An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

[jamiefairlie]

The American Analog Set - Weather Report

https://youtu.be/zC5g4f8im3I



Opening track of their third album, "The Golden Band".

[Brundle-Fly]

Is that a knowing use of The Model's baseline or are they just chancing it?

Bit of both, I reckon. It's a hairsbreadth away from being a Not The Nine O'Clock News parody, isn't it?

[Brundle-Fly]

Cookie Bay - The High Llamas  Released on V2 in 1999.





This lilting tune will ease you into Sunday, hopefully. Their final physical single. We've covered the Llamas before on AAHOPM so instead here is a nice pic of Mary Hansen and Lætitia Sadier who are on vox. Stereolab returning a favour to Sean, no doubt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDE4x2rauc4

[Brundle-Fly]

The American Analog Set - Weather Report

https://youtu.be/zC5g4f8im3I



Opening track of their third album, "The Golden Band".

This is going down very nicely this morning.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Ladybug Transistor - Like a Summer Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmqqCV6tbO0



Some more sunny Sunday sweetness.

The Ladybug Transistor are a Brooklyn-based indie pop group associated with The Elephant Six Collective. They are, self-evidently, influenced by Brian Wilson and that whole up, up and away yellow balloon of 1960s sunshine pop. Quite right too.

[DrGreggles]

Seen The Ladybug Transistor a couple of times. Perfect summer pop.

[Astronaut Omens]

Outside- To Forgive But Not Forget (Lim'chol V'lo Lishkoach) aka "Outdoor Kick Ass Violin Solo"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-pKtc9_7dg


Napster was launched in 1999, so I wanted to include as part of the story some music which is pretty much exclusively associated with file sharing. This coffee-table mixture of mournful violin and amen breaks, wrongly attributed to Aphex Twin and re-titled "Outdoor Kick Ass Violin Solo" was one such tune. Quite who re-names tracks like that and why is a bit of a mystery- obviously it did nothing at all to promote the group who had made it, a British jazz act featuring one member of D*Note, who we might have already done on here.
Maybe someone else will want cover that collaboration between Autechre, Kraftwerk, Photek and Orbital which used to crop up in similar circles.

[jamiefairlie]

The Clientele - Places out of Mind

https://youtu.be/0zkighpR3XA



Formed in 1991 in Hampshire by lead singer/guitarist Alasdair MacLean and bassist James Hornsey. This is an early demo of an otherwise unreleased track.

[Brundle-Fly]

I Don't Know You People - Orbital.   Released on FFRR in 1999.





Surprised we've got to the end of the century and had nothing from the Hartnoll years. Here's Orbital throwing their glow goggles into the ring to show they can do Prodigy type beefy beatz too. The opening vocal sample is from the film The Legend Of Hell House (1973).

Orbital are an English electronic music duo from Sevenoaks, Kent, England, consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. The band's name is taken from Greater London's orbital motorway, the M25, which was central to the early rave scene during the early days of acid house. Additionally, the cover art on three of their albums showcases stylised atomic orbitals. Orbital have been critically and commercially successful, known particularly for their live improvisation during shows. They were initially influenced by early electro and punk rock.

Orbital's main creative period was from 1989 to 2004. They have since reunited twice in the 2010s, producing new albums on each occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPELNStom1M&t

[jobotic]

Seen The Ladybug Transistor a couple of times. Perfect summer pop.

On one of my rare times out of this country I went to Barcelona and saw a poster for the Ladybug Transistor playing in an old ballroom. Persuaded my friends to go and it was wonderful. Love to have seen them again, or ever be able to fit into the t-shirt I bought that night again.

I only own the album posted above. Must have another look.

[Astronaut Omens]

Pharoah Monche featuring Common and Talib Kweli)-The Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6qCHkJVq2w

Over lush strings-harps-choir samples, a rap from a complex MC best known for his beery party anthem Simon Says but also not averse to making underground reveries like this.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Clientele

Love that band. I have another one of theirs lined up for when we eventually survive the Millennium Bug (yes, I do have a pre–prepared list; don't we all?)

[daf]

Barbara Windsor & Mike Reid – The More I See You



Reached #46 in the charts in April 1999

Barbara Ann Deeks was born in Shoreditch, London, in 1937. During WWII, she was evacuated to Blackpool, and attended dancing school which sparked her interest in performing. After returning to London in 1944, her mother sent her to Madame Behenna's Juvenile Jollities, a drama school at which she appeared in several charity concerts and pantomimes. After the war, she moved to the Aida Foster School, Golders Green, and took elocution lessons. Her stage name of "Windsor" was inspired by the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Windsor made her film debut as an uncredited extra in 1954 playing a schoolgirl in The Belles of St. Trinians. After joining Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, she came to prominence in their stage production 'Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be' and Littlewood's film 'Sparrows Can't Sing' (1963), achieving a BAFTA nomination for Best British Film Actress. She also appeared in the comedy film 'Crooks in Cloisters' (1964), the fantasy film 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' (1968) and Ken Russell's musical film 'The Boy Friend' (1971).



In 1994, she accepted an offer to join TV soap opera EastEnders. She took over the role of Peggy Mitchell (who was previously a minor character played by Jo Warne in 1991). In 1998, Peggy was romantically paired on-screen with the character Frank Butcher. Played by Mike Reid, Frank had been a regular character in the serial from 1987 to 1994, and had appeared in a recurring role until 1998, when Reid agreed to return full-time.

Peggy and Frank were married on-screen on 1 April 1999. Windsor admitted she had been so nervous before filming the wedding she was sick on set. She commented, "I broke out in spots and threw up in the vestry. I was very nervous – we were both very nervous. The day you stop getting nervous you can hold your hands up. It shows you care."



