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
I'd collected these tracks over the last few years and though they are great they didn't fit in on previous mixes, mostly due to their length. So here they are making one long mix of Krautrock style jams, both new and old.
I have always loved a wide variety of styles of music. Some of my favorite tracks to seek out are those diamonds in the rough on what is usually classified as difficult music. Over these six mixes I took several of the compilations I have of some more hard to get into music, the kind I usually don't play when friends are around, and selected three tracks off each. There were a couple where I only selected one or two tracks. I then split them into three camps: post-punk/no-wave, ambient/electronics, & strange/odd. Each grouping ended up with one track off each comp. I then split those in half due to length and the result is six wonderfully strange and engaging mixes that I feel turned out really well. This all started with me wanting to hear "Nostalgie Eternelle - A Perfect Situation" again, but not remembering which comp it was on.
Welcome to the Accessible Side of Difficult Music
Here is a list of the compilations I sourced for these tracks.
Initiated by hearing the opening track on an episode of The Bear, and goaded on by this gift last December, I had to fill in the rest with some wonderfully unique space and krautrock jams, with the usual spattering of oddness in the mix.
00:00 Harmonia & Eno 76 - Welcome
02:54 Johnny Greenwood - 25 Years
05:06 Paavoharju - Valo Tihkuu Kaiken Lapi
08:50 Trilok Gurtu - Shobharock
16:01 Aston "Family Man" Barrett - Soul Constitution
18:39 Typhoon - White Liars
23:21 Legendary Pink Dots and Assorted Friends & Relations - The Photographer (demo)
The next two mixes are also from that same stash of unearthed mixes from 2006. This one however has been modernized somewhat. What I found was a mix that had about 8 or 9 artists with two tracks, and about 6 more artists with only one track. I figured I'd update this a bit, so I could have two separate mixes with one track from each of these artists. I really wanted this to work out where it would be the same order of artists on both mixes, but the tracks just didn't flow that well together. There are a couple anomalies between these two mixes, but I don't think it matters that much in the grand scheme of things.
This is kind of a grey area as it relates to my previous "supergroups" post. This time I tried to focus on more side projects and one album collaborations between some artists. There are certainly some loose interpretations of this theme here, still a great selection across these three mixes.
This first one is focused on dark ambient, industrial, and neofolk music.
Mix 1:
00:00 Les Joyaux De La Princesse & Regard Extreme - Jetzt Aber Tagts
03:22 Zu93 (Zu & Current 93) - Confirm the Mirror Emperor
07:55 Nurse With Wound & Larsen - Rock, Baby, Rock
12:53 Hypnopazuzu (Youth & Current 93) - Sweet Sodom SingSongs
17:42 Melvins & Lustmord - Toadi Acceleratio
20:20 Scorpion Wind (Death In June & Boyd Rice) - In Vino Veritas
24:39 Nurse With Wound & Aranos - Mary Jane
30:49 Lustmord & Metal Beast - Open Towers Emerge (Version)
35:12 Les Joyaux De La Princesse & Freya Aswynn - Wolf Rune 1
41:07 Hank & Slim (Rapoon & Nocturnal Emissions) - Suitcase on the Highway
44:29 Wolf Pact (Boyd Rice, Death in June & Der Blutharsch) - Murder Bag
48:53 Nurse With Wound & Faust - Lass Mich
61:53 Tony Conrad & Faust - The Death of the Composer was in 1962
65:02 Stereolab & Nurse With Wound - Exploding Head Movie
It was probably the late 90's when I first discovered Krautrock/Kosmische/Motorik music and really dove in deep. Nurse With Wound's list was of course the treasure trove of name dropping to the Nth degree. I think it was the reissue of Sand's Ultrasonic Seraphim that really drew me in. Then the big three blew me away, Faust Can, & Neu! I made this two CD mix probably early 2000s. For fans of the genre there is nothing unexpected here. For the uninitiated this is a good overview with some new tracks mixed in.
