02 - The Coral: Roots & Echoes

02
THE CORAL: ROOTS & ECHOES (2007)

Similar to Rjd2's The Third Hand, Roots & Echoes has been frequently on the turntable in autumn 2007. And I literally mean "turntable" this time, as there was no way of avoiding The Coral whenever I went out to listen and dance to great records. All of The Coral's albums have their great moments and when I heard the band at clubs or bars, it was not even that likely I would get to hear a song from their latest record. But I have chosen this one as my favourite because it is the one I have listened to most frequently. Plus Who's Gonna Find Me definitely is one of the songs of the year for me, and it is on this album. But then again, I only discovered Dreaming Of You (from The Coral) this year, and it should have been inside my heart and head from 2002 on. But maybe I would not have been ready for this sixties-influenced, bright and shining pop/rock music back then, I think I was listening to quite different stuff then. That is why I'd rather have the latest record as my favourite in this list, but all the others are great, too.
Anyway, Rjd2 and The Coral is what I have been listening to heavily over the past few months, and to be honest, maybe this is one of the reason they ended up so high in the ranking. For the records that you listened to in the first half of the year may not be in your short-time memory when you are compiling the list, and the ones that you found out about by the very end of the year may be to fresh to really mean something to you. You will soon see how I tried to overcome this problem in my number one.

Frankie Valli and the mysteries of video shooting

"beggin', beggin' you
put your dancing shoes on baby"
(slightly edited, ;-) )

Frankie Valli - Beggin' (pilooski edit)



The most amazing song for me at the moment.

Why on earth they shot a video like this one is a mystery to me. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (why the full name of the band isn't spelled out correctly is a mystery either) were, among other things, successful in the British northern soul scene in the 60s. Considering the timeline, the 1950s petticoat dancers are a complete miscast, and the sound doesn't really apply to these 80s hiphop dancers either.

There are people dancing northern soul nowadays. I bet these two young men would have loved to take part in the video:



Better luck next time!

And in case you would like to see and hear more northern soul (like I do!), try these guys:

Finally Amy

I may possibly be the last person on earth to fall in love with Amy Winehouse's music. It had been suggested a few times before by friends, who all said that "that's quite the music you'll like". So I gave her stuff a try. And I hated her guts. I called her voice the "voice of a duck being minced through a meatgrinder." That's a really bad thing to say. I am honestly sorry, Amy. I love your music. I adore your voice. I love your beats, and melodies. I appreciate the fact that you dress and style just like you want to. I admire your frank and open lyrics. I've been listening to them a lot recently.
There was no avoiding Amy after I started working for a company which provided its staff with music at work. And while I was doing my chores her songs just slowly crept into my brain until I was able to distungish them from each other (there are three I heard, You Know I'm No Good, Back To Black and My Tears Dry On Their Own). I learned to recognise the beats and within the first few seconds of a track I could tell there was an Amy Winehouse song coming up. I was a bit afraid of listening to the Back To Black record at home because I thought "what if I get used to it to quickly and then I can't stand hearing it at work anymore?". But I was just way too curious to not find out what the other stuff sounds like. And I love everything.

Amy Winehouse's songs are modern classics. The love with which they are made, the uniqueness of the power she puts into them.. I hear Amy Winehouse is not too well these days. I hope she will make it and stay a fascinating personality. But no matter with how many more records she'll eventually come up with, I predict that Back To Black will be a classic, something to appear on the top of all-time hit lists in fourty years, a record people will discover and listen to in a long while. Because It's timeless. So I guess I am not too late, I'm still right on time!

Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators @ Mint Lounge, Manchester

The evidence of a funky night out! This pic was taken at the Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators gig in Manchester in early May this year. They blew me away with their 2005 record Keep Reachin' Up, which I discovered just very recently. I therefore did not really expect to get a chance to see them touring this record, but there they were, in the Mint Lounge, 8 or so guys on stage, starting the concert with a ten minute long instrumental introduction. In case you have not read about them before, they are a ten-piece finnish band playing music following the tradition of Northern Soul sound.

The intro gave my finnish company a change to admit the band actually really looked finnish, and let my anticipation grow immensly. And it got the audience in the mood, so everybody was already shaking their bits when Nicole Willis finally entered the stage. She has a wonderful stage presence: smiled, danced and enjoyed the music. I am not sure if I actually have to mention that her voice was superb. My finnish friend, usually a follower of Heavy Metal, and a bit of Jazz, was absolutely glad we went and told me he enjoyed the musicd very much. So did I! So did everyone.

some videos with the usual phone camera+youtube-upload-size problems. You do not necessarily have to watch them, just listen while you browse.

Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators

You are about to listen to something plainly beautiful. Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators' album Keep Reachin' Up. The incredients are quite extraordinary, though:

This is Northern Soul, somehow. But it is from "the other north": Finland.

This was not released in 1966. It was produced in 2006.

Apparently the band won every soul award there is last year. Not only for the great music, but surely also because everybody was so excited about the fact that there is a bunch of young people making a record full of kitchen soul. It was about time.

