Music Times believes that it's never too late to go back and try something old. Throwback Thursdays will go back and pull out an album that's at least 10 years old, so that you can find something new, or revisit something you've forgotten about.
Week of 11/28/2013
WHO: Primal Scream
WHAT: Vanishing Point
WHEN: 1997
Concept albums are great, but there's a tendency for performers to make the concepts as complex and convoluted as possible. Mastodon's Crack The Skye is amazing from a musical perspective, but trying to keep up with the actual storyline requires a decent amount of illegal substances. Primal Scream came up with a simple idea for 1997's Vanishing Point, and executed it to perfection.
One thing the band members had in common: a love for the cult classic car film Vanishing Point. One problem they had with the film: Considering that it's a flick full of car chases and high-speed maneuvering, the group felt that the "hippy music" featured on the soundtrack didn't fit. So they set out to fix it by crafting a blend of rock and electronica that brims with the same tension and pulsing adrenaline of the film (which we highly recommend as well).
Take, for example, the album's single "Kowalski." Named after the film's protagonist, the track combines the digital krautrock of Kraftwerk with the organic krautrock of Can, blending in audio samples of the film's famous oratory from Super Soul.
