Half way through, your best of 2011 so far
Posted by: Bruce Woodhouse on 11 June 2011
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
I find myself playing and enjoying these frequently:
Paul Simon Elbow
"So Beautiful or So What" "build a rocket boys"
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.
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...
Denis, just ordered the Lamb album, heard one great track from it last week.
Bruce
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
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
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....
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Still knocking out great tunes.
Jono
The best so far...
A few from me...
(... and TKOL, I spose)
^ Not out yet. From the above, here's 'You and I', with Caroline Polachek. Give yourself ten internets if you recognise the film...
enjoying this immensely after having caught them on "Later"
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
All I do is golf.