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LAVA LAMP
VA - Lava Lamp, Feelings Within (A Butterboy Compilation) (4 x CDs)
There is something strangely comforting about a lava lamp. You look at it for a moment and nothing much seems to be happening. Then, almost without noticing, a warm shape begins to move. It rises slowly through the coloured liquid, stretches, separates, disappears, and somewhere else another shape begins to form. There is no hurry. Nothing is trying to get anywhere. You simply keep watching. Almost hypnotised.
That was the feeling I wanted to capture here.
Not the obvious psychedelic world of distortion, freak-outs and kaleidoscopic excess, but something softer and more intimate. Music that seems to glow rather than shout. Sounds that have warmth around them. Voices that float in the room. Bass lines that gently pull you forward while everything else seems to be suspended in the air.
So, Lava Lamp, Feelings Within, became a journey rather than a genre exercise.
Some of these recordings are soulful, some are folk, some electronic, some dream-pop, some jazz-influenced, some almost impossible to classify. There are old recordings sitting beside much newer ones, and artists who would probably never have imagined themselves sharing the same musical space. Yet that is part of the pleasure. Like the shapes inside the lamp, they keep changing as they move.
CD1 - The Rise, is where we begin. There is warmth and curiosity here, a sense that something beautiful has just been switched on. Jessica Pratt leads us into the journey, and nineteen tracks later brings us back to where we started, although perhaps we hear everything a little differently by then.
CD2 - The Float, is where the music seems to loosen its grip on the ground. Rhythms become softer, spaces become wider and the voices seem to hover somewhere between the listener and the speakers. Beach House provides the doorway in and out, and in between are sounds that drift, shimmer, pulse and quietly pull at the imagination.
CD3 - The Merge, is where the boundaries become harder to see. Folk can suddenly feel electronic. Jazz can become almost ambient. A guitar can sound like a distant light. A voice can seem to come from somewhere inside the music rather than sit on top of it. Nick Drake begins the disc almost alone and returns at the end with "Northern Sky", and somewhere between those two moments the separate pieces seem to have melted into one another.
CD4 - The Glow, is the late-night part of the journey, when the room is darker and the lamp seems brighter. Soul, trip-hop, dream-pop, electronic music and fragile songs begin to sit together naturally. Portishead opens the door with "Roads" and eventually brings us home with "The Rip", a track that seems to change shape while you are listening to it.
That is really all I hope this collection does.
Maybe you will put it on when you have nowhere else to be. And let one song become another without worrying too much about where the change happened.
I hope the old recordings feel new, the new recordings feel timeless, and somewhere along the way you find yourself staring into the music in much the same way you might stare into a lava lamp late at night.
Watching. Listening. Drifting.
And perhaps, without quite knowing when it happened, feeling something inside you slowly begin to glow. (B)
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Track lists
CD1
01 Jessica Pratt - This Time Around 3:33 2019
02 Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information 4:12 1974
03 Terry Callier - Dancing Girl 9:01 1972
04 Bill Withers - Hope She'll Be Happier 3:50 1971
05 Karen Dalton - Something on Your Mind 3:23 1971
06 Cymande - Brothers on The Slide 4:08 1974
07 Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Everybody Loves The Sunshine 4:02 1976
08 Szabo Gabor - Ferris Wheel 5:30 1968
09 Bobby Hutcherson - Montara 4:58 1975
10 Minnie Riperton - Come to My Garden 3:22 1970
11 Broadcast - Come on Let's Go 3:15 2000
12 Joni Mitchell - A Case of You 4:23 1971
13 Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - Expansions 6:08 1975
14 Sade - By Your Side 4:35 2000
15 Mazzy Star - Fade Into You 4:57 1993
16 Michael Kiwanuka - Cold Little Heart 10:10 2016
17 Goldfrapp - Utopia 4:14 2000
18 Sibylle Baier - Tonight 2:26 1973
19 Itasca - Buddy 2:54 2016
20 Jessica Pratt - Aeroplane 3:35 2019
CD2
01 Beach House - Space Song 5:21 2015
02 Air - La Femme D'argent 7:08 1998
03 Cocteau Twins, Harold Budd - Sea, Swallow Me 3:09 1986
04 Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie 4:40 1996
05 Zero 7 - In The Waiting Line 4:34 2001
06 Morcheeba - The Sea 5:48 1998
