Log #169 - The Other Side Of God's Favorite Customer

As I come to the end of the year and thoughts turn towards my year end review there are two or three albums in this list this week that will probably make the short list for Album Of The Year. They are the Tord Gustavsen, the Father John Misty, and the KLF.

KLF Chill Out

Father John Misty God's Favorite Customer

Simon and Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water

Bill Laswell Imaginary Cuba

Tord Gustavsen The Other Side

Ketil Bjornstad and David Darling Epigraphs

Taking each in turn we have The Tord Gustavsen Trio's The Other Side which is a simply beautiful album of wistful chilled jazz piano. Gustavsen takes a minimalist approach yet the melodies are Debussyesque. Themes repeat and return throughout the album's 12 tracks, something I did not notice before I had fully absorbed the album several times.

I don't know where this sort of music sits in the jazz pantheon (jazz experts may consider it easy listening or light weight?) but I know I love it and find it much more satisfying than the often too frantic classical solo piano (see Log #166 ) or even the minimalist chamber piano of Bjornstad and Darling's Epigraphs album. It's effortless flow is closer to Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and Philip Glass's Solo Piano album.

Father John Misty's God's Favourite Customer (English spelling there) album could also be considered slightly on the light weight side but the sheer brilliance of the melodic songs pulls it through. Father John Misty is a cross between Elton John and John Grant.

I can't decide if KLF's Chillout has nothing going on or a helluva lot. Whatever, it remains a fascinating and atmospheric listen - one where you hear more the more you listen. Save for a jumpy number towards the end, the album is essentially a concept piece played out over one continuous 45 minutes of ambient sound effects and samples.

One timeless classic and a pretty nondescript non event make up the numbers this week and we have our 6.

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Log #10 - A Steely Dan of Sonic Perfection

I remember reading once that the cover album this week was, in its time (1977), celebrated for it's amazing sound quality to such a degree that it became the "go-to" record hi-fi equipment shops would use for demo purposes. I wonder how many hi-fi shop staffers were actually aware of this dictum - it was probably an urban myth rarely put into practice on the high street.

Aja (named after a girl of that name - and although I've never noticed before there is a girl's face in the cover) is indeed a sumptuous jazz / rock / funk / R&B / fusion masterpiece with it's perfectly intertwined funky bass, smooth electric piano and drum shuffles, played by a revolving door of crack session players.

The band actually took their name from a brand of dildo featured in William Burrough's "Naked Lunch"

I had assumed the name Steely Dan was something to do with the two core players, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, but not at all, the band was named after a dildo. Eh hem. Donald Fagen's later Nightfly album was also a favourite during my university years.

1. Ketil Bjornstad and David Darling - Epigraphs
2. The Felice Brothers - The Felice Brothers
3. Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
4. DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike
5. Steely  Dan - Aja
6. AC/DC - Back in Black

Ketil Bjornstad and David Darling are a pianist/cellist duo recording for the new age ECM label. The instrumental music is verging on minimalist classical of the Philip Glass (particularly his solo piano work) and Arvo Part school - very down tempo with lots of space.

The Felice Brothers are coming to a concert hall in Brighton in the new year which made me reach for my CD. It's actually a copy someone gave me without a cover so I wasn't even aware of which album it was. The music is round the campfire accordion washboard foot stomping bar room americana most similar to Wilco with a Tom Waits/Bob Dylan feel. Hear the honky tonk piano and horn on The Greatest Show on Earth.

I'm in the lobby of the motel 8
Waiting on my lovely date
Her name is Doris Day
I'm in a suit of burgundy
There's a deer-head looking at me
It's blowing my mind away
Everyone knows she's the killing kind
She keeps a 38 Smith and Wesson at her side
I put a pistol in my pants
Cause were going out to dance
Where the water drinks like cherry wine

Tell me mama, so it seems
Your son's been a bad marine
They're shipping him home tonight
Tell me mama wheres your other son
In jail with the other one?
You must'nt of raised them right
I heard your low-life husband shout
It got me to wondering what the scene was all about
He said I'm breaking my parole
Going down to Jericho
Get me that money, or I'm gonna beat it out

Oooh happy days are here!
It's the perfect summer night
And the moonlight's shining clear
Put a pistol in your purse
Cause we're going to Gettysburg
To the stand of the Greatest Show on Earth!

Is that your daughter Mr. Kissinger?
Better keep an eye on her
She been looking me up and down
Is that your woman in the coat of fur?
Better keep an eye on her
This is a ravenous part of town
I know about you and the deputy
And how they found him shot dead in a Mercury
Some say you're paid to kill
Like that mean ol' Buffalo Bill
Watch it buddy! Don't draw no gun on me!

Oooh happy days are here!
It's the perfect summer night
And the moonlight's shining clear
Put a pistol in your purse
Cause we're going to Gettysburg
To the stand of the Greatest Show on Earth!

You get the picture! Great stuff, I'm looking forward to it.

The Traffic album is a classic. Rather like Aja it's a perfect blend of multiple styles and all the remarkable for a band comprising of only three very talented musicians. I saw multi instrumentalist Steve Winwood playing at Cropredy Festival a few years ago and was blown away as he raced through Traffic, Spencer Davis Group, and Blind Faith classics, moving effortlessly from organ (with bass foot pedal) to guitar, and that voice of course too. The encore was Dear Mr. Fantasy... play us a tune!

There are some great bass lines and languid drum beats in the DJ Shadow album. The centre piece is the four part near 30 minute What Does Your Soul Look Like? His 1996 debut Entroducing album was famous for being composed (or compiled more like) entirely from cut and pasted samples. Not traditional musicianship of course but quite a skill nontheless. I saw a full band at a festival recreating that album.

AC/DC's Back in Black album was their first after the death of lead singer Bon Scott. Brian Johnson certainly proved an able replacement and has lasted the course with the band right up to this year when hearing problems (no shit Sherlock) forced him to temporarily step aside for Axl Rose. Back in Black isn't quite as good as AC/DC's landmark Highway to Hell album but has plenty of classic stadium filling rockers. There is something irresistible about the AC/DC template of single line riff, followed by 4 by 4 drum beat, followed by one note bass. It hooks into your brain.

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