and your kisses at night are replaced with tears

Pakistan born Natasha Khan

Kraftwerk accompanied me for most of Vietnam.

There is something rather therapeutic listening to the German granddaddies of electronic while passing the time in a stranded train that is unable to move due to the mass floods. God knows how many times I've listened to ' Dentaku' and ' Das Model' during that stifling 12 hours. Feist was always over my shoulder, ensuring I never had a dull moment in the long bus journeys on our path through the central highlands. Tullycraft and Log Lady Train added colour to the incessant rain that threatened to kill our explorations many a time.

So there I was then, plugged into kraut and Swedish music in Vietnam, and meeting German and Swedish travelers who were along our way too. I was very tempted to ask the Swedish couple if they knew Victoria Bergsman once they said they lived in Stockholm, but thankfully I managed to stop myself in time.

Oh and music from Vietnam.. we heard everything from the old communist kitsch anthems to the terrible pop music videos that invariably featured the generic ballad nonsense with lots of requisite oohh look im dramatically looking far away into the distance! that gets extremely wearying after awhile. But if you ever find yourself in Saigon, wake yourself up from five plus to seven in the morning and go to any of the many parks in the city. You'll see a sizable group of people, both young and old, lined up in rows doing a morning exercise that is best described as a damn cool synchronized dance routine. To pulsating Viet techno dance beats. A real treat for the eyes and ears. Singapore workout be shamed!

Two weeks at HMV since then, and what can I say. Ill just put it like how I told a friend: " I just couldn't help but suppress a grin when they showed me around the shopfloor after I switched to the ubiquitous black hmv shirt." I have yet to learn cashiering, but I rather it that way, for that means I can spend my time in the aisles rearranging the selections. I am not exactly a file and careful labels kind of person, in most things anyway, but for some reason I find no problem at all being very meticulous when i'm around music. Racking up discs alphabetically, figuring out a way to display the greatest variety in the least space, subtly bringing those I like to the front, it's just like I'm being paid for what I love to do with my songs at home.

And the best part is simply just seeing people when they find what they want. In this case it is *always* satisfying to hunt down a particular song from a few lyrics snippets someone provides. It is against HMV policy to use google and the full arsenal of the internet at the counter computers but screw that.

The pay isnt really *that* fantastic but I do not really care. It's terribly absorbing work for sure, that's another post for another time, and my weekends are all wrecked, along with Christmas Eve it seems now, but really, windows in life for chances like these to do what you like and *get away with it* do not really come often.

A very attractive perk of being a staff at HMV is the freedom to pick any two titles and borrow them for a couple of days. The only catch is that there must be five or more copies of the title on the shopfloor. So for my first week it was Sia's ' Colour the Small One' and Lindy recommended Bats For Lashes' ' Fur And Gold'.

And what a gem Bat For Lashes turned out the be! I have only heard brief mentions of Natasha Khan before, and I regret never really following up on her earlier. " What's A Girl To Do" sounds very Pulpish, what with the spoken lyrics and ominous harpsichords that are simply magic. In fact I can just about imagine Jarvis Cocker doing a cover of this called " What's A Guy To Do?". Plus Khan sounds very much like Sarah Nixey from Black Box Recorder fame, who was my top female singer for sometime before someone else came along. Sarah Nixey + Jarvis = wow.

If you have the time, watch her video linked below too. The only way I can describe it would be it's got the Donnie Darko vibe. If you do not understand then never mind, just click play. You'll be pleasantly surprised, or seriously disturbed at the very least. But cheers for the song.



Bats For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do?



I wonder if this is what is being tried to get told to me, so I'll just leave it be, for yes, I get the point.