for the last few weeks/months the mood has dictated a need for a beat.
normally of a rocksteady 4/4 style and all its bastardised offspring, whether in the form of a solid hip hop beat, or a techno style.
yet today the tide turned and for once i can’t blame the weather.
basically i tried all manner of options from the ‘to listen to’ pile and nothing fit the inner needs.
guitars were too abrasive, beats to intrusive, and minimal techno was too, well, minimal.
in the end, the only album that really has hit the spot today turned out to be the beth gibbons and rustin man album, out of season.
basically and album that put beths vocals in a warmer musical environment than the portishead productions.
strings buffed up against adrian utleys strange guitars.
upon its release back in 2002 i can’t deny that bar the odd track the album never really did that much for me. it was so late night and sombre that i never felt any urge to dive in.
yet today, despite the onset of a sunshine filled day (normally heralding the urge to dig out all my old rawkus albums), something about the combination of beths end of the world vocals, and the out of time music hit hard.
i am anything but depressed, so i guess the depth and gorgeousness of the music was the necessary antidote to the onslaught of distressed synthetic music and compressed to fuck productions.
adding to this late night melancholy is the rather special mark hollis solo album with that very unusual cover (what is it a picture of ?).
i fully expect that by tomorrow everything will back to normal.
perhaps.