en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal The Last.fm journal for Rigel_Kent. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/02/19/2hzxks_mid_feb_adds_to_the_ipod.... Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:31:23 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/02/19/2hzxks_mid_feb_adds_to_the_ipod.... Mostly Krautrock

Can - Future Days, Tago Mago
Various Artists - The Krautrock Archive Volume 1, Krautrock Vol. 2
Wendy Carlos - Switched On Bach
Amon Duul II - Phallus Dei
Geoffrey Oryema - Beat The Border

The two Krautrock archives are not related, BTW. The First was released in the USA by Caroline Rec in 1996; the second in Germany by ZYX Music in 2006. My underground exploration continues. I wanted to see if I could find the book by Julian Cope about this genre and it's time, but it's out of print and goes for something like $200 on Ebay!
I always thought that Switched On Bach was a novelty album, especially considering the plethora of "homages" out there on banjo, polka or whatever for many other artists. After reading how meticulously Carlos had put together these pieces over a period of months, giving special attention to production value in 1968, however, I got it and found it is amazing, not only for Bach lovers, but anyone interested in the "early days" (so to speak) of electronic music. Wow...that was a long sentence.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/02/04/2ghstq_new_year_ads_to_the_ipod Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:33:43 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/02/04/2ghstq_new_year_ads_to_the_ipod The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night
R.E.M. - Reconstruction Of The Fables
Sugar - Beaster
Fuck - Pardon My French
Amon Duul 2 - Only Human, yeti
Cluster - Zuckerzeit
Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live
Guru Guru - Kanguru
Harmonia - Deluxe
Klaus Schultze - Cyborg
Kraftwerk - Kraftwerk 1
La Dusseldorf - La Dusseldorf
Neu! - Neu!
Walter Wegmuller - Tarot

With a band name like "Fuck" one might think, among other things, of frat boy toilet humor tuness or some other sort of silly thing, but actually Fuck has some nicely put together songs. This is the second CD I've found from them and find them consistent: well-thought out melodies and, at most, a light-hearted approach to lyrics. Obviously won't be hearing them on Ryan Seacrest anytime soon.....and not because of the name either, har-har.
From Amon Duul 2 down, I've added to my Krautrock playlist through a rather scatter shot approach of downloads. In each case, I've tried (and maybe failed) to find the earliest works of each artist on the assumption that earlier is better. That maybe flawed reasoning, but is has provided a couple of hours of new listening and an education of this experimental, underground genre from the early '70's. Pretty neat!

Wikipedia article on Krautrock

Auf Wiedersehen!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/01/17/2eofp6_december_and_xmas_adds_to_the_ipod___pt._2take_2 Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:51:46 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/01/17/2eofp6_december_and_xmas_adds_to_the_ipod___pt._2take_2 Tristeza - Spine and Sensory, Dream Signals in Full Circles
Galaxie 500 - On Fire
Rush - Different Stages
American Music Club - San Francisco
Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
The Cure - The Peel Sessions
Wire - It's Beginning To and Back Again
Roy Montgomery - And Now the Rain Sounds Like Life Is Falling Down Through It
R.E.M. - Life's Rich Pageant
Dream Theater - Awake
Sugar - Copper Blue
Codeine - Frigid stars LP
The Sea and Cake - Everybody
Oliver Mtukudzi - Nhava
Soundgarden - Ultramega OK
π-Dogx - Parable

Gonna have to fill up with comments later. This the second time I had to type out the list because Last.fm doesn't have an autosave feature.

