Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Headphones or curry...

Playlist
Bill Frisell - This Land
Various Artists - Not All Lights Fucked Up on the Hairy Amp Drooling
The Heavenly Music Corporation - Windfall Star
Sombre Reptiles - Kernelcrux
John Gorka - Out of the Valley
The Grid/Robert Fripp - Leviathan
The Grays - Ro Sam Bo
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Sparklemusik
Capital Models - 2021-06-27
Elvis Costello - Brutal Youth
Various - Briget Jones's Diary 2
Gotan Project - Inspiracion, Expiracion
Sezen Aksu - Deli Kizin Turkusu
Neil Finn - Try Whistling This
William Howard - Sixteen Contemporary Love Songs
Jean Michel Jarre - The Concerts in China
Various - The State of Trance 2021
Various - The Great Jazz Guitars
Roy Harper - Counter Culture
Various - The Power of Love : Heartbeat
John Lee Hooker - Best of
Mozart - Mozart Momentum 1785
Gary Moore - How Blue Can You Get
Bajofondo - Tangoclub
Various - Cafe de Flore
Various Composers - Essential 20th Century Classics
Tchaikovsky - Complete Ballets
The Passions - Thirty Thousand Feet Over China
Fazil Say - Plays Bach
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Silversounds 1996-2021 (Remixes)

And so, June is gone, in fact half the year is gone...

But back to the here and now...

Up...


Writing this...

Doing other stuff...

Breakfast...




Whittled 1994 to 80...


Discovered the Godspeed You! Black Emperor demo tape from 1994 I downloaded the other day is a fake - so, after some research as to the actual tracks used, I retagged it as a Various Artists comp and renamed it...

But it has lead me deeper into the Canadian post rock scene, so it's all good...

I listened to my own two albums from 1994, "Windfall Star" and "Kernelcrux" - seems like yesterday I was doing these, not 27 years ago...

Small birds were mostly the order of the day at the feeding station...




...and an unpictured Fang popped by a couple of times...

Mid morning, a box arrived - only ordered yesterday - as my current Sennheisers have developed a fault in the lead due to me tripping over the wire one too many times...

Despite this superficial damage...



..the phones themselves were great - christened them with "Billion Dollar Babies"...


Today, I also created a new shorter version of Capital Models' attempt at Sparks' "Number One Song in Heaven" and amended our rendition of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" from Sunday to the correct tempo...

Successful work - sent out to the team...

Meanwhile, in the living room, The Shelf currently houses the last 96 acquisitions - of these, only 12 are not from Charity Shops...


What a time to be alive...

A "Better Call Saul" at lunchtime and a very tasty indeed curry from Anne for tea...


...followed by our watching the last three episodes of "BCS", taking us up to fifty...

We have to wait until sometime next year to watch the final 13, which will comprise Season Six...

Now what are we going to watch?

Late on, back to Bandcamp and wrote up the credits and liner notes for "Haydn"...

Noticed a slight glitch in the remix I did earlier this month - looks like I will need to fix that...

But, for now, lights out...

Highlight of the Day : New headphones - no, wait, Anne's curry...

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

What. A. Miss...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Haydn
Various - Classic Northern Soul
Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo
John Grant - Boy From Michigan
Dio - Strange Highways
Autechre - Amber
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
John Gorka - Out of the Valley
Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2021

Finally back up to date after getting up early to get the entries for the Yorkshire trip written...


After yesterday's 1994 listening, I noted in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear", there are 30 entries from 1994...


 Only 5 of those are in my top 100...


The morning's listening, as I WFH'd, was the full 4 hours of "Haydn"...


I have realised there's little difference, apart from the timing, across the four versions of "Schröter" I've included, whereas with "4 May, 1795" and "Esterházy" each version (four of the former, two of the latter) the pieces are completely different from each other and do demonstrate how each of the tracks was honed to the final version on the first disc...

I could probably leave out the 1st and 2nd takes of "Schröter"...

We'll see...

Notes still to be written - as I write this I'm 48 hours away from release point...

