Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow
I recently watched clipping.’s Tiny Desk Concert. Excellent stuff.
Reminded me of this album.
Chemical Calisthenics really is something.
Across the whole album, though, it's not just the complexity of the delivery that stuns me, but the quality of the lyrics.
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Stephan Bodzin - Liebe Ist
A bit of quality, grown up techno. I honestly have no idea of the whys and wherefores of why I should say that, other than...you know...vibes. I never have never been very much arsed with the sub-categories of electronic music. Discogs has this down as ‘minimalist’, but it doesn’t sound all that minimalist to me.
I have no recollection of how I came to be buying this album in 2007, or where I’d heard it. My best guess is Radio 3’s Late Junction, where I heard a lot of new music around that time.
Weather Report - Black Market
This was the album that cast the die for jazz fusion. If this was released today, it would still sound modern.
Jaco Pastorius joins the band...oof!
I picked this CD up in an op shop in Berri. I will often have a cursory glance over the CDs in chazzas but rarely find anything I want.
Various Artists - Swingbillies CD Box Set
I’d been meaning to dig this out of the shed for a spin since reading the early chapters of Andrew Hickey’s A History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs (great book, by the way – and one of the best podcasts!)
The music here is so full of energy and excitement; both raw and containing excellent musicianship. Many of the musical and lyrical tropes used in rock music since were established in western swing. It’s a shame that it is a genre that has been largely forgotten as it was subsumed into the greater Country monolith.
This four CD set was released in Germany in 2005, and I picked it up on eBay a couple of years later, if I remember correctly. It has extensive sleeve notes in both German and English.
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Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
I taped this off my mate I the eighties and played it so much that I know every note and word. I reckon I picked up this CD version in the mid-00s at HMV at Fort Dunlop in Brum, when they used to do, like, 5 CDs for a tenner deals.
Bear in mind, I heard this long before I’d ever been more than peripherally aware of Steely Dan – I didn’t start investigating them until a bloke I worked with put Peg on a tape for me and I recognised it from De La Soul’s sample.
It’s an odd record this: a concept album based in a 1950s American world of late-night radio and nuclear threat, played out in very highly-produced eighties jazz-rock-pop.
Listening to this is like putting on my house slippers for me. If someone had filled them with warm treacle. I’ve noticed over the years, however, that for many other people it’s like nails down a blackboard.
T.S. Monk - Too Much Too Soon 12"
Thelonious Sphere Monk III is the son of Thelonious Monk the genius jazz pianist.
He was given his first set of drums by Art Blakey and taught to play them by Max Roach.
This is a pleasant but very ordinary boogie 12”, which doesn’t display any of that rich heritage.
George Jones - The Essential George Jones. The Spirit Of Country
Over the weekend I listened to one of the George Jones episodes of Tyler Mahan Coe’s excellent country music podcast, Cocaine & Rhinestones.
Whilst Jones' reputation for liking a drink is well known, I hadn’t really realised how much his alcohol use pervaded his life and work.
It made me go down the shed and dig through the boxes of CDs to find this.
Fuck, George Jones’ voice was something else.
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#TheEssentialGeorgeJones
#CocaineandRhinestonesPodcast
#Country
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Ornette Coleman -The Shape Of Jazz To Come
There’s really nothing to say about this album. It seems pointless to re-state the bleeding obvious: that it’s a work of staggering genius.
I realise that the rather grandiose title was not Coleman’s idea, but also, how wrong was it? The absolute state of jazz today, it would’ve been more appropriate for a Kenny Fucking G album.
I didn’t realise until today, though, that Coleman played a plastic saxophone. He's pictured with it on the sleeve. He has a rather pleased-with-himself look on his face, as well he might. Most other jazz records sound a bit shit in comparison.
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#TheShapeOfJazzToCome
#FreeJazz
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Richard Dawson - Nothing Important
Dawson at his most abrasive.
This reminds me of the Trumpton theme, if played by someone who has really had enough of your shit.