07 Galaxie 500 - Strange 3:17 1989
08 Grouper - Heavy Water/I'd Rather Be Sleeping 2:53 2008
09 Brian Eno - By This River 3:03 1977
10 Massive Attack - Teardrop 5:21 1998
11 Talk Talk - I Believe in You 6:16 1988
12 Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall 4:18 2000
13 Cigarettes After Sex - Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby 4:46 2012
14 Lush - Sweetness and Light 5:17 1992
15 Clientele - Reflections After Jane 3:24 2000
16 Spiritualized - Broken Heart 6:38 1997
17 Radio Dept. - Strange Things Will Happen 4:26 2003
18 Duster - Inside Out 2:21 2010
19 Mum - Green Grass of Tunnel 4:28 2001
20 Beach House - Days of Candy 6:16 2015
CD3
01 Nick Drake - Pink Moon 2:04 1972
02 Tim Buckley - Song to The Siren 3:25 1970
03 Linda Perhacs - Chimacum Rain 3:23 1970
04 Robert Wyatt - Sea Song 6:33 1974
05 Nico - These Days 3:33 1970
06 Arthur Russell - A Little Lost 3:18 1986
07 Alice Coltrane - Journey Into Satchidananda 6:31 1971
08 Roy Harper - Another Day 2:57 1970
09 Marissa Nadler - Drive 5:36 2014
10 Durutti Column - Sketch for Dawn I 5:19 1981
11 Fennesz - Before I Leave 4:07 2001
12 Julia Holter - Night Song 4:12 2015
13 Blue Nile - Downtown Lights 6:31 1989
14 Low - Sunflower 4:39 1999
15 Red House Painters - Katy Song 8:25 1993
16 Perfume Genius - Normal Song 3:13 2012
17 Beth Orton - She Cries Your Name 4:47 1996
18 Slowdive - Dagger 3:34 1993
19 Cat Power - Metal Heart 3:59 1998
20 Nick Drake - Northern Sky 3:46 1971
CD4
01 Portishead - Roads 5:09 1994
02 Smokey Robinson - Quiet Storm (Single Version) 3:58 1975
03 Leon Ware - Rocking You Eternally 4:00 1981
04 Ned Doheny - A Love of Your Own 3:45 1976
05 Smoke City - Underwater Love 6:46 1997
06 Hooverphonic - Mad About You 3:46 2000
07 Lamb - Gorecki 6:31 1997
08 Tricky - Overcome 4:30 1995
09 Julee Cruise - Falling 4:12 1989
10 Cranes - Jewel 3:04 1993
11 John Martyn - Small Hours 6:32 1977
12 Moby - Porcelain 4:02 1999
13 Everything But The Girl - Driving 3:58 1990
14 Mojave 3 - Bluebird of Happiness 9:15 2003
15 Elliott Smith - Between The Bars 2:22 1997
16 Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends 3:52 1990
17 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Andata 3:26 2017
18 This Mortal Coil - Another Day 2:54 1984
19 Chromatics - Shadow 4:13 2012
20 Portishead - The Rip 4:31 2008
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Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.
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Interesting concept - think I'm gonna love this one!
ReplyDeleteHi JWDen,
DeleteGreat to hear, this one really is a different kind of wander, built more around atmosphere than genre. If the concept speaks to you, the journey through these four discs should be a lovely slow burn. Hope it becomes a favourite as you drift through it.
Cheers.
Ha, the perennial lava lamp, and now a concept compilation album!!! Only you, BB, could be so artistic and knowledgeable to put this together. Cheers and thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi D,
DeleteThe lava lamp never really goes out of fashion, it just waits for the right moment to glow again. Turning that idea into a concept set was a joy, letting the music drift, shimmer and swirl in its own colours. Really glad it comes across as both playful and thoughtful on your end.
Cheers.
Love It! Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Tinman,
DeleteLove that you love it.
Great to know it connected straight away on your end.
Cheers.
Mind melting. Your trippiest set yet. Imagining I had me a night club and i played this set on my giant JBLs, man, we'd be the grooviest spot in town. Thanks BB.
ReplyDeleteHi Jimbo,
DeleteLove that image, a night club lit up by a giant pair of JBLs, this set drifting through the room and melting everyone’s minds in slow motion. That’s the intended spirit behind these four CDs, a warm, woozy glow that turns the whole place into its own little universe. Really glad it struck you as the trippiest yet.
Cheers.
Amidst the harshness and hardness surrounding our world, the songs of your lava lamp radiate the emotion that is missing—and has been unconsciously forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThank you for yet another original idea BB!
Hi John,
DeleteI love the way you put it, that sense of softness and forgotten emotion returning, almost like a light coming back on inside. Letting the music glow gently in the spaces where the world feels too sharp. I’m really glad it resonated with you on that level.
I am really trying to create compilations that have not been done before.
Cheers.
Brilliant exercise! Thanks a lot BB.
