R.I.P. DAVID LYNCH

David Lynch had such a massive influence on me and my life. Yes, of course like everyone else who loved his films, there was his playing around with darkness and light; joy and fear; the surreal and the mundane. But he also had such an impact on how I HEARD the world. His sound design in Eraserhead, Twin Peaks and the Grandmother left some sort of imprint on me. He kept taking it to the next level with experimentoing in different films. I believe Twin Peaks The Return was his magnum opus sound design wise. Professors were teaching it in classes within a year of the Return airing.

Anyway, he's gone now. But he left us so much to play with and explore. Thank you Mr Lynch.

“You know about death. That it's just a change, not an end.”
-David Lynch

CHRISTMAS TRILOGY

For me it's not Christmas without watching these three films. There are plenty of others I watch too, obviously, but something about these three are just so perfect.


Hector



In Bruges



Remember The Night

HALLOWEEN TRILOGY

There are no links to these three films that, in my opinion, make an excellent trilogy of slightly scary yet slightly campy Halloween films. Halloween was originally planned to be an anthology of films but due to the popularity of the first film and pressure from producers, Michael Meyers was brought back for the second film before being killed off (and we all know eventually resurrected how many fucking times?) before being rectocnned and rebooted and who knows what else. Buy the bluray, stream or sail the high seas if you want to watch these. Also, you have to pretend that The Fog is actually called Halloween II: The fog because it was released as it's own film even though it was intended to be the second in the anthology series.




Halloween.

Tagline: The Night He Came Home


---


Halloween II: The Fog

Tagline: The Night They Came Home


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Halloween III: Season Of The Witch

Tagline: The Night No One Came Home

FISHERMAN'S BLUES: TOO CLOSE TO HEAVEN

This is the fourth (and final) part of the Fisherman's Blues compilations that I put together.

----

The Waterboys released their 4th album, Fisherman's Blues, on October of 1998. The Fisherman's Blues recording sessions were an epic undertaking that spanned cities, countries and even continents. The recordings took place from 1996 to 1998 and produced an insane amount of music. The sessions began at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and lasted from January through March 1986. From there they moved to San Francisco and recorded for a few more months before moving back to Windmill Lane and finally ending the recording sessions at the Spiddal house in Galway. Mike Scott describes the process; "We started recording our fourth album in early '86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn't know where to take it. It could've been a gospel or country album. It could've sounded more like This Is The Sea or it could've been a traditional album. It could've been anything."

14 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues came Too Close To Heaven or Fisherman's Blues Part 2 (with an extended tracklisting) as it was known as in North America. "Quite how 'Too Close to Heaven' – a song that is easily worthy of either John Lennon or Van Morrison - languished in the vaults for 12 years is a matter for Scott's conscience (and his accountants)" said the Guardian.

25 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues the Waterboys released a 7-CD box set which contained 121 tracks from the album sessions (including all those on the original record and subsequent editions) plus a further 85 unreleased tracks!

After years of taking stabs at creating an all inclusive best of the Fisherman's Blues boxset for my own listening pleasure I finally did it. I pared down the epic 121 track boxset to a 64 song four part listening experience.

----

Part 4 is called: Fisherman's Blues: Too Close to Heaven

Part 3 can be found here.
Part 2 can be found here.
Part 1 can be found here.

Tracklisting:
Fisherman's Blues [Piano Version]
A Golden Age
Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
Too Close To Heaven
You Don't Have To Be In The Army To Fight In The War
I Miss The Road
Higherbound [Prototype]
Killing My Heart [2nd Version]
Good Man Gone
Pictish National Anthem (Comati)
One Step Closer
She Could Have Had Me Step By Step
The Good Ship Sirius [Set Of Jigs]
If I Can't Have You
As Soon As I Get Home [MF Edit]

I'm the song of the river
Speeding unceasing to the sea
I'm alive!
I'm in love!
Each and every time
There's some for me

'96/97 ALRIGHT THEN

This is the fourth part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of the singles, b-sides, compilation tracks and live on the radio shows that he did before and during the Odelay era.

I am copying and pasting this blurb from '93 Feelings to give some hindsight:
---
Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion; nthe unreleased follow K Records follow up to One Foot In The Grave and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold, an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.
---

To make "96/97 Alright Then" I used the bonus songs, remixes, singles and b-sides from "Odelay"; The non-album single, Deadweight; An outtake from the unreleased K-Records follow up; Plus a live song from KCRW.