The "Haydn" listening was broken off for breakfast, soundtracked by Northern Soul and Joni Mitchell...

Fang was an early visitor today...


...as was the squirrel, showing off as usual...


Fang was still here, settled in, as I retired upstairs to work (accompanied again by "Haydn")...


 ...and was still here when I descended for lunch and a "Better Call Saul"...

Back to work in the afternoon, taking in the new John Grant LP and a Dio album, suggested by someone else but which is from 1993 (although it was released in the States in 1994), followed by Autechre and Underworld, to new to the collection 1994 items...

This, the view from the office...


Post WFH, mucked about with the router connections...

Having speed tested Anne's iPad and her work set up, it seems there is something in my laptop which is holding the download speed back - the actual download speed for the house overall is almost 4 times what it was, while the laptop remains stubbornly around where it used to be - although, thankfully (and a boon to tasks like uploading "Haydn" to Bandcamp), upload speeds are around 8 times higher (Anne's work machine is 30 times faster re uploading - of which she does none, ironically)...

Then, watching England v Germany...

An even game - both sides had first half chances...

Second half, England made the breakthrough with just 15 minutes to go...

Germany ought to have equalised almost right away and, had they done so, may well have gone on to win...

But veteran striker Thomas Muller missed a chance he would normally have slotted home no bother - only for England then to get a second, with just 5 minutes to go...

And so England, in the very much weaker side of the draw, would be facing either Ukraine or Sweden in the quarters...

The "Holby City" from when we were away, featuring the departure of the likeable but drug addled Mr Medani, filled the gap between the Germany game and the last QF...

Ukraine won with a goal in injury time of the second half of extra time, post Sweden having had a man sent off for what looked like a complete accident...

If England can beat Ukraine, they will face either the Czech Republic (whom they've already beaten but who appear to be slightly improved since then) or Denmark in the Semi Final...

Meanwhile, on the other, very much stronger half of the draw, Belgium, Spain, Italy and outsiders Switzerland will leave one team standing...

Nervy times for any Scotsman...

A "Better Call Saul" rounded off the day...

Highlight of the Day : Verifying Internet speeds - as opposed to England beating Germany...

Monday, June 28, 2021

Football can be ok...

Playlist
Capital Models - 2021-06-27
BBM - Around The Next Dream
Golden Earring - Face It
Ginger Baker Trio - Going Back Home
Green Day - Dookie
Morrissey - Vauxhall And I
Shawn Colvin - Cover Girl
Michael Garrick - A Lady in Waiting
Blumfeld - L'Etat Et Moi
Jakko - Mustard Gas And Roses
King Crimson - Vrooom
Oasis - Definitely Maybe
Stina Nordenstam - And She Closed Her Eyes
Bryan Ferry - Mamouna
Jansen/Barbieri/Karn - Seed
Hawkwind - It Is the Business of the Future to Be Dangerous
Francis Dunnery - Fearless
Rheostatics - Introducing Happiness
Brian Eno - Wah Wah
Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation
Jon Anderson - Change We Must
Bruce Cockburn - Dart To The Heart
The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Nazareth - Move Me
Channel Light Vessel - Automatic
Laurie Anderson - Bright Red
Django Bates - Autumn Fires (and Green Shoots)
Beck - Mellow Gold
Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth
Antoine Roney - The Traveler
Refused - This Just Might Be the Truth
Cake - Motorcade Of Generosity
Hootie & The Blowfish - Cracked Rear View
No-Man - Flowermouth
Rheostatics - Music From The Motion Picture Whale Music
Orang - Herd Of Instinct
John Wetton - Battle Lines
Emerson Lake & Palmer - In The Hot Seat
Erasure - I Say I Say I Say
Richard Shindell - Blue Divide
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
The Divine Comedy - Promenade
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - All Lights Fucked Up on the Hairy Amp Drooling
Marillion - Brave
Bay - Happy Being Different
Neil Young - Sleeps With Angels
Torn Karn Bozzio - Polytown
Deus - Worst Case Scenario
Yello - Zebra
Roger Eno - Lost In Translation
Madredeus - O Espírito Da Paz
Rzewski - Rzewski Plays Rzewski Piano Works 1975-1999
Phish - Hoist
The Durutti Column - Sex and Death
Sault - Nine
Edward Spark - 1.9.7.4.TWO
John Grant - Boy From Michigan
The Grid/Robert Fripp - Leviathan
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Autechre - Amber
The Divine Comedy - Promenade
Tortoise - Tortoise
Joni Mitchell - Turbulent Indigo
The Orb - Pomme Fritz
Styx - Crash of the Crown

Up and back to WFH...


