Log #146 - Epic Sounds From Another Planet

Blimey. What is/are Magma? This is truly new to me. I don't think I've ever come across them before. Alerted via Julian Cope's biography I alighted upon his two recommended albums - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (aka M.D.K.) and Kohntarkosz and what fun they are.

La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf

La Dusseldorf  - Viva

Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (MDK)

Magma -  Kohntarkosz

Amon Dull II - Yeti

Grobschnitt - Solar Music

Many bands are described as unique but the description is entirely appropriate with Magma who not only produce extraordinary music but actually sing in their own made up language too. Hailing from France (which surprised me as the country is not known for producing much international rock music as far as I know) they actually sound German but are apparently singing in "Kobaïan".  Furthermore their music spawned its own genre known as Zeuhl which (literally speaking in their own language) translates as celestial.

To dive further into the rabbit hole briefly Kobaïan is the language of the people of the planet Kobaïa (of course) - a planet settled by refugees from Earth in some distant sci-fi future as told through the albums. Although founding settler, drummer and singer, Christian Vander, explains that the language is...

A phonetic language made by elements of the Slavonic and Germanic languages to be able to express some things musically. The language has of course a content, but not word by word.

...this vague explanation hasn't stopped obsessive fans learning to decipher the lyrics and actually converse to one another in Kobaïan!

Zeuhl sounds to me like a cross between prog, classical and opera. The music is epic and symphonic in scope employing complicated time signatures and mind blowing dynamics and tempos. The singing is choral or operatic. Satanic chanting lends the vocals a sort of Hammer Horror soundtrack vibe.

A suitably scary looking band, Christian Vander centre

It's not much like conventional prog rock but the closest contemporary sounds I can hear in these albums would be King Crimson and Yes (the guitarist's fluid lines sound very much like Robert Fripp although it is the piano that provides the majority of the melodies especially on Kohntarkosz) and perhaps some Godspeed You! Dark Emperor, and my more recent discovery Morte Macabre.

Christian Vander was heavily influenced by John Coltrane and there is some jazz fusion in the records, supplemented by a brass section particularly on MDK albeit this is mostly employed in a bombastic big band fashion. In fact the more jazz flavoured avant garde honkings on Kohntarkosz reference rock mavericks Capt. Beefheart and Frank Zappa, two artists sadly under represented on this blog so far.

Above is the music map for Magma. Closest neighbours include Guru Guru, another German band on my radar for a future listen. On the left of the chart we see Cambridge movement artists Soft Machine, Gong and Caravan, along with Krautrockers Can, Faust and Ash Ra Tempel, but I wouldn't say Magma sound much like any of them. I haven't actually heard of any of the bands name-checked over on the right side of the chart.

With an extensive discography and still going and touring today (including a gig in London this October - I say "gig" but imagine it's more like a "happening") I thank Mr Cope for igniting my interest and predict further excursions to Kobaïa in coming months.

Discography (courtesy Wiki)

Studio albums
1970: Magma (reissued as Kobaïa)
1971: 1001° Centigrades
1973: Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh
1974: Ẁurdah Ïtah
1974: Köhntarkösz
1976: Üdü Ẁüdü
1978: Attahk
1984: Merci
2004: K.A (Köhntarkösz Anteria)
2009: Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré
2012: Félicité Thösz
2014: Rïah Sahïltaahk
2015: Šlaǧ Tanƶ
2019: Zëss[22]

Live albums
1975: Live/Hhaï
1977: Inédits
1981: Retrospektïẁ (Parts I+II)
1981: Retrospektïẁ (Part III)
1989: Akt X: Mekanïk Kommandöh (earlier studio recording of Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh from 1973)
1992: Akt I: Les Voix de Magma (from August 2, 1992 at Douarnenez)
1994: Akt IV: Theatre Du Taur Concert, 1975 (from September 27, 1975)
1995: Akt V: Concert Bobino 1981 (from May 16, 1981)
1996: Akt VIII: Bruxelles 1971 (from November 12, 1971 at Theatre 140)
1996: Akt IX: Opéra De Reims, 1976 (from March 2, 1976)
1999: Akt XIII: BBC 1974 Londres (from March 14, 1974 at the London BBC studios)
2001: Trilogie Theusz Hamtaahk (Concert du Trianon), CD + DVD
2008: Akt XV: Bourges, 1979 (from April 17, 1979)
2009: Live in Tokyo 2005
2014: Zühn Wöhl Ünsai – Live 1974 (2 CD; Radio Bremen recordings)

Read More

Log #145 - Last Train To La Dusseldorf

Back in March of this year in Log #131 A Cluster of Faustian Harmonia I pondered the extent of my Krautrock experience. Familiar with the Krautrock mainstream of the likes of Can and... well, Can mostly to be honest (and Tangerine Dream if you class them in the genre) I pondered that there were many other 70s German bands I had perhaps heard of but had yet to actually hear. For a correspondent adopting such a pseudonym as Eddy Bamyasi this was a serious oversight which needed rectifying forthwith. 

The rectification began immediately with Cluster and Harmonia which ironically and bizarrely will almost certainly feature in my best new discoveries of the year review come December. Further rectification occurs this week with visits to the post Neu! La Dusseldorf, a listen to Grobscnitt's most famous album, a first ever spin of a classic Amon Duul II album, more sequencing guitar excursions with Ashra man Michael Gottsching, and, although not Krautrock, Eno and Gabriel trumpet collaborator Jon Hassell's influential debut album.

La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf

La Dusseldorf  - Viva

Michael Gottsching - E2-E4

Jon Hassell -  Vernal Equinox

Amon Dull II - Yeti

Grobschnitt - Solar Music

Phew, that's a lot of new listening. But new listening is what is so exciting about music innit. An excitement which I maintain now just as much as when I was a teenager dropping a needle on a new vinyl I'd just picked up from the second hand store. I believe this has a lot to do with keeping to my tried and tested method - physical mediums in their original album forms. None of these easy come easy go digital downloads.

And we're off...

La Dusseldorf formed out of the ashes of Neu! One of the members wanted to play more ambient instrumental music and another one (this one) wanted to go rock. Consequently these two albums are much more rock based than Neu! In fact, reminiscent of the times (1976/8), the albums touch on punk too. The characteristic motorik beat is maintained but there is singing (limited - in the tunefulness sense) and plentiful guitar too. The tracks are quite long and tend to set up an invigorating groove not least on the side long classic Cha Cha 2000 from the Viva release.

