Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Forgotten Albums of the 80's

Point 1: Okay remember this is my list of forgotten albums from the 80’s. These are albums that I think don’t get their fair share of credit these days or perhaps they have just fallen a bit below the critical radar.

Point 2: Don’t darken my door with comments about why isn’t The Queen is Dead or Psychocandy on the list or why isn’t your favourite Talking Heads, Public Enemy, Joy Division , Elvis Costello album on the list – these are neither forgotten or below the critical radar (see above).

Point 3: I can put in as many Monochrome Set albums as I see fit (this has been wittled down from 5)

  1. Young Marble Giants – Colossal Youth (1980)
  2. The Monochrome Set – Strange Boutique (1980)
  3. Peter Gabriel - Gabriel 3 (1980)
  4. Nic Jones - Penguins Eggs (1980)
  5. Teardrop Explodes – Wilder (1981)
  6. King Crimson – Discipline (1981)
  7. Josef K - The Only Fun in Town (1981)
  8. The Scars - Author! Author! (1981)
  9. Bad Brains - Bad Brains (1982)
  10. The Monochrome Set – Volume Contrast Brilliance (1983)
  11. The Rain Parade - Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (1983)
  12. Ben Watt - North Marine Drive (1983)
  13. Brian Eno – Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks (1983)
  14. The Pale Fountains – Pacific Street (1984)
  15. David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees (1984)
  16. The Meat Puppets - The Meat Puppets II (1984)
  17. The Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)
  18. The Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (1986)
  19. It’s Immaterial - Life's Hard and Then You Die (1986)
  20. The Jungle Brothers - Done by the forces of Nature 1989)


* Note a few of these albums do suffer from rather nasty 80’s production values (strange Phil Collins style echo drums and digital keyboards with odd voicings) but they all have some great stuff on them and deserve another listen.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Current Buns - August 2009

Have been enjoying these albums recently ... with a little help from my friends

  1. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams (thanks Keith!)
  2. Led Bib - Sensible Shoes
  3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (thanks Brian!)
  4. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
  5. Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Current Buns July 2009

  1. Lee Fields - My World
  2. Mastodon - Blood Mountain
  3. Acoustic Ladyland - Living With A Tiger
  4. Tortoise -Beacons of Ancestorship
  5. Bert Jansch - LA Turnaround

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Radio Show

I have really been enjoying my recent life as a DJ on ALL FM (a community radio station broadcasting to south, east and central Manchester). Thanks to my mate Ade, who's show it is really, I seem to have landed a bi-monthly gig as his hapless DJ sidekick. Ade and and I get to chat late into the night (occaisonal Mondays 23.00 - 1am, as part of http://www.exr.org.uk/about/) about obscure Jazz and improvised music, with a bit of Latin, Electronica, Prog and Post Rock thrown in for good measure, plus a little bit of promoting gigs and unsigned artists from the Manchester area.

My bits of a typical set list may include; John Martyn, Alice Coltrane, Trio of Doom, Return to Forever, The Crusaders, Murcof, Do Make Say Think, King Crimson, Tim Buckley, Art Blakey, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Fourtet ...

Ariel Pink / Marnie Stern / Times New Viking / Crystal Antlers - Urbis Manchester 16th May

This post has been sitting in my drafts box for some time now so is a bit old hat, however if I don't publish it I will forget about this top night out at Urbis back in May.

Part of the top-notch Futuresonic festival. I really went along to see Ariel Pink as I have been picking up his albums over the last few years and enjoying their lo-fi charm greatly, plus my mate Brian had told me that the Crystal Antlers were worth checking out, but to be honest I had few expectations.

Times New Viking
The night kicked of a treat with TNV, a shambolic three-piece from Columbus, Ohio - reminiscent of Sonic Youth or maybe Pavement by way of the US hardcore scene. Melodic, scrappy and loud ... what's not to like?

Crystal Antlers
Hotly tipped underground faves didn't disappoint with their individual mix of US slacker/hardcore and psych - maybe bringing to mind the Butthole Surfers with the pop sensibility of Yo La Tengo. A visual treat too with the percussionist's Bez-like idiosyncratic dance moves.

Marnie Stern
3 piece girl fronted hardcore unit with technical metal flourishes courtesy of Marnie's finger tapped arpeggios, really enjoyed their prog meets Fugazi by way of Bikini Kill take take on the power trio format.

