Slartibartfast's Magical Music Random Load Blog

Went browsing at the local brick and mortar and picked up Black Mountain Wilderness Heart and Mono Holy Ground: NYC Live

Joining them and Dead Can Dance in the case will be:
Beatles, The    Rubber Soul - the first album in their discography that I consider essential to have.

Corea, Chick    My Spanish Heart - I was going to review this one tonight, but he still isn't on here as a solo artist and yet Electrik Band is?  Well the album title says it all.  His Spanish heart shows up in his RTF work, but on this one it's all out there.

Curved Air    Air Conditioning - just got our air conditioning working Friday.    One of their better ones.  Great debut.

Eno, Brian/Bang on a Can    Music for Airports - one of the best Eno's ambient series.  Plateaux Of Mirror remains my favorite.  I heard this music was actually performed by live artists at an actual airport not too long ago.

Frith, Fred and Enseble Modern    Traffic Continues - two composed pieces with improv parts written in for the performers.

Genesis    Tresspass - albums like this only reinforce my disappointment in the work they did when they went off in a more commercial direction.

Harmonia 76    Tracks & Traces - more Eno with the Cluster guys. If you like that and Eno's ambient stuff, this is really good.

Howe, Steve    Not Necessarily Acoustic - but necessarily solo Howe.  Hey another version of Roundabout.  Nice assortment of Yes and solo songs.

Metheny, Pat    Map of the World, A - I think I only saw a little of the movie this is a soundtrack for.  Metheny can do really good soundtrack material.  He also did one for The Falcon And The Snowman, which I don't have.

Psychedelic Furs, The    Mirror Moves - the band starts to take a more commercial tack overall.

Tibbetts, Steve    Steve Tibbetts - if I could have only one of his albums, it would be this one or the second one.  His ECM stuff isn't quite as prog.

This is a weird draw and once again totally random Soul, Heart.  Air Conditioning, Music For Airports, Traffic Continues, Tresspass, Tracks & Traces.

Through the miracle of mini LP com packaging, an additional two:
Isham, Mark    Miles Remembered: The Silent Way Project - I first came a fan of Isham when I saw the movie Never Cry Wolf and he did the soundtrack.  This album is basically what the title says it is.  An album of covers.  He does a good job, but you really can't improve on the originals.

Budd, Harold/Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois    Pearl, The -


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 06 2011 at 18:05

These in next:

Hackett, Steve    Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth - Steve's been making some of the best music of his solo career in recent years from a prog rock standpoint.

Jackson, Joe & Friends    heaven & hell - I don't know if Joe will ever make it into this site, I think crossover would be a fitting location, but anyway, this is one of the albums that I would point to.  A concept album about the seven deadly sins.

Jethro Tull    Living In the Past - thanks to the remasters with bonus tracks I have narrowed down the number of tracks I retain under this album to 11 tracks. 

Manzanera, Phil    50 Minutes Later - Phil's been making some good prog rock albums these days as well.

Oregon    Northwest Passage - just not the same without Collin.  Still good.  Favorite track: L'Assassino Che Suona.

Phillips, Anthony    Private Parts & Pieces 4: A Catch at the Tables - have yet to get a bad album by Ant.

Ponty, Jean Luc    Storytelling - don't like this one quite as much as his albums with more famous guys in the '70's.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 12 2011 at 15:05

Packed in this bunch to launch Monday:

Curved Air    Live 1990 - a band whose career has been somewhat of a mixed bag.  The set list has the best stuff, from a prog standpoint, from the albums that Way was on. 

Davis, Miles    Tribute to Jack Johnson, A - still trying to take in the jazz rock phase of Miles as I am a relatively new comer to it.  Of course had been into ny of the musicians that spun off after their stints with the master.

Electromagnets    Electromagnets - Eric Johnson's debut before he went "solo".

Gismonti, Egberto    Retratos - retreads?  A compilation of earlier stuff and I'm pretty sure they were altered a little for this package.

Hackett, Steve    Defector (Remaster) - from the golden age of solo Steve.  Got this one shortly before heading off to college an interesting mix of mostly serious songs.

Holdsworth, Allan Group    Then! - not sure what to say about this one,  Actually a bit underwhelmed.

