This is a Recording

I can't pinpoint my initial encounter with Neko Case's voice with any precision. It would have been between '02 and '05. Perhaps I'd heard her on The New Pornographers' song 'Mass Romantic'. Or maybe one of the tracks from Blacklisted ('02) was included on a promotional CD affixed to a music magazine. In any event, Blacklisted was certainly the first of her albums I bought. And it's turned out to be the only record of hers I've held on to. I eagerly ordered Fox Confessor Brings the Flood ('06) when it was first released, but never did warm to it. Much more recently I purchased Hell-on ('18) which hit me only just a little wide of the mark. Even this record, much as I love the tone & timbre of Case's voice, is one I revisit quite seldom - annually or so - but each new listen has been a fresh pleasure, so its place on the shelf is secure. The tunes are lovely. Case's lyrics are often interestingly oblique. Her singing is...

The Id is an album which gives the impression of having had a great deal of talent, time and money thrown at it in a way that by no means guaranteed a successful outcome. Recorded in the wake of the runaway success of her first record On How Life Is , Macy Gray's second features a large cast-list; seems to have been recorded all over the place; runs to nearly an hour long; and includes many thickly-layered production jobs. Yet (for me) it does mostly work very well, just about holds together, and marks an improvement over what had been an excellent debut. I don't think I bought this from a record shop but rather from some other kind of retail space - a petrol station or a department store maybe - it would have been somewhere in Sweden in late 2001. While I was a tad nonplussed by it at first, it has grown on me, and I've played it so often that the disc is now in a sorry-looking state: I probably ought to get a new one. The opener 'Relating to a Psychopath' sets up...

This LP comes with a fold-out poster on which there are instructions on how to "Build Your Own Pop-Up Construction to Hold your Music Tapes Recording" (namely the CD you're encouraged to make of the downloadable versions of the songs), with part of the poster itself intended to be cut out and used in said Construction. The list of additional supplies the would-be hobbyist will need is: "one small acorn; a warm iron; scissors; a piece of stiff paper; glue". Among the instuctions is: "Draw a tiny musical note on your acorn". It's so very twee, as, to some extent, is the music, but it's also decidedly weird. Tweird , perhaps. My belated discovery of the "Elephant 6" artists' work about fifteen years ago did not extend to The Music Tapes. Only last year did I happen to stray into their eccentric world. Music Tapes For Clouds And Tornadoes is unusual with respect to both its instrumentation and recording. The musical saw and the banjo...

"A stunning introduction to music's freshest new voice!" boasts the hype sticker on my copy of Janelle Monáe's Metropolis: The Chase Suite EP: a bold claim, but not, in my opinion, too much of an overstatement. This "Special Edition" of Metropolis came out in 2010 around the time her major label debut album The Archandroid was hitting the shelves. Its original release (as Metropolis, Suite I Of IV: The Chase ) had been in 2007, with two further tracks included here. The scene is set by the opening number 'The March Of The Wolfmasters', where pseudo-orchestral music underpins a spoken introduction to the fictional world of the tracks that follow. The fun really begins with the uptempo 'Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!', a thrilling rollercoaster ride through that world. Almost as good is 'Many Moons', where real world imagery overlays Monáe's imaginary city. 'Cybertronic Purgatory' is a short, ethereal interlude. Another hi...

In the mid '00s The Word was my favourite music magazine and I would buy it most months, provided issues made their way to the corner of Sweden where I then lived. They had an unoriginal recurring feature where a music-related personality would be invited to recommend some of their favourite media of the moment. In one of those the subject in question (I forget who it was) enthused about Teresa Cristina and about this album specifically. I don't know if I'd have had any way then of trying it before buying, so my order may have been a blindly speculative one. It worked out well: I like it very much. These are old-fashioned, acoustic samba singalongs in which Teresa Cristina is the lead vocalist and the obvious star of the show. My copy seems to be a Spanish issue on a Brazilian label. The songs are all in Portuguese (as are the booklet and cover text). While I understand very few of the words, it's clear that TC has a beautifully expressive & soulful voice, one that...

