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
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
