Have some music!

[petronia]

Belle and Sebastian - We Are The Sleepyheads: upon first hearing I thought, "So this is the one that's supposed to sound like Orange Juice then?" At the same time it sounds like trippling down a festively decorated shopping throughfare in impractically high-heeled boots, only to realise you are in a musical when all the Sunday morning Christmas shoppers drop their packages and launch into a rousing song and dance with which to end the first act. (Note: not at all what the lyrics are about.)

It's funny how Belle and Sebastian songs always sound exactly like Belle and Sebastian songs even when they are clearly aiming at way different genres.

Hybrid - Higher Than A Skyscraper (Satoshi Tomiie Mix): this track always makes me think of Yukikaze. Not only because I was listening to it at the time, but because this is precisely what "flying reconnaissance missions over a lushly forested alien enemy planet" sounds like in my head. Ominous swells of goa-like strings, chittering xylophones... a symphonic movement of a progressive house track. I just read up the Discogs page and it adds a whole level of appreciation to know that the scratchy bass interlude at 5:20 I always thought sounded a bit like New Order's "Crystal" is, in fact, Peter Hook playing with the Hermitage Orchestra of Saint Petersburg (that being the effect though I doubt they were in the same room XD).

Be aware that the file is 16.3MB large and 11:15 long, and the first 1:15 of that can about be discarded in terms of interest. I was trying to explain to T. the other day why "nothing happens in the first minute" is a completely pointless judgment to make on a dance track especially w/r/t how it actually sounds in a club, but I think to make the point I'd have to mix my mix CDs for reals. ^^;

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Enola Gay (Long Version): was telling Kristin how I didn't actually like a whole lot of 80s pop, which led me to wonder about the bizarre way in which people say "Oh I/you like 'eighties' music," as if 80s pop were entirely monolithic and Bananarama, Blondie, Billy Idol and Bonnie Raitt were not, yanno, totally different kinds of music. It's even more bizarre because in my experience it's usually true. Nostalgia factor at work? I know in my case we're really talking about a fetish for certain drum machine/synth sounds as well as a happy/sad aesthetic probably more specific to 'synthpop' than 'eighties', as typified by "Enola Gay" which is my favorite "played at 80s nights" song ever. It's one of the most uplifting, when-you're-old-you'll-remember-these-as-the-best-days-of-your-life melodies in the history of pop music, paired with one of the most perversely morbid lyrics in the history of pop music. ^^; Hiroshima, mon amour, indeed.

A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song: whereas here the happy/sad thing is carried entirely in the music - or rather the words they're singing are exactly what the music sounds like, which happens less often than one'd think. It's a bit shocking how well this song has aged, actually, but then truly Perfect Pop Moments always have this timeless quality about them.

I saw your eyes,
And you made me smile;
For a little while
I was falling in love.

I saw your eyes,
And you touched my mind.
Although it took a while,
I was falling in love.

I saw your eyes,
And you made me cry;
And for a little while
I was falling in love.

I was falling in love.

Falling in love.

Falling in love.

Falling in love.

Falling in love.
 

Comments

[karabana.livejournal.com]

Downloaded all of these. Thanks for sharing! :D

[two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com]

*leeches* What is it with artists and bird imagery in their names, anyway?

[dipping_sauce]

I wanna hear that Hybrid song...

[rondaview.livejournal.com]

You didn't happen to snatch the Hybrid track off Pandora, did you? That's where I heard it, in any case, I think as an offshoot of Air.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

No, actually I downloaded it some months back from this one anonymous person who had about an mp3 CD worth of obscure prog house / breaks vinyl rips up on the Internets - like I ganked his entire folder. So if you like this sort of thing I have quite a lot more of it? XD;;

I haven't tried this Pandora thing yet, but I will.

[canis-m.livejournal.com]

So A and B and C and D were totally different kinds of music, but no one explained that when I was 5 and now it is TOO LATE. Honest to god, until you said "Come On Eileen" isn't synthpop it had never even occurred to me to think about the instruments; when I listen to it all cognitive activity is obliterated by the feeling of wanting to jump up and down on the bed? I will go sit quietly in the corner now, facing the wall.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said that is the way most people listen to "eighties" in my experience. XD I'm pretty sure that the reason I don't is because I never heard any of this stuff during my actual childhood (Communist folksongs, tango, Teresa Teng and Leonard Cohen - nothing that was on the radio). My happy jump-up-and-down associations with some of these songs are along the lines of "that goth club we used to go to in first year of university", i.e. I just like synthpop, regardless of whether it's made in 1981 or 2001.