Tag Archives: Progressive Rock
PROG BOT: VINYL CONNECTION DIVES INTO AI
I’ve been playing around with ChatGPT, the AI language program everyone is talking about lately. Having read Bill Pearce’s thoughtful piece at pinklightsabre this morning, I thought I’d check out its facility on the topic of rock music. First I asked for the top Rock albums of 1973, thinking that perhaps I could short circuit […]
1972 COUNTDOWN: #10 — #8
10 DEEP PURPLE — MACHINE HEAD 1970’s Deep Purple In Rock and 1971’s Fireball set the bar high for British heavy rock. Yet Deep Purple managed to top those two fine records with their seventh long-player, Machine Head. Prosaically named after the metal gear arrangement that adjusts the tension on guitar strings, the music is […]
1972 COUNTDOWN — #25 – 21
25 NICK DRAKE — PINK MOON A short album of brief songs—some barely more than sketches—somehow Pink Moon has all the depth of a midnight lake. Famous for bringing posthumous fame to the songwriter after it was skilfully deployed in an American TV ad, the title song exemplifies the sparse beauty of Drake’s final album. […]
PROGRESSIVE FOURPLAY A—D
I generally don’t last long in Facebook groups. Someone will say something offensive and/or ignorant I’ll hurriedly hit “Leave Group”. Sometimes, which is far worse, I’ll respond/react only to then see the thing collapse into a foetid swamp as my stomach sinks at roughly the same rate. And that’s just the music groups. Nevertheless, one […]
BREAK DOWN THE WALL
When Mr Discrepancy Records mentioned a piece on The Wall, I confess my heart sank just a little. Although Pink Floyd are a lifetime favourite artist and my collection comprises well over fifty albums, Roger Waters’ 1979 psycho-drama is one I rarely reach for. This will stretch me, I thought. But the boss had not […]
1972 COUNTDOWN… #65 — #61
65 BRIAN CADD — BRIAN CADD There may well be a sidebar post on 1972 Australian albums at some point, but this first album by all-rounder Brian Cadd deserves a special mention. He appeared here recently as a contributor to the fabulous soundtrack Morning Of The Earth (there may be a special ’72 soundtrack post […]
1971 COUNTDOWN: #44 — #40
44 SPECTRUM — Miles Ago The second album by Australian progressive outfit Spectrum was an ambitious work that sprawled across four sides of vinyl. Displaying the downbeat wit of songwriter/leader Mike Rudd, the album was hugely ambitions and largely successful. Sometimes the laid back style is hypnotic and as relaxed as a hot Aussie Saturday […]
LEVITATING
A recent late-night on-line buying bonanza netted this re-issue of Hawkwind’s 1980 album Levitation. Part of the attraction—apart from it being Hawkwind, of course—was the inclusion of not one, but two bonus records: a concert recorded at that world-famous venue, the Lewisham Odeon, on the 18th of December 1980. The studio album has retained some […]
1971 COUNTDOWN: #60 — #56
60 ALICE COOPER — Killer The band really pulled their act together in 1971, releasing Love It To Death in March and Killer in November. Although the former had the bigger single, the enduring love letter to teenage angst “I’m Eighteen”, the latter edges it out for me. Amongst the schlock horror—check out the inner […]
JANUARY 1971—50 YEARS AND TWO MONTHS AGO
Even while the 70 FROM ’70 finalists were still being mentally debated by your correspondent, lists were being compiled and assessments made for the following year. This year, in fact. The one in which we are currently deep into March and sniffing the yellow-brown air of autumnal decline. Where is the spring in Vinyl Connection’s […]
vinylconnection.com.au 