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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ALTAIR FIVE
THE ALTERNATIVE GUIDE TO INTERESTING MUSIC BY MARK PRENDERGAST.
This is an archive edition.
The most recent issue is here.
MENU
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Vote for this site in the eZines Database: |
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CONTENTS
Music keeps on changing and sometimes it seems to change for no other reason than just to simply recycle itself. Recently on the new Channel 4 programme 'Jo Whiley', Malcolm McLaren said that the best thing about modern music was that it was "karaoke". Is this all we're left with, a series of recycles of recycles. Riffs, chords, ideas so used up that the very words pop and rock are merely ciphers for a stylisation, a hollow gesture. I think not.
And that old Queen of pop, Madonna has done it once again. Motherhood and a fine William Orbit production job has transformed her new album into a masterpiece of modern music. A whole new dance-oriented generation can now embrace the Ciccone experience. And she's older than I am, bless her golden tresses!
I went down to The Big Chill (http://www.southern.com/chilled/) in Brixton Academy at the end of April, site of historic performances by The Orb and The Stone Roses. As per normal the venue was divided up into little disco areas, some lounge core near the cloakroom and an audio-visual DJ thing in the main arena. I heard some excellent Techno and some wonky reggae and all in all I enjoyed myself, though the close of the Millenium sees Ambient slowly cooling down.
There's a solid new album from that dreadlocked rocker Lenny Kravitz, a grungy new album from those old hairy rockers Jim Page and Rob Plant, another Durutti Column masterpiece, excellent slices of laser-etched beauty from Clannad, World Party, Pete Namlook and Buckethead. As for the ever-expanding archive there's 'Beckology' from Jeff Beck, Lee Perry's 'Arkology', Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' on gold disc, It's A Beautiful Day from the old West Coast and newly remastered spiritual highs from Van Morrison. As for the length. I've decided to be brief this time and keep the longitude for my own tome on 20th Century Music which is nearing completion. Keep the faith.
Mark Prendergast, May 1998, London.
RECEPTION
Amidst the hoardes of Brit pop bands, the terrible Pulp and medium medium James something had to give. Just out of curiosity I looked at the first run of a new series of the Beeb's 'Later' recently. Amidst the earnest Spiritualized and stomping Bernard Butler racket was a lady who simply blew my mind. Her name was Billie Myers and if a performer ever took it to the river it was she. All the things Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison had she also has - that rock thing which reaches out and grabs you and won't let go. From an unsteady start she wrapped her voice and body around 'Kiss The Rain' like it was the only rock song she'd ever heard in her life. And by the end of that song I was convinced I was looking at a great star. Even the microphone stand seemed to be there for her to lean on. Move over Sheryl Crow the crown which you have so lovingly cradled has got to be deservedly handed over.
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Madonna - Ray Of Light
You've heard so much of this already that it must be in
your veins. The video of Madonna (http://www.madonna.fanclub.com) breakdancing at speed is a wonder to behold. And this 39-year old just had a child! When I saw Ms Ciccone at Live-Aid it was a shock. I felt what is this little fat girl, with bad makeup and worse hair, doing up there with Neil Young and Tina Turner. How dare this little virgin-imposter be so bold. After years of pop innovation she has gained my respect and when I heard that my old mate Will Orbit (he of Torchsong, Bass-O-Matic and Strange Cargo) was producing , I just had to have a listen. And boy does she deliver. The sounds alone on this album are mesmerising, the production snaking its way around your consciousness like an elixir. 'Nothing Really Matters' is an exhuberant paen to motherly unselfishness. Most of this record is infused with an unsentimental view of Lourdes, her new daughter and it works a treat. 'Shanti/Ashtangi' celebrates Hindi spiritualism and the rest is just like aural heaven which like 'Little Star' will appeal to head, heart and feet. This album confirms my changing feelings from initial distaste, to grudging respect and now a genuine affection. Your beautiful Madonna, and don't you just know it. Tops.
AIR - Moon Safari
When you think of French music you think of Plastique Bertrand or Jean Michel-Jarre or Tim Blake ( at least I do). Never has one ever thought for a second that the French could make a classic band. But here they are, an effortless pop masterpiece from Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin. These guy play vintage synthesizers with a masterly touch - everything has that cheesy, newly discovered feel yet reminiscent of a near past. Mini moog, Fender Rhodes, Solina strings, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, Vocoder and lots of bubbles and rising and falling electronic decoration. All of it is tastefully decorated with nifty bass lines and the occasional voice of Beth Hirsch. They could be the sexy Kraftwerk for the '90s , but with guitars. Track titles include 'Sexy Boy', 'Kelly Watch The Stars' and 'Le Voyage De Penelope'. Heaven sent on Source through MCA.
