Seven songs

My “meme” posts are almost inevitably prompted by a tag from that arch-memeticist, Jim. This one seems simple and seductive:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your [summer]. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Nine Inch Nails are hardly a summer band. And Ghosts I-IV is hardly an album of songs (it’s a collection of 36 texture- and shape-driven instrumentals). But it’s been making sense in the recent murky nights. It’s hard to single a track out, since the decision to number rather than name them—presumably to leave the shapes sculpted by the music itself in sharper relief—makes the process seem a little daft. Still, the pensive ambience of ’13 Ghosts II’ really gets me.
2. The Brian Jonestown Massacre were imprinted deeply on me during the hazy days of spring last year, and ‘Donovan Said’ (from the dreamy Their Satanic Majesties Second Request) now leaps into my playlist as soon as the sun starts to brightly burn.
3. Saul Williams‘ recent gig at the Scala was breath-taking, a mutant mini-carnival of 21st century funkadelia, industrial beats and quicksilver political-cosmic rap. The sinuous slow-build of ‘WTF!’, from the excellent Niggy Tardust album, remains a favourite.
4. Urthona‘s sprawling, amorphous pagan noise anthem ‘Sun And Moon So Heavy’. Damn, it’s good.
5. I missed Ride during their heyday, even though I was bang in the middle of that scene, taking more drugs than lecture notes at Reading University. They seemed flimsy next to my then-favourite British psychedelic merchants, Primal Scream and Spiritualized. Listening now to ‘Leave Them All Behind’, the majestic 8-minute opener to their LP Going Blank Again, I can only say I probably didn’t give them a fair chance.
6. Hitting London yesterday after a blazingly gnostic wander around Avebury, I needed some finely appropriate music as I walked along the streets, something languorous like the evening warmth of the streets, something that related back somehow to the day’s elemental revelations, but something with an urban energy, too, to attune me back to the city. The perfect track turned out to be ‘Water No Get Enemy’ by Fela Kuti.
7. Quite often recently I’ve gone through to the kitchen after some routine computer wrangling to make food, and the shadows of the leaves outside are dancing silently. The small, ramshackle garden is partly shaded, partly warmed by the sun. I open the door to the garden and try and pick some music that perfectly complements this graceful lull. As often as not, it’s ‘Open The Light’ by Boards of Canada.

I can’t be bothered to tag anyone, and I just nearly lost all of this post… So without further ado, I’m off to listen to rather than write about music!