This is a Recording

My Japanese music phase of 2007/08 was kicked off after belatedly acquiring OOIOO's fourth album Kila Kila Kila . Thereafter I went back to albums #2 & #3 ( Feather Float and Gold & Green) , and forward to #5, (Taiga) . The former two proved to be my abiding favourites of theirs. Gold & Green was first released only a year and a half after Feather Float , and a few of its brighter and shinier tracks would have been right at home on the earlier album: 'Grow Sound Tree' and 'I'm a song', for example. Elsewhere, there's a softer & woolier mood, notably on the opener 'moss trumpeter' and the wonderful 'mountain book', the highlight of the disc for me, where a chanted chorus hovers over a burbling mix of sounds including tabla percussion.  I have the 2004 US CD re-issue on the Thrill Jockey label. It's a well-packaged item, with some delightful artwork, some of it by the mighty Yoshimi P-We herself.

On-line recommendations had alerted me to the existence of The Decemberists, and, in late 2003 or early '04, I set about ordering their available releases: Castaways and Cutouts & Her Majesty the Decemberists ; and also the 5 Songs EP. I can't remember in what order I obtained them. I subsequently acquired The Tain and Picaresque CDs, but, in proper hipster style did not then follow them on into their major-label years.  This, the 2003 re-issue of 5 Songs comprises six songs. The expansive opener 'Oceanside' immediately sets up a distinctive mood. On the more melacholic 'Shiny', acoustic guitar is augmented by pedal steel. Accordion features prominently on the tall tale that is 'My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist'. More upbeat, and, to my ears, less memorable, is 'Angel Won't You Call Me?'. Flute and trumpet play together on the mournful 'I Don't Mind'. I can't say why 'Apology Song', the sixth of the five...

One might wonder 'what is the most '80s song of them all?' Of course it's practically impossible to give a single answer, but, for me, a strong contender would be 'Obsession' by Animotion. It nicely exemplifies some of those cartoonish mid-'80s big-haired power-dressing stereotypes. Until recently, I was unaware the track was a cover version. Co-writers Holly Knight and Michael Des Barres had released their original in '83, when it was also featured in the soundteack to the movie A Night in Heaven .  I know next-to-nothing about Animotion, but their arrangement of 'Obsession' undoubtedly lifts the song up to another level: I loved it when I first heard it and still like it now. I'm on my second copy of the 7", having given the first to my niece, for whom '80s music is a quaint relic of a time before she was born.

I suppose this might count as a 'Greatest Hits' of Aram Khachaturian, featuring as it does four extracts apiece from his most succesful ballet scores Spartacus and Gayaneh . It's a 1971 re-issue of a 1962 performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, under the baton of the composer himself. The ballets themselves premiered in 1956 and 1942 respectively. It opens with the 'Adagio Of Spartacus And Phrygia', whose melody I'd known since early childhood from its being used as the main theme to the BBC TV drama The Onedin Line . The 'Sabre Dance' from Gayaneh which opens side B is scarcely less famous. I'd likewise encountered its melody in my early years thanks the the rock version by Dave Edmunds' band Love Sculpture. The other tracks are scarcely less arresting, with brash, up-front tunes throughout. The music is perhaps a Soviet equivalent to Hollywood movie soundtracks of the same era. I don't play the record often, but it is a joy, and I never ...

California trio Flat Worms' debut release was this 7", 'Red Hot Sand': issued on Volar Records in 2017. BBC 6 Music's Marc Riley played it often, and it gradually rose in my estimation from "like it" to "really like it" to "want to buy it". As I recall, I ordered it via Bandcamp. Mine is a plain black copy: there have been other versions pressed on grey, black, blue, yellow & green vinyl. The A-side is a five-and-a-half minute song - an epic by the band's typically concise standards. There's a steady instrumental build-up, until at the 1:45 mark, the vocals finally come in. The lyrics offer a vision of a post-apocalyptic landscape ("Buried in the dunes I saw / city of angels, California") as guitar, bass & drums combine to powerfully satisfying effect. 'Red Hot Sand' also closes Flat Worms' first (self-titled) album. On the B-side of the 7" are two short & somewhat lo-fi tracks not on the ...

