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ALTAIR FIVE
THE ALTERNATIVE GUIDE TO INTERESTING MUSIC BY MARK PRENDERGAST.

This is an archive edition.
The most recent issue is here.

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CONTENTS

• RECEPTION - The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix.
• MODERN - U2, Wim Wenders, Kristin Hersh, Courtney Pine, Pat Metheny, Roedelius, Bob Marley, Pete Namlook.
• ARCHIVE - Simon & Garfunkel, 2001, Joy Division, Led Zeppelin, Klaatu, Bullitt, Roy Harper,Miles Davis,King Crimson, Mike Oldfield, George Harrison, Robin Williamson, Claire Hamill.
• CLASSICAL - Ryuichi Sakamto, Michael Nyman, Nigel Kennedy, Kronos Quartet, Pauline Oliveros.
• ROUND UP
  • TV : X-Files, Brideshead Revisited.
  • FILM : I Went Down, Lost Weekend, End Of Violence.

Somebody handed me a Led Zeppelin (www.eastwest.co.uk) video for perusal. It's forthcoming material from a film of a 1970 Albert Hall performance shot by Peter Whitehead. It's at the stage in their career when they had just recorded Led Zep III and were still rustic, hence before the glam of the early '70s Stateside juggernauts. Hence its cinema verite, fly-on-the wall stuff of a group on the cusp of hugeness. You get 'Whole Lotta Love' and a lot of rock and blues standards plus a lengthy 'White Summer'/'Black Mountainside' with Page on a stool, his hair so long you can't even see his face. The fingers fly and the magic never dies.

This month we've got, among other things, Simon & Garfunkel, Popol Vuh, Ennio Morricone, 2001, King Crimson, U2, Nigel Kennedy, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bob Marley, Klaatu and of course the Zep. Before we delve straight into it, a word on BBC TV's Classic albums series which includes the Jimi Hendrix (www.jimi-hendrix.com) album 'Electric Ladyland', my all-time favourite. The BBC video includes interviews with the people around the making of the album including the session musicians. Its got the last ever interview with Chas Chandler (Hendrix's one-time manager) and lots of footage and stills from the Record Plant sessions. Hendrix is seen talking about the album and engineer Eddie Kramer goes into every track. It's a pity that Kathy Etchingham was excised from the original film as she could have given more info on the original sessions for 'All Along The Watchtower' in London which included a stoned Brian Jones on percussion!

Mark Prendergast, Feb 1998

MODERN

U2 - IF GOD WILL SEND HIS ANGELS
Great value CD stuff from U2. Pluses are three bonus cuts of higher than average quality which made close friend of Bono gush " that you are so profligate with your talent". 'Slow Dancing' is a ballad in Dylan mode with Willie Nelson on lead vocal and Brian Eno joining in the chorus. 'Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad' may be for another Wim Wenders film and is a lush string arranged tribute to Frank Sinatra. The creme of this single is left to the finale - a live from Sarajevo version of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', performed in ballad style by The Edge. This is possibly the performance of a lifetime by the U 2 guitarist, ringing out from Kosevo stadium with all the authenticity of a bullet wound.

The End Of Violence - Film Soundtrack
Though the film featuring Andie MacDowell, Bill Pullman and Gabriel Byrne is a visual feast the plot is as thin as anaemic blood. U2 are heard back in tandem with Sinead O'Connor. In fact Wim Wenders, its director, is currently working with Bono on 'The Million Dollar Hotel', a film script with a possible starring role for the diminutive dynamo. 'I'm Not Your Baby' is strange stuff, thundering rock, cool elegy all in one take. Furious is the word best utilised and the very best thing on this Outpost (www.outpostrec.com) disc which also features Ry Cooder,DJ Shadow, Howie B,Tom Waits, Roy Orbison and Michael Stipe. Extracts from actual film soundtrack and dialogue included.

Kristin Hersh - Strange Angels
Second solo from Throwing Muses songstress,leader. I met her once, saw her play often. A small natural blonde with piercing eyes who was very shy. Now living in the Californian desert her angular songs about perceptions and relationships are put into an acoustic context without the razzmatazz of rock and roll. Decide for yourself but Kristin is a mainstay of 4AD and a working mother with three sons.

Pat Metheny Group - Imaginary Day
My 8 year-old daughter had great fun with this. The CD works as a code-breaker for an assortment of symbols which litter the booklet - little trees, elephants, bees, bones, watches, fish, telescopes etc. I've always rated Metheny (http://www.wbjazz.com), from his Barney Kessel-like early quiet albums for ECM to the later '80s work of 'Travels' and out towards the electro-acoustic beauty of his Geffen years. Now he's on Warners and his music is still going strong. Lyle Mays remains on pianos, Steve Rodby on basses, Paul Wertico on drums and haloed backing voices giving it an hispanic feel. 'Imaginary Day' speaks in the tone of Hendrix but with Metheny's fluid guitar runs. 'Follow Me' is pure jaunty Metheny. Then it gets more eclectic, ranging across a myriad of styles, some Ambient, others coruscatingly violent like 'Roots Of Coincidence'. In the end the whole is never as good as its parts.

