Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Cities In Dust (12" Extended Eruption Mix)' (Polydor, 1985)

Shimmering, swirling piece of prime Banshees. Extended.

Classic Banshees, from their great 'Tinderbox' album.

I was a bit late to see how original and important Siouxsie and the Banshees were in combining rhythm, melody and moodiness. I can hear their influence in everyone from The xx to The Horrors to Blouse.

Great stuff.

Download Siouxsie & The Banshees 'Cities In Dust (12" Extended Eruption Mix)' (post-punk mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Hanged Up 'Klang Klang' (Constellation, 2005)

Rhythmic genius that mimics the tyranny of the machine on viola and drums. Industrial but not in a Throbbing Gristle kind of way.

I remember stumbling across Hanged Up on a bill that also featured Constellation's Polmo Polpo. Their furious storm of drums and effects-heavy viola was utterly compelling leading me to their intense and brooding albums.


'Klang Klang' is exactly that. An alternative soundtrack to the bit in 'Modern Times' where Charlie Chaplin falls into the guts of the tyrannical machine. Try it for yourself.

Download Hanged Up 'Klang Klang' (post rock mp3 download) (via cstrecords.com)

The Necks 'Angle Of Repose' (Live at Sydney Festival, 2011)

Live improvisation for film soundtrack recorded at the Sydney Festival, January 2011.

More gliding, gently building and shifting improvisation from The Necks. 'Angle Of Repose' was recorded live as an improv against a projection of the film 'The Boys' in their home city of Sydney, Australia back in January. Oddly, they released their soundtrack to 'The Boys' as an album - but this is a completely new piece.

Utterly enthralling, stick on your earphones or make 45 minutes of free time to drift away to this ullulating, barely-there mood that sits somewhere between Miles Davis' 'In A Silent Way' and Triosk's scratchy jazz from a few years ago.

Download The Necks 'Angle Of Respose' (live, jazz, improvisation, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Constellation Records 2011 Sampler (13 Tracks inc Tindersticks)

Generous sampler of 2011 releases from the mighty Constellation label.

Constellation has evolved from just being Godspeed You! Black Emporer's label with a few (admittedly awesome) postrock luminaries alongside - Fly Pan Am, Do Make Say Think, Sofa...

This showcase of 13 tracks from their 2011 releases includes tracks from Tindersticks Claire Denis soundtrack box, former Godspeed/Silver Mt Zion man Efrim Manuel Menuck, delight chamber music of Esmerine, Colin Stetson's twisted jazz and more besides.

Happy christmas.

Tracklisting:
01 SANDRO PERRI - Love & Light
02 PAT JORDACHE - Phantom Limb
03 SISKIYOU - Twigs and Stones
04 COLIN STETSON - The Stars in His Head (Dark Lights Remix)
05 EVANGELISTA - Artificial Lamb
06 EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK - Our Lady Of Parc Extension...
07 MATANA ROBERTS - Pov Piti
08 ESMERINE - Walking Through Mist
09 TINDERSTICKS - Children's Theme (White Material)
10 SISKIYOU - Always Awake *
11 SANDRO PERRI - Love & Light (Max Gross Remix) *
12 EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK - Carpenter's Orphan *
13 TINDERSTICKS - Le Rallye (Vendredi Soir)

Download Constellation 2011 sampler (alternative, post rock, soundtrack mp3 downloads) (via cstrecords.com)

The Lilac Time 'Grey Skies And Work Things' (Creation Records, 1991)

Gorgeously melancholic, wistful tune from a forgotten masterpiece.

By 1991, Stephen Duffy pretty much was The Lilac Time, another major label deal down and with a new home on Creation Records. Adversity suits him though, because Astronauts is a beautiful, brittle, fairly austere record.

'Dreaming' had seen 'In Iverna Gardens' from the album turned into a post-Acid House, indie dance bliss out. Elsewhere on the album lurked more reflective treats like 'Madresfield' which is a beautiful song about a Malvern village in Winter. A metaphor maybe.

And so to 'Grey Skies And Work Things'. It counts down the working hours till you can be with a lover, forming a companion piece with 'Work For The Weekend' from the 'Paradise Circus' album. A slow, acoustic number until some lovely jazzy, tremelo electric guitar, piano, bass and brushed drums come in towards the end.

