The (Next) Release

Although I wasn't absolutely blown away by the last Marillion album (see my reviews here and here), there is a web-page for pre-orders for album #15. Another double, like Marbles, and another chance to see my name in print.

HERE:

http://www.marillion.com/preorder/

I'll be signing up. I suggest you do too. A Better Way Of Life.

Had Too Much to Dream Last Night

A rather messy Tube this morning, with a train breaking down in front of us. Frankly, though it makes no difference whether I get to work at 9 or 10 these days...

I found some MP3 files by 'The Enid' yesterday, which was really a blast from the past. I've got several albums on vinyl (In The Region of Summer Stars, Touch Me, Salome, Something Wicked..., Aerie Faerie Nonsense, The Spell), but no CDs. Well, I found several MP3 fragments here, on their website. Great fun, but frustratingly brief snippets.

I saw The Enid back at Uni, in 1990 or thereabouts. Absolutely superb, with just Robert John Godfrey and Stephen Stewart (there may have been a drummer, but I think they were using backing tracks). Some bits just took my breath away...

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came (excerpt) 0:59 Aerie Faerie Nonsense, @ 128 kbps
Childe Roland Coda (excerpt) 0:40
Fand Intro (excerpt) 1:13
Fand Sea Shanty 1 (excerpt) 1:48
Fand Sea Shanty 2 (excerpt) 0:58
Fand Orgasm (excerpt) 1:36
Fand Finale (excerpt) 1:22

Judgement 7:55 Demoes @ 192 kbps
Mars (Orchestral Prelude) 4:16 Demoes @ 128 kbps

The Tower (excerpt) 1:12 In The Region Of Summer Stars, @ 128 kbps
The Lovers Intro (excerpt) 0:48
The Lovers Climax (exceprt) 1:25
Judgement Part One (64 kbps; excerpt) 1:28
Judgement Part Two (excerpt) 1:05
In The Region Of Summer Stars (excerpt) 1:11, with just a short bit of the beautiful twin-tracked guitar

Raindown (excerpt) 1:04 Something Wicked This Way Comes, @ 128 kbps
Then There Were None (excerpt) 1:14
Something Wicked This Way Comes (excerpt) 2:31

Winter (Fanfare) (excerpt) 1:17 The Spell, @ 128 kbps
Winter (Climax) (excerpt) 0:59
Spring (Waltz) (excerpt) 0:47
Spring (Coda) (excerpt) 0:57
Summer (Chorus) (excerpt) 1:20
Autumn (Climax) (excerpt) 3:00
Elephants Never Die (excerpt) 1:28
Sentimental Side of Mrs James (excerpt) 1:11


Some shorter songs today to take my mind of the transport system and its victims - between 2.30 and 4 minutes:

The Calvary Cross - Richard & Linda Thompson
A Slow Divorce - Boo Hewerdine
Don't Hurt Yourself (Single Edit) - Marillion
Plasticine - Placebo
Tears In Rain - Vangelis
DJ Asylum (7" Edit) - The Orb
Painted Bird - Siouxsie And The Banshees
Did You Ever Love Me - Fleetwood Mac
Match Of The Day - Genesis
Just Let Me Breathe (Live) - Dream Theater, from Live Scenes From New York (Disc 2)
Five-Five-Five - Frank Zappa, from Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (Disc 1)
Ivo - Cocteau Twins
Nimos & Tambos - Pure Reason Revolution
Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake - Kate Bush
May You Never - John Martyn
Eibhli Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail - John Martyn
Corpus Christi Carol (For Roy) - Jeff Buckley, from the Legacy Edition of 'Grace'
The Man With The Child In His Eyes - Kate Bush
Lap Of Luxury - Jethro Tull

T - 2; M -3.5; D - 3

Half Way Up, Half Way Down

Tuesday. Shuffle on all songs between 3 and 5 minutes...

One Minute Warning - Passengers OST
Dance Of The Seven Veils, A) Faithless - Pendragon. A shame it didnt' go into Parys B and C, but that's the nature of this playlist,
Merten Kosijat - Värttinä, from Kokko,
Hollow Hills - Bauhaus, from Press the Eject and Give Me the Tape
Pojaton - Värttinä, another from Kokko
05 - Vangelis, from Sexpower,
The Fisherman - Rick Wakeman (Sea Airs)
The Company - Fish
Dreamland - Joni Mitchell, from Shadows And Light,
Every Colour You Are - David Sylvian
Frontline - Captain

T - 3; M - 4; D - 3

Guilty Pleasures

After a great weekend seeing family, a return to 'work'.

