CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

So, it's like this. The CSFF Blog Tour is featuring The Orphan King and Fortress of Mist by Sigmund Brouwer this week. There are no good 'orphan' songs, and I've already done a Top Ten King Songs; there aren't ten decent 'fortress' songs, and I've done a Vaguely Mist-y Top Ten.

Which means there is only one logical course of action: retell the story of The Orphan King through a list of ten songs. Without actually reading the book or anything (a feat which puts me in mind of an English assignment on To Kill A Mockingbird way back when).

Peter and the Wolf – Tommy
In which we meet our misfit hero drawing comics in his physics book.

Salem – Monastery
Where our hero seems to have been taken in by some reclusive psychadelic rock playing monks.

James – Destiny Calling
Covered in chocolate and sold to the neighbours... isn't that how all these fantasy novels start out?

Dinosaur Jr. – Quest
Tommy's destiny, it seems, involves going on tour with some indie rockers from 1980s Massachusetts.

Borderline Disaster – Thief & The Knight
With his supporting acts, of course. There's probably a borderline disaster at this point in the story too, coincidentally.

Franz Ferdinand – Katherine Kiss Me
And the obligatory groupies romantic interest.

Toyah – The Druids
Then in walk the druids and that punk popstrel that went to the dark side and started narrating Teletubbies.

The Lovely Eggs – The Castle
Having battled the Immortal Teletubbies, our intrepid heroes reach their goal: an isolated castle somewhere in the vicinity of Lancaster, guarded by an indie rock band with a girl vocal.

New York Dolls – (There's Gonna Be A) Showdown
Because that's the way these things work.

Madness – The Prince
Admittedly, the title suggests that upon defeating the New York Dolls and taking the castle he becomes king, but Madness didn't write a song for that.

Do you know, if that's the way the Merlin's Immortals really goes down, I might even take a look myself...

Enjoy the tunes, then take a look at yesterday's post for the list of tour participants whose homework I copied in order to put them together.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Honestly, the lengths I go to in order to bring a little musical relief to the tour... at the moment I'm battling a teething baby, a snow-crazed seven year old and a dubious broadband connection to plunder the darker recesses of Spotify.... I just hope you appreciate it. Which you will; it turns out WetWetWet were a very long way from the only band to record a song called Angel Eyes (which, by a curious coincidence, is the name of the book being featured on the tour this week).

So here we go, in honour of Angel Eyes by Shannon Dittemore, the Angel Eyes Top Ten:

10. Clinark – Angel Eyes
Because it's, um, snowing, we'll start with a little reggae to get us feeling all summery and Berumdan.

9. Ella Fitzgerald – Angel Eyes
An old jazz classic that kept cropping up... and will crop up now and again in the Top Ten. I've gone for the Layo & Bushwacka Remix, but purists are welcome to hunt down an alternative.

8. Night Horse – Angel Eyes
I so wanted this to be a big-haired hard rock cover of an old jazz standard. But it isn't. 

7. Symmetry – Angel Eyes
According to his website, Symmetry is a songwriter/vocalist/producer from Earth. I don't think he wrote the chorus though.

6. Coldspell – Angel Eyes
Swedish metal Chris Martin tribute act. Possibly.

5. Psychostatus - Angel Eyes
An instrumental prog-rock number by an unsigned artist called Greg. I bet Shannon Dittemore didn't see that coming.

4. Sadistik – Angel Eyes
Sadistik is the second white rapper in this list. That Vanilla Ice has got a lot to answer for. (Contains swears.)

3. Worldwide Groove Corporation – Angel Eyes
A chilled out electronic reworking of that old jazz classic...

2. Submotion Orchestra – Angel Eyes
Kind of like Portishead, but from Leeds. Actually that doesn't really do this track justice, it needs to be heard.

1. The Czars – Angel Eyes
And we finish, predictably, with a sublime acoustic cover of.... an obscure Abba track. Trust me, it's better than the original.

Here's the Top Ten Angel Eyes in all it's glory, if you do nothing else, check out the top three. And then visit the rest of tour, following the links on yesterday's post. Then - and only then - can you go and listen to some WetWetWet, if you really must.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

After all the frantic novelling of November, and the returning to real life (interrupted by all the Christmas stuff), internetting has sort of tailed off a little this month. But do not fear, for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is back this week, featuring Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. Starflower is the fourth in the young adult fairytale series, The Tales of Goldstone Wood, which seems like a good excuse to send the Spotify elves off to choose this weeks soundtrack: The Top Ten Fairytale Songs.

