Your Previous Quarter of a Year's Music Blog

I thought this might be an interesting blog topic, write about the stuff you’ve added to your music collection recently, regardless of whether it is actually newly released this year or even considered officially progressive here.  

I think it’s a good idea to let the music sink in a little before pondering the next quarter of the year, so I will start with the first quarter of 2008.

1/7/08: John Abercrombie - Night, a 30th anniversary remaster of Gentle Giant - In A Glass House, and The Nice – Elegy arrive via mail order.  Ordered Night because I’ve been a long time fan and it has Jan Hammer on it.  Didn’t make a great impression due to being overshadowed by other things I was listening to.  IAGH because I’ve been a huge fan of that once since the late ‘70’s.  Disappointed in the CD case.  I’ve had an unremastered version where they printed the darker cover images on the CD case and the lighter ones on the booklet, so it had the same effect as the original LP(vinyl).  The outer cardboard sleeve had a rectangular cut out in the middle backed by a thin sheet of plastic with the darker images on it and the inner sleeve had the lighter ones.  I could have skipped Elegy.  I already have most of those tracks on one or another remastered CD.  Was interested in Hang On To A Dream, which I had the ELP remake of from their box set, oh well.

1/16/08: The first of my orders for Harold Budd/Robin Guthrie’s recent duet, Before the Day Breaks arrives along with Terje Rydal & The Chasers – Blue.  The Budd/Guthrie CD is mixed awfully quiet compared to rest of the stuff in my in collection, probably still haven’t properly listened to it yet.  The Rypdal and Chasers I ordered due to being a big fan of Terje for many years and it was the same band that worked with him on The Singles Collection, which I’ve had for many years.  The companion to BTDB After the Night Falls, comes about a week later, both still need a good sit down and listen.

2/22/08: My first and only addition in February, Gongzilla Live arrives.  Gongzilla is a  real pleasant discovery for ’08 and remains so despite their small discography spanning over ten years.

3/7/08: From separate sources, Col. Bruce Hampton & The Quark Alliance – Give Thanks To Chank and NIN – Ghosts are added.  Hampton’s been a local Atlanta fixture, mostly, usually proggy in most of his projects n some form or the other.  I think The Quark Alliance project may be a little more so than some of his other projects, of course I could totally be deranged.  Ghosts was available first in a free download of the first “movement” and also as a complete download in various formats including pay for high quality digital download and get hard copy to be shipped later.  I did the download on this date.  The all instrumental Ghosts was a bit of a departure from Reznor, but then again, a lot of these elements are not unusual in his previous works.  I think the inclusion of Adrian Belew (not for the first time) made this one a must get for me.  About a week later I got Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, a bunch of remixes from the NIN – Year Zero sessions.  I liked the original a lot, the remixes are interesting, particularly The Great Destroyer, which I found a little annoying on YZ but really neat in this version.

3/21/08: The month and first quarter of the year finished out in rather interesting fashion with the arrival of Oregon – Out Of The Woods and Root In The Sky in a combo CD package.  I’ve had RITS in LP format for a long time, but hadn’t heard it an a while.  Out Of The Woods I had known about and was familiar with a couple of tracks before.  It’s nice to have both of these in my collection.  Wasn’t too long in years after those were released before Collin Walcott, died in a bus accident, a great loss as these two albums illustrate.



Edited by Slartibartfast - July 28 2010 at 21:12

For my collection, prog wise, things have gotten much better this current quarter.  I was in a bit of dry spell first quarter.  I'm going to wait for the end of the month before reporting on it.  New stuff still on its way. 

