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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Log #49 - Grateful Dead in Concert

1. Afro Celts Sound System- I
2. Quantic (Soul Orchestra) - Apricot Morning
3. Led Zeppelin - IV
4. Various - New Orleans Funk 1960-75
5. Grateful Dead - Rockin' the Rhein, Live Dusseldorf 24 April 1972, Disc 1
6. Grateful Dead - Rockin' the Rhein, Live Dusseldorf 24 April 1972, Disc 2

As any "Deadhead" knows The Grateful Dead were one band that actively encouraged the recording and release of their live performances. There are therefore literally 1000s of bootlegs out there, many recorded in high quality right off the sound deck and released as official albums.

The info graphic below taken from Wiki illustrates their fondness for a live recording - in fact they only released a relatively modest 13 actual studio albums across their career.

Their live shows were legendary, often of 3 hours long, with frequent extensions into improvised jazz rock noodlings showcasing Jerry Garcia's liquid guitar (think of Spinal Tap's new direction after the departure of Nigel Tufnel). I'm not an expert deadhead at all but opine that this isn't one of the best. Actually I much prefer the mid 70s "post Pigpen" period Grateful Dead and their even later recordings through the 80s some of which are collected on Without a Net (1990). Of the studio albums my favourite is From the Mars Hotel. Unbroken Chain from that album pretty much summarises the best of Grateful Dead in only 6 minutes!

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Log #9 - Giant Jelly Celt Fusion

A beautiful stained glass window design graces this week's log. It comes from Dreadzone's acclaimed second album, appropriately named Second Light. Of course my recent obsession with the Afro Celts led me to revisit this album from a band who were one of the highlights for me at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festival in 2009. They have a similar afro/celtic sound, albeit a bit more upbeat and dance orientated. Little Britain is their signature tune and live favourite and my nomination for the playlist.

1. ACSS - Volume 1 Sound Magic
2. Dreadzone - Second Light
3. Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
4. Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (cd 2)
5. Little Feat - The Last Record Album
6. ACSS - The Source

The new album from ACSS arrived in the post (volume 1). It is indeed brilliant with the usual epic afro/celt instrumental fusions. The beats are a bit more drum and bass in places in keeping with the fashion of the day (1996). I'm continuing to enjoy the sheer variety on The Source.

Little Feat were famous for their "groove" which was simultaneously both loose and tight. They were also famous for their pop art like album covers designed by Neon Park. This is the one with the giant jelly. Lots of good funky rock tracks on here and some good ballads like Long Distance Love. Some bonus live material too on my CD that doesn't really add much and possibly even detracts a bit from the original entity.

The Orb's famous album is of course the Ultraworld double. When this came out in 1991 it was quite revolutionary with it's progressive rock like instrumentals set to dance beats. I'm playing this in revision for a gig later this week. Rather pensive about the gig for two reasons - one is it is going to be a "live" DJ set (very different to an actual band), and two will I still like the music?

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Log #8 - The Afro Celt's Latest Album Rises Elegantly Above Off Stage Troubles

Must admit I'm still loving the Afro Celts representing a real renaissance for music I've had available for some years but have rarely played. If you had told me at the start that they would be my most played band eight weeks into my musical journal I would have been very surprised.

The new album The Source is superb revealing several new epics not fully appreciated on first play. I've had it on in the car at high volume and the level of production is astounding with the multiple instrumentation crystal clear. In particular the track Child of Wonder is pretty much unlike anything I've ever heard before with spoken Scottish dialogue breaking into hypnotic African chant. Unique and invigorating. I was surprised to hear this new album is only their sixth proper album barring a few compilations and remixes. I have also learned that due to a dispute with some ex band members The Source was recorded under controversial circumstances including the usual claims and counter claims to the band name. This may also explain why the majority of their recent live performances have been constructed almost exclusively from this album. Check the setlists of your favourite bands at the excellent www.setlists.fm Suffice to say none of this dispute behind the scenes was evident at the joyous gig recently attended and reported upon in log #7. I've just ordered the much revered Volume 1 which will mean I'll only be short of Volume 2 for a full magazine house! The track Mojave continues to inspire from Volume 5. The rival faction of ACSS are also recording a new album apparently so it will be interesting to await developments.

