I never felt magic crazy as this:
Spooky Tooth ‘You Broke My Heart So I Busted Your Jaw’ - well, you could get away with album titles like that fifty years ago. Happily the music contained within is much subtler, epitomising the powerful, yet tuneful, hard rock with a gospel edge that this criminally underrated band purveyed though many lineup changes. Mike Harrison RIP;
Dyble Longdon ‘Between A Breath And A Breath’ - that both the gifted singers behind this excellent 2020 recording were soon to leave us adds extra poignancy to this lovely record. Judy never sang more sweetly than here. This is currently available from Burning Shed at a ludicrously low price if anyone’s interested;
Soft Machine ‘Other Doors’ - the authenticity of their name may be a moot point this far down the line but, whatever, this is a damn fine jazz rock record by a band of supremely able musicians with plenty of echt Canterbury Scene history between them. And by including great reworkings of ‘Joy Of A Toy’ (from the first Softs’ LP) and ‘Penny Hitch’ (from ‘Seven’), they’ve got my attention anyway;
Sassafras ‘Riding High’ - one of many “old wave” bands of the immediate pre-punk era that have been undeservedly forgotten. Imagine a Welsh Poco with Allmanseque twin guitars and you’ll get the idea. They could pen a decent song or six too, as on their third (and sadly, final) album;
The Ruts ‘The Best Of’ - I underrated this band in their own time, thinking them an inferior version of The Clash. How wrong I was. In fact, their music has dated better than most of The Clash’s has. IMHO of course. In the context of which…
Sham 69 ‘Tell Us The Truth’ … my love of which has no real logic - other than well, I just do - and happy teenage times;
Sweet ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’ - listening to this today, it’s hard to comprehend just how far ahead of their game The Sweet (definite article included as that’s how we knew them) really were back in 1974. This is an authentic template for all of the NWOBHM bands that emerged half a decade later. How sad that many only remember them for their Little Willy*;
Nick Drake ‘Bryter Layter’ - well, because it’s there;
UB40 ‘The Earth Dies Screaming’ 12” 45 - so ubiquitous have UB40 become with mega-selling cod reggae covers, it’s easy to forget the creativity and individuality that distinguished their early records. This is a fine example: a mournful, beautiful bass line played a thousand times over whilst all sorts of sounds and vibes weave in and around it. Just fabulous;
Art Ensemble of Chicago ‘Full Force’ - the AEC’s ECM albums are generally more accessible than their earlier Actuel titles, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy listening. Ain’t no-one else sounds like this;
Dave Holland Big Band ‘What Goes Around’ - intelligent, modern big band sounds from a masterly collective led by the ever-searching Holland, surely one of the UK’s most distinguished jazz exports. The title track is a must-hear 17 minute epic;
Haydn: String Quartets Op.33 nos.1 - 3 (Chiaroscuro Quartet) - this has rightly gleaned a rave review in the latest issue of Gramophone. There’s sensitivity, verve and character in every bar of this music and the Chiaroscuros miss nothing. I could almost see their armboards’ resin coming out my speakers, so energetic is their playing in the finale of No.1;
Beethoven: Symphony no.4 (Verbier Fest CO/Gabor Takacs-Nagy) - suitably fleet reading of LvB’s happiest symphony, from an attractive, newly-issued box of all nine;
Roussel: Symphony no.3 (Orch de la Suisse Romande/Ernest Ansermet) - Albert Roussel’s symphonic muse was as individual as Sibelius and as purely French as his near contemporary was Finnish. This is the best of his four symphonies, superbly realised in a 1956 recording which sonically defies its age;
Dvorak: Symphony no.9 (BRSO/Rafael Kubelik) - performances don’t come much more idiomatic than this. Kubelik applies a suitably Bohemian approach to his fellow countryman’s music and in this Orfeo live recording gets the balance between drama and lyricism just right. I often consider that the underlying doom of this work has been understated by its popularity, but not here;
Delibes: Coppelia and Sylvia extracts (OSR/Ansermet) - more vintage Ansermet, this time in delightful French ballet music. This is just, well… right;
Schumann, orch. Glazunov: Carnival
(OSR/Ansermet) - I’m not usually a fan of orchestral versions of piano works but this is a veritable party set to music;
Ligeti: Atmospheres etc (Abbado, Boulez, Atherton etc) - great one-stop, single CD sampler of some of Ligeti’s best music. There are a couple of long organ pieces which could easily masquerade as kosmische musik, so radical is the manipulation of the organ’s stops and electronics. This is a seriously enjoyable disc for anyone interested in the outer reaches of “serious” music. Just four sobs from an amazin’ online retailer (and no, I’m not on commission);
Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A, Op.101 (Emil Gilels) - as close as I think I’ll ever hear the true soul of this perfect music. The slow movement is just transcendental.
(* This appalling quip comes - with apologies - courtesy of the Are You Being Served Appreciation Society and its Carry On affiliates.)
What have we got?
Vibelicious regards, dudes
Dave x
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