P583 Willow's Song Swarm

This song is from the original Wicker Man movie and certainly had an eye catching scene to go with it.  Its dreamy trance inducing melody will certainly get stuck in your head.  Over the years I kept hearing this pop up in random places with different interpretations and covers, some good, some bad.  

Mushroom's Patience was what started me on collecting these tracks, after saying, "Huh, they covered that song?"

The odd mouth harp in Anna Oxygen's version kind of works for the style I guess.

The skittering light echo on the drum loop with Damh the Bard adds a modern twist to the classic folksy style.

Isobel Campbell doing what I'd hoped Belle & Sebastian would've done at some point, adding a little psyche folk to their soft pop style.

Sally Doherty and the Sumacs doing a fine rendition, I've always liked her voice and contributions to Sol Invictus.

Seafood adding a wonderful dark ominous drone and wood chimes adding to the eeriness of this song.

Sing-Sing is another surprise for me, though their version is a bit simple in my opinion.

The Mock Turtles male lead vocals is a nice change.

Kelli Ali, formerly of Sneaker Pimps, leaves trip-hop behind for her version.  The Sneaker Pimps version is also included though I've never really liked it.

Pulp is here only because they sampled the original for this track.  I've never been a fan of Pulp.

Someone else made this playlist, which has most but not all these versions. 

Also interesting that not everyone calls this song by the same title.

Anna Oxygen - Willow Song

Autour De Lucie - Island

Damh the Bard - Willow's Song

Doves - Willow's Song

Faith & The Muse - Willow's Song

Gwendolyn Snowdon - Willow's Song

Isobel Campbell - Willow's Song

Kelli Ali - Willow's Song

Lodestone - Willow's Theme

Mushroom's Patience - Willow's Song

Nature and Organization - Wicker Man Song

Paul Giovanni & Magnet - Willow's Song

Pulp - Wickerman

Rachel Verney - Willow's Song (vocal)

Rachel Verney - Willow's Song (film version)

Robert Reed - Willow's Song

Sally Doherty and the Sumacs - Wicker Man

Seafood - Willow's Song

Sing-Sing - Willow's Song

Sneaker Pimps - How Do

The Go! Team -  Willow's Song

The Mock Turtles - The Willow Song

Us & Them - Willow's Song

Download this song swarm (unmixed)

601 Stereolab side projects

The members of Stereolab seem to always have something brewing as a side venture.  However, no matter what they do, you can tell where they came from as those quirky Stereolab influences appear in all their projects.  That's a good thing if you're like me and drink this stuff up by the gallon.

00:00  Alternative 3 - Rockets in a Beautiful Sky

03:14  Blips - Blip ^ / Blip ~

06:04  Turn On - Young Cherry Trees Secured

09:29  Splitting the Atom - Monkey Brain

13:27  Imitation Electric Piano - Day of the Dinge

17:10  Ghost Power - Panic in The Isles of Splendour

20:47  Cavern of Anti-Matter - Phototones

24:35  Schema - Far From Where We Began

30:20  The Horizontalist - Sudden Death Overtime

34:09  Uilab - St. Elmo's Fire (Spatio-Dynamic)

39:24  High Llamas - Sparkle Up

44:17  Europa 51 - Realism of the Illusion

47:21  Unkommunity - Black Suggestion

50:46  Monade - Witchazel

52:29  Pure Phase Ensemble 3 feat Laetitia Sadier - Frankie Voodoo

60:26  Laetitia Sadier - By the Sea

64:06  Modern Cosmology - Making Something

70:02  Little Tornados - Space Liner

73:01  Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble - Undying Love for Humanity

76:43  Mary Hansen - The Horizontalist Remixes Rose Giganta Mary Rose Mix

79:24  McCarthy - I'm On the Side of Mankind as Much as the Next Man

83:37  Snowpony - Snow White

Download

600 Broadcast Rarities and Associates

While I'm on the topic of Broadcast, I thought it would be a good effort to piece together a third compilation that follows "Work and Non-Work" which collected their early singles, and "The Future Crayon" covering their later singles and compilation appearances.   I took all the rarities and compilation appearances I had to build this set and included some live/bootleg recordings as well.   

