9 Jan 2019
Hello there! New year seems a long and distant memory now but have no fear, three more songs to let into your life and hopefully bring some enjoyment to an always dreary early January feel!
First this week some Belgian based Latin music.......you are WELCOME! The group are called The Chakachas and were formed in the late 1950′s by many Belgian based Latin Soul session musicians. By the time they had stopped performing as a group in the late 1970′s they had achieved minor success in both UK & the US, their only number one coming in their native Belgium.....and you can imagine the competition it was up against. That said, the song I have chosen to share, taken from the soundtrack of one of the Grand Theft Auto games, allowed me to explore a little into their discography and there is some pretty good stuff! The minor success I referred to came in the form of the song ‘Jungle Fever’ which reached number 8 in the US but was not given the airplay in the UK due to the inclusion of moaning noises and heavy breathing! Enjoy this song anyway, a very happy feel to it!
The Chakachas - Stories - https://youtu.be/C_irhRECUfQ
Secondly this week and something from good old Blighty, namely a group called Field Music. Formed in 2004 in Newcastle they have released seven albums to date and I first heard of them after hearing a song off their 2012 release ‘Plumb’. That song was called ‘(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing’ and I enjoyed the album enough to check on their earlier releases. A mix of what critics have called art-rock combined with hints of art-pop mean a upbeat tempo to all their songs which are very cleverly written. The group were Mercury prize nominated and for my money deserve more success than they have attained so far. Their latest album released in February 2018 entitled ‘Open Here’ is a slight change to a more synth based direction with songs like ‘Count It Up’ a good advert for the album. The song I have chosen is one of my favourite of theirs off their 2016 release ‘Commontime’, there’s plenty of stuff of theirs to listen to and I will leave it in your capable hands to you to give the back catalogue a listen and decide upon your favourite album of theirs!
Field Music - Disappointed - https://youtu.be/tWoVU7Zd894
Finally this week and I’m going back to my ‘comfort music’. I give you my apologies now for this but with more time at home over the Christmas period I had some of my old music out and listened to some absolutely sensational stuff I have not listened to in a long time. Hands up who wants a 20 minute psychedelic rock song.....anyone?! Well I do! I often find myself lying in dark rooms relaxing to music and the band I love more than any other for this venture is Pink Floyd. Their brand of rock has had me hooked ever since hearing ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ for the first time in my teens. I’m convinced that hangovers, colds and fevers can be cured by killing the lights, plugging into DSOTM at a high volume and allowing yourself to drift off with the music. Tried and tested, it should be prescribed by doctors across the land! Now, if you are not Pink Floyd fans or only know the popular hits of theirs, ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, ‘Comfortably Numb’, ‘Money’ etc then here are a couple of songs for you to enjoy. My favourite song’s of theirs would probably be ‘Sheep’ from the album Animals, ‘Time’ from DSOTM and ‘Learning To Fly’ from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. There are plenty of other favourites but back to lying in a dark room, I had the following song and I could’ve lay there for hours listening to it. Try it, you know you want to!
Pink Floyd - Echoes - https://youtu.be/HuBqE9xGtiQ
So there we go, another posting done. Hope you find time to give all the songs shared a listen as well as the additional tracks/albums which are well worth a listen. Until next week, take it steady!
