I came late to Rumours as explained here but its charms have grown on me, particularly on the more rock orientated numbers like the excellent The Chain which is so much more than that slightly annoying bass riff used for that very annoying car programme. It was a video I caught this week on youtube of a live performance of The Chain that encouraged me to give the album another spin.
Fleetwood Mac Rumours
Neil Young Hitchhiker
FoalsWhat Went Down
Edgar FroeseEpsilon In Malaysian Pale John MartynSolid Air
Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps
Hitchhiker was an album by Neil Young recorded in 1976. For some reason it was not released then... - actually the reason I believe was the record company thought the solo acoustic songs should be recorded as a band. - indeed some like Powderfinger were later re-recorded with a band and appeared on a subsequent album (Rust Never Sleeps and others).
Anyway Hitchhhiker, like Chrome Dreams and some others, became one of those legendary lost albums of Young's - until last year when the original was released. It is indeed a shame this album did not see the light of day for so long as, despite it having an air of demo about it, it is actually one of Young's best. There are ten excellent songs, 9 on guitar, one on piano. Eight have appeared on other albums, usually in a differing version / two are previously unreleased. I do believe it may be Young's only entirely solo album?? [By the way any Neil Young fan should check out his Archives website - this is a subscriber service but there is always a free to stream featured album available]. Excellent stuff from the Foals on this, their fourth album. It is a pretty heavy album but still demonstrates their excellent musicianship.
'What Went Down' is unbelievably aggressive, a bold return so to speak, combining a fierce pulsating drumbeat with erratic overdriven guitars that lend a real intensity.
Albums one and two from young Paolo Nutini and four from old Neil Young.
Paolo Nutini These Streets
Paolo Nutini Sunny Side Up
Neil YoungMirror Ball
Neil YoungHawks And Doves Neil YoungTonight's The Night Live At The Roxy
Neil Young Rust Never Sleeps
More consistently excellent soulful rock from Scottish singer Nutini. I'm surprised at the number of catchy tracks in both these albums. But not only catchy, but brilliantly constructed and superbly performed. Very impressed.
Much more to come from Neil Young as I continue work on an album ranking. Here we have four albums all at the excellent end of the variable Young scale released between 1973 and 1995 (actually the live Tonight's The Night wasn't released until 2018 but was fundamentally a 1973 album):
Mirror Ball - a surprisingly excellent collaboration with Pearl Jam.
Hawks And Doves - one of Young's lesser known albums which nevertheless contained two or three of his greatest acoustic songs.
Tonight's The Night Live - very similar to the original studio album with in-between track banter and an encore of Walk On from On The Beach.
Rust Never Sleeps - half acoustic, half heavy, all classic Young.
The strong finish to the year from Neil Young will secure his place once again at the top of my appearances chart in the upcoming Year End Polls. Will anyone ever catch him?
After The Gold Rush is one of those albums that I feel I know so well I hardly have to play it any more. What was nice hearing it again though is recalling the excitement on first hearing it all those years ago. For me NEIL YOUNG was one of the first singer-songwriter artists I discovered, along with Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, who took my listening experience to a new level following a diet of rock bands up until then. And After The Gold Rush is a perfect singer-songwriter album with its mix of rock numbers (actually only two - the searing Southern Man and the honky piano When You Dance placed midway through each side) and poignant acoustic love songs (with Young's lyrical prowess at its zenith). More on this album and Nils Lofgren's contribution at Log #122 from January this year (so actually it wasn't such a long time ago I last played it).
Neil Young After The Gold Rush
Ludovico EinaudiIn A Time Lapse
LowDouble Negative
Rokia TraoreBeautiful Africa The LumineersThe Lumineers
Peace Happy People
THE LUMINEERSis a new band on me. I discovered them through the passage ways of The Felice Brothers (via Simone Felice especially) and The Decemberists. This album (their 2012 debut) is nearly all acoustic. It contains a bunch of jaunty sing-a-long folk rock numbers including their big hit Ho Hey. More to hear here I'm sure but initial impressions are the band is slightly closer to the Mumford Sons end of the spectrum rather than the aforementioned The Felice Brothers and The Decemberists.
I didn't really get on with the LUDOVICO EINAUDI album this time around - very easy listening in a Michael Nyman The Piano soundtrack sort of way, but with a lot more strings. Heck, they even look identical:
Separated at birth? Nyman and Einaudi
I love ROKIA TRAORE's wavery powerful voice. Some good rock and some trad. African stuff on this excellent album. Some songs in French. Africa is beautiful as is she.