OK, I was mistaken last post: now that I have Different Stages my Rush collection is complete.
A lot of slowcore this time around. I have heard of some the bands before ie. Codeine, Galaxie 500 and Bedhead, but have never given them a serious listen. I half expected all these bands to more or less have the same vibe as Low (whose members, BTW dislike the term "slowcore" and don't use it) but they are all quite different. American Music Club was a particular pleasant surprise and I will be getting more of them.
A special shout out to π-Dogx, a duo from Sweden that specialize in live ambient improvisations, and are very good at it. They know me from my other "personality" Oilfaunt and were helpful with some feedback from my own Droney side. Look out for them, it's worth it!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/01/11/2e18z0_december_and_xmas_adds_to_the_ipod...pt.1 Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:39:20 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2009/01/11/2e18z0_december_and_xmas_adds_to_the_ipod...pt.1 Trojan Ska Revival Box Set, Trojan Reggae Rarities Box Set
Low - Transmission EP, In the Fishtank, owL remix, A Lifetime Of Temporary Relief
Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie
Youssou N'Dour - Eyes Open
Rush - Roll The Bones
Red House Painters - Bridge, Songs for a Blue Guitar, Old Ramon


With the addition of Roll The Bones my Rush collection is complete! Except for the retrospective albums, which I see no real reason to get. I forgot what a fantastic song "Dreamline" is.
My exploration into the Slowcore genre has been...well, slow. In The Fishtank is a collaboration of Low with the Aussie band The Dirty Three and is part of a series of sessions for the Dutch label Konkurrent. A Lifetime.. is Low's box set with singles, demos and b-sides along with a DVD that has music videos on it I think, I haven't watched it yet. owl remix are remixes.
The slowcore continues with three albums by Red House Painters which I find very charming in tone and songwriting. Never underestimate the power of random word searches on Wikipedia.
And finally, Fantasm Parastasie is a collaboration with Tim Hecker and Aiden Baker. It makes for interesting and satisfying listening, but beware: the seven songs are carved up into SIXTY-SIX tracks, of a few seconds each. Fine for listening straight through, but if you put the ol' iPod on shuffle the way I do, you only get to hear the 20-30 seconds snippets the album is made up of.

More Anon!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/11/02/2982os_adds_for_the_month_of_october Sun, 2 Nov 2008 18:34:21 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/11/02/2982os_adds_for_the_month_of_october I've really let them pile up! Not counting downloads I've got 17 since the last list. At least!
Geddy Lee - My Favorite Headache
Victor - Victor
The American Analog Set -
Set Free
Pelican - City Of Echoes
Boards of Canada - In A Beautiful Place In The Country
Windy and Carl - Songs for the Broken Hearted
Rush - Vapor Trails, All The World's A Stage
QUTH - The Birth Of The Worm, The Death Of The Worm
Yabby You - Dub It To The Top 1976-1979
Johnny Clegg & Savuka - Third World Child
R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office
Heart of the Forest - Heart of the Forest
XTC - Nonsuch
Morrissey - "Kill Uncle"

I finally tracked down the two solo albums of the two front men of Rush.( Victor, BTW is Rush guitarist Alex LIfeson). Technically, Neil Peart has one too, a tribute to jazz drummer Buddy Rich, but it is more of a collaboration with Rich's band and different drummers, as well as Peart.
I had two friends in high school named Wendy and Carl; this was the bad reason for finding Windy and Carl in the first place since I kept seeing my friends names, but I'm glad I did, because their droney ambient music captured me at the first and I've become a fan. And this CD (which I ordered from their store Stormy Records in Dearborn, MI) came with a nice work of art from Windy Weber that is now on the studio wall.
An old girlfriend had me listen to Johnny Clegg & Savuka at the time when Aparthied was still reigning strong . (As a matter of fact, we watched Mandela being released from prison together one cold Sunday morning). I hadn't really given him much thought since then, but am enjoying this CD an will look for more.
OK, if I missed any more I'll catch 'em up later]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/09/08/25laqv_adds_to_the_ipod_early_september.... Mon, 8 Sep 2008 15:25:08 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/09/08/25laqv_adds_to_the_ipod_early_september.... Things have kind of slowed down as far as adds go this last month...don't know why. Anyway...
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Tomorrowland - Sequence of the Negative Space Changes
Roy Montgomery - True
Various Artists - An Anthology Of Noise and Electronic Music / First a-Chronology (1921-2001), An Anthology Of Noise and Electronic Music / Second a-Chronology(1936-2003)
Mark Isham - Tibet
Bass Communion - Continuum,
Dronework
....and various downloads.

