10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

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robertff
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10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby robertff » 04 May 2020, 12:26

Apologies to Beebsy and Mike Bloom but it would appear that the thread momentum has stalled so hopefully no-one will object if I carry it on.

So, Day 7 and it's this:

Image


I was still at boarding school when this came out and lapping up the British Blues Boom records of the mid 60s when I could afford to buy them. Cream, had released Fresh Cream and whilst I liked it well enough it didn't do a great deal for me, couldn't stand Toad it was enough to put me off the whole album to be honest.

Sounds were beginning to change a bit and I wasn't sure about whether or not I liked what I heard, particularly when Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced - it wasn't straight blues enough for a blues fan, however sounds were changing very, very rapidly and psychedelia was raising its head about the parapets and then Cream released Disraeli Gears.

Well the cover made an instant impact on me I would have bought that record just for the cover. This was the most psychedelic cover I had seen so far and still probably one of the best ever, what an impact! And then there was the music, most of it pretty good, some of it outstanding.

There were immediate favourites as I'm sure anyone who knows the album would be able to guess but as the album soaked itself into my psyche the favourites were still favourites but the tracks that stood out for me were/are World of Pain and the very Byrdsian sounding Dance The Night Away, just love those two tracks. 10 tracks on the albums all good to superb and then they put the absolutely appalling Mother's Lament on the end to spoil what was/is an almost perfect album - why? What were they thinking? They spoilt Fresh Cream with Toad and this with Mother's Lament, couldn't believe it.

They were never this good again, this was their masterpiece, 10 tracks - I'm not counting ML, none of them outstaying their welcome, all of them fitting in well with the album. They should have got rid of Baker at this point, hired another drummer and Stevie Winwood.

Great album, great cover.


.

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Darkness_Fish
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Darkness_Fish » 04 May 2020, 13:05

Image

This was my introduction to Current 93, who remain, I guess, my de facto favourite band. It's not exactly their greatest album, but the extended version in particular is bloody essential. I picked this up after reading a cuople of comments in underground fanzines, in particular a comment by Legendary Pink Dots singer Edward Ka-Spel, who was whinging that there were no bands with any character at all around anymore, his opinion was something along the lines of "You have Current 93, and that's it, no-one else is really distinct anymore". And a recommendation like that was always likely to garner my interest. In terms of influence, this really opened the floodgates for me to the world of folk. It's a very mystical take on folk, sounds like it was recorded by a strange woodland cult or something, and has a mix of Tibet's own lyrics and old poetry, which really gives it a depth of character that perhaps Tibet hadn't fully realised himself at this point.

Like I say though, for influence, there's not really any other band like C93 who promote other artists so strongly. The cover of this was a deliberate nod to the Incredible String Band's brilliant The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, which I checked out almost immediately after this. But they also coaxed the legend that is Shirley Collins out of retirement, tracked down Simon Finn and got him recording again, re-released Bill Fay's albums, discovered Anthony & The Johnsons and released their first album and singles (one a split with C93), brought the Groundhogs out of retirement to be his backing band, and even resurrected the career of Tiny Tim before he died.
Like fast-moving clouds casting shadows against a hillside, the melody-loop shuddered with a sense of the sublime, the awful unknowable majesty of the world.

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Mike Boom
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Mike Boom » 04 May 2020, 13:25

This Years Model - Day 7

Image

1978 and Punk and New Wave had pushed all the “Dinosaur” concept albums to the back of the pile where they would remain for a good 15-20 years, replaced by the likes of Talking Heads, The Clash, the Buzzcocks, the Ramones, Blondie and especially EC and the Attractions. Buddy Holly on Acid , a sped up new wave Dylan for the times.This album was a quantum leap forward from the actually quite trad but still great debut. With his new band in tow Steve Nieves Vox Continental lacing everything in 96 Tears style organ and the “two Thomas” rhythm section firing on all cylinders this is a whirlwind of a record. The music finally matching the torrent of words in a sprint for the finish line. A huge record for me and pre cursor to a multitude of future power pop records and a spawn of imitators from Joe Jackson to Moon Martin, hell, even Linda Ronstadt was soon covering his songs instead of Eagles songs

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C
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby C » 04 May 2020, 13:27

robertff wrote:Apologies to Beebsy and Mike Bloom but it would appear that the thread momentum has stalled so hopefully no-one will object if I carry it on.

