New recent purchases:
Pink Floyd's Record Store Day release
"Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin (that's more of an EP really but still)
what's the last album you bought?
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- Hammer
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Pre-ordered this a while ago, only 2 weeks to go now
https://oresundspacecollective.bandcamp ... ant-breath
https://oresundspacecollective.bandcamp ... ant-breath
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Not including download purchases, the last physical album I bought was 'Each Day a Different Sun' by Apollo Suns. Bought it at their show last month. Excellent jazz rock fusion.
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
I went on a Curved Air binge. Curved Air's first few albums have been remastered by original member Francis Monkman. These albums have been expanded and spruced up, with two of the free featuring a DVD of archival footage. I think that, at times, Francis has been a little bit fond of various stereo imagery plugins to try and breathe some life into the mixes. From all reports the first couple of albums were badly mixed, with muffled and unbalanced mastering being an issue.
Curved Air: Air Conditioning, 2CD Remastered & Expanded Edition
Curved Air's debut; the exciting first album from these Terry Riley disciples. The original LP came as a scratchy-sounding picture disk, the album artwork had some casual nudity in it... what is there not to like? The whole premise of Curved Air is here to see. Two precocious, classically trained musicians. One female folk singer. One slightly underpowered rhythm section. The songs have reasonably complex structures, and the band can go anywhere from pastoral folk interludes to driving rock; sometimes within the same song. The highlights for me are 'Propositions’, ‘Vivaldi’ and ‘Situations’. 'Vivaldi' is violinist Darryl Way's neoclassical springboard for some fairly hairy special effects. 'Propositions' is a fairly hard rocker that is, unfortunately, rather badly mixed in favour of Monkman's guitar work. 'Situations' is a mellow keyboard-lead song which has some uplifting breaks and interludes.
'Propositions' is perhaps the ultimate M.O. of the band as intended by Monkman and Way. What starts off as a conventional rock song gives way to a sort of echo'd, bleeping and blooping retread of Riley's Rainbow In Curved Air album, only with guitar replacing the organ of the original.
'Screw' is also a fun, rollicking track that has a slight air of Acquiring The Taste-era Gentle Giant to it, probably due to the bouncing wah-pedal treated violin lines and swinging rhythm.
This is the only release to have a bonus disk of musical content, which combines a selection of BBC cuts (there is already an album of BBC sessions available called 'On Air') with some outtakes. In my opinion there are too many versions of 'It Happened Today' on this second disk, as it isn't my favourite song by any means. However the alternate take of the instrumental 'Rob' is quite nice to hear.
Curved Air: Second Album, 2 Disc Expanded & Remastered Edition
The band's biggest hit, 'Backstreet Luv', is on this album. This is a great song that combines their love of lush neoclassical chord progressions with a spikey, hard rock sound. Sonja Kristina's vocals are both sensual and oddly aloof, and the main melody of the track is picked out using an early synthesiser. Perhaps this is the ultimate M.O. of Curved Air, then?
Other tracks just don't stand out in the same way, unfortunately, and I feel that the band haven't really progressed much over their debut. Perhaps their entire premise was just a bit too wobbly? Monkman and Way, the two proper musos in the band, didn't really ever write well together, and neither could knock out either a brain-twisting complex prog work or a concise, memorable pop song. Both are very capable musicians, but I feel they never quite reconciled their love of abstract electronics, Riley, rock and folk influences on this record.
On this reissue, the bonus tracks are actually BBC versions of Air Conditioning tracks (yet another version of It Happened Today, and an aggressive version of 'Propositions' that is melded with the B-side song 'What Happens When You Blow Yourself Up').
The DVD contains footage from two Beat Club sessions (the first obliterated with annoying special effects but the latter reproduced without the effects) and some live footage recorded for French TV at the Olympia in Paris. This footage is good as it captures the band live in front of an audience, and captures 'just another night on the road' for the band.