You can find 94/95 Gold Too here.
You can find 94/95 Gold here.
You can find 93 Feelings here.

Tracklisting:
Electric Music & The Summer People
Richard's Hairpiece [Aphex Twin Remix]
Clock
Somewhere Far Along
Erase The Sun
000.000
Lemonade
Feather In Your Cap
Deadweight
Buried Alive
Brother
The New Pollution [Mickey P Remix]
Burro
Lloyd Price Express [John King Remix]
Twp Bit Cares
American Wasteland

Entering the solar sphere
Planets meld crystal clear
Thrashing in the astral glow
Flashing in their fleshly show

LIQUID SWORDS

Liquid Swords by GZA is a near perfect album. I love how Wu Tang would not only connect songs but they'd connect albums by the vaious members of the Clan with one another. Unfortunately this can sometimes not work out so well. To me, this proves to be the weak point on Liquid Swords and hinders it from perfection.

I took out the Raekwon and Ghostface fronted song "Hell's Wind Staff" because it not only didn't sound like it fit the album it sounded like something off of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... and I opted for the instrumental version of "Killah Hills". Some versions of Liquid Swords had "B.I.B.L.E." as a bonus track but I decided to not use it because it wasn't even a GZA song in the end (it was a Killah Priest song that was later released on his album).

Tracklisting:
Liquid Swords
Dual Of The Iron Mic
Living In The World Today
Gold
Cold world
Labels
The 4th Chamber
Shadowboxin'
Killah Hills [Instrumental]
Investigative Reports [MF Edit]
Swordsman
Gotcha Back


I was always taught my do's and don'ts
For do's I did, and for don'ts, I said I won't

CANCER IS A MOTHERFUCKER

I haven't been posting too much lately. Dealing with a dickhead cancer diagnosis. For a year and a half now....

FISHERMAN'S BLUES: SAINTS AND ANGELS

This is part three of the Fisherman's Blues compilations that I put together.

----

The Waterboys released their 4th album, Fisherman's Blues, on October of 1998. The Fisherman's Blues recording sessions were an epic undertaking that spanned cities, countries and even continents. The recordings took place from 1996 to 1998 and produced an insane amount of music. The sessions began at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and lasted from January through March 1986. From there they moved to San Francisco and recorded for a few more months before moving back to Windmill Lane and finally ending the recording sessions at the Spiddal house in Galway. Mike Scott describes the process; "We started recording our fourth album in early '86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn't know where to take it. It could've been a gospel or country album. It could've sounded more like This Is The Sea or it could've been a traditional album. It could've been anything."

14 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues came Too Close To Heaven or Fisherman's Blues Part 2 (with an extended tracklisting) as it was known as in North America. "Quite how 'Too Close to Heaven' – a song that is easily worthy of either John Lennon or Van Morrison - languished in the vaults for 12 years is a matter for Scott's conscience (and his accountants)" said the Guardian.

25 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues the Waterboys released a 7-CD box set which contained 121 tracks from the album sessions (including all those on the original record and subsequent editions) plus a further 85 unreleased tracks!

After years of taking stabs at creating an all inclusive best of the Fisherman's Blues boxset for my own listening pleasure I finally did it. I pared down the epic 121 track boxset to a 64 song four part listening experience.

----

Part 3 is called Fisherman's Blues: Saints & Angels

Part 2 can be found here. Part 1 can be found here.

Tracklisting:
The Wayward Wind
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fisherman's Blues [2nd Version]
Saints And Angels
If Jimi Was Here
Strange Boat/The Good Ship Sirius
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sleek White Schooner
When Will We Be Married [1st Version]
Lost Highway
Twa Recruitin' Sergeants
When The Ship Comes In
On My Way To Tara
Born To Be Together
I'm So Lonesome I Could Die
Thistlewaite's Declaration
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Reprise]
Incident At Puck Fair

Many hearts to keep you warm
Many lights to guide you through the storm
And may the saints and angels
Watch over you

BOC LIVE+

Boards Of Canada - Live+

This is my third compilation of unreleased, alternate versions and rare Boards Of Canada music. A follow up to my previous compilations BOC MAXIMA [MF] and BOCUMA. Most of these songs are from way back when Boards Of Canada used to play live shows.

