Playlist
My most recently played albums, playlist archive, current favourite, new releases, Mojo & Uncut mags and hi-fi equipment.
Most Recently Played Albums
The albums I've played during May 2024.
Roger Waters - In The Flesh || Various Artists - Jingle Jangle Mornings || Ulrich Schnauss - No Further Ahead Than Today || Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory || Thin Lizzy - Vagabonds Of The Western World || Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark? || Death In Vegas - Satan's Circus || Gil Scott-Heron - Reflections || Otis Redding - Complete & Unbelievable... The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul || Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way || Anthony Phillips - Wise After The Event || Lamb - Between Darkness And Wonder || The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Their Satanic Majesties' Second Request || 808 State - Ex:El || The Doobie Brothers - Livin' On The Fault Line || Bonobo - Dial 'M' For Monkey || The Kinks - Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire) || Audience - The House On The Hill || Laura Marling - Once I Was An Eagle || Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys! || The Zutons - The Big Decider.
Playlist Archive
All the albums I've played each year since 1st January 2018.
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024Current Favourite
Miles Davis - Get Up With It
Released in 1974 and containing material recorded during sessions from 1970-1974, this album involves a host of musicians including John McLaughlin, Dominique Gaumont, Mtume, Billy Cobham, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Sonny Fortune and Steve Grossman. Considering the numerous line-ups and the fact these cuts did not appear on subsequent releases, this album comes across as a coherent piece of work of the highest quality. This may be the most commercial sounding of all of Miles' electric records from the 1970s, but it still sounds out there, hypnotic, alien and futuristic in all the best possible ways. I often think that this is Miles' equivalent of Can's "Tago Mago" and a great album to introduce yourself and others to his work.
He Loved Him Madly || Maiysha || Honky Tonk || Rated X || Calypso Frelimo || Red China Blues || Mtume || Billy Preston.
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Buy the album
New Releases
The Zutons - The Big Decider
They're back, The Zutons are back with their first album in sixteen years. This re-birth of The Zutons is a second chance for the band and they've grabbed this opportunity with both hands. The original band of Dave McCabe (guitar, lead vocals), Abi Harding (saxophone, vocals) and Sean Payne (drums, vocals) are joined by producers Ian Broudie and Nile Rodgers. Overall, this is a wonderful addition to their discography filled with infectious, feel-good music, retro vibes and lots of energy. The deluxe edition includes a second CD of all the tracks recorded live.
Creeping On The Dancefloor || Pauline || Water || In Your Arms || Disappear || Company || The Big Decider || Rise || Best Of Me ||| In Your Arms || Pauline || Disappear || Company || Water || Best Of Me || The Big Decider || Rise || Creeping On The Dancefloor .
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The Bevis Frond - Focus On Nature
This is Nick Saloman's twenty-ninth album as The Bevis Frond, a band in which he was often the only member. Here he presents a defiant stance against obscurity, "I'm waiting here for the hug, a little bit of recognition", he sings on "The Hug" before busting out one of his wonderful guitar solos. These glints of humour are clues as to why Saloman has survived so long on a tiny ration of notoriety. The nineteen tracks cover a range of emotions from cantankerous rants on modern musicianship to his poetic reflections on the process of aging. A fantastic release.
Heat || Focus On Nature || God's Gift || Vitruvian Man || A Mirror || Leb Off || Here For The Other One || Happy Wings || Empty || Wrong Way Round || Mr Freds Disco || Jack Immortal || Hairstreaks || Maybe We Got It Wrong || Brocadine || Big Black Sky || The Hug || I Can't Breathe || Hung On A Wire.
