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[e-Miel]

[rolandtravy]

[Gil Sansón]

Sorry, rolandtravy, no luck locating that Soft machine video Youtube tends to take these out, I used to have an account and closed it, one of the reasons being that my favorite videos kept getting deleted. It was a french documentary, i think, with lots of studio footage of the vol. 4 recording sessions.

I'm one of thse who think that Tago Mago isn't Can's best record by a long shot, but it surely is a fun record to play. Ege Bamyasi is perhaps a more representative recorded statement of what they're capable, and remains my favorite, but I like everything from Monster Movie to Landed.

[ambiguous_figures]

Henning Christiansen - Abschiedssymphonie & Walter Marchetti - Antibarbarus

i'm on a fluxus kick. i've been really enjoying reading about joseph beuys visual art and happenings recently as well.

[jon abbey]

I'm one of thse who think that Tago Mago isn't Can's best record by a long shot, but it surely is a fun record to play. Ege Bamyasi is perhaps a more representative recorded statement of what they're capable, and remains my favorite, but I like everything from Monster Movie to Landed.

the first half of Tago Mago is easily Can's pinnacle, one of rock's pinnacles also. there are other great tracks here and there, but those two sides just kill it, culminating in the epic Halleluwah.

[Dan Warburton]

I'm with Jon on this one (for once ) - but it's a bit like having to choose between a Château Margaux and a Château Lafite

[Gil Sansón]

Yeah, the first half of Tago Mago is great. This is the record that made me like Can to begin with, but the it lags on many places and it isn't as tight a record as Ege Bamyasi.

[jon abbey]

I just pretend the second half doesn't exist.

[rolandtravy]

No problem Gìl! This is the first Can record I listen to and they seem great!!!! They seem more traditional and rock in a classic sense than Faust and other Krautrock band but I like them very much!!! Really like the way the japanese guy sings....(don't remember his name)

[Gil Sansón]

Damo Suzuki. He's in just three official albums, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi and Future Days. Most people consider these three to be their best albums so Damo is the singer mostly associated with the name Can, but Malcolm Mooney set the blueprint for singing in a band of these characteristics on Monster Movie, their first record. Damo Suzuki brings a lightness and agility that his predecesor didn't have, as Mooney infused his delivery with good doses of paranoia for an often unsettling listening experience.
Can is primarily an instrumental band, jam based and groove oriented that could very well do without a singer, but when there's one it's with limited functions, as they didn't write songs per se. Now Faust, that's my favorite krautrock band, in fact, my favorite German band of all time. So Far gets more airplay around here than any other krautrock album (Popol Vuh's Affenstunde, NEU!, not much more gets revisited these days) in my collection.

[mudd]

i am damo suzuki.

m

[rolandtravy]

i am damo suzuki.

Woha!! Really?

I used to play a lot So Far going to high school some years ago but now I think Faust 1 i'ts the thing. I'ts a rainy day ecc. it's a bit obvious musically, don't you think? That's my opinion clearly. In Faust 1 there's more unity and the first 5 seconds with "All you need is love" and "I can't get know" mixed with some good raw noises are pure creative genius.

[jon abbey]

he was referencing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijuJhyUfhDQ

[Gil Sansón]

Heh, that's always been ine of my favorite The Fall songs...

I think the obviousness of the It's a Rainy Day... is fully deliberate as a commentary on the nature of rock music. but in any case they follow that with some more elaborate passages, even some fine krautfunk on the title track. Most Faust records hold their interest in this day and age (some of the live ones not so much), and the most recent ones aren't bad. One record that I really like it's the O'Rourke's produced Rien, on Table of the Elements.

[Yii]

taku sugimoto - doremilogy

[rolandtravy]

he was referencing this:

Yeah jon I was just kidding

[Alastair]

So Far gets more airplay around here than any other krautrock album

Coincidentally, I played this record today. The first krautrock album I ever bought, when I was about 19. It knocked me out. All pre-Krautrocksampler, when you had to make your own discoveries.

The guy in the shop (Time Records in Colchester) tried to dissuade me from buying it and suggested I buy his copy of Throbbing Gristle's 24 hour tape box thing. I'm glad I stuck to my guns.

The only other time a record store employee has tried to dissuade me from buying something is when I was picking up a second-hand copy of "Tilt". I ignored him, too.

[Gil Sansón]

Hard to explain to youngsters how one simply bought records on a hunch, by recommendation from a trustworthy source, or simply because one read about a band or artist and the record is on sale. I reckon I went from buying records based on how awesome the cover art was to then rather listen to recommendations (older cousin telling you "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is much better than that Iron Maiden shit you fancy now", and so on) and then on pretty much tracking obscure stuff based upon cursory mentionings on niche magazines. Not to mention socializing in a record store...

First notice of the name Faust came courtesy of a older friend with a big LP collection, I remember seeing the 1st album in all its clear vinyl glory. I might have heard it that day, but all musical memories of that day were obliterated as that was the day I also discovered Univers Zero (Ceux du Dehors), something I was completely unprepared for. I was reading a lot of HP Lovecraft in those days and UZ blew my mind in a similar way. The name Faust stuck, and years later when I saw the then just released Rien I bought it without doubt. To this day I hold Rien in high regard, and soon after I went after them all. Some I ended up selling, like the two live CDs on Table of The Elements, but otherwise their legacy holds up fine.

Yep, I would do the same if faced with the two choices of 40+ minutes of Faust and 24 hours of TG. I know many won't agree with this, but to me TG is just one of the many moods of Faust, stretched out and made a style and a career. They do have many fine moments, it goes without saying, but I'll always go for the exuberance of ideas in Faust.

