refrain (it's possible that the vocals were recorded specifically for this tune). If someone can help out, thank you. I am pleased to hear Jazzanova offer such decent track. After being disappointed by the less than stellar remixes 1997-2000, I was thrilled to hear a very good original creation off of their forthcoming debut full length. Soulful, mellow and ez.

this entire soundtrack to the film la planete sauvage comes highly recommended. never seen the film, but it can�t possibly be as good as the soundtrack suggests.
chilly, funky instrumental orchestral music. there�s a really haunting recurring theme through the album, nice use of choirs and twangy guitar too.

What can I say. You are not going to find a colombian who doesn't like Vives. He just took folk vallenato music and made it rock!! This tropical sounds of thumbs, pipes and acordion mixed with some rock are brilliant. This is really "The Rock of My Town". Ay hombeeeeeeee!! From Vives I would reccomend every single song, but this one is very special cause he dedicated it to his daughter and son. The lyrics is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.

P.S. Now a little of General Culture: It's Colombia, not Columbia!!

I got this CD from a mate a while back and I didn't take the time to sit down and listen to it until about a week ago, that was a mistake! This is a great tune with quite haunting vocals, which remind me of Scarborough fair in a strange way, uplifting chorus mixed with great double base sound.

I am a connoisseur (er, fan) of Japanese pop music, not just young further-out acts/groups like Cornelius (lost w/o his tape loops) and Love Psychedelico (think Beatles Meets Velvet Underground). But also that strain of Japanese pop which draws heavily on the stylistic traditions of the usual Brill Building suspects. i.e. Solo Nihogo artists like Mariko Takeuchi, especially those tracks with arrangements by the great Tomaji Sogawa. Also Chage and Aska, Eichi Ohtaki, (sometimes called Japan's Phil Spector), Gospellers, Rag Fair and, of course, Pizzicato Five. I am especially drawn to the efforts of Tatsuro Yamashita as a solo artist, and of his tracks with his wife, Mariya Takeuchi, released under her name. On their own and as a team they have been recording since the 1980s and in (affectionately known by his fans as) Tats' case since the late seventies (his first album was co-produced and arranged in the U.S. by the 4 Seasons' Charles Callelo). There are a number of other artists like this in Japan with uncommonly lengthy---by U.S. standards---careers. And believe it or not, a hit record in Japan sells in numbers that are generally far larger than the U.S. despite a population that is roughly half as large.

One of my favorite Takeuchi - Yamashita collaborations (she writes and sings, he arranges) is "Let's Get Married," which would not be perceived as being retro or sixties or somesuch by (IMHO) the more flexible and openminded Japanese music audience. Even though, admittedly it does draw upon such musical conceits. Instead, Let's Get Married would merely be regarded as a great record, case closed.

This 1984 cut track is timelessly, and extra-territorily infectuous. But with the exception of Kyu Sakamoto in 1963 with his fluke number one single, Sukiyaki, to the best of my knowledge no Japanese artist of any musical inclination has been able to crack the U.S. charts in any significant way. General garden variety xenophobia coupled with a hard time wrapping the tongue around those hard-to-pronounce names with two many vowels and and syllables. It is doubtful that LGM, even though it is sung by Takeuchi in perfectly accented English, was ever released in the U.S.

Starting with a full blown fanfare of the Wedding March played on organ, after twenty seconds, Let's Get Married abruptly switches gears and mood and becomes an ever-ascending excercise in neo-Spectorian pop, replete with castinets, chimes, a swirling ooh-wah background chorale (courtesy of an overdubbed Yamashita), multiple drumkits, a full complement of string players and plenty of good old fashioned Gold Star Studio-style echo. A paen to the joys of marriage, my favorite moment happens at 1:42 way down in the mix right after Takeuchi sings the line "You and me with a small house and a dog," where, if you listen carefully you can hear the sound of a dog yapping for joy. Homage to the "Pet" at the end of Brian Wilson's "Caroline, No" perhaps?

Both Yamashita and Takeuchi had number one albums in Japan last year. Unlike most of their 70s and 80s U.S. rock/pop counterparts, they have not been cast aside by the bulk of Japanese record buyers, but continue to peak at the top of the charts with every new issue. A listen to this perfectly crafted, classic, three minute (well. . . 3;45 actually) track should help illustrate why this is so.

Bill Reed (new to this list)

The vocalization of a persistent daydream delivered with a truly ethereal sound. I find this song hauntingly beautiful. I was also lucky enough to come across a promotional-only CD single that features two great house mixes by Jonathan Peters although sadly, they are both edits that clock in around 4 minutes each.

As most of his songs it has a neat title and I find the hard driving beat great to drive to.

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.

