Various: Brain in the Wire

Well this is a third spin on this month's "curating covermounts" theme. We had one promoting a label's product from a single source, and another giving a more eclectic round-up of new releases. Now here's another option, wherein The Wire have effectively outsourced the compiling to a third party, Brainwashed, which seems to function as webzine/service, internet radio stream and occasional record label (going on their Wikipedia entry, caveat lector).

So everything depends on them, but I like this selection a lot. All but two tracks, in fact, which are conveniently side by side: the Ruby Falls song turns me off just on how it sounds — anonymous indie — while the Panacea track is exactly the one that all the pirate stations seem to broadcast all the time very close to the Radio 3 FM signal, so that, even when you've got the best reception you can get of Radio 3, you can still hear it's doof-doof-doof bassline mashed up with your Bruckner.

But with that out of the way, what about the things I like… It kicks off with the Legendary Pink Dots, about whom I'm surprised I haven't heard before, because it turns out they've been around a while, and they're up my strasse, sounding a bit like Gong playing Can in 1973 even though they didn't form until 1980. Phew: 36 of their albums on emusic; plenty to explore. There's some ambient dubby and electronica stuff which is pleasant enough. I liked the piece by Windy & Carl because it sounded to me a bit like the bit at the beginning (I think) of Wagner's Rheingold (just because I happened to hear that last night, at the end of the DVD of Wings of Hope that I watched). I' a sucker for droney, dreamy, folky songs with a female vocal, so Jessica Bailiff (four albums on emusic). Similarly with Little Annie (shucks, only two tracks on emusic), during whose Lullaby the Boy did actually fall asleep in my arms (he's better today, but still emotionally unsettled by his illness). Finally, the CD rounds off with some light entertainment in the form of Nurse With Wound and Current 93 collaborations — both genuinely quite enjoyable, actually. And, yes, I'm still feeling guilty about those unkind comments about Current 93's album.

So now I have 135 albums in my emusic "save for later" list (that's including no more than one by any of those mentioned above). Curiosity still outstrips time to listen.

MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in part at Last.fm