Stuart Eglin Online

Stuart Eglin Online

Archive for category Music

Friday Playlist 3

Mar 2

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music, Playlists | No Comments

It’s been a while since I did one of these – a list of the albums I am listening to at the moment. (Earlier ones are here and here).

The music which is forming the soundtrack for my life at the moment is:

1. Nine Horses – Money for all

I bought the original album ‘Snow Borne Sorrow’ a while back when it came out. This new release is a mixture of new tracks (3 of them) and remixes of tracks from the album. David Sylvian works well in the mix with Steve Jansen and Burnt Friedman. It’s a CD which slowly burns into your memory banks and demands replays.

2. Tom Waits – Orphans

This had such amazing reviews, that I couldn’t wait to get hold of a copy. I got it for Christmas, and have been dipping into it ever since. Three hours of Tom Waits, meandering all over his various muscial styles, voices and topics. The third CD is probably the weirdest (saying something where Waits is concerned!) as it mixes stories, poems and soundtrack outtakes. The whole CD set is a mammoth thing which surprisingly hangs together.

3. Ketil Bjornstad /David Darling – Epigraphs

This is a stunning album of improvisations between piano and cello. It shifts from modern ambient, cool jazz to echoes of Bach and Mozart. Great music for thinking and creating.

4. Joanna Newsom – Ys

It’s an epic album, full of stories and threads of ideas. The orchestration by Van Dyke Parks is amazing and the whole thing is a labryinth which reveals new secrets on each listen.

5. Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender

Well, the new album took me into the first one. This is a much starker arrangement. Her voice is somewhere between Bjork, Kate Bush and Tori Amos. But it has its own unique territory too! I love the lyrics, and I love the arrangements for each song.

6. Badly Drawn Boy – About a Boy

I know he has a new album out – and no, I haven’t heard it yet. But I saw the film of which this is the soundtrack again recently, and was drawn back to this album. Damon Gough carves out his own furrow. But above all else, he writes great melodies. I absolutely love the song ‘Silent Sigh’, used at a particularly painful moment in the film.

7. Fennesz – Endless Summer

I came to Fennesz’s work through a collaboration he did with David Sylvian. He is a guitarist and laptop improviser from Austria. This album is truly beautiful – it rises gently out of a backround of noise and captures you like a stunning sunrise on a crisp morning.

8. John Cale – Black Acetate

An eclectic mix of styles, some killer riffs and a giant bag of seething energy. And the production is stunning. I’m not particularly precious about production values – but this one just reaches out of the speakers and grabs you by the throat.

9. Paul Weller – Stanley Road

I’m not sure how I missed this when it first came out. Last year I bought the anniversary edition and have listened to it so many times since. What a classic album!

10. Sigur Ros – Takk

I know I have chosen this album before on this blog, but it really does tease out new things on each listen. Earlier this week I spent an evening listening really carefully to it through headphones and there is so much going on in the mix that I hadn’t heard before.

Tags: ,

He’s Mark Rushton, He makes music and art

Feb 28

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

I have been following the work of Mark Rushton for a couple of years now. He used to run a website called ‘Hooray for Vouvray’ and then migrated all of his activities to his own domain. As well as creating ambient and drone music, he is also a painter. He produces a new podcast every month or so with samples of the music he is working on. Well worth a listen.

One thing I particularly like about the site, is watching someone who is clearly following their passion.

Tags: ,

The importance of scarcity

Sep 12

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | 2 Comments

I have an idea for an article which I am going to write. The title is “Being overwhelmed with musical choice – the importance of scarcity” and it will be about the dilemma created by the digital age. Thanks to the internet and digital files, there is more choice than we have ever experienced. This seems like an incredible opportunity. All that music, all those podcasts to listen to, all those audio books, all those text files.

But the down-side of all this is that we reach saturation point where it is no longer possible to take in everything that we collect. Look at the total time-span of all the material loaded onto the mp3 player and ask yourself whether you really do have the time to listen to everything that is on it.

The result of all this is that music and literature become disposable. I remember back in the 70s and 80s buying a vinyl record every so often and making a real commitment to listen to it and absorb it, get to know it. Now there are so many new albums being released every week. This democracy is great, but it does mean that only the truly and incredibly special gets through to my ears.

The resulting feeling reminds me of the feeling I used to get as a teenager late on a Saturday after I had been listening to the radio for a whole day and was just beyond saturation point, jaded and in desperate need of silence.