Beautiful.

Download The Lilac Time 'Grey Skies And Work Things' (indie folk mp3) (Mediafire)

Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (Warp, 1990)

Early bleep magic from Sheffield's crucible of a machine-driven magic.

This record is made out of almost nothing, it's incredible. A bleepline, some echo, a very simple drum machine, a bassline, a snippet of vocal sample and a bit of synth for the breakdown. That's all there is to it but, my god, it conjures up so much more than the sum of its parts.

It's a groove. It's a feeling. It sums up a whole movement and the euphoria of succumbing to the tryannny of the bleep and echospace in between the notes.

Put together by former Cabaret Voltaire man Richard H. Kirk and Richard Barrett (aka Parrot, later to form the All Seeing I) in 1989, it was one of the first releases on Warp in 1990. Its lineage can be traced right back through Humanoid's 'Stakker Humanoid' to Mr. Fingers to Strings Of Life to New Order to Giorgio Moroder to Kraftwerk. Its impact was to directly inspire ten years of dancefloor mayhem - Tricky Disco, LFO and beyond.

A true work of art.

Download Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (WAP3, bleep, electronica, acid house mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Hatchback 'Everything Is Neu' (Lo Recordings, 2008)

Burbling, electronic version of the motorik eternal groove.

Discovered this gem of krautrock-ing wonder on the recent Advisory Circle mixtape and have listened to it loads since.

It's a blend of kosmische groove, burbling Belbury Poly sequencer lines and expansive electronic joy, building into waves of warm squiggly energy.

"Kommen Sie aus Milton Keynes" it seems to be saying in that 1970s public information type way.

Spectacularly good.

Download Hatchback 'Everything Is Neu' (electronica, krautrock mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Gruff Rhys 'Shark Ridden Waters' (Ovni, 2011)

Drowsy, sweet, sun-dappled West Coast loveliness.

The supremely talented former-Super Furry Animals man has carved out a string of gorgeous records over the last couple of years on his 'Candylion' and 'Hotel Shampoo' albums.

This tune was featured on Uncut's recent covermount CD tribute to the genius of Brian Wilson's 'Smile' sitting alongside the likes of Panda Bear, Plush, Grizzly Bear, Ruby Suns and Sufjan Stevens.

This made me redisover this wonderful tune with it's gentle 60s backbeat, Bacharach & David vocal sample and almost-whispered hymn to a magical girl.

Lovely.

Download Gruff Rhys 'Shark Ridden Waters' (indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Download the whole 'Still Smiling: A Tribute to the Genius of Brian Wilson' on archive:live+rare

The Strokes 'Last Nite (Original Demo)' (c.2000)

Remember them? Demo from back when they didn't have to think about it.

Irresistable clang and drawl from the once-stratospheric New Yorkers. Perhaps without them there would have been to Libertines or no Arctic Monkeys.

Shame they ran out of steam as this is effortlessly cool.

Download The Strokes 'Last Nite (Original Demo)' (indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Doves 'Here It Comes (Live at Maida Vale)' (December 2000)

Soupy, organ-heavy, urgent version of the early Doves single.

Live session version from 2000. Top notch version, shot-through with an almost desperate urgency, bringing back memories of the debut album and inspiring the likes of Cherry Ghost.

Download Doves 'Here It Comes (Live at Maida Vale)' (indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Download the whole Doves Live at Maida Vale, December 2000 set over on archive:Live+Rare

Cocteau Twins 'Dials' (4AD, 1991)

Gentle rarity from the 1991 singles box set.

'Dials' was one of the tracks on the bonus disc in the 1991 singles box set (along with 'The High Monkey Monk' post herebefore). It was released as they were about to leave 4AD for Phonogram's major label headaches.

It's an outtake from the 'Heaven Or Las Vegas' sessions and is a beat-less piece of beauty. It bridges the ambient gorgeousness of the 'Victorialand' album to the richness of the later 4AD period, thereby teaching a generation of Shoegazers what singing should sound like.

Beautiful.

