Pleasure, Joy & Happiness
A soulful return, a super furry soundtrack and a celebration of the Daisy Age.
The first half of this week disappeared in a bit of a blur and it was Thursday before I really got a chance to sit down and listen to some music. As you’ll read in my post about Eddie Chacon’s record, I hosted the Bandcamp Weekly, which is always a thrill for me. The only downside is that I spent a good chunk of the first couple of days of the week with my head in the edit or picking music to play. It’s still listening of course, but in a very different way, trying to craft a show from the slate of new releases that land each week.
With the various other commitments in my life I did briefly wonder how sustainable this newsletter is, but I think I can stick to it, as long as I don’t pressurise myself to post more often than I can. Writing every day is a stretch, but two or three times a week is more than manageable.
One thing I have decided to do is to add in an archive post from The Longplayer Zine. As well as giving you a little more to get stuck into, it’s also interesting on a personal level to dip back in to what I was up to two years ago. If you like what you read, there are still some copies up on my Bandcamp page, so go seek!
On another administrative note, you’ll maybe notice that I’ve published on a Monday instead of a Sunday. I’m torn between thinking that the weekend gives people more time to read and dig in to the selections, whilst on the other hand acknowledging that a little bit of distraction on a Monday can be welcome. Let me know what you think via the poll below, and add any salient thoughts in the comments. I’m interested to see what you all think.
March 3rd • Eddie Chacon - Sundown
Happy Bandcamp Friday to all those who celebrate! It's now almost three years since the first one and it's been a pretty wild ride ever since. Unsurprisingly Bandcamp is the main place I discover new music, and in those first few months of Covid the monthly ritual of searching the site for new audio gems was a welcome respite from the strange days we all lived through.
One of my favourites from that first wave of lockdowns was Pleasure, Joy & Happiness by Eddie Chacon and it was a real honour to be able to interview him for the latest edition of the Bandcamp Weekly.
Eddie's delicate, personal soul music has become a go-to when I need something comforting yet uplifting to listen to. Given the state of the world over the last three years you can imagine that I've reached for the LP countless times and it always delivers; a slow-burner of a record that was a redemption of sorts for Eddie after a couple of decades break from releasing music.
Eddie had worldwide success as part of the soul duo Charles & Eddie, notably with their breakout hit Would I Lie To You?, but under a decade later and after an amicable split, Charles died at the age of just 37. Eddie left the music industry, eventually being coaxed back by John Carroll Kirby a few years ago. This partnership is founded on a genuine, warm friendship, as anyone who saw the two perform at We Out Here last year can attest.
Their second record together, Sundown is out later this month and I'd highly recommend you check it out. As Eddie explained in our conversation it's very much a continuation of the first, and I'm sure will become as much of a fixture on my turntable as the last one.
Talking to Eddie was a delight - I was having a pretty tough week, but 40 minutes in his company, hearing about his love of Marvin Gaye, his memories of his mentor Leon Ware and his approach to artistry in this unlikely second act of his career was just what I needed. He is indeed as gentle a soul as his music suggests - go pre-order the album and check the live show if it hits your town.
March 4th • De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
It's been bittersweet but nevertheless heartwarming to see the outpouring of love for De La this week. Seeing my timeline flooded with the Daisy Age artwork was a joy and today I wanted to join in and listen to 3 Feet High and Rising like everybody else.
I reached for my vinyl copy and then paused. If I wanted to support the group was this the best way to do it? This week's celebration was centred around the music finally hitting streaming services after years of legal wrangling and playing my ancient vinyl copy seemed inappropriate on this occasion.
It opens up a wider conversation, and one that drives my day job at Bandcamp: what's the best way to support the artists we love? I'm biased of course, but Bandcamp has shaken up how fans and artists can support and interact with one another. I know from first hand experience how important that direct payment can be for artists, and for artists releasing new music in particular it's vitally important.
On the flip-side one of my other favourite ways to buy music is in second hand record shops. In this instance artists get nothing - although I am a firm believer in the importance record shops have in nurturing the culture and love of music.
