Friday 30 March 2012

To Bee Frank

Much of this sounds like The Mothers of Invention from back in the Freak Out! days; after all, look who's on it:


All mixed up with some heavy tape manipulations (kind of Weasels or Only in it For the Money-like); some dialogue: some bizarre (Lumpy Gravyish), some informative (Joe's Corsage); and some heavy psychedelic lifting.


So, if you've ever wondered what the Mothers (minus Frank) might have sounded like if they'd ever got together with a Smile era Beach Boys (accompanied by Roy Wood [Circa The Move], tagging along for the ride), well, find out here.

Monday 26 March 2012

Sense and Senserbility

Like RDF, Senser have a female, bit-part singer who looks like she's in the wrong band.
In fact, when Senser first emerged, they all looked like they were in the wrong band.
True fusion.

As one of the early pioneers of 'nu metal' - although it wasn't called that then, it soon became a term best avoided, harbouring poor connotations due to the likes of Limp Bizkit and Alien Ant Farm - Senser were categorised as 'rap metal' and other clunky, hybridized genre definitions.

This album, their first, captures Senser at their peak, and it was during the festival seasons of 93 and 94 that the band gained most attention, helped by televised performances from Glastonbury and Reading, where moshing occurred on a major scale.

So think Transglobal Underground on amphetamines; Stereo MCs with balls; Beastie Boys with better references (and better accents); Rage Against the Machine much improved; or, imagine if DJ Shadow was kidnapped by a metal band (and a girlfriend) from the early nineties, well, this is the music they'd make once the Stockholm Syndrome had kicked in.

Okay. Bounce up and down, up and down, ad infinitum.

Senser - Stacked Up (1994)

States of Mind
The Key
The Switch
Age of Panic
What's Going On
One Touch One Bounce
Stubborn
Door Game
Peanut Head
Peace
Eject
No Comply
Worth

Excellent cassette rip @320kbs
Gain good Sense here

Saturday 24 March 2012

N-Acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine

Fulfilling a request - prompted by the last post - and satisfying an urge for a hit of nostalgia, this live recording from '93 is rather hard to find nowadays.
Released initially as mail order only - a mere 1,000 were made (re-released soon after due to popular demand, but again limited: 5,000 this time) - this superb recording captures Spiritualized in L.A and Frisco during their 1992 tour.

Gorgeous - the best - version of 'Medication', and a gloriously stretched performance of 'Shine a Light', featuring two, yes two, of those classic, bombastic Spiritualized crescendos.

(Can't help thinking of Hawkwind - no bad thing - when the sax joins the party!)

Party on!

Spiritualized - Fucked Up Inside (1993)

Take Good Care of It
I Want You
Medication
Angel Sigh
Walking With Jesus
Shine a light (Clear Light/Clear Rush)
Smiles

CD rip.
Prescribed dose here

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Spiritual Activity

If, like me, you're eagerly anticipating the new, long-awaited Spiritualized release; well, here's a sneaky preview courtesy of BBC6 Music: a very tasty session recorded last week as part of their tenth birthday celebrations.

Sounding good and on top form, this BBC recording really whets the appetite: 'Hey Jane' and 'I Am What I Am' (don't think Popeye [or John Clare]) immediately sound classic; but there is variation here, including several tracks lasting less than five minutes [gasp!].

So, all seems well in the Spiritualized camp, and a live session is the perfect way for the band to puff and fly their chops - I've always thought of Spiritualized as a live band - but with that said, I'm still keen to wrap my ears around the impending official product.
After all, what else is happening?

Jason says:

Spiritualized - Live at Maida Vale Studios, 15/3/12.

Hey Jane
Lord Let it Rain on Me
Little Girl
She Kissed Me (and it Felt Like a Hit)
I Am What I Am
Mary
Come Together

DVD captured digital radio broadcast @320kbs
Get Spiritual here

Monday 19 March 2012

It's All Dark

Love this!

Appearing here due to a request - actually for a hard copy - but seeing as how I've cleaned it up: removed glitches, offensive clicks and pops and moments of silence, thought I'd post it here, to allow you to grab a good version of this superb boot.

Dark Side of the Sky provides everything you want from a live recording; that being something different from the ever so familiar.
Recorded a whole year before the release of Dark Side of the Moon, this performance from the Rainbow Theatre reflects very much a work in progress.
It's harder and gutsier than the eventual release, and with keys subdued Gilmour dominates, and he's in an angry, ball-breaking mood (no hippie shit this!).

'On the Run' is unrecognisable; played out here in a loose jazz-funky-kinda style [!]; 'The Great Gig in the Sky' features extraordinary samples, far more interested in exploring and delineating insanity than death.

I'm not sure if 'Time' is missing a few lines, or whether the lyric hasn't been properly nailed; its certainly sung in an odd order, and seems to me the vocal is given up, again to make way for Gilmour to kick-out, which he certainly does, in what must be the best 'Time' solo ever.

'Us and Them' is definitely cut and spliced; and one can imagine the stressed-out recorder desperately loading another tape.