Clannad - 'Lore'/'Landmarks'
I'm sick of reading crappy English rock press reviews which dismiss this band as some kind of misty-eyed New Age Celticism. Since most of the reviewers cannot speak the Irish language they have to ridicule it and when not doing that they have to compare Clannad
(http://www.bmg/backstage.co.uk) to their younger sister Enya who sells more records but makes infinitely less substantial music. Fact:Maire Ni Bhraonain has one of the most beautiful voices your ever likely to hear. Fact: These two albums are some of the best music they've ever put down. 'Lore' originally came out in 1996 but now comes with a bonus disc of all the hits - 'Harry's Game', 'In A Lifetime' (with Bono), 'Something To Believe In' , 'Newgrange','I Will Find You' etc. 'Lore' itself is magnificent. 'A Bridge hat Carries Us Over' and the dance inflected uilleann piped 'From Your Heart' make you believe that this is the very best music you are likely to hear for a long time. 'Landmarks' is their latest , recorded mostly in Dublin,and displays tactful use of contemporary drum patterns, a more traditional air with lots of acoustic instruments and a genuine tranquility.
Music From The X Files
Mark Snow has lamented the fact that many people have
passed over 'The Truth & The Light' having digested the strange 'Songs In The
Key Of X' compilation from the same year, 1996. In truth anyone at all haunted
by the spooky acoustic/synthesised music of the series should invest in this.
Latin titles, the inimitable voices of Muldur, Scully and Mitch Pileggi and
top-notch production take us through the X-Files (http://www.Thex-Files.com) from 1994 to 1996. Spotters will delight in attaching particular tracks to specific episodes. On Warner Brothers, who else.
Lenny Kravitz - " 5 "
The man with the big hairy chest and cascading dreadlocks is back with a belter of a new album. This time its Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye and James Brown who are the touchstones with slices of Stevie Wonder and Prince thrown in. Lenny Kravitz
(http://www.outside-org.co.uk) can play all his instruments and this time he has even utilised samples in digital studios in far-flung places such as the Bahamas and New York. Into hip-hop and live sampling, Kravitz wanted to do the same in the studio. Lenny doesn't live with the mother of his nine-year old daughter anymore and his mother died too. Which makes this a more rounded, mature and sparkling work than anything else he's done. 'I Belong 2 U', 'Thinking Of You' (classic soul), 'If You Can't Say No' (the swingboat bitter love song), 'Fly Away', 'Super Soul Fighter', 'It's Your Life' (classic funk), 'Little Girl Eyes' and 'Can We Find A Reason' (classic ballad) are well worth investigating. As Jo Whiley said recently " an American classic ".
Lisa Gerrard - Duality
Together with Pieter Bourke and now at home in Gippsland
Australia, the self-styled " high-priestess of sound palaces " brings us her
second solo album. Lisa Gerrard (http://www.lisa-gerrard.com) as you ought to know is one half of Dead Can Dance the inimitable medieval Gothic trance duo who record in a church in a remote part of Southern Ireland. Here Gerrard brings her characteristic incantations to bear on tracks rift full of traditional. She also plays her yang chin or hammer dulcimer. Pieter Bourke, an expert in rhythm, sound manipulation and atmosphere is a member of the ethno-Ambient duo Soma. 'Duality' is on 4AD.
Sonic Youth - A Thousand Leaves
It's ten years ago now since Sonic Youth spectacularly took off with their majestic Blast First album 'Daydream Nation'. The doyens of New York noise music they then signed to Geffen and released a stream of stuff like 1990's 'Goo' and 1994's outrageous 'Experimental Jet Set Trash & No Star'. It's still Thurston Moore (vocals,guitar), Kim Gordon (vocals,bass guitar), Lee Renaldo (vocals, guitar) and Steve Shelley (drums). The guitars still scream, the feedback is at 11 and the tongues are firmly in their cheeks. It's one of those you have to live with.
