Log #216 - King Crimson To Tool

So the provenance of this week's listening is really via King Crimson. Specifically that band's last 3 albums which were of a style of music I was not really familiar with before. It sounded a bit like Heavy Metal but much more complex and progressive. So Prog Metal is unsurprisingly a term you could apply. But I've also heard the terms Nu-Metal, Industrial-Metal, Alt-Metal and Stoner-Metal. 

I heard that this version of King Crimson (circa the turn of the millenium) had toured with Tool. I can't say I've even heard of Tool before let alone any of their music. Possibly in the distant recesses of my mind I had an inkling they might be some sort of thrash metal band.

So Lateralus was a nice surprise being an excellent album of powerful heavy rock displaying the speed and musicianship of a band like Rush plus the chunky riffs of Black Sabbath = Metallica?

Comparisons are perhaps unfair as Tool do sound unique in my experience. They've only produced 5 albums over nearly 30 years so it won't take me long to catch up on the whole catalogue.

Save for a bizarre sarcastic review in Pitchfork where the music is described as excellent but the score is an appalling 1.9, Lateralus seems to be universally acclaimed. 

Tool - Lateralus

The Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno - Starless and Bible Black Sabbath

Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD 1

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD 2

Steve Hillage - Rainbow Dome Musik

What the hell is this Starless and Bible Black Sabbath? Suffice to say it's nothing like either Black Sabbath or King Crimson. The album, if you can call it that, consists of one 35 minute noisy metal thrash in which I think I counted two chords, and one better single track of very shouty fast metal, but to be honest I wasn't really listening by then. 

The cover is a homage to Black Sabbath's debut album, the music not so much

The trading standards should be on to The Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno about that mis sold album title.

I span the Primus album, again, on hearing them being compared to modern King Crimson (there is a vague connection to both KC and Tool in the music-map below). 

I didn't like it. It's unusual and original in a way although the singer sounds more manic than the guy in The Decemberists and the over intrusive bass punch is straight out of Red Hot Chilli Peppers. No, no, no likey. An acquired taste (one that I probably haven't got time to acquire)?

I return to Miles Davis fairly frequently in my listening. The Bitches Brew album is of course one of his famous jazz fusion excursions from the early '70s. Is it sacrilege to say I enjoy the jazz rock fusion grooves more when Davis isn't playing?

Read More

Log #215 - The Sparks That Still Burn

If you are near my age and grew up watching BBC's Top Of The Pops in the '70s chances are you will only know Sparks from their weird appearance singing This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us. This song, most memorable for hyperactive singer Russell Mael's high pitched falsetto and older brother Ron Mael's deadpan keyboard playing and sinister looks to camera, was a #2 UK hit in early 1974.

[That song] was written in A, and by God it'll be sung in A. And no singer is gonna get in my way.

Songwriter Ron Mael  

And that was it? Actually no. Unbelievably this band of brothers was formed in LA in 1967 and are still going today. Their most recent album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip, released this year, was their 24th! That's pretty impressive for apparent "one hit wonders". Were they actually "one hit wonders" Ed.?

No, they actually had several hit singles and well charting albums (including some recent ones). The band have achieved 6 Top 20 singles in the UK charts (all in the '70s). Ed.

Hearing the band in an album context for the first time I was expecting a series of similarly quirky keyboard songs along the lines of their big hit. Indeed there are a few that recall this vaudeville entertainment, but actually Sparks were more a glam rock band with a drummer and guitarist, than a novelty pop duo, and were fairly close to Sweet or T-Rex, or even Queen or David Bowie at the time. Not surprising considering this album, their 4th, also came out in 1974. 

With the times they moved to more electronic disco sounds later in the decade with songs like Tryouts For The Human Race and The No.1 Song In Heaven.

The Comet Is Coming - Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery

Miles Davis - Jack Johnson

Sparks - Propaganda

King Crimson - The Construkction Of Light

The Mahavishnu Orchestra - Inner Mounting Flame

Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior

Further new entries in the player this week extend my recent interest in jazz, or specifically jazz fusion, inspired by Return To Forever and, especially, The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I continue to struggle a bit to "get" the The Comet Is Coming album which came near the top of my local record store's Top Albums Of The Year last year. It's extremely busy and the brass is pretty grating. I prefer Miles Davis' Jack Johnson which is much closer to heavy rock with John McLaughlin's gritty guitar to the fore - definitely one of Davis' heaviest albums. 

