What album are you listening to?

Loomis wrote:

Erica Ambler wrote:

Ken lockie wrote Metal Box's best track radio 4, but never received credit.

Was listening to "Radio 4" earlier. Reminds me a bit of Kraftwerk.

Ambler's got a hardon for anything Germanic.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Ambler's got a hardon for anything Germanic.

Merkel in a merkin is wood heaven.

Santa eating a pillow is a poor second.

Peter Hook and The Light - Unknown Pleasures Live in Australia (2011). One of the greatest albums ever made, namely Joy Division's 1979 debut, is given a live airing almost 35 years on by a band containing just one member of Joy Division: iconic bassist Peter Hook, whose signature style was such a crucial part of Joy Division's sound. Here, though, Hooky (never before much noted as a vocalist) mostly sings, with his son, Jack Bates, undertaking bass duties. Which may initially seem like a highly questionable way of going about things, but, still, the proof of the pudding is in the, erm, listening, and Live in Australia is out of this world, offering a surprisingly faithful, fairly moving and furiously energetic (Hooky, let's not forget, is pushing sixty) trawl through, well, some of the best songs ever written. To hear the current touring lineup of New Order - of which Hook is not a part - tackle Joy Division classics like "Transmission" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" makes for a pleasant and poignant enough stroll down memory lane, but to hear them performed by Peter Hook and The Light strikes me as much closer to the real deal: more raw, more passionate and more Ian Curtis-esque. I can pay this album no greater tribute than to state that if all four members of Joy Division were still around and still playing together, I doubt that their 2011 live take on Unknown Pleasures would have been much more impressive than this one.

Janelle Monae's THE ELECTRIC LADY. Not as delightfully wild as her previous album, but still pretty strong. As album openers go, "Givin Em What They Love" is pretty slick, though I'm not sure the album really finds its groove until about twenty minutes in. "Look Into My Eyes" is probably the highlight.

Laura Marling is a fierce woman, and I'm not sure how genuine this album is, but The Devil's Resting Place is a great record all the same. A very ordinary verse moves into an extraordinary chorus: 'Water won't clean you ... "

No, but soap will.

Laura O. So Serious wrote:

'Water won't clean you ...

Santa wrote:

No, but soap will.

Medela Quick Clean Breastmilk Removal Soap helped. Once I soaked the bottle parts in the sink, I found hot water worked better than warm water, I was able to scrub less with the brush to reach my desired results. In fact most pieces I didn’t have to scrub at all. Once I rinsed the bottles looked great. Unfortunately when they dried they were once again cloudy (which is something I hoped the product would take care of). I would recommend this to a friend, but unfortunately it’s not the miracle I was hoping it would be for sparkling clean bottles.

Erica Ambler is currently starring in the West End revival of 'Two C's in a K.'

Come join the chatbox.

I have to work, you fucking great gobshites.

Apologies, beautiful dog lady.

Love Train: the Sound of Philadelphia

2008, but still the best budget introduction to Philly International. From disc three, this is the full length version by MFSB with The Three Degrees. Eleven minutes long ...



Why I chose Motown over Philly I'll never know. Amazing stuff.

The First Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle. One of the most famous bootlegs of all, this is the notorious Very Friendly (Parts I and II) from 1975.





Gristle's guitarist Cosey did some porn in her spare time. Fairly innocuous by today's standards, but nice bush:

http://0black0acrylic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/cosey-fanni-tutti-magazine-actions.html

Not familiar with Throbbing Gristle, though I probably should be. Reminds me of Scars, though more abrasive. Interesting companion piece to The Smiths' Suffer Little Children.

PULSE by Front 242.
Not their most commercial one. And not for heavy rotation in a short period of time. But amazing if played at a decent volume, so the different levels of sound open up.
And it fits very good to the season.

Oasis - Definitely Maybe (1994).

No, they weren't The Beatles. They weren't even The Stone Roses. But, for a year or two back in the mid-1990s, Oasis did what they said on the tin with energy, flair and some pretty terrific songs. Had they split up after their first two albums instead of carrying on for far too long, they'd probably be as critically revered as the likes of the Roses, The Smiths and Joy Division.

Oasis's lad rock shite never appealed to me. By far the dullest of the Britpop contenders to the throne, though Blur gave them a run for their money.

Unfortunately Oasis soon became dad-rock rather than lad-rock, going from the thrilling Definitely Maybe to the monumentally dull Be Here Now in only three years.

Lad rock, dad rock, just points on the compass. Each as tedious as the other.

Stereolab - Dots and Loops (1997)



Bitchin'

How Oasis could ever have been as revered as The Smiths on the back of a first duo of albums which brought nothing new to the table except for merely some decent pub singalongs utterly escapes me. I'm with The Shark on this one. Oasis were anti-intelligence bores, IMO.

Songs I Heard... - Harry Connick Jr (2001)

Fun album

the sheltering sky by Ryuchi Sakamoto, haunting and beautifull.

Whenever there is a desert movie the music is mostly sad and haunting, which I kind of like.

Will receive The Abyss by Silvestri this week and Doctor Who series 7 so I expect to listen to them a lot as well.

Manic Street Preachers - Futurology.

An album which opens with what sounds like a fusion of U2's Beautiful Day and Kings Of Leon's Use Somebody should have had me fearing 45 minutes of dadrock hell, but what follows is an unexpectedly damn good mash-up of 80s and modern synthpop/synthrock influences which, while easily identified as Flock Of Seagulls, Goldfrapp (lawsuits probably impending from both), PiL, post-76 Bowie and a pretty heavy dollop of the few acceptable elements of Simple Minds (the mid-album instrumental "Dreaming A City" sounds like Simple Minds watching Rocky IV's training montage whilst soundtracking Top Gun, but somehow it comes out great), yet the Manics still manage to strongly imprint their own identity on all of these songs. In a perfect world, every 30 year old band would still have an album this good up their sleeve.

PS. Cracking in-depth review of this album over at The Quietus, which has gone some way to restoring my faith in music journalism.

Lazenby. wrote:

Manic Street Preachers - Futurology.  

Can't stand the Manics. I always think of them cuddling up to Castro. I like Bobby Womack though. He had a hell of a voice.

This is 'Dayglo Reflections', the best track from his final album, 'The Bravest Man In The Universe' (2012). Not a great album per se, but better than anyone might have expected given the personal shit that was happening in his life.



There were some good reviews, but it kinda went unnoticed. I guess it was an XL charity project. Plus it was a bit soon for the triphop revival...

Peter Gabriel - Melt (Aka Untitled Album Mk III)

I've been on a Gabriel kick recently. For some reason I can't stand Genesis for the life of me, but his solo records resonate. I've also got a thing for that late 70s/early 80s period.

Melt and Security and the two that stand out, although I do like Don't Give Up, mainly for Kate Bush and Tony Levin's bass - one of my significant influences as a bass player.

Love the quartal chords in the this. Classic Colin Moulding. Very ahead of its time.



BTW, I've been trying to scour the internet for the multitracks for Games Without Frontiers, but to no luck. They were released about 5 years ago on Gabriel's Real World Remixed site, but the links are now dead. Shock the Monkey's still up though - had a lot of fun listening and playing along to that.