Tags:

The Friday Playlist 2

Aug 18

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music, Playlists | No Comments

Here are a few albums which I just can’t stop playing at the moment:

1. Mark Hollis – Mark Hollis

I have been looking for this album for years. It is the only solo album to date, by the singer from Talk Talk. The later albums by Talk Talk before they split up took them further into the avant garde and painfully beautiful yet minimal sounds. This album continues that journey. The lyrics are sparse, the arrangements stunningly unusual. The use of guitar and piano fragments is haunting. I can’t stop listening to it – and continue to muse over the lyrics and the overall atmosphere which is evoked by this music.

2. Thom Yorke – The Eraser

This new album by the singer from Radiohead could almost be companion album to the Mark Hollis one. Except that, where Hollis has a clear focus on acoustic instruments, Yorke uses electronics and laptop for his pre-occupations. The lyrics are similarly oblique. The voice is beautiful. Great voices in modern music always push forward without any sense of the self-conscious. There are some beatiful melodies on this album. Try the title track or ‘And it rained all night’ to see what I mean. Love it!

3. Clap your hands say yeah – Clap you hands say yeah

I really like this album, in spite of the first track which sounds like some demented circus act. Sometimes I wonder whether anyone ever says to bands, don’t use that as the first track, otherwise people might get no further. This is the case with so many REM records – they begin with a ‘difficult’ track! Anyway, this album settles down into a great sound, somewhere between Talking Heads and Pere Ubu. They also sound very like The Arcade Fire on some tracks, in the way that they wind up through a track, gathering momentum. At times the singer Alec Ounsworth sounds unnervingly like David Byrne. It’s an album well worth a listen, and I particularly like the fact that it is about the length of an old vinyl album. Too many albums go on for too long these days…

Other albums I’m listening to, that I have already written about:

4. The Open – Statues

5. Sigur Ros – Takk

Click here for Friday Playlist 1

Tags: ,

The Open are no more

Jun 21

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

I wrote about the second album by Liverpool band ‘The Open’ recently. They have produced two beautiful albums, and I was settling in to wait for great albums to come, but that has fallen away now.

Why? Because I have just read in the official forum that they have decided to split. That’s such a shame. If you are unfamiliar with the band, search out their two albums – The Silent Hours and Statues. To be totally blown away, try the first track of the second album, ‘Forever’, and see what you think. The title seems a bit ironic given the fate of the band, but it is a truly stunning piece of music.

Now we just have to wait and see what the members of the band will do next.

Tags:

Spaces and Gaps

Jun 18

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

…two months pass. And then… a short posting.

As if nothing had happened!

And the transmissions begin again, from here.

Listening to Robert Fripp, and wondering whether the deep and mysterious messages which are so elusive in Gurdjieff’s work are the reason that the ‘work’ is so resonant, so meaningful and so prolific.

Tags: ,

The Friday Playlist 1

Apr 7

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music, Playlists | No Comments

The Friday playlist:

The Open – Statues

The Liverpool band’s second album begins with a track recorded in deepest Wales – yearning trumpet and a voice that comes from god knows where. This is a classic track called ‘forever’ which is one of the best album openers I have heard in ages. The second track takes us into more familiar Liverpool music scene. But the rest of the album which was recorded in France, is full of surprises. There’s prog rock, radiohead, jazz and straight-ahead pop. It’s a great album which grows with each play. Their first album “The Silent hours” is one of the best first albums I have heard in years.

Doves – Lost Souls

I’ve spent the last few months working my way backwards through the Doves’ back catalogue. This, their first album from 2000, is fantastic.

Neil Young – Prairie Wind

This is taking a bit of playtime to get to – I have problems with the sound of country, and this album is full of steel guitar. Great songs, as you’d expect. Neil Young reacting to the health scare he experienced in the middle of working on the album. Sometimes the albums that stay on the playlist are the ones that aren’t instant –this could be one of those.

Robert Fripp – Love cannot bear

I love the soundscape albums of Fripp, and this one is the best yet. It gathers tracks from across the years, each a live track from the USA. The result is a journey of immense emotional intensity.

Nitin Sawhney – Philtre

World travelling from the UK – a stunning melding of influences. This is the fourth album by Sawhney that I have bought recently. I find his music fascinating. Sometimes you hear music and think that it sounds like a soundtrack and lacks the visuals of a film. With Sawhney it sounds like a soundtrack that doesn’t need a film.

