Friday, 30 December 2016

LIST 224 - 30/12/16 (a 1996 collection, part two)

Hello again,

As promised, herewith the second half of my trawl through some favourites from 1996.  In a parallel universe the two of them together might soundtrack some stay at home New Year's Eve parties tomorrow night, but don't feel under any obligation to do so. 

Fractal Flow has been placed first in this line-up with feeling.  I can still remember clear as day the astonishment in John Peel's voice when able to announce, on his Radio 1 show of December 1st 1996, the first single from Silver Apples in 26 years.  

Given Simeon Coxe III's retreat from music and into art (in so far as he was sighted much at all) following the band's original early-1970s demise, this just before Xmas release on the Enraptured label will have surprised John as much as anyone.

This second coming of Silver Apples has, of course, extended to the present day, and it's been a pleasure to see Simeon manipulating his upgraded bank of oscillators live on stage on three occasions, roughly a decade apart (the last time literally down the road from me here in Sheffield, just three months ago).  Given his relative antiquity and far from the kindest hand where fate and wellbeing have been concerned, this is nothing I've taken for granted.

...Which leads me in a roundabout sort of way towards wishing all regular That Music List readers a happy, healthy 2017.  Do it all again some time soon?

J xx



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Thursday, 22 December 2016

LIST 223 - 23/12/16 (Christmas special)

Hello again,

Turns out I've enough material for yet another full Christmas selection after all!  Please enjoy this, and for that matter your entire festive period by whichsoever name you recognise it. 

I must admit with a little embarrassment that I'd gone this long without regarding Joni Mitchell's River as being in any way a seasonal tune.  I suspect that's because the version (of the many out there!) with which I initially became familiar was that by former Virgin Prunes member Daniel Binttii featured on a Rough Trade compilation widely available in the 1990s - a version which alters the Christmas carol motif of the original beyond recognition.  Matters duly rectified.

There is one New Year-themed track in this collection as well, but I've definitely not got enough songs for an entire New Year List - even if I was minded to include relevant tracks by Cliff Richard and Deacon Blue (I'm not).

Back next week for more Listness, albeit not festive themed.

J xx


DEERFUL - City Bells (2015)

JONI MITCHELL - River (1971)

NATALIE PRASS - Everybody's Having Fun (It's Christmas Time) (2016)

DANIEL JOHNSTON - Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (1994)

CHERRY HEX & THE DREAM CHURCH - Last Christmas (2016)

ERASURE - Bells of Love (Isabelle's of Love) (2013)

HANNAH EPPERSON - Raise the White Flag (2016)

THE YELLOW MELODIES - Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas (2016)

GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI - Christmas Eve (1999)

JILL SOBULE - Merry Christmas from the Family (1995)

OH PEAS! - An Adult's Christmas in Wales (2014)

SPITTING IMAGE - The Christmas Singles (198x)

KATIE MALCO - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (live in Aldershot) (2011)

MJ HIBBETT & THE VALIDATORS AND A LITTLE ORCHESTRA - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (recorded live at Totally Acoustic) (2016)

NIGHT FLOWERS - To Rest (2016)

THE GREEDIES - A Merry Jingle (1979)

LOW - Some Hearts (at Christmas) (2016)

GAYLA PEEVEY - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (1953)

ROPE STORE - A Winter's Tale (2016)

HELEN McCOOKERYBOOK AND CHARLIE TIPPER - Maybe Next Year (2016) 

FIGHTMILK - It's Only Christmas (Cheer Up You Moody Prick) (2016)

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Wednesday, 21 December 2016

LIST 222 - 21/12/2016 (a 1996 collection, part one)

Hello again,

An eighth List inside sixteen days?  Beat that for working hard in December, Santa...  

There are another two this year after this one, too, including a sixth That Music List Xmas Special two days from now.  Either side of that, however, I'll be revisiting some of my favourite tracks from precisely two decades ago.

For many, 1996 was the third and final peak year of Britpop and all for which it stood.  Not for me, however.  

It's not just in the fact that I was still living in Germany for all of the first half of that year, as enough of that stuff permeated certain of the radio airwaves over there and I'd not usually struggle to find a copy of the NME or Melody Maker at my temporary home town's largest newsagent.

Fundamentally, there were other things occurring in music which just interested me a whole lot more, and twenty years on still do.  Not genres and movements specifically (for all that my consumption of post-rock and darkwave/EBM to name but two did ramp up somewhat), but bands and performers.

See how many of these you remember, and remember fondly.  Part two to follow before the year is out.

J xx



Click on the video or link to play each tune (links last checked as all working 08/08/2026).
Click here for a directory of updated older Lists.



