Log #161 - Tom's Industrial Years

Tom Waits is quite a difficult artist. In retrospect my tastes may have changed as I didn't enjoy this album as much as I remembered (house members overhearing the record likened Waits' strangled vocals to the sound of someone dying!).  Franks Wild Years (officially no apostrophe although it only makes grammatical sense to have one) followed Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs in ...

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Log #159 - I Sing And Play Guitar Because I'm Good

The Decemberists Picaresque  Robert Plant Band Of Joy Laura Marling I Speak Because I Can Sigur Ros Tak Zhou Yu Master of the Chinese Erhu Felice Brothers Yonder Is The Clock The Laura Marling album is one of my favourite "nu-folk" (bit of a silly term) albums - one that has grown on me over the years. Good songs, interesting acoustic guitar chords, and ...

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Log #144 - Two Big Arrows From Marley To Marling

Manitoba / Caribou - Stop Breaking My Heart Chemical Brothers  - We Are The Night Bob Marley - Catch A Fire Laura Marling -  I Speak Because I Can Blue States - Man Mountain King Tubby - Declaration of Dub A couple of entries in the box this month are from some more charity shop pickups. Honestly, as a CD collector, there is no better way to spread ...

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Log #123 - Euphonic Electronica: Most Pleasing To The Ear

Euphony In Electronics - One Point One Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim Neil Young - Tonight's The Night Live At The Roxy Efterklang - Magic Chairs Neil Young - After The Gold Rush Gram Parsons - GP and Grievous Angel Beginners start here with EFTERKLANG. They came from the electronica and glitchy camp (with Springer/Tripper in 2003), ...

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Log #122 - Neil, Nils and Gram

A fairly quiet week at the Towers this week and a return to some basics with old stalwarts Neil Young (still top of the leaders' charts) and Gram Parsons (his first appearance at the blog!).  Euphony In Electronics - One Point One Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes? Efterklang - Magic Chairs Neil ...

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Log #74 - Non Swimmer Saved Mid Lake By The Tender Coming

This week's blog features three artists across the broad folk/rock spectrum. We have the first sighting of the accomplished acoustic guitar troubadour Laura Marling, sandwiched between the traditional yet original folk song of the Unthanks sisters and Midlake's easy going yet dark brand of Americana. ~ 1. Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim 2. The Unthanks - Here's The Tender ...

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Log #36 - Bonobo's Animal Magic

1. Caitlin Canty - Reckless Skyline 2. Budgie - The Best Of 3. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can 4. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name 5. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden 6. Bonobo - Animal Magic Down tempo mellow beats from Brighton's very own Simon Green aka Bono ...

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Log #35 - Laura, Anna and Rachael

One of the nice things about keeping this log is you rediscover, or even discover for the first time in some cases, albums in your collection that you had overlooked or forgotten. 7 or 8 years ago (actually around the time of this album release actually) I was lucky enough to see Laura Marling at a tiny festival at Stanmer House, Brighton. The festival I believe was a one off and was called Foxtrot. ...

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Log #34 - Classic Floyd Revisited

Dong Da Da Daaaaaaaaaang! Dow Da Da Daaaaaaaaaang! Dong Da Da Daaaaaaaaaahhh! Dow Da Da Daaaaaaaaaahhhh!  faster... faster, dagger dagger dagger dagger de dah! Bb, F, G, E ! What's that? It's that Shine On You Crazy Diamond riff innit! Funny how the simplest of motifs just get stuck in your head forever. In my teenage years the Wish You Were Here album blew me away, and in particular ...

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Log #33 - Camel's Nude - a remarkable guitarist, a remarkable story.

Synthesizer Rock Confusion I was a bit of a music snob when I was younger and liked to know about bands that others hadn't heard of. So when I was a student in the 80s and everyone was playing Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Pink Floyd, and little else, I liked to branch out a bit and take risks on less well known bands. Sometimes I had no idea what I was buying when I walked away from a second hand ...

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