- Sonic Youth, "Or": Very smooth for SY. But great. They're an amazing band.
- The Flower Kings, "Blue Planet": A typical track from one of my favorite neo-progressive
rock bands. For the Flower Kings, this is a short one at only 10 minutes. - The Clogs, "Lantern": once again, one of my favorite classical-leaning post-rock bands. Slow,
beautiful track, featuring steel drums and oboe, and even some light vocals. - Mariliion, "Fantastic Place": one of my least favorite tracks from an amazing Marillion
album. Overall, the "Marbles" album was fantastic, but this track just leaves me cold. - Darol Anger's Republic of Strings, "Higher Ground": quite a change from the last
couple. Very up-tempo jazzy string-ensemble cover of a Stevie Wonder tune. - The National, "Baby We'll Be Fine": The National are the alter ego of the Clogs; they've got
nearly the same personnel. But the National is a slightly country-ish alt-rock band. This track
has a great psuedo-minimalist melodic pulse under it. Very cool. - Naftule's Dream, "Free Klez 1 & 2": what happens when a group of really talented klezmer
musicians try to an Ornette Coleman style free improv? Weird stuff. - Navan, "Thig an T-Eathor": very traditional a-capella Irish songs. Not what you'd probably
expect if you're used to instrumental Irish; songs are a totally different form - Mark Knopfler, "Boom, Like That": The guitar wizard of Dire Straights has been doing mostly
solo work lately. This is a track from his latest solo album, about (of all people) Roy Kroc, founder
of McDonalds. Good song, with a nice guitar hook. - Marillion, "Ocean Cloud": another track from Marillion's "Marbles" album - this one is an
example of just why I like this album so much: it's an 18 minute long opus, just terrific stuff.
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I wasn't a huge fan of Fantastic Place or Angelina (both structurally very similar) 'til later on, seeing them in person. Live it works much better, both in person and on cd/dvd. It's a very abstract lyric, talking about a vague ideal without naming specifics, which is unusual and hard to interpret or grip. H wrote the same vagueness into The Only Unforgivable Thing, where he never tells us what it actually is.
My problem with "Fantastic Place" isn't the lyrics; I tend to like very abstract vague lyrics. The problem is that I find "Fantastic Place" to be musical mush.
I like "Unforgivable Thing", even though it's got the same kind of vagueness; but the music is much better.
Knopfler is an interesting guy. He lately seems to be at the intersection of Country and Rock that would have happened if the genres had never split in the 50's. His stuff with Emmylou Harris was good to in the same realm.
MarkCC, have you had a chance to hear the recent album by "Battles" yet?
Hiya Mark,
Always enjoy your musical selections :) Lots of stuff I like here.
May I offer up my own band for your perusal - since I see the Clogs & stuff there quite a bit. We're not really a lot like them but anyway, electric string quartet doing I guess rock/world/jazz/hip-hop/dub etc... Covers and originals. You may like the klezmer-tango of "Downtown Nudnik" - myspace and whole latest album here (via last.fm)...
Just interested in what you think. Not really any mathematical connection to be found, but I have an Hons degree in pure maths (& philosophy) and read your blog! So there.
Are you into Sigur Ros? They've a new movie "Heima" ( translated "coming home" or something ) coming out soon. You can get a preview of it here.
Do you like any electronic music such as Apparat?
It's "Thig an t-Eathor", not "Thig an T-Eathor": that difference is actually important in Irish.