Pink Floyd- The Endless River

The Endless River

"I think this is a lovely album. It's not a ground-breaking classic like Dark Side Of The Moon, Meddle or The Wall, say, (although there are musical references to all of them) nor does it have individual songs of the brilliance and beauty of Wish You Were Here or Shine On You Crazy Diamond, but in total it is a fine album with some genuinely beautiful music on it.

Put together from off-cuts from The Division Bell and then heavily re-worked and edited, this has been billed as a tribute to the late Rick Wright - and it's s fine tribute. There is plenty of his trademark keyboard sound, along with a lot of truly fabulous guitar work from David Gilmour. He's a great guitarist and there are very few people who can bring that degree of beauty and aching melancholy from the instrument. He's on fine form here, as is Nick Mason whose drumming perhaps doesn't get the recognition it deserves in creating the Floyd sound.

This is almost an ambient album in many ways, although there's more to it than that. There is an unbroken sequence of fairly brief tracks which are varied but hold together well as a unit. There are almost no vocals, just Steven Hawking speaking on Talkin' Hawkin' and a genuine song in the last track, Louder Than Words. Both are about the importance of settling disputes through talking and, appropriately, it is here that the absence of Roger Waters as a songwriter shows most clearly, because for me neither the melody nor lyrics are up to Waters' standard. It's a tiny blemish - not even a blemish at all, really, just a reminder - and the album as a whole is really good, I think.

This won't convert you if you don't like Pink Floyd, but if you do I think you'll really like this album. It's lovely music, beautifully played and produced, and I recommend it warmly."

Fripp and Eno- No pussyfooting

No Pussy Footing

It has been 35 years since King Crimson's Robert Fripp and the then-recently departed Roxy Music keyboardist Brian Eno joined forces to create "No Pussyfooting", an album that over the years would go down in history as one of the forerunners of what is now known as Ambient Music.
While music of this nature is now considered commonplace, back in 1973, it was quite a different story. When "No Pussyfooting" was initially released, critical reactions were quite mixed. Some didn't know what to think about an albums worth of sustained guitar lines looped through two tapes machines while others found the sounds embedded in the record grooves to be groundbreaking. Over time, the public slowly caught on to the innovative ideas heard in this album and it's now considered to be a timeless classic.
The original album contained two long tracks (one per side of the original LP). The opening track "The Heavenly Music Corporation" was recorded in August 1972 and consists soley of Robert Fripp's guitar being played through two Revox tape machines. The tape machines are manipulated by Brian Eno to create looped phrases and a massive wall of sound. The overall effect is beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Fripp would later perform similar music to this on his own coining the term "Frippertronics" to this guitar/loop technique.
The other track "Swastika Girls" was recorded one year later is more 'composed' in its over all structure. In addition to Robert Fripp's sustained lead guitar and frentic rhythmic guitar loops, Eno adds a busy synthesizer sequence to the music which repeats throughout the entire piece giving it somewhat of a base-structure.
After its initial release on CD in the early '90s, "No Pussyfooting" fell out-of-print and became a sought-after collectors item. Now in 2008, the album is available once again in its most definitive version - a remastered 2-CD edition that includes the complete original album plus the entire album played in reverse and a half-speed version of the opening track "The Heavenly Music Corporation". The reversed and half-speed versions of these tracks give the music a new dimension and offers a completely new listening perspective. While listening to the reversed version of the album, it's almost unnoticeable that the music is actually being played backwards. In fact, it almost sounds like alternate takes played forwards. As for the half-speed nearly 42-minute version of "The Heavenly Music Corporation", the music becomes a deep ambient drone and doesn't sound too different from today's artists who uses low drones as the basis for their music (think of the long-form drone works of Steve Roach or Robert Rich).
All in all, it's great to have this classic album available again. It has definitely been worth the wait. The music is as wonderful now as it was then and shows just how ahead their time Fripp and Eno were and still are. Without any hesitation, this newly remastered 2-disc edition of "No Pussyfooting" is HIGHLY recommended.

