Sorry this has been temporarily removed to make way for Weekly Playlist No 23 but it will return shortly for streaming - watch this space...
This week's tracklist features Judy Collins, Ich + Ich, Edgar Froese, John Cale, Eyal Maoz's Edom, Taketi Uloomu, Spock's Beard, Soft Cell, King Crimson, Yes, Roger Eno, The Divine Comedy, Pyrolator, Cloudland Blue Quartet (of course!), Deacon Blue and Julian Lennon with The Blue Nile; classical pieces by Pärt, Richter and Schumann; and tasty jazz from Carsten Dahl, Boyd Lee Dunlop and The Bad Plus...
This week, there we're back to a more manageable 26 tracks, in the usual two hour programme, with the jazz and classical "back under control"...
As ever though, it's a varied selection...
No chat (other than the notes below), just the music - hope you enjoy it...
Pärt - Spiegel Im
Spiegel (9:49)
from Serenity: The Beauty Of Arvo Pärt
Today's opening item is
a thing of beauty. Sit back and relax and take this in. A quite
wonderful piece...
Judy Collins - Hello
Hooray (4:09)
from Who Knows Where the Time Goes
In a rare move last
night, I actually played some CDs and this was the first one pulled
from the wall of sound. I've been listening to a lot of Alice Cooper
this week and that inspired me to take a listen to an earlier version
of one of their hits, Judy Collins' take on the Rolf Kemp song “Hello
Hooray”. Not as good as the Coop obviously (as you'll hear later)
but still good nonetheless...
Ich + Ich - Die
Lebenden Und Die Toten (3:48)
from Gute Reise
Another disc taken
from the wall was this by Berlin duo Ich & Ich. I love this tune
and the words (if you can understand German) are very moving indeed.
But I think the track stands up on its own, even if you can't grasp
the meaning – like many opera arias...
Edgar Froese - Epsilon
In Malaysian Pale (Version) (4:46)
from Solo (1974-1983) The
Virgin Years
I had a hankering from
some Edgar Froese this morning and took a listen to the first disc of
his 4CD anthology of his Virgin output from the early 70's. I must
confess, this version of the track wasn't one I listened to – the
15 minute original version is better if you want to seek it out but
time constraints dictated using the shorter remix from a previous
best of (also included in the anthology)...
John Cale - Face To The
Sky (4:58)
from Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood
I was updating my list
of acquisitions this week, with around 70 titles being added to the
much backed up excel spreadsheet of wonder. Accordingly, as I typed,
I listened to tracks from the LPs in question and this was one which
impressed....
Eyal Maoz's Edom -
Eagle (6:19)
from Hope And Destruction
The next four tracks
are from discs procured during the great London splurge a couple of
weekends ago – which has led to a (quite necessary) slow down in
new stuff entering the collection. Mr Maoz 's previous outfit Lemon
Juice Quartet is one of my all time fave jazz bands – however,
this sounds more like The Human League than any jazz you could think
of. Still good notwithstanding that though...
Carsten Dahl - Effata
#1 (3:54)
from Effata
Wonderful piano playing
from the Dane Carsten Dahl – this is a great LP if you can get hold
of it, for anyone interested in abstract solo piano music...
Boyd Lee Dunlop - From
The Creek Bed (3:12)
from The Lake Reflections
...as is this although,
perhaps not quite so abstract but great stuff nonetheless – for
notes on Dahl and Dunlop, see last week's podcast....
Taketi Uloomu -
Projections (3:01)
from The Fifth Season
The first of two nice slices of electronica on today's podcast. This young Japanese lady's album has impressed Mr CBQ since he bought it for a mere couple of your English pounds on his recent trip to the Big Smoke...
Spock's Beard -
Submerged (5:00)
from Brief Nocturnes And Dreamless Sleep
Rediscovered
languishing on the hard drive this week was the latest release from
US proggers Spock's Beard – this is one of the more mellow tracks
off the album – top stuff...
Soft Cell - Say Hello,
Wave Goodbye (Remix) (5:07)
from Heat : The Remixes
Another track taken
from the Wall of Sound last night – a live favourite from Capital
Models and one of Jamie's faves from the repertoire designated to me. The remix gives the track a whole different feel while still retaining all that is great about the original...
The Bad Plus - Second
Part: The Sacrifice: Sacrificial Dance (5:22)
from The Rite of Spring
The closing track from
my album of the month in April (and, no doubt a contender for album
of the year – certainly is thus far – ok I only have four
releases from 2014 but hey ho – early days). The finale recalls a
track from the band's excellent LP “Prog”...
King Crimson - The
Great Deceiver (4:02)
from Starless And Bible Black
Fabulous musicosity
from Fripp, Wetton, Cross and Bruford from 1974 – this version
coming from the Steven Wilson mix from the 40th
Anniversary disc. Lyrics by Fripp, inspired by a visit to the
Vatican whilst on tour in Italy...
