Log #220 - Animals Is Pink Floyd's Best Album

My recent listening to the likes of Opeth, and Eloy in particular, plus a spin of Atom Heart Mother last week, has led me back to some more Pink Floyd this week. Wish You Were Here was my favourite album of theirs when I was younger (in fact, my favourite album of all time by anyone for a while). It's still excellent with the centrepiece of Shine On You Crazy Diamond of course, the ...

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Log #219 - New Pleasures With Others Remaining Unknown

OPETH'S STILL LIFE AND DAMNATIONA continuation of my discovery of Swedish group Opeth this week proceeds with one of their classic early albums - their fourth Still Life (from 1999). As an early record from their "death metal" days I wasn't expecting to like it so much as their later work. But actually it was great. The growl vocals are used relatively sparingly and I didn't mind them too much ...

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Log #173 - Fireflies By Night - Rush With Nick Cave

It's not hard to remember why Rush were so exciting to a teenage boy - the music is so fast and tight, it's heavy yet progressive, with grand concepts, titles like By-Tor And The Snow Dog *, fabulous album covers, and a lead singer with the ultimate scream of the day. It was the thinking man's (or boy's) heavy metal. Fly By Night was the band's second album, and the first with the late ...

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Log #172 - Also Sprach A New Generation Of Songwriters

A mixed bag, as you'd expect, from Mojo's presentation of "A New Generation of Songwriters"; a compilation from the "Communion" label given away with their magazine in 2011. This "generation" mostly refers to the folk revival of the end of the noughties led by artists represented on this disc: Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Ben Howard, and Matthew And The Atlas, plus a few other singer songwriter ...

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Log #171 - A new decade, a new Van

Thinking Roxy Music were just a glam pop outfit? Think again after hearing For Your Pleasure - their second album released in 1973 and one containing as much rock and electronic experimentation as your next serious rock band. Roxy Music For Your Pleasure Van Morrison Hard Nose The Highway Pink Floyd Meddle Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell Holger Czukay Moving ...

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The Real Birth Of Pink Floyd

Meddle represents the birth of Pink Floyd as we now know them today. After flailing somewhat after Syd Barrett's departure in 1968, they had a surprise hit in 1970 with Atom Heart Mother, an album comprised of a difficult side-long suite, backed with individual group pieces. In many respects, Meddle, released a little over a year later, is the same again, only with much, much, better tunes and ...

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Log #131 - A Cluster Of Faustian Harmonia

I've considered myself a relatively knowledgeable fan of Krautrock for many years - ever since I stumbled across my first Can album in a second hand store in Chichester one school lunch hour nearly 40 years ago (it was the spanner in the sky one which was how it was known, or aka simply Can, or Inner Space) (it was an interesting record pretty unlike anything else I had in my collection at the ...

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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 ...

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Log #96 - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - A Master For Everyone

I do love Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Every album I have heard of his is class. This one Master and Everyone is short and soft - it's effortless lo-fi, mostly just acoustic guitar and his whispered voice with occasional fiddle, bass and backing vocal accompaniment. I would imagine the 'Bonnie Prince', real name Will Oldham, is an interesting chap judging by his lyrics and music videos. There is one ...

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Log #35 - Laura, Anna and Rachael

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

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Log #34 - Classic Floyd Revisited

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

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

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

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