Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #34 (April’09)
Its the last show of the month, meaning its time once again for our Theme Special. This month’s is entitled “In Praise Of The Upright Bass”, and casts an ear over various tracks that feature the fine, resonant, deep and warm sound of the mighty double bass.
The premise for this show began when I was listening to Roberta Flack’s “First Take” album -- a truly mesmerising record that Tom rightly described as sounding “like you’re right there in the room with them”. Whilst Roberta’s voice is doubtless the star attraction of this record, Ron Carter’s effortless bass work is astonishing and summarises to me all that is sublime about the double bass as an instrument. With that in mind, I texted Tom suggesting we do a special celebrating the double bass, and now here we are, selecting our favourite tracks for your delectation. Sadly, some tracks had to get left out due to our one-hour running time, and we even had some great suggestions from friends, one of which will be making an appearance on our blog shortly. However in those 60 minutes we take in the sublime Ms. Flack, the twin-bass weaving of Cecil McBee and Stanley Clarke, the legendary Mr Carter’s appearance with Tribe Called Quest, the modern sound of bass courtesy of The Heliocentrics and naturally a piece featuring arguably Britain’s most legendary double bass player, session legend Danny Thompson.
Here’s the tracklisting in full:
Lee Arnold Trio -- “Funky Chimes”
Pharoah Sanders -- “Black Unity Part One”
The Heliocentrics -- “Distant Star”
Unknown -- “Halfcrown Skit”
A Tribe Called Quest feat Ron Carter -- “Verses From The Abstract”
McCoy Tyner -- “Survival Blues”
Donovan -- “Get Thy Bearings”
Soul Coughing -- “How Many Cans”
Roberta Flack -- “Trying Times”
Click to download the show! (115Mb, 256k MP3)
Here is the Featured Video for this show -- Ron Carter’s rather odd coffee advert he made for Japan. Tom actually tried to find the ads he did for some pipe brand, but sadly he couldn’t find them:
1 for the treble…
As this week is our double bass special I thought it’d be nice to flourish you with some home grown bull-fiddle work from my vault of old DATs. If you tuned in you probably heard the track on the sound-bed which featured my old friend Reg Edwards (pictured left) on upright duties, tapping away over a rare bit of crunchy jazz courtesy of the Abstrakt Knights aka Mike Wallis and Sam Ashwell. We released the Abstraktions EP in 2001 on my old Halflife imprint which was gearing up for our first label comp called Extra Life, a project which sadly never saw the light of day, however it didn’t go the way of the dodo until after I’d turned my own hand to the their track.
I’d originally planned on doing a simple remix for the dance-floor; it was the height of (dare I say it) broken beat and a little charged from playing a gig with Attica Blues’ Tony Nwahchukwu the night before, I set to work on what quickly morphed into it’s own song after I invited my friend Sarah Wayne to grace the microphone. After replaying the keyboard line on the rhodes, all which remained from the original was Reg’s bass work, and Sarah’s vocals gave it a whole new dimension so I swiftly renamed it Vibrations before, well, doing nothing with it.
I’ve got stacks of tracks sitting on DATs in old ice cream tubs, many of which I doubt I’ll ever share but listening back, despite sounding very “of the time”, I still quite like it and wholeheartedly believe the world should hear more of Messrs Edwards and Wayne’s work. It’s got to be said I must’ve been having an off day with the mix-down and I don’t remember it sounding quite so hissy but I was working with mainly dirty old analogue gear, and the majority of the track was played or sampled off 2nd hand goods which for no reason, other than I like making lists, I’ve enlarged on below…
Wrongtom ft Sarah Wayne “Vibrations”
Written by S. Ashwell, R. Edwards, T. Robinson, M. Wallis, S. Wayne
Produced & Engineered by Wrongtom at the Correctional Facility mk6, June 2002
gear used…
Akai S3000xl
Alesis ADAT
Congas
Double Bass played by Reg Edwards
Fender Rhodes
Greg Belson’s Drum Kit
Mac G3 with a crappy copy of cubase which crashed regularly
Moog Source
Rainstick
Rode NT2a Microphone
Roland SH101
Sure SM58 Microphones
Technics 1210
Vocals care of Sarah Wayne
Watkins Copycat
Click here to download the track (MP3, 9Mb)
Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #33 (April’09)
Is there any other show where you’d find the funky sass of Bo Diddley cosying up to the minimal 4/4 of Fulgeance? Or the funkiest version of the William Tell Overture ever recorded alongside the XXX-rated mutant dancehall of Major Lazer? Of course not -- and hell, those are just Trick’s selections. On his part, Tom brings the entrancing Techno Twins to open with, the tighter-than-tight vocal harmonies of The Jihad, the proto-tabism of Death Comet Crew and even the new one from Stone’s Throw’s soul sensation Mayer Hawthorne. So much to enjoy, so get stuck in!
