Albums of the Year

Well, everyone else is doing it, so what the hell.

New releases:

Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow
Scott Matthews - Scott Matthews
Donald Fagen - Morph The Cat
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Bert Jansch - The Black Swan

Old releases I've bought this year:

Eno/Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (remaster)
John Martyn - One World (remaster)
Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum
Traffic - The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys

Stuff I've liked on first hearing, but am less sure about now:

Captain - Hazelville
Midlake - The Trials of Von Occupanther

Stuff I was really disappointed by:

Davie Gilmour - On An Island

Fogwalking Through The Wreckage

Whatever it was that made me ill yesterday passed with the intake of several aspirins and a generous helping of Glenfiddich.

Heavy fog on this Winter Solstice morning, so I listened to Peter Hammill (including 'Fogwalking') on the walk to the Tube station.

I didn't fancy lots of jollity, so I shuffled van der Graaf Generator:

Necromancer, from Aerosol Grey Machine,
The Siren Song (The Quiet Zone - The Pleasure Dome),
Sphinx in the Face (from a compilation),
One The Beach, from the recent excellent Present album,
Refugees (The Least We Can Do...),
Abandon Ship!, another from 'Present',
House With No Door (H to He...),
The Sleepwalkers (Godbluff),
Theme 1, another from the compilation. This is just superb, apparently written by George Martin.
Homage to Teo, from 'Present',
Darkness (11/11), from the compilation,
and, to complete a splendid morning, Lemmings, from Pawn Hearts.

That's all. Our Finance Director has given us the day off tomorrow, so this'll be the last blog for this year. Merry Christmas

Ill

I think I'm coming down with something. Maybe my usual christmas cold, but I'm not sure.

I needed an easy ride this morning, so switched to 'Folk, Jazz and Blues' on my very subjective filter. Lots of Nick Drake, John Martyn, Steely Dan, Jaco and Tim Buckley.

Far too many people about today. I had thought there'd be fewer this week. The wheely-suitcases seem to have disappeared, though, which is a good thing.

Meltdown

A frosty start this morning, and the Tube responded as expected. 'Severe delays on the the Circle and Bakerloo Lines, with minor delays on the Northern, Piccadilly, District and Victoria Lines. All other lines are running normally'. No - these lines are running normally: as for the others, well someone's got their fingers out of their arse and fixed them so they are running as they should.

Today I opted for 'Shuffle' of my 'Rock, Prog and Pop/Rock' filter. It's all very subjective, but it turned up the following:

Virtuality - Rush, from the fairly mediocre 'Test for Echo' album. This is one of the better tracks.
Nightmare (Pt2) - The Zutons. Another recent introduction, and this is good.
Walk of Life - Dire Straits. Ahh, the '80s.
Down to the Waterline - DS again. Funny how, of 6248 tracks, this happens.
Kashka from Baghdad - the sublime Kate Bush. I found a load of old demos on the Web last week. A bit ropey, but very interesting.
The Epic (Fairground) - Marillion - this demo became the excellent '100 Nights'.
Plastic Dreamer - It Bites. I was a big fan of these guys for a while, but lost interest.
Three Boats Down From the Candy - Fish-era Marillion from the early singles. Very Genesis-influenced, especially 'Grendel' from the same 12".
Bridge Over Troubled Water - S&G from the Greatest Hits album.
When You Gonna Learn - Jamiroquai. I find Jamiroquai very repetitive, but he's obviously very good at what he does (if you like this sort of thing).
The Great Gig in the Sky - Pink Floyd. By now I was standing on Leicester Square platform waiting 6 (!) minutes for the train (which was full), so I leaned against a wall and let it sweep over me.
I Fall Apart - from Vanilla Sky. Not sure who this is by, though. OK.
Until We Sleep - an early David Gilmour solo album, far far better than the soporific 'On An Island'.
Something In 4/4 Time - Daryl Hall with Robert Fripp. One of the three Fripp-inspired albums along with 'Exposure' and 'Peter Gabriel 2'.
Life Is A Pigsty - Morrissey, from the latest, above average, album.
Methods of Dance - Japan - to finish my long long journey this morning. Thank god it's almost christmas and we're a bit more lenient this time of year.

M - 5; T - 2; D -4

Podcast

So England completed their capitulation in splendid fashion. Ho hum. Let's hope it's not 5-0.

I took the chance to catch up on some Podcasts this morning: Mark Kermode's Radio 5 Film Reviews and The Now Show. Nothing much to review, except Rory Bremner being his usual tedious self on TNS.

During my walk to work, I listened to a random track, which turned out to be 'For All These Years' by Tinita Tikaram, which has a really nice trumpet part; I've just created a Playlist of songs featuring the trumpet, and this will join them...

