Stegzy's Music Project

A commentary on Stegzy's album collection

Apr 7

Gong Est Mort, Vive Gong – Gong [#537]

by stegzy

Gong_Gong_Est_MortWhile, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong were churning out jazzy numbers and being all “normal” and long after teapots were flown about by pixies and Zero the Hero’s head floated up the vagina of a witch, Daevid Allen and chums had a bit of a break and entered a period of releasing “best of” compilations, live gig recordings and other such lazy productions.

Gong Est Mort, Vive Gong is one such live compilation from Allen’s Gong. Included are tracks from Flying Teapot and Angels Egg as well as a few tracks from You from the Radio Gnome cycle and some from Camembert Electrique.

Unfortunately, there is a wife imposed jazz embargo at Gnomepant’s cottage at present, so I am unable to report on the more jazzy tracks, however I did manage a good listen of the less jazzy tracks, and, do you know? I wish I had gone to see the band back in 1992.

1977 compilations Gong Live Progressive Rock Steve Hillage

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Apr 6

Golden Age – Dead Can Dance [#536]

by stegzy

goldenagegifMore neoclassical caterwauling from Brendan Perry with added woeful wailing from Lisa Gerrard in this compilation of bootlegged performances from across Dead Can Dance’s “Golden Age”.

I think the compiler chose anything prior to the world music influenced Into the Labyrinth as the band’s “golden age” to select songs from. Of course, they may have compiled it before that album was released. Who knows?

Tracks listed include In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated, Oman, Toward the Within and my favourite, Rakim amongst others. All lovingly performed by the gang in Paris 1988 and Hamburg in 1990.

 

1989 1990 bootleg Brendan Perry Dead Can Dance Lisa Gerrard Live NeoClassical

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Apr 5

Gold: Greatest Hits – Abba [#535]

by stegzy

ABBA_Gold_coverMy music collection and thus Stegzy’s Music Project has more gold than Fort Knox it seems. This time it’s Swedish gold from seventies/eighties pop gods, Abba.

If you’ve been following the project for some time, or maybe had a late night discussion with me over a few pints, you’ll already know of my feelings about Abba and how I hold them in higher regard than to the Beatles for their contribution to world music and our musical development. A sentiment backed increasingly by other self important gobshites on  recent documentaries shown on the BBC.

Abba’s Gold is a true treasure trove of songs, most of which we’ve already heard on similar “best of” albums such as 25 Jaar Na “Waterloo” and will hear again on Thank You for The Music. Thing is, when you’re a band that solely relies on the resale of your own music through the proliferation of Greatest Hits, Best ofs and similar albums, you run the risk that future generations will not buy your other albums because they’ve “already got 90% of that album now already”.

1992 Abba

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Apr 4

Gold Collection: The Best of Jefferson Airplane [#534]

by stegzy

Gold Collection - Jefferson AirplaneAnother case of “Why have I got this?”. Gold Collection is essentially one of the bands many greatest hits compilations available on the market

Although I was already familiar with White Rabbit I was a little unsure as to which other songs Jefferson Airplane I knew. Turns out the only other one I knew was Somebody to Love.

Jefferson Airplane are icons of the sixties to many, their history as multi-branched as any prog rock tree.  Much like the earlier music project entry, Black Mass by Lucifer and future project entry, Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls by The Coven, Jefferson Airplane slots itself into a specific genre of weirdness garnished with shouty woman lead singer. Pretty much like X.  But I guess, like Grateful Dead, you have to have been a part of the scene or “been there man” to fully appreciate the appeal for the whole angry shouty sixties psychedelic music sound.

2000 Jefferson Airplane Rock

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Mar 31

Gold: The Best of Spandau Ballet – Spandau Ballet [#533]

by stegzy

Unknown-1Quite often, as is frequently the case with this project, I listen to albums and become pleasantly surprised by how many of the tracks or songs I am already familiar with.

The other week  I took a long distance trip up the M6 with this album loaded onto the car’s music centre. Before it played, my wife and I discussed how many songs we both could remember that were by Spandau Ballet. Gold was mentioned, but only in relation to the 1984 Olympics. I could remember To Cut a Long Story Short from Club for Heroes and we could both recall True but only because of a relatively recent cover version. However, as the journey continued and the album played, we began to realise we knew more Spandau than we first thought.

