What have been your musical obsessions in 2023?

[DarknessFish]

Not expecting anyone to be concentrating on the here and now, obviously, just a chance to summarise your year and discuss what's been on constant rotation chez preludin.

For me, this demo of Virgin Prunes' Pagan Lovesong has been properly obsessed over. So strange to hear a song that's so familiar to me performed with relatively clean, undramatic vocals, and I think I prefer it.



A thing that's accompanied me wherever I've been driving to is Venetian Snares' Rossz Csillat Alatt Szuletett. I've never had a particularly good opinion of VS, because he's quite frankly a bit of a chancer who'll release any old rubbish. But this is held in high regard amongst the breackcore cognoscenti, and it's proved pretty addictive. Drum n bass always sounds good on a car stereo, anyway.



And rather typically, I head back in time to the post-punk underground for my main discovery. I've long been a fan of The Sound, but was unaware of the more experimental side-project Second Layer until fairly recently. And until very recently wasn't able to find any of their releases anywhere at all. It's the low-budget, lo-fi nature, combined with a bit of genuine song-writing ability that does it for me here.

[fange]

I had lots of bands and styles i revisited for periods over the course of the year, but i reckon my obsession was with the decade of the 70s in general. I got really deep into the nitty gritty of some bands, and explored the fascinating cracks between the styles that really blossomed in that amazing decade.

[Sneelock]

my music listening time is almost exclusively my commute. given the fact that I NEVER have a car stereo system that works I need to work within my limitations. giving newer stuff the proper attention it deserves is difficult. I make playlists of shit I never get tired of interspersed with arbitrary choices.

I mention this process because this is where my little obsessions are usually born. Anything that grabs my attention after "Space Truckin'" that is worth my time through my stupid little blue tooth speaker will lead to other things that sound good that way.

I got WAY into these "Plunderphonics" type things. I think the best known of this type of thing is the Evolution Control Committee's "Stairway to Britney"


"Plunderphonics" are a specific thing and I spent a lot of time with those. the problem is that what I like about it makes it hard to obsess over. they cram all these samples in but usually eschew anything like beat or tempo to propel the track. it's more like Musique concrète so the excitement comes from the first hearing and doesn't really hold it's appeal on frequent airings.

I got really interested in The Bran Flakes. bad points: old sampling-heavy material sounds dated in a bad way to me. good points: their sensibilities are pretty great and the "found vocals" (for lack of a better description) really get me in my wishbone.it's like a mild acid trip of my childhood - the best of this stuff.

my other semi-obsession is total trash rock I haven't really heard before. the sort of thing that makes a vintage Juvenile Delinquent movie in my mind when I listen to it. Here's one. I never had an inclination to sniff glue but if I did then this is the sort of music I suppose I'd listen to:

[DayoRemix]

Listening to 'World of Rubber' (1981) by Second Layer. Interesting stuff..Surprised I hadn't heard them before..

[DarknessFish]

I've got a fair bit of plunderphonics that's hard to like, V/VM's horrible treatments of well-known tracks, or some random frantic things which render the sources fairly unrecognisable.

The most famous is probably this though:

[DarknessFish]

Dec 28, 2023 16:54:27 GMT DayoRemix said:

Listening to 'World of Rubber' (1981) by Second Layer. Interesting stuff..Surprised I hadn't heard them before..

Yeah, I stumbled on them by chance, and then discovered that even the re-releases were almost impossible to get hold of ... until 1972 re-released them on vinyl again towards the end of this year. Apparently The Sound's All Fall Down was made with material intended for the 2nd Second Layer album, but because they hadn't had time to write any new Sound material due to touring commitments, they used those songs but with the bigger budget that their major label contract allowed.

[Charlie O.]

re: Plunderphonics - easily my favorite Oswald works were two projects commissioned by others. First Elektra Records got him to put together an EP to promote their Rubáiyát collection in 1990. How this was supposed to promote it, I have no idea, but it was a lot of fun - his four-minute distillation of Tim Buckley's Lorca is at least as satisfying to me as the original album, maybe moreso. Then, of course, there's the Grayfolded double-disc he did for the Grateful Dead - almost thirty years' worth of "Dark Star" performances in about an hour-and-a-half.

