You Can Be Special, Too

Top/ The album cover for Aion (4AD, 1990) by Dead Can Dance shows a detail from the Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch's triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Assigning a musical genre to Dead Can Dance is difficult, as its style is particularly eclectic. However, its early work could be considered darkwave. In their later work, including and subsequent to the release titled The Serpent's Egg, Dead Can Dance would take ancient or various musics from around the world as primary sources, with contralto Lisa Gerrard singing glossolalia (commonly called "speaking in tongues"), giving it a very distinctive style. As a result, their later albums such as Into the Labyrinth (1993), Toward the Within (1994) and Spiritchaser (1996) sound quite different from the first three. Various sources have labeled those latter releases as neo-classical, or ethereal. Bottom/ "More Than This" is a single from Roxy Music's eighth studio album Avalon (Virgin, 1982), generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the English art rock group's later work. Cover painting ‘Veronica Veronese’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1872. Bill Murray performs More Than This in a memorable karaoke scene in the 2003 movie Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola.

A Kiss In The Dreamhouse

Bottom/ Floored: Something Wrong (Recall, 2003) is the second album by electropop darlings Bang Gang from Iceland, starring songwriter/producer Barði Jóhannsson who formed the band and lives in Reykjavík. Middle/ Mixing influences from trip hop, rock, rhythm and blues and pop, Dive Deep (Echo, 2008) is the sixth studio album by English group Morcheeba. It is also the second studio album recorded without former lead singer Skye Edwards. Dive Deep features many guest vocals, such as acclaimed singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke on the first single "Enjoy the Ride". Billboard described the album as a "gorgeous collection of folk- and blues-inflected electro-pop ballads". BBC Music noted that guests "appear chosen less for who they are than what they can bring, sweet and soulful voices that supply an emotional backbone to the Godfreys' languid, slo-mo funk grooves." Morcheeba's most popular albums include 1996 debut Who Can You Trust? and 1998's Big Calm. They achieved huge international pop crossover success with the single "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" in 2000. Top/ Always in style: high priestess of punk Siouxsie explores a variety of musical styles, including pop, glam, industrial and electronic in her first solo album MantaRay (Universal, 2007), preceded by the "Into a Swan" single. Siouxsie Sioux is the lead singer of Siouxsie & the Banshees, formed at the advent of the British punk scene, and that soon became one of the major bands in the post-punk erea. The Banshees' music influenced a wide range of very diverse bands over the years, amongst them The Cure, Massive Attack, Garbage and more recently LCD Soundsystem. Key albums by Siouxsie and the Banshees include Kaleidoscope (1980), Juju (1981) and A Kiss in the Dreamhouse.

You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever

Bottom/ Album title The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators (International Artists, 1966) by The 13th Floor Elevators is purported to be the first use of the word "psychedelic" in reference to music within. The 13th Floor Elevators was an American acid rock band originally from Austin, Texas, from late 1965 until 1969. The band found only limited commercial success before dissolving amid legal troubles and drug use. However, as one of the first psychedelic bands, they have been cited as an influential proto-punk group. Their biggest hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", a Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was later to be considered a landmark in the history of garage rock and the development of punk rock. The band's classic line-up featured singer/guitarist Roky Erickson and electric jug player Tommy Hall. The "electric jug" sound would become the band's signature and trademark. Middle/ Starring Jeff Bridges as "The Dude", The Big Lebowski has a soundtrack (Mercury, 1998) that was composed by Carter Burwell, a veteran of all the Coen Brothers' films. T-Bone Burnett, who also worked with the Coens on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is credited as music bibliographer. Top/ Gazeuse! (released as Expresso in the U.S.) is an album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong, issued in 1976 on Virgin Records. ‎ Pierre Moerlen's Gong is a jazz fusion outfit which is very different from the first incarnation of Gong, the psychedelic space-rock act led by Daevid Allen. Amid a flurry of lineup changes in the mid-1970s, including the departure of founding members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Moerlen was asked to co-lead the band with Didier Malherbe and Steve Hillage, guitar player of Gong, who himself left shortly thereafter, only appearing on a couple of tracks on the next album Shamal. Pierre Moerlen (1952 - 2005) was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield. Pierre Moerlen's Gong is notable for the prominent use of mallet percussion, such as marimba, xylophone, and vibraphone.

