Urban's Journal Of Half Assed Ideas
 

I wanted to do something a bit different that's not constrained by a list format or have to hack out a huge long assed review everytime I wanted to post something or do something that has a defined beginning , middle & end. Basically I just wanted an excuse to have the freedom just to write bull****.

So what I will be doing in this thread is just listen to stuff at random and post whatever goes through my mind when i'm listening to it. It might give you an idea of what an album is like or on the other hand I might go off on a tangent & hardly mention it , you never know. i'll be listening to anything & everything from albums I am hearing for the first time as I write to stuff I grew up with.

I will be putting up a rating system for the stuff I write about , but don't expect it to be consistent or conventional.

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Sun Ra - Space Probe

You have to love headcases in music.

Nutjobs in music are the cornerstone of my record collection. There's nothing better than listening to someone who should be certified expressing himself through the art of music. I mean I could listen to some singer songwriter crying over his guitar about some long lost love. Or I could listen to a collection of songs inspired by space travel BY A MAN WHO THINKS HE WAS BORN ON SATURN !!!!!!.

I'm not really that big on jazz. I try and listen to some of the greats from that genre but it's more out of curiosity than any love for it. I'll keep on nibbling away at it and maybe one day i'll get it as I can see a whole world of music there thats just waiting to be heard. I can appreciate the talent behind it which is always a good sign as that's how I normally approach something like this that I am not familiar with. And I do like some of the modern jazz bands such as Acoustic Ladyland & Soil & Pimp Sessions.

Although for someone perceived as a jazz musician there doesn't actually seem to be a lot 'jazz' on this album although the second track 'Primitive' does have some avate garde trumpet noodling on it , and the third track 'The Conversion of J.P.' is basically tribal style bongos with some flute & piano accompanying them with some smooth mellow sounds. The first track and the title track of the album sounds like a 20 minute robot orgy and is much more radical than anything bands like Kraftwerk were doing in 1974 when this album came out.

Do I like it?
I have no idea , I mean how do you judge 20 minutes of bloops & bleeps. I quite like the last track though.

Am I glad I listened to this?
Hell yes , I got much more enjoyment out of this album than some dull faceless rock album that currently clogs up the British media.


Rating
a bag of KP nuts
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reading this made me less un-happy . here is a good JAzz ting

I could rename most that list of albums 'albums that I have thought about getting at some point but decided to leave it for now and get them another day.'

I find it hard to 'hate' Sun Ra's music simply coz I got no fkn idea whats going on half the time :p:
Alas it hasn't stopped me for buying a fair % of his albums for some reason...

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Jean-Michel Lorgère - Homere Instrumental

I think I must have spent too much time in front of the TV as a kid.
As I think I may have possibly found the album the BBC use when they put up pages from ceefax , and I love it.

Ceefax was what we had before the internet for those of you who have never heard of it.

Some people listen to acoustic stuff to chill out to , some people listen to reggae , some listen to trip hop , some post rock.
My chill out tunes of preference are 60s / 70s French lounge pop. This is kind of instrumental lounge pop bordering on musak but it doesn't matter because i've had a hard day and listening to flute , mellotron & moog solos with a swinging backing track really appeals right now.

So fuck off.

I love you. + 56 billion points for writing a post about Ceefax. You need to recommend me some of this french lounge pop, this is my guilty lounge-skeleton in the cupboard. (for want of a better phrase)

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The Cult - Love

I think Love is one of the best albums ever released in the 80s and sadly one of the most overlooked.
It's strange to look out how things develop over time. Back in the late 80s The Cult were virtually unique in that they had enough post punk / goth background to appeal to your average NME / Melody Maker indie kid AND at the same time enough chunky riffs & rock god posing to appeal to your average Kerrang reader. The only other two bands I can think of who had this cross appeal around that time were Nirvana & the Manic Street Preachers , and even then they came a few years later.
And yet if you look at them now both sets of fans have virtually disowned the band. Rock & Metal got more extreme over time , a typical 80s metal fan could probably find something to like about The Cult , something that would be inconceivable in 2008. And of course give a Cult album to and indie fan in 2008 and they'll probably be put off by the AC/DC like riffs and just dismiss it as hair metal. Funny to think that what initially was a plus point came back to haunt them in the end.
Regardless of what other people think The Cult were the first band I ever made a concious decision to fly over to London and see live. In fact I remember when ordered the tickets I didn't even bother asking my boss for the weekend off , I just told her I was going :laughing:

I still listen to this album a lot. It was recorded just around the time that they were just about to ditch the goth stuff and develop a more 'rock' sound (I.E. Copy AC/DC) so in other words it's a bit like a goth album but a goth album by someone in tight trousers who'd fuck anything in a skirt as opposed to being miserable & arty and hang around in boring black & white music videos.

