Johnny Osbourne is one of my favourite dancehall singers. What’s more, he cut his teeth in the era where dancehall was emerging, and the sound retained a lot of reggae elements, but still had a swagger, and was more obviously dance music. “Trickster” was released in 1988 on Music Works Records in Jamaica and the…
30/06/2018: “Rhapsody In Blue” by George Gershwin
The idiosyncratically named “Rhapsody In Blue” is probably one of the most famous classical piano pieces. The piece could be classified as jazz as well,…
29/06/2018: “The Passenger” by Iggy Pop
The guitarist on here is Ricky Gardiner, and the song also features piano and backing vocals by David Bowie. In fact, the song was partly…
28/06/2018: “Hard Noize” by Dillinja
“Hard Noize” may well be my favourite drum & bass tune, at least of the less “intellectual” type of D’n’B anyway! For one thing, the…
27/06/2018: “I Don’t Believe A Word” by Motorhead
Motorhead are mainly known for their blisteringly fast shredding metal tracks. This song makes me wish they’d slowed it down a bit more… Lemmy’s voice…
26/06/2018: “Tears” by Hijak
The sampling is pretty heavy here… the song is basically the intro to “No More Tears” by Teedra Moses, with a heavy bassline and more…
25/06/2018: “Mbira” by Kevin Volans Ensemble
Kevin Volans is an Irish composer with South African roots. Much of his music provides a synthesis of Western musical culture with traditional African instrumentation…
24/06/2018: “Watermelon In Easter Hay” by Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa is a very polarising figure. There’s no doubting his musical proficiency. But a good deal of his music, with it’s off the wall…
23/06/2018: “Cavatina” by Stanley Myers and John Williams
The guitar is often used as a hammer, bashing out wailing solos, shredding hard and fast, strumming a few simple chords. So it can be…
22/06/2018: “Johnny B Goode” by Chuck Berry
This is real good times rock n roll, from one of the guys who pioneered the whole thing! That guitar lick is just incomparable. It’s…