I feel the emptiness inside me:
Van der Graaf ‘Vital’ - Peter Hammill and his punkiest VdG line-up rabid and raw at the Marquee in 1977. No public school prog here;
Van der Graaf ‘The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome’ - from the same year came the Vd-one G’s only studio album, and what a belter it is. Having a dedicated bass player back in the band - and a string player - really made for a unique sound. And the main man sounds like he’s really enjoying it;
Peter Hammill ‘The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage’ - fifty years on, and still as radical as ever. “Progressive” in the most wide ranging of that hollow definition. No one else sounds anything like this. And, over and above, this has Randy California supercharging one of the tracks;
Cluster ‘Cluster II’ - is there a more definitive Kosmische track than ‘Live in der Fabrik’? As a great man once said, “play fucking loud”;
The Who ‘Live at Leeds’ - the very essence of rock & roll. Don’t bother arguing;
The Jesus and Mary Chain ‘jamcod’ - new music where the Chain get all krauty and droney. Nice;
Family ‘Anyway’ - half live, half studio LP that exhibits all the moods of Leicester’s finest ever band. That they had no definite style is to their credit, methinks;
The Lurkers ‘Fulham Fallout’ - ramshackle wonderment from an eternally underrated band. Oh what fun they were;
Sonic Youth ‘Hits Are For Squares’ - ace compilation from a band against compilations. Imagine a 62 year old post-stroke overweight bastard bouncing round his front room to ‘Teenage Riot’. Or maybe best not;
Edwyn Collins ‘Gorgeous George’ - Edwyn’s third and biggest solo album still sounds new three decades later. I really dig that nasal tenor, and his songs;
Southern Empire ‘Another World’ - top notch Antipodean prog that deserves more attention;
Neil Young ‘Before and After’ - Neil dumbing down some of his back catalogue to wondrous effect. But is his CD worth twenty quid? Discuss;
Daryl Hall & John Oates ‘Beauty On A Back Street’ - I thought that wisdom came with advancing years until I heard of these two’s current spat. What a shame, with a back catalogue as strong as theirs. This is one of their less acknowledged albums, yet mighty fine it be;
Derek and the Dominos ‘Layla’ - from Clapton’s most fruitful year - 1970 - came this still fab album. Funny how drug addiction brought about his best work;
Jethro Tull ‘Broadsword and the Beast’ - one of those records I kidded myself I liked back in the day. Not any more. Jethro Dull;
Marillion ‘Web Christmas 2023’ - annual fan club CD recorded live in the Netherlands last March. Fans will dig. The rest, well… you don’t know what you’re missing;
Led Zeppelin ‘Presence’ - my fave Zep LP because, outside of ‘Levee’, Bonzo dominates like nowhere else;
Led Zeppelin ‘When The Levee Breaks’ - which you can take as read I listen to with jaws dropped at least once every week. I’ll mention it no more. My Desert Island Discs choice, played six times with Giulini’s Beethoven Fifth and Hatfield’s ‘Fitter Stoke Has A Bath’ as outriders;
U2 ‘Rattle and Hum’ - one track only: ‘Bullet The Blue Sky’ which, along with ‘An Cat Dubh’ from the NME ‘Dancin Master’ tape, justifies U2’s existence for me. Hairs on the back of the neck stuff;
Pat Metheny ‘80/81’ - Metheny in a more straight jazz setting than was his norm, and all the fresher for it. In fact, this hasn’t dated a jot in over forty years;
Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘At Carnegie Hall’ - one of THE great double live albums, irrespective of genre, with one of the most symbiotic quartets ever brought together by whatever almighty source decreed it. All gone now, alas;
Arild Andersen ‘The Triangle’ - this has been a slow burner, but repeated plays have really brought to light how inventive Vassilis Tsabropoulos’ pianism is. Add the stellar rhythm section of Andersen and John Marshall (RIP) and you’ve got one helluva trio;
Beethoven: Violin Sonata no.1, Op.12 no.1 (Joseph Fuchs & Artur Balsam) - a lovely, cheerful work, played as such here. The Scherzo makes even my rigid pate crack a grin;
Beethoven: Symphony no.4 (Pittsburgh SO/William Steinberg) - vibrant and pointed reading of Beethoven’s sunniest symphony;
Vaughan Williams: Symphony no.5 (BBC SO/Martin Brabbins) - state of the art recording of one of the greatest English symphonic utterances;
Mahler: Das Knaben Wunderhorn (Israel PO/Leonard Bernstein) - really enjoyed hearing this again on BBC4’s Bernstein Night. I fell in love with Lucia Popp hearing her sing this in Edinburgh in 1985 and, seeing this, I did so again. What a voice, and what a tragedy that she passed so early.
There’s got to be a way to break out of this world.
Keep - or at least try - smiling at this most depressing time of year.
Dave x
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