Two versions of a lovely song by a Ukrainian girl called Zhanulka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFWOLUHYj0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UupFHZgnc8E

A selection of pieces by Italian composers of upbeat movie soundtracks (perfect background ambience for a middle-class fondue party!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9TVf6EX0Vs

RIP Julee Cruise, 1956-2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgXlMNDezk4

#1980s #brass #brassband

This is the most ridiculous version of Depeche Mode's early hit Just Can't Get Enough. Looks like Italy. Very enjoyable, and has a surprise percussion section towards the end that you definitely won't see coming. Hilarious stuff!

I am really quite shocked to discover that Nanci Griffith, the American singer-songwriter, died last year. I never heard until now.

In the early 1990s, my mother began collecting music of her own liking. It was always "woman-y" stuff - Suzanne Vega, Emmylou Harris, Beverley Craven, Mary Chapin Carpenter, etc. - so I probably wouldn't have much fondness for it, except that it was so much a part of my childhood. (In those days, albums were played again and again in a household, so one became very familiar with them.)

Out of all the CDs, perhaps my mother's favourites were albums by Nanci Griffith. She had just released the Late Night Grande Hotel album, which was played God knows how many times in the house. Then my mother got her previous album, Storms. A couple of years later came Other Voices, Other Rooms and then Flyer.

Late Night Grande Hotel in particular was full of songs that brought my mother a lot of happiness. Whenever I think of her these days, this album immediately springs to mind. I remember how innocent and happy she seemed whenever those songs played. She would often sing along. I just looked the album up, and the track-listing brings back lyrics and melodies which are painful now for me, but very impressive in how they are so vivid after so long. It must be 25 years since I heard the beautiful title song, or One Blade Shy, or The Power Lines... but there they are, and there is my mother.

I don't know anything about Nanci Griffith as a person, and her music isn't the kind of thing I would seek out... but it is good music, and it touched a very pure soul and made her happy.

RIP Nanci Griffith, 1953-2021.

#femme #1980s

A recording of a lovely concert by Suzanne Vega in 1990. The performances of Luka and Solitude Standing are particularly good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06TXYWtmOzY

#ambient #electronic

Quite good ambient album for while you're working:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvX-fjWhS3A

#synthwave #dark #electro #1980s

More dark synthwave stuff, but this time a bit more experimental.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rpbzp303eo

#2000s #electronic

A really cool cover version of Goodbye Horses by Q Lazzarus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-S5xPonCpg&ab_channel=SanaryTwink

#1980s #blackleatherjacket #rock

A classic by Transvision Vamp:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r26krlXFmOI&ab_channel=MrHaggis64

#1980s #blackleatherjacket #rock

A similar song, by a different band: Crash by the Primitives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y7NGqfZteg&ab_channel=theprimitivesVEVO

And now a more rock version of the Q Lazzarus classic Goodbye Horses, this one by Saigon Blue Rain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvjlYUSE9Cs&ab_channel=SaigonBlueRain

"Each Erasure album, up till 1997, has its own distinct character, and their 1987 album The Innocents has a subtle but definite religious tone."

^ a synthwave mix made by a fan

Dione - July 14th, 2002
------------------------
Stendahl - Parhelion
NINA - Born To Live
Midnight Drift - A Moment
The Tubbs - Fruit of the Passion Tree
Otrebor - Leves
Stendahl - Paraselene
Iammanolis - Time Frame
Sub Morphine - Revenant
Dreamweaver - Know the Name
Metapony - New Generation
FM-84 - Running In the Night
FM-84 - Never Stop
Pfeffermouse - Out of the Haze
Massive Z - Dreamland 2
Iammanolis - Blithe
Lucy Dreams - Silver Lines
Mick Mazoo - Happiness ( Just a Pursuit )
Night Habits - Neon Summer
Calinite - Breathe
Otrebor - Odessa
Sub Morphine - Shoreline
Nightflyer & DX17 - Signal Dust
Mark Vera - Android People ( Low battery mix )
Ceephax Acid Crew - Legend of Phaxalot
Night Habits - Lost Highway

Post mix: actual 1980s Spanish & Italo disco:
Cosa Rosa - Toledo Girl
MBO 99 - Don't Let Me Down Again

Lucy In Disguise - VTWA
Forhill - Division
Sally Shapiro - If It Doesn't Rain

Some more mixes. For the heatwave weekend. Enjoy.