So now I have a huge amount of extra time on my hands being a bit of a 'Johnny-no-mates' since my breakup, my ex was pretty much my best friend for 4 years, so finding myself retreating to familiar songs and movies to keep myself grounded...
I love music, have at times dabbled with making my own, I still love fucking about with guitars, drum machines and samplers from time to time, but my taste In music is all over the place, I'm just as likely to listen to Queens of the Stone Age as I am Skrillex, or jump from Prokofiev to Massive Attack via The Beastie Boys or the Beatles, the point is, I like a little of everything..
5 songs I'll always come back to though are these, in no particular order other than me finding them on youtube :)
1) FSOL - Papua New Guinea
I've been a bit obsessed with the Future Sound OF London since i stumbled onto them by accident after trying to find Meat Beat Manifesto music in pre internet days, when you had to order stuff in to the local record shop, often without hearing it first.
I read this amazing article in Music Technology magazine about Meat Beat manifesto and their music just sounded amazing, there was a little box in the corner of the page listing other artists who had sampled them, one of the records they listed was this one, and it started a long love affair for me with probably the best ambient and electronic musicians I've ever heard....still love this record as much now as I did back in 1991.
the bass and drums are pretty much just lifted straight from Meat Beat Manifesto's 'Radio Babylon'
2) Meat Beat Manifesto - Radio Babylon
Seeing as I pretty much spoke already, seems crazy not to include it, the song that started me making my own music, got me more into hip hop and funk beats and opened up a new world of just what Akai samplers could do with drum beats..
3) The Beatnuts - Watch Out Now.
I stumbled onto the Beatnuts stuff in a portishead DJ mix cd, this track is just insanely addictive, someone told me Maria Carey stole the flute loop from this and used it on one of her horrific creations, i've not heard it to know for sure, but it is all kinds of catchy.
4) Portishead - Humming - Live in NYC
This version of Humming is better than the album version, its staggering how good they sound live and having the orchestra to back them up, if you've not seen the full show and like the band, go watch it on youtube, its immense, but this track is a definite highlight!
5) NIN - Closer
SO hard to narrow down NIN choices let alone pick one, so best to go with one of the all time classics.
Love the version they use in the Se7en opening titles, but this one is better, I don't even mind the mashups with 50 cent's in da club over the closer beat, its just such an awesome heartbeat rhythm and tremendous lead lines....
Thats my 5, for now anyways, happy listening.
@bloghomework @rambo
