Shock World Service

Because Of You, We Survived the Cold of Winter Snow by Cian Ó Cíobháin

24/12/16 Galway, Ireland

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Twitter: twitter.com/shockws

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1. Edward Williams - The Sex Life Of The Fern

Strange tune title? Perhaps … but not when you realise its context. It’s from the soundtrack to David Attenborough’s 1979 BBC series ‘Life On Earth’.

2. John Martyn - Head and Heart

Achingly beautiful loves song from John Martyn’s 1971 classic LP ‘Bless the Weather’.

3. Shelleyan Orphan - Beamheart

Caroline Crawley, the lead singer of Shelleyan Orphan, sadly passed away some months back. I was familiar with her vocal work on This Mortal Coil’s LP ‘Blood’, but had never taken the time out to explore any of her back catalogue, outside of her contributions to Ivo-Watts Russell’s 4AD super-group.

4. Perfume Genius - Mr Petersen

Taken from Mike Hadreas’ debut LP from 2010, this is a song about a teacher he had in his formative years, who had a major influence on him, but later committed suicide.

5. Shiny Two Shiny - Moment To Moment

Thanks to Mary Maguire for introducing me to this band. Based in Liverpool, they released 1 album and 2 EPs in the mid-80s.

6. The Strange Walls - Grey To Red

‘…. Won’t Last’ by New York-based The Strange Walls on Alrealon Musique is one of my albums of the year.

7. Worldbackwards - (Leaving Me) Now

Minimal wave quartet from London who initially only released their music on cassettes (there are four of them, all C60s).

8. Peter Gordon & David Van Tieghem - Winter (feat Kathy Acker)

Peter Gordon is the bandleader of Love Of Live Orchestra, a multi-genre downtown New York collective that has counted Arthur Russell, David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, Phillip Glass and Laurie Anderson amongst its members. He sent me a thank you email VIA his publicist for playing this one so often on my radio show this year.

9. Thomas Leer - Private Plane

Amazing debut single from 1978 from Thomas Leer.

10. Lives Of Angels - Imperial Motors

Lost classic from husband/wife duo Gerald and Catherine O’ Connell, taken from their 1983 album ‘Elevator To Eden’. Shades of Can, Suicide, Depeche Mode, New Order.

11. Rollers/Sparkers - Kodiak

They’re from Dublin, they are responsible for my album of the year - ‘Interior Ministry’ - and by album, I mean a coherent collection of amazing songs that make complete sense in the way that they’re sequenced on the LP.

12. Let’s Eat Grandma - Eat Shiitake Mushrooms

I believe that this precocious teenage girl duo from Norwich are still in school (only aged 16-17 when they wrote this) and yet…. how on earth did they come up with possibly the best pop-song of 2016?

13. Scraps - Dreams

Brisbane’s self-styled ‘dehydrated disco queen’ released a corker of an album - called ‘TTNIK’ - on the always essential Not Not Fun label this year.

14. Blood Orange - Desirée

This was my highlight from ‘Freetown Sound’, an album which features more great female vocalists, many who previously were unknown to me.

15. The Paradise - In Love With You

Made by Alan Braxe (who had a hand in Stardust’s ‘Music Sounds Better With You’ with Thomas Bangalater and ‘Intro/Running’ with Fred Falke) with Romuald Louverjon back in 2003, I have Mike Smalle to thank for introducing me to this 6am afterparty classic.

16. Ruby & The Romantics - Baby Come Home

Akron, Ohio R&B 60s group who became big in Belgium when this one became a staple on the Popcorn scene.

17. Liz Damon’s Orient Express - 1900 Yesterday

Debut single from Liz Damon’s Hawaiian band came out in 1971 but I have my truelove to thank for introducing me to it recently.

18. Cocteau Twins - Half-Gifts

20 years ago the Cocteau Twins released their final album ‘Milk & Kisses’ and when it came out I recall many of us being completely besotted with this song. Liz Fraser’s biographer speculated that songs from this period may be about Jeff Buckley, but the lady herself has neither confirmed or denied this.

Mix of classical, torch songs & spoken word

Shock World Service 65:

Guitar Side Of The Divide by Spaces

13/7/16 London, United Kingdom

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Twitter: twitter.com/shockws

1. The Wailers - Don't Ever Leave Me

This guitar solo by Ernest Ranglin is possibly the best ever.

2. Elizabeth Cotten - Freight Train

Version straight from YouTube is probably rawer than the live studio album.

3. Fripp & Eno - Wind On Water

If you're forced to take a flight on your own listen to this on headphones.

