 Various Birds Long considered a pioneering album in the area of ambient music, Common Bird Songs has only just now made its way onto British airwaves, thanks to nearly incessant sampling from it by such influential techno artists as 808 State and Simon Bar Sarcasm. Long out of print and very hard to find, this album is now available only as an import, which is ironic since all of the birds recorded are native to North America. Once again, British humour at its most sublime. The structure of Songs is fairly simple: wimpy narration (rumoured to be the voice of Birder extraordinaire Modine Modest) introduces each bird call, followed by one or more "songs" by the appropriate bird. The album flows flawlessly from beginning to end, and both Paul McCartney and They Might Be Giants have proclaimed it "essential" in the inspiration of "Fingertips" and Abbey Road, respectively. It's a wonderfully relaxing bird call album and worth picking up if you find it. Plastikman is rumoured to have thirty copies of this album, which he employs on thirty turntables to create dense layering of bird noises, available now on the import single "My Cat Fucking Hates Me."
Review by The Goodbye Guy |