Heavy - It's not like it sounds

It's not like it sounds.

It took me a while to find the precise tone for this one. I knew I wanted to do a compilation of heavy music but I didn't want to fall into the trap of cliché loud dinosaur rock, or just obnoxious noise (I really wanted to stay away from bands that were just trying too hard to be heavy). As another criteria, I didn't want to abandon good hooks and melody. Even if this CD is supposed to be an antidote to pop rock, I still like a tasty tune as much as the next person. As well, it might be March but we can all still use a pick me up and I didn't want it to be a drag (man). So I've avoided all the 'bummer' songs that lurk in the deep end of the heavy category. So here it is -- loud, catchy, and oh so heavy, in the nicest of ways - a CD to start the blood pumping, get your dander up, and your brain a rattlin'.

Sincerely,
DJ Cucumbah

1) Leave Home - The Chemical Brothers

Not only did they have the coolest name in so called 'electronica' but they also had some of the heaviest and funkiest sounds. From the album Exit Planet Dust (which is a great ride from beginning to end and still feels fresh), The Chemical Brothers start us off with a little musical Redbull.

2) 23 Ghosts III - Nine Inch Nails

It seems like you can't grab a quiet drink at your local titty bar without being treated to the pounding hammering brutality of Nine Inch Nails. This is off a recent project that has front man Mr. Reznor doing it all in a home studio and releasing the album himself on the Internet without a major record label. Reports are, he's enjoying the freedom. Music that just may inspire a more intellectual and thoughtful kind of pole dance (less grind, more mind).

3) Hoist That Rag - Tom Waits

Tom Waits has always has a low growl of a voice but on this one it sounds like he's gargling gravel. The awesome Cuban inspired guitar tracks by Marc Ribot are intensely beautiful, giving this heavy tune a pleasant contrasty center.

4) Romantic Rights - Death From Above 1979

The Canadian duo that, as they rocketed to stardom, suddenly broke up. Post-post punk pop. Noisy enough to be cool but enough of a song to keep it on the play list, angry but approachable enough for the masses. I haven't bothered to listen to the lyrics - I will assume there is a woman involved.

5) Violent Pornography - System of a Down

I just love this song; it's like three songs in one. It's kind of a slick, semi-psychotic public service announcement. And like an abusive relationship, the sweet melodic chorus makes you forget all about the bad times. I tried to 'get into' the bands other music but have had no luck so far.

6) Sophisticated Bitch - Public enemy

Being raised on heavy guitar rock in a distinctly non-urban setting I was hesitant when it came to my first exposure to 'rap music'. Then I got my hands on a copy of Yo! Bum Rush the Show and I was hooked - I realized that rap could be my friend.

7) Will You Smile Again For Me - ...and You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead

I saw ...and You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead's name on a poster and was curious. Turns out they aren't a death cult and even though they have a pretty heavy sound they usually package it up with some very catchy tunes (sometimes even a Beatles influence can be detected). I also have a love of both the bombastic and epic which they seem to share. We saw them play here in Montreal and the band appeared to be having a split personality crisis - a battle of the two front men pulling them in opposite directions.

8) Southern Pacific - Neil Young

Best train song ever? Mr. Young can be a very noisy guy when he puts his mind to it and here he shows how to drop into a groove and literally chug along the track. We saw him recently, and although I went in the spirit of, 'let's see this old rock legend so we can say we saw him', he totally blew the roof off the place.

9) Pork-U-Pine - Jeff Beck

Unlike most (all) wanky old guitar heroes Jeff Beck has continued to improvise and evolve. He has produced a couple albums over the last ten years that are pretty relevant for an old dude (he played with The Yardbirds for Christ sakes). This track really makes Clapton look like the boring fart he is.

10) Break - Saul Williams

We saw Saul Williams last year and he really puts on an angry energetic show. Full disclosure - this album was produced by Trent Reznor - you may detect strains of NIN.