The Construkction Of Light is also one of the, or the, heaviest King Crimson album(s). I think it's brilliant and it has actually become my favourite out of the band's last 3 albums I reviewed back in log #208, and actually pretty close to one of my favourites overall. Oddly the reviews weren't great at the time and it was certainly considered weaker than the albums that surrounded it, Thrak and The Power To Believe, but for me it has strength in its individual tracks and in its overall "albumness" (a new word Ed. which I've just made up to describe the overall aesthetic of an album where the wholeness does not necessarily equate to the summation of the parts). I'm still working on my King Crimson album ranking and Construkction has potentially moved up two or three places this week.

Read More

Log #121 - The Twilight World Of The Handsome Family

Handsome Family - Twilight

Handsome Family - Through The Trees

Miles Davis - Panthalassa

Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden

Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac

Santana - Caravanserai

It just struck me how the Miles Davis, Santana and Talk Talk albums are surprisingly similar.

The Talk Talk album is gorgeous. It has become a bit of an underground classic over the years. Talk Talk, if you remember, were a pop band of the new romantic age; they scored a few single hits and appeared on Top Of The Pops in the early 80s. Then suddenly, presumably after their success had granted chief Mark Hollis the time and budget to follow his true calling, the band came out with something altogether different.

Spirit of Eden (their 4th album, released in 1988) consisted of extended pieces of largely instrumental music that bordered upon prog, jazz, and ambience. Bizarrely the record company (EMI), typically shortsighted, later sued the band for releasing work that was not "commercially satisfactory"! Where have we heard that before?

In any case the band had the last laugh (their final album released in 1991 was entitled Laughing Stock) with Spirit of Eden now critically acclaimed and even recognised as an earlier pioneer of "post-rock".

Post-rock? Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai, Tortoise, Radiohead, Stereolab, Sigur Ros, Mono, 65 Days Of Static, Sounds Of The Lid, Explosions In The Sky...

The Santana album here is also their fourth. Here they move from a more "singles" approach from their first three albums - nicely summarised on their best Greatest Hits compilation - to something more progressive and expansive.

From the sleeve notes: Originally released in 1973, Caravanserai marked a creative turning point for Santana. Six years of phenomenal success over three albums and extensive tours, this album would represent an expanding of the band's musical scope. Caravanserai takes fans on a harmonic and spiritual odyssey through jazz. A true document of crystalline imaginative vision, Caravanserai is a milestone in the history of Santana.

The Miles Davis album consists of a bunch of remixes by Bill Laswell of previous tunes. There are four extended tracks from the early 70s era Miles and as such are concentrated on his jazz-rock fusion material. It works well as a standalone album.

I've offered up two albums from the peak Handsome Family period which I see spanning the turn of the millennium with Through The Trees (1998), In The Air (2000) and Twilight (2001).

My threesome with couple Brett and Renee Sparks started on hearing Weightless Again on a classic Uncut Americana cover CD I've mentioned before. 

Probably the greatest free CD ever given away with a magazine

The music is mainly the responsibility of hubby Brett but the lyrics are written by Renee who also writes short stories. 

The songs are a mix of the macabre;

So the young girl pierced her lily-white breast

Her blood poured over dark weeds

A silver dagger through her burning heart

Cold as the wind in the trees

The surreal;

There are birds in the darkness

That douse electrical fires

Flaring up in nursing homes

And the bedrooms of blind men

Birds you cannot see

The sad:

My ghost drives around with a bag of dead fish
Falling neutrinos drift through the trees
He staggers and reels, runs up credit card bills
And clogs up the toilet with bottles of pills
Here in the bipolar ward
If you shower you get a gold star

The unexpected;

Chicago is where the woman downstairs

Starved herself to death last summer

Her boyfriend Ted ate hot dogs and wept

With the gray rats out on the fire escape.

She died in June weighing 82

Her boyfriend went back to New York

The cops wandered through her dusty rooms

One of them stole her TV

And the amusing;

So long to my dog Snickers
Who ate Christmas tinsel
So long to Mr. Whiskers
Who jumped out of a window
And to the family of gerbils
Who chewed out of the cage
And the little brown rabbit
I ran over by mistake

You don't have to search long for great lyrics from Renee. Every song is a masterpiece of bizarre storytelling. I'm sure her short stories would be the same.

Never a band to reach much commercial success the Handsome Family did nevertheless score an indirect hit with the theme tune to the chilling first season of True Detective:

Finally a quick word on the Whiskeytown album.  Like The Handsome Family this group were at the forefront of the emergence of americana and alt-country in the mid to late 90s. They were fronted by Ryan Adams who disbanded the band after only 3 albums in 2000 and moved on to solo fame. Strangers Almanac is considered an early classic of the genre.