In the eventual episode, Grant Mitchell persuaded his mother to marry Frank – with whom he had been feuding following his accidental killing of wife Tiffany – after Peggy was having second thoughts, thinking that Frank was only marrying her out of pity. Nearly 20 million viewers watched Peggy and Frank marry.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

You've outdone yourself there, daf. Astonishing.

[daf]

Thought you'd like that one! ;)

[Brundle-Fly]

Babs Windsor's first proper big break was getting a BAFTA nomination for the film, Sparrows Can't Sing (1963). One of my favourite pieces of trivia is that the film was written by Stephen Lewis AKA Blakey from On The Buses.

[jamiefairlie]

The Frank & Walters - Time We Said Goodnight

https://youtu.be/OqweEvGsV1w



Formed in Cork in 1989 by Paul Linehan (vocalist and bassist), his brother Niall Linehan (guitarist), and Ashley Keating (drums). This is from their third album, "Beauty Becomes More Than Life".

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Noonday Underground - London



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUFoAVkw0ls

Blow-Up-a-go-go...

Noonday Underground are a British band consisting of DJ Simon Dine and singer Daisy Martey. Dine had previously been a member of Adventures in Stereo, alongside Primal Scream co-founder Jim Beattie. Martey was for a time the singer in Morcheeba. The band's name came from a Tom Wolfe essay about '60s mods.

[Brundle-Fly]

Fairweather Friend - Homelife.  Released on Master Detective in 1999.





Another one of those multi-talented musicians that slipped through the cracks.

Homelife is not a definite entity. It's hard to pin down their sound, how many people are in the band or even which band they are in! Nearly every Homelife track has a different line-up. Less of a collective, Homelife is more of a pool of musicians whose talents are marshalled by reluctant foreman Paddy Steer. There's a do-it-yourself ethos evident in Homelife. All material is recorded at Paddy's house with musicians doing their bit in small groups. With 15 to 16 contributor's on the most recent album, 'Cho Cho' the piecemeal approach makes sense and Paddy admits that it wouldn't be possible for the whole band to be in the studio at the same time. "It's not like the Monkees where we all in the room together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vja1HxxKqZs

[Clatty McCutcheon]

The All Seeing I - 1st Man in Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZMHMfGLn8k



The All Seeing I were an electronic music trio from Sheffield, and this track features lyrics by Jarvis Cocker, sung by Phil Oakey. A doing about 'the first man in space on our street' returning home to indifference and disillusionment, it was originally supposed to be sung by Tony Christie (like their previous hit, 'Walk Like a Panther') but Oakey was called in as a replacement after Christie fell out with the band's management.

This reached number 28 in the UK charts in September 1999, but, let's face it, by this point you probably only needed to shift a large cardboard box of CDs to get to no. 28, so I'm having it for this thread.

[Brundle-Fly]

Good call, but surely getting to number 28 in the UK charts in 1999 meant a lot more units were shifted then to be at 28 today? In singles terms, hasn't it always been dwindling sales for years? Mind you, I don't think I've ever looked at a download chart in my life so probably talking out my hat.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Have to admit, I've no idea how the 'hit parade' of the 2020s is even calculated - streaming, downloads, both? - so no idea how it compares with CD single sales in the 1990s. I was basing my comments on what I could remember of music industry types in the late 90s starting to get worried about how few 'units' they were shifting, and general chat about how few single sales were needed to chart compared to a decade or so previously. The real 'falling off a cliff' in CD sales would've been after the millennium though, for obvious reasons.  I imagine the All Seeing I only had to a shift a number in the low thousands to get to no. 28 in 1999, but could be wrong.

[Astronaut Omens]

Stereolab- Come and Play in The Milky Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rnn6V0zAAY

Stereolab's 1999 album "Cobra and Phases Play Voltage in The Milky Night" famously got some pretty bad reviews, including a 0/10 from NME. Though most of the criticism was of the music's unpunky jazziness, I've always wondered if the recurring themes of children, motherhood and breast milk that run through the record was something that didn't sit easily with the adolescent male preoccupations of some of the critics of that time. Tim Gane said recently that this was one of the band's best songs, and I agree.

[chveik]

Pita - untitled 3




RIP Peter

[chveik]

Asie Payton - I Love You



Payton was a farmer from Mississippi, and blues singing was just his hobby. he finally accepted in 97 to record some songs for Fat Possum and died just after.

[chveik]

Round Five ft. Tikiman - Na Fe Throw It



pure bliss innit

[jamiefairlie]

The Innocence Mission - Snow

https://youtu.be/vK-lCmlwOGQ



First entry in four years and what a song to come back on. One of my absolute favourites, it's from their fourth album, "Birds of My Neighborhood"

[chveik]

Rowland S. Howard - Sleep Alone




for my money the best sad as fuck nihilistic post punk blues album

[chveik]

Koopsta Knicca - Stash Pot (Original)




memphis rap's swan song, before it went too mainstream. dj paul & juicy j at the top of their game, almost sounds like a dj screw remix.


i'll leave the Pan Sonic & Coil entries to Yesno

[Brundle-Fly]

Liverpool Scene 1979 - The Unconcious Collective  Released in Pearls For Swine in 1999.



One of obscure indie music's great enigmas. Two rather good EPs, two albums. Little or no information about them online. Researching their whereabouts made all the more confusing recently by a new band materialising with the same name.
One EP, Frequency J is not even on Discogs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRmU8beQ1Ac