It's just a shame after this album they decided to jump on every musical bandwagon going (See The Cult go industrial around 1991 and the less said about the self titled 'grunge' album the better) and Ian Astbury's Jim Morrison fixation got more & more ridiculous to the point they just became a parody of themselves is just sad really. But no matter how much shit they try & taint this album with none of it sticks , I just love this record too much.

Oh and that wah-wah pedal ..... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :D

I was'nt a big fan of this album even then. A couple of good tracks (title track FTW), but it has'nt dated well and seemed to me to be a calculated move away from the typical pseudo goth sound that was around (The Mission especially). to me it's just an average 80's rock album. I thought Spear Of Destiny's 'Outland' was far superior (admittedly I love 'Electric'-so my judgement is clouded :D)

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Fennesz / Dafeldecker / Brandlmayr - Till the Old World's Blown Up and a New One Is Created

Fuck me this is boring.

I do wish people would stop labelling boring generic ambient shit as 'experimental'
This is no more experimental than eating a ton of beans and discovering if a fart comes out of your arse.

I was so comatose after a couple of 'songs' I had to listen to some simple 3 chord garage rock as an antidote to this pretentious claptrap.

And naturally the opening track is 35 minutes long.

Tossers.

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Cruelblackdove - Dirt & Heat E.P.

Starts off with a promising opening track and then descends into breathy jangly indie cliche hell.

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No Age - Nouns

I have to say listening to this has been a really hollow experience.

Basically everybody has heard this album already. If you heard it in 2000/2001 it was probably dripping in Beatles & Beach Boys like harmonies & melodies. If you heard it in 2003 it was probably a dance punk album. If you heard it in 2005 it was probably a folk album. If you heard it in 2007 is was probably a Nu-Rave album. In short this isn't a music album, It's a soundtrack to a trend and the music on it is secondary.

Now there's nothing wrong with that. I'm all for making statements over musical content, but where are they on here?
This album has nothing to say, I get the impression that this album was made by a bunch of spoilt middle class kids that somehow lucked themselves a record deal and now they're desperately clinging on to the latest bandwagon in an attempt to divert attention from their total lack of originality & talent.

That's not to say the album is bad, I mean how can it be bad. They've not even attempted to do anything original to get wrong. This album is about every safe cliché done safely, which in the end means a pleasant nice safe album which bores you to death once you've heard it 3 or 4 times. But then I get the impression that was what they were aiming for anyway. We all know that No Age are one of those bands who are just around to make a bit of noise before their well-off parents finally lose their patience with them attempting to be 'artists' and find them some corporate job in middle management.

Don't think for one second you'll be remembering this album in years to come.

hmmmm......you've intrigued me Urban, i'll check that album out

Have you heard Wavves yet? I think that would describe Wavves more so than No Age.

I've been doing my best not to :D

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No Age - Nouns (Supplimental)

I think on reflection I may have been way to easy on this album yesterday.
I was trying to rack my brains to think of an analogy to explain just what I feel about this band. To me they are the indie Sugarbabes or the indie Atomic Kitten.
You know how you get these girls who when they are growing up want to be in pop bands. Singing in front of mirrors with hairbrushes to ABBA songs. They don't really have any interest in music they just want to do that. Well that's No Age , there's no difference. They're not artists, they're just posers with guitars.

Just like one of those pop singers will rattle off the same old names when talking about the pop they grew up on, you just know that No Age would do exactly the same thing if asked. Where as with the pop stars you'll get Jackson , Madonna , ABBA ....and so on. You just know that No Age would do exactly the same... VU , Psychocandy , Slanted & Enchanted .... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Every safe indie cliche basically which is what their album is.

So the next time you're picking up an album from the latest trend just imagine that you're buying an Atomic Kitten album instead, I mean you may as well be.

I dare you to listen. The only reason I ask is because of what you said about a spoilt middle class kid who lucks himself into a record deal is exactly what happened to Wavves.

