Music of the *Month* Sunday 4th March 2001

Two albums I've enjoyed this week are :
Low - Things we lost in the fire
Lowgold - Just backward of square
Both very good - a bit Cowboy Junkies / Mazzy Star ish
Arab Strap - The Red Thread - drunken Scotsmen rambling wittily about love and drinking - very good indeed .
Free NME CD because I've run out of cash - this
included some great tracks by Starsailor and JJ72 . Sorry all these albums seem , a bit intense - to counterbalance this , I've just played some Louis Jordan - best track - Brother Beware - very funny and recommended.

..I went out and bought these this weekend:

Dusted - When we were young
Rollo (from Faithless) solo album. Not really as progressive as I thought it would be. Will need more listening to.

Neil Finn - Try whistling this
Yet to listen to.

Stephen Malkmus - (Self Titled)
Moving on from Pavement, a more mature sound. Good stuff.

Kings of Convenience - Quiet is the new loud
Bloody marvellous! Simple guitars, some drums, bit of cello. Total relax album. Love it to bits.

Sorry about the short reviews - lewds of work to do!

Steve

Arab Strap 'The red thread' - I went to see Arab Strap when they played in Liverpool recently, a fabulous but poorly turned out gig, may have had something to do with the high (for Liverpool) ticket price. Anyway they were excellent, way better than when I saw them at Union Chapel a couple of years ago. They have gained a new level of maturity to their playing, and are letting songs develop more, many of the stuff they played live had the sort of rise and fall that the best Mogwai tracks exhibit.

'Red Thread' captures quite a bit of the feel I heard live, it is a little too restrained when compared to the live performance, but contains some truly excellent material none the less. I don't think 'Red thread' is quite the landmark work that 'Philophobia' was, whilst it probably contains their best individual songs, it is just not quite as complete a work. I certainly prefer it to either 'The weekend never starts round here' or 'Elephant shoe'. The first three tracks really kick ass.

Tony.

Montgolfier Brothers: Seventeen Stars Would anyone like to categorise? I like this a lot.

Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage. Replaced long lost vinyl with an Aluminium disc. Don't know why I left it so long. I think it was Hock who reminded me of this some months ago -- if so, thanks yet again.

Debussy/Ravel String Quartets: Emerson String Quartet Even if you don't like the genre, try this.

Stewart

[This message was edited by Stewart Cooper on SATURDAY 10 March 2001 at 05:36.]

This weekends crop

Britten Cello Suites played by Truls Mork. Good late night mood music on solo cello.

Music from the Penguin Cafe. The first PCO album. Slightly rougher than their later works but eith more sound textures.

John Coltrane They were cheap & I wanted some jazz. I should have got these earlier! Coltrane & Bahia Two albums on one. Blue Train Nuff said

Right, the last four are by Jackie Leven. I lay the blame for this firmly at the feet of Dave Cattlin. He's been raving over JL for a long time, so when I saw a boxed set for £14 I bought it purely on that. What i got was

The Wanderer A mixture of live songs & chat.
Control A very early disk from when he was on space patrol
Forbidden Songs of the Dying West and
Fairy Tales for Hard Men Both contain tremendous songs about the sadness of life and about its beauty. I hadn't expected stuff this good. He can't sing but boy can he write songs and poetry.

Tom
Enjoying it all

Are you listening in braille?

cheers

Nigel

Bought the following recently, all second hand except the Hendrix :

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Box set in purple velvet, 180gm records. Bit exepensive, but awesome sound quality and re-mastering. Interesting takes on some classic Hendrix riffs.

Throwing Muses - Curse . Interesting live recording that I'd not seen before. Not the greatest quality, but captures the spirit if the Muses live pretty well. (CD)

CSNY - Four way street. Only listened to the first record so far. Not bad. Not really a CSNY fan preferring Mr Yound on his own or with Crazy Horse. (Vinyl)

Travelling Wilburys vol 1 : On CD the one with the 9 extra tracks. Great stuff.

Roxy Music - Roxy Music. Been after this one for a while, found in a second hand store for about 4 pounds. (Vinyl)

Thats all for the moment.

Would any Levenites care to recommend an entry point for a neophyte?

Stewartt

Stewart

Try Fairy Tales for Hard Men . Wonderfully powerful songs. I still reckon he voice is a bit rough but that adds to the emotional content.

Now if you want a celt who can sing try Karen Matheson from Capercaillie.

Tom
Enjoying it all

Try also:

The Mystery of Love is Stranger than the Mystery of Death, and Forbidden Songs of the Dying West, and Night Lilies

cheers

Nigel

The new one from Bill Bruford's Earthworks, "The Sound of Surprise", is really jolly good. Predictably, not for people who insist on 4/4 time signatures, but remarkably accessible accoustic jazz with plenty of twists and invention. They're also very good live, if you get the chance.

Rosenbergs, "Mission You", is a power pop record, quite a departure for the label. It's not great but it is good with plenty of well deployed hooks, getting by on energy and fun factor rather more than some corners of the DGM catalogue.

Pete.