11) Greyhound, Part 1 - Jon Spencer Remix (Moby)

I first heard this years ago when I was doing music supervision on a film and was looking for cool soundtrack ideas and it stuck in my head. It does have that 'Moby' sound. Although I saw him play a film party at The Sundance Film Festival's parasitic alternative The Slamdance Film Festival, before he became a mega artist and it was very fast, very punky and very loud - the vodka was free and I don't remember the rest. Jon Spencer is no slouch either but I like the bigger wall of sound of this track better than his usual sound - this is just heavier.

12) Feel Good Hit Of The Summer - Queens of the Stone Age

A friend of mine took me to see Queens of the Stone Age for my fortieth birthday. There was so much young man testosterone in the room, I went bald and damaged my hearing.

13) Jazz Is The Teacher - James 'Blood' Ulmer

In the 80' when James 'Blood' Ulmer released Black Rock he was playing jazz festivals with a stack of marshal guitar amps behind him. A lot of middle aged, soft-spoken jazz fans didn't know what the fuck was going on. Nowadays, he seems to have stopped 'experimenting' and started doing a lot of more traditional blues stuff, which is too bad because he was really a maverick for a few years there.

14) Welcome To Estonia - Tanel Padar & The Sun

When we were living in Estonia a few years ago we walked by a city park filled with college aged Estonian kids who were all bouncing and rocking to a DJ set up in a gazebo. This was the song they were grooving to - it sounded familiar but yet not. Someone has to represent northern metal on this disk - it might as well be sung in Estonian and borrow from James Brown. And if there ever was a heavy country, it's Estonia. Heavy skies, heavy stone fortresses, heavy food.

15) Stop - Al Kooper/Michael Bloomfield/Steve Stills

Maybe this isn't so 'heavy' in the traditional sense but I have always thought this was one of the best guitar solos ever. Deeply groovy maybe? Verging on heavy if you fire up a blunt beforehand.

16) The Dam - Philip Glass

This really is the 'seriously heavy shit'. Part of a piece written about the Itaipu dam project in Brazil, the title says it all. What can be heavier than a hydroelectric dam? They cause tectonic plates to sag. Glass manages to get all 'uplifty' as he goes along but it is a great mix of awe and dread. In addition, this is a mega dose of bombast - I put this on the stereo when I am feeling that life is too subtle and nuanced.

17) Miss Alissa - The Eagles of Death Metal

They've got a heavy name but The Eagles of Death Metal are all fun and games. As well, it is always sound policy to end on an upswing.

She Compiles, She Scores

Schwa - you outdid yourself. I cannot stop listening to this one! So much to savour - Petra Haden, Mattias Barjed, and a personal fave, Pep-See - but the first is the loveliest tune. Wow to Ms. Virginia Rodrigues -sublime.

Better Late than Never! - September Liner Notes - The Ghost Mix by the Culture Cartel

The Ghost Album (a paler shade of White Album) - The Culture Cartel
Some of my selections have been based more on fitting the theme and bringing in certain ideas than purely on musical merit. That said, there are probably just as many tracks that I've included here solely because they get into my brain and get stuck there and I can't begin to explain why I enjoy them so much. Hopefully you'll humour my whim and not feel overly abused by some of my more esoteric (or not-exactly-musical) selections and find those that you enjoy among them. While on their own some of these tracks don't amount to much, I think they help to pull together a feel that (hopefully) should transport the listener to a space far from their present reality. (Music as escapism!)
The theme for this album started off as the sound of "ghosts" however that might be interpreted and I ended up getting pulled in alot of different directions in terms of what "ghosts" might be; I tried to keep a unifying "feel" to the sounds, but getting pulled in so many directions the theme may have gotten a bit muddled.

Later I added the subtext to the theme "(a paler shade of White Album)" and the overall form of the album started to take shape as a chronology of a death and afterlife (possibly implied to be John Lennon, but i'll leave that up to you). It could be read as follows:

We start with a speech by John Lennon.
Then we have a track about an obsessive fan.
Sleater Kinney is calling for the doctor.
Poe tells us that he's died.
Air transports us beyond the flesh.
Nick Cave tells us of those left behind to mourn.
From here on out we're in the ghost realm....

