Log #66 - Christmas Cheese and Real Drugs

A #CheeseAlert apology to start. All Christmas music is tripe. This includes both the sickly pop songs we are battered with in all public places for at least two months before the big day (I'd be mightily relieved if I could be spared ever hearing The Fairytale of New York again, or anything by Slade or Wizard), and Christmas Carols with their piercing singing and questionable lyrics (give me some John Tavener choral songs any day). Is there any decent Christmas music out there? Please let me know! So apologies that I've had to have some topical fayre in the family player just for this week. Just for this week.

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1. Guildford Cathedral Choir - The Christmas Carol's Album

2. Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter

3. John Grant - Queen of Denmark

4. War on Drugs - A Deeper Understanding

5. Various - Resident Sampler #10

6. The Felice Brothers - Tonight at the Arizona

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So on to the proper music:

Still loving Richard Hawley's Truelove's Gutter album. A true masterpiece of understated gorgeousness - probably his best album.

Four new albums this week courtesy of Santa (and Resident Music):

John Grant

Last May I was lucky enough to catch a surprise solo gig by John Grant at Brighton's intimate Sallis Benney Theatre as part of the 2017 Great Escape Festival. I knew about his lovely rich baritone voice but was unaware of his interesting piano playing with its skillful arpeggios and unexpected key changes.

Previously with alternative rock band The Czars, Queen of Denmark is his much vaunted solo debut. Most of the songs are fundamentally piano based but are fleshed out with orchestration or band. Several employ electronics (which become more prominent on his later albums) like the typically personal JC Hates Faggotts:

I've felt uncomfortable since the day that I was born

Since the day I glimpsed the black abyss in your eyes

There's no way you could make all of this shit up on your own

It could only come from the mastermind of lies

I can't believe that I've considered taking my own life

'Cause I believed the lies about me were the truth

It will be magic to watch your transformation when you realize that you've been had

It's enough to make a guy like me feel sad

'Cause you tell me that Jesus

He hates fruit loops, son

We told you that when you were young

Or pretty much anything you want him to

Like sitcoms, paedophiles and kangaroos

And you tell me that Jesus

He hates homos, son

We told you that when you were young

Or pretty much anything you want him to

Like Cocoa Puffs, red cars and Jews

Standouts include Marz and the moving title song:

The War on Drugs

An odd name for a band this. An odd name for a "war" too, as was the one on "terror". The original phrase was actually coined by Richard Nixon's government in the early 70s. I had assumed it was a much more recent thing.

Anyway the band The War on Drugs were formed in 2005 but this is only their fourth album. The format follows the basic 4 beat rock laid down so successfully in their tremendous Lost in the Dream outing (a great album for long car journeys). It's not too challenging - just good straight forward rock music done well.

Early listens to this new album, which features in many Best of 2017 lists, indicate some typically catchy riffs and extended guitar solos but don't immediately reveal any tracks quite as exciting as An Ocean in Between the Waves from Lost in the Dream but, as that one was, this will be a grower too. If you've got a good sound you don't have to change too much.

Neil Young, they say, only has one guitar solo, but it's a good one.

I really like the series of live sessions by Seattle radio station KEXP. The one below from War on Drugs showcases four tracks from the new album. I also recommend the previous session from the band when they were touring the Lost in the Dream album.

The Resident Sampler

This sampler CD from Brighton store, Resident Music, came free with the above purchase of the War on Drugs album.

These free sample CDs rarely stand up as independent standalone musical entities of course and this is no exception even though the varying styles are somewhat grouped and there is some logical sequencing, but they do serve to introduce new bands, which is the point after all.

Nearly all these bands are new to me. I only recognise one - No. 8, Broken Social Scene. 

Tracks that have jumped out initially (and it has to be only an initial impression to encourage further investigation as there are a lot of tracks here and I haven't got all week!) are one or two electronic ones around the middle of the set. Actually let's be more generous and take my role more seriously with a quick run through of each:

1 Zola Jesus - Exhumed

High ghostly girl vocals over a stirring string based riff which initially sounds like the CD is stuck.

2 Alice Coltrane - Rama Rama

A ghostly chant over more wavering string based electronics (some recalling Pink Floyd's Welcome to
the Machine! at least to my ears, would you believe) with a sitar and tabla. Unusual.

3 Big Thief  - Shark Smile

Pleasant Belle and Sebastian type pop. Not my favourite type of laid back/lazy singing.

4 Girl Ray - Stupid Things

60s flavoured piano pop. Velvet Underground gone soft.

5 Carmen Villain - Red Desert

What is this - Vienna? More breathy ghostly (dare I say laid back and lazy again) girl vocals? Come on guys. Whereas the over enunciation of news readers in the wake of the ridiculous Robert Peston annoys, the complete opposite by many singers these days, who barely move their lips, does the same (X-Factor anyone?). There is a fine line between being effortlessly great and effortlessly a bit rubbish. If you can sing like John Martyn slurring is fine but otherwise (call me old fashioned) I'd like to hear the words. Nice hook though.

6 Ema - 7 Years

Same again. Some of these tracks could indeed be the same band. This one, with it's flangey guitar, has
that classic Cocteau Twins sound going for it.

7 Broken Social Scene - Hug Of Thunder

Girl singer trying too hard this time.

8 Sinkane - Telephone

Pappy pop again.

9 Kelly Lee Owens - Lucid

Come on guys. Where are you? Ditto. But wait, half way through the singing stops and the track changes
into a nice gated synth groove.

