I am trying to be good, as it's only 16 days since my summer grant cheque arrived, and it has to last until October. I've been tormenting myself by putting together fantasy orders from Boomkat, HHI, and Soul Jazz. Fortunately, I've resisted all temptation to put a three figure order through. So other than Dave C's stuff (which I tell myself doesn't count), it's just a couple so far this week:

Mr Dibbs - The 30th Song
This one's been showing up on loads of 'best release of the year so far' threads. That Slug from Atmosphere is on there makes it almost a dead cert. I'll give it a spin tonight.

Labradford - Fixed::Context
Thanks to David S.

A good one i've just picked up is Nat Adderley Presents: Soul of the Bible, a two disc Blue Note reissue of very black sounding jazz with loads of consciousness raising recitations from the Good Book and ancient Hindu scripture.

Sparse, spacious, simple, lovely and earthy. As a high concept jazz album rest assured the obligatory mystic bongos and meandering Fender Rhodes lines are well in place :)

Us older farts have been buying stuff like:-

Steve Winwood - About Time
Great new CD - centred around Hammond B3 (used for bass as well) with just guitar and percussion on most tracks - good rocky / blues with Latin / World overtones here and there. Highly recommended.

John Mayall & Friends - Along For the Ride
Elder statesman of blues (I remember hearing him at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester late 60s) - great solid blues with guests including Gary Moore, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Billy Preston, Chris Rea, Steve Miller, Andy Fairweather Low (don't laugh), Dick Heckstall-Smith et al. Great if you like John Mayall and remember hot pants and loons.

Crusaders - Rural Renewal
First new release for years from this seminal jazz combo - bit of a mixed bag but some great tracks including a couple with Eric Clapton on acoustic guitar. Worth a shot if you're a Crusaders fan.

Deep Sky Divers - The New Fast Lane
Deep Sky Divers - Highlands & Skylands
Very chillled / ambient music - zip over to their web site (http://www.deepskydivers.com) and try for yourself. Acquired taste for some.

Comments welcome, along with other recommendations.

Thank you and goodnight.

Graeme

I recently bought the Led Zep DVD, which is an awesome collection demonstrating just what a great band they were live.

Jimmy Page is a god, and the driving rythms of Bonzo and that bloke playing the bass ( ;) ) really fix it all together nicely, with Plant demonstrating is abilities at the top of rocks' league of screamers.

I don't know how much the footage / music has been touched up, but I've not had so much fun in ages as having this lot cranked up to structural damage levels, there's some fantastic music and video footage on here, and in particular Page's sensitivity with a guitar, from gentle bluesy numbers, through the heavier stuff, for which almost every guitar player since owes him some credit, really shines through.

I'll have to enlist my Nait and Kans into play one day, as the DVD player has full 5.1 decoding, it would be interesting to hear it in that mode.

Does the recent CD, (How the west was won) have all the music from the DVD, I really want it in a more conventional audio format now, I'm sure it will be way better than my cheap DVD?

Andy.

...is John Paul Jones. I have one of his solo projects -Zooma - well recommended for on the structural damage front. Some pretty good music on it as well...

I knew that really ;)

Just a typical 'in the background' figure, seemingly dwarfed on stage by the much more flamboyant figures of Page, Plant and Bonzo, despite the obvious talent.

Andy.

Graeme,

Deep Sky Divers - The New Fast Lane
Deep Sky Divers - Highlands & Skylands
Very chillled / ambient music

Thanks for the pointer - the snippets on the web site sound really interesting. So where would you suggest a beginner should start? Is the latest album the best way in, or is going back one or more a better idea?

Cheers,
Simon

I've just manged to buy 2 new out of print ACR LPs; 'To Each' (1981) & 'Sextet' (1982) from 101cd.com (did you get yours Sideshowbob?).

They're REAL flat-earth music albums; rhythmic, percussive with some great bass playing. Sextet has an almost African/Caribbean flavour at times, with brass and whistles added to the rhythms and flat vocal style.

In typical Factory Record fashion, the cover contains almost no information about the band or the music; 'To Each' doesn't even label which side is which (you have to count the tracks) - I wonder where Tony got this minimalist thing from?

Simon,

Of the two listed, I actually prefer the earlier one Highlands & Skylands - it's a little more varied in pace and texture.

If you're new to DSD, you might like to start with Momentum which is a compilation of earlier stuff and the first one I bought.

Good luck.

Regards

Graeme

Patrick, fine albums both

ACR have a NEW single out with Fila Brazila called :

File Brazillia versus A Certain Ratio -

Tracks :Starlight, Wild Party, I'm a very busy man.

on 23 records.