25 years of Rough Trade shops - This is a 4 CD compilation that spans a whole range of music from punk right through to electronica and post rock. Per Ubu, Cabaret Voltaire, Foetus, Joy Division, Young Marble Giants, Native Hipsters, Go-betweens, Fall, Pixies, Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Stereolab, right through to Boards of Canada, Plastikman, Peaches, Lemon Jelly etc - chances are that there is something here for most people.

'25 years of Rough Trade shops' does not set out to give an overview of the Rough Trade label, in fact surprisingly little is from this source. It does not even seem to give an overview of the shops current stock - there is no Krautrock, very little that could be described as outrock, no strange Japanese people making bizarre electronic clicks, distortion, and static, no "world music", in fact for Rough Trade it is probably very conservative indeed.

This compilation actually plays very well as a whole, I have found myself just listening to everything rather than selecting individual tracks. I previously owned surprisingly little of this stuff, though grew up with most of it, most stuff chosen seems to be taken from singles rather than albums, and I've never been a big 7" buyer, so for me it fills many gaps. I actually bought it to get the surreal DIY lunacy of the Native Hipsters 'There goes Concorde again' as I have been after this for ages.

A useful trip down memory lane for under twenty quid. Recommended.

Tony.

Iain Ballamy Acme. Iain was the saxophonist with Bill Brufords Earthworks, may be he still is ? Played with Django Bates. Here he's teamed with the best bass & drums I've seen live, the Mondesir brothers. Good jazz.

Dougie Maclean Riof. A couple of years ago I went to see Dougie, much against my will. He appeared on stage, on his own, looking like Neil from the Young Ones clutching a guitar. I sat spell bound for the next two and a half hours. I've been hooked ever since. He's a gentle version of Jackie Leven. He sings beautifully & the songs are wonderully poiniant. Heartily recommend him.

Tom
Enjoying it all

[This message was edited by Tom Alves on MONDAY 26 March 2001 at 11:31.]

I was browsing in this Munich used vinyl store and chanced upon the Yr 2000 reissue edition of the Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane on vinyl for DM 299 (new). This is a reissue of the 1995 limited edition (3000 numbered copies).

Normally, I don't care for audiophile reissue vinyl (except for Classic reissues which are stupendous and Mosaics), but this package is highly attractive and sounds very good. The albums are fetishly reproduced with their original jackets and all outtakes and alternates are on separate albums. The sound and mix are superior to my 1980s reissue vinyl (yeah, those that are thin like cardboard and sounds like it).

Can't really say how they compare to the original albums, but at this price, who can complain?

Eat your heart out, Tony...

Hockman

Well April doesnt start until the 2.. Someone dumped a huge Bluenote collection into Ray's jazz shop a week or so ago: fortunately I didnt get there early enough to completely destroy family finances but...
Jackie McLean One Step Beyond, Right Now, and Bluesnik(LP) all Japanese versions and much much less than the usual extortionate prices. Top notch Bluenote 60s swang and although I wasnt a big Mclean fan before , great stuff. Also got Larry Youngs "Unity" (TOCJ)among others, a famous and revered post bop Bluenote. A grower ... I love the Hammond but maybe prefer the Vibes (Bobby Hutcherson on this kind of record) well actually this may eventually one of my favourite records.There is a mountain of jazz to learn about.

Alto's cont. Art Pepper! Oh Doctor I can't recommend this man enough. I bought 3 or 4 used Galaxy LPs (3.99 a shot!) , but Winter Moon is a classic. Its a with strings but what a record! First few listens and it sounds cinematic but youve got to have Raymond Chandler or Patricia Highsmith writing the script and Orson welles directing. On second thoughts is Orson cool enough? Preston Sturges I reckon. Art Pepper, you simply cannot go wrong with this man.

John
Doh! now its April 2!

John:

Unity is an incredible album; Young and Shaw smoke on the tracks!

Another good and possibly better Young album (because of the involvement of Sam Rivers, not your regular hardbopper) is Into Somethin'. Dug this out last night.

Young is positively underrated; Jimmy Smith is overrated. And what's the fuss over Grant Green???

And Pepper? He paid for his music with his life...

Hockman

Hock, I have listened to Unity a bit more and am really beginning to love it. I am baulking at the price of Into Something on principle £16.99 in Britain.Im having great luck with the used bins these days. Woody Shaw is excellent as you say, what an under ated player. I have his Mosaic box set and really like it. Its these kind of players and others such Shorter, Rivers, Andrew Hill and I include Joe Henderson and Kenny Dorham(also underated in my book) of that era who I listen to more and more. We have a n excellent monthly jazz mag here, Jazz Review edited by Richard Cook of Penguin fame which this month had an interesting reappraisal of Wayne Shorters Blue Note releases which applies to this type of musician who adapted and used freer jazz forms to gre at effect. I believe Shorter is going to tour with an acoustic band including Danilo Perez later this year, now if he'd just get together with Hamid Drake and William Parker!!

John
I cant understand the fuss over Grant Green either, though isnt Young on some of his records too?.

[This message was edited by John C on WEDNESDAY 04 April 2001 at 12:14.]

Just brought the new Shawn Colvin CD Whole New You. It's been a long wait but worth it. Takes a couple of listens by soon gets into your head best track to date is Another Plane Went Down.What do you think