PEACE are an indie guitar band hailing from Worcester, England. Happy People is their second (of currently 3) albums. I fleetingly liked an indie guitar pop band called Dodgy way back in the early 90s (they made a bit of a comeback recently). Their songs were very catchy but shone very briefly in my consciousness. I feel much the same about this music: Peace's decent throwaway pop is a throwback to Britpop but doesn't really leave a lasting impression. They're good and probably excellent live but don't seem quite to have the swagger and originality of say The Happy Mondays of that time, or contemporaries The Arctic Monkeys for example. Last out the blocks this week is the album Double Negative by LOW. Much acclaimed this album appeared in many best of lists of 2018. But be warned, it's not an easy listen as demonstrated by a visitor to Bamyasi Towers this weekend who asked me to change the music as it was just too dark. Perhaps the band's distorted soundscapes are more for the critics than the listening public - I was surprised to see their appearance at Glastonbury so poorly attended, for a band who had just achieved such a critical breakthrough. Personally the album is not one that grabs me immediately, but is one that I will want to return to for a deeper dive (but it will have to be when I'm alone!).
I've been recommencing some concentrated Neil Young research towards a forthcoming album ranking - as he has about 50 albums to his name and is showing no sign of letting up any time soon (Young's latest Colorado has just come out) this is a mammoth undertaking. Luckily I know a lot of them well already but there are a lot of new ones to wade through too (I gave up purchasing every Neil Young album released around 1985). Despite his Quality Control Department largely going AWOL for much of the new millenium (and for all the 80s) there are some undiscovered gems which will reveal themselves once I finally get the ranking out. Neither of the above really come into that category - they seem very similar to me for a number of reasons - from the guitar rock riffing and basic backing to the chronology (2002 and 2006 respectively) and even the buff brown covers.
A Frank Sampredo-less Crazy Horse provide the backing on the earlier Greendale; for Living With War Young turned to regular recent contributors the late Rick Rosas on bass and Chad Cromwell on drums - both backing bands sound practically the same on these two records. Interestingly when Young toured Living With War he somehow persuaded Crosby Stills and Nash to join him. The infamous "Freedom Of Speech" tour was captured on film:
Neil Young now belongs to that rare stratum of artists whose work is no longer judged purely on its merits but on the basis of its status within their catalogue. As with Dylan and Bowie, interest lies not only in whether the latest record stands up to repeated listening, but what it says about them within the context of their career. So when Le Noise was announced, most stories focussed on the fact that it sees the veteran collaborate with Grammy-winning producer Daniel Lanois, previously responsible for records from Dylan (of course), Peter Gabriel and Emmylou Harris, and who here has reduced Young’s backing to (mainly) electric guitar and Lanois’ own "sonics". It sounded like one for the musos.
But what this means is that when Walk With Me opens the album with one crunching, distorted chord, it sounds like Crazy Horse, his sometime backing band, are about to unleash hell’s fury. Instead, Young’s trademark impassioned whine insists "I’ll never let you down no matter what you do if you just walk me", while he chops out chords that decay like thunder, Lanois adding a few restrained vocal loops and guitar treatments. There are no drums, no hurricane solos and, it has to be said, no great signs of a melody. In fact this at first sounds as though Young is merely demoing new songs, feeling his way through them, trying to decide whether they would work better if they rocked with a band or instead reached back to the tender acoustics of Harvest. His research appears to have been inconclusive.
This being a Neil Young album, however, it’s worth returning to, and what initially appeared indecisive reveals itself as an experiment in the rejection of standard rock arrangements. Le Noise therefore remains reasonably accessible, Young’s lyrics still as appealingly forthright as his playing, his melodies slowly rising through the unsettling, growling dirge. Hitchhiker sees Young look back over his life atop a bare and formidable landscape; Rumblin' is plaintive yet full of an urgent energy, Young’s voice vulnerable but resolute, while Lanois’ greatest contribution is arguably his general absence.
It’s not an easy listen, obviously, but acclimatisation to the unfamiliar, monochromatic sound of such raw electric guitar brings with it the ability to recognise that Young’s songwriting skills haven’t dulled with age. Examined as a part of his overall body of work, furthermore, it’s amongst the more fascinating left turns he’s made, and once again confirms the evergreen restlessness of this gnarly and frequently inspiring Canadian. Once again, he’s not let us down.