A great track that comes in two parts. The first is a sweet repetitive pop tune with electronic piano, synthesized strings, pleasant guitar chords, and wordless 'ba ba' vocals. Just before the three minute mark, it begins to mutate gradually, until it turns into a glorious early New Order-style sound, with a piercing, punky guitar sound and a loud bassline. The vocal elements from early in the track then come back in. A great fusion of different styles.

metro area brings a lot of things together. there is the oldskool discovibe. there is retro-electro. there is detroit. and there is always organic stuff within like in this track, the nice flute-riff which appears only once or twice.
the whole album is highly recommandable. all tracks are arranged in a deep disco mood, as i would describe it. but you can't compare it to real disco from the 70s as there are a lot of other ingredients. for example a 909 fourtofloorbeat in many tracks and synthiepads sweeping in and out. nice mixture.
i think some tunes should be familiar to club-goers (miura, athmosphrique) but this one is more for your home-audio-experience...=)

In a Morricone mood today...just a quickie.
From the soundtrack of The Exorcist 2, this insane little ditty sounds like a fifty-fifty mix of the Batman theme and library music "black metal", with added harpsichord and italian-style wordless screaming. There's also a middle eastern thing going on in there, and the whole ting is just madly energetic.
This song makes me happy in ways it probably wasn't supposed to.

[01] Radio Edit
[02] Original Vocal Edit
[03] Antoine Clamaran Radio Edit
[04] Antoine Clamaran Remix
[05] Olav Basoski Remix
[06] Roman Salzger Remix
[07] Manuel Tur Remix
[08] Sebastien Leger Remix

An instrumental with a fascinating fusion of styles, this track starts out quietly and then explodes delightfully. Hemmingson plays what sounds like a church organ (alongside various other keyboard instruments), but mixes it in with wah-wah guitar, funky beats and percussion, strings, and a dirty, blaxploitation soundtrack-style flute, to produce a compelling sound. Sabu Martinez plays the congas.

I can't offer a great deal of background information here, since I picked this up on a third-hand recommendation, but there are a few great tracks on the album

The multi-talented Dutch artists Kraak & Smaak shine in their unprecedented, soul-shaking compilation, �The Remix Sessions� due out May 29th. Named by IDJ as "one of the most incendiary live outfits," Kraak & Smaak take that crackling energy and infuse classic jams with their signature style. Music lovers everywhere will rejoice as hard-to-find tracks, many of which were only released on vinyl, join each other in this boogie-licious showcase.

From banging dance floor "Mimezine � Can't get Enough (Kraak & Smaak Remix)," to funky, midtempo "Jamiroquai � Electric Mistress (Kraak & Smaak Remix)" to eerie, internationally-infused "Skeewiff � Man of Constant Sorrow (Kraak & Smaak Remix)," Kraak & Smaak reveals their astounding vision for the possibilities of electronica. This beat-driven assembly is an invaluable resource for re-tracing the various pathways of this modern musical expression.

A typically folky,eclectic mix of styles that sounds as great today as it did 25 years ago! I'm on a personal crusade to expose more people to the Roches wonderful music. They're three of the most talented people that most people have never heard of.

What a depressing yet beautiful song... I was thinking of recommending this when I first heard it, but today it fits my mood better and I feel compelled to do so. Bertrand Burgalat's production mixes modern beats and bleepy sound with strings, alongside Cinnamon's old-school tuneful indie guitar pop with a female vocalist. God, this song is depressing; did I say that yet? But it's one of those depressing songs that's actually glorious to hear, accompanied as it is by beautiful, rousing music. The vocal is rather tender; as if she's sympathetic about what a fuckup the listener is.

Those uplifting lyrics in full (actually, there's more, but I'll spare you):
"when you were young/you had the sun in your eyes/the grass was greener/the days were sweeter/in the next life/you know where you came from, but there's no sparkle in your eyes/you're gonna die/and there's nothing in between to shout about'.

Why would you want to listen to something like that? I'm not sure, but I have it on repeat play today; check it out!

Everytime I listen to their songs, I feel something pressing on my chest. Ahh, I can't express my feeling very well... The boys and girls mixed choirs on fantastic melodies always make me happy. I love " Meet Me At The Love In" so much, especially whisper on their choirs, horn on the bridge, etc. They were actually a follower of The Mamas & The Papas but their tunes are more cheerful and energetic!

An Ennio Morricone/flamenco/mariachi combination perhaps? I'm afraid I'm unable to adequately describe the majesty of this recording. It was included in the CD that accompanied the July 1999 issue of Uncut magazine and is also available on the "The Ride (pt 2)" single. Even if you have the shorter version on The Black Light, you'll want to hear this.

Regularly I fall in love with songs that have a harmonic, perfectly tuned voice chorus like "miracles". The Fender Rhodes keyboard and a moderate bass-line completes the relaxed mood.
I immediatly feel this bittersweet mixture of good times memories and melancholy.

A really really great pop song by dint of the fact it just refuses any categorisation other than 'Ace'. But I'd better give it a go. 'Mother' is a very nineties mix of genres; Gospel-ey piano, driving pop beat, terrible vocals, and great pop lyrics that soars, taking in scat, madchester, falsetto and more before exhausting itself - I can't think of any other song that could conceivably have worked as a blueprint for 90's pop - if we'd worked from this instead of 'Baby one more time' things could have been much different. Re. the song - two things then - 1. it's a fantastically catchy 'choon' with guts and attitude, 2. it's a bit revolutionary, as all good pop should be.