Gottsching's E2-E4 is named after a chess move (one of the most popular opening moves in the game). It is an hour long piece that Gottsching pretty much improvised in his home studio one day. It just so happened to come together beautifully and after being adopted by various prominent club DJs became a surprise underground club hit in the mid 80s. It now stands as an early example of chilled out beats with its hypnotic two chord pattern.

You can make a fortune with this record.

Richard Branson on E2-E4

Despite Branson's blessing Gottsching did not release the record on Virgin choosing to donate it to Klaus Schulze's fledgling Inteam label in 1984.

The Jon Hassell album is a nice listen. It includes elements of ambience (jungle atmosphere) and world music (particularly through the unusual percussion beats) all highlighted with Hassell's heavily treated trumpet. It's a stage on from Miles Davis' early 70s fusion stuff. An excellent album, miles better than I had reason to hope, notwithstanding the acclaim.

Amon Duul II's Yeti is a powerful rock album. Some of the tracks sound slightly dated with a late 60s Love like feel, especially with the flute, violin, tabla and acoustic guitar embellishments. The vocals are strong and the guitar riffs are powerful. From what I've heard of the Krautrock stable I'd say this band are the closest to the (psychedelic/space) rock music coming out of the UK and US at the time and less characteristic of their German contemporaries. They would have fitted right in headlining at Woodstock.

The reaper on the cover looks like Iggy Pop! It is actually a photo (and hommage) to the band's late sound man Wolfgang Krischke who had died a drug related death the year before.

The difference between mark I and mark II of the band is not actually chronology. The band began life as a loose commune collective in 1967...

We are eleven adults and two children which are gathered to make all kinds of expressions, also musical.

In 1968 several members of the group decided to branch off and follow a more serious musical path naming themselves Amon Duul II. They became the famous band we now know as one of the pioneers of Krautrock.

Both versions I and II actually crossed over and even performed separately at some of the same festivals. Mark I disbanded in 1973 after 4 studio albums leaving Mark II to continue on through the 70s (and subsequently spasmodically in various forms).

Lastly, I say Solar Music is Grobschnitt's most famous album. It is a mostly instrumental live piece recorded in 1978. It takes a while to get going with a series of false starts that sound like premature crescendos but eventually the trademark Genesis keyboard arpeggios and fluid guitar kick in all underpinned by a loud pumping bass. Truly epic symphonic rock closer to prog rock than Kraut and containing passages that remind me very much of their stupendous Rockpommel's Land LP. The English lyrics, such as they are, are tongue in cheek and, along with sudden odd noises and sound effects, add a humourous element to the band. Nonetheless the vocals when they occur are some of the strongest in the whole prog/rock/krautrock scene.

Read More

Log #144 - Two Big Arrows From Marley To Marling

Manitoba / Caribou - Stop Breaking My Heart

Chemical Brothers  - We Are The Night

Bob Marley - Catch A Fire

Laura Marling -  I Speak Because I Can

Blue States - Man Mountain

King Tubby - Declaration of Dub

A couple of entries in the box this month are from some more charity shop pickups. Honestly, as a CD collector, there is no better way to spread your collection with many outlets letting their CDs go for as little as 99p.

Man Mountain is the 2002 follow up to Andy Dragazis' (trading as Blue States) brilliant 2000 debut Nothing Changes Under The Sun which had the Bamyasi work over in Log #106. Man Mountain maintains his signature lush keys and ear for an excellent melody, and adds vocals on a number of tracks courtesy of New Young Pony Club vocalist Tahita Bulmer. Initial hearings suggest it's a little more easy listening.

It's another great album cover too, perhaps from the same photo-shoot as Nothing Changes?

The giant twin arrows are actually situated on the iconic Route 66 in Arizona (now by passed by the new Interstate 40) between the towns of Flagstaff and Winslow. They signified an old trading post (diner, fuel station and gift shop) which is long abandonned.

Next bargain was the King Tubby Declaration of Dub. This is a compilation of dub remixes of King Tubby 70s tracks. It's as you'd expect. Simple instrumental music including some covers, with the bass maxed up to speaker bursting volumes. It's the sort of music that you hear occasionally from a passing car which rattles your living room windows. Most the tracks sound the same and it's hard to play too many back to back.

At the risk of starting to repeat myself (I have a limited CD collection despite the frequent charity shop visits and some albums, but only the best, inevitably come around again):

Caribou - Log #109

Bob Marley - Log #2 

Laura Marling - Log #35

Just time for one more lukewarm review this week. I watched the Chemical Brothers Glasto set on TV and thought it was fantastic. But... was it more the visuals than the music? My suspicions deepened on hearing their We Are The Night album which is a relatively dull beats by numbers affair, without any visuals of course. 

Some bands are great on record but don't make for an exciting live experience, some do the opposite. Is this a "by band" phenomenon, or is it a wider "by genre" characteristic? For instance I've said before I'm not sure a lot of prog rock ever sounds great live, but I love the records. Whereas I love a good live rock out to heavy metal or a dance to some banging DJ beats but don't play those sorts of albums at home so much.

Read More

Log #143 - Fried Wax To Burn

Julian Cope, him from Teardrop Explodes, and Antiquarian and Krautrock expert, is a genius. His Modern Antiquarian reference guide, 7 years in the compiling, is a fantastic gift to mankind, one of my favourite books, and one that has enlightened many a holiday to the South West. His musical taste is impeccable - an early adopter of Krautrock, his Krautrock Sampler is a long out of print classic of the genre. I've also been enjoying his double autobiography Head On/Repossessed which has led me to the current selection Fried his second studio album following the break up of The Teardrop Explodes.

With the Teardrops over, Cope retreated to his new home in Tamworth with his American girlfriend Dorian, to play on his keyboard, collect Dinky toys and take drugs. 

Tom Pinnock, Uncut 

So what of his music? I have to say I don't know anything about his music, or The Teardrop Explodes, save for the pop single World Shut Your Mouth (incidentally worth noting that Cope's first solo album also uses the title World Shut Your Mouth but confusingly does not include the track of the same name which was not released until 1986, 2 years later).