10 Grandbrothers - Bloodflow

Here things get more interesting. This is an excellent piano/electronic instrumental which builds very
gradually and then fades again, in the style of Hidden Orchestra. Will investigate this one further.

11 Barr Brothers - Defibrillation

This sort of music sounds a bit over produced to me with everything including the kitchen sink
thrown in and there is so much of it about now. Similar to Phosphorescent / Sigur Ros. It's just
occurred to me - ethereal, that's the word I've been looking for throughout this CD.

An ethereal singer

12 Gulp - Search For Your Love 

This is fun. I like the underlying riff and foot tapping percussion. Sounds a bit like a more poppy Portishead.

13 Physics House Band - Calypso

Not sure what this is. It sounds like heavy rock jazz prog electronica. I can hear a 100 bands in this but it's
consequently a bit all over the place. I have to turn this CD off at this point if my wife walks into the room.

14 Blanck Mass - The Rat

This continues from the previous track. Heavy electronic dance music. The only thing I can think of in my
collection that this reminds me of is Death in Vegas.

15 Lower Slaughter - Bone Meal

Punk. Girl shouter. Riff.

16 Moon Duo - Creepin'

A little more focussed heavy pop Ramones style.

17 Acid - Acid

The heavy theme continues with a bass riff themed track with a very heavy metal style singer who reminds me of Rainbow, Whitesnake or The Darkness. In contrast to the very smooth orchestrated pop tracks above this one actually sounds very under produced.

Ok, thanks Resident. That's probably enough of all that for now. Initial impressions are confirmed with favourite track no. 10 and honourable mentions for nos. 2 and 12, with not a lot else to follow up with urgency. So putting my links where my mouth is let's see who Grandbrothers are >>

The Felice Brothers

Much of the above CD may be described as ethereal. The Felice Brothers' lose the ethe and can be described as just plain real.

As regular readers will know I really rate this band of brothers mostly on account of exciting live performances I've seen on Youtube. Unfortunately I've yet to catch them live myself; a UK tour last year was cancelled on account of leader Ian Felice's health. Since then however he has managed to release a solo album and has made some limited UK appearances to promote it, so I guess he is ok for now. But will we see the full Felice Brothers band in the UK again soon, and will they still be at the peak of their powers as demonstrated by the songs on their raw, ramshackle and invigorating 2016 album Life in the Dark? I hope the moment hasn't passed.

Hailing from the romantically sounding Catskills Mountains region of upstate New York (it sounds romantic but is probably pretty grim) The Felice Brothers channel The Band and Bob Dylan. The Woodstock Festival was held just down the road and The Band's famous Big Pink House, where they wrote much of Music From Big Pink and recorded Dylan's Basement Tapes, was located in Saugerties on the Hudson River. Dylan was a famous resident of the area in the 60s but grew tired when it became overcrowded with “dropouts, druggies, moochers and goons". Van Morrison was a near neighbour but apparently never met Dylan much to his disappointment. This did not stop him celebrating his new found domestic rural bliss with "Brown Eyed Girl" wife Janet Planet on his Tupelo Honey album. Of course it wasn't all that and they separated in 1973:

I had this album cover years ago, Tupelo Honey, where there was a horse in it. So the myth then was that I was living on a ranch and had horses on that ranch. I didn't have a ranch; I didn't have a horse. I don't have a farm, and I never will. I mean, this is all part of the f**king mythology.

Three iconic albums synonymous with Woodstock

Fast forward nearly 40 years to Tonight at the Arizona and the cover of the Felice Brothers' second proper album finds them walking across the Catskills in the snow dressed as The Band.

The Felice Brothers in full Band garb

This is mostly acoustic and closer to another solo Ian Felice album than some of their more recent full band outings. I bought it on the strength of the first two tracks: Roll on Arte, and The Ballad of Lou the Welterweight. Two of the Felice's greatest ever songs. The first is heartbreaking...

...the second starts with one of the best opening lines ever:

Powder your nose, pull off your pantyhose
Let me love you from behind, my Darling

Barnstorming live favourite T for Texas is also in the collection.

Perhaps I was too hasty condemning all Christmas music - I've only just noticed there is a track entitled Christmas Song on this album! And, of course... it's good.

  

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Log #65 - Richard Hawley's Dark and Brooding Masterpiece

One of the joys of writing this blog are the unexpected rediscoveries of artists in my collection. Playing his classic Coles Corner album a month ago led me to expand my Richard Hawley catalogue with two more purchases both featured at the top of my 6 cd changer this week. 

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1. Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge

2. Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter

3. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad

4. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers

5. Nick Cave - The Lyre of Orpheus

6. Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

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After being nominated for the Mercury Prize for Coles Corner in 2006 Hawley was nominated again in 2012 for a very different album - Standing at the Sky's Edge is a powerful rock album with mixed down vocals, heavy bass, thumping drums, and distorted guitars. Sounding more like The Stone Roses or Jimi Hendrix, releasing this was a brave move being such a departure from his regular sound.

Hawley's 2009 LP, Truelove's Gutter, is more in the vein of Coles Corner but I'd say even more lush and also darker with some very long slow tracks and sad lyrics highlighted by sparse string arrangements (look at that dark cover too). The writing is stripped back both lyrically and musically - with the emphasis on space and atmosphere - with a voice like his you don't have to try to too hard -  less is more. The eight (only, yay!) songs work perfectly with Hawley's baritone and retro guitar and this album is truly addictive - the one I've had on pretty constant repeat this week. Actually more worthy of the Mercury nomination than the other two I'd say.