Roedelius - Aquarello
Another record from one of the most prolific sons of German Electronica. Now in his 60s, Hans Joachim Roedelius is the father of the ethereal record - numerous albums on Sky, Cicada, Venture and now Prudence attest to his special ability to build special atmospheres and fill them with cascading piano notes suffused with lilting horn lines. Early work was part of Germany's electronic revolution and a member of Cluster with the aptly named Moebius. In fact an album made with NEU!, Brian Eno and Cluster 'Harmonia '76' is surfacing. Anyway 'Aquarello' is the latest album featuring a group of the same name which Roedelius put together in Austria. Nicola Alesini (sax), Fabio Capanni (guitar) are faithful companions to Roedelius's special kind of lucid dreaming in sound.

Bob Marley - Dreams Of Freedom
Subtitled 'Ambient translations In Dub' , Axiom Island's 'Dreams Of Freedom' is the veritable Bill Laswell re-mixing the venerable Bob Marley (www.bobmarley.com) with the help of Robert Musso and Tetsu Inoue at Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn. Like Lee Perry, Laswell and concept-designer Chris Blackwell have taken a batch of material from 'Natty Dread', 'Catch A fire', ' Survival', 'Exodus', 'Burnin' and 'Kaya' and given it a " liquid, tranced-out quality." The first of many projects featuring the music of Bob Marley this electronic creation is one of the best Marley albums around. Sumptuously designed by Russell Mills, 'Dreams of Freedom' is Laswell's way of connecting with " a messenger, a leader, a freedom fighter, a legend who has grown since his death into an icon."

Courtney Pine - Underground
What I love about Courtney Pine's music is the sheer breadth of it, the way it goes all over the place dragging you melodiously through the riches of black culture. Ever since 1987's 'Journey To The Urge Within' I've listened to Courtney Pine. He basically is a Coltrane for those of us who can't handle the intensity of Coltrane or decide which of 60 odd Coltrane albums to listen to. Recently he has decided to record in New York and work on a fusion of jazz, hip-hop and drums 'n' bass. 'Modern Day Jazz Stories' was the beginning in 1996 but this is the cream. Taking a batch of favourite records, DJ Pogo to mix turntables, vocalist Jhelisa and such ace players as Cyrus Chestnut (piano), and Mark Whitfield (guitar); Pine has fashioned a set which sparkles. Each track is a tribute , 'Inhale' a mix of bits from the entire album; the rest various stylisations of Julian Adderley, Donald Byrd, Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Horace Silver, Grover Washington, Eddie Harris, Billy Higgins and Roberta Flack. Other inspirations are The Pyramids of Giza and Soweto. Having heard everything he's done this is truly Courtney Pine's finest hour, both spiritually and musically. There's a restraint, an intense burning passion at the heart of this music which makes it as bright as hell. For those of you not familiar with Pine's Antilles (www.antillesnet.com) catalogue here it is in full:

Journey To The Urge Within 1987
Destiny's Song Or The Image of Pursuance 1988
The Vision's Tale 1989
Closer To Home 1990
Within The Realms Of Our Dreams 1991
To The Eyes Of Creation 1992
Modern Day Jazz Stories 1996
Underground 1997
(plus One Love:Tribute To Bob Marley)

Fifth-Year Anniversary Edition/ From Within 3
Fax sent me a 1998 present of an Ambient compilation. It came in its own envelope and printed on the disc is the logo featuring music by Sextant, Subsequence, Hearts of Space, Synsyl, 4Voice, Escape & Sequential. I don't know what to make of it. More direct is the double disk 5th Anniversary edition featuring jazz, jazz-rock, fusion and electronic music up to 1990 of Peter Namlook under the moniker Romantic Warrior. The second disc is vinyl 12" stuff by Sequential, Millenium, Pulsation, all non de plumes of Namlook up to 1992. This clearly shows Namlook's (http://hyperreal.com/fax) transition from '70s prog to '90s Techno Prog Ambient with ease.

Levin/Marotta/Gorn - From The Caves of The Iron Mountain
Intriguing project where top studio musicians of Crimson/Peter Gabriel vintage descend into the Widow Jane Mine nr Woodstock and record an ethnically flavoured experimental album featuring Tchad Blake's (http://home.earthlink.net/-smithhouse/binaural/index.html) ambient binaural recording technique. Steve Gorn (east Indian flutes/reeds), Tony Levin (chapman stick/bass) and Jerry Marotta (taos drums/percussion) enchant a mystic atmosphere as they experiment with the acoustics of the lake-filled caves. Tchad Blake recorded the two-day proceedings with microphones in his ears. A headphone kick then with lavish sleeve designed by Levin himself. Another fine DGM release.