As the Beatles continued their transition from teen idols to serious artistes, the likes of The Walker Brothers were quick to fill some part of the commercial vacuum created thereby, with this, their debut album, released near the end of 1965. Blurbs on the back of the sleeve by notable DJs such as Alan Freeman, Tony Blackburn, Pete Murray and, regrettably, Jimmy Savile, recognise both their vocal talents and their good looks. Only a single track ('You're All Around Me') featured a writing credit by one of the Brothers (Scott), with the remaining numbers all covers. Bacharach & David wrote the trio's first big hit 'Make it Easy on Yourself' - the opening track on side 1. There are upbeat R&B/soul songs ('Dancing in the Street' and 'Land of 1,000 Dances')  which some have criticized as a little stiff , but which I think have a real verve and charm. In any case, I prefer those to the somewhat anodyne rendition of Dylan's 'Love Minus...

It was Radio DJ Marc Riley's advocacy of Rufus Wainwright's Want albums that eventually led to my acquiring them ca. 2018 or '19. I have the 2005 2-CD set including both Want One and Want Two : I gather Wainwright had meant these songs to be released as a single set all along, and it was only his record company's reluctance that led to them first being issued as his third and fourth solo LPs respectively. To my mind Disc 1, i.e. Want One , is the stronger of the two halves, with a whole slew of knockout tracks on it, out of which my favourites are probably 'I Don't Know What It Is', 'Movies of Myself', '14th Street' and 'Beautiful Child'. Several of the songs give the impression of having been recorded in a big room crowded with musicians and singers: they're generously-proportioned, both musically and emotionally. Disc 2/ Want Two has its highlights too though: with its singles being the stand-outs to my ears: 'The One You...

Christian Scott, aka Chief Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, is one of a number of interesting artists whose work I've discovered via the Amoeba Records What's In My Bag? YouTube series. He was featured there back in March last year, which prompted me to seek out some of his music on-line, which, in turn, led to a few CD purchases. I recall ordering Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (2010) from an ebay seller. This is an album I've listened to at least a couple of dozen times, but one where I still feel I'm finding my way around. The tunes are familiar now, but I struggle to relate them to their corresponding titles. It's a quintet performance, with Scott's trumpet accompanied by electric guitar, piano, bass & drums. Scott also wrote or co-wrote all but one of the tracks, the odd one out an arrangement of Thom Yorke's 'The Eraser'. The album was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey studio by the legendary Blue Note engineer himself. Some of the...

About four years ago I was with my sister in the used record shop in Barry when she asked me who it was sang 'Ode to Billy Joe', was it Billie...? she couldn't recall. I felt fairly sure it wasn't sung by a Billie but nor could I bring the name Bobbie to mind. In due course it came back to me, and, that Christmas, I bought her a Very Best Of Bobbie Gentry LP. Not long after that I also found a copy of Way Down South , the budget UK re-issue of Gentry's second album The Delta Sweete , and gave that to my sister too. Before passing it on I play-tested it, and was surprised and delighted by how much I enjoyed it. As luck would have it, I found another copy of Way Down South not long afterwards, picking that one up for myself. In January this year, while perusing the records at St. Mary's St. Collectables in Chepstow, I found a copy of Touch 'Em With Love , and thought I'd try that for size too. It's another very good album, an harmonious blend of coun...

When I first moved to Karlskrona there were two branches of the Skivlagret record shop: the cooler one in the town centre and a blander one in an out-of-town mall in the same building as the Robin Hood supermarket. The latter location held a stock of budget Naxos classical releases, and it was thanks to these discs that I first got into the music of Shostakovich, and also, into the work of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. There are three pieces on the CD, all featuring the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Hannu Lintu: 'Cantus Arcticus', a so-called 'concerto for birds and orchestra', with the former represented by tape-recordings of birdsong made in northern Finland. This is an immediately-accessible and beautiful composition, somewhat reminiscent of Sibelius. Next is the striking 'Piano Concerto No. 1', with Laura Mikkola the soloist, which is predominantly melodic, but with piquant 'cluster' chords on the piano made by applying a ...

