That Music List: LIST 228

Hello again,

Not often I start a List with an in-loving-memory track, but the sad passing (albeit at the fine age of 89) in the past few days of the much-loved bioengineer, educator and television and radio presenter Professor Heinz Wolff practically demanded the inclusion of the theme tune to arguably his most popular vehicle, BBC2's The Great Egg Race. As it happens, the Denton and Cook-penned piece is also among my very favourite theme tunes of all time, if not indeed the favourite, being as it is a note-perfect take on the almost-pop of Before and After Science-era Brian Eno. Rest easy, Professor Wolff.

Newer material this week includes the impassioned anti-Brexit highlight from Gavin Osborn's Echo Bridge album (one of the most important pieces of art you'll consume all year); no less politically charged new fare from Billy Bragg; and amazing, achingly gorgeous electronic indiepop from Deerful.

The evidence of the fine Goose Feather Bed confirms Wave Pictures/Slow Club amalgamation Surfing Magazines as being more than the sum of their parts, as far as I'm concerned, Slow Club having long since disappointed me although Wave Pictures have not. Just for fun, the Go-Betweens song which may or may not have given this project their name is also included.

There's no dedicated Christmas List this year, but I've found a few festive tracks new and old with which to finish, including MJ Hibbett's take on a track by deathless Cologne popsters Bläck Fööss; a Boy Least Likely To number imbued with rather more poignancy now than when released in 2010; and what I understand might actually have been the first ever commercially available track by The School.

J xx

RICHARD DENTON AND MARTIN COOK – The Great Egg Race Theme (1979)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQUFeyORZOY

GAVIN OSBORN – European (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNp9z6ostXE

SURFING MAGAZINES – Goose Feather Bed (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CwlxL05MZA

THE GO-BETWEENS – Surfing Magazines (2001)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBJYP_nfMmg

PEACH PIT – Seventeen (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI8fL77-0e0

DEERFUL – Peach Rose Tea (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F18gd9a94M