ARAB STRAP – The First Big Weekend 

BLACKSTREET – No Diggity 

COMBUSTIBLE EDISON – Short Double Latté 

DIE STERNE – Themenläden 

FLOWCHART – Rainbow Hello 

MINDLESS DRUG HOOVER – Don’t Take Ecstasy 

QUICKSPACE – Friend 
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Monday, 19 December 2016

LIST 221 - 19/12/16 (a 1986 collection, part two)

Hello once more,

Here's the other half of my 1986 pick and mix.  Perhaps a bit more C86-y than the first part on reading back through the List, but not by much.  Great to revisit very early efforts by the likes of Loop, The Shamen and The Beloved, ditto the splendid Mexico '86-soundtracking Colourbox.  Some happy, formative musical memories among the selections here.

J xx


Click on the video to play each tune:
(changed from links to videos as a proof of concept and last checked as all working 23/01/2026)


THE THE – Sweet Bird of Truth 

MIGHTY MIGHTY – Throwaway 

COLOURBOX – Official Colourbox World Cup Theme 

THE WEATHER PROPHETS – Naked as the Day You Were Born 

LOOP – Sixteen Dreams 

VINDALOO SUMMER SPECIAL – Rockin’ with Rita 

BILLY BRAGG – The Tatler 

THE CLOSE LOBSTERS – Going to Heaven to See If It Rains

THE GO-BETWEENS – Spring Rain

SKI BONE ft. TOMMY SKI  - Take It To The Top

THAT PETROL EMOTION – It’s A Good Thing 

FIZZBOMBS - Sign on the Line

THE WOLFHOUNDS – Anti Midas Touch

THE T.T.E.D. ALL STARS – All Wrapped Up in One

THE BELOVED – This Means War 

IT’S IMMATERIAL – Rope 

THE RAILWAY CHILDREN – A Gentle Sound 

THE SHAMEN – Young Till Yesterday 

THE WEDDING PRESENT – You Should Always Keep In Touch with Your Friends 

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Friday, 16 December 2016

LIST 220 - 16/12/16 (a 1986 collection, part one)


Hello again,

Time, then, for the first helping of this year's it-was-thirty-years-ago type List.  Those who know me well would be well within their rights to expect something disproportionately heavily loaded with C86 tunes, but I think I've managed to resist that base urge :-) 

J xx



REM – Fall on Me (1986)



THE BODINES – Heard It All Before (1986)



ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS – Tokyo Storm Warning (1986)



THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN – Psycho Candy (1986)



KRAFTWERK – Sex Object (1986)



THE FLATMATES – Tell Me Why (1986)



XTC – That’s Really Super, Supergirl (1986)



KMFDM – Deutsche Schuld (1986)



HALF MAN HALF BISCUIT – 1966 and All That (1986)



BUDD/FRASER/GUTHRIE/RAYMONDE – Eyes Are Mosaics (1986)



THE VERY THINGS – This is Motortown (1986)



FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM – Power (1986)



THE SHOP ASSISTANTS – All Day Long (1986)



NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – Scum (1986)



THROWING MUSES – Rabbits Dying (1986)



POP WILL EAT ITSELF – Sick Little Girl (1986)



CHINA CRISIS – Arizona Sky (1986)



THE FALL – Hey! Luciani (1986)



THE SMITHS – I Know It’s Over (1986)


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Wednesday, 14 December 2016

LIST 219 - 14/12/16


Hello again,

One of the singles of the year, courtesy of UN war crimes tribunal worker turned dreampop artist Amber Arcades; a very early-2000s sighting of my Sheffield pal Pete Green; and four more new or nearly new festive ditties to finish - what isn't to like?

J xx



AMBER ARCADES - Fading Lines (2016)


 

STEVE MOORE – Intro [Mind’s Eye OST] (2016)


 

STITCHED-BACK FOOT AIRMAN – The Dirty’s Happened (1987)


 

JAPANESE BREAKFAST - Everybody Wants to Love You (2016)


 

THE OSCILLATION – Truth in Reverse (2016)


 

ISSA BAGAYOGO - Sayé Mogo Bana (2001)


 

ALVVAYS – Next of Kin (2015)


 

BESS ATWELL – Cobbled Streets (2016)


 

REM – Circus Envy (1994)


 

NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS – Comancheria [Hell or High Water OST] (2016)


 

HORSE PARTY - Out of Sight (2015)


 

PARANOID LONDON – Eating Glue (2012)


 

CHERRY HEX & THE DREAM CHURCH - Honeypot (2016)


 

THE REGULARS – Lie Down and Fight (2000)


 

ROPE STORE – Never Had Christmas (2016)


 

BILL BOTTING & THE TWO DRINK MINIMUMS - It's Not Christmas Anymore (2015)


 

THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES – Look Who’s Coming to Town (Please Let It Snow) (2016)


 

¡AY CARMELA! – Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrWSOkk5u7w

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Monday, 12 December 2016

LIST 218 - 12/12/16

Hello again,

A happy-sad ending to today's List, as the Haywains track included penultimately is the first of a small handful of Christmas-oriented songs I'll apply to certain Lists as December 25th looms ever larger.  Will there also be an outright Christmas special this time around as per usual?  At this stage even I don't know that...