Wow, never heard of him until recently.
He plays popmusic on Moog-synthesizers, and was one of the early pioneers.
Another fun thing about him, was that he made songs about different IanFleming bondbooks, before the Bond movies were even made. This is probably of later date still very fun sound.

Its sounds like 60ies popmusic with Commodore64 mixed into it.

Taut and elegant. A cut above most of the progressive teapot folk-rock of the era. Broadcast and Stereolab fans - or those who think all this stuff is a mix of dull traditional tunes and clodhopping blues guitar - should give "On The Shore" a listen.

How best to describe such a tableau as this? Another Indian gem imprinted into my brain from my recent holiday.

Parts of this song are so much like the Grease 2 soundtrack in spirit it's untrue. Mix that with the kind of Hindi film beats that have become close to my heart over the last couple of months and you're talking about the kind of song which will keep me awake thinking of its greatness.

The female backing vocals are the cherry on the crumble. You can just picture the wide eyed lovely saying "An-thony GONSALVES!!"

from nirvanas first album this song is diabolically neat.its got a simple sludgey drop d riff and i wanna do a drum n bass remix of it.

Wilson Simonal's mix of Brazilian soft pop and soul cause him to be a pivotal figure in the growth of the "Black Rio" funk scene. This track, classed as one of Brazil's "soul standards" bounces along with a laid back groove, brass and cheekiness.

eO's through-composed, symphotronic poem incorporates exotic world-fusion compositions with heavy post-dubstep beats, evocative vocals, and elegant instrumentation.

Memory's a funny thing. Especially romantic memory.
The first time I heard this song was two days after the first time I fell in love. Everywhere I went, I sang its earnest chorus "And you are always on my mind" in my head, thinking about the one I was in love with. In the shower staring at a bottle of hair conditioner, I sang, "You are always on my mind". On the subway, trying to ignore a potential fistfight about to break out, I sang, "You are always on my mind". In the supermarket produce section, holding the perfect shape of a lemon in my hand, I sang, "You are always on my mind". I was giddy and happy and the song understood. "Hey!" the song said, "Hey!" Will Oldman sang, "I got a new partner now!"
But jacket weather set in and things grew colder and we broke up and I was miserable and I stored the CD away on a top shelf with other memorabilia of that love who's happy power was really freakin' painful for me to think about now.
Things weren't always so bleak and I got me a new love and some years later, when I listened to the song again, I noticed something about the lyrics I hadn't before. See, in reality, the song isn't joyous at all. Will Oldman is singing about a past love, a love who is always on his mind when all the time he is seeing another girl, a different girl from the one always on his mind. He can't be with that girl. He has a new partner now. What I thought was a song about new joy was a song about nostalgic loss.
I didn't see how it was possible that I had suppressed that true meaning for as long as I had, considering how often I sang the song and how much it meant to me at the time. I knew the lyrics like the back of my hand and when I listen to music I dredge up all I can get from the lyrics like I'm a devout scribe interpreting the bible.
One of the beauties of pop songs is that they take on the flavour of your life at the time you listened to them and carry that flavour on to whenever you listen to the song again, while meanwhile you're morphing and changing and discarding what songs you don't want to remember that you loved and making mixed Cd's for long cartrips of the songs you do you do want to remember. This song is weird in that IT seemed to be the one that was morphing the next time I heard it and not me, like it was a person that had changed over time that I was encountering again.
Besides which, what a fucking lovely song it is.

When you consider just how wonderful it is, Les Baxter's 'exotic' work is under-represented on this site. From a superb and reasonably easy-to-find album, this cut is an intoxicating mix of shimmering 50s style strings and gentle bongo rhythms.

'Nightingale' is a Xavier Cugat original that is very much in the style of classic Lecuona songs like 'Taboo'. Melodically, it also reminds me of another standard, 'Invitation'.

Billie Ray Martin under a briefly fashionable electroclash pseudonym. Our Germanic techno-soul diva sonically revisits and updates her underrated Electribe 101 days for a foray into what almost becomes disco metal. This quirky 12" is on lurid pink vinyl, and features a blistering remix by her old mate Mark Moore (of S-Express fame) on the B-side.

Sounds like:
a mix between Coldplay, U2 and Embrace.

I like it because:
it has piano in it and the vocal line during the chorus is beautiful.

Julian Cope was a leader in the post-punk band Teardrop Explodes . This tune is from his finest solo album :Peggy Suicide. The production is very sleek and crystal clear .
The mood of this song is somewhat a mix of mystic and playful-its theatrical and druggy.Its pretty much dragging along in the same tempo from beginning to end , but it never gets close to boring.

A terrific debut single, this song strikes me as having what psychiatrists would call a mixed manic-depressive state. The mania is in the pace, which is fairly quick, and the vocals, which never seem to stop, while the depression is in the guitars which are rather poignant, what with minor seventh chords and so on. There are a number of good songs on the LP, although none quite like this, and the second LP "I've Seen Everything" is pretty good too, particularly the single "Hay Fever". It's all basically guitar pop but with a few twists and turns along the way.

This song is a mellow eletronica piece that blends the jittery feeling of jungle with the melodic nature of more ambient techno.

