I haven't had much time to listen to my favourite toy this past week, but when I do it's been playin:

Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage ( Rudy Van Gelder remastering)

Murray Peraiah's Goldberg Variations -- as good as Gould's only different. Peraiah plays all repeats ( doesn't always work if you ask me) and does the "once de rigeur , now arguably gauche" by using ornamentation only during the repeats. I tend to find it gauche myself, but it doesn't detract from the overall quality. The playing is as good as it gets.

Paco De Lucia's "Siroco" -- one of his best but not as accessible as others.

I just ordered a bunch of old Gong albums on Amazon that will probably get heavy rotation next week.




Quote Originally Posted by Jim Clark
Snow is in the forcast and I’m trying to put in a 550 square foot cobblestone patio this week. Talk about your bad timing. In the meantime I’ve had some time to listen to some toons, some good to downright dreadful in the list.

New spins:

The Legends – Public Radio. A guy on the Obner forum YSI’d this to me while I await the proper release. I’ve only found one site that has it and it’s gonna take 27 bucks to get it to me. Yikes, this 192 bit rate MP3 version will tide me over nicely. The first listen revealed that this guy can do The Cure better than The Cure did last time around. With the most excellent “Up Against The Legends” excelled in the happy snap, clap, and slap wall of sound, this is decidedly darker but still hangs on to the Spectorish feel. A weird amalgam of The Cure, JAMC, The Smiths, and The Lightning Seeds. I think this may be the winner of the retro wars as it’s pure 80’s through and through. They (he) even have a drum machine instead of the real deal this time for most of the tracks. I think it was a poor decision. Some great songs but barring a gigantic revelation it’s gonna fall short in a quest for my top 10 list in whatever year it’s actually released.

Andy Bell- Electric Blue. To get an album from both Erasure and Andy Bell in one year should be cause for me to celebrate but it’s not to be. Nothing on it grabbed me save for the powerful synth intro. Dance floor fodder, but in truth it may not be much better than Madonna’s effort. Night Bird rules while Electric Blue is not what I was hoping for.

Maddonna-Confessions From The Dance Floor. In my own defense the only reason I wanted to hear this was due to comments on how Electro Clashy this was. As it was another of the nefarious MP3 downloads, I’m only out the time spent listening to it. Yeah you can dance to it, it probably takes your mind off of how bad it is, at least a little bit if you’ve got a good looking enough partner.

Still liking that Editors CD quite a bit.

Others,

Flaming Stars – Ginmill Perfume
Wolf Parade- Apologies To The Queen Mary
De/Vision – Six Feet Underground
Wall Of Voodoo – Dark Continent ( I dunno Davey, still sounds pretty good to these ears)
Stars – Accoustic performance at Amoeba records this year.
Stars – Live at SXSW this year
Never did get the Live Kraftwerk CD but I have a 2 disc boot from a 2005 show that’s killer.

Well, that’s a start.

jc