My iPod is full of the likes of Yes, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Brian Eno, Kate Bush, Cocteau Twins, The Fall, Sigur Ros. But I have several guilty pleasures when I'm feeling a bit bored of these on constant rotation. One is Chris de Burgh. I first heard 'Spanish Train...' about 25 years ago (Annie Nightingale?) and bought the album at Woods Record Shop in Huddersfield. I was there for the embarrassment of 'Lady In Red', although I did try (unsuccesfully) to seduce a girl on a ferry to Norway. She was the girlfriend of a mate, so it perhaps wasn't a great move.

Anyway, I tend to favour te early stuff. Kinda folk/rock/pop with the odd fleeting prog-type influence:

I Had The Love In My Eyes - Chris De Burgh
Summer Rain - Chris De Burgh
New Moon - Chris De Burgh
Hold On - Chris De Burgh
The Key - Chris De Burgh
Spanish Train - Chris De Burgh
Carry On (Reprise) - Chris De Burgh
Crusader - Chris De Burgh
The Lady In Red - Chris De Burgh
Fire On The Water - Chris De Burgh
Just Another Poor Boy - Chris De Burgh
In A Country Churchyard (Let Your Love Shine On) - Chris De Burgh

Also, Methuselah's Children Part 3 (of 7) from a Radio 7 dramatisation. Very good.

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 3

Singing the Blues

Some Joni Mitchell to lighten the mood on a non-descript day:

Carey - Joni Mitchell
Morning Morgantown - Joni Mitchell
Sweet Bird - Joni Mitchell
In France They Kiss On Main Street - Joni Mitchell
The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines - Joni Mitchell
God Must Be A Boogie Man - Joni Mitchell
Court And Spark - Joni Mitchell
Rainy Night House - Joni Mitchell
Woman Of Heart And Mind - Joni Mitchell
Furry Sings The Blues - Joni Mitchell
The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey - Joni Mitchell

Then, on finding an article in today's Independent on the genesis of 'I'm Not in Love'

I'm Not In Love - 10cc

then some recently-acquired stuff:
Panic - The Smiths
Shoplifters Of The World Unite - The Smiths
Drive - The Cars
Girlfriend In A Coma - The Smiths (I'm currently going through an '80s thing, for some reason),
Toka Tola - Ozric Tentacles

More Baker and Kelly splendidness ahead this afternoon - I only hope it's released before I bugger off at 3.30

T - 4; M - 3.5; D - 3

Blasting Across the Alkali Flats in a Jet-Powered, Monkey-Navigated...

... Rather than being stuck here crushed together under ground with a sour-looking woman who insists on trying to put her bags on my feet. I've said it before etc., but the quicker I get out of this hell, the better.

Methuselah's Children Part 2 - Robert A. Heinlein, from a recent BBC Radio 7 adaptation, ripped from the stream with Roemer Software's Hi-Q Recorder

Next, some Rock/Pop. Basically if it's not quite Rock (e.g. it feels too 'light') but hasn't quite reached the depths of 'Pop', it ends up here.

Western High - Captain
N.L. - Notwist
Weathered Wall - David Sylvian
That's What They Always Say - Chris Rea
Southbound Again - Dire Straits
Promenade - Trevor Rabin, from the pre-Yes 90124 CD,
All The Midnights In The World - Prince. I seem to be the only person in the world who finds Prince, and this album in particular, banal.
Tell Me Why - Genesis. Speaking of banal,
Texas - Chris Rea
Trombone Dixie - The Beach Boys
James And The Cold Gun - Kate Bush
Would You Feel My Love - Trevor Rabin
Raw Ramp - T.Rex
Hold On (Demo) - Trevor Rabin. It's clear that other members of Yes had very little creative input into the 90125 album, especially (and disappointingly) Chris Squire. Still, the addition of some AOR radio-friendly input helped this band immensely,
Welcome To The Room, Sara - Fleetwood Mac. ditto here,
Praise - David Sylvian. Just gorgeous,
Family Man - Fleetwood Mac

Today's Metro reported some research on how music affects your mood and how 'sad' music doesn't necessarily make you sad. Very interesting stuff, although today's music selection was a bit average.

