Audio Journal by MJA Smith : 29/06/09

I've always resisted buying a USB turntable as a matter of principal. Sure, I fully accepted that having one would make recording vinyl easier, but I have a really high-spec turntable already and I was always concerned that a USB deck wouldn't compare, quality-wise. So it was a surprise even to myself that when a colleague offered me her ION system for £45 I barely hesitated before agreeing to purchase it from her.

I have lots of vinyl, but never listen to records anymore. I hardly even listen to CDs either since MP3 players came along. But would I sell my physical collection if I made a back-up on my iPod? Never. I've wiped my iPod by accident once and am still loading stuff back on over a year later. Nevertheless, in adherence to a decluttering initiative my wife commenced a few years ago I stuck some old records in a spare record bag and agreed to flog them, as painful as it may have felt, on eBay. A couple of years have passed and I've yet to part with a single one. My excuse was that I still liked the songs but wasn't especially bothered about keeping the actual records, so I needed to back them up somehow. It's not especially difficult to do this, but when your turntable lives under your bed and you don't have a lot of time, well, it doesn't take much to make you not bother.

Within fifteen minutes of setting up the ION turntable however I was already onto my first recording – the Third Version EP by sometime Beastie Boy keyboard player Money Mark. The EP includes the emotional soul vocals of 'Sometimes You Gotta Make It Alone' (listen here) and the kazoo-led funk of 'The Grade' (kind of like a Sesame Street tune from the seventies – listen here), both of which I think I heard him perform at All Tomorrow's Parties in 2004. If you like hip-hop beats and organ grooves, Money Mark is your man. This was the first record from the bag of vinyl that I'd intended to sell, but have I tried to sell it on eBay now that it's backed up? Nope. Instead I've contacted a record shop on Berwick Street in Soho in an attempt to get rid of the lot in one go.

I've been on a bit of an Eighties tip over the past couple of weeks. Some would say I've been stuck in the Eighties musically since the Eighties. There are a few reasons for my latest renaissance for the Day-Glo decade. One was buying The Virgins album (see last week – I won't attempt to rehash my praise for that excellent band / album yet again) which has almost legitimised my affections for the music of twenty-five years ago. Another was the song 'Annie I'm Not Your Daddy' by Kid Creole & The Coconuts (such a good song – I will not apologise), played toward the end of the Island Records documentary I wrote about the previous week.

The final reason was the album Fore! by Huey Lewis & The News. I bought this – on LP! How retro? – in the closing-down sale at my local Zavvi and thanks to the USB turntable finally got to listen to it. This band take me right back to school discos, 'dancing' to the song 'Power Of Love' from the Back To The Future soundtrack. It is what it is – a brash, stadium-friendly pop-rock album which now sounds woefully dated. Nevertheless, the tracks 'Jacob's Ladder', 'Stuck With You' (such a soppy tune, but I love it) and the conformity anthem 'Hip To Be Square' are all excellent. Check out just how Eighties this album is with this photo from the sleeve below.

As this is a music blog, I guess I should say something about Michael Jackson. I've never liked his music and considered him hugely overrated, but that wasn't what I was going to say. I will say this: just before Christmas, 1987, when I was just eleven years old and in my final year at primary school, we had a Christmas party in our classroom. Our teacher encouraged us to bring in tapes to provide the music, and the only one I had then was Human Racing by Nik Kershaw; everyone but me thought it was rubbish (it's not and I still love it).

The first girl I ever had a crush on brought in Bad and I remember dancing with her to the songs on that album. Consequently, whenever I hear anything from that album it reminds me of what it's like to think you're in love as a kid. Whilst I will never consider myself a Michael Jackson fan, I'm grateful to him and his music for that one, very specific and beautiful innocent memory from my youth.

Audio Journal : 22/06/2009

In the last week I think I've bought or received more new CDs than during the whole of the rest of 2009. This, I should stress, is not 'new music' as generally I can't keep up that these days. I don't listen to radio, I don't read music magazines and instead rely on my wife, who does both of those things. Anything new I've got into over the past two years has generally been because of her recommendation.

