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.