Fried is a nice surprise. It's pretty raw and heavy and doesn't sound dated in that typical '80s way. It reminds me of The Smiths. I particularly loved the brilliantly sung Mik Mak Mok which appears as a bonus on my copy (generally though I don't think Cope's vocals are that strong but he gets away with the enthusiasm of the band's playing). Other standouts are the catchy Sunspots and Reynard The Fox. 

The bizarre cover features Cope in a turtle shell with one of his toy trucks (Cope was an avid model car collector).

Is his image of eccentricity and edginess at all contrived? Having read his warts and all books I'd say definitely not.

Nightmares On Wax - Feelin' Good

Calexico with Iron and Wine - Years To Burn

Julian Cope - Fried

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries

John Martyn - Bless the Weather

Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief

Feelin' Good is the 7th album from Leeds DJ and producer George Evelyn otherwise known as Nightmares On Wax. And it does just what it says on the can: It's a feel good record of down tempo beats taking in afro beats, Kruder and Dorfmeister like dub, reggae, funk, deep bass and even ambience.

Luna 2 for instance recalls Can's Hallelujah style circular drumming with throbbing Holger Czukay bass and Nile Rodgers disco strumming whereas Master Plan sounds like Portishead.

The Calexico/Iron/Wine collaboration sort of sounds like the whole is not as great as the sum of the parts, or not as great as it should be. Two different artists in combination. Both great in varying degrees over variable careers but together? Is there a point? Sometimes these sorts of collaborations can feel less a real fusion but a "your turn, no after you" situation. You can hear the trademark laid back Sam Beam drawl, and the occasional Calexico mariachi trumpet but I wouldn't say Years To Burn offers much of an advance on either band's individual catalogue albeit “The Bitter Suite is certainly the most compositionally ambitious song either entity has released in years"(Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork).

It's a nice cover, like the Father John Misty covers, and that's a good reference point although this ain't so good as his recent records.

It's also very short, leaving me with a "was that it?" sentiment.

Aerial Boundaries is the classic Michael Hedges album, and a staple of the Windham Hill "new age" catalogue. The late Hedges was a much revered acoustic guitarist at the forefront of the rebirth of the instrument in the 80s through guitarists like Will Ackerman, Alex de Grassi and Pierre Bensusan. A dynamic live performer, incorporating percussive effects and even vocals, some of his albums verge a little too close to easy listening for my tastes, especially with the heavy use of fretless electric bass. Also fond of his own arrangements of covers this album includes Neil Young's After The Goldrush.

Hedges was a tragically killed in a motor accident in December 1997, age 43.

I've not heard anything else in the genre that has changed my mind, and general consensus, that Liege and Lief is the greatest folk rock album of all time. Combining traditional songs with a rock beat what I love most about the sound of Fairport Convention at the time is the circular grind of Richard Thompson's guitar and Dave Swarbrick's fiddle. I'm sure you've all heard the double murder ballad Matty Groves many a time but it remains one of their greatest songs:

Lord Donald, he jumped up

And loudly he did bawl

He struck his wife right through the heart

And pinned her against the wall

Read More

Log #142 - The Road To Solid Air

When people think of John Martyn their thoughts usually start (and end) around Solid Air, his masterful jazz folk fusion album of 1973. Many would be surprised to learn that Martyn actually released five albums before this major breakthrough. This week Eddy examines Martyn's road to Solid Air.

John Martyn - London Conversation
John Martyn - The Tumbler
John Martyn - Stormbringer!
John Martyn - The Road to Ruin
John Martyn - Bless the Weather
John Martyn - Solid Air

LONDON CONVERSATION

And though he used no poetry

His words are weaving songs

John Martyn's trad. folk guitar debut arrived in late 1967 in the wake of other guitarists on the London scene at the time - Bert Jansch, Al Stewart, Davey Graham, Ralph McTell, and John Renbourn. Containing some covers (notably Bob Dylan's Don't Think Twice, It's Alright) and with his young (Martyn was only 19) voice far from the bear's growl of later years this is a slight record but still very much recognisable as a John Martyn record. 

THE TUMBLER

Won’t you leave behind your city shoes

And lose your bowler hat

With his follow-up in 1968, the Al Stewart-produced The Tumbler, Martyn expanded his sound, employing backup musicians notably jazz flautist Harold McNair. However this proved a retrograde step as the album consequently now sounds date-stamped in the flower power 60s era, more so than it's predecessor.

STORMBRINGER!

I'm John the baptist and this is my friend Salome

And you can bet it's my head she wants and not my heart only

Stormbringer! was a collaboration with his new wife, Beverley Kutner, a singer from Coventry who was also on the fringes of the UK folk scene (she appeared on the cover of Bert Jansch's It Don't Bother Me album). Beverley is credited as writer of four of the ten songs.

The opening track immediately demonstrates a change of style. Recorded in the then current hotbed of new music, the Woodstock area of upstate New York, Martyn has a full band backing including players from The Band and The Doors.

The harmonies between the two singers are good but Beverley's lead vocals alone are a bit too Nico like for my taste.

THE ROAD TO RUIN

The sun was red and the sky was blue

And I went rowing on the road to ruin

Apparently there was already some pressure from Island for Martyn to record on his own, and you can see why - this second joint outing with Beverley Martyn is one of the least John Martyn sounding albums in his catalogue. In fact the album as a standalone entity sounds like two different albums - one part Beverley, one part John.

The lead vocals are taken in turns and rarely in harmony - the Beverley fronted tracks are funky and upbeat sounding and (obviously with the vocals) nothing like John Martyn. I do prefer Beverley Martyn's tracks here to her offerings on Stormbringer! and her voice sounds more confident.

The John Martyn tracks are more down tempo and acoustic. In fact there are definitely some moments here where Martyn approaches the unique sound he would settle upon in later albums.

The fuller instrumentation is however generally wayward - we have flutes, tablas, piano and saxophone. There is even an instrumental (the throwaway and final title track). However one very significant session player was hired - Danny Thompson from Pentangle played double bass and would become Martyn's constant sparring partner through the 70s both on stage and in the studio.

