The Bulldog 150

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by jackhammer

No rush mate honestly. Looking forward to the top 5!

It's no bother It's upping a lot quicker than I thought it would anyway.

As for the rest of this, I'll be trying to get it done and dusted by next Sunday, so I'll be doing the next one tomorrow.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Bulldog

I'm hella bored and trying to find an excuse not to do any work, so here's the next lot;

46. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (1996)

A lot of you probably saw this one coming. Almost entirely comprised of samples from rare, nearly-forgotten vinyl, DJ Shadow uses hip-hop rhythms as the foundation for a piece of work which arguably transcends genre and creates a deep and almost hypnotic world of sonic textures and soundscapes. A real work of art, and one with an influence on electronica and pop which can still be felt today.
The best bits: The Number Song, What Does Your Soul Look Like Pt. 4, Midnight In a Perfect World

You wouldn't mind hooking me up with DJ Shadow would you?

17. Midnight Oil - Diesel and Dust (1988)

Despite virtually being superstars in Australia, by the time the year of my birth came along Midnight Oil were little more than a rumour in Britain and the US. Anyone who knows the Oils will know that whatever they did musically, vocalist Peter Garret always had a very strong message to deliver. In order to get the world of 1988 to listen though, a softer approach was required. Gone are the rough edges and eccentricities of earlier albums such as 10-1 and Red Sails In the Sunset, and in comes a production style which favours the tuneful side of Midnight Oil's songwriting a lot more. To say 'the Oils went pop' though would be grossly simplifying things - it's true that the in-your-face punk attitude of their earlier works are no longer there, but this allows each band member to apply careful thought to less-aggressive songs like the Dead Heart and Arctic World, while the aimed-at-the-masses production approach provides fantastic results on the faster numbers like Dreamworld and Bullroarer. Best of all though, the lyrics are typically politically-oriented; the majority of these songs being concerned with Aboriginal rights, and you've gotta give the guys credit for seeing Beds Are Burning, a song which explicitly demands indigenous reparations, climb to the higher reaches of singles charts all over the world. Regardless of this though, from my experience the Oils are band you either love or hate. I think it should be obvious which category I fall into.
The best bits: Dreamworld, Warakurna, Sell My Soul

Good choice!! I love Midnight Oil, I agree with your first choice however Blue Sky Mining is also an incredible album. These guys have such a fantastic way of expressing the negativity of the oppression of their native culture.

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

You wouldn't mind hooking me up with DJ Shadow would you?

Not at all I'll have a link with you in a few hours.

Originally Posted by Vanilla

Good choice!! I love Midnight Oil, I agree with your first choice however Blue Sky Mining is also an incredible album. These guys have such a fantastic way of expressing the negativity of the oppression of their native culture.

Blue Sky Mining is a favourite of mine too (Stars Of Warburton and a River Runs Red are both killer songs). Earth and Sun Moon and 10-1 very nearly made the list as well. You're right about the lyrics as well, and one reason Diesel and Dust is up there is because of how they express that negativity using a deceptively pop-oriented sound. Basically, Beds Are Burning = how you deliver a message and get loads of people to listen

[GraduateClothing]

spent an hour or two looking throgh this tread looking forward to the top 4

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Not at all I'll have a link with you in a few hours.

Yay thank you! Well done on some excellent reviewing by the way. I hope that I can extensify my music tastes in such a way as you and other members have here.

Originally Posted by Bulldog

Blue Sky Mining is a favourite of mine too (Stars Of Warburton and a River Runs Red are both killer songs). Earth and Sun Moon and 10-1 very nearly made the list as well. You're right about the lyrics as well, and one reason Diesel and Dust is up there is because of how they express that negativity using a deceptively pop-oriented sound. Basically, Beds Are Burning = how you deliver a message and get loads of people to listen

They are just brilliant all round, people should listen to them it's well worth it! I totally agree about Beds Are Burning, listening to their lyrics actually makes you think about the situation and want to know more, and I feel the album continues this education of how people of native culture are treated in their country.

I think the song One Country from Blue Sky Mining seals the deal by suggesting - what does the listener think about what is really going on?

[jackhammer]

Put Down That Weapon from Diesel and Dust is my favourite.

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by jackhammer

Put Down That Weapon from Diesel and Dust is my favourite.

Great song, the keys give it a really eerie ethereal sound.

[Scarlett O'Hara]

Originally Posted by jackhammer

Put Down That Weapon from Diesel and Dust is my favourite.

I love it too, I'm very impressed.

[Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

They are just brilliant all round, people should listen to them it's well worth it! I totally agree about Beds Are Burning, listening to their lyrics actually makes you think about the situation and want to know more, and I feel the album continues this education of how people of native culture are treated in their country.

I think the song One Country from Blue Sky Mining seals the deal by suggesting - what does the listener think about what is really going on?

It's a great song that. There's a song called Renaissance Man on Earth and Sun and Moon which is a lot like that. I just love how their lyrics really make you think about this sort of stuff, and the Oils have this way of making the music powerful enough to give it all some more substance - it's why Peter Garret's vocal style works so well.

Put Down That Weapon's a fantastic song, and a great example of what I'm on about. My favourite on the album at the moment's probably Sell My Soul, but it goes without saying that that changes a lot.

[Bulldog]

So much for getting this done by Sunday huh.

