Author
James Darton
Contributing Editor
We're pleased to present our second instalment of Floom Sounds, for your exclusive listening pleasure! Our tenuously-related-to-flowers selection ranges from classic eighties goth pop and epic, heartbreak Americana to smooth jazz and left-field disco workouts.
Listen to the Floom Sounds Spotify playlist here! We'll update it with every new instalment.
A Forest - The Cure
An enduring classic from the iconic band’s early period, the gothic guitar overtones float hazily over a propulsive showing from the band’s rhythm section: a galloping bassline and relentless hi-hats evoke the distinctive darkness of running through a forest at night, whilst also being strangely danceable at the same time.
Flowers for Yulia - Max Richter
Max Richter is a composer whose finest work never descends into the realms of obtuse academia - countless pieces are steeped in emotion. ‘Flowers For Yulia’ is taken from his album Songs From Before, which exemplifies his talents perfectly: heartfelt and heartbreaking in equal measure. Atop the mournful strings and crackling static sit segments of text by Haruki Murakami, distinctively annunciated by none other than cult English musician Robert Wyatt. It’s a brave concoction but one that is pulled together masterfully.
Sweet Pea - Miles Davis
Taken from Water Babies, an odds-and-ends type album that was recorded during a period that saw Miles transitioning into a more experimental stage of his playing and composing. ‘Sweet Pea’ however is taken from Side 1 of the record which featured the second incarnation of the classic Miles Davis quintet: the musicians reads like a who’s who of greats from the time, with Wayne Shorter on tenor sax and Herbie Hancock adding languorous piano lines to proceedings. Perfect Sunday afternoon fodder for the more discerning listener.
Schoolbell/Treehouse (Walter Gibbons mix) - Indian Ocean
What is there to say about Arthur Russell that hasn’t been said already? His influence as an avant-garde cellist, folk musician and (most importantly) leftfield disco innovator is still resonating today, years after his life was tragically cut short by AIDs. The Walter Gibbons mix of his Indian Ocean production is one of the most iconic of tracks in his discography: completely timeless, the ten minute journey merges intimate cello and voice with cosmic percussion, funky brass and keyboard lines and a spacey, ethereal production style that was completely his own.
Hold on Magnolia - Songs: Ohia
Contender for most heart-wrenching outro to an album ever, the powerful, trembling voice you hear on ’Hold On Magnolia’ belongs to Jason Molina - another icon who passed away at far too tender an age. Over the course of almost eight minutes of mournful country guitars and strings, near-identical refrains simmer and collapse and build again and collapse again as Molina offers a mixture of pleading hope and resigned defeat - all bundled together exactly as it is in real life.