BLESS THE WEATHER

Pain after pain, I stood it just to see how it feels

Rain after rain, I stood it just to make it real

Ok, as you'd expect, this, John Martyn's first proper "solo" album since The Tumbler, his fifth in all, and the Solid Air predecessor, is where Martyn really hits his stride. It's probably the first album containing some songs that he became renowned for, and staples of his live sets for much of his career - namely the title track Bless The Weather, Head And Heart and his groundbreaking Glistening Glyndebourne, a 7 minute "echoplex" treated acoustic guitar instrumental backed by jazz piano.

Martyn's maturing lyrics are also beginning to reveal ambiguities between the domestic bliss of life with his wife and new children, and his more temptatious male ego.

Beginners could safely start here and pretty much pass over the previous albums.

SOLID AIR

May you never lay your head down

Without a hand to hold

Solid Air (1973) featured some of Martyn's most mature and enduring songs: the slurry title track Solid Air (written for close friend Nick Drake), May You Never (probably the closest Martyn came to a hit and a sing-a-long favourite at live concerts), Over The Hill and an audacious electrified cover of Skip James' I'd Rather Be The Devil.

Martyn's voice had become deeper and bluesier, with words blurring their boundaries, and he expanded his guitar effects whilst retaining his rhythmic acoustic runs and percussive slap style. Members of Fairport Convention guested and the jazzy elements of the record are propelled by Danny Thompson's double bass and John Bundrick's gorgeous laid back electric piano.

Acoustic and electric elements combine in a magnificent acid folk masterpiece the equal of Astral Weeks or Liege and Lief.

... AND THEN...

Martyn continued making exceptional records throughout the 70s and early 80s. In fact I'd say his body of work is one of the most consistent of any artist I know. Inside Out and Sunday's Child continued the Solid Air vibe with a move towards more rock as did the live album Live at Leeds. One World showcased a unique experimental almost early triphop sound, for me personally his peak, and Grace and Danger was a monumental break up (in the wake of his inevitable separation from Beverley) album of heartbreaking jazz ballads. Finally came Glorious Fool, a powerful rock album. That's a winning run of a 7 albums from Bless The Weather without a duffer in sight. Only then did Martyn begin to release some less inspiring middle of the road 80s fayre before a partial creative and critical rebirth in the 90s.


STUDIO ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY (courtesy Wiki)

London Conversation (October 1967)
The Tumbler (December 1968)
Stormbringer! (February 1970) (with Beverley Martyn)
The Road to Ruin (November 1970) (with Beverley Martyn)
Bless the Weather (November 1971)
Solid Air (February 1973)
Inside Out (October 1973)
Sunday's Child (January 1975)
One World (November 1977)
Grace and Danger (October 1980)
Glorious Fool (September 1981)
Well Kept Secret (August 1982)
Sapphire (November 1984)
Piece by Piece (February 1986)
The Apprentice (March 1990)
Cooltide (November 1991)
Couldn't Love You More (August 1992)
No Little Boy (July 1993)
And (August 1996)
The Church with One Bell (covers album) (March 1998)
Glasgow Walker (May 2000)
On the Cobbles (April 2004)
Heaven and Earth (May 2011)

Read More

Log #141 - The First Folk Revival 1966 - 1970

Before the emergence of "nu-folk" around the latter part of the new millennium's first decade there came an earlier folk music revival in the UK in the mid 60s. This week Eddy, inspired by his reading of the excellent history of British folk music Electric Eden, examines 6 key albums from that time.

Davy Graham - Large As Life And Twice As Natural

Pentangle - Basket Of Light

Bert Jansch - Jack Orion

Fairport Convention - Fairport Convention

Shirley and Dolly Collins - Anthems In Eden

Heron - Heron

Anthems in Eden was released in 1969 by sisters Shirley, and the lesser known Dolly, Collins. A pioneering record Anthems was characterised by Dolly's odd Alice Coltrane like organ arrangements and the use of ancient period instruments courtesy of David Munrow's Early Music Consort which gives the music a medieval or renaissance court feel. It's quite spooky in a Wicker Man sort of way and fittingly Munrow went on to provide film music for Ken Russell's shocking The Devils.

Come you young men, with your music, dance and song (and animal masks), Dolly left, Shirley right.

Together with the album's successor, Death and the Lady, Electric Eden's author Rob Young writes:

These two records are among the crowning glories of English folk's Indian summer, fusing all the elements of Copper family harmonies, Early Music instruments and modern arrangements of traditional songs.

Next up we have offerings from two folk guitarists who pioneered a new finger picking style of acoustic guitar playing:

Large As Life And Twice As Natural (1968) consists of some bluegrass and lots of blues. Some of it is instrumental. Most of it is song based. It's alright by today's standards but nothing to get too excited about albeit I am led to understand that this stuff was brilliant and revolutionary in its time - Davy Graham frequently being referenced as one of the most influential guitarists of all time (I take it by guitarists only on the whole).

Indeed he is credited with inventing the now famous DADGAD guitar tuning which he picked up during travels in North Africa in the early 60s. Furthermore by far the best stuff on this album is the North African influenced pieces like the excellent Jenra and the evocative closer Blue Raga where Graham's modal and bendy circular drones and rounds sound like sitar and remind me of the best of French-Algerian guitarist Pierre Bensusan.

These tracks have aged the least. I also think their nature (existing right on the edge of being off key or out of time) depends on a player right at the peak of his game. It only takes a slight deterioration in performance for it to sound disproportionately bad. I guess what I'm trying to say is, like classical guitar playing, the music is unforgiving.

My views are also slightly soiled by the latter years of Graham's career where he made an ill advised comeback. Obviously unable to play to anything like the standard of his younger years he also started to include classical pieces played on a nylon string guitar in his sets. Heaven knows why he was attempting to play more difficult music as his physical and mental powers waned. Unfortunately the series of concerts he performed in his years shortly before his death in 2008 served to achieve little more than a spoiling of his legacy notwithstanding a hitherto sacred cow status.

Bert Jansch is another much revered guitarist. Neil Young famously said he was his favourite acoustic player and even nicked (knowingly or not) Jansch's Needle Of Death riff for his Ambulance Blues (he also covered Needle Of Death on his 2014 A Letter Home album).

What about Jansch's album - his third - Jack Orion (1966) - will that escape the Bamyasi Sword of Indifference?

