Countdown to zero...

Playlist

Various - Top 50 Albums of 2015

John McLaughlin - To the One

The Mamas and The Papas - Best Of

Motorhead - Aces Up Our Sleeve

Various - Funk Fever

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (Live Disc)

Last day of the year - out into the gloom...

...but home in the light...

...kind of...

...having purchased my last three discs of 2015 - £4 all told from the British Heart Foundation shop...

Hogmanay drinks ensued...

...with predictable consequences...

Out in the dark to the local curry house...

...where the Exec Producer was looking lovely...

Yum pt 1...

Yum pt 2...

Home pre midnight, seeing things in with old DVDs of the Old Grey Whistle Test, switching to live TV for the Edinburgh fireworks, which looked impressive...

So off you go 2015...

Here are 325 of the 348 physical albums I acquired...

In addition to those (and the missing 23), over 300 albums were also acquired "digitally"...

And here are my top ten albums released in 2015 (50-11 are on yesterday's post)...

Cloudland Blue Top 50 Albums of 2015 (10-01) by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

...and my full Top 50...

50 Gazpacho - Molok

49 FFS - FFS

48 Dutch Uncles - O Shudder

47 Daniel Cavanagh - Memory & Meaning

46 Nad Sylvan - Courting The Widow

45 Neil Young - Monsanto Years

44 The Winery Dogs - Hot Streak

43 Diviner - Fallen Empires

42 Subsignal - The Beacons Of Somewhere Sometime

41 Bryan Adams - Get Up

40 BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - Sour Soul

39 Nordic Giants - A Seance of Dark Delusions

38 Marco Minnemann - Celebration

37 Tame Impala - Currents

36 Ant Law - Zero Sum World

35 Muse - Drones

34 Joe Satriani - Shockwave Supernova

33 Tortoise - The Catastrophist

32 Gavin Harrison - Cheating The Polygraph

31 Coldplay - A Head Full Of Dreams

30 Theo Travis' Double Talk - Transgression

29 David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock

28 Riverside - Shrine Of The New Generation Slaves

27 Teramaze - Her Halo

26 Symphony X - Underworld

25 Caligula's Horse - Bloom

24 Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before The Sun

23 Dave Gahan - Angels & Ghosts

22 Lonely Robot - Please Come Home

21 Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer 2014

20 Max Richter - from Sleep

19 Matthew Florianz - Tauern

18 Kamasi Washington - The Epic

17 New Order - Music Complete

16 Thomas Köner - The Futurist Manifesto

15 Robert Fripp & David Cross - Starless Starlight

14 God Is An Astronaut - Helios | Erebus

13 Markus Reuter - Mundo Nuevo

12 Donna Lewis - Brand New Day

11 Matthew Florianz - Nocturne : Soundtrack for Science Briefings

10 The Bad Plus/Joshua Redman - The Bad Plus Joshua Redman

9 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

8 John McLaughlin - Black Light

7 Hollywood Vampires - Hollywood Vampires

6 Dar Williams - Emerald

5 Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

4 Sumner McKane - Stone's Throw

3 Spock's Beard - The Oblivion Particle

2 John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

1 Neal Morse - The Grand Experiment

Happy New Year!

Highlight of the Day : Quality time with the Exec Producer...

Stirring the pot of procrastination...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things (Single Disc Version)

Various - Milano Jukebox 2015

Gazpacho - Molok

The Weather Station - Loyalty

FFS - FFS

Dutch Uncles - O Shudder

Daniel Cavanagh - Memory & Meaning

Nad Sylvan - Courting The Widow

Neil Young - Monsanto Years

The Winery Dogs - Hot Streak

Diviner - Fallen Empires

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer 2014

Muse - Drones

Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Tame Impala - Currents

Lonely Robot - Please Come Home

Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before The Sun

Robert Fripp & David Cross - Starless Starlight

Coldplay - A Head Full Of Dreams

John Grant - Grey Tickles, Black Pressure

Caligula's Horse - Bloom

Dave Gahan - Angels & Ghosts

Matthew Florianz - Nocturne : Soundtrack for Science Briefings

The Jackson 5 - The Motown Years
Various - Top 50 Albums of 2015 Podcasts 1-4

Umphrey's McGee - The London Session

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Soundingfall

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Acoustic Eno Covers
Various - Funk Fever

It seems I created (or attempted to create) a single disc version of the proposed new CBQ album (including a couple of pieces with drums) at some point and I listened back today...

