Notes from a suburban raver - DannyL's list

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DannyL

Wild Horses
At some point, I decided that the best music in all of creation was 60s reggae, especially rocksteady, still an opinion I'd roll with. Couple of faves.

57. Techniques - Travelling Man.
I once made my ex cry by playing her this.

58. Hopeful Village - The Tennors
An idyll of Jamaican village life

59. Maytals - Sweet & Dandy
Similar amount of incredible detail re. small village life as in the last tune. There was an wonderful academic article breaking down the themes and dialect in this song but sadly it's disappeared from the interwebs. Footage from The Harder They Come OBVS. I'm sorry if you've somehow not seen that, we can't be friends.

60. Cornell Campbell - Let's start again
Find me a more effortless beautiful record, I dare you.
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Couple more obscurities from the Maharishi Hifi selection, old mate who's dedicated his life to this stuff.

61. Tartans - Real Gone Sweet

62. Glen Miller/Winston Shah - Dungeon
The space on this kills me. So simple yet so amazing.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
I love that Prince Buster one...

We went to Maharishi Hifi couple times didn't we? That was a fun night. That Japanese guy with the Jamaican accent...
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Yeah that's him. He's from Japan and runs a label, but I get him mixed up with the other guys who live here.
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Bit of a sidebar: A couple of years ago, I found a fascinating transcription online of the lyrics to the Maytals song above.
That article has vanished but the Genius transcription and annotations are not too bad.

What I love about this song is it creates a whole microcosm with its attendant drama. It's genuinely an amazing piece of lyric writing and the vocal dexterity required to stretch out these words across the rhythm is next level.

Would take this over Morrissey any day.

genius.com

Toots & The Maytals – Sweet and Dandy (Original)

“Sweet and Dandy” is a lighthearted ska song about the stress of a young couple, Etty and Johnson, before their wedding. The song was famously featured in the soundtrack for the
genius.com genius.com
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
DannyL said:
46. New Age Steppers - Fade Away
Ari Up on vox, covering the Junior Byles classic. First record on On U, iirc. Recently reissued like everything else, so maybe familiar. Look at that cover!

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Sorry but Ari murders this classic, and not in a good way. Probably the 5% where I am not in complete agreement. But hey even Billy Kent likes it so I'm an anomaly.
 
DLaurent

DLaurent

Well-known member
Love the list so far. I am the only one who liked Four Below Zero - My Baby's Got E.S.P. so far. Lots more to listen to though.
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
thirdform said:
Sorry but Ari murders this classic, and not in a good way. Probably the 5% where I am not in complete agreement. But hey even Billy Kent likes it so I'm an anomaly.
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I think her slightly off key warbling adds something tbh. But I appreciate yr opinion. What's the Third position on On-U in general?
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Kinda weird thing to say, but I feel that maybe the reggae deejays don't get enough love? With dancehall maybe, but I don't know if people get their importance before that. They seem less discussed than the contemporary singers and the dubs (see recent dub discussion upthread) but were vital to keeping the dances going and left behind a truly inspired legacy of recordings. Anyway, a deejay triumvirate:

65. Dennis Alcapone - Power Version. My favourite deejay goes off over The Claredonians

66. U Roy - Spaceflight
Fuck Neil Aarmstrong, the Jamaicans were the first nation to put people into space. Classic "skinhead reggae" production on this.

67. Lone Ranger - M16
Anthony Waldron with this anthem to the submachine gun.
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Slight change of emphasis now. When I lived in Notthingham, I got to know a guy called Shug, who I knew through the old TOPY network. I ended up living with him for a few years after I left. He played me lots of amazing stuff, including a lot of white devil music including lots of industrial. These are a couple of selections I recall from a tape he made me:

68. The Times - Red with Purple Flashes

69. The Television Personalities - Smashing Time
The faux-naivety here might grate - it echos lots of 60s psych with that - but I love it.
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
I was introducing myself to the delights of krautrock at this time as well, probably my favourite band of all time are Can. I think they have such influence now in part 'cos of those who grew up on rap. The bass (Czukay) and drums (Liebzeit) being the dominant part of their sound, not guitar.

70. Can - Waiting for the Streetcar

71. Amon Duul II - Archangels Thunderbird
One of the all time heavyweight riffs
 
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DannyL

Wild Horses
Never really stopped checking in with rap. Couple of indie things and my fave Fat Joe track:

72. Omniscience - Amazin'

73. G Depp - Head Over Wheels

74: Fat Joe - Firewater
 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
DannyL said:
I think her slightly off key warbling adds something tbh. But I appreciate yr opinion. What's the Third position on On-U in general?
Click to expand...

that milieu is better when they're more hip hop imo, like Tackhead, leblanc, etc. Sherwood himself? probably more to my tastes when he's making more directly clanging industrial stuff than dub.
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Obviously now there's an indie rap 12" from this time I'm trying to remember and have no fucking idea what it's called or who it's by, all I can see is mental picture of the label. Black and gold, something like "Static" ffs
 
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