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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
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redfish365
redfish365
710 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 18:22
Thanks a ton, Zphage! I love listening to music and enjoy putting these lists together each week.
Sadly, at this time, I don't have a turntable so my roughly 1000 remaining vinyl albums don't get played. Am going to rectify this soon.
So, to answer your question, 100% of what I listen to and thus include on my lists are cd.
zphage
zphage
3378 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 18:45
redfish365 wrote:
Thanks a ton, Zphage! I love listening to music and enjoy putting these lists together each week.
Sadly, at this time, I don't have a turntable so my roughly 1000 remaining vinyl albums don't get played. Am going to rectify this soon.
So, to answer your question, 100% of what I listen to and thus include on my lists are cd.


You are in Chicago, right?
Are there many stores left?
Or are you buying primarily Amazon, eBay, etc.,?
Kentauren
Kentauren
27 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 20:12
Disappears: Lux
Gila: S/t
Cul De Sac: Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall
Entombed: To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth
The Heads: Relaxing with the Heads
Flying Saucer Attack: New Lands
Division of Laura Lee: Black City
Dirge: Elysian Magnetic Fields
Guapo: Black Oni
redfish365
redfish365
710 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 20:14
zphage wrote:
redfish365 wrote:
Thanks a ton, Zphage! I love listening to music and enjoy putting these lists together each week.
Sadly, at this time, I don't have a turntable so my roughly 1000 remaining vinyl albums don't get played. Am going to rectify this soon.
So, to answer your question, 100% of what I listen to and thus include on my lists are cd.


You are in Chicago, right?
Are there many stores left?
Or are you buying primarily Amazon, eBay, etc.,?



Suburban Chicago, yep.
Unfortunately there aren't many shops left... I'm lucky that there is 1 small, independent shop nearby - Musicmasters. But he doesn't stock a lot of stuff I like so yeah, its mail order mostly Amazon, Aquarius, Allthatisheavy, Sulatron, Wayside, Record Heaven (although I've had problems with them lately as my credit card company freaks out when I place orders overseas... super annoying!) and a few others. I like to buy direct from the band or label when possible.
Popel Vooje
5373 posts

Edited Sep 11, 2011, 20:22
Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 20:20
Daminxa wrote:
A thoroughly splendid Krautrock compilation album that even the kids love. Hasn't left the car stereo yet more or less since it was bought.


Is it that "Deutsche Elektronische Muzik" one that came out a couple of years back?
Stevo
Stevo
6664 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 22:06
Pere Ubu Datapanik In The Year Zero disc 1.
The Hearpen singles plus the Modern Dance. As with last week's selections I was checking back through some of the cds I had copies of at the camp. Think there are several tracks here that are pretty danceable. The rhythm section was pretty funky in places, possibly more obviously a little later though. Seems to be evident on Dub Housing even if the record title refers more to the effect of wind on Baltimore housing.
& again music I should be listening to a lot more since the first 3 lps at least are classics.

Faces Good Boys When They're Asleep
A compi that again I should be more familiar with. Just getting into listening to it as I read the Acid Jazz Books bio of Ronnie Wood. Interesting book but I don't think I'm a major fan of the writing style.
Anyway, listening to this has me thinking of getting hold of the individual lps. Probably ought to know those much better too.
There's a wistfulness or something that comes in on at least a lot of the early material on here that had me wondering if the Band were a big influence. More soulsearching than their earlier incarnation as the Small Faces or is that true? Rod Stewart's solo material around this time was semi acoustic folky orientated. The first few lps by him are also pretty great. Must find my Reason To Believe set. Shame he's not better known for this stuff than the disco era material.

Creation Our Music Is Red With Purple Flashes
Comprehensive compi of the archetypal freakbeat ensemble. Shame there isn't more of this stuff but this cd is pretty solid, even the covers. Crunchy mod rock with some interesting lyricism.
Every home should have a copy. Hyperbolic me?

Eugene McDaniels Headless Horsemen Of The apocalypse
I first bought this on lp thinking I might have come across a companion lp to Dr John's Gris Gris or something. It's pretty weird but not as ghostly as that. The cd is more noticeably funky than my first impressions of the vinyl had me thinking. & it was heavily sampled by hiphoppers etc.
The lyricism can be a bit overstated. the last track gets a bit patronising to native americans. What I always found strange was how this early 60s soul artist had gone to Europe/Scandinavia hung out with hippies and learnt how to not sing. Listening back to this I think his voice here is more tuneful than I remembered.
Interesting lp anyway.

Pretty Things Parachute.
Always stumble to find a proper description for this lp. Semi acoustic atmospheric post psychedelia? Seems to capture the feeling of what it must have felt like to hang around Notting Hill/Ladbroke Grove at the time.
I really like it and again should play it more frequently.

