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Music to my ears  4

I’ve always liked listening to music and have bought far too many CDs for my own good, but for far too long a period it’s mostly been a background thing that I’ve barely noticed. These past couple of months, though, I’ve really started listening again and have made an effort to find some new stuff.

Sometimes I’m a bugger for sticking to the music I know and never really have the time or motivation to expand the list of artists I listen to, but a recent thread on Pocket Monkey, a [weird and wonderful] forum I frequent, has opened my ears to some gems. The basic premise of the thread was for anyone who was interested to post a list of ten or so tracks that they really liked and thought that the other members should listen to. (I posted my own list but so far no-one has commented on it!) It was no surprise, to me at least, that out of the 241 tracks posted (not counting my own) I knew very few — only 16 in fact!

Anyway, as the lists were posted I listened to each track three or four times (and the ones I liked got many more plays) and then posted my thoughts on each list. There were more than a few artists that I really liked so I compiled my own list with a view to spending some cash on getting hold of CDs and/or iTunes downloads. So far, in no particular order, artists whose tracks I gave 5 stars to include:

• Biffy Clyro;
• Rufus Wainwright;
• Thievery Corporation;
• Train;
• John Butler Trio;
• Orbital;
• Queens of the Stone Age;
• Sneaker Pimps;
• Stiltskin;
• Chemical Brothers.

The last five of those were artists I already knew and loved, but I shall be purchasing some of the other six’s music at some point in the near future. There are 74 other artists whose tracks I gave 4 stars to so I shall do some investigations, listen some more, whittle those down to a more manageable number and then probably bung a few of them on my Amazon wish list.

Another source of new (and great) music has been from a good friend of mine: a fantastically groovy young lady named Givvi Flynn. She has just released a superb EP of cover versions (featuring Pink’s “Who Knew?” and “The One That Got Away”, Skunk Anansie’s “Brazen (Weep)” and Jackdaw4’s “This is Your Life”) which is available from her website. I ordered a copy as soon as I heard about it and have to say that it’s bloody brilliant. Knowing me and my musical tastes she also recommended that I look up and listen to some more Jackdaw4, which I was going to do anyway after hearing “This is Your Life” as it is what can only be described as excellent. And for your listening pleasure, may I link you to a video of Miss Flynn singing “Unlucky in Love” by Clam Abuse? Well, I just did …

Following a different tack, after seeing the music video created using an Apple Mac’s desktop I just had to buy the song it’s based on, “Again and Again” by The Bird And The Bee, and am also currently enjoying the rest of their self-titled album. I feel I should warn you all: don’t watch that video more than once otherwise you’ll be humming that song for bloody days!

And one final source for some new music is a couple of films, namely Cashback and Sunshine. Cashback is dangerously close to becoming my favourite film (I shall write a proper review of it soon) and has got some great tracks on its soundtrack, but also features some absolutely stunning classical music written by Guy Farley — I haven’t been able to find it available to buy anywhere (although it’ll hopefully be released once the film itself gets a proper DVD release) but it can be heard via the official site’s audioplayer. Sunshine’s soundtrack also features a stunning score, mostly composed by John Murhpy but also includes the track “To Heal” from Underworld’s “Oblivion With Bells” album. I bought Underworld’s album but unfortunately there’s some sort of legal wrangle which is preventing the actual soundtrack from being released so until that’s ironed out I’ll just have to make do with watching the film itself, which is no bad thing.

And for the curious amongst you, the list of tracks that I posted to the Pocket Monkey thread was as follows:

• “Block Capital” by Arkarna;
• “Glorious Pop Song” by Skunk Anansie;
• “Love Rears Its Ugly Head (Soulpower Hip Hop Remix)” by Living Colour;
• “Midlife Crisis” by Faith No More;
• “Moths” by Jethro Tull;
• “Search & Destroy” by Red Hot Chili Peppers;
• “Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)” by Incubus;
• “The Day I Tried To Live” by Soundgarden;
• “The Sea” by Morcheeba;
• “Thunder Box” by Apollo Smile.

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