This quarter so far:

Amos, Tori    Hey Jupiter
Curved Air    Live 1990
Focus    Live at the BBC
Alitheia    Chthonick
Observatory, The    A Far Cry From Here
Phideaux    Chupacabras
Porcupine Tree    Lightbulb Sun
Genesis    From Genesis To Revelation (Remaster)
Supertramp    Crime Of The Century
Jonas Hellborg    Art Metal
Public Image Ltd.    Compact Disc
Nine Inch Nails    Slip, The
Sancious, David    Just As I Thought
Gongzilla    Suffer
Gongzilla    Thrive
Zappa, Dweezil    Zappa Plays Zappa
no-man    schoolyard ghosts
Nektar    Sunday Night at the London Roundhouse 2
Nektar    Book of Days
Head Machine    Orgasm
Hine, Rupert    Wildest Wish To Fly
Talisma    Quelque Part

Edit:
Rupert Hine - Immunity
Fred Frith/John Zorn Duo: 50th Birthday
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Pentanine.

I think that about does if for this month and quarter, I'm going to savor what I have and report on these in July.


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 01 2009 at 09:17

Yikes, ok, I'm up for this one, though I've been on a tear this year.  We'll start with my January acquisitions:

First, My Christmas / Birthday Presents (most didn't arrive until January, so I'm taking liberties and including them all:

Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
Spock's Beard - The Light  -  One of my favorite Beard albums
Poverty's No Crime - Save my Soul  -  The Key to Creativity is worth the price of admission
The Flower Kings - Flower Power  -  Still haven't gotten into this one
Riverside - Out of Myself  -  No comment yet
RPWL - World Through My Eyes  -  Great listening, Roses and the title track are fantastic
Spock's Beard - The Kindness of Strangers  -  My Beard collection is now complete.
Genesis - When in Rome  -  Eh, I loved the concert and love the album despite the 'insufficient progginess'

We'll save February for a later time.

Dick Heath wrote: Garaj Mahal

That's as good of a band name as Dred Zeppelin.


Edited by Slartibartfast - February 01 2009 at 09:17

In the last 3 months (prog):

albums:
Univers Zero--Univers Zero ~ Very unique, a lot of dissonance with melodies popping up here and there,
very classical-sounding but very avant-garde. I like this one (most parts), though its a hard listen when I'm mildly stressed or down

Faust--Faust IV ~ Pleasantly surprised. I'd think this'd have a higher rating. Nice melodies, the tracks are somewhat varied in terms of sound, but all good. solid album.

Jan Dukes de Grey--Mice and Rats in the Loft ~ my new favorite album! I fell in love with this after listening to it a few times. Must be listened to.

Popol Vuh--In Den Garten Pharaos ~ nothing much to speak of, the bonus tracks are very eerie.. think middle section of PF Echoes but not as noisy or jarring

downloads:
Way too much to write but here are some of my favs:
Amon Duul II--Yeti, Wolf City ~ pretty good, somewhat uneven

Anthony Phillips--The Geese and the Ghost ~ graceful, a softer sounding genesis, very pastoral

Camel--Camel ~ not near as good as latter releases like Mirage but def. good and some very solid songs

Chris Squire--Fish out of Water ~ wow! very good, lives up to the hype

Colosseum--Valentyne Suite ~ very good! reminds me a little of KC's early jazz rock

Comus--First Utterance ~ creepy, pagan and magnificent!

Eloy--Ocean & others ~ eh, not so fond of this although there are some moments

Fairport Convention--all haven't listened to enough

Magma--Kohntarkosz, Live, MDK & others ~ K is very good, I especially like the second half of part 1

Wishbone Ash--Argus ~ I like "time was". the rest is not bad though haven't listened to it much

Traffic--On the Road ~ haven't listened to it enough, but initial impressions are that much from the studio sound is lost and jams don't really hold my attention, kind of like disc 2 of CSNY's Four Way Street

Soft machine--live ~ pretty good from what ive heard so far

Spirogyra--canterbury tale ~ very acidic, dark and beautiful


Edited by listen - August 21 2008 at 03:00

Some recent albums I got:

Kevin Gilbert - The Shaming of the True (love this one)
The Flower Kings - Space Revolver
Renaissance - Prologue
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
Mike Oldfield - Hergest Ridge
Return to Forever - No Mystery (My RTF collection is now complete)
Frost* - Milliontown
Stanley Clarke - The Toys of Men

I probably I missed a few, I might add them in later

Edited by King Crimson776 - June 25 2008 at 05:29

4/2/08:
Went to one of the few decent used CD stores in my area, Ella Guru, slim pickings.  Wound up with a Tori Amos EPCD, Hey Jupiter.  Seen it around there often, not that great,  Also picked up a copy of the DVD of the first season of Robot Chicken, might have salvaged the trip but the middle parts of each disc don’t play in any of the many DVD playing options I have access to.

4/8/08:
Two cool live blasts from the past, Curved Air - Live 1990, and Focus - Live At The BBC.  Mail order again, of course.  Curved Air being remarkable for reuniting the original band members and performing an excellent show of old material, after they got past what were apparently technical difficulties at the beginning of the show,  Live At The BBC is wonderful for the band being post Akkerman and pre Proby.  Philippe Catherine being a very good choice for replacement of Jan.

4/14/08:
Overload!  On order from CD Baby and The Burning Shed shops comes in. Alitheia – Chthonick, The Observatory - A Far Cry From Here, Phideaux – Chupacabras with Porcupine Tree - Lightbulb Sun.  Overload, overload, overload!  The Alithea was interesting, a bit more metal than I was expecting but certainly demonstrates the worthiness of a prog metal category around here.  The Observatory was another pleasant surprise.  Recommended by someone posting in a CD Baby thread.  Prog from Singapore.  Chupacabras completed my Phideaux collection until something new comes out, quite good for a collection of tracks that didn’t make it to albums from the sessions when it was recorded.  Then Lightbulb Sun came along.  I had become well acquainted with many of the songs as bonus tracks and from the live album, Warzsawa.  The remaster was long overdue and well appreciated by me.  I missed out on this band when they first appeared.

4/18/08:
Genesis To Revelation, I had to have this one to replace the old unremastered CD I still had.  It was used, in Japanese mini LP format, with some extra bonus tracks I hadn’t heard.  The new stuff didn’t make much of an impression, but what the hell, a must have for this collector.

4/30/08:
Someone on PA had suggested making May 1st a special prog day (Sorry screen name does not come immediately to mind, but what the heck?).  Went browsing at my local chain store, OK Purchase (not their real name, feel free to guess).  They’ve been in the neighborhood a while, but it seems their progressive offerings have been steadily diminishing.  Was hoping to find at least a few selections that were in the PA’s top list that I didn’t have already.  They my were last hope after Ella turned out bust.  I headed up the road to them and was prepared to find at least something VDGG, hell no!  They did have Supertramp – The Crime Of The Century and a few others.  A band that really wasn’t considered prog by my fellow fans back in the day.  Turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Something about that music that makes it stick in my head a little too much.

5/1/08:
Just as I am getting into the ‘Tramp, what the hell should show up in the mail next day but Jonas Hellborg’s Art Metal.  I ordered that one thanks to another streaming track posted here on the PA, Solitude.

5/2/08:
Next up to grace my collection was Public Image Limited’s Album/Compact Disc/Cassette/8-Track/Wax Cylinder/MP3.  Nice concept and actually the music isn’t bad.  Johnny’s demented singing style has a certain appeal.  This is as close as I will ever get to having a Sex Pistols album in my collection.  

5/5/08:
Nine Inch Nails does one up on Radiohead by releasing The Slip totally free for download, even in as good as CD format. Kudos Mr Reznick.  Lot of prog elements in his music even if you don’t consider it prog.

5/12/08: Although David Sancious isn’t yet officially prog on this site, I did get a copy of Just As I Thought, which was a recommendation I found in a dormant thread.  I’d had DS’s Transformation in my collection about a year before, been aware of his music for while, but after checking out his biography and discography, found out he’s gotten around quite a bit in prog circles and elsewhere.

