It’s March!
February is over, and we don't have to think about the year’s undisputed nadir for another 11 months. The days are getting longer, the nights are getting shorter, and above all else, the great tunes just keep on rolling in.
This month’s selection has an oddly avian theme. More specifically, we’ve got two tracks from bands named Goose and Geese respectively; while that’s not a huge number on the face of it, it’s odd that it should have happened twice in the same month. Also, we have music from Jurassic Park – and as every schoolboy knows, all birds are in fact dinosaurs. Or all dinosaurs are birds; it's hard to remember which…
The temptation to pepper this intro with bird puns pulls strong, so we’ll scratch that particular itch simply by urging you to check out the tracks that have been ruling the roost this March.
Theme from Jurassic Park by John Williams
It’s hard to keep up with the number of movies and TV shows that now form the Jurassic Park franchise. Some have been good (you can’t beat the absolute classic that is the original Steven Spielberg release), and others have been… not quite so good.
But there has been one constant in each iteration: John Williams’ dazzling score. And there is one key part of the soundtrack that has inevitably come to your mind. Of course, that’s the theme from Jurassic Park, which plays for the first time in the original movie when we lay eyes on a towering Brachiosaurus.
The track starts with a single French horn call, incredibly soft and subtle, challenging your audio equipment to portray the emotion of each note. It’s so delicate, in fact, that you feel you need to hold your breath so as not to disrupt the sound. The horn is then joined by the warm strings and flute, keeping the score quiet yet lively.
After this opening, we are treated to the swelling main theme that bursts with joy and energy. Williams perfectly captures that feeling of childlike wonder you would surely get, seeing a dinosaur plod through the grass mere inches away from you.
Words by Robyn Quick
Short Change Hero by The Heavy
Hands in the air, I haven’t listened to an awful lot of “new” music this month. Instead, after signing up to MUBI, I have spent the past 30 days with my other (home cinema) hat on, revisiting a wealth of classic spaghetti westerns.
Highlights include The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Man in the Cursed Valley, Johnny Yuma and Hanging for Django.
While this has hindered my constant search for new music to enjoy, the adventure has fed a different outlet for my love of music – creating a playlist with the same vibe as the movies.
Yes, the trip to the Wild West has fed a new playlist on my Tidal, creatively named Once Upon a Time in Al-merica. There’s a reason I don’t work in marketing…
While many of the tracks are golden oldies, one new-ish track from iconic British rock band The Heavy has been on repeat since I made the playlist: Short Change Hero.
Is it used in a Western? Not as far as I know. But the lyrics’ focus on a troubled youth in a bleak world where good intentions and actions are futile, coupled with the stellar recording, invokes the setting in my head for some reason.
As a bonus, it’s a pretty incredible track to listen to. With a truly cinematic intro, featuring lightning blasts and church bells in the distance that builds in volume as you hear footsteps approaching, the track slowly blossoms into a beautifully understated, but textured, composition mixing elements of rock and neo-soul.
If you haven’t heard The Heavy before, or if you fancy revisiting one of its best and most cinematic masterpieces, give Short Change Hero a listen.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
Paper Trails by DARKSIDE
DARKSIDE’s Paper Trails could well have been recorded explicitly with hi-fi enthusiasts and audio engineers in mind (although I’m sure it wasn’t).
Ask AI to create the blueprint audio test track, and it’s likely that it would conjure something similar, although obviously not as good, in a bid to emulate the sort of tune you’d probably hear wafting down the halls of the Bristol Hi-Fi Show or High End Munich.
It’s got everything that hi-fi aficionados just seem to love in a test track, from carefully placed percussive strikes to feather-light bluesy licks and moody, low-register vocals.
Close your eyes and you’re there, sitting next to a dozen audio journalists as another proud engineer proudly shows off what his latest turntable / loudspeakers / amplifier (delete as appropriate) can do.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Trinidad by Geese
Taken from the band’s fourth album, Getting Killed, released last year, Trinidad perfectly encapsulates Geese’s art-rock/art-punk/avant-garde sound that almost defies categorising. The song’s rhythm is difficult to latch on to at first, with its jagged, stop-start guitar notes and vocalist CW’s slightly muted, droning tone.
