Monthly Archives: November 2001

Really, really busy at work this week. My spirits have nevertheless been raised by some superb CD purchases. A couple of good Bluenote CDs from the late 60s (Reuben Wilson and Lou Donaldson), and exquisite early Jorge Ben album. And some more.

Gary Usher: 'Add some music to your day' (CD; Poptones; 1970)
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I was excited to hear of this record's existence - anything billed as 'a symphonic tribute to Brian Wilson' was bound to impress with me. And I'm happy to report that it's really quite nice. If the liner notes are to be believed, this really was intended to compete in the market with Percy Faith and other mood music releases.

There are just 10 tracks, but a quick look at the track listing shows that the selections are very strong, with a healthy number of 'Pet Sounds' cuts, accompanied by some other great tracks, both from the early/mid 60s, and from the 1969 Friends album.

The sound is quite plain, with harpsichord and string-heavy arrangements, highlighting the compositions quite well. The arrangements are quirky, including the quasi-bossa nova gem, 'Busy doin' nothing', here recast as a strictly orchestral number, with the tune played by strings and flute.

Some of the tracks, such as the song 'pet sounds', do not live up to the incredible original recordings. Still, others build on them, and a few tracks really stand out, such as the medley of 'fall breaks and back to winter/good vibrations/heroes and villains'.

My favorite track is the superb 'warmth of the sun'. I've never heard a poor version of this song (I love the original, and the wonderful Friends of Dean Martinez version). This version has the tune played on the harpsichord in a delightfully bare introduction. It then builds up gently and slowly.

All in all, a nice diversion for Beach Boys fans.

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I’m happy to announce the launch of the new Isolators site, www.isolators.info.

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Today I felt like listening to jazz. And luckily, I work near a very good used CD store.

Milt Jackson: 'For Someone I Love' (CD; Riverside; 1963)
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This album is completely blowing me away. Each track is almost unimaginably cool, with Jackson's slithering vibes leading the way above a strong rhythm section, great drums and percussion, and a wailing, quite wonderful brass section. The brass consists of tuba, french horns, trombones and trumpets, and the players, while not unknown, are not the most famous. Overall, the sound recalls some of Mancini's best 50s work, but somehow sounds even more vital and brilliant to me. More modern things which this reminds me of are Angelo Badalamenti's David Lynch movie soundtracks and the solo work of Barry Adamson.

Probably the standout track for me is the bluesy (What's your story) Morning Glory, which is not a song I knew before, but which sounds like a sped up version of 'Black coffee', with wailing brass and some super-cool bongoes. But the slower tracks are also effective, including a seriously spooky version of one of my favorites, 'flamingo'.

The songs are pretty much standards, with the exception of three Jackson originals, the most prominent of which is the album's last track, the percussive 'Bossa Bag'.

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I just stumbled upon this awesome Tamba Trio site. I love this brazilian jazz vocal group, who became more well known after their version of Jorge Ben‘s ‘Mas que nada’ was used in a TV commercial. I actually only have a few records by them though. Aside from their two albums on CTI, We and the sea and Samba Blim, I just have the excellent ‘Tamba Trio Classics’ Brazilian 2CD set. I have a stray track on a compilation, ‘Se você pensa’ (also groovily covered by Elis Regina on Elis Regina in London), which is very cool, but which I had been unable to locate anywhere (the version I have has rather poor sound quality). Anyway, I was able to find out that it was on the Brazil-only album ‘Tamba 4‘. Now to find that album… In the meantime, I’m picking up a 70s album of theirs on CD from Dustygroove for a mere $9.99.

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Wow, The man who wasn’t there was really excellent. The pace was slow, but not in a boring way. It was great to savor the beautiful way the movie was shot in black and white, and its vivid scenes of mid-century America. All of the performances were excellent, and I will be recommending this to all my friends. Below is a shot of Billy Bob Thornton from the movie.

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I think we’re going to go and see the Coen brothers’ ‘The man who wasn’t there‘ later.

Lou Donaldson: 'Midnight Creeper' (CD; Blue Note; 1968)
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I bought this a while back in one of those excellent Tower records $7.99 sales, and still find it very enjoyable. The production is very straight-ahead - nothing too fancy, just beautifully recorded, bluesey, long pieces, in which each of the distinguished band take solos. The mood is quite laid back, and the drums have a gentle funkiness to them. Blue Mitchell (trumpet), George Benson (guitar), Lonnie Smith (organ) and Idris Muhammad (drums) make up the rest of the band. They are a cool bunch, and in particular, listening to this makes me feel like checking out some of Lonnie Smith's organ records. I've never heard a 60s record by Lou Donaldson on Blue Note which I didn't like, so I'll have to check out a few more of them as well.

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I just came across this spoof of the UK ‘keep in touch with your friends from school’ site friends reunited. If you’re familiar with the latter, it’s amusing.

