Buried Treasure Volume 2: Overlooked, Forgetten and Uncrowned Albums

By Dan Hagerty

Buried Treasure is a colorful smorgasboard of music. Revered musicians, actors, and pop culture icons each contribute their favourite albums to create a fantastically eclectic collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Liberties Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781910742747

Book preview

Author’s Note

As a kid, I thought that the only music that existed was what appeared on the two music TV shows that I knew: Top of the Pops and MT USA. When my older sister became a teenager, I started hearing strange-sounding music through the wall that divided our bedrooms. At first I didn’t know what to make of it. This didn’t sound like the glitzy pop acts that I knew from the TV: it sounded like real people with songs about things that meant something; it was quite a departure for my young mind.

The bands turned out to be An Emotional Fish, The Cure, A House, The Smiths, U2, and numerous others. There was no turning back, and I set out to find out everything that I could about this strange new music. My subscription to Smash Hits was cancelled, and in its place were Hot Press, NME and Melody Maker. Books like Danny Sugarman’s Wonderland Avenue and Irish Rock: Where it’s Come From, Where It’s At, Where It’s Going by Tony Clayton-Lea and Richie Taylor would enthrall me even further.

My obsession only deepened as the years went by – to the extent that everything had a soundtrack, even school. I would be sitting in class with an attentive look on my face, while songs by Primal Scream or The 4 Of Us were playing loudly in my mind.

James Bond would have struggled to outwit my mother when it came to trying to avoid doing homework on school nights. One particular evening, I was ‘studying’ in my room, with the radio playing at a volume that I thought was too low for anyone outside of the room to hear. Dave Fanning had just played ‘Sometimes’ by My Bloody Valentine (twice, in fact, as he often did), and was in the process of introducing me to a band that I would later love: Emperor of Ice Cream, from Cork. The door swung open, and my mum’s slightly disappointed face was looking straight at me: ‘Turn off the music and concentrate on your work, please.’ It wasn’t a request; I promptly did as I was told!

Roll forward a couple of decades; I’m in my kitchen one evening, clearing up after a day’s worth of chaos. I was working on this book at the time, and was in the process of reacquainting myself with one of the albums that you will read about later (You Want the Night by Sleep Thieves). Déjà vu: the door swings open, and I see another slightly put-out look on the face that is looking at me. This time it’s that of my eldest daughter: ‘Dad, I can’t sleep with the noise of that music. Please turn it off.’ Just like all those years before, this wasn’t a request, so off went the music …

Times and situations change, but perhaps not as much as we often think they do. Music still exists, but there are so many ways we can consume it now. You can track down whatever you want instantaneously; in a way, this removes some of the excitement of waiting, and the anticipation that comes with that. Would I go back to those old days? Not a chance! Music is so much more accessible now, and while there are negatives that go with this, the positives outnumber them.

I have had the pleasure of playing so much great music on my radio show over the years. It has been a joy to watch some artists’ careers take off – and disappointing to see some wonderfully gifted acts being overlooked. In a cruel twist of fate, this book (and Buried Treasure Vol. 1) would not exist if all of these acts had gone on to receive the rewards that they so richly deserved.

The main reason that I decided to put this book together was because of my fondness for an album by a band called Interference. This self-titled piece of beauty was released in 1995, and I have never tired of listening to it. The first person that I contacted when starting this book was their vocalist, Fergus O’Farrell.

Fergus kindly agreed to share his thoughts about the album, and was encouraging and interested in the mammoth project that lay ahead of me in compiling this book. It was with great sadness that I learned of Fergus’ passing in February 2016. This book owes so much to Fergus: his lyrics, his voice and his music, all of which had a powerful impact on me when I first heard them, and still do to this day.

Compiling all these facts, reviews and stories about how and where all the music in this book comes from has been a pleasure, and an education. You think you know music, and then you work for a year on a book like this and you realise that you know a mere fraction of what there is!