"until you wake up, take off your whispers and your makeup There ere excuses to be made up So C'mon show me what you're made of..." -wishes I would have wrote that!

check it out!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTYhHI2tsS4&feature=related

I love the Clash. I love the way they were four disparate individuals each bringing their own stuff to the mix. Topper's excellent drumming, Simonon's cool, Mick Jones musicality and street smarts, and Joe Strummer's....umm...Strummer-ness.

I love the fact they didn't play Top of the Pops. I love the fact that Strummer admitted that this was mainly 'cos he was crap at miming rather than out of any significant political stance or anything.

I love how gooood they were live. And I love the fact that I was lucky enough to see them.

I love the fact that Strummer picked 'Crawfish' as his favourite Elvis song. I also love the fact that sometimes, to my mind, they got things badly wrong, sounded a bit gauche or wrongheaded or worse. I'm thinking of Red Brigade t-shirts, using Belfast as a photo opportunity, and maybe singing about ghettos and Brixton, for the 'romance' of it when they weren't necessarily the closest to either. I dunno. That side makes me feel uneasy at times, but that's fine - makes me think.

This song is great. Reggae influenced rock, Strummer belting out 'one more time in the ghetto...'.

Its been so sad losing Joe, Johnny (Cash) and John (Peel) over the last couple of years. Good men, you feel.

[01] Peter Rafelson Album Version
[02] Pete Lorimer 29 Palms Mix
[03] Chris Cox Club Mix
[04] Eric Kupper Club Mix
[05] Mike Rizzo Global Club Mix
[06] Chris Cox Dub
[07] Eric Kupper Dub
[08] Mike Rizzo Dark Dub
[09] Eric Kupper Radio
[10] Mike Rizzo Radio

Macklemore is an underground hip-hop artist out of Seattle. His lyrics are very charged and emotional. The beat remixed featured by fences is a great touch recreated by Ryan Lewis.

I was really into the Polyphonic Spree record about a year ago and read somewhere that frontman Tim Delaughter was the singer in Tripping Daisy. There were some pretty rabid recommendations on Amazon for the third TD album - "Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb," so I ordered a used copy. It took a few spins to get into, but damn it's a keeper. Melodic art pop heaven. If ya care: it's produced by Eric Drew Feldman - who was a member of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, played keyboards for Pere Ubu for a while, and also produced some of Frank Black's earlier solo stuff.

Anyways, as its title suggests, "Our Drive to the Sun / Can a Man Mark it?" comes in two parts. "Our Drive ..." is sunshiney modern pop in the vein of the Flaming Lips, with hooks galore (there are like four parts that could qualify as killer choruses). At about the four minute mark, the track morphs into "Can a Man ...", which sounds something like a Gary Numan song remixed by Kevin Shields. Great change ups throughout and just a real nice listen.

Post-punk, rockabilly mixed with punk, great tune

David Bowie goes Glamrock. Great song of a new swedish group, who mixes brilliant riffs, with a catchy lyric. I love the small Roland Juno60 riffs they play on the synth :)
Very upbeat and i get happy by listening too it.

If you're into hardcore rap from the clubs you are gonna love it. Very commercial. Nice mixes and dirty lyrics.

The chorus is petty catchy: Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in HERE, up in here...

really good brazillian singer, even though nobody really enjoys her in brazil, still an amazing talent. Her band is pretty cool too. Sounds like a mix between Os mutantes with a some samba in it.

Candiria is a band too prolific for their own good in my opinion. Mixing traditional and avan-garde jazz, heavy metal, hip-hop/rap, and everything in between.
Not a fan of hip hop and rap, myself, I refrain from anything they do in that style, but the rest of it is pure extreme, progressive, jazz, metal, instrumental genius.

This is an almost 12 minute remix of tons of different Pizzicato Five songs by the Tokyo DJ duo Pandart Sashoona. It's quite amazing and very danceable. If you're never heard Pizzicato Five, it can be a bit overwhelming, but it's a good start! Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed!

sexy, great guitar and dance-able beat. very chill

It's just pure fun baby, pure fun! Yes, the music itself isn't anything special, and the lyrics are very repetative and lame, but it's still a hit. Anytime you're feeling a little drained of energy, pop this baby in and watch yourself go!

The music itself is sort of like a darker Live, the group Live. Fury.. really didn't catch on to the alternative scene but that doesn't take away from its amazing music. Radio Orchid is by far their best song, melodic and serene. This song will make you want to buy their album. The voclas are a soothing mix to its already unique sound. It both relaxes and invigorates the soul. Hey if the song can't get to your soul then its just not that good. Also the lyrics play a big part in the song, not only are they good but they make you think. This was their second and last album, and eventhough they are relativley unknown, they are still alternative kings in my eyes.

This one makes me laugh. A friend of mine put it on a mix for me, and the first couple of times through I was sure I had to be hearing it wrong. I looked it up on a lyric search, though, and sure enough they're all going to call rats fish once Friday rolls around. I find rats funny to begin with, but the fish thing pretty much cinches it.

I guess you could also view this as historical commentary, but I choose just to see it in a ligher way.