Megha - Duta
Opening this CD one is confronted with a spacy painting by Andulucian-flavoured London artist Tim Davies and images from Saharan cave paintings from 6000 years ago. The liquid guitar of Simon Hollingsworth conjures up albums by Tim Buckley and Fripp/Eno. Jens Langkniv handles keyboards and Tim Davies adds space probe samples from history. This is very relaxing music,to be heard when relaxation or sleep is desired. It borders on New Age and Ambient Techno plus the more cerebral work of Steve Hillage. 'Gagarin' pulls in the beats, 'Cydonia' is incidentally about the region of Mars where faces were spotted. Some of this comes from the same region of inspiration as Eno's best. Deserves to be heard by everyone - Sirius Records, Tel/Fax:0044(0)1437 710515.

G.P. Hall - Mar-Del-Plata/Marks & On The Air
First off G.P.Hall (http://www.collective.co.uk/gphall/) is available thru these pages so I won't bore you with biography. 'Mar-Del-Plata' is a good introduction to his electro-acoustic music he's recorded from 1975 to the present. It includes some beautiful flamenco guitar and the epic 'The Estates', written for the area of Bracknell with an agenda against high-rise blocks and mass housing estates. Some of the sounds he gets out of his guitar are spooky. Recorded live at the Spitz (which features some very good club nights) 'On The Air' is Hall with all his guitars and equipment going hell for leather. Outside that Hall is planning an epic four-year in the making album 'Steel Storms & Tender Spirits' and a Glastonbury appearance in the summer.

Look-Out For:

1. Harmonia '76.
First issue of classic album featuring Brian Eno, Cluster & NEU!

2. Goldie - Saturnz Return.
Featuring a 60 minute opening cut and another end of music as we know it scenario.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Discord (Untitled 01)
I saw Ryuichi Sakamoto (http://www.sitesakamoto.com) last year in the company of Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and friends at the Meltdown festival. He conducted a movement from this haunting orchestral work, dedicated to all the grief and anger of war. The second-last movements are titled 'Prayer' & 'Salvation', money from the latter going to Brian Eno's charity 'War Child'. The whole is predictably Oriental in the first instance, the influence of Toru Takemitsu apparent from the off. 'Anger' is percussion blast-off, again looking back to traditional Japanese music - but with DJ aspects and a companion Ninja Tune mix CD. 'Prayer' broods and swells, in parts English pastoral, in others deeply oriental. 'Salvation' comprises spoken contributions from Laurie Anderson, Bertolucci, Patti Smith, David Torn, DJ Spooky, David Byrne and others. It ends with a reprise of the opening movement. An astonishing achievement from Japan's leading Renaissance man. On Sony Classical.

Smilla's Sense Of Snow
Movie soundtracks have become so predictable - swelling string sections for suspense, fast attack guitar or keyboard motifs for action, the stupidly cliched saxophone for sex, orchestration for period drama and so on. We can tell almost automatically from the look of a film what its soundtrack will be. That's why 'Trainspotting' is so good because the soundtrack was unpredictable - who would ever imagine Ewan MacGregor diving into a toilet bowl to the strains of Brian Eno! Teldec's 'Smilla' is derived from the German/Danish/Swedish production of 'Smilla's Feeling For Snow' about an expert forensic scientist (Julia Ormond) who can deal with,well,snow. Its music is composed by Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer and is a mixture of orchestral and electronic. It's very well produced, its series of cues amounting to an orchestral suite decorated by flute and piano.

Michael Nyman - Gattaca
Michael Nyman (http://www.netpoint.be/abc/music/nyman/index.html) is now a bona-fide Hollywood composer. Gattaca is a Columbia Pictures film re future genetic engineering starring Uma Thurman. Recorded with the Los Angeles film orchestra in the States this soundtrack is a departure for Nyman in that it departs from the more formalistic strains of the Peter Greenaway films and dives more into mainstream Hollywood scoring. Saying that there are swells of beauteous Nyman music, lush in its English rustic hues. Probably the most unusual soundtrack of Nyman's career.

Kennedy - Elgar/Vaughan Williams
Wherein Nigel Kennedy returns from a five-year lay-off with a material recorded with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for EMI classics (www.emiclassics.com). In fact Kennedy's sweet violin deployed itself on the Elgar in the mid 1980s when he won a BRIT award for his London Philharmonic disc. Here he is again with Simon Rattle bouncing the orchestra along in a swell. Pride of place, though, is his reading of Vaughan Williams's evergreen bucolic classic 'The Lark Ascending' which rises on Kennedy's bow and strings like gossamer. This could be the definitive version.

Jonathan Harvey - Cello Concerto
Harvey is a regular in avant-garde circles having worked with Schoenberg and Pierre Boulez. Even the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh has shown interest. This ETCETERA disc contains his stormy 1990 Cello Concerto recorded in Parma, Italy, June 21st 1991. Other works also feature cellist Frances-Marie Uitti who plays two bows with one hand. 'Philia's Dream' involves cello and synthesizer.

