an enquiry into portals

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

so i was watching boyz II men’s tep 20 R&B ballads of all time on TFM, and one of them was janet jackson’s odd, low-key sexmumble of a song, “any time any place”, and in the video there was a vinyl record playing on the turntable, and — unless i am mistaken — on the disc was the roger dean virgin logo, from the very early 70s



and it was spinning and not in focus so i couldn’t see what the record was — nevertheless, this portal takes you somewhere fairly curious: “likely” LPs for JJ to be seducin wiv apparently include Mike Oldfield‘s Tubular Bells, Tangerine Dream‘s Phaedra, The Faust Tapes, Faust IV, and — and this is my secret hope — Gong’s Flying Teapot (Radio Gnome Invisible, Pt. 1)

(this enquiry actually began as a result of catching a microscopic glancing ref in "his dark materials" to dorothy sayers's "the nine tailors" (lord asriel momentarily = lord peter wimsey); and wondering how this kind of easter-egging is meant to be made sense of -- what i'm fascinated by is genuinely little throwaway things which make you go "wtf" for an instant, and somehow (if you let yourself think off on that journey) open up the object (a book, a JJ video, whatever it may be) in an unexpected dimension

A Year In Pop: 46

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Another slowish week and the charts are starting to silt up a bit - labels holding fire on new releases in the run up to Christmas I guess. Some interest this week though: 1. Niche! 2. Has that Spice single not had a physical release yet or is it genuinely a huge flop - first time I can remember a Children In Need track going DOWN in charity week!

[Poll #1091138]

In other news: huge apologies for the continuing non-appearance of the Pop Open. My home internet was down last night though I should of course have done it earlier. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Songs and Production

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

What draws you more into a track you enjoy? The song - the melody, words - or what's done to it - hooky noises, production tricks, disruptions? And where does the performance fit in?

This may seem like a really unsupportable binary but it's one which has a certain amount of traction in the word outside Poptimists and maybe even some within it.

For instance many reviews of the Britney album seem generally to be treating it as - for better or worse - a record which stands and falls on its production rather than the songs or performance (and are explicitly making that distinction). And the reason *I* like the Britney album I think is the way the production seems to be making war on the songs, never totally winning but never letting them get out unscathed either.

For another example of what I'm fumbling towards, look at the two latest Girls Aloud singles. "Call The Shots" and "Sexy! No No No..." seem to work in quite different ways - the former resting on its melody and 'songcraft', the latter on the impact of its production. (You may of course completely disagree).

I feel this entry is very clumsy - sorry - but I think there's a conversation worth having here!

"No...not you...the bow-legged one..."

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

To celebrate the news that Salt n' Pepa are making a comeback (reality show documenting the making of their new album) here's three underappreciated hits by them:

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