I spoke briefly about ambient music and Soundscapes a few
weeks back. Sat here on a Sunday morning with a bit of a headache (from being
in front of a screen too long) I’m listening to one of the pieces that helps me
relax and achieve a stiller mind. Robert Fripp’s ‘At the End of Time’.
The best
version of this, in my view, was from a performance, better a recital, at Wulfren Hall Wolverhampton in
December 2005. One of the things that I find with Fripp’s Soundscapes is that
they are “immersive”. You can lose yourself in them and come out refreshed, and
for me at least, approaching the world in a calmer, more reflective state.
“Robert Fripp's "Music for Quiet Moment" series…
will be releasing an ambient instrumental soundscape online every week for 50
weeks. Something to nourish us and help us through these Uncertain Times.” I
was surprised to find this is up to week 28. If you’ve bought all of these (as
I have) then you have something like 3 hours of music that does exactly what it
says on the tin. I have had M.E. in varying degrees of severity for the last 25
years, and one of my strategies for helping with pacing my life is music like
Soundscapes. I remember playing the ‘At the End of Time’ mentioned above when my
Dad passed away and finding a measure of consolation from allowing this music
to wash over me.
It’s not just Fripp though. Bill Nelson has produced some fine
ambient albums, but his music tends to be more “active” than Fripp’s. ‘Altar Pieces’ is a fine
ambient album, although the found sound voices disrupt the mood a bit for me. ‘Model Village’ and ‘All That I Remember’
are probably the places to start with instrumental Nelson, and then just get
all the rest.
The found sound aspect of Bill’s work is also there in Virginia’
Astley’s ‘From
Gardens Where we Feel Secure’ where the sounds of the English countryside
mix with piano and clarinet to produce something surprisingly rich and textured.
I mentioned Cloudland Blue Quartet’s recent ‘4th
May 2020’ previously, and it remains a favourite on the iPod at present. I
haven’t explored as far into David Reilly’s work as I would like yet, but
having auditioned several of his albums on Bandcamp, ‘Through
The Day’, and the “guitarscapes” of ‘Disquietmusik’
feel like the places to start. They seem to combine the immersive quality of
Fripp and the slightly harder edge of Nelson, which works for me. There is
another more song-based aspect to his music that I have yet to touch at all.
Cloudland Blue Quartet’s music drifts into the world of Modern
Classical music at times, something I’m fairly new to but finding things like
Philip Glass’s ‘Low Symphony’ interesting. I have an album of Steve Reich’s Six
Pianos & Terry Riley’s Keyboard Study #1 which , this area feels like a
subject for further exploration. As does Brian Eno. I saw a concert by Brian
Eno and Joanna MacGregor, possibly 10 years or more ago at Bath Abbey where he
did part of Music for Airports. I’ve tried Fripp and Eno’s albums, but not Eno’s
ambient albums on his own. Where to start?
2019 has come and gone, and with it music releases that I found and missed. As usual this is about the stuff I picked up on this year rather then what was actually released in 2019.
Lonely Robot: John Mitchell's trilogy concluded this year with 'Under Stars' following Please Come Home (2015) and The Big Dream (2017). If you like updated traditional style Prog Rock then this is for you. Good tunes, good playing and enough "modern" to stand apart from the 70s pastiches.
Jazz has had a bit of an off year for me. With much of Jazz Journal's website disappearing behind a paywall, and off cuts of Miles and Coltrane being touted as earth shattering events I'm struggling to find much to recommend. However The Comet is Coming.
Work Of Art are an AOR/Melodic Rock group who in a parallel universe are the biggest band in the world. While still not quite equaling the highs of second album 'In Progress' 'Exhibits' is still the best of a cracking year of releases from genre leading label Frontiers. I'm going to be talking in detail about this unfashionable corner of music soon so will save some more suggestions for then.
I've done a couple of round ups of what I was listening to as the year went on, in September and March. My views remain pretty much unchanged on those records, although I may be a little less harsh on the Miles Davis disc having listened some more, still not a classic though. I did a review of the Americana world, which has had a classic year HERE. Visit my colleagues Jonathan and Helen's opinions on 2019 as well, clearly more music to pick up on in 2020. In fact read the whole of Americana UK from top to bottom.
