King Crimson

Can, “Mushroom”

Can is the sort of band that intolerable rock dorks will never shut up about, but frustratingly, they’re also right about them. Tago Mago is a double-album, stuffed full of hypnotic rhythms, oddball sounds, plenty of shout-singing, and stretched out compositions. This is one of the founding documents of Krautrock, but that’s not really an argument for the album as Krautrock itself was mostly an influence on other things. So don’t focus on that, focus on the fact that the album is still a great listen. Sometimes even rock docks are worth listening to.

The Skatalites, “Black Sunday”

I’ve mentioned it before, but Stretching Out is probably the best single Skatalites album. This is a double live album from 1983, during a time when all of the eight surviving original members were back together in the wake of the second wave reviving interest in ska. It catches the band at the top of their form, full of energy, playing many of their greatest songs. If not for the sad absence of Don Drummond, I’d say it catches them at the absolute height of their powers, a neat trick for a band that has played music across six decades.

Front 242, “Quite Unusual”

I’ve mentioned before on here, but I think Front 242 might have aged the best of the various industrial dance acts that I listened to in the late 80s/early 90s. I guess Nine Inch Nails aged better, but Reznor only really made one record of industrial dance before moving on. But this sounds pretty good! The synths here are very *wave, but that’s a good thing. And the vocal delivery avoids the histrionics that others used that sounds a little silly today.

Boris, “Flower Sun Rain”

This comes to us from Smile, the US version, because Boris being Boris, there are different versions of this record with different track lists for different countries. I’m not a completist on this, and so I’ll just declare the US version is the best (inasmuch as it is the one I have). But enough of that, is it a good album? Of course it is, Boris doesn’t make bad albums. It’s more on their noisier side, coming on the heels of their most accessible record, but I like the noise.

The Flaming Lips, “Once Beyond Hopelessness”

This is from the Lips’ Christmas On Mars, the soundtrack to their movie project, and it’s very much a soundtrack. As a result, it feels disconnected when you’re just listening to it, and it doesn’t really do a whole lot for me. The Lips can sometimes tend towards the abstract to begin with, and this album goes very far in that direction.

Arrested Development, “People Everyday”

This was the huge Arrested Development hit, featuring a hook borrowed from Sly and the Family Stone and a fun storytelling vibe. This album was huge, driven by this single, and then got completed wiped out by Dr. Dre taking gangsta rap to the top of the charts with The Chronic. At the time, critics lamented that this album represented a path not taken, but I think that really erases the direciton rap had already been heading. So instead, this is just kind of a footnote.

Skinnerbox, “Trying To Be Cool”

Skinnerbox’s What You Can Do, What You Can’t is a charming album from the third wave, full of personality and a distinctive sound, especially King Django’s vocals. Alas, the followup record Demonstration, which gives us this tune, feels really flattened. It sounds to me like a bit of a cynical shot at radio play by injecting some punk into the sound, and it just kind of makes Skinnerbox sound like everybody else.

Botanist, “Nourishing the Fetus (Mandragora IV)”

This is from the third Botanist album, helpfully labeled IV: Mandragora. There’s a I and a III, I just don’t know what happened to II. Down the memory hole, I guess! The next album is a VI. Who knows?

King Crimson, “I Talk To The Wind”

I didn’t really pay much attention to King Crimson for a long time, mostly because the dude I knew in college who was into King Crimson was way, way too into them. So, I just kind of ignored them, just sort of picking up little bits about them. I think I was surprised by how quiet a bunch of In The Court of the Crimson King was when I finally heard it. It really wasn’t at all what I was picturing. It turns out I was really kind of picturing Discipline, but I didn’t realize it yet.

Flamingosis, “Those Eyes”

Discogs describes Flamingosis as “chillwave” and “disco”, and, sure, whatever. There’s some synth pop here, some electro-funk, some straight up pop - the sort of thing that sounds nostalgic without actually really evoking anything specific. In this song, there are actually some Soul II Soul vibes going on here. Which, in turn, brings me to two memories of Soul II Soul. The first is that they were weirdly one of the contemporary (at the time) bands that my dad and I both really liked. He bought his own copy of a couple of their albums, we used to listen to them in the car, it was great.

King Crimson, “21st Century Schizoid Man Including Mirrors”

The early pinnacle of prog rock, In The Court of the Crimson King set a standard that a bunch of other bands would strive uselessly to surpass, including King Crimson themselves for a while. Now, prog is inherently ridiculous, but it’s also hard not to enjoy the unbounded artistic ambition here. I’m not a huge King Crimson guy, because I think a little of this can go a long way, but this is very easy to just sit back and listen to.

Some bonus tunes today!

Morcheeba, “Blindfold”

We’ve had several trip-hop acts around here in the past, and here’s one of the lesser known bands from that scene. Morcheeba, like all of the trip-hop bands that hung around for a while, pretty quickly expanded beyond just straight trip-hop. For example, beyond the drums and a little bit of scratching, this is more jazz than trip-hop. At any rate, this album (Big Calm) is very good.