Music For Listeners 04/20/02

 1)Aphex Twin-"On"  From the CD single for "On".
 2)Mighty Math-"Cherry Chocolate" & "Digital Fabric"  Two from the CD 'Up Gone Life Star'.
 3)Rocker's Hi-Fi-"The 8th Shade"  From the CD 'Mish Mash'.
 4)Grandaddy-"Underneath the Weeping Willow"  From the CD 'The Sophtware Slump'.  "...finally........to wake and be happy again."
 5)The Charlatans-"Stir it Up"  From one of two UK CD singles for "Jesus Hairdo".
 6)Inspiral Carpets-"The Way the Light Falls"  From the CD "Devil Hopping".
 7)Luna-"Dizzy"  From the forthcoming CD 'Romantica'.  Out next week.
 8)Eels-"Teenage Witch"  From the brand new CD 'Souljacker'.
 9)Pixies-"Bone Machine"  From the CD 'Surfer Rosa'.
10)Frank Black-"Freedom Rock"  From the CD 'Teenager of the Year'.
11)Pixies-"Gouge Away"  From the one sided vinyl copy of 'Live E.P'.
12)Komeda-"Rocket Plane (Music on the Moon)"  From the CD 'The Genius of Komeda'.
13)Chomsky-"Sigmund"  From the CD 'A Few Possible Selections for the Soundtrack of Your Life'.
14)The Shins-"The Celibate Life"  From the vinyl LP 'Oh, Inverted World'.
15)The Modern Lovers-"Dignified and Old"  From the CD 'The Modern Lovers'.
16)Catherine Wheel-"Fripp"  From the CD 'Chrome'.
17)The Orb-"The Blue Room(Live MX MK billion 6)"  Live mix by yours truly.  Mixed with 7 different mixes, but the original version can be found on the CD 'U.F.Orb'.
18)W.F.O.-"No One in the World (Edit)"  From the CD 'Excursions in Ambience: The Second Orbit'.
19)The 3 A.M. Recording"  I have been a long time System 7 fan...since their first album to be exact, and one of the best things about their electronic music is that they always know how to find good talent to help them out.  Their albums are always full of the best electronic composers.  Either getting The Orb's Dr. Alex Patterson to co-write a track or two, (He has appeared on 4 of their albums now.), or getting the infamous music producer, Youth to drop great work in as well.  Aniff Cousins, Paul Olkenfold, DJ Lewis, Derrick May, Thrash, The Drum Club, Tony Thorpe.....the list goes on and on.....and it still is for that matter.  However, the very best thing about any System 7 album is the guitar work.  Guitar work????.....in an electronic album???  What are you talking about???  I will explain.........Steve Hillage and his wife Miquette Giraldy are the core members of System 7.  Miquette plays mostly keyboards and Steve plays his "gliss" guitar and other keyboards as well.  Through the use of MIDI, Steve Hillage has said that he can now use the guitar to make the music that has been in his head for the past 25 years.  He started in the mid-70's with the band Gong, and then in his solo career, he and wife Miquette went on to create some of the earliest ambient albums without even knowing that they were doing it.  In 1991 they released the first album under the name System 7.  I first found Steve Hillage on the Orb's now classic debut double album "The Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld".  Alex Patterson (LX) was a huge Hillage fan and after meeting him at a club (while actually spinning a Hillage solo track), LX asked him if he would like to play guitar on the first Orb album.  The result was "Supernova at the End of the Universe".  A space epic that profoundly ends by landing on the "Back Side of the Moon".  I bought the U.S release of 777 (their name in the U.S. due to Macintosh rights to the name System 7.) soon after I became an Orb fan, and the rest is, as they say....history.  Steve was once asked if techno music has no soul.  He replied, "Bad music has no soul".  System 7 may be a little repetitive than most things people listen to, but it's certainly not bad music.  It has tons of soul, and tons of layered guitars.  Most of which you have to listen closely to find.  Anything pre-77' by Steve is a little too "acid rock" for me, but the work of Steve and his wife are some of the best tunes you may ever hear, especially their work under the name System 7.  I've played 2 other of Steve's albums for 3 A.M. Recordings.  A solo record (Rainbow Dome Musik) and the first UK release by System 7 (System 7).  Tonight I'm playing their second release in the U.K.  "The Green Album" wasn't released in the U.S. until 6 years after it's initial release, but it did have one extra song.  I'm playing the U.S. release tonight.  System 7 with '777 (The Green Album)'.  (NOTE- There are no vocals or samples on this amazing electronic recording......no quote this week.)