Category Archives: Essential Listening

Essential Listening: The Plateau Phase – Crispy Ambulance (1982)

Posted on 28/02/2026 by Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard

Snobbery and decay, when it comes to music consumption preferences, for some this is the only way. Adopting such a tribalistic paradigm becomes ridiculous when taken to the extreme – because Leonard Cohen or Joni Mitchell aren’t Bob Dylan to … Continue reading →

Posted in Essential Listening | Tagged 80's, Alan Hempsall, Are You Ready, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Comsat Angels, Concorde Square, Crispy Ambulance, Death from Above, Essential Listening, Federation, George Michael, Grosse Point Blank, Ian Curtis, Jobs for music snobs, Joni Mitchell, Joy Division, Leonard Cohen, Mark E. Smith, Morrissey, New Order, Post Punk, Scott Walker, Simon’s Ghost, The Cure, The Fall, The Plateau Phase, The Presence, The taste police, Tony Wilson, Transmission, Travel Time, White Music, Wind Season, XTC | Leave a comment

Essential Listening: The Best Releases Of 2025

Posted on 21/12/2025 by Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard

I’m not sure what’s more concerning, that, without checking, I can’t remember all the albums which made my Best Releases Of 2024 list, or that it seems only yesterday that I was writing that column. From now on, instead of … Continue reading →

Posted in Essential Listening | Tagged 2025, 808 State, Akira, Alex James cosplaying a country Tory, Avocados costing £2.50 each, Björk, Blade Runner, Blur, Boards Of Canada, Boomkat, Brainwashing, Brexit, Canadian Loon, Christmas, Colombian, David Rawlings, Decius, DJ Sprinkles, Do You Radio, Ducktails, Duval Timothy, Erasure, Essential Listening, Factory Floor, Fat White Family, Gillian Welch, GlenGarry GlenRoss, Goldie, Hugh B, I Care Because I Do, Iceland, Japanese, KiF Productions, Lias Saoudi, Live From 71, Los Pirañas, Múm, New Year, Nostalgia, Oasis, Pigs, Queerification & Ruins; Collected Remixes (Expanded Edition), Reissue, Richard D. James, Richard D. James Album, Robert Wyatt, Shrinking Twix, Simon Fisher Turner, Sochi Terada, Soft Cell, Stereolab, Still Out, Terre Thaemlitz, The Modern Pop Ensemble, Timeless, Tiny Desk Concert, TV Anime & Manga New Age Soundtracks 1984-1993, Una Oportunidad Más de Triunfar en la Vida, Vinyl snobs, Vol II (Splendour & Obedience), Warm Leatherette, Will Long, Wishful Thinking, Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, You Go To The Middle Of Nothing | 1 Comment

Essential Listening: Brown Sugar – D’Angelo (1995)

Posted on 31/10/2025 by Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard

Most folk only truly start to worry about their own mortality when people in their age cohort start to die. And it may be that the first one doesn’t set off the dread and fatalistic thoughts. For the obstinate hedonists … Continue reading →

Posted in Essential Listening | Tagged 90's, Al Green, Black Messiah, Blackstar, Blackstreet, Bob Dylan, Brand Nubian, Brown Sugar, Charlie “The Machine” Sheen, D'Angelo, David Bowie, De La Soul, Donny Hathaway, Erykah Badu, Essential Listening, G-Funk and Death Row Records, Gangstarr, Gold Experience, Marvin Gaye, Michael Eugene Archer, Missy Elliott, Mobb Deep, Narcissism, New Jack Swing, Ohio Players, Outkast, Prince Rogers Nelson, Rest In Power, Sign 'O' The Times, Steve Irwin, The Beatles, The days before Sean Combs and R Kelly went all Jeff Epstein, The Rolling Stones, TLC, Tribe Called Quest, Voodoo, Wu-Tang | Leave a comment

Essential Listening: Special Herbs, The Box Set – Volumes 0-9 – MF Doom (2012)

Posted on 31/07/2025 by Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard

There’s been a cluster of celebrity deaths in the last week or so; Ozzy Osbourne, Hulk Hogan and Donald Trump’s political career (who said Jeffrey Epstein was all bad?). The death of Daniel Dumile, aka MF Doom, a few years … Continue reading →

Posted in Essential Listening | Tagged Bob Dylan, Daniel Dumile, De La Soul, Essential Listening, Hall and Oates, Hulk Hogan, Isaac Hayes, J Dilla, Leonard Cohen, Metal Fingers, MF Doom, MF Grimm, Mm…Food, Operation Doomsday, Oppenheimer was a crap movie, Ozzy Osbourne, Quincy Jones, Rap, Ronnie Laws, Sade, Samples, Special Herbs, Steely Dan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Train spotting, Van Morrison | Leave a comment

Essential Listening: Best of Jan Jelinek

Posted on 30/03/2025 by Wichita Lineman Was A Song I Once Heard

It all started with a Secret Thirteen mix in 2014. Before this I’d never heard of Jan Jelinek, and truthfully, the only reason I even gave it a chance was superficial – the disparate track list, and that I recognized … Continue reading →

Posted in Essential Listening | Tagged 2014 was eleven years ago - FML, Bandcamp, Basic Channel, Bernard Parmegiani, Bob Dylan, Brian Eno, Butlins, Coil, Damien Hirst, Dean Blunt, DJ Sprinkles, Do you know Otahiti, Essential Listening, Farben, Frank Zappa, Germany, Improvisation and Edits Tokyo, Jan Jelinek, Japan, Jazz fragments, Jimi Hendrix, Kompakt, Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, LSD music, Muslimgauze, Oval, Pitchfork, Richard D. James, Secret Thirteen, Shat on by a seagull at Butlins, Soulseek, Soundcloud, Subbuteo, Textstar+, The Orb | Leave a comment