Bursting Out – Jethro TullMy first and last time with you yeah? We had some fun. Went scrolling through the blogs yeah and they told you stuff. Oh I want to read some soon, but I wonder how, it was a new day yesterday, but it’s an old day now.
Burning from the Inside – BauhausAh Bauhaus; the goth’s version of the Beatles. Some argue that without Bauhaus, there would be no Goth. No Emo. No shoe gazing. Some argue that without Bauhaus, Bella Lugosi would still be alive. Some argue just for the sake of it.
The Burning Circle and Then Dust – LyciaWhen I first discovered Lycia, I was unaware that there was a member of the band whose solo work would be so influential to me in my later years. Bassist and keyboard player David Galas (who features quite a few times in this project), vocalist Tara Vanflower and guitarist Mike VanPortfleet gloom their way through just under 2 hours of haunting dark wave in this, the fifth album by the band.
Burn the Bridges: Demo Tapes 1970-1971 – Spirogyra Spirogyra are a Canterbury scene band prominent in the underground prog-folk scene during the 1960s and 1970s.
Buena Vista Social Club – Buena Vista Social ClubThis is one of those albums that everyone seems to have.
Buddha Bar III by RavinImagine being all postmillennial and second wave world music was doing the rounds. Imagine a time where you are embracing different cultures in a pre-911 world; searching out the next new sound from our global library.
Buch Der Balladen – FaunIf you know me well enough, you’ll know my most favourite instrument is the hurdy-gurdy. There’s something enchanting about the Hurdy-gurdy that adds that little sprinkling of the fae to any situation. Read the rest of this entry »
Brothers in Arms – Dire Straits
If you’ve never heard songs from this album, you’re either deaf or under 20. Dire Straits are the musical equivalent of CocaCola in that everyone on the planet has probably heard of them or at least one of their songs. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s something about New Order. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Sure, they’re miles ahead of their time, musically speaking. Yes, they’re as Northern as biscuits and their style oozes Manchester like a septic wound.
Broken – Nine Inch NailsVery occasionally I’ll look at who’s playing what on a soundtrack for a film I like. Then I might look up information about that artist, download a couple of their tracks or albums and then see if I like them.
This is what happens when you do that.
Broadcast and the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age – Broadcast & The Focus Group (#222)This album is what this music project is about. This is a fine example of unusual music that seems to have passed the mainstream by without even a rumour. Giving the album a little kick into the throng in the hope that someone reading this will give them a try and maybe change their life. Read the rest of this entry »
British Music Hall Memories – Various ArtistsPeople say that pop stars today have no regard for decency or the effect they’ll have on the youth. Similarly, people say that music these days is a load of shite. The same people say that songs today have too many sexual connotations and nothing in the way of political vitriol or appeasement of folk culture.
Brilliant – UltravoxMidge Ure and chums get together again to boost their pension pots which have no doubt been drained dry through excessive hobnobbery and pop star lifestylishness. Unfortunately, after a 28 year hiatus it’s unlikely that your reunion will be headline news to anyone but serious fans, nor is it likely to attract new fans. Moreover, as the majority of original fans are now probably pushing 50 something, it’s even more unlikely that new audiences are going to surface for another 20 years or so. Read the rest of this entry »
Bridge over troubled waters – Simon and Garfunkel
Bridge of Spies – T’Pau (#219)T’Pau. Well there’s a band that disappeared up their own arse. Shropshire based pop rockers T’Pau (yeah yeah, Star Trek connotations) cobbled this album together and launched their career with it in the 1980’s. Read the rest of this entry »
Breakfast in America – Supertramp
Brain Salad Surgery – Emerson Lake PalmerThe HR Giger album cover should be a warning to the weird bumph this album is. Seriously. Read the rest of this entry »
Brachiale Gewalt – Rammstein
Brachiale Gewalt appears to be some remixed compilation album of Rammstein songs that is hard to come by. I had a look on Amazon. They’re out of stock.
Anyway, Rammstein. After watching David Lynch’s Lost Highway in the 1990s and being so utterly blown away, I went to get the soundtrack. On the soundtrack are two songs by German metal band Rammstein. Two songs that blow my mind in the same way that Lost Highway does. Go David Lynch!
My first purchase of music over the internet was Rammstein’s Sehnsucht which should have cost me about £20 but ended up costing me £2000 when my credit card details were used by cyber criminals to run up a massive bill on porn and other such things. Of course this was in the days when the internet was in its infancy and banks tended to think you were at fault if your card details were pinched by cyber criminals. Cheers First Direct!
So, Brachiale Gewalt by Rammstein. If you’re not a fan, I’d not bother with this album. If you’re a fan, I’d not bother with this album. If you’re one of those people that have pictures and tattoos of the band all over your house and body then great. Go for it.