So that's it then. Almost Friday, and more Baker and Kelly. And a trip to God's Own County at the weekend to see family.

T - 1.5; M - 3; D - 1.5

Wippit Woes

Ahead of any re-think of my previous post, I checked out Wippit's pages.

God, what a mess.

The search thing is far too blunt a tool.
The catalogue is poor to say the least, and the promise of '10,000 free tracks to subscribers' looks fairly hollow, given the number of non-free tracks and uninteresting (to me, at least) free catalogue.
Searching for obvious things such as 'Yes' or 'Jaco' came up with nothing useful.
The download thing, if my past experience (and more recent experience with the 'We're Back' ADBS file) is anything to go by, is still terrible and prone to error.

If (and it's a big if still) I go back, I'm just going to have to live with it.

All Day Breakfast Show

Well, it's back back back.

The Danny Baker All Day Breakfast Show on Wippit.

So now what do I do?

All the recent chaos, culminating in the excuse of parental illness, was really poor. Yes, his parents were ill, and he did the right thing in taking time off (IMO, FWIW).

But:

Why no news at all except cryptic messages on various Wippit and ADBS websites?
Why did Mr Baker continue the BBC London show without mention (although, to be fair he did miss a couple of shows)?
Why was the juvenile 'keep watching the skies' persisted with? We're not children,
Why, whenever Wippit's service was criticised, the excuse came back: well, 95% of thnigs are fine,
Why is the Wippit interface soooo poor?
Why, now that the ADBSiC is back, do we forget about the previous month as if nothing had happened?
Why is any criticism responded to with 'hey, the guy's parents were ill' (what you do mean Wippit's servers are down all the time and the download process is abysmal? - cut us some slack, his dad's been ill)?


So now what?

Stump up £50 and hope that Wippit improves and the ADBSiC continues with fewer breaks?

Also, the decision to drop from 5 shows a week to 'at least 3' is crap. He's obviously hedging his bets and continuing the BBC London show.


I've decided - if I get the new job, I'll subscribe to Wippit and the ADBSiC. If I don't, I won't. There, that'll show 'em.

Judging by some comments in the Treehouse and at Cook'd and Bomb'd I'm not alone...

Wide Awake on the Edge of the World

Well, the job interview yesterday went well, although the HR interview was a bit scary.

Nothing to do at work today, but I'm going in anyway...

Chronology 6 - Jean-Michel Jarre, from Aero. Pretty awful 're-imagining' of classic tunes - should be left well alone, IMO,
Turn Me Loose - It Bites
Same Dreams - Gnidrolog
Russia On Ice - Porcupine Tree
Go! - Marillion, from the overlooked .com album,
Trans-Island Skyway - Donald Fagen. Beautiful guitar riff, used to great effect in a couple of Chris Morris' Jam episodes,
Shot in the Dark - Ozzy Osbourne,
Still Loving You Tonight (London, 1991) - Jethro Tull
Musical Interval - Scott Matthews
The Lap Of Luxury/Now Wash Your Hands - Marillion
Spider of Destiny - Frank Zappa
HeartAttack In A Lay-By - Porcupine Tree

T - 4; M - 4; D - 3

Attack Ships On Fire Off The Shoulders of Orion

Ahead of tomorrow's interview and a life-line out of here:

Versatile Heart - Linda Thompson
Homesick - Kings Of Convenience
Somewhere Here On Earth - Prince
Anthem - Leonard Cohen
Lord Willoughby - Jim Moray
Tenemos Roads - National Health
Born To Run - Marillion
The Plum Blossom - Vangelis
Nine Cats - Porcupine Tree
Tears In Rain - Vangelis

Excellent Baker and Kelly Podcast last week. Things look to be happening with Danny Baker's BBC London thing, and possibly the ADBS, although there is still nothing concrete. Very frustrating.

I've found another bunch of Podcasts recently, including 'The News Quiz' and 'Thinking Allowed', which are filling the ADBS-shaped holes.

M - 3.5; T - 3; D - 4