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In my late teens and early twenties, I was a metalhead, nothing more, nothing less. Everything else was bullshit. Well, almost everything else. Throughout the years, a number of songs popped up which either combined several genres or were simply too good to be ignored.These songs caused me to dig deeper into other genres, which in its turn caused my friends to make fun of me.Today, as I look back on all the songs I've been listening to, I realize that some of these have been quite important for my musical background. For this edition of Songs With Stories, I'll replay five of these songs.
If you like, you can comment yours below.
If you like, you can comment yours below.
Jones & Stephenson - The First Rebirth
The long haired, patched jeans wearing me was studying in Antwerp. I didn't live here yet, that happened fifteen years later. In the building where I rented a room, I started meeting a number of different people, from hippies to techno freaks to boybands lovers. Since I forgot most of my CDs at home, I didn't really have something to listen to. One of my peers gave me the FM-wavelength for a local radio station. He said I'd like it. To my surprise it was a techno-station, a genre I despised after the whole new beat thing went to shreds. However, the second song they played was this one and to this day I absolutely love this thing. Back then, techno and house were the natural enemy of metal so I kept quiet about it but secretly, i've been dancing a lot to this one.
The Cure - Lullaby
This wasn't the first Cure song I've heard in my life but it had been the one that pulled me over indefinitely. The first one was probably 'Love Cats' and my all-time favorite is 'Pictures Of You'. Yet, before this one was released, I never gave Robert Smith a lot of attention. I had better things to do, metal, you know. When 'Lullaby' appeared on MTV, I was fascinated by the grim and angsty atmosphere of the whole thing. I anxiously waited for MTV to play the video again, so I could record it on a video tape. Soon after, I would expand my collection of videos, including the claustrophobic masterpiece 'Close To You' and eventually I became a huge Cure fan.
O Yuki Conjugate - Sunchemical
This track appeared on a compilation named 'Mind The Gap'. It came with a Gonzo Circus magazine which I bought because I had absolutely nothing to do but read about music. I didn't really know about ambient music. To me all those songs were intros for metal albums. However, I did collect all those intros on a tape, which included tracks by Amorphis, My Dying Bride and several others. It was a great tape to play late at night, before going to sleep. 'Sunchemical' quickly earned its place on that tape and opened a completely new world from me. After hearing that, I devoured as much ambient as I could, eventually leading to me founding my own project.
Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones - Une Petit Cellier
My infernal wanderings through the worlds of ambient and metal lead me to become a fan of doom metal, and all things slow and atmospheric. I discovered this gem in a record store while I was looking for some more of that awesome funeral doom. I knew nothing about this act before I asked the shopkeeper if I could have a listen. Mere seconds later, I felt the goosebumbs and the cold chills. I felt like I was being dragged into the soundtrack of Twin Peaks and it's horrifying, eerie atmosphere. This was brilliant, and it still is one of my favorite albums ever. Eventually, this one lured me into the world of jazz, something I had been actually trying for decades. Now, more and more jazz acts are appearing in my playlists, not only dark jazz, obviously. It's all jazz!!!
Bedrich Smetana - Die Moldau
They say that the music you like when you're sixteen, is the music you will love forever. Well, I beg to differ. When I was sixteen, I was a headstrong metalhead who despised everything without guitars, drums and a bloke screaming his lungs out. That year, a musical teacher played this classical piece and I, as true, grim and frostbitten as I was, tore it down completely. It was dull, boring, with a pretty nice passage, and another one, interesting, inspiring, beautiful, a masterpiece. One way or another, 'Die Moldau' started growing on me. Even to this day it brings tears to my eyes. Years later, after hearing it again, I - finally - decided to give up on being a genre-freak and just started enjoying music in all its forms and facets, as it should...
Some other notable songs in that aspect:
-Pink Floyd - Mother
-Kong - New
-Levellers - 15 Years
-Absolom - Baby Boomers
-Gorki - Engel, Red Mij
-Pink Floyd - Mother
-Kong - New
-Levellers - 15 Years
-Absolom - Baby Boomers
-Gorki - Engel, Red Mij
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