Let's not go there...

With all the year stuff I mean. This is a virus free zone, and I'm happy in my little bubble (damn nearly mentioned it there)...

The last couple of weeks of the year were stupid busy for work, so I've not done a proper end of year review, again. I think I gave the same excuse last year. Anyway I've done plenty of rounding up elsewhere amongst other things I can point you at for satisfying new year reading. 

 First up my review of the Americana year over at AUK. You can read that here. I kept up the fire on the streaming services, and talked about Bandcamp, again. Also some great albums. Jack Henderson's was fab, but was beaten by a whisker to Americana album of year by Emma Swift's 'Blonde on the Tracks'. You can read the whole team's choices here. Alec Bowman wrote a piece explaining all the stuff I've been going on about from the artist's point of view for AUK as well. Read it here and turn your back on Spotify in 2021. 

Over at Duggystone Radio I talked about December, normally a time for stocking filler compilations, which has turned in some cracking music this year. You can read my views on McCartney, Swift, Kim Edgar and Magic Dance, the latter two I've championed before and have turned in the best albums of their careers so far.

The one album that didn't get a mention in all this that has been my most played since its release is Blue Note Reimagined. London Jazz News summed it up as well as I could. It also provides pointers to the original versions. The dominance of Wayne Shorter is interesting with 5 of his tunes covered. Following my February "Giving Snobbery the Byrd" piece, the 70s get a good look in as well, although I'm not sure I can take the credit there...

So, we're still here, and it has been the busiest year yet at 160gigblog. a third more posts than 2019, which probably means I had nothing else to do. If you have been thanks for reading, and those figures are up as well, and here's looking forward to whatever 2021 has to offer.

Keep right on 'til the end of the year.

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...

And so we face... 2019

2018 has been a bit of a year, and I have found myself listening to familiar music rather than plunging into new, challenging sounds. Jazz reappeared on my radar, but as the posts on Jazz were the least read I have written here you may not be bothered about that. A few of the new releases I did buy however...

Magic Dance: New Eyes The best AOR artist since Work Of Art this and his previous album Vanishings are worth a listen if you ever liked Toto or similar bands. I love it.

Manhattan Transfer: The Junction Their most contemporary album in many years, and first since leader Tim Hauser's passing. 

Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth Topped best of year polls all over the place, except the ones in the Jazz press oddly. Accessible, just confrontational enough to sound dangerous, but not as good as his previous disc 'The Epic'. Also rather derivative of 60's Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I doubt his formula will stretch to another album without the holes being obvious.

John Coltrane: Both Directions At Once Speaking of whom, Coltrane in 1963 taken from his work in progress tapes, at the peak of his powers. the interst of this is not the "lost" status of the session, but listening to Coltrane's ideas develop over the different takes of this release and as pointers to Crescent, and later albums. If you are new to this sort of Jazz, try Kamasi first and then move on to the real thing. 





My wish list on Google Music and iTunes contains lots of music from 2018 that I will get to in time. Christine and the Queens, Nolwenn Leroy, and others. I'll get back to you about those.

It's been a year since...

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...

It's the end of the year as we know it

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.

Christine & The Queens - Chaleur Humaine:

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.


Bill Nelson - New Northern Dream:

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 - Animal:

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.