5/24/08:
Double Gongzilla treat, Suffer and Thrive.  The first time I tried to get some Gongzilla, just a couple of months before, they seemed hard to get a hold of.  I probably just got better at the search.  Two wonderful albums.  Having Alan Holdsworth guest on the first and David Torn on the second was a special treat.  The core of the band Bon Lozaga, Hansford Rowe, and Benoit Moerlen are what really makes the band.

5/24/08:
I was one of the fortunate few to win Zappa Plays Zappa DVD and CD for reviewing a few Zappa albums for a Progressive Archives contest/giveaway.  I was expecting just a DVD, but the whole set was two DVDs with an abbreviated CD of the concert.  Dweezil has certainly taken after his Dad musically.  Will be watching to see where he goes as he finds his own path in music.

5/27/08:
no-man schoolyard ghosts.  Unfortunately my only DTS surround sound capable device doesn’t like this the same as a few others, very skippy.  The few moments I do get to enjoy, the sound mix is pretty well done.  When I step back and listen just to the music in stereo, it’s still a great listen.  This is music that those who need stuff to be really loud won’t enjoy.  But for sit down and listen to music, it’s most excellent.  Bowness is a singer/lyricist that tends to put more emphasis on the words than the singing, so some can find his style monotonous.  The dynamics of his singing are subtler.  As is often the case, you’ll find Wilson and Bowness working with an interesting collection of collaborators.

6/9/08:
Nektar from overseas!  Got me a redone Live From The Roundhouse I ordered with the new Book Of Days, which was primary target.  Imagine my surprise when it arrived with the packing slip apparently personally signed by Roye.  It ain’t easy being a prog musician these days.  But then again there’s nothing like having a fiercely devoted though small fan base.  The new album is the best of the latest three since Roye reconstituted the Nektar.  I suspect he’s been listening a little to what’s been going on new in prog today and let it influence him a little.  

6/11/08:
Head Machine – Orgasm, Rupert Hine – The Wildest Wish To Fly.  The former was ordered due to seeing the band recommended for inclusion in a thread and also part for the novelty of it.  It isn’t too bad for 1970, almost quaint due to my familiarity with Zappa’s raunchier stuff.  Bluesy, psychedelicly, proto Uriah Heep.  Hine is a part synth pop part prog artist.  Some of songs on TWWTF rival what many of the usual prog suspects were doing in 1983.

6/13/08:
Talisma – Queleque Part.  This one I’ve been waiting for.  Got hooked on them thanks to a streaming track posted on PA from their last album.  Might have had this sooner, but the website for their label, Unicorn, isn’t well structured.  This label also has some Darryl Steurmer.  Note to self, check out what he’s been up to recently.

6/16/08:
Rupert Hine – Immunity arrives.  This was my first taste of the guy.  Tried it primarily because Phil Collins put in a appearance.  Another mixture of synth pop and prog from Mr. Hine.  About all I know from the guy other than him working some with Anthony Phillips.  Same day Fred Frith and John Zorn - 50th Birthday (Zorn’s) Volume 5.  Difficult listening music, say no more.  

6/17/08:
Found out that Pierre Moerlen had put out an album as Pierre Moerlen’s Gong in this decade,  Penatanine.  Actually the only thing in common personnel wise with PM’s Gong was Pierre himself.  Plays with Russians and the result is quite good.  It has even a (very) few elements reminiscent of Daevid Allen’s Gong.  Pierre’s not with us anymore, died too soon, yet left behind some good stuff.

Well, I’m just getting into the next quarter of 2008.  Going to sit back and enjoy what I have rather than delve too far into new territory.  Still keeping an eye open for new 2008 releases by those I already know.



