Get your handbags out...

Track : TRACEY THORN - "GRAND CANYON"

I'm still quite taken aback by the way wistful, 80's, husband and wife duo Everything But The Girl reinvented themselves in the dance field. Through their own work veering from gentle acoustic pop songs towards House and Drum & Bass, Ben Watt currently being at the cutting edge of the UK's Deep House scene and then Tracey Thorn hooking up with Massive Attack and now releasing a solo electronic / dance album with the great Ewan Pearson at the helm. It's a remarkable transformation.

I had high hopes for Tracey's current and second solo album, her first, "A Distant Shore", was released 25 years ago... And going on the career trajectory, and with Ewan Pearson on board, I was expecting it to be full of thumping club tracks. It's not. Don't get me wrong the production is great, it's electronic heart compliments the contemplative nature of Thorns songs, it just took me a while to get over what I expected it to be. I just wish there were more songs like "Grand Canyon" on the album though...

"Grand Canyon" is what I wanted the whole album to be like. It's the highlight for me. Once that bass hook kicks in, I'm lost. It's a great, moody dance track.

Track : ROISIN MURPHY - "OVERPOWERED (KRIS MENACE INSTRUMENTAL MIX)"

I've already posted, on the forum, how I think that Roisin Murphy's new track is, to my ears, one of the best this year. With it's squelchy 303's and her wonky lyrics about science struggling to explain the oxytoxins flowing through her brain... It also gets a bonus tick from me as Seiji from the legendary broken beat crew, Bugz In The Attic, helped pen it.

"Overpowered" has a glut of remixes, so it's decisions, decisions as to what one to post. Out of my favourites, do I go for the insane "Herve And Roisin In The Secret Garden Mix" (up there with Justice's Franz Ferdinand kicking from a year or so ago for madness) or plump for the warm Euro House - with a dash of Italo - vocal mix by Kris Menace?

I was going to go with the latter, but I then got my mits on an instrumental version of it, which I loved even more. Without Roisin's voice it bares no relation at all to the original. It stands alone as a nice summer House track.

Track : MARGARET BERGER - "ROBOT SONG"

Guilty pleasure time. Towards the end of last year / beginning of this year, there were two female singers I kind of got obsessed about. One was the Swedish, Italo Disco Princess, Sally Shapiro and the other was Margaret Berger.

Promise not to run away when I tell you that she was the runner up in the second series of Norwegian Idol?

Before your manufactured pop / pap alarm bells start ringing and have you running for cover, hear me out...

"Robot Song" was the first thing I heard by her and sparked my interest. Here is a quirky, polished, electro pop song in which she proclaims her love for an, erm, Robot... but she can't tell her dad...

It was after hearing this that I discovered she'd been on Norway's version of Pop Idol. I couldn't put 2 and 2 together. How could a glorified karaoke competition contestant put out stuff like this? There would be no chance that Cowell and Co would ever let any of the UK entrants into these competitions put out anything so leftfield, even though it's still very much accessible. Hats off to the Norwegians for doing so though.

I managed to pick up the album and fell for it's pure cutting edge pop. A heterosexual, 35 year old guy, shouldn't be getting a kick from this stuff, but I just couldn't resist it. The team of producers working behind the scenes on ths CD composed some fabulous state of the art pop songs for her. There are songs on here that if Kylie, Sophie Ellis Bextor, even Girls Aloud got there hands on then they'd be at number one for weeks. Check out the videos below, imagine Bextor singing "Samantha"... Imagine Girls Aloud doing "Will You Remember Me Tomorrow"...

And on the subject of videos, Feist could soon be losing her quirky video dancing crown if Tracey Thorn's "It's All True" and those Margaret Berger promos are anything to go by...

Enjoy.

Go Buy : Tracey Thorn - Out Of The Woods
Go Buy : Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Go Buy : Margaret Berger - Pretty Scary Silver Fairy

Go Visit : Tracey Thorn
Go Visit : Roisin Murphy
Go Visit : Margaret Berger

Go Watch : Tracey Thorn - It's All True / Raise The Roof
Go Watch : Roisin Murphy - Overpowered
Go Watch : Margaret Berger - Samantha / Will You Remember Me Tomorrow

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie

If I only could...

Bootlegs. Remember them? They used to be the bread and butter of The Pipe.

To be honest, I gorged too much on them and grew sick of them. So I don't follow the scene anymore and I only hear the odd uninspired one every now and then.

That is until now...

Track : DJ MAGNET - "LOVE COMES RUNNING UP THAT HILL QUICKLY"

This track came to my attention this morning via C4 Teletext's Planet Sound page, in which they said that the Pet Shop Boys had given their blessing to it.

It's a mash up of Placebo's cover version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and the Pet Shop Boys "Love Comes Quickly".

At this point I shoud say that the Kate Bush version is one of my all time favourite records. Probably because I find it rather odd. Odder still is that it got to #3 in 1985. Is it a pop record? With those strange atmospheres and bizarre muffled barking synth lines? So when people cover it I kind of fear that they'll ruin the ambience of it all.

Placebo covered it a few years back for their covers album that was bundled with "Sleeping With Ghosts". I was impressed, so much so I think it's as good as the original. They stripped it back, slowed it down a little and added a new, minimal eeriness to it all thus showing an understanding of the track. Gold star to Placebo! Gold Star removed from Placebo when later in the CD they managed to shit all over, another of my fsvourite tracks, Serge Gainsbourg's "The Ballad Of Melody Nelson". Pfft.

The bootleg features a lot of the Placebo version and has parts of the Pet Shop Boys track weaving in and out beautifully. But the killer is in the last minute when Kate makes a brief appearance. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end the first time I listened to it as I wasn't expecting it.

Track : KATE BUSH - "RUNNING UP THAT HILL (12" VERSION)"

As a bonus, here's the 12" version of the original.

Also worth tracking down is Claudia Brucken and Andrew Poppy's bare bones cover of "Running Up That Hill". Just beautiful piano lines and Brucken's amazing voice.

And, If you didn't pick it up when mentioned in the forum, head over to DATASSETTE's site, click on "Music", scroll down a bit and listen to his excellent electro rework of "Running Up That Hill".

Enjoy.

Go Buy : Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
Go Buy : Placebo - Sleeping With Ghosts (Special Edition)

Go Visit : DJ Magnet
Go Visit : Kate Bush
Go Visit : Placebo

Go Watch : Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill
Go Watch : Placebo - Running Up That Hill

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie

As Al Murray The Pub Landlord would say, "It's been a year..."

No excuses.

Just tunes to blow the cobwebs off.

Track : SKREAM - "BAHL FWD"

A Dubstepper.

Track : MUTT & PERPETUUM - "NOVEMBER"

A D&B Roller.

Enjoy.

Go Buy : Various Artists - Tectonic Plates

Go Visit : Skream
Go Visit : Mutt / Perpetuum

Stay tuned...

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie