Troika

Eighteen years ago, I sold my car, and met my wife! These are songs that remind of that wonderful time - Step into my World' by Hurricane #1, 'Don't Whiz on the Electric Fence' by Ren and Stimpy, and finishing up with 'No Surprises' by Radiohead

This coming Sunday is three years since my mum died, so I wanted to dedicate this ninth episode of Troika to her memory! There are four pieces of music this time: 'Strawberry Fields Forever' - The Beatles', Ukelele Lady' - Peter Sellers and The Temperance Seven, 'The Lark Ascending' - Ralph Vaughan Williams and finally 'Dear Friends' - Elbow.

This episode of Troika is a collection of music that uses NASA samples. The first track is *"Space Walk" by Lemon Jelly*, which samples Ed White's reaction to the first ever space walk on the Gemini 4 mission in 1965. Then we have *"V1 | 130" by Geremia Vinattieri*, released as part of the Space Songs EP from Bad Panda records. The final track, called simply *'Go', comes from Public Service Broadc...

I discovered the music of J Dilla (aka James Dewitt Yancey or Jay Dee) by going backwards. I'm a big fan of the band Phantogram, and when they mentioned their sound uses 'J Dilla beats' I looked back on his extensive back catalog and found his influence everywhere. He's one of hip hop’s most influential producers and artists, but his career was cut short at just 32 after battling the incurable blo...

The theme for this Troika is a little more esoteric than normal - it's comedians, singing parody songs, in the style of other artists. Weird Al Yankovic has made a whole career out of this, but these are maybe slightly less well known.

Back in the mid-90's the British Music Press had decided that Shoegaze music was finished, and that if you weren't Britpop or Grunge you deserved to be mocked. Bands like Slowdive disbanded and explored other genres, but it had left enough quality work to inspire the next generation of bands, nastily called 'Nu gaze'.

So welcome to Troika Episode 4! This one is all about a genre called Light Music, a form of orchestral music that was at its height in the 1950s and 60s. These were shorter, lighter, more whimsical pieces of music, often used in the soundtracks of films and Pathe News reels.

I'm not a fan of Kraftwerk at the best of times. I have friends who adore them, but they leave me cold. I was listening to one last week that was all about using a 'Pocket Calculator' - adding and subtracting. In particular, when there is a Cycling related programme on telly, the likelihood is that they will end up using their 'Tour De France'. Its feels about as far removed from the experience of...

I heard an interview with Jarvis Cocker where he was asked about 'guilty pleasures'. His response was "There's no such thing as a guilty pleasure. If it's music, and you like it, why feel guilty about it?". Quite right - there's too much music snobbery. Somehow there's this rule that certain types of music are to be embarrassed about. With that in mind, I want to present three songs on a similar p...

This first edition of Troika is about ambient music. Not the bleepy,beaty, dancy kind, but the more soothing 'neo-classical' or drone style of Ambient. Music for watching the stars (amongst other things).