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My Record of the Year

This may sound utterly stupid to some people, but after going through some "official" 2006-top-album lists I realized that there is only one record that came out this year that I was spinning more than a few times, and that is "St. Elsewhere" by Gnarls Barkley. Oh, I love that one. Playful, sloppy beats mixed with lyrics that are great and sound like they have been written five minutes before the actual recording started. Since my sister already covered that one I won't write any more about it.

(I actually had some other records in mind but had to realize they all came out 2005).

I didn't like The Knife (actually had a small discussion with TBA about it, somehow I can't get into those cold electronics done by the people up north, just doesnt appeal to me), I am utterly bored with todays (Indy)-Rock music (I rather listen to some 60s/70s beat/rock/psych/prog, for me thats the real deal), I still can't get a finger on that (probably non-existing) phenomena called "Disco-Punk" and HipHop remained either the disgusting sexistic bullshit or the boring, uncreative intro-sampling "take a hit, make a hit"-shit it has been for a while now.

There have been some great tracks I loved in the dance scene this year (Robosonic - "Yasmin" (coconut wireless remix), Palermo Disko Machine - "Pump", Buscemi - Jazz Jumper, 1200 Beats - "Run it Dub" just fall into my mind), but sadly the clubs in my hometown keep up their love for minimal techno-stuff and those are tracks I listened to at home.

But basically in 2006 I just unplugged from modern music even more. I guess I did miss some great stuff because no-one told me about or I simply refused to listen (TBA is still trying all the time, hehe), but I was occupied with other music.
I spent my year listening to more of the 60s and 70s, jazz, soundtracks, disco, got alot of those old eastern-european records I love so much (jazz, funk, pop, you name it) and really started to get more into classic and contemporary classic music (like with synths and stuff, from the (you guessed it) 70s).

I really don't know if it's true what someone told me a few days ago in a bar, that art in general literally came to a standstill in the past years, lets see what the new 2007 brings.
But one of the reasons why I love 60s/70s music in general so much is simply the fact that back then all those musicians gathered together in a studio and started playing together whereas today with computers and stuff nearly all music, even the classic "band-on-stage" rock music gets recorded with each member of the band playing their parts alone in the studio, often recorded in "takes" and then cut and looped and modified to "fit". The magic of musicians interacting and playing together and with each other just isn't happening anymore. I don't know any recent tracks that made me listen closely to the way the bass-player in the background suddenly starts freaking out during the bridge (stiletto main theme), the way the drummer keeps varying his breaks all trough the song (warren schatz - "I need your smile") and I don't the goosebumps I get when in some 70s Bert Kaempfert song suddenly a string quartet starts playing some incredibly emotional chords. Maybe I am getting old. Sigh.

11 gnarls barkley - st. elsewhere (2006)

11 gnarls barkley - st.elsewhere (2006)

the must-be-in record

why not start my top ten with a number 11? i made a list of records and ended up with st.elsewhere being the left-over. but hell, this record deserves a place in the hit list. let us start with the facts: crazy, the first single, was the summer song 2006. and righteously so, not only because it is damn catchy and puts everybody in a great mood, but also because it was the first song ever that reached the top of the charts in the uk without any distribution of physical copies of the track. in other words: it got number one only by downloads. make a note in your history books, people!



but what is even more important: gnarls barkley easily keep the standard of crazy throughout the whole record. the intro song go-go gadget gospel is a hymn that sets the pace for the rest of the songs.
gone daddy gone, i had to learn, is a violent femmes cover, one that is in fact quite close to the original version.





smiley faces is my favourite, just a thought the breakbeat ballade and transformer the song with the funny gimmicks. all in all, st. elsewhere is a record that lines up in a row with those of gorillaz or dj shadow. it combines hiphop with breakbeat with pop with soul with dance. we need more music like this. we need more summer songs like these - next year!

smiley faces, video version with a touch of the likes of spinal tap or a mighty wind:

Excuse me ?

In the past months I listened to alot of 60s and 70s funk/soul/blues with female vocalists and got struck a few times by the lyrics, songs about their husband leaving them for the babysitter or the secretary (?), songs about obviously violent alcoholic men they love (??) but the song that popped up in my playlist just a few moments ago hits the can :

Donna McGhee - "Mr. Blindman"

"Mr. Blindman, you're a blind man, come and talk to me".

Wouldnt it be better to walk over to him ?! I mean, if he is blind ...

However, this also brings me to one of the best/worst musicvideos I know : Lionel Richie- "Hello". Enjoy, especially the crazy end.

Gosh, I need to make a house/brokenbeat-mashup of that track. I got it on vinyl, luckily.

60's u.s. soul documentary

saw a decent documentary about 60's soul and funk record companies like motown or stax. it basically described the different scenes in cities like philadelphia, chicago and memphis. it was great that the artists were presented just the way they were and could talk freely about whatever came to their mind. but the musical parts were way to short and the artist's names were not mentioned. as i am not too familiar with the scene, i'm gonna have a hard time now searching for the songs i liked.