Slartibartfast's Magical Music Random Load Blog

Slartibartfast wrote: Bitch and Animal    What's That Smell? Dixie Dregs    California Screamin' Dixie Dregs    Night of the Living Dregs Genesis    Spot the Pigeon Hackett, Steve    Please Don't Touch (Remaster) New Percussion Group of Amsterdam    Go Between Porcupine Tree    Nil Recurring Primus    Sailing The Seas Of Cheese Shadowfax    Too Far To Whisper Umphrey's McGee    Safety In Numbers Wakeman, Rick    Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Yes    Close to the Edge (Remaster) Yes    Fragile (Remaster)                                                                                                                               Need to get caught up on the commentaries.  Down to about 180 titles including those above.  Weird how I drew a pair of better known and loved Yes albums.  Also got Hackett's first post Genesis along with his last work with the band.  The Shadowfax and McGee were both soaked in the flood.

Slartibartfast wrote: Amos, Tori    Crucify Amos, Tori    Winter Budd, Harold    la bella vista Di Meola, Al    Cielo e Terra Frith, Fred    Speechless Gismonti, Egberto   Hackett, Steve    Voyage of the Acolyte (Remaster) Hampton, Co. Bruce and The Late Bronze Age    Outside Looking Out Hampton, Col. Bruce    Arkansas Mitchell, Joni    Turbulent Indigo Ozric Tentacles    Waterfall Cities Residents, The    Tweedles

Get this, I also use random sometimes to pick out from what I am carrying to listen to at work.  The Wall came up right after Piper.

Gorn, Levin, Marotta    From the Caves of the Iron Mountain - this is music made in actual caves.  They were interested in the acoustic properties of various cave areas.  An interesting experiment and the music is decent.

Jethro Tull    Benefit - I like their later stuff better but it's a fine album all the same.

Jethro Tull    Rock Island - this came up in the same draw.  OK but I like Benefit better.

King Crimson    B'BOOM Official Bootleg - Live In Argentina 1994 - non essential but why not beat the bootleggers?

Led Zeppelin    IV - probably said this before but the band had respect in my prog friend circles which were primarily my brother's friends who were generally three years older.  I never paid them too much attention because my classmates were not into prog as I knew it and typically hung out in the smoking area in high school.  Yeah, it (cigarettes) was legal for teens back then.

Moody Blues, The    A Question of Balance (Remaster) - the opener kind of overshadows all the rest of the album, the rest never made much of an impression on me.  Seem to suffer a bit from quaint-itis.

Mr. Bungle    Mr. Bungle - I'd probably absolutely hate this if I hadn't acquired a taste for the avant many years ago and got warmed up to more metal in prog by Porcupine Tree.  Not my favorite but I'm still keeping it.

Parsons, The Alan, Project    Tales of Mystery and Imagination Edgar Allan Poe -  I am a sucker for concept albums but I guess this one didn't come along at the right time because I am rather cold to it still.

Pink Floyd    Piper at the Gates of Dawn - second of another pair in this draw.  I think I might actually like it better than the next one.

Pink Floyd    Wall, The - for me always best experienced in video, DVD in this case.  It like Led IV was also a favorite of what was the freak clique.  So I didn't check it out until college where they had an area of the student center set up to play VHS movies and this one of the features.

Residents, The    Have a Bad Day - I believe there was a computer video game or program associated with this album.  Never saw it for sale in a store.   I would have got it.

Supertramp    Crime Of The Century - one of those bands I never played attention to because it got so much radio play.  Didn't try this one until a few years ago because I went on a quest for something new in the PA's top 100 list.  It was a bit of futile quest because I went to two different stores and didn't find anything on my list until I got to the third Best Buy, which had generally become a waste of time for finding prog I didn't already have.  Not surprised that they had this one, so I went for it and like it very much.

Yes    Magnification - post '70's Yes is just really hard for me to get into as I generally wrote them off thanks to 90210.  This one doesn't excite me though I can't say anything bad about it.


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 08 2012 at 07:37

1/20/12 Finally got the commentary on the last page added.  I think I'll take a break.

Anderson, Laurie    United States Live (Disc Four) - this whole box set really endured me, I mean endeared me to the work of Laurie Anderson.  She did happen to do this box set in chronological order.  There is a condensed version of the whole box set if you'd rather sample.

Camel    A Live Record - I've known the band by name and heard some of them way back when, but when I saw this expanded version of it originally released on LP I gave it try.  I like it but it still remains the only one I have.