When the track 'A.M. 180' was popularized by its use in the movie 28 Days Later , my inner hipster was able to stroke his chin and reflect on how he'd known and loved the song since '98, when Under The Western Freeway , Grandaddy's debut album, was released. What had happened in '98? A scenario that had played out many times, with wildly divergent outcomes: I'd read a glowing review of the album, and then bought it entirely unheard. Luckily, this proved to be one of the happier iterations of that risky process. The opening notes of 'Nonphenomenal Lineage' assured me I'd made a wise choice: and there was better to come, with the abovementioned 'A.M. 180' and the glorious 'Collective Dreamwish of Upperclass Elegance'. It was a delight to hear music with such a distinctive, fully-formed & congenial ethos. Not every track was a winner: I wasn't so fond of 'Poisoned At Hartsy Thai Food', but most of them were, and I eve...

In my original blogging days, I would occasionally run giveaways to offload unwanted books or CDs to whomever claimed them. Sometimes the recipients would offer to send me something in return. It was in this way that, ca. 2007, a Catalan correspondent sent me Influencías: a CD of perfomances by the Barcelona-based Cuarteto Casals. The CD begins with Maurice Ravel's renowned string quartet: I hadn't known the piece before receiving this disc, but I was sold on it by this fresh & bright performance. Next is a quartet called 'Vistes al Mar' by the Catalan composer Eduardo Toldrá. Its evocative maritime movements are prefaced by recitations of poems by Joan Maragall, a Catalan author whose works directly inspired the piece. Lastly there's an arrangement of Joaquín Turina's atmospheric 'Oración del Torero', originally composed for a lute quartet. I'm on the fence about the cover photo: it's a well-composed picture & not a bad idea, but with 2...

When asked if I prefer The Beatles or The Stones, I will sometimes reply: The Kinks. I've never owned any kind of recording of The Fab Four's, and I don't currently have any Stones albums either, With The Kinks, however, I own The Ultimate Collection - a 1989 compilation - and a couple of budget '60s singles & B-sides compilations: Well-Respected Kinks and Sunny Afternoon . Also, I have the 'Dedicated Follower of Fashion' 7", one of Ray Davies' earlier forays into more obviously character-based narrative songwriting. It's become a bit of an old chestnut, perhaps, but it's still a fine song. The B-side is 'Sittin' on My Sofa', which is more of a groove-based number, a good complement to the observational comedy of the title track. With both tracks also to be found on the Sunny Afternoon album, it's arguably surplus to requirements, but, as there's still some space to fill on my singles shelf, it's staying put for th...

In the course of an otherwise unfruitful visit to a dingy junkshop on Pantarholmen, Karlskrona, ca. 2002, I picked up an odd-looking double album called The Lund - St. Petri Symphony by Lubomyr Melnyk. I found it wasn't a symphony in any conventional sense, but rather piano music: extended compositions comprising patterns of rapid arpeggios, what its originator termed "music in the continuous mode". I enjoyed the album a good deal and went on-line in search of more information - but at that time there wasn't much of it to be found. I did, however, stumble upon a forum post giving a (snail-mail) address where Melnyk might be contacted. I wrote him a letter, having gathered it would be possible to order records from him directly - which proved to be the case. The Song of Galadriel was one of the three LPs I obtained that way. The album, recorded and released in 1985 consists of two long tracks, one per side: 'Legend' and the titular 'Song of Galadriel'...

For a time in 1987, Voice of the Beehive were one of my favourite bands. I loved their first singles, and had a particular fondness for 'Just a City', which was often in my head when I first moved to London toward the end of the same year. As luck would have it, the band were the headline act at the "Fresher's Ball" at Imperial College that year (with Brilliant Corners and The Blue Aeroplanes supporting) which counts as the first ever proper concert I attended. They were great live too. I recall Tracey or Melissa shouting "You guys are drunk !" at the audience, which, alas, I was. Naturally I bought Let It Bee (on cassette) when it came out the following summer. By then my feelings for their music had cooled just a little: the production on it seemed a tad over-polished for my liking, and I wasn't that keen on the overbearing drum sound. Despite those misgivings, the songs held up well and I listened to them often. I was delighted to find a vinyl co...

