Category GENRE SPECIFIC
A WEEK OF ENO INSTALLATIONS — DAY 2
DAY TWO / DISC TWO * An ambient alphabet amnesiac background calming deep environmental featureless gentle hypnotic interior jointless keyless limpid minimalist nocturnal open peaceful quiet restful soothing transparent unobtrusive vacant waveless xenial yawn zen 77 Million Paintings small celestial gongs wisps of synths tones that reverberate for so long you forget where they began […]
A WEEK OF ENO INSTALLATIONS — DAY 1
Readers may have noticed a couple 2018 releases in these pages of late. It’s nice to be able to write about current albums, and doing so somehow gives a more contemporary feel than is really justified, but it is not always an easy task. Several times over recent years I have dropped new releases from […]
THEN WE TAKE BERLIN
Getting from concert stage to home stereo was so quick for Øresund Space Collective—astral travellers who specialise in totally improvised space rock—that some patrons were still driving home from the gig when the CD was released. Live in Berlin album was recorded on the final night of their recent European tour, June 2nd, 2018. It […]
FIRST WE TAKE VIENNA
Sometimes it can feel as if contemporary versions of ‘classic’ rock outfits are more like a tribute band than the real thing. Not so with King Crimson. Years ago, Robert Fripp made the memorable pronouncement that King Crimson exists when there is King Crimson music to be played. Seems that the need has never really abated. […]
DUNE, CHAPTER FOUR
This Dune music series is longer than a deep desert worm. That odd opening sentence might cause some to wonder about a book producing such a welter of creative musical responses. How could Dune be described? Dune. The planet Arrakis. No rain but plenty of sand. What, though, is Frank Herbert’s novel about? Power and politics […]
DUNE, CHAPTER THREE
“Another Klaus Encounter” In an article a few months back, Vinyl Connection dipped into the massive Klaus Schulze catalogue for the first time (here). One of the reasons it took so long to write about this key electronic artist was the sheer quantity of high-class albums Herr Schulze has produced since his 1972 debut. Fortunately, […]
DUNES
Been an eternity since a cover art post. What better reason to dust off some interesting album covers than the current ‘Dune’ series? So don your hat and sandals, slop on some sunscreen and let’s get sandy! THE ALBUMS Gong — Shamal [Virgin 1975] Helmet — Dead To The World [Ear Music 2016] Uriah Heep — […]
DUNE, CHAPTER ONE
Have you ever gone on a bender? Not an over-imbibing, CH3-CH2-CH2-OH-God-Where-Did-That-Stethoscope-Come-From escapade, but the pop-cultural kind. Where you discover—or re-discover—an author and simply must immerse yourself in their world. So it was with your correspondent and Frank Herbert’s Dune, sometime last year. It went like this… I’d been listening to X, the tenth album by […]
DARK SIDE OF THE MOOMIN
Having had a less than stellar university career the first time around, it would be fair to say I was a little nervous about returning to higher education a mere three years after having been shown the door. Trepidation notwithstanding, back I toddled for another crack, this time via the Creative Arts stream in an […]
YOUNG AND FRESH
First albums by bands are always interesting, though not necessarily essential. Sometimes the artist is feeling their way, often the vision is a work-in-progress, occasionally it’s “All Change!” after the first effort. The two 1968 debuts we’re looking at in this post cover most of the bases mentioned above. Both are worthy of attention; both […]
DADDY, WHERE DID PROG COME FROM?
Released in November 1968, Ars Longa Vita Brevis was the second album by The Nice. Their first, 1967’s The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack, has some classic psychedelic songs (“Flower King of Flies” is a personal fave) and clear progressive characteristics, exemplified by Keith Emerson’s keyboard work on “Rondo”, but you could not call it a […]
LIFE IS SHORT, ART IS LONG
“When did prog rock begin?” is a question that gets trotted out periodically and always invites a storm of opinion, most of it generating more heat than light. A big part of the problem is a lack of shared understanding around the terms. What is prog? Is it different from progressive music? And what constitutes […]
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