As the Dawn Breaks begins with atmospheric bird song. Open Up Your Door and Ashes on the Fire are beautiful waltz-like ballads with brushed drum strokes and echoey 50s style Gretsch guitar. The former has the distinction of being used in adverts for both Haagen Dazs and Renault.

It was the one time I was persuaded to do an advert and the kids went: 'Dad, do we get any free Häagen-Dazs?' So I rang up and asked. Then this massive articulated lorry turned up...this big, tattooed bloke pulled out this freezer thing. When he opened it up there were these four tiny tubs.

The lengthy Remorse Code is hypnotic with it's acoustic guitar arpeggios. The soothing Don't Get Hung Up in Your Soul features haunting saw. Soldier On is a masterpiece of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb like proportions which builds from tabla backed sustained guitar notes to a crashing crescendo - the only loud section in the album and possibly anticipating the Standing at the Sky's Edge sound.

We then return to another mournful love song where Hawley implores: For Your Lover Give Some Time backed by plucked Spanish guitar and strings:

I will give up these cigarettes
Stay at home and watch you mend the tears in your dress
Have your name in a rose tattooed across my chest
And be your lover for all time
Maybe I will drink a little less
Come home early and not complain about the day
And give you flowers from the graveyard now and then
And for my lover give some time

Heartbreaking.

The last track is the 10 minute Don't You Cry which is more fleshed out than most of the other arrangements. Underpinned by another repeating acoustic guitar arpeggio the track features a symphony of interesting sounds played on lyre, glockenspiel, harpsichord, cristal baschet, celeste, tibetan singing bowls, waterphone, and saw again.

What on Earth is a waterphone? I've never seen or heard one before but this sounds amazing (and a little eerie).

What on Earth is a cristal baschet? I've never seen or heard one before but this sounds amazing (and a little eerie).

These sound clips give an indication of the atmosphere of this amazing album. I thought Coles Corner gave me all I needed from Richard Hawley but I'm so pleased I ventured deeper and discovered this one. For beginners I'd still recommend the lighter Coles Corner but if you like that also take a walk on the dark side with Truelove's Gutter.

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Log #64 - A Brave and Exciting Departure

Regular fans of Richard Hawley, the easy listening crooner, should be wary of his Standing at the Sky's Edge album. However I expect this album of heavy psychedelic trippy rock (don't you just love that cover?) will have won Hawley many new fans and the less sensitive of his existing fans would have nevertheless grown appreciative of this temporary transformation, it being underpinned fundamentally by typically excellent songs albeit in an unfamiliar setting.

Guitar is my first love... I'd done the orchestral thing pretty much... enough to warrant a big change for me.

For this outing, his seventh, the guitars are turned up to 11 and the drums and bass pound away providing a tremendous wall of sound, and the celebrated Hawley voice is distorted and mixed down low sounding like Jim Morrison particularly on the slow paced title track. Aside from the Doors, think Hawkwind, Neil Young (with Crazy Horse of course), Jimi Hendrix, Stone Roses, Ride, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, or any other number of shoe-gazing guitar bands of the 90s.

Songs like the 7 minute opener She Brings the Sunlight with it's sustained power chords and distorted electric guitar solos are indicative of this new towering sound.

Obvious single Leave Your Body Behind You with it's descending bass line would make a great Bond theme:

Child of Eden your time is short
You can't leave with more than you've brought
Love given lightly can never be owned
A thing we feel but can never hold

You leave your body behind you
When you leave this place
You leave your body behind you
And you make a space

However it's not all monumental rock and there are a couple of more typical gentle ballads mid album in Seek It and Don't Stare at the Sun although the latter also ends with a searing guitar solo.

A departure then for Hawley, but a very successful one leading to a hugely powerful album that I think will stand the test of time. Take it in the car on a long drive and play it loud!

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1. Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge

2. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers

3. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad

4. Gong - The Best Of

5. Nick Cave - The Lyre of Orpheus

6. Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

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Log #63 - Happy, Sad, Silly

Two brand new 6cd blog virgins this week with new entries from Gong and Tim Buckley. We've doubled down on Nick Cave, Beck's consistent showing continues, and there's a welcome return for probably the greatest live band on Earth!

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1. Beck - Guero

2. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers

3. Tim Buckley - Happy Sad

4. Gong - The Best Of

5. Nick Cave - The Lyre of Orpheus

6. Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

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Beck goes more pop and rap with his much loved Guero LP - probably his most similar outing to the popular jumping shaggy doggy covered Odelay.

Nick Cave's Abattoir Blues is the heavier twin to The Lyre of Orpheus. Kicking off with the almost heavy metal Get Ready for Love the album peaks with two of Cave's greatest pop songs: There She Goes My Beautiful World and Nature Boy. Taking the double album together the consistent quality of the songs across these 17 tracks represents a high point in Cave's illustrious career.

Hey, the Nature Boy track is so good, it's time to start embedding these videos to enhance playability (doesn't Cave always wear a suit well?):

Tim Buckley used to be famous but is now probably more famous for being the father of Jeff Buckley whose only proper album Grace became a modern classic. Both had angelic voices and died young - Tim aged 28 from a drug overdose, Jeff aged 30 from drowning (both narrowly avoiding the infamous 27 club). Tim Buckley started out as a singer songwriter but progressed from folk based guitar songs into more experimental jazz and rock fusion becoming influential to artists like John Martyn. This is evident on this record with the 12 minute improvisational Gypsy Woman where Buckley demonstrates his vocal range.

