hickensian / Jon Hicks

Graphic designer for print and new-fangled media, based in Oxfordshire. These are my found sounds…

There is one person in hickensian’s collective.

Huffduffed (70)

  1. Troika #24: Dearly Departed

    A bit of a delay in getting to this episode. I've hesitated over whether to do a full-on Bowie tribute as there are so many brilliant tributes already. It almost felt like jumping on the bandwagon. Instead I've bided my time, and its now evolved into a tribute to three people who've died too early in 2016: Lemmy Kilmister, David Bowie and Terry Wogan.

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  2. Troika #23: Best of 2015

    Its an end of year list! Only shorter! This three-piece won't take long to read or listen to, but it took me a very long time to choose just three from so much wonderful music in 2015. To make it easier, I excluded any music that has already featured in Troika.

    So without further ado, my three most-played are: 'Satellites' by Mew, 'Repetition' by Purity Ring and 'Winter Dress' by The Amazing

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  3. Troika #22: A Hickensian Christmas II

    Ho Ho Ho, Part 2! Here we have another episode of Chrimbo tunes, this time with traditional songs covered by modern bands. These sound a bit more atmospheric compared last weeks more jaunty tunes!

    'Once in Royal David's City' - Sufjan Stevens My favourite carol, performed in a plinky-plonky piano style by Sufjan Stevens (again!). Achingly beautiful

    'Little Drummer Boy' - Low Low specialise in a genre called 'Slowcore', and their 'Christmas' album from 2000 is a mix of upbeat ditties like 'Just like Christmas' to the really rather dark 'Long Way Around the Sea'. This cover of the traditional favourite is somewhere in the middle.

    'The First Noel' - Over the Rhine I first saw Ohio's finest back in 1992 and immediately became a fan. This is taken from their first Christmas album 'The Darkest Night of the Year' from 1996, but they recently released a second called 'Blood Oranges in the Snow'. This is probably my favourite piece of Christmas music - one for Christmas Eve by the fire.

    Intro music is 'Adultery at Christmas' by Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer

    Have a very Happy Christmas!

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  4. Troika #21: A Hickensian Christmas

    There’s so many decent Christmas songs, that one Troika isn’t going to be enough! So I’ve split them over two episodes – maybe more if I pull my finger out!

    ‘Oh Santa!’ – Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer While not strictly ‘explicit’ (there’s no swearing), it is a rather rum tale that minors may find disturbing. Mr B is the inventor of ‘Chap Hop’, a delightful blend of hip hop and chapness. ‘Get behind me Santa!’ – Sufjan Stevens Sufjan is the King of the Christmas song, if you need a good Christmas music that isn’t cheesy (at least unintentionally) you can’t go wrong with his many covers of traditional songs and original Xmas tunes. This one is a conversation between an Anti-Santa curmudgeon, and Santa himself. “I don’t care about what you say, Santa Claus You’re a bad brother breaking into people’s garage”

    ‘A Snowflake Fell (and it felt like a kiss)’ – Glasvegas After two songs played for chuckles, this Troika ends with a more serious tone from Glasgows’ Glasvegas. This is the title track from the Christmas EP, and I love this song, but I particularly put it here as its one of Leigh’s favourites! More crimbo musicality next week!

    (The intro music is ‘Winter Wonderland’ by Lew Stone & His Band)

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  5. Troika #20: Take it Slow

    This time its all about taking it slow. Songs or pieces of music that either sound better, or take on a new form, when slowed down.

    'Feel it all Around' by Washed Out Ernest Greenes' project 'Washed Out' take the backing from Gary Low's 1983 single 'I Want You' and slows it to nice laid back pace, creating this lovely slurry sound. I'm told this is also the theme to the TV Series Portlandia, but I haven't seen that yet.

    'How do I make you' by The Chipmunks To record Chipmunks versions of songs, they have to be sung at a slower pace, so that when sped up, both the pitch and length is correct. So what happens when you slow the whole back down to the pace of the original vocal? Sludgepop! There's loads more on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/alvin-thechipmunkson16sp). Check out 'My Sharona in particular - I just felt it was a bit long for this episode,especially when you see how long the last track is…

    The Jurassic Park Theme - 1000% slower Drawn out to almost an hour, John Williams' theme to Jurassic Park is a beautiful ambient drone epic!

    In this episode I also mention about how Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for Inception was inspired by the slowed down version of Edith Piafs' "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”, a musical motif used throughout the story. More on that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVkQ0C4qDvM.

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  6. Troika #19: Bleeps

    In the early eighties I was really into artists like Jean Michel Jarre, Depeche Mode and Howard Jones. I loved synths! After about '86 I moved away to more guitar-based music, Metal and then a wee folky phase in the early nineties.

    During my last year at college in 94 I started rediscovering electronic music. As well as purveyors of ambience like Aphex Twin and The Orb, I also got into the 'dancey' end of the spectrum, even though I wasn't a fan of dancing or nightclubs. I kind of just nodded my head along,

    So, without interruption, here's the three tracks I've chosen from : Leftfield, Future Sound of London and The Chemical Brothers. Enjoy!

    download

    Tagged with troika music

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

  7. Troika #18: Randoms

    Troika number 18 is a straightforward simpler episode! The only thematic link this time is tracks that I've discovered either by shuffle or playback glitches. Random songs! (Maybe a little bit of swearing too)

    —Huffduffed by hickensian

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