Dead - House Of Lightning (Brave Aurora)/House Of Lightning - Fear Merchant

This split 7" was chucked in with my two Dead albums.

It's part 8 of a series of split 7" singles with Dead and other bands.

It's a bit on the rock-side of things for me, on first listen.

I'll give it another couple of goes before it goes on the shelf.

#Dead
#[url=https://friendica.world/search?tag=Vinyl]Vinyl
#NowPlaying

Dead: Alive!

Whilst I was buying the latest Dead album, I picked this one up, as I'd neglected to buy it when it came out.

I've seen Dead live quite a few times, and they're always very good. This album captures them well. It recorded around the time The Laughing Shadow came out, and that album was one of my favourites.

#Dead
#Dead:Alive!
#Vinyl

Dead - Memory Jar

I always look forward to a new Dead album.

I've enjoyed how the past three studio albums in particular have gone down new musical avenues and on this one they have pared everything back to pure, raw sounds, often unaccompanied, beautifully produced. Kind of avant-garde, experimental, musique concrète, dark ambient...I don't know enough about the naming conventions of that sort of stuff, to be honest, but there's elements of all of that here.

The perfect album to sit and have a good, hard chin-stroke to.

#Dead
#MemoryJar
#Vinyl
#Experimental
#Avante-garde
#Musiqueconcrète
#Darkambient

Miles Davis - In A Silent Way

In Australia, it's election day. Because of my work, I don't have my name and address on the register of electors. I am what is known as a 'silent voter'. Whenever I attend a polling station, this always freaks them the fuck out, and they send me off into the darkest corner of the building, while they run around shouting, "Trevor, we've got a silent voter over here! Trevor...has anyone seen Trevor? We've got a SILENT VOTER....This chap, over here."

Oh, it makes me smile.

This was the last of yesterday's purchases. I'd not heard it before.

This was Davis' first 'electric' album. The supporting cast (Hancock, Corea, Shorter, Holland, Zawinul, McLaughlin and Williams) would lead you to expect a more raucous affair, but it's a superbly chilled album, although it contains all the fusion-y goodness you'd expect. I suppose it pre-dates jazz-fusion raucousness, as Weather Report didn't get together until the year after this was released.

On white vinyl, if that's your thing.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#InASilentWay
#JazzFusion

Charles Mingus - The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady

The third of yesterday's purchases. A record I know well from my digital copy, but that I haven't heard for ages, because I rarely listen to digital music files any more.

Just an amazing piece of music. Recorded in 1963. Nineteen. Sixty. Three!

Also, the photo on the cover is just wonderful.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#CharlesMingus
#TheBlackSaintAndTheSinnerLady
#Jazz

Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal

I had the opportunity to go to two record shops today. I spent more than I should.

One of the things I hated when I was young was old cunts dismissing modern music as derivative and not as good as the old days, or whatever. I'd always promised myself that i would never do it. The problem is, you then get old yourself and all the young people's music starts to sound shit and derivative and not as good as the old days. Every now and then, though, something comes along which makes you wish you were able to hear it with the fresh ears of your sallow youth. This is one such thing.

Doechii's performance on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts is extraordinary and I've wanted this since seeing it, but was waiting for the re-press, due to the expensive cost of the original pressings.

I think this will be one of the defining recordings of the current epoch. It's really good. Doechii is quite something. But you probably knew that.

To be completely honest though, I prefer the NPR Tiny Desk Concert versions.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Doechii
#AlligatorBitesNeverHeal

Boney M - Night Flight To Venus

The same mixtapes that got me into Cardiacs also contained Night Flight To Venus/Rasputin nestled alongside The Fall, Zappa, Beefheart. It worked. Even though I was obviously very familiar with Rasputin, it made me hear it differently and enjoy it, rather than dismissing it as pop shite.

I was just thinking about those tapes today. I wish I still had them. The covers were hand drawn works of art, and the person who did them is now quite a collectible artist.

It meant I picked this up in a chazza for ten bob when I saw it.

Hard to fault the production on this, even though most of the album's not up my straße.