Edited by Slartibartfast - February 01 2009 at 09:17

since my last post I have gone on an album hunt, mostly for acid folk:

Synanthesia: Synanthesia ~ very good, acid folk, mix of folk jazz and psych qualities

Shirley Collins and Dolly Collins: Love, Death and the Lady ~ trad. though artsy, beautiful voice though gets tedious after a while

Jan Dukes de Grey: Sorcerers ~ some very good songs

Simon Finn: Pass the Distance, Magic Moments ~ un, mixed opinions. some is good but sometimes i can't stand the rough jarring bantering of finn, somewhat like connor obherst (sp) -bright eyes and bob dylan but harsher

Gnidrolog: Lady Lake, In Spite of Harry's Toenail ~ pretty good. LL is especially good, though not really my style, def hear the comparisons to GG, VDGG and some JT

Trees: The Garden of Jane Delawney, On the Shore ~ i really like the combo of trad/psy UK folk and electric san fran scene. love a lot of it!

Agincourt: Fly Away ~ some remnants of the adolescent 60's brit pop scene but other than that good psych folk.

Broselmaschine: Broselmaschine ~ very very good!!

C.O.B.: Moyshe McStiff..., Spirit of Love. ~ moyshe is awesome!! I love it!

Espers: Espers, II, The Weed Tree ~ very acidic, odd harmonies & beautiful. I'm really happy music like this is still being made

Woven Hand: a bunch of downloads ~ ? good from what I've heard though haven't heard much

Trannosaurus Rex: a bunch of downloads ~ ?

Six Organs of Admittance: a bunch of downloads ~ ?

Devendra Banhart: a bunch of downloads ~ ?

Pearls Before Swine: a bunch of downloads including most of balaklava ~ pretty good!

Holderlin: Holderlin's Traum, Holderlin haven't listened enough, the latter so far is pretty good

Witthüser & Westrupp: Der Jesuspilz (Musik Vom Evangelium), Trips und Träume ~ mixed opinions from listeneng to a few songs, but some good parts

Genesis: Six of the Best (1982 reunion) ~ ?

Ithaca: A Game for All Who Know ~ this has gotten mostly mediocre reviews here but I like this (same lineup as agincourt but 3 years later)! Very mellow, enjoyable. nice vocals and melodies though fairly straightforward. the 3 people i've talked to all like it & recommended it to me. I agree with them.

Yatha Sidhra: A Meditation Mass ~ haven't listened yet

The Pax Cecilia: Blessed are the Bonds ~ ?

Asia Minor: Between Flesh and Divine ~ great!! I wish this were longer, very nice sound and melodies!!

Mark Fry: Dreaming With Alice ~ a lost psy folk gem, very good!

Forest: Forest, Full Circle ~ pretty good! sounds somewhat like incredible string band

Phoenix: Cantafabule ~ don't really understand the hype about this, only listened to several songs, some good parts

David Lanz: downloads ~ no listen yet

Stackridge: friendliness ~ i can def. hear the beatles influence, fairly good though not very prog

Emtidi: Saat ~ pretty good acid folk, haven't listened much yet

Sid Barret: The Madcap Laughs ~ listened to a couple songs, pretty good psych folk

The Incredible String Band: The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion ~ haven't listened much yet, some good songs/parts

Pentangle: bunch of downloads

Fela Kuti: Bunch of downloads

National Health: National Health, DS al Coda ~ haven't listened to yet (downloads)

Le orme: Bunch of downloads

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso: Bunch of downloads, first album i like and Io Sono Nato Libero

13th Floor Elevators: Bunch of downloads

Red Sparowes: Bunch of downloads ~ from what I've heard I like this a lot

The Dillinger Escape Plan: Bunch of downloads

Don Caballero: bunch of downloads

Agitation Free: Malesch


my pickups at the local public library:

Space Opera: Space Opera ~ got this one b/c it looked interesting, and I am very pleased! First 4 songs are very solid. Not very progressive but good music sort of similar to loggins & messina

Faust: The Faust Tapes ~ haven't listened to more than a few tracks - fairly good