00:00 Agitation Free - Rucksturz
02:06 Amon Duul II - Wolf City
05:21 Brainticket - Black Sand
09:21 Hawklords - Time Of
13:17 Can - Mushroom
17:14 Electric Sandwich - China
25:18 Stelvio Cipriani - Realta n 5
27:16 Nurse With Wound and Aranos - Sunset Belly Mother
Call this part two of the "Air travel" mix from a couple days ago, as it is more tracks that were recollected based on the Mojo "Pigs Might Fly" compilation. Always love the Jane and her husband collaborations. Included a mid-late period Can track off Saw Delight, an album I don't listen to as often as their earlier more iconic works. Mummy Dust Trippers is a leftover track from when I compiled the Unexpected Gamelan series. Ulan Bator is a quirky fun post-rock group from France. I'd had this track sitting in a folder for years waiting for the right mix to include it in. Josefin Ohrn is an artist I came across via that Mojo comp and started seeking out whatever else I could find from them. Orthodox is a doom metal band, but here they're somewhat less heavy and more psychedelic - I like to think of this song as a doom laden free jazz version of "The End" by the doors; maybe that's a stretch. Larsen is a group I'd not have paid much attention to if not for the Nurse With Wound collaboration. I tend to find a lot of music through that kind of association. The Quickspace track is from an old krautrock/motoric compilation I made about 10-15 years back, and reused it here. Pretty sure I have those old mixes slated for upload soon so it'll be duplicated there. I came across a "demos and rarities" version of James Plotkin's "The Joy Of Disease" and refamiliarized myself with the wonderful music there. Ending with a track from that Mojo comp with ties this up nicely.
00:00 Jane Weaver - Electric Mountain (Andy Votel Analogue Mountain Instro)
I guess this all started from revisiting the Mojo compilation "Pigs Might Fly" from 2017, where the first two tracks are pulled from. The rest is a psychedelic trip through many styles and sub-genres all around the hauntology and post-rock areas ending with a head trip from Achim Reichel which came from my frequent revisiting of the Nurse With Wound list. Should be obvious after that month of electronic remixes I needed a palate cleanser.
00:00 Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation - Sister Green Eyes
03:40 Gong - Through Restless Seas I Come
10:31 Magick Brother & Mystic Sister - The First Light
12:48 Anna Sjalv Tredje - Tusen ar & Sju Timmar
20:41 Dead Voices on Air - Papa Papa Paet Flag
24:39 Julie's Haircut - Karlsruhe
30:56 Josefin Ohrn + The Liberation - Imagine You
36:51 Grace Cale's Dubset - Bibbering Blaggat (Hittite War Chant)
39:59 Ghost Power - Panic In The Isles of Splendour
One of my employees and I have frequent conversations about music, and he likes to pose questions that warrant a lot of thinking before responding. The next three mixes are his latest questions of me, and all have a similar theme.
What songs permanently altered your perceptions?
This is my jam. The music I enjoy the most is constantly pushing boundaries and expanding perceptions beyond what most consider normal or accessible music. Stereolab and Nurse With Wound is a match no one could have ever seen coming - this track is their homage to the German band Faust and sounds like nothing the two bands had ever done on their own. Coil are truly like nothing else out there, reinventing their own experimental sound with every release; this track is exactly like the title, beauty found in chaos (afterwards look for their track "Pre-Original Chaostrohpy" on youtube to hear the straight orchestral version). The Residents are by definition difficult music, off putting and hard to sit through - challenging listeners successfully for over 50 years. They now have a permanent installation in MOMA in New York. This track is an Indonesian Gamelan orchestra interpreting one of their earliest tracks to great success. Labradford is ambient/slow-core, and Matmos are the A-Team of glitchy electronica, this track is challenging and rewarding for the patient listener. Future Sound of London takes electronic music far beyond club/dance oriented, this whole EP is one of my favorites from them, and the first I heard and sparked much joy because I recognized most of the samples they were using. Cyclobe makes music that is almost too creepy for horror movies, this track is actually a remix of a group called People Like Us, that creates from plunderphonics; I love this track because it combines so many elements and has a 70's Italian Giallo film feel to it. Fridge is another unique group, they create their own acoustic samples, and then sequence them in spectacular fashion. A Small Good Thing, a side project from O Yuki Conjugate, they create soundtracks for imaginary movies. This track from an imagined Spaghetti Western which sparked my love of the Ambient Americana genre.
