Singleversity #21

Audiversity’s weekly column, slightly modified, on random music in a predetermined number of words between 1 & 150. This week's randomly generated number: 129.

MA:



Some Saturday mornings are meant for inspired production with no other obligations clogging up the day. Then there are Saturday mornings like today’s: hung over, unmotivated and set to help a friend move in the scalding summer heat. These are the mornings when soothing pop music comes in handy, and the first single, "Bricks", off the upcoming full-length from the U.K.’s Tunng is just the cure-all I need. Now signed to Chicago’s Thrill Jockey, studio wizard Mike Lindsay, singer/songwriter Sam Genders and company conjure a folksy, delicately buoyant brand of poptronica. A pleasant collage of irresistible male/female vocal melodies, ornate instrumentation and clever studio manipulation, Tunng is closer to the equivalent of waking in a lush pasture surrounded by playful robotic bunnies than my current futon-draped, head-pounding state.

PM:

…And some Saturday mornings you don’t even see because you stay up too late and don’t wake up until noon. Somewhere after a move-in and a recharge, that’s where The Durutti Column comes in. Still one of the most underappreciated groups in the blogosphere, The Durutti Column has been around from the time of the first incarnation of Factory Records and main man Vini Reilly took took its name from a group of Spanish anarchists in the 1930s. Their debut album was recorded by Martin Hannett (also known for his work with the Buzzcocks and Joy Division), while 1987’s The Guitar and Other Machines became the first British album to be released to DAT. Using a sequencer, drum machine, and here an “Arpeggiator,” Reilly continued to generate fresh sounds.