But, before that, with reasonable skies outside...


...and too much music inside...


...to editing yesterday's session into songs and sending them out to the boys...


At lunch time, with "Better Call Saul", a new bird at the feeding station...




After some research...



We decided it was a young starling...


In the evening, two excellent games, both going to extra time with Spain eventually overcoming Croatia and France surprisingly succumbing on penalties to Switzerland, after seemingly having had it in the bag...

Tasty home made chicken soup accompanied the games... 


In addition today, a new year to look at over the next two weeks - 1994 - at the height of our record shop days...

I downloaded almost 20 albums I ought to have already owned from the year to give me 100 nominations in all - which will be whittled down to just 5 (already chosen!) over the next 12 days...

This is how I waste my time...

Highlight of the Day : Football...

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Searching, finding, rejecting...

Playlist
Airto - Free
Rare Earth - Willie Remembers
Franco Battiato - Fetus
Nucleus - Bella Donna
Stranger Cole & The Upsetters - Battle Axe
Monk Higgins - Extra Soul Perception
Cluster - Cluster II
Captain Beefheart - Clear Spot
Curtis Mayfield - Superfly
Ursa Major - Ursa Major
Slade - Slayed?
Elton John - Honky Chateau
Electric Light Orchestra - The Electric Light Orchestra
Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street
Al Stewart - Orange
Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes
The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street
Neu! - Neu!
Return To Forever - Return to Forever
Al Green - Let's Stay Together
Matching Mole - Little Red Record
Grand Funk Railroad - Phoenix
Lou Reed - Transformer (RM)
Capital Models - 2021-06-27

Up early with a long day ahead...


Some trying to get this up to date but only re the pics from the holidays - words (now updated) still to follow...

The squirrel was up and about...


Post shopping for my mum, to the attic, trying to find some old FX pedals...





Eventually I did - I'd shelled out for new batteries to run them but, it turned out they were incompatible with my current set up...

Oh well...

At midday out to my mum's for an hour of chat and showing her the holiday snaps, doing some chores  and putting away her shopping...

Then, on to Roslin...

In all, we played for just over 3 hours with a 15 minute break - the first half spent working on some David Bowie and Sparks, the second, playing songs we ought to know - going round the band three times with each member choosing a tune to test us...

15 quite enjoyable things...

Home to Anne and Fang...


...and football and "Better Call Saul" and listening back...


The new songs are coming together, the old ones having the rust gradually removed...

Holiday well and truly over...

Oh well..

So it goes...

Highlight of the Day : Playing with the band...

Saturday, June 26, 2021

No more stupid questions...

Playlist
Various Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2021
Capital Models - 2021-06-13
Capital Models - 2021-04-25
Capital Models - 2021-06-06
Capital Models - 2020-01-12
David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes (Single)

Saturday...


Podcast up by 8...

I did not venture out today...

Anne's new hare has found a spot...



Time to write up the CD book again...




..and finished off the ripping...

The birds had been waiting on us returning re replenishment of the feeding station..


Started the upload of "Haydn" to Bandcamp for release on Friday...


Only took a couple of hours due to our recently upgraded broadband speeds...


Notes still to write though...

In the afternoon, learned that Frederic Rzewski had died - listened to some of his music and downloaded more...



Some catching up too with possible items to be played tomorrow with Capital Models in Roslin...

In the evening, the next round of the football started so, two games watched and a "Better Call Saul"...

That was about it...

Highlight of the Day : Haydn up...