4. Brian Eno - Third Uncle

When I was young I remember trying to run really fast and almost falling forward mid-run. This song hurtles along so fast it sounds like exactly that.

5. Luciano Cilio - Della Conoscenza

The vocals in this are up there with Ligeti's Lux Aeterna.

6. The Sonics - The Witch

It was a toss up between this and Strychnine.

7. Neil Young - Guitar Solo, No. 1

The opener from the Dead Man soundtrack. The sleeve notes have great photos of a gurning Neil Young in front of a big screen, scoring the film with just an electric guitar. Or maybe I'm imagining that

8. Bill Frisell - Effects Pedal Demonstration

(I actually like this.)

9. Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better

(And this.)

10. Laurie Anderson - The Puppet Motel

A less well known Laurie Anderson song from the Bright Red album. Actually there's not really any guitar in here…

11. Julee Cruise - Floating|

Not the normal guitar lick associated with Julee Cruise/Twin Peaks but close enough to raise all sorts of Laura Palmer-based hallucinations.

12. Neil Young - Organ Solo/Do You Know How To Use This Weapon?

This gets in because he plays the organ like he plays the guitar. Haunting and stays with you.

13. Battant - Old School Baby

Battant suffered an abrupt and tragic end in 2011 with the death of Joel Dever, this version of the Nena/Westbam is less polished but rawer.

14. Donal Keating & John Flynn - KLG

Recently blown the dust of my guitar to add some bits to the tracks my musical twin Donal Keating has been sending me across the globe.

15. Pete Thorn - Guitar Picks

(I don't actually like this.)

16. Wes Montgomery - No Blues

Found this relatively late too. The way the album's mixed it sounds like Wes' amp is right next to you.

Shock World Service 064:

Float A Boat(Rory Bowens)

2/5/16 London United Kingdom

http://www.shockworldservice.com/

1. D-Day - Float A Bort

Beautiful mis-spelled dream pop from Japan. Taken from their 'Vale of Promises’ release on that most elegant of formats, the Flexi-Disc.

2. Henri Texier - Amir

Avant-Garde Jazz Vocal beauty from the French double bass player.

3. Stockton's Wing And Steve Cooney - Ice Fields

I found this one in my Dad’s 7" box on a trip home to Ireland last Christmas. The B-side of 'Skidoo' a popular didgeridoo led reel that ended up the Irish charts. This track, 'Ice-Fields' allegedly was recorded by Stephen Cooney on location at the Irish Arctic Expedition 1981 using a wind harp.

4. Bill Nelson- Sleeplessness

Taken from Chamber Of Dreams (Music From The Invisibility Exhibition), a collection of backing tracks from his experimental multi-disciplinary performance project. The source material for these backing tapes came from the archives of the Echo Observatory. Bill Nelson’s expansive back catalogue is endlessly interesting. One of Britains great avant-pop eccentrics, he suggests on the liner notes that “Musicians owning this album, might enjoy sketching their own ideas over these tracks in the privacy of their own home”.

5. Operating Theatre - Eighties Rampwalk (Fanning Session)

Operating Theatre was Irish composer Roger Doyle’s new wave band/ theatre troupe collaboration with Olwen Foure. Discovered this one on the excellent Strange Passion: Explorations In Irish Post Punk DIY And Electronic Music 1980-1983. Check it out if you haven’t already

6. Unknown Artist - Veni L’amou (Come My Dear)

Recorded by Alan Lomax in Blanchisseuse (Tunapuna-Piarco),

Trinidad in 1962. Session notes say "Recording of the above tunes was made at the home of Mrs. Jean Eustache Stoute from 8 p.m. on May 2nd until early next morning.”

7. Wally Badarou - Endless Race

Grab Badarou’s Echoes album.

8. Makoto Matsushita - I Know

Taken from his album 'First Light'. The broken English lyrics only add to the feeling of a relationship breakdown.

9. Mgqashiyo Ndlovu - Siyalivum’icala

I know absolutely nothing about this one except from the caption on YouTube which reads "Zulu Music (South Africa)"

10. Bagarre - For Your Pleasure

Really weird spoken word Italo-Disco tune. A lot of the joy of Italo comes from the often awful vocals and this is a prime example of that.

11. Vanity 6 - Make Up

Prince Rogers Nelson & Denise Katrina "Vanity” Matthews RIP

12. Lives of Angels - Imperial Motors

Taken from their Elevator To Eden album, lovingly reissued by Dark Entries a couple of years ago. Imperial!

13. Cleaners From Venus - The Jangling Man

Beautiful stuff from UK home recording pioneer Martin Newell. What I love about the Cleaners From Venus catalogue is that all the tunes are unabashedly massive pop tunes and the lo-fi element doesn’t feel in any way stylised, but rather just them doing their thing.