Curved Air: Phantasmagoria, 2 Disc Expanded Edition
The band are a bit more eclectic on this album. Sonja was allowed (finally) to bring in some of her folk influences, with her compositions 'Marie Antoinette' and 'Melinda (More or Less)' given a Curved Air makeover of sorts. The abstract electronics are utilised in full on the peculiar 'Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway', which features a spoken passage treated with primitive vocoder and distortion effects. This track runs seamlessly into the manic 'Over and Above'.
Oddly the title track itself seems somewhat dated sounding. It sounds groovy, which was probably not a good thing by 1972. Had the song landed in 1968 it might have done better? The lyrics are a strangely goofy narrative about supernatural visitations, over blustering organ work. It might have sounded better had it been written and performed by Brian Auger Trinity a few years earlier. Given that T-Rex and Slade were assaulting the charts with stomping glam by 1972, this track sounds archaic by comparison.
The extra tracks on this album are 'Marie Antoinette' and 'Melinda (More or Less)' in French and Italian respectively (with identical backing tracks to the album takes) and the entirely forgettable single 'Sarah's Concern' which just never gets off the ground.
The DVD contains some nice live footage of the band recorded for Belgian TV, alongside a mimed spot filmed for Austrian TV.
Curved Air: The Second British Rock Meeting 1972
The third archival release from Curved Air, but perhaps the one of most interest. This album was recorded live in Germany in 1972, for the purpose of rebroadcast at a later date. Pink Floyd appeared at the same festival, and their set was recorded in the same manner. Where is this tape?
Anyway, this is ramshackle performance. The band start off on a basic vamp as Sonja was having difficulties reaching the stage. This flows neatly into a clearly rehearsed combination of 'Everdance', a snatch of the instrunmental 'Cheetah' and the first of two readings from 'Vivaldi'. The sound quality is surprisingly good, with Curved Air's live sound mixing coming over rather well. The band toured with their own dedicated sound engineer (something of a novelty back then) who would mix the instruments on the fly and also route vocals and instruments through stereo echo effects, which at times comes across in startling clarity on this recording.
Sadly the drums and bass seem to suffer the most; probably due to the poor quality amplification for the latter and poor mic'ing of the former.
Next is a straight reading of the tracks 'Phantasmagoria' and a solo spot 'Melinda (More or Less)' for Sonja. 'Over and Above' is next, and is again faithful to the album cut.
The final track is a jam of sorts, that gives way to 'Vivaldi' again. This time we are treated to the full sonic attack of Darryl Way's electric violin and effects. We also get a frankly brutal barrage of electronics from Monkman's VCS-3 synthesiser. This is seen and heard on live takes of Vivaldi bundled in as bonuses on the studio albums discussed above, but here the electronics seem especially harsh and visceral.
Curved Air: Air Conditioning, 2CD Remastered & Expanded Edition
Curved Air's debut; the exciting first album from these Terry Riley disciples. The original LP came as a scratchy-sounding picture disk, the album artwork had some casual nudity in it... what is there not to like? The whole premise of Curved Air is here to see. Two precocious, classically trained musicians. One female folk singer. One slightly underpowered rhythm section. The songs have reasonably complex structures, and the band can go anywhere from pastoral folk interludes to driving rock; sometimes within the same song. The highlights for me are 'Propositions’, ‘Vivaldi’ and ‘Situations’. 'Vivaldi' is violinist Darryl Way's neoclassical springboard for some fairly hairy special effects. 'Propositions' is a fairly hard rocker that is, unfortunately, rather badly mixed in favour of Monkman's guitar work. 'Situations' is a mellow keyboard-lead song which has some uplifting breaks and interludes.
'Propositions' is perhaps the ultimate M.O. of the band as intended by Monkman and Way. What starts off as a conventional rock song gives way to a sort of echo'd, bleeping and blooping retread of Riley's Rainbow In Curved Air album, only with guitar replacing the organ of the original.