Boys and Girls – Bryan FerryBoys and Girls comprises of the majority of the songs on the New Town video. The New Town video was a pivotal item of media in my youth. I watched agog at Bryan Ferry sleezing his way across the stage oozing sleeziness in nice shoes and a sweat drenched white shirt and thought….”Hey, if I wear white shirts, sweat a lot and look sleezy I’ll get all the girls gushing”.
Of course, I was wrong. Girls only gushed for grotty looking goth and rocker types. I was, as usual, ten years behind my peers in many respects and yet millennia ahead in others.
Boys and Girls is a nice break from the Roxy Music years for Ferry. I think it begins to establish him as a solo artist quite well in a distinct style and sound that he retired several years later to release bollocks music that basically saw him disappear into a cloud of self importance and political buffoonery.
See. See what trying to be cool does to people? Turns them into dickheads. Hipsters be warned.
Boy with the Arab Strap – Belle & SebastianBelle and Sebastian are another band I was told I would should like. I hate that. I hate being told I should like something.
Anyway, as it happens I should have liked them and I do. Should have because had I been into Belle and Sebastian earlier I might be able to wear a soul patch, ponce about with a beret and call myself a hipster. As it happens I’m way too cool for all that and besides, Belle and Sebastian are so last year and a poor shade on what they used to be like when Stuart was in the band.
See. I know all the hipster talk.
Besides, there is no one in the band called Belle and I’m buggered if I can remember anyone called Sebastian being in it either.
Anyway, this unremarkable album tries to recapture the momentum started by If You’re Feeling Sinister by being extra quirky in sound (it fails) and the sixth form bandishness achieved through Lazy Line Painter Jane in It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career (and failing again). John Peel once said about Belle and Sebastian “Who?”; a sentiment held by many today too. However there are some memorable tracks on this album and you could say that all the albums following this release are shite. That way you too can start to grow that goatee and affect those charity shop tweeds.
Boxed – Mike OldfieldBoxed is a compilation of Oldfield’s early works in their entirety. Featured in this “Box set” compilation are:
Tubular Bells
Hergest Ridge
Ommadawn
And a number of single projects such as Portsmouth and In Dulci Jubilo.
As all the original albums will feature in this project eventually, I’ll not dwell too long or go into too much detail on this album for fear of repeating myself.
Gripping drama needs a gripping soundtrack. From what was a promising start to a trilogy (that now seems to be developing into a larger multifilm series) comes John Powell’s tense soundtrack.
I think the composer did very well to capture the various nuances of the film with these soundtracks and it often drowns out the dialogue in the film. However, this is forgivable for without the soundtrack the excitement wouldn’t build as well as it did. Take track 3 of the first album, Treadstone Assassins; it definitely builds the tension, adds a little bit of “here comes a film that can even have it’s own spin-off TV series” and tickles the auditory senses with “wow, bet you didn’t expect that”.
Furthermore, the cold wet European locations used in the film are also depicted aurally in these soundtracks. Powell is definitely a composer to look out for. Maybe not akin to John Williams or Danny Elfman, but certainly on the same bus….
Here I’d usually include a youtube video relating to the albums but it appears that the Youtube Copyright Nazis have been blocking access to most of the best ones. I really don’t know why copyright holders (like SONY) are such blanket fascists when it comes to digital media. I guess you’ll just have to watch the film….
Born of the Night – Midnight Syndicate If you ever want to give your neighbours the impression you are a goat worshiping Satanist or maybe get the locals gossiping about you being a bit odd. Then all you have to do is put this album on, invite a few local dignitaries round for a glass of red wine and roll your eyes uncontrollably while chanting in Latin every hour or so.
Seriously.
This album will make you seem like either a teenager trying to be all out goth or a middle aged nut case who wants Peter Sutcliffe or Charlie Manson as bunk mates. If you were holding a seriously dark Halloween party then yeah, this would go down well providing, of course, there are no plans to dish out psychotropic drugs with the jelly and ice-cream.
Born Again – Blood AxisWe first came across Blood Axis on his collaboration with Le Joyaux de la Princesse. If you recall, he’s the guy who reads all the English translated French poetry to weird atmospheric remixes of gramophone records. Oh yeah, he gets better. Truly.
So here we are at his third studio album, Born Again. Michael Moynahan menaces his way through 12 tracks of moroseness. Great stuff. Of course you’ll only really appreciate how good when people tell you that the music you’re listening to is a racket and can you please turn it off. Which happens everytime with Born Again. I love it! Possibly not as much as his first studio effort, Gospel of Inhumanity but not that far off.
Book of Kells – Iona
New age floaty vaginary with added Christian connotations. Presumably to stop people descending into debauched pagan wizardry. Or taking up tofu wrestling. Or goji berry worship.
This album is not too bad. If you were to replace the awful Christianised lyrics with some sort of Lisa Gerrard-esque wailing, it would be nice as background music. Unfortunately, the frequent bible based lyrics make it embarrassingly unacceptable as social or seduction music. Unless you’re one of those weird religious types for whom “letting the spirit of God enter you” is a euphemism for nookie.
Stegzy's Music Project 