Reset The Preset

Big Men Cry (Mammoth Records) is a music album by artist Banco de Gaia, released in 1997. Banco de Gaia is an electronic music band from England, formed in 1989 by Toby Marks (born 1964, South London). The music of Banco de Gaia is best categorized as ambient dub, but Marks works to cross genres, often using Arabic and Middle Eastern samples against a bass heavy reggae, rock, or trance rhythm to produce deeply textured tracks that progress layer upon layer. Key albums by Banco de Gaia include Maya (1994), Last Train to Lhasa (1995), Live at Glastonbury (1996) and Farewell Ferengistan (2006). On 20 September 2009, Banco De Gaia played an album launch show for his album, Memories Dreams Reflections at Dingwalls in London. This show was to celebrate twenty years of Banco De Gaia.

Voices Of Syn

Bottom/ Blues for Allah (Grateful Dead Records, 1975) is the eighth studio album by the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, jazz, psychedelia, space music and gospel—and for live performances of long musical improvisation. "Their music," Lenny Kaye wrote, "touches on ground that most other groups don't even know exists." Top/ Blackdance (Brain/Virgin, 1974) is the third album by Klaus Schulze. Klaus Schulze is a highly influential German electronic music composer and musician. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before a solo career of more than 40 albums lasting over 3 decades. Highlights include 1976's Moondawn. Schulze often takes German events as a starting point in his compositions. His use of the pseudonym Richard Wahnfried indicates his interest in Richard Wagner, which also informs other albums of his music, notably 1975's Timewind.

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

Top/ Berlin-based electropop duo Stereo Total get down with "Discotheque" (Disko B, 2006). Their music can be described as a humorous mix of synth-pop, New Wave, electronica, punk rock, and pop music. They also tend to embody a retro-hip European 1960s mod style, and references to that period can be found in their music. Some songs strongly evoke a mod/psych/garage-rock vibe, both in production aesthetic and lyrical content. Sixties French pop in the vein of Francoise Hardy can be heard in the mix also. Some of their tracks are playful, low-fi versions of pop/rock/soul songs that employ the use of analog recording equipment and reverberation. Middle/ In 1983 British impresario Malcolm McLaren released Duck Rock (Charisma Records), an album which mixed up influences from Africa, Central and South America and the USA, including hip-hop. The album proved to be highly influential in bringing hip-hop to a wider audience in the UK. Two of the singles from the album ("Buffalo Gals" and "Double Dutch") became major chart hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Guest musicians featured on this album include Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley and J.J. Jeczalik, three artists who would eventually become the Art of Noise. Clips of the World's Famous Supreme Team radio show appear between songs. Cover artwork includes art by Pop/graffiti artist Keith Haring. Malcolm McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and former manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls. Bottom/ Fingerlickin' good artwork for Let It Bleed (Decca/ABKCO, 1969) by the Rolling Stones displays a surreal sculpture designed by Robert Brownjohn.

In Search Of The Lost Chord

Top/ There Is Love in You is the fifth full-length album by Four Tet, released on 25 January 2010 on Domino. Kieran Hebden (born 1977, Putney, London, England, UK) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet. Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favour of a more abstract approach —his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation. In late 1999, Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. This relatively high-profile exposure attracted new interest in Four Tet from fans of electronica and IDM (intelligent dance music), genres in which the Warp brand has a preeminent status. Hebden's fourth studio album Everything Ecstatic (Domino Records, 2005) brought with it another shift in style, leaving behind the breezy "folktronica" of 2001's Pause and 2003's Rounds for a darker, more complex sound. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid, and a collaboration with Burial. In 2008, Hebden collaborated with composer David Arnold to write "Crawl, End Crawl", the song used for the end credits of the film Quantum of Solace. Bottom/ On their first collaboration album (No Pussyfooting) (EG Records, 1973), a dense, multi-layered piece of ambient drone music, Eno (right) and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp (left) used similar techniques that eventually became known as Frippertronics. Best known as the father of modern ambient music, with an art school background and inspiration from minimalism, English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer Brian Eno recorded four highly idiosyncratic and original rock albums, before turning to more abstract soundscapes on records such as Discreet Music (1975) and Ambient 1/Music for Airports (1978).