I think My Bloody Valentine is the "influence" thrown around more often.

I think that falls under safe indie cliché.

I left out the word influence on purpose because that wasn't really what I was getting at.

What I meant was I think if you asked them which bands they grew up on you'd be able to predict they'd probably choose every safe indie classic of the past 20-30 years much in the same way some Simon Cowell sock puppet would name the same pop bands.

I can't say I agree with you at all and that's perfectly fine. To me, No Age are one of the most genuine bands I've heard lately that play music they are passionate about. Go on and tell me I'm just buying into the trend or whatever but I'm going to be listening to Nouns for years to come.

There's nothing wrong with buying into a trend if thats what makes you happy.

As trends go I just think it's an extremely boring one. I mean how many more times do the 80s need to get raided this decade?

Wavves have more songs in their locker than No Age. The thing with Nouns for me, it's highlights are great, there are 2 or 3 songs on it that i repeatedly listen to, then theres some 'experimental' noise interludes which go along ok, nothing too offensive. THEN, there is the rest of the album that i just skip.

In comparison, the album Wavvves is, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION, brimming with infectiously good pop songs. He may be a tosser, but he knows how to write a tune.

My point wasn't that I'm trying to jump into the trends just that I'm fine with it if that's the only way you view No Age fans.

Well i'm not suggesting you are. Just because you like an album doesn't mean your buying into a trend. You are perfectly entitled to listen to it on it's own merits that's fine. I never at any point suggested it was a bad album, my criticism of it that it was too safe , not bad.

What I am getting at is that this album will be seen as nothing more than filler for a here today gone tomorrow trend recorded by a here today gone tomorrow band who from what I can hear on this album have nothing of interest to say & no aspirations of recording anything remotely original.

I'm glad that's clear then and I can respect your opinions on it.

Hey, I thought you were going to stop being so easy on them.

I have a feeling that you are 100% correct about the future of this band's rep. I personally already regard them that way.

I really enjoyed reading your "Love" by The Cult review. I didn't know Ian had a fixation on Jim Morrison. But now that you mention it, it seems like I can hear a faint resemblance in his voice, he even looks like him too. And the "She Sells Sanctuary" music video is just fandamntastic. I am so unbelievably jealous that you got to see them live. Unless I ever get to see them live, I will hate you forever. ;) This is so stupid but since I am so intrigued by Ian's since of fashion I just have to ask you what he was wearing when you saw him.

Well the Morrisson fixation runs a bit deeper than that, I was thinking more of him writing songs about wolves , snakes & native American ideology & that sort of thing (Especially on the Ceremony album). Just like Morrisson did.

I remember this well because I was right at the front for their set.

He was wearing black motorcycle boots, black leather trousers, black leather jacket and had a really bright red polo neck sweater under it. Black 60s style shades (Which he never took off) and his hair was short too. He has like a black bob rather than the long flowing locks he's known for.

Basically he looked like he was auditioning for the Velvet Underground.

I actually went out & bought an outfit just like that a few weeks later , minus the leather trousers of course.

Ah, I see. But I still think he has a faint resemblance in his voice and he does look alot like him when he got older.

oh and you just had to tell me that didn't you^ haha

Very interesting. Thank you! I hope he could bust out his dance moves with all that leather on.

Do you still have that outfit? *austin powers purr :love:

I don't think he did that much dancing, he just sort of stood there looking cool & patrolled the front of the stage.

I still have the jacket (Along with another 6 :o: ) and I have some boots that are similar.

Still wouldn't be seen dead in leather trousers.

That's a good observation.
Another clue was when he was asked by former members of The Doors to impersonate Morrison professionally and Astbury jumped at the chance.

Trust me to miss the most obvious one :laughing:

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Psychic TV - N.Y. Scum

This album consists of two songs both of approx 15 minutes each. Here's a brief description of each song.

N.Y. Scum - For the first 5 minutes some guy rips as much feedback out of his guitar as he can manage while being backed by a bunch of Hare Krishna's on percussion, all the while a drunk couple has a domestic argument. For the next 5 minutes said drunk guy decides to meditate while still shouting for his best mate (Possibly). Then the guitarist returns with a drummer and the two of them alone with the drunk guy attempts some lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-fi Joy Division / White Stripes hybrid garage rock. The final 2 minutes drunk guy attempts to make a techno record.

Haters - What remnants of a song there is here is quickly forgotten about after just a couple of minutes as the song decends into some random shouting & howling feedback.