The two tracks from Atom Heart Mother were recorded at the Paris Theatre two years earlier.
Not really sure why they're on here; but hey, they're pretty good, and it's a particularly good version of the album's title track: very parpy; very organic.

So enjoy this.
It's always a treat to hear something so familiar subverted; even better when that subversion comes from the originators.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Sky

Rainbow Theatre, February 1972:

Speak to Me
Breathe
On the Run
Time
Breathe (Reprise)
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse

Paris Theatre, September 1970:

Atom Heart Mother
If

Originally ripped from vinyl @320kbs
Much cleaned up! As good as it gets!
Return to the sky here

Monday 12 March 2012

World View

I always loved The Bonzos, and Python, and Rutland Weekend Television, and The Rutles; and the common denominator within all of those things is Neil Innes.

Having a copy of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's History of the Bonzos, I knew Innes was part of a band called The World, as it included their '9-5 Pollution Blues' in the side projects section.
With keen eye I found a copy in my favourite second hand record store, and over the years I've almost played it bald.

So here's a tidier version, ripped @320 from CD; including the band's only single release: 'Angelina' and its B side 'Come Out Into the Open [Part 1]'.

It's of real interest to those who know Innes's work, revealing what happened to his music before he set off on a solo career.
Harder than his later releases, The World allowed Innes to fulfil a few rocky and rolly ideas, beyond the limitations of working within the Variety-like troupe The Bonzos.
It's a bit pub rock, a bit psychedelic, a bit pop, and just a little avant; with lyrics you'd expect from a witty wordsmith such as Innes.
It is also rather Beatlesque - like much of his music.

For me, most of Innes's solo material is just too twee; but he really shone, both as a writer and as performer, when it came to putting songs together for The Rutles: one of the greatest works of homage through pastiche in modern music.

(A friend once said to me that he rarely listened to The Beatles anymore, he listened to The Rutles; because when you listen to a Rutles' album, the whole of The Beatles' oevure is encapsulated in forty minutes.

And the fact that Rutles' tribute bands exist [!], as well as Rutles Highway Revisited, only goes to show how solid and strong the songs are even out of context.)

So, this is what Neil Innes did when The Bonzos came to an end; before he and Viv got together with Scaffold and became Grimms; and before he tentatively set out on his own path declaring How Sweet it was to be an Idiot, creating Book of Records, and nailing the history of The Beatles in his songs for The Rutles, etc.

I dunno, Rutles' tribute bands! Post-modernism gone mad!
The World really has been turned upside down.

The World - Lucky Planet (1970)

Not the First Time
Sail Away
9-5 Pollution Blues
Lead Us
Things I Could Have Said
Come Out Into the Open (2)
Godzilla's Return
Angelina*
Come Out Into the Open*

*Bonus tracks.

CD rip with artwork
Get the whole World here

Thursday 8 March 2012

Resurrection

Apologies for my recent lack of activity, but I have been kind of busy; not only with that little thing called life, but also upping a load of music to the new 'cloud' Mediafire have produced.

So, driven by what I want to be available on this site; what others have requested; the most popularly visited posts; and a few things that I believe are unique, only available here (probably...), here is the first of a list of Resurrected Remnants: Resurrected Remnants #1.

Firstly, as mentioned in previous post, both New Age Steppers' albums are available: Foundation Steppers and Action Battlefield; three Ween albums: Live in Chicago (2003), Live 91-92, and their unreleased, if that doesn't sound too paradoxical, Craters of the Sac; Gong's magnificent Virgin released Gong Live etc; Pixies Live at Newcastle Poly, 1989; Inner City Unit's President Tapes; my take on the Performance Soundtrack (including unique samples from the movie); Country Joe's Paradise With an Ocean View; H.K. Gruber's magnificent and entirely unique listening experience Frankenstein!!; The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's Prom performance from 2009; Stewed to the Gills by Gaye Bykers on Acid; the unbelievably overlooked Without Judgement by Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart; the brilliant, and again very absurdly overlooked, Talk like a Whelk, by Bristol's finest:Shoes For Industry; The Residents' and Snakefinger's Duck Stab; and speaking of Snakefinger, there's his History of the Blues and the fantastic boot: Melbourne University, 1980; the two finest albums from Zappa's old band members The Grandmothers: A Mother of Anthology and Looking Up Granny's Dress; Little Richard's The Wild and Frantic Little Richard, including a separate link to allow a comparison between Little Richard's 'Directly From My Heart to You' and Zappa's Mothers' version; and speaking of Zappa, it's the Mothers of Invention that ends the list, with their hip take on doo-wop: Ruben & the Jets, vinyl version, not that nasty CD reissue.

So, something there for everybody.
Check it out; especially stuff you maybe haven't encountered; you never know....
Nothing wrong with the odd epiphany every now and then.

On a closing note, if this cloud thing dissolves, and links are lost again, well, I think I'll go back to making C-90s for mates.
Aah, them were the days.

Shanti, roy