The multi-talented Dutch artists Kraak & Smaak shine in their unprecedented, soul-shaking compilation, �The Remix Sessions� due out May 29th. Named by IDJ as "one of the most incendiary live outfits," Kraak & Smaak take that crackling energy and infuse classic jams with their signature style. Music lovers everywhere will rejoice as hard-to-find tracks, many of which were only released on vinyl, join each other in this boogie-licious showcase.

From banging dance floor "Mimezine � Can't get Enough (Kraak & Smaak Remix)," to funky, midtempo "Jamiroquai � Electric Mistress (Kraak & Smaak Remix)" to eerie, internationally-infused "Skeewiff � Man of Constant Sorrow (Kraak & Smaak Remix)," Kraak & Smaak reveals their astounding vision for the possibilities of electronica. This beat-driven assembly is an invaluable resource for re-tracing the various pathways of this modern musical expression.

Satanist surf rock! (or a reasonable facsimile of that would sound like, anyway.)
From the land of polar bears and fjords
comes this insanely massive-sounding piece of black metal with a heavy dose of Dick Dale influences. It's quite poppy for a black metal tune, if you can see past the growling. I have to admit I've never actually listened too closely to the lyrics, i'm sure they're very misantrophic and gloomy and all, but this song feels very uplifting to me somehow. same thing as with Primal Scream's Detroit and Ennio Morricone's Magic and Extacy, i guess.
the synth effects round it out nicely, the guitars are fast and furious, and you got to love that drumming.


(One of these days I'm gonna have to make a mixtape with the world's most glaringly insane shifts of tone from one song to the next. This will fit nicely in between Dean Martin and Jean Jaques Perrey...)

lots of bass, kind of dubstep-ish, its just a cool song to listen to

My introduction to this Scottish band was when they supported Lloyd Cole and the Commotions at a December 1985 gig. I liked them a lot that night, but actually their three albums don't contain that much to shout about - maybe a couple of quite good tracks per album.

However, "Reverend Killer", a song not included on any of their albums, is knock-out, excellent guitar-based pop with a hint of synth deep in the mix, and enough harmonic movement to make up for the lack of rhythmic variety or interest.

This live recording of "Ride The Wind" is a wonderful nine minute take on the six minute studio version available on The Youngbloods 1969 "Elephant Mountain" album.

Recorded live in NYC as a trio, The Youngbloods never sounded better. Jesse Colin Young is on bass. Banana plays guitar and keyboards, and Joe Bauer on drums. Sparse, almost scatted vocals mixed with improvisational instrumentaion help this song lightly float along. The bass solo gives me goosebumps, and accents the playfulness of the improv style the Youngbloods exhibit on this song.

I really like this song because it sounds so mellow and free. One of the best ways you can spend almost 10 minutes of your life. Give it a listen, you won't be sorry.

A wonderful cinematic track which originally appeared in extended form on the now hard to find "Zaireeka" album. Seemingly some sort of narrative about a delusional morning commuter. Check out the "Zaireeka" version if you can or, if you can't, check out this great sounding stereo mixdown.

The lead single from one of the Church's all time highs, the dark, powerful Priest Aura, "Ripple" was much like the album it came from - lengthy, with an emphasis on artistic impact rather than radio-friendly ease, charged with a feeling of impending, unnerving threat. The initial guitar chime and Steve Kilbey's singing may provide a familiar feeling for long-time listeners, but the edge of spite and conflict in the words carries through in the performance - Kilbey's not so much blending into the mix as suddenly slicing through it. The full arrangement almost has a touch of film noir threat to it, but not as much as the amazing chorus. Starting with a soft, almost sighed overdubbed vocal part like a mysterious signal, it literally does ripple up in the mix, sneaking up on the listener instead of turning into any kind of a singalong. It's the same approach as with "Under the Milky Way," but the air here is less elegant melancholia and more unsettling electric charge, extra guitar feedback carving arcs through the arrangement, instrumental breaks providing only short, temporary relief.
(AMG)

Driving and discordant, bittersweet, sad. This song is the most beautiful thing I've heard this week. In the mixtape of my head this comes right before Johnny Cash's "Don't bring your guns to town." A song you should listen to after you watch the evening news tonight... (released free as part of the protest records project: http://www.protest-records.com/ which is somehow associated with sonic youth.)

I think this one was recorded in '79...It was released late that year and peaked (at least in the US) in 1980.

Strikes a perfect balance between simplicity (Forbert's a singer-songwriter type) and complexity (there are several sections mixed and matched). Probably my favorite of the 1980s.

You've likely heard this song if you were listening to Pop music in 1980; it also received Adult Contemporary and Rock airplay. It has a beautify piano introduction which is repeated throughout. The intro piano gives way to a piaon-acoustic guitar-bass-drumkit backing to Forbert's vocals; later embellishments include backing singers, organ, and electric guitar.

Anyone heard this one?

