Thursday, December 31, 2015

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)...


...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...

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

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...



40-31...



30-21...



20-11...



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...

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

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...

Monday, December 28, 2015

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...

Sunday, December 27, 2015

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...



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...

Saturday, December 26, 2015

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...