Yes - Astral
Traveller (8:49)
from In The Present Live From Lyon
As I'm recording this
(Friday morning) I'm looking forward to seeing the latest line up of
Yes tonight in Glasgow with Dr Prog. Accordingly I've been listening
to quite a lot of Yes this week and decided on this to illustrate
that fact. A very early track played by the line up I saw at the
Usher hall back in 2009 – five years gone already – owyah! Steve
Howe's guitar playing is a particular stand out – not to mention
Alan White's drum solo – hey, it wouldn't be live prog without a
drum solo...
Richter - Quartetto
oeuvre 5 in A Major, No. 3: II. Andante (D Major) (6:51)
from Quatuors
opus 5
The sole new
acquisition of the week. An exquisite disc of 18th Century string quartet music. A double plus for me given my liking
for (a) 18th Century music and (b) string quartets. The
listen to Richter's quartets a few weeks back resulted in a good
handful of discs featuring his and his Mannheim School
contemporaries' music entering the collection....
Roger Eno - Between
Tides (2:16)
from Little Things Left Behind 1988 – 1998
Four more recent
purchases now, the first a track from a 2CD anthology of music by
Brian Eno's younger brother, Roger. This is the title track from an
album first released back in 1988 and it stands the test of time –
unlike much of what was released that year....
Schumann - Etude #11 (3:06)
from Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13
From a 6CD box of solo
piano recitals by the great Alfred Brendel comes this delightful
piece by the German composer Robert Schumann recorded in 1966 for the
Vox label – Mr Schumann is one of my favourites when it comes to
the piano...
The Divine Comedy -
Someone (5:58)
from A Short Album About Love
A very fine song of
hope by The Divine Comedy, taken from their 1997 mini-album, which I
picked up recently. Really enjoyed this the other night whilst
updating the old CD list so thought it'd be good to include it here.
Apparently much of the album was recorded “live” during the
sound-check for a concert in London. Great orchestration and
arrangement as always from this outfit...
Pyrolator - Riding The
L-Train (6:19)
from Neuland
This is an album by the
synth player from German faves Fehlfarben and comes from an album
picked up on our trip to London back in January. A second nice slice of
electronica...
Cloudland Blue Quartet
- The Apple of Your Eye (2:54)
from Splinterheart
A song from my 2009
album “Splinterheart”, based on a piano piece by Bach and which
is on the short list for being included in a live set - if I ever get
round to actually playing live again as CBQ – it's over 2 years now
since my last outing. We'll see...
Deacon Blue - Dignity (4:00)
from Raintown
Always one of Jamie's
favourite songs to cover and really got the place rocking whenever
he played it. We were lining it up as a new addition to the Capital
Models repertoire – you never know, we might play it at some point
in the future. The disc comes from sister Pam's CD collection so
good memories all round...
Julian Lennon (with The
Blue Nile) - The Other Side Of Town (5:35)
from Help Yourself
A cheeky wee rarity for
Blue Nile fans and the first of three Bob Ezrin productions in a row.
This song written by John Lennon's son Julian with Paul Buchanan and
Robert Bell comes from his 1991 album and is a stand out for me.
Buchanan didn't like working with Bob but I love the overwrought
production and Steve Hunter's outro solo...
Alice Cooper - Hello
Hooray (Single Version) (3:28)
from Billion Dollar Babies
The edited “single”
version of what will always be for me the “original” version of
this song, which you heard Judy Collins perform from 1968 at the
start of the podcast. Bob Ezrin and The Coopers took things to
another level – one of my fave songs from the golden year of
1973...
Alice Cooper - I Am
Made Of You (5:32)
from Welcome 2 My Nightmare
And here's Alice with
Bob once more, this time from his last album, released in 2011. The opening
track, just three chords but what a great track this is – once
again a quite superb guitar solo from Mr Steve Hunter...
Pärt - Für Alina (2:29)
from Serenity: The Beauty Of Arvo Pärt
And so we draw things
to a close with another beautiful piece from Avro Pärt and we've
come ful circle – two hours can sometimes go by in a flash...
Yes - Wonderous Stories (3:50)
from Going For the One
But wait. There's time to slip in just one last track. It's now Saturday morning and I witnessed a stunning performance last night by Yes at the Armadillo in Glasgow with Dr Prog. They played "Close to the Edge", "Going for the One" and "The Yes Album" in their entirety (encoring with "Roundabout" from "Fragile"). It was like a classical recital. Steve Howe was on fire (not literally). So here's one of the shortest pieces they played - a hit single from the height of punk rock in 1977 and the title track from their latest compilation package - if you don't have any Yes in your collection, this is a good starting off point...
Hope you enjoy the podcast and will pop by again next week...
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