Here Lies Man – You Will Know Nothing. Second album from heavy Afrobeat guys, pretty much Led Zep meets Sun Araw. A bit one-trick-pony-ish, but it’s a good trick… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1Dk0AVSOU
Kacey Johansing – The Hiding. I’ve seen some praise for this, but I didn’t think it was that exciting. West Coast vibe with vague alternative aspirations, but never really gets beyond ‘nice sound’.
Concretism – For Concrete And Country
Mint Field – Pasar De Las Luces
The Advisory Circle – Ways Of Seeing
Nest Egg – Nothingness Is Not A Curse
VA – Paris In The Spring
Gonga & Beth Gibbons – ‘Black Sabbeth’. No idea why I haven’t come across this before. Genius idea brilliantly executed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mc7D6hs5U
Nektar – Journey To The Centre Of The Eye / Recycled. Randomly pulled from the shelf, dodgy Russian twofer. Nektar were a 70s British cosmic prog band formed and based in Germany, which meant they never made that much impression over here, but were big in both Europe and the US. JTTCOTE’s murky psychedelic vibe must have sounded slightly old-fashioned even in 1971, but it’s actually a rather good if not entirely memorable album – imagine SF Sorrow era Pretty Things plus Atomic Rooster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAbMdwfJB6A Recycled is from 75 and is much more classic prog – some of the keyboard sounds are a bit troubling, but it’s actually very accomplished, and certainly would have given the British prog royalty of the time a run for their money. And the album before this one – Down To Earth – features Robert Calvert… Hmmm, I’d better investigate this lot further.
Listen With Father:
Have done a new rock comp for the girls. ‘Hocus Pocus’ by Focus is just blummin’ nuts – they loved the yodelling. But then the youngest started talking about this track called ‘Toto Africa’… We listened to it over dominos. It’s strange how something you dismissed at the time as pappy soft rock is suddenly now revealed as a gorgeous piece of hyper-melodic songwriting… It’s age, isn’t it?
The Vinyl Countdown – E/F:
Bought a new stylus for the old turntable, and thus inspired (and left alone for a few hours), I blasted through a few choice selections…
801 – Live. I’m as big a fan of the first few Eno albums as any sane person should be, but I’d don’t think I’ve played this much since buying it second-hand on Leicester market in 1987. Which now seems somewhat mystifying, because it is great. Excellent version in particular of ‘Third Uncle’, but Phil Manzanera is the real star of the show here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqNB2rE9biU
Electric Sun – Earthquake. Bought this on a school trip to Cologne when I was 14, because by coincidence, the copy of Kerrang I had with me had an interview with Uli Roth (ex-Scorpions, guitarist extraordinaire and leader of ES), where it was revealed that you could only get this album in Germany… Basically, if you’re a fan of Hendrix (who Roth was/is clearly obsessed with), you will love this record. Oh, and the ten minute title track is one of the greatest prog/classical/metal guitar-driven instrumentals ever! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qNxnCH_Ts
Eloy – Colours. More Germans, and much like the aforementioned Nektar, their brand of heavy (and occasionally ludicrous) cosmic prog found a big audience in Europe during the 70s, but meant nothing over here, primarily because they never got a British release before Heavy Metal Records started putting them out in the early 80s. This is their last album before HMR picked them up, and is rather wonderful. The heavily accented vocs might be an acquired taste, but the music is great, TDSOTM/WYWH era Floyd, plus a bit of Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre thrown in – and yet Eloy have a definite sound of their own. Nobody else was doing this type of music with such aplomb in 1980, that’s for sure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ceTNw_L5k
Th’ Faith Healers – Lido. Ah, the Camden ‘Lurch’ scene of the early pre-grunge and Britpop 90s. It might have only consisted of about five bands, but it left behind some awesome sounds. This is exactly the type of album that people will be falling over themselves to herald as a lost classic in 20 years’ time, being ferociously poised and playfully clever at the same time. You can hear how much they really loved Can, even putting aside the rather nifty cover of ‘Mother Sky’ here… Really, if you don’t know TFH, you need to give this a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZufkC4O6gLU
|