To be honest, I don't even recall having done it but it's another idea to stir into the pot of procrastination...

Into town again, soundtracked by my "Top 50 of 2015" on shuffleplay...

A walk to Fopp, resulted in a stumble across a 4CD set of rare slices of funk for just three of your English pounds...

What was a man to do...

Home in the gathering gloom...

...purchase in hand...

However, it was almost midnight before I started to sample its content...

With Anne out at Hearts v Dundee Utd (3-2 win after going 1-0 down in the 2nd minute, ex Queens man Gavin Reilly netting the initial equaliser), I recorded four of the five hour long podcasts re my Top 50 listing, with the fifth to follow tomorrow...

So, here they are...

50-41...

Cloudland Blue Top 50 Albums of 2015 (50-41) by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

40-31...

Cloudland Blue Top 50 Albums of 2015 (40-31) by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

30-21...

Cloudland Blue Top 50 Albums of 2015 (30-21) by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

20-11...

Cloudland Blue Top 50 Albums of 2015 (20-11) by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

New kind of prog discoveries Umphrey's McGhee (via Twitter) also entertained and I took a wee listen back to my Eno covers for this first time since the hospital stay...

Then, finally, some funky funk around midnight as the sack was hit...

Highlight of the Day : Rounding up the year in music...

A flaw redeemed seamlessly...

Playlist

Matthew Florianz - Nocturne : Soundtrack for Science Briefings

Anathema - A Sort of Homecoming

Dar Williams - Emerald

Mozart - String Quartets and Quintets

Steve Roach & Jeffrey Feyman - Trance Spirits

Soft Machine - Triple Echo

Various - Walk On The Wild Side: The Jazz Side Of Mod

Cannonball Adderley - Portrait Of Cannonball

Yes - Early Years 1969-1983

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Four Last Things

Glen Campbell - The Glen Campbell Collection

Vivaldi - Vivaldi Bassoon Concertos Vol. 1

Udo Lindenberg - Epic Udo Lindenberg

Soler - Antonio Soler : Harpsichord Sonatas Vol.1

Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Men

Various Composers - Piano Dreams

Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

Portishead - Dummy

New Order - Music Complete

A big moon this morning, although it does still look small in this pic...

...as I headed into the city...

Last night, whilst preparing yesterday's entry, the pic of the cupola indicated a flaw in the nw camera, which was then corroborated by the uncropped pic of the magpie on our neighbour's roof from the previous day...

Accordingly, today, my task was to have the new machine replaced toute de suite...

Test pic w/ version two...

By way of "celebration", in HMV I bought the new New Order album and Portishead's debut from 1994...

The New Order did not disappoint although it meanders in places (says the man preparing his next release as a four CD set)...

As for Portishead - well, upon listening to what I always think of as the soundtrack to the TV series "This Life", I realised why it has taken 21 years to enter the collection...

It's just so one dimensional...

The best track, "Glory Road" relies on a sample of an Isaac Hayes track which, basically, is the tune - yet the Portisheads get the writing credit with nothing for Ike...

Weird...

Anyway, home in the dark...

...to listen to said new acquisitions, get some way to finalising my top 50 LPs released in 2015 (the ones I own that is), enjoy some tasty home-made soup and quite excelletn bread and watch the last "Holby" of the year...

That was it...

Highlight of the day : A seamless camera swop...

Late to the party, somehow...

Playlist

Udo Lindenberg - Epic

Mozart - String Quartet KV80

Beethoven - String Quartet Op 132

Dar Williams - Emerald

Dar Williams - Discography

Lucy Kaplansky - Discography

Cry Cry Cry - Cry Cry Cry

Various - Best of 2015

New Order - Music Complete

GoGo Penguin - Man Made Object

This morning, more items added to our London itinerary, including a visit to Wigmore Hall for some string quarteting...