DS

ITC - Various Artists - 21st Century Drum & Bass

(did you get yours Sideshowbob?).


Nope, it's still on order with the supplier. I guess that means you got the only copy. (I do have a copy, but it has a deep scratch on The Fox, which is irritating).

Never liked Sextet as much, I remember it as a big disappointment when I bought it at the time. Must dig it out and give it another listen.

-- Ian

I've just manged to buy 2 new out of print ACR LPs; 'To Each' (1981) & 'Sextet' (1982) from 101cd.com (did you get yours Sideshowbob?).

Were they genuine new old stock? I am amazed there are any still knocking around over 20 years after the fac(t) – they are worth at least £13 in half decent second hand condition. I bought mine when they came out, and thankfully they are still mint. I've got the key ACR 12" singles too. Now if I could only find a copy of Always Now by Section 25…

The early Factory stuff seems to have totally vanished since the film 24 Hour party people, I suspect its safe to add at least a tenner to the prices in RCRRPG.

In typical Factory Record fashion, the cover contains almost no information about the band or the music; 'To Each' doesn't even label which side is which (you have to count the tracks) - I wonder where Tony got this minimalist thing from?

Probably a large factor – I remember being totally knocked out when a friend lent me a copy of Unknown Pleasures in 79; everything was right, the music, the sleeve, the label design, the inner, the fact the vinyl glows dark red held up to the light. A total product, and still IMHO one of the most perfect albums ever made. It will never make it out of my top ten!

Tony.

..items doing the rounds hereabouts:

Steel Pulse Handsworth Revolution
Culture International Herb
Dillinger CB200

..amongst others, but these are the ones I can't put away. Fabulous, esp. the Dillinger: right on the cusp between roots reggae /toasting and early dancehall it's not the place to start if reggae for you starts and ends with Bob...cokane in the brain, indeed.

It doesn't help I now live 3mins walk from a branch of Fopp: simply can't avoid filling the holes in the collection. Only problem is, the more you hear, the more you need...

More soon, no doubt.

MC

Were they genuine new old stock? I reckon so. The covers look like they've been hanging around a bit - the corners are slightly knocked (but I bought worse new in the 80s); the vinyl looks mint unplayed - well, was unplayed.

Not bad for 20 years old.

I like 'Sextet' - 'To Each' sounds more familar because it's more like the 12"s I've got. I think it's impressive that they still sound so fresh 20 years on, as so much of the stuff I bought at the time sounds terribly dated now.

I've got a 'Gang of Four' 7" with 'Love Like Anthrax' on which I always really liked, so I guess I should look out for their LPs too.

I've got a 'Gang of Four' 7" with 'Love Like Anthrax' on which I always really liked, so I guess I should look out for their LPs too.

Everybody should have a copy of Entertainment! the first album. Great sleeve as well. Strange Fruit released a Peel sessions album a few years ago and that's excellent, too.

I relistened to Sextet and liked it more than I remembered. At the time I only ever played "Knife Slits Water" very much, but it turns out side one, especially, is pretty good. Still prefer To Each and the early singles. After Sextet I think they pretty much lost the plot.

-- Ian

Everybody should have a copy of Entertainment!

Absolutely – I picked up a totally mint copy (not even a spine crease!) two weeks ago along with a similar condition copy of Cut by The Slits. Two very big holes in my record collection filled in one hit… superb stuff. Both records that I knew well, but always borrowed my friends copies and later realised they had vanished from the shops.

I relistened to Sextet and liked it more than I remembered. At the time I only ever played "Knife Slits Water" very much, but it turns out side one, especially, is pretty good. Still prefer To Each and the early singles. After Sextet I think they pretty much lost the plot.

I really like Sextet, but the two 12”s of The Fox and Shack Up / Du the du are where its at. Too Each is wonderful, a very dark and atmospheric take that I believe was actually a mistake as they screwed up the mix and could never get it back! Works for me. I’ve also got ‘I’d like to see you again’ which is the point they lost it – if anyone has seen 24 Hr Party People I was actually at the empty gig at the Hac when it all went jazz-funk! The 12” of Knife slits water is essential, way better than the Sextet version, and is Linn friendly at 33rpm. Waterline is good too.

Anyone new to ACR should buy the Soul Jazz retrospective 'Early' - its stunningly well compiled.

Tony.

One that's growing on me is the new Tindersticks album, 'Waiting for the Moon'.

They were on BBC R2 the other night, playing live, which was an engaging experience, there's some soulful, melodic and beautiful tunes on here, in typical Tindersticks style.

Nothing radically different from previous albums, but no worse for that.

