Log #221 - Spotting Haken From The Panopticon

The heavy rock/metal band Isis are a surprise to me... because I really like them. Why do I like them when I have previously written about how I don't much like "post rock" instrumental bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky or Mogwai? I can only put it down to a significant difference even if I can't quite put my finger on what that difference is. To be fair I heard the band ...

Read More

Log #220 - Animals Is Pink Floyd's Best Album

My recent listening to the likes of Opeth, and Eloy in particular, plus a spin of Atom Heart Mother last week, has led me back to some more Pink Floyd this week. Wish You Were Here was my favourite album of theirs when I was younger (in fact, my favourite album of all time by anyone for a while). It's still excellent with the centrepiece of Shine On You Crazy Diamond of course, the ...

Read More

Log #219 - New Pleasures With Others Remaining Unknown

OPETH'S STILL LIFE AND DAMNATIONA continuation of my discovery of Swedish group Opeth this week proceeds with one of their classic early albums - their fourth Still Life (from 1999). As an early record from their "death metal" days I wasn't expecting to like it so much as their later work. But actually it was great. The growl vocals are used relatively sparingly and I didn't mind them too much ...

Read More

Log #218 - Moving Through The Prog Metal Gears With Opeth

My recent listening to King Crimson and Tool (and a facebook post extolling their virtues) has led me to Opeth. They are a Swedish metal band. Sounds unpromising doesn't it, and this initial reaction was confirmed as I listened to the opening track of their 2001 Blackwater Park album (as recommended by some Twitter fans as possibly their best) but bear with me as Opeth just could be my greatest ...

Read More

Log #217 - Splashdown (Into the Ocean from the Stratosfear)

After the success of Lateralus last week I doubled down with TOOL's most recent album Fear Inoculum.Invincible sounds very much like Rush with the picked guitar and latter period Geddy Lee like vocals.7empest is epic and the opener is very powerful.The drumming is obviously very busy and front of mix in this style of full on nu-metal and the guitars are generally of the chugging variety - not an awful ...

Read More

SAHB - Rock Drill Reviewed

Rock Drill was the last proper SAHB album (SAHB did record another album Fourplay between Stories and this one, although bizarrely without Harvey who was equally bizarrely otherwise engaged working on a Loch Ness monster documentary!).Although often considered a bit of a non event and largely disowned by the band who were slowly disintegrating at the time (keyboardist Hugh McKenna had already left ...

Read More

Log #216 - King Crimson To Tool

So the provenance of this week's listening is really via King Crimson. Specifically that band's last 3 albums which were of a style of music I was not really familiar with before. It sounded a bit like Heavy Metal but much more complex and progressive. So Prog Metal is unsurprisingly a term you could apply. But I've also heard the terms Nu-Metal, Industrial-Metal, Alt-Metal and Stoner-Metal. I ...

Read More

Can's Sacrilege? - Eddy reviews the remixes

As the title suggests this album of Can remixes was a risky project but it actually works pretty well and there are some exciting reworkings here which have, on the whole, been praised by the band… except Damo Suzuki that is:It’s not my tea.As befits the era Sacrilege (1997) consists mostly of remixed instrumentals of original tracks in the drum and bass style. Therein lies the issue. As ...

Read More

Log #215 - The Sparks That Still Burn

If you are near my age and grew up watching BBC's Top Of The Pops in the '70s chances are you will only know Sparks from their weird appearance singing This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us. This song, most memorable for hyperactive singer Russell Mael's high pitched falsetto and older brother Ron Mael's deadpan keyboard playing and sinister looks to camera, was a #2 UK hit in early 1974.[That ...

Read More

John Martyn / Well Kept Secret

Released in 1982 just one year after the excellent Glorious Fool is it fair to ask if Well Kept Secret was the beginning of John Martyn's long decline? Sure Martyn wholeheartedly embraces the production values of the day and the tracks are submerged in keyboards and easy listening bass and saxophone. However to be fair the songs are passable retaining some hints of the immediately preceding albums, ...

Read More

Log #214 - Van Morrison's Uncommon One

Common One from 1980 is a bit of a forgotten outlier in the Van Morrison catalogue. For me it sounds like a mix of Astral Weeks* and Avalon Sunset ie. the freeform stringy impro of the former (especially on the extended stream of consciousness Summertime In England) merging with the sax and organ groove commerciality of the latter (like on Satisfied). I can forgive Van banging on about ...

Read More

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at Peace? Master and Everyone

The voices in Will Oldham's head that speak to us via his Bonnie 'Prince' Billy incarnation are not peaceful ones. This is an album of universal questions, asked on a personal level. What role does traditional love hold in the modern world? How does one reconcile the undeniable evil in us all? Heavy stuff - but all these questions relate to Oldham alone. The outsider looking in. It's a long decade ...

Read More