I have *no* idea how I missed putting Meddle on the iPod. All I know is I was planning on playing my wife the similarities between the Doctor Who Theme and "One Of These Days" and realized I didn't have the studio version! Well, that's fixed anyway (and I've been reading Nick Mason's book "Inside Out" for the last week too....naughty me).
Continuum is actually a collaboration between BC and vidnaObamna....the second I have heard of but not heard.
True is a collab between Montgomery and Chris Heaphy, whom I haven't heard of either. Good CD though and is (I think) a live soundtrack to a film called "True". Very Montgomery-ish!


PS I've been doing these posts of iPod adds for some months now, and just realized I could post them to certain groups, like "I still Buy CDs". If this is inappropriate or unwelcome, please let me know and I will stop.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/13/242il1_adds_to_the_ipod_for_early_august_%2708 Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:41:26 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/13/242il1_adds_to_the_ipod_for_early_august_%2708 Can - Cannibalism I
Mickey Hart - At the Edge
Sugar - File Under Easy Listening
The Chemical Brothers - Singles 93 - 03
Muslimgauze - Syrinjia, Hamas Cinema Gaza Strip
Solomon Ilori and his Afro-Drum Ensemble - African High Life
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Bass Communion - Molotov And Haze
R.E.M. - Document
Orchestra Baobab - Specialist In All Styles

Document is one of those albums I loved listening to over and over when it was first out. R.E.M. was one of those bands that everybody else seemed to love, but I couldn't see what the big deal was; until this came out. Then I started liking everything else before this album, go figure.
Bass Communion keeps turning over the surprises. This one is Steven Wilson's guitar treatments, which means it's somewhat louder then what you would expect considering his past BC work. Still works for me though, and damn it, I wish I did it first.
I never heard of Solomon Ilori, and when I saw this
Blue Note release in the jazz section I thought it might have been misfiled, what with a name like African Highlife sounds like it belongs in the World Music selection. What I found was a lot of the later, with just a touch of the former, but I suspect that with a Blue Note logo on it, it was just assumed it belonged with the likes of Miles Davis and Trane. A Great Find!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/04/23lzye_adds_to_the_ipod_for_july....pt.2 Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:10:07 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/04/23lzye_adds_to_the_ipod_for_july....pt.2 Axiom Dub - Mysteries Of Creation
Rush - A Farewell To Kings, Counterparts
Marconi Union - Distance
Various Artists - Authenticite: The Syliphone Years
Cloudland Canyon, Lichens - Exterminating Angel
Porcupine Tree - We Lost the Skyline
Bass Communion & Freiband - Haze Shrapnel
Steven Wilson - Cover Version V
Mystified - Baseline
Tabu Ley Rochereau - The Voice Of Lightness
C.P. McDill - Rain 1
Hybernation - Snow cover

The Marconi Union was suggested to me by an old high school friend, and glad that he did. It's funny how we listened to the same bands when we were teenagers (more or less) haven't spoken/seen each other in 20+ years, and then re-connect and find that we are still listening to the same music, even though it's totally different from what we used to listen too!
The "Authenticite - The Syliphone years" full title goes on to say "Guinea's Orchestres Nationaux And Federaux 1965-1980". This is a 2 CD set highlighting Guinea after independence in the '60's and trying to establish an identity for the fledgling nation.
The Tabu Ley Rochereau is a 2 CD set as well, featuring the Congolese legends career with his different bands between 1961-1977. Both have been very enjoyable to listen too, and the sound quality is better then I would have thought, with little booklets that make good reading while listening.
I would also recommend "The Rough Guide's Music Of Africa", as this has been a helpful guide in expanding my interest in African Pop.
Steven Wilson's fifth 7" has a cover of Prince's "Sign O The Times" as well as an original "Well You're Wrong" . Looking forward to # 6!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/03/23l696_adds_to_the_ipod_for_july....pt.1 Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:55:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/08/03/23l696_adds_to_the_ipod_for_july....pt.1 Holy Jeebus, I got a lot this month...Not going to be able to get them all, even in two parts. But anyway:
The Drift - Memory Drawings
A Whisper in the Noise, If Thousands - 2d
Windy and Carl - Depths, Antarctica
Eluvium - When I Live By The Garden And The Sea
The Specials - The Specials
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Sonna - These Windows Are Pistons
Rush - Snakes And Arrows Live
Muslimgauze - Azzazin, Blue Mosque, Vampire of Tehran
Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music