'Screw' is also a fun, rollicking track that has a slight air of Acquiring The Taste-era Gentle Giant to it, probably due to the bouncing wah-pedal treated violin lines and swinging rhythm.
This is the only release to have a bonus disk of musical content, which combines a selection of BBC cuts (there is already an album of BBC sessions available called 'On Air') with some outtakes. In my opinion there are too many versions of 'It Happened Today' on this second disk, as it isn't my favourite song by any means. However the alternate take of the instrumental 'Rob' is quite nice to hear.
Curved Air: Second Album, 2 Disc Expanded & Remastered Edition
The band's biggest hit, 'Backstreet Luv', is on this album. This is a great song that combines their love of lush neoclassical chord progressions with a spikey, hard rock sound. Sonja Kristina's vocals are both sensual and oddly aloof, and the main melody of the track is picked out using an early synthesiser. Perhaps this is the ultimate M.O. of Curved Air, then?
Other tracks just don't stand out in the same way, unfortunately, and I feel that the band haven't really progressed much over their debut. Perhaps their entire premise was just a bit too wobbly? Monkman and Way, the two proper musos in the band, didn't really ever write well together, and neither could knock out either a brain-twisting complex prog work or a concise, memorable pop song. Both are very capable musicians, but I feel they never quite reconciled their love of abstract electronics, Riley, rock and folk influences on this record.
On this reissue, the bonus tracks are actually BBC versions of Air Conditioning tracks (yet another version of It Happened Today, and an aggressive version of 'Propositions' that is melded with the B-side song 'What Happens When You Blow Yourself Up').
The DVD contains footage from two Beat Club sessions (the first obliterated with annoying special effects but the latter reproduced without the effects) and some live footage recorded for French TV at the Olympia in Paris. This footage is good as it captures the band live in front of an audience, and captures 'just another night on the road' for the band.
Curved Air: Phantasmagoria, 2 Disc Expanded Edition
The band are a bit more eclectic on this album. Sonja was allowed (finally) to bring in some of her folk influences, with her compositions 'Marie Antoinette' and 'Melinda (More or Less)' given a Curved Air makeover of sorts. The abstract electronics are utilised in full on the peculiar 'Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway', which features a spoken passage treated with primitive vocoder and distortion effects. This track runs seamlessly into the manic 'Over and Above'.
Oddly the title track itself seems somewhat dated sounding. It sounds groovy, which was probably not a good thing by 1972. Had the song landed in 1968 it might have done better? The lyrics are a strangely goofy narrative about supernatural visitations, over blustering organ work. It might have sounded better had it been written and performed by Brian Auger Trinity a few years earlier. Given that T-Rex and Slade were assaulting the charts with stomping glam by 1972, this track sounds archaic by comparison.
The extra tracks on this album are 'Marie Antoinette' and 'Melinda (More or Less)' in French and Italian respectively (with identical backing tracks to the album takes) and the entirely forgettable single 'Sarah's Concern' which just never gets off the ground.
The DVD contains some nice live footage of the band recorded for Belgian TV, alongside a mimed spot filmed for Austrian TV.
Curved Air: The Second British Rock Meeting 1972
The third archival release from Curved Air, but perhaps the one of most interest. This album was recorded live in Germany in 1972, for the purpose of rebroadcast at a later date. Pink Floyd appeared at the same festival, and their set was recorded in the same manner. Where is this tape?
Anyway, this is ramshackle performance. The band start off on a basic vamp as Sonja was having difficulties reaching the stage. This flows neatly into a clearly rehearsed combination of 'Everdance', a snatch of the instrunmental 'Cheetah' and the first of two readings from 'Vivaldi'. The sound quality is surprisingly good, with Curved Air's live sound mixing coming over rather well. The band toured with their own dedicated sound engineer (something of a novelty back then) who would mix the instruments on the fly and also route vocals and instruments through stereo echo effects, which at times comes across in startling clarity on this recording.