14. Slowdive - Crazy For You (Alternative Demo Version)

The balearic sound of Slowdive.

15. Kath Bloom, Loren Mazzacane - When Your Dreams Come True

Taken from their Restless Faithful Desperate album. Heartache.

16. Mense Reents - This Is The Way

First heard this one a recording of a Donal Dineen set from Electric Picnic a few years back, a name most Shock World Service listeners are undoubtedly familiar with. The sad euphoric feeling of the tune is the quality I most enjoy in music.

A pos-winter warmer from Cian Ó Cíobháin

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Day of the Locust by Jon Averill

3/3/16 London United Kingdom

1. Frank Sinatra - Empty (Extract)

This podcast began after a conversation about how overrated I thought Frank Sinatra was. As if to prove myself wrong I shone a spotlight into the darker area of his back catalogue.

2. Fridge - Cut Up Piano & Xylophones

Polyphonic probing from Kieran Hebden, Adem Ilhan, & Sam Jeffers. Recording as Fridge back in 2001.

3. Perdita - Rubber City

This sounds like it’s from a David Lynch film, because it is; Wild at Heart from 1990.

4. HomeSick, Silkersoft & Keight - Faraway Suede

Fresh beats recorded at this year’s Red Bull Music Academy in Paris.

5. Sinoia Caves - Elena's Sound-World

From the soundtrack of Beyond the Black Rainbow, a queasy & uneven retro styled sci-fi film from 2010.

6. Iggy Pop - The Endless Sea

Relatively restrained & nuanced balladeering. Endless Sea is from 1979. Which is the last time Iggy Pop wore a shirt.

7. Donald Byrd - Cristo Redentor (Loop)

I looped the intro of this track (which also appears on podcast 18) to serve as underpinning for the next.

8. William S. Burroughs - From Here To Eternity

A caustic, sardonic piece from Burrough’s collection of short stories; ‘Exterminator’ from 1973.

9. Thomas Leer & Robert Rental - Day Breaks, Night Heals

Proper fuzzy, nasty electronic resonance from 1979. Man music.

10. Vangelis - Le Singe Bleu

Been listening to Van the man’s pre Blade Runner output a lot recently. This is from 1973’s L'Apocalypse des Animaux.

11. Lee Hazlewood - The Nights

Hazlewood is the grizzled troubadour who documented the fast disappearing American frontier.

We play a lot of Lee on this podcast so much so I actually had to search back through the previous 62 episodes to make sure this track hasn’t already been used.

12. P-Model - Kameari Pop

Amazing freaky outlandish electropop from Japan circa 1979.

13. Dave Clarke - Splendour

Crunchy tractor hip-hop from techno stalwart Dave Clarke showcasing the power of the loop.

14. Gareth Anton Averill - Little Palace Horns

Another track recorded at this year’s Red Bull Music Academy. Familiar name too.

15. Alan Vega - Love Cry

This continues the outsider art template Vega created in Suicide alongside Martin Rev.

16. Moritz Reich - La Fabrique des hommes tristes: Ouverture

French melancholy from frenchman Moritz Reich.

17. Frank Sinatra - Empty Is

Frank returns to complete one of the more interesting songs in his cannon. I’m still not fully sold though.

18. Laraaji - Zither Dance

Apparently discovered by Brian Eno. New age clanging & banging from Laraaji closes out this episode with a hypnotic zither melody.

19. Mare Street Band Recording

A little post-script recording I made in Hackney that threatens to break into the Lambada at any point.

A podcast started from an argument about weather Frank Sinatra is awful or not

Everything Comes From Chaos by Cian Ó Cíobháin

26/12/15 Galway, Ireland.

http://www.shockworldservice.com

1. Young Marble Giants - Music For Evenings

From ‘Colossal Youth’, their debut album which was released in 1980.

2. Katie Dey - y o y o

Melbourne-based Katie Dey released one of the year’s quirkiest EPs in the shape of ‘asdf asdf’.

3. Kings Of Convenience V Röyksopp - I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From

One of the key songs in my life, all the way from Norway. This was released the same year as Röyksopp dropped their debut LP ‘Melody AM’.

4. Björk Mit Funkstörung - All Is Full Of Love (seconddotted)

Back in the nineties Funkstörung made essential outsider electronica, where they merged complex drum patterns with melancholic melodies.

5. Team LG - On Fire

It’s been a decade since Team LG released their debut - & only - record. I haven’t heard anything about them since and had, indeed, forgotten about them, until I re-discovered this CD, which had been missing from my collection for years.

