Slartibartfast's Magical Music Random Load Blog

Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you're worthy. 

Couple of thoughts. 

Well, I about ran out of random loads.  Wasn't able to play anything at the new job because I didn't have sound set up yet.  Today will be better.  Here's the next batch:

Abercrombie, John and Ralph Towner    Sargasso Sea - this may be the first time these two ECM guitarists played together.  Good unobtrufus guitar duet.

Davis, Miles    Complete In A Silent Way Sessions, the  I've got two Miles complete sessions box sets and now have a little of a love/hate relationship with them as the extra material is on other regular release CDs I've added.  Don't get me wrong the box sets are really nice.  The other set is Bitches BTW and it is a bitchin' box set.   So anyway, if I've I've got duplicates, I'll delete the tracks from the box sets in my players.

Eno, Brian    Ambient 4/On Land - my favorite of the series is The Plateaux Of Mirror.  This one would probably be second.  It was my introduction to some artists I was not familiar with: Bill Laswell, Jon
Hassell, Michael Brook, Daniel Lanois.

Eurythmics    1984 for the love of big brother - I'm not really a fan of these guys in particular.  I mean, this band doesn't even have the real Dave Stewart.   I like the soundtrack work they did for the film, it kind of made the movie for me.  I was very pissed when I got a DVD version and they had stripped their stuff out and went with plain music.

Fripp, Robert & Eno, Brian    Equatorial Stars, The - they've never been able to top Evening Star, but this is a close second.  There is also a limited edition by the guys called Beyond Even, but it's not in our discography yet.  One of two different artists that I have on top of my computer to add in.

Gentle Giant    Power and the Glory ,The (Remaster) - the remaster has the actual track called Power And The Glory which was not originally included.  It's a decent track, but I can understand why it was left out.  It doesn't quite fit in with the rest.  It seems like it was replaced by Playing The Game.  This was the first GG album I heard and I liked it at first listen.

Gong    Zero to Infinity - a pleasant surprise to get a new Gong album with Daevid back at the helm.

Parker, Charlie    Bird: The Original Recordings Of Charlie Parker - the only Parker I have in my collection other than the music on the Clint Eastwood movie.  Seems like a good compilation. 

Procol Harum    Prodigal Stranger, The - I'm guess probably not a fan favorite.  It's decent enough for me plus I picked it up from a bin as a cut out dirt cheep.

Sting    Mercury Falling - I really thought Sting's first album was something special when it came out and it remains that.  It seems that after that he put out a lot of albums that were good but unremarkable.  This is one of them.

 If I put in too many posts with this guy: he may start to breed and take over the site. 

Edited by Slartibartfast - October 27 2010 at 20:51

An excellent list today. In particular Pekka Pohjola

Made it through some at work today:

Di Meola, Al    Spendido Hotel - originally released as a double LP, Al stretches out a bit and tries out some new styles.  Roller Jubilee was actually used in a Minute Rice commercial.

Oregon    Roots in the Sky - I haven't heard all of their studio albums but this is one of my favorites.  I don't know why.  It's hard for me to put music into words. musicwords  Oh wait.  I did it. mwuosridc

Oldfield, Mike    Tubular Bells 2 - Mike playing with his bells again. 

Brand X    Product - no Phil, noooo, don't sing.  Don't worry.  No music was harmed.

King Crimson    Discipline - old Crimson fans that might not have been following Fripp after the previous album must have have gone "what the hell is this crap?".

Reich, Steve w/ Kronos Quartet & Pat Metheny    Different Trains & Electric Counterpoint - didn't quite finish this one.  A little Metheny left to go.  This is almost a bridge between what I consider modern classical and what I consider prog.





Edited by Slartibartfast - October 28 2010 at 19:13

Slartibartfast wrote: King Crimson    Discipline - old Crimson fans that might not have been following Fripp after the previous album must have have gone "what the hell is this crap?".

