skinslife

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The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Greenfields
Damon Albarn in good album shocker! who would have thought it? Harry Enfield (Episode 6 director and general hero to me when i was ten years old) includes several tracks from their rather awesome album to act as a general template to the episode...
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Wobly Tech - Supreme Idiot Techno Mayhem / Pipe Down, Perkins / One for the Slags Two for the Wags.
Who is this mystery composer? Rumours are going round the Skins office that it's Toby. Whoever it is, the track works great. I'd like to think the music used in this club is us trying to be clever in anticipating the revival of late 90s trance and hard house and in anticipation of that ever happening what do people think of the term nuphoric?
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Yomanda - Sunshine - Club track
In a homage to Kevin and Perry Go Large, Harry includes some classic euphoric house. You should be able to find stuff like this on ministry of sound compilations from 1998.
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Amen Uk - Passion - Club track
See above.
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Fat Segal - Me Gut
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Buraka Som Sistema - Yah (Tony comes out of the toilet)
The DJ in the club has changed and has started playing some up to date stuff without any sense of irony. Buraka reinterpret Angolan Kuduro through the lens of other urban dance music like 90s Detroit Ghettotech.Fact Magazine called this track the best 12" of last year and you can see why with this brief snippet. They're playing at the Hoxton Bar and Grill and Fabric this week so everyone in London should make their way down to it. I'll certainly be there. Check out the amazing track above.
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Depeche Mode - I Feel You (Tony and Sid stare out)
Boy, can you feel the tension? This is from Depeche Mode's 90s period when most people had stopped listening to them. Thankfully however Skins head-honcho Bryan Elsley didn't stop and was able to include this awesome track in the show.
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Fat Segal - Untitled

This is the first of many uses of Fat Segal's wonderful track. Check out my mini interview with him:

Alex; You tend to write a lot of tracks for party scenes, but for some reason not this episode. How often do you go clubbing and what are your favorite clubs?

Fat Segal: Rarely. They are too loud. I prefer darts.

Alex: Are you worried about Wobly Tech stealing your job?

Fat Segal: No

Alex: Right. Tony's theme shows a distinct influence from the New York Minimalists like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. Would you say this is true and in what way did it aid you in structuring the track?

Fat Segal: That's a kind comparison. Its only recently that I've really started to gravitate towards that kind of approach, something Bryan (Skins creator)introduced me to. We were essentially just trying to pick out the rhythm of Tony's journey, a gentle rhythmic backbone to his progress, with slight development where it felt right. It was quite difficult to suppress my ever present urge to throw a 210 bpm hyper-programmed slice of amen over the top and call it a day. But since I did that track I've found myself honing and simplifying things, for the better. Quite nice really.

Alex: Phillip Glass famously wrote the theme tune to Candyman do you aspire to work on any TV shows besides Skins? Many people believe Hollyoaks could do with a new theme tune....

