Friday, April 15, 2011

Moon Duo - Mazes [interview & mix]


In honour of a new Moon Duo record "Mazes"(featuring Ripley from Wooden shjips), here's a link over to the Quietus website which has an interview from the excellent Stool Pigeon and a mix as well.

Get you laughing gear round this

Monday, April 11, 2011

Sarabeth Tucek - Sarabeth Tucek [2007]


Sarabeth Tucek has just released her 2nd LP, “Get Well Soon” – there’s plenty of reviews on the internet so I’ll not bore you with further details. Suffice it to say that fans of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Cat Power … etc. will enjoy this. She’s just basically doing her thing, which involves writing & delivering really good songs – regardless of what’s going on around her. She’s a massive Bob Dylan fan, but I can hear a lot of Neil Young in her songs, especially the loose gritty soulfulness of "Everybody Knows this is Nowhere" and the heavier looser moments of "Harvest" / "After the Goldrush"
Previously she sang with The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Smog (aka. Bill Callahan). Her first album was absolutely great, but is really hard to get hold of. I assume as she was signed to Echo records in the UK, and Echo records is no more, that it’s a classic case of record comes out, label goes bust, record disappears. That’s a shame cos it’s a far better record than a lot of stuff out there.

Sarabeth Tucek 'Wooden' (from the new album) by Sonic Cathedral

"A set of songs that are often as disquietingly spare as they are beautiful" UNCUT (4 STARS)
“Heartbreaking” MOJO
“A timeless little wonder” BBC
“Absolutely amazing.″ NME (8/10)
“Her rich, sad voice makes her rise above the pack” DAILY TELEGRAPH

Buy the new album here or here

Download album #1

Low - The Black Sessions [2007]


The Black Sessions are live performances broadcast on the radio station France Inter. They are hosted by a talkative chap called "Bernard Lenoir" (Bernard the Black!). I'm told he's viewed as the French John Peel.

In honour of the release of Low's latest album "C'mon", I'm posting a link to Low's Black Session from 2007. He does quite a bit of yapping does our Bernard, but it's still pretty good. And interesting for the fact that the tracks from "Drums & Guns" are played more straightforwardly than on that LP.

Get it here Low Black Session 2007 CE at archive.org (listen or download)



The new album can be found here, here or here

2010 - What happened?

Stuff, lots of stuff happened. But ultimately, the year started and the year ended and there was some music. Here's an unfinished Spotify "Best of..." for 2010. Omissions include stuff not on Spotify and stuff that I forgot.

Link (To state the obvious, you'll need Spotify to listen to this)


The picture relates to 2010 having been the year of the tiger (Feb 2010 - Feb 2011). Apparently "...2010 may see stressful situations caused by capricious events. We are advised to control our fate with confidence and an open heart. To keep both our individual and collective systems free of unbalanced emotions, energy should generally be attuned to passionate, honest and modest frequencies."

The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights [1978]


After their initial success in the 60s, The Walker Brothers split in 1968. Scott Walker, troubled by depression ended up seeking refuge in a monastery. All 3 "brothers" produced solo records, most notably Scott Walker whose solo records are all stone cold classics.
The group re-convened in the 70s and produced 3 albums. The last of these was 1978s "Nite Flights", after which the Walker Brothers were no more.
This album is made up of songs written by all 3 of them, with Scott's tracks being the opening 4 tracks (& the ones to download here). These tracks pointed the way to darker, weirder and more experimental territory where his further solo material would go.
Sounding as though it was influenced by Bowie's "Low", this record clearly influenced Bowie who has professed his admiration for Scott Walker on many occasions and indeed covered the title track of this LP.
Brian Eno has heavily praised this LP too, so it must have sat alongside his krautrock passion as a big influence. Apparently, Midge Ure was inspired by "The Electrician" to write Vienna, but you can't have it all I suppose.
So this record is an important piece of the jigsaw, alongside the Bowie/Iggy/Eno ripples from Berlin:
- Iggy Pop - The Idiot
- David Bowie - Low / "Heroes" / Lodger
- Brian Eno - Before and after Science / Music For Airports
- Cluster and Eno
- Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
etc...

The film Scott Walker:30 Century Man is essential viewing



Scott Walker - 30 century Man (from Scott 3 [1969])



Tracks 1 - 4 from Nite Flights HERE

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Why?

Here's where the blog starts, I've finally got round to it!

Amongst other things it will highlight music worthy of note that may well be under the radar or just hard/impossible to find.

I'm thinking it'll comprise Youtube links, Spotify links & links to where you can download mp3s (in the cases where the music is really hard to find). Like it says in the disclaimer, there's no intention of treading on anyone's copyright toes.

None of the music linked to is stored on this server.

I just need to tweak the appearance now ... actually I might just crack on & do that as it goes along.