Alphabet Soup Week 15: Artists Filed Under H

Despite the relatively paltry list of musical ingredients afforded by the 'H' artists, I'm hoping this week's batch of Alphabet Soup will have you coming back for seconds!

Hello friends, welcome to another installment of Alphabet Soup, it’s wonderful to have you here! I can’t believe how quickly Week 15 seems to have rolled around. Over the last couple weeks, I managed to stay on top of the weekly publication schedule while hiking 12 miles a day out in the remote Welsh wilderness. Somehow, despite arriving home at lunchtime on Friday, Tuesday evening found me having made very little progress on this week’s edition. A weekend spent relaxing, resting the body, and recovering from a little jetlag vs. a couple frantic hours on Tue/Wed night writing and wrestling this entry into shape feels like a fair trade-off to me.

As I reported in Week 9’s edition (chart reproduced below), I’m nearing the end of the stretch of odd-numbered weeks between weeks 9 and 17 where the universe of available artists and their related releases is limited. Surprisingly, despite the smaller artist/album universe (57 “H” artists with a combined 92 releases), this week’s playlist came together fairly quickly. I’m pleased with the artists and tracks that bubbled to the surface and happy with the final product - a fairly diverse and entertaining set of tracks which make for an enjoyable listening experience (if I do say so myself).

News flash: now including YouTube links!

Given that spreading the musical gospel as widely as possible is one of the aims of my Substack, I’ve decided to start including YouTube links for each song. While many people have legitimate issues with streaming platforms, at the moment we’re kind of stuck with what we’ve got. The inclusion of YouTube links should help to broaden the listening opportunities to those that aren’t on Spotify. For the most part I’ll likely be linking to the official video/audio where it exists, but as and when I find interesting or enjoyable live performances, I’ll include those instead.

Let’s jump into this week’s music!

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This week’s selections:

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ARTIST: The Harry J. All Stars

TRACK: “Liquidator” from Super 70’s Reggae (2005)

Given the first few tracks that emerged for this week’s playlist, and with a nod to the sequencing of the selections, I found myself looking for some late ska / early reggae to lead off the musical proceedings. Nothing immediately popped to mind and given the dearth of available “H” artists in my collection, I decided to take out the big guns and dip into the vast pool of compilation CDs that used to grace my physical collection. In this instance success came in the form of the Harry J Allstars’ track Liquidator from the 2005 3-disc Virgin Records compilation Super 70’s Reggae.

Jamaican record producer Harry Zephaniah Johnson, known by the stage name of Harry J, was responsible for some influential early reggae recordings. Two classic Bob Marley and the Wailers albums from the early 1970s, Rastaman Vibration and Catch a Fire, were recorded at his studio and he also worked with Bob and Marcia on their version of Nina Simone’s Young, Gifted and Black. But it’s his 1969 recording with the Harry J Allstars, the reggae instrumental track The Liquidator that kicks us off this week. The song reached number nine on the UK singles chart on release and was certified silver in the UK in April 2022.

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ARTIST: Hepcat

TRACK: “I Can’t Wait” from Right On Time (1998)

Reissued in the UK in 1980, The Liquidator rocketed back into the charts in the wake of the 2-Tone ska boom era. That punk-infused ska sound was later influential to the emergence of the Orange County third wave ska scene in the early 90s from which our next artist, Hepcat, emerged. While enjoying the music of the time, Hepcat’s lead singer Greg Lee and his fellow bandmates found themselves inexorably drawn to the source material. From the 2009 Slug Mag article:

“Inevitably, Lee and his friends needed to know more about the smooth, cool style of Jamaican music they had fallen in love with. “We would pile into somebody’s old car and make the trek to some old record store just to get the chance to buy old Jamaican records. We’d read the backs of the records and the liner notes and pass em all around the car on the ride home, just trying to learn as much about the music as we could,” Lee says. With their newfound knowledge of Jamaican music from the 60s, Lee and his friends formed Hepcat in order to emulate the classic Jamaican sound.”

Can’t Wait is drawn from Hepcat’s third album, 1998’s Right On Time, the first of two records they released on Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong’s Hellcat Records.