At the opposite end of the scale for some reason I decided to give an old Motorhead album a spin. When I was a teenager Ace of Spades was the go to album from this particular power trio but I always preferred Overkill with my favourite track No Class. It's a track where their basic riffing and aggressive lyrics really hit the spot, but other than that and a few others the album is a bit samey and the clarity very muddy - really opposite to the Afro Celts.

1. Foals - What Went Down
2. The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
3. Motorhead - Overkill
4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - The Last Prophet
5. ACSS - Volume 5
6. ACSS - The Source

The Foals are one of the most impressive modern rock bands operating today. They have a unique rock sound with interesting percussion and rhythms and a good clear singer (the most important part of a rock band I'd say). This is their fourth and latest album. I don't have their debut but the other three including this one are consistently strong. I don't know the tracks well enough just yet to be able to individually identify them outside of the album context - except Spanish Sahara from the 2nd album.

A reentry for the superb Whitest Boy album. One to play loud and dance around the kitchen to with its infectious bass lines. I'll be getting their only other album soon but it's strangely seems to be quite hard to get hold of at a regular CD price for some reason.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's album was one of the earliest and most famous Realworld issues back in the day when "world music" was just beginning to gain prominence in the "west". There are only four tracks of a circular hypnotic and energetic groove. Hailing from Pakistan, Khan (1948 - 1997) was a proponent of Qawwali - the devotional music of Sufism.

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Log #7 - From Joy to Sadness

Lots more Afro Celt Sound System this week and a return of an old favourite remembered in the wake of Leonard Cohen's passing - John Cale, exVelvet Underground and responsible for one of the best cover versions of Cohen's Hallelujah. Was it the one used in the film Shrek? I'm not sure - the internet is divided on the subject. The cover album is from little known Japanese electronica artist Susumo Yokota.

1. Crowded House - Recurring Dream
2. John Cale - Paris 1919
3. Susumu Yokota - Sakura
4. Afro Celt Sound System - Seed
5. Afro Celt Sound System - Anatomic
6. Afro Celt Sound System - The Source

It's all been about the ACSS this week with a storming gig at our local Concorde2 venue here in Brighton. About half way through (actually unusually there was no support, and two sets, with an interval) I realised that from my vantage point standing about a dozen rows back everyone in front of me was relatively short and I had one of the best views ever at a gig. Then the band thanked a school teacher at the front for bringing his class along "to their first gig". They also explained how one of their songs Release had made it on to the official Music GCSE exam syllabus. I hope the school kids appreciated that with the band's vigorous world beats and stirring melodies this was a better gig than usual - the band were really having a good time and this was infectious for the crowd who danced as one. With all those different influences and instruments (there must have been a dozen musicians on the tiny stage) it could have been a right mess but it works.

Take a bow - ACSS on stage, Brigton, 13/11/16

I was moved to buy the new album The Source afterwards and reinserted a couple of previous CDs into the changer for a reassessment (it is lovely rediscovering music you've had on the shelf for years). The Source is excellent - a little more mellow than some of their previous releases but still covering all the celtic and afro bases. Seed and Anatomic are also superb - both a bit more song based than their earlier albums with mesmerising Irish vocals from lead singer Iarla O'Lionaird (now departed but replaced by the equally talented and equally fantastically moniked Griogair Labhruidh). All three albums are jam packed with perfectly produced epics but try Mojave from Anatomic and Where Two Rivers Meet the standout from the new album.

...and jolly nice chaps happy to meet the fans afterwards!

One final thought on bands these days. They are mostly jolly nice don't we think? They enjoy what they do and appreciate the fans. They aren't afraid to show their intellect and skill. Think of Radiohead and Coldplay, not my favourite bands but obviously educated and talented. Many years ago wasn't it all about angst and aggression? It was cool to be destructive, anti-establishment and edgy. The Rolling Stones probably started it. The attitude continued through the 70s and 80s and for a while into the early 90s too with Nirvana. But by the time Oasis came along the public had grown tired of all that rock star posturing that had been done so much better before and just thought the Gallagher brothers were prats.

