Slartibartfast's Magical Music Random Load Blog

Bensusan, Pierre    Spices - heard a good word, got a couple of albums, went no further.

Big Big Train    Bard - part of a catalog raid, no regrets.

Davis, Miles    Big Fun - Davis has been more of gathering of many albums over time.  This one isn't a particular standout for me though I've read raves around here. 

Happy the Man    Live - a really nice set of tunes taken from their first two Arista releases.  If you want to limit your exposure to one album this would be the one.

Observatory, The    A Far Cry From Here - Indonesian band I tried thanks to a CD Baby blurb.  A bit Stereolab like.  One of the more interesting packages for a CD I have.  Like some small mailed box.

Porcupine Tree    Metatonia - sure to disappoint most PT fanboys.  More like a Basscommunion album.

Stereolab    Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2) - I've heard the Krautrock label applied to these guys and gals.  Being an earlier release that tag isn't too bad.



Edited by Slartibartfast - September 28 2011 at 23:21

I still haven't played that one out of the last load yet, but I heard first it not too long after I got hooked on English Settlement.  Travels In Nihilon is my favorite.  But it was an album that really warmed me up their earlier stuff.

^ The A's have it.

Amos, Tori    Pretty Good Year - arrgh her vast amount of EPs are a bit of a shame, just for being short and having one repeat track.  It still has two unreleased tracks worth having in the collection.

Byrne, David    Complete Score from "The Catherine Wheel", The - must have for fans of Remain In Light.  Similar vein.

Gentle Giant    Under Construction - the pre debut album is worth having.  The rest is fans only but even for this fan I'd rather have an EP of the good stuff.

Greatful Dead, The    Anthem of the Sun - kind of a muddy album for me.  When I first heard of this band I expected more.

Rungren's, Tod Utopia    Ra - wait two sun albums in one draw.  This one's much much better.

Rypday, Terje    Singles Collection, The - OK this has wound up as a compilation in both PA and JMA.  I haven't checked lately but despite my mentioning it, this has still not been corrected.  It's songs that could have been popular singles if the radio at the time didn't have it's head up it's ass so much.  I'm afraid the head is never coming out.

Santana    Supernatural - the S man mixes it up with various guests.  My favorite mix up from this set isn't on here and that's Sarah Machlachlan's, Angel, which is on video.  Not one of her better songs unless you like the sentiment and neglected pets.

XTC    Black Sea - XTC opened my mind and tastes a bit.  This one certainly helped.  One of those albums I didn't catch when it came out but a cassette copy of my LP went along with me to college.


Edited by Slartibartfast - September 13 2011 at 21:02

Afro Celt Sound System    Volume 2 : Release - they started having guests.  In this case Sinbad O'Connor.

Budd, Harold    Agua - a live album in an intimate setting.  None of us were likely invited.  A good selection of his piano stuff though.

Genesis    Abacab - much maligned, screw you guys, even the most maligned, Whodunnit, is a fun tune.  What the guys aren't allowed to have a little fun and make a lot of money.  Misunderstanding was far more unforgivable. 

Goodman, Jerry    On the Future of Aviation - Goodman's new age phase.  Not that bad.  If new age is a bad thing then albums like this help redeem it.

Roxy Music    Manifesto - has it's good points, still towards the bottom of regard for RM albums for me.

Rypdal, Terje    After the Rain - another Rypdal album where the title really fits the mood of the music, still cold but things are thawing.

Santana    Borboletta - the long lost Santana prog album from my perspective.  Not as adventurous as Caravanserai, but closely related.

Wynne, Jeff    War of the Worlds, The - sigh.  I could condense this thing down to one CD of really good stuff, but the concept would suffer.  Particularly notable for me for having Herbie Flower bassist of Sky fame on it.



Edited by Slartibartfast - September 13 2011 at 20:52

How in the hell did you make it through Tales is all I want to know?

Brand X    Masques - not all of the original line up but the music is still great.  The greatness factor kind of wore off a little with Product and Do They Hurt? though I still like them.

Free Flight    Beyond the Clouds - a slightly more commercial effort than The Jazz/Classical Union, still good.

Jackson, Joe    Night and Day II - great sequel album.

King Crimson    USA (30th Anniversary Edition) - I really wasn't in a big hurry to get this on CD even though it has that one jam song that isn't available elsewhere.  The bonus tracks finally tipped it for me and I think were sorely missing from the original LP.

Marillion    This Strange Engine - by this time I was pretty much a get the new album whenever it came out for these guys.  I don't know why but the magic has started to wear off with more recent albums.

no-man    flowermouth - I was surprised to see the guests on this one.  Good testament to Wilson-Bowness that they could attract them.

Tears for Fears    Hurting, The - these guys exhibited some proggy influences.  Managed to do a really dark album.  And using mellotron.

Wyatt, Robert    Old Rottenhat - great politico-prog.


Edited by Slartibartfast - September 07 2011 at 20:56

Coryell, Larry & The Eleventh House    At Montreaux - nice live set, too short.

Fleck, Bela & the Flecktones    Outbound - interesting set of guests on this one.

High Llamas, The    Hawaii - this album really doesn't remind me of Hawaii.

Nektar    Book of Days - seemed like we were promised this one for a long time before it finally came out.  More of a return to form than the first two new Nektars, which weren't bad.

Ponty, Jean-Luc    Open Mind - his '80's albums tend to run together a bit for me.

Stereolab    Aluminum Tunes - another fine collection of unreleased material or EP and singles.

