I was thrilled, last week, to reach 105 subscribers to Ziggy’s Lament! It’s a nice landmark for a small newsletter, and it gives me the strength to go on, as someone might have sung… I’ve had some lovely feedback as well from readers and from some of those featured in my pieces, notably Neil Mason from in his post last week.
Anyway, here’s this week’s offering - the tenth edition of my listening2… playlist series! listening2… is a series of regular posts on what I’ve been, well, listening to. Tracks from my travels. New songs and music to explore further. Half forgotten tracks from my collection. Roadtrip gems. If you like this post, let me know or, even better, let someone else know!
Listening2… #10: 22/09/2024
On this week’s listening2… playlist: rediscovered late 90’s trip-hop-Americana from Snakefarm; 80’s soul and jazz (nice!) from Working Week; an acoustic version of an awesome track from the upcoming album by the mighty Underworld; a song from veteran Texan indie outfit, Calhoun; brand new electronica from OKRAA; and a slice of classic queer disco from Scissor Sisters (featuring Kylie…).
As always, there’s a couple of bonus tracks too… enjoy!
1. Snakefarm - Banks of the Ohio
From their 1998 album, Songs From My Funeral
I’d literally forgotten this excellent album until it got dug it out again in response to
’s piece past week on Freakwater. I was sifting through Americana I’d picked up - mainly on CD - from the mid-nineties, and landed on this one. It’s got an intriguingly minimalist cover and a setlist of American folk classics. Snakefarm were/are Anna Domino and Michel Delory and, after this one, they waited another thirteen years before releasing their second album, My Halo At Half-Light.* This record is also a revelation, so I’ve included a bonus track from it below.1What is so distinctive about these familiar songs are the trip-hop and electronic arrangements that give such a peculiar, yet somehow fitting, tone to this very American album. It does feel as if it could have been made today.
I could have chosen any of the tracks on this album so a bit of a pin in the map for this one. Here goes…. Banks of the Ohio:
The full album playlist is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lyPdpp4eZIcA2hUo-byx2u5K-yjZvXNbk
*Note: By the way, prior to and after Snakefarm, Anna Domino also released a lot of music under her own name, so the pair weren’t quite one-hit wonders!
2. Working Week - Autumn Boy
From the LP: Working Nights
For some people post-punk was going in the sneering direction of Throbbing Gristle, Public Image Ltd and The Pop Group, and crashing into the mid-eighties with the kind of excess, shock and awe that punk itself could only have dreamed of. However, the soul boy in me meant I went in an entirely different direction, as instead I got captured by the likes of The Style Council, Everything But The Girl, Bronski Beat and the Communards – and this trio, Working Week.
I unearthed this LP through a bit of crate digging in response to the 40th anniversary release of Bronski’s seminal, wonderful The Age of Consent. Digging around those vinyl years, I came across Working Week’s debut album, Working Nights: utterly beautiful, and amazingly played and sung by the trio of Simon Booth (real name Simon Emmerson)2 Juliet Roberts and Larry Stabbins. It’s one of the albums from back then I can still play and enjoy - and not just in a nostalgic way. It still sounds excellent and full of soul…
The full album is at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m4zRz2yMtquyEKpPSOgjrLb23aaTJAn1w
I’ve chosen the track, Autumn Boy from the album. A revelation if you’ve never heard it… a treat filled reminder if you have!
3. Underworld - Black Poppies (unplugged)
Version of track from their upcoming album, Strawberry Hotel
Underworld would definitely appear on a ‘favourite bands’ list for me. From the early genius of debut, Dubnobasswithmyheadman (on repeat for me alongside Dreadzone’s Second Light in early 1995) and Second Toughest in the Infants, through the excesses of Trainspotting (the film) and ‘Lager Lager Lager’, then the brilliance of the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony, to the more recent and very, very awesome Drift series project that started in 2018, they’ve seldom never put a foot wrong.
Their new album, Strawberry Hotel is, as you might imagine, eagerly anticipated around these parts. Otherwise known as “I can’t f’ing wait!”
There are a couple of tracks out already, including the excellent and familiarly banging, denver luna, and two (two!!) versions of a mesmeric new song, Black Poppies. The album version is gorgeous enough (see bonus track 2)3, but they’ve also gone and released an unplugged version of this teary, uplifting, low-fi anthem.
Indeed, “You are, you are beautiful…”
I love this so much… So, so, so exciting!!!! Did I say I couldn’t f’ing wait? Did I?
4. Calhoun - Thrown In The Universe
From their 2011 album, Heavy Sugar
Sometimes you have to rummage around to find anything about the bands you discover. That’s part of the joy of it I suppose. But questions still remain…
So. Why there would be multiple copies of a relatively unknown album by an under-the-radar veteran, indie band from Texas, USA, for sale in a tiny record shop in Banbury, UK, for ten quid?
I don’t know the answer to my own convoluted question, but I do know that when I got it home and put it on the turntable, I really liked Heavy Sugar. I’ve since discovered their 2017 , slightly less obscure album, Football Night in America which you also can learn a bit about here.
Anyway, Heavy Sugar is an album I’m happy I found. I like it. It’s not revolutionary in any way but its full of good songs and riffs, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want to listen to… A bit like Crowded House when you’re in the mood for Crowded House… if you get what I mean…
*Note: I know there was more than one copy, because I bought one on a punt, and there’s still another on sale at the excellent Strummer Room online HERE. Snap it up, it’s a bargain!
5. OKRAA - Es Hora
From the 2024 album, La Gran Corriente
OKRAA is one of the destinations on my recently embarked electronica journey. You can see my post on Moonbuilding Magazine a couple of weeks back for more on this.
Moonbuilding inhabits one part of one corner of the electro universe with its sister label, Castles In Space. The other place I’ve been exploring is the vast galaxy of A Strangely Isolated Place and its own sub-labels and multiple artists. There’s far too much to cover in a short post, so suffice to say that there is an amazing breadth of electronic and ambient music there and I’d encourage you to take a visit. Don’t get lost though… it’s a little bit labyrinthian down there!
Their UK online shop is called SPACE CADETS - which feels a little bit apt…
This is an excellent track from one of the upcoming albums on the label, La Gran Corriente by OKRAA. I kinda love it… and I’m going to the online Listening Party in October - hooray!
6.Scissor Sisters - Any Which Way
From their 2010 album, Night Work
And now there’s this! You can thank me later…
This also might have been the result of a search down the Jimmy Somerville/Bronski rabbit hole which, as you might know, always leads to queer disco, shimmer, shimmy and very tight trousers (though the latter not on me, sadly, as I don’t really suit them).
Night Work is a great album and Any Which Way is a great single – a little bit naughty, and all the better for it. Kylie’s on there somewhere as well…
Thank you? …You’re very welcome…
Bonus 1: Snakefarm, Stagger Lee from their 2011 album, My Halo At Half-Light. This is their second set of workings and reimaginings of traditional American folk songs. The full album playlist is at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mbMw7v1JyZzJXlOcwRoptFuKQFEbHonhQ
Sad note: Simon Booth aka Simon Emmerson also worked with Everything But The Girl on their marvellous debut, Eden, and was best known later as the founder member of both Afro Celt Sound System and The Imagined Village. He died in 2023.
Bonus 2: The original album version of Black Poppies from the new Underworld album, Strawberry Hotel.
I can’t wait. Did you get that?