The gate-fold sleeve is a joy to behold.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#BoneyM
#NightFlightToVenus

Los De Abajo - LDA V The Lunatics

It's 2005, in the early hours of the morning, I'm fast asleep, The World Service is playing on the radio next to the bed. Charlie Gillett's world music show is on. Gillett plays Los Lunáticos (El Manicomio Está En Manos De Los Locos) and it cuts right though my sleep and wakes me up. Boom! What a tune. I bought this CD the next day, unfortunately, I reckon, from Am***n, which didn't seem so evil in those days (honest.)

The track in question is a cover of The Fun Boy Three's The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) and features Specials and FB3 member Neville Staple. It's done in a very Cumbia-Ska crossover style and is very, very good. Unfortunately, on the sleeve, they mis-spell Neville's name, adding an 's' to make his name the verb, 'Staples'.

The rest of the album is a Mexican melting pot of cumbia, reggaeton, mariachi, ska, punk, reggae, and other Latin American genres which are well beyond my naming abilities.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#LosDeAbajo
#NevilleStaple
#FunBoyThree

The Dead Maggies - Well Hanged

In 2015, we took ourselves off to Hobart for a few days.

Some friends took us to The Brisbane Hotel where The Dead Maggies happened to be playing. They were great. Proper folk-punk, with a suitably raucous live act, songs with lots of Tasmanian references.

I picked up this CD, which had just been released.

It looks like their website has not been updated since COVID. It’s a shame because I always feel that folk-punk bands should just go on forever.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#TheDeadMaggies
#WellHanged
#FolkPunk

Subhumans - From The Cradle To The Grave

Turns out I have this on both CD and vinyl.

When I read the recent book on Subhumans, I was delighted to find out they had been massive Rush fans. Once you know that, you can't not hear the influence. Musically, rather than lyrically - no Ayn Rand tributes here, thankfully.

This is a great album. The title track is one of my favourite 17 minute-long pieces of music.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#Subhumans
#FromTheCradleToTheGrave
#Punk
#Rush

David Bowie - Space Oddity

I can recall seeing the video for Space Oddity on the TV as a child (four, I reckon) and being so viscerally affected by the plight of old mate Major Tom that I can still feel it in my gut today when I hear the title song from this album.

I bought this album early in my record buying career. I was 13, I reckon. It was the first or second proper record I’d bought (from Downtown Records, Romford).

You will never get to know a record so intimately as one you have owned through your teenage years and it still has all the feels for me, even though an objective listen shows it as really mostly a pretty unremarkable pop-rock-folk album.

Bowie looks so fucking cool on the sleeve (and on the enclosed poster, which was on my bedroom wall for years).

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DavidBowie
#SpaceOddity

eX-Girl - Endangered Species

J-Pronk? Is that a thing? (My online search leads me to a Dutch politician, so no.)

Elements of Zappa, Cardiacs, Melt Banana, Mr Bungle...on Alternative Tentacles.

It's fucking great.

#NowPlaying
#eX-Girl
#Vinyl

The Ex - If Your Mirror Breaks

It's been quite a wait for the new Ex album. It arrived in the post whilst I've been laid low with a(nother!) shitty virus, so I wasn't feeling 100% when it got its first listen.

I'm glad to say it sounds very much like The Ex. I like their unique sound and perspective very much and look forward to giving this more of a listen when I'm more in the mood.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheEx
#IfYourMirrorBreaks

Bjork - Debut

A CD I must've listened to a thousand times. When we were young it was always there when we were chilling out after a night of pills or whatever. Also nice to listen to if you were feeling a bit erm, stressed.

The jewel case of this CD is the shabbiest I've ever seen, showing evidence of use for purposes other than storage.

This is such a massive 10 of an album. Every note, word, beat is absolutely perfect. The bit recorded in the bogs of The Milk Bar is so good - so evocative and so clever.

After I had ripped all my CDs to WAV files, I mostly stopped listening to albums as complete works. This is one of those albums that , much as I like the individual songs, is even better listened to as a whole.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#Bjork
#Debut

Shannon - Let The Music Play

Last night we watched the Milli Vanilli biopic. It wasn't too bad to be honest.