Before wholeheartedly embracing jazz music in my early forties, I had made a few only partially successful attempts to get to grips with it over the prior decade. About five or six years before the lightbulb was finally illuminated, there had been some fitful flickerings ca. 2005/6, during which time I came to hear of Canadian saxophonist Michael Blake. The first of his albums I bought was one called Drift , which I'd found courtesy of an Amazon recommendation. I liked it well enough to acquire another of his records, again on CD: Blake Tartare . It's a 2005 release (on the Copenhagen-based Stunt label) of music recorded in 2002. The Danish angle ties in with Blake's backing band on this occasion coming from that country: Soren Kjærgaard plays piano; Jonas Westergaard bass and Kresten Osgood the drums. The (non-Danish) Teddy Kumpel joins them on guitar on three of the tracks. It's not an album that seems to have made much of a splash anywhere, but it's one I've ...

The buzz about Yeah Yeah Yeahs reached my ears in 2002, whereupon I bought their debut EP, which I loved. When their keenly-anticipated debut album followed in '03, I ordered that too (on CD), but found myself a little disappointed by it. Of course it has some great songs: 'Maps' especially has become a firm favourite for many, but as an album I didn't love it then, and I still don't. I'm also very fond of 'Date With the Night' and 'Y Control' (my personal favourite on the disc) and quite enjoy 'Rich', 'Pin', and 'Cold Light', but the rest of it leaves me more or less cold. It's an outstanding EP with some lacklustre padding. I never was taken by the artwork either, which is credited to one Cody Critcheloe, who, I just learned, has since become a recording artist, going by the name of SSION. It's a CD I've considered parting with a few times, but then I put it on and recall how much I enjoy the same few songs, ...

Was it on the kind of mix CD that one might find affixed to the cover of a music magazine where I first heard 'Jellybones' by The Unicorns? Or was on a hand-made CD-R mix that someone kindly sent me from the other side of the internet? I can't remember, but I fell for the song and ordered the album, specifically the UK CD version, on the strength of it. It's a whimsical, odd, inventive record, although, for me, nothing else on it quite matches the charm of 'Jellybones'. It's not a CD I've played a great deal. When I do, I'm impressed afresh by it, without my admiration amounting to love. It's not the first time the act of writing about a record has been the stimulus that leads to my letting it go: I'll be releasing this one back into the wild in the near future. The sleeve design is exactly right. My second-favourite tracks on the disc are probably the spectral segue of 'Ghost Mountain' & 'Sea Ghost', and also 'Let...

Having discovered saxophonist/composer Naruyoshi Kikuchi's ' Dub Sextet ' I subsequently learned he was a  leading light in another, larger ensemble, the awkwardly-named Date Course Royal Pentagon Garden (DCPRG for short). By way of amazon.co.jp, I ordered three of their albums. These all had their finer points, but the one I liked best (and the only one I still have) is Structure et Force , from 2003. They aren't an easy band to describe - a Discogs blurb attempts to characterize them as a "free jazz/improv/rock-in-opposition/fusion/avant-prog supergroup". On Stucture et Force DCPRG are a fourteen-piece outfit, with an additional drummer guesting on two of the album's six compositions. Each of the tracks has a French (or pseudo-French) and a Japanese title, beginning with 'Structure I - La Structure De La Magie Monderne; 構造I-現代呪術の構造'. This first number is a busy one with a churning bassline and keyboards resembling disco string-section accompanim...

As far as I know this is the only album in my collection named after a 17th-Century treatise on speculative astronomy: specifically John Wilkins' The Discovery of a World in the Moone: or, A Discourse Tending to Prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable World in that Planet (London, 1638). It's not at all obvious to me why the band chose that title: some of the songs' lyrics hint at otherworldly shenanigans, but I don't recall the moon being mentioned anywhere in them.  My belated exploration of the œuvre of the Elephant 6 artists had led me to The Apples in stereo ca. 2004. I bought Tone Soul Evolution (1997) which I enjoyed, and then Her Wallpaper Reverie (1999) and Velocity of Sound (2002 - thereby skipping over The Discovery... ) neither of which held as much appeal for me, so my exploration of their catalogue stalled at that point. Only a few years ago did I return to their music, discovering that I very much enjoyed The Discovery... , and ou...

I didn't get into Deerhoof until after the release of their acclaimed 2005 album The Runners Four , but, for reasons lost to the mists of time, the first record of theirs I bought was Apple O´ from 2003: perhaps it was more readily-available via Amazon UK at that point, or just slightly cheaper. In any case, it made a favourable impression, and I obtained The Runners Four soon afterwards, along with the Green Cosmos EP. Allmusic reviewer Heather Phares wrote "As the title implies, Apple O' (my eye) revolves around the band's musings on love, sex, and creation". But is the last character in the title really an apostrophe, when, on the cover, it has the look of an acute accent? My theory is that the O´ in the title is an emoji-esque representation of a cartoon bomb ( Apple 💣), which happens to match up  with the title of track 6: 'Apple Bomb' - which, to my ears, is the best song on the disc. It's a number that builds from delicate beginnings to an...