Only When You Leave came on followed by Lifeline and  Communication and we were both singing along. It seemed like every song that followed was accompanied by a chorus of “Oh! I didn’t know they did this one as well”. And partly, that is another reason as to why I like “Best of” compilations. Not only are they a good snapshot and introduction to a band but when it’s a more established group like Spandau, they often contain songs that pepper the soundtracks of our own lives whilst removing those songs from the original albums for we have no affiliation to.

2000 Spandau Ballet

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Mar 30

Going for the One – Yes [#532]

by stegzy

220px-Yes_Going_for_the_OnePossibly one of the first albums I had recorded on cassette. My middle brother had this on cassette and did a copy for me on his twin tape but as home taping killed music, there was nothing after this.

Nonsense of course, I eventually went and bought the album on vinyl, thus saving music for future generations.

Indeed, as a teenager, Going for the One was pivotal in my musical development to such an extent that I performed the track Turn of the Century during a school end of term concert and Wondrous Stories as an exam piece for my Music GCSE. While the majority of my peers enjoyed the likes of Wham, Culture Club and emerging techno, rap and house music, I was busy being ten years behind my contemporaries and enjoying what this album had to offer.

The album sees the return (albeit briefly) of keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman following the departure of Patrick Moraz who played keys for the previous album, Relayer. The return of Wakeman does do some favours to the band at this stage of their career and the track Awaken with its extended organ solo at the heart, really is like a “glad to be back” from Rick.

Sadly, as with all prog bands, the band would separate once more after their next album, Tormato but you can certainly hear the development of the Yes sound and how it is an acoustic ancestor of Tormato with this album.

1977 Atlantic Chris Squire Jon Anderson Progressive Rock Rick Wakeman Steve Howe Yes

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Mar 29

Godspeed and Silver Linings – Sugarplum Fairies [#531]

by stegzy

Godspeed & Silver Linings - Sugarplum Fairies This is the penultimate album from Benny and Sylvia’s Sugarplum Fairies (SPF).

I’ve been a fan of SPF since buying their first album Flake through the late lamented Peoplesound website in 1999 and since then I’ve bought all but one of their albums, even to the point of being one of the first to pay towards the crowd funding of Images We Get.

Late last year I learnt of the band splitting and the release of their (to date) final album Sunday, Suddenly which is the only album of theirs I cannot bring myself to buy. I used to wonder why some people got hung up when their favourite band broke up. I’d seen Yes split more times than a gold medal winning gymnast, The Tubes went their own way too as did Dead Can Dance but I didn’t really feel anything about them splitting. But something about SPF splitting just made me feel like a close friend had died. Sad.

Godspeed has a distinctly different sound to Flake, Chinese Leftovers and Country International Music. More mature and professionally produced, the last sweet drips of juice from a perfectly ripened musical fruit.

2014 Dream Pop Peoplesound Sugarplum Fairies

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Mar 26

God is Not Dead for the Birds – Lux Interna [#530]

by stegzy

41pN1uSvmWL._AA160_Take a substantial lump of Nick Cave, add a liberal amount of gloomy acoustic guitar, mix in a teaspoon of Sandy Denny or Barbara Gaskin (what ever you have to hand). Leave to fester for a few years and you might  just be able to recreate something similar to Lux Interna.

I discovered Lux Interna through the much touted Looking For Europe neofolk compendium and was able to source a copy of this, their fourth album from 2007. Again, unfortunately due to the time of life I discovered them, I have been unable to devote as much attention to them as I had hoped. Yet every time I do listen, I’m always rewarded by a rich tapestry of sonic gloom.

2007 Lux Interna neofolk

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Mar 24

Go: Music from the Motion Picture – Various Artists [#529]

by stegzy

Go_1999_filmGo is one of those films that tried to capture the zeitgeist of the innovation created by Tarrantino’s Pulp Fiction. Three entwined stories about young people involved in a drugs deal.
While not a fan of the movie as such, I appreciate the stylistic  90’s celluloid portmanteau vibe, but I did like the soundtrack. Not only does Len’s enigmatic Steal My Sunshine feature, but so does Natalie Imbruglia, Fat Boy Slim’s Gangster Tripping  and Air’s Talisman (from their album Moon Safari) which, although mostly used to death in “teen” films of the time, do still get the toes-a-tapping.

