It's Tuesday 15th July, 2014 - which means it's another Harkive day, where I am to document all the music I listen to from start to finish. Since the last such day in 2013, I've turned 40. Does that explain why I now listen to BBC Radio 2 in the mornings? Probably not, as I've always had a liking for music back to the 1970s – 1960s at a push – and that's where Vanessa Feltz was intent on taking us early on this cloudy Tuesday morning. Feltz is a much better music presenter than I would have previously given her credit for – and here she was playing The Sweet's Ballroom Blitz and Blockbuster before 6:15am! Heady stuff.
And so to the hour-long train journey into London, which always gives me the chance to listen to albums that I'm reviewing for DMC World. This is primarily a dance / electronic music website, and in the mornings I tend to opt for something that might be a bit more chilled out. That's how my choice of the System 7 remix album Out came around, but by the time I was at London Bridge I was in receipt of some pretty lively techno through remixes from Plastikman and Carl Craig. Again, an unexpected burst of energy for an otherwise lethargic Tuesday morning.
And so to Pret A Manger, for half an hour's reading and writing – in this case, writing up a concert I'd been to the previous day at the Wigmore Hall for another website I write for, Classical Source. Pret tend to opt for bursts of jazz and funk with singers that sing too many notes, but more recently they've chilled out a bit, and it was lovely to note the distinctive tones of Cate Le Bon, singing I Can't Help You, before the more generic stuff appeared and was shunted to the background of my head.
And so to work – where Tuesdays mean BBC 6Music is the radio station of choice in the office. This is wholly appropriate, because in my day job at PPL we are responsible for ensuring the distribution of monies for broadcast and public performance gets made to record companies and performers as quickly and accurately as possible. From where I sit though the radio can sometimes be frustratingly out of reach, and that was the case today – so I drifted in and out of consciousness as the daytime schedule wore on.
However I was able to pick out the squelchy bass of Roots Manuva's Witness (1 Hope), and a track of the same name by the unexpected combination of Brian Eno and Underworld's Karl Hyde, which has yielded some interesting results at times. Lauren Laverne also played The War On Drugs' heady single Burning before arriving at what is possibly my favourite single of the year so far, Morrissey's Istanbul – like the city, a startling collision of East and West that is both graceful and chaotic. Later still we had Motown Junk, a sign that recent Manic Street Preachers material is definitely worth investigating further.
As the afternoon passed in a heat haze we had Radcliffe and Maconie, still on 6Music. Unfortunately I missed them playing Ozric Tentacles, but was at hand to hear Frank Zappa's riotous Valley Girl. On my own headphones I was listening to some Benjamin Britten, some early pieces for viola and piano – which I would listen to several times before writing them up on my blog about the composer, Good Morning Britten.
Work over, it was time for 5-a-side football – which involves a round trip of two hours on a train to and from Harrow and Wealdstone. It's another chance for a load more music to review! Before football I try and psyche myself up with some more up tempo stuff, so this time I chose a compilation – the second in Bill Brewster's series of Late Night Tales After Dark. Brewster is a dance music historian, and his knowledge of all things rhythmic informs his set, so that you always end up hearing stuff you didn't know about – surely one of the prerequisites of a good compilation. Two of my choices from his selection would be the wonderful Boutade by Mugwump, an atmospheric piece of deep funk, and the crafty synth workings of Justus Köhncke's Tell Me.
These got me to football, followed by a couple of drinks and a bite to eat, before the journey home – which brought me full circle musically, with the second part of the System 7 album to cover. There is some pretty euphoric music here – not just for dancing! Some of it was from the duo as they turned remixers – their work on Japanese duo Rovo's Eclipse especially good. There is always an emphasis on melody with System 7, in spite of Steve Hillage's prog-rock past with the noodly Gong. He and Miquette Giraudy have always worked well together in this way, and I realise I've been tracking their progress for the last 20 years or so.
Mind you, this time I had a late night drunk for company – the only other person in the carriage deciding she wanted to sing Justin Timberlake's Like I Love You as loud as she could. I couldn't stop laughing as alcohol-soaked Timberlake got through my headphones to receive a techno makeover in my very confused brain. Definitely time for bed!
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