Amph What Album Did You Just Hear?

I had one of the Union jack tanks tops I get it on Hysteria (I can get by never having to hear Sugar again), Pyro is my fav album and High N Dry is probably second.

 

I think i'm going to perpetually be in a love/hate relationship with this album:



I dust it off every now and then for a listen. As usual, when I return to the album after a long absence, I love it. In two weeks, after a further half dozen listens, i'll be over it.

 

I received Tangerine Dream's "In Search of Hades - The Virgin Recordings 1973 - 1979" in the mail a few days ago, and I'm making my way through it. This is an 18-disk set (16 CDs, 2 Blu-rays) so it's taking me a while.



For some reason I feel the need to point out that caffeine is my only drug.

An amusing little bit: on a documentary on one of the Blu-rays, filmed in 1976, a journalist explains that Tangerine Dream's equipment might be worth 400,000 Marks, but that synthesizers might get bigger (!), better, and cheaper in the future. Also, he speculates that at some point, synthesizers might even become polyphonic (i.e., capable of generating more than one tone at once).

 

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream and Other Delights

 

Helmet is one of my all-time favorites. Betty is great, but Meantime is their best, IMO.

 

@EHT: I've been listening to Betty on the regular lately. Meantime is definitely their best though. Super underrated band.

 

Abandoned Cities (1984) – Harold Budd

Well, last time I talked about The Serpent in Quicksilver, an eighteen minute EP with six tracks, that Harold Budd released in 1981. In this follow-up, there are only two tracks, the title track and Dark Star, but they’re each longer than the entire Serpent in Quicksilver EP, Dark Star clocking in at 20 minutes and the title track at twenty-three. This is, I have to say, more my speed. Both tracks are built around long, long synthesizer notes, minor keys, deep ambient backgrounds and a whole lot of atmosphere. I wish I was better at talking about ambient music or explicating what makes some ambient music good and some bad, you know, beyond the very obvious. I suppose some people would listen to Abandoned Cities and ask me where the particular genius lies or why couldn’t anyone just create these sound beds? Well, I don’t know. I just know greatness when I hear it and this is great music. It’s perfectly textured for headphones, but also great for driving, particularly night driving. And, well, here’s a thing I can say about it. Even with both of these tracks being over twenty minutes long, in whatever setting I would be listening to them, on my ear-buds or on my commute or what-have-you, every time one of them would start to slowly fade down, it would surprise me. I would listen to these tracks for twenty minutes and not really realize the time was going by. And every time, I would be a little sad that the track was ending because I just wanted the mood to continue. Twenty minute tracks that you put on a loop . . . now that’s saying something. 4 stars.

tl;dr – ambient masterpiece is only two tracks, but beautiful, transporting, moody and wonderful tracks they are; a forty-five minute bed of sound that you’ll wish was twice as long. 4 stars.

 

Not an album but a song. Blinding Lights by The Weekend. It's got that great 80's beat, a lot like Take On Me by A-Ha! Super catchy.

 

I took a break from all the ambient synths-from-spaaaaace to listen to the new Sparks album, "With a drip, drip, drip," which was recorded while quarantining. The Mael brothers are 72 and 75 (!) now and are still as creative, peculiar, and quirky as they've been since the early '70s.

Two video clips from the recent album:

 

Radiohead - OK Computer

Not my choice. I just don't understand the love this band gets, I think they're awful. It was like listening to horses being molested and slaughtered but less melodic.

 

Next of Kin (2019) – Klaus Schulze

Klaus Schulze was a kind of proggy-avant garde composer from the German school of the seventies and eighties. His biggest link to popular knowledge is that he was a founding member of Tangerine Dream, though he left after only one album, I think. Nevertheless, in 1982, he composed the score for Next of Kin, a cheapo horror/slasher from Australia; the score wasn’t officially released at the time so it’s basically been the stuff of bootlegs until just a couple of years ago when it got a nice release on vinyl (and digital, thankfully). It’s good stuff. It’s pretty well all synth and drum machines and it’s pretty atmospheric and dark. If you’re thinking eighties style synth meets Tangerine Dream spaciness, you’re in the right ballpark. Good night driving music and at only a bit over thirty minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. My favorite track is probably Dream Theme which is one of the slower, more melodic tracks, but they’re all pretty good. The album does contain one track that is an excerpt from Johann Schultz’s Kaiser Waltz and I was actually kind of excited because I was hoping it would be a synthed up “cover” of it, you know, like Wendy Carlos did with all of the classical music in A Clockwork Orange? Unfortunately, it wasn’t; it’s just a straight orchestral recording. Having not seen the movie, I have no idea of the significance, but it works in context of the album in a weird way, having a full orchestral rendition of a classical piece right near the end of all of this synthesizer darkness. Anyway, a lot of fun. And I’m glad they did an official digital release when they put it out on vinyl; a lot of these boutique record labels don’t do that when they release obscure film scores and such and it’s a pain because I’m just not a guy that’s into vinyl for a lot of reasons and I get that they’re purists, but just give me a quick and easy way to get the digital content and I’ll buy it, which I did. 3 ½ stars.

tl;dr – synth-heavy horror score has been unavailable for decades; a lot of spacy, moody, atmospheric fun. 3 ½ stars.

