Eight Tracks III

I’ve been seeing folks doing calls for – and offering up – playlists to offer some kind of respite from The Lockdown that’s gone into effect here in the nations of Britain and Northern Ireland. So, what better time to belatedly offer up some of my favourite tracks from the happy days of 2019?

Didn’t this jump the shark with your 2018 edition, Stroke Bloke?

As it happens, the apoplectic.me post of my favourite choons of 2018 began by noting that it was the death of David Bowie that had heralded planet Earth’s one-way trip to hell in a hand basket.

So, join me, won’t you, on a trip down memory lane to when things hadn’t yet gotten entirely out of hand? Or if you don’t like wurdz, just hit up the Spotify playlist.

[ The Apoplexy Tiny Letter is coming out of hiatus, too. With a bonus track, no doubt .]

OK, then. No messing. All killer, no filler.

Mrs Stroke Bloke has been glued to the updates coming out of New York from the Governor, Andrew Cuomo (Help, I Think My Wife’s In Love With Andrew Cuomo???). Of course, I’ve been thinking a lot about out old home in Brooklyn recently.

Aw, man. There’s one of those dancing guys on my train.

Cid Rim’s Control doesn’t sound like anything on Earth, which is nice right now. Also, the video is shot on our old New York Subway line and hits up some of our neighbourhood stations.

I love that track so much, we could stop there. But, while we’re on a Brooklyn nostalgia trip…

There’s nothing more 2020 than nostalgia for something you don’t remember

I missed Brooklyn’s Gang Starr the first time round, but their very posthumous album One Of The Best Yet has me primed to go back and check out the origins of their legend. I love the way Family and Loyalty sounds like some glitchy 1990s Warp Records electronica with some smooth flow laid over the top.

Right. Gear change.

Check out that landscape. Can’t imagine the Coronavirus getting out there, right? I suppose New Zealand has a decent chance of emerging from this better than many. From this distance, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern seems pretty awesome.

The awesome woman above is Aldous Harding. She’s been compare to Scott Walker and Kate Bush and Nico, she works with PJ Harvey associate John Parrish, and her latest album is called Designer, for goodness sake. Nuff said.

Perhaps in my mind, a character so untouched by the pain of heartbreak would also have huge mounds of luxurious hair? – Róisín Murphy

I get too caught up in the groove to intellectualise Incapable, so I’ll leave it to the folks at Pitchfork:

A hypnotic deep-house groove with slinky hints of disco – like the best dance music, it’s an invitation to get lost

OK. SNAP OUT OF IT!!!

Hi, Mom!

While Trump is suggesting we consign your family to death for the sake of The Economy, Idles’ Mercedes Marxist is music to headbutt yourself to death by, with a video like a bleaker version of Office Space.

I’m sorry, that’s the sort of thing I liked in the good times, too. NEXT!

House: music

Back into the groove. Baba Ali can cover this better than me.

In the house I was living at the time, there was a TV, the news was pretty much always on. It was a moment when there was this sense of that things were unravelling and the facades of society and order weren’t holding up anymore.

Oh, last year’s Baba Ali, you have no idea. But you’re right about your tune bring funky and urgent, with a hardened edge.

Right. Let’s finish with the big guns. Fontaines DC’s Dogrel was 6Music’s album of 2019, and Boys In The Better Land. To just about bring things full circle, here’s five lads from Dublin who bonded over a love of poetry sizing up the entire Tonight show audience for a square-go.

I think I’m in love…

And finally, to play us out (for now…?) here’s a track from a band that took their name from a BBC Radiophonic Workshop piece of the same name. This is The Comet Is Coming and Summon The Fire. Figures, really.

Be well, stay safe.

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