So, Day 7 and it's this:

Image


I was still at boarding school when this came out and lapping up the British Blues Boom records of the mid 60s when I could afford to buy them. Cream, had released Fresh Cream and whilst I liked it well enough it didn't do a great deal for me, couldn't stand Toad it was enough to put me off the whole album to be honest.

Sounds were beginning to change a bit and I wasn't sure about whether or not I liked what I heard, particularly when Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced - it wasn't straight blues enough for a blues fan, however sounds were changing very, very rapidly and psychedelia was raising its head about the parapets and then Cream released Disraeli Gears.

Well the cover made an instant impact on me I would have bought that record just for the cover. This was the most psychedelic cover I had seen so far and still probably one of the best ever, what an impact! And then there was the music, most of it pretty good, some of it outstanding.

There were immediate favourites as I'm sure anyone who knows the album would be able to guess but as the album soaked itself into my psyche the favourites were still favourites but the tracks that stood out for me were/are World of Pain and the very Byrdsian sounding Dance The Night Away, just love those two tracks. 10 tracks on the albums all good to superb and then they put the absolutely appalling Mother's Lament on the end to spoil what was/is an almost perfect album - why? What were they thinking? They spoilt Fresh Cream with Toad and this with Mother's Lament, couldn't believe it.

They were never this good again, this was their masterpiece, 10 tracks - I'm not counting ML, none of them outstaying their welcome, all of them fitting in well with the album. They should have got rid of Baker at this point, hired another drummer and Stevie Winwood.

Great album, great cover.


.



Nice write up for a good record

[ML is indeed, awful]

I was always a Wheels of Fire man





.
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".

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Jumper K
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Jumper K » 04 May 2020, 13:56

Image
I'm a massive hip-hop fan, mainly Old Skool but my passion for the past few years has been what is termed as Underground. I gravitate towards dense lyrics, off kilter beats and samples, songs that have something to say and commentary and perspective from where the MC and DJ are from. To paraphrase Chuck D, hip-hop is the black CNN for me.

I first clocked Woods as part of The Super Chron Flight Brothers, whose Emergency Powers was, and still is a personal top twenty record. That record is accessible, playful and humorous. This is completely different. It echoes the Def Jux style that ended up completely joyless, verging on hectoring dogma but adds a new vital sensibility that is at the same time, stark and numbing. it is not an easy listen and takes repeated listens to immerse yourself in the vocal style, sparse production and (to me) unfamiliar themes.

It paints a picture of where Woods is, both physically and metaphorically. It seamlessly alternates between reality and fantasy, an intense treatise on a decaying society and where black African-Americans hold a position in a system that offers no hope. Its full of emotional juxtaposition and vitriol delivered with an intensity that is at times violent and at others, sobering. Of course its a political record. The themes include race, white supremacy, colonialism, urban violence, survival and change. Buts its also an educational record, the depth of knowledge displayed is essential to the message.

Did I say it is dense? Woods flow is rhythmical but with a unique delivery. Each track demands repeated listening as there is always something that you end up missing. A line, or couplet that you might of glossed over but on re-examination cuts deep and makes you think how you might have missed it in the first place. Its poetical, but without poetical construct. It is polemical and prophetic but remains a deeply personal work that at no times appears to be lecturing the listener but rather to a middle aged, middle class white man, challenging me to not remain ignorant or passive, to understand other life experience, valuing that experience in the context of my own world-view.

Willie Green's background of angular beats, electronic interludes and sampling evoke an icy cityscape, but are never obtrusive allowing the language to be the real focus. Its reminiscent of Cannibal Ox Cold Vein but more organic and, to these ears, symbiotic in its relationship to the message and delivery. There are no diverting escapist melodies.

What are we left with? An astonishing, personal, yet outward looking snapshot of modern life with an historical context. Give it a listen, even if you don't like hip-hop its good to see what the genre holds beyond the mainstream. I would imagine it might appeal to few on the board, but I would love to be surprised. You know I said the Super Chron Flights was a top twenty record for me? This is firmly established in the top ten. I put it on yesterday and was still excited, challenged and reminded of things that are even more relevant today. Its a record for the ages, a towering achievement in its field and I love it unconditionally, despite its faults (which I wont go into here as I want you to listen to it).

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robertff
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby robertff » 04 May 2020, 14:29

C wrote:
robertff wrote:Apologies to Beebsy and Mike Bloom but it would appear that the thread momentum has stalled so hopefully no-one will object if I carry it on.