Your Consciousness Goes Bip

Frenchman Chris Joss is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist and autonomous studio producer. Having lived in London for most of the 90's, Joss digested the vibrant music scenes of the city while working as a sound engineer and playing bass and guitar in various bands. In 1996 Joss recorded his first album The Man With a Suitcase, the soundtrack to an imaginary 60's TV series, released in 1999 on indie label Pulp Flavor with the Bombay By Bus EP. In 2000 Chris Joss started recording his 2nd LP Dr Rhythm, released confidentially in 2002 by Irma. Encompassing electronica, breakbeat, funk and soundtrack music, Dr Rhythm upped the ante for Joss' musical catalogue. In 2004 Chris Joss’ third LP You've Been Spiked was released by ESL Music. With its thick funky bass lines, wah-wah guitars, Rhodes and Hammond riffs pulsating over live rootsy drums, the album was a vibrant tribute to 60's and 70's dance music. In 2005, Joss contributed to the soundtrack of the movie Inside Deep Throat, reworking original songs and producing new ones, some available on the soundtrack album on Koch. Seriously injured in a domestic accident, almost costing him his right arm, Chris Joss recorded a version of John Williams' “Superman” theme song in between hospital stays in January 2006. In February 2008 ESL Music released 13 new tracks from Chris Joss on Teraphonic Overdubs, a collection of grooves influenced by the diversity of Library music, crossing genres that were years apart while staying true to the funk. Flower power times 10! Chris Joss’ 5th LP, entitled Sticks, saw release on ESL Music in March 2009. Sticks is a smoky sonic journey through the Asian sub-continent. Filled out by a lush tapestry of ethereal sitars, rubber-funk bass, cheeky organ riffs, snappy drum kicks and smoky atmospherics, Sticks captures a deep and irresistible vintage groove that defies categorization! French multi-instrumentalist and music producer extraordinaire Chris Joss is back again with a new album Monomaniacs, Volume 1. Like a long lost vintage LP plucked from a time capsule buried sometime in the 1970’s, this album brings Joss back to a distinctly traditional and dusty funk groove. Recalling the iconic blaxploitation and grindhouse film soundtracks of that era, Monomaniacs is filled with ricocheting breakbeats, whirlwinds of wah-wah, rubber-band basslines, cosmic organs, and even a few shredding rock guitars to put some hair on your chest. Can Volume 2 be far behind?

Journey To The Center Of The Mind

Top/ Music Has the Right to Children (Warp Records, 1998) is the studio debut album of the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada, consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin Sandison. The album was recorded at the Hexagon Sun studio, an atelier maintained by the duo, in Pentland Hills, Scotland. The songs utilize a number of field recordings and intense sound manipulation. Boards of Canada's music is reminiscent of the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970s media and contains themes of childhood, nostalgia and the natural world. The album received universal acclamation upon release. Interviews with the Sandison brothers provide some insight into their creative inspiration. They have cited several acts that have influenced their work, including Joni Mitchell, The Incredible String Band, The Beatles and My Bloody Valentine, which use of distortion, pitch bending, and digital reverb resulted in the sound that was to become known as shoegazing. They have also expressed a strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages, including references to numerology and cult figures such as David Koresh of the Branch Davidians, amongst other vague hints. Bottom/ Major releases by Boards of Canada include Geogaddi (Warp, 2002) and 2006's The Campfire Headphase. Geogaddi revisits the innocent, child-like melodic and harmonic structure found throughout the band's previous album, Music Has the Right to Children. The artwork of the album carries a distinct kaleidoscopic motif.

Pumping On Your Stereo

Eagles of Death Metal's third album, Heart On (Downtown Recordings), was released on October 28, 2008, following Peace, Love, Death Metal (2004) and Death by Sexy (2006). Eagles of Death Metal (EoDM) is an American garage rock revival band from Palm Desert, California, formed by Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme. Despite the name, Eagles of Death Metal is not a death metal band, but music that Josh Homme thought would be The Eagles crossed with death metal. In a 2003 interview Homme described the sound of the band as a combination of "bluegrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals." Jesse Hughes is known and somewhat loved by fans for his over-enthusiastic and charismatic interaction with audiences at live performances. In 2010 the track "High Voltage" from their album Heart On was featured in an online campaign for Head & Shoulders shampoo called "It's Showertime Joy!". In the video a man in a robe dances with four sexy nurses in a shower to the track.

Slow Emotion Replay

Bottom/ It's What I'm Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes (One Last Fruit Records) is the seventh studio album by Badly Drawn Boy, released on October 4, 2010. Photographing Snowflakes the first of a planned trilogy of albums all to be released under the title It's What I'm Thinking. Top/ Following the success of his early EPs, Damon Gough (stage name Badly Drawn Boy)'s debut album, The Hour of Bewilderbeast (XL Recordings/Twisted Nerve Records), was released in June 2000, accompanied by four singles. The cover art, produced by Andy Votel, is loosely based on Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing "Vitruvian Man". The original art also featured Woody Allen, however his picture had to be removed due to copyright issues. The album featured members of Alfie and Doves as backing musicians. In 2002, Gough returned to score the film adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel About a Boy. His third album, Have You Fed the Fish?, introduced more guitars and an increasingly mainstream pop sound which was not welcomed by all critics. The album is a play on Gough's minor celebrity status and namechecks fellow musicians such as Madonna and John Lennon. 2009's Is There Nothing We Could Do? featured music taken from and inspired by the television film The Fattest Man in Britain. This was released on his own BDB Records label. Badly Drawn Boy is a Mercury Prize-winning alternative rock singer/songwriter. He was born on October 2, 1969, in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. A supporter of Manchester City Football Club, Gough is a Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley and Pixies fan. He is parodied in the adult comic Viz as "Badly Overdrawn Boy", a pop singer who fails to sell any records and resorts to busking outside his local bank. In 2002, Q magazine named Badly Drawn Boy in their list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die", although this was as part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way" on account of Gough's tendency to talk and tell stories for extended periods in concert rather than play songs.