1999 Air Natalie Imbruglia Soundtracks Various Artists

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Mar 23

Glorious: The Singles 97-07 – Natalie Imbruglia [#528]

by stegzy

Natalie_Imbruglia_-_Glorious_The_Singles_1997-2007Bitter sentiments from ex-Neighbours star and friend of Jason and Kylie, Natalie Imbruglia. An inherited album from the first marriage’s joint collection so it holds no special sentiment for me.

Imbruglia does the uplifting music to bitter lyrics thing quite well and I do like one or two of the songs from this album. Again, not an album I would usually either openly admit to owning or buy but some good tunes.

2007 Natalie Imbruglia Rock

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Mar 22

Globe of Frogs – Robyn Hitchcock [#527]

by stegzy

HitcockFrogsHaving mentioned in passing that I happen to find the Robyn Hitchcock song Brenda’s Iron Sledge amusing, the person I mentioned it to foisted upon me a whole bunch of CDs of his work and told me that I “should” like them.

I should like Robyn Hitchcock. The whole “crazy” Brit thing is there and there are many similarities to and elements of Viv Stanshall, the Bonzos, HMHB, Gong and Barratt era Floyd but, I don’t know. It’s like some sort of crap tribute to all those people.

Maybe I just need to give it more of a chance.

 

1988 Robyn Hitchcock

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Mar 21

Glittering Prize: 81/92 – Simple Minds [#526]

by stegzy

Glitteringprize8192It’s 1992. School has finished. University has begun. Trudging the city streets of a rain soaked Sheffield is a tall fair haired male with a Sony Walkman. On the Walkman is a copy of this album.

That man was me.I’d embarked on a new phase of life. University. And with university as a young 19 year old male came new people, new experiences and, best of all, new music. Because, of course, a new phase in a new city meant new shops. Shops that didn’t feature in Liverpool. Or if they did, not on the scale they did in Sheffield or the Meadowhall.

And there, on Fargate, opening to much fanfare and huzzah, a Virgin Megastore, the size of which I’d not seen before; within, a selection of cassettes as broad and as vast as the selection of pastries in Greggs the Bakers.

I bought Glittering Prize:81/92 on cassette from the Virgin Megastore on Fargate, Sheffield using an opening day discount voucher given to me at the student union during Freshers week. So began many years of listening. I still have the cassette, granted with nothing to play it on, but it is still in my belonging.

As “best of” compilations go, this was an excellent introduction to the band for me. Of course I was already familiar with the band having heard their work on the radio while I was growing up, but there were a number of songs I was unfamiliar with. Later investigations into other Simple Minds works proved to me that this album was probably the best choice to listen to the band as a beginner. Other albums were difficult to digest and I never really explored beyond Glittering Prize.

However, considering the number of times I’ve listened to the album over the years, it has fallen relatively out of aural favour since obtaining it on MP3 in 2009. Yet everytime I hear a song from it, I’m there, in nineties Sheffield, walking around the ruins of an ancient cutlery empire on my way into town or into University.

1992 best of compilations Rock Simple Minds Virgin

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Mar 18

Gladiator: More Music from the Motion Picture – Lisa Gerrard & Hans Zimmer [#525]

by stegzy

Gladiatorsoundtrack2Lisa Gerrard lends her voice to another Zimmer soundtrack. Honestly, if it wasn’t for her work with Dead Can Dance I’d probably have given up on Ms Gerrard’s caterwauling, although maybe that is a little harsh.

In case you’ve been living in a cellar for the past sixteen years, Gladiator is a film about a Roman general (Russell Crowe) reduced into slavery, seeking revenge on the guy  (Joaquin Phoenix) who murdered his father (Richard Harris). I’ve only seen Gladiator once, and to be quite honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by it. I suppose this was because, at the time, my head was buzzing still from the story of Spartacus and I felt that the Spartacus story would have been a better choice to make into a movie (again).

The movie was a box office smash (just check out the rather lengthy Wikipedia page) and the soundtrack won awards and brought Gerrard’s voice to the masses. So much so, the Original Soundtrack spawned today’s entry, which didn’t sell as many copies. Indeed, Gladiator: More Music reeks so much of over-milked cash cow, I’m surprised heaps of unsellable follow up merchandise such as Gladiator cook books and Build your own Forum kits didn’t pollute the shops.

2001 Hans Zimmer Lisa Gerrard Soundtracks

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Mar 17

Gish – Smashing Pumpkins [#524]

by stegzy

GIsh - Smashing PumpkinsOnce, while talking about the amazing film Lost Highway and its soundtrack with a former acquaintance, the conversation went like this:

Me: – I love the soundtrack, especially the David Bowie intro and I’ve already gone and bought a Rammstien CD off that new “interweb” thingy.