I know very little about the Japanese cover artist this week – Susumo Yokota – and from a quick google search it seems very few people did. I also learn that he sadly passed away last year at the age of 54. Like the attached article says the album Sakura was a word of mouth success and I must have read about it somewhere. It is indeed a gorgeous ambient instrumental record from the Brian Eno or Aphex Twin (Selected Ambient Works series) school with Japanese flavouring and one that people always comment upon if I ever have it playing in the background. Sakura means Cherry Blossom and is also the title of an amazing classical guitar piece I used to attempt which is sadly neglected somewhat in the concert repertoire although I have heard local artist Richard Durrant play it. I couldn’t find any details on the artist behind the beautiful traditional cover art.

Sadly there were a couple more musician deaths last week – Leonard Cohen and Leon Russell. I don’t (yet) have any music by either artist although the latter particularly has been on my list since hearing him on the player in Wax Factor Records and thinking what is this cross between Dylan/Dr.John/Exile on Main Street era Stones?  Cohen’s death brought forth many replays of Hallelujah covers (a song that has become slightly overplayed like Stairway to Heaven or Imagine, but is still a great song nonetheless). One of the greatest versions is by John Cale and this made me reach for his classic Paris 1919 album which doesn't contain said song but has in the past made it into those Top 100 Albums of all time lists. Just the title engenders strong emotions of time and place, in addition to the cover showing him sitting nonchalantly in front of a sunlit window in his white suit. Evocative. Great songwriting – “You’re having tea, with Grahame Greene,” delivered in his Welsh tones (most singers lose their speaking accent when singing but not Cale). Incidentally the final track on the album Antarctica Starts Here does remind me of John Lennon's Imagine.

John Cale in Paris 1919 obviously

Lastly, albeit in slot 1, we have Crowded House. I used to play this in the car a lot. It’s feel good pop music. Not much more, nothing less. Great songwriting again and 25 years earlier they could have been The Beatles.

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Log #4 - The Whitest Boy Alive - Odd Name / Tight Band

A couple of new entries in the magazine this week. Firstly my new Whitest Boy Alive CD arrived and it's a corker - extremely catchy pop tunes with the funkiest bass lines and the sharpest of beats. A super little band now sadly defunct after only two albums but who live on in part through The Kings of Convenience (who are apparently recording a new album). I've played this album over and over this week, and in the car too on a long journey, so there hasn't been much look in for the rest. KOC retain their place of course and continuing my acoustic/americana/nu-folk mood I've slotted Fleet Foxes into hole number 2. Not too sure about the lead singer on their album any more but the harmonies are good.

1. Bear's Den - Islands
2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
3. Matthew E. White - Fresh Blood
4. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
5. Afro Celt Sound System - Further in Time
6. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams

Matthew E. White is a class act and Fresh Blood is an effortlessly soulful album. Bear's Den have a knack for some great tunes, lovely Crosby Nash Stills harmonies, and melancholic lyrics. I saw them at a local venue last year and for their encore they dismounted the stage and huddled unplugged in a circle in the crowd to sing an unplugged Bad Blood, the last track on the album. I highly recommend this talented young band.

Finally the Afro Celts hold on to a position largely due to plans to see them early next month. This week it is the turn of Further in Time which I think is one of their earlier albums (actually their 3rd - ed.) and features guest appearances from Peter Gabriel and Robert Plant.

Album of the week: Dreams

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Log #3 - Who's That Girl?

A few new entries in the box this week. First a word on a great young band I saw in Brighton last night. Sam Jordan and the Dead Buoys (nautical spelling deliberate after a clash with a US band of the same name). I told them afterwards they sounded like Bear's Den which they took as a compliment, hence the new entry in the player. Both bands specialise in beautiful sensitive acoustic melodies and gorgeous vocal harmonies, the right side of the Mumfords.