Old age isn't making Neil Young any easier to second guess, but the personal traumas of the last couple of years (death of his father and a brain aneurysm) certainly seem to have focussed the wayward canuck again. Whereas 2003's Greendale gave us woolly polemic wrapped in dreary arrangements, Prairie Wind gives us sweet pedal steel-driven songs and the plush sheen of Nashville's finest (Spooner Oldham, Ben Keith etc.) effectively completing his acoustic Harvest trilogy.
It's an album about looking back, coming to terms with mortality (Falling Off The Face Of The Earth, When God Made Me) and reflecting on childhood roots (Prairie Wind). While the arrangements often seem cloying, especially in the vocal accompaniment, the songs at least return to the simple acoustic heartland that lies at the centre of some of Young's best work. They're not unlike the rolling prairies he sings of. Thankfully, after ten years it sounds like Neil's come home again.
A couple of albums here that I now consider near the best of the particular artists in question: David Bowie's final album Black Star and Radiohead's Amnesiac.
With it's jazz honkings and strident bass and drums Black Star couldn't really be more different to Bowie's heyday albums of the early 70s, except for the ever distinctive voice which remained strong to the end. A very powerful final statement from an amazing artist.
Amnesiac is probably not many Radiohead fan's first choice for favourite album but I much prefer it to the celebrated Ok Computer.
Also two albums from the ambient/electronic genre which I've been reading a lot about - Gas and Fennesz.
Gas is the stage name for German electronic musician Wolfgang Voigt. Pop (2000) is the third in a trilogy of albums he produced with 1997's Zauberberg and 1999's Königsforst. The instrumental musicis heavily layered mostly without beats or perceptible changes. The dense soundscape of repetitive loops and drones reminds me of the William Basinski albums I've heard, particularly The Disintegration Loops, although this is much more easy listening. It's actually very peaceful to listen to - hypnotic, and yes, I would say, beautiful. I think I'll play this album a lot.
I think the boundaries between "musical" and "non-musical" are in a state of flux. Otherwise, I do not really care about any "musicality" related to GAS. Emotions, structure, aesthetics are more important to me. Melodies in the classical sense are not supposed to be in GAS, although they exist, as hidden and over-layered as the chord changes. But you have to notice them.
Christian Fennesz is an Austrian musician whose modus operandi is heavily treated guitar. Endless Summer is his third album released in 2001, and his most critically acclaimed work. The music is more demanding than Gas and at first I found it quite grating but am now starting to warm to its appeal.
A grainy, blissful album that resembles easy-listening music coming through on the broken broadcast of a distant star.
Mike Powell, Pitchfork
Again, some of the looped droney pieces like A Year In A Minute remind me of Basinski whereas a more melodic piece like Shisheido with it's pleasing chord changes reminds me of the brilliant Four Tet or Blue States. The final and longest track is a fast keyboard loop over loud static from the Terry Riley/Philip Glass school of minimalism. It gradually begins to distort like My Bloody Valentine, or, yes, again Those Disintegration Loops. Like the Gas I have a very strong feeling I'm going to be playing this album a lot this year.
The clip below should be (youtube have changed their software again) a playlist for a couple of tracks from both Fennesz and GAS (capitals applied this time):
Retaining it's place in the player the Tonight's the Night Live album is proving very popular at Bamyasi Towers. With the title track occurring twice on the album the catchy bass riff and vocal chorus seems to be getting more than it's fair share when the player is on random repeat. Members of the Bamyasi family have even started repeating: Tonight's the night, tonight's the ni-ni-ni-ni-night...
We really knew the Tonight’s the Night songs so we just played them again, the album, top to bottom, two sets a night for a few days.
As his fans will know Neil Young has been releasing loads of live recordings from the vaults over the last few years. Some of these had previously become quite well known on the bootleg circuit.
One of the most eagerly awaited was a recording from his fabled Tonight's The Night tour in 1973. Here Young, in the wake of a cathartic songwriting burst following the drug deaths of roadie Bruce Berry and Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten, infamously showcased new songs that no one had heard before - in fact the actual "studio" album Tonight's The Night, initially deemed too rough around the edges for public consumption, was not released until 1975.
Actually Young had done something similar with his Time Fades Away album which was also a live recording of new songs made the year before. Although made with a different backing band (The Stray Gators who had guested on the much more commercial Harvest) the rough and ready raucous performance on Time Fades Away is very similar to what we hear here. If you are familiar with Harvest think of the electric tracks on that album: Words and Alabama.
