| Artist |
Track |
Album |
Label |
Comments |
Year |
Floating Into my first WFMU set for 2007!
|
|
Baby Dee
|
The Robin's Song
|
Love's Small Song
|
Durtro
|
This is culled from a double cd set by the lovely Baby Dee, but all the singing was done by his kindred spirit, The Robin.
|
2002
|
|
Graham Lambkin
|
The Brendan Drill
|
Salmon Run
|
Kye
|
Charming "wha-fuck" (a new genre) music from this former Shadow Ring member. Originally it was going to be a concept album about the North American Sasquatch, which is nice to know.
|
2007
|
|
Trees Community
|
Salve Regina
|
Martha's compilation
|
|
Transcendent music from this early 70's commune of people who tired of the ways of NYC, moved into a loft, gathered 80 instruments ranging from mellotrons to donkey hooves, and created some very pure music. From a cdr compiled by Martha, aka WFMU dj Martha, whose show is wonderful.
|
1975
|
|
Pantaleimon / Current 93
|
Idumea
|
Wild Tigers I Have Known or Black Ships Ate The Sky
|
|
This song makes me melt from it's delicate sadness and beauty. I honestly can't recall which cd I played it from, but it's on the soundtrack to Wild Tigers I Have Known and the Current 93 album Black Ships Ate the Sky.
|
|
|
Alasdair Roberts
|
The Calfless Cow
|
The Amber Gatherers
|
Drag city
|
Lovely Scottish lullaby from this ex leader of Appendix Out. When I first heard WFMU I was about 12, and when I couldn't sleep I would press the radio against my ear and listen quietly. This would have been the perfect song to hear.
|
|
|
|
Jersey City In The Sky
|
|
Michael Cashmore
|
Twilight Empire
|
Sleep England
|
|
Longtime member of Current 93 (he wrote the gorgeous melodies for Soft Black Stars) as well as fronting his own project, Nature & Organisation- this is his debut full length, and it is full of hypnotic tunes like this.
|
|
|
Resonance
|
Butterfly Hawk
|
The Final Solstice II
|
Piski Disc
|
This music is like the strongest drug for me- Rose McDowall's amazing voice matched with drones and a lyric that has me from "..the butterfly that fluttered by...". Rose was 1/2 of the 80's new wave duo Strawberry Switchblade.
|
20000
|
|
Julia Shammas
|
Willow Weep
|
Eating The Stars
|
Human Ear
|
Another in a long line of music I've met in the FMU new bin and instantly fell in love with. All I know about Julia is that she plays all the instruments herself, has collaborated with Ariel Pink, and has wonderful songs on her myspace page.
|
|
|
ESP Summer
|
When Leaves Are Gone
|
Mars Is A Ten
|
Perdition Plastics
|
From the lone full length collaboration between Ian Masters (ex Pale Saints) and Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive). Like a hallucinatory Erik Satie with a choir boy Nick Drake.
|
1995
|
|
David Garland
|
The Intention To Relax And Think About Things
|
Noise In You
|
Family Vineyard
|
One of New York's greatest radio hosts, David has created wondrous programs of experimental pop (and beyond) with Spinning On Air. While I'm in a sharing mood, he once wrote me a kind letter regarding a radio show I did that was so nice I printed it out and brought it to my first day at work to ease my nervousness. Cheers, David.
|
|
|
Lee Hazelwood
|
Easy & Me
|
The Cowboy And The Lady
|
Smells Like
|
One of those classic Lee Hazelwood songs that casually contains the essence of another time and another place. He will be missed. Incidentally, the great Kathryn Williams does a fantastic version of this on the Total Lee tribute album.
|
1969
|
|
|
...further down the river...as the sun begins to set...
|
|
Rosy Parlane
|
part one (excerpt)
|
Jessamine
|
Touch
|
New Zealand experimentalist, includes shimsaw & amplified saw- it's about time these things were used for creating and not destroying!
|
|
|
The Places
|
The Damn Insane Asylum
|
Songs For Creeps
|
high Plains Sigh
|
Amy Annelle writes the kind of songs that feel as though you are sitting at a campfire by a pond, suddenly everything seems slow and warped and your realize someone slipped you some sort of drug, and then you wander into the forest dizzily until you lean against a tree when suddenly a bear comes up to you and sings in a voice that recalls Vashti Bunyan. You wake up, it's morning, and the song has just come to an end.
|
|
|
Clare Moore
|
Fearless Fred's Shack
|
Hashish and Liquor
|
Cockaigne
|
In a just world, Clare Moore and her partner Dave Graney (both ex of Australian post punk deities the Moodists) would be king and queen. This is from their double cd, where Dave tackles hashish songs and Clare's muse is alcohol. The proper song with lyrics is followed by a sound effect retelling of the entire lyric.