In a word ... Brilliant.

Boo Boo would shit himself listening to this

Rating 5/5 Soiled Pants
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This is a great idea for a Member Journal and will be keeping track of your ramblings.

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Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans

So i'm sitting at home debating whether to listen to Hex Enduction Hour for the millionth time when I hit upon an idea. Why don't I take a difficult album and see how long I can endure it.
The choice was an easy one after taking an instant dislike to this album on reputation alone now was the time to listen to it and see if that reputation is justified. Given that even some prog fans think this is overblown crap it will be interesting to see when a layman like myself makes of it. And if I don't like it, well at least I can thank it for being so ridiculously pompous & self absorbed that it helped create punk.

On we go....

00:20 - Some weird chanting, I appear to have picked up a Current 93 album by mistake.

01:30 - Oooh it's getting dramatic now

01:35 - Synths come in. It all seems to have gone a bit 'pages from Ceefax-ish'

03:07 - Vocals kick in at last

04:06 - It's just dawned on me i'm listening to an album with a Roger Dean cover, someone please kill me.

05:00 - Is Jon Anderson a secret Bee Gee's brother?

06:25 - I have to say this is holding my attention far more than I expected

06:55 - Oooh it's kicked in at last, ROCK N ROLL !!!!!!!!!

07:50 - Sorry but this still sounds like the Bee Gee's doing musical theatre to me

08:25 - Starting to get worried that i'm enjoying listening to the Bee Gee's doing musical theatre.

09:10 - Is this the end of the first song? Oh wait it's just the halfway mellow point.

10:00 - Vocals by Jon Anderson (Aged 12)

11:11 - Funky piano, nicely timed too I was starting to get a bit bored, my interest just perked up again.

12:18 - Guitar solo and i'm actually enjoying it too, nothing to overstated & bounces along nicely with the song.

13:05 - Slow introspective bit with epic crashing cymbals ... yawn.

15:00 - How the hell have I made it this far? Still feels like i've just started.

15:30 - Wish this slow bit would end

16:00 - Boredom beginning to set in.

16:40 - Oh here we go

17:00 - Wakeman goes mental, the rest of the band sounds like they're making music for some chase scene on some cop show. I'm loving this.

17:30 - Well that didn't last long. I was enjoying that too.

18:20 - Shut the fuck up Anderson, I want Wakeman back.

19:30 - Ooh we're building up to the climax now.

19:50 - Sounds like it's going out with a whimper rather than a bang, disappointing.

20:25 - Holy shit, I made it to the end of the first song. One down three to go.

21:00 - Second song starts off really quietly, I have to be honest for an album with the reputation this one has I was expecting something much more overblown , bombastic & dramatic. A lot of it seems quite introspective.

22:40 - This intro seems to be lasting forever.

25:00 - I'm really beginning to lose interest now. This song isn't going anywhere.

27:00 - Sod this i'm nipping out for a cigarette.

32:37 - Sounds exactly the same as it did when I left.

33:39 - The song seems to have finally upped a gear at last.

35:00 - The more 'rock' moments of this album are quite good, It's just having to wait 10 minutes for Jon Anderson to warbling about skies & suns & moons you have to endure to get to them that makes it annoying.

37:48 - Just over 3 minutes of the song remaining and yet again another long drawn out outro.

38:10 - Oh wait another verse, forget that last comment.

40:00 - Fuck sake , just end will you.

41:00 - At last, I hope the 3rd song is better.

41:30 - Well this is a bit different, Nice bit of percussion there.

43:00 - OK it wasn't THAT good. You can start the song now, please?

44:00 - Please start the song lads

44:22 - Is this it now?

44.23 - No it's another slow synth peace. You bastards, you got me going there.

45:25 - Oh great now he's singing along with it I hope the whole bloody song isn't like this.

46:22 - Stop / Start / Stop / Start / Stop / Start ... Yawn

47:10 - I'm sure they're making this up as they go along.

48:00 - I'm seriously beginning to debate surfing porn or something.

49:00 - I'm really struggling to see how this song was written it just seems like random band members showing off.

50:00 - Apparently the whole album with bonus tracks goes on for 2 hours, fuck that.

50:39 - Nine whole minutes of this damn song left, shame because I was really hoping i'd get to the hour mark.

51:35 - This whole continuous background guitar solo is seriously getting on my nerves now.

