I created one of those Smart Playlists on Apple Music that would tracks all the music I listened to for the last week. And then I realized it wouldn’t track any of the vinyl, CDs, or cassettes I was listening to. And then I tried to stream the physical media while I listened to it, and realized a lot of what I buy (especially the Japanese jazz/fusion) isn’t typically on the streaming platforms – that’s why physical media is so important, y’all. And then David Lynch passed away, and I spent a ton of time living in Julee Cruise’s world, so that’s going to bookend this week’s edition of (Un)Focused Definition.

• Julee Cruise – “Falling”
• Morti Viventear – “Legend, Lore and Legacy”
• Songhoy Blues – “Worry”
• The Damned – “Don’t Cry Wolf”
• Herman Szobel – “Mr. Softee”
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Easily”

Few artists leave such a distinct impression their names become an adjective, but to simply focus on David Lynch’s film and television work would be a disservice to the man. His musical work, particularly with Angelo Badalamenti and Julee Cruise is essential to knowing his art, and “Falling” does just as much heavy lifting in Twin Peaks as any visual…A lot of the reason for my trip-hop phase was finding music that would calm my brain enough to let go of a lot of the anxiety and depression I was (and still am to a degree) suffering from. I discovered Morti Viventear browsing through Bandcamp one day and the album art to Lovecraftsmanship was enough to get me to check it out – its a great, ambient, fade into nothingness soundtrack for the night…I can’t remember what random mix brought Mali desert blues band Songhoy Blues to my attention, but the recent release of their new album had me yearning for this, a more straight ahead rock attack from 2020 with assistance from Matt Sweeny…

No reason is ever needed for me to put The Damned on, but I realized it had been more than a minute, and rather turn to my old standby Machine Gun Etiquette I went with this track off of Music For Pleasure, because that album title defined what I was looking for this week…the music of Herman Szobel was a new discovery for me, and his sole album from 1976 sounds like a very jazz fusion focused Zappa project – in other words seemingly tailored made for me…I know a lot of people despise the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but by now it should be obvious I don’t really care, and “Easily” has that vocal hook that I love in between the verses (what is that when the verse has the title of the song and the chorus doesn’t? I don’t know…).

• Napalm Death – “Instinct Of Survival”
• FKA Twigs – “Figure 8”
• Nubya Garcia – “Set It Free (Featuring Richie)”
• Khan – “Mixed Up Man Of The Mountains”
• Tool – “Invincible”
• Julee Cruise – “Mysteries Of Love”

There is something about the front half of Scum, the debut from grindcore legends Napalm Death that I absolutely love. The whole album’s great, and sure they would get bigger and better almost immediately, but damn that front half, right up to the classic one second “You Suffer” is untouchable…I cannot wait for the new release from FKA Twigs; she’s one of those artists stretching the fabric of what is considered pop and dance music, and her dancing is so magnetic, truly one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. As warmup I’ve been playing her EP M3LL1553X on repeat, and if you’ve never seen it, you NEED to see the 16-minute video she made for it…Eventually my music of 2024 podcast episode will come out with my buddy Dan over at Nine Circles, and you can hear us gush over jazz musician Nubya Garcia, who succeeded this year where the much more anticipated Kamasi Washington didn’t. This track with Richie is a great mix of jazz, funk, and neo soul…

It wouldn’t be a playlist of mine if there wasn’t some kind of prog on it, so here is a fun jammy freakout from Canterbury one-album wonders Khan, featuring Steve Hillage who would go on to be a hit with Gong and Dave Stewart who came to prominence with Egg (Civil Surface was reviewed here) and Hatfield and the North. I made my opinions on Fear Inoculum from Tool pretty clear this week, so it shouldn’t be a surprise I included my favorite track from that album here…And as promised, we end again with Julee Cruise, whose voice was simply angelic. If you believe that sort of thing, the three of them are reunited, making more deliriously sublime music somewhere we’ll all get to hear one day…

Be safe, be good to each other. See you next week.