Lazarus Graveyard

2009 was a hectic year for me and unusually bereft of musical significance.

Maybe because I was always thinking or stressing about something and I didn’t notice new music as much or because there was nothing good out there!

There were some very cool and important musical developments in 2009 that even my distracted psyche managed to acknowledge – the seeming disappearance of that god awful warbler duffy from the face of the planet being just one of them (hurrah!)

In no particular order; these are the top 10 songs that have been playing in my mind or my ipod throughout the year – not all of them are new – many of them have been around for donkeys years but struck a chord with me for whatever reason..

1. Whirring – The Joy Formidable Fantastic band – proper indy they do everything independently from my understanding – from the recording to the distribution and marketing its all beautifully done but by making the most of the www! Love this track its so simple but really powerful makes you want to jump around and feel alive..
2. Take Refuge – Grails This is probably the track I’ve listened to the most this year. There have been some very dark lonely desperate times when I felt proper up against the wall this year and this track gave me the determination and will power to keep on trucking and overcome obstacles.. Great track which entered my consciousness unbidden while listening to Gideon Coe on BBC 6 music. The song has two parts – the first part is very middle-eastern in feel and then it stops halfway through for an organ break and then builds with some of the best drumming I’ve heard in a while – very emotional love the mix of electric and analogue instruments. Powerful crescendo full of cool drums, great riffs and drone keyboard parts.
3. An Ending (Ascent) – Brian Eno Most people have heard this track on various films/adverts or documentaries but might not know its origin – well its Brian Eno and its from a soundtrack about the Apollo missions. It was the 40^th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings this year and as a bit of a wannabe spaceman this was quite a bog deal for me – also is a lurvely piece of music.
4. Rabbit Heart – Florence and the Machine To be honest with you the bubble has burst for me as far as Florence is concerned – little bit sick of her Im afraid however her vocal harmonies on this track sent shivers down my spine in 2009 and its a darn fine track.
5. Alberto Balsam – Aphex Twin Glorious track and another that pushed its way unbidden into my conscious mind while listening to BBC radio 6. Everything about this piece of music is perfect and I hate that I will never ever make something as awesome as this.
6. Porcelain Heart – Opeth For an old metal head Im ashamed to say Ive really lost touch with what’s going on in the rock world (tbh it all kind of sounds the same to me nowadays!) but this is a track that made an impression on me while listening to Bruce Dickinson’s Rock Show on 6music (again!) reminded me of a lot of old bands I used to dig like Candlemass and fits into the overall mood of my year which appears to be one of abject misery
7. Hocus Pocus – Focus It wasn’t all miserable in 2009 for me there was also a veign of prog rock absurdity running throughout and this old track became an earworm mainly because I watched all episodes of Saxondale one week and its used on the outro – classic track!
8. Four Winds – Jesca Hoop A Jonny come lately heard on Marc Riley’s 6 music show but its amazing – i think you need to hear the recorded version not the live one as its a triumph of les paul style recording genius and unusual structure. You can hear it on her myspace page by clicking here
9. How High The Moon – Les Paul and Mary Ford Speaking of amazing Mr Les Paul this song was reminded to me by all the Les Paul documentaries this year due to his unfortunate death. Its just bloody amazing from a technical/musical/guitar playing/vocal view point its just draw dropping and sounds niiice.
10. Ehye Asher Ehye – Ofra Haza & Shchunat Ha’Tikva Another jonny come lately this ear worm has worked into my subconscious and I find myself humming at at the most in-opportune times! I don’t know if you can buy it anywhere but I had to listen to it all the time and not just on repeat on you tube – I hastily streamed it to my laptop and ran a cable out of the headphone socket to the mixer on my deasktop and made a very bad mp3 recording of it in Sonar which I have uploaded to this site and you can hear by clicking on the streampad at the bottom of the page.

I love music – I love all music. I only have one stipulation: it MUST have MOJO! Read more »

This is something I change my mind about constantly but for today I have been mostly eating;

1. “Canyons of your mind” by the Bonzo Dog Doo Daa band: I got all my soloing techniques from this track
2. “Sleeping village/Warning” by Black Sabbath: listed as 2 songs but basically the same song – if I could play in any style and have any tone it would be Tony Iommi’s stuff on this track..
3. “Stairway to heaven” by Led Zeppelin: A little cliché and I’m not the songs greatest fan but the reason its voted number 1 so often is because the solo is killer!
4. “The shortest straw” by Metallica: Kirk Hammet’s most exciting piece of work IMO.
5. “Wasted Sunsets” by Deep Purple: everything Richie Blackmoore does is magic but I really like this one.
6. “Black Magic Woman” by Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green = Genius!!
7. “The thrill is gone” by BB king: The master.
8. “Voodoo Chile” by Jimi Hendrix: the whole track is mindblowing.
9. “My Generation” by the Who: Ok so it’s a bass solo but it’s still insanely awesome.
10. “Extract from Incantations” by Mike Oldfield: I had this on a b side of ‘Guilty’ when I was like 5 years old – I can’t find the edit anywhere only the full track – all I know is that Mike Oldfield’s guitar solos made a big impression..

There are about a gazillion ways of doing this and there will be many more posts on the subject. But for now Im going to tell you how to do it the absolute easiest way – i.e. plug n play, minimal setup and maximum results. Read more »