Download Cocteau Twins 'Dials' (indie, Dreampop, Shoegaze mp3 download) (Mediafire)

The Lilac Time 'Dreaming (Hypnowah Mix)' (Creation, 1991)

Blissed-out, bleepy instrumental from the glory days of indie dance.

Stephen Duffy had a few near-misses with fame between 'Kiss Me' hitting the charts in 1985 and co-writing a slew of massive-selling songs with Robbie Williams in 2004 and 2005.

The Lilac Time should have been massive. They gave you melody, lush arrangement, genius songwriting - what's not to like. However, as the 80s turned into the 90s, they found themselves out of their major label deal and on Creation Records. Stephen Duffy was creating the bleak but beautiful masterpiece that was the 'Astronauts' album pretty much as a solo artist.

However, with 'Screamadelica' wind in Creation Records' sails, they thought they could turn the track 'Dreaming' into an indie dance hit. With that goal in mind, bleep masters Hypnotone were tasked with the job. The result was a chunky, indie dancefloor shuffler that got, I believe, to number 41 in the charts. Success narrowly averted once again.

Download The Lilac Time 'Dreaming (Hypnowah Mix)' (CRE104X, indie dance mp3 download) (Box)

Polmo Polpo 'Kiss Me Again And Again (TRNWRD Edit)' (Intr.Version, 2005)

Seemingly never-ending alternative disco magic version of the Arthur Russell track.

Polmo Polpo were previously known - to me, anyway - as airy, post-rockers on the Constellation label. This heads-down, locked-groove homage to Arthur Russell is something of a mind-blower. It brings Can's Krautrock disco (mp3) sensibility to the proceedings.

'Kiss Me Again And Again' is akin to the subdued, exploratory disco of Chic's production work - see Shiela B. Devotion's 'Spacer' (mp3) or Loose Joints' 'Is It All Over My Face'. A disco inside your head.

Like all great long records, it shifts subtly, mutating imperceptibly but changing the emphasis. It features locked-in guitars, precise drums, tight bass and percussion with cello and drones moving in and out of focus over the course of the track. It is magical.

I've edited out the closing seven minutes for you here so as not to discourage you from buying the full, unadulterated twenty-one-and-a-half minute version which is still available to buy from Intr.Version or to download from Alien8.

Download Polmo Polpo 'Kiss Me Again And Again (TRNWRD Edit)' (alternative disco mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Catherine Wheel 'Crank' (Fontana, 1993)

Post-Shoegaze single with a more Metal-lic edge.

Catherine Wheel's debut album - 'Ferment' - is a splendid record, a crunchier, more muscular take on the Shoegazer scene, on the Swervedriver axis but with the more ethereal vocal style of Ride or Pale Saints. To be honest, it's probably the Shoegaze scene as viewed from the A&R office at a major label. Still a great album though.

'Ferment' didn't break Catherine Wheel and when they returned with their second album, they did so with a more unrestrained rock guitar sound.

'Crank' was the first single and is a perfect balance between soaring, heavenly melody and the widdly-diddly, high-fretboard guitar wankery that began to dominate from here on. It's a widescreen epic with massed ranks of vocals and sheets of vast guitar. Nice.

Download Catherine Wheel 'Crank' (indie, alternative, shoegaze mp3 download) (Mediafire)

New Order 'The Happy One' (Factory, 1989)

Cheeky instrumental out-take from the 'True Faith' era. Used as a link between tracks on the Substance VHS.

I'm having something of a New Order renaissance at the moment (Renaissance - maybe that'll be the name of their next compilation...)

'The Happy One' was used a link between the videos on the VHS version of 'Substance'. If memory serves, there was a video snippet reminiscent of the 'True Faith' single cover and then it was used over the credits at the end.

It's barely a song, more of a sketch with no vocal and coming in just shy of three minutes. However, it's quite irresistible and Hooky gets all soppy with a chirpy bass melody (hence, 'The Happy One') over one of Stephen and Gillian's 'Making Out' type incidentals.

Top.

Download New Order 'The Happy One' (indie alternative mp3 download) (Box.net)

The Dears '22: The Death of all the Romance' (Bella Union, 2005)

Impossibly melodramatic, cinematic alt pop.

