Lunchtime Aspergers Part ...erm...something...

Woo, yeah! Its back! Lunctime Aspergers (can't remember what part, too lazy to check) with some more of my Top 50 albums of all time. Take it away!!

17 & 18. Biosphere - Cirque & Substrata

I discovered Biosphere ten years to late really, somehow they/he dropped under my radar when these two classic albums were produced, shame as the 21 year old me would have loved them. Biosphere is Geir Jenssen, a Norwegian gentleman, and I think his locale really plays a part in the music he creates. There is a definite glacial feel about some of these tracks, I hesitate to describe them as cold, because they're not. What they bring to mind are little cabins, with roaring log fires in the middle of a snow topped landscape. There's that kind of comfort in his work. This 'respite from the cold' feel is emphasised in tracks on Substrata like 'Chukhung' where it sounds like someone is in the room with you, strumming on the guitar, or 'Times when I know you'll be sad' where that same person decides to sing quietly to himself, lit only by the moonlight reflected off the snow. Cirque is similarly icey, but seems to take its cues more from the media inside the cabin - maybe during a party, as there are a gaggle of voices heard through out. Whichever album you hear, and I honestly believe they are as good as each other, these two albums are soulful, soothing and beautiful.


19. Aphex Twin - Complete Ambient Works 85-92

I remember, early nineties, ambient music was entering its revival phase, with the Orb at the front as champions. I had The Orb's first album, and The Ambient Collection by the Art of Noise and I loved them and wanted more. So this word ambient was being bandied about and then I read an article talking about this 'ambient' thing and a few of the bands were namechecked. The two I recall were Horizon 101 and Aphex Twin. Now, I have no idea what happened to Horizon, but Aphex went on to become one the most important electronica composers of the 20th Century and that'ss not over estimating him at all. This is the first album of his that I bought, and as far as I know, his first album. Production wise its VERY sparse and simple, but at the same time its unique. All of the usual 'techno' sounds of the time are there, the TR808 drum machine lends its distinctive sounds and there is little in the way of samples, allowing the simple synth sounds to shine through. Its the way he uses them though that marks him out, huge wet reverbs, melancholy bass lines and pulsing rhythm's - this is a really emotive album, at times dreamy (Xtal) at times uplifting and summery (Heliosphan) and at times sinister (Schotkey 7th Path) all at a time when things were very much of the 'dumf dumf dumf - take you higher and higher!' variety. Thats not to say this album doesn't have its share of 'dumf dumf dumf', it does, but right back in the mix where they hypnotise you rather than make your feet move. Once upon a time he wa sindispensable, every release was vital. Beautiful and as he was later to prove he could do ugly very well too - shame then that he now seems to spend his time musically jacking off into his fans faces...

20. Nine Inch Nails -– Downward Spiral

This is one of those albums that took me by surprisese, at the same time as I was listening to Aphex Twin's first album, Barry was listening to a lot of industrial stuff. Normally, in my early 20's and strict electronica man, I would have steered well clear (that is until I discovered the Beatles, and a whole new world opened..). But progressively, over the weeks, this playing in Barry's room in Carlisle, started two worm its way into my system initially it was the more electronic tracks like Closer and Heresy that grabbed my attentionon. I say electronic, this was different to the stuff I had in my collection, aside from the obvious lyrical content, this was dirty and distorted and broken. I loved it, this was as sound I didn't know and it wasn't long before a purchase was made. I think that this album is Trent Reznor at the very top of his game. Its angry and self pitying at the same time and the sounds are wonderfully evocative of a man in a bit of a state.

21. Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

I love every one of the Beatles albums from Rubber Soul onwards, with the possible exception of Let it Be or the White album which for me would have benefited hugely from being a single disk. I seemed to stumble upon them at time when they were becoming fashionable again, just as Oasis were starting to rip them off fine style. This was entirely coincidentalal - I tend to shrink a little from what is 'fashionable' if I can help it (I still hate Oasis if that helps). I got back from college in 1995 when the Beatles Anthology series was on TV and watched them, half heartedly. It was a weird thing, I watched and watched and slowly came to realise, deep in subconsciousus, all of these songs were buried and I thought 'hold on, these songs are all AMAZING' I couldn't believe that every track they had made was perfect, and that they had sat, ignored, filed away in my brain for so long. So, with nothing else to do except try and find work, I started spinning Mum and Dad's LP's. A revelation. All of it and wentet mad for them, started buying the CD's (when I did finally get work!) started buying books and reading everythinng I could get my hands on - I had 30 years of catching up to do! Enough of the back story - why have I chosen Magical Mystery Tour? Well, 'in my life, I love them all' and I know, in some ways MMT doesn't qualify as a PROPER album, but its just so 'whacky'! And maybe, for a production consciousus guy like me, this rings all of the bells that need to be rung from the technical standpoint too - it just sounds amazing every trick and gag is pulled off brilliantly, its just full of fascinating effects and sounds. Strawberry Fields is my favourite Beatles track of all time, and is a good example of the madness in the studio - mellotrons, slowed down tapes, splicing and reverbs. I am the Walrus is my second favourite, for its almost dada-ist lyrics. Both are genius, and this album is proof to me that it is George Martin who should be regarded as the fifth Beatle.