1. Bear's Den - Islands
2. Various - Trojan Dub 3 CD Box Set - CD no. 1
3. Matthew E. White - Fresh Blood
4. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
5. Wilco - Being There
6. Afro Celt Sound System - Anatomic (vol. 5)

Matthew E. White I first heard on seeing his stunning Rock and Roll is Cold video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co4krl2xge0

The Wilco album I once saw in one of those Top 50 lists. It sounds a bit dated now, and the vocal delivery is rather relentlessly depressing. I think the later Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is probably the better album. But its a double CD with alot of material so probably requires some more listening.

Cover art this week is from the lovely Kings of Convenience album. I have always been fascinated by album cover art - how a design captures an imaginary world or a grainy photo a moment in time. I love the retro feel of this cover with the brown shades, the turntable, the intellectual chess playing boys and the beautiful bookish girl with the mysterious glance. The boys are band members Erlend Øye (left) and Eirik Glambek Bøe (right). But who is that girl? Is she a model, or a real person, or possibly the guest singer Feist?

So I googled "who is the girl on the cover of riot on an empty street" and would you believe it google knew!

The following article by Clarissa Oon is reproduced from the band's website via my google search http://www.kingsofconvenience.org/strait.html :

Boe's Liv Tyler-lookalike girlfriend is on the cover of Riot On An Empty Street, the recent sophomore major-label release from him and bandmate Erlend Oye [I look forward to spinning a Whitest Boy Alive CD I've just ordered - Oye's side project - hopefully in issue #4 if it arrives in time].

Boe gazes at the camera, looking slightly grim as she and geeky bespectacled Oye eye each other suggestively. She was also with them on the cover of their 2001 breakthrough album Quiet Is The New Loud, says 28-year-old Boe, whose stubbled good looks remind one of a younger Viggo Mortensen. Speaking via a temperamental mobile-phone connection from Palermo, Italy, where the duo is playing a gig, Boe says his medical student girlfriend - whose name he mumbles and is lost in waves of static - was initially not meant to be in the picture. Recalling the day they shot the Quiet album cover four years ago back home in Bergen, Norway, psychology student and part-time musician Boe said he and Oye had been driving around getting lots of photos taken.

For the last picture of the day, we said to my girlfriend: 'Come on, you be in the picture with us to remember this day.' 

The shot ended up on the album cover 'because it reminded us of a series of paintings by Norwegian painter Munch, with one person in the foreground and a couple in the background, called Jealousy'.

The reference to Edvard Munch's paintings tells you two things about the Kings of Convenience, whose pensive acoustic harmonies and intelligently laconic lyrics earned them the label 'the thinking girl's boyband' from a Guardian reviewer: One is that Boe, who reads psychoanalyst Carl Jung's writings for work and semiotician Umberto Eco's essays for fun, thinks really deep thoughts. The other, that he and his songwriting band mate - who have been compared to a hip, latter-day version of 1960s troubadours Simon & Garfunkel - lead separate and somewhat competitive lives.

Friends of 12 years who played together in a now-defunct rock band Skog (Norwegian for 'forest'), they called themselves Kings of Convenience as a shorthand for 'the convenience of two people playing guitars together, instead of all the hassle travelling around with a big band'.

They have lived in different countries for the past six years: Boe in their rainy coastal hometown of Bergen, and Oye as a deejay in Berlin. The latter released his solo dance album Unrest early last year. Suggest that it might be more convenient for the two to live in the same country, and Boe explains, in his low gentle voice that 'my life choice and his life choice are different'.

The band is not the reason we live in different countries. The band still exists in spite of the fact that we live in different countries.

Recorded early this year over a six-month period in Bergen, with periodic visits from Oye, Riot has a more evolved sound than its predecessor album, with a few whimsical, dancy tracks amid slow, autumnal numbers. Boe says they take turns to sing lead, and argue a lot. 'We each think each one's voice is better,' he adds, followed by a rustle like a smile at the other end of the line. Still, they are committed to writing songs together, frequently exchanging ideas over the phone.

'Maybe every second month, I'll go to Berlin, or he comes to Norway.'

Sounds like a long-distance relationship. 'Exactly.'

Album of the Week: A toss up between Riot and Islands

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Log #2 - Bob Marley Lights Up and Catches Fire

I've been playing quite alot of reggae and reggae/dub recently. This culminated in seeing the reggae covers band Easy Star All Stars a couple of weeks ago - a band that plays covers of Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Beatles and Radiohead - check out their cover of Paranoid Android for something completely different.