Dhama Suna - Music Of Wisdom & Enjoyment
Championed by his holiness the Dalai Lama, this is a 1996 recording of the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts done in the US for Erato Detour. Folk songs, Tibetan classical music, monkish chants, opera are all present. In the secular music string instruments are heard, while in sacred music wind and percussion instruments are used. The words Dhama Suna mean 'kettle drum oboes'. It's all weirdly exotic.

George Crumb - Ancient Voices of Children
A cycle of texts based on Federico Garcia Lorca reissued by Nonesuch from 1970s recordings. The first involves voices and instruments, interpreting Lorca's poems and in search of the famous " Duende" or artistic passion. The second 'Music For A Summer Evening' for two pianos and percussion looks back to Bartok and includes a kaleidoscope of instruments including Tubular Bells, sleighbells,African log drum, antique cymbals and such.

Kronos Quartet - Early Music
Recorded over four years in California here's another brilliant Kronos disc, bringing you to string parts that you've never before experienced. Festooned with pics of ancient Turkish domes, Jordanian tomb entrances and eclipses this Nonesuch disc is subtitled Lachrymae Antique. There is stuff from the 9th, 12th, 14th, and 16th Centuries. There is music of the present and older material from John Dowland and Henry Purcell. John Cage, Arvo Part and Alfred Schnittke. What's so great about this music is that it crosses a feast of international boundaries, teaming up the Kronos sound with harmonium, bagpipe and other fascinating instruments.

Unknown Public 9 - All Seeing Ear
The ninth issue of the London-based creative music journal connects music with visuals. Either music for film, music for paintings or music made by visual artists. Presented in a brown oblong box Unknown Public (http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/up/) is here designed by Tomato with an innovative information pack that folds out in two accordian-style laminated sheets. There are also postcards, a jotter and flyers. The music is, as always, eclectically stimulating. The numinous Richard Robbins extract from 'Via Crucis' (all bazouki effect and ambience), a dadaist Kurt Scwitters tribute, Michael Brook, music derived from a Tom Phillips book/painting and the haunting film music of Zbigniew Preisner as used by Kieslowski.

Pauline Oliveros - Electronic Works
A Paradigm discs release of early music by the queen of Deep Listening. Recorded between 1965 and 1966 in Toronto and San Francisco, they reveal how important a mover she was in electronic music. She had connections with Terry Riley and John Cage while Don Buchla taught her everything he knew about synths. The techniques here are truly inspirational, real-time sound generation using sine-wave generators, organ, tape recorders generating tape loops, tape delay, pink noise, turntables and such. Think of the electronic music to 'Forbidden Planet' and multiply it.

Of these 'Blues Run The Game' is the outstanding cut, picked up from a buddy of Simon's during his famous English '60s sojourn and credited to Jackson C. Frank. 'Poem On The Underground Wall' has a lengthy Garfunkel talk in, about the photo session for their first album down in the New York subway, and is hilarious. On most live tracks Garfunkel handles the introductions. 'Comfort & Joy' and 'Star Carol' are unissued Christmas songs from 1967. The set also includes 'You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies', another single from 1967. 'That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine' is a Gene Autry country standard. Sleevenotes are by David Fricke and the re-mastering by Columbia/Sony (http://www.sony.com) is top whack. Though it's a beautiful package it ends with the 1975 re-union cut 'My Little Town' which proves that Simon & Garfunkel did it all, like The Beatles, in the 1960s, and that thinking it could be kept going was pure wish-fulfilment. Another disappointment is that it doesn't contain the live tracks on what has to be the finest compilation album ever released, 'Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits'. Sony kindly sent me a copy on disc to compare and it still sounds awesome. Originally released in 1972 it interspersed live and studio takes in one long segue in such a way as to fox you into thinking what you were hearing was all the original album choices but listening to 'Old Friends' makes you realise that 'For Emily Whenever', '59th Bridge Song', 'Homeward Bound' and 'Kathy's Song' were snatched from some dream concerts in heaven. Superseded in the catalogue by other, lesser S & G compos, this disc has to be re-issued by Sony, it just has to be.

2. 2001 : A Space Odyssey
As the one of the astronauts says on The Orb's first album 'I've been waiting for this all of my life.' '2001: A Space Odyssey' (www.turner.com/tcm/) wasn't just an incredible vision of the future , it also boasted one of the greatest all-time film soundtracks. Stanley Kubrick chose the music as he shot the film and it has always remained a charismatic selection. Initially pressed on MGM in a rather shoddy sleeve it was re-issued by EMI in 1989 and then vanished from the catalogue. Now Rhino Movie Music (www.rhino.com) have done it again, and deluxe packaged the original in a fine box with detailed analysis and lots of stills. Here, for the first time, we hear the musical sections as exactly heard in the film - hence the Herbert Von Karajan versions of Richard Strauss's awesome 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' are here along with the Ernest Bour MGM selection with its long opening electronic tone. There's lots of Ligeti , including two versions of the mesmerising 'Lux Aeterna'. Even better is 'Gayane Ballet Suite', the slow movement from Khachaturian which accompanies the astronauts running around the circular part of the Discovery space ship. There are plenty of special sound effects and a whopping ten minutes of dialogue featuring HAL 9000, the homicidal computer who ends up singing 'Daisy, Daisy'. A 20th Century Classic.

