This week I find myself listening to a lot of Karma County, a very good Australian band whose sound is earthy and heartfelt, and maybe just a little strung out. You don’t know if these are guys you’d want to play poker with, but the music they make is very soulful.
Their song ‘Postcard’ is well worth a listen. The ‘ba ba ba’ chorus stays on the same notes, even while the chord structure drops lower and lower down the scale. Very artful. Have a listen and you’ll see what I mean. Click this link, go to ‘Music’, and hit the ‘Album Preview’ button for the album that matches the picture you see here. It’s track four.
The lyrics remind me of Jeff:
God speed my friend,
be sure to think of me
when you touch down,
cast out on a different sea.Just a postcard,
every now and then,
just to let me know
that you’re okay.
On to the random.
Music Non Stop by Kraftwerk Album: Minimum-Maximum
You know what I like about this album? Not that it’s live — Kraftwerk has never been known as radical improvisationalists. No, I just like that it exists. Kraftwerk touring? This is amazing, and I’ll tell you why.
The guys from Kraftwerk are not tremendously accessible people. The story is told of how Florian (or is it Ralf?) didn’t want to have a phone with a ringer on it in the studio. There was a procedure if you wanted to call them. You had to call at just a few seconds to noon. At precisely noon every day, Ralf (or Florian) would lift the phone to see if anyone wanted to talk. And that’s how you could phone them. So shy of the limelight were they that they found innovative ways to avoid performing, especially using robot surrogates (which suited their electronic style very well).
The other reason they never toured was because they couldn’t. It would have required inconveniently large rooms full of computer equipment to perform live. But now that computers have shrunk, they can do the whole thing on laptops. They were so far into the future that they had to wait for technology to catch up with them. And that’s the other reason I love that this album exists.
‘Music Non Stop’ was a little dull on the 1986 album Electric Café, but it’s been fine-tuned into a funky beast for the live shows.
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks – V Menuet I & II (Andante) by Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Bernard Haitink, conductor Album: Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks
Handel wrote some magnificent music. I like imagining this being played on a boat, floating up the Thames. As indeed it was, for King George I — hence the name.
Here’s the history:
On Wednesday 17 July 1717, in the evening, there occurred in London a royal event of great splendour. King George I and a large gathering of the English nobility boarded open barges on the river Thames at Whitehall and sailed up river to Chelsea, where they took supper. Such was the success of the evening that the party did not leave until three o’clock in the morning, the King arriving back at St James’s Palace at about half-past four. One of the river barges (according to a report in the Daily Courant of 19 July) ‘was employ’d for the Musick, wherein were 50 instruments of all sorts who play’d… the finest Symphonies, compos’d express for this Occasion, by Mr Hendel: which his Majesty liked so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in going and returning’.
Orchestra on a boat, Handel conducting. Now that was the way to ride.
Cigarettes Will Kill You by Ben Lee Album: Triple J Hottest 100, Volume 6
Always good to go back to this song. It’s not about cigarettes though — it’s more a metaphorical exploration of how we cook and eat the ones we love. Hmm.
Mayfly by Belle & Sebastian Album: If You’re Feeling Sinister
I have to say, this song would be less effective without the cheesy organ solo. Do you ever get the feeling that we just don’t deserve bands like Belle and Sebastian? They seem too sweet and pleasant to exist.
All in the Golden Afternoon by Alphaville Album: Prostitute
An album a lot of people missed, which is too bad because there are a lot of good moments on it. This is actually a setting of the Lewis Carroll poem where he describes a boat ride with the three Liddell girls who would serve as the model for Alice. It’s a lovely setting for the poem — almost more of a painting, really.
4 November 2006 at 11:45 am
I played Water Music in a young-ish string orchestra back in 2001 and it was nice to play. Like most other Handel. I have a book of his sonatas that are lovely just to pick one and sightread when I want to relax.
Ben Lee is also good. I’ve got his whole album in iTunes and I find it makes good study background music.
10 November 2006 at 12:29 am
I liked it enough to steal it for my header. Oh, I liked the music too.
10 November 2006 at 4:15 pm
jeffrey: I thought you might a bit.
ash: I can’t listen to the new Ben Lee album while trying to think. It could be that the lyrics are clever and I want to think about them, or it could be that the vocals are put right up front, no echo. Very direct.
Must be fun to be able to play Handel. And sightread.
11 November 2006 at 5:08 am
Seriously, anytime you want a lesson, let me know! It’d be different trying to teach an adult because their hands are never as flexible as a 5-year-old kid’s dirty-covered-in-play-doh hands.