not in our stars / but in ourselves

In this edition of Cellophane Sunset: Angus Stone's solo emancipation from his sister under the name Lady of the Sunshine, a 17 minute ambient masterpiece from Brian Eno, live Animal Collective and a dash of infectious post-punk from Essential Logic. I promised myself I wouldn't do this again before I left but obviously I couldn't restrain myself...

Angus Stone - Lady of the Sunshine

Angus Stone, who I featured last issue in his capacity of his work with his sister, has put out a solo record under the name Lady of the Sunshine, recorded up near Coolangatta in a converted watertank. While I love the work the brother and sister team put together, this solo effort is equally special. I was listening to an interview with Richard Kingsmill today in which Angus talked about recording in the watertank, with the stones soaking up the noise of the drums, and it really formed a clear image in my mind of what he'd set out to create. The album Smoking Gun varies between quiet, reflective songs of the kind he and his sister are famous for, and louder tracks, spurred on by his father's Telecaster. Something about the beginning of Jack Nimble has subtle Triffids vibes for me, as well, something to watch out for...

Silver Revolver - Lady of the Sunshine

Jack Nimble - Lady of the Sunshine

Brian Eno

Ambient 1: Music For Airports marked Eno's departure from the sound of Roxy Music and Talking Heads, and massively acclaimed albums like Before and After Science. There are only four songs of which the one below is the first, but they are all quite long (this one weighs in at 17 minutes). I've written before about Eno (the song Not Yet Remembered) and his efforts in his ambient work to strive towards organic minimalism, the kind of music you can have on in the background but instantly connect and grapple with if you choose, and I've put this on here just to give anyone out there with a receptible mind an insight into such music.

1-1 - Brian Eno

Live Animal Collective

you've got to get rid / of your money

I have to stop blogging AC, or come to think of it, any of the bands that fill up my last.fm top 8 (Radiohead, of Montreal, Hot Chip, Why?, Faux Pas, Gang of Four, The Triffids, J Dilla, Animal Collective and The Smiths, since you asked). But nevertheless, I came across this live set over at nyctaper (link below); exquisitely recorded and with great transitions between tracks. For fans of AC check out the site as there's some great versions of their older songs such as Slippi and Fireworks lurking in this set. I chose to share this song purely because they didn't play In The Flowers and as such this one took line honours in terms of personal favouritism...enjoy!

Brothersport (live at Bowery Ballroom 22/01/09) - Animal Collective

(recorded by nyctaper)

Essential Logic

fanfare in the garden / circus in the sun

I'd forgotten I had this elusive post-punk track, ripped off an old NME tape by the very cool dalstonoxfam blog (check it out, very good concept), but it came on shuffle on the way to my formal and I promised Abbey it would surface here.

Fanfare in the Garden - Essential Logic

I'm really going to take a break now, I swear.

this night / has opened my eyes

Angus and Julia Stone

they brand you with the fire / and push you into the sun

One of my favourite songs, from the brother-sister duo of Angus and Julia Stone, who I was introduced to in slightly unbelievable and very memorable fashion in a mysterious set of circumstances detailed in my English Creative SAC. But that's neither here nor there, and in any case the song on that occasion was Paper Aeroplanes, which fills me with poignant dread even now. I tried to get Stef to play this out the front of Piedemontes once but Calum came back early, tragedy. The perfect soundtrack for those early mornings spent struggling to break free from the grip of dreams.

The Beast - Angus and Julia Stone

David Bowie

andy warhol / silver screen / can't tell them apart at all

I've always been a big Bowie fan, especially of songs like Moonage Daydream and Letter to Hermione, but this one is slightly more left-of-field, taking as its subject matter Andy Warhol and subjecting him to intense acoustic orchestration. Be sure to let this play through the intro, which is slightly off-putting...

Andy Warhol - David Bowie

Isaac Hayes

I have a few covers of this song as well as the original recording from Dionne Warwick but this is far and away my favourite one, and on an equal footing with another similar cover performed by Isaac, The Look of Love, which I'll get around to posting at some point.

Walk on By - Isaac Hayes

Grizzly Bear

always the same / i know

Grizzly Bear have been subjected to some intense echo-chamber effect, in terms of blogging, which is why I've held off for a while. What I mean by echo-chamber is that the hype on certain machines (you see what I did there) has been so prolific that its become hard to see where blogs containing Grizzly Bear end and the rest of the Internet begins. That said, here is Cheerleader, my equal favourite track (tied with While You Wait For The Others) from their latest album, Veckatimest

Cheerleader - Grizzly Bear

The The

i've got you under my skin / where the rain can't get in

The glorious return of The The to these electronic pages following their glorious debut back in This Is The Day. I heard somewhere that this particular song clocked in at #4 on one of Triple J's "Greatest Songs Of All Time" lists and its easy to see why, or rather hear why (unless you're one of those visual-auditory people, with small, carney-folk hands). Johnson's sublime lyrics reach the crescest of endos alongside the guitar of someone who is possibly the great Marr himself (I'm not altogether sure whether he had arrived in the band at this point). Enjoy.

Uncertain Smile - The The

unmade love / i'm not getting any stronger

so if i seem / broken in two

The Triffids

beautiful waste / stupid feeling

The Triffids' track Rosevel was one of the first ever to grace the pages of this blog, although admittedly the indian-healing-chant-inspired Witchi Tai To will forever hold first pride of place in this little electronic cave.