3. Joy Division - Heart & Soul
Listening to the 'Heart & Soul' is like travelling back in time - to a post industrial wasteland of rusty iron pilings, broken glass and long disused chimney stacks, sentinels from an age of misery and failure. In the foreground stand four men dressed in black, their uniform shirts and ties reminding one of Kraftwerk. Their name was derived from the Nazi's - Joy Division being the term applied to unfortunate Jewish girls hand picked to please the S.S. high-command and camp kommandants. It seemed apt when compared to the fractured, beautiful music created by the quartet. Its backbone was the sinuous bass lines of Peter Hook, the metronomical crisp drumming of Stephen Morris, the shards of sound guitar chords of Bernard Albrecht (later Sumner), the industrial production of Martin Hannett and most of all the bleeding heart and manic depression of singer Ian Curtis. Programming to the title track and hearing the majesterial beauty of the final four songs of 'Closer', their second and final album, one is brought face to face with the sheer hell of life at the beginning of the 1980s. For those born poor and living in post-industrial nightmares in Northern England, 'Heart & Soul', 'Twenty Four Hours', 'The Eternal' and 'Decades' must have sounded like righteous indignation turned into the purest of art. The brilliance contained in these shifting landscapes still wasn't enough to prevent Curtis from hanging himself on May 18 1980

'Heart & Soul' quickly sold out its initial run of 15,000 copies. London Records have invited Peter Saville to design an 80-page booklet full of essays by Paul Morley, Jon Savage and Jean-Pierre Turmel. Even the lyrics are printed for the first time. What do you get? CD4 is live stuff from The Factory, Bournemouth and The Lyceum 1979 to 1980. CD3 is rarities and unreleased takes from the very early Warsaw days in 1977. We get RCA demos, Peel Sessions, Genetic demos, Piccadilly Radio sessions and even the Joy Division takes on 'Ceremony/In A Lonely Place', what was to become the first New Order single in 1981. But the real core of this are discs 1 & 2. CD1 begins with the songs from the infamous Factory Sampler EP of 1978 and then straight into the most beguiling album of 1979, 'Unknown Pleasures'. Of course we get the fantastically kicking 'Transmission/Novelty' single from the same year plus the intense 'Auto Suggestion/From Safety To Where' takes from the indie Earcom 2 compo of the same time. CD2 is the 'Closer' disc with the Arctically smooth 'Atmosphere', a song at once so beautiful that I witnessed U2's Bono come into a friend's College rooms, play it on a record deck and stare dumbstruck into space. Of course there's that other achingly great 'song' 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and 'Closer' itself. I remember the covers - 'Unknown Pleasures' with its encephalogrammic square of white lines, bunched into mountain peaks on a laminated black sleeve; 'Closer' with its sculpted Madonna kneeling at the tomb of the dead Christ against a plain white border. 'Heart & Soul' is simply an astonishing tribute to tortured genius.

4. Led Zeppelin - BBC Sessions
The first proper Led Zeppelin live album, honest, is a mighty collection of takes from Top Gear, Chris Grant's Tasty Pop Sundae, One Night Stand and In Concert taken from two segments of time : March to June of 1969 and April 1971. The BBC and EastWest (www.eastwest.co.uk) have given us a monochrome sleeve and pictures and a scorching impression of Zep at twin peaks in their career. Disc One boasts no less than three 'Communication Breakdowns', two 'You Shook Mes', two 'I Can't Quit You Babys', and more. There's a rollicking version of 'Something Else', an unreleased 'The Girl I Love With Black Wavy Hair' and 'Travelling Riverside Blues' which appeared on the big 1990 box. Willie Dixon is honoured in spades. Two years later , April 1971 and the Zep are back with a tougher sound at the Paris Theatre, London and Page is in heaven. You've never heard Page peel off more incredible solos, each song jumping into another world of sonic filigree. 'Since I've Been Loving You', 'Heartbreaker', 'Immigrant Song', 'Black Dog', an 18« minute 'Dazed & Confused', 'Stairway To Heaven' (live and electric), 'Going To California', 'That's The Way' and a giant 'Whole Lotta Love' with extra stuff by John Lee Hooker, Bukka White and two tributes to Elvis Presley. But the all-mighty dynamite of this whole set is the 6« minutes of the never-before-heard version of 'Thank You' which on Zep 2 was winsomely late '60s but here is a skyscraping blaster of a metal beast which will have your speakers in shreds. Page is playing so intensely here that you think he had only minutes to live. Absolutely out of this world.

And More

Roy Harper - Flat Baroque & Berserk
Roy Harper (www.royharper.com) was a great mate of Jimmy Page's and this re-issue on Science Friction is one of the most important in the catalogue. In 1970 the appearance of this record on EMI Harvest meant that Harper had arrived in the big wide music scene. Fashioned in a strangely period sleeve (Harper lying on Eastern covered couch, set against red flock wallpaper and covered in a tiger rug), its contents were an immaculate collection of Harper originals that left in the banter and talk of studio and stage. There's a lovely innocence to songs like 'Feeling All The Saturday', 'Goodbye', 'East Of The Sun', 'Francesca' and 'Song Of The Ages' - gentle acoustic guitar and other arrangements like the harp of the latter courtesy David Bedford. Then there's the big songs - the belting 'Tom Tiddler's Ground' (still a chunky acoustic classic) helped out by future Bowie producer Tony Visconti, the politically caustic 'I Hate The White Man' and 'How Does It Feel' and, of course, 'Another Day'. If Harper only had one song to his credit then 'Another Day' would have to be it. Its gentle string arrangement, emotive evocation of seasons, the line 'tibetan tea on a flower tray', make it the perfect post-flower power anthem. So lovely is this creation that it endured through punk to be covered by The Cocteau Twins as This Mortal Coil and even Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel. What more can I say!

Popol Vuh - Fitzcarraldo
Long awaited issue of soundtrack to Werner Herzog's monumental film about an Irish cigar-puffing adventurer's vision to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazonian jungle and pull a paddle-steamer across a mountain is slightly disappointing. On previous discs 'So Still That I Am' (Spalax) and Milan's 'Best Of Popol Vuh/Werner Herzog' we've heard tracks like 'Woe To Khorazin', 'In The Garden Of Community' and 'As Though The Angels Walked On Earth'. On this new Spalax version of the 1982 soundtrack these are spiced up with endless operatic excerpts from Verdi, Puccini, Bellini and others. There are stacks of Enrico Caruso '78s scratching away in the background plus helpings of German and African folk music. Definitely the most bizarre release ever to feature Florian Fricke's group name. Still the photos are magnifico!

Klaatu - Klaatu
Back in November of 1976 a bunch of Canadians named Dee Long, Terry Draper and John Woloschuk made an album titled '3:47 EST'. Klaatu was the name given to the Michael Rennie character in the classic '50s Sci-Fi film 'The Day The Earth Stood Still'.The time was supposed to be when his spaceship landed. They adopted the name and the time for their debut album. It was full of Beatles musical tributes and orchestrated to boot. Everybody thought it was The Beatles re-formed under a psuedonym and it stuck. Hundreds of thousands of copies sold. The group refused to give names, have pictures taken or give interviews. When the bubble burst in 1977 nobody was amused, especially a generation of Beatles' fans who felt cheated out of a record. In retrospect '3:47' EST, now re-christened 'Klaatu', is a very '70s American rock album with hints at the Beatles and Beach Boys. 'Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft' became a big hit for The Carpenters. Their second LP 'Hope' is supposed to be even better. All I can say is that people's ears in the late 1970s were pretty distorted if they could think this typical West Coast American rock album could have been The Beatles in disguise.

Bullitt - Motion Picture Soundtrack
Timely re-issue for one of the coolest soundtracks to one of the coolest movies ever. Peter Yates lay down behind Steve McQueen in a souped-up Ford Mustang to shoot the very real life car chase scene as McQueen guns for the Winchester pump-action shotgun baddies in a black Dodge Charger in the 1968 film. My 8-year old daughter loves this car chase. In fact the entire film is great, McQueen kicking against Robert Vaughn's very steely prick politician pose to get the job done of protecting a hoodlum stoolie. As ever Lalo ('Mission Impossible') Schifrin does an impeccable job. The tense bass, horns, brass and drumming makes for a music of pure urban distillation. The more laidback Latin-inflected passages are gorgeous and the Romantic soft-focus 'Aftermath Of Love' is pure champagne, furry rugs and open fire stuff that would make even Frank Sinatra blush. The car cues like 'Shifting Gears' have a physical toughness to them that makes you realise the sonic element that made Bullitt's car chase the greatest ever in cinema history.

Ennio Morricone - Singles Collection Volume 2
A double anthology of all the 45rpm singles released in Italy between 1968 and 1981 of film themes composed by Mr Spaghetti Western himself, Ennio Morricone. Films featuring Jacqueline Bisset, Catherine Deneuve, Marcello Mastroianni, Natassja Kinski and more are themed in delightful arrays of sentimental music mixing light ornament with catchy, irresistible melodies. There is something appropriately sweet in the music made by the Italian maestro, born in 1928 with a multi-instrumental ability. If you like the general anthologies, there's no better place to start to hear the rest. And note I tried to buy Volume 1 of this on Cinemavox and there isn't one. This is it and ravishing it is too.

Miles Davis - Porgy & Bess
A fascination version of the Gershwin black musical, this is another jewel in the crown of the famous Davis/Gil Evans partnership, put to tape in the long hot summer of 1958. Davis plays mostly flugelhorn, as he did on 'Miles Ahead'. After a sharp start (the original tapes were heavily edited and spliced) we get into the heart of this folk tale. Davis holds a conversation of the spirit which could last all night. 'Gone', a Gil Evans addition involves Davis bebop soloing like his life depended on it. This is speedy stuff - the sound of New York at any time. His version of 'Summertime', full of that cracked expressive tone would make any grown man cry. 'It Ain't Necessarily So' shows Davis's first run at the solo that would make his career a year later on 'So What'. With two bonus tracks and 20-bit remastering Columbia (http://www.sony.com) have done a Miles proud.

Variation On A Rhythm of Mike Oldfield
A lost 23 minute percussion piece from 1973 based on 'Tubular Bells' conducted by David Bedford. Plus demo recordings featuring Mike Oldfield and producer Tom Newman from 1974. There's even a rock track from Peter Cook, Neil Innes and Oldfield. Only for collectors and out on Blueprint.

Tom Newman - The Hound Of Ulster/Ozymandias
Another Voiceprint archive trawl for two post '70s instrumental forays by Tom Newman who turned seriously New Age in the '80s. 'The Hound of Ulster' follows the tale of the 'Cattle Raid of Cooley' or 'The Tain' which became one of Ireland's Celtic Rock classics in the form of Horslips bestselling 1972 album. This is jaunty electro-acoustic stuff, full of Irish twist and bite and a noble extension to the Celtic ambitions of friend Mike Oldfield. An instrumental setting of the Shelley poem, 'Ozymandias' about a desert-bound ruined statue, begins full of subtle twists, Chinese evocations, Arabic tints but quickly descends into rock cliche.

George Harrison - Electronic Sound
Novelty album of Moog synth doodlings recorded first in California in Nov 1968 and then in Harrison's Esher home in Feb 1969. Bernie Krause helped out on the first piece 'No Time Or Space' and Harrison did his own work on 'Under The Mersey Wall'. It's incredible how noise like this because textured beauty on 'Abbey Road' by the summer of '69. On Zapple.

Robin Williamson - Dream Journals 1966-76
Robin Williamson (www.thebeesknees.com). A continuation of Mirrorman Sequences, this Pig's Whisker CD charts The Incredible String Band songsmith's voyages from '5000 Spirits' onwards. A single disk, this time Robin has favoured a more indirect mystic approach. Feel and nuance are imbued through new songs snatched from his famous Dream Journals. Again Williamson's ethnic inflected instrumentation on guitar, harp, mandolin, accordion, whistles and keyboards is truly inspirational. Much humour abounds particularly the tale of 'Charlie The Taxi Driver' in New York City. This is not as strictly a chronology as 'Mirrorman Sequences', more a series of wonderful impressions. There's definitely room for another volume!

Claire Hamill - October/One House Left Standing
In the late 1980s Claire Hamill became the de facto female voice of New Age music with 'Voices'. Here are her early '70s Island releases made available again on Blueprint. 'October' is gentle and folksy, yet it has a gutsiness reminiscent of Sheryl Crow! Abetted by Terry Reid, Chris Blackwell, John Martyn, David Lindley its astonishing how Hamill's ability jumped into the stratosphere within a year. There's blues, jazz, medieval song, wind-blown folk and a great version of the Tom Rush standard 'Urge For Going'. The octave range was yet to be exploited.

Spirit Of The Age
A Castle Prog Rock collection which is very strange indeed. Starting with Yes's 'Starship Trooper' from 1970 this ends with two great tracks, Can's 'Oh Yeah' from 1971 and an excerpt from the purely electronic Tangerine Dream circa 'Zeit' 1972. In between there are terrible contributions from Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Curved Air, The Nice, Pink Fairies, Barclay James Harvest and lots of bands you'd be better off not hearing of ever again. Then you get good stuff from Ten Years After, Free, T. Rex (1968's Debora, surely some mistake) and the Spooky Tooth version of John Lennon's 'I Am The Walrus' from 1970 which is so weird it just might make it as a classic.

Les Fluer De Lys - Reflections
I remember hearing 'I Think You're Just A Liar' in my teens on somebody's old record deck and it was fantastic. Of course 'Circles' with its great Jimmy Page guitar break was clocked as great in 1966 by its author, The Who's Pete Townshend. They were formed in Southampton in the early 1960s and were brought to London by Jimmy Page to record for Immediate. They then played with Jimi Hendrix. Hence much of this set is blistering in the guitar dept and Bryn Haworth who joined in late '66 is the maestro here. A lot of this is very brass ensemble English bowler-hatted '60s gems unlike the American produced 'Liar'. In England the group came into contact with The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher,Aretha Franklin and Isaac Hayes. But Hendrix's spirit hovered over the group as you can hear on the 1967 single 'Hold On'. Albums were attempted but aborted and the lack of clear management led to a hotch-potch career which culminated in the 1969 magnum-opus 'Liar' where Bryn Haworth's guitar really shines. Gordon Haskell, who played bass, maintains that joining King Crimson afterwards " was an enormous bore, they were so bloody white and stiff and arrogant."

King Crimson - The Night Watch/Epitaph
Which brings us neatly to Crimson. The group which debuted with the Stones in Hyde Park and hit the top of the charts with 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' in 1969. Here are two live offerings on Discipline Global Mobile. Robert Fripp, their cerebral leader annotates each one with exhastively eccentric sleevenotes bringing not only the music and musicians alive but also the business of the music. So far we've had, according to Fripp,three 4CD boxed sets since 1991. Last year two more sets were released of live stuff. 'The Night Watch' contains the entire recorded Amsterdam concert of the Bruford/Wetton/Cross/Fripp line-up from Nov 23rd 1973. Portions of this originally came out on 'Starless & Bible Black' (1974), more of it was released on 'Young Person's Guide To King Crimson' (1975) and even more of it on 'Frame By Frame '(1991). So it's really for the completists to have the whole concert together, with mellotron and Fripp's quiet diction to the audience.

'Epitaph' is a beautiful historical artefact which plots the first Crimson to their very last gig in San Francisco in Dec 1969. A box, an exhaustive booklet of photographs, histologies and philosophies, BBC Radio sessions, American sets, Donovan, The Beatles and Holst all combined to flesh out a worthy memorial to a windblown year in the first life of a supergroup. Of more import is the detailed history of the music business which Fripp so fantastically illustrates using his own litiginous experience.

Look Out For 1. Miles Davis - Panthalassa. Reconstruction of Miles Davis music from 1969 to 1974 by Bill Laswell.

TV & FILM ROUND UP

TV

1. X-Files
With each episode looking weirder and weirder - the guy who came back to kill himself anyone, the terrestial transmission of the Mulder/Scully dreamshow gets better and better. Look out for mega four-episode video 'Redux' which gets to the core of Scully's cancer and the true identity of Cancer man!

2. Brideshead Revisited
Ten hour adaptation of exquisite Evelyn Waugh adaptation returns to Channel 4 to charm us with all our College memories. Jeremy Irons (Charles Ryder) is perfect as the ingenue overwhelmed by the aristocratic Anthony Andrews (Sebastian Flyte) his parents Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom and sister Diana Quick (Julia). The halcyon days of Oxford and privilege from the 1920s to the mid 1940s are precisely outlined by Charles Sturridge's direction. A finely latticed masterpiece intertwining strong emotional resonances with spot-on communiques of what's it's really like to be an Oxbridge undergraduate. Fabulous.

FILM

1. I Went Down
Irish film by Paddy Breathnach funded by the BBC, RTE and Bord Scannan na hEireann. This is an instant classic with Tony Doyle playing the North Dublin gangster to beat all North Dublin gangsters. This could have been filmed anywhere and is brilliantly paced, keeping you guessing until the very end about the fates of its principles. And its bloody funny too.

2. Brookside
The Lost Weekend Remember Barry and Lindsey went off somewhere for a weekend in the weekly version of Brookside. Well here it is, served up on film in video format. Things look very different in this form as bad language is allowed and Claire Sweeney is wearing such an outfit as only Paula Yates could dream of. Yes, this is sexy, gripping, violent stuff which makes you realise why Barry (Paul Usher) is so feared around Merseyside. Lots of flashbacks and the return of Barry's mum and old mate Terry. Soon this will be on widescreen.

3. The End Of Violence
Wim Wenders conjures up up some fantastic scenes here - Andie MacDowell driving at night in beautiful suit, all colours streaking light across her windshield. Andie MacDowell swimming in fantastic Beverly Hills pool whose edge has a panoramic view of L.A. and so on. Bill Pullman is the super high-tech film director, Gabriel Byrne a super high-tech surveillance officer and Andie MacDowell is the super high-tech actress who looks fantastic. The plot is incomprehensible though, Wenders going for sheen above all else. I fell asleep trying to unravel its machinations, only to be awoken by the sound of U2 and Sinead O'Connor. As ever, with Wenders, the soundtrack's the eventual star.

MODERN ALBUM OF THE MOMENT

COURTNEY PINE - UNDERGROUND

ARCHIVE ALBUM OF THE MOMENT

JOY DIVISION - HEART & SOUL (box set)

COPYRIGHT ON ALL OF THE ABOVE RESIDES WITH MARK J. PRENDERGAST. ANY EDITORS OR PUBLISHERS WISHING TO QUOTE FROM THE ABOVE WRITINGS CAN DO SO AS LONG AS THEY ENQUIRE AT PHONE (LONDON 0181 299 2998) OR FAX (0181 693 0349). THE WRITER IS FREELY AVAILABLE TO CONTRIBUTE SIMILAR IDEAS ON HIS FAVOURITE MUSICS TO PUBLICATIONS WITH A GENUINE INTEREST.

This is Altair 5 signing off for now. Even the walls have ears......

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