Tim and Jeff Buckley

Gong are an interesting band also straddling multiple genres of music including rock, prog, jazz, even punk and er um "space rock" a la Hawkwind. For a band adept at such a range of styles a Best Of compilation will never fully satisfy on account of sudden shifts in atmosphere. On grounds of continuity and context Best Ofs are best avoided except as gateways into the real albums. This compilation has a fair smattering of tracks from Gong's classic period known as the Teapot Trilogy - real albums Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg and You. Of these three my favourite (Steve Hillage inspired) album is You. Outside of this lot the more rock based and earlier Camembert Electrique is pretty good too and is represented on this compilation by a 13 second track entitled Squeezing Sponges Over Policemen's Heads! Like Frank Zappa and the Bonzo Dog Band, Gong's inherent musicianship is not taken too seriously and they will sometimes tip their hats to outright silliness.

Go directly to You, Do not pass Go, Do not collect any Best Ofs

Gong's You cover, and my own picture of Chichen Itza Temple in Mexico

Last up, but by all means not least, is many people's favourite live band, The Felice Brothers and their eponymous album (actually officially their fifth although some appear to be unavailable now so this seems to be generally accepted as their second proper album after Tonight at the Arizona). One of their go to tracks is Frankie's Gun but honestly this is just one of numerous foot stomping singalong Americana anthems you could choose to highlight their style. 

I don't know if this accompanying film of a boys' motorcycle trip has any relevance to the song or the lyrics, and it doesn't feature the band members, but it has a lovely nostalgic good time feel. Frankie's Gun was also bizarrely featured in the closing credits to an episode of the BBC comedy series Outnumbered encouraging many fans of that show to investigate this unknown band further.

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Log #60 - Can Anyone Be Bothered To Listen To Yes?

Two new entries this week - Green on Red and Yes.

I first heard Green on Red when a music journalist (it may have been someone like Andy Kershaw or Mark Ellen) played some to Neil Young who mistook them for Crazy Horse. That was enough to warrant further investigation - I obtained No Free Lunch which was their album at the time. Actually had it on cassette and the majority of one side was taken up with an extended version of the Howlin' Wolf standard Smokestack Lightning. I was impressed and proceeded to obtain all their albums.

Sadly Here Come The Snakes and a Greatest Hits album (I think, or was it Scapegoats?) are the only LPs that have survived the transformation to CD in my collection. I must admit I haven't seen my second Green on Red CD for ages (assuming I did have it - sometimes I forget whether I had or have an album on vinyl, cassette, CD, or not at all - I don't count dreaded mp3s at all as part of my collection!). But thinking back now they were all excellent and I must reacquaint  myself forthwith!

Do you sometimes go into a music shop (those of us that still buy physical music) and ponder over an album not remembering if you have it already or not?

The core of the band was essentially made up of the songwriters, singer Dan Stuart and guitarist Chuck Prophet, plus full band which started out slightly more organ/keyboard orientated in the early days before becoming full on guitar driven.

Prophet is now fronting his own band with relative success (think he is on tour in the UK right now). No idea what happened to Dan Stuart - his stage persona was one of a heavy drinking angry rocker living life on the edge - hang on, let's look...

Here you go - still going as a solo artist too https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Stuart

I saw Green on Red live at that venue (wasn't it a church or something?) now called The Venue in New Cross, South East London. They were super good - heavy rocking americana/country before it became really popular. Whenever it was must have been when the LA's had their hit There She Goes (1990) as Stuart mimicked them mercilessly.

Full album discography:

Green on Red 1982
Gravity Talks 1983
No Free Lunch 1985
Gas Food Lodging 1985
The Killer Inside Me 1987
Live at the Town and Country Club 1989
Here Come the Snakes 1989
This Time Around 1989
Scapegoats 1991

Not a huge catalogue but quality over quantity.

So the early albums started out a little bit more new wave with organ. Here Comes the Snakes on the other hand is dirty blues of the Exile on Main Street variety. The very 80s production by Jim Dickinson mixes the thump of the damped snare high and the low bass is distorted which gives the record a massively ponderous sound but it actually suits the doom laden music and doesn't sound as dated as you'd expect. Zombie For Love is one of the dirtiest blues I've ever heard - so down and heavy it sounds like a car that just can't get started. Tenderloin is another song of failed relationships and urban decay straight out of a Louis Theroux documentary filmed in the underbelly of the failed American Dream:

After five years, four apartments, three abortions, two cities and a dog she left me.

Green on Red, early days, Chuck Prophet and Dan Stuart looking cheerful right

1. Green on Red - Here Come The Snakes
2. Scott and Maria - Bright Star
3. 4Hero - Creating Patterns
4. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
5. Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
6. Yes - Close to the Edge

Yes, like Soft Machine from log #58, are another curious affair. What to make of them? Were they musical geniuses or just random noodlers? Does their music have structure and form or is it all over the place without any context or continuity? How do they remember what notes to play or when to switch tempos or time signatures? How on earth did they even write this stuff?

