Log #201 - Turn Back The Music

Starting off my next century with a right pot pourri of sounds here. We have watery ambience class from Loscil. Sea Island was the first album of his I heard. It hooked me to a greater extent than a lot of the other ambient albums I've been listening to over the last 20 weeks or so.

 Loscil - Sea Island

Ulrich Schnauss - A Long Way To Fall

The Decemberists - Picaresque

Nick Cave - The Lyre Of Orpheus

Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
ELO - Face The Music

I'm loving this Ulrich Schnauss offering. It is simply superb at what it does... which is melodic easy listening instrumental rock. I'd describe it as a bit of a mix between Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, and then even Pink Floyd or something. Maybe progressive ambience is a better description although this music isn't that ambient with its guitars and drums. The closest other artist out there (who I've only just started listening to) is probably Tycho. I think Schnauss seems to offer more content and depth though from what I've heard. The production is superb. A Long Way To Fall would sound great in the car at high speed and high volume.

I'm in two minds about Picaresque from The Decemberists. The band are no doubt supremely talented with an exceptional ear for a melody, and biting lyrics. I can't quite decide if I like lead singer Colin Meloy's folk rock articulations. It's certainly very characterful but sometimes a little overwhelming possibly at the detriment of the superb songs. A minor gripe maybe in the face of a brilliant maritime folk tale like The Mariner's Revenge Song. 

Midlake are superb. Especially the albums from their Tim Smith (the original singer) vintage years. I think they only did 3 albums with Smith. I have two of them to date, and Occupanther is the middle one. In this crowded and often middle of the road Americana genre they stand out as something special. A lot is to do with Smith's desperately sad voice, which is why I haven't warmed to them so much since he left.

Another great album from Nick Cave. This one, like its sister album Abattoir Blues, is packed full of straight ahead rock and tuneful pop - quite uncharacteristic of the Cave I know from albums like The Boatman's Call, and certainly his last few dour offerings which I played about once each before moving on.

Finally this week a dip into the distant past when, as a teenager, I collected ELO records. Face The Music was one of the second string (and earlier) albums if you like (this one from 1975). The band were finding their feet and hadn't reached the heights yet of A New World Record and Out Of The Blue. Still a good record though with some experimental instrumentals and one or two cracking singles like Strange Magic and Evil Woman. 

The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back.

I do wonder where ELO fitted in to the music landscape at the time though. Just after the heyday of prog, just before disco and punk - what did the music listening public make of their symphonic pop? Was there another band then or now that was attempting something similar? Many compared their best work to The Beatles (Strawberry Fields etc possibly) and Jeff Lynne was certainly a talented and consistent songwriter but as a schoolboy I just thought it was cool to have a band with cellos and violins and even their own conductor!?

Face The Music was the first ELO album with the classic line up of Gale, Bevan, Groucutt, Lynne, Tandy, Kaminski and McDowell. 

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Log #180 - Adding The Mix To The Kraftwerk Mix

Kraftwerk - The Mix

Brian Eno - Apollo

Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther

Cluster - Zuckerzeit

JJ Cale - Naturally

Cocteau Twins - Four-Calendar Cafe

The Mix was a double album of Kraftwerk remixes and re-recordings of previous material released in 1991. The band had recently returned to live touring after a 9 year hiatus and The Mix almost served as a sort of live album with the band using updated digital arrangements of their original recordings.

Predictably the album received a mixed reception especially from the established fans (rather like Can's Sacrilege). Personally I think it's a great album which refreshes some of their best old tracks and stands proud in its own right within the Kraftwerk discography. With significant reworkings it's much more than a Greatest Hits album. The track selection is excellent and I love the mathematical perfection, when I'm in the mood:

Tracklist:
1 The Robots
2 Computerlove
3 Pocket Calculator
4 Dentaku
5 Autobahn
6 Radioactivity
7 Trans Europe Express
8 Abzug
9 Metal On Metal
10 Homecomputer
11 Music Non Stop

Worth getting as a primer if starting out on Kraftwerk? Yeah, I reckon, why not.