My love affair with Muslimgauze goes on. I just can't seem to stop listening to him and trying to find new stuff, whether on Ebay or Amazon Marketplace. I have to say that Azzazin has to be one of the most approachable albums to those new to Bryn Jones music, if not a hard one to find.
Saw Rush a few weeks back. And loved it. So I had to get the live CD. And love it. It's *almost* a track-by-track of the concert. Since then I've been bugging the Missus with the playing of the Rush playlist on random, whenever I'm not listening to anything else.
I also picked up a lot of Post-Rock this time around, for some reason, The Drift and Sonna being my favorite two so far. I need to see if The Drift tours around here sometime...
And the one CD I've put in the iPod, but not yet listened too yet is Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. And this isn't even the original studio album, it's live in Germany with Reed and Zeitkratzer, a string ensemble of some sort.
Wiki for MMM
....put simply I'm just about too afraid to listen to it.....yet.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/07/03/21vdhu_early_july_adds_to_the_ipod Thu, 3 Jul 2008 01:50:47 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Rigel_Kent/journal/2008/07/03/21vdhu_early_july_adds_to_the_ipod John Fahey - God, Time And Causality
Pelican - Pelican EP
Baaba Maal - Missing You(Mi Yeewnii)
Zani Diabate & the Super Djata Band - Zani Diabate and The Super Djata Band
Various Artists - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto
Various Artists - Voices of the Real World
Rush - Presto, Vapor Trails, Power Windows
Orchestra Baobab - Pirates Choice
Muslimgauze - Coup D'Etat/Abu Nidal, Hummus
Youssou N'Dour - Immigres
The Sea and Cake - Two Gentlemen
Peter Gabriel - Long Walk Home
Litmus0001 - stillorgan road
Anthony Phillips - Sides
Toure Kunda - Amadou-Tilo
Tabu Ley Rochereau - Et L'African Fiesta National

Well, I hit another used CD place this week. This time Fantasyland Records in Buckhead. Got some pretty good finds too...I think. I was excited to find the Anthony Phillips album, on vinyl yet, but have read since that it is the more pedestrian of his efforts, and certainly not up to his Genesis-like work on The Geese and the Ghost. I still have to listen to it though, so I can't say myself.
Zani Diabate, I would assume by name is a relative of Toumani Diabate the kora player, but that *is* an assumption on my part; the sparse liner notes do list him as being a Malian Griot, but make no mention of the world renowned Toumani or his legendary father Sidiki Diabate. The music is much more R&B orientated than I would have imagined, but still keeps that traditional sound that I love from West Africa.
I am a huge Rush fan. Until relatively recently, however, I felt their best effort ended with Signals with perhaps a two tracks from Grace Under Pressure thrown in. Sure I bought the later albums when they came out, but returned more and more to listening to the "classic' albums from earlier in their career.
Well, I've started buying the back catalog in anticipation of seeing them play later this month. And you know what? This stuff rocks! A cliche, perhaps, but none the less true.
The Peter Gabriel album is a soundtrack to the film "Rabbit-proof Fence" about children from the "Stolen Generation" of Australian Aborigines. The music is beautiful, of course, but if you can catch the film (it shows here in the States on IFC quite a bit) I would recommend it for its story as well.]]>