Playlists

Playlist of the Week (2018/40)

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Our POTW this Monday, Relax Soul, comes from Mirko Consoli, otherwise known as the singer Nick Tempest.

Nick’s from Sicily, Italy, and takes the second half of his stage name from the lead singer of the 80s rock group “Europe”. (Incidentally, that singer’s name, Joey Tempest, is also a pseudonym – he’s really Rolf Larsson). 

Nick says his love of music stems from his childhood, when he was particularly struck by Power Metal and West Coast AOR, which he loves for their sense of melodic power. But  these are not the only genres that he says have made an impact on his own musical direction – he also cites Celtic and Italian influences, particularly the popular Italian singer-songwriter Amedeo Minghi. 

Nick’s self taught on the guitar and keyboard and can sing in six different European languages. His music is pop; the best description I can manage is that it’s a kind of cross between 80s-inspired Euro-synthpop and that easy-listening – almost crooning – style of classical music. Kind of Julio Iglesias crossed with Pet Shop Boys with a bit of light opera thrown in, very loosely speaking. I can certainly hear Minghi’s influence on his style, having checked out a selection of his music for the purposes of writing this article.

Back to the playlist: it’s a collection of soundtrack, filmscore-esque and instrumental music, with the aim of being relaxing to listen to. (Obviously – the clue is in the title.)  Piano features quite often and Nick’s included a generous sprinkling of lesser-known artists in the mix, too. The overall result of his work putting this together is a great playlist for listening to when you have tasks that you need to really focus on without being distracted by lyrics. Equally, it makes a great late-night playlist for de-stressing before sleep.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/39)

Playlist of the Week (2018/39): Andy Salvanos's gorgeous Dreaming Instrumental collection.

This week, our POTW is Dreaming Instrumental, compiled by Andy Salvanos. Andy is a highly talented musician, as evidenced by his beautiful tracks Solace and Peace, which feature on the playlist. Born in Sweden with Greek-Russian-Irish heritage, and growing up in the US, Salvanos spent a decade in Los Angeles as a session bassist, before settling in Glenalta, Australia. He is now a highly respected solo performer at events such as The Adelaide International Guitar Festival and The National Folk Festival. Here’s an example of his work:

The instrument behind these sounds is a 10 string Chapman Stick (also available as a 12 string variety) . Unlike the better-known 12 string guitar, all the strings are played separately, not in pairs, so Andy’s fingers can get pretty busy as he creates his hypnotic tunes.

I’ve come across the Chapman Stick before – when Nick Beggs* was playing with Iona, this was his weapon of choice for the bass-lines – so I have always thought of it as a bass instrument. But apparently Nick was only playing half the strings on the Iona pieces: presumably because he wasn’t performing solo.  Andy’s self-composed solo pieces make full use of all the strings, so that he is effectively playing the equivalent of a bass and a treble guitar simultaneously. (For an equivalent solo piece from Nick, see here.)

Back to the playlist, before I get completely carried away discussing UK celtic prog rock!  It’s an absolute beauty: full of dreamy, evocative instrumentals that you can pretty much float around the world on, as you journey into different lands through ethnic beats and instruments and the cinematic feel of this collection of tunes that keep coming back to solo guitar (or stick).

 

*Iona fans will appreciate this Youtube clip I found of Nick playing Chapman Stick for a Magenta recording.

Playlist of the Week (2018/38)

Playlist of the Week (2018/38): r/DreamFolk_, curated by Tommy Wilson

This week’s Playlist of the Week comes from the recently formed “Dreamfolk_” community on Reddit.com.  There are some really lovely tracks here, mostly from artists I hadn’t previously discovered, like Ben Howard and Wilsen. To be honest, before I found this group (via the Indiefolk subreddit), I was unaware of the ‘Dreamfolk’ genre label, even though it turns out it’s entirely my kind of music!  (So many sub-genres, so little time, as I’ve probably said before.)

The list is quite short at present, weighing in at under an hour at the time of writing, but hopefully as the Reddit community grows, there will be new additions and further discoveries to be made.

Playlist of the Week (2018/37)

Playlist of the Week (2018/37): Into the Weekend, compiled by Ralf Dee.

This Monday’s Playlist of the Week is Into the Weekend by Ralf Dee. (Don’t be put off by the title, you can play it any day of the week you want!). This playlist is another by an indie artist supporting the broader community and features a wide range of styles and genres.

Ralf Dee is a folk/roots singer-songwriter / songwriter, based in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, in Bavaria, Germany. Although he is currently recording in German,  he has released two English language albums: Destination Unknown and Your Time Is Now and an EP, Just For A Little While.

After being asked repeatedly for German lyrics, he started writing in German at the end of 2014 and presented his first songs at open mic events in Bavarian cities. His first German-language album Glück Gehabt was released in Aug 2017. In addition to acoustic guitar and harmonica, he plays cajon with his feet to provide the rhythm section. His songs are miniature stories – often humorous – about quirky characters, traits such as greed and envy, global issues like climate change, or smaller, everyday problems.