Also listening to:

The Tears – Here come the tears
Morrissey – Vauxhall and I
Sigur Rós – Takk
The Jam – Snap!
Paul Weller – Stanley Road

Tags: ,

Sid Smith’s Postcards From The Yellow Room: Climate Of Hunter by Scott Walker

Jan 16

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

Sid Smith’s Postcards From The Yellow Room: Climate Of Hunter by Scott Walker

The latest post on Sid Smith’s marvellous blog is a review of Scott Walker’s album ‘Climate of Hunter’. When Sid likes something he has a way of writing about it which draws you into it, and makes you want to go out and buy it. Sid’s book about King Crimson (‘In the Court of King Crimson’) achieves this with each of the albums over the band’s 40 year history. It’s a great read.

I wrote about the Scott Walker 5-CD set ‘In Five Easy Pieces’ ages ago, and also posted a link to an informative site about him. Thanks to Sid’s review, I’ll be diving back into that 5-CD set – as soon as I have finished listening to Robert Fripp’s latest album ‘Love Cannot Bear’ which has been played at least once a day since I bought it just over a week ago. I know I referred to it on the last post, but it deserves another mention. Beautiful and serene soundscapes that touch something deep into the soul and leave the listener breathless. And there’s even a track where Fripp ‘sings’ a poem – well, he does it through a heavily treated piece of electronics. It is very moving and unsettling in the way that Laurie Anderson can be.

Oh, and it’s a great CD to play whilst working too!

Tags: ,

Happy New Year … at last

Jan 9

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Books and Book Reviews, Music | No Comments

Happy New Year … at last

In spite of all the promises I stayed away from the computer for the whole of the festive season. There are times when it is important to have a break from the gadgets!

Three things preoccupied me over the festive season:

Music – I listened to a fantastic range of music. I now have two albums by Doves which are regularly on my CD player, especially in the car. The latest album ‘Some Cities’ is great, but I am also enjoying listening to ‘The Last Broadcast’ which is heavily influenced by King Crimson.

But the album which has really gripped me over the last couple of days is the latest album by Robert Fripp. Called ‘Love Cannot Bear: Soundscapes – Live in the USA’ it has taken me a few weeks to get hold of this one. I was pleasantly surprise to find that it was on sale in a local record shop (I thought it was internet sale only!). I love Fripp’s soundscape albums. My favourite is ‘A Blessing of Tears’ which I often play when I want a deeper level of concentration for some prolonged writing. This new album is stunningly serene. It draws out elongated emotional expressions, almost symphonic in its deliberations. If you have the chance to get hold of this CD, do so. If you want to hear some extracts you can go to Fripp’s latest site here.

Books – I’m in the middle of reading Robin Sharma’s ‘The monk who sold his Ferrari’. It is a really good read – lots of self development ideas. I recognise a few of them from writers like Tony Robbins, but the book has a real inspirational air to it. I like the Dan Millman style of story telling which is used. I recently subscribed to the Sharma podcast which is well worth a listen too.

Reiki – I am consolidating Reiki 2 and have begun to think about doing Reiki Masters. I will make decisions about this in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I am working with the energy and working through a few issues towards the right place to decide. If anyone finds their way to this writing through serendipity and has a useful comment or advice feel free to post something. I welcome your views as I move to the next stage in a spiritual journey.

Tags: , , ,

All the great bands

Dec 19

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

There are so many bands around at the moment who are making great music. It feels like being a teenager all over again. The influences are straight from that time for me – Joy Division, Television, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Patti Smith, Talking Heads.

I have been really impressed with albums by Doves (‘Some Cities’ and ‘The Last Broadcast’), The Editors (‘The Back Room’), The Open (‘The Silent Hours’) and Kasabian (‘Kasabian’) and The Arcade Fire (‘Funeral’). There is nothing pretentious about this music – just great guitar band music. I saw The Editors recently playing support to Franz Ferdinand, and thought they were really good. This music restores faith in the direction of music again.

Looking back over the last few decades, music seems to go through cycles. Just as we are enjoying music like the current scene, it won’t be long before the focus shifts to dance-oriented and manufactured music again. So we might as well enjoy it whilst it is here.