|
|
|
Lee Jong Hee
|
korean song title
|
Meet Me In A Room
|
|
Groovy early 70's korean folk with hints of psyche, early 50's groove, r & b....how can that not sound good?
|
1975
|
|
Claudine Longet
|
Creators Of Rain
|
The Look Of Love
|
|
A voice that could nurse you back from the worst parts of an acid trip. I'm so pleased that when the trend in many movies was staging blood bath scenes to sweet sounding music Claudine was left out of the mix.
|
|
|
|
...sometimes you are sitting on a tube, drifting down a river, when rocks start to bump you in the ass...
|
|
The Nightingales
|
Born Again In Birmingham
|
Out Of True
|
Iron Man
|
Ah, catharsis music. The night before this show I got released from my job back in MN, via email. I left the Park Slope room, and left for the city but first went to a bodega, got a bottle of Makeson Triple Stout, and blasted this while drinking it down. Brilliant, and a rabid return from these 80's-90's indie stars.
Thanks to Leanna for buying this for me.
|
|
|
The Fall
|
Mad Mock Goth
|
The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country On The Click)
|
Narnack
|
There's nothing like a possessed sounding Mark E Smith- and it's brilliant that after years at WFMU a song could stop me in my tracks for it's anti social weirdness. Refreshing.
|
|
|
Malcolm Middleton
|
A Happy Medium
|
Into The Woods
|
Chemikal Underground
|
Ex Arab Strap member, joined by some Delgados. I love this- it's like the introverted miserable boy who slinks in a corner staring at his shoes, rarely speaking to anyone and frowning at the world suddenly deciding to make a rave album.
|
|
|
Hail
|
Hello Part I
|
Hello Debris
|
rEr
|
Fantastic return from long time favorites Hail, comprised of Susanne Lewis (Corpses As Bedmates, Hail/Snail) and Bob Drake (A Thinking Plague). More manic breakdown music- you can picture her screaming "I'm HAPPY you fuckers!!" or something. It has that Disney employee on a stabbing spree feel that people love.
|
|
|
Cathal Coughlan
|
Amused As Hell
|
The Sky's Awful Blue
|
Beneath
|
The genius behind Microdisney (w/ High Llama Sean O'Hagan), Fatima Mansions and his solo work- nobody blends the bitter and the pretty like Cathal. I love how he drolly declares "such a lot of fucking" as though he's saying "nice weather today".
|
|
|
|
the drugs don't work
|
|
The Chills
|
This Is The Way
|
The Lost EP
|
Flying Nun/Homestead
|
Classic Martin Phillips tune, one of the best of the Flying Nun bands. Psyche pop perfection- innocent and a bit doomed sounding.
|
1988
|
|
Picture Center
|
Fun City
|
Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight
|
North American
|
This british band have created some of the most gorgeous, aching, beautiful music I've heard- somewhere in the vein of melancholy Saint Etienne, Field Mice (to whom they have some connection that I'm not sure of), Slowdive, etc- but that's just lazy comparing. You should look them up on myspace and ask them nicely if you can have an album. If you ever feel sad, it will make you feel that there's a sort of beauty in that.
|
2003
|
|
Lloyd Cole
|
Brazil
|
Music In A Foreign Language
|
One Little Indian
|
I'd left Lloyd behind in the memories of Forest Fire/Perfect Skin- those poetic jangley classics from the late 80's. But he won me back with this, a sadder and less idealistic Lloyd coming off like a cross between Prefab Sprout, Chet Baker, and Leonard Cohen. Perfect for pre dawn mornings in California, as I learned.
|
2003
|
|
John Cale
|
Antartica Starts Here
|
Paris 1919
|
Warner Bros.
|
I remember when I first heard this album, feeling that first kiss or favorite food sensation of 'oh my god, there couldn't be anything better than this'. Beautiful from start to end.
|
1973
|
|
|
..songs for a peaceful meadow infected with invisible delicate vipers....
|
|
A Bad Diana
|
Behind The Curtain Of The Sun
|
The Lights Are On But No-one's Home
|
|
A Bad Diana is the latest alias for Diana Rogerson, aka Crystal Belle Scrod. Joined by her sweetie Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound fame (although not "fame" in the sense that Lindsay Lohan is famous).
|
|
|
Isobel Campbell
|
Willow's Song
|
Milk White Sheets
|
|
The idea of the Isobel, influenced by Scottish folk and Vashti Bunyan, tackling the WIcker Man classic seemed a bit obvious, and made me roll my eyes- until I heard it and was taken by the enchanting and dark beauty of how she controls the soft power of this song, maintaining it's loveliness and horror.