00:00 Nurse With Wound & Stereolab - Animal or Vegetable (A Wonderful Wooden Reason)
13:23 Coil - Chaostrophy
18:57 The Residents and Sekar Jaya - Santa Dog for Gamelan Orchestra
24:03 Labradford - So (Matmos Remix)
29:10 Future Sound of London - Snake Hips
37:44 People Like Us & Cyclobe - I Believe in Mirrorballs
42:18 Fridge - Harmonics
46:09 A Small Good Thing - A Mighty Stillness (remix)
Fourth and final of this set for Mark in 2010. Lots of cleanup of leftovers from the last three, plus some real classics and fun tracks. A mixed bag of styles, though entertaining start to finish.
Tributes and remixes can be a lot of fun to dive into. From what I've come across, most are a pretty solid effort with not many weak links on those comps. I've included multiple tracks from the one I have, and a few oddball tracks that crossed my path. The only real omission I had intended to include is from Ciccone Youth, but that's not exactly a cover or a remix. And yes, I did include one remix from Harmonia & Eno, but its close enough to a Neu! track that it fit in by my standards.
00:00 The Legendary Pink Dots - Super
04:10 Neu! Im Gluck (The National Remix)
12:05 Porcupine Tree - Hallogallo
15:41 Neu! - Fur Immer (Eye Remix)
21:51 Neu! - Weissensee (Fink Version)
28:37 Download - Hallo Gallo
36:27 Neu! - Super (Mogwai remix)
40:48 Autechre - Weissensee
49:33 Neu! - After Eight (They Hate Change cover)
51:38 Harmonia & Eno 76 - By The Riverside (Appleblim & Komonazmuk Remix)
59:16 Beyond the Wizards Sleeve - Hallogallo (I Swim Around rework 2008)
Those pioneers we've come to know and love over their three albums (four or five if you count those ones that really sound like a completely different band). Yes talking about Dinger and Rother. I recall having my mind blown when I purchased "Neu! 2" from the beachside Taang records in San Diego, along with SSD discography, DJ Spooky's "Subliminal Minded EP", Third Eye Foundation's "I poo poo on your juju" and Nurse With Wound's Automating 2. The clerk rightly said, "Well one of these sticks out like a sore thumb." Still, Neu! were well known by artists citing them as inspiration, and I knew the Legendary Pink Dot's cover of "Super." I had no idea what else to expect, and I was beyond surprised. A few months later, a roommate that worked at an Independent records pulled a copy of Neu! 1 from their incoming vinyl order, and set it aside for me. I rushed over that afternoon to pick it up and it didn't leave my turntable for weeks.
On to this mix, as I know most readers should already know them and their history. This mix focuses on what came after for Dinger and Rother. Aside from Hallogallo 2010, nothing ever really lived up to the pure joy I felt hearing Neu!, but there are still some great moments, especially with Harmonia. Here's a brief overview of their post-Neu! output.
I seem to gravitate toward and appreciate the EP format more than full lengths. As a general statement, I like material from groups on EPs the most, I think it hides their best deep cuts and gives more experimental freedom than working to keep a concept or theme for a full length album. Here's my list of top ten (in no particular order) EPs that I've collected. Starting it off with Future Sound of London who I knew from Papua New Guinea, and picked this EP up based on its creating title. The music was nothing like what I expected and I much preferred this to the more straightforward techno I assumed they were lumped together with. The whole EP is a fantastic 20 minute journey through several different styles and I love every minute of it. It is because of this EP that I continue my exploration of everything FSOL releases, there are just so many hidden gems in their catalog. Next is Daughter, who I came across by my wife around 2013 or so. She said she loved their music while we were watching Marie Antoinette one evening (though they have nothing to do with that film). I bought this 10" and thought it was so well done, and gave some umph to the indie folk sound. Even though I hear this track everywhere from soundtracks to commercials to intermission music on NPR, I still love it. The album version of this track seems to have lost some of the impact, it felt almost tamed down. Then His Name Is Alive again, yes because they are just that great. This is the best 12" from them, hands down. Its the simple folk singalong style of this track that endears them most to me.
Next is a two for one, as I felt like I won the lottery when I came across both of these groups. First Derniere Volonte, and their French Miltant Pop sound came across like a lightning bolt. Powerful and catchy, and adding the doomy neo-folk and experimentalism of Novy Svet created some real synergy here. Novy Svet is my real win here, and I've spent a lot tracking down most of their catalog. So diverse, so bizarre, and so wonderful. They are something special.