 

I recall having a Klaus Schulze album, somewhere, but I forget which one, and I have no idea where it went. I'll listen to some more of his stuff one of these days

I just listened to the 5.1 surround sound part of the Tangerine Dream box set. There are three albums included in the 5.1 format: Phaedra (which I think was their best-selling one), Ricochet, and Oedipus Tyrannus, all mixed by Steven Wilson. Phaedra and Ricochet sound really, really wonderful (even though a couple of pieces from Phaedra are an upmix because the original multitrack masters couldn't be found, those still sound great). But Oedipus Tyrannus sounds out-of-this-world spectacular. This might be the best 5.1 mix I've ever heard--and I've heard a lot--and I'm a little at a loss for words at how great it is. Wooshy, '70s ambient syths taking you to the stratosphere of, I don't know, Venus, perhaps.

 

Miles Davis - Live-Evil (1971)

(This is Miles at his more hip, experimental side, early 1970s-style -- though not quite as out there as "Bitches Brew." Contrary to what you might expect, the album actually has both live and studio parts.)

 

A wonderful power metal concept album heavily inspired by Goethe's Faust, specifically the second half of the tragic play.

 

Medicine at Midnight-Foo Fighters. Good stuff

 

Devin Townsend - Empath (2019)

This album is completely bonkers. I don't think I've ever heard an album that is this eclectic. This guy goes from Enya-style new age-y stuff to trip-hop to extreme metal to a Disney-style showtune, and then back again and then combines it all, and each song is even more bonker than the one that just preceded it. The arrangements themselves sound like he & his collaborators worked very long and hard at this.

I read him described somewhere as the "Frank Zappa of heavy metal," which piqued my interest so I decided to check him out (there are actually some former FZ musicians who make appearances on this album, including Mike Keneally and Steve Vai). Metal isn't usually my thing but I'm always interested in eclectic musicians so I decided to give it a shot. Not sure yet whether this one will stick but so far I'm very, very impressed with the diversity of the album, intricacy of the compositions and arrangements, and the level of musicianship.

 

Gojira - Magma
Great album. I've basically given up playing drums after listening to these guys. Good to see France produce a quality metal export.

 

Utterly captivating progressive/symphonic metal concept album, primarily inspired by the mythic Atlantis.

Like most records from the venerable Symphony X, V:The New Mythology Suite feels like a true mythological journey in music form with a tinge of sadness that has always endeared me to this band. This might even be my favorite album of theirs.

 

The Roches — The Roches (1979)

First things first: the reason I checked out this album is because it was produced by Robert Fripp (of King Crimson). Fripp’s unique electric guitar sound can be heard on several of the tracks. (Tony Levin, who’d later play bass for King Crimson, can also be heard playing bass on a few tracks).

This music, however, is as far removed from King Crimson as possible. The Roches were a vocal singing folk group consisting of three sisters, accompanying themselves on acoustic guitar. The vocal harmonies are all very pretty yet quirky, not to mention very cleverly arranged, and it would all be very twee if it weren’t for the lyrics.

The lyrics here are something else. This goes from really tongue-in cheek funny stuff to bitingly sarcastic to downright uncomfortable (intentionally so). I’ll quote Wikipedia quoting the NYT:

Quite a unique listening experience. I’ll likely revisit this.

 

I've been listening to Yonaka's 2018 debut Don't Wait Til Tomorrow and am mildly obsessed by the band. I can't describe the sound, it's just sublime.

 

Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn (2017)

This release by some miracle passed me by when it came out a few years ago, but, better late than never. I tracked down the 5.1 version on Discogs.com and it arrived today, and have listened to it several times. I win.

Is it a worthy sequel to Oldfield's seminal Ommadawn (1975)? Quite frequently, musicians going back to their earlier successes and trying to recapture some of that magic with "sequel" albums doesn't always result in the best or most inspired music. In this case, though, Oldfield pretty much succeeds as far as I'm concerned. This is music very much in the same spirit as the long-form instrumental compositions of not just Ommadawn but also Tubular Bells (1973) and Hergest Ridge (1974) (and just like those albums, it's divided into a "Part I" and a Part II," like the two sides of the original LPs). It's composed, arranged, performed, and mixed in a comparable way--albeit with far superior recording technology.

Just like in the days of yore, Oldfield played all the instruments himself, and once again a large number of instruments was used. The credits list the following:
Stringed instruments: Acoustic steel guitar, Flamenco guitar, Bass guitar, Acoustic bass guitar, Electric guitars (Gibson, Fender Telecaster, Fender Stratocaster, PRS Signature), Mandolins, Banjo, Ukulele, Celtic harp
Keyboards: Vox Continental organ, Hammond organ, Farfisa organ, Mellotron, Solina string machine, Clavioline, Piano
Percussion: Bodhran, African table drums, Glockenspiel
Penny whistles

So if you enjoy those first three albums, check this one out. Even if you're one of those people who thinks that the only good music Mike Oldfield has ever created were those first three albums, I still recommend you check this one out, because it's very much a return to that form. Hence, obviously, the album title. As far as how it compares quality-wise to these original three albums, I personally wouldn't rate it as quite as highly as Tubular Bells or Ommadawn, but better than Hergest Ridge. And I love Hergest Ridge.

The cover art is also pretty great, even though one might mistake it for a metal album.

 

I don't see how someone can think Oldfield's first three are his only good albums. Even if you don't enjoy Amarok, the raw, spiteful brilliance of its being deliberately composed so that there are no singles, just to troll his record label on the final album under contract, is palpable. Actual music quality be damned.

 

I've met a couple of people who maintained only the first the albums were good, but yeah. Personally I've a lot of what he's done--I have fond memories of "Moonlight shadow" and "To France" being hits when I was a preteen, right when I started to develop my interest in music.

And yes, Amarok is particularly brilliant in its nuttiness! I remember the "***k you RB" thing.... BTW, I watched a documentary on Oldfield last night on YouTube where you see Oldfield and Richard Branson hugging and chatting happily, so I guess they made up.