What Are You Listening To?

[Ruby]

SUPERTRAMP - Crisis? What Crisis? 



Fabulous listening. Haven't heard it in while so now I'll probably play it a couple of times. Such great music.

A rare clip!!

[Jerome]

Such a great groove - https://youtu.be/OeWKfVkNla4

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One of the world's great storytellers/guitarists along with one of the classiest female singers of all time - magic stuff - https://youtu.be/oz6V0HXRg8M

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It's not often somebody can perform somebody else's material to perfection - here's an exception - https://youtu.be/oJy_MQQhnog

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BEATLES "beatles for sale"  cd,  1964

the band's fourth...
a step backwards for me...
hod ogtten over their covers stage on their third, A Hard Days Night,
but six of the fourteen tracks here are covers,
nothing wrong with them but theyre covers...
hit single here was the laborious "eight days a week", not a fan of that song at all...
i can really take or leave this album, very average for me but...
I LIKE THIS ALBUM

fave:

[Ruby]

I’ve been poking around in the Alan Parsons Project catalogue and have listed to Stereotomy and Freudiana. I have Stereotomy (which really isn’t great, aside from the saving graces of a couple of tracks) but had never heard Freudiana before which is largely an Eric Woolfson affair that morphed into a rock opera at some stage of the proceedings. 

Rock operas are not among my favourite things (always exceptions, of course), but to give him his due, Woolfson obviously researched this concept in great depth and it’s crystal clear that both creatively and musically, he had a huge amount to do with that distinctive APP sound. The album is based on Freud's case studies and theories which were often allocated apt fictional names and titles by said analyst. There are also loads of guest vocalists on it, including Leo Sayer, Eric Stewart and Kiki Dee, to mention a few, along with some APP regulars such as John Miles and Chris Rainbow, and Woolfson himself sings lead on a choice selection. Always delivering the goods, guitarist Ian Bairnson is on both albums, as is Richard Cottle on sax and synths. 

I quite liked “Limelight” from Stereotomy, sung by Gary Brooker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2XNFgRIXEU

And this one too – the Grammy nominated instrumental “Where’s the Walrus” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9Wzv1G0f4

I’ll have to listen to Freudiana again to absorb it properly – a few tracks didn’t do it for me at all, but the title did (and in general, there's a lot of food for thought!!) – Eric Woolfson lead vocal …

[Jerome]

A touch of genius - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqCBnLO_jqk

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A masterpiece of an album - https://youtu.be/-lgsCe-fLG4

[Ruby]

Mike Batt - Arabesque



 
One thing leads to another! The history lesson continues.

Recorded in 1995 for Sony, Germany, Mr Batt was having a world-weary moment which is reflected in these songs – lots of melancholic minor keys, mournful instruments and a focus on some terrible events; the Rwandan massacre and the brutal battle of Culloden to name two. It’s a wee bitty on the dark side which doesn’t stop some of the tracks from being absolutely gorgeous.

I love the way the way he marries rock with orchestral music and somehow gets it just right. The instruments and arrangements are excellent, as one would expect, and it was recorded and mixed at ‘Dining Room Studios, London’ which is another way of saying that it was done at his house – sometimes around the kitchen table (which made getting into the fridge a problem, lol!).

Mike Batt is responsible for all the lead and harmony vocals but uses the non-lyrical vocals of Miriam Stockley and Tessa Niles to enhance his offering, which they do. The title track is a spicy instrumental which is reminiscent of those on Schizophonia and Tarot Suite and there are one or two rather sentimental journeys which I don’t mind too much (well, maybe the final track is OTT), so overall, a good listen. Not sure why I haven’t before?! Oh wait – so much music, etc. …

The instrumental “Battlefield Theme”, composed with Culloden in mind, which effectively ended the Jacobite uprising in a huge and bloody loss of life for the highlanders (1745) … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOhfrYdLvLY

And “Amy Floats Downstream” which references the genocide in Rwanda … sombre subject matter indeed … might need to listen to something else now ... 

[Jerome]

One of my favourite pieces by Mike Oldfield - https://youtu.be/l_D_YAg8QQ8

[Jerome]

A couple of vocal tracks from Mike Oldfield. Many people did not like the fact that he had moved away from his more familiar lengthy instrumentals but he did come up with some brilliant pop/rock numbers. Here are a few

https://youtu.be/p66sMyr9Ayk

https://youtu.be/KpBzgYU3JFY - the video is fake the song is pure class. Most sounds come from the hideously expensive Fairlight synthesizer.

https://youtu.be/5QXxozXsDZY

[Ruby]

^Love "To France".

Camel - Rajaz. Needed to restore some calm and order to my mind and Camel was called for. Definitely does the trick - maybe it's that walking metre. So unfussy and yet so beautifully done - wonderful album. The title track with Andrew Latimer's ever eloquent guitar and lovely cello by one Barry Phillips.  

[Ruby]

Marillion – various bits and pieces, and a new track from their upcoming album which is a reworking of nine of their previous works plus additional instruments. From their site …

..."Since this year’s conventions we have directed our energies to the early part of our creative process which will lead, at some point, to our next studio album.

However, we also took a quiet decision that it could be a beautiful thing to re-record some of our catalogue along with our friends from the orchestra.

So our brilliant producer and collaborator Michael Hunter wrote some new string arrangements and we took a week out to go to Real World Studios and record with our friends - the wonderful string quartet "In Praise of Folly", the brilliant flautist Emma Halnan and the gifted French Horn-ist, Sam Morris.

The result has exceeded our expectations, is indeed a thing of beauty, and gives us the chance to release this eighty-minute CD to accompany our forthcoming November-December European tour together.

We hope you enjoy the songs and agree with us that some of them are actually better than the originals(!)

Whether or not you agree with that bold statement we’re sure this work will move you." ... http://www.marillion.com/news/newsitem.htm?id=465

I’ve only heard “Estonia” so far but am greatly looking forward to “Ocean Cloud” (about Don Allum – a lone cross Atlantic rower – people do crazy things!) and “The Sky Above the Rain”. Curious to know about the new studio album as well – it’s been a while!

Marillion seem to quite often be maligned and poo-pooed, but when they are good, they are very bloody good IMHO, and they write such interesting music. “Estonia” was inspired by h (Steve Hogarth) meeting the sole British survivor (one of 137 in total, out of 989) in the second deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history (Titanic taking the cake, so to speak) – the sinking of the cruise ferry MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea. 

This Marillion line-up has been plugging away since 1989 and I really enjoyed this clip – you can see how comfortable they are in their skins … (incidentally the original recording included a balalaika – the only time one’s every been used in any of their stuff) …