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

Another trip to Harborough Market's second hand CD stall yielded quite an array of treasures, which will be looked at over the next week or so. One of them was this 1973 double album (as a 2CD set), Yes's follow up to the classic Close To The Edge. Bill Bruford has escaped from the frying pan of Yes to the fire of King Crimson, to be replaced by Alan White, formerly of the Plastic Ono Band. After the success of Close To The Edge, everyone in the band had a musical idea, every

Can you hear Talvin sing sang Half Man Half Biscuit in 2003, about Anglo-Indian dance and world musician. Well, I hadn't, so I bought this album for a quid in a charity shop, about a decade ago. I've finally got round to listening to it. It's a fusion of dance, drum & bass and Indian instrumentation and themes, which at times works, and at times doesn't. If I'm honest, not of these genes fusing are particularly to my taste, but there are some interesting sounds. My peaks are

This is a medieval / classical / folk album on the American jazz label Windham Hill, which the charity shop I worked in accepted as a donation, along with many similar (possibly from someone who reviewed such things). They didn't sell, and after one periodic cull were about to be thrown out, when I offered them a home for a token donation. Of those I've listened to, there isn't yet one I've liked or hated. Until now. Can you guess which way this is going to go? Surprise, surp

Someone bought this for me, knowing that I enjoy an occasional Led Zeppelin album, and had enjoyed a gift of a Plant and Page album. In all honesty, a collaboration with Alison Krauss didn't fill my heart with anticipation and glee, and I'm not sure I've listened to it until now. Plant has one of the great English rock/blues voices, while for me, Krauss seems to have the generic country and western sound, making her singing indistinguishable from lots of other very competent

I've finished catching up with recent purchases and feel I can listen to what I want for a bit, so I pulled this Fall compilation from the shelves and stuck it in the CD player. I seem to remember picking this up in a sale in Canterbury's short lived Fopp outlet many moons ago, but not to listening to it much. So, what do we have here? It's a compilation of tracks from 1990s albums The Infotainment Scam, Middle Class Revolt , live album The Twenty Seven Points and Cerebral C

This is my second purchase from Off The Record , a truly fantastic shop in centre:mk which raises funds for Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes, and continues my gradual accumulation of albums by Sheffield crooner, Richard Hawley. The first impression of this album is that it has a much bigger, fuller sound than earlier albums, and for me, that's a big plus. It's much more of a rock album than some of the more country and western tinged earlier releases. The gauntlet is laid dow

Number one in Britain and successful in the States, So round the table me and label bosses contemplate, You've got to get a second home and hang with Chrissie Hynde, And get yourself some Ray-Bans, 'cos boy you know it's time, For your Eno, Eno collaboration... So wrote Half Man Half Biscui t , but this is where it all started, Brian Eno's 1973 collaboration with King Crimson's Robert Fripp. In a visit to Milton Keynes last week, there's a fantastic hospice shop in Centre:MK