With a brief look at some notables along the road, Chang Terhune’s Music Mondays aims to shed light on both new and old(er) music over a wide spectrum of sound (and vision). This week The Psychedelic Furs, Omni Trio, Toasty, and Isaac Hayes on the Maine turnpike.
Music over a wide spectrum of sound (and vision)
Please forgive the appallingly wide crevasse stretching between the previous installment of Music Mondays. I’d like to thank Pietro publicly for not only his stalwart leadership as founder and editor of Igloo Magazine but also his sphinx like patience. Mille grazie!
The Psychedelic Furs :: “Only You And I” — The P. Furs get short shrift as 80s pop and to the caustically ignorant a one or two hit wonder. But they’re still around while most of their peers have fallen away to drink, drugs, excess or worse. In a previous post I talked about hearing their debut single “Sister Europe” for the first time when it was played on a late night show on WNEW I believe. Forever Now, the album from which their most know track “Love My Way” comes (that in itself is an absolute decadent and subversive track). The whole album is brilliant, a fiery mix of true psychedelia with a splash of synths and bright, 80’s production. The track in mind is fourth in the album sequence so not deep but not the hit either. “Only You And I” slithers and bristles managing to be sexy and repugnant at the same time. The cello intro gives way to fuzz guitars, glockenspiel and a gorgeous layer of slick sheen Richard Butler delivers in his rasping vocals.
Omni Trio :: “Renegade Snares (Four Play Remix)” — I’ve been on a big jungle kick of late, finding all these incredible tracks I’d originally heard on tapes my friend Alistair made for me. Some of them I still have in storage while others have fallen prey to hungry tape decks, vacuum cleaners and an upset girlfriend or wife. They bring back memories of working in video stores, bookstores and wandering the street of Boston and Cambridge hearing these incredible new sounds out of a dream in some ways (I’m a proudly unpublished and prolific author and in one story in a cyberpunk setting the music was stripped almost bare down to just thudding angular bass and frenetic drums. Not saying I predicted the future but it’s still an interesting feeling).
This track is itself a remix but it’s one of those that exceeds their progenitor and become something else. The tuned snares intro is itself very heavy and hard which is a style of jungle I love (and make on occasion) then this gives way to the ethereal but forceful vocal sample then an amplified (in that the elements are presented rather more dramatically but largely the same as the original) manner. It’s a beautiful track to put it simply, taking you from one point to a very different one by the end.
Toasty :: “The Knowledge” — I’m not entirely sure where I found this though it was probably Reddit. It’s labeled as dubstep which I suppose it is. But it jingles my bells if you will with heavy heavy drums and droning bass. Clearly drawing from jungle as a source as much as other underground styles. The vocal samples are simple and brilliant, taking your ears all over the place. I could imagine Kevin Martin (aka The Bug) blasting this on some terrifying huge dub sound-system in a sweaty Brussels club as much as in my AirPods as I walk the dog.
Isaac Hayes :: “Groove-A-Thone (Extended Jam)” — One night my wife and I were driving back home from Logan Airport and found ourselves in this one stitch of the Maine turnpike where the roads are dark and empty but for one or two cars. You drive through acres and acres of national forests with big pine trees on either side and few homes nor lights. On that particular drive this song came on and it powered me through the remaining 20 minutes of the drive. Now, whenever I’m at about the same point on the turnpike I always put this on—and loud. Hayes is in his prime, laying down a funk masterpiece with a heavy blast of soul to boot. The guitarist plays a single riff through most of the song without dropping a note which is nothing short of Herculean in my book. The song works as a good pick me up any time anywhere and the real heads will even know who sampled it best.
