Category e) Naughts [2000 – 2009]
LASTING FIRSTS
Debut albums are a bit special. Often the result of a long gestation period that may well have begun in someone’s teenage bedroom, there is an exuberance and excitement to a first offering that combines confidence (“Look at me! Listen to my music!”) and nervousness (“Is it OK? Will anyone like me?”). Over the life of […]
DARK SIDE OF THE WHOM?
Since publishing our recent feature, co-authored with special guest contributor Gromit, there has been a flurry of activity at the Vinyl Connection letters desk. Here is a selection. * G’day mate. Got this really unusual album, released in 2009. Sort of punky energy with some really wild squalls of noise above deep underlying grooves. There’s a […]
GRASSED UP
For those unfamiliar with British slang, the word ‘supergrass’ was a media invented term for a Premier league police informer. It appeared in the early 70s as part of the circus around some high-profile trials of underworld figures. For folk who don’t know the British band Supergrass, they were formed in 1994. Their first album […]
HERE IS A SUNRISE. AIN’T THAT ENOUGH? [Power Pop!]
“JANGLY CHORD-RICH GUITAR ROCK WITH TIGHT HARMONIES OFF-BEAT LYRICS SING-ALONG CHORUSES AND A MIDDLE EIGHT TO DIE FOR (PERHAPS)” Sometimes you just happen to be in the right newsagent at the right time. So it was deep into the yuletide season of 1993. Hunting for a clutch of Christmas cards and hoping that there was […]
THE WELSH CONNECTION
ONE Driving to lunch last week, the in-car entertainment was provided by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, the fabulously named Welsh band (b: 1991, d: 2006) recently featured by Mr 1537. It was the first album; a collection of EP material that – whilst not having the polish of later releases – shows their quirky creativity and […]
BACK LIVE
Having already offered two pieces on the joys of ‘live’ albums*, it would probably be sensible to leave that topic alone for a while. But I re-acquainted myself with so many terrific recordings while writing those posts that I just had to bring out those that didn’t quite make the first two ‘Live In Your […]
NOWHERE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME
A brief hum of feedback echo then a scuzzy crash of drums, a squall of guitar; “First Wave Intact” is crunching the gravel of my neural driveway with a heavy, insistent tread. the open way’s too dangerous listen close, they’re watching us Welcome to the opening song on “Now Here is Nowhere”, the 2004 album […]
LIVE IN YOUR LIVING ROOM [First Set]
One of the first ‘live in concert’ recordings I connected with was “Yessongs”. A sprawling preposterous triple live album with a fold-out Roger Dean cover to match, it was large canvas. The compositions of Yes were complex and structured, executed with dextrous musicianship; they needed the space. To feel the charge and brio surging through […]
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