Reviews & recommendations

A birthday present perhaps? Hope you had a good un

 

Mo,
how very kind of you to notice.
It wasn't a birthday pressie - I quite like a bit of shiny happy trance and Oakey doesn't usually dissapoint in this...

 

I've got a couple of other Oakey records - "Bunkka" being the most recent. I like his stuff so I might give that one a listen.

Michael.

 

I've just been flogging CD2 of this compilation to death in the car - definate grower me thinks - good loud!

 

Well, a rather expensive trip to FOPP on Sunday meant I now have..

1) Grant Green - The latin beat (LP)
2) Gil Scott-Heron - The revolution will not be televised (LP)
3) Marvin Gaye - Whats going on? (LP)
4) Stephen Stills - Stephen Stills (CD)

Some really cool stuff there, I just love the way you can listen to LPs at FOP on a deck with headphones before you buy.. heres what I thought..

1) Grant Green.
I bought this because it made me smile as soon as I heard it on the headphones. It sounds a little bit like a 'samba' from 'come dancing' !! - and its just a bit of fun for when you want something different on. Like it!

2) Gill Scott-Heron
Woah, this dude is/was cool. Attitude in spades, a massive chip on his shoulder and some real bad-ass love it or hate it songs. Personally, I love it ! . If you havent heard it, I'd say its a bit like the theme music you'd expect to a blacksploitation movie (I think I spelt that right)

3) Marvin Gaye
Its class, everyone should own a copy, and thats it!

4) Stephen Stills
I never really explored this before, but I like crosby stills nash and young, so figured it was a safe bet.... I now have found that I should have bought this years ago, first rate songs and a great voice for rock.

:MILD: :MILD:


Whats anybody else bought recently?

 

Most recent 2 purchases:

Tribalistas, Tribalistas - beautiful songs from this Brazilian trio. Has been hugely successful here in Portugal.

and err...
Once Upon a Time in the West, soundtrack of the film - since I just got the DVD (it only just came out) I had to get the soundtrack aswell. One of Moriconne's finest IMO.

Also recently bought (and been listening to):
Verve Remixed. An awesome CD. The "UFO" remix of Sarah Vaughan singing "Summertime" had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

John Coltrane's Blue Train. The newly remastered version. Sublime

Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil". Also superb. My limited knowledge of Jazz doesn't yet allow me to make comments any more erudite than that I'm afraid :shame:

I recommend all of the above

Michael.

 

S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

Incubus

Nu-Metal/Incurock

Cast:
Brandon Boyd - Vocal mastery
Mike Einziger - Guitar Hero
Dirk Lance - Bass and Adult Enterainment
Jose Pascilias - Drums
DJ Lyfe - Guess

Synopsis

Incubus' first "real" album (Fungous Amoungus was an independant release, Enjoy Incubus an EP) is a genre bending wonder. At a time when Nu-Metal didn't mean hard ass goatee beards, backward caps and screaming, this album was (and still is by the faithful) regarded as the finest. Heavy D+B/trip hop influences blend perfectly with heavy, crashing guitar to be finished off with some timely scratches and cuts to produce a whole greater than the sum of the parts. A true undiscovered opus, and a must buy. This is final Incubus effort with DJ Lyfe at the TT controls; he was fired on the tour for this album and replaced by DJ Kilmore, seeingly a calmer man.

 

Blondie - Curse of Blondie.
Really quite good. I've always like Clem Burke's drumming and the disco/electro/rock that is Blondie and they don't dissapoint on this cd.

Black Eyed Pease - Elephunk. This is a grower. Especially good in the car stereo, and very well produced to boot. Has a rap/funk type theme running throught it...

 

OST - The Mission - Ennio Morricone: Two tracks stand out here for me - 'On Earth as It is in Heaven' and 'Gabriel's Oboe'.

Carly Simon - No Secrets - picked this up for £1 on vinyl in a charity shop on Friday. 'You're So Vain' and 'Nobody Does It Better' being the highlights.

 

Following on from the chilly music bits of this thread I will simply say

Gstone records and 18th street lounge

 

Just bought a load of albums from FOPP. Quite impressed with their growing soul-LP section.

I bought..

Massive Attack - Mezannine - CD - 5.00
Isaac Hayes - Black Moses - LP - 7.00
Aretha Franklin - Young Gifted and Black - LP - 7.00
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly soundtrack - LP - 7.00
Bob Marley - Exodus - LP - 7.00

Is that cool music, or is that cool music!? :MILD:

 

Texas Funk - Various Artists (Jazzman Records JMANCD006)
Midwest Funk - Various Artists (Jazzman Records JMANCD007)

Two albums containing rare and unreleased (until now) 60's - 70's funk 45s from Texas and the US Midwest. Both produced by a small UK label with a passion for discovering rare and forgotten funk recordings. Each CD comes with superb liner notes giving you a detailed background on each of the tracks featured. A highly recommended pair of CDs for anyone into funk/soul and especially fans of the Brainfreeze/Product Placement series. Can't stop grooving when I chuck them in the stereo, plus they bring back memories of a very good night of grooving and dancing.