Bert Jansch: The Black Swan ~ good from what i've listened to but haven't really yet

Klaus Schulze: Audentity ~ no listen yet

Captain Beyond: Captain Beyond ~ sorta good, haven't listened much yet

Manfred Mann's Earth Band: The Best Of Manfred Mann's Earth Band Volume II ~ no listen yet


the non prog:

The Magic Numbers: The Magic Numbers, Those The Brokes

Minus the Bear: Highly Refined Pirates

Richard "Groove" Holmes: Soul Massage

The Holmes Brothers: Soul Street

Funkadelic: Maggot Brain, Funkadelic

Smashing Pumpkins: MACHINA/The Machines of God

Bob Weir & Ratdog: Evening Moods

James Brown: Greatest Breakbeats

Butthole Surfers: Rembrandt Pussyhorse

David Byrne: Live From Austin, Texas

David Bromberg: The Player: A Retrospective

The Righteous Brothers: Retrospective 1963-1974

Kenny Loggins: The Essential Kenny Loggins

The Who: It's Hard

Sting: Bring On The Night [Live]

Frank Zappa: Zappa In New York, YCDTOSA Vol 2 [Live]

The Rapture: Pieces Of The People We Love

Arlo Guthrie: The Best Of Arlo Guthrie

Duke Ellington: At The Cotton Club

Dave Brubeck: Private Brubeck Remembers

The Shins: Oh, Inverted World, Wincing The Night Away

!!! (Chk Chk Chk): Myth Takes

Andrew Lloyd Webber: Jesus Christ Superstar


...there's actually much more (not from the library) but I'll stop here

Edited by listen - September 05 2008 at 00:59

Playing catchup since August, so this is the last six months...

The Pretty Good Years: a Tribute to Tori Amos - as sung by a very good London based singer/songwriter called Jemima Price (see my June post above) - who also produced an album of Kate Bush covers.

Songs of a Goddess: a Tribute to Tori Amos - a collection of Goth and Ethereal covers.

Live at The Hammersmith Apollo London ~ Tori Amos – the lady herself, live.

 

Some CD replacements of existing vinyls…

In the Land of Grey and Pink ~ Caravan
Still Life: Remastered ~ Van Der Graaf Generator
The Beatles (aka The White Album) [30th Anniversary Edition]
Nocturne ~ Siouxsie And The Banshees
Music from the Body ~ Ron Geesin and Roger Waters

Hatfield and the North ~ Hatfield & The North 

Up the Junction ~ Manfred Mann - a soundtrack to a 1960's film from a story by Nell Dunn staring Suzy Kendal, Susan George and Dennis Waterman (who didn't sing the feme, Mike D'Abo did)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner ~ David Bedford

A few oldies that are mine for the first time...

Insane Times: 25 British Psychedelic Artefacts from the EMI Vaults ~ Various Artists
Pinball and Other Stories ~ Brian Protheroe – Pinball was one of the better singles of the 70s – a bit of a one-hit wonder and the rest of the album doesn’t quite live up to the same standard.
The First Day ~ David Sylvian and Robert Fripp … odd I never bought this until now – Damage, the live album from this pairing is one of my favourites.
Shapeshifter ~ Gong – after years of searching I’ve finally got a copy of the 4^th installment of the Flying Teapot trilogy – what it all means is still a mystery to me, but it’s jolly good fun.
Grand Hotel ~ Procol Harum – never really listened to 70s PH – a pity because I missed out on some damn fine music.
Once Around the World ~ It Bites – okay, I’ll admit it – I like It Bites.
Destiny ~ Sally French –if you judged her by the scant samples that can be found on the interweb you’d writer Sally off as a folky singer/songwriter, but as full-length songs dripping with mellotrons and Gilmour-esque guitar breaks it’s a fine Neo Prog treasure – a ‘lost’ gem.
And the Glass Handed Kites ~ Mew – the more I hear this the less Prog and more Dream-pop it gets.
The Audience ~ Theaudience – her of the rhomboid jaw, not the 70s Prog band
Tiny Colour Movies ~ John Foxx
Nunsexmonkrock ~ Nina Hagen Band
Utah Saints ~ Utah Saints - okay - it's their "Running Up The Hill" cover that attracts me.

