Again, very haunting sounds. I really wish I had this album in the period 1993-1997, I can imagine enjoying this with my old Goth friends over some idle chat about esoteric nonsense.
Dark darkness prevails. Haunting melodies, ethereal female vocals and distinctive Galas sounds blend together to make an excellent album, sadly often over looked by many.
Galas left the band briefly following this album. It’s clear that the Lycia sound was evolving at this stage but I’m glad he did leave because Galas then went off to do some excellent solo work and enrich his own distinctive style. News recently on Galas’ Facebook revealed that he has reunited with Lycia once more and is working on a new album with them.
Weird mix of Latin and Germanic lyrics in a weird almost Dead Can Dance style.
Schelmish are a genre known as Medieval Metal. If you’re looking to turn your house into a 12th Century drinking hall with banquets, animal hide clothing and the odd bagpipe, then this is the music you want.
Fortunately, for Zoe at least, I don’t. But it’s a nice showcase for the diversity that is music.
Now I’m not entirely sure that this is the name of this album. Nor am I entirely sure that the artists named are actually the artists. See, the thing is, I downloaded this album when I was looking for some Azar Habib and all the files were tagged in Arabic letters.
Back in the early noughties I discovered Flash Animutation. This was a phenomena that took the underground of the web by storm. It was long before the appearance of Facebook and Twitter and when the internet was a fun place to be rather than a chore. Animutation is where clip art was mashed and animated by artists using Macromedia Flash, often to music and nearly always to foreign music.
One such animutation film, often touted as one of the first, was Hatten ar Din. The song, originally performed by Azar Habib, had been retranslated from Lebanese to Swedish to English and animated accordingly. The results are amusing.
At the time I was going through a Middle Eastern phase. I saw the possibility of the West embracing and absorbing Middle Eastern culture peacefully into its own. Of course, that never happened but I enjoyed eating kebabs, listening to Middle Eastern music and visiting Lebanese restaurants. This is why I have a Lebanese album in my collection.
Lebanese music is different to Western music on many levels. While some sects of Islam forbid music especially instrumental music (which is seen as Haram) there exists a rich tapestry of musical tradition from the regions where Islamic tradition is not as strict. Persian, Jewish, Lebanese and Arabic music is quite relaxing while also exciting and captivating. This album provides a good snapshot of traditional music from the region.
Back in the early nineties, CD’s started to rise to prominence and with them came an increase in compilations. This is possibly the first compilation I bought rather than made myself using recordings from vinyl or cassette.
The first time I heard this album I was blown away. I had it on cassette so I was able to play it wherever I wanted on my Walkman or on my portable hi-fi. One place I played it was on top of a windy rainy mountain in Wales, miles from anywhere significant. It is there where I am transported when I hear this album.
Stuck up a mountain. In the wind and rain. Rain pattering onto my hood. Snug and warm in my coat. Listening to this album overlooking fields of sheep watching the rain clouds drift in from the Irish Sea. Getting back to nature.
Years later I discovered that the album was recorded in a studio where the band had requested a more “rural” feel. Cue plastic cows, sheep pens and straw being strewn across the floor; Steve Howe stood on his carpet, Rick Wakeman with his cup of tea and Jon Anderson with his tambourine. Prog madness. Prog. No music like it.
Close to the Edge comes in with 3 tracks. Not many to the uninitiated, but with track one coming in at just under 20 minutes long and tracks two and three together the same, it’s easy to see why prog is such a good showcase for talent. Think of recent popular music. The likes of Gaga and her ilk with wishy-washy 3 minute jobbies. Trash. It’s like Twitter versus the blogosphere.
Close to the Edge is Yes’ fifth studio album and last with Bill Bruford (until Union at least). A rich tapestry of musical talent surpassed only by their next studio album, Tales from Topographic Oceans.
Close Encounters and Other Galactic Themes – Geoff Love
King of easy listening, Geoff Love returns this time with discoised versions of theme tunes from popular sci-fi television and film shows.
I guess it was the late seventies when this was released. It seems that in the late seventies producers from both TV and film were in love with the sci-fi genre to such an extent that all there seemed to be in the public domain was space themed shows.
I guess man had relatively recently landed on the moon, or in a disused hanger in Utah depending on what you want to believe, so there was some kind of “space rush” on. In fact I’ve noticed that the gaming industry seems to be going through a similar “space rush” following the release of Braben’s reimagined Elite: Dangerous.
