Unless I’m going to the footy or “M” has a day off, these
trips are usually the only time I get to drive alone. Given that we spend our travel time talking,
these solo country trips are usually the only time I have the car stereo to myself. My trips take a minimum of an hour to complete
one way, so it provides a great opportunity to listen to a lengthy album or
multi disc set and without “M”,
I can also play some of the more extreme music (to her
ears, not mine) in my collection. In any
case I like the idea of bring gratuitous urban noise to the peace and quiet of
the country.
But, for once, I was in no doubt what I was going to play
first, having decided the night before:
(107) My Bloody
Valentine – Loveless
This is one of the absolute cornerstones of my collection, an album that redefined the way I conceived of
what constituted music. Is it a psychedelic album? Yes. Does it revel in noise? Absolutely. Feedback? Yep. Other
things you can’t make out? By the bucket load. It is an ambitious sprawling behemoth of a
record melding sheer noise with effects, differing styles and song craft. To these ears, there are effectively two
layers of sound. First there is an outer
shell of continuous noise and effects which appears to never let up – there isn’t
a note of silence anywhere on the album.
The songs constitute its inner core and these emerge, at times almost
magically, from the abyss. (The prime
illustration is the last 40 seconds of rhythmic noise that marks the end of the
delicate To Here Knows When as well as the start of the brilliant When You
Sleep.) This pattern is more or less
continuous for almost the length of the album.
The penultimate track What You Want ends with 60 seconds of presumably a
loop of electronic effects foreshadowing the dance beats that underpins the amazing
closer Soon. After listening to this the
first time, suddenly a whole lot of music made a lot more sense to me. For example, I was finally able to listen and
appreciate PsychoCandy and Sonic Youth started to feel a lot more conventional. It provided a form of framework that has
allowed me to comprehend and appreciate a range of other acts that were even more
extreme, such as Swans, Sun o))) and Boris and to distinguish them from lesser
acts. And all that is before considering the range of acts that have no doubt
been influenced by it. No wonder it took 22 years for Kevin Shields to think about, conceive and record a follow
up.
(108) Primal Scream –
XTRMNTR
Kevin Shields was more or less a member of Primal Scream
when they recorded this album. It has a
much harsher tone than the band’s previous output, one that is more in tune with
Loveless. At its best – and make no
mistake, this is Primal Scream’s best album – tracks meld the Loveless sonic
attack with great rock. As a result the
album is, among others, home to the extraordinary Accelerator, the relentless
Swastika Eyes and the soundtrack-esque Blood Money. But as great as this album undoubtedly is, it
paled into insignificance when the band (with Shields) toured this album. The show I saw at The Palace on 29 January 2000
is close to the very best gig I’ve ever seen with each track played with an
intensity that bordered on the insane.
(109) Mogwai – EP + 6
Mogwai is a Scottish band that plays often heavily distorted
instrumentals and has plainly been influenced by My Bloody Valentine among others. This CD brings together 3 EPs for one 70+
minute album. The longest track here, Stereodee stretches for 13 and a half
minutes sounding for the most part like The Beatles final cord on A Day In The
Life played by massed guitars complete with feedback and effects. There are wonderfully nuanced slower and atmospheric
tunes such as Stanley Kubrick as well as tracks like the 11 minute Xmas Steps
and the wonderful closer Rage: Man which
utilises the slow/fast/slow template they were to perfect on subsequent albums
and especially on their classic track Like Herod.
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