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Log #98 - The Spirit of '68 (1) and My Favourite Record of All Time

The stories about the recording of Astral Weeks are well known and I don't need to add a lengthy analysis to the numerous reviews and articles already out there about Van Morrison's seminal album suffice to say it is, and has been for many years, my favourite record of all time and one that has truly enriched my life.

The gentle jazz tinged music ebbs and flows and meanders like a mountain stream, the lyrics are simultaneously fantastic and down to earth recalling places and feelings many of us have experienced.

I can't listen to this album as background music, it demands my full attention and it makes me feel things very few other records do... think green, earthy, organic, wet, lush, celtic, spring, sunshine, dewdrops, rain, rainbows, walks in the woods, trees, stone circles, nature, rivers, childhood, family, the past, the future, in the beginning and afterwards... and ultimately life and death. 

And I will stroll the merry way

And jump the hedges first

And I will drink the clear

Clean water for to quench my thirst

And I shall watch the ferry-boats

And they'll get high

On a bluer ocean

Against tomorrow's sky

And I will never grow so old again

And I will walk and talk

In gardens all wet with rain

Is there a more evocative lyric than the oft quoted "gardens wet with rain" from Sweet Thing. Look at the cover too, it's all perfect.

Van produced a lot of great music in the late 60s and early 70s and several albums do approach this greatness. For many Moondance is it's equal although it has quite a different flavour being more brass based than string backed. Personally I think Saint Dominic's Review and Veedon Fleece come closest to Astral Weeks but just don't quite capture it's atmosphere.

Greil Marcus's Listening to Van Morrison is a personal account about how he feels when err... listening to Van Morrison. As such it does exactly as it says on the tin and in leaning heavily on Astral Weeks does not pretend to offer another autobiography or comprehensive review of the whole of Morrison's output. I thoroughly enjoyed this short book and find such accounts enhance my enjoyment of the music.

1. Midlake - The Courage of Others

2. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

3. Rokia Traore - Beautiful Africa

4. Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed The Fish

5. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

6. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

And this week Astral Weeks is in good company with 5 excellent albums including the gorgeous americana folk rock of Midlake, the bluesy afro rock of Rokia Traore, the perfect pop of Badly Drawn Boy at his peak, and a classic Floyd which was also once my favourite album before I moved on. What a great week!

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Log #88 - Tonight's The Zeit

A really strong series this week bolstered by new investments. I've been planning to get Tangerine Dream's classic Zeit album for ages and finally cashed in an amazon voucher for this and Midlake's Trials of Van Occupanther album. Charity pick ups this week come from US rockers Eels and UK festival favourite Scott Matthews. If that wasn't enough bringing up the rear is many people's favourite Neil Young album. I'm not sure Tonight's the Night is his very best but in a strong field I'd have it in my top 5.

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1. Tangerine Dream - Zeit

2. Tangerine Dream - Zeit cd 2 / The Klangwald Performance

3. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther

4. Eels - Shootenanny!

5. Scott Matthews - Passing Stranger

6. Neil Young -  Tonight's The Night

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Zeit

Although this album is famously one (and probably the best) of Tangerine Dream's early ambient releases (before they introduced the pulses and rhythms) there is a lot of listening here. You need to play such static music a bit more before you can really appreciate it's subtle intricacies.  And then there is the bonus "live" album on top too.  It's gonna be great. Tangerine Dream are definitely one of the groups who have enjoyed a new lease of life in my listening since starting this blog. Tbc.

Shootenanny!

I've never heard any Eels before. I am only aware of the cover of their early album with the strange looking girl with the big eyes. This is pretty good in a rock guitar sort of way although many would accuse them of "rock by numbers". The laid back singing reminds me of that bunch of bands around Whiskeytown, Wilko, Golden Smog, Ryan Adams - not a bad bunch at all but this isn't particularly remarkable on early listens (it is so hard to be different in this crowded field). This is one of the more exciting tracks:

Passing Stranger

This, his 2006 debut album, is excellent stuff from Scott Matthews who obviously has a talent for acoustic, electric and slide guitar, soulful singing, and an ear for a great hook and a liking for some world music flavours. It even sounds a bit like Led Zeppelin (and Jeff Buckley and James Morrison) in places - not what I was expecting. Again a crowded market, being that solo soulful singer songwriter guitar player area, but different enough to warrant further listens.