C'mon Feel The Noize

Bottom/ Kimono My House (Island, 1974) was Sparks' third album, scoring a number 2 hit with the glam single "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us". In contrast to the esteem in which they are held by such peers as Morrissey, Depeche Mode, New Order and the Pet Shop Boys, who all cite the L.A duo of Ron and Russell Mael as a major influence, Sparks' almost constantly changing styles —including glam pop, power pop and electronic dance music— and unique visual presentations have sometimes seen them dismissed as a novelty act. The album title is generally assumed to be a pun on the Rosemary Clooney hit "Come on-a My House". Sparks have been highly influential on the development of popular music, in particular on the late 1970s scene, when in collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (and Telex subsequently), they reinvented themselves as an electronic pop duo, and abandoned the traditional rock band line up. The 2002 release of Lil' Beethoven, their self-described "genre-defying opus", as well as the more recent albums Hello Young Lovers (2006, their 20th studio album) and Exotic Creatures Of The Deep (2008) have brought Sparks renewed critical and commercial success, and seen them continue to "steer clear of pop conventions." On August 14, 2009, the band premièred the radio musical The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman. Middle/ LP It's Only A Movie (Raft Records, 1973) is the last original studio album by English rock band Family before they disbanded that year. Top/ Single "Afrodiziak" from debut album Glee (Audiogram, 1997) by Bran Van 3000, an electronica collective from Montreal, Canada founded by the DJ James Di Salvio.

That Great Love Sound

Bottom/ Chemical Chords (Duophonic/4AD, 2008) by Stereolab includes the tracks "One Finger Symphony", "The Ecstatic Static", "Fractal Dream of a Thing" and "Vortical Phonotheque". Stereolab are an alternative music band formed in 1990 in London, England. Called "one of the most fiercely independent and original groups of the Nineties", Stereolab were one of the first bands to be termed "post-rock". Their primary musical influence is 1970s krautrock, which they combine with lounge, 1960s pop, and experimental music. They are noted for their heavy use of vintage electronic keyboards, and their sound often overlays a repetitive "motorik" beat with female vocals sung in English or French. Stereolab often incorporate socio-political themes into their lyrics. Some critics say the group's lyrics carry a strong Marxist message, and songwriting team Tim Gane (guitar/keyboards) and Lætitia Sadier (vocals/ keyboards/ guitar) admit to being influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist cultural and political movements. However, Gane is sceptical of labels such as "Marxist pop", and defends the band against accusations of "sloganeering". Top/ On Pretty In Black (Columbia, 2005), Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo from Danish pop duo The Raveonettes lay down hard-edged electric guitar songs overlaid with liberal doses of noise. Characterized by close two-part vocal harmonies inspired by The Everly Brothers, their songs juxtapose the structural and chordal simplicity of 50s and 60s rock with intense electric instrumentation, driving beats and often dark lyrical content, similar to another of the band's influences, The Velvet Underground.

Detour Thru Your Mind

Top/ Scorpio Rising (Concrete, 2002) is the third album by British electronica band Death in Vegas. The album takes its name from an experimental film by Kenneth Anger. Scorpio Rising features guest vocalists Liam Gallagher, Hope Sandoval, Nicola Kuperus, and Paul Weller, as well as string arrangements by Dr. L. Subramaniam. "23 Lies" includes a sample from "Goin' Back" by The Byrds, written and composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "Scorpio Rising" takes its main riff from "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo. Several songs on the album have appeared in television advertisements and on film soundtracks. "Girls" is featured on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola. "Hands Around My Throat" is featured on the Animatrix soundtrack. Middle/ Tuning in with Clearlight Symphony (Virgin Records, 1975) by French progressive rock band Clearlight, led by keyboardist Cyrille Verdeaux. Featured on Clearlight Symphony are friends from the Gong family, among them saxophonist and flutist Didier Malherbe, f.k.a Bloomdido Glad de Brass, one of the founders of the Canterbury sound band Gong. Malherbe is currently performing his own brand of wind-led, acoustic ethnic-jazz under the name Hadouk Trio with multi-instrumentalist Loy Ehrlich, and percussionist Steve Shehan. Clearlight's music has been called symphonic, sometimes psychedelic. Artwork by Jean Claude Michel. Bottom/ 10 000 Hz Legend (Astralwerks, 2001) by French electro band AIR is the follow-up to their debut LP, Moon Safari, once called a "pop masterpiece". On this album, more electronic-oriented experimentations find the duo expanding their capacities and working with other artists including American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Beck and Japanese rock band Buffalo Daughter.