10. Wob – Rapunzel
Look, I just wanted an excuse to say 'Wob'. Try it, it's oddly saisfying. Wob.

9. John Otway – Rumplestiltskin
Angry Cockney-punk version of the Grimm tale... Give us the baby!

8. Outlandish - The Emperor's New Beat
Today's obscure foreign entry: Danish hip-hop. Slightly sweary.

7. Rush – Cinderella Man
Because we love a bit of prog rock around these parts.

6. Green Jelly – Three Little Pigs
Is this so bad it's good, or is it just bad? I'm honestly not sure...

5. A-ha – Cry Wolf
There's something about listening to a-ha that takes me back to my youth, growing up in the little country town of Morten Harket...

4. Grass Widow – Goldilocks Zone
This is one of those tracks that is just better listened to than described.

3. David Bowie – Beauty and the Beast
I don't even know why I do this bit since you can just listen if you're interested...

2. Spin Doctors – Two Princes
I have no idea if there's actually a fairy tale called Two Princes, but there must at least be one about two princes.

1. Evanescence – Snow White Queen
Wob.

And you can listen to all this with the gadget below, and while you enjoy that, pay a visit to some of these bloggers, also discussing Starflower: Gillian Adams Beckie Burnham Nikole Hahn Bruce Hennigan Janeen Ippolito Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

Tuesday Tunes - The Ballad of Matthew Smith: First Draft Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the book has been slowly developing as I’ve been writing; some of the tracks are things I've listened to while writing, others tracks that just sprung into mind at particular points.

The tracklist is more or less in the order events happen in the current draft, which is to say not even close to the final order. It’s a fairly electic mix too: there’s some Blur, Blondie, the Beastie Boys and the B-52s, and a bunch of artists who don’t begin with a B, as well as several versions of the Blue Danube Waltz, Moonlight Sonata and If I Were A Rich Man.

And by this point, you’ve either got the idea, or you never will.

Either way, here's the Official Soundtrack in all its first draft glory:

Tuesday Tunes: Red Dwarf Top Ten

As this blog has been on something of a Red Dwarf theme lately, it was kind of inevitable, wasn’t it, that we would get here: The Top Ten Red Dwarf Songs.

10. Vincent Gene – Cat Man
Who knew it was going to start off all rockabilly?

9. Psychonaut – Starbug
I couldn’t not have a tune about Starbug, even if this one is rather longer than strictly necessary. It does change a little in the second half, but you know, just skip ahead when you get the idea.

8. Marc Gunn - The Mining Ship The Red Dwarf
OK, they get the name of the ship slightly wrong, but its an Irish drinking song about the Cat. How can you not love that?

7: Born to Hula – Red Dwarf
Actually has nothing to do with Red Dwarf, but sounds very cool.

6: Disasterpeace – Kitty Cat and Spacey Man
Sounds like it should be the tune from the Mega Drive game of Red Dwarf. Heck, it might be, for all the research I did!

5: Republica – Holly
Indie dance rock tribute to Norman Lovett. Probably.

4: Altered Images – I Could Be Happy
The relevance of this song will not need explaining to Red Dwarf fans, of course.

3: Missing Andy – Dave
We haven’t had a song about Lister yet, so he can have this one. It’s kinda fun, but messes with his backstory a bit…

2: Tom Songs – A Rimmer
This one actually is about that A Rimmer. And it’s pretty good too!

1: Ccada Luge – Red Dwarf
Fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun. The coolest version of the theme tune I could Spotify at short notice.

Tuesday Tunes: The Spirit Well

As you may know, this week the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring The Spirit Well by Stephen Lawhead.

So, naturally, today we present the Top Ten Tunes from the Spirit Well:

10. Amy Macdonald: Human Spirit
Yes, it is a bit too early for songs about Christmas, but this has only the fleetingest mention.

9. Lacuna Coil: My Spirit
Not as awesome as the gothic metal cover of REM's Losing My Religion which appears on the same album. You should totally go listen to that later.

8. Doctor & The Medics: Spirit In The Sky
Seriously, more churches should sing this on a Sunday morning.

7. Wave Machines: Punk Spirit
Nothing very punky about this track, apart from the fleetingest swear in the first verse. You wouldn't have even noticed if I hadn't warned you, but hey, it's a family show.

6. The Waterboys: Spirit
Celtic folk rockers, wannabe sailors and fans of C S Lewis, apparently.

5. Blackmill: Spirit of Life
Because every Top Ten needs six minutes of gloriously obscure chilled-out electronica that I wouldn't have experienced had I not been exploring Spotify in putting this together.