Speech - John Lennon - The Beatles Anthology 1 - 1970
(voices from beyond the grave)

What could be more haunting than the voices of the dead? There's always a certain enjoyment of voyeurism in listening to old sound clips of people speaking, but there is often something equally disturbing about them particularly if the voice is speaking over a substantial gap of years, speaking to you from somewhere beyond your grasp, somewhere that no longer exists.

ringo, i love you - Stereo Total - My Melody -1999
(the lives of cardboard cutouts)

In terms of theme, I was trying to bring in the idea of the obsessive fan with this track. In part because it progresses the storyline that's present in the beginning of the album (the anatomy of a murder), but also because it represents a certain kind of ghost. I can't imagine being so obsessed with a particular celebrity that their life begins to overshadow your own and the lines begin to blur to between your own reality and the publicized life of that figure. Unbelievable though it is, I can imagine that it can happen and the life of such an obsessive fan surely is the life of a ghost, the life of a double, the life of a cardboard cutout. Let's leave all that behind though. In feel, this track is 90's art rock collides with casio synthpop and a touch of something vaguely nouvelle vague. Whatever it is, its 100% adorable (there's a matching track on the album called "i love you, ono") and the lo-fi sound of this french/german duo is peppy and sweet. Somehow they even manage to pull off the wordplay and have it be thoroughly enjoyable without crossing the bound into being cloying or cliched.

Call The Doctor - Sleater Kinney - Call The Doctor - 1996

What can I say, I'm a total sucker for 90's femme rock. Give me some angsty female vocals and quality guitar and I'm pretty easy to please.... but it seems like a dying genre for the time being... closest thing I've come across in recent years is the likes of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's. IMHO though Ms. Kinney is one for the books, heir to Blondie and the likes as it were. I was a bit torn as to which track of hers to include as "I wanna be your Joey Ramone" would have continued the theme of fan obsession nicely from the previous track, but I ended up deciding to cut to the chase, kill 'em off, call for the doctor, and get on to the ghostworld.

Exploration - Poe - Haunted - 2000

I'm not sure how well known Poe or her brother are in general, but they're certainly questionable company... it really just depends on whether you think that's a good thing or not. Admittedly this track was included because it fits the theme and the progression of the storyline so well that I had to include it as the transition to the ghostworld. It's not entirely representative of her music, and the album has plenty of proper musical numbers with a full, rich sound, but it still remains something of a concept record. Poe's brother Mark Z. Danielewski authored the book "House of Leaves", which if you've ever encountered it, is a head-trip to hell and back with a minor bout of earthly insanity along the way if you can manage to put in the effort to attempt to read it (the proper version is about 3 inches thick, with footnotes abounding, pages in braille, text running in every which direction, sometimes in circles, and nothing like a linear plot line). The album that this track comes from "Haunted" is loosely based on House of Leaves, so you have a rough feel where this is coming from.

Ghost Song - Air - The Virgin Suicides - 2000

Not much to say about this track other than it's got the ghost feel nailed. We've officially entered the ghost world at this point.

The Weeping Song - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son - 1990

I just love this song... the sonorous tones of Cave's vocals, the huge sweeping crescendos and diminuendos that really capture the emotion of loss... the rises and falls of a great heaving sob. This is a song not of the ghosts of the departed, but of the ghosts they leave behind, the shells of the living.

Gorillaz - Dracula - Clint Eastwood (Single) - 2001

It's a catchy tune... possibly one that some might not have heard even if they know Gorillaz. Vampires seemed close enough to ghosts to warrant including it. It also serves to break up the tempos and rhythms a bit... I thought it might pep things up a bit and show that, eventhough we're in the ghostworld now, it doesn't mean it won't be a party.

White Ghost Shivers - Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra - Vocalion 1085 - 1927

I've got some old-timey jazz that is too much fun not to leak out every now and then. Anybody seen the old original "Casper" cartoons? This track could be straight out of one of those... I nails the ghost feel just as well as Air's track, but in a completely different way. And how about that tuba?! It kills me every time.

