Day 0699 - Foxbase Alpha

Saint-Étienne "Foxbase Alpha" (1991) - got it

This album channels 1960s sounds through a 1990s 'filter', so it's pretty much in my wheelhouse.

The group was formed by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, who had both been music writers (who says 'those who can't, write).  They'd originally planned to feature different singers across every album, but after working with Sarah Cracknell on this, their debut, they decided to invite her in as a permanent vocalist.

The album does something that I love, namely it engages in musical collage/experimentation, but uses it to create something quite accessible and poppy.   The dancey beats were akin to the sounds fermenting in the triphop scene, some of the film/dialogue samples lend things a touch of musique concrete, but the melodies and much of the arrangement hints more at summery 60s pop, with wistful female vocals and swirly psychedelic string touches.

Oddly, I've never got around to checking out the rest of their albums.  Might have to put it on the musical to-do list once I've finished the 1001.

Day 0292 - Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" (1973) - got it

In some ways it seems odd that this became a platinum-selling hit record.  It was created by the band members trying to shed the psychedelic image that they had become popular for.  They were sat around drummer Nick Mason's kitchen table and making a list of things that worried them (money, time, death, madness) put some songs together and took them on the road as "Eclipse: a Piece For Assorted Lunatics".

In the studio the funky grooves and spacey guitar solos were augmented with avant, wordless female vocals; a musique concrete approach, bubbly synthesizers, and ALL of the studio technology of the time thrown at it.  With all of these non-'pop' elements, in some ways it doesn't seem like it should be the most 'mainstream' album.. but there are enough melodies and catchy grooves for the record-buying public to hang their hats on and so this album helped usher in the next stage of Floyd's sound.

"Dark Side of the Moon" became a musically and visually iconic album.   Just for the record, I haven't done the "Dark Side of the Moon/Wizard of Oz" thing, though I am Dark Side-curious.