For Your Ears For Your Eyes #9

Hi – It’s Dave here at Mumubl.com, welcome to our recommendation email where I give you some tips on what’s great to listen to and watch.

It’s been a music light few weeks for me, not that I haven’t listened to a lot but more that I’ve been wrapped in my comfortable listens and not seeking out loads of new stuff. It often happens when I’m busy and the kids being off school certainly heralds being a bit busier!

That said there has been plenty going on, I’ve still made a gig (She drew the gun – fantastic!) and got some tips for what to listen to. Let me know if you have any recommendations to share via any of our social media channels.

As always – tell all your friends – every little share helps

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In this edition

1001 Albums / Summer of Soul / The Rise and Fall of Cultural Appropriation / Guitar man / Riffs on Riffs / The Art of Longevity / MUMUBL.COM

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1001 albums to hear before you die

If you follow the Mumubl.com Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mumubl_music/) you’ll have seen that whilst I was away for along weekend I stumbled upon this in the “travel library”. There was a “1001 wines to taste before you die” – I wonder if there’s a pairing to be done there? I digress!

This was the 2005 edition, spanning from Sinatra to The White Stripes taking in music from the 50s. There’s not much in the way of criteria included, are these the best albums? The most significant? The ones that are most inspirational, best to understand the trajectory of the music at the time? You have to figure out that yourself, but does it matter?

As with these things there is intrigue as to what is left out as well as what is included, it was though a fascinating flick through history and an impetus to check out a few albums I’ve left behind. I’d recommend picking up a copy if you ever see one and taking an average running time of 45 minutes you’d have about a month of straight listening to do – which is more achievable that I first thought!

The latest available edition is updated for 2021, I’d love to see what got chopped and what got added. Nu metal had a heavier billing than I expected, I wonder if Limp Bizkit’s “Hotdog flavoured water…” album still makes the cut.

It also didn’t occur to me at the time but it’s not a million miles away from Mumubl.com, taking each album and summing up why you should give it a listen.

Summer of Soul

After quite a few TV recommendations last time out for the newsletter I’ve not caught too much recently. One long overdue bit of music viewing was the academy award winning “Summer of soul”. Looking at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival the documentary includes some fantastic live music from legends such as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and Nina Simone.

It’s well worth checking out if soul music is your bag, I think it’ll drag if it’s not. It does question why this is much less well known than Woodstock which occured at the same time, often referring to this as “The Black Woodstock” which is ironic when personally the first performer to spring to mind from Woodstock is Hendrix.

You’ll find it on Disney+ in the UK.

The Rise and Fall of Cultural Appropriation

At one point in his video, Kirkby Ferguson says that it’s just what you need, a white middle aged American guy explaining why he thinks cultural appropriation is over. However if you’ve ever seen any of his videos (I think I’ve tipped “Everything is a remix” on here before) you’ll know he has a great way with explaining his points and putting together film.

As with all his work it’s worth checking out.

Guitar Man

I picked up a few of Will Hodgkinson’s books not so long ago and having enjoyed “Song Man” I took a trip back to the earlier “Guitar man”.

It follows Will’s efforts to learn to play guitar in his 30s via a number of improbable teachers that would make any guitar student jealous. As with “Song Man” it takes us into a journey that takes in the essence of the instrument itself and also imparts various history lessons about the instrument along the way. There’s probably a bit more to be enjoyed if you can play, or have an ambition to do so.

It would definitely be better to read them in order, so if you’re about to pick up “Song Man” put it down and read this one first.

Riffs on Riffs

I listen to a fair few podcast and like most podcast listeners I’m always on the hunt for new one’s to listen to, even as the queue of unlistened episodes builds in my podcast app! One thing that’s difficult is where to pick up an established podcast. Riffs on Riffs popped up on my radar and so far I’ve checked out a couple of episodes and I’m enjoying it so far.

Well put together and interesting the hosts, Joe Watson and Toby Brazewell, look at the construction of tracks and how sampling plays a part and where those samples came from and how they came to artists in the first place. They lose marks for being a little disparaging of Kraftwerk but otherwise I’d recommend checking it out and maybe cherry picking those episodes of the back catalogue that take youre fancy. The latest season is an overarching story so having picked through a few old episodes I’m ready to dive into that.

The Art of Longevity

Regular readers no longer need me to bang on about this but bang on I will. A regular feature in my recommendations this podcast continues to deliver. Closing out the last season with a hugely interesting chat with Nerina Pallot the next season started with a fantastic chat with Johnathan Higgs of Everything Everything and I’d say they’ve been two of the best episodes so far.

To follow up with Mike Scott of The Waterboys is brilliant and if you aren’t listening yet then sort it out!

From Mumubl.com

The posts on the site keep landing Florence + The Machines, Dresden Dolls and Orla Gartland adding to the tracks and albums that you maybe should listen to before you die, we’re not quite at 1001 yet though! – you’ll find them at mumubl.com/posts/