Sadly, lead singer Greg Lee passed away less than a month ago at the age of 53.

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ARTIST: Horace Andy

TRACK: “Money Money” from Skylarking: Best of Horace Andy (1996)

Although he’d already been well known in reggae circles for decades, it was his work with Bristol trip hop pioneers Massive Attack in the early 90s that put Horace Andy on my radar. In an interesting musical connection, Horace Andy had a notable release in the early 80s of the hit song Cuss Cuss, originally produced by none other than Harry J of The Liquidator fame. The Cuss Cuss riddim would go on to become one of the most covered riddims in Jamaica with over 150 tracks using it according to Riddim-ID.

In 1996 Virgin released the compilation album Skylarking: Best of Horace Andy on which Money Money appears. The track originally appeared on the 1980 album Showcase.

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As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

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ARTIST: Hindi Zahra

TRACK: “Beautiful Tango - Unplugged” from Handmade (Deluxe Edition) (2011)

In the summer of 2015, during a hiking trip along the Cotswold Way in England my wife had an unfortunate accident that resulted in her fracturing her pinky toe. After a valiant effort to walk with the injury the following day, we were faced with the reality of needing a Plan B. That plan, which came together in the lobby of an ancient inn in Painswick, saw us shift gears from a hiking trip to a couple two-day city breaks in Bruges and Amsterdam.

On our first day in Bruges, we discovered we’d arrived in the middle of the free Moods! festival, which was taking place in the center of the medieval city, just minutes from our hotel. That evening we ventured to the square and were treated to a fantastic set by Hindi Zahra (and later by The Bony King of Nowhere who released the fantastic Everybody Knows earlier this year). We’d never heard of either artist and both were excellent in their own way.

While we firmly into digital music territory at that point in our lives, and generally well past the point of purchasing physical CDs, we decided to support the artists by hitting the merch tent and came away with a small handful of CDs, including the 2011 deluxe edition of Zahra’s 2010 debut Handmade. I’ve included the unplugged version of Beautiful Tango as it’s the better of the two versions on the CD and the one closest to the performance we witnessed in July 2015.

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ARTIST: Hooverphonic

TRACK: “2 Wicky” from A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular (1997)

From a discussion of live music in the medieval Belgian town of Bruges, we shift to the Belgian band, Hooverphonic, which was formed in 1995. Originally conceived as a trip hop outfit, the band, now a dozen albums into their career, has significantly expanded their sound to include alternative, electronica, electropop, rock and several other genres.

This track, 2 Wicky, from their debut album A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular, first came to my attention via the soundtrack of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1996 film Stealing Beauty. Their sound was right in my wheelhouse at the time, and I immediately ran out and purchased the album. I stuck with them for a couple more albums, but with their changing style and my changing taste, I lost interest in the band and stopped following their music.

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ARTIST: Hayden

TRACK: “In September” from Everything I Long For (1995)

This is the second appearance for Hayden in Alphabet Soup with Bad As They Seem appearing on the Week 4 playlist. This track, In September, was the title track of an earlier cassette-only album released in 1994. Many of the tracks from that album, including this one, found their way on to the 1995 debut album Everything I Long For.

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ARTIST: Holly McNarland

TRACK: “Porno Mouth” from Stuff (1997)

Another second appearance, this time from Holly McNarland with Porno Mouth from her 1997 debut album Stuff. When discussing Elmo, the second single from the same album, in the Week 10 newsletter, I shared the story of how bringing this album to a music appreciation club seemingly piqued the interest of my then friend, now wife, Tina. For that reason alone, I’ll always have a soft spot for this album. But outside of that obvious reason for affection, revisiting Stuff over the last month has reminded me how much I loved the album when it was released; over 25 years later it stands up very well for me.

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ARTIST: Hole

TRACK: “Doll Parts” from Live Through This (1994)

For many, Live Through This, Hole’s second full-length album, will always be inextricably linked to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, with its release coming only four days after Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home. While the album received critical acclaim, with half a dozen industry press outlets giving it an 8/10 or higher rating (Pitchfork rated it a 10, albeit in 2018, and Spin named it album of the year), rumors abounded that Cobain had written most or all of the album. Whether these rumors were driven by sexism or misogyny, or by grief and anger around Cobain’s death, there’s no evidence to suggest they’re true.

