Paradox One
PHIL’S FESTIVE 40
BEST OF 2011
2011
was another good year for music against a backdrop of doom and
gloom, greed and moral corruption. Thanks to all the labels who kept
the music coming in and let’s hope that 2012 takes us into better
times- one thing’s for sure we know great music will keep coming but
critical acclaim will not necessarily go to those who most deserve
it. Unfortunately time does not allow me to comment on all these
splendid recordings but most of them are reviewed in Acid Dragon
magazine anyway. As always contact phil@paradoxone.co.uk
for information/ feedback. BTW The numbers have absolutely no
significance except to help me keep count. These recordings are not
ranked in any kind of preference. Apologies to anyone I’ve missed-
inevitable given the amount of listening every year! Here
goes
1 THE BEVIS FROND: THE LEAVING OF LONDON
(Woronzow):
A firecracker of an album that
charts a course between plaintive ballad (title track) and raucous
rock (the irresistible ‘You’ll Come’). The scale of self expression
and sheer humanity of the song writing is astonishing and this long
awaited album is right up there with the best of the Frond. It will
appeal to fans of psych, punk, rock and anyone with a heart and an
ear for crafty guitar solos. Nick Saloman, Ade Shaw, Paul Simmons
and Dave Pearce take a bow- you did it again as the Softs used to
say.
2
PETER LACEY: WE ARE THE SAND (Pink
Hedgehog): The album PL has always been threatening to make as Brian
Wilson and co continue to cast a spell of enchantment over
everything he does- surely ‘Drinkin’ in the Sunshine’ must be a long
lost Beach Boys classic! This album is different though. First of
all I didn’t think the ‘American dream’ segue/ concept would work but the more you
listen the more the layer and ambition inherent in the music reveal
a work of enormous beauty. The spoken collaborations of Steven
Kalinich in the ‘notes from Cornwall’ are, as they were on ‘South
Downs Way’ are once again welcome.
3
ALSO EDEN: “THINK OF THE CHILDREN
(Festival Records): The best concept album I’ve heard for a long, long
time. ‘Think of The Children’ has everything but most of it all it
has heart and soul. For lovers of everything that is great about
progressive rock there are great lyrics, melodies, top notch
instrumental work and singing and even a scintilla of grunge guitar
to keep metal heads happy. Stylistically the following territory
applies: Anyone’s
Daughter, Marillion, Rush, Gabriel/ Carptree, Genesis/ Hackett. See
Acid Dragon magazine for a full review and upcoming interview.
4 Gösta Berling’s SagaL “Glue Works” (Cuneiform) :
You can hear the influence of producer Mattias Olsson, drummer
extraordinaire with legendary Swedish progressive rock group
Anglagard on ‘Glue Works’. A musical saw is employed on the first
and third tracks. This sounds like a theremin and gives an eerie
quality to the music. Cello is used extensively on track 3 which
ends up sounding like a great lost track from ‘Hybris’. Extending
the instrumentation from the four piece band’ engine room’ to
include French horn, vibraphone etc. is a master stroke. There is no
point in trying to describe individual tracks (although I do break
my own rule on occasion in this review). Like a great movie ‘Glue
Works’ is a package. As the group says ‘Glue Works’ is the
attraction of positive and negative molecules, “soft glued to
rough”, “epic glued to tiny”, “minimalism glued to maximalism”….for
full review and interview see Acid
Dragon.
5
MANNING:
“Margaret’s
Children” (Anser’s Tree II)(Festival Records):
Returning
to a concept he first explored in 2006 on ‘Anser’s Tree’, Guy
Manning returns with a new instalment complete with genealogy from
1645 to an ecologically challenged future. The result is stunning as
a fabulous band steers the listener through time with impeccable
musical references, a vocal style that resembles Ian Anderson (the
flute is there too) and a lyrical aplomb and sincerity befitting the
likes of Woolly Wolstenholme. ‘Margaret’s Children’ is a triumph
from start to finish.