Andy.

Andy - I'm a recent purchaser of the Zep DVD too - my wife's a BIG fan (not that I'm not, but I'm not allowed to like them as much as she is ...:rolleyes: )
We are lucky enough to have a projector, and I have the sound running through the 250/Arcs plus surround channels too.

Interestingly the sound defaults to stereo, and one has to choose 5.1/DTS manually. I'd say that it adds some ambience (mainly crowd noise etc), apart from a couple of heavy handed bouces of Pagey's guitar around (when he's playing his guitar with the viledin bow).
What I found interesting is that some stuff sounds MUCH better than others - so I think we can assume that Mr Page has been reasonably sensitive in his remastering.

Funnily enough, watching that DVD made me hanker after playing the .... bass. Maybe I'm just a limelight shunning backroom boy. Watching JPJ and Bonham working together is awesome. Mind you, I don't think I'll be buying one of those jackets with Christmas tree decorations all over it.

Saw Mr. Plant with his current band live last Saturday night. Somehow managed not to see LZ "at the time", so it was quite a revelation -- one of the few who can really, really do it, IMHO.

Best;

Mark

Just bought a few more hip hop 12"s recently:

Lyrics Born - Hello
Being hailed as the best thing on Quannum.

Saul Williams - Not in my name
Listen to it here (http://www.notinournamemusic.com/mp3/05_Pledge_Of_Resistance_DJGooremix.mp3).

V/A - Urban Renewal Program
Mos Def, Aesop Rock, RJD2, and Tortoise.

Mekon have you tried your hand at

www.turntables.de


I wonder if you can identify any of the breaks in the "old school version"?

Sample 1 is a Beastie Boys sample from Root Down, and I know the 2nd and 3rd samples from somewhere, but the one that is really bugging me is loop 2. I am guessing its from a Native Tongues tune.

I'll get back to you.

Yup, loop 2 is Say No Go by De La Soul. You got any of the other ones?

Does the recent CD, (How the west was won) have all the music from the DVD, I really want it in a more conventional audio format now, I'm sure it will be way better than my cheap DVD?

Andy,

How the West was Won was taken from two shows in California in 1972. None of the material on the CD appears on the DVD - the majority of which covers three shows in the UK. How the West.... is the first live album to be recommended in Stereophile magazine - the latest issue (August 2003)

Klaatu

...is John Paul Jones. I have one of his solo projects -Zooma - well recommended for on the structural damage front. Some pretty good music on it as well...

Wow. I've bought some shite in the last few years, I admit it. Zooma is the only disk I've been so totally unable to get on with I took it back to the store for a refund. Selectadisk were really good about it. I really wanted to like it, fan of bass playing, fan of led zep, generally like JPJ's playing, Bass Player magazine had great things to say about it (clearly a total lack of journalistic bias there!), I get on alright with prog rock eg King Crimson. Still scratching my head about that one.

ho hum.

Rico

Yeah. It just seems to be a load of grinding bass riffs going on and on and...

Some new music this week includes
Alfons el Magnanim - Capella de Ministrers More early music on the Spanish Naive label. Has lots of bounce and life does this one, something early music needs to work its peculiar magic.
La tradition du Hejaz - Mohammed Aman it's not every day that I run across an album of traditional Saudi tunes. Interesting stuff if you like Arab music: incredible melismas, nice plinquey Ud and some very interesting perc. As usual with the Ocora lable, great liner notes that are detailed yet still accessible to stupid gits like me. This is not the place to begin your Arab music indoctrination, though...
That would probably be...
Hemavaz - Kardes Turkuler except they are Turkish, not Arab. What to say about this amazing band? They're amazing, for a start. Deep percussion and intricate vocal work melded into a deeply layered seamlessly pulsating whole. Blinding, passionate pop music for people who like percussion, polyphony and polyrhythm. Does sometimes veer off towards the new age, without ever falling into that abyss,
River - Nitin Sawhney hmmm. Jury still out on this one.
Don't know why - Harold Mabern Trio At last a really good album on the Japanese "Venus" label. Driving swing in a hard bop stylee. Recording is the usual OTT Venus with absolutely humungous bass and cor blimey drums. Works on this album, doesn't on many others. Iffy J-L Sieff cover is par for the series. One to get IMO.
Something or other - Tokyo Gakuso Still trying to work out the reading for this album of Gagaku music by the leading ensemble of the moment. A, er, acquired taste, but for the half dozen people I can think of who would like this kind of thing, this is the one to get. Astonoshing recording brought to us by those nice people at King Records.
Guinea: Baga Rhythms and songs - Mohamed Bangoura High quality recording of Guinean master percussionist Mohamed Bangoura going through his paces. Excellent stuff that will get a lot more listening.
Yoruba Drums from Benin - va A very serious & academic CD from Smithsonian Folkways (lost me on page 2 of the notes I'm afriad) that contains a load of absolutely storming drumming. Benin Yoruba bata and dundun drums are rather higher tuned than their earthshaking Nigerian Yoruba counterparts. Cuban music starts here...
Master of percussion - va Solid compilation on the French "Follow Me" label featuring some of the biggest names in West African drumming: Guem, Doudou Ndiaye Rose, Les Tambours de Brazza, Sungalo Coulibaly. Good place to start listening to the drum bands. No notes worth talking about, which is a shame.
+a bunch of perfect condition NOS Nonsuch Explorer vinyl from the late 70s. Some superb music - Tuareg medicinal chants, Hausa street music etc. Solid recordings and Stephen Jay's usual excellent notes.
I also picked up an Improv Shakuhachi/piano/percussion trio LP Eternal Echoes - Hozan Yamamoto from '79, which is quite frankly brilliant. This along with some sublime gagaku and Noh on vinyl will soon be on it's way to a new home. I'll leave it to the new owner to write the reviews.