Doll Parts, released in November 1994, was the second single and highest charting song from the album, peaking at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks.

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ARTIST: Hot Hot Heat

TRACK: “Middle of Nowhere” from Elevator (2005)

Canadian indie rock band Hot Hot Heat feels very much of a time and place for me. I only ever owned one of their albums, 2005’s Elevator, and although I remember enjoying it at the time, as I listen to it almost 20 years later, I find much of it tiresome and annoying. Having said that, I do still very much enjoy Middle of Nowhere, the second single from the album, released in July 2005. The song found modest success in the US and Canada, peaking at #23 in both countries.

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ARTIST: The Helio Sequence

TRACK: “Hall of Mirrors” from Negotiations (2012)

While the Portland-based duo of Brandon Summers and Benjamin Eikel have been releasing music as The Helio Sequence since 1999, they didn’t come to my attention until 2012 when Hall of Mirrors, from their fifth full-length Negotiations, found its way into my YouTube recommendations. Listening to the track today I’m reminded of a time when I could rely on the YouTube algorithms to primarily feed me fantastic and well-targeted musical recommendations rather than the absolute crapfest that litters the screen nowadays. I miss that all-too-brief period when YouTube served a meaningful source of musical discovery for me; sadly, those days are long gone.

This is one of those albums where the track that grabbed my attention isn’t reflective enough of the entire album to make the purchase worth it. Not that I’ve ever really regretted buying music, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed with an 11-song album containing only a handful of tracks I’d consider worth playing. Having said that, I do still love this track and it feels as fresh as it did the day I first heard it.

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Life in the key of H: Humility

When I crawled back into my recovery program in the summer of 1994, fresh from the beating of a 9-month relapse that took me to some of the darkest corners of hell, I arrived as a completely broken man. Despite the desperation of my situation, almost laughably, I showed up with my ego fully intact and a false pride that belied the self-hatred in which I was marinating. I’d previously heard someone describe themselves as “an egomaniac with an inferiority complex” and it never felt more apt as it did in that moment.

After drying out and cleaning up long enough to begin making sense of what I was hearing in my recovery meetings, I found myself begrudgingly beginning to learn the spiritual principles of the program and trying to incorporate them into my life with the aid of a sponsor. It has been, and continues to be, an amazing journey, one which finds me, almost 30 years later, living a life beyond my wildest dreams.

If asked to distill the last three decades of learning into one simple, foundational principle for living, it would be a ceaseless and unremitting striving towards the “right-sizing” of my ego. Latent pride and a bloated sense of self-worth, lounging as they do in the darker corners of my subconscious, always ready to sashay into the limelight, are enemies of my spiritual progress and remain a threat to my serenity. Likewise, those deeply ingrained, almost instinctual, feelings of worthlessness and self-pity are also manifestations of the ego that don’t serve me well. The most powerful tool I can bring to bear on my ego, both its over- and under-expression, is the practice of humility.

Initially I struggled with the concept of humility. Regardless of the sorry state in which I found myself, deep down I still felt that I was better than everyone else; that hubris and false pride is part of the insanity of addiction. Additionally, I had a hard time disentangling the idea of humility from the act of humiliation and I’d be damned if I was going to let anybody humiliate me (despite the fact that I’d been doing it to myself for years).

Thankfully, with time and guidance, I came to learn that humility doesn’t mean thinking less of myself, it means thinking of myself less. It is through the daily act of surrendering my ego and my self-will and an honest desire to be guided by the better angels of my nature (or, if you prefer, God, the Universe, a Higher Power) that I’m able to deal with whatever life brings my way. With grace, with peace, and with serenity.

Thanks, as always, for being here, I appreciate you. Until next time, be kind to yourself and others and go grab some joy for yourself (you’re worth it).

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Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

• Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)

• Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)

• From Your Mouth by God Lives Underwater (Week 13)

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Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.