Stegzy's Music Project

Bourne Identity & Bourne Supremacy Soundtracks – John Powell (#213 & #214)

by stegzy

Bourne Identity & Bourne Supremacy Soundtracks by John Powell

Gripping drama needs a gripping soundtrack. From what was a promising start to a trilogy (that now seems to be developing into a larger multifilm series) comes John Powell’s tense soundtrack.

I think the composer did very well to capture the various nuances of the film with these soundtracks and it often drowns out the dialogue in the film. However, this is forgivable for without the soundtrack the excitement wouldn’t build as well as it did. Take track 3 of the first album, Treadstone Assassins; it definitely builds the tension, adds a little bit of “here comes a film that can even have it’s own spin-off TV series” and tickles the auditory senses with “wow, bet you didn’t expect that”.

Furthermore, the cold wet European locations used in the film are also depicted aurally in these soundtracks. Powell is definitely a composer to look out for. Maybe not akin to John Williams or Danny Elfman, but certainly on the same bus….

Here I’d usually include a youtube video relating to the albums but it appears that the Youtube Copyright Nazis have been blocking access to most of the best ones. I really don’t know why copyright holders (like SONY) are such blanket fascists when it comes to digital media. I guess you’ll just have to watch the film….

2002 2004 John Powell Soundtracks

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Born of the Night – Midnight Syndicate [#212]

by stegzy

Born of the Night – Midnight Syndicate

If you ever want to give your neighbours the impression you are a goat worshiping Satanist or maybe get the locals gossiping about you being a bit odd. Then all you have to do is put this album on, invite a few local dignitaries round for a glass of red wine and roll your eyes uncontrollably while chanting in Latin every hour or so.

Seriously.

This album will make you seem like either a teenager trying to be all out goth or a middle aged nut case who wants Peter Sutcliffe or Charlie Manson as bunk mates. If you were holding a seriously dark Halloween party then yeah, this would go down well providing, of course, there are no plans to dish out psychotropic drugs with the jelly and ice-cream.

Midnight Syndicate

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Born Again – Blood Axis [#211]

by stegzy

Born Again – Blood Axis

We first came across Blood Axis on his collaboration with Le Joyaux de la Princesse. If you recall, he’s the guy who reads all the English translated French poetry to weird atmospheric remixes of gramophone records. Oh yeah, he gets better. Truly.

So here we are at his third studio album, Born Again. Michael Moynahan menaces his way through 12 tracks of moroseness. Great stuff. Of course you’ll only really appreciate how good when people tell you that the music you’re listening to is a racket and can you please turn it off. Which happens everytime with Born Again. I love it! Possibly not as much as his first studio effort, Gospel of Inhumanity but not that far off.

Blood Axis

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Book of Kells – Iona (#210)

by stegzy

Book of Kells – Iona

New age floaty vaginary with added Christian connotations. Presumably to stop people descending into debauched pagan wizardry. Or taking up tofu wrestling. Or goji berry worship.

This album is not too bad. If you were to replace the awful Christianised lyrics with some sort of Lisa Gerrard-esque wailing, it would be nice as background music. Unfortunately, the frequent bible based lyrics make it embarrassingly unacceptable as social or seduction music. Unless you’re one of those weird religious types for whom “letting the spirit of God enter you” is a euphemism for nookie.

Iona

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[Big] Bond Movie Themes – Geoff Love & His Orchestra (#209)

by stegzy

[Big] Bond Movie Themes – Geoff Love & His Orchestra

Ok. Well it was going to happen. Some git tagged this album with the incorrect album name thus buggering up my alphabetising of the project.

Bond Movie Themes, or BIG Bond Movie Themes sees us back in the welcoming auralscape of Geoff Love’s easy listening. The main theme gets the Love treatment along with a number of Bond theme tunes.

Not as good as Geoff’s sojourn into Westerns or Sci-fi but a notable addition to his works.

Geoff Love & his Orchestra

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Bodkin – Bodkin (#208)

by stegzy

Bodkin – Bodkin

This album is exactly what I’m doing the Music Project for.

My music collection is so vast it is impossible for me to have listened to every single album. The point of this project is to listen, filter and discuss with others what the albums mean to me, them and the rest of history. It is also there for me to delete albums that I have no wish to listen to again. However it is also there for me to discover albums I didn’t know I had. This is like that.