Saw JPJ play it live in the US at the House of Blues. Even live its hard to live with!

I've just got Hollywood Town Hall again (last copy went missing some time ago) and it's even better than I remember, almost up to Sound of Lies status. It's prompted me to order the new one on vinyl from diverse.

Originally posted by timH
I've just got Hollywood Town Hall again (last copy went missing some time ago) and it's even better than I remember, almost up to Sound of Lies status. It's prompted me to order the new one on vinyl from diverse.
Here's me thinking Tomorrow the Green Grass was their best... I don't rate the new one at all, they sound like crowded house. Even my wife who really like's them ( I just dabble) wasn't too impressed.

Nice to know there's at least two other Jayhawks fans on PFM. Tomorrow the Green Grass is for sure a good one - Miss Williams' Guitar blows out the cobwebs regularly, but so does Sixteen Down (...Madeleine breathe...).

Anyway I might as well give the new one a try - must be better than Smile mustn't it?

Today, I have been mostly buying...

on CD:

John Zorn, Kristallnacht

on vinyl:

Yusef Lateef, Into Something
Califone, Quicksand
Pharoah Sanders, Live 1982
Roland Kirk, You Did It, You Did It
David Murray, The Hill
John Handy, Projections

-- Ian

Is the Califone album any good Sideshowbob? It's one on my endless list of sounds interesting might give a go's...
I've just placed an order from the US, more psychedelic drony free-folkiness

On vinyl
Charalambides – IN CR EA SE dbl lp
Scorces – Vivre avec la bete lp
Son of Earth Flesh on Bone /Double Leopards – split lp
Tower Recordings – Present the Transfiguration... 7"

Cd
Dredd Foole and the Din –_The whys of Fire

All from http://www.eclipse-records.com

As for the Jayhawks' Smile being worse than Rainy Day, don't be so sure...

Only given it one listen so far, and it's OK, but not startlingly different from what loads of other people are doing.

I see you've been reading the Wire as well, I've got plans to get hold of some Scorces/Tower Recordings.

BTW, finally got my act together and some Ayler CDs should be on the way to you in the next day or two.

-- Ian

Zep DVD - it's one of those you can dip into and watch a few bits and then come back to later (can't quite seem to spot myself in the Knebworth crowd abut 3/4 mile back from the stage though). You can just feel the chemistry in the band (if not Pagey's veins!).
When I was at Uni, a flatmate had a John Paul Jones album, not Zooma. I think it might've been a film score (but I might be confusing it with a Jimmy Page Deathwish soundtrack?). Anyway, it was quite good.
I'm just listening to Deep Sky Divers via the web - not sure if it's my thing.
I've just got the Evanescence CD - quite listenable. Also Badfinger - Magic Christian Music (1970? including some songs from a Ringo Starr movie, one written by Paul McCartney).

Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring

This was the 2nd time I bought that album. The first copy I bought about 12 years ago; though it is still in an okayish condition I could not resist the 180gr version :)

Jane's Addicition - Strays

"Just Because" really makes my day, had to buy it.

Only buying CDs now (I know its not that flat, but it is music here not the transmission medium!), also got some back catalogue to catch up with the vinyle that I've sold.

