Under The Influence

This is kind of like a big rock opera in a way. It's a very cohesive work with all the right elements. Long dramatic songs flow seamlessly into each other. That kind of makes it a concept album I guess.

There are lots of great lyrics tucked away in here - "I'm emotionally raped by Jesus, but somehow I'm still here" (from Cancer). Beautiful. In Fall Out we get to enjoy Tchykovsky rehashed into something resembling a breaks/hip-hop track. Don't worry, It's done tastefully.

I get hints of Air's Virgin Suicides every now and again in the more atmospheric moments, though I think this work is probably older, no? Yep, by a year - must have been the flavour of the moment.

Deep and varied, a poetic masterpiece. One of those works that deserves an attentive listen from start to finish.

I'm going to love this one, I just know it.

Ahhh, so this is Emo? I've been avoiding Emo, well, as much as one can when it's blaring from nearby TVs and Radios. For those not in the know it's all about Emotions (get it?)... and showing them. I guess we had the same thing - just Teen-angst music like The Smiths or NIN or whatever your particular flavour happens to have been. The difference is that here it's given an official name and has the culture/fashion stylings to go with it.

The sound has clearly evolved from skater punk, though it now comes equipped with a rock/metal edge. The singing style is that nasally thing Greenday and so on used to (still) do. Oh, and the lyrics speak for themselves - "Look out kid, 'cos here it comes - you're not the lucky ones". Basically they've taken the it's-fun-to-be-a-kid soul out of skater punk and replaced it with it's-hard-to-be-a-kid angst.

Truthfully is actually pretty good, overproduced but that seems to be the norm these days. Really over-compressed too. Someone needs to tell those dickheads up at the big labels that making the whole thing loud at the expense of dynamic range won't sell more records. It just spoils the impact.

Alex Schmidt is a dj... I think. I can't really figure out anything much about this guy. It's a random dance set I picked up from somewhere and it's bloody good. I'm very busy at work at the moment (computer geek by day) so I've made good use of this mix. I find that dj mixes (the more housey/electro ones) are great when I'm try to get things done in a hurry.

Mostly you get lots of deep dirty bass built on house/electro foundations. There's a song on here (track 9) that I know I know (it's a classic) but I have no idea what it is. Bugging the hell out of me.

Since I couldn't find anything out about this stuff online... hence the muntovision picture.

Have I heard this before? I think Comfort You is one of those radio tracks that I thought was by someone else (or rather I'd never thought about who it was by). Very memorable piano hook anyway.

Oh right. The title track, Black Fingernails Red Wine was a big hit here recently, right? These guys have definitely been all over the radio - something in which I seldom indulge (so they must have been played a lot for me to pick up on them).

Lots of piano on this one. I like this much more then most the pop-rock I'm subjected to by the British culture. I really like Kavyen Temperley's voice. It's kind of like Coldplay done right (sorry EJ).

Wow. I know every song on here. How can that be? According to Wikipedia they're very popular in their home country (Australia) but not especially so in the UK. Maybe this is another one of the albums I'd spent time listening to and forgotten about. Really cool stuff.

Cheesy to the extreme... though just look at the name, it's a dead give-away. I can't believe people still make music like this (in 2006?!). What's up with the moonlight sax?

Over the top guitar solos form the foundation of every song. Just more Satch style guitar wank when it comes down to it. Haha - Blood Of The Snake, what does that even mean?

52 minutes of self-indulgent guitar work is a bit hard to take - though once one submits to the cheese it's enjoyable enough and there's gold at the end of the painbow - Billy Idol and Slash join them for a light cover of In The Summertime.

All I can think is either I've gotten the dates wrong (reissue?) or there's a pocket of people out there somewhere who have been cut off from the rest of the world since the early 90s. Now, that's just sad.

This is Kool Keith right? Or is it MF Doom? Are the same thing? Or is that Dr. Doom? I'm in confusing territory.

I like it anyhow. I like filthy low synth bass. Earth People smacks of dirty club nights.

He's gone for a whole medical theme with this one (I guess that's probably the idea with this Dr. alias). There are some wicked bit of scratching on here. A Visit To The Gynecologyst ends with a fantastic little scratch solo. The following song, Bear Witness (a rather Public Enemy like affair), has some wicked scratch work going on too for that matter.

This is the kind of hip-hop that intellectual hip-hop heads like. Crazy to think this is ten years old. The rapping is really not so different from what the likes of Murs and Atmosphere are doing these days. I'm probably still mixed up... it's probably all the same guy.

Who is this guy? What is this doing in my collection? Why do I know half these songs?

I have no idea who Don Henley is but many of these songs I've heard plenty of times over the years. Seriously, out of the ten 80s tracks I knew six of them and the others were plenty enjoyable. Unfortunately the album is let down by the last three mid-90s tracks - they should have ended it on The Heart Of The Matter (1989)... delete!

These are the sort of cool tracks that the compilation gods that do the Grand Theft Auto soundtracks pull out of the hat. The commercial ones that the general public has managed to forget about. Hell, GTA3 is probably why I downloaded this in the first place.

The Boys Of Summer and New York Minute are both epic. Dirty Laundry is probably my pick though.

Art Of Fighting is probably some real depressing music... but it sure does sound beautiful when you're sitting in a sunny train carriage flying through green English fields.

AOF is so soothing it always puts me at ease. I find his voice very emotive. The whole sound is so smooth in the way it flows, like it's made of a fine oil. In general when they want to turn things up a notch they're pick a noisier clanging guitar sound before turning on the distortion.

Sing Song is poppy enough that it could have done well in the Australasian pop charts - actually it sounds a lot like an old Radiohead track now I think about it. Oh! It's all so beautiful. Halfway through each song I think "this is the one to show people, this sums up AOF" and then the next one comes on. Having reached the end of the album I guess it's last one, Heart Translation, that will have to be the final pick.

Are these guys still together? I sure hope so. I want to see them live.

Another one that's been kicking around in my collection for ages waiting to get a good listen. Another one I should have paid more attention to ages ago. I think I wasn't listening to it out of protest really - it's always hard work trying to enjoy a band that the radio have taken a liking to.

These guys aren't like all that other stuff out there. I pictured them sounding like a typical modern rock band but that's not really the case at all. The production is really big. Lots of wonderful noises (some of them backwards - always good), strings aplenty.

I've actually only got copies of the first few tracks, though not for long I'm sure.

Another beauty picked up from my Bristol experience. Recorded, I believe, in the same place with the same people as Ivory Springer, and the influence shows. This 3-piece definitely have a harder edge to them. They have the same intelligent-rock feel as Tool.

It's short - only 20 minutes long, but a good 20 minutes. Quality over quantity. I've always said that when we moved to CDs albums became too long.

If nothing else this album reminds me that I still love a good bit of metal.

Oh yeah. The artwork really kicks ass too.