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On The List: Field Music

Yes, but these go up to 11

I consider all of the music below to be completely extreme. Extremely good to start with. But also extremely fearless, extremely rock, extremely pop and extremely out there. Dance to it, be spooked by it, wallow in it.

- David Brewis

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Tracks

1. Peter Gabriel - Intruder

First track on his third album. Absolutely bizarre drum sound concocted by Gabriel, producer Steve Lillywhite, engineer Hugh Padgham and Phil Collins (before Another Day In Paradise). There are no cymbals on the entire album. Gabriel tends to write songs from inside a moment instead of trying to sing some long narrative over music.

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2. Deerhoof - Milk Man

One of the most outrageous records made by a rock band for a good few years. I think it's really catchy - and if this can be catchy then surely anything has the potential to be catchy.

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3. Prince - The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker

Prince has made plenty of weird records - this is one of the weirdest and best. Some squelchy synth chords, a malfunctioning drum machine and brilliant – and sometimes brilliantly silly - singing.

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4. Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day

Occasionally, the sword and sorcery elements and over-the-top blues lust aspects of Zeppelin are too much for me, but this is one of their perfect songs. There's nothing else like it. It's their poppiest song and they don't use any of the 'heaviness' tricks which rock music has been mired in since the 70s, but it's still flipping huge. All drummers should be force-fed John Bonham and then be forbidden from ever trying to play like him because, let's face it, you just can't.

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5. The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing

If they'd made this with a squelchy synth and a broken drum machine, it would sound as strange as Prince. As it is, it encompasses everything in music which makes you want to dance.

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6. Todd Rundgren - International Feel

From his 5-years-too-late acid trip album, A Wizard, A True Star. The whole first side of the album (even the rubbish bits, of which there are several) is brilliant. Great records define their own logic and this does exactly that.

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7. John Lee Hooker - Dimples

John Lee Hooker's music also has it's own logic - the rules that we associate with blues - don't exist at all for him, 'cause he's goddamn well got a song to sing he's goddamn well gonna sing it. In fact so many of the conventions we associate with music are just irrelevant when it comes to this. The band obviously don't know when he's going to change chords and probably neither does he; the tuning is....mmm...suspect. It's not tight, you can't tell what he's singing and even if you could, it wouldn't matter.

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8. Foreigner - Cold As Ice

Imagine a time when million selling, middle-of-the-road music was actually way out - totally original, even when it was embracing and squeezing cliche for all it’s worth. Well, it’s certainly not now, unless Foreigner were the 70s equivalent of Gnarls Barkley. There's a comparison they probably haven't heard before.

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9. The Futureheads - Face

Why don't people seem to notice how original the Futureheads are? Nobody has or is making music like this. Their first album was an explosion of novel songwriting and arranging ideas played with real, honest verve. The second album left a chunk of the novelty behind but their songwriting and arranging, and the singing in particular, was even better - this song was my favourite from the album. In fact, it's one of my favourite songs.

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10. Steely Dan - Any Major Dude Will Tell You

This is a recent discovery - people have been telling me to check out Steely Dan for years and I've only just succumbed. So far, I've been underwhelmed by the patchiness, but this song (and a couple of others from Pretzel Logic) is superb. A combination of silky smooth and morosely bitter.

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11. QUEEN - Flash

When I hear the words "Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the earth" the world is complete and the earth has already been saved. I can't believe this was a hit single. It's off the dial. You can't dance to it (other than air punching), there's no song to speak of and it's consists mainly of one note and a bunch of Brian Blessed soundbites. No rules is good news.

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On The List: Field Music

Yes, but these go up to 11

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