Category Archives: Music Reviews

I burned 6 or 7 CDs today. With esther’s spanky new computer, this isn’t hard at all. If you have a master disc to copy from (I was mostly making copies of existing compilations I’d made before), it can be done in around 6 minutes, with no pissing around copying files to the harddrive and deleting them. Pretty cool, huh… I made a new brasilian compilation for a friend I’m doing a trade with. This involved trawling through a lot of old archived mp3s as well as encoding some vinyl. A self-indulgent but quite fun way to spend a Sunday. Hit of the day was probably ‘How insensitive’ by Elis Regina. The song is so well known that you wouldn’t expect this to be all that compelling, but the infectious, relentless rhythm, coupled with string arrangements by Peter Knight, who did some of the arrangements on Scott Walker‘s solo albums, make for a really delicious track.

Another mp3 I’m enjoying at this exact moment is Francoise Hardy‘s obscure English language version of Ennio Morricone‘s ‘se telefonando’, most famously recorded by Mina. ‘I will change my life’ is a slighly clumsy sounding track; the backing is identical to that of Francoise’s French version (‘je changerais d’avis’), but somehow the English words don’t sit so well: ‘I will change my whole life everything I ought to remember will soon be gone….I will change my whole life if that’s what you want I’d be glad to let you leave me…oh….I will change all my friends if that’s what you’d like and do anything you want me…to…..if you really love me I know I could give it all up and change my whole life…for…you’. Oddly, this track was only ever referred to as ‘I will change me life’, which as well as making no sense is clearly not what she sings. Hmm.

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’.

Today I’ve been listening to Julie London‘s sublime and wonderful ‘Julie is her name’ and ‘Julie is her name Vol 2′ albums. I’ve hardly listened to them in the last couple of years, since my peak of Julie-mania, which was in late 98/early 99. They really are superb though, and it’s not hard to see why ‘Julie is her name’ is commonly hailed as a landmark album. Julie’s voice manages to sound beautifully musical at the same time as heart-breakingly frail and vulnerable. The incredibly clean and minimal arrangements featuring Barney Kessel on guitar are also superb. I was amazed to find out that this US EMI 2 on 1 CD is now out of print. Perhaps all their remaining copies were bought up after Julie died last year. Either way, they should really repress it. I was pretty sad when Julie died, but at least felt glad that it meant something to me. Too many great people (e.g. Antonio Carlos Jobim, Henry Mancini) died just before I figured out how great they were…

Enjoyed listening to Astrud Gilberto‘s ‘I haven’t got anything to do’ album this morning. It’s from 1970, and is on a Japanese CD which I extravagantly bought at Tower earlier in the year. Actually, Tower has decent prices on some Japanese titles, particularly when they have a $3 off everything sale.

Anyway, I stopped by Academy at lunchtime and picked up three things:
– The World Shopping with Space Ponch. I bought this because it was very cheap and I had a feeling it was recommended on the exotica mailing list a while back. Anyway, it’s ok – synth-laden electro pop with a lot of vocoder and some Jean-Jacques Perrey-style electronic samples (much like the ones Stereolab used on their ‘Transient Random Noisebursts…’ LP.
– Kirsty MacColl – Tropical Brainstorm. It might seem as if I’m being morbid, but I really wanted to hear this. She died last year (was run over by a boat or something), and I was pretty sad about it. One of my first records was Kirsty’s rendition of Billy Bragg‘s ‘A new England’. After that I found that she was a very handy popstar to be into – I was eleven years old, and was able to afford her records because they were normally reduced to 20 or 30p in WH Smith… I remember being very young and listening to ‘He’s on the beach’ and ‘Terry’. They were cool records. Anyway, ‘tropical brainstorm’ sounds nice enough. It’s very smoothly produced with a kind of radio-friendly electronic-cuban pop hybrid thing going on. Kirsty still maintains her sardonic, detached vocals, but a lot has changed since the singles of the mid 80s. There is a lot of humor on the album – one song is about cybersex with an anonymous Dutchman. All in all, a weird purchase – I wouldn’t have bought this if she hadn’t died; I probably won’t listen to it much; yet I’m enjoying listening to it… hmm….

– I also bought a used copy of Neutral Milk Hotel‘s ‘in the aeroplane over the sea’. I haven’t listened to this yet, and it was bought entirely on a (very strong) recommendation from Tim, who works for my company. He is so mentally into this band that I figured I’d better check it out. I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’ll write about it here when I do…

My oh my -only three days since I posted; I’ve bought so many records since! And tonight is the WFMU fair….

On Tuesday I stopped by Tower Outlet (now moved to above Tower Books on Lafayette St at 4th, nyc) and found myself stuck in there for hours. All midpriced CDs were reduced to $8, which seemed like a good deal.
I picked up Trio Mocoto‘s self-titled 1973 album on a Brazilian CD this way. Trio Mocoto were Jorge Ben‘s backing band, and were pretty cool on their own. Without the genius Jorge there they lack focus slightly, but there are still some great numbers (‘disculpe’ struck me as excellent) and even a Bacharach cover (raindrops keep falling on my head, sung in Porguese).

I also got what, incredibly, was my first Bob Dylan album on CD, Blonde on Blonde. I have never been into Dylan remotely. I own probably 10 of his records, picked up at charity/thrift shops/yard sales over the years; never listened to them. But some friends of mine have become so obsessed by him that they have opened my eyes slowly. Why is it that I always get into things in such a strange order? I guess without the internet my path might have been more linear. I say this because the thing which really struck me most about this album on first listen was how much ‘I want you’ was ripped off by Belle and Sebastian on their sublime ‘The state that I am in’.

The $8 thing was also enough to persuade me to pick up the Pixies album ‘Trompe le Monde’, which was the one album of theirs I never had. One of many recent purchases I haven’t listened to yet.

The last purchase was a $2.99 Mystic Moods Orchestra ‘One stormy night’ CD, sealed, which turned out not to have the CD in it. Very odd, and the first time that has ever happened to me.

Tower outlet also sells vinyl, and incredibly, they seemed to have old, unplayed cutout soundtrack stock from the 60s. I think perhaps someone had been in before me and wiped most of it out, but I managed to pick up Johnny Williams‘s score to the 1966 film ‘Penelope’. It’s extremely groovy; the first track features a vocal group and sounds very reminiscent of Free Design. I was pretty happy with that at $5; I passed up on Quincy Jones‘s ‘Enter laughing'; hope I didn’t screw up… Finally, I got a Bud Shank album of movie themes on World Pacific from the mid-late 60s. Some of this is pretty sleepy, but a couple of the tracks are great Lalo Schifrin numbers (one is even from his impossibly rare ‘Murderer’s row’ soundtrack), and at least one other has that groovy 1966 rocking now sound feel.