So, Day 7 and it's this:

Image


I was still at boarding school when this came out and lapping up the British Blues Boom records of the mid 60s when I could afford to buy them. Cream, had released Fresh Cream and whilst I liked it well enough it didn't do a great deal for me, couldn't stand Toad it was enough to put me off the whole album to be honest.

Sounds were beginning to change a bit and I wasn't sure about whether or not I liked what I heard, particularly when Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced - it wasn't straight blues enough for a blues fan, however sounds were changing very, very rapidly and psychedelia was raising its head about the parapets and then Cream released Disraeli Gears.

Well the cover made an instant impact on me I would have bought that record just for the cover. This was the most psychedelic cover I had seen so far and still probably one of the best ever, what an impact! And then there was the music, most of it pretty good, some of it outstanding.

There were immediate favourites as I'm sure anyone who knows the album would be able to guess but as the album soaked itself into my psyche the favourites were still favourites but the tracks that stood out for me were/are World of Pain and the very Byrdsian sounding Dance The Night Away, just love those two tracks. 10 tracks on the albums all good to superb and then they put the absolutely appalling Mother's Lament on the end to spoil what was/is an almost perfect album - why? What were they thinking? They spoilt Fresh Cream with Toad and this with Mother's Lament, couldn't believe it.

They were never this good again, this was their masterpiece, 10 tracks - I'm not counting ML, none of them outstaying their welcome, all of them fitting in well with the album. They should have got rid of Baker at this point, hired another drummer and Stevie Winwood.

Great album, great cover.


.



Nice write up for a good record

[ML is indeed, awful]

I was always a Wheels of Fire man
.




Knew you would be C. all that endless live malarkey and TOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!



.

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Charlie O.
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Charlie O. » 05 May 2020, 04:28

Image

In late 1981, when I was 16, I went to a party at my friend Mark's house. I got there way earlier than any of the other guests; Mark later admitted he'd told me an earlier time than everybody else, just so he could play me something before everybody else got there. It was Side 1 (the "title track") of The Firesign Theatre's 1969 album How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All - a 29-minute stream of consciousness fable involving a car salesman, time travel, "little guys", American history, climate control, Zeno's paradoxes, the war (which war wasn't specified), and James Joyce - and he'd been trying to tell me about it for as long as I'd known him. I listened closely and still got completely lost by the halfway point; but in the meantime I laughed a lot. It was fascinating; definitely a Subject For Further Research.

The Firesign Theatre was a comedy quartet that came together, more or less by happenstance, on the radio in 1966. But although radio would remain an important creative outlet for them, it was in the recording studio - where they could take their time, re-write, re-re-write, overdub like crazy - that they showed the true measure of their genius. Their best albums (which admittedly isn't all of them) were, unlike most comedy albums, exhilaratingly imaginative and endlessly re-playable.

That experience at Mark's house was my first taste of that long-playing genius, but when I decided a short time later to buy one of their albums, it was 1974's Everything You Know Is Wrong that I plunked down my cash for; Greil Marcus had awarded it five stars in the Rolling Stone Record Guide, Mark said it was great too, and anyway the Waxie Maxie's near my house had it in stock. I played it for the first time that night, simultaneously committing it to cassette tape (as I tended to do with new LPs in those days).

The next morning at school, Mark asked me if I'd listened to it, and what did I think? "Ehhhh, it's okay," I pronounced - "some funny moments, but overall... not as good as I'd hoped it would be." But we got to talking about it and inevitably started recalling various lines from it and laughing (comedy nerds that we were), and by the end of that conversation I'd decided that maybe I needed to give the album another shot.

That night I listened to it again on cassette, wearing my headphones in bed with only the light from the tape deck meters illuminating the room. I did the same thing the following night, and for the next several.

By the end of the week I knew that it was not only hilarious, but one of the most extraordinary albums I'd ever heard - in any genre.

By this time every line, every sound effect even, seemed to me to be cross-referenced with something elsewhere on the album (or on an earlier album, as I eventually learned); virtually every scene, every bit, every silly gag, no matter how seemingly tossed off or bizarrely tangential, proved to be important to the whole (which involved the new age, conspiracy theories, our forefathers' drug usage, comets, the Confederacy having secretly won the American Civil War, bear whiz, alien dog astronauts visiting the earth in flying fried eggs, and power-shoe'd daredevil Rebus Kniebus boldly propelling himself into "the biggest goddam hole anybody's ever seen"). As I wrote here once before, it's a mobius strip mobile of a record - you can enjoy it dozens of times without ever feeling like you've really figured it out.

