Instead of my regular occasional “Random 10” list, here’s one of my favourite iTunes playlists. I call it “Blow Your Speakers Out”, and it’s a collection of tracks by various artists over the last 40 years that sound best when played unusually loud.
- “Jesus Built My Hotrod (Redline/Whiteline Version)” by Ministry (from the Jesus Built My Hotrod single) If you only buy one thing, etc. Simply wonderful.
- “Cowgirl (Album version)” by Underworld (from Dirty Epic/Cowgirl) “Everything, everything” – Underworld at their best. The break at 5:56 into the track cranks up the nervous energy beautifully for the head-snapping moment at 6:25…
- “Dime-a-Dance Romance” by the Steve Miller Band (from Sailor) The intensity builds over the last three tracks on this album: “You’re So Fine/Overdrive/Dime-a-Dance Romance”. I wish I’d heard them in concert: the only live track in my collection that comes close to capturing the heavier side of Steve Miller is “My Dark Hour” on disc 1 of the King Biscuit Flower Hour collection.
- “I Keep Singing That Same Old Song” by Heavy Jelly (from Psychedelic Years: Back In The British Isles) If there’s one track here that NOBODY will remember, this is it. Of course Heavy Jelly was really Skip Bifferty. As one reviewer put it: “Very L-O-N-G cut. First an unsure and plaintive vocal and a repetitive acoustic piano. Some aimless guitar. Then it gradually builds up (everybody having a rave up as the good ole Yardbirds would say!) to a bit of a mess: Tons of guitars, Creamish riff fragments, relentless staccato drums. Too much of everything. At the end it sounds as if it’s all going to explode.”
- “Shallow” by Porcupine Tree (from Deadwing)
- “Last Train To Trancentral (LP Mix)” by the KLF (from The White Room) This is about as far from the KLF of Chill Out as it’s possible to get.
- “America (Second Amendment)” by the Nice (from Here Come The Nice) “America is pregnant with promises and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable.”
- “Leg” by Arzachel (from Arzachel) Arzachel were actually Uriel, a short-lived project by Steve Hillage and Dave Stewart. Their eponymous LP is reckoned to be one of the best psychedelic albums of all time.
- “Sister Ray” by the Velvet Underground (from The Best of the Velvet Underground)
- “Kandy Korn” by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (from Strictly Personal) Yes, I know the Captain hated this album. And yes, there are several live recordings that are more ferocious – but none of them capture the sonic layering that defines this track.