 

Check out ELBOW - CAST OF THOUSANDS........superb! One of the best albums of the year so far.

BOB MARGOLIN - ALL-STAR BLUES JAM........bluesy 'n' groovy

RYAN ADAMS - LOVE IS HELL...........moody rock ballads, and just the thing for a sweaty post-coital chillout:MILD:

 

A few Vangelis titles to recommend here:

OST to Antarctica
OST to 1492: Conquest of Paradise
Direct
The City
Oceanic

 

OK. the latest offering by solo bass guru Steve Lawson is Grace & Gratitude. There is quite a lot of looping but this is less obtrusive than before and Steve gets down & funky or at least shows his extraodianary talent with tracks such as Shizzle

And those who are really keen, go see him live at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

 

Looking thru the list... this classic might have been missed out...

 

The K & D Sessions is a classic album! Very cool....

If you like that, get:

The Peace Orchestra (The Pink 'Band Aid' Album)

Tosca - Dehli 9

 

OK here's my recommendation of the month.....

Buzzin'Fly Volume 1- Mixed by Ben Watt

This guy's been 20 yrs in Everything But the Girl, 5 in Lazy Dog and now doing his own thing. I got it recommended by the guy in Fopp.
Kind of a soul/latin house with a West Coast twang from the OM records style. Simply a right find for you guys who like smooth upbeat house music. Great vocals...includes a bit of Martin Solveig, Charles Webster & Barbara Mendes.

Best track for me is track one- Rodamaaj feat. Nicinha- Musica Feliz(Alex S Unreleased Deep Gold Mix).

An absolute sniff!! can't recommend highly enough.

 

I'm on a roll now!....

Faithless anyone? Bought No Roots the other week. Got all their albums and this is certainly up there...weird and wonderful stuff, never an easy listen but this one is probably the most refined to date they have produced. Boy does it test your bottom end!! I'm seeing them at Brixton Academy in December...can't wait, apparently they are fantastic live.

Second to Outrospective which I love too!

Cheers...

Iain

 

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

Following on from a discussion buried deep in the festering bowels of 'another pointless mana thread' - a hifi nerd discussion about the positioning of the bassist, guitarist, etc, no less! - I bought this CD from Amazon for a mere £6. Listened to it properly the other night and... holy shit! This is one hell of an album!

My experience went something like this. Put the disc in, set volume to "loud enough to hear but not loud enough to intrude on a bit of reading", whipped out the latest What Hifi (sad, I know), read some reviews or something whilst the first track was playing. Thought the guitar sounded far too bright, forward, shouty - made me want to keep the volume low, so a bit disappointed, but there was a reasonably interesting subwoofer shootout so I wasn't too bothered. Then track 2 came on, Child In Time. Song started out and my ears pricked up. "This is sounding much better," I thought. No more screeching guitar, instead a good, hearty, three-dimensional soundstage and music that was sounding pretty tasty - both of which demanded that the volume be turned up, to which I obliged. Continued reading What Hifi, all the while thinking, "I really like this track". Then the crazy ass guitar solo starts. Ears prick up even more - woah momma! Volume up! More! More! MORE! Magazine, away! Lights, off! Volume to 11! Headbang city!!

And thats how the rest of the album went. And ooohhhh is it a good'un. And you can tell there's gonna be some killer solos when there are 7 tracks and the total running time is 76 mins!! :JPS:

And blimey if it doesn't sound good too! Really well recorded, especially for a live rock gig from the early 70s! The vast majority of live rock gig CDs I've heard have sounded pretty abysmal, so this was a real treat for me. More, please!

As for Deep Purple generally - well, I'm only 22 (23 next month...) so great bands of the 60s and 70s like this have to be properly "discovered" rather than "rediscovered" (as it is with you old farts ). Prior to this album, I knew Smoke on the Water, but that's it. I had no idea they were such a damn good band, and I shall be hunting down more of their albums forthwith. I think the thing that impressed me the most was the vocalist - I didn't think DP were especially known for their vocalist, but he is seriously good. Child In Time is a great example, as are a few of the other tracks. But every part of the band was just as brilliant.

Anyway, yeah, anyone got any tips on what to get next to discover Deep Purple properly?

Also, anyone know any live rock albums of similarly stunning recording quality with music of a similar calibre..? Want!

Dunc