Encyclopaedia Eclectica Vol III

This is the third 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	Magnum	England	Kingdom of Madness	1978	Kingdom of Madness
02	Blossom Dearie	USA	Just One of Those Things	1958	Give Him the Oo-La-La
03	Idir	Algeria	A Vava Inouva	1996	A Vava Inouva
04	Rose Tattoo	Australia	Nice Boys	1978	Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw
05	Linda Ronstadt	USA	The Blacksmith	1990	Rubáiyát
06	Batanai Marimba	Zimbabwe	Manhanga (Mukwa Mix)	2000	Moto Moto
07	Machinae Supremacy	Sweden	Bouff	2003	no album yet
08	Henry Mancini	USA	Baby Elephant Walk	1962	Hatari!
09	The Jeff Healey Band	Canada	When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky	1989	Road House
10	Bonnie Raitt	USA	Baby Mine	1994	Love Sneakin' Up on You
11	Brother Cane	USA	Got No Shame	1993	Brother Cane
12	Ultravox	England	Vienna	1980	Vienna
13	Gary Jules	USA	Mad World	2001	Donnie Darko
14	Radio Tarifa	Spain	Rumba Argelina	1996	Rumba Argelina
15	Danielle Dax	England	The Shamemen	1983	Pop-Eyes
16	Sarah McLachlan	Canada	Angel	1997	Surfacing
17	Vanessa Mae	Singapore	The Blessed Spirits	1994	Storm

Kingdom of Madness

Magnum were one of those bands who just never fit in with fashion. They started in the late 1970s in an England that was starting to rage under punk and rock out to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Given this background their progressive hard rock was really not likely to get them anywhere, and it didn't. They slogged away for a while, getting more and more commercial and eventually found some success for a while in the mid 1980s before disappearing again. Success notwithstanding, they were always the niche band of choice for critics and serious metal fans. The title track of their first album sounds like a great way to kick off a new mix.

Just One of Those Things

I don't know a huge amount about jazz but I do know that Blossom Dearie had more than just an incredibly unlikely name. Her voice counts as a Voice with a capital V like nobody since the golden age of Ella and Billie. She smoulders her way through this one while Ray Brown blisters up and down his bass like a man possessed. I've always been a sucker for hyperspeed slapping bass and this fits the bill.

A Vava Inouva

To keep with the beautiful voice theme, I don't know a more blissful vocal than this lullaby, the title track from the debut album by the Algerian artist known as Idir, who harmonises through it with his sister, Mila. This is what alerted the world to Berber music and I'm not surprised in the slightest.

Nice Boys

As it's entirely impossible to outdo Idir's lullaby in the blissful stakes, let's just up the pace a little with the blistering original of my favourite Guns n' Roses song. They recorded a superb version on the 'Live Like a Suicide' EP that turned me on to them way back when, but the original is a notch up again. Before that short, stocky, bald Aussie by the name of Angry Anderson sold out by singing the wedding theme in 'Neighbours', he fronted Rose Tattoo, the second most famous heavy rocking outfit to come out of Australia after AC/DC. Every song on their debut album is a classic and the next two albums weren't much less. It's always a toss up for me between this one and 'Remedy', but heck, this one works.

The Blacksmith

OK, after that blitz of adrenaline, what was I saying about blissful? How about an a capella Linda Ronstadt, covering an old song for an Elektra anniversary compilation? I think blissful just about covers it. The quirkier she gets, the better she gets, in my opinion, and this one is hard to beat.

Manhanga (Mukwa Mix)

Let's leap from a solo female a capella to a bunch of Zimbabwean marimba players. I've had a fascination for marimbas ever since I heard Evelyn Glennie play one at the Proms. African music has a wonderful complexity to it too and that translates superbly to marimbas. Album title 'Moto Moto' translates to 'Fire! Fire!' which is pretty apt for this track.

