Songs to get close to...

Artist: Architecture in Helsinki
Song: Contact High (listen)
Album: Moment Bends (buy)

You look up the definition of a ‘Contact High’ and it references the high experienced when a person comes into contact with those under the influence of a drug or illegal substance. This is a trivialising definition, as it in no way acknowledges the contact high of a gig or the contact high of a shared experience. Those situations that you get a high from, but only due to the fact that those around you are experiencing similar intense emotions due to the collective consciousness of that moment.

But hey, none of what I just said has anything to do with the actual song but it is partly an explanation as to why I fell in love with it. First listen was enjoyable, I was taken by surprise when I stumbled across it on One Track Mind, the intense beat pounding in the background with the warm and gentle vocals laid over the top. Hmmmm, maybe this is worth another listen? Even just the second time round I found myself craving the chorus, finding the introduction taunting me as it stretched out blissfully while I like a junkie yearned for the ‘Contact High’ to kick in. Before I knew it, it was downloaded and the repeat button was highlighted.

The song creates a bizarre feeling of claustrophobia. Much like the man in the video, phantom hands reach out, caressing your senses. It seems pathetic to object after all you’re enjoying it but...the sense of powerlessness...is unnerving. ‘Walls’, ‘vision gone’, ‘silent down here’ create a feeling of self-imposed helplessness. But the song makes it all seem alright, it may be hopeless but my ‘strange infatuation’ will keep me safe, as will the fact that whenever I listen I get that contact high.

Yours not here man,

JoewMo

Songs to get high to

Artist: Pantera
Song: Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath Cover) (Listen)
Album: Far Beyond Driven (1994) (Buy)

You know Pantera, right? Kings of the thundering, blistering, rage-fuelled metal anthem, and masters of the groove metal subgenre they arguably created? Well, as those who have heard this song know, Planet Caravan, a Black Sabbath cover, is as far from the style that made them famous as you could possibly get without them ditching Dimebag’s guitars entirely and becoming a synth-pop boy band.

For a start, it is probably the mellowest song I listen to. Don’t let the fact that I listen mostly to speed metal undermine that statement; it is immensely peaceful. Phil Anselmo’s normally furious roar is far calmer and melodic, similar to how it is in Cemetery Gates but deeper, and Vinnie Paul swaps the drum kit for a hypnotic set of bongos. For anyone that knows anything about Pantera, you should already realise just how unusual a song this is for them.

I discovered Planet Caravan a few months ago when I decided to expand my Pantera collection beyond Cowboys From Hell and listen to some of the heavier stuff. Looking through their undeniably brilliant material, I saw this song and, remembering it to be a cover of some sort, began playing it out of curiosity. Needless to say, it blew my mind. Dimebag’s (or should I say Tony Iommi’s?) main rhythm was immediately relaxing, and once the bongos came I knew I was hooked. Stick Anselmo’s strangely soothing voice and Rex Brown’s subtle bass-work into the mix and you’re in for a truly psychedelic experience. I have since played the song for a number of my friends, very few of whom listen to metal, and normally about the point the bongos makes their entrance I get some sort of positive reaction out of them, including that of one female friend who let out a pleasantly surprised ‘Oooh!’

The dreamy atmosphere created throughout the song works to conjure up a variety of images in my head, like all good songs do. Whatever the song is actually about, it makes me imagine some sort of planet travelling through this dream-like universe, invoking images such as the caravans in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and the gypsies in the His Dark Materials trilogy, all mixed together in a deep-space setting complete with the vast pallet of colours of its various planets and nebulas. For those of you wondering, this is purely fuelled by my imagination; no substances were involved. This is all capped by a masterful solo from Dimebag, which provides a suitably mellow outro to the song and the imaginary galaxy it creates.

This song was originally created for a Black Sabbath covers compilation, but was ultimately rejected… perhaps because it was far too good to belong on a covers compilation. Instead it can be found at the end of the Far Beyond Driven, probably their heaviest album, providing an almost unexpected yet brilliant ending to a brilliant album.