Tags:

Sounds that need time

Dec 4

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

Here are some CDs that have appeared in my collection over recent months and are just shouting out for more time to listen. I have so much wonderful music at my fingertips that sounds better the more it is played:

  1. Iarla O’Lionaird – Invisible Fields

  2. Nine Horses – Snow Borne Sorrow

  3. Kate Bush – Aerial

  4. Jon Hassell – Maarifa Street

  5. Brian Eno – Another Day on Earth

  6. Afro Celt Sound System – Anatomic

  7. Jackson Browne – Solo Acoustic Vol. 1

  8. Nitin Sawhney – Prophesy

  9. Nitin Sawhney – Human

  10. Keith Jarrett – Radiance

  11. Charles Lloyd & Billy Higgins – Which way is East

  12. Charles Lloyd – Lift Every Voice

… and in most cases – the better for listening through headphones.

Tags:

but she’s a girl… Kate Bush – Aerial

Nov 14

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

I was going to post a review of the new Kate Bush album. ‘Aerial’ is her first album since 1993, and I approached the first listen with a little trepidation. When expectations are so high it is easy to be disappointed. The album is a slow grower – and I like it that way. The albums that stay in my playlist the longest are the ones that take a time to get under my skin.

Well, I won’t post a full review, because I read a brilliant review last night. The “but she’s a girl” blog has a really good post about the album which says exactly what I would have wanted to say. So why repeat, when you can link!

Tags:

Sonic Turtle — Adham Shaikh

Nov 3

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

Sonic Turtle — Adham Shaikh

I am a regular reader of the ‘nervenet’ mailing list, which is a list for comment on Brian Eno’s music and all things related.

Over the last couple of days there has been reference to the work of Adham Shaikh. I had never heard of him, so followed the link to the Sonic Turtle website. There are a handful of mp3 files to download there. His music is stunning – a mix of ambient, world beat and electronica. I am very impressed. Time to go hunting for albums by him I think.

Tags:

Svarte Greiner’s music mixes

Oct 20

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

Type Records has a podcast feed where you can download mp3 files of music mixes. There are about 20 different downloads there – each is about an hour long. The link – http://www.typerecords.com/radio/ – is badged as a ‘radio’ page. I like the idea of this. The music mixes are eclectic, mostly a mixture of ambient / jazz / modern classical. There’s a lot of music from the Rune Grammafon label, and plenty of Arvo Part, Dead Can Dance etc.

My favourite so far is a mix called ‘under the leaves‘ by Svarte Greiner (aka Deaf Center’s Erik Skodvin) – music from Arvo Part, Arve Henriksen, Julie London, Aphex Twin, Max Richter (a beautiful highlight), Biosphere and Cliff Martinez combine to make an hour of stunning sound. Download it and enjoy!

Tags:

David Hykes on WNYC – overtone singing

Oct 2

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | 1 Comment

WNYC – Soundcheck: Harmonic Universe (March 31, 2005)

Some weeks ago, someone posted a comment on this blog, in response to my comments about the overtone singing of Okna Tsahan Zam. The link above was posted by that person. It points to a US radio website with a link to a radio broadcast that you can hear with an interview with David Hykes who uses overtone singing. To quote from the site:

“Composer and educator David Hykes David and his ensemble The Harmonic Choir are celebrating their 30th year of creating enlightenment-dedicated music. Hykes has mastered overtone singing known as Harmonic Chant, the skill developed by Tibetan monk and Mongolian nomads that allows them to sing low and high notes simultaneously. Hykes and his Harmonic Choir explore the normally untapped resonances of the human voice.”

It’s worth a listen – the sound is more like the Hilliard Ensemble than throat singing to my ears. But I really like the ambience it creates. David Hykes actually demonstrates overtone singing to the interviewer which is fascinating to hear. David has his own website here.

Tags:

BBC – collective – sigur ros ‘takk’ – listening post

Oct 1

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

BBC – collective – sigur ros ‘takk’ – listening post

I haven’t bought the new album by Sigur Ros yet. I plan to buy it in the next few days. In the meantime, there is a complete stream of it in Real Audio format, hosted by the BBC at the link above. Enjoy!

If you want to immerse yourself in a complete online experience before buying, go to the Sigur Ros site and look at lyrics, a documentary and a pile of other stuff. I really like the way that Sigur Ros have figured out that using the internet through downloading and streaming it is possible to build a fan-base. I first heard their music through the enormous stack of downloads on their website – that prompted me to go out and buy their albums.

