Half a year ago, I challenged readers to identify some of my favourite songs in the December Music Challenge.

Although the obscure music stumped pretty much everybody, it was so well received that I always intended on making the challenge into a regular thing. But like so many things, it eventually got left on the backburner.

That is, until today. Now, six months later, I’m finally laying down the gauntlet. Again.

This time around, I’ve decided to focus on only one particular genre: electronic. I’ve also made it a bit easier.

The challenge is simple: Listen to the following five songs and see if you can name the track and the artist (no cheating!).

Among the five, we have an electronic korean band, an English electronic-slash-classical composer, an Irish instrumental group, a Swiss Italian DJ, and yes, I believe there are a pair of musical robots as well.

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I hope I’m not ruffling any (legal) feathers on this one. The tracks are seriously downgraded in quality, so if you really like any of the them, let me know and I’ll lead you towards the album.

In the December Music Challenge, I offered seven songs and challenged readers to guess the artist and track names of each.

Nobody managed to guess one. Not a single one. Zip. Zero.

If you tried and failed miserably, don’t feel bad. The songs originated from semi-obscure and independent artists, to obscure and hard-to-find artists who only publish their works on private forums intended for a small audience.

In any case, here on the seven.

Track One: Alone in Kyoto by Air

I was hoping someone would recognize this as one of the surreal tracks on the soundtrack of Sofia Cappola’s masterpiece, Lost in Translation. Air is a wonderful electronic group formed by two French artists, and some of their other works include the entire soundtrack to Coppola’s other superb movie, The Virgin Suicides, as well as several standout albums.

It’s a wonderful track to accompany one of my favourite movies.

Track Two: San Andreas by Natalie Merchant

I wanted to follow with something with a bit more of a pop/rock feel. San Andreas is the first track on Natalie Merchant’s Tigerlily album. This is a song about hopes and dreams crumbling. Now who doesn’t relate to that?.

Track Three: Battleship Grey by DJ Tiesto

DJ Tiesto is a trance artist who’s well known for being the first DJ to perform live at an Olympic game opening ceremony (2004, Athens). Most of his work tends towards the heavier end of the trance/techno spectrum. Battleship Grey, featuring the beautiful vocals of Kirsty Hawkshaw and found in his 2001 album, In My Memory, is (unfortunately) one of the times he’s ventured outside of the realm of trance.

A real shame, since I’ve loved this song ever since my teens.

Track Four: Mind of the Wonderful by Blank and Jones

This is an acoustic version of “Mind of the Wonderful” by the artists Blank and Jones. The song was originally done in trance, which is what the artists are known for. I have it on a compilation CD called “Pure Chill”, in which there are unfortunately only a few standout tracks. If you’re a fan of trance, try searching for the artists on YouTube.

Track Five: Green Island Serenade by Vienna Teng

Green Island Serenade is a Madarin Chinese lullaby written in the 1950-60s. This version of the song however, was performed by Vienna Teng, an American folk singer and a former Stanford Computer Science student. Her website — which lets you listen to several of her songs — is well worth checking out. And so are her albums, which are all excellent.

Track Six: BigShellWestBristol by BenCousins

At this point, we’ve entered into totally obscure territory. BigShellWestBristol is a remix of “Can’t Say Good Bye to Yesterday”, which was composed for the end-game song of the Playstation 2 game, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. It can be found (and downloaded) on OverClocked Remix, where a community of amateur musicians/DJs enjoy remixing music from video games.

I told ya. Obscure.

Track Seven: Armageddon Man by Mahoney

The final and, in my opinion, most interesting track of the seven is a huge cult hit. The song is another remix, but this time taken by an 1987 Commodore 64 game called Armageddon Man. The remix was done by Pex Tufvesson (or Pex Mahoney) who accompanies the haunting voice of Karin Öjehagen; both are part of a Swedish a cappella group called Visa Roster. If you liked the song, you can download it here.

I have a pretty diverse taste in music.

Not unusual, but open-minded. There are some things I know I dislike (heavy metal, for instance), and some genres I’ve always enjoyed to a degree (soft electronic music, for example).

The challenge is simple: Listen to the following seven songs and see if you can name the track and the artist (no cheating!). Some of them are semi-popular, but some are really, really obscure — so don’t beat yourself up.

For example, song #7 was sung by a single member of an obscure a capella group from Sweden. No joke. I don’t seriously expect anyone to know the sixth or the seventh selection, though they’re both sorta cult hits. Sorta.

Good luck, and I hope you find something you like, but didn’t know about before.

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I hope I’m not ruffling any (legal) feathers on this one. The tracks are seriously downgraded in quality, so if you really like any of the them, let me know and I’ll lead you towards the album.

Wild Mountain Thyme is a traditional Scottish folk song which is arguably attributed to Francis McPeake, who recorded it first in the 1950s. It’s a love song set among the lovely heather and sweetly perfumed wild mountain thyme of Scotland.

Here it is being sung.

Today, I found myself recording a wonderful arrangement of this piece on my guitar. I don’t record myself often (mainly because I’m not that good), but it’s always nice to see the end result.

I really hope that you enjoy it.

I hope it helps you forget about your troubles — if only for a brief moment. I hope it helps you get over that stupid, mean person in your life, or helps you deal with the mountain of paperwork awaiting you when you return.

I hope it takes you away to that magical and ethereal place, where the grass is always green, and the sky, unimaginatively clear and blue.

Most of all, I hope it makes you smile.

Dan and Heba wrote to me today regarding my post on Joshua Bell’s incognito performance in the D.C. Metro station.

I hope you — like me — can find enjoyment (and perhaps even criticism) in their wonderful commentaries.

To: Phil
From: Dan
Date: Late night
Subject: Contact Form Results

I must admit I only had time to quickly scan the article…Are they honestly saying Mr. Bell’s experiment demonstrates even remotely something about the average person’s disdain for classical music? They can’t actually be condemning society this way. If this is case, someone should introduce these vain people to the scientific method.

Amongst the many flaws this experiment has, the most outright is in the context. As someone who currently lives in a city with a subway system, I know that whether you’re playing pop/rock/classical/african music, you’re likely to be ignored by tens of thousands of people in a given day. Even the greatest classical enthusiast doesn’t hang out in the dirty, acoustically-dreadful subway to hear masterpieces…

So why should busy and unsuspecting commuting people be expected to pay any attention? Do people even have to visibly react or pay him to prove they enjoyed/acknowledged something? I see and hear things all the time that I find enjoyable but I don’t always stop to smell the roses.

On the other end of the spectrum, I don’t interrupt my morning jog when I see people I dislike to punch them in the face, either. Maybe I should.

In this case, neglect does not necessarily imply disrespect.

Tell the proponents of that attention-seeking virtuoso to get a clue. They make better musicians than scientists/sociologists.

Night,
Daniel

To: Phil
From: Heba
Date: Sometime this afternoon
Subject: Contact Form Results

Math and classical music are not for the masses, but [are] very fine indeed. Most people like junk food, not gourmet stuff. So math and classical music is gourmet food for the mind and soul. Cherished by those who covet true quality. You, Mr. Phil, are a true connoisseur of gourmet food.

Heba

I find it endlessly amusing when people call me Mr. Phil.