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Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 2 July 2022 CE
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Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke
2601 posts

Re: Soundtracks of Our Lives week ending 2 July 2022 CE
Jul 03, 2022, 09:10
Heard this week:

Genesis ‘Calling All Stations’ - dull, DULL studio swansong, and it ain’t poor Ray Wilson’s fault. In fact, he’s the best thing about an otherwise rotten record. No wonder it’s been quietly withdrawn from sale;
Marillion ‘An Hour Before It’s Dark’ - interesting that a band initially so influenced by Genesis can progress so much further over their long lifespan that they sound absolutely nothing like they used to. And in the present instance, that’s all good. In fact, this is the finest album of their career IMHO;
Steve Winwood ‘About Time’ and ‘Nine Lives’ - Winwood hasn’t put out anything new since 2008, which given the class of these last two studio efforts is a damn shame;
Julian Cope ‘Cunts Can Fuck Off’ - I can’t stop playing this wondrous song, the Drude’s true successor to ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ (the single) with sadly no chance of equivalent success;
Julian Cope ‘Trip Advizer’ - not just a useful compilation, but a great listen in itself.
Tangerine Dream ‘Phaedra’ - which has been in my DNA since I hit my teens and still thrills me to the bone in retirement;
Nikki Sudden ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’ (2021 revamp) - just buy this;
Ultravox! ‘Ha! Ha! Ha!’ - the band’s artistic peak to my ears, and not just because I still regard a gig on the supporting tour in 1978 the finest of my life. This blisters with energy, invention and sci-fi sickness. They never surpassed it;
Hercules and Love Affair ‘In Amber’ - this is a little too inconsistent in style and quality to be a great record but there are some fine moments here, not least the awesome techno vibe of ‘One’;
Pink Floyd ‘The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn’ - which sounds quite radically different in its lesser known mono form, especially ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ which includes things I’d never registered on my much-played stereo disc.

This week’s classical listens:

Beethoven: Symphony no.3 (BPO/Karajan 1985)
Beethoven: Symphony no.3 (Les Siecles/Roth)
Debussy: La mer (BPO/Karajan 1985)
Debussy: La mer (Les Siecles/Roth)
Strauss: Four Last Songs (Tomowa-Sintow/BPO/Karajan)
Brahms: Symphony no.4 (BPO/Karajan 1987)
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (BPO/Karajan 1985) - I put on a programme of digital Karajan recordings for my local RMS this week and was struck by how vivid and energetic Herbie’s late records are. In the case of the Debussy I compared it with the Les Siecles version that was selected for R3’s Building A Library recently and found it very much a match both viscerally and sonically, fine though the latter (historically informed) version is. Kudos due though to Les Siecles’ Eroica which I thoroughly enjoyed, even more than Karajan’s last recording. Great music justifies different approaches;
Daniel Jones: Divertimento (Martin Jones) - from an exhaustive 4CD box of the Welsh composer’s rediscovered piano oeuvre, this is thoroughly attractive, tonal music with a distinctively rhythmical edge. I shall listen to more;
Daniel Jones: Symphony no.6 (RPO/Groves) - the same rhythmic ardour is prevalent in this, coupled with some inventive orchestral colour and a full range of moods. This dude was good.

The angels in this world are not in the walls of churches.

Dave

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