Neil Young -Time Fades Away

The first of the "Ditch Trilogy". It's a bit of a dreary affair, to be honest.

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#Vinyl
#NeilYoung
#TimeFadesAway
#DitchTrilogy"

Flora Purim - 500 Miles High

A really very good live album, with Flora and her gang recorded at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1974. Milton Nascimento joins in on his big tune Cravo E Canela (Cinamon and Cloves).

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#Vinyl
#FloraPurim
#500MilesHigh
#MiltonNascimento
#MontreauxJazzFestival
#Jazz
#JazzFusion
#BrazilianFusion

Neil Young - On The Beach

The second of Young's "Ditch Trilogy" albums, where he was all anxty and disillusioned with his post-Heart Of Gold fame and fortune and that and was heading from the middle of the road into the ditch.

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#Vinyl
#NeilYoung
#OnTheBeach

Fox - Fox

I was 10 when this came out. Seeing Aussie singer Noosha Fox on the telly was, i think, the first time I thought, "Ooh, hello!" about another person.

They had a handful of decent pop singles, which hold up well today, I think, before she went solo, had one hit and disappeared to become the mother of British television science-explainer, Ben Goldacre.

I just discovered that Herbie Armstrong was in Fox. I saw the Herbie Armstrong Band supporting Robert Cray on the 4th November 1985 (thanks again, raysgigs.com). Me and my mate, Tim, took the piss all the way through because they were so shit.

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#Fox
#NooshaFox
#Vinyl

Alternative TV - The Image Has Cracked

A conversation on Bluesky about how Jools Holland shittifies (almost) everything he touches, led me to buy this. Holland plays on a couple of tracks, and doesn't ruin everything.

My sister had this LP when I was young and I fucking rinsed it. It's a mix of live and studio stuff, with the live stuff being ATV at the 100 Club inviting audience members on stage to speak their brains. This being late 70s London, it turns up in a fight. Mark Perry sounds like the teacher who's not angry, just disappointed.

I think ATV were the missing link between 77 punk and the next generation of DIY/anarcho punk. They really felt like punk was a force for change rather than a way of getting on Top Of The POPS.

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#Vinyl
#AlternativeTV
#TheImageHasCracked
#Punk

Sonny Rollins - Original Music From The Score "Alfie"

This album is music from the 1966 film.

Rollins is joined by some heavy-hitters, like Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Cleveland, and J.J. Johnson.

I don't know why I don't have more Rollins albums.

Also, Japanese edition. Fabulous quality pressing.

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#Vinyl
#Music
#SonnyRollins
#Jazz
#Alfie

Toots & The Maytals - Funky Kingston

This was one of the first LPs I ever bought (from Downtown Records in Romford, if I remember correctly - it was cheap because it was a cutout.)

What an album! Every track is great. Looking back, it’s more of a cover-versions album than I'd realised at the time (Country Roads, Louie Louie and the title track being a version of Funky Nassau.)

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#Vinyl
#Toots&TheMaytals
#FunkyKingston
#Reggae
#music

LW5 - Ripe For The Picking 12"

In April 1985, according to Raysgigs.com, I saw these at the Hammersmith Odeon supporting Maze. I remember really liking them. (Maze, on the other hand, I remember
finding a bit underwhelming.)

I always felt LW5 should have achieved more, really.

This is a nice slab of Brit-boogie, in the same ballpark as Loose Ends.

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#Vinyl
#Britfunk
#LW5
#RipeForThePicking
#HammersmithOdeon
#Maze

Inner Life - Moment Of My Life Extended Version 12"

Another Salsoul banger. I think I first heard this on the [https://www.discogs.com/release/112290-Various-Street-Sounds-Edition-1/url]]1982 Street Sounds 1 album.

Jocelyn Brown on lead vocals.

Sneaky Gospel.

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#Vinyl
#Salsoul
#InnerLife
#JocelynBrown
#ShepPettibone
#Boogie

Instant Funk - I Got My Mind Made Up 12"

Back in 1983 or thereabouts, I used to hang around with a bloke who would occasionally DJ parties and the like. I borrowed all his records and taped them on my parents’ new Akai stack system. This tune was one of the tunes I taped. Salsoul was such a good label, both in the quality of the tunes they released and in the design of the actual label.

This was remixed by Larry Levan, I believe. I put this on for my granddaughter to have a bit of a dance to. I'm sure Larry would have been happy with that.

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#Vinyl
#InstantFunk
#Disco
#Salsoul
#LarryLevan

Sparks - No. 1 In Heaven

Sparks produced by Georgio Moroder at his absolute peak, leading to some of their most popular tunes and bringing them out of their late-70s slump.

Interesting (but not surprising) to see it was pretty much slagged in the music press at the time. They clearly just didn't get it.

Also, it seems that Joy Division took inspiration from No. 1 Song In Heaven for Love Will Tear Us Apart. Now there's a turn up.

A brilliant album.

#NowPlaying
#Sparks
#No1SongInHeaven
#GeorgioMoroder

Pieces of a Dream - Pieces of a Dream

PoaD’s debut album, from 1981, is produced by Grover Washington Jr, and sounds it. Bearing in mind that some of his own output was challengingly smoooth and honestly pretty awful, they got off lightly, because this is a decent album.

Of course, the whole show is stolen by the Dexter Wansel co-produced (and synthesizer-playing) Warm Weather, the album’s big hit, which instantly transports me back to the Robbie Vincent show on Saturday lunchtimes on Radio London.

#NowPlaying
#music
#Vinyl
#Jazz
#jazzFunk
#PiecesOfADream

Sparks - Kimono My House

I can still clearly recall the impact of seeing Sparks on Top Of The Pops for the first time in 1974, performing the lead single from this album, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, Ron’s Hitler moustache creating quite the stir, even in a pop world occupied by the frocked-up Bowie and Robbie from Mud, and Steve Priest from The Sweet dressed like a big gay fash on the Christmas Day TOTP episode.

This is the album in which Sparks set out their stall with the wares they will hawk, albeit in variations, until today. Wares that will be blatantly shoplifted by some of their contemporaries (looking at you, Queen.)

The front of the sleeve has to be one of the best album covers ever.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Music
#Sparks
#KimonoMyHouse

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.

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#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.

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#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