Triumvirat    Illusions On A Double Dimple (Remaster) - of their best albums, this one seems the least imitative of ELP.

Wyatt, Robert    Cuckooland - once bitten by Shleep, I pretty much get his new stuff right when it comes out and never disappointed.

Zappa, Frank/The Mothers of Invention    We're Only In It for the Money - a parody of Sgt. Pepper without just copying the songs and giving them new lyrics.  Lots of great lines.


Edited by Slartibartfast - September 07 2011 at 20:36

Eluvium    Lambent Material - I got into this artist because a sampler because of sampler included in an Explosions In The Sky order.

Howard, Hayward, Frith, Laswell    Meridiem - got this for Frith and Laswell.  Not really thrilled with the vocalist, who is really at the head of this album.

Howe, Steve    Quantum Guitar - if I had to describe Steve's solo albums as a group, they're all good.  I'm having a hard time coming up with more words.

Mangione, Chuck    Live at the Hollywood Bowl - hadn't added any Chuck since the LP age.  I felt it was time to rectify that and this album fit the bill. 

Passport    Talk Back - well it was cheap and used and came out in the late '80's.  I'd throw this one back if I could, not bad for pop jazz, but pales in comparison to their '70's stuff.

Phideaux    Chupacabras - I think I made a mistake by adding so many Phideaux albums at one time that I didn't fully get to appreciate each on their own merits.  Still an impressive set of music and not a dud in the bunch.

Tuck & Patti    Paradise Found - kind of describes the relationship with wife.  Probably too lite jazzy for most prog rockers tastes. 

Umphrey's McGee    Anchor Drops - another fine album from another one of those artists I collected too quickly.

Yes    Yes Album, The (Remaster) - Rick Wakeman's best Yes album, also some fine guitar work from Peter Banks. 


Edited by Slartibartfast - August 23 2011 at 06:59

Big batch for Monday:
Bach, Johann Sebastian     Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1-3 - a friend brought over the whole set one evening when it was snowing, now this piece(s) will always remind of snow.

Bowie, David     Man Who Sold the World, The - not a huge fan of earlier Bowie but I got this one for the title track.

Buckethead     Giant Robot - one Mr. Head's better ones.

Dixie Dregs     Dregs of the Earth - gotta love an album with a song called I'm Freaking Out.  First one with T Lavitz on keys.

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer     Return of Manticore, The Disc Three - the box set covers the body of ELP fairly well despite having stuff off Black Moon and only one of the best two tracks off of Love Beach.

Gorishankar, The     2nd Hands - a pleasant discovery here I must say.  Ups my number of albums dominated by Russian musicians up to two.

Hassell, Jon     Surgeon of the Nightsky Resores Dead Things ..., The - had this one for quite a while, still doesn't make a strong impression on me.

Hellborg + Buckethead + Shrieve     Octave of the Holy Innocents - I was on a bit of a Buckehead binge when I found this one online.  With Hellborg and Shrieve, what could go wrong?  Not a damn thing.

Mahavishnu Orchestra     Visions of the Emerald Beyond - the first MO to go into my collection.  I don't care what those who idolize the first lineup think, this one and Apocalypse for certain are equally as good.

Monade     Monstre Cosmic - Stereolab offshoot.  I liked the last one a little better.

no-man     together we're stranger - I need to go back and revisit this again.  Overdosed on Bowness.

Pink Floyd     Dark Side of the Moon - odd that this one marks the spot where I decided to log in the date I got the disc.

Rhodes, Happy     Building The Colossus - I've explored the whole discography from front to back but not everything inbetween.  There are no duds here or there or anywhere.

Stewart, Dave/Barbara Gaskin     Spin - The Big Idea was a hard one to top.  They do really good covers but the original bits are better.

XTC     Testimonial Dinner, A (Various Artists) - Sarah McLauchlan does XTC, I couldn't resist.  The other artists, including Joe Jackson.  And then there's the Terry And The Lovemen track, which I believe is XTC doing another alter ego.


room for two more:
Beatles, The     Yellow Submarine - well, if you ever needed an example of classical being separated from rather than well integrated into the music, here you are.

Sancious, David and Tone     Transformation (The Speed of Love) - you never know where David might show up.  Showing up as the front name, you get to hear hear him directing the music rather than just being an accompanist.

500 left to go so I have made it to through about two thirds of my collection.




Edited by Slartibartfast - August 16 2011 at 21:31

Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains    Big Eyeball in the Sky, The - I got the hat, sticker, and t-shirt for this album.  Unfortunately they don't make them anymore.  The hat was ruined in the flood and the truck was totaled a few months after the flood.  The t-shirt is still in working order.

Hedges, Michael    Road to Return, The - I'm not generally as much of fan of the tracks he sings on but Follow Through is one my favorites.

Premiata Forneria Marconi    Storia Di Un Minuto - one of their essential album to be sure.

Rush    A Farewell to Kings - one of two Rush albums I have.  I figured you can't have one Cygnus without the other.

Rypdal,  Terje    Waves - Rypdal's album covers have a way of capturing the mood of the music better than I can put into words.

Summers, Andy-Robert Fripp    I Advanced Masked - this was the album that actually got me to check out the Police closer despite their popularity. 

Tangerine Dream    Encore - look out!!! Synthesizers galore.

Tibbetts, Steve    Northern Song - after his first two albums Steve's music just wasn't as much fun.  Still a good album.

Way, Darryl    Under the Soft - mellow instrumental album.



Edited by Slartibartfast - August 06 2011 at 09:45