Tag: Spin it or Bin It

Posted in Spin it or Bin It

Song for an Entrance | David

Posted on by David Allison

So this month, we’re all choosing a song for our entrance. Our entrance to what? Our own entrance to our biggest party? To our funeral? To our birth? To our wedding? To the beginning of our best DJ set? Well, that’s for us to decide. It’s the moment we arrive, we walk in, we’re wheeled in. It’s our entrance!

I immediately knew what kind of track I wanted to choose, because of my day job. I spend my life collecting tracks that I’d love to use one day in an awesome film or TV script. Of course, it almost never transpires that I get to do that, but it doesn’t stop me imagining. And over the years, I’ve amassed quite a collection. Now and again, I’m either delighted or dismayed (or a bit of both) to see them used in other stuff. Killing Eve’s brilliant use of French Ye-Ye pop, well you can imagine how gutted I was about that!

Anyway, my choice is for an entrance to a fictitious character. A me, but a made-up me. And by sheer coincidence, I actually played this track on this Sunday’s Mondo Pop show. So the Gods are aligned. It was meant to be.

OK, let’s make up some daft scene, off the top of my head. Let’s say it’s 1979, and there’s an English businessman trying to do a deal with the Sicilian Mafia. Thing is, he’s not a businessman, he’s a spy or a diplomat, and the money he’s going to hand over is the first part of an elaborate sting to catch the Mafia head honcho.

So he’s shitting himself. He needs to pull this off. When he gets off the plane to Palermo, and gets in the waiting car, and is driven to the club to meet the man to whom he’s going to hand this money over – this is the song that kicks in as he walks into the club in slo-mo, palms sweaty, eyes fixed straight ahead, trying to keep it cool. Early 70s Italian pop-funk of the highest order, and a song Tarantino would be happy to slide into a soundtrack.

So this is my entrance. It’s the entrance I’m writing for someone who doesn’t exist, in which I get to play the lead role.

And in the meantime, back in the real world, I can at least slip it into our headphones, and walk down the road, in the middle of my own personal movie…

Posted in Album of the Month, podcast, Tracks of the Month

Podcast Episode 22 – Big Thief – Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You.

Posted on by misterstory

EP. 73 | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative) – This Is Not Happening – An Album Of The Month Podcast

Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
  1. EP. 73 | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative)
  2. EP.72 | Phoebe Bridgers | Lost Weekend
  3. EP.71 | Steve Lacy | Oh Yeah?
  4. EP.70 | Olivia Rogrigo | You seem pretty sad …
  5. EP. 69 | Lykke Li | The Afterparty

Last month we shared our thoughts on Small World by Metronomy, all 9 tracks and 35 minutes worth. This month This Is Not Happening ups the ante with ‘Dragon, New Mountain …’, all 20 tracks and 80 minutes worth.  In part 1, we deep dive into the density of Big Thief and Part 2 we play ‘Spin It or Bin It?’ where we judge the tracks that we’ve chosen for this month’s theme.

Part 1 – Album of the Month

This month it’s David’s choice, ‘Dragon, New Mountain …’ by Big Thief. Three of us love Big Thief and have much more than a passing relationship with the band … whilst one of us is a Big Thief virgin. There was SO much written about this album as soon as it came out including a number of 100% reviews.  As always, we take a slower, more considered approach to criticism, living with this album for a couple of months and letting it really settle in before we reflect and share our views.

You don’t have to look to far to find interviews, reviews and videos on Big Thief and this album but some of the content that we consumed and discussed in part 1 can be found below;

  • The metacritic review page is always a goo start and can be found here
  • This is a great listen – ‘Out On The Line’ Podcast 
  • Really insightful take on the album – ‘Taking it Down’Podcast
  • If you love them … or not, this one’s got you covered -‘NY Times’ Podcast
  • A great article in Vulture – read it here

Part 2 – ‘Spin it’ or ‘Bin it?’

In the second part of this episode we get stuck into 4 tracks representing this months theme – ‘Not on Spotify’. We all pick a track,  introduce our track and ask the others the painfully binary critical question; ‘spin it’ or ‘bin it?’ 

This month was a little more ‘free form’ than usual … but an amusing listen none the less!

  1. Guy’s track selection is – Prassay – Krvsin
  2. David’s track selection is – Nick Drake – I Was Made to Love Magic
  3. Nolan’s track selection is – Pharoahe Monch – F You
  4. Joey’s track selection is – Joanna Newsome  – ‘81

Next Month

Episode #23 will be with you soon – Joey will be leading the discussion on ‘Life on Earth’ by Hurray for the Riff Raff. If you get the chance we’d love you to have a listen to the album before next month, perhaps share some thoughts with us on the blog or on our Insta. This albums getting a lot of positive attention and we think it’s going to be in a few year end lists.