Ariel Pink
The main event as far as I was concerned. For those of you that haven't heard Ariel Pink, let me describe ... imagine if you will, a combination of the song writing chops of Todd Rungren and Brian Wilson - with one big difference, while Runt and Wilson strove for sonic perfection, labouring hard over each splash of reverb and touch delay, polishing each pop nugget to perfection. Pink knocks gems out in double quick time on his eight-track portastudio with little regard aural fidelity, being in tune or indeed actually completing the song. This low-fi aesthetic has won Pink at least a couple of admirers on this side of the Atlantic, myself included.

Jóhann Jóhannsson and Murcof - May 14th RNCM Manchester

Jóhann Jóhannsson
Icelandic composer Jóhannsson and the Iskra quartet play minimalist chamber music, the string section laying down a "groove" with JJ adding sparse piano and occasionally triggering ambient samples. This was very restrained, haunting stuff that never really reached the crescendos that you might associate with GSYBE or A Silver Mount Zion, who, to my ears at least seem to inhabit similar sonic territory. Enjoyable stuff nevertheless

Murcof
This was the main event as far as I was concerned. I had been pretty excited about seeing Murcof as I have been a fan of his music since hearing his mesmerising Martes album of 2002, definitely one of my favourites of that year. Murcof is the stage name of Mexican ambient master Fernando Corona. Tonight he had teamed up with AntiVJay, I thought it might be something a bit special, and I wasn't mistaken.

The incredible visuals mesmerised the audience of Futuresonic delegates and paying punters. The music shifted from the spacescapes of his 2007 CD Cosmos to the more ambient orchestral sounds of his masterpiece Martes. The visuals added a stunning dimension to the sound , shifting from what can only be described as a malevolent pulsating ball of wool (you really had to be there) through beautiful starfields, gliding round a wireframe future world that melted into a forest of bamboo (well n my interpretation anyway) all done with a minimal simplicity. The audience was silent throughout the hour and 20 minute set, not bad for a bit of ambient!


"Murcof and AntiVJ are collaborating on a new site-specific audiovisual installation in which live music, projected imagery, and a huge layered, semi-transparent installation will create immersion in a broken, multifaceted cosmos of a million stars and abstract shapes". - Futuresonic

Current Buns - June 2009

  1. Bill Wells and Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Gok
  2. Metallica - Death Magnetic
  3. Max Tundra - Parallax Error Beheads You
  4. Matt Schofield - Sifting through the Ashes
  5. New Thing! Deep Jazz in the USA - Soul Jazz (comp)
  6. Peter, Bjorn and John - Writer's Block

Friday, March 13, 2009

Magazine - Feb 14th Manchester Academy 1

I went along to see Manchester legends Magazine with my mate Brian at Academy 1. With its capacity of just over 2000 we were wondering if these reunion/comeback shows were the biggest that the band had ever played as a headliner - I remember them being popular and influential but not particularly big.

Anyway the band of Devoto, Adamson, Formula, Doyle and Noko (standing in for the late great John McGeogh) seemed to be on good form (certainly well rehearsed) and played what you would expect them to - Shot By Both Sides, Motorcade and The Light Pours Out Of Me and few that you wouldn't expect including a spoken word reading of B-side "The Book".

The evening was a sucess with most punters leaving happy and the Magazine pension-plan back on track.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Very poor yearly round up

I have been a very bad blogger this year, especially towards the tail end of it. Anyway, here are some of the records that I particularly enjoyed this year, in no particular order. Some old some new.
  1. Portishead - 3
  2. Cut/Copy - In Ghost Colours
  3. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
  4. Erikah Badu - New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)
  5. Mississippi John Hurt - Avalon Blues : The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings
  6. Black Mountain - In the Future
  7. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
  8. Matt Schofield Trio - Ear to the Ground
Also very sad to hear that Davey (Davy) Graham passed away just before Christmas, he will be sadly missed. To hear him at his best in a relaxed, informal setting check out the album After Hours (Live At Hull University 1967). Graham mixes Eastern & African themes,jazz ,blues and folk motifs together in a virtual masterclass in acoustic guitar playing - it is easy to see why many of the great players of the era were in awe of his abilities.