Her Dark Materials: Leather

Now that I'm done writing annoying Instagram posts* full of cheap philosphy and childish observations to hide the fact that they're just mediocre photographs I can get back to what really matters, writing annoying blog posts full of cheap analysis and childish observations. 

I've recently started a new playlist set and decided to do a little recap once I'm done with them. The folder is called MATERIALS and each list will have its own fabric assigned (a little wordplay with a massive techno club in Madrid - Fabrik). Each material will represent a certain type of electronic music. Kind of like word association but with clothes and beats. If you don't agree with what the material sounds like, tough, that's literally what it sounds like and I won't consider changing my mind. 

So, here is the first one. Leather. 

This goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway: No shuffling or skipping, there's a reason why they're lined up in the way they are.

 

Leather is a hot fabric, in every sense. You're going to be sweating your arse off the second you move in it and that is what this music feels like to me. Leather can also be quite stinky. This in my head translates into music that sounds a little dirty. 

Therefore, with this in mind I decided to kick it off slow and what I wanted listeners to feel was: Where are we going? Just so I can grab them by the ear and run towards the fantastic subgenre that mixes reggaeton music and repetitive harsh electronic beat. This is the new spawn of techno**. The ultimate club genre.

The CHIBI remix is the start of that little tramline. Esty can make the sweetest sounds that remind me a little to Billie Eilish only with more sass. She is the real latin urban ROSALÍA (I love her but she's from Barcelona, I don't care how much time she spends in Miami). Esty has that same softness to her voice but can kick you in the gut with a plotwist mid song that will floor you. I particularly like i 4got ur birthday. For the remix what they did was double that sass expresso. 

I tried to build on that same mood and reached a peak with Traaa by CRRDR. I listened to most of the stuff by the artist and it really is the heart of this subgenre. I decided to give it my all and turn up the heat with this slayer. It's fast, sexy and if you have the skill, twerkeable. I'm gonna ask for it the next time I go out and if I don't get my way I'll boicot the DJs night. 

Moving on from reggaeton but still keeping it a little nasty I added y u look so hawt by Bad Boombox and MC Young Lil. Self explanatory. Hawwwt. But I'll explain. It's quick, it's fun and the lyrics are always trying to seduce you with large pupils that gawk at you over a pair of grey 2002 plastic sunglasses. There is a call for sleeveless black t-shirts, long white socks and visible G-strings. Similar artists are MCR-T and Brutalismus 3000. 

One of my favourite tracks of the list is actually a little breather. Love's No Crime by Tino Troster is frankly excellent. Perfect for toning it down but still upbeat enough to make you stomp on that beat while the vocals tickle your neck. It could seem quite linear but it really is a joy to get through. 

After a few excellent tracks that serve also as a transition to a harsher electronic sound we arrive to a well known name in this subgenre of nasty techno. Partiboi69 as a must for this list and HOE has the perfet energy that fits in another little climb in speed and volume. The DJ is probably one of the first that I got to know that sounded dirty. It is less seductive than prior tracks but has a  badder energy. I feel in general, lyrics go very well with this kind of vibe and not many songs without them would fit the list. The vocals on this are the prefect contrast between a deep voice and a statement normally reserved for women. That beautiful duality you find in this nasty genre. Where genders mix and sexuality oozes in the music but it's all surrounded by a harsh beat that doesn't offer a single lull. 

The peak in volume and speed comes after that with Give Me Base by Noimage. I wasn't ready for these bpms and suddenly my little electronic session turned into a criminal aerobics class. But that's what it is. Nevertheless, for some reason it still feels dirty in the fun sense of the word. It's totally "leathery" and skintight. It's a good 5 minutes of skintight heat. But easy, you can calm down after this and breathe. 

Post almost throwing up a lung comes a few acid sounds here and there (still respecting the mood though). I love that sound beyond what I am capable of explaining. I cannot distinguish good from bad when it comes to those acid loops. Is it good or is it just really addictive? I am not going to lie I really needed to feel comfort after Noimage so I went to familiar sounds and slower bpms. The worst is behind us, sadly. 