FA:- Really? Well I really liked Eye by the Smashing Pumpkins

Me:- Yeah? Me too. Over all it’s a good soundtrack

FA:- Well if you like the Pumpkins, you should get Gish. I rate it. You should like it 

Regular readers will know how I feel about being told that I “should” like something. But this is one of those rare occasions where I did actually like some of their songs. Not all of them but some. Again, given limitless time to listen to music I probably would have developed a taste for them. Sadly real world pressures meant diminishing time to devote required attention to new music and the changing way we consume music (focussing on individual tracks rather than whole albums) meant eventually the Pumpkins slipped by me.

1991 Alternative Rock Smashing Pumpkins

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Mar 16

Gift for the End – Mariee Sioux [#523]

by stegzy

Unknown-7Psychedelic folk and New Weird America genres with elements of Joanna Newsom and Nick Drake combine once more as Mariee Sioux returns with her second album following the success of her first album Faces in the Rocks.

This is another album that I’ve had for some time without actually listening to it until I was preparing to write this entry. I suppose if I give it more time I’d come to enjoy it as much as I came to enjoy Faces in the Rocks and other New Weird America genre artists like Marissa Nadler.

 

2012 Folk Mariee Sioux new weird america

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Mar 15

Ghosts of Oxford Street – Various Artists [#522]

by stegzy

Unknown-5 The soundtrack to Malcolm Maclaren’s Christmas film for Channel 4.

Like with the Kinks’ Return to Waterloo, I have an off-air recording of the film on VHS that I treasure. I’d even go as far to say it is one of the primary reasons that I still have a VHS tape recorder tucked away in the loft. Sure there are probably versions of this on Youtube or Vimeo, but they’ll only last as long as the copyright nazis allow them to stay up.

Home video taping is killing music.

That said, I did buy this (and still have it) on CD.

The film has Maclaren poncing around London’s Oxford Street at Christmas telling tales about the dark history of the world famous street of consumerism with each of the “ghosts” played (sung) by different artists. Tom Jones pulls off a great Gordon Selfridge while the Happy Mondays manage an excellent cover of the Bee Gees’ Staying Alive. While Sinead O’Connor, Kirsty MacColl and the Pogues remind us of the festive season with their  songs with a slightly Christmassy feel.

Because of the Christmas bias, it feels odd listening to the soundtrack out of season but it’s not impossible to do so. Skipping the four Christmas centric songs still allows the listener a good twenty minutes of interesting music. Even Ponchielli’s  Dance of the Hours (performed on the CD by the Academy of St Martin’s in the Field) isn’t too festive in feeling and is a really piece of driving Classical music.

1991 Collaborations compilations Kirsty Maccoll Soundtracks Various Artists

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Mar 14

Ghosts of California – David Galas [#521]

by stegzy

Unknown-4

I love every second of this album and, as my wife will testify, I must have listened to something from it every day since I bought it in 2011. This is David Galas’ third solo outing, which, in my opinion, is probably his finest.

The dark brooding of Galas’ first solo album The Catacylsm has matured in the moody bath of The Happiest Days of My Life (his second) and emerged as a dark and haunting anthemic opus.

While The Happiest Days of My Life was initially a little hard to ingest I took well to Ghosts. From the opening gambit (a recording of air traffic controllers during 9/11 segueing into the atmospheric Sect VIII) to an acoustic version of The Last Days of War my favourite track from The Happiest Days of My Life, every second has been carefully thought out and produced to an excellent standard.

My only regret is that this album hasn’t had the recognition it deserves.  Few of my friends have heard it, even fewer care, and yet I do truly believe that despite all my attempts to encourage others to listen to it, if they really gave it a try, they too might get the same enjoyment as I did. I just hope that through this Music Project I might encourage a few others.

 

2011 dark wave David Galas gothic Industrial neofolk

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Mar 11

Ghosts from the Darkside III – Various Artists [#520]

by stegzy

R-708447-1150309381.jpegCompilations, it seems, are like buses. You wait for ages then two come along at once.

Ghosts from the Darkside III (I’ve no idea what happened to Ghosts from the Darkside I) is pretty much the same as Ghosts from the Darkside II, darkwave/goth music somewhat difficult to ingest aurally driving to and from work.