The backing band, dubbed the Santa Monica Flyers, did have some overlap with Ben Keith on pedal steel and slide guitar, but otherwise was pretty much the Nils Lofgren version of Crazy Horse (which is actually also the latest incarnation Young is touring with now, 45 years later!).
There are several extra tracks on the "studio" version - Borrowed Tune, Downtown, and Lookout Joe. Walk On, albeit not from Tonight's The Night, is added as an encore on the Roxy album.
Apparently in response to calls to "play something we know" Young would tell the crowd they'd now play "an old one" and then repeat the track Tonight's The Night again (sometimes three or four times in the same set!). Here the promised "old one" ironically turns out to be Walk On from the also yet to be released On The Beach album!
My main criticism of the Roxy live release is that, like Young says himself, the band just run through the album pretty much and as such it's hardly any different from the regular album - also recorded live (albeit in the studio).
Nevertheless there are subtle differences to be enjoyed, and some particular highlights. Speakin' Out has quite a jazzy groove - the guitar is high in the mix and there is excellent solo work (Nils Lofgren) I wasn't so aware of on the studio record.
I'll be watching my TV, and it'll be watching you.
New Mama is given a very percussive treatment on acoustic guitar with some new piano, but the singing is off kilter.
A slow drawn out version of Tired Eyes is a triumph. Here the languid guitar playing is like the gorgeous lines Young would develop a couple of years later on Zuma. Please take my advice Please take my advice
The band charge through a storming version of Tonight's The Night Part 2, and I love the upbeat and heavy Walk On version.
The album is like meeting an old friend. Slightly changed but very familiar. The set is enthusiastically received by a crowd who, presumably unaware of Young's new demons sending him towards "the ditch", were no doubt hoping for something from Harvest (witness the whoops of excitement on being told they were going to hear an old one).
In any case the Roxy tracks remain great songs, faithfully reproduced by a great bar room band familiar with the material and each other, and interspersed with some of Young's most bizarre and amusing commentaries:
Welcome to Miami Beach, everything's cheaper than it looks ...
... but if you have the original classic album there isn't a lot of need for this too, and if you don't have either yet I'd still recommend getting the studio version.
Tonight's the Night Speakin' Out World on a String Borrowed Tune Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown Mellow My Mind Roll Another Number (For the Road) Albuquerque New Mama Lookout Joe Tired Eyes Tonight's the Night (Part II)
Track listing Roxy:
Tonight's the Night Mellow My Mind World on a String Speakin' Out Albuquerque New Mama Roll Another Number (For the Road) Tired Eyes Tonight's the Night (Part II) Walk On
Beginners start here with EFTERKLANG. They came from the electronica and glitchy camp (with Springer/Tripper in2003), and they have now reached a strange classical/opera type place (with Leaves: The Colour of Falling in2016). At their midpoint their (only) third album Magic Chairs from 2010 represented a peak of interesting, yet accessible, music.
The GRAM PARSONS double is straight up country music. It's not my usual sort of music, but these songs like Streets of Baltimore, She, Cry One More Time, Brass Buttons, $1000 Wedding,Love Hurts, and In My Hour Of Darkness, are so good as the melodies are so catchy. Superb songs. Every home should have this CD.
One of NEIL YOUNG's most famous albums Tonight's The Night was taken on the road two years before its release. Seen as a typical act of self sabotage after the success of Harvest had bored him, a live album of the tour has now emerged. The songs are great, the renditions are authentic, and the record represents an important document in Young's history. However the album is probably not different enough from the original studio version to warrant anyone apart from the purists and completists investing. To read more about Tonight's The Night Live At The Roxy read my review here.
I've had the LAURA MARLING in the player a few times now and it's an excellent grower. Slightly more upbeat than some of her later more solo work Alas I Cannot Swim was recorded when Marling was only 17 and became her debut album in 2008. The maturity is astounding.
Final album here is a compilation of excellent electronica from local knob twiddling label Kin-Aesthetic Recordings. Here are the links to the tracks and some pleasing words of explanation from their website:
ELECTRIC APE
Opening with the uneasy heart-beating toll of Theme from The Infernal Machine, rising up with an inescapable stomp-march, its gloriously cold analogue bite might soundtrack a Zombie attack on the outskirts of Detroit.
