The only addition to the CD racks from Santa this year, was the debut album from Steven Wilson, my most recent obsession. I also received Wilson's book, which is a reasonable read, but he's a far better musician and composer than writer! This album was meant to be a diversion from his band, Porcupine Tree, where he didn't have to consider other band members' input, a decade earlier Porcupine Tree itself being a diversion from No-Man, his band with The Album Years podcast col

At 26 minutes, this is on the cusp of "is it a single or an album?" territory, but I'm counting it as the latter. While the whole concert was later released on CD after Buckley's untimely death in 1997, this is the original four track release. It's very much a solo performance, with a couple of songs to appear on Grace a year later. Mojo Pin is strong, sounding very much like you'd expect a solo version to sound, knowing the band version from the album, and it's followed by

For 40 years now, I've been (mostly) at one with Billy Bragg politically and musically, and this 1991, perhaps one of my favourites, arguably marks a change from lone troubadour to band leader. The CD has 16 songs, and was released just as we transitioned from vinyl to CD, hence the 60 minutes of music for the price of a single album boast. And it's packed with music biz chums like REM, Kirsty MacColl, Johnny Marr and old mate Wiggy, so let's crack on. I've long contended tha

This was picked up for next to nothing despite my ambivalence about Afro Celt Sound System 1, and has only had rare outings, for reasons which become apparent after a couple of listenings. The fusion of traditional Celtic music / African beats and 90s dance sounds interesting on paper, and when this works, it really works, but too much just doesn't work for me. Opener Release has the sublime voice of Sinead O'Connor holding it aloft, and it's a decent song, spoiled only for

This album, picked up second hand long ago, claims to be an EP, but as it weighs in at something over half an hour, it's not the shortest thing considered here, so it's an album to me. I've long enjoyed Barry Adamson's work, right from his Magazine and Bad Seed days, and I've picked up a lot of his solo stuff, and some is very good indeed. One features among the 5* ratings on this blog, which regular readers will know, aren't handed out lightly (I think it's only 29 out of th

This is a bit of an odd one. I had heard the first single, I'm not sure where, because I don't tend to listen to radio stations playing chart sounds, then saw this album, just released, in a boot fair sale for a quid. I picked it up, listened, quite liked it, then put it away for over twenty years until now. My minimal research (and looking at the cover) tells me they're still going, and at the time, were a 25 piece band, 10 of whom just sang, giving the band their big choral

More tales from the depths of the Canterbury rabbit hole. In the early 1990s. all four participants in this album had their own bands, and were struggling to get work. They had approached the organiser of the Le Mans Jazz Festival, who broached the idea of putting together this 'all star' band, which he felt would attract interest. So it's a short lived, one tour project featuring Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine) on bass, Phil Miller (Hatfield and the North and National Health) on

This album was 50 years old a couple of months ago, and to celebrate / commemorate / screw a few more quid out of it, a deluxe box set of the original album with remixes, demos and much other merch was released. Full deluxe 4 LP plus 2 CD plus videos, replica 7" single, tour programme, hardback book and poster, a mere £215. My version is the first release CD from 1984, picked up second hand long, long ago. This is an album I've had with me one way or another since its first r

I suspect this was a Christmas present a few years ago, which hasn't seen much action since it was received. That's a pity because while I might have most of the songs elsewhere, they're different enough on the Peel Sessions to make things interesting. The first session from October 1979 has the band as a four piece, with early versions of Ha Ha I'm Drowning , a thumping bass taking the attention rather than the more familiar brass, Went Crazy , and Brave Boys Keep Their Prom

Never a man over-protective about his back catalogue, Mark E Smith gave permission for many, many compilations of Fall material to be released, including this 2000 compilation, an "Eagle Elite" edition 3CD box set. It was, I suspect, a sale purchase many moons ago. So, what to expect. Well, firstly, nothing that hadn't already been released, and it's allegedly remastered from inferior CD reissues, although I hadn't noticed a massive issue with quality on my ancient CD player.

