Wait, September is already over?  Man, that month went by WAY too fast.

Here’s some good tunage that popped up during the past month that I’m grooving to.

Paul McCartney, Egypt Station, released 7 September. He might be in his upper 70s, but he’s still rocking out, still touring, and still writing some great melodies. Like his previous record (2013’s New), while his voice isn’t as sonorous and steady as it used to be, that’s no worry, because he makes up for it by still being an amazingly creative songwriter.

Eric Bachmann, No Recover, released 7 September. The former Archers of Loaf/Crooked Fingers singer returns with his second solo album, this time full of absolutely gorgeous acoustic tracks. It’s quite a relaxing listen and its melodies go in all sorts of neat places.

Chai, Pink, released 7 September. This is a very weird and goofy J-Punk band, but they’re a hell of a lot of fun. They kind of remind me of Shonen Knife in a way, but with a more Puffy AmiYumi pop direction.

Craig Armstrong, Sun On You, released 7 September. Armstrong is more known for his film score work (including many of Baz Luhrmann’s movies), he occasionally releases an album that’s just as lovely as his scores. This one’s primarily a piano-based record but it’s a wonderful listen.

Bob Moses, Battle Lines, released 14 September. My latest music obsession, this electronic duo’s second album feels more vibrant and alive than their previous record, and sounds just awesome on headphones. Love this one.

Low, Double Negative, released 14 September. A perfect example of a band going in a completely unexpected direction, throwing you for a loop. This isn’t your quietcore Low… this is Low as filtered through electronic distortion, overmodulation, and who knows what else. It’s not for everyone, but it’s pretty damn fascinating once you get used to it.

Failure, EP3: The Furthest Thing, released 14 September. The third of four EPs scheduled for this year from this trio continues their project of releasing an album piecemeal, recording and releasing four EPs of four tracks once every quarter. Eagerly awaiting the final release in a few months!

Jungle, For Ever, released 14 September. The London collective releases their second record of 70s inspired groovy soul funk, and it’s infectious. They’re such a fun band to listen to!

Metric, Art of Doubt, released 21 September. While their previous albums were veering more towards a synth rock sound, this one pulls it all back and provides a lot of angry guitars and heavy lyrics. It’s a dark album, but it’s amazing and their best in years.

Alt-J, Reduxer, released 28 September. The alt-rock weirdos release a remix album of last year’s Relaxer, only they’ve introduced hip hop and electronica into their sound. The result is not only surprising and unexpected but it works perfectly. Definitely worth checking out.

The Joy Formidable, Aaarth, released 28 September. Noisy and often hypnotic angular rock that goes to unexpected places but sounds fantastic. An album that sounds dissonant and beautiful at the same time.

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Coming soon: October tunes!

September has long been the Big Release Month for music.  I remember back in my HMV days, the stock would grow exponentially and the back room would be filled with boxes of product just waiting to be checked in, priced up and put out on the floor.  Q4 always started a month early in that respect.  There was so much that came out this past month that I had to split this up into two posts!

LCD Soundsystem, American Dream, released 1 September. Again…was never a big fan of this group. But somehow this album just clicked with me in a big way, and I love it.

Mogwai, Every Country’s Sun, released 1 September. One of my favorite post-rock bands is back with yet another excellent platter of atmospheric sounds.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Punishment of Luxury, released 1 September. I’m finding this album a lot of fun. Yet another stellar album from the band.

Nothing But Thieves, Broken Machine, released 8 September. I’m really digging this one as well. This is a band that sounds commercially alt-pop, but they write some really lovely melodies.

Sparks, Hippopotamus, released 8 September. You can always expect something wildly creative and a bit off-kilter from the Mael brothers, and this album is one of their best in the last few years.

Tori Amos, Native Invader, released 8 September. Tori’s albums can be very hit or miss…you either love them or you think she’s gone off the deep end. I certainly do love this one.

Death from Above 1979, Outrage! Is Now, released 8 September. Another band I didn’t expect to get into. On the other hand, once again I find myself really liking guitar-and-drum duos!

Mutemath, Play Dead, released 8 September. I’m still trying to get over the fact that their amazing drummer Darren King quit the band just before this album came out, but that hasn’t changed my impression of this album in the least. Paul Meany can still write a hell of a great tune.

….More soon!

So I’ve been listening to a lot of The Fall lately.  They’re a band that has a VERY long history, an extremely convoluted discography, only one original member (the wonderfully irascible and outspoken Mark E Smith), and one of the weirdest rock styles in all of post-punk.  But I find I love them anyway.

(I taught myself how to play this particular track back in ’88, I love the guitar work on it!)

I love listening to this mix. It was made in September 1998, when I was finishing up the original first draft of The Phoenix Effect.  I was in full-tilt mode on my writing habits by this time: write a few pages during the day, transcribe and revise it at home.  [I believe my comic collecting habit had gone full swing as well — driving halfway across the state on Wednesday afternoons to pick up my weekly list over in Hadley.  Not that that stopped me from working later that night anyway!]

There were a hell of a lot of great albums that came out in 1998, and many of them ended up on heavy rotation during these sessions.  [That’s another post entirely, maybe next week!]  Many of the tracks from those albums ended up on this mix.