Asian Dub Foundation - Rafi's Revenge
I attended an Asian Dub Foundation night,
last year, and it was very impressive. The first thing I think about when I hear
this is Joy Division, but played by young Asians rapping to break-beats. But the
guitar, bass and drums are still there. They rap revolutionary dub poetry and
have a full grasp of imperial history. ADF as their known are involved in the
Community Music Project (http:www.communitymusic.org) in Borough. They are so powerful live that Primal Scream have had them on tour. Says the group's heaven sent guitarist Chandrasonic " we kick it everywhere we do it." This one will have (in the words of the great Jimi in the sky) your " house , burning down." On ffrr thru London.
Goldie - Saturnz Return
I've had this for yonks but still feel I'm getting to know it. The jungle rhythms on the awesome hour-long mother are wickedly brilliant though the indulgence of the Ambient Bowie collab 'Truth' should be avoided. Prog-Jungle it may be but who can fault a man who can get Bowie, Noel Gallagher and KRS-1 to be on his second album. A double platter, Disc Two has some gorgeous moments such as Diane Charlamagne's vocals on the soul-tingler 'Believe' and the guitar/synth-drenched psychedelia of 'Dragonfly'. On ffrr thru London.
Projekct Two - Space Groove/Adrian Belew - Belew Prints/Robert Fripp - Gates Of
Paradise
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Bill Frisell - Gone, Just Like A Train
Firstly the cover of this Nonesuch disc is immense. A cross between Toad Of Toad Hall and Yellow Submarine, Jim Woodring's art is enough to buy this product. Secondly Bill Frisell
(http://www.songtone.com) really lets go here. From the opening bars he lets rip like he meant every note. Acoustic and electric guitars are mixed and a variety of American instrumental styles evoked.
World Party - Egyptology
The brilliant Karl Wallinger has done it again, made a perfect pop stew full of light, optimism and great songs. The press in general have not picked up on how great this album is, but this is your chance to redress the balance. The last song 'Always' gives us a Prince groove to a lyric about getting a new piece of gear to make things better. Wallinger evokes time moving forward and losing our grip on people magnificently. 'Beautiful Dream' is sung in Oasis manner and looks at the old Pink Floyd 'one day you'll find ten years have gone behind' idea. 'Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb' is a very funny song (which my daughter loves) which has a dark undertow whereby the downside of life is metaphored through the mythical 'Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb'. 'Hercules' is just plain brilliant power guitar pop which owes much to Prince's 'Purple Rain'. 'Strange Groove, like some of the stuff on 'Bang' (his last great album) nudges up against dance and hip-hop styles. Wallinger should never be underestimated. On Chrysalis
Spectrum - Forever Alien
In which former Spacemen 3 leader Sonic Boom plays around with vintage synthesizers - EMS Synthi, VCS3, OSCar, Theremin, Serge Modular Music System and makes one of the druggiest records ever. Alf Hardy plays other voltage controlled synthesizers and the whole is packaged in this superb Space-Age fold-out yellow sleeve adorned with pictures of all of these synthesizers. There are wacked-out versions of classics like 'How Does It Feel' and the title 'Delia Derbyshire' reminds me of Donovan. There are dedications to EMS inventor Peter Zinovieff and of course to Owsley Stanley. As his former mate Jason Pierce seeks enlightenment in the heavens, it seems that Sonic is travelling deeper into the world of inner space. This music is the strongest modern psychedelia I've heard yet and makes Kula Shaker look winsomely childish.
Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - Walking Into Clarksdale
Back in 1994 Page and Plant reunited for an MTV gig and a great album in 'No Quarter'. This had a strong Moroccan/Egyptian flavour and many re-worked old favourites. 'Walking Into Claksdale' is their first completely new album since 1980. No John Paul Jones but a guy named Charlie Jones on bass plus a young drummer, Michael Lee. It begins in typical mystical sense before we break into moody rock on 'When The World Was Young'. Throughout the album one gets a sense of their love of rock and roll fused with ethnic music : The Ventures, Roy Orbison, Natasha Atlas, Jeff Buckley, Howling Wolf and Joan Baez are some of the influences to be found on here. Recorded in just 35 days at Abbey Road with Steve Albini at the desk, 'Walking Into Clarksdale' works best on the ballads 'Blue Train', 'Heart In Your Hand' and 'When I Was A Child'. On Mercury.