Fat Segal: Want to release a record on some label first, then maybe more TV. What is 'Hollyoaks'?
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Vampire Weekend - Walcott (Tony arrives at Uni)
My friend Marissa went to University with Vampire Weekend. They introduced her to loads of cool music like Dirty Projectors, Rachel's and Old Time Relijun which she in turn passed on to me. That's one of my few claim to fames besides being in the glowing company of Internet Mogul Toby Welch almost every waking hour.
This episode's editor James 'The Slasher' Hughes chose this track, which may or may not be about a footballer who has yet to live up to his hype....
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The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Untitled (Tony walks around uni some more)
Harry's template is set firmly in place as Tony wanders around probably just as confused as we are.
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Broadcast - Valerie (Tony and Beth (that's her name!!!!) walk around uni some more)
Broadcast are one of my favourite bands ever. For me, they've never made a bad track and this is the first of many that you'll be hearing throughout the series. It's taken from their amazing Haha Sound album which came out on Warp some years ago...
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The Good, The Bad and The Queen - Greenfields (Tony and Beth drifting in the pool)
Need i say any more about GBQ except it still works well and that Harry picked up some fantastic shots here. I don't think Skins has ever looked so pretty.
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7HZ- fup Fup - The group leading Tony away from the pool
7HZ are from Leeds and reference the inventive side of late 90s Post-Rock like Gastr Del Sol, Dirty Three and Labradford there's no Mogwai to be seen here. They recently released a split with the rather awesome David Thomas Broughton. Kudos goes to James 'The Slasher' Hughes for the find. Check out their record label here.
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Holy Fuck - K Rhythm Pt 1 (Tony and Beth running away)
Mixing krautrock rhtyhms and improvised electronica Holy Fuck make amazing music. This is from their debut EP on Dependent Records.
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Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Jollity Farm (Matt and Toby's room)
An interesting fact for you here, the characters Matt and toby are directly modelled on Fat Segal aka Matt Simpson and Skinslife editor Toby Welch. The resemblance is uncanny really and we would have got them in to do real life cameos but apparently they made demands that would make Beyonce look humble. (This is a load of crap. I don't smoke a pipe and Matt does not look that good naked. Trust me. Toby)
Anyway Harry Enfield chose this track, i've absolutely no idea how to describe it but check out the link above...
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DJ Vadim - Sufferin Blues (getting stoned)
Getting stoned means you have to listen to trip-hop? Weird, eh?
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Bonobo - Ketto (getting stoned and tatooed)
Did you know that if we stayed in Tony and Matty's room for a few more scenes we would have heard other stoner favourites including Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' and Portishead. It's true you know.
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The Good, The Bad and The Queen - The Good, The Bad and The Queen (Tony gets some)
The culmination of Harry's GBQ template. an interesting fact for you here, the girl who plays Beth employed Fat Segal as a bodydouble.
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Sparklehorse - Sad, beautiful world (Tony on train)
Tony's back, but he's not a brash, cocky twat like before. He's thoughtful, sensitive and a myriad of other adjectives mums generally use about their children. Or to put it another way; he's no longer a Ben Schiffer he's a Toby Welch. (I Love you, Alex. Toby x)
James 'The Slasher' Hughes' lo-fi indie hero Sparklehorse makes the scene even more poignant.
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Holy Fuck - K Rhythm Part 2 (Club)
More of the wonderful holy fuck.
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Lambchop - Is a woman (Tony leaves club)
Editor James Hughes continues with the alt-country propaganda with the inclusion of Lambchop. Check the beat change in here. I really like it.
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Ramones - Oh, oh i love her so (End Credits)
Although the Ramones' lasting influence is more over fashion than music (i wonder what Sid, Susie and Edward have to say about that) and even though they were supporters of Ronald Reagan they're still actually quite good.
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If you've forgotten who Fat Segal is, watch this again. It's him and Nick and Daniel having a chin wag.

Funky

DJ NG and Apple

Since Funky house renamed itself as Funky a few months ago it has suddenly become a very exciting scene. Loads of Grime producers are making the transition and there might even be some of it in a later episode of Skins. DJ NG and Apple are my two favourite producers you should check them both out.

Dr. Meaker

Bristol native Dr Meaker in his rather humble words makes 'dance floor smashers' and it's very difficult to actually disagree with him. He's about to release on new single on 12" and MP3 on April 12th called 'Moving and Grooving' the interface remix. We have a world exclusive clip of the track here

High Places

It's like the ultimate mark of a hipster to claim they knew a band before Pitchfork gave them a big review and i have to say i knew them over a year ago (check me). They sound like if Beat Happening listened to Tropicalia artists like Tom Ze.

Sagar Project

Liverpool's Naveen Sagar makes contemplative folk music that is sure to get a bigger audience in the near future. Check out the Sagar Project website for more information on Nav and the awesome music he is making.

The Skallywags

East London's finest purveyors of lifestyle indie. There's a guy in our office called Chris whose sole job seems to be plugging Skallywags' distinct brand of raucous rock and/or roll.

El Guincho

I actually discovered these guys through Pitchfork but i still think it's one of my favorite albums of the last few weeks. I've just heard that they've signed to Moshi Moshi who seem to be monopolising all fun variations on indie pop at the moment including The Mae Shi and Best Fwends.

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Minotaur Shock – Muesli (Chris sat in teacher’s office)

Skins are good friends with Dave Edwards aka Minotaur Shock. This is taken from his old album Maritime on 4AD. You should keep an eye out for his next release later this year. You should check out his myspace here and thank you to 4AD for letting us license this.

Ben Says: Dinosaur (sic) Shock are a great new band from Bristol. Alex is a cock from Stoke.

Charlie Parr – Track 4 from Rooster/King Earle (Chris and Jal talking)

Legendary bluegrass musician Charlie Parr keeps the energy ticking over here. Buy all of his stuff, move to a wood, start wearing socks with your sandals and grow a beard if only to annoy the perpetually face-hairless Skinslife editor, Toby Welch.