For this compilation I chose to add some snippets of sound loops that the duo had made for their old website back in 2000. I wanted to add the feeling of a BOC album by interspersing short little songs and sounds with their live music. Some of the live songs are from handheld bootleg recordings, one from the soundboard, others have been 'cleaned' and mastered by fans, and one is a "reproduction' by an artist using the same drum machines played overtop of the recording.

Tracklisting:
Intro [Website]
Julie And Candy [Live Soundboard Mix - ATP]
Untitled 1 [Live At Warp10]
Echus [Live At ATP]
Untitled 2 [Live At Warp10]
Untitled 3 [Live At Warp10 - Machinedrum Edit]
Untitled 6 [Live At ATP]
Trails [Website]
747 Demo [Website]
Gann [Website]
Untitled 4 [Live At ATP]
Untitled 5 [Live At ATP]
Untitled 7 [Live At ATP]
Untitled 8 [Live At ATP]
Untitled 9 [Live At ATP]
Spiro [Live At The Lighthouse - Cleaned]
Flutes [Website]
Bad Day [Happy Cycling Live Peel Session]
Titles 02 [Website]

"Press play!!"

ENTER THE 36 CHAMBERS [MF EDIT]

I love this album. I was aware of it when it came out because a bunch of my friends in the Philly house/rave scene use to play it all the time. It was great daytime music. I never owned it or even wanted to own it back then because I just heard it coming out of cars in my neighbourhood or my friends home stereo systems. It was great. I was recently reminded of it with the Wu-Tang: An American Saga TV show that came out a few years back. I started making house music at around the same time this album came out. Watching the TV show I realized that RZA was using similar equipment (samplers, sequencers and drum machines) to make this album. I wanted to hear it again and bought a copy. I can't believe some of the things he was able to make from these (now antiquated) machines. I also fell in love with the messiness of his production. It was so punk rock.

Ayway, I found that the skits (especially the funny the first time you hear it but never need to hear it again skit from Method Man) to be annoying and grating on the second and third listen. It was totally getting in the way of enjoying the album. So I did an MF Edit of the album. I removed the chatter at the start of "Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber"; I removed the "Intermission" part from "Can It All Be So Simple"; replaced "Method Man" and its' intro with the "Homegrown Version" (a demo version with an extra verse); I replaced the censored version of "Protect Ya Neck" with the "Bloody Version" that, for some reason, only appeared on Wu-Tang greatest hits compilations; and I removed the radio outtro thing at the end of the album. Of course I kept in all the martial arts samples and bits that made Wu-Tang, well, Wu-Tang!

Tracklisting:
Bring Da Ruckus
Shame On A Nigga
Clan In Da Front
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber
Can It All Be So Simple
Da Mystery Of Chessboxin'
Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nuthing To Fuck Wit
C.R.E.A.M.
Method Man [Home Grown Version]
Protect Ya Neck [Bloody Version]
Tearz
Wu-Tang: 7th Chamber [Part 2]

"Shaolin shadowboxing and the Wu-Tang sword style
If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu-Tang could be dangerous
Do you think your Wu-Tang sword can defeat me?”

FISHERMAN'S BLUES: HIGHERBOUND

This is part two of the Fisherman's Blues compilations that I put together.

----

The Waterboys released their 4th album, Fisherman's Blues, on October of 1998. The Fisherman's Blues recording sessions were an epic undertaking that spanned cities, countries and even continents. The recordings took place from 1996 to 1998 and produced an insane amount of music. The sessions began at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and lasted from January through March 1986. From there they moved to San Francisco and recorded for a few more months before moving back to Windmill Lane and finally ending the recording sessions at the Spiddal house in Galway. Mike Scott describes the process; "We started recording our fourth album in early '86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn't know where to take it. It could've been a gospel or country album. It could've sounded more like This Is The Sea or it could've been a traditional album. It could've been anything."

14 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues came Too Close To Heaven or Fisherman's Blues Part 2 (with an extended tracklisting) as it was known as in North America. "Quite how 'Too Close to Heaven' – a song that is easily worthy of either John Lennon or Van Morrison - languished in the vaults for 12 years is a matter for Scott's conscience (and his accountants)" said the Guardian.

25 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues the Waterboys released a 7-CD box set which contained 121 tracks from the album sessions (including all those on the original record and subsequent editions) plus a further 85 unreleased tracks!

After years of taking stabs at creating an all inclusive best of the Fisherman's Blues boxset for my own listening pleasure I finally did it. I pared down the epic 121 track boxset to a 64 song four part listening experience.

