Friday Random Five does what it has to.

I actually bought a song yesterday. It was ‘Shadows’ by the Midnight Juggernauts, available (in non-DRM mp3 format!) from Inertia Records. Hard to say who’s flogging it harder, me or Triple J. It’s an aggressive slice of dance funk electronica. Anyone’s life would be augmented by hearing it.

On to the Friday tunes.

Sicilienne by Gabriel Fauré Album: Classic Moods
Classical ‘best of’ CDs are something of an embarrassment to their owners. You weren’t sufficiently connaissant to hunt down the definitive Fauré Requiem; you had to go out and find some collection at WalMart for a buck ninety five, and listen to it while you’re doing the washing up. This collection’s even worse; not only is it too plebian to list the artists, it actually lists the movies that have used the tracks! Right after the name of the song! Oh, the shame. They’re going to revoke my WASO season pass for sure.

The Sicilienne is Fauré at his usual melodic self. Light and dancing; lovely.

The Lure of Silence by Tim Story Album: Soul of the Machine
This Windham Hill compilation has come up before. It’s one of the few I still listen to. This piece is contemplative. It repeats an A to C interval like a metronome. The effect is that of the quiet passing of time.

War on War by Wilco Album: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Isn’t this a tremendous album. Hard to believe that the label didn’t know what to do with it when they got it; they thought it was too noisy. Hadn’t anyone heard of adding weird little electronica touches? Fortunately the band raised the money to buy it back and release it on their own Nonesuch label. For all the fuss, the track is smooth and grooving, not bellicose as the title would suggest.

Used to Be a Sweet Boy by Morrissey Album: Vauxhall and I
One supposes the boy to be Morrissey himself, reminiscing about his childhood, before all the bad happened:

Used to be a sweet boy
Holding so tightly to Daddy’s hand
But that was all in some distant land.

Moz has a real gift for writing about his childhood in a way that makes you feel that he’s writing about yours. I’m thinking of Late Night Maudlin Street, but I could have picked a later one like There is a Light that Never Goes Out. Maybe this what makes Morrissey so appealing to his legions of obsessive fans.

Cellistica by Klaus Schulze Album: Audentity
If you ever find a copy of this 2-disc work by electronic experimentalist Klaus Schulze, buy it. Take the first disc and throw it in the bin. Then superglue the second disc into your CD player.

I first heard this disc because my Spokane friend Brent Beever (of Cattleprod fame) gave me a four-track tape of his songs called “All My Best”. I listened to it for a couple of years without ever turning it over. When I accidentally inserted it upside-down in someone’s car tape deck, I was suprised to hear this on the b-side. What I heard was 25 minutes of cybernetic cityscape with cello followed by another 25 minutes of… well, I won’t describe it in case it comes up later. And I didn’t even know what it was or how to find it. No record store guys knew. It would have to wait 15 years until the collective experience of Internet users could tell me.

Alas, this is from disc one. The feel is the same, but the pace is too frenetic. The parts mash together into a textureless blur. But it gets easier as it goes. The music unwinds and you get lost in it. It’s not an exercise in patience like some Autechre; it’s atmospheric and engrossing.