INWARDS
Tentatively, Limbic System follows. Rebalancing to ambient calm with half-glanced shimmers and softly pulsing neuro-transmissions, the atmosphere breathes and lulls hypnotically, clicking, popping and geiger-counter ticking from within.
ALPHABETS HEAVEN
The intensity is ratcheted up with Amin, a quick-witted liquid beat that modulates, shifts and snaps, with a knowing nod, yet a fresh tenacity. Spacious, sharp, percussive; this circling groove deserves a jittering dancefloor.
ATOMICO
Re-doubling the energetic leap with this almost-lost production from 99', the taut electronic funk-beat of Forever brings an otherworldly depth, ghostly atmospherics and hot-footed drums serenade the divine closing quarter's molten synth-line.
SCARAMANGA SILK
Condensing into electrically charged cloud cover, the tropical ambience of Velvet Raindrops weighs heavy. The sultry electronic climate swells and swirls, threatening to explode, still the rich humidity reigns supreme.
PROPRIO
Finally, we stumble into the drowsy, drunken, distorted synth-groove of Columbo. Off-balance, world-worn, the excavated crooked beat rocks back and forth, strewn with end-of-night murmurs, yet crucially breaking into thumping coherence.
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 Young - After The Gold Rush
Gram Parsons - GP and Grievous Angel
I think After The Gold Rush was the first or second album of Neil Young's I heard. It's probably still one of his most famous along with Harvest and Harvest Moon I guess these days (the latter 1992 album pretty good in the context of much of his output in the previous decade but also very overrated in my opinion and not a patch on its namesake). I remember being fascinated by the minimalist black and white cover of After The Gold Rush, the chunky gold font of the title and the fish eye centre fold view of Young laid across a dressing room sofa in those jeans surrounded by guitars.
There are some fascinating pictures of famous album cover shoots out there on the www. Here's one of this one with Graham Nash in the foreground, superimposed on the New York street as it is seen today.
The music is an excellent introduction to the full range of Young for those who prefer the original albums over Greatest Hits compilations, with some heavy rock, acoustic guitar and piano (oddly a young Nils Lofgren, a great guitarist in his own right, guested on piano).
We need some simple parts and we’re confident that you’ll find them on the piano.
The Nils Lofgren one is an interesting story and just shows what can happen if you have a bit of front sometimes. Aged 18 he went to a Neil Young gig, blagged himself backstage, met Young, played him a couple of his own songs, got invited back to Young's Topanga Canyon ranch, ended up playing on After The Gold Rush, and having his own debut album produced by Young's producer David Briggs.
Lofgren went on to spend much of his career in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band but has recently returned to playing live with Young again as part of the latest Crazy Horse incarnation.
Gram Parsons of course had a much shorter career than either Young or Lofgren. Having started in The Byrds and then The Flying Burrito Brothers he had become a bit of a poster boy for the new Country Rock by the time of his first solo album GP in 1973. However he was also on a downward drugs and booze spiral (including hanging out with the Rolling Stones in the Mojave Desert and Nellcote) and his second album Grievous Angel was released posthumously the year after after his death in 1973. The two albums have long been available together on one CD.
Gram Parsons hanging out with Keith Richards at Nellcote, France, 1971
[Now is the first time ever I've noticed Gold Rush is two words - not only in this context but anywhere - it has never been one word!]
1. The Cardigans - Life
2. Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
3. Chris Rea - The Road To Hell
4. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
5. Various - Rock Chronicles: The Seventies
6. Neil Young - Greendale
Love Supreme 2018
It's festival season again and a particularly hot and sunny one here in England. This Sunday I visited the excellent Love Supreme Festival in beautiful Glynde, Sussex (more famous for the Glyndebourne Opera Festival).
The festival has grown appreciably since my last visit (or was this just the weather with many festival goers now so spoilt for choice they don't always have to pre-book any more?) but the site was still able to absorb the numbers (albeit the bars did run out of all except cider early).
One of the joys of the festival is the interview area known as the Jazz Lounge. Here artists talk about their music and inevitably their insights and enthusiasm encourage you to attend their slots later on and subsequently gain more out of their performances. One such highlight this weekend was world renowned tabla player Zakir Hussain who emitted such amazing sounds from his array of tablas that I could barely believe what I was hearing. Subsequent standard drummers sounded dull in comparison.