Al Cooper is a great overlooked songwriter.His album,Easy Does It,is a double length tour de force.He wrote more than half the tunes for this double LP,and played a myriad of instruments as well!This one is my favorite right now, mainly because it mixes well with my miserable winter. Instumentally, it has a sort of"Indo-blues"quality, with sitar(played by Mr. Cooper himself) and tablas against a lilting string ensemble.It's a song of lost love and it's dreaded illumination:"...As the sun it slowly rises, there is judgement in it's glare/And it seems too much to ask, to light a face that isn't there..." A real treat of a tune, and a must for any fans of american songwriter stuff with a touch of sad humor.Also check out his sprawling version of the Big Joe Williams tune "Baby Please Don't Go" and another original,"She Gets Me Where I Live".

well there isn't much to say, it's a drum machine and someone saying 'celebrate life'. i remember this lp from 8 years ago, and probably we were wasted, but it was the most played vinyl in the flat. found without knowing who or why, and now thanks to www.bleep.com, i found it again. not much happens until 3'40, and then, in the right mood, you realise why music is so great, some dude with a drum machine and a cheesy hook, manages to encapsulate joy in sound.

great young girl "lala" vocals, catchy downtempo bassline. some fairly standard sax playing. originally from a series of german "educational" porn films from the sixties, and it�s pretty easy to tell. no moaning though. pretty similar to the more relaxed efforts of peter thomas, this is one good piece of horny sixties kitch.
how come porn music was so much better back then?

a simply subime mixture of cultures. from iranian DJ, sharam and young cleveland rapper kid cudi

This Melbourne, Australia 6 piece manages to mix dance beats and easy listening/soul samples in a much more interesting and moving way than recent artists working with similar ingredients. This track is sample happy, sampling the likes of the Main Attractions "Everyday," Klaus WUnderlich's "Let's do the Latin Hustle," and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." I immediately recognized the Hustle's melody, acting as a primer for the wonderful 60s soul vocals. This is no doubt a feel good song!

Unreal.
First of all, there's Jill Scott. With as much respect I have for her songwriting and singing abilities, I've never thought of her as a musical genius. Her music was, and stays, consistently the best soul music being released. And I'm sure that in twenty years I'll still have great fondness listening to her tunes. Yet, I don't hesitate to state that she is not a genius.

"Slowly Surely" is a great track off Jill Scott's "Who is Jill Scott: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1" album. The track, itself, is a departure from the rest of the album in composition. It is lyrically and melodically experimental, and deosn't perform as a very commercially radio friendly tune. Having said that, this is probably my favorite track on this sublime album.

Theo Parrish is a genius, however. There are no two ways about it. His music is difficult to understand. His path to fame and stardom seems as intentional as Donald Trump's efforts at staying unnoticed. He has a tendency to compose electronic dance music with beats so slow, they'd make Big Daddy Kane half step. This isn't a salmon swimming upstream. This fish is out of the water wondering why he can't fly.

The remix, in the commercial music industry, has been tainted ever since the digital age. Starting off as a tool for DJs in night clubs, a track would have been remixed to have extended beats in the beginning and the end of the track. Thus, early remixes were plainly titled, "Extended Version". However, remixes on commercial radio are merely an effort to milk the popularity of whatever is popular at the moment. These remixes usually include a guest vocalist singing, or rapping, along the original track. Another version of the remix is the time filler. When albums were made with consideration to program times for opposing sides (as well as cassette tapes), remixes were often added when material was scarce. This practice would eventually wipe out the addition of the "Reprise" track. These remix tracks were usually the chosen radio friendly track with extra production on top of the original track.

The remix for "Slowly Surely" is none of the above. It is very unique as it's own being. It pulsates to it's own heartbeat. It moves on it's own, in no predictable direction, as if Theo Parrish had little control over his artistic output. That's his genius. That's his art.

A beautifully desolate version of this track is remixed by gusGus and available on a Innocence Mission promo. The vocals remind me of the more coherent tracks by Elizabeth Fraser. The title is apt, it's quiet and simple, music for reminiscing by a forest stream during a winter walk.

A short, but astoundingly catchy instrumental in the bossa nova style. This is led by guitar and bass, with subtle stabs from the horn section. It's hard to put into words how clean, yet edgy and catchy the sound is. Somehow, in spite of all the instrumentation, there is a lot of space in the mix. This is from an LP on reprise called simply 'Bossa Nova', with a generic looking sleeve that is also used for a much less bossa-inspired Barney Kessell LP.

Different interpretation of the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra classic, notable particularly for the Slowdive 'sound'. The song starts with a faded chorus of fazed guitars - and it's a fairly glorious mix of chiming guitars from them on.

Songsmith Neil Halstead had some difficulty adapting the tune to Slowdive's intricate multi-layered sound. As such, the final part of the tune, where the song switches between ‘daffodils’ and ‘some some velvet morning’ has been cut.

This plays during a very creepy/hot sex scene, go figure, from David Lynch's "Lost Highway". The song isn't on the soundtrack and I had to hunt it down seperately.

The mixture of the female singer's flowing voice with the slow guitar, following a step behind, is soothing and gorgeous.

