Soundtrack Saturday

Eliza's recent three week trip to Bali coincided with the 2000 film The Beach being shown on TV last weekend (she said they screened it at the beach cinema in Bali, to an audience of western twenty somethings in paradise- someone in charge of the film programming has got a sense of humour given how the film turns out for the main characters). 

The Beach is a 90s classic, a novel by Alex Garland turned into a film with something of an all star cast- directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton and Robert Carlyle along with a slew of recognisable faces. The story is about the search for an earthly paradise where western travelers can live idyllically, everyone seeking some kind of turn of the millennium spirituality, that ends in violence, betrayal, shark attacks, cannabis farmers and the breakup of the island community. On release the film received mixed reviews, some of the book's commentary and subtleties lost on the big screen but that's often the way. No one in the film, despite being beautiful, tanned and photogenic, is particularly nice and in the end they all seem to largely get what they deserve. 

But the film isn't really what we're here for on Saturdays, it's the soundtrack and the soundtrack has got plenty going for it. As well as a complete score by Angelo Badalamenti, there is this song, the gorgeous number one single and comeback for All Saints, the William Orbit produced Pure Shores...

Pure Shores

Orbit's liquid production style is all over the song, a relation to Madonna's Ray Of Light from two years previously, a dreamy, ambient sheen with tons of delay and FX. 

The soundtrack is crammed with late 90s names, mainly from the dance world- Leftfield, Moby, Asian Dub Foundation, Faithless and Orbital all appear along with the Hardfloor's blinding remix of Mory Kante's Ye Ke Ye Ke. Blur and Barry Adamson both crop up and Brutal by the recently reformed New Order (their comeback album Get Ready didn't come out until 2001). Brutal is perfectly serviceable New Order I guess but also a bit  of a smoothed out, edges sanded down version of the group.

The hidden gem of The Beach soundtrack is by Underworld, their eight minute masterpiece 8 Ball one of their best songs. Crunchy/ radio static percussion, a guitar riff and Karl's multi- tracked vocals, a medication on a homeless man using an empty whisky bottle as a walkie talkie and with a flaming 8 ball tattooed on his arm. The song builds gently, the 4- 4 rhythms rattling onward and bursts of feedback juddering out against the shimmering, ambient backdrop. Eventually, after a wonderful breakdown and finger picking guitar part, Karl meets a man who 'threw his arms around me' and they laughed and laughed. It's beautifully done and very affecting. 

8 Ball

James Lavelle and DJ Shadow's Unkle are also on the soundtrack, at the end as everything goes to pot. Lonely Soul was one of the standouts on the 1998 Psyence Fiction album, a record with some serious special guests- Thom Yorke, Badly Drawn Boy, Kool G Rap, Mike D, Mark Hollis and Richard Ashcroft. It was listening to The Verve's A Northern Soul that sparked the idea for the album in Lavelle and Ashcroft and Unkle recorded Lonely Soul in 1996. 

Lonely Soul

Shadow's foreboding samples, drums, and production, the sense of space, the edge of darkness feel, all make Lonely Soul a bit of a late 90s classic. Wil Malone's cinematic strings fill the second half. Then there's Ashcroft's lyrics and vocal, streets ahead of much of the songs he recorded for Urban Hymns, the sound of a long dark night filled with drama. 

High Noon MF

Posts this week featuring Unkle and David Axelrod have pointed me in the direction of DJ Shadow. Shadow was a big part of Unkle in the late 90s, the Psyence Fiction album especially, and his album Endtroducing... is one of the 1990s defining records, a four sided tribute to crate digging, sampling and instrumental hip hop created uisng nothing but an Akai sampler and drum machine, a pair of turntables and an early version of Pro Tools. 

Shadow followed Endtroducing... with a 12" single called High Noon, a twangy guitar and drums from Curtis Knight (who played drums for Hendrix). At the time there was a sense of anti- climax about this release, after the ground breaking sounds of Endtroducing... in '96 but listening to it now it sounds spot on. 

High Noon

This one from 2003, GDMFSOB, is a breakbeat powered monster with words from Roots Manuva and Unkle on remix duties. 

GDMFSOB (Unkle Uncensored)

Do Yourself Some Good

On the whole I think James Lavelle's Unkle project has promised a lot and not always delivered- albums in the late 90s and 2000s often seemed weighed down by their multitude of guest stars and a bit overcooked. The latest version of Unkle have set this song loose and it's a groovy treat, with rolling drums and bass, cowbell, sirens and samples and a vocal that seems to have arrived via time travel from a 70s soul/ funk film soundtrack. A return to the sounds and styles Mo Wax was built around in the early- mid 90s. 

This Unkle remix of Folk Implosion's Natural One is a dusty 1996 throwback, pockmarked with some very 1990s scratching. Lou Barlow was kicked out of Dinosaur Jr, a toxic relationship with J Mascis being too much for all concerned. Lou formed Sebadoh and then Folk Implosion as a side project. The inclusion of Natural One on the soundtrack to the film Kids gave him a hit. 

