motel de moka

Photo credit: Jelle Baars

Over the last couple of years I seem to have grown a much stronger affection for public transportation. I’m not a daily commuter - I can go to work and university by bicycle - but regularly travelling back and forth by train between my hometown and Amsterdam for concerts has convinced me that the social elements of it by far outweigh the advantages of travelling by car. Sure it might be more comfortable and easy to sit behind the wheel yourself and be the captain of your own ship, but isn’t it much nicer for instance to have a casual chat with a stranger than to sit isolated inside your four-wheeled cocoon? Public transportation is the black sheep of our increasingly individualized society.

This playlist is an ode to the train. The rhythmic cadence of the rails as the train rattles over it, shaking and clattering, constantly building momentum and pushing itself forward.

I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step

Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare

To fit its sides, and crawl between,
Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill

And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a star,
Stop — docile and omnipotent –
At its own stable door.

~ Emily Dickinson / The Railway Train ~

1. Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel - Side A: Steam Locomotives and Some Diesel Locomotives (excerpt)
   Railroad Sounds, Steam and Diesel (Audio Fidelity, 1958)
2. Steve Reich - Different Trains (America - Before the War)
   Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint (Elektra/Nonesuch, 1989)
3. Saddleback - Train South
   Everything’s a Love Letter (Preservation, 2004)
4. The Notwist - Pilot
   Neon Golden (Domino, 2002)
5. Hood - The Lost You
   Outside Closer (Domino, 2005)
6. Hangedup - Klang Klang
   Clatter For Control (Constellation, 2005)
7. Tarentel - Hello! We Move Through Weather!
   We Move Through Weather (Temporary Residence, 2004)
8. Elliott Brood - Cadillac Dust
   Tin Type (Weewerk, 2003)
9. Calexico - Hot Rail
   Hot Rail (Quarterstick, 2000)

Stream playlist