I finish off with DJ in Berlin by 3LNA and P.vanillaboy which is still sexy but at the same time adorable in some form. It's what you want from goodbyes, to leave you with a good taste in your mouth and the affirmation that you had a good time. It's also meant to leave you wondering how the hell you clean sweaty leather. 

More materials up shortly. 

*I said I was done writing them, not posting them. Sorry. There's like six more to go.

**Techno is like the Greek god Zeus. Gazillion babies everywhere. 

Curtis

I was walking in the street last night and Atmosphere came on. For the first time in my life, I sincerely thought, another little push and I'd do it too.

How many pushes did it take Curtis?

Songs From Under the Metaphorical Spotify Stairs: Cheryl Lynn, Glenn Campbell, Manic Street Preachers, Frank Sinatra and Doves

Now that Cillian Murphy is all the rage again I wanted to take the opportunity to remind everyone that not only is he a talented performer, with eyes of clearest blue and zero tolerance for the Royal Family, he also happens to have an exquisite taste in music. 

A few years back, BBC Radio 4 gave him his own show where all he had to do was play music he liked and talk about it*. I would do unspeakable, terrible atrocities for that same chance. (my post is definitely getting banned again by Blogger because of that sentence). *spends 12 minutes going over everything that could've possibly pissed the platform off in the last post*

Anyway. 

My point is, he has this section called Songs From Under the Stairs where he finds old gems that he kept in boxes under the stairs and he vaguely explains why they were important to him in the past. I'm stealing the idea and doing Songs From Under the...errr...Metaphorical Spotify Stairs. 

I thought I might put my Spotify saved songs selection on *gags* sHuFfLe, mainly to direct the choices and then if I'm inspired by what comes up I'll select my song. 

1. Got to Be Real - Cheryl Lynn

Remember the 2004 animation movie Shark Tale with Will Smith and Jack Black? I love that movie. I was nine when it came out and even back then I remember thinking certain parts of the soundtrack were fire. The song plays in that moment when Oscar gets access to the penthouse in the posh part of fish town and as the kids say these days, it slaps. I also remember discovering Get it Together by India.Arie and being obsessed with it. There was also a terribly catchy Justin Timberlake number that was made just for that movie (remember when Justin Timberlake and Timbaland were like siamese twins?). 

Looking back I was probably a little too young to be judging movie soundtracks but I distinctly remember dancing on the sofa to Got to Be Real and thinking "I'm gonna get my dad to put this on the iPod classic". 

I want to record this song as my first contact with disco music that was sought out by me and not because my dad wanted everyone up on a Sunday at 10am and decided to play Earth Wind and Fire full blast. 

2. Wichita Lineman - Glenn Campbell

 

I discovered this in 2009. So I was...*heatedly tries to do the very simple substraction in her head* fourteen (?). *Uses phone calculator just to make sure* Yes, fourteen.  If your whole teenage persona is constructed around listening to cool indie bands of the time and 70s angry punk, you don't really want to be caught listening to soft country music from 1968. But I was instantly captivated by this song. It sent me into some sort of weird nirvana state that I can't really explain. I don't even connect with the lyrics or anything, I mean, I had to google just now what a lineman actually does (it's someone who repairs the telephone lines in the middle of nowhere by the way). I'm ashamed to say, that at the time I hid away this information about my music tastes but I'm happy to have grown out of my pigheadedness and teenage phase. 

3. A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers

I grew up in a very small place in the middle of nowhere. All I had for entertainment was reading, films, music and going for contemplative walks with the dog. As a result, I've developed a few compulsive hobbies and an inner monologue that won't shut the fuck up. Because I got bored so often I made up little games such as trying to recognise any artist on the family iPod within the first 10 seconds of a song playing. Doing this on shuffle was a little bit too hard for twelve-year-old me so I would go in alphabetical order according to song title. 

We had around 10,000 songs on the iPod at the time I recall so I would never make it past the C. What this meant was that I always did As and Bs. I did this at least once a week for years. 

