I had planned to write a later, longer entry on early-nineties shoegaze band Slowdive, but I just ran across this beautiful Slowdive tribute double CD and was compelled to share it. I’ve always loved the sleepy, reverb guitar-heavy sound of Slowdive, but these songs have been updated with an electronic edge ranging from pop to space-ambient. The compilation was released in 2002 by Morr Music and features 28 songs by artists like Múm, Manual, Solvent, Limp, and more. In particular, I loved Manual’s wordless rendition of my favorite Slowdive song “Blue Skied an’ Clear.” I was amused (as always) by Múm’s cover of “Machine Gun” and Ulrich Sechnauss turned “Crazy For You” into a song that I like better than the original. This was an interesting task; Slowdive’s wall of sound could not have been easy to decipher. Samples are below:

Manual - Blue Skied An’ Clear
Múm - Machine Gun
Ulrich Schnauss - Crazy for You
Blue Skied An Clear: A Morr Music Compilation (Amazon)

Blue Skied An´ Clear Blue Skied An´ Clear (eMusic)

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Artist: Martina Topley Bird - Website

You might know Martina Topley-Bird as “that chick that sang with Tricky.” When she stopped singing with popular trip-hop artist Tricky, she took most of the dreaminess with her. I didn’t know until recently that she had a solo effort. “Anything” was released in 2004. The album has her characteristic hazy, languid vocals on music ranging from acoustic to chillout to trip-hop. The track I’m focusing on is called “Sandpaper Kisses” and though it doesn’t embody the sound of the album, the song makes me feel like I’m listening to a spy’s erotic dream set on some obscure South American beach. The song resurrects the luxurious tones of her Tricky days without being imitation.

Martina Topley-Bird - Anything - Sandpaper Kisses
Martina Topley-Bird: Anything CD
Martina Topley-Bird on eMusic

Artist: Kenji Williams - Website

I first heard Kenji Williams when a Burner friend loaned me the World Spirit DVD, and after getting accustomed to the lengthy descriptive poetry of Alex Gray, I added Kenji to my eMusic short list. Not only is he an exceptional classically-trained violinist, but he’s broached a genre that seldom sees the strings regularly: experimental electronica. I’ve used a handful of Kenji Williams songs to induce altered states during meditation; the rich texture and shamanic atmosphere lend themselves to contemplation and mindfulness. With albums split between modern dance music and ambient trance, my favorite tracks in the latter category are:

Kenji Williams - Faces of Epiphany - Death & Rain
Kenji Williams - Faces of Epiphany - Spirit Walker
Kenji Williams - Epic - The Internal
Kenji Williams - The Music of Worldspirit DVD
Kenji Williams - Epic CD
Kenji Williams on eMusic