Entertainment For Lively Minds
If ever a compilation perfectly captured a genre
Posted by daddyclark on 8 November 2011 - 9:02pm.
Now I am aware that Britpop is not to everyones taste but bear with me. I dug out a compilation CD called "Live Forever" from one of the door pockets in the car. It has the usual Britpop big hitters Oasis, Blur, Pulp etc, all the "mid table" acts (Shed 7, Sleeper) and also some of the electronic bands (Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Underworld). Listening to it I couldn't think of anything that was missing and it summed up the times as I remember them pretty perfectly. So have you got a compilation that ticks all the boxes for a genre you like?
In the meantime here's a bit of Pulp.
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Roll with it / Country house.
The britpop 'War' (Roll with it Vs Country house), of august 95, taught me one thing.
The greatest single moment of Britpop was 'Common People'
Sublime.
Agreed
one of the few songs from that period that still stands up today, and IMO the best by some distance.
What starts almost as slightly amusing whimsy, builds and builds and ends as an angry vitriolic brilliantly observed piece of class war polemic.
'and they burn so bright that you can only wonder why'
There are many great comps which capture a label-specific
or area-specific sound - but a whole genre?
Britpop was fairly short-lived hence do-able over 2 cds.
This one:
(with deference to the original NME cassette) does a decent job on Britpop's less chart-friendly older brother...
You're right maybe genre isn't the right word
maybe scene would be better? Genre was the best I could come up with.
this one is well near perfect. Again, maybe more
'scene' than 'genre', but every track a belter. And a bargain too!
I've got that somewhere
Will have to dig it out. Good call
Another 'scene' one
also from Sony, Edge of the Seventies, three CDs of stuff from the end of the decade, a bargain at a fiver a pop when I bought it. Too many tracks to list, not all of them made it on to my mp3 player but so many 'must haves' I never bought at the time.
Great compilation
Ska/Rocksteady....
The 'Club Ska '67' compilation on Island from....erm....'67.
NWOBHM was defined by the 'Metal For Muthas' sampler
The classic, the current and the covermount
The Classic - Nuggets, obviously
The Current, both from the folk world - Folk Against Fascism and Oak Ash Thorn. FAF is a roll call of the great and the good currently plying the folk trade and tells you exactly why folk is on the rise again. Oak Ash Thorn is a darker, quirkier take on the songs of the late Peter Bellamy, who in turn had interpreted Kipling. I'm just forever grateful that there are people out there coming up with fresh ways of looking at old works.
The Covermount - from Mojo, June 2003. The first in a series of Mojo Music Guides - Instant Garage. Didn't have any expectations when I first put it on, but loved it from start to finish and still play it regularly. MC5 to Jonathan Richman via The Nazz, the Ramones and this beaut from The Ready Men which always puts a big smile on my face
This Is Soul!!
An Atlantic Records sampler originally released as a 12 track album in 1968 and re-released as a 29 track cd in 2007.
Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Arthur Conley, Percy Sledge, Sam & Dave,
Ben E King, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Solomon Burke and Aretha Franklin all feature on the original selection and the likes of The Bar-Kays, King Curtis and Archie Bell & The Drells have been added.
What more could you want?
Agree - Nuggets is a must have.
Ministry of Sound Electronic 80's
does exactly what it says on the tin and now only £6.39 for 3 cd's and 60 songs. Go on you know you want to..... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthems-Electronic-80s-Various-Artists/dp/B002R5...
Bloody hell, if Shed 7 were mid table...
then who the hell were the relegation certainties?!
Gay
Dad
Kula shaker
.
Actually I will change that to
Menswe@r
Shed 7 apparently still hugely popular
still touring, and packing them in. Sold out Sheperds Bush Empire and Manchester Academy and doing extra dates due to popular demand.
Where are all these Shed 7 fans coming from? Does anyone know one?
Shed 7
Some decent venues there too. Very good live apparently. They must be playing someone elses music?
Kula Shaker
I once accidentally saw these live. Really wanted them to die and their arses, but they were a very good live act.
My best mate
goes to see them at least once a year. Their fanbase can not get enough of them. But she does also fancy Rick still.