Hassel, Jon and Bluescreen    Dressing for Pleasure - I got this one used because I like Jon's albums already but it was nothing like the Hassel I had experienced before.  Kind of dance musicy but has a nice weird edge.  Also notable for having Brain on drums before I got into Primus.  Brain seems to show up in the oddest places like Buckethead.

High Llamas, The    Santa Barbara - I think you'll find about one or two other fans of this group.  They are Stereolab related.  I think this one and Sean O'Hagan's first solo are almost their best.  Snowbug would be the one I might recommend first to the curious.

Jackson, Joe Band    Volume 4 - Got the two disc version of this.  Joe reunites with his original band, hence the Volume 4.  Not a bad set of new songs.  Includes a set of redos from the olden days. 

Jones, John Paul    Zooma - OK this one comes from the DGM label.  I got this one not too long after I had started adding LZ CDs to my collection.  Pretty much blows away that stuff, which I still like.  Blissfully devoid of vocals.

Kuhn, Joachim    Springfever - JK is considered more of a jazz pianist but his fusion albums are really good.  This one is devoid of vocals fortunately.

McLachlan, Sarah    Mirrorball - I could probably toss this one back just because it's a video and she has produced really good live videos.  Fumbling Towards Ecstasy still remains her peak for me.

Nektar    Evolution - the second offering after the first new Nektar in years sees the new band refining the music a bit.

Pere Ubu    New Picnic Time - I actually played this one while working on my computer with it turned down really low.  I think it is best appreciated at really low volumes.  I really like their more accessible stuff much better.

Phillips, Anthony    Private Parts & Pieces VIII: New England - I can't comment on specific, but the PPP series has some great stuff in it and this is no exception

Porcupine Tree    Up the Downstair - the first PT album conceived as an album rather than more of a collection.  Never heard the original drum machine version.  Guess that must be a big ticket collector's item now.  Don't really need to as I like this one just fine.

Rundgren, Todd    A Wizard, A True Star - For me it's no Utopia Utopia but he was headed in that direction.

Weather Report    Night Passage - this one I think I may need to have a louder listen to.  Cool cover.  I haven't really given it a good sit down and listen yet though it cam in in to me in '93, alas.

XTC    Skylarking - never a bad album made and after English Settlement a band that I never failed to get when they came out with something new. 

That year was the middle of college. 
The rest is not so much from memory but more for personal journal purposes, hell this is a blog after all.  It started out pretty good college-wise.  Got good grades in
Fa - Dwelling House Design B, Passive Solar Design A, Site Planning C,
Sp -  Western Literature B, Wood Structures C, Technical Writing B,
Summer quarters were always spent working.  No travels to exotic places.
Wi - Computer Aided Design And Drafting A, Structural Drafting A,  Structural Analysis F
It was a horrid class and a solid F.  My God!!!  You had to do all these calculations and diagrams on paper, the professor was just boring as hell. 
The whole process was becoming anachronistic if I'm not mistaken but once very valuable once upon a time.  

At least I had XTC's Skylarking to comfort me. Then again it was released in October so maybe it just threw me off course. 




V V V V    Oooh, a seven out of eight.


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 08 2012 at 07:17

Slartibartfast wrote: Bowie, David    Outside            24 - Heroes spiked my interest many years before this came out, but this one got me to into exploring more of his albums. My favourite Bowie album Happy the Man    Crafty Hands            89 Brilliant. A sadly neglected band King Crimson    Beat            116 - it was short and seemed to be more of a commercial attempt.  Has it good moment though. Unjustly overlooked Crims album.

Slartibartfast wrote: Bowie, David    Outside            24 Davis, Miles    Someday My Prince Will Come            44 Eluvium    Talk Amongst the Trees            53 Gong, Pierre Moerlen's    Time is the Key            78 Grappelli, Stephane/David Grisman    Live            81 Happy the Man    Crafty Hands            89 King Crimson    Beat            116 McLaughlin, John-Jaco Pastorius-Tony Williams    Trio of Doom            127 Stewart, Dave & Barbara Gaskin    Green and Blue            199 Tangerine Dream    Phaedra            206 Vangelis    Mythodea            213

        

Knocking them out commentary-wise as I spin them:
Badalamenti, Angelo    Soundtrack from Twin Peaks - Angelo's music really made the series from merely weird to weirdly great.  He's the best thing that ever happened to David Lynch.  I have to wonder if Dune might have turned out a little better with him on board.

Big Big Train    English Boy Wonders - once I got on the big big train I raided their catalog.  Not completely in prog territory but still a good album.

Howe, Steve    Turbulence - OK so you hated Union, try this one.  One of my favorite Howe solo albums.

