Buried treasure

Sometimes it takes a dive into the rabbithole of the blogosphere to remind yourself how vast the musical universe is and how many shining treasures are buried in relative obscurity. Happening upon this band of funky jazzers trying their hand at the pop styles of their day has given me a most unexpected shot of happiness. So much that I can't help but share a pair of tunes from their All In Fun record of 1979, though you really don't need to be told the year to know when these snappy tunes were hatched.

The Writers — All In Fun

The Writers — I Wanna Get That Feelin' Again

Nights out

If I had a dime for all the rock narratives with well-meaning male singers who messed things up with their ladyfriend, and now she's out on the street among all kinds of danger, and he only wishes he'd done something different and would do epic task TBD to get her back in his safe arms. It's a funny strand of patriarchal condescension — the sleazy and the daddy rolled into one. Kinda awful and yet classic enough to maybe be a useful reflection on the culture that produces it. And certainly worthy of a representative moment here.

The Only Ones — Out There In The Night

Beyond the darkness

Maybe a new 'blague appearance from Goblin would've been more appropriate for Halloween. But having just seen a performance from their much-belated first tour ever tour of America (?!), I couldn't wait. Horror soundtracks have a way of standing on their own, and Goblin's proggy stylings would be just as evocative even if they didn't soundtrack a whole gamut of grotesquerie. And it sounds just delightful booming out form the rockstar stage. 

Goblin — Quiet Drops

Goblin — Pillage

Nursery riot

I wonder if the song that gets stuck in your head right before vacation is a function of where you were or where you're going. Some weeks' distance hasn't made the matter any clearer, but I still find myself humming the verses of this funky German obscurity (made available by the always excellent Growing Bin). The chorus makes me wish I hadn't cut my hair. And then a few days of crippling heat come along and I'm happy to remove all barriers to the air. 

Achterbahn Band - Richmond Road Riot

Keep on running faster than time

Sometimes I wish I was living a life where the approaching Friday sunset promised a world transformed. A license to expel accumulated tensions. Or an identity taken out on short loan with a nasty interest rate. If I did, the first moments breathing that air would sound a lot like this.

Barclay James Harvest — Love On The Line

Positively hot

There's a lot of evidence to think that this world is in decline. Hell, it probably is, and in ways that even our mightiest collective efforts can't do much to affect. And yet...you hear a song like this and all that dreariness goes away. I'll also refer you to a more personal take on this particular character who graces the 'blague today.

Harvey Scales - Keeps Getting Better

Mystery ambient

Maybe it's a symptom of an overly multi-tasked life, but these days I often just want music that floats in the air and doesn't shock or even tug at my attention. Interestingly, it's the music that doesn't seem to care much about what I think that perks my ears up the most. There are many obvious ambient classics out there, but I really love it when Library composers step up and take me to a new, happily mysterious place. I wonder what documentary or French commercial might've put this to use.

Guy Boulanger and Edgar Vercy - Cormoran Blesse

Plan ahead

Funny how few musicians explore even a fraction of what synthesizers can do. Of course, I love synth pop as much as anyone (why do pop hooks sounds so good on keyboards anyway?), but I also appreciate those who actually use them to synthesize sound. Residents-inspired Der Plan were luminaries of the art synth scene in '80s Germany, and I'm kicking myself for not knowing that until recently. Making up for it with a double dose here, from both ends of their run. The first sounds like it was made by factory machines, the other like something out of a twisted version of Disney. Both seem ahead of their time. And ours.

Der Plan - Hans Und Gabi

Der Plan - Space Bob

Sugar squares

I can't help but love songs that announce themselves as the sound of a local scene. Forget about an ambition to speak for a generation or even an emerging genre, give me your neighborhood cheerleaders.

From what I gather, Airebeat is the band's answer to Merseybeat, replacing Liverpool's River Mersey with the Aire River that runs through Leeds. I have never been to either place, so I'll take the song's description of the place as a backwater at face value. All the more reason to stir up some energy with this nugget of infectious power pop.

The Squares - This Is Airebeat

Doob tube

You know something's wrong in your life when many moments of your day resemble a Bollywood film. I mean the general crazy randomness, not the sense that a dance number might break out at any moment. When that feeling comes along, it's best to go full-on with it.

P. Suseela and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam - Intinti Ramayanam

Woozy walking

Feeling the walking wooziness after a hectic week on this Friday. One of these days, I'll figure out a way to get summer vacations back into my life. Here's a tune for my state of mind, courtesy of a some light sidework from krautrock luminary Dieter Moebius. This tune brings to mind all my childhood dreams involving clowns, and magically makes them a lot less scary.

Liliental - Wattwurm

I never feel like garbage when I'm with you

Plans for a hearty upstate hike were sabotaged by incessant rain. Having prepped myself for the prospect of injury, sunburn, or combination of the two, I found myself with a vast appetite for passing the hours with a quiet book. Which means I've got an equally vast appetite built up for a virtual dance party. And more Sparks antics. Which means the Giorgio Moroder-era of their career is called for.

Sparks - When I'm With You

Tomfoolery

Another one from the gifted/ignored one-man-band files. Songblague has already paid this Tom some much-deserved attention, but I finally got ahold of his album and can't help myself. What can you do with infectious pop but be feverishly devoted to it for a time?

The Toms - Other Boys Do

Burnt candle

Busy times. Across the board. So much that I didn't even have a quality minute to share a song yesterday. Barely so today. Burning the candle at both will surely burn you out. I'm not sure if this library jam represents disease or cure. Probably both. Be sure to listen to the end for some sweet flute action.

Teddy Lasry - Traffic

Life dancin'

It's a remarkable career that extends from highwire jazz fusion to co-writing most of the Whitney Houston songs you're likely to hear at karaoke bars. I kinda wish I could offer a more badass tune by the guy who replaced Billy Cobham in the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but what this one lacks in note density, it makes up for in unabashed 7/8 grooving, with equally unabashed guitar cheddar. It takes about a minute and a half to get going, but after that, it's a festival of heroic/superdorky mirror posturing.

Narada Michael Walden - The Dance Of Life

Perverted, converted, mind-bending, patent-pending

Huge, full-bald, lurching Mr. Bizarro approaches as you relax under a palm tree sipping a Pina Colada. He's wearing a 1920s bathing suit and carries a beachball in one hand and a coconut in the other. He makes as if to throw one at you, then the other, then lets out a fierce, unbridled scream like a terrified baby. Your move...

The Monochrome Set - Mr. Bizarro

Yellow magic

For those who think the Germans had a monopoly on visionary robotic synth pop, here's a track for you. Some crispy, groovy music for a car chase on a highway of the future.

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Solid State Survivor

Cosmic connection

Caught between winter shivers and tropical humidity, the weekend had me looking spaceward for cozier climates. Speaking of which, did you know that Voyager 1 and 2 are now in the "Heliosheath" — the outermost layer of the heliosphere where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas? Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network. Just sayin'.

Alex Cima - Equator

Bionic boogie

I usually try not to judge a song by its album cover. Except in cases like this, where the imagery gives all the context clues you need to know what you're getting into. And we are in fact getting into a sporty little space vehicle bound for interstellar escapades. If nothing else, this tune gives "bionic" some much-needed non-dystopian associations, and the world should be grateful for that. Maybe this is what interstellar radio will one day sound like.

Francis Rimbert - Bionic

Escape from New York

Sorry, I lied a little. Songblague is taking the week off, on account of an important work junket/escape from the icy East. But here's a little piece of love from LA...