Half way through, your best of 2011 so far

Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 11 June 2011

Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues way out front for me

Honourable mentions to Bill Callahan: Apocalypse, Noah and the Whale: Last Night On Earth and Unthanks: Last.

Pants award to The Pierces. Two decent tracks and a lot of pouting does not make a good album gals.
Bruce
Posted on: 11 June 2011 by Jeff Anderson

I find myself playing and enjoying these frequently:

 

Paul Simon                                                    Elbow

"So Beautiful or So What"                              "build a rocket boys"

Posted on: 11 June 2011 by Nick Lees

Outstanding so far:

 

Arbouretum - The Gathering

 

Shearwater meets Sugar meets stoner folk

 

Matt Berry - Witchazel

 

 

Late 60s style psych folk.

 

Fovea Hex - Here Is Where We Used To Sing

 

 

Ghostly folk...but not folk.

 

Modified Toy Orchestra - Plastic Planet

 

 

Boppy, in parts quite grungy electronic music made with....modified toys!

 

Jóhann Jóhannsson - The Miners' Hymns

 

 

Brass band with electronics. No oompah though.

 

Ensemble - Excerpts

 

 

Pastoral French Canadian stuff on the quieter side of Stereolab

 

Coming up on the rails, but too soon to tell:

 

Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins - A Scarcity Of Miracles

 

 

Left me a bit cold at first, but it isn't half growing.

Posted on: 11 June 2011 by DenisA

 

Folk-rooted song writing and is the third studio album by Anglo-Australian quartet Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo. Excellent songwriting and musicianship, who are also great 'live'.

 

 

Lamb - 5th Studio album and a thrilling 'live @ koko' cd's have opened an electronica door that I thought only functioned @ 200bpm . I was also introduced to the wonders of Lou Rhodes...

 

 

Released in 2007, but recently bought and beguiled by the beauty of the songwriting by Lou. One of the best female solo cd's I have in my collection.

 

more to follow...



Posted on: 12 June 2011 by Bruce Woodhouse
Gary, lots to intrigue me there, thanks for adding a line about each one.

Denis, just ordered the Lamb album, heard one great track from it last week.

Bruce
Posted on: 12 June 2011 by Guido Fawkes

New Recordings

Almanac by Emily Barker & The Red Clay Halo

Anna Calvi by Anna Calvi 

Last by the Unthanks

Let England Shake by PJ Harvey

So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon

The King Is Dead by The Decemberists 

 

New this year but with material from another time

40 Year Odd - Loudon Wainwright III

Clarke, Hicks & Nash - the Hollies

Ebbets Field 1974 - Sandy Denny & Fairport Convention

Emerson, Lake & Palmer reissues on Music on Vinyl

 

To come

The Beatles on vinyl 

 


In alphabetical order, I like all of these sets and couldn't rank them

Posted on: 12 June 2011 by DenisA

Guy,

 

Your Beatles on vinyl wish will appear in your 2012 list. Trust me, I know a man who knows a man

 

Glad to see you rate the Emily Barker disk. Catch her band live if you can.

 

Denis

Posted on: 12 June 2011 by Salmon Dave

The Beach Boys Smile Sessions 4CD/2LP which should be out in a couple of months. Like it should have been out in January 1967....

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by naim_nymph

 

She's been around singing since the late 80's (i think) but this year i got lucky and found the wonderful voice of Patricia Barber and have so far purchased half a dozen of her albums (and more to follow).

Jazz music to relax too : )

 

 

Esperanza Spalding - bass player in jazz group, jazz fusion, bossa nova, neo soul.

She plays the bass very well but it's her singing voice that i find unusually for a youngster (she's 26) very free range vocal's oozing natural ability and never overstated. She tends to sing in a 60's 70's kind of style which i find very appealing, also has good musicians around her too.

 

 

I need to thank Gale.401 for this encounter!

Ben Harper has been around a while, but i've only just got to hear this fun loving rock style performer

 

Sometimes he sings like cat stevens, sometimes he comes across like ry cooder, and sometimes he sings just like a black dude. His cd's seems to sound well engineered too (no nasty loudness)

So i'll be buying some more of his albums soon : )

 

Debs

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by Nick Lees

I'm having a right royal dither over the latest Unthanks. I think their version of Starless is absolutely stunning, but I thought the same about Sea Song, which caused me to buy The Bairns. Unfortunately, whilst I think the album's good, they're so unremittingly gloomy I rarely find myself in a mood to listen to it without eyeing up the razorblades.

Posted on: 13 June 2011 by Bruce Woodhouse

Gary

 

re the Unthanks, 'Last' is the darkest album they have made I'd say with a distinctly 'gothic' feel but I find it the most atmospheric (and consistent) as a result. Maybe download track one which really sets the tone for the album I think.

 

I like a bit of gloom!

 

With your 'folk with-a-twist' tastes have you heard Dark Dark Dark: Wild Go? Nice chamber-folk with a very strong central voice. Only had it a week but growing on me.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qr3q

 

Posted on: 14 June 2011 by chimp

probably Amplifier- Octopus, or Dream Theatre-live album, both are brilliant but new albums coming in thick and fast so might change in the not too distant.

Posted on: 15 June 2011 by Nick Lees
Originally Posted by Bruce Woodhouse:

With your 'folk with-a-twist' tastes have you heard Dark Dark Dark: Wild Go? Nice chamber-folk with a very strong central voice. Only had it a week but growing on me.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qr3q

 

Liked this a lot Bruce. Many thanks.

Posted on: 15 June 2011 by Bruce Woodhouse
Originally Posted by Gary Shaw:
Originally Posted by Bruce Woodhouse:

With your 'folk with-a-twist' tastes have you heard Dark Dark Dark: Wild Go? Nice chamber-folk with a very strong central voice. Only had it a week but growing on me.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/qr3q

 

Liked this a lot Bruce. Many thanks.


Excellent

 

How about The Head and The Heart eponymous first album? Bit Mumford and Sons but not bad.

Posted on: 16 June 2011 by Jono 13

 

Still knocking out great tunes.

 

Jono

Posted on: 16 June 2011 by mr.Bungle

The best so far...

Posted on: 16 June 2011 by Chief Chirpa

A few from me...

 

 

'Winter Music For Summer'

 

 

 

 

'Immolare (Main)'

 

 

 

 

'Calgary'

 

 

 

 

'Still Sound'

 

 

 

 

'The Morning'

 

 

 

 

(... and TKOL, I spose)

 

 

 

 

 

'Colomb'

 

 

 

 

'Explorers'

 

 

 

 

^ Not out yet. From the above, here's 'You and I', with Caroline Polachek. Give yourself ten internets if you recognise the film...

 

 

Posted on: 20 June 2011 by Trylobyte

enjoying this immensely after having caught them on "Later"

Posted on: 21 June 2011 by Nick Lees

No offfence Chief Chirpa, but how the heck are we supposed to know what some of those are, let alone what sort of music they might be? Posting pictures is all well and good, but without that sort of information the recommendations are somewhat redundant.

 

Which is a shame.

 

P.S. I get the Radiohead

Posted on: 10 July 2011 by Chief Chirpa

All I do is golf.