It's a lot simpler than all of that.
Seventies jazz just started to open
up and got the response that Bebop
got a quarter century before, but
now it was coming from Blue Note
brown-nosers. "That's not jazz ... "

You would've thought these people
would've known that this movement
wasn't just gonna be a flash in the pan
after Bitches Brew - especially when
...Fillmore, Jack Johnson and Live-Evil
had already come out before ...Corner.

That doesn’t explain Eugene Chadbourne’s reaction.

What I like about Molina is that across the three albums of hers I have, I don’t know what to expect. Not only song to song but within a song, she’ll take unexpected left turns that always keeps her compositions fresh.

You can cut the atmosphere on this one with a broad sword. All that is night and winter and magical is contained herein. This is my go-to album at night if they day has me wired and I need to calmly slide into a quiet evening. My favorite memory of this album is spinning this on vinyl at night while a storm raged outside.

I'm sold based on the album cover alone. The music helps, too.

Holding the gatefold sleeve in your hands while you spin this is a special feeling. :)

Weird. This is coming up in the ADC soon. Anyway, I'll put a little something down here and expand on it next week in the Club. Magdalith has an amazing, unique voice, perfectly suited for avant-folk, for it equally frightens and excites. This is as freaky as vocals get, and I cannot help but think that we are getting only the slightest peek into the soul of a woman scarred by the Holocaust and enamored of the Eucharist. The vocals set the piano on fire.

This is an incredible debut. They’ve got a great sound, like they’ve been playing together for a while. As always with the Canterbury scene, this band couches humor in complexity.

This album was recorded in Turkey, her only album to be done outside the USSR. This is one of those obscure—for Western listeners—non-English language folk albums I’ve run across in my musical sojourn. This album always sends me to investigating what traditional Azerbaijani instruments, if any, I can hear on this album. I fear fiddles and drums, so I wonder if they are the kamancha and the gosha nagara. (Sorry, no listening link available.)

I feel like I’m sitting right there in the prison with the guys watching the show—the most heartfelt, candid show I’ve ever heard. Not only is Cash an unparalleled storyteller, he’s really got a heart for the prisoners he’s playing for. I really like how the guys applaud, letting me know exactly what lyrics or licks best tickle the imprisoned listeners. The music rollicks along, but there are quite chilling moments, too, like when the voice announces normal prison business over the PA. Whenever I finish listening to this album, I have mixed feelings: I go on with my life, but those guys all go back to their cells.

"The judge said son, what is your alibi
If you were somewhere else, then you won't have to die
I spoke not a word, thou it meant my life
For I'd been in the arms of my best friend's wife"

*laughter and raucous applause*

This is an excellent EP of indie folk. I know this guy's other work with Grizzly Bear, but that stuff is just all right for me. This EP, however, is much more engaging. A darling, warm little EP.

oh

I found a link for each of the 7 tunes if you would prefer a favorite from the album.

Nah. That one's good! Thanks.

This is another one of Yoshida Tatsuya’s projects, and I really enjoy the moments of sweet melodic guitar phrasings over the brutal prog frame as well as the minimal interludes of the guitar and drums playing off each other.

Phil Collins and Steve Hackett join Genesis on this the band’s third album, a smart album full of a lot of striking imagery, including conflation of themes of sex and violence.

You can really hear the tension between blues rock and folk rock on this album, and it’s wonderful. I’ve noticed that a lot of great art is borne of conflict—I mean, that’s an aphorism, but it’s certainly apropos in this case. Ian Anderson takes artistic control on this the band’s second album.

When I first started listening to music seriously all those years ago, back in the mists of time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, one of the first serious, critical opinions I came across was that this is the best pop / rock album of all time. And for a while, I nodded and went along with that opinion. It didn’t take long for me to realize, however, that this is not the case. I’m not trying to take anything away from this album—I love it, I rate it a perfect 5—but the best ever? Not even close. Anyway, it’s a fun album with a lot of different things going on. I mean, “When I’m Sixty Four” follows “Within You Without You”, the two most dissimilar tracks on the album, the former being a silly song with an old dancehall feel, the latter a philosophical exploration with a sitar. And this is how you end an album!

The vocalist sounds a lot like Bowie in spots, adding, in my mind, a touch of the artistic and eccentric to the heaviness of this prog rock album, especially in the exploration of witchcraft in the Middle Ages. These kinds of dark themes proceed through the end of the album, with the apocalyptic scenario of a flood that wipes out civilization.