Well readers, the answer is yes, it's pretty dece and personally I prefer it to the disparate Graham offering. The record consists of reworkings of trad. folk tunes. There is a nice continuity to the album with Jansch sticking to acoustic guitar and occasional banjo. Many of the songs are based on rounds of repeated riffs of only three chords or so played with unusual rhythmic accents which give the music groove. Where he sings he possesses an earthy folk voice with authentic finger in the ear sustain and flutter.

There is lots of talk about Jansch influencing Young and Jimmy Page; indeed Black Water Side heavily influenced Jimmy Page's Black Mountain Side from Led Zeppelin's debut album (reportedly Jansch was none too pleased with this unauthorised homage which seems a bit rich as his reading was itself a version of a traditional song Down By Black Water Side), but I hear John Martyn the most in his guitar picking and slapping. I say "his" playing but Jansch is complemented by fellow acoustic guitar luminary John Renbourn throughout the record. The two would go on to form Pentangle together...

As there is footage of Jansch with Neil Young performing Ambulance Blues together I can conclude Jansch's attitude to other guitarists lifting his riffs has softened over the years.

Pentangle's 1969 album Basket Of Light was the folk "supergroup"'s third and most commercially successful record. It begins with the upbeat Light Flight which became a minor hit. However what is most evident on this record are the jazz influences particularly brought to the group's sound through two established folk/blues/jazz session players on the 60s London scene, Terry Cox on drums and Danny Thompson (later John Martyn's constant sparring partner) on double bass.

Small rhythmic cells bubble up in repetitive cycles around interlocked bass and drums that flex with the elasticity of jazz.

Rob Young

Their extended instrumental interludes and improvisations took them away from traditional folk and closer to the underground acid folk rock and psychedelic scene represented by emerging bands like Pink Floyd, Soft Machine and even The Grateful Dead. Even their stark black and white silhouetted debut album cover suggested something new. Indeed the album is credited with the first time a rock drum kit was employed backing English traditional songs - an approach Fairport Convention would shortly take up a notch in their classic Unhalfbricking and Liege and Lief albums...

The debut and eponymous album from Fairport Convention however isn't great. It sounds extremely dated and serves to accentuate the gap between where they started and where they got to in an incredibly short time of prolific music making; the debut album arrived in the summer of '68 - by the end of 1971 they'd already moved through three significantly different line ups and had recorded 7 studio albums:

June 1968 - Fairport Convention
Jan 1969 - What We Did on Our Holidays 
July 1969 - Unhalfbricking
Dec 1969 - Liege & Lief
July 1970 - Full House
June 1971 - Angel Delight
Nov 1971 - Babbacombe Lee

The line up for the debut was:

Judy Dyble – lead vocals, electric and acoustic autoharps, recorder, piano
Ian MacDonald (Iain Matthews) – lead vocals, Jew's harp
Richard Thompson – vocals, lead electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin
Simon Nicol – vocals, electric 12 and 6 string and acoustic guitars
Ashley Hutchings – bass guitar, jug, double bass
Martin Lamble – percussion, violin

The line up at the time of the classic Liege and Lief (often held up as the greatest folk-rock album of all time) was:

Sandy Denny – vocals
Dave Swarbrick – fiddle, viola
Richard Thompson – electric & acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Simon Nicol – electric, 6-string & 12-string acoustic guitars, backing vocals
Ashley Hutchings – bass guitar, backing vocals
Dave Mattacks – drums, percussion

By the end of 1971 the Dave heavy line up was:

Dave Swarbrick – lead vocals, mandolin, fiddle, viola, cuckoo
Dave Pegg – bass guitar, vocals, lead guitar, viola, violin
Dave Mattacks – drums, percussion, vocals, harmonium, tambourine, bass guitar, piano
Simon Nicol – lead vocals, guitar, bass guitar, electric dulcimer, violin

Note that the only common member throughout this period was Simon Nicol who is also incidentally still there (along with Dave Pegg). The latest line up of Fairport Convention is:

Simon Nicol
Dave Pegg
Ric Sanders
Chris Leslie
Gerry Conway

Note also that one line up change was enforced by a tragic road accident in May '69 that claimed the life of drummer Martin Lamble.

Unfortunately their rapid rise from the foothills of the debut to the peaks of Liege and Lief was matched by an equally rapid decline down the other side of the mountain after they abandoned their revolutionary rock folk readings and moved towards traditional folk and then finally, sadly, irrelevant easy listening.

Heron/Heron (1970) with its lovely harmonies set to gentle guitar strumming and mandolin plucking is a little gem which deserves to be better known. In fact, why have I not heard this before, or not even heard of the band?

Heron, recording outside, and on the cover of Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music

At first I had assumed this album was a solo album from Mike Heron from The Incredible String Band (in fact one of the Heron band members does resemble Mike Heron). But not at all, Heron were originally a 3 piece formed in Berkshire in 1967. By the time of their self titled first album which arrived in 1970 the band had expanded to consist of Tony Pook (vocals), Roy Apps (guitar, vocals), Gerald ‘G.T.’ Moore (guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Steve Jones (keyboards).

Unused to the studio the band decamped to a rural Berkshire farmhouse to record the album. Playing outside and deliberately including the surround sounds of the wind and the birds the album is perhaps the first ambient record.

The method was repeated for the follow up record, the double Twice As Nice And Half The Price, recorded in the grounds of a Devon Cottage which graces the cover. It all looks rather idyllic but despite rubbing shoulders with the likes of David Bowie and Elton John and gaining support from John Peel commercial success eluded them.

And that was it... or was it? Remarkably the band (remarkably with the same members) made a come back in the 80s and are still going today. Their most recent album Jokerman was released in 2016.

Read More

Log #140 - Glass Goes Pop

In the early 80s Philip Glass attempted to go pop with his Glassworks album - an album deliberately designed for the Sony Walkman (invented in 1979). Two decades later German electronic composer Wolfgang Voight recorded an album of atmospheric drones under the name Gas and called it Pop. 

Philip Glass Glassworks
Tom Waits Foreign Affairs
Thievery Corporation The Mirror Conspiracy

Tangerine Dream Ricochet

Gas Pop

Richard Hawley Truelove's Gutter

This week sees the first entry for 2 1/2 years from Washington DC electronica duo Thievery Corporation who make the most of their overdue reappearance with a typically classy set of down tempo swing and groove via The Mirror Conspiracy. The album, their second official studio release, came out in 2000, but I first became aware of them the year before through their excellent DJ Kicks compilation which must be one of the best of that series. 

