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Underground > Radio & Music >

Tunes of the times.

Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes

22:39 / 30.11.02

Which songs/albums define a certain timeframe for you? Universal or personal.

For example, on a personal note: Becks "Mutations" defines the early months of 1999 in London. Travelling down from Newcastle, Willesden, Heston, the old Tate gallery, the Jubilee line, grey rainy skies and Fifa football on the playstation.

However “What’s the story morning glory “ by Oasis seems to define the age that it was released: 95 to 96, in Britain anyway.

uncle retrospective

22:46 / 30.11.02

Unknown Pleasures by Joy division and Pornography by the Cure remind me of 2nd year in Uni.
Overkill’s the years of decay and Manowar remind me of being 16.
And underworld everything, everything reminds me of last year.
*sniff*
The memories.

Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes

01:27 / 01.12.02

Runners dial zero by Beck is essential listening for January/February Sunday mornings. You walk the semi-deserted streets of London with this tune in your head and the loneliness of the city makes sense. Absorb yourself in the grey skies, the cold grey buildings and the grey drizzle. Maybe stop off in a pub in Soho and reflect on life. Look at the skeletal trees; don’t they look like dried up lungs? Walk through the city and discover its secrets.

The Return Of Rothkoid

06:56 / 01.12.02

You Am I's Hi Fi Way is pretty much the sound of being at university, for me. Songs about being Australian, lots of references to Sydney - particularly "Purple Sneakers". It always has a feel of late-night bus-rides for me, and I get quite nostalgic when I listen to it. not that I had a particularly exciting second year at uni, mind you, but - maybe there's the recognition that despite the fact you think you know fucking everything then, you're really still quite naive, and there's a bit more (and a bit less) involved in Making Things Right For You.

I dunno.

Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa piece also has specific times tied to it - it's the one thing I can listen to that feels like it exists outside time - there's the feeling of shifting planets, of massiveness - I always feel like time compresses down to the point where it's inconsequential when I listen to that piece.

15:33 / 01.12.02

Anything by Lowgold (as there's not much of it!) reminds me of hitting the Great Wall Of Angst in Year Ten, particularly one week that I spent with my school in France, where I felt memorably messed up. On the other hand, 'Is This It' is the very opposite, and brings back warm fuzzy memories of moving on from all that confused teenager stuff and starting to become As Cool As I Am Now! ;o)

Umm, anything by Chris TT reminds me of Christmas as he always appears on the Evening Session at some point during the festive season. And The Shining by Badly Drawn Boy is *the* song for curling up under the covers on Sunday mornings.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

10:50 / 02.12.02

The London Britpop stuff defined my uni years... in Birmingham. Even now 'Sunday Sunday' makes me think more of Corporation Street than Carnaby... Other music is more generalised, the Manics 'Gold Against the Soul' reminds me of a train journey between London and Derby to visit friends, and having a surprisingly strong emotional reaction to the music for no real reason. Similarly Pulp's 'We love Life' makes me think of riding down into Sheffield on the tram with another friend who I visited soon before hearing the album for the first time.

The weirdest connection I have is with Pulp's 'HisnHers', which i was trying to describe to someone the other day, in that it sounds like my childhood. I don't mean the lyrics, but anyone who's heard 'Lipgloss' will know the way the guitar soars in at the start of the song. For me, there's somehow an emotional connection between that sound and my days in primary school, it always makes me think of summer breaktimes spent running around on the playing field. 'Acrylic Afternoons' has much the same effect. I don't know whether it's the children singing at the end of the song, but I've never had the same effect from Suede's 'We Are the Pigs'...

11:29 / 02.12.02

Runners dial zero by Beck is essential listening for January/February Sunday mornings. You walk the semi-deserted streets of London with this tune in your head and the loneliness of the city makes sense. Absorb yourself in the grey skies, the cold grey buildings and the grey drizzle.

Yes. That track is amazing. I remember scribbling down a plan for an entire novel inspired by that song. I still reckon it would be a really good novel, except I'm not half good enough to write it..

As to this thread, um, um..

Everything by The Pixies reminds me of sitting on at the back of the crappy college bus at 8am/5pm, feeling really shitty and listening to the tapes over and over again to try and drown out the outside world..

The Return Of Rothkoid

11:39 / 02.12.02

Dirty Three's Ocean Songs always makes me think of driving along a coast road at night, the sky that brilliantly deep blue-black, stars twinkling as big drops of water start to explode across the windshield. It's a generic time - night - rather than particular, but the weather's a big part too - maybe winter? Autumn? Autumnal evenings. There y'go.

Every time.

12:14 / 02.12.02

The album Watch by Manfred Manns Earth Band was a huge moment in time marker for me. I had my first passionate kiss to that album. I had my first taste of playing DJ to a group of people with that album. The opening bars, four simple notes, bring back so many memories. Sitting on a bus with a group of year 11 students,' ghetto blaster' on my lap, hitting 'play' just as we left the hills on our way down a hill with a view of the city lights below us, 10 minutes into a 10 hour drive to Melbourne to gawk at the art gallery. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

15:27 / 02.12.02

Codeine, Frigid Stars

The Dread Winter of 1993, living in an unfurnished apartment, lifting weights, watching the Weather Channel and trying to write analytical papers while dulling the brutal reality of utter heartbreak.

20:50 / 02.12.02

Punks Not Dead by the Exploited pretty much defined my attitude and actions of my fifteenth year as a whole.

at the scarwash

01:06 / 03.12.02

The songs from Rich Man's 8-Track by Big Black have pretty much been in my blood since I finally picked it up last year. Brutal agression and rage against agression and rage. Which is not really very me, but it keeps me awake. It's good music for reminding yourself what you are afraid of becoming.

01:22 / 03.12.02

Sabrina. Boys. Christmas 1988 (or was it '87?). My first CD player. My first CD.

At the time, for me personally, she was bigger than Madonna ever became.