A recent late night Ebay trawl yielded this album, King Crimson's last release of original music (so far). I hadn't previously heard this, so I've no history with this one. And while this isn't going to be remembered as a KC classic, nor featuring in arguments about favourite Crim albums, contained within are some very welcome sounds. The four parts of The Power To Believe are the head, spine and tail of the album, but they aren't the stand out. That's Level Five , the most

I'm sure I've mentioned before that my dad was something of a classical music buff, a taste which I have not inherited. His disdain for 'modern' classical music was summed up in his frequent quoting of Sir Thomas Beecham, on being asked if he'd conducted any Stockhausen replied " No, but I once trod in some ". I don't know what he made of Reich, but I can imagine. So, it's an album by a noted minimalist composer, it's called Drumming, what to expect? Yes, exactly that. Part I

This was a charity shop find last week, an album I wasn't previously aware of. Lou Reed's final solo album before his 2013 death wasn't some biting satire on US politics, nor some reflection of New York low life, it was this album of ambient meditation music. Apparently, Reed needed some music to accompany his Tai-Chi and meditation, so composed it for himself. Friends asked for copies, and eventually he issued it. The sounds are pretty much as you'd expect, very relaxing, an

A recent charity shop visit unearthed the next trio, this one probably the most mundane, accessible (and cheapest) of the three. It's REM's 1988, sixth studio album, the one before they became world megastars (7 of their next 8 albums were no 1 in UK), and the earliest one I've heard. On first listening, I was unimpressed, and went in search of various "REM albums ranked" pages online, only to find that my reticence was shared by many other listeners, the album rarely featuri

Last of the recent Harborough Market haul (£20 for the last seven CDs reviewed, which I didn't think was too shabby!) is this 2005 Brian Eno release. We can go back to the older stuff on the shelves after this (except I did visit a charity shop yesterday...) This feels like a return to the 1970s for Eno, in the sense that it's a mixture of eleven songs / instrumentals, rather than much longer pieces which he's arguably become better known for, and it's a very easy listen, wit

The penultimate CD bought in Market Harborough last week is David Bowie's 1983 album with the help of Chic's Nile Rodgers on production. It's another step on my Bowie journey, so let's dance. Actually, let's not. It's not a pretty sight. I haven't heard this album before, but I'm familiar with the first three tracks, all of which were hit singles. Modern Love , is alive, exciting and frantic, and kicks off the album in style, followed by the co-write with Iggy Pop (and also o

We're still ploughing through the Harborough Market purchases, this one the second Pink Floyd CD in the pile. Released in 1977, as I was doing my A levels, and had yet to understand punk, I never got to know this album in a way I had its predecessors, and only caught snatches of it at sixth form parties (quickly to be removed by some girl wanting to dance to the latest disco pop hits). Since those girls seemed to want little to do with me, I wasn't sympathetic. Or perhaps the

This was part of the Harborough Market haul - Brian Eno's 2014 collaboration with Underworld's Karl Hyde, a name I wasn't previously aware of. From the start, it feels like a piece of minimalist loveliness. Return has a repeated two chord guitar theme, which seems to slide in and out of phase with an ambient backing vocal and a lovely Eno song, all the time, the sound filling up over the nine minutes, as bass, synths and the kitchen sink are added. On DPF the pair are joined

I hadn't ever heard this album, although I knew of it. I wasn't aware of how close to the Syd Barrett era this was (the first album the band did with no input whatsoever from Barrett), and had thought it to be much later in the band's career (similar time to Obscured By Clouds ). This was yet another Harborough Market bargain. As I've said before, I'm not sure a soundtrack is meant to stand up on its own, rather than just enhance a film, and I'm equally unsure that this one d

I remember eagerly awaiting hearing this at the time, and not really knowing what to make of it when I did, By the time I 'got it', I'd bought it on vinyl, but it was only last week I finally replaced it on CD. I has for a long time been on my mental list of those to pick up when I saw it, so to get it at a knock down price felt good. And it's every bit as good as I remember. Opening with Theme, there's a lazy, slow, slightly reggaefied Wobble/Walker rhythm line, Levene's scr