4. Brian Eno & David Byrne: The Jezebel Spirit
Completely insane, sampled exorcism and all. From the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which is well worth a listen if you like this kind of weirdness.

3. Rush: The Spirit of Radio
Canadian prog rock. And why not?

2. Hawkwind: Spirit of the Age
OK, it might take a couple of minutes to get going, but it's worth it for the sci-fi lyrics worthy of Jonathon Coulton. If it weren't so long, it might have squeaked the top spot...

1. Tori Amos: Smells Like Teen Spirit
But I do love a weird cover version, and this pairing is about as odd as it gets... phenomenal result though.

Here they all are for your enjoyment:

While that's playing, let's not forget there's a blog tour going on. Follow it here:

Jim Armstrong Julie Bihn Red Bissell Jennifer Bogart Thomas Clayton Booher Thomas Fletcher Booher Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Karri Compton Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Jeremy Harder Bruce Hennigan Timothy Hicks Janeen Ippolito Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Joan Nienhuis Lyn Perry Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Rachel Starr Thomson Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Contrary to whatever impression this blog has given you so far, this week the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring The Telling by Mike Duran.

The 'Telling' of the title is what the book's protagonist calls his uncanny ability to foresee the future and know peoples’ deepest sins and secrets, and so, it being Tuesday and me not giving a fig if this might seem controversial on an ostensibly Christian blog....

It's the Top Ten Psychic Tunes!

10. Jah Wobble: Psychic Life
Apparently Mr Wobble took his name from the way Sid Vicious said John Wardle (his real name) when he was drunk.

9. Men Without Hats: Telepathy
A Canadian bloke singing over the top of a Commodore 64 playing The Buggles. Probably.

8. Crash Test Dummies: The Psychic
It's basically that Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm one from 1993, with words. About a girl with psychic powers.

7. The Killers: Read My Mind
The 57th Greatest Song of All Time, yet somehow only the 7th greatest Psychic Song. I bet XFM never saw that coming.

6. Ned's Atomic Dustbin: Premonition
We had some great bands in the English Mid-west back in the 90s. This is no Kill Your Television, but the sound of Ned and his indie rock bandmates takes me back to my mis-spent youth.

5. Cud: Take The Time And Read My Mind
Another band straight out of my Sixth Form days, and this is really quite a pleasant listen... which probably means it's a song about dying horribly or something.

4. Hawkwind: PSI Power
The original cosmic rockers tell us about the downside of being psychic.

3. Ozric Tentacles: Psychic Chasm
I don't listen to enough Ozric Tentacles. That's going straight on my to-do list: listen to more Ozric Tentacles. Followed by: say Ozric Tentacles in the course of normal conversation.

2. Kenickie: Psychic Defence
Yes, we're back in the 90s again, this time for an insanely hummable little brit-pop number.

1. Blue Oyster Cult: Veteran of the Psychic Wars
So, you take a Hawkwind lyric, get Michael Moorcock to write a story about it, and set it to music for a hard rock band. How was that ever not going to top the list?

And with any luck, you should have no excuse whatsoever for delving into the weirdness that is my musical taste:

While that's playing, let's not forget there's a blog tour going on. Follow it here: Jim Armstrong Noah Arsenault Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Theresa Dunlap Victor Gentile Nikole Hahn Bruce Hennigan Jason Joyner Julie Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Jessica Thomas Steve Trower Dona Watson Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring Eye of the Sword by Karyn Henley, which sounds to me a lot like the kind of fantasy novel I don't read. I am, however, reliably informed that it has angels in it, so, obviously, it being Tuesday and all....

It's the Top Ten Angel Tunes!

10. Shaggy: Angel
I'm sure he didn't sound like that in What's New Scooby Doo....

9. Belly: Angel
And we open on some good old-fashioned jangly indie pop like they had in the 90s.

8. Space: Avenging Angels
In the top ten purely for its use of the phrase 'kick-ass angels'. Which, as of this moment, I've bagged as a title of a forthcoming story.

7. Nightwish: Wish I Had An Angel
Finnish symphonic rock, just because we can.

6. Spiritualized: Angel Sigh
Followed by more early 90s indie weirdness, this time with more of a prog-rock edge.

5. Madonna: Angel
Ah, happy days, when she wasn't just too darned old to be doing this stuff.

4. Ash: Angel Interceptor
That should be the title of a story too.

3. Moby: Homeward Angel
And on to the now traditional electronic offering... We should get Moby on here more often, shouldn't we?