I'm really enjoying the Gas album POP. It almost goes without saying (almost) but this sort of music does require several hours of listening before the subtleties are absorbed. This is slow burning ambience, with some beats too (heartbeat pulses). It's much less dynamic than the Fennesz album I acquired at the same time (Endless Summer), but equally unique and original. The circular drones come at you in waves which have a wonderful lulling effect as you drift across the surface of the peaks and troughs of Wolfgang Voigt's oceanic soundscapes. 

I'm pondering seeing Richard Hawley at a forthcoming concert in my area. I think I should go. I love his records. The thing that's holding me back is he is just about to bring a new album out and current set lists reveal he is playing practically the whole thing (obviously at the expense of much from the earlier albums I so love - in particular this one, Truelove's Guitar, which is an absolute masterpiece).

Have I missed his peak, or will the new album be equally as good (albeit less familiar even if I get it immediately)? I have a similar dilemma with the Felice Brothers who I was very sad to miss 2 years ago when they cancelled their UK tour. They are returning in the new year but with a new album and a new band. Will they be the same? I think I'll go to them too. Both of these artists have been favourites of mine for a while so even if I may have missed their absolute best I'll still regret passing up the opportunity.

In so much as this can be ever possible Philip GLASS attempted something more commercial with his 1982 Glassworks album. Temporarily putting aside his symphonic and operatic works:

Glassworks was intended to introduce my music to a more general audience than had been familiar with it up to then.

Through 6 relatively short pieces Glass takes us on a whistle top tour of the Glass that we feel that we know - we have the solo piano (Opening), the abrasive organ (Floe), the haunting pipes over minor chord string arpeggios (Island), the frenetic abrasive keyboard loops (Rubic), the beautiful clarinet melody over string loops (Facades), and the repeated embellished piano coda (Closing). Like a Russian doll the opening and closing pieces envelope the two alternating pairs - the beauty and the bombastic, or the order and the chaos if you like - bringing the album together as a satisfying whole.

It could be a greatest hits record, but serves more as an introductory compilation to Glass music. To call such music minimalist does it a disservice. There is a lot going on here and rather than being in any way generic, Philip Glass is unique and instantly recognisable.

Glass succeeded in his intention - Glassworks remains his most commercially successful record today.

Read More

Log #139 - Gentle Nighthawks

This week I take in an early and oft overlooked album from Tom Waits - his 1975 outing Nighthawks At The Diner - an atmospheric whole greater than the sum of its insignificant parts. Eccentric English prog rockers Gentle Giant are given short shrift with their most famous album Octopus. 

~~~

The Alan Parsons Project Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
Tom Waits Nighthawks At The Diner
Fennesz Endless Summer

Tord Gustavsen Trio The Other Side

Emilie Simon Vegetal

Gentle Giant Octopus

~~~

Oh, what can I say? It’s a shame to write off a whole band’s career in a short paragraph but I’m afraid it’s gonna happen here. 

I was made aware of Gentle Giant through some positive reviews on a Facebook forum I follow. I was also aware that one or two of their album covers were Roger Dean designs - most famously the Octopus one below which is the subject of this brief review - the album, their 4th, indeed entitled Octopus.

The music is incredibly busy, taking in elements of Genesis, Traffic, ELP, Atomic Rooster (lots of piano) and Yes. It's a real prog rock soup with all sorts of vegetables thrown in but they aren't liquidised very well and, despite the obvious instrumental chops of the band, it's all a bit of an unpalatable stew.

In fact the group's stated mission statement was to:

Expand the frontiers of contemporary popular music at the risk of becoming very unpopular.

Perhaps this is why, in their decade of existence (1970-80), they never achieved the fame, fortune and admiration bestowed on many of their contemporaries.

I'm not a massive Tom Waits aficionado but feel that (like a lot of artists) he had a 70s phase, and an everything afterwards phase (not that I'm aware of much that he has done since the 80s). When he started out he sang conventional ballads and love songs - some of the tracks on the early albums like The Heart Of Saturday Night are beautiful. Even the singing was tuneful.

Then something happened around the turn of that decade. Waits went industrial. His music became dominated by clanking rhythms and gravelly barking vocals. The main album I was aware of that demonstrated this new sound was Swordfishtrombones. Actually this makes perfect sense. Waits had changed labels, his initial label Asylum dropping him for "failing to move beyond cult status". Swordfishtrombones was released in 1983 - his first album for the new label Island and his 7th overall.

This album was doing the rounds when I was a Uni student. There was even a track on the jukebox at our main drinking hole, the Red Cow in Exeter. How many jukeboxes have Tom Waits on them? Not many but this was no ordinary jukebox, and the Red Cow was certainly no ordinary pub (sadly no longer there). The track was the drunken sing-a-long In The Neighbourhood and would be aired nightly.

As a fan of hard rock Tom Waits remained a bit of a mystery to me (I was much more acquainted with the AC/DC numbers on said jukebox). But eventually I got the album, and followed it closely with Frank's Wild Years, Raindogs, Small Change, The Heart Of Saturday Night, Foreign Affairs, Big Time, One From The Heart and my favourite, Blue Valentine, which I think perfectly bridged the two types of Tom Waits.

Note not much from the late 80s on. This is an oversight on my part yet to be rectified - as indicated by the ranking below (Waits' output is so consistent it is hard to find a consensus for such a list - maybe one for me to tackle in the future?).

https://www.ranker.com/list/best-tom-waits-albums-list/reference

Also interesting to note that Waits lags behind other celebrated singer-songwriters (Young, Dylan, Morrison etc) in my overall frequency rankings with just the 5 to date.

Tom Waits tops my bucket list of artists I want to see live.

To be fair the gravel vocals came first and were already in place before the industrial clanking which coincided more with the powerful barking delivery which has remained in place ever since those 80s albums. When Waits recorded Nighthawks At The Diner it was only his 3rd album and he was only 26 although his voice sounds like a weary old man of 62 who has seen it all.

