The third and final Jimi Hendrix Experience album, the double Electric Ladyland, was released in October 1968. For me it is the greatest of his studio career. It would also be the last studio release in his lifetime, and see the breakup of the Experience. More: the album marked the departure of bassist Noel Redding […]
In Australia we did not get the impressive boxed version of All Things Must Pass. Our version was a three-panel gatefold sleeve with the lyrics printed inside. We did get the poster, though. A dark 3’ x 2’ portrait of a morose, hairy George. But our flimsy fold-out was disappointing. The box had solidity, gravitas. […]
DAY SIX / DISC SIX Music For Future Installations I have an LP of compositions for glass harmonica. Mozart wrote several. “Unnoticed Planet”, the first piece on disc six, has clear, ringing notes hanging suspended in space. Plenty of thin air, enough to enjoy the decay of these glass-like notes. Listening to the final disc […]
DAY FIVE / DISC FIVE Making Space Holy beatbox Batman! I hear clicky percussion, bass; structure, barlines, time signatures… The opening track of Making Space, “Needle click”, is nothing even remotely like most people’s understanding of ambient music. Ah, but the box isn’t called ‘Ambient’, my precious, it’s called Music for Installations. So this must […]
DAY FOUR / DISC FOUR After a brief intermission, we continue with the second half of the series (discs 4—6) on Brian Eno’s Music For Installations. I Dormienti / Kite Stories Delicate shimmerings evoke Eno’s Thursday Afternoon (1985). Does “I Dormienti” mean “I scintillate”? But there are little ‘Ha’ moments; sounds like a processed human voice […]
DAY THREE / DISC THREE Lightness – Music For The Marble Palace With this (or any other) evocative title, is Eno elucidating the purpose of the project, defining the setting or evoking a mood? Or perhaps exercising his sense of mischief. Mood and fantasy blur. I’m wandering in an immense deserted palace in a Dying […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Final instalment of the desert album covers series. In this collection I was particularly struck by the human element, either overt or implied. Although the poor photograph makes the title of the third album impossible to read, it is actually Missing Persons. A prize for the best 100 word story linking all the covers. Afterwards, […]
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 […]
vinylconnection.com.au 