Flamingosis, "Those Eyes"
Discogs describes Flamingosis as "chillwave" and "disco", and, sure, whatever. There's some synth pop here, some electro-funk, some straight up pop - the sort of thing that sounds nostalgic without actually really evoking anything specific. In this song, there are actually some Soul II Soul vibes going on here. Which, in turn, brings me to two memories of Soul II Soul. The first is that they were weirdly one of the contemporary (at the time) bands that my dad and I both really liked. He bought his own copy of a couple of their albums, we used to listen to them in the car, it was great.
The second thing is that when I was in high school, I did a summer camp at West Point for a week that was clearly designed to try and indoctrinate us into being future soldiers. It was an absolute waste of the army's time, as I was actually too young to have enlisted once I graduated, but they didn't have their shit together to figure that out. In retrospect, it's kind of amazing that it happened. Anyway, it was a terrible trip. My idiot roommate decided to just "prank" me continually (like, dumb bullshit stuff like hiding my shoes and short sheeting me), I didn't make any friends, and I was just lonely as hell. That, and the marching around. Anyway, I had a walkman with me, and one of the tapes I listened the hell out of was a Soul II Soul record (Keep On Movin'), and it helped keep me sane, along with Flood and 3 Feet High And Rising.
The Nation of Ulysses, "Shakedown"
At the time that this record came out, I thought the strange interludes on the songs were kind of silly. But I've actually grown to kind of like them, as adding some atmosphere to the album. I've praised the Nation of Ulysses here a bunch, it all remains true, both of their albums kick ass.
Orthrelm, "Ov"
Orthrelm is one of the many projects of Mick Barr, who has released music under several aliases (Ocrilim, Octis, others) as well as playing with a bunch of other bands, most notably Five Songs favorite Krallice. On Ov, he wanted to see what would happen if he just explored repitition to the extreme. And while there's something kind of hypnotic about it, I have to say, nobody is going to blame you if you just skip ahead. This first section repeats more or less for 20 minutes, slowly mutating, and it keeps coming back again. The entire thing is 45 minutes, so, manage your time appropriately.
Eels, "Trouble With Dreams"
Still here? Well, good news, it's a perfectly pleasant pop song now. Four and a half minutes! Enjoy!
King Crimson, "Red"
Red marked the last album for the mid-70s incarnation of King Crimson, the second version of the band. There are a lot of folks that would say it's the best incarnation, and I guess I count myself among that number. The albums by this version kind of define prog rock in my mind.