As soon as A Design for Life comes on the radio, in a bar or in the goddamn supermarket I have to say out loud within the first 10 seconds "A Design for Life, Manic Street Preachers, NEXT". It's a part of me now. It also happens with Abel by The National, A Bomb in Wardour Street by The Jam, Absolute Beginners by David Bowie, Accidents Will Happen by Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Acrobat by U2 and many more that forever live inside my brain in a tiny box labeled "the result of teenage boredom. This way up". 

4. The Nearness of You - Frank Sinatra

On one of the rare occasions that my Granny came to visit us in the middle of nowhere, back when I was a small child still, she brought me a gift. She thought I would enjoy a double album of The Essence of Frank Sinatra. If I think about it now it's very comical but it's also as endearing as anything can get. I can just picture her looking at the album and thinking "You know who would love this? Our wee eleven-year-old Caoimhe over in Spain". And to be fair, I did. Immediately. Frank Sinatra's voice is just so warm and steady that's impossible not to enjoy. I have to thank my Granny from the bottom of my heart for the album because she opened a world of music to me. And not just Sinatra, through her I have found a love for Irish folk, US country, blues, rock and roll and swing. 

5. Meet Me At the Pier - Doves

Doves is music that I never fully enjoyed when my dad played it at home. On some level, I think I found it cold and devoid of feeling. As I've grown older though, I wonder if I've grown colder or if my mind just perceives much different levels of emotion. Because in the past few years, everytime I've had an internal crisis, Doves has been there to pick me back up. To remind me that there is beauty in feeling grey and that there is nothing wrong with being a little cold from time to time. Meet Me At the Pier is an instrumental that feels like watching a lonely tear falling down a cheek in slow motion for 3 minutes. And the beauty of it is that it's always been there, playing in the background in my parent's house and I would go upstairs with my discman and listen to something else to drown this "boring stuff" out. As usual, my dad was on to something here, I just clocked on a bit late with this one.  

*I'd like to reinforce the concept that what he does on the show is just talking. I mean at one point he says something along the lines of "Well this album was released in... I think... 2005" and I'm just sat there listening to that thinking, bro, Google it. What do you mean you think it's 2005? Just Google it. Was it 2005 or not? Although, being who he is I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't know what Google was in the first place. 

Boston has good music taste... most of the time

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Decent recent finds: Am I in a good mood or did I stumble across El Dorado?

Remember that Simpsons episode where Homer scalds his mouth and his tastebuds become hypersensitive so everything is excruciatingly tasty for him? I think I burnt my eardrums.

There are certain moments in life when everything just feels new to me. And it brings with it a fair amount of surprise and an ounce of relief. Not unlike a much-needed fresh breath of air or waking up from a hyperrealist nightmare. As of now, for reasons I cannot explain, I can almost hear colours and reach out and grab atmosphere in between my fingers. 

This can happen after going through a harrowing experience (first-world harrowing experience, not applicable to actual harrowing experiences) or after having swam in intense joy for a continuous period. So when I go through a five-day depressive episode and then twitter off to the middle of a mountain for four days and listen to top-tier live music, my brain has trouble readjusting. The lower you go, the higher the rebound will be. *lies face-up on the rings of Saturn spinning like a record*.

In just two days I seem to have fallen in love on Spotify close to fifteen times and the euphoria isn't fading away, which makes me wonder if I have actually struck gold and should make an El Dorado playlist. 

So help a temporarily judgeless couple of ears. 

1. Broadcast - Barney Bones

I don't even remember what I was doing. I don't even remember where I found it. It came to me and stayed, sort of like when a stray cat appears on your doorstep. Congratulations, you are now owned by a cat. I am owned by Barney Bones' Broadcast every day of the month now. Returning to the concept of the rings of Saturn, if I could hear what a perfect circle sounds like, it would be this song. There are so many elements and they're undulating in and out like they've been doing that for all of eternity. 

The song is part of his new EP ESCAPISM which I listened to back to back in full delirious starvation mode trying to find more songs like this on it. It's a decent EP and he has a couple of catchy collaborations with Channel Tres and Duckwrth which are also worth a couple of listens. Please do listen to his remixed version of DRAMA's Tighten It Up. A little early 2000s disco vibe that is what anybody could ask for. 

