Free Time

I had completely forgotten about this. I'll do something with it soon.

Down there in the dark i could see the real truth about me

The Mountain Goats is actually John Darnielle. Another soulful guitar strumming hipster, except this one has a past to back up his words. The Sunset Tree is an entire album about his abusive stepfather and the family life that he dealt with growing up. We Shall all be Healed is about his teenage years hanging out with meth addicts. This man has been listed in more "best songwriter" lists than i can remember. The Sunset Tree is more easily likable and is probably your best bet to get into the music. After several listens and comparisons you should find yourself liking We Shall all be Healed more.

The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

The Mountain Goats

Clamour for Glamour!

What was started by the scissor sisters and continued by the darkness has been mastered by The Ark. Upbeat infectious hooks and charismatic overindulgence. This reminds me of the best parts of Queen, Elton John and to a lesser extent Bowie. For such a glitzy over-the-top affair it's a surprisngly sincere and solid piece of work.


The Ark - State of the Ark

Did they make prog rock accessible? or pop worth listening too? who cares

The Alan Parson's group where a prog-pop band from around about the 80's. Their best album was Ammonia Avenue, and it's quite an album. Strong instrumentation, fair vocals, intriguing lyrics and studio polish mean that there are no weak tracks on this album.

The Alan Parsons Project - Ammonia Avenue

Lounge redux

Smoma are a trio of trumpet, keyboard and vocals. You already know what your getting yourself into with these.

Smoma - Casual Lounge

Smoma and Friends the Kancutband

I got the space voodoo blues....

After some dark and mysterious grooves from outerspace circa New Orleans? Papa Mali is what you need. Any album that has slide guitar, little moses and quadrological rocket stations all in one track, is one i can dig.

Pap Mali - Do Your Thing

Modern Melodies

My First Trumpet does not contain any trumpets. It does contain some very nicely understated melodies with interesting layers of sounds. Electronic and organic sounds mix nicely in this mature recording which, to my ears, has a distinct tinge of whimsy to it.


My First Trumpet - Frerk

The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi

Owen is a misleading name since it's really just Mike Kinsella from various 90's things you've all heard before. This album is a soundtrack for a quiet afternoon filled with nostalgia and personal memories. The multiple layering of intricate guitar melodies is wide and varied with little in the way of traditional song structures in sight. The lyrics are both well written and deeply emotional, albeit somewhat distant with an air of reminiscence. I would compare this to a cross between Eliot Smith and Nick Drake while avoiding all the terrible connotations to all those people who tried and failed to sound exactly like those two. It's refreshing to hear music that sounds as if it were made simply for the sake of making it.


Owen - At Home With Owen

A baby, if you really break it down, is just a tiny, shirtless, bald human being with a bag of its own crap tied around its waist.

Patton Oswalt is a comedian who's face you probably won't recognise, but his voice you almost certainly will. His routine hangs almost entirely upon his voice, which is good because the whole thing doens't fall apart on cd like some comedians. He also has the uncanny ability to sound exactly like he looks. I'm not sure how he does it but i've seen this man live and it is exactly like the image in your head from listening to this.

Patton Oswalt - Feelin Kinda Patton

Last one out; hit the lights...

The lights shall be turned back on around the 22nd-ish of August, till then

farewell and adieu to you spanish ladies

The prospect of finding pleasure tomorrow will never compensate for today‘s boredom.

There are two types of peope in this world, those who do a large amount of acid and then stay in a controlled environment to avoid sensory overload; and those who do a large amount of acid and then run shouting a primal roar of exuburance into the night, as they ride in the upraised tray of a tractor that is travelling faster than any heavy equipment ever should, piloted by a raging alcoholic who would eventually pass out behind the wheel, towards a bonfire that is more chemical in nature than organic and flames that seem to engulf the stars themselves while a misting rain merges with the light creating a diaphanous shroud of light and a rain of ash flitters and whirls with an air of accidental magic, laughing at the folly of gravity.

Either type will enjoy this.

This is probably one of the most finely produced-audio play's i've ever heard, and the acting is very strong. It perfectly captures the rising cresendo of madness and sense of panic that trippers the world over know and love. Now i have a question for the readers, i'm %90 certain that Harry Shearer does some background voices, one of the reporters sounds exactly like Otto from the Simpsons. If someone could confirm or deny my suspicions it would be appreciated.

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vega - A Radio Play

There's no poetry between us; said the paper to the pen

Make no mistake, Gary Jules is a poet. His poems are wrapt up in a cocoon of mellow folky-rock goodness but they are poems none the less. Most people recognise Gary from his remake of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World" which was used to much effect in the Donnie Darko soundtrack but that was an atypical track and you should prepare for a different sort of sound.

The debut solo album "Greetings from the Side" contains individually better songs than the follow up release "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" however the former never really feels cohesive. It is really just a collection of songs put onto and album, a collection of great songs including possibly the greatest love song i've ever heard(Owen Down), but it never really meshes with itself.

"Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" on the other hand is a far more fleshed out piece of work. Melancholy and subdued each track captures the mood of a different story, with Los Angeles as an unspoken backdrop.

Gary Jules - Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets

Gary Jules - Greetings from the Side

Read more >> Options >>

Influences Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Mr. Show, Bill Hicks, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot

Again with the wikipedia titles, but sometimes they're just some damn pithy. Stephen Lynch is a musician/comedian and this is his music. If you don't find the influence list enough to sell you on the idea, try googling Stephen Lynch and plenty of video's of live performances are available.