Bodkin is a gem. A prize in Prog-ism. Heavy in Hammond organ. Crazy drug inspired lyrics and wild wild instrument solo breaks. What more could a prog fan want?

Bodkin were a Scottish progressive rock band from the 1970s Doug Rome (Hammond organ), Mick Riddle (guitar), Bill Anderson (bass), Dick Sneddon on drums and Zeik Hume on vocals. A smooth mix of dirty blues (much like the Groundhogs) and Heavy Prog (King Crimson). Unique sound. An absolute pleasure to listen to and almost akin to Thotch

Unfortunately, Bodkin is the only album Bodkin made and it leaves you wanting more. Considering I heard this for the first time the other week, the album has already gone up my personal charts and nuzzled itself between Illusions on A Double Dimple (Triumvirat) and Animals (Pink Floyd).

Bodkin

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Blue Lines – Massive Attack (#207)

by stegzy

Blue Lines – Massive Attack

As I’ve stated before during this project, when relationships break down these days there is often an amicable exchange of music via the ripping of jointly owned CDs and mergence of MP3 libraries. Unlike in the past where bitch fights would break out over who owned the Peter Sarstedt album, these days we can share and amalgamate, break up peacefully without the need to decimate music collections.

Unless you’re a bastard and you delete all your music just to spite them.

Anyway, this is an album gained through one such breakup. I’m not a big Massive Attack fan. I have their best of somewhere I think, though it doesn’t seem to have appeared on this project yet, and I have their “coffee table album” Mezzanine. But other than a few songs of there, I’m not a big fan. They’re ok. Just not my scene. A little like a seedy version of Portishead.

So I can’t really tell you what I think about this album other than I like one song on it. The rest is just Meh. I have no stories attached to the album and I have little memory of when it was added to my library.

Massive Attack

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Blue Jays – Justin Hayward & John Lodge (#206)

by stegzy

Blue Jays – Justin Hayward & John Lodge

Now this is more like it. Former Moody Blues members Lodge and Hayward meet, play and record this album which has all the feel of a Moody Blues album but with a kind of Bryant and May kind of folk sound undertone.

I was given this album when it failed to sell in a jumble sale at the church club I used to work at. I’m still grateful. Such an amazing album. Prog with a message. The message? Don’t piss your fellow band members off.

Great stuff.

John Lodge Justin Hayward Moody Blues

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Blue is the Colour – Beautiful South (#205)

by stegzy

Blue is the Colour – Beautiful South

Another band I’ve been told I must like. Sorry. I don’t. I never have. Even when they were the Housemartins. Hated them. Sorry.

Why is it in my collection then? Well remember, I have acquired many albums over the years and when breakups occur, instead of having to divvy up the CD collection, you just copypasta the MP3 collection and everyone is happy, no?

Beautiful South though…no. Can’t understand the appeal. Musically they’re bland, formulaic and uninspiring. Lyrically, they’re nothing special. Maybe I just haven’t had the right tunes forced upon me. Not sure. Anyway, no. Not for me. Sorry.

I can’t even face finding a Youtube video for them either….

Beautiful South (The)

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Blue Album: 1967-1970 – The Beatles (#204)

by stegzy

Blue Album: 1967-1970 – The Beatles

Now, I’m going to say something controversial. If you are so self opinionated that other people disagreeing with what you say offends you, I suggest you come back tomorrow and not read this post.

Ok?

Right….

I’m Stegzy Gnomepants, I am from Liverpool….and I don’t rate the Beatles.

There I’ve said it. In fact, I think Abba did more for popular music than the Beatles ever did. Sure they were influential in their own time; Yes they did some ground breaking stuff. But honestly? Are they so Earth shatteringly important to music history? Nah. Nah. Not in my world.

This is a kind of best of album featuring the Beatles’ greatest hits. Which, if you were to listen to any Beatle fan, is nearly every song they did. Apart from the ones that nobody knows. The album covers songs released between 1967 and 1970, just when the Fab Four weren’t experimenting with drugs. “Honestly”. Lennon is clearly off his squid with his colourful lyrics. Starr is hallucinating about octopi and McCartney is pretending to be good at music while Harrison is off worshiping rugs or something.

It’s not the later politically aware stuff and it’s not the previously soppy kissy kissy bollocks. This is the eclectic stuff like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and Lucy. The album only appears in my collection out of respect for others who have yet to realise that there were far more talented musicians on the scene at the time, but just didn’t look right or ended up bothering God.