Fax - Facts
The Fax (http://hyperreal.com/fax/) flood continues unabated. The idea being that the more freedom given a label, the more music that comes about. This has worked for Fax occasionally. At present I'm looking at no less than 7 discs on my bench. 'Silence 3' by Pete Namlook reminds me of Klaus Schulze's 'Mirage' and is superb. One track is even called 'Mirage', I made the mental connection before I read the sleevenote. 'Drum Machine Circle' by Dada
(http://www.faxlabel.com/gluesniffing.html) is a good disc - mood enhancing, sexy, soft Roland synthesizers. Charles Uzzell-Edwards and Jason Rivera dreamed it up on a beach in California. The concept revolves around the Roswell crash site myth. [I wish people would give over this idea that there are aliens visiting our planet. The nearest star system is millions of light years away, the nearest star system possibly supporting life is even further. An American Professor has gone on record as saying that if a spaceship were to come from Alpha Centauri (our nearest system) it would have to fly at 70 million miles per hour to reach us in 100 years from its point of departure. Let it sink in. What happened at Roswell was a military test flight of new design gone wrong or the accidental crash of a Chinese jet fighter. Aliens are only in your dreams.] But it's a myth that sells things. Other discs are : Pete Namlook/Peter Prochir - Miles Apart; Atom Heart/Pete Namlook - Jet Chamber 4 ; Octopus
(http://www.sirius.com/-faxlabel/supergroup.html); Pete Namlook 13 - License To Chill ; Air - You (re-issue of early Fax classic).
ALSO OUT
Buckethead - Colma
Schools of American guitar albums favour the pyrotechnics of Steve Vai or a Joe Satriani. Not Buckethead, the Californian guitarist famed for his collaborations with Bill Laswell and Iggy Pop. On his new CyberOctave
(http://www.cyberoctave.com) disc , Buckethead goes through a number of pastel shades of acoustic, exquisite electric compositions and an overall concept that has its own sensual integrity. Music for long evenings in with a loved one.
Mark Springer - Eye
Springer is a Bristol pianist who founded the jazz/pop improvisers 'Rip, Rig & Panic' in 1979. Influential in the careers of Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead, his soundtrack work can be heard on the over-the-top Hanif Kureishi film 'London Kills Me' (remember " muff diver") and on Granada's fab 'Moll Flanders'. Here he laces us with a batch of fine piano instrumentals in the Debussy/Satie mode. Surprising.
Jubilee Allstars- Sunday Miscellany
A Dublin band produced by veteran Stars Of Heaven. man Stan Erraught who , I'm told, sound like a cross between Neil Young and Galaxie 500. By the names here, at least three of the group are McCormack brothers; by the sound they are earnest goodfellows conveying the vibe of old Dublin, its drunken cyclists, windswept streets, damp bars and emotional intimacy. On the indie Lakota label
LOOK OUT FOR
JEFF BECK - BECKOLOGY
An awesome thumb through the back pages of one of the greatest guitarists on the planet. Beck is always considered an also-ran with the likes of Plant, Page and Clapton but this lovingly Cedared (new process) three discer has been repackaged from its 1991 edition. Sony
(http://www.sony.com) have wisely put it out at mid-price and its a diamond. We get everything, the early stuff with The Tridents right through The Yardbirds,Jeff Beck Group and various solo albums, BBC sessions, Beck Bogart and Appice, 'Blow By Blow', 'Wired', 'There & Back', 'Flash', 'Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop' and more. Also contains one of the greatest psychedelic singles of all time:'Happenings Ten Years Time Ago'. Interesting point - Jeff Beck destroyed his amp in the coolest 1967 movie of all time 'Blow-Up'.
It's A Beautiful Day - First/Marrying Maiden
The first 'It's A Beautiful Day' album is memorable for its astonishing cover painting by George Hunter of a Western girl in a bonnet standing on a rock pinnacle in a wind-blown dress backed by blue cloudy sky. Hunter also did the brilliant Western cover for Quicksilver Messenger Service's 'Happy Trails', one of the greatest West Coast albums of all time. Suffice to say we are in San Francisco in the late 1960s. 'It's A Beautiful Day' were the brainchild of David La Flamme , a virtuoso violinist who favoured silky-smooth production. The debut album of 1969 featured his wife on keyboards and Pattie Santos on vocal harmonies. The stand-out track was the mellifluous 'White Bird' which was at odds with the noise drenched psychedelia of their counterparts Quicksilver and The Grateful Dead. Columbia
(http://www.sony.com), in their infinite wisdom, have merged their first two records onto one disc (good) but lost the brilliant cover. In fact the use of the original back photo of a seagull made small and put beside the tiny cover of 'Marrying Maiden' makes this re-issue one of the worst examples of cover-art compromise in living memory. Thankfully the 18 tracks and beautiful textured sound and mid-price tag make it a bargain. On 'Marrying Maiden', Jerry Garcia guested on guitar and save for the incursions into country vein, the album is a better one than the first. Here their sound vacillates between Jefferson Airplane and Chicago's exceptional psychedelians H.P. Lovecraft. 'Dolphins', 'Essence Of Now', 'Soapstone Mountain', 'Waiting For The Sun','Let A Woman Flow' 'Good Lovin', 'Galileo' and 'Do You Remember The Sun' are all excellent interpretations of San Francisco '60s drug music. Out of 18 tracks 14 are worth hearing. A fantastic surprise!
