A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Obliques 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 will turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's card read 'Allow An Easement (An easement is the abandonment of a stricture)' and I posted Strict Machine by Goldfrapp and Birge- Risser- Mienniel's improvisational track inspired by that Oblique Strategy card and named after it. Further responses via the comments took in Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out) by The Hombres from Ernie. Khayem suggested Take It Easy On Yourself by Jerry Butler. Spinoutz dropped in Billy Woods and Yolanda Watson's A Doll Fulla Pins and Jesse suggested Neighbours by Shack.
Today's Oblique Strategy card suggestion is this...
Go slowly all the way round the outside
I did wonder briefly if I should go slowly with this one, sit on it and wait, see what happened, but this song had already jumped to the front of my mind. 'Two buffalo girls go round the outside/ Round the outside/ Round the outside' had already started circling in my head...
Malcolm McLaren, Trevor Horn, the World's Famous Supreme Team, scratching (making me itch), square dancing, Rock Steady Crew, New York in 1982... what's not to like? Malcolm definitely had talent and on this record he showed it wasn't just as the owner of a clothes shop and as the manager of Sex Pistols.
I've been listening to My Bloody Valentine recently too- more to come next week- and the go slowly part of the Oblique Strategy took me to this from the You Made Me Realise EP, a 1988 game changer of a 12" single if ever there was one...
Slow is a grinding, disorientating stew, led by filthy, grinding bass with head spinning tremelo guitar noise on top and lyrics about licking and sucking and wanting it slow, placing 'my head on your hips' and how 'I'll make you smile'. I think it might be about sex. Which, I've just realised, links it to Malcolm's shop and to his band.
Feel free to pop your Oblique Saturday suggestions in the comments box.
5 comments:
Buffalo Gals was also the first one that came to my mind. Going the slowly was I remember Go Slowly by Radiohead
'Going all the way round' made me think of surrounding or being surrounded, and the first record I could think of was King Tubby's album "Surrounded by The Dreads at The National Arena". This particular track goes quite slowly:
https://youtu.be/pzVSoi_UpJ4?si=hbapOqQpoz7zFoQC
Even though I was never a huge fan of a lot of the bands he produced, Trevor Horn's book is an interesting read in places. He talks about the Duck Rock album as being something he and his engineers ended up putting together given that McLaren allegedly only turned up with the sketchiest of outlines, the broadest of outlines and his usual "passionate" ideas, none of which were remotely in the form of actual songs. Now this could well be Horn bigging himself up-he is often quite dismissive about certain performers and their abilities-but to me it doesn't matter. McLaren and his cultural obsessions sowed the seeds for a genuinely innovative and groundbreaking album.
Agree Nick- I think he was an ideas man and sometimes those ideas were really good (and needed someone else to bring them to fruition).
Love the King Tubby track Ernie.
I want to say something off Studio's West Coast album, because of that big circle on the front that you could go all the way round.
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