Last couple of weeks

Rainbow- Catch the Rainbow (Greatest)
Larry Carlton - Discovery
Larry Carlton - Renegrade Gentleman
Larry Carlton - Friends
Larry Carlton - The Gift
Shawn Mullins - Souls Core
Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubber Bands at the Stars
Jimmy Page - Hip Young Guitar Slinger
Bad Company - Straight Shooter
Deep Purple - Made in Japan (remastered + encores)
String - Bring on the Night
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Greatest Hits
Norah Jones - that first album, its in the car so I can't remember the title!!!
Led Zeppelin - DVD

and I've just bought a complete audio-visual library of over 600CDs from classical, pop, rock, jazz to sound effects. I don't know whats in it yet, pick it up on Thursday, but over 450 hours of music!!

Mr Perceptive

Originally posted by sideshowbob
Only given it one listen so far, and it's OK, but not startlingly different from what loads of other people are doing.

I see you've been reading the Wire as well, I've got plans to get hold of some Scorces/Tower Recordings.

BTW, finally got my act together and some Ayler CDs should be on the way to you in the next day or two.

-- Ian

Thanks, Califone downgraded to pick up if I see it cheap.

Yep, read Wire... I've already got a few things by the 'New Weird Americans' but it sure inspired me to get some more. 'A Pebble in Thousands of Unmapped Revolutions' by Double Leopards is incredible btw (just in case you place an Eclipse order).

Look forward to the Aylers, listened to John and Ali's Interstellar Space this evening, never thought just sax and drums could fill so much space, incredible stuff (as for being the greatest recording ever... much too soon to say...).

Yup, loop 2 is Say No Go by De La Soul. You got any of the other ones?

Hey Mekon, I'm particularly interested in loop3. It's funky as hell!

Originally posted by space cadet
listened to John and Ali's Interstellar Space this evening, never thought just sax and drums could fill so much space, incredible stuff (as for being the greatest recording ever... much too soon to say...).

Well, it may not be the greatest record ever, but it's certainly my favourite record, and has been for a few years (a rare consistency for me). It's being challenged at the moment by Ayler's Nuits de la Fondation Maeght (in the package on its way to you) and my memory of Zorn's Electric Masada at the Barbican a few weeks ago, which has had a pretty profound impact on me (not least, frantically buying everything by him that I don't already have). My mind is like, er, blown.

-- Ian

Arrived this morning, a job lot of hatOLOGY CDs bought on the cheap:

hatOLOGY 508 / Jimmy Giuffre & André Jaume - Momentum, Willisau 1988
hatOLOGY 510 / Burkhard Beins, Martin Pfleiderer & Peter Niklas Wilson - Yarbles
hatOLOGY 515 / Richard Grossman Trio - Even Your Ears
hatOLOGY 516 / Matthew Shipp Trio - The Multiplication Table
hatOLOGY 517 / Billy Bang & Dennis Charles - Bangception, Willisau 1982
hatOLOGY 518 / Lee Konitz & Martial Solal - Star Eyes, Hamburg 1983
hatOLOGY 519 / Lauren Newton - Filigree
hatOLOGY 520 / Bernd Konrad Hans Koller Unit with Didier Lockwood - Phonolith
hatOLOGY 522 / Matthew Shipp Horn Quartet - Strata
hatOLOGY 524 / Rajesh Mehta Solos & Duos Featuring Paul Lovens - Orka
hatOLOGY 525 / Joe Maneri Quartet - Tenderly
hatOLOGY 526 / G. Gregorio, M. Gustafsson & K. Nordeson - Background Music
hatOLOGY 527 / Ran Blake - Something To Live For
hatOLOGY 529 / Mat Maneri Trio - So What?
hatOLOGY 530 / Matthew Shipp Duo with Mat Maneri - Gravitational Systems
hatOLOGY 531 / Guillermo Gregorio Trio - Red Cube(d)
hatOLOGY 534 / Ellery Eskelin & Han Bennink - Dissonant Characters
hatOLOGY 537 / Jon Lloyd - Four And Five
hatOLOGY 538 / Sven-Åke Johansson - Six Little Pieces For Quintet
hatOLOGY 541 / Richard Grossman Trio - Where The Sky Ended
hatOLOGY 542 / Dave Douglas' Tiny Bell Trio - Constellations
hatOLOGY 543 / Franz Koglmann & Lee Konitz - We Thought About Duke
hatOLOGY 544 / Joe McPhee - Tenor & Fallen Angels
hatOLOGY 546 / Steve Lacy - Clinkers
hatOLOGY 547 / Lee Konitz, Don Friedman & Attila Zoller - Thingin
hatOLOGY 548 / Simon Nabatov Trio - Sneak Preview
hatOLOGY 549 / Matthew Shipp Trio - Prism

-- Ian

Crikey Ian, that should keep you quiet for a while... any highlights so far?