6. Low - What Part Of Me

Everyone’s favourite Mormon indie pop band returned with this perfectly-formed pop song in late summer.

7. Marker Starling - Husbands

Christopher Cummings is Marker Starling, previously of Mantler.

8. Kingdom - Bank Head

This classic on the Night Slugs label is almost 3 years old now, but a month doesn’t go by that I don’t find myself returning to it.

9. Venetian Snares - Your Face When I Finally (Glass Version)

Yes Aaron Funk is actually his real name and this hugely talented Canadian producer has been pretty prolific since releasing his first records in the late 90s.

10. Inga Copeland - I Am Your Ambient Wife

Inga Copeland is your ambient wife. & I’m not going to argue with her.

11. Junior Boys - Teach Me How To Fight

The debut LP from Junior Boys, entitled ‘Last Exit’ masterfully combined 80’s synth-pop melodies with yearning vocals & the jittery, irregular rhythms commonly associated with UK Garage.

12. Jam City - Crisis

After falling heavily for Jam City’s neon-kissed LP it wasn’t a huge leap for me to endear myself to the same artist’s U-turn towards neon-kissed r’n’b torch-songs that make up ‘Dream A Garden’.

13. David Axelrod - The School Boy

Composer, arranger, producer, drummer & ex-boxer David Axelrod has had a huge influence on the music landscape with the likes of De La Soul, DJ Shadow & DJ Premier having sampled him.

14. Susumu Yokota - Morino Gakudan

Susumu Yokota’s sounds have haunted me since first discovering him back in ’99.

15. Our Brother The Native - Tilia Petiolaris

Back in 2006, two Michigan teenagers & their Californian buddy released their debut LP ‘Tooth & Claw’, an album born out of acoustic strumming, field recordings, analogue feedback, weird samples & often particularly twee vocals.

16. Jackson C. Frank - Milk & Honey

The composer of this song lived a life of heartbreak & woe, but was a huge influence on folk singers such as Nick Drake (who covered this song) & Paul Simon.

17. Saint Sister - Madrid

One of the debuts of the year, courtesy of Gemma Doherty & Morgan MacIntyre, which was recorded in Co. Kerry by Alex Ryan of Hozier.

18. Kendal Johansson - Blue Moon

A gorgeous cover of a Big Star song, released on Sincerely Yours.

19. Saint Etienne - Hobart Paving

Saint Etienne pulled out all the stops at The National Concert Hall last September, performing their classic début ‘Foxbase Alpha’ in its entirety.

20. Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlmen We Are Floating In Space (Original Elvis Mix)

Back in 1997, Spiritualized’s third LP was barely on the shelves when the LP had to be recalled after an objection from Elvis Presley’s Estate.

21. King Midas Sound & Fennesz - We Walk Together

So many of my favourites on 1 record. feat. Kiki Hitomi, with extra FX-drenched, shoegaze shimmering from Austrian guitarist & producer Christian Fennesz. Total heart-stopper.

www.rte.ie/rnag/an-taobh-tuathail/

http://cianociobhain.com/

Shock World Service 061;

Make Mine A 99 (Jon Averill)

15/05/15 London, United Kingdom

1. Bonnie Dobson & Her Boys - Winter’s Going

‘I’ll kill your baby & then i’ll kill you’, strong stuff from a Canadian. This song opens the podcast which was originally intended as an ode to the onset of summer. The fluctuating climate of May 2015 left us with something a whole lot less defined however.

2. Miaoux Miaoux - Hey Sound

Miaoux Miaoux is Julian Corrie, a Glasgow based producer. This track is taken from his 2012 album ‘Light of the North’ which i’ve never listened to.

3. Howie B - Butt Meat

Second part of a Glasgow producer double is an absolute masterclass by Howard Bernstein in how to make cut & paste hip hop. A near perfect record.

4. J. K. Mayengani & The Shingwedzi Sisters - Khubani

No idea where I got this record from, it’s great though isn’t it?

5. Sly & Robbie - Computer Malfunction

Another example of how much better I am than you is that I would steal this record from my dad’s collection in my early teens, fascinated by it’s intermix of groove & spacey electronics.

6. Gunnar Haslam - Aisepos

Brooding strings sit atop an tribal sounding drum machine beat. Taken from a compilation with the fantastic title of ‘Music for ShutiIns’.

7. Original Tropicana Steel Band - Calypso Rock

This track couldn’t be more antithetical to the last.

8. Pye Corner Audio - One Time Pad

And once again we transmute from the sultry to the foreboding. Taken from the recently released ‘Intercepts’ album. A collaboration between Pye Corner Audio & Shock World Service favourite Not Waving.

