triptych 10 - Lucid Dreams

Pink Floyd (Meddle)

By the time Pink Floyd released Meddle in 1971, the band was already well established as a psychedelic rock act par excellence.  Singer/songwriter "Mad" Syd Barrett was three years removed from the lineup, and co-writers Roger Waters and David Gilmour were stuck in an empty groove, their stylistic needle skipping repeatedly over played out themes of acid trips, interstellar travel and pastoralia.  In fact, after weeks of recording nothing more than random sound effects, they labeled the burgeoning album "Nothings," then "Son of Nothings," followed by "Return of Son of Nothings."  Eventually, however, they found their way and arrived at an album that suggested some of the tightened production of subsequent albums like The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.  "Fearless," which borrows from the Liverpool FC's fight song, is emblematic of the Floyd's reawakening.  
Fearless (mp3) - Pink Floyd 

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses reached full blossom on their 1989 eponymous debut album.  Straight out of the rollicking Madchester scene, the Mancunians drew on a variety of influences to produce dance-inflected pop nuggets.  Here, on "Shoot You Down," they demonstrate considerable restraint throughout a slow burning revival of late 60s psychedelia.
Shoot You Down (mp3) - The Stone Roses 

Tame Impala

Australia's Tame Impala make no pretense of their debt to earlier guitar-laden psychonauts, yet their recombinant Trip Hop grooves keep things moving along quite nicely on this year's full-length release, Innerspeakers.  "Lucidity," further enhanced here with a remix by Dirty label's French genius, Pilooski, suggests that the dream of inner space exploration is still alive.
Lucidity (Pilooski remix) (mp3) - Tame Impala

triptych 9 - Going Moog

Some 40 years after Robert Moog (pronounced like "rogue") invented the synthesizer, its bleeps and blips still signify the shock of the new.  From Parliament to Panda Bear, slippery synth lines continue to worm their way into our collective consciousness, a modern-day call and response.  Now anyone can play, thanks to the Filtatron iPhone app from Moog.  Filtatron Moog app

Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy - Brian Eno

Brian Eno has dabbled in so many genres -- glam rock, ambient, juju -- that its easy to overlook his pioneering synth pop as exemplified on the brilliant 1974 release, Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy.  A free-ranging precursor to punk, metal and electronica, Tiger Mountain won critical acclaim but received little notice at the record store counter.  "China My China" is a Dada-esque pastiche of sights and sounds from Mao's Communist theocracy.  China My China (mp3) -- Brian Eno

Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army

Fellow Brit Gary Numan marshalled a synth-heavy orchestra of guitar, bass and drums with the Tubeway Army.  Dark, gothic and utterly devoid of emotion, Numan seemed to completely submerge his personality into a machine-ruled world where humans are irrelevant.  The accidentally funky "Cars" endures today as a masterwork of Polymoog pop.  "Are 'Friends' Electric?" recombines Philip K. Dick imagery with spoken word and flanged guitar, in what became the first post-punk synth chart-topper in the U.K. (1979).  Are 'Friends' Electric? (mp3) - Gary Numan and the Tubeway Army

Cute Machines

Out of the gumbo of Loyola University's music school comes the Big Easy's newest breakout artist, Cute Machines.  "Addiction," from their promising debut EP Drink Up, careers along a woozy synth bed into the fractured New Orleans night.  Definitely a group to keep an eye on.  Addiction (mp3) - Cute Machines

triptych 8 - The Furies

Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane

From out of the gates of Hell, Grace Slick's powerful contralto voice cleaved a terrifying gash in America's consciousness with her chilling cautionary tale, "White Rabbit," by Jefferson Airplane.  Equal parts Lewis Carroll, Ravel's Bolero and 1960s San Francisco counter-culture, White Rabbit peaked at #8 on the Billboard charts, but its influence has extended over the decades to a variety of artists (including sampled bits by Del the Funkee Homosapien, Nice and Smooth, and Girl Talk.)  White Rabbit (mp3) - Jefferson Airplane

Siouxsie Sioux

Some ten years later, Susan Janet Ballion experienced a gothic transformation from a mild-mannered artistic loner in south London into the glam-punk heroine known as Siouxsie Sioux.  Initially a punk act in the mode of the Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and the Banshees went onto to chart an ambitious course between New Wave, opera and goth rock.  "Monitor," from the brooding 1981 release Juju, comes across like the Second Coming of Slick's "White Rabbit" (Slick herself by this time had moved on to cheesy top-40 radio hits with the Jefferson Airplane, nee Jefferson Starship).  Monitor (mp3) - Siouxsie and the Banshees

Esben and the Witch

Fast forward to now, and the Brighton band Esben and the Witch's chilling "Marching Song" from the forthcoming album Violet Cries.  Barely contained contralto fury?  Check.  Martial beat?  Yes.  Obscure, psychedelic mythos?  Umm-hmmn.   Marching Song (mp3) - Esben and the Witch


Oh yeah ... Happy Halloween.

triptych 7 - Trigger Happy

Peter Gunn was the hippest private eye to ever hit the airwaves.  Created and produced by Blake Edwards (of Pink Panther fame), directed by Robert Altman (who went on to direct many of the most famous American films of all time), and starring a little-known former dentist from Kansas City, Craig Stevens, the show ran from 1958 to 1961 on first NBC and then ABC.  Gunn was known for his groovy clothes and his taste for jazz.  In fact, the show was as defined by its music as much as its plots.  

