Fades in Slowly: free mp3 downloads

Back after a work imposed hiatus, here’s podcast 3 in all its tainted glory. As will become evident, I had some problems putting it together, so here’s a somewhat more detailed track listing than you’re used to:

1) Isaac Hayes – Walk on by (1969) (Hot Buttered Soul)

‘Walk on by’ was composed by the legendary Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David, especially written for Dionne Warwick. Like many of Warwick's 1960s Bacharach-composed singles, ‘Walk on by’ has been heavily covered, in my opinion most notably in this Isaac Hayes version, from his 1969 groundbreaking album ‘Hot Buttered Soul’. By 1969, black artists were following rock's lead and recording extended epics. At the forefront of such experimentation was big bad Isaac Hayes, co-author of countless Stax classics and an artist in his own right. On this album, Hayes took two MOR-pop benchmarks, ‘Walk on by’ and Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and spun them out into slow-building sermons lasting 12 and 18.5 minutes apiece. This album did as much as any to revolutionise soul music. I chanced upon it in the early 90s when I was in the habit of going into record shops and buying albums by artists I’d never heard of.

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2) Fela Kuti - Gbagada gbogodo (1973) (Afrodisiac)

The musical style of Fela Kuti is known as Afrobeat, essentially a fusion of jazz, funk and Traditional African Chant. It is characterized by its African style percussion, vocals, and musical structure, along with jazzy, funky horn sections. This track, dedicated to Benet, who loans me the sound recorder for these podcasts, comes from the 1973 album ‘Afrodisiac’. I genuinely forgot the name of the track, which is handy because I’d have had absolutely no chance of pronouncing it correctly.

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3) The Fall – Fall sound (2007) (Reformation Post TLC)

The full name of the album being ‘Reformation Post Traitors, Liars, Cunts’, this 2007 effort contains a few great tracks, for those who thought otherwise. I can’t believe I made it to 3 podcasts without playing a Fall track. I’ll make up for it and you can expect ‘Imperial Wax Solvent’ to feature soon.

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4) Tricky, Martina Topley-Bird and Terry Hall – Poems (1996) (Nearly God)

‘So how does it feel to be God... well, nearly God?’ This question was posed to Tricky some time before the recording of this collaborative masterpiece, and it clearly stuck in his memory. I’m still as astounded by this track as I was the first time I heard it, particularly the three separate vocals of the artists involved. Sadly, tricky has rarely been so Godlike in his subsequent efforts.

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5) Martina Topley-Bird – April Grove (2008) (The Blue God)

The album didn’t receive the best of critical reviews but I’ve always been a sucker for her vocals and this is as good as ever.

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6) Sebastian Fors & The Ones That Got Away – Nanana (2008) (Sebastian Fors on Myspace)

This band wrote to me and asked me to give them a listen, which I did. Sebastian Fors & The Ones That Got Away started out as a musical collective in constant change with members changing before each show, with everything from one to seven people on stage at the same time. They have now settled their roots with a line up consisting of:

Sebastian Fors
Gustav Bengtsson
Tobias Adolfsson
Joakim Johansson
Jens Wicksén

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7) Link Wray – Big City after Dark (1993) (Rumble - The best of)

I understand that a lot of people rate Jimi Hendrix very highly, but personally I’ve always felt that most of the time he was basically having a wank with the aid of a guitar. Link Wray, on the other hand, is a well ‘ard bastard of the guitar fraternity, as this masterpiece reveals. Please vote in the Wray v. Hendrix poll, that will run until August (you’re even allowed to wrongly choose Hendrix, should you wish).

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8) The Glass Family – House of Glass (1968)

This track comes from a fabulously kitsch 2004 collection called Hallucinations: Psychedelic pop nuggets from the vault. It’s worth a listen if you can get hold of a copy, and really is like spending an hour in the company of Austin Powers. When choosing a track I tried to find one that had aged well. I failed.

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9) Jon Pertwee - Who Is the Doctor? (early 70s)

A fitting way to end the podcast, courtesy of the mighty ‘Raiding The Vinyl Archive’ blog, who has this to say:

'Back in the early 70s I had a special way of listening to this record. My friend would bring it round, I would take the speakers off the wall, put them on the table and we would stick our heads between them and play it at high volume. It had some great panning stereo effects.'

Please bear in mind that I was nearly run over on several occasions recording the speaky bits, so all comments are especially welcome this time.

Download the bugger:

Length: 53 mins
File size: 73mb

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

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Who was John Peel?

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