Toby says: Alex is a cock from Stoke...

John Fahey – Yellow Princess (Chris and Josie comedic montage)

Wow Ben Schiffer is funny when you give him two months to sit around watching DVDs to steal jokes for his script. Playing over this montage is Yellow Princess from John Fahey’s 60s period. In the 90s he had a kind of renaissance with musicians like Jim O’Rourke (of Gastr Del Sol, Sonic Youth and many many other bands fame) and Cul De Sac's Glenn Jones, it’s when he produced his best work and i'll try to get it into Skins for you soon.

Beck – The Information (We go to the ads)

The only way I’d ever let Beck on the show without kicking and screaming is if he keeps his Californian Scientoligist mouth firmly shut. Here he does and the random guitar work sees us out to the break to give us a brief respite from Ben’s jokes.

Camera Obscura – Keep It Clean (1st track in club)

Whilst Ben gives us a sly bit of social satire on the state of the perennially easy target of the ‘Emo’ Camera Obscura are playing in the background. They’re one of my favourite indie pop bands and you should buy more of their stuff from Elefant records.

Madder Rose – Ultra Anxiety (Upbeat track)

Woo, the party is beginning to kick in and editor James ‘The Slasher’ Hughes gives us some raucous indie rock from his youth. Then on stage appear...

We need Leads

We Need Leads play indie rock with a touch of Ska, but thankfully not like Less Than Jake. As Ben mentioned above i'm from stoke and have always been kinda jealous of Scousers. They've got a lot more going on for them. More songs of theirs continue whilst we’re in the back of the club. Also check out this link.


Jonathan Richman – When she kisses me (Chris and Jal get it onnnnnn…)

Ben isn’t all about cheap gags at the expense of people he wipes off his shoe as he leaves his west London mansion to get a taxi to Heathrow for his weekly holiday, sometimes he can get all emotional. We use the legendary Jonathan Richman over Ben's touching scene.

Ben Says: This is a lovely song for a lovely moment… Chris and Jal’s first kiss. An interesting fact is that Jonathan Richman was the guy who sang the songs in ‘There’s Something About Mary’. Alex only decided to use this track after I told him that.

Ben Harper - Steal my Kisses

More slightly left-field singer-songwriter-y stuff. There's another singer-songwriter that i know of who makes some excellent stuff. Check it out here.

Luther VanDross - Never Too Much (At the estate agents)

More crap to make Ben’s scene funnier as we laugh at the idea of Luther Vandross being on the radio. Please note how the nobhead estate agent guy dances in time to the music, it please the episode's editor James 'The Slasher' Hughes very much. Also check out the similarities with Trainspotting when Renton moves to London and becomes an estate agent. I can't believe we didn't make more of Ben's reference.

Louis Armstrong – West end Blues (Vaughan takes people round a house)

The music here is used to highlight the contrast between Vaughan (that's his name!!!!) and Chris’ exploits. This is taken from Louis Armstrong’s later vocal period.

Kid Koala – Basin Street Blues (Chris as an estate agent)

Kid Koala may creep scarily close to being part of backpacker hip-hop, but who cares about that this track helps us to juxtapose Chris’ rather awful first attempt in a comedic fashion. Well done Ben!

Dandy Warhols – Shakin (Jal and Chris get it on)

I think it might be the law for TV makers to have to include a Dandy Warhols song at some point. You should check out their wikipedia page here to to see why.

Ben Says: A couple of months ago, I told Alex that he should check out ‘The Dandy Warhols’, he’d never heard of them and now they are his favourite band. Also, for the record, I told him to use Arcade Fire in ep 4 and you know how everyone likes ‘Come Pick Me Up’ by Ryan Adams at the end of ep3? Well that was my idea too.

David Sylvian and Ryuici Sakamoto – Forbidden Colours (Chris falling asleep and Cassie peeling an apple)

Ex-Japan member David Sylvian teamed up with legendary film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto to create this amazing track. It’s one of my favourite songs of the 80s and was only a matter of time before I got it in somewhere.

Moira Stewart – Top Ten Drinks (Chris is doing well montage)

Moira Stewart make joyous indie pop that was just perfect for this scene. You should definitely buy it from Distraction Records and this.

