Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
Dollboy
Ghost Stations
(Second Language, 2010)
The sounds of the underground.
When I first came to London I was obsessed with the history and mythology of the London Underground. I tracked down films set in or around the tube system, visited abandoned stations, read up on the lost lines, and even bought myself a little self-published monograph that informed me of the correct places to board the train in order to arrive by the most convenient exit point (It's now an iPhone "app", apparently). London-based songwriter and electronic composer Oliver Cherer similarly haunted by the ghosts of subterranean train travel and has released this beautifully-packaged release on the Second Language boutique label (founded by Martin Holm, Glen Johnson, and MOJO's own David Sheppard). Ghost Stations (Geisterbahnhöfe in German) refers to the abandoned metro stations of London and Berlin, Leslie Green's blood-red terracotta mansions cut loose at various points during the 20th century and the stations of the German capital, terminated in the no-mans-land between East and West during the Cold War.
A requiem for the dead souls that passed through these dusty terminals, built around actual field recordings from the U-bahn and London Underground, the music on Ghost Stations is beautiful, eerie and ominous, stalled midway between states of calm dream and uncanny disquietude. Track one, the London journey, takes us from the echoing ballroom grandeur of Down Street through the doomy cavernous melodies, cimbalon espionage and dark organ chimes of York Road, The British Museum and Brompton Road before we arrive at North End/Bull & Bush (the sad drift of music hall melodies) and the chilly breeze and ghostly whisperings of The Strand. The Berlin section is yet more beautiful and sinister, a freezing Checkpoint Charlie jazz suite of mournful trumpet, wheezing accordion, Bill Evans piano, short wave radio and burbling electronics, seemingly based around The Rolling Stones' She's A Rainbow. Beautifully packaged with miniatures of old tube maps and train tickets Ghost Stations is a perfect possible future for mail-order music: a hand-crafted time capsule of beauty, loss and decay.
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 21/04/2010
Further Listening
Gavin Bryars - the Sinking of the Titanic (EG, 1983)
Brian Eno - On Land (EG, 1982)
Jon Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street (ECM, 2009)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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