Click here to download the show! (115Mb,256k MP3)
Tracklisting:
Techno Twins -- “Donald & Julie Go Boating”
Fulgeance -- “Starbanging”
Muhsinah -- “Are In Be”
Bo Diddley -- “Elephant Man”
The Jihad -- “Nineteen Sixty Something”
Jimmie Haskell -- “William Tell Overture”
Death Comet Crew -- “America”
Major Lazer -- “Hold The Line”
Mayer Hawthorne -- “Maybe So, Maybe No”
Soundbed for this show came courtesy of Bossasaurus and their excellent “Dino Riders Megamix”. Keep an eye on those guys -- showing much promise!
Oh, and do check our Featured Video this week; Bo Diddley’s awesome cameo on Trading Places, which is worth watching for the look on Bo’s face right at the end…
See you next week for our Theme Special: “In Praise of the Upright Bass”!
Cruikshanks and Bigfoot
Every time I watch Mannequin, which for my sins is a fair bit, I always forget to make a note of who’s responsible for the title sequence – an animated whirlwind ride charting Emy’s journey from ancient Egypt to a Philly shop window in the late 1980’s. Last night I finally checked the credits and as expected I’d subconsciously grown up with the work of Sally Cruikshank who’s been behind many a montage for Sesame Street not to mention a succession of her own shorts, a sadly aborted feature film and no end of hollywood work from Twilight Zone to the afore mentioned Mannequin.
You might wonder what any of this has to do with what is essentially a music blog but it seems that soundtracks have been an important factor in her work from word go, from early psychedelic shorts through to the Rolling Stones backed Ruthless People title sequence, Danny Elfman even offered his scoring services for the ‘87 film Face Like A Frog. It also doesn’t take a genius to spot the correlation between the recurring Quasi character and the laconic styles of one Quasimoto from the Stones Throw camp, in fact I’m sure it’s safe to surmise that Madlib is down with the Cruikshank.
I could probably waffle on about all this for ages and no doubt digress into extolling the virtues of Sylvester Levay’s electro soundtrack work, or why Hollywood Montrose is more than simply a stereotypical stooge in an 80’s romcom but really that’s for another blog. Until then have a gander at Sally Cruikshank’s youtube page or even hit her up for a DVD (i’m guessing they’re not gonna be region 2 though but you never know).
And of course here’s some personal favourites from her vaults…
Not my Sharona
For years I’ve been stumped when trying to express my disdain for “My Sharona” by The Knack, it’s like a nervous tick and a cue for a slurry of new wave orientated expletives. Fortunately Oatibix have stepped in and made an advert which says everything I’ve been too tongue tied to convey…
Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #32 (April’09)
This, if we say so ourselves, is a peach of a show. We have chilled jazz fusion on the hippie tip courtesy of Compost, brand new brilliance from the ever-reliable Super Furry Animals, military disco from Meco, the vaudeville gypsy rock n’ roll insanity of Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra, baile funk from Feadz and even a track Tom correctly posits as the first ever hip hop track, from the bisexual queen of country (it says here), Ms. Joan Baez. Is Tom mad? Quite the contrary -- check the show to hear his argument!
Now for a rare treat; a tracklisting. Yes, we’ve had a fair few complaints that we’re not listing stuff, so here you go…
1. Meco -- Other
2. Compost -- Bwaata
3. Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra -- Take Your Skin Off And Dance
4. Feadz -- Subiu, Desceu
5. Super Furry Animals -- The Very Best of Neil Diamond
6. Joan Baez -- Time Rag
7. The Marvells -- Someday We’ll Be Together
8. Drrty Haze -- Superhigh (Play It Loud Original)
Soundbed: Lone -- Fly Fire Rainbow
Click here to download the show! (114Mb, 256k MP3)
This was our Featured Video for this show; Joan Baez doing an acapella rendering of Time Rag:
Musical Youths
Last night Mr Trick posed the question “can music still inspire the kids to make music themselves?” He wasn’t convinced what with the disposable nature of music consumption these days but I assured him it was still working it’s magic. Never one to miss an opportunity what with the often underlying autobiographical nature of our show, I as ever tapped up the Trickmeister and asked him to share some words about the record which personally inspired him to follow suit, and of course here’s my convoluted chronicle to kick things off…
I never planned on making music, not for a living, not even for a hobby. I wanted to make films, bad films at that; I’d stay up til the small hours lost in the low budget worlds of Roger Corman, Ed Wood and Herschell Gordon Lewis, wondering how I could mobilize a motley crew of mates and knock up a zombie movie on my mum’s old cine camera with a budget of loose change. Music was always there of course, sound tracking the otherwise dreary walk to school which conveniently took 45 minutes, as if it was sponsored by TDK (the length of one side of your average cassette for those who don’t remember). Being in a band was probably the last thing on my mind though, I couldn’t play an instrument and after a couple of piano lessons from my Granddad I showed little to no promise of ever mastering one. There’s a tradition of teenagers and guitars but I wasn’t fussed about rock, aside Prince’s heroic axe-work and the odd rock n roll classic it was other people’s music and as the cliché goes, why would a pasty kid from the ‘burbs even consider making hip hop?