Ben Says: When Moira Stewart’s not reading the news or double dropping yokes like a mad one, she creates dance tracks like this in her bedroom. I think Alex met her in the chill-out room of The Egg in Kings Cross, so that’s how this ended up in Skins.

Bjork – I see who you are (Cassie speaks to Jal)

This is from Bjork’s massively underwhelming Volta album. I remember being really excited about it; guest spots from Timbaland, Chris Corsano, that dude from Lightning Bolt Brian Chippendale, Konono no. 1 and others basically read like a list of the coolest musicians in the world. Oh well this is one of the better tracks from the otherwise disappointing album.

Fat Segal – Red Lid and Agent Duck (Chris’ Party)

You know how I promised that Fat Segal would write us an indie pop anthem? Well he hasn’t been persuaded to do that yet but he is still churning out party bangers faster than we can keep up with him. you should check the drum roll he uses in one of the tracks, he was very proud of that.

Gogol Bordello – Occurance on Border (Chris nailing Angie)

The episode’s editor James ‘The Slasher’ Hughes has been fallingover himself trying to get Gogol Bordello’s brand of ‘Gypsy Punk’ into the show and he finally got round to it. It’s thankfully not like Dan ‘The Butcher’ Gethic’s obsession with Sigur Ros though.

The Rakes – All Night Disco Party ( Party before we go to the ad break)

An indie party anthem from a few years back. I can almost picture my friend Andy’s skinny limbs badly dancing to this as I type.

King Creosote – Fly by the seat of my pants (Everything’s going wrong montage)

I think Ben Schiffer must have been watching loads of Top Gun and Rocky films whilst he was writing this as I can’t recall another Skins episode so reliant on the classic technique of the montage. All I can say is Rocky 4 has my favourite montages, especially when Rocky's training in the snow, what does everyone else think? Fence Collective chief singer songwriter (not in the twatty Australian gap year student sense) takes us through with a rather amazing track.

Ben Says: This is the perfect soundtrack to the sight of Nic Hoult in Water Wings and a pair of Speedoes. Hopefully on the extras for series 2 you’ll see the deleted scene where Alex stood in for Nic and scared the children stiff with his one gigantic, deformed testicle.

Calexico – Untitled 2 (Tension music for Jal’s meeting with Chris)

I once saw Skins series one veterans A Hawk and A Hackaw support Calexico. A Hawk and A Hacksaw as always were amazing but Calexico weren’t great, they played loads of random alt-country stuff. However if they did more tracks like this I probably would have really liked the gig.

Charlie Parr - Track 4 - Chris gets up off the bench

Guts – The Living is easy – (End Credits Montage)

Guts are on the rather awesome Wax On label, which is run by George Evelyn of Nightmares on Wax fame. This was originally a George Gershwin song but is pretty amazing in its own right.

Ben Says: I’m going to be honest and leave the childish baiting of Alex for a moment and say I’m really pleased with the music that he chose for this episode. Chris is an ancient, strange soul so I think all the bluesy, fingerpicked guitar music suits his off-beat nature perfectly. And it’s all summed up in this absolutely brilliant ending track by Guts. If you don’t like this song, you probably don’t have a soul.

Paper Heroes – Jenny Jones

A track use at Skins liked it so much we’re actually using it in episode 9. ‘Jenny Jones’ is great upbeat indie pop that is probably better than most of the stuff in the charts it’s influenced by.


Absorb Absorb is as far as I’m aware the best Grime MC north of Manchester, but then again he may be the ONLY Grime MC north of Manchester. Regardless of that he’s got a great flow and I’d love to be able to convince Posh Kenneth to take on his MC Toby Welch alias so they can perform together at one of the parties.


Catch Collective

They’ve posted in the Nottingham party section and look to be set to get as big as tourmates These New Puritans. They also have the band Suicide in their top friends on Myspace, which I think is very, very cool. Click on the link above to check them out...


GATR

GATR are a ridiculous breakcore act from Glasgow. There’s a lot of love in the Skins office for breakcore and it mostly comes from Skins creator Jamie Brittain and the musical hero that is Fat Segal. Imagine this at the end of a Skins party, I’d expect it to kill.


Jamie Draper He calls himself 8 Bit meets Grime and with that sumnation I don’t have to write say anything else but we love this track.

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Spektrum – Kinda New
Spektrum are cool. Ricardo Villalobos remixed their track ‘Freakbox’ which is basically the ultimate seal of approval as far as I’m concerned. ‘Kinda New’ is a great way to kick off what is in my opinion the episode with the best music yet.


