What are your recommended al***s of 2005

Brazilian Girls

Black Mountain

Darra J

Laura Veirs - Year of Meteors
Murphy, Roisin - Ruby Blue
Magnet - The Tourniquet
Goldfrapp - Supernature
Editors, The - The Back Room
Mckeown, Erin - We Will Become Like Birds
Wilson, Danny George - The Famous Mad Mile
Her Space Holiday - The Past Presents the Future
sanso-xtro - sentimentalist
Prekop, Sam - Who's Your New Professor
Merx - Loveheart
Hawley, Richard - Coles Corner
Thompson, Richard - Front Parlour Ballads
Stevens, Sufjan - Illinois
Sawhney, Nitin - Philtre
Thievery Corporation - The Cosmic Game
Bent - Programmed to Love
Malkmus, Stephen - Face The Truth
Turin Brakes - Jack in a Box
I Am Kloot - Gods and Monsters
Hal - Hal
Do Me Bad Things - Yes
Scott 4 Free Rock Orchestra, The - E-S-P
Viers, Laura - The Triumphs & Travails of…..
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Engineers - Home
Auntie Madge - Confessions
Chemical Bros - Push the Button

j8hn

Now I do feel old - I only recognise 3 from your list.

Rotf

In no particular order (except the first two are the best):
Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up
Feeder - Pushing The Senses
Nitin Sawhney - Philtre
Stevie Wonder - A Time To Love
Bill Frisell - East/West
Foo Fighters - In Your Honour
Gatecrasher - Classics
(Jury is still out on Neil Young - Prairie Wind)

Biggest disappointments:
Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow
Sigur Ros - Takk
The Magic Numbers
Billy Corgan - The Future Embrace
Moby - Hotel
Audioslave - Out Of Exile

My best 2005 new music purhcases (even though not December yet)

Kate Bush: Aerial
Toumai Diabate/Ali Farke Toure: In The Heart Of The Moon
Laura Veirs: Year Of Meteors
Rilo Kiley: More Adventurous
Magic Numbers: The Magic Numbers
Iron and Wine/Calexico: In The Reins EP
War Of The Worlds Remaster (sort of new)
Clem Snide: End Of The World
Ry Cooder: Chavez Ravine
Hal: Hal

Biggest disappointments
Magnolia Electric Co: What Come After The Blues
Nitin Sawhney: Philtre

Bruce

Best albums, so far:

Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate – In the Heart of the Moon
Antony and the Johnsons – I’m a bird now
Kate Bush – Aerial
Dhol Foundation – Drum-Believable
Salif Keita - M’Bemba
Kraftwerk – Minimum Maximum (not sure if this counts as new)
Mia - Arular
Midival Punditz – Midival Games
Röyksopp – The Understanding
Shri – East Rain

I've probably forgotten 1 or 2

Biggest disappointments:
New Order – Waiting for the Sirens Call
The Tears – Here come the Tears

Told you I'd probably forgotten 1 or 2;

Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
Gorillaz - Demon Days

Peter

Lots of good taste and mutual backslapping!!

Murphy, Roisin - Ruby Blue
Goldfrapp - Supernature
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Kate Bush - Aerial
Magic numbers - Magic numbers
Josh Rouse - Nashville
Brian Eno - One day on Earth
Burt Bacharach - At this time
Hard Fi - Stars of CC tv
Jackson Browne - solo acoustic
The kills - No wow
Kraftwork - minimum Maximum
Low - The great destroyer
M Ward - The end of amnesia
Mercury Rev - The secret migration
Paul Weller - As is now
Gorillaz - Demon days

A good year for music methinks. Spoiled however by the untimely loss of Robert Palmer.

Rasher,

I saw the sigur ros tour this year and they were awesome, but I agree that their new album, although more intricate and refined, has a kind of sound that reminds me of Ravel's Mother Goose cycle. It is a bit walt disney and doesn't have that otherworldly mysticism about it...I didn't feel drawn into another world. So, yes a disappointment for me too.

Simon,

So is the new Mercury Rev that good? I saw their first concert ever in the UK and 3d appearance period...it was the mean fiddler in London in 1991. It was teh same month as Nirvanna and My Bloody Valentine Loveless. Boy were they LOUD!

But I have found their more recent stuff kind of like Sigur Ros Takk...kind of a bit soft and cuddley, while Yerself is Steam is a blend of teh soft and cuddley with the wild and daring.