One artist I have rather lost track of this year is Bill Nelson. His new website is slow to load, hard to navigate and thus I have largely stopped visiting. The forum is not the lively place it once was, and judging by the number of off topic posts those who do post are not finding anything to discuss in Bill's recent work.
Thanks for continuing to read my ramblings. The first couple of months topics are already planned, so let's see whats out there...
Once again life has taken over and time to write here is at a premium. (Ab)normal service will resume in April, if the world keeps gets any madder I may have nothing else left to do by then. In the meantime here is the news.
Blog favourite Bill Nelson has been interviewed to destruction in the wake of Be-Bop Deluxe reissues. Vintage Rock.com talked to him HERE and Record Collector HERE. You can safely ignore Classic Rock, Prog etc as they think he stopped recording in 1977.
Another favourite Over The Rhine have issued a new album Love And Revelation , and it's their best since Ohio. I'll be back with a review of this soon. In the meantime buy it HERE.
A gig I went to in February was reviewed at Americana UK. Laura Gibson has been bubbling around on my radar for a while without ever getting the attention she deserved. I was initially drawn by the Jolie Holland comparison that comes up regularly. However there are elements of Mazzy Star and similar that are closer reference points. Her album "Goners" is fighting with the OTR disc for space on the iPod at the moment.
The failure and resurrection of HMV, closure of more independent shops and the general expectation that the vinyl revival will save the world were news for a moment recently. Vinyl won't save the world, CD still outsells it. What will save the world is a well run large chain pushing music in all formats that gives the record companies confidence to produce music in all genres, because there is someone who will take in enough stock to let them make money. The closure of Fopp in Bristol is a loss to me, but if it wasn't making money then it had to go.
And finally
I went back for some more of the lucky dips at Missing Records I talked about previously. My daughter was delighted with her Abba & Taylor Swift discs, and I got Dylan at Budokan and Sylvian/Fripp's "The First Day" along with a pile of stuff I have yet to listen to. Why am I telling you about this you will only go and buy discs I could have had...
I talk about Bill Nelson a fair bit here, that's because he is really rather good. He is our most undervalued guitarist, along with Robin Trower, and continues to expand his musical horizons with every album. Where many of his generation are seated comfortably on their past glories Bill is fighting back against the past.
Look here for my general appreciation of his work. You will find that I'm not bothered by Be Bop Deluxe, they were certainly a great band in their time, but Bill regards their work as of it's time and gone. There is a new cd box set of Sunburst Finish out now from Cherry Red, and Bill has joined in the promotional round for it, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He recently played a show in Leeds to celebrate his 70th birthday, including a live stream for those unable to get tickets. Bill felt the need to warn that there would be no Be Bop Deluxe numbers in the set as the Facebook groups that follow him are dominated by posts about that 6 or 7 year part of his career, at the expense of the subsequent 40 years. Spending your entire life talking about work you did in your early twenties must be as frustrating for others as it is for Bill, and I for one have pretty much stopped buying the likes of Mojo, Classic Rock and so on because I just want to hear about something other than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. And that from an obsessive magazine buyer.
Now I'm all for reliving my youth, as the posts on this blog will testify, but as the fans view of what constitutes the "classic" parts of a band's legacy tends to be only a small part of the whole, usually centered somewhere from 1971 to 1974. Steely Dan actually did a "rarities" show back in 2011, as a relief from the run of identikit set lists. Yes are another offender in the same-dozen-songs-all-the-time stakes, as are many other 70s bands. Does this mean I'm alone in being bored stupid with live albums that repeat the same old stuff time and again. As live work and the CDs & DVDs that result from it are the staple of most artist's income now then how many versions of, for instance, 'Roundabout' do you need? You can pick from 2 studio and 15 different live versions. Please play something else! In career of 40 or even 50 years they must have written something else worth an airing.
So, hooray for Bill Nelson who won't revisit the past, continues to plough forward and is thanked for it by his current fans. Robin Trower too, although he hasn't departed as far from his roots as Bill, but still regularly produces new work that is the equal of much of his 70s output. Yes he still plays the fan favourites, but includes new songs and rings the changes on his back catalogue as the set list on the right shows. Try his recent album Time And Emotion for a feel of where Robin is now.