Sadly the drums and bass seem to suffer the most; probably due to the poor quality amplification for the latter and poor mic'ing of the former.
Next is a straight reading of the tracks 'Phantasmagoria' and a solo spot 'Melinda (More or Less)' for Sonja. 'Over and Above' is next, and is again faithful to the album cut.
The final track is a jam of sorts, that gives way to 'Vivaldi' again. This time we are treated to the full sonic attack of Darryl Way's electric violin and effects. We also get a frankly brutal barrage of electronics from Monkman's VCS-3 synthesiser. This is seen and heard on live takes of Vivaldi bundled in as bonuses on the studio albums discussed above, but here the electronics seem especially harsh and visceral.
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- Hammer
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Last album I bought was Jean-Michel Jarre's "Equinoxe Infinity". Excellent return to form for Jarre, I can tell you!
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (SDE) ... saw and heard the great man guesting with Hawkwind a few weeks ago and decided I should re-visit the album from a few years ago.
Great voice and amusing to listen again to the 'God of Hellfire'
Great voice and amusing to listen again to the 'God of Hellfire'
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
1. What release ?theaussiefloydian wrote: ↑Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:06 pm New recent purchases:
1.Pink Floyd's Record Store Day release
2. "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin (that's more of an EP really but still)
2. It really is an EP
Me, I believe it was Virtue by The Voidz. Definitely a grower for me.
twcc, does he still wear that lantern atop of his head ?
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- Hammer
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Aaaaa nice
I got it on a bootleg CD some 17 years ago, without any info it was mono. Most notable difference, imho, - the Flaming outro.
I got it on a bootleg CD some 17 years ago, without any info it was mono. Most notable difference, imho, - the Flaming outro.
Lemmy was looking down, giggling with joy
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum. waiting for the double Cd to arrive in the post (English and Swedish version) but have Spotified it the meantime ... man, there's a lot to get through. Liking it so far
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Ian Brown: Music of the Spheres
I never got into The Stone Roses, as I was out of the western music sphere at that time - I'll give people here ONE guess at one of the two western bands I saw live between 1987-1991.
I've heard of The Stone Roses, but for some reason never got into them. However, Spotify auto-played an Ian Brown track 'F.E.A.R.' for me. I liked it and immediately added it to my playlist of bits and pieces. Listened to the album shortly after, and found it really good. I'm listening to more Ian Brown now, but haven't yet found another album that works for me as good as 'Spheres'. However, sometimes these things take time.
I never got into The Stone Roses, as I was out of the western music sphere at that time - I'll give people here ONE guess at one of the two western bands I saw live between 1987-1991.
I've heard of The Stone Roses, but for some reason never got into them. However, Spotify auto-played an Ian Brown track 'F.E.A.R.' for me. I liked it and immediately added it to my playlist of bits and pieces. Listened to the album shortly after, and found it really good. I'm listening to more Ian Brown now, but haven't yet found another album that works for me as good as 'Spheres'. However, sometimes these things take time.
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Re: what's the last album you bought?
Great album. Agree with you, I was never a Stone Roses fan at all but find Ian Brown's solo material really creative and interesting.Annoying Twit wrote: ↑Sun Oct 06, 2019 10:07 am Ian Brown: Music of the Spheres
I never got into The Stone Roses, as I was out of the western music sphere at that time - I'll give people here ONE guess at one of the two western bands I saw live between 1987-1991.
I've heard of The Stone Roses, but for some reason never got into them. However, Spotify auto-played an Ian Brown track 'F.E.A.R.' for me. I liked it and immediately added it to my playlist of bits and pieces. Listened to the album shortly after, and found it really good. I'm listening to more Ian Brown now, but haven't yet found another album that works for me as good as 'Spheres'. However, sometimes these things take time.
Last record I bought was "Fear Innoculum" by Tool. I seem to be in dissent with many fans, but I think it's absolutely terrific and without doubt the best album made in the last ten years...