Next batch (still have three from the old load left to go):

Bach, Johann Sebastian    Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4-6
Claypool, Les Frog Brigade, The    Purple Onion
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit    Mirrors of Embarrassment
Collins, Phil    Face Value
Curved Air    Phantasmagoria
Enya    Watermark
Hackett, Steve    Wild Orchids
Hedges, Michael    Torched
Jackson, Joe Band    Beat Crazy
Ponty, Jean-Luc    Cosmic Messenger
Soft Machine    Seven

Weather Report    Mr. Gone - not well respected around here.  I like it.  Joe was stretching out a bit.

Rypdal,  Terje    Skywards - this one has yet to make much of an impression on me.

Gong, Pierre Moerlen's    Pentanine - Pierre's last Gong project before he moved on to the great gong in the sky.  I really liked it.  The only thing it has in common with the Gong is Moerlin.  A good listen all the same.


Bach, Johann Sebastian    Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4-6 - a friend of mine brought the Brandenburg by one night when it was starting to snow.  I'll forever associate those with winter in my mind.

Claypool, Les Frog Brigade, The    Purple Onion - nice set of tunes by Les fortified with a little Whamola.

Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit    Mirrors of Embarrassment - I keep singing the praises of Bruce to y'all.  The avant fans should take a listen to his material. 

Collins, Phil    Face Value - Phil's first solo album and his best.  I didn't really follow his later offerings but am fairly confident that this is his best compared to the later stuff.

Curved Air    Phantasmagoria - just before Way parted way with the band an it seems to me they were still making good music.  The reformed group with Jobson put out an album I like better, but this may be the best of the first three with the Daryl Way.

Enya    Watermark - I don't think she gets any respect around here if she is mentioned at all.  Damn shame, another one of those artists that made the '80's tolerable.

Hackett, Steve    Wild Orchids - Steve seems to have come back to in a major way.  Ranks well with his earlier albums.

Hedges, Michael    Torched - a posthumous from an artist who died way too soon.  His singing never really caught on with me much but his guitar playing was out of this world.
 
Jackson, Joe Band    Beat Crazy - hard to get a hold of for some reason, but I managed.  Still not prog but still really good.

Ponty, Jean-Luc    Cosmic Messenger - Ponty seemed so much more inspired in the '70's, though I think Enigmatic Ocean was the peak.

Soft Machine    Seven - basic good JRF album, nothing really stands out for me.

Another batch:
Passport    Looking Thru - you absolutely can't go wrong with any Passport album from around this time.

Sting    Brand New Day - I pretty much have liked all of his solo albums since the first one.  This is one of the better ones.

Blue October    Foiled - I tried this one out from BMG music club due to the vocalist's similarity to Phil Collins oddly enough.  Slightly proggy, too.

Afro Celt Sound System    Volume 2 : Release - if the idea of Celtic music mixed with African intrigues you, this is something you should check out.  Sinbad O'Connor does a cameo vocal.

Alitheia    Chthonick - ordered this based on the CD Baby blurb.  Not exactly my cup of T, but sometimes you have to stretch out a little.

Allman Brothers, The    At the Fillmore East - I'm not a big expert on their catalog, but this is the one album I would recommend to just about any prog fan.

Bowie, David    Heathen - Bowie is always at his best when he has prog guests.  In this case it is David
Torn and Tony Levin.  Plus Sunday will forever remind me of post 9/11/2001.

Davis, Miles    Water Babies - recorded before Miles' jazz rock phase. Released after.  Probably a breath of fresh air to those who didn't dig the J/R phase.

Metheny, Pat with Dave Holland & Roy Haynes    question and answer - not a favorite of mine as I like the Meth more when he's doing Jazz/Rock.  This is more jazz.

Moody Blues, The    Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - I'm still amused that their hits are my favorites and the rest often seems quaint.

Nine Inch Nails    [With Teeth] - a good comeback effort from Mr. Reznor but Year Zero has better stuff.

Van Tieghem, David    Safety In Numbers - primarily a percussionist, but yet a multi-instrumentalist.  Has worked with Laurie Anderson and David Byrne.  Nice instrumental album.



Edited by Slartibartfast - November 03 2010 at 21:00

jammun wrote: I need to put Water Babies on the turntable.  I haven't heard that one in probably 20 years.

20 years?  That album could have had babies that are all grown up by now.