The Trojan set contains a wealth of music I'm not familiar with like The Upsetters, King Tubby, Gregory Isaacs and Tommy McCook. I don't know if these versions are extra "dubbed" up or are originals (I expect the latter). I've also just got back from a mini-road trip in France where my fellow travellers were playing a lot of reggae and dub on the blue tooth.

1. Various - Trojan Dub 3 CD Box Set - CD no. 2
2. Bob Marley - Catch a Fire
3. The Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me
4. Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street
5. War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream
6. Afro Celt Sound System - Anatomic (vol. 5)

Of course Bob Marley is much more common, but maybe not this album so much. Although considered a classic, or even his best by many, this album came earlier (1973) than the more famous hits. But more the better for it - it's much more rock than I was expecting, with guitars and organ, but with that easy groove. And what a fantastic cover with the extra thick spliff. Way to go Bob. My kids saw his son recently at a festival.

Bob Marley rolls up on Catch a Fire

Thank you to facebook junky Arthur P for The Doobie Brothers recommendation. Named as one of his two most favourite albums ever I had to hear it. It's right up my street, but I don't know if it will prove a stayer. Stand out track to date is Long Train Runnin'. Intiguing cover too. Another similar (I imagine) band we were playing a lot of in France was The Allman Brothers. I had no idea their tune Jessica was the theme tune to Top Gear. I like discovering trivia like that.

Anyway back to this list and the lovely Kings of Convenience. This was also inspired by something I was playing on my Ipod on the plane over - The Whitest Boy Alive. I think both bands have interchangable members, and they certainly sound very similar. The Kings project are more acoustic and with their vocal harmonies sound alot like Simon and Garfunkel. There is a beautiful track near the end where they are joined by a female vocalist. I think they are from Scandinavia somewhere, possibly Norway. Speaking of Scandinavia I am off to see Swedish band Goat next week, that should be interesting.

The War on Drugs record is one of the best rock albums of recent years - it was my Record of the Week in another post. It's been a go to album for a couple of years now.

I'm also seeing Afro Celts sometime soon. Can't remember this album at all - they are all very similar and indistinguishable in my experience so far. Time to familarise myself in the run up to the gig.

Record of the Week: Catch a Fire

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Log #1 - Bret Anderson is Alive and Well (and He Knows It)

Not one for mp3s and digital downloads I've always preferred my music physical and tangible. Not only for the feel and look but also I feel the art form of an album presents a sum greater than its parts. Would we have had a "Sgt. Pepper's" or "Astral Weeks" without the concept of an album?

But I can see the advantages of having an endless stream of music. Several years ago when my CD player expired I replaced it with a 6-CD magazine changer I found on ebay for around £30. Providing not an endless stream of music but a good 5 hours worth, plenty enough for a weekend. It has been one of my best ever purchases.

This weekend I was shuffling through my 6 CDs and realised my current choices were what I would consider atypical of my usual tastes. How did I get here I thought to myself? Would this be symptomatic of a permanent change in taste or were there good temporary reasons for my choices?

So here the idea of a journal of listening was born. I aim to log the 6 CDs each week with comments and thoughts, perhaps justifications and reasons, even reviews.

The 6-CD changer log #1:
Paulo Nutini-Sunny Side Up
Suede-Suede
Badly Drawn Boy-Have You Fed the Fish?
Sufjan Stevens-Carrie and Lowell
Carole King-Tapestry
Afro Celts-Seed

Mesmerising Suede front man Brett Anderson (Yui Mok/PA )

I don’t have the same out of control lifestyle that I used to have but I’m able to find these pockets of interest within everyday life.

Record of the Week: I love the Paulo Nutini, a lovely new discovery, but I was even more surprised at how much I liked previously unheard Suede when I saw them headlining the recent TTP festival here in Brighton - their debut eponymous album wins it this week. Suede contains many of their anthemic songs that were performed with enthusiastic swagger on stage with singer Bret Anderson channelling his best Bowie/Jagger.

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