00:00  Forget Every Time (Peel session)

04:10  Misc (NME Presents Radio 1 Sound City Oxford 97)

05:36  Stupido (unreleased)

08:31  Intro (Queen Elizabeth Hall 20 06 1998)

10:20  What I Saw (Meredith Music Festiva Australia 10/12/2010)

15:50  Eyes Open (Meredith Music Festiva Australia 10/12/2010)

20:04  You and Me In Time (Melbourne 9 12 2010)

21:40  The Unfinite Self (Sleepwalkers)

22:42  The Playing Fields' Poem (Sleepwalkers)

26:38  Your Shadow is Listening (Sleepwalkers)

27:29  Peter the Painter (Sleepwalkers)

30:19  Green Peter (Binary Oppositions)

33:41  Interlude 2 (Black Session)

35:21  Wolfram Wire - Eins, Zwei, Drei, 

38:20  Clark - Herr Barr (Improv)

41:32  Goodbye Girls (demo)

45:43  Sixty Forty (Nico) (Warp20 Unheard)

50:07  Booklovers (Andy Votel remix)

57:23  Michael A Grammar (Warp20 Infinite)

57:28  The Focus Group - The Elektrik Karousell

61:08  Hammer Without A Master (Underdog remix)

69:24  Trish reads Jabberwocky (unreleased)

Download mix 1

The second mix showcases many of the side projects and post-Broadcast musical output from the members Roj Stevens, James Cargill, Tim Felton, and Trish Keenan.  I didn't find much else from Steve Perkins (who is distinct from the other talented drummer Steven Perkins).  Children of Alice was named in honor of Trish's affection of Alice in Wonderland and is Roj, James and member of The Focus Group.  Prefuse 73 tracks all feature heavy samples of Trish's voice.  Seeland features Tim Felton.  Hintermass is a one off project on Ghost Box featuring Tim Felton and Jon Brooks.  Two Ton Sloth's EP is titled "Loves Broadcast" and from what I can tell the majority of their beats and music are build from Broadcast recordings.  The Deerhunter track is from "Fading Frontier" and features James, of note this album also features Tim Gane from Stereolab.  The OS OVNI track is a cover, as are Greanvine, divr, Expats, Roommate, Gravenhurst and Of Montreal's contributions here.  Odd Nosdam's album T R I S H is dedicated to her, this track features vocals sampled from Annlaug Lofthus.  The Pia Fraus track is remixed by Seeland, so it has that Broadcast feel to it for sure.  DJ Muggs?  Huh?  What's he doing on here.  Surprisingly he did sample "Winter Now" from Broadcast for this track and it works well as an intro for that album.  The Mamman Sani track is a mashup from how I understand it featuring "Echo's Answer."  Wendy Flower's track does feature contributed vocals from Trish, one of her few guest appearances - the other on the rather disappointing house track from Epod, "Who's Ready to Get High."  

00:00  Roj - You Are Here

01:22  Children of Alice - Rite of the Maypole / An Unruly Procession

08:07  Prefuse 73 - Always It's Gonna Be Like That

09:14  Prefuse 73 vs Piano Overlord vs Broadcast vs Cafe Tacuba - And I'm Gone

12:03  Seeland - Black Dot, White Spider

15:14  Hintermass - Electric Hintermass (Sound Apart)

20:07  Two Ton Sloth - Six String Sky

23:23  Deerhunter - Take Care

27:34  OS OVNI -  You Can Fall

30:31  Odd Nosdam - T r i s h

35:19  Pia Fraus - Yennesay (Seeland Remix)

39:36  Prefuse 73 feat Trish Keenan - The Only Trial of 9000 Suns

43:22  Two Ton Sloth - Stage 4 in a Theater (PZ Gets Looooose)

45:14  divr - Echo's Answer

49:02  DJ Muggs - Winter is Here

49:42  Greanvine - Winter Now

53:34  Mamman Sani feat Trish Keenan - Five Hundred Miles

56:32  Wendy Flower feat Trish Keenan - In The Attic

60:31  Expats - Come on Let's Go

63:43  Roommate, Ken Lambert - Until Then

67:19  Gravenhurst - I Found the F

70:39  Of Montreal - Color Me In

Download mix 2

599 The Remix According to Broadcast

Ending the remix series with my all time favorite group, Broadcast.  Only seven remixes here, though they are all powerful.  The real star for me is the Gonjasufi track, which sounds exactly like what I want every Broadcast track to be - a modern musical equivalent of the movie "Valarie and Her Week of Wonders."  The rest of the tracks are slightly less abstract and have that quirky charm that I associate with most Broadcast output.  The Projects track is an earworm as I get it stuck in my head often.  The Sea and Cake track is a great version, from an EP that also featured Stereolab (shared yesterday).  