BTW: Link Wray just died...may I quote ME SMith of teh Fall

"I used to have a thing about Link Wray, used to play him every saturday, god bless saturday.."

dave

BTW 2: Black Mountain is REALLY REALLY GOOD...kind of like Neil Young circa Cortez teh Killer mixed with Kraftwerk and with some of teh despair of joy division...they even cover "Atmorphere" but as the Pink Mountaintops.

David
Fortunately I saw Sigur Ros on their () tour which was a bit like doing too many mushrooms. There was a bit where the backdrop projection was the effect of driving through a snowstorm, and with the spacy music it was all pretty 1967.

Albums of 05:

Burt Bacharach - At This Time
Nine Black Alps - Everything Is
Royksopp - The Understanding
Mercury Rev - Secret Migration
Engineers - Engineers
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth

Regards, Chris M

Rasher,

That sounds cool. They did something similar with a kind of 3-mode screen/light effect with a screen in front of them that could either be projected on to from outside, have sillouettes of the singers cast as shadows from behind the stage, or be transparent depending on the lighting. They used this to great effect in the encore as they were flashing back and forth between all three with the flicker of an eye and to the rhythm of the music. Truly great.

dave

Another vote for Hard-Fi and Turin Brakes, but my top album of 2005 is Alabama 3 - Outlaw. Albums with a theme seem rare beasts these days and this is most original thing I've bought in ages - very hard to categorise, but kind of like the KLF get country. Beats and jewish harp aren't something I've come across too often!

Hello ..... I'm Johnny Cash is fab and somehow, by some miracle I can't quite understand, avoids being corny despite a slightly contrived sequence of "those" song titles (ring of fire, boy named Sue etc).

Olly

.


Here are just a few off the top of my head without consulting the stacks:

The Way Up - Pat Metheny Group

Prime - Oregon

Day Is Done - Brad Mehldau Trio

Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls

East/West - Bill Frisell

Shades of Jade - Marc Johnson

Amos Lee - Amos Lee

Lyric - Billy Childs

Can't Never Did Nothin' - Nikka Costa

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall

Fair & Square - John Prine

And this one is cheating a bit ... first released in late 2004 on CD, but released on vinyl in 2005 ... not to mention the unabashed self-promotion, which is really just a kind of tic with me:

Remember the River - Fred Simon

Sorry ... I had to do it.


.

GOODBYE / Bobo Stenson / ECM

IBERIA / Isaac Albinez / Marc-Andre Hamelin, piano / Hyperion

THE PIANO / Herrbis Hancock / Columbia (issued in 2004)

Haim)

.

quote:

Originally posted by HR:
GOODBYE / Bobo Stenson / ECM

THE PIANO / Herrbis Hancock / Columbia (issued in 2004)

Haim)

Yeah, that Herbie side is wonderful, a lost gem.

I'm a big fan of Bobo, but haven't heard his latest ... please tell us more about it.

Fred


.

Some contenders for my albums of 2005 - a couple of prevous releases in here that have been reissued in 05

Bruce Spingsteen - Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition

Marc Johnson - Shades of Jade

Tord Gustavsen - The Ground

Haydn - Paris Symphonies - Harnoncourt

Neil Young - Prairie Wind

EST - Viaticum

Pat Metheny - The Way Up

Kelly Joe Phelps - Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind

Ferenc Snetburger - Nomad

Bobo Stenson - Goodbye

Manu Katche - Neighbourhood

Pat Metheny - Song X

Lizz Wright - Dreaming Wide Awake

Natalie Merchant - Retrospective

Wynton Marsalis - Live at the House of Blues

Jackson Browne - Solo Acoustic Vol 1

Foofighters - In Your Honor

Omar Sosa - Ballads

Mariza - Transparente

Francoise Hardy - Tants des Belles Chose

John Coltrane - One Up, One Down

Cowboy Junkies - 21st Century Blues

Alan Pasqua - My New Old Friend

Haim)[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that Herbie side is wonderful, a lost gem.

I'm a big fan of Bobo, but haven't heard his latest ... please tell us more about it.