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Steve Hackett - The Circus And The Nightwhale
Steve Hackett's latest album (his thirtieth solo full length release) is as wide-ranging as the entire catalogue that precedes it. "The Circus And The Nightwhale" is a quasi-autobiographical tale, on which Hackett shows his mastery of the guitar and sings the majority of the lead vocals. The music includes ballads, blues, blistering prog rock and a healthy measure of theatre and fantasia. The concept here is based on a character called 'Travla' and his journey through life - but it is actually a musical biography based on Hackett's own life experiences, from his early life in post-war London, through loves and experiences to the present day.
People Of The Smoke || These Passing Clouds || Taking You Down || Found And Lost || Enter The Ring || Get Me Out! || Ghost Moon And Living Love || Circo Inferno || Breakout || All At Sea || Into The Nightwhale || Wherever You Are || White Dove.
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Can - Live In Paris 1973
Volume four of Can's live chronicles finds Cologne's improvising greats actually playing their songs. This latest volume, captured at L'Olympia in Paris on Saturday, May 12, 1973, is the most astonishing of the series so far, helped by the inclusion of the late Damo Suzuki. Though the five tracks presented here are given numeric titles, with this performance we have the unfamiliar and bizarre situation of several of them being recognisable songs, played more or less as they were written, a special kind of heresy for a group who never played the same thing twice! Freak-out heavy it may be, but it still floats beautifully in the clouds. A must for any Krautrock fan.
Paris 73 Eins (aka Whole People Queueing) || Paris 73 Zwei (aka One More Night) || Paris 73 Drei (aka Spoon) || Paris 73 Vier (aka Stars And Lines) || Paris 73 Funf (aka Vitamin C).
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The Smile - Wall Of Eyes
Channeling jazz, krautrock and prog, the Radiohead offshoot's second album digs deeper into their strangely enchanting world. Throughout the album, the haywire guitars and arrangements veer between Can's wild experimentation and Robert Wyatt's alien sounding folk-fusion while Yorke's ethereal vocal is tested to dizzying effect. The band seems able to move nimbly between themes to create new modern hybrid jams as takes their fancy. With this band, it feels like Yorke and Greenwood have become liberated to sidestep the expectations of Radiohead and create something beautifully new and hauntingly odd. There are only eight songs but they are huge scope, with music this powerful it's impossible to feel short changed.
Wall Of Eyes || Teleharmonic || Read The Room || Under Our Pillows || Friend Of A Friend || I Quit || Bending Hectic || You Know Me!
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Jimi Hendrix - Hollywood Bowl
This live recording was captured just five days before the US release of the debut album "Are You Experienced" and it is notable for being one of the last times the band performed in front of an American audience as relative unknowns. The vast majority of the 17,000 plus Los Angeles concert goers were there to see headliners The Mamas & The Papas and were caught off guard by Jimi's electrifying musicality and showmanship. Not a single second of this unique set has ever been released before and although the audience did not know what to make of Jimi's electrifying showmanship; it still perfectly captures the full firepower of the band on stage.
Introduction || Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band || Killing Floor || The Wind Cries Mary || Foxey Lady || Catfish Blues || Fire || Like A Rolling Stone || Purple Haze || Wild Thing.
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DJ Shadow - Action Adventure
Twenty-seven years after releasing his debut album, "Endtroducing...", which became a seminal work in instrumental hip hop, Josh Davis' seventh studio album is both a homage to his career and a record about his relationship with music. This is achieved by incorporating the 1980s influences of his recent work with the distinctive, soulful exploratory spirit of his early years. The music is driven by funky hip hop beats backed up by synthesizer bleeps, squelches and textured moody pads, like a Kraftwerk-Portishead mash-up. It's a monstrous set of pure brilliance.
Ozone Scraper || All My || Time And Space || Craig, Ingels, & Wrightson || Witches Vs. Warlocks || A Narrow Escape || You Played Me || Free For All || The Prophecy || Friend Or Foe || Fleeting Youth (An Audible Life) || Reflecting Pool || Forever Changed || She's Evolving.