Our trip to Montauk was nice. This is what it was like there:

And this is what it was like back in lovely NYC on the subway:

These images seemed particularly disturbing as I was scanning them, due to the eerie David Lynch soundtrack which was playing over my headphones at the time. I guess if you agree to be on a poster, you open yourself up to all kinds of shit…reminds me of Philip Larkin’s Sunny Prestatyn.

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I’m going away for the weekend. I’m very happy about this. We’re going away to where no one will find us.

I never post links like this, but this story about a German schoolgirl with a large tongue amused me.

I went to Academy at lunch time. I managed to find a huge number of new things I genuinely wanted. So maybe I’m not kicking the habit of buying music all the time after all.

Bent: 'Programmed to Love' (CD; Ministry of Sound; 2000)
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I bought this based on a recommendation from a friend. I have their single, 'always', and thought it was quite good - electronic pop stuff, sounding like a low fi cross between Air and the Pet Shop Boys. The first track, 'Exercise 1' (no, not the Joy Division song) samples the same track sampled on 'The Mambo Craze' by De Phazz, another European electronic piece. In fact, the whole track sounds very familiar - I think they are using the same kind of synthesizer (Alesis Qs6.1) as I own.

The second track is very pleasant, featuring some great Cocteau Twins-esque ambient sounds, some nice acoustic guitar, and a guest female vocalist.

Cyclons in love uses a vocoder, bringing to mind ELO and Air. Like much of the album, it's not especially creative musically, but it is very nicely textured.

The album proceeds quite nicely, with each track using plenty of samples, but never in a way which dominates the track. It recalls the band Groove Armada to me quite a lot, but is trying to be cool a little less, and so I prefer it. Also, there is a much stronger indie influence (particularly Cocteau Twins, Slowdive), which makes the album much more textured and interesting.

The use of samples throughout is quite creative. Overall, it's a very interesting record, kind of like one I might make if I was a bit better at what I do.

Bertrand Burgalat: 'The sssound of mmmusic' (CD; Emporor Norton; 2000)
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This sounds cool - nice, Air-esque electronic pop which is ambient and very tasteful. I enjoyed the Bungalow 'Genius of...' compilation, so was happy to find this used.

Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci: 'How I long to feel that summer in my heart' (CD; Mantra; 2001)
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I look forward to checking this out. They're a nice band, and I heard some of this the other night at a friend's house, and it sounded great.

Jorge Ben: 'Brazilian Collection' (CD; Mercury; 1966-1973)
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I was happy to find this, because in spite of my best efforts, I haven't been able to find much good Jorge Ben stuff on CD. I don't think it's the best compilation of his work available, but it's very good, and far better than the first track (which is a live recording of 'Charles, Anjo 45') implies. There's quite a few really nice tracks on here that I'd never heard before - e.g. 'Os Alquimistas Estão Chegando os Alquimistas', 'Bebete Vãobora' and 'Zagueiro'. There are also some outstanding classics which I previously never had other than on mp3 files - 'Oba La vem ela' and 'Caramba!...Galileu da galileia'. 'Take it Easy my brother Charles', which I recently discovered the Astrud Gilberto version of, is quite superb. All in all, I'm delighted with how good this is - of the twelve tracks, there are really no poor ones at all, and most are quite superb. Jorge's voice is definitely an acquired taste, but the superbly percussive background and the raw passion and emotion are very seductive.

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I meant to meet a friend for a coffee yesterday, but it turned into a fully fledged evening, involving sake, beer, white wine, and lots of good music. I enjoyed hearing the Spiritualized album again, and I think it will grow on me, even though the whole thing is rather polished, in the vein of Verve’s ‘Urban Hymns’. We also listened to Cat Power, the new Scott Walker-produced Pulp album, and some New Order. In fact, the New Order dominated the evening for me. I’ve been a huge fan of the band since I was 15 or 16 years old, and it was great to hear classics like ‘Procession’, ‘Love Vigilantes’ and ‘Murder’. I had most of my New Order stuff on vinyl, and that vinyl is currently several thousand miles away from where I am, so it was great to hear it.

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Well, the show went quite well, and the plan is to do some recording in the near future. We are also booking a show for December.

I just heard a cool multitracked saxophone track, and this gave me the idea to try that myself. Why not, eh – I have the kit to do it; I should really get up and do it. Today I have to beat myself up a little, since I spent the whole of last night watching TV. Hmm.

I listened more to the Spiritualized and Mercury Rev albums yesterday. Come to think of it, the Mercury Rev is a very curious record. Unlike all their other LPs, the opening track isn’t an incredible masterpiece (like, say ‘Holes’ or ‘Chasing a bee’). It’s not bad, though. Just an acquired taste. The Spiritualized record really sounds like an achievement, and you can hear that a lot of work went into it. It’s not all to my taste, but Jason Pierce has clearly really grown in confidence, and is developing as a frontman. The single, ‘stop your cryin’ still sounds like the best thing on the album to me.

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