One of the new bands she's been buying songs by is The Virgins, whose debut album has been in heavy rotation on my iPod ever since she bought it last week. The Virgins are a New York four-piece making upbeat Eighties-esque New Wave rock that's undeniably retro by way of influence, but quintessentially modern - and New York - in its sound. Listen for yourself at their MySpace page. If it was possible to wear out songs on an iPod like you could with vinyl records, my copy would be wrecked now after the past week's worth of play. I implore you to check them out.

Another thing filling my earphones over the past seven days was Trees Outside The Academy by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore; I know I'm becoming something of an unashamed SY bore, but Moore's 2007 album confounds expectations and is quite beguiling. Anything anyone in that band produces is always excellent anyway, but this was much softer than expected.

As with SY, I know I have prattled on about David Byrne here far more than is objective, but I bought his Big Love: Hymnal album last week on a rare splurge at Rough Trade East and thought it was quite beautiful too. The album contains instrumental songs crafted for the soundtrack to the US series Big Love which has something to do with Mormons, but all I know is that the songs here are uplifting and 'spiritual' I guess.

I've somehow managed to squeeze in a couple of listens to the album Strange Weirdos, a selection of songs by Loudon Wainwright III used in or inspired by the (surprisingly mature) Judd Apatow comedy Knocked Up. I'm gradually working my way around the Wainwright family, starting with Rufus - still far and away the best singer in the music business today - and now his father. Ordinarily Loudon's folksy songs may not be everyone's cup of tea - I'm still getting used to them myself - but these tracks are highly accessible and quietly moving. The cover of Peter Blegvad's 'Daughter' gets me every time; appropriate given that it was a Father's Day gift.

Finally, I attempted to visit the exhibition of Moby's inchoate drawings at the Neu Gallery last week, but got thoroughly lost in the East End. My soundtrack for the experience was White Light / White Heat by The Velvet Underground. It just seemed to lend itself to the surroundings.

Audio Journal : 15/06/2009

I’m writing this from a hotel room in Canary Wharf, listening to my wife’s iPod on a Bose Wave system (I’ve been nagging on about getting one of these for years, a plea which has, to date, fallen on deaf ears). We’re off to see Kings of Leon at the O2, just a short distance across the water from where I’m sitting, but a complex series of DLR trains and water taxis will likely be employed just to get us there. As much as I’m looking forward to seeing the band this evening, I know already just how good they’re going to be, and so don’t really feel the need to write to write anything about them.

Last night we watched Keep On Running, the BBC Four documentary charting the fiftieth anniversary of Island Records, a label which I’ve never particularly rated or considered as anything other than purveyors of that high-brow, purist rock music that people of a certain age think to be the best sort of music ever made. Watching the documentary didn’t particularly change my mind, though I did think Chris Blackwell came across as a thoroughly nice bloke, and the space and time afforded to the artists clearly created benefited the outputs.

Nevertheless, I’m not a fan of much of the label’s purportedly classic roster, beyond King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King, Roxy Music’s eponymously-titled album, the occasional U2 album, The Orb, Brian Eno… Actually, perhaps I like more of the artists than I previously thought. In that case, Pulp circa ‘Disco 2000’ as well for good measure just for the memories those songs evoke of the tail end of my first year at university.

Then there’s PJ Harvey. I first listened to PJ as a guest vocalist on Nick Cave’s ‘Henry Lee’, then picked up her New York-referencing 2000 album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, principally because of the involvement of Cave’s (red) right hand man, Mick (no relation) Harvey. We don’t listen to a lot of women singers in our house as my wife has always had something of an aversion but that seems to have changed of late. We bought PJ’s other classic album, To Bring You My Love recently and it’s rarely been off the car stereo since.