As for my 2023 obsession, it was Iron Butterfly. After dicking around with the idea for seemingly decades, I finally made myself a double-CDR of all of the IB stuff I like in the best sound quality CDs will allow (I have purchased their catalogue several times over the years), and wrote pretty thoroughly researched (I mean, I didn't go to the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS or cold-call band members or anything, but...) liner notes that amounted to a short book on the band (thirteen chapters, plus preface and appendix). The latter endeavor was especially fun - I learned a lot of things I didn't know, some of which directly contradicted things I had assumed for years. I also ended up buying knockoffs of a guitar and fuzz pedal that Danny Weis and Erik Brann both used in the band (this was pretty much inevitable, really).

I'm at work now (so to speak) - I look forward to listening to the above clips when I get home...

[quaco]

Dec 28, 2023 18:49:01 GMT Charlie O. said:

As for my 2023 obsession, it was Iron Butterfly. After dicking around with the idea for seemingly decades, I finally made myself a double-CDR of all of the IB stuff I like in the best sound quality CDs will allow (I have purchased their catalogue several times over the years), and wrote pretty thoroughly researched (I mean, I didn't go to the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS or cold-call band members or anything, but...) liner notes that amounted to a short book on the band (thirteen chapters, plus preface and appendix). The latter endeavor was especially fun - I learned a lot of things I didn't know, some of which directly contradicted things I had assumed for years. I also ended up buying knockoffs of a guitar and fuzz pedal that Danny Weis and Erik Brann both used in the band (this was pretty much inevitable, really).

I'm at work now (so to speak) - I look forward to listening to the above clips when I get home...

They're digitizing hundreds of tapes from Ron Bushy and Erik Brann's personal collections at the moment, as well as I think thousands of images. More info on the official Iron Butterfly FB page. I will let you know what happens.

[Sneelock]

Dec 28, 2023 16:54:27 GMT DayoRemix said:

Listening to 'World of Rubber' (1981) by Second Layer. Interesting stuff..Surprised I hadn't heard them before..

me neither. thanks for posting. right up my alley. sounds way different from the track in DF's original post.

as for Iron Butterfly - Here's the best thing they ever did as far as MY nervous system is concerned:

yeah, even better than the other one!

I played that "The Time of Our Lives" song for the first time since it was new. it's weird hearing that stuff again.

it's like hearing deep Steppenwolf tracks. it gives me real alternate reality vibes. luckily this is a sound I enjoy.

it's fun hearing that Residents/Beatles track. it's probably the first thing of that type that I heard and it was bone-chilling at the time. After spending a couple of months listening to similar stuff, the edge is still there but it's less shocking. it's easy to regard the craft of the thing. those guys really ARE brilliant at a certain sort of thing. I notice this is included on the special edition of 3rd Reich & Roll as it should be. I guess the Lawyers all figured out who gets the money. good.  the part of my life that enjoyed digging things up is over. I want it all on the internet and easy to find. thanks in advance.

[quaco]

"IB Theme" is one of their best tracks, for sure. Their first four are filled with good-to-great songs.

[quaco]

Not an obsession exactly, but my favorite of the year has definitely been Alice Coltrane. Where has this been all my life?? Kudos to Toby for some compilation about 10 years ago that started the ball rolling.

[DarknessFish]

I can only complain in the strongest possible terms about a thread that was heading in a possibly interesting plunderphonics direction to end up banging on about bloody Iron Butterfly. I don't actually know anything about Iron Butterfly, but I still feel that there is some vague point of principle that I should be furious about. And I am.

[adamcoan]

You haven't heard their folk-drone album with gaelic vocals then ?

[adamcoan]

Apparently father John misty the next 20th century and black mountains space to bakersfield were my most played spotify tracks. Both received on here as "terribly dull".

Thee oh sees also had a higher than most playtime. I listen to an awful lot of music, four hours a day would be average. I listen to pretty much everything you lot post and wander down rabbit holes all the time. I spent a good month listening to the works of the late Jay Reatard. I keep meaning to do a thread on him.

Keep posting your selections gentlemen. I for one listen.

[DayoRemix]

I appreciate you for listening to some of my contender posts..Wish others did..(Or at least commented when they do)