7. The Fall - The Infotainment Scan (1993)

1. Ladybird (Green Grass)
2. Lost In Music
3. Glam-Racket
4. I'm Going To Spain
5. It's a Curse
6. Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room
7. Service
8. The League Of Bald-Headed Men
9. A Past Gone Mad
10. Light/Fireworks

On the previous year's Code: Selfish, the Fall (thanks in no small part, you'd think, to hiring techno fan Dave Bush as keyboardist) had begun to take the mixture repetitious grooves with pop song structures a step or two further. The Infotainment Scan here sees this new direction at its culmination. That's not to say that Mark E. Smith and co dived head-first into electronica here (that'd come a few more albums down the line), but here is where the Fall began to explore such a musical avenue more freely. There are shades of their earlier works and there are moments of full-blown techno. On top of all that (and the unprecedented attention they were getting from the media), the resulting album is a classic. To be honest, four or five other Fall albums could just as easily have made this spot, but I've gone with this one; partly as it comes from an era which (despite its critical success at the time) which is very much overlooked when it comes to the Fall's discography, but mainly for nostalgic reasons (this being the first Fall album I truly loved). To tell you the truth, this incarnation of the Fall wasn't even the best one (my personal favourite would probably be the one that record This Nation's Saving Grace) but still the tight, inventive unit of Scanlon, Hanley, Bush and Wolstencroft are on top form when it comes to translating Smith's creative vision into music with experimental yet surprisingly accessible Fall album.

Things kick off with the lively Ladybird (Green Grass), which is really the album in a nutshell, with Scanlon's guitar riffs and Smith's rambling about 'a big concert going down in this town' hearkening to the post-punk-isms of the 80s, while Bush's synth (if sparingly used here in particular) and the robotic Wolstencroft-Hanley rhythm section give things more of a danceable yet still typically razor-sharp edge in keeping with the times. What follows is another venture down what iTunes would call the electronica/dance avenue, this time in the shape of a faithful and very smart rendition of Sister Sledge's disco classic Lost In Music, opting for the same kind of musicianship as Ladybird except, obviously, we have Craig Scanlon adding a funky guitar motif to the mix over Bush's synth (which this time is a lot more prominent). In the opening salvo, we basically have the Infotainment Scan's musical manifesto and a taste of what's to come with the second half.

Before that comes though the album goes off on a bit of a tangent, as we're dealt a trio of slightly more traditional Fall songs, starting with the aptly-titled glam stomper Glam-Racket. The synth-heavy cover of the novelty throwaway I'm Going To Spain is an absolute delight as well and a nice spot of light relief that doesn't sound too far removed from a song you'd find on the Frenz Experiment. It's a Curse looks back even further, being a sharp, repetitive punk-influenced backdrop to a delightful rant about 'look-back bores' and how 'all you need is a good Schwartz'. As with the two songs before it, it's the Fall as you might expect them, not to mention on top form.

If the first half of the tracklisting though is more familiar territory with a few dashes of techno thrown in to spice things up, most of the remainder of the record takes the electronic dimension and makes full use of it (otherwise it simply delivers soem of the Fall's finest songs), although the only real hint of that on the wonderfully aggressive Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room is the mid-song dance break. On top of the rowdy guitar riff and driven rhythm is one of my favourite Fall lyrics - a glorious diatribe against gerontocracy. The following track, Service is quite possibly my favourite Fall song, boasting a terrific and gloriously repetitive keyboard motif, lively drumbeat, tight bassline and one of Smith's finest set of lyrics. The same goes for the League Of Bald-Headed Men, a similarly aggressive, guitar-oriented diatribe against old men in clubs backed by a razor-sharp, almost danceable rhythms.

Where hints were dropped of a fully-blown dance tune somewhere down the line over the course of the album, A Past Gone Mad is where this is delivered. It's a frankly brilliant frenzy of killer dance beats and sampling over the top of a frenetic Wolstencroft rhythm, and a winner for Smith's lyrics alone (including such delights as 'if I ever end up like Ian McShane* slit my throat with a kitchen tool - and if I ever end up like U2 slit my throat with a garden vegetable'). After that explosion of house-type beats, Light/Fireworks comes off as quite a low-key way to end the album, being a comparatively lo-fi and pretty laid-back yet still synthetic beat-driven album-closer. The bonus tracks on the CD issue are worth a quick shout as well, those being the brilliant Lee Perry cover Why Are People Grudgeful and the so-so League Moon Monkey Mix (a more electronically-oriented remix of the League Of Bald-Headed Men) as you'll most likely find them in any RAR file of this you stumble on.

All in all, the Infotainment Scan is a transitional album for the Fall, as the drum 'n' bass ethics which would dominate 1997's Levitate are injected into their more familiar brand of songwriting and, significantly, yields brilliant results which are at once uncompromising and accessible, hard-rocking stompers and electronic dance-type beats, diatribes against look-back bores/old fogies and playful covers, and so on. Of course it's impossible to call this album better than Grotesque, This Nation's Saving Grace or Hex Enduction Hour, but at the same time I couldn't call those albums any better than this. The Infotainment Scan is definitely in the very top tier of Fall albums though, and a testament to the diverse creative vision of the mighty Mark E. Smith. Being the first Fall album I truly loved as well, it's probably the most precious to me as well. It's the classic representation of a dimension a lot of casual listeners wouldn't associate with the Fall. To sum up, it's not the classic Fall album, merely one of them, and one I chose for the above reasons.