Love and what’s left of his “orchestra” jazz disco-up ten tunes including the themes to Blake’s Seven, Logan’s Run and Space Patrol. Love even gives the disco treatment to William’s Star Wars. This is the kind of stuff people subjected their children to in the nineteen seventies. Much in the same way as parents today subject their children to the Frozen soundtrack. It will end in tears. I promise. There will come a time when they’re grown up and they’re asking you, in a menacing voice, if you want to build a fucking snowman.
And so I am now near the end of the week of compilations. Sometimes you get a week with a nice mix of artists, other times you get a week of crap. Sorry. That’s just the way it goes.
Today we have Classical Chillout. It seems that in the late nineties/early noughties there was a massive demand for Chillout. No idea why. It wasn’t exactly a stressful time. I guess it was just people liked to chillout. Possibly with drugs. Maybe with a bath. Whatever floats your boat.
Baths usually.
Anyway, today is Classical Chillout. A nice mix of classical music and modern chillout, which, if anything, I approve of, purely for the inclusion of Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and Fauré’s In Paradisum and Cantique de Jean Racine. Which is why it is in my collection; I was looking for songs I used to sing when I was in Bishop Eton church choir.
– Barber*
Adagio For Strings
9:31
–Satie*
Gymnopédie No. 1
3:12
–Jenkins*
Adiemus
3:57
–Sakamoto*
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
4:46
–Puccini*
O Mio Babbino Caro
2:03
–Albinoni*
Adagio
5:48
–Beethoven*
Figlio Perduto
4:37
–Pärt*
Spiegel Im Spiegel
4:00
–Delibes*
Flower Duet (Lakmé)
3:26
–Nyman*
The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise
3:11
–Fauré*
Cantique De Jean Racine
5:44
–Ungar* & Mason*
The Ashokan Farewell
5:06
–Debussy*
Clair De Lune
4:54
–Allegri*
Misere Mei, Deus (vv 1-4, 17-20)
5:44
–Horner*
My Heart Will Go On
4:19
–Jeffes*
Perpetuum Mobile
4:28
–J. S. Bach*
Concerto For Violin & Oboe In D Minor (BWV 1060 – II: Adagio)
5:52
–Górecki*
Symphony No. 3 ‘Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs’ (II: Lento E Largo – Tanquillissimo) (extract)
4:27
–Vaughan Williams*
The Lark Ascending (Opening)
6:21
–Satie*
Gnossienne No. 1
3:23
–Reich*
Nagoya Marimbas
4:51
–Bruch*
Violin Concerto No. 1 In G Minor (Op. 26 II: Adagio) (Opening)
4:21
–Tavener*
Song For Athene
6:08
–Morricone*
Gabriel’s Oboe
2:11
–Armstrong* / Del Naja* / Vowles* / Marshall*
Weather Storm
6:02
–Morricone*
Chi Mai
5:04
–Fauré*
In Paradisum
3:25
–Catalani*
Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana (La Wally)
4:49
–Vivaldi*
Winter (The Four Seasons – II: Largo)
2:29
–J. S. Bach*
Piano Concerto No. 5 In F Minor (BWV 1056 – II: Largo)
The last in the Time Life trilogy. 1986, that year renown for hair, rock, drugs, more hair, more stadia and yet more hair. With a bit of rock.
But lo! See the track list. Yet again our compiler has been at the stig bin in the bargain section of Woolworths once more and has managed to surpass the previous compilations with another atrocious selection.
Oh dear. It seems yesterday’s album featured some memorable songs. Today’s contains a similar selection of non-hits by bands you’ve heard of occasionally. Again, during the period 1985-1989 there were some really good songs and yet, once again, the compiler has managed to forage completely dull, non-entity tracks from their record collection. It kind of makes me think that the compiler worked in an all night garage.
With Talk Radio on.
CD1
01. Georgia Satellites – Open All Night
02. Gregg Allman – I’m No Angel
03. David Lee Roth – Tobacco Road
04. Jethro Tull – Farm On The Freeway
05. Robert Cray – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
06. Status Quo – Burning Bridges
07. Bad Company – No Smoke Without Fire
08. Little Feat – Hate To Lose Your Lovin’
09. George Thorogood – You Talk Too Much
10. Doobie Brothers – Need A Little Taste Of Love
11. Hooters – Johnny B.
12. Steve Winwood – Split Decision
13. Fabulous Thunderbirds – Wrap It Up
14. ZZ Top – Sleeping Bag
15. Great White – Rock Me
CD2
01. Poison – Nothing But A Good Time
02. Billy Idol – Don’t Need A Gun
03. Pat Benatar – Sex As A Weapon
04. Foreigner – Say You Will
05. White Lion – When The Children Cry
06. Marillion – Incommunicado
07. Electric Light Orchestra – Calling America
08. The Stranglers – Always The Sun
09. Big Country – The Teacher
10. Europe – Superstitious
11. Pretenders – My Baby12. Lou Gramm – Just Between You And Me
13. Huey Lewis & The News – Hip To Be Square
14. Deacon Blue – Fergus Sings The Blues
15. Cinderella – Don’t Know What You’ve Got (’til It’s Gone)
The next three entries follow a similar pattern. That’s because the next three entries are very similar compilations. I could spare you the time but I’m cruel like that and I put the effort in to listen to these albums so it’s only fair.
