Encyclopaedia Eclectica Vol I

This is the first of four volumes of a mixtape I created called Encylopaedia Eclectica. No, the files are not available on this site; this is just a reference page.

Track	Artist	Country	Title	Year	Album
01	The Evolution Control Committee	USA	Rebel Without a Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)	994	Gunderphonic
02	Zdob Si Zdub	Moldova	Mamaligamania	2001	Agroromantica
03	Saigon Kick	USA	Water	993	Water
04	Adam Ant	England	Friend or Foe	982	Friend or Foe
05	The Anouar Brahem Trio	Tunisia	Astrakan Cafe (1)	2001	Astrakan Cafe
06	Nick Cave	Australia	We Were United Once	989	Ghosts... of the Civil Dead
07	Terry Hall & Mushtaq	England	This and That	2003	The Hour of Two Lights
08	Jet	Australia	Are You Gonna Be My Girl	2003	Get Born
09	4 Cats	Lebanon	Tic-Tick	2000	21st Century Arabia
10	Esquivel	Mexico	Limehouse Blues	995	Cabaret Manana
11	The Living Jarboe	USA	Kiss of Life	2000	Disburden Disciple
12	Manu Chao	France	Bongo Bong	998	Clandestino
13	Azigza	USA	Distance	2000	Azigza
14	Of the Wand and the Moon	Denmark	Megin Runar	2003	Lucifer
15	Diary of Dreams	Germany	Butterfly: Dance	2000	One of 18 Angels
16	Tidal Flood	Greece	Helium	2000	7Tide Demo
17	Linda	Russia	Nebo Lyet	2001	Zrenie

Rebel Without a Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)

I've always had an abiding respect for songs, like Weird Al Yankovic's Beverly Hillbillies, that take two entirely separate pieces of music and merge them seamlessly into one. Weird Al took Money for Nothing by Dire Straits and replaced the lyrics with those from the theme tune to The Beverly Hillbillies. Something in me wonders just how he associated the two, just how it wonders how Mark Gunderson of The Evolution Control Committee worked out how he could overlay Public Enemy on top of Herb Alpert. It's a thing of total utter genius and I can't think of a better way to kick off Encyclopaedia Eclectica.

Mamaligamania

And to underline the eclectica part, here's Zdob Si Zdub, a Moldovan group who play with genres like playdoh. There's an honesty to most world music that just can't be found in the cookie cutter product produced by soulless and tone deaf western businessmen for trend junkies.

Water

Saigon Kick mix genres more than any other western band I could name. Water is the title track of an album so versatile that it's hard to believe all the songs were produced by the same band. There's a solid rock base to it, but it veers off into alternative, pop, ska, gospel and who knows what else.

Friend or Foe

I didn't hear these genres when I was a kid; I had to discover them for myself. I was about nine or ten When my ears woke up and stopped blindly listening to what my parents listened to, which really wasn't a lot. The primary reason was discovering Top of the Pops at the time that Stand or Deliver had just been released by Adam and the Ants. They had their feet firmly planted in the punk era, not that I knew what punk was back then, but they were producing something very different. Adam had two drummers to compete in African tribal style and he was the epitome of the image conscious early 1980s. He was a pirate, a dandy, a Red Indian, a highwayman. He was everything that a ten year old boy could dream of being.

And the music stands up today. While I still love the Kings of the Wild Frontier album with a passion, it's the first Adam Ant solo album that really marks the peak. Friend or Foe is the title track of what I view as possibly the best pop album ever produced. It is quirky and versatile and it innovates into directions that pop music just couldn't imagine.

Astrakan Cafe (1)

Pop music doesn't understand jazz, let alone Tunisian jazz. I came across the oud when listening to music from the silk road that wound its way out of Xi'an in China, the same BBC Radio 3 programme that introduced me to the pipa and Sung dynasty Chinese court music. Anouar Brahem is an oud master and his work combines so beautifully with clarinet and the Moroccan frame drum known as the bendir. This is the first of two title tracks to Astrakan Cafe and it makes me understand just why Robert Plant fell in love with music from north Africa and the middle east. There are no grooves like this in the west.