Back To Life
named after the eponymous title track by Soul II Soul and featuring "No Diggety", "Apparently Nothin' " and lots of other good stuff. Downloaded it ahead of a bit of a gathering at Sheev Towers a few weeks back and playing it led to lots of middle class, nearing middle aged, pointy fingers and overbite type dancing. Not a pretty sight perhaps but with party season coming up - it's a must! Just skip "Moving On Up" featuring Foghorn Leghorn on vocals
Hey! I was playing this the other night
(Of course it was just me and my teddy bears at that party). My only bone of contention (and I don't know whether it's the band or label or whoever is to blame) is it features the inferior lp mix of The Family Stand's "Ghetto Heaven" rather than the fab Nellee Hooper single mix. Quite the toe tapper though, and well representative of its era without (for the most part) sounding dated thanks to the abundance of enduring quality..
Swamp Rock ...
... sums up the late 60's / early 70's Southern soul/country rock scene perfectly including this gem ....
Elektro Diskow
Intrigued by the banner ad across the top of the site recently I had a look at the Elektro Diskow compilation put together by Mixmag. A bargain at £3.49 for a double CD.
(Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Mixmag / Word. I'm just a satisfied customer / consumer.)
Elektro Diskow x 2
I too was intrigued & have just ordered it myself, cant wait to listen to it.
Billy bargain
So I was in.
suggestions
Bob Stanley's 'Gather in the Mushrooms' comp did much to launch acid folk as a recognised record collectors' genre.
I may be alone in really liking the 1996 compilation 'Monsters, Robots and Bug Men' on Virgin Records. It rounded up the best Anglo-American "post-rock/space rock" that was contemporaneous with Britpop-Stereolab, Bardo Pond, Stars on the Lid etc. The subsequent obscurity of many of the bands makes it something of a snapshot in time.
Sub Pop 200
It's odd that you you should bring this up. This week I've been writing about Sub Pop 200 - the compilation that inadvertently captured the rawness and humour of Seattle Grunge before many of the bands were famous.
It's a shade under 4000 words at the moment. I'm trying to edit it down.
"Impressed with Gilles Peterson" Vols 1 and 2
There are two compilations that brilliantly capture what might loosely be called the British visionary jazz scene of the late 60s/early 70s, and these are "Impressed with Gilles Peterson Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2".
Every track on both albums is a little gem from that fascinating, progressive (in the best sense of the word) movement. We're talking about Michael Garrick, Ian Carr, Don Rendell, Tubby Hayes, Amancio d'Silva, Mike Westbrook, Joe Harriott, Stan Tracey, Harold McNair and Neil Ardley. Their recordings sound as vital as ever, and Peterson does a grand job in pointing listeners towards further exploration in this thrilling, still-overlooked music. I couldn't recommend you anything better.
Right On
Absolutely perfect compilations shining a much needed light on the golden age of British jazz. Mention should also be made of the wonderful pianist and composer Michael Garrick who died a few days ago.
There was also a third album planned which was withdrawn. Contact me if you want some more information.
I'll look those out as I got distracted by jazz-fusion
in the late 60s and into the 1970s and don't know enough 'proper' British jazz from that time.
Reggae
is a very broad genre but anyone who wants an introduction to it I always recommend the Dynamite series starting with 100% naturally.
Willie Williams — Armageddon Time
The Maytals — Night & Day
The Marvels — Rock Steady
The Upsetters — Popcorn
Tommy McCook — Green Mango
Brentford Allstars — Greedy G
Lennie Hibbert — Real Hot
Johnny Osbourne — We Need Love
Jackie Mittoo — Stereo Freeze
Cedric Im Brooks — Give Rasta Glory
Sound Dimension — Granny Scratch Scratch
Phyllis Dillon — Woman Of The Ghetto
Lloyd Robinson — Cuss Cuss
Sound Dimension — Drum Song
Happy Daze
1."Loaded" - Primal Scream
2."Real, Real, Real" - Jesus Jones
3."Come Home" - James
4."Big" - New FADs
5."Hippy Chick" - Soho, the song featuring the distinctive sampled riff from The Smiths' recording "How Soon Is Now?"
6."Velouria" - The Pixies
7."Taste" - Ride
8."She Comes in the Fall" - Inspiral Carpets
9."Groovy Train" - The Farm
10."The Only One I Know" - The Charlatans
11."Circle Square" - The Wonder Stuff
12."Sheriff Fatman" - Carter USM
13."ProGen" - The Shamen
14."Wrote For Luck" - Happy Mondays
15."I'm Free" - Soup Dragons