Overlooked In The Rush

Just finished reading Electric Eden by Rob Young – ‘unearthing Britain's visionary music’. As a social document, it was a fascinating read, especially the earlier sections about Cecil Sharp, Arnold Bax and Vaughan Williams. As expected Fairport, Steeleye and Pentangle featured big time and all in all, it made you want to explore their work in more detail. I'm not sure I got the later connections where Talk Talk and David Sylvian were lumped in. I like their music but say something like Pulling Punches has no real links to Peggy Seeger as far as I can see. If you look at someone like Cate Le Bon, then I'd say she has much greater links to the druidic past - I kid you not. Anyway, that aside, it's a really enjoyable read which makes you dig out old albums or search the internet for tracks. The most mind-boggling for me were Dave and Toni Arthur. Toni, a legend in Play School circles, recorded a few albums with her then husband Dave. They were, shall we say, of a...

The Cinematic Orchestra's To Build A Home is the 'go to' piece of melancholia for all TV drama and sports producers. And good luck to them. It's an affecting piece of music, which uses simple vocals over a well constructed orchestral and piano arrangement. I've just been listening to it and it set a nice mood. However, the track that followed was Craig Armstrong's Main Theme from Orphans, which I swear must be the saddest two notes ever written. Not three, not four, but two. That is some composer. I'd never thought too much about note combinations until I'd heard Orphans. Now I'm obsessed with them and as if to prove the point, David Bowie's Toy (Your Turn To Drive) starts with a neat two note intro before setting off on it's journey into rolling arpeggios and rising synth alarums. Music.....it's a life saver.

I'm reading Susan Cain's Quiet. Very, very thought provoking. After spending the best part of my life in an environment where selling yourself was the be all and end all, it's shocking to realise how uninclusive, as a society, we've become. Everyone seems to be either talking themselves up or talking others down. Are we really so insecure as a society? We talk about diversity and inclusivity but do we really look to include the guy who sits in the corner working away and who gets pretty tongue tied when you ask him to explain his rationale? The book asks some telling questions about how we behave ourselves and to others. In the first 50 pages, she manages to diss both Harvard Business School and Dale Carnegie for championing gregariousness and falsehood, so that's going some. It's well worth a look - thought provoking and a good read. Now I must go practice that speech in the mirror. Neil Young's No Wonder is playing....somehow apt.

Just been reading Olivia Coleman in Mojo saying that she's annoying her family by playing The Leisure Society's debut album incessantly. And I know what she means. I've been going on a journey buying up all their stuff and it's all really, really excellent. Anyone who can do a banjo and cello version of Gary Numan's Cars is alright by me. More than that, they seem to have hit on something that The Lilac Time strived for many years ago. It's nostalgic but not in a maudlin way and it's English but not in a Country Church and village green way. They sit alone, writing melodies that really do stick and conjure up a time when niceness wasn't a bad thing. Hey they even write a song about playing Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre too loudly and make it sound like a fireside singalong. The Hungry Years from their latest album starts out on a gentle journey before cantering off two thirds of the way through into a celebration of life which is so uplifting, you can...

Just been looking through some of my old forty fives following cry for help from Stuart Maconie for Chic/Smiths/Northern Soul. Managed to find an old Sheile B Devotion single but couldn't surface the albums. I know I had three Chic LPs - howdy disco citizen. I bet they kick on today's bass heavy systems. Evelyn Champagne King was also in there on 12". He's not having that one though! For a man who went clubbing once a quarter in the early 80s, I seem to have led a rather groove ridden life. Now, where did I put my Noel picture disc?