The album is set up like a live recording made in a seedy jazz basement. Actually it was set up, literally. The recording was made in a LA studio in front of a small audience of select guests, friends and record executives. Backed by seasoned jazz session musicians Waits slurs his way through a series of down tempo cabaret numbers interspersed with spoken asides, banter and his trademark humour, playing the role of the barfly troubadour to the max.

As the album goes, and the songs within, it's certainly not his best work, and doesn't reach the heights of the similarly jazzily improvised Astral Weeks. But despite its contrived origin, it does have a tremendous smoke filled atmosphere you could cut with a knife, and reminds me why the tour shy Tom Waits tops my bucket list of artists I want to see live. There is very little chance of this happening unfortunately.

Edward Hopper's famous 1942 depiction

Read More

Log #138 - The Other Sides Of Jazz

A couple of new jazz albums in the player this week. Quite different.

Firstly Kamasi Washington who seems to be a bit of a poster boy for the "new jazz revival". His latest album Heaven and Earth is of epic proportions, as was his previous release, the appropriately entitled The Epic. In fact it topped many "best of" lists for 2018. For me, I've tried to get into it, but so far I've been left slightly cold by the myriad of different tones which include samba beats, stage show numbers, soul, gospel, vocals and, most disturbingly, 80s style electronica. Kamasi seems a big personality and this is big music. I must try harder.

Much more my tea at the moment is a beautiful album from Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen which I discovered by chance after overhearing the track Re-Melt at a Brighton Festival Open House (I stood transfixed by the speaker unable to move until it was over). Fittingly from the ECM label The Other Side is Gustaven's eighth album.

The Alan Parsons Project Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
Tom Waits Nighthawks At The Diner
Fennesz Endless Summer

Tord Gustavsen Trio The Other Side

Emilie Simon Vegetal

Kamasi Washington Heaven And Earth

In contrast to the Washington album this is gentle minimalist jazz all about the subtle ebbs and flows and the space in between. Gustavsen explains:

There is this idea in the title of the way the trio plays as being the other side of virtuosity, a kind of paradoxical virtuosity where you don’t play all the notes you can but merely the notes that are really needed. It’s about subordinating your ego to the flow of the music – and that takes a kind of ‘radical listening’ – listen more than you play. That’s a passion the three of us share.

Indeed the trio display admirable restraint through twelve modestly lengthed tracks of sparse beauty. The piano playing is melodic and recalls the Debussy preludes - the classical influences are confirmed with three arrangements of Bach pieces. The piano leads but is backed by perfect double bass and drum accompaniment. 

Although potentially verging on the Keith Jarrett type easy listening stylings the album's sheer beauty, perfectly encapsulated in the lilting opening track The Tunnel (below), overcomes any accusations of "imperceptibility" as levelled at The Cinematic Orchestra last week.

Easily my album of the week, I've pretty much had this little gem on repeat play all weekend.

Read More

Log #137 - At The Dawning of a Neu! Age for Invention and Imagination

The Alan Parsons Project Tales of Mystery and Imagination

The Cinematic Orchestra Ma Fleur

Fennesz Endless Summer

Neu! Neu!

Manuel Göttsching Inventions for Electric Guitar

Ashra New Age Of Earth

The Alan Parsons Project album was another one of those albums that was knocking around my latter school and early uni years, but wasn't one I ever possessed or recall fully hearing. I knew Alan Parsons became well known after engineering The Dark Side Of The Moon and also, less so, The Year Of The Cat. He then, evidently by accident, went on to record a number of his own albums (11 up to 1990 and a comeback one in 2014) beginning with Tales Of Mystery And Imagination in 1976:

"We never expected the Alan Parsons Project to become the name of an act. The phrase was designed to describe the identity of the album you are now holding in its orginal form. We would never in our wildest dreams have thought that at least ten albums would follow, performed by this anonymous outfit that never played gigs!"

Alan Parsons writing in the sleeve notes to the remastered release of Tales... in 1987.

Ah, the sleeve notes...at first glance on this CD release they are impressive and comprehensive (so few artists even bother at all these days) - Parsons (I assume they are his words) says himself sleeve notes have fallen out of fashion but then the annoyances creep in. There are obvious typos and a particular reproduction clanger which unfortunately renders the notes disjointed, inconsistent and repetitive. I have no idea how this is allowed to happen. Even when I produce a crappy throwaway  spreadsheet for work, which will be read by hardly no one and confined to the recycle bin within a few weeks, I proof read it 100 times. But this stuff is there forever. I don't get it. Such an easy thing to get right.

The music is so-so. Yet to really form an opinion on it. There is a range of music from rock to prog to classical. It reminds me a little of Meatloaf in the more bombastic moments, and Supertramp in the softer rock numbers. Apparently there was some kudos to having no synthesizers in the original recording of Tales... (I remember this was stated on Queen albums up until the 80s after which time they certainly made up for it!). For this reissue synthesizers have been allowed.

Much more immediately appealing are the Manuel Gottsching albums. Gottsching was the main man behind Krautrock band Ash Ra Tempel and the follow up group Ashra. In fact this album, his first official solo release in 1975, is subtitled Ash Ra Tempel VI thus doubling up as the sixth and final album under the Ash Ra Tempel name. After Inventions For Electric Guitar Gottsching formed Ashra and recorded the landmark New Age Of Earth album in 1976.

Inventions is a fascinating record with 3 long tracks, each of significantly differing atmospheres. For its time the heavily flanger and echo treated electric guitar loops must have been very groundbreaking, and it still sounds fresh and original today. The style is reminiscent of Steve Reich (particularly his Electric Counterpoint for guitars) and Steve Hillage (particularly Rainbow Dome Musick) and even Alex Lifeson (La Villa Strangiato) and John Martyn (Small Hours) with the long sustained notes that build and fade.

New Age Of Earth is essentially another solo album. This one veers off into more Tangerine Dream-like sequencer territory. It's different but equally beautiful and melodic and has been frequently nominated as one of the most influential ambient albums of all time:

Göttsching’s style of looping notes into sequential echoes has inspired a generation of musicians to mimic this process, but in this recording you hear the master at play.

Matt Howarth

These two albums together make a very pleasing pairing. In fact they would have made a masterful double album, and are prime candidates for a 2 on 1 CD release.

