Total trash:
Rough Diamond S/T - David Byron’s post-Heep combo imploded before it could better this good, if somewhat routine, debut album - but by 1977 we all had rawer sounds to distract us, didn’t we?
The Beatles ‘Rubber Soul’ - maybe not their most profound utterance, but a contender for their most groovy, especially in its punchier mono mix;
Dire Straits S/T - not many old wave bands hit my senses in the wake of punk, but this one did. However bland they became, there’s no denying they started out well. This is so much more than the demonstration disc favoured by the snotty hifi shops of the day;
Eels ‘Extreme Witchcraft’ - Mark Everett has maintained his distinctively cynical muse through thin and thinner, and never more so than on this latest record. Feel the magic;
Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’ - raw, atonal bliss; as grittily fresh as the day it was minted, and ever after;
Egg ‘The Civil Surface’ - the last, and most completely realised, of Egg’s three albums, posthumously recorded during Dave Stewart’s Hatfield sojourn and suitably enhanced by the lovely Northettes. The sheer essence of the Canterbury Scene, even if there’s not a Sinclair cousin around;
David Bowie ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars’ - there is a handful of rock albums that can’t be improved upon. This is one;
Caravan ‘The Album’ - Caravan’s least prog, and poppiest LP, loved by too few. I proudly represent that silent minority;
Led Zeppelin ‘IV’ - because no album has a more awesome closing track than this one. Not one. Don’t argue, ‘cos I know I’m right;
Ramsey Lewis ‘Sun Goddess’ - jazz-funk from 1974 and man, does it sound it. So what;
Keith Jarrett ‘Concerts’ (Bregenz) - it’s more than tragic that strokes have disabled the pianistic and improvisatory talents of Jarrett, but what a legacy remains. This 1981 concert is just one example: a veritable universe of melody, inspiration and chaos from one man and his piano caught on the spur of the moment;
Jokleba ‘Outland’ - acoustic and electronic sounds blend and compete in imperfect disharmony, yet the whole melee maintains attention and interest, for me anyway. Stream ‘Bell Jar’ as a taster;
Elgar: Violin Sonata (Efi Christodoulu & Margaret Fingerhut) - perhaps the finest of Elgar’s late triumvirate of chamber works, idiomatically rendered here;
Haydn: String Quartet Op.20 no.1 (Doric Quartet) - played for all it’s worth by the Dorics, with suitable innigkeit in the sublime slow movement;
Bach: Concerto in A minor for flute, violin, harpsichord & strings, BWV 1044 (Fest Strings Lucerne/Rudolf Baumgartner) - unashamedly old fashioned approach to Bach, and all the better for it;
Mozart: Symphony no.40 (LSO/Claudio Abbado) - the record that introduced me to this work forty years ago still sounds good, even if some later versions are more revealing;
Beethoven: Piano Concerto no.5 ‘Emperor’ (Artur Pizarro/Scottish CO/Sir Charles Mackerras) - decent performance, though the slow movement here is more of an Allegretto than the marked Adagio;
Karg-Elert: Organ works including Homage To Handel (Conrad Eden, Jane Watts, Graham Barber) - I’m intrigued by this curious music, which veers seamlessly between the quiet and the epic, the lyrical and strange, without any obvious precedent. I must hear more;
Janacek: Taras Bulba & Glagolitic Mass (Soloists/Czech PO/Sir Charles Mackerras) - and these are pretty distinctive too, as were most of Janacek’s works. These performances are as good as they get: superbly sung, conducted and recorded.
I’m not up for this.
Love and kisses
Dave x
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