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Spencer McGarry (Part One)

Music that inspired his new album, and his forthcoming one... and Madness.

Hooray for Spencer McGarry! Goodness, we've not had a Soundtrack feature this long before - we've even had to split it in two parts.

His new album 'Episode 2' (yes, there is a naming trend afoot - it's part of a series of six, each of which deals with a different genre of music. Interesting, no?) will be released on 21st June (there's a review on the way).

So says Spencer: "At the moment I am inbetween listening to music that inspired our recent album (Episode 2) and listening to music that inspired our forthcoming one (Episode 3) and it seems... Madness."

Here we go, then. These are tracks one to six, of twelve.

Beck - Mixed Bizness

Some songs are just all chorus with no discernable verses and I think this is a great example- it just keeps coming from the few bars of drums at the beginning it explodes into chaos but settles down into an interlocking conversation between the horn parps and guitar squeals- it's a constant assult on the feet, great helium like backing vocals, interesting lyrics and a propelling rhythm. Beck's never sounded so confident - I wish I'd written this.

The Human League - Love Action

For a long time their song Mirror Man was the only 80's thing I liked, but very recently I've finally understood what the 80's were going for and I love the way this song is put together. From the sampled guitar stutters, to the electronic percussion, the fast arpeggio'd synths and the 'Once in a lifetime' styled bass. It's also an example of the lead singer mentioning his name in the song which my life partner always finds amusing "This is Phil talking" as well as the lady's singing which always has an aspect of bored, disgruntled chip shop girl, they're British, inner city ice queens- I love it.

James Brown - There Was A Time

Like the Beck song this also just keeps coming - it doesn't bother introducing itself either- it just hits you with a BAM! I think the original recording may actually miss the quality of the opening note. I like the way the band keep raising the intensity and dropping it in unexpected moments and you can hear James really screaming. The lyrics deal with the different dances he used to do which was a great excuse to do them all back to back live as he sang about them. The guitars and bass in the quiet sections also bubble like a chemistry experiment and there's some very tight snare playing. I've recently started playing drums in a funk band and have been impressed with how hard all this music actually is, even though it sounds so effortless and James' band were always one of the best in the bizness. I could honestly listen to a 30 minute version of this.

Madness - Our House

Sometimes it's easy to overlook the greatness of a massive commercial hit like this. I always find that people who hate the Beatles never actually listen to much Beatles, but form their opinions on X- factor renditions and supermarket covers played through poor speakers, however I tend to find revisiting the original pays dividens. This song is simular. It's easy to write Madness off as a novelty band but at the heart of all their great singles were the skills comparative to a Ray Davies or Irving Berlin. It has a depressing quality to it maybe it has something to do with the lyrical evocations of a steamed up windowed, typical mid week family life but I think it's more to do with the music and the timbre of the vocals. Again this has a good beginning, a sort of reversed swell that takes you into the song (and also into the 'house' of the lyrics), the initial bare piano is joined quickly by a disco inspired bass, jenga stacked horns and magestic sweeping emotional strings and an absolute killer chorus that's both blokey and fragile and contains a very unusual downward key change. The track itself is expertly mixed with allot of space yet also very busy- I send myself dizzy trying to follow everything in this number and the Gilbert & Sullivan esque pater song section near the end ("I remember way back then when everything was true and when...") is the final joyous push towards everything coming back together for the last chorus and double key change refrain.

Steve Reich - Phases A Nonesuch Retrospective [5CD Boxset]

This was a present I received a few years ago and I've been listening to it non stop- he's becoming ever more popular in the pop sphere (he must be if i'm listening to it), I find his pieces so dense and infinitely rewarding, the listnener in a sense becomes the person responsible for the mix of each piece as it's possible to hear different things and different combinations of things every time one listens- I can't quite pick one piece as my favourite (Different Trains is a good starting point), but at the moment i'm listening to the Desert Music section and Tehillim (old hebrew incantations set to music), but I've come to him via Music for 18 musicians and 6 pianos.

Shostakovich - 8th String Quartet

My sister recommended this to me after I introduced her to the film Psycho and we enthused about the music together. I like the situation we have, I'm always talking about pop culture things and she always shoots back with something facinating from the higher browed world- it's a good working relationship. I haven't listened to it too much yet, but it's very angry and angular and indicative of perhaps a disjointed mind. The interesting this about Shostakovich, is that he had a bit of metal in his head from the second world war which when he tilted his head a little, would move and provide him with new melodies, so when he was in a compositional rut all he'd do was tilt his head and he'd be newly inspired. He toyed with the idea of removing it but his surgeons agreed it did no damage and one quipped that something good came from the Nazi's.