Is it really six years since this came out? I fell hard for The Dears on this album but haven't really gelled with anything they've done since. I stumbled on this track again and can feel myself falling for them all over again.

It's an almost ridiculous confection, driving rhythms, strings, heartbreak, romance, piano solo and a lovely male-female duet.

There's hints of The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen's swooning alternative rock best, Tindersticks' moon-in-the-gutter romance , the more imaginative end of Britpop or one of my favourite under-rated bands Animals That Swim even. However, on this album - 'No Cities Left' - Murray Lightburn was on fire, a singular talent.

It builds and builds to an exotic flamenco-tinged finale, towering piles of strings, criss-crossing vocals, slashing guitar... The End. Perfection.

It also has an incredibly cute and brilliant video.

Download The Dears '22: The Death of all the Romance' (indie, alternative, mp3) (Mediafire)

Listening Post - Kate Bush '50 Words For Snow' (Fish People, 2011)

Kate Bush continues where 'Aerial' left off, drifting even further into abstract, comtemplative territory.

'Aerial' was a gorgeous, deep amber dream of a record, sliding out of reach of trad song structures away into the stripped back, piano-led territory of Talk Talk's 'Spirit Of Eden'.

On first listen, '50 Words For Snow' is as good, moving further away from song structures. Sounding wonderful to me.

Tracklist:
Snowflakes
Lake Tahoe
Misty
Wild Man
Snowed In A Wheeler Street
50 Words For Snow
Among Angels

Listen to Kate Bush '50 Words For Snow' (via NPR.org)

The Sundays 'Here's Where The Story Ends (Black Sessions 1992)' (Parlophone, 1992)

Nice Black Session live version of 'Reading, Writing & Arithmetic' stand-out.

The Sundays' 'Here's Where The Story Ends' is a chocolatey smooth, comforting piece of whimsical indie from their Rough Trade debut album.

Like the previously posted version of 'Joy', this version is from their Black Session for French radio in 1992. It was eventually released as a b-side of 1997 single 'Summertime'.

'Here's Where The Story Ends' is a gorgeous, rolling piece of indie-pop, a hybrid of Cocteau Twins vocal arcs and the solid acoustic guitar-based songwriting of 'The Queen Is Dead'-era Smiths. The live setting gives the song a more muscular edge that makes it sound more like 'Can't Be Sure' b-side 'Don't Tell Your Mother' than the more, ahem, ethereal mood of the debut album.

Lovely is the word.

Download The Sundays 'Here's Where The Story Ends (Black Session 1992)' (indie music mp3) (Mediafire)

Advisory Circle Mixtape (November 2011)

Expansive mix from the man behind The Advisory Circle's haunted electronica. 

Taking in library sounds, classic Techno, Radiophonic experiments and more besides, this is an intriguing mix that takes in Carl Craig (in his 69 guise), Jim O'Rourke, library guy Keith Mansfield, the timeshifted dubstep bleep of Holy Other and a host of other things I've never heard of.

'Everything is Neu' by Hatchback is a particular favourite, a rumbling synthetic hymn to the motorik beat. It builds beautifully to a euphoric splendour.

The mix opens with a track from the latest release in Ghost Box's Study Series. Entitled 'Autumnal Activities', it's Number 7 in the series of desirable 7"s and sees Pye Corner Audio in collaboration with The Advisory Circle. It's a sombre, gentle piece of public information film soundtracking, riven by the sounds of wind and the sound of a haunted oboe.

Available from the Ghost Box shop of course.

The Advisory Circle present 'Autumn Cycles' by Cafekaput on Mixcloud

Codeine 'Realize (Live)' (1992)

Funereal post-rock, nay, Slowcore captured live.

New York's Codeine beat a deathly slow trail across the early stages of post rock and slowcore, setting the bar low, low, low in terms of stretching each note to an infinity of anticipation.

Codeine's music builds on the beauty of Galaxie 500, has kinship with the likes of Low and Slint and created a framework for Red House Painters, Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai to operate in.

This track from their 'Barely Real' mini-album was my first contact with the band way-back-when. It was recorded here at a Sub Pop festival in Vermont and it has a kind of crunchy beauty.

