#dippingtoes

Space Dimension Controller - First Glance

In general, I choose to avoid public transport at all costs, instead making use of my trusty old two wheeler. So you can imagine my dismay when stranded in Peckham at the weekend, looking to the higher powers of TFL to guide me, I found nothing but line closures and replacement buses. Alas, I had to look elsewhere for divine inspiration, & SDC was a more than fitting spiritual guide.

Here he is on this Royal Oak (a Clone Records offshoot) EP release from last year; ever since 2009’s Love Quadrant entered my consciousness I’ve been hooked. Expect his trademark blend of slippery sloppery electro sounds with infectious chord progressions.

Feels like music suited for being in motion to me - I imagine it’d sound amazing driving across a wide open road minutes before sundown.

One hit wonders: we all love them but know relatively little about them. It’s an area of music I am least versed in. Chesney Hawkes? No idea. Baha Men? Not a clue. Vanilla Ice? Sheesh.... The greatest one hit wonder of them all though comes from Louisiana, USA. John Phillip Baptiste AKA Phil Phillips wrote Sea of Love in 1959. It didn’t reach number one in the Billboard Charts, unfortunately it went to number two. But one hit wonders don’t need to go to the top of the charts to have a lasting legacy. That’s what Al Pacino is for. He starred in a 1989 film of the same name in which a serial killer plays that song right before he kills people. That film brought a wonderful song to a new and arguably even more appreciative audience. Sea of Love is not only one of the greatest and more peculiar love songs ever written, it’s also by far the best ever one hit wonder.

Everyone has their bookshelf artists. For the times when you've neglected to update your ipod for weeks on end. Or when your recent foray into the world of Japanese Surf Rock isn't quite answering life's questions like you'd hoped (although, I would argue the guitar solo in Dark Eyes by Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys could go some distance). Like an old friend, they can sometimes fall out of favour for one reason or another, but have the perennial ability to return and instantly feel relevant.

One such artist for me is Nick Drake. Far from the melancholy disposition most tend to associate with his songs, I've always found there to be something inherently hopeful about his humble melodies set against jaunty, finger-picked meanderings. Granted, he was a deeply troubled soul but for me it is a sense of fatalistic, British perspective that always prevailed in his music. Anywho...

Most would herald his third album Pink Moon, from which the track above is taken, as his most solid offering; indeed it serves as the best introduction for the uninitiated. The Documentary below also is a compelling insight into his tragically short life. 

Nick Drake - A Stranger Among Us from James Veitch on Vimeo.

RIP ND.