Side A

1. Massive Attack, “Teardrop”
   Every now and again, there’s a song that just blows you away upon first listen, and this is one of them for me.  I bought the import version of Mezzanine because I loved this track so much.  It doesn’t exactly fit in with any scenes or characters in particular, but Liz Fraser’s always-angelic vocals and the band’s sparse-yet-intense music fit the mood of my story perfectly.
2. VAST, “Touched”
   The WEA rep handed this band’s promo cd to me and stated it would be right in my wheelhouse, and they weren’t wrong.  Not quite goth, not quite darkwave, not quite alternative, but somewhere in between.  Another mood piece I could use when I needed to write a scene full of bite.
3. Mistle Thrush, “Shine Away”
   [Sorry for the quality…this is the only video of the song I could find.]  In a bit of serendipity, the lead singer of this band was good friends with my then-manager Tom, and he handed me their Silt album to check out.  It’s full of that heavy guitar-laden dreampop I love so much.
4. Dishwalla, “Until I Wake Up”
   When their second album And You Think You Know What Life’s About dropped in August, I was all over it…it had their excellent songwriting of 1995’s Pet Your Friends but a much louder and heavier sound, and much darker lyrics.  This is my favorite track of theirs, and it fit the mood of frustration a lot of my characters were feeling.
5. Primal Scream, “Higher Than the Sun”
   Their Screamadelica album remains one of my favorite albums of the 90s (really, you should own it if you don’t already).  I always loved the dreamlike trippiness of this track.  This was another track that influenced my idea of what it felt like for my characters to visit Trisanda: excitement and fascination…but also a little disorienting.
6. Radiohead, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”
   The Bends got a ton of play out of me even during the sessions for True Faith, because it’s that good of an album.  I liked how the track seemed to hint at community but was really more about trying to escape its stifling grip.  In a roundabout way this became another theme in the trilogy: trying to avoid the grip of outside influence.
7. Hooverphonic, “Eden”
   Their Blue Wonder Power Milk was released the same day as the Dishwalla album and was another big favorite of mine; they’d moved past their synthetic-sounding first album and become more of an organic band here.  This track was one of the inspirations for my wanting to pair Alec and Akaina together; they knew they were different in so many ways, but their spiritual connection transcended that.
8. Portishead, “Roads”
   I listened to Dummy quite a bit in the summer of 1995 when I was writing True Faith, and this track just stayed in my head for a long time afterwards.  By 1998 I was a big fan of triphop and catching up with all those bands that I’d missed the first time out; it’s a perfect subgenre for setting a mood.
9. Information Society, “The Ridge”
   This track is a long way from their 1988 “What’s On Your Mind”, that’s for sure.  Essentially a Kurt Harland solo album under the InSoc banner, Don’t Be Afraid is a creepy darkwave affair with a bit of X-Files-ish conspiracy weirdness thrown in.  I used this track as a base for Denni and her trials in trying to balance being a goddess and being a teenage girl.

Side B

1. Global Communication, “Epsilon Phase”
   I picked up both their 76:13 and Pentamerous Metamorphosis cds at the same time, after being blown away by that Pulusha track (see Vol 3).  Bonus points when I realized the latter was an ambient remix album of a Chapterhouse album!  This is a lovely transcendent track that fits in nicely with the spiritual side of the story.
2. Portishead, “Half Day Closing”
   A track from 1997’s self-titled second album.  That record was a harder listen, though tracks like this fit in with the trippy headspace stuff I was trying to come up with.
3. Tin Star, “Raincheck”
   The Thrill Kisser was a surprise favorite of mine (and another album where I grabbed the import before it was issued in the US).  It was a great mix of synth and guitar with quirky lyrics and music.  Another mood choice, this time for those scenes where the characters need to make unfortunate desicions.
4. theaudience, “I Got the Wherewithal”
   You might know Sophie Ellis-Bextor for her solo dance hits in the UK, but this was her pre-solo band, and I absolutely adored their self-titled album.  It’s perky, snarky, and Very British.  I really wanted them to break in the US, but alas, they surfaced with exactly one American sampler EP before the whole Polygram/Uni shake-up ditched a crapton of good bands.
5. U2, “Love Is Blindness”
   This was another track that I used for Alec and Akaina.  I hadn’t listened to Achtung Baby for a few years until I found a cheap cd copy at a used record store and it ended up on medium rotation for a year or so.
6. Radiohead, “Fake Plastic Trees”
   Another single from The Bends.  Put here partly because I like the song, but I think I as also thinking about how what seems shiny and awesome on the surface is quite less so when one looks past all that.  It doesn’t show up so much in TPE or the trilogy, but it shows up in a future Mendaihu Universe story: the enlightenment of the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu may be worth celebrating years after the events in the trilogy…but there’s an ugly undercurrent that never quite went away.
7. Hooverphonic, “2Wicky”
   I was a latecomer to Hooverphonic’s first album, but I knew this track from hearing it all over the place.  It’s a simple sci-fi sounding track that I thought would fit in with the rest of the mix.  I may have thought about a side story using this song, but I never really got anywhere with it.
8. Rob Dougan, “Clubbed to Death [Kurayamino Variation]”
   Yes, that song from The Matrix.  I was completely sold on that film, because I’d always been frustrated by Hollywood’s inability to make an SF movie that wasn’t basically a horror or disaster movie with SF elements.  This was a true science fiction film, even if it was filled to the brim with all kinds of action film tropes; it had a story you had to think about and figure out as you were watching it.  It didn’t so much influence my own writing, as much as it confirmed that I was on the right path with my own story.  This, of course, was my favorite track from the film.

…And that concludes the original four-volume Songs from the Eden Cycle mix!  Hope you enjoyed it.  I made a few ‘sequel’ mixes during the trilogy writing years, but I’ll share those at a later time.  These four are the originals, the ones that I’d play on my tape deck in the car during the long commutes, the ones I’d listen to downstairs in the basement when writing.  I’ll still throw them on now and again; sometimes I’ll even have them on my mp3 player that I use when I go to the gym.

More Mendaihu Universe tunage coming soon!