Chant Of The Paladin

Top/ Birthed in Las Vegas by baroque pop band Panic at the Disco, second album Pretty. Odd. (Decaydance, 2008) includes "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" and "Mad as Rabbits". It is possible that the song's title is a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, alluding to The Mad Hatter and the March Hare or the White Rabbit. Middle/ Canadian singer, composer, harpist and pianist Loreena McKennitt is often compared to Enya, but McKennitt's music is more grounded in traditional and classical invocations, using literary works as sources of lyrics such as "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Tennyson, Yeats' "The Stolen Child" and William Blake's "Lullaby". To Drive the Cold Winter Away (Quinlan Road, 1987) is McKennitt's second album. All the songs were recorded in churches, many in Glenstal Abbey, Ireland. Bottom/ Foxtrot (Charisma, 1972) is the fourth studio album by British progressive rock band Genesis and the second from the "classic" lineup of Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Phil Collins, and Steve Hackett. Featured in the album artwork is the "fox on the rocks". The figure in a red dress with a fox's head was one of Gabriel's earliest stage costumes. Both "Watcher of the Skies", which is based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End, and the 23-minute "Supper's Ready" rank among some of the band's most beloved works. Also included is "Horizons", which starts with the central idea of Bach's Prelude of the first Cello Suite and then develops its own piece, baroque style.

Come And Play In The Milky Night

Top/ Midnight Juggernauts are a Melbourne based band, described by Rolling Stone US as "David Bowie if his Berlin Trilogy was a collaboration with Kraftwerk and Faust." Their debut album, Dystopia (Siberia/Inertia, 2007), is sometimes reminiscent of Scissor Sisters. The band has been described as anything from 'prog dance meets cosmic film scores' to 'slasher-flick disco' to 'deadpan landscape'. It also received reviews stating Dystopia was an "euphoric hammering together of Krautrock grooves, psychedelic flights of melodic fancy and post-Justice grindy synth noises". Middle/ The Devil, You + Me (City Slang/Alien Transistor, 2008) is the sixth studio album by German indietronica band The Notwist. The album Neon Golden (released in 2002) put them on the map for American listeners, with its heartfelt sentiment and catchy tunes. While singer Markus Acher, in addition to his work with The Notwist and 13 & God, also works with indietronica band Lali Puna, lead programmer Martin Gretschmann also leads side project Console. Relying heavily on elements of electronic music, Console is reminiscent of some electro bands, such as Ladytron and Miss Kittin. Cover design by Yokoland. Bottom/ In 1982 British alternative rock band The Cure released Pornography (Fiction Records), the third and final album of an "oppressively dispirited" trio that cemented the Cure's stature as purveyors of the emerging gothic rock genre. Recorded with the group on the brink of collapse, it represents the conclusion of the musical journey started with Seventeen Seconds and Faith. Often cited as the most disturbing product of The Cure, the album's opening lyrical line is "It doesn't matter if we all die". Now considered one of the key gothic rock albums of all time, Pornography has gained much respect over the years.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Top/ With its timeless cover artwork and title, Crisis? What Crisis? (A&M, 1975) was British progressive rock band Supertramp's first LP to be recorded in America. The band had a series of top-selling albums in the 1970s and early 1980s. Their early music included ambitious concept albums, from which were drawn a number of hits including "Goodbye Stranger", "Bloody Well Right", "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "It's Raining Again", and "Take the Long Way Home". Supertramp attained superstardom in the United States, Canada, most of Europe, South Africa, Australia and Brazil, although they were not quite as popular in the UK. Nonetheless, the album Breakfast in America was a big hit there. On April 21, 2010 it was announced that Supertramp would give 35 concerts in the fall of 2010. This tour called "70-10" was to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the group's first release. Bottom/ Bandwagonesque is the third album by Scottish indie rock outfit Teenage Fanclub, released in 1991 on Creation Records. Bandwagonesque achieved notoriety by beating Nirvana's landmark album Nevermind to be voted 'album of the year' for 1991 by US rock magazine Spin, also beating Creation stablemates My Bloody Valentine's album Loveless, and R.E.M.'s hugely successful Out of Time. Bandwagonesque is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The cover is designed by Sharon Fitzgerald. When Kiss member Gene Simmons (who trademarked a moneybag logo) was made aware of the record he sent a letter to Geffen Records - who in turn gave in and sent Mr. Simmons a cheque, according to Simmons audiobook Sex Money Kiss. Originally a noisy and chaotic band, Teenage Fanclub emerged from the Glasgow C86 scene. Their sound relies heavily on chiming, Byrds-esque guitars and harmony vocals reminiscent of West Coast bands.