With the unlimited scope for invention afforded by electronic music, it can be frustrating to see it so often conform to a few well-worn templates. Then again, innovation is difficult and time-consuming, as exemplified by the music of English composer Lee Fraser. Apparently it can take him as long as a year to compose a single piece. His discography, therefore, is not extensive, comprising two albums: Dark Camber (2014) and this one, Cor Unvers (2018). I first saw Fraser's name mentioned in a short comment recommending his work posted somewhere on Reddit a couple of years ago. Looking it up on Bandcamp, I was much intrigued, and ordered both albums on CD direct from the artist - they arrived with a handwritten note of thanks.  The four tracks on Cor Unvers encompass a tremedous variety of tones and timbres, from the obtrusively artificial to the seemingly organic: buzzing, fizzing, droning, clanging, ringing, beeping, dripping, etc., etc. There is very little in the way of disce...

'The Whole of the Moon' would surely have been one of my favourite songs of 1985. I loved it then and for a long while after, but, eventually, overexposure dulled my appetite for it somewhat. Despite that, I was still happy to pick up a 7" copy of the 1991 re-release when I found one (I don't recall where) about four years ago. Generally I'm prejudiced against musical bombast in its various forms, but Mike Scott's brand of it, with its hints of mysticism, often by-passed those preconceptions and hit the spot. I'm particularly fond of the bridge: "Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers", etc. The single's design with a night-sky black sleeve and a full moon label on the A-side is a nice touch. The B-Side, 'A Golden Age' is a much mellower number, with Scott et al accompanied by Vinnie Kilduff on the Uilleann Pipes,  

This is a '70s German quadrophonic pressing of a performance by the Orchestre de Paris of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite Schéhérazade (op. 35, 1888). Bulgarian-born violinist Luben Yordanoff is the lead soloist, with renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich at the podium. 'Schéhérazade' is Rimsky-Korsakov's most famous work - in my view justifiably so, with strong melodic hooks and exquisite orchestration combined in a compelling whole. A piece of sugar-coated orientalism it may be, but it's altogether beguiling confection nevertheless.   This LP was among my early vinyl purchases: a sticker on the back of my copy suggests I paid 10 SEK (less than a pound) for it at one of Karlskrona's junk-shops about twenty years ago. The disc is well-worn with quite a bit of surface noise, but it still plays well enough. The delightful cover image is one that Marc Chagall made specifically for this album.

Mary Margaret O'Hara's first - and only - full album release has long been one of my very favourite things. It's one of a handful of records I've owned on cassette, CD and vinyl. I first bought it soon after its release on the strength of a very effusive review in Time Out magazine - having also meanwhile heard the lead single 'Body's In Trouble' on the radio. In difficult times it's been a solace; in good times a joy. It's a powerful medicine that I try not to take too often, but which has seldom failed to do me good. My several favourite tracks include 'The Year in Song', 'Dear Darling', 'A New Day', 'When You Know Why You're Happy', 'Help Me Lift You Up' and 'Keeping You In Mind'.  I was fortunate enough to see MMO'H on her one and only UK tour, at the Dominion Theatre in London, an occasion that - as I found out only last year - was recorded for posterity. I picked up my current vinyl cop...

I became aware of Wand around the time of their 2017 album Plum , and liked what I heard of Laughing Matter , its 2019 follow-up, but was only persuaded to buy the latter after seeing the band's performance of some of its songs on KEXP. The version there of the song 'Airplane' particularly appealed to me. I bought it on CD from an ebay seller. For my money it's a decent double album that might perhaps have been cut down to make an excellent single one. It's not without filler: I'm not too fond of 'High Planes Drifter' or 'Jennifer's Gone', for example. The several highlights do make up it, my favourite tracks being 'Scarecrow', 'Walkie Talkie', 'Wonder', and the abovementioned 'Airplane'. It's a well-presented package in a sturdy gatefold, though I'm not that keen on the cover image. I thought I'd read somewhere during the pandemic that they had disbanded, but on perusing their wikipedia page, I se...