Less cheerfully, I'm afraid, is the news of the passing of Them Are Us Too's Cash Askew in the Oakland warehouse party fire of just over a week ago - condolences are naturally extended to all who knew and loved her.  A track from the duo's debut album Remain rounds things off this week.

 Elsewhere, it's a pleasure to include something from the recent album by Silver Apples, whose gig at the Picture House Social in Sheffield three months ago was a bleeping, skronking, oscillating delight.  If I'm half as full of life as Simeon Coxe III when I hit 78 years of age, I won't be doing at all badly.

 The ONSIND track, meanwhile, just demanded to be included in a prevailing climate where validation and legitimisation of aggression towards women seems to be on the rise once more - evidently sanctioned, implicitly or otherwise, by a president-elect deserving only of contempt.  Sigh.

 J xx

THE TUTS – Let Go Of The Past (2016)

MBONGWANA STAR - Malukayi (2015)

THE NIGHTINGALES - Workshy Wunderkind (2004/6)

PLEASURE SYMBOLS – Ultraviolence (2014)

STANLEY BRINKS AND THE OLD TIME KANIKS - Right Down My Alley (2016)

SUZANNE CIANI – Paris (1971)

BADBADNOTGOOD – Lavender (2016)

JOANNA GRUESOME – Pretty F*cking Sick of It All (2016)

THE PRIMITIVES – Sick of It (1989)

HAVAH – Gelo (2015)

MOHAMMAD – Vildblomma (2010) 

ONSIND – If You Feel Attacked by Feminism, It’s Probably a Counter-Attack (2008)

YUKON BLONDE – Como (2015)

SILVER APPLES – Nothing Matters (2016)

PIANO MAGIC – Untitled #1 (from Son De Mar OST) (2001)

THE HAYWAINS – Who Needs Summer? (2016)

THEM ARE US TOO – Eudaemonia (2015)  
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Friday, 9 December 2016

LIST 217 - 09/12/16 (another cover versions collection)

Hello again,

Ohhhhh, this was so much fun to put together.  Where to start in what to recommend in particular?

Perhaps Björk, still three years before the solo career proper, recording an Icelandic version of mambo standard "¿Quién será?" aka “Sway” with the jazz trio featured previously.  Or Low covering The Smiths.  Or Morrissey covering Bradford, one of several acts he endorsed in the late-1980s that never quite made it big, but had the material to.

 Maybe Oizone's remorseless Oi! punk dismantling of B*Witched.  Or Roots Manuva's less aggressive but still warped reading of The Beatles.  Or Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales uncorking his inner Ray Davies.

 I have three firm faves in this List, if you'll permit me.  It's possible you'll have heard Stopp, Seisku Aeg by Estonian pop mainstay Velly Joonas not so long ago, after a re-release of this now 33-year-old cover version of a Frida Lyngstad track gained traction at lots of clubs I'm not cool enough to go to.  The scrapy violin riff and gloopy basslines do set it apart from much else I've listened to - I'd love to explore Joonas's work further.

Belle & Sebastian require no such introduction, but theirs is a singularly lovely take on Young Marble Giants' Final Day; whilst Pete Green's solo vocal version of a My Favorite track is a brave and extraordinary interpretation (as well as the middle leg of a Trifecta of major highlights slap bang in the middle of his current and recommended-to-the-hilt album We're Never Going Home).

J xx


GILLAN - New Orleans (1981)

POSTAL BLUE – Brighter (2016)

DISCOUNT – Accident Waiting to Happen (1998)

BJÖRK GUðMUNDSDÓTTIR & TRÍÓ GUðMUNDAR INGÓLFSSONAR – i Dansi Med Per (1990)

LOW - Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (2001)

MORRISSEY - Skin Storm (1991)

VELLY JOONAS – Stopp, Seisku Aeg! (1983)

JUNIOR BOYS – What You Won’t Do for Love (2015)

OIZONE – C’est La Vie ()
 
ROOTS MANUVA - Yellow Submarine (2002)

THE NIGHTINGALES – There’s a New World Just Opening for Me (2006) 

A CERTAIN SMILE - Sarah (2011)

WHY? – Close to Me (2011)

RONNIE SPECTOR – You Can’t Fold Your Arms Around a Memory (1999)

BELLE & SEBASTIAN – Final Day (2003)

WASIS DIOP – Once in a Lifetime (1998)

STURGILL SIMPSON – In Bloom (2016)

THE FALL – Pinball Machine (1988)
 
TENDER AGE - Dream Lover (2016)

PETE GREEN – Homeless Club Kids (2016) 

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Wednesday, 7 December 2016

LIST 216 - 07/12/16

Hello again,

Another mixture of things for this second List of the new season, and regrettably also a second "in memoriam", following the recent passing at a ludicrously young age of Craig Gill, Inspiral Carpets drummer and heartbeat of so many music-oriented activities in Manchester (including as a tour guide of significant sites).  