Won't have a chance to listen to any of it until the weekend, but I'm guessing the Lacy (which is solo, usually a good sign with Lacy), Ran Blake, Billy Bang, and Matthew Shipp will be good.

I've decided to adopt a non-strategic approach - just shuffle the pack and play them in the order they come out...

-- Ian

Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste

I haven't heard any of Steve Stapleton/NWW's stuff since the mid-80s and picked up this recent album on a friend's recommendation.

One long electronic piece (around an hour) inspired by the story of the discovery of a derelict ship in the 19th Century. Unlike most of this kind of stuff, this doesn't start quiet and simply get progressively louder, but is much more measured than that. A repeating electronic wave is gradually given texture with the addition of wood creaks, sighs and sundry electronic sounds. The result is surprisingly moving.

Really very good indeed. Must explore some more of Stapleton's recent output.

-- Ian

In the absence of anyone else joining in, today's purchases.

CD:

Love, Forever Changes Concert. The classic album, recorded live on Arthur Lee's comeback tour, at the Royal Festival Hall. Lee is the only remaining member, but this is still a great gig. "You Set the Scene" is particularly ace, and Lee is surprisingly focused given his bonkers reputation. Very good, has a second CD of videos etc.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, I, Eye, Aye. The great man recorded live at Montreux in 1972. One of the better later Kirks, I think. What a genius player he was.

John Zorn, Naked City Live at the Knitting Factory, 1989. Bloody brilliant.

John Zorn, Masada Live in Jerusalem. Ditto. I am utterly obsessed with Zorn at the moment.

Vinyl:

Manitoba, Up in Flames. Don't know much about this, and haven't heard it yet, but it's on Leaf so it's probably good.

The Silver Mt. Zion, This is Our Punk Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather and Sing. Fab title, as always, from Godspeed You Black Emperor side-group, this time with a choir. I have high hopes for this, although GYBE offshoots never end up being as good as the real thing. Beautifully packaged.

-- Ian

Alex Kid - Mint
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation (Re-Release)
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go
Static - Flavor Has No Name

All vinyl :)

Young Marble Giants – Salad Days cd
M83 – Run Into Flowers 12" (This could be the beginning of a shoegazer revival!!)
Iannis Xenakis – Persepolis Remixes Cheap double CDR promopack with proper sleeve. An incredible record!! First cd is an hour long piece by Xenakis, 2nd cd is remixes by the likes of Otomo Yoshide, Ryoji Ikeda, Merzbow etc.
Glorious drones and noise!

Continental Drifts, "Sounds From the Acoustic Ground - Remixed"

Wacky club remixes of ethnic folk-music, with track titles to match (examples: "Camelherder Skank", "Mr. Potato-head goes to Hardware Village").

Exercises both your toes and your sense of humor. Fun.

Wonder what will happen if I keep this in the BGM pile while we are designing our next product :)

jonathan carr

On CD:

Arthur Blythe, Exhale. Recent album from under-recorded alto player. Heavy Trane influence (including covers of "Cousin Mary" and "Equinox", and a very A Love Supreme-esque suite). Beautful tone, very sweet with a world-worn sensibility. I like this.

On vinyl:

Scorces, Vivre Avec la Bete. Need to hear this again. Acoustic guitar and wailing. Self-indulgent was my first thought.

Charles Mingus, Mingus at the Bohemia. Early Mingus (first recorded live date as leader, I believe). Inessential, but it's Mingus, so that doesn't matter at all.

Cecil McBee, Alternate Spaces. Free bass player with good band, never really comes alive.

Circle, Paris Concert. Odd super-group (Anthony Braxton, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul). Holland and Altschul do the best things on this, Braxton seems bored, and Corea is too far gone down the road to fusion hell, and seems to have forgotten what a good player he is.

-- Ian

Originally posted by GRC
Us older farts have been buying stuff like:-
[B]Deep Sky Divers - The New Fast Lane
Deep Sky Divers - Highlands & Skylands
Very chillled / ambient music - zip over to their web site (http://www.deepskydivers.com) and try for yourself. Acquired taste for some.

Comments welcome, along with other recommendations.
... Thanks for pointing these out. I ordered both, since I have quite a lot of dark ambient, electronica, etc. I must say I found them uncomfortably close to new age, though they might grow on me. Most of the tracks are in a major key, and keyboards or synthesized piano feature a lot, with simplish harmonies. I kept wanting something darker or bleaker. Must be a character flaw of mine :)

Originally posted by sideshowbob
Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste ... One long electronic piece (around an hour) inspired by the story of the discovery of a derelict ship in the 19th Century. Unlike most of this kind of stuff, this doesn't start quiet and simply get progressively louder, but is much more measured than that. A repeating electronic wave is gradually given texture with the addition of wood creaks, sighs and sundry electronic sounds. The result is surprisingly moving.