If you discover one artist, or one album from this book, then it has served its purpose. If you are reacquainted with something that you once loved, that is equally as important. Music is a personal thing – some would say a spiritual part of life – and hopefully somewhere in the pages ahead is music that you will embrace and keep with you for many years to come.

Dan Hegarty, April 2016

DAN HEGARTY’S ALBUM CHOICES

1988

Lethal Dialect X JackKnifeJ, self-released, 2014

The power of words can never be overlooked. Think of some of the thoughts that have stayed with you over the years: many of them will have been triggered by the spoken or printed word. The relationship between rapping and rhythm was consummated when hip-hop was born, and since then this genre has given us many iconic moments.

Dublin’s Lethal Dialect had made a significant impact with his albums LD50 (2011) and the follow-up, LD50 Part II (2012), but it was his teaming up with JackKnifeJ that led to the creation of the thoroughly impressive 1988. Put together on a small budget in various locations over a couple of years, it suffered no ill effects from the challenging conditions in which it was born.

Like Trainspotting or Reservoir Dogs did in film, 1988 made so much of the music around it sound bloated and jaded when it landed in September 2014. When you look to decades past, it is not always the biggest songs or albums that give you the best perspective on what was actually happening, musically. What 1988 helped to represent was a move away from what was the standard practice of making music, and in particular albums. It used to be extremely difficult to record an album of a decent sonic standard without record-label backing. What Lethal Dialect, JackKnifeJ and a new generation proved was that quality can be created without a suitcase full of cash.

The presence of Jess Kav’s vocals helps this album to be one that both left-field and mainstream music fans can connect with. Her soulful voice brings an extra dimension to those moulded by the duo. It would be unfair to call her vocals a finishing touch, as they are as imperative to the song as every beat and rhyme that feature in the ten tracks.

As I write these words, ‘Beast-Mode’ featuring 4Real is playing; it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention. Shuffle back to the opening track, ‘School Dayz Are Over’, then through to ‘Still a Darkhorse’ at the album’s midpoint, or to the closing number, ‘Brave’, with vocals from Damien Dempsey: this album hits you in many different ways. You could say that any album is a soundtrack, but 1988 is far more realistic and memorable than most.

For the Record

Lethal Dialect

For me, 1988 was an introduction to a wider world of music. It was a step away from my older material: much more sinister and brooding hip-hop. Although it’s still very much a hip-hop album, JackknifeJ created soundscapes by blending elements of our favourite genres, incorporating live instrumentation into some of the tracks too.

I toured with Damien Dempsey after having completed the first half of the album and was able to perform those songs live, on a bigger stage. It gave me an insight into the importance of song structure, and how certain aspects of songs do, and don’t, translate well live.

The live instrumentation on the album also inspired me to put together a band for live performances, which has since whet my appetite to create a fully organic record. So for me, 1988 was a huge learning process. It was definitely the most fun I’ve had making an album too!

Tracklist

School Dayz Are Over

13 ’Til Infinity

Headstrong (feat: Jess Kav)

26 Laws (feat: Jess Kav)

Still a Darkhorse

The Shark Interlude

Set You Free

Beast-mode (feat: 4Real)

Energy (feat: Jess Kav)

Brave (feat: Damien Dempsey)

Beautiful Desolation

Paul Thomas Saunders, Atlantic, 2014

In a parallel universe, Paul Thomas Saunders’ 2014 album Beautiful Desolation could be a classic mentioned in the same breath as The Blue Nile’s A Walk Across the Rooftops and Deserter’s Songs from Mercury Rev. To call it a work of great beauty wouldn’t come anywhere close to doing justice to what Paul Thomas Saunders created.

It seems appropriate that I am revisiting this album on a storm-swept afternoon in January [2016]. The gradually receding wind and rain make the outside world look as desolate as a winter’s day could be, while the music engulfing the room is enriching, thought-provoking and uplifting. It is a day like this that provides the perfect visual that could prompt you to bring the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘desolation’ together.

Whatever the inspiration was for Beautiful Desolation, it was clearly something that was both powerful and spiritual for Paul Thomas Saunders. The sheer beauty of tracks such as ‘A Lunar Veteran’s Guide to Re-Entry’, ‘Starless State of the Moonless Barrow’ and ‘In High Heels Burn It Down’ is very difficult to measure properly. Music like this can only be made by someone who pours their soul into it.

Listening to this album, from the opening track, ‘Kawai Celeste’, to the concluding ‘On into the Night’, is like watching the storm-clouds gathering, and then gradually melting away, to be replaced by that warm morning sun that fills the soul with joy and optimism. Sigur Rós climb to these heady heights at times, but few others could even attempt to reach the emotional altitude found here.

Certain music engages with you on a far deeper level than normal, and in the process helps you create your own visuals to accompany it. It may not be thematically correct to whatever the themes are of the music in question, but does that matter? Beautiful Desolation is a triumph that mixes extremes in a way you will rarely have the pleasure of hearing.

For the Record

Paul Thomas Saunders

It seems like a lifetime has passed since I was making Beautiful Desolation. Looking back, it was the tortured album I dreamed of making as a pissed-off fifteen-year-old. It took two years to make, in a fairly ramshackle home studio in the spare room of my home.

It was a relentless time: there were days on end when we wouldn’t see daylight; weeks when we would spend fourteen hours or more a day in the same room, just Max Prior, my co-producer, and myself. We even took turns making food so we didn’t have to stop.

My teenage self always swooned over the romanticised stories behind great albums; this felt like that at the time. But in reality, it was quite unhealthy. We pushed ourselves to a point where we were both physically and mentally exhausted, spending days studying a picture or scene from a movie and trying to create a sound that captured how it made us feel.

I’m immensely proud of the album. It was always my goal to write, record and produce just one album as independently as I could manage; I never thought further ahead than that. When it came out, I was totally bowled over by how it was received, but the thing that stood out to me throughout the making of the album was how much I enjoyed bringing other people into the process. Having Ali Thynne on drums and Kate Matthews singing added so much depth and nuance to the arrangements. It was a pretty challenging, but magical, time. I’m glad we persisted, but it taught me a lot about how I want to make music in the future.

Artwork by Neil Krug

Design by Frank Fieber

 Tracklist

Kawai Celeste

Good Woman

Appointment at Samarra

Waking & Evening Prayers for Rosemary-Mai

In High Heels Burn It Down

Wreckheads & the Female Form

A Lunar Veteran’s Guide to Re-entry

Starless State of the Moonless Barrow

Santa Muerte’s Lightening & Flare

On into the Night

Been There, Seen That, Done That

Something Happens!, Virgin Records, 1988

You can read about it; you can hear about it from friends; and these days you can find it on streaming services. What am I talking about? Music, of course. In the pre-Internet age, the last option wasn’t available, so to hear new tunes you would have to rely on the first or the second.

In the mid to late 1980s, a new crop of musicians had become popular in Ireland. One of the names that was on the top of that pile was the curiously named Something Happens. Armed with what seemed like a wardrobe full of paisley shirts (which were the height of fashion at the time) and songs like ‘Forget Georgia’ and ‘Take This With You’, it was hard not to be impressed. These two songs became part of what would be their debut album, Been There, Seen That, Done That, which arrived in 1988.

There was a national obsession with who would be ‘the next U2’ around this time. Some bands either purposely or inadvertently adopted a similar sound, but Something Happens took influences from much farther than Irish shores. They looked to America, to greats like Big Star and The Replacements, and dreamt up songs and sounds of their own.

The album opens with ‘Beach’, which was a live favourite at the time; the song translated very well into a studio recording. ‘Incoming’ is up next, and that enhances proceedings even more. There is a rawness to the overall sound of the album that emits the kind of energy that is usually reserved for one of those live sets that you feel blessed to be witnessing.

One of the characteristics that really drew people to Something Happens, and this album, was that they were not afraid to let people know that they were enjoying themselves. The ‘too cool for school’ attitude that has always been synonymous with music has its place, but sometimes it’s OK to crack a smile, and enjoy what your talent has brought you.