Here's an unusual album. Russian composer Vladimir Martynov was inspired by a poem by the Soviet futurist writer Velimir Khlebnikov to come up with a suite of songs and instrumental interludes bringing together the talents of a classical string ensemble (the Ensemble OPUS POSTH., led by violinist Tatiana Grindenko, who I believe is or was Martynov's wife), and a vocal folk group, the Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble. I think I may have ordered the CD directly from the German label that issued it. I'd heard a piece of Martynov's on an album called Silencio , featuring Gidon Kremer (Tatiana Grindenko's ex-husband) and his ensemble, which led me down this particular rabbit-hole. Night in Galicia - the poem - was apparently based on traditional songs collected in the 19th Century in which "river-maidens, wood-goblins, the wind and other nocturnal creatures show us the laws of their rituals". According to Pokrovsky, they are "a window into the Russian soul...

A really good EP can make for a particularly satisfying listening experience when there are three or four first-rate tracks in snappy succession. Grant Hart's All of My Senses is just such an EP. I mentioned in an earlier post how I came to acquire it. On the A side is the title track, an expansive song which feels at once cyclical and uplifting. On the B-side the mood is altogether darker, with 'The Main', an acoustic number about heroin addiction whose melody is reminiscent of The Pogues' 'A Pair of Brown Eyes'; and the Arthur Lee song 'Signed D.C.', another tale of addiction, supposedly based on a letter sent to Lee by the original Love drummer Don Conka . The B-side tracks were originally recorded for a session broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland. Overall, it's a highly enjoyable nine-and-a-bit minutes of music. I like the photomontage on the front cover too.

Here's another classical album with a title which simply concatenates the names of the featured pieces: Six Pianos / Music For Mallet Instruments, Voices And Organ / Variations For Winds, Strings And Keyboards . This was another of the CDs I bought from MVC in Cardiff in the late '90s. I was already a big fan of Reich's Music For 18 Musicians , and was fond of Drumming too (especially its final movement), so I was keen to hear more. I like the first work on the disc; am indifferent to the second; but love the third. 'Six Pianos' is absorbing and enjoyable, with the composite sound from the half-dozen keyboards conjuring up the illusion that instruments other than pianos are joining in. But does it really need to be over twenty-four minutes long? 'Music For Mallet Instruments' is my least favourite part of the album - to me it's a less interesting cousin to 'Music for 18 Musicians'. The closing 'Variations for Wind, Strings and Keyboards'...

Among a small cache of late '80s/early '90s singles that turned up in one of the St. David's Hospice charity shops in Chepstow (when there were still two such outlets) were a couple of De La Soul 45s: 'Say No Go' and 'A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays"'. Having owned Three Feet High and Rising on cassette once upon a time, I picked them up. At the time they felt like a breath of fresh air: serving up a joyous & wildly inventive bricolage in day-glo colours. I though it would herald a flood tide of similar music, but mostly, of course, it heralded decades of legal problems for the trio. In general it may well be "better to ask forgiveness than permission" but that didn't seem to work out so well for them. While the A side of my copy is in decent shape, the B-side - the cumbersomely titled 'They Don't Know That the Soul Don't Go for That ("Potholes" Instrumental)' - is in much worse condition. I can on...

Between about 2006 and 2014 I occasionally participated in CD-R music swaps, where one would make a mix CD and post it out to a group of randomly-assigned recipients, who, in turn, would mail you their mixes. The highlight, for me, of one CD I received in this fashion (ca. 2008) was the bizarre and wonderful song 'Up On Your Leopard, Upon The End Of Your Feral Days' by Sunset Rubdown. I hastened to buy the album from which it was taken. Sunset Rubdown are among the many brainchildren of Spencer Krug, some of whose music, it turned out, I already knew: his songs being my favourite parts of the 2005 album Apologies to the Queen Mary by Wolf Parade. On Random Spirit Lover , however, he is squarely and idiosycratically in the spotlight. To quote from two reviewers' assessments, the album is "part lo-fi bedroom project and part hi-fi tribute to the excesses of '70s art rock" and "like The Chronicles of Narnia re-written entirely from memory by Guillermo Del ...