Bear Hides And Buffalo - CocoRosie - Noah's Ark - 2005

CocoRosie is a duo consisting of two sisters Bianca Leilani "Coco" Casady and Sierra Rose "Rosie" Casady, hence the name CocoRosie. These two come from a serious strange background and it certainly shows in their music... Most of their youth was spent shuffling around the southwest u.s. bouncing between their artist mother and their peyote shaman father. By the time they were 12 and 14 they were separated and fell out of contact. Sierra went on to study operatic voice at the Conservatoire de Paris, while Bianca has know musical training and primarily contributes strange vocals and pushing the buttons on children's toys that make animal noises. It's really worth having a look at them recording on youtube.... it's quite a trip. Their whole first album was recorded in Sierra's bathroom in Montmartre when Bianca unexpectedly showed up on her doorstep after more than a decade of estrangement. While I think their Voodoo-Eros cult persona is a bit contrived, I think the sound they create is undeniably haunting and beautiful... the combination of the creepy vocals and the operatic vocals + the sound effects creates something like a childhood nightmare, yet a beautiful one all the same. The whole of Noah's Ark is equally good and well worth a listen. It's got a bit of a fuller sound than some of their other albums.

Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts - Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary - 2005

I thought it was time to pick things up again and go up tempo and come back to more mainstream tunes. I find the vocals in this song incredibly catchy and some of the lyrics are simply brilliant e.g. "Now we'll say it's in God's hands, but God doesn't always have the best goddamn plans, does he?".

The song seems quite fitting to the theme in a way, though there are many ways that the title could be interpreted. The concept of a "hungry ghost" is common to many asian religions including Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and traditional Chinese ancestor worship. The typical depiction of these spirits is an extreme teardrop shape... they're described as having a mouth and neck like a needle and a stomach like a mountain; the combination of these two making physical satisfaction impossible, despite the desperately bloated stomach.

There are really two chief meanings associated with hungry ghosts... one is that it is a form of rebirth serving as punishment for greed.... the idea being that their punishment is to hunger forever without the possibility of satisfaction.

The other reading, which is the one I would suggest is meant in this song, is the association in Chinese ancestor worship. Hungry ghosts are spirits of the departed that have been neglected by their living family members.... without offerings of food from the living, our dead ancestors are left with hungry and bloated bellies waiting for remembrance. In our busy modern world, I think we've all become sons and daughters of hungry ghosts to a certain extent and its a worthy point for us to spare some thought on.... perhaps the true ghosts are the memories that we carry forward from generation to generation. Enough of my ramblings... onwards we go.

Beyond Skin - Nitin Sawhney - Fabric Live 15 - 2004

I thought the voice-over samples in this track carried over from the idea of the last track nicely. There's something definitely haunting about the style, at once soothing and unsettling. Nitin Sawhney does some really cool stuff blending traditional Indian elements with more typical house style. It's well worth checking out some his other stuff... The album Beyond Skin is quite good and a somewhat cinematic experience. You'll find that few of his tracks lack sampled voice, speaking out to us, calling us out on the shortcomings of modern society, reminding us of the essence of life.

Pul/Pulk Revolving Doors - Radiohead - Amnesiac - 2001

I feel as if eras of my life have been defined by different Radiohead albums associate with those times; perhaps its a bit obsessive, but its honest. I have a very distinct memory of sitting in my high school library reading Rolling Stone when Radiohead were finishing up recording on Kid A and Amnesiac... the write described Kid A as something like an epic space-rock opera and then went on to explain that, if the vocals seemed inaccessible on Kid A, the vocals of Amnesiac where the ghost of the same voice whispering through a crack in a cavern of ice... or something to that effect.. I wish I could remember the exact quote. At any rate, I think this track epitomises that sentiment perfectly and fits the feel exactly. It's explosive and powerful, it's unnerving, and yet it still has the coyly haunting element..... the whisper of a demon drawing you down the rabbit hole and around one more bend, just to see what lies ahead.

