Hello all:
Slayer ‘Reign In Blood’ - whooaaarrrggghhh;
Radiohead ‘The King Of Limbs’ - probably the hardest Radiohead album to love, but I hear new things every time I play it;
Wigwam ‘Hard’n’Horny’ - Wigwam’s debut is a fun fest of late 60s Hammond vibes and psych pop that sounds neither hard nor horny;
The Saints ‘(I’m) Stranded’ - first wave antepodean punk masterpiece;
Black Flag ‘Nervous Breakdown’ EP - and another one, this time from California;
Elvis Costello ‘Taking Liberties’ - ace US comp of Declan’s early gems;
John Martyn ‘London Conversation’ and ‘The Tumbler’ - John’s early albums bear little resemblence in sound or style to his more acclaimed work, but have an appealingly naive charm about them;
Blur ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ - funny innit how relatively low-key Blur’s return was last year. If any of their contemporaries could produce a comeback album as strong as this, I’d be surprised and impressed;
The Monochrome Set ‘Eligible Bachelors’ - witty and catchy as they always were;
Sonny Rollins ‘Volume 2’ - the one with the sleeve that Joe Jackson parodied, and one of the greatest sax albums ever. Hope Sonny enjoyed his 94th birthday;
Wayne Shorter ‘Schizophrenia’ - maybe not quite of the status of the above, but a fine listen anyway. James Spaulding excels himself on reeds;
Nielsen: Sinfonia Espansiva (SFSO/Herbert Blomstedt) - I’m starting to feel that Nielsen is edging closer to Sibelius as my fave Scandinavian composer. This is one helluva fine symphony, especially in this near ideal 1989 recording;
Bruckner: Symphonies 1 (Concertgebouw/Bernard Haitink) and 9 (VPO/Claudio Abbado) - it was old Anton’s 200th birthday on Wednesday presenting a good opportunity to play his jolly tunes. These have a few of them;
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll (NYPO/John Barbirolli) - quite why the New York critics turned against the young Barbirolli is a mystery, especially on the strength of recordings like this;
Lalo: Namouna (Orch Nat de l’ORTF/Jean Martinon) - I heard this lovely ballet for the first time this week. Sheer joy;
Liszt: Tasso (Philharmonia/Constantin Silvestri) - Liszt’s symphonic poems give the lie to the critical opinion that the great piano whizz was no orchestrator. This rocks;
Haydn: String Quartets in E flat, Op.33 no.2 ‘Joke’ and D minor, Op.76 no.2 ‘Fifths’ (Emerson Quartet) - beautiful chamber music perfectly executed;
Beethoven: 11 Bagatelles, Op.126 (Rudolf Serkin) - forceful and tender playing by turns, accompanied by Serkin’s vocal obligato;
Schubert: Piano Sonata in C, D 840 (Wilhelm Kempff) - another of Schubert’s unfinished works that sounds complete enough when played as well as here.
Have a great week
Dave x
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