6
SAVOY BROWN: “Voodoo Moon” (Ruf): Kim
Simmonds is back with a new local band on a cracker of on album that
has everything from the boogie shuffle of ‘Shockwaves’ to a reprise
of some of the metaphors used in the blues on ‘Natural Man’ with
articulate and fluid guitar exchanges and simmering organ to a
classic funk blues on the subject of greed with a wonderful bass
line by Pat DeSalvo (‘Too Much Money’). There’s also the stunning,
saturnine ‘Look At The Sun’, classic blues rock on which Kim takes
lead vocal (Joe Whiting is the main singer and is prominent on sax
on this one) and also throws in a quite brilliant guitar
break…(extracted from review for ‘Blues in the South’)
7 VARIOUS ARTISTS “Envelopes of Yesterday” (Manticore/ Esoteric): Who could resist a full blooded version of ‘Jerusalem’ to
kick start proceedings and the master stroke of following this with
a modern classic in PFM’s ‘The River of Life’? But, I
suppose it is the lesser known stuff that will intrigue listeners
and collectors most, the artists whose contributions were perhaps
too uneven or too expensive for a record buyer on a limited budget
and are now captured here at their best. One such artist is Keith
Christmas, another is Thee Image with some incredible synth…”
(extract from Acid Dragon review)
8 VARIOUS ARTISTS: JUST ABOUT AS GOOD AS IT GETS : DUANE
EDDY (Smith & Co): Complete track listings and audio samples of ‘Just About
As Good As It Gets’ CDs are available at www.smithco.nl and another great
‘crop’ appeared in 2011. My ‘cream of the crop’ would have to be the
61 songs featured on the Duane Eddy collection. I knew a little bit
about Duane Eddy but now I have a much fuller picture and am
astounded by the versatility, in instrumentation and style,
possessed by this extraordinarily talented individual… from
Zeitgeist review
9
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR “A Grounding in Numbers” (Esoteric):
Fully
deserves the positive reviews- got to see them play some of it live
as well- a memorable year!
10
THE RICK RAY BAND “Can’t Lie Hard Enough” (Neurosis):
With
Syzygy keyboard player on board guitar wizard Rick returned with a
more mainstream hard rock album which was as always challenging- the
title track, ‘Gotta Be’. ‘Nobody’ and ‘View From A Train’ were
particularly memorable.
11 SEAN FILKINS “War and Peace
and Other Short Stories” (Festival Records)
12 NINE STONES CLOSE “Traces”
(Festival
Records
)
13
THE BLACK WATCH
“Led
Zeppelin Five”
(Eskimo Records)
14
TEMPEST: “Living in Fear” (1974) (Esoteric reissue with bonus):
A
nostalgia trip for me!
15/16 TANGERINE DREAM: “Sunrise in the Third System: The Pink Years Anthology
1970-1973” and “Ride on the Ray: The Blue Years Anthology
1980-1987” (Reactive/ Cherry Red): A
bit of a cop out picking the compilations- if interested in what I
really think see the latest Acid Dragon.
17 SOFT MACHINE: ‘Tales of Taliesin: The EMI Years Anthology
1975-1981’ (Esoteric): Again, a bit of a ‘cop out’ given that Esoteric also did
a a great job in reissuing all of the albums but, in compilations, track selection is all important and this one hits the spot,
For your
information CD one has five from Bundles (1975); five from ‘Softs’
(1976); two from ‘Alive and Well’ (1978) with a further seven on CD
two interrupted by ‘K’s Riff’ and ‘Song of Aeolus’ from concerts in
July, 1977 at Le Theatre Palace, Montmartre. .Then, to conclude
there are four from ‘Land of Cockayne’ (1981). Sid Smith explains
the amazing adventures of these incarnations of Soft Machine in the
deluxe booklet accompanying the CDs.
18
PLANETA IMAGINARO:
“Optical
Delusions”
(Cuneiform)
19
ISOTOPE: “Illusion” (1974) (Esoteric
reissue/ remaster)
20
SIMON FELTON: “Surrender Dorothy” (Pink Hedgehog): Simon’s
best yet, with help from his friends.
21 ILLUSION: “Out of the Mist” (1977) (Esoteric
remaster)
22
ARTHUR BROWN AND VINCENT CRANE: “Faster Than The Speed of Light”
(Esoteric remaster): A
reminder of a forgotten gem.