Just to throw in a bit more of a history lesson, Kid A and Amnesiac were originally a single project that ultimately got broken up into two albums, but they are very much a pair. The title Kid A is meant to make reference to the first cloned human "Kid A" and seems to sing of the ghost-like life that it would be as a carbon copy, without a unique identity of your own. Amnesiac refers to the theory that we are born with all the knowledge of the universe, but we forget at the moment of our birth as a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma of it all.... leaving us with an impression, a ghost-like self at our cores, of every being past and present, the whole universe lying within us, but forever forgotten. I think Pul/Pulk, while not the most memorable or catchy track on either album, seems to echo and resonate with each of these ideas.

Champion Chains - A.R.E. Weapons - A.R.E. Weapons - 2001

This is off the first album of NYC-based noise-rockers A.R.E. Weapons. One of the strangest groups I've come across in a long while. As far as fitting the theme, I'm including this track on the basis of the lyrics, "I dreamt of this beat when I was sleeping on the streets. I cooked up this verse when I had nothing to eat." This track is a bit of a reminder of the living ghosts that surround us... the homeless and anyone that too often goes unnoticed. As far as the music goes, love it or hate it, it's definitely unlike anything else I've heard. For a bit of extra trivia, the band was signed on to Rough Trade at Jarvis Cocker's recommendation and Chloe Sevigny's brother Paul plays synth for the group.

The Specials / Ghost Town - Scratch Perverts - Badmeaninggood vol. 4 - 2001

It's a magic musical carpet ride through a ghost town, with super catchy ska trumpets. What more could ask for? This track is just too catchy not to include and conveys the ghost feel in a slightly different way from all the rest.... it's a touch more mellow while remaining up beat.

Bjork Impression - Liam Lynch & Matt Crocco - Camp Sunny Side Up - 1999

This one I mainly included for a laugh and also as a tip of the hat to the rules of the club. I was hoping that putting this back to back with a genuine Bjork track might catch a few people, knowing that only one track per artist is allowed. I have to say that it's a pretty impressive impersonation of her vocals, especially coming from a dude. This does fit with the theme as well, in the sense of cover artists/bands, impersonators, etc. become ghosts if they are successful. They're shadows of the figures the represent and lose some of their own identity. (There are exceptions of course, liam lynch and weird al seem to remain pretty unique figures in their own right).

The Anchor Song - Bjork - Debut - 1993

I don't think any mix on the theme of ghosts would be complete without Bjorks wraith-like vocals. I find this track particularly beautiful and haunting for its minimal instrumentation. If there is such a thing as a sea-wraith-ghost left behind by a drowning victim that lives on haunting the coast, then surely this is their theme song.

Chelsea Girls - Nico - The Velvet Underground and Nico - 1967

Again we return to living ghosts, ghosts created by addiction. It's hard to imagine vocal's more perfect than Nico's for representing the voice of a ghost... austere and frigid... they run through you like a shudder and leave you tingling for more.... Bjork just can't quite live up to this one although she's tough competition.

Untitled (Hanging Around) - Jana Hunter - Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom - 2005

I only recently discovered Jana Hunter... there's something quite catchy in the gloomy, haunting minimalism of her sounds. I'm definitely a sucker for her style of vocals too. This track isn't exactly my fav. from the album, but it seemed to really capture the feel I was going for. It's worth listening to some of the other tracks on this album to see what she's capable of... this is one of the more austere... K stands out quite surprisingly as a bubble-gum sweet casio powered synth number.... it's really out of character for the rest of the album, but somehow it works. Laughing & Crying is also worth a listen... it brings out the more folk aspects of her work. The album art and title are great for the album, no?

Space Oddity - Langley Schools Music Project - Innocence & Despair - 1976

This is tying back in to the beginning of the mix with John Lennon's speech. There is something incredibly haunting about the voices of children captured in 1976 echoing across time to us. This is the sound of a time, a place, and people that no longer exist. Twenty-two years on, those children have long since ceased to be.... for all the simplicity of the concept of a school choir singing pop-songs, I think Innocence & Despair really pushes the limits of how haunting the recorded media can be.... as with Lennon's speech, we are privy to a concert consisting entirely of the genuine voices of ghosts.

