Rockin’ All Over The World — #8 Vikings, fjords, Slartibartfast, and homesick parrots. Such are the images springing to mind when Norway comes up in conversation. But did you know it has a reigning King and a conservative female Prime Minister? That the Norse people invented Thor before Marvel comics? Most of the population of […]
Lovely seaside holiday. Not as many hot days as one might have wished for but on the upside, fewer occasions to squeeze into the wetsuit and do an impression of a beached whale. Or one of those waddling penguins that look way, way cuter than a middle-aged man in neoprene. The Kongwak Sunday Market is […]
The Vinyl Connection Music Catalogue is quite large, but relatively simple in structure. Artist name, Album name, Year, Format, and a general field into which I push anything from colour of the vinyl to a bonus DVD. There are all kinds of useful or interesting things that could be included: date of purchase, original or […]
Is it simply a hangover from yesterday’s indulgence? For some reason, Beggar’s Banquet by the Rolling Stones found its way onto the turntable while I found my way to the Boxing Day couch. Here is the piece I penned for Discrepancy Records. After the kaleidoscope swirls of Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones entered […]
Michel Huygen is better known via his musical alias, Neuronium. Formed around the synthesiser skills of Mr Huygen, the band (if that’s the best word) released their first album in 1977 and the most recent—Lysergic Dream—in 2017. Neuronium is Spain’s major contribution to the electronic music scene, so it’s nice to have the opportunity to […]
The on-line purchase arrived piecemeal, as these things often unfold; a kind of retail lottery with a reveal at the post office. What’s in this parcel? The order included two albums by veteran acoustic outfit Oregon, who have been playing melodic jazz-influenced instrumental music since 1970, way before the term New Age became part marketing […]
Here’s an album cover post a while in the planning. Though perhaps that should read: a while in the acquiring. Years ago, when I first got a copy of Kraftwerk’s Radio-aktivität I was struck by the cover art: a geiger counter showing the operation panel on the front of the LP and the rear of […]
Today I thought it would be fun to dig a little deeper into the collection and spin some albums that haven’t seen the turntable for ages. Years. In some cases, decades. The only rule was to wait until (at least one side of) the record finished before choosing the next. 8:30 am We had friends […]
My niece is in the midst of her end-of-high school exams. She’s feeling pretty stressed, as can be imagined. Who doesn’t have clammy-palmed memories of the final secondary school tests? As I vaguely recall—and as vaguely recalled in a much earlier post about exams, Deborah Roberts and Suzi Quatro—my stress levels were variable, ranging from […]
Whenever I come home with yet another compilation album, the Conscience Gnome who sits on the amplifier with his little legs dangling over the volume knob shakes his head and waggles an admonishing finger. He never speaks; he doesn’t need to. Why do you do this? Back in the day, there were reasons. Not necessarily […]
