Wyatters delights (what are you listening to?)

[ant]

worship.. casually

[Max_Gate]

No sooner home than I'm preparing to leave, come Thursday, for another jaunt - this may not be a mid-life crisis but it's a blistering (and blister-making) imitation. Still, I have been testing my memory by playing:

Gentle Giant: Free Hand - I first played this in a Historic Places flat at Madras Street, Christchurch, circa 1976. It makes me want to move like an amphetamined dance-fiend yet the choral arrangements are almost medieval. Glorious as a dolphin riding the wake from a ship.

Roy Harper: Flashes From the Archives of Oblivion - a mix of timelessness and silliness. Twelve hours of sunset radiates through the room, warming everyone it touches.

Siouxsie & the Banshees: A Kiss in the Dreamhouse - if only they could write lyrics like Ian Curtis; unfortunately the words are infantile but the layered arrangements still delight me.

Steve Earle: Transcendental Blues - I have the title track on repeat. The man sure can drive, and I sure enjoy driving to him. I like this blue-overalled joyousness; the music has the memory of a scar.

Max Gate

[niktemadur]

The British Road - Robert Wyatt - "Old Rottenhat"
Take A Chance With Me - Roxy Music
That's Entertainment! - The Jam
Round and Round - Paul Weller
Comin' Back To Me - Jefferson Airplane
It's Allright For You - The Police
Ascencion Day - Talk Talk
Bush Workout - Oba Funke
Lover You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley

I've been finding it difficult, for the past month, to stray from these selections.

[Max_Gate]

Well, Niktemadur, Marty Balin's ballad 'Coming Back To Me' (Jefferson Airplane) has the spare, despairing beauty of a lonely child photographed in a field of wheat. Because it's so wonderful it's no wonder you keep playing it.

The sun has just come up over the sea; it was accompanied by Dead Can Dance.

Max Gate

[Chairman_Mao]

Only recently discovered Nick Drake so have been wallowing in the sparse output of over 30 years ago.  Wonderful stuff.

Also been playing a lot of Dylan, the 1964 Live release is excellent and highly recommended.

Also been listening to the grat Tom Waits, I haven't got a lot of early stuff but recently picked up Foreign Affairs and love it just as much as his more recent releases.

[Max_Gate]

Chairman Mao shares my delight in Nick Drake, whose three studio albums have been spinning the last month away. Due to the determined sell-off of unused household goods I've recently been able to buy some long-desired albums:

Paul Bley : Bebopbebopbebopbebop
Paul Bley : Reality Check
Paul Bley : Plays Carla Bley
Paul Bley : Same
Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips : Sankt Gerold
Paul Bley : My Standard
Paul Bley : Nothing to Declare
Grant Lee Buffalo : Mighty Joe Moon
Grant Lee Buffalo : Jubilee
Grant Lee Buffalo : Copperopolis
Grant Lee Phillips : Mobilize
Grant Lee Phillips : Ladies' Love Oracle
Grant Lee Buffalo : Fuzzy
Joy Division : Heart and Soul      
Steve Earle: Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator
Steve Earle: Hard Way
Meredith Monk : Mercy
Meredith Monk : Key
Art Pepper : Roadgame
Art Pepper : Straight Life
Art Pepper: Winter Moon
Art Pepper : No Limit      
Townes Van Zandt : Far Cry from Dead
Townes Van Zandt : Live at McCabe's
Townes Van Zandt : High, Low and In Between
Townes Van Zandt : Late Great Townes Van Zandt

- While I've obviously been improving my representation of a few select artists, what seems to link these diverse works is a quality that Robert Wyatt also shows: a mediitative passion, where even the silence between the notes seems active.

Max Gate

[javizz]

(excuses for bad english i'm french)

for now : heavy listensing :
bach (cello suites and others "little things" )
chet baker ( whatever)
weather report (procession ... )

and regularely (is this term english ?) also ...
hatfield and the north (1 and 2)
gentle giant ( all of them till interview but specialy "three friends" and "in a  glass house" and some "octopus" too)
Crimson (red (especialy "Starless"))
and some of my french friends that make very good  music. (http://www.arfi.org)


have nices times (all of you ....)

[theallgolden]

for the last few weeks i just listened to some kind of  new strange folk/singer/songrwriter music like

ben weaver - stories under nails(americana)

joanna newsom - the milk-eyed mender (harp-playing young lady with a voice like victoria williams resp. mickey mouse)

devendra banhart - rejoicing in the hands(weirdo folk and some beautiful country songs)

coco rosie - la maison de mon reve(my favourite. two sisters with a faible to include strange sounds and noises into their beautiful basic  songs )

destroyer - your blues(a more revelling sound produced by just an acoustic guitar and two synths)

and now also to the new björk cd.  difficult to listen to but marvellous.

[Max_Gate]

Thank you, theallgolden (I have an image of you as a statue of King Midas or, more perversely, the painted corpse in 'Goldfinger'), for drawing my attention to this folkish material.