The Milli Vanillis were at a party and this was playing. Honestly, what a fucking tune.

For years I made do with the dub mix on a Street Sounds Electro album, but bought this Australasian issue of the 12" a few years ago, with its nasty sleeve artwork.

I've come to appreciate 'Freestyle' synth-dance more as I've got older than I remember doing at the time, being a bit more of a soul-boy then. Shannon's vocal walks the line between futuristic robot and disco diva perfectly.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Shannon
#LetTheMusicPlay
#Freestyle
#MilliVanilli

Tom Waits - Small Change

This is my first post on my new/old lappy with Linux Mint. Very nice it is too.

My mate Dave (RIP) was wise. Amongst other things he was the first to spot that Morrissey was becoming a wrong-un and would have this discussion with Smiths loyalists over the football, and there were a lot of them in the mid-80's over the Orient. He also liked Tom Waits and would tell me I was underestimating his music by dismissing it. Interestingly, the song that had put me off him was off this album ( [i]The Piano Has Been Drinking[ (Not Me)/i]. They used to show a video of it on the telly a lot, and it just got on my tits.

Waits had popped up in a little cameo on a Richie Cole album I'd bought, and I really liked that, and I suppose my taste for him grew from there. i must say though, I think I got into his later, noisier stuff before I got into this earlier, sing-y stuff.

I like it now, though. I haven't played this for years. It's really good.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#TomWaits
#SmallChange

John Shuttleworth - The Yamaha Years

I had How To Be Happy In A Sad Sad World as an earworm this week. I went down the shed to pull out a random selection of CDs and there was this album.

I've been trying to install Linux Mint on an old lappy, which is a task that has its frustrations, but I've found myself singing along with Shuttleworth whilst I do it, rather than throwing the fucking thing in the bin and going off to JB HiFi to buy a new one.

Graham Fellows is a comedy genius and John Shuttleworth is just such a believable, likeable and funny character.

We saw 'John Shuttleworth's Guide To Stardom' show in, I reckon 1992, at the MAC in Brum and he told Charlotte that she could be a bubbly barmaid in Emmerdale. That's a claim to fame if ever I heard one.

His films are now on YouTube and well worth watching.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#JohnShuttleworth
#TheYamahaYears
#LinuxMint
#MidlandsArtsCentre
#Birmingham
#GrahamFellows

Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

One of my favourite bands of the 00's. Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett were on creative fire for a few years and they never really got the appreciation they deserved, I don't think, probably because they drifted between genres a bit, and people like to like what they like, you know?

This album was their swansong, released just before the split. I remember HATING The Moneymaker at the time, but it doesn't sound so bad now.

We saw them live in Birmingham when they were promoting this album, and they were really good.

I see they've recently reunited and are touring again.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#RiloKiley
#UnderTheBlacklight

Eastfield Derailed - Songs From The Scrapyard

I love Eastfield.

Every time I see one of South Australia's big trains, I think, "Ooh, Jessi'd like that."

This was their slightly more acoustic side-project, CD. Although it's really not very acoustic at all.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#EastfieldDerailed

Culture Shock - Go Wild + All The Time

In between Subhumans and Citizen Fish was Culture Shock.

Two mid-eighties UK ska-punk classics on one CD - some of Dick Lucas' best lyrical work. I know every word and note of Go Wild; All The Time less-so.

I listened to this whilst eating a Linda McCartney sausage sandwich this morning. Which is a bit of synchronicity for ya.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#CultureShock
#GoWild
#AllTheTime

Kokoro Disco-San - Isla Fantasia 12"

Decent little slab of Spanish disco fodder from 2019.

I played this to have a bit of a dance with my granddaughter.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Disco

Charlie Parr - Roustabout

In the 2020s I developed a massive guitar crush on Charlie Parr. Man, that Piedmont-style picking was just what I was into at the time. I bought the whole back catalogue.

Went to see him a couple of times, at the Grace Emily and The Gov. He was an unassuming but extremely charismatic live performer.

Then I kind of forgot about him.