Given all that it is not surprising that their music takes a lot of listening, and to be fair, like a very challenging novel or piece of art, doesn't make a lot of sense to begin with, but eventually with perseverance reveals hidden depth. Not to be too snobby about it (as I do like the straight forward riffage of a band like AC/DC just as much and no judgement is intended) this music is complicated (probably some of the most complex in the whole prog. canon). It's like comparing Abba with Mozart - both excellent in what they do but completely different. Each to their time and place. 

Can you be bothered? Is life too short?

Ok, I admit it, I love it. It's amazing music. And the more you listen the more you get out of it. But it's not for everyone, and not all the time. You've got to be in the mood. 

Close to the Edge is one of their best and what about that Roger Dean cover too? That centre fold is a teenage wet dream!

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Log #59 - Ah Um... Old Skool Jazz to Nu

1. Lenny Kravitz - Let Love Rule
2. Little Feat - Feats Don't Fail Me Now
3. 4Hero - Creating Patterns
4. Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
5. Hidden Orchestra - Archipelago
6. Beck - Sea Change

I seem to remember when Lenny Kravitz appeared on the scene he was hailed, like Prince, as a new Hendrix? He had the looks, the guitar and the girlfriend. This didn't last long. Barely much longer than his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989. He was cool for fifteen minutes and then suddenly became a bit mainstream and ubiquitous and not the new Hendrix any more. This album's alright, and possibly one of his best (I can't be sure about that as it is now the only one I have). I like Mr Cab Driver - a good basic rock song.

Mr. cab driver don't like to way I look
He don't like dreads he thinks we're all crooks
Mr. cab driver reads too many story books

More great stuff from Beck. Sea Change is a mellow yet powerful album, and the one that many consider his best. For many years I only had Odelay but now have a core of albums to draw upon.

Beck in 2002 with Sea Change

The Hidden Orchestra is actually a solo project by Brighton based composer Joe Acheson who records and mixes a range of guest musicians in his studio to create an "imaginary orchestra that doesn't really exist". Yet it does in some live form as I've just noticed the "group" is touring a new album in the UK as we speak including a Brighton date on 9th December.

You'd never guess the accomplished and authentic jazz fusion music on Archipelago was not created by a fully fledged band. With it's trademark Tru Thoughts label drum beats it's just the sort of modern jazz that would go down a storm at our annual Love Supreme festival.

Thinking of my personal provenance with this music: A few years ago I got into playing an amazing "point and click" mystery computer game called Samorost. If this at all appeals check out Samorost edition 2 here - even if you don't play it at all you'll immediately appreciate the brilliant graphic illustrations (I warn you it is an addictive slow burner!). I also loved the rhythmic industrial clanky music composed by Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex. This led me to discovering some Floex recordings on Soundcloud and then from there to some extended instrumental mixes by an artist called M & Ms. When you have a spare 90 minutes have a listen to his Into The Wild an instrumental mix based on the excellent film of the same name and featuring both Floex and... Hidden Orchestra. There are heaps of very talented (mostly amateur) musicians and composers on a website like Soundcloud.

From supremely modern jazz to an old classic. One Christmas I decided I'd like to get into jazz and after collating a few "best jazz albums of all time" lists, Charles Mingus was added to my Christmas list. I'd heard of him but didn't know anything about him. In fact I think I assumed he was a pianist for some reason, not a double bassist. Santa brought me a box set of three albums, including my cover album this week, Mingus Ah Um. There are some catchy tunes on here which I'm sure many of you would have heard before, not realising, as I didn't, that it was Charles Mingus.

Creating Patterns is the 2001 release from electronic hip hop drum 'n' bass duo 4Hero. Smooth songs fronted by guest vocalists are interspersed with the occasional grating instrumental or spoken word interlude - but as a whole it sort of works. The most intriguing track is the oft-used elsewhere track Les Fleur which sounds like a West End musical showpiece with it's climatic chorus:

Ring all the bells sing and tell the people everywhere that the flower has come
Light up the sky with your prayers of gladness and rejoice for the darkness is gone
Throw off your fears let your heart beat freely at the sign that a new time is born

Rather evangelical don't you think?

Little Feat were just great at what they did - which was basically loose funky swampy honky tonk boogie rock 'n' roll!

Little Known Rock Fact: Little Feat leader Lowell George was originally in Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Having what he described as "no real function in the band" he left in 1969 taking several Mothers with him to form Little Feat.

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Log #58 - Soft Supreme

Soft Machine! What's that all about then? I don't really know. I don't think many people do to be fair. They didn't make big waves in the mainstream world of rock to be honest, remaining firmly "underground" through their late 60s / early 70s heyday.

I remember they were something to do with the so called "Canterbury Scene" that spawned other fringe proggers like Caravan and Gong. In fact the genesis of Gong was by chance when Soft Machine guitarist Daevid Allen was refused re-enty into the UK after a tour in France - he stayed behind and formed Gong in Paris.

Soft Machine were a little different. Their music was largely instrumental leaning heavily on keyboard loops and free form sax over repeating bass grooves, with very little guitar.

Little Known Rock Fact: an early member of Soft Machine was Police guitarist Andy Summers.

The tracks are lengthy jazz rock fusion odysseys, but also drawing on minimalist classical influences like Terry Riley or Philip Glass. Their album titles also embraced minimalism being 1, 2, 3, and so on! (Ed. actually looks like the 3 was actually called Third but get your point).

Thankfully Soft Machine were a predominantly instrumental group, thus limiting the opportunities for possibly the worst voice in rock history, Robert Wyatt, to take the mic.

1. Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
2. Whitesnake - Ready An' Willing
3. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Soft Machine - 3
6. Bob Holroyd - Without Within

Whitesnake were one of those bands rising from the ashes of Deep Purple in the mid 70s. They sound just like the other main offshoot - Rainbow - although the latter probably had slightly more prog pretensions. They were inflicted a little bit more by that sexist posturing common among 70s and 80s metal bands with lead singer David Coverdale to the fore. But having said that Fool For Your Loving, as featured on this album, was a superb single.

David Coverdale in full rock poodle mode

Another little plug for a superb live act I caught this weekend - American singer Eilen Jewell appearing at Brighton's Prince Albert. Ostensibly your standard Americana/Country Rock fayre but there is something exceptionally accomplished about her band of drums, double bass and electric guitar. Especially the electric guitar - Jerry Miller (not the one from Moby Grape) has an amazing feel and ear for melody and space. His guitar lines are loud and clear but never overbearing and fit perfectly in the music. One of the most effortlessly natural guitarists I've ever seen.

Guitar god Jerry Miller on vintage Chet Atkins Gretsch

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Log #57 - Very Famous Jazz, Little Known Harp and Unknown Guitar

Bitches Brew is a grower of course. Still quite hard to get into after a couple of weeks of sporadic playing (that's me, as well as Miles Davis!).

The next two jazz standards in the list are a lot more accessible. Many hold up these albums as the  pinnacle for their respective artists Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Both use simple repetitive bass lines to underpin relatively modest (certainly in comparison to Bitches Brew) melodic explorations, the latter a famous 4 note riff alone... de dah de da... "a love supreme..." de dah de da... "a love supreme..."

1. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD2
2. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD1
3. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Luc Vanlaere - Inta
6. David Goodrich - Accidentals of the West

I was surprised Love Supreme was recorded (over one day) in 1964. Such is the simplicity and traditional authenticity I had assumed it was much earlier, and certainly before Kind of Blue (1959).

The selection this week includes a couple of curios. Luc Vanlaere is a Belgian harpist who I saw in concert on holiday in Bruges one time - thinking this was lucky coincidence I see from Vanlaere's website that he actually has a residency in Bruges with daily concerts - I'm sure he sells many CDs to the tourists. This album, Inta, is beautifully packaged in cardboard sleeve. Inta is a African Saharan word which translates as "a state of harmony and absolute fullness". The sleeve notes continue...

Inta is the first step in the last, the delicate moment of balance that follows the end of an action and precedes the beginning of the next; the transition from destruction to a new cycle.

Now you know.

The most impressive tracks on this album also include hang playing. The hang is a steel drum like instrument which produces a beautiful ringing tone. There was a popular video on youtube showing a couple of pixie like gentlemen in beanie hats (you know the one) playing hangs a couple of years back.

In Bruges starring Luc Vanlaere

David Goodrich's album (another beautifully packaged CD) was also one I picked up after an impressive gig - this time at Brighton's Greys Pub. Goodrich is an accomplished guitarist (mostly acoustic) and plays all the music on this instrumental album. One of the best tracks is a lovely cover of Wichita Lineman.

David "Goody" Goodrich and a selection of stringed instruments

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Log #55 - A Whitest Boy Alive Retrospective and More Love For (Very) Early Tangerine Dream

1. Tangerine Dream - The Essential
2. Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure
3. Tangerine Dream - Cyclone
4. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
5. The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
6. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams

Following my year end review a couple of posts ago I was drawn like a magnet to my Whitest Boy Alive albums. A retrospective is perhaps an overstatement considering their back catalogue consists of only two albums. It takes a few plays of each to distinguish between the two. They both follow the same format - concise catchy pop songs with whispered vocals, simple guitar riffs, electric piano, infectious bass lines and sharp snare drum beats. Surprisingly for someone who has explored and enjoyed the complexities of prog rock and classical I love both these albums despite their apparent simplicity and lack of "weight". But maybe that is why?

Actually it's simpler than that. You can have rubbish prog rock and brilliant pop. It just depends how it is done. With these albums you have a collection of beautifully crafted pop songs - practically any one of them could have been a single hit - there isn't really an "album track" or "filler" throughout both CDs.

You can have rubbish prog rock and brilliant pop. It just depends how it is done.

Dreams just pipped Rules as my album of the year for 2016/17. Not much in it apart from I heard Rules much earlier and was over familiar with some of the key tracks on there - Intentions and 1517. As for Dreams I have particularly homed in on Golden Cage and Done With You. Such brilliant bass that makes it practically impossible not to dance to or at least tap your foot.

Finally a word for the brilliant line drawings that grace their album covers, merch, and videos.

Still enjoying a late blossoming love affair with Tangerine Dream. In particular I've been playing the really early stuff (not listed here apart from Phaedra as I don't actually have them yet - so it's been a case of youtube at the office - annoyingly for the sake of a few quid I just missed out on a box set of the first 3, or even 4, albums on ebay - very silly as would cost three or four times as much new - the one I really want to get is Zeit - great cover too - another brilliant painting by Edgar Froese).

This is freak-out spacehead rock lifted to a new level...‘Zeit’ is a must listen, and unlike anything else ever made...You will not believe the places you will be taken. 