T - 4, D - 4, no Music today, really

Too Much Too Soon

I thought I'd try and get into the spirit of things by listening to my Auto Playlist I have optimistically called 'Christmas'. Anything with the word Snow or Christmas or Winter etc. is included, but it throws up all kind of clashes:

Winter Is Gone - Nick Drake: a demo which is not especially cheery,
A History of Holes - Nine Horses; included because the album is called Snow Borne Sorrow, not very festive,
A Change of Seasons IV: The Darkest of Winters - Dream Theater, another un-festive track,
Holly Herald - Jethro Tull, from the Christmas album of a couple of years back: it's jolly, but maybe too much for this time of the morning,
Jingle Bell Rock - The Fall. This is more like it!
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - JT. I once programme my old VIC=20 computer to play this carol and loved the polyphonic outcome; the sounds were much better than on the Spectrum, although the memory was something like 3.5k vs. 16k on the Spec and 64k on the C64.
The Librarian - more Nine Horses,
Frosty the Snowman - Cocteau Twins from the very rare 'Snow' EP: great fun,
Winter - Tori Amos: I don't really like her voice, but this is okay,
Plight (The Spiralling of WInter Ghosts) - David Sylvian from the strange 'Camphor' album,
River - Gentle Giant. Only included on Auto-Play because there's a song of the same name by Joni Mitchell which IS relevant to christmas. This isn't.
Winter Wonderland - Cocteau Twins, from the 'Snow' EP again,
Winter Snowscape - more JT. Better than Holly Herald, but too much.

I got fed up of this and turned to Pendragon (Not Of This World) for the walk to work. Ahh, that's better.

The Independent seems to have lost it completely this morning. I can put with a bit of Blair-bashing, but today was just rabid. A re-write of history to suit their ends. Get over it.

Plus, England seem intent on throwing away the Ashes. It'll all be over tomorrow.

T - 4; M - 3; D - 4, except for the people who insist on stepping on my toes.

This Town Is Turning Me Into What I Have Become

I was in a good mood this morning. Almost xmas, and almost two weeks off work...

I spent the whole of my commute in the company of my 'Not Classical or Spoken' filter on shuffle:

Nightmares by the Sea by Jeff Buckley: I loved Grace on first listen, but find his later stuff, mostly demoes released post-death, a bit more difficult. This track is excellent, however.
Flathead by The Fratellis: this is apprently one of the records of the year, according to some. I can't quite see it myself - they sound like The Arctic Monkeys (no bad thing) but don't stand out.
Live Miles (Extract) by Tangerine Dream, then Score With No Film by Adrian Belew from an EG sampler. Frank Zappa next: Bamboozled by Love from the excellent Tinsel Town Rebellion, followed by Astroboy by The Buggles from the fabulously quirky Age of Plastic CD. One Very Important Thought by Boards of Canada, then the 7" version of He Knows You Know from Marillion - this album was probably the first prog-rock-type album I'd ever heard, back at the age of 14 or so.

One of the Few by Pink Floyd then 'Never Understand' by The Jesus and Mary Chain - I haven't heard this for ages. Another recent find (see The Fratellis) next: Language Lessons by Hawthorne Heights, followed by Me and Sarah Jane by Genesis (abacab). I just love shuffle...

Rasta Locks by The Observers from one of the Trojan Dub Box Sets, which are very good (although 1 is better than 2). More Marillion next: This Town from 'Holidays in Eden', which cut off before the superb 100 Nights - 'You didn't notice me...', then Robert Plant's version of Song To The Siren. This was followed by the average 'Hindu Times' by Oasis, and 'Boho Dance' by Joni Mitchell. Next was '5 Years' by Bjork (I'm not a huge fan, but have a couple of CDs) then a Dream Theater track - War Inside My Head, before 'Lumen' by Jansen and Barbieri.

'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side' by The Smiths, then the very strange 'Teen Beat' by Fleetwood Mac, with a Sigur Ros song - Saeglopur - to accompany my walk to work from the Tube station.

23 tracks, many at 3 minutes or less.

Voucher Scheme

I had the tremendous satisfaction of handing over a handful of compensation vouchers to pay for my Oyster card top-up. That'll keep me going 'til christmas.

My commute to Central London used to take about an hour from the tube station to my work. For the last month or so, this has routinely become 1:15 to 1:30. Frequency of trains has dropped, and each train goes even slower. All this means that trains become fuller quicker, and everyone gets miserable. There were a few letters in one of the free London papers the other day suggesting we should talk to each other more often and, basically, enjoy it more. Sorry, but a) it's too much trouble and b) I'm tired.

I prefer the unsociable isolationism of my iPod, paper or book. This morning I listened to the whole of Jethro Tull's 'A Passion Play', something I haven't done for years. This album is probably the reason for punk existing...

With a change of line, I swapped to Brian Eno's 'Here Come the Warm Jets'. Fabulous LP, one of his three or four classic vocal albums from the 70s (Before & After Science, Taking Tiger Mountain, plus Another Green World, which is more ambient-based).