Mavis Staples followed with an energetic set of blues and soul infused with protest and anger from the US civil rights movement in the 60s. It was nice to see an established old time star without a massed band of keyboards, percussionists and backing singers. Her band consisted of drummer, bassist and electric guitar (and a couple of backing singers to be fair) and sounded all the better for it (I find the live sound of such old time acts inevitably blows newer bands out of the water).
I hotfooted over to the main stage to see a bit of Funkadelic but I didn't understand them - I think they had gone heavy rap or something (or maybe they were always like that?). On my way back to the Round Top to catch one of my favourite artists Steve Winwood I stopped by to appreciate a young upcoming talent in the jazz field, one Keyon Harrold who played trumpet like Miles Davis but also sang beautifully (sometimes instrumental music can get a bit tiresome and leaves one yearning for a song occasionally).
The young, cool and talented Keyon Harrold
Steve Winwood didn't disappoint. I've seen him before and he played a similar set of well known hits (many of which the casual punter would not realise are his). For instance I'm A Man and Give Me Some Loving from his Spencer Davis Group time, his own solo big hit Higher Love, and Can't Find My Way Home from the Blind Faith album, but the highlights were a Traffic classic from the listed album Empty Pages which I wasn't expecting, and the fantastic guitar rocker Dear Mr. Fantasy as an encore I was both hoping for and expecting.
An amazing talent on guitar, organ (with bass pedals!) and voice, ably demonstrated on the superb Traffic album John Barleycorn Must Die. I've banged on about it before being a bit of an old timer but this is when music was real and amazing (1970!).
The headliners for the night were Earth Wind and Fire. They did have a mass of people on stage of whom three were in the original band. They played a lot of easy listening ballads which didn't really float my boat but finally got to the tracks the fans were waiting for Boogie Wonderland and September and everyone went home sun kissed and happy.
Greendale
Greendale is an unfairly maligned Neil Young album. Sure it just sounds like one long jam and the plodding tracks just go on and on but there's a great barroom sound from Young and his band Crazy Horse and the effect is somewhat hypnotic and soothing. The album is a sort of concept album about a family living in a fictitious small town called Greendale but I can't say I've paid that much attention to the story.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
A departure from their previous albums Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (their 5th coming out in 1973) is the closest Black Sabbath ever came to prog. Just check the track titles to figure - A National Acrobat, Spiral Architect and Sabbra Cadabra. Amongst these ambitious epics are two typical riff heavy rock monsters in the title track (many fans' favourite Sabbath track of all) and Killing Yourself To Live plus a couple of down tempo tracks - the acoustic instrumental Fluff and the innovative synthesized Who Are You?
It was a different album altogether with a new sound. We experimented on that and it turned into a creative high-point which took us to a different level.
Tony Iommi
For many years this was my favourite Sabbath album (and cover!) before I settled on Master of Reality as the true greatest!
The Road To Hell
Most pleasant surprise award this week goes to Chris Rea. I was given this album a while back and have paid little attention to it; I thought I knew all I needed to know about Chris Rea, a middle of the road guitar journeyman with a gravelly voice and a hit back in the 80s. The hit was the title track to this album and it's a decent track. But there is more especially with the Looking For a Rainbow track where Rea's slide guitar builds to a David Gilmour like climax.
Dad Rock
Talking of being an old timer I know most the tracks on this naff 70s rock compilation. It's starts off with Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell for goodness sake. From there we progress through standard fayre from Free, Black Sabbath, Judas Preist, T-Rex and Deep Purple. The most interesting tracks are less well known - the instrumental Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group, Tomorrow Night by the piano funky Atomic Rooster and Sylvia by Dutch progsters Focus.
Life
Lastly we have a lovely pop record by The Cardigans. The voice of lead singer Nina Persson is a bit high and twee which makes their cover of the aforementioned Sabbath Bloody Sabbath even more bizarre. I think it works well:
It's not the band's only Sabbath cover - apparently the guitarist and bass player played in heavy metal bands previously. It does make you wonder why, just why?
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Cover album this week is Iron and Wine's Around The Well double-cd. This is a mostly solo acoustic low-fi collection of b-sides, outtakes and rarities. This is twinned with Neil Young's second solo album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Not an obvious twinning perhaps save for the fact that I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Americana and Country Black Deer Festival this weekend set in Eridge Park, Kent.
1. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
2. Wiley - Snakes and Ladders
3. Sigur Ros - Takk
4. Quantic - Apricot Morning
5. Iron and Wine - Around The Well cd 2
6. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young wasn't there but was represented by perhaps my highlight of the weekend which was a storming cover of his Down By The River by fellow Canadian barroom classic rockers The Sheepdogs - the singing from these Lynyrd Skynyrd copyists wasn't quite Neil's but the duelling guitar sound was spot on. Down By The River is one of two classic extended guitar whigouts on this tremendous album, the other being Cowgirl In The Sand; on both, Crazy Horse set down a rolling bass and drum groove allowing Young's guitar to soar. Never one for screaming fret burning he is a master of a cool languorous style that allows the music to breath and take flight in unexpected directions.
It has been said that Young only has one guitar solo, but it sure is a good one.
I'd just hot footed from the main stage headliner, the actual Sam Beam, aka Iron and Wine. Beam had sauntered on stage with an acoustic guitar and an actual glass of red wine which he placed on a stool beside him. Right on time he looked out upon, it has to be said, a smaller than expected crowd which didn't actually grow even with the ending of the excellent Eric Bibb's set on a nearby alternative stage. In fact I think the crowd diminished further as the set progressed - the crowd perhaps confused with the sound and chilled by the breeze after a day of glorious sunshine in this barmy English summer.
Beam started with the popular Trapeze Swinger from the featured record here with lovely percussive playing and his breathy vocals. But I'd probably say this was the highlight of a disappointing set beset with some sound issues, namely the bass drowning out the rest of the band (how often does this happen? - can the sound man not hear the same as me or is the sound set up for a new festival just not what you'd expect) including a cellist who was completely inaudible despite performing energetically. Even Beam turned to say he couldn't hear himself. "Nor can we," someone heckled (could have been me :) )
The songs were culled from his career but were all played with a more jazzy fusion arrangement which I understand has impressed on his latest album but didn't work well on a big stage and actually rendered some favourites unrecognisable.
When I first saw him during the excellent Kiss Each Other Clean tour he had gone full band electric which sounded fantastic to my newcomer's ears, although I did read subsequently some of his fans at the time didn't like his new direction and wanted to hear the introverted acoustic troubadour.
Recent album reviews have been very positive for his latest Beast Epic album heralding a return to the softer acoustic sound albeit with some experimental jazz overtones. I don't doubt the new record is excellent but as I say maybe it is music more suited to the living room, or the Festival Hall, than a festival main stage headlining slot.
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"
Apparently Canadian collective Godspeed have at some point in their history changed the position of the exclamation mark in their name. So this means they have now become Godspeed! You Black Emperor instead of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, or the other way round. Just imagine the band meeting where this was decided but frankly I doubt anyone really cares.
I first became aware of GYBE when Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven came out in 2000. From memory (as I haven't played the entire set for a long time) and reputation, I recall it was a pretty decent record and at the time quite groundbreaking.
I don't think there is much groundbreaking about their brand of epic bombastic post-rock instrumental music any more. The formulaic slow / fast / quiet / loud repertoire is similarly replicated by the likes of Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai (as confirmed by the music map below). Each song builds gradually towards a predictable conclusion where everyone just plays louder and faster. The musicianship is pretty basic and sounds like a bunch of students jamming in a garage. The lack of lyrics I also think is very self-limiting.
GYBE in action
This album was the follow up to "Lift Your Skinny Fists" and translates into something to do with Yankee Unexploded Bombs - I expect heavily influenced by 9/11 and the subsequent launch of the war on terror. The cover is pretty cool.
A few years ago I saw GYBE in London (at the Troxy). Expecting some sort of revelation I was disappointed by an uninspiring performance with zero audience engagement and a backdrop of irrelevant projections.
Less ether more real please
Unsurprisingly I have also fallen out of love with the somewhat similarly sounding Sigur Ros. Their brand of dense ethereal prog sounds a bit dated now and leaves me slightly cold and frustrated which is a shame as I'm sure I really liked their acclaimed Agaetis Byrjun album when it first came out in 1999.
SR in action
Part of the frustration for me lies in the ghostly incomprehensible singing. The lyrics are apparently in their native Icelandic which is fair enough but it is more the style of singing which I think would make the singing incomprehensible in any language. The meaning of the title is A Good Beginning.
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1. Neil Young - On The Beach
2. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Yanqui UXO
3. Feist - The Reminder
4. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
5. Chemical Brothers - Come With Us
6. The Incredible String Band - The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