2. 100 Degrees - Quinn Oulton, Reuben James, Linden Jay

UK angel-voiced Reuben James has basically decided not to give me a moment's peace. He recently released the album Champagne Kisses with CARRTOONS which already earned him a podium spot in my July with the precious Time Will Tell. But he's not satisfied and has to go and release this... I don't even have words for what this is. It could just be the piano and I would've been hooked, but the voices and those sweet ways of altering them exactly how I like it. It really is just me asking these three guys if I can get my heroin shaken not stirred.

The piano sounds like something out of the last century and lets itself be carried by the lo-fi beats that are so present in our day and age and by God do those two decades work a treat together.

3. wake up - _tillus

You have no idea how strongly I feel about this song. I don't even understand why. For some reason, the track seems to connect past and future bringing out moments from my life and joins them like an infinite pointed star. And at the same time the beat grounds me to the earth beneath my feet and brings me down to this precise instant. It's trance-like and under no circumstance want to be woken up from it. I need it banging from my tonsils and reverberating down to my sternum and into every single nerve under my skin forever. For two days now it has been itching behind my ear and won't stop. But then again, I might be delusional so who knows? 

I knew _tillus, from a couple of collaborations with DJ upper class but they weren't anything like this. Some of them were even slow lo-fi, full of the white noise some people use to fall asleep. As a result of finding wake up I decided, again in full ravenous mentally unstable creature mode, to explore everything he has ever put out. I found Augustiner Hell (the Trance Edit) with herr ulrich which also sent me spiraling into another galaxy. It's harder stuff, not for the faint of heart. And I found another one of my romantic interests in this euphoric state of mind: Dabei, _tillus in collaboration with German rappers Joeii and Kuba. I am aware that this one is not as good but German soft rap is my weakness, so for me it is. 

4. Be Thankful For What You've Got - Orgone

The best soul songs manage to take your heart in the most gentle embrace. That's exactly what Be Thankful For What You Got does. And if you're not sure, just wait until minute 5:00 and listen to that trumpet sing to us, like trying to play beside a sleeping baby's crib. It's a song for summer and it's a song for resting the spirit for a little while. I am 100% certain that I'm not delusional about this one. 

It's an excellent cover version of the original 1974 track by William DeVaughn. I first knew the song through the outrageously fun remix by David Todd which embues it with a completely different meaning simply through his rework of the beat. 

This version clearly wants to transmit the same message as DeVaughn and croons to us that you should be thankful even if you're not a gangsta. I want to go beyond and say that some of the Cadillacs are fools' gold anyway. 

The Angelino band Orgone, is obviously influenced by 60s and 70s funk and soul and have also done covers of famous tracks Do Your Think (Isaac Hayes, 1971) and I Get Lifted (KC and the Sunshine Band, 1975). 

Soul music was born to be covered. 

5. Hammer - Alice Phoebe Lou

How am I meant not to fall in love when this girlie popped out a no-skip album (Shelter) that might leave me in a beauty-induced coma and send me into the middle of next week?

This song in particular has a lot of those folky touches that she's been using in her music lately and they form a very specific image in my head. 

The image is a canvas of a bar beside an empty dark road in the heart of the night. On the other side I can see a wheat field and a massive full moon is painting it silver. In a corner of the painting, there are two lonely coyotes nesting and one's head is on top of the hind legs of the other.  The coyote is almost smiling in its sleep and its lip is curled under one of its fangs. I can see muddy paws and white fur in the underbelly. Alice Phoebe Lou's voice is the breeze on the blades of faint grass.

I can also see inside the bar and it's made of dark wood. It has wooden panels, and wooden chairs and wooden tables. It has a flickering red neon sign on one of the windows that calls out to beer lovers like a siren's song. Behind the bar there is nobody serving drinks and the lights seem to fade out, except for one yellow spotlight falling on a man. He is in his early 60s and has white hair that escapes the sides of a baseball cap. He has a bushy mustache but a two-day-old gray beard, all under a round nose that lets out soft snores and two pairs of eyelids too tired to open. He has one of those stomachs that you only get if you visit a bar every day for a few hours and reddish skin with tiny broken  purple veins that proves the point. He is sitting on one of the stools beside the bar and Alice Phoebe Lou's voice is the bubbles floating up to the brim of his beer glass. 

