17 Oct 2018
Now then.....how goes it music lover? This week and three of possibly the most disparate songs, inspired as I was by BBC Breakfast’s guest line up a week ago which included Theresa May, Jeff Goldblum and Zippy from Rainbow. Together at last, they obviously got my request.......
First up today and a band containing a friend (I have one or two). Now if melodic, choral, flowing, soothing music is your style then, well, this is not for you. Essentially a short angry man shouting into a microphone. Now this may not sound like your cup of tea but what you are missing out on is epic guitar tuning giving a deep, spine tingling drone, sharp bass lines and, as contained within the song ‘999′, some great rhythm changes which will have even the most astute drummer scrambling to keep up! The band are called Struggles With Syntax, formed and based in London they have recently produced their self titled debut EP following a number of YouTube upload demos. My good friend Jo Llewellyn-Jones (AKA Captain Crimper) provides the shouty, verbal onslaught which, combined with the musical accompaniment, simply works! Give the EP a listen, I have posted my personal favourite but ‘Wheat Fields’ runs it a close second. PS - contains some naughty words should you have young children, vulnerable adults or geese in the room with you.
Struggles With Syntax - The Magnetar I Buried - https://youtu.be/-cw0imUAzoQ
Secondly today and a change in musical genre! I introduce to you Knox Fortune, real name Kevin Rhomberg, a singer and producer from Chicago. Not much is known about him but his early foray into music was as a producer for local Chicago artists, namely the hip-hop collective SaveMoney. From there he was offered a few guest vocals, one of which won him a Grammy Award in 2016 for his work with Chance The Rapper. His debut album landed in 2017, titled ‘Paradise’ and the first time I heard any of his work was when his song ‘24 Hours’ was used in an advert for Pinterest UK. I couldn’t get the riff out my head for days (you’ll see what I mean) and I went in search of aforementioned debut album. The whole album is a really fun to listen to with some of the hip-hop roots shining through the electro-fuelled synths and samples.
Knox Fortune - Lil Thing - https://youtu.be/TGr7mWQ0vCQ
Finally this week and a big Chicago chunk of soul courtesy of Curtis Mayfield. A few posts back and I scratched the surface with a film soundtrack post. Since that day I regularly find songs which could have easily made that list of my favourites. Unbelievable how many I had forgotten! This song was played yesterday during a shuffle through some soul playlist, I had not heard it in a long time! Curtis Mayfield found early fame as part of a group named The Impressions but it was his solo works which he is probably best known. His hits include ‘Move On Up’ and ‘Pusherman’, the latter taken from the same album as the song I’m posting. His third album titled ‘Superfly’ was used as a soundtrack to a film of the same name and it’s a brilliant funk soul album which, according to our friends at Wikipedia, is one of only a few albums in history to out-gross the film it accompanied. Give ‘Freddie’s Dead’ and ‘Pusherman’ a good listen!
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly - https://youtu.be/-cmo6MRYf5g
So there we have another post done. Enjoy the tracks, until next week.......not literally enjoy them until next week. I mean, you have unlimited time to enjoy them, I just meant.........forget it.