Today, in this specific instance, streaming it seemed the right thing to do - but I also resolved to pick up vinyl copies of the couple of records of theirs that I'm missing. I don't have a neat conclusion here - it's just an interesting discussion point for music fans who want to ensure the artists they love can afford to keep on creating.
As for the record itself, plenty of others have had their say over the past day or so. All I'll add is that this record was a gateway; to hip hop as a genre, to the concept of sampling, and to the idea of not conforming to what anyone else expected of you. It's now just over 34 years since it was released and whether you're listening at 33rpm or 320kbps it's still as fresh as a daisy. De La Soul forever.
March 5th • Gruff Rhys - The Almond & The Seahorse OST
Since obsessing over the Saint Etienne's So Tough last week I've been thinking about the bands and records that gave me a glimpse of something beyond my horizons. Sometimes this was musical and sometimes it was more about attitude. Super Furry Animals fall into both categories; their psych-glam rock was definitely different to most of what I listened to back in 1996 when they came up, but they also embodied the spirit of one of their most enduring singles The Man Don't Give A Fuck.
I've got fond memories of the blue tank with If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You written down the barrel of the gun, which they brought to Reading Festival, blasting out techno that often drowned out the dance tent they were stationed next to. They were a band you could believe in.
Last year we were lucky enough to release a track featuring SFA frontman Gruff Rhys, who guested on Don Leisure's Hotel Shaboo. This was a real thrill for us and the resulting track is killer.
This record landed a week or so back, a soundtrack to the movie The Almond & The Seahorse. Recorded in various studios over various lockdowns it is, in Gruff's own words 'a colourful scrapbook of a soundtrack', taking in meandering ambient soundscapes, slow-motion psych-folk and more familiar SFA-style rock, notably People Are Pissed. It's another chapter in a career of an artist who has navigated the music industry very much on his own terms. I'd highly recommend 2021's Seeking New Gods too - a great record that I've come back to countless times over the last couple of years. Long may he continue to not give a fuck.
March 1st 2021 • Lewis Parker - Masquerades & Silhouettes
I’ve always felt that some records suit different seasons better than others - this is one that definitely occupies the colder, rainier months in my mind and with spring in the air I needed to check this one sooner rather than later. To extend the thought, whilst a lot of hip hop is summer music, many of my favourite rap records are a little more autumnal. This occupies a slightly claustrophobic, paranoid space - similarly to the first Roots Manuva record albeit in a very different way.
I love this record - for me it’s a top 5 UK hip hop album and it’s one I’ve listened to a lot over the years. Like many of my favourite UK rap LPs it wears the influences of our contradictory island with ease. For me, UK Hip Hop really came into its own when it stopped trying to replicate what American artists were doing and embraced what we have here.
It’s of course understandable that early UK rap would seek to sample the same breakbeats that US artists did, and it’s understandable that American accents would be used too - if that’s what you’re used to hearing it’s only natural to follow the same path. But the real magic came when those artists became comfortable in their own skin and created something more definitively our own. For many this was through rapping in their own accents, or using their own slang; this record certainly does that but it’s the home-counties, charity shop-staple samples that really resonate with me. Hip Hop is an artform defined by using what you have - and if you’re in a London suburb the records that no-one wants aren’t obscure funk records: it’s Easy Listening, Geoff Love, Music For Pleasure and all the other LPs that pile up in Oxfam shops from Gateshead to Penzance. For me that’s the spirit of hip hop: immersing yourself in another culture and rinsing it through your own influences to create something new and creative.
Lewis Parker has continued to work in music in the 20+ years since this was released but for me nothing touches this - in particular the epic Crusades featuring Supa T (who is massively under-rated in my opinion). If you have even a passing interest in hip hop I’d recommend checking this one out.
Pleasure, Joy & Happiness
Love that Lewis Parker LP, a bonafide classic! Need to check out that Gruff Rhys OST. But I particularly enjoyed the dilemma on how to listen to De La Soul’s album, and agree in this case that streaming is the right decision given their catalog is finally available on streaming services. As someone that buys a ton of records and also downloads I also embrace streaming platforms not only for convenience but for the simple fact that we can’t afford to buy everything we hear plus we don’t need to own everything out there.