Lots of nice musical experiences today. The first was an email from my friend Phil of the group The Coronets. They have made a new demo, and are doing a gig in London on June 22nd. I listened to the demo mp3s and they are excellent. Listening to exquisiteIy recorded tracks like ‘goodnight’ made me realize that I really need to practice more often so that my own recordings sound less sloppy. Anyway, they play a rather charming brand of gentle pop – check out their website.
I also got a few things in the mail. On CD, from the used store Django’s, I got the Spiritualized ‘Abbey Road’ ep, which I bought so that I could hear the different versions of ‘Broken Heart. For some reason I’m not in the mood to hear variations of this superbly orchestrated pop mini-symphony today, so I’ll report back on it at a later date.
Also from Django’s, I got the Tony Hatch compilation ‘Hatchback’ on Sequel. It’s really a very interesting compilation. Unlike others in the series, this includes more than just straight 60s easy listening and film music, and extends into the mid/late 70s with a few interesting disco/light funk numbers. The best tracks on the disc (on first listen) are the really great lush brasilian style ones – e.g. ‘sole bossa nova’, ‘brasilia mission’ – and the gentle, quiet ethereal ones – e.g. ‘return to the stars’. Other great ones are pretty straight-ahead 60s pop numbers without the vocals – e.g. ‘you’re the one’, ’round every corner’ (which I remember Jack or Scott from In Hi-fi playing a lot). Some tracks are quirky in a way which grates slightly to me – e.g. ‘El Payaso’, ‘Who dun it’, and many have something of a generic, library music feel (e.g. ‘latin velvet’ seems to rip off ‘how insensitive’, ‘who dun it’ seems to rip off ‘felicidade’). However, the best tracks easily make up for this. The compilation has been out since 1997; I’m a little I’m glad I managed get it in the end.
A couple of records from ebay also arrived: Julie London with ‘Julie’, and Ramsey Lewis‘s ‘Another Voyage’. This was the first Julie London purchase I had made in a couple of years, but I was tempted by the incredible cover (it’s the one with Julie lying down in a butterfly chair) and the fact that the album isn’t on CD. I bought Ramsey Lewis‘s ‘Another voyage’ because it is the original album which the fine track Do what you wanna appeared on. I hope the rest is as good. Based on recent experience, it should be good (based on it being a)ramsey lewis, b) on cadet and c) from 1969).
Finally, I actually got into a Morrissey album today for the first time in a few years. I was a huge, huge fan back in the 80s and early 90s. But somehow these last few years I have been too busy exploring other stuff. Still, I’ve been hanging out at morrissey-solo.com recently, and enthusing along with people about Moz. So I figured I should listen to him again and revive my interest, since the peak of my previous interest was probably in the year 1992. I listened to 1992’s ‘Your arsenal’, and yeah, it’s a great album, if a little ‘rock’ for my recent tastes. I particularly enjoyed ‘we’ll let you know’, and my long time favorite, ‘I know it’s gonna happen some day’.