Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter spread out sound underground and aquatic, swimming swimming soft and supple. There’s a waviness in the voice and in the melodic approach; we are undulating and cooing alongside in an underwater womb. A wet, warm wash: echolocating ping-ping like submarines. Feeling like floating or falling but first, before immersion, making a mental note: “So this is what it feels like.” There’s weightlessness and sleepy trancelike reverie and everything is blurry. Everything is velveteen.
What odd and unfortunate timing to post this clip a day before songwriter/guitarist Rowland S. Howard of “Shivers” died of liver failure. Apparently the version Howard wrote (at age 16!) was a much more subtle and slower self-loathing number upon its creation. R.I.P. Howard.
Spi-i-i
ii--i-ne
What an incredible video for this early Nick Cave track.
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Naturalismo end of Autumn/yearly wrap up mixtape coming in a few days.
In the meantime go checkout the great new mix put out by Underwater Peoples and courtesy of Chocolate Bobka (only available for a few days):
Listen to this new Real Estate jem found on the mix, lead singer Martin Courtney continues to keep up the constant flow of hits this year, love that slide guitar work:
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Working on a lot of different posts at the moment, mostly new things, but thought this little parallel/connection was interesting. Heinz is a singer from the early 60′s probably best known for being the bassist of The Tornados on their international hit single Telstar and also landing a big single of his own shortly after. He was fortunate enough to cross paths with Joe Meek who produced much of his work. Together the two crafted some pretty incredible songs with Meeks buddy holly channeling, intergalactic summoning production and composing style (always more to come about Meek, guy is easily one of the most underappreciated artists of the 60′s and has many records that have yet to surface). To the point, I’m almost more taken with this Heinz cover of Three Steps to Heaven than the original by Cochran. With its otherworldly girl group back up vocals and eerie lead vocals Heinz definitely makes the song his own. I think it has some pretty familiar riffage to it that Bowie seemed to borrow a decade later for 1971′s Queen Bitch. I love the Cochran original, but Meeks production on the Heinz version just adds something else to it.
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Organic drone pioneer Marc Richter (aka Black to Comm) wanted to make an album of more straightforward songs, and thus Alphabet 1968 was born. As on past records, he makes naturally ambient sounds by collaging everything from found sounds and old vinyl, to organs, pianos, and homemade gamelans. These songs are short for the most part, and yet thematically diverse, intense, and consistently engaging.
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Art Garfunkel at age 18 channeling one of the strongest melodies of his entire career. Hindsight or not, I think this melodious, surprisingly doo-wop tinged, tune holds up as strong or stronger than much of the songs of his later folk evolution.
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Click the photo for a song by Atlas Sound that I think really evokes a similar sound. The song is an unreleased b-side called Cold and Golden that he put out a bit back on his blog. While you’re at it go download his new Micromix that he just put on the deerhunter blog today:
I stumbled onto these guys a bit back while trying to track down a song sung by Peter Fonda (I’ll leave my 60′s actors turned Byrdsian musicians to the musical meandering of David Hemmings, thank you very much). Anyways, I uncovered this Painted Ship song Frustration on some random 60′s Garage comp and what a killer track it is, definitely has a similar vibe to what bands such as the Ganglians and the Mantles mastered this year. Come to think of it, it may have appeared on a mid release Pebbles comp as well but as good as those are they can become a bit trying at times scouring for their best moments. Not to mention that I’m increasingly realizing that many songs can make more sense through the lens of influence upon current artists.
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and the Hemmings and Fonda songs for good measure:
David Hemmings – Back Street Mirror LOVE this track, seems downright seasonal at the moment too. Also interesting to note is that the Byrds are actually his backing band on this track (and the rest of the album).
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You can click his photo to download his full album.
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