What stops pulled out will stir the metaphorical pot?
By The Landlord
“In my eyes and ears, the organ is the king of instruments.” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin.” – Suzi Quatro
“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
“A sound like a sound of thunder rolled,
And the heart of a nation stirred—
For the bell of Freedom, at midnight tolled,
Through a mighty land and was heard.
And the chime still rung
From its iron tongue
Steadily swaying to and fro;” – William Ross Wallace, The Liberty Bell
“Music can also be a sensual pleasure, like eating food or sex. But its highest vibration for me is that point of taking us to a real understanding of something in our nature which we can very rarely get at. It is a spiritual state of oneness.” – Terry Riley
“For me, electronic music is like cooking: it's a sensual organic activity where you can mix ingredients.” – Jean-Michel Jarre
Rich, dark, and sizzling with flavour. Something indulgent, something to savour. Like a thick stew, or a heady brew, a spicy soup, a dripping pudding or big slab of moist, layered cake, this week's topic might, at first, make you stare, and wonder, and hesitate. Or perhaps instantly dive in.
But it requires a sensual rather than a cerebral response. It's less a lyrical lookup, more seeking out music that makes you, at least metaphorically, vibrate, and even salivate. It’s about feeling.
What would you stir in? Vegetarian preferred …
So what does 'meatiness' mean? There's really no real objective measurement of it. Fleshy? Yes, but not necessarily meat of course, so it could mean hefty, solid, strong, beefy, substantial, sturdy, hearty, potent. In this context we're talking about music with a physical and sensual presence, something that makes your lips purse, your fists slightly clench, your forehead sweat, your mind and heart race.
Another slice of musical metaphor
What kind of elements might create this? It could be down to the sheer musical scale, or the complexity of instrumentation and words combined. Perhaps it's the layering and richness of sound, the volume, the dynamism, punch, strength or sensuality. Could it be a huge symphony or a gospel choir? A special voice, vibrating, squelchy, humming, thrumming electronics, a big build, an extraordinary solo, or just a slapped or twanged bass? Is it flabby or honed down to its fighting weight? Overall it's music that stirs your heart, and stares right into your face. That's entirely down to your taste.
Perhaps a starting point might be a particular bass sound. We've already heard from Suzi Quatro, but what meaty flavour of lower tone does it for you? For that deep, dark sound, we could get into the science of it, the use of a low-pass filter to cut out higher registers, and some filter resonance to add depth and and tone, but it's far more fun to just get into the music. There’s many ways to create this and for guitarists there’s even a guitar pedal called the Glou-Glou Steak:
But let’s get down to real musicians on the four-or-more string. For example, might you find meatiness in the peachy squelch and dark twang of Jean-Jacques Burnel's Fender Precision and his Marshall amp? Or maybe Jaco Pastorius's fretless Fender Jazz sends your taste buds sizzling? Or Charles Mingus’s acoustic upright? Or the various thrumming skills and sounds coming out of a powerful Rickenbacker 4001, by the contrasting skills of the fast fingers of Yes's epic prog figure, Chris Squire, or the more visceral style Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister?
Perhaps it's Flea's signature Fender going full shirtless, or the high fret fingering of Peter Hook combined with those drum machines? Maybe it's a reggae or funk bass that stirs you as meaty? It’s very subjective indeed. The whole topic was suggested to me by this week's guest playlister revealed below, who inspired by that Who compilation album title – Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy, (ignore the beaty and bouncy for another time) so perhaps you might also think of the Ox himself, the great John Entwistle.
The Ox in action: John Entwistle
But bass is by no means the only way into this topic. Big organ sounds, electronica, great voices, certain guitarists, or a strong, distinctive voice might do it for you as meaty. The key here is to suggest examples, and above all bring a little justification with your nomination.
Electronic music might also be a prime source this week, and there are endless examples of meaty sounds to hear on published songs, or indeed that can be sourced on the internet, such as as these examples. What electronica stirs you fulsome and fleshy?
Jean-Michel Jarre: “Music is a sensual organic activity where you can mix ingredients”
To take this a little deeper, let's delve into the dark and murky waters of Peter Strickland's extraordinary 2012 feature film, Berberian Sound Studio, set in 1976 during the heady days of Italian horror film-making, in which Toby Jones plays a mild-mannered but skilful British sound engineer named Gilderoy, who travels to Rome, under contract to work on the post-synchronised soundtrack to The Equestrian Vortex, a tawdry tale of witchcraft and murder set inside an all-girl riding academy. It's a story of his expertise in recording the gory sounds of chopping melons and cabbages, while increasingly intimidated by a deranged director and femme fatale actress.
Last year Strickland’s latest feature, Flux Gourmet, another bizarre exploration of the sensual in sound, body and food, was in fact inspired by one of his side projects, The Sonic Catering Band, whose performances brought sizzling frying pans and microphones and electronica into one big messy but mesmerising experience, with tracks such as Lactic Sugar Dream or Hindu Monastery Breakfast. And their website includes all kinds of sensually sonic recipes such as the sonic joys of making Borsch soup.
So then, it’s time to take this tasty recipe of a topic over to this week’s sonic head chef, and welcome return to the table for MussoliniHeadkick! Please place your meaty songs and music in comments below, with full and flavoursome justifications on their sensual qualities. Deadline is 11pm on Monday UK time, for the full playlist serving next week. Let’s get those taste buds tingling and those sensual ears ringing to ultimately satisfy.
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