The Golden Apples of the Sun

Radio Show – 13 March 2022 – Episode 567

Beauty with Intensity…curated by Claude Mono. This little musical experiment is meant to be experienced as a headphone listening session across a four-sided double LP compilation that does not really exist. Of course like a good record you can drop the needle anywhere.

For some additional exploration and trivia check out the sleeve notes below (after the playlist)

Cosmoramic artwork credit: João Branco Kyron, psychedelic troubadour with Beautify Junkyards

LISTEN

Re-stream the show on RTRFM here

HQ Mixcloud Mixtape here – just the music

PLAYLIST

SIDE ONE

Jane Trimble – The Song of Wandering Aengus

Paul Giovanni – Sunset – The Wicker Man

Bobby Krlic – The Blessing – Midsommar OST

Demdike Stare – Past Is Past – Triptych

Jane Weaver with Demdike Stare – Europium Alluminate – The Watchbird Alluminate

Sneaker Pimps – How Do (Willows Song) – Becoming X (feat Britt Ekland)

Somerset Village Travelogue

Vic Mars – Butterflies, Bees And Other Insects – The Land and the Garden

Vic Mars – Inner Roads And Outer Paths – Inner Roads And Outer Paths

Gavino Morretti – Dawn of a New Generation – The Shildam Hall Tapes

February Montaine – Cosmicomics (excerpt) – as late as the light that hides it

Saint Etienne – The Reckoning – Fox Base Alpha (Deluxe)

Saint Etienne – Sky’s Dead – Fox Base Alpha (Deluxe)

Telling The Bees – Wood – Untie The Wind

SIDE TWO

Lubos Fisher – The Magic Yard – Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

The Valerie Project – Prelude – The Valerie Project

Lubos Fisher The Letter 2 – Valerie and Her Week of Wonders

Broadcast – Make My Sleep His Song – Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

Broadcast – Round and Round and Round‎ – Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

Broadcast – A Medium High – Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

The Valerie Project – An End To Enchantment – The Valerie Project

Broadcast And The Focus Group ‎– Let It Begin Oh Joy ‎– Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age

Broadcast – Valerie – Ha Ha Sounds

Broadcast – Valerie (Live Melbourne HiFi Bar on 9 December 2010)

SIDE THREE

Petr Hapka – Opening Titles – Panna a Netvor (Beauty and the Beast) OST

Plinth – Message In The Village (excerpt) – Music For Smalls Lighthouse

Fern Knight – From Zero To Infinty – Castings

Pearls Before Swine – Images Of April – Lammas Night Laments (Remastered) – Balaklava (original LP – 1968) 

Colleen – Babies – Everyone Alive Wants Answers

Paper Dollhouse – Music Box (Excerpt) – A Box Painted Black

Paper Dollhouse – Siren – Aeonflower

Voice of the Seven Woods – Return From Byzantium

Espers – Byss & Abyss – Espers

Movietone – Sun Drawing – Day and Night

SIDE FOUR

Cate Brooks – Agri Montana – Ascent (excerpt)

Saint Etienne – The Place at Dawn – Sound of Water

Saint Etienne – Blue Kite – Ive Been Trying Tell You

Saint Etienne – Like The Swallow – Foxbase Alpha

Saint Etienne – Hug My Soul (Live at Glastonbury 1994)

Saint Etienne – Hug My Soul Vibes and Strings – Tiger Bay Tapestry

WorriedAboutSatan – Blank Tape

Orchestra Pistapoci – I Feel Love (Live 2019)

Cate Brooks – Erna (Excerpt) – Agri Montana

Stockholm Monsters – Miss Moonlight

1983 – 12 inch Factory Benelux – Belgium

SLEEVE NOTES

Sneaker Pimps on The Wicker Man:

“The whole band is into a film called The Wicker Man, it’s an sort of obscure 70s English film, and the last track on our album, How Do, is a cover-version of a track from that film, which is originally a traditional folk tune. So, that music and filmwise is everybody’s sort of favorite film, and I think I would have liked to have written for that. In the future – well, I can’t speak for everyone else here, but something along those lines.”

In 2008 Kelli Ali, who was the singer with Sneaker Pimps at the time of Becoming X, released a pastoral, folk inflected album called Rocking Horse on One Little Indian, which was produced by Max Richter (the producer of once lost-lady-of-folk Vashti Bunyan’s 2005 Lookaftering album). More at the wonderful ‘A Year In The Country’ here and also here

Midsommar Art-Historical references decoded. Director Ari Aster talks about how he packed the film with references from art history – here

Read Jon Savage’s sleeve notes for the 2CD Deluxe Edition of Foxbase Alpha here

On the night before the last ever performance of Broadcast and Trish Keenan at the Meredith Music Festival the band played a gig at the Melbourne HiFi Bar on the 9th December 2010 – so glad someone taped this – listen to the full performance here

Telling The Bees and the track ‘Wood’ can be found as part of the incredible ‘Dark Britannica’ compilation series – more on the series via the FB here

More about what Telling the Bees and the above painting is actually about here

The secret music of the secret Bristol, Movietone’s catalogue is a perfect encapsulation of a place and time. Cinema verité, soft focus, jump cuts, handheld Super 8 – every auteur device is present in their music: Movietone, Day And Night, The Blossom Filled Streets and The Sand And The Stars form a perfect set of releases from perhaps the greatest undiscovered band. (Domino Records)

The Pistapòci orchestra is an experimental ensemble music project funded by the Emilia Romagna Region and born in 2016 from an idea by Francesco Sgorbani, conductor of the orchestra. It could be defined as a sort of “reinvention”, localized and updated, of the famous movement of South American orchestras created starting from the seventies of the last century by the Venezuelan José Antonio Abreu (“El Sistema”). The Pistapòci Orchestra is essentially a teaching activity of musical instruments and ensemble music, both choral and instrumental. The study of the instruments and the parallel work in the orchestra go hand in hand, allowing students to immediately exploit what they have learned individually and at the same time seek the construction of a collective sound. More here

The musical journey ends with an obscure classic that celebrates its 39th birthday in 2022 still sounding as fresh and exciting as you could ever wish for in a song.

‘Miss Moonlight’ by Stockholm Monsters was released in 1983 on the Factory Records offshoot Factory Benelux in Belgium. A neglected part of the Factory Records scene, the Stockholm Monsters are a key link between the bristly art-funk of A Certain Ratio and the good-foot indie dance vibe of Happy Mondays and the other Manchester bands of the late ’80s. Often seen merely as New Order proteges (Peter Hook produced all but one of their records) and victims of both record company indifference and unnecessary potshots by the cynical British music press, the Stockholm Monsters deserved better treatment than they usually got.

Following on from a European tour with New Order, the band recorded the EP which was released as FBN 19. Miss Moonlight, a Velvet-esque, organ-lead lament, might not have been an obvious single choice, but showed that the band were capable of stretching out.

“This three-song EP marks the Stockholm Monsters’ graduation to 12″ vinyl after a pair of 7” singles for the Factory label. The A-side, “Miss Moonlight,” is one of the very best songs the Manchester-based quintet ever released, an anxious slice of post-punk built on Shan Hira’s monomaniacal drumming and some droning one-note keyboard lines. Tony France’s vocals move from a sweetly androgynous croon to hoarse shouting by the end, as Lindsay Anderson’s floating trumpet passages provide much needed breaks in the steadily increasing tension. It’s a minor post-punk classic…” ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Read more and in great detail about Stockholm Monsters blog posts here and here