Because We're Dead - Slow Club - Slow Club (Single) - 2007
This Sheffield-based duo is absolutely adorable... I had the pleasure of seeing them perform at Latitude festival two years ago.... they come out on stage looking like an echo of the perfect world promised by 50's adverts targeted at the newly-wed nuclear couple..... and then they proceed to play sweet dities on guitar, wooden spoons, pots, pans, chairs etc. I wanted to close in keeping with the theme, but I wanted to go out on a happy and upbeat note and I really couldn't think of anyone finer for the job than the Slow Club... go see them! check out more of their music, though sadly the only have a few singles that you can acquire at this point.




Bonus:


Track 15 - Meat Beat Manifesto - Satyricon - 1992
This track by the Swindon-based group Meat Beat Manifesto was included on some of the CD's, because iTunes will only let you burn so many CDs of the same playlist. The easiest was to get around this was to add a track, so some of you got this bonus... Don't ask me why... it's one of those strange tracks that I don't know how I ever ended up with it... I heard it for the first time listening to my music on random... it was to strange to get rid of... so it hangs around and I pass it along to the next person, like some disease, whenever it happens to pass through my mind.

Notes from the Asylum - October

Hello fellow DJs

First off, apologies for the late CD, just about dispatched in October, and second off apologies for the late liner notes, just about dispatched in November.

But hopefully now you've had a chance to enjoy the music. And I hope enjoy is the right word. I've tried to strike a balance between theme and content, hopefully broadening your musical horizon slightly. To add to your enjoyment here are the liner notes for the CD:

Notes from the Asylum was inspired by my day job. I am a psychiatric epidemiologist and I look at how your environment affects your chances of developing a psychotic disorder (like schizophrenia). The album started off as a bit of a joke: wouldn't it be funny to create an album with a theme roughly on madness, but it developed into something a little more serious, as I hope to expand upon in these notes. The story roughly follows one person’s journey into madness, from the prodromal period prior to illness - substance abuse, city living - through to sectioning, diagnosis, treatment, and for the purposes of this album, escape, murder and execution (I had to end it somehow). I hope I will not be harangued for including these here, they are in fact very unlikely to happen during the course of a psychotic outcome, and I apologise in advance; no offence was meant. The songs fitted the theme and the album, imo, would have been the lesser for their inclusion.

Has it come to this? - The Streets

About the theme: The song's roughly about elements of youth culture in British society - mostly about drug taking. Smoking cannabis and taking amphetamines seems to double your risk of schizophrenia, though this may be particularly detrimental during adolescence when the brain is still developing. The song also mentions a variety of urban areas, including Brixton, Southeast London, where the highest ever recorded incidence of psychotic disorder (250 per 100000) was recorded.

About the music: You are probably familiar with the Streets, though whether you know this song or not, I'm not sure. Whatever your opinion of the Streets, the album from which this was taken Original Pirate Material was ground-breaking at the time, capturing the feelings of a generation of young people towards modern living.


2001 Spliff Odyssey - Thievery Corporation

About the theme: See above regarding cannabis use during adolescence. I suspect it may be too late. Especially if you have the val/val allele of the COMT gene - the two together really increase your chances of later madness. It's all to do with how your brain processes (or fails to) dopamine the principal chemical released through smoking dope.

About the music: Down-tempo group Thievery Corporation are one of my favourite chilled-out groups to listen to. Always relaxing, great samples and moods aplenty.



City Headache - Scott Matthews

About the theme: The more time you spend living in an urban area, the more urban your residence, and whether you were born in an urban area, all increase your risk of developing schizophrenia. My research tries to understand why this is the case. It is not simply because mad people are more likely to move to urban areas. Neither is it due to higher numbers of immigrants (who are at increased risk), or purely due to being poorer, though the latter is part of it. It seems that living in cohesive communities protects you from developing schizophrenia. More isolated and fragmented areas possibly foster paranoid thoughts and so on which may, for some, lead to mental illness.