Harmonia 76 - Tracks & Traces
Legendary lost album from first meeting between Eno, Cluster and NEU! Word has it that Klaus Dinger began sessions but that there were too many drums. Recorded in a stone room in a forest in Northern Germany, 'Harmonia 76' is a grand and eloquent Ambient statement. From 'Lunenberg Heath' to 'Sometimes In Autumn' this is one heck of an archive. On Sony S3.
Van Morrison - Mercury Years 1979 to 1988
Superb repackaging of some of the most important albums of his career. This lot begins with the upbeat 'Into The Music' from 1979, yeah the one which includes 'Bright Side Of The Road'. Then on to the brown mystical 'Common One', yeah the one with 'Summertime In England' where Van invokes all the poets and into the strange scientology led 'Beautiful Vision' in 1982. 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' from 1983 was heavily produced but includes the awesome 'Rave On John Donne'. There are other records but this selection reaches its zenith on 'No Guru, No Method, No Teacher' (1986) - the album which reaches a spiritual high on 'In The Garden' and cynical exasperation on 'Copycats Ripped Off All My Songs'. The following year's 'Poetic Champions Compose' is full of mellifluous instrumentals and was a stellar outing before 1988 when Van teamed up lovingly with the Chieftains and did 'Irish Heartbeat'. No extra tracks are included but the sound is fantastic. Well done Polydor and when the heck are bloody Warner Brothers going to remaster 'Astral Weeks' and give it the bumper deluxe re-issue it deserves. Also check for 30 track unreleased Van Morrison disc " Philosopher's Stone".
Miles Davis - Panthalassa/Miles Davis Quintet '65 to '68
From the mid 1960s onwards Miles Davis put together a quintet of himself, Wayne Shorter (saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums) and recorded a batch of experimental acoustic jazz albums including 'E.S.P' (which includes the bebop standard 'Eighty-One), 'Miles Smiles', 'Sorcerer', 'Nefertiti', 'Miles In The Sky', 'Filles De Kilimanjaro and 'Water Babies'. One track 'Country Son' from 1968 sounds uncannily like a version up the theme from 'Blow-Up' the film which Hancock had scored a year earlier. A six CD set is spotlessly prepared by Columbia featuring all the albums plus 13 previously unissued takes. There's a nine disc sampler which I hope will be issued as a proper retail disc as it gives a good overview.
More fascinating is Bill Laswell's Mix Translation of Davis's electric period 'Panthalassa' which is fixed in the same genre as 'Pangaea' and 'Agharta'. Here Laswell has gone back to the original master tapes and got out the scissors and spliced them into an easy mix. He gives us an Ambient version of 'In A Silent Way', Indian tablas and much more from 'On The Corner', out-takes from that session which became the theme for 'Agharta', and versions of tracks from 'Get Up With It'. 'Bitches Brew' has been left intact and Laswell promises more. Given the fact that the neophyte would have to get their heads around at least four double CDs like 'Bitches Brew', 'Agharta', 'Pangaea' and 'Live-Evil', the single CD 'Panthalassa' is a triumph of brevity over sheer immensity.
William Burroughs - The Best Of William Burroughs
Anybody with any interest in sound will have a William Burroughs snippet somewhere. Burroughs was of course the most notorious of the beat writers but also a great raconteur of his own work. The first time I heard that St. Louis drawl was him talking about Dr. Benway on some indie compilation years ago titled 'Twilight's Last Gleaming', by coincidence the very first track here. We get stuff from 'Naked Lunch', 'The Soft Machine', Nova Express', 'Ah Pook Is There', 'The Wild Boys', the exceptional 'Cities Of The Red Night', 'Place Of Dead Roads' and the fiercely intelligent 'The Western Lands'. Disc Four is a series of rare snippets contained on the original album 'Nothing Here Now But The Recordings' including his classic mantra-like 'The Last Words Of Hassan I Sabbah'. On Mercury with 64-page book.