We all like a bit of familiarity, but repetition to the point of boredom must make for stale performances, jaded listeners and diminishing box office returns. Lets be adventurous and allow our artists to mature and grow, and especially to play something we haven't heard in a while, or indeed ever. The prospect of another favourite feeling they have to apologise for not playing the old stuff is not one I'm looking forward to. It's embarrassing for them and for us.
A long gap between posts I'm afraid. Brought on by the busyness of business, but there have been some goings on in music recently that I felt compelled to comment on so...
Bill Nelson
No secret that Bill is a huge favourite of mine. He is also someone who seems to reflect the ever increasing trend to stumble into the future focussed relentlessly on the past. He writes a regular journal on his website. the latest (as I write) is here. Bill is producing more and better work than he has ever done but is again being forced to revisit work that he regards as juvenalia - Be Bop Deluxe were a good band but a recent article in Shindig and doubtless the upcoming one he refers to in Classic Rock will pick over their bones and pass over the subsequent 40 years and hundreds of recordings with barely a nod. I sympathise with Bill and wish that he and other artists could be allowed the spotlight for their current work that it deserves.
I suspect (as from his comments I think Bill does as well) that the power of Facebook may have helped sell this event out in record time, and given that the Facebook groups that helped the sell out seem to have the same myopia about anything other than Be Bop Deluxe, then he may be right that there will be some disappointed fans clutching armfuls of 70s LPs to be signed. This means that many of his very loyal current following go without, me included. While I think some of the comments being expressed on the website message board are a little OTT, it would be nice for Bill to have a supportive crowd, especially if there is a question mark over him playing live again.
Over The Rhine
Another favourite. Sometime ago they did a a crowd funder covering three new albums. While I'm of the persuasion that would listen to Karin Bergquist sing a shopping list, I was pleased to see that there will be a new piano album from Linford included. I recently bought the only one of his earlier ones that I didn't have, "Unspoken Requests" and it's now a fixture on the iPod. If you don't know about Over The Rhine, catch up here. Hopefully more shows in the UK at some point. St Georges Hall in Bristol would be a great venue for them. HINT!
Steely Dan
Or the Donald Fagen band as it should really be now. While I could care less about current goings on, the hope that DF's chase for dollars will also include some expanded reissues and some more proper live albums, rather than bootleg radio shows, is on. As a side note Jazz Journal, which I read occasionally, but is very much stuck in 1966 made a comment in it's blurb for last months issue that Steely Dan had no place in a Jazz magazine. Oh come on! Surely we are past that! The irony that this comment was supporting an interview with guitarist Steve Khan (Aja, Gaucho) and that elsewhere in the magazine was a report on new interpretations of some of Donald's songs and a feature on Chris Potter, stalwart of the 90s band is clearly lost on whoever wrote that.
EMusic
I have winged about the demise of this once great service before, but have finally paused my membership to give it three months to get it's act together. Not going to happen I'm afraid but as most of my saved for later list disappeared months ago, and Frontiers Records vanished in September I struggled to use up my allocation last quarter. So bye bye EMusic, fun while it lasted.
Time for an end of the year round up, and it's also a year since I started the blog. Thank you for reading, and it seems people are (if I believe Google's figures), so what have I discovered in 2017, in case you care.
Disappointment of the year...
Elbow - Little Fictions. Has not stood up well to repeated plays, certainly nowhere near the album that "The Take Off and Landing of Everything" was.
Best of the year...
One problem here is that I seem to have bought very little new music in 2017 so this list is almost self selecting.
Sparks - Hippopotamus. There is no such thing as a bad Sparks album, only degrees of wonderfulness. This one is among the best, up there with "Exotic Creatures of the Deep" and "Number One In Heaven" If you don't know Sparks this is the perfect album to try. The combination of good tunes and a sense of humour is irresistable for me.
Black Country Communion - BCCIV The quintessential rock band come back after the quarreling surrounding "Afterglow". This is as good as BCC 2. Glenn Hughes voice is working well, and the simpler arrangements make for an album that wins the best music to sit in a queue on the M6 to award.