So at 14 I started my Media Studies GCSE, still hell bent on a move to Hollywood and developing a love for macs and trench-coats (this all ties in I promise), and slightly dismayed that I couldn’t just make films on the course, I sat considering a project in another medium. I was listening to a track called “She’s Gotta Moustache” by Original Concept which as crass and misogynistic as it may sound, had me finally considering the world of music construction. This just sounded like a bunch of mates having a laugh, so I flicked back through the album, then dug out some BDP, then some Doug E Fresh, a revelation – this all sounded home made, or at least could have been, and my dad was right, they were “just talking” – anyone could have a pop at this.
My plan to make a rap record for a school project (thankfully) never came into fruition but the process of rounding up the same motley crew of reprobates was as much fun as my fleeting forays into film production, and my disregard for anyone’s musical ability reflected that Ed Wood casting ethic. I did consider simply remaking the Kooley High record cover, I had the two on the left sorted and just needed someone with some Dre-like girth, I was of course gonna be the one in the trench-coat.
In hindsight it seems bizarre as I’ve barely listened to the album in years but by sheer coincidence I dug it out the other day and while playing the opening “Legend” which outlines the story of how Dre put his group together I realised that’s exactly what I’d done and in many ways continue to do to this day, sans some of the macho man stuff. Anyway enough of this Wonder Years meets Yo MTV Raps soliloquy – here’s the aforementioned “Legend” and check out Trick’s tale up next.
Trick writes:
As a child I pretty much grew up around music; my parents had a ‘64 Rock-Ola jukebox that we had on most weekends, and between that and their huge collection of 45s I was pretty much doomed from the get-go. Hence, when I asked for a guitar aged 12, it wasn’t so much as a result of being inspired by any one band or song so much as music and rock n’ roll in general.
By age 13 – in 1988 – I was already in a band with some schoolfriends. Equipped with a Vox Whiteshadow guitar and a ropey Yamaha 50w amp, I was fully ensconced in 80s rock – and boy do I mean the ropey end of it. That ultra-shallow LA stuff was my bag, with anything from Motley Crue to LA Guns being the order of the day. Weirdly, I kinda stand by that these days; I was 13, living in the suburbs and culturally it was pretty safe, middle-class and respectable. Hence, weirdly-dressed bands from LA singing about sex, drugs & rock n’ roll was, to me at least as a just-about-teenager, totally intoxicating. It was a window on some other weird existence I could barely imagine much less live in.
So, you can picture my musical position pretty well at this point: LA hair-metal of little substance, with its themes rooted entirely in the “blaargh let’s get fucked up and PARTAY!” theme that now, in 2009, is plain laughable. Stating this is important because it outlines just what a nuclear bomb the sound of Jane’s Addiction’s “Nothing’s Shocking” was to my mind.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing; it means that these days we can look back on a group like Jane’s Addiction and see where they went, from the deserved success of the Ritual De Lo Habitual LP through to numerous rather lame comebacks, dubious solo LPs and side projects and, of course, the Lollapalooza festival that Perry Farrell founded. However, in 1988, very, VERY few people had heard of these guys, and right then, in the midst of shallow hair rock from California, these guys sounded totally, utterly out-there as a rock band. From Perry Farrell’s weird, high-pitched voice through to the pure insanity of tracks like “Thank You Boys”, from song titles like “Had A Dad” to lyrics covering the zen-like qualities of swine, they were a different proposition altogether. Anything seemed to go (to my 13 year old mind at least) and their sound was utterly their own. On top of that, as a novice guitar player, Dave Navarro’s playing blew me away, and nowhere more so that on the track I’ve selected, “Ocean Size”. Now, don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a claim that the solo is “the best ever” or anything like that. To me though, back then, it was just about the most incredible playing I’d ever heard; just astonishing. The crescendos on the solo, the screams he wrangled out of his guitar… it just blew me away. It still does too.