Read More

Log #107 - The Beauty Of Simplicity

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD2

Air - Moon Safari

Tangerine Dream - Zeit CD2

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Granados - Goyescas

William Ackerman - Past Light

Here we have another lovely piano CD in the shape of Granados courtesy of the excellent Naxos label. Naxos do a very comprehensive series of budget classical CDs which are a great way to get into the world of classical music.

Enrique Granados's music, like his Spanish compatriot Isaac Albeniz, is more well known in its classical guitar form than the original piano versions. Indeed the Spanish flavour of many of these pieces works brilliantly for Spanish guitar and pieces by both composers have formed the set lists of the best classical guitar players throughout the 20th century, initially through Segovia who initiated many of the guitar transcriptions from such heavyweight composers, through Williams and Bream and others in his footsteps. Hence you are generally much more likely to have heard Asturias or Sevilla or Oriental on guitar than piano.

I'm not sure Segovia's approach was right. In an almost single handed effort to get the classical elite to take his instrument seriously he personally transcribed many pieces originally written for piano, or other classical instruments like the violin, for guitar. He also commissioned established composers from the classical world to write for the guitar. The results of both approaches are mixed. For one thing the versions for guitar are fiendishly difficult which stands to reason when you consider the differences between the instruments. Some things possible on a piano are physically not possible on a guitar. Similarly the sustain possible on a violin is likewise not possible on a guitar. Segovia was also too hasty in dismissing wonderful music written by composers who wrote exclusively for guitar - composers who understood the unique characteristics of the instrument most notably a lot of the South American composers such as Barrios and Lauro who did not come up to Segovia's snobbish standards. So generally I steer clear of guitar transcriptions of classical pieces. Despite some exceptions like a lot of these Spanish pieces (and Bach interestingly) they are usually better in their original forms.

While on the subject of guitarists we have our first sighting of Will Ackerman. Continuing the snobby theme there are many classical guitarists (Segovia would definitely be one) who wouldn't give someone like Will Ackerman the time of day. They would consider his playing and his music beneath them as it is relatively simple and played on a steel string acoustic guitar rather than a "proper" classical.

The Beatles are very nice young men, no doubt, but their music is horrible.

Segovia on hearing George Harrison describe him as the "Father of us all".

I'm pleased I've grown out of that attitude both as a listener and a player. We should all appreciate that the simplicity/complexity scale is no yardstick by which to measure the greatness of music. Furthermore as a player it is much better to master a simpler piece well with musicality and feeling, than to struggle through a car crash of a complicated piece. The great King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp was classically trained but said hearing one Jimi Hendrix chord meant more to him than the whole classical repertoire. For me seeing Tommy Emmanuel (an acoustic guitarist who doesn't even read music) live for the first time about ten years ago absolutely blew my mind (he was so good it made me want to throw my guitar away forever). Will Ackerman is not in the same league as Tommy Emmanuel but I have very much enjoyed both playing and listening to his beautiful music. In fact I play his albums much more than Tommy Emmanuel's who is more of a live showman than a recording artist and his compositions don't quite come across the same way on record. That's interesting isn't it? You need the spectacle as the music itself is not enough. It's a case of seeing someone do something in the flesh and thinking "wow, how did he do that?". This becomes meaningless on a recording. I've been playing a lot of ambient and DJ/electronic music recently. It is lovely to listen to, but as a live spectacle does it have the same effect? No, it's completely different. [Btw, don't you get tired seeing those best guitarist of all time posts on facebook groups? It's so boring and predictable. The answer btw is Tommy Emmanuel (not Jimmy Page, or David Gilmour].

Guitarists mentioned here:from top to bottom, left to right, Lauro, Hendrix, Emmanuel, Barrios, Williams, Bream, Segovia, Fripp, Ackerman (and no Page or Gilmour)

So back on message - Will Ackerman has recorded many a solo guitar album for the Windham Hill new age label which he co-founded. This album Past Light is a collaboration with other musicians including labelmates Mark Isham and Michael Hedges, who flesh the sound out with guitar, synthesizer, piano, cello and fretless bass. The Kronos Quartet also guest on one track. It's gorgeous relaxing music. Not particularly earth shattering or memorable, but lovely to listen to when in the mood.

A very small point for Will Ackerman obsessives (if indeed there are any out there). On my album cover the word Visiting is very faintly visible after Past Light. With a keen eye you can just about make it out on the picture above. Visiting is the opening track on the album but the album itself is definitely called Past Light and not Past Light Visiting.