Beatles

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Blue Album – Weezer (#203)

by stegzy

Blue Album – Weezer

I first came across Weezer, like most people in the 1990s, after watching their video which was hidden on Windows 95. Buddy Holly was the song. Happy Days was the video. Ah, to see the Fonz doing his bit. Always brings a smile that does.

Weezer

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The Blood of My Lady – Unto Ashes (#202)

by stegzy

The Blood of My Lady – Unto Ashes

Having gained an interest in the neofolk genre following the acquisition of the Looking for Europe compilation I came upon Unto Ashes via the wonders of the Aural Apocalypse podcast. I miss Aural Apocalypse.

This is the band’s sixth album and was released in 2009. Unto Ashes are one of those rare bands that actually use hurdy gurdys, dulcimers and other obscure instruments. Much like a really folky version of Dead Can Dance but with less wailing and more singing. Similar also to Brillig whose Red Coats album will feature on this project in a couple of years. So it makes sense that I would like Unto Ashes too.

This is one of the reasons I love the internet. Without the internet my music collection would still have been compiled of popular generalist stuff from visits to HMV or Virgin Mega Store. The internet helped me discovered bands that I would never have heard otherwise. A goal I hope to achieve by completing this music project. If I can, by writing this project, influence just one person to become a fan of band they would never have heard without it, I will feel accomplished.

Unto Ashes

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The Blood is Strong – Capercaillie (#201)

by stegzy

The Blood is Strong – Capercaillie

Gaelic floaty vaginas weave yogurt and knit tofu with deft musical folkiness. Nice as background for those trying to feel a bit Shamanistic or those who think burning joss sticks is a great way for getting a in tune with nature while they tuck into their falafel burgers.

Not my cup of tea now but was a good decade ago.

capercaillie

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Blood – This Mortal Coil – (#200)

by stegzy

Blood – This Mortal Coil

Back to the 4AD stable and this time with Ivo Watt’s This Mortal Coil (TMC) project. This album appeared on many coffee tables in the 1990s until it was buried under more mature offerings by similar bands, kebab wrappers and copies of X-Files magazines. To be forgotten about until discovered once more and consigned to the “Oxfam” box.

Blood is TMCs difficult second album. There are a few good tracks where the original lineups sound demonstrated in It’ll End in Tears is almost replicated but I think by the time you get to track 15 it’s getting a bit tiresome.

TMC take some obscure masterpieces from forgotten artists and albums like Spirit, Ray Harper and Chris Bell and give it the ethereal gothy shoegazer treatment. Crafting an album so full of mournfulness that even the person on the album cover feels sorry.

Don’t get me wrong though, this is not a bad album and it is still better than the third TMC attempt, Filigree and Shadow. But unless you’ve come to TMC as a fanboy, hipster or wanting to feel a bit morose, then Blood is probably not your cup of bitter tears.

Tanya Donelly This Mortal Coil

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Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World (#199)

by stegzy

Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World

Not sure about how this came to be in my collection. It’s possible someone copied it for me saying “You’ll like this”, I don’t. Or it’s possible I heard them sing something once and thought “Hey they might be alright”, they’re not.

It’s more than likely that they were mentioned in the Guardian one Saturday and I got it based on that. Either way, this is the first time I’ve listened to this album in the 10+ years I’ve had it. It’s a bit sucky.

Jimmy Eat World

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Black Snake Diamond Role – Robyn Hitchcock (#198)

by stegzy

Black Snake Diamond Role – Robyn Hitchcock

I’m not sure what to make of Robyn Hitchcock. I mean I should like him. Eclectic lyrics with humour, songs with silly titles and Englishness. I guess he just tries too hard.

Black Snake contains my favourite all time song containing the best lyric ever written for a song: Brenda’s Iron Sledge. (Please don’t call me Reg, It’s not my name). It’s very Half Man Half Biscuit, but not. It’s quite Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, but not. It’s the Kinks in their most psychedelic, but not. I can’t place it. Again, there are a few Hitchcock albums in this project coming from the downloading of back catalogues.

I guess you have to be there. But to illustrate I’m posting two video examples of Hitchcock’s work. Let me know what you think.

