Fate's Faithful Punchline

A few weeks ago Nina Walsh rediscovered and shared a YouTube playlist made my Andrew Weatherall when he and Nina were doing Moine Dubh (the record label they formed to put out weird, off kilter folk music based in Crystal Palace). Nina said Andrew often forgot his usernames and passwords for YouTube and was constantly having to create new accounts- it's nice to know that's something that affects top DJs and producers as well as the rest of us. The playlist, Dubh Drops, is here and features an array of acts including Cheval Sombre, The Shadow Project, Hungry Ghosts, Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka- Spel, The Black Ryder, Dean Wareham, Rose City Band, The Carpenters and Negative Lovers. It also includes this gem by The Legendary Pink Dots...

Fate's Faithful Punchline

Led by finger picked acoustic guitar and Edward Ka- Spel's echo- drenched voice and eventually some strings, Fate's Faithful Punchline is moving, gorgeous and elegiac psychedelic folk. The Legendary Pink Dots are an Anglo- Dutch group, formed in London in 1980 and have since then released forty- seven albums, twenty- six live albums and forty- eight  compilations. And you thought The Fall were prolific. 

I included Fate's Faithful Punchline on my latest mix for Tak Tent Radio which went live at the weekend, an hour of songs that you can listen to here at Tak Tent or here at Mixcloud. Andrew Weatherall's fingerprints are to be found elsewhere in the mix in the form of his remix of The Impossibles from 1991 and a Beth Orton song he produced that was a B-side on the Someone's Daughter CD single. 

• Alex Kassian: Spirit Of Eden
• Martin Duffy: Promenading
• Eden Ahbez: Full Moon
• 10:40: Ninety- Now
• Coyote: Nothing Rests
• David Holmes: No- One Is Smarter Than History
• Gal Costa: Baby
• The Impossibles: The Drum (Andrew Weatherall Remix)
• A Certain Ratio: Houses In Motion (Version 1)
• Ultramarine: Stella
• Beth Orton: It’s This I Find I Am
• The Legendary Pink Dots: Fate’s Faithful Punchline

Gal Costa

Gal Costa died earlier this month aged seventy seven. I knew the name but didn't own any of her music. I was aware she was a Brazilian singer and heavily connected to the Tropicalia movement, the musicians and artists who married Brazilian rhythms and styles with psychedelic rock in the late 60s, upsetting the government and establishment in that country along the way. I have a compilation by Os Mutantes, fellow travellers in the Tropicalia movement, but no Gal. A friend sorted me out with a few choice pieces last week and I've been digging into them, the bossa nova rhythms, percussion, acoustic guitars and psychedelic rock influences providing a very welcome alternative to what I've been listening to recently. This song in particular has been hitting all the right notes...

Baby

Baby was written by Caetano Veloso, legendary Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer and political activist and recorded for Gal's 1968 self titled solo album. The strings, the echo- laden percussion and Gal's voice, singing first in Portuguese and then English, are all gorgeous. 

R.I.P. Gal.