Scott Matthews on Radio 2 tonight. Looking forward to it...

M - 4, T - 3, D - 3

Hungover as the Queen in Maida Vale

Too much mulled wine last night produced a slight hangover, alleviated by a mix of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and related bands (Silver Mt Zion, Fly Pan Am etc.). Perfect in the circumstances. I first saw GYBE! at the RFH just after the release of A#F#infinity - they played with Sigur Ros. I'd heard them on Mixing It and John Peel's shows and was mesmerised. Althought the novelty has perhaps worn off, the various splinter groups are interesting.

More Action! Less Tears! - Silver Mt Zion
They Don't Sleep Anymore On The Beach - GYBE!
Goodbye Desolate Railyard - Silver Mt Zion
The Landlord Is Dead - Do Make Say Think
Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part 1) - GYBE!
Built The Burnt (Hurrah! Hurrah!) - Silver Mt Zion
Blais Bailey Finnegan III - GYBE!

Those bloody wheeled suitcases are multiplying. Buy a bag, for god's sake.

Delays throughout this morning. An interval of 8 minutes between trains at rush hour just leads to frayed tempers and packed trains; on the plus side, I just got some vouchers back from the delays caused by the chaos in late November. 10 quid. A small victory, but pleasing nonetheless.

Festive Spirit

OK, the weekend came and went, and I'm feeling a bit more festive. We saw a few friends this w/e and our xmas tree went up. We also started to kind of thinking it might be a good idea if we planned to sort of make an effort to try and find all our friends' addresses and made a start on planning to write some cards to them.

On the Tube, more of those sodding suitcases on wheels. Where's everybody going at 8 in the morning? Plus, why is it a good idea to try and cram a 4 year old child, in a buggy, into an already packed train at rush hour? For Christ's sake, fold it up (the buggy, not the child, although it would be tempting). And don't go to C. London at 8am.

Some work to catch up on, so not much music today. I did listen to Mark Kermode's film review Podcast, which is always entertaining. My walk from the Tube was accompanied by 'Ys' by Joanna Newsom - a strange album, which I'm not sure I 'get' yet.

Off Your Trolley

Today seemed to be 'Bring Your Ridiculously Large Wheeled Suitcase and Haul It Around Slowly, Stopping Every 5 Yards' Day. Have I missed a holiday, or something? I've seldom seen so many people with those wheeled cases wandering around like they've only just learned how to walk upright.

It's been an odd week. I should be feeling festive by now, but, with one thing and another at work, I just feel tired.

Today I cheered myself up a bit by listening to the 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' 30th Anniversary Show, and then listened to the whole of Scott Matthews' CD. I saw his video on Channel 4 by accident this morning; I've had this album since before it was officially released, and it's very good - think Nick Drake/Jeff Buckley with Eastern influences. It's good to see him getting exposure.

Got to work 20 minutes late (again).

T - 3; M - 4; D - 2

Don't Strain Yourself

Hmmm... Just had an interesting conversation with my line manager about the plan for the rest for the week. We decided what to do, and I said I'd get on with, when he said 'Don't strain yourself'. Huh?

Some Are Wise and Some Are Otherwise

A slight hangover this morning, after last night's festivities at a 'top West End restaurant'. Plenty of C-list celebrities, apparently, although they all seemed to be small effeminate men. A glass of whisky for £9, so that should keep the riff-raff out.

The Tube was up to its usual tricks, which meant I was a record 1 hour late for work. In the circumstances, it didn't matter.

Despite specifying Genesis (pre-80s) as a favourite band, today I fancied Phil Collins-era Genesis. There's a hell of a lot of dross, but some fine stuff to mellow out to, including:

Ripples, from the excellent 'Trick of the Tail' album,
Abacab, from the truly awful album of the same name,
Duke's Travels/Duke's End,
Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea,
Inside And Out, from 'Spot the Pigeon',
Blood On The Rooftops, and
Fading Lights.

M - 4; T - 3; D - 4.

Change of Scene

A trip from Mill Hill East this morning. A strange little station, all alone on its little single track.

The good thing is that the train's always empty. So why then, did one arse, upon entering the carriage and seeing me with my legs crossed, move down the train, causing me to politely uncross my legs, and then sit opposite me? Moron.

I moved.

Today was On-The-Go, and started with Blue Oyster Cult's 'Madness to the Method' from the Club Ninja album, 'Cantonese Boy' by Japan, 'Hide and Seek' by Howard Jones - my wife has this album on cassette and I only like this track. As 'signal problems at Charing Cross' became evident, we were left sitting in the tunnel, but I had LZ 'Achilles' Last Stand' to listen to, so that was okay.