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Ewan MacColl accompanied by Peggy Seeger - The Manchester Angel
A couple of weeks before we moved into our house, we were at a folk festival about a hundred kilometers away. There were some flyers for a forthcoming folk and rock record sale scattered around and one of our party said, “Isn’t that the road you’re moving to?” It was. It was the house next door and the record sale was on the day after we moved in. It was that sort of area. I popped next door to say hello and fill my boots with as much folk as I could afford.
This was pre-discogs days, so someone selling their collection out of their shed is less likely to happen nowadays, sadly.
This was one of the albums I picked up. It has a version of one of my favourite folk songs, Round Cape Horn.
Now, I’m pretty sure that Peggy Seeger made an appearance at a Stop The War gig I attended in 1991 at the Hackney Empire. I barely new who she was, but remember it was a big deal.
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#HackneyEmpire
#Folk
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Denise LaSalle - My Toot Toot
Another Malaco Records artist, although this is the European version of the album, which was licensed to Epic – it was a re-packaging of her Love Talkin’ album with some extras.
This is another classic album of the southern soul/blues genre. I once heard a local blues cover band cover Someone Else Is Stepping In, which impressed me greatly - beats Mustang fucking Sally, for sure.
The title track off this album is a cover of Rockin’ Sydney’s cajun classic. This became, rather oddly, a massive UK novelty hit single, which I recall having a bit of irked-purist rage about at the time.
Johnnie Taylor - Wall To Wall
Malaco Records in the mid-eighties epitomised the sound of independent modern southern soul. They existed in a sphere which has one foot in soul music, one foot in gospel music and, erm, one foot in blues. This tri-footed beast rarely needed to venture outside of Black America to sustain itself.
After Malaco’s flagship artist, Z.Z. Hill, died, they signed Johnnie Taylor, whose career was in the doldrums, after he had sung at the funeral. Always. Be. Closing.
This was his second album for the label. He is wearing his best clobber and a shit-load of jewellery on the sleeve. According to the credits, Bandiera's from The Galleria did the wardrobe. Sadly, my extensive internet research produced no results.
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#WallToWall
#MalacoRecords
#Soul
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Johnny Guitar Watson - Giant
Once was a time when my three favourite artists were filed under W (Womack, WAR, Watson). Years later, I still find myself drawn toward the W section of a record shop first.
Johnny Guitar Watson always tried to adapt to whatever the current trend in black music was. By adapt, I mean he did his signature singing, scatting and clean Texas blues guitar playing largely unchanged, over the new-style backing. Sometimes this works really well; sometimes it doesn’t. It helps if you’re a fan, which I am.
This album tries to hit the jazz-blues-disco highs of his hit I Need It from a couple of years prior. Whilst it doesn’t achieve that, its still a decent album – mostly disco-orientated. Apart from an updated version of his early hit, Gangster Of Love and his cover of WAR’s Baby Face (She Said Do Do Do Do).
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#Giant
#Disco
#Blues
#WAR
#Music
Lankum - Live In Dublin
Musically, this is a fine example of a live album. Lankum’s signature drone is even more droney than the studio versions and frequently runs between songs. It manages to capture the bass, so often missing from recordings of folk music.
This was released as a limited edition 500 pressing in 2023 (Hooray!). Then re-released soon after, in 2024 (Boo!). Thanks Rough Trade.
The pressing is catshit. It crackles like it’s spent ten years sitting in a dollar bin. Outside. In a sandstorm. In fact, it's so poor that I've never been sure whether the infinite loop runout of crowd noise at the end of side two is supposed to be there or is just due to the shitty pressing. Thanks again Rough Trade.
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#Lankum
#LiveInDubin
#IrishFolk
#RoughTrade
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Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
I really couldn’t believe that I hadn’t played this album since January, when I started writing about records.
What can I say? It contains some of Young’s biggest bangers, three of which were written in a single day when he was delirious with the flu. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?
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#EverybodyKnowsThisIsNowhere
#Rock
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Miles Davis + 19 - Orchestra Under The Direction Of Gil Evans – Miles Ahead
Miles Davis playing flugelhorn against a Gil Evans orchestral backdrop.
I love this period of Davis’s work. You can hear hints of what was to come.
Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool
In 1987, Miles Davis attended a reception at The White House. Reagan was president at the time. Unsurprisingly, Davis has several jarring interactions with stupid, rich, white people, who felt obliged to give him their opinions on his life, on race, on jazz…
Eventually, a politician’s wife asks Davis, “Well, what have you done that‘s so important in your life? Why are you here?” Davis replies, “Well, I’ve changed music five or six times, so I guess that’s what I’ve done and I guess I don’t believe in playing just white compositions. Now tell me what you have done of any importance other than be white, and that ain’t important to me, so tell me what your claim to fame is?”*
This album is the sound of Davis changing music for the first time.
*Miles the Autobiography is a a hell of a read.
Charles Mingus - Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus
Been a bit busy receiving birthday beatings, blowing out candles, and eating cake to post over the past couple of days.
This was the first of the birthday haul. I hadn’t realised until I started playing it that it’s Mingus re-recording some of his biggest tunes, often giving them different names. It shouldn’t work, but it does. This is largely due to the amazing band he had at this time.
Also – best album name ever.
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#MingusMingusMingusMingusMingus
#Jazz
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Kamasi Washington - Harmony Of Difference
I don’t often reach for Kamasi Washington records. It’s not because I don’t like them. In fact, I always enjoy them more than I think I’m going to – it’s just that, with their end of the 2010’s excessive packaging, they just seem like a bit of a faff. Because of that, I’d forgotten all about this album.
It was released in between the two behemoths that were The Epic and Heaven and Earth and, to be honest, runs along very similar lines: lush and beautifully melodic, over-staffed jazz, with nothing that will frighten the horses. This plays out across the two sides of a single vinyl album. Thank fuck for that.
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#HarmonyOfDifference
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Sparks - Hippopotamus
I think this might well be the only picture disc I own. I’ve never been bothered by them, to be honest.
I must say, though, that this album as a whole package is quite visually striking.
Musically, it’s just more of Sparks doing the thing we know and love them for, on their 23rd album!
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#Sparks
#Hippopotomus
#PictureDisc
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Norman Connors - You Are My Starship
Some time around 1984, for reasons that are long-forgotten, I was walking down North Street, Romford in the drizzle. I stopped at a proper old junk shop to look through the box of albums out front – all 10p - and picked this up.
Considering that Connors is a drummer, this isn’t a drum-dominated album. The legion of other musicians get their chance to shine on the lush, funky, soulful jazz.
When I first heard Kamasi Washington’s music, it reminded me a lot of this.
The wikipedia entry for this album makes the un-referenced claim that the cover photo is taken on a boat owned by John Wayne. This has led me to spend far too much time looking at pictures of John Wayne's yachts without being able to verify this.
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#YouAreMyStarship
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John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
What can I say about this album? I think it’s the finest piece of music ever recorded.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Zuma
This album was first released 50 years ago yesterday.
It always makes me think of Zumba, which is a very different thing.
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#NeilYoungAndCrazyHorse
#Zuma
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The Roots - Things Fall Apart
There’s an episode of Questlove Supreme podcast where Jill Scott is the guest.
The subject of You Got Me comes up. Turns out Scott, who co-wrote the tune and recorded it with The Roots, was walking past a hair salon and heard the tune on their radio. She was surprised to hear that Erykah Badu was singing her part. No-one had got round to telling her she'd been replaced.
The band then took her on tour to sing her part, and put her up in a halfway house in Paris whilst they stayed in the hotel across the road. They abandoned her there.
It’s quite an uncomfortable listen.
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#ThingsFallApart
#HipHop
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Squarepusher X Z-Machines - Music For Robots
There’s never a dull moment in the world of Squarepusher.
This could so easily have sounded like a 1970s stereo demonstration LP – it’s those kind of sounds, but, because of Jenkinson’s need to push it until it’s a bit uncomfortable, it doesn’t
Similar to those 70’s LPs, this sounds almost as if it’s from a simpler bygone age where technology would be used to enhance the life of humans with, I dunno, a 32-fingered guitarist robot or whatever, rather than being the e-shackles that billionaire oligarchs will use to harvest our organs.
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#MusicForRobots
#Electronic
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The B-52's - Mesopotamia
If there’s one thing that they should teach on day one of rock ‘n’ roll school, it’s that everyone living together in one house is a very bad idea.
