A Night With L’Association Jazz Angle in St Brieuc
Is it really almost eighteen months since we last attended one of the Association Jazz Edge events? Let me put you in the picture dear reader.
Music News
The Johnny Almond Music Machine – Patent Pending (Esoteric Recordings)
I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of this CD when it landed on my doormat. The band’s name together with the cover art – kind of a cross between The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and Pink Floyd’s Relics – made me wonder if this was some sort of arch parody in the manner of XTC’s […]
Linn Lounge – Rox, Edinburgh
If you are a hifi enthusiast, you may well think that there would be no better way to spend a couple of hours than listening to a system from one of the world’s most respected hifi companies. You would, however, be wrong.
Various – 8 Ensembles in 1 Bit Stereo (Native Stereo)
Producer/Engineers Jared Sacks and Daan van Aalst have pooled their expertise in music production and recording in very high resolution audio. Their goal is to put together the best system for recording and reproducing music at the highest quality with recordings in the new DSD 256fs (quad rate DSD) format, although 8 Ensembles is available in DSD 256, 128 and 64. It’s the […]
Jazz At The Pawnshop
Not new by any stretch of the imagination and an album that will be familiar to many I’m sure, but this version on Naxos and downloaded in 128FS DSD… all 7.8 Gig of it … zipped!… is really rather worth talking about.
Yes – The Yes Album
John Scott delves into his collection and pulls out The Yes Album, the bands third album. “The Yes Album was not their biggest selling album and it may not be their best – quite often though, I think it is – but it represents a time when they were still defining their style and before […]
Andy Bell – Variance, The Torsten The Bareback Saint Remixes (Strike Force Entertainment)
In 2014 Andy Bell, for it is he of Erasure fame, made an unexpected, and some would say brave career move when he launched his electro-acoustic cabaret show ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’. Before Bell started to write the next installation of his cabaret (Torsten The Beautiful Libertine) he and songwriters Barney Ashton-Bullock and Christopher Frost […]
Penetration – Resolution (Polestar)
Punkers of a certain age will be well aware of Penetration (for it is they) and their classic debut single “Don’t Dictate”. The band hail from the North East of England and played with most of the big names of the heyday of punk and so it is with a good deal of relish that […]
Steve Hillage – Madison Square Garden 1977 (Cleopatra)
Having recorded his first solo album Fish Rising while still a member of Gong, Steve Hillage wasted little time in recording a follow up after his departure from the band in 1976. Decamping with partner Miquette Giraudy to Todd Rundgren’s studio near Woodstock in New York State, the resulting album, L, was something of a […]
Rhoda Dakar Sings The Bodysnatchers (Cherry Red)
I remember the 2 Tone explosion well and The Bodysnatchers’ Let’s Do Rocksteady is very much a part of that memory. Rhoda Dakar joined The Bodysnatchers in 1979 after Shane McGowan introduced her to bassist Nicky Summers and after their second gig the band signed to UK record label 2 Tone. Gigs alongside Madness, The […]
The Bird and The Bee – Recreational Love (Rostrum Records)
I first became aware of The Bird and The Bee through their 2009 album Rayguns Are Not Just The Future, an enjoyable collection of dance pop songs. Much as I liked the album, I eventually forgot all about the band until I discovered their new album Recreational Love. In my defence, the band haven’t exactly […]
Various – Dust On the Nettles (GrapeFruit)
Dust On The Nettles is a glorious trundle through the British underground folk scene between 1967 and 1972 and as a record of the “scene” it is difficult to think of a collection better suited to chronicle this interesting (and very British) musical movement.
Dean Friedman – Sweet, Edinburgh
Hifi Pig readers of a certain age will know Dean Friedman from at least two songs – Lucky Star and Ariel. Readers of a younger vintage may know him from Half Man Half Biscuit’s song The Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman.
Love – Forever Changes
John Scott dusts off his copy of Love’s Forever Changes album. “Forever Changes was reputedly named from a story that Lee had heard about a friend of a friend who had broken up with his girlfriend. “
Neil Young – The Monsanto Years ( Reprise)
OK, hands up, cards on the table….I’m a huge Neil Young fan and genuinely can’t think of a record he’s made that I don’t love, even the much maligned Trans really does it for me and I reckon Daft Punk et al may well have been taking a listen to that particular record…then again perhaps […]
Kevin Borich – Totem (Self Released)
Hands up, this is the first time I’ve come across this sixty six year old “stalwart” of the rock-blues industry, but apparently he’s responsible for founding New Zealand’s La De Das and Australia’s The Party Boys. Missing Borich out of my music may well have been a bit of a mistake!!