We Were United Once

There are grooves a plenty in Australia though, mostly courtesy of a man by the name of Nick Cave. From The Birthday Party to his iconic solo work to his reinvention as a religious poet, he really doesn't need any introduction, but 'We Were United Once' is a little more obscure. Cave and his cohorts wrote the soundtrack to a brutal Australian prison drama that is not easily forgotten called Ghosts... of the Civil Dead. Cave also memorably plays the part of a particularly insane prisoner. The soundtrack doesn't stand alone too well, even though it accompanies the film perfectly. This is about the most accessible piece and it grows so nicely.

This and That

Terry Hall knows how to grow a song. He's a man with a distinct vision of musical styles, rooted in the ska he played with The Specials but flirting with everything else he can find. His album with the Fun^Da^Mental DJ called Mushtaq is a bizarre take on his slow building styles that floats all round the middle eastern sound. Somehow it works and it works very well.

Are You Gonna Be My Girl

I haven't heard a song in years that works as well as Are You Gonna Be My Girl. Jet is a dumb name for a band and their sound is derivative and easy to trace, but when I heard this leaping out of its nu-metal surroundings on some Phoenix radio station I noticed very quickly indeed. This is the closest I've ever heard anyone to out Iggying Iggy.

Tic-Tick

In England we've been used to girl groups dominating pop music ever since the Spice Girls rewrote the book of chart music. However, listeners in the Arab world really aren't used to this sort of thing, so the four beauty queens that make up 4 Cats caused a bit of a stir back in 1997.

Limehouse Blues

Esquivel drops the pace with a pleasantly exotic touch that segues well into a piece of Mexican music that sounds to me like a mosaic of sitcom theme tunes. Was that Bewitched? I Dream of Jeannie? I think they're all in there somewhere. It's exotic for sure but it doesn't sound Mexican in the slightest.

Kiss of Life

Jarboe doesn't sound Mexican either, but then she sounds like nothing except Jarboe. She's best known for her work with Swans and rightly so but her solo albums are varied and interesting too. This one is a real change of pace after Esquivel and her wonderful whisper should grab your attention just long enough to be awake enough for Manu Chao.

Bongo Bong

You have to be awake for Manu Chao. It's impossible not to tap your feet, bop your head, feel happy happy happy. Whether he's solo or with his group Mano Negra, he is a dynamo who turns you into a dynamo too. I'm the king of bongo, baby, I'm the king of bongo bong!

Distance

Everyone would sound introspective after Manu Chao, so why not follow him with Azigza who are a deliberately introspective fusion group who are American but don't sound it. There's a lot of different sounds going on in Distance and the whole album but they come out to play with repeated listens that turn a good album into a great one.

Megin Runar

Of the Wand and the Moon are a strange group. They come out of the dark folk scene that seems to be flourishing in Northern Europe but are they folk, or rock, or goth or just some sort of ambient combination of all of the above? Who cares? It's good music, especially with your eyes closed. This could be hypnotic.

Butterfly: Dance

And what better to snap you out of a trance than a bit of pounding electronica? Diary of Dreams are a bunch of Germans who have one foot in new wave territory and the other in the newer modern gothic movement. I never would have expected goth to be a versatile genre but the angles it's taking nowadays in Europe can be breathtaking. This is pretty traditional but I'm sure I'll start playing with the classical or opera loving goths later in this series.

Helium

I know nothing about Tidal Flood at all, but this fusion track from their 2000 demo provides a very apt bridge between German new wave and and the Russian pop experimentrix known as Linda.

Nebo Lyet

She has a different sound on each album and I've still not heard anyone else like her. In keeping with the last few tracks this one has a dark edge just like much of the Zrenie album but she's as light or as dark as she feels at the time. I hope she keeps making her eclectic sounds for many years to come. Pop is not dead. It's alive and well in Russia. Linda is an Encyclopaedia Eclectica all on her own.