The Clash - London Calling
Recently voted best album of the 1970s in Q magazine ( if that means anything), 'London Calling' changed a lot of people's lives. With its Elvis Presley tribute cover and Paul Simonon smashing his bass on the stage on their Autumn U.S. tour, the music contained herein is just electrifying. It made London seem to fantastic. I remember stuck in my old College buttery bar with all the music pretenders glued to every word of the N.M.E. at the time as it gooed over the brilliance of 'London Calling'. My favourite moments are the searing Mick Jones guitar on 'Brand New Cadillac', the sheer ecstasy of 'Spanish Bombs', the melancholy of 'Lost In The Supermarket', the punk energy and intro count of 'Clampdown' (its rhythms steeped in reggae), the out and out reggae of 'Guns Of Brixton', the Shadows-like naivity of 'I'm Not Down' and the tribute to all dub monsters in Kingston, Jamaica 'Revolution Rock'. It stills sounds as fresh as spring strawberries and as vital as ever. If this was the end of the 1970s, the '80s looked bright. Now on Sony mid-price.
Lee Scratch Perry - Arkology
First up I know very little about Reggae
(http://www.arrowweb.com/jammin/). Secondly I've heard a lot of reggae - Misty, Third World, Peter Tosh, Augustus Pablo, Burning Spear, Linton Kwesi Johnson and so forth. During The Clash's era above, a lot of reggae came to Dublin and reggae was an axis of the punk movement - common enemy the oppressive regime, particularly after the Brixton riots. Anyway Lee Scratch Perry is a famous name. According to Steve Barrow's exhausting Rough Guide
(http://www.roughguides.com) to 'Reggae' (1997). Perry worked with Bob Marley and set up his own Black Ark Studio (hence the 'Arkology' title) in 1975. His interest in electronics and overloading four - track tape machines led to that deep deep sound heard on such classics as Junior Murvin's 'Police & Thieves' the 1976 track that was covered on The Clash's first album. Barrow is involved in 'Arkolgy' and covers all the bases in a triple disc set which has everything up to the point Perry's studio burnt down in 1979 and Perry relocated to Switzerland and converted to Hare Krishna. According to the text no one to this day knows how the diminutive Jamaican recorded such deep stuff so fast. 'Augustus Pablo', 'Max Romeo', 'The Upsetters', 'The Congoes', 'Jah Lion' and dozens more are on this definitive reggae classic.
Also Out
Tangerine Dream - The Blue Years
Tangerine Dream
(http://www.netstore.de/tadream/) have recently released two very handy compilations on Castle. The first, 'The Pink Years', covered the early Ohr electronic period (pre-'Phaedra') and this new one covers the period of 'Poland', 'Le Parc', 'Underwater Sunlight', 'Tyger' and 'Livemiles'. The tracks are the original untampered versions, remastered by Jerome Froese. The cover art features some brilliant images of Luxor.
Edgar Froese - Pinnacles
Inspired by the Australian outback, Edgar Froese made an excellent solo album in 1983 which for a long time has been hard to find. Nowadays Virgin have it at cheap mid-price. 'Specific Gravity Of A Smile' is all dreamy whilst the side-long (in album terms) 'Pinnacles' is an electronic tour-de-force.
James - The Best Of
Two people I've worked with write glowing tributes to this self-proclaimed " bunch of Scallies". David Cavanagh of the Select parish writes some nifty sleeve-notes. And Brian Eno has this to say : " James' music exists in past/future territory somewhere between eccentric, romantic, tender, crazy and ecstatic. I think they probably discovered this place. Their best songs rank among the very best of British pop music: you find yourself thinking ' I've never heard anything quite like this before, but it makes perfect emotional sense '. It rings true. (Eno '97). Eno could be prejudiced though ,as he produced two albums for them and 'Out To Get You' reminds me too much of Edge's sound on 'Running To Stand Still'. I see Youth's name on here as well but the whole thing is just too fey and English for my taste. Sorry old chums ( I mean Eno and Cavanagh there).