Recently I'm been enchanted by spare, acoustic classics like Nick Drake, Donovan circa 1965 - especially 'Jersey Thursday' - along with the blood-and-bone texture of Townes Van Zandt's songs.

I like the silence such un-hip performers animate with a chord and a gentle voice; it is the sonic equivalent of a spring pasture: sunlight on bare shoulders, the shadows long....

Max Gate

[theallgolden]

oh, i hope that i am not so foolish as king midas was....

but i forgot to mention sufjan stevens album 'greetings from michigan' in my above list. he is a further strange 'folkie'. plays more than 20 instruments on his album and it is recommended to use headphones so that you don't miss any single tone of this wonderful album.

one of my delights today was the new jonathan richman album. not a groundbreaking one, but as loveable as always.

medulla from björk grows more and more. really fascinating and not as so complicated as i first thought.

and now its time for an answer to the riddle about my nick: it is just a song of van dyke parks' first album 'song cycle'. vdp and also the album are one of my all-time-faves.

[zeebras]

a very busy summer is drawing to a near close, and i've been very busy buying  lots of cd's.
larry coryell - tricycles
 a beautifully played and recorded cd by one of the great jazz guitarists. larry played here this summer and it was a jaw-dropping show.
vienna art orchestra - highlights live in vienna 1989
 if you're a fan of carla bley, gil evans, mingus and the like, you can't go wrong with this.
kevin coyne - sanity stomp
 i've had this on vinyl for years, but it's nice to have this 2 record set on one cd. features r wyatt on drums and keyboards on what was the second record.
julie miller - blue pony
pip pyle's equip out - self titled
mccoy tyner - tender moments
charlie feathers - self titled
 one of the original memphis rockabilly maniacs, this is a 1990 recording.
pere ubu - st arkansas
james carter - the real quietstorm
 one of the new young jazz stars. this guy is a monster on all manner of saxes and styles.
wayne horvitz - this new generation
peter blegvad - hangmans hill
miles davis - live at the fillmore east march 1970
joe cocker - with a little help from my friends
joe cocker - joe cocker!
 newly remastered, and they were dirt cheap. i couldn't resist.
don rooke - atlas travels
 don rooke is the leader and main composer of the henry's, one of canada's finest and least known bands. he plays a kona and slide guitar, and their four cd's feature vocal contributions from mary margaret o'hara, another canadian national treasure.  this is a solo outing, and while not quite as stunning as the henry's, is still very nice
gov't mule - live-with a little help from our friends
 a four cd set of a new years eve show. just good old guitar rock, with covers of black sabbath, humble pie, hendrix, robert johnson, john coltrane, and originals.
tin hat trio - memory is an elephant
butterfield blues band - live
 this arrived in the mail last week. a rhino handmade release, this is a limited edition of 2,500 copies, available only through their website. the original 2 lp set is complete on the first cd, with a second cd of previously unreleased music from the same show. this has always been one of my favorite butterfield records, and although a fairly costly purchase, worth every cent.
wes martin - 3 pound universe
 i had never heard of this guy, but it's produced by david torn, a frisell/fripp/kaiser type guitarist, and it's on the late great cmp label from germany. it reminds me a lot of the sylvian/fripp cd's, but with an american bent. plus it was only 3 bucks, so it was worth the gamble. i've had terrible cups of coffee that cost more, so there you go.
 a rather long-winded post, but there is no fun in casual worship.

[zeebras]

to anyone who may have read my last post and are wondering who joe thingyer might be, it seems that the forum won't let me spell out the first four letters of this gentleman's name.
so, for the record, and if you haven't already figured it out, it's joe c followed by an o, followed by another c, followed by a k, and ending in er.
i wonder if theallgolden had the same problem trying to type in mr.parks name. oh, those naughty words.

[theallgolden]

zeebras, i didn't noticed that instead of the letters y and k are printed**. i think you are right.

many greetings

theallgolden

[Jaakko]

Fotheringay - Wild Mountain thyme (bootleg)
Pink Floyd - Iron Pigs on Fire (bootlleg)
Fairport Convention - Cropredy 2004 (bootleg)
Richard Thompson - Live at Keswick theatre 2004 (bootleg)
Björk - Medulla
P.J.Harvey - Uh Huh Her

j.

[Max_Gate]

As I type 'Television' spins. Tom Verlaine's guitar has the delicacy of gossamer and the attack of a nail-gun; it's a wonderful amalgam. Other regular visitors to the stereo are:

Bill Evans - The Paris Concert Edition Two: this is the last recording and is distinguished by the timing of a man who knows that there's no space for the superfluous because the sky is about to fall;

The Birthday Party - Hits: well, they never had any; the murky forest of these songs occasionally breaks and you find yourself in a mysterious clearing where the sun is high and the shadows are long;

Phil Dadson - Sound Tracks (solo improvisations): there is such a weird generosity towards the world here; some sounds come from stones striking one another, others from instruments which Phil invented that resemble Heath Robinson plumbing.

Max Gate