Take me away from this big bad world and agree to marry me…
Soft Machine ‘Fifth’ - the Softs’ first post-Wyatt LP is patchy but, in ‘All White’, ‘Drop’ and ‘Pigling Bland’ has at least three bona fide Canterbury classics;
Soft Machine ‘Other Doors’ - I’m tempted to put the name of the band behind this in inverted commas after the aforesaid record but, under whatever moniker, this is a mighty decent jazz rock album. Don’t be fooled by its ‘Fourth’ graphics - or its (excellent) cover of a ‘Fifth’ tune - into thinking it’s a return to that era’s sound, though. Aside from the Jan Garbarek-like ‘Crooked Usage’, this is more akin to an updated ‘Bundles’/‘Softs’ style, and I’m happy with that;
Egg ‘The Polite Force’ - a quite different Canterbury vibe here, with offbeat time signatures dictating the songwriting process, excepting Dave Stewart’s freeform ‘Boilk’. He’d hone his compositional chops far more effectively in his next band;
Mogwai ‘As The Love Continues’ - beauty and threat in equal sonic regard. It can be done - and is here;
Killing Joke ‘…what’s THIS for?’ - threat without beauty. And the tension builds… magnificently;
Discharge ‘Fight Back’ EP - and yes, it’s still a messed up fucked up fucking system, 43 years on;
Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy In The UK’/‘I Wanna Be Me’ 45 - the only Pistols record anyone really needs. After this, they went heavy metal. :-) Seriously though, did they ever cut a better side than ‘I Wanna Be Me’? I mean, really?
Blur ‘Coffee and TV’ 45 - and have Blur ever topped this? Sorry Damon, but this is the real shit;
Rare Bird ‘Born Again’ - Rare Bird had adopted a cool, funkier edge by the time this fifth and final album was released in 1974. If they remind me of a saxless Average White Band, i mean that as a compliment;
The Police ‘Regatta de Blanc’ - it’s funny, I never liked The Police in their prime, but they’ve (partly) won me over with age. Ignoring its overplayed singles, this is really a bit of a groove, dodgy mock-Jamaican vocalisms notwithstanding;
Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’ - inhabiting a sound world all of its own. Ain’t no one else hits this vibe. And hail that rare thing: a double album that truly justifies all four sides;
Slowdive ‘Everything Is Alive’ - this is really growing on me. For no good reason I’d left Slowdive behind after their first couple of albums (half my life ago!) but, on the strength of this ethereal gem, I’ve got some catching up to do;
Cocteau Twins ‘Stars and Topsoil’ - Slowdive’s biggest influencers still sound fresh and innovative after all these years. I must renew my acquaintance with their back catalogue too. In the meantime, this 4AD era comp will do nicely;
Black Star Riders ‘Wrong Side Of Paradise’ - heads down no nonsense mindless boogie at its searing best;
UFO ‘Force It’ - there’s a distinct contrast between hard rock and heavy metal. This exemplifies the former as well as anything else I can think of: intelligent, tuneful rock with plenty of edge;
Kiss ‘Psycho Circus’ - hard to believe it’s now a quarter century since this (sadly one-off) “reformation” album was unleashed. It’s dated well, I think. Frehley mightn’t feature as much as I’d like, but his ‘Into The Void’ is vintage Ace;
Any Trouble ‘Present Tense’ - quality AOPP (adult orientated power pop) from the great Clive Gregson and his able cohorts;
Can ‘Saw Delight’ - Can’s funkiest album, low on experimentation but rich in foot tapping vibes. Michael Karoli’s on fire here;
Nils Lofgren ‘Mountains’ - you gotta hand it to Nils. In his seventies a member of both The E-Street Band and Crazy Horse, yet still finds time to make as fresh a sounding record as this;
Vangelis ‘Invisible Connections’ - where seemingly random bloops and bleeps somehow manage to make musical sense. Not sure why, but I get this more than most of Vangelis’ more accessible work;
Ezra Collective ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’ - this year’s Mercury Prize winner is listenable British jazz with funk and rap in the mix. Nice, but I can’t help thinking that Pigbag did this better forty years ago;
Joy S/T - and this, from even earlier, covers a not dissimilar ground. This aptly named, long forgotten band represents British jazz at its best;
Eberhard Weber ‘Yellow Fields’ - Weber’s Colours ensemble made some fabulous records for ECM in the 1970s. This is the best one: music that goes way beyond any jazz or fusion remit into the realms of pure atmosphere and imagination. If you don’t know it, do give it a go;
Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia ‘Pure Fantasy’ - an unsung fusion classic I think, and one of the first CDs I ever owned. The keyboards are a bit too 80s at times, but the music withstands them;
Gordon MacCrae, Shirley Jones etc ‘Oklahoma’ OST - ahead of John Wilson’s complete score recording, I played the supposedly bastardised film soundtrack which I grew up with. And I loved it as much as I’ve done since my Dad played it to me as a ween. I’ll probably buy the new version but there’ll always be a place in my shelves for this fine old Capitol LP. And by the way, I nominate Richard Rodgers as the greatest tunesmith EVER;
Timothy Wakerell ‘The St Paul’s Gem’ - engrossing recital of mainly baroque music played on the recently constructed Drake Organ in St Paul’s OBE Chapel;
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending & Symphony no.5/Bax: Cello Concerto/Elgar: Symphony no.1 (all cond. Bryden Thomson) - Thomson died at 63 - a relatively young age for a conductor - having left a fine legacy of recordings of mostly British music. These mid-80s Chandos discs exemplify his taste and musicality;
Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.4 (Takahashi/Cologne CO/Mueller Bruehl) - straight, unforced and measured performance of my favourite Beethoven concerto;
Beethoven: Symphony no.1 (West-Eastern Divan Orch/Daniel Barenboim) - Barenboim’s second Beethoven symphony cycle from 2011 received a largely indifferent reception from the classical press, but is of a remarkably consistent interpretative quality to my ears. This First is a good example;
Shostakovich: Symphony no.15 (Chicago SO/Sir Georg Solti) - a work I’ve never quite understood, but rather like, especially in this version. Solti’s recorded music reputation is skewered by his pioneering Wagner Ring cycle but he was a superb orchestral trainer too.
… so we can start over again.
Sunny vibes to all
Dave x
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