Ian from Musicophilia uploaded the fifth of his nine compilation cds totalling twelve hours of music from 1981. It's called Heart. I am not sure if he intended it that way but the heart is the human organ that beats, that sets the pace. And the songs I like most of the mix are dominated by rhythm. I found more old loves than new discoveries of great songs there. It starts with All Cats Are Grey. From the wonderful winter album Faith by The Cure. One of the seriously underplayed songs and albums in my discotheque. Those reverberating drums I love so much. We can thank Jamaica & Martin Hannett for the echo effect in rock music. And then there is The Missing Boy by Durutti Column. One of my all-time faves. Vini Reilly's resonating guitar, his thin voice, his words "There was a boy, I almost knew him." And the boy who had just died. Who was so unbelievable on stage. I could have seen him and his band if I had been more into rock music and less into reading Nietzsche at the time. Another awesome song: Doubts Even Here from Movement, New Order's first album after his suicide. Scroll down. After that The Sound who I hardly knew with a phantastic keyboard dominated song in the vein of The Doors à l'anglaise. Gist who I didn't know at all with Love at First Sight, a great balladish, jerky kind of reggae. Like Young Marble Giants for the dance floor. Which they are, actually.

weiter geht es. weiter nach vorne. weiter dem zeitstrahl nach. weiter in den dreck. weiter ins loch. weiter nach vorne. weiter der sonne entgegen. weiter zum tod hin. weiter mit new order.

The phat sound of that bass. The mother of all basses. Like a bubbling Icelandic geysir before it all went wrong. The totally relaxed vibe of the song. More mushroom than smack. Reminding me a lot of the wonderful Meat Puppets (II) so much beloved by Kurt Cobain. Especially the voice. The song is totally untypical for The Replacements as far as I can judge, I strangely discovered them only two days ago, they are on the mostly brilliant Amplifier set of Musicophilia's 1981 box. They were a punk band from Minneapolis like Hüsker Dü but rougher, I'd say. There is some shouting by Westerberg near the end. But it does fit. I think this song is about someone who loved a drug too much. How else can you interpret a line like "Johnny always needs more than he shoots"? Apparently it was Johnny Thunders from the New York Dolls. He died about ten years after the song came out which was ten years after The Needle and the Damage Done. Those number mysticisms always. They are all in the Kabbala, I bet.

Dr. C's old thread praising Movement and the new poll for this splendid debut album (their best until today if you ask me) which wasn't the first one for four of the band members let me rediscover this song. It was the B-side of 1982's Temptation and before I only knew it from the Substance compilation where it was basically a pale affair between synthesizer and drum computer. But live, especially at this festival in Barcelona in July 1984 it is a totally different beast. Very intense, pulling the listener in like a maelstrom. It must have been a hot day, Barney has dropped his shirt. The machines start this song with a heavy synthie staccato beat and some computer beats. But then the humans take over. First Peter Hook on bass, then Bernard Sumner adding the little exotic touch with his harmonica. Later on he sings through a special microphone which puts a lot of echo on his voice. And Stephen Morris shows who is the boss on drums. What a phantastic fusion of machines and men. Not to forget Gillian Gilbert on keyboards who is responsible for the special sound effects. This is how dance music should be. Delirious. New Wave at its apex.

vorhin in der s-bahn bin ich fast weggedöst so roundabout frankfurt-west. das patrick leigh fermor buch über die mani ist nicht so mein ding. ich liebe ja griechenland und insbesondere den peloponnes, aber fermor packt mich nicht mit seinen ellenlangen beschreibungen. seinen aufzählungen von einer millionen völkergruppen, von denen noch nie irgend jemand was gehört hat außer ihm selbst. gott, was ein gepflegter langweiler. und er lebt immer noch in seinem haus in den mani. mit bald 100 jahren. na ja, ich glaube da habe ich ein weiteres buch erstanden, das ich nie zu ende lesen werde. tschüss, patrick leigh.

hatte dann die glorreiche idee, meinen ipodersatz anzuschmeißen. ein bisschen bill evans gehört, shelly at the mann-hole oder wie das livealbum nochmal heißt. war sofort wach, obwohl es doch nur eine art bar-jazz ist. allerdings premier cru bar-jazz. bill evans ist gott, das weiß doch ein jeder. na ja, so roundabout rödelheim war das erste stück dann vorbei und ich freute mich schon vor auf das zweite. dann der schock, nix mit bill evans. shuffle war angesagt. und es gab wieder ein instrumental. von einer band, die nicht so viele instrumentals gemacht hat. soweit ich weiß neben oscillate wildly und diesem hier noch ein anderes früheres, vergessen wie es hieß. na ja, es waren die smiths. und sie haben mal wieder mein leben gerettet. früher habe ich ja immer gesagt, sie wären die beatles der achtziger gewesen. ich glaube, sie waren besser als die beatles. more punch, more straight into the heart and brain, more magic. wie hieß das stück nochmal? achja, money changes everything. how apt. hört sich etwas an wie dire straits. gitarrenzauber von johnny marr. und morrissey hält einfach mal die schnüss. hat was.

Because the sky is blue it makes me cry.

Howe Gelb's first band was called Giant Sandworms, later on he dropped the worms. This is their first music video from 1983. The song is called Body of Water and a different version can be found on the first second Giant Sand album Ballad of a Thin Line Man from 1986. I don't know what kind of effect the music and the video has on you but for me the guitars sound psychedelic as fuck, Dream Syndicate, Green on Red and the Californian Paisley Underground movement loom somewhere behind but this is better, this is crazier, this is more of a trip. Maybe there is a little bit of the Gun Club voodoo thing in here, Howe's voice is quite similar to Jeffrey Lee's. There also seems to be something dark and ominous about it not unlike Pierce's obsession. Those chiming guitars are absolutely gorgeous. And the video with all the cactus trees near Tucson, Arizona. The whole thing looks and sounds like a peyote cult.

(via The Commercial Zone)

my foolish heart played by bill evans on piano, scott lafaro on bass and paul motian on drums on a sunday in the village vanguard in new york in june 1961. i cannot get enough of this ballad. apparently it was written after a short story by salinger. it's about a woman who is married, has a child from another man, a soldier she is in love with and does not dare to tell her husband. the thing which absolutely stuns me about this piece is the way evans plays it. extremely slow and understated. caressing the keys. the melody is hardly there, it is buried below motian's drum brush. it is so bitter and so sweet, not yet blossomed but you know that it will be the most beautiful petal of all. i have to hum or whistle this underlying, undeveloped melody when i hear the piece. actually i kind of improvise around the insinuated theme. my whistling dances around it. everything worthwhile about life is hidden in those couple of notes. shyness, tenderness, melancholy, timidity, love and death. it's all in there. trust me. my foolish heart is the first track on waltz for debby.

die schiffssirene das schiffshorn am ende von threads, dem letzten lied von third. es geht weiter zu neuen ufern. ich bin gespannt und freu mich schon drauf.

From the I Love Music thread on Portishead's new album Third: