Category f) Tens [2010 – ]
SMALLS
LPs by legendary bass players are sometimes less than legendary. Lamentable perhaps, but we cannot avoid this difficult truth. John Entwistle (The Who), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin); they rarely bothered the ‘Best Album of the Decade’ lists. Or ‘Record of the Month’. Or even ‘this week’s also-rans’. Who could forget […]
INOCULATE AGAINST FEAR
One of the most popular on-line music guides lists more than 50 adjectives to describe the last album by progressive-metal masters Tool. This tells you a lot about the complexity of their 2019 eighty-minute epic. Some of the descriptors are pretty obvious… dramatic, powerful, intense, heavy… words that fans of the band will see as […]
QUIETLY URGENT
Decked out in silver platform boots and a feather boa, Brian Eno first rose to prominence as a member of art rockers Roxy Music, appearing on their first two albums. Yet he is probably best known as a producer and for his solo work, particularly in the ambient genre. In fact, Eno is often credited […]
ALL ABOARD THE McCARTNEY EXPRESS
When Paul McCartney released his first post-Beatles album in 1970, he was about to turn twenty-eight years old. The self-titled debut came out half a year after Abbey Road and a month before the Beatles swan song, Let It Be. Since then, McCartney has given us a slew of live recordings and seventeen studio albums, […]
COVER ART | ALBUMS AL FRESCO
It’s Spring in Melbourne. The weather tends to be varied—drizzle, downpours, showers, storms, occasional sun—but when time and inclemency allow, I’ve been taking some records for walks. They need a change of scenery after the long lockdowns. * The adventure began in the back garden, celebrating Joni Mitchell’s 78th birthday (7 November) during a break […]
RAINBOW VINYL — ORANGE
Town successfully painted red? Well it must be orange time. The Claypool Lennon Delirium is a psychedelic dosette box created by bass player extraordinaire Les Claypool and Sean Lennon. Owing much to 1960s psychedelia in general and early Pink Floyd in particular, Monolith of Phobos is a quirky delight. Arguably the magnum opus of German […]
WITHIN HEARING
A selection of what has been spinning at Vinyl Connection headquarters recently “Audio Diary 2014-2018” is a 5-CD set of live King Crimson, and a ripper! Full of brilliantly realised versions of KC music both vintage and newer, it is at times glorious and at others pummelling. Just the way we like it. Released in […]
CHILLED BUT WARM
Thunder rumbled around the pre-dawn purple, but burrowing under the doona I got another hour’s sleep. Maybe more a doze. When I crawled out it was light; brighter than expected given the vague sleep-penetrating sounds of heavy rain earlier. The morning blind raising ritual let in more light and more weather. The rain wasn’t rain, […]
HAVE SPACESUIT—WILL TRAVEL
Ordering a book from the dreaded ‘Big River’ company, I was lured by the ‘on your list’ bait and, of course, bit. The item was a CD I’d removed from an order months ago, something that had caught my attention but not fully hooked me in. On a whim, I added it to the cart; […]
VILNIUS VISIONS
“ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD” …A series of posts featuring an artist from a country that has topped the Vinyl Connection WordPress stats map for a particular period. You can read more about the project here, but essentially it’s an excuse to dig deeper into the collection and share some discoveries. This post is the […]
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