If the song were to go on for another three minutes I imagine I would be able to see what happens in the parking lot behind the bar. It's a powerful thing that music can evoke such detail. 

I think she's gold. 

The Style Council's groove and Paul Weller's general genius

I feel like I can find a general consensus when I say: The Style Council is terribly underrated. 

Paul Weller is one of those artists that needs to reinvent himself to become himself and in every stage he is god-like. Classic Gemini if I might say, only he's the better version of us all. 

In his early years we can see the natural evolution of music from the influences of some of our founding fathers The Beatles, The Small Faces and The Who. It's not a coincidence that the press renamed Paul Weller The Modfather*. 

Weller founded The Jam in 1976 in stride with punk bands of the time and gained popularity fast. They were different to the rest of punk bands though. Yeah, they made outstanding political protest songs and denounced the state of British society, racism, working class struggles and the cheek of the elites but they dressed in the 60s mod fashion with sharp suits and big hair. 

Here's a song about a man getting beaten up by some skinheads while he was waiting for the train. It's fast and loud but it has that insane almost quiet build-up to the chorus with the guitar that seems to be warning us that there is danger 'round the corner. I particularly love the writing in this as it is so full of detail. He talks of images, smells, sensations and fears in a way that brings the horrid experience to life and therefore sheds a blinding light on the problem."They smelt of pubs and Wormood Scrubs. And too many right-wing meetings":

 

That's one of the greatest things about Weller. He's always been very concious of the world he lives in and has taken an active part in making it better. He performed in Band Aid, organised fundraisers for the miners' strike, he was a key memebr of the Red Wedge** in the 1980s and has still very much maintained his morals. 

Keep in mind that already The Jam is enough to earn him a place in rock music heaven but he wanted to explore new genres and change it up so he decided to form The Style Council in 1983.  As such, the group has songs that sound very different from his previous work but even very different amongst themselves. They explored pop, soul, jazz and different R&B elements. This is my absolute favourite:

 

All of it. The horn charts, the bass, the fast happy drums, and the fun guitars. It all fits together perfectly to give us an unforgettable intro and one of those tunes that regardless of your mood, it will cheer you up. Also returning to the very important point of him being a Gemini, my ever changing moods just resonates with me in a way that makes me wonder if he's looked into my light and fickle soul. God it's good.

I want to add another just for funsies. 

 

Not a funny song though. If blistering heat in the summer had a sound it would be this song. And if heartache and defeat had a voice it would be Weller's.

But if you really want to get a little warm in the heart and teary in the eyes, Paul Weller on his own can do it. He started his solo career in 1990 after failing to release The Style Council's fifth studio album. 

For me the ballads are what stand out. If I had to top 5 my favourite songs to listen to when I'm in a broody mood, You Do Something To Me (1995) and Wild Wood (1993) would definitely be candidates for the list. Also Fly On The Wall (1992) is precious.

 

Honestly, this song has some of the most beautiful lyrics that have ever been written and it is a love song for the ages. It feels like getting pulled under by warm currents of water.

Just in case it hasn't sunk in yet, I really must reiterate that his voice just captivates me and I'm like a moth to a flame. He manages to perfectly mix the stronger and rougher parts of a rock ballad with moments of tenderness that the lyrics ask of him.  

Moving along, he also has more rock stuff in his solo years and I particularly like The Changingman (1995) and the excellent cover version from the same year of Mac Rebennack's Walk on Guilded Splinters (1967) (which appears in The Wire at one point and I almost had a fit). These two songs are both part of the great album Stanley Road. 

Maybe it's because I've been listening to his voice since I have memory (my dad is a massive fan of The Jam, my mum loves The Style Council and they both love his solo stuff), but I feel like Paul Weller has a special warmth to him that just adds to his ridiculous talent and charisma. 

At age 65 he's still as handsome as ever and going strong, having released an album last year (Will Of The People). I bow down to The Modfther, long may he continue being a music genius. 