Forever Blowing Bubbles

Top/ Neo-Krautrock band Black Moth Super Rainbow from Pittsburgh lay down yummy synth bubbles and Vocoder hums on their third album Dandelion Gum (Graveface, 2007). Their music contains elements of psychedelia, folk, electronica, and pop. Track listing includes "Neon Syrup for the Cemetery Sisters", "Jump into My Mouth and Breathe the Stardust" and "Lollipopsichord". Middle/ Fireball is a hard rock album by Deep Purple, released in 1971 on Harvest. It was their fifth studio album, and the second with the classic Mk II lineup featuring Ian Gillan (vocals) and Ritchie Blackmore (guitar). Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock although some band members have tried not to label themselves any one genre. The band has also incorporated pop and progressive rock elements. Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. Machine Head, recorded at the Grand Hotel Montreux, Switzerland with the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, and released in March 1972, has since become one of the band's most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the Water." Ritchie Blackmore ranked 55 on Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2003. Deep Purple was once listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's loudest band, and it has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Bottom/ For her sixth full-length studio album Volta (One Little Indian, 2007), Icelandic singer Björk put together her own fourteen-piece brass section of female Icelandic musicians who play on three tracks on the album. Antony Hegarty, frontman and lead singer of Antony and the Johnsons, appears on the album for two duets.

Shiva In The Mix

Top/ Mother of Punk, so what the Funk? Nina Hagen is the Hindu goddess Kali on the cover of her full-on devotional album Om Namah Shivay! (SPV, 1999). Artwork by Pierre & Gilles, whose collaborations include actress Catherine Deneuve, designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, model Naomi Campbell, musicians Marilyn Manson, Madonna and lo-fi duet CocoRosie. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, Kali is often considered the kindest and most loving of all Hindu goddesses. Bottom/ Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (Mute, 2008) is the fourteenth studio album by alternative rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It is the second Bad Seeds studio album without long-time guitarist and backing vocalist Blixa Bargeld and features the same line up as the Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus double album. Nicholas Edward "Nick" Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional film actor. He is best known for his work as a frontman of the critically acclaimed rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, established in Melbourne in 1983, a group known for its eclectic influences and musical styles. Before that, he had fronted the group The Birthday Party in the early 1980s, a band renowned for its highly dark, challenging lyrics and violent sound influenced by free jazz, blues, and post-punk. In 2006, he formed the garage rock band Grinderman that released its debut the following year. Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and lyrical obsessions with "religion, death, love, America, and violence."