Kim Seviour - Recovery Is Learning Kim's singing was always the best thing about Touchstone. With better material she is now flying. As a fellow ME sufferer I get the title song and the cover. Call To Action is the song to try if you haven't heard the album. John Mitchell provides his signature "modern Prog" production, which means it sounds like the Lonely Robot album, no bad thing. And she is a local.
Bill Nelson - Tripping The Light Fantastic A Bill Nelson live album would be great in itself, but that it documents a show where he played many of my favourites 'I Always Knew You Would Find Me', 'The Raindrop Collector', 'Gloria Mundae' amongst them makes it doubly so.
Nolwenn Leroy - Gemme. A new purchase at the very end of the year. After the diversions in Celtic music this is her best "Pop"album since Histores Naturelles. Nolwenn will be part of a post on French Music that is in development hell at present. Watch this space.
And the rest is old stuff.
I caught up with Lonely Robot's "Please Come Home" through listening to Kim's album. Pop enough to have tunes, Prog enough to challenge the listener. Seeing Over The Rhine live in April was a highlight and sent me back to the albums yet again. Ozric Tentacles most recent live album appeared on Bandcamp. I love them, but recognise that you might not. More good music for long car journeys though, and I do plenty of them. I found London Grammar's first album "If You Wait" and should really catch up with the next one.
Oh and 2017 was the year I rediscovered Jazz. You have been warned...
I'm gutted, Bill Nelson played an album launch show for his "Songs for Ghosts" album at the end of October and I couldn't go. There is the risk that every show might be his last, and having made it to the last two I was keen to get there.
The history from Be Bop Deluxe, through Red Noise and the solo decades is accurate enough on Wikipedia to get the picture, although for recent years it breaks down rather. As I write this Bill has a brilliant new website just launched. You should go there to understand the breadth and depth of his music and also to have a tour round the forum. This is far and away the best on the interwebs with a genuine community feel, and regular contributions from the object of our affection himself.
My Nelsonic journey started with the Be Bop De Luxe single "Japan" I doubt Bill would choose this as a point of entry to his work, but there you are...
When "Drastic Plastic" came along in 1978 I was undecided, the easier stuff was fine, but it took until the release of the Futurist Manifesto box set to really give this the attention it deserves. I'm not particularly a fan of Be Bop De Luxe, but as a stepping stone to the good stuff "Drastic Plastic" does it for me.
The good stuff being "Sound On Sound" by a group he called Red Noise. If you have any leanings towards the best 'Post Punk' or end of the 70s music you need to hear this. It's one of those albums that should be heard as an album. No substandard songs at all. Also responsible for a causing a lifetime of pain for others, as it is the album where I first took notice of fretless bass, still a work in progress.
In a story you may have heard before on the blog, I drifted with Bill in the mid 80s, vaguely aware of his new stuff and playing his old regularly. I reconnected in 2012 with "Joy Through Amplification" when it was reviewed in Classic Rock. Vortexion Dream is now one of my favourite Nelson songs. Sadly you will have to wait for it to appear as a download as the CD is sold out. (Update 19th June 2018, it's out - get it now - probably Bill's best "rock album")
Bill presses typically 500 cds which by and large sell out quickly, sadly often appearing on EBay at inflated prices fairly soon after. There are some great albums still available in his back catalogue at ridiculous prices, my choices would be "Fantasmatron" & "Signals From Realms Of Light". One of the joys of Bill Nelson's music is its diversity and if you are new I would have a happy hour browsing through the soundclips and reading the wonderful notes that accompany each entry. Some of his best work is being slowly re-released through Bandcamp. The three volume Dreamers Companion series is a good introduction to Bill's recent work, but you will be buying the complete albums as well.
A recent innovation was a live album of last year's show. "Tripping The Light Fantastic" currently on heavy rotation on the iPod, I hope there is one of this year's performance. This is Bill at the launch of the Blip! album in 2013.