I usually assosciate bands I'm really familiar with in relation to specific time periods when my love for them was greatest; for example, year 8 marked a prolonged and unexpected Bob Marley phase, while the beginning of year 10 and all the tempestuous storm clouds that gathered over Gippsland at that point was marred by a love of 2-tone ska band Madness. However The Triffids have always just seemed to be there, ever since I started taking music seriously, and Beautiful Waste below is one of my favourite songs of theirs, from the album Australian Melodrama. McComb's lyricism combines with his band's rhythm section for something truly heart-rending and spectacular.

The Triffids - Beautiful Waste

Animal Collective / Panda Bear

i feel alright / i found a place that fits right...

nimal Collective are another band that's always been there for me, banging away on their peacedrums at the edge of my psyche. The two songs below are from their acoustic-heavy period, predating the hugely successful release of Merriweather Post Pavillion at the beginning of this year. The Softest Voice can be found on Sung Tongs, while singer Panda Bear's Untitled #3 is from his album Young Prayer. The Softest Voice just might be the perfect soundtrack for drifting into oblivion.

Animal Collective - The Softest Voice

Panda Bear - Untitled #3

...it feels small / but i won't get sad about it

Nina Simone

southern trees / bearing strange fruit

My history teacher played this for us last year, (in addition to the entirety of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant...) and I was enthralled from start to finish. This song has been covered so many times, even by artists like Siouxsie, which indicates the relevance of its subject matter to the American consciousness if nothing else, but here Simone's voice takes it somewhere special.

Nina Simone - Strange Fruit

Fleet Foxes

you walk along the stream / your head caught in a waking dream

I really like these guys but have never listened to them with the diligence that they deservep; here is Your Protector, coming home.

Fleet Foxes - Your Protector

The Four Tops

i see a house / a house of stone

I'm not really sure what kind of headspace I'm in right now, but soul in all its forms seems to be doing the trick. If forced to specify further a mixture of some of the acoustic Animal Collective above, some soul in the form of either this or Isaac Hayes' cover of Walk On By, with just the whisper of electronic harp, would be an accurate mental cross-section at the moment.

My ramblings finished, I highly recommend the song below; hopefully it'll have the same effect on you.

The Four Tops - 7 Rooms of Gloom

It's been raining / for so long

- Dragon

today has been / the most perfect day / i've ever seen

Radiohead

I shared one of the songs from Radiohead's Live In The Basement session and thought I'd throw in another, Where I End And You Begin. The one above, Videotape, just consists of Thom Yorke on his own; probably one of my favourite songs, but you knew that already, having walked in on me playing it on the Steinway... (I apologize to the person that actually happened to). The good thing about this version (as distinct from the album one, or the one they usually play live) is that there's no hats (high or low) kicking in to distract from the piano.

Videotape (Live from the Basement) - Thom Yorke

Where I End And You Begin (Live from the Basement) - Radiohead

10cc

talk about album art for album art's sake, money for god's sake!

Godley and Creme were really reaching out for something with this song, I guess. As an aside, I've tried to do something with a loop of the opening part, should probably revisit that at some point. But anyway, in case you're unaware, 10cc were the art-rock band responsible for the hits Dreadlock Holiday ("I don't like cricket / oh no..."), Art for Art's Sake, and I'm Not In Love but, similar to Supertramp, they have a massive backlog of virtually unknown work, of which Headline Hustler is a standout.

Headline Hustler - 10cc

cellophane sunset...showcasing the evolution of splitscreens throughout the ages

- Eric

the click in my head / that makes me go all peaceful

J Dilla + Samples

J Dilla was a producer of prolific output, held in high esteem by artists like ?uestlove, Jay Z and Kanye West, and the catalyst for my recent resurgence of interest in him is the release of yet another of his posthumous albums, Jay Stay Paid.

Of all his work, the album Donuts is that which is the most well known; a series of short songs (all under 2 minutes apart from the 10cc-sampled Workinonit) that borrow heavily from the songs J Dilla sampled. I managed to track down somewhere where all the songs he'd sampled for this album could be found, and have included three below followed by the J Dilla songs for comparison. I can't rate them highly enough, and regardless of any view that sampling to J Dilla's extent is pure plagiarism, you have to admire his taste.

The first song wasn't sampled on the album Donuts (although one of the drum breaks resurfaces on Jay Stay Paid) but was used in the single Fuck The Police, which I haven't included purely because Rene Costy's original on its own blows away any chance of comparison.

Rene Costy - Scrabble (highly recommended)

sampled on Fuck The Police

You Just Can't Win - Gene and Jerry

sampled on Glazed

Glazed - J Dilla

Of these songs J Dilla's product in this instance is the one I'd definitely say makes a marked improvement, driving up the volume of the backing vocals, introducing a searing beat, and only marred by its brevity.

Light My Fire - Lil Brown

sampled on Light My Fire

Light My Fire - J Dilla

the most beautiful opening three seconds of a song you're ever likely to hear

Just Because I Really Love You - Jerry Butler

sampled on U-Love

U-Love - J Dilla

Rufus Wainwright (remixed by Supermayer)

rufus having a morrisey moment

I found this after reading a Pitchfork Guest List interview with Hot Chip guitarist Joe Goddard. Crisp glock and a shining escalade of harp arrangements fade into an elastic club beat, lasting for nearly quarter of an hour.

Rufus Wainwright - Tiergarten (Supermayer remix)

I'm going to go recharge my honesty batteries now, I have some thinking to do.