Roger Waters- Music from the body

Music From the body

Not for the faint-hearted listener, this 1970 soundtrack album to a medical documentary entitled "The Body" was created by avant-garde composer Ron Geesin & Pink Floyd bassist/singer/composer Roger Waters (Geesin & Waters would work together again on Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother," but "Music From The Body" was their first joint project). The album is pretty wild stuff to say the least, with lots of experimental sounds, instrumentation, vocals and effects. The wonderfully goofy opening cut, "Our Song," with it's rhythmic sound collage of clapping, belching, farting and baby noises (accompanied by ragtime piano, no less!), pretty much prepares you for what will follow. But in between Geesin's far-out pieces (other highlights include the vocal experiments of "More Than Seven Dwarfs...", the spooky "Body Transport," and the fun "Mrs. Throat Goes Walking"), Roger Waters drops in to play some very nice, simple acoustic numbers, like "Sea Shell And Stone," "Chain Of Life," and "Breathe" (a very different song from the "Breathe" that appeared later on Floyd's classic "Dark Side Of The Moon," although it shares the same opening lyric: "Breathe in the air"). Finally, the rest of Pink Floyd themselves---David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright---join Waters at the album's end for the uplifting finale, "Give Birth To A Smile." "Music From The Body" is definitely not an album to play at a party, but if you're a diehard fan of early Pink Floyd, then I think you'll enjoy this weird, wonderful record from Ron Geesin & Roger Waters.

Frank Zappa -We are only in it for the money

We are only in it for the money

We're Only In It For The Money arose in the wake of the hippie era in 1968. Frank Zappa must have not liked hippies because he's makes fun of them throughout this album. He also takes a stab at riots involving hippies and politics.

This album is great. It's pretty obvious that The Beatles used this as a basis for their Abbey Road album, showing how inspirational it was at the time. When I purchased the Record in the 70s, it had a different cover though. It was yellow and had all the band members on it and the CD cover was the gatefold. This confused me a lot. It was probably a manufacturing error. This album outdated now but it's a classic in the Mothers catalogue.

I'd encourage Mothers fans to get this CD and listen to it a few times to really understand how great it is.

Its sounds trippy with headphones on.

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen

Schwingungen

Schwingungen, which is probably my favourite Ash Ra Tempel album, opens with the utterly sublime Look at Your Sun. This is a towering psychedelic tour de force, building gently with the most beautifully laid-back guitar and bass and lyrics of a direct intense simplicity ("I look out my window and see the blue sky", "and I know, we are all one"), through the maniacally frantic central section and then back to the classic Gottsching lonely guitar sound as the track drifts away.

Flowers Must Die is a stunning trippy powerhouse of a song belted out by a manic John L, who sounds totally out of his tree. In places vaguely Hawkwind-ish, the overall feel of this track is surprisingly punk/new wave and therefore many years ahead of its time.

The extended third track, Schwingungen (Vibrations) covered the entire second side of the original album and is a brilliant example of the definitive Ash Ra Tempel cosmic/ambient sound.

A warning though! This track is significantly hypnotic and mood-changing, and it is not recommended to listen to this while you're driving!

The sleeve notes on the original album said something like "You're not hearing this music for the first time - you are recognising it once more" and you will understand what is meant when you listen to this. That classic Ash Ra Tempel chord sequence (later reprised in the Time sequence on the Seven Up album) does seem to grab you at a visceral or primordial level and, once heard, will be with you for ever.

Existing Ash Ra Tempel fans will surely not be able to resist this, and those of you yet to experience this music will not regret letting it into your lives!

Klaus Schulze- Irrlicht

Irrlicht

The year was 1972 when former Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel member Klaus Schulze embarked on his lengthy solo career which continues to this day.