Bouff

And just to confuse you, let's hit the speed again. Machinae Supremacy have been my favourite unsigned band in the world for a while now. They are a bunch of lunatic Swedes who have a whole slew of superb material available for free download from their website. Go for it! If they get the right push behind them, they can't lose, and this was written as a sort of theme song for the cult English actress, Emily Booth, which is certainly a good start. The album comes out at the beginning of May. I'll be there.

Baby Elephant Walk

I wasn't there when Henry Mancini wrote the score for 'Hatari!' because I was nine years off being born, but I just can't resist the 'Baby Elephant Walk' which works wonderfully as an etude between modern Swedish insanity and Canadian rocking blues.

When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky

I honestly don't know if Jeff Healey really worked his blindness and his unique laptop guitar style as gimmicks or whether that's just what everyone noticed, but behind all the front he's a damn good soloist and this is my favourite track of his, even though it's really Bob Dylan's. It's the closer from the film 'Road House' that runs over the credits at the end and it blisters.

Baby Mine

Bonnie Raitt is another blistering blues soloist but this is a lowkey soulful b-side that deals more with her vocal than her picking. That's Was (Not Was) in the background adding plenty of groove. This should get you relaxed again after Jeff Healey's guitar work.

Got No Shame

And half a second of Topper Price's harmonica should perk you straight back up. This is how to play the harp! The rest of Brother Cane don't exactly slouch through 'Got No Shame' either, which is the opener to their superb debut album. There's plenty of Skynyrd in there and some Aerosmith and some Stones and all sorts of other influences, but they wrap their own identity round it all and rock out with a passion.

Vienna

Passion isn't what comes to mind when Ultravox are mentioned. I remember when 'Vienna' came out and leapt up the charts. I was hearing all this New Romantic stuff and its associated early use of electronica but I preferred the post punk antics of Adam Ant. Behind all the Duran Durans and Human Leagues though were a few less well known bands who still charted their own path but kept a little more true to their electronic predecessors who I'd never heard of at the time. Ultravox and OMD were the two that I heard most and some of their material still resonates with me now, even though it does feel dated on occasion.

Mad World

I gave up on the pop charts a few years later in 1984 when I discovered heavy metal courtesy of Tommy Vance's 'Friday Rock Show' on Radio 1. Consequently I (thankfully) missed out on 'Mad World' by Tears for Fears but I caught the bleak and melancholy Gary Jules version placed with artistic perfection at the end of the offbeat horror movie 'Donnie Darko'. I enjoyed this obscurity for quite some time until I suddenly realised that it had been rereleased with industry muscle behind it and, horror of horrors, it became the Christmas number one last year. I still think it's a great cover but it's hardly obscure any more!

Rumba Argelina

Radio Tarifa are obscure to anyone outside of the world music community but they're well known otherwise. They are a bunch of Spaniards who named themselves for the nearest part of Spain to Africa, to highlight how much they take influences from both musical origins to create a unique mix.

The Shamemen

I missed out on Danielle Dax in my brief dalliance with pop music as a kid, but she has the sort of quirkiness I'd have picked up on had I heard her. Now, I still know next to nothing but I'm impressed with what I've heard. As I explore the pop end of the gothic spectrum I'm sure I'll come across her again.

Angel

Angel was my introduction to Sarah McLachlan, and to my mind she's never touched it again. I heard it while driving round the States in 1999 and I'm still surprised it didn't take over airplay everywhere it went. As far as female singer songwriter material goes, it's about as perfect as it can get. I tend to prefer more unique voices, like Jolie Holland or Iris DeMent, but I'm not going to argue with the sheer craftsmanship in this song.

The Blessed Spirits

There's plenty of craftsmanship in Vanessa Mae's work. She's a England-based young lady from Singapore who came out of a strongly classical background to experiment with modern flavours of music. Her album, 'Storm', is a highly eclectic romp through all sorts of genres with intriguing and innovative covers of everything from 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus to Offenbach's 'Can Can'. This is the longer, slower, more traditional folk-based song that should work well at wrapping up this selection.