Apparently, they've reformed with the original line-up including Chris Brokaw and will be playing All Tomorrow's Parties' I'll Be Your Mirror festival next year.

Enjoy.

Download Codeine 'Realize (Live)' (slowcore, post rock mp3 download) (Divshare)

Download the whole live set Codeine Live at Sub Pop's Vermonstress Festival, October 1992 (slowcore, post rock mp3 download) over on archive:live+rare mp3s

Stereolab 'University Microfilms International' (Duophonic Tour CD, 2004)

Slippery piece of kitsch indie supermarket music. In a good way.

It feels good to post about one of the most singular bands of the 1990s indie alternative music scene. Stereolab were very definitely singular in the sense that it often seemed like they were a one-trick pony. But, oh my, what a trick it was.

The early coloured vinyl seven inches from the band that formed out of the ashes of the angstily great indie heroes McCarthy were highly collectable mail-order only pieces and they made me very happy. As their career unfurled, they became more laid-back and this a stellar piece of plasticine-boned Broadcast or Plone-like library music. It sounds like the soundtrack for an information film advertising The Kitchen Of The Future from the perspective of a housewife in 1974.

Don't think that's what the lyrics are about though.

Download Stereolab 'University Microfilms International' (indie, postrock mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Red Snapper 'Crusoe Takes A Trip (John McEntire - Tortoise Mix)' (Warp, 1996)

Red Snapper's acoustic jazz-and-double-bass given a moody overhaul.

Tortoise's John McEntire, post rock music's producer-of-choice, adds layers of synth oboe, machine hums and a wickedly squirming sinewave bassline to Red Snapper's tune.

The original main riff is subdued beneath the layers. McEntire takes the track in a decidedly Ghost Box-y, Radiophonic Workshop direction, long before that came into vogue outside of Stereolab and Broadcast's rehearsal rooms.

The synthetic oboe is the main bearer of ooky spookiness, before the track is pared back to it's light-as-air jazzy drums. The Jazz Factor is heightened as a spare but sumptuous semi-acoustic guitar picks out a new melody, like George Benson contemplating Suicide.

The opposite effect to the typical remix of Tortoise, Luke Vibert's remix of 'The Taut and The Tame' for example. The rhythm is downplayed and the soup of jazzy intrigue is dialed-up. Gorgeous late night stuff in a Funki Porcini, Ninja Tunes-in-the-nineties kind of way.

Brown.

Download Red Snapper 'Crusoe Takes A Trip (John McEntire - Tortoise Mix)' (dub, jazz, postrock mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Saint Etienne 'Pale Movie (Lemonentry Mix)' (Heavenly, 1994)

Spectacular dub epic treatment of Saint Etienne's Flamenco indie disco classic.

The Lemonentry Mix of 'Pale Movie' by Rick Smith of Underworld fame is one of my all-time favourite remixes.

It takes the breathless Latin flavours of the original's pop classicism and re-sets them amid a stately, digital dub spectacular that fits perfectly.

The verses are poised, almost ponderous, riding a magic carpet over a fug of bass and rhythm and, most importantly, lots of space. Sarah Cracknell's vocals still sound sweet and build a tension that is released by the chorus' waves of strings and splashes of percussion.

It's a match for any of Andrew Weatherall's work on One Doves' magnificent 'Morning Dove White' album and makes a perfect come down to Flowered Up's epic indie dance masterpiece of 'Weekender' (mp3) or a companion piece to Weatherall's dub symphony version of Primal Scream's 'Higher Than The Sun' (mp3).

Enjoy.

Download Saint Etienne 'Pale Movie (Lemonentry Mix)' (indie dance, dub symphony mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Download the whole 12" worth of beauty over on The Vinyl Villain's excellent blog.

Listening Post - Korallreven 'An Album By Korallreven' (Acephale, 2011)

Gorgeous, florid dreampop explosion.

Korallreven have unleashed a few utterly gorgeous dubbed-up, electronic indie pop singles over the last couple of years. Finally, here is their debut album (out in the US on November 16th).

It's a lovely, light and airy collection that brings to mind some of Saint Etienne's most breezy moments, along with Dubstar and maybe even the Beloved.

