Slartibartfast's Magical Music Random Load Blog

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

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

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

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

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

New batch:
Bass Communion    Bass Communion II

Bolling, Claude Trio    Jazz a la Francaise - only Bolling I have.  Good mellow stuff.

Caravan    Battle of Hastings, The - I never took an interest in this band back in the '70's.  One of the two titles I picked up (you probably won't need but one guess for the other) after they came by Atlanta on tour with Nektar.  Haven't added anything else but a concert DVD, which I should go back and watch someday soon.

Dark Matter    Seeing Strange Lights - really cool CD package.  If you tilt the case back and forth the grooves in the CD case lid the designs in booklet beneath change.  Good progressive electronic stuff.  I wouldn't have heard of them had it not been for AOL Radio, which was my source of discovery for a little while before I found Prog Archives.  AOLR sucks these days.  They cut way back on the variety of stations.

Explosions In The Sky    Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, The - not a lot of variation in the music between albums.  Sort of the Ozric Tentacles of Post Rock.  I went on a binge after I tried the first one then realized I could have taken my time.  Put this one in for a round of errands with my wife (she was driving).  I had it at a reasonable volume and she cranked it down too low.

Jobson, Eddie    Theme of Secrets - instrumental companion album to Zinc.  I don't know if it was intentional but some musical themes from that album are repeated here.  He was trying to ride the new age wave, but I think the music here would appeal to very few of them.

Muffins, The    <185> - I wouldn't even be into The Muffins if I hadn't heard about Frith working with them.  This was their last album before a long hiatus.  Seems they weren't making a living off of music.  This album is their most avant.

Oldfield, Sally    Water Bearer - this album showed up for trade at the used/new bookstore I worked at just before college.  Kind of proto-new age, Celticish. quality stuff.

Ponty, Jean-Luc, Stephan Grappelli, Stuff Smith    Jazz Violin Summit - an obscure gem.  Not a lot of information on the LP when I found it in a bargain bin.  I was pleased to find it got released on CD.  Same lack of information and the internet   It appears to be a mix of older stuff with Stuff and Ponty/Grappelli duo doing jazz rock. 

Starcastle    Starcastle - yes Yes?  Either you hated these guys for sounding too much like Yes or if you couldn't get enough of Yes they were a nice supplement.  As I recall, the next album was disappointing.  I did decide to go ahead and get this on CD when I saw it was available.

Tears for Fears    Songs From The Big Chair - I have to count these guys as one of the things that didn't suck in the '80's. 

Towner, Ralph    Solstice - intense instrumental music, similar to Oregon of course but with Garbarek, Weber, and Christensen instead.

Weather Report    Heavy Weather - if you were wanting to turn the average schmoe on to JFR, this wouldn't be a bad place to start as it is rather accessible and had a good degree of commercial success.  Birdland was covered by Manhattan Transfer, blecccch.

Triggering Myth, A    Remedy of Abstraction, The - not much to say about these guys.  Keyboard dominated instrumental prog.  I got three of their albums about the same time and like them but haven't explored further.

Wyatt, Robert    Rock Bottom - one of those albums I wish I had discovered sooner.  Really personal music.

I decided to throw a couple of Dead Can Dances into the case and my collection.  I've only sampled a little so far.

Now I need to pick something for driving around errand music.

Interesting random draw though.



Edited by Slartibartfast - June 01 2011 at 07:09

I understand that DJAM KARET is not pronounced Damn Carrot but i could be wrong.

Amos, Tori    to venus and back - never met a Tori album I didn't like.  A combo of one studio disc with one live one.  Haven't heard it in a while as it's been a long time since I did a random album shuffle through my whole collection.  The first Tori album to come out after the girlfriend who introduced me to Tori had split.  (It was amicable.)

Belew, Adrian    Side Three - really cool when I heard Les Claypool was going to be on the first Side, he's back again on this one.  Wish he had been on some more tracks in this series.  Also has Fripp guesting on one and Mel Collins on another.

Buckethead    Electric Tears - Mr. Head balancing out his really heavy stuff with something really mellow.

Coryell, Larry    Power Trio, The - straight up jazz.  I liked is JRF albums better.

Djam Karet    Recollection Harvest & Indian Summer - so they've done a pair of one metal and one ambient album a few years ago.  This one is a single disc with two albums.  OK. They did try to make them of different character.  They do some really great instrumental prog.