"Rockmoose" writing at Julian Cope's website http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/690/

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Log #53 - Tangerine Dream were no Satsuma Nightmare

Firstly I offer a thank you to all my readers as my blog enters it's second year. I hope some of you have stumbled across something of interest and discovered some new music. In listening to my music and writing these pieces I have both discovered new things and rediscovered old too! The list below is an example of that - I had never heard any Kanye West before last week (apart from a car crash live appearance on some awards show a couple of years ago) and I only recently bought Bob Marley's classic Catch a Fire album although I was very familiar with the famous joint touting cover (the music was not what I had assumed it would be). Yet at the opposite end of the scale I've been a fan of Neil Young and Tangerine Dream for over 30 years.

1. Tangerine Dream - The Essential
2. Kanye West - Late Registration
3. James Morrison - Songs for You, Truths for Me
4. Eilen Jewell - Sea of Tears
5. Bob Marley - Catch a Fire
6. Neil Young - On the Beach

I've just got to admit it. I do really like Tangerine Dream. It's probably not that cool nowadays but they are really good at what they do. And they are original. Their music is instantly recognisable even amongst the plethora (that's a Tan Dream song title if I've ever heard one) of electronic experimental instrumental music out there. They don't sound like Kraftwerk, nor Brian Eno, nor Boards of Canada. Possibly their closest contemporary may have been Jean-Michel Jarre or possibly Philip Glass in places or Aphex Twin, but their mostly drumless yet pulsed and rhythmic sequencer music is ultimately unique.

Don't think of it as music, just put this album on, turn it up loud, and let the experience wash over you and take your brain to far off places!

Actually I feel a gnod music map coming on - let's see if my hunches are right?

Other maps are available from the brilliant gnod.com

This album is yet another collection. There are loads out there and I generally avoid non original albums. But I knew enough from the regular albums to spot that this was a particularly good selection from their peak Virgin label days of the mid to late 70s and contains at least 60% of music I have not got on CD elsewhere. Crucially the tracks are full length - to maintain that hypnotic atmosphere so characteristic of Tan Dream's music this is essential.

The original knob twiddlers, Froese, Franke, Baumann

Quoting from the sleeve notes - "With a mere six tracks from six different albums, but more than seventy minutes long, this compilation serves as a perfect portrait of the sheer vastness of Tangerine Dream's music. Enormously epic and otherworldly tracks were the artistic trademark of the most important and internationally most successful German instrumental band ever. If Kraftwerk were the pioneers of electronic beats, Tangerine Dream were most definitely the pioneers of electronic atmosphere, the forerunners of Ambient."

For the aficionados the track listing is -

1. Movements Of A Visionary 7:55 taken from the album Phaedra 1974
2. Rubycon (Part One) 17.18 taken from the album Rubycon 1975
3. Stratosfear 10:35 taken from the album Stratosfear 1976
4. Cloudburst Flight 7:26 taken from the album Force Majeure 1979
5. Tangram (Part One) 19:47 taken from the album Tangram 1980
6. Hyperborea 8:38 taken from the album Hyperborea 1983

This collection is an excellent Tan Dream sampler for the beginner. For those who want to delve deeper into this weird and wonderful world I would recommend the original albums Force Majeure and Phaedra. The former is more conventional prog rock fayre with real guitars and drums as on the brilliant Cloudburst Flight (also present in the above collection). The latter is an ambient classic which forms a bridge between their early ambient soundscape drones like Zeit and their more commercial rhythmic albums. I'm also very fond of Cyclone which splits the fans being the only album with vocals. [Personally recorded cassettes of mine with old school friend and Tangerine Dream authority Electric Ape under the name Satsuma Nightmare are of old curiosity interest only!]

Three great Tangerine Dream albums from the 70s, always great covers too, many painted by Edgar Froese

So once again thank you for listening and reading, and I look forward to another 52 weeks and another 312 albums in 2017/18!

A new day, a new dawn, and new beginnings - where will we go, what will we discover?

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Log #52 - So This Is, or Was, Kanye!

If you had told me I'd have a Kanye West album in my logs this year I wouldn't have believed you. But here I am at week #52 and courtesy of a bargain bucket charity purchase (along with the James Morrison one listed below) I find myself the proud owner of Late Registration. My daughter tells me it's an early one and consequently probably quite good, and she is right, it's quite good in a rappy, hip hoppy, and even an early grimey way (I've heard a bit of grime through Earl Sweatshirt, Wiley and Stormzy).

It's littered with samples and these do seem to be a bit crow-barred in in a less than subtle way, but the underlying beats are addictive. I'm not going to go out and buy any other of West's albums nor listen to this one that often once it leaves the magazine, but it's had a fair few plays and has maintained my interest - not least on an anthropological level if you know what I mean! No? Well I mean even if the music is of little interest I have heard so much about Mr West that I am interested to investigate. It's my duty as a music investigator!

1. Ryan Adams - Gold
2. Kanye West - Late Registration
3. James Morrison - Songs for You, Truths for Me
4. Eilen Jewell - Sea of Tears
5. Bob Marley - Catch a Fire
6. Neil Young - On the Beach

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Log #51 - Golden American Boy

What of Ryan Adams? This album is lengthy! In old money it's definitely a double. 17 tracks clocking up a total of 75 minutes. Is it a great double album, or filler? It's hard to tell. And that's part of the problem. It's almost too much to take in. I think perhaps two albums would have been better. It's like he's tried to cram everything in all in one go, from mournful ballads to full on rockers. Having said that some of this stuff is great (from the rockers like Tina Toledo's Street Walkin' Blues, to the epics like Nobody's Girl, via the ballads like Sylvia Plath) and if, just if, it had been released in 1971 we might be talking about another Exile on Main Street. But in 2001, that year forever now associated with the terrible events of 9/11, is it just more american country rock fodder? By the way, is there still anyone left who confuses Ryan with Bryan, or isn't aware yet that they are two different people?