Tracklisting:
As Young As Yesterday
Sa Sa Samoa
The Truest Faith
Keep Your Eyes Shut
Loved-Up
Comin Closer
Pago Pago
Honey Mine
A Surf On Endorphins
Comin' Down

Swallow 'Lovesleep (Vocal Version)' (Volume, 1992)

Shimmering, chugging homage to the Cocteau Twins. Gorgeous though.

Whether Swallow had been on 4AD or not, they would have been compared to the indie alternative majesty of Cocteau Twins (mp3). Swirling mists of FX-laden guitars and oozing, angelic female vocals set against a metronomic drum machine. It's a particularly poised and precise strain of Shoegazer music.

Swallow were a male-female duo who released one proper album and a remix collection on 4AD in the early nineties. They had a hint of My Bloody Valentine's sturm und drang guitar abuse and a dash of Curve's arch frostiness (mp3). However, to be fair to them, they did pre-date Seefeel's gauzey shapeshifting guitar slide plus dub vibe (mp3).

Well worth a listen if you've fallen for I Break Horses recently.

Download Swallow 'Lovesleep (Vocal Version)' (indie alternative, shoegaze mp3) (Mediafire)

New Order 'Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)' (Factory, 1986)

Just staggering stuff. New Order at their majestic, silvery finest.

I bought this New Order 7" in the bargain bin in WH Smith way back when. That's hard to believe for a number of reasons, not least because I can hardly believe it could have been 25 years ago.

Mind you, the idea of a piece such monumental poise and indie alternative beauty being available in the bargain bin also smacks of unreality. I guess it was only because the size of their ultra-hardcore fanbase was enough to launch them into the upper reaches of the charts for a week before they fell rapidly the next. Probably because they'd played the song shambolically live on Top Of The Pops.

Anyway, WH Smith's loss of margin was my gain as this seven-inch had 'Shellshock' on one side and an edited instrumental of 'Thieves Like Us' on the other.

'Thieves Like Us' glides, serenely on cushion of stately synths, sequencers burbling away and Hooky's bass picking out a trademark melody. The overall effect is of an uplifting rush, airborne, looking down over the harsh beauty of the city below. Like you're flying over Hackney in a Learjet.

It's called love. And it belongs to us. Indeed.

Download New Order 'Thieves Like Us (Instrumental)' (indie alternative mp3, Factory Records, FAC143) (Mediafire)

Sly & Robbie 'Boops (Here To Go)' (4th&Broadway/Island Records, 1987)

The go-to rhythm section for dub-Reggae unleash their own tech-dub beast.

Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare have some track record, playing on an alleged 200,000 tracks in their four-decade career. They've played for Lee Perry and his Upsetters, Bunny Lee, Jimmy Cliff, Horace Andy, Peter Tosh as well as producing Culture's seminal 'Two Culture's Clash'. And then there's Grace Jones' 'Slave To The Rhythm' and her Jamaican excursions.

Producer by Bill Laswell of Material is no slouch either, being responsible for a strain of modern, gleaming dub. The mash-up of the two entities resulted in 'Boops (Here To Go)' with vocals by Shinehead.

'Boops' is a spectular piece of dub collage, sadly now most renowned for providing sample and inspiration for Robbie Williams' 'Rude Box'. Forget about that, though, and immerse yourself in its collision of influences.

Download Sly & Robbie 'Boops (Here To Go)' (dub, reggae, future pop, alternative mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Teenage Fanclub 'Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd Cover)' (Creation Records, 1991)

Wild and free cover of the Pink Floyd classic from 1991's rare album, 'The King'.

Classic, psychedelic riff-ology from Pink Floyd rendered by Teenage Fanclub in heads-down, metal mode. 'Interstellar Overdrive' was included on 'The King' limited edition release that marked Teenage Fanclub's album debut for Creation Records.

More akin to the My Bloody Valentine of 'Feed Me With Your Kiss' or Swervedriver than The Byrds and Big Star moves they would become famous for on 'Bandwagonesque' and beyond.