His latest German-language single is called “Guilt belongs only to the others”,  released June 2018.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/36)

Playlist of the Week (2018/36): Adra Sengué's Independent Vol. 1

This Monday morning’s POTW is another one from Adra Sengué, manager at the independent electronica label Rogalist Records, whose ‘lis’ playlist I featured earlier in the year.

Independent Vol. 1 consists of some very listenable electronica – and other genres – from a range of independent artists.  The clue is in the title, of course. The electronic sounds are  supplied by such accomplished artists as Dephinite, Spaceschneider, Bufinjer and Leg Puppy; on the rock and acoustic side, Levy, Crooked Cat Adams, Errol Chugg and Deleo are among the goodies present. Not to mention the pop sensibilites of Kristina Lachaga and Electric Casanova.  Like the earlier playlist, some of the electronic artists are from the Rogalist stable, but not exclusively.

NB. Please be aware that a small proportion of the tracks on this playlist carry the ‘explicit’ label, so this playlist is not suitable for play within earshot of children or bosses.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/35)

Award winning choreographer Laura Kriefman's 'Star_Gazing' playlist is this week's POTW.

This week’s POTW is Star_Gazing by Laura Kriefman. It’s a crowd-sourced collection of songs about stars, space and the sky. I thought it would be an appropriate playlist for sitting outside after sundown, staring into space after a busy day in the heat of summer*.

Laura is an award winning choreographer, and founder of Hellion Trace, a Bristol-based company which specialises in ‘augmented dance’, bringing movement and technology together. A great example of their work was the Crane Dance in Bristol, where the group animated three cranes to music, captivating a live audience of 10,000 people – and a further 4 million online. Other creations have included a LED Dress that reacts to live sound, wearable controllers and a collection of street-installed constellations made of interactive lights that you have to step on to illuminate.

 

*If the weather isn’t behaving, please listen indoors – we don’t want you or your headphones to get wet!

Playlist of the Week (2018/34)

Playlist of the Week (2018/34): Relaxing Ambience, compiled by Susan Moss

This week we have another of DJ Sue’s playlists as POTW, and this one’s a cracker. Her Relaxing Ambience playlist brings together globally stellar artists such as Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Lana Del Rey and Ed Sheeran. But it doesn’t stop there: a selection of unsigned artists feature, including Dan Fogelberg, Tracy Colletto, the must-hear Zialand, and yours truly. Barry Mcloughlin, whose Acoustic Treasures playlist was POTW a fortnight ago is also included, with his song Far, Far Away.

It’s a good playlist for working to, but you’ll need to put it on repeat or combine it with other playlists for a full workday, as it is one of the shorter playlists, at 50mins.

Playlist of the Week (2018/33)

Playlist of the Week (2018/33): ENILSounds' Traffic Jam List 2018

This week’s POTW is the fantastic Traffic Jam List 2018 from ENILSounds, aka Line Munch-Petersen, an indie musician from Copenhagen, Denmark. Line produces mainly electronic pop with a “sprechstimme” (simultaneously sung and spoken) style vocal delivery, but her collaboration with ZODALITT (Lise Jonsson) has taken her into some quite different musical territory with overtones of 1930s music halls, where her vocal performance style sounds very much at home.

Line’s Traffic Jam list focusses in on songs about travelling and journeys, both physical and metaphorical.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/32)

Playlist of the Week (2018/32): Barry McLoughlin's Acoustic Treasures collection.

This Monday’s POTW comes from a Dublin-born and Canadian-raised acoustic artist, Barry McLoughlin, who has been lauded for his songwriting as well as his vocals.

A resident of a small town Sioux Lookout, Ontario, McLoughlin is a prolific songwriter, who first appeared at Toronto’s Massey Hall, at just 17 years old.  For a taste of his sparsely produced guitar-folk ballads, check out the beautiful love song “Dulcinea“, or “Do You Still Believe?“.  If you like the music of Gordon Lightfoot, Iain Archer or Glen Hansard, I think you’ll enjoy his writing, too.

The Acoustic Treasures playlist is a collection of songs by lesser-known artists, which fit with the aesthetic – but not necessarily the genre – of his own music, where the songs speak for themselves. I really enjoyed playing it and hope you will too.

Playlist of the Week (2018/31)

Playlist of the Week - No 31: Electronic / Ambient / Future Garage, by Amanda Krause.

This week’s playlist of the week is Electronic / Ambient / Future Garage from Amanda Krause, a self-confessed workaholic bassist from Colorado, USA who has a day-job in Digital Marketing.

Amanda has assembled a wonderful collection of laid-back tunes, including some of my very favourite artists in the ambient electronica and trip-hop scenes, such as Boards of Canada and Massive Attack, who I consider among my musical influences. It’s a real honour for me, therefore, that Amanda accepted my instrumental Polarisation onto the list.