2. U2: Angel of Harlem
Some cracking tunes this week, if I do say so myself! Classic U2 is often hard to beat though...

1. Eurythmics: There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)
But this song, which will forever be linked to a wet family holiday in Cornwall when I was eleven, was always a shoe-in for the top spot.

Now Spotify the Top Ten to check out what aural delights you're missing out on - oh, and why not browse some of these links, because I'm sure there was a reason for all this self-indulgent Spotifying...

Julie Bihn Thomas Fletcher Booher Keanan Brand Beckie Burnham Jackie Castle Brenda Castro Jeff Chapman Christine Theresa Dunlap Cynthia Dyer Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Janeen Ippolito Jason Joyner Carol Keen Emileigh Latham Rebekah Loper Shannon McDermott Karen McSpadden Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Anna Mittower Mirriam Neal Nissa Faye Oygard Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Jessica Thomas Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler

Tuesday Tunes: Top Ten Shades of Grey

Don't misunderstand this as milking the tenuous link. Oh no. What's happened is I've realised that this Top Ten malarky is actually quite fun, so why only do it once a month? You never know what you might stumple upon while exploring Spotify.

And while I probably could have created a Top Fifty Shades of Grey, that would have been rather hard work so I've settled for the usual ten.

10. Taproot: A Golden Grey
Taproot were discovered by that Fred Dibnah from Limp Bizkit. What more do you need to know?

9. Question: Earl Grey
A mellow little jazz number that Captain Picard would have liked. Jazz, Earl Grey, smooth. Engage!

8. Karen Matheson: Early Morning Grey
Are there any Gaelic speakers in the house? I really hope she's not swearing....

7. Trivium: A Grey So Dark
Sorry, your volume control is going all over the place today isn't it? We're going all thrash metal for a few minutes now.

6. Deerhunter: Fluorescent Grey
It's a slow starter, but once it gets into its indie-prog-rock groove (apparently they prefer the term 'ambient punk') it's actually pretty good.

5. Haywyre: Grey
Every top ten needs at least... well, at least one piece of electronica, so, um, here you go.

4. Kreidler: European Grey
More electronica, this time from Germany.

3. Spirit Caravan: Melancholy Grey
Low tempo, high noise doom rock... melancholy with teeth. Turn it up to eleven, and let the street know you're feeling blue.

2. Fat Jon the Ample Soul Physician: Berlin Grey
Seriously, that should be the name of a book, not a hip-hop producer. And as for the music, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be smooth jazz or some kind of trip-hop... Catchy tune though.

1. Kirsty Hawkshaw: Battleship Grey
This is exactly what I'm talking about: I've never heard of Kirsty Hawkshaw, but the combination of her vocals and the knob-twiddling of Tiesto that give this track a slightly Portishead-esque sound, and I'm hooked. (Turns out Kirsty was the voice of Opus III about 20 years ago, if anyone's interested.)

Now Spotify the Top Ten to check out what aural delights you're missing out on - and who knows, maybe I'll find another 40 to add to the playlist at some point...

Tuesday Tunes: Back to the Planet

I promised (threatened?) to unleash this on the unsuspecting blogosphere a while back, so, while I decide what to do with Tuesday Tunes from here on, please take a moment to enjoy what I still laughingly call the Sci-Fi Song of the Week.

This week, the only song I own a copy of on the original 12 inch orange vinyl. Yes, surely such a thing could only have happened in 1993!  Back to the Planet present their punk rock ode to the evils of pop culture, Teenage Turtles, in which are posed the eternal question: Is your brain on the blink?

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is highlighting Beckon by Tom Pawlik, which carries the tag line 'Come. And live forever.' In which spirit it is time to introduce the Top Ten Songs About Living Forever, painstakingly chosen by a mysterious tribe who have been holed up in a cave for centuries with nothing but Spotify to teach them about the way of the world above ground.

10. Jeff Buckley: Eternal Life A song inspired by anger over "the man that shot Martin Luther King, World War II, slaughter in Guyana and that weird millionaire in Beckon, Wyoming who was kidnapping immigrants."

9. The Primevals: Elixir of Life The Scottish garage rock band categorically deny hunting dinosaurs through anomalies. Which is kind of a shame, because taht would be an interesting TV show.

8. Ookpikk: Soda Fountain of Youth Every top ten needs at least five minutes of quality electronica, and, well, who can resist a title like that?