Midlake

As I've said before this is an even more crowded market but this band is class. This was their "breakthrough" album released in 2006. First track "Roscoe" is a good place to start:

Tonight's The Night

Neil Young's Tonight's The Night is almost certainly his bleakest album (and there have been a few). Officially the final part of his "ditch" trilogy it was actually recorded in 1973 shortly after Time Fades Away and before 1974's On The Beach, but the release was delayed until 1975.

Most of the tracks were recorded over one night with the band in an apparent drug and drink induced state of relaxation. The songs are extremely raw and live. Whereas the roughest edges have been honed off of the similar On The Beach recording the production here, where it exists at all, is rough and ready, warts and all. Some of the songs sound out of tune and the volume and stereo separation is variable.

I used to play this depressing album to cheer me up. Things could never be as bad as this.

However it works! The band literally sound like they are in your front room. The underlying quality of the songwriting, the melodies, the bar room authenticity of the live band, and the heart rendering beauty of Young's solo tracks on piano or acoustic guitar, all shine through to make this one of his best loved collections.

Kids, this is what real music sounds like.

The album explores the depth of Neil's pain over the heroin overdose deaths of Crazy Horse's Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. The bookends of Tonight's The Night are the title track which opens and concludes the album - the two versions are pretty indistinguishable, and apparently (in response to heckles to "play something we know") Young would repeat the song more than once in the same set when touring the album in late 1973:

Bruce Berry was a working man
He used to load that Econoline van
A sparkle was in his eye
But his life was in his hands
Well, late at night when the people were gone
He used to pick up my guitar
And sing a song in a shaky voice
That was real as the day was long

Early in the morning at the break of day
He used to sleep until the afternoon
If you never heard him sing
I guess you won't too soon
Because people let me tell you
It sent a chill up and down my spine
When I picked up the telephone
And heard that he'd died out on the mainline

Just wow, this is crushing stuff and it is relentless throughout this amazing record I will never tire of.

The personnel (courtesy Wiki) dubbed The Santa Monica Flyers included Young collaborators from the Stray Gators (Harvest), After The Goldrush, and Crazy Horse:

Neil Young – vocals; guitar on "World on a String," "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," "Mellow My Mind," "Roll Another Number," "Albuquerque," "New Mama," "Lookout Joe," and "Tired Eyes"; piano on "Tonight's the Night," "Speakin' Out," and "Borrowed Tune"; harmonica on "World on a String," "Borrowed Tune," and "Mellow My Mind"; vibes on "New Mama"

Ben Keith – pedal steel guitar, vocal on "Tonight's the Night," "Speakin' Out," "Roll Another Number," "Albuquerque," and "Tired Eyes"; pedal steel guitar on "World on a String" and "Mellow My Mind"; vocal on "New Mama"; slide guitar, vocal on "Lookout Joe"

Nils Lofgren – piano on "World on a String," "Mellow My Mind," "Roll Another Number," "Albuquerque," "New Mama," and "Tired Eyes"; vocal on "Roll Another Number," "Albuquerque," and "Tired Eyes"; guitar on "Tonight's the Night," "Speakin' Out"

Danny Whitten – vocal, electric guitar on "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown"

Jack Nitzsche – electric piano on "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown"; piano on "Lookout Joe"

Billy Talbot – bass all tracks except "Borrowed Tune," "New Mama," and "Lookout Joe"

Tim Drummond – bass on "Lookout Joe"

Ralph Molina – drums, vocal all tracks except "Borrowed Tune," "New Mama," and "Lookout Joe"; vocal on "New Mama"

Kenny Buttrey – drums on "Lookout Joe"

George Whitsell – vocal on "New Mama"

https://tiny.cc/6am

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Log #80 - Mister Magic

Record of the week is soul jazz masterpiece Mister Magic from Grover Washington Jr. which I first heard as a student in the 80s. It's smooth, it's funky and it's cool (like the cover). Released in 1975 it was Grover's 4th album and his first commercial success.