Download Teenage Fanclub 'Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd Cover)' (indie alternative mp3 download, Creation Records mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the whole of Teenage Fanclub 'The King' (indie mp3 download, Creation Records mp3 download) over on archive:live+rare mp3s

Laura Marling 'I Was An Eagle' (New Song) (Live, 2011)

New song performed live by indie folk songstress Laura Marling in September 2011.

A brand new song from Laura Marling's current live set.

She sounded great at Green Man festival back in August and this is great recording of the same band in a Washington DC synagogue in September.

Download Laura Marling 'I Was An Eagle' (indie folk mp3 download) (Divshare)

Download the whole live set Laura Marling Live in Washington DC, September 2011 (indie folk mp3 download) over on archive:live+rare mp3s

Miles Davis 'Ife (Live at Philharmonic Hall, New York)' (Columbia, 1972)

27 minutes of taut yet meandering, organic, rhythm-heavy electric jazz genius. Tortoise were listening.

'Ife' is a majestic piece from an incendiary period of music development between 1968 and 1974 that fused jazz to rock as only Miles Davis could.

I've been itching to write about Miles Davis for ages - but one never knows the right time to introduce jazz into the conversation..

The studio version of 'Ife' was recorded in 1972 but not released until 'Big Fun' in 1974. This version is from a 1972 live recording and 'Ife' is very much a journey of a piece. Over twenty-seven minutes of journey in fact, meandering from calm to locomotive, drum-powered groove.

I've never figured out whether the likes of Can on 'Tago Mago' (mp3) took inspiration from Miles Davis or vice versa, but it's clear that they were channeling the same wild spirit when they made their best works. More obviously, post rock jazzacists Tortoise and The Drift clearly basked in this music.

Enjoy.

Download Miles Davis 'Ife' (jazz, alternative, improvisation) (Mediafire)

Happy Mondays 'Wrote For Luck (7" Version)' (Factory, 1988)

Flailing, manic majesty from pre-Madchester Happy Mondays.

'Wrote For Luck' channels the lyrical and rhythm section mania of vintage Can - Can's 'Tago Mago' favourite 'Halleluwah' (mp3) in particular - thereby paving the way for latter-day Krautrock-ing indie like Connan Mockasin's mental 'Forever Dolphin Love'.

As with the rest of the 'Bummed' album, it's the point where the Mondays' vibe was firmly in the organic, Krautrock, groove marathon camp. The moment before Paul Oakenfold's sequencers took over and Madchester began, leaving behind the more organic dance/rock hybrids of New Fast Automatic Daffodils et al.

Beautiful insanity.

Download Happy Mondays 'Wrote For Luck (7" Version)' (indie alternative mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Can 'Halleluwah (Re-Edit)' (Spoon, 1971/1989)

Toughed-up re-edit of the 'Tago Mago' classic.

This version of 'Halleluwah' (originally from 1971's 'Tago Mago' album) was re-edited for 1989 compilation 'Cannibalism'. It dispenses with pre-amble and formality and gets down to the business of grinding out an intense tribal 'krautrock' groove.

To say Can are influential sounds trite now but back in the 1980s music as singular as this wasn't widely available - certainly not in the way that mp3s and downloading make it accessible now. (And, to be honest, I wasn't listening to Can back in 1989.)

Can had a massive influence of indie-alternative music, especially that which sought to move more than educate. Public Image Limited's angsty dub-heavy grooves like 'Poptones' (mp3) owe a massive debt and a quick listen to early, pre-Madchester Happy Mondays tracks like 'Wrote For Luck' (mp3) reveals an extensive lyrical and rhythmic debt.

Can's process of editing hours of savage improvisation down to fit the twenty-minute sides of an LP was at odds with the likes of Kraftwerk (mp3) who built lengthy pieces by refracting and reflecting simple, glacial melodies.

I've also always been fascinated by the parallel development of Miles Davis' fusion period and the work of Can. Can certainly took inspiration from Teo Macero's technique of editing finished pieces from hours of taped improvisation, a method which came to the fore during Miles' fusion period from 'Bitches Brew' to the mid-1970s.

Peerless.

Download Can 'Halleluwah (Re-Edit)' (krautrock, progressive rock, indie alternative mp3 download) (Mediafire)