*It's a little play on words regarding Mod culture. It was a late 50s and early 60s subculture movement in the UK. Sharp suits, big hair, corker miniskirts and bangs,  Lambrettas motorbikes, The Animals, The Kinks, The Zombies, a bit of jazz and a bit of motown. Watch Quadrophenia if you're curious. 

**The Red Wedge was a leftie group formed by musicians and actors in the 1980s to try to promote social policies and protest against injustice (very focused on the fight against racism). They backed the Labour Party of the time. Bands and artists involved were The Style Council, Billy Bragg and The Communards among others.  

Theophilus London's new album will be the death of me

Theophilus London is back. 

He just released his new album without bringing out singles as a warning, so naturally it hit me like an Eddie Stobart in the chest.

Like a more accesible Dean Blunt, Theophilus London is always on the edge of mainstream and never stops innovating with sound. Never forget he was the producer of Kanye West's Donda2 and he's collaborated with the indie likes of Tame Impala and Ariel Pink. His 2020 album Bebey is a no-skip LP and I am yet to find a better feelgood song than Cuba. The album also included a second collaboration with Kevin Parker which was an excellent cover version of classic disco boogie track Only You, originally released in 1984 by Nigerian artist Steve Monite.

The new album is called TL with proper G vibes and it is tragically a very short 39 minute work. Here is the preview.

It opens with Send It Down and a recognisable reverbed piano that we've heard before in Currents (2015) and once again in Bebey (2020). It also includes a series of autotuned harmonies sung by himself making it seem like there is a choir of Theophilus Londons in the background. 

He ramps up the soul and the autotune in Not Yourself, following in the steps of Lil Yachty and his Let's Start Here. (2023). Both artists seem to drink from each other as their sounds swirl and mix. They have a couple of collaborations together that are as the young kids say, absolute fire. The second tune of London's album is a beautiful sunny thing. 

Remember two paragraphs ago when I said I hadn't found something as feelgood as Cuba? Well the third track of the album is a strong contender. Awaken should be called Try Not To Dance And Fail. It is so groovy, it gets under your bones and forces you to sway to the bassline. It has a little Jungle to it, especially when the female backing vocals come into play. Insanely sexy. 

Hi Baby brings the weirdness and the funk but keeps the sexy going. It is composed of a series of dirty sounds that carry around a bit of a James Brown attitude but transported to this day and age. We have the choir of Theophilus London back for this one and they are not asking us to join them on the dancefloor anymore, they've grabbed us by the arm and are pulling us there. 

WUSA has a more relaxed energy and shows us the rapper side of the artist. We are enveloped by a happy piano that for some reason reminds me of the Hotline Bling instrumental. It was all going well until 8 minutes had passed and he was still going. I had to go back to Spotify to check if it had switched songs without me noticing but no. It is a 14 minute giant. I mean, it's good, I like it, but maybe not 14 minutes of it, especially since it is there are no ups and downs, it's quite linear. 

It switches to a darker vibe all of a sudden, rapping in the wee hours of the night would be my description of it. Chakra has a very indigo blue atmosphere to it. One of my favourites if I'm honest and definitely one of those driving at night tracks to rap along to in a car. 

Top 1 track of the album without a doubt is Heat Rock. The instrumental is captivating and so rich and warm that it's impossible not to enjoy. He spices it all up with his verses and brings the sexy back into the album big time. Theophilus London choir is also back but this time they do pseudo-reggae backing vocals that are just a joy to sing along to. It's one of those songs that I know will make the yearly list without even having finished it. Looping the crap out of this one for sure. 

And here comes the important bit. The closer. It's all anybody is going to remember when they finish the album on their first listen. To The Stars takes a little while to kick off and once again he plays around with his voice. We have a distorted deep Theophilus, OG Theophilus, the choir of Theophilus, high-pitched Theophilus and just another sexy groovy bassline. It's the cocktail bar version of a BROCKHAMPTON song. So, therefore, the coolest ending an album can ask for. 

One of the best albums of 2023 so far. It will be the death of me.