1. Black Sabbath - The Best Of
2. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2, CD 2
3. Jazzland - Remixed
4. Captain Beefheart - Safe as Milk
5. Xen Cuts - CD 1
6. Comfort Zone Compilation - Vol. 1
Government Stealth Warning: Don't Drink From the MainstreamI'm starting this week's post with the above warning which I just noticed on the spine of the Xen Cuts CD. It's a fairly good warning which I'm happy to abide by most the time, not through, I hope, any music snobbery or need to be different for the sake of it, but just because I honestly prefer mostly (but not exclusively) non-mainstream music.
What is mainstream anyway? A couple of posts ago I referred to Andy Kershaw's comments on the death of George Michael and offered a few tentative comparisons myself, but concluded that it's all just taste and none of us have any right to proclaim our taste is "better" than someone else's. How can you compare music from completely different genres anyway? Where would you start with classical music for example - it might be "better" on many measures but perhaps not in pure terms of enjoyment.
Amazingly the Xen compilation was issued in 2000 in celebration of 10 years of the Ninja Tune label. Seventeen years on and it still sounds fresh and current. CD no. 1 is rap orientated including this intriguing list format tune from The Herbaliser.
The Jazzland record is a compilation of smooth electronic/dance jazz from the Norwegian Jazzland label featuring mostly remixes of Bugge Wesseltoft tunes. The tracks are mostly extensive instrumental tunes although vocals from Sidsel Endresen appear on one of the most catchy numbers (remixed twice on the album): You Might Say. This track, with it's insistent electronic bass, reminds me of Blue Monday.
You know when you have quite an extensive collection of albums and you go to the shelf looking for something in particular and you can't find it (you may not have reached for it for many years - usually I'll just choose randomly from the shelf without searching for a particular album) - well, sometimes I'm looking and I can't see. It's not in the main A to Z section, nor the overflow, nor the bedroom or car. It's probably been long lent and forgotten. I think this happened with a previous copy of Jazzland. Eventually I bought it again.
The other day I was looking for a Fripp and Eno album I was sure I once had. It's not even one I would have been likely to lend out to anyone but I couldn't trace it so its back on the buy list. And who has my Barclay James Harvest Live 1974?
You know you have too many albums when you are in a shop considering the purchase of a CD and you can't actually remember if you already have it or not!Quickly, there isn't much of special interest on the Comfort Zone album, although the CD packaging is one of the best. There was a second volume which I "moved on" to ebay at some point. This one could go the same way to be honest. It's pleasant enough easy smooth down tempo beats from no one you or I have ever heard of except Thievery Corporation.
What can I say about the next three artists that hasn't been said before? I love them all. I discovered Captain Beefheart after reading a review of Clear Spot which up to a decade or so ago frequently appeared in those top albums of all times lists (along with the celebrated Trout Mask Replica of course). Clear Spot is a lot more accessible than Trout Mask and is usually bundled with the equally brilliant Spotlight Kid - together representing one of the best "compilation" rock CDs you can buy. I think in the period when the Captain produced these two albums he had reached a peak following his primitive early blues recordings (as this Safe as Milk album is) and the avant garde experiments of the endlessly interesting (but sometimes quite hard to listen to) Trout Mask. I also think it was so cool for the Captain to simply retire from music in the early 80s and live out the remainder of his life as an artist in the Mojave Desert (cooler than dying young to be honest). Imagine the offers and temptation to reform the Magic Band and make a comeback but I'm certain he never did. A true maverick and genius. I'm going to break with my rule here a bit and rather than choose a song from the featured album I'll pick one from Clear Spot.
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| Captain Beefheart with friend, collaborator and fellow oddball Frank Zappa |
Likewise Black Sabbath were a unique concept when they burst on to the scene in the late sixties. Many know the stories - poor working class boys growing up in a deprived area of Birmingham, guitarist Tony Iommi losing the tips of his fingers in a factory accident which forced him to de-tune his guitar strings (giving forth to the doom laden low down riffing), an obsession with death, carnage, black magic, devil worship and the occult, and the band named after a Boris Karloff horror movie.
The only black magic Sabbath ever got into was a box of chocolates.In actual fact the myth of black Sabbath was a bit of a happy coincidence which they somewhat reluctantly embraced, as Ozzy Osbourne indicates above. They weren't really into these dark things and their lyrics, when you actually listen to them, are surprisingly pro-christianity (lyrics from After Forever reproduced below).
Have you ever thought about your soul - can it be saved?
Or perhaps you think that when you're dead you just stay in your grave
Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you?
Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?
When you think about death do you lose your breath or do you keep your cool?
Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope - do you think he's a fool?
Well I have seen the truth, yes I've seen the light and I've changed my ways
And I'll be prepared when you're lonely and scared at the end of our days
Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say
If they knew you believe in God above?
They should realise before they criticise
that God is the only way to love
Is your mind so small that you have to fall
In with the pack wherever they run
Will you still sneer when death is near
And say they may as well worship the sun?
I think it was true it was people like you that crucified Christ
I think it is sad the opinion you had was the only one voiced
Will you be so sure when your day is near, say you don't believe?
You had the chance but you turned it down, now you can't retrieve
Perhaps you'll think before you say that God is dead and gone
Open your eyes, just realise that he's the one
The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate
Or will you still jeer at all you hear? Yes! I think it's too late.
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| Crucifix wearing Black Sabbath just back from Sunday School |
This compilation covers mostly the early Ozzy years with a few Ian Gillan and Ronnie James Dio tracks at the end, and it's a pretty good retrospective. Of course nothing can match the original albums (although the debut is represented almost in its entirety here) - and the first five or six of Sabbath's are stupendous, my personal favourite being Master of Reality - but this is a pretty good starting point for a new fan or someone not expecting to invest in multiple albums.
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| Aphex Twin aka Richard James |
Abrupt turn completely left field to the Aphex Twin ambient album (cover feature) known as SAW2. This record officially has no track names. It's a collection of intriguing loops, sounds, clicks, pulses, and soundscapes, practically all drum and rhythm free. Very unique and interesting and a bit more going on than the truly ambient wallpaper type Eno music. There is a track half way through CD2 that reaches the ethereal heights of Eno's Ascent track from Apollo featured earlier in my playlist. Compare the two.