[MRS]

over and over and over and over and over again

Yeah this is certainly addictive on repeat, never made the Satie connection before finally reading the notes tonight. The ambient noise during the NY pieces is fun.

Got the Butcher/Lehn/Tilbury today TREMENDOUS, everything that sucked about the Polwechsel collab turned topsy-turvy.

[Stevo]

GF Fitzgerald Mouseproof
interesting, first side is pretty Brit folk/psych 2nd gets into a lot of experiments with textures. Seems very psychedelic throughout and features vocal contributions by people like Judy Dyble.
Sunbeam reissued this a few years back and I only heard it recently. Dashed great anyway.

Ant-Bee pure Electric Honey
Glad I found a d/load of this cos I lost my vinyl copy far to long ago.
It was reissued at the start of the year and does sound pretty great still. It used to come on electric blue vinyl which seemed to fit the sound. Very trippy Beatlesque melodic experimental stuff, quite delicious.

Mercury Rev Copenhagen 1993
David Baker era incarnation of the band recreating songs from the first couple of lps. The first studio lp wasn't recorded in an ensemble manner but by individuals going in and overdubbing soundtracks to aquatic footage for a college project. So interesting to hear it recreated in ensemble form onstage rather well.
Unfortunately the sound on the recording may be a bit thin, I need to check it on another player.

Grateful Dead Sunshine Superman discs 2 & 3
Not heard the first disc yet. But these later 2 have some great stuff on. I don't particularly like the segue into El Paso from a long trippy Dark Star cos it seems to break the mood somewhat but outside of that this is really good. This is rightly recognised as one of the greatest sets by them possibly ever. Disc 2 is solid has a superlative Playing in the Band and Bird Song and pretty great other tracks.
Haven't checked out the dvd yet cos my dvd player is acting up so can't comment on taht.

Pharoah Sanders Anthology You've Got To Have Freedom disc1
Great compi this is the one that features edits of the songs so there are 10-15 minute versions of tracks that were recorded as 1/2 hour plus. Do wish I'd had my hands on this back when I was djing cos it would have fit a lot better.
Anyway love this psychedelic jazz stuff and think I might try grabbing the lps with the full length versions of the tracks. Yeah might make him the next jazz artist I collect the records of.
I haven't listened to him beyond the early 70s much and wasn't sure what direction he'd taken, or if he'd mellowed up much but sounds from listening to some of the stuff he has on youtube that he remained pretty fierce.
I think this is becoming some of my favourite music ever, there is something about the sound here that just makes me feel at home or something, or like it's part of me being returned..

Marble Sheep Tokyo 88
Great trippy psychedelic guitar rock by ex White Heaven guitarist. Particularly love the track Horizon on here which is one of the 2 bonus tracks. Very trippy melodic greatness this sounds like its either picking up from raga or the Doors The End. I can't tell how authentic they're trying to be (at least in terms of source) hence the differentiation. Very trepanningly trippy anyway. I love the bits where a caustic guitar becomes really melodic that you get here from time to time.
Would love more of this so may look into some other titles by this band.

King Crimson The Road to Red disc 17 and 10
only discs I've heard so far but sounding pretty outstanding.
Good to have a set like this out so that you can see how far improvisations went night to night. & they are very formidable.
Very muscular rhythm section, piercing violin and caustic guitar.

various other bits and pieces which will inevitably come back to me later.
Plus great soundtrack to my walking around/taking buses etc from my trusty walkman. Still managing to throw up some great surprises as I do so.

Watching
Breaking Bad
did all 5 seasons over about a week and a half. Watching Walter White corrupting as he goes and getting close to losing everything along the way.
Great addictive tv, sets quite a standard I'd love to see other programs that match. Not sure exactly what does though.

The Newsroom Season 1
This is HBO tv but possibly way too soap opera-ey . Jeff Daniels as a nominally Republican newscaster on a cable tv news show that gets turned around as he winds up working with an ex as his new producer.
It is interesting and was somewhat topical apparently. I might watch the 2nd season at some point.

Veep Season 1
Armando Iannucci written series starring the actress who played Elaine on Senfield as the Vice President of the USA hence the title. She is under Obama who is always offscreen. Anyway very good stuff, not sure if it is to the same quality as material Iannucci has worked up this side of the Atlantic but very worth watching.

A Field In England
very weird, trippy film from earlier this year set in English Civil War countryside. Pretty much everything in one field really.
Seems to hark back to some experimental film making of the mid 60s and gets directly trippy in places.

Reading
Manchild In the Promised land
Autobiography of Claude Brown about his childhood/adolescence growing up on the wrong side of the law in Harlem in the 1950s and very early '60s. It was first published in 1965.
Having just finished it I'm interested in finding out what else he wrote. I want to get more stuff by him.

Colin Wilson Manhunters
A book about Serial Killers and profiling which I've had as my bog book for the last couple of weeks since picking it up cheap in a charity shop.
I think I read quite a bit of Wilson about 25 years ago but can't think what I did and didn't read.
I just had to check that I hadn't inadvertently wound up reading 2 books by him at the same time as I just started reading a new book for bus trips etc & found out that he'd written a book by the same title

The Philosopher's Stone Peter Marshall
This isn't the Colin Wilson book but Peter Marshall's investigation into the great alchemical grail item. He starts by talking about a Chinese equivalent which was supposed to leave a human body incorruptible as its owner goes to communicate with the gods in the heavens. & there's a Chinese Princess's body found from 180 years pre Christ that is apparently uncorrupted despite being buried all that time.
Seems to be an interesting book but I started reading it when I got it out of a sale a few years ago and only got about 1/4 of the way through. Probably picked something else up and lost track, hope i get through it this time.

Stevo