15 January 2013 - Back to the Plastic Crate

It was back to the plastic crate for today’s first two selections on a standard work day.

(45) Scott Walker – The  Drift

The follow up to TILT, 12 years in the making, I thought this might be a good choice to start the day.  I figured this would be similar to the template of previous Walker albums, alternating between slow and slightly more up tempo numbers.  The opener, Cossacks Avenue, a slow meandering tune with industrial overtones was a brilliant opening.  The rest of the album was quite a departure and made for challenging listening.  Rather than pay close attention I simply let it wash over me.  This is one that demands concentration, preferably in a quiet place with the headphones.  Memo to self: don’t let “M” hear this one to prevent Walker joining her “Music for Committing Suicide” list, an unfair fate if there ever was one.

(46) Tubeway Army – Replicas Redux bonus disc  - Demos and Early Versions

 This was a far more appropriate choice for a morning listen.  Tubeway Army was effectively a band to showcase the talents of Gary Numan, who ditched the moniker after this album’s success.   One of the first massively popular synth albums, Replicas , contained the hits Down In The Park, Are Friends Electric? and other tracks in the same vein.  Replicas Redux is a two disc set containing the album and B-sides on Disc One and these early versions on a bonus disc.  These tracks lack the sheer power and production of the final album and B-sides and don’t differ much in their arrangements.  One for the completeists.

(47) The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project – The Journey Is Long

This was a recent purchase.  Jeffrey Lee Pierce, mostly through his band, The Gun Club was responsible for delivering some of the most enduring music from the US Punk scene of the 80s.  The best way to describe his music is a hybrid of punk, delta blues, country and rockabilly that garnered many fans and friends in alternative music circles.  Although all four of the Gun Club’s studio albums are worth listening to, especially their debut Fire Of Love, but their best work was done live.  A hellraiser of the highest order, Pierce unfortunately died of a brain haemorrhage in 1996.

The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, is an amalgam of musicians (many of them Pierce’s friends) who have recorded albums of Pierce music, most of which had not been previously recorded or released.  The Journey Is Long is the second album they’ve produced and incudes such luminaries as Nick Cave (solo and in a duet with Deborah Harry), Steve Wynn, Barry Adamson, Lydia Lunch (solo and in a duet with Tex Perkins), Mick Harvey, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, The Jim Jones Revue and Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell.  Everyone involved succeeds in distilling the essence of Pierce/The Gun Club and as such the album has a seamless feel to it despite being recorded all over the world.  I was so impressed that I played it twice.