Art of Noise - And What Have You Done With My Body, God? This four-disc mayhem is the missing link to my soul. Well one of them anyway. This avant-garde early 80s group really printed the colourful alchemical magic of sound science onto the young, impressionable Lidellian mind and it never really came out in the wash. Permanent stains might as well be a good name for this record. Listen out for all the sounds LCD Soundsystem ripped off. If the songs could speak, they would tell us: "them DIY punks that stole my heart and used the beat".
· Click here to download Moments in Love from the Art of Noise boxsetSun Ra - Singles Collection Welcome to history, or should I say HIS story. In this case a history of Sun Ra's early single releases that span the length and breadth of the Ra universe. You'll find Fletcher Henderson influenced big band workouts rubbing up next to crazy, I mean Krazy, rollers about Batman and spilling out onto the spacefloor with gems like Disco 3000. If I could, I'd bury myself in space dust and listen through my pores to this until I rot in peace.· Not available from iTunesCan - Tago Mago I don't know about you lot but I grew up wanting to smoke pipes like the big boys. It didn't really go so well though, until I found this record. To be honest the music - German experimental rock - scared the shit out of me at first. It was something I knew the world held for me, the ghosts all swimming in a sort of pinky yellow shroom haze. Slowly I started to chop and sample this music, and only then could I lose my fear of it. I started to blow smoke through it. It started to be my friend. A spirit guide. soul herder. I heard it again recently and it felt like slipping into an old shoe, a shoe made of every smoke I've ever had.· Click here to download Bring Me Coffee or Tea from the album Tago MagoParliament - Osmium I don't know of any other record that stacks bagpipes on soul. This fucker has enough raw power to burn all vegetation to the sky: smoke stacks as high as the stratosphere will surely rain their funk dust on the inhabitants of all galaxies with ears. I'll be over there somewhere, sucking on cinnamon. Seriously though, people might not realise the sheer power of this band. They should. This is a black hot poker for your ass. Feel the burn.· Click here to download Funky Women from the album OsmiumMinnie Ripperton - Perfect Angel The cover to this record alone is enough to wash away the smell of seaweed from the soul. Minnie was another one of a string of artists that passed away too soon. She is one of those people that you try to lay back and imagine: how was she? How sweet must her soul have been? I've heard this album described as a gift of love for all the world to see, which is pretty close I'd say. Feel the gift.· Click here to download the song Perfect AngelRaymond Scott - Manhattan Research This is a compilation of the unique soul that is Mr Scott. An electronic pioneer in the 50s and 60s, Scott not only invented machines but knew how to coax beautiful music from them. Huge walls of military surplus oscillators and pieces of tape machines adorn his studio in the tantalising pictures one finds in the booklet of this bumper comp. The sounds are clearly from another dimension and shimmer away beautifully, like spirits caught in a Ghostbusters trap ready to be unleashed by that play button. A man of many talents, Scott was an inventor and businessman and his works were featured in many a jingling advert of the time. These money-spinners feature on this two-disc set and offer a sweet glimpse into the mindset of the radio industry back then. Anything that stood out from the crowd was encouraged and Scott was the one who knew what it meant to satisfy the call for "the weirder the better" ... there's an advert for a telephone company that pretty much just has a high pitch tone running the duration. It's utter madness. And utter genius ...· Song not available from iTunes· Jamie Lidell's album Jim is out on April 29. The single A Little Bit Of Feel Good is out now
