Musical Baton

I spotted this on a friend's website and whilst it's supposed to be passed on it seems to be getting passed around through people picking it up. So here's mine.

This is an update to the pass-around-the-email surveys which have been doing the rounds over the last few years. This is more a pass-it-around-the-blogs type thing, meaning its actually much more useful and interesting because you can see what everybody else has answered.


Total volume of music files on my computer is…
A rather hefty 16 Gigs.

The last CD I bought was…
"50,000,000 Soulwax Fans Can't Be Wrong" by 2 Many DJs. At the moment I'm a big fan of bootlegs and mashups where you take the vocal from one track and the melody from another and put them together to make a new composition. There are some great albums and mixes out there at the moment and 2 Many DJs seem to come up with the most eclectic so far. I've not bought a CD for a while though, now that I have iTunes. If we're to count that then it's Goldie Lookin' Chain's Greatest Hits and I will say no more on that haha!!


Song playing right now…
A modern reworking by Glyn Barber of the music from "Rastan Saga", an 80s arcade game. A bit geeky but a really nice composition using a full orchestra.


Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me…

In no particular order, songs that mean a lot to me include:

1. Orbital - "Belfast". A truly stunning track that shows you can get emotion from electronic music. I read an article that says this music has been played at births, at weddings, and at funerals and when you listen to it you'll realise why. It's one of those tunes that gets played at Cafe del Mar as the sun sets and just looking around and seeing people smiling to it is a memory I'll keep forever. This is my all time favourite tune so appears top of the list.

2. Young Black Teenagers - "Tap The Bottle". When I was in my alternative clubbing phase this was one of those infectious hip hop tracks that everyone would just jump about to, but it wasn't mainstream like "Jump Around" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I also like the track because the lyrics are amusing (which I like in rap) and there is just a great vibe from it. We made this our anthem during that phase of my life.

3. Underworld - "Born Slippy". After my alternative clubbing phase I progressed onto more conventional clubs and was a regular at a small superclub in Angel called "Complex". At the time it used to have the best DJs such as Carl Cox and Danny Rampling but once a month Paul Oakenfold would play and it was during one of his sets that he dropped this and the whole place just went mad. Anyone who knows Oakenfold will know that he plays tracks way before they get released so this was being played before "Trainspotting" had been released (the film the track is associated with). Everyone in the club was completely Euphoric and I don't mean from drugs, the music was enough on its own. If you've ever had that completely high moment in a club you'll understand the feeling I'm trying to describe.

4. NWA - "100 Miles and Running". It was hard for me to pick between this and a Beastie Boys track. During the 80s, it was this genre of music that made me realise there was more to music than pop, which was getting all the airplay. I clearly remember hearing 2 Live Cru and NWA for the first time and I got totally caught up in the VW badge phase the Beasties were responsible for. Everyone remembers NWA for "Fuck tha Police" and "Straight Outa Compton" but I love this track instead for it's raw energy really comes across in the raps and production. The video was great too.

5. Andrew WK - "Party Hard". This guy was proclaimed as being the new driving resurgance of rock after the industry took a slump following the suicide of Kurt Cobain. A few years on and he's pretty much disappeared which is a shame because if he brought out more tracks like this then I for one would buy them. I completely missed his stuff when first released and am getting into it now. If you want a total party rock tune then try this.



Five people to whom I'm passing the baton…
As no one else is passing it about feel free to pick it up.