Henry Cow various live sets from '75 & '76
I had a friend on the solidarity camp asking about some crazy prog stuff I'd played the night before as my walkman on random played through speakers. I first thought he meant Brainticket but it turned out to be these. I've now transfered my archive of their live stuff to an active hardrive which I should have done months ago.
So I'm listening through their tumbling greatness. '75 is about my favourite era of them. I think there were line-up changes shortly before or after.
Some of this stuff reminds me of Bitches Brew played on toothpicks. Must be the xylophone Fred Frith plays or something. I also love his guitar sound. When I first came across the band through their Concerts lp I pictured the guitar sound as a giant black ballbearing continually turning in deep space. yum.
The use of horns is also pretty scrumptious.

Ernest Tubb Texas Troubadour The Hits disc 2
It took a little getting used to Tubb's vocal tone which on first listening is pretty off-key. Might actually be that he improves over the course of the disc.
But the instrumental interplay here's pretty cool anyway. Honky tonk country with a big jazz influence. Tubb was one of the first people to introduce electric guitar in his music too. I like this pre-countrypolitan type stuff quite a bit.

Fela Kuti Black President disc 2
Keep listening to disc 1 & neglecting this side stupidly. Thios is as good as that. Has Roroforo Fight on for one thing 17 minutes of Afrobeat funk groove.

Velvet Underground various
another band I've had most of my archive of on an unused hardrive.
Transfered it onto my main one at the same time as the Henry Cow.
What needs to be said about them? Accentuation on the band acknowledged r'n'b influence that permeates their entire career? Band seem to be the meeting point of uptown cerebrality and downtown body groove. I find it very hard to stand still when things like I'm Not a Young Man Any More are playing, seems to go straight to the hips.

various other bits & pieces I'm sure will come back to me later.

watching
saw the end of Torchwood tonight. Very moving. Won't say more than that since it hasn't appeared this side of the Atlantic yet. But does mean I can go back to camp and not have to wait for my next home trip to catch it.

The Guard. Hadn't realised this was set in the countryside of this county. Found it ribticklingly funny in places. Recommended.
Liam Glesson as corrupt cop.

reading
The Talented Mr Ripley
been wanting to read this since at least the time I saw the film. Somehow not got my hands on a copy til now. Like the writing, but I think the plot hinges on things that would be impossible now with vastly improved information technology over the 50s when it was written. Hope I find the rest of the Ripley books before too long.

Fela This Bitch Of a Life
recommended reading for any fan of the Afrobeat legend

Rock On Wood Terry Rawlings
Interesting read but I'm not a big fan of the writing style. Reworked considerably since the original version apparently. Had this sitting as my bog book for months until I decided I'd try to get through it faster this week.
flashbackcaruso
1058 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 22:30
The Kinks - Lola Vs Powerman & The Moneygoround (while enjoying this often overlooked gem (although not overlooked by Wes Anderson, who included three songs on the OST of 'The Darjeeling Ltd,) I found myself wondering what else could be dredged up from the dwindling archives to justify doing a deluxe edition of the sort the other Kinks classics recently received. Perhaps a DVD of the Ray Davies-starring BBC drama 'The Long Distance Piano Player', which featured this album's 'Got To Be Free' as a theme song?)

Hawkwind - Hall Of The Mountain Grill (one of several albums I reached for after giving 'Picnic At Hanging Rock' another viewing. Some people claim that composer Bruce Smeaton ripped off the title track of this for his 'Ascent Theme'. It's certainly very similar, but nowhere near as plagiaristic as his score for 'The Cars That Ate Paris', which seems to make heavy use of the intro to Elton John's 'Sixty Years On' at regular intervals, or at least something that sounds uncannily like it).

Juana Molina - Segunda (bought this album without a moment's hesitation after catching her live at Homefires several years ago. Wonderfully hypnotic and eerie at times, but nowhere near as captivating as witnessing her building up massive layers of sound entirely solo through a looping pedal, the best practioner of this clever technique that I've seen).

Elvis Presley - Elvis Is Back
Elvis Presley - Something For Everybody (a nicely-packaged reissue of these two albums, with original tracklistings restored after the previous editions annoyingly mixed the bonus tracks into the running order rather than adding them at the end. The effect of 'Elvis Is Back' as a dynamic comeback album is slightly muted by having a handful of mediocre songs early on, but the last 5 tracks are all corkers, with the early morning extended blues jam 'Reconsider Baby' being a sensational closer and a career highlight. 'Something For Everybody' interestingly divides itself into a 'Ballad Side' and a 'Beat Side' with both styles being represented by a handful of minor classics and a couple of stinkers. 'There's Always Me' makes for a rather interesting opening track, Elvis going from sublimely understated to full-on operatic Mario Lanza mode in just 2 minutes).

Elgar - The Dream Of Gerontius (bought this for £2 at a carboot sale, the same vinyl box set which Spencer Banks is seen playing at the start of David Rudkin's enigmatic Play For Today 'Penda's Fen'. The role of Gerontius inevitably involves too much of the (to me) generic warbling from the lead tenor, a style of singing I've never really got on with, but much of the chorale work is sublimely beautiful. Shame it doesn't feature the eerie Radiophonic Workshop 'remix' as heard on the original TV play).