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1. Midlake - The Courage of Others

2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

3. Amadou and Mariam - Dimanch a Bamako

4. Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic

5. Prem Joshua - Yatri

6. Various - The Karma Collection CD1

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Mister Magic opens with the experimental Earth Tones (12:20) which is a Miles Davis like jazz fusion piece by arranger and keyboardist Bob James. Book-ended by Washington's soprano sax riff the mid section goes free form underpinned by Harvey Mason's hi-hat emphasized drums. Passion Flower (5:32) is an arrangement of a smooth melodic piece from the 40s, backed by rich strings. Title track Mister Magic (9:00) is punchy and funky with a circular Eric Gale guitar riff. Amy Winehouse covered the track on her Frank album. This super tight album ends with Black Forest (6:06) - a big band arranged chunky piece of JBs like funk.

A very satisfying album that tends to be liked by anyone I play it to. Hashtag What'sNotToLike?

#WhatABand Grover grooves through Mister Magic

Speaking of cool the Grover Washington album merges seamlessly into the equally cool Prem Joshua album.  Prem is a German multi-instrumentalist majoring on Indian sitar. Beautifully produced and packaged Yatri is a gorgeous world fusion piece of authentic ethnic sounds over understated modern beats.

      

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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.

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1. Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim

2. The Unthanks - Here's The Tender Coming

3. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

4. Midlake - The Courage of Others

5. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient

6. Robert Plant - Band of Joy

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With Thanks For The Unthanks

It is great to come across something very new and exceptional while researching and writing this blog. I was vaguely aware of The Unthanks via their stunning cover of Starless by King Crimson (both respectful of the original yet very different too). But hearing Here's The Tender Coming has taken my admiration to a whole new level.

It's this sort of music

The heavily accented folk singing took me a few plays to tune in to. On very first listen it sounds a bit twee and too much "finger in thy ear down the Irish pub" type stuff. But once I got it the power of the songs (mostly covers or trad. set to spare arrangements of strings, brass, and piano) quickly won me over.

Very strange to be reminded of King Crimson and Yes!

Strangely one of the bands they remind me of is actually Islands era King Crimson. Also equally strangely fellow proggers the Jon Anderson fronted Yes, and Efterklang and Philip Glass, plus more obviously a bit of early Fairport Convention too and the more edgy and discordant Incredible String Band. But overall it's the type of music that makes me think of pagan festivals and dancing around in animal masks in The Wicker Man.

.. and this sort of music

The title song refers to the name of the ship, "The Tender", coming to press gang men to sea:

Here's the tender coming, pressing all the men
Oh dear hinny, what shall we do then?
Here's the tender coming off at Shield's Bar
Here's the tender coming full of men of war

Hide thee canny hinny, hide thyself away
Hide thee till the frigate makes for Druridge Bay
If they take thee Geordie who's to win our bread?
Me and little Jackie better off be dead

One of the best albums I've heard so far this year. The Unthanks will be making an appearance in the Best New Discovery section of my Year End Review when it comes around.

First Nu Folk From Laura

Purely coincidentally, in this week of suffragettes and women's rights celebrations, the delectable Unthanks singing is flanked by two other (mostly) female voices. First we have Laura Marling with her 2008 debut album Alas I Cannot Swim (I was surprised to learn this was her debut thinking she had been around a lot longer than ten years). She is no doubt a special talent with a nice voice and an original guitar technique employing interesting tunings.

This album is pretty good. Essentially just guitar and voice but some tracks are fleshed out with string arrangements and several more upbeat numbers employ a full band with bass and drums like the jaunty Cross Your Fingers. Occasionally she goes off into one of those "sing really fast and fit as many words into a breath as possible" type moments most annoyingly advocated by vocal gymnasts like Joni Mitchell.