 

some new stuff...

Dandelion Gum ~ Black Moth Super Rainbow – mad as a bucket of monkeys – everyone should hear this.
Ghosts ~ Siobhan Donaghy  - the pixie faced one from the Sugarbabes gets all indie-gothic and serious, and fails miserably, but the title track is a killer.

Silence of Another Kind ~ Paatos
Fusion ~ Eilera - I've forgotten this one already - typical female fronted goffic metal, nothing special.
Etarlis ~ Mermaid Kiss – hasn’t actually been delivered yet, but one of the best of the new bread of rock-oriented, female fronted UK Prog bands

Curse of the Laze ~ The Laze excellent eclectic Prog from a band that didn't know they were prog.

UFOsmosis ~ Cyndee Lee Rule - Our very own ViolinCyndee's solo album

The Slip ~ Nine Inch Nails- as far as I am concerned 2008 is Trent Reznor's year  - brilliant stuff.
4:13 Dream ~ The Cure … and I’m grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
Dark Side ~ Gregorian – featuring a mock-gregorian cover of Aphrodite’s Child’s Four Horsemen … has to be heard to be believed.

Shrouded Divine ~ In Mourning  - an excellent Opeth-like Prog Metal album
The Western Lands ~ Gravenhurst - proposed for inclusion here, but failed to get in, however an excellent album released through the wonderful Warp Records.
Insergentes ~ Steven Wilson - not much I can say about this - everything I wanted (and expected) it to be

Continuum ~ Bass Communion & Vidna Obmana - yep - a goodie.

Droneworks ~ Bass Communion - I have no idea how he does it, but this doesn't get boring - very clever stuff.

Pure ~ Pendragon - to be frank, I'd given up in Pendragon after Not Of The World, and for my sins, ignored Believe, but this is simply an amazing album and I may just have to go back and check it out.

 

And a couple of albums recorded ages ago but only recently given a proper release…

And Finally ~ Scheer – a 4AD post-punk band from the 90s fronted by Audrey Gallagher.

Crystal Tips and Mighty Mice ~ The Photos – fronted by the delectable Wendy Wu, The Photos sung about being a teenager in Birmingham during the post-punk 80s, this is the “lost” Photos album that was shelved by the record company just before the band split up, sadly the production (by Tony Visconti) loses all of the charm and magic of their first studio release.

 

10/18/08:
Crimson Jazz Trio: King Crimson Songbook Volume 1 arrives.  One of those ones I got interested in because I hear of it on PA first.  If you have a taste for jazz, you'll probably love these reinterpretations of KC pieces. 

10/25/08:
Another excursion to the local independent record store results in a couple of scores - Afrocelts: Seed and Brian Eno: Ambient 1Music For Airports.  Afrocelts are on Peter Gabriel's Real World label and are pretty much a mixture of African/Celtic Music/Musicians like the name says.  Not for everyone, but I'm on my fifth disc with this one.  The Eno album is one which I've never added despite being a long time fan of his ambient works.  There's also an interesting version by Bang On A Can, which I have had since 2000.

11/30/08:
Someone shared a link to download Steven Wilson's Insurgentes.  I didn't get in on the advance order, but will be ordering the next hard copy release when available. 

12/26/08:
My sister gave me the only CD gift I got off of a wish list this year, John McLaughlin's Floating Point.  It didn't quite live up to the good word I'd read about it on PA.  Not bad, yet not great.  There seems to be a thing about many musicians who have been around doing great stuff since the '70's or so.  They just have a hard time topping what they did before.


Edited by Slartibartfast - April 23 2009 at 19:41