Natural One (Unkle Remix)

Coffee

I'm a tea drinker. I drink multiple cups of tea a day- since giving up the cigs I think it's only the tea that keeps me going sometimes. But there aren't any songs about tea on my hard drive. Coffee on the other hand is well represented. Coffee is cooler than tea, more sophisticated- to us Brits coffee is the continent, pavement cafes, and frothy milk. Now the high street is littered with coffee shops selling a bewildering array of coffees all served by your expert barista who's happy to stamp your loyalty card. Our first cup is served by Lalo Shifrin, an unsettling instrumental from the film Bullitt (hence the picture of Steve McQueen at the top).

Just Coffee

The caffeine is kicking in now. The Bullitt soundtrack can be a bit jittery even without a shot of the black stuff. In 1994 James Lavelle put out a double vinyl ep called The Time Has Come, a bunch of remixes from Howie B, Portishead and Plaid. Plaid did this, breakbeat- jazz- trip hop that isn't a million miles from Lalo Shifrin..

Coffeehouse Conversation (Plaid Remix)

In 1989 Edwyn Collins released his Hope And Despair album, a lovely collection of songs. This one, drum machine led and with a lovely circular guitar riff, builds for nearly five minutes as Edwyn croons. Gorgeous.

Coffee Table Song

Blur's 1999 album 13 was a reaction to the Britpop thing. Graham Coxon sings and wrote it, describing his battle with alcohol over a chirpy indie-pop tune with a sqwarky, string-bending guitar solo. A bit of an ear worm.

Coffee And TV

To finish before the barista chucks us out for nursing one cup for an hour, here's Wild Billy Childish And The Musicians Of The British Empire, from the magnificent Thatcher's Children album, and a three chord rush tirade sung by Nurse Julie...

Coffee Date

Lonely Soul

DJ Shadow and James Lavelle spent ages putting together Psyence Fiction, a guest vocalist heavy post-hip hop album in 1998, packaged beautifully by Mo Wax. It was long, it was a kind of 90s psychedelia, it was a bit overwrought and it was a bit over-worked. Some of the tracks pulled it off though. This one with The Verve's Richard Ashcroft managed it- those portentous strings at the end sound both over-the-top and rather good.

Lonely Soul

I'll Take You Down The Only Road I've Ever Been Down- Remix

It all ended up a bit silly for The Verve didn't it? After their early days with their ten minute psychedelic guitar trips about men called Sun and 'Mad' Richard claiming that one day he'd learn to fly they found a new audience with the arrival of Britpop and the patronage of Oasis. 1995's A Northern Soul contained various career highpoints and I'm not sure their big seller (Urban Hymns) has held up that well. Too much mid-paced balladry, which they'd actually perfected in some style on the previous album with the song History. The comeback a couple of summers ago was entertainingly funny, with that huge indie anthem singalong at Glastonbury and then an album that led to an enormous collective shrug. Then they split up again. The less said about Richard Ashcroft's solo career the better, but he hasn't yet learned to fly.

The tipping point for them was Bittersweet Symphony in 1997, and then it's follow up, the dirgey The Drugs Don't Work. Bittersweet Symphony had an eye-catching video, ear-catching strings, and a lawyer-catching sample (which led to them having to give all songwriting credits to Jagger-Richards). I still have a softspot for this song, one of the few Britpop songs that's worth anything. The version here is Bittersweet Symphony remixed by UNKLE's James Lavelle, taken from The Drugs Don't Work cd single, a format I actually quite miss. Ashcroft later turned up on Lavelle's UNKLE album singing Lonely Soul, a genuinely psychedelic and soulful urban hymn. This remix is interesting enough if you haven't heard it before but it isn't going to replace the original.

Bitter Sweet Symphony James Lavelle Remix.wma

UNKLE ft. Ian Brown 'Be There'

As I've written before I loved The Stone Roses. A lot. I've also stated my opinion of their solo careers- not much cop. Sum of the parts greater etc.

I've tried really hard with Ian Brown's solo records. I was as excited as anyone when Unfinished Monkey Business came out, loved My Star and Corpses In Their Mouths. He made his point- I can do this on my own. Since then he's gone on to make and remake solo albums, which have interested me less and less. Golden Greats was OK, I bought Solarised but I couldn't tell you what any of it sounded like, and doubt I've played it more than a couple of times. The 2001 single everyone raves about, F.E.A.R., is, I'm afraid, utter cobblers. Stoned, pseudo-profound, lightweight nonsense, and not in a good way. I fully expect people will disagree with me. There are members of my own family who would, and strongly. Ian has increasingly comes across as a bit, well, daft. Looking for a picture for this post it was difficult to find one where he wasn't doing that thing with his hands, wearing silly sunglasses or jeans that are a little too youth for him, or proudly showing off an international sportswear company's freebies, and usually a combination of all of the above. I do like the picture here though. He looks like he's wearing a tracksuit based on a pair of child's pyjamas and either offering a tambourine out for a fight or about to kiss it, which isn't something you see pop stars do very often.

And I don't particularly enjoy typing these words because for a long time I loved him and his band. Anyway, to get to some kind of point, this record is amongst the best things he's been involved with since going solo. The backing track was from James Lavelle's painfully hip Psyence Fiction era UNKLE, and Ian's vocals added later, to massive effect. This is a really good, out there, post-dance music record. I wish he'd turned in more like this.

be_there.mp3