But there is a rumbling, brooding bassline underneath it all that, along with the sharp, repetitive, punctuating guitar notes, builds up momentum to the chaotic crescendo of a chorus as the percussion kicks in and the vocals vault into screams. It’s a song that has shades of The Dead Weather’s 60 Feet Tall – one of my perennial test tracks – and is a stern test of a system’s ability to handle rhythmic precision, cohesion and dynamics to make sense of the unusual structure and patterns.
Get into the groove of it, and the discordant notes and interplay between the various instruments take shape – it’s a track that rewards repeated plays and being heard on a system that is precise, and can go loud.
Words by Kashfia Kabir
Johnny the Fox meets Jimmy the Weed by Thin Lizzy
While Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed may not be the most well known Thin Lizzy track, and was released as a single only in the US, it’s an absolutely masterful meshing of funk and rock by the greatest band to come out of Ireland.
Brian Downey’s swinging drums are an absolute delight, and systems that expertly handle rhythms and have plenty of clarity in the mid and higher frequencies will allow you to appreciate fully the groove-master as he does his thing.
The guitar solo from the other Brian (Robertson) in the band also provides enough grit to get your head nodding, but the quality axe man exercises the perfect amount of restraint so as not to disrupt the song’s laid-back flow.
To top it off, vocalist/bassist Phil Lynott sounds effortlessly cool as he walks you through the tale of what some sources claim to be a fantasy meeting between 1920s Italian Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio and Manchester club and pub scene gangster Jimmy ‘The Weed’ Donnelly, a key member of the notorious Quality Street Gang who were active during the 1970s and ’80s.
As a huge Thin Lizzy fan, I have recently revisited the album this track is taken from, Johnny The Fox (1976), and I would wholeheartedly recommend you check out, or else happily revisit, this brilliant record.
Words by James Cook
So Ready by Goose
You don’t actually need the full four minutes and 35 second runtime of Goose’s effervescent funk saga So Ready to give your headphones or hi-fi a proper workout. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t enjoy the entire feast until its end; rather, you’ll receive more audio fibre from those opening bars than you’d find across the entirety of many lesser albums.
I have been testing or otherwise using a small army of headphones recently, from reasonably priced wired over-ears such as the Røde NTH-100 all the way up to the high-end Yamaha YH-5000SE reference cans, and So Ready has been invaluable in hearing just what these classy candidates are capable of.
Goose’s signature track starts with the subtle crescendo of cowbell strikes – a great test of dynamic expression – before clipped, slightly muted guitar chords shine a light on textural insight and how natural your hi-fi or headphones sound. Bang on the 20 second mark, a twanging guitar chord acts as a musical exclamation mark, with funky, expressive drums joining the party – this time, we’re highlighting large scale dynamics and overall punch.
From top to bottom, it’s a terrific tester that has served me especially well when assessing the talents of a variety of headphones. Think of this as my gift to you: I hope it serves you as well as it has served me.
Words by Harry McKerrell
As a collective, our review team listens to a lot of music. Sometimes we rely on old favourites with which we're familiar, but we are always discovering new tracks – be they fresh releases or just songs we haven't encountered before – that give us key insights into new products we are trying out.
We also know that plenty of our readers are on the lookout for new tunes, either to assess the capabilities of a new system or simply to show off the full talents of their established hi-fi set-up. That's why we have come up with our monthly 'Now Playing' playlist, a rundown of everything we've been listening to and loving recently, whether at home with a set of headphones or at work in our fabulous test rooms.
Each instalment will bring you a handful of tracks chosen by our reviews team, detailing why we love them and what they bring out of certain products. So even if you're not looking for new tunes to play on your system, we hope you find something you'll love no matter how you choose to listen to it.
We're always on the lookout for new music, so drop a comment below to share what you have been listening to!
MORE:
Read last month's edition: Check out the 6 stunning tracks we've been using to test hi-fi this month
Don't Look Back in Anger at these classic 1996 tracks turning 30 this year
Check out our ultimate test tracks collection
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