I orginally had the Alan Parsons cover as my head shot for this blogpost but to be honest it was a bit dull and the Ashra cover above is awesome! Before looking closely I thought this was a sunrise over a mayan temple or pyramid. A homage to the sun god if you like. It's actually something even cooler. A sunrise over a derelict block of flats set in wasteland and against barbed wired fencing. Like the urban monoliths in High Rise or the shocking tragedy that was Grenfell. The ultimate juxtaposition of nature and man (Led Zeppelin did something slightly similar (but less striking) on the cover of their IV album). I have found no information on the actual location for the Ashra cover shot.

The album title too, potentially overblown in some contexts, is entirely fitting with the cover and the music.

The 4 tracks are entitled:

Sunrain
Ocean Of Tenderness
Deep Distance
Nightdust

Neu! were another German krautrock band from the 70s. As revered as the likes of Can but much less prolific although founding members Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother (both ex-Kraftwerk) were involved in other bands including Harmonia and La Düsseldorf. They only produced 3 proper studio albums Neu!, Neu! 2, and Neu '75, although an unoffical Neu! 4 was later released as Neu! '86. Their debut album is probably the one to start with for beginners and contains the celebrated Hallogallo and Negativland tracks - spacey melodic explorations over driving motorik beats so influential to Hawkwind.

As regular readers will know I chanced upon a whole raft of excellent experimental ambient music towards the back end of last year. I discovered a wide range of new artists and immersed myself in a number of albums. 6 months on it is interesting to see what has resurfaced from the deluge. The favourite to date seems to be the fascinating Fennesz album, Endless Summer, which I keep returning to. A correspondent likened the sound of this album to that of the dying of a distant star. A brilliant and entirely apt description. It is out of this world.

Well I may aswell. Nearly covered all 6 albums in the player this week so here goes with The Cinematic Orchestra. This album is simultaneously beautiful and slightly, dare I say, boring? It's so down tempo it is rendered almost imperceptible. Yes, that's the word...

Maybe this is far too harsh and within the lilting jazz piano and dreamy singing there are hidden depths but I've had this album for years so it's time for it to reveal itself. I'm seeing the group at a festival this summer so it will be interesting how they reproduce their music live.

***

Books! Books! Books! There so much to read! I've got 3 on the go at the moment, with a bunch stacked in the queue. I'm cruising slowly through Why Bob Dylan Matters by Richard Thomas. This is all about the lyrics and is a take on why Dylan is as important as the ancient classical writers. I think the author is making a case for his degree course on the subject.

More fun is Julian Cope's twin autobiographies Head On (the trip from zero to hero and back to zero again with The Teardrop Explodes in the matter of only 2 or 3 years) and the follow up Repossessed which promises "shamanic depressions" in the 80s wilderness years.

And finally I've just started the impressive Electric Eden by Rob Young - a lengthy tome on the history of English (folk) music from Vaughan Williams through to Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, and all that Joe Boyd stuff. 100 pages in and it seems to be a cut above the usual surface music writing.

Read More

Log #136 - Living In The Live Age

Ah, the Live album! Love 'em or hate 'em they were a staple of 70s rock. Most of the stalwarts of the rock scene in that decade had a live album in them. Many had two. For some artists (Frampton, Cheap Trick, and Bob Seger, their live album became their career defining moment far surpassing anything they produced in the studio).

That was just the official ones: There used to be a major trade in bootleg live recordings too. Most bands didn't appreciate the inferior quality of the bootlegs that surfaced on the market - not surprisingly when you consider many such recordings were literally made by an audience member standing in the crowd with a cassette recorder, albeit some better recordings did emerge from sound desks. (The Grateful Dead however were unusual in being the one band that positively encouraged recordings of their shows and many high quality semi official releases exist).

The unofficial recordings nevertheless served a useful purpose for the fans. Bootlegs would present full concerts from one venue on one night, with all the songs in the intended order, and all the warts, fluffs, inter song banter, and audience coughs present. To relay the experience of actually being there these usually surpassed official releases.

Official live albums were usually variously enhanced with edits and overdubs, which meant the tracks were sonically better but this did defeat the object somewhat - one didn't really want to hear a live album where the songs were identical to the studio recordings.

For me the most interesting live albums were from artists that would perform significant reinterpretations of their studio recordings. An electric track would be played acoustically on stage, or a short track would be extended for instance. Bob Dylan and Neil Young were the obvious masters at reinventing their material. Sometimes an artist would present a live recording of entirely new songs.

While the 70s was probably the heyday of the live album many artists have recently begun to release multiple recordings of live concerts from their vaults. Young for example is releasing a series of live concert recordings, many (mostly inferior versions) of which had appeared as unofficial bootlegs previously.

Not all 70s rock artists released live albums. There are some surprising omissions, whether by contractual restriction or other reason. Some artists have recorded albums live of course, but in the studio without an audience. And not all live albums work, whether by poor design or recording, or the music simply not being reproducible or suited to live performance - some of the more complicated prog rock music for instance doesn't always seem to translate so well live.

Great cover, dated film, disappointing recording

Sometimes bands would make a hash of the multi venue edits or the crowd noise - rendering the live album devoid of atmosphere or continuity. The live offerings from some very revered live bands disappoint (evidence from youtube footage would suggest that classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath were exciting particularly in their early days, but even the most loyal fan would be hard pushed to argue The Song Remains The Same, or Live Evil, are good albums - perhaps their live albums just caught them on off days (or off tours), or simply past their peaks). Drugs certainly played a part with some bands who couldn't get it together live (although I always think not as much as you would have expected - if the lifestyles of these bands were as incessantly "rock n roll" as reported the bands would rarely have been able to turn up let alone play anything).

This week Eddy revisits 6 classic live albums from the era - there were of course 100s to choose from and the subject, like the Roger Dean covers log, probably deserves a series in future, but for now he has steered clear of some of the more obvious albums (like Live in Leeds and the aforementioned The Song Remains The Same) to present a Frampton Comes Alive Free Zone below):

Why is this album so famous? Right place right time? I honestly don't know (having never heard it).

Van Morrison / Too Late To Stop Now

Wishbone Ash / Live Dates

UFO / Strangers In The Night

Rory Gallagher / Irish Tour '74

Tom Waits / Nighthawks At The Diner

Scorpions / Live In Tokyo

Read More