Bjork's Homogenic, Radiohead's Kid A and Madonna's Ray of Light; all of which are fantastic and amongst the best electronic albums of all time, are albums I'm spinning A LOT lately. I see these three albums as a trilogy of sorts, each sticking within the electronic paradigm but also bringing something new to the genre.

Been looking up a bunch of different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar trying to figure out which version is the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOiCCjIDBn4

1992 Austrailian Version. Definitely. Why? Big Production Value, Great Vocalizations. and Last but not least Angry Anderson as King Herod.

BTW I heard Jack Black played King Herod in a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar back in. . .I think it was 2005? I wish I could find a recording. . .does anyone have any proof of this?

Shame we're not going to be getting that next Tool album any time soon because it sounds like it's going to be awesome: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tool-explain-why-they-havent-put-out-a-new-album-since-2006-20140715

oops this isnt the fml thread wrong thread wtf how did i even......

Blue Monday wrote:Shame we're not going to be getting that next Tool album any time soon because it sounds like it's going to be awesome: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tool-explain-why-they-havent-put-out-a-new-album-since-2006-20140715

A shame, yes, but hardly surprising; the boys and co. seem to have a tendency to keep finding new ways to get into trouble

Went to see a couple of free shows this weekend.

Deltran and Kid Koala at the Prospect Park bandshell:

[gplus:2d34eegn]https://plus.google.com/118152408235270297690/posts/Uj2aX26Z7Zd[/gplus:2d34eegn]

Then Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at Queens Bridge park:

[gplus:2d34eegn]https://plus.google.com/118152408235270297690/posts/12NT7LfXGUx[/gplus:2d34eegn]

I just got two and a half songs into The National's Trouble Will Find Me before coming to the realization that I wasn't at all interested in hearing the rest of the album.

It's like Grizzly Bear all over again.

The new La Roux album Trouble in Paradise is astounding. If you liked the Daft Punk record, you'll LOVE this (it's far superior, in my humble opinion).

I see that it's getting rave reviews, it deserves all the praise.

Finally listening to the Genesis albums the proper way(in CD) as opposed to listening to them trough the err, dubious quality of my father´s 30 year old vinyl. Nursery Cryme might just be the best Genesis album ever made.

Also listened to The Who By Numbers in vinyl. It was for sale for so cheap, it´d be a crime not to buy, even if I would prefer the CD version. As for the album itself, it´s pretty good, not at the level of Quadrophenia but, then again, what is?

Heads-up for any interested Aussies: My son Nicolas will be playing Ligeti's Piano Concerto in Sydney and Debussy's Études for Piano in Melbourne in late August.

2 things:

1. This is my new favourite WT album [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePaAknQzPc[/url]
Even after all these years they have still got it.

2. Lemdeath uploaded a new music mix, this guy introduced me to so much music i would normally never have heard, just go listen to his latest mix, its amazing [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XsFAm4mrZs[/url]

TomasJC wrote:Ah, thanks for the insight. As to the high-end equipment thing, Abbey Road probably not so much due to it only having a Stereo mix in the first place. I guess the best way to compare anything would be with an original pressing, but whatever, if the new ones are good then that's the way I will probably go (unless I find a good copy first pressing, which ain't easy at a low price).

I was wrong. Going through my records I found an original pressing of Abbey Road that was in pretty clean condition (UK release, Apple Records SO-383), so I actually did have an original pressing to compare it with. One of these days I'm going to need to spend a day going through everything and try to put them in alphabetical order or something.

Aside from the older record having the wear and tear pops every now and then, it sounds more or less the same. The mix on some of the songs are noticeably different. Come Together was the only song I listened to as a comparison: re-master has much more attack on the bass guitar, toward the end there's a lot more noticeable very low end, the vocals are more centered whereas the Apple pressing has it more center-left. The slightly over-driven guitar during the verses was much more subtle in the re-master. There was a bit more separation between the organ and guitar in the chorus and especially near the end (when they're more separated between the left (guitar) and right channels (organ)) compared to the Apple pressing. I want to say that after a listen through, the re-master sounds a bit cleaner, but not necessarily because the audio is cleaner, but more-so that the mix separated the individual tracks more. Not necessarily a good or bad thing. Another noticeable thing is how the bass was mixed between the two, though I can't really pin it on any one thing; sometimes, it's really stand-out-ish, sometimes it's a bit muddier, sometimes it's sharper, and sometimes, like in the case with Come Together, the pops and attack are more noticeable. The original Apple pressing seems to have more of the higher end stand out (guitars, highhat and cymbals).



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(New Post)

So some more goodies came:



Eric Kloss with Dan Patterson, Pat Martino, and Billy James on the drums from 1965. Awesome picture of him on the cover. He is 16 years old here, a junior in highschool at the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind. Aside from being my Jazz professor at CMU and smoking a pipe at the age of 16, he's a mainstay in the history of Jazz in Pittsburgh. Here's "Embraceable You" from the second side:

[gplus]https://plus.google.com/118152408235270297690/posts/Mc5PLwSEC4w[/gplus]





Herbie Hancock's 1969 album "Fat Albert Rotunda". This is a 1974 re-issue, Warner Bros. Records ‎– WS 1834. Originally a soundtrack for the TV Special, "Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert," and is amongst the first of Herbie Hancock's foray into funk and R&B.

Fat Mama
Fat Albert Rotunda

This was 1969, almost 4 years before "Head hunters", which is pretty amazing, and this is pretty awesome music for a children's TV special.



I already have a U.S. EMI 1968 copy of this but the first 2 sides were scuffed enough to hear pops, especially during Dear Prudence, which is unacceptable. So I found a 1970 reprint of the U.K. Apple PCS 7067 copy, missing the photos but the vinyl sounds flawless.

Those were the ones that were on my wishlist, both the Kloss and Hancock are kind of hard to find in such good condition, the "White" is just expensive most of the time so finding such a good UK copy for so cheap was just fortunate. The rest of the shipment contained some fillers:



The Kenny Burrell album had some pretty bad scratches on a couple of tracks but that's what you get for $5. The Billie Holiday is a 1959 mono original, it was later released by Verve as "Last Recordings". Rubber Soul is a Capitol Records reissue, ok quality and it's nice to have eventhough it's not one of my favorite albums. Now, the Gerry Mulligan album is kind of a curiosity. The 1965 album is by Limelight records and has an interesting gatefold:

[gplus]https://plus.google.com/118152408235270297690/posts/A6uR9M5uWhp[/gplus]

The "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em!" is sort of a thing against the pop and rock craze that was starting up in the 60's, and the somewhat humorous passage inside the gatefold tells it, so Mulligan makes an album covering the hit pop and rock songs at the time. Nothing really much to write home about, unless you find a baritone saxophone playing "Engine, Engine No. 9", "A Hard Day's Night", or "Mr. Tambourine Man" interesting (which it kind of is).

Loving the new Whirl: http://m.spin.com/articles/whirr-heavy-stream/

Blue Monday wrote:Loving the new Whirl: http://m.spin.com/articles/whirr-heavy-stream/

Me too dude. I cranked up the volume a bit haha.

Can't wait for the full album to drop. Really glad you pointed me their way. They have definitely become a big favorite of mine haha.

One of the things I've learned from being on EGF for a year is that Blue Monday is a fine contributor to the music thread.

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So, I finally got around to listening to Arcade Fire's Reflektor, which I think I put off listening to for so long because of the massive hype machine surrounding its release. Somehow the fact that most of it was produced by James Murphy escaped my attention at the time as well, which was unfortunate. I wasn't crazy about the album's title track either when it came out but it's grown on me, which I think happened with The Suburbs as well. I guess

Anyway, Reflektor is pretty great, but it's sort of a tale of two albums. It's broken up into two parts, with part 1 being more folksy or like, traditional rock and roll I guess. It reminds me of the shit off of Funeral. Part 2 of the record is more electronic and danceable and it seems a lot angrier than part 1 and I love it. If the whole record was in the style of part 2 I'd be really, really into it. Porno, Afterlife and It's Never Over are probably my three favorite tracks off of the release.

So that's four pretty good albums in a row so far for Arcade Fire, which you don't see too often. AF aren't my favorite band or anything like that, but they're incredibly solid and they seem very real.

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Sistar's Touch My Body is my vote for video of the year.

Awesome interview of Miles Davis: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/nov/06/miles-davis-interview-rocks-backpages

Miles Davis wrote:I gave him all these little things, like – play this for me, Trane. And it'd sound like – blablablablublurp.... that's the way it sounds, if you play without stopping you sound like Coltrane.

Hilarious

Touching on previous posts on the new Interpol track/album...they've done it again.

Ancient Ways

Now it's just up to me to decide whether to pre-order El Pintor through Matador, or to support a local record shop.

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I've been listening to How to Dress Well's third album, What is This Love? on repeat for about the last week. HTDW is the project of this dude Tom Krell who sings contemporary R&B and uses ambient sounds and looks hipsterish, so people might be turned off by him just for that, but What is This Love? is just a super dope record. His first two albums were just decent(both were pretty dark and heavy feeling so listening to them sort of brought me down), so I wasn't really too excited for the third, but after hearing a few tracks and reading that the album was poppier I decided to give it a go. It's great. Words I Don't Remember and Repeat Pleasure are two of the songs that got me into the album. Both total jams.

I was thinking of pre-ordering El Pintor as well but my local/domestic distributor probably won't be stocking it - meaning if I do want it I'll have to bite the bullet and order direct from Matador, international postage fees and all.




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New Deafheaven track: https://soundcloud.com/adultswimsingles/from-the-kettle-to-the-coil/

I'm at work at the moment but will scope out when I get home this evening.

Has anyone heard of Asaf Avidan? He is sick.

This is my favorite from him.

Blue Monday wrote:New Deafheaven track: https://soundcloud.com/adultswimsingles/from-the-kettle-to-the-coil/

Digging it. They've thrown in a lot more conventional elements, specifically death metal, especially with the screechy, feral vocals in the first half of the track. The latter portion from around the four minute mark reminds me of their earlier stuff a la the demo tape (Remembered how 'Libertine Dissolves' made me fall in love with these guys in the first place). Less of the cascading shoegaze going on, which isn't necessarily good or bad - I just the hope the album will have more of a range/dynamic outside of the scope of this cut; elsewise of the risk of sounding too thin or linear.

Actually, I don't even think this is for a full-length or EP.
Just a standalone single.