It is a love song but one of sitting lost and alone "at the breakers" waiting for either love to return or to "lie with death, my bride"

This bizarre Morricone pop tune sounds as if it came from a parallel universe. With an instrumental mix of guitar, harpsichord, bass and drums, it achieves the same kind of spooky, melancholic atmosphere as 'Deep Down', another Morricone film song from the same year. But in contrast to Christy's passionate vocal in 'Deep Down', Peter Bloom's delivery is light-hearted and much more low-key. Both tracks feature classic Morricone wordless vocal effects and some truly ridiculous lyrics. I haven't seen Partner, but I'd be interested to see how this song fits in to the story:

"I want to be your dazzling white knight
I'll splash you sizzling cool with bright light

I'll kiss your cleanliness
...Your soft, silkiness
Oh what happiness:
It's biological...

SPLASH
DASH
FLASH"

Ridiculous words, but the arrangement makes the track genuinely powerful. Shame Ennio didn't bring this one out for the crowd at the Royal Albert Hall last year.

Back in the mid 90's, my booty was real far into the UK underground indie scene. For a short time, I was buying virtually all the 45's from a small coterie of labels and, of course, making sure I kept the inserts intact.

The Slampt Underground Organisation were, for a time, the UK's most uncompromisingly independent label. Their hearts were in the right place and their principles tight - against 'selling out', and for 'making music in your bedroom'. There was a real affinity with the riot grrrl / Olympia scene in the US, and Slampt had a way of looking at things not unlike Calvin Johnson and K records.

Avocado Baby were Pete and Rachel, the founders and organisers of Slampt. They released a handful of tapes and 45s on their own and other tiny record labels.

Steal Yo Sixes is about playing ludo. It's pretty daft, and the lowest lo-fi imaginable with a toy horn, xylophone and tape hiss being the only instruments. Still, it has an undeniable childlike charm, and due to its obscurity and short length, makes perfect mix tape / CD-r fodder.

There a line, "When we play ludo, why do I always lose-o?" that gets across the feel perfectly.

What happens when a record company dusts off an old obscure folk song from 1970 and hands it over to a British electronica band? Greatness! With an irresistable dancy beat and a great bass line, the Happy Mondays put a great spin on this old "sandals-and-granola meets Billy Jack" relic without insulting or demeaning the original song. The 1991 remix is sure to twist your melon... and the colored girls sing, "he's gonna step on you again!"

I grew up listening to Joe Jackson and i still find his venturing into all sorts of musical styles and the eclecticism surrounding his musical work very interesting. Starting as a post-punk, new wave singer/songwriter he released three great albums from 79-81 with his "Joe Jackson Band" before going solo with a string of fine albums in the 80s (musically ranging from jazz, R&B, rock to latin-tinged sophisticated pop) and later writing and arranging soundtracks and even doing classical music. He recently regrouped with his band, produced another album and toured with the original line-up consisting of Gary Sanford, Graham Maby and Dave Houghton and surprisingly it worked as good as in the beginning of his career. "Steppin' Out" was released on probably his best solo offering "Night & Day" in 1982, a highly evocative, melancholic, catchy pop song skillfully mixing a synth sequencer beat and keyboards with piano jazz harmonies and xylophones.

Before the Sugababes became just a catalogue of "epic" ballads and stylist errors they were a phenomenally good UK pop band. Not marketing themselves as slappers or party girls, they exhibited an edginess not commonly associated with mainstream chart acts. The whole first album is a miraculous hotbed of beats and songwriting that gels so unbelievably well with the girls' image that you can believe their contribution to the process was more than just the "change a word, take a third" Spice Girls school of songwriting. Overload and Run For Cover are two of my favourite singles of the last ten years.

Equally commendable (and something else, along with member Siobhan and nice clothes, that fell by the wayside come second album time) was their attention to B sides and bonus tracks. Most had a quality that rivalled the album songs and singles - and Sugababes On The Run is even better. I can see why it wouldn't fit on the album - too novelty-ish, few people can pull off a track with their own name in it - but it works perfectly as a flitty ditty about the best teen subject: being pissed off at your parents.

Nevertheless, it does has a depth to it. In its own pop way, it's examining the precipice between youth and cynicism - does getting older always mean losing your ideals?

Probably....

The sweetness of the vocals (particularly Keisha's) and the general kid sister affection of the 'Babes mean that, however much crap they release I'll still be there every new release Monday hoping for another B-side of this quality - and getting a god-awful remix instead.

Ahh, how much I love Eternity's Children's sounds...
A week ago, I bought their CD where 25 songs in, as my bootleg's mix was terrible and no main vocal on Lifetime Day! Anyway, now I enjoy its perfect tracks, especially Lifetime Day, Your World and this song Sunshine Among Us. I do love Sunshine..'s catchy melody, beautifully thick effected harmonies and groovy backing rythm section including keyboards.
By the way, the liner notes says " However, each year, on the day before Thanksgiving, Bruce Blackman leads members of various Eternity's Children lineups at a benefit in Greenville, Mississippi featuring reunions of the area's best-loved acts" wow...this year also?!?!...I really wanna join the event!!

I just found Caravan Palace a while ago. They're amazing! They play a mix of gypsy swing and dance techno with some jazz thrown in there and a little bit of hip hop sprinkled over top.
This track is great because it showcases all their influences. Also the guy scatting over the song is awesome!