Ponty, Jean-Luc    Gift of Time, The - I think this was Ponty's first Synclavier albums.  I like what he did with it.  I just noticed I still need to get Civilized Evil.

Reasoning, The    Awakening - stunning debut album.  I read a review dissing them as neo-prog/metal hybrid.  OK, it works for me.

McLachlan, Sarah    Afterglow - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was really her peak album.  She still makes good music but nothing that moved me like that one.   I'd nominate her for crossover but I think it would never fly.



Edited by Slartibartfast - January 07 2012 at 07:58

Today's case also has the titles I haven't commented on so the whole set loaded is:

1/20/12 - I had put in commentary on all of this and the post failed and it was lost.   Well maybe I'll do better this time and remeber to copy to the clipboard before I update.

Badalamenti, Angelo    Soundtrack from Twin Peaks - The guy does some really good soundtrack work and David Lynch post Dune wouldn't quite be the same without the collaboration.

Big Big Train    English Boy Wonders - Last time I checked their debut album was out of print, so all I can say is that number two isn't quite as good from a prog standpoint as their later ones but I still enjoy it.  Some might say it's more of an alt-rock offering.

Gabriel, Peter    Up - About damn time Pete.  Actually it wasn't until this one came out that I learned about Ovo, but in the end some artists are probably best if they aren't so driven and make something new when they feel they feel the time is right and it was.

Howe, Steve    Turbulence - Sort of a companion album to Union only instrumental and highly recommended for those who like Yes but not Union.  One of my favorite solo Howes and I have a bunch now.

King Crimson    Great Deciever (Live 1973-1974) Disc One, The - This box set is almost too much stuff from that era.  Had to get it though.  I think what makes the whole box set worthwhile are the improvs and the tracks that this lineup didn't do the originals of.  My only gripe is didn't arrange the shows in chronological order but I can fix that if I wanna do the whole thing in a playlist.

Ponty, Jean-Luc    Gift of Time, The - Pretty much a studio production with Ponty doing a lot of the instruments and his backup artists aren't any of the big names, still I like it.  I see only one review so maybe I should rectify that.

Reasoning, The    Awakening - Their debut endeared my to this band and they are still going strong.  Probably has more metal elements than I might have appreciated in the past, but then again Crimson has metal elements.

Amos, Tori    from the choirgirl hotel - Ah, the album I got just before the girlfriend who introduced me to Tori and I broke up. 

Davis, Miles    Pangaea - It's really awesome how this guy could do such long live sets of what I believe is basically improv.  It's great music, but I have a hard time digesting it.

McLachlan, Sarah    Afterglow - Sarah was best on her first three from a prog standpoint, still I wouldn't be without it.

Montrose, Ronnie    Territory - This guy has good rep as a solo guitarist and if I knew some of his other stuff I might recommend for his inclusion on this site but I quit exploring his stuff after this and I'm not entirely sure why.

Nirvana    In Utero - I never really paid Nirvana much attention until I got a used copy of In Utero in '99 though it would be about three years before I tried Nevermind.  It did however get me into the band eventually.  For those who would deny a Fripp influence I heard a lot of it here not so much on the song level as on the licks. 

Radiohead    Bends, The - Marked the last of Radiohead raid as there wasn't anything left to get of their studio stuff.  I don't think I'd have liked it as much as I do If I hadn't put it in line last.

Roxy Music    Siren - Kind of marks a softening of Roxy's rough edges.  I like it.

Summers, Andy    XYZ - Summers has had an interesting solo career.  Much more JRF than Sting's.

Funny story about Pangea, when I got it I had and still have a 50 disc CD changer which I load up with my newest titles after they spend about a month in the carrying case.  I'd usually play it on shuffle and I noticed that Pangea tracks seemed to be repeating the most frequently.  That's how I figured out that the changer shuffles by going through the discs first and then picking a random title off the selected disc when it loads.

What's kind of cool about these random draws is when you see connections.  Tori Amos did a nice cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit, which was one of the things that led me to try In Utero (though that song isn't on it).   I think being able to hear the lyrics clearly led me to consider that Kurt might actually have had some songwriting talents.



Edited by Slartibartfast - January 20 2012 at 05:55

Not through with the load above but topping off with these below:

Amos, Tori    from the choirgirl hotel - one of those albums that takes me back to the time it came out.  A personal relationship would soon be over.

Davis, Miles    Pangaea -

McLachlan, Sarah    Afterglow
Montrose, Ronnie    Territory
Nirvana    In Utero
Radiohead    Bends, The
Roxy Music    Siren
Summers, Andy    XYZ



Edited by Slartibartfast - January 13 2012 at 20:11