I remember where I was when I first heard this LP; I was standing in the playground of my school. The sun was out, the air was fresh and while everyone else kicked tennis balls about I was sharing a walkman with my best friend Paul, passing it back and forth doing the old “mate – check this!” routine with various cassettes. I heard the opening track of the album and thought “hmm – not bad”. Then I heard Ocean Size, and from then on knew one thing: fuck the other stuff – THIS was what all music had to be measured by. I wanted to make music like this…
Did I manage it? Hell no; whilst I’ve made a few tracks here and there and played in bands (of varying names but ostensibly featuring the same guys) for my teenage years, I’ve certainly not carved any career as a producer. But you know what? I’m comfortable with that, for one simple reason: whilst at the time this music inspired me to make music, I’ve realised since then that it did something much greater, namely fire my passion in music so much that it would never die – and won’t until I’m six feet under. That, I’d say, is some serious inspiration…
Trick & Wrongtom Spotify Playlist now online!
With Spotify rapidly becoming the streaming music service of the moment, we thought we’d join with it to bring you something a bit different: a playlist of tracks we’ve aired on the show before now, which will be updated weekly with new songs for you to enjoy.
Why do this? A few reasons. Firstly, it means you can get more direct access to some of the songs you might have really loved. Secondly, it details the track, the artist and the album from which it was taken. Thirdly – and maybe most importantly for some – it also means you can right-click on any track you like and purchase the song via 7Digital.com. Please note that this will not be an exhaustive list of everything we play, as Spotify simply doesn’t have a large portion of what we air. But, it is still reflective of the show’s eclectic policy of uncovering lost gems or even recognised classics you just might not have considered before now.
As we said, this playlist will be an ongoing work-in-progress, with tracks being added each week to ensure you don’t get bored of it. So, if you have Spotify on your PC, Mac or Linux machine of choice, just click the link below to open the Trick & Wrongtom playlist and begin listening!
Click to open Mr Trick and Wrongtom’s Spotify Playlist!
Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #31 (April’09)
This week we take in the usual broad spread of tracks you might not have heard, either because you missed them first time around, or because they’re not out yet. In the former category we have Magazine, Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, Jawbox, Big Youth and Grinderman, and in the latter we have Paul White, Two Fingers, Band of Skulls and some dubstep with excellent vocals that I can’t remember the name of (take from that what you will)…
On top of all that conversations include the non-funk funk, why Jah Wobble didn’t want to meet Prince, when production sells a track short and Trick’s all-important question of the show, namely “can today’s music still inspire people?”. Comment below!
Click here to download the show (115Mb, 256k MP3)
This was the Featured Video for this show:
Two Culture (Club) Clash
A couple of weeks ago we did our Double Take special, where the aim was to play a track where, if given 10 tries to name the artists, you would invariably fail.
You can imagine then that when I heard this track for the first time last week, I was bit gutted at not having heard it sooner to include it on the aforementioned special, as there’s no question you’d struggle to spot this one unless you were a fan of everyone’s favourite early-80s gender benders, Culture Club. I played a bit of this on last week’s show, but thought it warranted a post of its own.
“Murder Rap Trap” is actually a b-side from their second single “I’m Afraid Of Me”, and aside from being quite an odd piece in terms of the music, its most notable for not featuring Boy George on vocals, but one “Captain Crucial” – more of which in a mo…
Check the track out and you’ll see why Daniele Baldelli was a fan of it at his Cosmic club. It comes off like proto-hip hop of sorts; that same kind of mekanik drum machine sound you heard of initial efforts from NYC’s nascent rappers. Rather than have a rapper though, the track features curious patois MCing, turning the whole track into more of a strange digital dancehall piece of sorts. All very weird – but really rather good.
Its one thing to know that this is Culture Club – and be honest, you wouldn’t have guessed who it was unless you owned the single – but it becomes something else altogether when you realise that the Captain Crucial in question was in fact one Amos Pizzey – better known for his succession of housey tracks with another 80s hangover, Jeremy Healy. It seems back in the early 80’s, Amos’s sister was dating Mikey Craig from Culture Club and things went from there. After working on a couple of Boy George releases, Amos then dropped into the dance circuit alongside Healy, releasing numerous rather forgettable tracks. Not enough trivia for you? One last one then: Amos’s half-brother Cass was in Skunk Anansie. OK I’m done now.
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