This time Tristania, Clan of Xymox and L’Âme Immortelle join the dark pageant but again, the rest of the acts I’d never heard of, nor did I find any affinity with.

Unfortunately, this eagerness to embrace the dark resulted in me getting quite a few albums and fan compilations like this and, advanced warning here, very soon we will see examples of other Gothic compilations on the music project.

1-01 –Flesh Field Animal 5:34
1-02 –Funker Vogt The Journey 5:52
1-03 –Terminal Choice The Saviour 6:46
1-04 –In Strict Confidence The Truth Inside Me 5:05
1-05 –Yendri Bodyless 5:49
1-06 –Diary Of Dreams Winter Souls 5:45
1-07 –Clan Of Xymox Crucified 6:00
1-08 –Sanguis Et Cinis Phantom 4:57
1-09 –Illuminate Energie 4:58
1-10 –Umbra Et Imago Mea Culpa 4:47
1-11 –Samsas Traum Für Immer 5:23
1-12 –Mondsucht Verlies Der Ewigkeit 4:28
1-13 –Mantus (2) Feuer 7:08
1-14 –Exovedate Truly 2:30
1-15 –Ophelia’s Dream Quando Corpus Morietur 3:09
2-01 –L’Âme Immortelle The Immortal Part 4:53
2-02 –Claire Voyant Love The Giver (Eskil Simonsson Of Covenant)

Remix – Eskil Simonsson

 5:28
2-03 –Love Like Blood Bleeding 6:02
2-04 –The Garden Of Delight Chaos AD 5:09
2-05 –Tristania Beyond The Veil 6:39
2-06 –Grabesmond Totgeboren 3:45
2-07 –Stillste Stund Drei Sind Eins 4:28
2-08 –Cinema Strange Lindsay’s Trachea 5:17
2-09 –S.P.O.C.K Klingon 2000 (Radio Mix) 3:49
2-10 –Klirrfaktor Dekadenz 4:10
2-11 –Cleaner Anti-Arctic (Hard Vox Version) 5:38
2-12 –Absurd Minds Fairy Stories 5:12
2-13 –Hocico Spit As An Offence (Suicide Commando Remix)

Remix – Suicide Commando

 5:25
2-14 –Siechtum Gesellschaft Mord 3:36
2-15 –Dulce Liquido Illusión Hecha Mentira

2000 Clan of Xymox gothic Industrial Rock Tristania Various Artists

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Mar 10

Ghosts from the Darkside II [#519]

by stegzy

R-570247-1150308479.jpeg
A compilation of highlights of Goth, Darkwave and Dark Electro bands.

During my exploration of usenet newsgroups, specifically the goth-industrial binary group, I happened upon a whole treasure trove of gothic compilations (as you will hear about a few weeks later on in this project). In an effort to grow my “repertoire” with goth music I would download compilations as a way to find new bands.

Ghosts from the Darkside II is pretty hard going. I’d heard of a few of the bands featuring on this album through other explorations, such as Inkubus Sukkubus, Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Blutengel so it was natural for me to give it a go. However, I’d not really heard of any of the songs in the compilation either. There are quite a few German bands in this compilation so I suspect this is an album aimed at people who attend Wave Gothik Treffen.

After several listens I’m still not enamoured with the album. Perhaps it’s because I’m older now and I’ve reached “Full of Goth” or perhaps it’s because I just don’t like what I’ve heard.

Tracklist

1-1 –Swartalf Invocation 4:03
1-2 –Non Compos Mentis Without Bloodshed 6:10
1-3 –Ikon (4) Fatal Attraction 3:17
1-4 –In Extremo Ai Vis Lo Lop 4:02
1-5 –Morthem Vlade Art Beyond Sorrow 5:19
1-6 –WeltenBrand The Fall Of Trisona 6:35
1-7 –Diary Of Dreams Drop Dead 7:11
1-8 –Nekromantik Girlstickboy 4:05
1-9 –Blutengel Beauty Of Suffering 6:13
1-10 –Fiction 8 Second Skin 3:32
1-11 –Girls Under Glass New World Order 4:20
1-12 –Das Zeichen In The Garden 3:58
1-13 –Theatre Of Loneliness Holocaust 4:16
1-14 –black tape for a blue girl Given 4:20
1-15 –Hagalaz’ Runedance When The Trees Were Silenced 2:45
2-1 –Exovedate Ego Sum Mons 4:30
2-2 –Untoten Gothik Years 5:54
2-3 –Chaos God Judgement Day 5:36
2-4 –The Dust Of Basement God’s Own Fairytales 5:28
2-5 –The Second Sight Answer 3:29
2-6 –Die Form Spiral 2 4:12
2-7 –Vespertina De Profundis 4:20
2-8 –Inkubus Sukkubus Starchild 4:44
2-9 –Sanguis Et Cinis Nicht Mein Schicksal 5:33
2-10 –The New Creatures My Child Queen 4:53
2-11 –This Burning Effigy Exquisite 4:58
2-12 –Hexedene Only Human (Original Mix) 4:30
2-13 –Attrition The Thin Veil 6:12
2-14 –Louisa John-Krol Alexandria 5:30
2-15 –Summoning Angbands Schmieden 3:28