About the music: Scott Matthews is a British singer-songwriter from Birmingham, UK. He has a delicate, haunting voice, put to particularly effective use on this song. His album from which this comes, Passing Strangers, is equally good, particularly a fine love song called Elusive.


Madness - Deltron 30 30

About the theme: This really does exactly what it says on the tin: madness. The lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1% - meaning that roughly 1% of us will develop schizophrenia during our lifetime. It affects about 40% more men than women, and the peak period of risk is below 30 years old. The risk for women increases around the time of the menopause, leading some researchers to question whether oestrogen (that's estrogen to others) has a protective effect against schizophrenia. Incidentally, in the year 3030 we would speculate that the incidence of schizophrenia would remain roughly the same as it is today. It does not appear to have decreased over time, though psychiatrists will increasingly delay labelling someone with "schizophrenia" at first presentation to wait and see whether the course and outcome of the presentation changes.

About the music: I came across this track while listening to Last.fm - a fine place for finding new music. When even hip-hop is rapping about "city madness" you know that this is for real.



Bullets - Editors

About the theme: The central lyrics here matter more than the song title: you don't need this disease, no you don't need this disease. For those who develop schizophrenia, it generally sticks around. Anti-psychotics help to control the hallucinations and delusions but have a raft of other side effects including a loss of libido and for many patients weight gain. A failure to adhere to medication often results in relapse of a psychotic episode. Since the course of schizophrenia is often chronic, mostly beginning in the mid-twenties, it is a disorder that afflicts people for most of their lives. Outcome is poor too - people find it very difficult to secure jobs, decent housing and pursue relationships - either with friends or partners. People with schizophrenia are ten times more likely to commit suicide than the "healthy" population, but they are also more likely to have a range of other co-morbid disorders.

About the music: Editors are one of my favourite bands currently. Their music is energetic, intense and political, and entirely unforgiving. The lead singer's voice is beautifully intrusive.


Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

About the theme: This song marks the descent into madness

About the music: If you haven't heard this song you have been living in a cupboard. But I make no apologies for its inclusion. When you can actually isolate the song from the overkill it received, it is a fine, catchy pop tune.


Rehab - Amy Winehouse

About the theme: Can any one contemporary artist be more welcome on the pages of an album about psychiatric problems. Amy's addiction to just about anything that is bad for you has been pretty well documented and it is sad to see such a talent experience so much turmoil, and to, in typically British fashion, have it splashed across the front pages of every newspaper and magazine. There is a relationship place between art and mental illness, particularly addictions, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and this has led many to speculate that the two are intrinsically linked. Our protagonist is on her way to rehab.

About the music: See entry for Crazy, above.


Men in White Coats - The Dallas Guild

About the theme: This song shows that our protagonist has sought help from the psychiatric services. Most people arrive at the attention of services via their GP or the emergency department, but others arrive through the police or judiciary systems. Some are sectioned - legally detained due to their illness. As with most things, your chances of coming to the attention of services via the police, or being sectioned, is greater if you live alone and if you are of ethnic minority status.

About the music: I confess to knowing nothing of the Dallas Guild though I believe I first heard this song on a tv ad. It's catchy and addictive and a must for this album.


Frontier Psychiatrist - the Avalanches

About the theme: Possibly the defining song of the album, this has become my Department's unofficial theme tune.

About the song: As mad as cheese. Crazy random sampling of crazy great stuff from this Australian band. The album is as bizarre as it is catchy from start to finish. Worth a listen.


The Drug's Don't Work - the Verve

About the theme: Anti-psychotic drugs represent phenomenally complicated, expensive drugs. The first generation of the drugs worked pretty well at stopping the psychotic episodes but gave people pretty nasty side effects. Second generation drugs have improved the side effects largely, but there is little evidence that they perform better than the first generation (despite being vastly more expensive) at treating the psychosis. Some, including my boss, have argued that first generation drugs offer better public health value, since they are just as good at what they do (bar the side effects, which themselves can be limited) but are much cheaper. However, there is a strong pharmaceutical lobby which pushes forward more and more expensive drugs without necessarily strong evidence that they are any better.

