Hello again all. I’ve not been myself for a while but have kept my stereo warm when I’ve felt up to it. This week I’ve been listening to:
Elton John ‘Jewels’ - my Xmas present to myself. Haven’t got past the ‘Deep Cuts’ CDs yet but my, I’m enjoying hearing some of Reg’s less lauded tracks in this context;
Roxy Music ‘Stranded’ - played this thru my buds on my Xmas Day walk and it damn near rescued that awful day. Not a duff track on it. Oh to be twelve again;
Tangerine Dream ‘Encore’
Tangerine Dream ‘Force Majeure’
Tangerine Dream ‘Dream Sequence’ - these fall at the very end of my personal Tangs phase as I’ve always dug the classic Froese/Franke/Baumann era stuff best of all, plus of course the pioneering Ohr albums so beloved of our erstwhile sitemeister. However, these are very decent albums on their own terms, particularly ‘Encore’ which sounds great in its ‘In Search of Hades’ remaster;
Genesis ‘We Can’t Dance’ - well, what can I say. I dug this out of the mothballs on the recommendation of a dear friend who convinced me that time had not been as harsh on it as I thought. With all due respect to him, I do not concur. This is an awful record, even from the perspective of someone like me who uncooly holds that ‘In The Air Tonight’ is a remarkable 45 and that at least the first three post-Gabriel albums are classics. No. ‘We Can’t Dance’ is a perfect example of the tragedy of a great rock band thinking that they can write pop songs. It has no redeeming features whatsoever;
Gong ‘Gazeuse!’ - c.f. the late 70s Tangerine Dream releases listed above, this bears no comparison with the definitive Gong of the first half of that decade but is a very good LP in itself, particularly for Allan Holdsworth admirers. Great vibes - literally - too. In short, instrumental jazz rock par excellence, a bit po-faced but so what;
Sonic Youth ‘Goo’ - a little more sanitised in feel than their pre-Geffen stuff but still highly individual and enjoyable;
Bob Dylan ‘Christmas in the Heart’ - well, just ‘Here Comes Santa’ really, which brings a smile to even my jaded facade;
Charley Pride ‘Christmas In My Home Town’ - well, it IS Christmas, and poor Charley is sadly no longer with us. Not his greatest memorial perhaps - a bit twee in places - but that golden voice satisfies in any context;
Various ‘Harvest Festival’ - there’s been a recent thread on the Steve Hoffman pages about label anthologies, and this is about the best there is. Aside from the obvious Floyd/Purple/BJH stuff, pretty much every Harvest act from Pete Brown to Wire is royally represented across its 5 CDs, set inside a stunningly illustrated coffee table book. Proof, if it was needed, that Harvest was as enterprising and consistent a modern music label as ever existed;
Haydn: String Quartet Op.9 no.2 (Tatrai Quartet) - this early Haydn quartet was one the last recorded by this eminent Hungarian ensemble in their underrated complete cycle of Haydn’s unparalleled string quartets. It shares the same unforced, natural musicality that distinguished the whole project, which covered nearly three decades. Lovely;
Mozart: Six Variations for Violin & Piano, K 360 (Arthur Grumiaux & Walter Klien) - ‘cos it was the 360th day of the year! Proof that even lesser-known Mozart can be sublime;
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Op.22, 90 & 101 (Daniel Barenboim) - having wallowed in Barenboim’s excellent new box of Beethoven’s 32 sonatas, I’ve started to compare it with his previous survey from 2005, from which these three randomly chosen works were culled. Unlike his latest, lockdown recordings, these emanate from live concerts and are more vibrant and less ethereal in feel. Fine as they are, I think I prefer the new ones;
Bach: The Well Tempered Clavier, Book II (Christophe Rousset) - the best harpsichord version of the second book of Bach’s 48 I’ve ever heard, with perfect tempi and not too much extraneous ornamentation. This has been my optimum late night listening for several weeks, and has lightened many depressing evenings;
Bax: Christmas Eve (LPO/Bryden Thomson) - a lesser known symphonic poem from Bax, obviously seasonal but happily bereft of sodding bells and children’s choirs. Admirers of the symphonies will dig;
Francis Jackson: Three Advent Carols, Op.73 (Exton Singers/Matthew Owens) - more seasonal joy from the pen of the great former organ master of York Minster, 103 years old and still with us;
Great European Organs 96: St Bernard’s Church, Baden-Baden (Marco Lo Muscio) - I’ve been gradually collecting CDs from this 100-strong series on the excellent Priory label. This is a particularly exciting release, featuring not only great and lesser known organ composers of the past but a terrific transcription of Rick Wakeman’s ‘Judas Iscariot’ from ‘Criminal Record’. And you know what, the original version (from what I regard as Wakeman’s last good solo album) is actually usurped here. It’s amazing how powerful an old pipe organ can sound.
Compliments of the season, whatever that means to you, and try to stay sane and healthy if you can.
Dave x
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