So this one is a bit of a departure. It's not quite trebley guitars, twee vocals and a sunny yet romantically doomed disposition. No, this ones a bit more ambient, a bit more orchestral, dare one even say it.....a bit more 'classy'.
So, now that we know we're not in ~Kitten Wine~ territory, let's try to put this into some kind of perspective because, even though this doesn't really follow the ~Streetlamp~ blueprint, it does cover a guilty pleasure much enjoyed by all here at the Streetlamp HQ.
Let's take a closer look.....
About eight years ago Griff and I, completely independently of each other, stumbled upon a radio show called 'Late Junction'. What was odd about this is that Late Junction is broadcast on Radio 3....yep, THAT Radio 3....the BBC Radio 3. Now, as veterans of the Punk/Indie/Twee revolution, the idea of listening to pompous, lemon-sucking, head-up-it's-own-arse Radio 3 was quite abhorrent. But there...around 11:15p.m most weekday nights was an oasis of musical splendour; a mix of lo-fi pop, light classical, world music, ambient soundscapes, modern jazz, folk, chansonnier songs, Math Rock(Rodan, Slint etc) and the odd tracks by Sonic Youth, Daniel Johnston, Jim O'Rourke, Le Tigre etc.....I'm sure you get the picture.
This allowed us to hear music away from the stuff we usually listened to. Plus the overall texture of the show coupled with the late night feel made it a very ambient, intoxicating experience.
In fact, I'd wager that if Proust or Rimbaud were alive today, this would be top of their listening agenda.
And it was on this show that I stumbled upon the wondrous track that I have come here to discuss tonight. A track called 'Dinah And The Beautiful Blue' by Thomas Feiner & Anywhen. This song is almost unspeakably beautiful, an aching, ambient, hallucinatory joy that moves at such a somnambulent pace that it becomes a sensory overload. Every movement within the song seems to bruise the heart and numb the senses(in the most dreamy way)....not for nothing is this song taken from an album called 'The Opiates'.
Think of Tom Waits deciding to make an ambient track, or David Sylvian scoring the soundtrack to your favourite childhood daydream.....or if you are a Scott Walker fan, imagine if he really made that album you've always hoped he'd make and not that unlistenable 'difficult' art-music he makes now.
It's almost impossible for me to describe just how magical and life-affirming this song is....it totally changes my mind-set and perception of time, space and memory.
It makes me become like Proust, or Rimbaud, or Baudelaire, or Huysmans, or any of those namby-pamby pantywaists, draping myself over the chaise lounge in my velvet dressing gown, the scent of lavender in the air, heavily perfumed Chateau Margaux in hand, longing for the goodnight kiss from Mamma....
Oh yeah, music can do funny things to pretentious buffoon!
This is easily one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have heard in a long time, and I urge you to listen to it all the way through and not to give up on it because of it's slow pace....allow it to seep into you!
And I hope it acts as a good advert for the fantastic Late Junction show which we here at the Streetlamp cannot recommend highly enough.
~Gordon~
"If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time" Marcel Proust
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