Fred

Hi Fred,

I always liked Bobo Stenson a lot. I have all those CDs of Charles Lloyd's quartet, and with time, I found myself focusing more and more on Bobo's piano than on Lloyd's horn.
Goodbye (which I am playing now on the MAC) is a great album of calm, meditive and very rich music. Half of the fourteen tracks is composed by members of the trio, and the rest is by other composers, including one track of Henry Purcell's music. I am enclosing the URL of Tower where you can sample the music, and some information from the ECM site. War Orphans is another excellent album by stenson.

http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3306994

'New album by the Bobo Stenson Trio is always an event. There can be few contemporary jazz piano trios that draw upon such wide-ranging repertoire. “Goodbye” continues its tradition of adventurous programming, with music extending from an arrangement of Henry Purcell’s ”Music For A While”, written more than 300 years ago, to Ornette Coleman’s “Race Face”, via Stephen Sondheim’s “Send In The Clowns”. “There Comes A Time” (written by Tony Williams for the Lifetime band), “Song About Earth” by Russian actor and protest singer Vladimir Vyotsky, “Alfonsina” by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez, and the Gordon Jenkins-penned standard “Goodbye” (once Benny Goodman’s sign-off tune, and hugely popular in the Sinatra/Nelson Riddle version), round out an inspiring programme. Bobo Stenson contributes new material, as does bassist Anders Jormin; the two of them have shared ‘musical director’ roles from the beginning of the group’s history. And there are two Paul Motian tunes, “Sudan” and “Jack of Clubs”, the latter an old favourite from the early 1980s.'

Best regards and a happy Thanks Giving,

Haim

PS

Have you heard Hamlin play the piano?

Fred,

Tell us a bit about your music playing and compositions. Where can I hear your music?

Haim

David

Regarding Mercury Rev. The new one is more cohesive than all is dream and although quirky is very listenable. As with all of their good stuff, it takes a hold after repeated plays.

J8hn

I missed out on the new Sam Prekop. Can you give me the low down on this one. I have the untitled one on vinyl and it sounds sublime. More of the same?

Cheers

At the time of going to press and in no order of merit or genre:

Ali farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté - In the heart of the moon
Kronos Quartet & Asha Bhosle - You've stolen my heart
Lizz Wright - Dreaming wide awake
Bill Frisell - East / West
Vivaldi - Opera arias, vol. 28
Manu Katché - Neighbourhood
Monk & Coltrane - Carnegie Hall / John Coltrane - Live at the Half Note
Cowboy Junkies - Early 21st century blues
Lisa de la Salle - plays Bach & Liszt
Il Giardino Armonico - La Casa del Diavolo
Viktoria Mullova - Vivaldi violin concertos
Stefano Bollani - Gleda
Omar Sosa - Mulatos
Josh Rouse - Nashville
The National - Alligator
Robert Plant - Mighty Rearranger
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro; René Jacobs & Concerto Köln (think I got this at the very back end of last year, but has been played a lot this year)
Trovesi & Coscia - Round about Weill

Huw

PS - I forgot the Tackás Quartet's wonderful 3 disc set of the late Beethoven quartets. Marvellous stuff.

Top 3

LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
Bright Eyes - Wide awake..
Anthony and the Johnsons - I am a bird now

.

quote:

Originally posted by HR:
Fred,

Tell us a bit about your music playing and compositions. Where can I hear your music?

Haim

Haim, thanks for asking. You need look no further than right here at Naim:
http://www.thenaimlabel.co.uk/artists/simon_main.htm

You'll find some bio info and music samples there from my two Naim albums:


Dreamhouse




Remember the River





I've made other albums of my music for other labels over the years, some of which are quite different in some ways (and yet pretty much the same in other ways), but these are the most recent and I'm very pleased with both (can you tell?).

Since you live in the USA, you can also get the albums at this USA site:
http://promusicaaudio.com/contemporary/fredsimon.htm

That link is associated with the brick and mortar store Pro Musica in Chicago, which is run by Ken Christianson who is also Naim's chief recording engineer; he recorded both my albums. You can also read about his methods on the Pro Musica site.

Thanks again for asking, and I hope you get a chance to dig my music.

All the best,
Fred


.

The only really (non-classical) original music that I've enjoyed so far this year is Antony and The Johnsons' "I Am A Bird Now".

I keep thinking that I need to try Fred Simon's two Naim CDs, but I'm still trying to work out how to obtain autographed copies. Are you planning any UK dates next year, Fred?

In classical music, Krauss's Ring Cycle from Bayreuth (1950s mono, would you believe?).

But my Hendrix CD collection is much bigger than it was this time last year.

So I'm not complaining.

Graham

Fred,

Sounds good to me, so I've just ordered them. Perfectly justifiable plug when you can "walk the walk" as well as "talk the talk"

Nic