Category ACROSS THE DECADES
BOLD AS LOVE
This is the final instalment in the thoroughly incomplete ‘1967’ series. The other two dozen albums can be found here. Seems fitting to end with the incendiary, psychedelic music of Jimi Hendrix and his second release from that storied year. Steven Newstead returns to take us on a tour of Jimi’s cosmos… There was a lot […]
IN THE SPOTLIGHT, SO CLEAR
It’s a Friday night in the late nineties. Steven and I are lounging around talking shit about music. A single slice of Capricciosa sits uneasily in the grease-stained box and half a bottle of red stands on the coffee table. The pizza gets ignored; we’re either too full or too polite to take it. Not […]
ARE YOU THE CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE?
It opens with a delicate piano piece, an ambient overture. “The struggle of the magicians, part three”. Credited to composer Thomas De Hartmann and mystic cum guru Gurdjieff (1866 – 1949), this is a lovely neo-classical piece that seduces with a gently pastoral beauty suggesting the magicians aren’t straining too hard. Next is a wispy […]
VARIOUS ARTISTS GO DECADE DIVING
1957 Folk, Pops ‘n Jazz Sampler [Elektra SMP-3] Country tunes rub shoulders with calypso jazz in this time capsule from the early days of long-playing records, when tracks were known as ‘Bands’ and the previous volume was available for $2 from your dealer. At $17.50 in today’s money, that seems quite expensive. Love the album […]
DEBUTING AT #01
We’ve all bought magazines with ‘free’ CDs. Sometimes for the mag, other times for the disc, occasionally for the challenge of removing the latter from the former without destroying the cover… but what about a magazine with an LP attached? Or is it an LP hidden in a magazine? First published in Germany in October […]
HOT DOG!
My first job in tertiary Student Services was at an Institute of Technology in the industrial inner-west of Melbourne. The institution was, in all truth, more interesting than my job. But the team was diverse and lively, and it was here I first entertained the notion of becoming a counsellor. It would mean more study, […]
POWER PLANT BACK ON LINE
Are you onboard with Kraftwerk? The Deutsche electronic music pioneers are far better known now than when they created their definitive romantic/ascetic albums in the seventies. In fact a halo of electronic divinity now surrounds a band whose membership grew then shrunk and at one point even toured a set of robotic dummies instead of […]
SEVEN FROM 77 – READER’S CHOICE
Here we are at the last post (cue mournful bugle) of the 1977 series. And how better to wrap it up than by highlighting albums named by Vinyl Connection readers as favourites from that fruitful and varied year. Enjoy. * 7 Talking Heads—Talking Heads: 77 A strange yet fascinating oddity; tense with studied nonchalance like […]
TEN FROM 77 – 5 / OUTLIERS
In the penultimate instalment of the Ten From ’77 series we have five albums whose only commonality is their position on the edge (or in some cases, way outside) the domain of pop music. At Vinyl Connection, forays into lesser known territories are infrequent, yet it is off the well-trodden path that most of my […]
TEN FROM 77 – 4 / FUSION FIVE
10 Steve Khan — Tightrope I first encountered Steve Khan’s name in the credits for other artists… Steely Dan, Michael Franks, The Brecker Brothers… this was clearly an in-demand guitarist of great talent. So when I found the first album under his own name, it was not at all difficult to take a punt. Opening […]
FAIR GAME
Getting ready for a Record Fair used to be quite a stimulating process. Organising and pricing the records, loading up the car for an early start, lumping eight 20 kg crates of vinyl into a big draughty hall… OK, it wasn’t all enjoyable, but there was a small jolt of anticipation when you were finally […]
TEN FROM 77 – 3 / ELECTRONIC – 2
Continuing (and concluding) a rather indulgent journey through albums released in 1977 broadly falling into the ‘electronic’ category. Having covered 10 – 6, here are the Top 5. 5 Jürgen Karg — Elektronische Mythen Herr Karg played bass with jazz experimentalist Wolfgang Dauner on a (semi-) legendary 1969 recording. Eight years later he released his […]
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