Volcano the Bear was so unique, like freak folk and lo-fi and free jazz, and hidden underneath a series of catchy melodies and shimmering beauty. Honestly, I dialed in the playlist entry here, which though its a great song, I recall rushing through this and not pulling out "Yak Folks Y'Are" which was my entry point to their wonderfully wacky world. Up next is Stereolab and Nurse With Wound collaborating on the krautrock homage across two EPs. This was my first real exposure to Stereolab, aside from hearing them on MTV occasionally. Nurse With Would certainly plied their alchemy with the source material, and the results are just mind melting. I could've picked any of the collaborations from Crumb Duck or Trippin with the Birds, as they are all equally amazing.
The first time I heard the Twilight Sad I was blown away. This track in particular comes through like a jet engine over headphones. The singer's thick accent, the nostalgic lyrics, the crushing wall of noise from the band. This was certainly too good to last, and they've mellowed in recent years (in my opinion). Then there is the collaboration of Dalek and Techno Animal, where adding lyrics to this track on their remix made it so much more than it was on its own. I'd already been a devotee to the JK Broadrick club and was diving in deep on every side project he had, when I came across the deep and esoteric lryics of Dalek that really captured my attention. I of course grabbed up all the Dalek albums I could fine ("Absence" could have easily made the top LPs list).
The last two tracks are in stark contrast of each other. First is Isis (the band) which sadly had to clarify their name posthumously because of the changing political landscape. Still, they earned their genre defining place in post-metal lore. From their sludgy blackened beginnings to the sheer bliss of their post-metal endings and every step in-between, they've been in constant play on my turntable. I do regret that I missed seeing Jesu open for them on a tour in the early 2000's. Wish I'd gone to that one. The Red Sea EP was the first I came across back in the day, and I think it was the recognizable David Lynch samples that kept my attention and then the music came and crushed me like a tsunami. Ending it all with Autechre, because this EP was constantly by my side for high school and college, and many years afterwards. Its diverse, dark, unparalleled in its day and showed that Autechre was a standout from their peers.
00:00 Future Sound of London - Smokin Japanese Babe (Far-Out Son of Lung and Ramblings of a Madman)
05:26 Daughter - Youth (The Wild Youth)
09:32 His Name Is Alive - We Hold The Land in Great Esteem (The Dirt Eaters)
A longtime favorite of mine, they're always innovative and hard to pin down. I recall first hearing them on the Nurse With Wound collaboration EP Crumb Duck. That gave them street cred in my book and I quickly dove into their catalog. It was the early albums that took heavy influence from Neu! that kept me coming back for more. The later albums transitioned away from the motorik beats and guitar driven songs to quirky space-age pop akin to Esquivel. I've split this mix roughly along those two lines, as I admit a 2+ hour long mix of Stereolab might be a lot to take in one sitting.
00:00 Peng! 33
02:55 Orgiastic
07:34 The Seeming and the Meaning
11:15 Perversion
16:06 Super Electric
21:17 Jenny Ondioline
24:49 French Disko
28:06 Laisser-Faire
32:37 Transporte Sans Bouger
36:51 Ping Pong
39:50 L'Enfer Des Formes
43:37 Three-Dee Melodie
48:31 Wow and Flutter
51:35 Eloge D'eros
55:18 Exploding Head Movie (feat Nurse With Wound)
Another round of 33 1/3 book where the author lists their take on related music. If memory serves (read the book over a year ago), this list was "They Did It First" sort of thing, saying that MBV was the pinnacle of a noisy shoegaze genre that had been building for decades up to that point. Lots of long, freak-out jams on this one. I like this selection, except for the last track, I really struggle seeing the relation to MBV or the genre at all.
00:00 Sonic Youth - Shadow of a Doubt
03:21 Psychic TV - Eden 3
04:54 The Red Crayola - Pink Stainless Tail
08:09 Brian Eno - Needle In The Camel's Eye
11:02 The Jesus and Mary Chain - Never Understand (Alternate version)
14:23 Faust - Krautrock
26:01 White Noise - The Black Mass: An Electric Storm In Hell
33:00 Ash Ra Temple - Amboss
51:59 Husker Du - Reoccurring Dreams
65:03 Psychic TV - Eden 1
68:45 Spacemen 3 - Ecstasy In Slow Motion
77:07 Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band