A lovely little out-of-the-way record steeped in ethnic Russian musical sensibilities with some bizarre avant leanings. The vocals are an unexpected delight. (Anatoly Vapirov, saxophonist and composer, leading the Leningrad Jazz Ensemble.)

Wow. My collection is dominated not only by 70s music but by prog rock. Oh well. I love the complexity and technical proficiency, but those elements alone wouldn’t be enough. I like how Gentle Giant didn’t bow to the commercial fashion of the time but set out to make music that wasn’t what the listening public expected. They broke rules, and they did it well. The album, as made known by the band, is aptly named, inviting lovers of music to acquire a taste for a new kind of rock sound.

Hey, does this peach taste like ass to you?

Gentle Giant had such an amazing run of albums from the debut right up to Interview. What's your favorite GG album? I'd say for me it's a tie between In a Glass House and Free Hand.

In a Glass House.

Hell yeah.

The Power and the Glory is a contender, though.

This is a bit different from their other albums in that it is a collection of versions of traditional ballads, thus rendering it more folksy. This is therefore an album of beautiful, immersive storytelling that cannot be enjoyed on a mere casual listen. They’re telling amazing stories here, so pay attention.

I like this album. The music sounds great, but it honestly doesn’t live up to their earlier stuff, and for me, the reason is simple: persecution complex. Win needs to get over himself. No one is persecuting transgender people, and religious fanatics aren’t trying to stop people from listening to music. If there are such people, they’re fringe, and Will is just setting up a strawman. Get over yourself, Will The best thing about you is your wife singing in French, which is, admittedly, to die for.

I've got a soft spot for Orpheus and Eurydice.

Whatever the original concept for this album was, and no matter how the songwriters scrapped their ideas, what I take away from this incredibly catchy pop album is this: here’s a story of a bloke who decided to go to Hollywood to make it big, had a mental breakdown, and realized that all is vanity. He became living proof of that ancient wisdom, having gone around the sun to find the moon. It’s got incredibly depressing themes couched in bright, fun, poppy sounds. This is exactly the kind of pop I like: cynical themes embedded in fun tunes. Also, this is one of the few albums in my collection that came from a real life recommendation, not something I either found on my own or was recommended by someone on the internet.

A beautiful, sylvan album of neo-Medieval instrumental songs. The perfect thing to listen to out in nature when the leaves are changing and you feel the earth about to enter its annual winter slumber.

This album has so many great songs, led by “Mother and Child Reunion” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, the two tracks that’ll have you singing them for days afterwards. The lead single lays the blueprint for where Simon will later go with Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints, which some critics say is nothing more than an exploitation or appropriation of music beyond America’s borders.

This is a decent debut, but their later stuff, when they find their voice, is so much better. There are some awkward spots as they try desperately to be different. Don’t worry, lads! You get there, rising above the mere fashion of the times.

This is a compilation album of four Rachmaninoff concertos, Haitink conducting the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Ashkenazy playing piano. Am I the only one who cranks the volume when “classical” (using the term colloquially) comes up in rotation? There’s so much nuance one can so easily miss.

Luv u 2, fam :love:

Despite using pretty much the same musical theme throughout, this album doesn’t drag. It might be because of the breakdown of that structure in Parts 2 and 3, keeping the main motif fresh.

^ ****ing great record from a great band. I'm still trying to find a time to sit through all of Otokotachi no Wakare

Today my 01011001 CD arrived. Had to go with CD since the vinyl is about $350.


Disc 1 is "Y", depicted on the CD art. It's a planet of beings so technologically advanced that they've gained not only telepathy but immortality.


Disc 2 is "Earth", the turdball you all live on, where your thoughts are controlled without you knowing it by the inhabitants of Planet Y. As a matter of fact, they made your ancestors from extremophiles on a meteorite.


As always, Arjen gets together a who's-who of cheese.

I got Wardruna's most recent project, Skald, on vinyl the other day. This was a request from ked, and I was only too happy to oblige her.


It has a gatefold sleeve with simple monochromatic art.


It comes with a booklet containing not only the lyrics and their English translation but also an explanation of the project.


"Skald was recorded live in the studio with the intention of capturing the uncompromising energy of a live performance rather than aiming for a flawless and polished expression. It sets out to give voice to the ancient craft that once lay at the heart of the Norse oral traditions, presented as it takes shape in the hands of a humble contemporary skald today."

This album doesn’t blaze any new trails in the genre, but it’s still a good sample of what zeuhl can do when it’s got a healthy dose of jazz fusion mixed in. There’s a lot of energy packed into this one.