A fun way to wrap up this month long excursion that I really did intend to only be about 10 posts.  Sometimes I just get on a roll and can't help myself.   A couple more gems coming then I'll probably take a much needed break.

00:00  Gonjasufi - The Caliph's Tea Party (Broadcast & The Focus Group "DedNd" remix)

05:18  St Etienne - Angel

09:28  Badly Drawn Boy - Another Pearl

13:26  The Projects - Accidents Will Happen

16:55  The Sea and Cake - Interiors

20:11  Avril - Be Yourself

22:58  Miki Furukawa - Coffee

Download

Spotify (7/7)

598 The Remix According to Stereolab

Coming to the end and for the finale two more posts of some favorite groups doing remixes.  First is Stereolab applying their quirky fun tactics to a slew of other artist's works.   Time signature shifts, Pierre Henry stylized electronic flourishes, motoric beats, and a general fun atmosphere everywhere.

The Urian Hackney track is the outlier here, its not a Stereolab Remix but a cover turned into a dub version which I really liked and thought it might fit with the flow of songs here.  Also the Hairy Butter track has been listed as a remix and a collaboration.  

00:00  Microstoria - Microlab: Endless Summer

03:01  Mice Parade - Warm Hand in Farmland

07:59  The Sea and Cake - Tea and Cake

11:56  Boards of Canada - Kid For Today

15:57  The Pastels - One Wild Moment

20:54  Thurston Moore - <untitled>

24:34  Hairy Butter - Brain Drain

27:35  Serena-Maneesh - D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D.

30:56  The Avalanches - Since I Left You

35:25  Urian Hackney - Op Hop Detonation Dub

37:43  The Little Ones - Oh, MJ!

42:53  White Lies - Is Love

49:15  Prop - Statice Mount Zero

53:05  Todd Rundgren - Wrap Your Arms Around Me (Stereolab vs High Llamas)

57:20  Bonnie Pink - Sleeping Child (The Gyrations of Virgin Microbes mix)

61:40  Ryoko Hirosue - Ashita E

65:29  The Free Design - Harve Daley Hix (Stereolab & High Llamas)

Download Mix 1

00:00  The Boo Radleys - Martin Doom! Its Seven O'clock

06:28  No Joy - Indigo Child

09:35  Manic Street Preachers - Tsunami

16:14  Jazzanova - Another New Day

20:52  Her Space Holiday - Girl Problem

26:37  Shonen Knife - Hot Chocolate

33:56  Dimension 5 - Mudra

40:35  Cube Juice - Mars of Chicken (La Declosion mix)

45:42  Todd Rundgren - Put Your Arms Around Me (Stereolab vs High Llamas)

50:47  The Polyphonic Spree - Soldier Girl

54:58  Zero 7 - Home

61:45  Popul Vuh - Hosianna Mantra

Download Mix 2

Spotify (20/29)

597 The Remix According to Neotropic

Riz Maslen gained notoriety certainly with the help of Future Sound of London.  She was featured on some of their early works, and yes was lip syncing on their Top of the Pops video performance of "Papua New Guinea."  By 1996 she was signed to Ntone (part of Ninja Tune) and was carving out her own brand of downtempo/ambient work.  She's also released on Mush and Anticon, and has some work with Dose One of cLOUDDEAD fame.  

00:00  DJ Food - Inosan (Neohead Phone Head F&ck)

07:15  Fujiya & Miyagi - Shake/Diagrams 

11:02  Alias & Tarsier - 5 Year Eve

18:48  Grain - Does Jesus Have Buddha Nature? (Old Sea Dog mix)

24:16  Skinny Puppy - Love in Vein (Go Girl Trio mix)

29:16  Low - Anon (Pollen)

34:13  Ulver - He Said/She Said

40:52  Mirum Mulier - Like You

45:05  Ollo - The If If (The Lady Husk Sings Empty Frame Version)

51:36  Anne Garner - Unhand 

56:38  Middlemarch - Visitation

62:48  Low - Do You Know How To Waltz? (Vert)

67:12  Frank Chickens - We Are Ninja (mix no2)

Download

Spotify (9/13)