Day 0947 - Boy in da Corner

Dizzee Rascal "Boy in da Corner" (2003)

This was actually not quite what I was expecting.  I'd gotten used to his more radio-friendly releases like Bonkers, Bassline Junkie, or that song with Calvin Harris.  Dizzee's first release though is a trailblazer for the Grime genre, mixing hip-hop, jungle, drum and bass, dub in a way that often almost does away with melody in favour of rhythm and energy.

There's the broken beat and synth line of "Sittin' Here", the banging beat and dirty bass of "I Luv U" and the digital beat and occasional bleeps of "Live O".   "Brand New Day" has an almost childlike backing track but one that's slightly distorted to make it seem off-kilter.   That vibe matches some of the lyrics which show the mindset of growing up in the sometimes depressing, sometimes violent environment of the housing projects.

Coming up from this background Dizzee latched onto music as something that he was good at and could funnel his energies into, and was DJing and MCing from his early teens.   This, his debut album, was released when he was around 18 or 19 and managed to win the coveted Mercury Prize... so, obviously he was onto something.

Day 0900 - Lost Souls

It'll be interesting going into the 00s.  With the earlier albums on the list it's a lot easier to justify their place in the list based on longevity or influence on subsequent artists and genres.  I imagine the selection criteria will be less clear as it goes on.

 

0900
 

Doves "Lost Souls" (2000)

The book mentioned something about DJs/dance music so I thought I'd be listening to something in that vein.   Turns out that was Doves' previous incarnation 'Sub Sub' where they worked in the dance genre.   Their studio space burnt down, and the band lost their equipment and the music they'd been recording at the time.  The band used the insurance money to re-start and shift into a more alt-rock sound... and I like it!

They still have a bit of a dance approach to their tracks in that they seem to build a lot of the songs on repeated/looped ideas, and there's some nice production touches in place, but with more of an organic feel that dips into pop, indie, post-punk and even a touch of shoegaze.   They build up layers of sound, which is an approach that I dig.

The title track builds until it feels like a rising wave of voices rolling into shore.   "Catch the Sun" is a catchy, upbeat propulsive pop track built over a fuzzy drone.    "The man who told everything" is a more stripped down alt-rock track that brings strings and clean guitars over the choruses.   

 

Closer "A House" is an almost an alt-country track but with the sound of burning buildings fading in and out of the mix.   It's a musically adventurous and interesting album.

Not bad, 2000.  You're off to a good start.

Day 0865 - You've Come a Long Way Baby

Fatboy Slim "You've Come a Long Way Baby" (1998) - got it

Following on from his debut "Better Living Through chemistry" (day 810) and drawing on his association with big-beat maestros the Chemical Brothers, Norman Cook pole vaulted the "difficult second album" hurdle.   He created a record that hit no.1 in his homeland of the UK, and became omnipresent worldwide via singles like "Rockafeller Skank", "Right Here, Right Now" and "Praise You".

"Rockafeller..."with its repeated vocal hook of 'the funk soul brother' kind of lays out what Cook is about here: Mixing sampled of funk and soul tracks with epic, booming beats and a whole lot of audio tweaking... dance music for the masses.

Day 0831 - Now I Got Worry

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion "Now I got Worry"

Spencer had started off with noise rock band Shithaus and garagey/noise/punk rock band Pussy Galore.   He stated that those bands were about him kicking against rock music but that JSBE was was him accepting and even celebrating the sound a bit more.

It's been mentioned by critics that the bands sound was not very 'bluesy'... I guess you could argue that maybe their sound is not supposed to be blues but rather the aftermath of the titular explosion.   "Now I got Worry" was recorded while the band were also working on the "A Ass Pocket of Whiskey" album with bluesmen R L Burnside and Kenny Brown and it seems to have injected a little more blues to 'Now I got Worry' which features another blues singer Rufus Thomas on song "Chicken Dog".

There is more of a blues vibe but it's still buried amongst a raft of other noisy, off-the-wall sytles.  "F*ck Sh*t up" has a noisy, beat-backed bit of drawling street poetry with miscellaneous noises jumping out at you.   "2kindsa Love" has almost a funk-metal Janes Addictiony vibe to it.  "Get Over Here" has an aggressive alt-rock groove similar to Mark of Cain or Helmet.  "Cool Vee" has a laidback, cruisy vibe with vocal samples being scratched over the top of it.

Day 0723 - Bone Machine

Tom Waits "Bone Machine" (1992)

This was Waits' first album in 5 years - though the gap had been filled by a live album and a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack.

Waits had been moving away from his jazzy lounge piano tunes and drunken balladeer persona and into more avant territory.  Here he takes that evolution one step further, with a sound that I would class as "demented T-Bone Burnett". 

Waits recorded the album in space in the basement of the recording studio with concrete floors and a hot water heater.  He liked the echo of the room, and used this to best suit the songs.  They were essentially stripped down blues tracks, but with the vibe created by the room the sound feels much denser than it actually is.

The album is light on piano, with Waits' sound moving more towards the guitar and interesting percussion tracks.

Probably not my favourite Waits album, but you can hear him starting to get his 90s-Waits sound going and getting comfortable in that skin.

Day 0388 - Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel" (1977)

 
Gabriel's first release following his release from the perceived creative shackles of Genesis (and the first of FOUR albums simply titled "Peter Gabriel"); and he hit the ground running.  Crafting 9 diverse musical tracks, starting with a fairly theatrical piece "Moribund the Burgermeister" where he swings from his natural singing voice to a deep gravelly 'character' delivery. "Waiting on the big one" and "Here comes the flood" are deliciously epic in feel, and "Excuse me" seems stylistically like it could have been a Randy Newman-penned novelty hit.

As I've said before, this is the kind of solo album I enjoy, where the artist is willing to explore various musical terrains with only themselves to please and (in the case of a solo artist from a band) do something other than what his/her band would normally be doing.

For such an immensely talented and creative guy, he didn't come up with the most imaginative album title... though maybe he just wanted to take 'ownership' of the music that little bit more by slapping his name on it.