Really very good indeed. Must explore some more of Stapleton's recent output.

-- Ian I got this based on your comments. I enjoyed it quite a lot and it will fit quite well with my Ambient/dark ambient/beatless ambient/electronica/experimental section :). I don't know why I have never bought NWW before, except that possibly I thought it was a lot more extreme, based on articles etc in The Wire magazine. An album of one track is extreme in one sense, but it can be read to, or treated as a secondary experience, in the true spirit of ambient. Did you or anyone get round to exploring more of his work?

Originally posted by SteveC
Thanks for pointing these out. I ordered both, since I have quite a lot of dark ambient, electronica, etc. I must say I found them uncomfortably close to new age, though they might grow on me. Most of the tracks are in a major key, and keyboards or synthesized piano feature a lot, with simplish harmonies. I kept wanting something darker or bleaker. Must be a character flaw of mine :)
Try Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros, it's beautiful and not naff at all. There's a 10 min track on http://www.epitonic.com you can download for free,
Fra ditt eget hjemland kan du prøve Origami eller Sketch...

Haven't got round to buying any more NWW yet, but next on the list are Rock and Roll Station and Soliliquy for Lilith, both of which come highly recommended by the same person who recommended me Salt Marie Celeste.

Early NWW is quite a bit different, more typically "industrial", but some of it is still good.

-- Ian

A smash and grab raid in Notting Hill yesterday yielded:

On vinyl:

Archie Shepp, Ballads For Trane. 1977 recording of one of my favourite post-Trane tenor players. He's lost a lot of his fire by this point (and by the early 80s had lost his tone as well, a real tragedy), but he still has a wonderfully muscular take on ballad playing. Great recording, too.

Archie Shepp, Live at the Panafrican Festival. 1969, Algiers. Very much of its time, but still fierce and uncompromising. Dreadful recording.

Archie Shepp, A Sea of Faces. 1975, yet to hear this, but there's some great players on it (Dave Burrell, Beaver Harris, Cameron Brown).

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan, Trouble in Mind. Some of Shepp's best recent records have been duo sessions with pianists (including a good one with Mal Waldron, Billie Holliday's last pianist, playing mostly Billie tunes). This is a really nice album of blues standards, played pretty straight.

Pelt, Keyhole II. Live recording from 2001, with the helpful sleeve note "Play at 45 or 33 rpm". Not listened to this yet.

Sunburned Hand of the Man, The Trickle Down Theory of Lord Knows What. Also yet to play this, have high hopes based on an article in a recent issue of The Wire. (Note to space cadet - the nervous geek behind the counter in Rough Trade, who's clearly into this stuff, told me that (a) Pelt have a new studio album out next month which is, in his word, "brilliant"; and (b) Sunburned Hand of the Man are playing in London soon, supporting Julian Cope at the Lyric Hammersmith, which should be a fun evening).

On CD:

Art Ensemble of Chicago, Tribute to Lester. The surviving members of the AEC make their first record for some time, an elegy for their departed bandmate, Lester Bowie. Not a classic AEC record, but some lovely moments, and essential for any Art Ensemble fan, I would think.

Smog, Wild Love. Early recordings, recently reissued. I like Smog more and more, must be old age.

Peter Brotzmann, Aoyama Crows. The Die Like A Dog Quartet (Brotzmann, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Toshinori Kondo) do what they do best, i.e., blow the f**king roof off the sucker. Top quality modern free music.

And, because no day is complete without more Zorn:

John Zorn, Ganryu Island. Duo album on which Zorn plays various reed instruments, mostly barely audibly, gassy and farty noises in the background, whilst Japanese shamisen (3-stringed instrument) maestro makes deranged plinking noises over the top. Endearingly loopy, I may take this to the Heathrow show and see if I can clear some of the larger rooms with it.

John Zorn/Masada String Ensembles, Bar Kokhba. Various combinations of string and reed players play some of Zorn's Masada tunes. Intensely beautiful. The man's a stone-cold genius I tells yer.

-- Ian

Originally posted by space cadet
Try Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros, it's beautiful and not naff at all. There's a 10 min track on http://www.epitonic.com you can download for free,
Fra ditt eget hjemland kan du prøve Origami eller Sketch... Yeah, that's someone else I really should have in the collection :) (Takk for forslaget.) Those two I should look into too, my biggest favourite is Geir Jensen's Biosphere.

