What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol. XI)
Posted by: Richard Dane on 31 December 2014
On the cusp of 2015, we start a new thread...
Anyway, links:
Volume X: https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...-be-interested-vol-x
Volume IX: https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...16#22826037054683416
Volume VIII: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...nt/12970396056050819
Volume VII: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...6878604287751/page/1
Volume VI: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878604097229
Volume V: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878605140495
Volume IV: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878605795042
Volume III: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878607309474
Volume II: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878606245043
Volume I: https://forums.naimaudio.com/di...ent/1566878607464290
Just starting this:
steve
Prompted by another thread, thought it was time to dig out this 8-LP box set:
I'm still enjoying my introduction to my recently acquired 4-CD set. 
dsf
Decent jazz record...
Streaming | FLAC Download from Bandcamp
(2013)
Excellent prog' rock well executed with strong female lead vocals.
Jeffrey Foucault's 1st album
What do you make of it, Ewe? I do like Hope's voice and have all the bands albums but not sure if it's worth for the live material alone.
Streaming | FLAC Download from Bandcamp
Barrows ~ Red Giant (2014)
Heavy instrumental rock (no vocals) I have been enjoying this for a month or so now.
"A concept album about the life of a star and what happens after it dies, the band depicts the stages of celestial death throughout the album’s five epic tracks...entrancing, circling riffs and rhythms intercut with explosive peaks"
Disc 2
What do you make of it, Ewe? I do like Hope's voice and have all the bands albums but not sure if it's worth for the live material alone.
Can't say I ever really took to Mazzy and never really listened to any of their albums much after the first but I do like this.
The album is actually made up of 2 FM radio concerts, one from the Metro in Chicago and the other from LA both from 94. The only issue I have with it is that there are 4 trax repeated on the album.
It is up on Spotify Tony if you have access to that.
On vinyl.
Paul McCartney and Wings. Red Rose Speedway.1973. I've always had the Columbia re-issue of this album (circa 1980) in like new condition, still plays great. Being one of McCartney's better albums and Wings' best (me thinks), I came across an original issue from Apple Records (with the embossed Braille message to Stevie on back) and thought I'd give it a comparison. The Columbia re-issue is a nice pressing with good sound quality. The original pressing has a quite similar sound, but with more subtle qualities; not a deeper bass but better defined, not more timbre on strings but better insight into the fingering, and not clearer vocals but perhaps more grit to be appreciated in the delivery. These help confirm for me the tenet others have often stated here - always opt for the OP
A typical modern jazz record - good standard, but nothing unexpected....
Also during my workout
keep on exploring this artist during breakfast, I like him..
Neil Young+Crazy Horse. Ragged Glory. On CD from 1990. A 25-year-old album that has escaped my purview until this week. Now giving repeatedly listens and love it!
I guess now I have two people to blame - Haim and Adrian.
I am also slightly ashamed to admit the following. From the first moment I heard Cologne Blues here it was instant the connection and somewhat automagical. I knew I must get this album (but with only the intention of ever listening to this one track).
I now have the album since about two weeks now and I have no idea what any of the other tracks sound like on this album (nor any other Mathias Eick album for that matter). I bought this solely for the Cologne Blues and the Cologne Blues alone due to my curiosity here and unexplained connection to it. I probably have listened to this track repeatedly 50 or 60 times already.
I usually always check out the links and often like what I hear and am interested but this was different. Somewhat in a trance I could think of nothing else until I could hear this on my main stereo (rather than youtube) and at a decent volume. I think the skill of Eick in building a nice arch (a long crescendo building up and then a quick decrescendo disappearing into nothing is what draws me in as well as the mood of the piece - very deep, very emotional, very melancholy, very poignant.
The bottom line is I like this type of music - no matter the genre. I do not like "happy," upbeat music. It turns me off. If there is not a tinge of sadness in it, I generally have no interest. After all, this element is what makes the music (the story) interesting.
I suppose it will be many months before I get the nerve to listen to the rest of the album. Part of me has already predicted that I will be disappointed anyway? No matter, the joy I received from this one track alone is worth more to me than anything else.
I would be grateful if anyone can recommend a similar style of depth and emotion in other ECM recordings or artists?
I have just been listening to Cologne Blues and like you I may have to get the CD. For something comparable, has anyone suggested Tomasz Stanko - also a trumpet player? You could try Litania, the music of Krzysztof Komeda.
(2009)
Just Disc 1 of 4 for now.
Streaming | Bandcamp
This Patch of Sky ~ S/T (2014)
Very powerful post rock ambient album, really well executed and very enjoyable.
Streaming | Bandcamp
(2014)
Nicely judged ambient downtempo, very atmospheric and probably worked very well for the movie which I have never seen.