Monthly Archives: June 2001

Bloated

Posted on June 6, 2001

I’m exhausted after staying up late finishing most of my ‘impossible music’ last night. I will post some mp3s here at some point when I’m feeling less shy. I’ve never publicized this little vanity journal beyond telling one person about it, so it’s quite possible that I’m talking to myself here. Which is absolutely fine, don’t get me wrong…

Anyway, the records from yesterday were pretty excellent. I really enjoyed ‘The soul of’ Paul Mauriat‘; it’s all fun, upbeat orchestral versions of 60s soul classics. I could tell why ‘You keep me hangin’ on’ gets the most attention though – it opens with a deliciously mod sitar go-go sound which makes it just that little bit hipper…

The Francis Lai album (‘plays the compositions of….’), while on the quiet side, has some great arrangements and a very cool organ sound throughout. One outstanding track made me glad I bought it: ‘footprints on the moon‘, a superb, gently funky soundtrack piece with wordless vocals and Carpenters ‘we’ve only just begun’ style horns. The LP is from 1973, and it’s interesting to note the gradual change in atmosphere which seems to have occurred in orchestral LPs since the late 60s, when most my other favorites were recorded…I still really enjoy the sound on this one, but I am less into the mid-late 70s easy listening sound. Dig those disco LPs though…

I only took a quick listen to Walter Wanderley‘s ‘Kee-ka-roo’. It sounded excellent, with some groovy tracks like ‘canto d’ossanha’ and ‘music to watch girls by’. It turns out that this LP is from 1967, and is therefore before the ‘Popcorn’ album I mentioned yesterday. The actual track ‘kee-ka-roo’ is far less cool than the version on ‘Popcorn’, I would say. A very cool LP though; I think, bizarrely, that the only Walter LP on verve I don’t own now is ‘Rain Forest’, the most common one of all.

The Ramsey Lewis‘s ‘Mother nature’s son’ is quite superb, super-funky orchestral pop with electric piano and touches of moog. Definitely one of my favorites of the albums of his I have, and I like them all. Alas, someone outbid me in my attempt to buy 16 of his LPs in one ebay lot…

Finally, Gianni Marchetti‘s ‘The Wild Eye’ soundtrack was probably the most disappointing of my new acquisitions. Maybe I’m just pampered/bloated by the glut of ‘easy tempo’ compilations, but this didn’t really hold my interest. There were a couple of pretty nice wordless vocal soundtrack pieces, but either they weren’t so hot, or I wasn’t in the mood….

Anyway, I have to go design the cover for my silly little record.

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Posted on June 4, 2001

Wow, I think today set a personal record for the number of albums I received in the mail – a total of five different parcels! Aside from the two I already mentioned, ‘The wild eye’ soundtrack by Gianni Marchetti, bought very cheaply on ebay, ‘The soul of’ Paul Mauriat and Francis Lai ‘plays great composers’ arrived.

I bought the Francis Lai LP in spite of it looking rather snoozy, just because Francis seems to have agreed with me and my pal Scott Walker about who exactly the ‘great composers’ are… With a song selection reminiscent of Scott’s excellent ‘The Moviegoer’ album, Francis plays Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, Michel Legrand, Nino Rota, a couple of his own, and some others. Nice one! It seems that my new Walter Wanderley album includes a cover of Francis Lai‘s own ‘The Bobo’ as well. I hope some or all of these are as good as the best cuts on ‘I’ll never forget Whatisname’, although it would be too much to expect them to have the same frenetic, gogo sound. Francis was also behind some of Brigitte Bardot‘s work, including the excellent tracks ‘St Tropez’ and ‘Tu veut, tu veut pas’, compiled on ‘Inflight Entertainment’.

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Posted on June 4, 2001

I haven’t posted for a while, but for good reason – I haven’t been buying any records, preferring to concentrate on my own fledgling musical project, ‘impossible music’. I had made very little progress until Saturday, when in spite of a ludicrous level of noise from the prick next door and the wanker over the road, I was able to lay down four or five songs. They’re not exactly polished and finished, but it’s something to work with. I got less done yesterday, but still enough. I’m hoping to finish everything by Wednesday morning.

Some records just arrived in the mail for me at work, though, and both seem very nice. One is Walter Wanderley‘s ‘kee-ka-roo’ on Verve, a sealed copy. I bought this, his final (?) album for Verve, because I was pleasantly surprised by the ‘Popcorn’ LP Walter did with Luiz Henrique. One of the songs, an original, was ‘kee-ka-roo’, and it’s a nice funky organ piece with scat vocals. Without Luiz Henrique, it won’t have the Scat vocals, but I’ll be interested to hear what he does with it. His albums for Verve seem to be far, far better than those issued on Philips; I’m not really sure why.

Anyway, the other LP was Ramsey Lewis‘s ‘Mother nature’s son’, his interpretations of songs from the Beatles‘s ‘White album’. I have a couple of tracks from this on the ‘Inside’ compilations, and they are absolute killer, man!

I will finish reviewing the air album soon, honest. I really enjoyed listening to it over the weekend.

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