one faint deluded smile

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Just Arrived



a short apnea - just arrived : improv with rocky tinges, the best bits of hours of jams selected and augmented with other instrumentation. hey, just like can or this heat except there's no tunes, dammit.

crosby & nash - crosby-nash : some songs sink into a quagmire of m.o.r. but most remind me why i like their songwriting and singing so much. no one writes harmonies, and melody changes that are as surprising as Luck Dragon.

donovan - beat cafe : his voice still contains that sly wink and the breathy vibrato and the jazzy band (there goes danny thompson again) create a perfect backing. too bad most of the songs are based on blues riffs or progressions.

mandarin - fast present future : modern rock music - nothing more and nothing less. crafted well, produced simply, played with feeling and skill. but, at the end of the day i still feel there's still something missing.

ray manzarek - the golden scarab : stilted funky blues with prog-rock tendencies and the occassional latin rhythm flourish topped up with (not meant to be) hilarious lyrics and ray trying to sound like jim. i likes it!

juana molina - rava / segundo / tres cosas : my new favourite singer songwriter (see below).

parkins / mori - phantom orchard : lilting, dreamy pieces with magnificent harp playing. unfortunatley a couple have been ruined by bad samples.

andy partidge - fuzzy warbles 5 & 6 : how many of these can there be? his vaults seem endless. still and all, some of these demos sound better than the final recordings and i think they're the best of the fuzzy series so far.

the red masque - feathers for flesh : very serious modern prog-rock with slight goth leanings. quite enjoyable if you disregard the words.

soulwax - any minute now : some fairly good songs ruined by absolutely awfull over-saturated production - slam the compression on and leave it there. makes my eyes water. so does their web site but at least that seems a bit interesting.

susanna and the magical orchestra - list of lights and buoys : luscious semi-ambient vocals and arrangements from norway. gets a bit cloying after a while but it's always heading towards some sort of impossible beauty.

the temptations - psychedelic soul : apart from the 'hit' songs (Cloud 9, Ball of Confusion, I Can't Get Next To You, et al) there's very little here that I enjoyed. the psych quotient is never really that high and the social conscience lyrics date the lot very badly.

1 Comments:

  • regarding ray manzarek:
    just finished reading danny sugerman's "wonderland avenue". he was ray's manager at the time of the recording and release of this (his first LP post-jim morrison).
    it's a great read, especially if, like me, you're a sucker for tales of "glamour and excess" as the subtitle has it.
    there's some particularly funny stuff about his attempts to convince the record company to promote this record.

    johnl

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:42 am  

Post a Comment

<< Home