Out uptown with Anne, looking for nothing in particular...

And indeed, nothing was found at the HMV sale but I picked up the latest from long term fave Dar Williams at Coda...

Then some walking around...

...meantime, Anne was visiting shops she likes...

We met up for lunch at the German market, then made our way back to the car via George St...

We visited White Stuff...

...but, as with HMV for me, nothing proved enticing to the Exec Producer...

Home and enjoying music - these two were Xmas presents from Anne...

...and this, today's purchase - which prompted a dig into Ms Williams' back catalogue - I have been a fan for almost 20 years...

A tasty chicken curry for tea and an evening wrestling with exactly what might be my favourite 2015 albums...

It's a hard life...

And now, it's probably time for bed...

Highlight of the Day : New Dar Williams - even tho it appears to have been released on my birthday back in May...

Ringleader perhaps...

Playlist

Various - Tracks of the Week 2015 (Podcasts)

Various - BBC Radio 6 Music's Alternative Jukebox (Playlist)

Paul McCartney - 10 Underrated Songs

The Revolutionaries - Vital Dub Well Charged

Cluster - Grosses Wasser

Udo Lindenberg - Rock in Deutschland
Harmonia - Deluxe

Udo Lindenberg - Epic

Spent a few hours today recording five podcasts of my "tracks of the week" for 2015...

Here's the whole list if you're interested...

Five hours of fun - the Cloudland Blue Tracks of the Year podcasts 1-5 are here...

Midway through this, Anne advised breakfast was to come from this book - received from Keith and Maureen...

Accordingly, I was sent to Tesco for bacon and crème fraiche...

Back home, the Crispycat Masterchef got to it...

I was in charge of coffee - not much I could to ruin that...

Yum...

Meanwhile these were three of eight magpies gamboling around on the neighbours' roof...

The ringleader perhaps...

Anne's attendance of Hearts v Celtic at Tynecastle (2-2 draw with Hearts coming from behind in injury time of each half), allowed the podcast creation to continue...

I also recreated more albums I used to own (Cluster, The Revolutionaries and Udo Lindenberg) and, not content with that, compiled a further three disc set of Udo Lindenberg with one track from each of his 35 (count 'em) studio albums released between 1971 and 2008...

This is how etc...

In the evening, two episodes of "Dickensian" - a bit like Eastenders in costume to be honest, kind of entertained...

A trip to London panned and booked within around an hour - we will see a hero of so called Krautrock  and a personal favourite of ours...

Good to hear that nephew Ali made it home ok last night...

Lights out...

Highlight of the Day : Musicking, indirectly...

Fortuitous decision...

Playlist

Various - Solstice Sounds Project December 2015

Robert Fripp & David Cross - Starless Starlight

Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes

Various - BBC Radio 6 Music's Alternative Jukebox (Playlist)

Michael Bruce - In My Own Way : The Complete Sessions

Neal Smith - Platinum God

Spock's Beard - The First Twenty Years

Up at 6:30 for what should have been a four hour road trip...

Luckily I had been so racked with pain in the night, I'd realised that several hours in a car to see a baby followed by several hours back in a car having seen a baby was probably not the best course of action...

Accordingly, Anne's and my participation in the big adventure was cancelled...

Here's some of what nephew Ali faced on the way down to Yorkshire, elongating his travel time by some two and a half hours...

Meanwhile we relaxed at home...

My soundscape is up here, along with 20 others - do take a listen for a relaxing time...

I also started work on the playlist based on this...

...and took a look through this...

...and these...

...and these - noting that both Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway used exactly the same picture for each of their book covers...

Late afternoon, a Skype to the Leeds area and a virtual tour of the new house and a look at baby Douglas...

Ali posted these on Facebook too...

Yesterday's "Dr Who" was enjoyed - not as good as last year's but still better than most Xmas Specials they've done...

Later on, "A Gert Lush Xmas" with Russel Howard and Hannah Britland entertained...

To bed, hoping for a better night's sleep...

Highlight of the Day : Deciding not to take a road trip...