Read More

Log #57 - Very Famous Jazz, Little Known Harp and Unknown Guitar

Bitches Brew is a grower of course. Still quite hard to get into after a couple of weeks of sporadic playing (that's me, as well as Miles Davis!).

The next two jazz standards in the list are a lot more accessible. Many hold up these albums as the  pinnacle for their respective artists Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Both use simple repetitive bass lines to underpin relatively modest (certainly in comparison to Bitches Brew) melodic explorations, the latter a famous 4 note riff alone... de dah de da... "a love supreme..." de dah de da... "a love supreme..."

1. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD2
2. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD1
3. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Luc Vanlaere - Inta
6. David Goodrich - Accidentals of the West

I was surprised Love Supreme was recorded (over one day) in 1964. Such is the simplicity and traditional authenticity I had assumed it was much earlier, and certainly before Kind of Blue (1959).

The selection this week includes a couple of curios. Luc Vanlaere is a Belgian harpist who I saw in concert on holiday in Bruges one time - thinking this was lucky coincidence I see from Vanlaere's website that he actually has a residency in Bruges with daily concerts - I'm sure he sells many CDs to the tourists. This album, Inta, is beautifully packaged in cardboard sleeve. Inta is a African Saharan word which translates as "a state of harmony and absolute fullness". The sleeve notes continue...

Inta is the first step in the last, the delicate moment of balance that follows the end of an action and precedes the beginning of the next; the transition from destruction to a new cycle.

Now you know.

The most impressive tracks on this album also include hang playing. The hang is a steel drum like instrument which produces a beautiful ringing tone. There was a popular video on youtube showing a couple of pixie like gentlemen in beanie hats (you know the one) playing hangs a couple of years back.

In Bruges starring Luc Vanlaere

David Goodrich's album (another beautifully packaged CD) was also one I picked up after an impressive gig - this time at Brighton's Greys Pub. Goodrich is an accomplished guitarist (mostly acoustic) and plays all the music on this instrumental album. One of the best tracks is a lovely cover of Wichita Lineman.

David "Goody" Goodrich and a selection of stringed instruments

Read More

Log #56 - 3 Miles Out - a Classic, a Not Sure, and a Duffer

1. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
2. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD1
3. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew CD2
4. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
5. Tangerine Dream - The Essential
6. Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Miles Davis was a notable absentee from last year's logs. In fact he won top prize for most notable absentee in last year's awards. But he makes an overdue comeback in this log with 3 classic albums.

Actually what alerted me this weekend was watching the brilliant (albeit shocking) Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary currently airing on BBC. Aside from the amazing photographs and footage there is also a superb soundtrack - Miles Davis's Kind of Blue beginning episode 2.

I would say (on current listening, and of course tastes can change especially with familiarity) Kind of Blue is the best of this selection, and for many not only his best ever album, but one of the best ever jazz albums from anyone.

It's difficult to compare of course. Davis's career spanned multiple decades and styles. Kind of Blue (1959) is melodic old style easy listening jazz, languid trumpet and lounge piano, immediately accessible.  It is very interesting how the first two tracks start out with the same refrain, and when I play this album I often wonder why they were separated.

I suspect jazz traditionalists were probably pretty miffed with this new direction rather as Dylan's fans were when he went electric a few year's earlier.

Bitches Brew (1970) on the other hand is not easy listening. It is jazz/rock/fusion consisting of extended jams featuring jazz rock guitarist John McLauglin - in fact it does sound a lot like McLauglin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. It's pretty random. There are grooves but Davis honks a lot of avant garde noises over the top. But it is a classic and was revolutionary in its time so I'm sure I need to play it a lot more to fully appreciate, and I will. The most demanding music is often the most satisfying in the long run. I suspect jazz traditionalists were probably pretty miffed with this new direction rather as Dylan's fans were when he went electric a few years earlier. Keeping up with the times or shaping the times?

Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain just doesn't work.

As for Sketches of Spain (1960) I must say I'm not a fan. The centre piece is an interpretation of the orchestral piece Concierto de Aranjuez - an established classic in the guitar repertoire. I just don't think it works. The original (which I'm very familiar with) is much better. If this wasn't Miles Davis it would probably be dismissed as commercial pap.

Miles Davis fronting his fusion band in the early 70s

My excellent affair with Tangerine Dream continues this week. If you want a good compilation to cover many of the best bases go for The Essential collection. If you want to dive straight into getting one or two original albums there is no better place to start than Phaedra.

Read More