The Kaleidophonic Stroboscope

The first decade of the Gregorian millennium is nearly over..it seemed to fly by, didn’t it? I thought so. The Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times” never seemed more apt. This episode is a trawl through the albums I bought during the “George “C+ Augustus” Bush/Tony “Special Relationship” Blair/Vladimir “He-Man” Putin” years–what a party it’s been, eh? A lot of my heroes left the planet as well. So I’m not regarded as a complete downer…there were some great records released in the past ten years–and here’s the proof. Cast yourself back and party like it’s…er…you know the rest. I realise that the episode really only covers rock and other forms of popular music from the decade, but I couldn’t afford to buy CDs from a lot of other genres–hopefully another critter will document jazz, folk and world stuff.

Unfortunately, there’s no “Vinyl Vault” in this one, as I bought any new albums on CD–I am looking for some of them on LP now, but haven’t got any yet.

Warning: Some of the content may not be suitable for little ones’ ears–just sayin’.

The tracklist for this episode is:

Intro.

Cornershop – People Power (from the “Handcream Of A Generation” album – released in 2002)

Elbow – Mexican Standoff (from the “Leaders Of The Free World” album – rel. in 2005)

OutKast (feat. B Real) - Xplosion (from the “Stankonia” album - released in 2000)

Muse – Assassin (from the “Black Holes And Revelations” album – released in 2006)

The Future Sound Of London/Amorphous Androgynous – Go Tell It To The Trees, Egghead (from “The Isness” – rel. in 2002)

Lambchop – Low Ambition (from the “Aw C’mon/No, You C’mon” 2-disc set - released in 2004)

Espers – Mansfield And Cyclops (from the “Espers II” album – rel. in 2007)

Supergrass – Low C (from the “Road To Rouen” album – released in 2005)

Orbital – Spare Parts Express (from “The Middle Of Nowhere” – released in 1999)

Van Der Graaf Generator – Nutter Alert (from the “Present” album – released in 2005)

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Spanish Dance Troupe (title track to the album – rel. in 1999)

Boards Of Canada – Dawn Chorus (from the “Geogaddi” album – released in 2002)

The Flaming Lips – In The Morning Of The Magicians (from the “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” album – rel. in 2002)

David Cross – Literally…/The Ricky Henderson Bit  (from the “Shut Up, You Fucking Baby” 2-disc set – released in 2002)

Remember the mix tapes you used to make in the 80s and 90s, before recordable CDs and mp3s? Compiling a mix tape, as Nick Hornby pointed out in “High Fidelity” (and later on, John Cusack, in the film version), is definitely an art form. I wouldn’t say I ever mastered the art of mix-taping, but I would say I’ve created some interesting ones.

I’ve kept some of my tapes and I’ve thought of re-creating them as CD-mixes, but I’ve never got round to doing so.

I thought I would re-construct one of my tapes as a podcast episode, just for something a little different. I’ve kept the order of songs exactly as I added them to the cassette, as well as any spoken-word/comedy bits. There’s none of my jibba-jabba in between tracks in this episode, as I never used to do that on my tapes.

I hope you enjoy it – I may make this an on-going series. I’m aware that there are literally hundreds of excellent psych tunes I’ve left off – but then it wouldn’t be a “mix tape”, it would be 20 mix-tapes. This episode is for a friend of the show, John Cole, whom I was in an on-line course with a couple of years ago at the Maybe Logic Academy. I track-listed this mix and told him I would get him a copy. Here you are, John – sorry for the delay!

The tracklisting for this episode is:

Intro.
Duckman – “…but spacey nonetheless…” – (taken from the “Not-So-Easy Riders” episode – first broadcast in 1993)*
Jefferson Airplane – Wild Tyme (H) (from the “After Bathing At Baxter’s” album – released in 1967)
The Moody Blues – Sun Is Still Shining (extended version) (from the “To Our Children’s Children’s Children” – released in 1969 – deluxe edition rel. in 2006)
The Beach Boys – I Know There’s An Answer (from the “Pet Sounds” album – released in 1966)
The Who – I Can See For Miles/’Charles Atlas’ advert (from the “Who Sell Out” album – released in 1967)
The Beatles – Rain (B-side of 1966 single release)
Country Joe & The Fish – Eastern Jam (from the “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die” album – rel. in 1967)
The Doors – Strange Days (from the album of the same name – released in 1967)
Sly & The Family Stone – Fun (from the “Life” album – released in 1968)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – You Got Me Floatin’ (from the “Axis: Bold As Love” album – rel. in 1968)
Pink Floyd – Let There Be More Light (from the “A Saucerful Of Secrets” album – released in 1968)
Spirit – Ground Hog (from the “Clear” album – released in 1969)
The Soft Machine – Spaced Six (sessions recorded in 1969 – officially released on the “Spaced” CD in 1996)
George Harrison – Guru Vandana (from the “Wonderwall” film soundtrack – released in 1968)
Caravan – Hello Hello (from the “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You” album – released in 1970)
Simon & Garfunkel – So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright (from the “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” album – rel. in 1970)
Kevin Ayers – Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes (from the “Whatevershebringswesing” album – released in 1971)
Funkadelic – I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody’s Got A Thing (from the debut self-titled album – released in 1970)
Gentle Giant – Wreck (from the “Acquiring The Taste” album – rel. in 1971)
Can – Mushroom (from the “Tago Mago” album – released in 1971)
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells – Part 1 (opening section) (from the “Tubular Bells” album – released in 1973)
Brian Eno – Needles In The Camel’s Eye (from the “Here Come The Warm Jets” album – released in 1973)
Cheech & Chong – The Strawberry Revival Festival (excerpt) (from the “Los Cochinos” album – rel. in 1973)
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Trilogy: Part 1 – The Sunlit Path (live) (from the “Between Nothingness And Eternity” album – released in 1973)
Pink Floyd – Any Colour You Like (from the “Dark Side Of The Moon” album – released in 1973)
Gong – Love Is How Y Make It (from the “Angels Egg” album – released in 1973)

*On the tape – the ‘Duckman’ bit is much longer, but I couldn’t be bothered to hook up the tape deck to the hard drive and record the entire thing. I could only find the much shorter wav clip on the interwebnets. If you get a chance to see that particular episode – the ‘trip’ scene is well worth watching.

Artwork: Hapshash & The Coloured Coat (‘Albion’ magazine cover – 1968) – Lettering added by The Purple Gooroo

Originally posted in October 2009

I created this episode to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, which happened in August. I tried to avoid most of the ‘well-known’ tracks that you might associate with this kind of post (e.g. Elton John’s “Rocket Man”, The Beatles’ “Mr. Moonlight”, Jonathan King’s “Everyone’s Gone To The Moon”, etc. etc.). Do I believe that the landings really happened? I like to think that they did–it does seem a great accomplishment for human critters. Anyway–sit back and prepare for a mission into outer musical space with this collection of tunes.

Tracklist:

Intro. – Apollo Lift-off*
Hawkwind – Space Is Deep (from the “Doremi Fasolatido” album – released in 1972)
Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois – Drift (from the “Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks” album – rel. in 1983)
Weather Report – Milky Way (from the self-titled debut album – released in 1971)
Gyorgy Ligeti – Lux Aeterna (from the “2001: A Space Odyssey” soundtrack – released in 1968)
Billy Cobham – Moon Germs (from the “Total Eclipse” album – rel. in 1974)
The Orb – Back Side Of The Moon (Deep Space Under Water Mix) (from the “Auntie Aubrey Mixes” album (rel. in 1991); also found on the “Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld” deluxe edition – remix by Steve Hillage)
Tyrannosaurus Rex – By The Light Of The Magical Moon (from the “Beard Of Stars” album – released in 1970)
Apollo 11 Moon Landing*
————————————————————————————
A Trip To The Vinyl Vault:

featured LP: Spirit – “The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus” (released in 1970)

Space Child
———————————————————————————-
John Coltrane – Stellar Regions (from the album of the same name – rel. in 1994 – originally recorded in February 1967)
The Moody Blues – Floating (from the “To Our Children’s Children’s Children” album – released in 1969)
John Cale – Coral Moon (from the “Helen Of Troy” album – rel. in 1975; also found on “The Island Years” comp. – released 1996)
Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong – “…one giant leap..”*
Camel – Lunar Sea (from the “Moonmadness” album – released in 1976)

*Apollo 11 sound clips courtesy of NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/40th/a11_audio_highlights.html

Originally posted in August 2009