Log #172 - Also Sprach A New Generation Of Songwriters

A mixed bag, as you'd expect, from Mojo's presentation of "A New Generation of Songwriters"; a compilation from the "Communion" label given away with their magazine in 2011. This "generation" mostly refers to the folk revival of the end of the noughties led by artists represented on this disc:

Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, and Matthew And The Atlas, plus a few other singer songwriter types outside of folk like Michael Kiwanuka.

There are also bunch of artists I've not heard of on this 15 track CD. Tell you what - see for yourself:

Tell me a tale (Michael Kiwanuka) -- Three tree town (Ben Howard) -- Circle in the square (Marcus Foster) -- Vintage red (Jay Jay Pistolet) -- More than letters (Benjamin Francis Leftwich) -- Sister (Mumford & Sons) -- Walk through walls (Communion version) (Kyla La Grange) -- In the honour of industry (Johnny Flynn) -- Hands in the sink (Alessi's Ark) -- Fictional state (To Kill a King) -- Emily Rose (Three Blind Wolves) -- I will remain (Matthew and the Atlas) -- Sculptor and the stone (Jesse Quin and the Mets) -- Peter (Daughter) -- Early spring till (Nathaniel Rateliff)

Which of this new generation has gone on to great things a decade later? Probably about half a dozen of them, which isn't a bad hit rate. The classiest tracks I've noticed on the record have tended to be from these now established artists - Kiwanuka, Howard, and Flynn. The Marcus Foster is a good track too - an artist I may explore. Same too for To Kill A King - their Wiki profile says they have been compared to Grizzly Bear and Frightened Rabbit, and they've toured in support of Dog is Dead (I just found all that slightly amusing).

Mojo Presents Communion
Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway

Pink Floyd Meddle

Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Holger Czukay Moving Pictures

Nucleus Elastic Rock

Richard (1864 - 1949) is the Strauss who wrote the main theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey: Dahhh Dahhh Dahhh... Da Da!!! Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom - you know the one.

One of the most famous riffs in classical music

He is not Johann Strauss (strictly II) (1825 - 99), who did write a lot of the famous waltzes also used in the 2001 film. They are not related, although Johann was related to other composers - his father (strictly known as Johann Strauss I, and brothers Josef and Eduard) - just to add to the confusion.

There's some rock trivia for you then.

The title translates as Thus Spoke Zarathustra as inspired by the book of the same name by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Who was Zarathustra? He was a religious prophet type geezer who hung out around Persia (now modern day Iran) we think around 600 BC or so. Dates and details are a bit sketchy. He also goes by the name Zoroaster.

More rock trivia.

By the way what a great film, and story, 2001 was: such a brilliant concept. Intelligent aliens arrive at Earth 2 million years ago. Find a bunch of apes scrabbling around in the dirt. Decide to run an experiment to see how long it takes them to reach the moon, but not before giving them a shot of intelligence via the mysterious monolith. Jump to present day, the apes have evolved into space explorers. Man uncovers a monolith on the moon which sends an (alerting) signal into space and the mission begins to track its source.

All the more amazing that the film came out just a few months before the real moon landing in July 1969. What perfect timing. Talk about the planets aligning.

Meanwhile back on earth much delight is being had hearing Meddle again. Not just the brilliant Echoes, but the nice acoustic songs (and they are real songs) on Side One. And the Van Morrison is a long lost (to me) classic (1973) which is pitched between St. Dominic's Preview (1972) and Veedon Fleece (1974) in chronology, and sounds exactly like it should. Not particularly like either of them, but a perfect transformation between those two most excellent records.

Moving Pictures is typically obscure and odd, from Holger Czukay. Some spoken word over lots of ambience. Not as invigorating as, and not to be confused with, his classic album in my opinion, Movies. No songs here, but a nice background listen which is as unique as most things Czukay did.

Also loving Elastic Rock from 1970. A superb jazz fusion album with lots of electric guitar riffs, hypnotic walking bass guitar, and Ian Carr's trumpet melodies over the top. Nucleus should have been a lot more famous than they were. No songs here either, just great instrumentals.