Intriguing artwork from Laura Marling's debut album

There is a bit of the pagan tradition too in this music and some Alice in Wonderland like line drawings in the artwork but the imagery evoked by the music is not so vivid as that of the Unthanks. I think it's called nu-folk. Marling can be forgiven the close association with the very mainstream Mumford and Sons who appear in part on this album, but as folk music goes I actually find the traditional old-folk of Here's The Tender Coming much more appealing.

I've Now Heard Rumours

On the other side at slot 3 we have the first appearance in a CD player of mine of Rumours - the first Fleetwood Mac album with lead vocalist Stevie Nicks of course. I actually wrote a few months ago about having never heard this album before. Well now I have and it is pretty good. Of course I recognise at least half the songs but there are surprises on here too. It represents a well trodden path of light AOR* (what an awful term that is) but is an excellent example of such.

Stevie Nicks with Mick Fleetwood           

The Courage To Go It Alone

Keeping up the standard (and character) of this most enjoyable week we have another excellent album from a band I've not heard before. Fronted not by a female voice, but the very gentle tones of Tim Smith, Midlake are an americana/folk rock band from Texas.

The vibe on The Courage of Others is again on the pagan side starting with the hooded figures on the cover (as was also the case on the striking cover of their debut album The Trials of Van Occupanther).

The music gently rocks along and the sound is excellent. They so remind me of another band or artist generally and through particularly tracks. I just can't quite nail who I'm thinking of. I've considered Fairport Convention, The Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes, Wilco, Iron and Wine, and Bear's Den. Bring Down sounds just like a track off of Radiohead's OK Computer and Fortune is very Simon and Garfunkel. Or perhaps overall they remind me of John Grant which wouldn't be too surprising as they played on Grant's debut solo album The Queen of Denmark.

It's those laid back breathy harmonised vocals most of all - the vocalist does seem to give a band most of it's character and on listening to some of their other music including a KEXP session I figured they weren't sounding quite as good as on The Courage of Others. Further investigation revealed that lead vocalist and songwriter Tim Smith had left and under slightly mysterious circumstances. Apparently a follow up to The Courage of Others had been recorded over a couple of years and was almost ready for release but did not come up to Smith's painstaking standards (he was only happy with one song). Smith decided to leave to pursue his own path and the remaining band scrapped the complete recording and rewrote and reproduced a completely new album in only six months.

Musically we didn't see things the same way... you can hear from their new album our tastes and sensibilities are quite different and always have been.

The new album became Antiphon and with guitarist Eric Pulido taking on lead vocals Midlake had become yet another band (after Genesis and Can who I have discussed recently) choosing not to replace their main vocalist:

Antiphon is the most honest representation of the band as a whole, as opposed to one person's vision that we were trying to facilitate.

You can sense some frustration and resentment in Pulido's words.

Antiphon - Midlake's third

What of Tim Smith's new project? Well not much so far. It seems something is restricting his output and it isn't clear whether this is perfectionism, personal issues, or plain old writer's block. The website for his new project Harp leaves this message -

I'll give another update when there's something more to say, but if you don't hear from me for a long time that only means I'm still at it. Thanks for understanding. Peace and Love, Tim

For me this fuels the mystery further and I'll certainly be intrigued with whatever he comes out with. It's displaying all the hallmarks of being a masterpiece!

"I've never been one to rush the process of making music."The enigmatic Tim Smith in his home studio.

Now imagine my surprise when clicking the facebook link on the Harpband website I am taken to a post showing Tim Smith in a Brighton pub last April! He was over here recording some music with a local band Hollow Hand who I've not heard of but will certainly be checking out. The intrigue deepens.

Charity Corner

I do love discovering new music and to think this rich seam of sonic gold from Midlake was mined from a punt on a £1.49 charity bin album. By the way to continue my log of the most common charity bin albums it is only fair to add these two perennial repeat offenders:

* Adult or Album Orientated Rock

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