STACK #191 Sep 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

Talking at a technology conference in 2012, perennial rocker Neil Young said, “Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl.” Playing records is a total experience. It demands – and deserves – your full attention, from the album artwork, a canvas in your hands to be admired and scrutinised, right through to the reassuring bump and crackle as the needle grips the groove for the first time and that analogue warmth suffuses the room.The STACK Record Club has been created to celebrate and appreciate the classics. So whether you’re new to vinyl or a prodigal child returning to the fold after a sabbatical in the digital wasteland, please join us as we hand-pick a selection of essential long players for your burgeoning collection. Words Paul Jones

The Beatles – Revolver (1966) On April 6, 1966, work began on what would become The Beatles’ seventh studio album, Revolver . The first track to be recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio 3 was the revolutionary Tomorrow Never Knows , a song featuring sampled tape

John Lennon had been the dominant songwriter on the band’s previous album Rubber Soul , but Paul McCartney, in an inspired period of creativity, delivered the bulk of Revolver ’s high moments; Eleanor Rigby , Got to Get You Into My Life , and Here, There and Everywhere are three of the best songs he would ever write. The album also marked another first, with George Harrison contributing three songs to the final cut including the explosive opener, Taxman . Revolver marked a fertile period for The Beatles, who worked feverishly in unison with complete studio freedom to deliver a pioneering pop record that turned the music world on its head, and continues to do so. TOP TRACK: Tomorrow Never Knows FAST FACT: The Beatles embarked on their final tour the same month that Revolver was released, but didn’t play any songs from the album.

loops and a sonorous drum track that would signify an expansive new direction and a psychedelic portent to the band’s unfurling aspirations. Tiring of the rigours of touring, The Beatles were now focused solely on exploring the limits of studio technology

in a bid to match their artistic ambition. New techniques were devised; notably, the ability to automatically double track vocals

and the implementation of backwards recording (using

instruments and voices in reverse) that would feature heavily on the album.

Portishead – Dummy (1994)

Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988)

If fellow Bristolians Massive Attack loosened the lid to a new and unique UK sound in the early ‘90s, then Portishead proved to be the spoon in the honey. Borrowing from the base elements of hip hop, DJ Geoff Barrow crafted a rumbling groove, combining a drum machine,

Released just a year after Public Enemy’s debut, Yo! Bum Rush the Show , had introduced the imposing trio of Chuck D, Flavor Flav and Terminator X to the world, It Takes a Nation was the second album most artists could only ever dream of producing. The band – and their famed production crew, Bomb Squad – assembled a potent collection of tracks drawn from a myriad of

samples, scratching, thick vinyl crackle and tape loops into a hypnotic sonic odyssey that threatens menace like an oncoming storm. Paired with Adrian Utley’s unpredictable jazz guitar and inimitable vocalist Beth Gibbons’ bleak and melancholic ruminations, Dummy is an intelligent and entrancing record; a work of genius. TOP TRACK: Strangers FAST FACT: Dummy had already sold 150,000 copies in the US before the band’s first tour there.

samples harvested from far and wide, spearheaded by Chuck D’s pugnacious, politically-charged rhymes. The influential It Takes a Nation heralded a golden age of hip hop and remains as relevant in 2020 as it did 32 years ago. TOP TRACK: Rebel Without a Pause FAST FACT: The album title, It Takes a Nation of

Quick Tip: Even new vinyl requires cleaning before you play them for the first time, to remove the solution that record plants use to separate the vinyl at the end of the production cycle.

Millions to Hold Us Back, was pulled from a line in Raise the Roof from Public Enemy’s first album.

66 SEPTEMBER 2020

jbhifi.com.au