Five Track Friday #1
A short round up of what I've been listening to recently
So for those who have been following me a while, I used to do a monthly round up of music covering what I had been listening to that month. If you couldn’t tell, I don’t really do that any more as it used to take me hours to run through the 30-40 tracks I used to write about.
So I’ve decided to change tack.
Instead of a monthly round up, I thought I would do weekly, and limit the coverage to only 5 tracks. Which arguably makes both the writing and listening processes way easier.
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
Getting Jiggy With It
Starting us off strong, we have Peace, Love & Dancing by 100 Poems from his album Balearic As A System Of Belief, a project by the DJ Mike Wilson. Gloriously euphoric, this track is one uplifting rise after the other. I can’t quite get enough of just how happy this track makes me. My only criticism is how much fun it would be being played a just little faster at maybe 120-125bpm instead of the listed 110.
The next track I wanted to highlight was one of Jamie xx’s latest from this new album: In Waves. Following the almost relentless dropping of singles over the summer leading up to its release, the album is finally out and it’s a fantastic listen from beginning to end. My stand out track is Breather and I’m a fan of how it almost rolls through its various melodies and takes you through a blissful journey from beginning to end.
Going old school now, I’ve recently been reading a lot more about electronic music culture and its history. On a recent holiday I powered through Rave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music by Matthew Collin and found the chapter on Detroit fascinating. Of course, upon returning to London, I went on a deep dive into the artists mentioned in that chapter and rediscovered the gem that is Strings Of Life by Derrick May. A track that has been remixed time and time again since its release in 1987 and can be found in many sets from around the world. It deserves a place in the electronic music hall of fame.
Bandcamp deep dives is one of the ways I love to spend a weekend. And in a world where algorithms and recommendations shove themselves in your face and turn you into a more passive discoverer of music instead of active, Bandcamp does away with this and simply presents itself as is and uses its elite cohort of writers and editors to personally recommend what to listen to instead. I relish the challenge of diving into the site and seeing what I can discover by myself, which brings me onto my next track: Chief (Unreleased Version 1) by XCOR which I found on a label binge a few days ago. Originally released in 1996, this track had a recent repressing and listing on Bandcamp and is a heavy house hitter from beginning to end. The energetic and deep bass pounds throughout the song and leaves me in a trance.
Not only do I recommend digging through Bandcamp, but I also highly recommend attending your local vinyl fair and seeing what they’ve got going on there. The other week I attended the Black Gold Vinyl Fair in Hackney Wick and had a dive into the many stalls. I may have left £90 down but I found some absolutely wild records in the mean time. Elliptical Headz’s River of Trance is a rare track from 1993 that had a repressing in 2023 and currently lists 0 (AKA <1000) plays on Spotify which doesn’t happen very often. A pure roller from beginning to end, it hits heavy and it hits hard.
Until Next Time
Thanks for coming along to a first Five Track Friday. Will I be organised enough to continue doing this? Who knows. It’s a bid to write more regularly and produce more interesting content for my many readers (AKA friends and family I’ve forced to subscribe).
I’ve got a few heavy weeks of music incoming which I’m looking forward to and I’m excited to see who and what else I discover.
See you next Friday.