personnel: Ramsey (grand piano & fender rhodes), Allen R. Toussaint (moog, vocoder, writer, & co-producer), Larry Dunn (keyboards & synths, synth programming, & co-producer), Sam Henry Jr. (fender rhodes), David Barard & Kenny Burke (bass), Leo Nocentelli & Roland Bautista (guitars), Herman V. Ernest III & James Gadson (drums), Kenneth Williams, Phillip Bailey, Paulinho da Costa, & Fred White (percussion).
A project for myself, so I can remember the music I enjoy.
Somehow, March hasn't been (what feels like) a particularly big month for music, mostly because I took some time off work and also spent several days not listening to anything even when I was working.
That said, I have managed to chip away at some things I've meant to listen to for a long time - hoping that sometime soon I can go back to my project of listening through everything on the Rolling Stone Top 500 albums of all time list. Here's hoping.
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Brian Eno - Apollo
I feel like every artist I love has worked with Brian Eno at some point, and it's been on my list for a long time actually give him a proper listen. I was worried when I started this one that, despite enjoying some pretty stark music sometimes, this one might not connect with me. It might not have hit me the way some things I pick up do immediately, but I still picked out 'Under Stars II', 'Deep Blue Day', and 'Weightless' as ones I particularly liked.
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Cocteau Twins - Fifty-Fifty Clown
I haven't given the Cocteau Twins a lot of attention, despite that they're associated with a lot of other acts from the same time/genre that I do really love. So, when this came on I thought that I'd give it a go, and ended up really liking this one. They're on my list to listen to more of soon.
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Stereolab - Dots And Loops / Emperor Tomato Ketchup
This one sparked kind of an obsession in me, to be honest. I've listened to 'Miss Modular' in particular most days since I put this on for the first time, but I also added 'The Flower Called Nowhere' and 'Diagonals' to the March playlist as well.
After listening to Dots And Loops, I moved onto Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which I enjoyed even more. Tracks I added to March's playlist are Percolator Spark Plug, The Noise of Carpet, and Slow Fast Hazel. All great, but Percolator and Spark Plug are my favourites.
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Neneh Cherry - Raw Like Sushi / Broken Politics
Two very different Neneh Cherry moods here - of course, Raw Like Sushi is an absolute classic and includes some really early trip-hop, which became a running theme for me from about mid-March. It's sort of basic but my favourites from RLS are, of course, Buffalo Stance and also Manchild. It made total sense to me that Robert Del Naja AKA Massive Attack's 3D worked on this song with her, because despite being from 1989 it's definitely a trip-hop song. Also I've just been singing the chorus of Buffalo Stance at Goose every day recently.
When I moved onto 2018's Broken Politics, it makes total sense that the sound is overall more mature and subdued, but I think this aspect of it also made it harder for me to connect with - but only for the first half. I really liked Kong, Faster Than the Truth Natural Skin Deep, and Slow Release from this one.
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Massive Attack - Blue Lines / Mezzanine
Massive Attack are, of course, not new to me. It's cliche but I actually was listening to them a lot during the years I lived in Bristol, almost as if the proximity to the Bristol sound made me want to engage with it. So going in already a fan meant that a lot of tracks from each album got added to the March playlist.
From Blue Lines, I added Safe From Harm, Blue Lines, Five Man Army, Unfinished Sky, and my absolute two favourites Daydreaming and Lately.
From Mezzanine, I added Inertia Creeps, Black Milk, Dissolved Girl, Group Four (Exchange), and my favourite Angel. Teardrop is also obviously an absolute classic and I didn't add it because it's one of those songs I just do not, and will not ever need a playlist to remind me of.
I also added my personal favourite Massive Attack song, Paradise Circus, which is from 2010's Heligoland - but I didn't end up listening through to the whole album again.
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Tricky - Maxinquaye
Listening to Massive Attack meant it made sense to listen to Tricky's first solo album. He wrote a lot of the lyrics for this album at the same time as working on Blue Lines with the rest of Massive Attack, which means there's a lot of lyrical repetition between the two. From this album I really liked Overcome and Aftermath, but I really loved Martina Topley-Bird's voice throughout the whole thing.
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Phi-Psonics - Octava
I don't really have a ton to say about this album, other than that I enjoyed it and added An Offering, Green Dreams, and New You to the March list.
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Buffalo Daughter - Pshychic
This band got thrown up for me on a generated daylist which also included Miho from Cibo Matto, and I wasn't sure what to think at first when I was just listening through to S.O.I.D. However, listening through the rest of the album sold me completely on this band and I ended up adding all 5 tracks from the album to my current monthly list.
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...and then the rest of March I felt pretty awful so my focus on these totally fell off, and I realised I was putting pressure on myself to do these in a certain way even though nobody reads them and they're just supposed to be for me to look back on anyway.
Anyway, a list of other stuff I really liked during March:
Jermaine Stewart - We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off
Was reminded of this song when it came up on an old TOTP Goose and I were watching, and then made myself sad because he was so talented and he died so young :(
Naked Eyes - When The Lights Go Out
My favourite Naked Eyes song, it's such a bop and I just really relate to 'Susie doesn't go out very much/she likes to stay in bed at night' lol.
Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover
Listen, anyone who knows me knows I do NOT fuck with Phil Collins (despite being a Genesis fan), but this song is a bop.
Regina Chapman - Soft Shell Crabs
Also, for k-pop: I liked some tracks each from Seulgi, RESCENE, PLAVE, ONF, ONE PACT, LUN8, LISA, IVE, jin hwi park, JISOO, I:Mond, The Deep, and Chung Ha.