1999 Black Tape for a Blue Girl compilations gothic Inkubus Sukkubus Various Artists

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Mar 9

Ghostbusters OST – Various Artists [#518]

by stegzy

Ghostbusters soundtrack - various artistsThis is the soundtrack to the classic 1980s blockbusting movie Ghostbusters.

As a regular downloader from the alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.soundtrack newsgroup in the late noughties, I would frequently smugly mark for download the soundtracks for movies I’d always wanted but had been unable to obtain from crappy HMV or Virgin Megastores. One such prize was todays album.

I remember my brother taking me to see Ghostbusters in the Lime Street Odeon in Liverpool. I remember queuing up (in the cold) for hours before the doors opened so that we would be some of the first in the theatre and be able to get the best seats. I remember being excited to rent the video when it became available, and I still remember the anticipation and thrill of being able to video record it off the telly when it was eventually shown over Christmas for the first time on network television.

I also remember the disappointment at being unable to find the soundtrack on CD, a dissipating disappointment when I located it on Usenet.

Classic 80s soundtrack for a classic 80s film. Not sure why they feel the need to “reboot” it.

 

1984 compilations Soundtracks Various Artists

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Mar 8

Ghost Riders in the Sky – Various Artists [#517]

by stegzy

Ghost Riders in the Sky - Various ArtistsOne of the more quirky “albums” in my collection is this compilation, a collection of recordings of the same song by a variety of artists.

Ghost Riders in the Sky has been credited as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time and has been recorded by a whole host of performers since its first recording in 1948. Artists such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and even death metal bands have recorded their own interpretation of the song.

This unofficial “not-available-in-the-shops” compilation was uploaded to Usenet newsgroups in the late noughties and contains versions by:

Boston Pops
Elvis Presley
Ennio Morricone
Frankie Laine
Lawrence Welk
Patrick Normand
Peggy Lee
Roy Clark
Roy Clark & Chet Atkins
Roy Rogers & Sons of the Pioneers
Shadows
Slim Whitman
Spike Jones
The Spotnicks
Tom Jones
Ventures
Wingy Manone and his Go-Group

Seventeen versions of the same song. My wife deserves a medal for helping me listen to them all.

compilations Various Artists

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Mar 7

Get Rhythm – Ry Cooder [#516]

by stegzy

Get Rhythm - Ry CooderBack in the very early nineties possibly very late eighties, I became obsessed with late night radio shows. Frequently, much to my mothers chagrin, I would lie in bed with my headphones on, listening to the broadcasts from a variety of radio stations.

There was something haunting, maybe spiritual or even mystical about listening to the radio in the late hours of the night. The fact that I was one of a handful of listeners that would experience something special broadcast over the airwaves that few others would hear because they slept or were unaware. Indeed, much of my knowledge of the world and, to some extent humour, was developed by being one of the privileged few.

One late night DJ that I was fond of was on Manchester’s Key 103 radio station and went by the name of James H Reeve. The content and humour between the records he played was priceless and I was often afraid of falling asleep and missing something. So often I would try and steal at least another 90 minutes of airtime by using my hifi’s tape-deck to record the show as I fell asleep.

As it happened, on the last night I did this I managed to record some comedy gold and a priceless mix of music which, I hope, I still have on a cassette tucked away in my box of memories. One of the songs on this cassette, which naturally, I listened to over and over again through to my early thirties, was Ry Cooder’s cover of Johnny Cash’s Get Rhythm, the title track to today’s album.