Tony sings Mousse T's ‘Horny’
Tony seems a bit of an idiot when he sings this song. But more importantly what’s the name of that song that he sings in ‘About a Boy’? That was pretty cool. Answers on a postcard, please.


Sigur Ros - Untitled
See the episode 3 music guide for our editor Dan “The Butcher” Gethic’s explanation as to why we use Sigur Ros in the episode.


Gravenhurst – Hollow Man
Like I’ve said many times before I’m quite bored of most guitar music, Gravenhurst, however, are another exception. This is from their last album called ‘The Western Lands’. If you’re really into this band you should also check out the ‘Fire in Distant Buildings’ album, it included a rather amazing Kinks cover, a feat that hasn’t been achieved since The Raincoats covered ‘Lola’ and that was in the early 80s. All of their albums are available from Warpmart.

Once inside Michelle’s Step-Dad’s house you should check out the really bad jazz that is playing. It’s from a library CD called Audio Networks (they sell music to the telly) for all of you obsessives out there...


Klezma Villanova - Dancing Bear
Klezma Villanova are an upcoming band from Twickenham. Influenced by Ska/Metal/Klezma and Punk they're sure to get big soon so check out their myspace for more info.

Electrelane - At Sea
Electrelane’s break up at the end of last year was shit news as they’ve been a favourite of mine for ages. Their live shows were getting better all the time and
‘No Shouts, No Calls’ was one of last year’s best albums. This is the first of two tracks that we use from the album. Check out their official site here and thanks to the wonderful Too Pure Records for letting us stream the track.


Beach House – Auburn and Ivory

You know how I just said Electrelane made one of my favourite albums of last year?
Well, Beach House’s eponymous debut was also one of the best. We use three tracks from this album in the episode and they're all streamable here on Skinslife. They’re releasing their second album soon on the very cool Car Park Records.


Henry Mancini – Lujon
Something classical. Not really sure to be honest. Google it...


Pavement – Rope and Carrot
Pavement are the ultimate indie band. If you haven’t developed a mild obsession with them there's little chance you're be a proper music geek (which is perhaps a good thing, it's hard work...) Also lead singer Stephen Malkmus’ solo track ‘Pink India’ namedrops the wonderful city of Stoke-on-Trent, which is something that I’ll always be thankful for. They see us up to half time...


Electrelane - In Berlin
More of the amazing Electrelane to begin the third part of the show. They’re playing on the radio in the car. I’ve no idea which character chose it but my money’s on Anwar, he’s always been the coolest.


Arcade Fire – keep the car running
Arcade Fire are the world’s biggest indie band. It was only a matter of time before they were featured in Skins. Also check the rather literal title; 'Keep the car running' whilst they're driving in a car, geddit?


Animal Collective – Fireworks
Animal Collective are easily one of the best bands of the decade. I don’t know anyone who’d think otherwise and when I played them to the episode’s editor, Dan ‘The Butcher’ Gethic, he got very excited and decided that maybe Sigur Ros weren’t needed for this scene. This is taken from their seventh album Strawberry Jam, which is available from Domino Records. Look out for more Animal Collective tracks in later episodes.


Beach House - House on the Hill
Once again we use Beach House.


Battles – Atlas
Wow, this episode’s music list almost reads like a list of the best songs of last year. This is taken from Battles’ excellent debut ‘Mirrored’ from arguably Skins’ favourite label Warp records. You should buy the album as well as their EP's from Warpmart.


Scarlett and Sketch – If you’re not the one
This is by far my favourite sappy song ever. If I didn’t have a shit singing voice, this would be my karaoke song of choice. Daniel Bedingfield has kinda disappeared since this song, but who cares; it's great.


Beach House - Childhood
Yet again, we use Beach House.


Sigur Ros - Untitled
Dan gets his way again as we use Sigur Ros for the fourth time in two episodes...


XTC – Stupidly Happy
XTC came from the poppier side of Post-Punk, whilst bands like Pil and The Pop Group were pushing boundaries XTC were content to sit back and make classic guitar pop.


The Stranglers – Skins Deep
I've absolutely no idea about The Stranglers. My original plan was to let the episode's editor take you through it. However he's a busy man and he couldn't do it. So i called my mum, Gillian - all she said was that they dressed in black and were a punk band. Oh well. Maybe Dan may be less busy in the week and be able to tell us something about them and why they're in the show.