Direct To Mental

Bottom/ Sea Change (Geffen, 2002) is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck. Produced by Nigel Godrich and inspired by the dissolution of a relationship, Sea Change received overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim upon release, with several reviews regarding it as Beck's magnum opus. Much of Beck's trademark recondite, ironic lyrics are replaced by more sincere, simpler lyrical content. "Lost Cause" and "Guess I'm Doing Fine" were released as singles, respectively. The term sea change is defined as a broad transformation, which reflects the departure in style from both Beck's previous effort Midnite Vultures and previous, sample-based recordings, as well as Beck's desire to give each album an identity. On Sea Change, Beck eschews the heavy sampling of his previous albums for real, live instrumentation. It is said that the album sound concept is inspired by the sound of Serge Gainsbourg's album Histoire de Melody Nelson. Beck would later produce an album for, and record with, Gainsbourg's daughter Charlotte. Critics have also compared the acoustic and relaxed melodies of Sea Change to the works of British singer-songwriter Nick Drake and Bob Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks. Over time, the album has become highly regarded as one of the best albums of the 2000s. Top/ Just a Souvenir is an album by Squarepusher, which was released on October 27, 2008 on Warp Records. The album's genesis came from a daydream, in which Tom Jenkinson envisioned a rock band performing a concert against the backdrop of a large, glowing coathanger. The performance quickly became surreal: among other things, a river forces the band to kayak whilst performing; the guitarist is able to accelerate or decelerate time at will; and every drum in the drummer's kit begins to switch places with one another. As such, the majority of the album consists of Jenkinson's own version of jazz fusion, threaded through with classical guitar, math rock and funk recordings. Squarepusher is the performing pseudonym of Tom Jenkinson, an English electronic music artist signed to Warp Records. He specializes in the electronic music genres of drum and bass, musique concrète, and acid, with a significant jazz influence.

We Mean It, Man

Bottom/ Soundtrack album to the film Performance by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg features music from Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Jack Nitzsche, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Last Poets and Mick Jagger (Warner Brothers, 1970). Performance pushed boundaries by featuring extremely explicit sex scenes and use of drugs, both of which have been rumoured to be real instead of simulated. It has been reported that during a test screening, one Warner executive's wife vomited in shock. Middle/ Frontwoman Courtney Love and Los Angeles band Hole released Live Through This (DGC, 1994) just four days after the discovery of Kurt Cobain's body, Courtney Love's late husband, singer/ songwriter of grunge band Nirvana Top/ Rising from the ashes of the pivotal punk group the Sex Pistols, iconic frontman John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten) and Public Image Ltd. (PiL) rolled out First Issue (Virgin Records) in 1978. Arguably the first post-rock group, PiL branched out to a more experimentalist sound, and early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk period. Album credits read: "Public Image would like to thank absolutely nobody".

Excursions Into "Oh, A-Oh"

Bottom/ "Utopia (Genetically Enriched)" is an electronic song performed by British groupGoldfrapp. Released as Felt Mountain's fourth single in June 2001, "Utopia (Genetically Enriched)" became Goldfrapp's first song to chart in their native England. The song was written and produced by Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory for the duo's debut album Felt Mountain(Mute, 2000). The album featured Alison Goldfrapp's synthesized vocals over cinematic soundscapes and is influenced by a variety of music styles including cabaret, folk, and electronic music. Goldfrapp is a British electronic music group known for their visual theatrics and contribution to the popularization of electronic dance music. Their fourth album Seventh Tree (2008) placed a greater emphasis on ambient and downtempo music, drawing inspiration from nature and paganism, while their fifth album, Head First (2010), found the group exploring '80s synth-pop and dance. Middle/ "Christine" is a song recorded by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees. The song was written by Banshees members Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin and it was released as the second single from the band's third album Kaleidoscope (Polydor, 1980). "Christine" marked a change in musical direction for the band, with new guitarist John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, and the brand new drummer and composer Budgie from The Slits. Veering from a punkish, more guitar-oriented sound, The Banshees (reduced to a trio) began their experimentation with electronic soundscapes and Middle Eastern exotica. Lyrically the song continued the band's exploration with mental illness (as they did on previous single "Happy House"), as it describes Christine, a woman with "22 faces" ("...Personality changes behind her red smile / Every new problem brings a stranger inside / Helplessly forcing one more new disguise..."). Two of Christine's identities, the Strawberry Girl and the Banana Split Lady, are mentioned in the lyrics of the song. Top/ Goldfrapp's "Lovely Head" was released as Felt Mountain's first single in May 2000 on Mute.

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.