7. Queen: Who Wants To Live Forever? Which is, in fact, the question asked by the book of the month.

6. Arrested Development: Fountain of Youth Unnecessarily catchy and suitably summery funky hip-hop.

5. Madness: Forever Young They just are, aren't they? I mean, Suggs is like 50, but he's still the naughty schoolboy from Baggy Trousers.

4. Dave Davies: Life After Life (Transformation) I couldn't come up with a suitable Kinks song for this month, so here's a 2002 solo offering from Dave. It couldn't be much further from the power chords of You Really Got Me if it tried though....  

3. Pretenders: Forever Young Not a cover of the Madness song. A cover of a Dylan song.

2. Gym Class Heroes: Live Forever [Fly With Me] More catchy hip-hop, of a slightly mellower flavour this time.

1. Evanescence: My Immortal Stunningly, hauntingly, gorgeously beautiful. But enough about Amy Lee, enjoy the music :)

Now Spotify the Top Ten, and pop back to yesterday's post for the links to the rest of the tour.

Tuesday Tunes: LZ7 & Matt Redman - 27 Million

Yes, I know what day it is, but I got a gold star for blogging in the face of adversity last week, so you can't reasonably expect timely posting this week as well.

Anyway, this week rather than trawling the Tube for some footage of Back to the Planet (next week - possibly even on Tuesday) I'm going to share a little video, which I hope speaks for itself, and then ask you to go and download the song.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today - that's more than at any time in history. If you want to belong to a more civilised society where this kind of thing does not happen, download the song from your preferred digital media stockist and help raise awareness of the size of the problem, and money for the A21 Campaign to help fight it.

I'll even make it easy for you - here are some links: iTunes (UK) Amazon Play.com 7 Digital iTunes (US)

If not, I want to know what more constructive use you found for that 99p.

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Hmmmm let's see, we need a sci-fi song for the week before Christmas. I wonder if we could possibly find something suitable, possibly involving Fountains of Wayne....

Sci-fi Song of the Week

Let's see, we need a sci-fi related song - I'm feeling a little space-y this week - for two weeks before Christmas. I feel sure thing exists - perhaps in Japan...?

Tuesday Tunes: The Chorus of Champions

You see what I did there? It's the blog tour for Corus the Champion, see, and it's Tuesday, which means tunes, so... Anyway, here's the Top Ten Champion Choons.

10. Top Cat: Champion Deejay
One of Hanna-Barbera's more enduring hip-hop artists, despite initially having to change his name to Boss Cat in the UK for copyright reasons.

9. The Low Anthem: Champion Angel
You know, now I come to think about it, I'm not actually sure Hanna-Barbera even had a record label.

8. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: Champion
I can say with reasonable certainty that no Top Ten has yet had 3 and a half minutes of, well, brass, but who knows, we could be setting a precedent.

7. Hammerfall: The Champion
Because you gotta love Swedish rock music. Unfortunately this track is about a minute and a half longer than strictly necessary.

6. The Polyphonic Spree: The Championship
Continuing the quest for eclecticism, have some choral symphonic pop rock. At least, that's what the interweb calls it, but I'm sure it was wrong about that Top Cat thing.

5. The Chevin: Champion
There's something a bit U2 about this track, at least if you cover your ears and squint.

4. Reverend and the Makers: Heavyweight Champion of the World
And he's probably not even a real vicar, just some bloke from Sheffield, whatever the interweb tells you.

3. Fatboy Slim: Champion Sound
The bloke doing the vocals on this is Lateef the Truthseeker. I wonder if he knows Top Cat?

2. Wire: Champs
That's more like it: good old fashioned British punk rock. It might be less than two minutes long, but at least you know where you stand.

1. Jonathan Coulton: We Are The Champions
Well if the interweb is to be believed, this was really written by some bloke called Freddie Mercury, but we all know how reliable that is, so here's the original version by the original geek-rocker.

Spotify the Top Ten now - you know it makes sense.

And don't forget that all this jolliness is part of the CSFF Blog Tour for Corus the Champion by D Barkley Briggs, which continues this way:
Gillian Adams Noah Arsenault Beckie Burnham CSFF Blog Tour Carol Bruce Collett Theresa Dunlap Emmalyn Edwards April Erwin Victor Gentile Nikole Hahn Ryan Heart Bruce Hennigan Christopher Hopper Jason Joyner Carol Keen Krystine Kercher Marzabeth Shannon McDermott Rebecca LuElla Miller Eve Nielsen John Otte Donita K Paul Sarah Sawyer Kathleen Smith Donna Swanson Rachel Starr Thomson Fred Warren Phyllis Wheeler Nicole White Rachel Wyant


Sci-fi Song of the Week

Because he finished our Top Ten, and because it just ain't Christmas 'til you've heard Chiron Beta Prime.