Compare "I Always Knew You Would Find Me" here, on Tripping... & on "Plectrajet" for Bill's seemingly endless inventiveness over the same theme. He seems to be on a sort of stream of consciousness never ending recording session, with one album merging into the next, but with each still retaining a sense of completeness and individuality. And that is for me a lot of the appeal of Bill's music, while it is all undeniably him, with a clear definable style, you never know quite what you are going to get. Recent albums have shifted from Special Metal, one of his most 'rock' albums for a long time, to "All That I Remember" an instrumental reflection on his early life. The homespun quality of his work, warm & giving while remaining the work of a consumate professional, is another appeal in the age of the airbrushed, protooled to death recording.
Recommendations? I have 32 solo albums plus Red Noise & Be Bop De Luxe on the iPod so how to narrow it down. The albums mentioned above are all good starting points. Bill himself often mentions "The Alchemical Adventures of Sailor Bill" as a favourite. I'll admit I took a while with this one but persevering paid dividends and I agree it is one of his best and that I think is one of the big rewards of listening to Bill Nelson, for every "Special Metal" that is an instant win, there are two "Sailor Bills" that demands something in return for giving up their charms. By the time they have worked their way in to your soul you will have made friends for life. So, my advice, read the store page, visit the forum, and immerse yourself in some of the most thoughtful, considered music you can buy.
My next purchases will be the Trilogy of "Silvertone Fountains", "Illuminated at Dusk", and "Mazda
Kaleidoscope" before one of them sells out. I'm feeling brave so will post this blog to the Dreamsville Forum and invite other people's reflections on the appeal of Bill. I'm sure there will be far more eloquent explanations than mine. Find it here.
Bill Nelson is one of those artists who people have "heard of" but who remains just off the radar for many. This is going to become a theme for the next few blog posts. Next time, Kim Edgar. Who?
So it took a while but I'm on track now, a post every week (or so) from now on...
It's traditional in music writing to have an end of the year round up of the songs/albums/artists that made an impression during the last 12 months. As by and large 2016 has been a real turkey of a year, deaths, politics and the demise of Teamrock have all left a sour taste in the mouth, but are we downhearted? Yes we are! So to add to the mood of gloom and futility these are the moments that brightened my corner of the forest.
So good I bought it twice. Once as a download after seeing "that" performance on Jools Holland, and again as a CD/DVD set on holiday in France when I realised how different the versions were. I know it has been out since 2014 in France but it was a 2016 release in the U.K. The mix of English & French lyrics, the melodies coupled to "hefty rhythm and bass line" and a sparkling production that only works on decent speakers or headphones. The Michael Jackson comparisons have more to do with dancing and trousers than the music which stands up without the sideshow. Best songs. Paradis Perdu, St Claude.
A name you will hear a lot in this blog. I could just issue a blanket recommendation for all five albums Bill has released this year but this highlights the slightly whimsical dream pop aspect of his work with some of his best recent writing. Be Bop Deluxe fans who haven't encountered Bill since then should perhaps try the download only "Special Metal" as an easy starting point. Bill works in an almost stream of consciousness fashion and has maybe a dozen albums in waiting at any one time. Once you are hooked by this homespun beautiful music you will join those of us who rush to the computer to secure one of the 500 cds he presses of each release.
Fakear (a French DJ & producer) peppers his dance music with themes from flamenco to Africa & Asia. Rae Morris who sings on several of these pieces will be a huge star before long. The mix of influences and beats that is quite at home on the dance floor but also in the car or just for listening. Fakear who's maman calls him Théo Le Vigoureux says "I think we’re just beginning to see all the possibilities of electronic [music]" and this is the map of the new territory.
Other highlights.. ABC's The Lexicon Of Love 2, a sequel not dwarfed by it's predecessor Robin Trower's Where Are You Going To, much improved on his last album David Bowie's Blackstar, I'm still getting to grips with this and will report back
And the rest was all old stuff I discovered during the year, of which more anon.
The best
version of this, in my view, was from a performance, better a recital, at Wulfren Hall Wolverhampton in
December 2005. One of the things that I find with Fripp’s Soundscapes is that
they are “immersive”. You can lose yourself in them and come out refreshed, and
for me at least, approaching the world in a calmer, more reflective state. 
