A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Spectrum Analysis.
My spectrum analysis took me to Sonic Boom and Spectrum, Aphex Twin and Sewell and The Gong. Further analysis came from Dumdedumdumdum (Oh! Gunquit), Ernie (The Dells), Khayem (Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons, Solid Space, Creation Rebel, Florence and her Machine and Seahawks with Prins Thomas), Al G (World Of Twist, Matt Berry), Mrs G (the ZX- Spectrum and Space Raiders), Weird Al (Pac- Man v The Beatles), Jase (Rain Tree Crow), Walter (Billy Cobham and Massive Attack) and Rol (more ZX- Spectrum, Jet Set Willy and Joni Mitchell).
From the above suggestions, here's World Of Twist covering The Rolling Stones...
This week's Oblique Strategy card reads like this- Not building a wall but making a brick.
How are bricks made? I asked the internet.
The main ingredient is clay. Another key component is sand. Sometimes other additives such as lime, iron oxide or magnesia might be used. The final crucial ingredient is water. The dry material is crushed. The soft wet clay is shaped by a mould. Once the brick has been shaped it is left to dry- the removal of excess water is important. The brick is then fired in a kiln.
Clay is from Goldfrapp's 2013 album Tales Of Us, a lovely collection of folky album/ electronic songs. Clay tells the story of a doomed soldier during World War II writing a letter to his lover, Dave.
I don't think Jimi Hendrix ever sounded better than on Axis: Bold As Love- loose, electric blues, psychedelia. Castles Made Of Sand has some wonderful free flowing forwards guitar and bursts of backwards guitar, a tripped out solo and some autobiographical lyrics from Jimi about impermanence.
Obscure 1984 outliers Circus Underwater. Dreamy laid back psyche/ ambient. Stunning.
Lee Perry in 1978 and his Roast Fish And Collie Weed album, his first album to consist solely songs sung by Scratch himself.
Body shaking, addictive astro- jazz/ dance- psyche from The Comet Is Calling is 2019.
Unfortunately I can't find a song with the word kiln in the title. Killing on the other hand is very well represented. This is Moon Duo in 2009.
Feel free to contribute your own constructions in response to Not building a wall but making a brick in the comment box.
4 comments:
Not my official nomination, by previous era Fleetwood Mac had an album called Kiln House. Don't think there was a title track though.
You have comprehensively taken us through making a brick from scratch. An alternative approach would be to start with a wall and disassemble it:
https://youtu.be/TaApSBnBKPA?si=o13xDnTEbIITOB1b
The first thing that came to mind was Wall of Sound label so I'm going with Jacob's Optical Stairway. https://youtu.be/OoZR8UXSRDA?is=atWCJJwt1-ukNFT6
For someone with chronic schizophrenia, their every living moment offers the exhausting prospect of reconstructing yet another new reality from scratch, and making that first brick... all over again.
As our modern world crumbles to dust, many more of us are beginning to understand exactly what it takes to pick up tools without the first clue what they are for, or even why they are in our hands.
He is perhaps best known for songs such as "Rock N Roll McDonald's" where he would directly insult his demons, but here he is, rather more joyfully telling us who he really is...
https://wesleywillis.bandcamp.com/album/greatest-hits-vol-3?t=11
If you look him up, you will discover he was a musician on the streets of Chicago in the 70's and 80's, but in so many ways, Wesley Willis is actually the sound of now.
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