Johnny Marr once said that he wanted to write a song with an unforgettable guitar intro, like Eric Clapton's "Layla". He was, at the time, talking about the penning of the Smiths' "How Soon is Now?" The Chameleons' "Swamp Thing" does everything still that "How Soon is Now?" did for me when I was 16. Difference is, I haven't popped in a Smiths mixtape since I was 20.

There's somthing very romantic about this song. I've never really paid too much attention to the lyrics of this particular Chameleons track, although Mark Burgess' oddly peotic songwriting skills on other tracks have haunted my mind years after I had heard them. This tune is led and driven by the chord structure more than just the delayed, jangly guitar, or the powerfully precise drumming. Midway into the tune, the song goes from minor chord structure to major chord structure, even though the lyrics remain as bleak as a Manchester weather report.

Whenever I hear this song, one word always pops into my head, "pretty". That's what this song is. Pretty.

It took me some time, but I'm finally really getting into Tipsy's second album, 'Uh Oh!' This track is a beautiful sound collage, with a slightly more complex structure than a lot of predominanty sampled tracks have. Its samples include celestial harps, gentle beats, middle eastern snake charmer sounds, old wordless vocals, and lots more wonderful sounding stuff I can't identify. The overall effect is rather intoxicating. My admiration for this track mixed with a touch of jealousy - I have some of the records being sampled here (for example, the 'Bacharach Baroque' version of 'Close to you' is clearly audible), but my own audio assembling skills are rather poor compared with those of Tipsy. If you haven't listened to Tipsy since 'Trip Tease', or even if you're just interested in creative sampling, I recommend checking this out.

Following shortly on the heels of Of Skins and Heart, "Tear It All Away" still was the picture of a developing band, but one already more comfortable with the studio, able to use subtlety and quiet drama to inform its cool, soothing yet tense take on post-punk filtered through psychedelic touches. The familiar Byrds-derived guitar and Bowie-tinged lyrical regret and sighing crop up as they so often would in the earliest days, but there's a clean, blue tinge to the whole performance, something that feels inexpressively like an eighties recording rather than a sixties throwback. Call it the space in the mix, the gentle keyboards here and there, or the substituting of folk and country roots for something more urban and faster-paced. The lovely mid-song solos show the Marty Willson-Piper/ Peter Koppes team still well within its element, and the whole composition has a rich, lush feeling to it that's most attractive.
(AMG)

Acoustic summery song. Very 60's sounding with great harmonys and really odd guitar out of one of the speakers. A must hear for fans of Teenage Fanclub

Nujazz maestro extraordinaire has taken Alemaro Romero's "Tema de la Onda", a Sergio Mendes-style light vocal bossa number, and turned it into a jazzdance smasher.

Conte takes the female lallation-like vocals and a simple two note piano riff, adds his trademark samba/dance-skewed percussion work with a huge shaking piano breakdown, and creates a number that would have been as much a dancefloor filler in the 70s as it is today.

I heard lots of bad things about this song, like it was the devils work or something....actually it just demonstrates how he could turn his hand to pretty much anything. Electronic, mixed-up, too much going on but i think it works.

Although far less well known than the 12" version and the 1987 'substance' rerecording, I'm utterly in love with this 7" version. I think perhaps the band hate it, since it doesn't seem ever to have appeared on CD, and was not even on the recent 'Retro' box set. At a little over 5 minutes long, it just seems much more focused and affecting to me than the overlong 12" version and the scrappy 1987 version.

It opens with that hypnotic beat/synth sound that has become famous since the song was used in various film soundtracks (most famously, Trainspotting, and most recently, 24 hour party people. Both used the later, rubbish version though). On this version, there's a twangy guitar sound added over the top of the introduction. The other main difference from other versions is vastly improved vocals (particularly over the 1987 version), and that wonderful early New Order guitar sound, as witnessed on other classic tracks like 'Ceremony' and 'Procession'. Like a handful of other tracks I've recommended, it's hard for me to be completely objective about this one, because I've adored it since my mid-teens. But having just bought an extra copy of the single, I'm happy to report that it sounds as brilliant as ever.

This recording showcases a raw and under-appreciated New Order/Joy Division sound that mixes early synth sounds and beats with punky guitars in a really beautiful and affecting way. I still enjoy their later stuff, but it's tracks like this that really attract me to the band.

I recently found this LP in a stack that I had bought years ago and stored somewhere without having listened to them. It's on Evolution, which is the Command/Project 3-inspired label that was set up by former Command arranger Bobby Byrne. Many of the standard Command session players are featured, including Dick Hyman. Indeed, it's Hyman's moog playing that is the highlight of the album for me.

This song has never been a particular favorite of mine, but there's something in the mix of brassy, beaty late 60s pop and Hyman's delightful moog sounds that is very catchy in this version. The album also features a cover of 'Barbarella', along with a great 'Respect' and the best version of 'Delilah' that I've ever heard.

In an easy listening mood today.
From the oft-panned disk two of the frank black francis release, comes this brilliant reinterpretation of the holiday song from the Pixies' glory days.
This version is driven by dubby, spacy trumpets and echo effect, with a lone guitar taking the back seat. I like how Frank's voice is mixed way in front, and the overwhelmingly happy tone of the whole thing. The Pixies for cocktail parties.