I love that song. It’s so positive, happy and always has me dancing at my steering wheel. Of course the rest of the album doesn’t really compare in the great scheme of things and I don’t really know any other songs by Cooder. But I appreciate his contribution to music and his reunion of the Buena Vista Social Club. I’ll also remember always how this song, the cassette it was recorded on, with the 90 minutes of late night radio show broadcast that I played over and over again to a point where I still almost remember the content word for word, saw me through my GCSEs, my A Levels and kept me company across at least two decades of commuting in one form or another.

1987 Ry Cooder

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Mar 4

Get Behind Me Satan – The White Stripes [#515]

by stegzy

Get_Behind_Me_SatanLo-fi brother and sister double act Meg and Jack White’s White Stripes’ fifth studio album.

By this stage of their career, the main stream successes of previous albums such as Elephant and White Blood Cells had started to wane. Get Behind Me Satan reeks of a late night dash home to hurriedly try to recreate something that has previously taken time and care to produce.

I liked White Blood Cells  having been introduced to the band through one of Joel Veitch’s early animations on B3ta.com and I was fairly fond of Elephant even though Former-Mrs-Gnomepants played it to death. But something was missing by the time Get Behind Me came along. Mass production does something to quality regardless of what people say. Please don’t misunderstand me, the White Stripes quality and vibe is still there, it’s just not as honed as the previous albums. Maybe it’s the little flecks of glitter that have fallen off or maybe it’s like when an amateur athlete gets close to their goal and the cramps kick in.

Indeed, by their next album, Icky Thump, I’d given up. And so, it seems, did Meg.

 

2005 White Stripes (The)

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Mar 3

Genius of America – The Tubes [#514]

by stegzy

The_Tubes_Genius_of_America Fee Waybill and the guys regroup and return following a ten year hiatus and departure from  Capitol Records with their first album on the Critique label.

Despite filling the years between 1986 and 1994 with The Tubes on my Walkman, I didn’t come across this album until much later. Thing is, HMV were never any good at stocking records for non-mainstream bands, even though the Tubes were fairly mainstream at the height of their career. Trips to the HMV in Church Street, Liverpool, during my youth would see me flipping through the Ts..TUs…TUB…Oh bugger..TUBEWAY ARMY…no Tubes.

“Never heard of them mate” was the mantra from the shop staff.

And yet, it seems, The Tubes were more influential than we know with some members of the band having sessioned with Chris Isaak , and with Richard “Hazard” Marx producing today’s album.

To say Genius of America takes off from where Love Bomb ended is incorrect. Stylistically, the album is Tubesesque but it’s a far cry from Remote Control and Completion Backward Principle. Indeed, it’s almost as if the band have had a style transplant during their hiatus, because unlike other bands that have split and reformed, there is a recognisable difference in sound.

I’m still waiting for it to grow on me.

Unfortunately, I am unable to back up my conjecture with my usual inclusion of a sample Youtube video for this album. It seems that the copyright police have cleared it of any of the tracks from this release. So instead, here is one of the band’s classic songs.

1996 Rock Tubes (The)

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Mar 2

Geek Freak Stadium – Ban Jyang [#513]

by stegzy

51bsuZeDOoLWay back in the early days of internet and Windows Millenium, I obtained a compilation CD from an innovative music website known as Peoplesound. The idea behind Peoplesound was years ahead of its time, crowd funded/supported bands could sell their EPs, demos and albums via the site and hipsters everywhere could potentially discover artists years before anyone else. I claim that privilege with Mull Historical Society and Sugarplum Fairies. Another band I had hoped would blossom into something else was Ban Jyang.

Loud, brash and similar sounding to Rage Against the Machine, Ban Jyang had three albums to buy. Of course £10 an album was a lot of money to fritter away on music, so I bided my time until I could afford to buy them.

Unfortunately during this time, the band imploded. Folding in on itself, they vanished from Peoplesound. Previous searches had revealed a website but this had been hacked and warning messages appeared whenever it was visited. Eventually that too disappeared and along with it the “free to download” back catalogue of the band.

So more than “they were an artist who sound like Rage Against the Machine”, I am unable to tell you but remnants of their work remain on the internet. For instance you can still buy this album via Amazon and their MySpace page is still live (https://myspace.com/banjyang/music/albums).

Geek Freak Stadium is a live compilation of “hits” from their other albums Weirdo Side Effects and Religious Love Hater, possibly recorded at a gig they probably did sometime somewhere. It sounds like it’s really popular but then I suspect they just added a cheering audience backing track in the studio.

compilations Live Peoplesound Rock

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