Gabriel, Peter    Us - probably one of his most commercially successful albums.  I like the weirder albums better.

Gentle Giant    In a Glass House (35th Anniversary Edition) - my biggest disappointment was that they didn't duplicate the LP cover double image like the unremastered CD.  The original album was only available as an import in the US, I believe.  One of my favorite GG albums, but there are more than a few.  Love that breaking glass opening.  Wonder how many people jumped up to see what had broken when they first put the thing on?

Hackett, Steve    Darktown - I didn't find out about this album's existence until after To Watch The Storms. Steve goes goth?  I think I must have not been paying attention as he had been a bit of a classical album binge.  Not that I don't like those and have most of them.

Hammer Group, Jan    Melodies - there were only a few songs that I really warmed up to when I got the LP many years ago, but nostalgia kicked in and I got a CD.  I had picked up the vinyl because I really dug Oh Yeah? and the Goodman/Hammer album, Like Children.  Not quite as good as either of those to this day.  Some of the tracks are a bit more commercial and that was the basic direction Jan was headed in.

Jackson, Joe    Blaze of Glory - Joe's music was one of those things that I turned to as old prog giants of the '70's broke up or went commercial.  I think he'd make an excellent crossover addition but too many people only know his hits.  Maybe one day.  The instrumental track Acropolis Now is one of my favorites on this one.

Lavitz, T and the Bad Habitz    Lavitz, T and the Bad Habitz  - for those who may not have heard of this T, he's been The Dixie Dregs' keyboardist post Parrish.  Bad Habitz albums are more of a strictly jazz affair.

Levin, Tony    Stick Man - Sorry Tony I'm glad you cut back on the singing from the last album.  Not that I didn't like that one as well. 

Metheny, Pat    Secret Story - I don't know, I still feel Pat doesn't make music I find as interesting as his earlier days.  Orchestrion was pretty good.

Residents, The    Third Reich 'N Roll, The - interesting old popular rock music deconstructed and lumped together.  I saw the deluxe re-release in a record store and decided I really didn't need to have it as I don't believe it included the bonus material.  I might be wrong or it's just a matter of I didn't think I needed another copy.

801    Live (Remaster) - so let's see.  I heard it first on 8-track.  Then I got an LP copy and taped it to cassette.  Then I got the first CD release.  And finally this version.  Bonus tracks, yeah!  I guess you could say this one really got me.


Edited by Slartibartfast - May 07 2011 at 18:19

Byrne. David    Grown Backwards  - not bad but I find the stuff I like is behind him now.

Dukes of Stratosphere, The    Chips from the Chocolate Fireball - XTC impersonating late '60's psychedelic.  Well done.
 
Fleck, Bela    Perpetual Motion - Banjovy does classical on the banjo.  Weird but cool. 

Gongzilla    Suffer - a Gong spinoff.  It won't hurt much.

Hendrix, Jimi    Band of Gypsies - the guy did some great live albums.

Jackson, Joe    Live 1980/86 - makes the case that Joe is at least kind of prog.  I didn't like Is She Really Going Out With Him? until I heard the three versions of this song on this album. 

Oldfield, Mike    Voyager  - one of those albums that hasn't been listened to much.  Good album though.

Oregon    Live at Yoshi's - hard to top In Performance, I'm afraid.

Pink Floyd    Wish You Were Here - one of their best for sure.

Psychedelic Furs, The    Talk Talk Talk - probably the one that really got me interested in the band.  Proggy poppy.

Santana    (III) - I like the earlier albums as they were the building blocks to Caravanserai.

Sky    Cadmium/Great Balloon Race Excerpts - not sure why Cadmium hasn't been re-released.  Probably one of their most accessible albums.  I think that the Great Balloon Race was also an attempt to do the same.  It fell a bit flat but has some good moments.

Synergy    Computer Experiments (Volume 1) - I know why there was only one volume.   Interesting as a concept but rather dull.  Fans of Tangerine Dream's Electronic Meditations might actually like this.  One of those I keep just for the novelty.

Vivaldi, Antonio    Four Seasons - I haven't added any old classical to my collection recently.  This is an old addition that I got from a cheapie bin.  Still a nice classical piece.



Edited by Slartibartfast - May 01 2011 at 08:22

Sorry Slarti, I as always enjoy checking out the random load but have been um shall we say inconvenienced lately, not to be confused with incarcerated or something.