Ilectro Boogie Woogie

Some 1980s Tamil film music for you today. Not that old chestnut, I hear you say. I'm afraid so. 

I was rooting around in the bargain bins of a local second-hand record shop recently when I found a copy of "Ilectro!: Euphoric Electronics and Robotic Funk by Maestro Ilaiyaraaja", released on the always interesting Finders Keepers label in 2013. The cover alone was enough to persuade me to hand over the money.

To quote from the liner notes: "This compilation focuses on Ilaiyaraaja's growth in the mid-1980s as a confident young composer adding freak pop fuel to the flickering flame of Kodambakkam’s [an area in Chennai where studios were located] Kollywood film industry, while embracing domestic synthesiser technology and fusing the power of electro and synth pop to his Carnatic canon". So now you know.

Ilaiyaraaja is still going strong at 82 and earlier this year became to first Asian film composer to have a symphony performed in London (with the Royal Philharmonic). Very impressive and a far cry from his 80s days.

But we're here to dance. Let's gather together the cast of thousands and get the show started.

"Unithaan" - Ilaiyaraaja 

"Aththi Marakkili" - Ilaiyaraaja 

Ilaiyaraaja had perhaps the biggest hit of his illustrious career in 1991 with his music for the film "Thalapathi". The soundtrack was included in The Guardian's list of "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die" and the song "Rakkamma Kaiya Thattu" was placed fourth in a BBC World Service poll of "World Top Ten Popular Songs of All-time" (although with "Believe" by Cher at #8 I'm not sure how much faith to place on this list). 

Here are the hits.

Legendary Cowboys

Last Wednesday night found me and Mr F in the tiny upstairs room of the Betsey Trotwood public house in London's fashionable Clerkenwell for what turned out to be an excellent double bill. Famed music journalist and editor Allan Jones was sitting just a couple of feet from us and he seemed to enjoy himself so that is good enough for me.

The headliners were Slow Motion Cowboys. I have their 2013 album "Buzzard Songs" and their latest, "Wolf Of St. Elmo" has been very well reviewed so I was expecting them to be good and I wasn't disappointed. They are touring the UK until the weekend and if they are playing near you I would recommend popping along.

The band have been compared to all sorts of people - Townes for the oldies, Sturgill for the kids - but what some of the new songs reminded me of most was "American Beauty" era Grateful Dead. Or maybe I'm just making that connection because head honcho Pete Fields and much of the band originally hail from San Francisco. 

A special shout out to guitarist Barstool Brown for having what may be one of the greatest country names of all time.

I knew nothing about support act Legends Of Country but they were great fun. The Legends are essentially Jof Owen (ex The Boy Least Likely To) and assorted chums gone country. Some of the lyrics are a little tongue in cheek but you can tell its true love.

They have released two albums to date, "Anything But Country" (2022) and "Talk About Country" (2015). When I bought the most recent album after the show Jof very kindly added the other one for free - an act of generosity that as he noted may explain why he hasn't made a fortune yet. I'm enjoying them both.

Jof mentioned that they don't play live very often and I'm not sure there is a fixed line-up, but on Wednesday it included all three members of Girl Ray, who as regular readers will know are one of my favourite bands of recent years. It turns out that Sophie from the band played bass on "Anything But Country" and she and Iris provided backing vocals on a late era The Boy Least Likely To single.   

Sophie has unfortunately broken her foot in a traumatic cycling incident so had to play sitting down. The upside for her was that she was able to wolf down a burger and a large portion of chips during the set. Maybe some vinegar on the bass strings adds something to the timbre. I'm not an expert.

If you want to recreate the evening in your own home just fall off a Lyft bike, invite Allan Jones round, order in some chips and beer and then play these tracks loud. There is one from each of the albums mentioned above.

"Trees Of San Francisco" - Slow Motion Cowboys

"Catch And Release" - Slow Motion Cowboys

"If That's What It Takes" - Legends Of Country

"(That's What We Talk About When We) Talk About Country" - Legends Of Country