desert island discs – james
unlike adrian, i don’t own physical copies of most of these songs, or a working tape recorder, so i’ve gone all modern and made a spotify playlist. mine are in a kind of peak and trough order, opening hardcore, a moments relaxation, then back rocking again and so on: desert island discs
1. new noise – refused
refused were like a weird blip in the landscape of hardcore music for me. i used to regularly buy music magazines which came with free cd’s and one day this was on one of them, from metal hammer i think (who incidentally reviewed a demo of my band, giving us a respectable 6/10, not bad considering being 14). the album ‘shape of punk to come’ is considered quite a classic. there’s bits of jazz, ambient, sampling, stuff quite unheard of in the genre they were associated. ‘new noise’ has that element of revolution about it that i’m a big sucker for too, it was new noise.
2. o-o-h child – the five stairsteps
another thing i’m a sucker for is buttery smooth vocals. this song, roy ayers -’everybody loves the sunshine’, maybe tribe called quest and faith evans ‘stressed out’ – those kinds of souful female voices i like a lot. this one just reminds me a lot of when i used to spend summer evenings skating, i think it may be on a skate video and that’s why i associate it with that too. though lyrically it’s addressing a low point, i like it’s uplifting mood.
3. muzzle – smashing pumpkins
smashing pumpkins were probably the first band i ever really loved (up until ‘ava adore’ then i lost interest). they were the reason i started playing bass and ‘tonight, tonight’ was one of the first songs i learned to play along with other people. i remember performing a vocal-less version of it in my front room on new years eve to a group of irritated looking adults. i’ve put ‘muzzle’ on as there’s a bootleg version of it live from australia somewhere that i used to own which had such a good rendition of this song on it. i liked it so much more than the album version, which had seemingly passed me by. after i sold the bootleg and was unable to listen to that version again i had to force myself to appreciate the album song, which i like, but it’s that live one i loved really.
4. midnight in the perfect world – dj shadow
if you’re listening to the playlist you’ll realise that i’ve snuck ‘why hip hop sucks in ’96′ on too. i just prefer ‘midnight…’ with that intro than without. ‘midnight in the perfect world’ could be one of dj shadow’s most obvious songs if you were going to put it on a mix but i don’t care, it’s a great song. shadow provided enough soundtracks to about 8 years of my youth, i could’ve picked any really. i don’t think he’s quite as good now but this album got sneaked into school lessons on illegal walkman’s, through gcse tests, chewed in the tape player of my first car (first album that got played when i passed my driving test actually), beginning and ending beach parties, all that kind of stuff, good stuff.
5. foreign film – will haven
i like walls of sound. will haven do this very well indeed. you can do a lot of stuff to this song and album – bang out a gym session, run, punchbags, all aggro type stuff, but then at the same time you can strangely relax to it, or i can at least. i think it’s the immersive nature of the sound, like being underwater and blocking out all other noise. i’ve fallen asleep to this. but i’ve also used it to wake myself up, physically and metaphorically!?
6. daylight – aesop rock
as far as the line between poet and lyricist goes, aesop rock is equal parts both. he’s a large bearded white guy and originating out of the alternative def jux school of rap, he’s probably not what you think he’d look like. his lyrics are what draws me to him. abstract, long, much unfathomable, but so original. i wish i could string regular sentences together even a tenth as good as aesop, never mind musical ones. he throws in references and word-plays better than anyone i’ve ever heard.
7. three days – jane’s addiction
‘three days’ has one of the finest bass lines, i could never quite play it perfect. jane’s had four of the most talented musicians: my favourite drummer and bassist combo in any band, dave navarro who’s an excellent guitarist and then one of the most original frontmen ever in perry farrell. this desert island i imagine is going to feature some prime lying-on-your-back-looking-at-clouds spots and this is a perfect song for just that. it’s floaty and trancey with the kind of swirling, reverberating vocals that drift you off in big crescendos and wave-like motions. see, perfect for a sea-lapped desert island.
8. the book of love – peter gabriel
well if you were at mine and jen’s wedding you might have noticed this song played as we walked out of the registry office. there is almost too many reasons to choose this. 1: we played it at our wedding, that’s a biggy. 2: the reason we played it was because we both love the magnetic fields version (which is on the spotify list as the peter gabriel version isn’t on there) and had listened to that endlessly when we first got together (for the 2nd, most successful time). 3: this song has been famously used to mark the leaving of jd from my favourite tv show, scrubs, in series 8 amidst an emotional home video of all his best times (check the youtube link – sneaked that in too) – not many tv shows make me want to cry but this one almost got me. oh yeah, it was quite emotional at my wedding too, but not as much as jd going.
my luxury item: i’d take a really powerful microscope. there’s always loads of bugs to look at on hot islands.
book: well i haven’t read enough books to really have a favourite, so i debated over picking some epic classic like ‘ulysses’ or ‘war and peace’, neither of which i’ve read (tried ‘ulysses’ – doesn’t everyone?). but in the end i figured i’d pick a book based on entertainment and the fact that i’ve never managed to complete this book no matter how many times i’ve tried. so if i’m going to have loads of time on my hands i may as well have ‘where’s wally?’ to entertain me. it’s the bobble hats off that little dog i can never find. if i could push it for the whole set that’d be good, then i’d be guaranteed never to run out of stuff to look for.
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