Hearing the new album also helps me to decide to go and buy, in spite of the somewhat negative review in the latest issue of ‘The Wire‘ magazine.

Tags:

Playlist September 05

Sep 30

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music, Playlists | No Comments

Been listening to these CDs over last couple of weeks:

1. David Sylvian – The Good Son vs The Only Daughter

Remixes of the ‘blemish’ album – remarkably coherent, total retakes on some tracks, warmth brought to some of the more stark pieces from the original album.

2. Porcupine Tree – Stars Die

A 2-CD retrospective.

3. Harold Budd – Avalon Sutra

Double album – been on my playlist for a while now. Keeps haunting me.

4. Harold Budd – The Pavilion of Dreams

The first album I heard by Budd – still love it after all these years.

5. Brian Eno – Another Day on Earth

Eno does voices after so long – great depth that keeps coming through on each listen.

6. Fripp & Eno – The Equatorial Stars

Great for easing those tensions…

7. Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland

I just love listening to someone push the boundaries, and those melodies, hooks, riffs!

8. Iarla O’Lionnaird – Invisible Fields

The singer from Afro Celts. Third solo album – a work of great late night beauty.

9. Jonny Greenwood – Bodysong

I love the jazz blasts on this – and the classical pieces – incredibly diverse.

10. Tom Waits – Alice: the complete demos

Great to hear this alongside the original album – the ‘interlude’ pieces are intriguing, and the singing is fantastic, often very funny.

Tags: ,

Stasisfield mp3 releases : New Release : Preview EP : Fessenden

Sep 29

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

Stasisfield.com : Stasisfield mp3 releases : Current Releases : Preview EP : Fessenden

I can’t remember whether I have mentioned Stasisfield before. John Kannenberg runs this web-based music and images site from Chicago. All mp3s on the site are available for free download. You can also buy mp3 CDs of the back-catalogue if downloading masses of music is difficult through your internet connection. The music is ambient, minimalist soundscapes. I really like the very distinctive sound and look that is created for Stasisfield. John is a sound and image artist who produces all the artwork for the label, which I really like.

The latest release, an EP by Fessenden, called ‘Preview’ came out recently. I gave it a quick listen last night and was really impressed. This is one that I’ll be working with over the next few weeks.

A recent innovation from John’s site is an RSS feed, so it is now possible to sign up and get new releases as they become available in podcast form. This is a great idea, and makes the whole process so much easier.

Tags:

Nine Horses

Sep 28

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

If you have read more than a handful of posts here, you will know that I am a big fan of the work of David Sylvian. I have been listening to his music since his band Japan produced the album ‘Quiet Life’ back in 1980. It is more than a passing interest – I have some 35 albums of his work – ranging from stuff with Japan, to solo and collaborative projects and unofficial live albums.

His work over the last 6 years, after a long break, has been really fascinating. From the uneven album ‘Dead Bees on a Cake’ in 1999 to the stunning experimental work of ‘blemish’ which featured Christian Fennesz and Derek Bailey - his work has charted new areas, and pulled in the broadest range of influences. The highlight of this album was the closing track ‘Fire in the Forest’ with Fennesz which is a truly beautiful piece of music, bringing an album about pain to a stunning resolution.

There’s a new album due out on 17th October. It’s a collaboration with his brother Steve Jansen and the electronic artist Burnt Friedman under the name Nine Horses. The album is called ‘Snow Borne Sorrow‘ and the clips I have heard sound really intriguing. Can’t wait to hear the whole thing when it comes out. On the Sylvian

Tags:

U B U W E B :: Glenn Gould

Sep 13

Posted by Stuart in Blog posts, Music | No Comments

I’ve been a big fan of Ubuweb for a while now. The site hosts all manner of avant garde and dadaist media, including texts, mp3′s and videos / films. There has been a feast of fascinating material on the site for some time now.

After a summer overhaul, there is now a lot of new material on the site. Follow the link to find three sound files of radio programmes created by Glenn Gould back in the 60s and 70s. I first heard these on UK’s BBC Radio 3 which hosted a tribute evening to the pianist a few years ago, and broadcast the programmes which were originally heard on Canadian radio. They are bold adventures in radio, Gould literally using the studio as a composing instrument. Well worth a listen.

U B U W E B :: Glenn Gould

Tags: