EARGASMIC RECORDINGS

Here is my contribution to the latest installment of the Green Monkey Music Project. The theme is "eargasmic" music, basically those blissful recordings that work wonder on your eardrums and create an overwhelming sense of aural euphoria.

The following six songs represent a broad range of what fills my ears with delight and stimulates my higher brain functions. Of course narrowing it down to only six is a painful endeavor, and my selections are a small slice of the many wonderful songs that fill my ears with delight.

I would also recommend that you head over to I, Splotchy and check out some of the entries from the other participants and perhaps bless your ears with something new you may not have head before. OK, here it goes;

Catherine Wheel - "Black Metallic" - This song offers a compelling sensory experience and at the time it came out it foreshadowed a lot of great music to come. There is a muted tone present that results in even the "loud-quiet-loud" moments being less drastic than they would be otherwise and more soothing than perhaps it would have been if produced differently.

Cocteau Twins - "Cherry-Coloured Funk" - I remember many years ago persuading a college classmate to listen to this song on headphones. She had no frame of reference for this sort of music and had a uncharacteristically strong emotional response to it afterwards. She exclaimed rather innocently that it was as if someone was playing the soundtrack to one of those fantastic dreams where you are floating through the sky carelessly. This pretty well sums it up perfectly for me.

Roxy Music - "More Than This" - This is one of the most sublime pop songs ever produced. Bryan Ferry's tempered falsetto is complimented beautifully by the crisp and lush production. It is highly indicative of the romanticism of it's era, though unlike many of it's contemporaries this song maintains a degree of timelessness and still captivates by embracing a genuine sense of yearning.



DeVotchKa - "The Last Beat of My Heart" (2006) - Perhaps this would be a heretical statement to some, but I would be willing to state that this version is much better than the original by Siouxsie & The Banshees. Their is an organic warmth to this version that seems to draw you with a sense of urgency and immediacy that is not as easily identifiable in the original.

Pink Floyd - "Interstellar Overdrive" - This psychedelic instrumental odyssey possesses a dark and foreboding tone that is heavy and at times oppressive. It builds to a thundering crescendo and by the time it is over you do in fact feel like you have embarked on some perilous cosmic journey. I also want to give props to Gordon "the Hippie Bus Driver" who in my adolescent years made me a great mixed tape of Syd Barret era Pink Floyd, which totally blew my mind at the time.

My Bloody Valentine "Only Shallow" - This opening track from the legendary "Loveless" album immediately pulls you into a unique sonic journey. In the context of when it first came out it was a completely irrational and unparalleled sensory experience that held few points of reference. This piece challenges you to throw away the heady need to interpret and draw meaning. It is a dynamic soundscape that only demands that you approach it with the same degree of imagination and openness as put forward by the artists themselves.