Something Happens would go on to record other albums, most notably 1990’s Stuck Together With God’s Glue and the very much overlooked Bedlam A Go Go! (1992), but Been There, Seen That, Done That has a wonderful soul and warmth to it. The album captured a young band in that magical moment where they realised that they had an opportunity to make music that could really mean something to people. Where countless other failed, they succeeded, and in doing so managed to etch their name into the annals of music history.

For the Record

Tom Dunne

‘Produced by Tommy Ramone’. Those words have grown in significance: one of The Ramones, one of those who’d fired the first shot. He’d flown from NYC to produce these little songs that we’d written on buses or in Eamon’s mother’s house, or in that damp rehearsal room on Capel Street. Now they were being recorded at Windmill Lane, U2’s home, for Virgin Records, the coolest of the cool labels, by Tommy bleedin’ Ramone!

Tommy had produced The Replacements’ Tim album, and we’d loved that. He was a gentle person: quiet, funny and jet-lagged. He loved being in Ireland, and went to Burdock’s even before meeting us. The one night we took him out we couldn’t get him into Dublin’s only nightclub, The Pink! ‘But he’s a Ramone,’ we told them. ‘Yes,’ they said, ‘but he’s not a member. Sorry, lads.’

We had wanted a rough sound, like The Replacements, but when the album was finished, Virgin thought it was too rough. Not everyone thought The Replacements were that cool then. So we recorded two more songs with Vic Maile. He’d produced The Who, The Godfathers, 999 and some unknown song called ‘Ace of Spades’. When those songs were added, the album just fell together.

The sleeve capped it off. A type of photography called ‘Altered Nature’. The flowers were Skyrockets, by the artist Oluf Nielsen. It was beautiful. We would rarely be this rough and ready again, so up for it, so ready to climb into the van and see whatever the world had to offer. Did I mention it was produced by Tommy Ramone?

Sleeve design by Steve Averill

Photography by Oluf Nielsen

Tracklist

Beach

Incoming

Take This With You

Forget Georgia

The Way I Feel

Both Men Crying

Burn Clear

Give It Away

Tall Girls Club

Shoulder High

Here Comes the Only One Again

Be My Love

Bonus Tracks

I Know Ray Harman – A Live Recording

Beach

Incoming

Promised

Seven Days ’Til Four am

Free and Easy

Take This With You

Blind Sound

Stano, Loscann Records, 2010

The artist known as Stano has always been something of an unknown. That is not to say that no one has heard of him, but there is very little known about him other than his work. There are too many people involved in music, and the wider entertainment world, who could take some lessons from this gentleman, who would rather not take part in the circus that is celebrity.

The album Blind Sound appeared after a lengthy period of time where Stano (John Stanley) focused more on his visual-art work. Prior to this, alongside people like My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, Stano helped blow up the accepted boundaries of guitar music, bringing it into an experimental realm. His work on his 1989 album Only (which was released on U2’s Mother Records label) made much of the left-field music at the time sound decidedly unimaginative. It has been described as goth rock, or industrial, but neither of those terms really encapsulate the sound of the album.

My introduction to Stano came a number of years later. I was presented with a copy of his 1994 album Wreckage. Not knowing anything about him, I innocently put the CD on one morning, and waited for it to begin. It almost knocked me off my chair and sent the dog running for cover! It became a favourite soon after, but I did not realise that it would be 2010 before I would hear a new studio album from Stano.

‘Chapelizard’ opens Blind Sound, and it perfectly captures one of the other dimensions of Stano’s music. It could easily be a distant relation of Sebastien Tellier’s ‘La Ritournelle’ or ‘Remembrance’ by God Is An Astronaut. It is five minutes and fifty-one seconds of utter beauty.