I only deigned to take notice of the The White Stripes hype in late 2001, several months after the release of White Blood Cells . Perhaps I'd read enough laudatory reviews of it; perhaps I'd seen the video for 'Hotel Yorba' on MTV2. I was enthused and delighted by the album: it's front loaded, with the opening four tracks charging out of the gate. 'Hotel Yorba' and 'Fell in Love With a Girl' were immediate favourites. Further along the running order, the sweetly sentimental 'We're Going To Be Friends' was another I loved. I bought Elephant as soon as it was released, and loved that too, but, by 2005, and Get Behind Me Satan my affection for them had began to cool. It's been a good few years since I played this one: I'll have to take it out for a drive and re-listen, then decide if I still need to keep a place for it on my shelves.  Updated later to add: having greatly enjoyed making its re-acquaintance, the CD stays!

I originally bought this album on CD in '09 when it was first released, excited to hear the first music from Circulatory System since their 2001 debut. At first listen I wasn't so fond of the harder-edged, more urgent sound on Signal Morning , but over time it grew on me, and I came to dearly love it.  Last year I set about 'upgrading' some of my Elephant 6 albums from CD to vinyl. While I'd never been fond of the digital release of Circulatory System the album, Signal Morning had always sounded great on CD, so buying that on vinyl was a gratuitous measure: I did so anyway, ordering a lightly used copy (on white vinyl) from a Discogs seller. The vinyl pressing comes across slightly differently than the CD had done: neither better nor worse, just not entirely the same. Each time I've played it I've listened right through with rapt attention. My favourite songs include 'Rocks And Stones', 'Overjoyed', 'Gold Will Stay', and the title t...

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...

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...

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 ...

The 'For Lovers' CD single is all that remains on my shelves of my otherwise short-lived infatuation with the music of The Libertines and their offshoots. Fifteen years ago I also owned both Libertines albums and a couple of their singles, plus the first Dirty Pretty Things album. I held on to Up The Bracket until a few years ago, but, the last time I listened to it, the thrill had definitely gone, so I let that one go too. My introduction to The Libertines had been via MTV2: on first seeing the video for 'Up The Bracket' in '02 my reaction was "who do they think they are?", but it grew on me a little and, when I saw/heard 'Time For Heroes' a few months later, I was sold. My local small-town Swedish record shop carried their albums, but I think I ordered 'For Lovers' from Amazon. It's a sweet ballad that I still enjoy. The 'B-side' on the disc is 'Back From The Dead' - a more upbeat number which isn't bad but which ...

Richard Hawley's Coles Corner was the first album I bought after my return to the UK from Sweden in 2009. I became very fond of it, and, not long after, also bought what was then his new release -  Truelove's Gutter . Both were on CD: I didn't have a good vinyl set-up at that time and my record-player wasn't getting much use. Those two records have remained my favourites of his ever since. Truelove's Gutter is a set of evocative nocturnes, much of it quiet and sparse. The opening 'When The Dawn Breaks' is an exercise in restrained, subdued melancholy. 'Open Up Your Door' begins in a similarly quiet mode, but the music subsequently swells as a glorious '60s-style string arrangement kicks in. It's one of the album's highlights for me, along with the poignant 'Don't Get Hung Up in Your Soul'. The songs are all Hawley's own; his guitar work is beautiful; his voice expressive. He co-produced the album too, so is partly-respon...

You Forgot It In People was one of those albums from the early years of the century where a growing weight of on-line recommendations eventually piqued my curiosity. Pre-streaming, I don't recall how much of the album I'd actually heard, if anything, before buying. Perhaps I nefariously obtained it in mp3 form first. The re-issued version came out in 2003: I must have purchased my CD copy late that year or early the next. I loved this album at the time and might have loved it even more had I been ten years younger, with its being shot right through with the passions & pretensions of youth. The subdued instrumental opener 'Capture The Flag', I subsequently learned, was akin to the mellow tunes on the band's debut album Feel Good Lost . After that, the sharper-edged 'KC Accidental' kicks in, the first of several twists and turns as the show goes on. David Newfeld's excellent production helps give the songs a vivid presence. With a rotating roster of a...