About the music: The Verve's classic song, fits into our story perfectly. The drugs aren't working and our protagonist is no getting any better.


Stay Positive - the Streets

About the theme: This dark, brooding entry from the Streets, provides a reminder of the difficulties of drug addiction.

About the music: The only artist to get a double billing here. This is also taken off Original Pirate Material and I love its dark unforgiving bleakness.


Demonique - AiM

About the theme: This song to me - a tale of an escaped quasi-human figure on the run - illustrates the panic, and to some extent misconception that people with schizophrenia are dangerous. This is simply not true. People with schizophrenia are more likely to kill themselves but attacks on others are extremely rare (though they still make the headlines). I wanted to include this song because it captures a truly volatile feeling of fear in the populous about the release of a madman onto the streets.

About the music: This is one of the few songs, which on occasion, can frighten me. It's down-right intimidating. You can almost place yourself in the Bedlam. AiM are one of my favourite hip-hop artists around. Though this song is less in the hip hop fold than other stuff on their albums, I can't recommend this British outfit enough.


Clubbed to Death - Rob Dougan

About the theme: I included this song because a) I liked it b) I needed some way of ending this concept album. Our protagonist, as it were, following on from his escape, clubs someone to death. In reality, as I state above, this is extremely rare but frequently becomes perpetuated in the tabloid headlines, helping maintain the stigma around mental illness. Various campaigns have attempted to tackle such stigma, including one shortly to be released in the UK.

About the music: Again, found on last.fm. I love this track - it appears in the Matrix film, so I am led to believe.


Execution - David Thomas Broughton

About the theme: Our protagonist, re-captured by the authorities, is put to the chair. The end has sadly come.

About the music: I discovered David Thomas Broughton by accident while listening to Pandora. His fragile voice reminded me of Anthony and the Johnsons. This track is taken from his album The Complete Guide to Insufficiency which is a suitably downbeat title for the music. Recorded in one take in a church in Leeds, England, it is a masterpiece of fragility and tenderness and well worth a listen. He re-samples his own voice over and over to create a layered sound. I prefer other songs on the album to Execution, but it provides a fitting end to Notes from the Asylum, and I love the inclusion of the electric chair sound which begins as background noise and gradually crescendos to dominate the track.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed both music and liner notes. The album artwork is an image of mine entitled Dark Corners, taken in Cambridge, England.

Cheerio

Dr Pepper

Rocket's Melancholy Melodies

DJs - it has been a rough few months. And when the going gets rough, I get going to the moodiest, most sorrowful music I can. I wallow, I mope, I weep and then I move on. Musical therapy. 

Beyound that, there isn't really any rhyme or reason to the songs on this compilation - I don't have any particular attachment to any of the artists (though am a fan of many), no burning desire to introduce you to new music (many of these songs you'll probably already know) - they are just some of the most sweetly melancholy tunes I've heard that, when together, sound quite lovely. 

Losing Sleep - Richard Swift

Catch the Wind - Donovan

She Comes Into the Room - The Skydiggers

Intuition - Feist

Gravity - Bic Runga

You Were Here - Sarah Harmer

This Too Shall Pass - Justin Rutledge (okay, I'm quite attached to this artist - he is sublime live) 

To Die For - Grananda

Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye - Leonard Cohen

Chicago -Sufjan Stevens

The Trapeze Swinger - Iron & Wine 

You Look So Young - The Jayhawks

Abigail, Belle of Kilronan - The Magnetic Fields

In a Graveyard - Rufus Wainwright

After the Curtains - Beirut 

August - Rocket's

Hi All - CDs are very tardy, but are with Canada Post now, so hopefully soon with you. Proper liner notes to come, but thought I'd make a placeholder before September's got up. Thanks for the patience.

Whatever happened to all the fun in the world?

Oh #14, where you at? Please me no surrender, music club types.