Top 30 Albums of My Life

So here it is...

The very best albums I heard, in order.

These of course are subjective. There is no such thing as an objective list. What could that be measured by? Certainly not sales. Not even Sales/Marketing Budget. Not even Sales to 'People Like Me' - that gets you further away. So no, it's just that I have spent my life enveloped in music, and always thought my list would be different. Yet here I am at the end of the line and I see things very differently all of a sudden, and I wanted to share this with people I love and any passer-by really.

I welcome discussion, rabid debate, wild unreason, swindling, snorkeling and bargaining. Even just a bit would be welcome.


The Top 30 Albums of All Time
1. Mel - East River Pipe
2. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
3. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins
4. Myrrh - Robin Williamson
5. Horses - Patti Smith
6. 76:14 - Global Communication
7. Third - Soft Machine
8. Tago Mago - Can
9. Staircase - Keith Jarrett
10. Selected Ambient Works - Aphex Twin
11. Anarchy - Chumbawumba
12. Natural Elements - Shakti
13. White Room - KLF
14. Another Green World - Eno
15. Brown Album - Orbital
16. Goodbye California - East River Pipe
17. Reading, Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
18. Best of The Go Betweens
19. Hangman's Beautiful Daughter - Incredible String Band
20. Silent Feet - Eberhard Weber
21. Songs of Leonard Cohen
22. E Llangonned - Alan Stivell
23. Chutes Too Narrow - Shins
24. Stereotype-A Cibo Matto
25. Lilies - Arovane
26. Rumour - REM
27. Roxy Music First Album
28. Land of Grey & Pink - Caravan
29. Can't Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan
30. After The Goldrush - Neil Young


Somehow, I know they are in the wrong order....

But please...

Fifty Guilty Pleasures - Albums I shouldn't like but nevertheless do

Next up, the albums I love in secret.
Some of these are by bands or artists I'd prefer not to mention due to their widespread agreement they are just "pants"  Best example might be Genesis, but Elton John gets a look in...
Some are artists so obscure I don't know I've met a soul who ever heard of them but me! - Examples abound here but Xela, Madder Rose, Mr Fox... surely other people have heard of them?
Lastly, bands who it's okay to like, but just not okay to like THAT album... And at number one, !Thick As a Brick! has that prize covered...


One thing they all have in common though...  I love them all these even if admission of that fact would question my good taste.  These are albums I adore, don't just like...


1. Thick as a brick - Jethro Tull (Guiltiest pleasure of all? - Many think their worst offence)
2. Sympathy - Rare Bird
3. Mercator Projected - East of Eden
4. Edgar Broughton Band - (brown album'? (their third)
5. Guided by Voices - Best of
6, Foxtrot/Lamb Lies Down - Genesis (I know every word... and love the beat on Supper's Ready)
7. HMS Donovan (surely for children only?)
8. Thanks Christ for the Bomb - Groundhogs (It's side 2 I like)
9. Ballet Statique - Conrad Schnitzler (This is just amazing)
10. Liege & Lief - Fairport Convention (I should hate them for smugness but...)
11. Second Album - Martin Carthy (I have no friends who can bare him!)
12. Live at Greasy Truckrs - Nrinzley Schwarz ("I'll be Ahead if I can quit while I'm Behind")
13. In Search Of Space - Hawkwind (I Itruly felt this was Space Rock coming to save us)
14. Watercolour Days - Clouds (Seems twee now, and did then)
15. Panic On - Madder Rose
16. Cease To Begin - Band of Horses
17 New Rock - Buffalo Daughter
18. Deja Vu (I know...) - CSN&Y
19. Old Songs, New Songs - Family (But this was a great compilation)
20. Awoo - Hidden Cameras
21. Computer World - Kraftwerk (Honestly, I love every track they ever made)
22. Amrita - Loop Guru (esp. "Often Again")
23. i - Magnetic Fields
24. In Search Of The Lost Chord - The Moody Blues (Oh, this is real guilt!!!)
25. Z - My Morning Jacket
26. Viva Hate - Morrissey (How can I write that name in 2018)
27. Liquid Cool - Nite Jewel
28. Hatfield & The North (I know it's twiddly...)
29. Nu Yorkian Soul ("You can do it baby")
30. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn - Pink Floyd (Of it's time)
31. Dive deep - Quintessence (I still adore every track - truly)
32. Clinging To A Scheme - Radio Dept.
33. Atlas - Real Estate
34. Two-headed Freep - Ronnie Foster
35. Meody A.M. - Royksopp (Great Grooves)
36. Tired Sounds Of - Stars Of The Lid
37. Peng! - Stereolab
38. River - Terry Reid
39. Persian Surgery Dervishes - Terry Riley
40. Third Ear Band
41. Millions Now Living... - Tortoise
42. For Frosty Mornings - Xela
43. Hatfield and The North - Eponymous Debut
44. Yellowjackets - Yellowjackets
45. Wings Over Water - Stephan Micas
46. Car Alarm - Sea & Cake
47. Early - Scritti Politti
48. Mr Fox - Mr Fox
49. Mossebo - Johann Agebjorn
50. 17.11.70 - Elton John (He was a god on that night)

Top hundred-or-so songs from along the wayside

This list is a non-random list of the 100 'or so' best songs I've heard.
Some are pieces of music, others are rants, but have sliced in through the filters to the core of my being and, like all input, partly become a part of what I am.

Forgive my disrespect for a decimal system too, but I have included well over 100 in my Top 100. And why not?

There are no duds here, but taste makes clowns of us all and they vary from EDM to Ska hits to Ambient, Indie, Prog, Punk, New Wave, Opera, Medieval, Folk, Jazz and more, so just leave the genres you don't like.

Here goes:

A Visit to Newport Hospital - Egg (ignore the couple-of-minutes intro)
I'm ahead if I can quit while I'm behind (live) - Brinzley Schwarz (from Greasy Truckers Party)
Oh Yeah - Can
Slightly All the time - Soft Machine
Too Girly Girly - Sophie George
Days - Television
Birdland - Patti Smith
I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha
Then - Diana Ross, the Supremes & the Temptations
Passionate Friend - Teardrop Explodes
Telegraph - OMD
Stanlow - OMD
Monkey Pilot - Comsat Angels
Journey Through athe Past - Neil Young
Pocahontas - Neil Young
Ohio - Buffalo Springfield/CSN&Y
I'm not like everybody Else - Kinks
It's too late baby - Carole King
Linden Arden Stole the highlights - Van Morrison
Country Fair - Van
Astral Weeks - Van
Madam George - Van
Purple Heather - Van
The club isn't open - East River Pipe (ERP)
Take Back the Days - ERP
Life is born today - ERP
Waltz of the new moon - Incredible String Band (ISB)
Nightfall (ISB)
Invocation - ISB
October Song - ISB / Clare
The Way They Murdered Me - Piskie
Cold Harbour - Robin Williamson
Woodstock - Matthews Southern Comfort
Something in the Air - Thunderclap Newman
Sounds of the Suburbs - Members
Violence Grows - Fatal Microbes
Enough is Enough - Chumbawumba
Bad Dog - Chumbawumba
40 Mark Strasse - Shins
When i Goose-Step - Shins
Pink Bullets - Shins
Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs
Love of the Common People - Nicky Thomas
Young, Gifted and Black - Bob & Marcia
Past and The Pending - Shins
Supper's Ready - Genesis
Witches Promise - Jethro Tull
Waterloo Sunset - Kinks
Everything Merges With The Night - Eno
Radioactivity - Kraftwerk
Spoon - Can
Ballet Statique - Conrad Schnitzler
Rock n Roll Friend - Go Betweens
Bewley Brothers - Bowie/Piskie
Your Song - Elton John
Hibou, Anenomie & Bear - Soft Machine
Winter Wine - Caravan
Long piece number 3 part 2 - Egg
Knot Comes Loose - MMJ
Evening Over Rooftops - Edgar Broughton Band
Doctor Wu - Steely Dan
Any World That I'm Welcome To - Steely Dan
Transient - Orbital
Remember A Day - Pink Floyd
At last I'm Free - Robert Wyatt
Set the controls for the heart of the sun - Pink Floyd (Ummagumma)
Milk and Honey - Sandy Denny
Ain't got no body to depend on - Santana
Two Sisters - Shakti (about Isis & Nepthys)
Face to Face - Shakti
Wendell Gee - REM
Find The River - REM
Rockville - REM
French Disko - Stereolab
Codex: Cantigas des Amigo #2 - Mandad ei Amigo - Stevie Wishart
De moi doleros vos chant -
On the beach - Neil Young
Get Another Plan - Abstract Truth
You can do it baby - Nuyorcian Soul
Working for Vacation - Cibo Matto
SciFi Wasabi - Cibo Matto
Onion Song - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Abraham, Martin & John - Marvin Gaye
Foreign Accents - Robert Wyatt
Detlef Schrempf - Band of Horses
Mushroom - Can
Sloop John B - Beach Boys
Back to the old house - Smiths/Morrissey
Everyday is like Sunday - morrissey
Everybody wants to rule the world - Tears for Fears
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
Eberhard Weber - Seriously Deep
Lammas - Robin Williamson (accoustic version)
The Fair - Robin Williamson
Crazy Man Michael - Fairport
Dulciter Somni - Johann Agebjorn
Ten days of blue - John Beltran
Hello, It's Me - John Cale & Lou Reed
Walk on the wild side - Lou Reed
Cloudbusting - Kate Bush
Nervous System - Killing Joke
What time is love? - KLF
3am eternal - KLF
Church of the KLF - KLF
Forgiven - Kurt Ralske
Requiem For Dying Mothers part 1 - Stars of The Lid
Panic On - Madder Rose (amazing song)
Marig ar pollantan - Alan Stivell
Jenovefa - Alan Stivell
La Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin - Debussy's first book of preludes,
Arturo benedetti michaelaneli
Homage a Rameau - Debussy Images, also played by Michaelangeli
Bon iver - RE: Stacks
Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy
Burning Spear - Columbus
Father & Son - Cat Stevens
Hold Your Head Up - long version (6.20) - Argent
Our World Is Their Heaven - Avrocar
Someday Never Comes - Creedence
The Winner Takes It All - Abba
According to no Plan - Broadcast
Can't Be Sure - Sundays
Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Last year's man - Leonard Cohen
Golden Days - Mario Lanza (My Mum's favourite song)


Some of these have sentimental value, it's true, but I am happy to attest they are all worthy of a person's precious time.
It occurred to me on the bus one day, when an Aretha song came on the radio, that music brings people together, and touches some part of us that no other art form achieves. It did on that bus. A couple of girls reacted and one was moving her arms in rhythm. Suddenly, people of all ages in that carriage started smiling and talking to their friends : do you remember this one?
For this reason, I think  the pursuit of musical beauty is a high calling, and one worthy of a lifetime's striving. Somehow, I wish I could thank the people who made the records above. They added layers of meaning to my inner world I am still unable to express, but that enrich me every day.


DU 4.5.18

100 best albums of my life 1957-now in no particular order:

These are the ones that inspired me the most...

Egg - Polite Force
Can - Tago Mago
Can - Ege Bamyasi
Soft Machine - Third
East River Pipe - Mel
Piskieface - 1st album
Avrocar - Against The Dying Of The Light
Arovane - Atol Scrap
Arovane - Waves
Shins - Oh Inverted World
Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain
Eno - Another Green World
Roxy Music - 1st album
Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink
My Morning Jacket - Z
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Van Morrison - Street Choir
Van Morrison - Too Late to Stop Now
Chumbawumba - Anarchy
Family - Old Songs New Songs
Jethro Tull - Stand Up
Orbital - Brown album
Orbital - 1st
Patti Smith - Horses
Quintessence - Dive Deep
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Steely Dan - Katy Lied
Steely Dan - Aja
Steely Dan - the Royal Scam
Television - Marquee Moon
Blondie - Plastic Letters
Velvet Underground - 1st
Neil Young - After the Goldrush
Neil Young - On The Beach
Incredible String Band - Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
Incredible String Band - Wee Tam & The Big Huge
Robin Williamson - Myrrh
Sandy Denny - North Star Grassman
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 1
Global Communication 76:14
Eberhard Weber - Silent Feet
Keith Jarrett - Staircase
Keith Jarrett - Koln
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Martin Best & Medieval Ensemble - Last of the Troubadors
Bizet - Carmen, with Maria Callas
Debussy - Preludes, Michelangeli
KLF - The White Room
Stivell - e llangonned
Shakti - Natural Elements
REM - Murmur
REM - Fables of the Reconstruction
REM - Automatic for the People
Mahavishnu - Visions of the Emerald Beyond
Santana - Borboletta
Santana - 3
Santana - Abraxas
Cibo Matto - Stereotype A
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
East of Eden - Mercator Projected
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
Pink Floyd - Piper At the Gates
Pink Floyd - Saucerful of Secrets
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
OMD - Dazzle Ships
The Fall - Infotainment Scam
Third Ear Band - 1st album
Cat Stevens - Teaser & the Firecat
The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmatic
Tsabropoulos - Akraosis
Khan - Space Shanty

Why I can't bear Fairport any more - a post-it note on British Folk

A friend recently went to see Fairport Convention live and reported back that they were "okay" but that one of the band seemed "a bit egotistical onstage", and it dawned on me. It must've happened years ago, decades even, that they became an 'act' rather than a band.

In other words, people go to see them because of the people in the band. They associate with them, they 'like' them, adore them even. Perhaps they agree with them about things, find them comfortable, like an Uncle.

I guess its a way of earning your corn when three Jim Morrison's have all gone, but it struck me that this is one of the things I didn't like about them.

The chumminess.

The message that "we are all one big happy family". All the same. All looking the same way and having the same kind of thoughts.

Okay I will say it....

The thought that "We are all white English men and rosy cheeked English women, who centuries gone by would have plowed the fields and made good Kentish ale.

Gradually the penny drops that Folk music really can be rather right wing, just by definition.

So, I must confess, I do still "like Fairport", but it's the Fairport of years gone by, not this Fairport. For me its really just 'What we did on our Holidays' and 'Liege and Lief'. 'Unhalfbricking' is also quite good.

I used to like Full House, Angel Delight, Rising for the Moon and Babbacombe Lee, but they fell away I guess. I noticed how prosaic they are. Plodding and empty.

The rest I just dont like. Worse still, I dislike them. So what happened?

Well, obviously, the various departures happened of course. The combination of Sandy Denny, Dave Swarbrick and, to a lesser extent, Richard Thompson must have been amazing at the time. That line-up couldn't last, I guess, but it had to be incendiary as long as it did.

But there is an argument, even then, that the balance of best work was perhaps away from this band. This band that lays claims to have been the fulcrum of British Folk Rock.

I think Dave Swarbrick's best work, for a start, was mostly with Martin Carthy. His playing on these albums was simply wonderful.

Similarly, Sandy Denny's best 'published' work was on her solo albums, especially 'North Star Grassman' and 'Sandy'. Fotheringay is also superb, but best of all, for me, are her demos and sessions, where it is just her and a piano, or her and a guitar. I know none of that is folk rock, its all either folk or pop, but those are the songs I feel her greatest emotional strength and connection are.

Some of her early radio sessions are unbelievable and her home demos with a piano and metronome are simply shattering. On these i think she emerges as the talent that was over-moderated, over-produced on her formal published albums.

In truth, her career was mostly spent working with well-meaning amateurs, and she never had her 'Atlantic years', but that may not be such a tragedy.

Funnily enough I've not liked much of Richard Thompson's other work but at least he broke away and it's hard to deny he is a genuine artist, trying to make new things, having a purpose or artistic intent.

The rest of the Fairport crew though, strike me as either hangers-on or, worse.

What can be worse?

Well, Folk artists have to be careful. You can use the form, the songs of peoples lives, the social history, but be careful you don't create a nostalgia industry of Et in Arcadia Ego. The next steps from there are cultural onanism, sectarianism, nationalism...

I guess that's why the best Folk artists, at least for me, either retain a singularity of purpose or else use Folk as a platform for a transcendent leap.

Shirley Collins for example, never overplayed a song. Martin Carthy, too, mostly concentrates on the words and tune (thats hard enough), though he was much criticised for being 'too jazzy'.

And I am a big fan of both these acts.

The bands who take a more transcendent leap tend to be more liberal in instrumentation and in their mixture of cultures and genres... these are the likes of Incredible String Band, Mister Fox, Dr Strangely Strange, John Martyn and Gryphon.

I won't comment on these as they are really a separate genre altogether, often given the maligning category name of 'acid folk'.

But I would just say that the rest of the sixties Folk brigade... the Pentangles, Bert Jansch's, John Renbournes and so on, simply don't satisfy the entry fee. They are good technicians and don't err on the side of nationalism, but all seem to be way too slick for my taste and neither pursue a pure Folk goal nor seem to have a genuine artistic purpose.

I still like 'Crazy Man Michael' though.





HEALTH STATEMENT: The note above contains no references to American artists, since their definition of 'folk' is so different to our own, yet the role played by Jackson C Frank in Sandy Denny's development did perhaps warrant a mention.

Band of Horses - Cease to begin

The Band of Horses' first album was pretty good by most standards. The sog "Great Salt Lake" was a crystalline blue hint of wonders still to come. But their second, "Cease to Begin", has a purity and clean wonder that is very rare indeed, and achieves that rarest of achievements: a second album finer
than the first.

The voice of Ben Bridwell is a lovely, simple, almost childlike tone, yet he has a facility to find delicious simple melodies that make the most of it as an instrument.

I read an interview with Baaba Maal recently where he remarked on the art of finding a melody that sat above the hypnotic guitar patterns of his friend, and I think Ben has that same facility.

The songs are staple, sub-pop indie, mostly, but there's a, freshness, almost innocence about them that place them well away from the grungier end of the label.

I just can't decide which is the loveliest song...

East of Eden - Mercator Projected

Some records seem to come from nowhere.

I remember "jig a jig" in the charts. An Irish jig, seemed harmless enough. Nobody minded Folk music in those days. In the charts was fine. You could do medieval music if you wanted. But Mercator was an album that broke even the farthest barriers of the early 1970's

This was a right mix. Turkish and Hungarian dances, Bartok, vertiginous electric violin, flute, recorders, sax.... not ordinary sax mind, but amazing driving sax, with a hard AND soft rock band at the centre.

"Isadora" is a wonderful mix of all these. Tracks veer from muscular rock (Centaur Woman) to acid folk (Waterways)... but there are moments of real beauty, and once you get the whole Mercator feeling they all meld into a lovely stew.

A final note, Snafu is harder, faster, and more fun. It's a great romp and less pomposity, but also proportionately less beauty too. This one is a better album, I feel, though the first might have been a truer reflection of what they sounded like live, in their pomp.

Rick Wright - The Pink Floyd sound

There have been a number of articles in the music press this past month paying tribute to Rick Wright, and rightly so, but I suppose none of them for me really touched the spot.

When I was 16 and mad about Pink Floyd, all their qualities seemed fine to me, the languid guitars, the strange lyrics on Piper, the wonderful voices, even Nick Mason's ancient drumming style. But the one thing that shone above all others was the organ playing.

You see, for me, the heart of Pink Floyd was the mysterious and delicate keyboard sound.
Given this was at a time when Mike Ratledge was the driving force behind Soft Machine and the "real" Dave Stewart was fronting the wonderful Egg, even when Dave Sinclair was playing beautiful organ on early Caravan, above all of them Rick Wright stood as the champion of keyboards.

So it happened that he dominated the Umagumma live album and the Live at Pompeii set. All the greatest Floyd tracks in the first (and best) two phases of their career were those with his dark and mysterious playing at the centre. "Set the Controls", "Careful with that axe", "Saucerful", "Cirrus Minor", all had that serene and otherworldy quality that simply nobody else could emulate. At times the playing sounded like some exotic ancient Egyptian jazz, other times like a science fiction score, but it wasn't just his playing but the sounds he managed to find, some so beautiful they seemed for all the world to perfectly capture a "Tales of the Riverbank" childhood. That Syd phrase from Matilda Mother "The dolls house darkness, old perfume" summed in one magical and yet slightly disturbing phrase the cracked childhood tones the band repeatedly evoked, and none more so than Rick.

I read recently an interview with Dave Gilmour who pointed out that Floyd's style of that time was largely the result of none of the group being particularly proficient on their instruments, and I have to say I found this a stunning observation. Almost that, as their playing became more confident and sophisticated, the music went downhill. Not that later Floyd albums don't have their qualities, but those earlier albums captured something they would never find again. On "More" or on "Ummagumma", they didn't sound like a band at all. Instead the music was so closely inhabiting another place that the records evoked a landscape or a place rather than standing particularly as musical artefacts.

The other shocking thing about Dave's remark was that it reminded me of Peter Buck's observation in "International Musician" sometime in the mid-80's when he confessed the first few REM albums sounded the way they did because he was "just learning" to play the guitar.

So for me Rick's keyboards weren't an instrument in a band, those chords and landscapes were Floyd. They defined the Floyd sound. A sound that was thrown away when "Dark Side" came along, of course, but to this day still the sound I think of when I hear about the group.

So I suppose it was the absence of this single fact, the defining nature of Rick's playing, that I missed in all the obituaries.

Of course, they all dutifully remembered the songs he wrote. And in this respect I think Rick had one wonderful and extraordinary song to celebrate, "Remember a day".

This song was almost the epitome of the songs about childhood that Floyd produced in those early days. Most, of course, were written by Syd, but in a way that's why "Remember a Day" stood out so clearly, because it was a truly reflective song, one that contemplated the transient nature of childhood with a longing that few have achieved in our little Rock world. It is a song that can still bring me to tears on occasion, I must admit, and to see Dave Gilmour and his band trying to do it justice on the TV a few weeks ago was especially moving.

As usual, I know nothing of Rick Wright the man. But perhaps he was a man who recognised the greatest loss of all as the loss of innocence.

And it is ok to know nothing of an artist, even at his death, why would I know? I absorbed his greatest gift, and that became part of who I am. When we adore a piece of music it gets stored, full hi-fidelity version, in the corpus collosum, or somewhere real close, so yes, biologically, it is part of me, but much more than that is the mystery, the Egyptian sci-fi Childhood Jazz of his playing that will live on in me. A sound that I search for in every album review, or every time I sit down at a keyboard.

November 2008

East River Pipe - Mel

This album is very special.

Among all Fred Cornog's wonderful albums, this one shines out.

The first time I heard "The club isn't open" was on the John Peel show. I had taped the show and was listening to it in the car. I ended up rewinding and repeating again and again to hear this gem. It is a stunning song, and so short, like a work in progress. Half a song almost. Opening with a gorgeous guitar riff and moving into the song of somebody who has made a magical thing but won't milk it, won't drag it out to a six minute opera. Instead, Fred just delivers a brief dazzling song. One verse, one chorus and that's it.

It is an amazing and brief song, but other songs on here are also transformational. "Take back the days", for example, is just wonderful.

Fred depicts the sad side of life, but there is such beauty that the best songs face loss and bring redemption. There is something unique about Fred Cornog in the way he communicates recovery in almost every song. His voice is a little reminiscant of John Cale, or Lennon, but has a frailty that fits his personal vision.

Another wonderful song, "The way they murdered me" has a lyric that seems to evoke those industrial downturns, but from the human perspective. One of the underlying stories of human damage. It reminds me of an earlier East River Pipe song, "The Firing Room".

The recordings are perfection, too. How he makes this sound in his apartment is beyond me.

Another thing I love is the way he doesn't waste his breath. "The club isn't open" would be twice as long if another band made it. They'd probably repeat all three verses. Instead, at one minute 48, it is a shard of perfection.

So, I love this record. I think that, if you don't like this album, you won't like anything else by Fred. It doesn't get much better than this. But if you love this record, you will love all his work.

I've lent this album to people of all ages and all musical persuasions and it's rare I find someone who doesn't like it. My children like it, my mum likes it, my colleagues at work like it , my friend who loved only ambient techno liked it and my friend's mum likes it. The tunes are simple and there is great pop here too, but it is tender and vulnerable, and worth listening to.

I can't finish without mentioning the last two songs.

"Take back the day" is a long and mysterious song, there is a repetitive phrase that fills out most of the second half of it, with tiny changes to each repeat, yet it is fuelled by a subtle emotional force that gets stronger every time you hear it. Fred's prime instrument is the guitar and he plays these gorgeous phrases over and over again, lulling you, almost hypnotic. This a sad hopeless song though, and one that can bring tears on a bleak day. So it is just as well it is followed by, and the record finishes with, a complete redemption in the song "Life is born today".

This final song is something of a hand in troubled times. After the landscape of human loss it opens a window to a new dawn and reminds you new lives are born every day, that hope is always close by.

I find it hard to properly describe this record. One thing to emphasise is just how beautiful the music is. It's simple. Guitar, some corny drum machines and keyboard parts, a vocal like an unconfident John Lennon... yet the songs are beautifully crafted and these parts come up with new moments of beauty all the time.

I remember years ago I used to visit an independent record store called Parrot Records, and they had a section with all the ERP albums that existed at that time. I saw them repeatedly and thought the covers looked quite lovely. "Even the sun was afraid" and "Goodbye California" looked especially beautiful and I often thought of just experimenting, buy a couple and see what they're like.

Well, I needn't have worried. Fred Cornog, as East River Pipe has made so much sublime music, and Mel is the pinnacle. I challenge you not to love this record.

Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist

This is an album that arrived with some expectations. Sidelined for a few years with a band injury, Corgan comes back with a new venture for the old brand. And it kicks off with a noisy stormer.

"Doomsday Clock" is the old "Gish" style Sabbath noisenick. Let's just say straight out that the lyrics are best avoided for a good reas before bedtime, betraying as they do a somewhat pessimistic outlook ideal for the 15 year old male. Yet Corgan sings with a dispassionate aspect that belies that gloom.

In fact the lyrics seem ambivalent throughout. "kafka would be proud" he claims (unlikely, Bill) but whether it is of BC "enjoying life in every way" or that he is "certain of the end" is slightly unclear.

"Shades of Black" is another ... the lyrics are definitely not going to be the attraction of this band. More, as usual, it's the way BC manages to pervert the Heavy Rock script to musical twists and turns that are innately poppy. Sorry to have to confess but it is all quite enjoyable. In fact with lines like "belle of the fawning/i'm yawning", I'd have to conclude that Mr Corgan keeps my entertainment high on his priorities at all times.

Somehow, though, Smashing Pumpkins albums carry an atmosphere, a style, a sense of place and tracks like "Bleeding the orchid" evoke other eras... and definitely a big part of this is BC's voice. It's a whine of course but a very musical one. He manages to evoke world weariness but with something mysterious, an undicovered country, and when he does this he elevates SP's music above the genre.

He has a gift to do something Hendrix was able to, evoke another place, another time, a musical landscape of his own.

If you have never heard Smashing Pumpkins, well, what you get is noisy heavy rock with real melodies, some soft parts showing real tenderness, but the standout characteristic of this band is the variety of the musical ideas. There is always change and melody, whatever happens, and Billy rescues the genre from self parody with a wealth of changes of direction.

Is this as good as previous albums? Well, that's a different question. Pumpkins albums do grow on you but it still seems less of an achievement than, say Siamese Dream, with less pop than Mellon Collie and less tenderness than Adore.

The track "United States" has received a lot of praise and it is a real barnstormer. There is a deliciously dark drum section in the middle and if you are looking for sheer noise and adrenaline it is a highlight. But, as usual, it's not my favourite track by a long way, whereas the more restrained following track "Neverlost" fulfills my needs much better.

In fact Neverlost is a track that might have come from Melon Collie or Adore, and even features some gorgeous synth washes at the back. For me, this track lifts the whole album onto a new plane and reminds me why I bother with SP at all. After all, grunge-noise is not a particularly rewarding box for me to wade through when looking for a CD to play, but this track features everything, marvellous Corgan melodies, wonderful singing and a sense of survival, of "coming through". I only wish it went on another 20 minutes, but if I was making a compilation CD of favourite tracks from recent albums this would be on it.

In fact, the second half of the album is a lot less hardcore than the first, almost as though he is pummelling your senses with brute force before he will show his gentler side. You know the type.

So, what's the verdict? Well, despite the personnel changes it is definitely a Smashing Pumpkins record, adhering to all the core brand values that implies. If you are a person who has all the rest of the Pumpkins records you will doubtless have this one by now, but for young folk new to the Pumpkins it's a good introduction and certainly doesn't miss on any of the big issues. The songs are strong, the instrumentation interesting, Corgan's musical ideas flow freely and there is plenty of rewarding detail for the careful listener as well as instant gratification for the newbie.

Would I dance to "(Come on) let's go" at a disco? Definitely. Despite all the genre's darkness and some fairly gloomy lyrics this is great dance music, just with a pile of guitars thrown in to give it real muscle.

If I had stars to give, like real reviewers do, I'd definitely give a few to this one. This being a low-budget blog, however, there are no stars. Just the words "great stuff."

Great stuff !

On subjectivity

I often wonder why people express dislike of a band. Then I catch myself doing it.

The idea that a band may be "good" or "bad" is somehow inherent in how our musical tastes grow and I am as guilty of the next man (or woman) of eloquantly destroying the efforts of some poor person in the advancement of my own image.

Yet what is "bad" music?

I am often reminded of this question of subjectivity when talking to friends who "can't stand" this or "absolutley hate" that.

I have a friend who "hates" Micvhel Stipe's voice. My partner simply detests the sound of a breakbeat rhythm. Other people I know cannot abide unaccompanied folk songs.

But what does it mean, to "not like" a sound?

In the same way that understanding of the brain has been furthered by examining dysfunctional or damaged brains, I would like to examine this question by looking at those moments when you begin to like music you formerly disliked. Has that happened to you?

Well it does to me. Regularly.

Examples? Take Queen. I liked Queen's first couple of singles and gradually went off them. Not hate exactly but I found Freddy's antics too much for my dainty sensibilities.

Oh, and I get a little browned off when an artist's death suddenly aggrandises their work in a fit of guilt from the public at their posthumous disrespect.

Roll forward the movie 25 years and I am sitting in a theatre with my wife and children watching "We will rock you". I realise five things during the performance -
1) Many of the songs were great
2) The guitar playing was fantastic
3) Freddy could REALLY sing
4) Most importantly there was humour, irony even, in the songs. So no, I don't have to take "We will rock you" literally as a lyric.
5) They are born of a love of "old" rock and roll.

So what did I dislike all along? Not that Freddy was gay, I hope. Homophobic? Not me. So what then? The sheer popularity, I suspect. That would explain why I loved "seven seas of Rye" and liked "Killer Queen" but hated "Bohemian Rhapsody". I just couldn't bear to be one of the crowd!

And what was it like to suddenly like them again? Well, I started listening in the right way.

Same thing for Abba. I broke up with a girl, lapsed into a state of self-pity and looked for pop songs that adequately captured THAT feeling. As of that moment (Summer 1980) it was Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart and Abba's The WInner Takes It All.

Suddenly I started listening.

What else? Lots. Take Bach. For years I thought Bach dry, even dull.

Suddenly, after my friend died, I needed solace in something profound, philosophical. Something deep and serene yet with dignity. Dignity but understanding.

Suddenly, I heard the violin partitas differently, there was all of life, expressed in a solo violin.

Suddenly I heard the Art of The Fugue and several of the pieces captured perfectly the complex feelings I was experiencing.

I listened the way the music was singing.

So, what does it tell me? It reminds me of something I believe St Augustine said "Everything understood is good".

Recently I heard the first couple of tracks from the new White Stripes album. I had no idea who it was playing but I KNEW whoever it was was
a) a master of the idiom
b) just playing with that idiom, for fun!!
c) so capable of doing just whatever he wished that he was making music for pleasure....
And how many bands could you accuse of that? Not Interpol or The Editors, for a start.

So, when I think something is "rubbish", I am just not listening the way that music is "meant" to be heard. And by that I don't mean how the artist intended. Just, the way one has to listen IN ORDER TO enjoy it!

After all, who loses out when a person doesn't enjoy a song? Not the singer, that's for sure.

Justice Vs. Simian Mobile Disco

When both albums came out on the same day, there was inevitably going to be comparison between the two 2007 offerings from these errant Dance/rock crossover acts, and in truth early on it looked like a bad day for Simian.

First of all there was the simple street cred issue.

Justice were two quiet Parisians, Dance through and through, delivering dark and dirty sounds more in keeping with the HM industry. Their single "D.A.N.C.E." is irresistable too. Real classic pop but with a delicious post-modern fractured sound. But their record leads further into dark recesses, very deep sounds and yes, pretty impressive music for a couple of Dance guys.

Simian, on the other hand, with their obvious vocal lines, seemed to pale by comparison.

In fact, at first listen, it seemed true what was said in Plan B (for a change), that Simian had only piggybacked from Rock to dance off the back of a Justice mix, and came over like awkward interlopers at some orgy (to paraphrase Leonard Cohen). Well, perhaps that wasn't quite what Plan B said, but something of that ilk, and for the first week or two it seemed true. Didn't even feel like listening further. Simian quite dull, crude, obvious. Justice dark and mysterious, interesting and quixotic.

Well, it happened that one day I was driving along the M25 and the traffic stopped. For readers outside the South East corner of the UK, this is not a particularly uncommon event, but one which affords a real close listen of an album. And, as it turns out, if you listen a) 'through' the vocal tracks (i.e. try ignoring them for 40 minutes) and b) at high volume, the Simian album shines through as a Kraftwerkian masterpiece.

Tracks vary from club ironics to straightline electronic pop. Even, toward the end of the record, some full-blown Warp-style electronica.

In fact, if you can stomach or even, after a while get used to the vocal tracks, this record could be a real find for Warp fans, even if a little high tempo, as there are touches of genius in the mix.

And the synth sounds are more varied than Justice.

Far more top-end sounds, less squelching generally and some lovely tones, discovered or made I don't know but deployed in a delicious stew of hard-hitting but very rerwarding and melodic electronic dance.

As for Justice... well the repeated playings I'd given the thing in that time began to undermine the pleasure. In fact Justice started to sound like a 70's concept album from a cross between Magma, Magnum and Donna Summer (God, this is harsh... I must be overstating, mustn't I?).

Reading reviews around the magazine industry I have come to this conclusion:- the Rock music press just don't 'get' Simian. Reviews in all the non-Dance mags were lukewarm and seemed to me overinfluenced by the obvious vocal tracks. Only the Dance press really 'got' the thing, with IDJ giving a dance album of the summer nomination, not bad for an album that came second on day one.

But what of Justice?

Okay, here's a 'track by track' for Justice - "Cross" (no comment on the title, except it is not a cross so much as a footnote).

1. Genesis - portentous synths, like the intro to some prog opera.

2. Let there be light - it's really turning into a concept album - all you hear is growling synnth basslines with not much else. Brooding, like erm... you know... flames licking up the mountain etc etc Think Rock Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or ELP's Brain Salad Surgery!!

3. (Do the) D.A.N.C.E. - fantastic kids' sing-song leads into a classic dance keyboard melody, with chanting and a decent rhythm. The production seems deliberately flawed, with the stitches showing everywhere. Cheerful stuff though, with lots of nostalgic piano and just a little (even more nostalgic) Genesis-sounding Mellotron right at the end (there is a Genesis theme developing here).

4. NewJack - fragmented with bubbling submerged sections mixing in with above the floor rhythms.... ends up being burbling trivia.

5. Decent beat, dark mumblings and synth gurglings. Sounds like the very music is on drugs. Not for home listening. Not for listening at all, in my case.

6. More dark synth beats, squelching bass and semi-orchestral synth stabs of chord... pretty fantastic at high volume, dull at any other. Best I imagine heard very late on a Saturday night, somewhere dark and public.

7. Synth pop that starts out like ELO then a little popcorn (remember them?), quite traditional, a sort of Mouse's Marching Band track, The Dancerock "Golliwog's Cakewalk", if you like.

8. A freaky cheeky naughty, junky, spoilt, throaty, babygirl rhythmic rap - holds back a little just when you think it should take off... then it comes in, but it's the heavy slamming bass synth rhythm again... there's too little light and shade on this record really. Bits of it are great and other parts not that great. This track is the peak for me. Really great fun and kind of infectious. Not bad at all.

The rest? Well this is an album I defy you to listen to all in one sitting. In fact, it's a bit oppressive. Like sitting in a soft-top on a dark wet night in a car park. Eventually you just get a feeling of claustrophobia.

For me, it has to be Simian Mobile Disco, coming from behind, but eventually romping it by 20 lengths. The Simian album will stay in my car for months.

Port Royal - Flares

It starts the way a Stars of The Lid album might start.

Some ambient sound, muffled voices, a vague electric violin sound with a mordant piano figure.

Repeat with slight changes over a lengthy period and you acquire that same sense as a SOTL album brings... a sense of biological change...

It's like watching a movie of clouds changing, or streets streaming with headlights. It's like watching evolution at a cellular level.

To listen to, the repetitions fade and alter. Moments of pristine beauty emerge like clearings, stages, clear blue sky.

Then at times a little cologne-electronica-style percussion arises, flourishes, dominates briefly, then fades and blinks out..

It's a little like the passing through of a fair or

A record like this can't be described in words. Only the effect of listening to it, which is an act of faith.

How did I come by it? I don't know. Somehow, I chose it. From a review perhaps, or an Amazon list. Somewhere I'm sure I'd have heard a comparison to Stars of the lid, and that would probably have been enough.

When it arrived I put it to the bottom of the pile. Not sure what it was.

2 days later it found it's way to the CD player. To say a day hasn't passed since without an appearance would be true, but that's only a week now. Still quite an achievement for a CD I know nothing about, and in a way I love this anonymity. Not kowing ANYTHING about a record allows you to listen without any preconceptions.

But a track like "spetsnaz/paul leni" are so moving on first listen that no kind of preconception is necessary.

Myself I'm a bit wary of track 5, which appears to have run away from another album by someone else and found a small corner of this record to hide in.

When transferring it to one's Creative Zen, this track may go missing, but is followed by the most wonderful "karola bloch", again a song I cannot describe - some blog eh?

Listen, if you have any feeling for Stars of the lid, or for Tortoise, Mogwai or anything that remotely has these same qualities, then this I think will touch the right spot, If not, I'd listen on Pandora before taking a gamble.

SHITDISCO

This is a hell of a lot of fun on one CD. Like a cross between Talking Heads, Sweet, Killing Joke, "I know Kung Fu" kicks off rapid and delicious. The drumming enthralling, the bass simple and unrelenting and the guitar sparing. There's a real punk (or New Wave) flavour to the singing, though. Ironic, playful and knowingly trite. And there is a truly firestarting sense, a feeling of youth in a hurry.

And yes, it is postmodern. These guys like to make you aware of their education, claiming deconstruction in the first verse.

On "Reaction Party" it's all there, the sound of the underground (they say they've never heard of it), the bass of the Skids, the Woolworths keyboard squalls. But above all, it's fun.

The lyrics, too, are pure playfulness. "Left over Soviet infrastructure" in the "furthest outpost of bourgeois hardcore". Whatever they do in the evenings, these guys are never dull.

And if "Disco Blood" is a manifesto, it's a different type from the usual.
"Donna Summer got her in my thighs"
"Kelly Marie she's sitting on my knee"
"Giorgio Moroder got him on the phone"
"Bobby Orlando's coming round for tea"
It's uproar, and after madness ensues it closes with an almost lamenting falsetto refrain of "disco, disco, disco".... one which remains with you long after the album leaves....

"Dream of Infinity", too, kicks off with more of those fetching falsettos. Blimey they can be cute and smart at times, and with a drummer who keeps them rolling like a thundering train they could probably get away with murder, but the singing is wonderful entertainment, and sets Shitdisco apart from most of their contemporaries.

"3-D Sex show" is a 2007 update on Soft Cell, with lines like "Risk it all by exchanging fluids". Actually, at times sounding not unlike Killing Joke with the taut Gang of Four guitars against a truly wonderous rhythm section... it all makes the ironic lyrics stream by, mostly unnoticed.
Perhaps there is a little Franz Ferdinand too, but this music is at once rawer and more varied. More imagination and less scripture. Truly wonderful stuff.

If Punk Disco really is a movement, then these guys belong in the inner circle. You can't help thinking though that movements are not made of joy like this. This is just Byronic pleasure and educated nonsense with danceable rip roaring rhythms, daft lyrics and great vocals, best served loud.

Global Communication - 76:14

Let me confess. I have a special attachment to this album.

It was the first genuine ambient techno album I introduced to my friend Ian, who up to that point had educated me in the likes of Aphex, Black Dog, Orbital and KLF.

I could never repay these four gifts, and it's been rare in my life that someone has shown me such a quartet of astonishing music, so I was proud as a dog with two tails when I lent him this, knowing what a beautiful album it is.

In fact it's the epitome of a style of music that is referred to (but rarely achieved) as "glacial ambience". And this association with icy conditions is widespread among music writers (I read of some "wintry electronica" in a review in this month's Uncut!), partly I think because the delay used on such albums gives a sense of space, like a large underground cavern, whilst the lack of significant bass parts makes everything trebly and high pitched, like er... glass, or, well, glacial sounding caves in Disney cartoons (you know the sort!), or perhaps for the more pastoral types, a petrified forest in December... You get the idea. The original theme of Tetris on the Atari ST was pretty cool in this way, by the way.

But the 76:14 album is worth all the adulation it gets.

The opening track is like walking into a giant chamber adorned with stallectites, and meanders coolly and somewhat aimlessly in wonder until the second track insinuates itself gradually, that of the famous "ticking clock".

In fact the ticking clock has a LOT to do with this album's fame. Rarely has a clock been captured so well and then integrated into a soundworld that is almost a narrative. It has the flavour of an Edwardian scientific adventure, with that clock contrasting the slowed down sci fi keyboards.

This track is easily the best thing on the album and really gives you a sense of geography, of wandering about a large house, and, perversely but most powerfully of all, of time stood absolutely still.

The rest of the tracks hypnotise and bewitch. Track 6 is a variety of foreign voices uttering the same pgrases and emphasizing the humanity in all language, though some voices are quite beautiful.

In fact, the album attunes the listener to beauty, until you hear it routinely everywhere, and this is partly the reason why it is hard to stay concentrated on the tracklisting. Instead phrases come and go, rhythms arise and expire and from the sea some voices or phrases arise that make you widen your eyes.

On track 10 for example, there are voices breathing from the deep that are quietly outshone by a woman's voice in a wordless phrase that is subtle yet brings a shiver. It performs the same function as, without for a moment sounding similar to, the top voice in Allegri's Miserere.

Despite all that, the question remains, is it the best ambient trance album? I've certainly seen it at the top of such charts, but for me, Aphex's SAW vol 2 still beats it. For why that is, I will leave to another day, but after that, Global Communication's masterpiece is a close second, and SAW 2 is not in the slightest "glacial", so the crown of defining this somewhat overused term remains here.

As for the rest of the Global Communications canon, well there are a couple of treasures but you'll do well to find them. Pentamorous Metamorphosis is a beautiful remix of a lost Chapterhouse album, whilst Remotion is very lovely. Finally and definitely not least is the
marvellous "Evolution".

The rest, everything after say 1998, is dross. Funky nonsense and the free extra disc on the remaster of 76:14 is testimony to that. Listen and feel sorry for me, as I spent a few pounds of our British money buying rare single versions of that stuff, always in the hope of "more like
76:14".

Unfortunately, I suspect there is no more where that came from.

The Original Sandy Denny

This album has had a few titles. You will find it in all sorts of guises. When I bought it, I had all the more Folky Sandy Denny albums already. North Star Grassman, Fotheringay, the first one. I didn't have Rendezvous at that time, or Old Fashioned Waltz. Largely due to a mortal fear of commercialism.

But this album seemed to come out of the ark.

First off was pricing. It was priced like a relic nobody is interested in, something ancient and unloved, and it still is. Whatever form you get this album in, it's always cheap as er.. chips I suppose.

Next it had some genuinely historical sounding material. "Been on the road so long" sounds like it was sung by Noah, or at the very least like a library recording from the East Anglian Folk society.. But once I got used to all that, I realised this is one of Sandy's best albums, and I would say there are one or two very fine songs on here....

Milk and Honey and The False Bride are the two best, whilst You Never Wanted Me is a chilling breakup ballad and there is a truly blood-curdling version of 3:10 to Yuma.

The False Bride is a song that can never have been sung so well. Sandy's voice is stunning. Her technique is beyond description and then you can add the understated emotion. For Sandy, drama is never dealt with through hystrionics, but with those intense moments immediately followed by sudden moments of faintness when she sounds like an uncertain 13 year old, wounded in love.

How it starts:-
"I once loved a lass, and I loved her so well,
And I hated all others who spoke of her ill,
And now she's rewarded me well for my love,
For she's gone and she's wed another."

In the wrong hands, folk songs like this can seem cloying and nostalgic. I've heard similar songs handled like council projects. Sandy, however, treats this song as though it happened to her, and never at any point are you left thinking... "hang on, she's a girl!". She has this ability to live the song. She is reminiscent of Maria Callas, great technique and a wonderful voice but also with emotions that seem genuine. By turns tender and ferocious.

In fact, despite her powerful voice, it is Sandy's tenderness that always stands out, and it's that which sets her apart. Emotion is handled as though she were trying her hardest to suppress it, rather than make a point of it, and I think it is this quality on it's own that sets her apart from all other singers in this genre.

Milk and Honey, too, is such a beautiful song:
Gold and silver is the autumn
Soft and gentle are her skies
Yes and no are the answers
Written in my true love's eyes......

It's a little bit wounded, I suppose, and parts are like the Old Testament. But if I had to pick 10 out and out Folk albums to save for the next life, this would certainly be one of them.

Zero 7 - The Garden

A new Zero 7 album is something many folk I know always get excited about.

I do like Zero 7, of course, it's physically impossible to dislike, or at least to feel any aversion to.
One might be unexcited, or uninspired, but dislike would be a difficult emotion to muster.

So, what is it that people see in Zero 7 ? Partly, I suspect it is the flavour or culture of it. It's
that Parisienne cafe culture thing, you know, St Germaine, Au Revoir Simone, all that.

But it's also Dance, and unequivocally, no matter what the Magazines say, Zero 7 do not belong in a Rock Magazine, and despite similarities, there really is no CSN&Y or Herb Albert Easy Listening connection anglr. This is postmodern. The parping trumpet on "throw it all away" is fleeting, a tribute or tip of the hat, part of a mix. So too the CS&N vocals from Jose Fernandez here and there.

The whole Easy thing is mixed with electronic dance music in a subtle weave that is part mix part new culture.

So, what's it like?

Well, opener "Futures" is mostly a Jose F song with the attendant Z7 cool flavour. The coffee is more decaf than Parisienne, and track 2 is an amalgam too, of cool, easy, dance, and
pop... all pieced together in a lambent melange the like of which you only get from Pro Tools and couple of DJ's swapping ideas.

All instruments are there, but not in the raw, more in the relaxed Sunday afternoon format, feet up with a novel.

Almost everything has guitars and crisp drums with polite but witty basslines and keyboard embellishments. "Seeing things" has one of those submarine sounds on the keyboards,
and elsewhere you get a little vibraphone playing. All very chilled, yet not dead on the slab.

There is plenty of musical humour here, too, and lots of space-dance sounds in the mix, but always chilled and always mixed in a modest not-quite-showing-your-pants kind of way.

Of course, at times it sounds like Deja Vu (in both senses), but other times it is quite adventurous. Take "pageant of the bizarre", which is a straight down Zero 7 song with Sia Furler at the mic, only to turn at the close into a spiritual.

"You're my flame" is back to the desk though. Classic Zero 7, but with twinges of something extra. There's surely a little bit of sonic neighbour Moby here and there. Less drama of course but a little bit of history mixed in with the Sci Fi keyboards.

What type of music is it? It's hard to pin down. Sophisticated pop might be a decent try, but there is a jazz flavour and a cool tone, yet remaining forever that understated dance they have always purveyed. And for me, it is this that sets Z7 outside the Rock museum. Why it matters is that the Rock mags just don't seem to "get" what this type of dance is all about.

Track 9, "Your Place", however, is easily the standout, and as good as anything of it's type in recent years. It starts innocently, then comes that drumming... how can I describe it? A little bit of John McIntyre, It's the drumming of a great Jazz band about to do something extraordinary, where the drummer 'teas up' the thing for the band to get serious.

And get serious they sure do, with a swelling brass section moving from Chicago Transit AUthority up to Blood Sweat and Tears.The first time I heard it I thought it went on too long. A
measure of the track is that now I think it doesn't go on long enough! It's a great track, in a nostalgic way, but great all the same.

The album as a whole though Is not quite stunning, and doesn't hit the spots "Simple Things" did. I've asked myself why repeatedly, and it's hard to pin down because you can't as a
listener replicate the receptive quality of that first-heard album. Plus you can't pretend, you can't undo the first two albums and listen afresh.

But there's nothing as strong as "Waiting Line", there's no argument to be had on that score.

Instead there are moments of Jose, and some lovely spots of Zero-goodness. I'd still recommend it but it's the third Z7 album to get, and in that order. Plus I'd warn anyone fearfull of Tijuana Brass moments to look away.

There are some lovely references to that late 60's LA chill, the sort you used to get backgrounding cop shows or heist movies. But it is not Air, it's not Eno and it's not
groundbreaking.

Still a league clear of St Germaine though, and on this showing I guess Z7 are always destined to be in the same slot.

The Groundhogs

It's hard to imagine from the point of view of an adult just exactly what is going on in the mind of a teenage boy listening to heavy music. I realised this the other day sitting with my son in front of the TV while some noise-thing took off with alarming velocity on Kerrang TV or somesuch. It was the thrill of heavy music gone bad and that swirl of male emotion, tension, frustration that whips into tight rhythmic repetition, dark slabs of guitar noise and unrelenting vocals.

It quite took me back to teenage years in the Manchester Hardrock, with the freaks dancing to Deep Purple and Black Sabbath while we pseudo-intellectual "heads" hung back waiting for Jefferson Airplane, Steely Dan or J Tull.

But it also reminded me of my own darksecret teen obsessions, The Groundhogs. And like so many boy obsessions it wasn't really mine to start with.

It was my friend 'Whitey', and even he had inherited The 'Hogs off his older and all-too-adult brother. Well, all my schoolfriends inherited bands, that's how I got to hear Soft Machine, Egg, Amon Duul and a dozen other things I came to adore. But not off Whitey's brother. His taste was altogether more industrial.

But with the Groundhogs I had a headstart as my sister had a copy of "Split" and it was the famous (and rather unpleasant, in retrospect) "Split Part 2" that first took our hearts, wah-wah pedal and all. Of course, I was able to feign previous knowledge and thus build on my mythic status by referring to the copy of Split that sat at home.

But Split was decidedly not their finest moment and although Whitey and I revered it for months, it was the previous album "Thank Christ for The Bomb" that Whitey's older brother brought into our lives that really hit a spot forever. I guess the reason was to do with Tony "T.S." McPhee, glorious blues maestro on guitar and his own mental state.

You see, Tony started with a fairly drab British blues album "Scratching the surface" and followed up with an altogether smarter and more wonderful John Lee Hooker tribute in "Blues Obituary". This second album was a real moment for white blues and, for anyone keen on such things, still a recommended item.

The third album, however, "Thank Christ" had the lot. A three piece guitar blues band playing heavy rock with great technique, great tunes and fine blues singing. Plus they were still a band who did not yet revere their own technique. This was the point in time when the McPhee wanted to bare his soul and really communicate, and make some great songs along the way. Some wonderful moments too, especially the beautiful "Garden" and the powerful "Eccentric Man" which still touches, to this day.

Altogether a marvellous record, Thank Christ was a tough act to follow and in retrospect I now realise Split did not live up to the challenge. Sure, McPhee wrote it while undergoing the breakdown that followed his heightened emotional state from the time of "Thank Chriust" and Cherry Red was a storming rock song, but in truth the 'Hogs would never be quite as great again. Despite some lovely moments on "Who will save the world" the rest of their career was a gradual decline.

A bit like my friendship with WHitey actually. At 16 we were joined at the hip, playing table football together, discovering alcohol, watching Man U, we had a great time and Steve was a great pal.

But, like the Hogs, we drifted apart and although I still look back on the whole era with fondness, when I play Split today, I am forced to conclude that when you are 16 and listening to Heavy Rock, you do so with psychological and biological needs you will, hopefully, never have again.

Steve, if you're out there... play Garden one more time?

Air - Pocket Symphony

Strange and beautiful.

Some songs are dark, but quiet and quixotic... less oppressivethan deep, like a sullen adventure.

Some are delicate.

The percussion throughout is gorgeous, almost tactile, and mild on the psyche.

As the record progresses, it sounds more and more like some lost Eno album. The final tracks are devastatingly beautiful.

Ways to listen to this record:-

Listen in the car and watch life through the windscreen become more and more "a life observed".

In the living room it transports you away.... like an out of body experience

In the dark through headphones it has that multicontinental feel that plants you in foreign and exotic environments.

Overall

Like a study in interiors.

The most beautiful Air album.

The Shins - Wincing the night away

The third Shins album came out at the beginning of the year, despite being finished in time for a Christmas release. Aparantly, Sub Pop's decision not to release until January has alienated the band who spent an awful long time in the studio with this one. As a result, somehow, an early taster of the album seeped out onto the internet anyway.

The album is a beauty of course. It is the Shins after all, and I'll lay my cards on the table, I think this band are doing something extremely special. Their blend of sunny pop music, against slightly quirky rhythms (they do a LOT of waltzes), and, with the densest lyrics, combine to a blend that oddly never really hits you first time you hear it but instead grows and grows on you, seeping into your brain as you find yourself hearing more and more of the charm and more snatches of the lyrics each time.

The big question for fans like me, however, was would it be anywhere near as good as the first two albums, "Oh, Inverted WOrld" and "Chutes too Narrow".

First lets just say that it is a wonderful record, but at the moment I've still not had one of those moments when I think it is better than the previous one. That may still come though, as anything can happen with a Shins record. Just at this moment I'd like a companion record of the band doing it live, or James playing all the songs on an accoustic.

What do they sound like? Sunny melodic guitar pop with a slightly high pitched vocal and lovely embellishments. On this record the drums are mixed well to the fore, which can get in the way a little to begin with, and one or two tracks sound like experimental dance with a Shins song laid over.

Since it's the Shins, it's worth considering track by track.

1. Sleeping Lessons - This is a song designed to start an album. No surprise since every album of theirs seems to start with something designed for purpose and closes with something sombre and profound. The start and close tracks on "Chutes too narrow" are almost incredibly apposite for their position, and it's this attention to detail that singles the band out. Their records never clock in at over 45 minutes, yet they don't waste a moment of your time, every tiny section is crafted with some musical intent.

This one starts quietly, and gradually builds to a thundering train with guitars and pounding drums taking you through the rush hour. It has a defiant lyric, too, with "you're not obliged to swallow anything you despise" typifying. As throughout the album, too, the singing dominates.

2. Australia - A single and well worthy of chart success has a lovely music hall feel without being dated, just a great carries-you-on rhythm and wierd lyrics: "faced with the Dodo's conundrum - I felt like I could just fly" returns at the end as "faced with the androids conundrum - I felt like I could just cry"... which may give you a flavour of Anglophile Mercer's lyrical style.

3. Pam Berry - One of those weird interludes. I sometimes think they are influenced by Guided by Voices on these strange little numbers... they have a transience that is so evocative.

4. Phantom Limb - however, is an absolutely wonderful single. Perfect sunny guitar pop, and a melodic delight, James Mercer's singing is marvellous and the song features some lovely swooning backing vocals too... what more can you ask?

Dave Hernandez guitar solos, and Marty's keyboard flourishes also feature throughout the album, as you may expect, but they are less quirky than before and if the album has a weakness it is that at times it feels a little overprofessional, perhaps slightly overproduced, perhaps a little too much electronic wizardry overlaying some fine songs.

It's hard to escape the impresion though that the Shins are the perfect geek indie pop band, marvellous tunes with obscure but rewarding lyrical tales.

5. Sealegs - however, is just plain odd, starts with a sort of breakbeat but turns into something reminiscent of Morrissey. What to say, it's a grower, and sounds very different live with just the guitar band sound. On the album it is cold, urban and atmospheric.

6. Red Rabbits - is the quietest and prettiest track, quite poetic, very quirky and was an early favourite though my daughter would point out the backing track is a dead ringer for the music in Mr Burps Bubble Works at Chessington!!! - (true story). Still has fine lyrics though:- "born on the desert shore you've the deepest thirst, and you came to my sweet shore to indulge it"

7. Turn on Me - a classic pop song starts with a cut from "And then I kissed Her" by the Beach Boys, and that little theme recurs throughout. It's lovely though, despite the tribute.
8. Black Wave is haunting, ghostly, like a number of earlier song sphagnum esplanade, and perhaps James owes another debt to Robert Pollard, though the band's playing and Mercer's lyrics and singing far outshine their influence.

9. Spilt Needles - crisp assertive drumming take over to jar you but again it's propulsive (Wire might say "motorik") and drives the song headlong. Again nthe song features a lot of electronic effects and little guitar loveliness, which I personally regret, but still has time for the album's most curious image"its like I'm perched on the handlebars of a blind man's bike"

10. Girl Sailor - definitely the best song. I first heard this on a live bootleg last year and to an entirely different rhythm. The new setting has a 50's flavour and a rolling-yet-jerky drum pattern, but is still discernably a guitar band playing a slowish number, and leads up to a delightful half-melancholic half-nostalgic guitar interlude from Dave Hernandez.

It is such a wonderful song though, resuming one of James' recurring images of sailing a ship through life. All in all one of the shins greatest songs - very beautiful and understated.

11. A Comet Appears - sorry, reflective, a study in depression, and a reflection on life's ironies. Not James, but James-as-someone else... if you know who I'd love to hear. The guitar parts here are devastating, proving that an otherwise sunny and positive band, the Shins do sorrow very well indeed.

As an album, unbearably beautiful at times, dark at others... definitely a mile above the rest and another chapter in the unstoppable rise of the Shins, surely the finest band working today.

Klaxons - Myths of the near future

There's something about this record that reminds me of The Pop Group.

First it may be the overwhelming sound, studio compressed to a stifling intensity, but with an undercurrent of excitement that is almost palpable.

It's very post-punk. 1984 era, borderline funk, borderline disco. There's something of KLF too. The start of "Atlantis to Interzone" could be off a White Room remix.

The drumming too is incredibly exciting, like all the bands in this little vanguard of "punk-disco" or whatever the NME are calling it this week, the rhythm section is unbelievable. Tight, propulsive, always pushing you forward, it's almost a physical experience listening to
them.

However, is there anything on here as wonderful as the Soulwax remix of "Gravity's Rainbow"? Well, almost, but few records could scale that height.

One feature I like is how regularly the pace changes. There's no feeling that a song should stay single-paced, and there's always drama around the corner. But it's excitement, dance, and insane throughout.

Also the lyrics have that density too. They reference a Uni education but are always oblique. Never prosaic. The lyric on Golden Skans, for example, is a tiny wonder, but it's not what strikes you most about the song or the album, that must be the raw excitement.

This is just a rock band after all, with a thumping bass and fantastic drums the backdrop to any number of other instruments and fantastic disco/punk chanting.

It's clearly not a quiet album. Not one for the headphones. More for parties or for in the car when going out... definitely not, in my view, for 7am trip to work. But there is some cerebral reward. "Isle of Her" (get it?) has a full sound and a slower pace but one that marches almost martial and wouldn't be so out of place on Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain"

It's the firestarting rhythm section that stars though and if you like raw fast rock/dance music that never lets up, and eventually wears you out, then this is a great record.

Personally, though, I still long for the Soulwax remix treatment.