Under The Influence

Another top Norwegian score. I was introduced to this by someone from Norway... well actually, not quite this. He gave me copies of The National Bank and BigBang's live acoustic cd. Mind blowing stuff. I only had to hear about 2 seconds of Thomas Dybdahl before I clicked that he was the singer from National Bank - very distinctive voice.

The whole thing just feels so silky smooth. The final production is not unlike that on Rykestraße. My guess is that like Wellington there's a fairly incestuous pool of talent lurking behind a good chunk of the music. Dybdahl won the Spellemannsprisen when he released this one too.

It's a beautiful piece of work.

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.

There's only one reason why I purchased this track - Disco D. Not that there's anything wrong with 50 Cent... I just avoid him to avoid the hype machine. When 50's first hit single (In Da Club) dropped all those years back I was very impressed. It had all the hit elements... and then it was played - over and over again. So I stopped paying attention.

Ski Mask Way has given me a reason to take another look at what he's doing. I'm really not sure what his message is here. Is he being ironic? More likely he's just disgorging that same old rhetoric that rappers these days seem condemned to belch forth and it's Disco D's production that makes the work touching.

What a goddamn shame it was for D to end his life a couple of months ago. That kid was fresh, original, creative and inspired (to say the least). I've got an idea. Let's lock up everyone who shows any semblance of talent the day they turn 27, we'll let them out again once they hit 28.

R.I.P. Disco D

Ha! Two years ago when I was banging on about Mark Ronson you didn't want to know. Even at the tail end of last summer I struggled to drag people in to his tent at LoveBox (AKA the Sweatbox - a title well earned), though those who were there were treated to a nice sneak preview of Version. See? See what's happened now? Now he's lined up to be the DJ act of the upcoming UK summer.

This is the point where I'm meant to go, "his new album isn't as good as his first one". Sorry to disappoint but I'm not going to. His new album is a fine piece of work. Covers, all endorsed by the original artists. That's like musical heaven to me.

It's pretty typical Ronson styling. Each track is treated to funky rehashing, dowsed in horns and left out in the sun to spontaneously combust. The opener 'God Put A Smile Upon Your Face' being a prefect example of just that process done right.

As expected he draws on a great range of sources for the original material. The one that gets me is Amy, a track from Ryan Adam's criminally underrated debut, Heartbreaker. Even the Ronson cover risks drawing a tear from my eye.

I'm sure there are a few people out there struggling to recall why they've heard that name before. One Night In Bangkok - rocking 80s musical anthem. It was the smash hit from the musical Chess (and a top dance track to boot). I believe Murray was the first person to play the role in which it is sung in the stage show (hence where the recording came from). Furthermore his little brother Anthony (Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) went on to play the role some years later.

Enough trivia. You Are is one of those random tracks I downloaded one day. I still listen to it regularly. I'm a sucker for the epic 80s synth sound. Well worth an emusic credit.