Robyn Hitchcock

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Black Mass – Lucifer (#197)

by stegzy

Black Mass – Lucifer

Probably capitalising on the Satanist revival of the early 1970s, inspired by really crap Hammer Films and tales about sexy parties with proto-goth types with beards, big breasts and a penchant for some Latin, the band Lucifer released Black Mass in 1971.

Listening to it, I can imagine people meeting in well to do middle class suburban 1970s homes, whacking this on the old gramaphone, lighting a few red and black candles and trying to reenact scenes from The Devil Rides Out or Omen. Not to summon the goat of Mendez but just to get a bit of a kinky shag and something to talk about down at the social club with the lads.

Despite the name, the band title and the cover, this album has all the devilishness and sinisterness of an episode of Science Today. However, it is possible the likes of Vangelis, Jarre and Oldfield listened to this as there are some interesting comparisons with their later works. Lucifer, it turns out, is actually a solo project by the composer Mort Garson who worked on many other non-satanic things.

A great album if you want to upset the neighbours or make your parents think you’re sacrificing goats for fun.

Lucifer

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Black Ships Ate the Sky – Current 93 (#196)

by stegzy

Black Ships Ate the Sky – Current 93

Black Ships is everything I could ever want from an album. Unusual styles. Big names collaborating with lesser known artists. Weird lyrics. Concept album.

I like to listen to this album when I’m feeling poorly or low. Meditative, the album reaches into the dark recesses of one’s psyche and stirs up visualisations of terrifying times. This makes me think of the classic woodcut from 16th Century Basle which depicts the aerial battle between black spheres and white spheres.

Of course it has nothing to do with that event, that is just me. The actual album has some manic tracks that invoke panic and fear interwoven with artists like Marc Almond, Bonnie Prince Billy and Anthony (of Johnsons fame) singing versions of the 1763 Methodist hymn “Idumæa” by Charles Wesley.

If you want your music to make you feel unusual, this album will do it for you. I suggest that you avoid consuming anything too psychotropic when you’re listening to it though. Some of the tracks and lyrics can be too stressful.

2006 Anthony Bonnie Prince Billy Current 93

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Black Sessions – Cocteau Twins (#195)

by stegzy

Black Sessions – Cocteau Twins

More haunting ethereal songs, this time from the Scottish masters of the genre – Cocteau Twins.

During the height of the ethereal genre and 4AD’s dominance of new wave music, the Cocteau Twins were the band that was synonymous with the genre. Liz Fraser, Robin Guthrie and Will Heggie seeded the 1990s with their unique sound and, quite often, featured on television and film soundtracks.

Of course I wasn’t much of a fan. I’m still not. But having heard them not only on the Uncut: 4AD compilation and the soundtrack for the film Lost Highway I was intregued to find out more. So I did my usual thing of downloading all their back catalogue. Over time I’ve deleted many of the albums I had, purely because their works are too similar. Those that remain feature only the songs that I like. Black Sessions is a live recording of the band when the were featured on the French radio station France Inter. I kept this in hope that I might become more enamoured with the band. I didn’t.

So for that reason, I can never be a hipster.

Cocteau Twins

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Black Hole – Original Soundtrack (#194)

by stegzy

Black Hole – Original Soundtrack

The soundtrack to my favourite childhood film as composed and performed by John Barry.

This is a strange piece of work. It’s very militaristic in many respects. All trumpets and snare drums. But it works well alone or with the film in its original setting.

The first track, the overture, is a bit cringe making but once that’s out of the way you’ve got the music from the film in its orchestral splendour.

1979 John Barry Soundtracks

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Black Forest Gateau – Neu! (#193)

by stegzy

Black Forest Gateau – Neu!

What I loved about the nineties and the noughties was how I’d rediscover old bands that had been around for ages but I hadn’t heard of them. Like Greenslade. Or Renaissance.

Neu was one such band. My dear friend Jamie downloaded this one rainy evening. I’d gone round to visit, possibly to talk computers or swap software or something. He played the album to me and I was immediately besotted with it. Simple yet out of their time melodies. No singing. Just electronic music. Think Kraftwerk without weirdness.

Of course it later became harder for me to source music like this without someone to bounce CDs off. When Jamie moved away from Liverpool and returned to Preston, new music like this in my life also started to dry up. I became too stuck on one genre.

Still, this is good stuff. The kind of music I’d like to listen to high on morphine while flying through the skies in the air ambulance. Or on a rocket. Or UFO.

Or squirrel.