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Ozric Tentacles - Lotus Unfolding
When it comes to prolific creative output, not many can match musical wizard Ed Wynne and Ozric Tentacles. Formed in 1983 at the Stonehenge Free Festival by brothers Ed and Roly Wynne, the band have always been an anomaly in British music, blending a plethora of genres, influences and techniques to create a unique and distinct sound that puts them in a league of their own. "Lotus Unfolding" makes your synapses buzz with pleasure as the multi-layered and richly textured songs morph into limitless meditative soundscapes as your brain comes alive with multiple kaleidoscopes of colour and shimmering light. This is a magnificent, hypnotic and trippy listening experience that is another excellent addition to their catalogue.
Storm In A Teacup || Deep Blue Shade || Lotus Unfolding || Crumplepenny || Green Incantation || Burundi Spaceport.
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The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds
Here we have only the second album of original material by the Rolling Stones this century and the first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts and yet they haven't sounded this energised and focused in the last fifty years. Paul McCartney, Elton John and Lady Gaga lend a helping hand but it's still a full on Stones album. What you won't find much of here is the late-in-life introspection heard on recent records by some of the Stones' peers instead you get Jagger snarling as the guitars tear it up around him, in other words, great blues driven rock by one of the world's greatest rock bands. If this is to be their last studio album then it will be a great way to remember them.
Angry || Get Close || Depending On You || Bite My Head Off || Whole Wide World || Dreamy Skies || Mess It Up || Live By The Sword || Driving Me Too Hard || Tell Me Straight || Sweet Sounds Of Heaven || Rolling Stone Blues.
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This Winter Machine - The Clockwork Man
This Winter Machine return with their fourth album and their first conceptual piece which has a dark dystopian storyline and a sci-fi steam-punk feel. They present it with great imagination and musical skill, drawing you into the narrative with impactful progrock songs filled with a combination of power and subtlety. "The Clockwork Man" is modern, neo-tinged, progressive rock perfectly created and performed by a band that have found their feet after three accomplished releases and have delivered their finest work yet. This Winter Machine now stand at the forefront of modern neo-progressive rock and can be rightly proud of a concept album that can stand the test of time with some of the best that have gone before.
The River, Part I & Part II || Solitude, Silence And Steam || Final Goodbye? || Change || Refections || Nothing Lasts Forever || The Light || Hole In The Sky.
Listen to a trackBuy the album
Mojo
Mojo issue 368 featuring Paul Weller; The Byrds; Pete Townshend; Marvin Gaye; Dusty Springfield; Questlove; Johnny Cash; Jessica Pratt; Belle And Sebastian; Motorhead; Dirty Three; Richard Thompson; Dickey Betts; John Grant; David Bowie; The Durutti Column; Dana Gillespie; Pat Metheny; Royal Trux plus 145 reviews.
Includes free CD "Jingle Jangle Mornings".
Fifteen track Byrds companion of folk, rock, country, psych and raga featuring Gene Clark; The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers; The Louvin Brothers; Chris Hillman; Ray Charles; Roger McGuinn; Merle Travis; The International Submarine Band; Dinosaur Jr; Clarence White; Woody Guthrie; Pete Seeger; Nazim Hikmet; Leadbelly plus Ravi Shankar.
Uncut
Uncut issue 326 featuring David Gilmour; Slowdive; Jefferson Airplane; Beth Gibbons; Royal Trux; Mark Knopfler; The Beatles; Mdou Moctar; T Bone Burnett; Isobel Campbell; Buffalo Tom; Eddy Grant; Ayers, Cale, Nico & Eno; Gastr Del Sol plus 182 reviews.
Includes free CD "Live 1973-1977".
Five live tracks from Can featuring Stuttgart 75 Zwei; Brighton 75 Sieben; Cuxhaven 76 Drei; Paris 73 Funf plus Aston 77 Drei.
Hi-Fi Equipment
My sound system: KEF speakers, Technics deck, Philips wireless headphones, Marantz CD player and Marantz amplifier.