Currently listening, part 1

[DeepR]

Valentina Lisitsa - Scriabin Nuances Beautiful collection of new recordings of some classic Scriabin etudes, poemes, mazurkas, and waltzes.

Thanks for this. I'm not a fan of Lisitsa but Scriabin is one of my very favorite composers and on this disc there seem to be a lot of early pieces (without opus number) that I haven't even heard yet. Now I must check it out.

Speaking of Scriabin, I was just listening to the unbelievably beautiful Andante from his third piano sonata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i39dyE2bXbo

[drone on]

Julio Di Benedetto- A Tide Pool of Memories.  Another gorgeous piece of Vidna Obmana-like (that's a good thing) organic mandalas of sound. 

Hawkwind- Space Ritual Live.  This album is just short of "awful".  Recorded a year or two ago in London at a benefit for animal rights or something like that.  Hawkwind now only consists of one original member, Dave Brock.  This comes off as basically a cover band doing Hawkwind tunes.  The songs plod along in uninspired fashion.  The sound is slick, polished, and digitized.  Too much weak programming, not enough guitars.  The drums plod along in an almost annoying way.  Why listen to this when you can listen to the original awesome early 70's material?  The only song I really enjoyed on this is "Spirit of the Age." 

[Julio Di Benedetto]

Julio Di Benedetto- A Tide Pool of Memories.  Another gorgeous piece of Vidna Obmana-like (that's a good thing) organic mandalas of sound. 

Thanks for your words drone on......."organic mandalas of sound"......wow, what a beautiful description!

[Seren]

Motorhead - Motorhead

[thirdsystem]

Robert Schroeder - Dream Access , his new one, Berlin School / ish , very good
Steve Roach - Day Out Of Time, superb so far.

[chris23]

Material Object & Ishq - Invisible Light
Dark ambient soundscapes, with occasional rhythmic pulses. Nice stuff.
https://no-ware.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-light

[APK]

- Nusrat Fateh & Michael Brooks :: Night Song

Transcendent !

[drone on]

Swans-Swans Are Dead.  1996 live double album.  Don't care much for the new Swans material, but they were awesome in the early to mid 90's, mainly because they were more accessible/music oriented rather than the sludgy noisy stuff from the 80's.  Distinct for being the loudest band I ever saw live.  My ears rang for like two days.   

Seefeel-Succour.  Seefeel never did much for me when I heard them first in the 90's.  I just bought this one, which came out in 1995, for $5 used and it is excellent.  Sort of an ambient industrial Cocteau Twins, speaking of whom they recorded this in the Cocteau's studio and worked with them back in the 90's. 

Rapoon-Live at KFJC 1996.  Bonus disc on the Fires of the Borderlands reissue.  Simply amazing recording of Robin Storey at the peak of his powers.  If you liked the Kirghiz Light and that period of '94-'96, this is essential.

[chris23]

Porya Hatami & Darren McClure - In-between Spaces
Nice collaboration on ...txt. This probably doesn't have a lot of replay value, but it is a a fun listen nonetheless--especially if you like these artists in particular.
Samples: https://darrenmcclure.bandcamp.com/album/in-between-spaces

[thirdsystem]

Pete Namlook/ Charles Uzzell Edwards - Create. Long form spacey ambient with some appropriate beats . Underrated I feel.

Forest Fang - The Sleepwalker's Ocean , bandcamp stream . Stunning !!! Urgently required.

[chris23]

I agree: The Sleepwalker's Ocean sounds excellent. I ordered a copy, but received someone else's order (different disc) instead! Now I have to practice patience. And patience hurts bad.

ASC - Fervent Dream
Silent Season went full multi-panel digipak for their fourth ambient ASC release. The packaging is beautiful. The music is great too, and there are some incredible tracks on here (the opening and the closing tracks, in particular). This particular release doesn't sound as strong as some of the previous ones, but that might be a timing/order effect.
http://shop.silentseason.com/album/fervent-dream

[drone on]

Re:  Create CD.  To me this release just meanders nowhere for an hour, cool beats but too repetitive.  They could've done more here.  it's ok, but I rarely play it.  Create 2 is way better than this IMO. 

Re: ASC *Fervent Dream.  Mostly redundant to previous releases.  My ears only perked up at the final piece, which luckily is 20 minutes long since it's very good.  I really do not like these digipaks Silent Season is doing now.  No spine label?  Now that is dumb.  Virtually no text on the front or back covers.  Their previous compilation, 3 CDs worth, had the most boring artwork I've ever seen.  Just the name of the album in black lettering on white background, no spine label, no track titles or even artist names on back cover.   At least they upped the limitation to 500 this time so you didn't have to buy one the first two days it was released.

Currently listening:  Pink Floyd "Test flight" 1977 Animals tour live bootleg, Joy Division "London 02-08-1979". 

[ffcal]

I agree: The Sleepwalker's Ocean sounds excellent. I ordered a copy, but received someone else's order (different disc) instead! Now I have to practice patience. And patience hurts bad.

Sorry to hear that, Chris.  Hope you get your copy soon.  If you experience any problems with that, let me know.

BTW, the full preview stream of the album will remain available on Bandcamp through mid-January.

Regards,
Forrest

[chris23]

Thanks, Forrest. Shea was kind enough to send me a BC download code and to reship the CD. I'm listening to the download now and am completely captivated by it. You've achieved something remarkable here, in my opinion.

[ffcal]

Chris:  Great.  I'm glad to hear the issue was resolved.  Thanks, too, for your feedback.  I was hoping the release would resonate as it probably one of my "purest" releases, where I tried to listen more closely to my instincts.

Forrest

[thirdsystem]

I have been in Black Sabbath mode again,

Black Sabbath, the first one, released in 1970, 46 years old and what an album it is.
Paranoid - , current track playing "Fairies Wear Boots " 
Just ordered my favourite Sabbath album on 2015 remastered vinyl- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, to replace my worn out 42 year old cassette. Thought I had it on CD but there you go.

Last night;
Soft Machine ,   2, fourth, 5 , well jazzed out so I was.
And to fall asleep to; Thom Brennan - Shimmer.

Will have to redress the balance today with multiple ambient ........to recover.

[APK]

Great to see someone playing Soft Machine.
Especially those brilliant Virtually tracks from the flip side of the Fourth !   


I still remember seeing Sabbath doing Paranoid in London shortly after it was released ... now I feel old   

[thirdsystem]

I still remember seeing Sabbath doing Paranoid in London shortly after it was released ... now I feel old   

Wow, how cool is that !! I am still quite a young lad  so couldn't quite make that gig.

My son saw Sabbath at the download festival here a few years back. Made my year, my son witnessing live Sabbath , the band from my very early teens , at a summer Rock festival. Couldn't quite believe it. Said they were excellent.

Now playing - Christina Vantzou No3. Have noticed several people mentioning this album on the net so today I finally get round to checking out the YouTube stream. Very, very nice indeed, drone based ambient but many more styles present. Really like it. On the list.

NP Mr Budd - Avalon Sutra.

[petekelly]

I still remember seeing Sabbath doing Paranoid in London shortly after it was released ... now I feel old   

That is indeed, extremely cool !

[APK]

Just to compound the age ... I've also seen Hendrix live.