The other thing we’ve both been listening to of late are the first and third albums of Rough Trade band The Veils which my wife bought from iTunes after the same Rough Trade documentary which inspired me a few weeks back. I know nothing about them beyond a cursory glance at a Wikipedia entry, and the first album doesn’t do anything for me. However, the third, Sun Gangs, is a much more complete affair, vocalist Finn Andrews’ voice landing somewhere between Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley. Key tracks to check out are the opener, ’Sit Down By The Fire’, ’It Hits Deeper’ and my personal favourite ’The Letter’.

Audio Journal : 08/06/2009

For a very brief period as an eighteen year old I'd go to the Wildmoor nightclub in Stratford-upon-Avon on Friday evenings (the inevitable Facebook group is here). While getting dressed to go out I'd invariably listen to Screamadelica by Primal Scream; more specifically I'd listen to the the first three songs - 'Moving On Up', 'Slip Inside This House' and 'Don't Fight It, Feel It'. The three tracks seemed to put me in the right frame of mind for a night out.

The Friday ritual is one I've found myself resurrecting of late - I find that listening to upbeat, positive music on the way up from the train to the car has a relaxing effect after the stresses of the week. So I found myself, fifteen years after the excursions to the Wildmoor, once again listening to those three tracks from Screamadelica and not just feeling rejuvenated but somewhat reminiscent of days gone by. Listen for yourself here.

Music can prompt that highly emotional response of course. Certain songs become attached to certain events or frames of mind. On a walk from Euston to Bond Street to meet a client on the same Friday, I found myself listening to Darren Price. Frenetic techno at 07.30 isn't at all relaxing of course, but it did make me walk a bit faster. Price's music always reminds me of the phase at the end of university when I was frantically whoring myself around accounting firms to find gainful employment, to no avail.

The music of Sonic Youth delivers similar memories, though somewhat more pleasant. I bought the 1998 album A Thousand Leaves on the day I attended a second-round interview in Yorkshire for the firm I still work for. New York's finest fourpiece (now augmented by Mark Ibold) have just released their new album The Eternal, and after five listens today has become a firm favourite. Key tracks are 'Anti-Orgasm' and 'What We Know'. You can listen to the album here until 15 June.

Interpol are another New York band and are inseperable to me from the brief moments of negativity I've experienced in the last few years. For some reason I've always listened to their music when thoughts have been bleak, and they've been on my car stereo for the past week (perhaps not a good thing to be listening to whilst driving). Happily, while the band are now back in the studio recording their fourth, no doubt doom-laden, album, singer Paul Banks has done an Albert Hammond, Jr and launched a side project under the name Julian Plenti (get a free MP3 here). Judging by the sound of 'Fun That We Have' it's not all misery round Interpol's house.

Audio Journal : 01/06/2009

Listening selections this week have been driven by a box that I hauled down from our loft, containing a bunch of CDs I haven't listened to in some cases for over a decade. The box represents a microcosm of my total music collection, containing electronica, industrial, pop and leftfield rock.

Consequently my ears have found themselves being subjected to all sorts of eclectic combinations this past week. I started the week listening to old singles from Moby (see the David Lynch-directed video for new track, the typically different 'Shot In The Back Of The Head' here), which means I've filled my brain with house, techno, gospel-sampling breakbeat stuff, jungle and thrash metal - all styles Moby has employed over the years.

I then found a batch of Warp Records releases from the likes of The Sabres Of Paradise. I haven't listened to the genre of music that was, briefly, referred to as 'trip hop' for a while so listening to the Sabres' Versus, with mixes by J Saul Kane and Chemical Brothers was quite refreshing. Head Sabre Andy Weatherall's Two Lone Swordsmen project appears to still be up and running and some tracks can be listened to here. Listening to the two Kane remixes reminded me of when my good friend Neil and I went to see him DJ at Colchester Arts Centre, only to leave bemusedly after about an hour.

I also took a listen to the classic Surfing On Sinewaves by Polygon Window (AKA Richard D James AKA Aphex Twin - listen to classic tracks here), which as crunchy hybrid techno goes is rarely surpassed.

Finally, after some hesitation I listened to the album Messy Century by Mountaineers (read my original review here) and decided that, after going off it for a while, it's actually a really, really good album.