Everything You Know Is Wrong genuinely opened my mind up to exciting possibilities for the record album format (and for storytelling, and for comedy) that I'd never considered before... possibilities that I'm still pondering, still inspired by nearly forty years later.

And it still makes me laugh.
Last edited by Charlie O. on 15 Sep 2022, 05:28, edited 4 times in total.
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BARON CORNY DOG
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 05 May 2020, 12:41

I read Charlie O's post first, and was going to thank him for it, but now I've read the whole thread and must thank everyone. Great posts, one and all! I'm three or four days behind, but I'll get there.
take5_d_shorterer wrote:If John Bonham simply didn't listen to enough Tommy Johnson or Blind Willie Mctell, that's his doing.

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C
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby C » 05 May 2020, 13:52

robertff wrote:


Knew you would be C. all that endless live malarkey and TOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!



.



No 'arf lad!

The longer the better!







:lol:
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".

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Charlie O.
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Charlie O. » 05 May 2020, 18:13

robertff wrote:Image

Well the cover made an instant impact on me I would have bought that record just for the cover. This was the most psychedelic cover I had seen so far and still probably one of the best ever, what an impact!

My brother bought it when I was 2 years old. I spent hours examining not only the front cover, but the collage on the back.

Wonderful album.
Image

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Hightea
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Hightea » 10 Jun 2020, 05:12

In the Fall of 77 we were going to the local record shop "Cheap Thrills" in New Brunswick, NJ. On Tuesdays they had a new shipment come of import cutouts for $.99 plus the new releases. The next day we would go to my friends house and we would listen to each others new batch of albums. It was 77 so we played everything. While everyone(Matt Pinfield was one ) was pissing punk rock, AOR rock, disco and other genre one guy came in with this album:

Image

Never heard of Steve Hillage, Gong or his other bands. As a fan of space rock and guitar this was a new twist as Hillage played a new blend of space rock guitar a longwith his partner Miquette Giraudy in synthesizer along with Malcolm Cecil's large handbuilt polyphonic synthesizer, TONTO, which stands for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra". This album is a mix of Hillage's glissando guitar and spacey dance/funk thing. Next time to Cheap Thrills we all bought Hillage and Gong albums. The whole Canterbury scene followed along with electronic stuff like Synergy, Tomita and Wendy Carlos.
At this time Gong was two bands a New Wave band and a fusion band we related to both.
Last edited by Hightea on 11 Jun 2020, 23:27, edited 1 time in total.

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Charlie O.
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Charlie O. » 10 Jun 2020, 09:27

^ My other older brother somehow was given a free promo copy of that. He must have hated it, 'cause he passed it off to me immediately. I liked it, particularly Side 2. Like you, I'd never heard of Hillage before.
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Hightea
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Hightea » 11 Jun 2020, 23:22

z
Last edited by Hightea on 11 Jun 2020, 23:26, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Hightea » 11 Jun 2020, 23:25

delete

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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby Hightea » 11 Jun 2020, 23:25

delete

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C
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Re: 10 albums in 10 days - Day 7

Postby C » 12 Jun 2020, 09:45

Hightea wrote:In the Fall of 77 we were going to the local record shop "Cheap Thrills" in New Brunswick, NJ. On Tuesdays they had a new shipment come of import cutouts for $.99 plus the new releases. The next day we would go to my friends house and we would listen to each others new batch of albums. It was 77 so we played everything. While everyone(Matt Pinfield was one ) was pissing punk rock, AOR rock, disco and other genre one guy came in with this album:

Image

Never heard of Steve Hillage, Gong or his other bands. As a fan of space rock and guitar this was a new twist as Hillage played a new blend of space rock guitar a longwith his partner Miquette Giraudy in synthesizer along with Malcolm Cecil's large handbuilt polyphonic synthesizer, TONTO, which stands for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra". This album is a mix of Hillage's glissando guitar and spacey dance/funk thing. Next time to Cheap Thrills we all bought Hillage and Gong albums. The whole Canterbury scene followed along with electronic stuff like Synergy, Tomita and Wendy Carlos.
At this time Gong was two bands a New Wave band and a fusion band we related to both.


A robust album

Nice. very nice





.
Lord Rother wrote:And there was me thinking you'd say "Fair enough, you have a point Bob".


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