------

Part 2 is called Fisherman's Blues: Higherbound
Part 1 can be found here.

Tracklisting:
On My Way To Heaven
Nobody 'Cept You
Stranger To Me
Drunken Head Ghost Of Rimbaud Blues
The Grief Of Pan
Killing My Heart
The Girl Of The North Country
Let Us Be Drinking And Kissing The Women
Will You Ever Be My Friend
Shall We Gather By The River
Meet Me At The Station
The Scotsman's Delight
Come Live With Me
You In The Sky
Bo Diddley Was A Caveman
Higherbound [3rd Version]
Wickham's Proclamation
The Last Jam

I'll rave and I will ramble,
I'll do everything but make you stay
You'll be killing my heart
When you go away

'94/95 GOLD TOO

This is the third part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of the singles, b-sides, compilation tracks and live on the radio shows that he did before and during the Mellow Gold era.

I am copying and pasting this blurb from '93 Feelings to give some hindsight:
---
Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion; nthe unreleased follow K Records follow up to One Foot In The Grave and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold…an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.
---

To make 94/95 Gold Too I used the It's All In Your Mind single; the soundtrack to Kill The Moonlight; songs from the 'bonus disc" of One Foot In The Grave; and songs he performed live on KCRW.

You can find 94/95 Gold here.
You can find 93 Feelings here.

Tracklisting:
Last Night I Traded My Innermost Soul For Some Pickled Fish
Dead Man With No Heart
Title Unknown/Sleeping Bag
Thunderpeel
Underwater Music/Sweet Satan
Hard To Compete
Whiskey Can Can
Stagolee
My Own Best Enemy
Leave Me On The Moon
SA-5
Johnny Depp
It's All In Your Mind
Curses
Mattress
Piss On The Door
Color Coordinated
Favorite Nerve
Devil Got My Woman
Static
Feather In Your Cap
Teenage Wastebasket
Waiting For A Train
Your Love Is Weird
It's All Gonna Come To Be
Woe Is Me

Your love
Your kindness
Your body
on the mattress

SPLIT/LOVELIFE

Lush' first release was a mini-LP called Scar that came out in 1989. They followed that up with two EP's in 1990 (Mad Love and Sweetness & Light). Those of us in North America mainly know those first three releases through the compilation album Gala which I honestly thought was their first album for years. But they released one more EP called Black Spring before finally releasing their first album which came out in 1992 and was called Spooky. Between this album, those early EP's (or the Gala compilation), a Peel Session, a few singles, b-sides and a compilation track or two - Lush had really grown into a certain sound and feel. Then came their 2nd LP called Split. It was a pretty big shift not only in sound and feel but also in songwriting. Try as I did over many years (and I guess at this ploint decades) I just couldn't get into it. Between the lack of textured fuzzy layers and pop song sensibilities it just didn't grab me. Some songs were long, running close to 8 minutes. But they were kind of dull and... meandering. The songwriting just wasn't as good and the band seemed like it was trying to rid itself of their distinctive fingerprints: space, time, sound, harmonies and atmosphere.

This abandonment of, well, Lush(ness) continued on their next (and final) album which was called Lovelife (which was also the name of a song on Split).

Obviously I used songs from the albums Split and Lovelife to make up this compilation. I also used: "Cat's Chorus" from the Hypocrite single; "White Wood" and the Suga Bullit Remix of "Lovelife" from the Desire Lines single; "Tinkerbell", "Shut Up", "Pudding" and "Cul De Sac" from the Single Girl single; "Carmen" and "Matador" from the Ladykillers single.

Tracklisting:
Lovelife
Lit Up
500
Shut Up
Carmen
Tinkerbell
Last Night
Cul De Sac
Pudding
Cat's Chorus
Blackout
Single Girl
Heavenly Nobodies
Starlust
White Wood
Matador
Lovelife [Suga Bullit Remix]

Every door conceals a dream
And a nightmare
Nothing is ever really pure
In the stale air



I collected some remixes, 8 track recordings, a BBC session, and their cover of the children's TV show theme song "Rupert The Bear" as a bonus compilation: Split/Lovelife Plus:

Tracklisting:
Rupert
Last Night [Hexadecimal Dub Mix]
Sweetness & Light [The Orange Squash Mix]
Blackout [BBC Evening Session]
Single Girl [Emma's 8 Track]
Papasan [Miki's 8 Track]

With fingers crossed, you close your eyes
And hope that things will turn out fine