Although it is considered to be a pioneering classic in Electronic music today, Schulze's solo debut "Irrlicht" was not well received when it was first released 34 years ago. Many listeners (as well as members of the orchestra which Klaus used on the album) didn't quite know what to think at the time. However, the listening public finally caught up with Klaus's crazy ideas and the album has since become a blueprint for the ambient/drone genre.

Although Klaus Schulze has long been regarded as a pioneer of synthesizers, "Irrlicht" was actually created without any synths whatsoever as Klaus did not own one yet. The instruments and tools that were used were the above-mentioned orchestra as well as a primitive electric organ, a broken guitar amplifier, echo and effect devices as well as other miscellaneous objects.

"Irrlicht" is essentially an album-length piece divided into three distinct movements. The opening 23-minute movement "Ebene" opens with a giant orchestra rush which leads into a low-end organ drone centered around D-minor. As the organ drone shifts and pulsates, the orchestra creates and intense cinematic atmosphere around it. After about 10-minutes, the mood becomes more intense as Klaus brings in a dark chord sequence which builds with suspense. The panning effect as well as the shrieking background noises used towards the end of the movement add further intensity until it's all washed away by loud gong-like crash.

The crash begins the short second movement, "Gewitter". While it sounds like there is a primitive synthesizer being used on this track, it actually is Klaus using a broken-down amplifier and a rewired organ. The intense organ theme of the first movement is pushed to the backround while strange sound effects as well as various percussive sounds (which sound like cymbals, gongs and trash cans being hit while being drenched with echo) come to the forefront.

The last movement, "Exil Sils Maria", is probably the most experimental movement of the three. It begins with a dark orchestral/organ theme similar to the first movement only more forboding. This leads into an extremely avant-garde section consisting of a droning collage of backward-sounding noises and what sounds like a car motor being amplified. This section is a real treat to be heard with headphones. Afterwards, the movement shifts back to how it began with its dark organ theme.

The newly remastered edition includes a highly informative essay from Klaus Schulze himself as well as a never before released bonus track. "Dungeon" was supossedly recorded in 1976 (although there is speculation that it could have been recorded earlier in the liner notes) but is very much in the same style as the original "Irrlicht" album with its long held chords and drones.

With this said, if you've never heard Klaus Schulze's "Irrlicht" before, now's the time to do so especially since it has been given pristine treatment on this reissue. The sound is amazing and so is the music. This is definitely music that was way ahead of its time when it was first released in 1972. Now, three decades later, it's an influential classic!!!

Klaus Schulze-Galactic Supermarket

Galactic Supermarket

Without a question one of the all time greatest examples of space travel without the water wings! If "Galactic Supermarket" does not absolutely blow your lips off then I'll eat my spacesuit! COSMIC JOKERS take ASH RA TEMPEL to the next dimension tossing in the sound-bites of classic psychedelia along the way. The COSMIC JOKERS were a short lived German offshoot band who clearly had creative improvisation aspirations while writing and recording. This all star lineup includes Klaus Schulze, Harald Grosskoff, Manuel Gottsching, Dieter Dierks and Jorgen Dollase so this should sort of give a idea already as to the direction and sound of the band. Essentially "Galactic Supermarket" is 2 overly long but scrumptious epic space jams which are given pure unconditional space to explore space in a space like way. Musically this album blends acid laced guitar solos over Schulze's analog space bedding with zainy soundbites and forboding atmospheres. "Galactic Supermarket" will certainly freak you and your grandma out while sitting on the couch. An original and masterful piece of space prog !

Galactic Supermarket" is very spacey to open and it's building as guitar and drums join in. It settles as whispered words come in then guitar. It turns spacey with organ and drums come in. Very experimental to end this first part.The second part is calm to begin with as percussion and a beat starts. Sounds like flute too.The guitar is making some noise. Synths before 4 minutes as drums pound. Organ late.The last part opens with Klause and Female vocals that echo. Very psychedelic. Drums are joined by the guitar which starts to lead with spacey synths joining in as well. Crazy out of control stuff here as spoken words are heard. A wall of sound after 7 minutes to the end.