52:10 - Yeah thanks, Just suddenly stop the song get me all hoping it'll kick back off again with something special & then carry on with the same meandering rubbish thats been on for the last 12 minutes.

53:00 - Oh wow a guitar solo ................ AGAIN.

53:50 - Jon Anderson & Steve Howe appear to have gone into medieval minstrel mode.

53:52 - Check my spelling of the word 'medieval', Yes I spelled it wrong.

56:ish - Bugger , just reset my stopwatch by mistake.

57:ish - Feel like I should grab a lute & walk around saying 'hey nonny nonny' just to fit in.

59:ish Work out that 13 seconds into song 4 is the hour mark

59:laterish - Thank God thats over with.

60:00 - New song & my stopwatch restarted, now lets get to the end of this fucker.

61:38 - 20 mins to go. This song is alright when it decides to go somewhere.

63:00 - Come on lads rock out a bit, you are a rock band after all. It is allowed you know.

63:47 - My first yawn. I was expecting that 60 minutes earlier than this.

64:27 - Second yawn

65:09 - It's just occured to me most of this album exactly sounds the same for the most part, It's either individual keyboard parts or individual guitar parts that all sound the same. it's just broken up with different 'rock' bits.

68:00 - Seriously considering turning this off now, There's only 14 mins left but that's 14 minutes of my life i'll never see again.

68:45 - Badly in need of a piss.

69:30 - Decide to wait it out.

70:00 - This just sounds like really bad soft rock, I have no idea how this band get the praise they do judging by this stuff. I don't even get the impression i'm listening to really talented musicians because it just seems so bland.

72:00 - A halfway exciting bit at last, as I reach the final 10 minute countdown.

73.15 - You know what would be good now, a blistering guitar solo

73.20 - Oh here it comes

73:50 - More functional than blistering, oh well.

74:10 - Everything stops & we get loads of people banging cutlery together. Well I wasn't expecting that.

74:50 - Oh great, A fuckng drum solo. Way to make me listen right till the end you bastards.

76:30 - Seems to have descended into noise, Oh yeah it's easy to do now you've had 76 mins of showing off first.

77:20 - Please don't tell me I have 4 minutes of this soft muzak rubbish with Anderson warbling over it to end this thing.

78:30 - Looks like I do. Fuck it i'll just block my ears & hum for 3 minutes ..... I CAN DO THIS!!!!!!

79:40 - He appears to be singing about a circus, I think thats the first time on the whole album I actually paid any attention to any of the lyrics.

80:40 - We're building up to the big rock ending now

80:55 - And then it all goes quite again,way to spoil it STOP DOING THAT.

81:20 - Is that the end now?

81:35 - FUCK ME I DID IT !!!!!! TAKE THAT YOU PROG LOVING FUCKS, I TOOK ON THE BEST YOU GOT AND WON.


93:20 - Wonders if he can get Boo Boo to do the same thing for Hex Enduction Hour :D

It's interesting what some people find boring and others don't, I've listened to this album on the whole at least 20 or so times. I guess you could call that a superhuman ability.

I do agree that The Ancient is a bunch of random wank. But I love the other three tracks, Ritual could have done without the drum solo though, you had an otherwise mellow song and it just sounded horribly out of place.

And I can't argue about Jon not being a terribly good lyricist, but I love his singing so it's never bothered me. Very few prog fans really care about lyrics, and I doubt Yes or most prog bands put a lot of emphasis on it, I think they just pick random words that best go along with the music.

Jon sure likes to say "retain" and "disgrace" a lot, that's for sure.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with your review, I was expecting something far more scathing.

But please stop dissing Roger Dean. :mad:

Also, I don't realy have anything against The Fall, it's just common practice that when someone trashes my favorite band, I trash theirs. :D

I was planning on Topographic Oceans being my first review on this site. :(

I wouldn't call it a boring album as such. I would say it's more an album where you have to really wait to get to the few & far between good bits.
I found it more frustrating than boring.

To be fair so was I

No :D

I wouldn't call that a review, It was more a commentary.

What other Yes albums have you heard and what were your thoughts on them?

You still haven't listened to The Fall of Troy :wave:

I've not heard really heard enough to make a judgement.

Offhand I can remember hearing the title track on Closer To The Edge and not hating it, but thats about it.

Other than that just the cheesy 80s singles that most people know.