The Monkees - Instant Replay
The Monkees - Present (The 'Prefab Three' on their way down, but still pulling together some very interesting material from recent sessions and old out-takes. Wonderful country rock from Nesmith, oddball experiments from Dolenz, and the surprisingly stinging (via Neil Young's lead guitar) acid rock of Jones's 'You And I' alongside his usual, and occasionally sublime, MOR).

JS Bach - The Well-Tempered Clavier (I know this sounds terribly uncultured, but I bought this single Naxos CD of selections from both 'Books' purely for 'Prelude No.1 in C Minor', so beautifully used on the OST of 'Picnic At Hanging Rock'. None of the other pieces really did much for me, sounding too much like the purely academic excercises they originally were, but I'm sure many of the more classically inclined Heads out there would disagree with me).
FifePsy
FifePsy
540 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 22:53
Specific highlights:

Delphic Vapours - Get Off Their Knees. Enjoying this a huge amount. Intriguing mix of atmosphere, twang and kosmische vibes. Entirely improvised on two guitars although the overall soundscape doesn't sound particularly guitar generated. Bargain of the year at a £5! Looks like some other interesting stuff is also on the Critical Heights label which is a new one on me and will investigate further!.

Roscoe Mitchell - Far Side. Pretty superb, newish ECM release from Art Ensemble legend recorded live with great bunch of young players.

Lester Bowie - The Great Pretender. Mitchell's album made me want to dig this out again. Another great AEC offshoot recording (Also on ECM).

The Fall - The Marshall Suite. Welcome 3CD reissue.

Stefano Pilia - Action Silence Prayers. Was recommended this. Pilia is an Italian guitarist who operates somewhere in the realm of ambient Eno meets the Durutti Column.

These also got an airing:
Adrian Utley and Drew Mullholland - Warminster
Kevin Drumm - Imperial Horizon
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Carla Bozulich/Evangelista - Prince of Truth
Harold Budd & Cocteaus - The Moon and the Melodies
Tony Scott - Music for Zen Meditation
Alvin Lucier - Navigations for Strings/Small Waves
Gloria Coates - 1, 5&6
Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light
Lambchop - Is a Woman
The Police - Ghost in the Machine
Andy Summers - The Golden Wire.

Have a great week all.
FifePsy
FifePsy
540 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 23:18
Stevo wrote:

Some of this stuff reminds me of Bitches Brew played on toothpicks. Must be the xylophone Fred Frith plays or something. I also love his guitar sound. When I first came across the band through their Concerts lp I pictured the guitar sound as a giant black ballbearing continually turning in deep space. yum.


Like it!
keith a
9574 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 11 September 2011 CE ♥
Sep 11, 2011, 23:55
Fourth Drawer Down – Associates
Classic compilation of a & b-sides that MacKenzie & Rankine released straight after each other back in 1981. Kitchen Person still sounds like one of the most bonkers records ever.

The Party’s Over - King Post Kitsch
Recent album on the Scottish Song By Toad label which is also home to Meursault. There’s a bit of everything here but it’s a really enjoyable set.

The Trip – Laetitia Sadier
The nice Stereolab lady sings a few songs in that unmistakeable accent. I’m still not keen on her version of Summertime, but otherwise, more than decent stuff.

Louder Than Bombs – The Smiths
A compilation that seemed a real cash-in at the time, but ultimately proved a great way to get loads of great a and b-sides in one place. I've been playing London loads lately.

A BBC History - Tyrannosaurus Rex & T Rex
Kinda brings it home just how much Bolan changed in just a few days. There are some great versions of those old esoteric Ty Rex tracks here.

RCD Blues Collection Volume 16 – V/A
I thought this had been lost for good, but there it was in a clear plastic wallet hidden amongst some cd’s. Good to hear Jimmy Anderson’s Naggin’ and there’s a great track by Smokey Wilson.

Straight To You: The Gothic Country & Blues That Inspired Nick Cave – V/A
Excellent set. I could listen to Ella Jenkins Wade In The Water all day!

The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years – The Wild Swans
If you liked that late 70’s / early 80’s Liverpool sound this is a MUST, because the band who released one of that scene’s finest moments (Revolutionary Spirit) are back with a bang. Paul Simpson is a top notch writer and the production backs up his work quite beautifully.

Also...
Neon Bible - Arcade Fire

S/T - Grizzzzy Bear

Dwellers On The Threshold – Tarwater

Phil Spector Definitive Collection – V/A

Bad Seeds: Nick Cave Roots & Collaborations (Mojo) – V/A

I Can See For Miles (Lost Tracks From America’s Psychedelic Underground) – V/A (Excellent Mojo cd from a couple of years ago)

Plus some other old Mojo & Uncut cd's and some live Beefheart, etc.
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