9. Number One Ensemble - Flor De Coca

Low bpm disco from a compilation entitled ‘Italo Disco – Essential Italian Disco Classics 1977-1985’

10. Owen Hand - Cam Ye O’er Frae France

Long time followers of the podcast will wonder where it all went wrong.

11. Paul Stewart - Kiki & Pepe

I always like to include some stories or spoken word elements in each podcast. This time it’s a section of audio from an album called ‘The Warrick Sessions Volume 1’ which is a bizarre & fascinating listen.

12. Joe Meek - Orbit Around The World

Another bizarre piece of music from 1960 from Joe Meek, the UKs answer to Brian Willson & Phil Spector. This ploughs similar territory to his other retro-futuristic track ‘Telstar’.

13. Between - Devotion

Psychedelic, meditative, transcendental, cogitative.

14. Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan - Journey’s End

On my last visit to New York we went to late night honky-tonk (yet hipster) den called Skinny Dennis (152 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211). This is the kind of shit kickin’ anthem that would have gone down a treat there. And by co-incidence this is also our journey’s end.

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Past, Present & Future (Jon Averill)

22/01/15 London, United Kingdom

1. The Shangri-Las - Past, Present & Future

An aloof monologue backed by an interpolation of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata reflects on what might have been.

2. Ryan Teague - Shadow Play

A minimalist composition which owes much to contemporaries such as Steve Reich & John Adams.

3. INC. - Swear

The polished chrome future R’n’B grooves of L.A’s INC.

4. Mount Kimbie - Maybes

For some reason never really got into Mount Kimbie the way a lot of people did.

5. Japan - Quiet Life

Waking us up with a jolt is the opening track from the 1979 album of the same name by Japan.

6. Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

If you're being pedantic you could point out that he only lists 5 ways to leave your lover.

7. The Au Pairs - It’s Obvious

Next up is the clattering post-punk clamour of Birmingham’s The Au Pairs.

8. Sun Araw, M. Geddes Gengras, & The Congos - Sunshine

Amazing track but sounds completely out of place at the time of recording – a freezing January weekend in London.

9. Not Waving - Kneecap Ridge

Another track I really wanted to include again – this podcast not really acting as a best of in the traditional sense but more a recap of the last 59.

10. Jai Paul - Jasmine (Demo)

The best thing released in 2012.

11. Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elkind - Rocky Mountains

Taken from Great Lakes Mystery’s horror soundtrack themed podcast. Wendy Carlos (formerly Walter) created 3 hugely influential soundtracks; the unsettling electronic score for A Clockwork Orange, Tron & worked again with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining from which this track is taken.

12. Mssingno - Xe2

Both myself & Cian Ó Cíobháin have featured tracks from Mssingo in previous podcast which is good enough to give him Shock preferred artist status. With electronic music you’re always looking for something that gives that little tingle - a feeling you get when you hear something that sounds like it’s from somewhere else.

13. Fabio Frizzi - Main Theme

Absolutely floored by this first time I heard it. Just an extraordinary piece of synthesizer music from the 1979 soundtrack for Italian horror movie Zombi 2.

14. Burial - Raver

Perfect music for avoiding eye contact on the night bus.

15. Lee Hazlewood - My Baby Cried All Night Long

Taking us right out of that moment is moustached troubadour & regular at the Shock salon; Lee Hazlewood.

And the moral of this story is that you shouldn't be caught messin' Where you shouldn't been messin'.

16. World Domination Enterprises ‎– Asbestos Lead Asbestos

Music that sounds more like it’s made on a building site than a recording studio.

17. The Durutti Column - Otis

Vini Reilly uses an Otis Redding vocal loop to great effect for this track.

18. Dennis Wilson - Time

The deterioration of Dennis Wilson’s, once part of the angelic harmonies of the Beach Boys is a shocking thing to hear yet also adds a vulnerability to his music.

19. Tonstartssbandht - Hymn Eola

Tonstartssbandht (pronounced tahn-starts-bandit) are two brothers Edwin & Andy White who’ve recorded dozens of albums merging dramatic choral style vocals & space rock-esque textures.

20. John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Boulevard (Live at Shock 16.5.08)

I don’t think this track can be heard elsewhere so a bit of an exclusive for our listeners I guess. It’s a sequel to Cooper Clarke’s most well known track Beasley Street. Here John deals with Beasley Street as it might be now, fully in the grip of gentrification.

21. Moondog - Pastoral

Pastoral is a childlike melody from the Viking of sixth avenue which brings the podcast to a close.

So this is goodbye, so this is farewell, the fight's final bell.

for now…

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