As you move through the album, Stano toys with a worldly electro-pop sound on ‘Green Rocks of Turkey Elektronik’, and a funky bass jam on ‘Cross Fade Street’. There is a more Stano-of-old sound to ‘Fatal’, while ‘Reverse Presence’ sounds like Fugazi collaborating with Free Your Mind-era Funkadelic.

The word ‘intelligent’ in relation to music is often reserved only for lyrics. This doesn’t make any sense because lyrics are only one aspect of a song or an album. With Blind Sound, you actually only begin to zone in on the expanse of ideas and influences at play after listening to the tracks on a number of occasions. The sign of a true master can often be their ability to make you forget whatever preconceptions you might have had, and simply enjoy what is being presented to you.

For the Record

Stano

I started working on Blind Sound around 2008. To me, the recording studio was always my instrument. The way that I usually work is, I prepare a rhythm backing track and then the process starts. I get the musician to respond to the track, they start to play, and then I home in on the sections I’m interested in. Sometimes it could be as little as two to three seconds, or a minute, of what they play, that sparks the idea for me. As the initial spark is where the song comes from, whoever I start the initial recording with, I share the writing credit with them.

Making music is a mystery to me: sometimes I don’t recognise my own tracks if I haven’t heard them for a while. When I’m in the studio, I never set out with an influence in mind. I came from punk, and what I took from it was to be an individual. I try not to repeat myself.

I once asked a friend how he knew when a painting was finished. He said, when you think it’s close, turn it to the wall for a week or so, and when you turn it around either a gaping hole will appear, or it’ll be finished. With my music, I build and build, layer and layer: there could be twenty to thirty mixes, which I can revert back to. Each mix will have a slight difference, and I leave some time before I make a decision on it. Like with the paintings, you need a bit of time and distance before you know it’s finished.

Graphics and design by Captain Raine

Photography by Bob Dixon

Tracklist

Chapelizard

Fatal

Berlin Spider

Yellow Bittern

Sleep Robin

Green Rocks of Turkey Elektronik

Ghost Pippet Red

Frog

Eleven Small Birds

Cross Fade Street

Reverse Presence

Weirdling

Jackdaw Vampire

Outer Reaches

Blues Funeral

Mark Lanegan Band, 4AD, 2012

There are people who think that they’re cool, and then there are those who simply are. Mark Lanegan epitomises cool, but not in the clichéd rock ’n’ roll bravado kind of way. He does it with a quiet confidence, and his career is quite staggering.

Albums like Field Songs and 2004’s Bubblegum really put Mark Lanegan back in people’s minds as a solo artist. He had been vocalist with Screaming Trees for more than a decade, after which he joined Queens of the Stone Age. He also collaborated with ex-Belle & Sebastian member Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers, and Duke Garwood. You may be asking yourself, would someone not be artistically spent after this? He certainly wasn’t, and in 2012 he released his most complete album, under the Mark Lanegan Band name.

Blues Funeral has just about everything that you could want from a Mark Lanegan album. It has those marvellous rock tunes that Lanegan does so well (‘Riot in my House’ and ‘Gravedigger’s Song’), along with other tracks, like ‘Harborview Hospital’, ‘Tiny Grain of Truth’ and ‘Ode to Sad Disco’, which are best described as great songs, rather than tagging them with a genre. The combination of Lanegan’s vocals and songwriting, the musicianship, and the beautiful production by Alain Johannes creates a seamless whole.

Lanegan’s vocals never seem to stretch very far, but they don’t need to. His band play so tightly, that they make it sound like these songs wrote themselves. As is so often the case with individuals who excel at what they do, the complicated is made to sound as if you or I could do it. The pensive tones of ‘St Louis Elegy’ and ‘Bleeding Muddy Water’ are suitably balanced by up-tempo tracks like ‘Quiver Syndrome’ and ‘Gray Goes Black’.

The Blues Funeral tour saw the Mark Lanegan Band play at the Electric Picnic in 2012. It still stands out as one of the best sets of that year – indeed of any year of the festival. Songs from Blues Funeral featured heavily on that warm Friday night, and it