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Camera Obscura – “Other Towns And Cities”
My Maudlin Career

Half of this album seems to me to be rendered somewhat toothless by poppy instrumentation; the vocals and songwriting are best left relatively unaccompanied, as demonstrated by “Other Towns And Cities.” It becomes clear once you strip away the backing that it’s really the vocalist’s wonderful cadence and simple counterpoint melodies that are really making the music sing, as it were. (insound)

At these mysteriously significant symbols, however, Mr. Titmouse, though quite ready to believe that they indicated some just cause or other of family pride, had looked with the same appreciating intelligence which you may fancy you see a chicken displaying, while hesitatingly clapping its foot upon, and quaintly cocking its eye at, a slip of paper lying in a yard, covered over with algebraic characters and calculations.

Ten Thousand A-Year

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Stereolab – “Tomorrow Is Already Here”
Emperor Tomato Ketchup

I think this was the first Stereolab track I ever heard. It’s still the one I think of when anyone mentions them. They really did have a knack for rhythm, layers, and timing — and all the rest of the stuff as well. Makes me want to listen to this whole album again. Maybe I will.

But he had long been secretly fired with the glory of Hercules, whom he held in the highest esteem, listening with great attention to such as related his achievements, particularly to those that had seen him, conversed with him, and had been witnesses to his prowess. He was affected in the same manner as Themistocles afterwards was, when he declared that the trophies of Miltiades would not suffer him to sleep.

Plutarch, Life of Theseus

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Plaid (ft. Bjork) – “Lilith”
Not For Threes

I’ve had this track for years; it dates from the Audiogalaxy period, when I downloaded things willy-nilly with no context and then promptly forgot about them. This little collaboration is fun and uncomplicated, but you still get a little Plaid-ness poking through now and then. It’s a nice listen that pops up for me once every few months.