23 CAVALLI- COCCHI, LANZETTI, ROVERSI “CCLR” (Esoteric): Nice
to see Esoteric also beginning to release new albums (see VDGG). One
of the year’s highlights of the year was interviewing Bernardo
Lanzetti.
24 EARTH & FIRE: ‘TO THE WORLD OF THE
FUTURE’ (1975) (Esoteric remaster): Subject of a forgotten classic prog album in last Acid
Dragon, a memorable rediscovery.
25
HOKIE JOINT
“The
Music Starts To Play”
(Cool Buzz):
Bluesy
grunge tinged with country folk: difficult subjects tackled with
infectious vigour. Reviewed for Blues in the South (Great online
magazine plus radio show presented by Ian McKenzie).
26
SPACE DEBRIS: Archives Vol 3: Deepest View : The
final part of a trilogy of live archive material released to
celebrate their 10th anniversary, vols 1 and 2 “Journey
to the Starglow Restaurant” and “All Man” are also recommended. E-mail
phil@paradoxone.co.uk
for initial contact.
27 STELLA POLARIS “Stella Polaris” (Stone Premonitions)
A nice surprise! Tim and Terri and Stone Premonitions
are back with friends including Ohead
28 MODEST MIDGET “The Great Prophecies of a Small
Man”
29
MILES DAVIS QUINTET: “Live in Europe 1967” (3 CD/DVD) (Sony):
My
treat to myself!
30
KATE BUSH: “50 Words For Snow” (Fish People): A
work of real genius.
31
WILCO: “The Whole Love” (dBpm Records): A
return to from after slightly disappointing ‘Wilco: The Album’. ‘One
Sunday Morning’ is a stunner- go for deluxe double CD with
book.
32 EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY: “Take Care, Take Care, Take
Care” (Bella Union)
33 STEVEN WILSON “Grace for Drowning”
(KScape)
34
THE TANGENT: “Going Off On Two” (DVD)
35 BEN WEAVER “Mirepoix and Smoke”
(Bloodshot)
36
VARIOUS ARTISTS: “A Visit to the Spaceship Factory:20 Gems from the
Early Years of Prog”
(Psychic Circle vinyl double album): From
the more familiar (Beggar’s Opera, Kingdom Come) to the less (Fuzzy
Duck and Sunchariot) inevitably Nick Saloman is
involved,
37
OST “Inception” (Hans Zimmer with Johnny Marr) (Reprise/ Water
Tower)
The ‘dream’ music is stunning.
38
AARDVARK :”Aardvark” (Esoteric):
Yes, one of the old Deram Nova albums you don’t need to pay a
fortune for!
39
CICCADA
“A
Child in The Mirror”
(Falling Records)
40
17
PYGMIES:
“Celestina”
and “Second Son”
If
you like sci-fi set to music and unique packaging you should find
out more about this.
41
(oops!) SLIVOVITZ: “Bani Ahead” (Moon June): late
entry
Finally, apart from the labels and individuals who
share great music there are the radio stations the best of which are
plugged below:
GARRY LEE’S STARSHIP
OVERFLOW
FREE DOWNLOADS
.e.g. Prog
125 : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y1DERNL2
(includes music from Jethro Tull
Steve Hillage aad King Crimson but Garry’s tastes are so eclectic
it’s not real! A true enthusiast who welcomes
requests).
BLUES IN THE SOUTH
TECHNICOLOUR WEB OF SOUND (non-stop
sixties music)
AURAL INNOVATIONS presented by Jerry
Kranitz (a portal for
related sites)
THE ROCKER (Stuart Hamilton)- mustn’t
forget Mr
Zeitgeist, a presenter of various shows and webmaster
extraordinaire.
Please contact
phil@paradoxone.co.uk if you require information
on any of the above.
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2010
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2009
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2008
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2007
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2006
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2005
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2004
RECOMMENDED
RELEASES OF 2003
RECOMMENDED RELEASES OF 2002
/ 2001
Please
e-mail me at phil@paradoxone.co.uk
for further information on any of these albums
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