ReplyDeleteHi Hervé,
DeleteThank you, this one was a real pleasure to shape. A bit of an experiment, a bit of a drift, and all about letting the mood take over. I’m delighted it came across as a brilliant exercise on your end.
Cheers.
Wow, this is something else, BB. What a fantastic idea and quite extraordinary selection, including some totally new artists for me. I gave up, ahem, mind-altering products a few years ago but this taps into all the same neurones and has noticeably similar effects on the amygdala. As always, much gratitude and sunshine vibes to you for being such a generous cove.
ReplyDeleteHi harry the dog,
DeleteWhat a wonderful note. If a set can light up the same pathways as the old mind‑altering days, without needing any of the extras, that’s the best compliment this little lava lamp could hope for. The idea was always to let the music drift, pulse and glow in a way that feels both soothing and slightly otherworldly. I am delighted you get satisfaction from this set.
Sunshine vibes right back at you and thank you as always for the warmth and generosity you bring.
Cheers.
Wonderful -
ReplyDeleteI know and really love half of the songs here, it is great to have them all gathered in one compilation-
And I cannot wait to discover the others -
The association with the lava lamp... that’s the BB’s genius.
Cheers
Giulio
Hi Giulio,
DeleteWonderful to hear, half familiar, half new is the balance I try to include. Gathering those known favourites together gives the whole thing a warm centre, and the discoveries around them let the glow spread a little further.
And thank you for the kind words about the lava‑lamp idea, sometimes the simplest image unlocks the whole mood. Really glad it felt right to you.
Cheers.
Cool theme! I'm going to book a time to listen to whole thing and just drift...
ReplyDeleteHi OldDJ,
DeleteSounds like a perfect plan. This set really rewards a bit of dedicated time, just letting the colours and moods drift around you. It’s built for that slow‑motion float, where everything softens and the music does the steering. Hope the full listen gives you exactly that kind of escape.
Cheers.
Thanks for the excellent compilation! Greetings!
ReplyDeleteHi Barbus8,
DeleteThank you, really glad you enjoyed this one. It was a pleasure to shape a set that drifts and glows in its own way, and it’s great to know it connected for you.
Cheers.
Another intriguing concept BB - now for one on those fibre-optic lamps!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Dr Robert,
DeleteThe lava lamp seems to have endless moods to draw from. And a fibre‑optic lamp set… now that has possibilities. All those slow‑moving colours and soft pulses could make for a wonderfully dreamy follow‑up concept. I’ll let the idea simmer.
Cheers.
In Berlin in the 1970s, three accessories were an absolute must in every student apartment: the flokati rug, the hanging lamp made of packing twine (created by gluing the brown string over an inflated balloon), and—of course, as the only “luxury”: a lava lamp! Without these items, your place just wasn’t set up. (Oh, I almost forgot: you also needed several huge, ugly glass ashtrays that were always overflowing with cigarette butts.) … And now, right here: the lush soundtrack to this trip down memory lane, 50 years later, but not a moment too late. Thanks, BB! Best, TC
ReplyDeleteHi TC,
DeleteWhat a perfect snapshot of the era, I could see that student apartment instantly. The flokati rug, the twine‑wrapped balloon lamp, the lava lamp glowing in the corner, and those heavy glass ashtrays that somehow always looked like they’d survived a small earthquake. It’s amazing how a few objects can summon a whole time and place, especially Berlin in the 70s, where atmosphere was half the story.
I love that this set works as a soundtrack to that memory. Fifty years on, but still carrying the same slow, warm pulse. Your reflections always add a layer of lived truth to these compilations, and I’m grateful for that.
Cheers.
A brilliant compilation, the perfect antidote for me in nervous times. Most of these I've never heard before and I'm really enjoying the calming beauty, great song compositions and the expert mix room engineered craftsmanship of these songs. This hits the spot. Thanks BB!
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
DeleteWhen a set becomes an antidote in nervous times, it means the mood and the flow are doing exactly what they were meant to. These tracks have a calming beauty baked into them, and the craftsmanship behind so many of the recordings is extraordinary once you settle in and really listen.
I’m glad the unfamiliar pieces hit just as strongly as the ones you knew. If this compilation delights, then that’s the best outcome I could hope for.
Cheers.
Another classy comp. You never fail to come up with unique collections, a tantalising mixture of familiar and gems yet to be discovered. Cheers BB!
ReplyDeleteHi zipper,
DeleteThank you, much appreciated. Putting together these sets is always about finding that balance, the familiar pieces that anchor the mood, and the gems waiting to be discovered that give the whole thing its lift. When someone calls a comp “classy,” it means the flow, the choices, and the feel all landed just right.
I am delighted you feel that way.
Cheers.