Neu

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Black Celebration – Depeche Mode [#192]

by stegzy

Black Celebration – Depeche Mode

This is where Depeche Mode tries to turn synth pop into some dark S&M fetish club. And it works. Later albums do it even better but this is possibly the first in their catalogue that does it. It is Depeche Mode’s fifth studio album. It succeeds in being dark by ripping the band from their poppy beginnings, like some Vince Clarke exorcism has taken place and summoned some sort of sexy winged pain mistress through a doorway to hell. To feast on your soul.

This album is delicious. It’s like licking dark chocolate off the boots of Lilith Silver. Because she tells you to. A great album to begin a teenager’s journey into gothdom.

1986 Depeche Mode

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Birds of Passage – Bel Canto (#191)

by stegzy

Birds of Passage – Bel Canto (191)

I first came across Bel Canto on the Heavenly Voices compilation. Or at least I think I did.

There has always been something familiar – Hauntingly familiar – about this album. As if I’ve always known it. As if at some point I’ve blanked the album from my memory only to have it resurface some years later and it appear fresh and exciting to me. No. That’s not it. It’s very difficult for me to put it into words. Perhaps this then. No other album inspires deja vu the way this album does with me.

Anyway, this is an example of music from the ethereal genre popular in the early to late 90s. Spooky haunting vocals over placid lake like compositions. This is the only Bel Canto album I have and it is their second. I understand they’ve had many other releases but this, I have been told, is the definitive. The perfect one. It’s hard not to disagree. It flows like liquid. Chilled. Into your mind. Through your ears.

Bel Canto

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Binbags – D’Ave (#190)

by stegzy

Binbags – D’Ave

D’Ave is an artist I’ve found very little information about. I first came across D’Ave on a compilation I was sent by the now defunct music label Peoplesound. I liked his work so much I sent off for his album and this is that album.

Peoplesound will feature quite a few times through the duration of this project. Years ahead of its time, the site encouraged unsigned bands to record demos and albums which the site would then promote to music listeners and allow them to download samples or buy whole albums. The site lasted for several years and kept me in new music for just as long.

Of course few bands from the Peoplesound label actually made it big. Which is a shame as many were bloody good. Maybe some have changed their name and gone on to big things or maybe they’ve given up and got sensible jobs now. There is no way to find out really.

Anyway, as I said, D’Ave was a Peoplesound artist. I liked him. I bought his album. I can’t find anything about him other than the information I put on Last.fm.

Good tunes.

D'ave Peoplesound

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Big Western Themes – Geoff Love and his Orchestra (#189)

by stegzy

Big Western Themes – Geoff Love and his Orchestra

There simply was no end to Geoff’s talents. Not only does he dominate easy listening but his use of the word BIG for all his albums just shows how massive he was in the genre. If anyone tells you that Mantovani or James Last were better. Burn them as heretics. Geoff is where it is at.

This album is a prime example as to why. As with Big Terror Movie Themes Love uses his talents to craft a singular work of outstanding beauty by utilising the whole orchestra and adding an electric guitar. Sure, this is what he did in Big Terror Movie Themes and would go on to do in later albums but the mix here is perfect.

I’d even be as bold to say Love takes Morricone, Bernstein and Tiomkin, shoves them into a cupboard and shows them how it should be done. This album is a work of art and it is good to see that the majority of the MFP albums are now available for download from the usual music locations.

Geoff Love & his Orchestra

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A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Bourne Identity & Bourne Supremacy Soundtracks by John Powell

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Born of the Night – Midnight Syndicate

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Born Again – Blood Axis

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[Big] Bond Movie Themes – Geoff Love & His Orchestra

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Bodkin – Bodkin

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Blue Lines – Massive Attack

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Blue Jays – Justin Hayward & John Lodge

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Blue is the Colour – Beautiful South

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Blue Album: 1967-1970 – The Beatles

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Blue Album – Weezer

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The Blood of My Lady – Unto Ashes

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The Blood is Strong – Capercaillie

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Blood – This Mortal Coil

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Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World

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Black Snake Diamond Role – Robyn Hitchcock

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Black Ships Ate the Sky – Current 93

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Black Sessions – Cocteau Twins

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Black Hole – Original Soundtrack

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Black Celebration – Depeche Mode

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Birds of Passage – Bel Canto (191)

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Binbags – D’Ave

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Big Western Themes – Geoff Love and his Orchestra

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