What is Your Latest Album Purchase: Non-Jazz

[duaneiac]

Old Ideas -- Leonard Cohen



Knockin' On Bob's Door -- The Perusasions. Bob, of course, is Mr. Zimmerman and they sing versions of mostly his older songs. The most recent number is "Things Have Changed". It would have been nice if they had included some of his songs from the past decade. The Persuasions celebrate their 50th anniversary this year and they still sound good even though only 2 original members remain.

[Vaughan]

Just ordered these three (among others). These deserve to be singled out for special mention because they're so interesting, and relate to each other.

Electronic music began to be recorded toward the end of the 1940's. Not much of it is heard today - hence these collections. What is so interesting is the people recording the music were operating within their own creative space. Put another way, there were no rules for what they were doing, so anything was possible. Sometimes they applied compositional rules, other times they simply allowed sounds to be created.

This is how we got to where we are - so it's vital stuff. It's about time I added some of this to my collection.

[Vaughan]

One of the benefits of having broad musical tastes is that you can just cut and run on a theme for a bit, and it's all okay....

I've bought a lot lately, but these crossed my mind last night and I threw them into the basket. Each of them have a unique premise which I think is an interesting as the music itself. That's if you can get beyond the whole "But is it music?" debate.



So this is the first Alvin Lucier in this order. Essentially the way this worked is that he strung a single piano wire across a room, and then let the events within the room affect it. They call this "self making" music, where there is no actual performer. Heat and cold, brief gusts of air as a door opens etc. All of these create tiny tones in the string that can be amplified. Interesting idea, and I look forward to experiencing it.



This is the same guy, but with a different idea. In this one the performer sits in a room. The recording equipment is on the other side of the room. The performer then explains the concept of the piece verbally. The recording device captures this, and then plays it back. This is turn is captured, and so on. Apparently, over a long period of time, the words mesh as the echo of the room and its ambiance interwine with the words, until by the end it's almost a new age piece. Loving Reich and his use of voices, this is a natural.



The Adventures in Sound CD opens with five pieces by Pierre Henry. This is a full album of his work. Pierre uses sounds which are cut up, reversed, repeated, whatever he fancies really. What's fascinating about his approach is that, truly, it's even less "musical" than usual. It has a rhythm, but he doesn't try to use the sounds in a truly musical way. Instead these are real scientific experiences that most closely relate to music - if that makes sense.



This is a Klaus Schulze reissue. The original release is rare, and goes for something like $150 - so the reissue is welcome. But actually, it's the story behind this reissue that is most interesting.....

Tonwelle was originally released by a label owned by Klaus. They experimented at the time because they'd been told that an old 12" sounded better when played at 45RPM rather than 33RPM. The original album shipped to be played at 45RPM. Of course this caused some problems at the time, because people weren't used to playing 12"'s at 45RPM, but that's the way it was.

So along comes this reissue. When it came up the label - mistakenly - thought the 45RPM was a printing/pressing mistake in the original recording. So they "fixed" it for this release. They did it by slowing the piece down to 33RPM on one disc - and then in an added disc give you the 45RPM version but with the tone changed to that of the 33RPM recording.

In other words, this CD is a bit of madness that should never get a release. It's wrong on every count, and it's a two disc set without a single note sounding like it should. Rather than put me off it just makes me curious. And I'm not about to from out $150 anyway - so in the basket it goes!

And that's all for the minute.

[timkatent]

Bought this album two, maybe even almost three years ago, and it still ranks at the top of my go-to, feel-good, funk list. Almost every song on the album is excellent and each has an infectuous groove.

The Rebirth - "This Journey In" - http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/therebirth

Best,
Kathryn Ballard Shut /shoot/
Jazz Freak, Funk Lover
Denver, CO, USA
Twitter: @timkatent

[Vaughan]

A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR [Original recording remastered]


In C [Original recording remastered]


Electronic Meditation [Original recording remastered]


Pergamon [Original recording remastered]

[duaneiac]

The Complete EMI Sessions, 1928 - 1939 -- Paul Robeson. Has there ever been a more interesting human being than Paul Robeson? Athlete, lawyer, actor, civil rights activist, and singer without peer. On this 7 CD set, one does have to put such tunes as "Mammy's Little Kinky-Headed Boy" and "De Li'l Piccaninny's Gone To Sleep" in historical perspective, but there are also treasures galore in hearing Robeson's versions of "Steal Away", "Water Boy", "Were You There", "Deep River", and of course, "Ol' Man River". (This 7 disc set can be found from Amazon marketplace vendors for $20 plus shipping!)

[duaneiac]

The Complete Bowdoin College Concert, 1960 -- Pete Seeger. This 2 CD set contains a complete concert from March of 1960. Very good sound for a "live" recording done by the campus radio station. Includes an informative booklet with annotation about the individual songs as well as an essay about this particular concert and an essay about Seeger's career.

My favorite song on this set is one which shows that some things never change:

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN CONGRESS
Words by Ernie Marrs (sung to the tune of you-know-what)

What a friend we have in Congress,
Who will guard our e'vry shore,
Spends three-quarters of our taxes
Getting ready for a war.
Guns must make our coastline bristle,
And we have to fill the sky
Full of flames and guided missiles.
They'll be paid for by and by.

Have you noticed all the progress
In our mighty airborne fleet?
By the time the plane's adopted,
It's already obsolete.
There's no fact'ry profit, brother,
And we have to do or die.
One improvement then another,
They'll be paid for by and by.

Modern bombs are sure to carry
Loads of glory, joy and thrills.
What a privilege to bury
All the dead our money kills!
Never mind the widows weeping.
Disregard the orphan's cry.
When God wakes the dead and sleeping,
They'll be paid for by and by.

(It may be worth noting that at the time of this recording, Seeger was under indictment for contempt of Congress stemming from his testimony before the HUAC.)

[Vaughan]

[joels344]

This doesn't really count as a purchase, because a record store gave me this one:

[joels344]

Originally Posted by Vaughan

A RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR [Original recording remastered]


In C [Original recording remastered]

Excellent grabs!

[duaneiac]

You Never Can Tell: Complete Chess Recordings 1960 - 1966 -- Chuck Berry

[OutofTune]

Son House ‎– Father Of Folk Blues

Playing and singing with authority!

[chris books]

Black Friday find for $3. Remastered with extra tracks, packaged in an attractive slipcase. Call it a guilty pleasure.

[Lunar Drift]

Elias Krantz - Night Ice

Lovely krautrock / post-rock / indietronica / psychedelic / experimental / pop

http://vimeo.com/22246476

https://soundcloud.com/eliaskrantz

[DraperiesOfNight]

Its not a new album, but recently got heavy into the band. Oingo Boingos dead mans party. I will definantly buy more cds by them. I also bought Bruce springsteens born in the USA cus it was a dollar.