The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage

Oh how I love this album. Checkmate Savage is probably my most listened to album of the last ten years and the first of four stunning albums released (so far?) by the band. I bought it purely on the write up that Piccadilly Records gave it. Listening to it now still gives me that first-time buzz.

Soil Sample #3: Brian Eno - Ring of Fire

Between 1990 and 1997, Warner Bros. Records in the US had the smart idea of releasing a series of 25 promo singles for artists signed to the label who had upcoming or current releases. Called Soil Samples, most of these were split 7" singles featuring two or more artists and many were also pressed on coloured vinyl.

The enticing thing about these singles was that they featured exclusive songs, some of which were recorded during the sessions for their latest album; an interesting way of promoting an album with a song that wasn't featured on it! It appears that many of these recordings have yet to make there way onto any other releases, making them some of the less well known collectable items.

Anyway, here's Soil Samples #3, released to promote Wrong Way Up by Eno/Cale and an album by House of Freaks (who I know nothing about). Eno and Cale each contribute a solo song - John Cale with the serviceable instrumental track Shuffle Down to Woodbridge, whilst Eno turns in the highlight, a haunting reverb heavy cover of Ring of Fire.

Autobahn Edited

Autobahn is perfect in its full 22'43" glory, but it clearly needed to be edited down for radio play and tonfktt on a 7" single.

The UK single version was hacked down to a measly 3'06', whilst the rest of the world, for some unknown reason, got a generous extra 22 seconds on their single version. Both these versions felt as though they had barely got started to me.

There is, however, one lesser known edit out there. Released as a promo 7" in the USA, the 5'46" Edited Long Version of Autobahn keeps an extra couple of minutes of the original and is all the better for it. The b-side is the Edited Short Version that the non UK fans got.

Sunday morning listening: Music For Drifters by Field Music

An instrumental album from 2015.

The End Of An Odyssey

In September 2016 I decided to listen to all my vinyl albums. To keep track it made sense to listen to them in alphabetical order by artist, followed by soundtracks and compilations.

I could still listen to new purchases in between these albums and could listen to something out of order if the mood took me but on the whole I stuck to the plan.

It's been a long journey, but here I finally am in May 2020 listening to the final album - Zang Tumb Tuum Sampled.

Choosing what to listen to next might be a challenge.

Impact Music #20: Haunted Dancehall

Haunted Dancehall by The Sabres of Paradise

Finally, the last one and suddenly I've found myself with another ten albums I want to share, but I think I'll stop....for now. At the end of the day, every album I own has made an impact, however small. I've just shared twenty of them, not necessarily the top twenty and many of them not even my favourite by that artist.

So, Sabres of Paradise. I've never been a big dancer, but I did enjoy going to clubs and would often lose myself in the music whilst everyone else hit the dancefloor.

That's why albums like this really resonated with me, when the dance bands that I loved stretched out, slowed it down and made music for listening to. Orbital's Snivilisation was another big one for me and Leftfield struck a great balance on Leftism too.

This one thought is just sublime - an incredibly atmospheric electronic album with moments of beauty and hidden dark corners. Or is that moments of darkness and hidden beautiful corners? I'm not alone in saying that Andrew Weatherall is still sorely missed.

Impact Music #19: Mogwai Young Team

Mogwai Young Team by Mogwai

Post rock eh? What is it?

It was a toss up between this and Millions Now Living Will Never Die by Tortoise with which one to share. I've already changed my mind three times.

Tortoise was the first post rock album I got and is one of my favourite albums. I do, however have more records that fall into the "sounds like Mogwai" category than most bands. Some of them sound more like Mogwai than Mogwai do. Anyway, this is a slightly disjointed album compared to what came next, but it has two of the biggest tunes ever, the incredibly heavy Like Herod and the template for the future of post rock that is Mogwai Fear Satan. That's 25 minutes of your life right there.

As a side note, Mogwai Fear Satan had one of the greatest remixes ever, courtesy of Surgeon, which takes the definition of music to another sublime level at zero BMP.