Jones, John Paul    Thunderthief - not quite as good as Zooma.  I ordered a used copy and was pleasantly surprised to receive an autographed copy.  At first I wasn't sure that the autograph wasn't part of the album cover.

Oldfield, Mike    Tubular Bells - amuses me that some of newer prog fans here just don't get this one.

Parallel Mind    Colossus Adea - only one album so far.  Great instrumental prog that no one's heard of.  Got it when I heard a streaming track here: Opposite of Know.

Soft Machine    Noisette - seems like a good live live album of first stage Softy stuff.

XTC    English Settlement (Remaster) - one of those albums that a friend introduced me to and made it not matter so much that the old prog names had largely fallen by the wayside.

Belew, Adrian    Twang Bar King - a Beatles cover, some good prog tracks, some silly stuff...

Pineapple Thief, The    What We Have Sown - seems sometimes that recent albums all sound too much alike.  Still good.

Umphrey's McGee    Prog Sampler - nothing says summer 2010 better than this one.  A freebie at a package store.

Manzanera, Phil    Vozero - the beginning of what has been a nice run of prog solo albums by Phil.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 16 2011 at 07:06

Bowie, David    Low - don't know why I hadn't heard this album sooner.  Probably because it wasn't easily obtainable from the used CD store where I got other proggy titles.

Bowie, David    hours…' - after Outside and Earthling I found this one to be a bit of a let down.

Bowie, David    Never Let Me Down - another one of those I found used.  OK but non-essential.

Bruford Levin Upper Extremities    Blue Nights - kind of like a King Crimson instrumental album with horns and David Torn is an excellent substitute for Fripp.

Bush, Kate    Red Shoes, The - much maligned by people who claim to be her fans.  Shame on you.

Eno / Moebius / Roedelius    After The Heat - Eno's collaboration with those guys might have gone unnoticed by me were it not for a college radio show that featured progressive music or as they were calling it art rock.  Also introduced me to Heroes.

Focus    Ship of Memories - some incredible tracks on this one.  I can understand why so many consider Mother Focus a let down.

Gentle Giant    Out of the Fire - excellent live sets from two different periods on two discs.

Ponty, Jean-Luc    No Absolute Time - basic Ponty.  Hard to top his '70's stuff.

topping off for Monday
Genesis    Calling All Stations - it is what it is.  Got it used really cheap.  I think I got my money's worth.  By the time this came out originally I had long lost interest in what they were doing.

Curved Air    Curved Air Live - a fine set from the first era of CA.


Edited by Slartibartfast - June 25 2011 at 21:35

Big Big Train    Underfall Yard, The - had to give this one a couple of spins, partly because it came up for random load and I am also simultaneously running through my last 50 additions while driving.  Plus it's a damn good album.

Blegvad, Peter    Hangman's Hill - I think I'm pretty much done with getting more of his albums.  Not bad, but just doesn't move me to explore further.

Davis, Miles    Sketches of Spain - pretty damn close to prog.

Gentle Giant    Octopus - GG's middle period remains their most inspired.

Gismonti, Egberto Group    Musica De Sobrevivencia - you'd expect something rather bleak, but it has its beautiful moments.

Hackett, Steve    Till We Have Faces - Cured and this one were a bit of a let down after his first four.  Still worth having and it does have its good moments.

Jones, Percy    Propeller Music - a bit heavier than early Brand X.

Mitchell, Joni    Night Ride Home - not a stand out album.  Just too damn hard to top the outstanding late '70's albums.

Quiet Sun    Mainstream - having known 801 live for so long, it was a pleasant surprise to find out about this precursor.



Edited by Slartibartfast - June 29 2011 at 21:40

Banks, Peter    Reduction - not as remarkable as his first solo album.

Genesis    Fox Lies Down A Tribute to Genesis (V. A.), The - interesting set of covers by some bands real and some fabricated for the sake of doing the covers.

Genesis    Selling England By the Pound - my first in my collection though not the first I heard.

Guthrie, Robin/Harold Budd    After the Night Falls - basic ambient.

Mr. Bungle    Disco Volante - my only disco album.  I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing they only put out three albums. If they had put out more I would have to probably get them, too.

Primus    tales from the punchbowl - the album spawned a couple of really weird videos.  Weird and musically intense like all their other albums.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 15 2011 at 07:14

Amos, Tori    Under the Pink - it actually was a pretty good year.

