12 songs, 53 min, 6 min reading time.
A bit more than a months worth of tunes.
1) “Ladyflash” – The Go! Team
A staple of my 2012 iTunes library, this track came on out of the blue whilst running over the Clifton suspension bridge. The intro barreling in through those first twelve bars made the city lights below look even brighter.
Album: “Thunder, Lightning, Strike” (2004)
Label: Memphis Industries
2) “Like a feeling of May” – Toshiyuki Terui (照井利幸)
Seasonal… I’m not sure how I got to this but I’m glad I did. I’m a big fan of all things Japanese and this musician, with releases dating back to 1990, offers a huge variety of music to get stuck into.
Album: “What I think about the World” (2019)
Label: WELD MUSIC
3) “Cut Your Bangs” – Girlpool
A tune I had on repeat shortly before I decided to let music mould my moods less.
Single: “Chinatown” (2015)
Label: Wichita Recordings
4) “Confidence Boost – Harmonimix” – Trimbal
Trimbal = Grime artist Trim + James Blake (can kind of see what they did there). Following on from a track with Trim that I had in my last playlist, this has strong James Blake vibes and hooks you start to finish.
Single: “Confidence Boost” (2012)
Label: R&S Records
5) “(You’re Puttin’) A Rush On Me” – Stephanie Mills
I finally stopped messing around and found the vocal sample used by Break and DJ Die in their absolute stormer ‘Slow Down’. Quite a nice track in its own right and fascinating to see how drastically the nature of a vocal track can change when the backing behind switches genres.
Album: “Gold” (2006)
Label: Universal Music Enterprises
6) “Tom” – Hak Baker
RunPip head Jake was championing Hak Baker a while ago, and rightly so. Thirsty Thursday piqued my interest but this darker one made the playlist. The whole song feels grey – you can almost imagine a miserable drummer barely bothering to lift his sticks for the hi-hat – but the lyrics paint such a delicate picture of the intricacies of life with a group of lads and the grief of losing one.
Album: “Misfits” (2017)
Label: Hak Attack Records
7) “jasmine (demo)” – Jai Paul
After RunPip contributor Sam pointed out you can search Spotify by label, I had a trawl through the ‘XL’ catalogue. This is so good and I’m ashamed not to have heard it before, such a satisfying swell at 2:30.
Album: “jasmine (demo)” (2012)
Label: XL
8) “In the lassa” – Juana Molina
Cilian Murphy if you’re reading this please give us a shout out.
Album: “Halo” (2017)
Label: Juana Molina / Crammed Discs
9) “Exactly Like You” – Oscar Peterson Trio and Herb Ellis
Normally I’m not one for jazz guitar but this hits the spot. It turns out The Oscar Peterson Trio did at one point include Herb Ellis (Peterson, Ellis and Ray Brown), before he was replaced by drummer Ed Thigpen in 1959. 10 years later, clearly all still going strong, they made this album.
Album: “Hello Herbie” (2014)
Label: Edel Germany
10) “Aurora – Alternative Mix” – Zero 7 and José González
José seems to pop up everywhere. Some very nice vocals and Bonobo-esque production wrapped up in a cosy blanket of progressive layers make for a great track.
Single: “Aurora” (2019)
Label: Make Records
11) “Alone in Parallel” – Planète
Fighting the cause for music slower than 174 bpm is this funky Australian fella.
Album: “Alone In Parallel / Faded Memory” (2018)
Label: Anjunadeep
12) “Oh It’s You” – Super Cat
Heard whilst waiting for Nubya Garcia to come on and play an incredible set. She didn’t disappoint. Came away with a signed EP and the urge to learn all the lyrics to this for the satisfaction of making it to the last chorus and shouting “OH IT’S YOU”!
Album: “Don Dada” (1992)
Label: Sony Music Entertainment