Tag Archives: Black Sabbath
1975 COUNTDOWN | #40 — #31
#40 DAVID BOWIE — YOUNG AMERICANS The greasepaint and sequins have been relegated to the dress-up box as Bowie shifts direction again. Recorded in Philadelphia and New York with contributions from Luther Vandross and guitarist Carlos Alomar, the album drew heavily on American R&B and funk influences. Its sound—lush, rhythmic, brass-laden—captured Bowie’s fascination with U.S. […]
SUPERNAUT
High School was well and truly done before I acquired my first stereo. Sure, the family home had several devices capable of emitting music: a Bakelite mantle radio in the kitchen, my Father’s Elcon reel-to-reel tape recorder, the sideboard sized stereogram in the lounge, all polished wood and frowning classical records. But all of these […]
1972 COUNTDOWN — #30 – 26
30 GENTLE GIANT — OCTOPUS There’s no doubt that some progressive bands (or albums) require effort to get into. England’s Gentle Giant are one of those. With scintillating playing, complex compositional structures (featuring changes of time, key, and instrumentation) and melody lines that puzzle on first acquaintance, this is not a band that gives up […]
1971 COUNTDOWN: #34 — #30
34 TANGERINE DREAM — Alpha Centauri In some ways the most psychedelic of the early Tangerine Dream albums, Alpha Centauri is as powerful as a neural freight train and as spacey as a black hole. This is powerful cosmic music. It starts with a brief preamble, “Sunrise in the third system” before launching into the […]
1970 COUNTDOWN | NUMBER 10
10 — BLACK SABBATH — Paranoid Rolling out of the speakers like sullen thunder, the second Black Sabbath album—also their second in 1970—provides both prototype and benchmark for heavy rock. Part of the wonder and richness of this LP is the contrast. After the opening fusillade of “War Pigs” and “Paranoid” we have the […]
Homemade Halloween
Made the CD a while ago – quite suitable for Halloween I reckon. The music is great B-Movie fun. Well, the boy thought so anyway. And, to complete the picture, a portrait from the Ozzie period (earlier this evening).