Some Jaco next: 'Midwestern Night's Dream' with Pat Metheny, then Coheed and Cambria's 'Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial)' - a former colleague got me into this excellent prog-related band earlier in the year. Next I fancied some David Sylvian - a few tracks from the Gone to Earth CD.

It's our work's xmas party tonight, so I'll have to do my best to avoid the attention of one or two of the secretaries.

T - 3, M - 4, D - 2

Kicking and Screaming Part 1

A (growing) list of albums I have trouble with. A couple of years ago, a friend gave me a copy of the first Franz Ferdinand CD as a xmas present in '...an attempt to bring my record collection kicking and screaming into the 21st Century'. Ho ho.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever got past Track 3. Banal rubbish: it's obvious they're trying just a bit too hard. Here, off the top of my head, are other CDs I've never heard in full.

White Stripes - Elephant
Oasis - Heathen Chemistry
late REM, especially Monster
Muse - Origin of Symmetry (actually, everything before the current one)

December Will Be Magic Again

An early start this morning. However, London Underground had different ideas, and I arrived at work just 5 minutes earlier than usual. Plus, England contrived to throw away the Second Ashes Test in spectacular fashion. I'm fed up.

The only thing to lift my spirits this morning was Kate Bush's Aerial album, the whole of Disc 2. I had too much wine last night, and this was just mellow enough.

After that, I was so frustrated by the Tube that I couldn't find the right music. I tried Frank Zappa, Frankie Goes to Hollywood (after FZ in the list) and finally settled on John Martyn 'Live in Leeds'.

T 2; M 4; D 3 - too packed to behave

Average

After a full weekend, including a trip to Crystal Palace to see 'Peter Pan On Ice' with my wife and son, it was time to relax on this morning's commute. A Shuffle of 'folk and guitarists' produced Sandy Denny, John Martyn, Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Suzanne Vega, Tom McRae, Boo Hewerdine amongst others, which suited my mood perfectly on this sunny morning.

My thoughts turned to my travelling companions: If you're new to London and buy a house near, say, East Finchley, expecting a pleasant ride into the City or wherever on the basis of the Tube map, it must be so bloody annoying to NEVER get a seat on the train. You pay, what, £1000 a year and cram into a full train every day.

Anyway, bollocks to them; I had a seat all the way and had a very average commute. I actually arrived on time to work.

Apparently the Waterloo & City line has been closed due to 'dust'. Well done, everybody.

While I'm here, I must mention a book I read while commuting earlier in the year - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's awful. To make matters worse, it's about 1000 pages long and is awful throughout. I expected (why, I don't know) some sort of Holmes/Watson interaction between the two main characters, perhaps in some light-hearted, but strangely intriguing, romp through Victorian London or similar. What I got was a dry, badly-edited, meandering tale of nothing in particular, filled with nonsense about magic and fairies. When I was about 80% through it, a chap on the Tube asked me if it was any good. He'd started it and stopped half-way through - since I'd almost finished it, I must know whether it improved. It hadn't. I was waiting for a fast-paced, exciting ending, in which everything was revealed and loose ends were tied up. It wasn't and they weren't.

Avoid this book. It weighs too much for a commute, and is a complete waste of time.

Stand Up and be Counted

One of my favourite albums in my collection is 'Stand Up' by Jethro Tull, partly because it's great music and partly because it's on big, thick vinyl with the original pink Island label with the 'pop-up' record sleeve. I downloaded it recently, and listened to the whole thing today. I've downloaded a bunch of albums recently from a couple of Russian sites, focusing on those I already have on LP. I've about 600 LPs, and have found about a third of them for very little extra cost.

Trivial irritations today... If the indicator says Charing Cross, but there's no time given, it means the next train is going via Bank. Also, the Independent crossword featured the word 'doable' in one of the clues. This is an ugly word, and I don't know it's becoming common when we already have 'feasible'. My boss once gave me a Report to edit which contained both 'doable' and its bastard off-spring 'do-ability'. Horrible.

A few shuffle tracks after the mighty Tull - Peter Gabriel's German version of 'Games Without Frontiers', which is a bit odd. I thought the Kate Bush bit would also by in German, but, as it's in French, I think it makes sense for it to remain so. Next was a track off the new Beatles 'Love' album. I don't get the Beatles. I know that they are pioneers of pop music and forever changed the music scene etc. etc., but I don't like it as much as I'm expected to. One recent review in the Independent made some remarks about 'Strawberry Fields Forever' along the lines of: 'Wow, what clarity - who but Ringo would have heard those drum fills and thought they were important before being revealed in the new mix?'. Bollocks. I loved the drum playing in this track before being re-mixed, mainly for these little patterns. Maybe I listen to music differently to others. Last track was the excellent 'The Jezebel Spirit' from Eno/Byrne, which made me feel better.

T 3; M 4; D 3 - one woman tried to get on the train before I got off, which, as I have to bend down, is bloody irritating.