A Little Bit Special

The Craig Machine

Superhero

Avant-garde jazz, jazz funk, soul-jazz, post-bop (the wikipedia tags for this album)

Dearest readers i'm afraid i must offer my sincerest apologies to all. The other day i made a mistake. I posted an album by Mediski, Schofield, Martin and Wood and i made quite an error. When i wrote that update i used descriptions like "funky spy soundtrack". What i was thinking of is actually this album which is simply Mediski, Martin and Wood. No Schofield in there. The out louder album with Schofield i posted is a much tighter and traditionally jazzy affair, while End of the world party is the groovy goodness i was thinking of. Now that that's covered you should get this album if only for the oh so charming title.

There are really three tracks you need to listen to to understand this album. first off, the titular track, end of the world party( just in case). People have said that it's overly dominated by Mediski's keyboard playing but that's not a bad thing to my way of thinking. This song sounds like it should be playing at the hippest party the world has ever seen.

Bloody Oil shows why Chris Wood is so renowned for his bass skills and New planet shows how tightly they can play together. Sasa's horn section is prolly worth listening to as well.

Mediski, Martin and Wood - End of the World Party(Just in Case)

Denies the Day's Demise

Daedelus has quite a bit of critical acclaim under his belt. In my opinion this electronic artist from LA first really found his sound with this album. It's an interesting album and at times almost infuriating but by the by it's a well crafted solid piece of work. The sound is the usual mix of strange and interesting samples from obscure places but unlike most of the electronic genre this has a distinctly Brazilian feel. In many songs carribean beats underly the mashup of sounds and each song is actually an entire song, not just a collection of sounds thrown in a blender like so many other artists end up doing. At 15 tracks it could probably have stood to bear to be cut to 10-12ish tracks but that's not a terribly big complaint, not when compared to the fact that it avoids sounding overly cold and artificial, despite otherworldly sounds at several points it seemed as though i was listening to an analogue recording. This is something you should play for people who scoff at electronica as a viable method making music, not simply sounds.


Daedelus - Denies the Day's Demise

Sometimes thirty minutes is all it takes

Many would say Thelonious Monk was at his best in the early 50's, and it was certainly his most creative period. Sonny Rollins was one of the few people who could keep up with him and in 53 they put out " Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins". It's fairly short with only five tracks clocking in at 34 minutes but it's two of the best playing well together, 34 minutes is really all you need.

Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins

Avante Groove

If your the sort of person who would like Mediski Marton & Wood, then your the sort of person who already knows about them. The sort of person person who knows what's worth digging, and how to dig it. You probably have funk flowing through your veins and walk through this world surrounded by the soundtrack of a 60's psychadelic spy movie. Well in 2006 they made another album with guitar legend John Scofield and this time they really clicked, Unlike on A Go Go which sounded like a trio playing with a session guitarist this time it sounds like a quartet. Worth having for the amazing cover of the Beatles song Julia

Mediski, Martin, Scofield & Wood - Out Louder

Comedy-Indie-Folk-Rock

You've probably seen Flight of the Conchordes at a comedy festival, or on their HBO tv series which is also called "Flight of the Conchordes". If you haven't seen the show then i suggest you do, it's well worth watching for the low key deadpan lines of crazy that they dish out every couple of minutes. The second season was supposed to be released 2008 but is now looking like 2009 and to tide you all over here is the soundtrack.

Flight of the Conchordes

Yeah i know that cat, heard his voice a thousand time

You have probably spent more time listening to this man's voice then you have listening to your closest friends, and his name is Ken Nordine. Now he's done a large amount of commercial work but he also created a little thing known as word jazz. Now i know word jazz sounds like some kid in a black beret reciting plagiarism filled poem to an empty cafe on a Tuesday night, but Mr.Nordine has worked for over 80 years thanks to his voice, and his voice can pull off word jazz with authority.

Back in the 60's i think, he was commissioned to do a series of paint commercials that was just him reading Dr.Seuss-esque poems about the colours over a dreamlike background of cool jazz. The adds were so popular and highly acclaimed that he wrote about 30 or so and made an album of it.

The entire album has a dreamlike quality to it, which makes sense seeing as all the material was written at 3am on sleep deprived nights. This is something to listen to while falling asleep so his smooth ringing voice can lull you to sleep, or while taking powerful psychedelics so his voice can calm you while his words take you to strange new worlds of anthropomorphic colours. You'll either love of hate this.

Ken Nodine - Colours

Efterklang (the Danish word for remembrance and reverberation)

Efterklang are a Danish musical group who I'd probably class as a collective along the lines of The Polyphonic Spree, and The Spree are a good comparison. Upbeat and swelling with every sound they can possibly make, this album is a testament to the blurred line that the union of organic and electronic can form. It is positively symphonic is sound and arrangement each note is carefully placed within a palatial amount of space. This is probably the most luscious album i've ever heard and certainly one of the best. The hushed choral vocals that meander through the songs do well not to draw attention away for the complex and intricate melodies. It is intelligent, beautiful and life affirming. It sounds like the soundtrack to the greatest movie never made. I recommend you start with the track 'Mirador'

Efterkland - Parades

Read more >> Options >>