Narada Showcase Collection
And I thought New Age music was dead. The Narada label came into being in 1983 in Wisconsin specialising in New Age, Celtic, Flamenco, World & Instrumental music. The music is crossover instrumental of a very high prowess including. Artists include pianists David Lanz, Wayne Gratz, guitarists Jesse Cook and Billy McLaughlin and Celtic accordionist John Whelan. Another label Higher Octave, founded in 1986, gets loads of Billboard awards and features Jon Anderson (Yes) and Craig Chaquico (Jefferson Starship). Sounds weird.
LOOK OUT FOR
Michael Nyman - The Suit & The Photograph
Michael Nyman (http://www.december.org/nyman/) seems to get better with age. As if one would have to get better after the brilliance of 1982's 'The Draughtsman's Contract'. This new EMI Classics record features his third and fourth string quartets which are drift through with the exuberance one comes to expect from Nyman. There are themes from his score of Christopher Hampton's film 'Carrington', unused themes from 'The Piano' and such. The Michael Nyman Band perform three quartets, a string, saxophone and brass. The cover features an August Sander photograph from 1915 which shows a group of country musicians dressed in suits, a pivotal source of analysis for John Berger's book 'About Looking'.
Bang On A Can - Music For Airports
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Sharon Isbin - Journey To The Amazon
Firstly I wonder if Sharon Isbin
(http://www.sharonisbin.com) is any relation to Gilbert Isbin. As a renowned acoustic guitarist, Director of Juilliard's Guitar Department and one-time collaborator with Antonia Carlos Jobim she is well up to creating a cycle of music which reflects the rain-forest culture of Ecuador, Costa Rica and Brazil. Joined by saxophonist Paul Winter and percussionist Thiago de Mello. On Teldec thru Warners.
Arvo Part - Kanon Pokajanen
Having recorded in a variety of languages, Estonian composer Arvo Part turns to the Church Slavonic to give a reading over 80 minutes of St. Andrew of Crete's 'Canon Of Repentence'. Since St. Andrew is lived until only 740 years after Christ, this is old stuff indeed. It is all about the morning office, the light greeting the day, the congregation meeting the Christ. It is still sung in monasteries at that time but in churches, the previous evening. Part worked for two years on the text, using the Church Slavonic as a point of departure. It is extremely still music, recorded in the Niguliste Church in Tallinn by famed Part collaborator Tonu Kaljuste and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Produced by Manfred Eicher with an exceptional white box and booklet this is healing music indeed.
John Adams - Gnarly Buttons
New Nonesuch disc of two fairly recent compositions by Adams - 'John's Book of Alleged Dances' (1994) and 'Gnarly Buttons' (1996). The 'Dances' are 11 imaginary ones based on various sources from hillbilly chromatics to the arguments between his Californian building contractors. They are played with much pzazz by Kronos Quartet. 'Gnarly Buttons' was written for his first instrument, the clarinet. Divided into three movements 'Gnarly Buttons' recalls his early youth in New Hampshire marching bands and youth orchestras, Benny Goodman , his dead father and the imaginary " fox-trot" of his famous 1986 piece ' The Chairman Dances'. Protestant hymn lines, Western hoe-down and English folk sources abound in it's three very American movements.
Also Out
Astor Piazzolla / Gidon Kremer - El Tango
Recorded in Paris and Rio between 1996 and 1997, 'El Tango' is an homage to that great Tango bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla. In a variety of settings, Kremer and his cohorts (who include the acoustic guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad) salute the maestro.
John Cage - Works For Cello/Lecture On Nothing
A double disc of Cage
originals from the delectable cellist Frances-Marie Uitti on Etcetera.
Centred on his 1978 'Etudes Boreales' which explores the idea of '
total serialism ' we also get ' 26 ft 1.1499 inch' from the mid 1950s
for cello solo, transistor , two record players and voice, 'Solo For
Cello' a fairly free piece from the 1950s. A bonus is her
interpretation of his Variation series 1 to 3 (1958-1963) and 'A Dip In
The Lake' (1978) a series of dance pieces made up from 427 addresses
from the Chicago area. The achievement ends with his 41 minute 'Lecture
On Nothing' (1959). Still a 20th Century great.
LOOK OUT FOR
1. Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians (Nonesuch, new version).
TV
FILM
MODERN ALBUM OF THE MOMENT
BILLIE MYERS - GROWING PAINS
ARCHIVE ALBUM OF THE MOMENT
JEFF BECK - BECKOLOGY (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. ......Viva Maria, Viva Victoria.
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