Ian: the NWW Soliloquy went out of print but there's a new edition at http://www.musicnonstop.co.uk/store/erol.html

Cheers Steve, I did look for it over the weekend but couldn't find it anywhere...

-- Ian

Originally posted by space cadet
Try Deep Listening by Pauline Oliveros, it's beautiful and not naff at all. There's a 10 min track on http://www.epitonic.com you can download for free,
Fra ditt eget hjemland kan du prøve Origami eller Sketch...
Had a listen to this... hmmm not bad, but anyone who likes this *really* want to give Perotin a good listen, in particular "Viderunt Omnes" as performed by any one of a number of ensembles including Hillier, Gilles Binchois or Hilliard.

Absolutely. I struck me quite a while back how minimalists like Reich and Pärt were in a way looping round back to the origins of harmony from people like as you say Perotin and Guillaume de Machaut. Absolutely haunting.

Originally posted by SteveC
Absolutely. I struck me quite a while back how minimalists like Reich and Pärt were in a way looping round back to the origins of harmony from people like as you say Perotin and Guillaume de Machaut. Absolutely haunting.
Good to see another fan of early music :D Paul Hillier seems to be the link between modern (Aarvo Part) and ancient (Perotin, Machaut, Leonin etc).
A friend of mine claims that Reich et al nicked a lot of their ideas from these people (http://www.unesco.org/culture/cdmusic/html_eng/bahrain.shtml) . Not sure about that, but they certainly were into minimalism at least a thousand years before anyone the West.

Originally posted by joel
Good to see another fan of early music :D Paul Hillier seems to be the link between modern (Aarvo Part) and ancient (Perotin, Machaut, Leonin etc).
A friend of mine claims that Reich et al nicked a lot of their ideas from these people (http://www.unesco.org/culture/cdmusic/html_eng/bahrain.shtml) . Not sure about that, but they certainly were into minimalism at least a thousand years before anyone the West. Maybe they were minimalists because maximalism hadn't been invented yet :-).

While on the epitonic website I came across some beautiful minimal folkmusic from my adopted home land .Music of Norway (http://www.epitonic.com/artists/hansbrimiandpernilleanker.html). Well worth a click at least.

Well to test out the link theory I just ordered from amazon.co.uk but the estimated delivery is 3 to 5 weeks :-( From the description, maybe the link is to Reich's Clapping Music, which is early, though I prefer that end to the rhythmic treatment of spoken samples in his more recent work.

Actually I prefer the middle Reich, like Desert Music, Music for 18 musicians, ...Marimbas, ...Small Ensemble, etc. Same with Pärt, Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten being one of my favourites.

The link to the Oliveros was very useful - seems a good website, but their link to shop quoted $8.50 for delivery of a CD. Can anyone recommend a good European webshop for that kind of music? A good test would be whether it stocks Pauline Oliveros, Negativland and Ingram Marshall

To lower the tone, the postman delivered a copy of this today:

http://www.theloniousmoog.com/

Haven't heard it yet, should be a hoot.

-- Ian

To lower the tone, the postman delivered a copy of this today:

Oops... looks like my postman will soon be doing the same...

Tony.

Whoops.

Paul

I've listened to it now. The version of "We See" is the standout - completely insane, whilst still being strangely faithful to the original. Made me laugh out loud more than once.

Recommended, especially if you're a Monk fan and know the originals.

-- Ian

Originally posted by sideshowbob
Pelt, Keyhole II. Live recording from 2001, with the helpful sleeve note "Play at 45 or 33 rpm". Not listened to this yet.

Sunburned Hand of the Man, The Trickle Down Theory of Lord Knows What. Also yet to play this, have high hopes based on an article in a recent issue of The Wire. (Note to space cadet - the nervous geek behind the counter in Rough Trade, who's clearly into this stuff, told me that (a) Pelt have a new studio album out next month which is, in his word, "brilliant"; and (b) Sunburned Hand of the Man are playing in London soon, supporting Julian Cope at the Lyric Hammersmith, which should be a fun evening).

I've got the first Keyhole lp, which is very floaty... I seem to have quite a few records in this vein, hence I haven't got the second installment yet, no doubt I will though. Did you like it?

I'll see if I can catch SBHotM when they come over here. They do a date in Birmingham as well which is a bit closer to me. The album 'Headress' by them is my 3 yr old son's fave album at the moment, you should see him groove to it!!

Can't wait for the new Pelt album. Apparently they have moved away from the epic drone tracks and gone for the more 'traditional' deep south tunes which they had a couple of on 'Ayahuasca' (a copy of which is coming your way very soon...)