It was quite the joy re-playing this CD today. Midnight Has Come and Gone is one hell of a tune.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#CharlieParr
#Roustabout

Goldfrapp -Supernature

It's amazing how often Ooh La La pops up as incidental music on television programmes or adverts or whatever. It must've generated a fair few quid for them over the years. I think that speaks to the fact that this album still sounds pretty un-ravaged by time. Or has its sound just come back into fashion? Or was it super way ahead of its time? I dunno.

There's tunes on here that I'd forgotten that I really love, like Fly Me Away for example.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#Goldfrapp
#Supernature

P J Harvey - 4-Track Demos

Our little dog, Ginger, is very licky. After I've been for a run, she will drive me nuts by following me round, getting under my feet, determined to fill her boots (paws?) with the salty tang of my leg sweat. I mean, who can blame her? Always makes me sing Rid Of Me, though. Ginger never gets the reference, but she wasn't around in the 90s.

This album is made up of the demos for Dry. Apparently Steve Albini, who produced the album liked the demos so much he encouraged Peej to release them. It's fascinating to hear the raw threads which were woven into that album.

With PJ Harvey, less is more I think, and this is even less, and therefore, even more. If you get what I mean.

The sticker on the front of the case shows where I bought this. I never liked that shop much because the owner was a snotty, know-it-all cunt. Now, I've spent a lot of time in record shops and have met a few snotty, know-it-all cunts, but this one took the biscuit. I'm glad to see they're still open though.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#PJHarvey
#4-TrackDemos
#SteveAlbini

The All Seeing I - Pickled Eggs & Sherbert

One of my favourite albums of the last century. I love the production (which hasn't aged too badly considering), the guest vocalists (Tony Christie, Philip Oakey, Jarvis Cocker, Stephen Jones), the songs (and the variety of the music), and especially the artwork, which is outstanding, in a time of boring CD artwork. It was their only album.

A couple of years ago, I kept getting algo'd some young bloke on insta reels who was showing off because he had added a beat to the same Buddy Rich sample used on Beat Goes On, essentially re-making it. The comments were all "Look up The All Seeing I, you dumb fuck". Not from me, of course. I liked them though.

On the front of this CD is a Tower Records price sticker. Fourteen pounds forty nine pence. In 1999. Fucking hell, the robbing bastards! (The record company and Tower Records, that is - I'm sure the band never saw much of that.) That equates to AU$76.04 in today's money.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#TheAllSeeingI
#PickledEggs&Sherbert
#PhilipOakey
#JarvisCocker
#TonyChristie
#StephenJones
#BigBeat

Scott Walker - Bish Bosch

Walker's final solo work.

I haven't played this for years. Oof! Its an incredible album. Sonically brilliant and challenging, managing to be melodically engaging and difficult at the same time.

The world's a worse place without Scott Walker.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#ScottWalker
#BishBosch
#4AD

Culture - Two Sevens Clash

Having a dig in the boxes of CDs for a bit of a change this week.

I rinsed my sister's copy of this LP in the seventies. Interesting how an album, so deeply roots, and dealing with Rasta doomsday prophesy and the like, could appeal so deeply to a 13 year old boy on a Romford council estate. It remains probably my favourite reggae album, from what was a golden age for reggae.

Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson at the controls, Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare (on guitar for a change), Tommy McCook...some heavy hitters right there.

This is the 1988 reissue, with the running order fucked around with and shittified artwork.

I found an original copy of the LP in a $5 box once, but it had a fucking great scratch across one side.

#NowPlaying
#CD
#Culture
#TwoSevensClash
#RootsReggae

Leroy Hutson - Closer To The Source

I was trying to find a different record when I re-discovered this on my shelf. Haven't played it for ages.

Hutson does that mid-tempo soul thing so well. On this album you get two of his biggies: Get To This (You'll Get To Me) and the title track. There's also a very cheeky rip-off of What's Going On in Where Did Our Love Go, which - if it were recorded nowadays - would need a 'contains elements of' tag. But no. Nothing.

I just need to acknowledge Hutson's slip-on, rope-soled, wedge shoes in taupe. The perfect shoe to wear with a cream three piece suit with flared trouser legs and white socks. Worn with panache on the front and back of the sleeve.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#LeroyHutson