|
|
|
Islaja
|
Pete P
|
Ulaal Yyy
|
Fonal
|
Islaja is the moniker for Finnish experimental singer/songwriter Merja Kokkenen. She has also been in bands that I haven't heard of, and which involve umlauts that this keyboard cannot create.
|
|
|
Alan Lomax Recording- Unknown Singer
|
Unknown Title
|
Mallorca, The Balearic Islands
|
Folkways
|
It might not look good on a playlist, but this acapella piece recorded by Alan Lomax captures a bit of olive picking time singing in this region of Spain.
|
|
|
Kathleen Yearwood
|
Good Old Days
|
Dog Logic
|
Herself
|
Kathleen makes music that my hand cramped hands could not properly describe. Her music is simply better than most- more beautiful, more poetic, more powerful, funnier, stranger, etc. & she can wrap her writing around anything from folk to french to grindcore death metal to experimental...there are no genres, it's Kathleen music. This is an acapella version of a song written by Kyp Harness.
|
|
|
Linda Draper
|
Sunburnt
|
Keepsake
|
Planting Seeds
|
The brilliant New York treasure that is Linda Draper, melding her delicate nearly 60's psyche style to a tale that finds kindred warmth in bitter awakenings.
|
|
|
Nico
|
Somewhere There's A Feather
|
Chelsea Girl
|
|
Lovely song...it's interesting to think of someone so twisted and drugged, who can still convey the optimism in knowing that something as light as a feather can provide comfort.
|
|
|
|
lifelifelifelifelifelifelifelifeflyflyflyflyflyflyflyflyfy (try saying it out loud)
|
|
Dislocation Dance
|
You'll Never Never Know
|
Music Music Music/Slip That Disc!
|
|
Early 80's British post punk bossa nova- a perfect song, that used to accompany my dancing around my room when I was very wee.
|
|
|
Ellis Regina
|
O Cantador
|
Gaylord Fields Premium CD
|
|
Wonderful music from the great Brazilian singer Ellis Regina. I believe this is from the late 60's, but I found it on a cd compiled by WFMU hero Gaylord Fiellds.
|
|
|
Bobbie Gentry
|
Morning Glory
|
Ode To Billie Joe
|
|
Her voice, the harmonica, the lightly galloping guitar- it's all so evocative of another time and place. & listen for that amazing yawn/singing moment- amazing. For some reason, this reminds me of Catcher In the Rye, but I can't figure that out.
|
|
|
Judy Dunaway
|
Etude No 2 For Balloon And Violin (excerpt)
|
Mother Of Balloon Music
|
Innova
|
She's the best experimental balloon musician I've ever heard.
|
|
|
AU
|
Life
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cocorosie
|
Sunshine
|
The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn
|
Touch And Go
|
This song is like a lullaby that will lull you to sleep but then you will have really freaky and active dreams.
|
|
|
Piano Magic
|
I Am The Sub Librarian
|
Low Birth Weight
|
Rocket Girl
|
That breathing and music box opening is incredibly haunting to me- and the whole song feels like a slow relaxing boat ride into someplace dark and scary.
|
|
|
Chris Connor
|
Goodbye
|
All About Chris Connor
|
|
A good jazz vocal ballad laced with sweetness, regret, and sorrow can be more potent and miserable than the deepest voice gothic dirge.
|
|
|
|
flying on the ground isn't wrong
|
|
Born Heller
|
Iama
|
I Am A Guest In Here
|
|
This group featured Josephine Foster.
|
|
|
Vashti Bunyan
|
The Fire
|
Ballads Of The Book
|
Chemikal Underground
|
Hauntingly beautiful Vashti song from a collection that pairs Scottish authors with Scottish musicians. Also included are Trash Can Sinatras, both former Arab Strap lads, Emma Pollock, Mike Heron (Incredible String Band), and more.
|
|
|
Billie Mackenzie
|
Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth
|
Transmission Impossible
|
|
From a posthumous collection by the great Scottish ex Associates leader Billie Mackenzie, the perfect pairing as he sets his voice on the Sparks classic.
|
|
|
|
|
YAAAAY....That was so much fun. After the show ended and everything was put away, I felt so inspired that I sat by the water and made notes for my next show- who knows when it will be, but I certainly am looking forward to it. Thanks to all my friends at the station, very much, for friendship and for the kick ass programming. In conclusion, all the best to everyone from an Andy in Minnesota.
You can email me at andywaltzer@hotmail.com and you should!
|
Playlists feed |