This was the situation The B-52’s found themselves in when they were recording this mini-album.
The whole thing was a catalogue of errors, including it being downgraded to a 12” instead of an album, because – basically – everything went to shit and they didn’t record enough music. My version, the UK first pressing, gets the guernsey as a mini-album, because they mistakenly issued it with the longer demo versions of the second side’s tracks. Fine by me.
I was surprised to read that this was a generally poorly received album, because I really like it.
I reckon I picked this up at a massive car boot sale in Devon.
Paul Brady - True For You
This is the second of the Paul Brady albums I bought.
There’s not really any trace of folk left here – it’s an entirely eighties rock-pop album. Not bad in itself. I had to screw on the pair of ears I use to listen to Robert Palmer’s Clues or The Colourfield.
One of the songs was covered by Tina Turner, on the Private Dancer album, no less. That must’ve kept him in coddle.
Big shout out to the most eighties sleeve ever.
Problem is: where do I file it? With the rest of Brady’s work in the folk section, or on its own in the rock/pop section?
Paul Brady - Hard Station
I watched a Planxty documentary on YouTube last week, which sent me down a Paul Brady rabbit hole.
I don’t know why I hadn’t done this earlier as I’ve long been a fan of his trad stuff. The live version of Arthur McBride is one of my favourite tunes. Such a unique voice and such an amazing guitarist.
So, turns out that down at the end of the rabbit hole was a discogs seller with two Irish Polydor pressings of two of his early eighties albums, going for a song. It’d be churlish not to
Hard Station really should be a much more famous album than it is. It’s choc-full of proper songs, folk-tinged rock delivered in a slightly over-marinaded eighties style, and Brady's open-tuned hybrid-picking guitar playing.
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#HardStation
#Irish
#FolkRock
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Daymé Arocena - Sonocardiogram
This is another of those great 2019 albums.
It’s a beautifully produced Afro-Cuban vocal jazz album, with a simple-but-complex trio of piano, bass and drums laying the foundation for her vocals.
Sadly, her next album was a bit of a pop let-down for me.
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#DayméArocena
#Sonocardiogram
#Cuban
#Jazz
#Music
Swamp Dogg - Total Destruction To Your Mind
This was the first Swamp Dogg LP I bought. Picked up from the second hand department upstairs at Downtown Records in Romford, where I got so many great records, on the strength of the sleeve photo, I went back and bought the bulk of my Swamp Dogg collection at the next available opportunity.
This was his debut LP after assuming the Swamp Dogg identity. It’s the most (Southern) soulful - musically, at least - of his albums, and my favourite. The title track is one of my all-time favourite tunes.
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#TotalDestructionToYourMind
#Soul
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Coke Escovedo - Comin' At Ya!
This is one of those albums that I’ve only ever played one track of before.
It kind of goes without saying that that track is I Wouldn’t Change A Thing – Escovedo’s over-caffeinated version of Johnny Bristol’s YOLO anthem. A dancefloor-filling, toe-tapping, singalong, funky-latin-groove classic. A ten. More than a ten.
The rest of the album is a directionless disappointment, which has very very occasional moments of promise, but never quite focuses long enough in any direction to make an impression.
This is why you’ve probably never heard of any other Coke Escovedo tune.
Also, it has a ‘side A’ and ‘side one’. That’s neither big nor clever.
Teena Marie - Irons In The Fire
I bought this album as a cut-out at the first Rockley Sands Soul Weekender. You Make Love Like Springtime was a massive tune on that scene at that time, as was Portuguese Love (from It Must Be Magic, which I also bought whilst I was at it).
In 1991, me and a couple of mates went to the Hammersmith Odeon to see her live, when she was touring to promote Ivory. When the show started, there was this amazing voice, but where was Teena? The voice was coming out of a very different-looking older woman in a blue-satin jump-suit and baseball cap, playing guitar. Turns out Teena had been using old photos on her record sleeves for years.
She was fucking great though.
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#TeenaMarie
#IronsInTheFire
#RockleySandsSoulWeekender
#Soul
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