The noirish Peter Gunn Theme song, by Henry Mancini, was an immediate hit with its insistent piano and bass line and blaring brass accompaniment.  Countless artists have covered it over the years, from surf guitarist Dick Dale to Jimi Hendrix, from Emerson, Lake and Palmer to Pulp.
Peter Gunn Theme - Henry Mancini 

Echo Minott

Dancehall favorite Echo Minott released "Murder Weapon" to international success in 1992.  Its Peter Gunn-lifted riff fuels a hardened criminals' boasting of his invulnerability as he "shine the gun, shine the gun" before a shootout.
Murder Weapon (Shine the Gun) - Echo Minott 

Tricky

Tricky offers a near-verbatim tribute on his new disc, Mixed Race, with vocals by frequent collaborator Franky Riley.  While it won't ring up as one of Tricky's finest, it holds its own quite nicely with the Minott original.  Meanwhile, the Peter Gunn Theme continues to worm its way in to successive generations of consciousness with its relentless jazz hook.
Murder Weapon - Tricky

triptych 6 - Unlikely Pair

One of the great surprises of 2010 is the exquisite new release by Mavis Staples, You Are Not Alone, produced by Jeff Tweedy.  If you can believe their joint appearance and interview on The Colbert Show, Staples' and Tweedy's record label was the driving force behind their arranged marriage.  Of course, it was quickly evident Tweedy was more than familiar with the back history of Mavis Staples and The Staple Singers oeuvre.  That respect is especially evident on the title track (below).

The Staple Singers

The Staple Singers were one of the greatest gospel, soul and R&B acts of all time.  Pop Staples formed the group in 1948 with his children Cleotha, Pervis, Yvonne and Mavis.  1971's reggae-inflected hit "I'll Take You There" reached number one on the charts, and it sounds every bit as fresh today.
I'll Take You There - The Staple Singers 

Wilco circa 1995

Tweedy's Wilco arose from the smoldering ashes of St. Louis's Uncle Tupelo in 1994 (with former sidekick Jay Farrar moved on to Son Volt).  The first Wilco album, A.M., was considered perhaps a bit lightweight and overly poppy for some alt-country purists, but it spoke promisingly to the songwriting development that Tweedy would exhibit in subsequent release after release.  "I Must Be High" is a standout from their 1995 debut album.
I Must Be High - Wilco 

Mavis Staples

Still, for all the talent involved, who could have predicted such a fortuitous pairing as can be heard on "You Are Not Alone"?  Open up -- this is a raid.
You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples (Jeff Tweedy)

triptych 5 - John Winston Ono Lennon

As everyone in the world must know by now, John Lennon would have turned 70 today had he not been gunned down in 1980 by Mark David Chapman.  It would be easy to bemoan all the lost music he never had the chance to write, but the fact remains that his influence will forever be heard in each new generation of artists.


There's no point in trying to demonstrate Lennon's lineage in just three songs.  So here, simply, are a song from The Beatles' Rubber Soul, from Lennon's Walls and Bridges, and a convincingly Lennonesque chart from Philadelphia's neo-psychedelic Dr. Dog.

It's Only Love - The Beatles

#9 Dream - John Lennon

 From - Dr. Dog

triptych 4 - Synthesize Me

On the heels of the original punk movement arose a sound about as far from Johnny Rotten's adenoidal yelps as imaginable -- synth-pop, with its glassy, blissed out blips and beats or, alternatively, its droning dribs and drabs of depression.  Taking their cues from seminal artists like Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, the synth-pop bands found inspiration in homemade synthesizers, layered tape collages and circuit-bent radios.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Stalwart among the pioneers of this new sound was the Mersey band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (also known as OMD).  While they would later go on to relative 80s fame with the track "If You Leave," featured prominently in the John Hughes' film Pretty in Pink, their album Crush contained a trove of lush synth treasures.  Here's the title track:
Crush - OMD

Depeche Mode

The best-known and biggest-selling act of the synth-pop genre was OMD's contemporaries, the ever-brooding Depeche Mode.  Their bubbly 1981 breakout single "Just Can't Get Enough" now stands out in glaring relief against a sea of later melancholy hits like "People Are People," "Master and Servant" and the now widely covered "Personal Jesus."  Here's a song in their gloomier vein, "Blasphemous Rumours":
Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode

Computer Magic

Today the 80s synth-pop sound is widely covered by bands from CEO to YACHT to the Beach House.  Here's an exemplar from the lesser known Computer Magic, with their aptly named "Electronic Fences":

Electronic Fences - Computer Magic