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

It seems like a while since I've done this, so without any further ado, let us celebrate the CSFF Blog Tour for The Bone House with.... the Top Ten Bone songs:

10. Guns n' Roses: Dust n' Bones
And we start with some classic 80s hard rock - contains a swear near the end. (Those naughty rockers eh?)

9. The White Stripes: Bone Broke
A nice loud blues rock number by Jack White and his, er, female relative of some sort.

8. The Raconteurs: Store Bought Bones
A nice loud alt rock number by Jack White and a few musician pals.

7. Elbow: The Bones of You
They should have renamed themselves 'Funny Bone' just for today, in a vague attempt to be humerus...

6. Radiohead: Bones
For some reason, bone themed songs seem to be more popular in the indie/rock genres than elsewhere. So here's some from somewhere near Kit Livingston's home town. Probably.

5. Brian Eno: Bone Jump
Electronic offerings are thin on the ground this week, but here's a practically non-existent ambient piece from the master of the art.

4. Alice in Chains: Them Bones
Heavy metal meets grunge - turn it up to eleven!

3. George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Bad to the Bone
Theme tune to the movie 'Christine'. I had a car called Christine once. Evil it was. And a Mini.

2. The Dead Weather: Bone House
Well, it had to be didn't it? And, hang on, isn't that Jack White again?

1. The Kinks: Skin and Bone
A warning against extreme dieting, in Ray Davies' inimitable style:
She don't eat no mashed potatoes, She don't eat no buttered scones Stay away from carbohydrates You're gonna look like skin and bone.

Almost forgot, which would be a shame now Spotify has reached the colonies: The Playlist!

Don't forget to visit the rest of the CSFF Blog Tour (full list yesterday) as they look at The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead.

Sci-fi song of the week

It was in the Top Ten Bone songs; it was also in Terminator 2 (I need your coat, your bike, and your underpants, that bit). It's George Thorogood and the Destroyers....

Tuesday Tunes: Blade Runner

It must be said that no review of Blade Runner is complete without at least a passing mention of Vangelis and that awesome soundtrack.

And because I love this kind of music, especially for writing to, here's a special extra review for the soundtrack, which was also re-released in 2007, along with the Final Cut movie, in a 3-CD special edition.

Entitled Blade Runner Trilogy, the first CD is the same as the original soundtrack release, the second CD contains previously unreleased music from the movie, and the third CD is new music inspired by the movie.

Of the three, the first disc is still the best; from the fantastically spacey main title, to the chilled out sax of the love theme, to the cool end titles, the best known tracks are all here in full, along with some less well known gems. For me, the best trackshere are those which use smaples from the movie: Blush Response, with its samples about the Voight-Kampff machine, and Tears in Rain, Batty's last words, set to a suitably melancholy piece of music.

Disc two is the usual film score fair, atmospheric pieces with descriptive titles like At Mr Chew's and Deckard and Roy's Duel, but done in a Vangelis way, which is to say, pretty awesome.

Disc three, on the other hand... disc three is where things start to get odd. Good, but odd. Launch Approval and Mail from India are personal favourites for futuristic weirdness alone, but elsewhere the Blade Runner influence comes through in the music - Sweet Solitude has the same chilled sax sound as the original love theme, and Perfume Exotico has the same ethereal vocals as Rachel's Song. It could perhaps be seen as the soundtrack Vanelis would have made had the movie been shot in 2007 rather than just remixed.

For fans of sci-fi music, movie soundtracks, Vangelis, or ambient electronica in general, it's a worthwhile investment.

And for your sci-fi song of the week, you will of course be enjoying the main theme from Ghostbusters.

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

Inspired by Charles Yu, here some nice early 90s shoegaze rock for your enjoyment.

Sci-Fi Song of the Week

A tenuous link to sci-fi, maybe, but inspired by the last Space Shuttle mission which is going on at the moment...

It's a love song, in a vaguely space-age style.

Tuesday Tunes: Space Whale Migration

This weeks choice for Sci-Fi Song of the Week is, apart from not being a song in any conventional sense, inspired by yesterday's mini-review of a story about space whales. So here for your enjoyment, a little piece of shoegazey post-Porcupine Tree instrumental greatness, Space Whale Migration by The Daysleepers.