The first in our trilogy of Classic Rock:198x – Time Life compilations is for the range 1984-1985, a glorious period in music, rich in a variety of hair, guitars and stadia. So it’s curious as to why the compiler chose the songs they did. I suspect that the compiler for Classic Rock: Symphonic Rock, which is also a Time Life compilation, worked on the same project.
Seriously that guy needs to broaden his music tastes.
This is another compilation where the core idea works but the choices of tracks don’t.
Curiously, it appears that 70% of the artists featured on the album have previously featured on this project, so if you’ve missed those entries you’ll find that the links take you to those articles.
Anyway, Classic Rock: Symphonic Rock has a relatively good mix of tunes really but not ones I’d have chosen to highlight how rock can be symphonic. It’s a little too…. “twee”…for my liking. There are far better bands that could have featured on this compilation. There’s no Queensryche. No Meatloaf. The Yes option is pretty much mundane and the inclusion of Clannad, of all bands, confuses me no end. Clannad are not what I’d call rock for a start.
Mike “Womble” Batt again this time producing Justin Hayward. Sort of an ideal blend really. Silky smooth tones of Moody Blues front man Hayward gently stirred by the musical talent of Mr Womble himself.
Cigarettes and Alcohol: Volume 2 – Various Artists
Compilations like this give compilations like this a bad name.
Think of a barrel. Imagine the bottom of the barrel. Scrape the barrel. Mentally dig right through the wood at the bottom of the barrel with your bare hands. Imagine the sound of your nails splintering through the wood. Read the rest of this entry »
British people over the age of 35 might recall a daytime television programme of their youth known as Picture Box.
The theme is Maneche by Jacques Lasry. Jacques Lasry was the composer for an instrument known as the Cristal Baschet, a peculiar instrument resembling a sculpture designed and invented by the Baschet Brothers, François and Bernard.
This is a Cristal Baschet
A Cristal Baschet
There, don’t say this project isn’t educational.
So, the Baschet brothers and Jacques Lasry and his missis Yvonne, used to tour the world with instruments like this playing at concerts and on TV. They became an avant-garde act and released a number of album soundscapes.
This isn’t the sort of music you might find yourself dancing around your boudoir to, nor is it the sort of music you might have playing while entertaining dinner guests. This is the kind of music you might put on while wearing a beret, a pipe and some slippers together with a corduroy beard and a nice pair of sensible trousers. The kind of music you might listen to while leaning on the mantle piece of your home thoughtfully stroke your beard trying your best to look like a) you enjoy the music and b) you’re some sort of academic on the subject.
Some claim that punk killed prog with a nasty kick in the chuff back in the late 1970s. However it didn’t die, it crawled towards the back of people’s music collections and lay there. Regenerating. Read the rest of this entry »
I first encountered Jean Michel Jarre as a teenager. I was very fortunate in that my mum worked at a library, so it meant I took a particular interest in books. Then in the 80s libraries started to have cassettes, and later on CDs. This meant I could listen to a lot more music than my pocket would normally afford, and I could also experiment a lot more. This is where I first strayed across Jean Michel Jarre. I wasn’t really aware of him being a popular artist – if his albums were in the charts I didn’t notice – although later on as an adult I realised he was pretty popular.
For those who have not listened to Jarre before, his music is synthesiser based. But there is, or at least was, something quite special about it. He did something different with it, weaving together a mixture of sound effects and music to create his own unique style. I’m not aware of anyone who has copied him, or anyone that he copied, but I suppose the most similar artist I can think of is Vangelis, yet he’s still markedly different. In my opinion Jarre has also managed that tricky balance of keeping a style, yet making each album different enough to be interesting.
Chronologie is Jarre’s eleventh album. For me it fits in with a chain of others, starting with Oxygene (his third album), and leading on to Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields, Rendez-vous, Revolutions, and then Chronologie. These particular albums all had a rather epic feel and a thread that runs through them. I hadn’t realised Jarre had released two albums before Oxygene, but I’m guessing there is a reason why I have never heard of them – every musician needs time to reach their best. There are other albums in-between these, such as Music for Supermarkets and Zoolook, but I don’t feel they fit the particular style of this list of six albums.
