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...