1. Ryan Adams - Gold
2. St Germain - Tourist
3. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4. Jethro Tull - Songs from The Wood
5. Josh T Pearson - Last of the Country Gentlemen
6. Neil Young - On the Beach

St Germain sound like computer jazz. Are they real musicians? Probably. The music's fun and good but the fact I can't tell if this is a DJ production or a band leaves something to be desired in the authenticity and soul stakes.

The first track on the Wilco makes you want to slit your wrists. This literally effortless vocal delivery makes me want to shout: "For god's sake just cheer up man!" To be fair to singer and leader Jeff Tweedy things do pick up a bit after the opener but it's fairly pedestrian strumming over gentle brushed back beats for quite a while before you hear the first electric guitar riff.

The Songs from the Wood sounds quite dated and a bit twee now. Jethro Tull were obviously great musicians and wrote some clever stuff but found themselves adrift in a wilderness of their own making between rock and prog. Great cover though. This and Heavy Horses makes me think of all the good things about being a country gent (or urban hipster) - tweeds, waistcoats, caps, tractors, woods, heavy horses and English countryside... oh and beards of course, of the 70s variety. I wonder how contrived it was. Actually with Ian Anderson I think it was genuine - I know he liked to retreat to his salmon farm in Scotland from time to time.

Jethro Tull's country gent period

Talking of The Last of the Country Gentlemen what the hell is this Josh T. Pearson? I can't decide if it's genius or terrible. It sounds like he can barely play guitar - is it even tuned? But not to worry, Josh seems to have such style and charm that he somehow manages to pull it off despite this apparent shortcoming. It's certainly unusual and strangely addictive. Let's face it, no one needs another "normal" acoustic strumming busker. I saw him live somewhere at a festival and have to say he was mesmerising standing stationery centre stage under one overhead light with his messiah like look (and act?). It was a memorable appearance and I was telling everyone about it for weeks afterwards. Must be a genius then after all. Nice bloke too, stayed behind for hours signing autographs and spending time with each fan.

Josh T Pearson

On The Beach is just a classic. Superb. Brilliant. One of Young's best. End of.

The middle one from Young's so called "Ditch" Trilogy

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Log #50 - Some of Neil Young's Greatest Acoustic Numbers Together at Last

1. Afro Celts Sound System- I
2. Quantic - The 5th Exotic
3. Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
4. Lambchop - Nixon
5. Steely Dan - Aja
6. Cat Stevens - Icon

News of two musical deaths have reached 6 Album Sunday HQ this week: Walter Becker from Steely Dan and Holger Czukay of Can. Surviving founder member Donald Fagen of Steely Dan has committed to continuing and has just announced a tour. Their classic album Aja makes a reappearance here. Czukay's passing barely registered in the press. Three Can members have now gone - Czukay joining Liebezeit and Karoli at the Great Gig in the Sky. Can formed in the 60s and were not young then - both Czukay and Liebezeit were in their late 70s.

Becker and Czukay 

Still going strong is Neil Young. I heard he was releasing a new album and gave it a spin on youtube (before it was taken down). Hitchhiker isn't actually a new album in so much as it is a release of a recording made in 1976. Some of the songs have been released elsewhere either in part, or in their entirety, or in different versions. For example there is a beautiful acoustic version of Powderfinger which is mournful and sad, revealing lyrics I've not picked up before in the electric version on my featured album Rust Never Sleeps.

Fascinatingly there are also parts of these songs that have gone on to form different songs and it is fun to try to remember where. It's like meeting a very familiar face but not being able to put a time, name or place to it. For instance parts of the autobiographical title track Hitchhiker resurfaced some years later and in the most unlikely of places - on Young's ill advised electronic album Trans as Like an Inca. An electric version of Hitchhiker also appeared on Young's Le Noise album which I've tried many times to like but frankly is pretty lame. Actually up until about Sleeps with Angels time I bought every Neil Young album. Hitchhiker sounds wonderful and will probably be my first Neil Young purchase in quite a few years.

It is odd (although not surprising knowing Young's unpredictability) that such a well rounded acoustic album was overlooked in preference for some below par or less than consistent releases around the mid to late 70s such as American Stars 'n' Bars, Comes a Time, Hawks and Doves, and Long May You Run. It's also odd that a classic track like Campaigner, with its famous "even Richard Nixon has got soul" line, has not before been released on any official album other than in edited form in the Decade boxset.

Hitchhiker sounds wonderful and will probably be my first Neil Young purchase in quite a few years.

In a bid to recreate the vibe at home, from my existing collection, and to check differences in Pocahontas, I popped Rust Never Sleeps in the player with an emphasis on side one. This album contains some of Young's greatest songwriting presented in contrasting acoustic and electric settings. Check out the lengthy Thrasher with Young's thinly veiled criticism of his CSNY colleagues (and a couple of understandable memory stumbles!).

Below is a handy tracklisting for Hitchhiker courtesy Wikipedia. Some fans have said this collection is unjustified on account of the paucity of new tracks but as an albums man I disagree - this again demonstrates an album summing to a greatness beyond its individual parts.

Search for Neil Young's Hitchhiker

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