I again have to thank Richard-from-University for bringing me back to Jarre. Richard was also a Jarre fan, and he acted as a reminder to revisit the albums I’d loved as a teenager. Chronologie in fact came out when I was at university (release in 1993), so reminds me of those times a little.
I won’t give you a very VERY detailed analysis of the album itself. It’s eight tracks, simply named Chronologie Part 1 through to Part 8, which is typical of Jarre. As it’s purely instrumental Jarre also doesn’t give away any clues in terms of inspiration as such. The only real clue is the album name, and time does feel like an inspiration. More on that in a minute. I’m not sure what the cover art is supposed to represent, there are five figures traced in different colours. The first track on the album builds from nothing with a heartbeat, which is one link to time. Other tracks have fades with clocks ticking and chiming, reminding me a little of the Chronos theme from Ulysses 31. There are even what sound like the bleeps of digital watches used as rhythm in places. Overall I remember this album feeling a little different than his previous, a little more modern, and there are parts which could quite legitimately be danced to in a club. The album ends with a countdown, again set against the backround of ticking clocks and a heartbeat. Overall I really like the album, like most of Jarre’s music.
Reading about the album I learned the source of inspiration was Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, so there’s the time connection. Apparently Parts 4 and 5 started as compositions for a Swatch advert, although I don’t know whether they were ever used. I was also under the impression that Jarre played everything on his albums, but this one at least had four other musicians, three of them playing keyboards, and one the guitar.
I had no idea that videos existed for the album, but this is apparently a promotional video that was created for Part 4. Not exactly a great video but (a) curiously it features that save five figure theme from the cover art (b) it features Jarre looking moodily at the camera, and (c) the music’s good.
Before vaginas became all floaty and Glastonbury became too commercial, men with long hair would gather, read Tolkien and Moorcock and listen to Hawkwind.
Back in the nineties, Chris Isaak’s song Blue Hotel stormed the UK charts quickly followed by his hit Wicked Game which had appeared in some film or other. Isaak mania hit Britain like a soggy clump of wet tissues.
Mike Regan, good old school friend of mine, once said to me: “Hey Ste, this Chris Isaak is alright isn’t he?”. I had to agree. There then followed a trip to the Royal Court in Liverpool to see Chris Isaak. Live. In the flesh. WOW!
There he was, looking all sweaty on the stage. I was near the front. Mid-way through Heat of the Jungle Isaak swigged from a bottle of water on the stage and spat it into the air back over himself to cool himself down. Being close to the front I got a nice wash from Mr Isaac’s spittle laden self-fountain. I’ll always remember, I bet he doesn’t.
Anyway, Chris Isaak went on to be another artist who had a major influence on my life. From the pre-post-adolescent angst of failed relationships and sitting about in parks, unemployed, gazing wistfully at young couples engaged in petting through to the period of life where I suddenly start wearing black, being miserable and all mystically new agey, Isaak was there. Being cool. Being musically excellent.
Even to this day, Isaak still puts out a good tune and every time I listen to one of his albums I am immediately transported back to the early 1990s. Every time I hear his music I’m dancing about imagining I’m all Chris Isaaky, curling my lip Elvisly and air guitaring like a maniac.
Curiously, I later found out that some of Isaak’s support musicians were musicians for another band that I liked yet to feature on this project, The Tubes, showing that weird connectivity I’m trying to prove with this project, that all my core music likes have some sort of tenuous connection.
As the family film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was out several years before I was born by the time I was old enough to really appreciate it it was being shown on the telly regularly. Just thinking about the film counjures up evocative memories of laying in front of the telly on Bank Holiday Mondays and Easter afternoons, the precious extra spare time before being back at school again.
Like any musical of the time it has a big impressive sound, written to be experienced on the silver screen, and from the style it feels like it could actually have been made any time between about 1930 and 1975.
Despite not having seen the film for about 30 years I found that when I listened to it I could cheerfully sing along with 90%+ accuracy to the entire album, which is just how it should be for a kiddy film. The songs took me straight back to the feelings it created, fear for the characters – would Truly get found out as she pretended she was a music box figure? Or the rousing chorus of the onomatopoeic title track Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the thrill of seeing this characterful old car fly or float.
It is impossible to separate the film from the soundtrack, so I apologise if this seems to have had too much film and not enough music, but I challenge you not to do the same in my shoes.
I’ve put the track listing below, why not have a nostalgic little hum along to yourself?
