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Midsummer
playlist
Been a hectic couple of weeks. Not
had much time to listen to music. Bought loads of stuff, but never
seem get around to more than one hearing per new disc. But,
there's a few getting repeat plays.
- King Crimson Live in Central
Park, NYC 07-01-74 The King Crimson Collector's Club
CLUB10. Last ever concert by the "heavy" KC line-up.
Culled from bootlegs, the sound's sometimes awful, but the vibe is
fantastic.
- Sonic Youth nyc ghosts &
flowers Geffen 069490650-2. SY's new album
which seems to look back more than forward, but coalesces some of
the ideas bubbling over in their recent experimental series.
- Calexico Hot Rail
Quarterstick Qs62CD. Absolutely fabulous. There's
no other way to describe this eclectic south-western concoction.
Mariachi bands, field recordings, accordion, pedal steel and what-nots.
This is alt.country at its finest. Calexico are Giant Sand
minus Howe Gelb apparently.
- Sigur Ros Svefn-g-Englar Fat
Cat CDFAT036. Several mentions in the Mogwai newsgroup and the
fact they'd appeared at ATP, hosted by the aforementioned 'Gwai,
meant I eventually had to sample this lot. But, Icelandic CDs
are hard to find. Fat Cat from the UK have released two CD
singles and an album is promised in August. Managed to pick up
both on my trip to London. Svefn-g-Emglar opens with
the ethereal title track. It's swathed in lush guitar (played
with a cello bow I understand) and angelic, falsetto vocals from
Tonsi. It blew me away on first listen two weeks ago and it's
still swimming in my head.
- Sigur Ros Ny Batteri Fat Cat
CDFAT039. The title means new batteries. Again lots of
lush noise from the land of wind, rain and fire. Lyrics are in
both Icelandic and a made up language. Not as bad it sounds.
Hyped to bits in UK underground circles, but the hype is worth it.
Beg, borrow or steal this CD!
- Sue Garner and Rick Brown Still
Thrill Jockey thrill 065. Guests include Douglas McCombs
of Tortoise and Eleventh Day Dream fame. One incestuous scene
going on in Chi-town.
- Calexico The Black Light
Quarterstick QS52CD. Start with Hot Rail, but work back
to the earlier Calexico catalogue. You know the form - heavy
alt-country tinges, mariachi, dust on your boots, lots of tequila.
- Rick Rizzo and Tara Key Dark
Edison Tiger Thrill Jockey thrill 072. Worth
buying for the opening, Technicolor, panoramic track "Good
Evening Mr Peckinpah".
- Archers of Loaf All the
Nations Airports Alias 61695-2. There should
be an apostrophe in there somewhere. Reminds me of my Heathrow
Airport horror story on the way back from Blighty.
Post-something thing from '96. Who's heard of these guys?
- Blur Parklife Food
K2-29194. Blur: are shite - according to Mogwai. Maybe.
But, back in the mid 90's, Damon and mates laid down this excellent
platter built around Cockney life. "Girls and Boys"
is a classic pop track with a subtle/serious/fun theme. Never
did the weather forecast sound as moody as in "This is a
Low". Top drawer.
- Focus Hamburger Concerto
EMI-Bovema (Dutch import) CDM 7 48860. In the days of
flares, frizzy hair, satin shirts and prog rock, two superb
musicians from Amsterdam (guitarist Jan Akkerman and
keyboard/flautist Thijs van Leer) masterminded Focus a group that
was at home with Bach, Hendrix and Miles Davis. This was their
last decent record: a 1974 disc built around the multi movement
title track (all 20:19 of it).
- Focus Moving Waves
EMI Bovema (Dutch Import) CDM 7 48862. Two years earlier
than Hamburger Concerto came this break out album built around
another long piece of strung together themes called
"Eruption". Moving Waves contains the manic and best
known Focus track "Hocus Pocus" and the hard rock
"Focus II". The album Focus 3, which I still
have on vinyl, was a sprawling
jam based effort that contained the only Latin rock lyrics I know
of.
- to rococo rot veiculo
Emperor Jones ej15. The Lipook brothers recently added
their electronic stylings to the sound of Brit-popsters Saint
Etienne. Veiculo is a better listen to.
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