There’s a chill wind blowing in my soul and I think I’m growing old:
Eels ‘Eels Time!’ - Mark’s in another of his more reflective moods this time around. I suspect this will be a slow burner;
Robin Trower ‘Bridge of Sighs (50th Anniversary Edition)’ - lordy be, this is good. An always decent sounding album receives a new lease of life in its 2024 remix, with extended codas and, in some cases, different takes being utilised. Trower was, and remains, a true guitar hero, so much more than his Hendrix copyist reputation justifies. And this is his best album;
Pink Floyd ‘More’ & ‘Obscured By Clouds’ - Floyd’s film music is far less studio-bound and overproduced than their more celebrated work. There’s a directness and charm to these records that brings pure joy to the ears. ‘More’s’ ‘Main Theme’ and ‘Quicksilver’ are pure proto-kosmische music. Waters contributes some fine songs low on pontification. And innit great to hear Dave Gilmour rock out on both albums? (Vinyl junkies note: the current Pink Floyd label pressings are superb);
Love ‘Da Capo’ - my fave Love LP. Yes, really;
Riverside ‘Out Of Myself’ & ‘ID.Entity’ - respectively earliest and latest studio albums from a profoundly intense Polish prog group. There’s too much going on to fully appreciate on one listen but I can just tell I’m gonna dig them;
Eloy ‘Power and the Passion’ - vintage German prog I can’t help but like, with a wacky concept that has charm transcending its half century age;
Julian Cope ‘Cope’s Notes #6: Jehovahkill’ - essential annexe to one of the Drude’s greatest utterances, full of excellent unheard vibes. And the book is a joy. Fair play to Julian for making available great fans only stuff without the waste and expense of super-deluxe box sets. Which reminds me:
John Lennon ‘Mind Games’ - this is soon to be given the multi-mix box set treatment, but I think I’ll just stick with the ordinary album. Which, sadly, it is. Very ordinary. (I just heard ‘There’s A Place’ on a bar CD jukebox and seriously wondered if John ever wrote a better song - and that’s from a lifelong fan);
Terje Rypdal ‘Whenever I Seem To Be Far Away’ - mellotron-rich space rock with jazz and classical elements, quite unlike anything else in the ECM listings;
Miles Davis ‘Porgy & Bess’, ‘Miles Ahead’ and ‘Miles in Tokyo’ - three more gems from Miles’ vast back catalogue: two of his ace collaborations with Gil Evans and a cooking live set from an embryonic version of his second great quintet;
Paul Desmond ‘Easy Living’ - schmoozy smooth lounge jazz at its best. Desmond had as natural a synergy with Jim Hall as he had with Dave Brubeck;
Egberto Gismonti ‘Danca das Gabecas’ - jazz? World music? I dunno, but I like it;
Philipp Wachsmann & Paul Lytton ‘Some Other Season’ - bang. Crash. Squeak. Don’t expect catchy tunes;
Beethoven: Symphony no.3 (Philharmonia/Herbert von Karajan) - Columbia 33CX1046 was one seriously fine early LP. Dennis Brain and Alan Civil in the third movement horn duo. It don’t get better than that;
Beethoven: Symphony no.4 (Philippe Hereweghe) - thrusting and enjoyable take on Beethoven’s jolliest symphony;
Mozart: Symphony no.31 ‘Paris’ (Philharmonia/Otto Klemperer) - old Otto had a rather stern way of conducting Mozart, bringing the underplayed, darker side of the music into full focus. This is serious shit;
Liszt: Les Preludes/Haydn: Symphonies 93 & 95/Strauss: Ein Heldenleben (all cond. Georg Solti) - proof that there was so much more to Solti’s art than Wagner;
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (BPO/Herbert von Karajan) - as perfect an interpretation as I could imagine in a recording that, half a century on, still sounds state of the art, a few crackles notwithstanding. Phwoor.
Poet is priest and beginning to move!
Have a great week, everyone
Dave x
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