Way back in the early days of the internet there existed a website devoted to the promotion of unsigned bands. It was called Peoplesound and I have mentioned it before. Peoplesound was an excellent place to find new music. Bands I’ve never heard of since or before would allow you to download samples of their music for free in the hope that you’d spend a tenner on their “LP” or “EP”.
I regularly paid for EPs and LPs so I like to think that there are bands around the world that were able to carry on producing good music beyond the confines of their local community centres and parent’s garages .
Sugarplum Fairies consist of Benny Bohm and Sylvia Ryder from sunny Los Angeles. Deliciously balanced mix of low-fi guitar and drums with flourishes of other instruments all draped lovingly with a silky smooth blanket of husky whispers.
Chinese Leftovers shows how Sugarplum Fairies continue to produce excellent music with a very unique sound. Think Françoise Hardy meets Mazzy Star. This album, like the others, has me making mental music videos for their songs featuring moody poetry reading emo teens falling for their corduroy wearing English teacher.
See! I was into Emo before Emo existed. That makes me a hipster. Before hipsters existed. Nernernerner…Ppphthhhhh
Yes, a fully fledged corduroy English teaching poetry writing hipster.
With a beard.
And a beret.
Fortunately I don’t have teenage emo kids hanging round being all shoegazery and hipstery.
However, listening to this album always brings me feelings of lazy hazy Saturday mornings eating bacon sandwiches, reading the Guardian and ordering next week’s Ocado delivery. It’s difficult to say which of their albums are my favourite and it’s just as difficult to suggest which album would be a good intro to their music. I can’t suggest one, just get the whole lot.
On the back of Delerium’s Silence and my love of early Enigma, I thought, “Do you know? I’m going to get the entire back catalogue of Delerium”. Which is what I did. Again.
And we all know where that road leads….Yep, that’s right, there’s a reason why some bands only have one hit. That’s because the rest of their stuff is shite. But it seems like every artist I “back catalogued” seem to have this thing where they only have a few songs I eventually like.
Delerium came at the time when bands where chucking out chill out like nobody’s business, fuelled by the success of Enigma and other bands. It seems that the listening public wanted music they could “chill-out” to sometime in the late nineties/early noughties. Chilling out meant taking drugs, getting laid or lighting a couple of joss sticks and talking shite with some mates. That’s the kind of way we rolled in the days before internet and Facebook saw an end to socialising.
Chimera is Delerium’s twelfth album. By this time most normal artists have moved on to newer things. Delerium continued a bit longer with stuff like this. As long as people are wanting to take drugs, seduce people for sex or talk shite with their mates over a couple of lighted joss sticks, there’ll be room for music and artists like this.
Enough people must have bought The Chillout Room to warrant a second volume of chill out choons and chonging. Perhaps it’s the way that chill-out is synonymous, to me, with mental images of my contemporaries jetting off to Ibiza to get wasted in horrific nightclubs and catching some sort of STD from I think her name might have been Sharon.
Of course that is not to say I don’t like the genre. I do, it’s just that it’s tainted by the reminder that there were more confident people who were my age that went on holiday abroad in their early twenties while I ended up going camping in Wales if I was lucky.
This compilation has artists like Smoke City, Groove Armada, Talvin Singh and Moby. The usual “missed the Chillout boat” artists are there but most of the songs are forgettable. But then maybe that’s the idea…..
Former Key 103 late night DJ James H Reeve has a lot to answer for in my musical education. I recall lying awake late into the evening listening to his eclectic playlist and chatter making myself totally knackered for the morning. Still without Mr Reeve, I would not have had the pleasure of Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, Half Man Half Biscuit, the Neville Brothers and, of course, Ry Cooder.
Ry Cooder arrived in my record collection as a tape recording of Get Rhythm from his album Get Rhythm taken from one of Reeve’s last broadcasts for Key 103. And that is how it would have remained until Jamie passed me a CD chock-a-block with MP3 albums obtained from illicit locations. One such album contained therein was Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music.
Chicken Skin Music is Cooder’s fifth album and it shows. He’s not even trying to impress at this stage. It’s kind of like “Oh gee, I’ve got a six album contract with my label, I can’t be bothered anymore. Here’s some stuff I’ve played recently” – a glorified covers album.
Cold – Lycia
Club for Heroes – Various Artists
Clouds Taste Metallic 
Classic rock: 1986 – Various Artists
Classic rock: 1984-1985 – Various Artists
Chronometree – Glass Hammer
Chronologie – Jean Michel Jarre
The Chillout Room Volume 2 – Various Artists
Chicken Skin Music – Ry Cooder
Stegzy's Music Project 