Be Excellent To Each Other

Never Here is also great.

It would be great if you were never here.

x

Today's lunchtime concert on Radio 3 was superb in the "I've-actually-stopped-doing-what-I-should-to-listen" kind of way. The first half of Bach and Lute is pleasent and well-performed, but it's the rendition of Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpart" that really stood out. I only really know his "Different Trains" and have struggled to get into his other work, but for some reason was hooked by this.

It's at around the 38 minute mark in the episode on Sounds but you can hear a sample on the programme page. If you have a spare 15 minutes, it's worth a listen. The rendition of Maxwell Davis's "Farewell to Stromness" was a charming way to end (can never tire of it).

Thanks for this recommendation Kern. Just what I needed this morning

Run the Jewels just surprise dropped their new album RTJ4, and it's free if you want:

https://runthejewels.com/

After his incredible verse on the the last album I'm looking forward to hearing what Zack de la Rocha has come up with this time around.

Though worth noting that anything you pay goes to the Mass Defence Program, which provides legal support to black protesters, so worth paying for it.

And it's also brilliant. Not heard an opening track with such a statement of intent for a long time.

Aye, I sent them over a tenner while I was there. I'm only just now listening to the Zak de la Rocha tune and it largely uses that new sort of stuttering off-beat rhythm (I don't know how to describe it) that every fucker is doing these days and I hate. The whole style needs to die. It does drop that at some point, and for his verse, though which is a relief.

I'm with you, that's my least favourite track on the album. I hate that style of production. Perhaps not a coincidence that Pharrel's on it too.

In this month's Q.magazine, I was reading about that Help! Charity album released in the late 1990s and how good it was. Especially the KLF's The Magnificent 7 theme remix. I recalled the film and remembered that Yul Brynner was a Liverpool fan. And he didn't like aftershave. In fact Yul never wore cologne.

I hate you.

JFC

Jentucky Fried Chicken

Taylor Swift's new album Folklore is really, really, good.

I wasn’t too into “Lover” so I’ll give this a punt.

Red is my fave jam.

Gets better with every listen. I think she is singing to me. And about me.

My random playlist this morning has very heavily featured female singers!

If you like nice things that are nice and not cynical and just lovely, then this is a great song.

Welcome return to live Proms last night, albeit without an audience. Although the main part of the programme was Beethoven's 3rd, the real delight for me was Copland's "Quiet City". Don't think I've heard it before, but it felt surprisingly appropriate for the times we're living in. Whitaker's "Sleep" was gorgeous choral piece too.

EDIT: Programme notes(!)

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Sleep Token, but I think I might really, fucking really like them.

Their general schtick is, to quote their Wiki page, that "the members of Sleep Token are a masked, anonymous collective of musicians said to be united in their worship of an ancient deity identified as 'Sleep', who appeared to the band's lead singer, 'Vessel', in a dream"

So far, so metal; their sound though is a million miles from others who use a similar gimmick. The lead singers voice is often clear and soaring in a way that's very 'pop' and given that a lot of their stuff at least begins with just him and piano--plus their use of auto-tune--it results in something that you wouldn't bat an eyelid if you saw it on like fucking X-Factor or something; with the only give away being the more interesting and macabre lyrics. As the songs progress though other elements are added, maybe a skittering electronic drum beat here, or the throb of a guitar there, and sometimes even a massive post-rock riff will kick the fucking doors down and not let go until the end of the tune.

In almost every case the songs ends differently enough from how it started to make you appreciate the edge that was added to the initial presentation, and transforms a sound initially bordering on banal into something much more haunting.

Some examples of their stuff linked below:

The Offering: full on darkly atmospheric metal banger, one of the best rock tunes I've heard in a while.
Higher: soaring auto-tuned ambience gains brooding break-beats halfway in before finally exploding into something not-a-million-miles away from 90s grunge.
Blood Sport: possibly my favourite and, lyrics aside, the closest they comes to something Simon Cowell would grudgingly applaud; at least before the crunching guitar and vocal snarling arrive to kick things up. There's an alt version that's recently been released with just Vessel and a piano and it will not let go of my brain.

Do you like the Smashing Pumpkins? Do you like Jay-Z? Well... Do I have a deal for you!

https://www.kerrang.com/the-news/theres ... -it-rules/

Is it as good as the Grey Album?

I'm listening to it now and the answer is.... No. No it is not.

And another album out tonight!

I’m not a huge Country fan, but I do love Highwayman by the supergroup of almost the same name.

Anyway, now there’s an all female version of both band and song, and it’s absolutely brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kerzNA6fSc4

On her show this morning Cerys Matthews played a spell-binding version "Rhinestone Cowboy". Check it out at around 1 hour 56 - it's amazin how it sounds with all the glitz stripped out.

FAO @Zardoz

Yeah

Mahler's 5th just came on the radio and its opening trumpet call still gives me the shivers after oh-so-many listens, even when I'm not at a concert.

Last night's concert on Radio 3 included a clever and eclectic mix of folk songs and classic baroque from Europe and Latin America. I'd never heard Víctor Jara's Te Recuerdo, Amanda before, or knew of his brutal murder under the Pinochet regime but the performance was haunting and definitely something I'm going to investigate further.

New Perturbator album out today.

Cor!/Gah!

Would have grabbed a vinyl copy but...

FREE Digi version incoming, hope I can source a UK record at some point though.

Name your price on digital download though.

He's been listening to some good ole 80s janglepop, it seems. Diggin.

Yes.

This is quite a thing. The NME's singles of the year from 1975 - 2017.

A lot of work to put together, and a pleasing thing to have set to random through the work day.

That is awesome.. (yes Kov is late to the party.)

British Sea Power loses one-third of its line up and is now just Sea Power.

Last night's Prom was spell-binding. Mostly choral with occasional light instrumentation, and a mix of modern and old compositions. Well-worth chilling out to sometime this weekend.

Felt underwhelmed by last night's Last Night of the Proms. Despite some fine performances, in particular the arrangement for Barber for strings and chorus, and the jaunty accordionist, the concert never seemed to take off and feel like a proper "event".

I certainly felt the conductor was taking some of the pieces a little too slow and without sufficient volume, but also the sound mixing either at their end or at my end felt flat. Even Albert's Mighty Organ just didn't do it for me this time round.

The production decision to switch back after each piece to a studio for chat rather than letting us feel the ambiance of the hall really increased this sense of alienation, and felt unnecessary. Not sure why the TV version of the first half was on a time-delay either.

With the Proms finished, Summer is now over, but with whimper this time round.

If you fancy some seasonal music this weekend, last night's Radio 3 concert was a lively performance of Jazz Age carols and songs. Brightened up a miserable day for me.

I'm watching the Taylor Swift Reputation concert on Netflix. It's a bloody amazing show.

The concert recording, or your reactions to it? I would probably pay to watch the latter.

[Starts flanging money at screen]

I'm reminded of pharma bro who jacked the prices of life saving drugs. And Taylor swift.

Very space pirate behaviour

I've been listening to a couple of albums by Sam Sweeney a lot lately (2020's Unearth repeat and 2018's Unfinished Violin). He creates such wonderfully complex and evocative pieces that can can really suck me into the soundscape. Worth checking out.

I hadn't realised he used to be in Bellowhead, which is a little embarrassing given I have at least two of their albums but par for the course who know me on music rounds!