Listening back to "Biggest Mountain" some 26 years after its release, it's striking at this remove how reflective and considered a track it is, considering much of the Madchester canon placed the emphasis on swagger over such subtlety.  How appropriate, though haunting, that it's Gill whose face appears first in the promotional video included here.

 Elsewhere, it's a pleasure to include a further selection from Owl & Mouse following the splendid recent Sheffield gig mentioned last time; a pair of tracks from enduring Hamburg pop/indie/jazz/whatever else duo JaKönigJa; and a band in Lung Leg who'd have walked onto any Indietracks line-up if only they'd had their time a decade and a bit later.  Reform, please!

J xx
 

THE DIVINE COMEDY – To the Rescue (2016)

KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH - Arthropoda (2016)

BRIAN ENO – Drift (1983)

OWL & MOUSE – Misfits (2015)

THE MEDUSA SNARE – I Saw You Look The Other Way (2012)

SKEPTA - Man (2016)

THE ROOM – Jackpot Jack (1984)

JA KÖNIG JA – Woher kommst du? (2016)

JA KÖNIG JA – Wer weiß? (1995) 

LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR - Krzysztof Kieślowski's Lullaby (2016)

LUNG LEG – Right Now Baby (1997)

WOLF PARADE - Mr Startup (2016)

TODD TERJE – Svensk Sås (2014)

THE JAMES TAYLOR QUARTET – Blow Up (1988)

LOS CRIPIS – Falling (2014)

AMSTERDAM – You’re a Phoney (2005)

BLACKHILL TRANSMITTER – Battery Room (2014)

INSPIRAL CARPETS – Biggest Mountain (1990) 
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Monday, 5 December 2016

LIST 215 - 05/12/16

Hello again,

Just as sure to occur as death and taxes, here we are with the first installment of season eight of That Music List.  Did you miss us?

 What you'll probably have missed by the time you read this is the recent short tour of Owl & Mouse and Model Village, which reached its conclusion with a joyful Sunday afternoon show in Sheffield only yesterday.  There's something from the latter in today's selection, something from the former tomorrow.

 Owl & Mouse do of course include one Hannah Botting, sister of Allo, Darlin' bassist Bill, and undoubtedly one of the saddest music stories of the past few months in my little world has been the decision of the last-named indiepop quartet to draw stumps after this coming weekend's London shows at the Moth Club and the Scala.  Honest, literate and charming, they'll not be forgotten in a hurry.  Nor, of course, will Elizabeth's show-stopping, aching solo rendition of Talulah at Indietracks a few years back.  The band's valedictory single will feature on this site next week.

 2016's high attrition rate of musical deaths is regrettably being maintained to the last, it seems, with the passing of 1980s high-NRG/disco performer Colonel Abrams in tragically reduced circumstances marked here with the inclusion of his best-known single.  It won't be the only In Memoriam inclusion this week, alas.

 On a brighter note, the first recorded material for - count them - 38 years by folk music figurehead Shirley Collins is a just cause for celebration, not least as the material and voice is stronger than it had any right to be after such an absence and considering the now nonogenerian lost her singing voice for the thick end of two decades in the interim.

All this and more to rake over in today's List, then, and that's before even touching on the majesty of the returning Teenage Fanclub.  Please enjoy.

 J xx


TEENAGE FANCLUB – I’m in Love (2016)

PLUSH - Please Don't Let Me Go (2016)

THE AMPS – Bragging Party (1995)

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS – Tilted (2015)

SARAH DAVACHI - Leicht (2014)

ANGELICA – Why Did You Let My Kitten Die? (1999)

THE NEW LINES - Weatherman's Apology (2016)

SHIRLEY COLLINS - Death and the Lady (2016)

SHIRLEY COLLINS - The Cherry Tree Carol (1959)

BITCH ‘N’ MONK – Apocalyptic Fantasies (2016)

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING – Spitfire (2012)

KARL BARTOS – Life (2003)

CASE LANG VEIRS – Best Kept Secret (2016)

MODEL VILLAGE – Time to Share (2015)

ALLO, DARLIN’ – Atlantic City (2008)

BJÖRK – Enjoy (Further over the Edge Remix) (1996)

FAZI - 迷幻 (Psychedelic) (2016)

COLONEL ABRAMS – Trapped (1985)
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