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 was Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place. I posted various extremes- Gnod, Extreme Noise Terror and The KLF, Napalm Death, Husker Du, Steve Bicknell and Lords Of Afford- and a more comfortable Richard Norris ambient piece. Suggestions via the comment box and social media came in and included Cornelius, Extreme's horrific More Than Words, Allen Toussaint, Bad Brains, Durutti Column and Boards Of Canada (and this made me realise that in over fifteen years of blogging I have never once posted anything by Boards Of Canada- how strange). .
I turned over today's Oblique Strategy card and it said this...
Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events
That gave some food for thought and then something began to form in my head and selecting songs based on events fairly randomly, this happened...
Simon and Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. is the last song on their debut album of the same name, a record that came out in 1964, sixty two years ago. Which has no real connection to this....
Gram Parsons' $1000 Wedding is from Grievous Angel, a posthumous 1974 album with the groom stood up at a cheap wedding and going on a drinking spree. 'It's been a bad, bad day'. Which is fairly unconnected to this...
Captain Beefheart went on holiday in 1974, surprisingly accessible funky rock from Bluejeans And Moonbeams. There's no connection between that and this....
Glasgow's Broken Chanter have been to the end of the world and have the souvenir t- shirt. The song came out in 2021, crashing and driving and ultimately uplifting Glaswegian indie rock. Which is not particularly connected to this....
Hard Ending is by Sweden's Echo Ladies, a synthy dreampop song from a 2018 album called Pink Noise.
Which just leaves the photo at the top of this post... one I've been waiting for nearly a year to use and been unable to work out how it could possibly illustrate or accompany a post and which is in no way connected to any of the songs.
Last April we went to Morocco for five days and one day we went to a resort on the edge of the Sahara desert. The resort was very new, not even finished and had a restaurant, a swimming pool, sun loungers and a spectacular view of the desert. The couple in the photo arrived not long before we left, both young, influencer looking and clearly benefiting from hours in the gym. They wandered round the site, looking for the best spot and having located it, the man took his top off to display his V- shaped torso and the woman began taking photos of him from behind, his body framed by the pool, the horizon and the Sahara. It was amazing to watch- they were so lacking in self- consciousness about what they were doing.
Feel free to make your own suggestions of songs in response to Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events in the comment box.
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