Category f) Tens [2010 – ]

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 […]

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 […]

THE WATER IS WIDE
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 […]

HITCHCOCK CLASSIC
Pacing the house like a mangy old bear. It was a hot windy day yesterday. Today it’s cold and miserable. Welcome to Melbourne Spring, where blossom comes and goes on the whim of Aeolus. Go for a walk, instructs Ms Connection. I should. I’ve become indolent; flabby of mind and body. Getting frustrated with… everything. […]

SOUTH OF REALITY
Fun! Eccentricity! Experimentation! Swooshy noises! Unapologetic eclecticism! We could be talking about the wonder years of UK psychedelic pop, but we are not. Those descriptors, and more, belong to twenty-first century outfit The Claypool Lennon Delirium whose second album—South of Reality—was released in February 2019. And let it be known that this record is a […]

IMMUNOLOGY REPORT
Is a world of hardening national borders an expression of a global hardening of hearts? UK based multi-national group Vanishing Twin hope not, and on their 2019 album The Age of Immunology invite us to open our ears and minds to a vision of music sans frontières. Formed in Britain in 2015 around the talents […]