Frith, Fred    Digital Wildlife - could probably have passed on this one.  Nice package.

McLachlan, Sarah    Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - odd that I should draw down this one along with Tori's.  These two got a lot of play back in the day.

Muffins, The    Loveletter #2 "The Ra Sessions" - still not sure what to make of this.  Jazz, baby.

Primus    Brown Album - more songs about strange people.  I think I've lost track of how many Les has written now.

Vangelis    Oceanic - this would make a nice soundtrack to a visit to an aquarium.

Cusick, Paul    Focal Point - almost a true solo album were it not for the drummers.  Well done studio creation.

Tangerine Dream    Tyger - the addition of a female vocalist on some tracks is rather interesting.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 16 2011 at 05:21

I need to get caught up on my commentary:

Automatic Man    Automatic Man - spacey funky rocky

Buckethead    population override - not overly metally

Childs, Toni    Woman's Boat, The - not totally thrilled with her singing voice.  Has some interesting guests on it.

Explosions In The Sky    Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever - those who explode in the sky will come up with really long song and album titles.

Howe, Steve    Grand Scheme of Things, The - not one of my favorite SH albums, still a good one.

Jethro Tull    Heavy Horses (Remaster) - Darryl Way is on this one, soon to be stalked again by Eddie Jobson.  One of the albums that lands them in prog folk category.

Morissette, Alanis    Jagged Little Pill - never had a girlfriend go down on me in a theater I must say.  And of course irony song doesn't really have any true examples of irony mentioned, perhaps that is what's ironic.

Pineapple Thief, The    Variations On A Dream - my intro to the band.  Sometimes I feel like they are making the same album over and over.

Sylvian, David    Dead Bees On A Cake - not sure what this guy has with the bees.  One of the albums I got to explore the artist further after I heard something from of the albums with Fripp.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 20 2011 at 20:47

Slarti, always enjoy seeing what you are listening to.  Won't attempt to comment on them all, but...

I was listening to Bowie's Low the other night.  There was a post somewhere here about 'show me a Bowie prog album'.  I'd say Low would be a pretty good candidate.

There was some 50th Anniversary Stratocaster show on the tv the other day.  Manzanera was remarkable.  As was, for that matter, Joe Walsh, who made many an album that veered towards progginess, e.g., Barnstorm.

Some of that Miles stuff is just so good.  I worked as a projectionist in a movie theater for a while, and we showed the actual film Jack Johnson for a week.  That particular job actually made me hate movies, as in ya see 'em twice a night for a week and it gets old.  Never tired of the Jack Johnson film however, given the soundtrack.  Water Babies was a strange duck as they mined the Miles vault. 

XTC well I need say nothing.  I've been suitably reprimanded here many times for bringing up that particular band for enshrinement to the archives.  I still say it's a shame that Skylarking apparently does not qualify as prog.

My daughter bought that Alanis album.  It's a good 'un.

I realize this is a public forum and I'm welcome to either come here or not, but please refrain from mentioning A Passion Play again

Ackerman, Will    Hearing Voices - I got this one expecting more Happy Rhodes to be on it.  Kept it because I don't have any Ackerman albums, Akkerman on the other hand...

Belew, Adrian    Mr. Music Head - kind of a change in direction for Mr. Belew after the obtuse Desire.  Had a sort of hit with the first track, Oh Daddy.

Buckethead    Bermuda Triangle - something about some of his albums just don't sink in.  Neither drawn to seek them out or cringing when they come up in rotation except for the extreme metal ones.

De Grassi, Alex    Turning: Turning Back - of the Windham Hill solo guitarists, my favorite is still Michael Hedges.  De Grassi comes in second.

Genesis    Nursery Cryme - this along with Foxtrot really cemented me as a fan and just so happens that one came up for the next load.

Jarre, Jean Michel    Oxygene - a must for synth music lovers.

Nektar    Journey to the Centre of the Eye -  Eye eye captain trips.  Some might call it dated or others a fine vintage.

Roxy Music    Viva - the album that made me a fan.

Stereolab    the groop played "Space Age Batchelor Pad Music" - really a minor release from the groop.


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 23 2011 at 08:39